The five were left surprised when they had witness the beauty of the room they stepped in. It had a blue rug on the ground and even windows that showed the ocean's bottom. Most of them had been paying more attention to the window than the small, beautiful waterfalls in the room as well.
"Wow… This room is very pretty…" Tippi commented.
"I'll say!" Chopper smiled.
"What?! Who's there?!"
Everyone stopped paying attention to the scenery and looked up ahead. There, they saw a blue, genie-like watery king glaring at them with his yellow eyes. He looked a lot like what he was on the wallpaper in the Swamint town, but they were surprised when they saw some long, watery hair on him as well.
"I was never expecting any visitors like you people here!" the king growled. "Do you even KNOW whose room you just barged into?!"
Everyone was silent.
"This is the room of King Neptunian! I am the king of the sea, if you must know… This place is ruled by me, and only me!"
"Pardon me, your Majesty… But there's something we need to discuss to you about…" Tippi first spoke.
"Hmmmmmm? Hold on a moment… Now that I think about it, I heard about four people trespassing in my palace. I believe that you three might be the ones that were doing that, is that correct?" Neptunian asked, putting his finger on his chin.
"Well… No. Not exactly…" Chopper lied.
"I can see it in your face! You're lying!" Neptunian clenched his scepter as he glared at them. "I know why you've come here. You want me to stop attacking the Swamints, is that correct?"
"Yes, we would love that… But the question is… Why are you doing this?" Tippi questioned.
"Those Swamints were starting to get so annoying that I couldn't stand to hear them! Those accents of theirs are also irritating!If you're siding with those Swamints, then be warned: you will not leave this place alive."
"Accents? Really?" Blade growled. "Do you really have a problem with them just for how they speak?"
"Oh, no… I can easily get behind that. You see, they've caused some serious problems for me. You see… They've been tearing down some of my glorious statues that I've been proud to take a look at! All but one have been taken down! They've also melted them and used them for many other horrible things!"
"Maybe it's because you're acting like a complete jerk! Why can't you just leave them alone and be good for one?" Chopper shouted.
"Good? Oh, no… They don't deserve any good! They don't even deserve THIS thing!" Neptunian held up the indigo Pure Heart that they've been looking for all this time.
"It's the Pure Heart!" Tippi gaped as all four heroes got in their fighting stances.
"Ah, so you like my little trinket, do you? I found this thing floating in the ocean a couple of months ago. It's such a nice little prize…for me, that is. I can see it in your eyes! You want this thing, don't you?"
"That's what we NEED to save the universe, Neptunian!" Chopper growled.
"Neptunian?! How DARE you call me by my name?! You may only refer to me as 'your Majesty' or 'your Highness'! Nothing else!"
"We're NOT loyal to you, we don't have to call you that!" Blade hissed, drawing his katana. "I can't believe you would DO something like this! You just took things TOO far with your own people!"
"Bah! I have no sympathy for those people after what they've done to me!" Neptunian stood up from his throne. "I had enough of your babbling. I think now's the time I took care of you myself. Consider this an honor…from the king!"
Neptunian raised his arms up, filling the entire room with water. He then floated up to the middle of the room. "How long can you fools hold your breath? This whole place is flooded, so there's no escape from here! Don't even think about using the door. It's not going to work."
"Rats!" Chopper kicked the ground as Neptunian fired a bubble from his hand at them. "I think that could be used as an air bubble if possible."
Sonic immediately grabbed the air bubble and he inhaled it, getting some air in his lungs. He then struck Neptunian with a Spin Jump.
"Let's see what we get from this guy," Chopper started off by using Tippi's powers to gather information on him.
"This is King Neptunian. He's the king of the sea… Max HP is 60. Attack is 5. Defense is 3. He'll try to attack you by using some water beam attacks, or even use lightning to strike you... Being a king of the seas, he can summon currents to strike you, or even bubble beams. Sometimes he might fire an air bubble at you... You can grab it to get some air, but it's not that useful if you can handle being underwater… I don't know why, but it seems like the Pure Heart really has messed with his mind… I remember Elder Humpback saying something about the Pure Heart driving him crazy… Is this true?"
