Kirby awoke when he felt his head (well, I guess just him, Kirby is all head) bump against something hard. He looked around and saw Tiff staring at him. Finally, she spoke.
"Hey, Kirby. You're finally awake."
Kirby stood up, wondering what what going on.
"So, we were trying to get flowers from Whispy Woods, right? I guess we walked right into that ambush, like that guy over there."
She pointed at a skeleton. Kirby gasped.
"No, behind that Halloween decoration."
Behind it was a man with a blue hat. Kirby calmed down.
"As I was saying, we're in this together, like a brother and sister! Oh, wait. I have a brother already..."
A thumping noise came from above, and they heard a somewhat squeaky voice shout.
"Quiet in there!" It yelled, "I like that game as much as the next dee, but memorizing the opening is a bit much!"
Tiff shouted back, "It was worth it for this moment!"
"We're here! Stop the cart!" It announced.
The cart stopped and opened, allowing Kirby and Tiff to walk out and see that they were in Waddle Dee Town Square, on a public stage. A crowd was forming, which worried Tiff, but not Kirby. Kirby actually tried to run off the stage but was stopped by a spear almost falling on him. "Stay here." The voices origin was now visible.
It was an orange ball with a pair of yellow feet, a beige pattern on its face, the same nubs as Kirby, and a blue bandana with a yellow peace sign on it. It seemed to be the source of the voice, but it had no mouth.
A ketchup-colored ball with a giant eye came up to it. "Hey, Dan! The king is coming to see this personally."
"Oh, wow!" The ball, apparently named "Dan" got up and waved excitedly. "Maybe now, we'll be able to join the royal guard! I'll be the youngest member, but I'll be the one who brought poachers from Whispy Woods!"
"Hey, we weren't poaching, we were trespassing!" Tiff said, "If you're gonna get us arrested, at least get the crime right!"
Dan jumped down from the cart, unfazed by the intimidation tactics Tiff was trying to do. He turned toward Kirby. "How old are you? I need to know how much trouble I can legally put you in."
Kirby didn't understand the question, but in case you were wondering, he's a newborn at this time.
Kirby just said "Poyo!"
Dan looked disappointed, and walked away. He could see that Kirby was younger than Tiff, and did he know how old Tiff was, among other things...
She was always getting into trouble. Questioning the king's authority, sneaking around, getting into trouble, and just thinking that she's better than everyone else. He wanted to arrest her, but she was 12 years old, 2 years younger than his own age, so she couldn't be punished that bad. It infuriated him.
Dan looked at Kirby, he was very confused. He looked at him weirdly and asked, "Who the wawa are you?"
Kirby responded cheerfully. "Kirby!"
The bandana-wearing waddle dee continued, "Well, Kirby , we have a rule about being in the forest. And do you know what we do with rule-breakers?"
Tiff reassured him, "Don't worry, Kirby. He can't punish you." She turned to Dan. "Just like you can't punish me. Isn't that right, Dan?"
The waddle dee seethed with rage as he heard Dedede's car approaching. He gave her the most smug face he could (because no mouth) and walked to the side of them, still barring Kirby's exit. As the king stepped up to the platform, the sky ominously got darker.
Dedede looked over the crowd, seemingly looking for something. After about ten seconds, he just shrugged it off. He looked at Tiff and Kirby, more at Kirby and boomed, "Who brought these two here?"
At this, Dan stepped up and waved his arms. "It was my team, sir!" He posed stylishly, with the rest of his team jumping in.
"I'm Bandana Waddle Dee, or Dan for short."
"I'm Waddle Doo, and my BEAM ATTACK has no limit!"
"I'm Blade Knight, and I got a new voice actor!"
"I'm Sailor Waddle Dee, and I was driving!"
The gathered in their flashy positions, with Dan in front. "And we're- Uh...uhm...hmmm..." He got in a thinking position. "Hey, did we ever come up with a team name?"
They seemed to shake their heads in answer.
"It doesn't matter what your team name is, Bandana Dee! Did you guys bring them in?" The king shouted. Dan contemplated on the nickname Bandana Dee and quickly decided he liked it. He proudly responded, "Yes, your majesty. It was us. They were trespassing in Whispy Woods."
Tiff decided to intervene, "Actually, I was trespassing, Kirby here is an alien that crash landed here."
Murmurs spread across the crowd, "An Alien?" "How could this be?" "Why does it have a sword?"
Dedede and Escargoon walked up to Kirby. They both gasped when they recognized him as the one from the prophecy. Dedede held up his hand to silence the noise behind him. He pointed at Bandana Dee. "You guys, promoted." The team seemed ecstatic. He pointed at Tiff. "You, 24 hours of communitay service." He pointed at Kirby. "You..."
