CHAPTER 8-2

-The Crash-

Although Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, and Tipral thought that the trembling would soon be over, they were wrong. They felt a tremendous amount of trembling for a while as they looked around in the room they were in. Apparently, it was like the other hallways they were previously in before. However, there weren't any Dull Bones to stop them from moving on, or any Gawbuses. The only thing they saw were black torches, the black castle, white outlines, and the windows that showed the outside of this world.

As soon as the trembling stopped, the four of them still remained a bit silent. However, Sonic was the first one to speak up.

"Man, I don't know how many tremors we've had so far… I bet I lost count of them all!"

Sonic spoke up. "It really stinks that we have to move on without Blade, but I guess we had no other choice."

"Hold on a minute…" Tipral paused for a minute and pondered. "Why is there destruction ravaging in MY castle?! This wasn't what I had planned in mind! …Is this Count Bleck fellow seriously trying to destroy himself and this castle?!"

Tippi paused and fluttered on ahead, pondering. "Blumiere… I can't believe that all this time you're causing this…" she turned around to see the four walk over to her.

"Uhh… Did you just say 'Blumiere' again?" Chopper asked. "Ever since we've walked into this castle, you've been mentioning this Blumiere person all the time."

"Ahem, uhhh… Let's just keep moving. We need to find that Count Bleck person and the Chaos Heart soon…" Tippi suggested. "But, I need to know something… Which part of the castle is this?"

"We're in Castle Tipral Foyer," Tipral explained. "We're not technically 'deeper' into the castle. I mean, we're pretty much over by the outside still. But, I'll say that we ARE higher up too. Hopefully I remember the way…"

The first thing they noticed in the hallway were silver Boing-Oings that Chopper, Kirby and Sonic previously saw back in Outer Space, or rather, that planet called Planet Blobule.

"Poyo! (Hey, Chopper! Those things look a bit familiar!)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo? (Why is it that we're seeing a lot of similar enemies through this castle?)"

"I don't know, but I guess Tipral sure loves recolors," Chopper said jokingly as he used Tippi's powers to identify the silver Boing-Oings.

"It's a Zoing-Oing... They're very rare creatures only a few adventurers have seen... Max HP is 12 and Attack is 4. If you hurt it, it will split into multiple Mini-Zoings... Zoing-Oings are very similar to other Oings... Except for their lovely pale hides..." Tippi informed.

"Lovely pale hides? Why would people want those?" Chopper frowned as he jumped on one Zoing-Oing. It ended up splitting into four Mini-Zoings, but he was able to take them out with one stomp.

"Well I see two more up ahead. Maybe we ought to take care of those guys, huh?" suggested Sonic as he attacked one of them with a Homing Attack. Once they split, he finished them with a Spin Jump.

"Poyo, (All I hope is that Blade's OK,)" Kirby said worryingly, inhaling the Zoing-Oing that was in front of him. He spat it out at a Cursya walking around in the hallway, since he couldn't touch it with Carrie.

"I guess that was a good thing to do, Kirby," Chopper said as he jumped on another Zoing-Oing up ahead. He finished off the Mini-Zoings with one last stomp before landing on the ground.

"So… Care to criticize this castle once again?" Sonic asked.

"Well, I can say that the halls are very unoriginal, and the whole place is just completely dull. Black with white outlines? …Sure, the outline thing is a bit unique, but who makes a castle with nothing but black?" Chopper criticized, only to be punched by Tipral (I still like this dungeon, mind you).

"Hey! Why'd you do that?!"

"Enough already! That's the last time I'll hear you criticizing my castle!" Tipral jumped and landed on the other Zoing-Oing with a stomp, turning the rest of them into Mini-Zoings. He finished those off with a stomp as well.

"I see two Red Is up ahead. I think I'll go take care of them." Chopper flipped into 3-D to take care of the first Red I by running around it, but apparently Tipral took care of the other using Flippay.

"Aw, man! I wanted to beat it!" Chopper frowned before getting struck by a sound wave coming from a silver Boomboxer. "Ouch! That was a bit painful! …I lost 7 HP from that attack?!"

"Hmmmmmm… I guess it's another recolor of a Boomboxer…" Tippi trailed. "Only this time, it's a silver color…"

"Poyo! (Well, what are you waiting for? Get some information from it already!)" Kirby shouted.

"OK, OK! Sheesh!" Chopper began to use Tippi's powers once again to investigate this silver Boomboxer.

"This Blastboxer blares sound at anyone it doesn't like... Max HP is 16 and Attack is 7. It gets startled by its own loud noises... I wonder if its neighbors ever complain about the noise..." Tippi informed.

