CHAPTER 14-1
-Into Cyberspace-
The sky was rather strange for this world. Some part of the sky was simply a navy blue color with red orange lights flowing through. The ground was blue, with some glass in the floor that's storing some kind of yellow, orange and red energy. But, it certainly was a beautiful glow. There were also some purple pedestals with spinning purple cubes with a light blue frame.
When the six heroes stepped out of the red orange door, they all looked at their surroundings, just like they usually do. They didn't know what to think. Was it cool? Weird? Amazing?
"What a strange world… I've never seen anything like this…" Timpani commented as her wand floated out of Chopper's hands. "Yet, for some reason… I feel the Pure Heart's presence in this world…"
"Good! 'Cause I didn't want to be lured into some kind of trap!" Blade hoped as he looked down at the glowing energy in the ground underneath the glass. "Cool! That stuff is pretty neat!"
"So… I don't get it. Where are we?" Luigi asked.
"Well, judging by what everything looks like, we're apparently in cyberspace," Blumiere confirmed. "Some people would refer to it as the internet…but I suppose cyberspace itself is in its own dimension?"
"Cyberspace, huh? Well this should be pretty cool!" Sonic chuckled while stretching his arm.
Chopper looked up ahead and saw a weird red spherical shaped enemy with orange eyes and a green spark circling around it. Its eyes began to sound off some kind of siren as it flew toward them.
"Warning! Warning! Viruses in Sector 11! Requesting assistance!" the enemy fired some kind of green spark at Chopper, electrocuting him. He used Timpani's wand to investigate the enemy.
"That's a Computer Drone. It's some type of Computernoid that patrols cyberspace looking for some kind of virus called a Vironoid. Max HP is 58. Attack is 11. Defense is 3. This thing will fired a spark at you that's very tough to dodge. Your best option is to use Reflecto to deflect the shot or simply defend with Kirby. However, if you inhale this thing, you might get something interesting…" Timpani informed.
"Computernoids and Vironoids? This is kind of interesting…" Sonic trailed.
"Hey! Something special is in this thing too!" Chopper managed to inhale the Computer Drone and swallow it. When he looked at himself down on the glass, he saw that he was donning a spiked green crown made of gold with a greenish-blue gem in the center. Inside the crown are large plumes of green lightning. Everyone looked at him and saw the static coming from the lightning on top of him.
"Hey! This looks cool! I think I've gotten the Plasma ability!" Chopper surrounded himself with an electric shield, making a couple of sparks travel through the ground and shock some of the heroes.
"Hey! Don't do that!" Luigi cried.
"I guess you can say that was a shocking experience!" Chopper smiled, making everyone face palm.
"I was hoping you wouldn't make a bad pun on that…" Blade groaned.
"That's worse than this one pun I heard!" Sonic agreed.
"Hey! At least I made a pun about it!"
Mario: Let's just go already…
Chopper shrugged and charged up a Speed Dash and took off – only for a short amount of time, simply because he stopped when he saw a little spring that had a red light emitting from it. When they all jumped on it, they were launched up to a little tunnel in the wall. The ground in here had those yellow, orange and red glowing lines inside and there were a couple of small purple blocks in the room.
Of course… They were stopped by some kind of green light that blocked their way.
"Poyo? (What's this?)" Kirby asked.
"Hold on, let me check in 3-D," Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D. The whole pathway was being blocked by this barrier. "What the heck IS this thing?! Is it meant to block the way?!"
"This barrier is designed to prevent intruders from progressing," Timpani informed. "However, you should be able to break it easily with one of your attacks. Just three hits and you're good."
Chopper shrugged and hit the barrier once with his hammer, making it change to a yellow color. Blade swung his katana at it next, causing it to change green. Chopper simply destroyed it by using his Plasma Needle on it.
"You better not use that spark shield with us around…" Luigi warned.
"Dude, relax. I'm not going to do that…" Chopper assured as they set foot into the tunnel. There were two Computer Drones flying around and firing sparks, but Kirby managed to inhale one and spit it at the other, destroying them both. They also ended up coming across a couple of lasers that were moving left and right.
