Chapter Text
It was another day in the relatively sleepy-paced Cappy Town, and so long as King Dedede didn’t order another monster, it would hopefully stay that way.
Finally having some spare time on her hands, Tiff went with Professor Curio to explore a newly discovered cave outside of town in the field area near Kirby’s house. Much to Tiff’s surprise, her little brother, Tuff, wanted to come along too, Kirby tagging along with him. He claimed it was to see if he could find any cool stuff in the cave when, in reality, his other friends were too busy to come out and play.
From the outside, the cave looked similar to the others discovered in Dreamland, but once they ventured inside, nobody could shake the feeling that something was off.
The walls were strangely soft, not necessarily smooth, but not as craggy as most caves tended to be.
“Is it just me, or does this place seem…artificial?” Tiff asked, noticing that the grooves in the cave had a star-like pattern.
‘Come to think of it, the outside is mostly brown with some grass, almost like a hollowed-out hill. But here…it’s like an off-white wall with grooves that have a yellow tint. Strange,’ Tiff thought to herself as they ventured deeper.
Before anyone could acknowledge her statement, the end of the cave began to produce a small gleam of light. The light was more surprising than intolerable since the entire trek inside was always at a slight downward angle with no holes to let sunlight in.
Upon closer inspection, the light was two stars, one stationary white star and a yellow star spinning moderately. The thing under the stars looked almost like an open room with no discernible door. The ‘room’ was pitch black, making it impossible to see what could be on the other side.
“What is this thing?” Her brother, Tuff, asked while unconsciously reaching forward to touch it.
“TUFF, NO!” Tiff yelled, jerking her brother's hand away from the strange object. “We can’t touch this thing! What if it’s dangerous?”
“But it’s not doing anything,” Tuff whined, but complied. Arguing with his sister has never been successful for him.
Tuff may have had a point, but with the recent fiasco with a seemingly harmless toy dog that Kirby had taken care of that turned out to be a Nightmare Enterprises product, she couldn’t be too sure.
However, that left them at an impasse.
Kirby couldn’t suck up the strange thing; he gave up after two attempts, and Professor Curio wasn’t the most equipped to handle something that could hurt them. The only good thing in their favor was that it was, for the moment, passive and wasn’t doing anything worthy of concern beyond existing for an unknown reason.
With few options, Tiff offered the only suggestion that was almost always considered reasonable.
“Maybe Meta Knight will know something.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Meta Knight said as he approached the thing; Sword and Blade stood by in case anything went south.
‘Well…So much for that idea.’ Tiff thought to herself.
Despite his hesitation, Meta Knight went closer to the thing to inspect it more thoroughly. The two stars, particularly the spinning one, looked strikingly similar to Kirby’s Warp Star. The black part underneath it had a soft pull emitting, noticeable up close, but not threatening enough that it could suck you in if you didn’t want it to.
“The slight pull that I feel would likely make this some sort of portal. As for where it leads to…I can’t say for certain.”
There was a long silence as the obvious solution to the implied question was, ‘Go in and find out.’ But no one wanted to be the one to suggest that out of fear, the newly dubbed portal would suddenly become dangerous.
Meta Knight, however, was nothing if not resourceful. Wanting to settle both his own and the other’s present curiosities, he approached the professor with a simple question.
“Professor, did you bring any rope by chance?”
After convincing Curio to tie the rope end that wasn’t tied around Meta Knight’s waist at one of the surprisingly thick and sturdy stalagmites that looked eerily like a destroyed pillar and instructing the kids, Sword and Blade Knight, and Kirby to pull him back if he tugged on the rope a few times, he carefully stepped through the portal.
He wasn’t sure what he expected on the other side, but it certainly wasn’t the familiar interior of King Dedede’s castle.
