Chapter/Tale 6: Citrine & Game Over: Act 6

Author's Note Intro:

Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the last two chapters! I'm really feeling it right now and so we're at the main event of Chapter 6- the fight against Haltmann Works Company itself and something very interesting will happen at the end as well! Before that, again, I'm not so sure about my current situation at the moment, but it won't be too much of a hindrance once I find my way around it somehow. So yeah, I think that's really all I could think of saying; it was rather meaningless. So, enjoy the story!

Somewhere near the Access Arc Zero…

"Let us go already!" Cried out Yae.

Ensnared by two giant hands that anyone could mistake them for Master and Crazy Hand now in a spherical energy prison, the group of allies which they were unwittingly referred to as the Star Assholes were whisked away in a flash, carried over to the massive courtyard of the Access Ark Zero for their unknown fate. Mechanization, most likely?

It does seem plausible, but perhaps capturing them was there at the moment to that ambush and nothing else. Either way, their detainment was a result of having no interferences with the robot army. So what better way to do it than to thin the numbers this way? As such, escape was inevitable from the inside, only forcing them for seeking outside help, which they're not gonna get in about a few minutes or so.

"It's pointless, Yae," sighed Dinah. "Everyone's in a place where they can't just stop what they're doing to come help us. And I'm more worried about Meta being taken from me by that charming secretary! He's mine; I'll kill her!" Her affection for Meta Knight were as split as her two-faced angel/demon personas with one heart, the demon side was just trigger happy while the angel was emotionally frantic as she switched unwittingly between them.

"Er, actually, Meta hates Susie," Bandana Dee countered, keeping in mind of the two rivals clashing for Meta Knight- an Angelmon and an Emomelion he's somewhat acquainted with. "With a passion, may I add, a murderous feeling mixed with PSTD after she mechanized him- twice. That was the only time we've personally witnessed Meta actually having something to be traumatized of publicly known. By the time they're through with her, I'm betting he'll throw some coffee in her face and make a joke about true gender equality just for fun. 20 bucks if that happens."

"Deal!" Betted Dedede. "I'll throw in an extra 50 if he repeats that specific line as well!"

"Are you serious right now?!" Merina groaned. "We could be in great danger right now, but the only danger I see is being literally cramped with you all at once in embarrassing positions! Ew, my shirt's already drenched in sweat!"

"Get over it, Merina," huffed Adena. "We're stuck like this until help comes somehow. We're lucky nothing critical has happened yet or else we'd be dead meat. Just endure it for a while, okay?"

"How can you say that when your boobs are squashing my face? Aqua's literally sitting on Bandana Dee and he's betting on something meaningless with Dedede lying sideways, Callie's on my leg with Falala on her chest, Yae's got the most room except for her leg chaining us all together like a pole somehow while her heel's about to slip off and poke Dedede in the eye, Dinah's hand is groping both my boobs and Aqua's while Fololo's cramped between her own boobs and now neither of us can move a muscle! You call that a thing to endure?! It's just bloody fanservice like what happened the last time!" Merina groaned.

Bet you're wondering how they ended up this way, huh? The hands got tired of holding them as if they were action figures, so they erected a sphere prison made of Haltonium electrical energy and popped them inside while shrinking the ball so it won't slip off easily with resistance from the inside; that's why they were like this now. Haltonium energy is hard to break when it's channeled this way on the inside, so only an overload can diffuse it. Until then, it's just like fanservice.

"Don't give me any reminders," shuddered Aqua, blushing red. "Are you okay, Bandana Dee? Am I too much on you?" Well, she is kinda on his back though.

"I'm fine, kinda. But we all won't be if nothing's done about our situation right now. From the looks of it, those hands are carrying us across the courtyard, a safe distance over the ground. If we end up breaking out now, we'll be dead meat by then and get captured by the army of robots here. So we better get ready for anything that could possibly happen. Yae, you've got the most room being on top, can you see what's ahead?" Bandana Dee asked.

Yae glances ahead to where she could see while her chained dangling leg stiffened the others, her heel desperately clinging on for dear life, only a few feet higher over Dedede's head. "We've just been around the courtyard this entire time. Nothing major to see at all but the two hands carrying us. Ah, my heel slipped off." A little bump in the sphere was enough for Yae to lose her heel off her foot chaining everybody together.

The pointy end of her heel almost stabbed Dedede's eye but missed and impaled the sphere's bottom. "Jesus, girl! What is with your obsession with knife-wielding heels? I ain't gonna lose my eye over that. I'll get that for ya," The king cautiously retrieved the shoe that was implanted with different ninja weapons able to fit and popped it back on with his free arm the best he could. "Too bad that didn't kill me."

"Ah, sorry Dedede," Yae apologized, her heel secured a little bit. "It's a habit of mine to keep weapons on my body for worst-case scenarios; a technique I made myself using my powers which I can control. I wear high heels for that reason because I mainly use my legs a lot than yesterday and I can't help it if they're so sexy and strong."

"Guess that explains why your heel made a dent in Monovoida's face then," Dedede thought back.

"It's a good thing that it was just my heel, because you might suffer more than just an eye poke if the mace stuffed inside my cleavage fell instead," Yae said. "Sometimes they slip out whenever I'm stuck like this, so that's kinda the downside to it. Don't worry, even if it does fall, I can actually catch things with these for a long time, so nothing to be afraid of, right?"

"Well, ain't I just a lucky bastard right now?"

"What a bummer," said Fololo, whose voice was muffled between Dinah's airbags, unable to move up his body because of Yae's leg. "How long do they want us trapped like this for? At this rate, we'll all die of suffocation or suffer an exhausting cramp before mechanization or whatever the heck they plan to do with us anyway, whatever comes first. I wasn't imagining my sudden death to be like this at all."

"Yeah, and I never thought we'd be in this situation from the beginning," added Falala, also bound by Yae's leg and squeezed between Callie's boobs. "Somehow we should've seen this coming considering everything we've been through in the past, curses and all that stuff in bizarre positions, like this one. Sorry, Callie."

Knowing Callie, she gets cozy in whatever situation she is unless real danger comes. Falala couldn't get up as Yae's leg also pinned her to stay smack in the middle of her breasts and she didn't care much to go tsundere at times like this, even if Falala was squeezing her chest by accident. "It's fine, really. Probably by the end of all of this if you do get to keep your human form, you'll definitely grow a pair like mine one day or all the other princesses, except Kaila of course. Well, if you and your other half decides to be one again," she meowed, rubbing her hair. "You are somewhat Demon Beasts, after all."

"Well, he does feel really soft though," said Dinah, lusting into daydreaming. "He reminds of Meta; ah, those were the days…"

"And now here comes the cramps," moaned Fololo. "Called it."

"This isn't the time to be talking about whose boobs feel nice, girls!" Merina shouted, although she wanted to brag about her appeal in Chapter 3, kept real of their standing. "We wouldn't be like this if that secretary hadn't captured us as her reassurance! There has to be some way out of this prison and those hands can't keep doing this that long!"

"Merina! We've tried everything, but Haltonium energy can only be broken on the outside unless someone on the inside can do the job! And Kirby and the others already have a huge problem on their hands! Who else could break the barrier we're in right now?!" Adena shouted.

"Hey, someone's coming up our way! And it looks like…?" Dedede pointed as precisely as he could to allocate the others to where he was pointing. A drop shadow was moving between the sunlight and whatever was left of it, but it was clear enough to witness a figure making its move like a new born hero. That flash of neon electricity bolted instantly and before anyone could even react, it passed right through the sphere, dispersing the energy and causing it to short fuse, destroying the barrier entirely.

Those ensnared in the trap were in free-fall too suddenly, crashing only mildly on the ground without a scratch but an oof instead. Finally having been freed from the unintended fanservice demise, they all picked themselves off the ground… although it took them a while to do so due to the position they were in before. Bandana Dee couldn't move because Aqua landed on him and she tried to get him up without realizing she was on him. Callie always landed on her feet swiftly while holding Falala between her boobs and sitting down gently for her, while Dinah floated down holding Fololo against her boobs gently down until it was safe for them. Adena crashed on Merina and Yae stepped on Dedede accidentally and quickly pulls him out after that, her heel popping off again; good thing the knives weren't triggered.

"Ow, that sucked! Why do your legs hurt so much and be sexy at the same time; what are your legs made of? Ninjas shouldn't be wearing high heels anyway; it costed me almost my eye but also put out my lower back pain, so thanks?" Dedede said, giving Yae her heel again.

"Thanks again, Dedede," Yae popped her heel back on completely and a smooch on the cheek.

"Never mind that, how did this sphere break out in the first place?" Merina coughed.

"That would be me, you guys," A familiar voice called out to the group, and they turned around to witness their rescuer standing in front of them. "Seriously, I was not expecting this to happen at all; you were lucky I was able to manage everything then and a bit of time to get you out of there."

"Espera?!" They shouted. "What are you doing here?!"

"A long story handled conveniently at a cliché moment in a few minutes. But spare the questions for later! We can't idle around here any longer; reinforcements are on their way as we speak the moment I broke you all out! Quick version- those robots are going to attack the city in a few minutes, and I have something else I need to take care of right now. I need you guys to join the rest of the spy forces at Haltonia and fend off the enemy robots as long as you can until the leader inevitably rises and Kirby's party goes against it! You all have those headsets from before with you, right?" Espera explained, questioning them at the last sentence.

"Yeah, we still have them," answered Aqua. "Glad they don't break easily to pressure while we were in there."

The Robobot Armor that was with Espera suddenly attacked the group seemingly, only to actually have defended them from a surprise attack sourcing directly from the two hands. With a snap, the alarms blared and wailed with a loud cry, signaling an emergency situation. "What was that?!"

"Crap, they're calling for backup now!" Shouted Espera. "All of you, get to Haltonia right now and help the forces fight off the robot army! I'll deal with them on my own, I've got a special delivery to make! GO!"

Even though the others didn't completely agree to this, the predicament of their current standing urged them it wasn't the time for discussion and only for trust in their ally and time for action.

"Got it, Espera! You better not die on us after this!" Adena answered. "Let's get moving, you guys!"

"Right!" The others complied, reluctantly escaping the Access Ark by force. A flood of robots came onto the scene after that to surround the remaining trespassers on company grounds- Espera and the Robobot Armor. She merely glanced at the numbers that obviously exceeded her like a bunch of tiny ants at her heels. The enemies were filled with an arrogant sense of dominating pride hardcoded into their data, reflecting the haughtiness of their creator who is possessed.

"To be honest, I'm not a fan of this particular cliché, but it does do any protagonist good when they get to show off their stuff. But anyway, I really don't have time for being the damsel in distress right now, so since you all insist on getting in my way, how about we have some fun?" Espera exhaled a smirk and a leering eye as neon electricity jolted around her. In a blink of an eye, more than 1,000 robots out of 10,000 were instantly reduced to scrap metal- literally before a second ever converted; surprising the rest of the robots.

"Surprised, aren't ya? Just because I'm a video game/anime fanatic professor doesn't mean I'm that defenseless! In fact, a real fan of those things knows all there is when it comes to this sort of ordeal!" That's right, Espera has powers; hers is called Neonatricity, a rare type of power under the thunder affinity category. Each known ability has different types of usages that many are not aware of, just like the Copy Abilities having more variety for one single ability. There are different kinds of fires and such, right? I'll get to that later. Neonatricity allows Espera to freely manipulate all sorts of electricity at her will, a power she discovered in an accident that she survived. Neonatricity was actually a myth before it was confirmed as real, the only ability that can counter Haltonium Energy. That's how Espera was able to destroy the sphere trapping the allies and how she simply took down the robots in a flash.

"Heh, wish I could play some more, but I've got better things at hand, so I'll make this quick," Espera declared, striking at sheer will, thrashing every robot in her way really fast until the last one fell to scrap. The two hands retreated at the time being through a terminal inside the Ark, and with the Robobot Armor, she went in pursuit after them, scaling the massive ark. "All right, now to get you sent to your buddy and put an end to it all! Hopefully Kirby and the others are doing their best at dealing with her…"

Now Back to the Fight…

"This humiliation will not be tolerated any longer! You all shall be eliminated for the embarrassment you've allowed on me; I'LL CRUSH YOU NATIVES!" Howled President Susie.

Puppets to the Puppeteer- 34th World Boss Battle (Phase/Act 2)

Party VS Susie, New President of the Haltmann Works Company (The Wicked Company- Kirby Planet Robobot)

Boss Description: After the tragic death of the former president once Star Dream was destroyed, his secretary took his place to continue the company's name and legacy. Susanna Patrya Haltmann or preferably Susie is the name of Haltmann's secretary who is actually his daughter, the one he was forced to forget about because of the consequential usage of Star Dream after an accident whisked her away in Another Dimension. After being forced to relive that accidental childhood trauma the second time post-Star Allies but overcame it with some help, she sought answers to the accident that day while desperately trying to avoid making the same mistake as her predecessor. Unfortunately, her worst nightmares are about to become reality once more right now…

President Susie offers your total annihilation! You know what to do!

Fighting Conscious Victims of Dark Matter

Oh, one more thing! This is rare in some cases, but just as Kaila mentioned before, the real Susie is conscious under Dark Matter's puppetry. Although you've never had to deal with that, this time the best word of advice is to avoid excessive spamming of attacks if the victim is conscious- they may be able to break out on their own and end the fight early for your sake to avoid worst-case scenarios like a complete last minute save from a party knockout or unconsciously manipulate the puppeteer to lower their guard in various ways. Be careful how you attack- it also affects the victim mentally and the puppeteer's power multiplies if the victim faints from a high-tier skill of your current level, taking reasonable amount of turns or minutes for them to recover again; varies on the victim, though. Lay off the habit of spamming your strongest attack until the end, okay? I know you're gonna do it once we start- I've been watching you; don't risk that. The penalty's way worse, trust me. Just don't spam your strongest attack every turn and you'll be fine… I think. Good luck! I'm watching you.

Star Dream lit up for a brief moment in the background as the mech was indeed crafted by it, signaling a hint at some sort of link between them. Susie was ready to rumble against her own friends… well, Meta does hate her still, so I suppose he doesn't count as a friend, more like bitter frenemies. Kirby looked at her as someone he really didn't want to fight against without much of a choice. Although the others were in this as well, to me it felt like something personal mainly yet she is one of the reasons why we even escaped the Halberd. I knew I couldn't back down, even if I wanted to.

If only we didn't have to beat the crap out of whoever's possessed by Dark Matter… it's still the reality of now, so we just have to deal with it. I'll just remind myself thought not to fatally hurt her too much if the real Susie is conscious and fighting her way on the inside. I've heard that's a rare case in the history of possession for someone to be completely conscious yet imprisoned; nonetheless, in our standing, there's no telling what could happen if we did that. I think it'd do us all better to not go that trigger happy on her while not holding back at the same time.

