With the fighting Chopper had gone through on the moon, he now had 40 HP, 40 FP, and 27 BP, which would most likely help him for what was up ahead. Aside from that, the heroes entered the strange fortress and found a little tunnel surrounded in glass and a moving floor leading up to a door ahead.
"This place feels a little unsettling and suspicious..." Berry trailed, her hammer ready just in case. "I'd be on the lookout if I were you!"
Everyone else decided to take Berry's advice and had their guard up. Chopper and Kirby were especially ready for anything, considering the last time they got close to this place. Upon moving to the moving floor, they let it take them up to the door, allowing them into the next room. What surprised most of them was that the door opened on its own upon approaching it.
"Hey! The doors open on their own!" Scrub gaped. "Awesome..."
"But we saw this in the Phi Base," Chopper pointed out. "It's nothing new..."
"Well I think they're cool."
With a shrug, Chopper headed through the doorway first to find a square-shaped room with a couple of rectangle-shaped glass windows showing the spacey sky and stars, and the floor was gray and metallic, with the center depicting an X-Naut symbol. A Save Block and Heart Block was thankfully in the room too.
"Huh... Interesting design here..." Chopper trailed. "Doesn't that symbol look familiar to you guys?"
"Yar... That symbol be remindin' me of that ship we ran into near that monster's cave!" Bombette exclaimed.
"Monster's cave? I don't know when that occurred..." Berry trailed, unsure of what they were talking about.
"Guys..." Vivian began. "I know this place. We're in the-"
Unfortunately, she couldn't finish her sentence when two X-Nauts dressed in dark gray and red came out of the door across from them. Upon seeing them, they instantly got in their fighting positions, and the two Elite X-Nauts took notice of them, especially Chopper.
"Hey! What do we got here?" the first Elite X-Naut asked, noticing the group. "Wait… Hold on a sec…Who the heck is that, dude?"
"Whoa! That's Chopper!" the second exclaimed. "I don't know how he got here, but we shouldn't just stand here! Let's get him!"
The two enemies got in kung fu stances and charged at the group. Since Chopper had his Ultra Hammer ready, he approached the one in front of him and bashed its head. He felt a smile appear on his face when he saw how much damage it did to the Elite X-Naut. Despite having a point of defense, it was still better than 4 damage.
Scrub walked over to the same Elite X-Naut and used his Gulp to attack both X-Nauts and deal 6 damage. The one in front was left knocked out, while the other refused to back down and made a kung fu sound.
"HUAAAAAAH!" the Elite X-Naut charged toward Chopper and took 5 HP out of him via a body slam. Considering that the enemy only had 4 HP left, Chopper performed a flip in the air and jumped on the Elite X-Naut's head twice to knock it to the ground and reward him with 8 Star Points.
"Well, that was easy," Chopper smiled, giving a thumbs up for their victory. Eventually the two Elite X-Nauts got up and looked at their bruised bodies and then at the group.
"Oh, geez... Did we just get our butts kicked?" the first Elite X-Naut asked.
"From these bruises, I bet!" the second exclaimed. "Let's get out of here!"
The two instantly bolted out of the room while screaming, "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Who were those guys?" Berry asked. "They look nothing like anyone I've seen..."
"They're X-Nauts," Shadower answered. "I can't believe I was working with these guys before..."
"I know," Vivian agreed. "Though, it was my sister's idea in the first place..."
"Hold on a second..." Scrub pondered. "If there were X-Nauts here, do you think we're in their fortress?"
"Arrrr! I be thinkin' the same thing!" Bombette agreed. "Chopper, matey! I believe this is where the Magical Map led us!"
"Hmmmm... Yeah, I believe so." Chopper agreed. "I'm guessing the X-Nauts have the seventh Crystal Star... And if this is their fortress, then Peach must be here as well!"
"Poyo? (How about we get back at them for what they did to us?)" Kirby suggested, giving Chopper a smirk. "Poyo! (They mess with us, now we mess with them!)"
"Getting revenge? Well... I don't know about that... But, since we need to find the Crystal Star here, I think that's all right..."
Chopper hit the Heart Block to recover his stats and then hit the Save Block afterward. The seven entered through the door where the two Elite X-Nauts escaped and discovered a long hallway with a door straight ahead. There was also an elevator door as well, where the two Elite X-Nauts from before ran over to.
"Aw, crud! They followed us!"
"Well they're not getting in here anytime soon! 'Cause we hid the Elevator Key in that room ahead!"
