A/N PLEASE READ IT ALL: Welcome to chapter 6, ladees and gentlepuffs (I knew I could work Waddle Dees and Puffballs into that somehow). This is when the plot begins to kick off. Just as a fair warning, though, we're not quite there yet. El and Max's part in episode 3 takes place mostly during the day and in public; meaning ol' Kirbs still isn't gonna have much to do. Thus, this chapter may be on the shorter side. However! He will, of course, still be coming along with El and Max. After all, if he stayed at El's, he might get involved in Hopper and Joyce's plot instead; and while that'd be super funny, (and perhaps an AU I'll do little Drabbles for when this fic is over? Maybe?), I wrote this fic mainly because I wanted Kirby to fight the Mind Flayer and interact with the kids (plus Jonathan and Nancy). Don't worry, though, our favorite alien eldritch abomination will meet Conspiracy Theorist and Helicopter Mom in due time. I should probably also mention that Kirby doesn't really fight Dream Land's residents in this universe. I headcanon that anyone who attacks him in the games has either been inhaled before or knows someone who was. Either way, since Dedede is actually respected by the kingdom by the time of Return to Dream Land in this fic, he obviously wasn't being attacked by them during Return to Dream Land; let alone by Waddle Dees. I headcanon that the bosses were corrupted by the power of the Lor's ship parts, foreshadowing what would later happen to Magolor. (I'm so sorry for the long author's notes, guys, it'll stop soon, I'm sure. Please just bear with me). Kirby also doesn't kill enemies in this fic's universe, they either run away or get knocked out. Unless it's a boss or final boss, he always holds back on opponents; the lil' guy kinda has to. Also, much like Puffball Voids, Fairies have pre-teen intelligence from a young age, they just develop it around two years of age, rather than straight from birth, like Puffball Voids. Kirby was about six years old during Crystal Shards, and Ribbon was four. So Ribbon's not a pedophile for being in a relationship with Kirby; or vice-versa, just thought I should clear that up. ONE MORE THING I PROMISE JUST ONE MORE: Since the plot is now kicking off but Kirby's in El's backpack and can't see what's going on outside and we're tied to his P.O.V, you'll need to watch El and Max's portions of episode three of season three to understand what Kirby doesn't, because if you don't have context, you'll be just as confused as he is about certain things. With that out of the way, though, I hope you enjoy Chapter 6: Nightmare in Hawkins.
Kirby was not happy. He was once more riding in El's backpack. He, El, and Max were heading to Max's house to do some investigating, at El's insistence and Kirby's anxious agreement. El had seen something last night when she looked for Billy with her powers. Something bad. He had a girl with him, El had said; and the girl was screaming.
But Max didn't believe her, or Kirby, for that matter. Max thought that El had just mis-in-terpreted it. Max had then had to explain to El and Kirby what that word meant.
Basically, she thought that El had just misunderstood whatever it was she saw.
She thought El had seen something that would look bad out of context; and El indeed did not know what the context of what she saw was. Kirby had his own context, though. Max's dad had implied that it wasn't normal for Billy to be out past curfew, so El looks for him and finds him with a screaming girl, coming out of the encounter terrified?
Yeah, no, there was totally nothing sinister going on there, Max. Ever since that little event last night, Kirby had had this sinking feeling in the bottomless pit of his stomach, making him feel almost sick. Something dark was going on in this town. Something really bad was going to happen; Kirby could feel it; just like he could with the Fountain of Dreams; just like he could when Dedede started sleepwalking and the Rainbow Bridges disappeared. Just like he could with Queen Ripple.
Something is wrong.
Some dark force was behind this; Kirby knew it.
And nobody believed him and the only other person who could feel it.
So, yeah; Kirby was not happy.
Kirby sat still and quiet within El's backpack; deep in thought.
Thunder rumbled.
"It's gonna start pouring soon," Max noted. "We should be at the mall or, like, watching a movie or something."
"No, you shouldn't," Kirby grumbled, his voice muffled slightly by the backpack.