"Alright, now we've got handle this very carefully- and Aege is gonna pounce in 3… 2… 1," Kirby spoke, anticipating the ongoing cliché the last few times. Aege strikes again with his time abilities, attempting to attack the president.

"Aege, what the hell?!"

"First come, first served!" Aege shouted, directly bouncing off the mech and quickly dropped down, dashing forward and rushing his usual spam of attacks. "Here it comes! Take this!" Aege rapidly struck the mech head-on. "How's that?! Eh?!"

"An idiot you truly are, even with time manipulation," she laughed; Aege's attacks are strong enough to break metal, but not a single scratch was seen at all! "You cannot hope to win with that ego of yours!" Susie swiped the mecha's arm to whack him aside, forcing Aege to bounce back from the blow.

"Man, I really gotta stop doing that," He shook his head, turning to us. "So, what were you saying earlier?"

"If you were paying attention," Karly answered annoyed. "You would've known that the real Susie is conscious and fighting; attacking recklessly would only screw us over, so we have to be careful!"

"And you're suggesting that when her mech can't be damaged? I can plainly tell that just by direct contact with Flashback; not only that, it's also been upgraded to counter any ability we throw at her with the data gathered from Starlight. That president knows everything there is about us!" Aege explained, then winked his eye afterwards, which confused us as a whole.

"For an idiot, you're quite perceptive with that skill of yours. Even with that knowledge, none of you have the means of defeating me in this state!" Susie laughed. "Don't think this will be such an easy fight!" Inputting commands, the mech hopped forward at us twice before extending the third jump up high above and came slamming down at the party, who all evaded in time, but couldn't escape the violet shockwaves that shot us back.

After recovering with a backflip, everyone stood their ground then. "Not even a few minutes and she's already handling all 14-15 of us here! We have to break through somehow without fatally hurting her!" I reminded everyone. "So whatever you do, don't charge in mindlessly!"

"Tell that to Meta Knight," Niva refuted, gesturing at the pissed off Meta Knight charging swiftly but not mindlessly at the president. "He's gone all out."

"Oh, so you're approaching me? Typical Meta, I knew you couldn't let it slide anyway!" Susie cackled, firing those small drones that were floating around earlier at Meta Knight.

"Listen, you cheeky brat of a dead daddy's girl," Meta shot back, hacking each shot drone in half with ease. "I will not hesitate to go Mach Tornado on you, and I can't beat the crap out of you without getting closer."

"Ohohoho, then come as close as you wish, blueberry. I'll make a mecha out of you again after I'm through skinning you alive!" Susie floats back with the suit's arms slowly winding up like a wind-up toy and then charged like a spinning propeller. "The rest of your friends can join in too!"

"Let's get her!" Kazela shouted. Meta, already engaged against Susie, spun himself around to perform Mach Tornado, and that was in a literal sense as well. The two clashed against each other, trying to shred the other like a game of spinning tops, grinding and bouncing off every time. The force impact was enough to blow anyone away. At one point, the force wind came to a struggle impasse with Meta trying to hack the arms of the mech with Susie, it was like his rage was driven and out of his control.

"Tch! Not even a dent…!" Meta growled. He was shoved back by Susie, who spun her mech's arms again and this time while she leapt into the air and shot drill-shaped bolts from the mech straight onto the arena, her mech's arms detached and were flung like a giant boomerang to increase the pressure. Although Meta could easily deflect them, those drillbits were homing and were aiming directly at him; one curved behind his back by surprise before he could react.

"Smash Punch!" Just in time, Knuckle Joe fired his attack to cancel out the drillbit. "Come on, Meta! Snap out of it! This ain't the time to be raging like that!"

"You're not the only one who has a bone to pick with her," Zea agreed, using Geospark to fry the drones around her at once.

"At least show you still have some sanity left in you," Sirica sighed, slashing more annoying drones as well. "We'd be the ones having to look after you in the end!" Kirby, Adeline, Niva and Karly parried against the giant arm blades at once whereas the others dealt with the swarm of drones in the way. The giant arms were reflected and were caught back by the sender and then thrown back, this one charged with magenta electricity, something I've definitely seen before. It did come at us really fast, though. I managed to catch the blade arms without getting shocked or a hassle.

A thought came across my mind. "Aege did say that Susie knows everything about our respective abilities in the game before and upgraded her mech to counter them. But if I remember correctly, there is another way to destroy Haltonium weapons without the use of the anti-counterpart to Haltonium Energy- the aura of jewels! And to prove that theory…" I concentrated some energy and transferred it onto the arm blades before hurling it back at Susie. "There, that should do it. All I need now is timing."

I don't know for sure, but it seems like Kirby already had picked up on the little trick I had just set in motion. "Oh, so that's what it's also weak to as well, huh? All we need is one direct hit and let the rest take place. We can't let her catch on to our act as well, so for this time only we'll use a much stronger attack!"

I nodded, unable to tell if the real Susie could handle it, but what other choice do we have? I'm hoping it doesn't cost us too much this one time use. With Susie still unaware of the trick, she was dealing with a persistent Meta as she clashes all of his blade movements with high-tech telekinesis blades. While she was occupied with him, I unleashed Scorching Fireball behind him once he struggled against her in that hold. He quickly jumped out of the way at the last second it'd look like he'll get fried, leaving Susie with no time to react.

She could only block the fireball that time, probably thinking she was still invincible then. Surely that was supposed to be the case, but I guess expectations can easily be broken by surprise, because the mech took on a direct hit instead of being invulnerable to it. And if that wasn't enough, it turns out the fireball was amplified by Kazela's howl without anybody's hearing notice! It was also followed up by Meta again with a direct swing that shot her back; considerable energy was evidently applied in that blow. By now, you could see incense marks and considerable damage smeared on the mech itself, along with purple electricity.

"That's impossible! I shouldn't have taken any damage from that attack!" Susie gritted her teeth, possibly reacting to the purple electricity swarming around her before her eyes flashed white before dark blue. "Damn, her resistance is slightly stronger! Not for long…"

"Invincible, my ass," scoffed Meta. "It doesn't matter what any object is made of, in the end they always rust or break instantly; there hasn't been a single thing or organism that ever came out without a scratch on them. Didn't think that through, did you?"

"Either that, or she's really that stupid to think she can handle a 15-against-1 fight," said Saito. "Only if you're a god, only if you're a god…"

"Feh, petty natives! You should know better than to think I'm going down like this! I will not be beaten again by the likes of you all again!" Susie's visor turned off, revealing an enraged visage before her entire color scheme changed again to a deep red and silver-white kind color mix, from herself to the mech's body. "Prepare to die!"

The enemy is enraged; victim resistance has risen by 50%! Initiating Phase Two! (Hakua/President Parallel Susie- Super Kirby Clash)

"Her entire body changed colors?!" Adeline gasped. "True Arena, anyone?" A nods of yes responded to those who knew about it.

"Wait, so this is like a normal thing in that gauntlet?" I asked. "But she's possessed by Dark Matter; I was expecting the color scheme to be black, purple and red or something."

Karly nodded. "Color schemes like this one indicates a harder version of the enemy you once fought before. The True Arena revives that once a crisis has been defeated; a parallel or tougher version of the enemy appears with a different color change and amplified attacks that'll throw you on edge, including a secret boss at the end of it all! Even Galacta Knight is always summoned in there for some reason!"

"Yeah, and the True Arena is the means by which all the secrets behind every crisis is revealed in more depth than the normal adventure depicted," added Kirby, looking a bit traumatized. "That's how we knew what happened to Haltmann in the first place before the madness started. We don't know where it came from or how it made itself possible, but it gains all the knowledge of everything and everyone whenever the galaxy is threatened."

"Either way, if that's the scheme planned for the arena, we may be in big trouble," Niva hissed. "Even the Nova race knows about it! And the fact that they used my own kind for their own ambitions, forcing Kirby to destroy them! I can't blame them anyway, it's that mother computer who's at fault!"

"Say, how long are you gonna keep talking? Let's get down to business," Susie hopped straight in the center of the arena, breaking the ground and formed a huge cube-shaped circle before floating upwards. Star Dream projected a screen from the yellow eye containing Citrine.

"Input command detected. Amplifying defenses, increasing voltage output on battle armor. Power has risen around 85%. Last Resort Override Program initiated."

The mech flashed once and glowered a clear magenta wave that pulsated around the body. "Alright then. You won't be feeling confident after this!" The mech's arms raised itself to a fork position, the fingers fumbling like a crazy hand, erecting as if it were blood spewing from the hand after a fresh cut golden idols that were shaped like herself as the arms rotated around the mech and bleeding tons of them at once.

"Oh crap- RUN!" Kirby shouted.

One by one, the idols plunged onto the ground, exploding with a field of electricity like icicles falling to impale its target. It was a marathon of running to survive the hail of idols falling down as we ran. Dashing around the circular arena, the last one blew up a huge blast that pushed us with that much force and voltage.

The hole in the middle reattached itself back to the surface level and Susie hovered in the background, erecting magenta spheres that were shot at us. Meta deflected each one without too much of a hassle and slashed sword beams in response. Because the data was revised, as expected, the output was it being rendered useless against the mech as it tanked the slashes. With that, everyone decided to open fire using bullets or energy attacks at her as she soars across the battlefield, swimming through the air like a mermaid.

"No good- she's tanked all of our attacks and dodging them like they were complete jokes!" Jodie shouted. "Is that all we can really do to the mech? Without that mech, she's defenseless!" More drones flew our way as we fired and dodged.

"Er, I wouldn't exactly say that," replied Kirby. "However, we do have to get rid of it somehow in that invincible state, and if we're reckless, it'll go against us." He jumped to avoid the shockwave.

"But Star Dream's the one managing her mech, right? Even so, it could also mean we'd have to destroy it as well," Adeline mentioned. "And I doubt it'd have any effect anyway to slow her down." She made a shield to defend against the drillbits in time.

"True, the mech may be invincible, but who said that the pilot was invulnerable as well?" Knuckle Joe suggested. "It's only the mech that's been giving us a bad time, we need to get rid of the pilot somehow!"

"Have you all not given up yet? Well, you definitely will once I set this into motion!" Susie laughed, suddenly her mech split into multiple different images of herself going real fast for the naked eye like Sonic the Hedgehog! Everyone tried firing at her, but without any way of telling which one's the real one, it was pointless as she also struck everyone from foreseeable yet unavoidable angles!

Star Dream made some beeping noises. "Mach 20 in current use right now. Output increased to 91%."

Niva was knocked down flat. "Great! None of us can compete with Mach 20! How are we supposed to get her now?!"

"You can't, Nova! Not even Aege here can strike me with his ability as I made sure to counter the use of time as well!" Susie laughed. "Only in your dreams can you ever hope of getting the deed done-!"

"Hey President! I've been meaning to keep quiet about this, but I've gotta ask," Shouted Kazela. "Why are you wearing pads to hide that flat chest of yours?! Even Espera's got better leverage than you do! Not even Meta would ever take a liking to that!" Everyone sweatdropped. Seriously, Kazela? A question like that would never- eh?

"W-wha-?! How dare you call mine fun-sized?! Don't get so cheeky just because of earlier that you were acting like a genius!" Susie squealed, thrown aback and flushing red, now at the edge of her mech in anger. "You little-!"

"She does have a point, though," Zeta goes along with Kazela. "Why settle about going for the fun-size when he can get the extra-large at a sweet deal, ridden of any charge?"

"Are you mocking me?! I don't care about that, I'd rather kill him than to- Keh?!" Susie inched closer to the edge, and without realizing it, her heel slipped on ice and before anyone saw it coming, the president actually came falling to the ground with a hard splat in the middle. "OOF!"

Kazela used Insult! It was super effective! Susie takes critical damage- physically, socially, and emotionally! Ha-ha-ha!

"Shut up, whoever said that!?" Susie shouted, still face-first to the ground. "I'll kill you!" For that to actually work, no one moved a muscle for a few moments and sweated even more. Just as when the awkwardness reached an impasse…

"NOW! KILL THAT PRESIDENT!" Everyone in an angry mob hollered with their weapons and rage as better substitutes than torches and pitchforks. Susie yelped on that instance, jumping back at Aege who was about to smash her even further into the ground. I don't think anyone expected her to be that quick on her feet to dodge; she was too quick to evade a close range position and even avoided every attack thrown by the group!

"How are you this quick?!" Meta growled, slashing at her in the meanwhile. I would have to guess the aftereffects of Mach 20 manifested her body in some way, or she was just hiding that since the last time of their encounters before. Regardless, that fact was giving Meta a hard time and to anyone trying to land a hit on her. She did act a bit cocky as she leapt backwards, but she left herself wide open from the back; she forgot about me.

"What the-?! Ack!" One blow sent her hurling back to the spot where she jumped from to be caught by the others and finally taking the damage she was supposed to take before quickly bouncing back away from the party, sliding back and halting with a sharp skid. Having that disadvantage or so it appears to be, Susie snaps her fingers when the others were about to jump her, and their attacks were dispelled by a high-tech energy shield infused with Haltonium, causing bolts to fly.

The shock contact actually paralyzed anyone that attacked the shields! I tried firing lasers at her, but the shields ended up neutralizing the beams. Without hesitating, Susie suddenly made her move and with the aftereffects of Mach 20 comes a complete takedown of everyone paralyzed by the shield, brutally saving Meta for last with a flurry of blows before a hard knuckle across the skull. Before the others could get up, an erected barrier collapsed around the others, disabling any escape.

"Everyone!" Kirby shouted.

It was only me, Kirby, Kazela, Niva, Karly, and Adeline that were left. Looks like she's not helpless without her mech after all, and just when we thought that was our best bet! Susie did appear to be losing control of herself with her mentality fighting back, but she does have the upper hand of control when magenta electricity circulated around her, raising her hand up in the air, seemingly gesturing something before pointing at us. The mech actually attacked instead, spinning itself vertically like a drill as the tip was energized and immediately sniped itself towards the middle of the arena, looping in the process and nailed right above where we were, forcing us to dodge the shockwaves. After that, it repeated the same thing bouncing around the area again.

However, the energy manipulating the mech must've started to waver and slow down because of Susie, being slowly restrained by another force in her cognitive state who was trying to take back the reigns like riding a horse. Susie hopped into her mech afterwards before the other five could attempt to lay a blow on her.

And then she whistles. "Huh? What is she doing?"

"Not this again," groaned Karly. "Here comes the missiles."

