“Anny! …Anny!”
Calling out Anny’s name was Marx. He had noticed that she had stopped paying attention to him, so he called her attention.
“Anny, are you listening?”
“Ah!” she exclaimed, coming back to her senses. She shook her head, and said, “Yes, I am. Sorry.”
Anny had indeed just spaced out, thinking of her friend Clare. But it was brief, and Marx made her come back to the real world.
“Ok, good, you are back, so I can continue.” Marx took a deep breath and continued, “So, yeah, Kirby and I battled and battled… but sadly I lost. I ran away just before I was completely out of energy, and Kirby collapsed… For me, that was a tie, and maybe I even won, but officially they considered that a win for Kirby. I heard he got his trophy and headed home to rest; it was almost evening when our battle ended.”
“Where did you run to?” Anny wondered.
“Believe it or not…” Marx looked around. “To here, Bubbly Clouds!”
“Oh?” Anny was confused. “Why? Do you like here?”
Marx shrugged. “I dunno… I just felt I needed to recover and going up felt like the logical step for some reason. Later I would find out that’s how I’m alive: I’m absorbing energy from space… or something. No clue exactly.”
Hearing that, Anny simply said after a pause, “…Weird but okay.”
“Anyway,” Marx continued, “I started walking around… angry, because after all I had lost to Kirby according to them. That’s when someone found me… Simis!”
“…Simis?” Anny asked, confused.
“Yeah! A green and purple simirror. We were friends long before I did that thing with the Sun and Moon. But yeah, we briefly talked, since we hadn’t talked to each other in forever. Talking to him, I realized that I felt better because of that absorbing energy from space thing. We kinda concluded together that I needed to stay closer to the sky to stay alive.”
Impatient, Anny said, “Ok, ok… Where do I come in?”
“We are almost there!” Marx replied, annoyed. “Anyway, asking what had happened after I, err, died, Simis mentioned that it was the usual, although he also said that, some days before, seven of the ten kirbies had left to live on other planets or something? Leaving only the three kirbies I had seen earli—”
“Wait, what?!” Anny was very confused. “Ten kirbies?!”
Marx realized she didn’t know about that, and said, “Oh, right, I guess you don’t know… But yeah, back then there were only ten kirbies, of all sorts of colors and genders, although all with similar names. Kirby is one of them, in fact. Apparently seven of them left back then and never returned.”
Anny thought for a moment and remembered: Kirby had mentioned back in the meeting that his species was rare, and that he only knew nine other kirbies. Realizing she also met Keeby and Kirsy, she figured out those three kirbies were the ones that stayed, and that that also explained why she hadn’t met the seven other kirbies.
“Anyway,” Marx continued, “I also mentioned how I lost to Kirby and was tired of always failing, and that I wanted to beat him for good… But how? I asked Simis, to which he just said it wouldn’t be easy, and that he wasn’t good at ideas.”
“Not very helpful…” Anny thought to herself.
“Not knowing what to do, I just told Simis I would go walk around for a while to see if I would get any inspiration. And so I started flying around, until I spotted an orange waddle doo near some sort of building. He looked like he was closing it, which made sense, since it was late at night. I got closer to him, but hidden, and overheard him talking to himself saying something about inventions… and in particular one of the inventions he described grabbed my attention.”
“What invention was it?” Anny asked, curious.
Annoyed at her lack of patience, Marx said, “…You will find out soon enough. Anyway, I waited for him to leave and I got ready to invade it to steal the machine I wanted.”
“Wait, what?” Anny was surprised. “Stealing?!”
Marx was surprised at her surprise. “Well, why not? I don’t care about what’s wrong or right, I wanted that machine! So I went to steal it…”
“…How?” Anny wondered out loud. “You don’t have han—”
“…Details, details!” Marx interrupted her, annoyed once again. “I stole it, alongside some others that caught my attention, and brought them back to where Simis was. He saw the machines and asked what was going on. I answered him with a request: I wanted him to go capture Kirby for me!”
“Huh?” Anny didn’t understand. “Why? And how?”
