CHAPTER 10-4
-Winter Paradise-
"Oh, man… Is it Christmas already?" Blade asked as he looked at one of the Christmas trees close to him. There was no snow covering it, but there were some very nice decorations, such as Christmas lights and ornaments. "I find it weird that we have this kind of stuff here when it's not even Christmas…"
"Well, every world is different in the universe and in every dimension," Sonic stated as he walked over to the Christmas tree. An Ice Bro. was up ahead, spitting a couple of ice balls toward him. He decided to take care of that enemy first before going back to the Christmas tree. "I'll admit, whoever decorated these trees did a pretty good job at it. It looks so nice!"
Mario: I agree with that!
Kirby walked over to the tree and shook it a little, making the others gasp.
"Whoa, Kirby! Don't try to shake it!" Sonic warned. "You're going to make all of the ornaments fall off! We wouldn't want that to happen, right?"
"Poyo… (Awww… I was hoping there would be some food in here, that's all…)" Kirby whimpered as he stepped away from the tree.
Chopper walked up to the tree and pondered for a couple of seconds. "Hmmmmmm… I feel like this tree is missing something. I think it needs a little more light to it, wouldn't you say?"
"You mean a star?" Blade replied, pointing to the top of the tree. "Maybe it just needs a star in order for it to be complete."
"But where can we even findeth a star?" Luvbi asked.
"How about we use Kirby as a star?" Blade suggested. Kirby gave him a glare, making Blade back off. "Hey! I was only kidding! Sheesh! Can't you learn to even take a joke, Kirby?"
"Poyo, (Well I found that to be a bit rude,)" Kirby retorted while folding his arms. "Poyo! (I'm not meant to be used for decorations! I'm a Star Warrior, all right?)"
"I have no idea what the heck you just said…" While Blade couldn't understand Kirby, Chopper explained to him what he was saying. "Oh… Well sorry for being rude. I'm not trying to get in a fight with you, honestly."
Mario: We should just move on.
"Hold the phone…" Chopper was just finished with making a crystallized star with his Ice ability. "While you guys were arguing over nothing, I was making this, just to make this tree look nice."
He gave it to Kirby and let him bring it up to the top of the Christmas tree. Once the pink puffball placed it on the top, the tree looked complete. It was one work of nature, I'd have to say…or rather, the spirit of Christmas.
"Wait... What month is this anyway?" Blade wondered. "Are we even close to Christmas?"
"Errrr… How about we simply move on?" Sonic suggested, seeing a small hill up ahead and a couple of Ice Bros. on two rows of Brick Blocks. Mario simply shrugged and moved on ahead to fight the two Ice Bros.
The way Mario fought these guys was just like any other Hammer Bro. enemies. He used his fist to hit one of the blocks that the Ice Bro. was on and knocked it to the ground. Chopper immediately ice skated toward one and used his Ice Storm to freeze it. While it was frozen, he kicked it toward a pipe up on a small hill to destroy it.
"Poyo, (I got the other Ice Bro.,)" Kirby said as he jumped on the row of Brick Blocks above him. The Ice Bro. was knocked to the ground, where Blade drew his katana and slashed at it a couple of times to finish it.
"Man, taking these guys down really makes me feel good!" Blade grinned as he hit one of the Brick Blocks, making a Mushroom pop out. He split it into five so they could all recover 10 HP. Afterward, Sonic hit another Brick Block, making a Slow Flower pop out, to their surprise.
"Pray, what is that flower?" Luvbi asked.
"It's a Slow Flower," Chopper answered. "If we grab a hold of it, everything around us will slow down. Kirby, grab the flower and she'll see what it's like."
"Poyo! (Got it!)" Kirby jumped up to the Slow Flower and grabbed a hold of it. Everything started to slow down by a lot. Even their voices were slow, which was obvious.
"Pooooooooyooooooo! (My vooooooice soooooooounds soooooooo deeeeeeeep!)" Kirby said in slow motion. "Poooooooooyoooooo? (Why doooooooes iiiiiit haaaaaaave tooooo beeeeee liiiiike thiiiiis?)"
"I doooooon't knooooow!" Chopper replied as he slowly ice skated up the small hill and over to the pipe. A Frost Piranha popped its head out of the pipe and tried to freeze the group with its icy breath.
"Ohhhhhhhh noooooo yooooooou doooooon't!" Blade gripped his katana and "slowly" jumped toward the Frost Piranha to strike it with a fire slash, defeating it instantly. But, they decided to check what was down the pipe…which, of course, made the speed go back to normal.
Underground-
The five heroes landed right on an icy platform as they dropped down from the pipe (Luvbi decided to wait outside because she didn't feel like going down). Below the platform were two Ice Guys and two Frost Darklings on the side platforms that was a bit close from the icy ground below.
"Oh, great… We have Darklings here." Chopper groaned as he jumped on the Darkling to his right a couple of times, performing a stylish move. Mario took care of the Darkling to his left with a couple of stomps.
Mario: What are the difference between these and normal ones?
"These Darklings can use white energy balls in order to freeze you. I believe that's it…except they're weak to fire, which is nice."
"And let's take a look at those Ice Guys down below," Sonic jumped down and struck one of the Ice Guys with a simple Homing Attack. After one Spin Jump, the Ice Guy was defeated. The only problem was that they could throw ice bombs. The one to the left ended up hitting Sonic and making him freeze.
