Off in the distance, the sky was starting to turn shades of orange and the sun was more in the east than overhead, giving a pretty yellow tint to the edges of some of the clouds in that direction. There had certainly been plenty of adventuring to fill the day, and Kirby certainly wouldn't turn down watching the sunset from an island in the ocean or from the shores of the beach with his friends, depending on how the rest of their trip went. That would, of course, have to wait a bit longer- the bigger blip on the radar was still a little further off, and they weren't heading back without that golden space shell. What looked like a larger island was rising up on the horizon, and though its features weren't too clear, it too had slate cliffs and sandy banks, albeit not appearing as tall as the cliffs they'd trekked on earlier. It still wouldn't hurt to have someone casing out the upper reaches, but they wouldn't necessarily dwarf whoever was down below.
"When we get back, what are you guys thinking for dinner?" Kirby mused, giving the radar a glance then looking back to the horizon. "I think it'd be fun to go fishing- we can cook them over a fire and watch the sunset, then maybe roast some marshmallows and tell stories before bed…~" He started to grin, thinking of the sweet gooey treat roasting over a flame.
Magolor chuckled. "Hungry as always.~"
"Oooh! That sounds good!" Bandana Waddle Dee concurred, giving the pink one a glance. "I mean, if we're on the beach, that's like an unspoken rule! We have to go fishing at least once!"
"I could totally eat a fish too," Magolor too agreed.
"Fine by me," Nem wasn't going to protest. "Can I light the fire?"
"You lit it last time," Kirby said, giving her a glance. "Let someone else have a turn this time."
The robot didn't seem too thrilled at letting someone else do it, but she nonetheless didn't protest that either and mused a simple, "So that's how it is…"
"Hey, Nem," Bandana Waddle Dee inquired, glancing over, "what kind of food did they have on your homeworld? Was it anything like what we have here?"
"Oh, I bet you'd just love it," the robot lass mused with a smirk, her eyeless socket narrowing.
The one on the raft perked up. "So it was good!" he exclaimed. "Do you have recipes?"
The armored one gave a jolt and exclaimed a quick "Gyah-!" before easing up and glancing over. "Sorry, that wasn't directed at you guys. On my homeworld, it was rich and tasted like sin."
The spear-toting one deflated. "Oh, sheesh, like sin…? That must've been some awful food…"
Kirby too couldn't help but to get drooping eyes, glancing at the robot lass as he mused, "If even the food was bad on your homeworld…"
Magolor, though, couldn't help but to giggle, shaking his head haplessly. "You two are so pure and sweet...~"
Kirby looked to him next and asked with a befuddled face, "I mean, yes, but… what's that got to do with it?"
"Don't worry about it," Nem said, getting a slightly amused look herself before adjusting her hat slightly.
The pink one eyed the robot and the magician both, not quite sure what to make of their antics, but nonetheless let it go when a Squishy peeked up at him beside his raft and quickly lurched out of the water. He pointed his cannon at his aquatic company and fired, a sploosh sounding as it plopped back in the water along with a cannonball a short distance away.
"Hey, Kirby," Nem said, giving the pink puffball a glance.
"Yeah?" Kirby replied, returning her gaze.
She eyed him for a second before keeping on, "You don't really strike me as the warrior type… but that's what you are, isn't it? I mean… when Digi was studying my meteorite, those two-" she glanced to Magolor and Bandana Waddle Dee, "-were saying you're a hero and you've been in all these fights. I wouldn't have expected someone small and sweet to be so sturdy."
He thought for a second before replying, "Well, I guess you could call me a warrior. If Popstar's in trouble, I go fix it, and there's always a fight."
"He's not someone you wanna mess with," Magolor added. "I made that mistake once."
"We can all rest easy when Kirby's around," Bandana Waddle Dee concurred.
The pink puffball gave her an inquisitive look, asking amiably, "What's a warrior to you, Nem?"
She got an awkward smirk as she replied, "Someone you can count on to run straight into hell, hit hard, not back down, and come back laughing."
Kirby eyed her for a second, smiling. For as awkward as she looked while describing the concept, she didn't seem to be talking about anything strange or foreign. She certainly had different ideas of what 'normal' was, but this… this was the same. She laughed because she apparently enjoyed the thrill of a fight, and he laughed because it was another lovely day in Popstar once the fight was over… but it was still laughter.
"Well, then that fits us both!" the pink puffball said, giggling.
Somehow, though, her expression got even more awkward even as she acquiesced, "I guess it does.~" Still, she eased up after a moment and mused, "So that's how it is here… I'm just used to warriors being a bunch of loud mouths that break stuff for fun. Not… whatever you are."
