"C'mon, Grounder! You need to help me get us up!"
Back at the hole Scratch and Grounder fell in, they were trying to climb out of the hole. Sadly, they were not doing a very good job at it.
"Well you need to stop putting your tail feathers in my face! You make me want to poke you with my drill!" Grounder exclaimed, attempting to lift Scratch up, though he wasn't doing much of a good job at it.
"This is not easy at all!" the Clucker growled, only to feel the hole's edge. "WAIT! I think I'm getting there! Wait… YES!"
He managed to pull himself out and helped Grounder afterward.
"Well we sure got out of the one!" Grounder grinned stupidly.
"Yep! We sure did! Now it's time for us to get that hedgehog and that map! I think that round kid's holding it. That should be easy as...er...well, whatever! Let's get 'em, Drill-face!"
"Yeah, sure! Just don't get your tail feathers on my drill!" Grounder grumbled, following his comrade in the opposite direction of where the heroes were.
Flower Hills-
Petals began to fly in the air as Chopper ran past a couple of flowers. Some landed on Bombette's braid fuse, causing her to shake them off, and one managed to land on Mario's nose, tickling it and making him sneeze.
"You know, I wonder what the petals on these flowers are for," Chopper wondered, stopping to pick up a petal. Sonic had stopped as well and let a petal fall in his hand.
"Well, you gotta admit that they do make them pretty colorful," Sonic said, looking at the blue petal in his hand.
Kirby let out a sigh, now feeling a little exhausted. "Poyo? (How far have we traveled? It almost feels like it's been a while...)"
When they had reached a flatter area of the field, Chopper answered, "Well, maybe the Ruby Flower is somewhere around here... You think so, Sonic?"
"Well, I was thinking the Ruby Flower would be located in Flower Hills, but I'm not a hundred percent sure where it is," Sonic shrugged. "Why not ask that weird dinosaur guy in the middle of those four giant eggs. …Giant eggs?"
Everyone gawked when they noticed four eggs surrounding a white Yoshi up on a hill nearby. Chopper immediately recognized the Yoshi and gasped.
"Scrub! Is that you?!" Chopper called out.
"Scrub?" Bombette gawked. "...Oh, right! That Yoshi!"
Scrub looked down the hill and saw the five. A smile had appeared on his face. "Contadre! Boy, am I glad to see you! I thought I would be stuck around these eggs forever!"
"Why didn't you just move?" Chopper wondered.
"Well... It's just... These eggs were wobbling when I walked near them." Scrub explained. "They didn't seem to do that when I was in the middle of them..."
"Don't worry, Scrub! I'll get you outta there!" Chopper assured, running up the hill.
"Contadre! Don't! They'll-"
Suddenly, the eggs began to crack, and out came four giant Koopas. They had their egg shells on their head and body. These Giant Baby Koopas reminded Chopper of a particular Koopa baby that constantly went after him back in the Mushroom Kingdom. And now there were four of these, but at a much bigger size!"
"Great... More Jr. Troopas!" Chopper groaned, seeing the Giant Baby Koopas run over to them instead of Scrub. "I don't like doing stuff like this, but we have to beat them."
Before Chopper could attack, Mario grabbed a hold of him and pulled him back, telling him that they were too powerful to take on. After all, they had a Defense of 6 - something he could not even break through with his normal attacks.
"What? Oh, great... Well this won't turn out to be good."
Just before the Giant Baby Koopas could make an attack, one got swallowed up by a small Yoshi and spat at another one, taking them both out. The heroes gawked for a moment, but they realized it was Scrub's doing when he finished off the last two.
"Take that, you babies!" Scrub taunted, causing the four Giant Baby Koopas to flee at an instant. "Yeah! You better run! You're not match for the awesome Scrub!"
"Wow... This is one tough dude." Sonic remarked, watching Scrub approach them.
Scrub looked up at Sonic in confusion and then back at Chopper. "Hey, Contadre... Who's this weirdo?"
"Weirdo?" the hedgehog gawked, but he refrained from shouting back. "Actually, my name's Sonic the Hedgehog. But, personally, you seem more like a weirdo to me."
"Is this a new friend of yours, Contadre?"
"Yeah, he is," Chopper nodded.
"Contadre? But isn't your name Chopper?" Sonic asked, now confused.
"Chopper's my real name, but someone named Grubba called me 'The Great Contadre.' Thankfully, he's old news, but since we found Scrub in the Glitz Pit, he likes to call me by my fighting name."
