CHAPTER 14-4
-The Viral Road-
"So this must be the road that leads to the Vironoid base…" Timpani trailed as they all stopped to relax for a bit. "We must be getting closer to the base… I can feel the Pure Heart's presence just beyond this road. I suggest that we get going before it's too late to stop the Vironoids."
"I agree with that," Luigi nodded, despite being a bit scared. Everyone took their time to look at this whole place. The sky was a bit of a darker red color than what they've previously seen, and the lights seemed to be a red color instead of an orange, indicating that they're getting closer to where they need to go. The road itself looked pretty slope-y, which gives a good sense of speed, especially to Chopper and Sonic.
"Aw, yeah! Now we're talkin'!" Sonic grinned. "There's finally a running portion of cyberspace! I can't wait to run through this portion! Don't you guys agree with me on this?"
Mario: This is something I don't like, personally… -_-;
"Well, I might as well get myself ready then!" Chopper began to run in place as he prepared his Speed Dash. Everyone watched as his feet moved in a figure-8 pattern. Yet… He didn't go just yet. Maybe it's because he wanted to wait for the others to get themselves ready?
"Uhhhh… Are you actually going to take off yet?" Blade asked while raising an eyebrow.
"No, I'm just going to wait until you guys are ready to take off, because I don't wanna feel like I'm the only one going. So, I think it would be better if you guys took off now so I could catch up to you guys."
"Well this isn't going to be easy, from what I'm seeing…" Luigi trailed as he walked down the slope that soon began to go up. He noticed a speed booster near the slope going up, but he wasn't sure whether to try it out or now.
"Poyo, (Personally, I think using that is a bit risky,)" Kirby stated, receiving a strange look from Luigi. "Poyo… (Oh… Right… You can't understand a word I'm saying… So much for that!)"
"Well, I'm going to take off anyway," Chopper announced as he ran past Luigi and got an extra boost of speed with the speed booster. Luckily, there didn't happen to be any enemies around here, to their relief.
"Gee, I wonder how the Vironoids manage to travel through this…" Sonic wondered as he used the speed booster to follow Chopper through the road.
"I say we simple avoid the speed boosters," Blade announced as he jumped over one. "We're probably going to get our butts handed to us if we trip and start getting dragged along the ground from a SPEED BOOSTER…"
Mario: Then let's not touch the speed booster.
Kirby, Blade, Mario and Luigi jumped over the speed booster and followed the other two up the slope. It looked kind of like a bumpy road, from what they could see, but they tried their best to catch up.
Of course, Chopper and Sonic already made it over to the door and began to wait impatiently (well, more like Sonic). "Man… How long until those guys get over here?"
"Don't let it get to you, Sonic…" Chopper warned. "It's better that we wait. If that doesn't work, then we'll just go find them and carry them back here. Sound like a good idea to you?"
"I'd rather do that."
One moment later-
"It's a good thing we did that, right, Sonic?" Chopper smiled as they all got to the door. Sonic only mumbled to himself as they walked into the next area, where they saw a huge, bottomless pit, but a couple of green beams of light to jump over to.
"What? How the HECK does this road end here?!" Blade gaped.
"I don't think the road's over," Luigi predicted as he pointed to the path past the bottomless pit. "We just need to cross these beams of light if we're going to head on over there… I think…"
"Well, I'd rather not question these answers. Let's move!" Sonic jumped to the first beam of light and tried to jump to the next. Luigi, on the other hand, noticed a little something between the second and third beam. There was some kind of platform with a Vironoid standing on it.
"Hey… I see a Vironoid up there!"
"What?!" Blade climbed up to the top of the second beam and pulled a couple of shurikens out. He threw them straight at the Vironoid to knock it off the platform. While it fell, Mario whipped his hammer out and bashed the Vironoid, defeating it with ease.
Mario: I think it dropped something!
Indeed it did. An Ultimate Shroom Shake happened to appear right in Mario's hands when he caught it. He decided to put it somewhere safe so nobody could make him drop it and jumped to the next beam of light.
"Yeesh… I never knew we would have to do a lot of climbing here…" Chopper trailed as he jumped from beam to beam. After a little while, they reached the road and saw the flat pathway led to a door.
"Poyo… (I don't like it around here…)" Kirby trailed, eyeing the area for anything suspicious. "Poyo. (For some reason, I feel that there's a presence around here. I'm not sure what it is.)"
"Kirby doesn't seem to have a good look on his face…" Timpani mentioned. "Perhaps you should check and see what's around here with my powers, Chopper? You might find something…"
"If Kirby's right, then I'll do it," Chopper flashed Timpani's wand around the area, but he didn't find anything too suspicious. Even from looking up at the sky, there didn't appear to be squat.
"Well there doesn't appear to be anything here…"
"Poyo? (Have you checked a little further?)" Kirby asked.
Chopper gave a shrug and decided to walk on ahead, holding Timpani's wand in front of him. Surprisingly, he happened to spot two invisible Vironoids that were somehow trying to stay hidden to make a surprise attack.
"There are two Vironoids here… But why were they invisible?" Timpani questioned. "Well, maybe those questions are better off not being answered. Let me make them visible for you guys…"
Once they were visible, the two Vironoids attacked, firing missiles from their backs at the heroes. Luigi jumped out of the way and stomped on the first Vironoid, while Kirby fired a charged laser at the second.
"I think I know what to do here!" Chopper smirked as he held Starbow up. "Perhaps some raining stars should be able to take them down! Ha HA!"
Starbow began to spin around vertically as she summoned a bunch of shooting stars to rain down on the two Vironoids. After a couple of hits from the stars, they were incinerated in a strange manner.
"Wait, so Starbow can incinerate enemies?" Sonic gaped. "But how?"
"I think it's because stars are incredibly hot," Luigi explained. "At least, that's what Flyer told me when I was speaking to him a little bit."
