Chapter 12: Cometon

After organizing and repairing some parts of the Lor, the newly transformed Star Allies went to sleep in their respective rooms. It was an arduous task trying to lay in bed with their new forms (for some team members), either their bodies were too broad or they couldn’t adjust to having longer limbs. 

Even with all of those issues, the Pokémon fell asleep quickly, not being that bothered by their body differences. Even without the Star Rod, they managed to get a good night’s sleep, some members dreaming, some others having, unfortunately, nightmares, and the rest not having dreams at all. However, Elfilin had a different case of a dream…

The blue chinchilla woke up once again in the same foggy dreamscape that he sometimes enters while he sleeps. He took in his surroundings, taking in the white and misty horizons of his mindscape. Elfilin never wondered why this place was the way it was. He theorized a few times that it is that empty because a subconscious part of his mind wishes to be whole again with Elfilis, or because Elfilis feels alone and wants more company rather than his other half alone. 

He felt terrible for his other half, hoping that one day they would be able to be their own person rather than needing Elfilin to become themselves again. Hopefully soon. 

The psychic chinchilla sat up again and called out for their other half. “Elfilis!” His voice echoed throughout the white void, slowly getting quieter after each echo. Elfilin waited for a while, looking around to see if his older sibling had appeared yet. However, after some time, Elfilis didn’t appear. 

Elfilin tilted his head in confusion. “Elfilis?” He called out again, but just like the other time, the ultimate life form didn’t appear. ‘Where did they go?’ The chinchilla thought to himself, not receiving an answer. 

That was strange, Elfilin was sure that Elfilis lived in this whitespace, and since that was the case, why weren’t they appearing? He knew that they could hear him, so why weren’t they responding? Unless…

“Did they…? No, that’s impossible. They didn’t have a body anymore, so there was no way they could be gone like that, right?” Elfilin said to himself, looking around to see if he’d spot Elfilis anywhere. “So what happened…?”

Elfilin stopped looking around and sighed. He decided it wasn’t a good idea to think about situations like these where he would get no answers. So he decided to just lay on the puffy white ground of his headspace and fall into a dreamless slumber.

---

The Star Allies were up and running once the sun rose from behind the mountains on the horizon, showering the morning sky with an orange color as it adjusted to take in the bright blue skies. The group woke up with a grain of salt, still slightly perturbed by being in a completely different body. However, that didn’t deter them from doing their morning tasks completely. 

Magolor was the first one to wake up because of the built-in alarm set up in his room. Traversing the ship on this new body felt faster with his longer legs. He was slightly thankful for this change since walking felt like the same speed when he ran. Did that mean… he was slightly faster now? Well, whatever the case, at least people would stop calling him an egg. After all, would an egg have ears and hands?

Speaking of the new body, Magolor looked down to analyze it for a moment, he still retained his brown fur, his scarf, and when he looked at himself in the mirror, his yellow eyes, however, everything else felt alien to him. But that didn’t bother him, he at least retained all his magic (unlike last time), and not only that, he was with his ship! However, he needed to study this body because of the magic potential not only his body gives but the others as well. 

‘That’s for later though…’ Magolor thought as he reached the kitchen. ‘Right now, we have bigger issues that involve the Energy Spheres.’ The feline magician went to the gray counter and rested his arms on it, yawning because of the sleepiness slowly leaving his body. Beside his arms, an invisible trap door opened on the counter, producing a cup of coffee and some toast. “Thanks, Lor.” Magolor said as he took the food before the trap door closed. “Do you have enough for everyone, though?” A green light shone all over the room, making Magolor smile. “Good.”

Suddenly, the same trap door opened up again and a small robotic hand appeared while holding various sheets of paper. The mage tilted his head and took the papers. “What are these…?” He then looked at the documents and noticed that those were magic scans not only from him but from the other members of the Star Allies currently aboard the ship. “Oh… you took scans from everyone while we were asleep?” The room flashed green for a second as the feline smirked. “Efficient, aren’t ya? It’s what I like about you.”

Magolor then analyzed the results of the scan, starting with him first. The mage hummed in curiosity as he saw that on his file there were parts of not only darker magic than he had but also nature magic as well, combined with his other abilities. “So we did gain new tricks…” He muttered to himself as he continued to look at the other files. Susie and Marx had the same nature-based magic readings while Marx also had some… venomous magic readings, besides his chaotic abilities. Bandana Dee and Dedede had water-based magic while the penguin also had some steel ones as well. Ironically enough, Meta Knight had readings of a magic style that didn’t suit him at all, being one of fairy magic. Now that was comedy.

The feline mage then got to the last file, that being Elfilin. Before reading his file, Magolor didn’t expect anything different readings besides spatial magic and psychic magic since Elfilin was lucky enough to have his body stay the same. However, once the masked feline took a look at Elfilin’s file while taking a sip of his coffee, he almost choked on his drink once he saw what was in the paper. He didn’t know if it was the effects of that pain they felt before they transformed or if the chinchilla was hiding something but these readings were, definitely , not normal. It was just like his normal magic but doubled- no, ten times more powerful. It was like the same energy readings of a god. “W-what the-…”

“Something wrong, mage?”

Magolor turned his head around and saw Meta Knight on his new but almost identical body, cape folded around him as usual. Magolor sheepishly smiled as he cleared his throat. “Not at all, my good sir!” He then looked aside for a moment, thinking of a way to not bring up the topic of well… an entity almost as powerful as a god being currently on this ship. His eyes returned to the knight. “Why are you up that early in the morning? You don’t have a sleep schedule like me?”

The masked puff responded bluntly. “I do.” Meta Knight then walked towards Magolor as he continued. “It’s just that I’m used to waking up early to patrol around Popstar in the morning. I take my duties very seriously, along with the other Meta Knights. And… it’s harder to sleep once the Star Rod isn’t coating our minds with good dreams.” Once he reached Magolor, he saw the files on the magician’s paw. “What are those papers?”

Magolor snapped back to the papers. “Oh, uh…” He hid Elfilin’s file beneath the other documents, pretending to shuffle through them. No need to cause panic and concern this early in the morning. “These are magic reading scans that the Lor took from everyone while everyone was asleep, even myself.”

The feline mage handed some of the papers to the masked knight, making sure Elfilin’s file was not given. Meta Knight saw the files for himself, Dedede, and Bandana. “I’m afraid that I don’t know how to read magic readings. Please enlighten me.”