"Poyo, (I'll take care of the last one,)" Kirby inhaled the next ice bomb the Ice Guy threw and spat it out at it, freezing it and allowing him to kick it to the wall, finishing it and allowing something to happen.
"I bet we're going to get a present from Santa!" Chopper smiled.
"You know Santa doesn't exist, right?" Blade mentioned.
"What? He so does exist!"
"Dude… No he doesn't." Blade began to shake his head at the pale green boy. "I was even told that he doesn't exist. My parents told me that they were the ones putting all of my presents under the tree. So… Yeah, that basically means that he doesn't exist. At all."
"Well what about at my house? My parents are gone…but who would be the one to put those presents under my tree? Certainly not someone I know. I even keep my house locked just to be safe. So, that pretty much means that Santa Claus DOES exist!"
Before they could continue arguing, they noticed in the center of the room, paper flipped to reveal a chest. Mario shrugged and opened the chest to find some sort of ice key. But, like all of the keys, it's called a Door Key.
"All right, let's get out of here before things get a bit worse…" Sonic suggested as he made his way out of the pipe.
Outside-
As the five got out of the pipe, they went over the two snow objects with Luvbi and landed right in front of the red door. Everyone else followed him over there and Mario pulled the key out.
Mario: Time to open the door!
With the key, he managed to unlock the door, allowing them to move to the next area. It was a bit open, but it was a bit small, like there could be some sort of fight. There were two Christmas trees as well with stars on the top. But, there were two mounds of snow that were a bit far from each other as well.
"Well, we know for a fact that we're getting somewhere," Blade stated.
"Or rather, you WON'T be!" the group paused as they looked up at the sky. They could see two people floating down to the ground. It almost looked like it was…Shade Doom and the Necromancer!
"What the..." Chopper gaped.
"Silly Chopper! Didn't I tell you that I would be back?" Shade grinned, pulling down his hood while he floated to the ground with his wand out. The sun on his crescent blade was glowing brightly as well. "I DID say something about getting back at you!"
"Uhhh... I'm not sure..."
"What?! Why not?!" the Necromancer growled.
"What? You expect us all to remember ONE thing you said?"
"Poyo! (Yeah! We can't remember EVERYTHING!)" Kirby agreed.
"Ugh… You people are idiots." Shade face palmed, despite his face not being seen. "Anyway, I… Wait… What the heck is she doing here?! Isn't she a Pure Heart?!"
"I dost not knoweth how I hast returned, but it dost not matter! Now leave us to movest on, monster! Thou art not welcome hither!" Luvbi said in her usual angry manner, ticking off both villains.
"This brat deserves to die… But I think we have a better idea." the Necromancer looked over at Shade. "Master… What about summoning that thing that we've seen throughout this world?"
"You mean 'that'? Why, of course! Go right ahead and do so!" Shade grinned as the Necromancer fired white lightning down to the ground. To their surprise, Frosty the Snowman appeared right in front of the heroes.
"Frosty the Snowman?!"
"Happy birthday!" Frosty said cheerfully as he smiled at the group.
"And just one little magic trick and he should be good enough to destroy you guys!" Shade swung his wand forward and Frosty was struck by a dark spell. Instead of being the friendly Frosty that he usually is, he turned into a dark, monstrous snowman with purple eyes and a purple mouth, making him look completely menacing.
"Happy birthday! Prepare to die!" Dark Frosty sneered.
"Have fun, heroes!" Shade grinned disturbingly as he and the Necromancer flew away from Dark Frosty.
"Oh, boy… We're facing the evil version of Frosty…" Blade trailed.
"And I suppose you think Frosty exists but not Santa?" Chopper questioned.
"Seriously… Let's not get to that… Can you just tell us what this guy's stats are based on your badge?"
"Ummmmmmmm… All right." Chopper looked back at Dark Frosty and saw the stats on him. "Apparently this guy has about 125 HP, an Attack of 8 and a Defense of 3. All right… Not too bad…"
"Well how about we start kicking this thing's butt?" Blade drew his katana and charged at Dark Frosty. He tried to slash at it, but the dark snowman managed to grab a hold of his katana and knock him back with a head butt, sending him flying toward the group, knocking them down as well.
"Ouch… How on earth did that snowman do that?!"
"Well we can't waste our time questioning on how he could do that… We just need to take care of him, that's all!" Sonic got himself up and performed a Spin Dash. This time, he ended up hitting the dark snowman in the belly, knocking him down.
"How dare you hit me?! You're going to pay for that!" Dark Frosty let out an intense amount of icy breath at Sonic, freezing him.
"Really? That's ALL you have to say to us?!" Chopper groaned and face palmed. "Come on! Pretty much EVERY bad guy we've faced before always says something like, 'You're going to pay for that!' It's so clichéd!"
"Poyo, (Now that I think about it, I do believe they've been saying stuff like that,)" Kirby remarked. "Poyo! (They need to say something else for once!)"
"Then I'll make you suffer a freezing cold death!"
"OK, that's much better," Chopper nodded as he jumped right on top of Dark Frosty and tossed a fireball at him afterward, dealing double damage on him due to him being made out of ice.
"Argh! What on earth are you doing?! Don't give me any of that, you pesky little boy! Unless you want to be put on Santa's naughty list, that is!" Dark Frosty let out an icy cold breath on Chopper, but it didn't seem to freeze him. "That's odd… You should've been frozen!"
