Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
The following day, Fumu and Zan Partizanne met up with Vesa, Fecto Elfilis, Kirby and Elfilin in the field between Capupu Village and Castle Dedede. The human made a brief glance at Zan's young apprentice and waved her hand.
"Morning," Vesa called over.
Zan stopped just before Elfilis and nodded at them.
"Good morning," Elfilis said with a light nod.
"Same to you," Zan replied, "I've considered taking up your offer on joint lessons."
"I can tell," Elfilis perked up their feelers.
"Before that, though," Zan mentioned, "there's something I need to talk to you about as we plan what we're going to do for the lesson."
Vesa tilted her head sideways while Elfilis placed a finger on their lower jaw.
"All right," Elfilis nodded, "right this way."
Elfilis led their sister down a short distance to the point Vesa and Fumu weren't within earshot. The two girls went on to chatter with Kirby and Elfilin while they waited.
"I just checked Fumu's affinity yesterday," Zan explained, a hint of excitement in her voice, "I was expecting it to be harder to decipher and that we might need your help, but I recognized its shape right away. She has an affinity for Dream. I'm sure you know what this means."
Elfilis gazed in awe, both surprised and elated with the revelation. Perhaps this could be the chance to begin rebuilding some of the Ancients' greatest wonders. Thankfully, Elfilis memorized many of the blueprints even when they lacked the power to make the old tech themself. Vesa may be just as promising in her own merits, but Elfilis kinda wanted Fumu to succeed in her training. Perhaps with enough nurturing of her powers, this could be a chance to rebuild their society, repairing a lot of damage done to their history. It wouldn't take a day, but a new Halcandra would come into reality eventually.
Elfilis and Zan didn't say much else as they both returned to the others. Vesa paused in her conversation and glanced over her shoulder.
"So it has come to my attention that Fumu has essentially the primary magic of our entire race at her disposal," Elfilis announced, "which is both amazing and makes things a bit complicated. We'll still be focusing this lesson on Vesa since she already has the basics down and is moving onto more advanced theory and application of magic."
"Oh?" Vesa blurted.
Elfilis locked eyes onto Fumu.
"Fumu," Elfilis continued, "you'll likely be focusing on the basics for at least a year, considering you're still young, but if you have a prodigious talent for math and science, it should come in handy for your advanced lessons later. That isn't to say we can't still teach you spells that are more your speed."
Fumu nodded in agreement, acknowledging that her journey to mastery wasn't going to be easy.
"Ok," she told them.
Elfilis approached Vesa while Fumu came face to face with Zan.
"I'm so excited, Kirby!" Elfilin chirped, hopping up and down midair, "are you?"
"Poyo!" Kirby nodded.
Elfilis gave Elfilin and Kirby a puzzled look for a brief moment. While Zan Partizanne started teaching Fumu the basics of how to start feeling for her magical energy, Elfilis returned their gaze to Vesa.
"What do you want to start next?" they asked her.
Vesa pulled out her wand from her pocket bangle.
"I think I found a spell circle for a healing field," Vesa told them, "I'm ready to test it out."
"I assume you mean the Triage spell," Elfilis replied, "alright then."
Vesa nodded with a smile before she held out her wand and began to concentrate her mana reserves. She began to draw the outer and inner circle before she went to add in the calculations. After that, she added the symbol to the circle and raised it into the air. Elfilis gave her a pleased expression as their girlfriend got the spell right the first time. They made a mental note to talk with her about it later, wanting her to know how they felt. As the spell circle rained down soothing magical particles, Kirby blinked twice as he got warm and fuzzy feelings all of a sudden. Still, the pink star warrior giggled as Elfilin gave him an affectionate headbutt.
Meanwhile, a certain grey rodent donning a red hat and red cape let out a sigh of relief, having made it inside the treasury.
It hadn't been super high on his priority list to get the Triple Star back, but it has certainly been important, for it was one of Daroach's best weapons against evil. As much as his cane was a perfectly fine magical focus, the Triple Star now served as excellent protection against cursed artifacts. After all, he's had ample enough time to recover from his possession from Dark Nebula. This dashing rogue for Squeaks everywhere found getting into the treasury rather easily if he blew a big enough hole in the wall to just fly right in.
