CHAPTER 11-5
-Infiltrating the Fortress-
"Poyo… (Gee, I don't like the looks of this place, honestly…)" Kirby trailed nervously as he looked up at the large fortress up ahead.
They noticed that the door was being guarded by two large robot guards with some large weapons. Apparently these guys weren't Grim's minions. They must've been Robo Chopper's, since they didn't supposedly deactivate, unlike Grim's robots. The forest itself was just like what it was in Chapter 11-3, but there weren't any mushrooms. But they all agreed that they didn't like the large fortress.
"I hear ya, Kirby. I don't like the looks of it either." Chopper nodded, clenching his fist as he looked up at the fortress. "All I know is that Robo Chopper's up there, and we have to stop him and get the Pure Heart! But what stinks is that the door's being heavily guarded…"
"OK, there's something I've been noticing lately…" Blade realized, looking up at the fortress. "Why is it that every time we have to get to a boss, the last part is somewhere in a castle, palace or even a fortress? Don't you think it gets a bit unoriginal for some people? I think it does…"
"Yeah! I've been noticing that too!" Chopper agreed. "This is just unoriginal! How come we don't fight any bosses in an outside area! …Actually, it feels like it's ALWAYS been like that. You know, with the castle in Lineland Road, Merlee's Mansion, Fort Francis, King Neptunian's Palace, Castle Tipral, Sweet Castle and Confusing Palace! That's just… I don't know what to say about that."
While they were beginning to discuss about how to get into the fortress and about how unoriginal the last parts of each chapter were beginning to be, they all heard music coming from the top of the fortress. One thing for sure was that it was catchy…and that there was some arguing coming from up there too.
"Hey, do you guys hear that music?" Sonic asked.
Mario: I can hear it!
"It's pretty catchy," Blade began to tap his foot to the beat. "Seriously! I think this is a pretty rockin' song! Sometimes it just makes me want to do some kind of air guitar! Although, I don't think I can play guitar that well."
"I can play the guitar, but I'm not really that great on it…" Chopper trailed, remembering the times he played guitar. "Although, you DON'T want to hear me sing! My singing is horrible beyond belief!"
"Why don't you sing for us then?" Sonic suggested.
"N-No! I don't want to make your ears suffer! Back in Nightclub Casino, I nearly destroyed some people with my horrible singing! Don't even MAKE me sing, or else I'm going to throw myself into a pit of Goombas!"
"Poyo, (Trust me, his singing is bad,)" Kirby said, despite them not understanding. "Poyo! (You DON'T want to hear him sing! And complimenting him isn't going to help either! You'll KNOW that it's bad!)"
"Yeah, listen to Kirby. Don't listen to my singing voice."
"Guys! Can we just stop with this already?!" Timpani snapped as her wand floated out of Chopper's bag and right between the group. "We can't just be discussing about whether someone's singing voice is bad or not! We need to make a plan on how to get into that fortress!"
Everyone was silent for a minute until Sonic spoke. "Er… Yeah. I think we need to do that. Those guards look pretty tough, though. Maybe we should investigate them to see if they have any weaknesses…"
"I'll check," Chopper grabbed Timpani's wand and aimed the ray of rainbow light at the guard. Since the guard didn't happen to see the light, they were safe. But they all began to listen to what Timpani had to say.
"That's a Roboguard. They usually guard front entrances to large castles or fortresses. There's no way you can defeat this thing. The only thing you can do is avoid it. If you happen to be spotted by one of them, you need to get out IMMEDIATELY! Keeping a distance is not a bad idea. Although, I heard that you can blind them with some kind of flashing light…" Timpani informed.
"Flashing light? Huh… That sounds interesting." Blade pondered. "But where could we find a flashing light?"
"Nerrrrrrrrrrrrr!"
"Don't tell me who I think it is…" groaned Timpani.
"That sounded like that nerdy voice we heard before going into Quartz Mine," Ninbot stated before Francis appeared right in front of them. The two Roboguards didn't happen to notice him.
"Wait a second… You're those people that beat the snot out of me back in Fort Francis! …Except now there's more of you!" Francis immediately got in his fighting stance. "No way you're going to… Nerrrrr? What's that you got with you?"
The geeky chameleon knocked everyone out of the way as he walked over to Ninbot. "Oh my gosh! You're an actual ninja robot! I've ALWAYS wanted to find such a schweet-looking one all my life! You look so hi-technicaaaaaaal!"
Ninbot only raised an eyebrow as Francis pulled his camera out. "Must. Get. Picture. Of. Robot!"
"Hold on a second…" Chopper was left nearly blinded when Francis clicked on his camera and made a large flash. In fact, everyone was a bit dazed. "Hey! What do you think you were…"
Mario: That camera flashed!
"Yeah, I was just thinking about that. Maybe Francis can help us get into the building with that camera! Surely that'll get those robots distracted for a while!" Chopper walked over to Francis and poked his arm. "Francis, we need to borrow your camera real quick."
"What? No way!" Francis pulled his camera away from him. "Why should I give the camera to a loser such as you and those others? You left me in the hospital for a couple of days! …Wait, no, that wasn't you. That happened when I was playing one of my schweet video games. Nerrr… But you beat me up twice, so I'm not going to give you my hi-technicaaal camera!"
"Poyo, (Well, maybe he can do it if there were any hot babes in there,)" Kirby smirked.