“So basically, everyone here got new types of magic in their bodies alongside the usual magic they already had.” Magolor explained while looking at his own file, running a paw on his chest. “I got plant-based magic while I maintained my old magic, for example. And if you’re curious as to what magic you got, it was fairy-based.”

The dark blue puff’s ear twitched, making him raise an eyebrow at the feline mage. “What…?” 

“Yep. You know, like, the magic that Ribbon uses besides her blaster.” Magolor expressed with his paws, trying to make a sprinkle motion while smirking behind his scarf. “The sparkly pinky stuff that fairies usually do.”

Meta Knight stayed silent for a moment, his eyes disappearing behind his mask. “I see…” He eventually let out, handing the papers back to Magolor after he was done analyzing them. “I think these new abilities should prove useful to us. However, it’s best to rely on our old abilities for now until we train with them at a later time.”

Magolor nodded as he put the papers back on the desk. “My thoughts exactly. Sure, I know some here would enjoy having magic abilities, but let’s not push our luck until we master them. After all, I think our skills alone are enough for us to visit that town today.”

Meta Knight nodded. “Anyways, let us wait for the others to get up and ready themselves. We still need to decide what to take with us.”

With that, both of them waited for the rest of the Star Allies to wake up. After everyone else had gathered in the kitchen, Bandana yawned, highlighting otter-like teeth in his mouth for a moment. “Good morning everyone…” He said while rubbing his eyes.

Marx giggled as he looked at the buizel. “You know, it’s kinda weird seeing you with a mouth after a lot of time without one. Should’ve stayed mouthless once you transformed as well.” 

Bandana frowned as his tails lashed out a bit in annoyance. “Would’ve preferred that happening to you instead…” He retorted.

Marx grinned, showing a creepy smile with no fangs from his new body. “Oh, getting feisty are we?”

“Enough.” Meta Knight called out, looking at Marx. “Continue acting this way and we might not let you come with us to the town.” 

The pink sprout being looked away, looking quite annoyed. “Tch, fine…”

Dedede stepped up and asked. “So… we’re all going to the town from what you said earlier, right?”

Meta Knight nodded. “Indeed. I believe that everyone here might have reasons for wanting to explore this world besides just looking for information alone. So it’s best to have everyone be in on this exploration.”

Magolor raised a finger, looking proudly. “And not to fret! As I said, the Lor has a vast array of defense so any local trying to snoop in and steal it won’t realize what hit them!” He chuckled.

“I agree with Meta.” Susie added, crossing her arms. “I think there’s a chance we might discover more about these bodies rather than just magic readings from our own bodies. Sure, we know that we have new abilities, but I don’t even know how to use them.”

Elfilin looked at Dedede and said. “Think about it, Dedede. The more people we have with us, the less chance we might get picked off by the Pokémon who live in that town.” As the blue chinchilla talked, Magolor eyed him with concern and suspicion. “Not only that, we might be able to find info faster that way!”

Dedede stroked his chin with his tiny claws while thinking about it before shrugging. “I don’t see the problem with it.” He then put his flippers on his side while grinning. “As long as everybody behaves, there’s no issue with everyone going together!”

Meta Knight hummed in agreement before looking at the rest of the Star Allies. “Does anyone else reject the idea?” The group shook their heads. “Alright, after everyone gets ready, we shall leave for the town. Sounds good with everyone?”

“Yeah!” The group responded.

---

After eating their breakfast and grabbing important items from the storage, the Star Allies finally stepped out of the Lor Starcutter, some of them shielding their eyes from the sun that watched over them from the horizon. 

A bright breeze blew over them as they walked through the canopy of the lush green forest. Chriping could be heard from the foliage of the trees and bushes, following the sound was the crunching of leaves made by their own feet. Elfilin looked behind, seeing the Lor turn invisible as the group slowly got away from it. “Oh, the Lor can turn invisible as well?” The chinchilla asked while looking at Magolor.

The feline mage narrowed his eyes subtly to Elfilin behind his mask before smiling. “Why, of course! It did that once we were asleep too. Not only it can do that but many other things! You wouldn’t want to be facing this ship all on your own, it’s all I’ll say.” The mage said while folding his arms behind him. He looked aside before stepping a bit closer to the chinchilla, lowering his voice a little. Luckily, they were behind the others. “Say… have you been feeling something weird recently…?”

The psychic looked at the feline mage in confusion. “Weird… how?”

“Eh… I dunno. Before we all blacked out, there was a shocking pain that probably had or probably had not turned us into these… Pokémon. You remember feeling some sort of pain before we blacked out?” Elfilin nodded, making the mage hum in thought. “So… you probably must be feeling something else rather than a body transformation, right?”

Elfilin put a paw on his chin, thinking about any sort of weird feelings that happened to him. “Um… not really? I feel fine, really.”

Magolor tilted his head. “You sure? Like, not even a magic type like us?”

“Well, earlier you said that these new powers are probably connected with your new bodies, so since I didn’t gain a new body…” Elfilin summoned his small spear and swung it slowly in the air. “I still have my old powers, and I didn’t feel any kind of new magic appear within me.”

“I see…” The mage looked aside for a moment before looking back at Elfilin again with a forced smile. “Thank goodness you remained the same. Although, I wonder what kind of new body you would’ve gotten…” He scratched his chin in thought.

“I mean… seeing what the others got, probably something similar to my actual body.” The chinchilla deduced.

“Yeah, that could be the case.” 

As Magolor and Elfilin spoke with one another, Susie was seeing the data she was receiving on her tablet after a single sample scan from a blade of grass she plucked a small second ago. “Interesting…”

Bandana Dee got a bit curious as to what Susie was doing and approached her, trying to peek at her tablet but failing because of his short height. “What are you doing?” He asked as his tails twitched subconsciously.

The humanoid plant Pokémon looked at the Buizel and responded. “Ah, I’m just making a small analysis of the surroundings of this area. From a single blade of grass, my tablet can scan its contents to determine the development of life on this planet. From the data I gathered, it seems like this planet has an estimate of being more than a billion years old. The flora of this place seems developed and healthy, it almost seems like the very air you breathe heals your lungs from how clean it is. Not only that, the percentage of UV rays here is in a moderate degree, meaning that this planet has the perfect temperature for life to flourish here for an undetermined amount of time by neither being too hot nor too cold.”

Bandana looked aside a bit overwhelmed by the amount of info he just received. “Wow… all of that info by just a single blade of grass you plucked from the ground?”

