Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
Elfilin floated over to the front door at the foyer the next morning. The small chinchilla pushed it open just as Vesa emerged from the dining hall with a cup of coffee in her hands. Her eyes lit up as she saw Kirby waiting at the steps.
"Oh!" Elfilin chirped, waving his paw, "morning, Kirby!"
"Hi!" Kirby waved his arm back at the small chinchilla.
"Vesa was learning to make pancakes this morning," Elfilin pointed out, "you want some?"
"Poyo!" Kirby jumped up and down.
Vesa smiled as Kirby locked eyes onto her.
"Well, come on over," Vesa beckoned, "there's plenty to go around."
Vesa led Kirby and Elfilin into the dining hall. While the pink puffball served himself some pancakes, Vesa went to sit back down next to Fecto Elfilis. They both shared a glance as they each took a bite of their own pancakes. She took note her partner had been trying to get back to eating regularly, almost as if they wanted to fit into the family structure the Mage Sisters and Hyness had better.
When was the last time Elfilis spoke with Fransisca, anyway? Maybe they should figure out a time to hold their next therapy session. When Elfilin and Kirby sat down nearby with their breakfast, they wasted no time as they started eating.
"So how are you doing?" Elfilin asked.
"Poyo!" Kirby answered, "papa training poyo!"
"That's interesting. I'm glad to see you're finally getting a proper education in sword fighting," Elfilis glanced over, "I recall that you had obtained a knock off copy of his power and skills."
Kirby gave Elfilis a confused look.
"Poyo?"
Elfilin placed his paw behind his head.
"Well," Elfilin told Kirby, "I had a magic lesson yesterday."
"It went well all things considered; not as well as I hoped, but still a good result," Elfilis added, "it's likely he doesn't have my magical affinity. I doubt you particularly care about the specifics however."
Elfilin twitched his ears as he took a bite out of his pancakes. Likewise, Kirby picked up a whole pancake with his fork and gobbled it up. Vesa raised her eyebrows at that sight. Elfilis, on the other hand, simply ate slowly in a polite manner. Their tail swayed as the sweetness from the syrup gave an odd sensation. Well, the taste of things weren't as horrifically strong as it used to be. Still, it was an improvement from several months ago.
"I wonder what got Kirby inspired to take up training," Vesa pondered.
"Poyo," Kirby tried to explain, "Squeaks poyo, Kracko poyo."
"Honestly, I personally would've expected you to take things seriously sooner," Elfilis commented, "from what I understand at one point, you even got cut into four separate copies by Meta Knight's darker counterpart from the Dimensional Mirror…or that time the entire world was apparently turned into string and cloth. I'm sure there are other examples. Had you taken your training seriously things like those events might not have even happened. Had you been able to use a sword like Meta Knight or to a similar level of natural skill, and carried a blade with you, then the first event might not have happened, as you could have bested him in a duel, or at least held him off well enough to not get refracted into four copies."
Kirby simply narrowed his eyes at Elfilis, his expression hinting at not being amused. He then went back to eating another pancake. Elfilin locked eyes onto his larger fragment for a moment before he shrugged.
"Well," Elfilin assured Kirby, "I'm sure we'll train together sometime, right?"
"Poyo?" Kirby paused.
"Experiencing combat against physical weapons is a skill any mage should endeavor to learn. All too often mages fall in battle because they don't know how to deal with close quarters combat, or panic when they are forced into a physical confrontation. So it would be a valuable learning experience."
Elfilis took a sip of their tea.
"While I'm sure Kirby has plenty of experience fighting mages or other ranged attackers, it would still be good for him to pick up the skill naturally for sword combat," they continued, "learning to use a blade to deflect projectiles is a good technique to learn. Most magic can be deflected by blades as long as the spell is a single object and not a constant beam or explosion of some kind. Things like magical energy spheres are commonly reflected back at mages. It can quickly become a game of hot potato as a mage and fighter deflect the magic orb back at each other until one of them is taken out or thinks to move out of the way. Surprisingly, a few mages or fighters remember that's an option."
Vesa thought over what her partner said as she scratched her head.
"We do have training dummies available, right?" Vesa reminded them.
Elfilis nodded.
No sooner did Vesa step out of the dining hall after breakfast than she heard the doorbell ring. She dashed across the foyer and opened the front door, noticing Marx and Magolor standing outside.
"Oh," Vesa blurted, "morning, Magolor. What are you and Marx doing here?"
Magolor clapped his hands together.
