Chapter 53: Old Foes Strike Back
Two Darklings found themselves crushed behind the two doors Chopper had knocked open. As he stepped inside of the castle, the doors quickly closed shut, while the two flattened Darklings fell to the ground unconscious. Chopper had looked back and noticed this, but with the stars circling around their heads, he ignored them.
In the meantime, Chopper took the opportunity to look at his brand new surroundings. For starters, the walls all around him were a crimson color. The floor was black, but shiny, and it even felt smooth. Compared to outside, Chopper didn't feel that hot in here either.
"OK... I'm finally in..." Chopper trailed, gripping his sword tightly as he looked around. The large room he stood in contained a few pillars holding up the ceiling. There was a door up ahead, along with a few other ones behind some pillars. "I better find Maquano fast and stop him once and for all!"
Chopper took a few steps, only for some Darkmins to jump out of the doors behind the pillars. They grinned devilishly as they spotted the pale green boy.
"Min min!" one Darkmin chanted, creating a red club in its hand. They charged at Chopper, but one sword lunge was enough to make them turn into dust.
When he was done with that, Chopper made a dash for the door ahead. It was awfully big compared to the others, but perhaps there was a reason for that? Regardless, he opened the door into a long hallway. A long, red rug had been placed on the floor this time, and it led up to a large door at the end.
Thankfully, no enemies had jumped out of the other doors that were along the way, making it smooth sailing from here.
Once Chopper breached through the door, he gaped when he came across a large throne room with a circular platform attached to some chains on the ceiling. Below it was lava, while up ahead was a large, black throne with two Maquano statues holding up a sword. Said swords resembled torches.
"This must be where Maquano stays..." Chopper trailed. "But where is he?"
"Looking for me?"
Chopper gasped when he immediately recognized that voice.
"Maquano! Come on out here!" Chopper yelled.
"If you insist..."
Chopper gripped his sword, but he ended up blinking in surprise when he saw a large monitor lower from the ceiling. At first, static appeared, but eventually it cleared up, revealing Maquano with crossed arms.
"Well well well... So you finally made it to my castle in the center of Darkfire Core..." Maquano trailed. Before Chopper could answer, he gave a slow clap. "Bravo. Well done. You're the first to actually succeed."
"Wait... Why are you on that?" Chopper questioned. "Are you...trapped?"
"Trapped? Like that will happen to me... I'm actually talking to you from another location."
"You're somewhere else? Where are you then? We need to fight!"
"If you want to find me, why don't you come up to the top floor? I have a much better place for us to battle."
"Fine..." Chopper frowned. "And how many floors do I have to go up?"
"There are eight floors, so maybe you'll be able to get to me quickly. ...That is, if you can get through all of my obstacles!"
Maquano let out a cackle as the screen turned off and went back into the ceiling.
"OK... So I guess I gotta go to the top floor..." Chopper trailed. "That doesn't sound too bad. If I'm quick, I might be able to get there in no time!"
With that, Chopper returned to the hallway. As he was about to take off, one question had forced him to fall over.
"Wait... Where do I go?" Chopper wondered after getting up. "He...never said which way I needed to go..."
Chopper frowned in disappointment as he looked at the other doors in the hallway. He decided to enter the first one closest to him. This led him to a room with an incline and a loop. Chopper went through these obstacles, then he ran up a curve that led him to a conveyor belt over lava. Running on it was easy, but a few blocks came his way, forcing him to jump over them.
When he was finally done with that, the first thing Chopper spotted was a Fire Hand near a black switch. Stepping on it didn't do much, to his dismay, but he picked up the red flower anyway to gain its power.
Chopper left the room and decided to check the second door. Compared to the other room, this was actually pretty flat. A long pathway had led to another black switch, so Chopper decided to make a run for it.
However, along the way, he spotted some boost pads that would move him backwards upon touching it, as evidenced by the first one he ran into. So, Chopper ended up jumping over them along the way. It only got tougher when Copy Essences of Sleep were sometimes far above or very close to the boost pad, making him change the way he jumped each time.
Eventually Chopper reached the switch, and with one jump, it had activated. Much like the other switch, nothing had happened to his surroundings.
Sighing, Chopper returned to the hallway. However, he found himself blinking in surprise at the sight of a new door near the throne room. A smile had formed on the boy's face as he ran over to the door and opened it.
However, when he stepped into the large room, bewilderment was the best way to describe his face.
A pathway in the shape of a tube was before him, yet for some reason, it was made up of vines. A lot like...
"There's Chopper!" a Leafion cried, pulling out a clover weapon. Several more Leafions jumped out of a few bushes and started throwing clovers.
Chopper kept dodging their incoming attacks by either burning them or slicing them. When the Leafions got close enough, he gripped his blade and started to swing. Much like the Tartaras, they exploded and became nothing but dust as they were knocked to the ground.
However, as he lowered his guard, a Big Leafion had landed near him. Chopper found himself thrown back as the Big Leafion jumped and flattened him like a pancake. As Chopper unflattened himself, he swung at the Big Leafion. Though it took the hit, it managed to grab him and slam him on the ground, knocking his Sword ability away.
Chopper managed to get himself out of the way when the Big Leafion went for another stomp. Once it made contact with the ground, Chopper took the chance to finish it off with a fiery stomp.
