CHAPTER 12-4
-Into the Haunted Mansion-
"So, this is the Mansion of Nightmares…" Timpani trailed as he and the heroes looked up at the large mansion. For some reason, it kind of resembled a bit of Luigi's mansion, except this was a dark blue color. There was a gate right next to them, which was unfortunately locked. The grassy ground was just like what it was like in the Path of Fear: green grass and brown dirt. "I never expected this mansion to look like this… But this does appear to be rather big for a mansion…"
"This reminds me of when I had to rescue Bow and get the Crystal Star from King Boo in that one mansion in Boo Woods," Chopper recalled, crossing his arms as he looked up at the mansion. "Man, I never would've thought that I would ever visit a mansion again! Sure, it's filled with nightmares… But it might not be the worst thing in the world…"
Mario: But there might be ghosts in there.
"So what if there are ghosts in there?" Sonic said with a smug look. "We've taken down countless ghosts in this world! I'm PRETTY sure we'll be able to take any ghosts in our way down! I mean, we ARE heroes…"
"Yeah, that's true," Blade walked up to the gate and tried to open it, but it turned out to be locked. "Well there's no way we're going through this gate unless we had some sort of key with us…"
The entrance to the mansion doesn't appear to be locked…" Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and began to scan the area for any hidden objects. There happened to be a hidden blue ! Switch right near the gate.
"There's a hidden switch here… Let me make it visible for you…" with her powers, Timpani managed to make the switch visible to their eyes. "I wonder why this switch was hidden in the first place…"
"No idea, but let's see what it does!" Sonic kicked it, making the gate blocking their way peel off. But before they could walk past the gate, they heard screaming coming from the top of the mansion.
"Poyo? (What was that?)" Kirby asked.
"I have no idea… But why does that scream sound somewhat familiar…" Chopper trailed. He started to feel raindrops coming down from the sky. "Uh oh… It's starting to rain…"
"Thanks for the obvious," Blade said as the rain started to come down faster. At this point, everyone was soaking wet. Add lightning to the rain and you've got yourself a thunderstorm.
"Squaaagh! Squirps can't stay in the rain for long or else I'll get sick!" Squirps sweat dropped as he made his way up to the front porch, where it was nice and dry. Everyone followed him up onto the porch as well to dry off.
Mario: And it has to rain at this very moment…
Inside the mansion-
In a room on the upper floor of the mansion, two white ghosts were holding two pictures. Who the person was couldn't exactly be seen, but they both managed to get a picture of this person being scared by them. One of the ghosts was skinny and tall, while the other was short and chubby.
"I can't WAIT to show her this!" the tall ghost snickered as he gave his picture to a pink ghost girl with red hair. She looked at both of them and was pondering over which one was better.
"What to choose… What to choose…" she trailed as she continued to look at them. After about thirty seconds, the ghost girl showed them the picture that the short, chubby ghost took a picture of.
"I think this one…"
"Heh heh heh!" the chubby ghost snickered as the tall one sighed and had his head hung low. But the ghost girl smirked and tossed the picture away and pointed to the one the tall ghost took a picture of.
"I like this one much better!" she declared.
"Wh-Whaaaaaaat?!" the short ghost gaped as the tall ghost smiled. "Whawha… What do you mean mine's bad?! I… I…"
The ghost girl giggled as she put the picture up on the wall, where there a couple of other pictures as well. The tall ghost bowed and smirked as she flew up to him and kissed him on the cheek, making him turn to a pink color.
"Awwww yeah!" he shouted as he began to fly all over the room. The chubby ghost nearly muttered under his breath as the tall ghost spun around and made a pose. A spotlight that came out of nowhere flashed on him.
"I bet you couldn't have done any better!"
"ARRRRGGGHHHH!" the chubby ghost began to pound the ground in anger…until he heard the door being knocked on. He turned his head and grinned. "This could be my chance to redeem myself!"
Mansion entrance-
Our heroes, Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade, and Mario opened the door to the mansion and looked around at the entrance. There happened to be a staircase right in front of them, surprisingly. That, and it happened to lead up to a door in the mansion. But, it was also dark, so it wasn't easy to see what was around.
"Well, it beats the Cemetery Ruins," Sonic commented as he made the first step into the mansion. He left some wet footprints on the ground because of being soaking wet in the rain.
"I wonder if anyone will ever wipe their feet… It says to wipe your feet." Chopper pointed to a sign right by the door and wiped his feet off with the mat before walking inside.
"Crud… My ninja socks are wet, so they're not going to be so easy to dry off…" Blade groaned as he walked in. Kirby and Mario wiped their feet off first before entering. Squirps walked up the stairs and then turned to the heroes at the midway point.
"This way, squirple! We need to go up!" he declared as he walked to the top of the stairs. Chopper shrugged and made his way up the stairs by jumping (since they DO need to jump for stairs, apparently). At the top, there were two doors. One was apparently locked, but the closer one wasn't.
"Great… We have a locked door…" Sonic groaned.
Mario: Then we'll take the closer door.
Mario walked up to the door and tried to open it, but it turned out to be a fake door. When the door opened, it slammed right on Mario into the wall, which was something none of them actually expected to see. The plumber managed to get himself up afterward and sigh.
"Did that door just…" Chopper stammered.
"That must be a fake door…" Blumiere pondered as he took a look at the door. "They seem to be a bit of a darker color compared to the other doors, so maybe that should tell you that it's not real. I believe you CAN destroy these if you use explosives or something that involves smashing…"
"Poyo! (Then I'll take care of it!)" Kirby pulled a bomb out and placed it right in front of the door. It ended up blowing up for them, but the bad news was that there was no other way to go.
Mario: What do we do now?
