CHAPTER 12-3
-How to Face Your Fears-
"Those who cross the Path of Fear have been said never to return ever again…" Squirps explained as they set foot on the grassy ground. "Squirps's nightmares have told me many things! Especially this area! It knows your fears! Every. Single. One of them. The only way to venture through the Path of Fear is to face your fears… And that's one thing Squirps might have a difficult time with…squooog…"
"Uhhhhhhhh… Then that's not a good thing." Chopper gulped as he listened to Squirps's explanation and shivered in fear.
"Oh, what's wrong with you, Chopper?" Blade asked, giving him a strange look that Chopper has probably seen before. "Are you REALLY scared of this place? Man up and handle it! Besides, I bet your fears aren't going to really haunt you that much around here! As long as your brave, nothing can get in your way!"
"Well my fear is PRETTY bad! …Although, I don't fear just one thing…" Chopper soon realized something as he looked at Blade's smug look. "Wait, HOLD on just a minute! Why are you acting so smug to me? You know that this place is called the Path of Fear, right? So… What's YOUR fear?"
"My fear? Errrrr… I'm not afraid of anything! I have nothing to fear about in a place like this!" Blade crossed his arms and kept his smug look, even though it definitely looked like he was lying about it.
Mario: You're lying…
"OK, let's not get to this…" Sonic suggested, sensing some kind of fight going on later. "I think we should just take a deep breath and go through this place. As long as we don't think about our fears, then we should be just fine."
At this point, Chopper was unsure what to say. He was still shivering over the fact that something he fears could come out of nowhere. And we all know that THAT'S not a good thing…
"Poyo, (Yeah, I don't like the sound of this place,)" Kirby shivered, but not as much as Chopper. "Poyo? (The Path of Fear? That's not really a nice place to be, especially when your fears are there…)"
"Wait, hold on a second," Chopper stopped shivering for a moment and pondered. "I remember some kind of place similar to this! Yeah… It was back two years ago… I think it was called Nightmare Road."
"Nightmare Road? What kind of place is that?" Blumiere asked.
"It's an area that's past Ghost Town back in the Mushroom Kingdom," he explained as everyone listened. "Basically, it can have all of your nightmares appear there. If you think about them, then your nightmares come to life. It's not exactly the greatest experience, to be honest."
"Wait, so what happened in Nightmare Road?" Sonic asked.
"Well, here's the funny story… There was a Yoshi in my party name Yosho, and apparently he's always considered himself a 'ladies man'…of course, he's always getting rejected and all that. Guess what he does? He decides to think of a pretty female ghost that he could have with him all his life! …And trust me, having ghosts of things isn't pretty."
Mario: Things would be fine if we had Luigi's Poltergust 3000.
"Interesting, squirp! …But now's not the time for that! Squirps suggests that we move on!" Squirps jumped into Chopper's hands and pointed forward. "Onward, private!"
"Oh, fine…" Chopper decided to remove his Stone ability, since it really wasn't going to give him much help and started by going down a little hill. Some Phantom Ghosts were appearing around here. Heck, the sky seemed to be filled with ghosts.
"So, are we actually going to see any zombies in this part?" Blade asked.
"Squirps doesn't think so…" Squirps trailed as Chopper squeezed him and made him shoot a couple of fireballs at a Phantom Boo that was coming toward him. "Zombies are only in the cemetery… So we should be fine when it comes to zombies. But as for ghosts… Squirps says no."
"Well I can see the door ahead," Chopper let go of Squirps and punched a ? Block that was at the top of a small hill to make a Mushroom pop out. Everyone took a piece and recovered 10 HP from it.
Mario: That's some good stuff!
"Yeah, but I kind of wished that we could have something like an Ultra Shroom," Chopper remarked.
Sonic nodded and curled up in a ball to go through these hills without any problems. Everyone else followed him down the small hill and then up the hill to where they saw a red door with the rainbow frame. Without hesitation, they entered into a flatter area with some bottomless pits and those brown blocks that were making stairs. They were small, though.
They could also see a couple of Phantom Boos circling right next to the small staircase. When the five heroes walked up the small staircase, they could notice that a part of the circle had no Phantom Boo, so they simply jumped right in the center of the circle, where they saw a Brick Block there.
"Let's hit it," Sonic suggested as he hit the block a couple of times to get coins. A ladder also came out and led up to a platform up above them. Apparently there was a chest sitting up there.
Mario: I got it!
Mario decided to climb up the ladder and get past the Phantom Boos. When he reached the top, he opened the chest and found a new type of shake. It had a silver Mushroom on it and was known as an Ultimate Shroom Shake.
He came down to the rest of the group and showed the shake to them. "Hey… That looks a lot like an Ultimate Shroom! I'm guessing that this is called an Ultimate Shroom Shake!" Chopper sure knew that that was something he's seen in the past before.
"Poyo? (What do those do again?)" Kirby asked.
"They allow you to recover 100 HP. Yeah, it's definitely worth it." Chopper let Mario hold onto the shake as they got past the Phantom Boos. Of course, they had to run into other ghost enemies, like these purple ghosts that poison you with their tongue called Hauntings and red ghosts named Grabbers, which are supposed to try to grab you and deal damage to you.
"Hey, look! Those ghosts!" Chopper aimed Squirps at the Haunting and squeezed him to shoot a couple of fireballs at it. Those fireballs were quite deadly, especially when Squirps charged up one and destroyed the Grabber easily.
