In the X-Naut Fortress, Mysterious already finished explaining to Grodus what happened, and he listened carefully with his eyes filled with hate because of Chopper's actions.

"What? So you did end up losing to that Chopper character." Grodus deduced. "What good are you if you can't get the job done?"

"Sorry, sir. That Chopper was tougher than we thought." Mysterious grumbled as he quickly glanced at Shadower in anger. "Besides, it's Shadower's fault that we lost anyway. That no-good brother is just too weak to do anything…"

"What? It wasn't my fault!" Shadower cried. "You always blame stuff on me! Wasn't it my idea to go steal that weapon we were planning on using? You know, from those Shadow Sirens?"

"Enough!" Grodus roared, silencing the two. "You do realize that we need those twenty Crystal Stars to open a world that one cannot reach easily, do you not? It's important that we have them all! There's a reason why we brought Princess Peach here in the first place."

"Yes yes, you do not need to worry, sire," Mysterious assured. "I got all of this under control. Why? Because I stole a secret weapon from those Shadow Sirens! Man, they're one short right now!"

Mysterious turned back to his brother. "All right, boys! Let's get outta here and go prepare our weapon for Chopper!" All three of them sank into the shadows and then an X-Naut walked in and saluted to his leader.

"Sir! I come with terrible news!" the X-Naut alerted.

"You may speak at once," Grodus replied.

"Apparently, the Crystal Star in the Great Tree was taken by Chopper! He gave Lord Crump one heck of a beating in Magnus von Grapple! Yup! Even when we rebuilt it and upgraded its armor, it still got taken down."

"I see… I was expecting this to happen. Have you found anymore Crystal Stars?"

"Ummmm... No." the X-Naut shook its head until he remembered something. "Well we DID see some robots flying off with some orange star or something. I have a feeling that Chopper isn't the only one after them, I'm afraid. I did some research on those robots and it turns out they're called Phis. Their leader is named Gemerl."

"What? So Chopper's not the only one after them. Have you gotten any other information on Chopper?"

"Of course, sir. While researching, I found out that he was able to fight against the God of the Stars. Of course, he didn't destroy him. You can't truly destroy a God, you know. But the most interesting thing I found was that he lost his family and his race at the age of four. It said a blue guy wearing a mask saved him. But they said that on wikipedia, and you know that's not always true."

"…So he's the last of his species," Grodus pondered. "I for one, don't care if he's the last of his species. He's a threat to us, and we must get rid of him. Hopefully the Shadow Brothers will take care of that brat. For now, you may research a little bit more."

"Oh, yes!" the X-Naut gave him a salute and left the room. Grodus still had hatred in him, wanting to get rid of Chopper.

"Oh, Chopper... You may have gotten three Crystal Stars, but your luck is eventually going to run out..." the X-Naut leader muttered. "And don't think I forgot about you too, Mario!"

Sublevel 4-

Down at Sublevel 4, Peach got up and stretched, sighing in boredom. "Mmm… No doubt about it. I'm officially bored in here. It's a good thing those X-Nauts didn't come down here to ask me about the map. I feel a little worried if the map's safe. Plus, I've been hearing that they're after Chopper, so he must have the map with him instead of Mario."

The door to TEC's room opened up again. "Well, it looks like TEC wants me again. I just hope that he remembers a little more about me."

With a sigh, she began to walk over to his room, and when she got there, she was greeted by the computer.

"Greetings, Princess Peach," greeted TEC.

"You never tell me when you want me to come..." Peach trailed. "Is there more you want me to teach you about love? Or is this something else."

"I apologize, but I would like you to go into the X-Naut Party room and ask one of the X-Nauts about their plan. Sir Grodus does not answer questions to his X-Nauts anymore, I'm afraid."

"But why do you need me to do this?"

"I recently obtained specific information that brought an…issue to my attention. This is something that I must know, and it requires your help."

"Wait, you're the main computer here, right? Why is there anything you don't know? Shouldn't you know everything?"

