CHAPTER 12-1
-A Sudden Crash-
The background began to get drawn as it usually does for the beginning of each new world, but when everything got colored, the world didn't necessarily look colorful or cheerful. The ground was just some dark blue dirt and even the night sky was blue-ish as well. In the background, the sky was apparently filled with a couple of ghosts and on the ground, there were a couple of gravestones. From the looks of it, the heroes weren't going to get their wish.
A dark orange door appeared in this graveyard and the heroes came walking out. All of their faces all soon turned into gloomy looks as they saw what the whole place was like. It was gloomy, dark, and just spooky.
Mario: This isn't what I was expecting!
"Yeah, I know!" Blade agreed. "I was hoping for a nice, bright world with a beautiful sun and some nice-looking grass! …But what do we get? A freakin' graveyard with a bunch of ghosts up in the sky. NOT NICE!"
"Poyo! (And here I thought we were going to be in a nice, calm world! This isn't what I like to see!)" Kirby wailed.
"Hey, guys! Just relax for a second!" Sonic stepped in. "Sure, this place is gloomy, but what would you prefer to be in? A mechanical forest with a bunch of dangerous robots? Or a whole graveyard that doesn't appear to have anything dangerous?"
"I'd choose the mechanical forest…" Chopper trailed. "What? I don't like being in this kind of world. Although, I will say that I disliked Merlee's Mansion greatly because of that freakin' labor."
"Well, we haven't really explored this area anyway, so maybe we should take a good look at this new world," Timpani suggested.
"I'm used to these kind of areas, so I have nothing to fear," Blumiere assured.
"Only one way to find out whether this place is bad or not," Sonic readied himself by stretching, then he started to take off. Some of the gravestones in his way were easily smashed by his Spin Jump.
"This graveyard is rather…old. I hope we don't run into any vampires." Chopper gulped as he followed Sonic through the gloomy road.
"Oh, come on! Vampires really aren't scary!" Blade scoffed. "They just have those fangs! Plus, they just look like ordinary people, but are a bit pale and always talk about blood. Not to mention they hate garlic and the sun."
"Poyo? (Well what about that one…)"
"NO, Kirby! We can NEVER speak of that!" Chopper interrupted, making Kirby stop. "We all know that is not meant to be spoken about!"
"Poyo… (Oh… Sorry… I don't like to speak about it, but I was just saying…)"
"It's all right, Kirby. I just didn't want to hear about…that vampire. Anyway, we should follow Sonic."
Everyone agreed and followed Sonic down a small hill. However, they stopped as soon as a gravestone in front of Sonic ended up shaking. A zombie resembling a Koopa rose crawled out of the ground and moaned as it got closer to the group.
"WHOA! A zombie!" Chopper screamed.
Mario: This isn't good…
"If only we had a shotgun!" Blade snapped his finger in disappointment. "That way, we could just blow its brains out with a simple shot in the head. You know, zombies get defeated when you strike their head."
"But we've got no guns," Sonic pointed out. "And besides, what's the point of using guns when we've got our own attacks to throw at it?"
The first thing that Chopper did before Sonic made his move was use Timpani's wand to identify the zombie.
"That's a Zombie Koopa. These are zombified Koopas, basically, they're Koopas that are dead. Max HP is 40. Attack is 9. There's not much to say about these zombies. They're slow and only attack by biting. The best option to defeat them is to attack them from the head." Timpani informed.
"This should be easy," Blade drew his katana and made the first move on the Zombie Koopa before Sonic could attack. With a couple of slices, the Zombie Koopa disintegrated into smoke, dropping a Super Shroom Shake in the process.
"Ha! See? That was nothing!"
"Blade… I was going to take care of that enemy…" Sonic groaned.
Mario: There are some Boos up ahead.
The plumber pointed at a couple of Boos up ahead. They appeared to be some dark purple Boos with dark blue tongues. They looked a lot like the Dark Boos they've seen in The Underwhere.
"Don't those Boos remind me of the ones in The Underwhere?" Chopper questioned.
"What's The Underwhere?" Sonic asked.
"Oh, I don't think I told you about The Underwhere… You know, it's the opposite of The Overthere. If your sins or whatever the heck they are are bad, then you probably stay somewhere in The Underwhere. If you did a lot of good, then you would go to The Overthere. Now… While I understand you and Kirby went to The Overthere… Why was Blade and I sent there?"