Kirby started off by inhaling the first Blastboxer and spitting it at the other one. Although it didn't defeat them, it DID leave them severely weak, allowing both Chopper and Tipral to stomp on them to finish them off.

"Hey, how come I'm not getting into the fun?" Sonic asked, curling up into a ball and striking the next Blastboxer. He immediately performed a Homing Attack on it while avoiding its sound wave.

"I think that's the last of them…" Tippi trailed while spotting the door up ahead. "We don't have much time to waste! We should hurry on through that door!"

"Good idea," Chopper walked over to the door and kicked it open. Everyone followed him through into a smaller room with a locked door up ahead. But what caught them off guard was a familiar face.

"Oh ho ho! You've finally arrived!" the blue cloaked wizard himself, Merlon, was waiting for the four in the same room. He was standing over by a blue ! Block, which seemed a bit weird.

"What are you doing here, Merlon?" Tippi asked.

"Weren't you back in Flipside? I couldn't really imagine you being somewhere in this castle." Chopper gawked.

"I found a fascinating passage in the Light Prognosticus, so I rushed here to tell you! To get to the Chaos Heart, it seems you must hit this totally unsuspicious block! So why don't you give it a jolly old whack?"

"Hmmmmm… Should we actually trust you?" Sonic asked while pondering.

"Of course! I've been helping you all of this time anyway!"

"Well, the door ahead is locked... So I guess we might as well." Chopper shrugged. "Who wants to hit it?"

"Poyo, (I'll do it,)" Kirby struck the blue ! Block himself, wondering where it could possibly take them.

"Tee hee! What a bunch of…"

Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Tipral ended up falling through the floor. It was obvious who it was. What? The little trap revealed under the ground was the key to showing who it really was!

"SUCKERS!" Mimi snickered evilly as she turned back to her normal self.

Below the room-

"WHOOOOOA OOF!" Chopper was the first to land on the ground below them. It was definitely NOT a soft landing for someone like him, compared to the others. "Oooog… That was bad…"

"Poyo! (So Mimi decided to pull another trick on us!)" Kirby growled as he got up. He noticed that they were in a cell. "Poyo… (Well, we're trapped…)"

"Wait a minute… I remember this from somewhere…" Chopper recalled. "Yeah… That seriously reminds me of when Decoya fooled us back in Dark Subspace World. I can't believe we fell for that again!"

"Poyo! (Wait! There's a crack in that wall over there!)" Kirby pointed to the cracked wall. "Poyo? (Can't we just blow that up with Hommissile?)"

"Yeah, good idea, Kirby," Chopper grabbed Hommissile and threw him toward the cracked wall. It made a hole in the wall, like it was made of paper.

"So… How do we get through – oh, wait, we need to flip, right?" Sonic remembered, almost forgetting Chopper's flipping ability.

"Yup! We need to do that!" Chopper flipped into 3-D and walked through the hole, leading out of the prison. They found a pipe to their right that led to a door at the end of the room if they went around it, and a door to their left.

"Poyo… (I see something strange with that pipe…)" Kirby trailed, pointing up to the ceiling. The group looked up to see that there could possibly be three more pipes, but it looked a bit strange.

"Hmmmmmmm… Now that I think about it, I remember this room…" Tipral pondered. "I once fell through here on accident when first exploring the castle. Luckily, my teleportation powers were able to get me out of there."

"Didn't Mimi see that you were there, though?" Tippi asked.

"No, I don't think she could've seen me, or else she would've tackled me by then," Tipral walked over to the door to his left. "Follow me. We can do something with that pipe if we take the way through here."

"All right," Chopper opened the door that led into a room with a couple of Firebars spinning around vertically. "Whoa… More Firebars? I thought I wouldn't be seeing these guys…"

Chopper began to charge up a Speed Dash before going through. Luckily, he dodged all of the Firebars in his way. It led him to a red ! Switch.

"Huh… I wonder what this does." Chopper decided to punch the block twice. It caused the room to tremor a bit, but it wasn't as bad as the other tremor in the room where Blade and O'Chunks fought.

"All right, I might as – OW!" Chopper was struck by a Magiblot's red spell. This one had red hands, a white bulb on its antenna and red eyes. "Ow! …Wait, now THAT reminds me of a Darkling."

Using Tippi's powers, he was able to identify what this monster was.

"That's a Red Magiblot. These mad mages live in the space between dimensions... Max HP is 15 and Attack is 7. They only appear long enough to hurl spells at you... They use magic, so I assume they are quite intelligent, but nobody knows for sure... Red Magiblots are known for their powerful attack spells..."

"Oof… So that attack did some pretty big damage to me…" Chopper trailed, waiting for the Red Magiblot to return. Once it did, he hurled two fireballs at it and let the burn destroy it, since burning it DOES cause 1 damage every three seconds.

