If Magolor thought deeply enough, strained his memory hard enough, he could remember something strange about the moment he'd decided to send Kirby to another world.
After it twisted him into that NOVA-forsaken Soul form, the crown, with full control over him, hid nothing; for it no longer had any need to. Magolor's mind had instantly been imbued with the knowledge of Voids. He hadn't yet told King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee.
How was he supposed to share what he'd learned about Kirby?
Kirby was a Void. A Puffball Void. A rather on-the-nose name for that subspecies, if you asked Magolor, but "Destroyer Void" was just as much so, he supposed.
He digressed.
Kirby was a Void. A positive Void; the greatest possible threat to a Destroyer Void, like the one sealed within the Master Crown; the source of its infinite power. It now made sense that Kirby was just as powerful; it at least explained how he'd been able to defeat a Galactic NOVA-fueled Marx, if nothing else.
But as a fellow Void, the crown, or more accurately, the Void within it, knew Kirby was its greatest threat. It was unable to take full control of Magolor until Dedede had cracked the gem in the top (the part of the crown containing the Void) in rage after Kirby had been sent away.
However, it was able to subtly influence him even before that; through seemingly random thoughts, ideas; subconscious suggestions.
That was where Magolor had gotten the idea to send Kirby to another world.
The Void in the crown knew that, without the extra power provided by it taking direct control of Magolor, its host, inexperienced with such power under his own control, would inevitably be defeated.
It had detected another Destroyer Void in a universe parallel to the one it had sent Kirby to.
The Void knew that, if there was anything that could take care of Kirby for it, it would be another Void.
That was all the information Magolor had been allowed to know. The actual placement of these two worlds within the multiverse itself remained a mystery. Magolor only knew they were somewhere on the exact opposite side of it from Popstar's universe (and its own parallel one, the Mirror World). However, that side of the multiverse was just as infinite as this side. "Side" could only narrow things down so much. Even if he knew the general placement of those two worlds; it would still be like trying to find a piece of scrap metal from Egg Engines in a lava rock stack from Dangerous Dinner; searching through the countless other worlds on that side of the multiverse.
The Void in the Master Crown knew Kirby was its greatest threat, so while it hadn't expected him to help his friends escape his fate out of the kindness of his heart, it didn't view them as enough of a problem to make Magolor consider just trying again and banishing them, too. It thought, after it took control of his body and twisted it into that Soul form, that it could just easily crush them itself; while Magolor had been at the verge of defeat at their hands, the Void in the crown, with its full power and its own, much more experienced control of said power, believed it could handle them effortlessly.
That hubris was its eventual undoing. As much as Magolor's own hubris was his undoing.
As much as he liked to think his redemption would be complete once he found Kirby (he'd already completed the biggest step, finally destroying the crown itself and killing the Void trapped within by extension) the fact that Magolor's own, corruption-boosted ego had once gotten him (half) killed would never change, and would forever be something he shared in common with that vile crown; something that forever linked the two of them.
As much as he wanted nothing to do with it--as much as he wanted to have no further connection to it, that would be something they would always share.
It was quite frustrating having to accept that there was nothing he could do about that.
But what he could do, the one thing he could do to further distance himself from that crown, even if they'd always be close in one way, was find Kirby, and get him out of whatever, likely awful, place he'd thrown him into.
Maybe he'd been going about this all wrong. Maybe he shouldn't have been searching for Kirby's energy signature, but that of the other Destroyer Void the Master Crown had detected.
If nothing else, it would narrow down his proverbial pile of lava rocks to more of a small stack.
He'd heard the rioters outside the castle, practically ready to storm it. Seen them when he'd looked out his (barred) window.
It would probably be best if he got right to it, in that case.
Far-Flung Hero of the Stars
Chapter 21: The Eternal Rivals
"HEAH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"
Kirby's eyes widened.
Kirby jumped off Mike's shoulder just as the owner of the familiar voice jumped down from the skylight and landed heavily in the middle of the foyer.
Kirby looked up in horror at the familiar being.
Dedede.
It was Dedede, but... different. His eyes were far more malicious; his colorful clothing and blue feathers somehow dimmer, and his whole body was outlined with a flowing, dark aura.
Suddenly, Kirby understood.
It was Zero. He'd created this copy of Dedede with his memory-materialization power; basing the copy off of the previous three times he'd possessed Dedede.
"HEAH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" The memory version of Dedede boomed once more. "What the hell is going on?!" Mike cried.
https/youtu.be/1HzkMxiL3Zo
"You wanna know what's about to go down?" The memory Dedede asked, speaking its first real words.
"I'm--"
It shifted a foot back.
"Gonna--"
It pulled out its mallet.
"Clobbah--"
It lunged forward.
"THAT 'DERE KIRBY!"
It struck.
Vs.
The Malicious Memory
Phantom Dedede
This royal ripoff is a figment of Zero's horrible imagination! Using the memory-materialization power innate to all Voids, Zero, drawing from his memories of the previous three times he'd possessed King Dedede, created this crazy fake to keep Kirby busy and everyone else stuck in the Starcourt Mall until Zero's body arrives to get El! Clobber it, Kirby!
Kirby cried out as his (still sore from the fight with Zeroed Billy) body was flung into a nearby pillar. He bounced off and onto the floor. He jumped to his feet but only had time to do a sort of panicked dance before Phantom Dedede ran toward him and trip-tackled him.
Kirby groaned as the wicked echo of his eternal rival got off of his crushed body and raised its mallet high into the air, undoubtedly preparing to slam it down onto him with lethal force. Kirby's eyes widened, and he rolled out of the way about a third of a second before he heard the mallet smash into the spot of the floor he'd just been laying on, ceramic loudly cracking as it was cratered.
Kirby leapt to his feet and glared. "You aren't the real Dedede!" He cried as the clone hefted its mallet to sling it back over its shoulder.
"Wait, that's De De De?!" Lucas cried.
"No!" Kirby exclaimed. "Did you not just hear me?!"
Phantom Dedede dashed forward once more and again struck Kirby with its giant mallet, sending him flying up into a department store on the mall's second level, screaming "And it's still all one woooorrrd!!!"
"Damn right, I ain't the real Dedede. I'm bettah!" The clone said with its distorted voice. "You know why? 'Cuz Imma' do what the original never could! I'm gonna DEDE-DESTROY YOU!" Phantom Dedede roared his promise as loudly as he could in the direction of the store Kirby had gotten flung into on the upper level.
