CHAPTER 10-3
-Through the Mountain and Out-
"Gee, this cave sure is a bit unsettling for some reason…but it's also kind of beautiful, if you ask me," Sonic said as he looked at the tunnel they were walking through. There was a little slide up ahead in the tunnel that would most likely lead to another area in the cavern. There were crystal-colored icicles up on the ceiling, although it didn't look like they were going to melt or even fall off, to their relief. Up ahead they could see an ice statue of some kind of ghost. They would probably be called Ice Ghosts.
"I will admit that it doth feel very nice in hither," Luvbi agreed.
"Well, at least we don't have any snow getting in our way," Chopper mentioned with a smile. "Snow is nice, but I like being sage as well."
"Poyo? (What about the ice?)" Kirby mentioned.
"Oh... That can be bad."
"So… How about we make our way down this slide?" Sonic suggested, walking over to the icy slide up ahead. "I believe it should lead us to somewhere up ahead, if I'm correct…"
"Then let's go!" Blade was the first to go down the slide. Luckily, he didn't have to worry too much about sliding down because he was actually wearing a ninja outfit. Same goes with Mario, who went down next. Chopper followed the two down with Luvbi going after him and then Sonic went down, leaving only Kirby to go down the slide last.
Poyo… (I don't know… This doesn't seem safe…)" Kirby trailed as he watched them all slide down. But, nevertheless, he decided to bite the bullet and slide down the tunnel in order to catch up with everyone else.
Through the tunnel-
Kirby noticed as he slid down the icy tunnel slide, it stopped getting all cramped and he could actually see that it was a bit wider. Not to mention it was leading into a larger area in the ice cavern. And he wasn't the only one who was looking surprised at what he was seeing. Oh, man, Blade was sure surprised with what he was seeing as well.
"Holy crap… Is it just me or am I seeing a huge area up ahead in the cavern?" Blade gawked as he continued to move through the slide, out of the tunnel and into the larger area.
"I don't know about you guys, but I don't think this is very safe," Sonic pointed out, pointing to a large gap up ahead. "Maybe we need to flip into 3-D in order to avoid falling into a bottomless pit?"
"I'll try to do something," Chopper flipped him and everyone else into 3-D to find two paths to take on the slide. Both of them would eventually lead them to the exact tunnel, but Blade and Sonic decided to go left and Chopper, Kirby and Mario took the right. Luvbi continued to follow Chopper by going to the right.
Mario: This is a long slide.
"Poyo, (But it's pretty slippery,)" Kirby shivered from the fact that his butt was starting to get cold from the ice. Chopper's butt was getting a bit cold as well. Mario… Well, he had overalls on.
"I really wish I wasn't sliding like this…" Chopper tried to get himself up, but instead, he ended up sliding while standing, like he was snowboarding. "Hey! This is actually kind of cool! You guys gotta try this out!"
Sonic heard Chopper from the other side and did the same thing. He managed to keep his balance. The rest of them decided not to because it seemed a bit risky.
"Pray, my sweet prince, why art thou doing that?" Luvbi asked as she watched Chopper slide down like he was grinding on a rail. "Thou art probably going to fall off and get hurt! I will not let that happen! Nay!"
"Relax, Luvbi, I can just flip us back into 2-D if we ever find ourselves in any danger…" Chopper trailed.
Mario: Yeah, that's true.
"Hmmmmm… Well, then thou must be careful hither. I dost not want thee to fall into the water down below." Luvbi eyed the water down below, which surprisingly didn't look freezing cold at all.
"Poyo, (That water actually doesn't look cold at all,)" Kirby stated as he looked down in the water. "Poyo. (In fact, I think we've seen colder water than this. Remember at Snowy Mountain, Chopper?)"
"Oh, yeah, Snowy Mountain… I'm surprised the ice cold water there didn't give me any bad colds like the water here…" Chopper remarked, remembering that moment.
Mario: I didn't touch that water.
"Yeah, you're lucky that you didn't, or else you probably would've been rocketing straight out of the water," Chopper continued to slide while looking to his left where Sonic and Blade were. Apparently they were talking about something else as well.