"Poyo… (And this brings me back to Merlee's Mansion…)" Kirby recalled.
"So are we supposed to use that Slim guy that we have with us?" Blade asked.
"Yeah, we need him. It'll sure make us slim, right?" Chopper snickered.
"NO! NO MORE BAD PUNS!"
"Calm down, Blade! I'm just having some fun! Sheesh!" Chopper used Slim to turn himself sideways, as well as everyone else. They stood still until the lasers passed them in order to go through the end of the tunnel and over to more purple cubes with those light blue frames. Only this time, they were acting as moving platforms to reach the edge of the floor up ahead.
"Some of these look tough to reach. I should be able to reach some of them!" Luigi announced as he used his Super Jump to reach one that moved too high for some of the people to reach. When it lowered a bit, everyone managed to get on.
Mario: Kind of an interesting world, now that I think about it…
"Yeah, this place is pretty cool," Sonic agreed as he spin jumped over to the next platform. Chopper just BARELY made it to the next platform. He simply grumbled as he ended up getting unintentionally stomped by Mario.
"Man… I wish I could float around or jump to such incredible heights. DANG YOU, DIMENTIO!" Chopper grumbled.
"What? Why are you blaming Dimentio?" Luigi asked.
"He's the reason why my Master Gloves and Master Shoes are gone. I wish I was able to kick him again for all of the stuff he's put us through."
"Yeah, good point," Blade agreed.
After making their way to the last platform, they reached the edge of the upper ground up ahead. They noticed that there were two yellow diamond-like enemies firing some sparks toward them.
"What in the world is that?" Sonic asked. Chopper used Timpani's wand to investigate the mysterious enemy.
"This is a Security Drone. These are another type of enemy that are meant to ward off intruders, like the Computernoids. Max HP is ?. Attack is 10. Defense is ?. Every time you attack the Security Drone, it'll split up. When they split into a green color, that's when you're able to destroy it completely. They may not be as tough as you think, but jumping on it will only making you take damage instead." Timpani informed.
"So don't try jumping on it," suggested Blumiere.
"Maybe this'll do something," Chopper fired a Plasma Needle at the yellow Security Drone, causing it to split into two green Security Drones. Luigi's Super Jump was able to destroy the first one, while Mario's hammer defeated the other.
Mario: Why are we fighting things that protect cyberspace?
"Well they're the ones attacking us," Sonic responded. "If they knew that we weren't bad guys, then they wouldn't hurt us. Now, about those Vironoids we've been hearing about… They're probably the bad guys."
They simply walked over to the door ahead and entered into an area where they were still standing on the weird ground, but there was a big step they had to jump to reach an upper part of the ground. There also happened to be some Computer Drones floating around here as well.
"Honestly, the Computer Drones remind me a bit of those weird enemies back in the Labyrinth Zone…" Sonic recalled. "Although, these guys aren't as hard to hit."
"Hold on, I'm gonna try something," Chopper began to run in place for a couple of seconds, causing the static on him to become even greater. When he was surrounded in some kind of spark shield, the Computer Drone got electrocuted when it flew closer to him.
"Well that's interesting… When you have that spark shield up, anything that gets close can't hurt you…" Luigi commented.
"Just watch this!" Chopper fired a fully charged plasma shot at the Computer Drone, wiping it out completely. This allowed them to progress over to the upper part of the ground and over to a bottomless pit up ahead. It didn't look like they could really do much.
"Poyo? (Hold on, what's that?)" Kirby pointed to a green beam of light that seemed to be going up and down. "Poyo? (Maybe we can use this beam of light to move up or down?)"
"Whatever this is, it might be able to help us," Blade grabbed a hold of the beam of light and began to slide down after Chopper flipped everyone into 3-D to get to it. They all followed Blade down the beam of light after going back into 2-D.
"I wonder what could be down here…" wondered Luigi.
"Oh, I see something," Blade jumped down to the platform and saw a chest. When he opened it, an Ultimate Shroom Shake was revealed to be inside. He took it and put it away for safe keepings.
