With Tipral's defeat, they were able to move on ahead with ease. Of course, they knew Tipral would get up sooner or later and get out of the desert. But that didn't matter for them now. When they reached the next area, they didn't see much around. The only thing they could see were two stumps and a rock on the ground. It almost reminded Chopper of Dry Dry Desert for some reason.
"This is the location of the base," Berry informed, walking over to the two stumps. "All you have to do is hit these two stumps into the ground and the base will be revealed!"
"That's a pretty cruddy hiding spot," Scrub commented.
"That's what I first thought when I discovered it."
"Hmmmm… Hold on, let me try something with this rock." Chopper opened his mouth and began to inhale the rock. Since Berry was near it, she was forced to grab a hold of one of the stumps to not get sucked in. After swallowing the rock, Chopper wore a navy blue samurai helmet with a red plume on top of the guard on the back, along with a star on the forehead piece. His skin even changed to a light brown tint, and his feet became brown.
"Stone Chopper! Yes!" Chopper cheered. "I was wondering when I would get this one! I think I can take care of these stumps!"
"Choppy..."
"What is it?"
"Next time, could you tell me when you're going to inhale something?!" Berry cried, her hair a little frizzy up. "I mean, I could've been trapped in there!"
"Oh... Sorry about that..." Chopper frowned.
"It's... OK." Berry smiled as she fixed up her hair. "I don't think it's such a big deal anyway."
"Unless you kiss him," Scrub muttered, making Chopper frown at him.
"Anyway, let me test out my new Stone ability!" When Chopper jumped up, he transformed into a statue of Vivian and landed on the first stump.
"He became a stone of myself. That's kind of funny." Vivian giggled as Chopper turned back to his regular form and then became a stone of a fist pounding the ground. Once he took care of the last stump, the ground around them began to shake.
"Oh dear eggs! This shaking is intense!" Scrub cried. As the shaking continued, a sandy dome appeared was revealed after a part of the background was flipped away. A red button was revealed to be next to the door, which left Berry gawking.
"Hey… I don't remember the Phis having this red button…" Berry trailed. "Wait, hold on a minute… I think I got an idea! …But I might have to use my hammer on you, Choppy. I'm really sorry if you end up getting hurt..."
"I'll just become a stone and let myself hit the button," Chopper assured. "…And why am I always called different names? First Contadre, then Chortles, and then Captain 'Tenna, and now Choppy…"
"But I like your nickname. It's cute! ...But, anyway, let's get ready," Berry said as she readied her hammer.
Chopper, meanwhile, turned into a statue of Berry, who was holding her hammer and looked prepared to fight.
"Hold on... Since he turned into a statue of her and Vivian earlier, do you think he can turn into a statue of us?" Shadower wondered.
"Maybe he'll turn into a statue of me!" Bombette declared.
"Fat chance!" Scrub scoffed. "He'll obviously turn into one of me!"
"Poyo... (Guys... This isn't the time...)" Kirby groaned.
"Stand back!" Berry cried, making everyone step away from her. She whacked the statue of herself toward the red button, which made the door open. Chopper turned back into his regular self and removed the ability. They all stepped foot in the base only to find themselves in a skinny hallway leading to an elevator.
"Poyo? (Huh? This elevator… Does this lead to the base?)" Kirby asked.
"Yeah, I believe it does," Berry nodded.
"Poyo?! (You can understand me?!)" Kirby gaped.
"Yeah, that kind of surprises me too!"
"So you also know of the 'poyo' language..." Chopper trailed.
"Actually, our kind can understand it. It's actually the one language they don't need to learn, but they don't really speak it."
"Weird... I thought you were born with two languages you could understand - with the one we're speaking now being one of them."
While they were talking about that, the rest of the group were gaping at the hallway.
"This base… It's very odd. But this is just the beginning." Bombette said, noticing the floor and walls were a tan color, but they didn't worry so much about it and they proceeded on to the elevator ahead, which was silver with a symbol of a Phi on the floor. Everyone wasn't satisfied with it, however.
"I don't like the looks of this place at all," Shadower shuddered. "It's suddenly changing to some kind of mechanical base…"
They saw the tan colors going away, and it began to change. The walls changed to a silver color, which made everyone gape once again.
"Poyo! (It's looking less like a desert!)" Kirby noticed.
"Yeesh… Everything's changing a lot around here." Chopper realized. "I mean, it was just a normal desert house or something, and now look at it! It's like we're in a new dimension! What the HECK?! This isn't right!"
"Hee hee! I never knew you made funny jokes!" Berry giggled.
"...No he doesn't," Shadower cut in. "Trust me. Some of his jokes aren't bad."
"What makes you think that?" she wondered. "Are you jealous of him?"
"Nope. Bad puns. He spouts them."