"So, Sonic… You've been to another snow place like this?" Blade questioned after Sonic explained to him about some of his adventures.
"Plenty of them, actually," Sonic grinned. "I remember there was a snow area on Chopper's planet."
"Oh, yeah, I was there," Blade remarked. "Can't you believe that we were forced to travel with Chopper through his whole planet just to find some person to get to some star that reminded me of a jewel?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're ticked off about that, aren't you?"
"In all honesty… I'm not ticked off about it." Blade pondered for a bit as they continued to slide down. "I actually got a whole tour of what Chopper's planet is now, and that means I know what each continent is like now! Seriously, I should go back there one day and explore it all myself."
"Well you don't have to ask anybody to go on that planet, so I'm pretty sure you're free to go there when this whole quest is finished," Sonic noticed that the slide was starting to merge together. "Well, I think this thing is going to be merging now, so get ready, Blade!"
As soon as the two icy slides merged together, Chopper immediately flipped everyone into 2-D to avoid falling off the slide easily. That, and there wasn't much else up ahead in 3-D.
"So how was your conversation?" Chopper asked.
"Oh, we were talking about some of the other places we've been to," Sonic explained. "I know for a fact that Blade wants to explore your planet again on his own, since he probably wants to see everything there."
"Well that's pretty interesting, I'll admit," after a couple of minutes, the slide ended and they ended up crashing into a wall right next to a red door. Nevertheless, they made their way through and into another area in the cave.
After walking out of the door, they noticed that there was a skinny, icy bridge up ahead, but it was being blocked by an Ice Ghost that was spewing out an icy breath that didn't quite reach the six.
"What is that thing?" Luvbi asked.
"From what I can see, it's an Ice Ghost. I think some fire will take care of this thing, though." Chopper was about to throw a fireball at it, but Blade immediately drew his katana and struck the Ice Ghost with a fire slash. "…Or Blade can do it, I'm fine with that…"
"A fireball's probably not enough to beat these guys," Blade stated as he put away his katana. "We're probably going to need more than that to finish off these guys. I mean, they're made of ice!"
Mario: A fireball would probably melt it.
"Anyway… Let's just cross this bridge." Sonic was the first to jump on the bridge, but he noticed a couple of white Swoopers flying around. He knew for a fact that they were Ice Swoopers, but he wasn't sure how dangerous they were.
When one swooped down, Sonic struck it with a Spin Jump a couple of times and disintegrated it. Mario finished off the other one with a jump as well, damaging it a couple of times.
"These Swoopers must be like those Ice Ghosts…except they're kind of annoying," Sonic said as he made his way across the bridge. After everyone else followed him across, they saw a pipe up ahead, but nothing else.
"Hold on… Maybe I need to flip into 3-D." Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D. He saw another ice bridge like the other, but there were gusts of icy wind that looked quite strong. If they were to walk over to it, they would be blown straight into the water down below.
"Yeesh, I don't think we can even go through that," the antennae hero went back into 2-D. "I don't think the water's bad or anything, but I think it's best that we go down that pipe over there."
"Yea, verily. Although, I think it's best for me to stay hither. I dost not want to go down there…" Luvbi looked over at Chopper with a smile. "But, I will waiteth for thee to return."
Chopper turned around and followed the rest of the group down the pipe. As for Luvbi, she noticed an icicle drop from the ceiling right by her.
"Mayhap I can dost something hither…" Luvbi grabbed the icicle and fluttered over to the crystal ice wall.
Down the pipe-
As soon as they got out of the pipe, they saw a couple of enemies frozen in ice. One of them was an Ice Bro., another one was an Ice Ghost (even though that one wasn't necessarily frozen) and another enemy frozen was a Mega Muth, which was a bit surprising to some of them.
"Poyo? (What the heck is that supposed to be?)" Kirby asked, pointing at the frozen Mega Muth.
"Oh… Those enemies." Chopper face palmed. "Although they give A LOT of points, those things are annoying to defeat. From what I've seen in Castle Tipral… They have about 200 HP!"