"Man, I love that we're getting the good stuff."
"Yeah, we sure are," Luigi nodded, accidentally touching the plume of lightning on Chopper's head, causing him to get electrocuted.
"Whoa! Are you all right, Luigi?" Chopper asked.
"That REALLY hurt!"
"Well, I guess you can say that was a…"
"Don't even say it…" Sonic warned.
"Fine…" Chopper let out a groan as he began to climb up the green beam of light. It really wasn't as easy as sliding down it, that's for sure. Everyone followed him until they passed the ground that they stood on previously and continued upward.
"You know… Since this is kind of where the internet is… Do you think it's possibly to go to people's computers and access their profiles?" Blade questioned. "I'm just wondering because maybe Bang is on my computer…"
"Who's Bang?" Luigi asked.
"You know, that yellow Chihuahua that was at that so-called 'party' that Tipral invited us to? Yeah. That's him. He's kind of stupid and tends to get hurt once in a while. I'm starting to think he's gonna use my computer, 'cause he always breaks into my house to check what's on there."
"What does he check?" Chopper asked.
"Errrrr… Moving on!"
"Poyo… (I have no idea what you mean, but OK…)" Kirby commented as they made it to the top. There was another moving cube, but there also happened to be these weird green balls between the cube.
"If you jump on that, you'll simply bounce off," Timpani informed. "It's more risky to use those, in my opinion."
"I guess that's fine with me," Luigi used his Super Jump to reach the cube past one of the green balls and landed right on top of the cube. When it slowly came down, the rest jumped on it and then over to the next cyberspace platform where a door was and entered through.
When they walked out of the door, they saw another road, but this one only ended with some kind of red hexagon-shaped pad on the ground. There were a couple of weird orange armored troopers with jetpacks and blue visors flying around. They seemed to be carrying some strange weapons too.
"Whoa… Who are those guys?" Chopper gaped.
"I think those might be the Computernoids…" Luigi gulped.
When the Computernoids turned their heads, they saw the heroes. They immediately aimed at them and prepared to fire.
"Hold your fire! These aren't Vironoids!" a female voice ordered. All of the Computernoids lowered their weapons and descended onto the ground.
"Whew! At least someone understands that we're not Vironoids!" Sonic said, sighing in relief.
"Errrrmmm… Sorry 'bout that." the leader of the Computernoids apologized. "We've been finding a lot of Vironoids around here often. We kind of…mistook you for them, I suppose."
"Who are you?" Chopper asked.
"Why, I'm Colonel Disk! I lead some of these Computernoids out into battle! We were just trying to find some Vironoids that were out in our territory." the colonel explained. "But… There's only one question that remains… Who are you?"
"We're the heroes of the prophecy!" Blade announced.
"The heroes of the what?"
"Dang… I guess they don't know anything about the Pure Heart and the prophecy…" Sonic frowned.
"Pure Heart? Prophecy? Of course we know that!" a computer screen in Colonel Disk's hands opened up and showed a red Computernoid girl with orange hair and yellow eyes and orange armor.
"Whoa… That's one digital lady…" Luigi commented.
"My name's Luna. I'm one of the supervisors of the Computernoids. Basically, I watch their every movement and can tell if they're in danger or not. From what I see, you're definitely not Vironoids."
"What are these Vironoids you speak of?" Timpani asked.
"Vironoids are these viruses that try to infect cyberspace and are even planning on destroying it. It is our jobs as Computernoids to stop them from destroying cyberspace. And about the Pure Heart… They're the ones that hold it. Well, it's more like their leader that holds it."
"A Vironoid leader? Well that's interesting." Sonic commented.
"Yeah, but getting to the leader won't be easy. His tower is guarded by four other towers. Though… I think it's better that we discuss this in person at our base. It's much safer there than it is here."
"You heard the lady! We better get these heroes of the whatever-the-heck-it-is to our headquarters!" Colonel Disk announced. "So let's get out there and kick some Vironoid butt! …And quit picking your ear, C-74!"
"Aw, come on!"
