Chapter 19

Castle Dedede was pretty much purple now. It was completely coated in shadow hands and they swarmed around each other. Luigi, Bandana Dee, Jigglypuff, Kirby and Meta-Knight could see it from atop the hill nearby. They only stopped to watch for a second before continuing to run towards it. Meta-knight led the pack and Luigi trailed at the back.

"We can't waste any time. We have to dive right into combat. Are you ready?" Asked meta-knight. Bandana Dee nodded and Kirby just smiled brightly. Jigglypuff had no real reaction and Luigi nodded but you could clearly see the nervousness on his face.

As they neared the courtyard gate, the hands noticed the presence of the heroes and began to advance. Meta-knight and Bandana Dee raised their weapons and impaled the first two hands to approach, Kirby then leapt up from behind them and Knocked another three hands aside with a swing of his hammer. Jigglypuff began singing, causing a few hands to drop to the ground asleep. Luigi closed his eyes and charged, flailing his arms around and knocked down hands that got in his way.

They stayed near the gateway for a couple of minutes, fighting off a number of shadow hands so that they could force their way into the courtyard safely.

Up above them, in the air, the Tornado was circling the castle. Tails was shocked by the sheer amount of shadow hands. "I think Meta-knight needs help!" He shouted back to the other passengers.

Knuckles chuckled. "Ok then! Tails, you take the plane down and get a safe landing spot. Me and the prisoner will give 'em a hand!" He said and gave Keramon a rough nudge who responded with an anxious chuckle.

Knuckles didn't even give Keramon a chance to argue and gripped the Digimon's wrist, leaping off of the Tornado, with Keramon in tow. Tails, Marth, Ness, Agumon and Geno stayed aboard the plane and began to descend for a proper landing.

Knuckles raised Keramon like a javelin and threw him down ahead of himself. Keramon was launched towards the shadow hand battalion and in a panic began to fire a rapid volley of Bug Blaster attacks. The pink energy blasts struck the ground around the courtyard entrance and exploded, taking out a few hands, and allowing Kirby, Luigi, Jigglypuff, Meta-knight and Bandana Dee to get access to the courtyard.

The hands were far from all gone though. They flooded towards the four heroes but were shot backwards when Keramon and Knuckles landed because knuckles delivered a powerful punch to the ground, creating a shock wave. The hands were launched backwards and then were suddenly slammed way into the air by a large jet powered hammer!

King Dedede look extremely relieved to see the other heroes arrive. "Phew... Took you guys long enough!" They didn't have time for a conversation though. There were still tons of hands. The seven heroes and Keramon launched into a full on offensive on the shadow hands, Keramon and Luigi stayed back, launching projectiles. Kirby and King Dedede began bashing away at the hands with their hammers, Meta-knight and Bandana Dee co-ordinated together, launching the foes into fierce team combos and Jigglypuff used rollout to charge through a large group of hands. Knuckles jumped right into the middle of a large group of enemies by himself, beating them down with his fists.

After a few minutes, they'd managed to take down a great number of hands. This was easy to see from up in the sky where Tails was. He thought maybe he could come down now and finish the shadow hands off. He turned to the other passengers on the Tornado. "Ok guys! We're going in for a landing in the courtyard, get ready to fight!" They nodded and Marth drew his sword in preparation too.

Tails began flying downwards, heading directly for Castle Dedede's courtyard. He began firing the guns, clearing out some shadow hands to create a landing strip. Ness, using his powers, lifted up Marth, Agumon and Geno and shot them safely down into the fight, before using PK Teleport to follow behind.

The tornado landed and skidded to a halt right in front of one of the walls of the castle. Tails then leapt out with his energy hand cannon equipped and began firing pot-shots at the few remaining hands.

Together, the relatively large group were able to effortlessly clear out the castle within a few minutes. After the last few were taken down, the group gathered together in the castle courtyard around the tornado.

"So the entire reason you and Sonic are even here... is cuz of me?" Asked Dedede. Tails and Knuckles both responded with a nod. Dedede smiled brightly to Meta-knight. "Ha! And you tried to throw meh off the halberd! Imagine if ya cut me off before they could track meh. Tabuu'd have taken over by now!" Meta-knight didn't react.

"We still need to find Sonic, though. Do you have any idea where we could find him?" Asked Knuckles. Dedede replied with a shake of the head.

"Sorry. Haven't seen 'im since the celebration back at the castle of the hands." replied Dedede. Tails let out a sigh and stood up. He flew up into his plane and sat in the cockpit, messing with the controls.

"Looks like we're back to square one. No leads as to where he could be at all." Tails muttered. He began to start the plane.

"Tails, I think you're forgetting something." Knuckles smirked and yanked Keramon a little close. "This little bug right here was working for the bad guy, remember? We find the villain, Sonic won't be far behind trying to stop him." Keramon gave a small nervous giggle.

"I-i told you! I don't know where the boss is! I only met the guy once!" Before anymore could be said, a shadow passed over the courtyard. The entire group immediately looked up to see a large flying sailing ship floating over head and right past them.

"B-bowser?!" Luigi Exclaimed.

Keramon let out an audible gulp looking up at the ship. "Three guesses who Keramon works for..." muttered Ness.

As the ship continued flying away, the heroes and Keramon simply watched. Geno leapt up to his feet from his seated position. "Well, guys. Looks like we're going after Bowser."

"And how are we supposed to go that?" Asked Meta-knight. "All of you could only just fit on the Tornado. How will we fit 5 more in and/or on there?"

"Well, Kirby, Jigglypuff, the king and I can all fly." Started Bandana Dee

"An' ah can use mah jet hammer to speed up our flyin' too." Added Dedede.

"Umm, What about a-me?" Asked Luigi. Ness lifted him up onto the right wiong of the tornado.

"Don't worry, Luigi. My psychic powers can hold us both in place!" He said, giving Luigi a peace sign.

"Well... let's get going then..." Said Agumon with a sigh.

The heroes returned to their positions on the plane (Marth sat in the passengers seat of the plane, while Tails piloted. Knuckles balancing on the left wing, keeping a tight grip on Keramon's arm. Ness on the right wing, using his psychic abilities to keep himself from falling or moving at all. Agumon sat on the tail of the plane, with his arms and legs wrapped around it, fearing the fall. Geno in his Star form flying alongside Meta-knight). Bandana Dee jumped up using his spear as a helicopter sort of thing. Kirby and Jigglypuff hopped up, holding onto the handle of the King's hammer and Dedede himself, sat on the hammer like a seat, starting up the engine and the group flew off. Following Bowser's airship.

OOC NOTES TIME:

So yeah, sorry this took so long to write. I had a nice vacation to Gran Canaria and I've been playing a lot more of my 3ds since I got new leaf and Layton VS Phoenix Wright. But I'm still here and chapter 20 will be here eventually, featuring more from Twilight and Snake.