“Well, first things first… You don’t know me, do you?” Marx asked Anny.
“Yeah… Nope,” Anny answered. “Only that you look vaguely familiar, but I had never heard of you…”
Expecting that answer, Marx started an introduction, “Well, so quick, my name is Marx! A while ago I tricked Kirby and some of his friends into summoning a wishing granting machine, and then I wished to control Popstar! However, Kirby managed to beat me and put a stop to that. In fact…” Marx looked down. “I was thrown into that machine and it exploded.”
“Huh?!” Anny was surprised. “And you survived that?”
“Well…” Marx looked away. “Probably not.”
“So you’re dead?!” Anny asked, even more surprised.
Annoyed at Anny’s surprise, Marx shouted, “Let me continue!” He then quickly collected himself and continued, “Anyway, yeah, after that I wandered in space for a while, but not awake. Close to the debris of that machine, I pretty much started absorbing its power until I woke up…” Marx opened his wings. “Like this. And in my mind I only had one thing: revenge!”
“On Kirby?” Anny asked.
Marx nodded. “Yup! And so I went after him…”
“And when was this?”
“Err…” Marx stopped to think, then said, “A little over a year ago.”
“Hmm…” Anny murmured, thinking about that timeframe.
Thinking about what he was going to soon explain, Marx realized something, and said out loud, “Oh wait… Actually, before I go talk about that, I should probably explain the whole context…”
“Hmm?” Anny looked directly at Marx, confused. “What do you mean?”
“So, you see, I went after Kirby, and I couldn’t find him anywhere. However, soon after I heard some people talk about how he was in some sort of endurance test… like battling many opponents one after another.”
“Interesting…”
“So I managed to find where he was with that clue, and when I got in the arena he was in… I saw him battling some knight…”
“Meta Knight?” Anny guessed.
“No, another knight…” Marx looked behind him, and said, “Well, hang on, let me get a picture…”
Marx went to grab a picture, much like he mentioned, and he showed it to Anny. It depicted a large arena, with a full crowd, and Kirby in the middle of it, holding a golden sword, in front of a magenta masked knight, with white wings and a pink lance. At the corner of the battle arena, Kirsy, Keeby and Bandana Waddle Dee could be seen: Kirsy looked worried, Keeby disappointed, and Bandana Dee cautious.
With her eyes fixated on the picture, Anny asked, “Woah, what’s this?!”
“The knight?” Marx started saying. “Yeah, he is—”
“Did you have a camera with you to take this picture at the time?!” Anny exclaimed, not even paying attention to Marx, intrigued by the picture. “It’s almost as if this is how you saw this through your own eyes!”
Marx blinked twice and said, “…Heh… Funny that you mention that…”
Anny didn’t understand. “…What do you mean?”
“This picture is just one of many,” Marx started to explain. “I have a machine that can convert memories into pictures. It has some limitations, but still… I made some photos to show you, or it would be hard to tell some parts of the story I want to tell you.”
Anny processed all that information and said, “Huh… Convenient and weird, but okay. This does look very real, I will admit, so I doubt it’s fake.”
“But yeah,” Marx continued, “Kirby was battling this knight… And he is like, the greatest one of the galaxy or something?”
“Oh…” Anny connected the dots, “You mean he’s Galacta Knight?!”
“What?” It was Marx’s turn to be confused. “You’ve heard of him?”
Finding Marx’s answer weird, Anny replied, “I mean, who hasn’t?! Everyone knows his stories! I just never saw what he looked like…”
“Huh…” Marx thought a bit about it, but realized shortly after that that wasn’t worth his time, so he simply continued, “Okay. But yeah, Kirby was fighting this guy when I arrived.”
“Alone?” Anny wondered.
“Yeah. I saw the yellow kirby on the corner try to go help him at some point, but the purple one stopped him. She looked worried, but he looked annoyed… No idea what was going on.”
“And did Kirby win?” Anny asked.
“Yes!” Marx nodded. “That knight actually fought pretty badly, and as soon as he lost he quickly ran away.”
“Huh…” Anny found that odd. “Not what I would expect from the greatest warrior in the galaxy…”
And Marx agreed, “It was weird. But yeah, after Kirby won he celebrated, and that purple kirby went after him, but the yellow one didn’t. I think the two talked about that, but I’m not sure, they were whispering.”
“Hmm…” Anny murmured, while she thought about those kirbies.
“Anyway, right after that I saw the Waddle Dee tell him that was his last opponent… Which made me think, ‘No, I have to be the last one!’”
“Oh?” Anny guessed, “So did you…”
Before she could finish speaking, Marx already answered, “Yes! I went right straight to them! The Dee was about to get Kirby his trophy, but I stopped them shouting, ‘Not so fast!’ to which they all went, ‘WHAT?!’ as they recognized my voice…”
“…You do have a unique voice…” Anny commented.
