CHAPTER 6-1
-The Desert in Danger-
As the background began to get drawn, the ground looked a bit flat for this world. But once it was colored, the ground was not really solid. It was actually all sand. When everything else began to get colored, a big blue sky could be seen up above the sand and even some puddles were around on the sand. All the way to the left was the ocean, which explains why this world is called Desert Oasis.
As the heroes walked out of the dark blue door, they took a look at their surroundings. "Sand… Some puddles…and even some palm trees. This doesn't look too bad! Don't you think so, Sonic?"
Chopper stopped when he noticed Sonic looking up at the sky. "Sonic? Guys?" He decided to look up at the sky as well. He nearly gaped at the sight he saw.
It was The Void, and boy, was it huge.
"The Void… It's enormous here… Much bigger than it is in Flipside…" Tippi gaped as The Void practically covered the entire sky. "This dimension must be very close to destruction… We'd better hurry… We have a Pure Heart to find."
"Poyo… (Yeah, we better hurry…)" Kirby gulped as he looked at the huge, dark swirling vortex in the sky. "Poyo… (I don't think we'll have enough time to get to the Pure Heart…)"
"Don't say that, Kirby! I think we have a perfect chance of getting there!" Chopper shivered as he looked on ahead. There wasn't anything except for a flat ground and a couple of gaps with quicksand. There were even Pokeys roaming around here.
"So, shall we get started?" Sonic grinned, rushing straight at the Pokey. Unfortunately, he ended up getting hurt instead because of the spikes on the enemy.
"Ack! I completely forgot about these spikes! Dang it!" he winced.
"Hold on… Let's see what I can do." Chopper walked over to the Pokey. It ended up throwing a spiked piece of its body at him, but he was able to inhale it before it hit him. Tippi, on the other hand, blinked confusedly.
"Chopper, what did you just do?" she questioned.
Once Chopper swallowed the piece of the Pokey's body, his skin changed to a yellow color, while his feet and gloves became orange. He now had a pink, spiky helmet strapped to his head. The spikes weren't out, but if he wanted to, he could surround himself with some pointy needles.
"What the heck? Now you have a spiky helmet strapped onto your head? This is just weird…" Blade grumbled as he looked at Chopper.
"Hey, don't diss the hat!" Chopper clenched his fists and suddenly needles sprung out of his helmet, protecting him from any harm, such as the Pokey's attacks. Luckily, he was close to the Pokey, so he pretty much took it out.
"Man, this is a lot stranger than the time I was going to learn probably the coolest thing from my sensai…but it just HAD to be something else." Blade recalled.
"What do you remember?" Sonic questioned.
"...How to do my laundry," Blade frowned, sighing in disbelief. "That old man was going to tell me something AWESOME! …But it turns out that it was just laundry! LAUNDRY, I TELL YOU!"
"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that." Chopper said as he got rid of the Pokey and walked over to the gap that had quicksand below. "I gotta say… This world doesn't seem TOO bad, but it stinks that this world might be meeting its end soon."
"Yeah, I agree, Chopper!" Sonic jumped over the gap and saw a Sand Cleft up ahead. "I prefer this place over the other world from the very START! And yes, I do believe that it's best to stay here. There's no water!"
"Poyo? (What about the puddles?)" Kirby pointed to some of the puddles on the sandy ground. "Poyo. (There's still some water around here, Sonic. Don't think you've gotten away from it.)"
"Wait, what the heck did he just say?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, don't worry about it, Sonic," Chopper assured, jumping over the quicksand and landing right in front of the Sand Cleft. Using his needles, he protected himself against the charging Cleft that ended up hurting itself.
"That Cleft is really stupid if it's really running into you when you have those spikes up," Blade snickered as he hit one of the ? Blocks, making a Mushroom come out.
"We're splitting that," Sonic stated as Blade sliced it into four pieces with his katana. All four of them recovered 10 HP from the Mushroom, but that really wasn't enough from what they have.