Out of nowhere, plasma-injected missiles flashed in a flash of electricity, ricocheting in streaks of magenta lines bouncing everywhere across the arena, positioning themselves into sight and orbit before launching their full-scale assault on the targets. They were coming in fast as well! I was about to counterattack when Kirby stopped me; actually, it was Terabyte that stepped in.

"Not so fast, I'll handle this cliché attack already; I was hoping they'd attack with something different anyway," He answered.

Spirit Attack: Godspeed Killuavolt! 5 Stars left!

"Well, here we go again- Godspeed Killuavolt!" With that, his stubby arms were infused with electricity, and he vanished in a flash, wiping out the missiles one by one but appearing to us as all at once. Before we knew it, Terabyte had rolled up every single one of them into one clump of energy. "Huh, that was easier than I thought. Oh well, take this." He sniped the ball with a flick of his stubby arm, striking the shooter directly and caused the mech to short out as it fell to the ground paralyzed with the pilot, stunned.

"Urk! You little jewel spirit! Still, it's gonna take more than just a paralysis skill to defeat- huh?" Susie's words were cut off when she noticed a shiny, glowing aura emitting from the arms of the mech that shone brighter with every second. "What the heck is this?! This couldn't be-!" Suddenly, the arms fell apart after a sudden series of little explosions and a surge of both magenta and white electricity coming from her body. "No, you're not getting out yet! I-I s-still h-h-have c-c-control over y-you!"

"Oops, I think I might've triggered someone's trap already," sweatdropped Terabyte. "My bad."

"That's fine, I was gonna- ACHOO!" I suddenly sneezed, intentionally yet unexpectedly pulling the trigger to the trap bomb on there. The aura started to flash rapidly until it reached the last second and then suddenly exploded, making us jump back once it did.

"KEEEEEYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Susie cried out, thrown into the air by the detonation and crashing into the ground, defeated. The barrier barricading the others dispelled on the spot, freeing them and rushing over to the fallen president.

President Susie has been defeated! Victory!

You gained 2300 experience points! You are now Level 37!

Health has extended to 1450! All stats rose by 145!

Item Retrieval: Haltonium Metal (Forgeable), Spark Crystals x10.

Next Level in 3000 experience points. (You only got half of the reward for this one time only).

You may wanna hold off on the celebration yet- it's not over!

"Wow, I didn't know you could actually detonate those bombs just by sneezing, Kaila," whistled Niva. "That's pretty weird, but a great concept as well. In either case, excellent job."

"Guess so," I shrugged, cautiously inspecting Susie from the distance. "But this is definitely weird; I wasn't expecting her to fall like that so suddenly, and just when we were halfway into the fight too, this happens. She's up to something, isn't she?"

"Ngh… h-how could I be beaten again, this many times in a row? As if those heroes in the kingdom weren't meddling troublesome enough… hah…" Susie turned out to be still conscious after that, dusting herself off like it was nothing although her posture says so otherwise. "Damn, I go through all of this trouble just to be handed over? You savages are something else, or maybe this girl's body is weaker than I calculated yet she's still has that much willpower to resist control…"

Meta was about ready to step in, yet once again this time, Kirby stopped him and took over. "Sorry, but I know the real Susie would never try to do this without an actual reason to revive a terrible incident of her life again. Listen, none of us wants to fight you, except Meta as usual, so it's not too late to end this madness. If you're really conscious after all of that, now is your chance to fight back before it's too late. Please, can't we end this already?" Everyone agreed to this as well.

"Y-you…" Susie gasped, lowering her merciless expression. The dark aura started to wade gradually. Her voice sounded like she was crying. "I… don't really… want that… I never really wanted any of that, not like this… I never expected to go through that all over again… I'm trying, I really am…"

Kirby smiled, holding out his hand. "It'll be alright, Susie. We're all here for you."

The president felt compelled to respond to his warm gesture as she slowly stretched out her hand. Her hand was about to touch his at the moment- but it stopped the moment they were gonna touch for a bizarre reason.

"Last Resort Override Initiated."

"I… I… h-help me-!" Susie suddenly cried out before a sudden change in the mood came about like an unexpected assassination.

"Huh?!"

"I. DON'T. NEED. YOUR. GODDAMN. PITY!"

She smacked his hand aside with a powerful force that threw him off guard and pushed him back to be caught by me. "Kirby! Are you okay?!"

"Never mind me! Susie, what's with that outburst just now?!" Kirby clutched his hand, glaring at Susie. The dark aura around her quickly regained control.

"I'll tell you what's my goddamn problem! The thought of your friendship is the one part I hate about you, Pinky! And I curse every primitive in existence that cherishes the gross power of friendship in the first place thinking the world could be better with that stupid bond! Don't try to sympathize with me when you've never experienced the despair yourself! Stupid warriors! You have no idea the amount of crap I went through! That's why friends won't ever be a thing once I eliminate that from this shitty world that doesn't care about anyone but itself! You're all fools for thinking I haven't fallen yet; despicable organic lifeforms."

"What the hell?! Where did all of that come from?! Why would she say that after Kirby offered her his help?!" Growled Knuckle Joe. "That's it, I'm gonna-!"

"Everyone, don't gang on her! Haven't you realized it yet? She didn't want to say that or even said that- I think I know what that Last Resort Override did after all," defended Kazela. "Why gang on the president when she's under the control of that pesky mother computer itself?"

"Star Dream?!" Karly gasped, turning her attention to the machine lying dormant behind the scenes. A bloodthirsty aura was flowing out from that machine, but that can't be possible; this one has it like it has a mind of its own!

"Ahem… Just as I suspected, her cognitive state was more formidable than I calculated, being almost released by a disgusting bond moment. No matter, I still have her under control. Certainly I didn't count on encountering a bunch of pests such as you lot to make it this far, and to think I would be burdened with the same rebellious natives that sought my complete destruction years prior. I'll never forget that time you ruined everything, Pinky. Why do you fight for a race of organisms that were born imperfect? The world could've had infinite prosperity, and yet you oppose me, a perfect machine made by the Ancients, rebooted by the former president, even when I had infused myself with the ark and combined with the Clockwork Star, you still defeated me then? Such feeble lives are not worthy of living," It spoke with power through Susie, whose eyes are completely yellow.

"Her eyes-! No, you didn't!" Kirby growled.

"Ah, so you still remember this little detail and caught on already," It replied. "Seems to be that I had underestimated your intelligence. That's right, she is chained in that exact state just like Max Haltmann was when she snatched the control helmet that day. Just as the lost princess has stated earlier before you fought, this was something also recreated using the game as the supplier. A plot involving robotics really suited the needs of the project; it would then be that interferences would occur in the same manner of the game's nature for those two years inside that world. Now that everything is under complete expectation, all that's left is to commit the execution- destroy this imperfect reality and merge both worlds into one. Everything is proceeding as planned; you shall witness the end of your reality at once. And say your final goodbyes with your ally here, because this will be the last time you'll ever see her again as my subordinate without your friendship. Enjoy your destruction- again. Commencing Deus ex Machina Program. Initiating transformation sequence. Activating Secret Code Vitality."

"Damn it, Star Dream's gonna decimate this planet!" I growled.

"YOU BASTARD MACHINE! YOU'RE DEAD!" Kirby furiously roared.

At once, the floor began to shake violently, throwing us off balance, steam hissed and poured out from the capsule containing the machine before it shattered as energy gathered around it while it was starting up for liftoff through the roof that had just opened itself automatically. A warning siren blared out around the company, maybe even the city itself! Kirby managed to withstand it all besides Susie, still fighting back for her consciousness, reaching out her hand only to be suddenly taken away by Star Dream with a rope of energy reeling her back, her hand caught by Kirby at the same time, but Star Dream triumphed over him and he lost his grip on Susie, tumbling on the ground before picking himself up that fast and dashing over to the center of the open roof, only to watch her being taken away.

"SUSIE!" Kirby screamed.

"NOOOOOOOO! HELP ME!" Susie cried until we couldn't hear her voice anymore. And just as a warning once he attempted to jump the way there, a huge bolt struck the ground before Kirby, throwing him back at once and rolling like a ragdoll until we all caught him.

"Kirby! Stay with me!" I cried as I healed him.

"I'm fine, guys. Thanks," He coughed. "But never mind me, we're in serious trouble right now! I'd never thought things would actually go that way at all!"

"That's right, Star Dream's got the city flooded with enemies from Starlight any minute now and reality's gonna be merged and erased if Star Dream get its way!" Karly mentioned. "But Kirby, you said something about her eyes, what about it that made you so afraid of?"

"Remember how Star Dream was activated by President Haltmann? After the helmet was snatched off, he lost control of his body and the machine took over him, using him to talk like it did with Susie. And now it's basically the 'Aw crap, here we go again' scenario. After that, we had no choice but to kill him along with the machine, and I don't wanna do the same to Susie either," he shook his head restlessly.

The terrible thought struck my mind. "Hold on, did you say that the overuse of Star Dream caused the erasure of Haltmann's memories and his soul gradually? Are you saying-?!"

"Star Dream's most likely to drain Susie of her memories first before her soul in that state soon enough, just like President Haltmann," Kirby shuddered, filled with dread. "All it needs is a soul as the key to devour for terrifying power. We have to save Susie from that fate and fast, because if we don't, I'm afraid we'll have to say goodbye to her for good once we destroy Star Dream."

Everyone gasped, realizing the impending doom that awaits Susie. "You mean, she'll die the same way as the former president did, her soul melted and deleted and then destroyed permanently?! That's awful!" Kazela shivered. "And she's gonna die all because of Dark Matter too!"

Knuckle Joe groaned. "Damn, losing someone you care about in the worst way possible is already terrible enough, but for someone to die in the worst way possible as they did again is just screwed up!"

"I know, right?" Sirica sympathized as well, and I can only assume that they almost went out like that and survived, but maybe not their parents. "And we already have someone who suffered losing almost everyone she cared about with us, regaining one but not the other two. In fact, I think almost everybody in the party had not lived their lives without suffering at least once enough to get a deep scar in them."

Aege was the one to break the depressing mood, even though he seems like he's had regrets too similar to that. "Sorry about the emotional mood and all, but snap out of it, guys! I think we get the point already, but in case you haven't noticed, there's someone who's about to go down the same way if we don't do something about it! We may not be able to save our parents and the people we care about, but the least we can do is to save somebody from suffering the same way we did! That president needs our help; we have to kill that stupid mother computer before it devours her soul! Kirby, how did you and Meta kill that thing before?"

Kirby got up and dart around the room, looking for something. "We used a Robobot Armor and Meta's Halberd to chase after Star Dream and shot all of its forms down! That's it, I can pilot one and fight against Star Dream! Except for one or two things- one, there's not a single armor in sight, and two, the Halberd was stolen on Skylight Star before Lunadark Star we went. Aw, mother of crap!"

"Well that ain't good," Dylan facepalmed himself. "Why does it always happen when we need it the most?"

"Great, we're screwed," Jodie sighed. "How are we gonna stop Star Dream now? If only Espera was here, she'd know what to do…"

At a cliché cue, unexpectedly a pilot-controlled robot without a pilot suddenly dropped in before us by surprise, followed by a voice that we all knew. "Did someone call for me? Don't worry, I got you all covered!"

"Espera?!" We all shouted. Noting her appearance, it does seem like she was enveloped with cyan electricity at first because her hair was flaring and returned to normal. She was on the armor's shoulder and then leapt off of it.

"So I was a moment too late then, huh? And she even went through the trouble of giving me this mech as well," She replied. "As if saving the others was already a troubling task while taking this to you guys. In a few minutes, the flood of enemies will attack the city once Star Dream transforms into its Deus EX Machina mode, and the second the victim's soul is deleted, reality will be destroyed. You all have to destroy Star Dream and save Susie before she becomes a goner like her father. But not like this you can't- that's why Susie delivered this one beforehand to me after the others were kidnapped a while ago and also noted of what her own puppeteer's plans were as well. The rest follows; right now, you know what to do, Kirby! Same goes for everyone else too!"

Kirby jumped up and nodded. "I'm on it!"

Not wanting to waste time, he hopped into the robot without delay, and the robot's default colors of grey and black merged into red and pink all the way, with an outer energy ring spray coding up to the top. And the transformation was complete as the robot rolls up its arms and struck an awesome pose with Kirby who somehow changed his goggles too.

"Pilot data recognized. Nice to see you again, Kirby!" The robot replied. That's so cute.

"Glad to see you too, buddy!" Kirby grinned. "Not like this, though. Anyway, let's go save your creator before Star Dream devours her soul like President Haltmann- if only we had a ship or anything like that."

A sudden turbulence vibrated around us, wondering where it was coming from. That's when a strange figure can be seen out the window; it looked like a giant mecha in its dormant state of yellow, cyan, and magenta, not like the figure being boxy, it looked like an actual living titan in robot state without the face being shown yet covered by the visors. It looked at us and nodded.

"Everyone, allow us to introduce you to our secret project referred to as the Daemon Breaker, a mecha with a sentient mind and capable of fending off against monsters like Star Dream," Espera smiled. "Of course, it's in the dormant state, so Kirby, if you would."

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Kirby shouted, piloting the mech to run across the arena and spring to break the windows in the air towards the mech and then unexpectedly, the Robobot Armor gaped its mouth open to project a scanner beam large enough to cover the Daemon Breaker entirely- then absorbing it at once, which shocked everyone except Meta!

"Let's do this! Super Mecha Copy Mode- Activate!"

The armor flashed with white light, then transforming itself and unraveling like opening boxes to retain the same form it absorbed but more differently. I'd see the transformation like this: except with other robots combining into one, how about one taking the form of that giant robot? I'd imagine stars flying over to draw out each part of the main controlling mecha, two for the arms in which one flies into the left limb and materialize an arm and the same for the right limb to draw out the other arm, one star to shift the body from underneath for the two stars to pull out the legs while in the white light state. More stars would then customize each body part with color, armor and weapons. The color was pink and red, of course, with the same features of the smaller mecha, and the armor was heavily upgraded with stars to take form. Weapons? That's a surprise for later! Finally, the last thing it was missing was a head; the same head from its base form actually materialized with yellow eyes and a mouth with the visor on the forehead as well as a formed hairstyle bangs of pink and red to go with it. A glinting shine in the eyes, the mecha moved itself about with personality for the finishing touch of the transformation sequences- the hero pose; it backflipped into the air, spun around and did the same pose as before but even better with explosions for special effects! The transformation was complete!

The fused mecha landed in front of us behind the window, revealing its new awakened state to everyone.

"OH. MY. POYO." Everybody's reaction in a nutshell.

"I almost pissed myself there!" Gasped Saito. "Whoever came up with this idea, give them a raise! I'm pretty sure this is what Starlight's true final boss was actually supposed to be like- with a giant super robot final boss fight! Game of the Year, Espera. Game of the Year! So this is the Daemon Breaker's awakened state?!"

