//------------------------------// // Tale 1, Part 2: Hello Darkness, Goodbye Darkness // Story: Tales From The Omniverse // by Lucar //------------------------------// The giant cloud of darkness was already spreading all over the world, hiding the sun, and countless Dark Matters could be seen coming out of it and descending toward the surface. Most of the locals began to panic, some trying to escape. Local Dedede and Escargoon seemed to hesitate between running away and using local Kirby as a cover. Seeing that, Sweetie Void made a boom sound from her horn, gaining everyone’s attention. “Remain close, everyone! Me and Kirby and Void and Galacta Knight can protect you from these things!” she shouted, amplifying her voice so everyone could hear. “What are they?” Tiff asked after running toward her from the reserve bench. “Dark Matter. Abominations of darkness that possess beings to spread misery and suffering to plunge worlds into darkness. They are only vulnerable to positivity, especially love.” The local Meta Knight landed beside her. “Which means that we can’t do anything against them. I heard about this scourge of the universe but I had hoped that they would never come to this world. You can fight them?” To answer him, Sweetie began to fire beams of positive Heart Matter at the approaching Dark Matters, blowing them up. At the same time, her Kirby took his Stella Knight form and flew alongside Galacta Knight and Void with rainbow swords and spear to attack the Dark Matters and protect everyone. The local Kirby looked at his counterpart in awe. He then thought about what Sweetie said and looked at Tiff. She understood. “Kabu! Warp Star!” she yelled. A few seconds later, a Warp Star arrived and approached Kirby who inhaled it, to Sweetie’s surprise. To her shock, it gave him the Star Rod. “Eeh?!” Kirby began to swing the Star Rod, sending countless star projectiles that were revealed to be effective against the Dark Matters. Sweetie Void was impressed by how many stars he could send with a single swing. This Star Rod was more powerful than the one from the Dream Universe. Despite that, too many Dark Matters were coming, but Sweetie Void smirked. Then, she emanated a pink light full of love that spread very far all over the world, destroying every single Dark Matters, including the cloud of darkness. There was a screech of pain coming from a giant white ball that remained from the cloud. Zero. Sweetie looked at her Kirby, Galacta Knight, and Void, grinning. “So, who does the honor?” Local Kirby raised an arm and shouted, “Poyo!” Sweetie giggled. “Of course. It’s your world. You get to save it. But to fly up there, you will need something. Climb on my back.” She then changed to an appropriate size to accommodate the bigger local Kirby. Local Kirby nodded and climbed on her. There was a flash of light, and Sweetie’s mane and tail were suddenly full of glowing stars. She laughed. “Of course the Star Rod is counted as an Ability!” “Poyo?” “Yeah, it happens when Kirby climbs on my back with an Ability. It was very nice back when I didn’t have lots of powers. Now, let’s go. Time to go kill my second Zero.” So she flew toward Zero, Kirby readying the Star Rod. It didn’t take long to reach him. He stared at them with his blood red eye full of hate and pain. “I wish I could do something to end your pain, like what happened to Gooey,” Sweetie Void said sadly. “My pain can never end,” Zero replied, to Sweetie’s surprise. “Pain is all that there is. Everyone will feel it and know it as the only truth.” Kirby pointed the Star Rod at Zero, sending countless stars circling him, making him screech in pain. They weren’t enough, however, to kill him, to Kirby’s shock. The stars remained at least. In return, Zero sent blood and created Dark Matters to attack Kirby and Sweetie Void, forcing the filly to fly around to avoid them while firing stars to destroy the Dark Matters. Kirby sent more and more stars with the Star Rod, accumulating them around Zero who screeched more and more in pain. Zero tried to ram them but Sweetie teleported to avoid him, reappearing behind him. Again, Kirby fired stars from the Star Rod. By now, Zero’s body was almost entirely surrounded by them. Finally, Zero’s body began to glow with the accumulated power of all the stars. The