A/N PLEASE READ IT ALL TO UNDERSTAND IMPORTANT THINGS:
Welcome to Chapter 9, buckos. I don't have much to say this time around. Just as a preface, I'm sorry if this fic isn't very interesting, and I'm sorry Kirby's been stuck in the backpack a lot. It annoys me, too, but I'm a novice writer and an amateur author. I'm still learning; and there's really no other way for Kirby to get around. He can't be seen, remember? But don't worry, this chapter still has plenty of character interactions (Nancy and Jonathan finally show up, after all!) And just you wait for the season 3 finale; I don't know how I'll tackle it yet, but Kirby will be hiding no longer; that much is certain; although I do have a bit of a plot shake-up planned for the beginning of Episode 7 of season 3 (I don't know what chapter that'll be) (EDIT: Episode 6; not 7) so stay tuned! I also apologize for how I keep switching between third-person omniscient and third-person limited, but Kirby's perspective is... well... too limiting, lol. And even when I am in his perspective, I can't keep using only words that he'd know. It limits my ability to describe emotions and the like. Just assume any big words (like correspond) that you'd think wouldn't sound right coming out of Kirby's mouth are in his internal monologue because Meta Knight makes him read in addition to training him and drills big vocabulary words into his head; because Meta occasionally homeschooling Kirby is a headcanon that I love and that you cannot take from me.
IMPORTANT NOTE THAT FIXES AN INCONSISTENCY PLEASE READ: I know I've made clear in this fic that Kirby doesn't know, speak (his speech is automatically mentally translated into English to the kids), or read English and wasn't aware of its existence until he came to the Stranger Things universe. I also know that the Haltmann Works Company's logo is a giant 'H'. I headcanon that the Haltmann Works Company's home planet, whatever it may be, had English as its main language, with Latin (since a lot of English letters, including 'H', are derived from Latin) having been a thing in the past there. That's why Kirby doesn't know it, even though it does exist in his universe. He obviously hasn't encountered it in his home universe yet because this fic takes place just after Return to Dream Land, before Planet Robobot.
MOVING ON...
Also, dunno if anyone remembers that one Miiverse post that says Dark Matter can do it, but I'm headcannoning that Voids can manifest things from memory, since Dark Matter in this fic's canon are just the spawn of a Void (Zero). That detail plays a semi-important role in the beginning of this chapter.
I also mention another obscure Dream Land 3 enemy, Polof, a rabbit-like creature. I can't have Kirby saying stuff like "rabbit-hole", since there are no rabbits in Dream Land. Twizzies are, for all intents and purposes, its version of birds, although there are also other bird-like creatures, and Mariels are it's equivalent of spiders, too.
Okay, I guess I did have a lot to say. Oh well.
With that, I bring you Chapter 9: New Allies.
"So your stomach's basically a bottomless pit?" Max asked after Kirby had explained how his powers worked to everyone. He had to clarify very quickly that if he ever ate a living being to get a Copy Ability they would reappear alive and well outside his body after he dropped the ability.
"Yep!" Kirby said. "And since you can get any power there is, you're infinitely powerful," she deadpanned. "Yep!" Kirby said.
Max crossed her arms skeptically.
"Hey, it's not like I can measure it to see for myself or anything," Kirby said. "All I know is what Meta Knight's told me, which is that us Voids are just that; Voids. Like a black hole, our potential and power is endlessly deep, or something like that. He's really poetic about it. He says I could probably crack Popstar in half with a single punch."
"Shit, I believe it," Mike commented. "I'll admit, you punching Billy clean through a brick wall was probably simultaneously the most impressive and satisfying thing I've ever seen," said Lucas. Max glared at him, causing him to put his hands up in surrender, and then glared at Kirby, too, before looking away, arms still crossed. "It was kinda cool," she reluctantly admitted.
"Wait, doesn't that mean the Mind Flayer can do the stuff you do?" Will asked Kirby, looking worried. "Well, not the way that I do," Kirby said. "Destroyer Voids normally don't inhale, but they still have the Copy Ability all Voids have."
"Another thing all Voids can do is make stuff from memory."
Everybody looked at Kirby in astonishment.
"You can do... what?" Mike asked. "We can make physical things from memory," Kirby repeated. "So... could you... show us what the Mind Flayer looked like before?" Will asked hesitantly. All the other Humans looked at him in alarm. Kirby rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Well, I'd really rather not; because he was huge. I mean, like, really big. Like, 'the house can't fit him' big."