"Uhhhh… I have no idea what he just said…" Chopper trailed.
"Now isn't the time to be thinking about those details. We need to follow them to the base!" Timpani suggested until a digitalized red alien-like enemy with two glowing orange eyes, three arms on each side of its body and tough, orange armor that looked tough to pierce through.
"Heads up! If any of those shots get you, you'll be infected! It could even turn you into a Vironoid!" Colonel Disk warned.
"What?" Luigi ended up getting struck by one of the Vironoid's blasts of energy, causing it to cackle as Luigi began to slowly drift around.
Mario: I've got you, Luigi!
Mario played a song from Piccolo to cure Luigi of the infection. With that, he walked over to the Vironoid and threw Bonjourang at it, followed by his Cyclone attack, destroying it instantly.
"Wait… How did you manage to heal yourself of that infection?" Colonel Disk gaped.
"Honestly… I don't know. I think my bro did something about that…" Luigi trailed.
Mario: I used Piccolo.
"Hmmmmm… That weird musical note thing you've got with you?" Colonel Disk poked Piccolo, causing her to flutter away from him. "Well that's very interesting! So this thing can cure us of any infections! …You better bring her over to the base, 'cause we've got some infected soldiers there!"
"Well… I guess that's not a bad idea…" Chopper trailed.
"But first, you have to go through that light-speed circuit first."
"What's a light-speed circuit?" Blade asked.
"A light-speed circuit allows your body to be transmitted as electron particles if you ever step onto a pad shaped like a hexagon. With them, you can travel quickly through this world. It makes you go faster than the speed of sound." Luna explained.
"Whoa… Now that's pretty cool." Sonic gaped.
"However, you might to be careful of a couple of things. You see, you're not going to find that much if your body is transmitted through the circuit in the second dimension. Usually it's quite difficult for us to get past them. If you manage to go into the third dimension, however… You might be able to see what else is around. Watch out for firewalls too. Those were things we designed to ward off intruders such as Vironoids. If you manage to make it to our headquarters, then we'll explain what the mission is."
"You heard the lady! Get in that light-speed circuit!" Colonel Disk ordered.
"You're not our leader…" Chopper trailed.
"Oh… Then you should try getting to her if you want to get whatever the heck you're looking for…"
"All right, then I suppose we need to go into 3-D if we're going to go through that light-speed circuit, am I correct?" Blade asked, looking at the heroes, who instantly gave him a nod in approval.
"Well, then we better go into 3-D," Chopper grabbed Kirby's arm, who then grabbed Sonic's. The chain kind of started with Chopper and ended with Luigi. With that, they stepped on the pad and were suddenly transmitted through the light-speed circuit at intense speeds.
"Ack! I think I'm going to be sick!" Luigi cried.
Mario: Uh oh...
"WOO! This is pretty cool!" Chopper cheered as he flipped into 3-D. He clenched his fists as he moved to the left to avoid a firewall that was up ahead. "Man! This is almost like flying with my super form!"
"Super form?" Luigi gawked.
"Uhhhhh… Yeah, it's kind of hard to explain. I don't think I can even transform into that now. Last time I remember, I transformed into that when I fought Perfect Staris and Maquano… Those fights were intense."
"Poyo, (And I remember that big fight,)" Kirby recalled as they ended up running straight into a firewall. They took some massive damage, but they were lucky enough to survive the firewall.
"Dude! You're getting too distracted!" Blade hissed.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to be like that…" Chopper apologized, avoiding another firewall that was coming up. They took a way to the right until they traveled through a little loop and then up to a large purple cube platform where the light-speed circuit ended. They all fell to the ground right next to the door.
"Well that was one heck of an experience, wasn't it?" Sonic asked as he got up.
"Ughh… I don't feel so good…" Luigi moaned as he held his stomach in pain. "I think I'm gonna be sick again…"
"Poyo, (Well at least we have the door,)" Kirby said as he dragged Luigi over to the door. They all headed through and into an area where they were standing on another large purple cube, but reaching the next one… Well, it didn't look like it was easy.
