Chapter 7: Exploring the Vast Desert
Eventually the leaf started to descend, and Chopper found himself getting closer to the ground. Since the drop was not too high, he released his grip on the leaf and fell onto the sand. Unfortunately, he ended up landing headfirst, causing his head to get stuck in the sand. It took some effort, but he managed to push his head out of the sand and land in a sitting position. After getting up, Chopper got a look at his surroundings. He could see the yellowish blue sky, but the landscape itself was very sandy and uninteresting.
"Wow, so this is the next area? Well this looks boring..." Chopper trailed, not looking too interested. That was, until he heard a chirping sound. "Huh?"
He looked down and saw a small, white creature in the shape of a ball with two beady eyes and a smile. The little creature was hugging Chopper's foot, despite the fact that it had no arms and legs.
"Oh, hey there! What are you doing here?" Chopper picked up the little creature and put it on the palm of his hand. "Well, whatever you are, you look like you're nice! Did you come to me because you were thinking I could help you?"
The creature gave a nod in response.
"Well, I guess I can let you come with me. Do you have a name?" Chopper asked. The creature's smile changed to a blank look when it shook its head. "Oh... Well... Maybe you should have a name? Ummmm... How about Cero?"
Cero nodded cheerfully and then Chopper put it on his head.
"Great! All right then, Cero! Let's go find that Planet Star Piece out in the desert! …I just hope I can find it in time before things get worse…"
Chopper ran on ahead through the vast desert, but he stopped when he saw a large hill going down. He noticed two stone creatures that were oval-shaped talking to each other.
"Me heard that Stoneard has rocks in mines," the first rock creature called a Rocko said. The other Rocko scratched its head, but it noticed Chopper on the top of the hill, so it tapped its fellow Rocko on the shoulder and pointed to him.
"Er… What's that green thing over there? It reminds me of something squishy…" the Rocko pounded its fists. "…And I HATE squishy objects!"
"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped while Cero growled at the two Rockos. They curled up and began to roll up the hill toward Chopper. "Oh, no... That's not good!"
Suddenly, Chopper opened his mouth and began to inhale one of the Rockos. He was surprised to see that he was actually doing this, having a feeling that the heart was doing this instead. Once he ate the Rocko, his appearance began to change. When he looked at himself, he saw his skin changed to a light brown tint with brown gloves and feet. There was also a blue samurai helmet on his head with a red plume on top, and on the forehead piece was a star.
Copy Ability: Stone
No enemy shall stand in the way once Chopper becomes rock solid! No attack will make him budge! Transform into any shape of rock and crush those who are below, or use a Stone Uppercut to turn your hand into a rock fist that will smash anything in sight!
"This is new... Maybe I can use this ability's powers?" Chopper saw the other Rocko coming at him, but once he used his ability, he turned into a statue. One that was stronger than a Rocko.
When the rock monster punched Chopper, he didn't budge. However, the Rocko noticed it was cracked, and then it suddenly broke into smithereens. Chopper noticed what he did and gaped at the pieces of the Rocko.
"Whoa… Did I really do that? Cero, did you see that?" Chopper asked, looking at Cero, who bounced up and down while nodding at him. "All right... Well, I guess we better get moving."
Chopper took off down the hill, which made his speed increase. Unfortunately, he ended up tripping on a rock along the way and tumbled to the bottom of the hill. Despite that annoyance, however, he still continued on. He wasn't sure whether that was his fault or not...
As he ran, there wasn't anything too interesting around, to his dismay. Just the same, boring sandy landscape. Even after traveling for a while, he still hadn't found much.
"Ugh… This place is nothing but sand. I don't see a thing around here! I wish we could find some people and ask about any big castle or something..."
"Oh, we'll help you get to the castle!"
Chopper's attention quickly shifted to two Darklings that appeared from the sky. They had yellow eyes and a yellow bulb. Obviously these kind were the ones that inhabited Duny Desert. He jumped out of the way when the Darklings fired their yellow energy ball at him. He stomped on one of the Darklings while he smashed the other with his Stone ability.
