Lord Crump and the remaining X-Nauts walked over to the building in Rogueport Sewers that they had been using for a long time to reach Rogueport or to return to their base. They had recently discovered the location of another Crystal Star.
"Wait... So you're saying there's a Crystal Star located in here?" Lord Crump asked.
"No, Lord Crump," Johnson groaned. "The Crystal Star is located on another planet."
"Another planet? Errr... What's it called?"
"The planet was identified as Clara."
"But that's..."
"A girl's name, yes. Anyway, I've done a bit of research on the planet, and I found some interesting news."
"What? And what's so interesting about this planet, other than the fact that there's a Crystal Star located there?" Lord Crump asked, appearing very uninterested.
"I discovered that it is Chopper's home planet."
"Oh, yeah... That sounds like great... Wait, what?" Lord Crump grabbed Johnson and held him up. "What did you just say?!"
"Chopper lives on that planet."
"Awesome!" he grinned, letting go of Johnson. "I gotta tell Grodus of this right away! When he finds out that I discovered that the Crystal Star's on Chopper's home planet, he's going to be pleased! I'll be able to keep my position even longer! Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh!"
"But Lord Crump, I-"
"Shhhh! Not now, Johnson! I'm in the middle of contacting Grodus!" Lord Crump shushed, taking out his holographic communicator. Grodus appeared on it, and he appeared to be in the same position as before.
"What is it, Lord Crump?"
"Grodus... You're not going to believe what I just found."
"Lord Crump, you didn't-"
"Hey! Buzz off!" Lord Crump shouted, shoving Johnson away. "I'm trying to take the credit here!"
"What was that, Lord Crump?" Grodus gawked.
"Errr... Nothing! I just wanted to tell you that I found the next location of a Crystal Star!"
"What? Then I demand that you tell me at once!"
"It's located on a planet called Clara," Lord Crump answered. "And that's not even the best part! That's Chopper's home planet!"
"Chopper's home planet?" Grodus gawked. Suddenly, an evil grin formed on his face. "Gaaack ack ack ack! Now THAT is rather interesting... We can just take the Crystal Star, and when we're done, we can destroy the planet in the process! That will make Chopper miserable for sure!"
"What? Really? Man, that sounds awesome! ...Er, I mean, that's just what I was thinking!"
"Lord Crump, I require your assistance for this job. Go get the Master X-Nauts to help out."
"Right! Come on out, Master X-Nauts!" Lord Crump made a sharp whistle, and a large army of new X-Nauts had arrived. They were wearing black armor and carried laser rifles much like X-Naut Hunters. However, they also wore scouters to detect their foes or locations.
"Did you call us, dude?" one Master X-Naut asked.
"Heck yeah! We're going to Chopper's home planet to wreck it and get the Crystal Star!" Lord Crump declared. "So, what're you going to do, Grodus?"
"Don't worry, I will meet you guys there. I still have to wait for that scrap metal to show up." Grodus mentioned. "But, Lord Crump... I must warn you... We do not have many X-Nauts left. Those Master X-Nauts are one of the last groups of our army next. You must make sure they don't get defeated just like the ones in the New X-Naut Fortress."
"I can do that no problem. What? You don't trust me?"
"Well, considering how you handled the army last-" Grodus paused for a moment when his attention was drawn to something elsewhere. "Actually, never mind that for now. You and those X-Nauts should head to this Clara planet immediately and start searching for the Crystal Star."
"Roger, Grodus! And with that… Pow! I'm gone!" Lord Crump declared, setting the coordinates for planet Clara. "All right, X-Nauts! Let's get a move on!"
The X-Naut army obeyed, following Lord Crump into the teleporter. Johnson was the last to enter, grumbling to himself as he had been transported out of Rogueport Sewers.
Rogueport-
Many people around the western side of Rogueport had began to flee as a certain Koopa king began to stomp his way through. It had appeared that Bowser had gotten over the events of what happened when leaving Viti and was back on his search for the Crystal Stars.
"All right, Haggy... So you're telling me there's bound to be someone around this junkyard that knows a thing about the Crystal Stars, right?" Bowser asked.
Kammy Koopa had flown beside Bowser, relieved that Bowser had gotten over the previous situation. "Yes, I'm sure of it! How do you think that brat and that mustached fool managed to get to the Crystal Stars?"
"Wait, doesn't that map tell them where each star is?"
