CHAPTER 4-1
-Into Outer Space-
Since the world first appeared as a blank, white world, the designer was forced to draw the whole setting for the area, starting with the stars in the background, which began to be colored. The rest of space was starting to get colored as well, showing the background to be a dark blue color, unlike Starlite Galaxy, which looked a lot more beautiful than this outer space.
As the green door was drawn, the three heroes and Tippi, now reunited with them, walked out to find themselves floating in space.
"Mmm, stars everywhere… I believe we're in outer space, almost certainly… I think I remember being here…" Tippi trailed before she realized that they were in space. "Wait a moment… Outer space?!"
She turned to the three heroes with a worried look, only to find them just fine. "Huh…? You guys are all fine?"
"What's wrong, Tippi?" Chopper asked.
"Well, it's just…um…" Tippi began to stammer. "I just thought you couldn't survive in space… Last time I came here with three others, they needed helmets..."
"That's weird… Usually when I'm up in space, I'm not suffocating. Don't you worry, Tippi. Things are gonna be fine!" Sonic assured. "…Well, I hope."
"Poyo? (But, how come we're able to breathe in space, but Sonic can't survive in water?)" Kirby questioned.
"Hmmmm…" Tippi pondered. "Well if that's the case… Let's go, then! The Pure Heart is somewhere in this sea of stars…"
"Wait a second… How do we even move through this place?" Sonic questioned as he started to drift away from the others.
"Let's see…" Chopper began to move his feet like he was swimming underwater. He was starting to move through space. "Oh! I got it! Just pretend you're swimming underwater! …Except that you're not in water, that's all."
"Poyo! (Oh, that's easy!)" Kirby began to move around, making sure his blue floppy hat wouldn't come off (he still had his Bomb ability on, mind you). He was actually having fun.
"Crud… We gotta swim?! That's something I CAN'T do! …Oh, wait. This isn't water." Sonic began to move his arms and legs around space, but he started to hear this jingling sound.
"Hey… You guys hear that?" Sonic's ear started to twitch.
"I don't really hear anything, unfortunately…" Chopper pouted, looking a bit disappointed at the atmosphere. "Honestly, our galaxy was a lot better than this! It was beautiful! Don't you all remember?"
"Oh, yeah… I remember being in Starlite Galaxy… That was an awesome place, to be honest. It was…" Sonic stopped again as he heard the jingling noise. "There it is again! I heard that noise!"
Chopper's antennae started to twitch. "Yeah… Now I can hear it! But the question is… WHERE is it even coming from?"
"Poyo! (Look over there!)" Kirby pointed to the green "SOS" that was floating up toward them. There were even some sparks coming from where the "SOS" was coming from too.
"I think we should check down there…" Tippi suggested.
"That's what I plan to do! C'mon, guys!" Chopper made his way down to the sparkling light that the SOS was by. But, unfortunately, he found nothing. "I can't find anything around here!"
"Poyo… (Use Tippi's powers, then…)" suggested Kirby.
"Oh, yeah…" Chopper allowed Tippi to go into him and turn his eyes back into rainbow light. "Oh, boy! It's been a while since I had this happen to me! It feels so…strange…yet…so cool!"
Chopper could see a light green spaceship that was floating around here. "There's something here… For some reason, I feel like I've seen this before… The question is… What's it doing in the middle of nowhere?"
After Tippi made it visible, she left Chopper's head. She began to take a look at it.
"It's some sort of spaceship… Why have I seen something like this before? I'm starting to think.
A ticking alarm went off as Chopper touched it, startling all three of them away from the spaceship. They noticed that the lid began to open, making the air around them feel a bit cold. To their surprise, a green, square-shaped alien with five tentacles, an antenna with a star on it, and thick lips popped out of the spaceship.
"Squeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuurp… Squirple squeeple squinks! 'Morning, SQUIRP!" the little alien greeted after some yawning.
"What in the world…?" Chopper furrowed his eyebrows as he and his friends floated over to the strange-looking alien.
"Poyo, (You don't see these kinds of aliens in Starlite Galaxy,)" Kirby remarked.
"Hmmmmm… Let's see if this thing speaks English." Chopper looked at the alien. "WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
Unfortunately, the alien ignored his loud question. "You're the ones looking for the Pure Heart, squirple? Hm! Cuter than I thought!"
"Wait, who was he talking to?" Sonic asked.