"I am unable to know things that are not entered in my CPU or otherwise recorded. That is why I want you to know what the X-Nauts know about these twenty Crystal Stars and what they plan on doing with them."

"But isn't it a little too dangerous? I can't just go up there, or else they'll catch me and bring me back to my room!"

"That is true," pondered TEC. "But if you wear a soldier's uniform one floor up, you can go into that X-Naut room. Take the room to your right to find a uniform, avoiding detection. You will go into the room looking like a soldier."

Peach turned around, having a feeling that this plan didn't seem like a good idea. "So you're saying I'll be disguised. I suppose you're not going to be taking NO for an answer, right?"

"You are correct."

"All right… Fine, I guess." she turned back to TEC afterward after pondering. "Well, what do you want me to ask the X-Nauts?"

"I will tell you…"

Later, outside TEC's room-

"What in the world in TEC thinking?" Peach wondered as she walked over to the elevator door. "I know he doesn't remember much about me, but that's crazy! He sure is a weird computer…"

She walked into the elevator when it opened and it went up two floors above. However, the door didn't open just yet when it reached its destination.

"Hold on, give me a moment to open the door. Patrol is coming by soon." TEC noted as Peach could only hear footsteps walking by the elevator.

"Oh... I never knew you were in control of the elevator..." Peach whispered.

"It's clear. Now, Princess Peach… Please go to the room to your right." the elevator door opened and she walked over to the door with a green light above it. In the locker room, there were obviously lockers and a dressing room with a pink curtain. Peach opened a locker that an X-Naut uniform happened to be in. She took it, and once in the dressing room, she began to get changed.

"This thing is too tight! …And it really smells. Don't they wash them?" After a little bit, Peach came out of the dressing room looking just like an X-Naut. "Wow, I can't believe I got into that. This thing doesn't feel comfortable at all!"

She quickly got out of the locker room, trying to walk around in the suit to get comfortable with it. Unfortunately, that ended up stopping when an X-Naut called out for her.

"Hey! You! X-Naut! Where do you think you're going?"

She turned around and gulped to see an X-Naut with a black collar and white X on his body. Also, it wore black gloves and shoes. Unlike a regular X-Naut, this one's goggles were red with a yellow trim.

"Dude, you're going the wrong way! The party's over here!" the Elite X-Naut pointed at the door to her left, which X-Nauts were walking into. She nodded and walked over to the door. Inside, she saw a bunch of X-Nauts dancing on the disco floor with a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. There was one normal X-Naut standing around so she walked over to him.

"Excuse me, um…" Peach began.

"Oh, hello there, fellow X-Naut. The name's Johnson." Johnson greeted. "Let me tell you something: it's always a good idea to come here, especially when you went out on a mission with that incompetent Crump."

"The incompetent Crump?"

"Yeah, sometimes he bugs me and keeps telling me he's better and smarter than me, when in reality, he doesn't succeed that often," Johnson explained before noticing her voice was different. "And why does your voice sound weird? …Are you catching a cold?"

"Ummm..."

"Well it's all right. It's not a huge deal... Though, I don't think you should be in here if you're sick..."

"Oh... OK... But I have a little question to ask you. What do you plan on doing with Princess Peach."

"Oh, that? Uh… That's something personal with Grodus. We just need to keep her locked in that room, and we're not supposed to hurt her. But, I think the reason we need those Crystal Stars is something we were never told about, but I'm guessing it's for conquering the universe. We can't hurt Peach, but we can certainly beat the snot out of Chopper all day!"

"Well… Thank you. I need to get going now." Peach left the party room and began to take deep breaths after leaving. She got back into her dress in the locker room and returned to TEC's room, not looking too happy.

"TEC! How could you listen to them?! Your goal is to conquer the world with those Crystal Stars?"

"Of course. I was built for that purpose." TEC answered.

"But how could you… I've remembered you for a while, and now you want to conquer the world again. Don't you at least remember, TEC?" Peach frowned.

