CHAPTER 9-3
-The Ride on the Lake-
"Oh, man… I can't believe we saw a huge gummy bear back over there!" Chopper said with complete surprise, even though they were already a couple of miles past that thing. "I don't know about you guys, but I still think that this is the weirdest place I've ever been to. Not even Music or Toy Kingdom can top this world! At all! Don't you all agree with me on that one?"
"Poyo, (Yeah, I think I can definitely agree,)" Kirby nodded. "Poyo. (I like this world and all, but on a scale of one to ten on the weirdness level… I'd probably have to go to about eleven on that.)"
The group decided to look at what was around them for right now. The ground was still the way it was, but if you flipped into 3-D, you could see that there was green grass around the pathway, but the thing is… It's made of green licorice(if that even exists). The sky was still its pretty pink color and the area itself was a bit hilly, but not by a lot. In the background, however, they could see a castle off in the distance. It looked like a delicious one, that's for sure.
"What do you think that castle off at the distance could be?" Blade asked. "You think that that might be where the Pure Heart is?"
"I don't know, but I sure hope that that's where it is…" Sonic trailed. He noticed a sign made of chocolate nearby. "Hey, what do you think this sign says here? Maybe we should go check it out."
Mario walked over to the sign and he began to read what it said on it.
I hereby welcome you to the Sweet Kingdom! This place is ruled by King Candanian, the king of the Sweet Kingdom, if you already knew that by now. As for outsiders… We do NOT want to see any veggies in this place! Nada! The worst of them all are…BEANS! Beans are not allowed in this place at all! If you're a bean, then please GET OUT THIS INSTANT!
"Wait, so those guys hate beans?" Chopper gawked. Mario gave him a simple nod. "That's just…weird. I can understand them hating veggies and all, but beans aren't vegetables."
"Maybe it's because they make you pass gas?" Blade predicted. Everyone gave him a strange look. "I'm just saying, guys."
"Well, I can see why they don't want Fawful here. After all, he IS a bean." Chopper stated. "Speaking of Fawful… Where do you think that bean person is right now? We didn't see him back there."
"I HAVE DESTRUCTION!"
"Well, we know that he's around here now," Sonic confirmed. They noticed that off at the distance, well, in the background, they could see Fawful's shadow holding up a donut.
"Fawful is almost victorious!" he cried out in his childish, yet weird voice. "It's so great that Fawful… Fawful could GORGE on it!"
"No! Please, for the love of jelly-filled donuts no!" a jelly-filled donut cried. "Think about the people here! We're not exactly the nicest people, but I don't want to have to die from being eaten by…"
CHOMP!
"No! Not my upper right head! You… You ate it! And now jelly's coming out of me! Oh, woe is me!"
"Nyeah heh heh heh heh heh heh! Now I have jelly! The tasty chocolate goodness that sits in Fawful's mouth gives me the sugars! It gives me…IDEAS!" Fawful finished the rest of the donut before flying off.
"Whoa… Did you guys hear that?" Chopper asked in complete shock. "Fawful… He just ate a whole donut! Man, I think he seriously means business. You think that he's got more ideas as well?"
"Poyo, (I honestly have no idea,)" Kirby shrugged. "Poyo. (All that really matters is that we try to stop Fawful. We can't just let him terrorize this whole world and the people here anyway!)"
"Well, we'll just have to find him and stop him," Chopper walked past the sign and saw a Buzzy Beetle with a pink shell walking on the ground. He stomped on it and kicked it to another Buzzy Beetle.
…But that Buzzy Beetle managed to kick it back to Chopper, hitting him straight in the face.
"Dang it! These guys can throw shells back at us too!" Chopper grabbed the shell and dropped it on top of the pink Buzzy Beetle instead, making it flip over and allow him to finish it off by bashing it with his hammer.
"Well, that took care of that," Sonic ran up ahead and delivered a Homing Attack on a Blue Koopa that was walking around, causing it to hide in its shell. He then kicked it down a bottomless pit.
"Say, what do you think we might be seeing around this part of the Sweet Kingdom?" Blade asked.
"Ehhhh… I'm not so sure, Blade. Things do look interesting around here, but we haven't really found anything special here…yet." Chopper tossed a fireball at a Darkling up ahead. With one more, he disintegrated it.
Chopper simply moved on ahead, his feet moving like a wheel through the area as he began to speed up. Sonic shrugged and simply followed him too, striking any pink Buzz Bombers up in the air.