"Wait… How are we supposed to get over to that door ahead?" Blade gaped angrily. "It's too high and too far!"
Mario took a couple of steps to the edge of the cube and noticed a couple of green glowing platforms appearing right in front of them. They weren't too small, but they looked like only one person could fit on it.
Mario: Well this works!
"Ooh! It glows!" Chopper gaped as he followed Mario up the glowing platforms. "Ummmmm… Not to break the mood or anything… But what happens if we fall off this platform?"
"Well, if you end up falling, there IS a way that I can teleport you back up. But you'll still take some damage before bringing you back." Timpani informed. "Honestly, I don't recommend doing it at all."
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea," Chopper nodded as he jumped to the next glowing platform until they all reached the next large cube platform. A door was there, so they simply entered through.
"Man… This place is definitely strange…" Sonic commented as they walked into the next area. They saw that the slope was moving down and over to a ramp, which seemed to lead up to…nothing really.
"Maybe we'll see those platforms appear?" Luigi wondered.
"Well, they better be…" Chopper trailed as he charged a Speed Dash and took off down the slope. When he jumped off the ramp, he surprisingly landed on a glowing green platform. Although… His impact on it was rather hard and made it turn into a yellow color.
"Wait a second… This works just like that barrier?!"
"I believe it does… You might want to be careful…" Blumiere warned.
"Crud… Well this isn't going to be great for me…" Chopper jumped over to the next platform, but he tried his best not to deal any damage to it in any way. Sonic was the one to come next, using a Spin Dash to land on the yellow platform. However, that made it turn red.
"What the… Why is the platform red?" Sonic asked.
"That means if someone hits it too hard, it's going to break…"
"Uh oh… That's not good!" the blue hedgehog jumped to the next platform while Chopper jumped to another. Luckily, there happened to be ground just up ahead, but there were a couple of Vironoids there.
Luckily, the rest of the group managed to get over the ramp and land on the platforms without destroying the red one. When they finally reached the ground, three Vironoids happened to notice their arrival.
"More Vironoids?" Luigi yelped, causing the Vironoids to take notice of them. They immediately fired missiles from their backside at them, sending them all flying near the edge of the floor.
"Whoa! What was that?!" Blade gaped as the Vironoids snickered.
"They sure have some impressive moves…" Sonic commented.
"Yeah, I know… Since when can viruses use MISSILES?!" Chopper held Starbow up and made stars rain down on the Vironoids. However, that wasn't enough to defeated them. But, when Luigi threw Bonjourang at them that ended up finishing them.
"Whoa! I can't believe Bonjourang managed to defeat them!" Luigi gaped.
Mario: That's a good thing!
"Now let's press on, all right?" Chopper ran on ahead, only to find a wall right in front of them. He groaned as he flipped into 3-D to find some green glowing platforms heading down to a lower part of the area.
He went back into 2-D and helped his friends through this mess and went down to the lower level. But, this time they had to be careful with platforming because if they broke a platform, they would be screwed.
"Poyo! (I can just float over these platforms!)" Kirby said cheerfully as he took in some air and began to float over the platforms and over the bottomless pit. "Poyo. (Be careful, though.)"
"Well thanks for that…" Chopper responded with an annoyed look. "Too bad WE can't fly…"
"Well, what can we do about it?" Blade ninja jumped on the platforms to reach a beam of light that was heading down. Everyone followed him by sliding down the beam of light as well until they reached a green floating platform with a door.
"Yes! Let's go through here!" Luigi demanded as he jumped off the pole and entered into the next area ahead. Everyone followed him and they were led into an area where they were on that normal cyberspace ground described in the beginning, but with another light-speed circuit pad right in front of them.
"Gee, I wonder where those Computernoid guys are…" Sonic wondered.
"I wonder if any Vironoids…" Chopper's thoughts were interrupted when he saw two Vironoids use the light-speed circuit to travel through. "Oh… Well I guess that answers my question right there!"
Mario: I guess we have to follow them.