"Remember… I remember nothing about seeing you before. I'm sure you love the universe your in, despite having many problems with it."

"Well what do you know about the twenty Crystal Stars?"

"The Crystal Stars are powerful gems that could be used for good and evil. If one such has good in them, and he brings out the twenty stars at a magical pedestal, they will protect the universe and destroy all evil that tries to attack. If someone of evil uses them, they will get anything they desire, and they can conquer the entire universe and make everybody bow down to them. It is impossible to stop them."

"Oh… Well I think I must inform Chopper about this. I can let him know with this. Let me use your communicator."

"…I suppose I can allow that. Please use the communicator." Peach nodded and walked over to the communicator and began to type her mail up. TEC sent it after she finished up.

"The message has been sent. Well then, Princess Peach. You have had a busy day. Go back to the room, please."

"Oh… OK." Peach walked over to the door and she took a glimpse at TEC before leaving the room.

"Good night, Princess Peach."

At that moment, TEC's room got dark and he went to sleep mode.

Castle Dedede-

Back at Dream Land, inside Castle Dedede, the fat penguin himself, King Dedede, was sitting on his golden throne. A red rug led up to his throne and down some small steps. This room was once used to order Demon Beasts from Nightmare Corporation, a company that had been long gone since. The walls were a light orange color, and the ground was light red.

Right now, King Dedede had a plate beside him with a ton of food. He was eating each and every one of them with one gulp. He had a dart in his right hand, and he was aiming it at the door ahead, which had a Chopper doll for a target. He threw it, but then the door opened and Escargon came in, looking battered up. He saw the dart and let out a shriek before ducking.

"Your Majesty! Watch where you throw those!" Escargon cried.

King Dedede blinked as he noticed Escargon was battered up and dirty. "Where've you been?"

"Your Majesty… Don't you remember? Back at Hatty Town? You whacked me and sent me far away! It took me DAYS to walk all the way back here! I mean, look at me! I'm so dirty and I also got bug bites!"

"That? …Nope. I don't remember any of that." King Dedede leaned back on his throne. "But why weren't you here to help me look for a new corporation?"

"Huh? What're you talking about?"

"I'm looking for a business that can help me get what I want from those Cappies! And I also want to do something about that annoying Chopper, too."

"I don't mean to offend you or anything, but all of your Demon Beasts got beaten by Kirby," Escargon informed. "Even if you were to find another corporation, you would have to pay so much Deden for them! Don't you know how much money we lost because of those Demon Beasts? And not to mention our plans always get foiled by that brat Fumu."

King Dedede got up from his throne and grit his teeth. "I HATE that girl so much! Why did she have to ruin EVERYTHING I come up with? It makes me wonder why I DIDN'T send her into space! …Hold on, I should've done that in the first place! But now there's a bigger problem. I still can't get over the fact I got beaten down by someone who's small and round like Kirby! I swear, I want to get revenge on him!"

"You know, Your Majesty… While I was getting back here, I DID see something spectacular. When I made it to the Fountain of Dreams, I saw Chopper bringing out some kind of star gem called a Crystal Star. He seems to use some kind of map to locate them."

"Yeah? So? What's so important about these Crystal Stars anyway? Do they have any purpose or something?"

"Well, when I was walking back, I heard a voice calling for me. It sounded…very dark and scary. Let me explain, OK?"

A couple of hours earlier-

Escargon was walking away from the Fountain of Dreams and was now walking past the tree that Fumu was sitting whenever she was bored.

"Boy… I can't believe it took me this long to get back to Dream Land." Escargon sighed. "That was such a far walk! …But what exactly was that Chopper was doing at the Fountain of Dreams? Now I'm getting a little confused."

Suddenly, a voice called out for him. It sounded like a demonic voice instead of a spirit's voice, which made him shriek.

"Escargon… Listen to me." the demonic voice began. "Those are the Crystal Stars. Those can give you such great power. Yes… It can do just that. You want His Majesty to rule Dream Land, right?"