"Well, our only option is to go back, Squirps guesses…" Squirps trailed as he went down the stairs and sighed as he reached the bottom. "Squirps didn't know anything about this! I thought the door would be unlocked for us!"
"Yeah, I know… Wait a minute… Hold on!" a lit up light bulb appeared over his head as an idea struck him. "What about flipping into 3-D? Surely we can find something if we go straight into 3-D, don't you think?"
"Well, we haven't checked anything in 3-D yet…" Sonic agreed. "Go ahead, Chopper! We might find something!"
"OK," Chopper nodded as he threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D. What they saw was a door between two staircases. It sort of reminded Chopper of that one staircase in Castle Tipral that had the secret passage.
Chopper helped everyone else into 3-D and they entered the door into a hallway. It was rather dark, so Chopper had to flash Timpani's wand around the hallway. There were a couple of doors around. One door looked to be fake on the left, and on the far right, there was another door that happened to most likely be real. Although another problem was the Hauntings roaming around.
"I've got the Haunting!" Chopper rushed towards the Haunting, but it disappeared before he could catch it. It appeared behind him and when turning around, he got licked by the ghost and also poisoned.
Mario: This isn't good…
"I don't feel so good…" the pale green hero wheezed, taking damage from the poison. Piccolo was happy to help by playing a nice song that cured Chopper of the status ailment left on him.
"Hope that makes you feel better, tweet!" Piccolo giggled.
"Yeah, I feel kind of better…" Chopper whipped his hammer out and bashed at the Haunting. Kirby decided to finish off the enemy by taking a bomb out and throwing it straight at it.
"Poyo, (Taking out ghosts can be fun,)" Kirby smiled as he walked over to the door ahead. A Grabber appeared right in front of him and tried to grab him, but Chopper managed to freeze it by tossing a charged ice ball at it. With Kirby's bomb, the Grabber was shattered.
"It would be cool to shatter a couple of those guys," Blade smirked as he opened the door into a dark room with stairs leading down. Everyone decided to head down and see what was there. They happened to notice Phantom Boos appearing around in the room, but when Chopper flashed Timpani's wand around the room, there was a blue ! Switch that was a bit hard to reach.
"Wait, how are we supposed to get that?" Sonic asked.
"Squirps suggests throwing something up there," Squirps suggested.
Mario: I'll take care of it!
Using Thoreau, Mario grabbed a hold of one of the Phantom Boos and threw it up at the blue ! Switch. They all began to feel a little tremor as a door was drawn right beside them. It was a dark blue door, apparently (because the red doors are usually for areas that are outside this place).
"Well I guess that takes care of that," Chopper bashed a Phantom Boo with his hammer before opening the door into another room. They happened to find an upper part of the room above them, but they couldn't necessarily reach it. However, up at the end of the room there was one dimension block (the yellow arrowed blocks) floating up above the ground.
"Poyo, (We're going to need to flip to see what's in 3-D,)" Kirby suggested.
Chopper nodded and went into 3-D. He noticed three dimensional blocks, so he simply punched those with his fist to go into 2-D, but he left one in 3-D so he could punch the others above them into 2-D. Afterward, he punched that last block and went back into 2-D.
"Whew… That was pretty annoying." Chopper sighed in relief as he jumped on the dimensional blocks and made it up to the upper part of the room. There were two Swoopulas hanging from the ceiling.
"No worries, I got them!" Blade drew his katana and slashed at the Swoopulas that tried to suck Chopper's HP out and succeeded in destroying them. A Darkling with dark blue eyes was also in this room, but with a couple of stomps, Chopper managed to take it out with ease.
"Why do some of the Darklings have different eye and bulb colors?" Sonic asked as the Darkling disintegrated into smoke. A door happened to be right in front of them, so they simply entered through into a room with wooden platforms and more stairs going down. They noticed at the bottom of the stairs a couple of Phantom Boos circling around. And, just like those Phantom Boos in the Path of Fear, there was a little opening.
Oh, and they happened to be singing some kind of song. It almost sounded like that song you'd hear in the ghost houses in Super Mario World. At least, that's what Mario was thinking as he listened.
Mario: It kind of sounds like they're singing something…
"Well there's not much we can do about it. Let's just get past those ghosts, squirp!" Squirps went down the stairs and made his way past the boos. Chopper decided to flip into 3-D and walk around the circling boos and to a larger Phantom Boo that had the power to flip between dimensions.
"Uh oh… This isn't good." Chopper gulped as he picked up Squirps after flipping into 2-D and firing his beam attacks at the Phantom Boo. "I didn't expect to find an Atomic Phantom Boo in here!"
"Keep firing, private!" Squirps cried as he continued to squeeze the little alien until the Atomic Phantom Boo was completely destroyed. It happened to drop an Ultra Shroom Shake as well.
Chopper scooped up the Ultra Shroom Shake and saw that it also dropped a yellow key. It didn't look like it would fit into the door that they saw was locked in the main room. But, nevertheless, he picked it up.
"Poyo, (Well, we finally got the key,)" Kirby smiled as he plopped over to Chopper to take a look at the key. "…Poyo? (…But, why is the key a bit different than what it usually is?)"
"I don't think that key will fit through that lock…" Timpani trailed. "There might be another door that we have to find around this place. I hope that it's not a difficult thing to do…"
"No problem! We'll just return to that hallway!" Sonic grinned, giving a thumbs up.
Dark hallway-
After exiting that room, Blade hit the Save Block that was right near the door that leads into the main entrance, saving their game. Chopper decided to get everyone into 3-D, and what do you know? There happened to be another pathway in the hallway! They decided to take the left hallway into 3-D into a new hallway when flipping back into 2-D. There were three doors around here.
"So, which one do you wanna take first?" Sonic asked.
Kirby decided to take the far left one, which led into a bathroom. "Poyo. (All this door leads into is a bathroom.)"
