CHAPTER 13
-The Wingels' Wonderful Skies-
Everyone made their way through the pipe, and when they got out, they found themselves in a large, beautiful city with a ground that wass not made of cloud but beautiful, shiny marble. The buildings were tall and gold and a fountain could be seen in the middle of the city with an angel-like being holding a harp.
"Wow, Professor Frankly was right! This place IS beautiful!" Chopper smiled. They saw a light yellow girl with white angel wings on her back and long blonde hair. Many of them noticed she was actually very pretty.
"My guess is that Wingels are also very pretty to look at," Goombella deduced. "This might be something I could speak about to many archaeologists!"
"Well, you go do that. Right now, we have something to take care of." Chopper was about to move on, but he had accidentally bumped into someone. "Oh! Sorry!"
His apologetic look stopped when the figure turned around, revealed to be a mouse thief Chopper recognized.
"Whoa... It's you."
"Oh, hmm hmm hmm! It's been a while, hasn't it, small piece of…well, whatever you are." Ms. Mowz remarked. "I almost thought you disappeared from Rogueport and would never come back again. But it seems you brought more friends! …Especially that hunk of cheese there." she gave the plumber a wink.
"You know this mouse, Mario?" Sonic asked.
Mario: Uh huh!
"Ms. Mowz? I don't understand why you would be here." Goombella said in a confused manner. "Hold on… Are you trying to steal something from here?"
Ms. Mowz approached Mario, having more interest in him than the others. "I haven't seen you for five months! How have you been, sweetie? Are things in the Mushroom Kingdom OK for you? I would certainly like to go there and see what it's like. Sadly, I can't really stay here for so long, so farewell!"
Ms. Mowz jumped into the pipe, and she was gone in a blink. Chopper walked over to the fountain and looked at the harp. The water was sparkling and it looked crystal clear. He decided to take a sip from the fountain, causing hearts to appear in his eyes.
"Wow! This water is so good!" Chopper said with glee. "You guys need to try this out!"
"Ah, so I see travelers have arrived! It's such a nice thing to have travelers…"
Everyone turned to see a gold man with gray eyebrows and a small mustache walk over to them. He was wearing a top hat, held a cane and had a cool monocle. You know, like all mayors!
"Whoa… Now THAT'S a mayor…" Sonic gaped. The mayor took a look at everyone and chuckled.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all," the mayor greeted. "My name is Mayor Winklin. You see, I'm the mayor that runs this beautiful city. We're peaceful people known as Wingels."
"Wingels? I feel like I've heard of that before..." Chopper recalled with a bewildered look.
"Well, we mostly enjoy peace, but there are rare occasions where the Aliebits make an attack on us."
"Aliebits?"
"Yes. Unlike us, they're not so friendly. They live up at a floating palace called Night Palace, and they're not afraid to throw people out. We don't know who's in charge, but we've heard that these are underworld creatures."
"…Yeah, I think I'll just stick with aliens if that's fine with you," Sonic decided, while Mario approached Winklin and asked about the Crystal Star.
"Crystal Star? Errmmm… I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about. All I know is that my ancestors made this town. In fact, maybe I should tell you an interesting story!"
"Oh, boy... Old man stories. They ain't any fun." Scrub complained.
"When I was here, I was lucky to meet this beautiful girl named Wilnova. We ended up getting married and had two daughters. Our youngest daughter seems to have gotten her beauty. What was also great was that her son had become very intelligent, being a mechanical and hacking genius! I have to say, I'm very proud of him. And then..." Winklin paused, noticing everyone was asleep. "Hey! You! Did you even listen to what I was saying?"
Everyone was startled from his voice and nodded to him upon waking up.
Mario: We just want to know about the Crystal Star...
"Oh, then my apologies for the unnecessary story, then. To be honest, I don't know much about this Crystal Star you speak of. However, I did hear something related to that from my grandson."
"Your grandson?" Vivian gawked.
"Of course. He was the one I mentioned in my story. He lives right over there." Winklin pointed to the yellow house that was not too far. "I think his mother went out, though…so I don't think he'll be able to answer the door. He's only eight, so he's not necessarily independent."
"OOOOOOK... Well, can I ask you something?" Goombella asked, approaching Winklin.
"Why of course. What do you need?"
"Is there any museum or something located here?"
"Of course. The Wingel Museum is filled with so many artifacts and history of the many great ancestors. It's not too far from here, so you can obviously-"
"Sorry to interrupt, but thank you for telling me!" Goombella shouted, running toward the museum. "I bet Professor Frankly's would LOVE to see the stuff in there!"
