CHAPTER 11-2
-Shocking Madness-
"Oh, wow… Now THIS looks like a nice introduction to this area, doesn't it?" Chopper asked sarcastically as he saw a couple of buzzsaws stuck to the metallic ground moving. They all knew for a fact that they'd probably take some serious damage if they even touched those buzzsaws. It was best that they avoid them, which was what Mario suggested to the group and agreed to.
"Buzzsaws aren't really hard to get past anyway," Blade explained. "As long as you're above them, you should be just fine. …Just don't touch them or else you're probably going to be toast."
They noticed past the buzzsaws was a robotic zombie that had no eyes and rather sharp teeth. They also happened to be a bit…scrawny-looking, as if they're starving to death. These things freaked everyone out, especially Kirby. The only one who didn't seem a bit freaked out was Ninbot.
"What the HECK are those things?!" Chopper gaped as he saw it lying on the ground. "I'm going to ask Tippi this… Maybe we can get some information off of it. It's probably the best option."
Pulling out the wand, he aimed it straight at the robot zombie and got some very interesting information.
"That's a Robbie. These are robotic zombies that tend to lie on the ground waiting… Max HP is 50. Attack is 12. Defense is 6. If you get close to them, they'll let off a howling scream that'll keep you frozen for a couple of seconds… If they ever get a hold of you, they can do some massive damage to you if you're not careful… It's best to attack these foes from a far range…" Timpani informed.
"Robbies? Why are they called Robbies?" Sonic asked.
"Robbie is a combination of a robot and a zombie," Ninbot explained quickly before turning his head away from the heroes and jumping past the buzzsaws. Unfortunately, he did nothing about the Robbie.
"Aw, man! That's not fair!" Chopper frowned. "Well… I guess we better go follow him… Hopefully we won't get caught by that…thing!"
"That Robbie does seem a bit creepy…" Timpani trailed.
"It's all right, my dear Timpani. You're safe with me." Blumiere assured. From what Chopper knew, it felt like they were going to say a lot of romantic stuff to each other, which kind of grossed him out.
"Ummmmm… OK!" Chopper put the wand away and started by hitting a Brick Block, which contained one coin. The other ? Block contained a Super Shroom, which they all took to recover 20 HP.
"Never thought we'd find a Super Shroom right in front of us…" Sonic trailed as he jumped over the first buzzsaw. He saw the Robbie was past the other buzzsaw and immediately stopped. "OK, someone's going to have to take care of that guy… I'm not getting close to it."
"I'll handle it," Blade jumped over to Sonic and began to toss a couple of shurikens at it. Since he has a higher attack power, he was able to take it out faster than how the others would've defeated it.
"There. It's finished. Now we can move on."
"Poyo, (Gee, that took quite a while,)" Kirby stated as he floated over the buzzsaws and over to another ? Block. When he struck it, a Beam ability popped out and landed right next to him. He shrugged and touched it, which ended up giving him the Beam ability, surprisingly.
"Poyo! (Hey! When I touched this, I got the Beam ability! Weird…)"
"Well, I'm sure there's more where that came from," Chopper stated as he saw another Robbie up ahead. Kirby charged up a couple of beam attacks and finished the Robbie. They noticed that there was a slope leading down to two Patrolbots that were ready to open fire when Chopper and Sonic gained some speed from going down.
"Oh, boy! Heads up, guys!" Sonic curled up in a ball and struck the first Patrolbot with a Spin Jump. Chopper destroyed the other Patrolbot by jumping on it a couple of times while performing stylish moves.
"Stylish moves are so much fun," Chopper smiled as he landed on the ground.
"Yeah, they are, but do you know what's even more fun?" Sonic jumped on the platform that took him up to an upper part of the area. There were those Flippers (which Blade decided to call them) that apparently would help them get over the large amount of buzzsaws and get to the door ahead.
"Poyo! (Geez! They're going a bit overkill on the buzzsaws!)" Kirby gaped as he floated over the buzzsaws and landed right by the door. Chopper seemed a bit jealous as he used the Flippers to land right by the door.