"Only if we're going to go the right way," They did the same thing as before and grab each other's arms, because grabbing someone's hand to them felt a bit…awkward. Nevertheless, they stepped on the pad and were transmitted through the circuit at incredible speeds.
"Woo hoo! Now this is something!" Chopper said cheerfully as he followed the two Virnoids through the circuit.
"Try not to lose them. There might be a chance that they could lead us to the right direction." Timpani informed. "Although… If you end up losing them, you might have to find a way to come back here…"
"And how is that possible?" Unfortunately for Chopper, he ended up taking a different way instead and ended up hitting a firewall and also ended the circuit on some solid ground. A cyberspace portal was right in front of them as they all fell to the ground.
"Ughhhh… That was it?" Sonic moaned as he got up.
"No, it shouldn't be…" Chopper got back up and looked at the portal. "So… Where do you think this goes?"
"Just like my dear Timpani said, you'll end up going to the beginning of this place," Blumiere reminded.
"Dang…"
With that, they all headed into the portal.
Near the light-speed circuit pad-
"Whoa… We were brought back here?" Luigi gaped as they all landed on the ground – except for Chopper, who fell flat on his face for some reason.
"Ow… This isn't the kind of thing that I wanted to occur…" Chopper slowly got up and walked over to the light-speed circuit pad. Hopefully THIS time they would be able to catch those Vironoids. At least… They hope that they can find them.
"So… Where do you think they could be?" Blade asked.
"Well we're gonna find out," Chopper stepped on the pad and they were all instantly transmitted through it. Chopper flipped into 3-D just to make sure they can see what was around. Thankfully, the two Vironoids were back at the beginning, so it wasn't a big deal for them.
"And watch out for those firewalls as well," Sonic reminded as Chopper took the path to the left, which the Vironoids were going. "'Cause when you ran into one, we ended up getting lost and even got hurt."
Mario: We'll play it safe!
"Poyo… (I don't know what that means…)" Kirby trailed as they dodged another firewall and began to catch up to the two Vironoids a little bit. Both of them looked back and noticed them getting closer. This was when they tried to pick up some speed, but, of course, it didn't help them in any way.
"HA! You can't go any faster than us! Take that, Vironoids!" Chopper, despite being transmitted through the circuit, fired some Plasma Needles at the Vironoids. They got shocked a bit, but it wasn't enough to take them down.
"Poyo? (Do these guys even speak?)"
"Honestly, I have no clue… I guess they're just some sort of virus that can make some kind of parasite that infects you." Chopper shrugged as he tried firing more Plasma Needles. Unfortunately, since the Plasma Needle is such a short range, he couldn't even hit the Vironoids.
"Dude, let's just take care of them when we get off this circuit," Blade suggested as the circuit went around a cube platform. Up ahead, they happened to notice the circuit ending on a red platform. The Vironoids got there first, but when the heroes jumped out of the circuit, the Vironoids started to spit out their blasts of viral energy straight at them.
"Oh no you don't!" Sonic held Reflecto up and deflected the viral attack back at the Vironoids. They jumped out of the way, trying to avoid getting hurt, but when Chopper moved enough times, he was surrounded in some sort of electric aura shield.
"Just try and hit me!" he smirked as the Vironoids charged at him and got knocked back by the electrocution. In fact, they were both paralyzed, allowing Chopper to fire his most powerful plasma barrier: the Plasma Wave.
"Poyo, (Now that's one powerful attack,)" Kirby commented.
"Well, you HAVE used this before, haven't you?"
"Poyo! (Yeah, I definitely have. It's pretty nice!)"
"Ummmmm… Now to interrupt or anything, but how do we move on?" Luigi asked. "The only thing I can see around here is a red platform that we're standing on. Is there a way out?"
"Yeah, I was wondering about that too…" Sonic trailed.
"I believe there might be something hidden here," Timpani informed. Chopper shrugged and used her wand to investigate for what's around. Surprisingly, there happened to be a blue ! Switch off at the distance.
"Is this what you were talking about?" Chopper asked.
Mario: I think it is the one.