"...Dude, you just told them where to get it! You idio-"
The elevator door closed on them, and what they heard was some yelling until it began to fade. The heroes could only blink before approaching the elevator door. The terminal that once appeared green was now red.
"...Well at least we know where to find the key to this elevator!" Chopper smiled. "I bet it'll be easy, right?"
"From what I see here, this place does look a bit familiar to the Phi Base," Berry deduced, looking at the long hallway that looked similar to the Phi Base's hallway. "If it's a lot like that place, then exploring this area shouldn't be too difficult!"
Chopper noticed an Elite X-Naut charging behind the pink girl. "Berry! Watch out!"
He pushed her to the ground and let the Elite X-Naut miss its attack. Vivian gave it a Shade Fist and then Kirby inhaled the enemy and spat him into the wall to knock it out. The Elite X-Naut was left dazed while leaving behind some coins an a Thunder Rage.
Berry looked over at Chopper, who had tumbled onto the floor and smiled sweetly. "Thanks for that, Choppy. Though, I don't think your help was too necessary."
Chopper finally stood up and quickly shook out of his daze. "Well... I thought you were in trouble, so I decided to help!"
"Yar, we do look after each other," Bombette mentioned. "Anyway, we've gotta get movin'!"
Chopper instantly agreed and bolted over to the door, while the rest followed. When the group entered the door, they were brought into a square-shaped room with multiple tiles on the floor with the exception of where they stood and where a gray chest was ahead, which had a metallic floor. There was also a yellow ? Block in the upper left corner.
"Huh? What's this?" Shadower wondered, seeing the tiles flash yellow for a moment. "That was strange..."
"Well it's nothing too big," Chopper shrugged, stepping on the tiles and getting electrocuted in the process. It also made him skyrocket upward and land on the safe area too. "YEOW! That was shocking!"
The group inspected the tiles and noticed them flash yellow for a moment another time. Vivian took out a single coin and tossed it onto the tiles while they weren't flashing yellow. It ended up getting electrocuted and turned into ash.
"This floor is electrified," Vivian informed. "I don't think even Shadower and I could get across this..."
"Poyo! (Then I'm guessing the floor isn't electrified when it's flashing yellow!)" Kirby realized, noticing the tiles flash yellow again.
"There's gotta be a way to get through them!" Chopper cried, slamming a fist into his hand. "Obviously there's a way to get through this! We just need to me fast enough!"
Something suddenly sparked in Berry's mind that made him smile and get closer to Chopper. "Hey, I might have an idea!"
"What do you..." Chopper's face felt fear when he saw her close to him. "Wh-What are you d-doing?!"
"After thinking for a bit, I think I should thank you for the help earlier," Berry said, hearts appearing over her head. "I think a nice, sweet kiss oughta do it!"
Chopper's eyes widened in fear, and he was soon blazing across the tiles once they flashed yellow. Upon noticing he was on the safe area and away from Berry, he cheered.
"Woo-hoo! I'm safe!"
Disappointment was now in Berry's face, but despite that, there was one thing she could do. She blew a kiss that turned into a heart and let it fly into Chopper's face, making him fall back on the chest in the process.
"Dude... How could you do something like that?" Scrub gawked.
"That's hardly realistic..." Shadower trailed.
After shaking himself, Chopper turned to the chest and found a blue key card. For some reason, this turned off the electric floor as well.
"Shiver me timbers!" Bombette exclaimed. "The electric floor just turned off! How strange..."
Vivian flew over to Chopper and checked the key card in his hands. "Yes, this is definitely the Elevator Key. Come on! We need to put this in that terminal!"
After hitting the yellow ? Block that contained a Super Shroom, the group headed back into the hallway and reached the elevator. Chopper took out the Elevator Key and inserted it into the terminal, turning the screen green rather than red. They had to squeeze themselves into the elevator with how small it was compared to the elevator in the Phi Base.
"Yeesh! This is tight!" Scrub cried. "I don't know if I can breathe!"
"Poyo... (Yeah... It is...urk...pretty tight...)" Kirby grunted.
Being closest to the elevator buttons, Shadower pondered for a moment, wondering where they should go. The only levels they could go to were Sublevels 1 and 2.
"Hmmmm... So which sublevel should we go down?" Shadower asked.
"Yar! Pick any of them! I'm too stuffed in here!" Bombette cried. "It ain't good for me fuse! Especially bein' near Vivian here!"