Chopper returned to the group over by the door (who were fighting some Red Magiblots) via 3-D. They then returned to the other room to find the pipe right in front of them, or rather, much closer.

"Poyo? (Should we go through here?)" Kirby asked.

"Well… Obviously we should." Chopper went into the pipe first, followed by Tipral, Kirby and Sonic. It led them into a room with three chests.

"Looks like someone left some treasure for us here," Sonic smirked, kicking the first chest open to find a Courage Shell. "A Courage Shell? What the heck does this thing do for us?"

"It increases your defense if you use it…" Tippi informed.

"Poyo! (Then I'll open the next one!)" Kirby smiled as he opened the chest in the middle. He ended up pulling a Castle Tipral Key out. "Poyo! (Hey! This is the key we might need for that door!)"

"I found a Life Shroom in here," stated Tipral, who held up a Life Shroom from the other chest. "I suppose I'll hold onto this for right now."

"So… Where do we go to next?" Sonic asked.

"I'll see what we can find in 3-D," Chopper flipped into 3-D and found a little square hole they could go down. "Ah! There we go! Let's just go through that hole and we should be out of here!"

He got the rest of the group into 3-D and jumped down the hole. They were led back into the room they were previously in before falling into the pit. Only this time… Mimi was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, who really cares if she's here or not? It's best that we move on." Tipral suggested, swiping the key from Kirby and unlocking the door with it. Everyone followed him through the next room.

"Well… We're in another room with stairs. Only this time, I see some Gloombas coming down and some Hammer Bros. throwing their hammers." Chopper stated as he looked up the stairs.

"Poyo? (Well, why don't we go up those then?)" suggested Kirby.

"Good idea," Chopper was about to attack the Gloomba, but it soon tried to attack him with a headbonk. Luckily, he managed to slam it to the ground with his hammer before it could hit him.

"Apparently these Goombas are going back to headbonking…" Sonic trailed, taking the last two out that walked down the stairs with a Spin Dash.

"I guess I'll handle the Hammer Bro.," Tipral walked up the stairs and fired a Star Spear directly at the Hammer Bro. throwing hammers. Kirby managed to inhale one, but he held onto it for right now after Tipral defeated the Hammer Bro.

Kirby jumped a couple of stairs to spit the hammer out at the other Hammer Bro. Sonic immediately finished it off with a simple Homing Attack before reaching the top of the staircase.

"Well, I can see a door over here, that's for sure," Sonic stated, pointing to the door.

"Let's take a look," Chopper walked through the door to an outside area of Castle Tipral. "Well, I know for certain we're outside."

"Ugh… More Cursyas…" Tipral groaned.

"Oh, relax. Hommissile is probably capable of taking them out." Chopper threw Hommissile straight at some of the Cursyas before walking up to the end of the area. A large wall was standing before them.

"I think there might be something behind this wall…" Tippi informed.

"Hmmmmmm… Well, I guess I'm going to have to check and see for myself." Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a path to the left of the wall. Upon walking through it, he found a chest with an Ultra Shroom Shake.

"Well, I guess this is something. Might as well go back in the castle."

Inside Castle Tipral-

"Heads up! Koopa Troopa at nine o'clock!" Sonic warned.

"What was that supposed to mean?"

"Errr… I'm not so sure… Just hit the Koopa, Chopper."

Chopper stomped on the Koopa Troopa, making it hide in its own shell. Tipral grabbed it using Thoreau and threw it straight at the Fire Bro. spitting fireballs on the stairs. Chopper took the other Fire Bro. out with some fireballs.

"Whew… So we finally made it up those stairs." Chopper said, sighing in relief as he stomped on a Koopa Troopa and kicked it at another, defeating them both in a matter of seconds.

"Poyo, (What I don't get is why there are Koopa Troopas here,)" Kirby pondered as he opened the door to the next room.

"Ah, Mimi… Sometimes I wonder why she thinks that these traps will work." Chopper walked around the room, looking up at the Mushrooms dangling close to the floor on a piece of white string.

"Poyo? (Doesn't she ever learn from this?)" Kirby asked. "Poyo! (Obviously she hasn't learned ever since we had to face her in Merlee's Mansion!)"

"Yeah, so let's just ignore those," Chopper ran straight toward the door, but suddenly braked when he saw it was locked. "Ugh… Something's not right."

"What is it, Chopper?" Sonic asked.

"The door's locked…" Tippi informed. "I guess we have to go through one of those traps to find the right one…"

"THEN… We'll start with the one closest to us." Chopper grabbed the closets Mushroom and managed to eat it. Unfortunately, it made him fall through the ground.

"Poyo? (Want us to come down there?)" Kirby asked.