Berry blinked for a second with a blank look. "Oh. I think I get what you mean now."
Once the elevator opened, they found themselves in a small room with a green glass-like ground and a couple of lights on the walls that were red, blue, green and even yellow. Thankfully, there didn't happen to be any enemies around in the room.
"It's a good thing that there aren't any Phis around here. We're safe for right now." Scrub sighed. But once he walked over to the door, it opened on its own and two Phis were right in front of it, causing the Yoshi to shriek and hide behind Chopper.
When the two Phis noticed them, they drew them arm guns and pointed them at the heroes.
"Ah-HA! So you finally show up, huh, Chopper?" the first Phi smirked. "And look! That girl's with him! But if she's with them... Uh oh..."
"Yeah, uh oh is right!" the second Phi growled. "She probably knows where all of the rooms are in the base!"
"Then we'll have to take him down!"
The other Phi looked at it and nodded, but then the one up at front got attacked by Chopper's stomp, followed by Shadower's Shadow Punch.
"Crud...!" the Phi came charging at Chopper and fired a red laser at him, causing him to take 4 damage. But, it was just 4 damage, so Chopper just took care of the Phi with his hammer, and then a Cartwheel from Kirby.
"Poyo! (That was easy!)" Kirby smirked.
Unfortunately, it wasn't over yet. The two Phis' eyes flashed red.
"Bzzzzzzzzzzzt! Warning! Warning! Self-destructing in ten…"
Everyone gasped and began to flee. But, unfortunately, there was nowhere else to go. The only thing they COULD do, however, was push them into the hallway ahead. So Shadower knocked them back with his Shadow Punch and then Chopper used his Tornado ability to blow them out of the room. An explosion could be heard afterward.
"Well that was a close call!" Bombette sighed. "I thought we'd be roasted up or somethin'! Ha ha HAR!"
Chopper clenched his hammer as he slowly walked over to the door. The good news was that the Phis were gone, so they were safe for right now.
"Oh, thank goodness! They're gone! Now we can take a good look around here. Now, let's see…" Chopper walked around in the hallway to check for anything. There was no enemies around, so they were safe.
"The coast is clear? Let's go check this place then!" Scrub declared as he and the group walked into the hallway to find some beeping lights and the green glassy ground flashing. All the way to the right, there was another door with a Phi symbol on it. Upon approaching it, the door opened up on its own. "Holy... That door just opened on its own! That's awesome!"
"Well, these robots do have a lot of technology in their hands..." Berry trailed.
"You don't sound so excited about these doors..." Shadower trailed.
"I've been through here a couple of times. It kinda got old."
"Ahhh."
Through the door, they found tiles that were filled with lava, which the heroes were not happy to see. But across the lava tiles was a wall with a crack.
"This might require both Berry and Bombette to do..." Chopper pondered.
"Yar! I'm up fer the job!" Bombette declared.
"OK, just be careful," Berry said as she used her hammer to throw both Chopper and Bombette across. When they landed by the cracked wall, Chopper gave her a toss and let her blow up the wall.
After the explosion, the lava tiles became hard like a rock with steam simmering up from the ground. They were able to walk on it without getting hurt. Meanwhile, Berry had taken notice of the look on Vivian.
"Huh? What's wrong with you?" Berry asked.
"Ummmmmm... Nothing, really." Vivian lied. "I was just thinking about...something."
"Something?"
"Errmmm... Yeah, I guess I was just thinking about what my sisters were doing. I'm sure Beldam is really mad at me right now for leaving her. But even though I'm thinking about that, I'm still hoping I did the right thing, considering how she acts toward me."
"What did she do?" Berry asked, getting a bit curious.
"Well, when something bad happens, like when we once lost a sketch of Chopper when we were supposed to go find him, she ended up putting the blame on me. ...Maybe I did lose it, but I don't remember being the one to hold it. Because of that, she forced me to go find the sketch and Chopper on my own, while she and Marilyn got the easier job. If I hadn't done the job, she would've punished me. It ended up leading me to get attacked by a Phi, but Chopper had come to help me, and considering how nice he was, I ended up joining him instead."
"Oh... You were treated badly by your sisters? I'm sorry to hear about that... I never had a sister or brother, so I don't think I can relate..."
"Oh, OK..."
"I hope you feel better now, though," Berry smiled.
"Err… What are ye two doing here?" Bombette wondered, having overheard the conversation after blowing up the cracked wall.
"Nothing, really," Vivian replied.
"I thought I heard somethin' about a sister. I'm guessin' ye were talkin' about that one witch we ran into before, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I can assure you that when we end up fightin' her an' her lackies, we'll give her a taste of her own medicine! Of course, we still have to find some treasure!"
"Though, you're not really a pirate..." Vivian trailed. "You have bombnesia."
