Daisy was walking through the Halberd, observing every little detail about it, while at the same time paying close attention to where she was heading to. Following her was Grace, Anny and Clare. While Clare was distracted by her surroundings, Anny was a bit confused.
“Daisy,” she started talking, “where are we going?”
“Well, personally I am heading to this ship’s power source,” answered Daisy. “I wasn’t sure why you were following me, but I thought you were also curious about it.”
“Power source?” asked Clare, who was suddenly very interested.
Daisy nodded. “Yup. The Halberd has one, and I’ve read that it’s pretty impressive.”
“So you just want to see it?” asked Anny.
“See and possibly study it!” Daisy stopped walking right next to a door. “I’m not sure how long Kirby will take, but I want to use all the time I have to analyze it.”
“Makes sense… I guess,” said Anny, who also stopped walking.
“In any case, this door should lead us to it. I’m going in!”
Daisy promptly entered the door, and Clare followed her, saying, “Yay! I wonder what it’s like!”
“Sigh.” Anny watched the two get inside, still not convinced. “This sounds boring. I should have followed Kirby… But since I’m here, maybe it doesn’t hurt to head in.”
And so Anny entered the door, and Grace followed her.
“Woah!”
Daisy was amazed. She found herself inside a very small room, but it was filled with machines: the walls all had various containers, each one with a Wheelie inside. Said Wheelies were running around back and forth inside their containers, true to their nature. Due to the colors of the walls, floor and ceiling, the room was very dark overall, but a big machine at the very end of the room had its own light. It was made of two smaller structures: one attached to the ceiling, another to the floor, but they didn’t touch each other. In between the two, a weird prism like crystal was floating, as it slowly changed colors.
“Is this… an ancient reactor?!” Daisy said, as she walked closer to it. “I’ve read about it in some books! But I believed they didn’t exist anymore…”
Clare, Anny and Grace also entered, each having a different reaction. Clare was busy looking at everything around her, Anny wondered what Daisy was looking at, and Grace seemed indifferent to everything, as usual.
“If that’s so, then…”
Daisy was talking to herself, as she analyzed the machine. Anny slowly approached her.
“Hey, what are you doing?” she asked.
“Trying to understand this machine better… You see, it—”
“Ok, ok, I get it!” Anny interrupted Daisy quickly, worried that she would start talking a lot. “Did you find anything yet?”
“Well,” Daisy looked at the machine, “only that it possibly has a self-defense mechanism.”
“Self-defense?”
“Indeed. Something that defends this machine against intrud—”
Daisy stopped her speech right as she saw something sparkling suddenly appear in front of her. It was a slim mirror, and right as it appeared, it reflected back a thin white laser. It then disappeared in a blink, and Daisy came back to her senses.
Anny, the one responsible for the mirror, put down her wand, and ran to Daisy, saying, “Daisy! Are you okay?”
“Oh, thanks for that, Anny…” Daisy said, finally understanding what had happened. “Was that it, I wonder?”
“The self-defense mechanism?”
“Yes.” Daisy looked at her surroundings. “It attacked me, who is close to the machine.”
“But isn’t it weird that it only attacked once?” Anny wondered. “A better one would have attacked you multiple times, including now…”
Anny looked around for some seconds, to see if there was anything out of the ordinary, but she couldn’t spot anything unusual.
“It is odd indeed, but then I suspect this reactor isn’t fully functional, so that is likely why,” said Daisy.
“Ah, is that so? Hmm.”
“Hey, what is that?”
Anny heard her friend, Clare, ask a suspicious question, so she turned around. She saw Clare looking towards a small gun-like object that was attached to a long pole. She immediately understood the situation, and shouted, “Clare, move out!!!”
But it was too late: the gun shot a laser towards Clare. Anny grabbed her wand and waved it around, making a mirror appear between the gun and Clare. The mirror reflected the laser, but in the hurry Anny hadn’t aimed it correctly: instead of going back to the gun to destroy it, it was reflected towards the reactor itself.
“Oh no!” Anny shouted, realizing her mistake. She tried to reflect it again with another mirror, but she wasn’t fast enough: it went straight towards the reactor’s crystal… Or so it should have. It was instead magically reflected back right before hitting it.
“Woah!” Daisy, who had been watching everything, said in surprise. “So this is indeed an ancient reactor! Fascinating!”
“Wait, what?” Anny put back her wand, and went to Daisy’s direction. “I’m lost, what just happened?”
“Oh, simple: this reactor has a self-defense mechanism, and it’s smart enough to be immune to it! Just like the ancient reactors I’ve read about…”
“Ah, cool.” Anny said, pretending to be interested in the subject.
“Wait, so is this something rare? Did you think it was immune to its own attacks?” asked Clare, who in turn was interested in the subject.
“Well, I wasn’t so sure, since not all books I read talked about it… But it looks like that is indeed the case!”
“Woah… What a strong reactor!” Clare was impressed.
“Indeed… Anyway, I will continue examining it for a while… I wonder what else I can find out about it…”
And so Daisy went to continue examining the reactor, while the others stayed around: Clare continued looking at her surroundings, very curious, Anny decided to stay alert in case they were attacked again, and Grace just continued being herself, standing up quietly.
In the main cabin, Bandana Waddle Dee was hard at work on his task.
“Wow, there are so many!” he said, as he took notes about all the kirbies he was spotting. “They all appear to have Copy Abilities, I better note that too… Huh?”