"Man, and they call this place the Path of Fear!" Blade scoffed. "All of these enemies are nothing to fear!"
"Yeah, this place doesn't seem so bad," Sonic agreed.
They happened to see a tree right up ahead, but when they walked up to it, red eyes and a mouth appeared on the tree and its root detached from the ground. It looked like it was one of those fake trees that try to pretend to be real trees (although that's a bit of an obvious one…).
"Oh, come on! Why do many things have to be fake around here?!" Chopper exclaimed while shaking his arms like crazy and THEN smacking his forehead. "Ugh… Fine. I'll investigate this thing."
"That's a Ghastly Tree. They look like trees, but they're actually ghosts. Max HP is 48. Attack is 9. Defense is 2. Ghastly Trees tend to exhale its nasty breath that can cause you to fall asleep. Since it's just like a tree, you can easily defeat it with fire. But be careful, Ghastly Trees can be quite fast… In fact, why do they even hide like that? What is there out here?" Timpani informed as Chopper flashed her wand at the Ghastly Tree.
"Poyo, (Well that doesn't seem too bad,)" Kirby commented as he floated above the Ghastly Tree and turned into a statue of Heartsy while coming down on the tree.
"Hey, isn't that Heartsy?" Chopper gawked, the statue quickly turning back into Kirby.
"Poyo? (Heartsy? Where?)" Kirby gawked.
"Get it together, privates! There's nothing to fear!" Squirps assured until he heard a cackling sound in his "ears". "S-Squoh? Wh-What was that?"
"No idea…" Chopper tossed a couple of fireballs at the Ghastly Tree and finished it off with a charged fireball to kill it off. They simply pressed on and jumped over a bottomless pit to find a Haunting rushing toward them. Mario simply stomped on it a couple of times to defeat it.
Mario: That was too easy!
But soon, Mario stopped when he saw a ghost of Bowser holding a ghost of Peach's hand. It looked like there were rings on their fingers, which made Mario's face turn white.
"Wait a minute… Why's Mario's face all white?" Chopper asked.
Sonic waved his hand over Mario's face. "Whoa… I don't know, is he seeing something?" Mario pointed up at the sky at the ghosts of Bowser and Peach getting married. "Wait… What's that?"
Mario: Bowser and Peach getting married…
"What the… That's not right!" Chopper denied, shaking his head. He looked up at the sky too and saw them. "…Yeesh, I didn't want to see anything like that. Why would a Koopa marry a human?"
"Mario… It's not real. Just relax, all right?" Blade suggested before noticing something behind a bush. He noticed that it was the ghost of his sensei's hand. "WHOA! What the heck?!"
"Wait, is that a floating hand?" Sonic asked.
"Your darn right it is! That's my sensei's hand! That… That was the hand that was cut off by my older brother, Knife. Seeing that hand got me a little traumatized when I was a bit younger…"
"Oh, man… That's not good…" Sonic ran past the small ruins in the background and used a Spin Jump on a Grabber a couple of times to take it out, then jumped over another bottomless pit.
"Hopefully we don't run into any Hammer Bros. here," Chopper hoped as he bashed a Haunting with his hammer. After jumping over the bottomless pit, he hurled some fireballs straight at a Ghastly Tree blocking the door ahead past a row of Brick Blocks.
Mario punched a Brick Block to find a Happy Flower, but he couldn't even bother to check it because of what he was seeing. Those ghosts were following him too, so it made it even worse!
"This place just isn't pretty…" Blade shivered as he used a fire slash on the Ghastly Tree to kill it off and walk into the next area. They happened to see two ? Blocks right near each other and a bunch of other Brick Blocks. A couple of ghosts happened to be roaming around here as well.
"Squirps doesn't like this place… The cackling makes Squirps scared!" Squirps shivered as he jumped under one of the ? Blocks and got a hold of a Mega Star. Everyone gawked as he transformed into an 8-bit version of himself.
"Squoh? Why does Squirps's head feel so…light?" Squirps noticed how big he was and looked down at all of the ghosts. "Squeh squeh squeh! Now you ghosts are going to get it now!"
"I'm not sure whether this is good or bad…" Timpani trailed.
"Well, we can just let him destroy everything in sight, that's for sure," Chopper smiled as they followed Squirps and jumped over some bottomless pits. Some of the pits were rather wide and some parts of the ground were a bit skinny as well, so it was a bit…weird.
"Be careful here, guys… Try your best not to fall…" Blade warned as he managed to jump over the bottomless pit and on the grassy ground. Sonic landed afterward and then the rest of the group.
"Yeesh… This place is just…not right…" Sonic trailed as he looked at all of the ghosts in the sky. Another thing he happened to notice was a ghost of Eggman holding all of the Chaos Emeralds in his hands and using them to crush all of Sonic's friends.
"Sonic!" the crying voice sounded like the voice of his best friend, Tails. "Sonic! Please help me!"
"Tails! No!" Sonic cried as he saw Eggman summon a robot to crush him. "He's… He's gone!"
"Don't let it get to you, Sonic! That's not real!" Chopper said, trying to make him stop getting traumatized. "There's no reason to get scared over something that's not really happening!"
"I… I know… But seeing that is just… I don't WANT that to happen!" Sonic put his hands on the side of his head and began to shiver. "I just don't like to see it when my friends are crushed…"
"Poyo, (Well they don't call this the Path of Fear for nothing,)" Kirby commented, looking at the ghosts. Heck, even the ghosts of Bowser and Peach getting married and the floating hand of Blade's sensei were following them. "Poyo? (Are we the only ones that haven't seen our fears?)"