"Oh yeah!" Chopper looked back at Francis with a smug look.
"Why are you looking so smug?" Francis sweat dropped.
"Well, there might be something special in there for you! I know you like hot babes…as freaky that I had to wear that wig and all… And it JUST so happens that there are a couple of hot babes in there! And besides… They've got Francine too! They've got her and those hot babes too! You wouldn't want to leave them in there, would you? I mean, if you saved them, you would be getting all of the girls, while we would be walking away with such mellow-looking faces. You WANT to do this, right?"
"Yeah! Do it for the babes!" Blade smirked.
"Hot babes are captured inside that fortress?" Francis grinned widely. "Schweeeeeeeeeeeeeet… Maybe I can manage to use my new Swoon. exe on them! That'll be so hi-technicaaaaaaal! …So what do I need to do?"
"Well if you want to get through the door, you need to use those cameras against those Roboguards. They'll be left blind for a couple of seconds and it'll allow you to enter through." Blumiere explained.
"Blumiere! Are you trying to join in the fun too?!" Timpani gasped.
"Relax, my love. I'm just explaining to him what he needs to do."
"Then I'll do it, strange wand!" Francis walked up to the Roboguards, who immediately got their weapons ready and aimed at Francis. With a sudden click of Francis's camera, the Roboguards were left dazed for a couple of seconds.
"Now's our chance! Chopper, we need to hurry!" Timpani shouted as Chopper grabbed her wand and raced toward the door. Everyone else followed him into the door and entered through before Francis could walk in.
"Nerrrrrrrr! This is so hi-technicaaaaaal!" Francis grinned as he put his camera away. "Now to get inside of that fortress and rescue those hot babes!"
Unfortunately for him, the Roboguards manage to regain conscience and immediately aimed at Francis with their machine guns. None of them hit Francis, but it forced him to flee from the Roboguards. Of course, they were following him and not staying put.
"MERCY! I DON'T DESERVE THIS KIND OF TREATMENT!" Francis cried as he ran straight through the metallic forest with the robots following him.
Top of Robot Fortress-
Meanwhile, the Metal Band was busy playing the song "Crank the Heat Up" for the third time (they messed up the second time and got into a useless argument that was rather entertaining to Luvbi). This time, unlike the last two times, they weren't really messing up thanks to a metronome to help Metal Mario keep beat. Robo Chopper also had a force field around his guitar to prevent himself from smashing it out of anger (he can still play it though).
"Oh, yeah! This is such a catchy song! Hang on, I'm going to turn the volume up." Robo Chopper raised the volume of the music. All three of them were even bobbing their heads to the music.
"Heh! Catchy stuff!" Metal Sonic smirked. "And I don't care if people hate me for speaking. I'll speak if I want to!"
"What?" Metal Mario raised an eyebrow.
"Err… Nothing, really!"
"Daaaa da da da da… Da da daaaa daaaaaaaaa!" Robo Chopper was apparently humming to the song. "Blast Chopper with a laser, and then he'll be dead! Then, I can do my evil stuuuuuff!"
"Robo Chopper… You can't-a just sing-a something that doesn't belong to-a you…" Metal Mario warned. "That's-a copyright!"
"Who cares about that? We're evil! That's what we do!"
"...Fair enough," Metal Sonic shrugged.
Before they could even end their song, the alarm ended up interrupting them. "Oh, what now?! Why is the alarm going off?!"
Robo Chopper walked over to AI-5538 and checked to see where it was coming from. He noticed that Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario were already in the fortress, making him gasp.
"What?! Chopper and his friends already made it here?! No! This isn't right! NOT RIGHT AT ALL!"
"My prince hast come hither to rescue me!" Luvbi sighed sweetly. "I knew he wouldeth come hither and stop thee from thy evil plans! He verily doth love me!"
"Oh shut up already! Why do I ALWAYS have to hear you talking about how much you love that stupid Chopper? I think turning you into a robot would just waste my time. If only I got one of those force field cages where you can keep them quiet!"
"But then you would be doing something cruel! Can't you just stop with this already?" AI-5538 asked, glaring at Robo Chopper with her eyes.
"Heck no! Chopper has always been ruining my life ever since I was created six years ago! You really think I would just give up on this and let him win? Absolutely NOT! I'd rather do things to cause harm to him rather than HELP him! You would KNOW how I feel after all these years!"
"And to think that Tipral person was verily a failure…despite him ending my friend's game…" Luvbi trailed.
"Tipral…? You mean that other counterpart of Chopper?" Robo Chopper whirled around and glared at Luvbi. "He is most certainly NOT better than me. Sure, he may hold such a powerful weapon, but my metallic body is a force of nature!"
"Oh, verily? Then why is he destroying many worlds?"
"…Whatever. I'll just ignore you for now." Robo Chopper noticed that Metal Mario and Metal Sonic were looking at the computer screen as well, glaring at both Mario and Sonic.
"That blue hedgehog's here too?! And to think I would never have to see him again…" Metal Sonic grumbled.
"I think we are-a going to go pay them-a little visit…" Metal Mario grinned.
"Go ahead and do that," suggested Robo Chopper. "Make sure they DON'T get here! I don't want them succeeding in saving Chopper's girlfriend. I'd rather not get ruined for over the sixth time. Stupid Chopper…"
Front entrance-
"Uh oh… I think we set off the alarm…" Chopper gulped.
