When morning had finally come, Chopper slowly opened his eyes and noticed he was lying on the floor. He got up and rubbed his head, seeing that the others were in their sleeping bags, and Vivian was sleeping on the sofa without her hat on.
"Whoa... Why was I sleeping on the floor?" Chopper wondered as he rubbed his head. "Usually I don't do that..."
Vivian had gotten up next and noticed Chopper looking confused. "Hey, Chopper."
He turned to her, but with her eyes revealed, he felt completely stunned. She noticed this and put her hat back on, which managed to get him out of his trance.
"Sorry about that..."
"Do you know why was I sleeping on the floor?" Chopper asked.
"Well... You do know what happened last night, right?" Vivian wondered.
"I don't know..."
"Oh... All right... That's fine." the Shadow Siren replied, a bit saddened. They then heard someone from the other room get up. Chopper instantly remembered Flyer was sleeping in there, and he was going into the kitchen.
"...Hey, I remembered something from last night," Chopper realized. "Something about Flyer..."
"Oh, yeah! Maybe I should go talk to him." Vivian remembered, going into the shadows to appear in the kitchen. During that time, the others had started to get up.
In the kitchen, Flyer was opened one of the cabinets to find a box of cereal. The only thing available were Chopper-O's, so he took that and poured it into a bowl.
"Ugh... This is not going to be a great day..." Flyer groaned. "I wish there was something else in here not named 'Chopper'."
Vivian rose up from the shadows and floated over to Flyer. "Flyer, are you all right?"
"I'm fine..." Flyer assured, eating some cereal.
"But, um... Something does seem to be bothering you."
"I'm sorry, but you probably wouldn't understand my problem."
"Well, all I know is that you seem to have a bit of a problem with Chopper..." Vivian trailed. "Did something happen between you two?"
"No, it's not just Chopper. I'd say the others are to blame too." Flyer stated, looking away from her and continuing to eat his breakfast. "Just leave me be, all right?"
Vivian tried to get his attention again, but she was ignored. She frowned and left the room to return to Chopper. The look on her face definitely told him that something wasn't right.
"He said it wasn't just between you and him," Vivian noted. "I think he has the same issue with the others..."
"Oh... That's not good..." Chopper trailed.
"He doesn't even want to tell me what's wrong either."
"What? There's seriously something going on with him... I wish I knew, but right now, I think we need to get the others up."
Coincidentally, the others had started to wake up. Bang had gotten up first and looked down at Blade. He wasn't getting up any time soon, so he started to shake him to get him up.
"Five more minutes..." Blade grumbled, slowly opening his eyes to see Bang's face close to his. He ignored it for a moment, but when he suddenly realized who it was, his eyes shot wide open, and he comically kicked his friend off him. "Dude! Ever heard of personal space?!"
"I was just checking to see if you were awake or not!" Bang explained.
"Well don't have your face in front of mine! That's just WEIRD!"
"Sorry!"
"All right... I guess this means we're going to be getting out of this dump?" Tamber asked.
"Yeah, we'll be leaving this-" Chopper paused, realizing what Tamber had just said. "Hey! This place isn't a dump!"
"Anyway, what are our plans if we find anything dangerous?" Sonic asked.
"It's simple," Blade started. "We'll use Bang as bait so he'll be the one getting hit."
"Wait... Why him?"
"Because it worked in the past before, like the one time when he, Night, and I were stranded on this one planet."
"Hey! Don't I get a say in this?" Bang gaped.
"Nope."
Mario: Maybe we should vote?
"Fine. All in favor of using Bang as bait, raise your hands."
Most of the group had raised their hands, though the majority felt bad for doing so.
"Any objections?"
Bang had raised his hand.
"Good! Looks like Bang's the bait." Blade declared.
"What?! You gotta be kidding me!"
"Too bad. Majority rules."
"Yeesh... What ever happened to the golden days where we got along?" Night wondered.
"Aside from this pointless arguing, what do you say we go to that block that was in the way?" Shadower suggested.
Everyone agreed and left the house. Tamber walked over to the large mountain to smash it, but that didn't do any good, nor did Chopper's hammer. They quickly made their way back to the large Dark Block instead. Thankfully, there were no signs of Lord Crump.
"Ha! That Crump guy probably couldn't handle this block!" Scrub scoffed. "We're totally going to get moving!"
"Time test out my new Master Hammer!" Chopper pulled his new hammer out and brought it back, a light glow now surrounding it. He swung upward, hitting the Dark Block and smashing it into smithereens. "Wow! Now that was cool!"
"That thing's a powerhouse!" Berry commented.
"This hammer is a lot better than Tamber's strength!" Bombette added, only to have Tamber make a face at her. "…No offense."
"Poyo? (So how can we get past that mountain?)" Kirby asked.