"…Yeah, we haven't seen them yet," Chopper gulped, realizing this by now. "…But they can come out of nowhere."
Kirby happened to notice that there was a ghost of a basket of fruit floating right beside him. He seemed pleasantly surprised…until all of the food was gone. He even saw a ghostly image of all of the food in Dream Land disappearing.
"P-Poyo… (N-No… Not all of the food in Dream Land…)" Kirby stepped away from the ghost, but it seemed to follow him still. At this point, the pink puffball was starting to flee from it.
Mario: This is ridiculous!
"No kidding! I can't stand being chased by this hand!" Blade continuously swung at the ghostly hand, but it didn't seem to do anything. It just kept following him like every hand does.
"Ugh… I can't believe I haven't seen my fear just yet…" Chopper shivered as he stepped away from the other ghosts with his hands over his mouth. "This just doesn't feel right at all…"
He ended up falling over when he bumped into Squirps, who apparently had turned back to normal. A Save Block happened to be right by the door, to their relief. Chopper punched it and saved their game.
"With all of these fears around here, this place is starting to become rather dangerous…" Blumiere trailed.
"Squirps still can't stand those cackling voices…" Squirps shivered, now being back to his normal self. He noticed that there was a ghost of him being tortured by all of the ghosts around his ghost self. "SQUACK! Squirps can't take any more of this!"
He immediately rushed into the next area before doing anything else. His ghost ended up following him with all of the other ghosts torturing him. Everyone groaned and face palmed at this whole thing.
"Poyo… (I feel like this is going to be a long trip…)" Kirby sighed.
"Maybe, but I'm not going to like being around here with all of these fears…" Chopper frowned. "But, at least I haven't seen my fear yet. …But I feel as if I'm going to jinx it all now!"
"Don't let it get to you, Chopper. I'm trying my best to stop looking at what I'm seeing…but as you can tell, it's not going very well…" Sonic sighed as he tried to cover his eyes from the ghosts. If you didn't know, all of these ghosts that they were seeing were a white color.
Mario: I don't like my fear one bit…
"None of us like it, but we gotta get moving," Blade sighed as he opened the door and headed through the next area. Everyone else shrugged and tried to go through the door, with their fears following them.
Next area-
"Ugh… I'm not getting a nice feeling in my head from that sky…" Chopper moaned as he looked up at the sky that was filled with many ghosts. This area was actually rather small, but there wasn't a door around here. It was kind of freaky, for most of them…as if there was a trap.
"Squirps is all right for now…" Squirps panted as he looked down at the ground. He looked back up ahead and noticed someone. "Squoh? There's someone waiting for us in this area!"
"Wait, someone's waiting for us?"
At this point, everyone looked up ahead and saw a ghost facing away from them. They couldn't get a clear view on it either.
"Maybe we should say hello, squinkles!" Squirps suggested as he walked over to the ghost. Unfortunately, he was stopped when Chopper grabbed a hold of his antenna and pulled him back.
"I don't like this, Squirps… I don't think it's a good idea…"
"Poyo, (It looks just like a ghost,)" Kirby stated, covering his eyes to avoid seeing his fear.
"…I have a bad feeling about this," Chopper gulped as he was the first to walk up to the ghost. The way it was just standing there made it seem freaky. When he got a bit closer, he was shivering in fear as he was about to raise his arm. "Uhhh... Hello?"
The ghost immediately turned to Chopper, and he instantly gasped. Just the appearance of this creepy hand attached to the ground made him shiver.
"Oh no... Not those things..."
"Wait... You're afraid of a ghostly hand?" Blade asked with a bewildered look.
The hand grabbed a hold of Chopper and started pulling him toward the portal. He let out a cry as his arms flailed around, but he did manage to hit it with a fireball, causing it to screech loudly.
"OK, I take it back. I can understand why you don't like this thing."
"Squirps? Can you help me, please?" Chopper cried.
"B-But… S-Squirps doesn't like what he's seeing!" Squirps shivered, backing away from the ghost that he was seeing. "Why do these ghosts have to torture Squirps like this?! I don't like it!"
"Then... I guess I should..." Chopper whipped out his hammer and brought it down on the ghostly hand, making it disappear.
"…Poyo? (…Wait, you can do that?)" Kirby turned into a statue of a muscular man and came down on the ghost that had no food in Dream Land, making it disappear. The rest of the group attacked their ghosts and they disappeared.
"Wow, that was easier than I thought," Sonic sighed in relief, with the ghost finally gone. "I thought for a second that we couldn't get rid of those guys! Lucky that we found a way to get rid of them!"
"Phew! Well that's a relief!" Chopper sighed as he decided to turn back, but what ended up happening was that he ended up bumping into the ghostly hand. "...Eep!"
Mario: Wait… If that ghost is still there… Does that mean…
"SQUAAGH! No!" Squirps shivered at the ghost that he got traumatized at before. From what Squirps could see, the ghosts were bringing in the butcher knives. "NO! ANYTHING BUT THE KNIVES! SQUIRPS DOESN'T WANT TO BE A COOKED SQUIRP!"
"CALM DOWN!" Blade shouted as he kept attacking the ghost hand. "What the heck's going on? I can't attack this thing!"
"Why can't you guys find a way to face your fears?" Timpani asked.
"Well how DO you face them?" Sonic asked.