"Thanks for telling the obvious, Sherlock," Blade groaned.
"Hey! My name's not Sherlock!"
"Let's not get into this…" Blumiere suggested with an irritated look. "If you continue to argue like this, we're not going to get anywhere. The best thing for us to do right now is find a way to get to the top of this fortress."
"Yeah, we better get going," Ninbot nodded. "I'm sure you guys will know how to find your way through here. I'll meet you at the top of the fortress."
"Hey, what are you…" Sonic's words were cut short when Ninbot abandoned them. "OK, seriously… He just abandons us like that! That, and he's not really telling us some real information as well…"
"I'm still not sure whether I should trust him or not…" Timpani trailed. "Although, I do feel the Pure Heart's presence in this building. Surely Ninbot must be leading us there… But I'm not sure whether he's leading us to an actual trap or not."
"We can't just discuss whether we can trust Ninbot or not," Chopper said while shaking his head. "Look, Timpani said that Pure Heart's somewhere in this fortress. If she's correct, then we should go through this place. Maybe Robo Chopper might have it?"
"Poyo, (Well, I guess we better get going then)" Kirby suggested, who walked on ahead and used his fire breath to destroy a Patrolbot that was ready to open fire on them. Everyone else shrugged and followed him.
This room wasn't anything special. There were some Securibots flying up by the ceiling with their searchlights. This made it so it was hard to get past their flashing lights. But it turns out their searchlights weren't working all the time. Sometimes it would turn off because of a little malfunction.
"Yeesh, what's with those Securibots up there?" Blade asked.
"I think it has to do something with Grim," predicted Blumiere. "When he was destroyed, it may have caused these Securibots to work only at a certain point in time. I think it's best to move on before you get spotted!"
Mario: Yeah, let's get moving!
"You know, that sounds like something Shadow once said…" Sonic recalled as he followed the group through the room, avoiding some of the Securibots. But, when their searchlights turned on, they were all spotted by separate Securibots, making FIVE Intruderbots appear right near the end of the room.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," Chopper grumbled as he pulled his small katana out and began to slash at the Intruderbot that was about to strike him. He was a bit fast for it, so he managed to finish it easily.
"I find it nice that my Ninja ability still allows me to pierce through defense," he smiled as he left the Intruderbot to explode.
Kirby had no problems taking care of the Intruderbot attacking him. All he had to do was freeze it with Crystaline and use his fire breath to melt it and deal a lot of damage to it as he continued to breathe out fire.
Mario: This isn't as bad as I thought!
Mario jumped on top of the Intruderbot that tried to shoot him and performed a Ground Pound on top of its head, leaving it dazed for a couple of seconds. Afterward, the red plumber tipped his hat as he slammed his hammer on top of the robot, destroying it in a matter of seconds.
Mario: Whew! I didn't expect to pull that off…
"Well, apparently you did, Mario," Sonic stated as he used his Light Speed Attack to strike the Intruderbot multiple times. He managed to pierce right through its body easily with one last Spin Dash, destroying it.
The last Intruderbot wasn't really that hard to defeat for Blade. He was able to slash it multiple times with his katana and it was dead before he even knew it. Well, not really dead, but it ended up exploding.
"And THAT'S how you take care of an Intruderbot!" Blade smirked as he put his katana away.
"Uhh… You don't necessarily HAVE to put your katana away." Chopper stated, sweat dropping a bit. "There's going to be plenty of enemies around here. Keep it out just in case."
"…Fine, I guess I will," he drew his katana once again and followed the group through the door into a room where they saw that they were in between two pillars that seemed to lead up to a platform. The electric floor up ahead was activated just to make sure they wouldn't get through.
"Chopper, maybe with that Ninja ability, you might be able to wall jump on those pillars!" Timpani informed. "I think you'll be able to get up to the platform in no time at all!"
"Hey, I can do that do," Blade growled. "Well, I can actually climb some walls."
Chopper started to jump off each pillar with his wall jumping skills in order to reach the top. All Blade really did was climb up the pillar using his ninja skills. Of course, he can't necessarily climb ALL walls.
The biggest problem was getting both Mario and Sonic up. Sure, Sonic could try to run up the pillar, but it could possibly make it fall over. Chopper, Kirby and Blade tried pulling them up. They were able to do it, but it was pretty difficult for all of them.
Mario: That was pretty annoying.
"Yeah, it was… But we managed to get you up, which is good." Blade sighed as they used the platform coming toward them to go over the electric ground. It was also a bit strange that the room was pretty tall with a door high above them.
"Hey, how do you think we're supposed to get up there?" Chopper asked.
"Maybe we need to find a sec-" before Sonic could finish his sentence, he ended up falling over on the platform and landing straight onto the electric ground. But instead of it electrocuting him, it ended up launching him up high in the room.
"Huh? What just happened? …questioned Count Bleck." Blumiere gawked as he looked up at Sonic.
"Whoa… This ground actually launched me up!" Sonic gaped as he landed on the platform where the door was. Everyone else jumped off the platform and followed him up to the platform and headed through the door.
Apparently this room wasn't that big, but the door was blocked by a cage. They saw two Robbies lying on the ground as well, waiting for anyone to come up close. There was also a platform in the middle above them as well.
"Well, looks like we're not going back in there until this gate's gone…" Chopper groaned.