"Hmmmmm… You may be onto something, Tippi." Chopper smiled as he turned over to Neptunian. He was a bit distracted with Sonic, so he decided to toss a fireball at the king, setting him on fire for a couple of seconds.
"Ack! What in the world?! How can you use fire in water?!" questioned Neptunian as he turned to Chopper, whose hand still had a flaming aura on it. Kirby, on the other hand, made two Bubble Shields for both Sonic and Blade so they could breathe during the fight.
"Bah! It's best not to question that!" Twirling his scepter, Neptunian fired a blue beam straight at Chopper, knocking him over to the door. He slowly got up and saw Blade strike him with his katana.
"Look, Neptunian… We want you to stop with all this madness right NOW! It shows how much of an insensitive person you are!" Blade growled, bringing his katana down on him vertically.
"Ugh… You pest!" Neptunian fired a watery beam from his scepter at Blade, but the ninja managed to make clones of himself. He made three, to be exact. One of them was hit by the beam, disappearing out of thin air.
"What in the world?! What did you just do?!"
"I just made a clone of myself," the two Blades smirked as they tossed a couple of shurikens at Neptunian. Some of them ripped through his robe, but the rips ended up going away. They harmed him, but the wounds simply disappeared from his genie-like body.
"What the… So my attacks didn't do a thing to him? What a load of bull…" Blade was soon struck by a beam fired by Neptunian. He was knocked over by the wall, with his Bubble Shield popping.
"Well, looks like Blade lost his Bubble Shield…" Sonic immediately jumped out of the way from Neptunian's bubble beam and then struck the sea king with a Homing Attack, knocking him to his throne.
"Poyo! (Hey! I wanna fight too!)" Kirby swam over to Neptunian and he struck him with a beam of water that made him cringe in pain.
"Hmmmm… Now that I think about it, you might be good to use against those other three!" Neptunian smirked as he twirled his scepter and aimed it at Kirby. However, all he received from him was another beam of water that knocked him to the ground.
"If only I could use my Wing ability…" Chopper grumbled as he pulled his hammer out. "Oh well. I guess this will do."
Chopper brought his hammer down on Neptunian's stomach, making him hold his stomach in pain. "Oooooog… What exactly IS that thing you hold in your hands? How does it magically appear?"
"Oh, I'm the one doin' that!" Cudge informed.
"Ugh… You're going to pay for that!" Neptunian said, just like any other villain would say (and it's starting to get a bit clichéd with my writing) and he tried knocking Chopper back with a bubble beam, only to have the green gumball jump out of the way.
"Come on, really? Are bubbles the only thing you can use?" Chopper scoffed as he kicked him in the face with a flaming spinning kick, leaving a couple of marks on his face for a few seconds.
"Hold still, you!" Neptunian summoned a watery fist to send him flying across the room with a punch.
"Kirby! Try to get rid of the water in here! I think it'll make the fight a bit easier for us!" Chopper cried.
"Poyo! (I'll see what I can do!)" Kirby nodded as he tried using his water powers to get rid of all the water. Luckily, he succeeded in doing so and got rid of all the water in the room.
"Ack! My beautiful water! What have you done to it?!" exclaimed the king as he turned to Kirby. All he got from the puffball was a water beam to his face. "Augh! My beautiful eyes!"
"Well that did something!" Blade said proudly as he rushed toward Neptunian. "With the water gone, we have more of an advantage!"
Before the king could get up, he was slashed in the chest by Blade's katana. He tried to defend himself, but the ninja cat was able to deliver another slash. This time, he struck his arm.
"Arrghh! Ninjas… It'd always tough to avoid their moves…" Neptunian brought his scepter up, which surprising (to Blade) blocked the katana easily. He immediately whacked Blade afterward with it, knocking him to the ground.
"And now I shall finish you off with this!" Neptunian aimed the pointy part of his scepter down on Blade and began to charge up an electric attack. "Who says that water kings don't have electricity?"
But before Neptunian could strike Blade, Sonic bashed him with a Spin Dash, sending him flying over to his throne.
"You OK, Blade?" Sonic asked, pulling him up to his feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Sonic. Thanks for helping me there. I thought I was a goner." Blade turned to the water king and tossed a couple of shurikens at him. "…But we still have him to take care of."