"A bathroom, huh?" Blade slowly stepped to the back of the group. "Well, I ain't going in there!"
"Poyo, (I'll check the bathroom, I suppose,)" Kirby plopped over to the bathroom door and opening it. Two Hauntings were in the bathroom and happened to notice Kirby's arrival. Nevertheless, the pink puffball pulled some bombs out and tossed them at the Hauntings to defeat them instantly.
He flicked the light switch on afterward and noticed that the ground was made of marble. There was a toilet, a shower with a shower curtain and a sink with a mirror for anyone to see themselves in.
But when he looked at the mirror, he didn't really see anything. …But then the mirror of Kirby suddenly grinned a disturbing grin and a ghost's head popped out of the mirror with a camera in his mouth.
"POYO! (HOLY GUACAMOLE!)" he cried as there was a sudden flash. The short, chubby ghost managed to get a picture of the horrified Kirby and disappear. All he could hear was some evil chuckling.
"Oh, what a laugh… What a laugh…" the mirror turned out to be Shadow Kirby after the ghost disappeared. He was grinning, as usual. "A chubby ghost managed to scare you! You're such a coward!"
"Poyo? (Me? A coward?)" Kirby glared at the gray puffball. "Poyo? (How am I such a coward if a ghost popped out of nowhere when I didn't see it coming? Plus, how am I a coward if I fought such scary enemies, such as Zero Two?)"
"Nonsense! You never seem too sure to do anything! What you should be doing is try to get rid of Chopper so YOU can be the leader! I know you want to be a leader… I can feel it in you!"
"Poyo, (I'm done for now,)" Kirby flicked the light switch and left the bathroom, returning to his friends. With that out of the way, they walked over to the door to the right, but noticed that it wouldn't open.
"Oh, dear… This door won't open…" Timpani frowned.
"Come on, stupid door!" Blade growled, trying to push it open. Of course, it didn't seem to work. "Damn! Why do doors always have to be like this?! I swear I hate when things like this happen…"
"Don't worry about it, Blade. We'll just check the other door." Chopper walked up to the door they haven't checked yet and saw that it had a yellow lock. He decided to pull out the Yellow Key and insert it into the lock. Surprisingly, the lock broke off, allowing them to move on.
"Wait… So the key we found in that room happened to be the one we needed for this door?" Sonic gawked.
"I guess so… But, who cares? Let's go!" Chopper opened the door and walked out, with the rest following. One thing they noticed was that they were being led outside, like they were in a courtyard…
Mysterious room-
The ghost girl was looking at the picture that the chubby ghost took. It was that picture with Kirby freaked out. While the chubby ghost looked happy, the tall, skinny ghost was grumbling.
"I love this picture!" the ghost girl squealed as she flew over to the short ghost and kissed him on both cheeks. Now, what was weird was that he ended up melting in a way that he was in love.
"I am so good at scaring…" he sighed.
"Grrrrrrr! I'll show you!" the tall ghost growled as he flew out of the room. The chubby ghost followed him, but only by hopping, due to him being unable to fly at the moment. While they did that, the ghost girl put the freaked out Kirby picture on her wall. There happened to be a poster called "The Dark Being", which actually looked kind of like Tipral…
"Maybe some day I'll find that dark being," she smiled as she flew back to her stool.
Courtyard-
"Uh oh… I think we just ran into some rain…" Sonic gulped as they walked into the courtyard. There was some nice, green grass on the ground and even a fountain. A couple of Grabbers and Phantom Boos were roaming around in this part of the area. The rain didn't seem to affect them in any way.
"Sonic, it's only water… It's not going to hurt you." Chopper groaned.
"Well I HATE the water! …I mean, I don't like SWIMMING in it, that's the thing. But, anyway, I think we should just move on." Sonic pointed to the left, where there was a door at the end of the courtyard. "There's the door over there."
Mario: I can see it just fine.
The red plumber was the first to go, jumping on top of a Grabber and performing some stylish moves while at it. He also jumped on top of the fountain and was a bit relieved that it wasn't deep.
"Ummmmmm… You just sighed there, Mario. Did you have any traumatizing experiences with fountains?" Blade asked.
Mario: Those annoying piranhas…
Mario began to remember all of those times whenever he would jump into the water back ten months ago. Every single place he jumped into water, a piranha would try to bite him and cause him to get out of the water! They were even in places such as fountains and pools! It was probably the most ridiculous thing he's ever been through in his entire paper life.
"Ummmmm… I've had bad experiences too, remember?" Chopper recalled, thinking about when he messed up with the Crystal Stars. "I collected twenty Crystal Stars and made things even WORSE!"
"Poyo, (Yeah, but at least you got rid of Maquano,)" Kirby added.
"Yeah, I got rid of him, but I can't help but feel he still might be around… I mean, he's always managed to find a way to come back. I even saw him in The Underwhere, but his power was stripped from him, so it should be all fine…"
"Well there's no point in discussing this right now. Let's go to that door up ahead and get inside." Blade suggested, being soaking wet. "I don't like being out in the rain. You can easily catch a cold."
"Poyo, (Good point,)" Kirby agreed, floating over the fountain and dropping some bombs on the Phantom Boos behind the fountain. Everyone else followed until they got to the door. They immediately headed in, finding themselves in a gym of some sort. There wasn't really anything interesting about it, to say the least.
"Oh… So we find ourselves in a fitness room…" Chopper trailed, looking at the treadmill and all of the weights. "But I also happen to see two doors. I wonder what could be here…"
Before doing anything else, they heard the sound of a toilet flushing. The door all the way to the right opened and a red cat that sort of resembled Blade walked out of the door, sighing in relief.
"Whew… It's good that I found this bathroom in the fitness room." he said as he stretched. When he opened his eyes, he immediately took notice of Blade and drew his katana.
