"Answer me or I'm gonna crush you with my bare hands!" Nem hollered, staring holes through their company with her flickering eye socket narrowing. "Were you gonna steal my meteorite?!"
"Hold on, Nem!" Kirby exclaimed, darting over and grabbing her hands (or at least, making an honest effort to). "You can't just crush people!" he said, trying to pry her fingers off.
"Why the heck not?!" Nem fussed back, shooting Kirby a funny look as the pink puffball successfully unfurled a single finger, then turning back to their company, "You were stealing it, weren't you?!"
"I was going to research it!" was the one in the UFO's reply.
"Bullshit!" she immediately shot back, her fingers curling tighter. "You're gonna let me into your mothership or I'm gonna-! GYAH-!"
She turned loose pretty quick when none other than King Dedede slammed his hammer into her side, making her grip falter and knocking her aside. The one in the UFO let out a shout of surprise, clattering onto the ground with his smoking flight vessel while Nem fluttered her wings to keep from clattering onto the ground herself.
"Initiating transformation protocols- disabling damaged flight mechanisms and switching to terrestrial terrain travelling mechanisms! If I can't fly, I need to roll!"
At that, the red UFO started to shift and rearrange into something else- the underglow lights withdrew into the red frame and the bottom opened up with several pieces unfolding into the rim of a wheel, albeit one with a deflated tire around it. Such was no issue, as a small mechanism came out too that had the tire pumped in a few moments, and out of the back end came an exhaust pipe on either side. With a small rev of an engine, their company was upright again, and immediately he darted behind Kirby while Nem got ahold of herself.
"Help me, Kirby!" their tiny company exclaimed.
The pink puffball wordlessly looked to him and nodded, shooting a concerned glance back at Nem, who was quickly picking herself up and looking at the king as though he'd lost his mind.
"Nem!" King Dedede cried, looking at her disapprovingly. "You didn't even wait to hear him explain! If you're going to attack people willy-nilly in my kingdom, then we are going to have a problem!"
"But he stole my meteorite!" Nem protested with spirited hand gestures, then looking upwards and clutching her hat's edges, "Oh, shut up!"
"Science is not stealing!" the smallish green mouse hollered back.
Nem practically glared holes through him and opened her mouth, but didn't get the words out before Kirby did.
"Hold on, Nem," Kirby said mildly, glancing between the tiny green mouse and her before settling on the former. "What's your name? Do I know you from somewhere?"
Nem sighed heavily, giving a disapproving shake of her head and reclaiming her axe while muttering inaudibly. King Dedede and Bandana Waddle Dee both watched her, but she didn't make any moves worth getting between her and their company.
"Digi, and no," was the easy answer to Kirby's question, the tiny one in the wheeled contraption peeking out slightly more. "But you know my friends and they've told me about you! I'm one of the Squeaks- I'm taking over for my grandpa, Doc, since he's just getting too old to go on adventures anymore. You know the others- Spinni, Storo, and Daroach, right?"
At the mention, Kirby perked right up, and so did Bandana Waddle Dee and King Dedede. Nem narrowed one eye, taking note of such before frowning and grabbing the brim of her hat to nestle it down further.
"So you were stealing," Bandana Waddle Dee said simply.
"I mean, a giant golden rock with glowing ancient runes can be easily classified as 'treasure' and would therefore pique the interest of my treasure-hoarding companions, but it was for science," Digi said in exasperation, coming out from behind Kirby and zipping around a bit as he explained.
At that, King Dedede and Bandana Waddle Dee looked less than thrilled while Kirby looked more thoughtful than put off, but Nem went right back to wearing an outright hostile expression. Before she could move, though, King Dedede waltzed between them, turned to face Digi… and promptly whopped him with his hammer too with a smaller clink. A shout of surprise filled the air and lingered for a bit as the smallish Squeak went careening off into the underbrush, and Nem broke into a blissful smile.
The king held one hand close to his beak and cupped it so as to help his voice project, calling, "Thieves have no place in Dream Land!"
Bandana Waddle Dee couldn't help but to eye him a bit awkwardly, musing softly to himself, "But you've gone and stolen everyone's food before, you know…"
Nem couldn't help but to grin mischievously, playfully twirling her axe in one hand and cupping the other around her mouth while turning and calling much like the king, "That's right, bastard! You take your travel mechanisms and you-! GYAH-!"
King Dedede promptly gave her another whop too. "Watch your language and watch yourself," he said pointedly, looking amiable but firm.
"Gyaaaaah, why is this so troublesome…" Nem whined, picking herself up again.