Sighing in relief, Chopper carried on, running down the thick, black vine path that helped him speed up. It had formed into a large loop – one he normally never saw before. Just going through it nearly slowed him down – until he got to the other side. Then it was back to his green feet spinning along the ground.
As he ran, Chopper had spotted a few trees in the background that reminded him on the ones back in Colossal Jungle. For a moment, he had to blink and rub his eyes to see if he was seeing things. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Despite this, the trees did not appear unfitting for this room. In fact, the bark was black, while the leaves were red.
After going through another loop and running past a few trees, Chopper found a black vine hanging from a branch ahead. He grabbed a hold of it and began to swing around fast – even going through a whole loop. Chopper let go, but he couldn't reach the tree platform above and landed on solid ground below. A Tree Spider was waiting there, but he easily dispatched it with a fireball before going back up and trying again. This time, he was more successful and reached the tree platform.
A few more tree platforms were above Chopper as well. One of them contained a Cool Drop that was slowly descending. He inhaled it to gain its Parasol ability, then he started to jump from each platform. A few cobwebs had acted similar to Springs, launching him into the air. This helped Chopper reach the top of a few trees, where some small vine paths led to a few others.
Eventually he reached a taller tree, which contained mushrooms sticking out from the branches. Just by jumping on it, he was launched into the air – although not as high as a Spring. But bouncing off of it enough times did bring him up to another mushroom above.
After a couple of more mushrooms, Chopper finally landed on a larger tree. Two Leafions noticed him and threw their clover weapons. This was easily blocked by his parasol before he shot two fireballs. Afterward, he approached a ledge, only to spot a turret with a Leafion manning it.
"Didja miss me?" Leafguy smirked, firing more water balls from the turret. Chopper frowned and stopped the water balls with his parasol before jumping up there and giving the Leafion a stomp. "Ow! Hey!"
"Why are you here?" Chopper questioned.
"I serve no one but King Trinado...and I guess Lord Maquano! And there's no way I'm letting you through, after the times you humiliated me in Colossal Jungle and Toxic Forest!"
As its rambling went on, Chopper blinked before passing by the Leafion. This did not go unnoticed.
"Hey! I'm talking to you! You get back here and let me take you down!" Leafguy yelled, only to give up. "Oh, forget it. If he managed to get in here, then there's no way I'd beat him on my own."
Past Leafguy, Chopper had run into a loop which went downward, and eventually he ended up running through a corkscrew. Past that was a wall the floor was curving up to, and once he reached the ledge, the door was right in front of him.
"Hey... I made it to the door!" Chopper smiled. "That sure took a while..."
He kicked the door open and entered the next room. Instead of having large trees, vines, cobwebs, and mushrooms, sand was what filled the ground. Black sand, to be exact. Up ahead, Chopper also spotted some quicksand too.
"Hey... This looks like that Duny Desert place... But it doesn't look too nice here..."
Looking up, Chopper spotted some sand falling onto the ground, almost like a waterfall – only not as much. In fact, one was right by a high ledge. Just standing in the sandfall made sand fall off his parasol when holding it up. However, unlike water, it didn't feel like it was enough to push him quick. In fact, he found himself jumping up the sandfall without any issues, allowing him to reach the top of the ledge.
However, seeing the Rocko up ahead was not a pleasant sight...
The Rocko spotted him first and curled up into a ball. Chopper gulped as he jumped over the Rocko and let it fall off the ledge. Complaining was heard, but that hardly mattered to him. He ran ahead, passing through a loop and finding a sand slide that he went down. This had led him into quicksand, but by now, getting out of it was no trouble. Unfortunately, when he got on solid ground, a Grim Rocko was waiting, and one punch knocked away his Parasol and Fire Hand ability.
This would've been an issue for him, but then he spotted a Copy Essence of Hammer on a lone platform over the quicksand. He grabbed it, got the ability, and smashed the Grim Rocko with his hammer.
Past the Grim Rocko was another pit of quicksand. However, unlike the other, the end had a high ledge that was unreachable even if Chopper were to go the quicksand route. However, there were sand tornadoes over the quicksand. Just by jumping into one, Chopper was spinning in the air. Though dizzy, he was able to use the other tornadoes to reach the high ledge and speed down a small slope ahead and past a few old pillars.
When Chopper ran up a curved wall, he found the door ahead, being blocked by two Grim Rockos. They curled up in balls and rolled his way, so he prepared his hammer for their arrival. With two Hammer Flips, the two Grim Rockos were sent flying to the wall and crumbled into dust upon impact.
Chopper sighed in relief as he opened the door and exited the sandy room. Now he was back in a hallway much like the other one, only this was smaller. He headed into the door in the center, leading him into a room with a spiral staircase going up. Strangely, no enemies were in sight.
But that was all right. After all, it made the run up to the top of the stairs a whole lot easier. When he finally reached the door, he opened it and stepped into a pretty wet room. Well, the floor at least felt wet...
And then he realized why that was so. The entire room was filled with water – well, most of it anyway. Thankfully, there were some parts of the room that were on dry land, so there were options. But this room did remind him of Oregano Ocean for some reason.
To start things off, Chopper made a sprint and ran across the water. Up ahead, he spotted a small ship with two pirates in it. When they spotted him, they fired their cannons, which he responded by jumping over. Since he maintained his momentum, he continued to run across the water and onto solid ground. When he stopped at the wall before him, another cannonball hit him, knocking away his Hammer ability.
