X—X—X -Book I: The Order- "…and with the end of the Black Plague, a third of Dreamland's population had been taken and the survivors began returning to the land. King Arthur's crown was passed down to the duke of Dreamland's neighboring land. Dreamland-" Curio rambled on. Most of the students in the small, excessively warm classroom were not even listening. From the town children to the few adults who had decided to 'learn something', only two were awake. Kirby was too busy sucking on a pencil and Fumu was concentrated on taking notes. Her pen scribbling down word after word was the only sound other than Curio's dull lecture. Bun lowered his head until his chin rested on his desk, staring out into the summer day from the corner of his eye. Why oh why did Dedede try and put them all back into school again? He hoped Kirby would do something like destroy the building so he and his friends could go and play soccer. Listening to anymore of this would just about kill him. "Bun," Fumu hissed in a low tone as she turned to him. "Pay attention. It's not like we go to school every day you know." "Yeah. One day is enough for me." "…the medieval period ended with the war and the Renaissance took place, which we will be covering in the next lesson. Are they any…eh…questions?" Curio put down the chalk to turn back to the class, who had livened up a little seeing that class was about to end. "No? We'll be having a test on this tomorrow. Study for it. Other than that, class is dismissed." What a way to ruin a day… Bun thought with despair. Maybe I'll see if I can steal sis' notes… Everyone closed their books and shuffled themselves to the doors. Fumu packed up her notebook and she and Bun waited for Kirby to wake up Tokkori who had fallen asleep on his head. One of the town children, Honey was still at her desk, holding her hand up. "Yes Honey?" "Who's she? This lady in the picture of the tapestry? Was she a princess? I like princesses…" Curio came to her desk and brushed aside the doodles Honey had drawn during the lecture to closely examine the picture. Tokkori just then woke up, complaining loudly. "What's with you guys? Leave me alone. I'm tired…" "Come on…class is over and I want to go play soccer…" Bun whined. The four moved towards the door, still talking among themselves. Behind them, Curio finally came with an answer, although he was starting to ramble again. "Oh…yes. Queen Clara the fourth. Yes, that's her. Daughter of King Arthur." "But why is the tapestry all ruined? Didn't they try to keep better care of it?" "Preserving history wasn't that easy…and there were wars in the centuries after." "Oh…but why is there only a small caption about her? Did she not do anything important?" "Mm…I don't think any scholars out there know exactly. They don't have any records of her past the age of twenty one, about three years after marrying." "So that's all they know about her?" Honey said with a little disappointment. "Gee…I always wished that there was a real princess that lived in Dreamland…" "Well…how to lightly put it? They think she was murdered…" As the door closed behind them, Bun and Tokkori leapt out with joy. Fumu rolled her eyes, taking Kirby's hand. "I don't suppose either of you are going to study for the test until tomorrow and have a panic attack." "Nope," Bun said. "I'm going to go and play soccer now. Kirby, you want to join?" "Oh no you don't," Fumu said, tugging Kirby away. "He and I are going to study." "Kirby can't study…he'd eat the test first before anything else!" Tokkori chirped. One of Bun's friends, Iroo, came up to them just then, a look of disappointment on his face. "Hey, Bun. The grass on the field's still wet from the rain last night…we can't play soccer today." "NO!" Bun shouted. "You've got to be kidding me!" "Come on Bun. Enough of it. Let's go back to the castle." His sister sighed. With great reluctance, Bun took one last deep breath of school and studying freedom before he followed Kirby and Fumu while Iroo and Tokkori waved goodbye. Dedede threw the demon beast catalog at the TV screen, eyes blazing at the sales man who shrank back from the outburst. Escargon was trying to calm him down but the king would hear none of it. "What do you mean? Out of the millions of junk you people sell, you don't have anything useful? I'm THROUGH with ordering demon beasts that Kirby's going to beat and save the day. I want something to bring all those stupid demon beasts back to take out him all at once, or else I'll demand for a refund!" "But your Majesty…they're gone and you know that. We can't bring things back to life." "Oh really? Then can you bring all those demon beasts to the present?" "I don't understand what you're trying order…" "If I can take all those demon beasts that I ordered in the past and take them all to the present, Kirby won't stand a chance with all of them attacking at once! Escargon here helped me figure all that out. How about something that goes back and forth through time? A time machine of some sort. You sell any of those?" "What? That's absurd! Your Majesty, there isn't such thing. I promise you that if we did, you'd be the first to kn-" "Don't try that with me! I know you guys sell it!" Dedede aggressively cut him off. "If it's not in the catalog, we don't have it." "You guys have lots of stuff that doesn't go in the catalog! Go and check because I want it!" Customer Service looked back at Dedede for a long time before finally; he turned away from the screen and began typing away at a computer. Dedede's patience was tested as several minutes went by and he sank as far back as he could into his throne. The sales man typed fast and scanned through pages and pages of lists, but the pace was too slow for the king. "Hey, what's going on? You done yet?" "I found one unlabeled product that came up on our online listings…there's almost no information here whatsoever about it." "Show me! I want to see!" Customer Service adjusted his own computer's monitor and tilted its screen to show them. The page was indeed bland. There was no product picture or much description at all. Only a single, brief statement explained it for all its glory. No image available Product name: No given name Inventory stock: x1 Description: Time machine Customer review: None available "It doesn't even have a name or any customer reviews on the product…I'm at a loss for words, your Majesty. But its description matches what you're looking