CHAPTER 14-3
-Walking Through Vironoid Territory-
This was it. After passing by the large sign, our heroes knew that they were probably going to be running into some big problems along the way. There were definitely a few little changes to the background. In fact, the redness in the sky was a bit darker, but there were still a few orange glows. The ground itself still had the glass with the red, orange and yellow energy inside that made it glow. Other than that, there weren't any other big details about the place.
Mario: This place doesn't seem too safe…
"Of course it isn't safe. This is Vironoid territory!" Chopper said with an irritated look. "Look, let's just see what we can do around here first. We obviously need to go find out where we need to go if we're going to the Vironoid leader. …I think we just need to go to some towers and find the computer room."
"Poyo, (Yeah, let's hope we can make it there in time,)" Kirby hoped as they began to stroll. The ground was flat as usual, but there were a couple of floating cube platforms that weren't too big.
Two Vironoids, on the other hand, spotted the heroes and immediately crawled off the platforms and jumped down. Luigi yelped and ran right behind Mario in fear, leaving the red plumber to let out a sigh.
"Don't touch me!" Luigi cried.
"Hold on a second… You fought Iggy, yet you can't fight these things?!" Chopper gawked. "Seriously, there's something with you, Luigi… And I can't put my finger to it."
The first Vironoid spat out its viral energy straight at Chopper, but Sonic immediately jumped in front of him and used Reflecto to reflect the attack back at the Vironoid. However, instead of damaging it, it ended up healing it instead. This could heal ALL of the Vironoid's HP.
"Whoa… Did its viral energy just heal it fully?!" Sonic gaped. "How are we supposed to fight them then?!"
"We've gotta use different tactics," Blade said as he stabbed one of the Vironoids. The other one tackled him to the ground to stab him with its pointy legs. Mario gripped his hammer and knocked the one that was about to stab Blade away, while Sonic used a Whirlwind to send the other flying.
"Man, these guys are annoying," Chopper said as he froze one of the Vironoids that was closest to him. It only remained frozen for a couple of seconds before breaking free very easily. So, he was forced to hit it with his hammer a couple of times. The fact that its defense was pretty high didn't help either.
"Have we even scanned these things or something?" Luigi asked.
"Poyo, (That doesn't sound like a bad idea,)" added Kirby.
"Ummm… OK!" Chopper flashed Timpani's wand on the Vironoid and began to investigate the strange…critter thing.
"That's a Vironoid. You can consider it to be some sort of spider-like virus. Max HP is 74. Attack is 12. Defense is 5. A Vironoid could charge at you, swipe you with its sharp legs or even try to infect you with its viral energy. If that stuff hits you, you'll be under Vironoid control. …But, it IS possibly to break out of this if you use Piccolo's singing to cure it." Timpani informed.
"Oh… Well that's interesting." Blade commented as he finished off one of the Vironoids by stabbing it. The other Vironoid tried to flee, but Luigi managed to pull it back with Bonjourang and finish it off with a stomp.
"Well that takes care of those Vironoids…" Chopper said as he sighed in relief. "I suppose we can move on from here, right?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Luigi nodded as they continued their way on the road. There wasn't anything else exciting except for short, glowing pillars that they simply walked past. There happened to be a door right in between two of them, which wasn't too surprising.
"I'm actually digging the music here," Sonic smirked as they entered the door. "It sounds a bit techno-y for some reason, but it fits very well here."
"Yeah, I suppose that's true," Luigi agreed as they noticed that their shadows on the floor were glowing orange. They noticed that in the background, there were a couple of small Vironoid hives that some jumped out of and landed right in front of the heroes. One was standing on a platform over a bottomless pit ahead.
Mario: Vironoid hives?
"Looks like it," Chopper nodded, clenching his fist. When the Vironoid on the platform jumped off, Chopper hurled a charged ice ball at it, freezing it completely. Mario followed up by using a Ground Pound, defeating it once and for all – even though its defense was pretty high.
"Poyo! (Hurry! Onto the platform!)" Kirby cried as he took in some air and began to float over to the platform. Everyone followed him over to the platform and jumped over to another that was coming up ahead.