Annoyed by this, Chopper ate the cannonball that landed, gaining the Pirate ability, which he used to shoot a cannonball at the small Pirate Ship, which began to sink.
"Yar... We're hittin' rock bottom." the first Pirate Warrior stated, its voice being muffled by the bubbles when its head submerged in the water.
Meanwhile, Chopper found a ball sitting on a pedestal in front of him. The wall before him did have a ledge, but it was too high for even him to reach with a jump. He sighed and jumped on the ball, but his accidental slip made it roll and even shoot some water from underneath the pedestal.
At first, Chopper blinked at the water, but when the ball went back in place, he got the idea of what to do. He started to run in place on the ball, making more water shoot out. This helped him reach the ledge and continue down an incline and through a loop. Eventually he was running over more water.
Unfortunately, he failed to make the jump onto the ledge ahead, forcing him to sink to the bottom of the water. Scuba Pirates, Cool Fish, Puff Tuffs, and Crustalms were apparent here. Thankfully, with his Pirate ability, there was no need to squirt water – only cannonballs.
When he cleared through them, Chopper swam over to a pathway at the bottom. He decided to land on the sandy ground and attempt to run. Of course, that hardly did much. But the small tunnel did lead him into an underwater room with some black clams and two Scuba Pirates. The clam revealed an Ice Hand when its mouth opened. Chopper quickly claimed it before freezing both pirates with two ice balls.
Chopper swam onward to the next tunnel on the upper right of the room, which eventually curved up and led to a bigger room. Unlike the previous, this actually had the surface. Two Pirate Battleships were here, while in the water, Scuba Pirates fired their spearguns. Chopper countered them with ice balls and cannonballs. As for the Pirate Battleships, he took them down from underneath without the pirates noticing.
Chopper swam up to the surface and found solid ground ahead. There was a fountain shooting some water nearby, but past that was more water, along with a waterfall midway. He decided to go with the fountain, which shot him up to a higher route. A Pirate Fencer and Pirate Launcher, along with a Pirate Warrior were there to greet him near an incline.
"If it isn't Chopper!" the Pirate Fencer grinned. "Ye know, our cap'n wasn't happy about what ye did to him. So now we're goin' to make ye pay the consequences!"
"Yar! Taste cannonballs!" the Pirate Launcher yelled, firing cannonballs his way. Chopper countered with his own, only to realize that both attacks bounced off each other. Instead, he bounced off the cannonballs, froze the Pirate Launcher, then swung his scimitar at the Pirate Fencer. The Pirate Warrior dove at him, but Chopper easily dispatched it with a cannonball.
Once that was over with, Chopper ran down the incline, only to find a water slide ahead. He attempted to run down, but ended up sliding down instead. However, he did get his wish to run when he reached the end. With the momentum, he ran across the water and ran up a slope leading to a door.
Stepping into the next room left Chopper coughing when he found lots of purplish fog around. It wasn't enough to make it impossible to see, but it wasn't something he welcomed. But the moment he saw the trees and that purple water, he knew that this room was similar to Toxic Forest.
Chopper got started by jumping onto the step ahead and finding a wide pool of toxic water. Before he could do anything, a Jewelite popped out and fired a laser, knocking away his two abilities.
After shaking himself from the hit, Chopper got back at the Jewelite by inhaling it and spitting it at another one at the other side of the water. Next, he used a branch sticking out from the trees to reach the other side. There, a Beamo and Ganro were there to attack, but he ended up eating the Beamo to get its ability.
Another ledge was ahead, except it was at a bigger height. A few more branch platforms helped get up to it, while down below was more toxic water. Jewlies were on the platforms, and they immediately fired shards down in Chopper's direction. He jumped to avoid them, and at a diagonal, he fired some beam shots at the first one. The other was close enough for him to take down with a beam whip.
As soon as he reached the ledge, Chopper found himself running down a wall, and then next a bridge. While running across it, a Giant Jewelar had leaped out of the water and dove back in. Luckily, it wasn't enough to destroy the bridge.
After running through a loop and down a slope, Chopper found a black vine over another pit of water and grabbed it. Unlike the one on the first floor, he found himself circling around like the vine in Toxic Forest. When he let go, he was already speeding ahead, going through a few rustling bushes until he came out from the other side. All of the leaves and grass were paler than before, and now some ghosts were present too.
As Chopper looked ahead, a Ghool suddenly appeared in front of him and made a scary face, making the boy stop and yelp. While the Ghool cackled, a charged beam attack came its way and destroyed it. Afterward, he proceeded to another pool of toxic water. This time, there were platforms that would slowly turn transparent, kind of like a ghost. A Ghoop had noticed Chopper and flew down to attack, but like the Ghool, it too was defeated by a beam attack.
Once across the water, Chopper took down the Snatcher waiting for him and ran through a loop going downward, and then he followed the path through more bushes. After running out of them, the leaves and grass returned to their normal black color, but now bright lights were apparent here – kind of like Poisna's Casino Club.
Chopper found himself slowing down when he ran up a wall and landed by a Spring. When he went up to the ledge above, a red flipper was before him. In the background were plenty of red bumpers with stars in the center, and a slot machine. At the bottom was a U-shaped terrain with a flipper in between
The flipper Chopper stood on launched him upward and to one of the bumpers, interrupting his momentum and making him drop. Past the slot machine, he spotted a top path and a bottom one. He decided to go with the upper path by dropping to the ground and using the flipper to run up the wall and up to the upper ledge. There, he found some moving dice blocks, which he got past by taking it a little slow.