"Yeah, that's true," Sonic came charging at Neptunian as he got up, but he soon summoned a bubbly shield around him, preventing anyone from attacking him.
"Ha ha ha! This battle isn't even over yet, you fools!" Neptunian cackled. "There's no stopping me with THIS!"
"Poyo! (Oh yeah there is!)" Kirby fired a water beam straight at Neptunian, but the attack didn't do anything to him. "Poyo… (He's right… We can't do anything to him…)"
"Not if I can help it!" Chopper used his Wing ability to fly up in the air and dive down on Neptunian's shield headfirst. Sure, it might hurt his head, but he was able to at least leave a crack in it.
"Ah! I see what you're trying to do there, Chopper! That's not too hard!" Sonic smirked as he jumped on top of Neptunian's shield. "OK, Screwdy! I think now's the time to put you to the test!"
With one jump, Sonic came down on Neptunian with a corkscrew, breaking through his shield and also hitting him with a powerful attack as well.
"HOW did you break through my shield?!" he gaped. "Unless… There were a couple of flaws to it…"
"Everything has flaws," Chopper stated as he fired a couple of pointy feathers at Neptunian. "If you're perfect… Then that means you're just some overpowered person that doesn't even deserve to be here."
"Hmmmm… That's true." However, King Neptunian wasn't going to let himself be distracted by these people. He attempted to strike Chopper with a water beam, but his attack missed.
"Can't hit what ya can't reach," Chopper scoffed as he rammed his head down on his with a big swoop attack, sending him flying across the room like before. He then tossed a couple of fireballs after landing on the ground.
"Arrgh! Take this!" Neptunian struck Chopper with a water beam attack, knocking him to the ground like before. But before the king could jab him with his scepter, he got up and stomped on his head, performing a stylish move.
Sonic came up next after seeing Neptunian knock his friend away. "All right, Neptunian! You asked for it?"
"Asked for what?" Neptunian turned, only to get knocked to the ground by Sonic's Spin Dash attack.
"THAT'S what you were asking for!" Sonic scoffed while waggling his finger at him. "And here's a little bonus!"
With one jump, he performed a Homing Attack on Neptunian. At this moment, the king was outraged, so he filled the whole room with water once again in order to prevent the heroes from breathing.
"That's right, you pitiful heroes! Drown! You can't survive underwater like those pathetic Swamints, so this fight should be in the bag for me!" Neptunian grinned as he struck Sonic with electricity.
Sonic wanted to scream, but that would make him exhale some air in his mouth, so he tried as best as possible NOT to let out a huge scream.
At this moment, Neptunian surrounded himself with bubbles. "This barrier should do nicely while I zap you all to the underworld!"
"Wait a second… Those bubbles look like air bubbles…" Tippi trailed. "Maybe if Sonic and Blade grabbed those, they could get rid of that shield…"
After hearing Tippi, Sonic immediately jumped over to the barrier of bubbles around Neptunian. He inhaled each and every one of them, along with Blade.
"What the… What's happening to my barrier?! Gah!" Neptunian was soon struck by Blade's katana after he got a hold of him. He even punched the evil king in the face after dazing him.
"Hmmmm… You are a rather tough cat, I'll admit – even for being able to hold your breath underwater! No matter… I still have one trick up my…"
Neptunian was soon interrupted when Kirby struck him with a water beam. "Poyo?! (Can you stop the talking and fight?! Come on! I don't wanna hear a villain boasting all the time!)"
"You little…!" Neptunian zapped Kirby with a lightning attack, knocking the poor puffball's Water ability away. Because it was underwater, there was no way of getting it back.
"Crud… Things aren't looking good here." Chopper gulped, despite the fact that he could still fight with his hammer. "I guess I'll throw in one more thing before I get hurt."
Chopper swam toward Neptunian and delivered a spinning hammer attack (vertically) on him, but he was soon knocked away by Neptunian's lightning attack, also stripping him of his ability.
"Aw, come on! That's not fair!" Chopper whined.
Since Neptunian was distracted by the two, Blade immediately kicked Neptunian in the shin and struck him with his katana. He tried one more time, but the king brought his scepter up first.