"Jump for it!" Luigi cried, using his Super Jump to reach the ledge to another normal platform. There happened to be another Vironoid sitting around here, a pipe hanging from an invisible ceiling and a blue ! Switch floating up above them for some strange reason. "I'll get that!"
The green plumber used his Super Jump to hit the block, but an invisible barrier seemed to be in his way. The barrier showed some sort of hand on there, though, hinting that they needed to do something.
"Is this finally my time to shine?" Thoreau gaped.
"Let's hope!" Chopper tossed Thoreau at the Vironoid and managed to bring it over to him. Chopper looked up at the Vironoid and saw how big this thing was. How was he even carrying this?
"No, seriously. How am I able to hold this thing?"
"Well, my powers DO allow you to have the strength to carry anything that's a bit heavier than you! Go right ahead, hero, and throw that enemy at the blue ! Switch! That way we can press on!"
Everyone shrugged at Chopper as he threw the Vironoid at the block, making a door get drawn and colored. The last thing they saw appear was the rainbow frame and star on the door.
"Let's go!" Sonic suggested as they headed through the door into an area with a beam of light in the center of this small area and an invisible barrier to prevent the heroes from going too far. There were even a couple of platforms that could help them go up as well.
"Poyo? (More climbing?)" Kirby gawked.
"Sounds easy," Blade smirked as he grabbed a hold of the beam of light. Little did he know a little Sparky happened to be moving on the beam as well and gave Blade a nasty shock.
"OW! What the heck?!"
"Uhhh… Are you OK?" Chopper asked.
"Does it LOOK like I'm OK?! I got shocked by something on the beam of light!" the cat screeched as he landed on the ground. "MAN it hurts so much!"
"Well, now you know how it feels to get hurt by a Sparky," Chopper grabbed a hold of the beam of light and began to climb his way up.
"Poyo, (This shouldn't be too hard,)" Kirby muttered to himself as he grabbed the pole and began to follow Chopper up. When a Sparky appeared, that's when everyone jumped off and shrieked like little girls.
"…Did we seriously shriek like little girls?" Sonic gawked.
"I know I did!" Luigi responded, still shrieking like a little girl.
"The more I think about it, I feel that you're losing your voice," Blumiere chuckled.
"Blumiere!" Timpani scolded.
"Hey, he's just joining in the fun! Why don't you have a little fun too, Tippi?" Chopper questioned. "I mean, my mother sometimes would nag me or my father when we're having too much fun."
"How could one have fun when they're four or younger with a dad?" Blade asked.
"Uhh… We were kind of horsing around at some points. And… OK, I think we're getting off track here. Let's just climb up to the top and hope for something nice up there."
With that, they continued climbing up the beam of light. However, Luigi seemed to be lagging behind because of how scared he was of the Sparky that was actually coming up to him.
Mario: Move faster, Luigi!
"OK! OK!" the green plumber climbed faster, trying to outclimb the Sparky. At some point, it got pretty close, but he was able to get off the beam of light in time and reach the door that everyone was waiting at. A ? Block happened to be near the door, which contained an Ultra Shroom.
"Ooh! An Ultra Shroom!" Blade cut it up into six pieces. They each took their piece and regained 50 HP from it. With that, they took a deep breath and headed through the door that awaited them all.
Next area-
"Well this is an odd area…" Timpani trailed as they all walked out of the door. "I can see a couple of destroyed hives in the background… Not to mention that this area is only flat and a bit small…"
"Poyo… (I don't like being around here…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo… (I've got a bad feeling about this."
"ARGLE-BRARGLE!"
"And was that someone's stomach for that moment?" Chopper gawked as he looked over at Kirby. "I swear… If that was you who had a growling stomach, I would have no idea how to react to that…"
However, it wasn't Kirby's stomach that made that noise. A strong, bearded warrior came falling from the sky and landed right in front of the heroes. A barrier blocked the door that they walked out of and the door that leads up ahead.
"Well well well! So we finally meet again, heroes!" O'Chunks growled. "'Tis been a while since we've 'ad a little brawl!"
"O'Chunks!" Blade drew his katana and got into his fighting stance. "What are you doing here? Come to prevent us from getting the Pure Heart again? …Oh, wait! You won't, 'cause you never win against us!"