"200 HP? Are you serious?!" Blade gawked as he looked at the Mega Muth. "That's the same amount of HP that Dimentral had! This is really, really dumb…but, if the points are a lot, then we better take care of it."
Mario: Not right now!
"Mario's right. We can't take care of it now…" Sonic trailed, looking over at the Ice Ghost that was floating toward them. "I say we take care of those enemies first. They DO have stronger attack power than that thing anyway…"
"So, who wants to do the honors of taking care of the Ice Ghost, huh?" Blade looked at the rest of the group, who looked a bit confused. "Oh, whatever. I guess I'll take care of it from a distance."
He tossed Hommissile straight at the Ice Ghost, causing it to explode into many pieces. Afterward, he melted the Ice Bro. out of its frozen prison, allowing it to move freely in the small cave.
"Huh…? I'm still alive? Oh, man… I thought I was done for in this place…" the Ice Bro. looked around the small cave area and noticed the five in here as well. "Wait a second… You're the heroes! Look, I better do what I have to do and destroy you because of Tipral's orders."
"Well, we know for sure that this is one of Tipral's minions," Sonic confirmed, curling up into a ball and striking the Ice Bro. easily. But once he knocked it to the wall, it got up and spat an ice ball straight at Sonic, freezing him for a couple of seconds.
"I'll take care of this," Chopper melted Sonic from his icy prison with a simple fireball, then he tossed an ice ball straight at the Ice Bro., freezing it and then kicking it into the wall, destroying it.
"All right… So that only leaves the Mega Muth." Chopper tossed a fireball at the frozen Mega Muth, freeing it from its icy prison. But the thing is, it was starting to charge at the group like that was what it was trying to do before it froze.
Mario immediately jumped toward the Mega Muth and dealt some heavy damage with his Ground Pound attack, followed by Kirby jumping on it with Carrie, leaving it stunned for a couple of seconds.
"Heh heh! Now I can show this Mega Muth who's boss!" Blade drew his katana and began to continuously slash at the large creature. After about a couple of more hits, the Mega Muth was finally defeated, dropping a Bone-in-Cut that the ninja took.
"So… Is there anything else to do in this cavern?" Chopper asked.
Mario: I don't know.
Kirby scanned the room until he saw a stump that was frozen. "Poyo! (Hey! I see something over there!)"
"Really?" Chopper whirled around over to the stump that was frozen. "Oh, there we go! Maybe that'll help us get through that icy wind that's in our way!"
By tossing a fireball at the ice, he managed to melt the stump of all the ice. Mario immediately stepped in and performed a Ground Pound on the stump, causing the floor to tremor just a little bit.
"Well, I'm not sure what that tremor was, but it definitely sounded like there was something going on outside…" Blade trailed after the tremor stopped.
"Poyo, (Then let's check it out,)" suggested Kirby.
Other room-
As the five heroes came out of the pipe, they noticed that Luvbi was carving something up on the icy wall. She didn't seem to be finished yet, but they all looked confused with the Nimbi girl. What exactly was she even drawing?
"Uhhh… Luvbi? What are you doing?" Chopper asked.
"Oh, me! Thou returnest?" Luvbi whirled to face Chopper. "I hath just finished something for thee and I!"
"…And what did you make, exactly?" Sonic asked, tilting his head.
Luvbi gave Sonic an annoyed look. "Well, if thou wantest to know, then thou can lookest at what I hath carved. But the only one who probably will hath more interest in this is my prince!"
"…And what exactly is it that will interest me?" Chopper asked.
"Thou will see!" she giggled as she moved out of the way. Everyone's eyes widened (with Chopper's in fear) as they say a carving of Chopper and Luvbi kissing each other on the lips. Both of their eyes were closed, and they were on top of a cloud shaped like a heart. Of course, Chopper didn't like this one bit.
"Wh-What is that?!"
"That is thou and I kissing!" Luvbi let out a sweet sigh as she looked at it. "Dost thou think it's romantic?"
"Heck no!" Chopper had his tongue out in disgust. "The idea of it is gross!"
