A cannonball blast came from Kirby that would've hit the dragon square in one of its bigger eyes, but his target lowered its head and instead lurched at the pink puffball himself, Bandana Waddle Dee, and Magolor with its gargantuan fangs wide open, letting the cannonball make a heavy splash in the water behind it. Thankfully, the magician was quicker, grabbing them both and vanishing for a moment before reappearing closer to the water's edge. The crater with the meteorite pieces in it was blocked off by the beast's hulking body, its crouched legs giving space that the much smaller figures could fly between but nonetheless making them easy targets for huge swiping claws or a heavy tail beating them down.
"Magolor," Kirby said quickly, pointing his cannon again, "get the egg out of here. This one isn't a baby, and I don't want the egg to get destroyed if it rampages too much."
"You got it," Magolor replied with a nod.
Again the magician vanished, leaving Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee on the shore. Even from their vantage point of seeing mostly the dragon's tail and hind legs, it seemed their target noticed the lack of any bodies in its jaws and looked around to see where they'd gone, only to find nothing. Its tail thrashed angrily, leaving trenches in the sand and dirtying the air around it for a few moments, but that certainly wasn't a concern for two of the other smaller figures present.
" Nice try, dumbass!" Nem taunted, noticing its empty jaws too.
"Ohoho! You missed!" Marx laughed likewise.
The edge of Nem's axe started to glow with heat, and she dove down for the creature's back where its neck connected, while Marx, his body flashing for a second, flew right in front of its face with a big grin on his. The dragon, of course, noticed a close target when it saw one and snapped its fangs at Marx, but the shifty jokester, on the other hand, took on a white glow as arrows materialized from and flew out of his body. The dragon got a mouthful, alright, but not of the flesh of a screaming victim- rather, a barrage of pointy projectiles. Nem crashed down onto its back, a cracking sound audible as her axe's glowing edge busted through the dragon's scales and slashed into its hide. Unlike the Devourer of the Forest, this one had thicker skin- it wasn't going to break as easily. Either way, the dragon certainly wasn't thrilled- it roared in frustration, a bright sea green light welling up someplace deep in its throat. Marx was the obvious target, but he cackled as if nothing was amiss, splitting himself apart to open a black hole. The dragon's attack would've been nullified, sailing right into a rift instead of hitting the jester, thus it turned its attention elsewhere.
Magolor quickly came to find out that the eggshell at the bottom of the crater was noticeably bigger than the last, too, and had no shortage of things scrawled on the inside of it. Opening a black hole wasn't any problem seeing as, unlike the last, there was no acrobatic whale to contend with, but even so…
"Aaaalright, just be a good little meteor-egg and- OH, HEAVENS!" he chattered under his breath, but quickly became more disgruntled.
The moment his own black hole opened, a bright sea green glow from above caught his attention, the gaping maw of the dragon hardly visible for the beginnings of a giant beam of energy in its mouth. Quickly the magician scrambled into the black hole himself, a loud crack resounding as the crater's glass lining shattered under the force and made the pit deeper.
"Hold on, buddy!" Marx exclaimed, diving down and disappearing into the ground with a wisp of purple smoke lingering.
The magician, though, dropped out of a black hole closer to the water's edge again, the meteorite pieces thumping down onto the sand next to him. "Goodness," he remarked haplessly. "Couldn't let that one open near the ships."
The dragon, however, was whirling around when it felt something sharp stabbing at the end of its tail- Kirby's sabre and Bandana Waddle Dee's spear. The moment it turned, its tail was instead battering the rocky cliffs with a wham as a chunk of rock broke off, but Kirby, however, already had his cannon pointed exactly where it needed to go. He fired, and their draconic foe was letting out a hiss as a cannonball smashed into one of its bigger eyes. Its eyelid shut tightly, but that didn't stop a sea green liquid, fluorescent and thick, from seeping out. Again Kirby shot, but a flick of the beast's head made the cannoncrack some scales around its face instead of take its other eye out.
"Are you okay, Magolor?" Kirby called, glancing backwards to the magician.
"Doing fine!" Magolor replied without missing a beat, a black hole opening under the meteor-egg pieces that whisked them away.
" You puny things are persistent…!" the beast growled, shaking its head and scattering some of its brightly-colored blood. " But I still have five more!"
"Kirby, what do you think we should call this one?" Bandana Waddle Dee asked.
"Devourer of the Ocean," Kirby replied, aiming his cannon. "If I can keep it distracted with my cannon, I can break some of its scales and you can get close to poke some of its eyes. This one is bigger so we have to wear it down."
"Got it," Bandana Waddle Dee replied with a nod, raising his spear over his head and starting to spin it. "Wish me luck!"
Shortly, the bandana-clad one was leaving the ground, and several more rounds of cannon fire followed that cracked scales on the devourer's face and chest. However, yet again, a sea green light was welling up in its maw that Kirby and Magolor both were in the direct path of, and the pink puffball paused for a moment. He dropped his sabre and pulled off his pirate hat, the cannon and sabre both disappearing with a poof as he opened his mouth wide.
Magolor too noticed and darted to his side. "Hang on, Kirby!" he cried, putting up a magic barrier in front of them both. "That looks hard to swallow all at once!"
"Well, maybe, but-" Kirby started.
As soon as the dragon fired it, however, someone else was firing right back- a certain jokester who burst out of the ground right in front of them, firing a beam from his own mouth that held off the devourer's. Kirby hesitated for just a second, but as the attacks fizzled out against each other, he nonetheless put his pirate hat back on with the sabre and cannon returning moments thereafter.
"Ohoho!" Marx laughed. "I just love doing that...~!"
"HEY, DRAGON-BITCH!" came a shout from the dragon's back, the voice of a certain ill-mannered robot. "WHERE'S YOUR MAMA AT, HUH?! I WANNA SEE IF SHE'S AS UGLY AS HER KIDS!"
