Walking through the room, they were surprised to see a much larger room compared to the others.
"Wow… This room sure is big." Sonic gaped. "It's big enough for a boss fight."
"SLOWPOKES!"
Squirps was up ahead, waiting for the heroes. From the look on his face, he looked pretty impatient.
"Hey, it's not our fault!" Chopper explained. "If this place wasn't so confusing, we'd probably be here before you!"
"Well that's not the point right now, space grunts! Squirps was getting REALLY tired of waiting! Squirps almost gave up!" he shouted before calming down. "The Pure Heart that you're looking for is just ahead, space grunts!"
"Hmph! So you finally brought them here, Squirps… Not bad. You're a smart kid…for an alien."
Chopper, Kirby and Sonic: !
Squirps began to blush. "Squirple squeee! Stop it! Squirps is embarrassed!"
"…That wasn't us," Sonic whispered.
"Really? Then… Whose voice was that, squoh?"
Immediately, he got stomped by a shadowy person that looked a lot like Chopper. Only that this dark figure had white glowing eyes unlike Chopper.
"SQUIRP!"
"Well well well… So we finally meet again, Chopper, my archenemy…" Tipral said in an angry voice, facing away from the heroes with his arms crossed.
"Wait a second… No… It can't be!" Tippi gaped as Tipral turned around. "T-Tipral?! What… What are you doing here?!"
"So, Chopper… Are you surprised to see me here?" Tipral asked the stunned Chopper. He looked over at Tippi. "…And who might you be? I swear that I've heard your voice from somewhere before…"
"I'm the one that you injured when you got your hands on the Dark Prognosticus and Dark Star Scepter…" Tippi glared at Tipral.
"Hmmmmm? You mean that girl? YOU'RE teaming up with Chopper?" Tipral pondered again. "…But for some reason, when I first saw you, I thought I recognized you for a second…"
"Recognized…me…?"
"Yes... But all of that is in the past, and I'm done with the past. What matters is the future – my future, that is!"
Tipral looked at the dizzy Squirps and knocked him away with a simple kick as he walked over to Chopper, who got in a fighting stance, along with Kirby and Sonic.
"So, Tipral… You decided to take us on yourself, is that it?" Chopper questioned as he glared at Tipral.
"You could say that… Knowing that my minions failed to defeat you, I had to see if you were stronger than I thought you'd be. I DID expect you to take down O'Chunks. That's something I KNEW would happen."
"So you were just trying to test us to see if we could beat you?" Sonic tilted his head.
"The answer is yes, and no," Tipral stated with a clenched fist. "You see… I do intend to destroy you all. I even warned you before that if I met you again, I would put and end to you, Chopper. After all you've made me suffer through, it would be best to end your game in the worst ways possible!"
"If you wanted to end this battle, maybe you ought to use that Dark Star Scepter on us then! I DARE you to use it!" Chopper growled.
"Chopper! Don't encourage him to use that weapon!" Tippi cried.
"I don't need my scepter's power to take you guys down. I was able to put up a fight against you when I faced you back in Dark Subspace World. I could make this battle easier for me if I took your name and body! With the power I've gained now, I could do that! …But that wouldn't be the slow and satisfying death I want on you. Taking you down with my star powers is MUCH better!"
"Oh, so you wanna fight fair on us, huh?" Chopper smirked. "All right, Tipral! If you wanna give us some sort of fight, then bring it on! It's three against one! You're practically screwed!"
"That may be true, but it should be easier for me now that there aren't as many people with you now! Not even those pathetic little Pixls are REALLY going to help you against me…"
"Poyo? (What do you mean?)" Kirby tilted his head.
"Pixls are only meant to HELP the hero. They're not like partners from your last adventures! Many people think that they're boring and they hate them for being different."
"What? Oh, come on! They're not bad!" Chopper retorted. "And what does this have to do with the fight?"
"Your Pixls aren't as helpful as your partners! They may have one ability, but your other friends had more than one! I think this fight should be a bit easier for me because of that." Tipral got in a fighting stance. "Now let us battle! I had enough prattling for right now!"
Before Tipral could even attack, Chopper started off by using Tippi's powers to get some information on Tipral.
"That's Tipral… This dark being wishes to destroy the universe. I'm still a bit confused on what he meant by recognizing me… Max HP is 50. Attack is 5. Defense is 2. He'll throw a couple of Star Spears or any other Star powers in his possession at you… He won't use his Dark Star Scepter, but he can still conjure up some dark power with his shadow ball… Apparently, Tipral hasn't used the Chaos Heart's power to protect himself in this fight… I don't understand why, but if we defeat him, then we might have a chance of saving the universe… You simply MUST stop him, Chopper!" Tippi informed.