"Pbbbbthh... I wish I had a camera..." Blade snickered.
"Hee hee! It's all right, my love! We can talkest about love later." Luvbi assured.. "But we must movest on."
Chopper groaned before flipping into 3-D. They could all see that the icy wind was now gone, allowing them to cross the bridge over to the other side where a door was.
When they flipped back into 2-D, they entered through the door and into an area that was like a hallway. There wasn't anything around except for a couple of Ice Swoopers hanging onto the ceiling and a snowman-like enemy with a blue pale cap called a Chilly. It was creating an ice aura that could freeze anyone if anyone got close to it.
"He-Hey! It's a Chilly!" Chopper smiled. "I remember seeing these guys back at Snowy Mountain! Good times… Good times…"
"Poyo? (So what are we gonna do with it?)" Kirby asked.
"Well I know what I'm gonna do!" Chopper raced toward the Chilly and immediately inhaled it. As soon as he swallowed it, Chopper's skin changed to a light blue tint with indigo gloves and feet. On his head was a crown with a circular visor that had a blue gem in it, and also ice crystals on top of the crown. There were small amounts of snowflakes around his gloves and his crown too.
"I doth like thy appearance like that!" Luvbi commented.
"Well, he does look pretty cool," Sonic admitted.
"I didst not ask thee for thy opinion, Knave!"
"Poyo… (Yeesh… No need to be rude...)" Kirby trailed as he ran on ahead, inhaling an Ice Swooper and spitting it out on the wall. Chopper used his Ice Sprinkle attack to freeze the other Ice Swooper and kick it to the wall to destroy it.
At the end of the tunnel, there was a door with a Save Block and a ? Block. Mario struck the ? Block, making a Super Shroom pop out. Blade did the usual thing to help them all recover 20 HP before Chopper hit the Save Block.
"Huh… I wonder why these are here." Sonic wondered while rubbing the side of his head.
"Well, it doesn't hurt to check," Blade walked through the door first, followed by Sonic, Chopper, Luvbi, Kirby and then Mario. It led them into a tunnel that was bigger in height and even a couple of holes that acted like windows, making it not as dark in the place.
"Honestly, I like it here," Chopper commented, looking at the whole room they were in. But, what caught him off guard was someone who was lying on the ground up ahead.
And that person…was King Dedede.
"Poyo? (King Dedede?)" Kirby and Chopper were both surprised to see a familiar face in this place. "Poyo? (What on earth is King Dedede doing in a place like this? I thought he would be finished back in Gloam Valley?)"
"Well, there was Bowser too… I don't know what's going on here." Chopper pondered as Kirby poked King Dedede.
"Whuzzat?! Who's there?!" King Dedede immediately got himself up to see what was going on. "Huh? What the heck am I doing here? This isn't the place where I planned to go!"
He looked on ahead to see Chopper and Kirby right in front of him. "What the… It's you two! How did you get here?!"
"We art probably going to ask thee the same thing," Luvbi said sarcastically.
"Well, it doesn't matter how you got here or not. But you're all in my way, so…" King Dedede pulled his hammer out and raised it above him. "I think it would be a good idea to clobber some of my enemies! Does that sound nice to you guys?"
"What? It doesn't sound nice at all!" Chopper frowned. "We don't even want to fight you! We're just trying to get through the place, sheesh!"
"Well I'm not gonna buy it! Ever since I lost to you guys, I've felt like I've been humiliated! Well, not anymore! This time… This time I'm going to be the clobberer…and you're guys are the ones that are going to be clobbered!"
"Is 'clobberer' even a word?" Blade whispered, only to get a shrug from both Mario and Sonic.
"Hey! You better not be making fun of me back there!" the king growled. "Do you guys wanna be targets too?"
"Well, now that you think about it…" Blade drew his katana. "I think we could sure enjoy a fight against you!"
"All right, then! Now I've got five people to squish! …Unless you wanna count that fairy girl over there."
"How darest thou speakest to me like that!" Luvbi retorted. "Thou will NOT do such harm to me!"
