Chapter 1: Launch Day

Cutter and Dagger could hardly believe how quickly the winter months passed. Week after week they labored in the underground fortress, Cutter programming Heavy Lobster and Dagger doing general errands and grunt work. Soon it was spring again, and everyone was wrapping up their projects in preparation for the Halberd's imminent launch.

"Let's see if he can follow me, okay?"

"Y-you got it, Blaze," Cutter stammered, hitting a key on his console.

The Heavy Lobster team stood around in the testing area, anxiously waiting to see the results of their months of hard work. The machine in question stood in the middle of the area, eyes dead and dim. Moments after Cutter had given it a command, however, it stood up, optics lit. Blaze approached it nervously, and flinched a little when the massive robot scanned him.

"Here we go... Let's hope this works!" With that, the Sir Kibble typed a sequence into the console and stepped back. Immediately Heavy Lobster's claws jutted forward, opening and spewing out a stream of flames, and Cutter yelped, ducking under the console.

"GWAAAAHHH!" Blaze exclaimed, darting out of the way of the robot's flamethrower. Heavy Lobster kept its optics locked onto the Burnin' Leo, though, and followed him around, still shooting flames everywhere. "WHY IS HE ATTACKING ME?!"

"I don't know, maybe because he's a weapon?! He's s-supposed to do that!"

Heavy Lobster shut its claws, pulling them in and hunkering down, suddenly blasting forward in an attempt to ram into Blaze. When that failed, it spun around, shooting out mini-lobsters at the Burnin' Leo.

"OKAY, OKAY, WE GET IT, HE WORKS!" Blaze yelped, attempting to outrun the mini mechanical crustaceans. Unfortunately he wasn't quite fast enough, and one of them rammed into him, sending him flying across the room. The crowd backed away, allowing the Burnin' Leo to sail straight into the wall. Seeing that, they burst into cheers.

"...He can perform all his attacks…" Cutter murmured. "He works…" He scampered out from under the console, grinning. "He works!"

Suddenly the robot blasted forward, making its way toward Blaze once again. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAA SHUT HIM OFF, SHUT HIM OFFFF!"

"...O-oh!" Blinking, Cutter hopped up and typed another sequence into the console, glancing over as Heavy Lobster suddenly shut down, about an inch away from crushing Blaze in one of its claws. The Burnin' Leo, seeing that, fainted. "...Heh! Now who's scared of lobsters?"

Some of the Halberd workers in the adjacent rooms had heard the noise, and were poking their heads into the room to see what on Popstar was going on. Among them was Dagger, who tripped on his tongue as he reached the door.

Cutter, seeing his friend, rushed through the crowd of excited mechanics and programmers. Upon reaching the Blade Knight, he helped him up, grinning. "Dagger! Heavy Lobster's all done! Can you go tell Sir Meta Knight?"

"Buh?" The Blade Knight blinked for a few moments, then nodded. "…'Kay." With that, he gave a half-hearted salute, and walked out into the hallway, making his way toward the Meta Knights' rooms. As he did so, though, he began to realize that while he knew where the lower-ranked knights lived, he had no idea where Sir Meta Knight himself was. Heaving a sigh, he trudged around the fortress, searching for his superior's office.

Truth be told, Dagger really didn't like doing this work stuff. He wasn't overly fond of this "job" thing, and plus, it meant he got to see Cutter even less. What was worse was that Cutter had really gotten into his job, and would sometimes work overtime. Dagger had been hoping to get a chance to see him at work today, but now Cutter had sent him off... He wished he didn't have to do this.

The Blade Knight was so lost in what little thoughts he had, that he wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings, and wound up bumping into someone. Blinking, he glanced down, seeing a short Waddle Dee adjust the sailor cap on its head.

"Oh! 'S'cuse me," he squeaked, beginning to waddle by.

"'Kay..."

The Waddle Dee noticed that Dagger looked rather glum, and tilted his head. "Hey, are you lost?"

