CHAPTER 12-2
-The Cemetery's Ruins-
"I can't see a thing in here!"
"I suddenly feel blind for a second…"
"Wait, how come we can only see our eyes, yet we can't see anything else? I just see some white eyes around here, that's it."
"Poyo? (How come we don't have a flashlight with us? I would REALLY like to have a flashlight!)"
"Stop yelling at each other, Squirple! We'll figure a way out of this!"
At that moment, Chopper felt his hand grabbing a hold of Timpani's wand. It began to glow a bright rainbow color, which emitted a ray of light that acted like a flashlight. It was kind of like how they used it back in that tunnel in the previous area. But, looking at the room they were in, the ground was made of some old material that felt like it could break in any minute, due to it being cracked. There were also a couple of broken pillars around them as well. It was definitely not a good thing to see, in some of their eyes.
What was in these rooms? Nobody knew. It almost felt like anything could suddenly come from in front of them and attack. But, it turns out that there weren't any enemies around at this moment…yet.
"Now you guys can see what's around you…" Timpani sighed as Chopper moved her wand around to scan the area. There didn't happen to be any enemies around, but there were some bones on the ground. They looked like dark blue Dry Bones. They actually looked kind of similar to those Dark Bones that Chopper discovered in the Palace of Shadow, surprisingly.
"For some reason, I could imagine us telling scary stories in this kind of area…" Blade pondered as he grabbed Timpani's wand and brought it up to his face. "How about I tell you guys a scary story?"
"Ummmmm… How about we pass?" Sonic suggested.
"Oh, come on! Don't tell me you're a chicken!" This got Sonic's attention, which forced him to listen to what Blade had to say. "See? I knew that would work! OK… So I'm not going to try to make this long, but it's probably the scariest thing you'll ever hear in your ENTIRE life."
"As long as it's not for old people, Squirps will be fine," Squirps confirmed. The yellow star bulb on his antenna seemed to be glowing, which gave off Squirps's location.
"All right, then let's get started."
Everyone got a bit closer so they could listen in to Blade's story easily.
Mario: If Luigi were here, he would probably be scared…
"Many, many years ago, there was once this boy who came walking into this very room. He had no flashlight, no night vision goggles. Nothing. The only way for him to get through this place was to feel for anything. It was tough, due to the fact that the room was big. But he started to see a trail of blood after realizing that the floor felt a bit…strange. And the blood wasn't even dry either."
"Poyo… (Ummmmm… This isn't really scary…)" Kirby trailed.
"Yeah, this isn't really a scary story…" Chopper groaned. "Look, can we just go already? We're kind of wasting time here."
"Hey! I'm not finished yet!" Blade snapped, trying to shush the two. "All right. Now… The boy decided to follow the blood through the hallways, but what was worse was that he began to hear voices like, 'I'm going to kiiiiiiill yoooooou…' and 'La la la la la… I've got a knife in my hand…"
"Oh, come on… That doesn't scare me one bit!" Sonic sighed.
"Hey! Stop interrupting me! Anyway… Back to what I was saying… The boy started to tremble in fear as he heard these disturbing noises. He also heard the sound of the ground cracking…and the sound of bones. He saw that there were a pile of bones right next to him."
Blade's eyes widened as he saw the dark blue Dry Bones rise from the ground and slowly make its way toward Chopper. "And…uh… It started to creep toward the boy with every step. CREEEEEEEEEK! He got closer…and closer…and closer…and closer…and…"
"Yeah, yeah, we know what you're going to say next," Chopper groaned. "This sounds like one of those dumb scary stories."
"Who said it's a story? Do you even KNOW where I'm getting this from?"
"Ummmmm… I don't exactly know what you're… Wait a second…" Chopper slowly turned around as he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He jumped up in surprise as he saw the Dark Bones knock him over after throwing a bone at him.
"What the heck is this thing?!" Chopper shined Timpani's wand right at the Dark Bones, triggering Timpani to investigate it. Everyone was gaping at this very moment, especially Chopper and Mario, who were surprised to see this enemy.