They came across some brown blocks making some sort of wall, so Chopper flipped into 3-D to go through it, only to find a couple of Squogs, but Blade immediately took care of them with some shurikens.
"Just remember: if an enemy's too far away, I'll just use my shurikens against 'em! Plain and simple!" Blade smirked.
"Yeah, that's not bad idea…" Tippi trailed as she looked up ahead. There was a huge gap with quicksand, but there were luckily some platforms that are above the quicksand. Ones that they could use to get across.
"Don't worry about the quicksand… You can still jump out of it if you're stuck…" she assured before a large Pokey with a flower on its head popped out of the quicksand. "What in the world…?"
"That looks like a Sand Pokey to me," Chopper stated as its big head began to come down on the heroes. However, the pale green gumball brought his needles up instead, making the Sand Pokey get hit instead.
"Poyo! (My turn to finish it!)" Kirby floated up to the Sand Pokey with air inhaled into him and he let out a huge puff of air on it, knocking it over and making it explode out of thin air.
"That was pretty handy! I guess we don't have to worry about that thing now." Chopper smiled as he jumped onto the brown platforms. "Although there's no water here… It does feel dry."
"Oh, you have a point there," Sonic said, his mouth feeling dry. "It's actually a bit hot around here!"
"That's why I hate deserts. There's BARELY any water and rain, and then there's the fact that it's HOT out! That's the worst part about this place. No. Friggin'. WATER!" Blade growled.
Once they jumped onto the top platform, they noticed that the next platform was a bit further ahead. The jump over the big brown-blocked wall might not be easy for our heroes to cross.
"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby squealed as he floated over to the platform. Well, it looks like someone can do it.
"OK, Kirby, all you have to do is wh-OOOOAAAAA!" Chopper was suddenly getting taken over to the platform by Kirby's inhaling ability. They didn't go in his mouth, but they fell off the brown platform and onto the sand, where a red door awaited them.
"Well, what do ya know? We finally found a door! Nice!" Sonic grinned as he opened the door for everyone to walk in. In the next area, the sandy ground was still flat, but there were some palm trees that could be seen. There were still some Sand Clefts walking around and also two pipes. At the end of the area was a locked door.
"Oh, boy… Looks like we have another locked door." Blade turned his attention to the Sand Cleft. "But first… We have this thing to take care of."
Blade looked down at the Sand Cleft with his katana and he struck the rock-hard monster. Unfortunately, he did so little damage to it because of its high defense. "Really?! That's just not right!"
"I know what to do," Chopper brought his needles out and allowed the Sand Cleft to charge at him. Only that charge attack got the Sand Cleft to hit itself and take itself out, penetrating through defense.
"See? That's not so hard to take care of!" the the antennae hero smiled until a Sand Pokey rose from the ground. "Uh oh..."
"Actually, this is where I get to do something incredibly awesome!" Blade smirked as he tossed a couple of shurikens at the Sand Pokey's head, taking it out. There WAS still a Pokey roaming around, though.
"Poyo! (Allow me to take care of that!)" Kirby jumped on Carrie and then floated over to the Pokey to give it a good jump. Though it didn't destroy it, the Pokey tried hurling a piece of its own body at him, only to have the piece get inhaled and spat back at the Pokey, defeating it for good.
Chopper jumped over to one of the pipes. The first one, he couldn't go down, but when he checked the second one, the pipe ended up firing him up to a platform up above, where there was a pipe.
The other three went into the pipe on the sandy ground and allowed themselves to be fired out to the platform Chopper was standing on. There was a ? Block that only contained a coin, however.
"All for a measly coin?! Weak!" Sonic frowned.
"We still have this pipe to go down," Chopper stated, pointing to the pipe. "What? You honestly thought that there would be nothing else? C'mon! We need to go down here for a key, for Pete's sake!"
As soon as Kirby, Sonic and Blade jumped into the pipe, Chopper looked up at the large swirling vortex in the sky, holding his Vivian and Berry plushie close to him.