"YOU!"
Blade drew his katana as well and both cats charged at each other, both of their katanas clashing with each other. Blade immediately knew who this ninja was. It was his brother, Knife.
"So, Knife… We meet again!" Blade grinned, trying to push him back. "I never expected you to show up here! Weren't you already dead?!"
"I'm surprised to see you too, my brother!" Knife growled, trying to push him back as well. "I managed to strike a deal with that dark wizard and he allowed me back into the real world. Now I can finally get my revenge by destroying you!"
"Wait… You're the guy who got that trash can robot to go after us!" Chopper gasped.
"Oh, yes… Now I remember… It's that cat…" Timpani realized, thinking about that moment when they met him.
"Poyo… (I don't think I met this guy before…)" Kirby trailed as everyone got in their fighting stances after realizing who this ninja is. "Poyo? (Can someone give me the details on who he is?)"
"Do we need to make a flashback about this?" Chopper asked.
"Poyo? (Flashback?)"
"Well, ummmm… Let's just forget about those details, all right?" Chopper turned his attention back to Knife. "All right, Blade clone! So I'm guessing you just want to get rid of us, don't ya?"
"'Blade clone'? That's probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" Knife scoffed. "I AM the older brother, after all… But you people aren't my real target. However, since you are on Blade's side, I might as well finish you too! But I will say that it's dishonorable for a ninja to fight with friends…"
"And does that really matter right now? These guys helped me in the past, so I think it's best that I give them a hand!" Blade and Knife were both knocked back because of how long they were pushing each other. "And it's kind of funny that our battle's going to be in a fitness room…"
"Very well then…" Knife gripped his katana and glared at the group. "Be ready, fools! I'm going to take you down!"
"Pbbbbbbbbth! I've taken on a ninja before, so this shouldn't be any different." Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and used it to investigate this mini-boss.
"That's Knife the Cat. He's a ninja, just like Blade and also is the older brother of the two. Max HP is 170. Attack is 10. Defense is 1. Since he's a ninja, his attacks will be rather fast, so watch out when he tried to swing his katana at you… He also can perform some jutsu attacks and throw shurikens. It would be wise to avoid those as best as you can… Even if he wasn't the first we've met, he still has a resemblance to Blade… I would even consider Knife as the 'clone', just like you said, Chopper." Timpani informed.
"All right, it's time to take you down!" Blade shouted as he rushed straight at Knife. Their katanas clashed again, but Blade was able to make the first strike on him, slashing him with his katana.
"Grrrr! You're going to pay for that, Brother!" Knife hissed as he tossed a couple of shurikens at him. Blade smirked as he spun his katana around to deflect the shuirkens back at Knife. But, even with those skills, Knife himself was able to spin his katana and make the shurikens hit the walls.
"Whoa… That's impressive." Sonic gaped.
Mario: No kidding…
"I would suggest trying to help…" Blumiere suggested as the two brothers were swinging at each other and parrying their attacks. Chopper grabbed one of the shurikens from the wall and swallowed it to gain the Ninja ability.
"Hopefully this helps," Chopper pulled a kunai knife out and struck Knife from behind with it. Knife hissed and knocked Chopper to the wall with a simple back kick, but the red ninja was struck by Sonic's Bounce Attack.
"So this is how you choose to fight me? You're being so cowardly, trying to attack me from above and behind!" Knife scoffed, jumping and spinning his katana vertically to knock Sonic back.
"Whoa! He can do that too?!" Sonic gaped as he slowly got up. "Geez… I never would've expected Blade's brother to have similar moves as him…"
"Think again," Knife performed a couple of signals with his hands. "Fuujin no Jutsu!" he unleashed a powerful amount of wind that nearly sent everyone flying across the room, with the exception of Blade.
"You think you can use wind? Check THIS out!" Blade used his hurricane slash to strike Knife and send him flying across the room as well. While he crashed into the wall, Blade rushed straight towards him again and started to slash at him a couple of times, leaving two scars on his chest.
Knife growled and used his claws to scratch Blade across the face. He screeched, but managed to grab a hold of his older brother and throw him to the ground. He tried to stab at him, but Knife brought his katana up just in time to block his attack.
"You know that I'm stronger than you, my brother!" Knife hissed as he kicked Blade in the face and got up. He managed to strike his brother a couple of times with his katana.
"Oh, really? Then why did I manage to destroy you before? Huh?" Blade asked as he tossed Hommissile at him to send him flying across the room. When Knife got himself back up, Mario managed to stomp on his head and knock him back with Kickbrin's kicking attack.
"What are these things you have with you?" Knife asked as he slowly got up and coughed.
"They're special friends," Chopper smirked. "And they're going to help beat you!"
"I see..."
Kirby pulled a bomb out, noticing that Knife wasn't focus on him, and he threw it at him. When it struck the red cat, he turned to Kirby with an evil look and used a flaming jutsu attack to leave a burn on him.
"Wow… Well, I don't know if bombs are going to be that helpful…"
"Poyo? (Then how can I fight him?)"
"I don't know! Maybe get one of those shurikens and eat it, maybe?" Chopper shrugged. Kirby listened and dropped his Bomb ability. But, of course, he decided to inhale it spit it at Knife for some enjoyment. Afterward, he inhaled one of the shurikens on the wall and gained the Ninja ability. He looked pretty similar to Chopper with it, but his feet were still the same color as before.
And now that he had the Ninja ability in his hands, he jumped towards Knife and began to attack him with his kunai knife. Knife tried to strike him with his own katana, but because he was smaller than him, he had a hard time hitting him.
"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby slashed at Knife's leg, keeping him off guard and getting hit in the face by Chopper's flaming foot. At this point, Knife was ticked off more than ever and struck the two with his katana, knocking them back.