Vivian would have taken offense to that, but she had to admit she was right. Chopper was unfortunately to be near Berry, who was rather happy to be close to him again. As for Shadower, he chose Sublevel 2, and soon the elevator door began to descend after closing.
"Well, here I am again… In the X-Naut Fortress…" Vivian sighed. "I wonder if they made some changes around here… Mmmmmmmm…"
"We'll see, Vivian," Chopper replied, cringing from the tight space. "I'm pretty curious about this place too!"
Sublevel 2-
The elevator door opened, and everyone came tumbling out. Chopper happened to be at the top of the pile, and that caught the attention of an X-Naut PhD, who was over by the left side of the hallway carrying some chemicals in its right hand.
"Hold it right there, Chopper!" the X-Naut PhD shouted. "How on earth did you get in here?!"
"Uhhhh... I found the base?" Chopper shrugged, getting up. His eyes widened when he saw the chemicals the X-Naut held thrown near his foot. "Geez! What're you trying to do, destroy me?!"
"Exactly."
Vivian managed to get up just in time and scorch the X-Naut PhD with her Fiery Jinx. The enemy could only cough as it got covered in soot before falling over on his back. Thankfully, the X-Naut PhD was not dead, or else Vivian would've felt sorry at the most.
"Well, that takes care of that..." Vivian trailed, turning to the group and watching them get out of the pile. Kirby was apparently at the bottom and flat like a pancake. Chopper took out a bike pump and helped use it to unflatten the pink Star Warrior.
"Yarrr..." Bombette trailed, unsure of what to think. "How are you...er...unflattening him like that?"
"I'm not so sure..." Chopper trailed, finishing the job. "I mean, aren't we made of paper?"
"I don't know if we should be saying that," Berry whispered.
"Errmmm… I say we just get going and forget about that."
They decided to move on and walked over to the door close to their left. The room they entered had a table full of chemicals that were contained in a test tube and Erlenmeyer Flask, and next to a purple and green chemical was a balance. There was also a machine with six red buttons, but it didn't appear to be on at the moment.
An X-Naut PhD caught their attention and threw one of its chemicals. Berry used her Hammerang ability to throw her hammer at the X-Naut like a boomerang and knock it out before the hammer came flying back to her.
"Yar? These chemicals… There ain't much here, unfortunately. I say we ignore these and get movin'!" Bombette suggested.
They left the room and entered the door to the far left to find another similar room that included square-shaped tiles that were electrified.
"Another one of these rooms..." Shadower trailed.
"Maybe I might have to do what I did before," Berry smiled, turning to Chopper. She was about to say something sweetly to him until she noticed something up on the wall. "...Oh, wait. There's a diagram up on the wall."
"Poyo, (I guess you have to walk on the tiles shown on the diagram,)" Kirby noted. "Poyo! (But I can just float over to the chest!)"
Kirby took in some air and began to float over the electric floor. Before he could get over there, however, a camera dropped from the ceiling and shot a laser at the puffball, forcing him to let out the air and land on the electric floor. The rest of the group watched as he let out a cry and skyrocketed into the air before landing beside them.
"So THAT'S not working…" Chopper trailed, looking up at the diagram. "All right, let's see what I can do..."
He followed the diagram and carefully began to make his way across the tiles. Surprisingly, the correct tiles he stepped on did not electrocute him, so he had no problems with that. When he reached the safe area, he opened the chest and got a Card Key, turning the electric floor off in the process.
"Nothing stands a chance against us! Especially Contadre!" Scrub cheered. "So what do you think that thing is for?"
Chopper shrugged as he walked across the floor and left the room. His partners followed him into the hallway and passed the two doors, the second elevator, and another door until they reached the far right door. Enemies such as a Z-Yux and an Elite X-Naut were trying to attack, but they ignored them and entered through the door.
Entering the next room, they discovered it to be large compared to the other rooms, and a large X-Naut symbol was on the ground. Up ahead was a large computer monitor, and right behind that was a door. This room looked specifically familiar to both Vivian and Shadower, and it certainly didn't give them a good feeling.
"What's up with you two?" Berry asked, taking notice of them.
"This is where Grodus usually would stay and give orders..." Vivian explained.
"Grodus?"
"He's the leader of the X-Nauts," Shadower answered. "But it's so strange... I'd expect him to be here. Where do you think he went?"
