CHAPTER 18
-Clara in Danger-
Tipral stood on a large vine in the upper section of a giant jungle, staring down at what was below. He never thought the day where he would be on Chopper's home planet. It wasn't anything he liked. Then again, he didn't really like anything.
"Chopper and his pesky friends are a lot more powerful than I thought," Tipral remarked, feeling the wind blow through his antennae. "They've successfully destroyed both my parents. ...Or at least, that's what they told me. Though I'm angry over the loss of my parents, at least they aren't going to be bossing me around."
Tipral took out a small picture he held with him. It was very old and brown in color, and it showed him and what appeared to be a small, human girl.
"I can't believe it's been so long since those putrid events of what made me this. Whatever. I'm through with this." Tipral crushed the picture in his hand and put it away. "I'm pretty sure Chopper should be coming here soon. Despite his improvements, I'm not going to make it easy for him and his friends to get the Clara Star."
"What are you doing talking to yourself?" Beldam asked, emerging from the shadows. "We have a job to complete!"
Without a word, Tipral teleported from the upper jungle. Beldam grinned approvingly as she sunk back into the shadows.
Lower jungle-
Chopper walked out of the teleporter building, stretched his arms, and felt the fresh air of his home planet return to him. Many were surprised by the jungle's size. The trees were nearly seven times the size as a tree back in the other worlds.
"Ah… It feels great to be back home!" Chopper smiled. "And I enjoy the fresh air of my planet as well!"
"Well, it's definitely fresh air," Sonic agreed, sniffing the air. "I like it! Though, this jungle makes us look like ants!"
"Contadre, how come you never told us about your planet?" Scrub asked.
"Ummm... You never asked?" Chopper sweat dropped.
Honestly, Flyer couldn't care less about being here at this point. Especially with the mood he was in. However, there was one thing that he noticed when he looked up, and he was left surprised.
"Guys... I suggest you take a look at the sky…" Flyer suggested, pointing up at the sky. Everyone looked up as well and noticed the approaching darkness.
"The darkness… It's close to my planet!" Chopper gasped. "No... I don't believe it..."
"Oh my gosh... This is terrible..." Vivian trailed. "That means we're very limited on finding the Crystal Star."
Mario: Then we should start moving.
Everyone agreed and started to get a move on through the giant jungle. They decided to go past the teleporter and go on ahead, since it was most likely the Crystal Star was located in that direction.
"Nice jungle ya got, Gumball!" Tamber commented. "You must enjoy being so small here!"
"Well... There's nothing that bothers me, so I don't have an issue..." Chopper trailed.
"I'd prefer to be much bigger."
"Eat some fatty food, and you'll definitely get bigger," Bombette assured.
"I meant grow bigger in size!"
As they continued their travel, Chopper's antennae started to twitch. "Hey... I think I'm hearing some voices ahead..."
When they reached a more open section of the jungle, they found two X-Nauts and Lord Crump by a giant block. However, it was no Rainbow Block. This one was black and sported purple eyes. It had a purple trim, and it was a lot bigger than a large Rainbow Block.
"That's one weird block..." Chopper trailed. "Can you tell us what it is, Flyer?"
"Fine..." Flyer sighed as he pulled out his scanner and scanned the block from a distance. "It's called a Dark Block."
"Anything else?"
Unfortunately, that's when Flyer ended up ignoring him. He was confused, but he brought his attention back to Lord Crump and the two X-Nauts, who were trying to destroy the block.
"Dang… Nothing is working against this block." Johnson groaned, giving the block another kick. "The Crystal Star is most likely this way."
"That's because you don't got the muscle like I do! I'm gonna give you the good old Crump-a-bomb! Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh!" Lord Crump chuckled stupidly as he began to flex his muscles. "All right, block! IT'S GO TIME!"
Lord Crump charged straight at it and used his body slam on the Dark Block, but it resulted in him crashing into it headfirst. Johnson and the other X-Naut were snickering in the background.
"Nice one, dude!" the X-Naut laughed.
