Natty was flying the fastest she could, trying to reach the huge cannon in front of her as soon as possible. She was so concentrated in her goal that she had completely lost the sense of everything else around her.
“I will get there… Before everyone else…”
She got closer and closer until she finally arrived in front of it. She was so happy that she stopped to do a quick celebration.
“Yes! The first at last!”
She cut it short quickly and was getting ready to continue the race, when she heard someone.
“First?”
“Ah!” Natty got surprised and looked up, seeing Matt right above the cannon. “Where did you come from?” she asked.
“From the sky, duh.” He flew down and landed right in front of her. “Anyway, why were you down here, and not above the cannon?”
“Huh?” Natty was confused. “What do you mean?”
“We have to reach the cannon then go back.”
“Yeah?” Natty was still confused. “I reached the cannon, and was about to go back.”
“You didn’t touch it.” Matt pointed to himself. “But I did.”
“What? Since when was that required?”
“Since always! Did you forget?”
Natty started to get furious. “Forget?! That was never a thing to begin with!”
“It was always a thing!”
“No, it wasn’t!!”
“Yes, it was!!”
Matt and Natty started arguing yet again. Tim, who had just arrived, saw it all, and just could not believe it. “They’re arguing again?!” he thought.
Tim could not stand it, so he screamed, “CAN’T YOU TWO STOP ARGUING?!”
Natty and Matt both got startled, and looked at Tim.
Natty started talking, “Well, we—”
“Why would we?” Matt said over Natty, in an attempt to provoke Tim.
“Because we’re in the middle of a race!” screamed Tim.
Matt rolled his eyes. “Sure, but it’s on pause right now. So why does it matter?”
“It’s only on pause because you two started arguing!”
“Ah, ok. But we stopped now. So that means that the pause is over! Let’s go!” Matt turned around and blasted off, leaving the two behind.
“Matt, you cheater!” shouted Natty, as she flew after him.
“Hey, no fair!” said Tim, as he transformed on his wheel form and ran towards the two.
The Meta-Knights were a group of strong soldiers, subordinates of Meta Knight, hence their name. There were four of them, each one with a unique weapon. They were very skilled in battle, and often fought alongside the knight himself.
Under those circumstances, however, they had no reason to attack Kirby and the others. In fact, Kirby in particular was very confused regarding their actions.
“But… But… Why do you want to battle us?” Kirby asked.
“What do you mean?” said Axe Knight. “You’re intruders!” He pointed his axe at Kirby.
“No!” Kirby raised his arms in panic, trying to explain. “Meta Knight invited us here! You should know that!”
“…Lies! You invaded!” Axe Knight thrusted his axe forward in anger.
“No!! He called us all her—”
“And you’re going to pay!”
The four of them readied their weapons, ready to strike any minute. Kirby gulped, and realized there wasn’t much else they could do.
“This is nothing like them…” he thought. “But if they attack us, we have no choice but to fight back.”
A mace was thrown in Kirby’s direction, and he dodged it at the last second. Startled, he realized that they were serious.
“YAAA!” shouted Jake, as he jumped in the direction of the mace, trying to grab it. However Mace Knight saw the attack and pulled his mace back, then swung it back at the kirby. He got a direct hit and was thrown back.
“Jake!” said Kirby just after seeing all that. He looked back and saw all four Meta-Knights together, ready to strike him at any minute.
“Dang!” he thought. “If only I could copy their weapons! I bet they do it on purpose…”
Kirby couldn’t do much without a Copy Ability, mainly against all four of them. He could perhaps try inhaling one of them or their weapons, but the chances of him getting attacked by another was too high. He was at a loss on what to do.
Meanwhile, Zan and Valoo were still near the elevator, away from all the battle.
Zan pleaded, “Valoo, please, get off! We have to go help them!”
Sitting down with their eyes closed, Valoo was barely moving. “You go,” they said. “I’m tired.”
Zan insisted, “But Valoo, I… I can’t help them alone. I need you too!”
Valoo didn’t move at all. “No you don’t. You’re strong alone.”
“I… Ugh…”
Zan became extremely conflicted. Valoo wasn’t wrong at all, and that made him angry. He said, “Yeah, but…”
He stopped and looked at the battle. Jake was knocked out, and Kirby was cornered. He really could not just stand there and do nothing.
“Ok, hmm…” He looked at the enemies very quickly, and noticed they all had weapons, unlike all others in the room. “That’s it!”
Zan started to run and, as he was about to reach Kirby, he jumped. He magically stopped mid-air, and made a cauldron appear right in front of him, and he now had a chef’s hat.
Jake, who had just gotten up, Kirby, and the Meta-Knights, all had their eyes on Zan, as that was all very sudden.
“What, is that…” said Axe Knight.
“It is!” said Trident Knight. “Run!”
The four Meta-Knights tried to run away, but it was too late. Zan pulled out a pan and a ladle, and started to bang the two utensils. Just then, the weapons of the Meta-Knights— an axe, a mace, a trident, and a javelin— flew up and went straight inside the cauldron, one by one. Zan then stirred the pot a couple times; when he stopped, he striked a pose, after which various kinds of foods popped from the pot.
The Meta-Knights watched in panic. Without their weapons, there wasn’t much they could do, so they looked at each other, and said, “Retreat!” then ran away.
Zan’s pot and hat disappeared, and he stopped levitating, landing on the floor. He timidly smiled.
“Zan!” said Jake, running towards him, “Thanks a lot! Those guys were giving more trouble than I initially expected.”
“Eh,” Zan was embarrassed, “that was nothing…”
“So modest, eh? No surprise. Anyway, we gotta continue.”
“Oh, right.” Zan turned back to Valoo, and shouted, “Hey Valoo! I got some food here for you!”
Valoo immediately woke up from their nap, screamed, “FOOD?!”, and ran towards Zan. They were about to grab all the food Zan had cooked, when it started moving.
Kirby had his mouth wide open, inhaling all the food. Valoo managed to quickly grab a pot of chocolate ice cream, but only that; everything else went inside Kirby’s mouth.
Kirby gulped it all down. “Delicious! Thanks Zan!”
“Eh… You’re welcome?” Zan wasn’t sure what had just happened, but replied regardless.
Valoo was a bit disappointed, but still satisfied to eat something chocolate-flavored. Zan noticed that and was relieved. Jake, on the other hand, had his mind somewhere else.
“Was this… an inhale?” he asked Kirby.
“Yup!” Kirby said proudly, but he soon realized something, “…Wait, you never done that yourselves?”
Jake shook his head. “We can’t. At least, I don’t think so.”
“Well… If you don’t think you can, you can’t. Because I’ve always known I could do that… Sorta like an instinct, you know?”
Kirby said that relaxed on the outside, but deep inside he was very confused about it all. “So they can’t inhale?” he thought. “But aren’t they kirbies? Isn’t that what makes a kirby a kirby?”
Jake noticed Kirby was in a trance, and called him out, “Kirby?”
“Oh, sorry!” Kirby came back to his senses. “I got distracted. Anyway, let’s continue!”
And so the four continued heading towards the elevator at the end of the room, to then continue heading straight to the main cabin.
20 Times Kirby! 