24:00:00

Kirby woke up in darkness. His eyes did adjust after a bit, but he was nervous. The room was made of stone, with one bed, and a wall of iron bars. As if the scene wasn't bad enough, he saw a shadowy figure approaching from the other side of the bars. Kirby was relieved when the figure stepped into the light.

"Dee!" Kirby cheered, running up to the bars.

"That's Bandana Dee to you!" He said, clutching his bandana, "Calling me 'Dee' can apply to any waddle dee."

"Poyo?"

"Alright, Kirby. You're just gonna live here for the next few years, okay?"

Kirby looked around his new home. He saw it in a new, positive light. The stone had nice patterns, the bed was a nice touch, and the wall of bars ensured that he could talk to visitors! He was going to like this place.

=====

*Theme Song Plays*

=====

22:52:43

Dedede sat in his throne, happy with the situation. Kirby was locked in the dungeon, Bandana Dee didn't hear his conversation with Kabu, and Zero hasn't needed to send out any dark matter for a few days! Even Zero seemed impressed with the king! It seemed as if nothing could go wrong.

"Your majesty!" Escargoon slithered in, waving his arms, "We've got a situation!"

"Huh? What's going on?" Dedede said, drowsily. He was about to take a royal nap in his throne, but this situation seemed urgent.

"So, I support what we did yesterday, Kirby needed to be knocked down a peg or two, but some civilians are worried!" Escargoon began to rant, "The Anti-Kirby groups like that decision because he's a threat to Dreamland, but the others are concerned about dark matter. This is a lose-lose situation, I-I-"

"They're just being paranoid," Dedede put his hand of Escargoon's shoulder, "Dark Matter hasn't even attacked since the Heartstorm Incident!"

"Sire, a kid got possessed that day Kirby went to Dreamland Academy."

"What?"

"You didn't know?"

"Oh, I didn't know!" Dedede stroked his chin, looking up at the emblem of his crown, "I guess someone forgot to inform me..."

"Sire, I was with you the whole day, I knew less than you until I talked to your subjects."

"I'll figure this out, don't you worry!" Dedede chuckled, "Now, can you excuse me for one second?"

"Uh, sure..." Escargoon stuttered, as Dedede stormed out of the throne room.

After the king left, he needed a safe, private place to talk to Zero. He looked at the basement door, but before he opened it, he sensed something move nearby. Dedede glanced around, looking for anyone who could be watching. He spotted a glimpse of a yellow foot before it moved out of the way.

Dedede went to his bedroom instead. Here, after closing and locking his door, he began to rip into Zero. 

"Why would you possess a child?"

If it makes you feel better, I was aiming for the coach.

"It does make me feel a bit better, but why wouldn't you tell me?"

You seemed occupied, and it just slipped my mind afterwards.

"We're supposed to be on the same team! Why would you do this?"

It worked, didn't it? 

"What do you mean?"

Kirby went way too overboard battling, he nearly tore down a school wall!

"Y-You still didn't have a reason to attack..."

At first, I sent one there to observe! He attacked it! My dark matter acted in self-defense. Besides, don't you think we should focus on the citizens concern?

"Fine, but this isn't over!"

Do you need me to just lay low for a while? Never mind, that wouldn't work fast enough...

"Fast enough?"

We might want to resolve this quickly, and you might want to talk quietly. I sense someone right outside your door.

"What?" Dedede went down to a whisper, "How long were they listening?"

For the past ten seconds, they heard nothing about the dark matter, thankfully...

"Okay, how to calm the public? They're scared of dark matter, and Kirbeh is the only one who can do anything about them publicly..." Dedede walked up to his mirror and flexed a little, "Or is he?"

=====

19:04:53

Kirby sat on his new bed, happy as one could be in prison. Bandana Dee stood outside of his cell, keeping an eye on him. Something in his gut told him that it was just an accident, but Dedede would get mad if he let Kirby go free. Once his shift was over, he would talk to the king about reducing his sentence. Three years seemed a bit harsh to him.

At least Kirby was happy. He could stomach the awful prison food, he liked running his nub against the wall pattern, he hasn't even had to use the bathroom yet, and that place smelled awful. As Bandana Dee was admiring Kirby for being so tenacious, Waddle Doo walked up to him.

"It's my shift, dude." The one-eyed orb said, "Ooh, if that Kirby tries to escape, he'll get the wrath of my Beam Attack! Also, your sister wants to talk to you."

His sister wanted to talk to him? She could wait in line, he had to talk to Dedede.

=====

18:52:32

Tiff and Tuff walked into Kirby's house, not being surprised to find it as a mess. This was where she and Kirby worked to prove his innocence. Hopefully, she could finish the job.