"Well, it looks like he speaks English," Chopper sighed in relief. "…Hey, wait a moment! How does this alien know about the Pure Heart?! Is he… Is he working for that faker Tipral?!"
"Noooooo! No scary faces!" the alien wailed. "You can call me Squirps. I'm your captain, squooork! And if you want the Pure Heart, we need to work together, squoop!"
"Hmmmmm… For some reason, I recognize this little alien…" Tippi recalled, still not remembering much from three months ago. "How can I not remember all of this? I know you're from somewhere…"
While Tippi began to ponder, the three heroes began to talk to Squirps. "So, uh… You have any explanation on why you're telling us this? How do we know that we should trust you?"
"Squirps can't tell much now, but you three must follow Squirps," Squirps informed. "Now, follow me, squiiiinks!"
"Poyo? (Follow you now?)" Kirby wondered.
"You didn't really explain to us WHY," Chopper shook his head. "Plus, we just met you! How do we know that we can trust a little alien like you? I still believe you're working for…"
"SQUAAAACK!" Squirps's loud scream sent the three flying back. "You! You all heed the captain! "You all are space grunts now, and that is the ONLY rule! Your only responses should be 'Yes, sir!' and 'Gotcha!' Understand, squirkle?"
As the three floated back to Squirps, they replied with "Yes, sir," and "Gotcha,".
"Squeh squeh squeh squeh…" Squirps chuckled. "Looks like you understand your place, SQUIIIIIIIP!"
"Are you three all fine with this…uh…Squirps giving you orders?" Tippi asked. All she got from the three heroes were three nods. That's when she knew that they wanted to be a bit silent to prevent Squirps from screaming.
"Great! Let's get ready, then… Squarp formation, squooogle!" Squirps floated over to Chopper, since he was in front of him. "We'll 'squarp' directly to the Pure Heart. It's like warping, except Squirps invented it. In order to squarp, we'll need a lot of energy, squeeeeeerk. You're all brimming with power-up power, right? You must give it to Squirps!"
"Soooooooooo… What do I do, then?" Chopper questioned.
"You need to hold onto Squirps and give off as much energy as you can so we can squarp to the Pure Heart, squinkles!"
"OK… I'll give it a try." Chopper grabbed Squirps and he began to charge as much energy as possible. Tippi, Kirby and Sonic gaped as they saw Chopper surrounded by a red aura. Plus, his eyes were a red color as well!
"I…wanna…SQUARP!" Chopper shouted.
"SUCCESS!" Squirps shot a fireball that created a flash and then created this weird purple wormhole. "And here we go… SQUAAAARRRRP!"
Chopper and his friends floated into the wormhole, which began to suck them into another area.
Elsewhere in Outer Space-
As soon as they got out of the wormhole, Squirps got out of Chopper's clutches and looked around him.
"…Squoh?"
"What's wrong?" Chopper asked.
Squirps had a bummed look upon his face. "We're…not even close to our destination, squooops…"
"Oh, dear… That's not good…" Tippi trailed.
Squirps turned to Chopper with a glare. "Is that all the power-up you have, squirp? Good-for-nothing space grunt… Squirps was an idiot for thinking you had more… Well, good-for-nothings have their own good-for-nothing ways of moving, squaaank…"
The little alien went back into Chopper's clutches. "There's a ways to go before you all reach the Pure Heart… You must space-swim! Use (2) to shoot enemies with my Squrips Squirt Beam. If you hold (2), you'll be able to use Squirps Charge Beam. SQUIRP! Fire, space grunt! CHAAAAAARGE!"
"So… You're basically like a gun?" Chopper gave Squirps a squeeze, making him shoot a fireball. "Ooh! Now this is nice! I wonder if I can charge up a shot…"
He tested out to see if he could charge up an attack. Luckily, he managed to squeeze Squirps to make him fire a larger, deadlier fireball at two orange jellyfish enemies called Jelliens, making them toast.
"Poyo… (Well, apparently squeezing aliens makes them destroy things around us…)" Kirby said with a blank look on his face. "Poyo? (What's next? Some…uh…evil clowns in outer space?)"
"Beats me. All that matters is that we take care of everything in our path!" Chopper moved his feet a bit more as he squeezed Squirps a couple of more times, destroying more Jelliens in their path.
"Hold on a second… How are we supposed to attack these guys?" Sonic questioned.
"I'm not so sure… You could try to use a Spin Dash or attack in your ball form, but I can't be too sure on that…" Tippi trailed.
