Episode 81: Flawed Fraud
Tiff has been working on a book since Rowlin and Colding became her huge inspirations. She spent days and nights planning, brainstorming, and writing a novel as she researched a lot and read a ton of books and newspapers.
"Ah!! Finally!" Tiff exclaimed as she finished her first book ever. "Although it's not a series, I can definitely publish this book!!" She grabbed her final draft, organized it as a book, put it in an envelope, and walked into her parents' room to get her parents' permission to give her a ride to a publishing company.
"Mom! Dad! You've got to take me to the publishing company in Planet Popstar!!" Tiff begged.
"I'm sorry, honey," Sir Ebrum apologized. "We have too many castle duties that we cannot be gone for more than 2 days."
"Can you look for someone else who can take you?" Lady Like asked.
"I don't know..." Tiff said in disappointment.
Tiff walked into the forest to be alone. She crouched against the tree and let the shades shadow her sadness. On top of the tree, Kirby and Dyna Chick were having an apple picnic as usual.
"Poyo! Poyo!" "Caw! Caw!" Kirby and Dyna Chick talked to each other as they enjoyed the delicious apples sweetened by the sunlight. While munching the apples, Kirby noticed Tiff crouching at the bottom of the tree with her head down.
Kirby slowly floated down to Tiff and called her, "Poyo?"
"Oh, hey Kirby," Tiff greeted sadly as she raised her head.
"Poyo, poyo?" Kirby asked what was going on.
"I finally finished a book, and I have no ways to get to the publishing company..." Tiff said sadly. "It was my dream to publish a book..."
Kirby thought for a moment and said, "Poyo! Poyo!" Kirby then walked away from Tiff and exited the forest.
"I wonder if he understood me," Tiff said to herself.
"Caw! Caw!" Dyna Chick climbed down and handed her an apple to cheer her up.
"Aww, thanks, Dyna Chick," Tiff said as she received the apple from Dyna Chick and bit into it.
********
"So, Tiff needs a ride to the publishing company, you say?" Meta Knight asked Kirby.
"Poyo," Kirby answered.
"And you wanted to ask me to give her a ride?" Meta Knight asked.
"Poyo, poyo," Kirby pleaded.
"I will," Meta Knight replied. He was smirking underneath the mask.
"Poyo?" Kirby asked.
"Of course," Meta Knight happily agreed. "You and Tiff are good friends, and you want to support her. If you want to support her, I'll definitely help you support her."
"Poyo! Poyo!" Kirby cheered excitedly as he hugged Meta Knight.
Meta Knight chuckled and said, "Let's go tell Tiff I can give her a ride."
********
"Really???" Tiff asked in happy disbelief. "You'd give me a ride for me???"
"Yes," Meta Knight answered. "Kirby asked me."
"Poyo! Poyo!" Kirby said.
"Oh, thank you, Kirby! Thank you, Meta Knight!" Tiff said as she hugged them both.
"When should we leave?" Meta Knight asked.
"As soon as possible!" Tiff said.
"Good," Meta Knight said. "I have my car ready."
"We have to make a detour to my room to get the final draft," Tiff said.
"We can do that," Meta Knight said.
"Yay!!" Tiff cheered.
After picking up her final draft, Meta Knight drove Kirby and Tiff to the publishing company. It was about a 3-hour drive, but Meta Knight did not mind, as long as he was with Kirby by his side. Tiff decided to take a nap during the trip. Meta Knight was about to say something romantic, but Tiff might still hear it in her sleep, so he talked about something other besides Kirby. "Kirby... I have some confessions to make..."
"Poyo?" Kirby asked.
"I... I actually know when my birthday is..." Meta Knight said. "I didn't tell you because... my birthday was the day when Nightmare Enterprises first invaded and wiped out half of my friends and allies. I never wanted to celebrate my birthday ever since..."
"Poyo..." Kirby said understandingly.
"And... my dreams... it was destroyed by the invasion of Nightmare Enterprises," Meta Knight continued.
"Poyo... poyo?" Kirby said sympathetically and asked him if he still wanted to share it.