"Yup. That's right." Scrub nodded. "So... What're you all doing here?"
"Looking for something called a Ruby Flower," Bombette answered.
"Oh... What fo- Wait, since when did Bombette sound like that?" the Yoshi gawked, only for Mario to give him a brief explanation. "...Oh! So she got her memory back! Cool!
"We're actually getting the Ruby Flower to cure Vivian," Chopper answered in a sad tone. "She's not feeling good, and if we don't find the Ruby Flower in time, she might..."
"Whoa! That's not good! Let's not stand here any longer! Vivian's in serious trouble, so we gotta go find that flower!"
The group had agreed and decided to progress even further through Flower Hills. Thankfully, they hadn't run into any more enemies, making them lower their guard and also making searching for the Ruby Flower much easier. However, each time they went to Sonic, he shook his head every time he got a glimpse of the flowers. At that point, people were starting to lose hope.
However, once they reached the end of the field, they had caught a glimpse of more trees dead ahead, along with a single flower that was on a small hill where a tree was. It looked similar to a flower bursting in flames. The six walked over to it with curiosity and got a much better look at it. Compared to the other flowers, it was a lot bigger and prettier.
"This is it!" Sonic smiled. "That's the Ruby Flower!"
Chopper cheered and ran over to the flower. Though the thought of plucking a flower was not something he thought he'd ever do, it was the only way to help Vivian. He got it out and held it above him.
"Well, now we just have to go back," Bombette said.
"Yeah, so we better not waste any time," Chopper suggested. "I don't want to be too late..."
Back in the forest-
Thankfully, it hadn't taken them too long to return to the forest. With the Ruby Flower in his hand, Chopper began to run as fast as he could back to where Vivian was, not caring if he was leaving his friends behind.
"Poyo... (Well that was a bit unexpected...)" Kirby trailed.
Everyone gawked at Kirby, unsure of what to say.
"Uhhhhhh... In English?" Bombette requested.
"I'd just follow Chopper if I were you guys," suggested Sonic. "We gotta make sure things go right!"
Mario: Yeah!
They hurried after Chopper, hoping to catch up to him in time.
It hadn't taken long for Chopper to get back to Vivian. However, he looked more worried when she saw her looking much worse than before, now being much paler than usual. "Oh, no... She looks worse than before! This is so horri- No! I have what is needed to cure her! I can do this!"
Vivian heard the sound of footsteps nearby and weakly looked up. Seeing Chopper back again made her feel much better. "Chopper... You're...cough...back..."
"Yeah..." Chopper replied, taking out the Ruby Flower and placing it in front of her. "You need to smell this, and hopefully you'll get better."
Taking the Ruby Flower, she held it near her face and began to smell the sweet scent of the flower. Chopper felt nervous, unsure if the flower would even help her. However, he tried to remain confident and watched closely.
After Vivian had taken one sniff from it, she sighed calmly and began to smell more of it. "This flower smells so nice... It feels like it's making me feel better..."
The worried look on Chopper's face turned to one of surprise as she saw Vivian's pale skin and hair turn back to their natural color. She even had the energy to slowly get back up while smelling more of the flower.
"Thank you, Chopper..." Vivian trailed, holding the flower near her.
"Vivian! You're all right!" Chopper cheered, jumping in excitement. "That's such a relief!"
The others had gotten back on time to see Vivian all better. They were all sighing in relief just from seeing her standing up perfectly fine.
"Oh, you guys are here too!" Vivian smiled, getting a look at Chopper's friends. However, her face fell the moment she noticed some missing. "Wait... Not everyone's here..." Vivian noticed.
"Oh, yeah... I forgot to mention... When we were taken into this forest, we all kinda got separated." Chopper explained.
"Thankfully we managed to get some back," Sonic explained.
"Are you another one of Chopper's friends?" Vivian asked.
"Well, we met back at the Music Kingdom, but yeah, I guess so. Don't worry, I'm here to help you and the others." the hedgehog assured her with a thumbs up. "I think you'll be fine with having another person with ya, right?"
"Yeah, I think so... My name's Vivian."
"And I'm Sonic the Hedgehog! ...Or just Sonic."
"Well, now that we got that out of the way... Why don't we go see what was up ahead?" Chopper suggested. "I'm sure the Crystal Star is somewhere deeper in the woods."
