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That aggravating, bothersome, insufferable pink 'hero'.
Screw him.
Screw him so much!
Screw Kirby for raining on the parade that was poised to become.
Of course, Marx's fun just had to be spoiled and ruined, didn't it? And he thought he was just messing with some stupid, naive kid.
A kid that he severely underestimated. A kid that ended up kicking his butt and humiliated him to the extreme.
The embarrassment just hurts... it all hurts so much.
The worst humiliation he could've ever felt. Nothing else could have possibly left him more embarrassed than this.
Marx is still alive, somehow. Even now, he cannot believe that this enormous impact didn't kill him. He absolutely thought that he was a goner as soon as he saw himself coming straight towards Galactic Nova after being catapulted by that cretin's hammer, as his vision went black right before he made impact with the clockwork star. He was certain that his body was going to be engulfed in flames in the explosion.
And engulfed in flames it did, as he was quick to realize the moment he felt immense burning all over him. But he... didn't die? While his vision stayed black, he was bewildered at why he never stopped feeling all this burning, excruciating pain that he wishes would just end already. Wouldn't it all have ended, since he was definitely going to die?
But as soon as he somehow sensed the capability of opening his eyes again, while continuing to feel the dreadful pain… it clicked to him that he survived.
How he survived the initial impact, he'll never know. But it appears that he's now on borrowed time... on his last remaining moments of life, surprising that it hadn't already ended yet. The searing pains throughout his body are no less grueling, heck they're now even more grueling than they were before the explosion faded. His injuries, whatever they may be, are so serious that they're past the point of healing. He came to that realization as the pain never eases down, and instead only gets worse.
Marx's gravely injured body feels way too weak, to the point he's completely incapable of moving freely on his own in the slightest. He's floating around helplessly in the void of outer space.
He is also surrounded by countless pieces of Nova that are floating alongside him. This is basically the location of his death bed. Fitting, he supposes, because he's always liked to consider himself cosmic.
Live a cosmic jester, die a cosmic jester.
Before he eventually succumbs to his injuries, however, he manages to utter something out of his mouth before he even realizes it.
"Grrrrraaaaaaarrrrhhhh..." Marx growls, rather loudly. He initially didn't process that the growling came from himself, but as he's still alive, the last remaining emotions inside him are of pure bitterness. Of pure anger.
That it was a kid much younger than him that put him in this condition.
Marx is a grown adult, now. He should've been able to easily wreck that pink kid! Is he really so pathetic that he couldn't beat a child, even after the powers he had just obtained from Nova? And that this child was able to rock his shit so badly to the point of essentially ending his life, but must suffer through impossibly agonizing pain first?
Embarrassing. Absolutely embarrassing. It's just embarrassing all around.
"That... that punk!" Marx snarls, the pain continuing to anger him. "That damn imbecile! That insufferable piece of shit! Fuck everything about him!"
He should probably be more distraught at the fact that he's soon to die, but he's simply way too angry and bitter about Kirby to care. It heavily overwhelms any other emotion he could possibly have.
A minute later, his mind comes up with what he'll choose to be his last words before death. A message that he feels the need to send out.
It takes him a few minutes before he can get himself to utter those words out.
Ooohhh, how amazing would it be if his injuries weren't so severe that he'd be able to recover? In that scenario, he'd undeniably be seeking revenge on Kirby. He'd make sure to get back at that imbecile and make him pay for massively humiliating him. If it required taking that insufferable punk by surprise, then so be it.
But unfortunately, that's not the case. He knows he'll never be capable of getting revenge, considering how incredibly debilitating his condition is.
The excruciating pains that have never stopped shooting throughout his body gradually worsen. It only makes him angrier.
Eventually, he finally yells his last words before death.
"Fuck you, Kirby!"
Marx knows that there's nobody around to hear it, but he doesn't care. Those words just needed to find an opportunity to come out of his mouth before he dies.
And just like that, he closes his eyes again as he awaits death.
It's taking longer to die than anticipated... as it's still surprising that he wasn't killed by the initial impact. It's also getting really obnoxious that all this pain keeps getting worse and worse.
Can it just be done already?
The increasing pain never stops continuing to make him angrier and angrier about Kirby. His last thoughts before death are hoping for that aggravating pink cretin to die a death as humiliating as his. He's not quite sure how that could go on to happen... maybe worst-case scenario is that the universe would have to burn for that to occur, and if that's what it takes, then Marx is more than willing to hope for that. Anything for that insufferable 'hero' to finally get a taste of karma.
He has no idea if he'll be in some sort of 'afterlife' and become a ghost after he dies. If so, then he'll watch over Kirby and spitefully laugh every time that stupid kid gets screwed over by something or someone. It'll serve him right every single time.