"Poyo, (And we also have Robbies to deal with,)" Kirby groaned, pointing at the Robbies up ahead. He decided to throw Crystaline at them in order to freeze them, then used his fire breath to burn them down to a crisp. What was strange was that it actually worked on them! Not only that, but on the platform above them, a large chest appeared.
Mario: Another Pixl?
"A new upgrade?" Chopper gasped as he jumped onto the platform. Sonic jumped up as well and opened the chest.
"So… Are we going to hear anything?" Sonic asked.
The only thing they could hear were fluttering wings. A round, light blue mirror Pixl floated out of the chest and looked down at them. The strangest thing about this Pixl was that it wasn't one to talk, unlike the others. In fact, it probably doesn't speak at all.
"Hmmmmmm… He doesn't appear to speak at all." Timpani said as she looked up at the Pixl. "But what's his name? He looks kind of like a mirror, though…"
The Pixl floated over to a laser and used his power to reflect it on the ground. He wrote the name "Reflecto" on the ground. Everyone looked down at the name and then looked back up at Reflecto.
"So you're name's Reflecto, huh? Kind of an interesting name, if you ask me!" Sonic grinned. "I guess you're one of those silent types. That's OK, little guy. Maybe you can come with us if yaw at!"
Reflecto simply circled around Sonic until the blue hedgehog was holding him up high in the air.
The silent mirror Pixl Reflecto has now become your friend! With him, you can reflect things such as lasers and projectiles back at things! Just press (1) when you want to fire the projectile back at something! For a laser, just aim it wherever you want to deal damage!
Sonic happened to notice a little switch that was too high to get. The laser over by the right, on the other hand, looked like it could be used to aim directly at the switch. So, using Reflecto's ability, he reflected the laser toward the blue ! Switch.
"Man, I can't believe we didn't get a Pixl like this before!" Sonic smirked as the cage surrounding the door broke off.
"Nice! Now we can move on!" Blade smirked as he walked out of the room, with everyone else following him.
Other room-
They took the platform once again over to a bridge up ahead to where a Squibot was spitting metallic coconuts from its mouth. Mario stomped on it a couple of times and performed some stylish moves in order to make it explode.
"What kind of stinks is that these robots can hurt us with explosions," Chopper groaned as he tossed a couple of ninja stars at the next Squibot on the bridge. Afterward, they continued through the bridge until they got to the next door.
What awaited them through the next room? Well, what they saw was another silver bridge they were standing on, but there were a couple of drills coming down on the bridge. They would eventually get off the bridge and make it so that anyone could move on.
"Oh, dear… This does look a bit dangerous…" Timpani trailed. "I think you're going to need to slow down a bit here…"
"Awwwww… I wish we didn't have to." Chopper sulked as he walked up to the shadow where the drill was coming down on. After it retreated back up, he walked past the shadow and waited for the next one.
"Wait… Couldn't I just get through here in 3-D?" he checked in 3-D, and it just so happens that the bridge was in some sort of different pattern in 3-D. It sort of reminded him of in The Underwhere where he first met Luvbi in that area where he had to flip into 3-D to get through.
"Poyo, (Sometimes I wonder why Robo Chopper puts drills in his own fortress,)" Kirby wondered as he simply walked past the drills that were coming down. They all seemed to miss him for some reason.
Mario: They all missed him…
"Yeah, that's weird," Blade used his ninja skills in order to get past all of the drills and other dangerous stuff in his way. It was a lot harder for him to do this unlike Kirby, who only walked through.
"He had an easier time than me…"
They saw a platform leading down to the ground after those drills, but there happened to also be a couple of other strange robots. They were shaped like Chopper with pointy antennae. These seemed to have red eyes and two arm guns. Chopper seemed a bit shocked to see these guys.
"Is it just me or am I actually seeing the C Units that I've seen before?" Chopper gaped. "I thought I would never see these guys again!"
"Poyo? (You mean those robots we saw at the New X-Naut Fortress and when you ended up becoming dark and evil?)" Kirby recalled.
"Kirby… Please don't bring up that horrible moment. I feel really bad for becoming like that." Chopper sighed and used Timpani's wand to scan the C Unit since they don't know what its moves are.
"That's a C-12 Shooter. They are the latest of the C Units. Max HP is 48. Attack is 10. Defense is 3. They will fire blasts at you with their dual arm guns. They're not incredibly fast, but you don't want to be shot by any of them. For some strange reason, these robots look kind of like you, Chopper…" Timpani informed.
"Yeah… They were quite annoying." Chopper pulled his katana out and slashed at one of the C-12 Shooters. He managed to destroy one, but the other one ended up shooting him and knocking his ability away.
"Aw, that stinks!"
"What happened?" Sonic asked.
"My ability just got knocked away!"
"Oh... Yeah, that does stink..."
They walked up to the door ahead and walked through to find themselves in a room with a pole leading up. It kind of reminded them of when they had to climb up the mountain in the Christmas World and in that ship in Desert Oasis. But this looked a bit…longer. Plus, the poles are light blue this time.
"All right, who's going to climb these first?" Blade asked. Because I want someone else to test them first before going on there."
Chopper let out a sigh as he grabbed a hold of the pole and began to climb up. He seemed to notice another one of those electric guys from the flying pyramid. It was called a Sparky, after investigating it with Timpani's wand.
"Oh, great… We can't defeat these guys. I think we're just going to have to avoid these guys…as much as I don't really want to."