"Then this should be pretty simple!" Chopper clenched his fists as he rushed toward Tipral with a sweeping kick, only to have his counterpart grab his foot and throw him across the room.
"Hey! That's not fair!" he cried.
"Fair? Oh, I'm playing fair… This is how I would fight fairly!" Tipral swung his arm, firing a purple spear-like projectile in his direction.
"Whoa!" Chopper quickly got up and jumped out of the way of the Star Spear. He was able to land right in front of Tipral and strike him with a sweeping kick from a left angle, knocking his counterpart back.
"Heh heh! Well that was interesting!" Chopper stomped on Tipral's head to perform a stylish move until Tipral grabbed him and slammed him to the ground and began punching him in the face with Star Punches.
"Poyo! (Get off of him!)" Kirby growled as he inhaled Tipral and spat him to the wall, making the area shake for a little bit before the dark being pushed himself off.
"You guys are doing a good job right now…" commented Tippi. "Don't let him stop you… If he manages to win this fight, it's all over…"
"Hmph! So, you like to play rough, do you? I suppose I'll do the same!" With a snap of his finger, all three heroes were struck by a small purple explosion via his Star Magic. "There's no escaping that!"
"Ugh… That was pretty painful." Sonic groaned, holding his arm. "Tipral's not really a pushover. With that defense on him, stomping on him is a bit difficult, not being able to do as much damage to him…"
"So, Chopper… Do you remember THIS move?" Tipral conjured up a shadow ball and hurled it toward him. The antennae hero was knocked back by the evil dark power within that move.
"Ugh… How come you can still do what while I don't have any Elemental Hand attacks?! This is bull!" Chopper rushed straight at Tipral, but he ended up getting punched in the face by Tipral's Star Punch.
"Don't even try to charge at me," Tipral warned. "It's not going to work. Trust me, it's happen before, and it's not going to happen again."
Chopper attempted to punch Tipral, but he simply blocked the attack. "All right, then… I suppose this should make the fight a bit interesting!"
He tossed Hommissile straight at Tipral, making him fly back toward the wall. The dark Chopper crashed into the wall, but he was able to push himself off and throw a couple of shadow balls at the heroes.
"Oh no ya don't!" Sonic came rushing in, knocking Tipral back with a Homing Attack while he was in the air.
"Ooog…" Tipral hit the ground, but he wasn't going to give up just yet. When Sonic came down on him with a Bounce Attack, he knocked him away with a Star Kick, sending him to the ceiling.
"How pathetic… I thought you were tougher than what you used to be, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Tipral scoffed as the blue hedgehog fell to the ground in pain. "I could almost laugh at all of you for being so pathetic! …But I will not."
While Tipral was mocking Sonic, Kirby got on Carrie and jumped on top of him, but the pink puffball cringed as soon as Tipral grabbed his foot and swung him at Sonic across his face.
"Poyo?! (What the… How can he even DO that?! That's like something Metal Chopper could only do!)" Kirby gaped as he and Sonic hit the wall.
Tipral was about to taunt both of them, but Chopper came and stomped on his counterpart's head, knocking him back toward Kirby and Sonic, who both pummeled him with their attacks.
"Gah! You stupid little…!" Tipral drove the three of them away with a Star Pulse, firing a huge pulse energy attack that knocked all three of them to the wall.
"This fighting is starting to get so pointless!" Tipral grabbed Chopper and threw him over to the wall. "I can't believe I'm fighting you in a weaker state!"
"Hey, we're both even right now, Tipral! You have the same amount of HP that you had when we first faced each other. You shouldn't be complaining about it!" Chopper threw Hommissile at Tipral to knock him back to the wall.
"Let's see what you're capable of doing, Screwdy!" Sonic grinned as he made a dash toward Tipral and then used a corkscrew attack on his head.
"Gccck! …I see. So you want to play it that way." Tipral struck Sonic with his OWN sweeping kick attack that was able to trip him, allowing the dark being to stomp on him himself.
"Come on, Sonic! Don't give up like this! You're a hero! You can't just let this villain win so easily!" Sonic thought as he struggled to get up.
"What's wrong, hedgehog? You can't get up?" Tipral scoffed.