"You won't win this!" he scoffed.
Unfortunately, he was wrong on that. Blade managed to conjure up some flames on his katana, which was good enough to slice through his scepter.
"No… My scepter!" Neptunian cried before Blade finished him off with a flaming slash. The king himself collapsed as the water in the room disappeared.
"This… This can't be… The king can't be defeated so…" Neptunian stopped at that very moment and closed his eyes shut.
"N-NEPTUNIAN!" a girlish voice cried out as a pink genie walked into the room. She was a bit similar to Neptunian, except she didn't have a scepter and she was much shorter than him. Some people know her as Queen Taki.
"Wh-What did you do to my husband?!" she cried.
"We've defeated him. Sorry, but it was the right choice to do." Chopper said.
Taki stood up and looked at the heroes in tears. "You don't understand, though! My husband… He was a great man. He always cared about me and all the people around the sea. He never meant any harm… Just please, don't hurt him anymore."
"We weren't planning on hurting him any further…" Blade frowned, putting his katana away. "I didn't want to fight him, but he was the one asking for it."
"Y… Yes… I do understand that when he got something, it made him feel corrupt. He started to blame everyone for what they've done. In all honesty, those statues were being melted to make conservative solar panels to help the environment. But he had his reasons for getting mad at the Swamints."
"What did they do?" Tippi questioned.
"You see… The Swamints have been eating his favorite clams in the sea. He loved them very much and as soon as he heard about them eating them, he was angered by this. That might be one of the reasons why he started to hate them after finding a strange, magical item."
"Well! It appears that I had a feeling something like this was why the water's so polluted!" Just before Taki could finish the story, they heard Flint and his camera crew walk into the room.
"Flint? You made it here? But…how?" Chopper wondered.
"You're not going to believe this… But… I finally conquered my fear of swimming. Yes… I…swam." Flint announced as he walked over to the queen. "CRAGELY HO! 'Emergency special report from Queen Taki! The devouring of King Neptunian's favorite clams drives him mad! Whither he rampage?'"
Flint brought his attention back to the queen. "Well this is some interesting news we've heard! I was thinking that there was something going on with the population of clams around here."
"This play well in Cragnon crowd…" Hornfels stated.
"Ratings EXPLODED, brah! It like 'Crags on Ice' meets 'Baron von Craggington'!" Monzo cheered.
"Oh, yes. My husband considers clams to be very sacred. He would never let anyone harm them except nature itself." Taki nodded.
"Well, I'll make sure I get the word through those Swamints! …If possible. As soon as the word comes in, those Swamints will never hunt any more clams!"
"Thank you… Those Swamints started to enjoy them as soon as they migrated over to their side of the ocean. The Neptos were only trying to stop them from eating them. They didn't think that you were here for a reason."
"What about the polluted waters?" Tippi questioned.
"Things might be cleared up as soon as my husband gets back up," Taki took the indigo Pure Heart from her husband and turned to the four heroes. "While you hurt my husband, I knew that you were the heroes and had a reason for fighting. I can forgive you for this… This thing was meant to be held onto until the heroes' arrival for 1,500 years. I think it's best for you to take it."
As she tossed the Pure Heart above Chopper, all of the Pixls around him began to do their cute dance as he held the Pure Heart up.
"Well, we may have hurt someone, but at least we got this."
YOU GOT A PURE HEART
END OF CHAPTER
"Men to true grit witness live what others can only see through crag-vision. That is what moves me to travel into the belly of the beast week after week. Thanks again for watching, and until next time…CRAAAGLEY HO!" Having wrapped up their latest shoot, Flint and crew went back to Swamint Town to alert the Swamints about Neptunian and soon return to their home. Chopper and friends clutched the Pure Heart as they walked back toward Flipside. Our heroes had taken a closer step toward overturning Tipral's dark prophecy…
And that concludes Chapter 5 of Super Paper Chopper! Yup! Now we're getting into some of the deep stuff here! ...While Chapter 5 was pretty cool and all, the next chapter might be a bit more...intense. If you don't believe me, then you'll have to see for yourself when we get there! ;)