Things got even more hectic for him when a Jewelancer was guarding a bright red tube. It went in for a strike, but Chopper jumped and stomped on its head to take it out. Then he went into the tube and suddenly took off without moving on his own.
Chopper had popped out of the tube while going down another slope, which eventually led him up another wall. When he landed on the ledge, the door was dead ahead, but a Jewelite, Jewelsplosion, and Jewelar were blocking the way.
Taking down the former two was easy, but the Jewelar proved to be a challenge. He found himself waiting for its head to drop so he could fire a charged beam shot, but that enough wasn't enough to take it down. The Jewelar even fired jewel shards from its mouth!
However, once it brought its head down again, Chopper landed a stomp to its head, and while diving at it, he aimed his wand and fired some beam shots that finally finished it off. With that, Chopper blasted the door open with a charged beam shot.
When he stepped into the next room, Chopper felt the temperature immediately drop, and he noticed snowflakes falling down. Not just ordinary snowflakes. These were black, just like the rest of the snow. This was when he knew that this place was similar to Saccharine Snowland.
Chopper ran ahead, leaving a trail of snow behind as he gained more speed. A few snowmen were along the way, and while he passed a few, jumping on one revealed a Copy Essence of the Ice ability. He decided to take that and skate through a loop going down and then to a path with a short, upward curve at the end. This launched him upward and near a ledge to an upper pathway. Of course, when he landed, the edge of the path started to collapse, so he got to safety immediately.
Before he could get a chance to relax for a moment, ice projectiles fell from above, hitting Chopper and freezing him momentarily. When he finally broke out, he looked above and saw an Ice Drop firing down more ice projectiles. Once it swooped down to attack, that was when Chopper struck. He jumped up to the Ice Drop and performed his Ice Sprinkle. With it frozen in midair, he gave it a kick before landing and skating down the small slope going to another upward curve. Unlike the other, Chopper wasn't launched as high in the air.
As he landed on the next ledge, a Freezer had spotted him and created an ice club via sneezing. It was ready to swing at Chopper, but he quickly surrounded himself in his Ice Storm attack and let it freeze. He kicked the Freezer into a Freezing ahead, destroying the two.
A rail made of candy cane was near the edge of the path, which Chopper used to go down and land on another path with chocolate bars and gingerbread men sticking out from the snow. Grabbing them was tempting, but the Pengulder and Freezing would not have that. The Pengulder slid on its stomach and charged at Chopper, who retaliated by freezing it with his Ice Breath and then kicking it at the Freezing to take them out. Afterward, he skated ahead, going on another rail that formed a corkscrew. It had launched him off and onto a floating ice platform over some red water.
"Is that water tasty like that lake I went across?" Chopper inquired, staring down at the water.
Well, he certainly got his answer when an Ice Block from behind knocked him into the water. Chopper came up to the surface a moment later, a smile now on his face.
"It's like fruit punch! Yummy!" Chopper looked up at the Ice Block with a frown. "...But you're still a jerk."
Chopper climbed out of the water, and with his Ice Storm, he took out the Ice Block with no problem. Afterward, he skated down a small incline and off an upward curve. He ended up landing on a Pengulder's stomach, causing it to spit out a spout of soda. Though the idea was ridiculous, Chopper jumped into the spout and sprung up to a high ledge. There, he found another icy slope going down and to another upward curve, only it was smaller. Taking that had led him off the ice and onto a roller coaster track.
A Blazer and Inferno made its appearance on the track, charging at Chopper upon seeing him. However, like the other enemies, they were frozen solid and kicked away within a second.
With the way clear, Chopper proceeded on the track, which moved in a wavy fashion. There was also another path below it, and from what he could see ahead, it was going to a much higher route. For now, he focused on the one he was running through while black flamethrowers in the background burst.
While going to the upper path would've went further through the roller coaster, the lower one had led Chopper to a large funnel. Stepping foot in it had caused him to slip and tumble, getting closer to the hole the more he moved around. Eventually he dropped down to the bottom and into a tunnel. Fire geysers were on the ceiling, shooting out black fire. When Chopper saw the Blazer, he decided to dispatch his Ice ability and get Fire from the enemy. With Burn, getting through the geysers was a piece of cake.
After getting past them, a small pool of lava was before him. Above him, however, were falling icicles that slowly sank into the lava. Chopper decided to use these to jump to the other side and run down another incline and to another vertical curve. A Chilly and Elite Freezer tried surprising him, but his Fire Breath did away with them easily.
Once he passed that, a new obstacle stood before him. One that was shaped like a cylinder and had a checkered look to it. It moved in and out from the ceiling, crushing those that were caught. This rotating drum was quite the obstacle...which Chopper easily got through.
Then he got crushed by the next one, knocking away his Fire ability.
Chopper frowned at this, but he quickly unflattened himself and passed by the rotating drum when he got the chance. After taking a Spring up to a high ledge and out of the tunnel, Chopper found another rotating drum. This time, it was moving up and down. He jumped on it to hitch a ride up to the next one, then he used that to reach the main snowy path. Standing before him was the door, two Elite Freezers, and a Grand Freezer.