"H-Hey! Shut up, you!" Lord Crump grumbled, moving away from the Dark Block. "OK, so what if I didn't break this block? I still got some other stuff that can take it down! …Like my new X-Tank that we got!"
"Oh, yeah... That..."
"Let's go get it and destroy this thing!"
"I don't think so, Lord Crump..." Johnson trailed, studying the block. "This block is called a Dark Block. It's made of Dark Matter, once of the most powerful materials in the universe. I don't think we'll be able to break this thing. Our only option at this point is to give-"
"NO! We're not giving up now!" Lord Crump cut off. "Grodus wanted us to find that Crystal Star, and there's no way we're going to call it quits! You two! We're getting that X-Tank no matter WHAT!"
"Well, whatever you say, Lord Crump," the X-Naut shrugged. "Though, we'd better be quick. That darkness is getting pretty close."
"Yeah, that's true," Johnson agreed. "And... We could also just fly over this block. That'd be pretty easy."
"Lemme check if it's safe," Lord Crump pulled his blaster out and fired a shot above the Dark Block. Unfortunately, above the block, darkness engulfed the shot.
"Well... That sure worked."
"D'oh! Great, now Grodus is going to kill me if we don't have a Crystal Star. Plus, I might lose my job as second-in-command as well!"
"…Fine. If you want us to get the X-Tank, then we'll go get it." Johnson sighed.
Lord Crump did a fist pump as they walked away from the Dark Block. When they were gone, Chopper and the others approached the Dark Block and took a look at it.
"So, this block is made out of Dark Matter?" Chopper gawked. "…And did they say that it's the most powerful substance in the entire world?"
"Uhhhh... Maybe your hammer can break it?" Shadower suggested.
Chopper decided to give it a try, and he used his Diamond Hammer technique on the Dark Block. It hardly budged, and Chopper's hammer started to vibrate, along with his entire body.
"Ack! That didn't work! What now?" Chopper asked.
"What about the map?" Vivian suggested.
Chopper pulled out his Magical Map and everyone went around him to take a look at where the star was.
"Poyo. (Wait... It says the Crystal Star's to the west of the jungle.)" Kirby noticed.
"Well that's not too far! This should be pretty easy!" Chopper cheered, turning to the opposite direction. They all hurried that way, hoping that Grodus, Lord Crump, or the X-Nauts had not spotted it. "I'm surprised it's already this easy."
As they traveled, they couldn't help but feel that things were a little quiet. Too quiet...
"Yeesh... It's usually not this quiet around the jungle... Then again, this isn't that big battle two years ago."
"Big battle? There was a war here?" Scrub asked, looking disappointed. "Oh, come on! That would've been cool to be a part of!"
"Well... What was also shocking was that Flyer was being brainwashed during that time, he was leading the battle against us."
"Man, that's hardcore! Friend vs friend!"
"OK, that's enough," Flyer stated harshly, ignoring any questions asked.
Unfortunately, they didn't have much time to talk, as two Master X-Nauts were walking through the trail they were taking. Both Master X-Nauts gaped as soon as they spotted them, specifically Chopper.
"Whoa, dude! Look at THIS kid!" the first Master X-Naut gawked.
"Dude, that's Chopper!" the second yelled. "Y'know, the one searching for those Crystal Stars?"
"Well SORRY… But, anyway… Let's get him and his friends! That blue rat looks like someone we could use as a slave."
"Rat? For your information, I'm a hedgehog." Sonic said, getting in a ball and hitting both Master X-Nauts with a Spin Dash. They had 54 HP, an Attack of 15, and a Defense of 3. Not exactly easy...
Chopper brought his hammer down on on the first Master X-Naut, dealing 5 damage. Though, he wasn't exactly pleased with the damage done. "I wish I wasn't always doing 5 damage to these guys..."
Both Master X-Nauts pulled their weapons out and fired at Chopper and Sonic – in which they guarded against without any problems. Chopper decided to attack with a Gravity Jump, which ended up taking 24 out of the first Master X-Naut, followed by Berry's Ruby Hammer that did 7 damage.