Suddenly a very loud bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the sky. Kirby looked up and saw a black orb with a single red eye staring at him. He jumped up and down, pointing at it. Dedede was confused by this until he looked back and saw the dark matter. Escargoon looked back and saw it, too. As more and more people looked, the sky started to drizzle more and more. Soon enough, the whole crowd was looking at the piece of dark matter in the sky.
The black orb rushed down to the crowd, searching for a good host. Everyone seemed too physically weak to fight Kirby. It flew up toward the stage, causing everyone in the crowd to cautiously back away.
It looked over the candidates. Dedede and Escargoon? Off limits. Tiff? Kirby held his sword out, ready to protect her. Bandana Dee's team? They all seemed ready to strike at it if it got too close. It sensed another presence in the cart. It would do nicely.
The dark matter flew into the cart, surprising everyone. Sailor Waddle Dee spoke up. "Uh, guys? Didn't we have another prisoner?" They did, and that became apparent when the blue-hatted man flew out of the cart.
"Oh, hey!" Tiff casually commented, "Isn't that the other guy you arrested?"
Bandana Dee gulped. "Y-Yeah..."
"His name is Poppy Jr." Sailor Waddle Dee added.
Poppy, being true to his name, pulled out a bomb and threw it at the crowd. Waddle Doo shot the bomb, blowing it up in midair. Sailor Waddle Dee addressed the crowd. "Come on, guys! Get out of here! We got this!" At this, most ran away. Even Tiff made it halfway down the steps before realizing Kirby didn't move.
"Kirby, let's get out of here!" She shouted at him.
Kirby looked at his sword, then at the levitating Poppy. He thought about what might happen if this continued to go on. He pictured the town in ruins, the possessed one floating over the bodies of everyone in this community.
A loud noise snapped him out of his thought. Another bomb went off, this time injuring Waddle Doo and Blade Knight. Bandana Dee also looked hurt, but not as bad as the other two did. They seemed like such a good team, with a leader like that waddle dee.
"Kirby!" Tiff shouted again.
Kirby looked back at her, a flash of determination in his eyes.
"You want to fight?" She asked.
Kirby nodded.
"Well, go get 'em, pink stranger." She said, backing away before turning around in a run.
Kirby heard a third explosion behind him, along with a few screams. He looked back and saw the whole team on the ground. Bandana Dee was still stirring, trying to get up, but kept failing. Poppy lowered to the ground and pulled out another bomb. Kirby broke out into a run to stop it.
He ran in front of the team, stabbing the bomb. The explosion hurt Kirby, but he was durable enough to stand after it. Poppy pulled out yet another bomb and threw it, this time at Kirby.
Kirby slashed the bomb, cutting it in half and dealing more damage than the last one. Kirby actually slid back a bit from the impact, but he still ran forward. Poppy, becoming infuriated, threw out two more bombs in an effort to block Kirby's path. Kirby jumped over them, impressing Bandana Dee, who was watching the battle.
Kirby made it to Poppy, and right when he was about to slash, Poppy pulled out another bomb.
The ensuing explosion launched Kirby against the wall of a building on the other side of the square. Poppy approached Kirby menacingly. Kirby reached for his sword, but it wasn't there. He looked in a puddle to see that he had lost his ability. Kirby tried to think of what to do as the bomb man came closer.
Kirby was panicking, looking around to see what he could do to save himself. He looked behind Poppy and saw Bandana Dee's team. Bandana Dee, struggling to support himself on his spear. Waddle Doo, still on the ground. Blade Knight...
Suddenly, Kirby flashed back to when he first became Sword Kirby and got an idea. He started gasping for air.
"What's wrong, pinkie?" Poppy taunted. "Gonna cry?"
Kirby took deeper and deeper breaths.
Poppy readied one last bomb...
Kirby took one big breath and started to suck Poppy toward him. Poppy, dropping his bomb, grabbed the ground to avoid getting sucked in. Kirby pulled the bomb in his mouth and swallowed.
Bandana Dee looked in wonder when he saw Kirby in a party hat, also known as Bomb Kirby. "When did he get an outfit change?" He sarcastically asked himself.
Poppy seemed unconcerned until Kirby pulled a bomb out of seemingly nowhere. Kirby chucked the bomb at him, and he got knocked back into a tree. The dark matter left Poppy's body at this impact, and started to fly away.
