Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.


Fecto Elfilis, Vesa, Kirby and Elfilin returned to Susie's office the next morning. Elfilis pulled a report out of their pocket dimension and held it out, allowing Susie to pluck it out of their hand. She then deployed a drone for Kirby to inhale as he then became Mecha Kirby. Elfilin watched as Kirby set foot into a simulation room, where one wall had a window for Susie to observe the testing she arranged for him.

Elfilis simply sat and watched, having groomed themself efficiently earlier and relishing in their soft and fluffy fur. Vesa took some time to survey the office they were standing in. The office appeared pretty boring as it lacked artistic decorations of any kind. She took note of a bobble head of Susie on the desk, a holographic screen which made up her computer. A poster plastered on the wall had a cat hanging from a tree branch with a slogan in a language she didn't recognize. The cat in the poster was smaller than the cats she's seen in her past, but with small horns coming off its head.

Out of the corner of her eye, Vesa spotted a photo frame at the corner of the desk. In the photo, an egg-shaped man with tousled purple hair and a mustache complete with cyan eyes and disembodied limbs dressed up in a snazzy business suit stood with pride. She shifted her gaze towards Susie, who kept a tablet in her hands as she continued to observe Kirby. Picking up the photo frame, she read the text spelling out the man's name and confirming this was indeed Susie's late father. The woman in question glanced over her shoulder for a brief moment.

"Ma'am?"

Vesa stiffened and put the photo frame back down before she backed away from the desk.

"S-Sorry," she blurted.

Susie sighed and returned her focus to the session. All Vesa could do was approach Elfilis and stand by their side, both of them watching as Kirby fired his blaster cannon at moving targets. The tall angelic lancer nodded at her, while their eyes read the tension in Susie's posture.

Several minutes passed and Kirby finished the testing session when he twirled around, levitated into the air and unleashed two blasts of fire and electricity from his gauntlets and cannons. The pink puffball then made a graceful landing, causing Elfilin to do a happy back flip.

"This is a guaranteed success," Susie commented, "I believe that's most of the things we needed to check. All that's left is seeing if you improve by using it for longer periods of time."

Kirby turned towards Susie and waved his arm.

"Poyo!"

"I'll provide you with some spare drones to take home with you," Susie added, "we have also been experimenting with one of the many Copy Ability Essences that seem to be littering Dreamland now, and are attempting to integrate the ability into it."

Kirby shed his copy ability and set foot back into the office.

"Does that mean we get to go home now?" Elfilin clamored, his tail swayed side to side.

Susie nodded.

"You are free to leave whenever you are ready," Susie advised, "but we'll be moving the space station soon, so sometime within the next 48 hours would be preferable."

Vesa and Elfilis exchanged glances in a moment of silence.

"O-Ok," Vesa blurted, "we'll get ready to leave."

While Susie waved her hand to dismiss them, Vesa and Elfilis led Kirby and Elfilin out of the office. They returned to the guest room where Vesa grabbed all of her items from the bathroom and the drawers, stashing them into her pocket bangle. Elfilis also took a short amount of time to clean up any stray fur from their bed and Elfilin's bed, making sure no trace of their genes could be collected.

"Uhm," Elfilin asked, "should we book a ride or something?"

"I can take us back," Elfilis offered, "give me a few moments."

Elfilis took out some stones, wrote some runes on the back and added in a few portal anchors. Vesa took a step back while Kirby and Elfilin watched in awe. The ultimate life-form tossed the stones out into a circle as a portal opened up in the air.

"Everyone through," Elfilis ordered, "this is quite a distance from Popstar, so quickly!"

Vesa nodded and sprinted before she jumped through the portal. Kirby followed suit while Elfilin simply flew through the portal. Elfilis followed through after them, and set foot into Dreamland. The portal shut off seconds later, closing off the other side. Vesa took a moment to straighten her hair and adjust her beret. A brief cold breeze was enough to remind her to button up her coat. Elfilis let out a soft breath in exhaustion. Kirby and Elfilin turned to face the tall angelic lancer and approached him with concerned expressions in their eyes.

"Poyo?"

"It's fine," Elfilis assured Kirby, "I'm just a bit tired."

Elfilis looked over themself as parts of their fur were beginning to liquefy from the amount of strain they were under for a brief period. Elfilin perched on their shoulder and nuzzled their face. He regretted it seconds later when a part of his larger fragment's melting fur dripped onto him. Startled, the small chinchilla tried to rub off the liquid, only for it to melt into his own body. Elfilin hovered a short distance away from Elfilis, still shuddering from the sudden sensation of the biomass fusing with him. He noticed as Elfilis happened to grimace at what just happened.

