CHAPTER 6-2
-Oasis Underground-
Jumping down the hole in the ruins, our heroes landed underground in the Desert Oasis. Now that they were safe from all of the extreme heat from the sun, they could all relax and hopefully move through the place a lot easily, unlike being outside, which was a lot tougher for them with the Sand Bugs and Cactin.
This place looked strange to them, however… All of the sand on the ground was a purple color and not the yellow color that it usually is. They could also see some dead coral in the background and even some small grains of sand coming from the ceiling (not on top of them, just in other places). In fact, the landing felt a bit soft on the big lump of purple sand they landed on.
Chopper bent down and picked up a spec of sand and let it drop from his fingers. "Well… This is definitely a strange place to be in for sure. I mean, it's underground AND it doesn't feel like it's much of the desert! It's really strange…"
But before he could continue, they felt some shaking coming from above. Some sand ended up coming down from the ceiling. "Hmmmmm… It doesn't appear to be safe down here." Sonic stated.
"Poyo! (But at least we're away from the heat!)" Kirby said, sighing in relief.
"Don't get your hopes up, Kirby…" Chopper warned. "We might end up going back to the surface, where we'll have to see that large swirling vortex. As much as I don't want to go there, we probably have no choice."
Chopper decided to walk on ahead. "All right, guys… I think now's the time to start moving. We don't have much time anyway. Plus, I noticed some blue Waddle Dee up ahead, so we can fight some of those guys."
The antennae hero rushed toward the blue Waddle Dee. While it's the same as a normal Waddle Dee, its abilities are a bit upgraded, being able to dash at you easily. But, it met its demise from Chopper's needle attack.
"Poyo! (Wait a minute… Waddle Dee? I need my chance to make an attack!)" Kirby jumped over Chopper and inhaled the other blue Waddle Dee. He immediately spat it out at a green Pokey ahead.
"What the heck…? Did that Pokey just change to a green color?" Blade gawked.
"No, that's a Poison Pokey…" Tippi informed. "If you end up touching it, you'll get poisoned… I would suggest not using any attacks that involved touching it. Use a far-ranged attack to prevent yourself from becoming poisoned…"
"Oh… I see. Fair enough." Blade pulled a shuriken out and he threw it straight at the Poison Pokey. Unfortunately, that one shuriken wasn't enough. The freaky enemy inched closer, ready to throw a piece of its own body at them.
"Might as well blow it up now," Blade nudged Hommissile and then tossed him at the Poison Pokey, making its body parts fly everywhere – not that it was a bad thing or anything.
They noticed a huge skeleton of an extinct animal up ahead, where a Sand Bug rose up in front of them. But, it was soon taken down when Kirby inhaled a poison ball and spat it out at it, poisoning it, which was soon followed up when the pink puffball got on Carrie and jumped on the Sand Bug.
"You think we're gonna see a lot of these guys around here?" Chopper questioned.
"I think so," Sonic nodded as he noticed that he couldn't jump on top of the large skeleton. "Dang it! I don't think I have the jump to make that! …Come to think of it, what kind of animal was that?"
"It looks like it must've been one large animal…" Tippi trailed, studying the skeleton. "It almost looks like some sort of dinosaur…"
"Poyo? (Uh, hello? Are we going to stand here and talk? We can't do that!)" Kirby immediately floated up onto the spine of the extinct animal, using his inhaling to bring the rest up.
"Hey, I could've done that myself!" Blade retorted.
"Well don't whine about it, Blade," Chopper said, giving him an unimpressed look. "We're just going to get past this thing and then move on ahead. It's not going to be a bad thing."
As they were walking on the spine, Blade noticed a large, black rock with a crack in it. He decided to toss Hommissile straight at it to blow it up. He then jumped into the ribs and found a chest containing an Ultra Shroom.
"Niiiiiice!" Blade smirked as he jumped back up to the others. "I just found myself an Ultra Shroom! One point for Blade, and none for you guys!"
"Ummmmm… OK?" Chopper jumped off the spine and went up to a sandy hill with a bunch of sand grains coming down from the ceiling. A Sand Cleft was about to charge until Chopper brought his needles out, destroying the rock monster.
