The area near Kirby’s house was surprisingly empty: only the rainbow orb and the kirbies inside it could be seen. Panee was nowhere to be found. The kirbies inside the orb found it odd that he hadn’t come back from the last time he left, so they started talking to each other about it.
“Did Panee get lost?” asked Clare.
“Did he get attacked by someone?” wondered Daniel.
“I kinda doubt it…” said Jake. “He manipulated us all to get us captured, he wouldn’t fall that easily.”
“But he only managed to do that because he knew our weak points, right?” said Natty. “And he doesn’t know anything about Kirsy…”
Jake realized Natty was right, and said, “Right, good point. Well, no clue then.”
While most kirbies chatted, Daisy had her eyes on Grace. For the past few minutes, she had been staring at a seemingly random spot outside the orb.
“Eh, Grace? Why do you keep staring at that spot?” Daisy asked her.
As usual, Grace didn’t answer, and continued staring.
“Hmm… Is something there?” Daisy wondered. “Or is anything about to happen?”
Near the rainbow orb, but not that close to it, a faint voice could be heard from… nowhere?
“Do you see anyone?”
“Pssh, lower your voice, Percy! No one can see us, but they can hear us!”
“Oh, sorry, I forgot for a moment…”
Yan was holding Percy’s hand, and using his ninja abilities to make both invisible, as they slowly approached the rainbow orb.
“Well, that’s the rainbow orb you mentioned, right?” asked Percy, whispering.
“Yes,” confirmed Yan.
“And indeed, I see kirbies inside it… But what about the white kirby?”
“No sign of him…” Yan started to look around. “Maybe he isn’t around, or maybe he’s hidden… Hmm…”
As Yan looked around, he noticed some subtle but odd movements in the grass. He didn’t think twice and simply attacked forward, aiming towards where he spotted that disturbance in the grass. And, surely enough, his kunai hit what appeared to be another kunai, and he jumped backwards. In a blink of an eye, Yan and Percy reverted back to being fully visible, at the same time that a white kirby with a purple cowl of sorts, just like Yan’s hat, went from invisible to visible as well.
“What the?” said Percy, letting go of Yan’s hand.
“There is the white kirby,” said Yan.
“Oh, he was invisible too?”
“Yes. It appears he got the same Copy Ability as me. Be careful.”
“Gotcha.” Percy grabbed his yo-yo and looked towards Panee.
Panee started running and then did a slide attack, aiming at Percy. He dodged it with a side flip and, while in the air, was getting ready to attack back with his yo-yo, when Panee turned towards him with a katana and hit him, saying, “Quad Shock!” After hitting Percy, the katana produced four shock waves that dragged Percy forward, and launched him straight towards the rainbow orb, and he too fell on it and got stuck inside it.
Finding himself inside the orb in a matter of seconds, Percy lamented to himself, “Dang, I got captured… That kirby is as fast as Yan somehow!” He looked forward. “Well, here is hoping the rest of the plan works…”
Satisfied with the capture of Percy, Panee smiled. “Now, to get Yan…” he thought, as he started looking for him. He wasn’t having any success, however.
Yan had managed to go invisible again without Panee realizing, and slowly approached him from behind. He grabbed him as he went back to being visible, and jumped upwards while he held him. He shouted, “Air… Drop!” as he came back crashing with Panee, dropping him on the ground as soon as he reached near it, and jumping off just before the crash. Caught off guard, Panee was completely defenseless and simply continued with his face on the ground for a couple seconds.
Taking advantage of the situation, Yan, as soon as he landed on the ground, grabbed a couple shurikens and shouted, “Shuriken Throw!” as he threw them. Panee was hit by them all and screamed in pain. He had no time to react to these attacks.
Seeing Panee almost down, Yan decided it was time to finish him off. He closed his eyes and put his arms together, and started to glow, preparing for a strong attack. Still on the ground, Panee realized he was about to get attacked, and thought, “I only have one way to turn this around… It better work!”
Having finished charging his attack, Yan opened his eyes, raised both of his hands, and thrusted his right arm down, shouting, “Pyrotechnics!” commanding a pillar of fire to appear right in front of him, where Panee was. Right as the pillar of fire appeared, however, Panee vanished with a poof of smoke, leaving a log behind which, surprisingly, didn’t get burned.
Yan realized Panee somehow dodged the attack, and figured out what had happened right away, thinking, “Hide Guard… So skillfully executed. We’re dealing with someone strong indeed.”
Yan grabbed his katana and started to look around, waiting for Panee to reappear and attack him. In a blink, however, Yan’s surroundings were covered in smoke, much to his surprise. As he continued to look for Panee, he suddenly approached Yan and attacked him with the same attack as he had hit Percy with earlier, “Quad Shock!” The impact of the attack made Yan drop his katana, and the shock waves dragged him towards the rainbow orb, and he fell inside it, like his friend did earlier.
“Oh no, Yan!” Percy said, looking at his friend trapped with him.
“He’s strong…” Yan said, getting up. “And he’s also simply capturing us. So it’s much easier for him to ‘beat’ us than for us to beat him.”