"Yeesh… That katana sure is painful…" Chopper frowned, rubbing the mark on his cheek left by Knife. He pulled a couple of ninja stars and tossed them at Knife. He managed to block some of them, but one ninja star got him in the arm.
"Urgh… You're gonna pay for that, you stupid little boy!" Knife was about to attack with flames on his katana, but Blade beat him to the punch and struck him with a fire slash before he could even attack.
"Sorry, Knife, but I can't let you hurt my friends," Blade warned as he knocked Knife to the ground with a kick. However, before he could even attack, Knife managed to knock him back with a kick and get up.
"Ugh… Why does Squirps always have to see the same thing repeated in these fights? Squirps finds them a bit repetitive…" Squirps groaned.
"What? You want to help fight too?" Chopper asked, picking up the little alien. "Well, I guess I'll help make it interesting."
Chopper charged up a beam from Squirps and fired it at Knife while he was busy fighting Blade. It caught his attention and made him turn back to the group.
"You realize that you're being such a coward when attacking me behind my back!" Knife hissed.
"So what if it's cowardly? We can see that our friend's in danger!" Sonic retorted, curling up in a ball and then using his Light Speed Attack to hit Knife a couple of times. Mario helped join in by performing a Triple Jump on Knife's head and then use a Ground Pound to leave him a bit dazed.
"Poyo, (If you want us to fight, then we're going to give you a fight,)" Kirby retorted, throwing a couple of shurikens that hit Knife. What was strange was that the ninja managed to pull them off his arms and chest and fight with all of those wounds left on him.
"Careful, guys… Even with all of those attacks you've dealt to him, he's still going to fight back…" Blade warned.
Mario: We got this!
Unfortunately, for Mario, when he managed to bash Knife in the head with his hammer, it only made things a bit worse when Knife managed to use a fire slash on Mario, setting his butt on fire.
Mario: Ow! Fire! Hot hot hot!
Mario immediately headed outside so the rain could get rid of the flames on him and then returned to fight back. Since Knife was distracted by Chopper and Kirby, he was able to jump on his head twice while performing a stylish move and land on the ground, giving a thumbs up.
"Ugh… You people are starting to tick me off!" Knife hissed, spinning his katana around. Everyone ducked to avoid getting struck by his katana and when he was dizzy, Kirby jumped and did a diving kick attack that left him dizzy. This is where Chopper came in and grabbed a hold of Knife and threw him up into the air and then threw him to the ground while his head was facing the ground. It left him dizzy for a couple of seconds.
"I gotta admit, you guys are doing pretty well," Blade smiled as he walked over to the dazed Knife. "So, Knife… You going to give up yet?"
"Not until you're dead!" he hissed as he threw a shuriken into Blade's arm. He screamed as he held his arm in pain. But even then he wasn't going to give up and pulled it out.
"Just because you can still fight while being partially wounded doesn't mean I can't!" Blade hissed, jumped towards Knife and bringing his katana down on him. Knife raised his katana to block the attack, but it only made him drop it because of the force of Blade's katana, so it ended up hurting him instead.
"I'm going to finish you!" Knife screeched, getting up and punching Blade in the face. He also made a couple of symbols with his hands to create a massive amount of wind that sent everyone flying.
"See how you like THIS!" Chopper shouted, performing a couple of symbols with his hands. "Fuujin no jutsu!"
"Wait, what the…" Knife was sent flying across the room from the wind Chopper summoned. The bathroom door opened and he ended up falling right into the toilet. The toilet paper ended up landing on him too.
"So, it appears he's a wet cat…" Sonic trailed.
"I'll admit, toilet water is rather…disgusting," Timpani commented.
"So maybe I'll try to do something," Chopper stated as Knife jumped out of the bathroom and began to toss a couple of shurikens at the group. Chopper and Kirby disappeared and left decoys of themselves and appeared right behind Knife.
"What did you just…?" Knife was interrupted when Kirby began to attack rapidly with his kunai knife and then kick him in the face. Chopper followed up next and managed to strike him while charging at him. He finished off his attacks by tossing a charged ice ball, freezing him.
"Well that was pretty simple," Blade smirked as he melted Knife from his icy prison with a fire slash. At this point, Knife was burnt to a crisp, but he still refused to give up the fight…until Blade kept him off guard by slashing his leg.
Knife managed to kick him in the shin and strike Blade as well, but when he tried to stab at his younger brother, he disappeared, leaving a log behind.
"What the…" before Knife had any time to ask a question, Blade kicked him in the back of the head and slashed his back, leaving a scar on him. "GAH!"
"Are you finished yet?" Blade asked, jumping back to his friends and facing his older brother. "You do realize that I've grown a bit stronger ever since I've beaten you."
"Don't think this is the last you'll ever see of me, Brother! For now, I must leave!" Knife hissed before leaving the fitness room through the door. Of course, since it was still raining, it was bad for him.
"So… That cat decided to run from us…" Blumiere trailed.
"Well, it's not such a big deal. It's better that he's gone." Chopper said as he walked over to the treadmill. "You know, I always wondered what would happen if I ran on this for a little bit…"
He began to run on the treadmill for a couple of seconds until a Mansion Key came out. It bounced right beside the treadmill. Chopper got off, but he ended up slipping because of how fast it was moving, making him fall on his back.
"Ow… Now I feel like that boy who would always miss that football…" he moaned.
"Squirple squee! It's the key we need!" Squirps squealed as he picked up the Mansion Key. "Now we can get out of here and find the key we're looking for! Let's go to that door, Squirp!"
"Wait… Does that mean we have to BACKTRACK?!" Blade gaped.
"Sorry, Blade, but we have to do it…" Chopper trailed.
"Poyo, (And watch out for any mirrors along the way as well,)" Kirby added as they walked over to the other door. It happened to lead them into a small hallway with a door up ahead that was being blocked by a yellow block.