"Huh? Who ARE you? And they're Crystal Stars?" Escargon gaped. "…Yeah, I do want His Majesty to rule Dream Land. He's the greatest king of all time! …But how do you know about him? Are you…Nightmare?"

"No, I am not Nightmare. He is long gone. I'm much eviler than that, you fool. I mean… I've been watching over this universe for centuries. If you and King Dedede get those twenty Crystal Stars, you can not only make everyone do your bidding, but you'll take over the universe and get whatever you want! This is no lie..."

"But how should I know you're trustworthy? Last time we did something like that, it didn't go so well. What makes you think this won't be the same?"

"Oh, don't you worry. Nothing bad will happen…" the voice assured. "You could use those Crystal Stars to become rich if you wanted to. You just need to use a pedestal with strong energy to use their powers to give you anything you desire. World conquering, power, money, anything you desire!"

"Hmmm… That sounds interesting! I should go tell His Majesty about this!" Escargon began to head back to the castle, feeling a bit excited to tell the news to his king.

"…So you're saying a demonic voice told you about the Crystal Stars? He said that we could get…MONEY?!" King Dedede grinned widely as dollar signs appeared in his eyes. "Escargon! This is big! Think what we can do with those twenty Crystal Stars!"

Escargon began to think of him and King Dedede relaxing at a spa and also spending time at a place only rich people could go to. He couldn't help but grin at these thoughts.

"Oh, yes, Your Majesty! That is just BRILLIANT!" Escargon cheered. "I would LOVE to get those Crystal Stars and become rich! So, are we going to head on out and get 'em?"

"What? You think we're going to do it? Wait, yes, we're going to be doing that! What else can we do anyway? Let's go searching!" King Dedede grabbed his hammer and also Escargon. Once their limousine was out, the king threw Escargon into the driver's seat, while he jumped into the passenger's. Once the car was on, they immediately took off in search of the Crystal Stars.

Phi Base-

Gemerl was sitting down in his black and white chair and was starting to think of some plans while looking at another dumb plan a Phi wrote for him. He crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash. He then fired a blast at the Chopper dummy and also the Vivian one. A Kirby one was made now because he heard about them from the Phis.

"Stupid Chopper… Why did you even have to come to this world. Stay at your home planet, where you belong! I swear, he made the wrong decision coming here…" Gemerl turned on the TV to take a look what's going around at the Phi Base. He noticed a mysterious figure run through the base, which made his eyes widen.

"What the… Who was that?" Gemerl began to rewind it. He still didn't get to see who the figure was, but he was certainly not happy. "How on earth did somebody get in the base? This place is completely hidden! …Unless one of my Phis forgot to hide the base. GAH! This can't be right!"

Gemerl stopped for a moment. "…I must calm down. Getting angry doesn't solve anything. Maybe if I'm calm, things will work better for me. I need to listen to something. Hmmm…"

He took out a wire and he plugged it into him and he began to listen to His World. "…No, I heard this too much. I need a different song." he changed the song to Endless Possibilities. "Much better!"

At that moment, two Phis came walking in, looking a little battered up from the events in the Great Tree. However, they didn't look sad at all. In fact, they were a bit excited.

"Sir! We have good news…and bad news." the first Phi informed. "Which one would you like to hear first?"

Gemerl stopped playing the song and got up from his chair and walked over to the Phis. "I know what the bad news are. You lost to Chopper, didn't you? Well I saw it coming…again. But you said you had good news to tell me, don't you?"

"Here's the good news! Check it out!" the second Phi pulled out a dark orange Crystal Star, which made Gemerl gasp in amazement.

"You…GOT that Crystal Star in the Great Tree? I don't believe it! You ACTUALLY did something good!"

"No no, we didn't get it at the Great Tree. We went to a place called Poshley Heights, and we went to a museum where we saw a weird penguin. It honestly wasn't that hard!"

Some time ago-

The two Phis were flying over a beautiful town called Poshley Heights, where they saw a museum below them. One of the Phis suggested, "Hey, how about we go down there? I have a feeling we might find something nice down there."

