Deep in the forest area of Green Greens, next to a tall tree, were three kirbies, chatting with each other.
“It turns out that this star thing is really useful, huh,” said Diego.
“Yeah!” said Drake. “It managed to bring us… Huh, where are we again?”
“No clue…” Daniel said, looking around. “I think it’s still Green Greens? But it looks like a forest…”
“I mean, Green Greens is a huge area, right?” Diego pointed out. “Maybe this is just an area of it that is more of a forest?”
“Hmm…” Daniel started to think. “Maybe… But—”
“AHHHHHHHH!”
Before he could continue, Daniel was interrupted by a scream. “Huh?” he said, looking for the source of the scream. “What’s that?”
Not far from the trio were two kirbies riding a Warp Star. Luke, the one piloting, was smiling, while Leo, the other passenger, was panicking.
“Can’t you slow down?!” Leo said, desperate.
Luke didn’t understand the request. “Slow down? Why? That would be so boring!”
“But we’re going too fast!” Leo tried to explain.
“Yeah, because it’s so fun!!” Luke explained.
“But we need to fin—”
Leo was going to ask Luke something, but they interrupted themself when they saw something more urgent.
“LUKE, WE’RE GONNA CRASH ON THAT TREE!!!!” they screamed in agony.
“YOOO, YESSS!! AN INTENSE CRASH!!” Luke screamed, but in excitement.
And so, as both expected, they crashed on a tree, destroying the Warp Star in the process, and both fell down.
“THIS WAS SO COOL!!” said Luke, jumping. “We should ride these star things more often!”
Faceplanted, Leo said, “Ugh…”
“Ehh… What is going on?”
Looking at the two were Daniel, Drake and Diego.
“Oh, hi,” said Luke, realizing the three other kirbies. “You were in the meeting too, right? And you were around for the battle with Meta Knight after it… Oh, oh!” he realized something, and started jumping, excited. “And you were the one that battled him!!!”
“Yup,” said Diego, a bit embarrassed. “But anyway, what was that with the star just now?”
“Oh well,” Luke started to explain, “after we left the Halberd, we realized we had lost track of Larry, then we went to look for him, but— Huh.”
Luke realized he completely lost track of her goal while riding the Warp Star. It was so much fun for him, something he had never done before either, that she got distracted having fun and, when she realized, he was flying around fast without a second thought.
“So you were looking for this Larry?” asked Daniel.
“Yeah…” Luke said.
“That yellow one?”
“Yup. I have no clue where he is…”
Daniel thought, and said, “Well, why don’t you go back to Kirby’s house to see if maybe anyone is around, and saw him?”
Luke liked what he had just heard, and said, “Oh, maybe! We’ve got no leads, so anything helps.”
“Let’s go, then!” said Daniel, who right after looked at Drake and Diego.
“Hmm? You’re coming with us?” asked Luke.
“We’re going with them?” asked Diego.
“Well, why not?” said Daniel. “We’re not doing anything important right now, and they need help.”
“Hmm, you got a point…” Diego thought for a couple seconds, and decided, “Alright, sure.”
“So, let’s go!” Daniel said.
“Ehh… Will we run?” asked Drake. “Because it’s far from here by foot.”
“Hmm…” Daniel stopped to think for a moment, when he remembered, “Wait, we still got our star thing, let’s use it!”
“Oh, true!” said Diego. “Let’s go!”
And so, the five kirbies boarded the sole Warp Star they had, even though it could barely carry that many kirbies, and took off on it, heading to Kirby’s house.
Panee was still sitting down near the orb, keeping watch in case any kirbies approached them. The kirbies inside, however, were growing more and more bored as time passed.
“Man, this is boring…”
“I’m hungry…”
“This sucks.”
“Can you all shut up?!” said Panee, angry.
“Sigh…” he thought. “Now that I decided to wait, no one else has decided to show up…”
As he finished his thought, however, he heard a sound. He got up and started looking around, until he could identify it: “Is that the sound of a Warp Star?” he said out loud.
That was when he saw, from afar, a Warp Star crash to the ground, and a couple kirbies fall from it. Panee smiled, getting ready to act. “Alright! Here comes more!”
The kirbies that had just fallen from the Warp Star were the five kirbies who were heading to Kirby’s house, in hopes of finding out where Larry was. Each of them slowly got up.
“Ouch… What was that?!” asked Drake.
“Why did you make it go down that fast?!” asked Diego.
“Yeah, we crashed!” said Luke.
“My bad…” Daniel said. “It’s just that I saw that weird orb and didn’t want to crash on it.”
“Huh? Orb?” Diego asked, not understanding what Daniel was saying.
Daniel pointed towards Kirby’s house, and the other kirbies looked to where he was pointing. Indeed, they all saw a colorful orb.
“Wait… Aren’t those kirbies inside it?” Drake pointed out.
“Huh…” Daniel took a better look at the orb, and concluded, “You are right! I can see some…”
“Maybe Larry is inside?” Luke wondered.
“But why would they be inside it in the first place?” asked Drake.
