"There it is! Over there! That's my workshop, Chopper! We're finally here…" Flyer pointed to the building down the hill. There appeared to be wings on the roof. "Not many people roam around here, including Aliebits, so we should be fine."
"Hold on, what are those wings on the roof for?" Bombette asked. "Can they make the place fly?"
"They're made of metal, so no. It can't fly."
"Oh... That would've been cool, actually." Scrub remarked.
"I could probably do a little something to make it fly, but I don't intend on doing that. Anyway, the Sky Star's in my workshop, so we should get going!" Flyer flew down the hill and Chopper followed, except he ran.
"Ah! Now running down a hill is something I'm interested in!" Sonic smirked, running down the hill at full speed. Everyone else followed while having some thoughts about the workshop.
"Poyo! (I hope his workshop has a refrigerator! I sure am hungry!)" Kirby said cheerfully. Unfortunately, he tripped on a rock and came tumbling down the hill. Since he was near the back of the group, they also got caught and were tumbling down the hill as well. Thankfully, they had stopped right by Chopper, Sonic and Flyer.
"Perhaps we should've let Kirby walk down the hill after us..." Shadower groaned.
"Well, now that you're all here… I believe I have a Crystal Star to give you guys." Flyer said, though he looked at the others with uncertainty. "Though... I don't know if I can trust you guys in coming inside."
"What? C'mon, why not?" Scrub complained.
"The thing is... A lot of my inventions are in there, and it's hard for me to trust someone while in my workshop because I'd be worried about them breaking my stuff. Heck, I don't really trust Chopper with my gadgets either!"
"You don't?" Berry gawked. "But why?"
"Well... Let's just say he created an accident when holding onto one of my machines..."
Chopper blinked, unsure of what to say. "So... What can we do?"
"Well, I won't let you guys inside, but you can certainly take a peek from the doorway. There aren't any tools around there."
"Joy..." Scrub grumbled.
"All right..." Flyer slowly opened the door for everyone, including himself to get a glimpse. "Welcome to my..."
He stopped, noticing that the whole place a mess. Things were knocked onto the ground and some safes he had were opened up. Many devices he had were also broken. "My workshop! What happened to it?!"
"This doesn't look good..." Vivian remarked quietly.
"Hold on... I kept the Crystal Star in a safe place no one would bother to look. I bet there's still hope!" Flyer rushed into the workshop, searching for his safe he had hid behind a wall. To his shock, a piece of the wall was torn, and a broken safe was in there. "Oh, no no no no! The Crystal Star is gone! GONE I TELL YOU! Somebody had the nerve to invade my workshop, steal some of my valuable inventions, and rob me of the Crystal Star!"
"Who did it?" Chopper wondered, entering the room with his friends. They took note of a shredder that wasn't broken. "Well... That thing isn't broken!"
"It's just a shredder. And, come to think of it, I should've kept that thing hiding. It's a very dangerous machine..." the Wingel got a brown bag and put it over the shredder. After all, shredders beat paper.
On the table, Chopper spotted a videotape. "Wait, I think I found something! Though, I'm not sure what it is."
"That's a videotape," Flyer informed, taking it from him. "These can display videos and images on the television. Thankfully, the TV has not been pilfered."
They saw a penguin in a light blue and purple robe and a chubby belly that seemingly resembled King Dedede a bit. Many of them were caught off guard, believing it to be him. However, this penguin had a jagged beak instead.
"Ahem! People of Wingel City! My name is the Mighty Penguinator!" the penguin announced. "The time has come at long last to take over your precious land! You have been hogging it for way too long, and now we're going to claim it!"
"Hey, King Bebe! You'll never guess what happened! There…"
"Don't call me by that name, Aliebit! My name's the MIGHTY PENGUINATOR! NOT King Bebe! But… Back to business! Now…" King Bebe turned his attention back to the camera. "Er… Forget what you just heard there. I'm the Mighty Penguinator, and I'm going to invade the Wingel's land thanks to my new battleships! …And this!"
He took out a pale blue Crystal Star and held it up. Chopper gasped, while Flyer paused the video.