There were more targets on the sand, but the one on the devourer's back was certainly a handful all by herself- another burning slash to the base of the creature's neck made a deep gash, one with a slightly crispy edge and sea green blood (albeit less than one might expect due to the cauterization) oozing out. She raised her axe up to go for another as she yelled the insult, the dragon's long neck curling around so its jaws could snap at her. She only snickered, giving a flap of her wings to fly up as its needle-like fangs snapped shut where she'd been moments before, then dove down while slamming her axe's blade into its snout. Its open eye was about as big as her body, and she took care to put herself plainly in its view as she held her middle finger up with a mischievous giggle.
"I bet you'd feel right at home on this bitch's head, wouldn't you~? Too fucking bad you're stuck with me.~"
The dragon, of course, had no idea what she was talking about or to whom, but it was no matter as it shook its head to try shaking her off. She jumped off and flitted her wings to hover, the dragon snapping again but the armored one flying out of the way. A growl of frustration came with another lurch of its fangs and Nem dodged again, her axe scattering embers as it charged up. Once more its jaws went for her, its long fangs locking together like a cage of slender spikes and its rows of teeth inside just waiting to crush her, but even as its mouth closed with her inside, Nem was laughing.
Crrrrack!
Another hiss of pain came when a row of fangs on the side of its jaws broke off as Nem's axe smashed through them, the robot herself flying out through the gap just as its inner teeth touched together. They fell into the sand like gigantic curved needles, sticking up and making everyone who saw them glad they hadn't been underneath to get skewered. Nem, though, couldn't help but to notice another figure spinning a spear over his head like a propeller getting closer to the beast's head, and she gave a wink.
The devourer, though, apparently had other things to pay attention to when another barrage of cannonballs slammed into its chest, breaking its scales and damaging the skin underneath. It turned its attention to Kirby and Magolor behind the puffball, crouching down and growling as if it intended to pounce, but when the magician raised both of his hands up, some more pointy needles, purple and liquid-looking, shot up from the ground that jabbed into its front paws. It winced, and in that time, Bandana Waddle Dee stopped twirling his spear and dropped onto its head, scrambling over to its other big eye that was still open. Even so, the devourer pounced, letting out another roar as a spear tip pierced its other big eye. Sea green blood dripped out, and Bandana Waddle Dee was thrown off its head from the dragon's momentum.
"Wuagh-!" the spear-toting one cried, holding his spear up and trying to get oriented to spin it.
"I gotcha!" came a holler from Nem as she grabbed him with one hand. "I'll get us closer! You go for its eyes on one side and I'll go for the other!"
"Hey, hey, heeeeey!" said a certain one in a jester hat, ramming himself into the robot's side. "You and Waddle Dee can't hog all the fun!"
"Then step up your game, bastard!" Nem shot back with a smirk, flying off without a second glance.
" You will regret this!" Marx fussed, flying after her.
With both big eyes clamped shut with blood trickling out, the devourer's aim wasn't perfect when it pounced, and it wasn't hard for Magolor to grab Kirby and vanish for a moment, reappearing a few meters further out and higher up. Another cannonball smashed into the creature's head, its claws swiping a bit shy of where they'd been moments before. Kirby inhaled a puff of air and floated while firing another cannonball into its head, giving it a hard hit where he'd busted off scales beforehand, and a few magic spheres came from Magolor too as he turned loose of the pink puffball. However, as the devourer reoriented itself, a sea green glow could be seen seeping out where Nem had busted its fangs, and shortly, the beginnings of another beam was staring them in the face.
"Oh, shi-!" Magolor started to exclaim.
Another black hole opened that swallowed them up, but it didn't close in time for the beam not to follow them in. When it opened closer to the rocky cliffs, he and Kirby both came crashing down into the sand with a burst of sea green energy, the latter without his pirate hat (or sabre or cannon, for that matter). The pink puffball let out a discomforted hum as he picked himself up, and a groan escaped Magolor.
However, a glance at Kirby made other thoughts cross Magolor's mind. "Ah! Your Copy Ability!" the magician exclaimed. "It got lost in the black hole! Maybe I can-!"
"It's alright," Kirby said, feeling his head as if to make sure it was really gone. "I can still do what I do best!"
The dragon, though, was looking even more unamused as it found itself on the receiving end of another arrow barrage from Marx, Nem quickly darting near and turning loose of Bandana Waddle Dee on one side of its head before darting right into its snapping jaws again. The spear-toting one found himself staring right into a smaller eye and didn't waste time in jabbing with his spear, getting yet another set of eyelids to shut tightly with bright sea green trickling out. The armored one, though, simply cackled again as she narrowly flew through its jaws, busting out another section of its fangs to avoid getting crunched.
" You aren't supposed to be like this!" the dragon hissed.
It quickly turned away from them, its tail whopping Nem and Marx both as it did so.
" Oho…!" Marx protested.
"Oh, you're running?!" Nem hollered, not too bothered. "As if I'd let you!"
With another pounce, it dove into the sea with a big splash, soaking the ones closest to it. Magolor and Kirby both shared a glance.
"Something tells me that thing isn't running," the magician mused.
Kirby nodded in agreement. " You guys!" he called.
Bandana Waddle Dee landed on the shore again, his feet submerged for only a few centimeters at the water's edge, but oddly enough, that water seemed to retract. Of course, the waves lapping at the sandy shores were subject to changing from moment to moment, but it seemed the sea level in front of them was rising much quicker than it should've been. He had an idea what that meant… and he didn't particularly want to see it up close. He turned and scurried towards the cliffs as fast as he could, shaking his head in dismay.
Nem, however, wasn't concerned in the slightest and flew off over the water's surface, keeping an eye on the gargantuan silhouette as her axe's edges started to smolder. "Don't you even try, you-!"
"Hey, hey!" Marx exclaimed, whacking her again with his body. "Hold on a second! I've got a better idea!"
The armored one still grinned, but her eyes narrowed as she turned her axe on him instead for a moment. However, when he started coughing and hacking before spitting out a heavy bomb, she paused with an incredulous look on her face. The bomb fell into the sea, exploding into icy shock waves that froze the water.
She blinked for a second before piping up, "You are one freaky little son of a bitch, aren't you?"
