The elevator opened and everyone walked out of it. The room they entered was a little big, having two doors around - one to the left and one to the right. The one on the right was the only one that was unlocked, having a green light over it. The walls and floor were very shiny, with the floor being a bit transparent too. Some red and purple lights were glowing from underneath.
"Well, since the right door is unlocked, we should just check that room out," Chopper walked over to the right door into a large room. Unfortunately, they hadn't had the time to investigate the area when they were met with a familiar face.
"Oh, MAN, have I been waiting for you, Chopper! It's been a while, hasn't it?" Lord Crump grinned. He was standing next to a blue lever. Chopper gasped and got in his fighting stance, as did the others
"Hey, we've seen your face before! So you're back, aren't you?" Berry asked, pulling her Ruby Hammer out.
"Your dang right I'm back! Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh! Did you like my special treat I gave you all?" Lord Crump asked.
"If you mean the flood, then no," Shadower replied.
"That's just a little thanks for sending me flying in space after destroying my precious Magnus von Grapple 2.0! If you thought I was done there, think again! Who here likes swimming?"
"Swimming? We've had enough of that, thank you very much." Chopper replied, but that hadn't stopped Lord Crump. He grinned and grabbed a hold of the lever.
"What are you doing with that lever?" Sonic asked nervously. Lord Crump laughed stupidly and gave an evil grin.
"I think it'll be nice if you all got to visit my Aquatic Park! Come on! It'll be a blast. Actually, more like you're going to be drowning! BUH HUH HUH HUH HUH!"
Lord Crump pulled the lever, and a trapdoor appeared right under the heroes' feet. Everyone screamed as they fell through and were traveling through a clear transportation pipe that gave them all a look of space around them.
"Great... Lord Crump's making us go through ANOTHER water area!" Chopper groaned. "As if the Labyrinth Temple wasn't enough!"
"So, what? It's just water. It's not like it's going to hurt us or anything." Tamber replied, crossing his arms angrily. "I'm just glad that we don't have to go into someplace hot. I'll take an aquatic area over a lava one ANY DAY."
"Well... I don't think everyone will agree with that." Scrub said, looking over at Sonic.
In a moment, the rest of the pipe area was filled up with water, leaving them underwater. However, there was also a current that was carrying them through the pipe. It had curved upward and shot them straight out. They had landed on dry land, but that did not mean there would be no more water. Looking down below and around them, water was there.
"At least we're on dry land for a change," Vivian sighed.
"Hopefully we don't have to swim too much either," Sonic added. "It really doesn't help with my running."
Moving on ahead, Chopper found a normal block in their way. He was about to smash it with his hammer, but Berry had beat him to the punch and smashed it with her own hammer. He frowned, but he hardly cared and moved on ahead, trying to avoid falling into the water. After all, the pathways were a bit narrow, and falling was pretty easy.
The pathway had branched into two, with one leading to a stone for Tamber to smash, and the other leading to the correct direction. A Rainbow Block was in the way, so Chopper smashed it with his hammer and found a gap between him and the light blue platform ahead. Scrub had suggested helping him across, but the gap was too far for him.
"What? Weak! I wanted to help!" Scrub pouted.
"Well, time to get to work," Berry declared, holding her hammer like a golf club and swinging it behind Chopper, sending him flying across the gap and landing on the platform. Though, the landing wasn't exactly neat. "Whoops... Maybe I should've given you a warning..."
Thankfully, all it had done was left Chopper slightly dizzy, though that had caused him to fall into the water. Flyer was ready to fly in and get him out, but Vivian had taken action first and extended her ghostly tail so she could pull Chopper out. To her relief, he was not unconscious, and he was easily able to get out of his daze and stand up.
"Are you all right?" Vivian asked.
"Yeah, I am," Chopper nodded. "Thanks for the help, Vivian. I could've been in some serious trouble!"
"Y-You're welcome," the Shadow Siren replied, her face turning briefly red, though Chopper had not taken notice of it. During that time, the others had managed to get across the gap with the help of those that could fly. They pressed on from there, finding a little elevator pipe up ahead and an X-Naut wearing a scuba outfit called an X-Naut Scuba Diver. It, too, carried a weapon, and it was a spear gun.