Daroach began searching the treasury, examining each artifact and treasure while passing by. The prior explosion kicked up some dust into the air. Once the leader of the Squeak Squad found the case holding the Triple Star, he simply smashed it with the butt of his cane and pulled the artifact under his cape. He cast a speed spell on himself and zipped out. Honestly, he expected resistance, but no one showed up…just how he liked it. Now he just needed to find a place to lay low to buy him time to cast a long range teleport spell.
Daroach surveyed the forest ahead of him. With Doc doing some reconnaissance overhead, the escape went smoothly. Daroach found a small cave and went inside to prepare his escape back to their hideout.
"Too easy," he smirked to himself.
A little while later, the Waddle Dees were scrambling as Dedede investigated the scene of the crime. The penguin king examined the destroyed wall with an intense feeling of annoyance. He was at least relieved none of his other treasures were taken, but had a suspicion only one person would go only for the Triple Star. He wasn't sure where the Waddle Dees got it, but he remembered they presented that fancy-looking wand to him one afternoon while he was nursing some wounds given to him by Kirby over probably some bout of rivalry. It was a shame he couldn't get to it before he was possessed by a Jamba Heart, even if he kept it in case a being of darkness showed up again.
While Escargon was interviewing a nearby Waddle Dee, Meta Knight examined the broken glass on the floor. Glancing outside, the veteran knight threw his cape aside where it vanished and spread his wings. He took off through the hole in the wall to chase after whoever did this. After a minute passed, Escargon slithered towards Dedede.
"Sire," Escargon told him, "I can't find anything other than shattered glass and plaster."
Dedede returned his gaze and scratched his head. The silence broke when Bandee scurried into the treasury, holding a blood red spear.
"Sire! Sire!" Bandee called, "we think we found something!"
Dedede and Escargon shared a glance with Bandee.
"Well, speak up, lad," Dedede ordered, "what did you find?"
"There's something up with the clouds," Bandee explained, "there's something floating up there, but we can't really tell what it is. It might have to do with the break-in."
Dedede poked his head out of the hole and squinted, spotting the clouds which sparked with green lightning. Even when green lightning wasn't something that would set off mental alarms in Dreamland, the sky was getting rather dark. Dedede and Escargon shared another glance.
"Looks like it's gonna rain soon," Escargon grumbled, "that shouldn't hurt our ability to track whoever took that star stick."
Dedede nodded in agreement with a grin.
"We could give that monster summoning device a test run," he hummed, "Meta Knight doesn't have to be the only one to catch the thief."
Back outside, Vesa was in the middle of practicing a variation of her barrier spell. Elfilin perked up his large ears as he tilted his head upwards, examining the green lightning in the clouds. Fecto Elfilis remembered hearing an explosion some time ago, but heard no screaming. Kirby shifted his gaze between Vesa and Fumu as they were in the middle of their lessons.
"We should probably go check that out," Elfilis frowned, glancing at Zan.
"The clouds, you mean?" Zan paused.
Both Zan and Elfilis examined the green lightning dancing in the clouds.
"Well, that doesn't look natural," Zan commented with a hint of annoyance.
Both Zan Partizanne and Elfilis brought out their respective spears, which caught Kirby's attention.
"Poyo?"
Elfilis made a brief glance at Kirby before they shrugged. They spread open their winglike ears. Vesa paused in what she was doing.
"Huh?"
The magical barrier Vesa was casting shattered to tiny pieces, eliciting a startled yelp out of her. Elfilis glanced at their girlfriend for a moment, relieved she was ok. Elfilis and Zan immediately took off into the sky. The ultimate life-form wasn't a fan of the thick polluting smog filling the air. They noticed Zan was already getting slightly light-headed from the lack of oxygen from the high altitudes. Elfilis pulled her back before she could fly further into the clouds.
"You should head back," Elfilis advised with a frown, "passing out in the air wouldn't do you any good."
Zan Partizanne slowly nodded.
"Be careful, then," she rasped.
As Zan Partizanne made her descent down the sky, Elfilis continued their flight. The smoke made it far difficult to see, but when they followed the sounds of machinery, they came to an odd sight. Inside what appeared to be a cloudy creature, they noticed a rodent with a mustache and glasses tapping on a keyboard before metal spikes jutted out from the sides of the cloud. This mechanical cloud creature charged at Elfilis. They blinked before they simply put out their hand. The mechanical creature slammed directly into their open palm, stopping in its tracks. All of a sudden, Elfilis heard the crackling of a speaker coming to life.