"You don't know how weird Billy is, Kirby; I'm sure whatever El saw was totally harmless. Well, maybe not totally, but he wasn't, like, doing anything evil; I'm sure," Max said.
"You don't believe me?" El asked, sounding hurt. "I mean, it's like I told Kirby; I believe you saw some weird stuff, totally; but you said Mike has sensed you in there before, right?"
Kirby closed his eyes in thought. Besides the screaming, the thing about El's encounter that freaked her out the most was that Billy saw her. Normally, when she spied on someone with her powers, that was supposed to be impossible.
"So maybe it was just like that. Maybe Billy just... sensed you somehow," Max said, sounding a whole heck of a lot like she was trying to convince herself; if you asked Kirby.
"But the screams-" El began, only for Max to cut her off. "Yeah, I know, but here's the thing. When Billy is alone with a girl, they make, like, really crazy noises."
Meta had given Kirby "the talk" recently; (even though Puffballs didn't really need it; he'd wanted Kirby to still be "educated" about the things some Popstarians went through) so he knew what Max was getting at.
"Gross," he commented simply.
Unseen by Kirby, Max scrunched her face up in confusion and slight amusement as she began "Wait, how do you know-" Only to be cut off by El; who asked with doubt and a fair amount of worry, "They scream?"
"Yeah; but, like, happy screams," she said. Kirby scrunched up his nonexistent nose in disgust. "Gross," he repeated. "Happy screams? What are happy screams?" El asked confusedly. Max sighed as she tried to figure out how to explain it to El; who, to Kirby's confusion and suspicion, didn't seem to be catching on.
Kirby was pretty childlike for a twelve-year-old, but even he immediately knew what Max was getting at. Adeline had told Kirby that Humans went through something called "puberty", and girls started rather early.
Point was, Kirby found it odd that El seemingly had no clue what Max was talking about; and she was fourteen. Kirby added that to his mental checklist of things unusual about her. Something about her powers and how people without them treated her had traumatized her. There was something up with her left arm; a scar, perhaps? She'd been betrayed by someone she loved and who she thought loved her.
And she was (if Adeleine's description of humans was accurate across the board) unusually... naive (sure, that's the word Kirby'd use) for her age.
Recalling his earlier resolution to help her, Kirby realized he really should get around to that.
When the time was right.
Tuning back into the conversation, Kirby was just able to catch Max saying something about a "cosmo," whatever that was. The light jostling Kirby had been experiencing as a result of El's footsteps up to that point stopped a few seconds later. She had stopped walking.
They must have arrived at the house.
"His car's not here," Max noted. Sweet, Kirby thought. There was a brief pause. "You sure you guys want to do this?" She asked. "You bet I am," Kirby said, glad to finally be on the path to answers. Whatever El's response was was wordless, probably a nod or something, because Kirby felt her (and presumably Max, too) start walking again soon afterwards.
After the trio had entered the house and were safely out of sight of any passerby, Kirby pushed his way out of El's backpack and fell to the floor; landing on his feet. El and Max briefly glanced at him before looking forward once more. "If you're looking for any clues about Billy, you're gonna probably find them in his room," Max said.
Then, with her in the lead, she set off toward the door that Kirby supposed lead to Billy's room; being followed by El; with Kirby bringing up the rear. Max opened the door and peeked in, before moving further into the room.
"Why do I get the feeling we're gonna find all kinds of wrong in here?" She muttered. Kirby couldn't help but snicker. Hearing it, Max turned around, peering around El and and looking down at Kirby. "You sure you don't want to sit this one out, Kirbs? I'd hate to ruin your innocence," she said. "I'm not as innocent as I look," he said. "Whatever he's got in there, trust me, I'm sure I've seen worse."
He barely restrained the shiver that wanted to wrack his body at the thought of Zero.
El, who had also turned around to look at Kirby, looked concerned, but not as much as she probably would've had Kirby not told her about the time he'd fought a four-headed dragon.
Max, on the other hand, who knew no such story, simply raised a skeptical eyebrow at Kirby.
He simply smiled back.