Will now looked embarrassed.
"Sorry," he said. "I just... wanted to... I don't know. Sorry."
An awkward silence settled over the room.
"But... if it would cheer you up, I could show you what Dark Matter looked like," Kirby eventually offered. Will looked at Kirby with what looked like a mixture of hope, fear, and gratitude. Everyone else except for El had raised their eyebrows, but also looked slightly afraid. El's face was set in an expression of firm determination.
Figuring he'd gotten as good as he was going to get, Kirby closed his eyes, and pictured his old enemies. About a second later, Kirby opened his eyes as, with a twinkling sound and a small burst of light, something appeared above his head.
The creature sparkled with twinkling lights, but was dark all the same. An orb of pure blackness, with a ring of orange spheres along its body, a single eye peering out at them. Gasps rang out across the room. "Th-that's-?" Will began. "-Yeah," Kirby finished for him.
Many of the kids had scrambled away from Kirby when the Dark Matter appeared above his head. "Jesus, that's creepy as fuck," a shaken-looking Max said. "So... before Zero ended up in the Upside Down and reincarnated as the Mind Flayer... that was what Demogorgons looked like?" Mike asked a bit shakily.
"Yeah," Kirby said. "They're just not physical like the Demogorgons are; with slime and life-cycles and all that."
"Creepy," Mike breathed. "I second that," Lucas chimed in. When Kirby looked at Will, he saw that the brown-haired boy was staring up, mouth hanging slightly open, at the Dark Matter replica in amazement and fear. Said replica finally blinked for the first time since it had appeared, causing all the Human kids to flinch.
Kirby closed his eyes once more and willed the recreation to disappear, and with another twinkling sound, Kirby, after opening his eyes and looking up, found it had. "Well, the Mind Flayer being back was bad enough, finding out about all the Zero stuff was worse, but I guess this just confirms it," Mike began.
"We need backup. Outside help. We need to call Hopper," Mike said. "He... does know about you, right?" Mike asked as he turned to look at Kirby. "Yep," Kirby said. "And he didn't shoot you on sight?" Lucas asked with what looked like actual confusion.
"Oh. He tried!" Kirby said cheerfully, much to Mike, Lucas, and Will's visible concern. "He missed, though."
"He... he's probably the most skilled person with a gun in Hawkins," Will said in clear astonishment and slight fear. Kirby just shrugged.
"Which is all the more reason to call him," said a determined Mike.
Hopper never answered Mike's five phone calls. Needless to say, that made Kirby extremely worried. He almost wanted to call his own outside help; he always kept his Cell Phone in his hammerspace, after all; but he wanted to avoid getting his colorful friends stranded in this world too until it was absolutely necessary.
Hey, wait a minute. Why haven't they tried calling me yet?!, Kirby thought. I could have left this world forever ago!
But then he remembered he had friends to help; and an old enemy to finish off for (hopefully, anyway) the last time. Besides, the other Kirbies probably weren't even aware of his disappearance yet, anyways. They were always far and wide, exploring the furthest reaches of Popstar; and Kirby hardly even saw them anymore, anyways. It'd probably be hard for Dedede, Bandana, and Meta Knight to get in contact with them.
Anyway, Mike had, in the end, turned to El for help, asking her if she could use her powers to find Hopper. She had; and she had discovered that he and Will's mom, who Will had told Kirby was named Joyce, were walking through the woods on their way to a place (a "state" Mike had said) called Illinois.
A "state" was apparently one of the many regions making up the nation Kirby and his friends were currently in; the "United States of America" or U.S.A for short. The anniversary of its founding was apparently soon, and everyone had told Kirby, after explaining what America was to him, that it was a very big celebration.
It sounded like a lot of fun, but Kirby, of course, wouldn't be able to enjoy it. Besides, there were way more important things to be doing.
Like finding out what to do next now that Hopper, a very important and very powerful authority figure in this town, was off the table. They needed to find out how to work around that so they could stop Zero.
After the short explanation of what America was, El and Max had gone off to the bathroom so Max could help El clean up her nosebleed. That left Kirby alone with Mike, Lucas, and Will. Mike was pacing in front of them all, Will was sitting in a smaller chair off to the side, and Kirby was sitting next to Lucas on the couch.
