CHAPTER 3-4
-Up, Up, and a Tree
"So... We have to go all the way up there?" Chopper gaped as he looked up at the giant tree. He could see a couple of platforms that led up to a large door that was pretty high up.
"Wowza. That's one mighty tree we're up against." Sonic gawked, looking at the size of the tree. "I don't know how we're going to make our way up that thing. It's almost like the size of… Well, I know for a fact that it is NOT bigger than the Death Egg. That thing was almost the size of a PLANET!"
"Poyo! (Well, I know for a fact that this tree is a lot bigger than Whispy Woods!)" Kirby recalled. "Poyo. (That tree may have been a bit of a pain before, but I think that this tree is a bit bigger.)"
"I've seen lots of big trees on my planet," Chopper remarked. "I wonder what this one will be like?"
"Only one way to find out," Sonic stated.
Chopper started by jumping on the green platform closest to the bottom and then onto the brown platform that was at the same elevation as the yellow platform moving left and right. With a simple jump, he managed to get on and jump on another green platform.
"OK, guys! Now you try to make your way up here!" he shouted.
Kirby didn't have to worry. With his floating ability, he puffed himself like a balloon and floated up to where Chopper was. Sonic, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. He had to do what Chopper did without moving too fast.
When they made a few more jumps up the tree, they nearly gagged when they came across a green Cherbil. Well, mostly Chopper and Kirby.
"Oh, god! Not THAT thing!" Chopper backed away in fear, almost falling off of the grassy platform.
"Poyo! (There's no way I'm going to touch THAT! I mean… That thing might have something WORSE than the other Cherbil things! Green must mean it's…poisonous!)" Kirby shrieked.
"Oh, would you guys calm down? It's just an enemy!" Sonic grumbled before he took it out with two Homing Attacks. "There. Are you happy now?"
"Sonic… Do you realize that you attacked something that looks like a butt?"
"Yeah? And…?"
"That thing can poison you with its, uh…fart attack. I mean, that thing is DEADLY! It… It passes GAS!" Chopper felt like he was going to tremble in fear, but he was able to hold himself up.
"You guys are REALLY afraid of gas?" Sonic face palmed. "Don't you realize that the air is gas? If you feared gas, then you would be afraid of the atmosphere. It's the truth, thanks to Tails."
Chopper decided to forget all of that and jump onto the brown platform, where a ? Block lied. After striking it, a Speed Flower came out. Grabbing it, everything began to go incredibly fast.
"Whoa! Why does everything feel so fast?!" Sonic exclaimed, talking in a fast voice before he got hit by an enemy made of blue blocks called a Tileoid B. It only appeared to move around the platform they were standing on.
After Sonic struck it with a Homing Attack, they got double experience points from it. But that didn't matter. They simply made their way up to a brown platform, where they didn't find anything else around for them to jump.
"Hold on a second… Let me see if there's anything around in 3-D…" Chopper threw his arms up into the air and flipped into 3-D to find two yellow arrow blocks. After striking them, he went back into 2-D.
"Poyo! (Hey! We can finally go higher up!)" Kirby said cheerfully. "…Poyo. (Of course, I could've just gone up there myself, but since I don't want to leave anyone behind, I'm staying with you guys.)"
Chopper and Co. jumped onto the yellow platforms and landed on another green platform. "I honestly wish that we had a chance to run around. That's what I liked about the last area…"
"Well, sometimes we have to do some platforming. We're not all about speed anyway." stated Sonic as he looked at the large gap between them and the other platform to their right.
"Poyo? (You guys notice that little screen with the arrows pointing up?)" Kirby asked, pointing up.
Chopper looked up and he saw it. "Yeah, I can see it too, Kirby! Why put that there when we already KNOW that we have to go up? It's almost like they're saying, 'Hey, idiot! Go up!' or something like that."
Kirby giggled. "Poyo! (That DOES sound pretty funny! Only an idiot would be confused on where he needed to go!)"