A few moments later, Max simply shrugged, said "Don't say I didn't warn you," and turned around, walking into Billy's room. El briefly frowned at Kirby in concern, but turned around and followed her friend soon afterward. Kirby then contentedly followed his human companions into the room as well.
There was music softly playing from a stereo somewhere. Man, Kirby really should get around to showing everyone his Copy Abilities. He could get the Mike ability and blow their minds.
Well, or their eardrums. He probably shouldn't, on second thought.
Kirby noticed Max wandering over to and opening a drawer halfway. "Ugh! Gag me with a spoon," she said as she quickly shut it. Kirby tilted his head curiously. Wonder what she saw?, he thought to himself.
Why would she want to gag herself with a spoon?, he wondered. Must be a saying here.
El and Max snooped around a bit more, but didn't really touch anything else; just little nudges to objects here and there, maybe a hand sliding across a surface, but nothing else, really.
They soon made to leave the room, Kirby following, and entered what Kirby guessed was a bathroom, what with the bathtub he caught a few glimpses of between Max and El's legs to the right of the room.
El walked over and peeked into it.
"Max..." she said lowly. The pit in Kirby's stomach, which he had gotten used to, deepened, bringing his attention back to it. The tone of El's voice was not good. Max walked over to El's left and joined her in looking down into the bathtub. His heroic instincts taking over, Kirby ran over to join them to Max's left with a determined glare on his face. He jumped up onto the rim of the tub to get a look, holding on with his nubs and peering down into it.
He didn't get a chance to see much, however, before he realized his mistake.
In his hurry, he had forgotten just how light he was; and just how little force he needed to apply to that jump. As a result of the slight amount of excess speed, combined with his light weight, he had leaned over too far and fell face-down into the water with a tiny splash. It was freezing, but he'd dealt with far worse.
Still, though, for a bathtub, even one that had had time to cool down, this was really cold. Unusually so, Kirby thought. Because of how round and light he was, Kirby was rather buoyant, so he'd naturally flipped over soon after landing in the water, ending up swimming normally with his feet facing downward.
His face hadn't been in there long enough for his goggles to appear, but since the rest of his body was, his white, orange, and yellow-colored inner tube was summoned around his body, his red feet paddling needlessly. Needlessly, because he wasn't moving, his inner tube was supporting him, and the bathtub was shallow enough that his feet could easily touch the bottom.
Kirby held onto the rim of the tub with both nubs, gazing at El and Max, who were, respectively, staring at him with slight shock, confusion, and concern, and confusion and annoyance. They were probably both confused about his inner tube. He'd have to explain his Hammerspace to them sometime.
"Hey, guys, it's kinda cold for a bathtub," he noted casually, as if he hadn't just done anything super-embarrassing. Nothing really embarrassed Kirby. Doing things most people considered embarrassing usually made his friends back home laugh.
Max shook her head, probably putting aside her confusion about his inner tube, rolled her eyes, and reached down to pluck something out of the water to his left.
"That's because there's ice," she said, replying to Kirby's earlier statement. "Just ice." Kirby looked at the water around him. "I don't see any," he said innocently. Max rolled her eyes again. "That's because the ice melted already, dude. That's why the water's so cold."
Max looked at the object hanging from her hand, which Kirby realized was an empty plastic bag. "Probably for his muscles or something," she commented. "He works out like a maniac."
El slowly turned her head around to look behind her.
Kirby followed her gaze, and a glimpse of red snagged his eyes as they passed by. He gasped softly as he realized what it was she was looking at. A cabinet under the sink. There was a small amount of blood smeared near the handle. El bent over and opened it, before pulling something out.
Max turned around to look at what she was doing as El straightened and looked down at whatever was in her hands. Kirby couldn't see it from his vantage point. "El, what is it?" Max asked. Whatever was in El's hands must have been a container of some sort, because she pulled a small red object from it, holding it up high enough for Kirby to see, though he didn't quite know what it was.
She then pulled another object out of the red one, which must also have been a container of some sort. Holding it in her hand, El turned around to show Max and Kirby, breath trembling. Kirby recognized the object as a lifeguard's whistle.
