(Note: This is a side story, and as such, is narrated in first person and is complementary to the main story.)
Indeed, as Marx shouted, the kirbies in front of us were transparent, I guess more specifically translucent. It’s basically if they lacked color completely somehow. Anyway, as Marx continued screaming about the situation, I finally noticed something: one of the kirbies was white, and not transparent. Not that it changed much, after all none were identical copies of me as one would expect, but I was wondering why only one was white if all others were transparent.
Anyway, even though I was in complete shock of having myself been cloned and seeing my own clones appear in front of my eyes, I had no time to waste, as I was still trapped inside that glass tube, and I overheard some talk of Marx trying to turn on the machine again. In short, I had to escape if I wanted to stop being cloned. Unfortunately, due to me having no Copy Ability and no way to copy any at the time, I was stuck indeed just throwing regular punches and kicks on the glass, in hopes to break it.
When I finally managed to crack the glass a bit more, I heard a sound.
“Uhh…”
It basically sounded like a murmur, but it sounded… different. As if it was a baby’s first words, but not that primitive. While I was super confused at first, it all made sense when I looked towards its source and realized the white kirby clone was moving: they were waking up.
Seeing that kirby start to get up, I simply froze. I… had no clue what to do, really. I mean, some clone of me that wasn’t also identical to me was waking up, and I had no idea what to expect from that clone. Were they going to act like me? Have my memories? What?
Funnily enough, soon after Marx and Simis also started to just stare at the clone, likely feeling the same as me, having no clue what to expect of them. The two got silent, and we three were just there, staring at the white kirby clone. Well, I guess Marx and Simis also occasionally whispered to each other, likely asking themselves what to do, but yeah, it was a weird scene.
After some moments of that scene, the white kirby looked at all of us and finally spoke up:
“Hello?”
Curiously, their voice sounded much clearer compared to the murmur previously. Also, their voice certainly wasn’t identical to mine, it was deeper. Anyway, despite their greeting, I still had no clue how to react, and it looked like Marx and Simis were the same, since we three continued there, in silence. That only lasted a couple seconds, however, since the white kirby quickly followed up:
“Who are you? Who am I? Where am I?”
And yeah, that made sense. We were all confused, sure, but hearing those questions, I put myself in the place of the white kirby, and yeah, they had to be way more confused than all of us combined. They had basically just been born, so I didn’t even know how much they understood of the world, if anything.
Marx and Simis realized their confusion, probably, since Marx went in their direction slowly to say something.
“Oh, hello there… huh…”
But he was at a loss of words. I think Marx had planned to clone me, but he hadn’t really thought of like what that meant. I mean… cloning me meant he was creating new life. He had probably realized that when he actually saw that kirby waking up.
Anyway, the white kirby asked before Marx could actually speak, “Do you know my name?”
And that was another thing that I realized, and Marx likely did as well: since these clones didn’t end up being perfect clones of me, they had basically their own identities… and it made sense for them to have names… Eventually.
Marx, hearing the question of the white kirby, said, “Name, well… you see…”
Indeed, Marx had no way to answer, after all that kirby had no name. So he simply didn’t finish that sentence.
After having watched Marx next to the white clone for a while, Simis approached him and started whispering to him. The two continued whispering to each other for a couple seconds. I guess they were chatting about what to tell that kirby or something like that.
…But that was cut short really soon after.
“Can you tell me what is going on?!”
The white kirby raised their voice, much to my surprise, as well as Marx’s and Simis’, who immediately looked at them. The clone seemed to have started to get really impatient. The two looked at them, and Marx closed his eyes, sighed, and then just started explaining:
“So, we are in Bubbly Clouds. My name is Marx,” he looked at Simis, “and this green dude is named Simis.” He looked at me. “And that pink guy inside the glass tube is Kirby.” He looked back to the white clone. “As for you… well, you don’t have a name. You were just created.”
As Marx started to explain the situation to that kirby, I figured that was a good time to continue trying to break the glass tube I was in. So, I started to punch it a couple more times, as I watched them outside continue talking.
“So, you created me…?” the white kirby said, very confused. “How? And what exactly am I?”
“Yes, I created you!” Marx said, proudly. “Hehehe…” Marx looked at the cloning machine. “See this machine? Well, it is a cloning machine! I cloned Kirby, this pink guy, to create you…” He looked at the white kirby again, and continued, “and those other clones behind you!”
The white kirby, hearing that, changed from their calm expression to a surprised one. They slowly looked backwards and finally noticed the pile of transparent kirbies behind them.
“Wha… What the?!” The white clone turned back to Marx, and asked, “But, but how are we clones?! Clones are supposed to be identical to the cloned one!!!”
Not really knowing what to answer, Marx started to say, “We are… still trying to figure out what happened exactly, because you are right—”
“Uuh…”
“Ehh…”
“Aah…”
Before Marx could continue, we heard some murmurs. And, surely enough, they gave me the same impression as the murmur from not much earlier: they sounded like babies’ first cries… kinda. Anyway, this could only mean one thing…
“Huh, Marx… Looks like the others are waking up,” Simis said, having the same conclusion as me.
And, indeed, the many transparent kirbies started to move and wake up, one by one.
20 Times Kirby! 