"Do you see that, Flyer? That King Dedede wannabe stole the Sky Star!" Chopper exclaimed. "And did he say that he's going to make an attack on the city? We need to stop him at once! ...Though, how are we supposed to find him?"
"Let me look at the map, Chopper," Flyer requested. Chopper gave him the map and he took a look. "According to the map, it says that the Sky Star is located in Night Palace. That place is home to the Aliebits. Though it might be dangerous, I think I have a solution on how to get there! Follow me, guys!"
The group followed Flyer outside to the back of the workshop. There appeared to be a large cliff nearby, and below was more landscape. The way leading to the cliff's edge appeared to have a track as well.
"So we just need to get to the Night Palace, is that right?" Bombette asked.
"Correct," Flyer nodded.
"But that thing's up in the sky! How the heck are we supposed to get to that?" Scrub questioned. "We can't fly that far!"
"I was just getting to that..." Flyer trailed, pulling out a silver cube. "Now, prepare for some mechanical genius!"
He tossed the cube over by the track, and a white airplane with yellow stripes on it appeared. A symbol of a wing appeared on it.
"Whoa, that plane reminds me of the plane I would use with Tails!" Sonic recalled. "How'd you even make this?"
"Well, I made blueprints of this ever since I was three," Flyer explained, getting out a cloth to polish it. "It hadn't taken me very long to finish, so I decided to call it the Hurricane!"
While everyone was excited, Berry in particular noticed only one seat: the pilot's seat. "Wait... There's only one seat in this thing! How are we all supposed to get in this thing?"
Flyer stopped polishing his plane and sweat dropped. "Oh... I...designed this plane for just a pilot to sit in. I never even thought about it."
"So you're saying that we can't get to the Night Palace?" Bombette asked angrily.
"Well, maybe if I just got out some blueprints, I could figure out a way to get everyone in the-"
"But we don't have time for all of that," Shadower noted. "It's very important for us to get the star now."
"Oh... I'm sorry, guys..." Flyer sighed. "I didn't mean to disappoint you all."
"Hey, don't get all droopy," Sonic said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's not the end of the world or anything! There are always alternate ways of getting on a plane, just like I used to do with Tails!"
"Well, from what I can recall, Chopper always stood on top of the plane for some strange reason," the Wingel informed, looking over at Chopper standing on the plane and waving. "Yeah, just like that."
"If we have to sit this out, then that's all right..." Vivian trailed. "I'd say it's more important for Chopper to go, considering that he carries the map."
"Are you guys sure?"
Mario: I'm sure you guys can handle it!
"We'll take them down with ease!" Chopper declared. "Though, I don't recommend that you guys stay here... You should probably go back to Wingel City where it's safe. I think there's some big building where you go buy stuff from different stores."
"That's a mall, Chopper," Flyer corrected.
"Oh... Right! The mall! Why don't you go there?"
"I don't even like malls, though," Berry remarked.
"Poyo! (I bet they have food!)" Kirby hoped, licking his lips and dreaming about delicious food.
"I think they've got lots and lots of food!" Chopper smiled.
"Really? Aw, sweet! Then I'm going to enjoy taking a break!" Scrub fist pumped.
"I guess it's not a bad idea to sit this one out," Sonic shrugged. "Sometimes a hero needs to relax!"
Mario: Let's head back now before anything gets out of hand.
Everyone had left, with the exception of a few others, specifically Vivian, Scrub and Berry.
"Hey, Choppy..." Berry started, grabbing his attention.
"Huh? What is it?" Chopper asked.
"Promise me you won't get annihilated out there."
Chopper stared at her, unsure of how to respond.
"Annihilated means destroyed, Chopper," Flyer informed.
"Oh... Well, I'm sure we won't get destroyed out there!" Chopper assured. "We're going to take those baddies down!"
"Good," Berry smiled, jumping onto the plane right beside Chopper. Before he could question, she kissed him on the cheek and jumped off the plane. Chopper, on the other hand, had the same typical reaction, only this time he fell off the plane and landed on the track.
"Gross!" Chopper cried.
"While I do sympathize with Chopper's 'injury', that was quite humorous," Flyer remarked, letting out a small chuckle.
"That was just my little good luck charm for you," Berry explained, giving Chopper a wink before running off. Scrub approached the boy and helped him up.