"Poyo… (The world may never know…)" Kirby said as he inhaled one of the Boos and spat it at another. It didn't beat them, but it allowed Chopper to use Timpani's wand to see what they're like.
"That's a Phantom Boo. They look a bit similar to Dark Boos, but don't let their red eyes and dark purple color fool you… Max HP is 45. Attack is 10. Sometimes they'll turn invisible or flip into 3-D to avoid any attacks. The most notable thing about them is that they won't hide their faces and turn invisible like others. They'll go right for you… It's kind of strange, if you ask me…" Timpani informed.
"And to think that there wouldn't be any Boos that would directly attack you," Blumiere chuckled.
"Yeah, yeah… We know about that." Chopper groaned as he tossed a fireball at one of the Phantom Boos. However, it simply turned invisible and evaded the attack. The other Phantom Boo was struck by the fireball instead.
Mario: I'll finish them off.
With Thoreau, Mario managed to grab a hold of one of the Phantom Boos and toss it at the other, defeating both of them in the process and allowing them to press on over to a small row of Brick Blocks, with one of them being a ? Block. Chopper punched the ? Block to find a new Zombie Shroom pop out. It was more of a greenish color and it didn't look too friendly.
"It's a Poison Zombie Shroom!" Timpani cried. "They only have 20 HP and an Attack of 10, but they're able to poison you if you touch them! Be careful!"
"Uh oh… That's not good…" Chopper gulped. "As if this place couldn't get any creepier…"
A Zombie Koopa rose from the ground and slowly made its way toward the group, but Kirby used Crystaline's ability to freeze it and deal some damage. With a simple kick and then a sliding kick, he was able to take down the Zombie Koopa and thus, allow the group to move on.
Of course, they ended up running into a dead end where they saw a large gravestone in the way. Knowing that there might be something in 3-D, Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D with his friends. They discovered that the gravestone was actually none other than one of those blocks they've seen in the past.
"This gravestone is good at tricking people…but not us!" Chopper smirked as he smashed the gravestone with his hammer. A small staircase seemed to lead down to a dark tunnel below.
"…Poyo? (…Am I the only one who doesn't feel good about going in there?)" Kirby asked, gulping at the darkness down the tunnel.
"Ugh… I'd rather not go down there, but we have no other choice." Chopper was the first to walk into the tunnel underneath the broken gravestone. The rest followed him down into a dark tunnel, where they could barely see a thing except for some bright, yellow eyes from the ceiling.
Mario: I think Swoopulas are in here…
"What are they again?" Blade asked.
Mario: See for yourself…
Chopper used Timpani's wand as a flashlight as he looked around the small, dark tunnel. There were these gray versions of Swoopers called Swoopulas hanging from the ceiling, but their eyes immediately closed when Timpani's wand shined on them. It gave them a chance to investigate it.
"That's a Swoopula. It's a darker version of the Swooper and may be a close relative… Max HP is 34. Attack is 8. Unlike its relatives, Swoopulas will fly down toward you and try to suck at your HP. If this ever happens, you can shake them off of you to get them off… Try to be careful, because if they suck away your entire HP, you'll be done for…" Timpani informed.
"Oh, great… That's nice." Blade groaned.
"Poyo... (No kidding...)" Kirby agreed before a Swoopula flew down toward Kirby's head and tried to suck some HP out of him. Of course, he managed to shake it off easily and inhale it instead, swallowing it instantly.
"Sometimes I wonder why I don't swallow enemies…" Chopper trailed before inhaling a Swoopula and swallowing it. "I mean, if we just did that, then we'd be taking down enemies easily!"
"You do realize that not all enemies can be inhaled…" Blumiere informed. "In fact, I believe those Robbies cannot be inhaled, as well as larger enemies you encountered before such as Intruderbots…"
"He's right…" Sonic pointed out as he saw a small staircase up ahead. "Hey! Maybe we can get out of this tunnel through there!"
Mario: Let's take a look!
Out of the tunnel-
All five of them walked out of the tunnel and happened to notice another boring area, but there were a couple of dead bushes around, and not to mention dark blue Waddle Dees with red eyes. They definitely seemed to resemble zombies, just like the Zombie Koopas.
"I'm not going to even investigate that Waddle Dee. We ALL know that it's probably a Zombie Waddle Dee." Chopper groaned.