"Like I care what a fairy has to say to me! I'm KING! …But, I've got a couple of people to take care of… Prepare yourself, Chopper and Kirby! I saved some space for you both on my hammer!"
The king brought his hammer down in front of both Chopper and Kirby, knocking them back toward the others. From what Chopper could see, King Dedede has about 130 HP, an Attack of 9 and a Defense of 2. It's nothing too bad, but he was definitely a bit stronger than Fawful.
"Huh… Well, we better be quick when attacking him. He's kind of slow, if you wanted to know." Chopper informed as he jumped on King Dedede's head and landed right behind him to use his Ice Breath on him as well.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" King Dedede began to shiver from the intense cold. "That stuff really makes me cold!"
"Poyo! (Well that's a good thing!)" Kirby jumped out of the way when King Dedede tried to bring his hammer down on him. Since a yellow star appeared, he inhaled it and spat it at King Dedede, making him dizzy.
"Hey! Save some for me!" Sonic curled up in a ball and charged up his Light Speed Dash. When he got it fully charged, he immediately attacked King Dedede multiple times until he managed to spin his hammer around and knock the blue hedgehog away easily.
"Whoa… How'd he manage to hit me when I was going that fast?" he questioned.
"Who cares? I hit ya! Deal with it!" King Dedede jumped in the air and tried to squish Blade, but he managed to jump out of the way before getting stomped. With two yellow stars, Kirby managed to inhale both and spit them out at King Dedede, making him feel completely dizzy from the attack.
"You're going to pay for that, Kirby!"
"Ehhhh… I don't think you'll have a chance." Blade immediately attacked King Dedede with his katana, striking him a couple of times before kicking him in the stomach. "Now that's something I certainly like to do: kick people in the stomach."
Mario turned around and asked Luvbi if she was safe, but she only huffed and turned away from him.
"Thou dost not have the right to speaketh to me, hairy old man!" she huffed. "The only person I will only speaketh to is my sweet prince!"
Mario: Rude, much?
Of course, he was interrupted when he was knocked over by King Dedede, who purposely tripped over to hit him. But, he managed to get himself up and bash the king with his hammer.
"What the… Now you have a hammer too?!" King Dedede growled as he got up and attempted to swing at Mario, but missed. The Italian plumber simply jumped on King Dedede's head twice before landing and giving a thumbs up.
"You stupid little… You're gonna pay for that!" King Dedede made his way over to the group and opened his mouth to suck some of them in like a vacuum. He only managed to get a hold of Chopper and Kirby, but that's it.
He turned around and spat them over by the left wall. Luvbi fluttered out of the way to avoid being hit by them and immediately fluttered over to Chopper.
"My sweet prince! Art thou all right?" Luvbi asked in a worried voice. She checked for any bruises on his face. She was relieved that there weren't any…yet.
"Please leave me be!" Chopper shouted, stepping away from Luvbi. "I'm in the middle of a fight here!"
"Oh... Fine." Luvbi frowned, watching Chopper ice skate his way toward King Dedede
"I do like the fact that I can ice skate with my Ice ability!" he smiled as he surrounded himself in an icy aura called an Ice Storm, striking King Dedede for some nifty damage, and not to mention making him cold.
"Ugh… I really hate it when you do that!" King Dedede growled as he lifted his hammer and struck Chopper with it. Kirby immediately inhaled the yellow star and spat it out at King Dedede to leave him dazed.
Mario: Oh, yeah!
Mario performed a Triple Jump and landed right on King Dedede's nose, performing a stylish move afterward. When he landed behind him, he used Kickbrin's ability to knock him over.
"Oh, come on! It's five against one?! This isn't fair one bit!" King Dedede whined.
"Well… You ARE bigger than us, and you've also got more strength than us…" Sonic trailed. "So, I think it's a fair fight. At least, in my eyes, it is."
"Oh, yeah?" King Dedede took in a lot of air and began to float up in the air. His stomach looked all puffed up, as well as his cheeks as he tried to hit his enemies that were still on the ground.