eye quickly expelled itself out as the body began to evaporate. Sweetie teleported again to avoid the eye as it tried to ram her. The eye was fast and immediately changed trajectory to go after her, forcing her to teleport more while Kirby continued to fire stars with the Star Rod. However, the eye was too fast and was able to avoid most of the stars, to Kirby’s shock. Some still caught him and surrounded him. In the end, it was a matter of time before enough stars surrounded the eye and caused it to evaporate too, Zero giving one last screech. “You are lucky, Kirby, my Zero’s death was much messier,” Sweetie Void said. “Poyo.” “And I don’t think that this one will return as Zero Two. His body disintegrated. No way for him to reform.” “Poyo?” “Yeah, I had to deal with him two times before he died definitively, and the second time was just as messy as the first time. I planted a crystal into his eye.” Kirby shuddered. “I know, not a nice memory. Still one of the messiest deaths I experienced.” Sweetie Void flew back toward the soccer field, hearing, then seeing almost everyone there applauding at her and Kirby. Once they landed, everyone surrounded them and congratulated them. “That was awesome!” “You were incredible!” “Good job!” “That’s my girl!” Dedede shouted. “We can’t thank you enough for saving us,” one of the Cappies, the Mayor, said to Sweetie eventually. “It was nothing. It was actually my joy to have such an easy fight against Zero. It was therapeutic. He caused a lot of suffering to everyone, me included, in the other universe,” Sweetie Void replied. “How bad would it have been if you hadn’t been here?” local Dedede asked hesitantly with a gulp. “Everyone here would have been possessed except Kirby who would have been forced to fight all of you. Then, he would have had to find a way to fly to Zero while holding the Star Rod. Finally, he would have had to fight Zero while also dealing with the Dark Matters that he created.” “In other words, this would have been very bad, but Kirby would have certainly still won in the end,” local Meta Knight said. “The battle would have been more difficult than the one against eNeMeE, but Kirby has proven more than once that he can win despite all odds.” “I don’t doubt it,” Sweetie agreed. “So, what about the soccer match?” Local Dedede grumbled something, then tossed the ball at Tuff. Escargoon sighed. “You were losing very badly anyway.” “Shut up!” At that, Dedede stomped away, followed by Escargoon and the Waddle Dees. To celebrate Dark Matter’s destruction, another soccer match was started instead. What had been in Sweetie’s team was divided into two teams joined by some of the locals. Local Meta Knight even decided to join in the team opposing local Kirby, probably to test him. Sweetie and her Kirby also went to opposing teams. Void went for goalie in Kirby’s team. The children all joined. Tiff was the referee. It was a lot of fun! And no cheating! And since the soccer field was here to stay, the locals could have more matches in the future! Before long, the match was over. In the end, Sweetie Void and the others remained for the rest of the day, spending it visiting Cappy Town and having a good time with the locals. Marx made several pranks with the children. The local policecappy kept an eye on Daroach. Local Meta Knight had his duel with his counterpart and Galacta Knight. Local Kirby had a brief nap with his counterpart and Rick. When the sun set, Sweetie Void promised to bring a portal to allow local Kirby and the others to visit, and in return, she will visit them regularly. “And don’t hesitate to call if more threats show themselves on Popstar. I know for a fact that Nightmare and Dark Matter were only the start if this is like in the other universe,” Sweetie Void said. “Nothing that Kirby shouldn’t be able to deal with, I bet,” Tuff said proudly. “Yeah, especially if he can get the Star Rod whenever he wants just by inhaling his Warp Star. That’s a big advantage he has compared to my Kirby before he trained with Void. But it means that Tiff will have to remain at his side.” “And I don’t intend to leave him,” Tiff said. “So I guess this is goodbye for now.” “Yes, goodbye.” Sweetie Void and Tiff shook hoof and hand. Then goodbyes were said with the others before Sweetie opened a rift.