"You do realize that if I have the Ice ability on, I'm not going to become a frozen popsicle, you know that?"
"Errr… No…"
"Then let's see how this'll feel!" Blade, once again, jumped behind Frosty and used a fire slash to strike the snowman, dealing even more damage than what Chopper did due to Blade's extra Attack power. "That should've done a lot of damage to ya."
Dark Frosty grabbed a dark snowball it scooped from the ground and tried to throw it at Blade. Kirby, however, inhaled the snowball first and spat it out at Dark Frosty, leaving him dizzy for a bit.
"Poyo! (This is my chance to make another attack!)" Kirby got on Carrie and began to jump on top of Dark Frosty a couple of times. The snowman managed to shake himself and swat Kirby away with his stick hands. Mario began to ponder as Kirby fell face flat on the snow.
"Maybe I need to get rid of Frosty's hat!" Mario thought as he looked at Dark Frosty's hat. "Yeah! That might be what I need to do! I remember in those stories that if you take his hat off, he won't be able to move!"
Dark Frosty lunged at Mario, but the red plumber was able to react faster, jumping and stomping on Dark Frosty's head. Knowing what he had to do, he immediately grabbed Dark Frosty's hat and pulled it off, throwing it to the side. Luckily, it made Dark Frosty stop moving and turned back to a normal snowman that they usually like.
Mario: There! It's-a over!
Unfortunately, that was not the case. The hat flew back onto Frosty's head and turned him back into his dark form. Unfortunately, Mario did not see a dark blast hit him from behind, causing him to fall over right on top of Sonic.
"Ugh… So, there's no way of getting that hat off of Frosty?" Sonic gawked.
Mario: Looks like it.
"Meh, guess that means we have to defeat him then," Blade said as he gripped his katana. "It's kind of sad that we have to anyway. I always found Frosty to be a bit interesting… No, wait, that wasn't Frosty."
He made a dash toward Dark Frosty and struck him with a fire slash, dealing some intense damage to the snowman. Dark Frosty charged at him, but he immediately tossed Hommissile at him to deal even more damage. That being said, he was still hit by Dark Frosty's dark energy.
"Where is all of this dark energy coming from?!" Blade exclaimed.
"I think it's from Shade's magic. I mean, he IS a dark wizard, after all." Chopper answered before looking over at Luvbi. "Are you OK being around here? This fight might get a bit ugly…"
"Yea, verily, I am fine hither," Luvbi nodded. "I doth feel that thou art going to win this fight, so I won't feel worried about it."
Chopper nodded and tossed a fireball at Dark Frosty to deal some damage, but it only got him hit by one of his dark attacks, knocking his Ice ability away.
"Oh, man! Not good!" Luckily, he managed to get the yellow star back into his mouth, but he pondered for a minute. "Now… Am I going to NEED this? I mean, think about it! Ice isn't going to do any good against HIM! …So, I guess I'll just spit this out at Dark Frosty instead of using it."
He immediately spat the yellow star out at Dark Frosty, knocking him back toward Kirby, who managed to make him dizzy by jumping on him with Carrie's help. Mario proceeded to strike him with a Ground Pound afterward, and then whacked his stomach with his hammer.
"Which reminds me… I haven't used my hammer in a while!" Chopper brought his hammer out with Cudge's ability and immediately bashed Dark Frosty with his hammer. Or rather, he managed to strike him with a fire smash to do even MORE damage to him than what his normal hammer attack is like.
"Huh… Well that was interesting!"
"Save some for me, you guys!" Sonic jumped in a ball and used his Spin Jump to hit Dark Frosty. The second time, thought, Dark Frosty managed to grab a hold of Sonic and throw him straight at Chopper, knocking him on the snowy ground on his backside. Dark Frosty even knocked Blade away with his own arms!
"Taste my dark power!" he cried out as he spat out a dark ball of energy toward Kirby. The bad thing for the snowman was that Kirby immediately inhaled the attack and spat it right back at Dark Frosty, making him dizzy. Add a Triple Jump from Mario and Dark Frosty was almost finished.
Mario: Are you going to give up now?
"I will never give up to the likes of you!" Dark Frosty spat. "My goal was to defeat you all on your birthdays! And that's what I plan on finishing right now! I have NO regrets for doing all of this! No regrets! At all!"
"Yeah, yeah, you can tell us that later," Sonic said as he knocked Dark Frosty over with a Homing Attack. "Don't you realize that villains who do nothing but speak are just…plain idiots? That kind of fits you to the bill, Frosty!"
"Enough! This is where it ends!" Dark Frosty charged straight at Sonic, only to have him jump out of the way from his attack. With another Homing Attack, the snowman was knocked away toward Mario, who whacked Dark Frosty across the head once again to leave him dizzy.
"Well… I think it's about time we finished this up!" Blade smirked as he gripped his katana. "You have any last requests before I finish you off, Frosty the Snowman?!"
Unfortunately, he didn't get an answer.
"Ah, forget it! I'll just do it anyway!"
With one fire slash, Dark Frosty let out a terrible scream. One that forced everyone to cover their ears because of how much it hurt.
"That noise is horrible!" Luvbi shouted. "Someone make it stop!"
Before their ears could even bleed, the hat on Dark Frosty was removed, making the snowman melt away. The hat itself didn't disappear. But they were all surprised to see the one who removed the hat.