"It's not very hard to face them," Blumiere began. "Sometimes, you can conquer it by getting it out of the way. What is it you fear the most about it? Maybe even words can help you against them…or certain thing."
"Squirps might have an idea!" Squirps went up to his ghost and got a white glove out of nowhere and slapped the ghosts with it. "You ghosts are NOT going to be having any Squirps tonight!"
"Oh, yeah? Who's stopping me?" the ghosts gave Squirps a smug look until they were blasted by Squirps's fireballs. This ended up causing them to get away from Squirps and destroy the fear that Squirps was facing.
"Squeh squeh squeh… That's right! Run like the ghost's you are, squirple!"
"Poyo, (Yeah, you managed to face your fears, but we still haven't,)" Kirby groaned, trying to prevent himself from looking. But, when he looked, he saw himself looking starved. But, he knew that he could TRY something, so he pulled a Shroom Shake out and threw it at the ghost…and that suddenly made food appear in the ghost. "Poyo… (And that was a weird way to conquer that…)"
Meanwhile, Chopper was backing away from the ghostly hand as it continued to grab him.
It was then that Chopper decided to stop running and inhale the ghostly hand, spitting it into the sky afterward.
"Whew! I finished that!" Chopper sighed.
"Huh… That was easy. Now to get rid of mine…" Blade turned to the floating hand and glared at it. "Now go away, please. You're not real, and I don't need floating hands around here. See? There's a sign here."
Blade made up a sign that says, "No Floating Hands Allowed", which made the floating hand suddenly go away.
"That's it? Wow... That was dumb."
"Well that wasn't as stupid as what I had to do…" Sonic trailed as he threw a rock at the Eggman ghost, causing him to drop the Chaos Emeralds and disappear from his sights. He almost felt like face palming.
As for Mario, he managed to tell Bowser that Peach could marry him because that would only happen in his dreams. This was lucky enough to get rid of his fear…for now. Even that was strange.
"…So we finally got rid of our fears?" Chopper asked.
"Poyo, (I think so,)" Kirby nodded. "Poyo. (Now let's get a move on before they come back.)"
Chopper agreed opened the door into the next area, followed by everyone else. With their fears out of the way, they could go through here with ease.
Next area-
Mario: There's nothing really around here…
"Yeah, you're right on that one, Mario," Sonic nodded as they walked into another small area. "I was actually expecting a little more here… I guess we're not going to see much anymore…"
"But at least we faced our fears, squinkles!" Squirps cheered.
"Oh, you really think you'll be safe now? Think again!" everyone paused when they heard chuckling coming from the area. At the very moment, Mr. L came down from the sky and landed right in front of the group.
"Hey, it's you! That strange masked guy!" Chopper gasped, getting into a fighting stance.
"Missed me? Hold your applause for later, losers, 'cause I don't need any right now." Mr. L smirked, making everyone face palm.
"Poyo… (Typical minion of Tipral…)" Kirby groaned.
"Hey, what'd you just say, creampuff?!" the masked man clenched his fists and glared at Kirby. "Are you mocking the great Mr. L?!"
"Look, we don't have time to be dealing with fiends such as yourself… Get out of the way…" Timpani suggested.
"Yeah, we don't fear you OR your leader Tipral!" Chopper smirked.
"How about that Dark Prognosticus?" Mr. L stepped back a bit. "Anything Tipral doesn't like… POOF! It never existed! You really think you can take on an evil being with such power that can destroy a world? You wish…"
Mario: Maybe it's best to leave before we trounce you…
"Oh, you're looking for a fight, red? Well, that's EXACTLY what I've come here for! Yup!"
"Oh, really?" Blade drew his katana and smirked at Mr. L. "Then how about we have a little fight then? I think that's the only way you'll get out of our way…"
"Excellent! That's just what I need!" Mr. L pointed at the heroes, shouting, "HAVE AT YOU!" before making a big jump toward them. The heroes got out of the way as the masked man tried to stomp them.
"All right, this time we're not going to let you have an easy start like before!" Sonic warned as he curled up in a ball and struck Mr. L with a powerful Homing Attack, knocking the masked man back.
"Oof! Whew… Not bad!" Mr. L got himself up and spun around. He began to make his way toward the group while spinning and managed to hit everyone in the face with his fists, knocking them back a bit.
"Owww! What the heck was that?!" Chopper gaped, wiping his cheek in pain.
"That's my L Cyclone attack!" Mr. L smirked, trying to jump toward him, but ultimately failing to get him. "It's a tough attack, that's for sure! I can use it to spin off the ground and even strike any enemy that's close to me! They'll get dizzy thanks to it!"
Mario: That's impressive…
"Yeah, it is!" Mr. L jumped right on top of Mario's head and made him dazed for a couple of seconds so Mr. L could perform his L Cyclone attack. However, Kirby managed to land on top of him as a statue of Mario.
"Poyo! (HA! Now you can't get up!)" Kirby scoffed as a statue.
Mr. L smirked as he managed to get on his hands and push the Mario statue off of him. When Kirby turned back into himself, Mr. L used his L Cyclone and sent Kirby flying toward Chopper, knocking them both to the ground.
"Hold on, let's see what we've got on him," Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and used it to investigate the mysterious man.
"That's Mr. L. He's one of Tipral's minions, and a strange one as well… Max HP is 150. Attack is 10. There's not much that has changed with him… He has the same stats as before… However, this time he has a new ability with him called the L Cyclone. He can use this to get off the ground or even deal a couple of hits to you. It's definitely a force to be reckoned with… Even projectiles get deflected thanks to it! If you keep your distance when he does that, then this fight shouldn't be a problem." Timpani informed.