"When were you talking to him?" Chopper asked while tilting his head.
"A couple of minutes ago. Since we're both considered to be 'sidekicks', we decided to speak to each other. You know, I'm my bro's sidekick and he's your sidekick, Chopper."
"But I don't treat him like a sidekick… I never considered him to be one either…"
"Ummmmmm… Yeah, I think we should go now…" Blade trailed, walking over to the door ahead. "We still need to continue this road, and the only way to do that is to stop talking about this kind of stuff and go!"
"…All right, I guess we can do that," Sonic nodded as he ran over to the door ahead. Once they entered, they came across an area with another bottomless pit. But, there was something else different when they got to the edge.
A glowing green road appeared right in front of them and extended far out. Chopper gaped, but decided to take a little run on the road with a Speed Dash. But they had to be careful because this was actually like those other floors they've seen in the beginning of this world.
"Don't attack the road," Chopper warned as he looked back.
"Well, maybe we should worry about them too," Blade said, pointing at the three Super Dark Soldiers holding their blasters. "Who would've thought that we'd run into these guys? How long has it been?"
"Poyo… (Not too long, actually…)" Kirby sighed.
"Put your hands where I see 'em!" the first Super Dark Soldier roared, despite not really having a mouth.
"Listen, if you even TRY to fight us on this road, then you're probably going to get us in big trouble," Chopper warned, getting in a fighting stance. "Heck, if I threw a fire or ice ball, it could do something to the floor!"
"And what will happen, exactly? Huh? Oh, whatever. We're gonna destroy you instead!" the second Super Dark Soldier fired, causing Chopper to duck like a pancake and avoid the attack with ease. The laser hit a part of the green road and turned that part yellow.
"See? You do that, we're doomed. All of us." Blade warned.
"Well that's fine. We don't have to hit the bridge. All we have to do is shoot you guys!" Both of them fired their weapons, but Blade managed to spin his katana around to deflect the shots back at them, leaving them stunned. Kirby threw Crystaline at them afterward to freeze them.
"Poyo! (Quickly! Let's go before they thaw!)" Kirby cried as he jumped over the Super Dark Soldiers. Everyone followed him as the two Super Dark Soldiers were about to thaw out. When they reached the other side, they turned around to see if they thawed out.
They were already coming toward them.
"Yipe! They've thawed out already?! But why so soon?!" Luigi gaped.
Mario: Maybe we should destroy this road?
"Wait… What are you…" Mario pulled his hammer out and began to bash the glowing green road (only one portion of it was yellow). It changed to a yellow color, then a red, and then it got shattered.
And it just so happened that the two Super Dark Soldiers were actually on that portion of the road.
"Oh, crud…"
"See ya!" Chopper wave goodbye to the two Super Dark Soldiers as they fell to their doom and incinerated. "Wait… So if you fall off, you get incinerated by something like THAT?! I don't like the sound of that..."
"Well, we can't do much about it. We should just move on, in my opinion." Blade walked over to the little tunnel that was up ahead, but it was suddenly blocked by a green barrier.
"Oh, come on! This again?!"
"Dude, just relax. All you have to do is hit it a couple of times and it'll break." Sonic assured, hitting it with a Spin Jump. After jumping back, Blade decided to hit it with his sword, which turned it red.
Kirby instantly destroyed the barrier with one small laser, allowing them to head through the tunnel that was part of Vironoid Road. There happened to be two red Security Drones that were surrounded by a small little green spark.
"These guys again? I don't think we've seen them for a while." Luigi recalled.
"Just remember that you can't jump on them, or else you'll take damage," Unfortunately, it was too late for Timpani. Chopper already tried to jump on it and ended up taking damage because its top was pointy.
"Ow!" Chopper cried, holding his foot in pain.
"What did I tell you, Chopper?"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to..."
"Well, remember to listen carefully next time."
Chopper nearly mumbled to himself as he tossed a fireball from behind and struck the first Security Drone, splitting it into two yellow ones. Blade threw a shuriken at the first yellow drone while Kirby shot a laser at the second one, splitting them into four green Security Drones.
"This looks simple!" Luigi grabbed a hold of Bonjourang and threw him at all four green Security Drones. They ended up getting destroyed, and not to mention that Bonjourang also hit the other red Security Drone, splitting it into two yellow Security Drones.
"I think I might have an idea!" Chopper announced, snapping his finger while a light bulb formed over his head. Grabbing Starbow, he held her up and made shooting stars rain down on the two yellow Security Drones. When they split into green ones, they were instantly incinerated.
"HA! Now that's what I wanted to see!"
"Keep dreaming about doing that to Tipral…" Blade snickered.
"I don't actually WANT to destroy him. I pretty much have no choice…" Chopper trailed as he hurried on ahead. They saw a ? Block and also a Vironoid patrolling the tunnel. He pulled his hammer out and bashed the Vironoid with ease, defeating it. Afterward, he hit the ? Block and saw a Super Shroom come out.
"Poyo! (A Super Shroom! That's nice to see!)" Kirby squealed as Blade cut it into six pieces for all six of them. They all recovered 20 HP after eating it and hurried on to the door ahead to the next area.
"Whoa, look at that over there… Is that supposed to be a searchlight?" Sonic asked, pointing off at the distance. Over by another bottomless pit, there happened to be a large searchlight. "It's kind of strange, if you ask me…"
"Let's find out!" Chopper decided to walk over to the edge of the ground until he was stopped by some sort of worm-like creature that rose from the ground. Chopper decided to investigate it with Timpani's wand.
"That's a Dark Worm. It's some kind of large monster-like alien that might come out of a Dark Bull's egg… Max HP is 68. Attack is 12. Defense is 3. These worms tend to spit out some sort of purplish flame that could burn you and deal much more damage than normal fire. Also, at some points, they tend to burrow underground to avoid taking damage, so you might want to be careful when fighting them…" Timpani informed.