But, what caught them off guard was when they saw something coming down from the sky nearby. It looked like an escape pod of some sort.
"Poyo! (Whoa! Look at that!)" Kirby gaped, pointing at the escape pod crashing down toward this area.
"Everyone get out of the way!" Blade shouted, pushing everyone out of the way to escape the large explosion from the escape pod. It ended up destroying the Zombie Waddle Dees, which was nice…for them, at least.
"What…the heck was that?" Sonic gaped.
"It appears that an escape pod has crashed here…" Blumiere gawked. "I don't know what's in there, but we should be cautious when walking toward it. No one knows what could be inside…"
"So who wants to go up first?" Chopper asked. Everyone immediately stepped back for the exception of Mario, who let out a sigh and slowly walked toward the pod with everyone behind him.
"Move faster, Mario!" Blade shouted.
Mario: I'm being cautious.
"Oh, all right. I guess that's all right."
The group noticed that the escape pod ended up cooling off quite quickly, which was surprising to them. But, what stopped them from going any closer was when the hatch began to open.
"Poyo… (There better not be any ghosts or zombies in there…)" Kirby trailed, getting in a fighting stance.
"Whew! Squirps is relieved that that's over! Squirps was sure that he wasn't going to make it there for a second!"
At this point, Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Mario stopped gaping and sighed in relief.
"Oh, good… It's someone we know." Chopper sighed in relief as the young alien prince, Squirps walked out of the escape pod. Nothing really seemed to change with him. He looked exactly the same as how he looked back in the Whoa Zone.
"Hey… Squirps's seen your faces before! Are you… Are you the space grunts back from that trip to my mommy?" Squirps asked, surprised to see the group.
"Ummmmmm… Yeah, we're those space grunts you're talking about!" Sonic nodded, but also sweat dropping at the same time. "Man, who ever knew that we would be running into you!"
"Wait, who the heck is this little squid-like thing?" Blade asked.
"I see we haven't met, squirp!" Squirps chuckled. "The name's Squirps! Squirps once helped your friends get the Pure Heart in the Whoa Zone in Outer Space! It wasn't easy, squinkles!"
"Oh, I remember that…" Chopper trailed, remembering that he simply left them to venture through the Whoa Zone on their own. "Yeah… That was one thing I can remember…"
"Poyo! (And we thought you actually died right beside the statue of your mother!)" Kirby gaped while Chopper translated for him. Unfortunately, Squirps ended up ignoring the pink puffball.
"So… What on earth are you doing here?" Timpani asked.
"Squirps was having some bad nightmares!" Squirps shivered, remembering the horrible nightmares. "Something told Squirps that the horrible nightmares were being caused by this haunted wasteland, squirple! So, Squirps decided to find this world and find out what's giving Squirps horrible nightmares! But, now that you space grunts are here, you can help Squirps out! And you know… You might get the Pure Heart here with my help!"
"Wait, you know that the Pure Heart's here?" Blumiere gaped.
"Of course, squirp! When Squirps was heading here, he saw that a Pure Heart was located somewhere in this world! A place called the Mansion of Nightmares is where the Pure Heart is! And that is where Squirps is heading!"
"So, are you cutting a deal here?" Chopper asked.
"You may say so, space grunt! It makes things easier for all of us! You rub Squirps's tentacles and Squirps rubs yours!"
"Poyo… (Uhh… OK…)" Kirby shrugged.
"So… I suppose you guys met this guy before, haven't you?" Blade asked. "He's kind of a weirdo. I know the other guys we've seen in other dimensions are weirdos… But what the HECK is with his speech?!"
"Hey! This is how Squirps speaks! Don't get angry for that, space grunt!" Squirps snapped. "…But, anyway. Since we're no longer in space, Squirps can't call you space grunts anymore, squork! Squirps should call you…privates!"
"Privates? Aw, come on! Why that?" Chopper frowned.
"Because Squirps says so! Now you privates understand your place, right?" all Squirps got were a couple of nods from the heroes. "Squeh squeh squeh… This is going to be fun! I know it!"
Mario: And how are you going to fare against the zombies?
"Oh, Squirps knows just what to do!" Squirps jumped right into Chopper's hands and turned around, facing the way he was facing. "Do you remember using Squirps's Squirt Beam? All you have to do is squeeze Squirps and I'll fire a beam toward an enemy! If you don't want to use me, just let go of me and Squirps will follow you guys around! Did you understand that?"