"Guys… We need to get across here." Sonic interrupted, pointing to the large gap. This is where Kirby stepped up to do something. He floated over the gap and then used his inhaling to bring them both over.
"Oh, wow. I didn't know you were capable of doing that." Sonic gawked.
"Poyo? (What do you mean? I'm capable of doing anything that involved eating! What? You think I CAN'T do that?)" Kirby glared at Sonic, while the blue hedgehog scratched his head.
"It's nothing important," Chopper assured. "All that matters is that we need to get up this tree. God, I hate climbing this tree already!"
They jumped up a couple of platforms above them and realized they had to cross another gap. Kirby did the same procedure as before, allowing them to reach the other side. But what surprised them was when they saw a Sir Kibble throwing a cutter no a small green platform.
"Poyo! (I got this one!)" Kirby squealed as he jumped onto the platform and inhaled the enemy, turning into Cutter Kirby. "Poyo! (Now I can see what kind of abilities I'm capable of using now!)"
"Hold on a second… I see a stump over by the other platform." Sonic took notice of the stump. "Well, Screwdy! I think we can take care of that thing, right?"
"You're dang right we can!" Screwdy said in his happy-go-lucky voice. "Let's show that stump who's boss!"
Sonic nodded as he jumped onto the stump and performed a corkscrew on it. "Now I'm starting to wonder why I didn't use this corkscrew attack on Dark. I think it would've been a good idea!"
Once he struck the stump, a piece of paper in the center slipped off, revealing a yellow platform that moves from left to right.
"Oh, nice! Now we can get ourselves across!" Chopper smiled as he jumped onto the platform and then on a couple of others to land on a platform to the right with a Tileoid G moving around.
"Get off the block, you weird-looking thing!" he shouted as he punched the Tileoid G off of it after Kirby and Sonic made their way up. A Mushroom appeared and was starting to make its way off the platform.
"NO!" Chopper grabbed the Mushroom and split it into three pieces for all of them to eat, recovering some HP. "Whew! I thought for a second that we were going to lose that thing… Good thing we didn't."
They came across some Motobugs, a Poison Cherbil, and a Koopa as they walked up more platforms. It felt like the same thing over and over until they got to a red door on a brown platform.
"Man, I can't believe we finally made it up to the top of the tree!" Chopper sighed in relief.
"Uhh… I wouldn't say so." Sonic slowly shook his head. He immediately pointed up. "There's still more to this tree. I know it's not going to be so fun, but we have to go through it, I guess…"
"Oh, god… Fine. We'll go through here. I just hope that we don't run into any trouble. I know Dark said something about someone waiting for us there… But the thing I'm wondering is…who is this person?" Chopper pondered.
They made their way into the door and made it into the inside of the tree. The floor and walls were all brown, but what caught their attention was the yellow platform moving up and down on a line (and THIS is where I actually hate this part of the level. I mean, REALLY! I think a lot of people don't like this part).
"Poyo… (Uhh… I don't think we can make it up to that platform up there…)" Kirby groaned, looking up at a platform to their right that a Tileoid G was going around on.
"Bleh. Let's just see what's through this pipe." Chopper was taken high up in the tree, possibly near the top. But there wasn't any door. All there was was a Save Block and a light blue ! Switch.
"That switch looks…strange," Chopper raised an eyebrow as he kicked it. He felt a small amount of shaking that occurred for only a second. "What was all that?"
He noticed that the light blue ! Switch turned into a light red ! Switch. "Weird… But I'll see what happened down there." Making his way back down, he saw that there were two light red platforms that led up to a brown platform with a light red ! Switch.
"Wait… That was weird. Since when did that appear?" Sonic questioned.
"Let's not worry about that," Chopper suggested as he jumped up onto the platform, only to be struck by a Crazee Dayzee's song, putting him to sleep. "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…"
"Poyo… (Uh oh… That Crazee Dayzee put him to sleep…)" Kirby struck the Crazee Dayzee with its next musical note that it fired and spat it back at it, defeating it. He then kicked Chopper, waking him up.
"Whoa, what? What just happened?" he questioned.