The pit in his stomach deepened, growing darker and colder; and the water had nothing to do with it.
After that, El and Max (though mostly El) urged Kirby out of the bathtub so they could head to the community pool. Dream Land didn't really have that. Everybody just went to the nearest lake or other such body of water. They had stuff like this on Ripple Star, though, because that place was just more advanced than Popstar. But either way, the pool was, obviously, their best bet for finding any information on a lifeguard.
And Billy's connection to them, because he apparently worked there, too.
It had, as Max had said it would earlier, started pouring by the time they were leaving Max's. Luckily, Max had two spare raincoats for El and herself. Kirby was safe and dry within El's backpack and wouldn't come out until they were indoors, anyway, and, everything else aside, Kirby wouldn't have minded getting wet.
Also, Human stuff didn't fit Kirby, so... yeah. Good thing Kirby didn't mind the rain.
While he certainly enjoyed sunshine more, he did like to play in the rain every now and then, though most other Dream Landers, especially Meta Knight, didn't want to be out while it was raining. Bronto Burts also tended to not have a great time in the rain. Luckily, they were attuned to the air and could sense when the weather was going to go south at least an hour in advance. Thus, when one saw Bronto Burts on the ground in Dream Land, they knew rain was coming.
Kirby felt Max's bike come to a stop. Soon after, El and Max got off. Kirby was being bounced around lightly in El's backpack due to her quick pace as she and Max hurried into what Kirby guessed was the community pool building.
His suspicions were confirmed when Max said "Hey, excuse me?" to what Kirby guessed could have only been reception of some sort. They didn't really have buildings that used stuff like that on Popstar, but when Kirby and Ribbon had started their relationship and Kirby started visiting Ripple Star more, he was able to actually explore the planet and learn about it, since the last time he was there, he had only gone to the necessary places, everything was shrouded in darkness, and he and the others were in a hurry to find and stop the leader of the Dark Matter before the creatures fully consumed the planet.
All that was to say, it was there that Kirby visited buildings that had front reception desks and things like that.
Kirby snapped out of his brief mental tangent just in time to catch an adult male voice, probably the guy behind the desk, say "Don't try and argue with me. You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree." Kirby's face scrunched up. Did every Human he overheard have to be so nasty?
"Yeah, we don't care; we're not here to swim, or... get electrocuted..." Max said, sounding confused as she muttered the part about getting electrocuted. "We found... this," El chimed in, most likely showing them the object (or objects?) they found back at Max's house earlier.
There was a moment of silence.
"Does that belong to anybody here?" Max prompted. "Oh, yeah. That's Heather's," the male voice replied lazily. "I'll get it back to her," he said. "We... could... give it back to her," El hastily said. Unseen by everybody else, Kirby cringed within El's backpack. She wasn't exactly being sneaky. Or... what was the more "proper" (as he liked to call it) word that Meta used? Oh, yeah. Subtle. El wasn't being subtle enough.
"You could," the guy pointed out. "'Cept, she's not here. Bailed on me today," he said. Kirby tensed. Oh, yeah. There was something going on there. She was oh-so conveniently not around, while Billy, who also worked at the pool, was also absent and had some weird crap going on.
Kirby's nonexistent heart stuttered to a stop.
Billy was with a girl last night. She was screaming. Blood. A lifeguard's whistle in his house. It belonged to Heather. Heather was gone. Billy was gone. The girl was screaming.
Heather.
Outside the backpack, El and Max seemed to be coming to the same realization as Kirby; as a moment of silence ensued after Front Desk Human's last sentence. "...what is this?" He eventually asked. "You girls want a reward or somethin'?" Kirby glared at the inside of El's backpack. Good NOVA, he thought. Are all the grown-up Humans nasty?
"Nope," Max replied, unbothered. Oh no, is she used to this? thought Kirby in horror. "We're just... good samaritans," she said in what Kirby could tell was mock-politeness.
Silence.
Kirby felt El turn around.