"Well... I'm hoping we'll find some kind of solution around here..." Chopper pondered. "So, ready to go?"
Everyone gave him a nod and followed him deeper into the jungle.
The pathway they were walking through had a lot of vines and trees surrounding them. Just like before, it was awfully quiet. However, they were still on the lookout.
"Yeesh... You'd expect a jungle to be a lot noisier than this." Berry remarked.
"It wasn't like this two years ago, that's for sure. Those villains I faced had tried teaming up to take me down."
Mario: Even Bowser?
"Yeah."
"Sounds interesting," Night said. "I wish I was there to help ya out. It would've been pretty fun."
There was bridge up ahead but it was being blocked by a Dark Block. Chopper simply smashed the thing with his hammer, and they pressed on. However, they came across a purple plant just across the bridge.
"Uhhh... Hey, guys... I hate to make us stop for a moment, but I think I gotta make a pit stop." Bang said, crossing his legs and shaking.
"Oh for Pete's sake... Why didn't you go before we went?" Blade groaned.
"Because I didn't have to go then!" Bang retorted, approaching the purple plant. "Now beat it! I don't want you guys watching me-AAAAAACCK!"
The purple plant suddenly became animate and chomped on Bang, only leaving his legs sticking out of the carnivorous plant. He began to struggle, with his legs flailing around.
"GET ME OUTTA HERE!"
"All right, calm down, Bang!" Blade pulled his katana out and cut off the plant's stem. This helped release Bang when its mouth opened. The yellow Chihuahua was covered in slime from the plant - something the others didn't find to pleasant.
"Ugh! That stuff looks gross!" Scrub gagged.
"Aw, man! This was my favorite leather armor!" Bang complained, trying to shake off the slime. At this point, they knew they should all be more alarmed.
"All right, we're moving along," Blade decided, kicking Bang to make him move on.
When they continued their journey through the jungle, they noticed a small leaf person pass by. Chopper immediately recognized the enemy, while Night drew his axe hammer.
"Yeah... This thing is probably an enemy." Night decided, raising his weapon to attack. However, another similar leaf creature called a Leafion grabbed the handle of his weapon and made him fall back. "What the..."
Another Leafion came into the scene, swinging on a vine. Instead, it latched onto Shadower's head and took off his hat, revealing his afro from underneath.
"Hey! Give me back my hat you pest!" Shadower used a Shadow Punch on the Leafion, knocking it to the ground. He then reclaimed his hat and put it back on. "Much better."
"Dude... I'd die for an afro." Bang commented.
"Well, you can get one when we're done with this mission."
A Leafion with a tiki mask landed in front of the group and began to use its hypnosis abilities on them. Unfortunately, they were not affected by it.
"Wait... How didn't my hypnosis not work?" the Leafion gawked. "Unless you people aren't..."
Bang gave the Leafion a good kick, knocking it further back. Unfortunately, this only got it angrier, and it started to call out for more Leafions to attack them.
"Nice one..." Blade sighed.
"Well at least I did you all a favor!" Bang frowned.
"...Actually, I think I'd side with Bang on this one," Chopper stated.
More Leafions came out and they charged at Chopper with their vine spears. When they jabbed at him with it, it didn't appear to be too effective. They tried a couple of more times, but they got the same results.
"Hey! Why don't our spears work?" one Leafion asked before Chopper swung his hammer at it. When Mario swung his hammer, the Leafions started to fear.
Mario: That takes care of them for now.
"I think up ahead there should be a grassy field," Chopper mentioned. "There's also a swamp, but I hate that area. It kinds of stinks..."
"That's understandable," Blade replied.
They crossed the next bridge and were soon out on a grassy field. There were a couple of small hills around, along with a large pond.
"Wow, what a pond," Berry remarked, seeing her reflection in the water. "It makes me wish there was at least a decent amount of water around where I live."
While the others simply stared at the water, Scrub was the first to dump his head in and take a drink of the water. "Guys! You gotta try this water out!"
Unfortunately, they had already stepped away from the lake and returned to the others who weren't there. Groaning, he headed over to the rest of the group.
Blade put his katana away and scanned the area around him. Up ahead, he noticed three vines acting like grind rails. "I suppose we should head that way."
"Into the swamp? Ick... I won't like this." Chopper sighed.
Meanwhile, Tamber had approached the pond and dove in, bringing everyone's attention to the water. He had returned in forty seconds shaking off any water on him.
"I noticed something down there!" Tamber announced. "There was a Dark Block blocking a cave in the water!"
"Really? I better check it out!" Chopper jumped into the water and swam to the bottom to find a Dark Block. He smashed it with his hammer to discover an underwater cave. Inside of the cave, Chopper found a rainbow Mushroom in a chest. He discovered that it was called a Master Shroom, and it could recover 200 HP. "Whoa! 200 HP?! This is going to be helpful!"