Chopper jumped over to the next pole to avoid the Sparky and then jumped on a small round platform right below the next pole in the middle just so he didn't have to get hit by a Sparky.
"Poyo! (I'm coming up!)" Kirby shouted as he began to float up to where Chopper was, who immediately face palmed.
"See, THIS is why I wish I had your floating ability…" Chopper sighed. "If I had that, I would have an easier time getting through all of this instead of, well, you know what I'm going to say."
Chopper grabbed a hold of the next pole, but he looked down to see if anyone else was climbing. Mario was already getting started, just like everyone else, although Mario was going up first before the other two… The only thing that he wasn't paying attention to was what was above him on the pole.
"OK, things seem to be going just…OW!" Chopper was electrocuted by a Sparky and was also thrown off the pole and down to the bottom of the room. "You gotta be kidding me… I have to go through that all OVER again? Oh, man… I bet Robo Chopper's laughing at me right now…"
What he didn't know was that Robo Chopper was actually trying to tune his guitar…and was actually having such a hard time that he ended up throwing his guitar out the window. Of course, that's not what Chopper knew.
"Man… It's almost like I can actually hear his voice. Argh… I don't really like to hear that robotic voice of his!" Chopper grabbed a hold of the pole and followed his friends back up.
One climb later-
"Poyo! (That was such an easy climb!)" Kirby said cheerfully as he reached the top, where they all saw a pipe that was pointing toward them on the wall. Mario came up next, followed by Sonic and Blade.
…With a steaming Chopper coming up last.
"Whoa… What's wrong with you?" Sonic asked.
"Go ask the Sparky's down below…" Chopper sighed, quickly shaking himself. He walked into the pipe after Kirby went in.
Mario: Good thing that wasn't me…
Next area-
When they walked into the next area, they saw that there was spikes right nearby. Apparently to move on ahead, they had to somehow get over the spikes leading over to two doors. The last door at the end seemed to be locked, so it looked like they needed to find a way to get through.
"Crud… This isn't good." Blade frowned. "We've got some spikes that are impossible to cross, and there's even a Patrolbot around here as well that could open fire on us! How can we get through all of this?"
"Poyo? (Why not just use Carrie to get past everything?)" Kirby suggested. Unfortunately, he didn't notice the Patrolbot fire at him and knock his Fire ability away. The yellow star was destroyed when it touched the spikes, making the pink puffball a little sad.
"Poyo… (I can't believe I lost my Fire ability… That stinks. A lot…)" Kirby sniffled.
"Now that you mention it, it does smell a bit around here," Chopper recalled. "It smells like horrible body odor around here."
Everyone smelled their armpits just to make sure that it wasn't coming from them. It just so happened that it wasn't coming from any of them (thank goodness). It seemed to be coming from the other room.
"Let's go look through that door," Sonic suggested while using Carrie to get across the spikes. Everyone took turns using her to get across the spikes and then carried on into the next room.
There were a couple of C-12 Shooters around this small room, but there was also a large screw with a pole. Everyone immediately took action and attacked the C Units, with Mario bashing one with his hammer and Sonic blowing one up with a simple little Homing Attack. Blade was able to slice one in half with his katana.
"Heck yes! I think it's awesome that I get to do things like this!" Blade grinned.
"You've done it plenty of times, so why is it so awesome when you already did it?" Sonic asked. "It sometimes gets a bit…boring."
Blade ignored Sonic as he got on the large screw. "Hey, this is like that donut back in the Sweet Kingdom! So, I'm guessing that if we run on this thing, this screw will move up! So, let's get to it, all right?"
Everyone groaned and got on the screw. The scent of the body odor smell seemed to be coming from somewhere in the next room. So after making their way up thanks to the screw, they headed through the door into a room with a blue ! Switch that seemed to reek. Apparently there was a smelly sock on there.
"Ewww! What the heck is THAT thing?!" Chopper gagged.
"Poyo, (It's called a sock,)" Kirby explained as he picked it up. He sniffed it real quick and stepped away from it. "Poyo! (It smells horrible!)"
Mario: It reeks of feet!
"It certainly does reek of feet…" Sonic trailed while staring at the sock. "So… Are we going to hit the switch or something?"
"We gotta get rid of the sock first," Chopper froze the sock in order to stop the smell and kicked it into the wall to destroy it. Afterward, he pulled his hammer out and slammed it on the switch.
"Just like old times… Like those other times I've been hitting switches with my hammer! It always brings me back to those…" a cage suddenly dropped over the heroes, trapping them. "…days?"
"Uh oh… We're trapped." Blade gulped.
"Heh heh heh! We got you good!" Metal Sonic dropped from the ceiling and glared at the heroes. "You heroes honestly thought you'd be getting to the top of this fortress, did you? Well guess again!"
"Metal Sonic? What are you doing here?!" Sonic gaped.
"I play in a little band with a certain someone," he explained. "We were rehearsing, but after hearing about you and the rest of the gang coming here, I thought, why not get you guys too?"
"Oh, and it's not just-a him, you know…" Metal Mario dropped from the ceiling as well and grinned. "I'm-a here with him too! You're not-a going anywhere now, people!"
Mario: A metal version of me?!
"That's-a right, Mario! There's-a metal version of-a yourself! And there's-a no way you're getting outta here! You're-a trapped!"