"Bombnesia?" Berry blinked. "Oh, come on! That's a terrible pun!"
"Don't blame me," Bombette muttered. "I'd put the blame on that writer."
"It's a good thing we got that key!" Chopper smiled as he came out of the hole with a key. "This Elevator Key is ours! I think we can use it to go down another level. Let's check!"
They all headed back into the hallway and walked over to the Phi Elevator right by him. After swiping the card, the lamp on the top of the elevator opened, only to have Phis come out of the elevator.
"Crud…" Chopper gulped. But before the two Phis could attack, Vivian, Bombette and Berry sprang into action and defeated the two Phis.
Shadower blinked as they finished the Phis off with ease. "Uhhhh... OK, I guess I'm fine with that."
"Blowin' up these robots has never been so satisfyin'!" Bombette declared.
"Well... We can't do much now, can we? Let's go down to the lower level." Shadower suggested. Everyone agreed and walked into the elevator, which began to take them down to Sublevel 2.
"I call shotgun!" Scrub chirped.
"There's no shotgun here," Chopper blinked.
"Oh..."
Sublevel 2-
The elevator door to Sublevel 2 opened and everyone came out of it, relieved to have more space.
"Poyo! (Much better!)" Kirby smiled.
Chopper agreed, and he took a look around in the hallway. There are a couple of doors around, one to the far left, one to the far right and two doors near those. There were many doors they could go in.
"Wow... Look at all of these doors." Bombette blinked. "Maybe we should go left."
Unfortunately, the door to the left was locked, so they couldn't go in there. They decided to go to the closest door to them on the right to find a gray rug with a TV and a Nintendo GameCube connected to the TV.
"A Nintendo GameCube? Awesome! Let's see what they got!" Scrub checked the games, but he heard a gun noise and turned to see two Phis in the same room. One was a Phi Scientist, which wore got a lab coat to show it's a scientist.
"Outta the way. NOW!" the Phis demanded.
Scrub gulped, looking down at his leg. Chopper quickly grabbed him so he wouldn't get himself hurt and threw a fireball at the scientist, while Bombette blew up the scientist as well. Once that Phi was taken care of, they looked around in the room for anything. All they found was a couple of games such as Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Mario Sunshine, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, A Gameboy Advance with Sonic Battle, Sonic Advance 3 and also saw a poster with an orange robot that looked a little similar to Gemerl named Emerl on it.
"This is a uh…strange room, I suppose," Chopper blinked.
"Poyo! (I'll say!)" Kirby agreed.
"There's nothing we need in here anyway, so we should just get out of here…" Shadower suggested.
With that, they walked out of the room, though Scrub wanted to stay in the room, Shadower ended up pulling him out. They decided to go to the other room close to the elevator. There, they found a disco room with some Phis and blue floating Phi heads with green eyes called Phimatites. They don't attack, but they support weaponry and can recover any of the Phis' HP.
Everyone was confused when they saw them dancing.
"Huh… So this floor must be where all of the Phis go to relax and all that." Berry deduced.
"Are they doing the robot?" Shadower questioned.
"But they're robots," Chopper replied.
"No, I'm talking about the dance."
"Oh. Well... I'll give it a try!"
Chopper walked over to the dancing ring, but he found himself tripping. Coincidentally, he bumped into the Phis and knocked them down like dominoes.
"Poyo! (Do that again!)" Kirby laughed.
They looked at the pile of Phis lying on the ground. One of them felt a hand on its butt, and it smacked the hand off. Meanwhile, Bombette decided to finish the job by exploding in front of them.
"Arr… It feels good to be blowin' that stuff up." Bombette said proudly as she landed on the ground. "I can smell the oil from the robots right now… Wait… That smells like a gas leak."
"Gas leak?!" Berry gaped.
Everyone evacuated the room and in slow motion, jumping into the door to their right. A huge explosion could be heard from in that room.
"Phew… That was CLOSE!" Shadower sighed in relief. When they turned around, they saw some giant hammers pounding on the bridge, which had an electric ground below. They were moving pretty fast as well.
"Poyo. (Uh oh. This isn't good.)" Kirby gulped before he began to squint, and past those hammers was a chest. "Poyo! (Chopper! There's a chest up ahead! …But there's no way we can get to it with those hammers going down fast!)"
"Well, we're screwed," Scrub blinked.
However, Berry had an idea. She walked over to Chopper and put her hands behind her back and blushed at him.
"Ummmmm... Berry... What are you doing?" Chopper gawked, stepping away from her.
"Well, Choppy... I don't think that kiss I gave you back in Our Apartments was that special enough." Berry said as she leaned closer to him, causing Chopper to become nervous. "It's much more romantic to kiss each other on the lips!"
She closed her eyes and puckered up, but Chopper let out a gasp and began to run from her.
