Upon entering the room, they noticed the large, circular fence-like ground in the center, along with a silver platform. The ground around the fence was more of a dark gray. Spotlights hung from the ceiling and flashed onto the fence-like section of the floor. But what caught them off guard more than anything was the annoying laughter that filled the room.
"Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh!"
"Oh, great... Not that laugh..." Chopper groaned, seeing Lord Crump standing on the silver platform. He was standing next to a robot that resembled Magnus von Grapple. It had a black body with a yellow X painted across. The number two was painted red in the middle of the yellow X, and its arms, rather than being gray, were now blue. Its black hands now included red paper airplane daggers instead of being rounded. "And look what else he's got standing near him!"
"Poyo? (Yeesh... Does this guy ever learn?)" wondered Kirby.
"I've been waiting for you losers!" Lord Crump exclaimed. "Oh, MAN, have I been waiting! And you know how much I HAAAAAAAATE waiting? A lot! I almost felt like that I've been waiting for over five hours! I was starting to get impatient here!"
"What do ye mean about that, chump?" Bombette gawked. "Have ye been wantin' us to come 'ere this whole time?"
"You're dang right! Buh huh! I used the Crystal Star to lure you here... So that I could take all of YOUR Crystal Stars! How brilliant is THAT, huh?"
"That's perhaps the most unoriginal plan you've ever come up with…" Chopper trailed.
"Whuh?! How DARE you say that to the great Lord Crump?! My plans are the greatest! Their like…the skin of fried chicken! The good stuff! But I'm not finished yet either! There's something else I think you should know: your little Peachy friend isn't even in this place anymore!"
"So Peach WAS here…" Vivian trailed. "Where did you take her?"
"BUH! BUH! BUH! BUH! BUH! Like I'd tell you the plan! That's novice-villain style! I exceed that! And I'm going to prove that by test my new machine! You guys are gonna be the perfect workout for... Magnus Von Grapple 2.0! And don't go, 'Hey, Lord Crump! You already made a Magnus von Grapple 2.0!' I've upgraded it a little. This thing's gonna blow you all away!"
"Oh, really now?" Shadower pondered while Lord Crump got into his new machine.
"I hope you're up to the challenge...because this thing is raw horsepower, kiddies!" Lord Crump exclaimed. "BUH! BUH! BUH HUH HUH! BUH HUH HUH HUH HUH HUH-HACK! Hwaugh...koff! Whew..."
"So this is the weird X-Naut leader you've been telling me about? Then who took Princess Peach, then?" Berry asked.
"No, I don't think this is the real leader," Chopper replied. "Surely the real leader took Peach out of here..."
"Well how about we show this thing who's boss, Contadre?" Scrub suggested, getting in a fighting stance.
"Yeah, we certainly will!" Chopper smirked, getting in a fighting stance as well, just like the rest of the group.
"Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh!" cackled Lord Crump through his robot. "Yeah, the last version was trashy, so we improved it much more... One...two...a DOZEN! Get ready for a whole new way to experience pain, you junior-varsity losers! You'll be the first victims of my machine!"
"We'll see about that when we finish trashing your robot!"
Tattle: Ugh! How many times do we have to face this guy? Well, this is Magnus von Grapple 2.0. It's Lord Crump's "new" machine. Max HP is 70, Attack is 7, and Defense is 2. He'll detach the fists like before, and they have 5 HP…and they can deal 10 damage! When this thing's HP gets low, it'll start to recover HP AND it will fire its machine guns at you! I guess Lord Crump was REALLY trying to take you down with this one…
"70 HP? That's more than Gemerl! …Hold on a moment… We can probably chip this guy down easily. Let's see…" Chopper looked at his cold hand, but then he checked his Special Moves. "Y'know, I think THIS is a good time to use Power Lift. We NEED to use that move, and I'm going to do it right now!"
"Power Lift? You mean you're going to raise our stats?" Shadower wondered.
"Uh huh! Just watch!" Chopper brought the second Crystal Star up, and suddenly a couple of arrows and Poison Mushrooms appeared between them and Magnus. He had mini stars to throw at the orange and blue arrows while avoiding the Poison Mushrooms.
"Hit 'em! Hit 'em!" Scrub shouted. Chopper threw stars at the orange and blue arrows, and after about thirty seconds, they all got their Attack raised by 2 and their Defense by 3.
"Great! Now let's weaken this robot a little bit! I'll start with a nice Shadow Punch!" Shadower moved his arm back and threw a small shadowy wave of energy shaped like a fist at Magnus 2.0, taking 6 HP out of the robot and lowering its defense by 3. "Well, you're certainly not going to be very powerful here..."
"Oh, great! Now this thing's defense is useless!" Lord Crump complained. "Well, it doesn't matter at this point. I've got a little present just for you, Chopper. Here it comes, suckers! Magnus Drill Attack!"
Magnus 2.0 flew up with the help of its jetpack and began to dive down at the seven. It was like the attack came out of nowhere and left most of the group a little dazed for a moment.