“Yep, incredible isn’t it?” She glated while flipping her pink and leafy hair. “And that’s not even factoring in the probable magic that flows throughout the place if these Pokémon bodies have something to say about it. All of these perfect conditions for any life to flourish usually require the work of magic from powerful beings residing on some planets. It’s something I saw while traveling to other planets for business.”

Bandana put a paw on his chin, thinking about the new information he gained. “I see…” He looked back at Susie. “Do you think that this planet has deities like that as well?”

Susie shrugged. “That I wouldn’t know. Sure, there could be deities here because of how this planet seems so clean and healthy. But since there are Pokémon with nature-based magic, it could be the work of them since they have intelligence from what we saw.” Her tone shifted a little to an excited one as she grinned behind her mouth mask. “And since they’re intelligent… oh I can definitely install a Haltmann factory here if they’re not that developed yet.”

Bandana sighed as he looked unamused at Susie. “Of course in the middle of this situation, you’d think of profit…”

Meanwhile, Marx rolled around on his ball as his beady eyes trailed the environments around him. “Man, I hope we encounter someone soon, this world can’t look THIS boring!”

Dedede reassured Marx. “We’re in a forest, Marx. Of course, there wouldn’t be almost anyone here outside from the wildlife.”

As Marx was about to respond, he spotted in the corner of his eyes a small brown squirrel with round cheeks stepping out of a bush. The jester grinned maniacally as he looked at the squirrel. “Oh lookie! The first friend in this new world…”

The squirrel with the inflated cheeks looked at Marx and immediately froze once it saw chaotic wings come out of the pink and round Pokémon with the jester hat, the berries and seeds falling out of its mouth. 

Before Marx did anything, Meta Knight put the Galaxia in front of the jester. “Don’t, or else…”

Marx retracted his wings, rolling his eyes. “Gee, I was just trying to scare it…” He looked back at the brown rodent, grinning at the success he achieved in turning the poor squirrel into a petrified statue. “And it seemed like it went all according to plan, hahahaha!”

Dedede rolled his eyes and sighed. “At least control yourself in front of the Pokémon, understood?”

Marx grinned as he looked at the big penguin. “Depends, hehehe…”

Meta Knight sheathed his sword and responded. “We let you come with us, we could very well take you back to the Lor. I’m sure you wouldn’t want that, right?”

Marx stayed in silence for a moment before sighing reluctantly and looking aside. “No…” He then instantly grinned back as he started bouncing on his ball. “Although I hope that this town has some delicious food because I’m already starting to become hungry again!”

Dedede and Meta Knight sighed hopelessly.

Eventually, the grass started making its way to a carved dirt path as trees started appearing less and less. As the green mostly disappeared, some buildings came into view, signifying the group that they had reached the town. The buildings had two types of shapes, round ones that were one floor in height, and square ones that had two or more floors high, being made of either cobblestone, wood, or rarely steel from what the Star Allies could see. Some of these buildings were shops selling some items that the group, of course, didn’t recognize.

In the streets of the town, the Star Allies found really strange creatures that varied in shape and size, presumably Pokémon, walking around the city, minding their own business. A yellow and black lizard walking on two feet, a floating keychain with a face at the top of it, a chipmunk with inflated cheeks and red and yellow eyes, a zebra with lightning pattern as its mane, a round palm tree with legs and tree heads that resembled coconuts, and lots of other Pokémon.

The Star Allies were a bit in shock as to what they saw. They expected Pokémon to be very strange creatures with some variety sprinkled on them. But from what they saw, some of the Pokémon looked way more similar to the beings seen in Popstar than anything they were expecting. 

“Holy Nova… the variety of these creatures…” Marx said before he started leaning forward as a creepy smile started forming on his face. “They look like the perfect target for my pranks… and if they have magic within them… I can get so creative and test if they have what it takes to best me-”

“NO!” shouted the rest of the Star Allies (except Elfilin) at the Jester. 

Marx rolled his eyes in annoyance. “You guys just LOVE ruining my fun, huh?”

Magolor sighed before looking at some of the Pokémon of the town. “Hm… I’m not sure what more I expected from these Pokémon after we encountered those other two back at the Lor. I thought that they’d be more… grandiose, fitting from a civilization from another universe.”

Meta Knight looked at Magolor. “Don’t make assumptions just yet. We have barely scratched the surface of what they’re capable of. We must remain cautious while we gather information.”

“I think we should split up because this town looks… kinda big.” Bandana commented.

“Bandana is right.” Susie backed up the idea. “We will have more efficiency in searching for clues on Kirby’s location if we separate in groups and search some parts of town. That way, we may cover more ground without wasting a lot of time.”

Dedede nodded. “Then it’s decided. Let’s split the groups.” He tapped a flipper on his beak as he hummed in thought before pointing a flipper to Magolor and then Marx. “Magolor and Marx can be together to investigate the western part of the town. Make sure to watch him at all times Mags, alright?”

The feline mage did a small salute with his paws while he winked. “You can count on me, I won’t disappoint!”

The sprout Pokémon turned to Magolor with an innocent-looking face, inflating his cheeks a little bit to increase his cuteness. “Oh Mags, can I please go buy ice cream alone in this city? It’s sooooo hot today and one would really hit the spot!”

Magolor turned to Marx, staring at him with a deadpan face before blatantly saying. “No.”

Marx dropped the face before groaning in annoyance. “Ugh, and here I thought you’d be different from the goody-two-shoes over there.”

The mage folded his arms behind his back, smiling behind his scarf. “Don’t worry, there’ll be a time when you will be allowed to do your pranks.”

Dedede nodded before pointing at Susie and then at Bandana Dee. “Next up, Susie and Bandana will be investigating the east part of town. You two won’t mind if you team up, right?”

The buizel rubbed the back of his head, grinning. “Well, I wouldn’t mind partnering up with Ms. Haltmann.” He then adjusted his namesake bandana and looked at Susie. “How about you?”

Susie adjusted the grip on her tablet and looked at the two-tailed otter. “Well, I see no issues being on a duo with you. Your kindness combined with your scouting skills will prove useful for this mission.”

“Alright then!” Dedede beamed before putting his flipper on his chest. “I shall go with Meta Knight to investigate the north section of the town.” Meta Knight nodded while looking up at Dedede as the penguin turned to Elfilin. “And Elfilin, how about you stick to the south part of the town? I’m sure you can handle being on your own, right?”

The blue chinchilla nodded with a determined look. “Don’t worry, I can protect myself this time!” 

“Hey! Why does the rat get to be alone!?” Marx questioned a little angry while looking at Dedede.