"I don't know..." Chopper trailed, balling up his fist. "But he's probably hiding somewhere here! I bet he's holding the Crystal Star anyway! Maybe we oughta-"
He was interrupted when he felt himself get struck by ring-like projectile. Chopper cringed before turning his head to what hit him. It was a red Yux...or rather, an X-Yux. Bombette's fuse quickly lit up, and she prepared to blow up in front of the X-Yux. Surprisingly, her explosion didn't appear to hit the enemy.
"What the..." Bombette gawked as soon as she got up. "Arrrr! Something's not right! That explosion should've hit that thing!"
Chopper could only shrug before he jumped on the X-Yux's head. After guarding the ring-like projectile it fired, Kirby used a Cartwheel, and then Chopper finished it off with another jump. He claimed his Star Points and went behind the computer terminal to the door before him. Through that door was a room with a white carpet with an X-Naut symbol on it, a brown table with a computer, a book, and a flag with an X-Naut symbol. Beside the table was a large chair.
There was also a brown shelf to the upper right that included many blue books, and a little aquarium containing a Piranha was around too.
"So... This is Grodus's room..." Vivian trailed. "I don't think I've been here before..."
"Wait... I see something over by that self!" Chopper realized, approaching the shelf to see a pair of gloves. "Wait... Are these..."
He pulled the two white gloves out of the shelf and realized they were just as similar as his Super Gloves. He smiled as he raised his arms over the item.
You got the Ultra Gloves!
"Yes! Brand new gloves! I was hoping I'd get something like this!"
Before he could do anything, Chopper found himself teleported into a tutorial-like area from before. Toadette was approaching him with her usual smile.
"Hey, Chopper!" Toadette greeted. "I can't believe you ALREADY got the Ultra Gloves! These things are fantastic! You know why? They allow you to not only use fire, but you can also use ice! Pretty cool, huh?"
"Yeah, it is cool," Chopper smiled, his new gloves now equipped on his hands. "...Wait, what's ice gonna help me for here anyway?"
"Don't you remember? They freeze things! It's good to use it in things such as water and lava! But that's not all! You can use the Ultra Fire or Ice ability! This allows you to fire some elemental balls at all enemies while doing more damage to them, but at a much faster pace! There's a chance if you use ice, sometimes you can freeze enemies! Give the Ultra Gloves a try!"
"Umm… OK?" Chopper began to fire ice balls rapidly from his hand. He couldn't help but gape at how fast he threw them. "Holy… This is amazing! I never knew I could do this! …Not to mention I got an icy feeling in my hands."
"I know, right? It feels cold! Sometimes, you need to shoot ice balls or fireballs rapidly at something like water or doors that are required to be open by using ice. Not to mention giant snowballs could ALWAYS be in your way wherever you go. You better be careful with that!"
A fire and ice block came down. The fire block looked a lot different, however. This one was an orange color, while the other was red. The ice block was a white color, like Chopper's ice balls.
"You can destroy these blocks with your Ultra Gloves!" Toadette noted. "Pay attention to which ones are which… Well, that's all I have for right now! I wish you luck on your adventure! I hope you find those fourteen other Crystal Stars!"
The background changed back to normal, bringing Chopper back into Grodus's room.
"Yo, Contadre! What was going on?" Scrub asked, making Chopper quickly shake his head.
"Uhhh... I think... I think I was on another snooze cruise..."
"Yet again?" Berry gawked. "So whenever you get a hold of a new item like that, you end up dozing off? ...Come to think of it, I never thought you had gloves with elemental powers..."
"Well, let's not get in too much of a discussion," Shadower suggested, pointing at a green Card Key that was in the aquarium with the Piranhas. "We have a little problem here..."
Berry thought of an idea and eventually drew her hammer out to smash the glass, but Vivian quickly grabbed her hammer and lowered it.
"No! Don't smash that!" Vivian cried. "That might not be the smartest choice..."
"Why not?" Berry wondered.
"Well, if you smash it, you might flood this entire room, and with the electronics here, you never know what kind of damage will be caused. We could be caught in the damage too, you know..."
Upon pondering, Berry lowered her hammer and gave her a nod. Kirby, on the other hand, happened to notice a small pipe.
"Poyo! (Hey! Maybe this pipe might give us an idea!)" Kirby exclaimed.
"Hmmmm... Hey, I might have an idea!" Chopper cried, hurling an ice ball into the pipe and freezing the water, along with the Piranha. "Well, the water's frozen now! But how do we get a hold of that Card Key?"