Marx turned to look at her with a big grin, his bulging eyes glittering. "Oh, thank you for noticing.~"
However, they turned their attention downwards when the ice started to crack, a hairline split forming at the top before cracking apart even further.
"Ohoho, maybe that didn't get it," the jester mused matter-of-factly.
"Then I'm gonna get it," Nem declared.
"Not if I get it first!"
However, as Nem's axe started to smolder and Marx's cheeks puffed up with the beginnings of a beam in his mouth, the icy surface started to noticeably rise while tilting towards them, and rapidly so. In moments, a giant wave with chunks of ice was overtaking them, shouts of surprise coming from both of them as they were swept up in it. Closer to the rocks, Magolor put up a barrier that Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee huddled behind, for as big as the wave looked, climbing on top of anything wasn't going to save them from being slammed by a wall of water. At the very least, the rocks would keep them from being entirely swept away.
WHUMP!
The sound of Nem's metallic body crashing into the stone and a certain awkwardly grinning jester slamming face first into the barrier made for some loud sounds on their own, and though the barrier cracked and broke slightly, the ones behind it only had to deal with getting soaked instead of slammed. Nem didn't seem to care too much, her axe still gripped in one hand while the other clutched her hat.
"Can't let you get swept away," the robot mused, adjusting her hat.
Marx, on the other hand, still grinned, but his eyes looked unamused as he peered at the three behind the barrier.
" Ouch," Bandana Waddle Dee said, wincing a bit at seeing him plastered against it.
"Are you okay?" Kirby asked, mildly concerned.
A sigh escaped the bug-eyed one. " Thanks, buddy," he said sarcastically as he slid back onto the sand, his eyes focusing on Magolor.
"Oh, you got hurled into a star and lived," the magician brushed him off. "You are fine."
Nem shot them a funny look and let out a surprised, " Gyah?"
However, when the figure of the devourer leaped out of the sea and back onto the beach, they quickly had their attention grabbed by the beginnings of another sea green beam taking form in its mouth. Without missing a beat, Kirby jumped in front of them with his mouth opening wide, and moments thereafter, the beast was firing while Kirby was inhaling.
" I will END you!" the dragon roared.
"Ohoho!" Marx laughed, watching the happenings with a grin.
One, two… around six seconds of beam-firing later, and Kirby looked like he had quite the mouthful while the Devourer of the Sea stumbled slightly as if feeling faint. Its undamaged eyes twitched, seeing that its targets were still up and fighting, and a gravelly sound escaped its maw but no coherent words. Clearly, it hadn't been expecting its prey to actually put up a fight, and it showed from the way its intact eyes got wide and its jaws hung slightly open. Kirby, though, wasn't going to hold onto the mouthful of energy for long and spit it right back, hitting the dragon square in the chest where its scales and skin had already been broken down. That was apparently enough, for with one last gravelly groan, it stumbled one more time before collapsing in a heap on the beach.
" You all will realize your purpose soon enough…!" it growled, one intact eye staring them down and claws grasping at bodies it couldn't reach.
Kirby eyed it back. "Hey, Devourer…" he said calmly but pointedly, "what are you guys after…?"
The creature's eye narrowed on him slightly before shutting entirely and its body soon went limp. Moments later, much like the Devourer of the Forest, a tractor beam came down from the heavens above and whisked its form away, leaving only the battered beach, sea green droplets of blood coloring the sand, and busted fangs sticking up in it to signify that it was ever there in the first place.
"Hey, hey!" Marx exclaimed, his eyes bulging out slightly more as the dragon's body vanished someplace they couldn't see. "What was that?!"
" Again!" Nem shouted, looking up at the sky and holding up a middle finger.
Kirby looked up at the sky, scanning it for even a trace of another figure or a celestial object… but no, there was nothing there but stars. Quite a few of them glittered, bright blue and purple flecks on the dark canvas of the sky… but something about it was off. Not long ago, the sky had been shades of pinks and oranges with purple setting in, the stars barely starting to peek out. Dusk had set in too fast, and the stars oddly enough seemed to flutter slightly as if every single one was moving. They were pretty, but somehow… fake. He blinked, trying to determine exactly what he could've been looking at.
However, he was soon giving a jolt of surprise as the darker part of the sky moved. It was like the night withdrew to someplace on the horizon where it blended in, quickly pulling back from the pinks and oranges and purples overhead. He wasn't the only one to notice, for Bandana Waddle Dee and Marx both gave a jolt too, Magolor's eyes got wide, and Nem reached for her axe.
"Did you guys see that?!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed.
"What the hell!" Marx shouted.
"That's not normal for Popstar's night sky," Magolor breathed.
"If that's a mothership…" Nem's voice trailed off, her hands tightly clutching her axe.
Kirby gave them all a glance. "If that's a ship or a creature, we need the ships to chase it," he noted. "But we probably won't catch up to it right now. If the shells we've collected say anything about their homeworld, maybe we can directly go there, so we should check with the others first." He looked to Marx, eyeing the jester. "And you are coming too!" he said amiably but pointedly, making Marx give another jolt. "If you're part of this, we need you!"
"Hey, hey, hey!" Marx exclaimed, ducking behind Magolor (who gave another jolt himself). "Don't you look at me like that! I'll come with you guys, but I'm not in cahoots with the dragons like the crazy lady was accusing me!"
Nem perked up and gave Marx a flustered look, axe pointing at him and sparks dancing in her empty socket. " I'm not the crazy one, you wall-eyed fuckwagon! Take that shit back right now!"
Marx blinked, then promptly burst into laughter. "Listen to that! The crazy lady is denying she's crazy!"
Nem adjusted her hat, shouting a hearty "FUCK YOU! They're gonna think I'm the problem!" as she did so.
Whether she was yelling at Marx or her hat was something no one could tell, but the jester clearly wasn't bothered in the slightest if it was meant for him. Some more muttered curses and inaudible insults followed, the armored one looking completely unamused while Marx had a laughing fit. Kirby wasn't sure who to scold- Marx for inciting or Nem for cussing- and Bandana Waddle Dee wasn't sure what to make of it either.