The two elites lunged toward him, but Chopper easily stomped on the first one, then he inhaled the second one to spit at the Grand Freezer. However, that wasn't enough to stop the Grand Freezer from swinging its icy spiked club. Chopper was knocked back by the hit, but he took advantage of his speed and sped around the enemy. Once it was dazed, he gave it two stomps to finish it off. Afterward, he proceeded through the door.
Chopper felt the cold air vanish when he stepped out of the room. He found himself in another hallway similar to the one on the first floor. But this time there was some food for him to eat, so he proceeded to do that. After that, he proceeded through the door and into a tall room with a staircase going up in different directions.
Because of the height, Chopper found himself jumping up the stairs instead, but that hadn't taken too long either. In about a minute, he was already up to the third floor door. Wasting no time, Chopper kicked the door open and entered the next room.
Much like the previous two floors, the environment reminded him of a previous area he had been, only with some differences. This time, the room had some resemblances to what he had seen in Dragon Mountains. The rocky floor, the Dragon Warriors, and the mountains gave it all away.
Before he could proceed, a Martial Mustard dropped from above to strike Chopper with a diving kick. He was thrown back by this, but he shook off the hit and inhaled the enemy to get the Fighter ability. When Chopper approached two Dragon Warriors, he grabbed the one in front and tossed it toward the other, turning them into dust when they hit the ground.
After clearing the dragons, Chopper spotted a rocky slope going down to a loop. However, there was also a floating platform moving up and down near the loop which not only gave him access to the top, but to a whole new path. So, of course he ran onward and took the upper path. It always seemed quicker.
However, unlike the lower path, the road that he started to run through resembled that of a dragon, kind of like those Great Dragons he saw before, only this one was black. But hey, at least it wasn't moving!
A dash panel helped Chopper run up the curved wall of the path and reach higher ground. He found a Jutsoo attempting to stop him, but with a Force Blast, Chopper wiped it out with ease. Afterward, he ran down another dragon path and found the head with its mouth open. In the mouth was a firework.
As soon as Chopper grabbed the firework, he was immediately launched out of the dragon's mouth and over a big portion of the area. That said, this wasn't enough to even see the other side of the room.
Eventually the firework had landed on a red roof of a small, lengthy building. The crash had taken out a Bulley, while the Kunens jumped backwards to avoid it. They immediately started throwing shurikens once Chopper finally stood up from the crash, but their weapons had flown past him. Now focused, Chopper sped up to the first Kunen and delivered a Vulcan Jab, then finished with a Smash Punch, knocking it to the other one. A downward kick quickly finished them off.
Chopper dropped down from the roof and ran down a small hill leading to a pool of water. With the speed he gained, he had no problem running over the water. Along the way, he spotted a few black lily pads and bamboo.
Speaking of bamboo, there was a small portion of dry land ahead, while there was a ledge unreachable by his jump past that. The small piece of land had a piece of bamboo that Chopper grabbed. Just reaching the tip made it bend down so Chopper was near the ground, but a small moment later, the bamboo flung forward, sending him onto the red road headfirst.
"Ow..." Chopper mumbled, rubbing his head as he stood up. When he looked ahead, he yelped and covered his eyes when he spotted a giant, golden dragon staring at him. A moment later, when he lowered his hands from his eyes, he realized it was just a statue acting as an entrance to a building.
Chopper made a run for the entrance and entered a hallway filled with many different sorts of traps. For starters, swinging axes hung from the ceiling, and even some logs swung around as well.
"I... I can do this!" Chopper declared, trying to sound confident. "...Yeah! I did this before! I can handle it for sure!"
Rubbing his hands, Chopper ran ahead, sliding underneath the axes and leaping over the logs. A few spears stuck out from both the floor and ceiling, and he had no problem jumping over those.
When he was through with those, Chopper ran down a hill leading to an upward curve. Running off of that led him out of the small building and into a pretty windy area. A few black blossoms flew through the room, and ahead was a large blossom. He jumped on that and let the wind below send him in the air.
"Weeee! This is fun!" Chopper cheered, throwing his arms in the air. His cheerful look immediately changed when a wall was ahead. He found another wind current nearby, which helped him go over the next path.
Unfortunately, the ride had to come to a stop when Chopper ended up floating into a waterfall and dropped to the ground.
"Awww... I wish it didn't end..." Chopper frowned.
After running out of the waterfall and shaking off the water on his body, Chopper found several more waterfalls leading into a pool below. However, unlike the waterfall he was just in, this one had logs coming down.
Understanding what to do, Chopper jumped from log to log, going higher up the waterfall and onto the rocky ledge above. As he grabbed the ledge and pulled himself up, he found a smaller waterfall ahead. This time, it was flowing down a slope and leading into the water. However, there was an alternate way if he could time his jump right...
Chopper took a deep breath and put on a determined look as he stepped on the wet slope and began to slide down. When he was about halfway there, he leaped off and landed on the alternate path. With the momentum he had, he was able to run up the wall and onto higher ground. A Dragon Warrior and Dragon Defender met him there, but he simply charged at the first with a Spin Kick. For the latter, he defeated it with a Smash Punch.
Past those enemies was another incline Chopper ran down, which led to a loop that led him up a wall. Unlike the previous ones, a Spring had simply launched him down and back through the loop. But this time, he ran down another incline in the opposite direction and was led near the water once at the bottom of the slope. A dash panel moved him back in the opposite direction so he was running over the water again.
