The Adventures of Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee

•16• A Visitor And A Plan

"CHICKEN CHICKEN CHICKEN CHICKEN CHICKEN CHICKEN CHICKEN CHICKEN!" Dedede's voice cut through the stunned silence that followed Colonel Sanders' appearance. The king pushed past everyone to stare hungrily at the melting plastic chicken. After staring for a while, he turned to Colonel Sanders. "Oi, ya' gonna fry this up or what?"

Colonel Sanders adjusted his glasses. "Well son, you do realize that it's plastic, do you not?"

"Plastic shmlastic." Dedede just scoffed.

Meta Knight looked up from where he was laying on the floor. "Ingesting plastic can lead to digestive problems."

"Well, whateva!" Dedede huffed, crossing his arms. "I'm starvin'!"

"YOU JUST ATE MY ENTIRE INVENTORY 10 MINUTES AGO!" Magolor poked his head out from around the doorway, despite having disappeared in an escape pod in the previous chapter. The Halcandran's ears flattened as he angrily gestured towards an empty refrigerator.

Dedede shrugged in response, answering in a monotone "sorry."

Colonel Sanders cleared his throat. "This thing here is just a pile o' plastic, but I can whip ya' up some real chicken."

Dedede squealed immaturely, waving his mittened hands around while Meta Knight rolled his eyes. With a groan, Kirby sat up and rubbed his head. "What month is it..?"

"April 29th, 2017, which is precisely 71 days after national cabbage day," Meta Knight informed the puffball, who was wide-eyed with confusion. "Or, if you'd prefer, 2 months and 12 days, excluding the end date. Alternate approximate units include 6,134,400 seconds, 102,240 minutes, 1,704 hours, 71 days, 10 weeks and 1 day, and 19.45% of 2017."

Kirby just blinked. "Why the crap do you know stuff like that?"

"Because I'm Meta Knight. So I know everything."

Sword Knight coughed pointedly, apparently having regained consciousness. "Conceited."

Kirby scanned the room. Bandana Dee was sitting up, being oddly quiet. Sword Knight was standing with his arms crossed, leaning on the melted chicken; the fire had long since burned out. Blade Knight was just starting to come to, rubbing his head several times. King Dedede was having an engaging conversation with Colonel Sanders about fried chicken. Magolor was just chilling in the doorway, ears still flat. Meta Knight was hiding in his cape, mumbling something along the lines of "Nova take me now."

Bzzzzzz!

At the sound of the buzz, Magolor's flattened ears perked up. "Oh. It seems we have a visitor." He left the room after that, going to the entrance of the ship. Kirby decided to follow him.

Magolor promptly opened the main door, despite them being in outer space. Kirby was beyond shocked by who he found floating outside. The puffball's mouth opened, but no sound came out, leaving him staring at the arrivers in stunned silence. Kirby almost wished that it could have been Ronald McDonald, Burger King, Wendy, Dora, anyone besides him.

The all too familiar face of Marx was there, accompanied by a shaking Galacta Knight, happy Sailor Dee, neutral Waddle Doo, and yippy Juan.

"Hello!" Magolor greeted them kindly. Kirby pushed past the alien to glare at Marx. "What are you doing here, you poyo?"

Marx smiled innocently. "Well, I was back on Popstar, just bouncin' around on my ball as usual, when I came across these two." He gestured at Sailor Dee and Waddle Doo, who both waved at Kirby. "Anyway," Marx went on, "they said that you guys went off into space, and the Waddle Dee was worried about y'all, while the Waddle Doo said something about...'A disturbance in the force of racism.'" The light purple puff shook his head. "Whatever that means. So I said I'd take them into space so I could reunite 'em with you guys. Along the way, I found this one-" He paused to gesture at Galacta Knight, "-floating around in space with the Chihuahua, saying something about a...turkey?"