Kirby's face, however, was crossed with alarm, and he went darting off into the underbrush after Digi, to which Bandana Waddle Dee darted after him. Nem gave the king an awkwardly apologetic look, then went to nestling her hat down and giggling uncertainly while staring at the ground.
"Heeey, Your Majesty…~?" Nem's voice trailed off.
"Yeah?" the one in question replied, turning his attention on her.
She awkwardly looked up, one hand holding her axe and the other holding the brim of her hat. "… You sure do seem pretty easygoing for someone called 'king.'"
The king couldn't help but to laugh heartily, amusement crossing his face. "Well, what did you take me for?! An iron-fisted tyrant?! Maybe I've gotten possessed a few times and acted like one, but right now? The Waddle Dees are happy, I'm happy, and life is good!"
She studied him for just a moment, her empty eye socket narrowing, before she said, "… You're alright.~"
Kirby, though, was more occupied with their green-furred company, glancing around and peeking into bushes whilst he ran around. "Digiiiiii!" he called. "Digi, are you still here?"
"Kirby, what're you trying to do?" Bandana Waddle Dee inquired, keeping close behind and looking around likewise. "He's with the Squeaks! The last time you tangled with them, Dark Nebula got freed while you were trying to get your cake back! Nothing good is going to come of-!"
"He's gonna research it!" Kirby cut him off, not looking too convinced. "So he must be smart! If it's dragon eggs we're seeing in the sky at night, we need someone smart to study them, don't you think?" He paused, wearing an earnest smile. "And if they're up to no good, we'll fix it like always! Right~?"
At that, Bandana Waddle Dee eased up. "Oh, I guess you're right…" he acknowledged, deflating. "Am I ever glad we have you around, Kirby."
The pink puffball giggled and pried apart the branches of another shrub, but was quickly alerted to rustling coming from another one nearby. He darted over, pushed the branches apart, and sure enough, there he was- maybe his eyepiece was knocked off to reveal his dazed eyes underneath, the dome over his head was scuffed, and his wheel was spinning but going nowhere, but it was Digi.
"… Central nervous system failure… due to blunt force trauma from a massive hammer… All systems down as a result… Ugh, King Dedede hits way too hard…"
Bandana Waddle Dee held the branches apart while Kirby scooped Digi out, the Squeak groaning a bit as he did.
"He's hit me pretty hard too, so don't feel bad," Kirby nonchalantly acknowledged. "Are you okay?"
The pink puffball set him down on his wheel, and Digi blinked a few times while shaking his head to settle his eyepiece back in place. "Well, no, but relatively speaking, my condition could be drastically worse," Digi responded. "I need some repairs and a nice fruit cup."
Kirby grinned. "A fruit cup sounds pretty nice!"
"I think we should go tell Nem what's up," Bandana Waddle Dee mused, glancing backwards. "She… seems like a handful when she's angry."
Digi glanced to the meteorite's direction too. "Oh, I would love to convince her of the scientific merits of analyzing such a fantastical piece of celestial debris, but seeing as she is extremely hostile and toting an undoubtedly deadly-!"
A few shouts and crashes came from the direction they'd come from, and off Kirby was running, Bandana Waddle Dee in tow and Digi haplessly revving his engine to catch up.
… And Nem was, indeed, being hostile, but King Dedede couldn't quite blame her. Clearly, some new company hadn't been expecting a so-called 'madwoman,' in their comrade's words, to be waiting for them at the meteorite they'd been trying to steal, or to see King Dedede accompanying her. Like a whirlwind, three other mice had come storming in, lead by a grey one with a red cloak and hat with a golden cane in his hand, while a smaller yellow one in a cape lobbed shurikens to occupy the ones already standing by the space rock and a gigantic blue-tinted one with a red shirt slightly too small for him lifted up and tried to make off with the space-rock. King Dedede knew well enough who they were- Daroach, Spinni, and Storo of the Squeak Squad- but Nem sure didn't, nor did she particularly care.
Her axe collided with the cloaked one's golden cane, the one on the other end looking a bit perturbed and grabbing the brim of his own hat so as to not lose it from the force Nem generated.
"I will rip off your buddies' limbs so they look like you!" Nem hollered.
Daroach may have been slightly perturbed and his hand shaking as he tried to keep Nem's axe from tearing into him, but he was still smirking. "Goodness, a robot like you must be worth a lot! We're striking it rich today!"
"Try it and see what happens, smartass! Gyaaaaaaah!"
She charged up her axe, the edge of the blade burning with heat, but Daroach likewise fired a starry projectile from his cane that held her off while he leaped backwards.