"So this is what was blocking the way…" Timpani trailed.
"But at least we can get this thing out of the way," Chopper smiled as he pulled his hammer out and bashed the block. They opened the door and they were back in the previous hallway.
"Oh… Well, at least we don't have to do too much backtracking…" Blade said, sighing in relief.
Mario: Let's-a go!
Main corridor, second floor-
Everyone made their way up the stairs and walked over to the locked door. Squirps pulled the key out and unlocked it without any problems. They were only led into a small, dark room with a couple of black Boos with red eyes. Chopper used Timpani's wand to investigate them, and it turns out they were called Shadow Boos.
"Oh… These guys again…" Sonic groaned. "I think I remember them back at that mansion…"
Mario: No kidding…
"Well, they shouldn't be too tough to handle," Chopper tried to bash one of the Shadow Boos with his hammer, but it managed to spin around from behind and use its tongue to attack him. "Ow! What the heck?!"
"They're kind of hard to hit compared to the other Boos…" Timpani trailed. "The only way to attack them is to hit them from behind."
Luckily, since Kirby was already behind the Shadow Boo, he was able to defeat it easily with his kunai knife. He then walked up to the door ahead, with everyone else following him as well.
"Hmmmmmm… I don't know why, but I think we might end up running into something through here…" Chopper trailed.
"And why do you say that?" Blade asked.
"No idea… That's just what I think." Chopper opened the door and headed into the next room. It was dark like the other one, but it was a rather…small room. They could see some pictures on the walls and they saw the rug was a comfy, red color.
"Huh… It doesn't seem too bad here! …Although, a bit too dark…" Sonic trailed.
"So you people finally arrive…"
"Wait, who just said that?" Chopper flashed Timpani's wand around the room, but the room ended up lighting on its own when a couple of candles suddenly lit up. They saw at the other side of the room, Dark Doom.
"I've been waiting for your arrival, heroes!" Dark said with a serious look. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Mario: Who's he?
"Oh, yes, I believe we haven't met, plumber. My name is Dark Doom! I'm one of Tipral's…tougher minions. I was sent here to take care of you and prevent you from grabbing the Pure Heart."
"Squack! Why do we have to run into all of these people, squirp?!" Squirps exclaimed while steaming. "This is driving Squirps nuts!"
"Relax, Squirps. This guy's a lot easier than Knife." Blade smirked, drawing his katana. "All right, Dark. We know what's going to happen. You're going to try to fight us, and we're going to win in the end!"
"You're saying I'M easier than Knife? I'M EASIER THAN KNIFE? You're pathetic. How could I be easier than him when I was the one who managed to help him find you easily? You realize that I have greater power than him, do you not?"
"Look, Dark, can you just let us pass?" Sonic asked nicely. "We don't have time to be dealing with you!"
"Oh, let me think about that… No. Why WOULD I let you through anyway? Tipral ordered me to stop you, and that is what I plan on doing!" Dark pulled his blaster out and aimed it at Sonic's head. "So, what else do you have to say before we fight?"
"This hallway isn't really a nice place to fight…" Chopper trailed. "We've got a lot of nice pictures on the walls and if we hit the tables, we're probably going to make the candles fall and cause the whole mansion to burn down."
"Oh, Chopper is right indeed! But I can help fix this up!"
"Wait… That voice…" a red exclamation point appeared over Chopper's head. All five heroes gaped as Dimentio appeared hovering over Dark.
"Dimentio?!" they all gasped.
"It's been such a while, like two friends who haven't seen each other ever since a pancake contest," Dimentio said, using a weird simile like before. "This place is definitely not a nice place to fight. Everything would be ruined in this nice mansion if you went nuts!"
"Nice? We don't find it to be nice, thank you very much…" Blade frowned.
"I don't understand… How are you still alive?" Timpani gasped.
"And what are you planning this time?" Blumiere growled.
"Is it the couple that I think it is? Lord Blumiere and Lady Timpani? It's so good to meet you! Ah ha ha ha! But, you should realize that my game was never over! I've already swore my loyalty to Tipral!"
"Wait… I think I might remember something…" Chopper realized. "I think when Dimentio was going to give us 'one last surprise', Tipral ended up gaining control and separating Dimentral, thus turning them back to normal… But I don't understand why he would take YOU back… He hates you!"
"Why, Tipral would never hate me! He trusts me a hundred percent!"
"Something's weird… Very weird…" Timpani trailed. "It's almost as if he doesn't remember those past experiences…"
"Well, look at the time. It was so nice chatting with you, but I've got to go! As for you, Dark… I've got a 'special' place where you can fight these heroes!" Dimentio twirled his finger and transported everyone into Dimension D.
"Wait a second… I think I remember a place like this…" Dark pondered.
"This place is called Dimension D! It's a dimension of my creation! You'll be 256 times more potent in a dimension like this!" Dimentio grinned. "Now, I hope you enjoy your fight, Dark! I'm counting on you! Ciao!"
And with a snap of his finger, the jester teleported out of Dimension D.
"Hmmmmmmm… So this dimension makes me 256 times stronger… Well then, this shouldn't be a problem for me!" Dark got in his fighting stance. "All right, heroes! Let's see how you do against the improved Dark Doom!"
"It's kind of like with O'Chunks… But now it's us against Dark this time." Chopper stated, pulling a kunai knife out. "I guess we should just fight then…"
Of course, Dark didn't even speak. He fired a blast from his blaster at the group. Everyone jumped back as the shot hit the ground near their feet. Chopper used Timpani's wand to investigate him.