After both Master X-Nauts attacked and missed, Chopper used his Ultra Gloves to strike both Master X-Nauts, and with Vivian's Fiery Jinx, the first one had been defeated. The second Master X-Naut was left with only 29 HP.
"Crud… I'm not going down so soon! Take this!" the Master X-Naut began to charge up a deadly blast and fired at Chopper, dealing 17 damage. Chopper took action by using his D-Down Jump. Shadower followed up with a Shadow Punch, causing the enemy's defense to be lowered. The Master X-Naut fired a shot at Shadower afterward.
"Yeah! BULLS-EYE!" the Master X-Naut shouted. Unfortunately, he got hit by Chopper's and Mario's jump, which resulted in him in being defeated. As a result, they got 12 Star Points.
Though they were defeated, the two Master X-Nauts stood up, appearing very exhausted from their fight. Rather than looking confident, they began to shake in fear as they slowly stepped away.
"Aw, man! These guys are a lot tougher than I thought!" the first Master X-Naut gaped.
"Wh-What should we do?"
"Well... There's always Plan B..."
"And what's that?"
"REEEEEEEETREEEEEEAT!"
The two Master X-Nauts fled from Chopper, but not without tripping.
"Man, you guys are total wimps! Plus, you run like a couple of little girls!" Sonic laughed, despite the others not. "...What? It was funny!"
"Anyway… Let's move along." Chopper pressed on ahead, continuing the trail that had led to his house.
"So, this is your house?" Bombette asked, staring at the giant mushroom house. "What a weird place to live in..."
Mario: It's much bigger than my house, though.
However, that wasn't what caught Chopper's attention the most. Moving on ahead, he spotted a large mountain nearby.
"Strange... Since when was there a mountain here?"
"No, there wasn't a mountain here before," Flyer stated.
"If the Crystal Star's behind here, then this could be a problem..." Chopper trailed, looking down at the map.
"No problem!" Tamber cracked his knuckles and walked over to the mountain. "Leave this up to me! I'm a 'Grade A Smasher' around here!"
He walked over to the mountain, and, after spinning his arm around, he punched the mountain. Everyone noticed that it hardly did a thing. To his anger, Tamber punched at it again, but to no avail.
"Come ooooooon! I need to smash this thing!"
"Just forget it. I wanna make sure it's located behind it." Chopper pulled the Magical Map out and looked at the Clara Star. To his dismay, it was behind the mountain. "Oh, come on! That's stupid!"
"What is?" Scrub asked.
"It's behind the mountain! This is just-" the pale green hero paused as his antennae starting twitching. Turning around, he heard the sound of music coming from his house. "Wait... Why is there music in my house?"
Everyone followed Chopper back to his house, and getting much closer, they could see through the windows that the lights were on. Chopper decided to lean against the door and listen carefully.
"Oh, come on! How come I'm not getting the stuff I want!"
"Bang! What are you doing?"
"I'm searching for pictures of hot chicks, but all I'm getting are actual chicks on fire!"
"Dude! Don't look up such insensitive things!"
"But this isn't what I was looking for!"
"Uhh… Blade? The show's about to begin!"
Wasting no time, Chopper kicked the door open into his house. Surprisingly, he found Blade and Night sitting on his red sofa and Bang, who was sitting at a computer.
"What the…" Chopper gawked.
"…Whoa, are we in the wrong house?" Blade gawked. "I swore that this was Mobius for a second… Unless…you live here?"
"What are you doing in my house?" Chopper asked, walking over to the TV. They were apparently watching the Dayzeeflower Girls. "What's this?"
"I dunno. Something called the Dayzeeflower Girls." Night answered, stuffing some popcorn in his mouth.
"...Hey! That's my food he's eating! ...And that guy's on my computer!" Chopper ran over to Bang, but he was both surprised and shocked. "Wait... You're actually using this thing? I never knew how to use it. But... Why are you looking up pictures of chicks on fire?"
Bang turned around and gaped when he saw Chopper facing him. "Geeuugh- Uh... Hello there! Er… What in Mobius are you doing here?"
"What in Clara are you doing here, though? Because I, for one, am looking for a Crystal Star on my planet."