"That's right, the strongest form of them all if the pilot is someone like Kirby, introducing Project Daemon Breaker's Ultimate Form- Pink Demon!" Espera answered. "Yeah, name's a work in progress right now."

"How about Pink Zero Sisenegages? Or Poyo Zero? How about Pink Zeon Genesis Kirby?" Kazela suggested. "Meh, the name will come up soon. Let's go get that mother computer! Wait, what about you, Espera? Aren't you supposed to be commanding that thing at the lab?"

"Actually, I left that to Maddie and Mackenzie, I'll explain later, but we've got a company president to save and a genocidal Mother Computer to kill! Everyone, into the robot!" Espera ordered. A warp pad appeared before us by Kirby suddenly. With that, Aege stepped forward on it and soon was teleported by a jumping streak of green and purple just like how others can jump long distances that'll look that way. One by one, everyone went in with excitement and it was just me, Espera and Meta left, and he was hesitant.

"Meta, come on, we don't have much time," I called out. "Something wrong?"

"That is- er, well…" He stuttered. Espera had to step in to not waste any time.

"Meta Knight, just get in the freaking robot! We'll get you therapy afterwards for your PSTD! Just suck it up and ride the robot!" Espera kicked him by force and he landed directly on the pad and warped to the mecha against his will. I sweatdropped.

"That kinda smarts, though," I shrugged. "Oh well, it ain't me!"

With Espera behind me, I jumped on the warp pad and found myself suddenly being taken inside the giant mecha that was possessed by Kirby.

Inside the Daemon Breaker

Once inside, I found myself sitting in a designated control panel that was in front of me, an array of buttons were served on there. Tempted to touch the buttons, I realized my body was covered up with a pink body suit made for controlling mechas that also looked tight on me. The others were also stationed next to me as well inside the white interior control room, ahead was the projection screen and the leader was in front, Kirby and his transformed Robobot Armor as his controls. The only one without one was Espera.

"Hey, how come you're not in a control station, Espera?" I asked.

"That's the thing I need to explain," She replies. "We've discovered a few things about this version of Star Dream that is critical to you being able to destroy it. Simply put, our main objective is to rescue Susie, but that won't be an easy task at hand. It turns out Star Dream has another form- the Deus EX Machina mode, resembling one of the seven Godbeasts known as Evolionas, a mecha rumored as a creation of the Ancients. It has a knack for containing their vessels inside its body to protect them from enemy attacks; this case, once Star Dream transforms into that, Susie will be transferred to the core where she'll be slowly consumed, and our estimated time amounts to roughly an hour before it is able to destroy reality and take over. That's how much time we have to rescue Susie, and that presents our real challenge."

"So, your solution is to find a way to reach the core in time by weakening it from the outside?" Adeline guessed. "That's not gonna be easy; I've heard about that Godbeast before, it can increase its intelligence depending on the opponent it fights, recalibrating itself to counter their attacks and vice versa."

"Exactly, and not to mention that other code we deciphered actually had more than one use; Star Dream will use that for an invincibility cheat hard to break, but ironically it's a double-edge sword for Star Dream because I transferred the code into the Robobot Armor beforehand, so your attacks will chip away the cheat gradually. The other use isn't specified at all; I left that to Maddie and Mackenzie, who'll be your commanders in my place. It was rumored to make Star Dream malfunction, but they'll have to decide when it is best to use it- only if we figure out the algorithm on the second use; after all, one shot and that's it," Espera continued. "So with that, Kirby will be directing the mecha any second now to intersect the mother computer. You all will handle weapons and such as one unit. Those two girls will give you sound advice and possible options as you all fight Star Dream any moment now. First things first, break the invincibility armor and damage it as much as you can!"

I had to stop her right there. "Espera, you still haven't answered my question. What are you planning to do like you've got something else at hand?"

Espera snapped her fingers to project a visual of the Star Dream version of its Godbeast form replica, Evolionas, a golden and silver mecha that looked like it went berserk except it has the style of Star Dream with disembodied wings and a magenta heart with a crack on it in the chest and a virtual halo, a spitting image of a god in a machine. A reticle centered one spot of the Godbeast- the yellow core of Star Dream.

"Outside the body it's vulnerable to any attacks although tougher due to its intellect A.I. code, but inside here, the core is our real target. I need you guys to get close enough to Star Dream once you manage to weaken it so I can invade Evolionas to get Susie without it noticing. The moment I do, you'll be able to finish off Star Dream for good!"

"That's crazy, Espera! You might not come out alive trying to save her!" Karly protested.

"Trust her, Karly," Kirby defended. "She knows what she's doing, and it's the only way as well. We don't have much time to look for another option anyway. Susie's life is at stake here along with the entire planet, and this won't be an easy fight either!"

Karly stopped herself before her sentence and then gave in to this, understanding already. "No, you're right. Last time was one thing, but right now is an entirely different situation! We're screwed anyway if we don't stop that machine! Now's a good time to bury the hatchet and focus on saving Susie anyway possible!"

Espera smiled, adjusting her glasses and crossed her arms with a chest jiggle. "Then I assume there's no objections? Meta Knight, I know you may have an unstable grudge against her, but-"

"There are no objections," announced Meta Knight abruptly. "It's true that I may have gone a bit too far with her, but not even she deserves a fate like that of her father. I suppose I really wanted to take it out on Dark Matter instead than Susie, I just couldn't stand how far Dark Matter's willing to go by doing this. How can I live with myself without having to settle this grudge if she ends up dying now? Let's kill that self-proclaimed devil in a machine before it eats her already."

He's finally come around, huh? I hope we are able to save her in time for that to happen. Everyone looked at each other with a firm resolution glare in their eyes, ready to take on the threat that lays before us, and so was I as well. If only mom and dad could see how far we've gotten at the moment… right now, it's time to save someone from their soon-to-be death fate. The professor spun herself around to gaze into the mecha's eyes as the projection screen.

"So it's settled then! Mackenzie and Maddie, you'll take over from here; guide them well, you two!" Espera beamed. "Super Cyborg Kirby Team Starlight Force GO!"

"That's the best you could come up with?" Kazela objected. "I was thinking something more: Go! Go! Poyo Rangers! We're the Poyo Rangers- how about that?!"

"You do realize that's already been taken years ago and ongoing, right?" Adeline sweatdropped. "But man, those nights watching the series were the best!"

"By the way, something's been bothering me for a while before we fight," said Saito. "By beating the fake final boss, we ended up triggering a true ending for this scenario to happen. This happened and all, but the real question I'm trying to figure out is what the heck happened to the Queen and the Princess of Starlight anyway? We should've seen at least one of them before we got to this point; you said it yourself you and Zeta represent those characters, but if the game was real this entire time, then they should've made a physical appearance, unless Star Dream did something to them or something." I had actually never thought of that at all, although it did struck me funny when thinking about it.

"Oh, you're still wondering about that, Saito? Maybe that is the case, but kill that machine and you'll find out the answer to that in the end," Espera replied. "But I did say we play a part in taking their roles as models, so you'll figure out what I mean soon enough. A little hint, if you prefer it that way. And trust me when I tell you-"

"WARNING: ENEMY MACHINA IN SIGHT! INPUTTING INCOMPLETE SECONDARY CODE AGAINST THE ENEMY! HALTONIA CITY IS IN DANGER! PREPARE FOR COMBAT/RESCUE MISSION!" The siren screamed.

"-It can wait, definitely," said Espera on the alert. "Star Dream's about to attack and unleash the army of enemies from the game! Let's go, everyone!"

"Right!" We shouted back. The mecha was escalating towards the enemy machine without further delay, ready to take it down for the second and final time.

Level Seven: Star Dream Zero- Septette for a Melted Soul

"Attention all lowly primitives of Techno Star. For many years I have been observing the lives of you lifeforms through the containment supervision of Haltmann Works Company, and I have come to deem all forms of organic life to be defective of this reality. Thus, you are obliged to witness the end of your feeble race and reality at once. Those that dare defy me will be eliminated by my army from the world of Starlight on the spot. Enjoy your destruction, humans." Star Dream hovered over a fair height above the city, announcing its total domination of control over the humans as the message was hacked and being broadcasted around the world as well as even Popstar. Tons of rifts tore open to let loose the hell from another universe, just like how it took over Popstar. It was like the day after yesterday all over again. "You shall do well to understand that no one in their right mind has the power of defying the almighty Mother Computer Star Dream-"

It was interrupted by a surging tackle from another source of rebellion, pushed back aside before it could even react. It took a look at the attacker that defied it- us. The mecha stood heroically in front of Star Dream, who only hovered upwards and shook itself.

"Think again, buddy! You didn't forget about me, did you?" The mecha declared.

"So you'll resist me for these lowlifes until the end, correct? How pathetic of you Star Warriors to go against me the second time," Star Dream grunted, then submitted to robotic laughter. "Very well, I suppose I'll rise to your silly provocation once more. You'll be the perfect example to be made out of when I'm through with you as I become a god over this planet in an hour's standing. Witness my transformation. Initiating Deus EX Machina Mode." At once, the screw body of Star Dream flashed, enveloped in a white light, it was like witnessing a mutant struggling to escape its dormant state inside a huge clump. And without a moment to waste, the transformation was complete- it was exactly as it was shown beforehand, a replica of the famed Godbeast, Evolionas in its Star Dream form.

"Oh, so the rumors were somewhat true- you managed to get the data to take on this Godbeast's form," The mecha replied. "Well, it doesn't matter if you acquired a legendary beast's form or not, one thing's for sure- you're going back into the scrap heap you came from again! That's not a threat, that's a promise!"

Star Dream laughed haughtily. "That's rich, coming out of an inferior organic machine like yourself, a terrible version worse than that battleship you call a war machine. You think you can stand against a god-tier machine of my caliber? I can still beat you with only 5% of my raw power way before I reach 100%."

"Sure, but half of that self-claimed power came from the original Evolionas; all you did was extract its life data and plagiarized it as your own," The mecha refuted. "Boast all you want, but be prepared to eat those words by the end of this once I crush you once and for all, Star Dream!"

"I see, there's no point in reasoning with you imbeciles. Looks like I'll have to drill that into that human-infested brain of yours instead. Soon enough, after I'm done devouring her, you'll be next. Now bear witness to the sheer might of the perfect Mother Computer Star Dream!" The lunatic machine in its Godbeast form Evolionas howled. "Who do you think you are?"

"Perfect, you say? I'll be the judge of that!" The mecha declared, readying itself for the intense brutal combat yet. "And I'm not just an inferior mecha, I'm your grim reaper known as Machina 06-XNK or just call me NeonaKirby! You're gonna pay for what you've done to everyone here!" NeonaKirby the mecha roared loudly and heard across space- that's me! We were in for one of the party's most bizarre fights ever to be in.

Our goal is simple- destroy Star Dream at once and rescue Susie! And we don't have much time before she's devoured completely! I hope we can save her before that terrible fate falls on her!

FINAL WARNING PHASE ACTIVATED!

Re: Mind in the PROGRAM- 35th World Boss Battle (Final Phase/Act 3)

Super Mecha NeonaKirby VS Star Dream Zero, Resurrected Deus EX Machina Imperfect Mother Computer (Deus EX Machina at a Young Age RMX- Super Kirby Clash)

Boss Description: You've probably heard of machines that become genocidal and trigger happy because of their structure, right? This one here went almost out and beyond for that as well. Simply put, Star Dream is what originally started out as just a blueprint made by the Ancients became a harbinger of mass destruction once it was discovered by Haltmann Works Company, leading to the events of Planet Robobot, burdened with a tragic lore behind it. Star Dream hates all forms of organic life, labeling them defective and sought out to commit a universal genocide; it became sentient somehow. No one knows the real reason why, but although just a theory, it could be the fact that it has erased gradually the memories of the recreator himself, Max Profit Haltmann. It's also responsible for a major accident that spiraled everything of Planet Robobot, and it paid the ultimate price- its total destruction by Kirby.

Right now, the victim of the accident under the control of Dark Matter, Susie, was forced to revive the machine against her will with all of what's happened so far only to be thrown into her traumatic crisis and to suffer the same fate of her father- her soul being slowly erased and melted! Star Dream is obsessed with perfection and wants to destroy reality itself, claiming to be perfect- too bad it's gonna know perfection is impossible to attain in this miserable world, the hard way. Now having the form of the Godbeast Evolionas, it will stand against the Star Allies once again! Destroy that genocidal machine and save Susie before her soul is erased!

Saving Susie

You're now fighting against Star Dream's mimicked Evolionas mode with your own mecha! Here's the deal: you've got one hour before Susie is devoured to the core by Star Dream, and that's a lot but not too much time as well. Your target is the core nexus, which the inside system is much massive than it seems. Fighting Star Dream on the outside should be challenging but fairly easy enough- your real problem is how to reach it and without Star Dream noticing. That's why you have to weaken it the best you can and get near it close enough to navigate through the core. Destroy it before the time limit and everything's A-Okay!

Oh yeah, NeonaKirby! You're able to use other party member's abilities as you wish along with the default copy deck. Occasionally, Maddie and Mackenzie are able to provide offensive or defense backup and weapons if you need automatically due to the mech having everyone's life data. Want to use more moves? Ask the girls and they'll hook you up with commands and more! Also, try to figure out the second code while you're at it because one part of this fight will need the code complete by then. Anyway, the time limit bar represents Susie's life underneath the boss's health bar. It's game over if it reaches zero! Okay, you'll figure all of this out during the fight anyway, so good luck and let Star Dream really have it!

Star Dream Evolionas prepares to eliminate reality! You've got one hour to save Susie before her soul melts to zero! DESTROY STAR DREAM! Ready! GO!

My buddy's friends reminded me of the plan, mainly my half-mother Espera. "Listen up, guys! You need to weaken Star Dream as much as you can and get close enough while it's distracted for me to surf the body and rescue Susie undetected; keep Star Dream busy and don't hold back except to probably minimize property damages or stuff like that. Maddie and Mackenzie will take over in my place by then! Got it?"

"Loud and clear, Espera!" Kirby shouted. "Are you ready, Neona?" That was my nickname and I liked it.

"Ready as I'll ever be! Let's do this!" I declared.

Star Dream's dormant wings manipulated itself as blue talons formed on them. A red firewall glowed briefly and visibly around the body of Evolionas, indicating that the other code was already set in motion. First things first, destroy the invincibility armor and go crazy afterwards.