"That's Dark Doom. He's the leader of an alien race called the Dark Creatures, and is also considered to be the mysterious one of Tipral's minions. Max HP is 180. Attack is 11. Defense is 2. Dark will mainly focus on attacking you with his martial arts and even some of his own magic attacks. If you're also a bit far from him, he'll try to shoot you with his blaster… Not much has changed, but I think he can make meteors rain down from the ceiling… Just be fast and you'll do just fine against him…" Timpani informed.
"I've never seen what powers he has… Wonder Count Bleck. …Wait, did I just go like that again?!" Blumiere gaped, covering his mouth.
"Uhhhhhh… Beats me. Maybe it's an old habit?" Sonic shrugged before curling up in a ball and rushing towards Dark. But, he ended up getting hit when the Dark Creature king hurled a Swift Strike at him.
"Ow! What the heck?!"
"Well, I AM here to destroy you, so you should expect that," Dark said as he began to hurl another Swift Strike. Sonic jumped over the attacks and this time, managed to strike Dark with ease.
"You should realize that Sonic is WAY faster than you," Chopper smirked as he rushed towards Dark with a kunai knife in his hands.
"Oh, you think a knife can help you here?" Dark managed to grab a hold of Chopper's kunai knife and held it up. "You should think again."
"Hey! Give that back!" unfortunately, for Chopper, he was knocked back by Dark's kick and his Ninja ability was knocked away as well. He managed to get it back and strike Dark with his new kunai knife afterward.
"Uh oh… I forgot he could get that back!"
"Ha ha ha! This feels so satisfying!" Chopper laughed as he dove down towards Dark and kicked him at the side of the head. "Just because we're in Dimension D doesn't mean it's just you who gets stronger!"
"What exactly do you mean?" Dark gawked.
"Their power becomes greater as well, so everyone is basically even here," Timpani explained.
"…Damn. And to think I would have an advantage. Oh well… If I took you down easily, it wouldn't feel so rewarding." he raised his arms. "Now, Meteor Shower! Come down and take care of these heroes!"
"Meteor Shower? Uh oh…" Blade gulped as meteors surrounded by purple flames began to rain down from the sky. Everyone began to run around crazily, trying to avoid them. Chopper ended up getting hit by one and also lost his Ninja ability.
"No! My Ninja ability!" he cried.
"I think I can get a good shot on Dark!" Blade shouted as he tossed a couple of shurikens at Dark. They hit him and stopped him from raining meteors. Now that he was distracted, Blade ran up to him and slashed him with his katana. "Ha! Now how do you like that, Dark?"
"Grrrrrr! I'm going to get you for that…" Dark aimed his blaster at Blade and shot him straight in the chest, causing the ninja to fall over on the ground and hold his chest in pain. The Dark Creature king grinned and put his weapon away, rushing towards Blade to deliver a kick.
…However, that wasn't going to happen because Kirby managed to grab a hold of him from behind and perform an Air Drop attack, jumping to the top of the room with Dark and slamming him to the ground headfirst.
"Poyo! (Don't think we're going to play easy on you, Dark!)" Kirby warned as he crossed his arms and smirked.
"I don't know what you just said, but I don't care!" Dark quickly kicked Kirby back towards Sonic, knocking them both to the ground. Mario managed to avoid getting hit and decided to do three jumps, with the third jump landing right on top of Dark's head.
Mario: You're a strange fellow!
"And you're a fat plumber," Dark grabbed Mario's foot and threw him over to the wall. Of course, since he was busy with that, Chopper managed to strike him by kicking him with fire energy on his feet.
"You still have that obnoxious fire energy? Don't you have anything else better?!"
"Why, I do have something else, I believe," Chopper smiled as he punched Dark with an ice fist. While he was shivering, he tossed a charged ice ball at him to turn him frozen solid. That's when Kirby stepped in and used a fire jutsu attack to melt Dark from his flaming prison and leave him with a burn.
"Begone!" Dark hurled a couple of meteors at Chopper and Kirby. Chopper managed to inhale one of them, but Kirby got knocked back by one of them. At least his Ninja ability stayed on him.
Since Chopper couldn't speak, he spat the meteor back at Dark and knocked him to the ground. Even on the ground, he managed to summon some purple magic slash attacks that Kirby managed to defend himself again. Chopper couldn't defend against it, of course.
"Ugh… I hate those kind of attacks…" he groaned as he got back up and shook himself. "All right, Dark. I think you're asking for it…"
He tossed a couple of fireballs towards Dark, but he managed to put his cape up and let the fireballs disappear with it. Dark then brought his hand out and fired another Swift Strike at them. Chopper was able to dodge it easily and leave a burn on him with a simple fireball, but he got knocked when Dark fired a vertical Swift Strike at him.
"Squoh… This guy means business…" Squirps gulped.
Mario decided to pick up the green alien and shoot Dark with Squirps's Squirt Beam. Dark tried blocking them with his cape, but it didn't do any good when Sonic managed to hit him with a Spin Jump, thus making him get shot by Squirps's Squirt Beam.
"Look, buddy. You can give up whenever you want. Just tell us and we'll stop fighting you." Sonic suggested.
"And why exactly would I give up the fight? I'm not even feeling weak right now!" Dark retorted, firing at Sonic with his blaster. When Blade got back up, he charged at him and struck him a couple of times with his katana.
"You still refuse to stay down, cat? So be it. Then I'll KEEP you down this time!" he fired another shot at Blade, but this time, he was prepared to counter. Blade spun his katana and deflected the attack back at Dark, striking him in the chest and making him hold his chest in pain.
"You were saying?" Blade smirked, walking up to the Dark Creature king. "We're still gonna take you down, you know that."
"Man, I don't know why, but it always seems like we're children fighting each other out on the playground…" Chopper trailed.
"Well, it would make sense for you and Kirby… You two are technically children…"
"Poyo? (Yeah, but why would you think we would fight each other?)" Kirby asked. "Poyo. (There's no reason for us to fight.)"