King Dedede likewise took up his hammer and hollered, "You lot! You remember what happened the last time you showed your faces?! I got accused of stealing Kirby's cake and Dark Nebula got let out of its chest! You're up to no good again, aren't you?!"
"Tch! There's gold falling from the sky!" Spinni hollered back. "You seriously expect us to sit back and not do anything?!"
"If I should expect you to steal, then expect me to beat your asses!" Nem shouted, brandishing her axe.
Storo didn't waste time in turning around and running, meteorite held over his head and underbrush getting trampled under his feet, and Nem let out another war cry before running after him too. Rather quickly, Daroach was taking a few hasty steps backwards, albeit swinging his cane a few times to send more starry projectiles her way, which annoyed her as she swung her axe to deflect them. King Dedede joined in the chase too, running with his hammer held over his head. Spinni wasn't sitting around either, darting after Storo and taking a leap to perch himself on the back of the space rock, which gave him a nice vantage point to throw shurikens at the ones chasing them.
"You thieves should be ashamed of yourselves!" King Dedede hollered.
"Oh, spare us your moralizing!" Daroach fussed, slinging more stars.
The king batted one star away while Nem parried another, and a few of Spinni's metallic stars clanged off of Nem's armor or likewise found themselves bouncing off of a giant hammer. Nem growled in frustration, taking a leap and flapping her wings to fly after Storo quicker than she could run, but apparently, Daroach wasn't going to let her, for his feet left the ground too and he started to fly likewise.
"Are they catching up?" Storo inquired, not shifting his gaze at all as he asked.
"Don't worry about them, Storo!" Daroach called, flying in front of Nem and whopping her with his cane as she tried to ram the gigantic one.
Nem let out a screech of frustration, the sparks in her empty eye socket coursing quicker and turning to embers as she glared at Daroach. Fairly quickly, a miniature flamethrower was spurting out of it, but without missing a beat, Daroach reached behind himself, into his cloak, and pulled out a mostly black wand from which he shot a beam of ice. It melted, to be sure, but Nem's flamethrower didn't touch him either as her heat was expended in melting the ice.
Nem certainly didn't look thrilled, snarling as she hollered, "Oh, you're a fucking magician! Fuck you!" She glanced up at her hat next, similarly snarling, and shouted, "And fuck you too!"
"What uncultured words," Daroach remarked, slinging more stars.
"You can fire eye-lasers too?!" King Dedede exclaimed, still running.
"It's a hassle to charge 'em!" Nem hollered back. "I have to get myself worked up!"
While Nem was parrying Daroach's hits, King Dedede was parrying ninja stars from Spinni, albeit picking up momentum even so. He wasn't close enough to land a blow on Storo, but soon enough, he would be, and maybe the thieves could be taught a lesson.
"Faster, Storo!" Spinni called. "Daroach is holding off the crazy lady, but the king is pickin' up!"
"Understood!" Storo replied. "I won't let them catch us!"
And just like that, the gigantic Squeak started running faster, Spinni lobbing stars down at Dedede all the while.
"Don't you try to get away from me!" the king fussed.
He stopped trying to run and instead leaped into the air, then gave a mighty swing of his hammer down at the ground, which outright caused it to split open. The ground under Storo's feet cracked apart, and he stumbled and fell, accidentally hurling the meteorite further into the forest.
"Wuagh-!" the gigantic one cried as he toppled over.
"Storoooooo…!" Spinni yelled in dismay, going flying along with the chunk of metal and rock.
Nem perked right up, and Daroach did too, the two of them immediately flying right after it.
"We are not losing something so valuable!" Daroach declared.
"Oh, you're gonna lose something valuable, alright!" Nem hollered. "I'm gonna carve your eyes out! Or slice your ears off! Or-!"
With another swing of his cane, Nem was parrying more stars from Daroach as he flew, but she still stayed right beside him.
"When I add you to our treasure collection, I'm having Digi wipe your data so you're not so devalued by all the uncouthness," the head Squeak said, shaking his head.
At that, Nem broke into a wild grin, hollering, "Oh, go ahead! That'll go sooooo well for you! Gyahahaha~!"