"Oooookay, let's ditch this place," Magolor said flatly, opening a black hole and grabbing one of the tails on Marx's hat to pull him in.
The others followed shortly thereafter, Nem jumping in followed by Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee. When they set foot on the beach back at the ships, it seemed the other entourage had already made their way back, for the Squeaks and Meta Knight were talking amongst themselves and gesturing to the airship with a pile of golden meteor-egg pieces in the middle of them all. Digi buzzed around them excitedly and Daroach carefully polished the surface of a bigger one with a handkerchief, clearly entranced with the haul. On some sprawled-out palm leaves were piles of fresh fish, some of them already roasting over a fire pit in the sand.
Surprising, however, was King Dedede lounging on a recliner in the sand whilst sipping from a coconut… not because the king was lazing about, but because a group of Buccies were fanning him with palm leaves. "Hey!" he called, waving to Kirby's bunch. "Welcome back!"
The others perked up, Spinni giving a wave and Storo giving a friendly nod of acknowledgment. Daorach, however, got narrowed eyes at a certain magician, but didn't make a move or say anything quite yet.
"Your Majesty!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed, eyeing the Buccies with a hint of unease. "H-how did you-!"
"These little guys are useful!" the king cut him off, grinning as he gestured to the bandana-wearing birds. "A group of 'em just appeared in the Squeaks' airship and tried to make off with their treasure! We went to chase 'em off, but they started following me around, so I had 'em fetch us dinner!" He gestured at the roasting fish. "We were waiting for you guys before digging in!"
Marx bounced out in front, perking up excitedly at the mention. "So you just found some birds and now they'll do our bidding?!"
However, the king's expression went from jovial to unamused the moment he laid eyes on the jester, and he practically leaped from his chair while busting out his hammer. " You!" he shouted, bounding over. "You're the little cretin that-!"
At that, Meta Knight was flying into action too, drawing his sword and flapping his wings to dart over. He probably would've landed a hit too, had Kirby not jumped in between them to make him pause just short of stabbing the pink puffball in the eye. King Dedede couldn't help but to pause too, awkwardly eyeing Kirby and the one behind him with his hammer still raised to smash someone.
"Hey, hey!" Marx fussed in return, still smiling but eyes furrowing.
" You guys!" Kirby cried, shooting them all a glance. "Drop it! No one's fighting-! Er, not now, anyway!"
Reluctantly, the king eased up and lowered his hammer, albeit still eyeing Marx incredulously, and though Meta Knight's eyes narrowed even more under his mask, he backed away, albeit still holding his sword. The jester, on the other hand, started to smirk a bit, giving a cheeky wink as if to issue an unspoken challenge.
"Explain," Meta Knight said flatly. "This one isn't a friend."
Marx snickered. "Ohoho, so hostile.~"
"You never change, do you?" Magolor remarked, eyeing the jester.
Kirby, though, had no issues explaining, still standing on guard between the not-so-friendly ones. "We met him on an island where a bigger dragon- the Devourer of the Ocean- was," he noted simply. "He fooled it into thinking he was one of its weird little siblings, but that went out the window when we showed up." He turned to Marx. "But we can put the past behind us, can't we? Truce?"
Meta Knight and King Dedede eyed Kirby as if wondering whether he could possibly be serious, but Marx, on the other hand, got a still mischievous but playfully unassuming look as he replied, "Truce.~"
… Apparently, that was enough for Kirby, strange though it may have been to everyone else. "Then that settles it!" he declared, starting to grin. "Welcome to the team, Marx!"
The jester, though, got a surprised look and shot Kirby an uncertain grin, questioning, "The team?! Since when did I ever-!"
"You're not gonna question Kirby, are you?" Magolor asked nonchalantly but nonetheless with eyes that practically stared through Marx.
That was plenty convincing. "Glad to help!" the jester exclaimed, immediately getting a big smile.
"So this one is joining our search too," said a certain red-clad Squeak, strolling over with the others in tow. "Marx, was it?"
"Right!" Kirby affirmed, glancing between them. "I need to introduce you guys!" He gestured to Marx. "This is Marx! He's a pretty fun guy!" He gestured to the Squeaks. "And these guys make up the Squeak Squad! This is Daroach, their leader, and this is Spinni, the fast one, and Storo, the big guy, and Digi, the smart one!"
Daroach tipped his hat. "Pleased to make your acquaintance," he said suavely.
"Nice to meet ya!" Spinni exclaimed with a grin.
"Hello," Storo said simply.
"Kirby's comrades are our comrades," Digi said amiably.
Marx snickered. "The Squeaks, huh~? I'll remember that.~"
The pink puffball gestured to Nem too. "And you kinda know Nem, but she's a robot, and her hat is her friend but it says mean things."
"Some friend you have," the jester remarked flippantly.
"Believe me, I know," Nem replied, grabbing its brim and nestling it further onto her head.
"Maybe you can tell us what you've been up to while we eat," King Dedede proposed, still eyeing Marx. "We haven't seen you around these parts in… a while."
"Only if you tell me what I've gotten myself into," Marx affirmed, albeit giving Kirby a glance.
The pink puffball smiled. "Of course!" he said happily.
Under his eyepiece, though, Digi couldn't help but to eye their new company. "Deception, poor decisions, and a propensity for misdeeds detected…" his voice trailed off, barely audible.
Nonetheless, shortly everyone was perched in the sand around the fire, grabbing some of the roasted fish and chowing down. The Buccies still flocked around King Dedede and fanned him with leaves, occasionally one or two running to roast more fish over the fire. They weren't causing a ruckus at all, albeit occasionally shooting an evil eye to anyone who wasn't also (at least vaguely) shaped like an avian that looked at them for too long. The fire was warm, the waves made gentle sounds as they crept up the beach and retreated back, and the stars started to glitter overhead as they should have been.
"Those things listen to you," Bandana Waddle Dee noted, munching on a fish next to King Dedede. "They didn't seem to like us very much."
"Well, if you squint a little, King Dedede looks like Capp'n," Kirby noted, one of his eyes doing just that.