At first, Meta Knight thought this might have been a convoluted scheme that King Dedede accomplished with something from Nightmare Enterprises. However, upon closer inspection, the castle was quiet. Like, ‘there’s no one here but me’ kind of quiet. With Meta Knight being accustomed to the innumerable footsteps of Waddle Dee servants, at the very least, it made the place seem almost eerie. The next thing he noticed was the doorways, 30 in total. Some were blocked with stone walls where an opening would have been. He noticed in one of the windows that the outside was a sea of black, blue, and purple, with swirls of white dots that were exactly like those in space.
‘This can’t possibly be space, right?’ Meta Knight mused, considering he wasn’t floating away or running out of oxygen.
Since he didn’t have anyone around to confirm or deny his suspicion, he decided to put the question at the back of his mind and explore.
He walked into one of the open rooms to see if anything was suspicious. What he saw was a very familiar hat that Kirby had when he was-
“Fire Kirby.” Meta Knight finished his thought in disbelief.
‘If this room only has the Fire Kirby hat, does that mean the next room will have a different ability hat he’s worn?’ Meta Knight theorized.
Wanting to test his theory, he immediately left the room, dashed into the one next to it, and was instantly proven correct with the sight of the Stone Kirby hat.
The other rooms also held copy abilities that Kirby had used throughout his time in Cappy Town. Once he had left the last available rooms, he concluded that the blocked-off rooms were abilities Kirby had yet to unlock.
He would have loved to have seen if he could break down the walls himself, but the rope was getting too taut, and Meta Knight couldn’t risk the others on the other side thinking he was in danger.
Meta Knight silently hoped that the portal would still be there when night fell so he could explore this impossible place more freely.
When he returned to the portal, he didn’t expect to be greeted by a pink-haired woman in a well-tailored business suit, face buried in a strange rectangular device, entering from a building just outside the castle look-a-like that looked like a heart being balanced by a white porcelain floor and floating stairs leading towards the building like a branching path.
‘Was that always there?!’ Meta Knight scolded himself for failing to notice that.
The pink-haired lady stopped short of her stride ( ‘Was she floating?’ ) when she noticed the rope coming out from the portal.
Curious, she went to pick it up.
‘NO!’ Meta Knight inwardly panicked, his eyes white. Preemptively, he took out his sword to defend against the mysterious woman, prompting her to turn towards him.
Her reaction to Meta Knight having a sword at the ready wasn’t what he expected.
Her initial surprise melted into an almost exasperated expression. “Honestly, Meta Knight, I thought we were past this!” She groaned, holding her head as if to massage away an oncoming headache.
Not expecting her to address him with such casual familiarity when he was sure they had never spoken before, he asked, bewildered, eyes green, “I’m sorry, miss, but…Do I know you?”
It was her turn to look bewildered.
Meta Knight wasn’t entirely sure what made her rethink her stance, but she was quick to recover, “No…No, it would seem you don’t. My sincerest apologies, though I think it’s safe to say I know of you.” She concluded, confusing him further.
“Oh, how so?” Meta Knight countered, eyes changing back to yellow.
He could’ve sworn he heard her mumble, ‘Interesting.’ at the action, but tensed up when she began circling him. He wasn’t proud to admit that he flinched when she tugged at his cape and hummed in contemplation.
“Pardon me, miss, but what are you doing?!” Meta Knight growled, eyes turning red, forcefully pulling his cape back.
“Looking for differences. And I’d say I think I found enough to differentiate you from the knights I do know. Unless your cape can turn into wings, but I suppose the-”
“Wait, wings?!” Meta Knight interrupted in complete shock, eyes turning white.
Instead of answering him, the woman merely offered her hand for him to shake. “Never mind that. My name is Susanna Patrya Haltmann. President and CEO of Haltmann Works Company and member of the Star Allies.”
‘Star Allies…I wonder if it’s anything like the Star Warriors,’ Meta Knight mused to himself, accepting Susanna’s handshake. “Uh…It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Haltmann.”
“So formal. Susie’s fine. Now, this next question may seem strange depending on your answer, but I assure you, it’s necessary.” She prefaced, giving him a moment to collect himself before dropping the question on him.
“Do you have a Kirby?”