Kirby giggled, looking ahead again. "Well, there's a lot of ways to have fun that don't involve breaking things."
"Sounds like the ones where you come from just need to stop and smell the roses," Bandana Waddle Dee added.
The robot herself didn't protest such, getting a smirk and adjusting her hat a bit more. "You know, I like it here," she declared simply. "You guys are alright."
It was Magolor's turn to giggle. "Popstar is just like that.~ You come here and you like it.~"
"Speaking of coming here," Nem said, looking to the magician, "just where are you from? You aren't a native either."
The one in question winked and playfully made a shushing gesture. "It's a secret.~"
"Aren't you from Halcandra?" Bandana Waddle Dee piped up, casting a glance to the magician too. "You didn't keep that secret from us, at least."
"No, that was a lie," Kirby chimed in. "He told me."
The spear-toting one got wide eyes for a moment and exclaimed with a slight jolt, "Wait, you lied about that too?!" He haplessly deflated moments later. "Sheesh, I guess it's obvious now, but still…"
Nem, however, studied Magolor with her intact eye and quickly glanced between the other two with a befuddled expression. "Gyah…?" her voice trailed off.
"It's a long story," Magolor brushed it off, glancing to Nem for a moment. "But Kirby's right. I'm not from Halcandra."
At that moment, Nem dipped under the surface to do some more yelling, making a splash and causing the water to stir for a second. Magolor put up a barrier to shield himself from the water droplets, and Kirby's raft and Bandana Waddle Dee bobbed around for a second with some steam bubbles coming to the surface between them from the robot's empty socket.
"If that hat is her friend, they must've had a biiiiiiiig fight," Kirby mused simply, glancing at the bubbling surface and popping a few with his sabre.
"Looks like they're having a big fight," Bandana Waddle Dee said, likewise glancing at the bubbles.
"Maybe if she just turned herself on and off again," Magolor proposed. "She is a machine, and that's basic troubleshooting…"
Soon enough, though, she popped back up, her hat still firmly in place, and as if nothing had happened, turned to the magician to inquire, "The heck is your fixation with Halcandra then, huh? What's so great about that place?"
"It's got cool artifacts!" Magolor explained. "It's where I excavated the Lor, actually. Their civilization is gone now, just a dusty mess in its place, but there's all sorts of unknown technology and mysterious magic buried there… At least, that's what the legends say. I just had to spend time checking it out."
The armored one snickered, getting a quizzical look. "Sounds like they weren't so legendary if they couldn't stop themselves from becoming a dusty mess. You sure you wanna idolize that?"
The magician deflated, giving her an unamused look. "Oh, come on, Nem! Here I am spilling my heart, and you just rip it out like that!"
A hearty "Gyahahaha!" followed, Magolor shaking his head disapprovingly.
. . . . .
After a bit of swimming and drifting in the sea, the other entourage caught glimpse of an island in the general vicinity of the radar blip they sought- much like the last, it seemed big enough to have a picnic on but not much else. A few smallish bushes seemed to sprout from the ground along with a lone palm tree, and from the positioning of the blip, the last celestial eggshell must've been on that island. One thing was fairly noticeable- there were no Blippers to playfully nibble at the ones in the water, not even any Barracus to try chomping them, and no birds flew overhead either. That made getting there easier, of course, but after a day of fending off biting Barracus, flinging off Flotzos that weren't happy to see them, and chasing away Blippers that were just a little too curious, it was odd. Storo could float along with ease, Spinni perched in one of the shell halves he kept hold of, and Digi and Meta Knight hovered and flapped over the water without any apparent need to fend off creatures in it.
"Fewer signs of life detected," Digi noted, glancing around. "Something is different…"
"The woods get quiet when a hunter is on the prowl- it could be the same principle," Meta Knight mused. "We're further away from the beach, so the fish in these waters might not be so accustomed to bigger figures floating on the surface… or another hatchling is to blame for scaring them off."
Spinni peeked over the edge of the meteorite half he drifted in. "I don't wanna look down and see a giant dragon mouth trying to swallow up our treasure…"
"Tell me if you do," Storo said, giving him a glance. "I'd need to move…"
Digi, on the other hand, had other ideas, his UFO shaking for a second. "No, no, this is different," he said quickly. "I'm picking up signals! Not encoded messages or a transponder or a radio broadcast but… signals! Energy in the air! Something powerful but compressed and… unstable! If I wasn't looking at the sky to know, I'd say it was prime condition for a thunderstorm, but to see a storm this close to the ground is… an extremely uncommon phenomenon."