"Another new X-Naut?" Chopper gawked.
Mario: It's just an X-Naut with diving gear...
"Really?" the antennae boy squinted at the X-Naut Scuba Diver and realized the enemy looked just like a normal X-Naut. "Oh, right! It is a regular one! ...It just has scuba gear."
"Tell us something important," Tamber suggested.
Chopper gave him an irritated look, unaware of the X-Naut Scuba Diver that had spotted them.
"Whoa, what?! Aw, crud! Don't tell me... Chopper's here of all places?!" the X-Naut aimed at Chopper and fired. Since he had spoken out loud, Chopper whirled around and managed to dodge it in time. The spear had hit one of the pipes, causing another leak, thus making the water level rise.
"That's the second time there's been a flood!" Scrub gaped. "Why do we have such bad luck?!"
"Well, it's a good thing that X-Naut missed us, though," Bombette pointed out.
"We better get out of this room quickly before we get caught in the flood as well!" Chopper suggested, pushing the X-Naut Scuba Diver out of the way and hurrying in through the elevator pipe. The others had followed him inside and were taken out of the room before the area could flood. Now they were safe and traveling through the pipe. As usual, they were able to see the beauty of space itself.
"Poyo... (It feels so nice to see the stars...)" Kirby smiled. "Poyo... (I wish we got to travel through space...)"
"But we were traveling through space, Kirby," Berry mentioned.
"Poyo. (No, I mean for the most part. We're mostly in some building right after we go into space for the most part.)"
"I wish the same thing," Chopper agreed proudly.
After five minutes, everyone was taken to an area below the fortress. There wasn't any water around, but when they walked through the hallway, they found something interesting. Entering one door, they were on the balcony of a room that had a glass floor, but with lavender walls and a couple of computers. It appeared to resemble a laboratory.
"Whoa… This place is just… I don't know what to say about it!" Flyer gawked.
Mario: Amazing?
"Yeah, amazing! This is probably the most advanced place I've ever seen through this whole base! I mean, LOOK at this laboratory! Those pink lights in those tubes, and even those robots over there that look like they're shaped like Chopper!"
Upon hearing the last sentence, Chopper's eyes widened.
"Wait, did you just say those robots look like me? Let me see!" Chopper took a look at the robots. They were definitely shaped like him, but they had guns on their arms and pointy antennae. Their eyes were blue and they had jetpacks that allowed them to fly. "Wait a second… Are those the C Units? What are THEY doing here? I thought they were all destroyed?"
"C Robos? You got any idea what they area?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah. They were made two years ago to take me out, but we managed to destroy them. But now... These robots are back." the antennae boy clenched a fist. "I bet those X-Nauts had something to do with it."
Chopper looked at the X-Nauts in white lab coats and pale blue uniforms. These X-Naut Scientists could use chemicals like the PhDs and also heal themselves or their comrades with potions. That, and they have potions that have other effects against opponents. While they weren't doing much work, they did try to provide assistance to X-Nauts in dark green. They held wrenches and their uniform was covered in dirt. These troops were called X-Naut Engineers.
"We're almost done, Jojo!" an X-Naut Engineer shouted, working on a C Robo's configurations from behind. "These C Robos will be good in no time! We just need to charge their electrical attacks and then everything should be in order!"
"Good. Sir Grodus wants these guys out immediately." one X-Naut Scientist informed. "He said they'll be able to put a stop to Chopper once and for all."
"I sure hope so," another X-Naut Engineer said. "It's pretty neat we managed to build these robots thanks to using that one robot as a model! Too bad that one's too useless to fight for us."
Now that was what set Chopper off. He jumped off the balcony, ignoring the objections of his friends, and he landed right by the two X-Naut Engineers. They didn't seem to spot him, but the scientists were the ones to get their attention.
"Hey! What's that boy Chopper doing here? Get him!" shouted the scientists.
"Wait... What do you mean?" one X-Naut Engineer gawked.
"Chopper's here! Stop him!"