"'EY! 'Ow dare yeh mock me like that again! I suppose yeh want me teh get the chunks on yeh! 'Ow would yeh like that?!"
"Dude… Can you actually speak in a way that we could all understand?" Chopper asked with an irritated look.
"An' as fer yeh, Chopra… Don't think I fergot about our first battle!" O'Chunks stomped the ground in anger and gave them an angry look. "This time I prepared meself fer this fight! When I'm done with yeh all, I'm going teh hang yer butts on me wall!"
"Wait… Can he really do that?" Luigi gasped. "I don't want to lose my butt!"
"Poyo… (I don't think some of us even have butts…)" Kirby trailed.
"All right… Look. We JUST want you to get out of the way, all right?" Chopper said in a nice tone. "You should've learned from the past that you can't take us down. I mean, come on! How many beatings can you take?!"
"I can take as many beatin's as I want! An' I 'ave learned from the past! Instead, I learned what I should've done when I fought yeh annoyin' heroes!"
"Oh brother…" Blade groaned.
"When I put yer butts on me walls, I'm going to lock yeh in a prison cell and make yeh smell the trash!
"Sure…"
"PREPARED TEH GET CHUNKED!"
O'Chunks started to charge at the heroes, but ultimately missed and hit the barrier instead, leaving him a bit dazed. This was when Chopper used Thoreau to grab O'Chunks and throw him, leaving him stunned for a couple of seconds. With two jumps and stylish moves, the bearded warrior cringed in pain.
"Yer gonna pay fer that!" the bearded warrior tried to grab a hold of Chopper, but he was too fast for him. Instead, he ended up getting hit in the leg by Blade's katana, leaving him off guard for a couple of seconds.
Unfortunately for Blade, he got grabbed by O'Chunks, who began to squeeze the life out of his with his large fists. Blade saw the anger in O'Chunks eyes as he started to growl at him for some reason.
"Stop growling! It reminds me of those annoying dogs!" Blade hissed.
"I'm gonna make sure yer the first one teh go," O'Chunks growled as he continued squeezing. That is…until Mario stomped on his head and bashed him with his hammer afterward, causing him to release Blade.
Mario: Don't even try to do that!
"An' don't think I fergot about yeh, Maria! I'll show yeh 'ow yeh flatten someone!" Mario instantly face palmed after hearing the word 'Maria' spew from O'Chunks's mouth. But, nevertheless, he jumped out of the way when O'Chunks slammed his feet to the ground.
Chopper, meanwhile, pulled Timpani's wand out and began to investigate O'Chunks. You know, just to find out what his stats were.
"That's O'Chunks. He's considered to be the brawn of Tipral's army. He's not really that intelligent, though… Max HP is 220. Attack is 12. O'Chunks's moves are really simple to avoid. However, make sure that he doesn't grab a hold of you, or else you'll be flying all over the place. He could also use beans to make himself go faster, or, rather, fly all over the place in a…strange manner. You can always turn the tides by using Thoreau to throw and stun him." Timpani informed.
"Heads up, guys. He can use beans." Chopper warned.
"Speakin' o' beans…" O'Chunks pulled a can of beans out and smashed it open by squeezing it. After dumping them all into his mouth, his stomach began to gurgle a little, indicating that he was about to let something loose.
"What's he going to do?" Luigi asked.
"For some reason… It doesn't look like it's very safe…" Chopper gulped. O'Chunks clenched his fists as he began to rocket toward the heroes using his strange fart-propelling powers from the beans. Everyone ended up getting knocked over on the ground and O'Chunks continued to fly all over the place.
"Gwa har har har! Yeh can't stop the power o' me chunks!" cackled O'Chunks before his farting powers began to stop. He fell to the ground headfirst and was stunned for a couple of seconds.
"Poyo, (Well, I guess I know what to do now,)" Kirby charged up a beam attack and fired directly at O'Chunks. It didn't knock him back, but it made him hold his arm in pain for a little bit.
"And here comes Sonic!" Sonic grinned as he hit O'Chunks in the stomach with a Spin Dash. He followed up with a Whirlwind, leaving O'Chunks a bit dazed, since the whirlwind wasn't strong enough to lift the bearded warrior off his feet. He decided to finish off with a Bounce Attack.