Afterward, he left the cave and returned to the others, showing everyone the Master Shroom. Tamber was about to take it, but Berry swung her hammer near him to get him to back away. They were interrupted once again, but this time by Night, who was tearing up another purple plant.
"Night? What are you doing?" Blade asked.
"What? We weren't doing anything, so I decided to make sure I wasn't bored!" Night answered sheepishly. "This thing would've attacked us anyway, so..."
"OK, yeah... Good point." Bombette said, trying to stop him from continuing. "Well, we might as well go to the swamp."
"Bang, you know how to grind on vines, don't you?" Blade asked, eyeing Bang and pointing at the three vines.
"Wait... You want me to go first?" Bang gawked.
"Well, you do remember what we voted on before... I mean, you're probably the toughest and coolest one of us! You should be able to show us how amazing you are."
"Really? ...Uh, I mean, yeah! I'm definitely better than you all! I can also easily pick up chicks!" Bang exclaimed smugly, approaching the vines. "Now watch as I show you how to grind on a rail! ...Er, vine."
Bang put his feet on the vines and proceeded to grind. Unfortunately, this had failed, and he ended up nearly falling. Thankfully, the vines managed to save him, but he found the vine he was supposed to be grinding down in between his legs.
"OH, GEEZ! THIS SERIOUSLY HURTS!" Bang cried as he began to slide down the vine.
"Wait... Why is he in pain?" Chopper asked.
"I have no idea, but it's pretty funny!" Blade laughed, only to receive some unhappy looks from the others. "What? He's a bit of a jerk to me at times."
"We're kind of jerks to each other..." Night added.
"Why are you all friends then?" Vivian asked.
"Ehhh... Friends tend to do stuff like that." Blade shrugged. "It's not like we take it that seriously... Anyway, we should probably check on Bang. It's funny to see him hurt, but there's no way I'm going to let him die!"
Chopper nodded and jumped onto the vine next and started grinding down, along with Sonic, Blade, and Night – who knew how to grind. Surprisingly, Berry knew how to grind on a rail as well.
"Wait... How can you be doing this?" Chopper gawked.
"I was taught how to do so by my grandpa," Berry answered. "Which means you can't get away from me on a rail!"
"Oh..."
When everyone reached the swamp area, they saw Bang lying on the ground, wincing in pain.
"Ow ow ow ow ow!" Bang cried, rolling on the floor like a two-year-old. "I can't even get up!"
"Bang, get up..." Blade sighed.
"But I can't!"
"Yes you can. Just stop complaining."
Eventually Bang stopped crying over it and managed to get himself up, not appearing to be in too much pain. He tried giving a more confident look, despite his early attitude.
"Good as new," Bang declared.
"Anyway... Back to business." Chopper suggested, turning to the murky water. "By the way, don't go in that water. It's just going to slow you down."
Chopper jumped onto a floating platform on the water up ahead and noticed a gap between two floating grassy platforms. Using Berry wouldn't help, since the range wasn't as far.
"OK, Scrub! I might need your help!"
"I'm on it!" Scrub jumped to the platform Chopper was on, and he let him get on his back in order to flutter over the gap. Scrub, however, noticed something strange about the reeds in the water. They appeared to be moving. "Uhhh... Contadre? Those reeds are moving... Is there something in this water?!"
When Chopper got off Scrub, he checked the reeds, but he didn't see any movement. "They don't appear to be moving..."
When Night got on the platform, he noticed a Leafion charged in his direction. A simple tap from his foot managed to knock it into the water.
"And that takes care of that," Night said proudly, only to notice the Leafion comically jump out of the water and yelp. "Wait... What?"
"What is it, Night?" Blade asked.
"That leaf thingy hat its butt bitten off. As if...there was something underneath."
"Whoa… I don't think Scrub was kidding about earlier..." Chopper trailed, his antennae springing up in shock. He turned back to a tree nearby, where he saw a cane. "Hmmm… I wonder what this cane's for?"
He inhaled the cane and gained a black mask (or bandanna) that made his eyes appear white. He was also holding the cane he had found stuck on the tree.
"What ability is that?" Vivian asked.
"I don't know... I never had this ability before… I guess I'm Thief Chopper?" Chopper noticed a small vine in the shape of a hook that was hanging from a tree branch leading to a log. "Hmmmm... Maybe this cane thingy can help me get over there?"
Chopper made a jump over the murky water and grabbed the hook-shaped vine with his cane to swing over to the log. For the others, it wasn't that difficult, considering that there were others to provide help. Lucky them...
They noticed up ahead on another floating platform was a cloud. It resembled the clouds from Mario's world, having the happy look.
Mario: What's up with that cloud?
"I don't know... I guess we oughta check it out." Chopper decided.
"It'll be smooth sailing from here!" Bang declared.