"Got it!" another X-Naut Engineer decided to put the C Robos out for a test and activated them. With their eyes now glowing, they aimed their weapons at Chopper and fired.
"Oh, crud..." Chopper gulped. However, his instincts had taken action from the electric shots, and he opened his mouth to inhale them. Upon swallowing them, he gained a spiked golden crown with a greenish-blue gem in the center, and large plumes of green lightning in the crown and on the top of his head.
"Poyo! (Hey, that's the Plasma ability!)" Kirby cheered. "...Poyo? (...Or was it Spark?)"
With his new ability in hand, Chopper began to fire plasma needles at the X-Nauts. The engineers tried to attack by throwing wrenches, but that hardly stopped Chopper's attacks. They had become paralyzed, and he managed to take them out with his jumping and hammer attacks. He whirled to the X-Naut Scientists and dodged their potions. His plasma shots had struck them and defeated them as well.
He looked over at a door nearby with a glass window showing a couple of X-Naut Scientists working. "If they said that that one robot they modeled off was C-2 Choppor... Then they might know where is is!"
Chopper tried opening the door, but the X-Naut Scientists had already sealed it to prevent him from coming in. That didn't stop him from trying to get in, oh no. Rather than take the door, he had fired a plasma shot at the window and broke it, allowing him to jump through and land on an X-Naut Scientist's head unintentionally. The remaining X-Naut Scientist checked for any potions he had, but he realized he had none.
"Crud! I'm out of potions!" the X-Naut Scientist gulped. "Dude... Don't hurt me, all right?"
"I need to ask you something," Chopper started. "I was going to ask the other one, but I think he's already knocked out. Anyway, please tell me where C-2 Choppor is!"
"What the heck are you talking about? What's a C-2 Choppor?"
"He's a robot that looked similar to me with one arm gun, stripes on his body and a red visor. I want to make sure he's all right!"
"Dude, all the robots look the same! We don't identify them with a number or name!" the scientist cried out, stepping away. "Just let it go!"
"I can't!" Chopper retorted. "He's a good friend of mine who risked his life to help me out! I don't want anything bad happening to him!"
"Well... Uhhh..." the X-Naut Scientist was about to make a run for the door, but Chopper quickly got in his way to stop him. He tried jumping out the window. Chopper's friends had shown up, leaving him trapped. "Crud... This isn't good..."
"Chopper! What's going on?" Vivian asked.
"Those robots... They mentioned something about using one as a model." Chopper explained. "I want to know if that robot was C-2 Choppor or not!"
"C-2 Choppor, you say? Ah, yes... I remember that robot."
Everyone, including the X-Naut paused and turned their attention to a TV monitor in the corner of the room, there, they found Grodus's face.
"It's Grodus!" Scrub growled.
"Grodus!" Chopper shouted, glaring at the leader. "What did you do with him?"
"Oh, nothing too special... Well, we were planning on returning to the Mushroom Kingdom to see if Mario was back, but we had found something more interesting..." Grodus explained, giving Chopper an evil grin. "There was this one robot that looked an awful lot like you, Chopper. We had tried taking him, but he seemed to put up a bit of a fight, and my troops did not appear to be a match for him. However, we did manage to deal a decent amount of damage to shut him down. My troops brought him back here, and we had decided to turn him back on to see if he would follow our commands. Unfortunately, that was not the case..."
Grodus seemed to be satisfied by the shocked expression on Chopper's face.
"Oh, don't worry, Chopper. It gets better from here! Gaaack ack ack ack! While we knew this robot had a lot of fighting potential, there was no way he could listen to our orders. Instead, we decided to create new robots that resembled him, using your friend as a model of course. But since we already have enough C Robos, C-2 Choppor had no use to us."
"Where is he?!" Chopper exclaimed, hints of rage in his voice.
"Something seems so different about Chopper..." Vivian thought, noticing what appeared to be dark steam coming from Chopper's fists. "He's not usually one to get this angry..."
"Don't worry, your little friend is somewhere safe in our power generator room," Grodus assured. "But I can't assure you that he's in good shape. Oh, no. We had to take a little something out of him to prevent him from turning on again!"