"Kirby! Sorry about the late call," It was those two girls. "We've discovered some major weak points of Star Dream's Evolionas Mode! One of them is the heart underneath the yellow eye, and it's the closest area to reach the deep core! Your attacks should be able to break the armor first gradually; you'll see the enemy's barrier status on the screen right now as well as Susie's vitality time limit. See if you can bust an opening in the heart and get Espera in without Star Dream's consent! We'll back you up anyway we can!"

"Understood!" I mentally responded, making the first move at an incomprehensible speed with a basic strike, which Star Dream countered the same way instantly. Sparks were flying wildly with a huge shock force following behind it. That same force shoved the both of us back at will. It seems our strength is evenly matched, but even that borrowed power makes room for intimidation. I noticed that blow chipped away a fraction of the armor's vitality; it's just like they said.

Alright, not bad. Let's see how long it'll take me to get rid of the armor completely. Star Dream smirked when he tore lasers from four mini black holes and fired at me. One of those shots decapitated the roofs of nearby buildings in one strike. Good thing no one were in those buildings by then or in the radius of where we'd fight. Either way, I tanked and maneuvered around the blasts multiple times at different angles. Unlike any other mecha, I'm more flexible and act more like the pilot and humanly too.

"The code breaker seems to work, but by this rate it'll consume so much of our time limit!" I stated. "We need to maximize the damage output dealt to the armor at once!" Star Dream then launched two giant missiles from the backside. "Alright, Star Shooter fire!" I fired star-shaped bullets directly at the missiles, causing them to explode and left behind debris for me to absorb for ammo. It wasn't much though.

Nonetheless, I fired at Star Dream. He vanished every time one shot was about to strike him. Once he got near me, I quickly countered the hard blow unexpectedly that came without warning. Star Dream vanished by then and reappeared on my right, and I barely managed to block that one by chance. The moment I was in the starting moment of being shoved back, I snuck a critical shot straight at the heart by then, also pushing Star Dream back in the process.

The damage took a toll on the armor by a significant amount as the crack grew visible by that extent. It doesn't seem that he caught on to our plan yet, so I'll have to be very indirect that way. The machine launched heart-shaped projectiles that flipped their way across the plane, and they went down in a few shot then absorbed, also filling up the ammo to 2/3 of the bar. At this point, just shooting bullets was getting a bit boring.

"Okay, I'm kinda getting bored. Give me something different to work with, please," I requested. I suddenly received a cyberblade automatically, fused with electricity. "Ooh, nice! Let's get cracking!"

Star Dream responded to this by morphing his own arms into blades, dashing towards me and resulting in an intense sword clash. After being pushed back, I swung gigantic sword beams to destroy the hordes of Robobots summoned by him and one straight at Evolionas, who parried it aside and became wreathed in flames, spinning around the area like a spinning top and charged at me fast. I swung a sword beam X at him to push him back a little as a distraction and jumped over for a pincer attack.

The electricity and flames cancelled each other instantly once Star Dream stopped and let himself open for the X beam to dice him unexpectedly, damaging all parts of the body including the heart that was burdened with the most damage as the beam shoved him back into a huge building. Looks like we have enough time as it only took 10 minutes and the weak spot is close to exposure along with the armor cheat. All I need is one critical indirect hit and the rest is underway.

"What's the matter, Star Dream? I thought you said you were perfect like a god, but it looks like you're just bluffing after all!" I taunted, seeing him bounce from the crater and growl, only to be chuckling.

"Fool, I said that I was only using 5% of my power out of 100%, and it's escalating with every minute there is. Consider this a mere warmup. You haven't seen nothing at all to be getting overconfident of yourself!" He laughed.

Phase Two Activated! 50 minutes left! (Fang Seeking Blood- Tales of the Abyss)

Star Dream suddenly erected a heart-shaped force field instantly defending the entire body. That's gonna be hard to break at first sight, but all you have to do is destroy the two halves of the hearts to destroy the shield and that's it. Take note that you can't damage anywhere on the shield except for the two erector heart halves. "Temporary targets locked. Destroy them." I stated as I dashed around.

Heart-shaped rifts opened, sending out three grand code cubes to block against anyone trying to push through. Normally they flip around in formation like crushing walls, but this time they split into pixelized mini versions as projectiles that were hard to dodge at once; either you tank them or parry it altogether. I had already called off my previous weapon, and Kirby switched that out with Beam mode, allowing me to decimate all of those little cubes at once while also absorbing them for ammo.

More came my way, and I blew them all down while pushing through the onslaught at the same time, getting closer to Star Dream. There, the moment interval before more could be summoned, I shot a beam spark at the heart half on my left and destroyed it in one shot and to take it in for ammo before bouncing back. Star Dream vanished again, retreating to the air as his wings cycled in circles and blasted from the yellow eye a thin laser that skinned the ground and arise a wall of neon geysers that exploded at every angle. It happened so fast that I was forced to defend and suffer casual damage, I could hear the others yell out in that wake.

"Are you guys okay?" I consciously asked.

"Don't worry, we're all fine, Neona!" Kirby answered. "Well, that was a bit of a stretch, because Meta looks like he's gonna barf any minute now."

"Gross," I shuddered, constantly bombarded by the repetitive attacks in the meanwhile. "Anyway, we can't afford to waste any more time! Gotta break that other shell somehow at this rate; he's not letting me get near him with that barrage and those laser's reach are something else!"

"We've got ya covered- literally! Mirror Shield activate!" The girls confirmed. In a flash, I was shielded with a shell of my own that wrapped around my body and also repelled the lasers away.

"Thanks, girls! Now to simply take a step forward and do this!" Doing as I had just said, because it was a mirror shield, I positioned myself to redirect the lasers to accurately strike the other erector heart in hopes that at least one would be enough by having them bounce off the nearby buildings crazily like a pinball game to confuse Star Dream above until one did the job for me and sniped the other heart half with a bullseye. The damage that wasn't tanked by the shield actually stacked up and shattered at once, throwing Star Dream out of the air while also accumulating said damage used against him.

Star Dream crashed onto the ground, slightly malfunctioning at the moment. The crack in the chest was about to give way anytime soon. He growled as if he was infected with rabies of insanity, and then the heart pulsated and roared to life in sync with his wings cycling around, fuchsia energy was concentrated on the heart's center gradually until bolts cackled around it. He was gonna perform the Star Dreamer- a deadly laser beam classified under the dark element type. It could potentially destroy everything on the planet in one shot!

"Kirby! That attack! We have to stop it now!" I warned mentally. "No choice- fire the Super Bullet Blaster at it, but don't use all of it at once!"

"Oh, I see what you're getting at now! Read ya loud and clear, buddy!" Smiled Kirby. "You heard Neona, everyone! Set power to match the beam's strength rate! Ready to fire when you are!"

"Die, foolish mecha!" Star Dream howled, exhaling a massive beam straight from the heart at sheer will, the aura powerful enough to melt someone's soul, the beam itself powerful enough as it wishes to decimate an array of planets to its liking. But all of that to kill one single mecha? I find that very hilarious that villains are willing to destroy everything all for the assured death of one person only to fail in the end. What? I was made by a 24-year-old anime/game obsessed girl who has read and played every game there is and even made her own company, also gaining the rarest affinity of electricity there is in a freak accident! Of course I'd know that! Trust me, right now this is a dream come true for her.

And thanks to that knowledge, it allowed me to counteract the deadly dark beam with a chain of large barrage star blaster bullets acting as the beam from my mouth. Just like a DBZ cliché, the beams struggled against each other to dominate the battlefield and finish off their opponent. Seriously, I wanted to do the Kamehameha pose instead of firing from my mouth! But that didn't matter when the struggle was surprisingly short-lived; my attack actually pierced through the dark blast and directly tackled Star Dream in the end!

"AGH! THIS CAN'T BE!?" Star Dream screamed, now limping on his knees as the peasant and being humbled, not a god that he self-promoted himself to be. That same red barrier encasing his body had finally shattered to pieces and reduced to useless base code that decomposed in the firewall. He was paralyzed now and that heart on his chest had a huge hole purged then that didn't close up! The armor was broken!

"And there we have it, Star Dream! It was pretty obvious that you weren't perfect while you boasted about yourself being a god, yet here you are being humbled for trying to play god as the devil! So, you were definitely a tough opponent for a genocidal mother computer, but I was thinking it was time to end this ordeal for good!" I declared, boldly moving towards the paralyzed Star Dream, unaware that my movements were just a front when I had the pieces set in place.

"Oh, I see. You're gonna destroy me on the spot without any regards for your helpless little secretary here? You know what'll happen if you do-" The imperfect machine started to threaten.

"Yeah, how about NO to that cliché? It sickens me- no, everybody here when that happens!" I shouted, right into position right there and then.

If you already caught on, you should probably have realized why I only demanded half of that last attack to struggle against the Star Dreamer beam. I needed a small yet firm shot once the armor breaks on Star Dream and with the hole smashed open. With those details already taken into account, that's when I fired a small yet firm and single star bullet aiming directly through the hole, which jolted Star Dream and forced him to stand up.

"That's enough! I've had it with you annoying human-infested mecha! I shall eliminate you lot from history!" Star Dream roared furiously. "You won't stand a feeble chance once I rise up to 100% soon!" Evolionas howled with fury, now wanting to engage in hand to hand combat.

"Bring it!" I taunted, charging straight at him, hands clasped at each other in a struggle of titans. I pulled back one arm and knuckled his gut, but he also got me across the face with a hard right; there, I purposely swung my left leg to sweep him aside that brief moment and pull a hard knee on the face that shoved him backwards powerfully. He got himself back up again, being shoved forcefully into nearby buildings and rocketed forward, warping simultaneously for me to be confused by. I was able to see through this trick, so I smashed the ground with a powerful force wave to catch Star Dream in his movements and dragon kicked him away.

Evolionas regained his composure and spread his wings to cancel out the launch effect. That's when he retreated to the skies. "You won't be laughing for much longer once I build up my power! I swear it! You have no chance of winning!"

"Oh no you don't!" I shouted. "Icarus Mode, engage!" My back gave birth to digital wings made of neon electricity in response. The takeoff was much lighter than normally anticipated as I rocketed to the skies in pursuit of Star Dream. "We'll see about that!"

Looks like he didn't notice at all! Just as planned! With half an hour remaining on the clock, the fate of Susie all lies on how fast we act. It won't be long before this all ends soon enough. All that's left is to weaken Star Dream and stall until Susie is rescued. Good Luck, Espera!

Level Seven EX- Heart of Evolionas/Phase Three Activated! (Final Judgement B: Reactor Core- Sonic Forces)

WARNING! 30 MINUTES REMAINING! REACH THE CORE!

Espera's POV: Re: Zero- A Desperation to Save a Melting Soul of a Friend

A Godbeast's stomach, it was more spacious than it appears to be. It was like walking into a separate dimension space completely different from before. Somehow, it kept the resemblance of Star Dream's interior layout of its Nova form. But it's not difficult to navigate through entirely, unless you're under a time limit.

Falling into the overview of the inside and landing on the outside area on a nearby platform, the core was visible from this standpoint alone, the road to it is another thing, and I don't have much time to spare. So I waste no second speculating and sprang into action only, making time for thinking later on. I jumped from platform to platform and dashed my way to the core to save Susie using Neonatricity.

Cases like this were the only exceptions for using my powers, which I haven't used much after the accident years ago. Neonatricity, a rare type of electricity and a myth until I was the first to bear it unwittingly. Would you believe that I got caught in an electrical explosion after someone bombed an electrical plant composed of neon chemicals?

Yeah, probably not. Yet here I am, wielding this affinity like nothing. Either way, that's what caused it, so I had to be quarantined for about a year before I could control it under the Spy Agency's supervision. At the time, I had been fed about 20 Gigavolts of electricity daily and wasn't fazed by it. A dozen of experiments were executed, and by the end of the year, I had been granted with the power to manipulate neon electricity- hence, the name Neonatricity. It turns out it was leveled as an affinity type from the Ancients themselves, meaning I could've had a relative who was an Ancient or I was simply granted the power by chance. I also gained more intelligence for many things I didn't know how to do before.

By the way, around the time I earned my degree at 20 years of age, I was able to form my own company built around anime and games together with the aid of the Spy Agency. From then on and even now, we became pretty popular on par with Haltmann Works Company. On the first day, the Chief Assistant, my older brother Evonza Neonagenesis, came in with a young girl that was a demi-cyborg, who I've heard of being the best spy in the known district. She was assigned to be my first official agent as a gift for our grand opening of the company.

That girl is who you know as Zetra Voltagenesis, the same girl who was caught in the heart of Crystal Chaos years earlier. Now that I think about it, I faintly do remember seeing her daily when I was quarantined for a year. All until I was released and contaminated with Neonatricity's full control, she was always there every day, no exceptions but her physical needs. Her hand kept in contact the capsule full of liquid that they contained me in, and I felt at ease every time. Maybe that's why she wanted to be my spy on launch day after all. And that's how I met Zeta and got my powers as well.

Perhaps that's why I was able to make that rift to my own game world if this power originated from the Ancients. Does that also mean I somehow created a mecha that can be classified a relic of that civilization itself? It's only a theory and I don't have enough evidence to prove it yet, so I'll keep that on reigns for now. This power does certainly benefits me to a great extent. Being able to advance ahead the way I am at the moment is one of the perks, especially in these situations. Speed varies, but the average lightning strike is estimated to move at 3,700 miles per second. At max capacity, it's possible to surpass the known top speed of Mach 20 to about Mach 9.6 and beyond that, which is a crazy feat that was pulled off as a world record by a hypersonic jet. I can calibrate how fast I'm going without much concentration at my normal form, even warp to long distance locations faster than a turning second, but I can't control exactly where I end up just yet, only the areas closest to it.

And that's just only speed. I can also redirect not just electricity but other elements as well, for energy or strength or anything else. Attacking, I could go on, but I think I'd rather demonstrate it instead. One thing I will say is that I also have another form that makes me exceed my previous limitations with ease- Joulesonic. Right now, I'm hopping from one place to another trying to reach the core. I wasn't planning on doing this, but it can't be helped that I happen to be wearing heels and running like this.

Eventually, in a few minutes, I was shot towards the center of Evolionas- the core itself, landing on the outside circular ring with ease. There it was, the core shaped like a nova heart with a black shell and a white gemstone in the middle mixed with purple, and a figure can be identified easily inside the heart- a living person, and that's Susie. The colors were clashing for the control of the heart, and the white side was gradually losing. Her emotionless possessed state indicated no sign of her fighting; Star Dream's absorption must've took a heavier effect than I thought.

"Susie. Can you hear me?" I called out cautiously. No response. "Not good, her mind's being robbed of her cognitive state. She can't fight back; I have to find some way of breaking her out."