"I heard a fight going on over here. I decided to check and see what was going on." Meta Knight was holding up Frosty's hat. "I didn't know that you guys were fighting an evil version of Frosty the Snowman…"
"Meta Knight? What on earth are you doing here?" Chopper asked as he and the rest of the group walked up to him.
"Don't you remember? I'm looking for Galaxia in this world." Meta Knight's cape seemed to be blowing from the wind, making things look cooler (no pun intended) around him. "Unfortunately, I haven't been lucky in finding it yet. But I have a feeling that it's here…"
"Poyo? (Maybe we can help you find it?)" Kirby proposed.
"No, Kirby. You and the rest of the group need to look for the Pure Heart. You have much more important things to do than to help me find Galaxia." Meta Knight turned away from the group. "I apologize if I was interrupting you all."
"You weren't. In fact, you came on time." Chopper said.
"I see... Well… I must be going. Good luck finding the Pure Heart, heroes." Meta Knight brought his wings out and flew up into the blue sky. Everyone watched until he was no longer in their sight.
"Well, that was interesting," Sonic remarked, while Chopper was pondering. "What's up with you?"
"Guys... Did you see that sun thing on Shade's forehead? It was glowing..." Chopper trailed.
"What about it?" Blade asked.
"Well... Remember what it did before? Didn't it...detect a Pure Heart?"
"Am...I still a Pure Heart?" Luvbi wondered, taking a look at her wings.
"Well, it didn't seem to shine on you or anything," Sonic answered. "So it's not likely that you still are. But still..."
Everyone had thought for a moment, and soon they came to a quick realization.
"Poyo? (You think Shade has a Pure Heart?)" Kirby gawked.
"I think so! Maybe that's how he knows of them!" Chopper deduced, slamming a fist in his open hand. "Well, we probably have a clue on where one of them is now!"
"Yeah... Too bad he got away, though. For now, let's get a move on." Blade suggested as he walked over to the door up ahead. He opened the door and they all made their way into another snowy area with small little hills and some icy platforms floating above the snowy ground.
The first thing they saw up ahead was an Ice Guy, who was throwing ice bombs toward them. Kirby inhaled one of the ice bombs and spat it out at the Ice Guy, defeating it instantly.
"Man, I don't know how much else we need to go, but it's certainly Christmas-y here," Sonic stated as he looked at some of the nice Christmas trees. "I wonder how long it took for them to make those."
"Meh, it's probably best not to ask about that," Chopper said as he went up to a Chilly up ahead and regained his Ice ability. "I'll just hold onto this ability for now. I might need it in the future."
"Poyo! (Hey! I want to get one too!)" Kirby jumped over Chopper and inhaled the next Chilly up ahead, gaining the Ice ability as well. His appearance looked similar to Chopper's, but he didn't have the gloves like him.
There were two Darklings over by the icy platforms, but Blade and Mario took care of them easily with a katana and a stomp, allowing them to move on. They noticed a couple of White Magikoopas flying over them, dropping ice spells as they flew.
"Poyo… (Why do we need to deal with Magikoopas here…)" Kirby groaned.
Chopper shrugged, but Sonic immediately took care of them by jumping on one of the icy platforms and striking them with a Spin Jump. Afterward, they continued toward a small hill with two Chillies creating an ice aura around them.
Kirby, being, well, Kirby, inhaled one of the Chillies with his Ice Suction ability. When he spat it out, the Chilly was nothing but a frozen popsicle, running straight into the other one and finishing off both of them.
"Errrr… I'd rather not do that…" Chopper said with a puzzled look as he ice skated down the hill.
"How art thou able to ice skate?" Luvbi asked out of curiosity, seeing Chopper ice skate on the snow.
"Uhhhh… It's kind of hard to explain to you, Luvbi. I think it would just waste our time." Chopper jumped over an Ice Bro spitting ice balls and stomped on top of its head, followed by his Ice Storm, freezing it. He kicked it toward an Ice Guy and defeated it.
Mario: Lots-a ice around here!
"Yeah, you're right on that, Mario," Blade nodded as they went down the small little hill and found a red door right near them. Without hesitation, they immediately entered it to walk into another area.
The only bad thing here was that there were a couple of Magikoopas flying toward the right…but a bit slowly. That, and they were forced to climb up a mountain with some ladders. Everyone immediately groaned.
"Why art thou all groaning? This isn't so bad…" Luvbi commented.
"Yeah, for you it isn't. We have to CLIMB this thing." Sonic replied with a blank look. "You can simply fly!"
"Well, it mattereth not. I will waiteth for thee all up at the top." Without hesitation, Luvbi immediately flew up to the top of the mountain. Thank goodness this mountain wasn't as big as Ice Mountain.
"Poyo! (Come on! We can't just sit here when those Magikoopas are coming here!)" Kirby shouted as he started to climb up the first ladder. Everyone stopped and followed him up the ladder as well.
At the second ladder, they happened to notice a small little cave with a ? Block inside. Kirby hit the block to make a Super Shroom pop out. Blade immediately cut it up into five pieces so they could all recover 20 HP. Afterward, they continued to climb up the ladder to the next ladder.
"Oh, man… Those Magikoopas are getting here rather fast." Sonic gulped as he turned his head.
"Then don't bother looking at them!" Blade turned around and pulled a shuriken out. "Although… Maybe this will work!"