"So... I guess we should go check out the house." Vivian suggested.
They walked over to the yellow house Winklin had informed them of. It wasn't very big, but exterior wise, it looked nice. The door was brown, and looking through the windows, the interior had mostly yellow walls and a red carpet. This was mostly Scrub's doing, but Shadower pulled him away from the window.
"Hey! What was that for?" Scrub asked.
"I wouldn't say that's the right thing to do..." Shadower advised.
Chopper approached the door first and knocked on it a couple of times, not knowing about the doorbell.
"Poyo? (Hey, what's this button?)" Kirby wondered, pressing on the doorbell to create the sound. While no one had answered, there were some footsteps approaching the door.
"I hear someone in there, but no one's opening the door," Chopper remarked. "Hey! If you're in there, we just want to tell you your grandfather sent us here!"
"My grandpa? ...Hey, that voice sounds familiar." the door opened, and revealing himself was a yellow spherical-shaped person like Chopper with white angelic wings around sides of his head, skinny arms like Chopper's with white gloves, and two, short gray legs with small feet. Even his face resembled Chopper a bit.
The boy took a look at Chopper and gasped. "Chopper? Is that really you?"
"I don't believe it! Flyer! It's you!" Chopper cheered, giving his friend a high five. Everyone else was left with confused looks.
"Wait… You know him?" Bombette asked.
"Of course I do! This is Flyer. He's my best friend!" Chopper announced. "I met him when I was five!"
"You serious, Contadre?" Scrub gawked.
Mario: I think I remember seeing him two years ago in Staris's Shrine!
"I can't believe that you're actually here!" Chopper gasped. "I mean... Don't you live on Elsa?"
"Yeah, I do live there. It's just... Something was going on there, and we had to move here for now."
"That doesn't sound good..."
"But it's only temporary. In the meantime... Why don't you come in?"
Flyer stepped out of the way to let everyone into the house. Along with the carpet and yellow walls were some nice furniture such as a comfortable, orange sofa and an HD TV.
"It's so great to see you, Flyer!" Chopper smiled. "Especially when you're not being brainwashed to do Maquano and Bowser's bidding!"
"I was going to warn you about a star I found back then, but Maquano got to me first and brainwashed me. I don't know what happened, but I had no control over myself. But, thankfully, you helped me regain control of myself."
"Interesting..." Sonic mused. "I'm glad I never had to face my own buddy!"
"Say… What ever happened to that Flyknightis stuff you have anyway?" Chopper asked out of curiosity.
"It's over here," Flyer walked over to a table nearby and unlocked a drawer kept locked. Everyone caught a glimpse of a cape, pauldrons, a mask and a sword. "I kept it here for memories. However, I made a promise I would never equip it. I prefer to be intelligent self."
"That's understandable," Vivian said.
Flyer closed the drawer and looked back at Chopper and his friends. "So... Why have you come here, Chopper?"
"Well, we were told by the mayor that we need to come here to ask someone about the Crystal Stars," Chopper answered. "You know about them, right?"
"The Crystal Stars? How do you know about them?"
"We have a map that takes us to their locations," Berry answered.
"Let me see it at once! This is quite a discovery!"
Chopper took out the Magical Map and gave it to his friend. Flyer started to check the map with a shocked expression.
"Amazing… So this thing can reveal where a Crystal Star is? And to think I thought there was only one…" Flyer said in awe.
"We just need to find the thirteenth star," Chopper explained. "Then we'll be closer to our goal!"
Flyer gave back the map and looked proud. "Well, rest assured, gang! I happened to have stumbled upon a Crystal Star and kept it in my workshop!"
"Poyo! (Yay! We've got the star already!)" Kirby cheered."I can take you guys to my workshop if you want," Flyer mentioned. "The only problem is that it's not in Wingel City, but on the Grassy Plains. We'll just have to head down there and find my workshop."
"Sounds pretty good," Shadower smiled.
"Well... It would be good, but there's one problem."
"Really? What could be such a big problem?" Scrub wondered.
"Well... The Aliebits tend to wander around the plains." Flyer sighed. "And they'll attack anything on sight, specifically Wingels. Though they can't fly, I don't think you guys can either."
"Oh, come on! It shouldn't be that bad!" Sonic assured with a grin. "We kicked some metal and ghost butt before! These guys will probably be a snap!"
"But they come from the underworld!"