Meta Knight simply responded. “Try to guess.”

“Uh… um…” Marx tilted his body to the side. “He has better looks than me?”

Everyone just stayed silent for a moment before Dedede sighed. “Let’s just… start this already, alright? Let’s regroup here once when…” The empoleon looked at the sun, noticing that it was still some meters above the mountains. “When the sun reaches its peak, how about it?”

“Sounds good!” Bandana affirmed, his tails wagging a little. 

“Seems acceptable to me. Makes me have some spare time to take some detours.” Susie said while flipping her hair.

“I have no objections to that!” Magolor clasped his paws.

“Yeah, whatevs to me.” Marx said while looking aside, eyeing some of the Pokémon walking around as he thought of possible pranks he could pull off if given the opportunity.

Elfilin did a small loop in the air as he spoke. “I have no problems with that!”

“Alright gang! With that let’s go-” As King Dedede turned around, he bumped into someone, making him grunt and take a step back. “My bad-!”

Taking a better look at the figure, they were a cloaked four-legged creature with a black hood. In the hood, there were multiple golden eyes spread throughout the entire cloth of the Pokémon. Even if the cloak covered most of their form and face, they could still see a bit of white fur, a blue tail with the shape of a curved blade, blue claws, and the most apparent feature of them all, a single blue and curved horn poking out of the hood. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t paying attention myself.” They said in a serene and whispering female voice.

The figure started walking away, not before taking a single glance at Elfilin. In some seconds the figure walked away from their vision, heading towards the forest. The Star Allies just looked at the cloaked Pokémon go away before Marx commented. “Wow, they have such the LOVELIEST fashion sense. Anyone else agree?”

Elfilin grimaced a little. “I dunno… they looked off…”

“Eh, whatever, maybe it’s just one of this world’s quirks.” Magolor deduced before looking at Dedede. “So, shall we go?”

Dedede looked in the direction where the Pokémon headed off with a frown before snapping back to reality and looking at Magolor. “Ah, yes, let’s go.”

With that, the Star Allies split up into three groups and one solo to gather information in Cometon Town. 

---

The opportunity for profit in this world was already showing promise!

As Susie walked through the Pokémon filled town with Bandana Dee, she was already imagining everything that she could do to sell her products in this world. Not only that, if the locals are kind enough, she could even go back here to not only sell Haltmann Works Co’s products but to build an entire environment-friendly factory to produce products here directly.

However, for that dream to come true, she’d have to rely on universe-warping technology. Since Star Dream was destroyed, summoning objects and traveling to other universes had been an arduous task and an expensive process that took a small toll on the company’s pockets so she had to rely on that less and less. 

Maybe this universe is what she needed to finally get the company more customers than ever before. 

The CEO suddenly snapped away from her thoughts as she heard Bandana’s voice. “So…” Susie looked at the two-tailed otter. “Which of these Pokémon should we start questioning first?”

Susie looked around for a moment, trying to spot the perfect Pokémon that looked best suited to answer their questions. The first Pokémon that she spotted was a gray bipedal lizard with some golden scales on their arms and claws, tail, and their forehead. Susie noticed they were eating a primitive fruit rather… savage-like without even closing their mouth. Yeah, nope, not that one.

The plant Pokémon then looked at the next Pokémon who appeared to be a skunk with purple and cream-colored fur. Their large tail was curled up above them, covering the top of their body and having the tip act like some kind of hair. However… just by leaning in a bit closer to identify the lesser details, she could smell a putrid kind of smell that would make her faint just by being close to that smelly creature. Why were none of these Pokémon that approachable!?

“Something wrong, Susie…?”

The CEO turned to Bandana with a sheepish look before clearing her throat. “Sorry, I was just evaluating who could be the best Pokémon to ask the questions to. But the Pokémon around here look like… uh…”

“Like savages?” Bandana finished for her with an inquisitive tilt of his head.

Susie flinched a bit, but before she could try and come up with an argument to deflect that claim, she realized that she had been caught red-handed. She sighed and admitted, her arms limping in defeat. “Yes…”

“I think you need to stop thinking so lowly of the non-developed beings you encounter. I mean… your company goes to other planets to help those civilizations who need proper development in tech, right?” 

Susie looked away while crossing her arms. “Well yes, but… I’m not the one who personally goes to those planets to make the first contact and such. I… usually hang in the office until everything is laid out and ready…” She sighed and looked back at the bandana-wearing otter. “Fine, I’ll just say it. I’m ashamed to say this but I’m usually disgusted by the… primitive acts that non-developed civilizations do. Sure, it’s just in their nature to do it, however, it just makes me cringe a little every time.”

Bandana put a paw on his chin, humming before looking back at Susie. “It makes sense. You were raised in a very advanced society, weren’t you?” The plant Pokémon nodded. “I figured as much. However, you just have to accept that some civilizations are not as advanced as yours. Sometimes, some diplomatic meetings will be hard due to culture shock, but it’s pretty normal from planet to planet.”

Susie stared at Bandana for a moment, adjusting her hair as she looked aside. “I guess so… I should stop being pretty picky about it as well.”

“Yeah!” The buizel smiled. “In no time, you’ll learn to accept each civilization’s differences before you boost them into a more developed state!” He then looked around, motioning a paw around him to the sights of the town. “So why not start with this one and accept their differences? You can start by understanding them by just simply talking to them!”

The CEO frowned behind her mouth mask, thinking about her current thought process so far. She sighed and looked aside, not quite meeting with Bandana’s eyes. “Alright then, let’s see if your proposal holds some worth.” Susie then started looking around for another Pokémon that looked willing to answer their questions. After one more look around her surroundings, she found a bipedal black and red vulpine Pokémon, sporting a massive mane of red hair with black tips that were tied at the very end of it. Said Pokémon was also wearing a blue scarf with a crescent moon-shaped badge around their neck. “Hm… how about we go ask that one?”

“Hm… sure, they look approachable.” Bandana agreed.

With that, the duo went to the fox-like Pokémon who was leaning on the wall of a building, looking around like they were waiting for someone. Once they got close enough, the red and black figure looked at them and asked in a mix between raspy and gruff male voice. “You two need something?” 

“Yes, we are. We would like information on two things if you can spare a bit of your time.” Susie asked, adjusting the grip on her tablet.

The zoroark eyed the tablet for a moment in plain curiosity before looking at Susie’s face again. “Sure…? What is it?”

