AN UPDATE AFTER SO MANY YEARS? Yes, well, there's good news and bad news here. I'll say the bad news first: Unfortunately I probably won't be making any further progress on this story ever. It's sad, but my motivation for writing in general dried up unexpectedly years ago and it doesn't seem like it's ever going to come back. The good news is that I do have a little more material for my readers to see here, as I did write a bit more than I published years ago.

That being said, the following chapters are not as thoroughly proofread as the previous. In addition, they have an assortment of missing details, indicated by [underlined brackets]. I'm uploading them as they are as a long-belated thank you to my readers of old. I hope someday I'll have more to share with you all.

Chapter 17: Shot Down

: "Kirby's been blown to the ocean!"

: "Excellent work!"

: "That sure was close."

Meta Knight: "Good. Now, to our first target: Grape Garden!"

Kirby turned over in the water and looked westward. The Halberd had taken off. It was now soaring directly away from him.

A Warp Star flew down to him bearing a Maxim Tomato.

"You've used almost all of your defensive star power," said Gooey. "Here's a refill. Now get going. You need to get back on the Halberd."

Kirby got on the Warp Star, ate the Maxim Tomato and flew after the departing warship.

: "Kirby is flying back toward us!"

: "Our weapon systems are ready, Captain. Shall we blast him?"

Captain: "All right. Shoot him!"

The Captain's voice was loud and squawking. Kirby would have found it funny if it weren't for something else demanding his attention...

Every one of the Halberd's countless guns (or at least every one that could) swiveled to point at him.

Cannonballs, missiles, lasers, and the like all shot in his direction; and at the same time Gooey shouted, "Jump!"

Kirby did so. Falling, he saw the Warp Star explode above him as the multitude of weapons fire hit it.

He inflated to slow his descent into the woods below him, but not until he had just about reached the trees. If he hadn't waited that long, he would likely have been hit by some of the ammunition. He touched down on the side of Major Mountain, the wooded peak northwest of Vegetable Valley.

: "We got him! He fell into the forest."

Captain: "Ha! He will never catch up."

Kirby watched in frustration as the Halberd rocketed out of sight.

"What am I supposed to do now?" he asked anxiously.

"Follow anyway," said Gooey with a note of frustration in his voice as a Warp Star flew down to Kirby.

"But, I'll never be able to get back on," protested Kirby. "Did you see how much stuff they fired at me?"

"They won't be able to focus solely on you forever. It goes without saying that they're up to something big. You should follow at a considerable distance while we monitor their conversations. When they become distracted doing something else, probably carrying out whatever it is they're planning, you'll attempt to board again. Hopefully we'll find out what their plot is soon."

Kirby got on the Warp Star and flew up into the air. He could now see the Halberd again, though it was already far in the distance. He sped after it.

The Halberd was indeed heading west-northwest toward Grape Garden, a land in the sky where the clouds contain colorful specks that look like grapes. The warship was steadily gaining altitude, so Kirby did the same. The peculiar quality of these clouds was that one could fly upward through them, but not downward.

The Halberd flew into the clouds and Kirby lost sight of it. He followed at the same trajectory, however, and eventually emerged in Grape Garden.

Then he heard a familiar voice speak in the distance.

"Scanning..." said Kracko, emerging from the clouds in front of the Halberd. It was still at full power, surrounded by clouds and gold spikes. "Assessment: enhanced virus. Name: Meta Clan. Category: Rogue Corporation. Procedure required: deletion."

There was suddenly a bright flash of light and a loud percussive noise.

Kracko was gone.

: "Confirmed hit with the EMP shell!"

Captain: "Ready all weapons! Now's our chance!"

Gooey: "Kirby, when they start firing, it will be your chance to get back onboard."

Kracko emerged from the clouds above the Halberd now. It was still at full power.

Its voice boomed out, though this wasn't its usual emotionless drone, as intense anger permeated its words. "YOU CANNOT BE ALLOWED."

There was a violent bombardment of lightning from Kracko and the huge clouds above it, striking the Halberd, blasting off metal and starting fires. As this happened, all of the warship's guns turned to face the attacker.

Captain: "Fire at will!"

Kracko was lost in a dazzling fusion of a multitude of explosions and lasers.

Kirby began his speedy approach.

: "Direct hit!"

Captain: "Yes! Gahahahahaaaa!"

: "Oh no! Kirby's back! He's heading this way!"