They had agreed to do so and decided to move on ahead. However, Mario reminded him of those two other areas they couldn't explore. Curious about them, they headed back to the area with the three paths and took the left one with the electric floor. Thankfully, Vivian's ability to pull Chopper into the shadows came to go use and led him to a chest containing a Life Shroom. The pathway to the right required Kirby, so he inhaled the paper off the large Metal Block, while Chopper used his Ultra Hammer ability to destroy it, revealing a De-Electrify Badge, which would allow Chopper to become immune to paralysis.
With that out of the way, they returned to the pathway leading deeper into the forest and found a Fire Block standing in their way. Seeing it, however, did not make Chopper happy.
"Oh, no... Not this block." Chopper gulped. "I hate them..."
"What's so bad about it?" Sonic asked.
"You'll see..."
Vivian frowned as she inched behind Chopper and lit his behind on fire. It wasn't something she enjoyed to do, but it was the only way to get across. Chopper found himself dashing straight into the Fire Block, and soon he found himself crashing into it, causing it to break. Thankfully, the flames had worn off, allowing him to stand up and rub his behind.
"I don't understand how I manage to take that..." Chopper mumbled.
His friends had finally approached him to see if he was all right. He assured them that things were all right and pressed on to an area with a couple of rocks around the area. They appeared to have cracks in them.
"Hey! I think I can blow these up!" Bombette exclaimed, running up to Chopper. "You know what to do, right?"
"Of course," Chopper nodded, picking up Bombette and throwing her at one of the rocks. She exploded, revealing some coins to be underneath. Meanwhile, Vivian was a bit surprised with how Bombette spoke.
"Wait... Your voice changed, Bombette... What happened?" Vivian asked. Mario decided to explain everything to her, and she nodded after understanding what happened. "Oh... That's why..."
After destroying all the rocks in the area, they had come across a Volt Shroom, a Mushroom and a pathway dead ahead. They were surprised with the lack of enemies, though.
The next area, however, was where the enemies started to appear. The first thing they got a glimpse of was a gray, caterpillar-like enemy with black polka-dots, two volts on its head and a mouth resembling that of a Sniffit. After a better analysis, it was discovered to be a Volty Wiggler, and it was coming out of an electric pond.
Mario: That's a new enemy...
"I don't think jumping on it is a good idea..." Chopper trailed. "Those volts on its head sure look dangerous..."
"Then maybe we should try moves like these!" Sonic smirked, getting into a ball and throwing himself at the Volty Wiggler. Chopper shrugged and brought his hammer down on it next. After guarding its attack, the two managed to finish it off in the next turn.
"Phew... Well that solves that. Now let's try to cross that electric pond."
"Electric pond? That doesn't sound good..." Scrub gulped.
"Ehhh... I've been through worse." Sonic shrugged. "But this probably won't be much to get in our way."
"Uh huh," Chopper nodded, walking over to the grass's edge to see a stump. Unfortunately, it was too far to jump over, but that didn't stop Chopper from trying to think of an idea. "C'mon, Scrub! we can conquer this!"
Chopper got on Scrub, and with his help, they were able to flutter across the gap and onto the stump. Thankfully, there was bridge leading to one stump north, but there was one dead ahead leading to another stump southward. Going that way only led to a Shine Block and a Shy Guy, which easily got beaten by the two.
After helping everyone else across and claiming the Shine Sprite, they jumped on the norther stump and used Scrub to get to the other side to the next area, which, too, contained an electric pond.
"What's with all the electric water around here?" Bombette asked. "I expected cleaner waters..."
"Strange... There's nothing around here..." Chopper noticed. "And all I see is a large, flower fan above us..."
A light bulb had appeared over Mario's head as he suggested Chopper to get on his shoulders. Not knowing what he was talking about, he shrugged and got on his shoulders. The two were spinning in the air, and when the fan started spinning, the two were taken to the other side and landed safely on the dark green grass.
"Well that solves one problem, but how are we supposed to get over here?" Bombette asked.
"I think I might have an idea..." Vivian trailed, grabbing Bombette and pulling her into the shadows. She was shocked when she found herself by Chopper and Mario, while the Shadow Siren had went back to the other side to help the rest.
"Whoa... I didn't think that was possible."
"Well, a lot of things are possible in this story," Chopper remarked, waiting for the others to come to the other side. They moved on to the next area and found another pond, but this time there was a pipe leading up to a paper airplane panel above. There also appeared to be a bridge leading up to a dead end. The ledge above it was too high, even for Chopper and Mario to reach.