"All right, we'll go there," the second Phi nodded. "But we're making it quick!"

They two Phis flew down to the museum and walked in to find a huge room with a red rug going to…a Crystal Star! The Phis stopped looking at the place and paid more attention to the Crystal Star.

"Holy…! I feel like my eyes are about to explode! It's a Crystal Star! I can't believe we ACTUALLY made it to one! Talk about lucky!"

The two Phis flew over to the Crystal Star and picked it up. "Man! I'm glad to have gotten this now! After getting beaten by that pale green kid, Master Gemerl won't yell at us!"

"Hold it right there!"

"What the..."

They saw a Bumpty with a red bow-tie, a magnifying glass, and a brown cap walk over to them. "Who might you people be? Wait! Let me take a look at you for a moment! …You must be common thieves, if my eyes deceive me. Yes, you must have come to steal that!"

"You're dang right we are!" the second Phi cackled. "We need this Crystal Star to rule the universe! Sorry, buster! This thing's ours, so back off!"

"Oh, no worries, my friends. It's all right. Unfortunately, that's a red herring. Yes, a fake. If you want it, by all means, go right ahead and take it."

"WHAAAAT?!" the first Phi grabbed the Bumpty and aimed its arm gun at him. "You! You're hiding the REAL one somewhere! Tell us where it is! Now! Or else you're going to have perhaps the most painful death ever!"

"…Well, I suppose I have no other choice," the Bumpty sweat dropped. "If you must know, the real one is in that painting."

"Oh, really? Good! Time to go in!" the other Phi jumped and ended up crashing into the painting. The other Phi saw a pipe in the painting and also one hidden behind the curtains. He let go of the Bumpty and smacked the Phi.

"Idiot! You don't crash into paintings! We gotta go over here!" the Phi jumped into the pipe, as well as its buddy and after going into the door in the painting, they found the REAL one.

"YES! The real one!"

They rushed over to it and grabbed it. "Wait 'till Master Gemerl hears about this! This is AWESOME!"

Present-

"…And THAT'S how we got the Crystal Star, sir," the first Phi concluded. "Are you proud of us now?"

"Yes, you did a good job. I'm proud that you did something GOOD for once." Gemerl said, crossing his arms and nodding slowly. He was satisfied and took the Crystal Star. He watched it glitter.

"It's beautiful…"

"Does that mean we get that promotion?"

"Heh heh heh…no," Gemerl replied as he looked back at the Phis.

"SIR!" another Phi came into the room and walked up to Gemerl. "We discovered where the next Crystal Star is! Apparently, it's in a town called Twilight Town. From what I've heard, it's in a pretty dark place, especially where the Crystal Star's being held. It's said that there's an evil monster there."

"A monster? …Then I will send three Phis to go check what's over there! Tell them immediately!"

"Of course, sir! …But that's not all! I noticed at the Great Tree some kind of weird alien species in a uniform. I did research on them and it turns out they're called X-Nauts. They're after the Crystal Stars too."

"What? More people after the Crystal Stars? Preposterous!" Gemerl growled. "I thought Chopper and I were the only ones looking for them. I guess I was wrong..."

"Any other requests?" one Phi asked.

"Well... Actually, there IS something. Apparently I noticed a mysterious figure sneaking around in our base. It didn't look like it was Chopper... I want you guys to increase the security and find out who this mysterious intruder is! We can't have people sneaking in here and discovering what secrets there are in this desert!"

"...Whoops. I think I forgot to close the secret entrance." one Phi sweat dropped.

"All right, then next time, make sure the entrance is HIDDEN! There's a reason why it's a 'secret entrance'!" Gemerl grumbled. "Anyway... I want three of you guys at the next location of the Crystal Star NOW! The rest of you keep your eyes peeled... If we catch this intruder, we can interrogate him for some information. He could very well be an ally of Chopper's..."

"Of course, sir!" the three Phis left the room, while Gemerl sat down on his chair, looking at the Crystal Star.