"Yah." Dagger nodded. "Needfind... Sir Meta Knight."

"Oooh, you're looking for Sir Meta Knight too!" the young 'Dee said with a smile. "I can take you to him!"

At that, Dagger brightened up a little. "Thankyuu!" he said, giving a slight smile.

"No problem!" The brown puff then began to lead the Blade Knight around the various hallways of the fortress, easily navigating the confusing layout. Glancing over his shoulder, he waved his paw toward one direction. "This way!"

Before they could get any further, though, the Waddle Dee bumped into someone who was blocking his way, and nearly knocked his sailor cap off. "Hey!"

The person he'd bumped into turned out to be a large, round knight in strange orange armor. He had an odd crescent moon symbol on his armor and was carrying a large trident. ...Or rather, he was supposed to be carrying it, but he instead had it stabbed into the floor and was leaning on it for support. "Whut's th' pashwurd...?" he slurred with a hiccup.

"C'mon, Trident, it's me, Sailor Dee!" the Waddle Dee shouted. "We need to find Sir Meta Knight!"

"He'sh busy," Trident Knight said, leaning against his weapon so far that it popped out of the ground and clattered to the floor, sending him to the ground as well.

"Well, this's important! ...Isn't it?" Sailor Dee blinked, looking back at Dagger.

"Um... yah. ...Ithink so." Dagger scratched his head.

"See?!" Sailor Dee exclaimed, spinning around to face Trident... only to give a confused look when he saw him sleeping on the floor. "...Oh." Shrugging, he waddled past the knight and continued to make his way down the hallway. "Trident's weird when he's drunk."

"...Buh-huh," Dagger mumbled, glancing at the sleeping knight before following the Waddle Dee.

"Here we are!" the brown puff said proudly, knocking on a large door. After waiting a few moments, he heard a muffled "come in" and excitedly opened the door. He poked his head in to look around before scampering in, Dagger following.

Sir Meta Knight's office was rather fancy and clean. The room sported a dark-colored, luxurious carpet; a nice, neatly-organized desk with a wheeled chair behind it; a few other chairs at the other side of the desk; and had a window that looked out into the hangar, where an enormous battleship was docked. The knight himself was looking out this window, standing with his back toward his two guests. He turned, however, when Sailor Dee approached him. "Ah... hello Sailor Dee. What is it?"

The little Waddle Dee squeaked, turning around and pointing at Dagger. "He needs to tell you something."

Meta Knight glanced over at the Blade Knight. "What is it?"

Dagger rocked on his heels nervously. He'd been given indirect orders all this time, so this was the first time he'd actually seen his boss. "Um... C-Cuh'er sendme... here. Theyfinish... Heavy Lobster."

"Ah!" the knight said happily, giving Dagger the odd mental image of his boss smiling beneath that helmet. "This is good news! Nearly everything has been finished, then."

Dagger smiled a bit. He didn't understand everything that was going on in this whole operation, but he figured he should comment anyway. "Yah! Almost done."

Sir Meta Knight's voice took a more serious tone. "I have a task for you," he said. "Tell the Heavy Lobster team to load the robot onto the Halberd. Once they've finished that, tell them they'll be doing general crew work from now on, unless repairs are needed for the robot."

"'Kay." With that, Dagger saluted, turned around, and began to make his way back down the hallway. As he did so, he went over what he was supposed to say a few times in his mind. The Heavy Lobster team had to take their robot to the Halberd, and then they were to do general crew work.

...Wait. Wasn't he a general crew member, too? That meant...!

Immediately the Blade Knight spun around, charging back into Sir Meta Knight's room, and, without a thought as to what he was doing and whom he was doing it to, gave the knight a friendly lick across his mask. "THANK YUU!" And, once again, he rushed back out the door.

Sailor Dee watched all of this take place with a look of total horror on his face, and, once Dagger was gone, looked over at his boss, eyes wide.