"Well... it was to make the largest groups of soldiers, which were my friends and allies, to protect the galaxy as an army of Star Warriors," Meta Knight said. "However, you and I are the only Star Warriors that are alive today. After my friends and allies died, I decided to go to any planet and start building my soldiers there. That's where I found Sword Knight and Blade Knight. Although they are not exactly Star Warriors, they are pretty skilled. This is why I stayed here until I can find another soldier capable of being a capable soldier."
"Poyo?" Kirby asked.
"Yes, it is you, Kirby," Meta Knight answered.
"Poyo! Poyo!" Kirby suggested.
"You're right," Meta Knight agreed. "We can start building our own army after finding more Star Warriors."
"Poyo, poyo!" Kirby said.
Meta Knight chuckled and said, "Thank you for your thoughts, Kirby. You still may be young, but you sure much more mature than before."
"Poyo!" Kirby replied.
It was the first time these two had a conversation purely about Meta Knight. He would always avoid talking about himself, but now that he trusts Kirby even more and knows that he has become much more mature than ever, Meta Knight felt more comfortable sharing his side of the story. While Kirby and Meta Knight were talking purely about Meta Knight's birthday and dream, they arrived at the publishing company.
"Poyo! Poyo!" Kirby shook Tiff to wake her up.
"Tiff, we have arrived," Meta Knight said.
"Mmm, thanks..." Tiff said as she rubbed her eyes. She grabbed her envelope and asked, "So, what did you guys talk about while I was asleep?"
"My dreams and birthday," Meta Knight replied.
"Ooh! When is your birthday, and what are your dreams?" Tiff asked as the conversation topic woke her up.
"I'll tell you when I feel comfortable talking about it with anyone," Meta Knight replied.
"No fair..." Tiff said.
"Come on," Meta Knight said as he led them into the building.
They were seated as they waited for the consultant when all three noticed someone familiar walking into the building. Tiff made a disgusted face, Meta Knight's eyes turned red, and Kirby was peaceful as ever. As Susie also noticed them, she also glared at them.
"Susie?" Tiff scoffed. "What are you doing here??"
"I'm here to publish a textbook to educate future engineers so that even someone with a low IQ can fully understand every engineering concept," Susie said sassily. "What are YOU doing here? To publish a cheesy romance novel that will only become famous centuries after you publish it?"
"It's a mystery/thriller, and it will be more interesting than your pathetic textbook, thank you," Tiff argued back at Susie.
"How much do you intend to make with that novel?" Susie asked. "Enough to pay what you already spent to make that novel?"
"I'm sure people are going to pirate your textbook illegally anyway," Tiff said. "Like the students worried about the student loans would always do."
"You wanna take it to the ring again?" Susie glared and growled.
"Gladly," Tiff said as she pulled up her sleeves.
"Tiff, that's enough," Meta Knight said.
"I'm only stopping 'cause you're stopping me," Tiff said.
"Wuss," Susie insulted rudely.
Thanks to Meta Knight's help, Tiff was able to ignore Susie's rude insults. Susie sat on the opposite side to avoid the confrontation. Thankfully, no physical violence happened while Susie and Tiff successfully published their books by the publishing company.
However, the conflict happened a month after the publishment. When Tiff checked up on the status of her book, it had great sales, it had a great reputation, it had great reviews... she did not make a lot of money. Why? The name was NOT hers. "What the heck?? I wrote this book! Why isn't my name associated with it??" Tiff asked herself as her anger, concern, and anxiety were all mixed into a crucible of emotion and poured the mixed emotions into her heart. Tiff ran to go tell Meta Knight.
"I don't understand why so many people are breaking the laws..." Meta Knight said to himself.
"Can you take care of it, Meta Knight?? Please??" Tiff begged.
"Of course," Meta Knight said.
"You're such a good soldier and a lawyer!" Tiff said with a bright, cheery smile.
"Let's get Kirby," Meta Knight said.
"Why?" Tiff asked with her confused face.
"He needs to learn about this stuff, too," Meta Knight said.
"Oh, I see," Tiff immediately understood. The truth is, Meta Knight just wanted to spend more time with Kirby.
