Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
After disembarking from the Lor Starcutter, Marx and Magolor made their way to Wondaria Remains. They noticed Susie was waiting for them at the entrance to the abandoned theme park. The jester's fiance meandered forward and waved his hand.
"Hey, hey, hey! Nice to see ya again! Been busy ripping off the middle class?" Marx called over, giggling and rolling around on his ball, "maybe deforest a few planets?"
Susie sighed and facepalmed.
"You know that I don't do that anymore. Now that my father is gone, I have no interest in such things," Susie objected, "in fact, I'm going to planets he previously abused for their resources; doing what I can to repair them and fix what went wrong. It's a slow process, though…"
Magolor sweated nervously and gave a bow of respect.
"That's good to hear," Magolor replied, "now, was there something you wanted to discuss?"
Susie nodded before glancing over her shoulder.
"Nope," Marx snickered, "she just came all the way out here to the boonies to take in the scenery and then take the scenery."
Magolor quickly turned towards his fiance.
"Marx, cut it out," he chided, "remember your exercises."
"Fine," Marx mumbled, "it's not as fun, though."
Marx started to calm down a bit, cycling his magical energy through the air before pulling it back to him. The grass under his ball began to visibly wilt as his corrupted magical energy seeped out into the world around him. The jester pulled in the mana within the air, cleaning his own mana temporarily.
All the while, Susie returned her gaze to Magolor.
"I heard you wanted to renovate this abandoned park," Susie told him, "did I guess right?"
Magolor placed his hand behind his head.
"Yeah, that's the plan anyway," he nodded, "I've put a lot of thought into it and it will be cheaper just to fix it up rather than build from scratch."
Susie clasped her hands in front of her.
"You don't have to renovate the park on your own, you see," Susie proclaimed, "I'll be more than happy to help you with the project. With my help, the park would be pristine."
Marx and Magolor's eyes widened in surprise.
"Really?!" they exclaimed in unison.
"But in exchange," Susie advised, "you'll have to do a favor for me."
Marx and Magolor shared a puzzled glance, taking a moment to think.
"Hmm, I dunno," Magolor replied, "I kind of wanted this to be a bit of a personal project, honestly. I guess some help wouldn't hurt though, like raw materials and things like that, or replacement parts that I might need. Magic is good for repairing rust or lifting heavy things though, so I shouldn't need too much manual labor."
Upon cue, Susie pulled a datapad out of her pocket dimension. When she activated it and flashed it to Marx and Magolor, they stared in awe at the blueprint on display.
"This is really interesting," Magolor mused, "I only understand about half of this; it's not exactly my area of expertise."
"You see," Susie elaborated, "this is a blueprint for an Armoroid, a kind of robot that can be turned into a copy ability should Kirby inhale it."
Susie turned off the datapad and stashed it into her pocket dimension.
"I have the means to produce them en masse," Susie continued, "but I'll need to study Kirby's biology for a bit to finish working out exactly what I'm going to need for this to work. His copy abilities are versatile, but oddly specific…like when Kirby inhales a Sword, why doesn't it instead make him Metal? It's strange since it doesn't seem to operate on any scientific basis; so it's more than likely a magical one, or something in-between that I just don't have the information to understand yet."
"So you want us to wrangle him up and deliver him to you in a cage?" Marx smirked, a hint of a snicker in his voice.
Magolor huffed, a bulging blood vessel forming on his forehead.
"Marx," Magolor scolded, furrowing his eyebrows, "we are not catching him like a wild animal!"
Marx snickered while he balanced on one foot.
"I dunno," Marx winked, "I think we could catch him with a cardboard box, a stick and a slice of cake."
Susie sighed and lowered her head.
"You don't have to go that far," Susie insisted, "you can just tell Kirby I'm offering to arrange an appointment with him and tell him where to meet me. Simple as that."
"You sure?"
Both Magolor and Susie gave Marx a blank stare.
"Man," Marx groaned, "you guys are just no fun."
Magolor returned his gaze to Susie.
"Not to worry," Magolor assured, "I'll be sure to tell Kirby about you when we come across him."
Susie nodded in approval, clapping her hands together.
"Ok then," she winked, "it's a done deal!"
That following morning, Kirby stepped out of his house to stretch his limbs. When he turned his head towards the tree next to his house, he noticed Tokkori perching on a branch, preening his wings.
"Morning, kiddo," Tokkori mumbled.
"Poyo!" Kirby waved his arm.
"Whatcha' up to this morning?"
Kirby took a moment to think. His mind drifted to when he saw Kracko stronger than usual. How did that sentient cloud get so powerful? What could've possibly happened to Capupu Village if he wasn't able to take Kracko down? He recalled the two copy abilities he had to use during the fight and questioned the possibility of not being able to create a sword beam if he wasn't at optimum health.