Sir Meta Knight said absolutely nothing, standing there for a moment before wordlessly reaching a gloved paw over to his mask and slowly wiping the slobber off.

Sailor Dee began to back up toward the door. "U-um... I gotta go d-do... stuff now. Bye!" With that, he scurried out of the room.

Time seemed to breeze by, and before Cutter and Dagger knew it, the Halberd's launch day had arrived. The entirety of the crew was scrambling about, double-, triple-, and quadruple-checking every little thing to make sure nothing was forgotten.

Cutter, who had somehow found time for a quick break, slumped against the wall near one of the entrances to the hangar. "Yeesh, I can't believe how busy everything's gotten...!" he gasped, rubbing the top of his helmet. "I almost miss working with Blaze and Wade on Heavy Lobster."

Dagger, who was standing next to Cutter, whipped his head in the Sir Kibble's direction, a hurt look on his face. "Buh...?"

"Huh? Oh, it's just that I liked that part of work better, not this..." He paused, taking a moment to watch all the crew members rushing around madly. "...chaos. Seriously, can things get any crazier around here?"

As if on cue, a panicked Capsule J literally blasted his way into the hangar, looking around frantically. Spotting Cutter, he grabbed the Kibble by his shoulder guards and shook him. "I HAVE SOME VERY VERY BAD NEWS!"

"Wh-wh-what is it?!"

"Kirby is on his way here! Someone needs to inform Sir Meta Knight!"

"...Oh, is that all?" Cutter gave the Capsule J a confused look. "What's wrong with—"

"What's wrong?! Kirby is on his way here, and you ask me what's wrong?!" the Capsule J shouted. "Don't you get it?! He's going to try to stop everything!"

"Wh-what?!" Kirby? Try to stop everything? But... why? He doesn't like Dedede either, does he...? "W-wait, so why can't you tell Sir Meta Knight yourself?"

"Because I have to do something... uh… over there!" With that, he blasted off before Cutter had a chance to respond.

"Why Kirby... trystop?" Dagger asked, giving Cutter a funny look.

"...I-I dunno, but apparently this is a b-bad thing!" Especially given how that Capsule J was acting... But why would he be so freaked out?

Suddenly Cutter felt his blood run cold as his mind flashed back to a certain part of his interview from a few months ago—namely, when Captain Vul threatened to kill him if he revealed their secrets. If they even suspected it was him that let Kirby know about this whole thing, he was as good as dead. "R-rusty... scrapmetal...!" he stammered, his face starting to turn gray.

"Let'sgo!" Dagger said, snapping his friend out of his thoughts. He began to walk toward the Halberd, where Sir Meta Knight and the other higher-ups were getting things ready.

"No! No, Dagger, stop!" Cutter yelped, darting in front of his friend to block his path. "Y-you stay here, a-all right?"

The Blade Knight startled at that, looking hurt again. "Buh...? But... wannago withyuu."

"N-no, trust me, just s-stay here, all right?" the Sir Kibble said. "J-just meet me on the ship b-before the launch!" With that, he took off toward the Halberd, leaving Dagger to stand alone in the middle of the chaos.

"Woo! Things are looking great, Sir!" Axe Knight said as he checked over all the monitors and dials and other things.

"Yup, nothing can get in our way," Mace Knight said, tugging on the chain of his mace and smirking.

"And if they try, we can just blast 'em down!" Captain Vul laughed, pulling on one of the controls to adjust the cannons.

"Yes... our time has come," Sir Meta Knight said as he gazed out of the window of the bridge. "The time to—"

A knock at the door interrupted the group. Sailor Dee glanced at Meta Knight, and despite the fact that his superior's face still betrayed no emotion, he got the feeling that he was rather annoyed. "Um... I'll get it!" the Waddle Dee said, making his way over to the door and opening it. "What is it? We're kinda busy here..." He glanced back briefly at the others, who had resumed talking.