"Crystal Star? What's that?" Blade asked, taking some popcorn as well. Vivian had sat on the sofa to watch some TV, along with Scrub, but what he saw was disappointing.
"Wait... You're watching a show about three girls? That sounds dumb!" Scrub pouted.
"It's pretty violent," Night informed.
"Oh... That sounds awesome!"
"Anyway... Maybe I think it's best we got outta here..." Bang trailed, slowly stepping away from the computer and attempting to make a run for it. However, Chopper noticed him and quickly blocked the door. "Hey! What're you doing?"
"Hey! You're not leaving so soon!" Chopper exclaimed, glaring at Bang. "You broke into my house!"
"Technically, the door was unlocked," Blade noted.
"Oh... Crud... Why do I always forget to do that?" Chopper groaned as he face palmed. "Well... You still went into my house without my say so! You're going to have to do something for us now!"
"If you want money, then we'll pay you back," the cat assured, taking out some rings.
"Uhhh... I don't think people use rings around here..." Sonic whispered.
"Well, you guys will have to help us get the Clara Star," Chopper suggested. "I mean, you guys can probably help us..."
"What? Oh, that doesn't sound bad! Going on a little adventure doesn't sound like a bad idea. ...Except when you have to deal with Bang." Blade said, leaning over to Chopper to whisper. "If you ever need a guinea pig, Bang can do the job well..."
"Hey! I heard that!" Bang yelled.
"Well it's true. Plus, it's hilarious."
"No it isn't!" the Chihuahua pouted.
"Hey, guys... Please don't fight in my house..." Chopper suggested, getting in the way between the two.
"Yeah! Go watch this stupid girl's show!" Tamber suggested.
"It's not a dumb girl's show, Tamber!" Berry scolded. "This show can be watched by anyone."
"Yeah. It's violent!" Night added.
"Exactly," she nodded, grabbing Chopper and sitting him next to her. "And I think it'll be fun to watch with you, Choppy..."
"Someone help me!" Chopper cried, shaking in fear of being near her.
"Oh, fine… I'll see what the show is about." Tamber groaned, sitting down by Night and taking a scoop of popcorn. It showed the Dayzeeflower Girls – Blayzee, Kayzee and Tayzee, beating the snot out of their enemy, Kojo Pete. His uninterested look turned to one of interest. "Hey! This ain't bad!"
"That green one sure know how to beat the snot out of these guys," Scrub remarked, watching Tayzee beat Kojo Pete down to a pulp.
"I've met them before..." Chopper trailed.
"You met them before?" Vivian asked.
"Yeah. Kayzee traveled with me and my friends. She was usually cheerful and had some weird doll with her. Plus, she had weird super powers!"
Night was about to reach for some more popcorn, but he noticed it was all gone. He looked over by Kirby, who had eaten the rest of the popcorn. "Dude... That was the rest of the popcorn!"
"Poyo! (And it was good!)" Kirby smiled.
"Great... I don't have any food to eat now..." the undead mouse groaned, turning back to the TV, but not without saying, "By the way, kid, there's a big chest in one of your rooms."
"A big chest? Errmm… I'll go check it out." Chopper jumped off of the sofa and he went into one of his other rooms to find the big chest. "Weird... I never saw this... Well, I better check what's inside.
Chopper opened the chest, and, to his amazement, he found a hammer with a glowing yellow star on both faces. The hammer was a blackish color with many stars depicted on it, and it also had a yellow handle.
"Whoa... This is such a cool hammer!" Chopper smiled, holding it up.
You got the Master Hammer!
As usual, he was transported to the practice room, and Toadette approached him.
"Hi, Chopper! It's me, Toadette! It's so great to see you!" Toadette squealed. "Anyway, congratulations on getting the Master Hammer! That's the strongest hammer out there!"
"Well, it does looks cool. So, what can I do with this hammer? Does it allow me to spin around while jumping in the air or something?"
"…You'll see! It will help you on your journey, that's for sure! Basically, if you quickly press the B button twice, you'll unleash a super-powerful hammer attack! It's so strong, it can smash the strongest blocks on all! Like this one!"