"Great… We've gotta deal with a giant worm… As if the Tartara Worms weren't enough…" Chopper groaned, freezing its mouth with a charged ice ball as soon as it opened its mouth.
"Nice! Now I'll make the next move!" Sonic curled into a ball and struck the Dark Worm's mouth with a Homing Attack. "I suppose its weak spot is meant to be its mouth… Kind of odd, if you ask me."
"Not to mention that the Dark Bull's weak spot was technically its eye."
"Dark Bull? Have we ever seen anything like that around here?" Luigi asked.
"No, we haven't," Sonic responded while shaking his head. "At least, you guys haven't. I believe only Chopper and I have witnessed that kind of enemy. But let's stop talking, 'cause this thing isn't done yet."
When the Dark Worm regained conscience, it fired a purple flame at Kirby and Blade, leaving a nasty burn on them. However, Luigi managed to get under its head and finish it off with a Super Jump before it could burrow underground.
"Wahoo! That showed it!" Luigi smiled.
Mario: Now we just need to figure out how we're going to move on from here…
"Yeah, Mario's right," Chopper agreed while nodding. "We need to see how we can cross this large pit… Hmmmmmmm… Maybe that searchlight can help us with what we need to do. Timpani, what do you have to say?"
"Well, I don't think you'll be able to use my powers to reach that thing… You might need someone else's help. Someone who's intelligent…" Timpani pondered.
"Flyer! …Or C-2 Choppor!"
Chopper pulled his communicator out and got in contact with Flyer. When he turned it on, he saw Flyer's face was a bit TOO close to the screen. "Whoa… Why do I see large eyes on my screen?!"
"Whaa…? Oh! Whoops! I think my face is a little too far from the communicator!" Flyer chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry about that, Chopper… Now, what is it that you need? Does it require my help?"
"We need to know about some kind of searchlight up ahead," Luigi explained, looking down at Flyer through Chopper's communicator.
"Searchlight? Hmmmmmmm…" Flyer pondered for a second. "Since you're in cyberspace, things work out differently… To be honest, I've never been through cyberspace before, so I don't think I'll be able to explain the details to you."
"I think it'll take you over to where the searchlight is," Berry confirmed, her voice being overheard through the communicator.
"Wait... How do you know this?" Bow asked.
"Well, I remember a friend from Sand Town telling me about something she saw about searchlights being used as a transporter, if that's anything important," Berry explained. "Kind of odd, but one of my friends happened to know about something like that."
"Hold on... Where did she get that information?" Chopper wondered.
"I don't know. I was never told."
"I don't know if I necessarily believe that..." Sonic trailed. "Your friend may have been lying..."
"She is correct," C-2 Choppor confirmed, causing everyone to suddenly gape.
"You know she's right? But how?" Vivian asked.
"Look, let's not get into too many questions about this," Chopper suggested. "I'd just like to use that…searchlight or whatever it is and move on ahead. I'll contact you guys later."
With that, he turned off his communicator and jumped right in the sight of the searchlight. He was somehow transported over to the searchlight where the red platform was and landed on the path ahead. When everyone else reached him, they walked over to the end of the path, where they saw another beam of light.
"So… Who's going down first?" Blade asked, looking at the silent group. "Anyone…? …Fine, I'll do it."
They all gave him a confused look and followed him down the beam of light, where they found a pathway below the road they were on and also a light-speed circuit pad. It happened to be a red color.
"Poyo… (So much for this place being called Vironoid Road…)" Kirby trailed.
"Meh, it's no big deal, you know…" Chopper trailed as he got himself ready to jump off the beam of light. "The good thing is that we were able to use a searchlight to get over to here, which is kind of strange considering that that's not something searchlights would normally do…"
"Well, let's get going then," Sonic suggested as Chopper jumped onto the light-speed circuit with everyone holding onto each other's arm (because holding each other's hand seems a bit more awkward).
"Here we…" Chopper was unfortunate to finish his sentence as they simply took off with ease. This circuit had a couple of firewalls, so they had to go into 3-D to avoid some of them.
"Great… More firewalls. This is going to be a long travel…"
"What? More firewalls?! Then we need to avoid them! Quickly!" Luigi cried, forcing Chopper to move over to the right to avoid the firewall. Unfortunately, he had to move to the left when he saw another one ahead.
"OK, I think we should be just fine for now…" That was, until he ran right into a firewall, causing everyone to take some serious damage. But, luckily, the light-speed circuit was actually close to being finished.
Mario: We can't be too distracted!
"Maybe it's best that we don't argue to talk to each other through these light-speed circuits…" Timpani trailed. "I think you guys are taking these thing WAY too far for some reason…"
"Don't worry, we're almost there!" Chopper smiled as they reached a new area that wasn't necessarily that big. The blue road was kind of short, but there were three Vironoids guarding this area.
"Did Waldo say that this would be some sort of shortcut?" Blade asked, rubbing his head.
"Hmmmmmm…" Sonic looked up at a sign with a red glowing 'Vironoid Road' on it, indicating that they're still on the road. "Well, I guess we're still on Vironoid Road… Which is weird, because this isn't much of a road to me."
"Poyo! (Heads up! Vironoids at ten o'clock!)" Kirby warned, charging a laser and firing it straight at the Vironoid in the middle. It tried to charge at Kirby again, but he kept holding it back with smaller lasers. That is, until it fired missiles from its back and knocked Kirby away.
"Don't worry, I'll finish it off," Blade jumped behind the Vironoid and sliced its legs a couple of times, leaving it unable to move. With that, he finished it off with a fire slash, disintegrating it into dust.
"Hold on… How come every enemy we beat turns into dust?" Chopper asked, only to receive shrugs. "No, really… I'm kind of curious about that."