As if he jinxed it, the head of a yellow and red creature resembling a Chinese dragon rose from the water, roaring loudly at them.
"That's what I was talking about!" Scrub cried. "That thing's massive!"
The monster charged in their direction, ready to devour them all with one bite. However, a shot was fired, and it was quickly scared off. Everyone looked over at Bang, who had his weapon ready to fire.
"Bang? Did you do that?" Chopper gawked.
"Yup! That was me all right!" Bang replied, looking very confident as he tried twirling his assault rifle. However, since it wasn't one-handed, he messed up, and the weapon fell on his foot. "Ow! My foot!"
"Well, you did a good job helping us out! ...Did you actually hurt it?"
"Beats me. I think I fired my weapon on accident."
Everyone instantly collapsed.
"So much for being the hero..." Shadower mumbled. "But aside from that, I guess we should get this log moving."
"Or rather, let's roll!" Chopper declared, receiving various groans from the others. They started to move the log over to the grassy platform ahead. When they got off, they inspected the cloud, just to make sure it wasn't an animate one or not. Scrub poked it, and its facial expression had not changed.
"So, is this thing real or not?" Scrub wondered.
Mario: The cloud behaves just like the ones back in the Mushroom Kingdom.
"Hmmmm... So, what would happen if we jumped onto this cloud then?" Chopper wondered.
Mario: Let's find out!
Mario made the first move and jumped on the cloud. The cloud had formed a shape on its head, and it resembled a spring, which launched Mario high in the air. Many were intrigued by this, and they had followed Mario into the air after they had jumped on the cloud.
Now all that awaited them was the upper part of the jungle.
Five minutes later-
When enough time had passed, they had all landed on a large vine pathway in the upper jungle. Many believed to be out of the jungle, but then Chopper told them they were still in the jungle, just in the next section.
"Poyo? (There's a lower and upper jungle here?)" Kirby gawked.
"Yeah, it's kind of weird, if you ask me..." Chopper trailed.
"Well, I guess that means it'll be straightforward from here," Blade deduced. Unfortunately, that didn't appear to be the case when Leafions carrying bow and arrows, spears, and even some blasters made their appearance. One Leafion shot a projectile from its blaster, and it nearly hit Sonic's shoe.
"Whoa! I'd never thought I'd see leaf people carrying deadly weapon!" Sonic gawked, not suspecting the shot to come his way.
Chopper knocked a couple of Leafions near him using his cane, while Night had managed to send many of them flying off the vine and down into the lower part of the jungle. Most likely they weren't going to be coming back up. However, that's when Chopper remembered he could hurl fireballs, so he threw them at a couple of Leafions to easily defeat them.
"Good thing I have fire on my side," Chopper sighed. "I mean, we still have Vivian, but two flames work better as one."
"That is true," Vivian agreed.
"But strength always beats flames!" Tamber grinned, knocking two Leafions away with a single punch. Bang had managed to shoot at a couple of Leafions and knock them off the vines as well, and Blade defeated a couple with his katana.
"Man, these guys are kinda pathetic," Blade remarked. "Then again, they're leaves. They can't do a thing!"
They ended up stopping before a corkscrew-like pathway. Blade decided that it was a good idea to test out one of his teleporting abilities. Using his fingers, he made a sign with them, and he had disappeared, leaving smoke behind. He had appeared on a grassy platform on top of a vine, which was hanging from a tree branch.
"Ah! Now that was fun!" the ninja cat grinned.
"This should be fun to run through," Chopper declared, readying himself before he blasted through the corkscrew and landed on the grassy platforms. There appeared to be a Dark Block and Electric Block on two platforms. Up ahead, was another vine pathway, which Blade managed to get onto.
"Shouldn't you smash those blocks first?" Vivian asked. "There might be something in them."
Chopper decided to do so and smashed the Dark Block with his Master Hammer, and he threw an electric ball at the Electric Block. The Dark Block, surprisingly had a strange, rainbow-like drink. He picked it up and sensed a great scent coming from it. It was revealed to be Rainbow Juice, which could recover 200 FP.
"Oh, wow! This stuff looks pretty good! ...But I have to save it." Chopper mumbled, putting it away and taking the vine-like pathway ahead to a large tree.
"This stuff is GOOOOOOOD! I'd drink it, but I don't think it would solve anything. So, I'm not going to eat this. …Yet." Chopper put the item away and he pressed on ahead towards the large tree. There were a couple of more Leafions along the way, but they easily got rid of them. From these fights, Chopper had managed to level up and upgrade his FP to 135.
"Yeesh! This is just like fighting those Badniks back in Green Hill!" Sonic remarked, defeating a Leafion with a Spin Dash. Afterward, he performed a Spin Dash to speed through the loop ahead and reach the large tree. Chopper easily followed, going through the loop to reach the tree. The others, on the other hand, had a more difficult time, but they eventually reached the tree.