"Buh huh! How'd you like that, punks?" Lord Crump cackled as Magnus 2.0 landed in front of them. "That's what happens when you make an awesome robot!"
"We get it already!" Chopper groaned. "You're proud of your machine! Stop shoving it in our faces, please!"
"Yeah, he seems to be pretty overconfident..." Berry trailed. "It's actually kind of funny."
Chopper shrugged and approached the robot so he could land a jump attack. After taking 10 HP out of the robot, Chopper landed on the ground and allowed Bombette to charge at Magnus 2.0 with her Bomb.
"Buh huh huh! Time to unleash some of the sweet special features on this bad boy!" Lord Crump grinned. "Oh, man, this is gonna be awesome... This is going to MAKE you beg for mercy! I can tell you that!"
"Please..." Chopper yawned. "Can you think of something original for once?"
Magnus 2.0 detached its fists, which now began to hover in front of the robot. Chopper clenched his fists and jumped on Lord Crump's precious robot to deal 6 damage, while Vivian destroyed the fists with her Fiery Jinx. It even left Magnus 2.0 with a burn too.
"I wonder how that robot's burning..." Chopper wondered as new fists appeared on Magnus 2.0. "Robots don't usually catch on fire. But it was still helpful!"
"What's awesome is that this robots more than halfway down!" Scrub smirked. "He's only got 32 HP left!"
"Buh huh huh...uh, crud," Lord Crump grumbled, noticing the damage Magnus 2.0 took. "You guys should be little puddles of nothing by now... Oh, well. I've still got some sweet tricks up my sleeve! When I'm done with you all, you'll be used as weapons for my next machine!"
"Wait, what on earth are you talking about?" Berry gawked.
A demented smile appeared under Lord Crump's mask as he pressed a button on his control panel. Magnus von Grapple 2.0 had a little funnel down below its legs before its jetpack lifted the robot off the ground. To everyone's surprise, Magnus 2.0 was flying above the audience and sucking them into the large funnel!
"Poyo?! (What the heck?!)" Kirby gaped, along with everyone else.
After taking in enough people from the audience, Magnus 2.0 flew back to the group, let the funnel retract back into itself, and allowed its chest to open to reveal a large hole resembling a machine gun. A green cursor was aiming directly at Chopper.
"Uh oh..." Chopper gulped.
"Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh! EAT THIS!" Lord Crump pressed the button on his controller, and soon members of the audience were being fired from Magnus 2.0's chest at Chopper.
"WHOA!" Chopper cried, getting in a defensive stance. He managed to bring his arms up to guard the oncoming projectiles, but something seemed off. He wasn't taking any damage... "...Wha?"
"Yeah! I was just thinking the same thing! How'd you not get hurt by that?!"
"I guess it was because of the Power Lift..." the antennae hero shrugged, feeling the power of the Gold Star wearing off. "Well at least that helped!"
Chopper decided to put his new ice powers to use and hurled a single ice ball at Magnus 2.0's feet. This made chunks of ice freeze the robot's feet and allow Kirby to strike its body with his Cartwheel, leaving the robot at 24 HP.
"Hmmm… This isn't looking too good for me… I think it's back-up plan time! Time to show you my super awesome auto-repair I got in this thing!" Lord Crump pressed a green button, creating a green light that surrounded Magnus 2.0. When the light was gone, it recovered 20 HP.
"What? You gotta be kidding me!" Scrub gaped. "Man, this guy is cheap!"
"It's called 'back-up plan' for a reason."
Chopper gave Lord Crump a frown before approaching the robot and bashing its feet with his hammer. Berry decided she wanted to join in and bashed Magnus 2.0's frozen feet with her Ruby Hammer. Seeing the hammer made Lord Crump burst in laughter.
"BUH HUH HUH! What king of hammer is that?!" Lord Crump cackled. "It's even got hearts on it! Only some sissy would carry a hammer like that!"
At this point, Berry was starting to fume. "I swear if anyone makes fun of my hammer or my name, I'm gonna..."
"Let's just take this calmly..." Vivian suggested. "It's not going to help us..."
Berry decided to calm down, while Lord Crump was yawning. Having enough of hearing them, he pressed another button on his machine that made Magnus 2.0 bend forward and fire a piece of its chest at the group. They were all able to guard it just in time, but it still did some nasty damage.
"Yeesh! For a second I thought that thing was going to cut my hair off!" Berry gaped.
"Me fuse is much more important, for yer information!" Bombette cut in before running up to Magnus 2.0 and leaving an explosion behind. Chopper decided to put his Ninja ability on and rushed up to Magnus 2.0 to quickly strike it with his kunai knife. What was great about this ability was that it could pierce through defense.
"Aw, dang it! Well, get a load of this, then!" Magnus 2.0 approached Chopper and jabbed at him with its dagger-like hands before backing away. Chopper was left wincing, but he shook the pain off and tossed three shurikens at the robot to deal 6 damage and leave it with 30 HP.