“Oh, good poin—”
“Huh, where is my katana?”
Yan looked around and noticed Panee was putting it behind the nearby bushes, alongside a hammer and a sword. “He is keeping our weapons safe?” Yan wondered. “Hmm…”
“Oh no! Well, plan B time!”
Raven, who had watched everything from behind one of the nearby bushes, saw both Percy and Yan down, and got ready to give her signal.
Raven took a deep breath and shouted, “Ohhh, thirty whole pizzas!”
Panee, confused, looked back to find the source of the voice, thinking out loud, “What the heck?”
As he looked back, however, Panee spotted from afar someone running in his direction. But it wasn’t simply just a kirby, it was a kirby sparkling. Realizing what was going on, Panee panicked for a moment, “Oh no.”
Smiling, Kirby continued running in Panee’s direction. “Under the effect of an Invincible Candy, I am that: invincible!” he thought. “Now this white kirby has no chance!”
Panee took a deep breath and looked towards Kirby. “It’s not over yet. I just gotta be careful.”
Kirby, still running in Panee’s direction, had just gotten close to him. While he continued running, he asked, “Who are you? Where did you come from?”
Panee jumped over Kirby and answered, “My name’s Panee. And you better remember me now, Kirby, since I know you don’t remember me anymore!”
Kirby watched as Panee jumped over him, and said, “…What do you mean? I’ve never met you before!”
Panee landed and looked at Kirby, “That’s what you think.”
Annoyed by that affirmation, Kirby simply stopped running and looked at Panee, “But I am sure! How could I ever forget meeting another kirby, when our species is so rare? You’re just lying to me!”
Panee chuckled. “It’s sad, indeed… You don’t remember one of the most important moments of your life, Kirby…” Panee pointed at him. “And I was there, and I remember it all!”
Kirby was intrigued. He could usually tell when others were lying and, surprisingly enough, he didn’t feel like any of Panee’s statements were lies. But how could that be? Lost in those thoughts, Kirby could only ask one thing, “So… can you tell me about it?”
However, as soon as Kirby finished that question, he realized his body had stopped glowing: the effects of the Invincible Candy he had eaten had just worn off. “Oh no!” That’s when he realized, “So this talk was a trap!”
Panee smirked. “Yup. Surprise!” Panee grabbed his katana and slashed it towards Kirby; the defenseless Kirby had no choice but to get hit by the attack and get launched inside the rainbow orb.
“Oh no, he captured Kirby himself?!” Diego exclaimed.
“Turns out he can also manipulate Kirby…” Zan said, sad.
“Hey Kirby, you okay?” asked Percy.
“Yeah, I am…” Kirby said, getting up. “Except that the plan failed…”
“We really underestimated this kirby. Myself included,” said Yan.
“Well, I hope Raven and Dana don’t get caught as well…” Percy said, worried.
Kirby realized, “Oh, right! Oof…”
Panee celebrated. “Kirby himself?! I really hit the jackpot!”
“Oh no…”
Panee stopped to listen to a voice he had just heard. “Oh, right, that was Raven earlier!” he thought.
Raven was desperate behind the bushes. Both plan A and plan B had failed, and they had no plan C. “What now…” she thought.
That was when Raven looked forward and saw Panee walking in her direction. “Found you!” he said.
Raven panicked and just grabbed her paintbrush. She went to attack Panee when she saw him turn invisible right in front of her. Unsure where he was now, she simply closed her eyes and raised her paintbrush upwards and launched an array of paint drops in all sorts of directions. When she opened her eyes, she saw paint spread all over the ground, plus one paint splatter that appeared to be simply floating. “Found him!” she thought. She attacked the still invisible Panee, but all she did was cover him in paint. Not doing much progress stopping him, Raven started sweating.
Smiling, Panee thought, “Giving her a false impression of winning sure is fun.” He ran towards Raven and grabbed her, becoming visible again, and threw her backwards, to the rainbow orb, and she also fell inside it.
Panee looked at himself and sighed. “Ugh, but now I’m covered in paint… I can barely see…”
Even though his vision was a bit hindered, Panee noticed someone else was coming in his direction.
“Raven? Where did you g— HUH.”
Dana stopped walking right when she saw a blob of paint in the shape of a kirby. “AHHH, A PAINT MONSTER!!” she screamed.
Dana swung her parasol forward to protect herself and, as it opened, it splashed a couple drops of water that fell on Panee and washed most of the paint from his body.
Wet but mostly clean, Panee thought, “Well, how convenient,” as he walked towards Dana.
Panee simply grabbed Dana’s parasol and violently took it out of her hands. Seeing her parasol get dragged out of her like that, Dana became furious and shouted, “MY SWEETHEART!!!”
Panee held Dana’s parasol up and said, “Oh, your sweetheart? Why, it’s my sweetheart now.”
“WHAT?!”
“Come grab it if you want it back!”
Panee started running towards the rainbow orb. Dana, out of her mind, simply ran after Panee as well, wanting to get her parasol back.