Bandana took a step forward and asked as Susie started tapping on her tablet, looking for an image. “We’re looking for a missing friend of ours, and we’re gathering info to see if someone’s got a lead on him.” 

After finding the image she was looking for, she turned her tablet around and showed the fox-like Pokémon a picture of the pink puffball. “Have you seen him?”

The zoroark looked at the picture, his face morphing into one of pure confusion when he looked at the picture. “What is that?”

Bandana raised an invisible eyebrow. “Uh… that’s our friend, Kirby. That’s what he looks like.”

“That…” The Pokémon paused, trying to find the right words to describe the being he was seeing in the picture. “He… he doesn’t look like any Pokémon I know of.” He shook his head, his ears twitching a little as he shrugged. “Sorry, but I ain’t got any info on them.”

Susie turned her tablet away from the bipedal vixen, a frown forming in her mouth. “I see… well, thank you for your-” 

“However… I can tell where you probably can find him.” The zoroark offered with a sly smirk on his muzzle.

Bandana tilted his head. “Oh, really? Where!?”

“I’ll tell you don’t worry, on one condition.” He said while lifting a claw. He then pointed at Susie with a grin. “I want your tsareena friend over here to spend some private time with me.”

The buizel flinched, throwing his arm back from the absurdity of that request. “WHAT!?”

Rather than looking completely enraged or baffled by the intensity of that condition, the tsareena had a nonchalant expression after hearing what the vulpine Pokémon had proposed. Susie had received requests like that before a lot of times, all ending in the same way. It seemed that this wouldn’t be completely different.

 She tilted her head, putting her tablet away in a shoulder bag that she got from the Lor. “Oh, really? That’s the condition?”

“Yep! How about it, girl? You won’t regret a thing~”

The buizel looked at the CEO with a panicked look on his face, grimacing from the situation. “Please don’t tell me that you’re gonna agree with him, right?”

Susie didn’t even look at Bandana before taking a single step forward and calmly asking. “Is that the only way you will be giving that precious bit of information to us?”

“Yep, no other way.” The zoroark said with a sly grin. Just from the look on his face and overall confidence, it seemed like he had done that trick multiple times.

Susie closed her eyes as she put a single leafy hand on her hip close to the bag. “I see. If that’s the case…” In one swift motion, the tsareena pulled out of her bag her signature white pink laser blaster, pointing at the surprised zoroark. But before he could do anything, she pulled the trigger and shot a small paralyzing laser bullet at the vulpine Pokémon, shocking him and making him faint on the ground. “Then take that condition and use it on a fool, not me.”

As Susie put her gun away, a lot of the Pokémon who were walking around stopped what they were doing to watch the scene with dumbfounded expressions. The buizel looked at the twitching body of the Pokémon before looking at Susie. “Did you really need to do that?”

Susie shrugged and responded. “He got what was coming for him. So I’d say he deserved it.” She began walking away from the scene. “Come on, let’s ask someone who has at least isn’t a weirdo.” 

Bandana sighed and started following the CEO while adjusting his bandana. “Alright then.”

Well, that understanding and talking thingy didn’t go completely as she planned for the first time. But that wasn’t a problem, she just got unlucky with a bad egg of this civilization. There were more (and hopefully good) Pokémon to talk with anyway.

---

Marx was getting annoyed, REALLY annoyed. 

The others were trying to stop his fun, just because they wanted to look good in front of these Pokémon to make a good first impression. Bah! Who cared about first impressions? He was just on this trip to have fun and get his favorite dumb and pink, prank victim and sparring partner back to him. He was the only one who could satisfy his hunger for fun so Marx needed him back.

He hoped that splitting up would make it easier for him to get some prank appetizers during his time in this world, however, that wasn’t the case, unfortunately. For some reason, Magolor was also stepping into the goody-two-shoes side of the gang. That was strange. Why did Magolor suddenly start thinking that he should be on the saint side out of nowhere? He never really cared if Marx was having fun or not so what gives? What was he trying to prove?

Whatever, he needed to get his fun one way or another. As everyone knows, Marx is a great deceiver, meaning he will get what he wants if he plays his cards correctly and tricks idiots. Magolor, unfortunately, was no idiot, meaning Marx had to think smart to get at least some enjoyment out of this boring town.

The sprout Pokémon looked at Magolor with a grin on his face. “So Mags? Where do you think we’ll find our best source of that juicy info?”

The feline mage put a paw on his chin, humming in thought. “Hm… I dunno. Besides, we don’t know much about this town so we wouldn’t know the best hotspots for info trading.”

Marx started looking around, trying to find suitable targets- Pokémon for info. Some of them looked rather muscular and menacing while some others looked like leaves that would get pushed around by the wind easily. Actually, that comparison had some truth since he was seeing the slimmest bipedal bug Pokémon that had body parts made out of leaves. However, none of them looked that interesting to ask some generic questions and make them look interesting for the jester. 

However, while looking around, Marx found a location that, if movies were proven right, should be an interesting place for the fun he might be looking for… “How about that place?” Marx motioned to the building with his round body. “Those sorts of places not only sell good foods and drinks but also have a ton of people having info on themselves.”

Magolor looked at the building the jester was pointing at with an unamused face. “You’re kidding… right?”

The place in question was a wood-made building, shaped like the head of a certain purple feline creature. The building had two windows (which looked like they belonged to a second floor) that looked like the eyes of the head and two doors that looked like a saloon from those movies. Heck, right above the doors, there was a sign reading “Crescent Saloon” in big bold letters! If Marx remembered correctly, inside these buildings there were three important things: food and drinks, drunk guys, and last but not least, bar fights.

The perfect location for chaos to reign free!

Marx looked back at Magolor with his innocent smile. “I think that’s the perfect place to find some info on Kirby and the Energy Spheres, right?”

The feline mage crossed his arms in uncertainty. “I don’t know about this… it gives me those unfriendly places vibes… isn’t there a better place for us to look at?”

“C’mon Mags! Haven’t you seen movies that had saloons in them? Those places are packed with that juicy info I was talking about!” Marx argued. “Besides, what if we don’t investigate this place? We might miss out on people who might even have an Energy Sphere!”

Magolor had a thoughtful look on his face, seemingly mulling over the possibilities on his head. The jester had his smile faltering a little, thinking if his convincing argument didn’t work. But thankfully… “Fine… let’s check that place out.”

Marx grinned ecstatically. “Great!” He jumped and summoned a ball beneath his feet, balancing on it with ease. “Let’s go then! We might have even more spare time if we get this done quickly!” 

