Chapter 2: The Forest's Edge

Dagger found himself in one of those rare positions in which he was the one who had to be the brains, not Cutter. The 'Kibble was in such a state of mental shock that he apparently couldn't talk. ...Well, he could, but what he was saying didn't appear to be in the Dreamlander language, or any language at all, for that matter.

"Um..." The Blade Knight grinned sheepishly, carefully nudging his friend out of the way. "Didn't... do it?"

"You stole my crops!" Farmer Ramble screamed as though he hadn't heard, which he probably hadn't. "You waited 'til I wasn't here and you stole my crops! I trusted you guys!"

"Didn't do it!" Dagger repeated, much louder this time. His voice squeaked a bit more than it normally did as he said this, probably out of fear. "R-reallydidn't!" He held up his paws and shook his head.

Ramble could hear him that time and approached him, looking him in the eye. "If you didn't do it, then who did? Huh?"

"U-uh..." The Dreamlander went to rub his chin in thought, but felt the fake beak around his mouth. "Oh! Uh... Dye... Di... uh..."

"DYNABLADE!" Cutter blurted out, finally managing to say an actual word. "I-it was Dynablade y'gotta believe us Farmer Ramble it really wasn't us and we would NEVER steal from you and it was really Dynablade and he swooped from the sky creating this really big wind and stole a bunch of the food and flew away and sa;ljdf;dsalfjdsja-" He promptly went back to babbling senselessly.

"...Yah!" Dagger confirmed, nodding his head vigorously.

"Dynablade?" The Cappy looked at the two Dreamlanders as though they were idiots. "I ain't heard about that thing since I was a kid! You expect me to believe that?" He shook his head incredulously. "Besides, if that thing really did swoop down and steal m' crops, I woulda' heard it!"

Dagger looked at Ramble, eyes half-lidded in a sarcastic expression. "Buh-huuuuh..."

There was a silence, bar Cutter's incoherent stammering, before Ramble started screeching again. "THIEVES! ROBBERS! I'LL HAVE YOU IN JAIL!"

The Blade Knight, getting the idea that the farmer probably wasn't going to listen to him anymore, grabbed Cutter and started to run like mad through the field of ruined crops. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the Cappy was, oddly enough, not running after them, but running into his house instead. The Blade' sighed in relief, but kept running, intent on getting back home. When he passed the field and got into the grass of the Green Greens, he thought he was off the hook...

...until the sound of police sirens reached his ears.

"Oh nu!" he blurted out, picking up the pace.

The sound of the sirens brought Cutter back to his senses, sort of. "Wh-what!? What's going on!? Where are we? What's with the sirens? Why are we covered in food!?"

"Shhhh!" Dagger looked over his shoulder again, spotting blue police Wheelies in the distance. "This... notguud!"

The oversized Dreamlander didn't notice the two creatures standing not far off from where he was running, and, as a result, he ended up plowing them over.

"Eeeeeouch!" Blast shouted, sitting up. "What the heck was that?"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHZZZZZZZZ!" Jolt sobbed, rubbing his eyes. "That hurt, Momma!"

"I told you," the Poppy said, glancing briefly in the direction of Cutter and Dagger before turning back to the Plasma Wisp, "I'm not-" He cut himself off, doing a double-take. "Wait, that's...!" An enormous grin spread across his face, and he hopped to his feet before rushing after the 'Kibble and Blade Knight.

"W-wait for me, Momma, zzzzzz!" Jolt whimpered, flying off after his friend and darting under his hat.

Meanwhile, Cutter rode atop his friend's head, keeping an eye on the cops that were chasing them while Dagger ran. "Scrap, they're gaining on us!" He turned around, looking down into his friend's eyes. "L-listen, Dag'... I have a l-l-lot of things I want to do before I d-die, and getting myself thrown in jail is n-n-not one of them, so if you could, p-please, run just a little bit FASTER!?"

"Wooooah," came a voice from nearby. The two armored Dreamlanders turned their heads in surprise, shocked to see Blast running alongside them. "What's this about getting thrown into jail?"

"Ramble... think we... stealcrops," Dagger explained slowly.

The Poppy Bro. gasped. "You stole Farmer Ramble's crops!?" he exclaimed, wide-eyed. He looked up at his hat, whispering to Jolt, "This makes our job a lot easier." After that, he turned back to Cutter and Dagger. "Heheh, you guys are in trou~ble!"