His friends didn't answer, due to being too distracted with fighting the Vironoids. So… He whipped his hammer out and hit the first Vironoid with an ice smash, leaving it frozen for a tiny bit. That is, until Mario hit it with a Ground Pound.
While it was dazed from Mario's Ground Pound, Luigi finished the enemy off by using his Cyclone attack to send it flying away. Now only one more Vironoid remained, and Sonic was sure keeping it busy.
"Heh heh heh! Man, you can't even hit me!" Sonic grinned, dodging the Vironoid's claws with ease. "See? I'm too fast for you!"
"Sonic, let's not get to the taunting… How about we…" Chopper paused when Sonic got grabbed by the Vironoid and got hit by a couple of missiles it fired from its back. But before Sonic could get squeezed to death, Kirby fired a charged laser at its arm, cutting it off.
"Whoa… That was too close…" the blue hedgehog sighed in relief, thanking Kirby afterward, who gave him a cute little smile and a nod.
"Yipe! Look at that!" Luigi yelped, pointing at the Vironoid, whose arm began to regenerate. "Its arm just grew back! H-How are we supposed to beat it now at this state?!"
Luigi cowered behind Mario, who sighed and hit the Vironoid with Kickbrin. Chopper finished off the enemy by simply stomping on it. It also happened to drop an Ultimate Shroom Shake as well.
"I'll take that," Chopper said as he grabbed the Ultimate Shroom Shake and put it away. Now all that was left was another light-speed circuit pad. They COULD go back the other way, but it wasn't necessary. When they all got together, Chopper stepped on the light-speed circuit pad and they were off.
Except that this wasn't a big one like the other. It was almost like a tunnel with a bunch of red lights surrounding it. Kind of interesting, but it didn't last too long when they reached the next area.
In the background, they could see many orange lasers being held within capsules, and they also saw a large doorway up ahead. The only thing they had to worry about here were two Super Dark Swordsmen and a Dark Worm that rose from the ground.
"This should be easy," Blade grinned, drawing his katana and getting ready to attack one of the Super Dark Swordsmen. He managed to hit one of them and defeat it with ease with a couple of slashes.
"OK… That was interesting." Chopper commented. He happened to notice a Computer Drone floating around here, so what he did was inhale it and grab a hold of the Plasma ability once again.
"Man! I haven't had this in quite a while!"
With the Plasma ability in his hands, he began to run in place so he could create a plasma barrier around him. With that, he fired a Plasma Wave directly at the Super Dark Swordsmen and the Dark Worm. They were all defeated – except for the Dark Worm.
"OK, I guess that takes care of two of the enemies here…" Blade trailed. "But that Dark Worm just burrowed back into the ground!"
"How can that thing burrow in the ground when this ground isn't even made of dirt?" Luigi asked.
"The world may never know…" Sonic trailed as they felt a slight shaking coming from the ground. The Dark Worm rose once again and spat some purple flames at the heroes. Sonic, on the other hand, brought Reflecto up and reflected the attack back at the Dark Worm, burning it down.
"Hold on… I thought that only works for lasers or rays?" Chopper gawked.
"I thought the same thing, Chopper, but I don't get it either…"
"Poyo, (I'd worry about that later,)" Kirby suggested as he walked over to the edge of the floor. He noticed a couple of glowing green platforms get created because of this. When everyone got to him, he said that they should be extra cautious here.
"Wait… I didn't understand what Kirby said." Blade spoke up.
"He said that we have to be cautious here," Chopper translated. "You know, those green platforms are pretty much why we need to be extra careful here…"
"Well, I guess that makes sense," Luigi agreed. "We DO need to be careful when it comes to this kind of stuff… Maybe I should be the first one to go so nothing bad happens to us…"
Mario: I think that's a good idea.
"I'll follow him next," Chopper announced as Luigi began to jump on the platforms. What was bad, though, was that there were some Super Dark Bats flying around, making this a bit…annoying.
"Hold on, I got those!" Sonic used his classic Homing Attack to hit each of the Super Dark Bats and destroy them with one hit. Afterward he landed on the platforms and followed the rest of the group across to the doorway – only to have it blocked by another green barrier.
"Hold on, I think I can do something about this," Chopper simply fired his Plasma Needle upon the barrier to break it. The only problem, however, was that he only destroyed a small little portion that he could only fit through.
"Poyo, (At least both of us can walk through it,)" Kirby said.
Mario simply sighed and used Kickbrin to hit the barrier to destroy it. That allowed everyone to head into the doorway, but they happened to find another red Security Drone as well.
"Great… Another one of these…" Sonic sighed as he hit it with a Homing Attack, splitting it into two yellow ones. When Blade tossed his shurikens at them, Kirby finished off the green ones with his charged laser.
"Well, there's the door up ahead," Chopper smiled as he walked up to the door and entered into another area. They were all standing on a purple cube platform and saw a green beam of light dead ahead.
Everyone shrugged and let themselves slide down the beam until they landed on the ground with the red lights inside the glass. Unfortunately, just as they thought they would reach the doorway, two lasers connecting from the floor and ceiling were blocking their way.
"Oh, great. Now we gotta get past these lasers…" Blade groaned while smacking his forehead.
"This is easy! All we have to do is use Slim!" Chopper frowned. "If you really don't want to do it, then it just shows that you're being one lazy bum. Oh, I'm being serious here, Blade, because we're…"
"Yeah, yeah. We get it already. Let's just use Slim and get past these lasers."
With that, everyone turned sideways with Slim's power and let the lasers pass by them while standing still. It was very difficult for everyone to see each other while turned sideways, especially when you're standing completely still. But, they really had no other choice…
After getting past the lasers, they ran into another green barrier, blocking them from continuing through the smaller doorway. Chopper tried punching the door, but it didn't necessarily turn it yellow.