"Hi!" Marx interrupted, "do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savio—"
Magolor pulled the jester's hat over his eyes and stuffed his bowtie into his mouth. Vesa gave a blank stare as Marx tripped and fell backwards, struggling to free himself. He soon sprouted his wings and used them to pull his hat up and his tie out of his mouth.
"Sorry about that," Magolor sighed, "now where was I?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Vesa spotted Kirby and Elfilin emerging from the dining hall.
"Go on," she persuaded.
"Is Kirby here?" Magolor asked, "we checked his house, but he wasn't home so we thought to check here."
Vesa glanced over her shoulder. Upon cue, Kirby sprinted towards the front door. Vesa took a step back as the pink puffball waved his arms.
"Hi!" Kirby chirped.
Swaying his tail side to side, Elfilin stared curiously as Elfilis entered the foyer.
"Hi, Kirby!" Magolor smiled, "mind if we chat for a bit?"
Kirby nodded.
"Poyo?" Kirby asked the floaty mage.
"You know I actually haven't been told my lines yet," Marx reminded, straightening his bowtie, "so I have no idea."
Elfilin floated over to the front door, stopping midair next to Vesa's left.
"Well," Magolor mentioned, "remember Susie?"
Kirby blinked twice.
"Poyo," Kirby answered, "poyo?"
"Well, apparently," Magolor explained, rubbing the bottom of his face with a gloved hand, "she has been working on something she wanted your help with. I think it has something to do with those robot things that you ended up fighting when you were helping me get the parts for the Lor back. Like those floaty mechanical creatures. I think she was fiddling with them and wanted to see if you could get a new copy ability from them now."
"Oh yeah," Marx interrupted, "that's right, I remember now! Aren't you in serious debt to her now over the whole theme par—"
Magolor cut the jester off before he could finish his sentence.
"Shush," Magolor scolded, glaring at him.
Magolor slowly glanced back at Kirby.
"Don't worry about that," Magolor assured, "he was talking about something else."
Kirby placed his arm behind his round head.
"Poyo?" Kirby insisted, "poyo poyo?"
"Nothing too extreme," Magolor clarified, "she just wants to test if she can create artificial copy abilities. Apparently, the fact that a Waddle Dee was able to manage it irritated her and she wanted to take a crack at it to see if she can do the same. To be fair, it was using exotic biomaterial and the soul of uh…"
Magolor made a brief glance at Elfilis, who stared down at him with a slightly annoyed expression in their eyes.
"A tall and irritated looking squirrel!" Marx chimed in.
Vesa grimaced while Elfilis twitched their feelers.
"Marx, can you not?" Vesa grumbled as she facepalmed.
Elfilin and Kirby shared glances.
"So," Elfilin asked, "what do you think?"
Kirby took a moment before he nodded at Magolor.
"Poyo!" Kirby answered, "poyo!"
"I wish I couldn't, but being blessed with this kind of wit," Marx rambled, "it's my job to share it with the world! Kind of like how I almost shared my iron fisted rule with the world before Kirby—"
Magolor once again cut him off by placing his gloved hand on his mouth.
"One, you don't have hands, so that analogy doesn't work," Magolor reminded, shaking his boyfriend back and forth, "two, you didn't have a plan beyond wishing to rule Popstar, other than to cause as much chaos as possible. Three, stop trying to mess with the planet busting super weapon!"
Once the jester started getting dizzy, Magolor released his grip and returned his gaze to Kirby.
"Anyway…we can leave in a few hours if you guys are ready," Magolor continued, "I'll bring the Lor around and we can all leave to go see Susie at Haltmann's head offices. I think they actually set up a location here in Popstar, but I don't think it's well staffed. I'm pretty sure it's just here so Susie can say to any investors that they're doing work here."
Vesa placed a finger on her chin and tilted her head.
"Elfilis?" Vesa paused.
"Yes?"
Vesa closed her eyes for a brief moment, recalling the day Whispy Woods hosted the scavenger hunt.
"Are you thinking of meeting Susie?" she mentioned.
"It's certainly on my mind," Elfilis nodded, glaring at the jester, "I would prefer to meet in private, however. I don't trust the Jester to not interfere."
Vesa shuddered as Marx stared at her partner. She quickly snapped out of her thoughts and gazed into Elfilis's eyes.
"In that case," Vesa proclaimed, "I'd also like to come along."
Vesa didn't hesitate to grab her coat, scarf and boots before she followed Kirby, Elfilin and Elfilis out of the tower. Crossing the field, they met up with Marx and Magolor at the gangplank to the Lor Starcutter.