He tossed a shuriken at one of the Magikoopas, making it fall off its broomstick and onto the snowy ground. Blade grinned and threw a couple of more at some of the Magikoopas to make them fall as well. "You see, you just need some far-ranged weapons to take care of them!"
Surprisingly, they were already at the top of the mountain. Apparently Luvbi was waiting for them over by the door, and boy, did she look impatient.
"Why didst thou have to taketh thy time?!" she asked with an irritated look. "I dost not want thou all to waste my time!"
"If you ask me, you're the one wasting our time..." Blade growled.
"Let's not get into this..." Chopper sighed.
They opened the door into another area, but this one seemed to be going a bit down. The only problem was that there weren't any snowboards or anything else with them. They could run down there, but it doesn't appear to be safe with all of the enemies and obstacles.
"Well… Looks like we're in trouble." Blade frowned.
Mario: I wouldn't say that.
Mario pointed at a little red sled that looked big enough to fit all of them. It looked pretty stable too, so it seemed like it wouldn't be a bad idea to hitch a little ride on that thing as well.
"So… Who wants to go up front?" Blade asked. "'Cause I'm not doing that!"
Kirby face palmed and jumped up at the front seat. Chopper followed, followed by Luvbi, with Blade being at the very back of the sled. Nobody knew WHY he wanted to be at the back, but it just seemed like that.
"OK, guys… Let's get a move on, all right?" Blade tried to push the sled, but he was having a hard time with all of the people on it. "Crud… It's not going to be easy sliding this down.
Everyone except for Luvbi worked together to get the sled moving. Once it started moving down, they all prepared for one heck of a ride they were going to go through. Although, everyone wasn't so happy with Luvbi being lazy.
"What? I can't be doing the work!" Luvbi huffed. "I am a princess! A princess cannot be doing any work, thou knowest!"
"That's just an excuse for you to not do any work…" Sonic face palmed. "You should be helping us."
"Well, if I was not hither, thou wouldst not be finding thy way to the Pure Heart!"
"…Fair enough," Sonic shrugged, only to see a pit coming up ahead. "Heads up, guys! Jump for it!"
They all lifted the sled in the air and jumped over a bottomless pit. They even ran over a couple of Chillies that were in their way and jumped over a large mound of snow up ahead to go even further down.
"Poyo? (Did you guys notice all of the Christmas trees around here?)" Kirby asked, turning his head to the others. "Poyo? (They look cool, don't they?)"
"Yeah, I can see them," Chopper nodded. "They're sure some nice things."
Mario: Oh, yes!
"Yeah, too bad I… Oh, crud. There's a bigger mound of snow up ahead!" Blade gulped, pointing at the larger mound up ahead of them. "What are we supposed to do?!"
"Uhhhh…" Chopper tossed an ice ball on the snow, turning a small part of it into ice. But that only made the sled go faster. "Oh, man! Why the heck did I even do something like that?!"
"Blade! Try to stop the sled with your katana!" Sonic shouted.
Blade drew his katana and stabbed the ground, trying to stop the sled from moving. But it didn't seem to work out for him because of how close they were from the mound of snow.
"Ack! Maybe I could get in front of the sled and-"
Unfortunately, it was too late. The sled hit the large mound of snow and sent all six flying over the mound and right in front of a red door. Chopper had lost his Ice ability in the process. Everyone got up, appearing frustrated.
"Dang it! I can't believe we screwed that up!" Blade grumbled as he kicked the snow. Some of the snow ended up hitting Kirby (although it didn't have much effect with his Ice ability on him).
But, what was a bit surprising was that his communicator was going off. "Huh? Why would my communicator be going off now?"
Blade pulled his communicator out and pressed the little black button. Apparently, Bang seemed to be calling him at this time. "Uhhhh… What do you want, Bang?"
"I haven't contacted you in a while, you know…" Bang trailed. "But, do you think I could keep your ship now that you're on an adventure?"
"Keep my ship?! Heck no! That's not yours to hold on to!" Blade hissed. "I don't trust you with any of my stuff after what you've done to that cool hovercar that I bought that one day!"
"Errrr… What did I do with it?"
Blade face palmed. "You broke it!"
"Pray, who art thou talking to, smelly cat?" Luvbi asked out of curiosity.
"No one you really care, but I'll just say it's one of my idiotic friends," Blade stated.
"Hey! I'm not dumb!" Bang pouted. "And who was the one who spoke? Was it a hot babe?"
"Uhhhh… It wasn't. It's just some bratty girl who claims to be some sort of princess. Although, she just insults us every two seconds!"
"I dost not!" Luvbi retorted.
"Oh... She looks pretty stupid!"
"What didst he say?!"
"Oh, nothing special... Though, for once I could agree with him." Blade turned back to his communicator with a smirk. "Just stay away from my stuff."
"Errrr... OK. Bye, Blade."
"OK, goodbye, Bang," Blade cut off the transmission and turned off the communicator. "Let's just go, all right?"
Christmas Village-
As soon as they walked out of the door, they noticed a couple of small houses around the area. For some reason, it kind of reminded Chopper of a little village where Santa Claus would go around jumping into chimneys. Heck, the houses in different colors appeared to be close together. In the center of the village, they could all see a beautiful-looking Christmas tree with a golden star on the top.
"Wow… Look at that Christmas tree." Sonic grinned, walking up to the tree. "Not only is this the biggest Christmas tree I've ever seen, it's also one of the prettiest!"
"Yeah, this is one nice tree here," Blade grinned while folding his arms. "Say… Where is everyone?"