"You know, he does," Magolor affirmed, following suit. "So they're just biased against anyone that doesn't look like them. Got it," he remarked flippantly.
Several of the Buccies got squinting eyes at the ones talking about them, but not in inquisition- it certainly wasn't a friendly look, but when King Dedede glanced at them, they dropped the malice.
"Well, they have good taste in who they look up to," the king laughed.
"Or maybe they know better than to mouth off to the ruler," Nem mused matter-of-factly, then grabbing her hat, "Oh, get outta here with the grandeur! You aren't ruling a damn- darn- thing! I wouldn't trust you with an ant farm, never mind anything bigger!"
Marx snickered. "If they're listening to King Dedede because he's the ruler, then maybe I can boss them around too!" he declared with a smirk, merely giggling some more when he got a few pointed gazes.
The entourage debriefed whilst chowing down on the fish, the traveling ones telling each other as well as the ones that had stayed back what had happened on their ventures. Spinni got rather animated, Digi buzzed around in his UFO, Magolor made doodles in the air with glowing hands, and Kirby tried to gesture with his arms how big the Devourer of the Sea was as they relayed their escapades. Kirby relayed to Marx how the entourage had formed in the first place- Nem trying to cut down Whispy and the Devourer of the Forest crashing the fight, the Squeaks already hunting the meteorites for their valuable properties, how those meteorites were actually eggs, how they'd run into Magolor after the Lor had been attacked, and how the inside of the eggs had hostile messages carved in ancient runes that they sought to gather and decipher. Much like the night before when she'd scarfed down the stick along with the roasted (or realistically, burnt) marshmallows, Nem had no trouble scarfing down a whole fish, bones and everything… nor did Marx, apparently. Kirby's stomach was an enigmatic black hole, to be sure, but even he didn't care for scarfing down the unsavory parts- Nem had the excuse of being made of metal, but whether Marx felt bones pricking the inside of his mouth was something no one could tell. No one bothered to tell him he could nibble the flesh off (or ask someone with actual hands to help him pick it off if need be)- he certainly knew, he just didn't care.
"So, Marx," the pink puffball said, looking to the jester, "how did you end up on that island?"
Marx cleared his throat, getting a big grin as he started in, "Well, I was off in space, hopping around some different planets-"
"Were you trying to summon Nova again?" Magolor cut him off, eyeing him.
The jester scoffed. "What?! No, of course not!" he replied amusedly, as if the very idea was laughable.
The magician wasn't so convinced. "Were you trying to gather power from surrounding planets to summon Nova again?" he asked more directly, eyes narrowing slightly.
" No!" Marx again brushed him off, seeming even more amused. "Nova's busted anyway! Kinda hard to wish on a star after it explodes!"
" Shut the fuck up," Nem suddenly piped up, sounding noticeably more aggressive as her fists clenched.
Marx shot her a devious look. " Don't tell me what to do, lady!"
At that, Nem gave a jolt, getting an awkward look and clutching the brim of her hat with a stranglehold. "Gyah-! Not you!"
"She's talking to her hat," Magolor whispered quickly.
That only seemed to amuse Marx even more, and he couldn't help but to snicker slightly. " Anyways," the jester continued, shooting Nem and Magolor both a playfully pointed glance, "I was planet-hopping and ended up on Planet Halfmoon!"
"You were totally trying to summon Nova," Magolor muttered.
Marx ignored him. "And yeah, I started seeing some meteor showers, but what really caught my attention was a flock of dragons! Even the small ones were still pretty big, and they were always snapping at something! Like, they'd gobble up Noddies while they were asleep, snag Bronto Burts out of the air, even the Gators didn't wanna bite them! But I mean, nothing is cooler than having a flock of pet dragons, right?! So I started hissing and growling, and that got them to back off of trying to eat me- not that they could anyway, ohohoho~!"
Surely, a dragon trying to eat Marx would've been a sight to behold- maybe he would just split himself apart and its jaws would sink into a black hole, or maybe he'd burst like a crushed grape and reform his body afterwards. Either way, the jester himself probably had nothing to worry about.
"But I guess a chunk of the flock decided to ditch Halfmoon, because when another round of meteor showers started, they took off! So I jumped on a baby's back, got nice and comfy, rode off to wherever it was going, and ended up back on Popstar! But while it was flying over the ocean, I noticed another one- a big one!- on an island, so I went down there instead to see if I could get that one on my side to start my dragon army! At first it tried to eat me until I started growling and hissing at it too, and it was going really good until you guys showed up.~" He laughed again, bouncing in place. "But if these guys are trying to devour everything, I can't have that! Taking over the galaxy is my job!"
" Hey!" came a cry of protest (and a stern look) from Kirby.
Marx's eyes bulged out slightly more. "I mean-!" he stammered, his grin turning awkward. "Keeping the galaxy safe is my job! Yeah! That's what I meant to say! Ohoho, sometimes the old me slips out!"
Kirby was apparently satisfied with that about-face and went back to smiling peacefully, while Magolor, King Dedede, and Meta Knight eyed the jester intently. Daroach looked almost amused at his antics, Nem couldn't decide whether to be amused too or try to slice him in half again, and the others certainly didn't look convinced but nonetheless weren't going to press the issue. Clearly, Kirby merely scolding him was enough to keep Marx in line.
"They could tell you were a kindred spirit," Magolor remarked.
Marx laughed some more. "That's right~!" he affirmed. "Ohoho, you get it!"
"That's good to know," Digi noted. "If a flock of them was on Halfmoon, it might be a gathering ground for them, and if the flock hatched there, the eggshells must be laying around." He glanced to the airship. "That's a pretty far distance for the airship, though…"
"Oh, don't worry," Magolor said, giving a playful hand-wave. "My ship can tear holes in space and I've been to Halfmoon. Just follow me and it'll be easy."
At that, Digi's mouth curled into a big grin. "Ancient tech is so cool...~"
Daroach too perked up at the mention, eyeing the Lor in his periphery. "Such a valuable vessel…" his voice trailed off under his breath.
"I think we should at least get a good night's rest before running off to other planets," King Dedede said. "Who knows what could happen when we get there? I don't wanna fight dragons late at night if we go today and something happens."