"Well, go on," Magolor beckoned, "what are you waiting for?"
Kirby led Elfilin, Vesa and Elfilis up the gangplank and made their way to the bridge. Elfilis floated up towards a shelf near the ceiling and began to settle in. Elfilin floated after his sibling to join them, perching on their head. Vesa and Kirby sat down in some nearby seats while Marx and Magolor entered the ship. The floaty mage glided towards the main terminal. He started typing as he brought out the coordinates on display. Without warning, Marx started snickering as his eyes began rotating in his own head in opposite directions. Irritated, Magolor glanced over his shoulder.
"Marx," Magolor groaned, "can you knock it off? I'm trying to concentrate!"
Kirby stood up and toddled towards the jester, waving his arm at him to get his attention.
"What can I do for ya?" Marx asked.
"Poyo poyo?" Kirby clamored, "poyo?"
Marx raised his eyebrows upon hearing that question.
"Ooh, sure!" he crooned.
While Marx rummaged through his pocket dimension, Magolor pressed a few more buttons on the console. Soon enough, the Lor Starcutter lifted off the ground and took off into space. Marx pulled out a board game and sat down to play with Kirby. Elfilin watched as he swayed his tail side to side.
"Hey, Elfilis?" Elfilin blurted, "uh, this is a bit of an awkward question, but…what exactly is our relationship? Are you like my big brother? My dad? I've been thinking about it a lot and I don't really know what to think."
Elfilis gave their smaller fragment a puzzled look.
"I will be honest, I'm not entirely certain either," they admitted, "until recently, I had been considering you as a splintered fragment of myself. But now, we're almost entirely two separate entities, so I suppose it's technically more accurate to call me your father in a way…"
Elfilin blinked twice as he glanced down at Vesa, who pulled a book out of her pocket bangle as she began to study healing magic.
"In that case," Elfilin pondered, "would Vesa…be considered my mom?"
Elfilis immediately blushed.
"I suppose she could be if she wanted that kind of relationship," Elfilis stammered, "things like this are…difficult. My own father is also sort of your father. Or maybe he would be a grandfather? This is a bit complicated…"
Elfilin sighed, yet he lifted himself off Elfilis's head and nuzzled their cheek. The small chinchilla giggled when his larger fragment returned the gesture.
The flight continued on for a few hours until a space station came into sight. Elfilis peered out the port window, holding Elfilin in one arm as he slept. While Magolor guided the Lor Starcutter closer to its destination, Vesa closed the book in her hands and stashed it into her pocket bangle. She watched as Elfilis descended from the ceiling. Likewise, Kirby stood up and stretched his limbs before he walked towards a nearby port window. Moving closer and closer to the space station, the Lor Starcutter entered its hangar and touched down.
"Ok, everyone," Magolor announced, "we're here!"
When Magolor opened the door leading outside, Elfilis propped Elfilin onto their shoulder before heading out the door, taking care to duck as they crossed the gangplank even when their large ears brushed along the sides of the door. Vesa and Kirby followed close behind as they set foot into the hangar. When Magolor and Marx emerged from the ship, Vesa took a moment to survey her surroundings. Ina way, it reminded her of a warehouse, with forklifts moving supplies from place to place and loading them onto other ships. Small drone-like people glided around in the air as they went about their tasks.
"Oh," Magolor blurted, looking up at the drones, "those are the guys you fought when you were helping me! We were just talking about them."
"Poyo," Kirby agreed, glancing upwards at the drone who waved at him.
Magolor led the others through the hangar until they reached a large sliding door at the other side. They waited until it slid open, where Vesa spotted a vague humanoid with detached hands, blue eyes and long pink hair.
"It's a pleasure to see you again, Kirby," she greeted.
Recognizing Susie, Kirby's eyes lit up as he scampered towards her with excitement.
"Poyo!" he chirped, waving his hand.
Elfilis noticed some parts of the woman's body seemed mechanical. They suspected Susie might've sustained injuries in the past and had new synthetic parts grafted onto her body. They weren't actually that familiar with this style of technology, really. Perhaps Zan would look into this tech later?
"It's nice to see you too," Susie smiled, clasping her hands together, "I have quite a few tests scheduled for us to do!"
Magolor floated towards Susie, who handed him a bill with the word [VOID] stamped on it in red. Vesa gave the floaty mage and the jester a confused look as they turned to leave.
"Now," Susie continued, "I've been working on a Copy Ability based on the powers of some of our robots that we make here and want to see if you can make use of it."
Susie walked back into the building, gesturing to the others to follow.
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