"Wow, he's not exactly as hard as you people make…" Luigi paused for a minute when he began to smell the air. "I think O'Chunks left a smell from that…attack."
"Really?" Blade began to sniff the hair, causing his eyes to water. "Ack! What kind of horrible stench is THAT? Did O'Chunks seriously leave a horrible stench like that?! It could harm TREES!"
"It's better that you just focus on fighting O'Chunks than think about the gas…" Timpani suggested. "Although… I do find your reactions to the smell to be a little funny for some reason. Tee hee!"
"Yer gonna get it now!" O'Chunks growled, spinning around and creating some sort of cyclone attack. Unfortunately, due to being a bit on the slow side, he didn't get anyone. Instead, Luigi was able to hit him in the face with Bonjourang and stomp on his head afterward.
"Yeah! This isn't so hard!" Luigi chuckled as he landed on the ground. Unfortunately for him, O'Chunks managed to grab a hold of his feet and swing him around. When he released, Luigi went flying all over the place.
"ACK! SOMEONE HELP ME!"
Mario: Luigi!
"Hold on, we need to get O'Chunks while he's distracted," Chopper said, halting Mario. When Luigi fell to the ground, Mario helped him up, while O'Chunks began to perform a little dance that looked way too silly. This gave Chopper the moment to charge up an ice ball and hurl it at him.
Luckily, it had an affect on him. It made him frozen solid.
"Nice! Now I'll make the next move!" Sonic jumped on top of O'Chunks and shattered the ice around him with a Bounce Attack. O'Chunks wasn't shattered by this, but he took some serious damage.
"Urghh… Yer gonna get it now!" O'Chunks grabbed a hold of Chopper's legs and swung him straight at Sonic, knocking him back. Kirby tried to zap him with his Beam ability, but even then, he got hurt when O'Chunks threw Chopper at Kirby like a dodge ball, knocking his Beam ability away.
"Poyo! (Hey! Why'd you do that?!)" Kirby growled.
"Let's not get to details, Kirby! Attack!" Chopper cried as O'Chunks threw him to the ground. The bearded warrior was about to step on him until Kirby kicked him in the back a couple of times, forcing him to turn around.
"Oh, so yeh want a piece o' me, do yeh, pinky?!" O'Chunks raised his fists until Chopper bashed him in the head with his hammer. "Am I seein' me momma's pie right in front o' me?"
"Poyo… (Uhhhh… I don't know how to respond to that…)" Kirby trailed. But because of this, Blade was able to jump over to O'Chunks and kick him at a certain angle, followed by slashing at his chest with his katana, leaving a small rip on O'Chunks's shirt. And that caused him to get angry.
"NOW YEH'VE DONE IT!" O'Chunks punched Blade in the chest and then knocked him straight into the barrier using his strong shoulders. He was about to punch him one more time until Luigi hit him with his Cyclone attack.
"Boy, I've never fought this guy before…" Luigi trailed as he avoided O'Chunks's punch. "I never thought he would go to these measures to defeat us… Is there something in him that wants to take us down?"
"It might be because he lost every other time," Timpani predicted. "That could be the reason…"
"Quit yer yappin' yeh floatin' wand!" O'Chunks snapped before getting stomped by Mario and also ground pounded. This left him completely off guard once again and allowed Sonic to hit him with a Homing Attack and Screwdy's corkscrew.
"You might as well give up right now, O'Chunks," Chopper suggested as O'Chunks quickly got out of his little trance. "You're seriously hurting yourself more than you're hurting us."
"Maybe this'll hurt yeh!" the bearded warrior jumped in the air and stomped right on top of Chopper. Two stars appeared from his attack and allowed Kirby to inhale them and spit them out at O'Chunks to leave him dizzy.
"Well… All right…" Chopper got up and drank an Ultra Shroom Shake to recover 50 HP. Everyone passed it around until there was no more left. Mario decided to throw the can at O'Chunks so Chopper had an easier chance to strike him with a spinning kick, leaving a couple of bruises on his face.