"Well, just keep our distance and we'll be fine!" Blade smirked as Mr. L stopped spinning around. He immediately jumped in and began to strike the mystery man with his katana, which nearly left a scar on Mr. L.
"Hey! Watch where you point that thing!" Mr. L hissed.
"I'll point this wherever I want!" Blade tossed Hommissile directly at Mr. L and knocked him back. But he wasn't done yet. Mr. L jumped out of the smoke and tried to stomp on Blade, but his efforts were futile when the ninja cat used Barry to defend himself and cause Mr. L to hold his foot in pain.
"Ack! My foot!"
"Well this gives us a bit of an advantage!" Chopper hurled a couple of fireballs at Mr. L to leave a burn on him and then ran toward him. With a stomp and a stylish move, he left Mr. L dazed for a couple of seconds, allowing him to whip his hammer out and bash the baddie with it.
"Chopper! Watch out!" Timpani alerted as Mr. L got up and used his L Cyclone attack to strike Chopper a couple of times. He was even sent flying up so Mr. L could fold up and use his powerful Super Jump to deal double damage to the boy.
"You gotta be kidding me!" Chopper cried as he hit the ground.
"Aw, what's the matter? You getting your butt kicked by a grown-up, or rather, a cool guy such as myself?" Mr. L managed to bring his fist up when Mario was trying to attack from behind, which ended up hitting Mario in the nose and knocking him over.
"And as for you… Why do I always feel a strange connection between us? You kind of look like me a little! No matter… If you're a copy of me, then I'll surely take you down myself! Tipral would be proud!"
Mario: And so what? Wouldn't he tell you not to make a move again after last time?
"Oh, forget his orders! I wanted to take you losers down, so I decided to do it!" Mr. L performed his L Cyclone attack on Mario and sent him flying up, then he used his Super Jump to strike the plumber and make him plummet to the ground.
"Poyo, (Wow, he's pretty tough,)" Kirby commented.
"It's just a cyclone attack… What's the harm?" Chopper panted.
"Just leave this to me!" Sonic smirked as he performed a Whirlwind attack on Mr. L to send him flying up. While he was in the air, Sonic readied himself for a Light Speed Attack. When fully charged, he immediately came speeding up to Mr. L and struck him many times.
"Whoa… Yeah, that's pretty cool." Blade commented, using Barry as a barrier to protect himself from Mr. L's jump. It caused him to hold his foot in pain once again, and also allowing Blade to strike him with a hurricane slash, which is an attack that allows him to strike him with his katana and send him flying backwards.
"Well, you guys are doing fairly well…" Blumiere trailed.
"You wish!" Mr. L sneered, wiping the dirt near his mouth and jumping right on top of Blade to leave him dazed. He followed up with an L Cyclone attack that sent Blade flying up. "And now for the big one!"
"Oh, crud… Don't tell me you're going to…AAAAGH!" Blade felt the immense damage he took when Mr. L attacked him with a Super Jump. The baddie decided to kick him to the ground with his feet to deal some extra damage.
"Now THAT'S unfair…" Chopper trailed.
"Poyo! (No kidding! He's being cheap!)" Kirby agreed.
"What? Me? Being unfair in battle? Of course not!" Mr. L denied, clenching his fists at the two. "I'm MORE than unfair! I'm a force of nature!"
Kirby, now tired of hearing Mr. L talk like that, tossed Crystaline at him and froze him. Afterward, he took in some air and floated above Mr. L and transformed into a stone of a Thwomp to crush him. The ice that froze Mr. L shattered and he was instantly crushed by Kirby's stone attack.
"I'm gonna get you for this!" Mr. L managed to wiggle out and ended up kicking
Kirby when he turned back to normal. But it didn't stop Kirby from fighting back. He grabbed Mr. L's foot and managed to throw him to the ground and make him dizzy.
Mario: Nice going, Kirby!
Mario walked up to Mr. L while he was on the ground and when he got up, he gave him a bashing from his hammer. The masked man managed to strike him with his L Cyclone, but the plumber escaped the incredible Super Jump. When Mr. L landed on the ground, Mario jumped on his head and then performed his Ground Pound attack while he was stunned for a couple of seconds.
"You're going to pay for that, Red!" Mr. L growled, grabbing Mario's arm and throwing him to the ground, but soon being struck by Sonic's Spin Dash. At least, for Mr. L, he managed to stomp on Sonic when he was taunting him (something he tends to do all the time).
"Man… I REALLY have to stop with the taunting…" Sonic groaned.
"Maybe Squirps can give you assistance!" Squirps suggested. "Squirps remembers this guy hitting me before! I think it's time for some payback, squeeooorp!"
"Not a bad idea, Squirps," Chopper smirked as he picked up the little alien and aimed him straight at Mr. L. Chopper squeezed Squirps for a charged shot and when he loosened his grip, Squirps fired a charged beam attack at Mr. L, keeping him off guard for a couple of seconds.
"What? How DARE you hit the glorious Mr. L?!" Mr. L sneered, jumping toward Chopper and using his L Cyclone. Chopper jumped over him and fired at him. Of course, the cyclone attack simply deflected the attack back at him.
"Heads up, kid, I got your back!" Blade jumped right in front of Chopper and spun his katana around, deflecting the shot back at Mr. L when he stopped and knocking him to the ground once again.