The atmosphere was... anxious, Kirby'd say. Kirby wasn't an anxious person, the nervousness he'd felt ever since El first found Billy and Heather with her powers was probably the most nervous he'd ever been; but the fact alone that Zero had returned and had been pestering another world-another world full of fragile Humans that wouldn't be able to defend themselves properly (even if these kids had proved they could hold their own)-while he wasn't there to stop him had had him on edge for a while now. Kirby had friends, and a Human had helped Kirby stop Zero before, but they were still Humans. They were fragile.
Kirby was here to help this time, and that was an automatic improvement for their situation, but they were still missing some important allies, here. Kirby was the best help these Humans were gonna get. He wasn't even bragging. It was literally true. Still, though, the situation had room for improvement; and that alone made Kirby slightly nervous.
He knew everything'd turn out fine; of course, it always did, after all. But still, he was a little nervous. And everybody else's nervous mood (mostly Mike's, he seemed the most on edge) was starting to rub off on Kirby, turning what little nervousness he had into something greater than it should've been.
"Something's not right," Mike said, breaking the silence. "I can't get Hopper off my back all summer, now all of a sudden he's hiking with Will's mom to Illinois? And Dustin's MIA, too?"
"Woah," Kirby said. With all the chaos that had been going on with the whole sauna thing, and then Kirby having to prove his innocence to his friends, he had never realized he hadn't seen Dustin since the whole Cerebro thing on Weather top the other night.
"I mean, this can't be a coincidence!" Mike said. "Finally! Someone who's thinking straight!" Kirby said. Kirby'd realized he had been warming up to Mike ever since Mike had showed his suspicion toward Billy the other day; his logical thought. And now, Mike was talking about coincidences? That was the very thing Kirby had been annoyed at Max for not being able to see!
That this, all of this, it wasn't a coincidence.
Mike furrowed his eyebrow at Kirby. "You make it sound like someone's been doubting the fact that something's wrong," he said. Kirby huffed. "Yeah. Max has," he said annoyedly. "Or, well, she was, up until the whole... thing last night."
Mike snorted. "Hah! That sounds about right!"
"Alright, whatever, you guys are missing the point," Lucas said before Kirby and Mike could start bonding over how much Max annoyed them. "The bottom line is, something is wrong. And Hopper, Will's mom, and Dustin aren't here. It's up to us."
"Up to us to do what, exactly?" Mike asked. "Find Billy and stop him," Lucas answered. "No," Kirby said simply. "We need to stop Zero."
"Agreed," Mike said. "Even if El could find Billy again, and that's a pretty big 'if', then what?"
"We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time," Lucas answered. "Okay, and then what?" Mike asked. "Then we win," Lucas said. "No," Kirby said annoyedly. "It isn't Billy that's doing this! It's Zero! He's the source of all this! He's the one we gotta stop!"
"Good job, Kirby. You're pretty smart; although I guess you should be, given you're the expert here," Mike complemented. "Thank you," Kirby beamed proudly. "We got the Mind-Zero out of Will before and he just came right back," Mike continued. "And I killed Zero before and he came right back," Kirby reminded them.
"Exactly," Lucas said. "So how in the hell are we supposed to stop him?" He asked. "I don't know," Mike said. Will opened his mouth to speak, but Kirby beat him to it. "I do. We shouldn't take the chance of killing him again; that could just cause him to reincarnate somewhere else. But we can't just attack his puppets either, 'cus that won't do anything to him. So the best we can do is contain him. We need to close the Gate."
"I don't even know how it opened again, but it must've if the Mind Flayer-if Zero's back. So you're right, Kirby, we do need to close it; and to do that, we need El," said Will. Everyone looked toward the closed bathroom door El and Max were behind.
"What are they still doing in there?" Mike asked in irritation. "I don't know," Lucas said, mouth full with the contents of a cereal box. Kirby tapped on Lucas's leg, causing the boy to look down at the pink puff, who was giving him the puppy dog eyes. Lucas rolled his eyes and handed Kirby the box. "Girls just like hanging out in the bathrooms," Lucas continued, still chewing.
"Why?" Asked Mike in annoyance.
"I mean, I don't know," Lucas said, looking very much like he didn't really care. "They're conspiring against me," Mike said in a near-whisper, loud enough for his male companions, and no one else, to hear. Kirby would have gotten on Mike about his prioritization, but his mouth was full of chocolate-flavored cereal. Thankfully, Will had him covered; saying in a loud, angry whisper, "That's what you're concerned about right now?"
"It's not my main concern, it's just a sub-concern," Mike defended himself. Rather lamely, in Kirby's opinion. "I thought it was already over," Will hissed. "It's not... over, okay? We're just taking a break," Mike argued. "She said she dumped your ass. That doesn't sound like a break," Will said. Kirby immediately burst into laughter. "Wait! She really said that?!" He asked after briefly managing to catch his breath.