"In all honesty… I feel kind of sorry for hurting him like this."
"Then yeh ought teh give up now!" O'Chunks took out another can of beans and gulped it down with ease. Using his farting powers, he began to fly all over the place, hitting everyone for the exception of Kirby, who was able to defend himself from the oncoming O'Chunks.
The Scottish warrior soon landed on the ground, dazed, allowing Mario to run up to him and stomp on his head once before quickly shaking his head. He took the time to pick up a block from the ground and throw it at Sonic, knocking him back a bit.
"Ow! Man, those things hurt!" Sonic screeched.
O'Chunks grinned as he jumped into the air to prepare himself for another ground pound. Unfortunately, that was not to be when Luigi crouched down and launched himself in the air to hit him with a Super Jump, interrupting his attack. However, he got lucky when he fell right on top of Kirby.
"I think this calls for a little something," Chopper began to hurl a couple of fireballs at O'Chunks. He, however, managed to jump out of the way and dodge the fireballs. But what he didn't see coming was Kirby inhaling the fireballs and spitting them back him.
"'Ey! 'Ow'd yeh do that?!"
"Take this!" Chopper fired a charged fireball at O'Chunks and left a nasty burn on him. "Look, NOW can you give up? You're burning right now!"
"Not 'till yer goners!" O'Chunks grabbed a hold of Chopper's feet and began to swing him around. Upon releasing him, Chopper began to fly all over the place until he fell to the ground and moaned in pain.
"Gwa har har har! Now yer gonna be finished! An' it don't matter in a pig's butt anymore now that yeh don't 'ave that cold" O'Chunks cackled as he began to pound his chest.
"If only I did have that cold at the moment…" Chopper grumbled.
Mario: I don't think so!
Because of O'Chunks's low HP, Mario was able to finish him off with one last hammer attack.
"ARRRRGH! NOT AGAIN!" O'Chunks cried as he gave up and knelt on the ground in pain. Those who were on the ground slowly got up and walked over to the injured O'Chunks while panting.
"Well… I guess he did put up a fight." Sonic wheezed.
"Urrrgh… I don't know why I always keep on losin' against yeh. I always feel that I'm ready teh take yeh all on, but what 'appens? I get my butt handed to a bunch of small shrimps!"
"So you finally admit again? Geez, do you forget things often?" Blade asked.
"I can't disappoint Tipral like this! End me game quick! I don't want teh have teh… Wait…" O'Chunks instantly got up and pondered for a second before stomping the ground.
"NO! Yeh can't just put yerself down like that, O'Chunks! There's NO way yer gonna just let them end yer game!"
"Ummmmm… We never even wanted to end your game in the first place…" Luigi trailed.
"All right, I think I 'ad enough o' yeh fer right now… But next time we face each other, be prepared teh get yer chunks goin'! But fer now… Chunks away!" O'Chunks waved goodbye and flew right into the sky with his strange farting powers. Not only that, but the barrier disappeared as well.
"Did his music just make the barrier go away?" Chopper asked.
"I'm more curious about his diet," Sonic remarked, wafting the air. "Because WHEW! That is SMELLY!"
"We should probably get out of here before we smell the worst of it," Blade rushed over to the door and headed through. Everyone followed him into an area where they saw a light-speed pad leading up to a large, purple cube platform. It was weird, but when Kirby stepped on it, he was transported to the platform.
"Ooh! That looks pretty cool!" Chopper stepped on the pad and got transported over to the cube-like platform. The only problem with that, however, was that there were two Super Dark Soldiers up on the other platform ahead.
"Poyo, (Well this isn't good,)" Kirby gulped.
The two Super Dark Soldiers spotted the two and open fired at them. Kirby inhaled one of the lasers and swallowed it to gain the Laser ability. With it, he charged up a laser and fired at one of the Super Dark Soldiers. Unfortunately, that didn't seem enough to take it down.
"These guys aren't easy," Chopper said as he dodged some attacks. But he soon stopped when two Vironoids jumped on top of the two Super Dark Soldiers and caused them to be distracted with them.
"ARGH! Get off of me!" the first Super Dark Soldier cried as it fell off the platform and somehow disintegrated. The same thing applied with the second Super Dark Soldier. As for the Vironoids… They managed to get back onto the platform.