"Arrr! There's somethin' in Grodus's drawer!" exclaimed Bombette, taking notice of the kunai knife inside. Vivian flew over to the drawer and picked it up.
"Why would Grodus have something like this in his drawer?" Vivian wondered before looking back at Chopper, who looked like he wanted the item. "Oh, you want this? What for?"
"Just toss it to me. You'll see."
Vivian shrugged and tossed the kunai to Chopper, who opened his mouth and inhaled the weapon and got a hold of a new ability. His skin turned to a light purple tint, while his gloves and feet became purple. His helmet looked a lot similar to the Stone helmet, except it was a red rather than blue. There were three gold stars on the front of the helmet, with the middle one being bigger than the other two, and the plume on the top of the helmet was purple.
"Yes! I'm Ninja Chopper!" Chopper cheered, turning his attention to the glass and slicing it in half with a vertical swing from his kunai knife. It didn't even shatter, and the frozen water stood in place as well. He sliced that in half and let the Card Key fall out.
"Poyo! (I'll get it!)" Kirby cried, grabbing the key just in time.
"Yeesh... We sure wrecked Grodus's room. Especially the aquarium!" Shadower noticed.
"Not like I care," Chopper shrugged, removing his Ninja ability in the process. "Grodus is a bad guy, and this isn't something I'm going to pay him back after he kidnapped Peach."
"But in the meantime, let's get out of here," Berry suggested. "We gotta be quick if we're going to rescue Peach!"
Everyone agreed and left Grodus's room and headed back into the hallway. There was a door closest to them that they decided to head in, which led into a locker room with two curtains in the upper right corner. Possibly for changing uniforms?
"A locker room? Who would've thought X-Nauts would have a locker room?" Chopper gawked.
"Hey! I see two notes stuck to this table here!" Scrub noticed, pointing to the two notes. "It looks like it says some interesting things here!"
Chopper approached the two notes and read the large, white one first.
How to activate the switch: ...[Left, Right, Middle]... Do NOT forget!
"Huh... Interesting..." Chopper trailed, turning his attention to the small, pink one. "Let's see what this one says..."
Today's code is [014029]. Do NOT forget it!
"Let's keep this memorized, OK?"
"Or better yet," Berry ripped the two papers off the table and put them away. "Just in case you forget!"
"Ummm... OK."
They left the room and walked past the locked elevator and entered the door ahead of them to find tanks filled with projects that resembled Yuxs. It looked like it was an experimental room.
Two X-Naut PhDs happened to be having a little discussion too.
"OK… So these Yuxs are meant to do most of the work for us, right? And they're… A-Yuxs?"
"Yup. They're going to be the GREATEST of them all! …And I'll add in C-Yuxs for those C robot things we found and programmed to obey us! Man, experimenting with things are so cool…"
They stopped for a moment when they saw Chopper and his friends looking at them. They looked at each other for a moment before drawing some chemicals from their jackets.
"Aw, great! Chopper and his stupid friends are here! Let's get 'em!"
The PhDs got ready to attack, but since the air duct to the upper right was open, Chopper managed to run over there just in time and use his Spring Jump to grab a small pole from above. He let go of the pole where it was safe and looked over to his left to find a vent.
"All right, I'll check over there…" Chopper walked over to the vent and turned sideways to drop through the cracks and landed on top of one of the machines in the teleporter room. He looked rather amazed, seeing the teleporter. on the floor. "No way… The X-Nauts got a teleporter too? Wow, they have some GOOD technology…"
He saw a red cog on the other machine, so he leaped over the gap and grabbed the cog.
"I wonder how my friends are doing… I better go check on 'em." Chopper muttered as he walked back into the experimental room to find the two X-Naut PhDs knocked out.
"We've taken care of them, Choppy!" Berry assured, holding her hammer almost like a bat. "No worries!"
"Well, OK… We should probably go back to Sublevel 1, now that we have a Card Key. Maybe there might be something there to help us?"
With everyone in agreement, they headed back to the elevator.
Meanwhile-
"Man… Polishing this bad boy up has been a real pain lately…" Lord Crump mumbled, polishing his brand new robot. "When's Chopper coming over here for the Crystal Star? I'm starting to get bored here! And I HATE being bored!"