"So, Chopper has three and I hold one..." Gemerl trailed. "If I'm correct, there could be a chance his map will take him here. I'll be prepared to fight him when that time has come…"

Outside the Great Tree-

"Uh... Thank you, Chopper, for everything you've done." Punio thanked. "We can finally go back to our peaceful way of life now, now that you've taken care of those goons."

"You know, son, now that we get right down to it, I'm kind of sad to see you go," the Puni Elder remarked. "I do love pontificating, so come on by whenever you want to sit and chat awhile."

"Yes, please come back and visit! We'll watch for you!" Petuni nodded. "I hope you have good luck on your quest too, Kirby! I'm probably going to miss your friendliness!

"Poyo! (Me too!)" Kirby nodded. "Poyo! (It was great knowing each other! If I ever have any free time, I'll come see you, OK?)"

"We'll work together from now on to prevent anything like that from happening again," Punio declared. "Thanks to you guys, we feel like we're much closer together as a family. Good luck with the Crystal Stars. Let's hope you can save this world!"

"We'll see you guys later!" Chopper waved goodbye as he and his friends began to leave. Some of the Punies started to cry as they returned to the Boggly Woods. Scrub stretched and sat down on the ground next to the pipe

"Whew! Man! Finally! It's just us again!" Scrub sighed. "Taking care of 101 Punies was a PAIN for us. Now we can do things with ease. That Crump guy wasn't that big of a threat, honestly. He was just some guy going 'Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh!' And THAT gets annoying."

"Yeah, he was kinda weird...and stupid," Chopper agreed before he felt his Mailbox SP going off.

"Is it that X person again?"

"Scrub, we already know that X person was Jolene... Plus, it's not playing that song."

"From what I can hear, that ring tone sounds like it's from Princess Peach," Vivian noted as Chopper took out his Mailbox SP and began to read the e-mail.

Dear Chopper,

I have uncovered something terrible. According to the X-Nauts, well, Johnson… They're planning on using the Crystal Stars to take control of the world! But there MAY be another reason, but I couldn't get any of that information. Apparently, if a person that is good uses the stars on a pedestal, light will shine in the universe and repel and darkness and destroy it. One with darkness in them can use the stars to take control of EVERYTHING in the universe. You simply MUST get them before those X-Nauts. I will gather as much information that I can.

-Princess Peach-

"So those X-Dudes wanna take over the UNIVERSE with those Crystal Stars?" Scrub gawked. "Ummmmmm... Yeah, that's not that original of a motive. They don't really seem pure evil either."

At that moment, Vivian frowned when she heard Scrub say "pure evil."

"What's wrong Vivian?" Chopper asked. "You don't look too good..."

"Well... It's nothing, really." Vivian assured. "I just remembered something bad... It's not important, though."

"Ummmm... OK."

"Poyo? (Well, anyway, I think we should go back to Dream Land, don't you think so, Chopper?)" Kirby suggested. Poyo! (You know what that star you gave me was? THIS!)"

Kirby took out the star and tossed it up. It became a Warp Star, which he was able to jump on easily.

"Oh! Nice!" Chopper made a sharp whistle and a Warp Star came to him. He got on it and now there were two Warp Stars. Scrub decided to get on Kirby's while Vivian got on Chopper's.

"Poyo, (I knew Vivian would join you, Chopper,)" Kirby smirked.

"Uhhhh... What do you... Hey!" Chopper glared at Kirby before they took off, leaving the Boggly Woods and returning to Pop Star.

Dream Land-

They landed right in front of the Mayor's house again, where the Mayor happened to notice them return, so he left the restaurant in a hurry and got to the group.

"You made it back! …And you brought Kirby! This is just GREAT!" the Mayor cheered. "If you came here, you must have gotten the Crystal Star! Great job, you four! You've got three of them so far! …But of course, there are seventeen more to find."