"Ack! I'm going to make you pay for that!" the Darkling punched Chopper in the face, but then it paid the price when Chopper came down on it as a stone. What was strange was that he turned into a statue of a manly man with the perfect body. He then turned back to himself, relieved that they were out of the way. He ran on ahead with Cero, unintentionally, crashing into some Darklings and sending them flying. "Oh... I didn't see that."
Two Rockos happened to be nearby, and they prepared to roll over Chopper upon spotting him. While he was running toward them, he gasped when he saw them getting closer. Since he didn't have time to slow down, he closed his eyes and prepared for the worst.
Then it happened again. His arm had thrust forward, and a rock fist had appeared around his hand. They easily smashed through the Rockos and defeated them. Chopper opened his eyes and noticed he was still alive, so he came to a halt and looked back at the destroyed Rockos. Then he looked back at his rock fist hand. Soon enough, it had crumbled.
"What was that?" Chopper wondered. "I... I never planned on that! Did you see that, Cero?"
Cero gave him an unsure look.
"Well... This is really annoying me." the boy frowned. "There are times when something bad happens to me that I suddenly do something that I didn't want to do! Then there are those times when something bad happens to me, it does happen! I don't know about you, but this heart thingy is really being a big jerk to me..."
Cero had given him a frown.
"There's not much I can do right now... I better get going..." Chopper sighed, picking up the pace and running on. "I have a feeling that this will be a looooooooong journey…"
Unfortunately, Chopper's travels did not necessarily get him anywhere. Sure, he had run into a pit of quicksand, but after that, it was smooth sailing. Despite this, there was another big problem for him.
"Ugh… I'm so thirsty… I wish… I wish I had some…" Chopper noticed a pond up ahead. "…Water?!"
He rushed toward the pond and jumped in. Cero, too, also jumped in the water with delight and they began to splash around and drink from it.
The only problem was…that it was just in their imagination. They were actually putting sand in their mouth. It didn't take them long enough to realize this and spit out the sand from their mouths.
"ACK! That was sand all along!" Chopper wiped the sand off of his tongue until he saw a giant apple out in the distance. Was this his imagination again? Well, it surely looked like an apple. "Hey, that looks like those things I saw on my planet! And it has apple juice in it, yay!"
Cero bounced happily and walked over to the machine with the Chopper. Unfortunately, they had run into a similar problem like with the water.
It was a vending machine…
"Oh... It's just a big box with a drink on it..." Chopper sighed as Cero got back on his head. "We'll just have to go without food or water…"
Cero bounced in agreement.
"All right, boys, listen up!"
Cero had stopped in midair when the voice caught both it and Chopper off guard, the latter's antennae springing up. Down a sandy hill nearby was the Ghostly Trio formulating a plan. The leader, Gengly, was the one speaking.
"So, boys… We got our orders, and now we gotta follow 'em!" Gengly confirmed. "…That means no messin' around, all right?"
"Right, Boss," both Haunting and Ghastly nodded.
"So… Tell me, Haunting… Ya got an idea on what we're doing, yes?" Gengly eyed him, who was pretending to pick at his fangs.
"Err… Yeah! I knew what you were saying! We gotta get that kid and put him in the cellar!" Haunting explained, only to get smacked in the face by Gengly.
"You don't need to tell me that! Anyway, I heard that boy could be here any second!"
Ghastly turned and noticed Chopper up at the hill. "Er… Boss… I'm afraid we have a little problem. Look up the hill and you'll see."
"What do ya mean?" Gengly looked over at the hill and saw Chopper looking down at them. "Hey, it's that kid! ...Wait, what's up with him? He's a light brown, and now he's wearing that weird helmet. I thought he was pale green with antennae?"
"I thought so too," Chopper began as he started to slide down the sandy hill and landed near the Ghostly Trio. Cero simply growled at them. "I guess I can copy abilities when I eat something..."
