Before they went out into the desert, Chopper went back to Rogueport to go upgrade Berry to Ultra-Rank. She now had learned Ruby Throw, which allowed her to throw her hammer at any enemy, whether they were on the ground or up in the air. It could also pierce through defense. She also learned Hammerang, which now allowed her to throw her hammer toward all enemies on the ground. Since it acted like a boomerang, her hammer could come back to her. Also, she now had 40 HP, having 15 without being upgraded.

"All right, so now we're out in the desert, huh? Wow, this place looks…pretty barren." Scrub pointed out. "There's not really a lot here besides Poison Pokeys and Poison Clefts. Wait… Poison Clefts? Since when were THEY in here? …Oh yeah, there are Tuff Puffs too…and not to mention Bandits."

"Scrub, we were here before," Chopper reminded.

"Oh... Whoops!"

"Yeah, this place sure is crawling with them. I don't like it…" Shadower trailed as they took a couple of steps to take a look around. Chopper was up at the front, and Berry walked beside him with hearts fluttering over her head.

Chopper stopped and saw Berry next to him, which made him take a couple of steps back from her…without saying a word. But that didn't seem to be doing anything, because she simply got closer to him.

"Can someone tell her to stop? I'm getting a little nervous…" Chopper sweat dropped.

"It's not my fault I didn't get to see you in so long," Berry replied.

"Well... I wanna go to that Phi Base without you kissing me or something, OK?"

Berry nodded, but not before giving him a wink, which freaked him out. But she stopped when she noticed a Bandit coming toward them.

"Choppy! Look out!" she quickly jumped in and pushed Chopper out of the way, preventing him from getting hit by the Bandit. Shadower was the one to take care of the Bandit after it failed to hit Chopper.

"That was a close one," Shadower sighed. "That Bandit almost got Chopper. It's a good thing Berry saved him…or else he could've lost his coins, items, or badges…or he could've lost his Super Gloves…"

Apparently, when Berry pushed Chopper out of the way, she was lying on top of him and holding him. She got back up afterward, but she was able to sneak a hug, which made Chopper feel uncomfortable.

"…OK, you were just helping me there. That's fine." Chopper assured as Vivian helped him up. Berry went back over to the group, while Vivian sighed when Chopper headed over to them.

"I don't think I'm going to get my chance now. …Though I think he feels better around me than her." Vivian noticed as she followed the group through the area, avoiding the quicksand pits around and defeating the Pokeys here.

"Hmmm… I think I see some quicksand ahead. It's not going to be easy to get through, but I can certainly get you across." Berry assured as they got to a big quicksand pit. They could see regular sand to the other side.

"As long as it has nothing to do with any of that stuff, I'll be…" Chopper was cut off when Berry swung her hammer and sent him flying over to the other side. She made it so he wouldn't get hurt from it. "…FIIIIIIIINE!"

"Whoa… That was intense. Well, he's not hurt, but Contadre sure took that one." Scrub noticed. "Say, Berry... Could you get me over there?"

"Ummmmm... OK. Though, this might hurt." Berry brought her hammer back and looked at everyone else. "And don't think I'm going to shout fore! It's your problem if you get hurt!"

"Errr... OK..." Bombette trailed as Berry got Scrub across. Everyone else headed over there, with Berry getting Bombette over there with her hammer. She got stuck in the sand, so Vivian pulled her out.

They had to get Berry to the other side, so Chopper tried using his Inhale ability to make sure she could get across. When she got across, he helped her up, which made her blush.

"That was sweet of you to do that," Berry smiled before she realized something. "Hold on... Did you just...act like some kind of vacuum cleaner?!"

"Well, I was given this rainbow heart thing that lets me run fast, have a better jump and inhale things like a vacuum. I can steal abilities with it!"

"Oh... That's interesting. That's a lot more than what I can do."

"Arr… The sands are so dry. So dry, that I'm quenching in thirst." Bombette cut in, who was dying of thirst. Berry began to check if she had a bottle of water, and she actually did, so she gave it to her.

"You should have this, then. Don't worry, I got another one, plus I'm not thirsty. Don't worry! Take it!" Berry had the water bottle out…but she just realized something. "Oh, yeah… You don't have arms."

However, Bombette was able to snatch it from her and drink the water. While Vivian had no idea why she wasn't able to do it before, it didn't matter at this point.

After finishing, Bombette smiled. "Say, fer a girl that's in love with Chopper, ye sure are nice!"

"Thank you," Berry smiled. "I always carry some water around here because of how dry it is. That's why I have about two bottles of water."

"Yeesh... Kindness can do a lot..." Chopper trailed. "But I still don't like the fact that she likes me!"

He noticed his mouth was getting a little dry too.

"Here, Choppy! You can have my last bottle of water." Berry said, offering him a bottle. "You're too young to die out here in the desert. I'm used to it, so I don't get as thirsty."

"OK, fine. …But you gotta stop calling me Choppy." Chopper swiped the water bottle from her and began to drink it. He felt much better after drinking it and smiled afterward. Berry smiled too, but then he quickly stopped.

"…Let's just move on," Chopper quickly moved on ahead to find some Poison Pokeys. No big problem. They could take these guys, so Chopper whacked at the first one with his hammer.