Bandana Waddle Dee looked at a camera, and saw two kirbies running away from a robot. He looked at another, and saw a kirby barely getting attacked by a laser. He looked at yet another, and saw the Meta-Knights attacking Kirby and the other kirbies with him.
Seeing all those kirbies in those dangerous situations, Bandana Dee knew he couldn’t just stand there and watch. He dropped his notebook and pen, and ran towards Meta Knight, saying, “Sir Meta Knight! The kirbies appear to be in danger! It looks like—”
King Dedede interrupted him, “He’s not here anymore, Dee.”
Bandana Dee looked around the room and, indeed, Meta Knight was nowhere to be seen. He had been so concentrated on his task that he didn’t see when the knight had left.
“Oh, do you know where he went? I need to report something to him!”
“I do, but I also know something else. He left me a message for you.”
“Message?! For me? What is it?”
“He said, ‘Tell Bandana Waddle Dee not to worry about the kirbies. I expect him to, knowing his kind heart, but it’s all part of my plan. He should trust me.’”
Bandana Dee froze, conflicted. He knew his King was telling the truth, and he also trusted the words of Sir Meta Knight, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed to help those kirbies. They looked in trouble, and reminded him of the times he felt hopeless.
King Dedede noticed his worried face, and started to talk to him, “Hey, Dee, I know you’re worried, but remember, these are kirbies. They may not be as strong as the capital K Kirby, but they are still super strong. I’m sure they will be fine.”
Hearing the words of the king he trusted so much, Bandana Waddle Dee got convinced. “Okay,” he said, “you have a point. I will go back to my position.”
And so Bandana Waddle Dee walked back to where he originally was, grabbing his notebook and pen on the way.
King Dedede, who was watching the Halberd sailing through the skies, thought, “What does Meta Knight even want to do, anyway? Test the kirbies?”
Meta Knight was just outside the main cabin, right in front of its door. He stared at the long corridor.
“I wonder,” he thought, “who will be the first to arrive here?”
He then heard some noises, and saw three kirbies walking in his direction.
“Wow, it really looks like we’re getting close to the main cabin!” said Luke.
“Yeah, Leo was right after all,” Larry said. “Somehow.”
“What is a main cabin?” asked Leo.
Larry looked at them, puzzled. “I will never understand them,” he thought, “at one time they know the exact location of this ship’s main cabin, at the other they don’t even know what a main cabin is? Leo is odd, for sure.”
“Wait…” Luke started to say. “Is that…” She couldn’t believe it. “META KNIGHT?!”
Although it was obvious that they would eventually meet Meta Knight considering their current situation, Luke was still surprised to find him, and couldn’t hide her excitement. Meta Knight took note of it.
“And who do we have here?” he asked.
The three kirbies stopped right in front of him.
“I’m Larry. They’re Leo, and he’s Luke.”
“Meta Knight… I’m a big fan!” Luke said, still very excited. “Would you… Would you like to battle?!”
Meta Knight was amused. “Battle? Of course. I’m always up for one.”
“Yay!” Luke celebrated. “So—”
“But it needs to be a fair one. Grab this.”
Meta Knight grabbed an extra sword he had with him, threw it at Luke’s direction, and it stopped right in front of her.
Luke looked at it, confused. “But… I don’t know how to use a sword.”
“What do you mean? You’re a kirby. Just eat and copy it.”
Luke looked at Meta Knight, and then back at the sword. “Eat… Copy…?”
Luke was really confused, and so was Leo, but Larry remembered what Kirby had told them earlier, so he said to Meta Knight, “Sorry dude, but apparently we’re ‘different’. We only have one power forever, and we can’t change it.”
Meta Knight thought, “Glad to have confirmation…”
“Well,” he started talking, “that’s unfortunate. Then I can’t battle you, or any of you. I only battle swordsmen.”
“What about a ‘swordskirby’?”
Meta Knight looked ahead, and saw three kirbies heading in his direction. One had the Sword Copy Ability, and they were the source of the voice.
“My name is Diego!” They pointed their sword at Meta Knight, in a fighting position. “I would love to challenge you to a sword duel, Meta Knight!”
Meta Knight’s eyes shone. “It’s on, Diego. I accept the challenge.”
Daniel and Drake, who had just arrived with Diego, were surprised by the suddenness of all that. Daniel in particular ran towards Diego and Meta Knight, and stopped right in front of them, saying, “Diego, what’s this all about?!”
“This is Meta Knight himself, willing to battle someone like me! I can’t pass up an opportunity like this!”
Daniel looked at Meta Knight, and remembered the many rumors he had heard about him, plus some stories from Diego. Almost everyone on Popstar had heard of the knight; he was pretty famous.
“Are you really Meta Knight?” asked Drake, who got close to him and started examining him.
“Drake, please,” said Daniel. “Of course it’s him. In fact, let’s let the two battle.” He grabbed Drake by their hand and dragged them away.
Drake looked at Daniel while they were being dragged, and said, “Oh, but weren’t yo—”
“Yeah, but now I understand Diego! Let them battle with Meta Knight, I bet it’s one of their dreams.”
With the two out of the way, Diego looked around. Larry, Leo and Luke were also far away, ready to watch the battle. Diego got in a battle position, readied their sword, and asked, “Ready?”
Meta Knight took off his cape, and also pointed his sword in a battle position, and said, “Ready!”
20 Times Kirby! 