"Poyo, (I think I know how to avoid this,)" Kirby took in some air and began to float up to get out of King Dedede's way. The king only managed to hit Mario and Blade, but that was all before exhaling a puff of air in his mouth and landing right on top of Sonic, squishing him.
"Get off of me!" Sonic managed to throw King Dedede off of him by bringing his quills up. It made King Dedede yelp and crash into a wall that made a bunch of icicles fall on his head.
"You little…! Now you're gonna get it!" King Dedede raised his hammer and brought it down on the ground to make a huge shockwave come toward the group. However, they all simply jumped over it, with Mario being able to jump on King Dedede's head afterward.
Mario: You're not so hard for me to hit!
"I'm gonna shut that mouth of yours and rip that mustache off of ya!" King Dedede brought his hammer back and sent Mario flying across the room with a simple swing of his hammer, but he was surprised by an explosion that knocked him over.
"That should take care of him for a bit," Blade said as Hommissile came back to him.
King Dedede turned around and tried to hit Blade, but he immediately attacked him with his katana and then jumped in the air and dove down and kicked him in the face to knock him over.
However, King Dedede wasn't going to give up so easily. He immediately got up and grabbed Blade. He threw him toward Mario with a whack of his hammer that did some tough damage.
"Oh, you wanna see another attack I can do? This one will surely put you guys out of your misery!" King Dedede's hammer had a fire aura around it as it slammed to the ground, creating a huge wave of fire that spread across the floor.
"You idiot! You know this place is made of ice!" Chopper growled, using his Ice Storm to prevent the tunnel from melting.
"What? I was trying to clobber you guys! Is that all to ask?!" King Dedede jumped in the air and tried to attack Chopper, but he jumped out of the way and used his Ice Sprinkle to strike King Dedede with his icy breath.
"Ack! Stop with that icy breath!" King Dedede whacked Chopper across the face with his hammer and knocked him over on his back, but then it was followed up by Sonic striking him from behind with a Homing Attack, leaving a bruise on the back of King Dedede's head.
"When I'm through with you all, I'm going to go find someone who'll buy you guys as slaves so I can become filthy rich!" he announced as he slammed his hammer down on Sonic, making a yellow star appear right by Kirby.
"Poyo… (I think I have a chance of winning this…)" Kirby inhaled the yellow star and spat it out at King Dedede, leaving him dizzy. Now that he was open for an attack, he jumped on Carrie and jumped on top of King Dedede's head to leave a nasty bump on his head.
"Ugh… Do you ALWAYS have to do that, Kirby?!" King Dedede asked while gritting his teeth in anger. He managed to strike Kirby at least once, but that was about it. When he tried jumping on him, he ultimately failed, allowing Kirby to inhale both yellow stars and spit them out at him for some stronger damage.
King Dedede jumped up and brought his hammer down after getting out of his little trance and managed to hit Kirby with his hammer. But, when Mario managed to use a Ground Pound on him, he was almost done for.
"Oh, man… I can't believe it has almost come down to this…" the king gulped. "There's no way I can let myself lose this easily! …Time for plan B!"
He pulled out one of his Waddle Dees and threw it straight at Mario while he was landing on the ground. Unfortunately, his plan didn't work out when Mario whacked the Waddle Dee straight back at him.
"You gotta be kidding me… That attack should've worked… Oh, forget it. I think this should do the job." he threw a spiked enemy called a Gordo straight at Mario, knocking him back. Not even Kirby could inhale an enemy like this!
"…I still gotta help," Chopper pushed himself up and immediately tossed an ice ball at King Dedede, freezing him for a couple of seconds.
"Hey, Kirby! Catch!" Chopper jumped and threw an ice ball over Kirby, allowing him to inhale it. When King Dedede broke out of his icy prison, the pink puffball spat a yellow star containing the ice ball straight at King Dedede. It made him fall over and admit defeat to Kirby.
"Ugh… I… I can't win." King Dedede moaned. "I thought for sure that I would have this in the bag, but apparently I didn't."
"Hey, now, you don't need to put yourself down," Chopper said as he nudged him with his foot. "You should've just listened to us by simply letting us through… I'm pretty sure you would've been fine then."