"You have a hammer too? That's so cool! We're like a hammer couple now!" Berry finished off the Poison Pokey with her Berry Hammer. When she brought it down, hearts came out of it, and the Poison Pokey was beaten.

The other Poison Pokey went over to Scrub and shot a spike at him, poisoning him. Noticing this, Chopper hurled a fireball at the Poison Pokey, while Berry finished it off with her hammer. Once it was finished, Scrub was able to get the poison out of him.

"Argh... Stupid Pokey..." Scrub grumbled. "I wanted to be the one to finish it off!"

"Well, at least you're all right," Shadower noted. "...You are all right, right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. That poison wasn't going to bring me down!"

"It's my fault for not warning you guys about poison enemies..." Berry sighed, though she stopped when she saw something up ahead. "Hold on a second… Who's that over there?"

She let go of Chopper and pointed over to the rock at the distance. Chopper turned around and gasped, as well as Vivian.

"Hey, that's… That's Tipral!" Chopper gaped.

"Tipral? Who's that?"

"Ah, so you finally managed to show up," Tipral noticed. "I'm not surprised to see you guys looking for that base. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything yet, but it doesn't mean I'm going to let you get through here so easily!"

"Wait, hold on a second..." Berry paused. "There's Choppy here... And now there's someone who looks like him. I swear, if he's your evil twin that's trying to fight over me, I'm probably going to get annoyed. Those have been done to death anyway!"

"Fight over you?!" Tipral scoffed. "Why would I want to? You and the rest of your friends are better off dead, just like Chopper!"

"And you say as if you've never lost..." Chopper scoffed. "We beat you. Twice!"

"And we're ready to blow ye up again!" Bombette declared.

"I think fighting's just a waste of time. But if you insist, then I will." Tipral teleported in front of Chopper and was about to punch him until he ducked. "Let's just settle this, all right?"

"Well if you want a fight, then you've got one," Berry declared, getting her Ruby Hammer out and making Tipral raise an eyebrow.

"That's your weapon...? A red hammer? Like that'll do anything to stop me!"

"Well, I don't know about that..." Chopper trailed, getting in a fighting stance. "Now let's fight!"

Tattle: That's Tipral. He's that creep who looks just like you! Why is he back? Max HP is 50, Attack is 5, and Defense is 0. Nothing much has changed with him. He still has all the same moves as before... If you remembered how to beat him before, then you should be fine against him.

"So Tipral's back? Well that makes sense, because he said something about being back." Vivian recalled. "But we'll make sure we give him a better beating than before…"

"Yeah, I remember that, Vivian," Chopper agreed before he turned back to Tipral and stomped on his head to deal 4 damage. Berry attacked him with her hammer afterward, which made the dark being rub his head.

"Stupid hammer… I see your friends can deal heavier damage…but you seem to deal the same amount. It's no big deal, really." Tipral swung his arm and fired a Star Spear at Chopper. He was able to guard it, to his luck.

"Well you just took 10 damage already! I think we can finish this up rather quick!" Chopper smirked as he jumped over to Tipral and brought his hammer down on him. He felt good hitting his enemy as he jumped back over to his team.

"I really liked how you pulled that off," Berry swooned.

"Berry... We're in a fight here..."

"It's payback time!" Scrub cut in as he fluttered over to Tipral and stomped on him with his butt to take 6 away from him. Tipral cringed in pain as he slowly rubbed his head.

"Not bad… You got me down to 30 HP. But I still got a few more tricks up my sleeves." Tipral looked at Berry and clenched his fists, making star power surround them. He then charged at her. Chopper gasped and immediately jumped in the way to take the hit. Berry was left surprised as Chopper was left on the ground in a bit of pain.

"Poyo…? (Wow… He actually did that?)" Kirby gaped.

Chopper slowly got back up and ran back toward Tipral and whacked him with his hammer afterward. Even from getting hit by Tipral's attack, he still had it in him to fight back.

Bombette had nothing to say at this point, so she walked over to Tipral and blew up in front of him. This made him snap his fingers and let the Bob-omb get hurt by Star Magic.

"Oof! …Well that's not gonna do much to me. I have about 50 HP!" Bombette smirked.

Since Tipral had 20 HP left, Chopper stomped on him, and then Kirby used a Cartwheel to get him down to 10 HP. But Tipral didn't care. He was panting, but he was not going to give up so soon.

"Fine… I have no other choice but to unleash my most powerful attack." Tipral clenched his fists and was surrounded by star energy. "You'll see how powerful I am once you witness this!"

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper threw a fireball at him to leave burn on him. But he didn't care. Then Vivian attacked with her Shade Fist, and he stopped and collapsed. Chopper leveled up and upgraded his HP to 35 after they celebrated.

"Wow, you really did that to protect me? I think you really do care about me." Berry smiled as she blushed at the antennae hero.

"But... Friends protect other friends, right?"

"Mmmm-hmmm!"

"So, Berry... How long 'till we get to the base?" Bombette asked.

"Well... I don't think we're too far. Just follow me ahead!"

Berry took off, leaving the others to follow ahead. This time, with more determination.

We're going into the Phi Base next chapter! So prepare to see some evil robots and also some fighting!