"Aw, man! Just when we were about to find a key! You people happen to come in and ruin it all for us! No fair!" Chopper pouted, despite not really TRYING to.
"Well, we'll just let you stay there and rot in this cage until your games end. We'll be heading back." Metal Sonic and Metal Mario exited the room via the door. Chopper's sulky look changed to a smirk.
"Why are you smirking?" Blade asked.
"Because…"
"'Cause why?"
"Poyo, (We have Slim with us, you know,)" Kirby smirked. "Poyo! (And to think we would be staying in this cage until our games were over! That's so hilarious! We can get out easily!)"
A laser happened to be right outside of the cage, as well as some kind of dark-looking button on the wall. For some reason, it almost felt like they needed to do something with that button.
Chopper started off by bringing everyone into 3-D, followed by them taking turns using Slim to go through the bars. They all took a bit of damage because of the Flip Gauge, but they managed to hang in there and get through it.
Mario: Those guys were stupid.
"Tell me about it. They didn't even pay attention to our Pixls!" Sonic chuckled, holding Reflecto. "All right, buddy. Let's see if we can use that laser to get to that button. I'm sure you'll be able to do it!"
He held Reflecto over the laser and aimed the laser at the button. It triggered it to be pressed and also caused a part of the room to peel off to reveal a chest. Blade opened it to gain a Fortress Key.
"There we go! There's the key we've been looking for!" Blade smirked.
"Poyo! (Let's head back to that other door that was locked!)" Kirby suggested.
Back in the room before-
"Man, I can't believe we got through all of that," Chopper said as he walked over to the door. "So, Blade… Can you open the door?"
"No problem," Blade pulled the Fortress Key out and broke the lock by unlocking the door, allowing them to move on. But when they reached the next area, they saw a ? Block in this small room. Chopper punched it and grabbed a hold of a Super Shroom. They all ate it and recovered 20 HP.
Mario: That was-a good!
"That didn't taste as good as the fish that I used to catch in smelly waters," Blade recalled.
"And when was the last time you caught one of those?" Chopper asked, tilting his head.
"Ehhhh… Maybe about a couple of months ago." Everyone suddenly stepped away from Blade. "What? The water doesn't make me smell or anything. You should be just fine."
Everyone sighed and got back over to Blade before entering through the next room. And man, was this next room a bit intense. They saw two moving platforms leading over to a tunnel up ahead. It was a rather big room, since there were some other platforms up above them. They just weren't reachable.
"Man… If only we could get to those platforms…" Chopper trailed.
"Simple. We'll just take the tunnel to get over there." Sonic said with a smug look while nodding.
"Oh, OK. That sounds simple." Chopper stomped on a Patrolbot over the gap between the two platforms and sent it falling down the bottomless pit. Everyone raced toward the tunnel and then went straight inside.
"Curses! They managed to break out of their prison!" Metal Sonic scowled, climbing onto the platform the heroes jumped on.
"Well, this was-a expected, you know," Metal Mario nodded as he got on the platform.
"So, what do you say, Metal Mario? How about we take care of them personally? I think they deserve a little something from us!"
"Exactly! It'll teach-a them not to mess-a with us!" Metal Mario and Metal Sonic fist bumped before taking off toward the tunnel.
Tunnel-
"Man, I never knew tunnels could actually be fun!" Chopper smiled as he began running through the tunnel in a figure-8 pattern. Apparently some speed bumpers were making everyone move fast through here.
"Well, it's got some nice music to it too," Sonic was jamming to the music while running up the tunnel, just like Blade. They came across a couple of springs that seemed to launch them up to a pathway going the opposite direction they were moving.
"Poyo? (Why are we moving the opposite direction?)" Kirby asked.
"I don't know. Maybe we need to go up with this." Chopper saw a spring ahead launch them all on a platform out of the tunnel. It seemed to take them a bit high up in the room, which was a bit surprising.
"Hey, more Patrolbots in which we can use to get across the next platform!" Sonic smiled as he struck them with a Homing Attack and destroyed them. Unfortunately, everyone was left to glare at him.
"What? What did I do wrong?"
"Dude… You destroyed the robots…" Blade groaned.
"Oh… Sorry, guys!" Sonic grinned while rubbing the side of his head and sweat dropping. "I didn't mean to do that to you guys!"
"Poyo, (Hold on, I know what to do,)" Kirby took in some air and floated over to the platform Sonic was on. After letting the air out, he landed on the platform and used his inhaling to bring the rest of the group over to him and Sonic.
"OK, I guess that works," Blade confirmed.
They jumped onto another platform that led into a door, which led them into a small room with a long, silver pole extending to both walls. Chopper tested it out by grabbing it. Turns out, he ended up swinging around on it.
"Whoa! This is pretty interesting!" he commented.
"Poyo? (Did you do that yourself or did the pole do that for you?)" questioned Kirby.
"Nah, the pole was the one doing it for me."
"Poyo! (Then count me in!)" Kirby grabbed the pole and it began to swing him around. Chopper swung himself up to the next pole and then grabbed a hold of another pole that didn't appear to make him swing around. Nevertheless, he was right by the door, so he dropped down from the pole and landed on the bridge.
After everyone else landed right by him, he smiled and opened the door into another room. They could see from here that there were moving lasers. It almost reminded them of when Chopper and Kirby were trying to break into the vault.
"Poyo! (This reminds me of when we broke into the vault in Merlee's Mansion!)" Kirby recalled.