"This kind of enemy is known as a Dark Bones. They are stronger versions of Dry Bones and live in dark places. Max HP is 55. Attack is 11. Defense is 5. They will occasionally throw bones at you if they're up on their feet. Jumping on them won't do much except for making them collapse. After a couple of seconds, they'll come back up. However, they're still weak to fire, so I recommend using that… Other than that, it can build other Dark Bones to aid it." Timpani informed.
"Oh, yeah… Fire! That works!" Blade said as he drew his katana and attacked the Dark Bones with a fire slash. But even then it wasn't finished. It whacked Blade with a bone and created another friend to aid him in battle.
"None…shall pass…" the Dark Bones moaned as they began to throw bones at the group. Chopper charged up a beam from Squirps and fired straight at one of the Dark Bones. Surprisingly, it did damage.
"See? Squirps can hurt these guys with his Squirt Beam!" Squirps smiled as he destroyed the Dark Bones, clearing the way of any enemies in this room. All that there was up ahead was a door. How original.
"Poyo, (Well there's not much else around here, so we should head through the door,)" Kirby suggested, opening the door and entering through with everyone else. They saw a couple of Phantom Boos in this room and also a hole in the ground ahead. Apparently it seemed like the only way to go through this dungeon.
Blade slashed at one of the Phantom Boos with his katana and countered one of their attacks using Barry before jumping straight down the hole. Everyone shrugged and jumped down the hole, going deeper into the ruins.
Tunnel-
The heroes landed on the ground in a lower room of the Cemetery Ruins. They could see that there was a small ray of the moonlight from some holes in the ceiling. There were also a couple of small coffins as well, making them all wonder what was inside of them.
"Ugh… Now I'm really not enjoying this place…" Chopper groaned.
Mario: Luigi would be scared if he was here.
"Wait, who is Luigi anyway?" Blade asked.
"He's Mario's brother. You know, at the 'party'?" Chopper explained. "He was the one who looked kind of like Mario, but is a bit taller than him and is in green. Speaking of Luigi… I haven't seen him in a while. I'm starting to get a little worried about him… That and my other friends…"
Mario: I think they'll be just fine. Luigi can take care of himself, despite being cowardly.
"Poyo! (Swoopula at eight o'clock!)" Kirby alerted as a Swoopula came down on top of Chopper's head and began to suck the HP out of him. Chopper whacked the Swoopula with his wand and knock it off, allowing Mario to take care of it with a couple of jumps.
"So… What do you think is in these coffins?" Sonic asked, looking down at the coffins. He looked rather shocked to see one open and see a Zombie Waddle Dee pop out and try to tackle him.
"Whoa!" Sonic performed a Spin Jump on the Zombie Waddle Dee to defeat it. Another coffin ended up opening as well, but this time Dark Bones popped out and tried to throw a bone at Sonic, which it succeeded in doing.
"Ugh… Getting hit in the face by a bone isn't nice…"
"Well, I don't think it'll like this!" Chopper charged up a beam attack and fired a shot directly at the Dark Bones. Of course, it didn't seem to destroy it. All it did was make the Dark Bones collapse onto the ground. So he simply chucked a couple of charged fireballs at it to destroy it.
"I wonder… Would ice do anything to them?"
"Maybe you should try to find out in the future," Blumiere suggested.
"Maybe," Chopper picked up Squirps and searched for anything else in the room with Timpani's wand. They didn't find anything else, but in another coffin, a Super Shroom happened to be in there.
"Poyo, (Well that's a coincidence,)" Kirby sighed in relief as he grabbed it and split it into five pieces. They each ate a piece and recovered 20 HP. They then pressed on to the next room through the door.
They noticed that this room they walked into was rather small, but there were a couple of Zombie Koopas up ahead getting ready to go into their shells and toss themselves at the heroes. Some Embers were patrolling these parts too, but what they noticed was that there was something that looked kind of strange on the ground in the room. Plus, the door itself is locked.
"Dang it! The door's locked!" Sonic frowned as Chopper flashed Timpani's wand over by the door. But that's not what they had to worry about right now. The Zombie Koopa was coming their way!
"Oh, this is nothing," Blade kicked the Zombie Koopa shell away from the group and sent it back to the Ember. It didn't do much damage, but it ended up getting destroyed after a couple of slashes from Blade's katana. "See? All better!"