But if not, then that's why Marx is making these spiteful thoughts now. He doesn't entirely care if he doesn't become a ghost, though.
To him, all that matters is that Kirby gets his comeuppance. Regardless of whether Marx is there in spirit to see it or not.
That's solely what he wishes for as he continues to await to death.
Several moments pass.
Ummm...
Something happens that's unexpected. Completely unexpected.
A noise starts occurring.
While Marx is curiously still not dead, he's hearing this sudden sound that continues occurring.
It's a heavy windy sound, he thinks. He tries to ignore it, thinking it might just be some auditory hallucination. It's not loud.
... Or initially, it wasn't. The windy sound becomes louder and louder. It gets to the point where he can no longer ignore it. It's really making him curious.
Marx wasn't planning on opening his eyes again after his last words, but he pries them open to see whatever the actual hell is making this sound.
As he sees what's making the sound... wow.
It's... it's a big blue ship?!? It has a big yellow star on the front of its emblem. It looks like a ship that'd be used for the seas… but apparently, it's able to cruise through the voids of outer space. Who knew that ships could fly?
The ship is coming exactly towards Marx's way without any signs of stopping. Good, Marx thinks, if it means finally putting him out of misery. He's been getting really tired of waiting to die now. He was feeling tormented at how long it's been taking for him to bleed out, as if he wasn't already humiliated enough by how badly Kirby kicked his butt.
He hopes that the ship rams him hard enough to just kill him on the spot. He closes his eyes shut again in preparation.
Please just put me out of my misery already, his mind says.
Moments pass as the ship appears closer.
But surprisingly... it slows down, and stops before it can touch Marx. It doesn't ram him. He finds out that it stops as the noises become a bit different, with it being a less heavily windy sound than it was before. He pries his eyes open once again.
Curses. Of course, his death gets prolonged even longer. Is everything deliberately making his death as prolonged and miserable as possible?
Damn it! Why does everything suck so much?!?
But wait. The ship's pilot must have noticed him. That could be the only logical reason why it would stop.
Does... does that mean that help is actually on the way?!?
What a surprise! Marx didn’t ever expect that to happen.
Although honestly, he’s not even sure what to make of it. What if his injuries are so bad that he's beyond saving, and that his death is inevitable? What if he dies in the middle of being rescued?
How shitty would that be? He didn't die when he was awaiting it, but what if the moment he dies is when someone is trying to save him... dying at the wrong time? Are things just suddenly going to become even more spiteful for Marx? How much worse can it possibly get?
While he ponders the likeliness of survival, the pilot comes out from the ship's side.
As they come closer, Marx can see that they're cloaked in some blue hood, with bright yellow eyes peeking out. They also have cone-shaped ears and... disembodied yellow hands, from the looks of it?
"Hey there!" this guy says, as he comes closer. "Do you need some assistance? I was surprised to see a living being floating around here in this mess! I figure that I shouldn't just leave you hanging here, so how about I give you a hand?"
A few seconds before Marx makes his response.
"Yes! I do need assistance! And can you be quick about it? I don't wanna die here! I don't know how much longer I have to live!"
"Absolutely!" the rescuer says, giving a nod. He then comes right up to Marx, grabs him, and takes him to the ship. "I've got healer magic to help you recover from these injuries. Gee, you look seriously wounded. Whatever you just went through, it must've been really horrific! But don't worry, you should be as good as new once my healer magic gets put to good use here."
Ooooh. Marx likes what he hears. So, he'll recover quickly? That sounds amazing. It also means he'll actually be able to seek revenge on that wretched pink imbecile that got in his way and gave him an embarrassing beat down!
This is glorious!
As the rescuer brings him to inside the ship, it's... wow, an interesting place inside! A cosmic technological ship, isn't that just something?
"Damn, man!" Marx says. "What a really cool ship this is!"
This is one amazing piece of technology all around, he thinks.
A lot of space and room in here! It looks like there's several hallways throughout here that Marx might check out after he's healed up. This dude’s sure got a lot of interesting stuff going on here.
"Hahahaha, I know right?" the rescuer responds. "Also, sorry for not introducing myself yet. My name is Magolor! And this ship is called the Lor Starcutter. I excavated it from somewhere! It's quite an amazing thing, if I do say so myself."
Oooh, so he found it from somewhere.
Well, he's lucky to have found it! He must've been so proud of himself for it.
"It sure is!" said Marx. "You sure hit the dang jackpot by finding this wondrous thing!"
Marx then gets placed at what appears to be the center of the Lor Starcutter's operations, in front of a row of colorful buttons that he assumes is the control panel, as well as a large screen on the wall. He assumes that this right here is the location inside the ship where this Magolor guy pilots it.
After he gets put on the floor, Magolor then hovers right above him, with his disembodied hands beginning to glow. Marx assumes that's the magic he is about to activate.