"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby inhaled Hommissile and spat him straight at Tipral, hitting him in the back.
"Arrghh! Why you little…!" Tipral turned his head to Kirby. "Oh… It's just you. This should be easy for me!"
With a snap of his finger again, he managed to knock Kirby in the air with his Star Magic ability. With one jump, he was able to kick Kirby to the ground with a Star Kick Matrix style.
"Oh, come on! That thing is so clichéd!" Chopper clenched his fist as he made a dash at Tipral. He was able to punch him in the face, but it didn't do much. "…I wish my punches were stronger than this."
"Too bad for you, Chopper!" Tipral grabbed his arm and then punched him in the face with a Star Punch. All Tippi could do was gaze in fear at Chopper, Kirby and Sonic being beaten up by Tipral.
"I think now's the time to recover some HP," Tipral pulled a Shroom Shake out, but that's when it hit Chopper. Using Thoreau, he managed to grab the Shroom Shake from him and take a drink from it himself.
"Say… These things aren't too bad! I can't believe they made a shake out of these things!" Chopper smiled as he wiped his mouth. "All right, Tipral! Let's do this!"
Chopper attempted to punch Tipral again, but his attack was block. Instead of letting Tipral punch him, he used his own head to bash him in the face, knocking him back a bit with a mark on his head.
"Oof! Very clever…" Tipral clenched his fists and attempted to punch Chopper, only to have him grab his arm and strike him with an uppercut kick attack that sent him up to the ceiling.
"Let's see how this works out!" Chopper smirked as he managed to jump up to Tipral and slam him down to the ground with one more kick attack.
The three heroes gaped as Tipral slowly got himself up. He wasn't finished yet? But… How was that possible?
"Get back here, you pathetic little heroes!" Tipral charged at the three heroes, readying a Star Punch. But when they all jumped out of the way, Tipral punched the wall instead. As a result, a small hole had formed
"If that's all you're going to do, then I think we've got this..." Tippi trailed.
"I don't think so," Tipral snapped his finger, summoning another Star Magic attack to attack the heroes. Chopper managed to dodge the attack, but the other two weren't so lucky.
"Take…THIS!" Chopper landed a slamming kick on Tipral to knock his head to the ground. With one more stomp, he was able to do him in. It looked like he was finally finished with the fight.
…Or was he?
Tipral slowly got himself up, knocking Chopper away with a Star Pulse attack. "Urghh… Not bad, Chopper… Not bad at all! So you are a bit tougher than I thought you would be. Congratulations."
He began to slowly clap. "…But apparently, thanks to you, I've injured myself. But this fight is still FAR from being over. I wouldn't give up so easily!"
"What do you mean? What do you have planned?" Tippi questioned.
Tipral pulled the Dark Star Scepter out and he twirled it. Looking at Squirps, he pondered. "So, you apparently made your way to the Whoa Zone with the helped of that little alien, yes? Well, I have a little idea!"
He created a darker version of Squirps that was standing right in front of Chopper. "You may refer to this being as…Spriuqs! …Or you can call him Dark Squirps if you wish."
Tipral also managed to transport him and the three heroes in Outer Space, where he grabbed onto Dark Squirps and aimed at Chopper, who immediately grabbed Squirps.
"What the… What's this?" Sonic questioned.
"Poyo! (We're floating in space! …But Tipral's got himself a dark version of Squirps!)" Kirby gawked at the dark alien.
"SQUAAAAAAG!" Squirps growled as he saw Dark Squirps's purple eyes glaring at him. "What is the meaning of this?! Why is there another Squirps here?! There's only ONE, SQUAG!"
"You tell him, Squirps!" Chopper smirked as he began to fire at Dark Squirps and Tipral, who cringed as he took damage from each of the fireballs that were being struck by him.
"Well, looks like I can't really help much… All I can do is THIS!" Sonic curled up in a ball and he struck Tipral. Luckily, for Tipral, he didn't get hit in his injured arm. That would be painful.
"Hmph! I don't need my fist to win this fight!" Tipral growled as he struck Sonic with a couple of dark fireballs.
"Whoa!" Sonic got knocked back over by Chopper and his friends. "Man, I didn't know that those fireballs were THAT painful!"
"Squirps's fireballs can definitely be painful!" Squirps smiled until he saw a green candy bar. "Space grunt! Get the candy bar! Squirps NEEDS chocolate!"
"Uhhh… OK?" Chopper space swam over to the green chocolate bar. When he began firing at Tipral, he noticed that Squirps was also firing missiles. What the heck?