"What are those two dolls you have?" Tippi questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"These? They're… Wait, did you just say dolls?"
"Yes… I called them dolls."
"They're NOT dolls! They're plushies!" Chopper retorted, bringing the two plushies away from her. "They're people that I've known from five months ago. I found these in Fort Francis."
"I see… You sure have gone through a lot before we met, that's for sure…" the Pixl trailed as she followed Chopper down into the pipe into an underground room filled with quicksand.
"Whoa… Why's this room filled with quicksand?" Chopper questioned as he landed in it.
"Quick, Chopper! Get out of it!" Sonic shouted, standing on an old platform with the other two.
"For what reason?"
"Just get out!"
"OK, fine!" Chopper jumped out of the quicksand and landed on the platform. But before he could get to speaking with the other three, a large, Sand Bug popped out of the sand and began to spit poison balls at them.
"Watch out!" Tippi warned. "If those poison balls strike you, you'll become poisoned!" Unfortunately, she was too late. Chopper was already struck by the poison attack, turning him to a dark green color (along with his spiky helmet and gloves).
"Ugh… I don't feel so good…" Chopper wheezed.
"Oh, boy… How are we gonna get rid of that poison on you then?" Sonic questioned, looking at the sick hero. "There's GOTTA be a way to make ya feel better! There has to be!"
"Maybe I could be of assistance!" Piccolo chirped as she began to play a soothing song. Not only did it cure Chopper of his poison, but it also put the Sand Bug to sleep.
"Poyo… (Whoa… Did you just see that?)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo! (It looks like Piccolo's ability allows you to put an enemy to sleep! That… That sounds really useful against these enemies!)"
"No kidding," Chopper nodded, tossing a couple of fireballs at the Sand Bug until it ended up sinking to the bottom of the quicksand. "Sheesh! How much HP does this thing even have? It's pretty tough!"
Unfortunately, two more Sand Bugs rose from the ground and tried to spew out more poison, but Chopper managed to block the attacks by bringing his needles up. Kirby started to play the Green Greens song from Piccolo, making them fall asleep.
"All right, time to get to beating these things!" Blade grinned as he tossed a couple of shurikens at the Sand Bug in front of him. He immediately finished it off with one last slash from his katana. "One for the ninja and zero for the Sand Bug!"
"Dude, it's not over yet," Sonic reminded as he jumped toward the other Sand Bug. He didn't want to fall in the quicksand, so he simply struck the enemy with a Homing Attack four times.
"There we go! Now that thing's gone!" the blue hedgehog sighed in relief as he landed on the platform.
They all noticed on the far right platform, a chest appeared. Kirby was the first to jump over to the platform and open the chest. But he seemed surprised when four shovels were inside.
"Poyo? (What the… Why are there shovels in here?)" the pink puffball gawked.
"Shovels? Let me see…" Chopper jumped onto the platform, making sure he didn't stomp on Kirby. He seemed rather shocked when he found a shovel. "Weird… Why would there be a shovel here?"
"I think we might need to use it for digging," Sonic stated. "But the thing is… How exactly do we dig for something?"
"Hmmmmmm…" Chopper pondered before figuring something out. He threw his arms up in the air and flipped into 3-D. To his surprise, he saw an X in the middle of the quicksand.
"I think this might be the reason," he stated as he jumped into the quicksand. With his shovel, he was able to dig a pipe out of the ground. "See? We just need to find an X in 3-D and presto! We'll find something!"
They jumped into the pipe, only to come back outside from the first pipe in the area. The area was still clear from before, so it was all OK. But what Chopper did first was flip into 3-D to see if there was anything around.
Oh, he found something all right. He found two X's on the sandy ground. One by the door and one between the pipes.
"Time to dig for treasure!" he smirked as he walked over to the X mark closest to him. Using his shovel, he managed to dig a Door Key out. He checked the other X to find a Tasty Coconut that can recover 30 HP. Not bad, he thought.