"What took you guys?" Sonic asked.
"You know we can't run insanely fast, right?" Bombette noted with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "Anyway, so what is this tree?"
"It's the Elder Tree!" Chopper informed. "And it's huge!"
"Well that's pretty obvious," Bang said. "How about anything important?"
"Ummmmm... That's really it. ...Oh, and it's old."
"All right... I guess we should go in." Night suggested. Everyone agreed and headed into the Elder Tree. They looked up and saw the spiral pathway leading up to the top. There also appeared to be a few spider webs on the walls that they could use to climb up.
"Well, this is quite a tall tree," Shadower remarked. "So we need to climb this thing?"
"Climbing in my specialty!" Tamber smirked. "Stand aside and let me go first!"
"Yeah, let him go first," Bang agreed.
"...OK, fine. He can go first." Blade decided. "I mean, you kinda stink at climbing, and you'll only slow us down if you went first."
"Hey!"
They decided to walk around the circling vine pathway in the tree until they had reached the end and had to rely on climbing up the webs on the walls. This wasn't difficult. Well, for the exception of one.
"Geez... This will be fun." Bombette groaned. "How am I supposed to get up here?"
"Maybe Flyer can help out?" Chopper turned to Flyer, hoping for his assistance. "You think you could give Bombette a hand?"
"Sure, I can do that…" Flyer trailed as he grabbed Bombette and flew her to the top of the tree. With that, Chopper started to climb up the web and to the next vine pathway above him. Unfortunately, the spiders had not abandoned this place, and they creeping their way to Chopper. That was, until a shot was fired, and it had exploded into smoke.
"What the..." Chopper looked down to see Bang giving him an assuring look. "Oh! I see the idea! You can get rid of these spiders while we get a move on!"
"That's...actually something I wouldn't expect from Bang," Blade realized, looking down at Bang. "Hey, Bang! Keep at it! Shoot down any spiders that try to get us!"
Bang gave a thumbs up and started to shoot down more spiders that came their way. One had nearly caught Berry's foot, but she kicked it away and made it fall off on its own. But, just for the heck of it, Bang shot at it. When they reached the vine pathway, they circled around the tree and proceeded to climb higher. The last vine pathway had led them up to the top of the tree, where they could see a hole in the shape of a doorway leading back outside. Bombette and Flyer were waiting for them.
"You guys certainly took your sweet time," Bombette remarked.
"Well... We found spiders." Sonic shrugged. "So how is Bang supposed to get up here, considering that he hasn't even climbed up?"
"...Crud! We can't leave him behind either!" Blade realized. "He's the guinea pig, for crying out loud!"
"You should go get him up here, Flyer," Chopper suggested.
"OK, fine," Flyer groaned, making his way down to the bottom of the tree to pick up Bang. Unlike Bombette, he had more of a difficult time getting to the top because of Bang's weight. When they did reach the top, Bang panted and glared at the Wingel.
"Come on, man! You should've been helping me five minutes ago!" Bang scoffed.
"Just stop already," the Wingel silenced before walking out of the tree.
"Yeesh! What's with him?" Night asked. "Wasn't he, y'know, nice?"
"Yeah..." Chopper nodded. "But something's bugging him, and he's not even telling us..."
They walked out through the door-shaped hole and were finally back outside. They noticed another tree up ahead with a gray castle. Chopper obviously knew what that castle was, but there was something else that surprised him.
"A bridge? There wasn't one here last time..." Chopper trailed, noticing the bridge make its way up to the castle.
"I guess it makes this a lot easier for us then," Vivian said, making her way to the castle ahead. Everyone followed her until they reached the front entrance. It appeared to be wide open.
"Poyo? (Was this open the whole time?)" Kirby asked.
"I don't know..." Chopper pondered. "Maybe this place is...empty?"
"Then I have no problem with this!" Scrub smirked. "C'mon, Contadre! Let's head inside so we can... Wait, what are we trying to do?"
"We're trying to get to the Crystal Star."
"But the Crystal Star was over that mountain!"
"But it's way too high for us! I'm sure we can find something or someone around this planet to give us a hand."
"Oh... Fine, I'll go with it."
They entered the castle, and the first thing they saw were the gray, old tiles on the floor and the dark gray background. It looked just like a typical castle from a video game, particularly one of the castles Mario traveled through, according to what he said.
"This place looks pretty dull," Blade remarked.
"Just watch out for the-" Chopper was cut off when he heard Bang scream as he rocketed up in the air, not paying any attention to the poison pits that was nearby. He reached the group coughing from the poison.
"Ugh... Why didn't anyone warn me about the poison?!"
"I was about to, but you did it anyway! It should wear off, though."
"Just forget about it," Night suggested. "Let's just continue through this castle, OK? I hope there's something for me to obliterate!"
