The inside of Kirby’s house was completely dark: it was around one hour before midnight, and no lights were on. Near the exit door was a Maxim Tomato, and not much far from it was Larry, still fainted. A bit far from the two, Keeby was sleeping, but he was moving a bit, unlike Larry.
“No… Not again…” Keeby mumbled. “No… No…”
“AHH!” Keeby shouted, as he suddenly woke up.
With his eyes wide open, Keeby started to realize he had woken up. “Ugh, another nightmare… Figures, another memory breakdown.” Sitting down, he looked around. “Oh, huh… I’m in Kirby’s house?” he said out loud. “And it’s so dark, so I’m guessing it’s night… But if the lights are off, I guess nobody else is here?”
Right after saying that, Keeby spotted a kirby on the floor. “Oh, who is that?” He got up and started walking in his direction. “Wait, wait… It’s that kirby Kirsy went to rescue!”
Keeby remembered that, just before his memory breakdown started, Kirsy had saved a kirby that was falling from the sky. “Hmm, and after she brought him here with me, as well as another kirby… Ah yes, my memory is all coming back slowly as usual… Hmm.”
Keeby looked again at the fainted kirby. “But this is so odd…” he thought. “Kirsy wouldn’t just leave me and him here all alone for hours… And by this time Kirby should have been back to his house already… Did anything happen?”
While Keeby looked around lost in thoughts, he looked towards the front door and noticed there was something in front of it. “Huh?” he thought as he walked towards it, and as he got closer he realized, “Hey, this is a Maxim Tomato!”
Keeby grabbed the Maxim Tomato and looked at the fainted kirby. “Hmm, I still don’t know what’s going on, but I can’t just leave him fainted there, and this Maxim Tomato will likely heal him. So it’s clear what I have to do here.”
Keeby walked towards the kirby and put the Maxim Tomato inside his mouth. The kirby moved a bit and swallowed it. Seconds after, he sat down right away, with his eyes still closed and his hands on them.
“Ugh…” he said, as he slowly woke up. “What the… Where am I?”
“Hi!” Keeby said. “Glad you’re okay…” He looked around. “Well, we’re in Green Greens, and this is one of Kirby’s houses.” He pointed at himself. “I’m Keeby, his best friend.”
“Alright, cool, and I’m Larry…” He started getting up, but couldn’t open his eyes. “Ugh… I can feel I’m healing slowly, but it still hurts… My eyes in particular…”
Keeby observed Larry’s situation and said, “Oh, yeah, I remember Kirsy saying you had paint in your eyes. But it should be gone now, and the Maxim Tomato will heal the—”
“Wait… Paint?!” Larry remembered, “Oh right, STUPID RAVEN!!!”
Larry furiously opened his eyes and started to stomp towards the front door. Confused and worried, Keeby ran in front of it before Larry could go out, and asked, “Woah, woah, what’s that?”
Larry stopped in front of Keeby and said to him, “Raven… she’s a girl I hate. And she’s the one that attacked me with paint, and then pushed me from the Halberd!” He stomped a couple times. “She’s mad, and I want to teach her a lesson for treating me badly like that!”
“Hmm…”
Keeby listened to what Larry said and drifted his thoughts to another direction. “This Larry and that Raven… they must be some of those kirbies with permanent copy abilities Kirby was set to meet today, probably?” he thought. “But why were they at the Halberd? Does this have to do with Kirby and Kirsy disappearing? Hmm…”
“You okay?” asked Larry.
Keeby heard Larry and said, “Oh, no, no, I’m fine, I was just wondering…” He got in a thoughtful position. “You see, I don’t know where anyone else is, Kirby, Kirsy, those other kirbies with permanent copy abilities like you…”
“And I don’t either, since I was fainted until now,” Larry said.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Keeby stopped to think yet again, and then looked at Larry. “I will see if anyone is around by any chance, or if I can find any clues,” he said, as he started to walk towards the door. “Wait for me.”
Larry shrugged. “Yeah, sure. I’m still not fully recovered anyway.”
And so Keeby left the house, leaving Larry inside. He was pretty determined to find out what was going on.
As Keeby left the house, he found himself in Green Greens’ greenery area, but unlike during the day, at night it was a much duller green color overall. Still, the sky, on the other hand, was dark but brighter than ever, filled with shiny stars. The moon also shone really bright. The brightness of the sky lit up the area enough for anyone to be able to move around, but it was still pretty dark.
“Hmm, nothing here, nothing there…” As he looked in all directions, Keeby suddenly stopped after he saw something. “Wait, what is that?”
From afar, Keeby spotted a spot that was much brighter than its surroundings. He couldn’t really make out what it was, but he could see it shone all colors of the rainbow. “Well, you don’t see that everyday,” he thought. “I guess that’s a lead; let me get closer to it.”