Captain: "Ack! Shoot him down! NOW!"

Kirby knew he would not make it in time. As every gun turned to point at him again, he sped upward into a cloud.

: "Wait! Hold your fire! Kirby has disappeared off the radar screen."

Meta Knight: "He must be hiding in the clouds..."

: "Your orders, Sir?"

Meta Knight: "...Ignore him unless he tries to board again. We'll continue as planned. Commence bombing Grape Garden to draw out our next victim."

: "Yessir."

Kirby emerged from the top of the cloud and flew around to view the Halberd from a distance. Explosives were falling from its underside, blasting the clouds. Its guns were also firing in random directions. Kracko appeared to be gone.

"Kracko... gone? Just like that?" Gooey was speaking softly, and his tone was hard to make out. "That ship is too powerful. We have to stop it."

"But, how?" Kirby's tone was distinctly hopeless.

"What is their plan?" continued Gooey, ignoring Kirby. "Why are they using the Halberd now? Why did they head for Grape Garden first and what are they trying to accomplish there?"

There was suddenly a roaring sound from behind Kirby.

"What's that?" said Gooey.

Kirby turned his Warp Star around to see something gigantic and winged flying rapidly toward him. He shrieked and swerved out of its way.

The huge flying object was part bird and part metal. Glistening steel blades made up its wings, which were connected to a metal vest of sorts around its body. Its short neck was black metal. And its chest bore a big, blue, circular gem. The vest, neck and gem all had golden metallic trim.

But the rest of its torso had fluffy white feathers. Its head had fluffy red feathers. And its wings had a rainbow of colored fluffy feathers beneath them. It also had a yellow crest and beak. Its eyes were big, blue, and surrounded by green and blue feathers. Longer feathers that changed in a gradient from red to blue from base to tip spread outward from the back of its head. And its tail consisted of longer feathers that were yellow at the base and faded to red at the tip. The last part of its body were its brown bird legs and feet, with pointy white talons.

"It's DynaBlade!" exclaimed Kirby, recognizing the giant.

"No!" Gooey cried out. "She's headed into a trap! Kirby! After her!"

As Kirby sped after DynaBlade, those aboard the Halberd began speaking again.

: "DynaBlade approaches!"

Meta Knight: "The last of the ComboElementals. Finally, we have her."

: "Combo Cannon is online, Captain. Ray component is charged and ready to fire on your command."

Captain: "Let her have it!"

A ray of light suddenly hit DynaBlade in the chest. She stopped in midair and began thrashing about wildly, issuing strangled metallic caws. Electricity was dancing over her body. What had she been hit with?

Kirby dodged out of the way of giant metal feathers, larger than himself, which were flying in every direction from DynaBlade.

: "Feathers incoming!"

: "Shoot them! Soldiers at the guns, take aim and fire to protect the Halberd!"

Gooey: "Here's another chance, Kirby! Head for the Halberd!"

Kirby did as he was told. The Halberd began firing its guns at the incoming metal feathers, knocking them away.

: "Recharging Combo Cannon ray component."

: "Uh, there's something among the feathers..."

: "It's Kirby making another attempt to board! Divert some cannon fire to make sure he doesn't succeed!"

A number of guns turned to aim at Kirby.

As they started firing at him, he began swerving erratically, dodging the shots. He was almost there...

: "Recharge complete."

Meta Knight: "Aim for DynaBlade's head. Activate Combo Cannon combo attack!"

As Kirby altered his course again, he saw what must be the Combo Cannon atop the Halberd. It consisted of a big, mostly gray cannon that rested atop a wide orange base. Attached to the base was a gray capsule, which split apart to reveal a dish with an antenna at its center. The dish and antenna were dancing with electricity and glowing light blue.

It happened in a split second. The cannon part of the Combo Cannon fired a giant cannonball, and the dish part shot it with the same ray that had hit DynaBlade moments before, accelerating the spherical projectile toward the metal bird at nearly the speed of light.

DynaBlade's head was instantly blown off. The body then fell towards the ground far below.

There were shouts of "Yeah!", "Yes!", "We shot down DynaBlade!" and "We did it!" from the phone. But then another voice cut in.

: "Look! Kirby's gonna reach the deck!"

Captain: "Fire everything at him!"

Kirby sped up as fast as he could and jumped. His Warp Star exploded behind him as the Halberd's weapons hit it.

He landed on the front deck of the Halberd, in front of the Combo Cannon.