"I think I see it now…" Timpani realized. "You need to hit it a couple of times if you're going to turn it to a different color. So, you might want to use stronger attacks against it…"
Mario smashed it instantly with his hammer, allowing them to move on, but they were stopped by, once again, another barrier. Blade threw Hommissile at it and shattered the entire thing.
"See? This is why our Pixls need to be used more." Blade stated.
"Yeah, I guess I can agree with that… Although it's getting REALLY annoying with these walls appearing… Can't we have a break of them?" Chopper asked as he ran into another green wall blocking the way of a door.
"Ummmmmm… I don't feel safe here…" Luigi shivered, looking around in this little tunnel area. "I feel a presence here…"
"I feel one too… Maybe there's a hidden Vironoid here." Indeed Timpani was correct. Chopper discovered a hidden Vironoid in this place. Timpani made it visible so he could run up to it and kick it in the face with a flaming kick.
"Man, you really wanted to do that, didn't you?" Sonic asked.
"You bet I did!" Chopper said proudly.
"I guess I should finish it…" Luigi trailed as he attacked the Vironoid with his Cyclone attack. While it was dazed in this state, he crouched down and used a Super Jump to uppercut the Vironoid and defeat it once and for all.
"Nice job, Luigi! You really showed that thing!" Sonic complimented.
"Gee… Thanks!"
Right after Luigi finished the Vironoid, Kirby was finished destroying the barrier, allowing them to walk into the door ahead. It ended up taking them to an area where they saw a circular platform past a small bottomless pit, but they had some lasers and a Security Drone to worry about first.
"To be honest, do you think it's bad that we're pretty much destroying the security around here?" Chopper asked.
"Nah, I think it's not too bad," Blade slashed at the Security Drone and defeated its doppelgängers as well. Afterward, they used Slim's ability to get past the lasers and jump over the small gap to the next platform that seemed to be glowing red.
"What do we do now?" Luigi asked.
Mario: Look at that!
Mario pointed above them, where they saw that there was another beam of light. But this one seemed to be pointing horizontally and was moving upward. One would appear every five seconds and would disappear when it reached the top of the wall.
"Poyo? (Could we use that to go up?)" Kirby asked.
"Why don't we try it out for ourselves?" Chopper suggested as he grabbed the beam closest to him and allowed himself to get carried up. Everyone grabbed the next one and waited until they found a ledge of a large doorway to grab a hold of. After pulling themselves up, they were introduced to two new types of Vironoids. They had red armor instead of orange and fired this large red laser beam from its mouth at them.
"Whoa…!" Sonic grabbed a hold of Reflecto and reflected the laser back at the Red Vironoid, which is what they got from Timpani. From what they heard from her, they're the strongest of the Vironoids.
"Wow… She's not kidding when she said they're the toughest." Chopper commented as he stomped on the other Red Vironoid a couple of times. "They can really take some serious damage from my stomps!"
"Poyo? (Why not use some plasma attacks?)" Kirby suggested.
"…Oh yeah," he formed a spark barrier around him and electrocuted the Red Vironoid enough so that it would be defeated. The other got defeated when Blade finished it off with a fire slash.
"Aw, yeah! Now that's what I'm talkin' about, baby!" Blade fist pumped as the Red Vironoid disintegrated into smoke. They decided to carry on until a small barrier blocked their way. Luckily, they could simply jump over it and walk into the door ahead, leading to a larger area.
"Man, how many places do we need to go anyway?" Luigi asked. "In fact, why do they call this Vironoid Road?"
"Beats me. I bet they were just lazy with coming up with a name." Chopper predicted. "But never mind that. I thought I just saw a small staircase that was created by those green glowing platforms."
Indeed there was. They simply walked up them without having to attack anything and reached a red orange platform with orange lights in the glass. They DID notice a little something in 3-D, however, so Chopper flipped into 3-D and found a platform to their right to jump on.
After going back into 2-D, they saw another beam of light moving upward for them to grab, but were stopped when they saw a Dark Worm rise up.
"Geez… Don't these Vironoids know that there are Dark Creatures in here?" Sonic gawked. "It's almost if they don't care that much…"
"I think we saw some Vironoids knock two Dark Creatures off a platform before…" Chopper recalled as he paralyzed the Dark Worm with a Plasma Blast. This allowed Sonic to attack it multiple times with a Spin Jump before destroying it.
Chopper grabbed a hold of the beam and allowed it to carry him up. When they jumped off, they landed on a pathway that had a couple of small purple cubes on some pedestals and they also happened to notice a searchlight up ahead. From where they were standing, they could see its glare.
"Ooh! Another searchlight!" Blade gaped as he jumped and allowed the searchlight to take them over to it. When they landed on the ground past the searchlight, they saw another entrance to a light-speed circuit.
"Cool! Another one of these!" Chopper smiled as they all got ready to go through. He flipped into 3-D so they could all see what was around them. This time, he got himself ready to dodge the firewalls.
"I wonder how long we'll be through here…" Luigi wondered.
One light-speed circuit later-
"Poyo… (Whoa, that was intense…)" Kirby gaped as they landed on a blue platform. They noticed that there were glowing red springs at a certain angle. Of course, they needed to use those in order to move on.
"Oh, this should be easy," Sonic declared as he used the springs to launch himself up to the edge of a cliff. Everyone followed him up there to find a Red Vironoid and a green barrier blocking the way ahead.
However, instead of attacking the Red Vironoid, Mario used Thoreau to grab the enemy and throw it straight at the barrier, shattering the entire thing. He even threw it at two more Red Vironoids past that shattered barrier, taking them out instantly.
"Wow, I never knew we'd be able to get through that," Chopper gawked as they walked out of that tunnel area and into an area that was much, much bigger and filled with Vironoids and Red Vironoids. Past them was another searchlight.
"I suppose that that Waldo person wasn't lying about this place having more security further through this place…" Timpani blinked.
"You might want to be extra cautious here, too…" suggested Blumiere.