"Yes, yes... But when they both came to Rogueport, they were bound to be confused as to where to go!" Kammy explained. "Obviously there's someone here that has been assisting them!"
"OK, OK... I think I getcha. Now we just gotta find the guy and make him talk! They're bound to talk when they see my size! Gwa ha ha ha!"
"They will beg for mercy, Your Heaviness!"
Bowser began to explore the western area around Rogueport. He hadn't really found anything special, but the only thing that caught his attention was a yellow Pianta in a suit and sunglasses standing in front of Pianta Parlor.
"Da boss told me to guard dis..." the Pianta stopped to look up at the size of Bowser. "O-OK... You look kinda big...an' tough... But I've been workin' with the Piantas...and... RUN FOR IT!"
The Pianta bolted, leaving Bowser to grumble to himself about how cowardly he was. Despite this, he ignored the cowards around him and headed to the center of Rogueport. He noticed the wooden structure in the center where a rope was hanging from.
"Say, Kammy... What is that rope on that structure supposed to be?" Bowser asked.
"It's been said that throughout the centuries, when this town was built over the one below us, they created this as a means to punish criminals for terrible crimes."
"Sounds pretty dumb. I'd rather they replace it with a statue of me instead! Then this place whole be a whole lot interesting!"
"Yes, that would be true," Kammy agreed. "You are the greatest, after all."
"Yeah, yeah... Let's just hope there'd be someone to tell us about the Crystal Stars..." Bowser grumbled, making his way around Rogueport's plaza. A mouse coming out of the Lovely Howz of Badges had spotted him and was pleasantly surprised.
"My, my... So Bowser's back in Rogueport?" the badge manager remarked. "Perhaps he is looking for that handsome piece of cheese. Now this is something I must see."
She donned her thief costume and quickly hopped onto the roofs to see what he was up to.
Bowser had reached the eastern side of Rogueport, causing a few Bandits and Goombas to flee for their lives. Bowser laughed at them and continued to walk until someone had walked out of Professor Frankly's house.
"All right, Professor Frankly! I'll get to it right away!" Goombella declared, making her way to the plaza. Unfortunately, she was put to a halt when she spotted Bowser. "Wait a second... Bowser?! What're you doing here?!"
"Huh? Hey, wait a minute... You look just like that Goomba who helped Mario give me a beating five months ago!" Bowser realized, giving her a glare. "So, you decided to headbonk me again, did you?"
"What? Not a chance! I have no time to deal with you and your ugly face again!"
"Now look here, missy!" Kammy stepped in. "You may have beaten us before, but that was because you had Mario's help! Now what could you do to us on your own, huh?"
"On her own? Personally, I'd beg to differ." Ms. Mowz stepped in, landing next to Goombella.
"Ms. Mowz? What're you doing here?" Goombella asked.
"Well, I was running the Lovely Howz of Badges, but then I spotted these two. I was curious as to what they were doing, so I came here. So, what brings you back here, Bowser?"
"That's none of your business, ya squeaky mouse," Bowser answered harshly.
"Wait, Bowser!" Kammy whispered. "Perhaps we could ask these two something about the Crystal Stars! After all, they had traveled with Mario before..."
"Oh, right!" he turned back to the two girls. "Actually, now that I think about it, I could use your help! You wouldn't happen to know where you got information on the Crystal Stars, right?"
"Pbbbbth! Like we'd ever tell you that!" Goombella scoffed.
"And why are these Crystal Stars so important to you?" Ms. Mowz asked.
"Uhhh... Isn't it obvious?" Bowser slack-jawed. "I'm trying to rule the universe here!"
"What is all that babbling going on outside of my house?" Frankly asked, walking out of his house. He spotted Bowser arguing with Goombella and Ms. Mowz. "Hrrmmm... Now who might you be?"
"How could you not know the almighty Koopa King?!"
"I know of you... But I didn't know what you looked like... Anyway, why are you babbling outside of my house? Can't you do that someplace else?"
"We request some information on the Crystal Stars!" Kammy demanded, flying over to face Frankly. "You seem awfully suspicious! Perhaps you could tell us about these stars!"
"The Crystal Stars?" Frankly pondered.
"Frankly... Don't tell them..." Goombella warned.
"Well, I could tell them, but it wouldn't get them anywhere," Frankly assured, turning back to Bowser and Kammy. "To find a location of a Crystal Star, one would usually go to the ruins of the Thousand-Year Door on a pedestal. However, with the new ones around, you can only find a location of one if you go to the Fountain of Dreams."