On the other side of the door was Cutter, whose armor was visibly and audibly clattering. "U-u-um... I h-have something i-important t-to tell S-Sir Meta Knight..."

"Really?" Sailor Dee blinked. "Well, he's busy, like I said, but I can take a message for 'im!"

"U-um..." The Sir Kibble hesitated, his face turning a few shades paler. "I-I j-just received a r-report that K-Kirby's on his w-way here."

The room went completely silent. One by one, Sir Meta Knight, his knights, and the captain all turned their eyes on Cutter, giving him expressions varying from unreadable, to shocked, to furious.

Captain Vul was at the doorway in an instant, shoving the muzzle of his revolver into Cutter's visor. "I should've known it was you who would be the one to mess up this whole thing, you little traitor!" he snarled.

The Sir Kibble's voice took on a much higher pitch than was normal for his species. "Oh scrapmetal pleasedon'tkillmepleasedon'tkillme."

"I warned you about this one, and now—!"

"Vul," came Sir Meta Knight's calm, yet serious voice. "He was just reporting what he has heard. That does not make him the traitor. We have more important matters to attend to now." That having been said, he reached for a microphone on the console and spoke into it. "All crew members prepare for launch!"

Vul grumbled, returning the gun to its holster and walking back into the bridge. Cutter, meanwhile, passed out.

Dagger sighed as he rode through hangar on a Wheelie, trying get around all the other Halberd crew members. He was still upset that even though Cutter was now working the same job as him, his friend still seemed to be avoiding him! Did Cutter like work more than he liked hanging out with him now?

Oh well… he had to focus on his current job. He'd been asked by one of the crew members to help bring some of the Wheelies on board the ship, and he had to do that as soon as possible, since the Halberd was supposed to launch shortly… though he wasn't exactly sure what these Wheelies were for. Then again, he didn't understand what half the jobs he did around here were for anyway.

In any case, he had to rope a bunch of Wheelies together in a line, and ride the one in the front of the line to the ship. It was harder work than he'd imagined, since these were wild Wheelies that did not like cooperating with other Dreamlanders. It took quite a long time (and quite a few ropes) before he'd finally managed to tie them together, but at least the hard part was over, right?

A high-pitched honking noise caused Dagger to glance to his side, where he saw a slightly smaller, unroped Wheelie driving next to him, gazing up at him with a curious look in its eye. Dagger waved to it, and the Wheelie squeaked, driving around to the other side. It then looked at the Wheelie that Dagger was riding, and, seeming to grin a little (as much as a Wheelie could without a mouth, anyway), leaned over, and poked it in the eye with its handlebar.

The larger Wheelie, which was already agitated, swerved a bit and revved its motor angrily. "...Buh oh," Dagger whimpered, just before the sentient motorcycle bucked him off of its saddle and ran over him. This, of course, caused all the other Wheelies in the line to run over him as well.

"BuuUuuUUUuuUh..." Dagger whined dizzily, pushing himself up on his paws once the exhaust cleared. The smaller Wheelie gave a pleased honk, and followed its larger companions up a ramp onto the Halberd. At least they were going where they were supposed to go, anyway... He hadn't been told where specifically on the ship they were supposed to go, but he'd let whatever crew was on the ship now deal with that.

Heaving a sigh, Dagger trudged over to the ship and up the ramp, allowing other crew members to rush past him. Briefly (and a little bitterly) he wondered if Cutter had finished telling Sir Meta Knight about Kirby's approach, and glanced around the crowd to see if he could spot his friend.

Actually, it didn't take him long at all to spot a sickly-looking Sir Kibble leaning against the wall on the deck. Cutter was still looking a bit paler than was healthy, and his armor was drenched with sweat. Though Dagger didn't look too good either, considering all the tire tracks, and Cutter was quick to notice that.

"Er... wh-what happened to you?" he asked.

"Pffffbt!" Dagger spat, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall as well.

"...All right, don't answer me."

"The Halberd is launching in T-minus ten minutes!" announced Axe Knight over the loudspeaker.