“Well, one way to find out…” Diego said, holding up their sword. “Let’s get closer!”
Daniel nodded. “Agreed. Let’s go.”
And so, Daniel, Diego and Drake headed towards the rainbow orb. Luke was about to follow them as well, when he realized Leo wasn’t with her, so she stopped walking and looked back. He saw Leo standing still, doing nothing.
“Leo!” Luke called them out. “Follow us!”
Leo heard the voice of their friend and looked at Luke. Seeing him call them out, they said, “Oh, ok…” and started heading in her direction, but walking slowly.
Luke noticed Leo was being too slow and pleaded, “Leo, faster!” He looked at the direction of the trio and then back to Leo. “They are already way ahead of us!”
“Huh… Who is ahead of us?”
Luke sighed, and thought, “Alright, I see Leo is currently at a time where they cannot understand what is going on… which is not uncommon. Oh well.” He turned back to Leo and said, “Doesn’t matter. We gotta follow them, so let’s go.”
“Huh, ok…” Leo said.
And so Luke and Leo went after the trio, but much slower than them, as Luke didn’t manage to make Leo go any faster.
Panee smiled, awaiting for the arrival of those kirbies. He looked ahead and said out loud, “Let’s see, we have… Daniel, the stubborn one, Drake, the indecisive one, and Diego, the fearless one… Ah yes, one of the cliques.”
“Three of them?” said Jake.
“Let’s hope they can beat him this time…” said Anny.
Panee continued looking and noticed, “Wait, there are more afar… Leo, the dependent one, Luke, the loud one… Wait, that’s all? They aren’t with Larry?”
“Man, dude, you really know all of us, huh?” Matt said.
“How long did it take you to memorize our names?” asked Clare. “Bet that was hard…”
Panee ignored their comments, because he was concentrated on the arrival of those kirbies. He had a plan he was about to put in action.
Daniel, Drake and Diego approached the orb, and noticed a white kirby in front of it.
“Wait… Who is that?” asked Diego.
“No clue…” answered Drake. “But why are they outside when everyone is outside?”
Daniel looked better at him and realized something, “Oh, wait…”
“Hello there, Daniel, Diego and Drake!” Panee greeted them with a smile, interrupting Daniel.
Diego was surprised. “Wait… You know our names?!”
Panee smirked. “Most certainly! And you know what else I know about you? That you love a good battle.”
Daniel had to agree, “True, but…”
“But what?” Panee asked. “Don’t you want to battle me?”
The trio stopped, trying to figure out what to do. They did like to battle, as Panee mentioned, but they were wondering about the kirbies inside the orb.
Drake started to say, “But…”
“If we beat you, can you release them?”
Interrupting Drake was Daniel.
Panee was intrigued. “Oh, interesting, a deal? Well, sure, why not.”
Panee adjusted his headband and got in a battle position. The three kirbies looked at each other, nodded, and also got in a battle position.
“Hiiiiya!” shouted Diego, as they ran towards Panee, pointing their sword in his direction, ready to thrust him.
Panee jumped, getting ready to attack Diego from above. Diego noticed and pointed their sword upwards. Panee smiled, and in a flash canceled his jump, falling down fast and, as soon as he landed, attacked Diego with a slide attack. That happened so fast that Diego barely understood what was going on; all they did was trip due to Panee’s attack, dropping their sword in the process.
While Diego was still down, Panee attacked them with a Spin Kick. Diego was launched straight towards the rainbow orb and fell inside it.
“Diego!” shouted Daniel.
“You gonna pay!” said Drake, as they started to run in Panee’s direction, also ready to attack him.
Panee noticed Drake ready to swing their hammer, and predicted almost flawlessly their movements: as soon as Drake started to spin their hammer to attack Panee with a swing, Panee grabbed it mid-movement.
“W-What?” said Drake, as they saw Panee hold their hammer in place. They tried to pull it out of Panee’s hands, but it was useless. “What strength!” They said, very surprised.
Panee smirked. “This is the power of the Fighter ability!” He then started spinning around holding Drake’s hammer, while they were still holding on it. Drake slowly started to lose grip, and eventually Panee just threw them inside the orb, taking advantage of that. And thus, Drake also became stuck inside it.
“Drake! No!” Diego said, sad, as their friend had just fallen near them.
Panee put Drake’s hammer aside. “Now, Daniel…” He looked at him. “You’re next.”
Daniel heard that and glared at Panee.
“You know, I noticed,” he said to Panee.
“Noticed what?” Panee asked.
“How you attack just like me. And your bandana is identical to mine.”
“Yeah, it’s that Copy Ability thing!” Anny said.
Panee smiled. “Ah, you’re learning… But yes, I copied Fighter.”
“Copycat…” Daniel got in a battle position. “I will show you how a real fighter fights!”
Daniel started running in Panee’s direction, as his right fit started glowing. “Rising Break time!” he thought.
“Cute,” thought Panee, as he started charging some sort of energy ball between his hands.