"Why are so many enemies here pink?" Chopper frowned. "That's a color I don't really seem to like!"
"Poyo! (Hey! I'm pink!)" Kirby retorted.
"Well, that's a different story," Chopper ran through a loop, but he ended up falling on the ground. The loop was meant to lead down someplace below, but apparently it was being blocked.
"What just happened…?"
"Hang on, Chopper. Maybe I can take care of this." Sonic waited for Chopper to move before curling up into a ball and using a Spin Dash to break through the ground below the loop, leading into a little secret passageway.
"I'll try to follow him," Chopper jumped down into the hole and landed in a small underground room. Two Darklings appeared and tried to hurl red energy balls, but Chopper blocked one of them with his hammer.
"I got this one!" Sonic used a Whirlwind attack on both Darklings and sent them flying out of the hole, where Mario could bash both of them with his hammer.
"Hey, I see a chest over there!" Chopper kicked the chest open and got a badge called Elemental Charge. From what he saw, it was only a badge that he could equip, so he did just that.
"What does it do?" Sonic asked.
"Well, apparently it allows me to charge up one of my fireballs, from the looks of it. Let me see." Chopper noticed a big chocolate block blocking the way. He charged up a fireball and shot it straight at it, melting it entirely.
"Hey, this should be helpful! It kind of reminds me of when Samus would charge up her beam attack! I think this should be useful!" Chopper took the pipe that appeared, which led on top of the loop.
"Where've you been?" Blade asked.
"I found a new badge, but apparently only I can hold onto it," Chopper stated as he walked over to the door. "Sorry if any of you are disappointed. Hopefully we'll find some other cool badges."
They entered through the door into an area that looked more like a garden than the others. There were ice cream cone enemies named Sundaes with guns that shoot ice cream patrolling this area. They even noticed that a statue of Fawful was in the center of the room.
"Wow, Fawful looks uglier than I thought," Sonic stated.
"Yeah, he's just…freaky," Chopper frowned. "If… That's the correct term."
"Well, I'd certainly like to knock this thing down!" Blade slashed the statue's leg, causing it to fall over on two Mechawfuls that were trying to put the thing up, destroying them.
"Did you guys notice that some of these enemies have Fawful faces? Like those guys there." Chopper pointed to a Donawful (a donut enemy) and an Ice Creawful that were firing their weapons straight at them.
"Poyo! (Heads up!)" Kirby ate the hot fudge and the strawberry ice cream that was fired in Chopper's direction.
"One had strawberry? That's kind of disgusting." Chopper frowned.
"Wait a second… I thought you'd eat anything?" Blade gawked.
"Well, I can if I want, but I don't necessarily love EVERYTHING. Like rotten eggs. They smell bad."
"Poyo? (How can you smell if you have no nose?)" Kirby asked.
"You know… I don't really know."
"Bleh, whatever. Let's just move on and see if there are any other shortcuts." Blade gripped his katana and jumped over the Fawful statue and taking care of an Ice Creawful that was in his way.
"Wait… I see a door up ahead, but it looked like it's in some sort of cage." Sonic noticed a couple of pillars around the garden as well. "Maybe we're supposed to flip into 3-D to get to the door?"
"Well, I'll try," Chopper jumped on a short pillar and then on one of the tall ones. By flipping into 3-D, he noticed a little bridge on each of the pillars. However, they were a bit skinny…
"Aw, man! Now I have to be cautious here!" he got the others in 3-D and they began to make their way across the skinny bridges. They had to go south first, then to the left, and then up north to reach the pillar with the red door.
Mario: Let's-a go!
They made their way into the next area, where they saw a couple of red springs right in front of them. A large wall that had spikes at the top was above them. With one jump, they were launched up high above the spikes.
"Man… I kind of miss Tippi advising us on what to do and what NOT to do…" Chopper trailed as he got over the spikes and landed down over by more springs that launched him up high.
"This kind of reminds me of the good old days, honestly," Sonic smiled, following Chopper up to the top of the platform. They noticed that there were a couple of Blue Koopas on the top platform.
"This should be simply," Chopper charged up a fireball and tossed it straight at the Blue Koopa, taking it down with double the damage his normal fireball would do. He took care of the other by stomping on it and kicking it down by the springs.
"You think that Koopa'll be fine down there?" Blade asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure it'll take care of itself," Chopper turned around and walked up to the door ahead and entered it. They were led into an area with a raft right next to a slippery slope with a waterfall made of fruit punch.