"Poyo, (A Crazee Dayzee put you to sleep,)" Kirby explained. "Poyo? (Why did you simply do something like that? I thought that was a stupid move for you to pull out for some reason…)"
"Oh, all right…" Chopper kicked the red ! Switch, making it turn light blue. It led them to a light blue platform to their left and a yellow platform going up and down on a line. There was also one moving in a square.
"I can see another stump," Sonic stated, jumping on the platforms to make it to the stump. "I'm gonna see what happens!"
After hitting the stump with a corkscrew, a ladder was made for them. When Chopper and Kirby made their way to the platform, Sonic went down the ladder and hit the switch so a light red platform could appear near a platform above the moving yellow platform.
When they made their way up to that platform, Chopper immediately struck the Crazee Dayzee with a couple of stomps. It dropped a Shroom Shake for them, which was a relief, and then they made their way up to the platform to their left thanks to the light red platform.
After defeating another Crazee Dayzee on the platform, they jumped onto another moving yellow platform to get on this other platform with a couple of brown blocks stacked up a little.
"Hold on, I'm going to see what's through here," Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a pipe sticking out of the wall. "Oh, so THAT'S what it was… How interesting!"
He was led into a room with spikes coming up from the ground for a couple of seconds and then down. "Oh, crud… I'm gonna need Slim for this. I wish I had Vivian or Bow to help me here…or even Kayzee."
One trip to get Slim later-
"All right, let's see how I can do here," Chopper attempted to use Slim's power to get past the spikes and over to the light red ! Switch. He was successful, but he had to make his way back after turning it to a light blue color.
"Well, this is nice… I gotta go back!"
Back over to where Kirby and Sonic are-
"All right, let's try to make our way over to that Crazee Dayzee over there," Sonic suggested, pointing to the enemy. "I just hope we don't fall from its attack. That would be BAD!"
"Poyo. (But I can simply float up here if I wanted to. In fact, it would make this whole level easier if I just did that.)" Kirby said.
"Shhhhhh! Don't let them know!" Chopper shushed as he defeated the Crazee Dayzee with Hommissile. There, he found the same switch in front of them on top of these spikes.
With that, a platform appeared for them to jump to, but there really wasn't anything else around, which is why Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a sign. He read it, making his antennae spring up.
Bomb the switch again.
"That sounds easy," Chopper flipped back and threw Hommissile straight at the switch without moving, creating a light blue platform to lead them up to some moving yellow platforms.
"Ugh… I really am dreading this place." Chopper groaned, forcing himself to do some MORE platforming to make his way to a brown pipe over by the wall to the left. There, they all found another room, but with a platform moving to the left and right with spikes on the wall.
"I think Slim could help us here," Sonic stated. "I mean, you can practically AVOID anything with him!"
Chopper brought Slim out and he managed to get past the spikes and over to the other side. He noticed the same switch as before, but only this time, he fired Hommissile at it to avoid being trapped by a light red platform that could be in his way.
"OK… Let's see what happened back out there…"
Out of the room-
"This BETTER be the end of this area…" Chopper grumbled as he jumped onto the light blue platform. Unfortunately, they couldn't get up to the blue ! Switch above the platform in 2-D, so Chopper flipped and jumped onto the platform.
"FINALLY… We made it through that dreadful part! Now let's see what happens when I hit this…" Chopper punched the switch with his fist, causing a red door to be created above him.
"Hmmmmmm? I think a door was made… Let's see where that'll go." Chopper kicked the ? Block first to make a Super Shroom appear. He grabbed it and came down to the others to split it so they could all recover their HP.
"So, what happened up there?" Sonic asked.
"We should see what happened over by that pipe. I'm HOPING that we can get out of this part of the tree…"
Over by the door-
"Well, here we go!" Chopper kicked the door open and walked outside of the tree. This time, they were at the top, to everyone's relief.
"Poyo! (Oh, finally! We're at the top of the tree! And it doesn't look like there is another big puzzle to go through!)" Kirby shouted, sighing in relief. Sonic, too, was sighing in relief.