"NAH! I'M FINE DOWN HERE!" Chopper replied, who landed on the ground underneath. "I… I don't see any enemies!"

He decided to flip into 3-D to see if there were any enemies. Apparently, there were three silver Growmebas down here. Since he had Tippi with him, he decided to use her powers to identify them.

"That's a Chromeba. It clones itself constantly to overwhelm its enemies... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 4. If you defeat the main one, the clones will die... The primary one has slightly different moves and looks, so watch closely... For fun, you can let it clone and then stomp on the main one to destroy them all..."

"All right, I'll try to beat 'em," Chopper managed to jump on top of one of the Chromeba's a couple of times and defeat it easily. Since it was the real one, all of the others were destroyed as well, making it drop a Castle Tipral Key.

"Ah! There we go!" once he picked it up, a pipe appeared for him. It brought him back to the room above him. So, he went back to the group and hit the Save Block before unlocking the door.

"Poyo… (Huh… So Mimi decided to trick us by putting the key through one of those traps… That's…a bit of an improvement…)" Kirby trailed.

"Well it doesn't matter now. We better get moving." Tipral suggested, opening the door. Everyone rushed through to find a small room with a door up ahead. That was really it, honestly.

"How magnificent, you have arrived! I saw in the stars you would survive." a familiar face was waiting for the group in the middle of the room. It was indeed Merlee.

"Merlee's here too? Ummmmm… I don't think we should be staying here…" Chopper said.

"Heroes, do not flee! For I am the lovely and mysterious Merlee! My beauty and the stars led you here. Right now, for you have nothing to fear!" she assured.

"Umm… Are you really Merlee?" Tippi asked.

"Poyo, (I have to agree with Tippi here,)" agreed Kirby. "Poyo. (Mimi did this to us before in Merlee's Mansion.)"

"Whatever is it that you imply?" Merlee asked while cackling. "How could anyone wonder if it is I? Look at this lovely aura glow, does it not tell you all you need to know?"

"Doesn't look like it…" Sonic trailed. "In fact, I hardly even know you."

She stopped cackling for a bit. "Ahhhh… I will now ask you questions three: the answers will hold your future's key. And you must answer each and every query honestly and fairly!"

"Sounds good… I guess."

"Here we go! Time to start the show! Which one of these beasts is hardest for you to make deceased? A Goomba, a Clubba, or an Ultra Shroom?"

Seeing through Merlee's identity, Chopper fake frowned. "Err… Oh, man. Those Ultra Shrooms scare me BIG time!"

"Hee hee… So that one there gives you the biggest scare? Next, which one of these fearsome three most rattles your knees? Fuzzies, Hammer Bros., or a Thunder Rage?"

"Heh heh! Those Thunder Rages are too fast for me!" Sonic faked. "Those are probably the only things that are faster than me!"

"You are most scared of those? Hee hee! That's very good to know. Now which of these do you despise like fleas? An Amazy Dayzee, Francis, or Cooking Mistakes?"

"Wait… FRANCIS?!" Chopper gawked. "What's he doing there?!"

"That is what makes you so very furious? Indeed, how very curious… Well, it's been marvelous fun, but I'm afraid our time together is quite done… But do not fear or fret! No! We shall meet again yet! Hee hee hee hee hee!" at that moment, Merlee left the room before anyone could answer.

"Who is Francis, exactly?" Tipral asked.

"Some geeky chameleon who's into butterflies…" Tippi shivered, remembering those horrible memories.

"I see. Well, there's not much we can do here." Tipral opened the door to the next room. "Wait… There's an Ultra Shroom in there!"

"Really?" Chopper rushed straight into the next room to find an Ultra Shroom. "Yeah, you're right. What's an Ultra Shroom doing… Unless Merlee – I mean Mimi's putting in what we fear the most!"

"Poyo? (Well, why not have this then?)" Kirby split the Ultra Shroom into four so they could all eat a piece, recovering 50 HP. They moved on toward the next room – which was exactly the same and found a Thunder Rage.

"And she honestly believed that I feared THESE!" Sonic chuckled, picking up the Thunder Rage. "Man… She's too gullible."

"Yup. Now let's see what we have in the next room." Chopper kicked the door open to the next room, but he didn't find anything. "Weird… I don't see anything around here…"

"Nerrrrrr… What's going on? Oooohhhh…it's my schweet, schweeeeeet Francine!" the sound of that voice caused Chopper, Tippi, Kirby and Sonic to nearly cringe in fear – especially Tippi.

"What the… Who was that?" Tipral's expression suddenly changed when he saw Francis appear before their very eyes. "What…the heck…?"

"Oh, boy… Not Francis." Chopper groaned.