"Really, though, you're covered in tire tracks!" Cutter continued over the loudspearker's booming. "Are you all right?"

"Reactor one, output normal."

Dagger glanced at Cutter out of the corner of his eye, looking unimpressed.

"Adjust the balancer to... 0003!"

Cutter looked a little irritated at that. "Hey, I'm just wondering if you're all right or not. You don't have to be so mad!"

"Let's raise the anchor."

"Yuunot... really care."

"Check anti-gravity plant. One, two, three, okay!"

"What?! What makes you say that?!"

"Raise the sails, solar lever two-eighty-eight!"

"Yuu wurk... lots. Nopay attention... to me!"

"The time has come. The time to show our power!"

The words hit Cutter hard. He'd... never thought about that. He'd gotten so wrapped up in his job that he'd been forgetting to hang out with Dagger!

"Dreamland's lazy lifestyle will end! I will rule!"

Before Cutter could get the chance to respond, the familiar sound of the twinkling of a Warpstar was heard off in the distance. All members of the crew had finally boarded the ship by now and had taken their respective positions, and had gone totally silent. Were it not for the Warpstar's noise, one could hear a pin drop.

"All on deck prepare for battle!" boomed Sir Meta Knight's voice over the loudspeaker. "All others prepare for takeoff!"

The momentary silence suddenly shattered into an explosion of sound as all of the Halberd crew on deck prepared to meet Kirby. Cutter and Dagger, meanwhile, attempted to scurry as quickly as possible away from where Kirby was most likely to land.

"Great!" Cutter exclaimed, throwing his paws up into the air. "Now we have to fight Kirby!"

"Yuu fault!" Dagger spat as he ran. "Yuu signup... for job!"

"Yeah, but you're the one who gave me the flier!" He shook his head, attempting to concentrate on where he was going, but he couldn't help but be annoyed. Why was Dagger going on about this now? "Scrapmetal... maybe I did have a reason for not wanting to hang around you!"

"Jurk!"

The two continued squabbling like this for some time as they ran before they realized that they had run into a very serious problem: neither of them knew where they were.

"Oh, great!" Cutter grumbled, screeching to a halt. "Now where are we?"

"Iunno." Dagger stopped as well, looking around. "...Where Kirby?"

"Why are you asking about him when we don't even know where we are?" Cutter glanced at Dagger askance before looking around the deck, trying to get some bearing as to what part of the ship they were on. He soon spotted a batlike wing off to the side, and nodded. "Oh, looks like we're toward the back... At least we won't bump into Kirby anytime soon this way."

"Buuuh?" Dagger gave his friend a confused look. "Whynot... want find Kirby?"

"Because those guys"—he pointed up to the front of the ship to indicate Meta Knight and the others—"don't like him, and I don't wanna hang around people they don't like!"

"ButKirby friend!"

"Not right now! Not if he's gonna get me killed...!" But Cutter faltered a little at that last part, surprised at his own words.

"BUH?!" Dagger shot a glare at his friend. "Kirby my friend...!"

"So do you wanna get killed too?!" He was about to say something else, but cringed when the sound of destruction reached his ears. "Speaking of which..."

"Buh-oh!" Dagger whined, looking behind him.

"I'm not staying for this," Cutter whimpered, charging towards the end of the ship. Dagger glanced back and followed him, despite his annoyance with his friend. "K-Kirby might not recognize us, especially if we're working here! We don't w-wanna get in his way..."

Though he wished he could stay behind to talk to Kirby, and even though he was really not happy with Cutter right now, Dagger had to admit that his friend was probably right. He continued to follow the Sir Kibble, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to see if Kirby was still heading their way.

Cutter glanced behind himself occasionally too, but eventually when he faced forward again, he realized that the deck was ending, and there was only a short railing that was between him and the hangar. "Woooah!" he yelped, screeching to a halt before he tipped over the railing. "That was close..."