"Uhm," an elderly voice on the other side stammered, "I don't suppose we can talk about this?"
Elfilis narrowed their eyes as electricity arced over their body, ignoring the burns they're sustaining and the static electricity bristling their fur.
"We can."
They tightened their grip on the machine. Elfilis exerted their power as they started pulling it out of the sky. The rodent inside the cockpit started to panic and started charging up some sort of apparatus. Soon enough, Elfilis emerged from the clouds and descended towards the ground. Kirby and Elfilin looked up before sprinting ahead. Elfilis twitched their feelers as they sensed a spatial fluctuation. When they peered into the cockpit, they huffed in disappointment as the pilot of the robotic cloud was gone. As soon as Elfilis set it onto the ground, the cloud dispersed which revealed more of the machine. The small chinchilla circled around it while Kirby blinked twice.
"Poyo?" Kirby paused, "poyo!"
"You don't say?" Elfilis raised their brow.
Vesa shifted her gaze towards Kirby while Fumu was still concentrating to find her mana within her.
"Poyo," Kirby explained to Elfilis, standing on the tips of his feet, "poyo Daroach, poyo. Squeaks poyo. Poyo!"
Elfilis nodded along, making a mental note to look into the Kracko creature later.
"Squeaks?" Vesa paused.
"Poyo!" Kirby nodded.
"What are they like?" Elfilin clamored, floating slightly above the pink star warrior.
Kirby took a moment to think. He took a minute to use his limited speech and body language to explain his encounter with Daroach and the Squeaks. Once he finished, Elfilin perked up his large ears.
"Really?" Elfilin blurted, "you went after them because they took your cake?"
"Poyo," Kirby admitted with a shrug.
Vesa placed a finger on her chin as she thought over what she heard.
"You beat up the king for no reason?" Elfilis swayed his tail with an inquisitive look.
Kirby gave an embarrassed expression, his eyes hinting at guilt.
"Poyo," he sighed.
"Yes," Elfilis agreed, "that does seem a bit short sighted of you. But then again, you did have some prior experience with Dedede committing a similar crime, so I think you get a pass so long as you apologized."
Kirby nodded.
"Do you think the Squeaks were behind that explosion at the castle?" Vesa asked.
"I'm assuming that the one in the sky was meant to cover the escape of whoever blew up the wall," Elfilis answered.
Vesa began circling the machine, her hand tracing in search of a hatch.
"Well," Vesa mused, "if they're not going to ask for this machine back, maybe we can make some good use out of it?"
Elfilis flexed their feelers.
"I'm sure Zan can find a way to do so," Elfilis replied, "given that they used electric attacks. Let's see if we can find a way to use the teleportation and maybe one of us can get sent directly to them."
Kirby grinned and raised his arm.
"Poyo!" Kirby chirped.
"Me, too! Me, too!" Elfilin added, flapping his arms with excitement.
"You can go," Elfilis pointed at Kirby.
The ultimate life-form shifted their finger towards Elfilin.
"You stay here," Elfilis chided, "unlike Kirby, you lack combat experience in general and whatever power you do have is either missing or buried in your psyche so deep that trying to find it would probably split your soul apart if we used magic. Not even your pocket dimension and your basic telekinesis might not be strong enough to protect you."
Elfilin pouted with a sigh.
"Fine," Elfilin grumbled.
Soon, Vesa found a hatch and started turning the valve. She pulled the hatch open and peered inside. After checking the width of the opening for a moment, she turned her head towards Kirby.
"You ready to go?" she asked.
"Poyo!" Kirby nodded eagerly, jumping up and down.
Vesa took a step back, allowing Kirby to climb inside the machine. Elfilis sealed up the hatch again before they backed away. Elfilin peered inside the cockpit and waved his arm at Kirby. The pink star warrior pulled a lever which activated the built-in teleporter. Elfilis felt the spatial fluctuation as Kirby teleported away. They suddenly let out an annoyed huff upon realizing they forgot to put a tracking spell on him. Oh well, perhaps Kirby could at least rely on his luck.
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