Her laughter truly did make her sound like a madwoman, but she was far more occupied with the meteorite the moment it came into view, though she wasn't going to get it so easily. Spinni peeked out of it, immediately setting to lobbing ninja stars, and Daroach joined in with more starry projectiles that kept Nem busy. She didn't even bother with the metal stars, letting them clank and bounce right off of her, and she took a starry projectile from Daroach or two while she charged her axe. Rather quickly, the head Squeak was having to dodge her burning slash, and the brim of his hat was singed as he narrowly did so. Without missing a beat, she went for him again, but he held up his cane to block, albeit with a shaking hand while Nem stared holes through him. Spinni wasn't wasting time either, ramming himself into the broad side of Nem's axe and giving Daroach just enough slack to fire off more starry projectiles to fend her off. Even so, the armored lass wasn't dissuaded, and instead went for another hit…
… But it sure didn't connect, since it collided with a golden sword wielded by a certain masked knight who dropped down through the tree canopies just in time to block her. Daroach looked like he wanted to fire an attack off, but Kirby, sporting a green hat and carrying a sword, was in his way too. The meteorite was surrounded by figures again shortly, King Dedede and Storo darting in whilst trying to pummel each other, and Digi rolling in too with Bandana Waddle Dee right beside him. Everyone paused- the Squeaks knew better than to try anything funny with Kirby around, Nem could tell she wasn't going to attack anyone easily with Meta Knight in her way, and if the meteorite wasn't being carried away and instead stuck on the ground again, then the others had no reason to interfere with the Squeaks.
"You guys!" Kirby cried, glancing around. "C'mon! Do you have to fight each other?!"
"Yes!" Nem easily replied.
"They were totally in our way!" Spinni fussed, gesturing at the king and the armored lass.
A death glare from Nem made the little yellow Squeak pause, and a shove of Meta Knight's sword against her axe made Nem let up.
"Your airship is above the trees overhead," Meta Knight noted, keeping his sword against Nem's axe but his eyes darting around to each of the Squeaks. "So just what were you intending to do?"
Nem perked up. "Oh, is that why my meteorite fell from the sky again?!"
"Digi, explain!" Daroach ordered, looking to the smallest green one.
The one in the wheeled contraption had no trouble doing so, giving a rev of his engine and leaping onto the edge of the meteorite's shell. "Okay, look! We were travelling the galaxy in search of fine treasure in usual fashion, and after stumbling upon one of the gleaming meteorites and deducing it to be valuable based on its golden sheen-"
"Nevermind!" Daroach cut him off. "We were flying our airship to look for treasure, we saw one of those golden meteorites laying in a field somewhere, we went to load it up, but this weird dragon attacked out of nowhere and wouldn't let us get close. This thing was talking and saying things like-" he tried to voice a snarl, but it came out more squeaky than intimidating- "'Leave my little sister alone!' and threatening to devour us, so we got the feeling the meteorites might be eggs, and Digi wanted to study them. There were a few smaller remnants of them lying around in this forest, which we loaded into the ship, but when we tried to get the big one outside of your shack, Digi's suction beam malfunctioned and it came crashing down… so we had to go retrieve it, which is about where we all started getting acquainted."
"You could've just told me to keep it simple!" Digi protested at having his explanation interrupted.
The head Squeak looked a bit exasperated as he cried, "And how many times have I already told you?!"
Nem, Kirby, and Bandana Waddle Dee all shared a glance at the mention of a dragon threatening to devour someone, and the others perked up too.
"The same thing just happened to us!" Bandana Waddle Dee piped up. "Not so much finding a meteorite laying around and trying to take them, but one of those weird dragons attacked us out of nowhere and mentioned devouring too! Come to think of it…" He too jumped onto the edge of the meteorite, looking down at the glyphs and runes. "Nem, Kirby! Doesn't this green color look like the same color as the Devourer of the Forest's eyes?"
The two of them studied it for a moment, then the realization hit them.
"It does," Nem acknowledged.
"You're right!" Kirby concurred.
"But this doesn't really look like an egg," King Dedede noted, studying it too. "It looks like ancient hieroglyphics carved into a giant geode! You guys really think something could crawl out of here?"
"Maybe the Devourer carved them while it was inside," Kirby proposed, not thinking too much of it.
"That is one smart baby," King Dedede remarked, apparently considering the idea too.
Meta Knight, though, looked over the decorated inside too. "Have these been here all along, Nem?" he inquired.
"Yeah," she easily answered. "That's how it's been this whole time. I got no idea what they say- I'm a warrior, not a scholar, but they look fu-" she paused for a moment, "-freaking ancient." She glanced around between the ones present. "You guys can't read them, can you?"
"I cannot," Meta Knight replied, still looking them over as if somehow he'd figure it out.
"I can't either," King Dedede too concurred.
"Not me," Bandana Waddle Dee said likewise.
"I can't read," Kirby said nonchalantly.
"They do appear to be an ancient language," Digi, though, piped up before deflating a bit. "Just… one that I don't have the tools to decipher at the moment. There's ancient tech out there that I'd love to tinker with if I get lucky, but those runes describing what they do are not easy to learn, and these ones don't look like any I've tried to study…"
Nem too deflated. "Da-arn it."