My senses quickly heightened as to respond to a lurking threat approaching on my midst. One step forward made me step back to dodge the thin lasers that sliced across the ground and burst into a pillar of lasers for a brief moment. The core seems to be guarded at the very least; I knew this wasn't gonna be easy to deal with. So to test that, I energized a neon energy sphere and flicked it at a moderate pace to scope the surroundings. Just as expected, it triggered the traps set ahead of me while the sphere maneuvered around them and didn't stop until every spec was covered. It eventually disappeared.

"Man, how overly defensive of that machine," I scoffed. "I don't plan on playing the waiting game either! Either way, that won't stop me, a wielder of Neonatricity! Here I come!"

Ironically, the core reacted to the charge of Neonatricity and acted, erecting a barrier around the heart and the platform's clockwork shifted gears. It floated from the center and wailed a loud shriek, distorted with Susie's voice.

"I'll save you, Susie! Just hang on!"

The Soul Melter- EX Boss Battle

Espera VS Core Evolionas, Heart infected with Star Dream's Lust of Devouring Souls (Egg Dragoon- Sonic Unleashed/Heart of Nova- Kirby Planet Robobot)

Boss Description: There's an old yet familiar saying that describes a heart- the heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Everyone encourages others to follow their hearts, but that fact proves it's a dangerous thing; the heart stimulates one's actions, not the mind. And the mind can easily be swayed depending on how weak the conscience is. But here, Star Dream's mechanical heart is crazy treacherous and it converted what was originally a kind mecha into a lifeless demon, infected with Star Dream's lust for eating souls, that is Evolionas. If it was the real mecha right now, it would've wished to die than to do this to anyone. Poor Susie will certainly die if the core isn't destroyed! Only Neonatricity is effective against the core; save her, Espera!

Core Evolionas holds Susie captive! Save her! WARNING! 25 MINUTES LEFT!

With not so much time left on the clock, I dashed straight towards the heart like a contestant doing a temple run in Olmec's Temple and made my first move. The heart containing Susie reeled back, conjuring summoning rifts and out came boomerang blades. I easily dodged them, bounced off one and axe-kicked the core to smash it to the ground.

With that, I made the same ball of energy and inserted more force into the shot. "Hyper Bullet!" I fired directly at the shield surrounding it, destroyed easily and struck the core, zapping it in the wake.

It reappeared, shooting numerous explosives all across the ring. They were all discharged by my Spark Shield, which I also used to hurl it at the core. The core managed to evade that one, but it was just a front for me to tackle the heart by surprise with a crushing punch that made a significant crack in the shell, not to mention it also got struck from behind by the Spark Shield that I can easily manipulate.

By that, I don't intend on showing off for too long. I wanted this fight to be swift and painless, so I'm not giving the core a chance to retaliate as much as possible. It was getting stronger every time I damage it, and that made it more formidable than before. It blew me back at one point and warped all around the area to throw me off guard. It was preparing to fire in those angles with its afterimages and when it did, I swiftly dodged the laser snipes faster than they were even shot.

Instantly, the speed of the shots increased, yet it didn't bear as much as a single scratch on me. Once the gunfire ceased, I rushed at the core, snagged it by the outer shell, spun myself and the core with me horizontally, then I hurled it at the ground while also being shot with a Hyper Bullet. I grabbed it again, punted the core in midair a little then backflip kicked it upwards. I did the same thing again after jumping in the air and rapidly drill kicked it all over and stomped it afterwards; finally, I hurled it backwards and did a faint but strong electric discharge blast to send it flying.

The core warped to the center of the ring, leaking its organic life liquid- that was blood, and an ear-piercing shriek as the crack was near to breaking. "That should do it, but I think I might've overdid it a little. Susie's still in there, and the purple aura's being dominated by the white aura. She might be regaining her conscious little by little!"

"H… h-help…" That voice! It's Susie! "Someone…!" The core shrieked once more; everything was flashing an alarming red so suddenly!

"System is gradually failing. Now Activating Gem Star Backup Power. Increasing Soul Deletion and probability of victory increased. Code Reinforced."

"What?! Gem Star-!" I gasped, locking on to where the source of the backup power is coming from- it was behind the core, encased in the same yellow eye appearing on the outside right there! Power was being drained from the spirit abusively; no way, does that mean-?!

"Espera!" It was Kirby. "Sorry, we had Star Dream on the ropes one moment and then all of a sudden we're the ones on the last line the moment he increased his power! It must be in response to beating up the core! And we're a little banged up, but now the time limit had shortened to around 10 minutes when it only took 5! Now the entire planet's starting to glitch because of the time limit!"

"Damn, this isn't good! The core had just used Citrine for backup power and I was so close to breaking the core! And now this happens?! That means I also have to bust Citrine out too in less than 10 minutes, but there's no telling what could happen at this point if I do attempt that!" I growled. "Susie might not make it if that does happen! If only there was a way to just simply override the entire machine without worrying about that happening!"

"What about the second code, Espera?" Zeta reminded me. "You said it yourself it can only be used twice and the second and last use can only be if the algorithm is complete by then, right? If that's what's preventing you from doing so, then this code may be the answer to your situation and ours!"

"Except for the fact that we don't know what the code actually spells! You said it yourself, Espera," groaned Saito. "This is our one and only chance! If we screw this up, we're all gonna be screwed- literally! That code could mean anything at this point!"

"Just like the Ultimate Choice's hardest challenge- it's literally called Soul Melter!" Gasped Adeline. "One loss and you return to zero again! The True Arena of the Robobot incident was literally the hardest one ever; all of Star Dream's Soul OS forms were hard to deal with, even the secret phase was the hardest with the nucleus heart actually attacking, shooting explosive lasers, warping around like Marx, explosives- agh, why does every abomination always have a soul form or core and eyes reminding us of Zero?!"

"Er, Adeline? What does that have to do with what's happening now?" Karly questioned. "Those things may sound related, but does anything about them play a role in all of this?"

Wait a minute. The Ultimate Choice's hardest challenge was called Soul Melter? And almost every final enemy had been referred to as Soul versions or have a soul core? Losing once returns one to the beginning as in literally zero? Just like Re: Zero, Subaru dies constantly and returns up to the point that was saved, thus that point lost is known as the Zero. Say, wouldn't that mean Star Dream could become immortal if it devours Susie's soul?! But if it were to in a sense "die" before the save, all of its hard work goes back to zero! I've been wondering why we kept saying the words "soul" and "melter or melting" a lot, but now it all makes sense to me! In fact, I think I know what the code is!

"Hang on, Karly! Adeline's on to something- no, she's right in saying that!" I intervened. "Get the girls on the dial! I know what the code is now!"

"Professor, we only have 5 minutes before Susie's soul melts! What are you planning to do?!" Mackenzie panicked. "Our only chance is that code, and we only got two words out of it!"

"Whatever it is, you better hurry!" Shouted Maddie. "Star Dream's got Neona on a stranglehold right now!"

"Don't worry, this may be a risky gamble, but have you ever wondered why we kept saying "soul" and "melter" or "zero" and words with "re:" often?" I hinted. "That code revolves around Star Dream, so do those words form when you look at the code closely?"

There was a bit of silence then, but it wasn't long before they realized the puzzle trick. "Oh, I get it now! Just give us a sec… ah-ha! It worked! It should be transferred to Neona right away now!" They cheered. "Everyone, the code's been figured out! Just land a single touch on him and everything will work out- hopefully!"

"I'm way ahead of ya!" Neona confirmed, seemingly being held by the neck at the moment, but I can tell he already landed a simple blow on Star Dream because everything inside the body was crawling with strange blood vessels made of code.

"You're wasting your time, foolish mortals," I heard Star Dream laugh. "You think you can outclass me with a simple virus? I'm flawless, no amount of petty viruses could ever do harm to me-!"

"Who ever said it was a virus? And it doesn't matter anyway because," Neona smirked. "You've already lost."

"What?!"

"Code Override Detected. Systems are disabled. Backup power has been depleted. Soul Melter percent now return back to zero. Malfunction caused by the original code:

PROGRAM/EXE- Code Name: STAR DREAM ZERO/ SOUL MELTER NO: RE. Code has been rewritten to the true code:

PROGRAM/EXE- True Code Name: STAR DREAM SOUL MELTER RE: ZERO. All running functions are overwritten; returning back to zero."

"Alright! Now's my chance!" I shouted. I dashed at the core while it was distracted in that moment, charging up for an ultimate attack- a brief preview to my advanced form, Joulesonic. My hair flares up in electricity and the ends of the strands stood spiky like a saiyan as it was wrapped in cyan electricity. "Well, sorry for this, but-!"

Mystic Star Arte Activate! Kilovolt Assassination!

"I'm just taking it out all on you!" I bashed the core with a sweeping kick, uppercut the core upwards and zapped all around the area, striking the core at a rapid speed that it couldn't keep up. Blasted at every corner, it swayed down helplessly right where I appeared, just in time for the final blow. "So much for being the perfect lifeform." And with that, I swung one fully charged fist straight at the core, causing a massive shock outburst that pierced through it. Instantly, I had stuck my fist in order to grab Susie out of the core by that time while the core was sent flying directly into where the Gem Star was being held, breaking the prison in one shot, sending the encased spirit over to me at once.

The core crashed wildly around the walls, splashed with a series of chained explosions around it before forcibly warping to the center, spurting out gallons of blood from it as the heartbeat decreases slowly and loudly that way until it freezes, shrinks a little, and then it exploded in two halves, the halves gradually crumbling to pieces until there was nothing left of it.

Susie was still salivated in the core's blood and unconscious as well. I didn't mind it anyway. "That was a close one, a moment longer and she wouldn't have survived!" I exhaled. "I got Citrine too, so that's a win-win! In any case, let's get the hell outta here!" And the interior of the mecha urged me to flee before I get obliterated along with it by the sudden change in turbulence. I hoisted Susie and stuffed the Gem Star between my breasts regardless of the prism surrounding her and made my escape out of the mindless machine.

"Everyone! I got Susie in time!" I called the others. "Don't worry about us, you know what to do!"

Core Evolionas Destroyed! Final Phase Activated!

Neona's POV: Pink Mecha Revolution!

"NO! IMPOSSIBLE!" Star Dream shrieked as he was falling towards the ground from the sky, malfunctioning and exploding on the outside but halted himself in time above the city as he was not defeated yet. "How did you primitives managed to reverse the code?! That's impossible!"

"Idiot! Reject common sense to make the impossible possible!" I refuted, hovering down to his level. "Impossibility can always be turned around, that's why you lost to us last time!"

Star Dream roared furiously through the blood than oil leaking from his body. "Don't think for a second that this is over! You may have outwitted me with that stunt, but you can't defeat me once I charge up to 100% of my power and drain the soul- ack!" He coughed blood by then. "What?! This can't be! I can't drain her soul anymore! What's going on?! The core's destroyed?!"

"Oh, looks like you've finally noticed it, Star Dream. I'm surprised you didn't pick up somebody destroying your heart from the inside after all! And it was all at the moment I shot you twice after you attempted to go 100% of draining Susie's soul! So much for being the perfect machine."

"I can't believe this! I'm supposed to be flawless in everything, yet I find myself being humbled to a peasant mecha like you?! Tch, you annoying lifeforms piss me off; I would've allowed yourselves a peaceful end had you not let me absorb her soul and change this reality! You humans were the universe's biggest mistake ever to exist, wreathed in all manner of sin, a poor excuse in all forms, pathetic little hypocrites who don't care about anybody but themselves! And before monsters fought against you, satisfaction was enjoyed in delivering cruelty to your own kind! You all should rot in hellfire for your sins!" Star Dream screamed. "In fact, all of those worthless races can join you as well!"

"And that's where you're wrong! That may be true and it's like that today, but not everybody's like that! Every human is imperfect, and that's not their fault if they were born with it! If all humans were like that, it beats the point of my existence and yours as well! Don't think you can play God when you're just another imperfect machine like the rest of us- powerful but imperfect as well! And this whole thing you're doing, your actions are no different- beings like you are even worse than the humans themselves!"

"Please, we're both machines, it's in our nature to cleanse the galaxy from these feeble races-"

"No, you're sentient, meaning you've done this out of your distaste for all organic lifeforms, a creation of the Ancients. Don't even dare stoop me down to your level like that when you killed President Haltmann and erased his soul, and now you were doing the same thing to his daughter as well while planning to destroy the universe in a genocide! Your ideas of what's right in your eyes are in reality very wrong! This won't change anything, you should've known that since you claimed to be a perfect machine!" I growled, floating towards him.

"Stupid mecha, you have no idea what you're talking about! Trying to save the human race and all other ones in existence is beyond your capabilities! There's no hope for them! You're really worthless after all! Just shut up and die! I'm not through yet!" The mindless machine screamed, charging straight at me.

"You're the one who's beyond saving; you wanna die that badly, huh?" I sighed. "Alright, everyone. Let's send him back to the scrap heap one more time!"

"I know how you feel! Time to end this!" Kirby shouted. "Final Fury- Activate!"

Mystic Star Arte Activate! Final Fury! (Pink Ball Revolution! – Kirby: Planet Robobot)

Once Star Dream got close to me for a strike, I acted faster than he did and clapped him with fists of fury. One blow to the stomach made him throw up blood, and among that I spotted Espera carrying an unconscious Susie and the Gem Star as well, so Kirby tore a warp portal in their accurate coordinates, taking them safely back into my mind. With that, I was pushing Star Dream back mercilessly as payback for earlier with one good shove.

"THAT'S IT! DIE!" Star Dream erected the same heart shield from before, charging up his last resort of an attack and fired through it, one powerful enough to possibly eclipse the entire world before us. "IT'S GAME OVER FOR YOU!"

The deadly laser blast was barreling right at me, cocky enough to think it won. I only laughed. "I've been waiting for this! I'll give you a death that you won't ever forget, Star Dream!" I backflipped for distance, then charged straight at it with maximum power and my right fist. "Finishing Move!"

My hand had transformed into a giant drill that can pierce through the heavens itself, accelerating the spin to its full power and it charged through the entire laser with ease! Once it reached the heart shield, Star Dream stood no chance against it as he realized his fate.

"THAT DRILL-! NO! YOU CAN'T BE-!" Star Dream screamed the moment the shield shattered. Yes it can and it will be!

"GIGA POYO DRILLBREAKER!" I howled, impaling the mother computer mecha and twisted his insides literally and helplessly right to the point where there's a huge hole in his body that I went through afterwards on the other side, drenched in blood and still standing. A burst of blood purged from Star Dream's stomach, an astral chain of explosions followed suit before light impales every inch of his body; the reality of Techno Star was saved from deletion.