"Poyo! (A drink!)" Kirby jumped over to the fruit punch waterfall and began to let it all go into his mouth. However, Chopper managed to pull Kirby away before he could drink any more.
"Are you trying to fatten yourself up?! We can't keep getting sugar rushes here! I'm sure YOU might get one pretty soon!"
"Poyo, (Oh, yeah, thanks for reminding me about that,)" he apologize as he stepped away from the water.
"Oh, man… Don't tell me we have to do something related to the water…" Sonic's eye began to twitch as he noticed that the slippery slope was leading down to a large, red lake made of fruit punch.
"Whoa! I never knew they had something like THIS here!" Blade gaped.
Mario suggested that they should all use the raft to get down to the lake. Chopper agreed with him by nodding and began to start pushing the raft over by the slippery slope.
"Whoa, kid! Don't push the whole raft down without us on it!" Blade jumped on the raft, as well as Kirby, Sonic and Mario.
"Wh-What?! You expect me to push you guys down?! B-But… I can't do that! Look at my arms!" Chopper pointed to his small arms. "I can't do much with something like that! I'd be able to push this if Kirby was on here, but with three heavier people? I think NOT!"
"Well, why don't you kick it then?" suggested Sonic.
Chopper kicked it, but it didn't really move that much. "See? I can't move this stupid thing at all!"
"In truth, we're a bit close, so maybe you should get on," Blade suggested.
Chopper shrugged and jumped on the raft. They all attempted to move it at once, but the raft ended up sliding down the slippery slope and down the large fruit punch waterfall and into the lake.
After the huge splash, everyone was soaked from all of the water. Sonic was shivering before he shook all of the fruit punch off of him. Unfortunately, because it was fruit punch, he felt a bit sticky.
"Aw, come on! This made us all sticky!" Chopper frowned as he looked down at the lake. He could see his own reflection. "Hey, I don't look as bad as I thought I was. …Is that why some girls like me?"
He could also see the reflection of a hovering machine off at the distance. It kind of resembled Dr. Eggman's Egg Mobile, however.
"Wait a second… Do I see something that's like Eggman's machine?" Chopper gasped.
"Eggman?" Sonic turned around and saw Eggman flying around the lake, pondering to himself on what he should do.
"Ugh… Ever since that blasted hedgehog managed to take me down in that 8-bit world, I haven't thought of any good plans! Think, Robotnik! Think!" Eggman looked up and noticed the five on the raft.
"What's this?" he pulled out his binoculars. The first thing he seemed to notice was his arch-enemy, Sonic. "Sonic? What's he doing here?! …No matter. I suppose I could test out my Eggwalker on him and his friends!"
"Poyo! (Hang on! I think he's coming this way!)" Kirby cried as Eggman's Egg Mobile made its way over to the raft.
"Well well well! If it isn't my blue friend, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Eggman greeted in a polite manner. "How are you doing this day? Do you wish to meet your maker by my hands?"
"Oh, I'm doing pretty well, thanks for asking," Sonic smirked as he began to stretch his legs. "And am I ready to meet my maker? Well, sure! I'd certainly love to meet the one who made me!"
"Then go find your mother," Blade snickered.
"Blade… I'm just joking."
"Yes, Sonic, why don't you go crying home to your mother!" Eggman cackled. "Because with my new Eggwalker, I'm sure that you will all fall down to your knees and beg for mercy!"
"Well, why don't you prove it then!" Chopper taunted.
"Very well," With a press of a red button, Eggman's mech suddenly transformed into a walker.
"Really? THIS is what you plan on using against us? Weak…" Sonic taunted. "It's just your machine when you teamed up with Shadow."
"Oh, you'll see the new upgrades I put on this thing!" Eggman grinned. "Now let's see how you handle THIS!"
"Are you going to say the same thing a lot?" Chopper questioned, only to jump out of the way when Eggman's mech fired a blast straight at the group. Eggman pressed another button and his mech began to fire missiles at them.
Mario: Mama mia!
"Don't worry, guys. I think we can maneuver 'em!" Sonic jumped and performed a Homing Attack on Eggman's mech, knocking it straight into the water. "Bulls-eye! Got 'em!"
"That's what you think!" cackled Eggman as the mech rose from the water and began to hover above it. "Luckily for me, I've put some jets on this thing to make sure that I don't end up drowning!"