Mario: Probably sleeping.
"And… What date is it supposed to be today?"
Mario: I don't remember...
They all stopped for a moment and heard the sound of jingle bells. Up above them, a sled with a fat man with a large, white beard was making nine Koopas with brown shells and antlers stapled to their heads to move.
"Wait… I thought there were eight reindeer?" Sonic gawked.
"And why are they Koopas?" Blade gawked. "Hold on… Who's the guy sitting on the sled anyway?"
"It's Santa Claus!" Chopper gasped, seeing the sled fly down on the snowy street. The Koopa up on the front appeared to have a red, glowing nose glued to his snout. The fat man on the sled jumped off and grabbed his sack.
"Ho ho ho! Why, what a beautiful night!" Santa chuckled, looking up at the moon. "Just like every single month… I, Santa Claus, shall deliver these presents to the people of Christmas Village!"
Santa immediately used his magic to jump into one of the chimneys. The Koopas, however, gaped at the sight of the six.
"Uh oh… I think we've been caught." the Koopa named Thrasher gulped. "Now they're going to tell the people here that we're not even reindeer! Oh, we're gonna be in so much trouble!"
"Poyo, (Well you're not very good at hiding,)" Kirby said.
"Why art thou not in a place where people can't findeth thee?" Luvbi asked.
"Well… Blame Koopolph the Red Nose Koopa!" Grasser spat, glaring at Koopolph. "If he didn't shoot lasers out of his red nose, then we wouldn't have separated Winter Island from Christmas World!"
"He separated a whole island from here?" Sonic gawked. "I don't think that's bad if you want to stay hidden…"
"Well obviously you don't live here, ratty! Now it can easily be seen around these parts! I wish you didn't have that nose!"
"Sorry…" Koopolph said sarcastically. "At least my nose DOES something! What does yours do?"
"It makes noise?"
"What kind of answer is that, Mr. I-Know-Everything? It shoots SNOT! With a capital S!"
"Excuse me for a minute…" Chopper stepped in. "Can you tell us where Santa is? I think we could use his help."
"Oh, him? Well, maybe you can get his help to get out of this area, I guess." Glitzen shrugged. "Although, I don't think it's necessarily going to be easy…"
"Yeah, it's no easy task to get to him," Koopolph agreed.
"OK then. We should split up!" Blade suggested.
"My prince and I will stayeth together!" Luvbi announced as she grabbed a hold of Chopper's arm.
"Wh-What?!" Chopper gaped. "...Oh, fine. I guess you'd cause trouble for the others."
"These guys are weird," Hassen remarked.
"Yeah. I mean, why is there a freak with a pair of antennae, along with a blue rat?" Cancer whispered.
"I'm a hedgehog, for your information," Sonic corrected, overhearing them.
"Let's just get out of here," Chopper groaned as he turned away from the reindeer and went over to the houses. All five heroes decided that they would split up to find Santa Claus.
Sonic-
Sonic started off by checking the yellow house, since there was really nothing else he could do anyway. Getting up on the roof wasn't a big problem for him, but the big problem was trying to get down the chimney.
It took a couple of tries, but Sonic managed to squeeze through the chimney and land in the fireplace. It was dark in the room, and it didn't look like there was anyone even around the house.
"Huh… I guess no one's around here." Sonic looked at his arm and noticed that he was covered in soot from the chimney. "Aw, man! This blows! This is going to take me a while to get off!"
Nevertheless, he looked around the room to see if Santa already came. He looked down at the Christmas tree and, to his disappointment, there were already some presents underneath the tree.
"Well that stinks… I guess Santa already came here." Sonic turned around and walked by the chimney, attempting to climb out. "Man, I think this is going to be a big pain in the neck for me!"
Blade-
While Blade was climbing up on the roof, he noticed that it was incredibly icy. It even made him slip off and fall on the snowy ground.
"Ow! DANG IT!" Blade fell face flat on the snow. "This is why I hate ice on a roof! It's nearly impossible to get yourself out! I wish I had more time to use my claws too. That would've been helpful."
Getting himself up, Blade used his claws to climb up onto the icy roof and jump into the chimney headfirst. …But it led to a hard landing when he landed in the fireplace.
"Ow… That was certainly painful…" he moaned as he looked around the room. The Christmas tree apparently had all of the presents, but he could also hear a familiar voice. One that sounded like Santa Claus.
"Hey, Santa! Are you here?" he called out.
"Ho ho ho!" Santa simply knocked Blade onto the ground on accident and made his way up the chimney.
"Hey! Wait! …Crud. He's gone." Blade groaned and looked at the Christmas tree. There were a couple of decorations with rings from Mobius, which was a bit surprising to him.
…Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to stay in the house, since he started to hear some footsteps.
"Err… I guess this is my way out!" Blade said as he climbed back up the chimney.
Mario-
Mario managed to keep himself steady on the icy roof, trying his best not to fall off. He used his hammer to prevent himself from falling off…but it didn't seem like it was helping him that much.
Mario: This is going to be a pain…
He grabbed a hold of the chimney and climbed up to the little opening. Nodding, he jumped straight into it. The only thing that was stopping him from getting in was the width of the chimney.
Apparently, Mario was too chubby to enter the chimney.
Mario: Mama mia…
He pulled out a plunger that he was holding onto and used it to get himself down the chimney. It took a while to get down, but in the end, he succeeded in getting down the annoying chimney.