"Man… If only I could have you're power…" Chopper soon realized something. "Oh, wait! If I swallow you, maybe I might get your ability to float! …Nah, but I wish I had that. I'd like to get that."
Kirby simply snickered at him as Sonic, Blade and Mario landed right on the metallic ground. Mario walked over to the door and pondered for a minute. He decided to walk right through, but all there was was an explosion that dealt some damage to him.
"What the… Are you all right, Mario?!" Chopper gasped as he helped him up. Mario nodded and explained to him that there might be a trap. And guess what happened? Chopper decided to check himself…and he ended up getting hit by an explosion as well!
"The door's booby-trapped. We need a way to get through without having to get hit by an explosion." Blade stated.
Chopper felt the wand in his bag glowing, so he immediately pulled it out. Just like before, it began to float in his hand.
"Heroes, I would advise that you use the wand's power to search for any clues," suggested Blumiere. "I can assure you you might be able to find something around here…"
The antennae hero shrugged as he aimed the wand around the ground. When he aimed it at Kirby, the pink puffball ended up covering his eyes from the bright rainbow light.
"Poyo! (Chopper! Point that someplace else!)" Kirby cried.
"OK! Sheesh!" he aimed it over by the right, where he ended up finding a hidden blue ! Switch. "Hey! There's something here!"
"I'll try to help make it visible for you. I can do it with my powers through this wand." Timpani said as she used her power to reveal the switch. "There you go. You'll be able to move on now."
"Say… How come we can't see you and your husband through that thing?" Sonic asked. "We never got to see what you both really look like!"
"I wish we could actually let ourselves be seen through this, but we can't do that. We can see you through this, however. Sorry about that… This wand has its ups and downs…" the girl trailed.
"Well, we can't just waste our time. I think we should get going through here." Chopper suggested, kicking the switch and then walking through the door. This time there was no explosions.
Mario: We better follow.
Mario walked through next, with Kirby, Sonic and Blade following him afterward.
Robot Fortress-
"Pray… Where am I?" Luvbi opened her eyes and noticed that she was trapped inside of a blue force field cage. There was no way of getting out, to her dismay. The walls and the ground were all a grayish color. If you flipped into 3-D, the ground would have a picture of Robo Chopper on it. "Where hast that horrible tin can broughteth me? I dost not deserve this kind of treatment!"
"Did he capture you?" Luvbi turned around and saw a computer with a face on it. The voice sounded like a female one. "Oh, look at you! You've got a couple of bruises on you! You poor, adorable thing!"
Luvbi looked at her wings, which were a bit bruised. Her cheek even had a small scar as well. It only hurt her slightly. "Did that horrible robot treat you horribly? You don't deserve that!"
"I thanketh thee, computer… But who art thou?"
"I'm the main computer of this fortress. I'm known as AI-5538. Don't worry, cute little girl. I'm not going to harm you. I actually feel bad for you more than feel happy to see you hurt."
Luvbi gave a small smile to the computer. "Dost thou knoweth where I am, though? I dost not knoweth where I hath been taken to…"
"You're in the Robot Fortress. This is where Robo Chopper's base is. He plans on making some weapons that'll destroy all mankind and turn them all into robots for his robotic army!"
"What?! Why wouldst he do that?!"
"I don't know why… He's just a cold-hearted robot. I told him that it was a horrible thing, but he didn't listen to me and instead mocked me…" she gave a sad frown. "I like both robots and living people! I think it's just wrong to simply take that away from someone!"
"Yea, verily, I dost agree that it is wrong to taketh something away from someone…" Luvbi had a sad look on her face as she looked down at the ground. "He hast taken me away from my prince, Chopper."
"Oh, how cute!" AI-5538 giggled. "I always find young love so cute!"
Before they could continue their conversation, they heard the sound of an elevator door opening. Robo Chopper came walking out and walked right over to the trapped Luvbi. Of course, he looked angry as he usually does (probably from all of the hate on Chopper or something).
