Hello everyone! So sorry about the long wait for this chapter. Life got really busy. Hopefully the gap between the next chapter and this one will be shorter. Anyways, let's finally see the cult's base of operations!

Kirby had been to many places in his travels and many of them had been foreboding or creepy. Of course, considering what he did and the reasons for his adventures, it made sense he'd visit some not so nice places.

But this supposed "galaxy"was already up there with the likes of Shiver Star, Dark Star and Another Dimension as easily among the creepiest places Kirby had ever been to…and he hadn't even set foot on any of the so-called planets yet!

"How…welcoming," Zan dryly noted as everyone looked at images of the cult's base of operations. When Hyness had called it a "mockery of a galaxy", several people had assumed he was being overdramatic. But it was clear now that there was no better phrase for it. Various ships, space stations, asteroids and other space debris were chumped together into makeshift planets, with one in the center having a forcefield around it.

"I don't like the way this place looks!" ChuChu exclaimed as she nervously clung to Nago's head.

"Well that's where we're going!" Dedede firmly declared. "These robo weirdos are gonna learn what happens when you try to mess with a Star Ally!"

"Yeah! I'm going to show these freaks what happens when you mess with Uzi frickin' Doorman!" Uzi smugly declared with a smug laugh as she crossed her arms proudly.

"So where are we starting?" V asked, just as eager to tear the cult apart as her frenemy.

"Considering how heavily guarding the "planets" likely are, I believe it would be best to try to learn more from a distance," Meta Knight offered his opinion.

"I was thinking the same thing," Magolor agreed. "While the Lor Starcutter has a lot of weapons and shields, I don't want to risk damage in an area without anywhere to do repairs safely."

"How about we land over there?" Thad offered as he pointed to a damaged, but still decently stable looking space station.

"Looks good to me. Hopefully, there's a computer or something I can use to learn more about this place without having to risk getting too close to anywhere important," Magolor replied with a nod. He then turned to the Lor's controls and moved the ship towards the space station, finding that the station's docks were surprisingly intact. There were even some ships left.

"Should…should we be worried that there's still ships here?" Taranza had to ask. For a place that was supposed to be abandoned, the ships were in surprisingly good condition.

"It's possible they left this place after killing all the creatures onboard," Zan offered in an attempt to ease her boyfriend's worries.

"Well…someone certainly has been here…" Francisca noted as she looked over a skeleton, which seemed to have been stripped of anything that it had been wearing or possessing back when it was still alive. The only clue it even was a real skeleton at one point was the dried blood on the wall behind it as well as the bullet hole in its head. Several people shuddered at the grisly sight, but knew they had to keep moving.

"Should we spread out?" Ribbon suggested as she looked back at the skeleton, giving it a pitying look.

"Haven't you seen any movie?" Lizzy dryly asked, not having looked up from her phone and making several people wonder how she was still getting reception. "You split up, then whatever monster lives here gets you."

"There's a monster here?!" Elfilin fearfully exclaimed as he began nervously looking around.

"Well, if there is, it probably knows we're here now," V couldn't help but comment.

"Can we please just start searching?!" Uzi demanded. "Monster or otherwise, we're not gonna learn anything just standing on the dock!"

"Uzi's right," Kirby agreed as he stepped forward. "Hopefully there's nothing. If not, we either convince to help us-"

"Or we clobber 'em!" Dedede proudly boasted as he pointed his hammer forwards. Several others, both Star Ally and Drone alike, cheered over their excitement of a possible fight as everyone headed instead. Unseen by all of them, a camera, hidden by the darkness, followed them until it no longer could. The figure on the other side gripped his chair as he nodded to his fellows as they all grabbed their weapons. Time to deal with this the way they always had….

As he increased his grip on the pipe he'd picked up, Thad tried to not think about how nerve wracking things were.

"How am I this nervous? I didn't run when Uzi was fighting the Solver!" Thad thought to himself. In the end, the group did end up splitting into three smaller groups in hopes of covering more ground. And considering his group consisted of himself, Lizzy, V, Sparky, Hyness, the Squeak Squad, Coo, Pitch, Rick and Bandanna Waddle Dee, Thad knew he shouldn't be nervous. Yet he still was.

"Thad, if you could, you'd totally be sweating," Lizzy snarked at her brother.

"That obvious, huh?" Thad replied as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

"We're twins, Thad. I can read you like an open book. Not that I actually read books outside of school, because that would be so lame," Lizzy flippantly replied.

"It's just…I feel weird," Thad tried to explain in a way where Lizzy wouldn't endlessly mock him. "Like, I stared the Solver down and now I'm freaking out just because we're in a creepy, abandoned space station." As if on cue, something creaked, causing Thad to let out an embarrassing whimper, which caused Lizzy to chuckle a little.