"And what is this Fountain of Dreams?" Kammy asked.
"Unfortunately, it's located on another world."
"Wait... Are you serious?!" Bowser gaped. "You mean I gotta go to a whole other world just to find out how to get to a Crystal Star?!"
"I believe so... Pop Star is the place to go."
"Oh, my... I never thought that we'd ever have to go to someplace so...distant." Kammy gasped. "Your Viciousness... What ideas do you have?"
"I... I don't know!" Bowser cried. "How am I supposed to get to a Crystal Star on another world?! DARN IT!"
Pop Star, rocky altar-
The battle between Meta Knight and Galacta Knight had continued their battle, exchanging blow to blow with each other. However, neither of them weren't able to land at least a decent hit. Both were very fast and quick to react against an opponent's attack.
However, it was then that Galacta Knight had made a big mistake and tried to perform a powerful swing. Meta Knight swung at him and delivered the final blow, causing his opponent to get knocked onto the floor.
Meta Knight was about to approach his opponent, but Galacta Knight had gotten up and quickly flew off. With that, he put Galaxia away and stepped off the rocky platform, making the sky turn back to normal.
"Hmph... I guess he decided to fly off." Meta Knight remarked. "I'll be back to defeat him when he returns to Pop Star again."
He looked back at where the dark fog was. ...Or rather, where it once was. It had disappeared, indicating that the evil within the fog was finally gone.
"So Chopper got the Dream Star... That must mean that Silica has been healed. That's good. But that means only three Crystal Stars remain. If Chopper gets those last three, there's going to be a lot of trouble!"
"Sir Meta Knight!"
Meta Knight turned around to find his two servants, Sword and Blade Knight. They were panting and exhausted from the run they took.
"Sir! We've been looking for you for HOURS! What happened?" Sword asked.
"It's a bit of a long story," Meta Knight answered, wrapping his cape around himself. "Let's just say I ran into a certain warrior..."
"You... You don't mean...?" Blade gaped.
"Yes. That one. Unfortunately, he ended up flying off. Still, he could come back anytime to face me again."
"Well, Captain Vul wanted to deliver some important news," Sword informed. "Something about the Halberd."
Hearing the word "Halberd" had quickly gained his attention. "So... The Halberd's been fully repaired?"
"Well, almost," Blade answered. "And when it's finally complete, we can finally get back to trying to take over Dream Land, right?"
"Hmmmmmm... I feel that we have something much more important to take care of..." Meta Knight trailed. "Do you know that Chopper has only three more stars left to find?"
"What? Very interesting..." Blade trailed, drawing his sword. "If you want, we can both stop Chopper."
"No. We need to make sure the Halberd is ready to go. There is one Crystal Star that's far out there, and it is by far the most dangerous... It's powers are greater than both the Queen's and King's Star combined. The Dark Star is our biggest priority."
"Dark Star? So... That's the one you were worried about the most..." Sword trailed.
"Yes. It is that star which is responsible for causing havoc among the universe. If it is united with the nineteen others, we will be doomed..."
"Then we should go immediately!" Blade declared, turning to Sword. "Sword, let's not let Sir Meta Knight down. We gotta help him get a hold of this star!"
"Good. I might need you two to help me..." Meta Knight trailed, opening his wings. "The Halberd should be just near the Rainbow Coral Reef."
"Of course, sir... But I think we should also mention something..." Sword trailed nervously. "Captain Vul also mentioned that there were these weird, dark beings with a single eye roaming in the ship. They can even transform to prevent people from progressing."
"This could be a problem... Let us go."
With that, Meta Knight lifted himself off the ground, and Blade had grabbed a hold of one of his feet. Sword grabbed Blade's foot, and they then began to fly off.
Palace of Shadow-
Gemerl had returned to his throne room, annoyed over the previous events of finding a Crystal Star. "Those Phis... They should've checked the Crystal Star out first before telling me about it. ...Oh, why do I bother? Nothing would come out of it, just like what I did. ...But it's good to be back in this throne."
"Master Gemerl! You've returned!" a Phi shouted, approaching its leader. "So, I assume you have found a Crystal Star?"
"No, it was fake," Gemerl replied harshly. "Maybe you Phis should've studied it first before telling me."
"Oh... My apologies."
"Well, have any of you found the location of a Crystal Star?"
"Negative."