Kirby didn't know exactly how he knew what to do, but he channeled his energy into a heart, and threw it at the dark matter. Upon collision with the heart, the dark matter turned to dust, like a young man in red when a titan snapped. Kirby looked to the sky in glee when the storm stopped.
Everyone ran back to the town square upon seeing the dark matter fade away. Tiff ran right up to Kirby. "Did you do it?" She asked, and Kirby responded with a happy poyo. "Hey, what's with the new look?"
"He seems to copy what he eats." Bandana Dee said, limping toward her.
Sailor Waddle Dee ran over to check on him. "What happened, sir?" She asked in a panic.
Bandana Dee responded, "He had us pretty beat, in fact the others need medical attention. But then this 'Kirby' saved us by fighting all on his own." He walked over to Kirby. "Thank you, Kirby. I don't know what I would've done without you. If you wanna join my squad, well..." He handed Kirby a card. "Call this number."
Kirby tried to eat the card, but Tiff took it from him. "Maybe I should hold onto this."
Kirby noticed something was wrong. Something that no one else seemed to notice...
Where was Dedede?
=====
Back at the castle, Dedede was readying the troops. Escargoon ran in during warm-ups. "Sire, you gotta see this!"
Dedede looked at the phone and saw it was an online post with username XXX_TuffGuy_XXX.
My sister found this little guy. He saved the town lol
The king looked confused about this. "Wait, he saved the town?"
Escargoon answered, "Looks like it, Sire."
"Huh, I thought he was the dark power mentioned in that prophecy."
"Well, I guess we're all wrong sometimes."
"Hmm..."
=====
Back in the town, everyone was celebrating Kirby's victory. Even Poppy Jr. got up to thank him. Kirby was extremely flattered at the complements and adulations, but something was on his mind. What would he do now?
Later that night, Tiff walked Kirby to her house. As Tiff opened the door, Kirby spotted some other people. They looked similar to Tiff, so Kirby assumed they were related. Tiff was the first to speak. "Kirby, this is my family."
She pointed at a little boy, seemingly around 8 years old. "That's my brother, Tuff."
Tiff and Tuff? Kirby wondered how creative their parents were with names.
She pointed at said parents. "This is Sir Ebrum and Lady Like. AKA, my mom and dad. Not in that order."
Tuff ran up to Kirby, "No way, is this the pink puffball? Hey, do that bomb move again."
Lady Like shouted, "Not in the doorway!"
Tiff looked at Kirby, "Hey, is there a way you can lose that power? It seems to make my family nervous..."
Kirby nodded and threw his hat off, they watched in wonder as it transformed into a black and gray star. Kirby responded with a "Poyo," as he does with all things.
Sir Ebrum spoke up, "Tiff, we can't keep him."
Tiff's expression faltered a bit. "What do you mean?"
Sir Ebrum walked up to her slowly, worried about his daughter getting too mad. "We don't know how he works, dear. Besides, someone else offered to take him in."
Tiff got a bit scared, "You mean that waddle dee?"
"No, someone with more authority."
As he says this, King Dedede walked out of the kitchen. "Mmm! Those cookies were great!" He looked over at Kirby and Tiff. "Oh, don't ya worry one bit. Kirbeh will be nice and comfy in the castle. We could use the protection in case of more monsters. On top of that, ya can visit him when you want. Deal?"
Tiff looked at Kirby, a bit sad, but still OK with this. "Don't worry, Kirby. The king may not be the sharpest tool in the shed." She got close and whispered. "He's a spoon someone left in there." She went back to her previous volume. "But the king is pretty trustworthy, and he'll keep you safe and happy."
King Dedede walked out the door, revealing his car with Escargoon driving. "Alrighty, Kirbeh. Let's go!"
Kirby, a bit melancholy, walked out the door and into the car. He waved goodbye to Tiff and her family, they seemed like nice people.
=====
You brought him to the castle?!
Zero was severely upset about what Dedede did.
"Well, least I came here alone. Mind 'splainin why Kirbeh saved the town? I thought you said he was bad."
He is intelligent and crafty. I gathered that from the fight. He is tricking everyone. You must be wiser, king.
"Yeah, but in the castle, I kept a close peepin' on him. He don't seem too bright."
It is what he wants you to think. I saw him with dark matter eyes. He knows how to fight.
"I mean, we could maybe convince him to be mah friend for realsies!"
He wants nothing but your reign to end, king. Everything else is a side quest to him.
Dedede was doubtful. Zero made an amulet that floated down to him.
"Ey, what's this thang?"
With this you can communicate with me at any time. You just need to put it on your crown.
"Okay, Zero. But ya better know what your doin'"
Dedede walked up the stairs.
Oh, I do, king...
I do...