“…Wow, that was exactly what he asked,” Marx said, a bit surprised. “I told him it was part of my plan to beat Kirby, and that I didn’t need him for long, just for a couple minutes. Simis said that was crazy, and it really didn’t seem like he wanted to do it.”
“Was he afraid?” Anny guessed.
“No, that wasn’t it…” Marx said, and then pondered a bit about it. “Simis didn’t seem like he wanted to hurt Kirby or something.”
“But isn’t he an evil guy like you?”
“I’m not sure…” Marx said, thoughtful. “We met before the whole thing with the Sun and Moon, and I guess I hadn’t shown him my true colors. But I guess even after learning about them he decided to be my friend, so…”
“Hmm, odd but ok,” Anny said, not fully understanding, but accepting it for the moment.
“Anyway,” Marx continued, “after I insisted a couple times, Simis gave in, and agreed to go capture Kirby. He mentioned that thankfully it was already dark, so Kirby was likely sleeping, and ambushing him to capture him would be easy. However, he wouldn’t be able to contain Kirby for too long, so he asked me for some basic instructions at least.”
Hearing that, Anny had an insight, and said, “Wait, wait. If ambushing Kirby at night is so easy, why did no one do it before?”
“Huh…” Marx stopped to think about that question, and said, “Good question. But I will say, Simis somehow knows a lot about those ten kirbies.”
“Hmm? Really?”
“Yeah, and he would often talk so much about them… Maybe he was a fan? Point is, he knew about Kirby more than anyone else, so I bet he knew his weak points, hence the easy capture.”
“Oh, so he managed to do it?” Anny wondered.
Marx smiled. “Yes! He teleported inside Kirby’s house, put him inside a rainbow orb and quickly teleported back to Bubbly Clouds.”
Hearing that, Anny repeated to herself in contemplation, “Teleport…”
“And as I had asked him, he right away put Kirby inside the big glass container of the machine. Kirby wasn’t pleased at all with the situation, even though he was still a bit sleepy, bu—”
“Oh wait, what was the machine like exactly?” Anny asked, interrupting Marx.
“Oh,” Marx realized, “I can show you!”
Marx grabbed a picture and showed it to Anny. It showed a big purple cube-shaped machine that had a monitor and keyboard attached to it. At the top, there was a round glass container, and Kirby was inside it, in shock. Coming out from the back of the machine was something that almost looked like a desk lamp of sorts: a long cord that extended upwards and bent forward towards the machine. Attached to its tip was an oval metallic object that looked like some sort of projector, and it managed to hang on top of the machine, but ultimately in front of it, not directly above it. Next to the machine was a green and purple simirror, which Anny figured was Simis.
“What an odd machine…” Anny said out loud, as she looked at it in the picture, trying to analyze it. “What is it even?”
Marx smirked. “Hehehe, here is the good part at last!”
Anny was confused. “Wait, what?”
Still smirking, Marx continued, “Just like you, Kirby asked what the machine was… while he said he would escape soon anyway. And Simis said he wanted to finally know what it was. So I decided to explain my plan, finally revealing the machine.”
Anny had her eyes fixated on Marx. For some reason, she was starting to feel uneasy.
Marx started saying, with a grandiose tone, “I said, and I quote, ‘Who can beat Kirby? Well, no one has managed so far… But maybe other kirbies can? But we really only have two other kirbies around in Popstar right now, and it’s such a rare species… So how can I do it? That’s when I found this machine…’”
“Wait…” Anny said spontaneously, as she heard what Marx was saying and started to automatically analyze it.
Marx took a deep breath, smiled, and continued quoting himself, “‘It is a cloning machine! I will clone you and make my own army of Kirbys, not of kirbies, Kirby!’”
“WHAT?!” Anny screamed, in utter shock.
Marx chuckled. “Yes, that was exactly Kirby’s and Simis’ reaction!”
Anny still couldn’t believe it. “Are you crazy?! Clone Kirby?!”
Marx laughed out loud. “Yeah, I am crazy! And you asked like Simis asked me… while Kirby stood quiet trying to process what was going on.”
“But… Wait…” Anny started to think slowly, as she analyzed the full story so far.