She started walking. A second set of footsteps kept pace behind her. It must have been Max. El stopped. So did Max. "Heather," Max said. Kirby blinked. Uh... yeah, Max. That's who we've been trying to find for the past hour, thought Kirby in confusion.
"Do you think you can find her?" Max asked El.
Oh. What, were they looking at a picture of her or something?
"No way!" An older female voice called from afar. Kirby could faintly hear the male voice from that same distance. Maybe the male voice from earlier and the female one were coworkers.
Either way, they weren't paying attention to El and Max.
Kirby heard the tearing of paper.
Guess they were looking at a picture of her, he thought.
They had gone to the showers after that. Max said it was unlikely anyone would come in, so El's backpack had been set down and Kirby had accompanied her and Max. Showers in multiple stalls were turned on for background noise, which apparently helped El concentrate when she used her powers to look for people, which Kirby had learned when she first looked for Billy and wanted the radio to be on to a static channel.
El sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the running showers while Max sat on a nearby bench to El's right and Kirby stayed on the floor next to El, to her left. El had found a pair of goggles, put duct tape over them to take away her sense of sight, and put the goggles on, prepared to look for Heather.
A picture of Heather (indeed what El and Max had looked at and taken off of a wall earlier) had been set in front of El. Obviously, if she knew what the person she was looking for looked like, it'd be easier to find them. As El concentrated and began to look for Heather, Max, making sure to keep her voice down, spoke up.
"Earlier, you said you've seen worse than anything Billy could have in his room," she stated simply. Kirby had a feeling she was going somewhere with this. "Yep," he replied, speaking quietly. He walked over to sit by Max's feet, so that they didn't have to talk to each other across El.
"What did you mean by that?" She asked. Kirby sighed. "The planet I come from, Popstar, is the brightest place in the universe," he began. "Because of that, lots of monsters that like darkness go after it. It's not only monsters made of dark stuff, but a lot of the time it is. Popstar's like the brightest candle in a dark room, with people who like complete darkness when they sleep sleeping in that room."
A sad look made it's way onto Kirby's face, unseen by Max. "They always go after the brightest candle," he said simply, knowing Max understood what he was getting at.
She was silent.
"Usually, I'm there to save everyone," Kirby said. "And my friends, too, every now and again. The big events usually happen every couple years, but now that I'm not there to protect them anymore... I'm worried."
A long silence. Then, Max said "Monsters that like darkness, huh?" "Yeah," Kirby replied. "A lot of the time, they're made of darkness itself." Max, again, asked a question, a note of nervousness present beneath her casual tone. "Monsters made of darkness?" She asked.
"Yeah," Kirby confirmed again. "Do they ever seem..." Max began nervously, almost sounding like she didn't want to know the answer. "...smoky?" she finally finished. Kirby's face scrunched up in confusion. These were some very specific questions. "No, not really," he said. "They're always like pure, pitch-black darkness; and if not that, then like a gas of some sort; never really smoky."
Another long moment of silence.
Kirby was about to open his mouth to ask why Max was asking such specific questions when she beat him to it.
"You said you're always the one to stop these things," she began. "That your friends help out sometimes, but that you're the one who protects your planet. No offense, but you don't exactly look like some sort of planetary champion that fights cosmic gods of darkness," she remarked with a bit of humor in her tone.
Kirby's frown disappeared as he turned around to face her with a smirk. "I'm stronger than I look, Max," he said simply, leaving it at that. Max shrugged in response.
Suddenly, El's breathing picked up, just like when she looked for Billy the previous night.
Kirby's body tensed up.
El began whispering and muttering words too quietly for Kirby and Max to make out, before she ripped her goggles off, panting heavily as she stared off into space with terror in her eyes. "What happened? El!" Max said worriedly, putting a hand on her shoulder. "What is it, poyo?" Kirby asked worriedly. "What did you see?"
El looked over at Max, then at Kirby.
Kirby tensed at the look in her eyes. She had seen something. Something really, really bad. As Max and Kirby glanced nervously at each other, then back at El, El leaned forward, putting her head in her hands as she struggled to steady her breathing.