"She sure did," Max called from inside the bathroom. Her voice was muffled by the door. "You guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?" She asked in amusement. Kirby could hear El giggling. Unashamed, Kirby shrugged, rummaged around in the cereal box with one nub, and then opened his mouth wide as he tilted it upside-down, allowing whatever cereal was left to pour straight down his gullet.
"Conspiring," Mike whispered, much quieter now. "I told you, they're conspiring."
Will looked annoyed, but before he or anyone could say anything else, there was a knock at the door at the top of the basement stairs. "Not now, mom!" Mike shouted. "Mike, open the door," a completely new female voice called, this one sounding like she was quite young, but still nearly an adult.
"Oh, Jesus," Mike said. Kirby tilted his head. "Who's that at the door?" He asked. Mike turned to look at him. "It's my sister, Nancy. Look, go hide behind that chair over there," he began, pointing toward the small chair where Will had been sitting earlier, "And I'll try and prepare her for... well, you."
"We'll tell you when to come out," Will said with a small smile. "Okie-dokie!" Kirby said, jumping over the chair and landing behind it. "Mike, if you don't open this door in ten seconds, I swear to God I will kick it down!" The voice said.
From behind the chair, Kirby heard Mike's footsteps pounding away at a fast pace. "I'm coming, Nancy, chill out!" Kirby smiled. Nancy and Mike's sibling dynamic reminded him a lot of Tiff and Tuff, what with the older, feisty sister and the wild younger brother.
Kirby heard the basement door open, and then it all went quiet for a good while. It must've been Mike explaining Kirby to Nancy. El and Max eventually left the bathroom, and Lucas and Will quietly filled them in on what was going on. Eventually, multiple sets of footsteps started coming down the stairs.
"Mike, I swear to fuck we do not have time for your games!" The female voice, Nancy, said. "This isn't a game!" Mike insisted. Nancy just huffed in annoyance. The footsteps stopped and there was an awkward silence for a while. Then...
"Alright, Kirbs, come on out," Mike's voice called out tiredly.
Finally! The suspense had been killing Kirby!
Time to meet the new friends!
"Hiiii~ I'm Kirby!" Kirby said as he jumped from behind the chair and landed on top of it with his nubs in the air. Nancy let out a small yelp of surprise. Kirby opened his eyes to see her, with a shocked look on her face, behind the arm of a male young adult Human, who looked like he was trying to protect her. Were they together?
"Alright, I know this is weird-" Mike began, only for the young man to cut him off with a shaky, almost unbelieving "-What is that thing?"
Mike sighed. "Like I told you. That's Kirby. Don't worry, he's nice. It's all cool."
Nancy opened and closed her mouth a few times. She reminded Kirby of a Blipper. "What-what-it..."
"He," Mike corrected.
Nancy started pacing, but didn't take her eyes off Kirby. She was muttering to herself. Suddenly, though, she snapped her head up to him. "Di-did... " She cut herself off, muttering 'I can't believe I'm saying this', before...
" Did you... just... just speak? Like, in English?"
"No," Kirby said simply. Nancy flinched again.
"Nance, it's fine," Mike said. "He's an alien, but he doesn't want to hurt anyone. He's actually a pretty nice guy!"
At this, Kirby gave his best attempt at a mean mug. It probably fell flat, if the looks on the other kids' faces were of any indication.
"He's from a planet called Popstar, in another universe," Mike continued.
"W-what?" She asked. The young man was just staring at Kirby in shock, disbelief, and nervousness. Mike sighed again. "Just... sit down. We'll explain everything."
A while later, Kirby, sitting on El's lap, was seated on the couch with the other kids, with Mike standing up along with Nancy and the young man-Jonathan- who was Will's older brother, in front of the couch. It took a while, and they were still a little wary of him, but Nancy and Jonathan had slowly relaxed around Kirby. They got pretty concerned when Mike and Kirby had explained exactly what Kirby was, but had mostly went along with it all.
When they had gotten around to explaining Zero/the Mind Flayer and Kirby's connection to him, though, Nancy and Jonathan, though especially Jonathan, panicked a bit, demanding that Kirby 'get the hell away from' Will (Jonathan) and Mike (Nancy). Will and Mike had both managed to calm them down, though.
