CHAPTER 14-5
-The Computer Room-
"Wow… I can't believe we're actually this far." Chopper gaped as they stopped walking for a minute and took the time to see the background. For now, it looked exactly the same as what it previously looked like in Chapter 14-2, but the lights were more of a red orange instead of a red and the background was actually more of a blackish color from here.
"I agree with Chopper on that one," Luigi nodded. "I can't believe we've made it this way! Let's hope that the fight against the Vironoid leader isn't too irritating like that fight against Blade's brother."
"Ugh… I can't believe he keeps boasting about the whole thing about being 'honorable' and that jazz." Blade groaned after healing the wounds left on Knife. "That always gets so irritating, especially when we fight."
"Blade, what happened between you and him that caused you both to fight each other?" Timpani asked.
"You guys honestly want me to bore you with my story? Come on, man! …Oh, whatever, I guess I have no choice." Blade took a deep breath as everyone walked over to him. "Now, you all know about Knife and my sensei, right?"
"Yeah, we heard about that while we fought your brother," Sonic nodded.
"Well, ever since he met that guy Dark Doom, he 'convinced' him to end my sensei's game and turn against me. He told him he would promise him 'greater power' if he ever did so, and that he did. Not to mention he was actually getting tired of how I was acting, and it made it even better when Dark told him he would have to destroy his family – which included me. However, I was able to stop him and defeat him once and for all. …But now he's back, and wants his revenge. How he got that medallion? I have no idea. Perhaps he got it from someone who brought him back to life…"
"But why would someone like Queen Jaydes want to bring him back to life?" Chopper questioned. "She wouldn't even try to bring him back! …Unless it was done by someone else…"
"Well, I'm not going to let it bother me," Blade stated, giving everyone a bold look. "We need to stop those Vironoids and get a hold of the Pure Heart. I'm sure that's what we need to stop them."
"Then let's get moving," Sonic smirked as they followed the road ahead. Unfortunately, they were stopped by two Red Vironoids that fired a laser beam from their mouth at the group. Sonic pulled Reflecto out and used his ability to reflect the laser back at the Red Vironoid.
"I think with my Ninja ability, I can pierce through their defenses!" Chopper smirked as he gripped his katana and ran toward the first Red Vironoid, slashing it and defeating it with ease.
"See? This works perfectly!"
"Poyo! (I got the other Vironoid!)" Kirby announced as he tossed Crystaline at the enemy and froze it. While it was frozen, he was able to kick it all the way to the wall ahead and shatter it.
"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" Blade grinned. "Although… How are we supposed to get through that wall?"
"Let me see for a minute…" Chopper flipped into 3-D, but he ended up finding the wall to have a crack in it. "You've gotta use Hommissile on it, Blade. That's the only way to get through here."
"Oh! Now that's what I wanted to do!" Blade's ears perked up as he threw Hommissile at the wall and made a hole appear for everyone to walk through – in 3-D, that is.
After walking through the hole, they found a door ahead and headed through into the next area. This one happened to have some purple cubed platforms that were spinning vertically. They seemed to lead up to a red orange platform with a Super Dark Swordsman waiting.
"Be careful, Chopper… These platforms are spinning unlike the other platforms…" Timpani warned.
"Don't worry, Timpani! I got this!" Chopper grabbed a hold of the platform, but was unfortunate to fall off. He tried again, but once again, he failed to get on. "…OK, I stand corrected. This is annoying."
"Poyo! (I have an idea!)" Kirby took in some air and began to float over the platforms with ease. This caused Chopper to fall over anime style.
Mario: That's not a bad idea.
"Yeah, but the thing is… How are WE supposed to get up there?" Chopper asked while his face was still on the ground. "I swear… There's gotta be a way for us to get up there easily…without falling."
"I think I can reach the platform easily," Luigi spoke up as he launched himself in the air with his Super Jump. He was able to land on the platform and jump at the right time when it turned to another angle.
"OK, let's try this again," Chopper walked back and then made a dash toward the platform. When he jumped, he crashed into it and fell to the ground. Sonic face palmed as he grabbed Chopper and simply threw him up to Luigi, who caught him and put him on the ground.
"What the… That worked?!"
"Errrr… Yeah! It worked!" Sonic lied. "You sure showed that platform who's boss!"
"Yeah! I definitely di—Wait a minute! You threw me up there, didn't you? I wasn't unconscious, you know!" Chopper frowned, despite being ignored when Sonic, Blade and Mario jumped onto the platform and continued their way up. Chopper shrugged and followed them up just for the heck of it.
When they reached the top, they were blocked by another green barrier. Luckily, since it wasn't a tunnel, they were able to jump over it and reach the Super Dark Swordsman. Chopper was about to attack it, but he got struck by its sword and lost his Ninja ability in the process.
"What?! You've gotta be kidding me! That ability could've helped me!"
"Poyo? (Well, what can you do about it?)" Kirby asked after inhaling the Dark Creature's sword and spitting it back at it to leave it dazed. "Poyo. (It's not like you're going to keep that ability forever.)"
"Yeah, that's true," After finishing off the Dark Creature, they saw that there was another glowing green path that seemed to lead over to a door ahead. They shrugged and hurried over to the door and into the next area.