With that, Marx rolled to the building on his ball while being followed by a sighing Magolor. After getting to the building up close, the jester released an “Oooh!” of wonder and excitement, mostly thinking about all of the possible scenarios happening inside that building. Magolor meanwhile looked at it in curiosity, possibly thinking about the architecture of the world. Boring stuff as usual.

Without any further prompts, the duo walked straight into the establishment, the set of double doors swinging back and forth behind them after their entrance. The two Pokémon looked around the place, taking in their sights of the building and getting a feel for the area. One of the first things they noticed was the smells that lingered around the place: alcohol and musk. The inside of the building looked way less welcoming than the outside. Moldy walls, a leaky ceiling, creaky floors, and empty tables that had a lot of trash on them. On the occupied tables, there were some Pokémon that were drinking without a worry in life. They all wore scarves, headbands, armbands, or other kinds of accessories since they varied in size and bulk. Two figures that stood out to the jester were a buff-looking bipedal feline with some kind of fire belt around their waist and the other was a bipedal rocky lizard with some iron horns and plating around their body. 

Oh did they look like the perfect guys to underestimate everything in their way. They wouldn’t even suspect that a round weed sprout had faced a god once.

“Wow uh… quite an inviting place this is…” Magolor said with a bit of sarcasm, his ears folding a little once he saw most of the bar start looking at them.

Marx just smiled, knowing it was shaping up to be quite a good time. “Relax, this will be quick!” The jester then throttled forward in his ball, humming a small tune to himself and feeling the stares of other Pokémon that stopped what they were doing to look at his unusual appearance. Well, not like he expected a lot of Pokémon to wear jester hats.

Marx looked behind him to see Magolor following him, his face twisted into a scowl as he looked at the Pokémon who were eyeing him weirdly. Perfection. At this rate, someone would get territorial and challenge the newbies while drunk soon… 

Both Pokémon got the counter of the bar. Behind the counter, there was a purple leopard with cream-colored fur on some spots and underbelly and a tail with a scythe-like tip. They seemed to be standing on their hind paws, leaning on the counter while scrubbing a glass with their forepaws. The feline looked at the newcomers tilted their heads and asked with a motherly female voice. “Oh? What interesting individuals we have here.” She eyed the two of them for a more analyzing look before smiling. “Care for a drink?”

When the leopard said it, the jester realized he was feeling a bit thirsty, so he decided that he could at least treat himself. “Well, a drink would be nice-”

Before he could ask for his drink, a brown-furred paw shut his mouth, making Marx muffle a little. “Actually, we came here to ask some questions!” Magolor said with a sheepish smile behind his scarf. “You wouldn’t mind answering them, right?”

The bartender had a scowl on her face. “You’re the king’s guards, are you? I already told others like you that my saloon is not selling Tera Crystals illegally. Go find the actual culprit instead of just following fake leads.”

The mage shot a confused glance at the leopard. “Uh… no we’re not? Do we have your kingdom’s crest or something similar in our clothes?” He opened his arms while taking his paw off of Marx’s mouth. 

The bartender made an analyzing look at them again before sighing. “I’m sorry about my accusation. Just the stress from the kingdom I suppose…” She looked aside for a moment before looking at them again. “So… what did you two want to ask?”

Marx responded. “Well, we’re just wondering if by any chance you spotted a pink, round, and dumb-looking puffball who goes by the name of Kirby. He’s short and kinda around my size. Have you seen ‘em?” 

She put the glass aside along with the dish towel and thought for a moment. She then tilted her head and asked. “What accessory that jigglypuff was wearing?”

The duo looked at themselves for a moment before Magolor looked back at the leopard again and corrected. “Uh… he isn’t a… jigglypuff. He’s a… well, a round and pink being with two nubs and red feet. Yes, our description is correct.”

The leopard frowned and shook her head. “Then I’m afraid I haven’t seen him. I don’t even know any clues where you could potentially find him.”

Magolor grimaced as he adjusted his scarf. “I see… by the way… we have another question if you don’t mind.”

The bartender narrowed her eyes a little bit, tilting her head. “And what would that be?”

Marx then hopped off his ball and landed on the counter, the sudden movement not startling the leopard. “Have you seen some floating gears that are contained in a weird bubble thingy around here?” 

As the question was asked, the jester glanced behind him and noticed a Pokémon with big quills covering its entire back and large claws suddenly getting off their table and leaving the bar. He, of course, ignored it and looked back at the bartender who answered. “Oh, you mean those weird gear thingies that rained out of the sky yesterday night?” 

Marx and Magolor’s eyes widened a little before Magolor asked a bit more desperate than before. “Could you tell where at least one of them is?”

“Hm… if I heard correctly…” The leopard tapped a paw on her chin. “It seemed like a team of explorers found one of them and took them to the guild. That’s all I know.” Her tail swished a little bit before leaning forward with an inquisitive look. “Why are you even asking about them? It’s like you guys know something about them…”

Before Marx could respond with his best snarky comment yet, Magolor stopped him milliseconds before he could drop it. “Well, we were just sent here to investigate this phenomenon. That’s all.” He smiled sheepishly before looking at Marx. “We’ve gathered all the info we can, let’s go Marx.” 

The jester looked at the feline mage and said “Okay!” before jumping off the counter. It then downed on Marx something terrible! ‘Wait a second! We did the entire questionnaire thingy and not a single drunk Pokémon tried to have beef with us!’ He saw Magolor bidding goodbye to the bartender and his mind went into panic mode. ‘Unacceptable! There must be something, anything before we step out of that door!’

Marx looked around rather desperately, finding out that the buff cat was looking at him with a scowl on his face. Something came up in the jester’s mind, it was a stupid thing to do, but it could just work… 

The pink sprout Pokémon smirked and stuck his tongue out, taunting the big and buff feline. After the taunt, Marx waited for any reaction to happen, hoping that he would fall for it. Fortunately for him…

He did.

“The heck are you looking at me like that? Wanna go? I’ll burn you down to a crisp!” The buff cat said irritatedly, getting off his seat and towering over Marx. From up close, he could see a slight blush on his face, signifying that he was drunk.

The jester simply smiled innocently, like he hadn’t just taunted him a second ago. “Oh, why would you want that, you silly lil’ kitty?” Marx mocked with a cute face.

The red and black feline’s rage almost boiled up to a breaking point. It readied its claw, sparks of flames coming out of it. “You asked for it, you stupid clown!” 

