Kirby and Zan walked inside the room. Red lights were flashing, and the Wheelies that surrounded them looked in panic. The core of the reactor was now almost completely gray, instead of the rainbow colors it originally had.
“Oh yeah, this looks bad! Zan, quick!”
Zan however, was frozen. Kirby noticed, and called his attention.
“Zan… Is everything alright?”
“I… I just…” A tear dropped from his left eye. “I’m just afraid I will hurt someone…”
Kirby was touched. “No, no! It will be alright!” He patted Zan’s head. “We’re far from everyone, and I’ll be fine! I’ve been through so many bad things…”
“But…”
“And…” Kirby closed his eyes. “I’ve also used Crash before. I understand how you feel. So much power in your hands… But all you need is a good heart. And you have it.” Kirby opened his eyes. “You will use it to power up this ship, and help us all!”
Help… That was the word that moved Zan. Helping others was his daily life. Despite his fears of using his Crash ability, he knew he was the only one who could save the ship, and help everyone. So he wiped away his tear, and got in position.
“Ok…” he said, as he pointed his arm towards the reactor’s core. “Please, keep out, Kirby. I’m ready.”
“Got it!” With a small smile, Kirby walked backwards, towards the door, while he watched Zan.
Zan closed his eyes, and started to channel energy: his dark gray body started to glow, until it was completely white, and small blue sparks surrounded him. In a blink, a ray of raw energy was shot from his hand, and it hit the reactor’s core, making it flash immediately. Zan sighed, and his body reverted back to its normal color and state, and he sat down.
“Zan!” shouted Kirby, and he ran towards Zan. “Are you alright?”
“I’m a bit tired… But yeah… I’m good…”
“Glad to hear!”
Kirby then noticed a sparkle, and looked ahead. The reactor’s core was slowly regaining color.
“Look, it worked!” Kirby celebrated! “Let’s go tell everyone!”
“It’s back up! It’s back up!”
Bandana Dee was frantically jumping in front of the ship’s panels.
“What is back up?” asked King Dedede. “The reactor?”
“Yes! They did it! We have energy again!”
“Ohoho, nice!”
The two grabbed their hands and celebrated in joy. Watching the two was Meta Knight and Daisy, each one immersed in their own thoughts.
“Fascinating!” thought Daisy. “So that is the kind of energy that can power up an ancient reactor! I should record that and post a study of this subject!”
“Good job, Zan,” thought Meta Knight. “You’re starting to really overcome your fear…”
As the two walked back to the main cabin with the good news, Kirby couldn’t stop thinking about Zan. He tried not to bother him with questions, but he could not hold his curiosity.
“Huh, Zan,” Kirby started talking, “do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”
“Oh…” Zan looked towards Kirby. “No, not really. Feel free to ask.”
Kirby smiled. “Cool! So, first… Can you just… use Crash like that any time?”
Zan tilted his head. “Crash, as in… that?”
“Yeah… The power energy thing.”
“Oh… Then not really. I have some limitations.”
Kirby blinked twice. “Really?”
“Hmm-hm. For example, after using that attack I basically need to recharge to use it again. Not sure how to explain…”
“Oh, no need to give details! I was just curious about it in general.”
“Ah, ok.”
The two continued walking in some silence. Kirby had gotten the answers to his first question, but now he was wondering how to ask his other question. He worried it could hurt Zan’s feelings, but he also felt it was important for him to ask about it, so he just went ahead.
“Last thing… Why did you hesitate on using Crash earlier? Is there anything I could d—”
“No, no, no, it’s fine.” Kirby was promptly interrupted by Zan. “Don’t worry about it.”
Kirby was surprised to see the polite Zan interrupt him like that, but he figured out his change in attitude must have a reason. He shrugged, and said, “Alright, sorry. Let’s just focus on getting back to the cabin, then.”
As Kirby said that, he realized they had just arrived at its door. “Oh, wait, we’ve just arrived!”
Zan didn’t say a word, and just walked straight towards Jake. The two hugged each other, and started chatting, but Kirby was far from them and couldn’t understand what they were saying.
“Well, mission complete,” Kirby thought. “Now I just need to go inside and see if everything is alright indeed.” He walked towards its entrance.
“Hey Dana, it’s all good now! The ship stabilized!” Raven poked Dana.
Dana opened her eyes slowly, and looked around. Indeed, from the window she could tell the ship was not going down anymore. She got off her defensive state and sighed, “Phew! That was scary!”
“Yeah! But what matters is that we’re safe n-”
“Oh, look who is there!”
Raven and Dana both froze involuntarily after hearing that. The two could recognize Larry’s voice from anywhere.
“Aww, Dana was scared?” Larry continued. “Well, couldn’t she just jump from the ship and float down with her parasol? I guess she can’t think…”
“Hey!” Raven got angry at Larry. “I know Dana is easily scared, but c’mon, the ship was going down!”
“Yeah, and that would have been safer for her! Yet she was panicking…”
“But now it’s all good, that’s what matters.” Raven still wasn’t pleased.