"Underworld smunderlord! The only thing they're probably going to get is a good butt-kicking! You with me, guys?"
Mario gave him a smirk while nodding, while many others agreed.
"Well... All right. If you guys are telling the truth, then I'll believe you." Flyer decided. "If you guys are also planning on doing some butt-kicking, then perhaps I should join in!"
Flyer opened another drawer and took out a wrench that had a small, green button on it.
"What's that supposed to be?" Vivian asked.
"This is my Transformation Tool," Flyer introduced proudly. "With it, I can build all sorts of inventions by changing this tool into whatever I want! Sometimes it takes a little brains to think of a few things. Not only that, but I'm a skilled hacker and have the ability to use the wind on my side!"
"Wait... You can use the wind?" Bombette gawked. "How's that possible?"
"All Wingels have that ability when they're first born. It helps us drive enemies away, or we tend to use it to make us fly faster while in the air. I've never used it for fighting, but I can think of an idea of how to use them for that. Besides, it'll help you on your quest!"
"Wait, you wanna come with us on our quest?" Chopper gawked.
"Of course, Chopper! Friends stick together, right? Plus, I'm interested in meeting these friends of yours too! So... What do you say?"
"Yeah! I'm in!"
"Well that's fantastic!"
Flyer has joined your party! Press X to have Flyer lift Chopper in the air and reach ledges that are way too high for him normally! This is most useful when there's a high ledge and a big gap in the way. Press Y to let Flyer summon a tornado using his wings to blow piles of leaves or snow out of the way… Or, if you're near something badly damaged or disabled, Press Y to let Flyer fix that object. While in battle, Flyer can attack enemies with his Flying Attack, which penetrates through defense… Or he can attack an enemy with Shocker!
"Well, now… How about we get going? I think we should head out before my mom gets back! At least… Maybe I should tell my grandpa first that I'm going to be going with you, Chopper." Flyer flew out of the room and everyone followed him outside. They saw him talking to Mayor Winklin first thing.
"…So you're going with your new friend to collect the Crystal Stars?" Winklin questioned, receiving a nod from Flyer. "I see… I'll alert your mother that you'll be gone for a while. I'm sure she wouldn't be worried about you. I think you can take care of yourself."
"Thanks, Grandpa!" Flyer flew back over to Chopper. "All right, Chopper! We can head out now!"
"All right! Great! But… I think I might want to do a little something first."
"Really? What is it, Chopper?"
"Well, considering that you're our newest party member and all... There's a way to give you more abilities."
"Chopper, we need to get the Cry-"
"But this'll help you especially!"
"All right... Take me to wherever you need me to go."
One moment later-
After leaving Merlon's house, the heroes had returned to Wingel City. Flyer, however, was brought up from a normal rank to Diamond-Rank. His HP went up to 80, and he learned Disable, which gave him the ability to stun a target and prevent them from attacking. He also learned Tornado, which can allow him to attack all enemies with a tornado via his wings, which has a chance of confusing enemies. His Diamond-Rank ability is Wind Storm, which can let him send enemies flying into each other, with a chance of them getting blown away.
"Huh... I feel much stronger than before..." Flyer trailed. "Did that wizard give me a boost in strength?"
"Uh huh! Now you're just like the rest of my friends!" Chopper proclaimed proudly.
"Really? …Could it be that those Shine Sprites contain the power to enhance one's abilities? These are some interesting relics you've been carrying around."
"The Crystal Stars are very powerful," Vivian noted. "They have the power to even save the universe."
"Ah, I see... Anyway, let's head out!" Flyer walked over to the gate that would go out of the town and down to the plains. They saw clouds that acted as platforms.
"Whoa… We're pretty high up…" Shadower gaped.
"I just hope we don't fall…" Bombette gulped. Flyer grabbed her and began to fly down the clouds to help. Everyone else followed by hopping down the clouds. "Thanks for the help, even though I could've done this myself..."
"So… How was your little adventure?" Flyer asked, looking back at Chopper and his friends. "You said you collected more than one Crystal Star, is that correct? How many did you get so far?"
"Well, so far I've gotten twelve of them," Chopper answered. "And trust me, they were not easy. It wouldn't have been easy without the help of my friends. Speaking of that, I should introduce them to you!"
He cleared his throat and started to introduce each and every one of them. He tried not to take too long, as he didn't want to bore Flyer.
"Huh... So you've been through a lot with these guys." Flyer remarked.
They jumped off of the last cloud and landed down on the plains. It was mostly covered in plains, with a few hills there and there. It was also very wide in size. No one could tell how far these plains went.