"Do you find it weird that we're swimming through space, yet the asteroids around here are not even close to us?" Chopper questioned until he bumped into a small asteroid in his path.
"Squirp! You almost squished Squirps!" Squirps cried. "Watch where you're going, space grunt! You don't want to get Squirps a game over, do you?"
"What?! No way!" Chopper retorted. "I was just talking to my friends, that's all! You'd probably do the same thing if you were talking to YOUR friends! Yeah, I can bet that for sure…"
"It doesn't really matter, squoogle! We must continue to charge our way through these space grounds!" Squirps dragged Chopper past some of the asteroids that were around them and over by two Jelliens.
"Let me get this!" Sonic curled up in a ball and he made a dash at the two Jelliens, knocking them out of the area. He also almost ran into another wormhole.
"Whoa… We got a wormhole here!" he warned.
"Hold on a minute, Sonic!" Chopper continued to blast at the Jelliens around the asteroids. He even had to charge up a fireball from Squirps to fire at more than one Jellien to destroy them.
"Keep firing, space grunt!" Squirps shouted.
"I'm trying!" Chopper squeezed Squirps a couple of more times before all of the Jelliens were gone. "Whew… Well that's a relief! Now all of those…weird jellyfish enemies are gone!"
"Now we must squarp to somewhere else!" the alien announced.
"Wait… I have to charge up MORE power?!" Chopper gaped. "But… But… That's all I had to charge up! You're telling me that I have to charge up even MORE?! That's just… That's impossible."
"No, space grunt! The wormhole over there, squinkles!"
Chopper's antennae sprung up as he space-swam over to the wormhole Sonic was waiting at. Kirby, too, space-swam over to the wormhole as well.
"Poyo! (You don't want to forget about that Save Block!)" Kirby announced as he hit the block himself. They immediately went into the wormhole afterward, being taken to another area in space.
"What are those things over there?" Chopper looked at the green and purple alien with light blue orbs surrounding it. He sued Tippi's power to examine the little alien monster.
"That Foton is a space organism that is orbited by small blue particles... Max HP is 8 and Attack is 3. When it senses danger, it... Well, it shouldn't be much of a problem unless you're surrounded by them..." Tippi informed.
"8 HP? Well… That's not TOO bad. But, still… It's almost like a Hyper Goomba…but without the charged attack." Chopper squeezed Squirps, making him shoot some fireballs at the Fotons.
"Wait… One shot doesn't defeat them? Crud… I guess one more shot has to do it…or a charged one could take them out in one hit." Chopper fired two more fireballs from Squirps at the Fotons, destroying both of them.
"Poyo, (You're gonna have to be careful on those enemies,)" Kirby warned as he space-swam ahead for any enemies. He still had some bombs with him, so it would help to use those.
Over by two wormholes ahead, there were two more Fotons. Kirby immediately defeated them both by throwing a couple of bombs at them. That took care of them.
"Which wormhole should we take?" Tippi asked.
"Hmmmmmmm… Squirps says take the lower right one!" They all listened to the alien and went over to the wormhole, taking them into another area filled with Fotons.
"Don't go to the left, squirp!" Squirps warned. "The wormhole over there will take you back to the other area you were just in! It's a BAAAAAAAAD idea!"
"Hmmmmmm… I suppose you're right." Chopper charged up a fireball and fired it directly at the Fotons over by the right, obliterating them within seconds. "Now THAT'S more like it!"
"Hey, Chopper… You see that Fire Flower in the background?" Sonic pointed to the stars that were making a Fire Flower. "Doesn't that remind you of those Fire Flowers that we always saw?"
"What are you talking about? I have one right here!" Chopper pulled a Fire Flower out of his inventory. "Although… I think these things are starting to become a little useless, now that the enemies are getting a bit stronger…"
"Oh… I thought you were going to think about that Elemental Hand ability that you once had…"
"Don't bring that up," Chopper warned, glaring at Sonic. "You know that I'm still peeved at Dimentio for doing that. What did he have against me anyway? All I really did was sit down and relax for five months! …And also explore."
"Poyo! (Hey, guys… We need to take the wormhole!)" Kirby space swam over to the wormhole and allowed himself to be taken somewhere else.
"Hmmmm… Well, we might as well move on…" Tippi trailed as she followed the two others into the wormhole with Squirps. That's when they saw those spherical enemies with white eyes and some electrical circle around them appear.