Toadette raised an arm and made two Dark Blocks fall from the sky. One small, and one big. The large one was much bigger than the other big blocks encountered before.
"These are Dark Blocks. They're made of Dark Matter – which is the second most powerful material in the universe. Luckily that hammer is made of Light Matter, which is much stronger than Dark Matter! A normal-sized block can easily be smashed with the hammer, but a large Dark Block requires you to use your Master Hammer technique. …Oh, and I forgot to mention something. You can use your new hammer in battle to pierce through defense and deal a TON of damage to a single enemy!"
Chopper looked at his hammer and he tested it on the small Dark Block. With one swing, the block was destroyed. He walked over to the other block, and his Master Hammer technique involved him charging up star energy in his hammer and swinging his hammer hammer upward. This had destroyed the large Dark Block entirely.
"Well, this is an awesome hammer!" Chopper smiled. "I can do ANYTHING with this, thanks to whoever put this in my house!"
"Have fun using it!" Toadette cheered. "It should definitely help you on your quest to find the remaining Crystal Stars!"
She walked off, transporting Chopper back into his house. He couldn't help but gaze at the space-like design on the hammer and the glowing stars on both faces.
"I really need to show this to my friends..." Chopper mumbled, walking back into the living room. Everyone noticed the happy expression on his face and appeared curious.
"You seem to be in a happy mood today, Chopper. What happened?" Vivian asked.
"Take a look at THIS!" Chopper showed everyone his new hammer. Many of them gaped and gazed at it in awe. "I found a big chest in my other living room and BAM! I find the Master Hammer in there!"
"The Master Hammer?" Bang looked at Chopper's Diamond Hammer he still had with him. "So, if you're going to be using that from now on, can I take that other hammer you got?"
"Sure, go ahead. I don't need it anymore." Chopper tossed his Diamond Hammer, but it ended up hitting Bang's head, causing him to fall over.
"Ow..."
"Well, let's see how much his IQ dropped after that," Blade said, looking down at Bang, not too surprised to see him get hurt.
"What's an IQ?" Chopper asked, turning to Flyer.
"It's nothing important," Flyer mumbled.
"Oh, OK..." Chopper trailed as he put his Master Hammer away. "Well, considering that we're not going to be going anywhere, I guess we should all stay here for the night?"
"That's one of the best offers you've ever given," Berry smiled, getting off the sofa. "And I call sleeping beside you."
"Pbbbtthh! That'll be funny." Blade snickered.
"Hey, is that a GameCube?" Night asked, taking notice of the device. "Why didn't you tell us about it?"
"But you didn't ask..." Chopper trailed, but he noticed Night's hands were covered in some dirt. "What's that on your hands?"
"My hands?" Night looked at his dirty hands. "Oh... Right! I was doing my job. Of course, my hands end up getting dirty in the process from... Well, death."
"Then don't use a controller! I don't want it dirty!" Chopper grabbed the first controller, while Scrub got one, Blade got one and Bang got the last one.
"Oh, come on! I wanted to play!" Tamber pouted.
Chopper turned the system on, and they started to play Super Smash Bros. Melee. When they got to the character menu, Chopper chose to play as Luigi, Scrub chose Yoshi (obviously), Blade chose Roy, and Bang chose Falco.
"All right, guys! You're about to get your butts handed to me!" Bang chuckled. As soon as they started, he was already beaten by Roy. "Are you KIDDING ME?! This is so stupid!"
"Bang, you don't have to act like a preschooler," Blade said. "Because that's only going to make yourself look stupid."
"But… But… Hey! I'm not stupid! I'm a good-looking guy that can get himself a girlfriend easily!"
"Yeah... Remind me when you managed to get one."
"Errr... Shut up!"
"Well, at least we know that there is someone dumber than the gumball," Tamber remarked.
"Is that all you call me?" Chopper asked. "My name's Chopper."
"Yeah, whatever, Gumball."
Being distracted, Scrub had managed to take him out of the match, making him frown.