"But first, I gotta finish off you youngins and get the girl ready for Zero..." Phantom Dedede said menacingly, as it turned its attention to and loomed over the trembling Humans and walked toward Max, Lucas, and El. El glared and raised a hand, but remembered she had no more power at the same moment as Nancy situated herself protectively in front of the younger kids, arms spread wide to block Phantom Dedede's path.
Phantom Dedede tilted its head back and laughed a sick, distorted, booming laugh, only for a familiar, high-pitched voice to cut in, "Keep your paws off her, you overgrown Pengi!", as Kirby flew back into the food court on a Warp Star and ran Phantom Dedede down with it.
The Warp Star exploded on impact and sent the two rivals tumbling all the way to the other end of the food court together, their flight only halted when they slammed into a pillar.
Phantom Dedede recovered first; it stood and picked Kirby up by the foot, before flipping him upright and stretching his body; taking advantage of his elasticity and contorting him into all sorts of shapes, ignoring his pained cries all the while.
Kirby was still so sore; he very much did not appreciate being twisted into a pretzel shape.
Mike, ever the impulsive and brazen one, charged forward with a loud scream, fist raised. Phantom Dedede tossed Kirby aside, pulled out his mallet upside-down, and swung it upward as Mike reached him, smacking him in the chest and sending him flying back toward the other Humans.
Nancy screamed her brother's name and knelt down, desperately checking him from every angle. He was dazed, the wind knocked out of him, his eyes unfocused.
Kirby staggered to his feet, and upon seeing what had happened to Mike, saw red. He glared furiously at Phantom Dedede and prepared to charge, when suddenly the phantom of his rival's eyes widened, and a wicked smirk formed on his face.
He turned to Kirby.
"I'd hide if I were y'all. Have fun!" He said, before jumping straight out of the food court and exiting the mall from the skylight he'd originally entered through. Kirby's eyes narrowed as he watched Phantom Dedede leave.
Why the sudden retreat?
His attention was snapped back to his Human friends by El's concerned cry.
Kirby tore his eyes away from the mall's ceiling and ran back toward the group of Humans. All of them were on the floor, clustered around Mike. Mike's teeth were grit in pain as tiny tear-tracks streaked down his cheeks. He was doing his best to stifle the almost childlike groans of pain emitting from his throat.
He was failing.
Nancy's own eyes were tear-filled; as were El's. Nancy was supporting her brother's head on her lap. Everyone else just looked worried and a bit panicked.
"Is Mike okay, poyo?!" Kirby asked as he came to a stop in front of the group of Humans.
"He... he'll... he'll be fine," Nancy choked. Sniffling, she wiped her tears and continued, "I think one of his ribs is cracked. We..."
Nancy straightened, took a deep breath, and visibly steadied herself.
"We just need to get him to the hospital," she said a lot more steadily.
"And tell them what?" Lucas asked in disbelief, looking to be on the verge of panic. "That... that he got attacked by a... a... what the hell even was that? Kirby?" Lucas asked expectantly.
"It's a copy of Dedede, poyo," Kirby said. "You remember when I showed you what Dark Matter looks like using my memory power? Zero created that copy of Dedede with his memory power. Probably once he realized how much stronger I am with Matter Mode..." Kirby trailed off, speculating.
"Alright. Sure. Whatever. We can worry about the penguin clone later, let's just get out of here," Max abruptly said.
Kirby snapped a nub. "Great idea, poyo!"
Only a second later, something rumbled.
A few seconds passed with agonizing slowness.
"Uh..." Lucas said. "Did... you guys hear that?" He asked slowly.
"Guys..." Will began gravely, almost whispering.
His hand was on the back of his neck.
Kirby was suddenly hit by a veritable wall of what felt like pure fear and misery, mixed with Soul and Dark Matter. It felt even worse than the negativity El had been putting out when they were trying to get the gross slug thing out of her leg. Kirby actually cried out in pain.
Because there was so much of it, he was able to accurately pinpoint where it was coming from.
Kirby looked away from Will, and turned around to look at the same spot Will's eyes had been trained on.
The skylight.
The thick glass warped and and buckled inward with each pounding footstep that reverberated through their bodies; like they were standing too close to a large speaker.
Perhaps, were there an external light source present, like the sun, whatever lurked beyond the glass could be seen with greater clarity. As it stood, the space immediately beyond the skylight showed only the pure black of the night sky.
But Kirby could just make out a dark shape beyond the glass. A head?
It was shaped just like the one on Zero's new body.
Kirby gasped at the same time as the crimson eye in the beast's mouth became visible, staring straight down at them all from that messy crescent of a smile. Those two glowing white eyes, shaped so much like Kirby's own, pierced through the blackness outside from where they were situated above the beast's mouth. Kirby could almost swear the already pinprick black pupil of the eye-mouth constricted further as soon as it spotted him, then even more so as it locked onto El.
"Run!" Kirby cried as the glass began audibly cracking under the weight of the monster.
Everyone ran like their lives depended on it; Mike, Max, and El into a nearby department store, Kirby, Jonathan, Nancy, Lucas, and Will behind the car El had thrown and that they had managed to flip back upright while Kirby had been fighting Zeroed Billy.
Kirby mentally cursed himself as he realized that, in their rush to hide, they had accidentally left the unconscious Billy lying in the middle of the foyer.
Kirby had no time to go drag him to safety before he and everyone else heard the unmistakable sound of the entire skylight shattering.
Something massive hit the ground, right in the middle of the foyer, with a mighty boom that shook the floor so hard Kirby slightly bounced.
There was a roar.
Kirby heard the telepathic words within it.
KIRBY! ELEVEN! YOU CANNOT HIDE FOREVER!
Kirby began to tremble.
"Hey, guys?" Steve asked on the moonlit hill of Weathertop. Dustin, Erica, and Robin walked over from Cerebro to join him by the edge of the hill's summit, which overlooked all of Hawkins. They followed his gaze.
They followed his gaze to the unmistakable shape of Starcourt mall. Even from here, they could see that every light in the building was flickering, neon blinking maddeningly.
Steve knew that flickering anywhere.
The Christmas lights flickered maddeningly, their color blending with the warm yellow of the similarly flickering lamps as he firmly gripped his nail-bat, fixed his gaze on the monster looming over his girlfriend, and swung--
Steve snapped out of his awful remembrance, echoes of "It's coming!" and "Where is it?" still echoing in his mind as he, Robin, Erica, and Dustin ran furiously back toward Cerebro and got on their knees. Dustin picked up his supercom and spoke frantically into it.
"Griswold Family, this is Scoops Troop! Do you copy? Over!"