"Well… Yeah, I suppose I did." Chopper nodded.
"Then off we go, squinkles!" Squirps slapped Chopper's face with one of his tentacles and he immediately started to move. A couple of Zombie Waddle Dees rose from the ground and slowly made their way toward the heroes.
"Now's your chance to attack!" Timpani cried, triggering Chopper to squeeze Squirps a couple of times to make him fire a couple of fireballs from his mouth at the Zombie Waddle Dees, defeating them instantly.
"Well… I think shotguns would still work better on the zombies." Blade stated as they jumped over a gravestone and even walked past a dark blue tree. There didn't appear to be anything there, but Mario bashed at the tree with his hammer, making a badge shaped like a boot with spikes on the heel drop. Mario picked it up and saw that it was called a Piercing Jump. Apparently, this can give him a chance to pierce through defense. But, it's usually a fifty percent chance.
Mario: I think this should work nicely!
"Man… If only I had a badge like that. Wait… I think only Mario can use that." Chopper snapped his finger in disappointment. "Dang…"
They made their way to the door ahead and entered into an area with a loop leading down to a slope where they could see some water. Well, it looked more like green water, but it didn't look nice. At least there were a couple of platforms floating on the water.
"Ooh… Getting through that loop might be tough." Blade frowned. "Oh well. I think we can get through there, right?"
"Yeah, I think we can. We just need to get you guys through here." Sonic grabbed Blade and Mario's arm and they immediately took off through the loop. Chopper grabbed Kirby's arm and charged up a Speed Dash before taking off at intense speeds down the slope and right into the water.
Of course, Sonic was the first one to jump out of the water. It wasn't necessarily harmful to him, but he didn't like how the water was. The greenness of the water made it feel like it was very disgusting and not nice to look at. But, nevertheless, our heroes got out of the water and got on the log. There happened to be some Fishbones in the water, which wasn't a good sight.
"Those things can jump out of the water and attack you…" Timpani warned as a Fishbone jumped out of the water and tried to bite at Chopper. Luckily, he managed to use Squirps to shoot a fireball at it to destroy it. Of course, the log they were on was rolling, so they couldn't stand on it forever.
"Poyo! (This log rolling is really annoying!)" Kirby whined, deciding to float over the log instead. "Poyo? (Why can't we have normal floating platforms over the water?)"
"No idea, Kirby…" Chopper trailed as he followed Sonic onto another floating platform. This time, it wouldn't roll like the log. It just stood there, floating in the water. It allowed them to jump toward the dark blue dirt ground ahead. But what they found at the end of the area was another gravestone.
Mario: I'll take care of this!
Mario whipped his hammer out and bashed at the gravestone. However, it didn't appear to break. It just remained there without any marks. Mario looked a bit confused at it and tried again. It didn't work.
"You can't destroy a gravestone like that with your hammer, squirple," Squirps pointed out. "If you want to destroy a gravestone, you need Squirps's help to do it!"
"And here I thought that the door would be hidden…" Timpani trailed.
"Well, here goes nothing," Chopper squeezed Squirps a couple of times to allow him to shoot fireballs at the gravestone. After a couple of shots, the gravestone was destroyed and revealed a door.
"Poyo! (Yay! Now we can finally move on!)" Kirby cheered.
"Yup! Let's go before anything bad happens…" Chopper shivered, looking back at the water.
Next area-
As the heroes stepped foot into the next area, they noticed that it wasn't as big as the other areas. There were a couple of gravestones in the way, but they appeared to be jumpable.
"Huh… Nothing here, I guess…" Blade trailed, putting his katana away. "Oh well. I guess we're allowed to move on!"
"Oh, not so fast, heroes! I'm not letting you through!" a Koopa with blue hair and two fangs on each side of his mouth landed on top of the larger gravestone in the middle. He made a pose (that kind of stunk) and pulled a wand out.
"Wait a second… Why do you remind me a bit of someone we've seen before?" Chopper asked, pondering over this. "Ah! I think I remember now! You kind of remind me of Bowser, the one I unintentionally picked a fight with!"
"Wait, you picked a fight with my dad?!" Larry gaped, making Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade gape as well.
Mario: Oh… I never told you about Bowser's kids. ^^;
"Oh, great… So I guess we have to fight you then?" Sonic groaned.