They managed to do that only by fully explaining how Zero and Kirby were related. After that, they had calmed down and offered Kirby shaky apologies, but remained nervous, considering they had what was basically a good version of the monster that had been tormenting their loved ones sitting among them.
They had explained that the thing they had been calling the "Mind Flayer" was really one of Kirby's old enemies, and told the (shortened) stories of Kirby's previous encounters with him.
They both remained wary, perhaps slightly suspicious, but looked mostly like they believed it all. After taking some time to absorb it all, Nancy spoke up.
"So... Kirby, here... is a... good version of the Mind Flayer."
"Zero," Kirby corrected. "And yeah, basically."
"And you're both eldritch gods that take different forms depending on what energy influences you, which is why the Mind Flayer's evil and shadowy, and you're pink and puffy."
Giving up on correcting them all on Zero's name, Kirby just said "Yeah."
"Okay... this is weird," she said. "We've dealt with weird alternate universe creatures before," Lucas pointed out. "I know, but..." Nancy began. "This is just..." she trailed off. "It's a lot, I know," Kirby said. "I don't like to tell people about what my species really is exactly because of this; because they'd never trust me," he continued sadly.
"We trust you," El said. "Yeah, so do I," said Mike. "Me too," Will said with a small smile. "Me three," said Lucas. "You're a dumb marshmallow," Max began, then smirked. "But you're my dumb marshmallow."
Kirby's Human friends were all smiling at him, all there for him. And if they could do it... maybe he didn't have to hide, after all. Maybe, when all this was over and he saw Dedede and Bandana Dee again...
He would finally tell them the truth.
"Thanks, guys," Kirby said, cheering up.
Kirby could tell she was trying to hide it, but Nancy's eyes softened, the corners of her mouth quirking upward for the briefest of moments. Jonathan faltered, too, though he still kept his guard up.
"Alright," Nancy said. "We believe you, and if El trusts you, I guess we do, too."
"For what it's worth," Will began. "I can sense when Upside Down stuff happens; and I've never felt anything around Kirby. That's about as close to definitive proof as you'll get."
Jonathan relaxed some more, nodding nervously and putting his hands on his hips. "Yeah, alright... okay..."
Then he looked at Kirby. "But... if-i-if you hurt Will... or-or if I find out you lied about any of this..."
"I won't; and I didn't. I promise. I'm here to help and get rid of Zero once and for all," Kirby said firmly.
Jonathan relaxed fully; any nervousness remaining simply being just how he was, it seemed to Kirby. That and all the Zero stuff that was about to go down, too. "Okay," he said shakily, pushing aside his suspicion with what looked like a fair amount of effort. "Speaking of... 'Zero'..." Nancy began, looking straight at Kirby and the group.
"We have a lot to talk about."
Nancy proceeded to tell Kirby and the others all about some lady named Mrs. Driscoll, who had eaten a bunch of fertilizer (she then had to explain what that was to Kirby; stuff grew so well in Dream Land that there was no need for it there), got sent to the 'hospital' (a place where health professionals helped you recover. Food took care of all that in Dream Land, and food here apparently didn't heal, which was horrible, in Kirby's opinion) and, with Nancy watching, had started acting super possessed.
"Did she fall into a deep sleep?" Kirby asked. "No," Nancy said, looking confused as to why Kirby would be asking that question. Kirby thought for a moment. "Did her stomach rip open and turn into a mouth?"
Nancy and Jonathan looked horrified. Horrified and sick.
"No! Why would you even say something like that?!" Nancy said, disgusted and horrified. Jonathan just looked like he was about to puke. "It's something that happened to Dedede one of the times he was possessed," Kirby explained before the situation could spiral out of control. "That's the...king where you come from, right?" Asked Nancy. "Yeah," Kirby answered.
"Okay... well, that didn't happen to Mrs. Driscoll, but everything else was the same. The exact same as what happened to Will last year. And look at this. Look at the body temperatures," she said, reaching into a bag and pulling some papers out, which she put on the coffee table in front of them all.
Ah, yeah. Another Human thing. Most creatures in Dream Land didn't have body temperatures, and thus weren't in danger from them being too high or low, but Dedede did. Will leaned forward and pointed to something on the paper, though Kirby couldn't see it from where he was. He also couldn't read English, though, so it wouldn't have done him much good anyway.
