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

World 2 Level 1- An Unfortunate Prank

"Wh-what's there?" she stammered. "Is that you, Meta Knight? Is this a test?" She gulped and gripped the sword tighter.

Something jumped, cackling, out of a tree. "Is that you, Meta Knight?" it repeated snidely, then started cackling again, now so hard it could hardly breathe.

"What are you?" she asked anxiously.

It stepped out of a shadow. "Ooooh, is the weird little Waddle scared?" a little red bird taunted.

She relaxed. "Oh. You're just a Bronto Burt."

"Just a Bronto Burt? I oughta have my friends come after you, Waddle Weird," it sneered, then began flying toward her, poised to attack. She held her sword up, ready to defend herself, but someone wearing a blue bandana hopped out in front of her. Waving a spear around, it scared the Bronto Burt off.

"Hey, hey, buddy. I wasn't really gonna hurt your friend here," the annoying bird muttered as it flew away.

Her rescuer turned toward her and gave a little bow. "Oh, Bandana Dee." She greeted him with the standard Waddle Dee blank stare, which he returned. "Thanks. I could've taken care of myself, but thanks." He tilted his head and closed his eyes, in the Waddle Dee way of smiling. "What are you doing out here? Patrolling?" He shook his head, then beckoned her to follow him. "What? Where do you want me to go?"

He rolled his eyes, then walked over to her and touched his forehead to hers. "What are you doing?" she questioned aloud in confusion.

"Can you hear me?" She suddenly heard in her head, just like before. Just like back when she used to be able to hear all the Waddle Dee.

She frowned and thought back, "Yeah, but how are we doing this?"

"Simple," he thought back. "We're both outcasts, so the only way we can be part of the one mind is if our minds are close together. We can both do this with any Waddle Dee."

"You're an outcast? I'm an outcast?!?" she panicked. "No, I can't be an outcast!"

"Calm down, it's not that bad," he comforted her. "I got kicked out for being too independent thinking, like you probably would have been eventually. But, since it didn't come to that, you got kicked out because you became like 'The Pink Devourer.'"

A look of deep sadness came over her face. "I'm an outcast. No wonder I can't hear them. No wonder they won't talk to me..."

"Yeah. I don't think you realize how close you were already, though."

"What do you mean? I was nowhere close to being kicked out," she huffed.

"Yeah, you were. Didn't you notice they weren't letting you help with the kids anymore?" he pointed out.

"Well, maybe that's true. But so what? A lot of the Waddle Dee never help with the kids."

"And you weren't allowed to cook anymore either."

She sighed. He was right. She knew she had somewhat known she was getting close, she had just been telling herself she wasn't. "Great. Thanks for making me depressed."

"Don't be. It's thanks to you I learned to think out of the box, not just be happy with the way things were."

"What?" she asked, confused.

He changed the subject abruptly. "The reason I came to find you is me and Kirby are going to have some fun with DeDeDe and Escargoon. You wanna join us?" he offered.

"Have fun with them how?" she inquired, somewhat suspiciously.

"You'll see. You in?"

She thought about it a second, then shrugged. "Sure."