"G-go away, Blast!" Cutter squeaked, waving his paw at the Poppy. "We d-didn't do anything!"

"Then why are you stuttering?" Blast inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"B-because I always s-s-stutter when I'm s-s-scared!"

"Scared of getting caught by the cops?" His grin grew wider.

"NO! Scared of D-D-D-D-D..." Cutter swallowed, holding his paws over his head in a defensive stance. "Dynablade! He st-stole all of th-that food!"

"Oh." The Poppy Bro. Senior blinked. "Well, once this goes to court, I guess you could get off the hook on the count of insanity..."

"WHAT?!"

"You don't really expect us to believe that Dynablade stole that food, do you?" Blast snickered. "You can't worm your way out of everything, Cutter!"

"N-n-no... But Dagger can!" The Sir Kibble grinned. "Get 'im, Dagger!"

"Buh-huh!" Dagger lifted up his tongue, quickly whipping it around Blast, picking him up, and chucking him off into the distance.

"Nice work!" Cutter gave his friend a thumbs up, and Dagger looked over his shoulder, saluting. And, not looking where he was going once again, he ran promptly into a tree.

"...Owwie," the Blade Knight whimpered, sliding to the ground.

"NO!" Cutter hopped off of Dagger's head and shook the large Dreamlander's shoulders. "C'mon, get up, Dagger! Get up!"

"Stars... pretty..." A wavy smile extended past the Blade Knight's fake beak and his eyes appeared to be crossed, signifying that he was rather out of it.

Cutter then attempted to at least get Dagger to sit up, with little success. "Get up get up get up get up get up get up..." The sound of police sirens grew closer, and the Sir Kibble tried even harder to wake his friend up. "Get up get up, pleeaaaase get up!"

"Right here, Officer!" came an all-too-familiar voice. "The robbers are this way!"

Cutter cringed. Blast... Dagger must've tossed him right to the police! Oh rusty scrapmetal, this is not good! Seeing that the police Wheelies were almost there, and, not wanting to leave his friend behind, the Sir Kibble stood up straight and rigid, quivering as he waited for them to go into park.

It was only a few seconds later that a group of the Wheelies screeched to a halt around the duo, surrounding them. The Wheelies' armor was navy blue, and on the "nose" of the armor was a light that flashed from red to blue. Riding each Wheelie was a police officer, each of a different species.

Blast, followed by a still-sniffling Jolt, rushed out from behind one of the Wheelies. He wasn't looking all that great, which was to be expected for someone who had just gotten chucked a distance away and trampled. "They're the ones who stole all the crops!" he exclaimed, pointing dramatically at Cutter and Dagger. "Me and Jolt tried to stop 'em, but they just beat us up!"

"They did!" Jolt sobbed, rubbing some tears away from his face.

The sounds of the shouting and the sirens had attracted a crowd of curious Dreamlanders, who gathered around the scene. With so many eyes focused on him, Cutter began to feel extremely nervous and attempted to back away.

"Don't move!" came a very deep voice over a megaphone. The owner of the megaphone, a rather large Waddle Dee wearing a police cap, mirrored sunglasses, and a badge, hopped off of his Wheelie and strode over to Cutter, who just about passed out on the spot when he saw a gun strapped to the brown puffball's side. "You're under arrest for robbery and assault and battery!"

"C-c'mon!" Cutter stammered, holding his paws up in defense. "Y-you can't prove anything!"

The Sir Kibble's statement would have probably had a better impact had he and his friend not been covered in smashed fruits and vegetables.

Upon realizing this, the black puffball gave a nervous grin. "...I-It's not what it looks like, I swear." Hearing a noise behind him, he glanced behind him to see Dagger starting to get up and rub his head. "D-Dagger! We didn't take anything from Farmer Ramble, did we?"

The Blade Knight's eyes spun for a moment before he shook his head, finally regaining his senses. It took him a moment to process what his friend had said, but when he did, he gave a cheerful reply. "Buh-huh!" he said with a nod.

"Y-yep, see? Dagger agr-wait, what?" Cutter did a double-take, staring back at his friend again. He twitched slightly, glancing frantically from the Dreamlander to the police. "Y-you mean 'buh-uh,' right? Not 'buh-huh...'"