But since Chopper and Kirby were still around, they went after them instead. Kirby was lucky enough to knock away one of them. Chopper was forced to bash the other with his hammer a couple of times before defeating it.
"Did we miss anything?" Sonic asked as he, Blade, Mario and Luigi got to Chopper and Kirby. "I thought I heard something coming from here?"
Mario: There might have been something…
"Well, we ran into some Super Dark Soldiers, but they ended up falling off that platform up ahead by two Vironoids. Luckily, we took care of them, so we don't have to worry about their return." Chopper explained.
"Oh… Well I guess that's a good thing." Luigi said while sighing in relief. "I didn't want to see more of those things! They're freaky!"
"Errrr… Let's just go then." Sonic suggested as he jumped over to the cube platform up ahead. He noticed that there were two green balls that they would have to use to get across the platform with the door ahead.
"I believe we've seen those before," Timpani recalled. "I think they're called Bumpers… Just be careful when jumping on them though."
"Not a problem!" Chopper jumped on the Bumper first, but he ended up bumping right in between them. Kirby saved him by using his inhaling ability to bring him back over to the platform.
"OK… That's too risky!"
He looked around to see if there was anything he could use to copy an ability, but there wasn't, to his dismay. Chopper tried jumping again, but this time he was able to cross the Bumpers and reach the next cube platform moving up and down. Strangely, it was stretching…
When the rest of the group reached the platform, they waited until they could reach the next one. This one had another light-speed pad leading into another place in cyberspace. Nevertheless, they jumped in and began to transport themselves to somewhere else.
Near a casino-
As the group was transported through the circuit, they bumped right into a wall. It looked like they were in some kind of small room with navy blue walls with a glowing red light inside. A door was right beside them, so they took the time to get up and enter through the door.
"What's THAT?!" Luigi pointed to a large purple building up ahead. They could hear some kind of jazzish music coming from there. Two large Vironoids were also guarding the door as well. They were red and wore sunglasses for some reason. They even had claws compared to the other kind.
"Oh… These guys really mean business." Blade gulped. And dang right they did. They were wearing suits!
"Poyo? (So how are we supposed to get past them?)" Kirby asked.
"Hmmmmm… There might be a way…" Chopper pondered. He walked up to the two Vironoids, who gave him a confused look.
"Hold on, little boy. You're too young to enter this place without an adult." the first Vironoid warned. Chopper's eyes suddenly widened. A Vironoid actually spoke? We don't see that quite often…
"So either take a hike or go find an adult with you. Understand?" the second Vironoid spoke while crossing its arms. "We've been busy with some intruders coming here and we can't trust people like you."
Mario: It's-a me, Mario!
"What the…" the two Vironoids saw Mario and the rest of the group walk over to Chopper. "Hold on a second… I'm seeing something here. Are these the intruders that we've been hearing about?"
"Not at all!" Sonic assured. "We just wanted to come here and watch people lose to some games!"
"…I'm not buyin' it," the second Vironoid slowly walked toward the heroes with its claws up. "I'm gonna shred you to pieces with my trusty claws! This should teach you a lesson to never trespass on our territory!"
"Poyo! (I don't think so!)" Kirby charged up a laser from his visor and fired a pink laser directly at the second Vironoid, knocking it back. Unfortunately, this caused the first Vironoid to hiss and fire missiles at the heroes.
"Heads up!" Chopper pushed Kirby out of the way as the missiles were targeted toward him. A large explosion appeared from the missiles, but it wasn't going to stop the heroes from beating these guys.
"It's on!" Blade growled, drawing his katana and swinging it around to make a pose. The second Vironoid got up and immediately charged at him. The blue cat, on the other hand, jumped over it and managed to slash its back. "Yeah! Take that!"
Luigi used his Cyclone attack on the second Vironoid when it got up, followed up with Sonic's Bounce Attack. It fired its energy at both Sonic and Luigi and infected them.
"Now! Attack the others!" ordered the second Vironoid as Sonic and Luigi charged at the rest. Chopper got knocked away by Sonic's Homing Attack while Mario got hit by Luigi's Cyclone.