"Oh, I've got a perfect idea!" Chopper smiled as he began to run in place for a couple of seconds until he was surrounded by another electric barrier. Without saying anything else, he fired a Plasma Wave at all of the Vironoids blocking the way. Some of them were paralyzed, but they weren't finished.
"Poyo! (That didn't even finish them!)" Kirby shouted.
"Then… Then… OK, I've got a better idea." he held Starbow up and made stars rain down on all of the Vironoids. Since they were low on HP from that attack, they were all incinerated.
"Whew… That was close!"
"…That didn't even make sense!" Blade gaped. "You're able to destroy an army with just ONE Pixl?!"
"Guess so…"
"…Well, I guess that's better than nothing. Let's just use that searchlight and get the heck out of here." But, before Blade could even get to the searchlight, there were still three Security Drones to worry about.
"More of these guys?!" Luigi gaped. "How many of these guys do we have to deal with?!"
"Well it doesn't really matter. Let's take these guys down." Chopper said as he bashed one of them with his hammer, making one split into two yellow ones. Of course, this was basically the same procedure over and over again, so Chopper just took them out with Starbow's ability.
"Good thing that her ability can take care of a lot of enemies around us," Sonic said, sighing in relief.
Mario: I can agree!
"Nice work, hero people!" the heroes looked over by the huge chasm, where they saw a large gunship with a couple of Computernoids holding on. Colonel Disk was one of the people holding on.
"Where've you been?" Blade asked.
"And how come you never let us join the ship?!" Chopper exclaimed.
"Well… Uh… Er… It's 'cause we didn't have enough room!" Colonel Disk stammered. "Sorry 'bout that, fellas."
"Uhhhh… We see plenty of space in there…" Luigi trailed.
"He's onto us, Colonel!"
"Quit yappin', H-85!" the colonel shouted before turning back to the heroes. …AHEM! Anyway… There's a little meeting point that we want you guys to meet us so we can head over to the towers."
"Oh, that'll be easy! We've taken care of these Vironoids around here, so I'm sure it won't be any different there!" Sonic assured.
"That's what you think, hero… But when you get there, you'll see that it's a huge war. A WAR! You'll see explosions everywhere, and you might even witness the devastation of the Vironoid race!"
"So we're exterminating an entire race?" Chopper gawked. "…Meh. I've done that before. Those Tartaras are history."
"Or ARE they…?" Blade raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, you saw them. There were NONE left."
"You know, I can't help but feel that there may be some remaining…" Sonic trailed.
"OK, let's stop talking about this and get back to the main subject," Chopper suggested as he turned back to Colonel Disk. "So, where is this meeting point, exactly?"
"Oh, it's a little bit further ahead, but it's right by a huge chasm where you can't even see what's ahead," Colonel Disk explained. "It's almost like the entire ocean…of cyberspace. Anyway, we'll see you later, all right?"
"Wait! I need to ask one more thing!" It was too late. The gunship took off and left them behind. "Dang it… I can't believe they just left us here."
"So what do we do now?" Luigi asked.
Mario: Move on?
"Poyo, (That sounds reasonable,)" Kirby nodded as the searchlight took them all the way to a light-speed circuit. There were two Red Vironoids, but they easily took care of them and hit a ? Block to find an Ultra Shroom. After gorging on it, they took the light-speed circuit out of this area.
Next area-
"Guys! There it is!" Chopper cried, pointing to the Star Block ahead. "We've finally made it to the end of this chapter!"
"Yeah! It's about time!" Blade smirked.
"Oh, really? You honestly believe you're moving on?!"
"Hold on… I remember that voice… Oh, for Pete's sake. Do we REALLY have to do this now?!"
Knife landed right in front of the heroes, blocking their way to the Star Block. Everyone but Luigi got in a fighting stance.
"Oh, great... Just what we needed. Another mini-boss before the end of the chapter!"
"Wait a minute… Who IS this guy?!" Luigi exclaimed.
"He's my brother, Knife… And he's definitely not friendly."
"But how did he get HERE?!" Chopper asked.
"Maybe I should explain how I got out of the sky and into that mansion…" Knife stated. "You see, I have a little medallion that can help me find where you are. It helps me teleport to that world to find you, Blade. So, instead of looking for you myself, I decided to wait for the moment to ambush you."
"So this is one of the first foes I've met that isn't actually after me."
"I don't even know you, kid."
"OK, Knife. I see what you want to do. You want to fight us, right?" Blade walked up to his brother and prepared to reach for his katana. Instead, he simply kicked him in the shin. "Well we don't have time to deal with you!"
Knife simply hissed before grabbing a hold of his brother and looking at him with his threatening eyes. "So, you want to chicken out on the fight? How pathetic. I thought you were more honorable than that."
"Who really cares about honor?" Chopper said as he shrugged. "You know what's more honorable than fighting your brother? Helping an army take down an entire race of viruses that want to infect the universe!"
"I don't care if you're out to help an army. I made a vow to defeat you, Blade, and I won't hesitate to destroy you!"
"Well, I'm sure that's why you're here!" Blade frowned.
"All right, then… Let's see if you've got what it takes!" Knife let go of Blade and readied his katana, while Blade drew his, ready to fight against him. The fight started with Blade rushing at his brother.
"Take this!" Unfortunately, Knife managed to block his attack and slash him with his katana instead, hurting Blade. Luckily, the blue cat managed to toss a couple of shurikens that stabbed Knife's chest, making him screech.
"So… What do we do now?" Luigi asked, confused.
"We fight," Sonic stated, curling up into a ball and striking Knife with a Spin Dash, knocking him to the ground. But, even though he managed to get a hit on him, Knife managed to push him off and kick him in the chest, knocking him back.
"Don't think this battle will be like before!" Knife hissed, speeding toward Sonic and slashing him with his katana. But before he could use his finishing blow, he was suddenly electrocuted.