“Give it back!!” she shouted, still furious.
Panee smirked. “Oh, ok. Catch it!”
Right next to the rainbow orb, Panee threw Dana’s parasol upwards. She jumped in its direction to grab it, but as she was about to touch it, Panee jumped and grabbed it before her. Missing her target, Dana simply fell inside the rainbow orb.
Happy, Panee put Dana’s parasol behind the nearby bushes, near Diego’s sword, Drake’s hammer and Yan’s katana. He looked back at the orb and smiled.
“No!!! My sweetheart…” Dana lamented.
“Dana…” Raven looked at her friend.
“Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen…” Panee stopped, and thought, “Oh wait, gotta be careful saying that,” then he continued saying out loud, “Only one left! Plus Kirby and purply as bonuses… Excellent!”
Still confused as to what was going on, Kirby had his eyes on Panee. Not only was he thinking of their conversation earlier, he continued wondering who he was. “He isn’t one of the kirbies with permanent copy abilities, neither is he one of us normal ten kirbies… So who is he?” he thought.
“Looks like I’m only missing Larry… And he will be so easy to catch!” Panee looked at Kirby. “And I caught you too, Kirby! My boss is going to be so happy!”
Kirby just couldn’t keep quiet anymore, so he started saying, “So, huh… What was your name again?”
“Panee,” he said while he sat down.
“Ok, so, Panee…” Kirby continued. “Who are you? Who is your boss? Why are you capturing us?”
“To kill us… And steal our parasols!” Dana said, still thinking of what had just happened to her.
Panee looked at Dana and laughed. “Silly Dana… I would never kill you, that’s the opposite of what my boss wants…”
“Who IS your boss even?” Kirby asked, impatient.
Panee looked at Kirby and smirked. “Well, you know them, Kirby… You know them…”
“Huh?” Kirby couldn’t believe that answer, so he asked, “Can you be more specific!”
Panee chuckled. “Nope!”
“Panee!” Clare spoke up before they could even continue.
“What is it, Clare?” Panee asked, looking at her.
“How do you know almost everything about us?”
Panee smiled. “Heh, that’s a cool compliment.”
“Wait, what?!” Kirby was in shock at that statement. “He knows a lot about you all?!”
“Yup, I do!” Panee proudly said.
“Wait, wait, no way,” Kirby said, dissatisfied. “The whole point of that meeting I planned was to get to know them all, since no kirby I knew knew a thing about them. You’re telling me you knew all about them all along?!”
“Hah, yeah. You could have just come and asked me!” Panee said, laughing.
“Grrr…” Kirby was angry, and could just not believe that was happening. “But how… And who…”
“I still doubt it, though,” Daniel spoke up.
“Huh?” Panee looked at Daniel.
“Yeah!” Daniel continued. “I’ve never seen you before, how would you even know a lot about me?”
“Oh, do you doubt me?” Panee asked.
Daniel stared at Panee. “I do!”
Panee shook his head. “Stubborn Daniel as usual… Well, I guess we have some time for a little introduction of everyone… From me!”
“Oh…” Clare looked at Panee and jumped, excited. “Start with me! Start with me!”
Panee looked at Clare and chuckled. “Alright, Clare… you’re curious, energetic and even a bit childish. You love to play with your friends and anyone. And you’re always looking forward to learning new things.”
“Oh, yes, true, true!” Clare said, happy. “How fun!”
“Fun?” Anny looked at Clare, surprised. “How is it fun that he knows so much about you? It’s creepy!”
Panee looked at Anny. “Oh, Anny… You’re kinda grumpy, in contrast to your best friend Clare. But you’re usually the one with reason of the two. That is, until you get jealous of someone, or feel you aren’t getting enough spotlight, and you will do anything to be recognized. Personally, maybe work on your self-esteem.”
Hearing that, Anny got furious. “You WHAT?!” she shouted.
Daisy looked at her and said, “Anny, please… He’s mocking you…”
Panee looked at Daisy. “Oh, but if there is someone who has the most reason in that friend group, it’s indeed Daisy. A very intelligent kirby with a knack for science. If only she knew when to stop talking, however, since once she starts, especially if it’s about a topic she likes, it’s almost impossible to make her stop. Oh yeah, and if you want to know something, ask her about it, since literally never lies.”
“Well, yeah, he really knows a lot about us!” Clare said, still happy.
“What, are you going to do this with all of us?” Anny said, unamused.
“Nah,” Panee said, “that would be a waste of time. But I hope this taste of what I know showed Daniel and the others that I do mean it when I say I know a lot about you all.”
“But… How do you even know so much about them?!” Kirby asked, still not believing it all.
Panee looked at Kirby and said, “Well, Kirby, that’s a great question! But just because it is a great question doesn’t mean I need to answer it!”
Kirby looked at Panee. “You… You…”
Kirby was disappointed. He really wanted to know the answer to that question. “How did a kirby that appeared from nowhere know so much about a bunch of kirbies that also appeared from nowhere?” he thought. “This is all so strange… What is going on?”
20 Times Kirby! 