"Ummmmmm… I wouldn't necessarily say that." Chopper frowned, pointing to the Ember that was still alive. Even when Squirps shot his beam at the Ember, it didn't do much against it.
Mario: So much for that…
"You just need to freeze it, squinkles!" Squirps suggested. "Ice can sometimes freeze things! Squirps has done it in the past!"
"Ummmmm… I guess we can give it a try then!" Chopper tossed an ice ball at the Ember, causing it to freeze. Mario finished it off with his hammer, destroying it instantly. Afterward, they happened to notice that in the middle of the room, there were small blocks stuck together that could possibly be blocking a way down.
"You might be able to break those small blocks if you have an attack that involves striking things down below you…" Timpani informed.
"Stand aside, guys! I'll handle this!" Blade gripped his katana and brought it down on the blocks, destroying them. Of course, since they were now standing in mid-air, they were forced to scream before falling…into water.
"Mmmmmmmmgggffhhh! (No! NO! NOOO! Not the water!)" Sonic began to choke in the water, but soon took in an air bubble that was lucky enough to appear right by him. What a relief!
"Wow… I never knew we'd be in the water here…" Chopper trailed.
"It's dark and murky here, squirp," Squirps pointed out. "It's hard for Squirps to see around here! You might need to use that flashlight!"
"Yeah, better do that," Chopper gripped Timpani's wand and began to search the room. A couple of Fishbones were coming right toward them, but he managed to make his beam wand emit a beam as he swung it to knock the Fishbones back. Kirby squirted water at them a couple of times and finished them off.
"Poyo? (Who would've thought that dead fish could be defeated?)" Kirby questioned as he sank to the ground, where both Sonic and Blade were taking in many air bubbles. It was actually funny to everyone else, but for the two…not so much.
"OK, let's not joke around now. They're not so happy about it." Chopper pointed to both Sonic and Blade, who were glaring at them with their arms folded. "Sheesh! We were only joking!"
They happened to notice a door over toward the right, so they started to swim their way toward the door. Some spikes happened to rise up from the ground as they swam, making Sonic jump over them. Of course, the hedgehog HAS had experience through this before.
"If only I could get my hands on a Bubble Shield…" Sonic thought as he jumped over to the door. He grabbed an air bubble first before opening it. He wasn't satisfied to see that the water didn't allow him to run fast.
"Yeah, I don't like that I can't move fast here," Chopper groaned as he tried moving. Nevertheless, he and the rest of the group swam into an underwater room with large Thwomps coming down from the ceiling. Chopper checked in 3-D to see if they were there, but even then they were.
"Poyo? (So what did you find out?)" Kirby asked.
"We can't go in 3-D. The Thwomps are there too." Chopper confirmed as he decided to remove his Beam ability and take in some water to gain the Water ability. With it, he made two Bubble Shields. One for Sonic and one for Blade. They were finally relieved to breathe in air.
"I always wondered… How can a bubble give you oxygen?" Blumiere asked.
"That's something I never got either…" Timpani trailed.
"Well it's not a big deal. That's kind of like asking why there are non-human beings around here that can speak," Blade mentioned as he swam past one of the Thwomps coming down. However, Timpani spoke once again.
"There's something that's a little interesting, you know," everyone paused for the moment and looked at Timpani's wand. "It's possible to stop the Thwomps from moving if you use ice against it… They're guaranteed to freeze while being in water."
"Oh, then that gives me an idea!" Chopper tossed an ice ball straight at the first Thwomp, freezing it for a couple of seconds. Everyone moved past the Thwomp before it broke out of its cold prison.
"So, you basically have to do that for each Thwomp, squirp?" Squirps asked.
"Yeah, but I find it to be a bit repetitive…" Chopper started to freeze the rest of the Thwomps with some ice balls. After a while, they made it to the door and entered through into a smaller room.
"Hmmmmmm… I think there's something here." Sonic predicted.
"It's too dark to see though, squirple!" Squirps cried. "Even Squirps's antenna can't see what's going on here! Please flash that flashlight for Squirps! I feel as if I'm in a very unsafe situation right now!"