"We know we're likely not alone," Meta Knight noted. "It quite possibly could be a comrade of the hatchling we fought seeking revenge. Stay alert in case it ambushes us."
They certainly did exactly that, but once they reached the small island's shore, the target of their search could not have been more obvious. Two halves of a golden celestial eggshell were perched right in the middle of the sandy ground, one on top of the other with the top piece mostly positioned where it had broken off but being slightly crooked. It was a somewhat odd sight, as if the dragon had tried to put its egg back together after it had left, but either way, the only company on the island getting in their way was a Totenga that Meta Knight quickly sliced down with his sword. Their shining target was a sitting duck, just laying out in the open and practically begging someone to run off with it.
Spinni certainly wasted no time in trying to do exactly that, leaping out of the golden shell piece he'd been in and darting over to the one on the island. "This rules!" he exclaimed with glee. "This one doesn't even need us to fight a hatchling or chase off birds! It can't get any easier!"
"Hold on!" Digi cried, flying after him. "The signals are coming from it! Be careful! There might be something inside!"
The shade-wearing Squeak simply moved too fast for his comrade's words to be to much avail. Storo carefully made sure the other golden pieces he lugged with him were safely on the shore, but Meta Knight, on the other hand, got narrowed eyes at the halves they'd just found and drew his sword. The moment Spinni touched the golden meteorite pieces, they started to shake, not as aggressively as the first egg had but certainly enough to make his hand recoil just in case something tried to bite it off.
"Get back!" Meta Knight hollered.
The shade-wearing Squeak certainly did just that as the top piece rose off the bottom piece and a big eyeball stared back at him, wearing the top piece like a 'hat' (if an eyeball was capable of such). The masked one certainly knew who the eyeball belonged to, and it wasn't a dragon- it was Kracko, apparently using the golden shell as a cozy place to take a rest. He didn't seem too happy about being disturbed from the way the rest of his body quickly took form and began to spark, a fluffy cloud manifesting around his eye and metallic spikes shooting out of the fluff. The bottom half of the eggshell still rested on the ground, but the top half was perched on Kracko himself, two of the spikes keeping it from falling off of his back.
"Ooookay, those spikes are shiny and pretty too, but something tells me we can't steal those!" Spinni exclaimed.
"That's where your mind goes?!" Meta Knight said in exasperated disbelief, shooting Spinni an glance.
"Hostility detected!" Digi hollered, his UFO shaking again. "M-maybe I should've considered that the instability in the air like a thunderstorm was Kracko!"
Kracko, on the other hand, wasn't interested in playing around, even if he did float backwards away from the entourage. He sparked for a moment before dropping a wicked lightning bolt onto the water, making the surface thereof spark for a moment too. Storo backed away from the water's edge and Spinni gave a jolt of surprise, for even if they hadn't been in the water, knowing what would've happened if they had been was a frightening thought.
"Oh no…" Storo's voice trailed off. "He's not gonna let us leave easy…"
"Then fight we must!" Meta Knight declared, his wings unfolding.
"Activating cannon mode!" Digi exclaimed, his UFO shifting to have cannons mounted to the outside again.
"Can't we have one easy heist?!" Spinni protested, filling his hands with shurikens.
Kracko, though, was absolutely on the offensive shortly thereafter, for his body sparked for a moment before two beams akin to a Waddle Doo's signature ability shot out from his fluff and spun around him. Shurikens were fended off as Spinni threw them, and Meta Knight avoided directly slashing him for the beam whips. Digi fired an energy projectile from both cannons, but those both sailed over Kracko as he got lower to the ground and flew directly at the entourage. Storo grabbed one of the bigger meteor-egg pieces and held it in front of himself like a shield, his two smaller comrades quickly rushing to take shelter behind him, while Meta Knight flew upwards. A few crescent shots from the masked one's sword cut through some of Kracko's fluff and dislodged the eggshell piece on the storm cloud's spikes, albeit leaving the golden surface more scratched than it had been moments prior.
"Be careful with precious objects, will you?!" Spinni cried in dismay.
The knight didn't bother to answer, not worried about its shining surface if the runes inside were still readable.
Storo, on the other hand, gave a hard shove at Kracko's eye with his improvised eggshell shield, which had substantially less impact on its metallic surface. The storm cloud twitched in pain and backed off without sweeping them into the water, albeit dropping a lightning bolt as he rose further up. Had the thundercloud stayed in place, such wouldn't have been too concerning, but when he started to chase them with it, everyone scrambled.
"Sheesh! Talk about not wanting to be disturbed!" Spinni exclaimed, darting away while lobbing some more shurikens.