"What are we even looking for, Tiff?" Tuff asked, "You didn't exactly give me any details."

"Just look for something that makes Kirby seem like an innocent child," She replied, "Something un-incriminating."

"Can't we just break Kirby out?"

"And make him look worse than he already does?" Tiff kicked a pillow aside, "We need to prove him innocent. Breaking him out is only in case dark matter attacks before we get him out."

"Fine..." Tuff grumbled as he searched around for clues. 

Tiff got out from under the bed, about ready to give up, when she saw Kirby's backpack, still hanging on the closet door. There were even art supplies sticking out of it! Tiff ran over to it and checked inside. After confirming what was in there, she ran out. It took fifteen seconds for Tuff to realize that his sister was gone, and then he ran after her.

=====

18:21:08

"I just think that it's a little harsh," Bandana Dee said, "He is just a child, what does he learn from this?"

The king was writing a speech when the captain of the royal guard walked into his room. Somehow, the conversation had drifted to Kirby. Dedede was shocked at how much sense this waddle dee was making. What does a child learn from being locked in a dungeon?

Tell him that he learns discipline.

"Discipline," he couldn't think of what to say, so he just followed Zero's lead, "He learns that what he did was wrong so that he doesn't do it again."

"That's understandable, but are you even allowed to lock a child up for three YEARS? " Bandana Dee seemed adamant about reducing Kirby's sentence, but Dedede felt unsure about whether or not this was a good idea.

"Firstly, this ain't a democracy, I can do whatever I want," Dedede smirked, but then began to stroke his chin, "You got a point, though. I mean, I don't even know how he's doing in there!" Bandana Dee didn't want to bring up that Kirby was having fun in the dungeon, so he didn't say anything. "I'll consider it, you're free to go."

Bandana Dee walked away, feeling victorious about the negotiations. Then, out of nowhere, Tiff came running into the room with a backpack in hand. He had a feeling that she was going to talk to Dedede about Kirby. Using his spear, he tripped Tiff, making her fall on the ground.

"Hey!" She was very upset, "What was that for?"

"There's no need, Tiff!" The waddle dee said, taking a step back to avoid getting slapped, "I already talked to Dedede, he said that he'll consider lowering Kirby's sentence. Now, please don't possibly undo what I just did."

Tiff stood up, still holding the backpack. She wanted to try talking to the king. Her evidence just might convince him to release Kirby entirely. But, as much as she hated to admit it, Bandana Dee had a good point. If she messed up bad enough, Dedede might actually extend Kirby's sentence. Swallowing her pride, she handed the pack to him. "Just make sure that this gets to Kirby," Tiff looked away, "I think he had something to say."

With that, she walked away, leaving the waddle dee alone with his thoughts and a brightly-colored backpack.

=====

17:04:27

Bandana Dee walked into the Royal Guard Headquarters. He was unsure of what to expect. Would Sailor Dee be understanding, or upset that he talked to Dedede first? She and Blade Knight were sitting on the couch, having waited for him for two hours.

"Sorry, I was uh...convincing Dedede to shorten Kirby's sentence." He said, deciding to tell the truth. He had a feeling that it would make everything easier if he was transparent.

"Oh, sure," Sailor Dee said, mockingly, "I'm sure you weren't sucking up to the king, as usual."

Sucking up? Bandana Dee did some self-reflection. To an untrained eye, his undying loyalty could be seen that way, but it wasn't sucking up. Right? "I-I'm telling the truth." He stammered, shocked at the mockery, "I was telling the king that Kirby was a baby, and that he didn't deserve to-"

"Alright, never mind. You can go now." Blade Knight interrupted him.

"What do you mean, 'I can go'? I live here."

"Just leave us alone for five minutes, please!" Sailor Dee seemed exasperated.

Why was she so desperate? Bandana Dee got the feeling that they were hiding something. He was going to figure out what it was. Until then, he was going to respect his team's privacy. He decided to go back to the castle. 

Sailor Dee waited until her brother was out of earshot. Then, she turned to Blade Knight and raised her nubs. "What was that?" She nearly shouted, "Why did you let him go?"

"It seems like he's more independent than we thought." The knight crossed his arms, nodding at his leader, "I wanted to talk to you. Maybe we could tell him about-"

"No." She pulled her parasol out, threateningly.

"Well, why not?"

"We'll tell him when he's ready to hear it."

=====

13:16:30

Tiff read through the book. She had found it in the library, gathering obscene amounts of dust, to the point where she couldn't read the cover. When she wiped the dust off of the cover, she saw that it was a book on star warriors. This would come in handy for proving that Kirby was too young to go to the dungeon (a law that she abused many times). Tiff opened the book to the table of contents. It was five pages long. She decided to just read the first chapter for tonight.