He looked up at his robot after finishing polishing it. "Well, at least this thing is all ready. Yeah… Magnus von Grapple 2.0… A perfect name for a perfect machine! Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh! I am SO awesome with making machines! No one can deny it! …But there's one thing I don't understand… Why did Grodus want me to wait for Chopper with the Crystal Star? Also… Why the heck did he take that Princess Apple or something? Hold on… That's not right… Oh! Princess Beach!"
Sublevel 1-
Everyone fell out of the elevator once again, but it was Scrub that was lying on the top this time. They eventually got off, taking deep breaths as usual.
"Maybe next time we should take turns going in the elevator," Chopper mumbled.
"It was WAY too crowded in there!" Scrub complained.
Once they were ready, the seven went to the door all the way to the left. They found themselves in a room with three machines with three red buttons, a crane and a platform with a couple of items, such as coins, a Star Piece, and two badges.
"It doesn't look like anythin' is on," Bombette noticed.
"Hey, I might have an idea!" Chopper smiled, taking a red cog out and placing it to the upper right machine where the other cogs were. The three machines with the red buttons were turned on, but the buttons themselves were not on. Chopper pressed them all, but nothing happened. "Huh? That didn't work..."
"Hold on a moment..." Berry took out the white piece of paper from before and read the message. She approached the red buttons and pressed them in the following order: left, right and center. The sound of sirens were soon heard before noticing the crane activate and move over to the crane machine.
"How the heck did you get that right?" Chopper gawked.
"I checked out the paper I took," Berry replied, giving Chopper a wink. "You can thank me later!"
Chopper was slightly shaking a bit from the wink until he heard Scrub speak to him.
"Check that machine by the platform, Contadre!"
He walked over to the machine and grabbed a hold of the control. Soon, the crane was moving over to the large platform and started to hover over the items as Chopper moved the joystick.
"Hey... This is like playing a video game!" Chopper smiled, getting the Star Piece and the two badges called Feeling Fine and Feeling Fine P. Upon further inspection, these two badges were capable of preventing him and his partners from getting poisoned.
"Poyo! (That's definitely a useful badge!)" Kirby gaped.
"Hey, considering it's called Feeling Fine, it might help you when you get kissed by Berry!" Scrub realized.
"Yeah! ...Wait, what?!" Berry gawked. "That better be a joke!"
Upon hearing that, Chopper instantly put the Feeling Fine badge on in a snap. "Whew! Thanks for the advice, Scrub! This'll surely help me!"
"Uhhh... I really don't think that will do something like that." Shadower face palmed. "But I doubt it'll make you change your mind. Let's leave this room."
They left that room and walked to the end of the hallway to their right. There was a terminal glowing red that Chopper approached, but all he was asked for was the passcode. Unsure of what it was, Berry showed him the paper with the passcode and then punched it in.
"There we go! I'm actually glad you brought those papers here!" Chopper smiled, which Berry couldn't help but blush at his compliment. With that aside, the terminal turned green, and they entered the door into another room.
"What's that thing ahead?" Bombette asked, taking notice of the Thwomp in the room.
"Oh, no... Not this again."
"Poyo? (Chopper, what are you talking about? Did you see a Thwomp like this before?)" Kirby asked.
"Yeah, we've run into something like this before. Though, its eyes look a lot different..."
"I'm guessing it might want to ask us the same thing," Vivian deduced as they approached the Thwomp. Chopper touched it to make the ground shake around them and cause the Thwomp's computer-like yellow eyes to light up.
"Weird..." Shadower trailed.
"Well well well… What do we have here?" the Thwomp wondered. "Who are you, huh? You came here to get the elevator key so you can access the computer room?"
Chopper only replied with a nod.
"Yeah, I thought so. Well then, you're gonna have to beat me to get it! And if you lose, your life is MINE! You hear me? MINE! So, what do you say?"
"Umm… Why do you remind me of that Thwomp between Music and Toy Kingdom?" Chopper asked.
"Oh… My brother? Yeah, he stays there. I'm staying here in this fortress. Why? 'Cause I like it here. If you don't like it, I don't care. Anyway, are you going to challenge me or not?"
"Let's challenge this chump!" Scrub shouted.
"Yeah, we might as well..." Chopper trailed while the Thwomp spun around and stopped harshly.
"Mmmm hmmm hoo ha ha! You're MINE now!"
Soon, the seven heroes were thrown into another game show. Everyone but Chopper and Vivian were gawking, and the Thwomp across them was wearing a bow-tie like before.
"Contadre... What kind of place is this?"
"Poyo? (What the heck?)"