"Man... You can't even handle-"
"Not now, Scrub," Chopper grumbled, wiping his cheek.
"Hopefully the trip goes well," Vivian said, approaching him as well. "I just hope you don't get into a serious situation..."
"I probably won't. Well... Hopefully I don't." Unfortunately, this didn't seem to help in any way. "Ummmm... Have some faith in me, though!"
"I think I've already got faith in you," the Shadow Siren replied, giving him a smile.
"Go knock those alien guys into the dust!" Scrub exclaimed with a fist pump. With their goodbyes out of the way, the two followed the others back to Wingel City, leaving only Chopper and Flyer.
"You certainly have some interesting friends," Flyer remarked.
"Yeah, they sure are," Chopper agreed, jumping back on the plane on the back side. "So... Are we going?"
"Of course," Flyer nodded, getting into the pilot's seat. "Just to let you know, we're going to be flying high in the air, so I just hope you can hold on tight. Thankfully, the flight won't be too long."
"I've done this before, and I could do it again! So... Yeah, I'm ready!"
Flyer started the plane, and it started to move toward the cliff up ahead. It didn't take long enough for the Hurricane to be high up in the air. That was where the two caught a whole glimpse of the land below.
"Hey, I think I can see Wingel City from here!" Chopper remarked, noticing the city up in the clouds. "So what did you do with this plane before?"
"Well, I installed some defense systems such as a turret," Flyer informed, putting his finger near a button with a turret labeled on it. "I installed it right where you're standing so I can get someone to at least shoot. The Hurricane can also shoot projectiles from the front as well! So, I can assure you that getting to the Night Palace will be a snap! Besides, those Aliebits don't carry any ships, so it should be smooth sailing from here!"
"Then... Why do we need weapons while in the air?"
"I never said it was to fight against the Aliebits..." the Wingel trailed. "So... How was the Crystal Star hunt for you anyway? You never mentioned that..."
"I guess the hunt has been going fine," Chopper answered. "Though, if there was one thing that was freaky, it was getting the Queen's Star.
"What happened when you were getting the Queen's Star?" Flyer asked, now curious. Having no choice, Chopper gave him an explanation of the events occurring from the Queen's Star. "Really? That happened? Very interesting... So that explains why the sky was covered in darkness during that moment. I thought for a second there was a rainstorm occurr-"
"Sorry to interrupt your little game, but I'm not lettin' you get that Crystal Star, Contadre!" Moe Hawk cut in, flying beside the Hurricane thanks to his Hovercycle.
"Contadre? Who's Contadre?"
"Ummmmm... It's a bit of a long story." Chopper sighed.
"Oh... Anyway, who the heck are you?"
"The name's Moe Hawk, winged punk! I do whatever I want to do an' that's how I roll! Plus, I'm much better than my bro, Rawk Hawk! He's nothin' but a chicken!" Moe Hawk pointed at his mohawk. "See this mohawk? It agrees with me!"
"But hair can't technically let out words. That's impossible." Flyer stated.
"And aren't you a chicken too?" Chopper questioned.
"Sh-Shut up, Contadre!" Moe Hawk retorted. "You won't believe how angry I am that you trashed by Hovercycle twice! Ya know how much it cost for me to get this thing fixed?! Five hundred coins! Try savin' that much money, punk!"
"But we have around 999 coins..."
"What?! How'd you get that much?!"
"Well, we were mostly getting a lot of coins from battles and blocks. Though we had much more than that before buying some stuff."
Moe Hawk's jaw instantly dropped. "No way! That ain't fair, Contadre! Maybe I can get some of that money when I finally beat ya in a race!"
"No thank you," Chopper replied. "We've got other things to do."
"What, you too chicken to race me while on that scrawny-looking plane you're on?"
"Scrawny?!" Flyer replied, not getting Moe Hawk's attention. "Oh… Now you've asked for it! We can take you on!"
"Har har! Bring it, wing-head!"
Just has Moe Hawk was about to boost onward, Flyer activated a red button that activated a greater boost. Moe Hawk found himself left in the dust as the plane went farther and farther.
"Wha... How do I beat THAT?!"