"Ah ha ha. Finally, you arrive!" a voice greeted.
"Wait a second… I remember that voice from…that castle on Lineland Road!" Chopper gaped as he saw the freaky jester floating above the platform that they were standing on at the moment.
"You don't wear tardiness well, Chopper," Dimentio stated, looking down at the hero. "I've been waiting for you all this time. I see you've brought some friends with you as well! How…magical."
"Poyo? (Whoa, Chopper… You know this creepy clown?)" Kirby raised an eyebrow.
"Hold on a second… This is the guy that Dark was telling us about?" Sonic grumbled. "I mean, this guy looks like someone who belongs in a circus!"
"Ah, so you must be Kirby of Dream Land and Sonic the Hedgehog! It's such a pleasure to meet you two! I could recognize you by the pink icing softness on you and those ears that happen to dance upon your head. I am a humble servant of Tipral…" Dimentio did a little flip before finishing. "Master of dimensions… Pleaser of crowds… I am…Dimentio!"
"Yeah, yeah… I heard you before, Dimentio." Chopper got in his fighting stance. "Get out of our way! We've gone through ENOUGH pain, thank you very much…"
"It is truly enchanting to finally meet my hapless victims. I have prepared a special morsel of a treat for you!" Dimentio raised his finger and used his magic to take all four of them to a world filled with green.
"How about some…MAGIC!"
"What's with all of the green?" Chopper questioned.
"And…voila! You are now in Dimension D, a dimension of my own creation. In this mind-bending realm, my attacks are 256 times more potent!" Dimentio informed.
"Wait… 256? What the heck?! That's a bit…strong." Sonic gaped.
"Ah ha ha ha! Of course it is! With such power like that, I could obliterate you with a raise of an eyebrow! Now we must duel, like two gleaming banjos on a moonlit stoop!" Dimentio raised his finger and began to fire some of his purple magic at Chopper.
"Whoa!" Chopper jumped out of the way and clenched his fists. "All right, if you want a fight, then we'll give you a fight! Besides… I think you're probably going to be A LOT easier than Dark!"
"Oh, don't get your hopes up, Chopper…" Dimentio raised his finger and fired more magic particles at him. He inhaled one and struck Dimentio with it, making him teleport to the left of this dimension.
"Kirby! Get him!" Chopper shouted.
"Poyo?" Kirby turned, only to get struck by Dimentio's magic attack. Before he could strike, the jester floated to the center of the room and fired another magic particle at Kirby.
"Poyo!" This time, Kirby was prepared for the attack. He brought Barry out and deflected the attack back at Dimentio, knocking him back and causing him to teleport over by Chopper.
"Can you pierce this…illusion?" he asked before Chopper could try to stomp on him. Unfortunately, with a snap of his finger, he teleported and reappeared with two other Dimentios.
"Ah ha ha ha! Let's see if you can guess who the real me is!" cackled the three Dimentios as they each fired three magic particles, making it a total of nine being fired at them. It was so hard to dodge, that they all ended up getting hit by it.
"Ugh… This isn't going well…" Chopper grumbled.
"What are you talking about? We just started this battle!" Sonic clenched his fists and jumped into a ball, striking one of the Dimentios. Unfortunately, he ended up going through that one.
"Hmmmmm… Let's see if this one is it." Chopper made a jump toward the closest Dimentio and stomped on his head. He didn't go through this one, meaning that this was the right one.
"This is strange…" Dimentio pondered as he floated to the top of the room over by the left corner. "My attacks are meant to be 256 times more potent, but these heroes don't seem to be so exhausted yet. Perhaps there's something that made them a bit stronger as well?"
"Hey, Dimentio! We're over here, you know!" Chopper shouted.
"Oh, yes… I nearly forgot about you guys! I have a special treat for you!" Dimentio raised his hands up, creating some boxes that got both Kirby and Sonic. Chopper, on the other hand, managed to dodge the boxes and jump up to Dimentio.
"What the heck is THAT kind of move?!" he exclaimed.