By Chopper, of course.
"Don't even think about it," Chopper growled, clenching his fists as Knife slowly got up and turned to him.
"You made a stupid choice for attacking me, you know, kid," Knife grinned, getting ready to charge at him. "Perhaps I should teach you a little lesson!"
"Nope!" he said innocently as he surrounded himself in a spark shield, shocking Knife. Chopper simply laughed at him before he was struck by Knife's katana, knocking his Plasma ability away.
"Hey!"
"That should get rid of that stupid ability…" Knife trailed as he was about to turn back to Blade. Unfortunately, he got bashed in the head by Mario, followed by Blade, who jumped in front of him and slashed him with his katana.
"Oomph! Not bad, Brother! Although that was a bit of a cowardly move to join in with your friend…"
"How was that cowardly? I was HELPING him!" Blade growled, blocking Knife's attack and kicking him in the shin, allowing him to slash him another time. Knife screeched and tried to hit him with a shuriken, but the blue cat ducked and allowed Chopper to inhale it and gain the Ninja ability.
"Thanks, red guy! That was very appreciative!" Chopper smiled as he was about to attack with his kunai knife, but was interrupted when Knife got struck by a charged laser coming from Kirby's visor.
"Hey! I was going to attack!"
"Poyo, (I wanted to attack too, you know,)" Kirby said.
"You people are being a nuisance. I've only come here for Blade!" Knife hissed as he knocked Mario away with his katana. However, this only got Luigi a bit angered.
"Hey! Don't you hurt my big bro like that!" Luigi cried, used his Cyclone attack and send Knife flying up. He also added his Super Jump to the mix to uppercut him and send him flying to the ground. Luigi finished off with one more stomp before clenching his fists in anger.
"That's the last time you ever hurt my bro!"
"Oh, really?" Knife grabbed a hold of Luigi and banged his head into his head, knocking him to the ground. Blade gasped and slashed at his brother's back, making him turn his attention back to him.
"Cheap move, Brother… But let's see how you deal with this!" Knife got ready to strike his brother with a fire slash, but even his younger brother used a fire slash to counter. Both katanas clashed each time as they swung.
"Hold on… This might be a chance for me to investigate this guy!" Chopper realized, pulling Timpani's wand out and investigating him.
"That's Knife the Cat. He's the older brother of Blade the Cat, and he sure dislikes him a lot… Max HP is 230. Attack is 12. Defense is 4. He's got a lot of Blade's moves, so if you know what kinds of attacks Blade pulls off, you might know how to fight him. Just like before, he'll use a lot of fast attacks involving ninja moves, such as his katana and shurikens. However, there might be a way to counter his moves… But the question is… What could you use?" Timpani informed.
"Well… I can always attack Knife from behind. I know that he'll call it 'cowardly', but dang it! I need to help my friend!" Chopper tossed his kunai knife straight at Knife, but he saw it coming and turned around, blocking the knife with his katana.
"You foolish little boy… Did you honestly think that a butter knife could defeat me?" Knife spat.
"I can still do this," Chopper, using his speed, managed to kick Knife in the face with an ice kick and then grabbed a hold of him. "Let's see how you enjoy a little ride! You might like it, in my eyes!"
"Chopper, what are you…"
Chopper jumped up high while holding Knife and brought him down headfirst with his Air Drop attack, leaving the ninja dazed. This allowed Luigi to throw Bonjourang at him and for Sonic to hit him with a Homing Attack.
"Face it, Knife. You shouldn't fight us." Blade suggested. "It's six against one. You're going to lose."
"I may be outnumbered, but I sure do have a lot more HP than you guys!" Knife grinned, slashing Blade's legs to knock him over and attempting to attack Chopper, who pulled a small katana out and blocked his attack.
"You call that a katana?! HA! I'd even consider you an embarrassment of a ninja!"
"You may think that, but when I copy an ability, I inherit the skills of it! Watch this!" Chopper made a couple of signs with his fingers, but Knife took no time at all and brought his katana down on Chopper.
Except he simply disintegrated.
"Wait… What just happened?"
"Right behind you!" Knife felt someone tap his shoulder and turned around, only to get slashed in the chest by Chopper's katana.
"Wow… How come I've never done that before?" Blade gawked. "…Oh! That's right! I've completely forgotten about that!"
Chopper tried to throw a ninja star at Knife, but he simply threw a shuriken to counter it and knock both to the ground.
"Fuujin no Jutsu! Take this!" Knife unleashed his wind attack, making Chopper, Sonic and Blade get knocked back by the powerful wind. Kirby, however, took this time to attack and fired a charged laser from his visor at Knife, stunning him for a couple of seconds.
"You little…!" Knife turned around and threw a shuriken, but Mario gripped his hammer and bashed it away. Afterward, he performed a Triple Jump and landed on top of Knife's head to deal some extra damage.
Mario: Come on, Luigi!
"Well, I guess I have no other choice," Luigi rushed over to Knife and dodged his katana while stomping on his head. While he was dazed, he used his Cyclone attack to send him flying up and use a Super Jump to knock him to the ground.
"Poyo! Poyo! (Yeah! Now we're showing him!)" Kirby cheered.
"And this is probably the first time I've heard you go 'Poyo' twice…" Blade trailed as he slowly got up from the wind attack. He noticed how beaten he was and scarred from Knife's attacks. "Ugh… I don't look too good."
"I hear ya," Chopper agreed, brushing himself. He had a couple of bruises, but that's about it. They were pretty bad, though…
"Wait, I think the others are taking care of him," Sonic noticed, seeing Kirby throw Crystaline at Knife, freezing him in place.
"I know just what to do!" Blade smirked as he got up. He rushed straight at Knife and attacked him with a fire slash, unfreezing him. However, this got him punched in the face by his older brother.
