Heroes of Dreamland, Book 1: Kirby and the Monstrous Lightning (OLD)

World 1 Level 2- Heroes Meet

She suddenly heard a clang, followed by a grunt of frustration from Meta Knight. Cautiously opening one eye, she was astonished to see that she had somehow parried his strike and was, for the moment, holding him off.

"Beginner's luck," he harrumphed, launching another attack at her.

She narrowed her eyes in determination and blocked it, then sent an attack towards him.

"You wish," she murmured, as he gazed at her in wonder.

"This cannot be," he mused, his eyes a deep green of confusion and surprise. He swung around her and tried to attack from the back, but she somehow blocked him again. She seemed to smile, gaining confidence.

"Attacking from the back? That's low, even for you, Sir Knight," she chuckled as she swung her sword in an attempt to knock Galaxia out of his hand. She was getting into this.

"Ah, I see you know me. Now it is my turn. Both to ask a question, and to attack," he replied as he swung towards her face. She parried again. "Who are you? And who do you work for? And how do you do this, when you are just a simple little Waddle Dee?" he questioned in between attacks.

"Hey, I only asked one question, which you didn't even answer," she humphed. "And there's no need to insult me." Finally succeeding in knocking his sword out of his hand, she pointed her sword at his mask.

"Please, do not remove my mask," he almost whispered. "I do not deserve that level of disgrace."

Muttering "Weirdo," she rolled her eyes and lowered her sword. "Can we say that I've won?"

"Of course. I have been bested. By a Waddle Dee, no less," he murmured in shame.

She sat down on the floor and kicked out the Copy Ability, leaving the sword laying on the ground next to her again. "Again with the insults? Waddle Dee are pretty strong creatures, you know. And we're not simple. We can communicate with each other telepathically. It's sort of like we're all one big mind, working together."

"Is that so?" he mumbled, pondering this new piece of information as he got up and dusted himself off.

Munching on an apple he had left on a table, figuring she could call it her prize if he objected, she paused between bites and continued. "And to answer your questions, my name is, um... well, I don't really have one. Other than Stupid, Moron, Pathetic, Simpleton, Squirt, etc., etc. Speaking of which, I work for King DeDeDe, like any other Waddle Dee. And to answer your final question, I have no idea how I've been doing all this."

Meta Knight looked at her, his eyes glowing their normal yellow. "So you do not know?" he asked. Then, his eyes suddenly flashed red. "You are one of the king's monsters, are you not? You have taken over this innocent Waddle Dee."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" she exclaimed, waving her hands around urgently. "No, I'm just a regular Waddle Dee, or I was, anyway. I'm still one, I just seem to be able to talk. And other stuff." Then with a murmur of sad surprise, she added, "And I can't hear the other Waddle Dee anymore. I'm alone. It's so... quiet." She sighed. "I can feel them still, but I can't hear them."

He closed his eyes in deep thought. "Has anything out of the ordinary, unusual, happened to you recently?"

Harrumphing, forgetting about this newly discovered loneliness for the moment, she replied, "Unusual? No. Cruel and unusual, such as being forced to work outside, at night, in a horrible storm, with water, which is great at conducting electricity; yes." Then she thought for a second. "Well, I guess there was something weird. While I was working on laundry in said miserable conditions, there was a comet. It was electrified somehow, I think. And I was watching it, thinking it was ever so amazing, when it hit me. And that's all I can remember, before Kirby here shocked me back to consciousness with Spark and I started running away."

The two looked over at Kirby, who was messing around with a spear. Trying to pull off a move without using a Copy Ability, he swung around and fell over, breaking a precious-looking vase in the process. Looking up and seeing the two glaring at him, each for a different reason, he giggled apologetically and put down the spear.

"So," Meta Knight mused as he turned back to her. "Was it the comet that did this to you, or Kirby?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. Then, as her face changed to a look of determination, she added, "What I do know is, now that I have this power, I'm gonna go boss around DeDeDe and Slug Boy. I'm gonna make them pay for what they've done to us Waddle Dee."

Meta Knight glared at her, his eyes red again, now with a cloud of irritation over his head. "I disagree with the king's treatment of your kind-"

"People," she interrupted, indignantly.

"Fine then, people. But still, you have this amazing power, and you are going to use it for harm? Is that really what a peaceful Waddle Dee would want to do? Although you are different from the others, do you not care even a mite what they would think?"

She sighed and relaxed. "I guess you're right. But the way they order us around, like we're their slaves... of course, all of the others are perfectly happy with our lives. Serving is what they live for. But me... I want to know and understand things. I don't want to be just a servant, I want to be something more than that."

His eyes changed to a sympathetic blue, the angry cloud disappearing. "I see. Maybe we will find something to explain all this in the library. Come!" he ordered, then, as if remembering something, he tossed her back the sword she had used a moment earlier. "Arm yourself. 'Slug Boy,' as you called him, will be less likely to interfere with us if you have a sword." He gave a soft laugh, shaking his head. "He would probably be so dumbfounded to see an armed, determined Waddle Dee that he would just stare at you in that ignorant, arrogant way of his."

"All right, Sir Knight," she nodded, inhaling the sword. "You're probably right. You seem to tend to be."

He nodded, half-listening. "What shall I call you?" he inquired, half to her and half to himself, as they walked quickly out of the training room and toward the library.

"Kirby, Kirby, poyo!" Kirby sang happily as he waddled past, on his way to the kitchen. As soon as he had heard there were going to be boring, dusty old books involved, he had lost interest in this occasion.

"Kirby..." Meta Knight murmured almost silently, then gasped. Turning around suddenly and pointing at her, he shouted in amazement, "You! You are the Kirby Dee!"

She furrowed her brow in confusion. "Kirby Dee? Well, that name makes sense, I guess, but what does that mean? Why are you so amazed?"

"Come, I forget how it all goes. But it has something to do with the storm, and now it is even more urgent to get to the library!" Nervously, he broke out in a run that she could barely keep up with.

"You know, this isn't the way to the library," she called ahead to him, huffing and puffing. "I should know, I spend at least a tenth of my time dusting never-touched books."

He chuckled. "Not the king's library, little one. My library."