"This is weird..."
"Yaaaarrr! Shiver me timbers! The background changed!"
"Here I thought we were actually going to fight..."
"And here we gooooo, folks! The main event!" the Thwomp announced. "The 68th Annual Quirk Quiz! YAY! If you get 5 correct answers to the following questions, then you win, win, WIN! But if you get just 3 wrong answers, you're toast! You don't wanna be toast, folks! Oh, no… You DEFINITELY don't want to…"
"Ummm… I got a feeling that being toast is the worst thing…" Vivian trailed.
"Well, what're we waiting for, huh? Heeeeeeeeeeere we go! Question Number One: Exactly what's hidden here?"
"Elevator Keys, of course…" Chopper answered.
"You suuuuuuure about that?"
Chopper nodded making a ding trigger around them. The Thwomp spun angrily and gave them a glare.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! You're correct! Crud! But that was an easy one... You won't do so well on the next one, I GUARANTEE that! Here we go, sucker! Now, Question Number Two! What is the name of the being who was created to destroy all good?"
"Well, obviously the answer is Tipral."
And he was indeed correct.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! You're correct! Crud! But that was too easy for a kid like you... You won't do so well on the next one, I GUARANTEE that! So you better be ready, chump! Here we go, sucker! Question Number Three! Combine blue and yellow together. What do you get?"
"Green is the obvious answer…" Chopper said. He was indeed correct, and the Thwomp got angry again.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! You're correct! Crud! But that question was also an easy one... I doubt you'll do so well on the next one, I can GUARANTEE that! So you better be ready, chump! Here we go, sucker! We're onto Question Four! It's elementary…for non-idiots! Where was the one, the only, Sapphire Star?"
"It was on Unagi's tail!"
"You suuuuuuure about that?"
"Yes..."
"GWAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! You're correct, you jerk! You've already gotten FOUR correct?! You're kidding me! Well, fine! I'm gonna toss an extra-hard one your way! You happy now, sucker? Good! And now, Question Five! Who is the boy Berry is madly in love with?"
"Wait, WHAT?!" Chopper gaped. "What kind of question is THAT?!"
"'Madly'?" Berry gawked.
"You gotta answer me, kid!" the Thwomp suggested.
"It's me, apparently..." Chopper groaned. "Or rather... Chopper."
"Hold on a second, are you suuuuuuure about that? Maybe it could be wrong!"
"Of course!"
And the answer was correct. The Thwomp was surely angry over this loss.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Cuh-Correct! That's five correct answers! Crud! You win!"
They were soon returned to the X-Naut base, and they could tell the Thwomp was fuming.
"I'm so mad right now! I can hardly see straight! I lose! I LOOOOOOOOOSE! Fine! But I really hate you! More than that plumber! Takes this, you bum!" the Thwomp dropped the Elevator Key with some shaking and before going to sleep, shouted, "PBBBBTHBTH!"
Chopper blinked for a moment before picking up the Elevator Key. "Well... Might as well go to Sublevel 2 to put this in."
While they made their way to Sublevel 2, Berry was still left a little confused over that last question.
"Madly in love? I'm not madly in love with Chopper! ...Am I?"
They were soon at the elevator in Sublevel 2 and were allowed access after Chopper put in the Elevator Key. Thankfully, this elevator was much bigger, which helped them breathe better.
"Whew! I'm glad this is bigger!" Scrub sighed. "More room for us for once!"
"Yeah, definitely..." Chopper smiled. "So, what should we do during the wait?"
"Maybe someone could tell a joke?" Shadower suggested. Everyone remained silent, the only thing being heard were crickets. "On second thought... Never mind."
Sublevel 3-
The seven came out of the elevator again, hoping to see what else there was around here. Upon inspecting the hallway, they only found a far door to the left and a far one to the right. They decided to head into the left door first.
"Poyo... (Another tile room...)" Kirby groaned, noticing the electrified floor and the lit up tiles.
However, unlike the other rooms, these tiles were actually moving on their own. Plus, they were blue.
"Oh, boy... I better be careful here..." Chopper trailed cautiously.
"I could just use my hammer to send you flying across, but I think it's too far," Berry said, looking at her Ruby Hammer. While she did this, she heard Chopper scream and fall on the safe ground.
"Ugh... It threw me off!"
"Sorry about that..." Berry trailed guiltily.
"Well, it doesn't bug me too much..." Chopper trailed as he stood back up. "I think I've gotten hurt by worse!"