"A small island on the open sea is one of the most hazardous places to be during an electrical storm…!" Digi bemoaned, charging up his cannons.
The moment the lightning stopped, Kracko had Meta Knight's crescent shots, energy projectiles from Digi, and shurikens from Spinni coming right at him, but not all of them were as effective as they otherwise would've been seeing as two more spinning beams started to whip around him again to fend some of the hits off. However, the thundercloud himself fired off a barrage of energy projectiles much like the ones making up a Waddle Doo's beam in rapid succession at all of his targets, making Storo hold up the same big shell as a shield while the other three tried their best to dodge.
"Yeeargh!" Spinni cried, getting hit by one.
"Hostile force intercepted…!" Digi exclaimed, his UFO shaking and stuttering for a second after likewise taking a hit.
Meta Knight, though, was able to deflect the ones aimed at him with his sword, quickly flying into action afterwards. With a flap of his wings, he was rushing at the storm cloud, sword pointed at his eye, but sparks crackling along Kracko's body made the masked one change tactics and fly overhead instead while sending down another crescent shot. That apparently set Kracko off enough to let loose, for the way his fluff rippled and shifted for a moment was akin to a creature with hands shaking their fist. Moments later, like a cyclone throwing debris, a barrage of objects came flying out of Kracko's fluff- a tattered umbrella, an old barrel, a broken tree branch, a detached weather vane, even a coconut that quickly exploded the moment it touched the ground. Meta Knight let the broken tree branch sail past and land in the water with a flap of his wings, while Storo held up the big eggshell piece as a shield, Digi flew behind it along with him, and Spinni set to evading.
"Jeez, Kracko!" Spinni hollered, narrowly avoiding the tip of the umbrella to his face.
The old barrel shattered to bits against Storo's makeshift shield, and the impact of the coconut explosion was less easily felt behind the heavy rock surface too. The weather vane stuck straight upright into the sand, clearly not being much use in its current situation.
"Urgh, with force like that, leaving dents on a shiny metal surface is at least fifty percent likely…!" Digi haplessly noted at the barrel's impact.
"I hope it didn't, but we really can't use anything else…!" Storo likewise said.
Nonetheless, the smallest Squeak zipped out from behind the shell, his cannons charging up, and quickly fired another set of energy projectiles at the storm cloud. One went straight through his fluff, but the other, however, nailed him right in the eye. Kracko twitched, his fluff shifting and rippling again while tears started to form at the edges of his eye.
"Take cover!" Meta Knight exclaimed, noticing the cloud's flustered state and flying further upwards himself.
"Over here!" Storo called, holding the big golden piece over his head.
Spinni and Digi both flocked over to their larger comrade, and the storm cloud himself flew directly over him while a deluge that was more akin to a waterfall than anything burst forth from Kracko's fluff. Storo's arms buckled for just a second, but with the celestial eggshell overhead, they weren't bothered by the more-than-torrential downpour.
"Well, here's some scientific basis for rain being the tears of sad clouds," Digi remarked, glancing at the water being deflected around them. "Note to self- never make this one cry again…"
Crrrrrrack!
They quickly took note of something else too- lightning bolts shooting out in multiple directions. Maybe the downpour was targeting them, but the lightning bolts were undoubtedly targeting Meta Knight, who was still in the air over the storm cloud. They didn't hit the masked one, but they sure did hit- the lone palm tree's leaves burst into flame when they were struck, and the smallish bushes likewise caught fire when a bolt hit them too. The ones under the deluge gave a jolt of fright, for even if they were surrounded by water they could use to put it out, Kracko's bolts would have a much easier time giving them the shock of their lives if they touched the sea.
"Significant environmental threat detected…!" Digi's voice trailed off in fright.
"Oh, come on!" Spinni shouted.
Meta Knight, however, received a shock from a bolt zapping one wing but was mostly fine- he stalled in the air for a second, but nonetheless shook it off. Still, one good hit was probably all that was needed to quell the raging storm cloud… and sparking or not, Meta Knight was going to give it. He flew directly over the storm cloud, pointing his sword at where his eyeball likely was under the fluff, and dove down, sparks be damned.
"Augh!" came a shout from the masked one as he took the jolt.
"Meta Knight! Are you okay?!" came a shout from Spinni underneath the fluff.
Either way, his sword certainly connected with something, and quickly, the sparks and the deluge both stopped. The fluff started to dissipate too, and the knight landed on the ground shortly to see what was going on, albeit still pointing his sword up at their stormy company. Kracko's eye shot wide, his spikes retracting into his fluff and his fluff dissipating, leaving nothing but his eyeball floating in place. The Squeaks certainly took notice of their situation and gave a glance too, Storo putting down the golden piece and Spinni and Digi rushing closer to Meta Knight.