Keeby started to slowly walk towards the light, and little by little he could make out what he was seeing. “So, that’s a rainbow orb… And there is a kirby near it… And wait, there are kirbies inside it!”
Once Keeby realized there was a kirby outside and many inside, he figured out the situation likely wasn’t pretty, so he went to hide behind the nearby bushes while he continued approaching the orb. As he did, he started to hear some voices.
“Aren’t you tired of just standing there all these hours?” asked Kirby.
“Yes,” Panee, who was sat down near the orb, answered, “but…” He stopped and yawned. “I cannot just leave you all alone. You’ll try to escape, and since it’s night— Huh, nevermind.”
“But Larry hasn’t come after all this time,” Kirby said. “What makes you think he will now?”
“I’m not sure… But…” Panee yawned once again. “He has to come eventually. I’m sure of it.”
“Someone is sleepy,” said Anny, with a mocking tone.
“I think most of us are,” said Natty. “Except the night owls.”
“Well, we all had to wake up early for the meeting, so…” said Valoo.
“You call that early?” asked Daisy.
“You all are too dang noisy,” said Panee. “Shut up or I will throw some kunais inside the orb.”
“Oh yeah, he still has that ability,” said Jake, looking at Panee’s ninja hat.
“Oh man!” thought Keeby, who had been listening to all that. “So this white kirby captured everyone else, and also wants to capture Larry! I need to save them… But how? Hmm…” Keeby stopped to think, while he analyzed the current situation. That was when he had an idea, “Oh, of course!”
Keeby slowly went back to Kirby’s house, making sure he wouldn’t be spotted by anyone.
Keeby ran inside Kirby’s house. Noticing he had come back, Larry said, “Oh hey, you took longer than what I expect—”
“Larry, you will help me with my plan!” Keeby said without letting him continue.
Larry tilted his head. “Huh? Plan?”
“Yeah! Oh,” Keeby realized Larry didn’t know what was going on, “right, long story short, some white kirby captured everyone. And we will save them!”
“Oh?” That wasn’t the answer Larry was expecting, but he still accepted it “Huh, ok, sure. How will we do that?”
“It’s a simple plan!” Keeby got ready to explain it to Larry. “Well, first of all…”
Panee was still sat down near the rainbow orb, with his eyes closed. He was very tired, but he kept fighting his own tiredness.
“Relax, Panee,” he thought to himself. “You’re tired, but don’t worry, Larry will soon come and he will be an easy catc—”
Before Panee could finish his thoughts, he was hit right away with a blade of a kirby shouting, “Cutter Dash!” Due to his tiredness, that single hit made Panee’s ability drop in the form of a star that disappeared a second after dropping. Panee fell down, with his face on the floor.
“Ugh…” he said, as he slowly got up and looked around. “Who in the world attacked me? Larry?”
“Well, maybe it was me…”
“Or was it me?”
In front of Panee were two yellow kirbies with the Cutter ability: Larry and Keeby.
Seeing that, Panee panicked. “Oh no,” he thought, “what shade of yellow was Larry again? Ugh, they are all so similar… And did he have yellow or red feet? It’s all blending together since I’m so tired, ughhh.”
Panee continued staring at them thinking of what to do, when he realized and thought, “Well I could capture both… Or try to make both faint to see who Larry is, since he can’t lose his ability… But either way…” Panee gulped. “I need to copy an ability, or I’m defenseless.”
Keeby, as he looked at Panee, said to Larry, “He is confused by us, as I hoped, and he lost his ability. I will just go and attack him.”
Larry nodded. “Alright. I will follow up then.”
Keeby grabbed a cutter from his hat and threw it in Panee’s direction. He saw it coming in his way, and sighed.
“Alright,” he thought. “I need to get Cutter, otherwise my efforts will all go to waste. Even though this will reveal that I’m one of them, the XXIs…” Panee took a deep breath. “No other choice.”
As the cutter was right in front of him, he raised his arms and some sort of white scanner visor appeared above his head. It dropped in front of his eyes, and a white light was emitted from it. Said light collided with the cutter, making it stop, and some sort of electronic graphs appeared near it, as if analyzing it. A second later, Panee’s visor disappeared, and he now had a duck hat with a blade at the top of his head. The thrown cutter simply dropped, after being stopped in mid-air.
Larry, and the other kirbies with permanent copy abilities, were confused, wondering what sort of visor was that. Kirby, Kirsy and Keeby, on the other hand, were in shock.
“Wait…” said Kirsy. “That was Copy, wasn’t it?! But how?!”
“Oh wait…” said Kirby. “Does that mean he’s one of them as well?!”