When the lit up tiles came back, Chopper immediately jumped onto them. He was being more cautious this time and eventually made it to the chest across the room. He got a yellow Card Key, triggering the electric floor to turn off.
They left the room and began to make their way to the right door, since it was the only one left in the hallway.
"I think we're getting close to our destination…" Shadower trailed. "Perhaps Princess Peach is somewhere on this floor?
"Perhaps..." Chopper pondered, entering through the door into a small room with three red terminals and a locked door ahead. "What in the..."
"Arr! Chopper, matey! I understand this!" Bombette declared. "These terminals require ye to put the Card Keys in! Put 'em all in their right spot!"
Chopper nodded and put the Card Keys in the terminals to make the red lamp above the door turn green, allowing them access to the next room. To them, it looked more like a factory than anything else.
"Whoa… We just stumbled upon a BIG room here…" Chopper gaped, looking at the machine near them that didn't appear to be on. Up ahead was a slightly tall fence, and a blue ! Switch was past it. An X-Naut PhD was near the fence, but Berry's Hammerang took care of it.
"Let me handle this one!" Bombette suggested, looking up at the blue ! Switch. "Throw me over the fence!"
Chopper shrugged, picked up the Bob-omb, and threw her over the fence to blow up the switch and turn the conveyor belt on. With his paper ability, he and his friends turned sideways to go through the barred wall and onto the conveyor belt. However, an obstacle was in their way, so Vivian grabbed Chopper and pulled him into the shadows to go under it.
"Uhhh... How are we supposed to get through that?" Scrub gawked.
"Simple," Shadower answered, turning the rest invisible to go through the small wall. Vivian came back up from the shadows with Chopper and got onto the yellow and black platform that came down for them to get on.
"Who would've thought these X-Nauts would come up with ideas like this?" Chopper wondered. "This is one strange room..."
The platform took them up to a red bar platform on top of a fence, where they found another yellow and black platform moving left and right. They got on that and let it take them to a pipe on the top of the fence to the left.
Chopper was led into the background, where he found a moving platform moving left and right approaching him. He jumped on it and let it take it to a platform moving up and down. When ascending, there were two platforms to his left moving in his direction, which he used to reach an Ultra Shroom on a red platform.
"This should be useful!" Chopper smiled before putting it away. "Just watch your back, guys..."
Everyone else nodded while he reached the up and down platform and leaped onto the red gear ahead, which helped lead to a lift going up.
"A lot of platforming here..." Shadower commented. "But we're able to conquer it without any problem!"
"I'm guessing these X-Nauts underestimate us," Berry deduced.
"They certainly do!" Chopper smiled, walking on top of the red bar platform and using the other three moving lifts to get to another red bar platform with a pipe. They used it to return to the foreground near a paper airplane panel. "Ooh! I get to be a paper airplane again! Stay here, guys!"
Chopper transformed into a paper airplane and began to soar over the platforms below him until he landed on the second moving platform to his left, which helped him go underneath the paper airplane panel and hit a blue ! Switch, creating golden stairs.
He used the golden stairs to get up to the door at the end of the room, which had a red lamp above it and a terminal with a red light. However, Chopper did remember seeing a Card Key before, and he could even see it up ahead to his left, so he jumped down onto the paper airplane panel again.
"Back already, Contadre?" Scrub gawked. "Did ya find anything?"
"Yeah, I did," Chopper nodded. "I'll let you guys see!"
He transformed into a paper airplane again and let everyone jump in with him, and he began to make his way fully across until a large fence was in his way. Chopper and his friends landed on a red fenced platform to get the Card Key and landed on the gray ground below. There was a Save Block and Heart Block there, and a Z-Yux was waiting for them, but Chopper jumped on it a few time to defeat it and level up. He upgraded his HP to 45 before they made their way back to the golden stairs and up to the door.
After inserting the Card Key, the door was unlocked.
"All right! I'm guessing the room up ahead is where Peach might be!" Scrub deduced. "It's GOTTA be! After all that difficult platforming, I'd guess Grodus would be waiting for us through here! So what're we waiting for?!"
"Yeah, I'd assume the same thing," Chopper nodded. "Well... OK, guys, let's go!"
With everyone ready, they headed through the door, hoping to find what they came for.
Well this was certainly a long chapter, wasn't it? That's pretty much the X-Naut Fortress for you!
And to top it all off, we have a boss chapter coming up!