Mario: That was a close one!
He wiped his forehead in relief and looked around him. Apparently Santa Claus already put the presents in this house. Too bad he wasn't here to see him here.
"Hey! Who are you?!" Mario paused and turned to a tank with a hermit crab in it. The shell on it had a couple of Christmas decorations on it.
Mario: Uh oh… Don't tell me it's him.
"What are you doing in thith houth?" the hermit crab looked at Mario for a minute. "Wait a thecond… You're in red! Doeth thith mean you're…"
Mario gaped and pointed to himself.
"…THANTA CLAUTH?!"
As if on cue, Mario fell over anime style. But, he simply ignored the hermit crab and climbed out of the house before disturbing anyone else.
Kirby-
Unlike the others, Kirby didn't seem to have a problem with going down the chimney. It could be perhaps that he's smaller than the others… But let's not go off on a tangent. He managed to go into the fireplace, with soot all over him.
"Poyo? (What kind of house is this?)" Kirby asked himself as he looked at the whole place. Apparently Santa didn't come here just yet… But there were cookies left on a table right next to the Christmas tree. "Poyo! (Oh boy! Cookies!)"
Kirby opened his mouth and inhaled all of the cookies. Although, he soon realized that there were no more left.
"Poyo… (Oh, no… I just ate all of the cookies…)" he gulped and looked over by the chimney. "Poyo…? (Now how is Santa supposed to eat his cookies when he doesn't have any…?)"
"Maybe you should just forget about him!" Kirby stopped and looked at the mirror. He saw a shadow version of himself, kind of like Shadow Kirby from Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. "Forget them! Just leave this place!"
"Poyo? (Who are you?)" Kirby gawked.
"Isn't it obvious?! I'm your shadow! Your dark side!" Shadow Kirby grinned. "I only appear through mirrors! But that doesn't stop me from making you hear me! And don't try telling anyone else about me, 'cause only you can see me and hear me!"
Kirby frowned at his shadow self. "Poyo? (But why would I have my own shadow? This is weird…)"
"Hey, here's a little idea, Kirby! Maybe you should just take over as the main hero! You know, get Chopper out of the way! It's almost like with Luigi or Flyer! It's like you're the sidekick!"
"Poyo! (I am NOT a sidekick! Nobody's been treating me like a sidekick! Only sidekicks get kicked around and are used for stuff!)"
"Then what about Blade? He said something about using you as a star…"
"Poyo! (That was a joke! Just… Get out of my sight!)" Kirby grabbed one of the crystals on his crown and jabbed it in the mirror, breaking it and getting rid of Shadow Kirby. "Poyo… (OK… I think I should go…)"
With not much time before the family could come down, he immediately climbed out of the chimney.
Chopper and Luvbi-
Chopper managed to get himself on top of the icy roof with the help of his flaming hands to make the roof less icy. Luvbi simply fluttered up onto the roof and over to the chimney where Chopper was.
"Let us hope Santa is hither…" Luvbi said as she looked down the chimney. "And I doth wish to be in a warmer place. It doth be cold hither."
"Yeah, I guess so..." Chopper trailed. "Time to see what's down here!"
Chopper looked back at the chimney and jumped in, with the Nimbi girl following him down the chimney.
Inside-
While they were going down the chimney, two ice spirits were right near the fireplace. The tall one seemed to have this weird hair that resembled Goku a bit, while the son had the same hairstyle. The father, George, and the son, Jo-Jo, finished putting some presents under their tree. However, when Jo-Jo looked at an angel ornament on the tree, he was starting to wonder about something.
"Dad, if you ever got in a fight with an angel, could you beat it?"
"An angel? Heck yeah!" George replied with a nod. They were soon interrupted by the sound of someone going down the chimney.
"Is that Santa on the roof?"
"Well, if not, I got a present for him!" George smirked as he opened a pink present and pulled boxing gloves out.
Chopper ended up landing on the ground, but on his head. "Ouch! My head! …That was so painful…"
"Art thou all right, my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked as she fluttered down into the fireplace.
"Oh my gosh! Dad! It's an angel!" Jo-Jo cried. "Hurry! Beat it!"
"I'm a GIRL, for thy information!" Luvbi corrected.
Chopper slowly got himself up and saw the boxing gloves George was holding. "Whoa! He's got boxing gloves!"
"Dad, what's that green thing that's in here?" Jo-Jo asked.
"Well… I think that's…something. But, I promised you I'd beat this angel." George approached Luvbi with his boxing gloves, making her gulp. "You're goin' down, angel!"
Taking action, Chopper inhaled the boxing gloves and spat them out the window. "There! That takes care of that!"
"Ha HA! In thy face!" Luvbi scoffed. "Thou cannot hurt me now!"
"Oh, don't worry about the boxing gloves… I always bring a spare!" George opened another present and pulled out boxing gloves with spikes on them.
"Oh, come on!" Chopper shouted. "Not again!"
Suddenly, another thud was heard.
"Hey! Is that Santa?" Jo-Jo asked.
"Well, if not, then I'm testing these bad boys on him or her!" George smirked as he readied his boxing gloves. Surprisingly, Santa landed in the fireplace.
"Santa!"
"Oh, my aching..." Santa moaned as he got up. "Listen, Chopper… I know why you came here. You want my help, do you not?"