"Not bad! I guess I underestimated you guys!" he huffed, readying himself for another Super Jump. Sonic immediately interrupted him by curling up in a ball and spinning around him for a Whirlwind attack.
"Take this!" while Mr. L was trapped in the tornado, Sonic curled up in a ball and did a Bounce Attack, followed by a kick that sent Mr. L flying across the area. When he finally got up, Mr. L jumped in between Chopper and Kirby and used his L Cyclone attack to knock them backwards. However, Blade managed to jump in and toss Hommissile at him after he stopping spinning around, covering him in soot.
"Heh heh heh! You so deserved that!" Blade smirked, crossing his arms before getting stomped by Mr. L. When he tried to attack him again, Blade used Barry to counter his attack make him take damage instead.
"You stupid cat! Why do you have to use that spiky thing?!" Mr. L growled, trying to attack Blade by punching him. But, once again, Blade used Barry to counter his attack and make him get hurt instead.
"Dude, I'm trying to keep myself from getting my ass kicked! What do you expect me to do? Slap you?"
"Well, I can do that," Chopper walked up to Mr. L and slapped him with his glove after taking it off. He put it back on and smirked. "See? Now that's supposedly a 'gentlemen's' way of fighting.
"Well this isn't a gentlemen's fight, creampuff," Mr. L snorted, stomping on his head. Luckily, Chopper managed to shake off the attack and kick Mr. L in the stomach and then punch him with ice energy, leaving him to shiver.
Mario: Not a bad idea!
While Mr. L was shivering, Mario rushed toward him and performed a Triple Jump attack on his head to deal some intense damage. With one Ground Pound, he left him down to very low HP.
"Ugh… I'm not feeling so good…" Mr. L moaned.
"Well, it's about to get worse!" Sonic grinned.
"…I don't know whether to laugh at that or face palm…" Chopper trailed.
"Errrrr… Maybe you should just ignore that." Sonic frowned as he curled up in a ball and charged up a Light Speed Attack. He readied himself afterward and began to attack Mr. L until he finally gave up and fell over on the ground.
"Heh heh heh…" the battered up Mr. L slowly got himself up and grinned at the heroes. "Not bad! Even with my L Cyclone, you were still able to best me…but now it's time I got serious!"
"What, and you weren't being serious before?" Chopper snickered.
"Oh, you'll be begging for mercy when you see this! BROBOT LAUNCH!" Mr. L threw his arms up in the air upon saying this.
…But he got nothing.
"Uhhhh… I said Brobot launch!" Mr. L looked around, sweat dropping. "You better get here, my metal bro…"
At this point, the ground began to shake and a robot resembling Mr. L tore through the background and landed right behind Mr. L. It looked exactly like Brobot, but this one seemed to have floating robotic hands and boots unlike the other Brobot.
"Just check this thing out! This bad boy is sporting the latest in brobotics." Mr. L explained, confusing the group. "Meet my new friend… BROBOT L-TYPE!"
Mr. L jumped into the cockpit and gained control of the controls. "The Green Thunder strikes like lightning! Hey, Mr. Gumballantennae, Mr. Pink 'n' Squishy, Mr. Spike-head, Mr. Ninja-Cat, and Mr. Jumpsallthetime! Let's see how you deal with Brobot's new missiles! Have at you!"
"Are you going to say 'have at you' before each time you start to fight us?" Sonic asked as Brobot L-Type was playing a techno remix of Mr. L's theme. It was rather…catchy to the group.
"Not bad!" Chopper commented, tapping his foot to the catchy theme. He decided to investigate Brobot L-Type first with Timpani's wand before doing anything else.
"That's Brobot L-Type. Mr. L pulled out all the stops to make this one... Max HP is 164. Attack is 12. Defense is 4. Defense against fire is 8. Most of its moves are the same, but it can now use its hands or tackle you... He seems to be weak to explosions, so try throwing Hommissile at it. Or, if it fires missiles at you, you can always inhale them and gain the Bomb ability. That should help you fight Brobot L-Type with explosives." Timpani informed.
"Huh… So I can actually use explosives on this guy?" Blade smirked, tossing Hommissile at Brobot L-Type. Because of the explosion, Hommissile was able to pierce through Brobot's defense.
"What?! …Whoa! I should've made sure that Brobot would be immune to explosions!" Mr. L growled, gritting his teeth.
He pressed a button on Brobot L-Type and the nose opened up and fired a missile at the group. Chopper inhaled the missile and gained the Bomb ability. With a bomb, he was able to pierce through its defense.
"Well, I might not be able to pierce through its armor, but I think I can deal some damage," Sonic performed a Whirlwind attack, but it didn't seem to do anything because of Brobot L-Type's weight.
"Heh heh heh! You really think a tornado can do anything to this bad boy?!" Mr. L scoffed.
"So what? I can do this!" Sonic performed a Homing Attack on Brobot L-Type's face, knocking it back slightly. Mr. L made Brobot's eyes flash and fire a green laser straight at Blade. He tried defending himself with his katana, but it did no good.
"Hold on a minute… I know how to take care of that!" Sonic snapped his finger, figuring out what to do and used Reflecto to deflect the laser back at Brobot L-Type. The robot began to heat up a little and ended up taking some serious damage.
"What the heck?! How'd you do that?!" Mr. L gaped.
Mario: Just with reflecting!
The red plumber jumped on Brobot's nose and then used Kickbrin to kick the robot again. He also managed to perform a stylish move while avoiding Brobot's robotic mustache that acted somewhat like a boomerang.
