"…And that's how the ruffians managed to best me," Dimentio finished, with Tipral listening to the whole thing. "Ah ha ha. They are strong, to be sure… Very strong. Dare I say… They might be strong enough to defy the prophecy!"
"Ugh… How can this be? Chopper defeated all of my minions so far?! Proposterous!" Tipral groaned, closing his book.
"Sorry, Tipral, but those three heroes were too tough to fight," Dark apologized. "I tried, but I failed. That's how it goes around here, unfortunately. So… You can punish us if necessary."
"No, Dark. I won't punish you. It's not necessary." Tipral looked away, looking down at the Dark Prognosticus. "The Light Prognosticus is a false illusion that is trying to fool us. Only this book will help me find the answers to destroying Chopper!"
"So, is defeating Chopper all you wish to do, now that you hold the most powerful weapon in the universe?" Dimentio questioned, floating over by him, looking down at the Dark Prognosticus.
"Dimentio… Stop looking over my arm." Tipral pushed Dimentio's face away from him as he began to flip through the pages. "There's GOT to be something in here that can help me stop Chopper and his pathetic little friends! There HAS to be!"
"Tippy… You really sound like all you want to do is get rid of that doofus Chopper." Mimi floated up onto Tipral's platform and put her stick hand on Tipral's arm. "How about we can go to someplace like a dance…or even go out on a cruise where we can sit at a table together! …Or maybe we can even sit out at the balcony of the cruise! Or even…"
"You know, Mimikins, I think I remember that you once suggested that you and Tipral have a wedding filled with many, glorious Rubees," Dimentio said, floating over to her.
"Oh, shut up, you meanie-head!" Mimi yelled, giving Dimentio a death glare. "I'm just trying to cheer him up! I bet you'd do the same thing! Oh, wait! You're too ugly to get a girlfriend!"
"Enough already," Tipral declared, making Mimi return to her platform. "Anyway… I suppose now's the time you all took a little break."
"A break! Yeh gotta be kiddin' me!" O'Chunks gaped. "I've been takin' a break fer the past few chapters! Are yeh REALLY gonna make me wait even longer teh give that hero a chunkin'?!"
"No! All that matters is that you take your break!" Tipral growled. "I have my reasons for this, but I refuse to tell you why! Return to your posts IMMEDIATELY! …And don't let me catch you sneaking out to ambush Chopper…"
"As you command, Tipral!" they all shouted in unison. "HAIL TIPRAL!"
After they all left, Tipral opened the Dark Prognosticus and looked through it. After two minutes, he closed it.
"It's time I paid someone a little visit…" Tipral grabbed his Dark Star Scepter and Dark Prognosticus and he immediately teleported out of the room.
"My my my! How interesting! Tipral always has some interesting conversations…to himself!"
Dimentio appeared, apparently eavesdropping on Tipral.
"Mm… Just what is our dear Tipral playing at? I thought I overheard him saying that he was going to pay a little visit to a certain…someone? Ah, well. I'll let him worry about that. I must attend to my own…projects."
With that, Dimentio vanished.
Merlee's Mansion-
"This is a very strange mansion…" Meta Knight muttered under his mask as he walked around the Chapter 2-4 area. "I haven't seen much activity around here lately. Is this place…empty?"
Before he could take another step, he could hear something coming from upstairs. Without hesitation, he flew up to the third floor to find a prisoner talking to another.
"Didn't you hear? Those two gerbils managed to take down Mimi!" the first prisoner whispered. "I can't believe it! All this time we thought we were going to be trapped, but now we can go!"
"Yeah, that's awesome!" the other prisoner cheered.
They stood there in silence for about ten seconds. "Now what?"
"Well… I don't know what we're supposed to do. With Mimi gone, I don't have a freakin' clue on what to do. Do we…leave this mansion or something or stay here and wait for Merlee?"
Meta Knight seemed confused, but he tapped the prisoner closest to him on the arm. "Excuse me, sir. What is going on here?"
"Huh?" the prisoner turned around and gaped. "Whooooooa! Look at that mask! You look like you're one of those cool warriors…or even knights! Yeah, you're one of those knight guys! How cool is that?"
"Too bad you're a bit too late," the second prisoner frowned. "It would've been cool if you were the one that trounced Mimi instead of those two ball-shaped weirdos. I mean, they don't look like heroes!"
