Part 5
It was too early for Kirby to be awake, so Meta Knight lead Sailor Dee back to his room. When they arrived he told the Waddle Dee “make yourself at home. This will be your room from now on. Kirby will not awaken for a while. We shall relax until then.” He walked over to a bookshelf, took out a book and sat down on a chair and began to read. Sailor Dee walked around the room, looking for something to occupy himself with, when he found what appeared to be an old and tattered book. He gently opened it to find it was actually a log book. Meta Knight’s log book.
Sailor Dee walked over to Meta Knight, who didn’t appear to be too absorbed in the story, and showed him the log book. “Ah yes,” Meta Knight said looking at it “that took place along time ago, before I lived on Popstar. You may read it if you so desire, however I must warn you: some events written are not for the faint of heart.” Sailor Dee nodded, walked over and sat on Meta Knight’s bed and began to read.
A few hours later Meta Knight spoke up “Kirby will be awake by now. Come.” Sailor Dee quickly put the log book away and followed Meta Knight around the castle until they arrived at a staircase. They went up to a balcony that overlooked the courtyard where Tiff, Tuff and Kirby were playing what looked like soccer. Meta Knight watched over the three as they played and Sailor Dee also watched, silently wondering what to look out for.
After a while of playing they headed into the castle. Meta Knight also went back inside without a word to Sailor Dee, who followed anyway. As they headed down a hallway Meta Knight spoke again “you may have seen Kirby before; he frequently comes to the castle. I believe that he is the hope for the future of this planet…if he is ready when the time comes. Until then, we must keep an eye on him, not only for his protection, but to see how much he has learned.” They continued to walk in silence until they came across Tuff, Tuff and Kirby walking along another hallway. Meta Knight was about to follow them when a call from behind of “Meta Knight!” caught his attention. He turned to see Sword and Blade running down the hall towards him. “Sword, Blade, what is the trouble?” “Its Dedede,” Blade said. “He’s ordered another monster!” Sword said and began to head back down the hallway, followed by Blade, Meta Knight and Sailor Dee.
~Earlier~
Dedede stood infront of his vault and sighed. Escargoon slithered up to him as the king spoke “I don have a choice, do I, Escargoon?” Without waiting for an answer he continued “They is done made it so’s I have to pay dem afore I can oder anymore monsters!” “Sire, don’t worry. Why don’t you hack the system again?” “I’s already tried it, but they done updated their security.” “Let me see the bill,” Escargoon said taking the paper from Dedede, “why that’s not too bad.” Dedede only grumbled as he opened the safe and took out several bags of money, which he then tossed onto the teleporter. The salesman grinned onscreen as the bags of money made their way to Nightmare Enterprises. “Thanks a bunch, Big-D. You’re our favorite customer!” “You really mean dat?” “Course I do. In fact, since you’re such a valued customer, I’m going to let you have a monster for half-price! Any monster you want!” Dedede thought it over for a few minutes before answering “give me a monster what’ll obey my every command, can keep people in line and is tough enough to take down Kirby!” The salesman smiled before replying “we’ve got just the monster, and at half-price you can just afford him. I’ll send him right away.”
The teleporter began to spark and glow, when all the lights had subsided all that appeared on the platform was a green blob. Dedede and Escargoon blankly stared at it before the salesman said “this is our shape-shifting monster, Gooba. Go ahead, your majesty, and tell it something. You can tell it to transform into something, or name a chore you want done and this little fella will transform into whatever’s needed to get the job done.” Dedede looked at the salesman then to Gooba before approaching Gooba and saying “Gooba! I want you to transform into something that can keep da Waddle Dees in their place and destroy Kirby!” “And keep an eye on the others in the castle” Escargoon added. At first Gooba did nothing, then it began to ripple, change color and form a shape. After about half-a-minute Escargoon and Dedede were staring at a small reddish-brown fox. “Dats it?! A fox!” Dedede yelled before turning to the salesman “what you tryin to pull on me!” “Just give it an order, Triple-D. Or better yet, make it give you an example.” “How I suppose at do that?” “Just say Gooba, example.” Dedede turned back to Gooba and yelled “Gooba! Example!” The little fox looked at him for a moment before jumping off the platform with astounding speed. It quickly approached Dedede and stopped a few feet from him. Then its fur rippled and it began to grow and transform until Dedede finally stuttered “I-I member that monster!”, for infront of him now stood Wolfwrath.
Wolfwrath roared yet didn’t move from its spot. The salesman laughed before explaining “Gooba can transform itself into any monster we’ve ever had, only without the monster’s faults. In this case, Wolfwrath can’t be hurt by water. Also, it’ll be loyal to you. Now when it believes all its work has been accomplished” Wolfwrath began to shrink back into the small wolf “it’ll return to its fist form, in this case the baby wolf, leaving everyone guessing where the monster is.” Dedede picked up the fox and asked “is it gonna stay a wolf forever?” “Not at all, king. All you have to do is name a different command or chore and it’ll change to fit whatever’s best for it. Hope you enjoy.” With that, the salesman hung up. Dedede put the wolf back down and laughed before saying “Gooba! I want you to go run around da castle and anyone you see disobeying me n my orders I wan you to chase them outta here!” The little wolf nodded and ran out of the room.
Gooba ran down hallway after hallway noticing nothing in particular until it came into the courtyard where Sword and Blade were training. To Gooba it appeared that they were preparing to fight the king. It ran into the courtyard, changing as it ran, and Wolfwrath charged towards Sword and Blade, who noticed and jumped out of the way. Wolfwrath ran past and quickly changed back into the small fox as it ran into another part of the castle. Sword and Blade quickly got back up to notice the beast was gone. “We’ve got to tell Meta Knight!” Sword said. Blade nodded and they ran into the castle…
~Now~
Meta Knight and Sailor Dee followed Sword and Blade into the courtyard, but the place was empty. Sword walked over to where he and Blade had been practicing. “See?” he said, pointing to the grass, which had been padded down where Wolfwrath and landed. Meta Knight inspected the imprint and followed the wolf-sized paw prints as they grew smaller and smaller until they vanished on the edge of another castle door. “Interesting…” Meta Knight said looking at the imprints.