And, of course, Dagger, being Dagger, wasn't looking, and bumped into his friend, sending them both over the railing.

"AAAAAAAAGHHHH!" CLANG!

Both of them bounced off of something huge and metallic before falling flat on the ground—Cutter first, then Dagger, who wound up on top of the former.

"Dagger, get off!" came Cutter's muffled voice, and the Blade Knight obediently stepped off, but crossed his arms and gave his friend an annoyed glance.

"Now wherewe?"

"Hrmf." Cutter ignored Dagger's dirty look as he stood up and looked around. Immediately he spotted the huge nozzle, and flinched. "O-oh scrap...! Th-this is the nozzle! When this ship blasts off, we're gonna die!"

"Buh?"

"It'll blast us backwards into the hangar if we don't move!" Cutter scampered around, looking frantically for a place to hide. "Where to hide, where to hide...?!"

"Iunno!" Dagger exclaimed, looking around as well. He rushed over to the edge and looked over the railing to judge just how far of a drop it would be to the floor of the hangar. Although he wasn't very bright, he could still tell that they would probably not be able to drop to the bottom of the hangar without sustaining an injury of some sort, and he winced. "Umm..."

It hadn't taken Cutter long to realize that there really wasn't that much room behind the nozzle, and he whimpered, rushing over to where Dagger was. "Scrapmetal, Dagger! N-now look at what's happened! Th-there's no way out of here!" Although that did strike him as odd... Why would there be space here behind the nozzle if there wasn't any way to access it or get off of it?

Dagger shot Cutter another glare, but before he could say anything, started at a noise and looked at something beyond the Sir Kibble.

"What is it?" Cutter turned around, noticing a door that he'd missed before starting to open up from the ship. Immediately Kirby jumped out, looking around frantically.

"Uh oh!" the puffball said, not noticing either Cutter or Dagger as the two ducked down at the edge of the deck. "Did I take a wrong turn?" He darted up to the nozzle, looking it over. "Whoops, this is the back of the ship!"

"M-maybe he'll leave now..." Cutter whispered.

Dagger just whined a little, wishing he could talk to Kirby without getting into trouble.

Meanwhile, in the bridge of the Halberd, Mace Knight and Captain Vul were looking over a screen, Axe Knight and Meta Knight were at the main console, and Sailor Dee was standing back, watching the four. Outside, Trident Knight—who was sober for once—and Javelin Knight—a robot—stood at the door, guarding the entrance to the bridge.

"Sir, look! Those two crew members are by the nozzle with Kirby!" Mace Knight said, pointing at a screen.

Sir Meta Knight briefly glanced at the screen, but said nothing other than humming thoughtfully before turning away to look back at Axe Knight, who was turning various knobs and dials to get the ship ready to launch.

"Whaaaat?!" Captain Vul squawked. "Those deadbeats! Why don't they attack Kirby?"

"Doesn't matter," Mace said with a shrug. "We're in the process of launching Heavy Lobster, like you asked, so that should take care of him."

"But where is he?!"

"He's coming!" Mace glanced back at the monitor, then did a double-take. "Kirby is just behind the nozzle now!"

Axe Knight, not paying attention to his companion as usual, grinned beneath his skull mask. "Ready for takeoff now! She can fly at any time!"

However, Vul was still concentrated on the screen, waiting for their robotic weapon's arrival. "Hurry it up!" he shouted, knocking Mace in the helmet. "Where's Heavy Lobster?!"

"W-wait..." Sailor Dee squeaked as he listened to both conversations. "If we're about to launch, and Kirby's behind the nozzle, and Heavy Lobster's going after Kirby... then that means—!"

"Oh shut up!"

Meanwhile, Kirby began to head back into the ship, when the sound of metal grinding and screeching startled him. "What's going on?" he wondered aloud, plugging his nonexistent ears. A few pieces of the metal railing from the deck above clattered down next to Kirby before an enormous robot jumped down, massive feet slamming onto the deck right behind the nozzle.