"Well, I WAS teleported here to get rid of you guys! That dark weirdo even said that if we Koopalings defeated you, we would be able to get King Bowser back! It's pretty simple!" Larry smirked, crossing his arms.
"So they've been fooled by Tipral's deal? This isn't good…" Blumiere sighed.
Mario: You're being tricked!
"Am not! He said that he promised! …I think." Larry pondered a bit to remember, but that's all he seemed to remember. "But I don't want to get into any conversations! We're gonna settle this! Now!"
"If you say so…" Chopper trailed as he (with Squirps in his hands), Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario jumped toward Larry to have a battle.
"Sheesh, he does remind Squirps of that ugly turtle!" Squirps remarked, remembering Bowser from three months ago.
"Let's see what information we can get from him first," Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and used it on Larry to investigate him.
"That's Larry Koopa. He is one of Bowser's group of minions called the Koopalings, and he is the youngest one. Max HP is 145. Attack is 9. He doesn't appear to have many attacks besides going into his shell and firing magic at you… I don't think he's that tough of a Koopaling…" Timpani informed.
"OK, he doesn't appear to look tough," Blade smirked as he drew his katana and jumped toward Larry. He managed to deal some intense damage to him thanks to his fire slash attack. "Since he's got no defense, my attack power is at an advantage!"
"Lucky…" mumbled Chopper as he fired a couple of fireballs from Squirps at Larry while he was conjuring up a spell from his wand. It stunned him for a couple of seconds and allowed Kirby to inhale the magic projectile after he fired it, spitting it back at him and knocking him over.
"Whoa… So you are tougher than I thought you guys were!" gaped Larry, who got into his shell and began to spin around rapidly. "But too bad you're going to regret it when I do this!"
"Another thing," Timpani mentioned, floating right in front of Chopper. "Whenever he spins in his shell like that, don't attack him. He's completely invulnerable in that situation. It's best for you to wait for him to come out."
"Poyo, (Sounds easy,)" Kirby commented, floating over the ground to avoid getting hit by Larry. He managed to knock into both Mario and Sonic, but the others easily jumped over Larry. Mario managed to stomp on his head as well, leaving him stunned for a couple of seconds to allow Sonic to strike him with a Spin Dash.
"I'll be honest… You're not really as tough as I thought you'd be." Sonic commented.
"Hey! Don't you mock me!" Larry spat, firing magic from his wand at Sonic, knocking him back, but not before getting stomped on by Chopper, who performed a stylish move while in the air.
"You can charge up a shot from Squirps's Squirt Beam, you know!" Squirps reminded.
"Yeah, good point," Chopper began firing rapidly at Larry with Squirps. However, since the Koopa got into his shell, none of the fireballs had any effect on him. He ended up getting rolled over in the end.
"Ow… That kind of hurt…"
"Heh heh heh! That worked out better than I thought!" Larry waved his wand after getting out of his shell and fired another magic particle. The nice thing about this was that they were slower than the magic Shade would fire at them.
Mario: I think I can ground pound him if you want!
"Go for it!" Sonic nodded. Mario tipped his hat and leaped toward Larry. He stomped on him first and then performed a stylish move. Afterward, he used his Ground Pound attack to deal some stronger damage to Larry.
"Hey! Why do the fat plumbers always have to sit on me with their weight?! Stop it already!" growled Larry.
Mario: Well you're asking for a fight!
"Argh! All right, I've got another thing for you guys!" Larry waved his wand again, but this time he summoned a couple of Zombie Koopas to rise from the ground. But, since they're Koopas, they could be jumped on easily. Chopper did just that and kicked it toward Larry and then fired at him rapidly with Squirps now that he was dazed.
"What the…! It backfired?!"
"Poyo, (That's what happens when you try to attack someone with Koopas,)" Kirby stated as he inhaled the other Zombie Koopa and spat it out at Larry. It didn't more damage, unlike the Zombie Koopa shell.
"So how far is he?" Sonic asked, trying to get a look on his HP bar. "OK, that doesn't seem like a lot, but I think we still need to focus our attacks. If he gets in his shell, we just avoid him."
Mario: It's really a simple strategy on how to beat him.
Mario, once again, attacked Larry again, but this time he used his Triple Jump to stomp on him instead of a Ground Pound. This left Larry off guard and allowed Blade to throw a couple of shurikens at him and then throw Hommissile at his direction, knocking him into the large gravestone and leaving a large hole in it.