"OK, hold on a minute," Chopper aimed Timpani's wand around the room. There didn't appear to be any enemies around, but what he happened to notice was that there was a chest in the center of the room.
"There appears to be a hidden chest here," Timpani informed as she took notice of the hidden chest. "Here, let me make it visible for you, OK?"
And with a simply flash the chest was now visible. Chopper kicked the chest open and found a Door Key from inside. "All right, I suppose this is what we need in order to unlock that door."
"Yeah, let's get out of here now," Sonic suggested. "I'm getting tired of being in the water. Sure, I may have the Bubble Shield on me, but I still can't move fast. I wanna be out in the fresh air!"
"Poyo… (But there's no real fresh air here…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo. (We haven't found any TRUE fresh air. It's just all gloomy outside and not filled with fresh air.)"
Mario: Let's just head back.
Back in that one room-
With the key in their hands, they were able to unlock the door just up ahead in the room where they had to destroy those small yellow blocks. They were immediately led into a room with a slope going down and a ramp going across a large gap of spikes. There was also a pipe right in the background, but not necessarily on the ground where they area. There were only a couple of moving platforms in the background though.
"Poyo, (Hey, look at the background,)" Kirby said, taking notice of a couple of moving platforms in the background. "Poyo? (Is there any chance that we have to check over there to see what's around?)"
"Yeah, I can see what's in the background," Chopper flashed Timpani's wand at the background, giving them all a full view of the place. Mario punched the Save Block right next to the door first before doing anything else.
Mario: How do we get through here?
"I think I can get over this ramp if I curl up into a ball while going down," Sonic pondered. "However, I think you need to help me, Chopper. I can't necessarily see where I'm going without light."
"Then the private will give you light!" Squirps took Timpani's wand from Chopper's hands and flashed it directly at Sonic. "Now you must go, private!"
"Whoa, stop it! That light's getting in my eyes!"
"Squirps, this isn't a toy, you know!" Timpani shouted. "I don't necessarily trust you with my wand!"
"Quiet down, flashlight! You cannot heed the general!" now they all knew he was starting to become more military-like than space-like at the moment. "Squirps holds the flashlight! Squirps is using it to help the privates!"
"Whoa… That was…strange." Blade gawked. "Does he act like this usually?"
"Only when he gets mad…" answered Chopper.
"OK, I guess I'll start going then," Sonic curled up in a ball and began to go down the steep slope. The ramp allowed him to go over the gap filled with spikes and land right by a blue ! Switch that he hit while he was in a ball.
With this, a couple of platforms appeared for the rest of the group over on the gap with the spikes. They used them to get over to Sonic and also to the pipe where they needed to go through to reach the background.
"Squirps will stay here for now," Squirps suggested, staying by the pipe. "Squirps is a bit tired from all of that exploration…squirple. Squirps feels like… No! I don't want to take a nap right now!"
"You have a problem with sleeping?" Blumiere asked.
"If I go to sleep, I'm going to have worse nightmares, squooog! Squirps knowsthat any ghosts could be watching us this very moment!" he began to shiver in fear at the thought of all the monsters.
"Well, then you should stay here for now and not move. That way, we'll know that you'll still be here." Chopper got a hold of the wand that he was holding and then jumping into the pipe with everyone else.
Using Timpani's wand, Chopper scanned the room for any enemies. Luckily, there didn't appear to be any enemies, so they simply used the moving platforms to get over to another blue ! Switch.
"Poyo? (What do you think this will do?)" Kirby asked.
"Why don't we find out?" Chopper kicked the blue ! Switch with his foot and it triggered a door to be drawn right by Squirps. Everyone returned to Squirps, where they saw him taking a nap.
Mario: Wake up, Squirps!
"Squoh?" Squirps yawned and quickly shook his head. "Squirps was just taking a… Oh, no! Squirps actually fell asleep! Now the ghosts will get even more powerful thanks to Squirps's nightmares!"
"Well, we managed to get the door to appear, if that's anything special," Chopper pointed out.
"Should we get going then?" Sonic asked.
"Ahem! Of course we should, privates! We must get movin', squoork!" Squirps made his way over to the door and opened it, heading into another room. Kirby hit the ? Block right near him with his head to make a Mushroom pop out. They all ate a piece of it to recover 10 HP.