"S-Sorry," Elfilin blurted, tucking his tail between his feet.

"It's not painful," Elfilis assured him, "it's just uncomfortable."

Elfilis began putting more mental focus to keeping themself from falling apart. Vesa sighed as she sat down next to them.

"Maybe," she offered, "maybe we could rest here for a bit?"

Elfilis shook their head as they rose to their full height.

"I can get us home from here," they corrected.

Vesa stood up as Elfilis pulled her, Kirby and Elfilin through a quick teleport. Soon enough, they arrived in the foyer.

"I'm going to lay down," Elfilis sighed, "let me know if you all need anything."

Vesa nodded just as Elfilis trudged their way to a nearby bathroom. She focused her gaze on Elfilin and Kirby, the small chinchilla perching on top of the pink star warrior.

"So," Elfilin asked, "what will you be doing, Vesa?"

Vesa took a moment to think as she turned her head towards the stairs. She remembered how to reach Hyness's office from there. Come to think of it, how far along was he with the device he brainstormed a while ago? Perhaps with what experience she had from her apprenticeship, she might offer some help seeing it through to its completion. She recollected her conversation with Hyness regarding Gooey. She counted herself lucky she didn't meet the creature in person, but she had a sneaky suspicion that luck might run out.

"I," Vesa told Elfilin, "I'll go look for Hyness and check on him. What about you two?"

"I guess we can go outside and just relax?" Elfilin shrugged, "I still feel kind of...I dunno, icky?"

"Poyo," Kirby cooed.

Vesa smiled as she took off her coat and hooked it on the coat rack.

"Alright," she advised, "you take care and stay safe."

"Poyo!" Kirby nodded.

Vesa made a beeline for the stairs while Kirby and Elfilin scurried out the door and through the courtyard. The small chinchilla levitated himself above the ground and took a moment to stretch his limbs.

"Say," Elfilin requested, "can we go hang out at your house?"

Kirby raised his arm in the air and stood on one foot.

"Poyo!"

Kirby and Elfilin scampered along the dirt path across Dreamland, passing by a broom hatter in the middle of sweeping up fallen leaves on the field. Taking a fork in the road, they could see Kirby's house up ahead. They sprinted the last stretch of the path until they reached a close proximity to the house. At that moment, Kirby spotted Meta Knight standing on the chimney.

"Papa poyo!" Kirby chirped, eagerly waving his arms.

Meta Knight took notice of his child and his eyes glowed pink for a brief moment. Elfilin perked up his large ears slightly as the veteran knight leapt off the chimney and landed gracefully in front of them.

"Oh!" Elfilin blurted, "uh, good late morning, Sir Meta Knight!"

"Good morning, Elfilin," Meta Knight nodded at the small chinchilla.

Elfilin blushed cutely while he placed his arm behind his head.

"So what brings you here?" he asked.

"I was waiting for Kirby to return to figure out where you all went," Meta Knight clarified.

Kirby and Elfilin shared befuddled glances for a brief moment.

"Poyo," Kirby mentioned, "Susie poyo?"

"I do," Meta Knight answered, tightening his grip on his cape concealing his lower body.

Elfilin swayed his tail side to side and clasped his paws together.

"Well," Elfilin explained, "Marx and Magolor showed up at the tower a few days ago and told Kirby Miss Susie set up an appointment for him. They let me, Vesa and Elfilis tag along for the trip to her great space station."

Kirby nodded as he waved his arms methodically.

"When we got there," Elfilin continued, "Susie ran some tests on Kirby, and it turns out she was working on a cool new copy ability for him! She needed to do a bit of a medical exam to figure out how to synchronize the new copy ability."

"I see," Meta Knight narrowed his eyes slightly and flashed green briefly.

Little did Kirby know, Meta Knight couldn't help but worry about the potentiality of Susie having collected Kirby's DNA samples. For a moment, the veteran knight's mind flashed to the time when Susie captured him and experimented on him, making him into some kind of machine. There was no way Meta Knight could ever trust Susie after that whole incident.

"Poyo?" Kirby paused.

Meta Knight snapped out of his thoughts and returned his gaze to his son.

"Are you ready to continue your training?" Meta Knight asked.

The veteran knight drew out an ordinary sword and threw it into the air, the blade lodging itself into the grass. Kirby blinked twice and nodded.

"Poyo!"