: "Kirby's landed in front of Combo Cannon!"

Captain: "Ha! Kirby will be torched! He'll be burnt to a crisp! Wahahahahahaha!"

: "Combo Cannon auto-defense system has been activated."

A mechanical hand (with two fingers and a thumb) on a long robotic arm extended from above the Combo Cannon. Then it reached back behind the cannon, pulled out a bomb, and lobbed it at Kirby.

He inhaled the bomb as it came towards him. But as he was about to swallow, the hand threw another bomb. So instead he shot the star at the main part of the Combo Cannon and inhaled the next bomb. The star hit the Combo Cannon with a terrific bang, putting a large dent in its front, while little stars flew from the spot that was struck. He repeated this process twice more (as the hand kept throwing bombs) before reactions came from the phone.

: "No! He's using its own attack against it!"

Meta Knight: "Stop the arm from throwing bombs!"

The hand stopped. Kirby swallowed the last bomb it had thrown to copy Bomb ability.

Meta Knight: "Recharge the ray component. Lock on and fire."

The capsule opened again. A whirring electrical sound started emanating from the dish, getting louder and louder. As it did, the dish and antenna started glowing and arcing with electricity again.

Kirby ran to the left, but the base of the Combo Cannon rotated to keep him directly in front of the dish. In a last ditch attempt to evade the blast, he ran forward and jumped up onto the base of the Combo Cannon, above and behind the dish.

It worked. The ray was shot away from him, into the distant clouds.

: "The ray component missed! Kirby is on Combo Cannon's base."

Meta Knight: "Recharge it. Get him off the base and fire."

The whirring electrical noise started up again. Kirby looked around for something that the Meta Clan might use to get him off the base of the cannon. Finding nothing, he began tossing bombs in front of the dish. Each one caused a burst of stars to come from the dish.

Suddenly, something grabbed his back and flung him from the cannon. He landed on his face and scrambled to his feet in time to see the mechanical hand retracting. He threw a bomb at it and very luckily managed to hit it, destroying it.

He ran back towards the Combo Cannon, but then the dish fired.

For the next few seconds, all he could see were stars. They surged from every part of his body in cascades. And the intense visuals were magnified by all his other sense momentarily shutting off.

When his senses returned to him, he found himself lying on his back. He stood up again and faced the Combo Cannon defiantly. He knew that that ray probably would have killed him instantly had he not had the fourth Star Rod shard's protection. But, with the hand destroyed, he would be able to easily evade the ray anytime the dish recharged.

The only problem now was that he had lost Bomb ability.

: "How could he have survived that hit?!"

Captain: "That's impossible!"

Meta Knight: "Those stars that burst out of him are strange. I'll have to consider what they might be."

: "The arm component has been destroyed!"

Meta Knight: "We can't hit him with another ray now. Take aim with the gun component."

: "We are to fire on ourselves, Sir? Kirby's too low to the deck; we'll hit the top of the Halberd."

Meta Knight: "Spring him into the air, then fire."

Kirby suddenly felt himself be thrown into the air. The metal plate he had been standing on (one of the many in front of and around the Combo Cannon) had sprung upward, sending him flying.

The big cannon part of the Combo Cannon turned to aim directly at him. In a split second decision, he inhaled in the its direction.

Instantly, there was a very loud bang and he felt himself inhale something. He immediately shot the star back at the cannon. It sped straight into the cannon's smoking nozzle.

As he landed back on the deck, the Combo Cannon exploded. There were only a few stars in this explosion. The entire contraption was blasted apart. Fire and shrapnel sped in every direction from the blast. A terrific noise came from it.

Kirby was blasted backward, and a flaming piece of metal struck him after he was down, both events causing more stars to fly from his body. As he flung off the burning scrap, he saw a Warp Star speed down in front of him, bringing him a Maxim Tomato.

"Your defensive star power is nearly diminished!" said Gooey. "Take this before heading inside."

Kirby ate the healing item and the Warp Star flew off.

The Combo Cannon had blown a huge hole in the top of the Halberd beneath it. He jumped past the flames and back inside.

: "Combo Cannon has been destroyed!"

Captain: "Holy cow! What happened?!"

: "He's inside! Kirby's back in the Halberd!"

: "What are we gonna do?!"

Meta Knight: "Remain calm. Let's come up with a plan."

Captain: "All soldiers, get Kirby! NOW!"