Before the poor wrestler-looking cat landed a swipe at Marx, the jester grinned maniacally as his wings sprouted from his sides and his manic-looking grin widened to the edges of his face. He started levitating in the air. “You wish to challenge me…?” Oh look, the buff cat flinched a little! This was going better than he expected! “I hope you don’t regret your choice later on-”

Suddenly, he felt someone tugging one of his leaves. He grunted in pain before looking at the source, finding Magolor looking at him with a severe look. “Really Marx? Can’t you stay put for even an hour?”

Marx dropped his creepy act and flailed around while being held by the mage. “You got it all wrong Mags! He started it!”

Magolor sighed. “Sure…” He then looked at the buff cat with an ashamed look. “Forgive his attitude. He just loves picking out fights.” Without giving any more info, Magolor walked away with Marx still in his grip.

The other Pokémon in the bar looked at each other with their eyes widened before a pawmot eventually asked. “What in Giratina’s name was that oddish…?”

The aggron said a bit shaken from what he saw. “No clue…”

---

This world really intrigued Meta Knight.

The masked knight was fascinated at the variety of Pokémon this civilization had to offer. Some of them looked like bugs and animals, some looked like they were inhabitants of Popstar, while others looked like creatures he would never have thought could exist. The fact that they could make a thriving civilization even with significant differences in their body types just like Popstar did impressed him even more.

Perhaps this was an alternative universe of Popstar? No, it was still too early to make assumptions.

It had been some time since he and Dedede started asking some Pokémon if they had either seen Kirby or Energy Spheres nearby. Unfortunately for them, they had found no results thus far. 

Suddenly, while he was walking in one of the dirt streets of the town, a rather daunting realization appeared in his head. He decided to voice his concerns to the penguin beside him. “Dedede…”

The empoleon looked at dark blue jigglypuff with an inquisitive look. “What is it?”

“It’s just speculation, however, it might be a possibility…” Meta Knight looked at Dedede and stopped walking, the penguin stopping as well. “What if Kirby ALSO became a Pokémon as well?”

That made Dedede’s eyes widen for a bit, making him look away deep in thought. “Well… doesn’t his, uh… origins kinda nullify that effect just like it did with Elfilin?”

“Do you remember that his body had a significant change on some occasions? The same thing could have occurred here.”

Dedede rubbed a flipper behind his head. “If that’s the case… then our search might be even harder.”

“Fortunately, it is not a lost cause yet. Remember that we have brought this as well?” Meta Knight says before pulling out from his cape a small yellow, faintly glowing, five-pointed star, making it visible to only Dedede and himself. 

Dedede smiled a liitle. “Oh yeah, now that’d be helpful! Forgot it was connected to Kirby.” As the knight put away the star. “So… what now? Because even if Kirby hasn’t transformed, he might not even be in this town.”

Meta Knight hummed in thought. Thinking about it now, it had been at least an hour and a half since they started searching for information on Kirby or the Energy Spheres’ location. The others had probably much more luck finding out the info they were looking for, so they could lay back from the questions for now and wait for them to share the info they had gotten. 

“I think we’ve done all we can up until this point.” Meta Knight said, looking to Dedede again. “Let’s lay low for now and familiarize ourselves with this town a bit. After all, it’s the closest town to the Lor.”

Dedede nodded, and with that, they started walking aimlessly around the north part of town. During their walks, they started to notice some aspects of the way of life of the Pokémon. It seemed that even with major differences from one another, they worked in harmony to solve the daily issues and jobs. Everything felt coordinated and proactive. None of these Pokémon truly felt… lazy… Meta Knight was starting to like this place, despite the current situation they were in.

As they walked, a Pokémon that resembled a floating black sword with the edges painted red, having two black limbs with yellow hands folded behind him, and a black and golden shield in front of it, subtly stared at the duo with its yellow eye on the hilt. The masked knight noticed the sword Pokémon and stopped to look at it, it kind of reminded him of a swordory from Popstar but much more menacing. “Can we help you?” Meta Knight asked, making Dedede stop and look at the Pokémon with him.

The sword Pokémon fully turned to the duo and said in a fancy-sounding male voice. “Is my eye deceiving me, or is that a sword I see sheathed on your scabbard? I have never seen a jigglypuff like yourself hold a sword…”

“Your eye is not deceiving you. This is the Galaxia, a powerful legendary sword that chooses its wielder to not fall into the wrong hands.” Meta Knight explained, unsheathing his sword for the blade Pokémon to see.

The sword Pokémon, mesmerized by the golden sword, asked the knight. “Could I take a closer look?” The jigglypuff nodded before the other Pokémon leaned closer, having an analytical look on his… face? “My… the gleaming gold, the sharp edges on the side and the… power emanating through it…” It seemed that a realization dawned on him and he backed away. “I’m sorry. It seems that I forgot to introduce myself.” He put a yellow hand in front of his shield. “My name is Arlibur, it’s a pleasure meeting you.”

“It’s a pleasure meeting you as well. My name is Meta Knight.” The masked knight was introduced.

The empoleon then put a flipper above his chest. “And I’m Ki- uh… Dedede, pleasure meeting you.”

Arlibur folded his arm behind him again. “Nice meeting you two and…” He looked at the dark blue jigglypuff. “Meta Knight? Are you a knight of the king or…”

Meta Knight shook his head. “No, I don’t work for the kind of this land nor any king. I work for myself, acting as protector of my land.” He avoided saying the word planet.

“I see…” The aegislash eye drifted away. “Say…” He then looked back at the duo. “Would you be available someday later for a spar? I would invite you now, however, I have some important business to attend to and I’m afraid there isn’t any time for a spar.”

Meta Knight was in a state of mild disbelief. Now not only there were Pokémon that resembled swords… and they liked to spar as well? The knight was starting to like this place more and more. “Well, I’m uncertain if I would have any time for side activities like that since I came to this land for a mission. Although… if there is any time for spare in this mission, I’ll heavily consider.”

The sword beamed. “I’m glad to hear that! But anyway, I must go now. See you whenever masked knight.”

Meta Knight nodded, sheathing his sword. “You too, Arlibur.” With that, the sword floated away, leaving the knight and king on their own. 

Dedede grinned, teasing the masked knight a little. “Would ya look at that! You already have a sparring partner in this world. And what’s a better sparring partner than an actual sword?” He giggled a little.

Meta Knight humphed, looking aside a bit in embarrassment. “Well, this time, I didn’t seek a worthy-looking challenger, they came to me this time.” Still, deep inside, he was grateful that this encounter happened. He was hoping that he would find some spare time in this mission, subtly wanting the spar between him and Arlibur to happen. 