"Well, can you dodge this?" Chopper charged up a fireball and threw it straight at the Eggwalker, causing it to overheat for a couple of seconds, allowing him to stomp on it when it was no longer overheated.
"So, Chopper, how much HP does this guy have?" Sonic asked.
"Well, it looks like he's got 95 HP, from what I can see. Hopefully we're not here for a long time…" Chopper brought his hammer down on the mech, causing some severe damage.
"Urgh… You little…!" Eggman made the mech fire missiles. But, unfortunately for him, Kirby simply inhaled them instead and got the Bomb ability. Chopper inhaled one as well to gain the ability too.
"Two bombs are better than one, that's for sure," Chopper stated as he and Kirby both threw a bomb straight at Eggman's Eggwalker.
"GAH! What is WRONG with this thing?! I may have lost last time, but this thing was BOUND to destroy!"
Blade shrugged and tossed Hommissile straight at the Eggwalker, resulting in another explosion, followed up by Sonic's Homing Attack.
"Hey, why not give Mario a chance in this fight? He didn't do a thing!" Chopper stepped out of the way and let Mario step up. "C'mon, Mario! You should probably make an attack."
Mario: OK!
With a nod, Mario stomped on the Eggwalker and performed a Ground Pound on it afterward. For them, they were doing pretty well…until the Eggwalker shot a laser beam that struck Blade and Chopper.
"Whoa! What the heck was that?!" Blade gasped.
"Oh ho ho ho! That would be my famous laser beam, of course!" Eggman cackled. "And surely this thing will take you all down easily!"
Eggman began to charge up another laser, but Mario gripped his hammer and slammed it down on his mech. Sadly, that wasn't enough, so he performed his Ultra Hammer attack on it to leave a couple of dents on the machine.
"H-Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Eggman barked, stopping his attack to pull out his blaster in order to strike Mario. However, Sonic delivered a Spin Dash upon the mech and made him drop his blaster.
"Ack! You little…!" Eggman tried to get a hold of Sonic, but he ended up stomping on his head. But, at least he was able to strike Sonic with one of his missiles while he was up in the air.
"Oof! Man, you sure are a toughie to beat, sometimes." Sonic simply shook himself while Mario stomped on Eggman's mech before he could even blast Kirby.
"Poyo! (Let me get in to some of the fun!)" Kirby pulled a bomb out and threw it straight at Eggman, causing another explosion and leaving the mech severely damaged. Eggman fired a laser beam again, but Kirby floated over it and threw another bomb at the machine once again.
"Curse you people! Why isn't this WORKING?!" Eggman slammed his fists on the panel, which unintentionally caused the mech to sizzle Chopper and Kirby with a flamethrower.
"Oh… I never knew about that."
"Save it for later, Eggman," Chopper whirled up another bomb and threw it at the mech's body, knocking it back only a little bit, but it didn't cause it to fall over, that's for sure. Eggman's Eggwalker hovered over the group and began to drop a couple of bombs down on the group. Blade blew one up by throwing a shuriken at one of them.
"Man, sometimes it feels good to blow stuff up," Blade gripped his katana and struck Eggman's Eggwalker with one slice, dealing some heavy damage. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly enough to take him down.
"Sheesh! Will this ever stop?" Chopper bashed the mech once again with a hammer. This time, Eggman pressed another button and four pink electric sparks appeared above them all and slowly began to descend upon them.
"Uh oh… Something tells me we gotta get away from those…" Blade gulped.
Mario: Go someplace safe!
"What're you going to do, Mario?" Chopper asked.
Mario: Just watch.
Mario jumped in between two sparks and stomped on Eggman's mech, followed by performing a Ground Pound on it afterward.
"Whew… What's going on here?!" Eggman noticed a couple of explosions coming from his mech. "Urgh… Worthless piece of junk! How could it possibly be running low on power at this moment?!"
"Maybe because your machine is bad?" Blade scoffed.
"Or maybe it's because it's gotten a big beating," Chopper stated. "What? I'm speaking the truth! I'm not trying to mock you or anything!"
"I don't care what you're trying to do, just let me finish you up already!" Eggman growled as he fired a couple of missiles down at the group. Mario ended up getting hit by one, while Chopper jumped back from one and tossed a bomb at the mech, stunning it for a couple of seconds.
"I don't know which fight was easier, this one, or the one back in the Bitlands!" Sonic grinned. "'Cause I think the rest of this is going to be a cakewalk!"