There, she only got barebones information about star warriors. Most of it, she already knew. Star Warriors are trained to save galaxies, they were all powerful, the fact that they sealed Nightmare, they each had a special power that affects training, but she found a new, seemingly important piece of the puzzle.

"Hey, Tuff!" She said to her brother, who was attempting to sleep at the hour of 11pm, "I found something!"

Tuff groaned, nearly collapsing out of his bed. He was tired, and mad at his sister, but he did want to see what she found.

She read the page to him. "Each Star Warrior has a guardian. It's their job to take care of the larvae, and train them in basic combat. They have many abilities, such as living for eons, high resilience, and the ability to summon their warp star by asking the local Kabu." She spun around from the desk, exclaiming, "Kabu's just a glorified garage? That's stupid! Why would the guardian just be able to go, 'Ooh, Kabu! Send the warp star'? That just seems-"

She felt a shift in the fabric of reality. Something happened nearby, and her bloodshot eyes darted around the room. Tuff had climbed back into bed, content with that as a bedtime story. Tiff decided to finally go to bed as well, she must've been losing it.

Had she stayed awake, she may have noticed the shooting star, headed straight for Castle Dedede.

=====

12:49:57

Kirby didn't snore. That was one thing that Blade Knight had noticed about the pink puff during his night shift. It looked like he also found the floor comfortable to sleep on. Why was there even a night shift? This prisoner slept from early night to almost noon every day, without fail. Maybe no one would notice if he took just a little nap...

Just as he was about to nod off, a yellow flash knocked him out. The impact woke Kirby up in a panic. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the warp star in front of him. The warp star also seemed upset, so it charged into the iron bars, shattering them into pieces. After it broke around 30 different laws in one move, it beckoned its rider to hop on, which Kirby happily did (even though he was tired). 

Bandana Dee was walking through the castle, still holding the backpack that Tiff had given him. He didn't want to go back and be called a suck-up again, so he decided to make good on a promise to Tiff. What he didn't expect was a yellow flash to zip over him. After thinking about it, he recognized that flash.

It was the warp star.

He ran after it. Just when he thought that Kirby was getting to be good, he breaks out of jail. That was just perfect! Still, Bandana Dee picked up the backpack before he ran. He didn't know why he did that. Maybe some part of him still thought that Kirby had pure intentions. Either way, he was going to find out.

As for Kirby, he was having the time of his life, zooming around the castle. All of the rooms were satisfying to fly by. The kitchen still smelled great at the late hour, the janitors closet was nice to see again, even the staircase had a special charm to it. But, then he passed by a room that felt oddly familiar.

When the warp star backed up to it, he saw the two words above the door. Castle Basement. Kirby sensed a powerful, dark energy coming from the room. It was dark matter. He was about to charge in when he heard Bandana Dee panting, looking like he went on a long and tiring run.

"Kirby!" He gasped, "What are you doing...outside of your cell?" Bandana Dee seemed angry about him leaving. He could go back to his room later, he needed to take care of what was in the basement. "Why do you wanna see the basement, anyway?" Bandana Dee sighed. 

"Poyo!"

"I don't speak Poyo."

Kirby, after thinking of another way to communicate, acted like someone possessed by dark matter, complete with a little growl. His acting wasn't good, but it was cute and got the message across. There was dark matter in the basement. Understanding, Bandana Dee nodded and then slowly opened the door.

It was a dark room. Kirby held out a pink heart, which gave off a faint glow. It helped with the darkness a little bit, but not enough to illuminate the whole room. Just before they could do any serious searching, a chilling presence left the room. Bandana Dee looked at the door just in time to see a piece of dark matter, zooming out of the basement.

"Kirby!" He shouted, "There it is!"

The two of them ran out of the room, even though Kirby still felt something in there. Shutting the door behind him, the waddle dee watched as the dark orb flew at a blistering pace. He was wondering how they could catch up when Kirby hopped on the warp star, beckoning his friend to join. Bandana Dee held on tight to the shooting star as it took both of them out of the castle.

After they shot into the sky, they looked around, searching for any clue as to where it could've gone. Then, a purple beam shot from someplace near Whispy Woods. Kirby, pointed down at the source, where a single, red eyeball was barely visible. The warp star went down at a very quick pace, straight towards dark matter. Just when it seemed like they were about to get it, the dark matter dissipated into smoke.

They didn't notice the ground until it was too late.

=====

4:14:05

Dedede was getting ready for his speech. He had five minutes until he had to convince the masses that putting Kirby into the dungeon was the morally correct decision. Luckily, with Zero's help, he could pull that off. When Escargoon left to test the equipment, the king did one more test. 

"You read my script, right?" He whispered to Zero, "It's some of my best work yet."