"Whoa… I did that?!" Blade gaped.
"That's quite impressive…" Blumiere gawked.
"Ugh… My head…" Larry moaned as he got up from the attack. "Since when did my head break through a gravestone? Well, whatever. I think I can stop you guys, even if you did that to me!"
Larry summoned a couple of Zombie Goombas to aid him, but, just like the Zombie Koopas, they were easily defeated when Chopper stomped on one. Mario used Thoreau to pick one up and throw it at Larry, making him cringe in pain.
"So, when are ya going to give up, Larry?" Sonic grinned while jumping in front of him.
"Me? Give up? No way!" Larry got in his shell and knocked everyone over as he moved around on the ground. After getting out, he fired a couple of faster magic attacks, hitting Chopper and Blade. Kirby, however, got a chance to inhale the attack instead and spit it out at Larry.
"Ouch! Why you little…!" Larry fired another magic attack at Kirby, but Chopper simply jumped in and inhaled it instead, spitting it at Larry, who was able to dodge it. But he wasn't able to dodge Squirps's fireballs.
"Taste Squirps's Squirt Beam!" Squirps cried as multiple fireballs hit Larry. The Koopaling hid in his shell and knocked Chopper over, making him release Squirps. The green alien was also knocked away by Larry's shell attack as well, but he managed to get himself back up and back to Chopper.
"Hold on, I know what can work," Chopper kicked Larry's shell right into the gravestone, breaking it completely and leaving Larry stunned while his head was sticking out of his shell.
"That should do it," Sonic said as he curled up in a ball and struck Larry in the head with a Homing Attack. This left Larry dazed again and allowing Blade to attack him with his katana for some extra damage.
"Oh, come on! This fight is barely even a challenge!" Blade pouted. "I was hoping for a fight that would be more interesting than someone who just has a predictable attack pattern!"
"Hey! Just because I'm the youngest Koopaling doesn't mean I'm the weakest!" Larry growled, firing magic straight at Blade and knocking him back, but was soon attacked by Sonic's Spin Jump and Mario's Triple Jump.
Mario: He is tougher than the previous times, though…
"Yeah, of course I'm tougher than before!" Larry smirked as rammed straight into Mario's stomach, knocking him over. Luckily, the plumber managed to use Kickbrin to kick Larry away and allow him to perform his Power Bounce attack (meaning he was jumping on him multiple times) and performing stylish moves.
"Get off of me!" Larry fired magic at Mario and knocked him off, but what caught him off guard was a charged beam from Squirps that Chopper fired. Larry attempted to fire magic at him, but Kirby jumped in the way and inhaled the magic attack and spat it back at him, knocking him over again.
"Yeesh, how many attacks can this kid take?" Sonic asked.
"No idea, but who cares?" Blade gripped his katana until he fell over due to Larry getting into his shell and ramming into him. But, since Sonic saw what Chopper did, he kick him toward a smaller gravestone and made him dizzy for a couple of seconds.
"Oof… My head hurts…" moaned Larry as Mario got his hammer out and bashed him, forcing him to get in his shell again and charge. This time, he managed to succeed in hitting them all (again) until he poked his head out of his shell and fired more magic projectiles at them.
"I got one!" Chopper inhaled one magic attack and Kirby got the other. At the same time, they spat them straight at Larry. It left him down to such low HP that any attack could take him down.
"Oh, man… This isn't good." Larry gulped.
Mario: Here we go!
With one last jump from Mario's boot, Larry toppled over on the ground, unconscious. He didn't seem to move, but he WAS knocked out, so it would make sense. Mario poked him a bit before realizing that Larry wasn't going to get up.
Mario: He just got knocked unconscious…
"There's not much we can do with him at the moment…" Timpani trailed, looking down at the unconscious Larry. "Our best bet would probably to move on."
"You should listen to the wand!" Squirps agreed. "Onward, privates! If we plan on getting to the Mansion of Nightmares, we must find the Cemetery Ruins! There, we'll be able to take the Path of Fear to the Mansion of Nightmares!"
"…Wow, that doesn't sound good," Chopper gulped. "How do you know about this?"
"Squirps heard about these places in his nightmares…"
"Oh, all right," Chopper jumped over a couple of small gravestones and entered the door up ahead into an area with a bridge going over a small pond. There was a locked door up ahead, making everyone groan.