"Wait… You never said that that mustache could act like a boomerang!" Chopper gawked, looking down at Timpani's wand.
"Like I said before… I don't get everything when investigating an enemy…" Timpani reminded.
Kirby looked at his Stone ability and decided to float above Brobot L-Type and turn into a stone of a hundred tons. It was tough, but it didn't do a lot of damage compared to what a bomb could do.
"Poyo! (This ability isn't so useful for this!)" Kirby frowned and removed his Stone ability. When Brobot fired a missile from its nose, he jumped toward it and inhaled it to get the Bomb ability. He then tossed a bomb straight at Brobot L-Type to leave it stunned for a couple of seconds.
"Hey! You can't do that!" Mr. L growled until he noticed a little button. "Ah-HA! I think this should give them a taste of their own medicine!"
Brobot flew up and then landed right on top of all of them with a ground pound attack. Everyone was as flat as a pancake when Brobot L-Type got off the ground again. It got ready to inhale them, but what Blade did was toss Hommissile right into its mouth, causing it to explode from the inside.
"Take THAT!" Blade smirked.
"Squeh squeh squeh… Now this is a show Squirps can enjoy!" Squirps took out some popcorn from out of nowhere and began munching on it.
"…And you're going to just sit there and watch us?" Chopper gawked.
"Well Squirps's fireballs are pretty much useless against this thing!"
"Oh… Well, all right." Chopper pulled another bomb out and threw it faster at Brobot, creating an explosion that caused a couple of sparks to fly everywhere around him. Kirby helped as well and tossed a bomb at Brobot as well.
"Grrrrr! See how you like this!" Mr. L made Brobot throw its mustache at the heroes like a boomerang. Chopper and Kirby were hit by the attack, but Sonic was able to jump over it and attack Brobot with a Spin Jump. He also managed to hit Mr. L's robot with a Homing Attack too.
"You know, Mr. L, I've taken on robots like this thing you've got," Sonic pointed out as he landed on the ground. "This shouldn't be any different than those other robots!"
"Well that's where you're wrong, Mr. Spike-head! This robot is going to take you DOWN!" Mr. L pushed a button and Brobot's fist came charging at Sonic, who got knocked over by the intense attack. "See? How do you like THAT?!"
"It's nothing special," Blade commented as he tossed Hommissile at Brobot's nose. He followed up with a fire slash, but he soon realized that fire didn't really do anything against Brobot L-Type.
Mr. L pushed another button, making a missile fire out of Brobot's nose. Chopper jumped and managed to somehow stomp on it to bring him up to Brobot's head. Mario grabbed the missile with Thoreau as it fell to the ground and threw it back at Brobot, causing it to cringe.
"Wait… Since when do robots cringe?" Blade asked, looking dumbfounded.
"Poyo… (Beats me…)" Kirby trailed as he hurled a bomb straight at Brobot, leaving it stunned for a couple of seconds. Chopper was able to deliver a powerful stomp attack on Brobot's head and then threw a bomb as hard as he could on its head to leave an explosion on Brobot's metallic cap.
"Hey! Get off of my metal bro's head!" Mr. L snapped, making Brobot hit Chopper with its fists. He managed to jump out of the way and make Brobot's fists hit itself instead, but it decided to hover over Chopper and attack him with a ground pound.
"Ow… That was painful…" Chopper moaned as he unflattened himself after being nearly squashed by Brobot's weight. "Why do I ALWAYS have to become flat as a pancake when someone sits on me?"
"Oh, I'm not finished yet, losers!" Mr. L pushed a button and made Brobot open its mouth. It was going to inhale them like a vacuum!
"Poyo! (Oh, no! Run!)" Kirby began to run, just like everyone else, but they were unfortunate to get sucked right into Brobot L-Type and nearly chewed up. Once it spat them out, they were covered in bruises, and even Mario and Blade's clothing were a bit ripped.
"That jerk just ruined my ninja suit!" Blade growled. "Now he's going to get it!"
Blade made a dash toward Brobot and began to slash at Brobot L-Type rapidly. Of course, since it's his katana, it wasn't doing MUCH damage because of the high defense, but it was better than nothing.
"Blade! You're not going to do much damage to it with your katana!" Sonic shouted.
"I don't care! I'm going to take this robot down!" Blade hissed.
Mario: Use Hommissile!
"That does more damage than what you're doing," Blumiere pointed out.
"What? Aw, crud!" Blade jumped back to the group, but they happened to get knocked back when Brobot fired a missile at them all. The only one who didn't take as much damage as the others was Kirby, who managed to use his Defend to keep himself from taking some immense damage.
"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby pulled a bomb out and threw it as fast as he could at Brobot L-Type. More sparks began to fly everywhere, making Mr. L sweat drop.
"Great… This isn't good…" Mr. L thought as he groaned.
Blade tossed Hommissile at Brobot instead of slashing at it, causing it to recoil, but ultimately got struck by the missile attack. Add a bomb from Chopper and you've got double damage…except Blade's damage was slightly higher.
Mario: Are you ready to give up now?
"Me? Give up? Heck no! I still have more to show you idiots!" Mr. L sneered as he made Brobot fire a laser. Kirby immediately got in his defensive position, but Chopper, Blade and Mario got hurt by the laser for being too slow to react.
"Don't worry, I got this!" Sonic assured as he pulled Reflecto out and held him up toward the laser. Reflecto managed to reflect the laser directly back at Brobot's eyes, causing them to melt a little.