Dustin's static-laced voice sounded from Mike's supercom, which lay forgotten on a food court table in Starcourt, abandoned in Mike's frantic, scrambling attempt to hide.
"Griswold Family, I repeat, this is Scoops Troop! Do you--"
A slimy, toothed appendage snatched the walkie-talkie off the table.
On Weathertop, Dustin and the others heard a staticky shriek filter out of the supercom's speaker. Dustin's eyes widened and he spoke into the radio once more, this time more frantically.
"Griswold Family, do you copy?" Dustin's voice could faintly be heard as the monster lifted the walkie-talkie to its smiling mouth, and the crimson eye that sat within.
"Do you copy?!l
Zero roared into the Supercom. Only a few of the other souls hiding within the food court (Kirby, a fellow Void, El, a psychic able to pick up certain "broadcasts", even if they weren't intended for her, and Will, who still had a telepathic link to the monster) heard the words within behind that roar.
SILENCE, WHELP!
Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Erica stared wide-eyed at Dustin's walkie-talkie in horrified disbelief.
Zero tossed the irksome Human device aside carelessly, confident the message had been received. These creatures were terrified of him, even if he had chosen not to directly speak telepathically. The roar had surely done the job well enough.
The device bounced off of a nearby (flickering) neon sign above one of the food court's restaurants and hit the floor, the front casing of it being knocked off and sent skittering away as the rest of the device slid across the floor and quickly came to a stop, lying stationary once more.
That annoying voice was still transmitting from the damn thing. Zero, in his far more advanced state, had forgotten that such lower beings (though a certain member of his own kind had an irksome habit of it, too) tended to ignore fear and their natural self-preservation instincts in favor of displaying their concern for those they "cared" about, and didn't give up when shown the stupidity of their actions.
Had he the capacity, he'd feel amused, but as it was, Zero cared not for their pitifully primitive ways. He just wanted the voice to stop.
Once he was done with the girl (and if he was lucky and killed the girl first, the Puffball, as well) and the Humans in his more immediate surroundings, he'd be sure to go after the boy in the odd device next. He'd make his demise especially painful.
"Griswold Family, this is Scoops Troop. Please confirm your safety!" Dustin's now even more staticky voice sounded from the damaged walkie-talkie, from where it lay broken on the floor.
"Griswold Family, this is Scoops Troop! Please confirm your safety! Are you en route to Bale Eagle's nest?"
Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, thought Will as he desperately tried to keep quiet, hugging his knees as he, his brother, Nancy, Lucas, and Kirby huddled on the opposite side of the car El had thrown earlier, out of Zero's sight.
For the time being.
"Someone, please just answer!" Dustin begged, giving up on the fake formality and codenames. "Is anyone there? Just answer! Anyone, please...!"
Will was desperately trying to stop himself from crying. He'd never escaped the Upside Down, not really. Sure, he'd been rescued, revived by his mom and Hopper's miraculous CPR, but then he'd gotten possessed by the very thing currently stalking the food court looking for him. Even after he'd been saved from its possession, it had just come right back and was now looking to kill him and every other living being in this God-forsaken mall.
At the end of the day, he had never really been saved from the Upside Down. His death at its hands had just been delayed.
And now, the thing that had failed to kill him that hellish week he had been trapped in that nightmare was finally going to finish the job and kill him. That horrible place was finally--finally--going to be the death of him.
This was so fucking unfair.
Will was snapped out of his borderline hyperventilation by the feeling of something soft and bouncy touching his chest. Will looked down to see Kirby, who had been hunkered down between him and Jonathan, looking up at him with tears glistening in his own eyes. His nub was on Will's chest, right over his pounding heart. It was grounding; a bit of comfort and hope in this nightmare.
"It's okay to be afraid, poyo," Kirby said.
Will clenched his eyes tightly shut and allowed a few tears to break free. Kirby felt his Matters swirling within him at the sight of such fear and despair. Ordinarily, it would hurt. This time, however, it only fueled his power and his urge to--
Protect.
Protect.
PROTECT.
Kirby clutched his head, trying to quiet his own inner voice and think.
There had to be a way out of this. There always was.
His eyes widened, though he managed to catch himself before a gasp could escape.
That's it!
Kirby cupped his mouth with a nub, as if Zero would actually hear a whisper over all this background noise, and whispered his plan into Jonathan's ear. Once he was done, Jonathan shakily nodded and, at Kirby's instruction, passed it along to Nancy, who looked at Kirby, visibly hesitated, realized there was no other option, and nodded, as well. She passed the news along to Lucas, and Kirby informed Will. Both boys also hesitated, but decided to trust Kirby.
He hadn't failed them yet, after all.
Alright, Kirby thought. Now for the more experimental part. If Zero can do it, I can too, right?
Kirby closed his eyes and focused.
Let's hope this works...
El, Mike, and Max huddled further under the counter they were hiding beneath when Zero hissed and snarled so loudly his head undoubtedly must have been right over it.
The hissing grew more distant as his colossal footsteps thundered away.
They tried to resist breathing sighs of relief.
El, a voice suddenly whispered in El's head. She barely restrained a gasp and looked around frantically. Mike and Max gave her weird looks. El, the voice said again. El's eyes narrowed in concentration as she tried to place the voice's owner. The voice sounded so familiar, but who...?
A small gasp did escape her as she realized who the voice belonged to just as it spoke again.
El, can you hear me?
Kirby? She (very intentionally) mentally asked, not entirely to herself.
Yep! It's me.
Talking to Kirby like this was strange. Though she figured she'd probably always had the ability, she had never tried... what was it called again, speaking with your mind? Te-le-pa-thy? Right. Telepathy.
Technically, she did it when she spoke to people in her Void, but it always just felt like talking to them physically, since she could see what they were doing in real time, and walking around in her Void and talking to the distant people she saw in it felt just as physical as walking and talking normally.
This, though, was different. She hadn't reached out. She couldn't see Kirby. She didn't know if the same was true on his end. Whatever the case, this felt different, but not bad. The only other person to have spoken to her like this was Zero, only a few minutes ago, when he'd first arrived and had said she and Kirby couldn't hide forever.
It was difficult to put into words, but she could sort of... feel the person telepathically speaking to her when they did it like that. She could feel who they were, at their very core. Zero felt forceful, unbearably loud, like he was forcing his way into her head with (what was it she had seen in the movies? Oh, that was it) a battering ram, and his telepathic voice was like thunder.