After Timpani revealed the block, Luigi immediately grabbed Bonjourang and threw him at the block, triggering two moving purple cubes to appeared. Of course, these cubes were moving around.
"Why is it that I've become useless now?" Thoreau asked himself. "Back then, I was used often… Now I've been ignored."
"Well… Maybe we'll find something that requires you to be used." Chopper assured, patting the hand Pixl.
"Yeah, I'm sure we will!" Blade agreed.
"Yes, zere might be a time where you are needed!" Bonjourang assured as well.
"All right, I think we don't need to say it anymore," Chopper jumped to the cube and then reached the next one when it was close. Luigi simply used a Super Jump to reach the cubes, while Blade simply used his ninja jumps to get across.
"Man, there sure is a lot of jumping here," Sonic realized as they reached a red platform that had a door. "How come we don't see much running?"
"Maybe because you guys ran enough for the time?" Luigi pondered as they entered the next area. They saw that there was another little tunnel up a couple of steps like they've seen before.
"Oh… This isn't exactly original." Chopper ran up to the wall where the tunnel was up above, but there didn't appear to be any switch. Even in 3-D there wasn't anything around, which was weird.
"Well… I guess Tippi's gotta help us." he pulled Timpani's wand out and began to search the area for anything hidden. The only thing he encountered was a nice green beam of light.
"There's something here… Let me make it visible for you." Timpani suggested as the beam of light was now visible.
"Ah! Now we can climb this!" Luigi smiled as he was the first to climb the beam of light. When he reached the top, he noticed that near the edge of the floor a green barrier appeared right in front of him, making him yelp.
Mario: Calm down, Luigi. It's just a barrier.
"Th-That's not what I'm scared of!" he stammered, pointing at a couple of Dark Soldiers wearing black and purple armor. They already destroyed two Vironoids that were attacking them.
Mario: What are they?
"Uh oh… Dark Creatures." Chopper gulped. "I didn't expect THESE guys to be around here…"
"So what's the plan then?" Sonic asked after Chopper identified the Dark Soldiers as Super Dark Soldiers (yeah, very original).
"Wow… These guys are strong. They've got about 65 HP, an Attack of 12 and a Defense of 4. I think we ought to be careful with those guys…" Chopper warned as he punched the green barrier with ice energy. "Luckily I have ice with me, so that can help!"
"Poyo? (What about plasma?)" Kirby questioned.
"Oh… I'll use that too!" Chopper began to run in place, creating an electric barrier around him. The Super Dark Swordsman happened to spot him and immediately charged at them. Since the barrier was yellow, there was no way that it could attack.
"The heroes are here! Get them!" it roared.
It swung its sword at the barrier, changing it to a red color. When Blade swung his katana at it, the barrier shattered, allowing the Dark Creatures to fire at them.
…But not without being blasted by Chopper's Plasma Wave attack. It knocked them back, but it didn't finish them. It left them with dangerously low HP, though.
"How do we beat these guys?" Luigi asked.
"Try something that'll work," suggested Chopper.
"All right…" the green plumber dodged the first Super Dark Soldier's blast and stomped on him. He finished it off with his Cyclone attack, making it disintegrate into smoke. Mario took care of the other Super Dark Soldier by bashing it with his hammer. Nothing more, nothing less.
"I've got the swordsman!" Blade grinned as he swung his katana at the Super Dark Swordsman. It blocked his attack, but he managed to use a hurricane slash to knock it back a bit and kick him down at a certain angle. While it was stunned, he finished it off by stabbing it in the chest. "Ha take that! ...Now if, only this was Tipral I was beating."
"Yeah, I'd like that," Chopper agreed.
"Speaking of Tipral... How did you meet him at first?" Blade asked. "'Cause I don't think you've ever told us why Tipral hates mostly you for some reason. Something you did to him?"