"Heavy Lobster!" Cutter whispered, backing up closer to Dagger in terror. "Th-they sent him after Kirby?!"

While it was true that he wasn't exactly keen on siding with Kirby at the moment since that would likely make Captain Vul blow his brains out, the thought of Kirby being defeated by something he had had a paw in creating made him feel ill. "Th-this isn't good..."

"Wehelp Kirby?" Dagger suggested in a whisper before jerking back a little in surprise when Heavy Lobster started spewing flames out of its claws.

"W-we can't!"

"YIKE!" Kirby bounced out of the way of the flames, wide-eyed. "What kind of lobster has fire breath?!"

Dagger blinked, glancing to Cutter at that one. The Kibble sighed. "Well, don't look at me. I didn't design the weapons."

Meanwhile, Heavy Lobster shot a few mini-lobsters at Kirby, which the puffball quickly inhaled and shot back. Despite the noise of the fight, however, the noise of the ship starting to take off was difficult to ignore. Cutter and Dagger watched with wide eyes, wondering what was going to happen now.

Sailor Dee watched the battle on the screen, standing on the tips of his feet. "Kirby is fighting Heavy Lobs—"

"Initiate takeoff!" Sir Meta Knight commanded, not having heard Sailor Dee over the chaos. "We'll blow Kirby away!"

"Okay!" Axe Knight said with a nod, punching a button. "Main engine ignited!"

"This is taking too long!" Captain Vul growled, shooting a glare over at Axe. "Now! Take off!"

Sailor Dee, who was tired of being ignored, rushed over to Mace Knight and tugged on his arm. "Mace, look! That'll blow up Heavy Lobster and those two!" he shouted, pointing frantically at the screen.

"It will?" Mace glanced at the screen, then did a double take. "Oh—wait—what?! We're taking off now?!"

Axe heard him that time, and glanced over at Mace. "Umm... yeah, why, is that a problem?" He looked over at the screen as well. "...Hey, is that Heavy Lobster?"

"I-I think it might be a good idea to stop the ship, Axe!"

"Err, it's a bit late for that!"

Vul just shrugged. "Ah, let 'em all get blown up."

The Halberd was going to take off any second now. Cutter knew it. They were going to get blasted by the exhaust from the ship and sent flying, and they were going to die. "B-but I don't wanna die...!" Glancing around, he noticed the railing behind him. "Dagger, hold on to this!" he exclaimed, grabbing the railing himself.

"Buh? Why?"

"Just do it! Hurry!"

But just as the Blade Knight reached for the railing, a blinding light enveloped the area, and an earsplitting roar drowned out the sounds of Kirby, Cutter, and Dagger's screaming, as well as the sound of Heavy Lobster's being blown to pieces.

Before he had the chance to get blown away, Cutter felt a horrible pain in his right foot when something slammed into it, pinning him against the railing, but ultimately preventing him from getting blown away. He soon realized that it was one of Heavy Lobster's claws, both halves of which were still intact, the upper half looming over his head. Something else slammed next to him—the robot's head.

And, dangling by one paw from the railing, was Dagger. By some miracle he hadn't lost his grip, but that wouldn't last for long.

"DAGGER!" Cutter screamed, trying to lean over the railing as much as possible.

"Gonna fall!" Dagger shouted back, struggling to pull himself up. The ship was already over the Orange Ocean, the colorful waves splashing about what seemed like miles below.

Cutter took hold of Dagger's paw, frantically trying to pull him back up onto the deck. "Dagger, don't let go! Don't—"

A split second later, the Blade Knight lost his grip, and dropped.

Too stunned to even scream after his friend, Cutter fell back, limp. A strange mechanical sound barely caught his attention, and he weakly turned to see Heavy Lobster's head next to him. The sound wasn't coming from that, though—it was coming from the upper half of the claw.

Cutter swore he saw the eyes of Heavy Lobster glow red before the claw crunched down on him.

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