Kirby, though, didn't look too discouraged. "Well, there's a picture on it- it looks like more shiny space rocks orbiting a planet with wings! Maybe if we collect a lot of them, we can tell what they're saying even if we can't read them! That's what I do when I open a book, and it works most of the time!"
The others shared glances amongst themselves. That certainly wasn't ideal… but seeing as none of them could read it, the illustrations among the runes might've been the best bet to deciphering what they said. And if the meteorites were eggs, eggs from which hatched destructive creatures… maybe it would tell them what they needed to know. The winged circle depicted on the one before them- maybe it was their homeworld, or maybe it was actually their 'Mama' that the Devourer of the Forest had called to in all her hypothetically rotund glory.
"Well, if we can't read them…" Bandana Waddle Dee acknowledged.
"What I'm hearing is that you'll help us gather gold meteorites," Daroach mused, grinning and folding his hands.
Nem shot the head Squeak an icy stare and Meta Knight couldn't help but to side-eye him too, but Kirby grinned and King Dedede and Bandana Waddle Dee didn't seem too concerned likewise.
"Hold on," Nem said, glancing around them and landing on Digi with her gaze. "You guys were using a- what did you call it- suction beam to gather them? Did you happen to suck up more than a meteorite- like, y'know, a freaking dragon?"
Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee looked to him too, knowing what she was getting at- the Devourer of the Forest had disappeared in a seeming tractor beam, and if the Squeaks had been behind it, that was one thing, but if not, it was still an odd question to have lingering. Tractor beams didn't just appear spontaneously, so it had to come from something above them.
"I'm pretty sure we would've noticed something like that," Digi easily replied. "The potential for damage being done to the airship's interior mechanisms would be… a very large order of magnitude. Why do you ask?"
"Because the one we fought got sucked up in a tractor beam right after calling for its brother and mama," Nem answered. "And I guess now it's safe to say that wasn't you."
Digi was silent for a moment, then said simply, "… And this is why further analysis is necessary."
"Nem," Kirby piped up gently, "would you let them study your meteorite? It'll help us get to the bottom of this."
The armored lass blinked, then gave an unenthusiastic, "… Sure," before getting more spirited and keeping on, "But this one is sentimental! Try anything funny and I'll-!" She glanced upwards, grabbing the brim of her hat again. "Oh, shut the fuck up! You've been trying something funny for forever and haven't gotten anywhere yet! And you're not going to!"
Her outburst startled the Squeaks, but Bandana Waddle Dee quickly explained, "She talks to her hat. Don't mind her."
Still entranced with nothing they could see, she shouted, "Don't touch my hat, either! The only one that beats it into submission is me! Hear that, jackass?! You're just an object!"
The Squeaks weren't going to bother questioning such- clearly, she was a madwoman, no doubt about it. Nem growled and clenched her fists for a few moments before relaxing, shaking her head with an unamused expression.
"Alright, if it'll help us, I guess we're helpin' these guys," King Dedede mused with a shrug.
"Then let me get the suction beam going again," Digi said. "Can someone help me get up there to activate it? My flight mechanisms need repairs."
Without saying a word, Meta Knight was scooping up the green-furred one and shooting off through the tree canopies, accompanied by a somewhat startled cry from the one he carried.
Nem, though, chuckled haplessly, glancing between Daroach and Kirby. "You guys are gonna have to tell me about this 'Dark Nebula' incident that the king was making a fuss about."
"Oh, I'd be glad to once we're on the ship and settled," Daroach replied.
"And you never did tell us what happened between you and Whispy," Bandana Waddle Dee mused, looking to the armored lass.
A big smirk graced Nem's face. "Oh, I'll tell you, alright.~"
In a few moments, it appeared Digi's suction beam had activated, for the bunch of them were being pulled off the ground along with the meteorite. Several hands grabbed hold of the space rock just to be sure they wouldn't be left behind, and through the tree canopies and into the air they went, leaving the forest beneath them.
Author's note: My friend, TheDragonSaver, lent me the character of Digi for this story. Ever since I started writing here, we've tended to bounce things off of each other and give each other ideas and characters, so I wanted one of his in our main bunch of adventurers along with my Nem. I'd asked him what character he'd pick as his 'buddy' if he could have one for some later chapters, and funny enough, we both fancied the same one… which actually worked out beautifully, as I ended up using both of our second choices (his being the Squeaks) and the one we both wanted can still be heavily involved. I haven't played Squeak Squad myself (I haven't been a die-hard fan until relatively recently), but I'm sure I'll end up getting a copy eventually- accidentally awakening eldritch gods after stealing a piece of cake is right up my alley.