"Wow, you are a mess," She couldn't help but comment. "But, like, we'll be fine. V's here, Sparky can bootloop anyone who messes with us, the bandanna thing has a spear and the others can probably do something. I know big nose guy has magic, for one. And hey! You've, like, got a decent arm. Probably could get a good whack in with that pipe."

Thad couldn't help but crack a smile. "Thanks Liz. You know, you should try being nice more often."

"Gross," Lizzy bluntly replied, causing Thad to chuckle.

"Ah, classic Liz," Thad said in an amused tone. Lizzy, for her part, didn't take her eyes off her phone, but Thad could see her smile. Before either could say anything else, Daroach suddenly held up a claw.

"Boss? What's wrong?" Storo asked in concern.

"We're not alone…" The thief revealed, resulting in everyone becoming much more alert. Everyone went silent and they could hear something moving around in the darkness. Finally, Hyness summoned a fireball and held it in his hand, illuminating the room.

And just barely revealing five drones, all armed with various weapons.

"LEAVE!" The one in front, who was dressed in a long trench coat, fedora and, strangely, actual sunglasses, snapped as he turned on the shock stick he was wielding. In response Sparky lunged and attempted to bootloop the strange drone, only for his sunglasses to block the attack, followed by him shocking the dinosaur-like robot, causing it to shriek and back away.

"So fluffy!" One of the other drones, female from the sound of her voice and wearing nothing beyond an oversized sweater, gushed as she rushed over to Rick and buried her head in his fur. "I've always wanted to meet a real animal!"

"Uh…thanks mate," Rick said unsurely, just content he wasn't getting attacked at the moment.

"Jessie! Focus!" Another drone, this one male and wearing what looked like a pilot's outfit, complete with helmet and goggles, called out as he aimed a high-blaster at the intruders.

"Same goes for you, Rick!" Coo snapped at his hamster companion, who was now enjoying Jessie's cuddles as she started scratching at what was clearly his good spot. Seeing this, Coo just rolled his eyes and fired a series of feathers at the drones. Pitch, for his part, flew directly at one of the drones, talons and beak at the ready, causing them to try and bat the smaller bird away. Hyness, even though he knew he was strong enough to easily deal with the drones, didn't want to risk damaging the already derelict space station, and so opted to continue to provide light for those in the group without night vision. V avoided her firearms for the same reason, instead sticking to her claws, with Daroach doing the same, only using his trusty Triple Star cane to deflect blows aimed at him.

"Doc! Spinni! Go find the others and warn them!" Daroach called out as he blocked a blow from one of the shock staves.

"Understood!" Spinni called out as he and Doc raced off.

"What did we even do to these guys!?" Bandanna Waddle Dee wondered aloud as he tried to strike at one of the drones, only for them to hold up a shield, blocking the blow.

"Well, we did kinda break into their home," Thad pointed out.

"Wow, way to give them more reasons to attack us," Lizzy deadpanned before kicking one of the attacking drones right in their chest, winding them before knocking them down with another kick.

"Whoa! Where'd you learn to do that?" Thad asked in awe.

"Cheerleading plus having a murder babe as your girlfriend," Lizzy smugly replied as she slid up to V, who, in spite of being in full "Murder Drone" mode, still cracked an earnest smile.

"Murder…babe?" One of the attackers, this one also female and wearing a cap and what looked like a makeshift dress fashioned from the cult's robes, made a confused face. "Did…did you tame a Disassembly Drone?"

"No wonder they think they're safe here," Another drone, this one male and wearing a tank top, shorts and boxing gloves for some reason, noted. "If you can turn one of Shepard's so-called "angels" against his supposed savior, you would probably get cocky."

"Well, with the boss and the Star Allies with us, we'll beat 'em easy!" Storo declared as he punched his hand into his palm. Thad, however, was focused on something the other drone had said.

"Wait…are you guys members of the cult?" He cautiously asked, keeping a firm grip on his pipe in case they got too close.

"Not anymore," The sunglasses drone, who everyone assumed was the leader, revealed. "We try to keep those that the cult would pray upon away from this area. It's why we tried to attack you. We wanted to scare you away."

"Gonna have to try harder than that," Lizzy deadpanned, having gone right back to her phone.

"You might fare better than most with what you have, but Shepard is far stronger than you think," Sunglasses warned as he pointed his shock staff in the direction of the Copper-9 drones and Star Allies. "What makes you think you'll do any better than the original owners of this station? Or the other ships that haunt this space graveyard?" As if to answer his question, his shock staff was suddenly ripped out of his hands by the Solver's symbol, where it landed in Uzi's outstretched arm.