The rest jumped over the poison pit and continued their way through the room. There were more pits for them to leap across, but they were certainly no match for them. Some of them even required the use of Scrub and Berry, considering that the gap between them was too far for make a jump. As they got over the last poison pit, Chopper looked around to make sure any enemies were in sight.
That was not the case.
"Geez... This place wasn't like this two years ago." Chopper recalled. "It's like..."
Mario: A ghost town?
"Yeah... I guess so." Chopper pushed the door open into a room filled with purple fog. Nobody dared to even approach the fog, not even Bang.
"I don't know what the problem is here," Night said. "It's just fog."
"Well it's poisonous!" Bang yelled.
"Meh. Just watch what I do!" Night walked through the poison gas, appearing unaffected by it. He pulled the lever at the end of the room, and the poisonous fog was vanquished from the room. "See? What'd I tell you?"
"How weren't you affected by the poison?" Bombette questioned.
"Uhhh... Hello?! I'm undead here! Poison ain't gonna stop me!"
"Fair enough," Shadower said.
"Whether it was fair or not, we appreciate the help," Blade said as he rushed over to the next door, where he found a room with an elevator. "An elevator?"
"Yeah! We can just take this up to where we need to go!" Chopper informed, entering the elevator. When everyone joined in, they were all cramped in and very uncomfortable.
"Well this is great..." Tamber groaned. "We're all stuck together in this small elevator."
"Ugh... Bang... Could you check where the top floor is?" Blade asked.
"All right," Bang answered, being the closest one to the elevator buttons. He saw two buttons, one going up to the second floor, and the other going up to the third. He pressed the button to the third floor, but he noticed the button light up. "Hey... These button light up!"
"Bang, I swear if you try to do what I think you're doing, I'm going to..." But it was too late. Bang had already pressed the other button as well. "Dang it, Bang... This is just like the last time we were in an elevator..."
"What was that like?" Sonic asked.
"We were in an elevator with 431 floors. He pressed every button on there..." Blade let out a sigh upon reminiscing that horrible event. "We were stuck in the elevator for forty-five minutes..."
"Well, there's only three floors to this place," Chopper assured. "It won't take that long to get there."
One moment later-
The elevator door opened, and the twelve walked out, relieved to be out of the elevator. Most of them took the time to stretch their bodies as well.
"What a relief..." Tamber sighed. "I couldn't bear to be near that stinkin' gumball!"
"And I couldn't bear to hear Bang's stupidity..." Blade mumbled.
A Save Block and Heart Block happened to be in the room, and Chopper decided to strike them both to recover his stats and save his game. He looked over to the door ahead, recognizing the blackness to it, along with the red eyes and freaky mouth depicted on it as well.
"I wonder... Is that leaf king still here?" Chopper pondered, approaching the door. He opened it and walked into the room ahead. There was a bridge leading up to a terminal, and over by the room's corner was a leaf creature much bigger in size to a Leafion, having the pinkish purple eyes. He also sported a crown and legs made from bark.
"Nothing interesting has happened in so long..." the leaf king mumbled. "I haven't even found any sort of entertainment either. What am I doing here anyway?"
"So this place isn't all that empty," Blade mused. The leaf king, Trinado, heard the voice and brought his attention to the people across the bridge from where he stood.
"Chopper… I thought I heard your footsteps coming from the other room!" Trinado yelled, approaching the group.
When Chopper took a look at Trinado, he noticed he looked much duller than usual, along with being dirty as well. "Whoa... What in Clara happened to you, Trinado?"
"My minions have not showed up... Despite my calls, they didn't show up. How dare they defy me?"
"But what happened to the castle? It feels so deserted…" Vivian said.
"Ever since Lord Maquano disappeared, everything went wacky. We weren't given any orders, so there was not much we could do."
"So... Could you let us use that terminal over there?" Bang asked.
"Heck no!" Trinado yelled, trying to use his hypnosis on Bang. But, unfortunately, it didn't seem to work. "What? Why doesn't this work?! ...Wait, don't tell me. You're not an inhabitant from this planet, are you?"
"Uhhhh... No?"
"You know, thinking about it more, one of Lord Maquano's most important orders were to have you eliminated, Chopper," Trinado realized, drawing his two pink poison vine swords. "Perhaps now I will finally get my chance to eliminate you for good!"
"All right, fine. I guess we don't have much of a choice anyway." Chopper replied, getting in a fighting stance. "Blade, Bang, and Night... We'll take care of this, OK?"
"What? Aw, man..." Night pouted.
Tattle: That's Trinado, the king of the leaf people on this planet. He looks like he hasn't been out in the sun for years. Yeesh... Max HP is 300, Attack is 15, and Defense is 0. He'll poison you if he managed to strike you with his swords. He'll also try to pull off one of his hypnotizing moves that'll let him take control of your partners. However, considering that you know about this guy more than me, I think I'm confident in you taking him down easily.