“Oh, really?” Larry smirked. “Well, I heard the reactor got powered up so much it will explode…”
Dana heard that and got shivers down her spine. She thought, “Explode??”
“The explosion will be so huge that it will take over the whole ship! I wonder how we will survive that…”
“Explosion?! HUGE?! Whole ship?! SURVIVE?!?!”
“Well, I would jump from the ship maybe if I could…”
“JUMP?! SHIP?!”
Without being able to think straight, Dana got desperate and did as Larry insinuated: she ran towards the nearby window and jumped through it without hesitation.
“DANA!!!” Raven got desperate. She looked over the window and looked around looking for her, barely being able to breathe. However thankfully she spotted Dana seconds after: she had her parasol opened and was floating down, but with her eyes closed and with a face of panic.
Raven got relieved, but her relief was interrupted by a laugh.
“Hahaha! She fell for it! What an idiot!” Larry was amused.
“What?!” Raven looked at Larry. “That was a lie?”
“Yeah, of course it was! Really, reactor exploding? Exploding the whole ship? Don’t tell me you fell for it too!”
“But… Why…”
“Well, I just wanted to see if Dana’s parasol was really that good! So I set something up to make her jump! It was easier than I thought. I knew she was dumb, but not THAT dumb!”
Raven could not believe what she had just heard. Larry was treating her best friend as a toy, and risking her life for something so trivial? Using her as a test subject? She got filled with rage, grabbed her paintbrush and waved it forward, making paint splash on Larry.
“Ouch!” said Larry, as he put his hands on his eyes. Normally, paint wouldn’t hurt others like that, but Raven’s paint hit Larry’s eyes, and he was in pain, and could not open them.
Raven noticed how helpless Larry was, and only one thought came to her mind: revenge. Not only for Dana, but for herself too. Two revenges in one.
As if possessed by a ghost, she walked in Larry’s direction and pushed him. He lost his balance, and fell through the same window Dana had jumped from, screaming, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
Raven looked downwards and saw her enemy falling. She smiled, and waved to him, saying, “Bye bye, Larry!”
“We’re close to the ground now!” said Bandana Dee. “And Green Greens is just ahead!”
“Great! Thanks, Bandana Waddle Dee!”
“Of course, Kirby!”
Kirby turned towards the kirbies. “Be careful all! We haven’t landed yet, so the ship is still moving. When you leave in your Warp Stars, watch the ship; don’t hit it accidentally!”
“Wait, why are we leaving before it lands, again?” asked Diego.
“Because it has nowhere to land near Green Greens and I just want to continue the meeting as soon as possible! So, go, go!”
Kirby was really impatient and anxious, so he asked all the kirbies to just leave without thinking. He had already given them Warp Stars earlier, so each group just got on them, and flew one by one.
“Mission complete…” thought Kirby. “Too bad I got so hungry due to all this panic that I ate all the food… Well, not alone, but regardless… But anyway! We’re all recharged now and we can continue the meeti—”
That was when Kirby remembered something that had been troubling him ever since he boarded the ship. He looked back and saw who he wanted to talk to.
“Meta Knight…” said Kirby.
“Yes?”
“What was this all about? You never got to explain to me…”
Silence followed Kirby’s question. Meta Knight simply did not answer a thing.
Kirby got impatient. “Meta Knight! Hello?”
“Kirby,” he said, “go after those kirbies before you lose track of them.”
“What?”
“They all left the Halberd, but we never told them where to go. If you want to continue the meeting, maybe you should go after them before they each go to a different corner of Dream Land.”
“…Oh!” Kirby realized the logic behind Meta Knight’s train of thought, and got desperate. “Wait up!” He ran towards a nearby window, and with a wave of his hand, a Warp Star appeared. He jumped on it and took off.
Bandana Waddle Dee and King Dedede looked at each other, confused. That was when Bandana Dee remembered something, and ran towards Meta Knight.
“Sir!” he said. “Here are all the notes I took about the kirbies, like you asked!” He handed over his notebook to Meta Knight.
“Oh, right.” Meta Knight grabbed the notebook. “Thank you, Bandana Waddle Dee. This will be very useful.”
Piecing everything together now that it was over, King Dedede just had to ask again what he had asked earlier, “Meta Knight, what are you planning?”
Bandana Dee looked at Dedede, while Meta Knight did not.
“Great King! I am curious too, but it’s like I said earlier! It does not matt—”
“I wanted to test them all, as you may have suspected,” said Meta Knight.
Bandana Dee looked back at Meta Knight, surprised to see his direct answer. But now that Pandora’s box had been opened, his curiosity took over him, so he asked, “…Test? What do you mean by test?”
“The details are hard to explain,” said Meta Knight, “but trust me. For now, all passed the test.”
Dedede scratched his head. “Soooo… Is that all you wanted to do with them? Test them, and it’s over?”
Meta Knight closed his eyes. “Far from it. This is just the beginning.”
20 Times Kirby! 