for." "Is this another scam?" Escargon asked with suspicion. Customer Service only responded with a shrug of his shoulders and a vague smirk. "If you two don't wish to buy it, we'll just put it up for sale on our catalogs and sell it to the next custo-" "Alright! Fine! I'm buying it!" Dedede burst out. "Sire…" Escargon moaned. "We don't even know if this thing is even worth buying…" "Shut up. I'm buying the stupid thing. This had better be good..." Dedede said, smacking his advisor on the head. "Well then...here's the price," The sales man said before scrolling down to the price listing. Both Dedede and Escargon's jaws dropped and the two were left stammering. Customer Service wasted no time in quietly reminding them of their unpaid expenses. "…and your debt still hasn't been paid. You ever plan on clearing it?" "Just send the thing…" Escargon croaked out from under Dedede's fist. "Very well. I'll just put it on your…ever growing bill..." The sales man muttered dryly. Customer Service pressed a button hidden from the screen and the delivery system came to life. Light flashed from the platform of the machine, blinding the two as it grew brighter. But as suddenly as the light had come, it faded away and Dedede and Escargon leaned forward, staring at the small, metal brick-like object that had appeared on the platform. "Have fun figuring out the directions. Hope it satisfies your wishes…" Customer Service clicked another button and the screen flickered off, the entire TV quickly disappearing into its compartment in the wall. One final object appeared on the delivery machine and that was a single sheet of paper that fluttered down on to the throne room's carpet. Dedede picked it up, scratching his head while trying to read it before he gave up and handed it to Escargon. The snail examined it, frowning. No assembly required. We hope your patience is great. The machine decides to work when it wants to. CAUTION: product is highly sensitive! Nightmare Enterprise NME "Gee. That was beyond useful…" Escargon said sarcastically. "Sire, I think we were ripped off…" Dedede was silent, eyes staring hard at the contraption as if his glare would intimidate it enough to begin doing what it was supposed to be doing. Finally, he picked it up, tossing it in his hand. "What am I supposed to do with it? Throw it at Kirby's head and hope it kills him?" "Stop Sire! It's highly sensitive!" Dedede almost dropped the brick but he quickly set it down…gently. "Hey, wait a second. If it's just a scam then everything on that stupid sheet are just made up…" "Well, we don't exactly know if it is a scam of if it really is real. I mean, you can't tell until it does something I guess…" "Hmph. Right now I'm hungry. By the time I get back, this thing better be ready to work…" The two left the room, grumbling about being cheated on and useless, costly mechanisms. "Sir, they're gone now. Shall we go and check out what they ordered?" With a nod, all three of the knights came out of their hiding places in the shadows of the columns bordering the throne room. They stopped in front of the doors; made sure the troublesome two would not be returning and then surrounded the mysterious metal block. "It disgusts me the way Dedede goes off and spends every cent he has…and its not even his! Its all of the townspeople taxes!" Sword muttered. "I hope that wasn't a scam…did you see way their jaws dropped when Customer Service showed them the price? I'm actually kind of glad we were hiding at the opposite side, facing away from the TV…I don't even want to know how much Dedede spent on this…it's just a brick! There aren't even any buttons or switches!" "I wouldn't say that quite yet…" The two apprentices turned to their lord whose gold eyes were fixed upon the metal slab. He drew his sword and out of its scabbard, Galaxia slide out with a brilliant flash before its glow subsided in its blade. The knight reached out and experimentally tapped the metal brick's side with his sword, waiting for a reaction. There were none. "Sir? You know what it is?" Meta Knight shook his head, frowning under his mask. "I don't…if it didn't have Nightmare's logo engraved on its side, I would have thought it was nothing more than a block…it's not a demon beast, but yet the way its not doing anything concerns me…" "Maybe it is just a brick…" Blade murmured. Behind them, the throne room door suddenly opened and they all stood back, expecting to see Dedede but instead were met with the sounds of Kirby making happy sounds as he clambered in. Fumu and Bun poked their head into the room. "Sir Meta Knight? We heard your voices from the hall. Is something going on?" "Yeah. Dedede went and ordered something dumb again," Blade answered for him. "We don't even have a clue what it is." Curiously, the three came up to the metal block and "Did you guys hear anything about it? Like what Dedede or Customer Service said?" "No. We got here after they were done discussing about it and waited for Dedede and Escargon to leave. But it's from Nightmare and everything from Nightmare is bad…" Sword picked up the slip of paper and held it out for the others to see. "Check it out. It looks like Dedede really did get scammed…" "Has it done anything?" "Poyo?" "No…not yet at least." Meta Knight answered. "We'll have to continue watching it." "But if it hasn't done anything, when is-" "META KNIGHT!" Dedede shouted from two floors down, breaking apart the conversation as the entire castle rumbled. The veteran Star Warrior winced. With a heavy sigh, he began moving towards the door with Sword and Blade following behind him. As they left, Bun looked back at the brick and giving it a small nudge with his foot, he kicked it a few paces away. Suddenly, it began shaking violently, rattling closer to where Kirby stood. Then it stopped for a long moment, everyone was frozen. Its lid slid open and glowing lights shimmered out. "Poyo!" Kirby exclaimed in surprise as he was lifted into the air. "Kirby!" Everyone shouted after him as he disappeared. "Sis! Help meeeee!" Bun screamed as he too was pulled in. His flailing hands caught her hair and she was wrenched backwards. Meta Knight was faster than his two apprentices and he leapt towards her, reaching for her hand. Their hands just missed and Fumu's wide eyes watched as lights swirled around her before the box's lid snapped shut, leaving the knights behind as the children tumbled down into the light.