"Wait... What are you saying?" Flyer asked.
"I'm saying that your little friend is history!"
"N-No... He can't be gone..." Chopper gasped, his fists clenched even tighter. "Why would you do something like this, Grodus?"
"Because conquering the universe is more important than that piece of scrap metal! On the other hand, seeing you hurt like this is too good for me! How do you feel, Chopper? Are you getting angry?"
Everyone took a look at Chopper and noticed his face was not the usual. Some thought he looked sad at first, but getting a much better look at his face, they could tell it was the sign of rage. His whole body was shaking as well, though they couldn't tell what this was for. The dark smoke coming from his fists had faded away, but taking its place was some dark energy that was slowly appearing around Chopper.
"What in the world?" Shadower gawked. "What's going on?"
"You... You're not going to get away with this..." Chopper hissed.
"Oh, I'm afraid I did," Grodus replied calmly. Though, this dark energy surrounding Chopper was rather strange, so he decided to take a step further. "And you can't do a thing to help him!"
Chopper had let out a raging scream, and a dark blast had struck the TV monitor, destroying it. Another blast had come toward the X-Naut Scientist. Although the attack was dodged, the explosion did knock the scientist to the wall, knocking it out.
As for their partners, everyone was raising eyebrows.
"Oh, man... What was that just now?" Bombette moaned. "That didn't look like anything the X-Nauts could do."
When the smoke had cleared, the partners gasped as they saw Chopper's appearance change from pale green to black. A smooth, dark aura surrounded him, and the boy's eyes had changed from black to a glowing white. Not only that, but his fingers appeared more pointy than round. Shadower had gotten a glimpse of Chopper, and his eyes widened in shock.
"No... It can't be..." Shadower trailed, now shaking in fear. "I think I've seen this before..."
"Really? What happened to Contadre?" Scrub asked.
"I'll explain later. What's more important is that we get out of the way!"
The first thing Chopper started was picking up the other X-Naut Scientist. A powerful slap to the face had wakened him up, but the X-Naut was too frightened by the sight.
"Whoa, there, cowboy!" Sonic stepped in, getting in Chopper's way. "Take it easy! We don't need to get this crazy-"
Chopper wasted no time and elbowed Sonic in the stomach, sending him flying to the wall. Everyone had run over to Sonic to see if he was all right, but he assured them he was fine when he quickly stood up.
"Dude, what's your problem? This isn't like you!" the hedgehog shouted.
"That's because he isn't himself," Shadower noted. "Once in that form, you don't have control over yourself. The only thing that's in your mind is destruction and power..."
"You know about this?" Flyer asked.
"Yeah... But, there's something more important at hand. We need to stop Chopper!"
They saw Chopper smash the door in the way and levitate off the floor. He then flew to another locked door in the room, and by opening his hand, he fired a dark beam that destroyed it and allowed him through the hallway. Many X-Nauts tried to stop him with their body slams and guns, but he was much faster than them and sent them flying into the walls. The others were shocked to see so many unconscious X-Nauts in the hallway.
"Wow… I never knew a gumball could do THAT… But, at least he cleared the way!" Tamber grinned. "Let's go follow him!"
"Yeah... I mean, with this power, he could end up destroying the base, and that wouldn't be a good idea." Sonic mentioned, running after Chopper with his friends. Thankfully, he wasn't too far ahead, as he had just reached a door at the end of the hallway.
Behind the door, two X-Nauts were having a little conversation while on guard duty. One hunter turned to his friend named Bob, the biggest loser of the X-Naut Hunters and asked, "So, what are you doing for Christmas?"
"Christmas?! Are you kidding me?! We're not even CLOSE to Christmas!" Bob gawked. "Plus, I know what you're going to do. Just like EVERY time, you're going to humiliate me! Let's just do our jobs and make sure no non-X-Nauts get through this water area."
Just then, the door burst open and Chopper came flying out. The two X-Naut Hunters had barely enough time to react, as the explosion from the door sent them flying into the water. When Chopper looked at his surroundings, he saw that the room looked more like a sewage system, but with clear water. Seeing no one around, he flew over the water with ease, unaware of a camera watching him as he traveled through the pipe.