“Oh…” thought Keeby. “Permanent Copy Copy Ability? Interesting development. Well, no matter, we still gotta beat him.”
Desperate, Panee simply threw a cutter in Keeby’s direction. He jumped above the cutter and, while in the air, looked at Larry, who was now in the direction of the cutter. Larry understood and nodded, and attacked the cutter multiple times.
While Larry was attacking it, Keeby grabbed a cutter while still in midair, and pointed it downwards towards Panee, shouting, “Cutter Drop!” Still tired, Panee noticed too late and was struck right away and fell down.
Keeby smiled and grabbed Panee’s hand. He threw him towards Larry, who was still attacking the cutter, and right when Panee got near him, Larry jumped upwards with his own cutter, dragging Panee with him. He said, “Final… Cutter!” as he came back with Panee to the ground. When Panee hit the ground, his hat disappeared, and a star dropped from him, which disappeared right after.
Still on the floor, Panee thought to himself, “My worst battle ever… Two versus one isn’t fair, and I’m sleepy… Ughh…”
Keeby and Larry quickly celebrated their victory, and then ran towards the rainbow orb.
“Keeby!” Kirby shouted, happy to see his friend.
“Hey, Kirby!” Keeby replied back, smiling.
“Nice work there!”
Embarrassed, Keeby said, “Heh, thanks…”
“Sorry to interrupt already, but we need to escape now, before Panee comes back!” Anny shouted.
“Oh!” Kirby looked at her. “Good point!”
“But…” Daniel started saying, “Did we ever find out how to destroy this orb?”
Kirby stopped to think. “Eh…”
“Well, I found its energy source, and mentioned how Panee likely has a specific way to destroy it, but I had no way of finding out that…” said Daisy.
“Ugh… So what now, then?” Kirby asked, feeling a bit hopeless.
Keeby stopped for a moment and thought about what he had just heard. “So you’re saying that kirby must know how to destroy this orb?”
“Yeah,” said Daisy. “He’s capturing us for a reason, so he won’t have us stay here forever.”
“And he often mentioned how we would try escaping…” said Anny.
“But you never found out how?” asked Keeby.
“Nope,” said Anny, disappointed.
“Well…” Keeby smirked. “Why don’t we ask him?”
Anny was confused. “Huh?”
“Ask Panee?” Daniel was also confused.
Daisy didn’t understand. “But he would never—”
“Would he never?” asked Keeby, as he turned back to them.
Keeby walked in Panee’s direction, who was still on the floor, not moving at all. Larry didn’t really understand what was going on, but he decided to follow Keeby anyway.
Reaching Panee, Keeby crouched down and asked, “You awake?”
Annoyed, Panee said, “Barely… What do you want? Wasn’t humiliating me enough?”
“Well, no. You see, the kirbies are still inside that weird orb.”
Panee remembered and said, “Ah, yeah. So what?”
“‘So what?’ You lost, release them now!”
“I lost… For now. I will keep them there and come back once I’m recovered.” Panee started to get up. “Now if you excuse me…”
“You aren’t going anywhere!” shouted Keeby, as he grabbed a blade.
Panee got up and tried to run away, but Keeby attacked him with a thrown cutter before he could get too far, and he tripped and fell off.
“Gahh…”
“Larry,” Keeby said to him, “help me. Grab him and drag him with me.”
“Huh… Okay,” answered Larry.
The two grabbed Panee by his hands, and started dragging him towards the rainbow orb.
Panee opened his eyes and saw his trajectory and panicked. “Wait, wait, no, I can—”
“Too late! Larry, throw him in 3, 2, 1… NOW!”
Right after as Keeby finished saying the countdown, he and Larry threw Panee inside the rainbow orb.
Seeing Panee now with them, everyone else inside the orb got filled with rage.
“That’s him!”
“Hah, he got a taste of his own medicine!”
“You’re gonna pay for this!”
“Hey, I want to beat him up first!”
Surrounded by all those kirbies that hated him, Panee found himself in a despicable situation. “Oh no, oh no,” was all he could think at first. However, moments after, he realized there was no other way, and acted out of instinct.
“TWENTY FOUR, TWENTY FOUR, NINE, NINETEEN.”
Panee shouted those numbers and, right after he finished, the rainbow orb disappeared in a poof of magic. All the kirbies inside it fell over and were free.
Everyone simply forgot they were mad at Panee, and started celebrating their freedom.
“Yes, we’re free!”
“Finally, free!”
“Freedom, at least!”
Taking advantage of their distraction, Panee ran away from them all. “Dang, dang, dang!” he thought. “I failed, and I was so close! But for my own safety, I gotta get out of here, there is no way.”
20 Times Kirby! 