After passing the water and running up a small vertical curve, Chopper found himself dizzy.
"Gosh... That sure was something..." Chopper commented, quickly shaking his head to get out of his daze. He found another pool of water, while floating rocky platforms were above. Past that, to the boy's delight, was the door. "Oh, boy! I'm close!"
Smiling, Chopper knocked away the Kunen and Martial Mustard in his way and put his platforming skills to use to jump over each one. Just landing on one of them made them fall, so he had to be quick.
When he was at the end, a Bullley guarding the door charged at him with steam coming out of its nostrils. Chopper simply jumped over it and fired a Force Blast. Though it didn't defeat the Bulley, it wasn't doing anything else, so he simply ignored it and opened the door into the next room.
While the ground felt rocky to Chopper in the previous room, it felt soft here. Almost...fluffy. In fact, when Chopper looked down, he realized that he was in fact standing on a cloud. A black cloud, to be precise.
"Rainbow Sky..." Chopper trailed, the memories of that area returning. After all, it had only been a day since he had been there. But the more he began to think of that place, his head began to lower. "Kutora..."
Chopper raised his head and ran on ahead, and as he started to speed up, he spotted a Dark Knight ahead. Thankfully, he was able to grab it and use his Juudou Throw to toss it backwards before it could strike him. But as he ran, another thing plagued his mind.
"Are Kutora's friend's trapped here?" Chopper thought, knowing that they were the major enemies in Rainbow Sky.
Well, he got that answer near a cloudy platform ahead.
A Saber Knight and Mage Knight stood near the platform, anxiously waiting for Chopper's arrival. But the closer he got, Chopper noticed something different about them. They were not bright and colorful like in Rainbow Sky. These were entirely black, like silhouettes. And those eyes... Those red eyes were not like the ones the knights had.
The Dark Saber Knight made the first move, swinging its weapon in Chopper's direction. He jumped over to dodge it, then he stomped on its head. The Dark Mage Knight summoned a black fire spell, but Chopper knocked it into the other knight, turning both of them into dust.
"These guys aren't real..." Chopper trailed. "...Well, I hope they're not."
When the cloudy platform came down, Chopper jumped onto it and took a lift up to the next cloud path. The flowers on the clouds were all red and black and pointy, which only made him frown. The ones in Rainbow Sky, to him, were much nicer.
As he ran, Chopper spotted a small, bouncy cloud near the main path. He looked up and noticed another path above, so he jumped on the cloud and launched himself up to the upper one. Being the faster route, Chopper found a cloudy slope going down to a loop, and running through that made him go up a small vertical curve.
Chopper sighed in relief, but then a bomb struck him and knocked away his Fighter ability. After getting up, Chopper spotted the suspect. It was a Dark Bomb Knight, and it was already getting another bomb out. Beside it, however, was a Moonjump. He decided to stomp on the knight and inhale the Moonjump, acquiring the Hi-Jump ability in the process.
Thankfully, there was a small cloudy ledge ahead preventing him from running too fast, or else he would've fallen down to the lower route. To keep him on this path, a few moving cloud platforms were moving up and down. Chopper chose to take the cheap route and leaped high in the air with his ability. Through doing this, there was an even higher route when he landed on a cloudy platform above.
Leaping high into the air landed him on the next pathway. Unlike the others, there was a loop that resembled a rainbow – except, well, it was entirely black. Chopper frowned at this as he ran through it and went down a small cloudy hill leading to a curved ramp. He leaped off it to launch himself forward, landing right in front of a dash panel and another loop. This time, when he ran through the loop, he was launched down to the main path.
When running, Chopper noticed that lightning began to flash in the background now. Not only that, but his way was blocked by a large, cloudy wall. There was a ledge above, but he couldn't get up there with a normal jump.
But that was where the giant water drops came in to play.
Remembering from Stormy Way, Chopper swam up each water drop and eventually reached the top. A Stormer above was doing its usual job by zapping the ground, while past that was a Dark Shooter Knight and Dark Archer Knight. Chopper leaped over them with ease and then ran ahead.
Along the way, he spotted another U-shaped path, but past that was a long, black pole. Chopper looked up first, and to his surprise, a small cloud platform was present. Out of curiosity, he landed in the U-shaped terrain and started running up each sides until he gained enough momentum to launch up to the platform. There wasn't much except for a Cyclone. Nevertheless, it was something, so he discarded his Hi-Jump ability and inhaled the enemy for its ability.
With a tornado on Chopper's head, he landed back on the cloud below and grabbed the pole. Crossing the other side was simple, but since there was another pole above, he decided to swing himself enough times to reach up to it. After launching himself up, he grabbed the next pole and landed.
After running up a cloudy wall, Chopper found a black rail in the shape of a U. It was confusing at first, but he rolled with it and made his way down, and then up. Sure, it had led him to a Dark Battle Knight and Dark War Knight, but with his Tornado ability, he easily wiped them out by whirling all over the place.
On the plus side, there was an apple for him to eat, recovering from some damage he took earlier.
A Spring had launched him back onto the main pathway, and that was when the lightning ended. However, the danger wasn't over yet. Two Dark Iron Knights stood on two cloudy platforms, and they wasted no time in swinging their maces at Chopper. Luckily, he jumped out of the way and used his Tornado ability's attack to take them out.