"Now this is very interesting..." Grodus remarked. "He seems to have no care over anything and is focused more on destruction. That said, I cannot allow Chopper to destroy my base, so this has to come to an end."
X-Naut Scuba Divers had caught Chopper while they were in the water and fired their spears at him. They had barely missed, and it only angered Chopper more. Firing a dark ball of energy downward, the water had exploded, and the X-Nauts had crashed onto the ceiling. He ignored them and flew on until he found a pathway up on the ceiling at the end of the pipe.
"Wait! Chopper! Stop!"
Chopper turned around and saw everyone approaching him with a boat used by X-Nauts.
"Please, Chopper! Get a hold of your senses! I don't like to see you like this..." Vivian trailed, sadness in her voice. Chopper had stared down at his friends, and slowly, he aimed the palm of his hand at them. Dark energy in the shape of a ball began to form, and everyone was left startled. The only one that remained unfazed was Shadower.
"Chopper... We're your friends. Don't try to blast us." Shadower warned, shadow energy forming in his hand.
After getting a better look, Chopper's angry look had changed to one of surprise, but it hadn't lasted long. He closed his eyes tight and put one hand on his forehead as if he was in pain. Chopper was unfortunate to fire the dark energy toward his friends, but Shadower created a large, shadow wave in the form of a hand to stop the attack, though it had left him exhausted.
"Dude... That was incredible." Sonic gaped.
Mario: How'd you stop that?
"Sometimes, dark power can stop itself..." Shadower panted. "Though, it's no easy feat. Doing that did kind of leave me exhausted, you know."
Opening his eyes again, Chopper's angry look returned, and he had flown up the doorway. The rest of the group followed him upward, and they had surprisingly returned to the room where Lord Crump had dropped them, except they were in the corner. Now the heroes had a better glimpse of the room, and they saw many crates and boxes. There was also another door as well.
"We're back in the room where Lord Crump sent us," Vivian said.
"Where did Contadre go?" Scrub asked, scanning the room. There were a couple of X-Nauts beaten down and defeated around the walls and corners of the room, and Chopper hadn't bothered collecting the coins. "Whoa, man... He sure took care of those guards.
Unfortunately, there was no sign of Chopper in the room. The only thing they noticed was a dark, misty trail leading to the door ahead.
"Maybe that's the trail he left behind!" Bombette deduced. "Let's get a move on!"
They followed the dark trail into a room ahead, which had a lift that Chopper was taking. ...Or rather, he was flying up to where the lift would take someone. The group wasted no time and took the lift up to a dead end. Chopper was there, and he had just found the wall.
"Stop right there! You're trapped!" Shadower shouted, getting Chopper's attention. He slightly turned his head and fired a wave of dark energy in their direction. Thankfully, as heroes, they were able to easily dodge the attack.
"I just hope we don't have to fight him..." Vivian trailed, dodging a punch that was coming her way.
"Oh, I'll be happy to do that!" Tamber declared, charging at Chopper and knocking him into the wall with a punch. The attack seemed to be pretty effective, to the groups' surprise. "He's just like the usual gumball!"
Unfortunately, that didn't make Chopper any happier. He had landed in front of the group with dark energy ready to be fired.
"Get a hold of yourself, Choppy!" Berry cried.
Chopper ignored her and prepared to fire the dark blast, but Sonic had taken action by hitting him with a Homing Attack. This left him off guard and gave Mario the opportunity to jump on his head. Chopper knocked Mario away and fired the dark blast, but Kirby jumped in and inhaled it, allowing him to spit it at Chopper and leave him stunned.
"Sorry about that, Contadre, but that was for your own good," Scrub said, laying an egg and leaving Chopper dizzy with his Dizzy Egg. He tried attacking Scrub, but he had missed and ended up coming in Bombette's direction. Her fuse was lit, and she blew up in front of him, causing him to get sent flying in the air. He quickly stopped in midair and hurled dark energy spears in her direction. Thankfully, Vivian pulled her into the shadows in time to dodge it.