"Ha! I beat you, Contadre!" Scrub cheered. "I'm so awesome!"
"Can I play?" Berry asked.
"Heck no!" Bang replied. "Girls don't play video games!"
"Uhhh... I do..."
"Just give her the controller..." Blade whispered.
"Wha? Why me?"
"Well, for starters, you were out first in the match. Second... You were asking for it when you made that remark."
"Well I'm not giving up my spot!" Bang scowled. "I wanna keep playing!"
That was then Blade tried to grab his controller and pull it out of Bang's grasps. He pulled away as well, causing the two to have a little tug-of-war. But then Blade kicked him in the shin, forcing Bang to let it go. Berry grabbed the controller and sat down.
Now Bang was crossing his arms and pouting like a child. "This is stupid..."
"Oh, grow up, Bang," Blade groaned.
"What? You do dumb things as well!"
"But I don't act like a five-year-old..."
Everyone chose the same character, except Berry had chosen to play as Zelda. Chopper believed he would win this one, but his was left agape when his character was the first one to get KO'd. In the end, Berry had won, and the others were gawking.
"The heck?" Blade gaped. "How'd I get beaten so easily?"
"Ha ha! You got beaten by a girl!" Bang laughed.
"Yeah, and I remember you were literally beaten by many girls."
"Well, this was a game I usually played a lot..." Berry shrugged.
"Dang... I guess that makes sense...whatever your name is," Night commented.
"It's Berry."
"What kind of name is that?" Bang laughed.
"A berry stupid one!" Tamber snickered, receiving a glare from Berry.
"I don't know why, but he reminds me of one of those flowers," Bang remarked, pointing at Tamber. "A tulip?"
"HEY! I'M NOT A TULIP!"
Now they were laughing at Tamber, and he was the one looking annoyed.
"Man, isn't this pretty funny, Flyer?" Chopper asked, turning to his friend.
"Leave me alone, Chopper…" Flyer warned.
"Leave you alone? But you're my friend!"
"A friend? If you were a friend, you'd actually be more caring for me then."
Flyer walked away from him before Chopper could say another word. Flyer walked to the other room where the large chest was, stating that he'll sleep there alone.
"Geez... Someone's being cranky." Sonic remarked. "Who knows what's up with him?"
"I wish I knew..." Chopper sighed. "Something is seriously bothering him."
"Can we get back to playing this game?" Scrub asked.
"Actually, I'd say it's a bit late for that," Shadower noted, looking out the window. "We should probably get some sleep. Though... Where the heck will we sleep anyway?"
"I think I got something people can sleep in..." Chopper trailed, checking the closet. He had plenty of sleeping bags, so he threw them out, with one of them hitting Bang in the face and knocking him back. "Are they good enough?"
"Yeah, these should be just fine," Bombette assured, picking hers up. Bang was about to question how she was holding it, but Night shook his head at him.
Everyone had decided to call it a night and got in their sleeping bags to go to sleep. It hadn't taken long until everything was quiet...
Somewhere else in the jungle-
"Mwa ha ha ha ha! So, this must be where that Chopper went, didn't he?" a familiar Koopa wearing white armor and carried a blaster and shield cackled, now free from Wingel's prison after a couple of days. "For this is the place where he lives. Therefore, he should be around here, and being around here means he is close by!"
He had pulled out a small bomb with the words "Death Bomb" plastered all over the place. "This Death Bomb shall finally be the end of that boy! By being the end of him, he shall no longer exist, and when he no longer exists, I, Kojo Pete, shall finally be the ruler of this-"
Unfortunately, he didn't realize that his bomb's fuse had been lit up, and his blabbering gave the bomb enough time to explode. Kojo suddenly found himself flying in the air and away from the jungle.
"CURSES!"
OK, that ending was kinda... Yeah, it speaks for itself. :P
If you're wondering how long Chapter 18 will be, expect the same amount of chapters as Chapter 15 in Paper Chopper. Only here, the length of the chapters might be a bit longer... And we also have Blade, Bang, and Night tagging in for the ride! This could get ugly...