"Try NOT to use fire against those guys… I don't think it's going to work against them." Sonic stated as he hit a ? Block, making a Zombie Shroom pop out. But, it was soon beaten by his foot.
Running down the small little hill, they found another hill with sand coming down from the ceiling. The one thing that made them a bit surprises was when they saw the coral on the sand.
"You know… I'm starting to wonder why there's coral here." Chopper pondered.
Up on the top of the next hill, there were three small platforms. Two of them had Bronto Burts, while the other had a ? Block floating above.
Sonic started off by hitting the first Bronto Burt with a Spin Jump. Kirby immediately followed up by inhaling the other Bronto Burt and spitting it out to the left. Chopper then hit the ? Block to make a Mushroom pop out.
"Well that was pretty simple," he stated as he split it into four for all four of them to recover 10 HP. "Let's see what else we have up ahead."
After sliding down the sandy hill, they came across the end of the area. Unfortunately, for them, they were right next to a sand pit that looked inescapable.
"It appears that we have to take that sand pit down to a deeper area of this cave…" Tippi trailed, fluttering over to the bottom of the pit. "I can see something down there! I don't think anything bad will happen if we check down there…"
"Whatever you say," Chopper shrugged and jumped into the sand pit first. He ended up landing on another sand mound in a smaller area with another sand pit up ahead. But, there were three Poison Pokeys as well.
"Oh boy… Looks like I gotta bring out the fireballs." Chopper groaned as he tossed a couple of fireballs at the Poison Pokey at the front of him, taking it out with only three fireballs.
"I'll handle the next one," Blade pulled a couple of shurikens out and threw them at the second Poison Pokey. It didn't take as long as Chopper's fireballs (despite the fact that he CAN burn enemies with it), since his Attack power IS greater.
As for the final Poison Pokey… Blade blew it up by tossing Hommissile at it.
"Poyo! (That was easier than I thought it would be!)" Kirby squealed as he jumped over to the sand pit ahead. "Poyo! (Come on! We still have more ways to go, you know!)" With that, he jumped into the pit.
Chopper followed him down into a small little area with the walls made of sand. It was shaped like a circle, to their surprise. They made sure NOT to look up because of the grains of sand coming from the ceiling, but what was bad was when two Sand Bugs popped out of the sand.
"Oh, boy… We're gonna have to put up a fight against these things." Chopper groaned, getting in a fighting stance and hurling a couple of fireballs at the first Sand Bug.
"Poyo! (Wait a minute! We can't forget about this!)" Kirby immediately began to use Piccolo to put the two Sand Bugs to sleep. This allowed them to trounce the two Sand Bugs with jumps easily.
"THAT was easy! Now what's next?" Sonic stopped when a larger Sand Bug rose from the sand. This one had red eyes instead of the regular black ones, and it was even a navy blue color too!
"OK… How's about we get to putting that thing to sleep?" Blade began to use Piccolo's power to put the Sand Bug to sleep. But, alas, it did not work.
"What the eff? That's not right!" Blade tried a couple of more times, but the Mega Sand Bug didn't fall asleep. This allowed it to spit a poison ball at him, poisoning him tremendously.
"Urk! …Piccolo! I need help!" Using the Pixl's power, he managed to cure himself from the poison.
"I gotta be honest… That key Meta Knight gave us really does give us a hand here." Chopper smiled as he tossed a couple of fireballs at the Mega Sand Bug. "Let's see what you have to say about this thing, Tippi."
Chopper's eyes began to glow a rainbow color as a ray of light emitted from his eyes and flashed on the Mega Sand Bug.
"That's a Mega Sand Bug. It's an older, stronger version of the Sand Bug… There aren't many of these things around… Max HP is 50. Attack is 6. Like its cousins, it will spit out poison balls. Be careful though… Those poison balls are much deadlier and will last much longer than the other Sand Bug's poison attack. To me, these things look very strange…" Tippi informed.
Blade tossed a couple of shurikens at the Mega Sand Bug. But even that didn't finish it off…until Kirby inhaled one of its poison balls and spat it back at the enemy. That's when it was close to being finished.