"What? Oh… Well, anyway… I bet you remember who we are, right? You know, the baddest of the bad!" Gengly said, he, Haunting, and Ghastly all making weird poses.
Chopper scratched the back of his head, appearing confused. "I don't know you guys... Sorry..."
The Ghostly Trio had fallen over in frustration. Eventually Gengly got up, appearing very irritated.
"We're the Ghostly Trio!" Gengly yelled in Chopper's face. "Don't ya even REMEMBER?! We caused a big crime back in Colossal Jungle! We made a huge riot, for Pete's sake!"
"I don't remember that..." Chopper trailed, stepping away from him. "So, why were you looking for me?"
"Well… We're here to…take you down! Tell him, boys!" Gengly stepped back and watched as Ghastly and Haunting nodded with grins.
"Yeah! Sorry, but the kid's gotta go!" Haunting declared.
"So, you better stay out of Lord Maquano's business…or else we'll get YOU!" Ghastly cackled.
"You people want to fight me? But... Why would you?" Chopper wondered. "You guys don't look like you're that tough..."
"What?! Heck no! We're the DEFINITION of tough!" Gengly yelled. "We're hardcore! We once crossed the street without looking both ways! That's how hardcore we are!"
"OK... Well, I don't have much time to talk to you guys. I need to find the next Planet Star Piece!" Chopper declared, starting to walk away from the Ghostly Trio.
"Argh... That no-good...freaky...thing!" Gengly growled, conjuring up a shadow ball. "I'll show him how hardcore we are!"
He threw the shadow ball at Chopper, causing him to fall over and knock away his Stone ability.
"Way to go, Boss!" Haunting clapped. "Ya got him!"
"Yeah! ...We did it!" Gengly grinned. "He's history now!"
"Ugh…" Chopper groaned as he slowly got back up and rubbed his head. Cero gave the Ghostly Trio a glare, while they quickly brought their attention to him. "That wasn't very nice!"
"Of course we're not nice! We're the bad guys!"
"Well, then I guess I have to fight you guys..." Chopper trailed.
Mid-boss: The Ghostly Trio
In their efforts to become bad guys, the Ghostly Trio have arrived to stop Chopper in his tracks! With their combined powers, they hope to succeed in their goal.
He rushed at Gengly, attempting to jump on him. Unfortunately, he ended up phasing through his body when the ghost turned transparent and fell over on the ground in surprise..
"Geng geng geng! Stupid little kid! You know that we can ghosts can become transparent! We can also do THIS!" Gengly's invisibility wore off as he struck Chopper in the face with a ghostly punch, knocking him back by one of the rocks. The two other ghosts laughed like idiots. "Quiet, you two!"
Chopper rubbed his head after the punch. "Ugh… How can I hit them when that didn't work?"
Ghastly appeared in front of Chopper with his tongue sticking out, attempting to paralyze him with his licking attack. However, Chopper managed to grab a hold of his tongue. Chopper began to spin Ghastly around, leaving the Ghastly dizzy in the process. And he wasn't the only one joining in on this either. While he continued spinning Ghastly, both Gengly and Haunting were getting constantly hit by their comrade.
"I don't like this one bit!" Ghastly cried.
"Well, I guess this is what happens when we're lower-class villains," Haunting said, only to get smacked by Gengly.
"Quiet, you! You're distracting me at the moment!" Gengly snapped. "We're supposed to be taking this boy out!"
"Well, it's not my fault! It's hard to get away from that hitting and…whatever they call those things." Haunting rubbed his head, but it became worse when the two ghosts were knocked down like bowling pins when Chopper let go of Ghastly's tongue.
"Oh, my poor tongue…" Ghastly moaned, his tongue sticking out while in pain.
"Oh, quit whining about your tongue, you big crybaby!" Gengly retorted.
"Big? But I'm not even bigger than you…"
"Oh, never mind... Let's just destroy him." Gengly made another shadow ball and threw it at Chopper, only to have it get inhaled and spat back at him, causing him immense pain. "Argh! Crud, that was super effective!"