"Here it comes!" said Magolor. "Let me tell you that it might tickle just a little bit, so hang on tight!"
His hands come down closer as the magic shoots from out of them, landing on Marx.
Oooohhhh. Marx begins to feel something very strange inside. It feels... like there's an oceanic wave that's splashing around inside of him.
It does somewhat tickle, but it also alleviates the pain! His injuries are finally starting to recover!
"Wooooooow!" Marx cheers. "Thanks, man!"
"No problem, my dude!" Magolor responds. "It's going to take a bit until it's done, though. Just give it about a few more minutes! At that point, you should be good."
The healing process continues.
As the feeling of a wave splashing around inside Marx continues, the pains that have been shooting throughout his body continue to fade away more and more.
It takes roughly seven minutes for all the pain to be gone and for his injuries to be fully recovered. Marx begins to feel all better, as he can now freely move his body around once again.
How glorious it is that he's back to moving around on his own.
He feels great!
"Wohohohohohohohohohohohoho! I survived! I lived! I was so close to death, but I made it through... and it's all thanks to you, Magolor! I sincerely didn't think that I would be saved, but I sure appreciate it, man! I, Marx, shall thrive once again!"
Marx then hops about in delight, celebrating the fact that he survived and is back to his normal condition.
It’s… it’s just so amazing.
He can cause mischief again! He can have fun again! And most importantly… he’ll be capable of getting revenge on Kirby.
That stupid little punk won’t know what’s coming to him.
Joining in on the celebration, Magolor claps his hands several times, cheerful look in his bright yellow eyes.
"You're absolutely welcome, my guy!" he says, still clapping. "Oh, and 'Marx' is your name? If so, then I'm glad to have met you today, Marx!"
“Yes, it is!” Marx stopped hopping about for a second to respond. "It's a miracle that you somehow found me. This was, like, the absolute last thing I was expecting to happen today!"
It really was. He absolutely one hundred percent thought that he was done for. How could anyone have possibly known to save him?
That’s what he thought until Magolor miraculously showed up.
Even now, Marx can still hardly believe that this happened. But he's thankful that it did.
"Oh, believe me... I never anticipated stumbling upon this mess out here in the cosmos!” Magolor says. “What happened, by the way? How'd you get so close to dying? Did you get caught in whatever debris happened here? Whatever happened must have been absolutely intense!"
Ohhh… so he already wants to know what happened?
Marx genuinely considers it for a moment. It’d be nice to let someone know about the anger that he feels about that pink brat that got in his way.
However...
There’s a part of him that, in all honesty, decides against disclosing everything… at least for now. As it stands for the current moment, he's just happy to have survived. He just wants to mess around for a little bit before going on to planning his revenge.
He lost to Kirby once… he absolutely should not underestimate him next time. He won't repeat that mistake. It may take some time to plan on how he'll go on about getting revenge.
Marx does plan to share the story with Magolor, but it won't be now. He’ll wait until later to explain all the details.
It’s fine. He’s not exactly in a rush, and it’s not like this is first time he’s played a long game. Giving himself some time to plan it all out could make revenge more successful and more satisfying, after all.
"It's a long story, as I got into a fight with a sucker that ended up being way tougher than I thought! He catapulted my ass into this comet!” said Marx. “But to be honest, I'm not sure I'm up to sharing the whole story just yet. Sorry about that. I can later, but for now I just want to chill and be silly somewhere! Do you know of a place where I can hang around for now?"
He has the impression that Magolor knows of places, considering that he uh… operates this big ship. It’d be strange if he only just flies it the entire time without giving himself chances to hang out in certain areas.
"Why, as a matter of fact, yes I do!” Magolor responds. “And no worries about waiting to share the rest of that story later, that's fine. Whenever you're comfortable enough to share more. Anyways, I do know somewhere that we can go! How about I take you to my home planet? It's called Halcandra! It's not in this dimension, though... we'll have to go to a place known as 'Another Dimension' to get there. It's very far away, but the Lor is an absolute beast and can fly us there in no time! So, what do you say?”
Wow. ‘Halcandra’, is it? And not just that… but it’s in another dimension? Marx has never been to a different dimension before!
It’s making him interested. Who knows what other dimensions are like? It wouldn’t hurt to find out!
He wouldn't mind checking that kind of thing out before plotting his revenge.
"Hahahaha. That sounds really cool!” Marx says. “And I say yes to going there, although I'd want to eventually get back to this dimension at some point."
"That won't be a problem, Marx!” Magolor responds. “I'd like to show you my home planet of Halcandra, anyways, as it's also where I excavated the Lor from! Additionally, we've got a lot of cool technological and relic stuff going over there, and sometimes the people can cause some mischief from time to time!"