"Now, where were we, Brother?" Knife brought his katana down on Blade, but he disintegrated into a log. "What the heck?! Great… YOU do this too?!"
"Heh heh heh! Man, you're terrible, Knife!" Blade attacked from behind from an angle, making Knife cringe in pain. "Yeah, I got you good, didn't I?"
"Hmph… Not bad, Brother! But let's see you handle this!" Knife made a couple of signs with his hands and a couple of clones of himself were created. "Now let's see which one's the real me!"
"Dang… Well this is great."
"Or DOES it?" Chopper said with his eyebrows raised. He held Starbow up and summoned some shooting stars to rain down. Luckily, the stars got all of the clones and disintegrated them into smoke. The real Knife, on the other hand, got pelted by the stars and was left dazed.
"How did you get such an ability like that?" he asked.
"Nowhere special," Chopper slashed him with his small katana and did an uppercut kick with ice energy on his feet before jumping back. At this point, everyone took an Ultra Shroom Shake and recovered 50 HP.
"Man, I needed that!" Luigi said, sighing in relief.
"You won't be living for long now!" Knife hissed, striking Luigi with his katana, knocking him back toward Mario. Kirby, on the other hand, fired a laser at Knife and left him stunned. This allowed Blade to make an extra attack on his brother with his katana.
"Well well well! You're not looking too good, Knife!" Blade smirked while crossing his arms.
"Oh, I still have one more thing left," Knife smirked until Blade threw Hommissile at him, causing him to be struck by an explosion. However, he shook the soot off and threw two shurikens at Blade's chest successfully. "ACK!"
"That's right, Brother! Suffer the way you were supposed to!" Blade scoffed, noticing him clutching his chest in pain.
Knife was about to finish him off until Sonic struck him with a Bounce Attack, followed by two fast Spin Dashes that kept him off guard.
"Ugh! You annoying blue hedgehog! You're keeping me off guard!"
"That's exactly what I'm trying to do!" Sonic grinned as he made a cocky pose. That is, until Knife jumped over to him and kicked him in the face, knocking him back. The red cat was about to stab him, but Mario and Luigi came in, with both of them spinning around and landing straight on top of Knife.
"You annoying plumbers! What was that just now?!"
"That was our Super Special Mario Bros. Attack!" Luigi said as both brothers made a pose.
"And that works just fine against you!" Chopper smirked as he jumped down and kicked Knife in the stomach where his wounds were, making him screech. He tried to attack Chopper, but he used his small katana to block his attack and step on his foot, allowing him to slash at his chest and leave a scar on him.
"How am I losing so easily?!" Knife questioned, knocking Chopper back with his katana. When Mario and Luigi ran toward him, he stuck his katana to the around and began to swing around, kicking both Mario and Luigi and knocking them away.
Mario: When did he learn that?
"I have no idea, Bro… That's something new, I guess…"
"That's a move I use during an emergency," Knife explained as he knocked Kirby and his ability away. But because of this, Kirby was forced to try to inhale him. "That's not going to help you either!"
Knife stuck his katana to the ground and gripped onto it, preventing himself from going into Kirby's mouth. That's when Kirby gave up and threw Crystaline at him, leaving him as a frozen popsicle.
"Ah! That works just fine!" Blade smirked as he unfroze him by using a flame slash. While Knife was vulnerable, he managed to punch him in the face and use Hommissile to cause an explosion after jumping back.
"And this is how you fight against me? With a missile?! You know that a real ninja fights with his own weaponry!" Knife scoffed.
"Yeah, I know. Hommissile IS my own weaponry!"
"I mean NINJA weapons!"
"Forget what you think! My sensei never said that I have to fight my foes with only my ninja weapons! He would want me to use whatever I need to defeat you anyway after what you did to him!"
"…Very well," Knife gripped his katana and got himself ready to dash at Blade. However, Blade didn't seem to do anything for the moment, especially when Knife rushed at him.
And with one slash…Blade turned into a log.
"WHAT?!"
"Heh heh heh! Game over, Knife!" Blade appeared right behind Knife and used one finishing slash to send Knife to the ground, making him give up.
"Ugh… I lose to you yet again?! How could this be?!" Knife asked as he slowly got up and looked at the wounds left on him. He looked at his enemies and at their wounds. "Perhaps… It's best not to question why."
"Yeah, because, in your words, it's 'not honorable'," his brother stated.
"For now, I'll let you go, Brother. I don't think in this condition, I'll be strong enough to defeat you. But, remember this… Your game will be over soon!" With those words, Knife threw a smoke bomb down and disappeared.
"Ack! Did he just throw a smoke bomb?!" Luigi coughed. After the smoke was gone, they didn't see him around.
"Well, there's not much else we can do except for continuing on," Chopper said as he walked over to the Star Block. "Besides, we have to head for the meeting point! That's how we can reach the Pure Heart!"
"Yeah, let's head there!" Blade agreed as Chopper hit the Star Block.
END OF CHAPTER
"I don't understand… How did Knife manage to get that medallion? This is getting way too confusing for me!" Blade blabbered as they made it to the end of Vironoid Road. Chopper and Co. had no idea either, but they decided not to speak about that for a while. What was more important was to make it to the meeting point and hopefully put an end to the Vironoids once and for all. For all they knew, they could be saving the universe from being infected by these viruses. "Come on, guys… We're almost there." Chopper announced boldly as they took off.
I think I was so into this chapter, that it made me practically write ten pages of this on Microsoft Word each day. I think that's a good way to describe this, and I mean that in a good way. :D
And, I know some people might be saying that this story is feeling a bit too light-hearted at the moment after Chapter 8, but trust me. I think it'll mature a little with this next part coming up ahead (I don't mean like it's 18 plus material. I mean like a darker tone). And, honestly, that's probably one of the reasons I think the next part will be even better. :)
For now, let's hope this chapter was worth it for some of you.