As Daniel got close to Panee, he raised his fist upward, attempting to attack him. However, Panee dodged just as he was about to get hit, continuing to charge energy between his hands. He got right behind Daniel and unleashed a wave of energy right towards him. Daniel had just looked backwards to react, but it was so fast that he got directly hit, and was launched right inside the rainbow orb, also getting stuck inside it.
“Ugh…” Daniel lamented inside the orb, still down.
“Aha,” Panee celebrated. “So that’s this trio caught. But what about—”
“YOU RELEASE THEM, NOW!!”
Panee got shocked and immediately looked in the direction of that shout. He saw Leo and Luke.
“YOU HEARD ME!” Luke continued shouting. “RELEASE THEM!”
Panee chuckled. “If I don’t, what will you do?”
“I… I will crush you!”
Luke quickly charged and unleashed a plasma wave in Panee’s direction. He dodged it, and the attack hit the rainbow orb.
“Wahhh!” Tim said, a bit scared.
“Everyone ok?” Jake asked, as he looked around inside the orb.
“Yeah, it doesn’t look like we got hurt,” Natty said.
“Did the orb get damaged at all?” wondered Daisy.
While the kirbies inside the orb continued to discuss what had just happened, Luke stared at Panee.
“You monster…” Luke pointed at Panee. “Release them! Or else…”
Panee tilted his head. “Again, or else what? You said you’d crush me but I’m just fine.”
“Just release them!” Luke looked down. “I want Larry free…”
Panee blinked twice. “…Larry, huh?”
Indeed, Panee found that odd: Larry was always with Leo and Luke, but wasn’t around with them right now. And it sounded like Luke assumed Larry was inside the orb.
Panee decided to ask Luke, “Do you know for sure if Larry is inside this orb?”
Luke looked at Panee, and said, “Eh… Not really… But this feels like the mos—”
“Then see for yourself!!” Panee said, jumping in Luke’s direction.
Taking advantage of Luke’s opening, Panee grabbed her and threw him straight up, in an angle perfectly calculated to make him fall inside the orb, right on top of all others.
“Ouch…” Luke said, as he got up, in pain.
“Larry isn’t here,” Diego said, as they looked towards Luke. “I should have told you as you got closer…”
“Larry… I think it’s that kirby I saved?” Kirsy asked herself out loud, as she tried to remember.
“Oh?” Luke looked at Kirsy immediately, curious about what she had to say.
While the kirbies once again continued their chat, Panee looked at the last kirby left for him to catch: Leo.
“Leo…” he thought. “They’re an odd one. Maybe they will be easy to catch, maybe not. Let’s see…”
“Hello, Leo!” Panee spoke up, calling them.
Leo looked around and looked at Panee, saying, “Leo…”
Noticing that Panee was now after Leo, Luke immediately stopped what he was doing and called the attention of her friend, shouting, “Leo! Don’t let him catch you too!”
“Catch…” said Leo out loud. They weren’t currently very aware of their surroundings, much to Panee’s relief.
“Looks like I got the easy mode,” said Panee, as he started walking in Leo’s direction.
Panee grabbed Leo’s hand, and they didn’t resist at all. They looked at Panee and asked, “Who are you?”
Panee smiled, and replied, “My name is Panee. Nice to meet you!”
Seeing the two like that, Luke got desperate inside the orb, and shouted, “LEO, PLEASE! HE IS YOUR ENEMY!”
Leo faintly heard Luke’s words, and repeated, “Enemy…” They looked at Panee, who was still holding their hand, and asked, “You’re my enemy?”
Panee chuckled, and replied, “Bingo! You got it!”
Right after, Panee threw Leo right towards the orb. Much like all others, Leo got stuck in it.
Luke saw Leo fall right next to him, and lamented, “Dang… You used up all your smart moments for today already, I see, Leo…”
Panee, satisfied, walked towards the orb to provoke the new kirbies inside it, when he saw a sword and a hammer near it. “Oh right,” he thought, “these are Diego’s and Drake’s. Hmm…”
“Hey, that’s my sword!” shouted Diego.
Panee looked at them and said, “Yeah, I know. Don’t worry, I will keep it safe.”
Panee grabbed the sword and hammer, and put them behind one of the nearby brushes.
Watching that, Diego was worried, “Hey, careful with it! And what are you even doing?”
“I’m just storing them, don’t worry.” Panee then thought to himself, “They’ll need their weapons later…”
“Grrr…” Diego was very angry that they didn’t have their sword with them.
“You know, it’s kinda good that you don’t have your weapons inside” said Daisy. “I mean, where would they fit?”
Diego stopped to think for a moment. “Hmm, I guess… But…”
*ka-cling*
Panee heard a faint noise from somewhere, and thought, “Wait, what was that?”
Panee looked towards Kirby’s house, trying to find the source of that sound. He couldn’t, however, so he ran in its direction, to possibly find it there. And surely enough, he found its source.
“Oh, hmm…” he thought, looking at what he had found. “I have no clue who dropped this, but this will surely be helpful… This gives me a way better ability than Fighter! Heheheh…”
20 Times Kirby! 