The next portion of this room was much speedier compared to the others. Notably, the clouds had gone away, and in its place was a black pathway, kind of like Rainbow Speedway. Chopper wasted no time in running through, zipping past a loop and going up a vertical curve.
Along the way, a Dark Gold Knight, Dark Platinum Knight, and Dark Diamond Knight had spotted him. When Chopper reached a slower portion that required him to platform up to another slope, they made their attack. The Dark Gold Knight thrust its spear down, and the Dark Diamond Knight started throwing punches. Chopper avoided these and ducked underneath the Dark Platinum Knight's shots. When he had the chance, he used a tornado attack to wipe them out in a few seconds.
Once he jumped up the platforms, Chopper proceeded his run through two loops, and eventually he went up another curve going up. This time, he was back on a cloud, and up a slope was the door. However, two Dark Star Knights were guarding it.
But things weren't all too bad. After all, Chopper did find a bush with a Light Hand in it. Acquiring its power, he started to spin around once more, using his light power to transform his tornado into a yellow one. For the Dark Star Knights, they didn't stand a chance.
"Whew... I did it!" Chopper smiled, and with that, he opened the door.
The hallway he stood in was small, but unlike the other ones, a door was dead ahead. Along the way, three Copy Essences were there, as well as a slice of pizza. Chopper ate that to recover his health, then he looked at the three abilities. They were Cutter, Bomb, and Fire. He decided to go with Bomb before opening the door.
To Chopper's surprise, he found himself in a room with pillars holding up the ceiling. The walls and floor matched that of the rest of the castle's interior, but the room was pretty empty.
But hey, at least the door was up ahead.
"We've been waiting for you!"
Six figures had dropped down from the ceiling and landed in front of Chopper. He flinched, but he stopped for a moment when he realized who they were.
"Hey... It's you guys!" Chopper gaped.
"Did you miss us?" Trinado smirked. "You didn't forget about me, did you? Remember when you left me in that poison pit? Huh?! Yeah, good times!"
"Stoneard now have a big crack in head!" Stoneard growled, pointing to the crack left by Chopper. "This makes Stoneard mad!"
"Thanks to yer attack, it took me a while to fix meself up!" Steelfoot exclaimed. "I had to chase after me bones fer days!"
"And it's your fault that I can't turn anyone into jewels now!" Poisna hissed, holding her repaired scepter in her hands. "Now my jewels are...limited!"
"I was trapped in a carnival game and received a lot of nasty bumps thanks to you," Icing recalled. "It wasn't cool."
"You've taken my title as Master of Dragon Mountains away from me," Ninju stated coldly. "And the fact that you're still here after I told you about Rainbow Sky sickens me."
"Wait... What are you guys doing here?" Chopper questioned.
"Oh, it's obvious. We want revenge!" Trinado answered with narrowed eyes.
"Everything was going so well, then you had to come along and ruin it!" Poisna added.
"After our defeat, we did what we could to get stronger," Ninju explained, his right hand glowing. "You may have been able to beat us before, but things have changed. This time you will fall."
"I didn't come here to fight you guys..." Chopper trailed. "Maquano's the one I'm really after."
"An' ye think that's goin' to stop us?" Steelfoot grinned, spreading his arms out so four of them were now present. Blue flames began to spout out from his mouth as well. "Now we don't need the Planet Star Pieces to beat you!"
"Yes," Ninju agreed, drawing one of his katanas. "Today is the day that we finally strike back."
"I call fighting first!" Trinado declared, stepping up to face Chopper. "And now you're going to get what's coming!"
Trinado made the first move, charging directly at Chopper. With widened eyes, he jumped to avoid the hit, while Trinado's vine swords got caught in the wall. After enough time, he pulled them out and whirled back to Chopper. He managed to at least land a hit on him, knocking his ability away.
"Ha! How'd that feel?!" Trinado cackled.
"Ow..." Chopper mumbled, quickly shaking off the hit and glaring at the leaf king. "OK... I guess I have to fight you!"
Taking a jump back, Chopper started inhaling, forcing Trinado to come to a halt. He lodged one of his blades into the floor, but his other ended up getting caught in Chopper's mouth. Now with the Sword ability in hand, the boy charged at Trinado and delivered an uppercut swing. The leaf king hit the wall, then he finally landed. Despite that, he continued to swing, but Chopper was too fast, and one more swing knocked him toward the corner.
"Ungh... But... How...?" Trinado moaned, stars circling around his head.'
"Trinado down! Now Stoneard come in and crush you!" Stoneard proclaimed, punching his fists together before rolling toward Chopper. He easily dodged that, but when Stoneard hit the wall, rocks started to rain down. Chopper gulped and dodged them, but one of them hit him and knocked his Sword ability away. Despite that, he did manage to inhale one of the rocks to get the Stone ability.
After getting out of his ball form, Stoneard put his weight to use and started to jump off the ground. Each time he landed, the floor would shake, and Chopper found himself losing his balance. However, due to Stoneard's speed, he wasn't able to land a punch on him in time.
When he was close to the wall, Chopper jumped off of it, and when he was above Stoneard, he transformed into a statue of himself and slammed onto his head. Another crack formed on his head, and he stumbled back until he fell to the corner.
"Not even Stoneard stood a chance..." Steelfoot trailed, stepping in this time. "Well then... At least I can finally get a chance to finish ye!"