"Why are we weak to our own typeth of attackth?" Ghastly asked.
"Beats me. I didn't think of that idea." Haunting shrugged.
"Both of you quiet! ...This time, I'm going to make it easy on me!" Gengly slowly got up and attempted to make Chopper fall asleep with his hypnosis, but it ended up missing instead, since Chopper was able to get out of the way. He tried a couple more times, but each time it missed. "Grrrrrr! Stop avoiding my attack!"
"No!" Chopper retorted, jumping out of the way of another one. As he landed on the ground, a Fire Hand had popped out and landed in his hand, turning his gloves red. "Hey... I've got one of these now!"
"Whoa… What in the world does he have there?" Haunting gawked.
"This should help me," Chopper smiled as he tossed three fireballs at the Ghostly Trio, setting them on fire. Cero giggled as well upon seeing this.
"Ack! The fire! It burns!" Gengly noticed that his hat caught on fire too. "NO! Not my precious hat! That's the sole reason why it makes me the leader! I treat it like it's my life!"
"I don't get it," Haunting remarked.
"You don't HAVE to get it, you idiot. But if it's a problem to you, then I'll fire ya!"
"Heh heh... You said 'fire' when we're on fire!"
"Oh, shut up. That joke's so stupid..."
"Uhhh… Are you two done talking to each other?" Chopper asked.
"Urrghh!" Gengly growled at Chopper while hurling a purple and black ball of energy in his direction. Chopper thought for a moment, but he decided to throw a fireball to counter, causing an explosion between the two projectiles.
"Wow. We're getting our buttths handed to uth by thome kid!" Ghastly shouted, tongue still sticking out. "That'th juth…thtupid. How are we NOT even winning, bothth?"
Gengly grabbed Ghastly by the tongue and brought his face close to his. "Listen to me, you little punk! If you EVER tell anyone about this whole situation, I swear, I'll tie your tongue to a truck that will be traveling around the world at two hundred miles and hour!"
"Uh… That'th not very nithe…"
"Of course it's not nice, you idiot!" Gengly threw Ghastly in Chopper's direction. "Now go get him!"
Ghastly bumped into Chopper, but his luck became even worse when Chopper scorched him with another fireball. This was enough to send him crashing into Haunting and Gengly, setting them on fire as well.
"AAAAAAAAAH! THIS AIN'T GOOD!"
The Ghostly Trio were running in circles as they were enveloped in flames. Cero laughed at them while Chopper slightly laughed as well. Though, he was only laughing less because he couldn't help but feel bad for them.
After the flames went out on them, they looked over at Chopper with menacing looks that didn't seem too menacing to Chopper.
"Geng geng geng! Finally! Now that the flames are out on us, we can finally finish you for-" Before Gengly could finish, he noticed that they were stuck. "What the… Why can't I move?"
"I think we're in quicksand, Boss," Haunting said.
"Yes, I know that!"
Chopper approached the Ghostly Trio, making sure that he wasn't touching the quicksand. "Well... I guess you guys are not going to be fighting me now. So... I win?"
"Not a chance!" Gengly growled, trying to step out, but failing horribly. "Agggh! How did we not see this coming?!"
"Errr… I don't know. Was it 'cause we were slacking off or something?" Haunting asked stupidly, only to get smacked by Gengly.
"Oh, shut up..." the ghost growled, noticing that the quicksand was down to his knees. "This is your fault, you guys..."
"I don't understand how I'm caught in the-" Ghastly's words were cut off when the quicksand was at his mouth, muffling his voice. Same thing with Haunting.
"We'll get you for this, kid," Gengly growled. "We'll make sure that we're the baddest bad guys you'll ever come across!"
Chopper ignored them and bounced off the top of their heads to go across the quicksand. The Ghostly Trio were a little ticked, but they couldn't do anything about it. After all, they were nearly sinking to their doom.
"Well, now that that's taken care of, we can finally get a move on, Cero!" Chopper smiled at Cero, while it smiled back. He began to take off through the sands as the sun was setting. "Gee... It sure is getting dark..."