"So how do you like my fortress, little girl?" Robo Chopper grinned. "It's fascinating, isn't it? Well, I think you'll be able to enjoy yourself in this place! Especially when I get the chance of turning you into a robot!"
"Is that why thou hast kidnapped me? To turneth me into a tin can such as yourself? Nay! I will never do that! I dost not love thee! I love Chopper!" Luvbi replied in an angered manner.
"Oh be quiet! You're going to be a robot whether you like it or not! …And apparently I seem to kidnap a lot of girls for some reason. Oh well. I need to test my weapon against someone and you're the only one that seems like an easy test subject. Plus, when I use it on you, you'll forget that stupid organic Chopper forever! That's right! You'll never remember who he is!"
"What? But I dost not want to forget Chopper! Thou wilt be ruining my whole life!" Luvbi cried. "And how come I hast to be the one thou hast to test it on?!"
"Because… I hate Chopper! You don't even KNOW what kind of things he's done to me in the past!" Robo Chopper remarked, thinking about those horrible memories of blowing up. "I think this would be payback for those times! Instead of using it on him, I'd use it on someone he knows or cares about!"
Before he could continue, he heard the elevator door open again. "Oh, hold on a minute… They must be early."
He saw a robot that resembled Mario and one that resembled Sonic walk out of the elevator door. They happened to be carrying some instruments with them. Metal Sonic appeared to be carrying a bass while Metal Mario happened to be carrying some drums. They looked quite heavy.
"We're-a here, Robo Chopper," Metal Mario stated.
"And we've got the instruments," Metal Sonic said, holding up his blue bass.
"Ah, good! I've been waiting for you guys! Now we can finally have our little rehearsal! …But he can't screw up like last time." Robo Chopper grabbed his guitar and helped set up the amps at the corner of the room.
"Pray, what's going on hither?" Luvbi asked.
"Who's the fairy in the cage?" Metal Sonic asked.
"She is none of your concern," Robo Chopper bluntly stated as he plugged his guitar into the amp. "I'll explain what's going on after we finish our rehearsal. You all got that?"
"Yes, I-a got it," Metal Mario nodded.
"Good… Are you guys ready? Metal Mario, get started with the count!"
Metal Mario grabbed his drumsticks and began to beat them together. "And-a one, and-a two, and-a one, two, three, four!"
Metallic Forest-
As the heroes walked out of the door, they noticed that up a small hill was some parts of the ground that had electricity on it. From what they knew, it was quite deadly. A couple of Securibots were around here as well and they were even some Robbies lying right by the electric ground.
"Oh, boy… Electricity? This is going to be a problem…" Blade trailed as he looked over by the Robbies. "But if he lure them into the electric ground, then maybe we'll be able to get rid of it easily."
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Chopper smiled. However, Kirby was the one to go up to the electric ground. "Whoa, Kirby! Hold on a minute, you don't need to…"
The last thing they heard was the ear-piercing scream of the Robbie. It nearly frightened everyone. Kirby was even frightened, despite being near the electric ground. The Robbie itself began to go up to Kirby with its glowing red eyes. It stepped on the electric floor, causing it to be electrocuted, not to mention it exploded as well, which surprised all five of them.
"Hey, it blew up! That's nice!" Chopper smiled as he ran up the hill and jumped over the electric ground. There was a large pipe blocking the way up ahead and also a large hill as well that would eventually make a loop. Right near the slope going down were a couple of platforms that could be used so Kirby, Blade and Mario didn't have to go through the loop, luckily.
"Huh… Well this isn't so bad." Chopper stated as he flipped into 3-D. His friends also got into 3-D thanks to him and they went around the pipe. Of course, they had to jump since the pipe was standing on the electric ground.
"Man, this place is just strange…" Sonic trailed as he ran up the hill. Unfortunately, a Securibot happened to be there and it called a large, powerful robot with sirens called an Intruderbot.
"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" it called out, firing directly at Sonic, who began to dodge each shot it fired at him.