Poof!
With one last blink, Kracko's eye popped like a balloon, leaving nothing behind save for the scattered debris and obvious lightning damage.
"It's over; we've won," Meta Knight declared, easing up.
"Sheesh!" Spinni exclaimed, frowning at where Kracko had been. "I don't like getting bothered while I'm resting either, but that was ridiculous!"
Storo, though, took a glance at the flaming tree and shrubbery and mused a soft, "Um, guys… I don't think we should call Kirby right away about this one."
"I calculate that this place will be a smoke inhalation hazard in less than three minutes," Digi too piped up.
"Let's go," Meta Knight said quickly, darting over to the bottom half that Kracko had left in place and quickly pushing it towards the water. "We got what we came for."
Between him and Storo quickly arranging them in ways easily stacked and carried, the entourage was on the water again, heading back towards the ships while the island behind them turned from an island oasis into an ashen pile of sand.
. . . . .
The waves on the yellow sandy shore, the bright green vines with delicate yellow flowers snaking around the rocky slate grey cliff sides, the lush bushes with pink flowers surrounding them, and the pinkish tint creeping into the sky against the blue water made a serene sight as Kirby's entourage made their way onto the island. It wasn't wasn't huge but was still spacious enough for a good game of hide and seek, and though the slate cliffs didn't tower overhead, being about four Kirbies tall at max, most of the grey stacks appeared to need flying to reach seeing as they were majority rather steep. A small pond made from a big indent where a slate stack likely used to stand was at the base of one steep edge, over which spread the branches of a palm tree. There looked to be a fairly clear, if not winding, path between the rocks, something like a miniature canyon, where the sand was drier but flowering vines still snaked between and over. Maybe it would've been a nice place for birds to nest or butterflies to make their home… but nothing stirred. The only sounds were that of the waves lapping at the sand and the soft, wet sounds of the damp sand being pushed down as three figures walked on it- no birds sang or flew overhead, no bugs buzzed, no ground-dwelling creatures used their voices or walked around, and no Blippers jumped in the waters around them.
What easily stood out, however, were what looked like tracks in the wet sand- two vastly different sets at that. One was large and deep, appearing to have three forward-pointing digits with deep indents at their tips that likely stemmed from a set of claws, the ground still pressed slightly down between them to indicate a webbed appendage. The second was much smaller, some of them even being present inside of the larger prints, not pressing down nearly as deep but having the obvious markings of the bottom of a shoe. The third didn't look like feet at all, instead being a steady indent that wove around like something slithering, but was still small enough to trek through the larger prints. Clear gaps were visible between the smaller ones, the ones resembling feet and the winding indentations both appearing to wander around for short distances before stopping entirely as if whatever was making them had left the ground. The bigger ones, on the other hand, were too spaced out to tell what direction they walked in- clearly, they belonged to something massive.
Kirby immediately darted for one bigger print, peering down inside of it for a second before jumping in. He could comfortably fit inside it, having room to walk in a tiny circle without brushing its edges, and though its depth didn't swallow him up, his eyes just barely peeked over the edge. "Wow," he mused, inspecting it and leaving his own damp tracks inside it, "this one is big. I don't think something this big could hide on an island…"
"If I didn't know better, I'd call this the tracks of the world's biggest duck," Bandana Waddle Dee noted, studying it from its perimeter. "If ducks had claws, anyway…"
"Oooh!" Kirby exclaimed, perking up and turning his gaze to his spear-toting friend. "If a duck that big exists, you think it'd let us ride on its back?"
"Wouldn't that be fun?" Bandana Waddle Dee replied, likewise perking up at the idea.
"This one looks bigger than the last one," Nem remarked with different ideas, flying over it and peering down. "Gyahaha! That's what I like to see!"
"Well, let's hope it's out for a swim so we can steal its egg undetected," Magolor said, likewise floating over it. "This place is too quiet. It looks like an island oasis but there's nothing here. It's giving me a weird vibe."
"Right," Kirby replied, crawling out with a helping hand from Bandana Waddle Dee. He gave a glance down to the radar and kept on, "It should be on this island. Just a little further and-"
Whatever he was going to say was quickly drowned out by a powerful roar that had the volume and feeling of a bomb going off. Bandana Waddle Dee shrunk up in fright for a second, Magolor gave a jolt of surprise, one of Nem's hands went straight to her axe, and Kirby immediately turned toward the sound's direction. There wasn't a giant head peeking up over the cliffs, or a giant figure in the sky, but something had to have made that giant sound.