"Well, yeah, but…" Chopper paused for a moment. "Hey how do you know my-"
"Why, I know every name of each boy and girl! Just come with me for now. I got your friends to meet in the center of the village."
"Oh, cool!"
Large Christmas tree-
"Ah, so you guys are looking for the Pure Heart, are you not?" Santa asked after some explanation from the group.
"Yeah, we need it in order to save the universe," Sonic nodded. "You happen to know where it is?"
"Why, ho ho! I do! The Pure Heart is somewhere in the Confusing Palace! Believe me, it is a large place, and I'm sure you might get stuck in that place because of how confusing it can be."
"So we need to go to a palace? That's it?" Blade gawked. "Believe me, you don't wanna know how many of those we had to go through…"
"So, how do we get there?" Chopper asked.
"To get to the Confusing Palace, you must need a little gift I will give you all," Santa pulled a large present from his brown sack and dropped it right in front of the group. "There's something on the door only this gift can allow you to get through."
"Hmmmm… Interesting…" as soon as Santa took off, Chopper opened up the large present box. "I wonder what it could be…"
Luvbi opened up her present and gasped at what she saw. "Santa gaveth me a doll of Chopper!"
"…What?" Chopper turned around and saw a doll of him that Luvbi was hugging.
"This is such a great gift! Now if I dost not have thee around hither, I can always huggeth this!"
"…Now I'm sacred," Chopper gulped before turning back to the chest. "All right, let's open this thing."
After opening the box, they noticed nothing came out. "Am I safe to come out now?"
A light blue Pixl shaped like a snowflake fluttered out of the box. "Oh my! What is this? Could it really be?"
Mario: Who are you?
"Who? Me? Why, my name is Crystaline! I've been trapped in that box for nearly 1,500 years, waiting for the heroes to show up! But, if I'm out of this box… Does it mean that I've found the heroes?"
"Poyo! (Yeah! We're the heroes!)" Kirby nodded.
"From what I see… I believe you're right. But, now that I've found you guys, I should help you guys on your quest! That is what I was created to do…"
Crystaline circled around Chopper before he held her up.
The crystallized snowflake Pixl, Crystaline, has become your friend! With her, you can freeze enemies by throwing her toward any enemies! You can also freeze water as well! Although, the water will only stay frozen for a limited amount of time, so use it wisely.
"I'm sure you'll need me to help freeze anything in your way!" Crystaline said cheerfully. "I want to make sure I'm useful…"
"Well, now that we've got a Pixl… Who wants to hold on to her?" Sonic asked.
"Poyo! (I'll hold on to her!)" Kirby volunteered. "Poyo! (I could use another Pixl, you know!)"
"All right then! Let's get moving!" Blade announced, making his way over to the door that was covered in flames. Kirby, Sonic and Mario followed, but Chopper walked over to Luvbi shyly.
"Ugh… I REALLY don't want to do this, but I think it would be a nice thing after what she did for me when I had that cold…" Chopper thought as he held up a little present for Luvbi.
"Is that for me?" Luvbi gasped.
"Yeah, it is…" Chopper trailed. "You remember when you asked me about what was down in that lake? Well, it was something nice. Something…you might like."
Luvbi opened the box while blushing and she found a crystal necklace in there. "Chopper! This is… This is beautiful!"
"It's just a way of, you know… Thanking you for helping me get better when I had that cold."
"Thou art so sweet! It even sparkles as well!" the happy Nimbi girl fluttered over to Chopper and gave him a kiss on his cheek, grossing him out as usual. "Thank thee so much!"
"Well... I'm going to go now..." Chopper declared, wiping his cheek clean from her kiss.
The Nimbi giggled as she followed Chopper, hearts flying over her head. They noticed that Kirby used Crystaline's power to get rid of the flames on the door, which looked pretty cool to them.
"All right, we're out of here!" Sonic grinned as he walked through the door. Everyone else followed him into an area where they could see a large palace in the background.
"So that's where the Confusing Palace is?" Chopper questioned.
"Looks like it," Blade nodded, seeing a Star Block up ahead. "How about we hit that thing already, huh?"
"I'll do it!" Chopper raced over to the Star Block and smashed it with one single punch.
"Hey… Where did you get that necklace, Luvbi?" Sonic asked out of curiosity.
"Well, if thou wantest to know, Knave, Ch-"
"Uhhhh… Gee! Look at the time! I think the chapter needs to end already!" Chopper interrupted, tapping his foot impatiently. "Uhhh… Hello? Is the chapter going to end?
No response.
"Hey! Come on already!"
END OF CHAPTER
While the others were a bit curious on where Luvbi got that necklace, they didn't really seem to care after how she's been treating them most of the time. "Man… I don't know about you guys, but when we're getting closer to the palace, it makes me feel like I've been to this place before…" Chopper trailed as they continued through the snowy ground. Up ahead, they saw a path of stairs that would lead them up. But, why was this strange feeling coming to Chopper? Meanwhile, Kirby seemed a bit nervous after meeting his shadow. But will he tell the group about what we saw?
It always seemed to me that Kirby was kind of like the sidekick of Chopper in this story for some reason... And, usually, sidekicks might have a feeling that they want to be the leader or something (although, Chopper really isn't a leader). And yes, Chopper actually gave Luvbi a little gift for what she's done for him.
I also referenced Robot Chicken, which some of you might have thought of from one of the scenes in this chapter.
...Anyway, we're probably going to see some interesting stuff next chapter.