Nowhere To Go But Up

The Grand Act

Sailor dee recovered from the sudden attack, and clambered to get himself out of the box. He didn't see anyone nearby. He ran back to the control room and heard some louder voices down the hall. He was going to investigate inside the control room, since someone had ambushed him from inside, but they wouldn't still be there. Well, not "someone". It had to be Magolor. He ran down the hall, there was the elevator on the left that seemed to be in use, and the noise was coming from the door on the right. He opened it and saw the entire rest of the crew digging through boxes, but no Magolor.

"Hey! What are you all doing here? We don't need this many people searching one room!"

Meta Knight responded. "You called everyone up here yourself, what do you mean?"

"No I didn't! I haven't touched the walkie talkie this entire time! All I did was hide that box you put outside and then I-"

"What box?"

Sailor dee felt some kind of realization creeping up on him, but for the time being, all he could do was continue the discussion. "The big one with the note from you on it that said to hide it in the control room. Did someone else put it there?"

"I never wrote a note like that."

Suddenly, Sailor dee got hit by the realization of exactly what had happened. "He escaped... we failed."

"How do you know? What happened?"

Sailor dee launched into the story. "I saw a big box with a note on it that looked like it was written by you. I hid the box in the control room, like the note said, then stood outside so I could see the halls better. Before I knew it, the box was on top of me and I was being thrown down a hallway! Magolor had to have set all that up, and I fell for it!"

Meta Knight immediately understood who had called them all on the walkie-talkie. "That motherfucker could be anywhere by now... let's go."

Meta Knight, King Dedede, and about half the crew got off the Halberd and Meta Knight started leading them in the direction of where the Lor Starcutter was when it landed. Not only was it still there, but it was lit up rather invitingly. It was as if Magolor himself was before them, signs pointing to him from every direction.

"That's a trap, right? I can't be the only one who thinks so." King Dedede's concerns were well founded. While this was clearly something to pay attention to, the footsteps behind them that were rapidly getting louder seemed just a little bit more pressing.

"Hey Dedede, where were you? I thought you were just gonna be gone for a few minutes!" The voice was from Kirby, and both he and Bandee were running to the small crowd that had gathered. They both stopped short when they saw what everyone was looking at. "Isn't that the..."

"So I suppose I may have some explaining to do." Kirby was cut off by Bandee.

Exasperated all over again, Dedede turned to them. "So you did know? And you didn't tell me? WHY?"

"I would have liked to know too! I felt bad for him after the crown thing." Kirby, who finally had some idea what was happening around him, chose to direct his slight frustration toward Bandee.

"Well, I did know, but I didn't think I needed to tell any of you because I wasn't sure if I believed him, and didn't want to drag you all into something that was nothing..."

"'Wasn't sure if I believed-' BANDANA, DID HE APPROACH YOU HIMSELF, TELL YOU HE WAS ALIVE, AND YOU IGNORED HIM???"

"Well... yes?"

"WHEN? HOW? WHAT MADE YOU THINK IT WAS NOTHING?"

"It was... when I woke up injured in the woods, there was a note from him on the inside of one of my bandages."