"Chopper! Think you can use that wand to find out what this guy does?" he called out.
"Sure thing," Chopper nodded and aimed the wand straight at the Intruderbot to hear what Timpani had to say.
"That's an Intruderbot. These robots are usually called when a Securibot spots an intruder roaming around the area. Max HP is 80. Attack is 11. Defense is 2. They usually try to scan for you and open fire on you, so if you get out of its scanning range, then you won't get hit by its attack. It's best to get behind this enemy and bash it so you don't have to worry abut getting hurt." Timpani informed.
Sonic curled up in a ball and tried to knock it over with a Homing Attack. Chopper immediately stunned the Securibot and then froze the Intruderbot using an ice smash in order to freeze it. In the end, Kirby managed to finish it off by firing a charged beam shot at it.
"Poyo, (Now we can get moving,)" Kirby said as he used the platform to get on top of the loop, as well as both Blade and Mario. Chopper, however, struck the ? Block on the hill, which made a Ghoul Shroom pop out and make its way down the hill.
"Uh oh… Ghoul Shroom." Chopper gulped.
"I'll handle it," Sonic curled up in a ball as he went down the hill and defeated the Ghoul Shroom by spinning over it. He even went through the loop and up a slope that led up to the next door.
…That was locked.
"Uh oh… This is bad news."
He went back to Chopper by Spin Dashing through the loop. Kirby, Blade and Mario noticed the door too and made their way back. Chopper was about to use his Speed Dash, but, of course, Sonic was coming toward him, causing him to jump up in surprise.
"Whoa! I didn't see you coming there!" Chopper gasped as he jumped out of the way.
Mario: The door's locked.
"What? The door's locked?!" his mouth dropped to the ground. "You've gotta be kidding me! All this time we find another locked door! This isn't right at all! It's…horrible!"
"Poyo, (Look, all we have to do is go back and check for any keys,)" Kirby suggested. "Poyo? (Maybe that pipe we were over by has something? Maybe I could be wrong on this…)"
"Let's go check," Chopper hurried back over to the door with his Speed Dash, but he was unfortunate to get electrocuted by the electric ground that the pipe was on, which really wasn't good…
"You should be a bit more careful where you move," Blade warned as he helped the electrocuted Chopper up. Afterward, he looked around the area. "Say… Where has Ninbot gone?"
As if on cue, Ninbot showed his face right on top of the pipe. "There's a secret above this pipe… Perhaps you can find a way up here…"
"Oh, hey Ninbot!" Chopper greeted as he looked up. "What do you mean by secret? I saw nothing in 3-D."
Ninbot simply disappeared with his ability, leaving nothing but a log that fell on top of Chopper's head. "Ouch! …Hey! That was uncalled for!"
"So, what do you suppose is the secret around here? In fact, how do we even get to the secret?" Sonic asked, pondering.
Mario: Maybe use the wand?
"Poyo, (That could work,)" Kirby nodded. "Poyo. (Chopper, maybe you should try using that wand to find out where the secret could be.)"
"All right, I guess I'll use it," Chopper pulled the wand out and he happened to discover a block nearby. "Oh! This is interesting!"
"There's a hidden block here… Let me make it visible for you…" Timpani said as she revealed the block. "Hmmmmmm… It's just a plain old Brick Block. Maybe you can punch it."
Mario: I'll take care of it.
Mario punched underneath the block to make a ladder appear. He decided to climb up it, passing the pipe and reaching a large metallic platform with a door right on it. There was a ? Block on the pipe that Chopper checked, and he happened to find a Wing ability power-up in there, so he took it and gained the Wing ability (although, it's not necessarily useful in Kirby games…).
"OK… So I got the Wing ability. Not bad…" instead of using the ladder, Chopper simply used his wings to fly up to the platform, since it would probably be a bit faster. But, nevertheless, once they were all together, they walked through the door and into an area where the whole ground had electricity. Nevertheless, there were still some platforms that could be walked on.