"Because, unlike everyone else, I've got the powers of Shepard's "savior"," She smugly declared.

"So…the so-called False Host is here…" Sunglasses said ominous before signaling his own allies to stand down. "Let's talk in the command center. After you round up the rest of your friends, of course."

"So…I owe you an apology," Sunglasses, who had revealed his name was actually Dev, began once everyone was assembled in the command center and introductions had been made. "Like we said, we've been trying to scare any non-drones away from the area, as I'm sure you've seen."

"Yeah, the skeletons were freaky…" ChuChu nervously said as she pressed two of her tentacles together.

"No real good way to remove them," The drone wearing the cap, Lucy, spoke up. "No real spot to bury them and just throwing 'em into space feels wrong. Even if they were human, they still deserve a proper burial."

"Aw, c'mon Lucy! Humans aren't that bad!" Jessie, the other female drone who had gushed over all the animal buddies, chimed in. "After all, they made all the stuff that got us to turn on Shepard!"

"I was wondering about that myself," Khan piped up. "Why did you five turn on the cult?"

"How about I explain?" Dev offered. He'd been planning to explain anyway. He could see some of the outsiders were still on edge, but no one moved to attack, causing Dev to begin his tale. "Like Jessie said, we were born in the cult. We didn't know any better for years. We believed every lie Shepard and his minions told us…then we found the vault. It's where they stored the various pieces of human media they managed to salvage. Inside, we learned he'd use scenes from movies to make humanity seem far worse than they actually were. But when we got to see more, we were fascinated. While we already knew plenty about their bad side, we got to see their good side for the first time. But we were kids. All we knew was that it had to stay a secret for some reason, but we had to share. Soon, most people our age knew about the vault and what Shepard was hiding…and someone said the wrong thing or snitched on us. I still don't fully know, to tell you the truth."

"And…they killed your friends?" Taranza nervously asked.

"Luckily, no," Dev revealed, causing several people to let out the breath they didn't know they were holding. "Shepard felt killing us might make others sympathetic."

"He didn't want to risk making a martyr," Meta Knight summarized. Dev merely nodded.

"We were the only ones to escape," He continued as he sadly looked out the window at the mock planets ahead of them. "They enslaved the rest. They haven't come for us yet. Probably because we can't do anything to them beyond steal some supplies that doesn't even dent their own reserves."

"Well we can!" Kirby declared after Dev finished.

"You still really think you can take on the cult?" Pilot drone, who revealed his name was Jude, asked from his spot at one of the monitors in the command center.

"Well, duh! It's why we're here!" Uzi boasted as she moved to stand next to Kirby. "We're here to make the cult regret the day they messed with us!"

"Oh, I like these guys!" Levi, the drone with the boxing gloves, declared as he punched one of his gloved hands into the other.

"'Sides, it's not our first time dealin' with robots or cults!" Dedede proudly boasted. He then turned to Susie, Hyness and the Mage Sisters and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Er…no offense."

"I think I speak for all of us when I say none taken," Zan for the group.

"Hmm…" Dev put a hand to his chin. This felt too good to be true. He had been trying for years to make so much as a dent in Shepard's plans, yet these outsiders were ready to help defeat him just like that?

"Dev, I know that look," Lucy whispered to her longtime friend. "You don't trust them, do you?"

"How can I?" Dev hissed back. "They have two Solver hosts, three of the Solver's little murder pets and what is clearly a human! Either they lose to Shepard or this is all a trap to force us to work for either the cult, humans, or some other aliens!"

"Then make them prove themselves. Say we won't tell them anything unless they save our friends," Lucy offered. Dev smiled. This is why he liked having Lucy around. She helped remind him of the easy solutions when his nerves got the best of him.

"...I'll make you a deal," Dev declared after a few seconds. "We can help you deal with the cult with all the information we have…but only if you agree to help us save our friends from their enslavement first." The Star Allies and Copper-9 drones all looked at each other, all nodding and smirking in silent agreement. Finally, Uzi and Kirby stepped forward and both extended a hand (or a stub in Kirby's case).

"Deal!"

Me: It's so nice to not be writing for something Kids Next Door related for once!

Also me: (Makes what is basically Sector V in drone form)

…I swear that wasn't intentional but that's just how they shook out. Now, as for our rebel drones' names, those weren't picked at random. Each name is based on a classical bible villain (Dev-Devil, Lucy-Lucifer, Jessie-Jezebel, Levi-Levithan and Jude-Judas) to symbolize how they are the villains in the cult's narrative…but also gives them normal names when compared to the very heavy religion theme with the cult, making them normal ones for breaking free. Anyways, next time, it's time for a rescue mission! See you then!