Nem apparently wasn't going to waste any time finding out what, for she had her axe clutched tightly in her hands as she flew off, shouting, "Come here, beastie! Let me send you straight to hell!"
"Nem!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed, haplessly watching her vanish into the clefts of the slate.
Magolor let out a sigh, visibly deflating. "So much for an easy steal…"
Kirby, however, was already running off. "Let's go, guys! Nem isn't going alone and that thing sounds big!"
Shortly, though, he felt something grabbing his hand, and a quick glance revealed none other than Magolor, who also had Bandana Waddle Dee by one hand. Flying over the slate cliffs would surely be faster than running through their path, and apparently the magician intended to do that, for shortly none of them were touching the ground and the slate stacks were below them. A loud wham graced their senses from further ahead, probably Nem smashing rocks in her way without a care from the clattering that followed afterwards, but going over the rocks confirmed what seemed to be true already- there was no other creature on the island, not even a Gordo making a hiding place of the crags. For a pleasant-looking island oasis, nothing wanted to make their home on it… and the reasons were probably about to become clear.
Nem, on the other hand, made quick work of the rocks in her way by bursting through them with a hard swing of her axe and found herself looking at the other side of the island shortly, where a small sandy beach sprawled with a few scattered palm trees… or at least, what used to be a beach with palm trees. In the middle of the sand was a glassy crater that was partially filled with water, at the bottom of which was a fragmented meteorite with a golden sheen on its outside and the sea green glow of some obscured ancient text that peeked out between its busted pieces. It was big, too- noticeably bigger than the one she'd crashed in on, and that one was already big enough to have an entourage perching on its edges. The glassy coating to the crater had noticeable cracks and claw marks, and one of the palm trees was missing its canopy as well as a large portion of its trunk with jagged but not-random cuts across the remaining stump like something huge had bitten it off. Even the slate stacks, thick pieces of solid rock, appeared to have bites taken out of them. Clearly, the meteor-egg had crashed onto the beach, and the beast that came out of it had likely devoured anything that hadn't run away.
The beast itself wasn't too far away, a long neck with an angular head coming up out of the water along with the upper part of a sleek body with two webbed forelimbs that appeared to be grabbing the edge of the beach itself. A long tail also poked out of the water, the end of which had a fin on either side like the rudder of a ship. Its scales were a deep blue with lighter streaks akin to the pattern of waves on the surface of the water, and the sun's light reflected off of them brightly much like it would the sea. Its underside brought to mind sand with its pale yellow hue, appearing more matte than shiny. One big set of beady, solid bright sea green eyes peered back from its face, but that wasn't the dragon's only set of eyes- a smaller set was further back on its face closer to its jawline, and one more set was on either side of its neck where its head connected, all three sets blinking at different intervals. Its jaws hung slightly open, and one enormous set of slender, pointy fangs jutted out over its lips, but less easily visible inside were several rows of pointy teeth that probably had claimed the lives of plenty of smaller creatures.
And it appeared a smaller creature was drawing its attention at that very moment, for on the edge of the beach, with the dragon's snout probably less than a meter away, was another figure- small, round, pale lavender in color, with brown shoes and a jester hat that was blue on one half and red on the other. He balanced atop a beach ball that floated in the water, his feet scurrying while it rolled on the surface without actually going anywhere. The dragon's big set of eyes peered directly at him, but strangely enough, it wasn't swallowing him. It didn't even appear to be hostile- maybe its jaws were slightly open, but they weren't snapping.
"Yeah! That's right!" said the small one on the ball. "ROOOOAAAAAAAR! I'm gonna die!"
Oddly enough, the beast responded. "I'm gonna die."
"Ohohoho, you got it, big guy- huh?!"
Nem wasn't wasting any time in swinging her axe straight at the smaller round figure, who got wide- at least, wider, seeing as they bulged out of his head anyway- eyes but still looked perfectly content even as her axe, the edges glowing with heat and scattering embers, cleaved straight through him. Nem's intact eye was narrowed and her mouth curved more into a big smirk, giving her a wild expression, but even as her target's body was sliced in half, his face on either side smiled even wider. The halves of his body split apart, a bright blue sticky substance oozing out and golden-framed wings sprouting from his back, and a black hole opened between them.
"WHAT?!" Nem hollered, her expression going from mirth to shock.
The black hole's pull was easily felt, but she was far more worried about her hat being sucked up than she was her own body, one hand quickly grabbing it before it could leave her head while she gave a hard flap of her wings to get out of the way. She landed on the water's edge, her intact eye narrowing while sparks welled up in her empty socket, and the lavender one giggled mischievously while the halves of his body reattached like nothing had ever been wrong. The dragon behind him growled a bit, looking between him and Nem, but not making a move yet.