"But I NEED to clobber you guys! You know what'll happen if I don't? I'll be screwed big time!"
Luvbi fluttered over to King Dedede. "Pray, speakest now, flappy penguin! Where can we go to get out of hither?!"
King Dedede looked up at Luvbi. "You wanna know where you can get out of here? Well, if I remember, if you go past one room, you'll be at the top of the mountain. I don't remember what was there, but you'll have a long way to go if you're going to exit this place as well."
"Huh… So that's how it is." Sonic said. "Well, then we might as well move on ahead." he jumped over King Dedede and raced over to the red door ahead.
"Hold on, Sonic! What about King Dedede?" Chopper asked.
"There's not much we can do with him," Blade stated. "I don't think he wants to move anyway."
"I'll get out of here myself," King Dedede groaned. "But remember this, Chopper and Kirby! Next time we meet, I'm going to make sure I get you! You BETTER remember that, all right?!"
"Poyo… (Yeah, sure…)" Kirby replied as he jumped over King Dedede, along with Chopper. Blade turned to Mario, who gave him a nod before jumping over the king and going up to the door.
They all headed through the door into a room with an ice pole that was floating in the middle of the room. It led up to a floating ice platform that seemed to be used as something to land on, but there was also a ? Block by it.
"Let's climb this!" Sonic immediately grabbed a hold of the pole and began to climb up. Everyone else followed him up to the icy platform that the pole led to and Mario hit the ? Block, making a Mushroom pop out. They all split it into five, as usual and climbed up the next pole near them.
"Gee, I wonder why these icy poles are even here…" Chopper trailed as he noticed the icy platform to the left had a Chilly creating an icy aura that surrounded it. He simply chucked a fireball at it when it stopped, melting it entirely.
"Why did you need to do that?" Blade asked.
"To prevent it from causing any harm to us."
"Errr… All right?"
After climbing a couple of more poles, they finally reached the red door on the larger icy platform. They immediately entered it into a small room with a light leading out of the mountain. There was also some kind of machine in this small cave room as well, confusing some of them.
"Why is there a machine right here?" Sonic gawked.
Mario: I have no idea.
"Poyo, (I think there's a sign over here,)" Kirby walked over to the sign and began to read what it was saying.
Welcome to Ice Mountain! Sorry if you were disappointed with the whole place! To apologize, we're offering snowboards, skis, and even tubes for those who want to exit this mountain! Just insert a coin and you can get one of the things on there of your choice! Thank you and goodbye!
"Whoa… That's pretty cool." Chopper smiled as he pulled a coin out and placed it in the machine. He decided to choose a snowboard and, before he knew it, a pale green snowboard was coughed up.
"Poyo! (Let's see what I can get!)" Kirby inserted a coin into the machine and chose to get a tube, because he knew that he couldn't snowboard, nor could he ski.
Sonic got himself a blue snowboard. Being the hedgehog that has snowboarded in the past, he knew that was going to be what he wanted to use.
Blade got himself some skis, because he didn't feel like getting a snowboard. "I would get a snowboard, but I'm not exactly sure if I'll be safe with it."
Mario: Ummmm… OK.
Mario placed a coin in the machine and chose to get some skis (I mean, he skis in Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic games! Is there anything else for me to choose?).
"My sweet prince… What about me?" Luvbi asked.
"Do you want to get any of those?" Chopper asked.
"Well, I can't ski or snowboard because I dost not have any legs. And I dost not know if I can even go in a tube because I can only flutter around!"
"And what do you want me to do about it?"
Luvbi blushed shyly. "Well… I was wondering…if thou can hold onto me whilst thou makest thy way down the mountain. I would verily love it if thou didst something so sweet for me."
Chopper's eyes widened as he blushed nervously. "Errrr… I really, really don't want you getting close to me."
"Please? For me?" her eyes softened as she got closer to him. She even batted her eyes at him too.
"All right! All right! Just please stop doing that to me!"
"Man… Girl trouble, much?" Blade whispered.
"Quiet, Blade…" Chopper warned.