"EEEEEEEEEK!" Chopper cried as he ran past all the hammers and reached the chest. Berry opened her eyes and was left with an annoyed look.
"Dang it..." Berry mumbled.
"Seriously, you gotta do that more when we have something like that," Shadower suggested. "I mean, he sprinted past those hammers!"
When Chopper stopped, he turned around and noticed he was near the hammers. He couldn't help but give a smug look. "…Well that was close. I'm so smart with what I do."
Chopper opened the chest and got a Phi Key from inside. He also noticed the hammers stopped working, so he decided to walk back instead.
"I'm SO awesome! I got away from Berry's girly kisses, and I'm safe! There's possibly NO way I'm gonna have anything bad happen!"
It was at that moment that he tripped and landed by the others.
"You OK, Contadre?" Scrub asked.
"Yeah..." Chopper nodded, getting up. "Why did that suddenly happen?"
"I think what ye said jinxed it," Bombette informed.
"Oh... Well, at least I'm all right..."
After that, they left the room and went back into the hallway and over to the locked door that was to the left.
"So, we can finally go through that door?" Bombette wondered.
"Well, let's just see what's through the door now," Vivian suggested.
Chopper pulled out the Phi Key and opened the door to a furnace. The pathway near them circled down to the bottom of the room, where Toads could be seen working and chained up. An Elite Phi and a Phimatite were watching them work.
"Excellent… They're working just as usual! Go faster on those diamonds!" the Elite Phi demanded. Everyone happened to notice the Toads were very skinny and dirty.
"I can't believe we ended up in this mess," an orange, polka-dot capped Toad moaned. "I guess this is what happens when you discover their evil base… I feel like I'm going to die now."
"Keep working!" the Elite Phi took out his communicator and he began to talk to Gemerl from it. Chopper and his friends quietly went down, where Shadower made them invisible so they wouldn't be seen.
"This... This reminds me of when I saw people on Clara being forced to work for the Tartaras..." Chopper recalled, remembering that horrible event.
"I can't believe they're doing this to these people!" Berry gasped, gripping her hammer in anger at the Phis. "I swear I'm going to give those Phis what they deserve and help free those Toads!"
"Hold on a second!" Chopper cut in, grabbing a hold of Berry's arm. He would've grabbed her hair, but that would've been a bad idea. "I think it's too dangerous for you to try to rescue them on your own."
"What are you talking about? I can handle myself just fine!"
"But you shouldn't do it on your own! It'd be too difficult!"
"We're all in this together," Shadower mentioned. "So I think it's for the better that we do this together."
"OK..." Berry sighed. "I guess we'll do it your way then..."
"Arr! I'll make a distraction!" Bombette declared as she became visible and walked over to the Elite Phi and Phimatite. The elite minion dropped his communicator, which fell down through a hole and into the lava below the red furnace room.
"…Phimatite! Gimme a weapon!" demanded the Elite Phi.
"Yes, sir!" the Phimatitie took out an electric staff for the Elite Phi, who spun it around and aimed it at the Bob-omb. It charged toward Bombette, but got hit by a Fiery Jinx by Vivian. The Phimatite also suffered from damage and was defeated with the help of Shadower's Shadow Punch.
"Go on, people! We're here to set you free!" Chopper and Berry got the chains off of the Toads to help set them free.
"Berry?" one of the Toads gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"We're here to rescue you, that's what," Berry answered. "Just get going!"
"Well, I think it's nice of you to rescue us. We were starving here! Are these friends of yours?"
"Yeah. You should thank them too before you leave."
"Oh... Well, in that case, thanks for the rescue! We'll get out of here quickly!"
Waving goodbye, the Toads left immediately. After that, the heroes saw a blue triangle right by one of the minerals, so Chopper grabbed it and looked at it. It had a Phi symbol on it, so it must be some sort of key.
"What's what? Some sort of key?" Shadower asked.
"Could be. It seems like a key… We should check this out somewhere else." Chopper suggested before he saw the Elite Phi drop an Elevator Key, so Vivian took that, since she was closer to it. It was a yellow color, unlike the other, which was blue.
"It says that it can take us down to Sublevel 3," Vivian noted. "I guess that's our next destination. So I guess we should go there."
They headed back into the hallway to the other elevator, where Vivian swiped the card. The elevator door opened and allowed them all inside.
"Looks like we're going down to Sublevel 3!" Berry smiled. "I've never been down this part of the base because the Elevator Key was tough to find."
"Poyo? (Then how did you know about the Crystal Star?)" Kirby asked.
"A couple of Phis mentioned it. Unfortunately, I'm not going to know everything around Sublevel 3 and 4, so all I can do is help fight some of the Phis."
"Then we'll be ready for anything thrown at us," Chopper smirked. "Bring it, Phis!"