"Great... Well this is fine." Gemerl groaned. "You know... Thinking about it more, do you have any idea where Chopper is going? It's been a while since I met back at that beach."
"Negative."
"All right, then... Why don't you go find out then? I'm getting sick of being around here. I feel like I've gotten strong enough to take him on."
"As you command, Master Gemerl," the Phi obeyed, exiting the room. Gemerl was ready to relax until he saw said Phi get sent flying back in, incredible damaged. When it landed on the floor, it blew up.
"What the heck?!" Gemerl jumped up from his throne in anger. When he looked down the staircase, he spotted Grodus approaching him.
"So… You're that piece of scrap metal who's been running this whole army and trying to obtain the Crystal Stars..." Grodus trailed, his eyes narrowed angrily at the robot.
"And you must be the geek that's getting in my way. So we finally meet… This is interesting…" Gemerl grinned, slowly transforming one of his hands into a machine gun. "I'm guessing you came here to fight me, right?"
"Yes. Correct."
"Figures."
"What? You thought I came here just to stare at you? That'd be...ridiculous."
"So, are we just going to talk, or are we going to fight?" Gemerl asked, preparing to fire.
"As you wish," Grodus accepted, gripping his scepter and preparing for battle. Gemerl immediately fired, but the scepter was able to take the shots and not get harmed. Gemerl stopped firing and changed his machine gun back to his hand. While that happened, Grodus fired a lightning spell.
However, Gemerl was much faster, and he managed to use his jetpack to charge into Grodus and knock him to the wall.
"Urgh…" Grodus cringed, standing up and firing a blast from his scepter. Gemerl was thrown back by the shot, but he got up and started to scan Grodus. "Hmmmm? Just what are you doing?"
"I'm copying your ability!" Gemerl answered, firing a blast similar to Grodus from the palm of his hand. "Chopper's not the only one with an ability like this too, you know… Gah ha ha ha ha!"
Luckily, the X-Naut leader defended himself with his own scepter and managed to knock the attack at the wall, leaving a hole in it. He took this opportunity to damage Gemerl with one of his own lightning spells. However, Gemerl had also made a move and fired missiles at Grodus. Both of them had taken serious damage as a result.
"This isn't over yet!" Grodus pointed his scepter up and he fully recovered from the damage he took. Gemerl had also recovered from the damage he took as well. "I know how to make this go smoothly..."
Grodus summoned four Grodus X3s, which managed to protect himself. However, Gemerl was unfazed, and he threw a red shield to cover himself in a red barrier.
"I guess I wasn't the only one who came prepared," Gemerl smirked. "Now I just need to destroy you, and then I'll get back to trying to find the next location of a Crystal Star. After all, it'll help me become unstoppable and allow those living beings around to bow down to me and all robots!"
"And I intend to rule the-" Grodus paused, realizing what he just said. "Come again? You do not know where a Crystal Star is?"
"Not yet. I soon plan to, though."
"Gaaack ack ack ack! For a moment, I was actually worried! I guess there's not much of a reason to fight you at the moment!"
"What?" Gemerl fired missiles at the Grodus X3s and grabbed Grodus and lifted him off the air. "Tell me its location right now!"
"You think I'd be foolish enough to tell you where it is? I think not..."
"You'd be foolish to not tell me," Gemerl retorted. "I'm much stronger than you."
"Well, I can safely say that I'm much smarter..." Grodus grinned. "I wonder... If you're so fast, let's see you dodge this!"
Clenching his scepter, it began to glow green as he struck Gemerl's back with it. This caused him to be transported out of the room, much to his dismay.
"Gaaack ack ack ack! What a fool he was! This teleportation spell is much more useful than I thought! Now that robot will be lost in space forever! As for me... I need to head to Chopper's planet and get just what I want there! Then his planet will be history!"
Conjuring up the spell again, Grodus cast it upon himself, and he was teleported out of the Palace of Shadow.
Pop Star-
Thankfully, after claiming the Dream Star and defeating Marx Soul, they were able to leave the strange, void-like dimension and got on their Warp Stars. They immediately took off and were heading back to Dream Land.
"Whew! We finally did it! We got the Crystal Star on Pop Star!" Chopper sighed.
"You know, I can't believe we didn't use the Warp Star to go over here. Wouldn't that have been an easier way?" Shadower asked.
"Uhhhh... Errrr... Well, we wouldn't have found everyone if we took that Warp Star."
"Oh... Well, I guess you make a valid point."