Kirby snapped out of his thoughts and began surveying the surroundings. Surely, there would be some blade and a kind of training dummy lying around, right? Well, he didn't have such things at his home for himself, but he recalled Magolor had rooms which let him use any copy ability he wanted, complete with a training dummy. Actually, it seemed kind of odd that he had rooms like that at all. That could be something the pink puff could look into later.
Kirby began his stroll onto the dirt path. The Lor Starcutter couldn't be too far. While he darted along the path, the pink puff kept an eye out for any unusual disturbances to the terrain, reminding himself to steer clear of any traps the rogue Squeak gangs might've set up. Much to his relief, he didn't find anything. Perhaps Daroach might've had something to do with stopping any traps? When Kirby reached a fork in the path, a soft gust of wind caused the grass to sway.
Tilting his gaze towards a nearby cliff face, he spotted Meta Knight staring into the distance and overlooking Dreamland. Kirby scurried towards the cliff with excitement in his eyes.
"Papa poyo!" Kirby called over, waving his arm.
Meta Knight glanced over at Kirby, giving a hum of acknowledgment, still unsure of how to treat him. When the pink puff stopped just at the base of the cliff, he maintained his gaze upward.
"Poyo?"
"I do," Meta Knight nodded, "come and sit with me."
Meta Knight stepped aside a little. Kirby took in some air and floated his way to the top of the cliff face, sitting down next to the veteran knight.
"Poyo," Kirby began to explain,fluttering his arms a little, "poyo poyo. Poyo. Poyo poyo poyo."
"Well, it seems to happen to quite a few of your foes," Meta Knight commented, "you should not be too shocked."
Kirby nodded in agreement as he looked up to the sky.
"Poyo," Kirby pondered, "poyo poyo poyo? Poyo poyo?"
"Magolor has already done this, Elfilis did as well," Meta Knight pointed out, "Void Termina did so, and many others as well, many times in the middle of combat with you."
"Poyo," Kirby nodded again in agreement.
Kirby and Meta Knight shared a glance.
"Poyo poyo," Kirby added, "poyo? Poyo poyo…"
"Have you finally decided to take your training seriously?"
Kirby took a moment to think over the question.
"Poyo poyo," Kirby answered, "poyo."
Meta Knight closed his masked eyes for a brief moment.
"I will teach you," he replied, "but I will not accept you quitting your training now. If you wish to learn under me, you must commit to it. You understand me, my son?"
Kirby may have shivered a little, but that really didn't deter him. As much as he loved taking naps and eating food, he also thought of the friends he made throughout his entire journey of life. Part of him thought the next major threat could be around the corner at any time. The last thing he wanted was for the next threat to overpower him and harm all of his loved ones. Standing to his feet, Kirby placed his arm on his spherical body.
"Poyo," Kirby proclaimed.
Meta Knight had skeptical thoughts swim in his mind. The last times he tried to train Kirby, the pink puff would lose interest and stop. However, the veteran knight won't relent this time. He'll have to come in the dead of night if that was what it took to push Kirby to better defend himself. Meta Knight stood up moments later.
"So be it," Meta Knight declared.
The veteran knight walked a short distance away before swiftly turning around and unfurling his cloak. He threw a sword between the two of them.
"Defend yourself!" he warned.
Kirby took the hint and leapt at the sword in front of him. When he inhaled it, it manifested into his copy ability.
No use backing out now.
Meta Knight charged into action, his Galaxia clashing against Kirby's sword. He attempted to use the prongs on Galaxia to disarm him. Kirby wouldn't budge, tightening his grip on the sword. Meta Knight stomped on the pink puff's foot, forcing Kirby to lose his grip. He twisted his wrist and wrenched the sword away from him. The sword went flying. In a bit of a panic, Kirby tried leaping out of the way. The sooner he got the sword back, the better. Part of him thought of inhaling the sword, but decided against it. He wouldn't risk losing his copy ability again.
Another swing from Galaxia from the corner of his eye, Kirby jumped and did a backwards somersault. His lack of muscle memory would usually render him prone to clumsy errors, not being as coordinated without a copy ability; but the somersault still moved him away from Meta Knight's swing. He jumped again; this time, towards the sword on the ground.
Having barely reached it, Kirby grabbed the sword instead of inhaling it. The pink puffball struggled to grip the hilt…even more so to keep himself from manifesting his copy ability again. Meta Knight seemed to ease up a little. Kirby tried swinging the sword, but the movements appeared more like he was flailing around with it. The pink puff tried positioning his feet and aiming his sword, mentally calculating the chances of landing a hit on his opponent. Kirby grew rather more frustrated as his battle instinct without a copy ability was abysmal; except for when he could spit inhaled projectiles or even slide into an enemy with enough momentum.