"What a strange area…" Blade trailed. "It's certainly not safe either…"
"I am having you trapped, heroes!" everyone noticed that Fawful was waiting for the heroes in this area. Although, he was standing on his hovering platform instead in order to avoid falling into the electric ground.
"Fawful…" everyone groaned as they jumped onto a larger platform after crossing a large gap thanks to one moving platform.
"You have the surprising, don't you? You have the surprising to see Fawful here? I am having vengeance against you all after last time!" Fawful pulled his blaster out and tried to fire a blast, but they all jumped before getting struck by it.
"Whoa! Come on, Fawful! Do we REALLY need to fight you again? We beat you before, so I bet we'll be able to do it again!" Blade shouted.
"I have chortles! You seem to underestimate Fawful. You see, I have the trapping of you in this room so you would have the harder time of fighting Fawful! Just because Fawful is lacking in beef doesn't mean Fawful is lacking in brains!"
"Wow… He's nuts." Chopper said.
"No hunger for nuts, just to destroy you heroes."
"Well, I guess he sure uses brains to make fighting us easier…" Sonic trailed. "Yeah, this might not be an easy fight for us with the electric ground. Although… I DO have my Lightning Shield still."
"Now we will have the battling like salad dressing pouring on a piece of salami! I will retain my fury!" the psychotic bean cackled as he jumped off his hovering platform and summoned his Vacuum Helmet to help him fight the heroes.
"What the heck? He's flying around in some kind of Vacuum Helmet?" Chopper gawked.
"Poyo, (Let's just take him on, since we've got nothing else better to do,)" Kirby stated as he charged up a beam attack. Fawful fired a pink blast toward him, but he fired the beam blast at Fawful and caused sparks to appear on his Vacuum Helmet.
"It is the shocking!" Fawful screamed as he fell on the electric ground and got electrocuted. "Now I have electrocution!"
"Hold on… What's his stats?" Chopper pondered as he used the wand to scan Fawful while he was being electrocuted.
"That's Fawful. He's Tipral's brains of the group and also seems to talk in a strange manner… Max HP is 145. Attack is 9. Defense is 2. With that Vacuum Helmet, he can strike you with blasts that have different colors… They must represent which person he's going to hit… Be careful when fighting him, because if he knocks you down on to the electric ground, you might have quite a shock… However, you can knock him into the electric ground too, so try to use that to your advantage! I know you have a chance at winning, so don't give up the fight!" Timpani informed.
"And try to stay on the platforms," suggested Blumiere.
"Yeah, we understand," Sonic nodded as he performed a double jump with his Lightning Shield as Fawful began to fly back up. He managed to strike Fawful, but he didn't fall to the electric ground like before. Instead he was sent flying forwards by a door surrounded by a cage.
"Fink-rat!" he shouted as he fired a blue orb of energy, which apparently targeted Sonic. Unfortunately, he couldn't escape the attack and got struck by it, destroying his Lightning Shield in the process.
"Aw, man! That's not fair! I was just getting used to it!" the blue blur frowned as he curled up in a ball and used a Whirlwind attack on Fawful. The psychotic green bean flew out of the way and fired another blast that struck Mario and Blade, knocking them into the electric ground.
"Nyeah heh heh heh! Now you have the shocking!" Fawful cackled.
"And you need to shut up!" Blade hissed as he got back on the platform and tossed Hommissile straight at Fawful, sending him flying down to one of the platforms. Chopper flew over to him with his Wing ability and rammed into him headfirst, knocking him down to the electric ground and giving him quite a bad shock.
"Ouch! I have shocking!" Fawful cried as he got back up and grinned once again as he fired a red orb of energy toward Mario. Luckily, the plumber was ready for this and bashed the attack with his hammer, destroying it.
"How did you have the destroying?"
Mario: It's not easy to stop that.
"Well, let's do a couple of other things too!" Blade smirked as he tossed a couple of shurikens at Fawful. The bean managed to dodge the attacks and fire dark blue energy down at Blade. Luckily, since he got that ability from before, he was able to spin his katana around rapidly and deflect the attack back at Fawful, knocking him to the electric ground and electrocuting him.