They looked for a pipe to use to get up to the paper airplane panel, but to their disappointment, they found none. That is, until they looked down below.
"Hey... I see a switch!" Scrub noticed. "But how do we get down there?"
"I might have an idea," Chopper smiled, turning sideways and going through the cracks on the bridge. He landed right on top of the switch, creating a pipe right by the others. Afterward, he used the small stumps to jump over to some ledges leading back up to the others. "Ah! There we go!"
The pipe led them up to the paper airplane panel, and Chopper used his ability to turn into a paper airplane. Sonic found himself gawking over the transformation.
"Whoa... You never told me you could transform!" Sonic gaped.
"Well it does look strange, but who cares about that?" Bombette commented.
"Hop in, guys!" Chopper exclaimed.
Everyone listened and jumped into the paper airplane, allowing Chopper to slowly glide his way over to the ledge dead ahead. When he transformed back to normal, they pressed on to a pathway with a tree in the way and a Save Block. Just to be on the safe size, Chopper hit the block.
When they took a couple of steps, they noticed some spiders with red eyes around the trees. In fact, there were some spiders up ahead trying to attack something.
"Ugh... These spiders are huge..." Bombette shuddered.
"I've never seen such big spiders..." Vivian trailed.
"Take that!"
Mostly everyone was brought to the voice's attention when a spider was seen flying by and knocked onto the ground. It soon disintegrated into smoke. They looked up and were surprised, but at the same time, happy to see a certain friend of theirs.
"Yo, Contadre... Isn't that Shadower?!" Scrub gaped. "No way... He's here!"
Hearing the sound of the voice, Shadower went into the shadows and emerged in front of the heroes. "Guys! Boy am I glad to see you!"
"Same here, Shadower," Chopper smiled. "We're glad you're here too!"
"I thought I was going to be in some serious trouble here... But thankfully you guys came here to help! ...If there are still more, that is."
A spider came charging at them, but was easily defeated by Chopper's hammer. "Well that handles that!"
Shadower had gotten a look at the group and was relieved. "Oh... Good! Everyone else is here. What a relief!"
"Uhhhhhh... Berry's still missing, though. I just hope she's all right, too..."
"Wait... But I counted eight! ...Hold on, there's a new face here."
"Yup!" Sonic grinned. "The name's Sonic! Say... You look a little familiar to one of Chopper's friends..."
"Well, that's because I'm a shadow being like Vivian," Shadower explained. "You see, shadow beings are cap-"
Unfortunately, his conversation was short-lived when another voice had interrupted them.
"GRAAGH! Can somebody explain why my spiders are getting flattened?! Give me answers now!"
Not hearing any response, the voice groaned and came down from one of the trees. Everyone gawked as they saw a big, gray spider with a crown on his head and fangs. It had a depiction of red spider legs on its abdomen.
"Uh oh... I didn't know there was a king!" Shadower gaped.
"Silence, fool!" the Spider King roared. "You dare attack my minions?!"
"Hey! They were attacking-"
"I don't want your insolent words! I shall make you pay for this!" the Spider King landed in front of the group and let out a roar.
"Ugh… I can't STAND large spiders!" Bombette cringed. "...But if fighting it is the only option, guess that means it's the only way to beat it."
"I shall avenge my spider minions by taking your lives! Once I poison you, there's no turning back, insects!"
"…We're not insects, arachnid," Chopper pointed out.
"Then you are maggots!"
Tattle: Uh… Th-That's the Spider King… What? Didn't I say I'm afraid of spiders? This one is HUGE when looking at their size! Max HP is 80, Attack is 9, and Defense is 0. It'll try to poison you with its poisonous fangs, so I would suggest something that helps you from being poisoned…if you have one, that is. I still don't feel safe being here. I'll just…be somewhere safe!
Chopper became Sword Chopper and slashed the Spider King with his sword, causing him to wince and step back briefly.
"This should be easy! We'll wrap this up in no time!" Sonic curled up into a ball and shot himself toward the Spider King, dealing 6 damage.
"Well now… You seem to be some tough maggots by bringing me down this far. I may have fangs that can poison you, but I don't think you've ever seen THIS from a spider!" the Spider King opened its mouth and spat poison toward Chopper. He brought his sword up and tried to block it, only taking a brief amount of damage.