Kirby felt like... like a good night's sleep, her dad's Triple-Decker Eggo Extravaganzas (or any other treat she liked, really) and a warm, gentle spring breeze. He felt like love and every warm, fuzzy feeling she had come to know since escaping the lab and truly beginning to live. His voice sounded both like it did normally, and somehow also like a whisper, or a wind chime, a twinkling sound.
If she could somehow hear the stars she always saw gently twinkling in the night sky, she imagined it would sound just like Kirby's telepathic voice did right now. Behind all those different feelings that made Zero and Kirby different, however, they felt almost the same. Their life-force had the same odd, otherworldly feeling behind it, feeling so much more powerful than what she sensed every time she spoke to other Humans in her Void. It was most likely because they were both Voids.
Far beyond Human.
While her power was still so weakened, more so than it had ever felt before, she would always be more sensitive to psychic things. She figured both that, and a little assistance from Kirby's end was the reason she was able to hold this mental conversation while so drained.
How are you doing this? El asked. Voids are psychic, like you. It's how Zero was talking to us earlier, remember? This is the first time I've tried it, though. Am I doing a good job? Kirby asked.
Despite herself, El smiled at the innocent, childlike question, which made it sound like he looked up to her. She guessed it made sense, considering he probably thought of her as the psychic one.
Yes, El confirmed. She could feel the happiness and pride when he next spoke as if the feelings were her own.
Yay! Alright, listen really carefully, okay?
I'm listening.
Alright. I'm gonna come out of hiding and distract him. When you hear me start screaming, run. I need you, Mike, and Max to run out some other exit while I and the others go out the main one, or at least something in that direction. We're gonna run away and get Zero to chase us, and you guys are gonna go out some kinda back exit so you're running in the opposite direction. Once you're out, get as far away from this mall as possible. I don't know exactly what me and my group gonna do after that, but you guys just need to get out of here and away from Zero, okay?
El thought for a moment. She did not like the idea of Kirby and her other friends using themselves as bait just so that she could escape, but... she trusted Kirby. He may have been of the same species as the monster that had been trying to kill her and her friends for about a year-and-a-half, and her trust in him had been shaken when she had first found that out, but he had more than proven that he was good since then.
He hadn't been able to protect her when Zero had hurt her leg, but before that, he had defended her and her friends from Billy, made sure Zero paid for what he did to her leg with power even she couldn't hope to match, and had just defeated and freed the possessed Billy from Zero's control.
She trusted him as a friend, and she trusted him as a fighter. She knew he could protect Will, Lucas, Nancy, and Jonathan. She would trust him now, too.
She just hoped he wouldn't be hurt for her sake. That had happened to him enough just during his earlier battle with Billy. She could tell, after his new power and whatever healing effect it brought wore off, that he had been hurt very badly.
She couldn't handle another person dying to protect her.
I'm sorry, Benny, she accidentally thought in such a way Kirby would have psychically heard it.
Huh? He replied.
Nothing, El thought back, trying hastily to cover her mistake.
She could sense Kirby's skepticism, but could also sense that he knew there were more important things to worry about, at the moment.
Unfortunately, he was--perhaps intentionally--also giving off the feeling that he wasn't going to forget about her slip-up, and would bring it up again once they got out of this mess.
If you say so...
El barely held back a sigh of relief. She didn't like thinking about Benny.
Alrighty, El, you know more about this place than I do.
She blushed as she caught his implication, remembering how she had (it was necessary, but she still felt bad about it) left him at Max's house and had so much fun here that she'd forgotten to pick him back up before heading home.
She could hear Kirby mentally chuckle, him having undoubtedly sensed her embarrassment.
So... do you know of any kind of back exit you, Mike, and Max can use while I and the others distract that goon?
Yes, El confirmed. We can get out through the Gap.
El, sensing Kirby's confusion, clarified, It's a store.
Oh. Gotcha! Okay, now, this might be a bit of a long shot, but can you try and sneak out that back exit first, and then we'll draw Zero away from you? I know it's risky, but it could give you a head-start, and I wanna buy you every second I can before Zero realizes what's going on.
El bit her lip, thinking. It just might work; if she, Mike, and Max moved quickly and quietly enough. Carefully, El peered around the side of the counter she and her two friends were hiding under.
She could see the Gap, right there. It was a straight shot. Once they were in there and out of Zero's sight, they could slip right out that back exit, Kirby and the others could lure Zero away, and by the time he realized El wasn't with Kirby, her, Mike, and Max would already be on the opposite side of town.
Alright, maybe not that far away, but still.
Okay... El hesitantly agreed, trying to work up the nerve.
She heard Kirby mentally sigh in relief.
Okay, he echoed. Thanks, El. I know I'm asking a lot, here. But every extra second you have to run could mean everything.
It's okay. I understand.
She could feel Kirby's smile.
You always do.
With that, she felt Kirby's presence retreat from her mind, the strange peace and good feelings it had brought also leaving as the mental connection between her and her alien friend was broken.
To her displeasure, the suffocating fear she had been feeling prior to his reaching out returned and immediately filled the void, like an ocean wave rushing back toward the shore after its predecessor's retreat, swallowing anything in its path in its icy chill.
She was freed of her shock-induced trance by Mike frantically shaking her shoulder. "El. El, what's wrong?" He whispered rapidly. El blinked as she tried to readjust to her physical surroundings after having retreated into her own mind for so long.
"I'm okay," she muttered. "What happened?" Max asked. "I was talking to Kirby," El answered simply. "What? How?" Mike asked. "In here," El clarified, albeit a bit cryptically, tapping her temple with her index finger.
Mike was clearly confused, but went along with her anyway as he shook his head as if to physically clear it of confusion.
"Well... what did he say?" Mike asked. "He's going to distract Zero and run with everyone else while we get out another way," El answered. She pointed at the Gap.
"Through the Gap."
Mike cautiously stood--just enough to peek over the edge of the counter.
Zero was facing in the direction of the car Kirby and the others were hiding behind, snarling lowly as disgusting fluids dripped from his meat-composed body. The sclera of that awful red eye in that smiling mouth was visible, but the iris and pupil weren't. Those flat, oval-shaped white eyes sitting atop the smile could also only barely be made out from Mike's angle.
Zero's back was turned to them.
Mike panted as he lowered back into a crouching position. He looked at Max, saw the fear in her eyes. He nodded, whispering, "Okay."
Then, he looked at El, gave a quick nod, and said, "Now."
Max stood and Mike took El's hand to help her to her feet as quickly (it only took about two seconds) and quietly as possible, before they ran--still as quietly as they could--for the Gap like their lives depended on it.
Which they did.