"I wonder if he can take more of that…" Timpani trailed as she saw Fawful fly back up. His Vacuum Helmet looked a bit damaged, but it looked like he was going to hold for right now.
"I have anger! How could you be throwing me into the shocking pit?!" Fawful spat, despite grinning still. "I have fury now!"
"You always said you had fury…" Chopper trailed as he tried to strike Fawful with his Feather Gun attack. Fawful simply shot the feathers with his blaster and fired a lime-green blast of energy at Chopper, knocking him back and into the electric ground, electrocuting him like Blade and Mario.
"Ack! Why did that have to happen?!" he squawked as he flew off the electric ground and fluttered with his feather wings. "That was bad. REALLY bad."
After getting back onto the platform, he flew toward Fawful once again, with the psychotic bean cackling crazily and firing another lime-green ball of energy straight at him.
"Not this time!" he smirked as he took his hammer out and bashed the blast of energy back at Fawful, knocking him to the ground. Kirby immediately stepped in and struck him with a charged up beam attack to deal some intense damage.
"Why do I have the pain?" Fawful wheezed as he got up. "Fawful is needing a new plan here…"
"I got a plan! I'll put right in your FACE!" Blade shouted as he kicked Fawful in the face, followed by striking him with a fire slash, causing Fawful to shout stuff about the "overheat" and all that jazz.
"…What's with him and saying stuff like that?" Sonic whispered.
"No idea… That's just the way he talks…" Chopper trailed.
When Fawful hovered down and prepared to fire a blast from his Vacuum Helmet, Mario immediately stepped into action and struck the psychotic bean with a jump and then a Ground Pound, causing the bean to wheeze.
"I… I-I have…wheezing…"
"Does this mean you're finished fighting us?" Blade asked.
"Fawful says never! Fawful hates all your faces, don't you have the remembering?" Fawful flew back up with his Vacuum Helmet and fired a blue blast directly at Sonic. The blue blur tried to get away from it, but he ended up getting blasted by it, which also caused him to fall into the electric pit.
"Ow! That hurts!" Sonic yelped as he got out of the pit and suffered some harsh damage. "Why do I have to take such damage?!"
"Relax, Sonic. We've all gotten hurt by the electric floor…" Chopper trailed as he flew up to Fawful and rammed him headfirst, knocking him back. Fawful tried to fire another blast at Chopper, but what he did was a bit different. He flew around him and when the blast came toward him, he moved out of the way and let the blast hit him instead. Kirby helped by striking him with his bean attack to disable his Vacuum Helmet for a little bit.
"Poyo! (Your Vacuum Helmet's disabled, so fight us for real!)" Kirby suggested.
Fawful grinned as he changed his blaster to his yellow laser sword. He immediately came toward Kirby, attempting to strike him, but the pink puffball jumped out of the way and hit him with a charged beam attack, knocking him toward the edge of the platform.
"Hey, Kirby! Save some for me!" Chopper shouted as he fired his Feather Gun at Fawful, followed by landing an icy stomp on him while performing a stylish move, which was indeed stylish.
Mario: Save some for me!
Fawful got up and struck both Chopper and Kirby by spinning his laser sword around. But this didn't leave him invulnerable, as Mario managed to stun him with Kickbrin and then stomp on his head while performing a stylish move. He also managed to ground pound his head to leave his HP low.
"He's not far from being defeated…" Timpani trailed as she noticed Fawful's HP. "Keep going, guys! He shouldn't have much HP now!"
"Then this should be easy," Sonic grinned as he used Screwdy's ability to perform a corkscrew attack on Fawful's head, leaving him stunned for a couple of seconds. Chopper tossed an ice ball to leave him frozen, with Mario using his Ground Pound to deal damage to him while he was frozen to break him out.
"Poyo… (Seriously… This guy's not so hard now…)" Kirby groaned.
At this moment, Fawful began to hover up, now that his Vacuum Helmet is no longer disabled. He cackled as he fired blasts at all of the heroes. Blade managed to deflect a blast coming at him with his katana, making it hit Fawful instead and knocking him toward the electric ground.