"I'll shut that big mouth of yours…" the doctor muttered under his breath as he struck Sonic with his laser beam. "How's that, hedgehog?! Do you like the taste of an all-powerful laser beam?!"
"Oof! …Not really." Sonic groaned as he slowly got up. Meanwhile, Chopper charged up a fireball and shot it directly at Eggman's mech, causing an explosion and allowing Blade to slice it up a little with his katana.
"Well, what do ya know? I managed to slice up the mech a bit!" Blade smirked. "So, Eggman, when do you want to give up?"
"I don't really remember who you are anyway!" Eggman roared, firing a couple of missiles straight at Blade. A couple hit him, but he was holding his fists up to protect himself a bit.
"Whoa… That kind of hurt…"
"Hmmmmmm… Things aren't looking good here…" Eggman pondered to himself as he looked at the machine. "I can still win this, however!"
Unfortunately, he was interrupted by Mario, who caused Eggman's Eggwalker to make sparks fly everywhere with his Ultra Hammer attack. And while he did that, Sonic was charging up a Light Speed Dash.
"Ready, Eggy?" Sonic grinned.
"Wait! Sonic!" Eggman begged. "Don't try to…"
"GO!" Sonic immediately struck Eggman with his Light Speed Dash, causing some immense explosions. Not only that, but his attack was strong enough to send Eggman and his Egg Mobile flying out of this world.
"CURSE YOU, SONIC!" was the last thing they heard before Eggman disappeared from their sights.
"Well, at least he was finished off in style," Sonic stated while making a pose. "Man, he never learns!"
"Well, at least we can finally move on," Chopper noticed that they moved very little on the lake. "Aw, come on! We seriously didn't move that much?! That's… That's just not fair!"
"Poyo, (At least there's a ? Block coming by,)" Kirby hit the block and five Super Shrooms popped out, to their surprise. Nevertheless, they ate them and recovered 20 HP from them.
"I wonder… Are these things even good for you?"
Mario: Of course they are!
"Ummmm… All right." Chopper looked on ahead, but he noticed something off at the distance. He could see another raft, but instead of there being five people, there was one, big pink boar rowing it.
"Uh oh… Don't tell me it's that pig guy again." he groaned while smacking his forehead in annoyance.
Mario: Pig guy?
"Yeah, some pig guy named Mis…er, Mider… Wait! It's Midbus! Yeah, Midbus… Anyway, he's working for Fawful, and I'm PRETTY sure he's coming here to stop us…"
"You have the correcting!" Fawful was apparently hovering above the group, cackling as he was chomping down on a donut. "I have tastiness!"
"Could you PLEASE make a bit more sense, Fawful? That would be very nice of you…" Blade groaned.
"These anti-bean people will have the paying for discriminating against Fawful!" Fawful spat. "They are fink-rats, just like you five. They deserve to willow in a pool of jello like boring geese."
"Well, what are you going to do about it?" Chopper asked.
"Fawful knows your weaknesses! If you can slurp the sugary goodness of this lake, then having it you will! MIDBUS! COME!"
This time, Midbus rowed faster to Fawful, who was now feeling exhausted. "Rowing was hard. I'm here."
"Give the heroes the taste of your fury!"
"Of course, Lord Fawful," Midbus pulled a pin out and jabbed it straight into the raft that the five heroes were on.
"Oh, come on! Did you really have to do that?!" Sonic frowned, glaring at Midbus. However, the raft didn't seem to lose any air. "Wait… What's going on? Nothing happened…"
Fawful paused for a minute and turned to Midbus. "Midbus."
"What."
"Pull out pin."
Midbus shrugged and pulled the pin out. This time the raft began to shrink until it was the size of a pea. Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario were still floating in mid-air, but their eyes widened as they looked down at the lake.
"Nyeah heh heh heh heh! Farewell, fink-rats!" Fawful cackled as he flew away. Midbus began to row away as well.
"Oh, crud…" Chopper gulped as he, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario immediately sank to the bottom of the lake.
"Why do heroes hate lake?" Midbus asked Fawful as he rowed away.
"The fink-rats will surely have the sugar rush, which is over Fawful's fury… But too much fury will drive them like nuts!"
Midbus didn't understand, but he seemed to get it a little. "I see. You're boss."
Bottom of the lake-
As the five sank to the bottom, Sonic began to put his hands to his mouth as he began to choke. Everyone else looked at him and pointed to the air bubble right by them for him to inhale. Blade did the same thing.