El had to do an odd sort of limp-hop to be able to keep up. El could tell the pain of it was blazing. She could tell, not feel, because the pain was almost entirely relegated to the background of her senses due to the sheer adrenaline and fear. Every second they were out in the open was a second Zero could turn around and spot them. El felt relief well up in her heart as they entered the store.
At that same moment, as they squeezed into the store, Mike brushed past a display item that hit the floor with a metallic clang.
El cried out in shock and Max gasped.
Zero's head snapped around in the direction of the Gap instantly. He roared and stomped heavily in that direction, tree trunk-sized limbs shaking the mall with each step as he showed off the sheer speed of his new form.
While one would think the hulking behemoth would be slow, any perceived "slowness" clearly didn't matter with the sheer length of the thing's strides; a smaller creature--like a Human, Kirby thought--would definitely be unable to outrun him, especially not when an attempt at speediness only further lengthened those strides.
Kirby watched as the sickening beast thundered over to the store El had called the Gap, clearing the distance from the center of the food court to the store in only six or so giant strides, the sixth of which smashed into the store itself.
Those horrible mouthed tentacles with their orange eyes and bone shard-teeth slithered down from the bottom segment of the tree trunk-sized limb that jutted into the store El, Max, and Mike were hiding in, snaking deeper into the store, peeking around corners, patrolling as they searched for their prize. His friends must have been so scared.
Uncharacteristically, Kirby growled at the sight and the thought.
Pink and yellow light lifted gently off his body and floated over the surface of his skin like northern lights, or like early morning fog over the ground.
He was ready to protect.
El, Mike, and Max were huddled behind a counter, listening to the little screeches and squeals emitted by the tentacles as they slithered through the store searching for them.
Searching for El.
One tentacle slowly opened its mouth (and thus, its eye) wide and let out a tiny, warbling screech as it prepared to round a corner.
It whipped around the corner, grabbed the humanoid figure hidden there, and yanked it straight over to the main body, Zero immediately roaring in its face in rage and triumph.
It was just a mannequin.
Disappointed, Zero carelessly tossed it aside. It bounced off a shelf and landed next to the store's front counter, which El, Mike, and Max were hiding behind. The three teens, El with tears in her eyes, gaped at the downed mannequin in utter horror.
It was wearing the same shirt as El.
Kirby--quietly--hovered onto the car he was hiding on the other side of, eyes glaring as they burned white.
A tentacle, eye rolling about frantically in its mouth, approached the counter El, Mike, and Max were hiding behind. They could hear its approach. A whining squeal, barely detectable at first but slowly rising in pitch, was beginning to build as it got closer.
Kirby let some of the warm energies flowing across the surface of his body collect at the tip of his right nub, condensing into a bright, burning ball of positive energy. He took aim, wound back.
The tentacle was slowly sliding into Mike's peripheral vision now, just coming past the counter. A moment longer and that wildly swiveling eye would catch him in its own peripheral.
Max looked away, trying not to cry.
Kirby cried out and threw the energy ball at Zero's back like a pitcher might throw a baseball. Zero's head snapped around as he roared.
https/youtu.be/vfpKvGojyzQ
Kirby was already charging toward him, fist alight with a pending punch-blast as he cried, "Everybody, RUN!!!"
Everyone exploded into movement.
"Go! Go, go, go, go, go, go!" Jonathan urged rapidly as he, Lucas, Nancy, and Will made a break for it, vaulting over the counter of the food shop the car had been thrown into by El earlier and using its back door to access the stairwell, which they could use to escape.
Meanwhile, in the Gap, with Zero now facing away from them and at the rapidly-approaching Kirby, Mike, Max, and El got up and fled out their own back door.
"Let's do this, ugly!" Kirby cried out--showing off the Tuffy side of him--as he jumped up and punched Zero right in his stupid eye.
The eye exploded on impact as the positive energy gathered at the tip of Kirby's nub was released in the form of a highly-condensed blast as the punch landed.
Zero roared.
He continued roaring in sheer fury as he tried to crush Kirby with massive stomps from his equally massive limbs. Moving fast enough to leave behind afterimages, yet also fluidly enough for it to look somewhat graceful, Kirby effortlessly twirled out of the way of each and every strike, before concentrating more positive energy into his nub and shooting upward faster than the eye could follow, uppercutting Zero and releasing another on-contact explosion that destroyed the entire bottom half of his face.
And that horrendous smile.
Zero's roar was far more garbled and guttural this time due to the lack of a proper mouth that could focus the sound.
I... will... END YOU!!! Zero telepathically roared. I will destroy the girl, and then I will END YOU!!!
Kirby smirked at--what basically amounted to--Zero's tantrum.
He dodged another attempted stomp--this time far less coordinated due to Zero's sheer agony--and teleported around rapidly, just to screw with the elder Void, who sloppily lashed out with his massive limbs and missed every strike, roaring furiously in frustration and agony all the while.
"Try and catch me, poyo!" Kirby taunted, voice distorted by his rapid-fire teleportation. He'd seen several of his past foes--most recently, Magolor--do it. Meta Knight could use it as well, by wrapping himself in his cape--whenever his cape wasn't his wings, of course; meaning Kirby would likely also eventually develop the ability naturally and not have to use Matter Mode to access it.
It was a trick Kirby had always hated, because it was so frickin' infuriating. He'd always wanted to try it, though, because it was--regardless of how frustrating it was to deal with--an undoubtedly awesome power.
It felt good to not be on the receiving end of it, for once.
Kirby finally stopped--he didn't want to be too worn-out when he stopped using Matter Mode, after all--and let his final teleport bring him quite a few feet away from Zero, near the front doors of the mall. He was grinning.
"You wanna kill us? Fine. But I'm gonna make you work for it~!" Kirby sing-songed.
Then, he jumped into the air, curled up into a ball, engulfed his entire body in positive energy, and shot away, shattering the glass of the mall's doors as he rocketed away like a speeding bullet.
"Go, go, go!" Jonathan shouted as he, his girlfriend, his younger brother, and Lucas ran out the front doors of the mall, beelining for their car. All of a sudden, from behind them came the sound of glass shattering.
"Poyooooooo!" A familiar voice screamed, increasing in volume as its source drew nearer to them. Just as they reached the car, they heard the unique, tell-tale sound of Kirby's bouncy body hitting the ground. Will gasped as he turned around to see Kirby bounce along the ground toward them, landing and sliding unceremoniously on his stomach the rest of the way toward them as the glow of Matter Mode faded, leaving the pink Puffball visibly drained.