"It stinks that it wasn't a Super Shroom," Blade grumbled.
Mario: Well it's better than nothing.
"Poyo, (Although, I was hoping that we could actually have a Max Tomato,)" Kirby sighed. "Poyo… (Those are one of the greatest foods in the world… I'd love to get a taste of those again…)"
"We can't think about food now… I don't want to have a growling stomach…" Chopper trailed as he opened the door into a room that actually had some light coming from the ceiling. They could see some of the full moon up in the sky. It started to remind Sonic of a certain time where he transformed into a monster at night.
"Ugh… That moon brings back horrible nightmares…" Sonic huffed, looking up at the sky. They happened to notice a pile of bones in the corner of the room and some broken pillars on both sides of the room.
"At least there's light in here," Blumiere sighed in relief.
"Hold it right there!"
Another Koopaling jumped down from the ceiling with his fists clenched. It was that brown Koopa with the white head with a brown star right on one of his eyes. Not to mention he was a bit buffed up.
"So YOU'RE the heroes that dark kid was talkin' about!" Morton grinned, glaring at Mario. "I can tell 'cause you have a certain plumber with you that has been trouncing us for a while!"
"Wait a second… Don't tell me you're one of THOSE guys again…" Blade face palmed.
Mario: I don't think I told you that Bowser has seven Koopalings...
"Look, let me tell you this," Chopper advised, walking up to Morton. "We beat your other brother, Larry. I'm pretty sure we can take you down. It's five against one! So, I think you should just…"
Morton stomped on the ground, sending a shockwave that knocked everyone back. "I'm King Bowser's toughest Koopaling! You can call me Morton! And if there's anyone that's going to kick your butts, it's going to be me!"
"I'd say we'd be kicking your butt here," Blade said.
"Yeah! ...Or we're just going to defeat you!" Chopper declared.
"Mine sounds better."
"Well I like mine more."
"Enough already! I'm gonna turn you guys into pancakes and sit on you guys for the rest of your life!" Morton clenched his fists and got ready to jump, pulling his wand out. "Get ready for some PAIN!"
"Wait, wouldn't sitting on us technically make us pancakes? How can you do that when we end up becoming pancakes already?" unfortunately, for Sonic, he got ignored by the angry Koopa, who jumped up into the air and sent everyone flying back again as he stomped on the ground.
"Get ready to be clobbered!" he growled as he waved his wand. This gave Chopper the chance to investigate Morton with Timpani's wand.
"That's Morton Koopa Jr. He's one of Bowser's Koopalings, and he is one of the bigger ones. Max HP is 150. Attack is 10. His attacks are mainly him stomping on the ground, retreating into his shell to protect himself and also firing ring-like projectiles from his wand. You can go right through the rings, because that will prevent you from taking damage. Although, I wonder… If he's a Jr., then who is the Sr.?" Timpani informed.
Mario: You know, I was wondering about that too!
"Ehhhh… I'd rather not speak about that. I wanna kick this guy's butt!" Blade drew his katana and jumped right through the ring-like magic Morton fired from his wand, swinging his katana at him afterward and then knocking him over by bringing his foot to Morton's face.
"HA! Take that!" he grinned before getting knocked away by Morton's claws. Of course, Blade managed to jump back before getting clawed in the chest. He decided to weaken him a bit with a couple of shurikens and throwing Hommissile at him, causing an intense explosion that knocked him back.
"I should help him cool off," Chopper said as he made a Tidal Wave attack hit Morton while he had a bit of fire on him from the explosion, sending him flying against the wall and getting soaking wet.
"Grrrrrrr! You're going to pay for that, kid!" Morton jumped toward Chopper and stomped right on top of him, knocking his Water ability toward the wall. Kirby inhaled the yellow star and spat it straight at Morton to knock him away from Chopper.
"Poyo… (Yeesh… Well, he's certainly not as easy compared to that Larry guy…)" Kirby panted.
"Nah, he's just slow. That's why we need to move fast when fighting this guy." Chopper said as he got himself up. He tossed a couple of fireballs toward Morton and set him on fire for a couple of seconds. But at least he left a nasty burn on him, that's for sure!