"Well this is great… Apparently we're now trapped in the bottom of this lake…" Chopper groaned, looking around the small area they were in. They noticed a tall stone in the way, but there was no way of getting through there. Chopper even flipped into 3-D to get past, but it didn't work.
"Great… It looks like there's no way of getting out of this place…" he kicked the ground in disappointment.
"Poyo, (I wish we had something that could help us get through here, that's for sure,)" Kirby hoped, sitting on the ground, trying his best NOT to drink any of the fruit punch. Y'know, to prevent sugar rush.
"Yeah, hopefully soon…" Chopper trailed as he watched both Sonic and Blade take in some air bubbles.
"That voice… It sounds like something I'm supposed to hear!" a red orange Pixl shaped like a boot and orange and yellow wings got up from the ground and noticed the five heroes. "Wait… Lemme give you a little check-up for a sec!"
"A check-up? But you don't look like a doctor…"
"I'm not supposed to be a doctor. I'm only here to see if you're really the ones that I think you are…" the Pixl began to check Chopper for a couple of seconds, looking at his face and antennae.
"Errrr… You DO seem to be the hero, but I don't think my powers will be safe in your hands." Chopper pouted as the Pixl floated over to Mario.
"Hmmmmm… A magnificent 'stace, blue overalls, red shirt, white gloves...and a cool, red hat! Let's see here…" the Pixl continued to look at Mario for a couple of seconds. "Ah-HA! You…of all people! You DO remind me of a stocking!"
Mario immediately fell over on the ground. "…But, anyway, by looking at you, I believe you are indeed the one capable of using me. As for the others… Nah, I don't think your feet have what it takes."
"Poyo? (Do they smell?)" Kirby asked.
"…What on earth did he just say?"
"I'm not going to translate it," Chopper said, shaking his head.
"Well, whatever. The heroes are here, so I might as well join you guys! Besides… You're probably going to need me anyway! You can call me Kickbrin, the kickster!" Kickbrin began to circle around Mario before the plumber held him up.
The kicking Pixl, Kickbrin, has now joined your quest! Kickbrin's ability allows the heroes to knock many things down with a simple kick attack. This can also be quite useful when you're trying to make things fall over. With enemies, you can kick them straight into another enemy if possible!
"With my powers, there's nothing that will stand in your way, mustachioed hero!" Kickbrin declared. "Now try to find a way through this lake if you want to catch that evil and psychotic bean!"
"All right, so go ahead and test that Pixl out!" Chopper suggested, swimming out of Mario's way for him to use Kickbrin. With a kick, Mario was able to send the tall block tumbling down, allowing them to move through the current.
"Poyo? (Huh? Is the current pulling us or something?)" Kirby asked.
"I don't know… It feels like it!" Chopper tried to grab a hold of something, but it didn't work that way. They were all pulled into another area in the lake, which was somewhere a bit closer to the water.
As soon as Sonic took in another bubble, he jumped on the platform sticking out of the slope nearby and let it take him up to the other side, where he jumped on a couple of platforms to get to a red door.
"We better follow him," Chopper swam up to the red door and headed through with the others, bringing them into an area with a couple of pink Cheep-Cheeps swimming around. Chopper took them out with fireballs.
"Well, I guess the rest of this is going to involve us swimming through here… That's a nice treat."
"Poyo, (No kidding,)" Kirby followed Chopper up the slope, while Sonic performed a Spin Dash to get up there. Blade took care of another Cheep-Cheep using his katana before taking in a bubble right next to him.
Two boxes were also on the bottom, so Sonic simply used a Homing Attack on one of them to get a Bubble Shield. Blade also did this and he too got himself a nice Bubble Shield, protecting them from the waters.
"Whew! Thank goodness I can finally breathe!" Sonic said, sighing in relief. "So, this is kind of like the Tile Pool, is that it?"
"Well, I guess it is, considering that I don't see much around here except for these stumps," Chopper stated. He flipped into 3-D to see if there was a specific order they had to be in. That wasn't the case.
BUT, he did find a hidden pipe behind a bulky area on the ground, so he swam down to it and entered it with his friends while they were in 3-D. It led them into another underwater tunnel with Bloopers all over the place.
"I got these!" Blade gripped his katana and began to slice up all of the Bloopers with a couple of clones that he created, making it easier for him to take care of them all. Afterward, he put his katana away and walked over to the tall block all the way to the right.