Eventually, after running for quite a while, the sun had set, and it was now dark. Chopper ended up stopping to shiver.
"Gee… It sure is cold around here…" Chopper shivered, his speed significantly slowing down. "I wish there was a place that was warm..."
Cero looked around the desert, hoping to find something that could. It noticed a small village not too far ahead, so it nudged Chopper and gestured at the village.
"Huh? Oh, thanks, Cero… Looks like we found a little town! Let's go check and see what's going on over there. …And hopefully we'll find someplace warm, too!"
With that, Chopper rushed to the village.
Chopper made a huge brake as soon as he made it in, which made sand go all over the place. "Oops! I didn't mean to do that!"
"Oh, that's all right…"
Two yellow-eyed Darklings came out of the shadows and tried to grab Chopper. One of them got rid of Chopper's Fire Hand ability with a yellow energy ball that struck him.
"Ack!" Chopper cringed from the hit, but he managed to kick the two Darklings, knocking them on the ground. To his surprise, they had already been defeated. "Wait, that's it? Well... That stinks..."
Looking at his surroundings, he didn't see any sight of people. All he heard was the wind around him, and he also saw a tumbleweed roll across the town.
"Hello? Anyone?!"
He walked around silently, only hearing the sounds of his feet touching the sand at this point.
"Ugh… There's nobody here!" Chopper frowned. "Well, there's gotta be something around here! It's not like I'm going to stand here forever and wait!"
He searched the village to see if there was a place where he could say. Cero was the first to notice an inn, so it gestured Chopper to look over by the bigger building.
"Oh! Maybe I could check that place!" Chopper smiled as he walked over to the inn and opened the door inside. It was a well-made inn, having a nice, marble floor and stairs leading up to the second floor. The first thing he did was walk over to the desk, but it didn't appear to be short enough for him. "Uhhhh... Can you see if anyone's on the other side, Cero?"
Cero nodded and let itself get tossed up to the desk. It bounced around to see if anything was around, but, unfortunately, there wasn't anyone. It went back down and shook its head.
"Nobody's there? What the heck's going on here?" Chopper wondered while he walked over to the couch and sat down. "It's so silent... But at least it's light in here."
He looked around the room carefully, noticing a list nearby. Curious, he got off the couch and decided to check it out. It appeared to have many things such as activities, and even a pool and restaurant.
"Ooh! I think I should check these things out!" Chopper cheered. "What do you say, Cero?"
Cero bounced up and down while nodding.
"Yeah! That's the spirit!" Chopper smiled, but then he thought for a minute. "Hold on… Shouldn't there still be some people here? Or are they asleep? I think I should have a look around this hotel."
Like a bullet, he moved around the hotel, hoping to find someone.
Chopper returned to the lobby fifteen minutes later, plopping down on the comfy couch with a frown. "There's not a thing in here... I guess this place really is empty. What am I supposed to do now?"
At that point, his antennae started to twitch.
"Huh?" Chopper got up from the couch and looked up at his antennae. "Am I...picking up something? It feels like there's something outside..."
Chopper instantly bolted out of the hotel and left the town. He scanned the landscape around him until he spotted a large hill with a doorway leading into somewhere.
"I think it's coming from there..." Chopper trailed, getting much closer to the hill. That was when he was starting to hear voices.
"I swear, man… Doing all of this labor for Lord Maquano is backbreaking!"
"Oh, shut up. You'll live through it. We're just pushing a boulder. Nothing special. At least we get better treatment than those Darkling guys…"
"What's going on in there?" Chopper wondered, noticing that the voices were pretty gnarly. "Those voices really freak me out…"
Chopper took a couple of steps nervously over to the doorway. Cero's heart felt like it was beating ten times its normal speed, and that usually wasn't something good.
"OK…" Chopper took a deep breath as he stood in front of the entrance. "I think I need to go through here if I'm going to find that Planet Star Piece… Well, I hope it's the right place."
Being as brave as he could, he stepped into the dark cave and into the mines.