"What the heck?! Why is there a system malfunction?!" Mr. L gaped as he noticed that Brobot L-Type's eyes were melted. "Ughh… Good thing those weren't MY eyes that melted… Better Brobot's than mine."
"Hey, are you done talking to yourself yet?" Chopper asked, looking up at Brobot L-Type.
"Were you listening to me that whole time?"
"Everyone could listen to you, but now that we're back to fighting…" Chopper pulled another bomb out and tossed it straight at Brobot L-Type. He could notice smoke was coming out of the robot, which could mean that this robot was about to go down soon. Very soon…
"You little…! Take this!" Brobot's fist recoiled and charged directly at Chopper. He got knocked back from the intense force of the attack and ended up losing his Bomb ability thanks to the attack.
"Great! You just HAD to do that!" Chopper inhaled the yellow star and decided to spit it back at Brobot L-Type out of boredom. It didn't do much, but it was better than nothing. Not to mention Brobot's HP was nearly depleted.
"Time for another special attack!" Mr. L made Brobot open its mouth and start to suck everyone in. They all tried their best to get away, but they were VERY close to being sucked in…
…Until Kirby whipped up a bomb.
"Poyo, (This should do the trick,)" Kirby threw it straight into Brobot's mouth and caused an explosion from the inside. That triggered the entire robot to be surrounded by explosions.
"Awwwww, WHAT?! No way! My Brobot L-Type shoots missiles! MISSILES!" Mr. L cried as the entire robot exploded, causing him to fall from the sky and land right on his stomach in front of the heroes.
"So, how do you like the taste of defeat?" Blade smirked.
"But… But… This is preposterous! Why?! Why can't I win?!"
"Well… It might be because you're weak…" Tippi responded.
Mr. L was stunned for a moment as he brought his head up. "WHAT?! GRRRR! You laugh now…but…but… The Green Thunder doesn't forget! …Right when I manage to get myself up…"
He brought his head down and began to moan. Our heroes, not knowing what they should do, simply jumped over him and made their way to the door ahead. Mr. L, on the other hand, slowly got up and sighed.
"Man… How am I going to explain this to Tipral now? Not only did I just go here without listening to him, but I also LOSE to those idiots!"
"Just as I expected," Tipral appeared right in front of Mr. L, who suddenly got himself up and yelped.
"Uhhh… Tipral! Fancy running into you here!" Mr. L said nervously.
"I was recently told that you happened to run off without my orders…" Tipral trailed as he glared at Mr. L. "Listen here, fool! You NEVER leave to go after the heroes without my orders! Understood?!"
"Hey! All I wanted to do was stop the heroes! I bet that would make you happy!"
"I only order people to go out when I have a plan for them! Disobeying orders is one thing, but if you think you're going to make me satisfied, you're wrong! Ugh… Brainwashing you was probably a bad idea…"
Mr. L jumped up a little. "Brainwashing? What do you mean?"
Tipral pondered for a bit. "Hmph… I think I know what I have to do… It seems even being brainwashed, you seem to be a bit rebellious…"
"So what do you plan on doing with me?" Mr. L noticed Tipral bring his arm forward and fire a dark blast at him with the Dark Star Scepter. He screamed as his appearance started to change. Instead of black overalls, blue ones appeared. His mask was now gone and he started to look a bit more like…Luigi?
"Oooog… My head…" Luigi moaned as he rubbed his head. "What happened? Where am I?"
All of the dark energy Tipral apparently took from Luigi was now in his scepter. "I'll just create a new Mr. L with this energy and make him obey my orders! As for you, Luigi…"
"Wait, Tipral?! Oh, man!" Luigi stepped away and tried to retreat, but Tipral caught him in dark energy and teleported him out of the area.
"He can go stay in that Mansion of Nightmares if he wants… Those heroes can go find him themselves." Tipral mumbled as he teleported away.
Next area-
Our heroes walked out of the door into an area with two Phantom Boos roaming around. With some stomps, the Phantom Boos were easily defeated. They also noticed in the background, there was a mansion.
"Squirple squirple squee! The mansion! We're here!" Squirps squealed as he walked up to the Star Block up ahead.
"And good riddance that we're through this place," Chopper sighed in relief, looking back. "Mr. L was one problem, but those fears! …I don't think I've really gotten over that just yet…"
"Poyo? (Well who cares? Can't we just end this chapter already?)" Kirby suggested.
"Sure!" Chopper ran up to the Star Block and punched it to make it break. Upon doing that, however, the clown ghost had appeared before him.
"You may have beaten me this once, but I know that you haven't completely faced your fears..." the ghost grinned, its eyes turning red.
Chopper shook in fear as it quickly vanished.
END OF CHAPTER
"That was a HORRIBLE place to be!" While everyone began to speak about how horrible the Path of Fear was, they were relieved to be out of that place. Up ahead, they happened to notice a large mansion. "This is the Mansion of Nightmares Squirps was telling you about," explained Squirps. "Squirps was told in his nightmares that this was the place that's been bothering me! Let's hope we find those nightmares and get rid of them!" Everyone clenched their fists and had determined looks as they made their way to the front of the Mansion of Nightmares.
...So we finally discover who Mr. L is. I bet most of you already knew who he was anyway. *punched*
And also, yeah, I thought the way they all faced their fears was kind of...uninteresting and bland. But, what else was I supposed to do? It's better than nothing, that's for sure.
Anyway, next chapter, we finally explore the Mansion of Nightmares and see what the place is like. So, be prepared...