Kirby had once more found himself in El's backpack. It was still raining, even though it was now nighttime. They were heading to someone's house to try and find Heather. El had seen her with her powers, in an ice-filled bathtub. Then, she had gotten yanked under the water, screaming for help.
Needless to say, the three children, one of them inhuman, were worried. After what seemed like forever to Kirby's worried mind, they arrived at the house, as El had quietly informed him and Max as the bike stopped. She recognized the house's red front door from her vision.
They (Kirby sat within the backpack) walked for a bit, stopping as they presumably reached the front door. A few moments later, Kirby felt that tingling feeling along his skin that showed up whenever El used her powers to move things, and heard the door creak open as it disappeared.
They moved into the house, and Kirby heard music playing. They stopped for a few moments after only a few steps. "This is her house," Max said quietly. "What?" El asked. "Heather's house," Max clarified.
Suddenly, a female voice laughed.
Kirby felt El start walking again, Max probably following. As they got closer to the source of the voice, the laughter got louder. It sounded very sincere to Kirby. Whatever the woman(?) was laughing at, it must have been pretty funny.
Soon, El and Max had stopped.
"Max," a deep male voice said, sounding pleasantly surprised.
Unlike the woman's laugh, the man did not sound sincere.
He was good at faking it, no doubt. He had almost fooled Kirby. But something just seemed...off about him. Kirby was pretty good at reading people.
Too bad Magolor was too good even for me, he mentally grumbled to himself bitterly. The only reason Kirby hadn't looked deeper into the weird vibes Marx gave him was that there had been a cosmic crisis going on at the time.
Wait, how's that guy even know Max, anyway? Kirby thought to himself.
Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Kirby tuned back into the conversation outside the backpack; hoping to get his answer.
"We didn't mean to... barge in," Kirby heard Max say. She didn't seem surprised that the voice knew her. That was good. "We tried to knock, but... maybe you didn't hear us over the storm," she lied (in Kirby's opinion, but it probably just sounded like that to him because he knew the truth) unconvincingly.
"I'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?" Another adult male voice asked. Rude, Kirby thought to himself. The younger adult male from earlier chuckled. "I'm sorry," he began. "Janet. Tom. This... is my sister, Maxine," he introduced everyone in a friendly manner. Oh! It's Billy! Kirby mentally exclaimed. He didn't know how he hadn't pieced that together already. Kirby guessed "Janet" was the laughing woman he had heard earlier, and "Tom" must have been the one talking about El and Max dripping all over his living room.
"Oh!" The voice that Kirby guessed was Janet said, sounding pleased, as if El and Max's (and Kirby's) dropping in was some sort of pleasant surprise. "What on Earth are you doing here?" Billy asked, sounding very much interested in the answer. "Is something wrong?" He asked, sounding truly concerned.
Kirby felt uneasy.
"We just wanted to make sure everything was okay," Max said, sounding just as uneasy as Kirby felt. "Okay?" Billy echoed. "Why wouldn't it be okay?" He asked. "Where is she?" El asked, apparently deciding to get straight to the point.
NOVA, El, again with the 'not being subtle' thing!
Making sure to be as quiet as possible about it, Kirby face-nubbed, causing the inside of the backpack (thankfully the zipper was closed almost all the way) to briefly light up due to the small yellow stars that briefly burst into being from the action. Outside the backpack, there was a short moment of silence that made Kirby's uneasiness worse.
"I'm sorry," Billy began dangerously. "Where is who?"
Dear NOVA, Kirby thought. He sounds ready to kill us.
"Well, they're a little burnt, I'm sorry," a young, entirely-new female voice sounded off, sounding a bit embarrassed. It was then that Kirby smelt an odor he hadn't noticed yet-no-an aroma he hadn't noticed yet.
It smelled slightly burnt, just as the young woman said, but Kirby recognized it all the same. Cookies...
His mouth began watering. It was taking every ounce of the self-control, specifically, around food, that Meta had drilled into Kirby, to restrain himself from jumping out of the backpack and inhaling everything sugary in sight.