Dagger shook his head, reached into the picnic basket that still hung around his arm (and was still covered in smashed food), and pulled out the Maxim Tomato that he had taken from earlier.

The group of Dreamlanders collectively gasped and began to chatter amongst each other. The policemen exchanged glances before staring back at Cutter and Dagger. Blast, on the other hand, just smirked.

"Ooooh, the crimes just keep pilin' up, don't they?"

Noticing that what he had done seemed to have a rather... negative reaction, Dagger slowly put the Maxim Tomato back into the picnic basket and gently closed the lid. Once this was accomplished, he looked down at Cutter, whose black face was now looking a bit grey.

"D-Dagger?"

"Buh?"

"I want you to do two things for me."

"Buh'kay."

"One, run like there's no tomorrow..."

"Buh...huh?"

"Two, CAAALL MY LAWYEEERRR!"

"...What a la-" Dagger broke off into a fit of coughing. Cutter was no longer there, and had left behind a thick cloud of dust. Remembering the first thing he was supposed to do, the Blade Knight darted off, wiping at his eyes with his paw. "Wait, Cuh'er!"

"Not waiting!" Cutter yelled, feet moving so fast that they appeared to be a blur. "'Cuz if I wait then I'll get behind and Blast will catch up and the crowd will catch up and the police will catch up and they'll catch us and we'll go to jail and we'll never get out and we'll stay there 'til we rot and I DON'T WANNA DIIIIEEE!"

With a bit of effort, Dagger finally managed to catch up with his golden-armored friend and picked him up, setting him atop his head. "Weget 'way!"

The Sir Kibble didn't appear to be any more at ease. "I-I appreciate the thought, Dagger, but you seem to be forgetting that THEY'VE GOT RUSTY WHEELIES!!"

As if on cue, the sirens started to get louder as the Wheelies got closer. Blast was riding on one of them behind one of the police officers, Jolt clinging to one of the rubber handles.

The Poppy stood up in his seat, smirking. "Let me handle this, officers!" With that, he chucked a lit bomb at Cutter and Dagger.

All the two could do was stare at the bomb as they attempted to evade it, but to no avail. The bomb hit the ground right at Dagger's feet, and exploded... into a cloud of thick smoke.

"Hah, now they can't see to get awaaaa-AAAAAH HACK--!"

It seemed as though Blast had overlooked a flaw in his plan. Cutter and Dagger had indeed been blinded by the smoke, but the Wheelies were still driving, and, as a result, drove right into the smoke cloud. The wheel-like creatures began to swerve and screech in a panic as their drivers attempted to calm them down enough to drive out of the smoke cloud.

"Momma!" Jolt shrieked. "I can't ZEEE! I can't ZEE I can't ZEE, I can't-"

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAP!

By the time the crowd had caught up with the Wheelies, the smoke had cleared. In its place was a "shocked" pile of policemen and Wheelies, with a Poppy Brother Senior and a young Plasma Wisp thrown into the mix. Cutter and Dagger, however, were nowhere in sight.

"They must have gone ahead!"

"Catch them, catch them!"

"Hurry!"

It didn't take long for the policemen to resume chase, but this time they weren't actually chasing anything, for their targets were elsewhere.

"We safe..." Dagger heaved a sigh of relief, sliding down to a sitting position with his back against the trunk of a tree.

"For... for the time being," Cutter panted. "Lucky for us Blast's plan worked to our advantage." He shook his head. "We're still on the run from the police... and we can't run for forever! We're gonna die..."

The Blade Knight shook his head. "No not. Notdo... an'thin' wrong!" A smile extended past his fake beak.

"True..." The armored puffball dropped into a sitting position as well. "But they'll still think it's us, unless we pr-" He suddenly stood up, eyes wide. "That's it!"

Dagger blinked. "What it?"

"We'll prove that Dynablade's the real deal! Then they'll have to believe us!"

"Yay!" The tall Dreamlander clapped his hands in approval. "How... dothat?"

Cutter pointed a finger into the air dramatically. "That...!" He promptly sat down, dropping his paw and donning sad expression. "...I don't know."

Dagger frowned. "...We doit!" he said with a confirming nod. "Haveto!"

"Yup... guess we'll have to." The Sir Kibble stood up again, looking up at his friend. "Let's go?"

"Let's go!"

Chapter 1: Green Greens << Previous | Next >> Chapter 3: The Meta Knights' Fortress