"Holy fuck, this one…" the armored one muttered.
"Hey, hey, hey!" her target exclaimed, his eyes locking on her.
He dove down into the water, shoving his ball underneath the surface with his head too and seemingly disappearing with an ethereal purple smoke lingering over the water. Nem stepped back, taking her axe in both hands again, and when that same purple smoke started to collect on the sand and he shot out in front of her moments later, she swung again. A quickly-closing black hole was visible for just a few moments where he'd made his appearance, but shortly there was only purple smoke in its place that dissipated almost as quick. Her axe cleaved him in half again, his eyes on one half above and his mouth below.
"What's the big idea, huh~?" his mouth asked, the blue liquid that seeped out on the bottom half oddly reaching upwards towards the half with his eyes. "Did I piss you off~? You don't look familiar…"
Both halves of his body were seemingly pulled together by the blue liquid, and he dropped onto his ball, happily skipping on top of it as if absolutely nothing was amiss. One of Nem's hands reached out and grabbed him, holding him in place while she stared holes in him, but the lavender one still didn't seem all that worried.
"You're behind this, aren't you?!" she demanded, her other hand holding the edge of one axe blade to the side of his head. "You're sending the meteor showers!"
That actually seemed to get a reaction. "What?! No!" he protested, looking amused at the whole idea. "What mischief is that gonna cause?! I mean, maybe I could graffiti them with obscene pictures and dirty phrases, but c'mon, no one's gonna see them from way up in the sky!"
"You were literally talking to it!" Nem shot back, pressing the blade against him some more and giving the dragon, who was blinking in silence, a glance. "Those meteors are their eggs! Don't you fucking lie!"
Even more amusement crept into his expression. "Yeah, I was talking to it because it tried to attack me! So I decided screw it, I'll teach it that it'll die someday, and I was actually making progress before you interrupted me!"
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Nem wasn't having it. She glanced upwards for a second and hollered, "Gyaaaaah, you really love to mess with me, don't you…?!"
The one she grasped studied her for a moment, then burst out laughing without saying a word. The beginnings of a flamethrower started to well up in her empty socket, which her company didn't seem to care much about, but at the moment she was getting ready to fire it, she paused when another certain voice entered the mix.
"Hold on, Nem!" Kirby exclaimed, dropping onto the beach and rushing over. "Goodness, that one is bigger!"
Magolor and Bandana Waddle Dee followed shortly thereafter, the former taking more care in setting the latter down safely on the sand. The spear-toting one got wide eyes as he looked up at the dragon but nonetheless clutched his weapon tightly, and Magolor certainly didn't look thrilled either. The beast in the water still wasn't making any moves, but the arrival of more figures apparently got its attention, for its claws dug into the sand, its mouth opened slightly more, and its head jerked ever-so-slightly around to focus on each of them in turn.
"That one must be three times as big…!" Bandana Waddle Dee breathed.
"Someone's been eating well…" Magolor's voice trailed off as he studied it.
The one Nem clutched, on the other hand, got a borderline frightened look- a strange mix of awkward and uncertain while still trying to act cheeky- the moment he heard Kirby's voice. "K-Kirby?!" he exclaimed, his eyes bulging even more out of his head.
Nem, still holding onto him and pressing her axe's blade against him, turned both herself and her lavender target to face the others with a "Gyah? Kirby, you know this guy?"
All three of them likewise got wide eyes and exclaimed in unison, "Marx?!"
The one being grabbed, however, eased up a bit at noticing one of the entourage members and mused a nonchalant, "Oh, hey, Magolor! Long time no see!"
"Wait, you two know each other?!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed, glancing between them.
The magician, however, had other ideas and verbalized those instead. "You're behind this, aren't you?" he asked pointedly, eyes narrowing.
Kirby didn't seem all that far off in his train of thought, for though he didn't say anything, an unamused grunt certainly escaped him as he pointed his cannon at their new company with a frown.
"Wait what, no!" Marx fussed back, getting an awkward look again and starting to squirm. "Let go of me, lady! Kirby's gonna kill me but it wasn't me this time, guys, I swear!"
Nem wordlessly looked to Kirby, who nodded and pointed his cannon at the ground, and shortly her hand left Marx's body and went to her axe instead. The jester was quickly back on his ball and rolling closer to the others, and as he did, it quickly became obvious where the prints at the opposite end of the island had come from- the shoe prints matched his, and the ball left a steady indent as he rolled on it. Kirby still studied him- maybe it was another ploy, but hopefully Marx had learned his lesson the first time. If he hadn't… there were three others there to help deliver a swift serving of defeat, at least.