Before he could have an episode, Moe Hawk stopped and took a deep breath. "I gotta remember why I sometimes go to anger management..." After one last breath, he revved his Hovercycle and grinned. "You might have the lead so far, but I'll be takin' number one soon enough!"
For Chopper and Flyer, the wind became much heavier than before, forcing Chopper to hold onto the plane for dear life. As he finally balanced himself, Flyer's eyes widened in shock. Standing in front of them was a large, gray battleship.
"That thing's huge!" Chopper gasped.
"But... There aren't supposed to be any Aliebit ships like these!" Flyer gaped.
As Chopper got a closer look at the battleship, he noticed a familiar symbol located on the side. "Wait a second... That's not an Aliebit ship! That looks like it belongs to the X-Nauts!"
"X-Nauts?"
"They're these alien guys in costumes that were chasing after me for the Crystal Star," Chopper explained. "I guess they're still trying to go after me..."
"Well whatever it is, we should try to stop it," Flyer suggested. "They're heading directly toward the city!"
"Oh, gosh! Then we really should do something!"
While they were discussing the matter, Moe Hawk had finally caught up to them, not caring about the giant battleship in front of him.
"All right, so I finally reached them... So, what do I use against them? Hmmmm..." Moe Hawk started to ponder until a light bulb appeared over his head. "How about that bazooka? It'll blast them big time!"
"Maybe we can find the core thingy of the battleship to destroy it," Chopper suggested. "I did that when I was taking down Meta Knight's ship."
"I guess we can try that out... Though, landing might be a little too risky. Let's see where I can go." Flyer flew around the ship while dodging its shots and saw a little H near the ship's top. He landed the Hurricane, and both he and Chopper got off the ship. Moe Hawk shook his fist and got off his Hovercycle as he landed.
"Get back here, punks! I'm not done with you yet!" Moe Hawk shouted. He noticed Chopper inhaling a wheel and getting a red cap that was backwards. Flyer cleared all of the other wheels blocking the doorway leading inside. Chopper, meanwhile, transformed into a wheel and ran over the X-Nauts charging at them.
"Man, it's been a while since I've seen you use a Copy Ability, Chopper!" Flyer said, following Chopper into an engine room of the battleship filled with a couple of gears. They could see a ledge up above them leading into the duct. Flyer took a look and then looked down below, seeing nothing but a bottomless pit.
Thankfully there were some platforms with a couple of X-Nauts doing some work, but that didn't make much of a difference.
"All right, I think I'll be able to help you get into that duct with my flying," Flyer informed, grabbing Chopper's hands and flying up to the duct's entrance. He first tossed him in there before going in with him.
"NOW where did they go?" Moe Hawk came into the engine room and took a look around. Looking down below, he found no sign of the twerps. What he didn't notice, however, was an X-Naut taking out a small blaster and aiming it at Moe Hawk. The moment it fired, the chicken felt an extremely hot sensation in his behind.
"COCK-A-DOODLE-DOOOUCH!" Moe Hawk cried, rocketing in the air and crashing his head through the air duct. He rubbed his behind, trying to relieve the pain. "Argh... I'm goin' to MOE the guy who did that to me! Now my biscuit's were burnin' like- Hold on a second..."
He blinked and noticed some figures in the air duct ahead. "Ah HA! So they're in the air duct! Though... I don't know if I can get in there. I may be all buff and ripped, but my jumps are pretty weak. I'm goin' a different way."
Moe Hawk managed to free himself from the hole and landed on the X-Naut who shot him, causing it to become flattened. Taking out his club, he began to smack away a couple of X-Nauts that were attacking him while he took a pathway in the same direction as the air duct. "First these freaks are goin' to get MOE'D, and then Contadre and his wing-headed friend will get it next!"
"This place sure is strange..." Chopper commented, using his Wall Jump to get higher into the duct. For Flyer, it was easier for him, being able to fly up. There wasn't much in the duct except for a Metal Block. Chopper smashed it, and they found a little passageway with cracks they could slip through if they turned sideways. Chopper did just that and he fell into a room with four pillars with hearts embedded in them. They appeared to be holding the ceiling up.