"That would give me time to get the Halberd ready to go," Meta Knight noted. "Adding another ship couldn't hurt."
"We'll have our own little fleet!" Kirby exclaimed, giving a happy clap.
No one was protesting. The piles of fish disappeared eventually, everyone having had plenty to fill them up. The entourage didn't have to lift a finger to clean afterwards- King Dedede simply made a few gestures, and instantly, the Buccies were dousing the fire, rolling up the fish bones into palm leaves, and floating them off into the ocean to return them to nature. As much fun as cooking together over a fire was, having some other creatures tending to the task was quite nice too. The bandana-wearing birds had no trouble moving some of the meteorite pieces around too, apparently deeming the Squeaks' airship a 'nest' that needed tending whenever King Dedede was around. Not so much as a scratch was left on them as they were all moved to Digi's area for studying, though the bigger pieces were taken care of by Meta Knight, the king himself, Storo, and Nem. Digi's scanners were moving about them very quickly, some more samples being ever-so-gently scraped off and three-dimensional pictures of them being saved to a hard drive for more analysis.
"If the ones we encountered today were more suited to aquatic terrain, that signifies extreme adaptability to the environment the egg is left to hatch in," Digi mused, zipping around some of his monitors and a mechanical arm tapping at some of the keyboards. "Sequencing their genes would undoubtedly be an interesting study into epigenetics and how these dragon embryos develop into such wildly different creatures before even cracking their shells. Maybe the potential isn't limitless, but much like an asymptote of a function, it approaches infinity."
"Where did you learn big words like-" Marx started to make a flippant remark before having one of King Dedede's hands clapped over his mouth.
Kirby didn't have the slightest clue what "epigenetics" or an "asymptote" was, nor did the majority of the entourage as they gathered around the meteorite-eggshells. Some had already had their runes deciphered during the day's venturing, but others- the ones gathered from Capp'n, Acro, Kracko, and the Devourer of the Sea- still needed some interpretation. Magolor wasted no time in studying them, the others taking glances at the strange symbols carved into a few.
"Goodness, whatever little one crawled out of this one had awful claw-writing and it's not helping me read it all," the magician remarked, flying over the smaller one retrieved from Capp'n's nest.
Maybe the others couldn't quite tell that the runes were messy, but the claw marks on the inside of the shell certainly gave the appearance of a creature messily scrawling away without a care. All of the markings faintly glowed with a pale aqua hue, maybe enough to show up in the dark but not particularly noticeable with the lights on. Unlike some of the others, though, if the hatchling was trying to draw a picture inside, there wasn't even an idea to be gleaned from some esoteric symbols. It was as if the little thing couldn't wait to hatch and had tried to scratch its way out too early… and for all they knew, maybe that was indeed the case.
"It says 'HUNT THE HAPPY,' written with emphasis like a neanderthal screaming at the top of their lungs," Magolor noted. "Not a happy message, but they really didn't leave much room for guessing what they were trying to do, did they?"
"Something tells me they're not hunting happy people to make friends," Bandana Waddle Dee's voice trailed off.
"What a bunch of losers," Spinni remarked.
The magician floated over to another, the one retrieved from Acro. There was no bizarre sketch, only runes that faintly glowed with an indigo hue. "I think this one broke along the words that were in it," he noted, gesturing to the outer edges of both halves where, sure enough, the scratched runes went right up to the edge. "Digi, can you-"
"On it!" the smallest Squeak cried, a mechanical arm pressing a few buttons on one keyboard.
Shortly, a three-dimensional image of the meteorite halves was displayed on one monitor, and after a moment, they appeared to unfurl into flatter forms that pieced together where the break was. Maybe the rest couldn't tell what they said, but it had two lines of text, one positioned above the other.
"Perfect!" Magolor said, floating up to the monitor to get a better look. "So this first line here… 'Onward.' And the second…" He studied it for a second, tracing along the curves of the markings with one hand. "'Until nothing remains.'" He shook his head. "Destructive little creatures…"
"Well, if they devour until nothing remains, what are they gonna devour next?" Kirby inquired haplessly, getting a pensive look. "That doesn't make sense…"
"They probably aren't thinking that far ahead," Meta Knight noted, giving the pink puffball a glance.
"Those are probably empty words meant to convey might and nothing more," Daroach mused.
To another egg Magolor floated, the one retrieved from Kracko. "And this one doesn't have anything for me to read," he noted, looking it over.
It did look more esoteric compared to the others, the markings on the inside of the shell glowing a bit more noticeably with a bright blue. What vaguely resembled a star was scrawled down, out of which came three lines with pointy, vaguely comet-shaped scratchings at the end. There was no telling exactly what they were looking at, but maybe with a bit of squinting, they could get a preliminary idea.
"That looks like a portal," Storo said, leaning just a bit closer and looking at the crude 'star.' "A portal with something coming out."
"It could be," Meta Knight corroborated, studying it. "And those other markings… maybe those are their eggs leaving a burning trail exiting it."
"That might explain things," Digi noted, perking up. "If they come from far enough away to need a portal to get anywhere quickly, that explains why I haven't gotten any matches for the meteorite's characteristics!"
"I dunno," Nem mused, her intact eye squinting at it. "That doesn't look like burning meteor-eggs to me. The Devourer of the Sea had a long neck… That kinda looks like three heads on long necks poking out."
"That kinda looks like Popstar to me," King Dedede said to the contrary. "Popstar if it was drawn by a dizzy baby, but it's star-shaped from space! Maybe another one was just trying to say where 'onward' is!"
"If only they weren't awful artists," Marx remarked, bouncing up onto the shell's edge to peer into it.
" If only," Magolor concurred haplessly, floating over to the biggest one retrieved from the Devourer of the Sea. "But this one… This one has plenty to say whether its hatchling was a good artist or not. Let's see…"
It certainly seemed that way- much like Nem's meteorite, it had multiple strings of glowing sea green text scrawled on the inside, and there was plenty of room for that and some more scrawled pictures seeing as it was the biggest one they'd collected yet. It was more decorated too, with most of the inside being covered either in runes or what looked like more stars with circles of varying sizes seemingly dropping out of or dripping from them. Kirby hopped up on the edge to peer in, and he was shortly joined by Nem, Daroach, Meta Knight, and King Dedede.