“Well, anyways, shall we head back to meet with Elfilin to see how he’s handling it so far?” The empoleon asked.

Meta Knight turned to Dedede, nodding. “Yes, let’s check on him.” With that, the duo started to walk back to the southern part of the town. From all the speculations the masked knight had about this world, none were true. If he was being honest with himself, he was liking this world so far.

---

Elfilin sighed tiredly, perching himself on a mailbox.

It had been probably more than an hour by that point. After asking the same question to so many different Pokémon, heck, even knocking on some residences to ask the questions, no significant progress had been made. He was even starting to doubt if Kirby was in this town in the first place.

Even with those thoughts, he pushed through, asking even more Pokémon as time passed. Still, it was the same result as last time with no leads. 

While he was asking around, he noticed that some Pokémon were looking at him weirdly, like they knew he wasn’t one of them. He then realized that they actually thought of him like an alien when some Pokémon voiced their suspicions, asking him what kind of Pokémon was and where he came from. Of course, he kept it as vague as possible when he answered, even calling his species Fectonie to make them believe that it was a real species when in reality that name had just taken inspiration from his and Elfilis’s surname. 

Besides that, something really weird had been happening since he woke up, something he didn’t tell Magolor at that time when he asked about the chinchilla to not worry him. He had this… slight migraine on the back of his head for some reason. That felt strange to him because he never felt a headache like that ever since he opened his first portal. Not only that, some faint unintelligible whispers could be heard in his head. At first, he thought it was because of the headache, making him think he was imagining things. But, as time passed, the whispers were getting louder and louder, making the chinchilla realize that he wasn’t imagining things.

“Ngh…” Elfilin grunted, clutching a paw on his head as the migraine in his head grew a little for a moment before shrinking. “This is starting to become unbearable…” He then looked around, seeing that the movements on the streets had died down from before. After a bit of thinking, he decided to ask at least one more passerby to see if he had hit the jackpot or not. 

“Just one more wouldn’t hurt…” He forced himself to fly again, his levitation starting to falter a little. He had to be strong, he couldn’t let some mild headache hinder his psychic abilities, he was doing this for Kirby’s sake! 

The chinchilla floated around a little bit on the streets of the town, looking for a good Pokémon for the question. After some seconds, he found a Pokémon that looked willing enough to answer a question. It was a Pokémon that resembled a bipedal cactus with arms and legs with some spikes covering its limbs and even its torso. It was also wearing a green straw hat, that obscured one of its eyes, and an armband with an emblem that resembled an eclipse with a black moon covering the sun. If the hat was part of its body, Elfilin had no clue. 

Elfilin got close to the cactus-like Pokémon and waved at it, halting it in the process. “Hello, would you uh… be willing to answer some questions for me? They’re kinda urgent…” 

The Pokémon tilted their head and asked in confusion. “Uh… okay…?” He said with a male voice-

‘What the heck is this Pokémon?’

Elfilin flinched a little at the sudden question and started looking around for the source of the new voice that sounded like it was millimeters close to him. For some reason, it sounded like the same voice as the Pokémon in front of him. Where did that voice come from? And who is the owner?

“You… you good?” 

The psychic chinchilla looked back at the cactus Pokémon, a sheepish expression on Elfilin’s face as he rubbed the back of his head. “Y-yep, I’m good. Just uh… thought I heard something…” He shook his head and kept a straight face this time. “So… I wanted to ask two things. Firstly, have you seen a pink and round puffball that looked so carefree?”

The Pokémon looked aside in silence for a moment before eventually answering. “No…? I mean, not that I remember.”

“I see…” Elfilin sighed in defeat before asking the cactus Pokémon another question. “So the other question I wanted to ask was… have you seen… gears that float around these bubbles somewhere around here?”

The cactus Pokémon stayed in silence, this time looking at Elfilin with an unreadable expression before saying with a bit more certainty, unlike the last question. “Nope didn’t see any of that-”

‘Does this flying rat know? No, he’s probably asking just for his friend and looking for those gears as well.’

Elfilin subtly clasped a paw in his head, grunting a little in pain.

‘Even if that’s the case, better to not take any risks and just leave town. Can’t let them steal my loot.’

The chinchilla groaned, making the cactus-like creature stop talking and lean a bit closer to Elfilin. “Dude, you sure you’re alright?”

Elfiin ignored the question and asked a question of his own. “W-what do you mean… steal your loot…?” The cactus Pokémon’s eyes widened in surprise. “Do you have an Energy Sphere…?” The cactus Pokémon kept the silence before immediately darting off from there. Elfilin stuck a paw forward. “Hey, wait a minute!”

“Elfilin, what’s wrong?”

The psychic rodent turned his head back and found Dedede and Meta Knight walking towards him. They stopped in front of him as Dedede tilted his head. “We heard you calling out to someone, what happened?”

Elfilin fully turned to them and explained a bit hastily while waving his arms in a panicked state. “I was asking a Pokémon if he’d seen Kirby or the Energy Spheres somewhere, but out of nowhere, he just said that he’s gonna leave town because he’s afraid of someone stealing his loot! I think he might be hiding an Energy Sphere with him!”

The empoleon gasped as the jigglypuff flinched a little. “What!?” Dedede let out a bit of shock. 

Meta Knight then looked at the penguin with a serious look on his face. “Dedede, call the others! We need to catch up to that Pokémon.”

The penguin nodded and pulled out from his red robe a star-shaped smartphone. “On it!”

The masked knight then turned to Elfilin and asked. “Elfilin, what did that Pokémon look like? We couldn’t get a good view of him as he ran away.”

“Uh… he was a cactus-like being with arms and legs and wearing some kind of hat in its head. That’s… that’s all the most noticeable features.” Elfilin said while rubbing the back of his head.

“Thank you. Once everyone gets here we’ll immediately start looking for him.” Meta Knight said.

Elfilin nodded, ignoring the stinging he felt in his head. “Y-yes, Meta!” As the knight turned to look at Dedede, the chinchilla looked away with concern on his face as he thought about the way the cactus was talking to him. The way that he suddenly shifted his response to something else as he was about to deny it looked unnatural. And from the sound of his voice, he seemed so close to him, like he was breathing down his neck as he spoke even though… he wasn’t. 

Did he…?

No, he couldn’t. He could only make portals and summon spears to attack. So he didn’t need to think about impossible scenarios like that… right?