"Yeah, I know. It's rather…tough." Chopper sighed. "We've run into some X-Naut guys who are looking for the Crystal Stars. So… This may not be so easy with them around. Plus, there are also robots called Phis after them too!"

"What? Oh, I had a feeling this would happen. The Crystal Stars can grant you the power you need if you're evil. You could control the ENTIRE universe with them! Yes, they're THAT powerful. But there's no time for talking! You must go to the Fountain of Dreams to find the next Crystal Star."

Chopper nodded and they all headed to the Fountain of Dreams. But before they could continue on, Chopper stopped for a moment.

"There's one thing I don't understand. The Mayor gets a letter with no address on it. I have NO idea who sent it." Chopper pondered. "There's no way it could've been Bowser. He wouldn't be able to make darkness cover the sky and destroy the universe. He just kidnaps Peach. It couldn't be Maquano, because I sent a light orb at him and now he's trapped in there for eternity. There's no way he's getting out of there. You guys know who he is, right? Do you, Vivian?"

"Well… I think… I think I heard that name before." Vivian recalled. "I don't remember when, though. I know the Shadow Queen has nothing to do with this because she's been destroyed."

"The Shadow Queen? Who's that?"

"She was an evil lady who was sealed in the Thousand-Year Door by the four heroes, if I could recall. Her evil spirit was trapped in there until it was released. However, she didn't last that long when Mario defeated her. I... I actually helped defeat her."

"You serious?! I never knew you defeated an evil queen!" Chopper gaped. "That's awesome!"

"Oh... Thanks, Chopper." Vivian blushed. "However, whoever's responsible for this remains a mystery..."

"Poyo. (Well we'll find out. We gotta find the next Crystal Star first!)" Kirby declared. Chopper nodded and they made their way to the Fountain of Dreams. Once they made it there, Chopper jumped onto the pedestal.

"OK, here I go!" Chopper held up the Emerald Star and it disappeared. The whole light blue light surrounded the fountain, and three circles now had Crystal Stars, with the green one to the upper right as well. The map was floating above Chopper and was surrounded by light, which began to reveal the next location of the Crystal Star.

A black, dark steeple that looked like it was covered in darkness appeared right by a town that looked like it was one of the creepy areas like Forever Forest. A red Crystal Star happened to be there.

Chopper studied the map for a little bit, and knew what to do. "Guys, we need to go see Professor Frankly about this one."

"Poyo? (Professor Frankly?)" Kirby gawked.

"You'll see..."

Frankly's house-

"WHAT?! The people who kidnapped Princess Peach and those robots want to conquer the universe with the Crystal Stars?" Frankly gaped.

"Yeah! You got that right, Frankly!" Scrub replied. "Those Phi jerks and those X-Jerks want to perhaps enslave everybody or even make them all extinct! No joke at all!"

"Hrmm… This doesn't bode so well. The situation has gotten far more serious than I thought! Then again, I wouldn't be so surprised about their return... Anyway, I've been doing a little more research on the Crystal Stars, and how twenty of them came to be. Thirteen more stars were created so that more power could be used to repel all darkness...or to make the Crystal Stars more powerful for one that is evil... But whoever made them is not yet to be discovered. Sigh… If only I knew a little more."

"Poyo, (Yeah, I wonder who really made those Crystal Stars,)" Kirby agreed. "I know I'm kind of new to this town and all, but I wanna know more about it!)"

"Ermmm… I'm sorry, Chopper, but what did your pink friend say?" Chopper sighed and translated what he said. "Ah, I understand now! I'm so glad you understand what he's saying."

Vivian seemed to be the only one silent, probably because she was feeling a little nervous.

"Anyway, in order to stop that, you must find the Crystal Stars. So… Let's see. This next one looks like it's pointing to Twilight Town!" Frankly noted, which made Vivian gasp.

"D-Did you say Twilight Town?" Vivian gaped.

"I did hear it from the old man's old mouth..." Scrub trailed.

"Why? Do you know something about that place?" Chopper asked.

"Well... Ummm..." Vivian trailed, twiddling her thumbs.

