Fox McLean and the Case of the Kidnapped Heroes

2

Kirby Puffball was sitting in the Agency Training Facility. Today was his first day out of class, and he had heard that he was getting a partner. He was very nervous. He had not been at the top of the Agency's training class, but he hoped he would get a good partner, and not someone like Toon Link, the moron who had sat next to Kirby and goofed off the entire class.

As he was pondering this, Kirby noticed the door to the room opening. Fox McLean entered. "Hello there… Kirby, is it?"

"HI!" Kirby had trouble containing himself sometimes.

"Uh…" Fox seemed to hesitate, "Don't do that again."

"Sorry."

"So," said Fox, "My name is Fox, and I'll be working with you now."

"Oh my!" Kirby gasped. "I thought you were partnered with Pikachu! What happened to him?"

Fox grimaced. "Let's not talk about that right now. What we need to talk about is our case. I know it's your first day, but an important case just came in."

"Wow, on the first day?"

"Yes, and we're competing with Falco and whatever partner he's on right now. So, we need to stay sharp."

Kirby giggled. Falco's partners seemed to all have unfortunate things happen to them. He was constantly replacing them.

"No giggling," Fox said sternly. "We don't giggle here, we chuckle."

"My mistake."

"What are your skills, Pinky?"

"Uh, I'm Kirby, but my talents mostly involve turning into indestructible objects, jumping, eating, and inhaling things."

"Inhaling things? Like…"

"I can inhale people and copy their abilities." Kirby was very talented at eating, and he learned of his copying ability when he accidentally swallowed Toon Link during a class training exercise.

"That's interesting. But this case won't involve those things. It's a simple kidnapping mission; so let's move out! Mario, Peach, and Link depend on us!"

"Oh my goodness, this sounds simply awful!" Kirby said.

Fox sighed. "We're going to have to have a conversation about how we say things around here."

After a quick flight, Fox and Kirby arrived at the Temple. The indentation where the cage had been was still there, and that's where they started looking.

"Kirby, observations?" Fox asked him.

Kirby picked up some food from the ground, chewed it, and swallowed. "Well, there's some ravioli on the ground, and the coldness of it would lead me to believe that the abduction occurred three days ago."

"That's good thinking, but we knew that already. Plus, you don't get to eat all the evidence. Anything else?"

"Well…" Kirby looked around. "There's a muffin over there, maybe it saw something!"

"What?" Fox looked around and saw a Goomba scurrying around. "Oh, yes. Excuse me, Goomba?"

"EEEEEEK! Don't step on me!" The Goomba screeched. "I'll tell you anything!"

"Well, that's convenient and time saving," Kirby noted.

"Who kidnapped Mario?" Fox asked.

"Bowser. And I think that he took him to New Pork City. You'll need an access code to get in Bowser's hideout; it's 1, 2, 3, Open Sesame."

"Wow, are the witnesses always this cooperative?" Kirby asked.

"No… this is a little odd," Fox muttered. "Even for a Goomba, that was too easy."

"I don't want you to step on me like the pigeon did."

"Ah, Falco's been here!" Fox said. "I guess he softened him up."

"Let's go, Fox!" Kirby said. "My observations tell me that there are motion sensor bombs all over the place!"

Fox looked around. "I guess there are. Good thinking, Pinky."

"It's Kirby."

Fox and Kirby boarded the Arwing, and they took off for New Pork City. The Goomba watched them fly away.

"Heh heh," it said. "Things are going just as Lord Bowser said… Ooh! Ravioli!"

Kirby had left a piece of the ravioli lying on the ground. The Goomba walked over and picked it up. Underneath, a Bob-omb got up and blew up. The explosion caused alarms to trigger in all of the motion sensor bombs.

"Oh, phooey,"

Fox and Kirby, after arriving at New Pork City, made their way to Bowser's base. The access code gave them entrance, and they went inside. A Koopa charged towards them, but Fox picked it up and threw it into all the other guards, knocking them all out.

"This sure is easy," Kirby said.

"Too easy."

Suddenly, a sack fell from the ceiling. There was a note attached. It said, "HA HA HA! Catch me if you can, puny agents. Sincerely, Bowser."

Kirby opened the bag, and Falco emerged. "Ha, my reflector finally ripped open the…" he saw Kirby holding the bag open. "…bag. Darn it."

"Falco," Fox said, "What's going on?"

"They took my partner hostage and abandoned the base! I have no idea where they could have taken Zelda, or Sheik, Zeldeik, whatever."

"Oooh!" Kirby said. "I ate her one time! Needed a little more salt."

"Okay… Fox, who is this?"

"Falco, this is Kirby. Kirby, this is Falco."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Falco! I've always been a huge fan of the agency, and I love hearing the funny stories of you failing missions. Remember the one where you accidentally rescued an empty box instead of Snake, and then you squashed him with a Landmaster?"

"Yes. Remember the one where the cute little pink thing got thrown out of a window?"

"No, I don't… oh wait, did that happen to Jigglypuff?"

"No, but it's about to happen to you!"

Kirby shut his mouth.

"Anyway," said Fox, "is there anything you might have heard about Bowser's plans?"

"Well, no, but he and Ganondorf took Zeldeik, so I figure that he's working something big. That's two princesses that he's kidnapped."

"Any idea where they went?"

"I think they said something about going to find someplace hot, so maybe they went to Norfair. And they said something about rigging a place to blow."

"Yeah, that was the Temple," Kirby said. "That was a lot of motion sensor bombs."

"That's odd," Falco said thoughtfully. "I thought that they had mentioned Gooey Bombs."

"Like that thing over there?" Kirby asked, pointing.

Fox and Falco looked behind them. "Yep," said Fox, "that Gooey Bomb looks about ready to blow. Good observation, Pinky."

"It's Kirby, and shouldn't we, I don't know, run for the hills?"

"Nah," Falco said. "One Gooey Bomb will just mess up the paint in here. They'd need millions to take this whole place down."

"Uh, like the ones in all the boxes, and in the air conditioner, and in the walls, and in the toilets?"

"How did you notice all that? We've only been here five minutes," said Fox.

"I can see the wallpaper peeling over there, it's really hot, meaning the AC isn't working, and I ate a box. Then I went to the bathroom because it tasted funky."

"Oh." Falco looked impressed. "Nice going!"

"That's interesting, all right." Fox nodded. " But I think that we should leave now. Let's dive out the door."

"Why not just run?" Kirby asked.

"It's more dramatic to dive out the door while an explosion erupts right behind you," Falco told him.

So, they leapt out the door.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the building, two little boys were practicing their attacking.

"PK Thunder!" Ness said. A pathetic little ball of electricity fizzled out of his hands and then dissipated right away.

"PK Fire!" said Lucas. A puny flame shot out of his hands and left a small burn mark on the building. "Beat that, Ness!" he bragged.

Ness began concentrating. "P…K… FIRE!" A small flame shot out at the building. Then the entire thing exploded in a gigantic ball of fire, destroying half the city.

Ness and Lucas were blasted into the sky, and landed on the other side of town. "Wow," said Ness. "I'm super powerful! PK STAR STORM!"

Nothing happened, but the yelling did attract the attention of some police officers.

"What are you boys doing?" one of them asked.

"We're practicing attacks. We just made that building explode!" said Ness.

The New Pork Police arrested them for arson.