"It's…YOU! What are you doing here?!" Tippi asked, shivering in fear.

"I don't know! I was in my comfy chair watching 'Starship X-Naut,' then I warped here! Maybe my Reclinotron 4500 extrapolated my dreams and couch-warped me to you!" Francis explained.

"What the heck are you even talking about? Get out of my castle!" Tipral barked.

"I would, but I don't know how!" Francis replied. "But, nothing is gonna take you away from me this time, Francine!"

"Oh, man… Not again." Chopper groaned, using Tippi's powers before Francis could disappear.

"That geeky chameleon is Francis. He's a little obsessive about his hobbies... Max HP is 40 and Attack is 4. He can also make himself invisible... You can't hit what you can't see, so wait for him to reappear... But he is still there. Look at the floor and find his shadow... Yech... Just looking at him brings back bad memories..." Tippi informed.

"So he has the same stats as before?" Sonic grinned. "Well then! This fight shouldn't be so hard then! I mean, we've gotten stronger while he's the same, nerdy chameleon that he's been!"

Everyone began to search the room carefully for Francis. He first appeared behind Tipral, but he managed to spot him and strike him with a Star Spear before he could grab him with his long, sticky tongue.

"Nerrr! Why do you have to be this harsh?" cried Francis as he disappeared. He tried to strike Tipral again with his long, sticky tongue, but he managed to grab a hold of it and make it slap the chameleon's face.

"Did anyone ever tell you that using your tongue isn't the best idea in the world?" Tipral asked.

Before Francis could disappear, Chopper came dashing toward him, landing a kick to the face with flames on his foot. Francis retreated by turning invisible and began to walk around the room again.

"Poyo, (Man, he couldn't really take that attack,)" Kirby stated as Francis appeared with his laptop.

"Let's see how you deal with more MeowBombs!" Francis summoned more MeowBombs to come down, allowing Kirby to gain the Bomb ability from one of them and throw a bomb at Francis before disappearing.

"Poyo! (Now I can use something else besides inhaling!)" Kirby said, sighing in relief, waiting for Francis to appear again.

Francis appeared again, pulling out his camera and causing the room to flash. No one was able to make a move, unfortunately, but it didn't mean that they were going to lose this fight.

"Oh, come on, Francis! You know that turning invisible makes you a bit of a coward!" Sonic shouted.

"Nerrrr! Well so what?" Francis appeared behind Sonic and was about to use his sticky tongue to grab him. However, Sonic pulled the Thunder Rage out and managed to strike him with a bolt of lightning.

"Ack! What was that?!"

"Something to weaken ya!" Sonic went in for the attack, striking Francis with a couple of Homing Attacks with a shining grin upon his face.

"Nerrrrrr!" Francis disappeared from the group and tried to find another way to get away from the group. Since he was still the same old Francis, he wasn't really that tough. His HP was already close to being depleted!

"Wow… This just might be one of the easiest fights we've encountered so far…" Chopper trailed, jumping on top of Francis as he tried to grab him with his tongue. He kicked him with a flaming slamming kick before he disappeared.

"It's a good thing that you've nearly got his HP depleted close to nothing…" Tippi said, sighing in relief.

Francis reappeared behind Tipral, but with one snap of his finger, Francis was struck with Star Magic and begging for mercy.

"NERRRR!" the nerdy chameleon got himself up, crying anime style. "That's impossible… My hi-technicaaaal battle moves failed me! That's IT! I'm going to run a simulation on my computer to figure out what went wrong!"

At that moment, he was gone.

"That was…odd. What was he doing here?" Tippi asked.

"Well, I'm not so sure… But at least he's out of the way." Chopper walked over to the door ahead. "Come on, guys. We've gotta get a move on."

Next room-

"EEEEEEK!" the first thing that they were greeted was a high-pitched scream coming from an angry Merlee. "What are you trying to pull?! IMPOSSIBLE!"

A purple puff of smoke surrounded Merlee as she transformed back into Mimi. Her outfit reminded the group of what she looked like back in Dark Subspace World.

"I put everything you hate in there! How'd you get through all that icky stuff?! Unless…you bad people were LYING!"

All four of them walked over to Mimi. "Mimi, we need to move on. Just let us through so I can get a hold of the Chaos Heart!" Tipral demanded.

Mimi's angry look turned into a surprised look. "T-Tippy?! You're… You're alive?!"

"Yes, I'm still alive. Rest assured, my minion."

"I can't believe you're still alive!" Mimi squealed. "Oh, I've missed you SO much! I felt like I was going to be depressed for the rest of my life!"

"Look, Mimi, we don't have time for this." Tipral said. "We need to get through here, all right?"

"You need to move on through the castle?" Mimi giggled. "Why, of course you can go through! …But these meanie-heads here can't!"