"Guys? Oh, man… We gotta cure 'em!" Chopper cried.
Kirby decided to be the one to use Piccolo. With her, both Sonic and Luigi were surrounded in this light aura that cured them of the infection. Chopper smirked afterward and burned the first Vironoid with a couple of fireballs.
Mario gripped his hammer now that both Sonic and Luigi were cured and smashed both Vironoids with his hammer, causing them to disintegrate into smoke. They surprisingly dropped two badges. One was shaped like a red V while the other seemed to look like some sort of cyclone.
"It looks like that V-shaped badge is actually a Vironoid badge," Timpani informed. "It'll protect you from the Vironoid infection. However, only one of you will be able to wear that… As for the other badge, that's a Super Cyclone. I suppose it allows Luigi's Cyclone to last longer."
"Really? Well I'll take that!" Luigi picked up the badge and equipped it. As for the rest… They all played a game of rock paper scissors to see who would get the badge.
"Chopper, there's no gun in 'rock paper scissors'…" Blade groaned.
Mario: That's cheating!
"What? But you said 'Rock paper scissors says shoot!' I should be able to use my hand as a gun!"
"Sorry, but you're out," Sonic confirmed, making Chopper sulk.
In the end, after playing rock paper scissors, Mario ended up getting the badge. However, he decided not to cheer too loudly because it could get some of the Vironoid's attention and it was just plain rude.
"All right, now that we've got that out of the way, let's check inside," Chopper, after sulking, opened the door and walked into the casino. They were in a hallway with some slot machines and a stairway that looked accessible through 3-D. Up ahead were some bathrooms. One was a men's bathroom, while the other was a women's.
"Welcome to our Cyberspace Casino!" They looked over by the front desk and saw a female Koopa that looked more like a hologram. "If you have any questions, please ask me right away!"
"Ummmmm… What are you supposed to be?" Sonic asked.
"You don't look like Vironoids…" Luigi trailed.
"That's because I'm actually a hologram," she explained. "We have technology that allows you to go right into the internet as a hologram and explore. I have a job here in the internet, so that's why I work here."
"Oh… Well that's interesting! Do you know where we can find the Vironoid base?" Chopper blurted, causing people around the room to pause and look at Chopper. What was worse was that there were three Vironoids in the room too.
"Wait a second… I remember that voice…" a holographic Waddle Dee walked out of a door and looked shocked when he saw Chopper. His hat had red and white stripes on it with a red pompom.
"Oh! There's Waldo!"
"Poyo? (Waldo? Wasn't he the one at that casino on Viti?)" Kirby questioned.
"Who ever thought I'd see YOU here?!" Waldo snarled, walking up to the heroes. "Listen here, kid! This is my NEW casino here, and you're not going to do a thing about this one with me around!"
"Ummmmm… When you tried to attack me, you were beaten. Very badly…" Chopper trailed.
"Well how about I allow my little friends to help you? Heh heh heh!" the three Vironoids crawled their way toward the group, firing missiles. Chopper jumped out of the way and walked behind a slot machine. The missiles appeared to be homing, but that slot machine didn't last long when it got hit by missiles.
"What the heck are you doing?! You're destroying my slot machines! You know how expensive that stuff is?!"
The Vironoids gave him an irritated look as they tried to chase Chopper down, only to get hurt by one of Kirby's charged lasers and one of Blade's shurikens, causing them to turn around.
"That's right! C'mere, Vironoids!" Blade taunted, drawing his sword and pulling a couple of more shurikens out. "I've got a couple of shurikens with your names on 'em!"
This definitely got two of the Vironoids angry as they got even closer to the two. However, Sonic jumped over Blade and attacked the first one straight in the head with a Homing Attack.
"This time, they're not going to infect me with their disease," Sonic mumbled as he landed on the ground and watched the Vironoid fall to the ground and disintegrate into smoke.
"One down, two to go," Luigi confirmed as he used his Cyclone ability on the Vironoid that was damaged by Kirby, hitting it a couple of times with his fists. Surprisingly, he sent it flying up and finished it off with a Super Jump.
"Well that takes care of two of 'em! So where's the last one?" Sonic asked as he rubbed his nose.