"All right, I think we have to go into the water…" Chopper sighed.
"What?! There's no way I'm going underwater!" Sonic gulped.
"Oh, calm down already, Sonic! You're not the one who needs to go in! I'll go down there myself and see what's up." Chopper flipped into 3-D and jumped into the water. A couple of Fishbones happened to be in the water, so he decided to freeze them with a couple of ice balls and then bash them with his hammer. One of them happened to drop a Door Key, which he grabbed.
"Poyo? (So how was the dive?)" Kirby asked as Chopper jumped out of the water. "Poyo… (I thought I heard some freezing going on down there…)"
"It was fine. I was able to get this." Chopper held up a Door Key.
"That's what we need, squinkles!" Squirps squealed. "Squirps will just take that from your hands and we'll be off!"
"Wait, what do you…" Squirps took the Door Key from Chopper's hand and immediately walked over to the door himself. With the Door Key, he unlocked the door for them and carried on.
"Seriously! Why did he have to take the key from me?"
"It's just a key, Chopper…" Blade trailed. "Who really cares if someone takes it from you? As long as it isn't a bad guy, then we shouldn't have to worry."
"SQUAAAAAAAAAACK!" Squirps came running out of the door and toward the heroes in fear. "Th-There are zombies out there!"
"Well, what did we tell you? It's not easy going out alone…" Chopper picked him up and walked over to the door.
"NO! Squirps isn't going back in there!" Squirps wiggled out of Chopper's grasps and stood right by the door. "You privates can go take care of those zombies! S-Squirps is going to stay here!"
"Someone's being a chicken today…" Timpani grunted.
"No worries, Timpani. He just doesn't like zombies." assured Blumiere.
"OK, I'm going to go through here and take some zombies down while you two are done making out," Chopper said as he left Timpani's wand to float. The couple were a bit confused with him, but they decided to speak again.
Near the Cemetery Ruins-
"Zombies, huh? Well, they're just Zombie Goombas, Waddle Dee and…hold the phone, is that a Zombie Waddle Doo up ahead?" Sonic tried to get a clear look at the Zombie Waddle Doo up ahead.
"Yup, it's a Waddle Doo," Chopper confirmed as he jumped on a couple of the zombies and inhaled the Zombie Waddle Doo to gain the Beam ability. "Strange… I never knew I would get this ability if I ate a zombie."
"Poyo, (It's weird that you're eating a zombie, when in actuality, zombies go after people and bite them,)" Kirby mentioned.
"Yeah, I know that."
Mario managed to deliver a couple of blows to some of the zombies around them with his hammer and disintegrated them into smoke. All that they could see up ahead was a small staircase leading to a Star Block and some ruins.
"Hey, is that the place Squirps was telling us about?" Blade.
"Yeah, this is the place, squirp!" Squirps confirmed as he and Timpani's wand came into this area. "If we stroll through there, we might be able to get to the Path of Fear! Come on, privates! Get moving!"
"And what are you, our general?" Sonic asked.
"Your squirping right I am! Now get going!"
"…OK," Chopper frowned as he walked up the stairs and to the Star Block. "This really isn't that great of a world…"
And with a simple punch at the Star Block, he put and end to this chapter.
END OF CHAPTER
"Come on, privates! We need to make our way through here, squirp!" the young alien prince led the five heroes into the Cemetery Ruins. The first thing Chopper and Co. noticed as they entered the ruins that it was filled with darkness. They couldn't see a thing in there! "Hey! Why is it so dark in this place?!" "Poyo? (Why do we have to go through someplace that we can't see?)" "I need some night vision goggles!" Our heroes began to ask these questions as they ventured into the darkness of the Cemetery Ruins.
Yeah, so this is what Chapter 12 is basically like. It's one of those places that resembles a Halloween area (although, I don't think anyone was scared by any of this. Maybe there might be some horror next chapter, though...).
Yeah, if you couldn't tell, I find Chapter 12 to be a bit...uninteresting at many points. In fact, I thought the battle with Larry wasn't interesting ('cause, you know, he's a Koopaling. He doesn't have many cool attacks for the first boss in Super Mario Bros. 3).
But, I'm not going to rant on on how much this chapter is boring. Maybe you guys think differently. So... What's coming up next chapter? Well, I'm not going to tell you! You'll find out next time this chapter's updated!