"Hee hee! I thank thee!" Luvbi giggled as she held onto Chopper as he got on his snowboard. "Thou wilt taketh good care of cute little me, right?"
"Uhhh… I kind of have to."
"Aw, thou art so sweet!"
"Poyo! (Now let's get going!)" Kirby cheered as he got himself on the tube and pushed himself out of the mountain and down the snowy slope. He noticed down at the bottom of the mountain that there was a frozen lake.
"Whoa… So there's some kind of lake at the bottom?" Chopper gawked as he made his way down, following Kirby. There were a couple of ramps that they could jump off, so he decided to perform a couple of tricks on one of the ramps.
"Chopper! Please don't do that when I'm holding on to thee! I'm afraid I might fall off!" Luvbi said closely.
"…You can fly though! I highly doubt you would even let yourself fall!"
"But thou must knowest that thou must keepeth me safe, dost though remember."
At this moment, Chopper was getting annoyed. He wanted to let go of Luvbi and get away from her as fast as possible, but he felt that it wouldn't be the right thing to do. After all, he needed to make sure she was back to Grambi.
"Well, that's why having a girlfriend can be annoying," Blade pointed out as he was right behind him. "They constantly nag you and such!"
"…I wouldn't say that, Blade," Chopper gave him an irritated look. "They don't really… Well, most of them don't. …But I can think of one that does."
"Amy sure doesn't act like that," Sonic said as he jumped over Chopper and performed a trick. "Although, I think she's overly obsessed with me…"
"Ummm… Yeah. Let's just stop talking about this, OK?" Chopper noticed that Luvbi was getting a bit irritated with some of the people around him.
"Dost thou know how to not interrupt our moments?" Luvbi exclaimed as she glared at the group.
"Ugh… This is going to be a LONG day, isn't it?"
Frozen Lake-
What might seem to be a long day really wasn't one. After a long way down the snowy slope, our heroes stopped right on the frozen lake. Little did they know that it was eventually going to break pretty soon.
"So, guys… What do you say that we just get out of this place and find our way out of here?" Blade suggested.
They paused when they heard a crack.
Mario: I wouldn't be too sure on that…
The ice on the lake broke, but they didn't fall into the water. They were simply on a large chunk of ice that was floating on the water. They happened to notice past the lake was a Star Block, to their relief.
"Finally! We can just jump onto these floating chunks of ice and get out of here!" Blade started to use his platforming skills and jump on the chunks of ice. Everyone else followed him.
"Hmmmm… I think there's something down below this water…" Chopper paused for a minute and pondered.
"Chopper! Art thou verily planning on going down there?!" Luvbi exclaimed. "Nay! I dost not want thee to suffer another cold!"
"Oh, relax! My Ice ability allows me to survive the cold! Sheesh!" Chopper jumped into the lake and swam down to the bottom. He happened to notice something sparkling down there, so he immediately grabbed it. When he swam back up, he jumped out of the water and landed on the icy platform he was previously on. "See? I'm all fine!"
"Pray, what was down there?"
"Uhhhhh… Nothing special. We should just get going…"
They both followed the rest of the group straight to the Star Block. With one strike from Chopper's fist, the Star Block was destroyed.
"Wow… We sure made our way out of that mountain!" Sonic said, sighing in relief.
"Well, there's still more to be found up ahead…" Blade trailed.
Mario: That's true!
END OF CHAPTER
With the heroes finally out of the icy cavern, they were now back outside and back to traveling onward. "We shouldst not be too far off," said Luvbi, who had taken the lead through the snowy world. "I don't know about you guys, but for some reason, this area's starting to feel a bit more Christmas-y, don't you agree?" Blade discussed as he noticed that some of the poles were like candy canes, and some of the trees had some Christmas lights on them. One thing for sure was that they were not going to expect being in a place full of paradise.
I bet you weren't expecting King Dedede to appear in this chapter. ;D
Anyway, I know that there was something about this place having a Christmas feeling to it. Well, maybe we'll be able to see that in the next chapter. Oh, and maybe there might be a little surprise in there too! ...With some humor, of course.