Thankfully, their journey back to Dream Land did not take as long. They spotted familiar areas along the way, each place returning back to normal. The first thing that was done was dropping off Fumu and Silica, who had said goodbye to them before they took off toward the Fountain of Dreams.
"All right... Thankfully, reaching the Fountain of Dreams will not take as long as the other times." Chopper said.
When they reached the Fountain of Dreams, they wasted no time and let the Dream Star out when Chopper stood on the pedestal. Everyone watched as the seventeen Crystal Stars surrounded the fountain and then the Magical Map, which floated over Chopper's head.
"Hoo boy! I'm getting a little excited!" Scrub remarked.
"Poyo? (Where's the next Crystal Star?)" Kirby asked.
"Don't worry, I'm getting to it…" Chopper let the map float down to him before he started to look. He noticed that a planet appeared on the map with a pale green Crystal Star located there. The planet, however, looked familiar. "Wait... Isn't this my home planet?"
"Home planet?" Bombette gawked. "So the next star's located there?"
"You think we should go see Frankly about this?" Sonic asked.
"Well, what else can we do? That's what we do every time." Chopper shrugged.
The rest couldn't argue with that, so they decided to make their exit back to Rogueport. Of course, they wanted to share some interesting stories with him as well.
Frankly's house-
"Very interesting... So you were forced to work on an anime back on Dream Land for King Dedede?" Frankly asked.
"Yeah... Well, technically, Choppy, Flyer, and I had to do it..." Berry explained. "But it failed, and we even got to beat down King Dedede."
"I see... And you say that the one holding the Dream Star was someone you had run into when you were finding the Moon Star?"
"Yeah, but we sure showed him!" Sonic grinned.
"And we found the next Crystal Star as well. Take a look!" Chopper put the map down on Professor Frankly's table so he could take a look.
"Hrrmmmm… Interesting…" Frankly remarked, finished studying the map. "It says here that the Crystal Star is located on a whole different planet."
"Yeah. It's called Clara, and I live there."
"Really? How interesting! I always wondered where your home was. After all, you've never mentioned where you lived."
"Yeah... Sorry about that." Chopper sweat dropped. "But, I know that we can use the teleporter to go to my planet."
"We can use that teleporter in Rogueport Sewers, since it's the closest one," Shadower suggested.
"Right... You know, I find it rather interesting that the previous Crystal Star and this one are not located around Rogueport. I wish I could help you with this one, but I believe you have more experience with your home planet."
"Don't be so down on yourself, Frankly! We're still going to come back to you to show you where the next Crystal Star is!" Berry assured.
"Yes, I believe you're correct. Well, off you go, then! You might want to be careful, though... I've recently heard some news that there have been some planets engulfed in darkness."
"Wait... What?!" Chopper gaped.
"I wish I was lying, but alas... Apparently this darkness is coming closer as we speak. I'd reckon you start going immediately."
"Frankly's right," Shadower agreed. "We need to get going!"
"Let's head down to Rogueport Sewers," Vivian suggested.
Rogueport Sewers, at the teleporter-
Being back in Rogueport Sewers, they had entered the area where there were a couple of people roaming around such as Dazzle. They headed to the furthest building to the left and opened the door into the small teleporter room.
Mario: Ah, this room...
"Yeah, I think we can use this to get to my planet," Chopper said. "At least I know how to use these things!"
When they approached the small monitor to determine the location to go, they noticed it was already set for Clara.
"Hey... This looks like it's already been used!" Scrub gaped.
Tamber noticed a bandolier on the floor as well in the shape of an X. "Well, I found this..."
"Let me see that," Chopper grabbed the bandolier and looked at it. "Hey... This looks like those things the X-Nauts wear... Why is this... Aw, crud! The X-Nauts must know about the Crystal Star!"
"X-Nauts? Ugh... I thought we'd be done with them..." Vivian sighed.
"Well, considering that Grodus managed to escape back in that fortress, it would be obvious that he's still at it again," Shadower recalled.
"It's not safe if he's on my planet!" Chopper gasped. "He'll probably try to destroy it! We need to go immediately!"
Chopper activated the teleported and jumped into it, with the rest following behind.
Hey, remember Chapter 15 in Paper Chopper? That took place on Clara, right? Well... Yeah, it did. But here, there's a bit of a twist this time...
I also can't believe it took this long for Grodus and Gemerl to finally meet. You'd think it would happen earlier, but it didn't. :P