"Well of course it does! The narrator already said that!" Chopper told.
"Poyo? (Really? I never would've known!)"
"Ahem… We need to get going…" Sonic trailed, tapping his foot impatiently. "I don't think we're too far from the top anyway."
Mario: We have gone some ways through here…
"Well how do we get through here?" Blade asked.
"Poyo, (We need to use slim to get through,)" Kirby started off by using Slim's ability to turn sideways. He made his way past the lasers and walked over to the door. Chopper followed up next, then Mario, Sonic and last but not least, Blade.
"Why am I always the one going last?"
"Beats me," was what Sonic replied with before walking through the door. He followed the rest of the group into a room that looked rather…long. It was definitely one of those areas where you could have a race. The ground didn't have any treadmills, but there were a couple of hills around.
"This is a strange room…" Chopper trailed as he looked around. The music in the background was starting to rock out for some strange reason.
"I can feel the Pure Heart's power near here…" Timpani trailed, the wand glowing a bright color. "I suppose if we take this pathway, we'll be led straight to the Pure Heart… We must act quick, Chopper!"
"I don't think so," everyone turned around and saw Metal Sonic and Metal Mario walk out of the door. "We've been chasing you for quite a while. This is where it ends, you idiots."
"Idiots? How exactly are we idiots?" Sonic asked, raising and eyebrow.
"You… You just-a are!" Metal Mario stammered.
Mario: Well just leave us be!
"No-a way! I think it's-a time we settled this once and-a for all!"
"Well… Uh…" Chopper threw a fireball at their faces and blinded them for a couple of seconds. "Run for it, guys!"
Everyone began to flee as both Metal Mario and Metal Sonic chased after them. Metal Mario wasn't really having an easy time catching up to Metal Sonic, due to his jets being a lot faster than his. Since they were actually chasing the group, Sonic grabbed Blade and Mario's arm to help them and Chopper grabbed a hold of Kirby's.
"Hey! They're-a getting away!" Metal Mario cried.
"Oh no they won't! Time to show them what WE can do!" Metal Sonic clashed hands with Metal Mario and then began to speed boost toward them. "See? Now we have an advantage!"
Blade gulped as he looked back and saw Metal Mario and Metal Sonic catching up to them. "Heads up, guys! They're coming toward us! We can't just move at this speed! We gotta go FASTER!"
"Then let's turn it up a notch!" Chopper's feet began to move in a figure-8 pattern up some of the hills. The rocking music got even more intense as Metal Mario and Metal Sonic got closer to them.
"This is-a good music!" Metal Mario commented.
"Poyo! (Move faster, Chopper!)" Kirby cried.
"I'm going as fast as I can! I can't move any faster than this!"
"Here it comes! Metal Rush!" Metal Sonic and Metal Mario were charging at them like a missile, being surrounded in flames. Sonic managed to jump with Blade and Mario still being held onto, but this gave them an opportunity to strike them.
Mario: Take this!
Mario used his foot to make Kickbrin attack both of them, making them tumble all over the place, thus allowing the three to pass them easily. But it wasn't long before the two robots got back on their feet and chased after them again.
"Aw, man! You guys never give up, do you?!" Sonic groaned.
"Why should we? We said that we would go take care of you guys, and that is something we plan on doing!" Metal Sonic roared, ramming straight into Sonic's back. But all that did was give him a boost of speed.
"Uh oh… That-a didn't help." Metal Mario gulped.
"Screw that! Now I'm resorting to something else! Metal Mario, give 'em a little fireball!"
Metal Mario fired a fireball from his hand and made it target the three. Luckily, Sonic managed to get Chopper's attention to toss an ice ball at the fireball to make them collide and explode.
"What was-a that?!"
"An ice ball," Chopper stated.
"...That's not going to be good if we're going to use fireballs." Metal Sonic face palmed. They could see that there was a tunnel up ahead that they ran right through and it surprisingly lead them into a room with a large disco ball hanging from the ceiling. The whole room looked a bit purple and disco music was even playing.
Everyone stopped in the center of the room and listened to the music. With the disco ball spinning around, the whole room had a couple of bright lights rotating around the room.
"Hey, this is-a catchy music!" Metal Mario commented, tapping his foot to the rhythm.
"Ya gotta admit, this song is catchy," Sonic grinned.
"Yeah," Blade grinned.
"Wait a minute…" Metal Sonic glared at Sonic. "Just because we're listening to this music doesn't mean you're off the hook! Come here, you annoying hedgehog!"
"Uh oh…" Sonic ran off toward a tunnel with Metal Sonic chasing him. Metal Mario noticed a bridge with electricity below it and also one of those axes. Mario immediately jumped over to it to face off with his metal self.
"Oh, man… Now those two are going to fight?" Chopper questioned. A couple of robots bumped into him because of their dancing. "Hey! Quit it!"
Kirby happened to notice that there was a door up ahead, but he couldn't quite get to it because there were so many robots. "Poyo! (I think I see the door, but I don't see any way of getting in!)"
"Then we have to clear these robots!" Chopper suggested.
"OK!" Blade drew his katana and slashed at one of them. Unfortunately, it didn't do any damage.
"We might need something a bit more powerful than that…" Timpani informed.
"Well, what COULD we use?" Blade pondered a bit until an idea struck him. "Wait… I think I have an idea."