Everyone else followed him over to the red door, where he unlocked the key they needed to move ahead. This time, they found an area with a couple of sand pits and hills as well. It wasn't really that interesting, but the door ahead wasn't locked, that's for sure.
"Watch out for those sand pits…" Tippi warned, sensing something big in there. "I can feel something coming from those… If you get sucked into them, you might be in some big trouble…"
"What about those cacti around here?" Sonic asked, pointing to the small and large cacti. "You think those will get in the way?"
"Oh, I completely forgot about those… You're going to want to avoid those too. You can't defeat a cactus, but you can surely avoid it if you jump over it…"
Before they could act, a Sand Bug popped out of the sand pit and spewed a poison ball at Kirby, poisoning him. But, that didn't stop the pink puffball from curing his poison and putting the Sand Bug to sleep.
With that, Kirby got on Carrie afterward and took care of the sleeping bug. It dropped a Shroom Shake as well, so he grabbed that as well and moved on to a cactus-like enemy called a Cactin.
"There's no chance of stomping on those things…" Tippi warned. "You're only going to hurt yourself by doing that…"
"Then I'll smash it with my hammer then! …Or better yet, I'll burn it!" Chopper tossed a fireball straight at the Cactin, burning it instantly. But there was still another Cactin that was rolling toward them.
"I got this!" Blade sheathed his katana and then sliced the Cactin in half with one swing from his katana. "This isn't as hard as you think it is. …Well, that's only when you're a ninja. Otherwise, it's not easy to do this."
"Of course…" Chopper commented while walking over to the sand pit ahead to find a Sand Bug pop out. But, just like before, he destroyed it with a couple of fireballs. No way was going to risk smashing that thing with his hammer…or with a jump or needle attack. Too risky.
"Maybe you should check and see what's around in 3-D," suggested Sonic.
"I might as well do that then," Chopper flipped into 3-D to only spot some Sand Clefts walking around. Nevertheless, a good needle attack did them in when they charged at him. An X mark was near him as well, so he grabbed his shovel and began to dig for what was under there. But, to no surprise…he ended up digging a Cactin out.
"Agh! A Cactin!" Chopper pierced through its leathery body with his needle attack. "Whew… That's better! I was hoping that I'd get rid of that thing sooner or later… But, who cares?"
Flipping back into 2-D, they all made their way over to the door ahead. That led them to a small area with ruins up ahead. There weren't any enemies, but once they walked to the door, they felt some intense shaking.
"Oh no… The Void is starting to grow!" Tippi gaped as she looked up at The Void. It grew only a little, but the shaking was pretty intense for all of them.
"We better go inside then! It's a bit hot outside anyway." Chopper rushed into the ruins to a room with some Thwomps coming down on these pedestals, but they weren't coming down quickly like in that underground room back in Lineland Town.
"This shouldn't be too hard to maneuver. I've flipped into 3-D before and it makes this PRETTY easy." Chopper made sure his friends were close so he could flip into 3-D. There, they walked past the Thwomps and to the door ahead, leading them to a small room with a Star Block.
"Quickly! Hit the Star Block! We don't have much time to move!" Tippi shouted.
"I'm on it!" Chopper rushed over to the Star Block and he struck it with one punch – doing it faster than before!
END OF CHAPTER
Knowing that they had little time to chit-chat, Tippi immediately fluttered on ahead through the ruins with the four heroes following her. "We can't spend much time standing to talk! If we don't get to the Pure Heart in time, we'll fail!" Tippi shouted as they came across a hole. For some reason, it felt like it was going to lead somewhere underground…
Sorry if there wasn't much to this chapter for some of you guys. Chapter 6 really isn't the longest chapter in Super Paper Chopper. In my opinion, it's one of the shortest, like Chapter 6 in Super Paper Mario. But, have no fear, readers! It won't be just two chapter in this world! There is plenty of stuff for you to see!
Next up: Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade venture under the desert where it's not as bad as being outside.