"Those 'weirdos' happen to be some friends of mine, thank you very much," Meta Knight glared under his mask. "Chopper and Kirby are just doing their job, which is to collect all of the Pure Hearts. They're REAL heroes. Not me."
"What? Hey, you're a real hero! You just gotta BELIEVE!"
"No, that is impossible," Meta Knight turned away. "Would a hero try to take over their own planet with their ship? I don't think so. Would a real hero try to fight off a hero who's trying to save the world? No. I couldn't possibly be a real hero. Say what you will, but that won't do a thing."
Meta Knight turned back around. "Anyway… I am looking for my sword. Have you guys seen a golden sword with points on its side?"
"A sword? Nope. Never heard of it. If we did, we probably would've showed it to you. Maybe Lady Merlee can help you find it. ...Though, to be honest, I have not seen her around."
"Hee hee hee hee! Were you looking for me?" Meta Knight turned around to see the Shaman Merlee facing him. "I see you've come to find a sword, but unfortunately, I have not seen one from this horde."
"Galaxia isn't here? Ugh… Are you sure that it isn't here?"
"It is unfortunate you lost your blade, for your skills might just fade! Perhaps a key will cheer you up, just like it will for a pup!" Merlee handed Meta Knight a key. "This is something I had with me, perhaps your arrival was to be."
Meta Knight took the key from Merlee. "Hmmph… If I can't find Galaxia here, then there's no point in me being here. I'm leaving."
The masked warrior turned away from Merlee as he jumped down to the first floor, making his way out of the mansion. Merlee, too, had something to do, so she made her leave as well.
"Aw, crud! I just remember what I came here for!" the prisoner face palmed.
"So, how is the creation going? Is he finished yet?"
"Almost. We just have to insert those Star Rings on his wrists and he'll be finished."
"Why can't you just release him without the rings?"
"Well… You see… Doing that will simply unleash his almighty powers against everything in his sight. Not only would it be powerful enough to destroy us, but the same could be said about himself. Do you get what I'm saying?"
"Yeah… I'm starting to understand this. But… Why give him a power that could possibly destroy him without those rings on his wrists?! That's too dangerous!"
"I was only listening to the Shadow Queen! She's the one that said to give him these powers! If there's anyone to blame for this, I say blame her!"
"Thankfully, the Star Rings should instantly attract to him the moment he's released, so they'll be on him quickly."
"If that's true, then I'm feeling less worried.
"I suppose now's the time to release him. Get the Star Rings, my friend."
Flipside Tower-
"Oh, finally! We got out of there!" Chopper sighed in relief as he and his friends walked out of the yellow door. Sonic looked a bit surprised when he saw a yellow crystal heart appear over the door.
"Whoa, is that supposed to be some kind of crystal heart?" Sonic questioned. "It kind of reminds me of the Crystal Stars for some reason… Except that those aren't really collectable…"
"Guys… I'm so sorry…" Tippi apologized. "It was all my fault… And… Then… You all… Thank you so much…"
"Oh, don't sweat it, Tippi!" Sonic waggled his finger as he made a pose. "We're heroes! We do what we need to do! I mean, a hero would save the universe from an evil demon, wouldn't he?"
"Yeah, don't worry about getting kidnapped, Tippi," Chopper assured. "That stuff happens A LOT. Well, mostly with Peach and some other girls I might know. …Hold on. Come to think of it, you could be the third hero, Sonic…"
"Hero? You mean the Hero of Prophecy that you mentioned before?"
"I have been waiting for you, young heroes!" the old voice caught everyone's attention. They all turned to the left to see Merlon standing there. "Did you succeed in your search for the Pure Heart?"
"I guess we did…" Tippi trailed.
"Well, yeah, we did. Apparently, the Pure Heart came bursting from Tippi for some reason. I was a bit confused, but now that I think about it, Tippi DID say before that she could sense the Pure Heart nearby when we first entered the Bitlands." Chopper explained.
"Intriguing… So then… When you saved Tippi, the next Pure Heart just appeared?" Merlon pondered. "Mmm… How very interesting… I think that castle was once a swelling of the Ancients I told you of earlier. My ancestors have roamed far and wide in their dimensional travels."