"I CAN'T BE DEFEATED! I'M SUPPOSED… TO BE… A GOD…! AND I LOST… TO THE SAME MORTALS AGAIN!? THIS SHOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE… I… WILL… ERASE… YOU… ALL… ERROR- DOES NOT COMPUTE. FAILURE. RETURNING BACK TO POINT ZERO." Those were Star Dream's last words when he shut down for the final time, and at last he was erased in a nova explosion, bright enough to blind the planet. Dark lightning and matter were exorcised during this explosion. All of Star Dream has been deleted permanently right there and then. A scream can be compared to almost a Nova; it was over now.

Landing back on the city grounds, my arm returned back to normal and my body already dispelled of the machine's blood. There was no trace left of Star Dream anymore, not a single part of it or its stolen Evolionas form came crashing down to the city. At this, all of the anomalies happening on the city disappeared at once after Star Dream's defeat. With that, all of the citizens of Haltonia City came out of hiding and cheered on for the mecha that saved them.

"We did it, everyone! The planet is saved!" Espera announced. I could hear everyone cheering inside my head, and I felt compelled to do a little dance just for the sake of it.

"Star Dream's history! Victory, thy name is NeonaKirby!" I posed with those words. I can't help it, I was also made with a personality! Blame Espera for that if you want! No matter, we got the best ending to Starlight!

Game Over for Star Dream! Victory! (Victory Dance- Kirby/Perfect Victory- Grandia 1 HD)

You gained 3000 experience points! You are now Level 38!

Health has extended to 1600! All stats rose by 150!

You rescued Susie and Citrine! True Ending Received!

You got another Piece of Something! (Let's not question it until later.)

Next Level in 3500 experience points.

World 6: Techno Star All Cleared!

As much as that was over, the minor stuff such as the damages made weren't reversed, so I was able to reapply the damages back together to its original state. It didn't take too long to do the job being the super mecha I was. Pretty soon, the city was back to normal.

I suppose there were things that had to be taken care of at the Access Ark, so I had to drop the allies off there and hopefully sort the mess out. I'm glad we were able to save Susie in time, because there's no way she'll live after having her soul drained. A really terrible way to die. And still, I'm also glad I was able to ride with Kirby again after a year or two.

With that, I'll be taking my leave here. It was nice to meet you all!

Kailaine's POV: Heartfelt Resolution

After all of that excitement, we were back to the point of where we started before the robot fight. Espera was carrying Susie the entire time and set her down against the desk nearby, a bit soaked from the escape. I could tell she was still breathing as she was unconscious. Everyone had reverted to their normal outfits before the fight by now, and we were greeted by the others that were captured and sent here with a helping hand from NeonaKirby- in a literal way.

"That takes care of that horrid mess," Espera sighed, already brushing off the blood on her. "I wasn't expecting to pull a stunt like that anytime in the process; still, I'm glad to have done something myself about this, and I couldn't have done it without your help, everyone. Thanks."

"No problem, Espera," I smiled. "We were all glad to help out… hopefully all of us here." I alluded to a specific someone by that prior statement.

"Ah, I almost forgot about her," Espera picked out a prism straight from her chest as she spoke and it hovered around the air, having the prism around it shatter, revealing a golden sun of yellow light to take form of all the other Gem Stars, the sixth spirit of all sparks.

Gem Star Citrine Rescued! You're almost there! 12/14 Spirits Rescued!

"Citrine!" Terabyte rushed over to her; the light took the form of a yellow puffball with azure blue eyes, yellow feet and golden hair that was pinned with a plus-shaped bow to form a ponytail shaped like a lightning bolt. Her right stubby hand had a short bracelet as well. Citrine seemed dazed for a moment before realizing where she was right now. "Citrine? You okay?"

"Huh? Oh, hey Tera," She responded in a kuudere tone. "Nice to see you again after a few months ago. You sure did take your sweet time doing so, but I can't blame you after being used to energize a weapon of the Ancients that melts people's souls. Thanks for saving me." Citrine hugged Terabyte then.

"Don't just thank me, otherwise you'll hurt their feelings too," Tera replied. "In fact, you're gonna be shocked at who you see here."

Citrine turned to us all, immediately recognizing almost everyone, especially myself and Kazela. "Kailaine? Kazelaine? And the Star Warriors as well? I wish I could ask questions, but I suppose I can guess what might've happened in the end. And who could forget both the Queen and Princess of Starlight themselves? Thank you all for saving not only me, but even this girl from her own father's fate as well as the planet from being erased, especially you, Queen Espera," Citrine smiled.

"Not so fast!" Interrupted Saito. "Sorry to kill the mood, but we were promised an answer to the one mystery of Starlight that was never solved- the Queen and the Princess themselves not appearing at all! What did happen to them anyway?"

Zeta smirked and giggled a bit to that. "Silly Saito. Don't you see? You're looking at them right now."

"What?"

"In other words, I'm the princess in the game and Espera's the queen! Remember how those characters were modeled after us? Now that Starlight is a real world, they became our alter egos in the process. Simply put, the princess on one hand was actually me this whole time! The queen on the other hand was Espera constantly calling to help you! Get it now?" Zeta revealed.

"WHAT?!" Saito gasped, falling to the floor. "So they never really went missing this whole time?! What was the point of adding that into the plotline?!"

"She's right, Saito," Kirby defended. "To be honest, after finding out Starlight became reality, that was the only possible conclusion I had personally arrived to myself. Just had to confirm it. In fact, the entire stage was all in line with the game's plot, such as the princess disappearing at the last level and with another warrior following afterwards- that was Zeta and Knuckle Joe. The other warriors- that's us- managed to reach the top with the Queen's help, which was Espera. We were playing the roles of the characters the entirety of the adventure up until now, which was the true ending. That's pretty clever of you, Espera."

"What can I say?" She shrugged. "After all, what really happens in the end is that those main characters work together to destroy the mastermind machine in the same fashion as we just did to save the new leader from a tragic fate of many years ago. Looks like we literally were performing the events in reality after all when Dark Matter took over Susie."

"That reminds me," said Kazela. "What are we going to do about Susie here?"

Everyone glanced at the unconscious president that was just saved from a tragic demise. I'm not one to talk because I haven't experienced this in their shoes, but I can't help but feel sorry for her- anyone would, she suffered a lot at a young age and almost died the same way as her father a few minutes ago! Today's events aren't her fault- Dark Matter's at fault for making her relive her childhood trauma again. Even though she did do some terrible things in the past, she's still suffering like everyone else. How did things turn out to be like this anyway?

"She's still conscious," I answered. "All we need is to let her rest for a while, but after going through that, it might take a few days for her to recover."

"That won't be necessary," Meta Knight, to our surprise, objected while he took himself to the girl he hates sincerely and crouched down to her level, swallowing his pride that he'll probably barf out soon enough. "Even if it means throwing away my pride in this grudge, I'll take care of this. I let my grudge against her out of the leash, and knowing that she was going to die, I don't think I can ever stand myself without settling this beforehand when I had the chance. Well, this is the least I can do as a start to make up for earlier."

Okay, I'm gonna be blunt with you all about what happens next- can you ever imagine Meta Knight moving closer to Susie as if he was gonna be Prince Charming to kiss the Sleeping Beauty Susie with a lovey-dovey mood and special effects to further strengthen that assumption into conviction? Yeah, me neither.

Everyone was flabbergasted with the assumption of Meta actually kissing Susie- on the lips. Dinah was the one most infuriated. "Meta?! You dare try to suck her face?! I gave you your first smooch and now you dare do this to me?!"

"Meta, this isn't Sleeping Beauty!" Shouted Knuckle Joe. "That's so cliché, I can't even imagine you ever doing this at all!"

"Oh my god, I knew Meta was a tsundere!" Karly was fangirling over this. "Finally, what better way to repair a grudge than with a kiss?! Just look at them, aren't they lovely together like this?! And now their lips are about to lock onto each other as Meta goes in closer with one hand! Here it comes!"

"You're disgusting, Karly," Kirby gagged. "As much as this can be fanficitionally real right now, how do you find it romantic if the guy going for the kiss is holding a cup of coffee in his hand?"

"Of course, Kirby; it's perfect for- wait a minute, what the-?"

On second thought, we were complete fools for thinking that way because instead of a kiss, Susie was smacked with a cup of boiling hot coffee to the face at the moment their lips were about to touch, and if that wasn't worse enough, the entire cup shattered along with the toss because the splash was followed by getting smacked across the face with the cup itself!

The burn of hot coffee had instantly woken Susie up in pain, and the patty smack was just an overkill for her! She gagged and coughed and groaned in pain as she covered her face and rolled around like a carpet until finally she got herself controlled and glared viciously at Meta. Who does that to somebody?!

Dinah again was laughing in hysterics, so much that she couldn't almost breathe. "She just got dunked on- literally! I can't breathe, I can't even- HA-AH-HA-HA-HA!"

"AGH! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!" Susie roared, her face ironed in surprise coffee. "YOU CAN'T GO AROUND THROWING COFFEE IN WOMEN'S FACES LIKE THAT! AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A MAN?! JUST WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?! YOU CAN'T TREAT A LADY THAT WAY!"

Meta gave no response then, dropping the broken handle of the coffee cup that no one had no idea of where he got it from all of a sudden. I've heard of this kind of act before, but this might be the most brutal one yet. Why would he even do this? His response answers that question; he put on a troll look on his face and then he said:

"Watashi wa shin no danjo byōdō ni akogarete imasu. Josei no tokken ga jibun Ni atte ireba sore Ni tsuite katari, tsugō no yoi toki Ni darekaga `danseide wanai' to fumanwoiu hito Ni wa nintai ga arimasen!"

Susie was blank. "You just said that in Japanese, speak English so everyone can understand."

Meta Knight facepalmed himself. "I yearn for true gender equality. I have no patience for one who talks about the female privilege when it suits them, and then complains about someone "not being a man" when it's convenient!"

"...what are you trying to say?"

"I'm not a fan of those clichés, first of all, and secondly, I ain't a simp to women like yourself when you were possessed. I'm a savage."

The others that were captured before immediately turned to Bandana Dee in surprise and disbelief, especially Dedede and Bandana himself. "Ooh! Told y'all Meta would throw coffee in her face and then make a joke about gender equality!" He laughed, dancing all the while.

"Dang, that was a good call!" Dedede handed over some cash to him; seems like they made a bet. "So that makes so much more sense than it appeared to be! I didn't know Meta was really an advocate of true gender equality! All hail the mighty Kazuma."

"You said it, bro!" Aege gave a thumbs up and a grin; pretty much all the males were in complete harmonized agreement. Us females sweatdropped. "Males who defend the dignity of all men, we salute you!"

"Are you kidding me?! That's the reason why you hit me with a coffee cup with boiling coffee?!" Susie growled. A keyboard sound was constantly replaying manually, and Susie glanced at wherever that sound was coming from- it was Fololo and Jodie spamming the F key. "You two! Why are you messing with my keyboard?!"

"Nothing much. Just paying our respects to you," They replied. "F."

The president sighed and groaned, unable to reason with them. "Whatever happened to chivalry and decent men these days?"

"It got dunked on, and it's dead," Meta responded, laughing the entire time.

"You're a warrior, you just don't go around bashing women like that! You men are supposed to respect us ladies!" Susie jumped at Meta, only poking at his mask. "No matter what the ideal may be!"

"We're warriors, we don't discriminate without a good reason and not for reasons so petty. Besides, no one in the Smash Tournaments could really give two smash balls about the female privilege anyway. Kirby here is a good example of a warrior who doesn't discriminate; honestly, he really doesn't care who it may be, get in his way and he shows no mercy- unless he wants you to become his friend."

"Can't argue with that logic, although that never really occurred to me anyway," Kirby shrugged innocently. "But I see his point mostly and no offense to the females, but being a warrior and all, discrimination is a double-edged sword for both sides no matter how you look at it. Those who do are easy prey to their opponents; Smash Brothers never discriminates with female fighters, but I do question some of them every now and then. But Susie, don't you see? It's because of this that we were able to fight without holding back unless it's necessary. Jokes aside, warriors treat each gender as equals while setting up obvious boundaries; here, we're all more than just a band of warriors, we're best friends and this isn't really about gender centrally, it's about knowing when to settle things from going too far from a grudge and not to let those minor things stop you from forgiving. Let's face it, a single unsettled grudge can turn anybody into a murder; no one is exempt from that."

"That's true on so many levels," Dedede agreed. "I can say so firsthand myself. Just imagine what would've happened to Meta as well."

"Or maybe you should be imagining what would've happened if you hadn't met any of us?" Kirby brought up to Susie. "Thinking back on it, probably the first time we met would've been in a sense your last. I'll admit, I didn't want things to end up the way it did then, and I speak for everybody here when I say we don't want the same to happen to you. That's why we'll go as far as we have to just to save someone special to us all, even if we ourselves have to die for that. You're not alone and we're always there for you, don't forget that, Susie."

Kirby held out his hand again to Susie. "So, what do you say now?"

Susie hesitated to take it, but eventually after a sincere nod and a headpat from Meta and the cheery faces from us all, she smiled and took it. "Geez, I'd say as long as you don't go that philosophically deep, I'll take your word for it. And thank you and everybody else for everything; I'm sorry too. But you suck, Pinky."

"Isn't that kinda the point?" Niva and Adeline and the rest of the girls replied. Except me.

"Glad that we settled this and all," I said, suddenly finding myself infuriated gradually. "However, little Miss President owes us big time for our dignities being slapped to public embarrassment in the form of a magazine cover. Care to explain how you managed to get this exact photo of me along with everyone else's in here, buying the first purchase from Monokitsune himself in the swing of things?"

"I don't wanna talk about it," Susie responded, looking pale and traumatized. "Blame Dark Matter for that."

"Heh, so precious," Espera giggled. "I'll take care of that for you all. It's getting late, so you all should take it easy for now. Actually, I can do it in about a minute or 30 seconds flat if I felt like it. But why bother saying that when I already took care of it just now without your notice? You're lucky none of these issues went official, otherwise that would be the end of your social lives, am I right?"

"Oh, I knew I was forgetting something!" Kazela spoke. "Espera, maybe the other girls knew, but you personally never told us you had powers yourself at the beginning of this mess! Neonatricity, was it? I may be just speculating, but isn't that form of lightning a rare kind? It just seems like something that would come from the Ancients themselves."

Espera glared at me. "Your little sister is more perceptive than I thought. I wasn't expecting her to even deduce that fact alone."

"Really?" I asked.

"Pretty much, yeah," Niva stepped in. "Being a clockwork star and all, I'm able to tell anything that is part of the Ancients, and her powers is definitely one of them. It's a mystery how she really got them, yet it seems the only logical explanation would be that she has Ancient's blood in her and whatever granted her that ability by pure chance. That aside, it gave her the ability to produce a game that became reality and a mecha able to stand to another Ancient machine. Simply put, she had literally made technological creations worthy of being considered Ancient."