"How about I make a move?" Scrub suggested, bending forward at Magnus 2.0. Nobody objected his decision, so he fluttered up to Magnus 2.0 and performed a Ground Pound. Unfortunately, since each attack could only do 1 damage, his attack didn't leave a scratch.
"Wait... That's it? Just some pathetic butt stomp? What a shrimp!" Lord Crump scoffed, angering Scrub a bit. "Here! Lemme reward you!"
Before Scrub could return to the group, Magnus 2.0 raised its foot and stepped on the Yoshi, flattening him in the process. Everyone gasped before approaching the flattened Scrub. They managed to pull him away just in time.
"Are you OK, Scrub?" Chopper cried.
"Contadre... Why are you worrying about me?" Scrub wheezed, getting himself up. "I'm fine! For some reason I can't hit this guy..."
"We'll try something that'll help you hurt him. But in the meantime..." Chopper pulled a kunai out and left a large scratch on Magnus 2.0's chest with a single slash. "That's for hurting Scrub!"
"H-Hey! Don't mess with my robot!" Lord Crump cried. "You know how much that'll take to fix up?!"
"Well don't plan on doing that, 'cause we're taking you down!" Berry declared, using her Ruby Throw to throw her hammer at Magnus 2.0 and pierce through its defense. Lord Crump was certainly not pleased.
Magnus 2.0 raised its arms and flew upward before diving down at Chopper and his friends. They managed to Superguard the attack just in time to avoid taking any damage. Shadower chose to strike Magnus 2.0 with a Shadow Punch, and then Chopper struck the robot's feet with his kunai.
"Hurrff... Haaaack..." Lord Crump wheezed, noticing the severe damage Magnus 2.0 was taking. "No... How... What? My sweet powered-up robot is on the ropes again! This isn't right! This thing is meant to be stronger than the other! It's supposed to exceed the original Magnus von Grapple 2.0! …This isn't over yet!"
"But why did you name this robot the same thing?" Vivian questioned.
"I don't need answered for you..." Lord Crump hissed, attempting to recover 20 more HP. Sadly, the button didn't appear to work to his disappointment, so he went with option B.
Magnus 2.0 aimed its right arm at Chopper, which transformed into a machine gun. Ten audience members were being fired out from there, and Chopper failed to guard every single one, making him take 20 damage in the process.
"Ugh... That wasn't good..." Chopper mumbled, now exhausted. His Ninja ability was knocked away too, leaving him with no Copy Ability.
"We've got one more shot at this," Scrub declared, clenching his right fist. "I'll try to help finish this!"
Seeing Scrub flutter up to Magnus 2.0 made Lord Crump snicker again, but with the robot's defense at 0, Scrub's Ground Pound was actually effective and dealt 6 damage, leaving Magnus von Grapple 2.0 at 2 HP. Now Lord Crump was worried, and he was left sweating.
"Time to end this," Chopper wheezed, using the strength he had to leap in the air and jump on Magnus 2.0's cockpit, making sparks come out of the robot in the process.
"BLAAARGH!"
Chopper smiled as he received 31 Star Points from the fight, but before they could celebrate, everyone noticed Magnus von Grapple 2.0 trembling uncontrollably as a bright light began to emit from its body and cause massive explosions.
"GROOOOOOOOODUUUUUUUS!"
One last explosion emitted the room and left everyone blind for a moment. Lord Crump himself was sent flying out of the base and even the moon to be left flying in the depths of space. Everyone was left shocked to see the chubby X-Naut no longer in their sights.
"Yar... Lord Crump..." Bombette trailed. "What happened to 'im?"
"I'm not so sure..." Chopper trailed, noticing a hole left in the ceiling. "Magnus doesn't appear to be here, and I'm guessing Lord Crump created that hole... But where did the Crystal Star go?"
To everyone's shock, the Crystal Star began to slowly float onto the ground in front of them.
"Chopper!" Vivian cried, making Chopper turn to her and nod. With a smile, he approached the seventh Crystal Star and let it circle around him until it was above him.
"Finally! The seventh Crystal Star!" Chopper cheered, holding the star above him.
You got a Crystal Star! Your Star Power is now 8! And Chopper can now use the special move Supernova!
END OF CHAPTER
It appears that the seventh Crystal Star was in the X-Naut hideout on the moon... But once Chopper came in and wrecked everything up there, Peach had been taken away... Where is Peach now? But the most important question is where Grodus is… Maybe he holds the key to the next Crystal Star… Chopper has gotten all seven of the original Crystal Stars… Where will they lead him next?
So, yeah... I decided to throw in a couple of new things to this fight. It's kind of like what I did with the Crystal King in the first Paper Chopper so it didn't feel exactly the same (like a few other bosses we've encountered, I suppose).
With Lord Crump defeated, perhaps we will find out where our heroes will go next.