"This place is so beautiful..." Vivian remarked, gazing at the entire view in awe. "I've never seen a land so big..."
"Yeah, this place is pretty big compared to Wingel City," Flyer said as he put Bombette down. "I don't think I've traveled that far through this place."
"Sounds like something I can pull off," Sonic smirked.
"It almost feels a bit romantic. Wouldn't you agree, Choppy?" Berry asked sweetly, turning to Chopper.
"What do you mean?" Chopper asked.
"Wait, hold on a moment..." Flyer cut in, pointing at Berry. "Chopper mentioned that you and him are of the same kind, correct?"
"Yeah," Berry nodded. "It's unbelievable, isn't it?"
"Ummmmm... Well, I'm not so sure..." Chopper trailed.
"But weren't Chopper and your kind wiped out by Maquano? Chopper was supposed to be the last of his kind left."
"Well... I guess that's not true." Berry said proudly.
"Hmmmmmm... Well, I suppose I can try to prove it using my 'Species Tester'. This is primarily used to determine what is of the same kind and what is not. After all, there are many creatures that may be the same species, but look very different physically."
He took out a light blue device that had two holes in it. Chopper put a finger in one, while Berry put hers in the other. After a good test, Flyer noticed a positive result.
"My gosh! But... Wow! What a discovery!" Flyer gasped. "To think that Chopper was last of his kind left... Perhaps... Your kind could be revived!"
"Of course," Berry agreed, grabbing Chopper's hand. "Our plan was to get married, after all."
"N-No it wasn't..." Chopper stammered, getting his hand out of her grasps. "Can we just go to your workshop?"
"I suppose so," Flyer nodded, putting his "Species Tester" away. "Now... We must go east from here. My workshop is located there."
"What about any monsters getting to it?" Vivian questioned.
"Don't worry about it! The place is safely hidden from harm!"
They decided to press onward through the area. There weren't many bushes around, but with the help of Shadower's vision, some hidden ? Blocks were discovered to be around. Unfortunately, the only thing that came out were coins. Regardless of that, they reached the pathway ahead. There was also another pathway down leading to an area with a large gap between them and a ledge that was too high to reach.
"Oh... That doesn't look like anything I can help you with, Contadre." Scrub informed, his mouth dropping upon seeing the ledge.
"Same with me," Berry added.
"Well, then maybe I can assist you then," Flyer declared, grabbing a hold of Chopper's arm and using his wings to fly up in the air and to the ledge. There was a Flem Block for Chopper to destroy using a fireball, and revealed to be in there was a silver Mushroom called an Ultimate Shroom, something Chopper remembered seeing before. It could recover 100 HP.
After that, they left the area and took the main pathway. Unfortunately, they could not move further due to a couple of voices halting them.
"Heh heh heh! Hey! Looks like these freaks came into our territory! We haven't seen guys like you in a long time!"
Everyone looked down and saw two blue arms rise from the ground, and out came navy blue aliens with horns holding spears. Another rose and it was a dark pink color with a spike on its head. This one appeared to be a much higher rank.
"So… These must be the aliens that your grandfather was talking about, wasn't he?" Sonic asked.
"Yes, these are them," Flyer confirmed.
"Aliens?! Who do ya think you are, callin' us aliens?!" the Spiky Aliebit fumed. "We're ALIEBITS! Get that right! I think it's time we taught these folks a little lesson! YA HEAR US?! Yer goin' down!"
The Spiky Aliebit came charging at Sonic, but Chopper brought his hammer down on the alien, making it cringe. Flyer flew in the air and came down at the Spiky Aliebit at a diagonal with a kick, dealing 9 damage to it.
"Argh... I still have one more trick up my-" the underworld creature was cut off as Flyer equipped a purple arm gun and fired an energy shot from it, defeating the Spiky Aliebit instantly.
"And score one for us!" Chopper cheered.
The two Aliebits left charged at Chopper with their spears and they took 10 HP away from him. However, Chopper gave them a stomp, and Flyer finished them off with his Tornado.
"Well... That worked out nicely." Flyer sighed, trying to catch his breath. "I don't think I've ever fought those guys before. They don't seem as intimidating as many Wingels had proclaimed."
"See? Told ya we could wipe the floor with them!" Sonic grinned smugly.
Mario: It's going to take a lot to beat us!
Flyer smiled as they began to move on. However, he came to a sudden halt, making everyone confused.
"What's wrong, Flyer?" Chopper asked.