"Might as well do it, now that it's unconscious," Sonic shrugged as he jumped and performed a Homing Attack. With that, a hole appeared on the bottom and that took them down to a lower area – which was a bit small with another sand hole ahead.
"There's nothing else but the little river, so it's not too bad," Chopper stated. "…Wait, what's water doing in the desert?"
"The place is called Desert Oasis, so there would be a reason why the word 'oasis' is in Desert Oasis…" Tippi explained.
"Ah. Now I get it." Chopper walked up to the mound of sand and jumped into the hole that led him and his friends onto another mound of sand. Sheesh! Talk about all of the soft landings!
Chopper looked at his surroundings and then turned to Tippi. "So, Tipps… I have a little question… How far are we from the Pure Heart?"
"The Pure Heart? I feel like it's still a bit far from this place… However, I do believe that this underground passage might lead us closer to the Pure Heart… But I can't exactly feel where it is…"
Before they could finish talking, they felt the ground above them shake. "There's no time to talk! We gotta MOVE!"
Crossing over another mound of sand, they found a little stream with two Cheep-Cheeps flapping around. They soon met their demise thanks to Chopper's needle attack.
They found another sand pit past the stream, but they knew that they didn't want to jump in there when they saw some smoke coming from it. A strange-looking creature with large pincers jumped out and tried to grab one of the heroes – or rather, try to scare them with the large pincers.
"Poyo… (Oh, it's those Snippers… I remember seeing those before…)" Kirby groaned, but he gestured to everyone about the three small platforms above the sand pit. They simply crossed the pit with those while avoiding the Snipper.
The next thing they came across was a little pool with some Glunks that were shooting projectiles up. Sonic didn't look so pleased with the pool.
"Oh, come on! We SERIOUSLY have to go into more water?" Sonic whined before seeing some brown blocks on top of the pool. "Oh, wait. Never mind!"
Since they decided to use the platforms instead, they easily crossed the pool and found another sand pit with a Snipper jumping up with its pincers. The difference this time was that the platforms were lower, but in the middle one, there was a ? Block floating above.
Chopper jumped onto the platform and struck the ? Block with a single punch, making a Mushroom pop out. Just like before, they split it so they could each recover 10 HP.
"Seriously, this almost feels like the same stuff over and over again. It's starting to get repetitive." Blade groaned.
"Does THAT look repetitive to you?" Chopper questioned as he pointed to more shallow water ahead with a little tunnel going down that was a bit deeper than what the water level is.
Since Sonic wanted to get it over with, he immediately jumped into the hole underwater. But what surprised him was that he ended up landing in a pool below this area that wasn't so deep.
After getting out of the water, he shook himself to get rid of the water on his fur. "Wow… That wasn't as bad as I thought it was…"
"GEROMINO!"
"Huh?" Sonic turned and saw a big splash hit him, getting him wet once again. "Dang it, Chopper! Why do you have to do those splashes?! I just got all of this water off of me a minute ago!"
"Well it's not my fault that I wanted to make that jump," Chopper retorted as he jumped out of the water. Kirby and Blade landed in the water as well, but they didn't have a big splash like Chopper's.
Once Blade looked up ahead, his expression went blank. "You're kidding me, right? We have more sand pits to cross?"
"Well, let's not complain about it," Chopper groaned as he went on ahead, attacking a blue Waddle Dee that was past two of the sand pits with a simple jump. The last jump over the sand pit led him over to a pool with a tunnel.
"OK, I think now's the time to force Sonic to get moving," Chopper frowned as he looked at the pool of water.
"What do you mean?" Sonic questioned as he walked over to Chopper, only to have his eyes widen. "No. Just… No."
"Yes, Sonic. Just… Yes." Chopper stated as he pushed Sonic into the pool. "OK, guys! Grab him before he gets himself out!"
Both Kirby and Blade jumped into the water and tried to grab Sonic. Chopper helped out too so they could go into the tunnel up ahead, which led into an underwater room. Everything looked purple to them for some reason.