"Heather!" Billy said, sounding just as pleasantly surprised as Janet had. Oh! Kirby thought, now pleasantly surprised, himself. Looks like we found Heather!
"This is my sister, Maxine," he introduced. "And, I'm sorry, I did not quite catch your name," Billy said, presumably to El, in another polite-sounding (key word: sounding) tone. Kirby cringed.
"El," the psychic girl said simply, the word full of challenge. "El," Billy noted.
If the tone of his voice was anything to go off of, Kirby had a feeling El should not have answered Billy.
"Now what is it you were saying, El?" Billy asked, again sounding like he was actually interested. "You were looking for somebody?"
"I-I saw- I saw-" El began, only for Max to cut her off with "-your manager."
Nice save, Max, Kirby thought in relief.
She continued, "At the pool. He said you guys didn't come in to work today, so we got worried."
"Heather wasn't feeling so hot today, so, we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health," Billy said.
Kirby shivered at at the thought of whatever Billy'd really been doing to her.
"But you're feeling just fine right now, aren't you, Heather?" Billy asked.
He sounded like he was holding her at knife-point, or something, in Kirby's opinion.
"I'm feeling so much better," Heather said.
She's faking it...! They're both faking it! Kirby thought, slowly growing more and more distressed. He felt helpless having to stay in this stars-forsaken backpack. He wanted to help, to jump out of hiding and beat whatever was possessing Billy and Heather out of them, like a hero would do; like he always did, back home.
Because, yeah. Those two were totally possessed.
It was more noticeable with Heather, because she was also female, but they sounded just like Queen Ripple did when she had been possessed by the entire collective Dark Matter intelligence being controlled by Zero Two. The thought of what would have happened to Ripple Star, to Ribbon, had Kirby and his friends left before the Crystal of Joy exorcised the queen and allowed Kirby and his friends to defeat the Dark Matter once and for all still made Kirby shudder, six years later.
Kirby was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his third favorite word, under strawberry shortcake and Maxim Tomato, in that order, as Heather asked, "Do you girls want a cookie?" Kindly. Kirby desperately wanted to say he did, but knew he couldn't. He was hoping either Max or El would "take one (or eight) for the road" and then slip it to him as they peddled home.
"They're fresh out of the oven," Heather said.
Kirby's hunger disappeared instantly. If her tone was anything to go off of, it sounded more like she wanted to put El and Max (and Kirby, even though she wouldn't know that) in the oven.
Thank goodness she'd said it, though, because his stomach (even though he wasn't like Dedede and had no muscles that could make the sound) had been, by Kirby's estimate, four seconds from rumbling very loudly.
Kirby once more found himself moving quickly, quicker than usual, as a matter of fact, as El and Max (whichever one was peddling the bike) peddled away down the road, away from Heather's house. A chill travelled down Kirby's nonexistent spine. Over the years, helped by Meta Knight's training and his adventures, Kirby had developed something of a sense for danger.
That included being able to feel (usually accurately) when he was being watched.
Right now, Kirby felt very watched, even though he knew nothing could see him while he was inside the backpack.
https/youtu.be/H6RQQJzZd_s
Apparently, they were sleeping over at Max's. Max made sure to lock her door so nobody came in and saw Kirby, who had decided to sleep at the foot of the bed. Kirby had made himself comfortable on his stomach, as El, looking vaguely disturbed, came out of the bathroom after having brushed her teeth, settling into bed next to Max.
"Which one?" Max asked El, holding up two comic books. Kirby couldn't read English, so he had no clue what each book was titled. "I don't know," El said in response to Max's question. There was a pause as Max set the comics down on her lap. She must have noticed El's anxiety, because she said, "Hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore, okay?"
"It doesn't make sense," El replied after a few moments. "What doesn't make sense?" Max asked. "Heather," El replied softly. Kirby closed his eyes and relaxed, content to just listen to El and Max's chat as he drifted off. "The blood," El said in response to Max's question. "The ice," she added.