"Poyo?! (OK, what is WRONG with you?!)" Kirby barked. "(Poyo! (You nearly gave us a game over by some of those traps! And impersonating Merlon and Merlee? You made it so obvious! You should be ashamed for what you've done to us!)"

"Ashamed…of myself? I like getting what I want, so I do whatever I need to do to get it. I mean, look at you! I don't even know why you speak in front of these people! Practically no one can understand a word you're saying!"

"Wait, I can understand him…" Chopper spoke up, only to be ignored.

"I bet it must STINK for you to be the black sheep of the group! Mimimi!"

At this moment, Kirby didn't know what to say. He was starting to get a bit angry. "Poyo… (You just HAD to say that… If you're asking for a fight, then I pretty much have no other choice but to take you on…)"

"Kirby… You aren't planning on taking her on yourself, are you?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo, (Yes, I'm planning on doing it myself,)" Kirby said as he turned to the other three. "Poyo. (You guys go back into the other room. I have a bone to pick with her at this moment. Got it?)"

"Ummmmm… All right, I guess we should let you do that." Chopper backed away into the other room, along with the other two.

"Awww… The widdle gumball wants to face me aww awone?" Mimi asked in baby talk. "Boy, it sure would be sad if your friends saw you fleeing out of the room! Because I'm sure you will!"

"Poyo! (Don't think I'm going to flee, Mimi! I've faced you before, and I'm pretty sure that I can defeat you again!)" Kirby barked.

"MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI!" Mimi began to snap her neck once again. Kirby could hear the horrible sound of her cracking neck, but he wasn't scared this time. After her neck finished spinning, it was upside down and six spider legs came out of her head and pushed her upwards.

"MIIIIMIIII! Try not to get scared, or you'll be ending up having a nightmare! Time to go bye-bye, pink puffball!"

Since Kirby still had some of the Pixls with him (including Tippi and Thoreau), he knew he was going to have an advantage in this fight. So, starting the battle, he gathered information on Mimi.

"That's Mimi, of course. She seems really set on winning this time… Max HP is ? and Attack is 6. She has the same moves she had last time. She seems to be faster now. She can also rain down Rubees for a nasty attack… Better use your Defend ability for protection when that happens… Let's pay her back for all the times she tricked us…" Tippi informed.

"Poyo! (OK!)" Kirby jumped back when Mimi tossed a Rubee toward him. He inhaled it and spat it toward Mimi. However, it didn't necessarily keep her stunned forever.

"Urgh… You're gonna pay for that!" Mimi growled, making her way toward Kirby. This sort of reminded him of when they fought Shade Doom in his spider form. But HE looked much more threatening than Mimi, that's for sure!

"Poyo! (This battle's going to be easy for me! Just watch this!)" Kirby attempted to inhale her, but she already climbed onto the ceiling and began to drop Rubees to the ground.

"Hee hee hee! You can't catch me from up here, little pink gumball!" Mimi cackled. "I think now's the time for you to give up already!"

"Poyo! (I don't think so!)" Kirby grabbed a hold on one of Mimi's Rubees and threw them straight at her. The little spider girl ended up falling from the ceiling and landing on the ground.

"Maybe you can throw a Rubee at her and then use Carrie to stomp on her…" Tippi suggested.

"Poyo! (Wait… I still have my bombs!)" Kirby pulled a bomb out and tossed it straight at Mimi, stunning her for a couple of seconds. He immediately threw another one to get a spider leg off of her.

"EEEEEEEEEK! MY LEG!" Mimi cried out, only having five legs at the moment. "How could you DO this to me, you little gumball?!"

"Poyo? (Why am I?)" Kirby pondered for about three seconds. "Poyo! (Oh! It's because you're evil! Plus, I'm getting tired of you for bullying me and my friends!)"

"Fine! Then I guess I better use my special attack!" Mimi's spider leg connected to the ceiling and floor as four Rubees appeared around her head. It began to spin around like it was ready to attack Kirby like she was a saw blade.

"Kirby! Use your Defend ability if you want to protect yourself!" Tippi shouted.

"Poyo! (Got it!)" Kirby brought his arms up and was now defending himself at the very moment. Mimi began to move all over the room with the Rubees on her head. The attacks that were dealt to Kirby didn't do a thing.

"Huh?! My attacks didn't do a thing?! What the…"

Kirby bashed her with one of his bombs, but she immediately escaped over to the wall to summon Rubees from the ground, striking Kirby.

"Once she's on the ceiling, try to strike her…" suggested Tippi.

"Poyo, (Yeah, yeah, I know,)" Kirby nodded as he ran over to where Mimi would be up on the ceiling. He tried to float up and exhale a puff of air at her like he usually does to enemies, but it didn't seem to do too much.