Mario: I wonder why burning didn't do anything when Bowser helped me…
While thinking about these things, Mario performed a Triple Jump and landed right on top of Morton's head. Morton was about to hit him with his wand, but he managed to give him a punch before jumping back and getting hit by Morton's magic.
"I'll make sure you're the first to go, punk!" Morton growled, glaring at Mario.
Mario: We'll see about that!
Morton got in his shell and prepared to ram into everyone. But, since he was in his shell, this allowed Sonic to kick him toward the wall, leaving him dizzy for a couple of seconds. He decided to zip up to him and taunt him for a couple of seconds to make him angry.
"Man, I never knew you were such a slowpoke!" Sonic mocked, easily avoiding Morton's claws and performing a Whirlwind attack to send him flying up. This allowed him to jump up to him and strike him a couple of times while he was curled up in a ball. He did this…rather fast.
"And this is why I wish I could have attacks like that…" Chopper trailed, turning his head over to Squirps. "Ummmmm… Squirps? Do you want to help fight this guy? Y'know, shoot him with your fireballs?"
"Nah, Squirps is good," Squirps responded, lying on the ground, relaxing. "You privates can take care of that thing."
"…OK," Chopper turned around and pulled his hammer out. He began to spin it around horizontally at Morton while ice energy was on it, leaving the Koopaling to shiver from the intense cold.
And of course, Kirby was able to leave him dizzy too as he jumped on him with the help of Carrie. Blade gripped his katana and struck the Koopaling with a fire slash, now burning him once again.
"Gah! Why do you always have to try to burn me to a crisp?!" Morton growled, waving his wand and firing more magic. This time, he fired an energy blast from his wand at Mario, knocking him back. Chopper managed to stomp on his head and then slam his foot right on his nose.
"HA! I bet you didn't like getting hit in the nose, did ya?" Chopper smirked.
"Grrrr!" Morton fired another magic blast at Chopper, sending him flying back only slightly. It didn't stop him from hurling a couple of fireballs at him. Plus, combined with Sonic's corkscrew attack, they were able to deal even more damage.
"Wow, even if his attack is higher than that other guy, he's pretty slow," Blade commented as he did a diving attack on Morton and struck him a couple of times with his katana to leave some scars on the Koopaling's arms. "Wait… Is this the right thing to do anyway? He's a child of that big Koopa… Is it wrong?"
Mario: I'm not so sure…
"Then maybe I shouldn't be using any sharp objects," Blade put his katana away and threw Hommissile at Morton instead, just to be a bit noble.
"That? Noble? HA! You're not going to beat me by goin' easy on me!" Morton smirked as he got in his shell and knocked Blade back. Mario managed to bash the Koopaling in the head with his hammer afterward, leaving him a bit dazed.
"Ugh… I feel so dizzy…"
Mario smirked as he stomped on top of Morton's head a couple of times, performing some stylish moves. When he stopped, Morton managed to shake himself and fire a blast from his wand at Mario to knock him back.
Mario: That was painful…
"Hold on, let me help you, Mario," Blade managed to perform some stylish moves with his ninja abilities and use some kind of jutsu move that involved wind, blowing Morton off his feet and knocking him toward the wall.
"What the he was that?!"
Chopper jumped toward Morton and kicked him in the stomach. Upon colliding, a bunch of rocks began to fall from the ceiling.
"Aw, crud… I just didn't do that, did I?"
"Poyo? (Is it possible to eat the rocks?)" Kirby asked.
"Let's find out," Chopper inhaled one of the rocks and swallowed it. His skin changed to a light brown tint, with his gloves and feet were a brown color. His helmet was also just like the one he wore with his Ninja ability, except this one was a navy blue and not red. The plume on the top of the helmet was also red instead of purple. "Oh… I guess I'm Stone Chopper now!"
"Poyo! (Let me get one!)" Kirby inhaled a rock too and got the Stone ability. He had the same helmet on him and the same colored skin as him with it on. The first thing Kirby did was float over Morton and come down on him as a statue of himself.
"Hey, that's pretty cool!" Chopper commented. "I've never seen someone else do that!"