"Oh, you'll see…" Dimentio smirked as he snapped his finger, causing some intense explosions from inside the boxes – two of them having Kirby and Sonic in them. The damage they suffered was a bit more intense.
"Poyo… (Ouch… That was painful…)" Kirby winced.
"But now I have time to land a kick!" Chopper managed to do a sweeping kick on Dimentio, knocking him to the wall. But, he was lucky to get away with some simple teleportation.
"Hmmmmm… He is rather strong…" Dimentio pondered as he reappeared. "So maybe he IS the hero after all! Even though he still doesn't have those gloves and shoes with him, he does put up a fight…"
Dimentio lifted his finger up and he fired another electrical magical particle down that the trio. Sonic was able to land a Homing Attack straight at the jester, making him teleport over to the right.
"My, my! You are indeed tough ones! But let's see how you handle this!" Dimentio charged up a stronger magic attack and this time, a large magic particle came down upon them. "This one is capable of doing MUCH more damage to the likes of you!"
"Oh, yeah? Well let's see how you handle THIS!" Chopper made a dash over to the wall and jumped off to land a jump on Dimentio. But before the jester could teleport, he grabbed Chopper and threw him down at Sonic.
"Oh, that was just splendid!" the jester chuckled as he snapped his finger before teleporting with two other clones.
"Crud… Now there's two of them." Chopper clenched his fists and attempted a fireball. "Oh, come on! Why do I always keep forgetting that I DON'T have that fireball or light ball ability!"
"Well well! Looks like someone's lost their Master Gloves and Master Shoes…" Dimentio smirked.
"And why do you care about that?" Chopper raised an eyebrow.
Dimentio snapped his finger and a magical soap appeared in his hands. Well, the clones had them too. "This is Dimenti Soap, made by yours truly! This allows anything to shrink to the size of a peanut!"
"Wait a minute… YOU were the one that switched my soap to that?!" Chopper clenched his fists in anger and pointed at the jesters. "Oh… YOU'RE going to PAY for that, Dimentio!"
"Whoa… I never knew that this clown was the one responsible for shrinking Chopper's items…" Sonic gaped.
"Poyo! (I'll say!)" Kirby agreed.
"Ah ha ha ha. Such anger! You have the anger of your counterpart, Tipral! Oh, how lovely… Too bad that this has to be put to an end." Dimentio raised his hands up to summon a box.
"Oh, not this time, clown!" Chopper jumped before the box could trap him. He immediately fired Hommissile at the real Dimentio, resulting in him teleporting to the other side of the area.
"Whoa… Chopper's really kicking this clown's butt. He must be REALLY ticked about him losing his stuff…" Sonic gawked.
"Come back here, Dimentio!" cried Chopper, attempting to jump at him while Dimentio cackled as he dodged. "Come down here and fight me! I have a bone to pick with you!"
"Oh, how laughable! You can't even reach me!" Dimentio cackled. "I might as well have a nice laugh, since you're unable to hit me." He conjured up three magical projectiles that he fired down at Chopper and his two friends.
Kirby, being a bit ticked, took action by threw his cutter blade at Dimentio when he was close. He almost forgot about using the ability, but now he was ready to use it. With Dimentio near the ground, he slashed at him with the cutter again.
"Oof! Why you…" Dimentio unexpectedly knocked Kirby to the wall with a magical punch attack. "My my! Since when could I do something like that? I might as well enjoy it!"
"Not quite, Dimentio!" Sonic curled up into a ball and hit Dimentio across the face with a Spin Dash.
"Tsk tsk tsk! I'm afraid that speed isn't necessary in this fight!" Dimentio fired a magical particle at Sonic before he could attack him with another Spin Dash, knocking him to the wall.
Before Dimentio could cackle, Chopper tried to deliver a punch at him. Unfortunately, Dimentio was too quick for him. He grabbed Chopper's fist and punched him in the face with his own magic powers.
"No fair! Only I can do an elemental punch like that!" Chopper whined. "Unless… Hold on a moment… Could I even INHALE this guy?"