Wait a minute there…
He just said a particular word that immediately caught Marx’s attention. A word that defines something he knows all about… something he’s done his entire life and considers it his life work.
That makes him stoked on the inside.
"Woah... did you just say mischief?” Marx asks. “I'm all about that! Do you cause some mischief, too? And if so, how about we collaborate in mischief when we get there?"
Marx always loved the idea of joining someone in mischief. It’s been extremely rare for him to have gotten such chances, though… the only time he did that prior to now was causing some mischief with a few scarfies on Halfmoon, where he baited people into getting bitten.
Other than that, a lot of people on multiple planets weren’t exactly willing to join Marx in shenanigans. He's been kind of an outcast for most of his life.
"You'll like what I have to say: yes, I'm a mischievous one myself!” Magolor says, much to Marx’s joy. “Pulling pranks on people is indeed very fun. I’m delighted to have met another person to have a large sense of humor. And I'd be glad to collaborate in mischief together over at Halcandra. I'm sure we'll be having a grand, fun time there!”
Oh… yes!
This will be amazing!
Magolor seems like such a fun and amazing dude already, and Marx has only known him for a little bit! Not only did this guy save his life, but he’s also mischievous like he is…
… He’s found a new friend in this dude. It just makes this entire incident all the more miraculous!
“Hahahahahaha! Excellent!” said Marx. "I declare us to be friends!"
"Awesome, dude! I'm more than honored to become your friend, Marx!” Magolor says, clapping a few times. “Anyways... I think we've ought to go over there, now. Allow me to operate the Lor to get us there!”
Yes… Marx can’t wait! This will be a fun treat after being rescued.
Telling Magolor about the incident with Kirby can wait. Marx will ensure that gets taken care of later. For now, he's eager to have some fun with this new friend.
"Alright, man!” he nods. “And thank you again for saving me. It actually means a lot. And I promise I'll share more about how I got put into the condition you found me in later."
"That's fine by me, my dude!” Magolor responds. “And you're welcome once again. Now... time to go to Halcandra!”
And so Magolor moves over to the control panel and begins the process. He starts rapidly pressing buttons.
Marx isn't close enough to see exactly what he's typing, but he's pressing on a bunch of buttons in the span of about fifteen seconds.
The large screen on the wall turns on after Magolor is done with typing. It initially shows outer space, but then shows a large.... dark blue vortex? That's a little strange. Marx isn't sure what that entails.
But a few seconds after the 'vortex' spawns on screen, an image then pops up of what appears to be an orangish blown planet with a volcano.
"Is that Halcandra?" Marx asks.
At that, Magolor gives a nod.
"Indeed, it is, my friend!" he says. "I know it shows there being lava and whatnot, but don't worry! There's plenty of cool stuff here, I promise. I'm excited to show you my home, regardless!"
A few seconds later, he raises his fist in the air and forcefully presses down hard on the control panel, making the Lor Starcutter get ready to go.
Marx feels shaking around him as the Lor readies up.
"Woaaahhhh!" he says while shaking.
"It's going to open up a portal to Another Dimension!" Magolor assures. "Yeah, the Starcutter is capable of opening up portals! Amazing, isn't it? We'll be going through this portal! Get ready, Marx!"
And just like that, Magolor begins piloting. The Lor Starcutter begins to move through the cosmos as it's all powered up.
It's currently powered up with a whitened aura around it, which then spawns a dimensional portal. Magolor pilots the ship to go through the portal.
Once they go through the portal, it closes, leaving behind Marx's native dimension for now.
And so begins the trip to another dimension.
This will be so much fun, Marx thinks. What happened might've just been the best possible outcome. He was saved when he most thought it was unlikely to happen, he becomes friends with his savior, and learns that this guy is mischievous just like him! How awesome is all that? And he's going to spend some time with this guy, with them causing some mischief together.
He’s not sure that he could have asked for better, really. This is all just so, so delightful.
Mark his words, however. He will be planning revenge on Kirby at some point. He must. There's no way he'll allow himself to concede being bested by that aggravating pink kid. He'll find a way to get back at that punk. He's not exactly sure yet as to how he'll do it, but oooohhhh... he'll find a way for sure.
He'll do whatever it takes. If he has to consult with Magolor in getting some help in wrecking that insufferable 'hero', that's fine. He can do that when he gets to the point of being willing to share the whole story to him. He'll take time in putting legitimate effort to plan something out. Again, if it requires playing the long game, so be it. It might be necessary this time to increase the likelihood of finally dominating Kirby.
Part of it is exciting, considering whatever Magolor could have in store if he helps Marx plan his revenge.
But for now, the two of them are just going to have some grand old fun. The more serious matters can come later.
Regardless, however...
The future is looking bright.