"Poyo! (You should try it out!)" Kirby suggested as he turned back into himself. While Morton was dizzy, Chopper jumped on top of him first and then turned into a statue of Luvbi, which was surprisingly weird.
"And I thought we'd never see that girl again…" Sonic grumbled.
"Wait, what did I turn into?" Chopper asked as he turned back into himself.
"Luvbi."
"...Really?" Chopper didn't notice Morton quickly shaking himself and swatting Chopper away with his claws, making him fall right over by Squirps, who wasn't paying any attention to the fight. "Ummmmm… You paying any attention?"
"Squoh? Squirps doesn't care about the fight! You privates need to put an end to it, though!" Squirps retorted.
"Well, we're getting that over with already," Blade made a couple of signs with his hands and used a jutsu move that involved a flaming snake to rush at Morton and knock him over.
"Cough… Don't think this is over yet!" Morton wheezed as he jumped up in the air and came down. Several more rocks began to fall from the ceiling and down on the heroes. Thankfully, the helmet Chopper and Kirby had protected them from getting hit in the head.
"Ugh… That wasn't great…" Sonic moaned as he fell over for a couple of seconds before getting up. He managed to knock Morton to the ground easily with a little Spin Jump. He also got a chance to kick him in the stomach while he was open.
"Just a couple of more hits should do it…" Timpani informed.
"What? I'm not going to lose easily!" Morton retorted.
"Well, your HP says that it's low. Take a look." Chopper pointed down at Morton's HP bar, which was rather low. Morton looked down at it and gaped. "See? What'd I tell you? It's pretty low!"
"ARRRRRRRRGGGHHHHH!" Morton began to stomp the ground in anger. "Now I'm going to give you something!"
He immediately rushed at the group, hoping to make an attack on them. Of course, being the slow Koopaling that he is, he wasn't able to make an attack on them. Sonic was able to hit him with a Spin Jump and Mario easily stomped on his head.
Mario: Just give up the fight already!
"No way! Are you kidding me?!" Morton fired an energy blast from his wand and tried to hit Kirby. He managed to use his Defend ability that no one else has to prevent himself from taking any damage from the attack.
"And I also wish I could do that too," Chopper said.
"Errrrr… Can we just end this fight already?" Blade asked.
"You can do that if you want," Sonic nodded.
Mario: Fine by me!
"All right!" Blade smiled as he turned to Morton, who jumped up and stomped on the ground once again to make rocks fall down on them. Blade managed to use his katana to slice some of the rocks in half.
"Get ready for the big one!" Morton waved his wand and fired another magic energy blast toward Blade. It was pretty slow, but when it got to him, he began to spin his katana around and deflect it back at Morton.
"Aw, crud!"
The blast hit Morton and made him fall over on the ground. "No… I… I lost to these…losers…?"
And with one gasp, Morton was unconscious. Everyone walked over and looked down at the Koopaling. Blade poked him with the hilt of his katana to see if he would get up. Turns out that he wasn't going to be getting up.
"Well… Looks like we took care of him!" Chopper smiled.
"Although, it's kind of strange that he just became unconscious from all of that," Sonic mentioned. "It's kind of like with that other guy, Larry."
"Well we can't let it bother us right now…" Blade trailed as he walked over to the door. "We need to go find a way out of these ruins! Now they're starting to give me the creeps…"
"Yeah, you're right. I wanna get out of here." Chopper nodded as he picked up Squirps and opened the door into a room with a tunnel filled with those small yellow blocks. The one on the bottom appeared to have some kind of bomb on it. It looked kind of weird to them for some reason.
"That bomb block… Maybe if you hit it, it'll make the other blocks get destroyed…" Timpani trailed.
"Only one way to find out, squirp!" Squirps jumped into Chopper, hands, who ducked and squeezed Squirps to make him shoot a fireball straight at the block. It made all of the other blocks explode in their faces.
"Ummmmmmm… I have no comment about that." Chopper said with his eyes shrunk.
"Poyo, (It kind of reminds me of those blocks I used to break before,)" Kirby remarked as he walked through the tunnel to find a large step that he floated up to find a wooden stump that looked a bit different compared to the other stumps they've encountered in the past before.
Mario: Hey, it's one of those stumps!