After looking up, Kirby didn't see a reason to swim up there. "Poyo. (Well, I guess we should swim down. Man… This place reminds me of a certain place on Rock Star for some reason…)"
"Well if we have to swim down, then it looks like we should do just that," Chopper began to allow himself to sink down to where the next tunnel would be. It wasn't that long until the next one, though.
"Mmmmmmggggfffhh!" Sonic began to choke as the timer began to go off. Luckily, there were air bubbles for him to take near the tunnel, so he grabbed one, along with Blade and then proceeded through the tunnel.
"It appears this time you have to swim up…" Tippi trailed as she noticed there was nothing down below.
"Let's hope we can avoid the enemies while at it too," Chopper began to swim up, whacking at some Blippers with his hammer, but he noticed that pieces of some ruins began to come down with spikes on them.
"Poyo! (Watch out! Those things can hurt you badly!)" Kirby warned.
"Don't worry, I think I know how to avoid them," the green gumball assured as he swam over to the right. Blade sliced another Blipper that was up ahead, but was forced to swim to the right to avoid another of those spiked ruins.
"I wonder why those things are falling down on us… Is it because of The Void?" Chopper questioned.
When they swam up to the next tunnel, they noticed that a piece of the ruins that was larger than any other came down. Luckily, they were able to avoid that and go through the tunnel.
They ended up getting out of the water through the tunnel and also found a ladder leading out of the underground desert area.
"Whew! Finally! No more of that water!" Sonic said, sighing in relief. "I suppose that that ladder leads out of this place, right?"
"Well, let's see!" Chopper climbed the ladder to the bright light above them. The first thing he saw after climbing out was The Void – which was still bigger than it was before. But it hasn't changed THAT much.
"Yikes… Talk about a big problem." Sonic gulped, looking up at The Void. "It really hasn't changed as much as before, but I don't like the sight of that thing at this moment…"
"Well we can't just sit here. We gotta press on!" Blade suggested before hearing two voices. Up ahead down the small sandy hill was a red and green Bandit looking at the sky with worried looks upon their faces.
"Oh, man… I can't believe that this world's soon gonna be at an end…" the green Bandit known as a Big Bandit gulped.
"No kidding, man… I'd rather be at another world than this place. I heard that there's a world where some people go fighting. It would be cool to go there, which may not be in as much danger." the Bandit stated.
"I wonder…" the Big Bandit turned to his left, where he saw the four heroes slide down the small hill. "Hey, dude! There's a couple of people here! How about we rob 'em of their cash?!"
"That sounds like a good idea! Hey! You four!" the two Bandits walked over to the four with smirks on their faces.
"Bandits…" Chopper murmured under his breath.
"Listen, we're a bit poor right now and we were thinkin' of gettin' some money. However, we're a bit too lazy to get a job, so we're stealin' from you guys! …So hand it over!"
"You gotta be kidding me," Sonic face palmed. "You want money from us, yet the world's going to end soon?! What are you even going to do with the money anyway?!"
"What're we gonna do with it? Well… Uh… We're gonna be stinkin' rich!" the Big Bandit grinned.
"Get outta the way," Chopper pushed them out of the way like they were a door and moved on ahead.
"Now hold on a minute…" a purple Bandit called a Badge Bandit jumped landed on the sandy ground. "We know what you're looking for, you know!"
Chopper paused and turned around, along with the other three. "Wait… You know what we're here for?"
"What ARE they here for?" the Bandit raised an eyebrow.
"Both of you leave them be," the Badge Bandit ordered. "I'll talk to them myself. This is just between me and them, OK?"
"Sure thing, Boss!"
"Got it, dude!"
And with that, the two Bandits went off while the Badge Bandit walked over to them with a smirk. "I hear you're lookin' for something called a Pure Heart, right?"
"Yes… We're looking for that…" Tippi answered, a bit suspicious about the Bandit. "But, how do you know about the Pure Heart?"
"Was told by some weirdo that there would be heroes comin' here. Y'see, I'm not REALLY a Bandit. I'm actually a double agent. I act like I'm a boss to these guys and also try to help the heroes."
"Could you take us to the Pure Heart?" Chopper asked.