"Intriguing..." Flyer commented, getting a glimpse of the rather peaceful room. The walls were light blue as if resembling the sky, and the floor was depicted with clouds. "Though the rest of this place feels more dull, this one seems to stand out."
"Hey! Looks like a Wingel and a green freak have come in here as well!"
Looking ahead, they caught a glimpse of an Aliebit with angelic wings and a halo over its head. It also appeared to be carrying an angelic bow as well.
"Wait, aren't these those alien guys? But why are they here?" Chopper questioned.
"If I were to deduce this question, it's most likely that these X-Naut fellows have found some of these monsters and captured them. It's most likely that they kept them here. After all, they're not that good with technology.
"Technology? What's that?" the flying Aliebit called an Aliepara asked. "Well, it don't matter now! I'm takin' you both down!"
It fired an arrow at them, which Chopper easily stepped out of the way. When he looked back at the monster, an idea struck him. "Hey... Maybe I can get some sort of ability from this freak!"
"Be my guest," Flyer shrugged.
Removing his ability, Chopper approached the Aliepara and inhaled it. He managed to copy its ability and gain angelic wings on his back, a golden bow with heart-shaped arrows and a yellow, glowing halo. He smiled at first, but he looked confused at first.
"Wait... Huh? What's this? I don't seem to have changed that much..."
"Take a look," his Wingel friend replied, taking out a mirror. Chopper got a look at himself and gasped.
"I'm...some kind of angel! Does this mean I'm...Angel Chopper?"
"I guess so..." Flyer replied with confusion. "Anyway, let's get out of this room."
He approached the door, but it didn't appear to be open, even when trying to open it himself. "Drats... This door is locked! There's no panel that I could hack through either!" Flyer slowly turned to Chopper, but his eyes caught a glimpse of the pillars. "However... I think those pillars might be useful!"
"Four pillars?" Chopper turned back and saw them as well. "Oh, yeah! But how can they be useful?"
"I once heard from my grandfather that if an arrow strikes pillars like those, they might reveal something. Since you're carrying arrows, you ought to try it out!"
"All right! Though, I hope I know how to use a bow and arrow..." Chopper floated off of the ground with his wings (which he was delighted in doing, by the way), and he aimed and fired at each of the pillar's hearts. This triggered the pillars to shoot a blue laser at each other, forming a square and opening the door. "Wow! Now that was neat!"
"Let's get a move on, shall we?" Flyer suggested, flying out of the room with Chopper. They ran into a three-way hallway, with a hallway up ahead and one to the south. A couple of X-Nauts appeared to be over by the south hallway, but the one up ahead seemed to stick out more than the others. Getting a closer look, there was a sign.
WARNING: THIS ROOM LEADS TO THE CORE. DO NOT MAKE ANY CONTACT WITH THE CORE, ESPECIALLY ARROWS. THEY WILL CAUSE SOMETHING SERIOUS TO HAPPEN.
X-Naut Administrator
"No one's even guarding this door! This should be easy!" Chopper scoffed, opening the door. Meanwhile, the X-Nauts guarding the other hallway turned their attention to the door behind them. Some banging sounds were heard, and some markings of fists appeared on the door as well. It broke off and fell on the X-Nauts, flattening them. Moe Hawk had jumped on top of the broken door and raised a finger in victory.
"Aw, yeah! Not even a metal door is a match for the great Moe Hawk!" Moe Hawk boasted. "Now to find Contadre! I ain't finished with him yet!"
Entering the room, the two noticed the room was circular, had a bluish tint to it, and had a blue, spherical-shaped core in the center. Some sparks coming from the floor and ceiling were connected to the core on two pedestals.
"Well, this doesn't look too bad," Chopper commented. "There aren't any enemies in the way!"
"I expected there to be some enemies here..." Flyer trailed. "Keeping it open like this is not very wise..."
"Well, since their leader is gone, they've probably become too stupid!" the antennae hero remarked, aiming at the core. "Well... Better destroy it!"
One arrow was enough to destroy the core. Unfortunately, explosions began to emit everywhere from the room and knock them back into the hallway. Moe Hawk even noticed them get blown back and grinned, only to be interrupted by an alarm and a couple of small explosions.