"Kirby!" Will whispered to himself as he ran the short distance over to the Puffball and scooped him up. "W-Will, poyo?" The Puff asked as he cracked his eyes back open, looking up the Human boy holding him.
Will did not respond, keeping his eyes trained firmly on the car as he ran toward it and got in.
Meanwhile, Nancy and Jonathan ran to the hood of the car--which was still popped--and frantically attempted to insert the ignition cable they had taken from the display car.
"Hey, now! Don't you fools go forgettin' 'bout ya 'ol pal Dedede!"
Key word: attempted.
Nancy and Jonathan looked over toward the source of the Texas drawl to see Phantom Dedede, body still flowing with dark energy, standing far out in the center of the parking lot. Even from here, they could see he was grinning at them, holding his giant wooden mallet with one hand and tossing the upper half of it up and down with the other.
"Shit," Nancy cursed. "Get the car started. Go!" She commanded her boyfriend; who quickly finished up with the ignition cable, slammed the hood of the car down, and got into the driver's seat as quickly as he could. Nancy walked around to stand in front of the driver's-side door, cocking her small gun and holding it steady with a two-handed, white-knuckled grip as she aimed it at Phantom Dedede. Meanwhile, Jonathan twisted the key in the ignition.
The engine sputtered.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come on." Jonathan urged the (woefully inanimate) object, frantically tapping the dashboard as if to cheer the car on.
Phantom Dedede's grin sharpened as he shifted his right foot back, scuffed the asphalt a few times as if to imitate an agitated animal, and charged toward Nancy and the car like a raging Nruff, mallet wound back and ready to strike.
"Shit! We gotta go!" Lucas urged Jonathan inside the car. Kirby stirred in Will's arms. He weakly attempted to sit up and force himself back into Matter Mode, but the pink and yellow energy only weakly flickered around him for an instant, before disappearing altogether with a weak hum that kept lowering in pitch until it disappeared altogether.
Unable to hold himself up, Kirby fell limp in Will's arms again, knowing Phantom Dedede was fast approaching. He heard Nancy's gunshots, but he knew they likely wouldn't do any good against his own Dedede unless one really unloaded on him, and Nancy had only fired off a few shots.
He and his friends were going to die, and it was all his fault. He had overexerted himself, and now his friends were going to die because of it. Kirby closed his eyes and let a single tear trickle down his face, which bore a small smile.
At least El would be okay.
The others were shouting, Lucas being the loudest among them.
Right before Phantom Dedede could reach Nancy, however, another car suddenly shot in from the left, intercepting Phantom Dedede before he could reach Nancy and crashing into him, sending the bird flying off, screaming all the while.
Steve Harrington panted as the spiraling vehicle he was currently using (according to the egotistical license plate, it used to belong to some asshole named Todd) came to a stop, the front of his car now facing his stunned former girlfriend.
"Are you okay?" He asked Robin, who was sitting in shotgun. "Ask me tomorrow?" She shakily joked.
Off in the distance, something snarled.
Robin gasped, her and Steve standing and poking their heads out of the roofless top of the convertible; they watched as what could only be described as a monster crested the curve of the roof of Starcourt mall. "Oh, shit," Robin hissed as she saw it.
It was just as the others had described. A giant fucking meat monster shaped vaguely like some kind of fucked-up spider. The bottom half of its head was missing, but that maw was lined with razor-sharp teeth, and there were two swirling, oval shaped white eyes situated over the half-destroyed mouth.
The beast leaned over the edge of the roof and roared directly at them. Robin was busy thinking about what to put in her will when the honking of a car horn shifted her and Steve's attention from the roof-dwelling monster to the car they'd just saved from the weird penguin thing.
It pulled up, and Nancy Wheeler--and, God, she still couldn't get over the fact that she was fighting for her life with Nancy Wheeler--shouted, "Get in!", out of her open window.
Robin and Steve quickly and happily complied, exiting the TODFTHR and clambering into Nancy's car. They took off as the monster screeched and clambered off the roof and down into the parking lot. Steve watched from the window at the very back of the car as the damn thing started fucking chasing them, one of its massive limbs crushing the TODFTHR (rest in peace, baby, he thought) as it thundered after them.
The only thing that kept Steve from shedding a tear at the loss of his beloved was the soul-meltingly, ever-present fucking terror he currently felt.
He could feel the damn ground shaking with each thundering step the thing took in pursuit of them.
Kirby had, at this point, gotten enough of his strength back to be able to at least sit up in Will's lap. This meant he'd also been able to get a grasp on the current situation.
It... well, it wasn't ideal, being chased by Zero's giant monster body like this, but it had to have been, like, twenty minutes since Kirby had distracted Zero in the mall and allowed El to escape, at this point. He felt like he'd won, either way. Her, Mike, and Max were far away from Zero at this point. Even if he realized now that El wasn't currently with them, he'd never be able to find her; not at this point.
Still, though, actually making sure he and the people who currently were with him survived was still probably going to be a bit of a problem. This car was gonna run out of gas eventually, but Zero wasn't. So unless they somehow managed to lose the wacko (and that was hard to do on a straight road through countryside), another fight was probably inevitable.
NOVA help him, the second he got back to Dream Land, he was going straight to Cappy Island. No question about it. It was a bit earlier in the year than when he normally went there, but he didn't care. He was taking that vacation now.
What he wouldn't give to just relax on the Cappy Town beach with Tiff and Tuff, enjoying (even if he was the only one who enjoyed the orange chef's cooking) some of Chef Kawasaki's delicious curry...
Oh. There was the rest of his strength. He felt fully rejuvenated, now, fueled by sudden, extreme hunger pangs. His mouth watered, but he managed to wipe the drool away before it could fall into Will's lap. He was still dead-tired, of course, and sore from the constant--perhaps over--use of Matter Mode.
Still, he was so tired of fighting this darned monster. The upcoming battle would be, what, the third time, now? He didn't want to call on the other Kirbies just yet--that was only if there was absolutely no other option, but he really wished he had some backup right about now...
"Dusty-bun, you copy?" A young female voice suddenly sounded from the walkie-talkie Robin was holding in the back. Kirby tilted his head in confusion. A girl was calling Dustin?
Wait...
"I copy, Suzie-poo. It sounds much better now, thanks."
"YES!" Kirby shouted in pure joy, jumping upward and causing Will and Lucas (especially the former, due to his especially close proximity to Kirby) to cry out from the volume in such a small space, while Jonathan startled, cursed, and swerved a little, though he quickly righted the car again. As a result of that brief lapse in their speed, Zero probably gained on them a little, but Kirby couldn't bring himself to care.