"Sure thing! Just follow me!" the Badge Bandit walked up to the door ahead and opened it. "Just through here, guys. You can definitely trust me with this!"
While Chopper seemed a bit suspicious, he followed the Bandit anyway. They only found a small area ahead, but in the center of the area was a chest.
"All right, you guys! The Pure Heart's just in that chest ahead! Don't waste any time right now! If you don't grab that thing right away, I think that dark swirling vortex might just stop you!"
"Poyo… (For some reason, that guy seems suspicious…)" Kirby said with a suspicious look on his face. But, still, he walked over to the chest with the others and opened it with a simple kick.
…Only to have the chest transform into a bomb instead.
"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped as an immense explosion struck the four with immense force. Yet, they didn't seem to be harmed by it. They all looked dumbfounded after looking at themselves.
"Wait… What just happened?" Sonic asked.
"I have no clue…" Blade frowned.
"But… But… That explosion didn't even turn you black with soot!" the Badge Bandit stammered, his voice now sounding more…girlish? "That totally didn't even hurt you! This stinks!"
The Badge Bandit strangely teleported over to the four with a boxed outline around him. "Wait a minute… I've seen THAT before." Chopper gawked.
"So you thought you'd just grab the Pure Heart? You guys are so dumb! Mimimimimimimimimimi!" the Badge Bandit transformed into Mimi, who was now wearing a desert-like dress out in the desert.
"Poyo! (Oh, no! Not HER!)" Kirby gaped.
"Surprise! It's me, Mimi! You're all so silly! Did you crazy heads think that that Bandit would give you the Pure Heart?" Mimi giggled. "I bet that he's sleeping in his bed, being tucked all cozy in his bed. …Making cute li'l noises while his world goes bye-bye!"
"Mimi…time is of the essence. Stay out of our way." Tippi said.
"Poyo! (We don't have the time to sit here and play, you little girl!)" Kirby glared at her while getting in a fighting stance.
"You DUMMIES!" Mimi snapped. "The only reason I'm even HERE is to get in the way! I'm not all soft 'n' cuddly like Tippy! Nighty-night! It's bedtime for you! NYAAAAH!"
"'Soft 'n' cuddly'? That's NOT what would describe Tipral, you sick-twisted little girl!" Chopper growled. "Tipral is a cruel, CRUEL monster that doesn't care about the world! He doesn't care about you!"
"Quiet, you dummy! None of that is TRUE!" Mimi whined as she floated up in mid-air. "I'm gonna make you pay for injuring Tipral the other day!"
Using her Rubee powers, she surrounded herself with a couple of Rubees as she tried to swoop down at Chopper.
"Oh no you don't!" Chopper made a couple of needles from his helmet come out and hit Mimi instead and not him. The little girl cringed as she flew back up.
"OK, time to see what Tippi has to say…" Chopper began to examine Mimi using Tippi's powers.
"That's Mimi, Tipral's shape-shifting minion… Max HP is 45 and Attack is 4. She has many creative Rubee attacks… But it's easy to guard against them with Kirby's Guard ability… Then wait for an opening! Remember, you can use Thoreau to toss her precious Rubees back at her… If you hit her enough, she'll flip, so flip after her…" Tippi informed.
"Take this!" Mimi fired a Rubee down at Chopper, but Kirby immediately stepped in and inhaled it and spat it out back at Mimi, knocking a couple of Rubees away from her and also hitting her as well.
"So this is another one of Tipral's minions, isn't she?" Blade questioned while making a couple of signs with his hands. "I never knew that there would be someone like her as Tipral's minions! She looks pretty harmless!"
"Harmless?!" Mimi growled as she fired a Rubee down at Blade, who didn't even see it coming.
"Ouch! What the heck?! That was just uncalled for…" the ninja cat grumbled as he pulled his katana out. "You're going down, little girl!"
Even though he tried to strike Mimi, he ended up getting hit by the Rubees surrounding her instead. But it didn't stop him from tossing Hommissile at the little girl, knocking her to the ground.
"Ack! That really hurts!" Mimi whined as she got whacked in the head by Chopper's hammer.