"Phew... That was too close..." Chopper slashed at the Spider King, and then Scrub fluttered above him and delivered six but smashes to bring him down to 56 HP. "Wow... We almost dealt 30 damage to this ugly thing!"
"UGLY?!" the Spider King roared.
"Well... Look at yourself!" Scrub taunted. "You've got six eyes, and you're loud.
The Spider King had enough from Scrub and began to charge at him. Opening his mouth, he bit down on Scrub, who proceeded to guard the attack, though he had cringed from the damage he still took. Chopper made his move next and used his Spinning Sword to spin like a drill and strike the Spider King.
"Poyo! (I've got this!)" Kirby cheered, floating above the Spider King and turning into a stone, causing him to get flattened and take 8 damage.
Kirby ran back to everyone else as the Spider King pushed stood back up. His eight green eyes glared at all of them. "Grrrr! I've taken 40 damage and I've hardly done much to you?! So be it!"
The Spider King fired a web ball at Chopper, knocking his Sword ability away. The Spider King chuckled quietly. But he was unfortunate enough to get whacked by a Fire Smash from Chopper's hammer, leaving him with a burn. Bombette walked over to the Spider King and exploded afterward, knocking him back toward a tree. When the king landed, he decided to target Shadower and spat poison at him successfully.
"Heh heh... Excellent..."
"Crud! I've become poisoned!" Shadower wheezed. They knew they had to finish this quick, so Chopper attacked with a Spring Jump to deal 12 damage and then to top it off, Shadower attacked with a Shadow Punch, bringing the Spider King to 9 HP.
"Urk… GAH! I won't lose so soon!" the Spider King winced, rushing over to Chopper and shooting a web at him, making him get stuck to the ground with the web, preventing him from moving. He approached the boy with a demented smile. "I shall finish you off first! Now that you can't move, you're defenseless!"
"Well, that's not stopping me from doing this!" Chopper retorted, shooting a fireball at him. To finish it off, Sonic curled up in a ball and rammed into the Spider King.
"Urgh... No... Not...so...soon..." the Spider King fell, rewarding Chopper with 23 Star Points. With that, the king exploded.
"Well, I guess that takes care of that..." Vivian stated, freeing Chopper from the webs with her fire magic.
"Thank you," Chopper smiled, causing Vivian to blush. "
"Phew... Well, at least that takes care of that." Shadower sighed, now healed from the poison. "So... I'm guessing you guys haven't found the Crystal Star, right?"
"No... I wish, but then again, I think it's better to find our friends than get the star."
"Yeah, good point. So... I'm guessing we just have to find Berry and then get the Crystal Star?"
"Yeah. Hopefully she's somewhere nearby... Let's find out, OK?"
Everyone nodded in agreement and took the path to an area with a river filled with electric water, along with a blue ! Switch on the other side of the river. Proclaiming this to be hardly a challenge, Chopper kicked Sonic over the gap and let him hit the switch, creating a bridge for them to cross.
When Sonic returned to the others, they crossed the bridge to a nice area with a couple of trees and apples that were surprisingly square-shaped.
"These remind me of those apples I saw back in the Mushroom Kingdom," Chopper smiled, getting a glimpse of many different-colored fruits. "These fruits might be tasty, though!"
He grabbed a black apple from one of the trees and shoved it into his mouth. After getting a taste of it, his eyes bugged out and he spat it out.
"Gross!"
"Poyo? (Is it bad?)" Kirby asked.
"Yeah! I don't know HOW something like this could taste bad! And I usually like anything when it comes to food!"
"Hey! I heard something coming from this tree area!"
"Let's go take a look!"
Chopper's eyes widened, realizing he had caught the attention of two dumbots.
"Oh, geez... Scratch and Grounder are coming." Sonic realized. "Everyone hide!"
"But you said these two were hardly a threat?" Chopper recalled.
"Well, they might tell Eggman of our whereabouts, and then we'd be in a heat of trouble, especially if we want to find the Crystal Star immediately."
Before Chopper could object, Sonic grabbed him and threw him up into a tree. He suggested that everyone else do the same thing, and they chose not to object and hid in the trees as they had to do was wait and remain quiet.
Not as long as the other two chapters, but whatever. I was planning on putting another battle here, but I just didn't feel like. THAT battle will be in the next chapter, so keep your eyes peeled! ...If you want to, that is.