"Maybe for Tipral and I, 'cause we're both technically 'children' and we both fight each other…" Chopper pondered.
"Why are we talking above children fight, squirp?! Keep firing, privates!" Squirps shouted in a military voice. Mario sighed and let go of the alien and jumped on top of Dark's head. He slammed his hammer on him after landing on the ground, leaving him dizzy for a couple of seconds.
"All right! Good work!" Chopper smiled as he raised his hammer and bashed Dark with it as well…at the cost of being knocked back by his kick.
"That's it, I'm using that Meteor Shower!" Dark hissed, raising his arms and summoning a huge meteor shower than began to rain down upon the heroes. Kirby, once again, used his Defend ability to defend himself from the meteors, but as for the others… They weren't so lucky.
Mario: There's too many of them!
"I wanna do something, but these things HURT!" Chopper cried.
"Attack him when he stops!" Timpani suggested.
With the small amount of time Kirby had, he tossed a kunai knife at Dark. Because of the badge he had, Dark was left dizzy for a couple of seconds. Kirby immediately rushed up to him and slashed him with his kunai knife, leaving his cape ripped a little.
"Ugh… I don't know how much of this I can take." Dark moaned.
"Well then stop complaining," Sonic suggested as he struck Dark with a Spin Jump and then a Bounce Attack. "You really don't know what else to do, do you?"
"Well I still have THIS!" Dark wrapped himself with his cape and disappeared. Everyone tried to look for him, but Dark appeared right behind Sonic and kicked him at the side of his head, knocking him to the ground.
"Poyo! (Oh, come on! That's cheap!)" Kirby performed a fire jutsu attack on Dark while he was cackling and left a burn on him. The Dark Creature king clenched his fists as he turned to Kirby and fired a Swift Strike at him.
But, of course, Kirby simply floated over the obstacles and knocked Dark back with a kick attack from an angle. It knocked him over and allowed Chopper to rush straight towards him.
Dark raised his head and saw Chopper coming and fired a couple of meteors at him. The antennae hero inhaled one of them and spat them out at him, making him cringe in pain from the flames.
"Face it, Dark. You're not going to win the fight." Chopper stated.
"And what makes you say that?" Dark hissed.
"Because… Well, our actions can show you." Sonic performed a Whirlwind on Dark, making him fly around in the air. Sonic followed up by striking him with a Homing Attack and a Bounce Attack.
Mario: This fight is going smoothly!
"Well, hopefully nothing bad happens…" Chopper trailed as he pulled his hammer out and bashed it on Dark's head. Mario helped as well by performing a Ground Pound.
Dark managed to perform a sweeping kick attack that made everyone trip and then kicked Mario in the stomach, making him fall over in pain. Of course, Blade managed to strike him by throwing Hommissile at him to cause an explosion.
"Aw, yeah! I got ya!" Blade smirked, only for Dark to punch him in the stomach and make him fall over.
"Chopper, Dark's HP is very low. One more attack should do it." Timpani informed.
"Really? All right! I guess I'll finish the fight off!" Chopper smiled as he jumped and stomped right on top of Dark's head.
"Ack! What in the…" Dark bellowed as he fell over on the ground. Dimension D started to disappear from their sights as they were returned to the Mansion of Nightmares. Dark stood back up, looking all bruised and scarred at the moment.
"I lost…again…?!" he gawked. "Well, five against one isn't necessarily going to help me win… But whatever. Just because you managed to strike me in the head doesn't mean I'm done yet!"
"Oh, come on! Squirps is getting tired of these fights!" Squirps groaned.
"Shut up, green alien. I'm not finished yet!" Dark snapped. "Now then… I've got one last trick up my sleeves that will surely…"
Suddenly, Dark began to feel some immense pain coming from his forehead. "AAAGGGHHHHH! WHY?! WHY AT THIS MOMENT?! Why does my third eye need to open?!"
"Third…eye…?" Blumiere gawked.
"Wait… I think I can see something on Dark's forehead!" Chopper pointed to the small little purple opening on Dark's forehead. "You know, I always wondered what that thing was… So he has another eye?"
"Listen you…ARGH…heroes…" Dark wheezed, trying to prevent himself from screaming. "Apparently I'm having a little bit of a problem and cannot fight at the moment… I'm going to…URK…let you off the hook for now. But, next time… You better be ready to face me!"
"Yeah yeah… Go on and leave already. I think you already said something like that in the past before…" Chopper sighed.
"Whatever… It doesn't matter right now. I'm out of here…" Dark wrapped himself with his cape and disappeared from their sights.
"So… What now?" Sonic asked.
"Poyo? (Maybe we should move on?)" Kirby suggested.
"I don't know what he said, but we better get moving," Blade hurried on over to the door and opened it. "I think I see a Star Block in there! Why don't you hit it, Chopper?"
"A Star Block? Well… I guess I better go get it!" Chopper rushed into the next small room and hit the Star Block, ending this fourth part once and for all.
END OF CHAPTER
After their close encounter with the older brother of Blade, Knife and the mysterious minion Dark, our heroes were relieved to be rid of those two for the time being. "Squirps knows that at the top of this mansion, the Pure Heart is there! Squirps trusts that you privates will be able to help get rid of those nightmares, will you not?" Our heroes nodded to the strange little alien as they made their way through the upper floors of the mansion. From what they saw from the outside, this would most likely be one big mansion…
OK, I'll admit. Even though I don't like Chapter 12 that much, I actually like this part and the last part. I don't know why...but things are a lot more interesting inside of the mansion. Now, I'm not going to give anything away to what other cool thing is going to happen, but when you see the next part, you'll know what I mean then.
Other than that... I don't know what else to say. I do like the boss of this place, if that's anything interesting to you guys. :P