A visit with the puffball! What could possibly go wrong?

[shardsearch]

Characters: Ribbon, Kirby, Porky, Robotnik, Megaman
What: On her way to mingle with Kirby, Ribbon is captured
Where: The streets of Diamond city
When: Before the Dedede and Kirby fight
Rating: PG(?)

Comments

[oh_my_pork]

Although the Pig Masks were the largest group of culprits behind the museum robbery, that didn't stop them from wandering around the streets. In fact, these days, it seemed like there were more Pig Masks everywhere. To anybody who was observant of this, it was a bit disturbing and even ominous. Some of these Pig Masks showed much kindness, but the rest were as rude as any pig could be

[kingporky]

*whenever we trip

[shardsearch]

Ribbon noticed one shot fly by her face, and she was instantly reminded of the time she was chased by Dark Matter. It sent her more into a panic then anything else, especially when one shot hit the crystal and sent her flying down onto the city street alongside the crystal. Fairy down, fairy down!

"Ugh!" She managed to get up and shook her head, looking for what hit her. "Who did that?"

[oh_my_pork]

"I saw it first!!" yelled a Pig Mask, running for Ribbon's crash site. Both of them somehow were now carrying large butterfly nets. Jack, the Pig Mask, shoved his friend aside. "What are you talking about, I did!" he exclaimed, "Mr. Yokuba is going to love ME for getting him a Chaos Emerald," The bickering and the frantic running continued. Jack ran right for Ribbon. He was very close to her as well, not off by a few feet. But his friend, the other Pig Mask, threw his own net in front of him. He crashed down as loudly as possible... "In your dreams, that pr(rrr)omotion is mine!" the Pig Mask yelled back. As he was calmly walking over to pick up his butterfly net, Jack took the chance.. To strike his legs, forcing him to lose balance. "I'm telling you, if we lose the emerald somehow, it's YOUR fault!" Jack yelled. He retrieved his butterfly net and trapped both Ribbon and the "emerald". Jack ran for it, with the other Pig Mask in suit. They were bickering all along the way...

[shardsearch]

"H-hey! Let me go!" Ribbon started to squirm around in the net and fluttered her wings in an attempt to break free. Well, I guess it's true that one of a fairy's biggest threats is a butterfly net.

[kingporky]

Back in the Empire Porky Building, the secret headquarters of the Pig Masks, President Porky and the rest of his employees were hard at work, coming up with new toy designs. Empire Porky toys have become a strange hit so quickly that other competitors saw fit to increase their own productivity. Business has been booming and so, many employees were asked to work overtime

[oh_my_pork]

"HAIL PORK!!" cried a Pig Mask on the other line, "I mean, uhh... Oh, is the King 'busy'? ... Ahhhhh, that kind of busy," He sighed a little after realizing what the King was doing. This was either a sigh of jealousy or a sigh of exasperation, but it didn't matter what it was for the moment. "All right, then, could you pass him a message? ... What, you can't even do that? Listen, it's important that the King hears this! We found a Chaos-" The line was disconnected at that point. "What did he say, Jack?" the other Pig Mask asked. "Ahh... It was his 'secretary'... Let's give him another call," Jack said, redialing.

[kingporky]

"Who was that?" Porky asked, pretending as if he cared. The harem-girl turned back to the king and giggled cutesy-like. "No, nobody," the girl replied, "Just some nobody saying they have a Chaos... Som-" But before the girl could finish her sentence, Porky exclaimed, "Chaos Emerald!? ... Ahh, call those guys back... I need to make a phone call of my own. This is... Presidential business," Porky reached for a remote control nearby. Grabbing it, he pointed it at the wall in front of him and pressed a button. A large, flat screen television slid down from the compartment that had opened up on the ceiling. This special television was made for private conversations to be possible between the doctor and him. Any phone call could possibly be tracked... The screen now projected the interior of Robotnik's airship. On Robotnik's end of the screen, a view of the harem room would be projected, with Porky and all of his girls around him...

"Ohh, Botsyyy... Where aaare you?" Porky called out.

[therealrobotnik]

How he hated that nickname. But for now he had to live with it, now that he was getting help from the man.

Robotnik came over and sat down on his usual chair, looking straight into the monitor. "What is it, Porky?" He had his serious face on, hoping that whatever it was, it was important. "Did you find something?"

[therealrobotnik]

Ignore them. Ignore them. Right now, Robotnik couldn't afford losing his patience, which he was very close to doing. And he didn't care that Porky could probably tell that.

However, it didn't take but a second for him to see two PIg Masks carrying a little girl in a butterfly net...

with a crystal...

"... Are those two Pig Men running around with that fairy the ones that have the emerald?" Robotnik was really losing his patience. For Porky's, and those Pig Men's sake, the answer had better be 'no.'

[kingporky]

"At least, that's what they said," Sylvia sighed, already bored with this line of conversation, "You don't seem too happy about it, Botsy,"
If there was anybody who was observant enough of the way people acted, it was Porky. He looked carefully at Robotnik and even he understood that there was something wrong. "... Is there a problem, Robotnik?" Porky asked, suddenly... Slightly more serious than before.

[1/2]

[therealrobotnik]

"A problem!? That's not a chaos emerald!!" Robotnik slammed his fists down on the armrests. "That's a...." But then he stopped, and thought. Didn't he see something on the Diamond City journal network about that crystal and that fairy? He quickly propped up a computer screen and surfed...

[2/2]

[therealrobotnik]

.... and grinned.

"That may not be a chaos emerald... but it is a good substitute for now." He put away the computer screen and looked back at Porky. "This fairy hails from a distant planet known as 'Ripple Star.' This planet houses a large crystal that acts as a secondary power supply. I do believe she is holding that crystal!"

"I have my eyes set on an abandoned factory that this would be perfect for!" He turned serious again. "If I am to conquer Diamond City with the emeralds, I will need an army of robots to help out. While I can make enough here, more wretched heroes are making their way here, and I need all the minions I can get. Have them take it and the girl there and have her held hostage. She can't go around telling others about this." Sensing a backfire, he added:

"And you know that if she tells anyone, it will cause a stir in the police force again."

Inside the Factory

[oh_my_pork]

After having given instructions, a relatively medium amount of Pig Masks, around about thirty of them, have reached the abandoned factory. Pig UFOs landed all around the factory with Pig Masks still inside them in case of any need for retreat or reinforcements. The rest of them, which rounded to about fifteen of them, were all inside the factory. From the small amount of time they were there, the Pig Masks had spray-painted everything with their "pig-snout" logo. The fairy that was kidnapped was trapped inside the large cargo room. There were nothing but empty boxes and crates piled up. The room itself wasn't too lighted up and there were little windows to be found. It had a gloomy atmosphere.

In the center of the room, the fairy, Ribbon, was tied up to a chair and the crystal was in the hands of a higher-ranking Pig Mask dressed in blue. The blue Pig Mask took his job slightly more seriously than his subordinates, but he's still prone to goof off at times. More trained than the average Pig Mask, the Captain is considerably more