"Guys, you might want to see this..." Flyer trailed, stepping out of the way. There was a large gap between them and the path ahead. "There's supposed to be a rainbow bridge here, but it looks like someone decided to destroy this bridge, as if to stop us."
"Is there any way we can fix the bridge or something? Maybe you can fly us across it?" Berry suggested.
"Well, there is a bottom to this place," Flyer pointed down at a huge waterfall below and a strong river current leading out to the ocean. "I don't think I could fly everyone over there. My wings might get a bit tired. Way too risky."
"So... How do we get across then?" Scrub asked.
"Well, I do know that there's a builder that we can go to. See that pathway going down?" the young Wingel pointed at the alternate pathway going down. "If we go down there, we'll find another path. Of course, climbing back up could be difficult, though the two walls are close to each other."
"Sounds like I can use my Wall Jump for that," Chopper smiled. "So who is this builder we need to go to anyway?"
"His name is Mr. Shwalister," Flyer explained as he slowly flew down to the lower path. "He's a builder that can repair bridges and make them good as knew. He's not too far from here. If we follow the way to his house and ask him for our help, I'm sure he'll gladly accept. So, follow me!"
Flyer flew towards the light green road leading to a wooden house up on a small hill. Sonic smirked and he followed the Wingel.
"Well, let's go follow him," Chopper zipped through the road and made his way to the wooden house. For the others, their travel was a bit longer.
"Poyo... (It's strange that Chopper knows this person…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo? (Maybe he has some weird thing to help understand what I'm saying?)"
"Well, if he does, then that might help a lot of us," Berry replied.
"How come Contadre never even mentioned him before?" Scrub asked.
"I don't think we asked..." Vivian answered.
When they had finally reached the house, they saw Chopper, Sonic and Flyer talking to a yellow chubby man with a gray beard and in overalls.
"Why, if it isn't Flyer! How are things, my boy?" Mr. Shwalister asked.
"Things are going fine. Well, sort of..." Flyer trailed with uncertainty in his voice.
"Sort of? So there must be a problem then..."
"Yeah, there is one problem. We were trying to get to my workshop, but the Rainbow Bridge is destroyed. My guess is that those Aliebits were responsible for it."
"The bridge is destroyed?!" Mr. Shwalister gasped. "Well, then we need to do something about that! Flyer, grab your tools and let's go fix that bridge. If you have something important to do that requires this bridge to be made, then I'll be happy to help. Why don't you people help as well?"
"I guess we can give a hand," Shadower shrugged. "But what do you want us to do?"
"You're just carrying some stuff, that's all."
"Ummmm... OK! This doesn't sound like anything bad!" Chopper smiled. Mr. Shwalister gave Chopper some rainbow board walks, which felt a bit heavy for the antennae hero. "Gee, this sure feels heavy! How do you carry this anyway?"
"Trust me, it's not that difficult," Mr. Shwalister assured.
Chopper headed over to the bridge as fast as he could and put the stuff there. The rest of the group decided to help as well and did their part of the job. When Mario was given rainbow boards to carry, Mr. Shwalister stared at him in shock.
"Are you Mario? Oh, man! You're pretty famous around these parts! You still got that magnificent 'stache on ya! Keep it cool, man."
Mario: Well... I guess a lot of people say that.
After about five minutes, all of the rainbow boards were in place, and Flyer and Mr. Shwalister got to work.
"You don't have to help us here, guys. We'll take it from here!" Flyer assured.
"OK, we can leave it to the professionals," Scrub smiled, laying down to rest. Unfortunately, his relaxing time was not very long, as the bridge was completed within a minute.
"Whew! We finally did it, boy! The bridge is finally finished! Now you can proceed across." Mr. Shwalister declared, relieved to have finished his work. "So... Why do you need to go to your workshop, Flyer?"
"We're going to get something we need to save the world," Flyer explained. "It's kind of a long story."
"Ah, I see... Well, I've done my job for now. I wish luck to the rest of you!" With that, Mr. Shwalister was off.
"You know, mentioning the Crystal Stars while introducing your friends, I feel like I need to study them a bit more. Maybe we can study that Crystal Star I've got! C'mon! The workshop's not too far from here!" Flyer flew across the bridge and went between the two, small mountains past the bridge.
"We go follow him. Let's go, guys! This Crystal Star is going to be a SNAP!" Chopper followed Flyer between the two mountains, along with the others. A sense of relief filled their minds, knowing that this was going to be an easy star to get.