Kirby hummed. She had a point. There was no way something wasn't wrong and he was still convinced that something was controlling Billy and Heather.
"Heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she's better now," Max said, trying to rationalize things to herself, as usual. Kirby hummed in a disagreeing tone. "That was a lotta ice just for a cold bath," he muttered. He cracked open an eye to see Max staring at him in slight annoyance.
"Must have been a really bad fever," she concluded passive-aggressively, her light blue eyes staying locked onto Kirby's deep ones. Kirby simply closed his eye, saying nothing more than another disbelieving "mmm.".
Max sighed.
"I don't know where that blood came from, but...we saw her," Max said. "We both saw her. She's totally fine."
"Debatable," Kirby commented.
He opened both eyes halfway to see Max glaring at him slightly. Though he didn't glare, Kirby didn't smile or back down either, staring right back at Max unblinkingly.
Max soon looked away.
"What about Billy?" El asked.
That gave Max pause.
"What about him?" She asked after a few moments. "He seemed wrong," El insisted. "Oh, cool. Someone who's not in denial. Hopefully, now that we can all agree that he and Heather are possessed, we can get to the bottom of this," Kirby said.
Max rolled her eyes as she looked away from El to glare at Kirby. "Oh my God, dude, he's not possessed; and neither is Heather. Why are you so set on thinking something's wrong?" Max asked annoyedly.
Kirby believed he had already made his point quite clear, so he simply said "Because something is; and I've dealt with possessed people before. I know what it looks like."
That gave El and Max pause. The glare fell off Max's face and she and El both paled a little.
The room had gone silent.
"Elaborate," Max eventually demanded. Kirby looked at her. Her gaze was stern, but she still looked very, very afraid.
"Creatures from outer space made of pure negativity, Dark Matter, possessed a bunch of people, including Dream Land's king and one of my best buddies, King Dedede, several times. At least until I killed their leader, Zero, twice. After that, most of them disappeared, but I had to deal with one that was locked in one of Dedede's treasure chests a little over a year-and-a-half ago," Kirby said.
"Ever since I beat up that one, though, I haven't seen any more, so I think they're all gone," he concluded.
"Jesus, dude, you really weren't kidding earlier. Your universe-planet-whatever sounds dangerous as hell," Max said. "Yup," Kirby said tiredly as he closed his eyes.
"But... still, I mean, 'wrong' is pretty much Billy's default, so..."
Kirby uttered a muffled groan into Max's bed, his face buried in the comforter.
Max chuckled at his apparent misery. A few seconds passed in silence before El said "Who... is that?" Kirby raised his head and opened his eyes to see that she was pointing to a figure on the cover of one of the comic books.
Max chucked.
"See, this is why you can't just hang out with Mike all the time," She said in amusement. "This is Wonder Woman. AKA, Princess Diana. She's from Paradise Island, which is, like, this hidden island where there are only women Amazon warriors..."
Kirby's breathing evened out as his eyes closed. He had had a very long day; and was mentally and emotionally exhausted. Lulled by El and Max's soft voices as Max continued explaining the comic's story to El, Kirby, like all its other passengers, unknowingly found himself carried away in the arms of sleep.
A/N: And that's chapter 6, folks. Next time, tune in for the reveal of Kirby's whole... deal, to all the kids as the plot kicks off. This was the last buildup chapter. From here on out, things get crazy. I apologize for Max's behavior toward Kirby; just try not to kill her for now. She's in denial that her brother's possessed, and she's protective of El, so Kirby being an unhelpful peanut gallery while she's trying to comfort El got on her nerves; because what does Kirby know anyway? (Little does she know). Anyway, get ready for some chaotic scenes and maybe a few brief misunderstandings on the Party's part about Kirby's nature. As always, thank you for reading; and please review. Words and written commentary (unless it's a chore for you) makes my day more than you know. Feel free to leave suggestions for how to improve this fic as well. Expect the amount of time it took for this chapter to come out (or a few days longer) to be the new norm for chapter updates.
With all that said, though, have a good day/night, and I'll see you guys...
Next time...