The dragon, however, apparently was done studying them and being kept in check by a cheeky jokester, for another roar escaped its gaping maw that made them all brace themselves. Magolor put up a barrier and Nem held up her axe like a shield, but it was still easy to feel the force coming from it even so. Kirby couldn't help but to take note of its teeth- the outermost layer was like an angler fish's fangs but much longer, while inside were one, two… six rows of teeth that he counted.
"And now it's pissed off!" Marx fussed. "So much for teaching it that'll it die…!"
"You and I are gonna talk later," Magolor said, giving the jester a glance.
"Oh, we sure are!" Marx replied, perking up again. "You crack open a beer, I'll crack open a cola, and-!"
"I knew you looked too weird to be one of us."
The gravelly, guttural, and huge voice of the beast in the sea cut off whatever else he might've said. Instantly all five sets of eyes were on the dragon, and the water sloshed and shifted onto the shore as it rose up from its apparent lounging position. Maybe it didn't have wings, but a spiny fin sprouted from and ran down its back that was big enough to be mistaken for the sails of a big vessel from afar, colored a translucent pale blue. Smaller (but still relatively quite large to the ones seeing them) fins sprouted from the upper portions of its limbs, resembling brightly-colored seaweed in shades of greens, yellows, oranges, and blues that probably would've helped it blend in on the ocean floor. Its back feet had elongated digits in comparison to its front, but they were webbed and clawed all the same. Whether it was on the surface, in the deep, or out of the water entirely… this didn't look like a beast to be trifled with.
"I wasn't sure at first what to make of you, but after all that growling and hissing, incoherent ramblings about death… I thought you were a younger sibling whose egg was broken way too early, that just hadn't started to look like us yet and needed protection," the dragon noted pointedly, staring straight at Marx.
Everyone else's eyes fell on Marx too. From the way the beast spoke, Marx hadn't been successfully teaching it that it would die someday… he'd just been hissing, growling, and roaring in imitation, his ramblings about 'dying someday' sounding like the babblings of a toddler that could barely speak. Kirby wasn't sure what was more ridiculous- that apparently Marx could (inadvertently) mimic space dragon babies, or that his attempt at mischief was so unbelievably terrible that an actual space dragon had no choice but to take pity. Then again, if the beast in the water saw him as one of their own… maybe it had been a spectacular attempt at mischief after all, even if not in the intended way.
"But you sound like a native, like the voices Mom told us to snuff out and devour… and you bring more with you. I'M GOING TO DEVOUR YOU LIKE THE REST."
Shortly, they were all staring straight into the jaws of a ravenous otherworldly beast, and another roar followed that kicked up sand and probably would've blown them against the cliffs behind them had Magolor not put up a barrier and Nem used her axe as a shield.
"HEY, YOU BOTTOM-FEEDING WASTE OF NATURAL RESOURCES!" Nem hollered, pointing her axe at the beast. "If I ripped all of your teeth out one by one, would you cry from all six of your eyes?!"
"Hey, hey, heeeeey!" Marx chimed in, giving Nem a pointed look. "Not if I rip them out first!"
Her axe was pointed at him next, a wild grin accompanying. "You're on, jackass!"
Shortly, Nem was flying off and Marx was vanishing into the ground with a trail of purple smoke over the sand outlining his movement, and the dragon's jaws were snapping. Magolor grabbed both Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee and vanished, reappearing just out of the way as the beast's jaws snapped shut where they'd been moments prior. Marx emerged from the ground and rammed himself into the dragon's neck, while Nem dove down from above and cracked some scales on top of its head when she struck with her axe. Their target seemed more annoyed than anything, letting out a slight growl and shaking it off.
"Well, if this isn't a liability waiting to happen, then I don't know what is," Magolor remarked, looking between Marx and Nem.
"What's a liability?" Kirby inquired, pointing his cannon at the beast's bigger eye facing their direction and firing.
"Don't worry about it," the magician brushed him off, firing a few magic spheres.
"Something bad," Bandana Waddle Dee, on the other hand, answered, pointing his spear at the beast.
The dragon jerked its head up before the attacks could hit, flinging Nem off and avoiding getting rammed by Marx again. "You puny life forms."
"Then it seems like a liability is happening right now," Kirby mused simply, brandishing his sabre in the other hand. "And we're gonna stop it! C'mon, guys!"
They were certainly going to try their best to… and their foe was certainly going to try its best to devour them in the process.