"Generally I don't like hitting little girls, but this one's an exception," Sonic stated as he knocked Mimi back with a Spin Dash. He did this twice to her.
Once Mimi got herself back up, Chopper rushed up to her and knocked her back to the ground with a slamming kick attack. He immediately brought his needles up next to block her Rubees.
"Why doesn't my Rubees affect you with those needles up?!" Mimi complained. "It should be working!"
"Poyo! (Well we certainly don't care!)" Kirby inhaled one of the Rubees Mimi surrounded herself in and spat it at her, knocking her a bit.
"Golly, I almost forgot about something!" Mimi smirked as she flipped into 3-D. Chopper immediately went into 3-D as well, using Thoreau to grab a Rubee surrounding her and tossing it at her.
"Oh, crud… I forgot that you could flip into 3-D." groaned Mimi.
"And now I'm going to give you one heck of a beating!" Chopper growled as he shot a fireball straight at the green girl, sending her to the ground to allow him to bash her with his hammer.
"What ever happened to not hitting little girls?!" Mimi exclaimed as she pushed Chopper away. "I can't believe you're snooty, unlike Tippy! He's someone that's so dreamy…and hot!"
"Why would ANYONE like that cruel faker?! Do you even know what I keep hearing from him?! He says stuff like 'I'm going to destroy you!' and 'You're obviously the faker. I was created before you were even born!' Bleh! That's just getting obnoxious now!"
Mimi knew this was her chance to make a move. She fired a Rubee straight at Chopper, leaving a red mark on his face while at it.
"Ack!" Chopper rubbed his face from the pain on his left cheek while Mimi cackled and flipped back into 2-D. Chopper even got hurt because of being in 3-D for a while, so he was forced to flip back.
"Chopper! What happened to you?" Sonic asked.
"Ugh… Mimi hit me with a Rubee…. MAN! That thing HURTS!" he wailed.
"Sheesh! Who knew a little girl had the guts to hit a kid?" Blade blocked one of Mimi's Rubees using his katana. He was able to toss Hommissile at her to knock a Rubee out of her shield.
"Poyo! (Looks like I'm up to do something!)" Kirby inhaled one of the Rubees that Mimi dropped and spat it at the green girl, making her cringe in pain.
With Mimi to the ground, Kirby simply knocked her back with a simple little kick that he would use in the Super Smash Bros. games. With one last inhaling attack, Mimi was finally beaten.
"OUCHIE!" the little green girl hovered down to the heroes, now feeling a bit better. "That really hurt! You're all just a big bunch of bullies who hit cute little girls! But it doesn't matter an eensy teensy bit, hee hee! Everything's perfect! …What, you don't believe me? Look up at the sky!"
All four heroes looked up at the sky and nearly gaped at the large size.
"The Void… It's enormous now!" Tippi announced.
"No duh!" Blade frowned.
"Mimimimimimimimimimimi! Yep, I sure got you meanies to waste LOTS of your time! Guess you'll have to give up looking for that dumb Pure Heart now!"
"This psychotic girl was only trying to stall us…" Tippi trailed.
"But it's not going to stop us from going!" Chopper glared at Mimi. "You, little girl, have been pretty bad! What is WRONG with you?!"
Mimi merely ignored Chopper. "Golly, you guys have really got your thinking caps on today, huh? Well, I did warn you that I was meaner than Tippy! Anyhow, it's sure a big old bummer I can't stay to play more with you guys. But this place is about to go kablooooey! Later, meanies!"
And with that, she teleported out of the desert before hearing Blade shout "Brat!" at her.
"Quickly! Let's get moving!" Chopper rushed over to the door ahead, which led into another desert area with a Star Block at the end of the path.
"Well don't just stand there, Chopper! Hit it!" Sonic shouted.
With one punch, Chopper struck the Star Block at the end of the area.
END OF CHAPTER
After the intense brawl with Mimi, our heroes knew that time was starting to run out. "Faster, guys! We can't risk to slow down and talk!" Chopper shouted as he ran through the sands. "Look at the SIZE of that thing!" While Chopper and Co. didn't wish to look at the sky, they were forced to look at it at some times to make sure time wasn't running out. All they could do was run on ahead…