How could he be this helpless? He's defeated powerful foes before and he remembered some times in his past where a few notable enemies forced him to adjust his strategy, even for a little while. The last foe he remembered, Necrodeus, tried to kill him after splitting him up into weaker fragments.
Kirby gazed into his father's eyes, wondering what kind of advice he could ask for in terms of practice. After a moment, the pink star warrior swung his sword down. Unimpressed, Meta Knight lowered the Galaxia, pausing combat for a moment.
"Your issue is you have no control, nor ability to access your power," Meta Knight insisted, "what you need to do is train, something that hitherto, you have refused to do. We cannot wait until something that can't be undone occurs, whether that be your own death, or that of someone else."
"Poyo?" Kirby paused.
"Up until now," the veteran knight continued, "we've been lucky that fortunate situations have allowed you to prevail when otherwise you should've fallen, such as when Marx made his wish on the comet NOVA, you should have floated in space until eventually perishing, Marx could have easily taken over Popstar should the fragments of star power you had collected not assisted you. If that hadn't occurred, everything would've been over."
Kirby couldn't help but shudder.
"Not to mention when Nightmare attacked Dreamland, Dedede had broken the Star Rod and created a temporary fix," Meta Knight added, "then you defeated him and remade the Star Rod when he tried to stop you. Nightmare was freed from the Fountain of Dreams at that moment. If Dedede hadn't sent you after Nightmare, then he would have been free to restart the great war all over again, plunging the cosmos into another horrifically long war. The first war was long enough that we don't have records going back to the start of it."
Kirby rubbed his head with one arm, remembering the menacing face of Nightmare looming over him on the moon. Still, a particular thought crossed his mind.
"Poyo?" Kirby asked, "poyo?"
For some reason, Meta Knight stiffened.
"Yes," Meta Knight admitted, "a war that lasted a really long time. I was a high ranking general in that war before you defeated Nightmare. The battle was nearly lost before you killed him. I was posted here on Popstar on the orders of Sir Arthur to defend the planet should Nightmare's forces appear. So as not to disturb the population I took a position under King Dedede and acted as a subordinate to him. I was unaware of Nightmares personal appearance on Popstar, but after the fact I believe that he was attempting to gain power through the Fountain, trying to corrupt it and use it to enhance his powers over the unconscious mind. After you killed him, however, most of the powers he granted his minions were depleted and the tide was turned quickly."
Kirby stared in wonder as he sat down.
"Arthur is still fighting off the remnants of Nightmare's forces with the remaining Star Warriors," he continued, "I've kept in contact with them and the fight is still ongoing. At this rate, it'll likely never truly end. Nightmare's forces covered a large swath of planets; many have turned to banditry and piracy to get by. We're doing our best to keep the peace still. I've taken up a permanent spot here in an effort to aid and protect you, as I think you're likely the key to bringing peace to the stars one day."
Meta Knight stared off into space, his yellow eyes dimming for a brief moment.
"I'm an old warrior Kirby," he sighed, "I've had a long time to practice my craft. I've been a drill instructor, and a mentor, but I have never been a father. Things like this do not come naturally to me. I never expected to have a child at all. It should be entirely impossible. I was a creature made by Nightmare, a failure. There are no other creatures of my species, Kirby. Not even you are a member of my species. We are vastly different, and yet you've taken my form."
Meta Knight glanced over at the pink star warrior.
"You are my child in the ways that matter, however," he concluded, "I doubt I can give you the proper affection and care you need. I'm jaded and have fought for far too long. Battle is something I've grown up with from the days after my creation, it is all I have ever known. Peace is something that is hard for me to cope with. It's almost impossible for me to not seek out ways to challenge and improve myself. Seeing you waste your potential is something that is hard for me to bear."
Loosening his grip of the sword, Kirby waddled up to Meta Knight and gave him a gentle pat on the head.
"Papa Poyo," Kirby cooed.
Meta Knight gave Kirby a confused stare.
"Poyo stronger, poyo?" Kirby offered, "return favor, poyo? Little joys, poyo? Poyo?"
"It's not so simple," Meta Knight confessed, "I have tried to relax for a long time, Kirby, but war has been my whole life. I have managed to find peace for short periods of time, however with each new threat I am put more and more on edge. Just when I start to calm down, another threat emerges from the shadows of the infinite cosmos. I'm not used to speaking so…liberally…about myself and my history, so I apologize if I seem out of sorts."
Meta Knight shuffled over to a tree stump and sat down.
"With all the fighting that constantly surrounds us, I find little ability to calm myself," he continued, "I'm constantly training or finding new ways to combat unseen threats, to prepare for whatever our next battle may be, as they are certainly coming. It feels like I'm still at war. Only now, I'm not leading anyone; only attempting to prepare the planet for every new threat that comes our way."
Kirby sighed before he sat down next to his father.
"Poyo poyo," Kirby replied, his arms drawing the shape of a training dummy, "poyo."
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