Chopper started off the battle by running up to Trinado and hitting him in the face with his cane. Since Chopper had the Master Hammer, his attack was able to deal 10 damage.
"Ah... That was great." Chopper smiled.
Trinado was about to attack Chopper, but he didn't get the chance when Bombette exploded in his face to take 10 out of him. The leaf king growled as he leaped in the air and landed on Chopper. The attack managed to knock away his Thief ability.
"Great... There goes that ability. At least I have my hammer!" Chopper brought his hammer up as he walked over to Trinado and brought it down on him, dealing 10 more damage to him..
"What the heck? What kind of hammer is that?" questioned Trinado.
"It's my Master Hammer! And it's going to take you down!"
As Chopper began to twirl his new hammer, Bang looked at his Diamond Hammer and decided to twirl it around. Unfortunately, he was not as good with twirling things, and it ended up falling on his foot.
"Oh, man! Not the foot again!" Bang cried, holding his foot in pain.
"Dude, just stop trying to imitate people," Blade suggested. "It'll prevent you from getting seriously hurt."
"Less arguing, more fighting!" Tamber interrupted, running up to Trinado and landing a punch on him.
"I'm going to make sure none of you come out of here alive!" Trinado declared, swinging his sword at Tamber, poisoning him in the process.
"Ack! I'm poisoned! I need... No, wait, I'm not a gumball! I can handle this!" Tamber wheezed, getting hurt from the poison.
"You don't want help? All right…" Chopper trailed, stomping on Trinado's head. Admittedly, he felt a little bad for Tamber, but he was kind of asking for it. Following up with his jump was Scrub's Ground Pound.
Trinado threw one of his swords like a boomerang at Chopper. While he was easily capable of dodging the attack, it had ended up hitting Flyer instead. At this point, he was starting to fume.
"All right, I'm getting tired of this!" Flyer yelled, rushing at Trinado and hitting him with a Flying Attack. Chopper was pleasantly surprised by this, but he decided to turn his attention back to the fight and hit the leaf king with his hammer. Trinado shook himself and attacked Chopper with his sword. He managed to spin himself and Superguard the attack to prevent himself from getting hurt.
"Ack! Stupid little...whatever you are! How'd that miss?!" Trinado growled, while Chopper changed to his Cutter ability and threw a cutter blade at him. Kirby followed up with a Cartwheel, bringing him down to 198 HP.
"Poyo! (This guy is easy!)" Kirby exclaimed. "Poyo... (Though, I wish he wasn't in such bad shape..."
"Curse you, Chopper… I blame you for my minions not listening to me!" Trinado roared. "If Lord Maquano had not gone missing, I'd be in perfect condition! But no, it didn't turn out that way. You know how much I had to go through? First I get brainwashed, then I get thrown in a pit of poison by you, and then when I come out of the pit, I find out that Lord Maquano's gone! This is all your fault!"
"Sorry, but that amnesia thing was not my fault..." Chopper trailed.
"It doesn't matter!" Trinado retorted, poisoning Chopper with a simple sword swing.
"Ack! Not good…" Chopper coughed and took damage from the poison. He conjured up a fireball and threw it at Trinado. Afterward, Vivian used her Soothing Kiss to cure Chopper of the poison.
"Wait... What? You're kidding me..." Trinado groaned, swinging at Chopper. This time, he managed to guard it. "Crud..."
Chopper took the cutter blade off his cap and threw it at Trinado, taking 10 out of him. Berry added her Ruby Hammer to the mix, and she quickly guarded Trinado's sword swing.
"Let me show you one of my stronger attacks," Chopper suggested, springing into the air and landing on Trinado with his Gravity Jump. Sonic got in a ball and threw in a Spin Dash to bring Trinado down to 128 HP.
Trinado threw his sword in their direction, but it ended up missing on accident, hitting Bang instead. The yellow Chihuahua fell back on the ground while Blade and Night face palmed.
"Remind me why we're friends with him," Night said.
"Well, he's been a great help to us in the past, that's for sure," Blade recalled.
"Great… I hit the wrong guy…" Trinado groaned as he caught his sword. He was ready to attack, but he got hit by Chopper's cutter, followed by Shadower's Shadow Punch. "Actually… I have a better idea! I'll show you what I mean!"
Trinado's eyes began to fire a ray towards Shadower, and he began to hypnotize him with his ability. He pointed a finger at Chopper, commanding the shadow being to attack him. Shadower obeyed and threw a Shadow Punch at Chopper. However, it only did 10 damage, unlike Trinado's usual 15 points of damage.
Unfortunately, this attack had knocked Chopper's ability away.
"Ack… Well, it's not the end of the world…" Chopper quickly shook himself and changed to his Needle ability. He went over to Trinado and struck him with the spikes popping out of his cap. "All right, Mario! Go for it!"