"I knew it, poyo! I knew she was real!" Kirby said proudly, remembering that he was the only one who believed Dustin about Suzie's... well, existence.
"Okay, so, listen... do you know Planck's Constant?" Dustin asked, his voice still heard over the radio. Kirby had no idea what "Planck's Constant" was, but if it was as scientific as it sounded, then it probably didn't apply to him, anyway.
"Do you know the Earth orbits the Sun?" Suzie playfully retorted. Dustin snickered. Kirby could hear the anxiety and building franticness within the fake gesture. "Okay, so I know it starts with two sixes, and then a..."
Dustin trailed off.
"W-what is it?" He asked helplessly, clearly trying to railroad her into giving him the (Kirby assumed, based on what he'd said) number. If it was a number, perhaps Dustin needed it because it was some sort of password that would allow Joyce and Hopper to close the Gate.
That was the only thing Kirby could think of, because his group didn't need a number, they needed a miracle, but that was besides the point. Hopper was infiltrating a super-secret base, though, so it could have been very likely he had run into some sort of roadblock only a password could help with.
The only other alternative was that Dustin was just trying to nerd out with his girlfriend; which, while sweet, was not something anybody needed right now.
"Okay, let me just be clear on this. I haven't heard from you in a week, and now you want a mathematical equation that you should know so you can... save the world?" Suzie asked confusedly, clearly offended. Kirby just wanted to know why Dustin had told her what was actually going on, here. Wasn't this whole thing supposed to be kept under wraps?
Well, as under wraps as this giant, constantly-escalating mess could be, anyway.
"Suzie-poo, I promise, I will make it up to you as soon as possible," Dustin urgently placated, audibly struggling to maintain his mask of calm.
"You can make it up to me now," Suzie suggested, a strange note of mischief in her voice. "What?" Dustin asked cluelessly.
"I want to hear it," Suzie said. What was once a barely-detectable note of mischief had now showed itself for what it really was and overtaken her entire tone.
Dustin appeared to realize whatever she was cryptically referring to, if the (now unveiled) panic in his voice when he next spoke was of any indication.
"Not right now."
"Yes, now, Dusty-bun!"
"Suzie-poo, this is urgent," Dustin said, clearly done trying to hide his mounting panic.
"Yes, yes, you're saving the world, I heard you the first time, but Ged is also saving Earthsea and he's about to confront the shadow, so this is Suzie, signing off."
"Wait, wait, wait! Okay. Okay. Okay."
Kirby and the others were left waiting with bated breath as they wondered what Dustin could have possibly been so desperate to avoid.
A tense silence.
Then...
https/youtu.be/Pielps4ZBCY
"Turn around... look at what you see..."
"In her face... the mirror of your dreams..."
Kirby blinked. Dustin was... singing? Dustin was singing. He was singing in a shaky voice, clearly unsure of himself, especially since almost all of his friends could hear him.
"Make believe I'm everywhere! Given in the light!"
Dustin and Susie had begun harmonizing. Dustin seemed more confident now, voice steadier now that he had a partner.
"Written on the pages is the answer to a never-ending story!"
Kirby's eyes widened, and a big, dumb grin formed on his face. Maybe it was because he was so scared, so tired, or something in between, but for some reason, even with such a pressing time-limit to close the Gate, he found that he didn't at all mind this method of getting it.
It was the only way, right?
"Reach the stars... fly a fantasy! Dream a dream... and what you see will be..."
Kirby had begun clapping happily along, doing a small dance even while sitting. He'd do his entire Victory Dance, but there wasn't quite enough room in here for that. The song was also a bit too slow.
Will and Lucas stared at Kirby's enjoyment of the ridiculous situation in utter disbelief, before simultaneously deciding to stare into the middle distance instead. Zero's thundering steps outside--and this may have simply been Kirby's childish imagination--even seemed to be adding a beat to the song.
"Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds! And there upon a rainbow is the answer to a never-ending story!"
Suzie and Dustin vocalized together.
"Story... Whoa-oh-whoa-oh-oh-whoa..."
When the two finished their duet, Kirby was left with small tears in his eyes. Maybe that little moment had annoyed the others, but Kirby could--literally--feel the pure love in it. Not just any old love, but the completely innocent, crush-type love only kids his age could exude.
Kirby had needed that. It definitely improved his mood, which had been somewhat subdued ever since he'd come to this world. The more hopeful he was, the more chance he had of beating Zero, after all! And he didn't feel quite so sore, anymore, either!
"Planck's Constant is 6. 62607004," Suzie kindly provided. "You just saved the world," Dustin giggled, clearly relieved and overjoyed. Suzie sighed fondly.
"Gosh, I miss you, Dusty-bun," Suzie said.
"And I miss you more, Suzie-poo!" Dustin giggled.
"I miss you more, multiplied by all the stars in our galaxy."
"No! I miss y--"
Dustin abruptly cut off, and Suzie went with him. If Kirby had to guess, that had probably been Erica's doing, based on what little he had seen of her personality (much like with Dedede, a "little" seemed to tell him everything there was to know about her).
Didn't mean he had to like it.
While the others muttered in confusion (and let out a relieved sigh, in Will's case), Kirby pouted. He hadn't felt love that strong in ages! He could tell Mike and El's was probably just as--if not more--strong as Dustin and Suzie's, but they didn't display it as openly and purely as Dustin and Suzie did.
"Awww..." he said in disappointment. "It was really sweet..."
Phantom Dedede groaned and coughed as it rolled from its side onto its stomach. Those motherfuckers. It was gonna make them pay. It was gonna clobber all of them, not just that there Kirby.
And it was gonna make sure to give that motherfucker who had run it over, the one with the black eye, some extra-special treatment.
As Phantom Dedede staggered to its feet, it heard an electronic buzzer sound. Not too far away, it spotted... were those more youngins? It thought all of them had escaped.
Wait... those three weren't just any youngins...
The damn girl was there! The one they were doing all this shit for in the first place!
Oooooh... oooooh Kirby, that clever bastard. He thought he could give them the slip! Bamboozle them! Pull the wool over their mouth-eyes!
As a matter of fact, he had. He'd had even Phantom fooled, there, for a second. But thanks to the girl's fucked-up leg, the little shits hadn't been able to get away before Phantom Dedede had woken back up!
Hah-ha! Take that, Kirby! Man, the little pink blob of lard had put on a good show, too, pissin' Zero off so much that he just mindlessly went after Kirby, assuming the girl would be with him, too.