"Well… It's kind of a long story." Chopper cleared his throat as he prepared to explain. "You see… I first met Tipral in a place called the Dark Steeple deep in the dark woods of Twilight Trail. He was actually turning people into pigs to get revenge on them for throwing him out of town. So, I decided to help the villagers and stop him. …And it was quite surprising that he looked just like ME. So… My party members and I defeated him, but he had some sort of power that made me switch bodies with him. It was very uncomfortable, and there was no way I could defeat him without guessing his name. Luckily I managed to get help from a shadow being named Shadower and managed to find his name and defeat him. It was a good victory, I'll say that. Plus, I got my name and body back too!"
"Huh… I never knew that." Luigi said as he blinked. "Is that all you did to him, though?"
"Oh, there's a lot more! I destroyed the Shadow King and Queen, who were apparently his...parents? And when I beat Maquano, that somehow sent him to another dimension..."
"You destroyed his parents?!" Blade gaped.
"Hey! They were trying to hurt me! I did it for the world!"
"Poyo, (But he was always angry when we first saw him,)" Kirby mentioned.
"Uhhhhh… That's nice and all, but shouldn't we be going?" Sonic pointed to the red Security Drone floating toward them. "Plus, we have that to worry about."
Sonic decided to make his move by attacking the Security Drone with a Homing Attack. It ended up splitting into two yellow Security Drones. After hitting both of them, there were now four green Security Drones.
"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby used his incredibly inhaling abilities to inhale all four of them at once and swallow them. This ended up giving him the Needle ability somehow, which was a plus.
"Well that works," Chopper smiled as he ran over to the door ahead. It led into another flat area, but with a couple of bottomless pits and even some Vironoids. He, of course, fired a fully charged Plasma Wave at them when he had the chance. Kirby took care of some with his Needle ability by firing some needles at the enemies (yes, it's possibly to fire needles).
Mario: I guess they're silent…
"Yeah, I suppose so," Luigi nodded as he jumped over a couple of bottomless pits. When they reached the end of the road, they saw that the next beam of light they had to climb to reach the door was too high for them to reach.
"Dang… It's too high." Chopper frowned.
"Not for me!" the green plumber launched himself up to the beam of light and grabbed a hold of it. With this, Mario grabbed a hold of Luigi's legs, whose legs were soon grabbed by Sonic's, then Blade's, then Kirby's and then Chopper grabbed a hold of Kirby's.
"Wow… This is weird…" Sonic commented.
"Not as awkward as going on top of Carrie," Chopper reminded.
"Poyo… (Don't remind me…)" Kirby shuddered as Luigi climbed high enough for everyone to grab a hold of the beam of light. When they got to the door, they headed into the next area, where they saw one more light-speed circuit.
"More of these? Geez! When will we ever stop with these?!" Blade exclaimed.
"Hey! You guys made it!" Colonel Disk was waving to the heroes as he flew above the circuit. "Just take this circuit through here and you'll reach our headquarters! It's not too long!"
"Whew! We finally made it then!" Sonic smiled.
"All right, men! Let's go!" With that, the Computernoids took off, leaving the heroes to use the light-speed circuit pad.
"Shall we?" Chopper looked over to his friends, who gave him a nod. "Excellent!"
With that, they used the light-speed circuit pad to transfer themselves across the huge gap and over to the next red platform. And, luckily, there happened to be a Star Block waiting for them!
"I'll admit, this place was pretty cool!" Sonic commented as they walked over to the Star Block. "I could get used to this world…"
"Yeah, I like it too," Chopper smiled as he punched the Star Block and made the twenty stars pop out. "I just wonder what their base is going to look like…"
END OF CHAPTER
With the news of the Vironoids and their deadly viruses that they're spreading, our heroes knew that cyberspace wasn't all safe and sound. Not only that, but the Vironoid leader has the Pure Heart that they need! With the assistance of Luna, Colonel Disk and the Computernoids, Chopper and his friends hope that their help is worth the effort for the Pure Heart and the safety of cyberspace…
Yeah, this is a cool world, I'll admit. I've always liked seeing a cyberspace world. I guess those two levels in Shadow the Hedgehog and that one world in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts made me think about these kinds of worlds more (which is weird, considering that I don't really like those two games that much :o).
Next up: Our heroes get to see what the Computernoid base is like and what actually goes around in cyberspace as well.