"Huh? What the heck is goin' on?!" Moe Hawk questioned.
WARNING: CORE HAS BEEN DESTROYED. SELF-DESTRUCTING IN T MINUS ONE MINUTE.
"That doesn't sound good..." Flyer gulped.
"Well we're not staying here forever! Let's run for it!" Chopper exclaimed, grabbing Flyer's arm and running as fast as he could through the hallway Moe Hawk tore through.
"Hey! Come back here!" Moe Hawk shouted, chasing after them.
As they ran through the hallway, they noticed a couple of X-Nauts trying to flee as well through the windows. Some of their ships were working, while some ended up crashing. They would handle that much later. Now was the time for escaping.
It didn't take them long to return to a familiar room and back to the landing pad. Flyer got into the Hurricane, and Chopper jumped into the back. With that, they were off.
As they got farther and farther from the battleship, they caught a glimpse of Moe Hawk and his Hovercycle flying out as well just as the ship exploded.
Wingel City's mall-
What was nice about the mall was that there were some sections that were outside, specifically some tables people could sit at to eat. There, they could get a glimpse of the nice, beautiful sky and even a view of some of the city as well. Some of the heroes actually didn't regret their decision of staying here!
Especially a white dinosaur and a pink puffball, who were chowing down on food in a matter of seconds.
"Dude, you gotta try this food out!" Scrub exclaimed, gulping down some fruit. "It's really good!"
"Poyo! (I never want to leave this place!)" Kirby cheered, inhaling many sorts of food.
"Well... At least we're having fun." Shadower commented. However, just as they were about to have another discussion, they not only heard an explosion, but caught a glimpse of it in the sky.
"Whoa... Did you guys see that?" Sonic gaped, looking up at the sky. "Gee, I never thought I'd get a glimpse of an explosion from up in the sky! It's usually me who's blowing up battleships!"
"I wonder if Chopper was involved in that..." Vivian pondered. "I just hope he wasn't caught in that explosion..."
"I wouldn't want that either..." Berry trailed. "But, while we're here and all… There's one thing I wanted to talk about."
Mario: Really? What is it?
"It's that dark being that looks kind of like Chopper... Just who is he, exactly? And why does he try to get in our way?"
"Well, with the Shadow Queen gone, perhaps he's stopping us for other reasons..." Bombette trailed. "But still, I don't get that guy. He can't even learn to smile!"
"Maybe when we see him next time, we can try to make him turn that frown upside down," Sonic suggested with a grin. "Though, I don't think it'll be so easy."
"Seeing how evil he is, doing that might be a bit too painful," Berry remarked. "Why's he even so angry?"
"I'm guessing it's that story he told us about when we first ran into him..." Vivian trailed. "Honestly, I know a bit about him, but I don't know everything."
"Who cares? We'll just pummel him when he challenges us again!" Scrub declared. "...So, uh, how are you guys doing?"
"Uh… Good, I guess?" Shadower replied with a gawk. "How about you? How was the Glitz Pit? I never got the full story."
"The Glitz Pit was AWESOME! That, of all the places I've been to, is my favorite place! That's where I was born, too. Man, Contadre really saved my butt there too! Thinking about it, I was considering calling myself the Great Contadre Jr.!"
"...That name sounds kinda dumb," Bombette remarked. "Even the name 'Contadre' on its own sounds weird."
"Well I like it! It sounds a whole lot better than his real name!"
"Ehhh... That's debatable." Sonic said, putting his arms over his head and leaning his chair back. "So... You guys wanna know about my world?"
"Your world? What's it like?" Berry asked.
"Well, there are a couple of loops around, and there are many robots made by Dr. Eggman. I've even got a couple of friends like Tails, Amy, and Knuckles! I bet you'd like them! ...Well, at least two of them anyway."
"Why? What's wrong with one of them?" Bombette asked.
"Let's just say he's a bit of a knucklehead..."
Up in the sky-
"Man, that was pretty intense, wasn't it, Flyer? We managed to escape from that one!" Chopper smiled, relieved to have destroyed the battleship. As the Hurricane began to fly further to their destination, the sky was slowly becoming darker. There was also something floating in the distance as well.
