Daisy continued analyzing the orb, trying to find a way to destroy it. She was surely making progress, but it was slow.
“This material… it’s certainly unique,” she said, thinking out loud. “If only I could remember where I’ve seen something like this before…”
Meanwhile, the other kirbies inside the orb were focused on other things.
“Hey, he’s waking up!” said Clare, pointing towards Matt above Daisy.
Daisy looked up, and noticed that, indeed, Matt was waking up. He got up and started looking around, confused.
“Where am I?” he asked.
“Well, huh, welcome,” said Anny with a disappointed face. “You’re stuck inside this orb thing along with us.”
“What?!” Matt looked around and, indeed, concluded that he was inside some sort of rainbow orb. “No way, I will get out of here!”
Matt stood up and started charging his backpack. In a panic, Daisy shouted, “It’s no use! We have no clue how to break it!” to try to stop him, but he didn’t listen. He took off upwards and tackled the orb, only to faceplant it. His engine turned off and he fell off once again on Daisy.
“Ouch…” he said.
“If only you had listened to her…” said Anny.
“In any case, we will escape eventually,” Daisy continued. “I just need more time to analyze this orb—”
“Hey, what is that coming over here?” asked Clare, looking outside the orb.
All other kirbies followed her eyes, and also saw what looked like someone in a motorcycle pulling a minecart coming in their direction.
Tim, Zan, Jake and Valoo, following Natty, had just arrived at Green Greens’ greenery side.
“I see them!” shouted Natty, as she continued flying as fast as she could.
“Oh, you mean that rainbow orb?” asked Zan.
“Yup! They are inside it.”
“Perfect,” said Jake. “So let’s try to get as close to it as possible.”
“Wait, no!” Natty said. “You best stop soon and continue by foot. If you get too close, you can accidentally fall inside the orb!”
“Huh… Not sure if I fully understand, but alright.” Jake looked forward. “Zan, Tim, prepare to break.
“Prepared!” said Tim.
“Okay, ready—”
Before he could finish, some sort of energy blast hit Tim. It was so strong that it made him involuntarily and instantaneously break, and also revert back to his kirby form. The sudden break made the saddle and Zan fall off. The minecart, still in movement, hit the saddle on the ground and also had a sudden break, which made the cart partly lean forward, launching Jake forward. Valoo only wasn’t launched because they instinctively transformed into stone right when the cart crashed on the saddle.
Jake could barely process what was going on, when he found himself right inside the rainbow orb: he was accidentally launched inside it.
Natty, seeing all that had happened in just a matter of seconds, was confused and shocked, “What was that?! Where did that come from?!”
“Hello everyone! Sorry for the wait.”
The kirbies inside the orb looked at the source of that new voice: it was Panee. He had a hat again, but it was different from the previous one: it was a red headband with a star in the front.
“Oh no, is that another Copy Ability?” asked Anny.
“Didn’t one of the kirbies in the meeting have that hat?” Clare pointed out. “I wonder what it is…”
“Oh well, I hope they don’t get captured as well!” Anny said.
Panee started running in Tim’s direction, as he was recovering from the crash. In a blink, Panee grabbed him and did a back throw, sending him straight inside the rainbow orb, and he passed through it and fell right on Anny.
“Easy peasy,” said Panee. “Now…”
“You stop that now!”
To Panee’s surprise, Zan was angrily staring at him. His body was slowly starting to glow white, and blue lightning started to surround him.
Zan continued, “I don’t know who you are, but… I know you’re capturing these kirbies and… I gotta stop you right now!”
Remembering Kirby’s words from earlier, Zan was less hesitant of using his Crash ability. He was putting the safety of his friends and the other kirbies first and foremost, and willing to do anything to help them. Although he still had a small fear inside him, he had managed to control it enough to not stop him.
“So Zan is not afraid anymore of using Crash?” thought Panee. “This is bad; he could beat me easily…” He started to wonder what he could do, when he realized, “Well, I know what to do…”
“Well, well, dear Zan… Be careful…” he spoke up to Zan.
“Careful?” asked Zan, confused.
Panee pointed at Zan. “The power you are charging… You realize how strong it is, right?”
Zan looked at himself and said, “I… I do! But…” He closed his eyes. “I can control it now!” He opened his eyes again. “And I will use it to stop you!”
Panee tilted his head. “Are you really sure?”
Zan looked at Panee. “I am… I mean… I have to be!”
“I dunno, I would just be a bit more careful…” Panee closed his eyes. “Considering you once accidentally destroyed Mallow Castle and killed that Waddle Dee family with this power… How tragic…”
Zan heard that and completely changed his stance. Those words made that event replay in his mind, as if it was happening right at that instant. He got filled with the pain and despair he felt in that moment and fell down in pain. He stopped charging the attack completely, and started crying.
“I-I… I-I-I c-can’t… Y-You… Ha-Have a p-point…” he said, sobbing. “I-I wo-won’t…” His body came back to normal.
“Good,” said Panee, grabbing Zan’s hand, to his surprise. “Thanks for making this easy for me.” Panee spun around and threw Zan backwards inside the orb. He fell in right on top of Grace.
“Zan!!” said Jake immediately, looking at his friend. “Are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah…” Zan said in a non-convincing tone. “D-Don’t w-worry…”
Jake looked straight into Zan’s eyes. “Zan. I saw what just happened, and I know you. You’re not okay, but you can be okay.”
Jake started to try to walk in Zan’s direction, but it was hard to move inside that orb. Even so, he managed to find a way to get near Zan and hug him tightly. Zan, who was barely aware of his surroundings due to his current mental state, realized the hug, and could only cry more.