As much as he didn't want to attack, he was left with no choice. Flyer flew in the air and fired a shot from his arm cannon to leave him paralyzed. Now that he was on the ground, Berry swung her hammer and sent him flying toward the power generator. He, however, had jumped off in time and was ready to land a punch.
"Forgive me, Chopper..." Vivian frowned, aiming a finger at him and scorching him with her Fiery Jinx. The guilt had run into her mind at that moment, but it only made him charge after her. That was, until Tamber had jumped in and grabbed a hold of his arms in an attempt to push him back.
"Ready to give up, Gumball?" Tamber grinned. To his surprise, though, Chopper was able to fight Tamber's strength. "Whoa, what?! You don't have this kind of strength!"
"That's because that form makes him a lot stronger," Shadower informed. "Just keep him there, and I can probably finish this up!"
He threw his fist at Chopper, and a shadow wave of his fist managed to strike him and send the dark hero flying into the wall near the power generator. He sat on the ground, defeated.
"Did we beat him?" Scrub asked.
"He...looks like he's very exhausted," Flyer noticed, seeing Chopper slowly stand up and pant. At this moment, everyone took the time to relax for a moment.
However, Chopper wasn't going to back down so easily. He raised his arms and prepared to charge up another dark attack. However, upon seeing a figure near the power generator, his angry eyes turned to one of surprise. His attack stopped, and he lowered his arms.
"Wait... What's going on?" Bombette asked.
Chopper approached the disable robot, which was silver with horizontal stripes going across its body and a red visor that didn't appear to be glowing. Along with that, the robot had one stubby, round arm similar to how Kirby's arms were, and the right arm had an arm gun. Two thin antennae curved back were also on the robot's head. When Chopper got a better look, he noticed how badly damaged it was.
Suddenly, all of his rage slowly faded away from his eyes, changing to that of sadness. With his rage no longer unleashed, his dark form had subsided, and he had returned to normal. No longer was his Plasma ability on him as well, and he looked bruised up and exhausted. In fact, he had a hard time standing, so he had fallen to his knees. His partners had quickly approached him to see if he was all right.
"Are you OK, Chopper?" Flyer asked.
"Hold on, dude! We gotta make sure this is the gumball!" Tamber grabbed Chopper and began to shake him like a rag doll. "Hey, Gumball! Speak up!"
"Ow! You're hurting me!" Chopper cried.
"Yeah, he's fine," the furball assured, dropping him without any care. The others would've gotten mad at him, but they paid more attention to Chopper and tried helping him up.
"Unggh... What just happened?" the pale green hero asked weakly.
"You mean you don't remember what happened?" Sonic gawked.
"No... All I remember was getting very angry and... Oh, no."
"What is it?" Flyer wondered.
"Don't tell me THAT happened..." Chopper gasped, noticing some of the damage in the room. "Did I transform into...that?"
"I'm afraid so," Shadower nodded. "Though, I'm surprised by how you don't remember what had happened."
"I usually don't. I hadn't turned into that in a very long time... Usually I don't try to get so angry, because something like that would happen... Plus, that ability drains so much of my life that it might even..." Chopper's voice had gotten a bit weak, leaving some of them worried.
"Chopper, don't speak. We just need to heal you." Flyer got an Ultimate Shroom from Chopper's inventory and gave it to him, allowing him to fully recover his HP.
"Phew... I feel much better..." Chopper sighed. However, when he turned to the broken C-2 Choppor, his expression had changed. "Choppor... I can't believe what those X-Nauts did to you..."
"Hmmm… Let me take a look at him for the moment." Flyer looked down at C-2 Choppor and noticed that inside of him, he was missing a little something. "Ah, I see the problem here. They took his power device out of his system. If I could get that, I could reinstall it back into him and he'll be back up and running again. But I need to get his exact one if he's going to remember everything."
"So... You're telling me there's hope?"
"Yeah. I'm sure what Grodus was saying earlier was to get to you. ...Or, he just doesn't know that I have some mechanical skills!"