Mario: I think Chopper's fighting it.
"Really?" They thought that Chopper would be fighting it, but he was apparently trying to run from it.
"OK, no more running. I gotta fight this thing." Chopper thought as he stopped right in front of the women's bathroom and turned around. His fist began to glow a flaming aura as the Vironoid charged at him.
"All right! You want something?! Well take this!" he brought his fist toward the Vironoid and punched it with flaming energy, leaving a nasty burn on it. He followed up by stomping on its head and using an ice slamming kick attack to finish it off with ice energy on his feet.
"And that takes care of it!"
"Wh-What?! Are you serious?!" Waldo gaped. "That's it! You're going down!"
He brought his fists up and got ready to charge. Chopper took this time to investigate Waldo for no reason.
"That's Waldo. He's just a simple Waddle Dee with a hat on his head. Max HP is 3. Attack is 1. He doesn't seem to have any special abilities… He's just the typical Waddle Dee…" Timpani informed.
Before Waldo could attack Chopper, Kirby simply kicked him and made him fall over on the floor.
"OK! OK! I give up already! You beat me!"
"Poyo, (That was too easy,)" Kirby sighed.
"Uhhh… Do you even have fighting experience?" Blade asked.
"Just shut up already…" Waldo growled. "I'll leave you alone if you tell me what you want…"
"All we want to do is find a way out of here to the…" Chopper looked around to see if any Vironoid was around. "…Vironoid base."
"Vironoid base? Well… If you want to get there, you'll have to take a little shortcut out of here by going to the top floor. There, you'll have to cross the Vironoid Road that should lead you somewhere near the base. Just be careful, because the closer you get to the base, the more dangerous it gets."
"Thank you for the information," Chopper smiled. "Now we know what to do!"
Top floor-
After walking up so many stairs (which is why I decided to skip all of the stair parts because of how repetitive it would be), our heroes finally reached the top floor. There wasn't much around here except for some slot machines and two Vironoids that were too distracted.
"So, Waldo said that the door would be an orange color…" Blade trailed. "But where can we find such a door?"
"Over there," Chopper announced, pointing to the right. "I think that'll get us out of here, don't you agree?"
"Poyo, (Well then we should get going,)" Kirby suggested as he ran over to the door. Everyone followed him into a room with a large green beam of light firing up to the ceiling and a green light-speed circuit pad right next to them.
"Well I don't see any reason why you should just sit there," Timpani said. "You all might as well use that."
"Yeah, we should be doing that just about now," Sonic agreed, stepping on the light-speed circuit pad and being transported out of the casino. Like everyone else, they followed the blue hedgehog out.
Near Vironoid Road-
"And here we are!" Chopper smiled as they jumped out of the pad. They were now outside and elsewhere in cyberspace. One thing for sure was that they were definitely going the right way. They even saw a sign right beside them that read 'Vironoid Road'.
"Yeah, we're here all right…" Blade confirmed.
"Although, I think we should be a little careful…" Luigi trailed, staying behind the group. "That guy said that there would be a lot of Vironoids around here! If that's true, we're in trouble!"
Mario: We should be just fine.
"Poyo, (As long as we're together, I think we should be all right,)" Kirby assured as he saw the Star Block up ahead. "Poyo! (Hey! There's the Star Block! We should hit that!)"
"That sounds good to me!" Chopper smiled as he ran over to the Star Block.
"And hopefully things turn out to be all right here," Sonic hoped.
"You BETTER not jinx that…" Chopper warned as he hit the Star Block and ended the chapter.
END OF CHAPTER
"Be very very careful here, guys… We're now on Vironoid Road." Chopper warned, trying to stay as quiet as possible as they ventured through the road. Luckily they didn't seem to run into any Vironoids around, but they knew that they weren't going to be free of them. With eager looks on their faces (except for Luigi, who seemed to coward out a bit), they decided to see what would await them.
Man, there were so many bad puns in Chapter 14 all together. Heck, I'm sure that a lot of people aren't happy to see those kinds of things here. :P
But, whatever. I don't have much else to say, unfortunately, but I'll say one thing: this chapter is getting weirder and weirder by the minute..