"Squirple squee! Squirps loves to fire missiles!" Squirps squealed as he fired a barrage of missiles at Tipral, who got knocked back a couple of times from the missiles.
"Ugh… I'm going to need to push myself up a bit." Tipral pulled his scepter out and began to fire a couple of dark asteroids at the heroes. Chopper was able to shoot some of them, but he got knocked back by one of them, along with Kirby and Sonic.
"Take this!" Tipral flew over to Chopper and he tried to swing his scepter at Chopper's face. Unfortunately, he ended up hitting Squirps's face instead.
"Now you made Squirps angry… SQUOOGLE!" Squirps fired a couple of fireballs at Tipral, but when he twirled his scepter around, he began to deflect some of the fireballs being sent back at him.
"Oh, please… You really think you're going to beat me with a barrage of fireballs? This scepter could practically OBLITERATE you for all I care! It's the most powerful weapon in the universe!"
"Gulp! Now Squirps is scared…" Squirps gulped.
"Oh, don't worry about it, Squirps," Chopper assured. "We still have this in the bag." Chopper flew over to a blue chocolate bar, which created a barrier around them. This allowed him to attack Tipral with a couple of fireballs from Squirps.
"Poyo! (Hey, I wanna make a move!)" Kirby pouted as he watched from the sidelines.
Luckily, for him, when Tipral fired a couple of dark fireballs from Dark Squirps, he inhaled one of them and spat it out at Tipral, knocking him back toward the right end of the screen.
"Bleh! You're going to pay for that!" Tipral fired a Star Spear straight at Kirby, knocking him back with intense speed. He proceeded to fire more dark fireballs with Dark Squirps while Chopper fired fireballs with Squirps.
Both of them were getting hit, but the only difference was that Chopper was still surrounded by a shield…until it wore off. But, at least a red candy bar rose Squirps's Attack power.
"Ugh… How long will this fight last?" questioned Chopper as he kept firing at Tipral.
"I have no idea…" Sonic shrugged.
"This fight will only end with you dead!" Tipral charged up an attack from Dark Squirps and he fired it straight at Chopper, knocking him away from Squirps.
"This is more like it," Tipral released Dark Squirps so he could let him fight Squirps on his own. "Now we can settle this!"
"If only I had my Super Star form to help me get through space…" Chopper muttered as he raised his arms up to defend against Tipral's punches and kicks. Unfortunately, he ended up getting kicked in the face.
"Oh, come on! Why do you always have to be like that?!" Chopper grumbled as he kicked Tipral with a sweeping kick. Little did Tipral know that Kirby inhaled him and spat him out at Dark Squirps.
"Poyo! (I'm just trying to help!)" Kirby said cheerfully.
"This should do something to," Sonic struck Tipral twice with two Spin Dashes, knocking him over to the right.
"Now, Chopper! Finish him!" shouted Tippi.
"OK!" Chopper made his way over to Tipral and then kicked him with a sweeping kick attack. But he knew for a fact that he didn't beat him yet, since Tipral was able to throw him into Kirby and Sonic.
"Man, you're being violent like Metal Chopper…" Chopper muttered under his breath.
"Don't compare me to Metal Chopper!" growled Tipral as he grabbed Chopper and swung him around in a circle, hitting Kirby, Sonic and even Squirps. Tippi almost got hit by this violent move.
"Let got of me!" Chopper struggled to break free, but Tipral let go of him and sent him flying.
"Take THIS!" Tipral hurled a couple of shadow balls straight at Chopper, while he inhaled a couple of spat them out at him, leaving him a bit weak.
"Argh!" Tipral grunted. "You little…! I'll make you suffer!"
"Oh, I don't think so!" Chopper made a dash toward Tipral and punched him in the face. With one sweeping kick, he managed to send him straight to Dark Squirps, who began to disappear after getting hit.
"What? How could this be?! How did I lose to the likes of you?!" Tipral exclaimed as they were transported back to the Whoa Zone. Chopper, Kirby and Sonic were happily fine while Tipral fell to the ground from the ceiling. As he got up, he panted while glaring at the three. "Ugh… You three were lucky that I didn't use the Chaos Heart's power against you… So, don't think this is all finished, 'cause it's not. However, I'm going to let you go for now. I believe you already had enough from me."
"Yeah, good idea, Tipral…" wheezed Chopper, who was holding his left arm in pain. "Maybe you should take that Chaos Heart and get rid of it. Don't you KNOW what you're even doing?!"
