The Halberd’s deck was filled with cannons, but it also had a huge open area. It was mostly copper colored, but the Halberd’s prominent dark gray color could also be seen.
A kirby then was seen getting ready to land: it was Matt. He slowed down as he reached the floor, and turned off his engine as soon as he was at a safe height. He fell off and landed on his feet.
“Hah!” he said proudly. “Looks like I arrived first!”
“It only ‘looks like’ because it was me who actually arrived first.”
Matt recognized the voice immediately and looked back, to see Natty as expected. He wasn’t surprised to see that she was racing against him; in fact, he was expecting that.
“If you arrived first, then why were you behind me?” Matt asked.
“What?” Natty continued walking in his direction. “You just landed on a different spot than me. If that’s further in the ship or not that doesn’t matter, plus it’s relative.”
“Of course it matters, and it’s not relative!”
“What?!” Natty couldn’t believe it. “Seriously, Matt, creating rules out of thin air?!”
“What are you talking about?! These are the rules!”
“Since when?”
“Since always! I decided on them as I took off!”
“But then why didn’t I hear them?!”
“Who knows? But I said them! Your loss.”
“WHAT?!” Natt was enraged. “Now you’re just straight up lying!”
“No, I’m not!”
“Yes, you are!”
And so the two continued arguing, and their debate looked endless.
Meanwhile, four kirbies riding a Warp Star were approaching the Halberd. They had just stopped, however, and three of the kirbies started a discussion.
“So this is the Halberd…” said Diego.
“Wow, I had heard of it, but it’s so much cooler up close!” said Daniel.
“Nice, but… Where are we going to land?” asked Drake, looking around. “This deck is so vast, I just can’t decide…”
“Huh, Kirby didn’t tell us where… But I believe it makes sense to land near the main cabin, no?” said Daniel.
“Makes sense!” said Diego. “Let’s head there!”
And so, Daniel, who was piloting the star, made it move again. Quiet as usual, the fourth passenger, Tim, was just observing his surroundings.
“Matt, please, just admit you lost!”
From afar, Tim could hear a familiar voice. However, said voice was coming from a direction opposite of the course of their flight. Tim knew they wouldn’t reach there at all, so he spoke up.
“Hey, can you stop here?” Tim asked.
“Oh?” Daniel stopped the Warp Star. “Do you need anything?”
“I just want to get off here.”
Daniel didn’t understand. “Huh… Why?”
“I want to meet up with some others! Bye!”
Tim jumped from the star, and landed on his feet. He ran and transformed into his wheel form and zoomed across the Halberd’s vast deck, until the trio could only see a tiny silhouette of him.
“Huh. And there he goes.” said Daniel.
“Weird one, huh?” said Diego.
“Yeah. But it doesn’t matter, let’s continue. This star is handy for traveling around.”
And so Daniel turned the Warp Star back to its route, and the trio continued their course.
Tim continued running, following the voices of Matt and Natty. Although he could not understand clearly what they were saying, he could tell the two were arguing, a lot.
“These two…” he thought, “I really don’t understand why they argue with each other so often. But I do know that this is my chance…”
Tim noticed he was about to reach the two, so he slowed down, and transformed back to his kirby form. He took a deep breath.
“HEY!!!” he shouted, interrupting the two.
“Wha, Tim?” Natty looked at him, surprised. “How did you get here?”
“With a star… thing. Anyway, can you two please stop?! Is arguing the only thing you two do??”
“Nah, we race too,” Matt replied with a sarcastic tone.
“Race…” Tim thought out loud. “Race… Race! That’s it!”
“Huh? What is it?” asked Natty.
“Just solve this argument with a race!” said Tim, after a short hop.
“But this argument started with a race,” Matt said, unconvinced. “This will just end up with the same result.”
“But this one will be different!” said Tim.
“Different… How?” asked Matt.
“Well, I think he means we will set up a clearer goal this time around?” Natty said, looking at Matt.
“Not only that, but…” Tim closed his eyes. “I… I…”
“You…?” Natty asked, looking at Tim, confused.
“I…”
Tim froze. He wanted to say that he wanted to race with them, but he was so afraid of their reactions that he could not do it. He didn’t expect that to happen considering that seconds before he was so confidently talking, but it happened. So he sat there, unable to continue, while Natty and Matt waited.
Natty in particular was trying to read Tim. She thought it was weird he had just stopped talking like that, and soon enough she seemed to understand him.
“You… You want to race with us, Tim?” she asked.
Tim opened his eyes in surprise, and looked at Natty. “How… How did you know?”
“That was… just a guess…” she said.
Tim thought that it was too good to be just a guess, but it didn’t matter: she had helped him find an opportunity to ask about joining the race, so he continued, “But yeah… Can I race with you two?”
“Sure!” Natty answered quickly.
“As long as you can keep with us, bring it on,” said Matt.
“Yay!” Tim celebrated.
“Cool but… what will be our finish line?” asked Natty.
“Huuh… What about here?” Tim said.
“Here?”
“Yeah. You see this big cannon over here?” Tim pointed towards it. “We go back here after we get to that other big cannon over there.” Tim pointed toward another cannon, far away from them.
“So we will go to one big cannon and go back to another?”
“Yup!”
“Sounds good!” Natty looked at Matt. “What about you, Matt?”
Matt took a quick pause to think. “Sure, that works.”
“Great! So, ready?” Natty got in position.
“Ready!” Tim transformed into his wheel form.
“Always ready.” Matt started charging his backpack.
“Alright, three, two, one…”
“GO!”
And so Matt blasted off, Natty flew forward and Tim zoomed across the Halberd’s deck: the new race had started.
20 Times Kirby! 