Sire, I have something urgent to tell you-

"I know, my story writing skills are supreme, aren't they?"

Ugh...

"Aren't they?"

You did good for your first time, and that's what matters...

Dedede quietly celebrated as he adjusted his clothes. A king couldn't save the kingdom while looking sloppy, after all. Just as he finished fluffing his robe, the clock posts rang. It was showtime.

The king walked onto the stage, toward the podium, ready to give his speech. Just before he could start, a laser shot into the crowd. Everyone looked up in panic to see dark matter floating around, seemingly looking for a target.

"Hey, you cycloptic sludge!" Dedede shouted, making sure that any cameras would get his good side, "You wanna possess someone? You'll never get me!" The blob rushed towards the king, shortly before getting smacked away by a wooden mallet. Dedede chuckled, "You are already Dededefeated..." before heading in for another strike.

=====

4:10:36

Bandana Dee was the first one to wake up. The second he saw the blue daylight, he gasped in a panic and shook Kirby awake. "Kirby! We gotta get back to the castle! W-Where's the warp star?" The warp star, as it turned out, had shrunken back down after the impact. "This is bad! We have to get back before Dedede realizes that you were gone!"

"Poyo?" Kirby didn't understand the big deal about him being in the dungeon.

"You don't understand, Kirby!" Bandana Dee shouted, nearly on the verge of tears, "I could lose my job for something this bad!" He began to shake, scared of what could happen, "I let you stay out of your cell, I can't lose this! I already worked my whole life to get here!" At this point, he had collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, "I can't- Without this- I'M NOTHING!"

Kirby put his nub on Bandana Dee's head before giving him a hug. The waddle dee returned the favor, squeezing Kirby a little too much. "Th-Thank you..." the captain calmed down, and began to get an idea. "Kirby," he said, "How's your spelling?"

=====

4:02:47

The battle between Dedede and dark matter continued for far longer than either of them would've liked. The king gave Zero a silent signal, spinning his hammer exactly five times, like they agreed on. He clearly got the message, because the next hit sent dark matter flying into the stratosphere.

After that last hit, everyone cheered. Their great king had just defeated a piece of dark matter. Suddenly, the complaints about Kirby being locked up had halted, there was no need to let him free if someone else could deal with dark matter.

That's why everyone was sort of freaked out when Kirby came out of the foliage, bound by makeshift handcuffs. He was being prodded forward by the butt end of a spear. Everyone, even King Dedede felt some pride when Bandana Dee joined his prisoner. Before they went off into the audience, the two gave a subtle nod to each other.

The pink prisoner did his best to look as defeated as he could, with the hopes of Dedede being impressed. "Your majesty," Bandana Dee said, dragging Kirby along gently, "I caught him trying to escape. He's tough to catch, but I promised him food, and he just went along with it."

"That's impressive!" Dedede said, and it really seemed like he meant it, "Now, back to the dungeon with-"

Suddenly, Kirby ripped the handcuffs off, then grabbed Bandana Dee's spear and began to write with it. It took about a minute, but there was a message on the ground.

I sori

Kirby then slipped the handcuffs back on. Even if he didn't get freedom, at least Dedede, at least Dreamland would know that he regretted his actions. Then, out of nowhere, Tiff and Tuff came bursting into Town Square, holding a couple of books.

"I've made a discovery! Kirby can't go to the dungeon! It's against your laws!" Tiff said, going to a page in the book, "According to Act 14, Amendment J, Minors cannot be detained." Tuff went to a page in his book, which was a star warrior manual, and Tiff continued, "According to this book, Kirby is a larvae star warrior. He is an infant, and therefore cannot be locked in the dungeon!"

Dedede was perplexed by how prepared she was for this. Between that, and Kirby's apology, he was split on wether or not to let him go.

Let him go. He cannot stay in the castle anymore. It's not like it matters much anyways...

"Fine," Dedede said, a bit frustrated, "Kirbeh's free now."

Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby all celebrated the pink puff's freedom. Bandana Dee also joined in, the siblings drowned him out. The four of them left for Kirby's house to have a little reunion Everyone else seemed to be on edge. Especially Dedede.

"So, what's gonna happen now?" He whispered to Zero.

Oh, the star warriors are picking him up soon, remember?

"In how long?" Dedede had forgotten all about that. Maybe he shouldn't have spent the night writing a battle script.

=====

3:59:20

"Ugh..." Meta Knight groaned, looking at the timer, "Four hours? We need to get there faster!" He paced around impatiently, prepping his dramatic entrance. "We need to get there before the Jambastion discovers this powerful star warrior!" Frustrated with how long that this was taking, Meta Knight sat down and waited...

And waited...

And waited...