Maybe Phantom Dedede'd make his death a little quicker, because it was genuinely impressed that the normally dumbass cream-puff had managed to pull off--let alone come up with--such an elaborate trick.
Or maybe not. Actually, scratch that. Definitely not. Fuck that fucking marshmallow.
"Up-bup-bup-bup!" Phantom Dedede loudly warned, catching the kids' attention. "Ah wouldn't do that if I were you youngins!"
Their eyes widened as they spotted Phantom. Phantom Dedede grinned and waved, just to scare the little bastards even more.
"Shit!" The tall, male one cursed. "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" The little coward and the two little cowardetes he was protecting turned tail and ran back the way they came, through the white gate that had buzzed and caught Phantom's attention earlier.
Phantom Dedede grinned and gave chase. The boss was already on his way; he had created, was connected to, and could see through Phantom Dedede's eyes, after all.
Now all that was left was to get the girl ready and gift-wrapped with a nice little bow for the boss.
El's leg had been getting worse. She had been running on it too much. Her limp was now worse, her limp-hop, even more so. Max suddenly stopped supporting El's left side and ran back to the electronic white gate they'd come through, pressing the button to shut it.
As the car continued speeding along through the wooded country roads, Zero suddenly slowed down before stopping in his pursuit altogether, roaring out into the night.
"It's turning around!" Steve warned gravely. "What?" Nancy asked, twisting around in the passenger's seat to look back at him. "It's turning around!" Steve repeated. "Maybe we wore it out," Lucas suggested.
Kirby thought for all of a second before he realized what had happened. "Poyo!" He exclaimed, panickedly waving his nubs around. "That weird memory-copy of Dedede's still at the mall! It must have seen El, and now Zero's heading back!"
Everyone went dead silent, realizing the gravity of the situation (sans Steve and Robin, who had no idea what Kirby was talking about).
"Hold on!" Jonathan said as he swerved all the way around in the middle of the road to pursue Zero.
Please hold on, El! Kirby mentally pleaded.
Phantom Dedede reached the white gate just as it closed. "Heah, heh, heh, heh, heh!" He bellowed. "Y'all--" he wheezed, doubling over and wiping a tear from his eye--"Y'all really think this thing can keep me out?"
Phantom Dedede wound his hammer back and swung.
The gate was shattered to bits.
El panted and groaned in exhaustion and pain, respectively, as she limp-hopped deeper into the mall, down hallways that looked nightmarish as they reminded her of her time in the lab, with their flickering fluorescent lighting and white tile.
They rounded a corner and El had nearly reached her limit, so low now when she limped that she was almost crouching instead of standing.
Mike spotted a room with elevators and ushered her and Max into it. He frantically jabbed the buttons.
The door at the end of the hall they'd come through slammed open.
Mike jabbed the buttons even more frantically than before.
The strange, Zero-made clone of Kirby's regal avian friend rounded the corner into their small room, sadistically laughing loudly enough to echo in the tiny room. Mike screamed and charged him, rib pain long forgotten in the--at this point hour-long--adrenaline rush. The clone just laughed and smacked Mike with his hammer again, this time on his other side, likely cracking that rib, too, as the boy was sent flying into the pipe-lined walls and knocked unconscious on impact.
Max tried to stand protectively in front of El, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. Rather than laugh as boisterously as before, the clone merely chuckled (and it almost sounded good-natured, too,) before picking her up by the head and slamming her face first into the wall-pipes, as well.
He turned to El, who cried out as she flung her hand forward. Predictably, with her powers still drained, this accomplished exactly nothing except for the back of her head being pushed roughly into the wall by Phantom Dedede, knocking her unconscious, before she was then thrown to the wall on the opposite side of the room (being smacked directly in the face in the process) for good measure.
Phantom Dedede deposited his mallet into his Hammerspace to free up his hands. He bent down and picked up the girl, slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, or like his own beloved hammer.
He began to carry her, leaving the unconscious bodies of her friends behind as he headed for the atrium.
"This is taking too long!" Kirby cried, having slowly grown frantic as they chased Zero back toward Starcourt.
He had lost them.
"This is the fastest this thing goes!" Jonathan protested. "That's it! I'm not waiting any longer!" Kirby said.
He turned toward the nearest window, and Will just barely managed to shield his face from the shards of glass as Kirby punched clean through it. Helped by the wind rushing by as the car sped along, shards of glass were blown into the car, Will's cry of, "Kirby, wait!" being lost in the sudden roar.
When Will and Lucas lowered their arms, their jaws dropped.
Kirby, body and eyes alight and swirling with the power of Matter Mode, was riding a shooting star like a surfboard. It glowed a bright--almost blinding--yellow, and trailed smaller five-pointed stars of the same color behind it. Kirby looked to his left, made direct eye-contact with Will, and nodded with that determined glare Will had come to know from Kirby.
The one he'd come to associate with safety.
Then, in a literal flash, Kirby was gone, having literally shot on ahead of the car.
Kirby glared as he sped through the air toward Starcourt. He'd be there in about a minute, if he had to guess.
He was done. Done with letting Zero torment--no--downright bully--him and his friends. He was ready to end this. Maybe Zero would just come back again someday. Maybe he'd never become a Puffball like Kirby. Or maybe, just maybe, this time, he could make a difference. Maybe this time, he could finally free Zero for good.
Until then, however, they would always be eternal rivals, and Kirby would always be there to stop him.
He would save people.
He would defeat the monsters.
He would protect his friends.
Because he was Kirby of the Stars.
A/N: I'm literally writing this at 4:21 AM (one minute too late for inappropriate jokes), approximately thirty-nine minutes before I have to "wake up" to depart on my summer vacation. I have been up, quite literally, all night writing this, from 10 PM to 4 AM.
Hours after that above paragraph, I'm about to post this chapter at 9:41, lol
Unfortunately, my plan of finishing this before vacation will most likely not be coming to fruition, now (as a matter of fact, I'm currently writing this in the car, so, yeah :)) I have a vacation to enjoy (and also no internet :)) so this will likely be the last chapter for (at the least) a month.
Enjoy that cliffhanger! Also, tomorrow (it's July 3rd, 2023 at the time of this writing) is Stranger Things Season 3's fourth birthday and, in real life, the thirty-eighth anniversary of that season's events! Happy early birthday, Stranger Things Season 3!
And to all my lovely readers, happy early Fourth of July!
I hope you all enjoyed, and I will see you all...
Next time...
https/youtu.be/aLHb3wn2DaY
FINAL BATTLE
Next:
Atonement and Rebirth