Tipral folded his arm. "Of course. I read the prophecy. I know what's going to happen, and that's what I want it to be. You never know… Some worlds could be getting destroyed at this moment. Perhaps…your planet?"
Chopper clenched his fists. "I swear, if you do ANYTHING to my home world, you're going to regret it!"
Tipral looked at Tippi. "As for you… While I feel like I've seen you from somewhere from my past, I'm not going to let that bother me. This is now, not the past."
He glared at Chopper one more time before he teleported out of the room. Squirps came crawling back to the heroes, now recovered from Tipral's vicious attack.
"Ugh… That was awful, squirp!" he grumbled. "We have to pull ourselves together, space grunts… The Pure Heart is ahead! Come on, squinkles!"
Chopper nodded to the little alien as he and his two friends followed him into the door up ahead.
"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Squirps brought them here!" Squirps squealed.
"M-Mommy?" Chopper walked over to Squirps, who was gazing at something interesting to them.
"Oh, we're finally here…" Squirps turned to the heroes. "Come on! You guys need to say hi to Squirps's Mommy, squirp!"
Chopper, Kirby and Sonic gaped at the large, golden statue of Squirps's species. Her tentacles were much longer than Squirps's and she was holding some kind of scepter with a UFO on it.
"Mommy's been waiting very long for you people to arrive! And now you're all here!"
"…Wow. Seeing her reminds me of when I saw my mother… Except that she was never made into a statue." Chopper sniffed.
"Poyo? (Are you all right, Chopper?)" Kirby questioned.
"What? Oh, yeah. I'm fine."
"So this is your, uh, 'Mommy'?" Sonic asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, this is Squirps's mommy! The queen of Squirpia! Her name is Squirpina XIV!" Squirps answered.
"Oh... Yes! I remember her!" Tippi realized. "And that makes you..."
"That's right, squinkles! Squirps is the prince of Squirpia, a once-great kingdom… My true name is… Squirp Koroglaine Squirpina! Sorry for not telling you… Squirps promised not to tell! It makes Squirps a target!"
"Wow… Is it just me or is my head starting to hurt?" Chopper rubbed his head. "I just can't keep up with plot points this complicated."
"Poyo, (I have to agree,)" Kirby nodded.
"Long ago, Squirps's mother was told that destruction would come to the world," Squirps started. "To help save us from the destruction, the Pure Heart was needed... So Mommy hid the Pure Heart in the Whoa Zone, where no one could get to it. And so, 1,500 years ago, Squirps was put to sleep in a hibernation capsule, squeeep! Squirps was meant to bring the hero here…to protect the world, squirple!"
"Now I feel a bit bad for being a bit…mean to him at some times." Sonic frowned.
"We're sorry if we didn't really get along or think of you as an enemy..." Chopper apologized. "That was wrong of us."
"Squirps says that's OK! You guys didn't know Squirps was really helping you, so all is forgiven!" Squirps smiled.
"Yeah! We really appreciate the help you gave us!" Sonic smiled, giving the young alien a thumbs up.
"Squirps thanks you, space grunts… Anyway, Squirps doesn't want to get off topic now. The prince of Squirpia, Squirps, has a message from the queen to deliver… Ahem! 'I bestow upon you the Pure Heart in the hope that you will save the world…' Here! Take it! Squirp!"
Squirps grabbed the blue Pure Heart from his mother's statue and brought it over to the young star being. As the Pixls began to dance below the Pure Heart, Chopper held it up.
YOU GOT A PURE HEART
END OF CHAPTER
"Phew! Now that Squirps is all relaxed, Squirps feels kinda…tired…" said Squirps. And with that, Squirps lay down before the statue of his beloved mother. "Mother…" he said, his voice soft. "I did my best, right? Are you…proud…of me?" Then…slowly…young Squirps closed his eyes… This mission had weighed heavy on his tiny back, and he was proud to fulfill it. Knowing that Tipral was still around, Chopper, Kirby, and Sonic made their way back to Flipside to prepare themselves for their next quest.
Well! Some of you might be surprised that the main villain is fought early in this story. I felt like I wanted to make things interesting by not making him stay in his castle all the time. I mean, he DOES have to do something against the heroes sometimes, right?
Also some interesting trivia: Tipral has been a boss of Chapter 4 twice! It was kind of coincidental, if you ask me...
In the interlude, we find out what's going on with Tipral and how his hand might be treated.