"What's your idea?" Blumiere asked.
"We can't hit them, but maybe something bad will make them leave. And I think we MIGHT have what we need to get rid of them."
"Wait… What do you… Oh, no. We're NOT doing that!" Chopper retorted.
Sonic-
"Whoa man, settle down there!" Sonic shouted as he began to flee from Metal Sonic, who was charging at him with full power. The tunnel was actually somewhat narrow, with him running up it. Metal Sonic was even flying up as well.
"Get back here, Sonic! Don't think I'm done with you after all of those years!" Metal Sonic growled.
"Whoa, you sure have a temper! Maybe you can just cool off somewhere so you can cool down a bit, huh?"
"SHUT UP!" Metal Sonic curled up in a ball and tried to strike Sonic while he was still running. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work out for him when he took another passageway through the tunnel.
"Ya can't catch me!"
"Oh, I will…" Metal Sonic was surrounded by fire as he charged at Sonic, but was still unable to catch up. "I was created to match you, Sonic! There's no way you can escape me!"
"Hey, you may be a copy of me, but there's no way you can outrun me!" Sonic smirked as he kept running, avoiding any Securibots in his way. Metal Sonic nearly plowed through them easily.
"I have you now!"
The funny thing that Sonic did was that he took a right turn while Metal Sonic was going incredibly fast. It caused the robot to immediately stop as he came toward a dead end.
"Aw, no! This isn't…" Before Metal Sonic could finish his sentence, he was sent crashing into the wall, leaving him severely damaged. Sonic walked up to his robot copy and poked his head.
"SONIC!" he roared. "This isn't over just yet! I still have the upper advantage! I WILL…"
"Oh, what's this?" Sonic gave him a little nudge with his foot and ended up turning off Metal Sonic. "A hero's work is never done.
And with that, he went running out of the tunnel.
Mario-
Mario and Metal Mario were immediately facing off, with Metal Mario charging at his counterpart with a punch. However, Mario managed to counter it by bringing his hammer up and then bashing him with it easily.
"Gah! You're such-an annoyance!" Metal Mario screeched.
What was funny was that the axe at the end of the bridge would probably get rid of the bridge, so Mario jumped on Metal Mario's head and reached for the axe.
Mario: This is too easy!
After grabbing the axe, he jumped off the bridge, which got destroyed and sent Metal Mario down onto the electric floor, leaving him severely damaged. Mario simply tipped his hat to Metal Mario and jumped away.
Chopper, Kirby and Blade-
"No! Really! I don't want to sing!" Chopper begged.
"Well, you DID say you had a horrible singing voice, right? Well, maybe you should try to use it to drive these robots out." Blade suggested.
"…You said 'had'. I think you meant to say 'have'… But still, I'm not going to sing. I stopped ever since that…incident."
"Poyo? (What incident?)" Kirby questioned.
"I told you that there was that incident in Nightclub Casino where I nearly destroyed people with my singing voice!"
"But these are robots! They have no feelings!"
"Except one."
"Oh… Well, we need the Pure Heart, and I'm sure Luvbi might be in danger too. If we can't physically take these robots on, then we need something to drive them out. Bad singing might work."
"I don't think you have much of a choice, Chopper…" Timpani trailed.
"Ugh… Fine. I guess I'll have to do it." Chopper ate a microphone right near him and after swallowing it, he was donning headphones and a little microphone that he held in his hand.
"OK… You might want to cover your ears, guys."
"What for?"
"You'll thank me later. Trust me."
Kirby and Blade ended up covering their ears (which is strange for Kirby, considering that he has no ears) as Chopper walked up to the stage. He got his microphone ready and tried to get everyone's attention with it.
"This is, uh… A song by my mother!" he blurted, almost making him face palm. Chopper started to sing with his horrible singing voice, which already started to get on the robot's nerves.
"Aaaagh! What kind of singing is that?!"
"That's one of the worst singing voices I've ever heard!"
"It's starting to make my ears bleed!"
"Someone help me! I feel like I'm going to explode!"
Apparently, a robot's head ended up exploding, which scared a couple of robots. Some other robots' heads exploded afterward. Before they knew it, every single robot exploded or fled from the room. Some even trampled over each other and some even crashed into walls or made stuff fall from the ceiling.
Heck, one even crashed into the disco ball and made it fall!
Chopper finished singing after his Mike ability wore off. He noticed all of the destruction left around. But at least the whole place was clear of robots!
"I… I can't believe my singing did this…" Chopper stammered.
"You did the right thing, Chopper," Timpani smiled.
"I don't know…" Chopper replied, while Mario and Sonic had made their return.
Mario: What happened here?
"…I'm not gonna ask," Sonic decided.
"Poyo, (At least the room's clear, so let's go,)" Kirby plopped over by the door ahead. Everyone followed him into a small room where they found a ? Block and a Save Block. Kirby hit the ? Block to make an Ultra Shroom pop out. They all split it to recover 50 HP.
"So what ever happened to Metal Mario and Metal Sonic?" Blade asked.
Mario: Metal Mario fell off a bridge.
"Metal Sonic crashed into a wall."
"Oh… That's interesting." Chopper punched the Save Block and saved their game. "All right, let's head into the elevator. I'm sure that Robo Chopper's waiting for us at the top…with the Pure Heart."
Everyone took one step into the elevator and before they knew it, they were heading up to the top.