When they arrived, Susie was there also to complain about the same thing, but they were too angry about not getting the reputation of their own books, so they did not pay attention to each other.
"Excuse me!!" Tiff screamed as she slammed down on the desk. "That novel was ALL MINE!! You can't just use your employee's name and claim it's yours!!"
"Excuse me!!" Susie screamed as she slammed down on the desk. "That textbook and the wordings were ALL MINE!! You can't just use your employee's name and claim it's yours!!"
"Yeah, so?" the workers asked.
"What do you mean 'so?'" Susie screamed. "That is a violation of the Intergalactic Law of Copyrights! I have my proof of wording, so you'd better put my name on MY OWN BOOK!!!"
"You heard her!!" Tiff screamed angrily.
"We don't have to do anything," the workers smirked. One of them opened up the cash register, tossed a few bills at them and said, "Take it and beat it."
That made Susie and Tiff extremely furious at the workers. Both Susie and Tiff jumped over the counter and jumped on the workers, like they did to each other when they were fighting each other on the ring.
"Security!! Security!!" the workers called as Susie and Tiff became violent. The Searches arrived to attack Tiff and Susie.
"Kirby! Inhale those!" Meta Knight said as Susie and Tiff were too busy to notice the Searches coming for them.
Kirby inhaled one of the Searches and transformed into Crash Kirby.
"What is that?" Susie asked as she noticed Kirby's transformation.
"It's Crash Kirby!!" Tiff and Meta Knight announced.
Kirby charged its crash power and released a large crash. Everyone in the building screamed in alert as they ran out of the building except the two workers that Tiff and Susie beat up, who were now unconscious.
"Watch out!" Meta Knight said as he glided to grab both Tiff and Susie to exit the falling building.
"What is going on??" Susie asked.
"Crash Kirby destroys everything around him with a series of huge explosions!" Tiff said.
"Does Kirby explode with it?" Susie asked.
"Don't make me drop you in the explosion," Meta Knight said.
"Fine, I'll shut up," Susie said as she crossed her arms.
Even when Meta Knight flew off somewhere far away, Tiff and Susie could still see Crash Kirby exploding and destroying the publishing company's building into a large pile of debris.
"Wow..." Susie breathed. "That is some explosion."
"He's very powerful," Tiff said as she attempted to set the boundary.
"That does not mean our company can't beat him," Susie said.
"You should've left her there or dropped her in the middle of it," Tiff said. Meta Knight chuckled in agreement.
********
A few days later, Susie and Tiff both sued the publishing company for violating the Intergalactic Copyright Laws. Susie and Tiff were not the only victims. EVERYONE who published the book there was conned by the publishing company.
"For violation of Intergalactic Copyright Laws," the judge declared. "Not only you'll have to shut your company down, but you will also have to pay everyone authors the fee of the income after publishing the books." The judge slammed the gravel.
The CEO of the company growled as everyone cheered. "YAY!! YEAH!!" Tiff and Susie also cheered happily as they hugged each other and jumped up and down. When they returned to their senses, they frowned at each other, pushed each other away, and said, "Hmph!" as they crossed their arms.
Tiff and Susie eventually published their books at different companies. A few months later, Tiff's book started to attract more attention, and more and more people started buying and reading them, and Tiff got not only the fair share of her money but also the fair share of the recognition she deserved.
She even started a book signing event in Cappy Town. Not only the citizens of Cappy Town came to the book signing event, but others from other parts of the Planet Popstar did.
"It's good to see people achieve their dream, isn't that right, Kirby?" Meta Knight asked.
"Poyo! Poyo!" Kirby said.
"You don't have to make any promises with me," Meta Knight said as he held his hand. "As long as I am with you, I don't need anything else."
"Poyo~" Kirby said as he nuzzled on Meta Knight. Meta Knight chuckled as he leaned his cheek into Kirby more.
A/N: Someone copied my fanfics on Novelww and teenfic.net. If anyone else can report that, that would be amazing. If you also find other illegal websites copying and pasting my fanfics, please report them too! Please and thank you!
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