Still hugging Zan, Jake said, “We can talk about this better later, but for now just know that that kirby just told a bunch of lies to manipulate you. I have no clue how he knows your past, but that’s another story.”
Zan stuttered, “Y-Yes…”
Jake let go of Zan and walked back to his starting position. The rest of the kirbies had just watched that in silence, and one of them immediately cut it down.
“I think Panee is after another kirby?” said Daisy, who was looking at Panee’s direction. “I thought these were all of them, but he is looking inside the cart now…”
“I swear I saw Valoo…” Panee said out loud. “Where are they?”
Panee went to look for them near the minecart, but couldn’t find them anywhere. He decided to lean it forward to search inside it, when a heavy stone dropped from inside, making the cart flip over. Panee jumped away last minute and wasn’t hit, but had a scare.
“Oh, there is Valoo…” said Panee.
The stone that had fallen from the cart was a transformed Valoo. They weren’t moving at all, and Panee figured out they wouldn’t move or transform back to their kirby form anytime soon.
“If Valoo doesn’t want to make it easy for me, I will have to do it my way,” Panee thought.
He turned backwards to Valoo, and pretended to grab something, saying out loud, “Well, I am hungry now… Good thing I brought some chocolate! Yum!”
Hearing that, Valoo thought, “C-Chocolate?!” and turned back to their kirby form. They started running in Panee’s direction, hoping to find some with him, completely forgetting the situation they were in.
Panee smirked, and turned towards Valoo as soon as they got near him, grabbing them. Panee jumped holding Valoo and threw them backwards, once again aiming for the rainbow orb. Not being able to react, Valoo, much like the other kirbies, fell straight inside the orb.
Panee landed and immediately started looking up. “Wait, is that… Natty!”
Natty, who was still flying up in the sky, said looking at Panee, “What, you only saw me now?”
Panee got annoyed, “Grrr, I’m the one here who mocks others… You were so quiet up there I didn’t notice you.”
“No matter,” Panee thought, looking down, “I need to also capture her… But how? She will dodge any attack I send her way while she’s in the air…” He stopped to think for a moment, when he had an idea, “Oh wait, of course, just like I did with Zan and Valoo…”
Panee looked up and said to Natty, “Hey, Natty! What’s up?”
“Huh, what?” she asked, confused.
“Are you just going to stay there and stare at me? While these other kirbies are captured?”
“Well, huh…”
“Or are you going to run away like a coward again?”
Natty got furious. “COWARD?! You little…”
Panee smirked. “Well, then you would bring me more kirbies here for me to capture again! That actually sounds like a deal; why don’t you go do that?”
Natty started to get even more furious. “You… You…”
“I didn’t realize you were that dumb. Well, I knew you were dumb, just not that muc—”
“SHUT UP!!” she exploded.
Filled with anger, Natty launched herself at full speed in Panee’s direction, aiming to attack him. Satisfied, Panee jumped straight towards Natty, and did a somersault kick, making her lose her balance and kicking her straight to none less than the rainbow orb.
“Ouch…” said Natty. She had struck Matt directly, which hurt her a lot.
“Are you okay?” asked Clare.
“Yeah… A bit hurt, but it’s fine…” Natty slowly got up, and started looking around.
“So he got us all at the end,” said Jake.
“It’s my fault…” said Natty. “I sent you straight to him…”
“No, it’s not your fault,” said Jake, looking at Natty. “You wanted to help those that were already captured instead of just running away. You’re brave!”
Natty got embarrassed and said, “…If you say so… Anyway, the fact is that we’re all stuck here.”
“Woah, that’s already half of you captured, and all done in half an hour… Funny, isn’t it?”
Panee walked in their direction, smirking. None of the kirbies inside the orb were pleased, however.
“What do you want to do with us, anyway?” asked Matt.
“Maybe I can explain later…” Panee said, as he turned his back to them. “But for now, I will try to find the others I need to capture, so until later.”
Panee walked out once again, looking for more kirbies. As he moved away, the kirbies inside the orb looked at each other, as if reading their own minds.
“Well, he’s gone again. Time to try to escape!” said Clare.
“But how?” asked Natty.
Anny looked at Daisy. “Well, Daisy? Did you figure out something?”
“Sort of,” Daisy said. “I found out the energy source of the orb, but not how to destroy it.”
“And what is its energy source?” asked Clare.
“Quite simple: the sun.”
“Aww… So I guess destroying the energy source is out of the question,” Anny lamented.
“Why?” asked Matt.
Anny looked at Matt and asked, “I mean, do you want to destroy the sun?”
“If it would free us…” said Matt.
“Well if we can’t even destroy this orb, how would we even try to destroy the sun?” Jake pointed out.
“We’re getting off topic here,” Natty interrupted everyone, seeing as the conversation wasn’t moving anywhere. She then looked at Daisy and asked her, “So, you say there is another way to destroy this orb?”
Daisy nodded. “Yes. I’m positive about it.”
“How so?” Natty asked.
Daisy explained her reasoning, “Think about it: this kirby wants to capture us, but I doubt he would just leave us inside this orb forever. He probably will try to use us for something, and to do that he will have to free us, so he likely created this orb with one single specific way to destroy it.”
Natty stopped for a moment to process everything Daisy had just said, and once she did she said, “Yeah, that makes sense.”
“But how do we find out that one single specific way?” asked Jake.
Daisy lowered her head. “That is what I’m still trying to find out, sorry…”
Without a clear lead, the kirbies inside the orb had no clue what to do exactly. Still, not giving up, they continued talking to each other, trying to find some way to escape.
20 Times Kirby! 