"He likes it cold," Will eventually said. Kirby had never really gotten the chance to try it out on Zero himself, but it definitely wasn't just a quirk of his new form. He'd always been weak to light and anything (like heat) related to it. Besides, all Dark Matter were just pieces of Zero under his control and with the same weaknesses, anyway; and the possessed Dedede hadn't been very happy when Kirby and Rick had used their combined version of the Fire Copy Ability on him the second time he was possessed.
In fact, just like with Billy last night, that was what caused him to start using his full power, leading to the stomach-mouth thing.
"Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer-" Mike began, being cut off by Nancy, who said "Mrs. Driscoll."
"Right. Yeah, Mrs. Driscoll. What time was this attack?" Mike continued. "Last night," Nancy said, as if the answer should've been obvious. And oh boy was it. That was the same time Billy'd had his own little episode and fought Kirby. Seeming to be on the same train of thought, Mike asked "Right, but what time last night?"
"Around nine," Nancy answered. "You waited all night to call?" Jonathan asked, sounding hurt. Nancy faltered for a second, then said, "I was waiting for the doctors to run some tests."
"You weren't there?" Will asked Jonathan. "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" Jonathan asked in annoyance. Nancy huffed out what sounded like bitter laughter as she said "Hallelujah."
Kirby didn't know what that meant, but he could tell it was meant to be sarcastic and insulting; especially if the "Ooh," Lucas let out was of any indication. "Hey. That's not nice!" Kirby pouted. Nancy just stared at him for a good few seconds before apparently deciding to leave the whole thing behind as she looked at Mike and asked "Um, so w-what time was your... sauna test?"
Kirby glared at her for a moment, knowing she could see it out of the corner of her eye, but decided to let it be soon afterward. He'd figure out how to help her and Jonathan get along later. There was more important stuff to be doing at the moment, unfortunately.
"Around nine," all the Human kids said in unison in response to Nancy's earlier question. "Well, that proves it," Nancy said. "That proves my theory."
"She's Flayed-Zeroed? just like Billy," Mike said, correcting his wording halfway through his sentence. "Flayed? Zeroed?" Jonathan asked. "The Mind Flayer, his real name's Zero, remember? I was gonna say he Flays people but... that doesn't really work anymore," Mike explained.
Kirby thought it was cool but everyone else just stared at Mike. "Alright, whatever. Point is, Zero, he Zeroes people; takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically...become him," Mike eventually said.
"Just like the things he creates, Dark Matter. Or, Demogorgons nowadays, I guess," Kirby said. "If there are two Zeroed-" Lucas began. "We have to assume there are more," Will finished for him. "Ooh! There are!" Kirby said. Everyone looked at him. "What?" Nancy asked, sounding extremely serious. "Heather..." El said quietly. Everyone's eyes shifted from Kirby to her. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming... bad screams," El said.
"What's a good scream?" Lucas asked. "Oh no," Kirby moaned, as he put his nubs on his head in dread, horrified at the idea of going down that Polof-hole again. "Max said-" El began in an attempt to answer Lucas, with Max mercifully cutting her off with "Doesn't matter."
"I'm sorry, I'm lost. Who is Heather?" Nancy asked. "She's a lifeguard at the pool," Max answered, sounding grateful for the change of subject. "Heather Holloway?" Nancy asked gravely. Oh no, Kirby thought. That must mean she and Jonathan know something, and it can't be good.
Kirby's suspicions seemed to be true, as Nancy and Jonathan looked at each other after the kids nodded in positive confirmation to Nancy's question, and said "Tom," in unison.
A/N: https/youtu.be/xjphfRnyGoc
Aaaaaannnnd scene. I was originally going to include the rest of the Hawkins crew's part in this episode, but this chapter was getting long, so that's where we'll be heading next time! Look forward to some revelations, chats between quarreling lovers, more Kirby/Jonathan/Nancy character interactions, and another (this time gory) showdown between our two favorite eldritch abominations on the next episode of KIRBY AND ZERO INTERFERE WITH THE PLOT OF STRANGER THINGS!
In all seriousness, though, I hope you guys enjoyed, despite how short this chapter may have been. Remember to please feed my starving author soul with reviews that tell me what you think about the way this is going, how the chapter was, how I can improve, or all three, it really motivates me to get chapters out sooner. By the way, the moment where Mike calls Kirby nice and Kirby mean-mugs him is a reference to the tutorial in Kirby Super Star, where the narrator calls Kirby a "jolly fellow" and Kirby responds by making a face at the player. You should watch a short clip of the tutorial to see what I'm talking about; it's cute.
Anyway, have a great day or night, and as always, I will see you guys...
Next time...