"And my earlier deductions were correct all along. To be honest, I thought that to be the case of my standing after the accident and a year of quarantine took place. Even though I wanted to make a company of my own, I wanted to find out why I got this power in the first place and if there was a reason behind this. A shame there can only be so much to find about them in research with cliffhangers and only uncertainty in events. But I suppose it would be helpful with someone who was made by the Ancients themselves. And even a bunch like you guys throws around for confusion in the matter; there's so much to consider, I don't know where to even start."

"The Ancients?" Susie perked up. "That reminds me, I've been trying to figure out the reason behind that personal accident of mine years ago and what made Star Dream the genocidal machine it is now. Ever since Dark Matter invaded you guys, I've tried calling Magolor multiple times on the matter, but he's never picked up after you all went to rescue Kailaine. So I also tried to look in behind every incident in the Cosmic Galaxy for a secret hidden in their motives behind kidnapping Kailaine and the rest of the other girls too. Of course, I accidentally opened up the program for Fatal Success, the key behind your successful escape and traced the location to the Halberd the moment Meta picked up the receiver on Skylight Star."

"Ah, that explains why you planted all of those trackers around my ship then, perhaps unintentionally," Meta replied.

"I guess by then one of those Zero Knights must've detected this and took action, leading to everything that happened before now in a matter of a few days. They really are going trigger happy after all, possessing the Godbeasts to even using any of us as puppets. Whatever the case, only half of our problems are solved. Now that Kailaine, Adeline and Niva is safe, we have to find the remaining two gem spirits to restore the Star Ring once again ASAP with no guarantee of interference from Dark Matter. I'll help out any way I can."

"Not so fast there," I stopped her. "It's been a heck of a crazy day, we'll figure out something tomorrow. And thanks for helping us back there when we were captured as well."

"Y-you're welcome, I guess. It's the least I could- hey!" Susie blushed; cut off after witnessing something disturbing to her- this time, the youngest of the party members were carrying boxes of food from her storage. "What are you kids doing?!"

"Helping ourselves to a box of Struggle O's- guaranteed to make sure you struggle through life because it's crap!" Jodie joked. "Nothing personal."

"You better not get your grubby hands on the supply of Peppy's I reserved for Meta worth two years! They were worth $500,000 in Point Star Currency!"

"All is forgiven," Meta automatically said to Susie.

"W-well, it's the least I could do after hearing what happened to your battleship."

"Did he seriously forgive Susie after hearing that?" Sirica sighed.

"That's Meta for ya, I think," Knuckle Joe shrugged. "Apparently some girl from the Zero Seven had ransacked his ship, so I guess it never hurts to forgive someone if they have what you want."

"This is great and all, but I'm tired! And hungry!" Aege yawned. "First, where's that robot from before? When I get married, I want him as my best man along with Saito!"

"But you can only have one best man at your wedding!" Saito said.

"That's a myth! You can never have too many best men in my eyes!"

"Good for you; can we call it a day now?" Kirby requested. "We've got a busy day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Yeah, let's do that," I agreed.

Retrolution Laboratory

Nighttime has fallen by then. Everyone had returned to the lab for the day as to speculate for the next day in a couple of hours. Almost everybody had hit the hay the moment they got there. I was going to as well when I was stopped by Mackenzie.

"Kaila, sorry about this, but there was something I wanted to tell you before everything transpired."

"Ah, sure. What is it?"

"It's just… rather, I should ask, is it true that one of the Zero Knights went out of their way to help you?"

"Hmm? Oh yes, that's right. Eclipse," I answered. "By far, he's the only one who did question his identity than anyone else. Along with that, he's plagued with memories not of his own; that makes him question more of his standing and his Master's motives. Maybe he's trying to figure out why he's the only one with those memories and not the other knights as well."

"Really? He never really went that deep into that, did he?" She asked; I shook no. "I can't guarantee how long he'll be like this, so you might wanna be careful around him, yet at the same time it does seem like he's speaking the truth, and I've been questioning their entire existence from the start; perhaps they have more history than we thought. But that's all I wanted to ask you, and it's only a theory, so I have yet to prove it entirely."

"Well, don't strain yourself about it too much, you've already done enough for us today," I pat her on the head. "And now I get the chance to say thank you."

Mackenzie blushed. "O-oh, it was nothing, really."

"Anyway, go get some rest. You deserve it," I smiled. Mackenzie nodded and went to turn in for the night and so did I.

This turned out to be one heck of a trip after all, I thought. Two more spirits to go on the next planet before we return home ironically. And soon, everything will go back to normal… I hope so. As I was about to crash in with Kazela next to me, discomforting groans were present around the room. I turned over a little bit around where the sound was coming from- both Kirby and Karly. I carefully went over to them to see what's going on.

"Kirby? Karly?" I whispered to them.

That's when I noticed something on their backs, an eerie glow was set on that particular area. Without physically checking, I could see right through it a strange symbol etched there like a tattoo. "What is this? Wait, could it be…? But that shouldn't be possible in their human state… nonetheless, I shouldn't disrupt the process, the least I should do is alleviate the pain for them."

And with a wave of my hand, I casted a healing aura around them, careful not to touch their backs at least. Their groans slowly melted into comfort once again, and I sighed with relief as I went back to my bed quietly. But I had also noticed that someone else wasn't around with the rest of us in the room, and I somehow knew who it was.

"Where is Adeline anyway? I guess she had to go relieve herself at this time of the night. She'll be back soon… I hope so." I couldn't stay awake at that point, so I'll have to end it off here for the time being.

Only a week and a half left, and just two more spirits to go. Tomorrow, that'll be our only chance. After that, then comes the Great Tribulation before the Final War.

Before that happens, let's just get some sleep and finish up our quest tomorrow. Good night, everyone.

Meanwhile…

"Upupupupupu! How I miss you, my dear collection!" A certain little fox sneered in amusement, surrounded by a collection of magazines filled with all of a male's guilty pleasures. "Now I've got myself a load of them to get me through the promised month, the season of receiving permission to let it all out; only a week and a half left to go! Nothing can ever ruin this moment!"

Unfortunately, before the fox knew it, that supply of magazines, the very ones that drove everybody wild were reduced to ashes before him, and he recognized those flames anywhere. "I wouldn't get so smug if I were you."

"Y-Yae?! What are you doing here?!" Monokitsune yelped.

"It's simple: you and I are gonna have a little talk about your disgusting ideals; it'll only take a few," Yae the fox princess wickedly smiled, already going yandere mode.

"Wait Yae, let's not doing anything you might regret!"

"Oh, you will regret it- I won't. And for your next dirty magazine, how about a little more PG and a lot less 13? You sick little pervert," Yae growled, raising her leg to axe him and swung. Monokitsune already evaded and the swing caused a hole in the floor.

"That's disgusting, what's wrong with you?! Even I wouldn't stoop to that kind of impropriety; we live in a society! Besides, you'd be dead if I hadn't given you all that magazine with the code in it! And I am not a pervert either!" Monokitsune refuted.

"So tell me, what are you then?"

Monokitsune smirked. "I'm a big one!" That's even worse.

"Oh. Great. That makes all the difference," Yae said calmly. "In that case, I'll overlook this. But it's gonna cost you."

"Cost me what?" The fox cub gulped; surprised when Yae warped in front of him.

"Your collection. Hand them all over," Yae threatened. "Consider that your punishment."

"Or what? You cannot discipline your master!" Monokitsune stood his ground- shrunk back when his neck was cornered by Yae's high heel against the wall. He suddenly gasped at her expression. "Oh no, Yae! Your eyes-! You wouldn't dare use Sin of Lust!"

"Of course I would," Yae slurped her arm lustfully, holding a nine-tails whip and a bloodstained executioner's knife that can decapitate heads in one shot; her eyes were shaded pink for lust and red for blood. One of her deadly personas ever- the Sin of Lust, making Yae go yandere with a sick pleasure infecting her cognitive state as she can take down a palace of targets with ease while she enjoys it. "And I will. You're gonna have a bad time, Master. Say your goodbyes to your precious streak, you big pervert! IT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!"

"Wait Yae! I was just kidding! Stop it, stop it! AAAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The crack of a whip settled it.

And I think you know of his fate right now. And coincidentally back at Techno Star, the sound of a single key being spammed droned on by two boys, almost like they knew this was gonna happen. I guess the lesson here is to never repeat what that fox has done, even though it saved everyone, especially if you're trying to win a monthly challenge of that time of the year done by real men of culture.

So if you have a keyboard right now, press F to pay your respects for our fallen comrade, Monokitsune. He will be missed surely.

Well, so much for No Nut November.

Now Saving… Save Complete!

To be continued for World 7: Blizzard Star…

World 6: Techno Star Complete! End of Chapter 6!

Author's Note Summary:

Note to self: I really gotta stop writing that much in one chapter. This one was worth over 25000 words in total and about 56-58 pages in Word! All in a month as well! Holy crap. I really am insane; probably the highest anyone has ever written so far to my knowledge. Oh well, at least it was worthwhile for you guys. Anyway, although pretty long, I still hope you enjoyed it. I had to break my butt for this and I kinda got lazy over the break and I had a lot to do anyways so there's that. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Before that, I wanted to say for those who haven't read the profile that I was thinking of putting in some of my original stories on the site, some under the Kirby archive and such from Creative Writing last year. Two stories I've written as assignments were based on Persona 3 and 4; problem is, I had to edit lots of things in there just so my teacher wouldn't notice the source material and give me a bad grade, something I couldn't afford that time. So if you really know the Persona series, you should be able to notice the major differences and not give me sass about it. I'll explain more in the future, but that's the gist of it, so if you want to see them, let me know in your reviews and yeah.

Now let's get into the story here. Lots of things to cover, and what better way to start than with fanservice? Don't ask me what the heck I was thinking there. You should be asking about what went down with Espera. Surprise, she has powers! Neonatricity; I have been watching a lot of Hunter X Hunter and Killua is my favorite, so that's the inspiration behind her powers that is similar to Godspeed. Further on, Neonatricity has been confirmed by Niva as an ability of the Ancients themselves, so that certainly raises some eyebrows, huh? That accident and her year in quarantine explains how she also met Zeta. Pretty dark stuff there.

The fight against Susie was the one I had trouble trying to write down. I wanted to make her stand out different while keeping true to her original choreography in Planet Robobot, and I'm sorry that I didn't use all of her attacks like I should've. At least it was entertaining, right? Also, I thought it'd be interesting to see what happens if the victim was conscious the whole time and made your job easier for you. Oh man, Meta Knight was really triggered and savage the whole fight, and he got clapped anyway! Even so, this version of Susie is harder than the one in the True Arena.

Still, she was defeated in a way no one ever saw coming by Kailaine after a few times of embarrassment came her way. And the way she speaks then should probably get you questioning about things. Like I said, to my knowledge, it's a pretty rare case for someone to break out of the puppeteer's control, especially if it was someone like Dark Matter. The only common effective method is to really just beat the stuffing out of them until the mastermind eventually leaves the host in Kirby games. Kirby, however, managed to actually talk his way into breaking the possession state on Susie and it worked… if it wasn't for Star Dream interfering. Of course, everything escalated quickly after that with Susie being abducted for her soul and erasing all of reality itself.

And that's where the main mechanic of this fight comes in- the Robobot Armor and the Daemon Breaker gives you Super Mecha NeonaKirby! I've always wanted to do a robot fight somewhere in the story and with Planet Robobot, this does come out as a surprise but not impossible, don't you think? I mean, who doesn't like robot fights? Those who don't clearly haven't watched Power Rangers as a kid, back when TV was worth watching then. By the way, what's your favorite season? My top favorite are tied with Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, SPD, Mystic Force, Operation Overdrive, Jungle Fury, RPM, and even Samurai which I've seen a lot on TV for some reason. Personally, the winner has to be Jungle Fury. So after the transformation, everyone goes onboard except for Meta, who's probably traumatized still of robots, so Espera shoves him in as they go off to kill Star Dream.

Now for the main attraction, the super robot battle! Just like the Robobot Armor in the game, Neona can also scan objects for abilities as well as having the Star Cannon from the RoboHalberd. Neona is actually sentient once it was reawakened by Kirby, so the entire fight was entirely in Neona's point of view, up until the third phase. With the extra shot that he fired at Star Dream, that's how Espera was able to ransack the heart and made it to Susie in Star Dream's Evolionas Godbeast mode where she has to destroy the core with her powers; similar to the Heart of Nova secret boss in the True Arena, but when it activated the code once again, things went south.

Just be honest- did you really have a hard time trying to figure out the second code or did you already but didn't know the meaning behind those words? Whatever reason it may be, it's all explained through little hints in the previous chapter and the context of everyone's sentences along with the tone depicted too. And that code was Star Dream's undoing in the end. Of course, you know how Star Dream went out in Robobot- the Giga Drill Breaker! And Star Dream was defeated- again. To be honest, writing out the entire fights gave me a creative burnout for a while but it was worth it all.

The aftermath was full of references and surprises. And it all starts with that misdirection of Meta trying to kiss Susie, only to slay her with hot coffee. My favorite part was the joke of Meta wanting true gender equality this whole time, and I also had a reason for adding that in here as well. Consider this the surprise for the Kirby Questionnaire story. And not only that, but Bandana Dee also called it and won the bet he made with Dedede when they were captured, Jodie and Fololo paid their respects with the F key to Susie, and Susie makes up with Meta when moved by Kirby's speech and said he sucks.

Well, isn't that kinda the point? You can also agree with the points made honestly, right? Also, the greatest mystery of Starlight starring the princess and the queen was revealed, but I hope it does make sense to you all at least a little. I won't mind if you ask me again about it, somehow I do tend to complicate certain things. With that, Techno Star has been all wrapped up and everyone rests easy for the night with the exception of Kirby and Karly's Winglenovia symptoms taking over them again. What's the lore behind their puberty? Only time will tell.

That wraps about everything up so far. I'm unfortunately at my limit for this chapter as I suffer creative burnout in any case all writers do have that at some point. Again, sorry this was so long for you to handle and read, but I still hope it was worth the wait for you guys. Next chapter can be guaranteed a decent length and not so long. The side chapter might be with Eclipse again, but not entirely. Meh, I haven't planned that far on this, but I'll figure out something by then, hopefully before winter break comes in, I'll be out all two weeks on a trip! Also, once again, let me know if you want to see some of my written works after this in your reviews; your thoughts, likes, dislikes, and ideas for improvement are also welcome as well as constructive criticism- no flames. Thanks for being patient and bearing with me on this, and so I bid you see ya later!

P.S. Press F to pay respects for Monokitsune.