Kirby grabbed the hilt on the sword and pulled it out of the ground. While he didn't change into his copy ability, he tried figuring out how to pose the sword properly. Elfilin backed up a little with a nervous expression on his face. Meta Knight threw his cape back, revealing himself fully as his sword was drawn in a flash of golden light, soft green and gold sparks jumping off the blade as he seemed to have kicked the training up a notch from last time, using more of Galaxia's power than before. As soon as he revealed his armor and blade, his cape moved in front of him and he vanished. Kirby quickly recalled how Meta Knight handled his sword and tried imitating the position himself.

Kirby felt Meta Knight before he saw him. The veteran knight appeared behind him and swiped his blade just inches from the pink puffball's skin. The electricity coming off the blade zapped him painfully. The veteran knight placed his hand on Kirby's head and flipped over him, kicking him and launching him a distance away. Elfilin shuddered as the pink star warrior crashed into the ground.

"Kirby!" Elfilin panicked.

Elfilin frantically floated over to Kirby just as he was slowly staggering back to his feet. Meta Knight didn't bother to wait as he slashed several sword beams towards the pink star warrior. The small chinchilla flew out of the way to avoid an oncoming sword beam. Kirby saw the sword beams coming and rolled to the side as the projectiles landed on the ground kicking up dirt. He squeezed his eyes shut to block out the dirt particles. A brief moment later, Meta Knight seemed to vanish at pure speed before grabbing the pink puffball roughly. His wings sprouted and flew into the air with Kirby in his grip. Meta Knight tackled him to the ground, causing a huge plume of dirt to erupt around them.

"Do not flinch back," Meta Knight warned, "fight your instinct to do so. You leave yourself open to any number of attacks that way. A moment like this is one an enemy will use to deal a powerful blow if they can."

Kirby stared intently back at Meta Knight while he kept holding onto his sword. What was the veteran knight going to do next? Meta Knight took a step back, spinning his blade in his hand as his eyes narrowed. The veteran knight lunged at Kirby, the Galaxia aiming directly at him. The pink puff could feel the blade barely prick him as another electric shock hit him. Startled, Kirby swung his blade and clashed it against the sword before him. Meta Knight pushed into a sword clash as the Galaxia continued to emit electric sparks. Intimidated by the reflection in the veteran knight's mask, Kirby tried to push back. Without warning, Meta Knight made the little puffball's mistake known as he used the prongs of Galaxia to catch Kirby's blade. With a sharp twist, he disarmed the pink puff and kicked him back into the ground. Meta Knight stood tall as he pointed his sword over his defeated apprentice.

"You shouldn't try to force me back if you're on the backfoot; you need to deflect my blade away from you. You're at a disadvantage, so trying to push me back will not work."

Meta Knight sheathed his blade and held out his gloved hand. Kirby pushed himself up on his arms and gazed back at the veteran knight. After a moment of silence, he grabbed his hand, encouraging Meta Knight to help him to his feet.

Meta Knight found himself wondering if he maybe took it too far. This was partially how he trained his troops, mainly due to how rough things were at the time. There was no time to train gently at that time, as it was do or die. Troops were needed on the field as soon as possible as it was like a meat grinder out there, troops dying on both sides en masse. It was the largest war Meta Knight was involved in and entire planets would be dedicated just to producing weapons for the war effort. When faced with total destruction, any alternative was preferable.

Meta Knight snapped out of his thoughts and gave Kirby a simple nod. Elfilin, who took refuge on a tree branch, floated back towards the pink puff. The veteran knight picked up the discarded sword and propped it up against Kirby's house.

"I'll see you later for further training, Kirby," Meta Knight said, glancing over as his eyes flashed pink momentarily.

Kirby and Elfilin watched as Meta Knight pulled his cape around him and vanished into thin air. The small chinchilla returned his gaze to the pink puff and circled around him.

"Are you ok, Kirby?" Elfilin asked.

"Poyo," Kirby shrugged.

"Aren't you even upset with him?" Elfilin insisted.

Kirby shook his head. Elfilin sighed as he and the pink puff walked into the domed house.

"Well next time, we should do even more to beat him!" Elfilin suggested, "we could maybe try training more with Elfilis, I don't think you have done that at all yet. Maybe they can teach you some tricks?" Elflin says as he hovers around the pink star warrior."

Kirby tilted sideways as he thought over the suggestion. He recalled the first time he fought Elfilis on top of the helicopter pad to rescue Elfilin.

"I mean," Elfilin continued, "now that they're more in control of themself, it might be worth trying to fight them again in a training exercise. I'm not old or strong enough to do anything like that yet myself, but you might be able to learn something from them."

Kirby gave Elfilin a nod of approval.

"Poyo!"


Feel free to make some fanart related to this fanfic!

And leave a review so Kirby can use them to buy snacks for him and Elfilin.