"Well, would you look at that? You see that place up in the distance?" Flyer asked, pointing to the floating palace up ahead. "That's where we need to go. That's the Night Palace."
"Huh... Well that place looks interesting."
As they got closer to the palace, another battleship had blocked their path. It was another X-Naut battleship, and through the window into the control room was a familiar face.
"Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh! MAN, have I been waiting to find you, Chopper!" Lord Crump cackled.
"Lord Crump!" Chopper gasped. "So you are still around!"
"Lord Crump?" Flyer gawked. "That name doesn't sound very leader-like..."
"I think he's second-in-command..."
"I gotta say, I never expected you to destroy that other battleship," Lord Crump said with a hint of frustration in his voice. "But that ain't going to happen here! This battleship is much stronger offensively and defensively! Show him how it's done, Johnson!"
Johnson sighed and pressed a button, causing the battleship to fire a beam. The Hurricane had barely managed to dodge it, dealing a slight amount of damage to its wing.
"Oh, man... This isn't good..." Flyer gulped. "If this plane takes another hit, I don't know how long I can hold it in the air!"
"Buh huh huh! Good work, Johnson!" Lord Crump smirked. "Now let's get him again!"
"Crud... We gotta try to stop this ship too!" Chopper exclaimed, shooting some arrows at the ship. Sadly, they had barely done a thing.
"Don't think you're leavin' so soon, Contadre!" Moe Hawk exclaimed, taking out his bazooka as he flew toward the plane. "I barely made it out of that battleship, an' now I'm gonna end it here! Say your prayers!"
To the heroes' surprise, this caught Lord Crump's attention. "Whuh? Who thinks you can go and take care of Chopper?! If anyone's going to be doing that, it's ME! ME of all MES! X-Nauts! Fire at that red chicken!"
"As you command, Lord Crump," the X-Nauts obeyed, firing their turrets at Moe Hawk. He managed to dodge them with ease and aimed his bazooka at the ship.
"Oh, so ya wanna fight, huh? Then I'll show ya!" Moe Hawk fired a missile at the battleship, creating a hole and revealing the core. He was about to fire again, but the ship had managed to shoot his Hovercycle, damaging it and making it plunge down, along with Moe Hawk. "Aggghhhh! No! My awesome Hovercycle! And it wasn't destroyed by Contadre this time! Hear me out, Contadre! I'll back back for you again! I'll be the winner of the next race!"
"Wow... We didn't have to race him... Awesome!" Chopper smiled.
"Chopper! Look over there!" Flyer shouted, regaining his attention. "I think he actually did us a favor and revealed the core. I think I've got an idea… Hurricane transforming… Now!"
"Wait, what?" As Flyer pressed a button, Chopper found himself rocketing upward in the air. Just as he was about to plunge, he remembered the angel wings and remained floating. He looked down and saw that the Hurricane had four wings and were in the shape of an X. A turret had appeared as well, and when the plane flew up to him, he grabbed the handles and started firing at the battleship's core.
One shot hit the core, and it was all over.
"What the… Oh, crud…" Lord Crump gulped, noticing that the battleship was going down.
"Ha HA! You couldn't beat us!" Chopper taunted, sticking his tongue out at him. "Your battleship was much easier to take down than the other!"
"Grrrrr! This isn't the last time you'll see me, Chopper! Next time, I'm gonna give you the old Crump-a-bomb!" Lord Crump shouted, shaking his fist while the X-Naut battleship had crashed onto the plains.
"Whew! Well that was close!" Flyer sighed. "I'm glad I managed to get this transformation working!"
"Well, next time maybe you should warn me when you're going to do that..." Chopper sweat dropped. "I could've fallen if it weren't for this ability!"
"I guess I should keep that in mind. But for now, we have a palace to head to!"
Agreeing, Chopper held onto the plane tightly as the Hurricane got closer to the Night Palace. This time, without more conflicts getting in the way.
In the original version of this story, there WAS a race between Moe Hawk and the Hurricane. However, I didn't feel like it would fit too well for this chapter. Not only that, but it would kinda make the chapter a bit redundant by having one thing get in the way and suddenly something else next. I thought this was a lot more entertaining. :P
Next up, Chopper and Flyer invade the Night Palace!