Chopper decided to give it a try. He tried to suck Dimentio up like a vacuum, but the jester was simply floating in the same position that he was in with a confused look on his face.
"Poyo! (It's not going to work, Chopper! Don't even waste your time doing it!)" Kirby shouted.
"Like a can of beans spilling from the ground, you all fall before me," Dimentio stated as he raised his hands up once again. "Perhaps now I can end this fight once and for all. Oh, how pleased Tipral will be! Your deaths will be so…magical."
"Oh, man… Stop with the similes already!" Chopper face palmed before he managed to deliver an uppercut kick on Dimentio, sending him up to the ceiling.
"Oof! …So you refuse to give up, do you? Well, very well!" Dimentio fired a couple of magical projectiles down at Chopper, but they were too slow for him.
"This is the end, Dimentio! This last attack will do it!" Chopper made a big jump up to Dimentio after the uppercut kick and with one last slamming kick attack, he sent Dimentio to the ground violently.
"Urgh… Cough…hack…" Dimentio wheezed as he collapsed. Kirby and Sonic managed to get up and glare at the evil clown as he wheezed. "Your blows are like miniature jackhammers wielded by tiny, angry road workers! How is this possible? This dimension makes me 256 times more powerful…"
"Well, let's see here… If your attacks were meant to be that powerful, then I suppose that our attacks got stronger as well!" Chopper stated. "Yeah, that's an obvious one for you, clown!"
"Is that so? …Aha…ha…ha…" he muttered under his breath until he floated back up, looking like he immediately recovered. "Of course! This was simply an amusement that played out exactly as I planned! Were you amused? That was just an hors d'oeuvre! The next time we meet, you all will feast on a deadly eight-course meal!"
"A deadly eight-course meal?" Chopper's antennae perked up. "OK, now you've made less sense than before… But if there's food, I'm happy!"
Dimentio raised his finger once last time to bring them back to the Dotwood Tree. "Ciao for now, heroes! May we meet again in another dimension!"
With one teleportation, he was gone before they knew it.
"So he's the one responsible for ruining my gloves and shoes…" Chopper pondered. "But… Why would he do something like that? In fact, how did he know about my presence then?"
"Mmm… A little more, perhaps?" Dimentio remarked, appearing up in the sky. "They are strong, but they must be stronger yet to defeat Tipral. I must make sure they can face him when the time comes around at last…"
"Whew… I can't believe we made it through THAT battle…" Sonic sighed in relief while holding his arm. "Now let's find a way to get out of this tree. I'm getting a bit tired of it."
Chopper and Kirby agreed and they made their way up the Dotwood Tree. Unlike the other room, they weren't inside. But, they had to watch out for the Lakitus throwing Spinies down at them.
After climbing up a couple of platforms, they made it to the top, where they could see the wind blowing. They noticed that there was some red wind blowing along the tree.
"Remember, heroes… I said something about the red wind." Barry reminded.
"I wonder what happens if we touch it," Chopper pondered before being picked up by red wind. "Whoa… This thing's carrying me!"
"Poyo! (I wanna give it a try!)" Kirby cried, jumping on the red wind, along with Sonic.
"Wow! We're soaring through the air!" Sonic grinned. "Too bad I couldn't do this without Tails's plane…"
"Heads up, guys! There's a pipe up ahead! Get ready!" Chopper made a jump into the pipe, along with his friends. It took them to a grassy area, but this time, they were near the castle Francis was living in.
"I see the Star Block up ahead!" Chopper called out. "Time to hit it! …What a relief."
Chopper made his way over to the Star Block and struck it before Kirby and Sonic had time to react. They were all relieved that that chapter was all finished…for now.
END OF CHAPTER
Chopper, Kirby, and Sonic scaled the tree and defeated Dimentio. The exhausted heroes were relieved to finally see the ivory towers of Fort Francis. Was Tippi safe? Was the next Pure Heart really waiting for them ahead? Their only answers were the strange voices carried on the wind from inside the fort…