Mario nodded and walked over to Trinado and struck him with his hammer to leave him with 87 HP.
"I hate you, Chopper… I really do…" Trinado grumbled as he fired a razor leaf directly at Chopper. It hit him directly, dealing 15 damage, but it didn't stop him from attacking him with more needles. Kirby hit him with another Cartwheel attack afterward.
He fired another razor leaf at Chopper, but unfortunately for him, it was Superguarded. When Chopper hit him with his hammer, and Vivian using her Shade Fist, he was down to 47 HP. Trinado used his hypnosis on Vivian this time, and commanding her to hit Chopper caused him to be left with a deadly burn. When she was no longer in control, she realized what she did and looked guilty.
"I'm… I'm so sorry, Chopper!" Vivian apologized..
"It's OK, Vivian... I'll be fine." Chopper assured, his Needle ability knocked away. He changed to his Mirror ability and fired a shard at Trinado. Flyer added in his Flying Attack as well.
"Urgh… Well, I guess this is what happens when you don't really do anything for a long time…" Trinado groaned. "Everything's been a huge mess ever since there was a big battle on this planet two years ago."
"Really? How much of a big mess?" Chopper asked.
"I'll never tell you!" Trinado roared, hitting Chopper with his sword, knocking his Mirror ability in the process. Because of that, Chopper resorted to using a Spin Jump to bring him down to 11 HP.
"I call finishing him!" Tamber declared, rushing over to Trinado, and with one punch, he knocked him off of the bridge.
"Ack! Curse you, Chopper! You… You made me fall into this pit! …AGAIN!" Trinado yelled, finally landing at the floor below the poisonous clouds. "WHEN I COME OUT OF HERE, YOU'LL BE SORRY!"
"That is, if you manage to beat us," Chopper said, upgrading his BP to 81 after getting some Star Points. With that out of the way, everyone went over to the terminal. "All right… Now that that's over with, we can get going with this thing! …I think we need to go to the desert, right?"
"I don't know," Blade shrugged. "You live on this planet. You're the expert."
"Right…" Chopper looked up at the terminal and at the buttons. "Crud… I don't remember how to work this thing! Ummmm... You think you can give us a hand?"
"No."
Chopper gawked, surprised to hear a response like that. "What? No?"
"That's right. I'm not helping you." Flyer replied angrily. "I'm not just some tool that you and your friends use to get things done!"
"Yeah!" Tamber agreed, though he noticed the Wingel glare at him. He immediately backed down.
"Wait... I don't understand... Tool?" Chopper gawked. "Are you saying that you've been angry this whole time because you think you're a tool to us?"
"That's preposterous!" Shadower gaped. "You're our friend!"
"Friend? Then how come every time an attack that hadn't intentionally hit me, people ignore it?" Flyer asked.
"Wait... I wasn't even aware that it was always you getting hurt!" Chopper gaped. "Plus... No one else tends to complain when they get hit. You can take care of yourself, right?"
"Or it sounds like I'm just here to only be used and nothing else. Even when I do something nowadays, no one's giving me any thanks for what I did! Face it, I don't think anyone cares."
"But Flyer! No one's been using you! You're one of the smartest people in this group!"
"I'm sorry, but I'm done," the Wingel declared, turning away from them and making his exit. "If you want to get things done, you're going to have to ask someone else."
"Wait, where are you going?"
"I'm going home, somewhere where I won't have to deal with you guys."
"Flyer! Please!"
Flyer simply ignored him and slammed the door behind him.
"Wow… He sure has problems." Bang remarked. "That was jerkish."
"I can't believe it..." Chopper sighed, looking down at the floor. "Flyer's gone... Maybe what he said was true?"
"Don't try to let it get to you, Chopper..." Vivian trailed, hoping to at least make him feel better.
"Personally, I think Flyer's making too much of a big deal over this..." Berry trailed. "Though what he said about not getting any thanks for his work does make me feel a little guilty..."
"Well, we can't do much else now... I guess we'll have to move on without-" Chopper paused when he heard some buttons being pressed. Turning around, he spotted Bang pressing the buttons.
"Bang! Stop pressing those buttons!" Blade suggested. "You're going to mess this-"
When Bang pressed the final button, the teleporter was activated, leaving Blade and Night in surprise. Even the others were a bit surprised by this.
"Whoa… How did he do that?" Night asked.
"What? I just pressed buttons. That's all…" Bang shrugged, walking into the teleporter afterward.
"Typical Bang..." Blade groaned, he and Night following the dog into the teleporter. Chopper and the others followed, knowing that they couldn't convince Flyer to come back to them.
Chopper just hoped nothing bad would happen to Flyer.
Yeah, a lot of bad and good things have happened to Bang in this chapter... Especially with him getting hurt by various things. The vines, especially... Ouch.