"Poyo, (Let me try hitting it,)" Kirby jumped on top of the stump and transformed into a statue of Mimi. The stump triggered a bunch of stone-like blocks to be destroyed and also allowed them to go to the door ahead.
"Squirps can smell the end coming!" Squirps announced. "In fact, Squirps can even taste it!"
"You're NOT going to taste the ground…" Sonic gagged.
Mario: It's not good for you…
…Well, I guess after what Squirps said, they headed into the next room, which had a spring and some light coming from a hole in the ceiling. It kind of reminded them of that one room they encountered in this place.
"Wow… I never thought we'd be in a similar place like this," Chopper commented.
"Poyo? (And do I see Dark Bones in here?)" Kirby gawked, noticing two Dark Bones rise from the ground and throw bones at both Chopper and Kirby. Luckily, they managed to turn into stone, thus becoming immune to any attacks. The bones just bounced back and landed on the ground.
The two turned back into themselves and then turned into stones to land on the two Dark Bones. It didn't destroy them, but it made them collapse to the ground. Blade finished them off by making a hand signal for one of his jutsu moves. It set the Dark Bones on fire and destroyed them.
"Man, if only Vivian were here to help with these guys…" Chopper trailed as he turned back into himself.
"Who's Vivian again? Was she the shadow chick?" Blade questioned.
"Yeah. She would be very helpful against these guys."
"Huh... Well, we still have fire."
"True."
"What are you privates talking about, squoork?" Squirps asked.
"Some old friends," Blade answered.
"Well, Squirps doesn't find that important right now! Moving on is more important, squirple!" Squirps declared.
"All right then," Chopper jumped on the spring and allowed himself to be launched up through the hole. Sonic shrugged and followed him up, with the rest of the group following.
Near the exit-
As the heroes jumping out of the hole, they noticed that there were windows in this room. There were also a couple of Phantom Ghosts roaming around the area, which wasn't exactly the nicest thing for them to see. But what they did see at the end of the room was a Star Block.
"Oh, thank goodness we're finally here!" Sonic sighed in relief. "This place is getting pretty dark, and I REALLY want to get outta here. So… Think we can hit the block already?"
"I'd love to do that," Chopper nodded as he squished a Phantom Boo was about to attack him. Kirby decided to join in and squish the other Phantom Boo with his Stone ability.
"Poyo! (Man, squishing enemies is fun!)" Kirby said cheerfully.
"True, but it doesn't seem really…painless."
"Should we get to ending this chapter?" Timpani asked.
"Oh… Yeah. We should get to that. Now where's that Star Block?" Chopper used Timpani's wand as a flashlight once again to spot the Star Block. "Got it! It's at the exit!"
"The exit? YES!" Blade fist pumped as they walked straight to the exit. They could see that the door had some light coming in, but not a lot.
"See? Squirps told you that the end was near!" Squirps smirked.
"Ummmmmmm… OK…" Chopper punched the Star Block and broke it to twenty stars. He decided to look up at them as they circled around and suddenly made the screen go white.
"Wait! What the heck?! What just…"
END OF CHAPTER
"Oh, man! We're FINALLY out of the darkness!" Blade cheered as he made his first step out of the ruins. "I can almost kiss the ground! …Which I'm not going to do…" Everyone took a good look and noticed that they were no longer in the graveyard. In fact, there were a couple of hills here. "Oh… I don't think we're going to be safe here, aren't we?" asked Chopper as he shivered in fear at the whole place. "I didn't expect this whole place to be freaky…" After Squirps's explanation at the graveyard, everyone soon realized that they were in the Path of Fear.
And there's Chapter 12-2 for ya. It's nothing really special, but to be honest, it's mostly 12-1 and this one that I'm not really a big fan of. But, at least there was another area where it was pretty dark and hard to see (the other being Chapter 7-2). Plus, there was some water as well!
And some of you may be asking, "Why was Morton in this chapter? We already had Larry!" Well, I was originally going to have Larry appear in Chapter 11 before, but I completely forgot to put that scene in the Chapter 10 Interlude before and decided to put it into Chapter 11's interlude. ...So don't expect any more Koopalings in this chapter.
Next part: Our heroes explore the Path of Fear and meet someone they've met previously. :P