"These drawings look more like portals with eggs if the other is not," Meta Knight noted.
"There's a lot of them," Kirby mused, looking them over. "Magolor, what does it say?"
The magician studied the first line for a moment before replying, "'They beckon from afar, echoing into eternity before seeing the One who listens.' 'One' is written with emphasis to show importance."
The pink puffball got a somewhat funny look. "The others were easy to understand, but this one sounds weird."
"If you word it simply, it means the 'they' here has been calling from far away," Daroach explained. "Echoing into eternity could be taken to mean that whoever is calling has had their voice or voices echoing for a long time, since 'eternity' isn't a physical thing like a canyon or cave that voices echo through. Whoever the 'One' is has been listening for that long time, but hasn't been seen."
" That's ominous…" Storo mused.
"And I don't appreciate this 'One' listening if the 'they' is us," King Dedede declared flatly. "That sure seems to be the case."
"Keep on reading," Meta Knight said, giving Magolor a glance. "It must have more information."
"'From the unseen She comes, and to the unreachable She flies, leaving naught but dust as our witness,'" the magician kept on. "These two instances of 'She' are written the same as on the pieces that the Buccies were trying to make off with- they're referring to someone important."
"Maybe she's the same as the 'One,'" Bandana Waddle Dee proposed. "And maybe she's the 'Great Champion' from the first one too. They're all written to show how important whoever they're talking about is, right?"
"They are," Magolor affirmed with a nod. "That's not uncommon with some religious movements- when they're referring to a central figure, they write the words differently or use special characters. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case here."
"So she's a god figure," Daroach noted, mulling it over.
"Time to brush up on my blaspheming skills," Marx remarked, getting some sharp looks from both King Dedede and Meta Knight that all but told him not to go shouting curses at the sky.
"Possibly, yes," Magolor replied, giving the jester a side-eye for a second. "Especially considering this last line. 'Since time immemorial, and until forever ends, we must not hold off.' Sounds kinda like an immortal beast bent on devouring everything and everyone."
"Oh, not again," Bandana Waddle Dee said, shaking his head. "So it's not just a horde of hungry dragons. It's another eldritch god from beyond trying to destroy everything."
"We've faced plenty of those," Kirby said nonchalantly. "It shouldn't be too bad."
"Well, yes, but the fact that it keeps happening gets a little concerning," the bandana-wearing one replied.
Kirby only shrugged, clearly not too bothered.
"What a pretentious hunk of scrap," Nem remarked flippantly. "She sends her bratty, starving kids off willy-nilly and they all write using a thousand-year-old script like they're soooo smart. What a stuck-up, good-for-nothing, waste of-"
" Several thousand-year-old script," Magolor noted nonchalantly, interrupting the tirade before it started in proper.
She turned to him suddenly with her empty socket narrowing, not using that fact as more ammo to insult the dragon species as her company might've expected. "Gyah?" she inquired. "Come on, don't exaggerate to make yourself look good too."
" Tell him, Nem," Marx egged her on with a grin.
"I'm not exaggerating," Magolor replied, studying her with a hint of amusement. "I mean, I guess I could lie and none of you would know, but… that doesn't seem like a good idea, does it?"
She blinked, standing still as a statue for a moment with her intact eye and empty socket going wide. "Gyah…?"
The magician giggled, floating closer and giving her a playful pat on the side of her head. "What~? Do you know something I don't, Nem~?"
Her expression started to contort again, her mouth curling into an awkward grin and her empty socket drooping in a hapless look. " … Several.~ Thousand~?!" she repeated, her voice crackling for a second.
Magolor nodded. "Several thousand," he affirmed.
She blinked again, then suddenly reached up to grab the brim of her hat with both hands while looking downwards at nothing. "Those bitches!" she exclaimed, voice almost like a whisper but still rather forceful. "I was locked up for how long?! How in the everloving-…!" She cut herself off, her hands and eyes both twitching for a second. "I…!" She shook her head, still not quite getting the words out. " Fuck. Oh, for fuck's sake. That bunch of conniving, punk-ass…"
"Hey," Magolor said, studying her like she'd gone mad. " No cussing in front of Kirby. If something's wrong, just say it."
The pink puffball couldn't help but to chime in too, for clearly, something was wrong. "Nem…?"
At that, she apparently snapped out of it and blurted out, getting an awkward look, "I was locked up a lot longer than I thought I was! You swear you're not messing with us?!"
A few surprised and uncertain looks went around at the words leaving her mouth, for if she was under the impression the runes were around a single millennium old instead of several… Nem herself had to be ancient in comparison to the rest of them too. She certainly didn't look old and rusted like they might've expected, which raised a few questions in its own right, but maybe her claims of being in disrepair were a bit more founded than they (or even Nem herself) had thought.
The magician was somewhat taken aback too, replying quickly, "N-no, I'm not messing with anyone. Nem, how long were you locked up?"
"A long fuck- freaking!- time!" she replied, throwing her hands out haplessly. "I stopped counting after four decades! I thought it was a few centuries, maybe seven or eight if we're really pushing it, but apparently time blurred together a lot more than I thought it did! I mean, I knew those runes were ancient, but… holy sh-!" She clapped one hand over her mouth and presumably let out a string of cuss words, but no one could quite make them out. When she stopped a few moments later, one hand curled into a fist and the other grabbed the brim of her hat again. " Several thousand?!" she exclaimed, softer but still forceful. "You've been a thorn in my side for that long?! Gyah, you really don't know when to quit!"
… Somehow, it started making sense. Being locked away for months with no one to talk to might've made for some odd mannerisms, never mind a few decades… but multiple thousands of years surely would've made anyone go utterly mad. A machine locked in a room for years, barring environmental factors like excess moisture or fire, could still work reasonably well… but a person locked in the same room for years would never reasonably be able to say the same. If anything, it was still a miracle she could function at all for the sheer length of time, but perhaps her mechanical brain (or at least, the closest thing she had to one) and its resistance to age and damage was the glue keeping her mind (at least mostly) intact.