Chopper discarded his ability and wasted no time in inhaling one of Steelfoot's scimitars. With the Pirate ability on, he started shooting cannonballs in his direction. The captain dodged them and breathed blue fire. Chopper ducked underneath to dodge, and when he got close, he swung his scimitar at Steelfoot.
"Arrr! Ye really do deliver pain!" Steelfoot cringed as he stumbled back. "But that's not stoppin' me from dealin' more!"
Drawing one of his pistols, he proceeded to fire at Chopper. Like the fire, Chopper easily avoided that and tossed a light ball at the pirate. With him blinded by the light, Chopper put an end to this and fired a cannonball. Much like Trinado and Stoneard, Steelfoot was knocked into the corner.
"Ha! What an idiot!" Poisna laughed. "Now I can finally get my revenge!"
Poisna wasted no time in attacking Chopper, firing blasts of poisonous energy his way. He constantly dodged each one, and the more he did so, the angrier Poisna got. So, she created a poisonous cloud that got sent toward Chopper. He slid under it and charged at the girl, but her scepter fired a purple laser that knocked his Pirate ability away.
"Gotcha! It may not turn you into a jewel, but as long as it hurts, I'm satisfied!"
Chopper quickly shook off the hit and watched Poisna fire another shot. He inhaled it, acquiring the Beam ability, and started to fire beam whips at her. She brought up her scepter to stop some of them, but Chopper simply jumped above her and fired a beam shot at a diagonal. Poisna stumbled back, but not without firing another poison blast.
To stop the attack, Chopper fired a charged beam attack at the projectile, creating an explosion between the two. Poisna hissed and prepared to fire through the smoke, but Chopper sped out of it, and soon two feet met the girl's face. Before she knew it, she was over by the other three.
"Oh, dear... That's snow good." Icing sighed, stepping in. "Looks like I gotta kick some ice now."
With his ice magic, an ice fist formed underneath Chopper, launching him in the air and knocking his Beam ability away. While falling, Chopper noticed Icing fire a bolt of ice his way. He immediately inhaled it to get the Ice ability, then he proceeded to skate toward the ice king.
To stop him, Icing summoned an ice hammer and slammed it where Chopper was. However, he ended up hitting nothing when Chopper sped to the side and breathed ice on him. Icing shook off the hit, then he conjured up an ice blade to swing at him.
"Trinado may have poison blades, but my blades are cooler!" Icing declared, failing to hit Chopper each time. "Now hold still!"
"No! And those weapons don't look that cool!" Chopper commented.
"Shut up! Shut up!"
With a light ball ready, he fired it at Icing to stun him, then with his Ice Storm, he finally froze Icing and kicking him toward the corner. When he crashed, the ice around him broke, leaving him with a dazed look.
"Hmph... What a shame that they were beaten so easily..." Ninju trailed, lowering his mask and approaching the fight. "I guess I'm going to have to finish this."
Ninju wasted no time in making his move by throwing several shurikens Chopper's way. He discarded his Ice ability for now and inhaled the shurikens to get the Ninja ability. Chopper started to throw kunais at Ninju, but his shurikens only stopped them. So, Chopper threw some smoke in front of him to disappear. Ninju looked around, but he quickly whirled around and stopped his opponent's attack with his own katana.
With his free hand, he fired a punch wave that knocked Chopper on the ground. His Ninja ability had also gone away. But he was quick to get up and inhale Ninju's next punch wave. With the Fighter ability on, Chopper sped up to Ninju and threw a Vulcan Jab at him, then finished with a Light Smash Punch.
Ninju was quick to get back on his feet and fired more shurikens, but Chopper's light balls easily did away with them. Ninju blinked in surprise, but he decided to finish this and charge his Dragon Blast.
"I should've used this from the very beginning..." Ninju trailed. "But I guess this isn't a bad time to use it either!"
He fired the blast, but to his dismay, Chopper jumped over it. Ninju growled in annoyance and charged, but one dropkick to the stomach was enough to send him flying over to the other five.
"Ugh... I don't understand..." Ninju grunted. "I did much to improve myself... Yet I got beaten quicker than before?"
"Urgh... We might've gotten stronger... But I guess Chopper did too..." Trinado moaned. "Stupid kid... I hate him so much!"
"Yeah, I guess I did..." Chopper nodded. "But, I think I should really thank Kutora. He kind of helped me."
"Wait, WHAT?!" Poisna gaped. "You mean this whole time Kutora was really against us?"
"Yeah... And he also helped me defeat you, Ninju."
"Yet despite him helping you... You were the one to finally end him." Ninju remarked. "I see now... He was helping you this whole time so you could help him in return... And to think I had respect for him."
"Anyway, I'm going. I think you guys had enough." Chopper decided, approaching the door ahead.
All the others could do was give Chopper a glare as he finally left the room.
"You may have won this time, Chopper... But we won't forget what you did to us!" Trinado hissed before he and the others finally fell unconscious.
At first, I actually had some difficulty designing the level within a castle, considering the running and stuff Chopper does. ...But then I remembered that this story is not realistic with architecture, so the rooms can have all of this stuff.
I tried to keep this chapter from being stuff Chopper had visited before, but I guess that's not the case here. There are a few ideas implemented in here to keep it a little different, along with the setting being more fit for Maquano's Castle. Don't worry, it's just for this chapter. I do have some different ideas to implement in the later parts of the castle.