"Poyo! (Get information on it before it disappears!)" Kirby cried. Chopper listened and used Tippi's powers to gather information on it.
"That's a Warpid, a being of pure energy that can warp through space... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 4. It will pursue any new discovery... Don't allow yourself to be mesmerized by its slowly undulating lines..." Tippi informed.
"All right, I guess we ought to…" Before Chopper could shoot the Warpids it immediately disappeared from their sight. "Oh, great… Now we missed our opportunity to attack it!"
"We've got two others behind us!" Sonic warned. Chopper immediately turned and squeezed Squirps a couple of times to defeat it. The other two Warpids made their appearance, but were soon destroyed by a charged fireball from Squirps.
"Squirps thinks you're good at using Squirps as a weapon, squirp!" Squirp commented. "…But you're not the best shooter, that's for sure."
"Not the best? Meh… I don't care about being the best." Chopper space swam ahead, dodging any of the asteroids that were in his way, but he soon found himself at the end of the area with no wormhole.
"Wait a second… We're at a dead end!" Sonic gaped.
"Poyo? (Where are we supposed to go now?)" Kirby asked.
"Oops! Squirps is so sorry!" Squirps cried. "You need to go over to the left! Squirps is so sorry for forgetting this!"
They immediately space swam to the left, going past the portal they previously took to find another pathway with more Warpids. Chopper blasted them with a charged fireball, Sonic used a Spin Dash and Kirby threw bombs at them to eliminate every single one of them.
"Well that solves one problem… At least we can move on…" Tippi trailed.
"Through the wormhole, squarp!" Squirps shouted as all four of them went into the wormhole and into another familiar area. They checked to see if anything was to their right. To their relief, there wasn't.
"I guess all we have to do is move right, then! Good enough!" Sonic smirked as he took out some Jelliens in their path with a Homing Attack. He even took care of some Fotons that were past some asteroids as well.
"I can feel the Star Block at the end of this area… I know I can…" Tippi said, feeling its energy growing.
"So we're near the end of the level, is that it? Well, if that's the case, then we ought to keep going!" Chopper blasted the rest of the Fotons around them until they came across a background with some stars circling around this small asteroid with a pipe on it. There was even a small wormhole in there as well.
"How do we get in there?" Sonic questioned.
"Hold on a minute…" Chopper grabbed everyone else and he flipped into 3-D. To his surprise, he saw a wormhole behind the asteroid. "Ahhh! There we go!"
As they got sucked into the wormhole, they were taken into the background, where they flew over to the pipe and were taken underground.
All that there was was a couple of coins and a ? Block when they came down. It was a bit disappointing, but Chopper managed to collect a couple of coins after flipping. Inside of the ? Block was a Mushroom that they all shared.
"Poyo… (It's not like we'll need it, but it'll do…)" Kirby split the Mushroom, allowing them all to take a piece to recover some HP. Afterward, they left the underground room.
Back outside-
"Well that was a waste of time…" Chopper groaned as they got out of the wormhole. "All there was was a Mushroom! It was almost like some kind of beginner's trap or something!"
"It's not a big deal, Chopper… We're already getting close to the Star Block anyway!" Sonic pointed to the Star Block past the Jelliens.
"Ooh! You're right! …And you even knew where the block was, Tippi! That's pretty nice!" Chopper commented, making Tippi blush (despite the fact that he didn't know about it).
As soon as they cleared the Jelliens, they space swam over to the Star Block. With one kick, Chopper was able to break the block and conclude this part.
END OF CHAPTER
Chopper and the gang cruised through space, led by the young alien named Squirps. What kind of creature was he anyway? "What the heck is this creature supposed to be?" thought Chopper as he looked at the alien. And what was with those weird noises? Whenever confronted with a question, it would say, "Squirps is Squirps, SQUAAK!" All they could do is trust that he knew where the Pure Heart was and follow him. They were doing just that when something appeared ahead of them. It was a teeny-tiny planet.
Yeah... Outer Space isn't EXACTLY the greatest chapter in the story, but it's not too bad, in my opinion. It's better than chapters like 2, 12, and MAYBE 17. I know we haven't gotten to those two chapters in editing, but my opinion could possibly change when we finally get there. ...Hopefully.
In the next chapter... Chopper and the gang explore the small planet that O'Chunks probably couldn't fit on! ...And something funny happens with Squirps. :P