Chapter 25: Digression Two
The teleporter in Castle Dedede's throne room sparked. Light beams flared in its center. Moments later, two figures had materialized there.
[description of teleporter]
Hardy remained stationary. Marx, on the other hand, attempted to run away.
[description of throne room]
King Dedede suddenly rushed forward from nowhere and grabbed Marx's foot. He then effortlessly lifted him off the ground and dangled him upside down in the air.
"Lemme go!" yelled Marx, flailing about helplessly.
"Very well," replied King Dedede, who then let go.
Marx righted himself after hitting the ground. But, before he could move an inch, he was hit hard in the head by one of the king's mallets.
Marx fell over, unconscious. His hat flopped off, revealing his bald scalp.
King Dedede picked up the hat and extracted a tiny, robotic, green grasshopper from within it.
"This king has primitive technology," he said. "Yet, this listening device did allow us to cripple that Kirby."
The starry orb floated over to the king and issued a crackling response.
"No," replied King Dedede. "One can never be sure."
The orb spoke again.
"Hm. Then a detour would be recommended?"
The orb spoke a third time.
"Very well. We will take Big Forest immediately. You may not send Demon Beasts, as they will likely cause a panic in the dense forest."
The orb spoke once more.
"If you truly are, then you may participate. My eye is already on its way. Act quickly."
The orb sped out of the throne room.
King Dedede stood still for a few moments. He then walked over to the teleporter, on which Hardy was still standing. He pointed at the cell phone, still held by Hardy's pliers. Hardy placed it in the king's hand.
King Dedede examined the phone from every angle.
"This technology is more advanced," he said to himself.
When the king pressed the phone's power button, however, smoke burst from it, with an accompanying fizzling sound.
"A self-destruct mechanism," remarked King Dedede, though without much of a change in his tone of voice. "Oh well."
He handed the phone back to Hardy.
King Dedede then walked to his throne, which was a golden chair with red cushions. This throne had a number of buttons on one of its arms.
He pushed one of the buttons. This caused a shaft of light to connect the top and bottom halves of the teleporter for a few moments. When it shut off, Hardy was gone.
The king pushed another button. This caused the top and bottom halves of the teleporter to rise and sink into the ceiling and floor respectively.
Finally, King Dedede walked back to the only other occupant of the throne room, the unconscious form of Marx. King Dedede put Marx's hat back on his head and then picked him up.
Carrying Marx under his arm, King Dedede walked through Castle Dedede's corridors.
A phone rang.
No one answered.
It rang again.
Still, no one answered.
It rang a third time.
An answering machine picked up.
"This is the L.A.P. H.Q.," said Rick's recorded voice. "We're off trying to pacify Ice Dragon again. Yeah, he wasn't supposed to wake for ages, but something upset him and now he's gotta be stopped before he causes another ice age or something. If you have any info on why this happened, it would be great for you to tell us; just leave your message after the beep. Otherwise... yeah leave a message anyway! We'll get back to ya soon as we can!"
A beep sounded.
"We've got an emergency!" exclaimed Gooey's voice. "Pick up if you're there! Pick UP! This is urgent! My communications with Kirby have been cut off! It was a Demon Beast! It appeared so suddenly and just grabbed the phone out of Kirby's mouth! I can't send Kirby a Warp Star because the phone's theft caused me to lose the coordinates and I can't let my technology fall into the wrong hands. All I can do is manufacture another cell phone and implore that you help me deliver it to him. Kirby's somewhere in Big Forest. Please get back to me as soon as you can! I'm in a real fix here!"
There was another beep, followed by silence.