Marx verbalized first, getting a smirk and exclaiming, "Wow, you are old!"
"Apparently so," Nem didn't protest, her hands going limp at her sides and her gaze drifting haplessly up.
"Hang on," Magolor piped up quickly, getting ahold of himself. "Nem, can you do something right quick?"
"What?" the robot replied, her intact eye looking to him.
The magician grabbed the tip of one of her pointer fingers (seeing as her hands dwarfed his) and said, "Write 'hello' in the air."
She did so, his hand leaving a glowing trail that lingered as the tip of her finger traced out something no one else could read. Maybe Kirby himself couldn't read at all, but even the pink puffball got a funny look, for it certainly didn't look familiar in the slightest. It looked like aimless curves and squiggles.
Magolor, however, got wide eyes, turning loose quickly and the glowing trail fading. " No way," he breathed. "You're almost as old as my ship if you're writing like that!"
"She's what?!" Digi exclaimed, his UFO zooming over and zipping around Nem.
"Dude, she's an ancient!" Magolor cried, his hands shaking with excitement. "Maybe not as ancient as the planet-destroying, universe-conquering ancient tech, but she's not too far off!"
"Wait, really?!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed, giving a jolt.
" No way!" Digi too exclaimed, his UFO shaking and doing a flip that dislodged his eyepiece. "The odds of that have so many zeros before the decimal point that they may as well be zero! If she didn't have independent thoughts and feelings, I'd say she'd be the most valuable piece of treasure we've ever come across, bar none! This is incredible!"
At that moment, though, one of Nem's hands reached back and grabbed her axe, the blades of which were shortly pointing at the magician and Digi. Daroach quickly pulled out his cane and Meta Knight his sword, the others tensing up for a second, but despite her threatening gesture, Nem didn't take a swing.
"And if you get any ideas, I'll send you to see the ancients, if you know what I mean," the armored one declared, still smiling but with a narrowed intact eye. " No studying me. I don't need repairs and I don't need upgrades… as much as this worthless hat might like that."
At that, they deflated.
"I know better than to make ancient tech mad," Magolor said simply.
"Just one scan…?" Digi inquired like a child begging for a cookie, floating mere centimeters away from Nem's face with a pleading eye visible under his dislodged eyepiece. "For science…?"
" No," Nem replied.
He relented. "Well, I tried."
At that, Nem eased up, stowing her axe on her back again. "Still… that's good to know." She glanced upwards. "If only you'd take a cue from them and let it rest!"
Kirby, though, traipsed over to her and grabbed one of her fingers, saying calmly, "Come on, Nem. Let's go stargaze! Your hat can't bother you if you're paying attention to something else!"
The armored one chuckled. "Well, it can, but I like that idea anyway," she replied, striding for the door and practically yanking Kirby along for a few steps. "Let's have some normal-people fun!"
"Wait for me!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed, darting after them too as the door opened
"You call that fun?!" Marx called after them as the door shut. "Not even any explosions or-!"
Whatever he was going to say was cut off as Magolor grabbed one of the tails of his hat and opened a black hole, yanking him inside. "You. Me. Lor. Now."
When the black hole shut, only the Squeaks were left along with Meta Knight and King Dedede, all of whom shared some glances.
"… Well, this has been enlightening," Daroach mused, shaking his head. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"
"Heaven only knows," Meta Knight replied.
"I have no idea, but I'm gonna go play checkers and not get bothered," Spinni remarked. "Meta Knight! You know how to play? If you don't, I'll teach you!"
The masked one blinked. "I-… You want to play checkers with me…?" he stammered, a bit taken aback. "I suppose I can agree to a few rounds…"
"We're playing!" Spinni declared, heading for the door too. "Storo always beats me and Digi cheats! You're probably a more fun opponent!"
"I don't cheat, you just aren't good at checkers," Digi shot back, not even bothering to look at the shade-wearing Squeak as he went back to his devices and keyboards.
" Shut up, Digi!" Spinni shot back as the door opened.
" Don't tell Digi to shut up!" Daroach hollered as the door shut, shaking his cane.
Storo simply shook his head, but King Dedede, on the other hand, started laughing at their antics. "You sure do have a rowdy bunch," he cackled.
Daroach gave him an unamused look and pointed at the door with his cane too. "Don't you have Buccies to boss around?" he asked flatly.
That got the message across fine enough, and the king too was strolling out, laughing and giggling while Daroach shook his head unamusedly. Storo gave the head Squeak a simple pat on the back, and Digi didn't care, much too occupied with synthesizing all the data coming from the new meteorites. Daroach couldn't help but to polish the smaller ones to perfection while Storo polished the bigger ones, the lights from Digi's devices bouncing off of their shiny surfaces like lasers after quite a bit of buffing.
After a rather eventful day, it was certainly nice to finally wind down… at least, for a while.
Author's note: I had mentioned some chapters ago that me and my friend had picked the same character as a hypothetical 'buddy,' so when giving our respective Nem and Digi someone (or someones, in the case of the latter) to pal around with, I had gone with our second favorites. Now that everyone has been properly included, I can tell you that I picked Marx, and if it's not obvious, Magolor was the one we were both fond of. Magolor has a fascination with the ancients, Digi is a technician in awe of ancient tech and its capabilities, and Nem herself is an ancient robot with some… 'technical difficulties.' It worked out perfectly, all things considered.
As far as the little lavender gremlin goes, he's a gem and I've liked him since before I was even a proper Kirby fan after seeing Marx Soul in a "hardest bosses" compilation video circa 2007. I played Super Star Ultra only rather recently after going on a binge of all the games I'd missed growing up, and launching Marx into Nova at the end of Milky Way Wishes was just pure fun. (The REAL fun, however, was fighting Marx Soul in the True Arena and hearing that blood-curdling scream after he splits in half… even if Galacta Knight bodied me on the way there a dozen times.)