"Well that showed him," Chopper smirked as he waggled his finger at Fawful before he flew off the electric ground and blasted him with a projectile from his Vacuum Helmet, dealing some severe damage.
"Ow! That wasn't nice!"
"I have surprise. How are you still living from Fawful's attacks? You should be dead!" Fawful growled as he fired a couple of more blasts. However, Chopper managed to use his hammer to defend himself against the attacks.
While he blocked his attacks, Sonic interrupted Fawful by striking him in the head with a Homing Attack. Blade was able to deal some more damage as well by striking him with his katana, which was then followed by Mario using his Ground Pound on his head.
"Ouch! I have pain!" he squawked.
He got up and knocked Mario back with a red blast and Blade with a dark blue blast. He flew up once again, but Kirby managed to finish off the fight by charging up a beam attack and knocking Fawful to the ground.
"Poyo! (And THAT'S what happens when you try to hurt my friends!)" Kirby shouted as Fawful landed headfirst on the ground. It ended up damaging his Vacuum Helmet badly, but it wasn't anything bad.
"The mustard of doom…failed me," Fawful wheezed before getting up. They noticed his glasses were cracked and his face looked a bit bruised up with a couple of scratch marks from Chopper's wing attacks.
"All right, Fawful, are you finished with us now?" Chopper asked, readying to attack in case if Fawful would strike again.
"Fawful is done with you…but how about leaving with a bang covered in delicious soup?" Fawful gave them all a big grin before blasting them all with his Vacuum Helmet once more before flying off.
"Ugh… That wasn't really the brightest thing to do…" Sonic wheezed as he got up from the blast.
Mario: Mama mia… Why did he do that?
"Maybe because he wanted to make sure we were dead," Blade wheezed. Luckily, the door up ahead was no longer caged up. This meant that they could actually move on and find the key.
"Whew… Good thing we took care of him, that's for sure. But, anyway, I think we should move on." Chopper flew over the platforms and walked up to the metallic door ahead and opened it. Everyone followed him through and they walked into the next area.
Of course, what they expected to see was just a small little area with a chest, but that's not how it turned out to be. They were standing on another metallic platform with the whole ground having electricity. On one of the platforms nearby was another Lightning Shield capsule that Sonic immediately grabbed using his Spin Jump.
"Finally! I got my Lightning Shield back!" Sonic said in relief.
"Yeah, but we don't have any Lightning Shields…" Blade groaned.
"So don't brag about it," Chopper grumbled.
"OK, fine. I won't brag about it." Sonic jumped onto the next platform that was moving up and down and landed on a platform with those Flippers. The rest followed him through the Flippers and landed right next to a Patrolbot.
"Poyo! (I got this one!)" Kirby charged up a beam attack and struck the Patrolbot with the projectile, destroying it instantly. They noticed a small staircase leading up to a small pedestal with a pillar in the background. The only problem was that they couldn't find anything around them that would help them, since they ARE at a dead end…
"Hold on, I'm going to search around this room," Chopper flipped into 3-D and he happened to notice on one of the pillars a little sign with some writing on it. "Ah! So this is where we'll find something interesting!"
Press (1) and (-) at the same time on the pedestal to make something interesting happen!
He went back into 2-D and jumped on the pedestal. But there was one thing that bothered him… What was the (1) and (-) button?
"Ummmmm… Guys? Do you know what the (1) and (-) buttons are?" Chopper asked.
"Well, I did say that the great being that watches us would know something about that," Thoreau pointed out.
"Ummmm… OK… Why don't we try to convince this great being that we need his or her help?" Blade suggested.
As if on cue, the ground began to shake violently. It turns out it just made a tiny part of the background to peel off in order to make a chest appear. Kirby opened it and got the Door Key from inside.
"Poyo, (Let's go back to where that locked door was,)" Kirby suggested.
"Yeah, we better do that right now," Chopper nodded. "We DO want to get that Pure Heart and save Luvbi, that's for sure."