"You call that an attack?! Pbbbbbbbbth! That's such a wimpy move!" Mimi knocked Kirby to the ground by dropping a Rubee on top of him.

Kirby jumped out of the way and threw another bomb at Mimi, knocking her to the ground. He immediately stunned her with Hommissile and struck her with another bomb, snapping off another spider leg.

"ACK! Not again!" Mimi tossed a Rubee straight at Kirby, knocking another ability off of him. He attempted to catch it, but Mimi successfully managed to destroy the yellow star with another Rubee.

"Poyo! (Hey! That was just rude!)" Kirby frowned.

"Mimimimimimi! Well you snapped off my spider leg, so things should be even!" Mimi huffed, attempting to swipe at Kirby with her own spider leg. She missed once, but managed to knock him to the ground.

"You still have Thoreau, Kirby… You can still hurt her…" Tippi reminded.

"Poyo, (Yeah, you don't need to tell me,)" Kirby assured, grabbing one of the Rubees Mimi tossed over to him. He managed to strike her, but she immediately attached her spider legs to the wall and ceiling.

"This time I'm going to get you!" Mimi hissed, spinning her head rapidly as she came down toward Kirby. He used his Defend ability to defend himself from the attack.

"Poyo! (I'm not letting you beat me, you bratty little girl!)" Kirby barked, inhaled a Rubee left on the ground and spitting it back at Mimi, stunning her for a bit. He allowed himself to jump on Carrie and strike her with a jump, snapping off another spider leg. At this moment, she only had three left.

"You've almost got her…" Tippi trailed. "If she keeps using the same moves over and over, then this fight shouldn't be too bad for you…"

"Poyo, (Yeah, she's pretty easy to beat, especially on my own,)" Kirby put up his defense as Mimi attached herself to the ceiling and floor. The funny thing was, Kirby didn't even get hurt by her at all. "Poyo? (That's it? That was hardly anything!)"

"Grrrrr! I missed?!" Mimi crept her way back to Kirby, throwing two Rubees at him. One managed to hit him, but he grabbed the other Rubee and threw it at her head, stunning her. With one jumped while on Carrie, she was left with only two spider legs.

"NYAAH!"

The little green girl – er, spider, knocked Kirby back to the wall with one of her spider legs. "Why can't I beat you?! Even after fighting you guys a couple of times, you manage to best me!"

"Poyo, (Well, you know that we also improve in our fighting as we progress in collecting the Pure Hearts,)" Kirby explained. "Poyo! (And luckily, I have what it takes to take you down easily!)"

Kirby successfully kicked Mimi away from him and managed to stun her with a jump using Carrie. However, when he tried to jump on her again, Mimi attacked him with another Rubee.

"I don't get it… Why aren't you in pain?! I don't see any cuts or scars on your face!" Mimi whined.

"Poyo? (You honestly expect me to have SCARS on my face?!)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo! (I don't think this story would want to have me getting cut up, you know! Plus, I don't know if that's even possible!"

"What? I don't know what your talking about. What matters, on the other hand, is that I destroy you! I don't want to fail Tippy anyway!" Mimi knocked Kirby to the ground with her spider leg, but Kirby managed to grab onto it.

"NYAAAH! LET GO OF MY SPIDER LEG!"

"Poyo! (No way!)" Kirby felt the spider leg starting to snap off, which was a bit surprising to him. But it felt kind of freaky when he actually snapped it off.

"What… What did you just do…?!"

"Poyo…? (Did I just snap off your spider leg…?)" the pink hero gawked as he dropped it. Well, it wasn't something to bother with. He simply decided to finish off the little green girl with two more attacks.

"I can't face you like this! I need to do something!" Mimi attached her one leg to the floor and ceiling and began to spin around with her Rubees on her head. She managed to at least strike him once with one of the Rubees, but the rest of the attacks were defended.

"Poyo! (Ha! You're pretty much defenseless!)" Kirby smirked as he grabbed a Rubee that she tossed and threw it at her, stunning her. But, like before, she managed to get away and climb onto the ceiling.

But, since she uses the same kinds of moves as before, Kirby was able to bring her to the ground with one toss of a Rubee. Afterward, he managed to stun her one more time before finishing her off.

"Poyo! (Now THIS should teach you not to make fun of the way I speak!)" Kirby shouted as he inhaled her and spat her toward the wall, snapping off her last spider leg and knocking her to the ground.

"Poyo… (Remember now, Mimi… If you act like that to me one last time, you're going to be beaten…)"

"I don't…get it...I got beat up by a…pink puffball? WAHHHHHH!" Mimi transformed into her girl form. Just like when she was defeated in Merlee's Mansion, she was slouching while her eye twitched.