"Well, I heard some rumors that the place has become very dangerous," Frankly cut in. "I know for sure there's a pipe that will take you there. Just go to the west sewers."

"Gotcha! Let's go, guys!" Chopper left the house, along with the other three and went to the west side of Rogueport. They could see another area to the west, but that was a new harbor that they built for more ships to come in.

"I think we gotta go down these sewers!" Scrub looked down at the holes through the sewers, so Chopper went down there with his friends by turning sideways and were in the sewers. There was a gap between them and the platform they were on to the left and also a red Metal Block blocking a doorway.

"Poyo, (Let's check the green door,)" Kirby suggested. They found a rusty old pipe, so they went in there - only to have them come back up.

The pipe rejected you!

"Wait, what? The pipe rejects us? That doesn't make any sense!" Chopper kicked the pipe, but it didn't seem to do anything.

"Whoa, Contadre... I don't think that's going to do anything..." Scrub trailed.

"Then we need a plunger! It might be clogged!"

"We need to go see Professor Frankly about it. I think he knows what to do." Vivian suggested.

"...Or we can do that!"

So they made their way back to Professor Frankly and began to explain to him about the pipe.

"Bad news, Frankly… We tried to get into that pipe, but it wouldn't let us through!" Chopper informed. "Yeah, we kept trying and trying, but it did nothing!"

"What? You can't get through the pipe, you say? That's…rather odd, I must say." Frankly frowned.

"Well, got any idea on what we can do, Prof?" Scrub asked.

"Um... Let's see... Ermmm... I might know but I just can't remember what it is... I forgot to tell you this before... I apologize for my bad memory... There's a fellow from Twilight Town that's around here in Rogueport. He'll know how to get through the pipe. Though I don't remember his name... WAIT! It's Darkly! He's loitering right here in this part of the town. Go look for him."

"Someone named Darkly? That's sounds good to me!" Chopper and his friends left the house and walked over to the back of the area, where they could see a lime-green person wearing brown, dirty clothing.

"Hey there!"

"Hi there! The name's Darkly! Do you guys need something?" Darkly asked. Chopper began to explain to him about going to Twilight Town and trying to go through the pipe.

"Huh? You want to know how to get through the pipe of Twilight Town? That's easy! You just need something that has your name written on it! Don't you have anything with your name on it? C'mon, everyone does!"

"Well I don't..." Chopper trailed.

"No? Really? OK. Hang on. I'll write it for you. What's your name?"

"My name? It's Chopper. It's spelled C-H-O-P-P-E-R. And where are you going to write my name?"

"Well, where should I write your name?" Chopper lifted his shoe, and Darkly signed his name on the bottom.

"At least it's better than my glove..."

"There! Perfect-a-mundo!" Darkly smiled. "While I'm at it, I'll write your partners' names, too. What are your names?"

"My name's Vivian."

"Scrub, baby!"

"Poyo! (I'm Kirby!)"

Chopper told Darkly his name is Kirby, so Darkly started off by signing Kirby's bottom foot, Vivian's hat, and then on Scrub's white diaper.

"Hey! Watch where you're drawing, buddy!" Scrub yelped. "That's my tail!"

"I don't know what errand is taking you to Twilight Town, but I hope it goes well. I'll be rooting for you!" Darkly smiled as he finished.

They said goodbye to Darkly and headed back to the room with the rusty pipe.

"You know, I still liked the idea with the plunger..." Chopper trailed.

"Poyo, (But you're not even a plumber,)" Kirby noted. "Poyo? (Plus, don't you think this works out a lot better for us?)"

"Hmmmmm... Maybe you're right."

"Well, what're we doing sitting around for? Let's move!" Scrub declared as he jumped into the pipe, followed by Kirby and then Chopper. Vivian looked down at the pipe and then at the sign, feeling a bit nervous.

"Oh... I can't believe I have to come back here..." Vivian sighed. "Sure, this may be where I live, but I'm worried about him returning..."

She quickly went into the pipe afterward.