“But moving on!” Marx exclaimed, anxious to continue. “Simis didn’t seem like he liked my idea again, but he moved on and accepted it quite fast for some reason. But as soon as he did, Kirby spoke up, saying he didn’t want to be cloned. He tried to break the glass tube he was in out of desperation, but it was very sturdy. I laughed while I watched him hopelessly try to escape, and I just said I would turn on the machine… Which I went to do.”
Anny continued thinking, “If this story has to do with me… then…”
Immersed on his story, Marx simply continued, “I got near the machine and saw its buttons. It had a place to input numbers, with an X symbol next to it… which I interpreted as how many clones you wanted to make, something like ‘number times Kirby’. I asked Simis to input 20, which he argued against, saying it was better to just start with one first to see if it would work, but I disagreed: I wanted many from the start. I insisted on 20, and he eventually gave in and inputted 20…” Marx smiled. “20 times Kirby!”
“TWENTY?!” Anny thought, shocked.
“With that done, he went to press the button, but I,” Marx stopped for some seconds, trying to remember, “err, I don’t remember exactly what I was going to do, but I went in Simis’s direction and accidentally bumped into the machine, which spooked him. And during all this the top part of the machine started to glow, and when I realized some sort of rainbow beam was emitted from it, and… so many kirbies popped into existence right in front of us.”
“…Twenty?” Anny guessed.
Marx shrugged. “I wasn’t caring about the number at the time because… all kirbies were transparent.”
“WHAT?” Anny was surprised, and very confused. “How is that…”
Seeing her confusion, Marx said, “Well, for this one, a picture really helps.”
Marx turned back, grabbed a picture, and showed it to Anny. It pictured exactly what Marx had mentioned: many transparent kirbies, on a pile. Specifically, their bodies were translucent, and completely lacked color. However, close to the pile but ultimately separated from it, there was a non-transparent kirby, which immediately caught Anny’s attention.
Pointing at the kirby in the picture, Anny said, “Wait, but this one is white… and they look just lik—”
“Well yeah,” Marx interrupted her, “one wasn’t transparent, he was white with gray feet. I wasn’t sure if that was related back then, but right after the cloning process ended, a Tac ran from somewhere and tripped straight on that kirby before he completely ran away and disappeared.”
“How random,” Anny commented.
“It was!” Marx agreed. “Anyway, we three were in shock, after all we were expecting perfect clones of Kirby, not transparent kirbies! I in particular started to complain, and Simis tried to talk to me, but I was busy trying to see if the machine could be started again, but it didn’t seem to work. That was when we noticed the white kirby was starting to wake up. We both noticed it, and the white kirby asked who we were, and who they were. And the—”
Anny interrupted Marx, curious, “Okay, I just need to ask… is this kirby Panee?”
“NO SPOILERS!” Marx angrily replied. “…You will find out soon enough.”
Anny was disappointed with the answer, but had to accept it. “…Hmph, fine. But I am almost out of patience…”
“ANYWAY,” Marx went back to his story, “I quickly explained to said kirby that they were a clone of Kirby, and that they looked like the only useful one out of the ones created. They of course were in shock, and got even more confused. And before we could talk even more, the other clones, the transparent ones, started to wake up, and asked the same questions as the white one…” Marx remembered how disappointed he felt back then, and reflected in his speech, “It was a mess, so much talking.”
As she heard what Marx was saying, Anny put her hand on her head. “Wait… Why… Why does this sound familiar?!” she thought. “What… What is going on?!”
Not noticing her reaction, Marx continued, “Out of patience, I screamed to tell them to shut up. They all stopped in fear. I told them all what I said to the white one earlier—”
“‘You are all clones of Kirby! Somehow…’”
“Yes, I said that exactly— Huh?”
Marx looked at Anny, confused about what she had just said, but then he realized what had happened. Anny’s face was even paler than usual: she was frozen in utter confusion. Her eyes were wide open and she was barely blinking.
Guessing what had happened, Marx said, “Anny, did you…”
“I… I remember. I was there. I was a transparent kirby.” She stopped for three seconds to continue processing all that new information and then shouted, “WHAT?!”
20 Times Kirby! 