"You…" she knelt to the ground, coughing a couple of times.

"Poyo? (What's wrong? Did I give you a heck of a beating?)" Kirby smirked as Chopper, Sonic and Tipral came walking into the room.

"Good work, Kirby! You managed to beat her!" Chopper smiled.

"Poyo! (Thanks! I had to do something with her anyway!)"

Just like with the fight between Blade and O'Chunks, the ground began to tremor once again.

"The destruction is spreading… If we dawdle any longer, we're doomed!" Tippi cried out.

"Then we're going to have to go," Tipral simply walked past Mimi. "As much as I don't want to leave her there, there's nothing I can do to give her a hand."

Chopper and Sonic followed Tipral, along with Tippi and the Pixls. Kirby was about to leave, but he soon turned around to Mimi.

"Poyo… (You should really go… You can't stay here forever, you know.)" Kirby said.

"Yeah, right… Like you care!" Mimi spat before the shaking got even more intense.

"POYO! (AHHHH!)"

Next room-

Luckily, Chopper, Sonic and Tipral managed to get out of that room, but as soon as they closed the door behind them, they could hear a loud thud.

"What was that loud noise?" Tippi asked.

"I don't know… What do you think it was, Kirby? …Kirby?" Chopper turned around, only to find Kirby not by the door. "Ummmmmm… I don't know if something's right here."

He walked over to the door and tried to open the door a couple of times. "N-No… This door… It's not opening!"

"What? Are you telling me that it's only us now?!" Sonic gawked.

"I'm… I'm afraid so." Chopper frowned.

"This is really bad. It's pretty much just you and me now, Chopper."

"You realize that I'm still here, right?" Tipral questioned.

"Yeah, we know you're here, but you just want the Chaos Heart! I understand you want revenge against the whole universe and all, but there's really no point in doing this anyway." Chopper explained.

"Your words aren't going to change what I plan on doing!"

"Yeah, I know," Chopper turned back to the door. "I just wish we could still save Kirby…"

Previous room-

"Poyo! (Unnnnnnnnnggghhhh!)" apparently, Kirby was still alive. He was holding onto the edge of the floor with all of his might. His other hand was grabbing onto one of Mimi's feet.

"You silly little pink gumball, what are you DOING?!" exclaimed Mimi.

"Poyo! (I'm trying to save your life here!)"

"Well I don't want your help! Why don't you just let me go and save your own life instead?"

"Poyo, (Because I'm not a bad person,)" Kirby began. "Poyo. (Look, you've been a jerk to us, but if you're going to die, then I'm not going to let that happen.)"

Mimi didn't know what to say.

"Poyo! (Hold on… I think I've got you!)" Unfortunately, Kirby was wrong. He slipped off the edge of the floor after one tremor and began to plummet to his doom.

"POYO! (AAAAAAAAAAAAGGHH!)"

Next room-

Chopper tried to open the door again after the last tremor, but the door still didn't open. He turned to the rest of the group with one sad, shake of his head.

"The whole castle shook! And now that door won't open?"

"It appears so, Tippi…"

"Oh, man… First Blade, and now Kirby? Things are starting to turn out very bad for us…" Sonic trailed as he kicked a pebble on the ground. "What do you suppose we do now?"

"We have to keep going…" the sound of Tippi's voice nearly got Chopper and Sonic to jump up from the ground.

"Wh-What?! Are you sure, Tippi? We just lost two of our friends back there!" Chopper cried.

"Look, I have to agree with Tippi too," Tipral agreed. "As much as I don't like that one of my minions are gone… There's nothing we can do about it. All we can do is simply move on."

"I know it's horrible, but this is, well…the end of the world. Of all worlds, really." Tippi stated. "We must press on. Kirby would want it this way if he was here."

Chopper and Sonic: …

"I guess we have no other choice," Chopper frowned, looking up at Tippi. "I guess Kirby would've wanted us to move on."

"Then let's get moving," suggested Tipral.

Up ahead, they noticed another Star Block. Chopper officially put and end to this chapter with one strike of the Star Block.

END OF CHAPTER

First Blade and then Kirby are now lost…or dead in the halls of Castle Tipral. Would they ever be seen again? These thoughts started to haunt Chopper's mind as they began to travel through the halls of Castle Tipral. "Will we ever see them again?" asked Sonic. The very halls that they began to travel through started to feel a bit darker than usual. What awaited the three?

Only three more remain in the castle now... What will await these last three? We've got two heroes and an evil Chopper look-a-like now.

All I can say is: Don't expect the next part to be the same as Chapter 8-3 in Super Paper Mario. That's all I have to say about that.