"Well that's great to hear!" Scrub grinned, though it hadn't been long when he remembered something. "Hey, Shadower... You said that you knew a little something about that dark form Chopper had taken."
"Yes. I suppose now would be the perfect time to explain it." Shadower decided, clearing his throat and watching everyone approach him to listen. "You see, my brothers and I served a king a thousand years ago. He had a large amount of power - quite possibly the strongest amount I've known of. I was pretty loyal back then, especially toward him. There was this one power he possessed that could increase his power dramatically using rage. He hardly used it due to its many drawbacks, hence why he tried not to be so enraged. However, he eventually decided to grant either me or my siblings this power as well."
"Wait... So does this mean you...?" Bombette asked, unable to finish her question.
"Yes. That type of power is within me too." the Shadow Brother confirmed. "My ruler had decided that I was fit for this kind of power due to my power over the shadows. Unfortunately, it had damaged my relationship with my brother, Mysterious."
"Is that why he's always been so mean to you?" Chopper wondered.
"Yes. However, at the same time, he feared me when I first had it. He's been holding a grudge against me to this very day for having that kind of power. However, considering that I wasn't one to rage as much, I never put this power to use, nor do I plan to do that. You can probably figure out the answer by now."
"But if your brother's always been picking on you, how come you never let your rage loose?" Scrub asked.
"He knows I won't do it, and the fact that it would only make things worse for us. As for you, Chopper... I suppose your positive attitude throughout this adventure has to do with that dark power?"
"Yeah," Chopper nodded. "I always try my best not to get so angry, because it has done some stuff I did not like."
"Why don't we just move on from that whole scene and get back to what's more important," Sonic suggested. "I'm sure Grodus is waiting for a butt-kickin' anyway!"
"Yeah, you're right!" Chopper smiled. "Let's go!"
Everyone agreed and headed back to the lift. Chopper had gotten one last glance and gave the damaged C-2 Choppor a nod. "Don't worry... We'll get you back. I promise."
When they had returned to the hallway, they noticed the door to the left of the elevator was now unlocked. They proceeded through and found two X-Naut Hunters and a little more guarding a couple of doors around. They defeated them and checked the rooms. The first room had a Fire Block standing by the wall they faced.
"Uh oh... Not one of these..." Chopper gulped, but he forced himself to do it anyway and let Vivian scorch his behind and send him charging into the block, revealing a secret passage to a room with a chest. When he cooled his butt off, Chopper had found an Elevator Key inside before returning to the others before leaving the room.
The next door led them to a room with a barrel and a prison cell containing an Ultimate Shroom. A red button could be seen on the wall beside the cell, but it was too high for Chopper's hammer to reach. So, he needed some help from a certain plumber.
"Mario, I need your help on this one," Chopper noted. "Hit me with your hammer, OK?"
Mario: OK.
Mario brought his hammer down on Chopper, bringing him underground. He walked under the barrel, and with one jump, he got into it. Mario jumped on the barrel afterward and struck the switch, opening the jail cell.
"Hey! It's an Ultimate Shroom!" Tamber snatched the Ultimate Shroom, but it was snatched by Chopper before he could take a bite from it. "Aw, you gotta be KIDDING ME!"
"Sorry, but I can't let you have it, Tamber. We gotta save it." Chopper said as they left the room and walked over to the locked door all the way to the right. Thankfully, the key had unlocked the door, turning the light above it green. There, they discovered another glass pipe and another view of the outside.
"Poyo? (Is this supposed to be an elevator?)" Kirby asked.
"It looks like one. Let's find out!" Chopper smiled, stepping into the pipe. He found himself getting sucked upward to the next floor.
"Neat! It looks like something from one of those sci-fi shows!" Berry remarked, jumping in next. The rest followed and were taken on another trip through a pipe. Unlike the others, this one was much more enjoyable.
Now this was an interesting little chapter. I feel there were a couple of things that stood out here. Two, in particular. I think some of you might have an idea of what those two could be. :P
Next up: The heroes discover something rather...interesting on the fourth floor and continue to explore the New X-Naut Fortress.