"Get the Pure Heart? Yes. Save Luvbi? Errr… I'm not so sure." Sonic said with a puzzled look at the end of his sentence.
"Yeah, I'm a bit puzzled about saving Luvbi too, but I don't really like to see innocent people being tortured or something…"
Back at the locked door-
"Poyo! (I got the door!)" Kirby called out.
"Yes, we know, Kirby… You do have the key." Chopper nodded as Kirby unlocked the door with the key, allowing them to walk through.
But the first thing they happened to notice was a yellow Cherbil coming their way. Everyone gulped at the sight of it, especially Chopper, who was disgusted to see that thing again.
"Really? Do we REALLY need to see that thing again? Ugh… Fine. I'll use the wand on it." Chopper aimed his wand at the yellow Cherbil to gather information on it.
"That's an Electric Cherbil. It's a nasty gasbag that spews a plume of shocking gas... Max HP is 20. Attack is 8. That gas will paralyze you, so don't go sniffing it... Some say the gas come from their mouths. Some say it comes from elsewhere... ...Oh, dear..." Timpani informed.
"Oh dear indeed…" Blade trailed as he struck the Electric Cherbil in one hit with his katana, beating it instantly. The next thing he did was strike two ? Blocks. One contained a Super Shroom that they all split to recover 20 HP…and the other contained a Mega Star.
"Poyo! (Oh boy! A Mega Star!)" Kirby cheered.
Unfortunately, for Kirby, he wasn't going to get his hands on it. The Mega Star landed in Blade's hand instead, transforming him into a large 8-bit version of himself. And in actuality, he was quite pleased.
"Aw, yeah! I can trample anything in my way now!" Since he was glad to be huge and 8-bit, he decided to trample everything in his path up ahead, such as Squibots, Securibots and Patrolbots.
While the group followed Blade, Ninbot watched the heroes as he jumped from tree to tree with his ninja skills. He wanted to make sure that the heroes wouldn't fall into any traps.
"I must make sure they make it in one piece…" Ninbot thought as he jumped toward another tree.
Unfortunately, for Blade, the power-up didn't last long and he was turned back into his normal self. Luckily, he happened to be right in front of the door that would lead into the next area, so he walked through with everyone else to find a couple of Patrolbots, some electric ground and a Star Block at the end of the area.
"Yes! We're finally done with this part of the level!" Chopper smiled as he stomped on one of the Patrolbots and struck him headfirst with his wing attack. Sonic destroyed the other two with a simple Homing Attack, clearing the way of all the enemies. The only thing they had to worry about was the electric floor.
"Great… Well, we still need to avoid that." Blade said as he jumped over the electric parts of the floor. They could see Ninbot waiting for them over by the Star Block.
Mario: Where've you been?
Ninbot didn't reply, but he gestured them all to hit the block. So, Chopper simply punched the block and broke it. Easily.
"Why don't you ever speak much?" Chopper asked, only to get no response. "Uhhh… Can you please respond to that? Please?"
"Poyo… (I don't think he'll give you a response…)" Kirby trailed.
"Dang…"
END OF CHAPTER
Our heroes knew that they were not safe in the forest, with being ambushed by not only Midbus, but Fawful as well. Not only that, but Ninbot still refused to give specific information on why he's with them. "Hey! Ninbot! Why won't you respond to any of our questions?" was what Ninbot seemed to get a lot from the heroes, but he still didn't say anything back. Even Timpani and Blumiere began to wonder if he was actually luring them into some sort of trap. They began to wonder as they noticed the metallic forest began to have some large mushrooms appear.
So, we finally got a battle with Fawful once again! Here's something a little interesting that you probably didn't know about: Fawful was originally going to be the enemy you fight more than any of the other bosses/mini-bosses in the story, but I decided to not do that, 'cause I didn't think it would be necessarily a good idea.
As for the next chapter... You might be a bit surprised to see who might make an appearance. I won't say who, but it'll be interesting. Trust me.