Merlon brought his heads up to the heroes and began to quote something from the Light Prognosticus. "'In the castle beyond the great sea, we hid a Pure Heart and sealed it safely…'" Yes, I remember reading such a passage on the Light Prognosticus. The seal could only have been broken by a powerful pulse of love and trust…"
"Wait, you're saying that Tippi started to trust us after we saved her from that geeky Francis guy?" Sonic pondered. "Interesting…"
"And now there are three heroes!" Merlon looked over at Sonic. "Ho ho! I don't know who the other three are, but waste no time in searching, my friends!"
"Not a problem!" Sonic waggled his finger. "With my speed, we can mop the floor with Tipral and get those Pure Hearts! You can trust me on this one!"
"Ah, so you must be Sonic, are you not? Oh ho! Well met, Mr. Sonic! May your speed blow away those fo—"
Before Merlon could finish, the whole tower started to tremble as The Void in the sky began to grow bigger. It was a big bigger than before now.
"What the… What just happened?" Sonic questioned.
"Oh ho… It seems The Void has expanded once more… Time is short!" Merlon spoke after the trembling stopped.
"We have to keep going…" Tippi trailed. "We must start by looking for the next Heart Pillar."
"There are matters I must attend to as well… I must search for any item of significance in the Light Prognosticus…" Merlon trailed as he left the tower to return to his house.
"Well, where should we go to now?" Sonic asked.
"Hmmmmm… Now that I think about it, I saw a Heart Pillar over by the outskirts of Flipside on the second floor… Maybe we ought to check over there? I don't know. It might be a good idea." Chopper suggested.
Flipside Outskirts, second floor-
"Yup. Just as I expected." Chopper pointed to the Heart Pillar all the way to the left that was being blocked. They could see a bit of green in the pillar, which must mean that the green Pure Heart goes in there.
"Hold on a minute… We got these stumps, though!" Sonic pointed to the five stumps that were on the ground. Two of them were up, while the rest of them were down.
"This is strangely interesting…" Tippi trailed.
"Well, might as well hit them," Sonic was a bit surprised when he hit the first two to their left. He brought the first one up and the second one down. But, that triggered the blocks to be destroyed, allowing them to walk over to it.
As Chopper felt the strange aura coming from the Heart Pillar, he brought the green Pure Heart out and allowed it to float into the Heart Pillar, making it glow green and making a green clock appear before them.
Up on Flipside Tower, a green door was being created.
"Well, what do you think happened?" Sonic asked.
"We go back to the tower to find out," Chopper pulled the Return Pipe out and he and his two friends jumped down into it to return to Flipside Tower, only to find Meta Knight walking out of the orange door.
"No luck… I can't find my sword anywhere!" Meta Knight growled.
"You had no luck in that world, did you, Meta Knight?" Chopper asked, walking over to the masked warrior.
"No… But I won't stop right here. Now that you opened up this world, I will search through here. I'll search every single world to find it!"
"What's so important about that sword?" Tippi questioned.
"Galaxia is a sacred sword," Meta Knight explained. "I vowed to keep that sword safe from harm, but it looks like I failed to do such a thing."
"Dude, don't go acting down on yourself! It's not the end of the world!" Chopper snapped. "Just get a new sword, or better yet, find a Pixl shaped like a sword! I bet he or she will be able to help you fight off anything!"
"I would, but I can't find the type of weapon," he shook his head as he walked over to the yellow door.
"Whoa! Hold it right there, man! You don't wanna go in there!" Sonic warned.
"Poyo! (Yeah! That place has a nerd in it!)" Kirby agreed.
"A nerd? A nerd wouldn't be threatening to me. Besides, I'm sure there's something through here anyway. If I find Galaxia… Then I just might be able to give you some help."
Meta Knight made his way into the Bitlands as Chopper groaned.
"OK, fine. Go in there if you want." Chopper turned back to the green door. "All right, I guess it's time to make our way into this place!"
"I wonder what we're gonna be up against. What if it's a casino place or even a metropolis area…" Sonic pondered.
"I wouldn't be too sure on that…" Tippi trailed as she followed the three heroes through the door. For some reason, she felt a bit worried…
Will they be safe in this next world?
After the fierce fight against the nerdy Francis, Tippi and the Chopper gang started to grow a bit closer. Behind a fourth door lay a whole new world that beckoned to them both. What awaited was vaster and stranger than anything they all encountered so far… In order to claim the Pure Heart, they would have to endure new, far-out trials…
Yup. Chapter 4's the next chapter...and one of those chapters that doesn't really have that many boss fights, unfortunately...