“Anyway, I was glad they all remembered me, but Kirby asked how I was even alive after that crash… To which I just answered, ‘No clue, I guess I am undead?’”
“So you are a zombie?!” Anny asked.
Marx sighed at that remark. “…I have no clue, honestly. But yeah I explained to them what I told you earlier, that I absorbed Galactic Nova’s power to revive somehow, and then I challenged Kirby to a battle. I wanted to beat him for good, and he was already in a battle test, so it felt perfect.”
“And I am guessing Kirby accepted it?” wondered Anny.
“Well, before he could answer, that Waddle Dee appeared, and told me that knight was supposed to be Kirby’s last opponent, not me… to which I replied by attacking him with an energy beam from my mouth, screaming, ‘SHUT UP!’”
“Oh no, poor Dee…” Anny said, worried.
“…I was really impatient. Anyway, that blew him off, and the purple kirby from earlier ran in his direction, to see if he was okay I guess? Without him in my way, I asked Kirby again, more specifically, ‘So, it’s only us two now… do you accept my challenge?’ But, surprisingly enough, Kirby was interrupted again… by the yellow kirby.”
“Oh, yeah, his name was Keeby I think?” thought Anny.
Marx stopped for a moment to think about that kirby, then continued, “I didn’t remember his name, because all those kirbies have so many similar names, but I remembered him from when I made the Sun and Moon battle… he was a fairly courageous kirby, and I believe he got upset when Kirby ended up battling me without his help… or so I’ve heard. Anyway, he told me I would have to battle him before battling Kirby, which I found amusing.”
“Hmm…” Anny murmured, thinking about that situation.
“I asked if he was defending his friend, but instead he said, ‘Yes, but more importantly, I am showing I can also be useful! I am always in his shadow, not being able to help him, I want to change that!’ to which I replied, ‘I don’t care!’ because, really, I didn’t care: I just wanted to battle Kirby!”
“That’s harsh…” Anny said with a worried face.
Ignoring her comment, Marx continued, “Kirby heard what I said and immediately replied, ‘But I care!’ which surprised both me and the yellow kirby. Kirby continued saying that he acknowledged that, but that not only did the purple kirby need help treating the Dee, that match was a bit personal since it was me wanting revenge on him… which was true indeed. So he asked the yellow kirby to go help her and leave myself and him to battle; that was what he wanted him to help with. The yellow kirby hesitated for a moment, thinking, but he eventually said, ‘Fair enough, Kirby. Anything for my best friend. Good luck!’ and then he ran towards the purple kirby and the Dee.”
“Aww, how cute,” Anny said, now smiling.
“But yeah, with that settled, we could finally start the battle! Kirby got his golden sword ready and—”
“Golden sword… What golden sword exactly?” Anny asked, interrupting Marx. “Kirby never had one; isn’t that Meta Knight’s?”
Marx quickly answered, anxious to continue what he was narrating earlier, “Eh, no clue to be honest, but Kirby used that sword and it had some elemental powers. But yeah, we started the battle! Kirby tried to attack me with an upwards slash, but I quickly dodged it. I looked back at him and threw an ice bomb downwards; Kirby tried to destroy it with a slash, but he was a bit too late and it froze him! But then he lit the sword on fire, which melted the ice—”
“Wait, wait…” Anny interrupted him again. “Are you going to tell me the whole battle?!”
“…Yeah?” Marx said to her, confused at the question.
“But why?” Anny asked.
“Why not? It was such a cool battle!”
Wondering about said battle, Anny asked, “…How long was it?”
Marx thought for a bit, and then said, “Eh… around half an hour, I think?”
“WHAT?!” Anny shouted, in shock. Hearing that, all she could think about was how absurdly long it would take to narrate that story, so she immediately said, “Ok, no, just skip it! Get to the point! I still have no clue what any of this has to do with me!”
Marx stopped to think for a moment. While he really wanted to tell the whole battle, he noticed Anny was starting to get bored, and that he could potentially lose her interest if he didn’t get to the interesting part soon. So, he gave in.
“Fine, fine…” Marx said. “I won’t tell the whole battle, but before I get to the good part there is still some stuff. But I’m almost there!”
“…If you say so…” Anny said, not fully convinced by what Marx had said.
Anny sighed, and looked down. “Man, I’m so curious…” she thought. “And I’m getting so impatient.” She looked upwards and thought, “I guess this is how Clare feels when she’s curious…” She stopped for some seconds, realized who she had mentioned, and continued her thoughts, thinking about her friend, “She is currently sleeping well in the house and isn’t even imagining what is going on here…”
20 Times Kirby! 