Mario: I got this!
Mario kicked the block over and swam up to a sign right by him. He read it to see what it had to say.
Remember those five stumps you saw in that other area? Well, if you hit the first, fourth and fifth, something good'll happen!
Mario: Hmmmm?
"I think it means we need to go back to that area we were previously in, Mario," Chopper explained. Mario realized this and gave him a nod while saying, "Yes!"
Other area-
"All right, Mario. Go ahead and use your Ground Pound on the first, fourth and fifth stump!" Sonic suggested.
Mario nodded and got to work on that. Luckily, he could use his Ground Pound while in the water, so it made things easier for him to ground pound the three stumps.
As soon as he did that, a door appeared right in the middle of the stumps, allowing them to press on ahead into an area with a slope leading up to the surface of the lake. There were a couple of fish lines, though.
"Poyo! (There's chocolate on one of those hooks!)" Kirby squealed, swimming toward it. Chopper managed to pull him away from it before he could get his hands on the chocolate.
"Don't you see, Kirby? That chocolate's attached to a hook!" Chopper explained, grabbing the hook and letting it go for the hook to go up to the surface. "See? We can't just grab something hanging from the…"
When Chopper turned around, he saw a gummy bear attached to a hook. "Holy… GUMMY BEARS?!"
He tried to grab it, but he immediately pulled himself away. "No! I can't try to eat that thing… In fact, I feel as if I'm even inhaling some of this water!"
"Well, I think we should get out of it," suggested Blade.
"Yeah… I think that's a good idea…" Chopper panted, making his way up to the surface. Apparently, a couple of Ice Creawfuls were fishing for some Cheep-Cheeps. They weren't certainly pleased to see them, however.
"Don't worry, guys, we can handle them," Blade smirked, drawing his katana.
"Wait! I got a better idea!" Chopper whirled up a fireball and tossed it straight at one of the Ice Creawfuls, melting it instantly. "These guys are cold, so I think fire would work against them."
"Poyo? (What about bombs?)" Kirby questioned.
"Oh, yeah… Let's try it out." Chopper pulled a bomb out and threw it at one Ice Creawful. Even that destroyed it in one hit. With Kirby's bomb, it destroyed the other Ice Creawful.
"Gee, what's with all of the ice cream baddies?" Sonic asked.
Chopper shrugged while removing his Bomb ability. They noticed part of the ground had some small ice cream puddles. However, those weren't coming from the baddies they just defeated.
"Gee, I wonder what all of this stuff is…"
Mario: Beats me.
"Poyo, (It looks like melted ice cream to me,)" Kirby stated as he jumped over the puddle and walked over to the door. "Poyo! (Come on! I don't think we should be much further ahead!)"
As they entered the next area, they noticed that the Star Block was up ahead. But what they ALSO happened to notice was all of the ice cream in the background. There were even some floating up above the heroes!
"What...the heck?" Blade gawked.
"Wow… So after that long trip through the Sweet Kingdom, we end up running into an area with giant floating ice cream cones?" Chopper gaped.
"Poyo! (I wanna eat them!)" Kirby said cheerfully.
"I'd like to too, but I don't wanna get any sugar rushes from them…" Chopper paused for a minute. "Wait, I don't think I've gotten sugar rushes from ice cream. In fact, I LOVE ice cream!"
"So I suppose you're going to devour it all?" Sonic asked.
"Err… No! What really matters is that we end this chapter. I mean, we should be getting closer to the castle anyway!"
As soon as Chopper reached the Star Block, he smashed it with one punch, breaking it entirely.
"You better not stop us from getting any…" Blade warned.
"Don't worry, I won't try to stop you!"
"Good."
END OF CHAPTER
Relieved to be away from the Fruit Punch Lake, the five heroes strolled on ahead through the kingdom. All of the ice cream floating in the sky started to get to them, making them want to devour it. But, unfortunately, it was a bit TOO high up. Nevertheless, they managed to keep their cool and explore what they would possibly find ahead. Hopefully they wouldn't encounter Fawful again…
Yeah, there's not much to say about this chapter...except for the lake. Sure, you probably might enjoy swimming in it...but what about when you're OUT of it? Something tells me that you'd be sticky from all of the fruit punch in there...
Do you guys love ice cream? 'Cause I know I do! We're DEFINITELY going to see a lot of ice cream in the next chapter, trust me.
...And one of my favorite Fawful moments as well. :D