"Wait a second… What the heck is this?" Luigi asked as they found two unbreakable barriers between them after walking out of the door. What they didn't notice was a beam of light moving upward.
Mario: Look up!
When everyone looked up, they were a bit surprised to see the beam of light. However, they didn't bother to ask questions. They jumped and grabbed a hold of the beam until they saw a ledge to jump onto. There was another wall, so Chopper checked in 3-D to see what it would be.
"Uh oh… There's a crack in this wall." Chopper realized, getting everyone else in 3-D. Using Slim's ability, they were able to squeeze through. After getting through the wall, they noticed that there were some glowing green platforms leading over to another pathway, but they seemed to be too high for any of them to reach.
"Man… How come there are many things around here that I can't even reach?" Chopper asked as Luigi used a Super Jump to reach the platforms. When Kirby floated up to the platform, he used his inhaling to bring everyone up without eating them. "Oh... I guess that gets us all up here..."
They simply jumped from platform to platform until they reached the road. There happened to be two Vironoids that had a large bag of potato chips with them, but the bag did seem a bit full.
But, unfortunately for them, they couldn't finish their chips. Sonic came in and attacked one of them with a Homing Attack, leaving it stunned for a couple of seconds. Blade joined Sonic and slashed at the Vironoid with his katana. It was soon finished when Mario hit it with a Ground Pound.
"Ooh! Chips!" Chopper gaped as he grabbed the bag. Kirby, too, walked over to the bag and tried to grab it. Unfortunately, this led to both of them pulling at the end of the bag and making it rip.
"…Poyo! (...I call the chips!)" Kirby announced as he prepared to inhale them. Chopper also began inhaling them, but was unfortunately beaten by Kirby. He didn't even get a single chip!
"No fair! I wanted some chips!"
"There's some over here," Luigi said, pointing to another bag of chips. This time Chopper grabbed it and dumped them all into his mouth. He looked incredibly happy, giving a rather cute look.
"Chopper… Don't give that look… EVER…" Blade shivered.
"Hey! It's not my fault that I love food so much! …Plus that was the only time I ever got some good food in a while. Kirby just HAD to take all of the other chips! Wait… This is cheddar kind! Yummy!"
"Why can't you two help us against these guys?" Luigi asked, using a Super Jump on the Vironoid remaining. Kirby shrugged and inhaled the missile the Vironoid fired at him and spat it back at it. Chopper did the same exact thing to defeat it for good.
"And thus, the Vironoids were defeated," Sonic stated.
Mario: There are still more Vironoids left, you know…
"Yeah, I know that, Mario. I just wanted to be a little dramatic. But, unfortunately, I think I failed to do so." They decided to continue on ahead, running into a dead end. What they DID see, however, was something sparkling above them.
It was a Dimensional Rift.
"Hold on a second…" Chopper pondered as he looked up at the white rip. "I didn't think we'd encounter this again! What do we need to do for this again? I completely forgot what to do, unfortunately…"
"If I could recall, you might need to use Flippay in order to get that Dimensional Rift opened," Timpani informed.
"That's a Dimensional Rift?" Luigi gaped.
"Yup! We haven't seen these in a while!" Sonic grinned as Chopper used Flippay to reveal a blue ! Switch. "I think the last time I remember seeing something like this was back in Planet Blobule! Y'know, where that coincidental porta-potty was?"
Kirby nodded as he hit the blue ! Switch and made a door appear right in front of them. Without hesitation, they entered through the door into another area, but there was a tunnel up ahead, which, of course, blocked them with another green barrier.
"Geez! Why are there so many barriers these days?!" Chopper exclaimed as he bashed the barrier with his hammer and shattered it. When they entered the tunnel, there happened to be a Red Vironoid and three stumps. There wasn't a door around here, unfortunately.
Mario: So we're running into some puzzles now, are we?
"I suggest you take care of the Red Vironoid first," suggested Timpani.
"After than, you can get back to solving this little puzzle," Blumiere said.
"Good idea," Luigi nodded as he jumped over to the Red Vironoid and used his Cyclone attack to send it flying to the ceiling. With that, he used a Super Jump to knock it to the ground to leave it with some low HP.
"Who ever thought I could bring something's HP down like that?"
"Well that's a good start," Sonic stated as he bounced on the ground in a ball and came flying up to the ceiling. His Bounce Attack struck the Red Vironoid and left it with incredibly low HP. Luigi decided to finish it off with one last jump. It surprisingly dropped an Ultra Shroom Shake for him.
"Poyo! (Ooh! An Ultra Shroom Shake!)" Kirby gaped as he gazed at the shake Luigi put away. He tried to get it from him, but the green plumber stepped away from him to prevent him from getting it.
"Uhhh… Kirby? I know you like food like me, but it's probably best not to bother him." Chopper suggested. "He's feeling rather…uncomfortable."
Mario: Now let's get back to these stumps.
"If you need my help, just use this wand's powers to see if there's anything hidden around here," Timpani reminded. Chopper shrugged and used her wand to find something hidden. He saw three numbers. The order was the following: three, one, and two.
"Hit the third, first, and then the second," Chopper informed Mario, who nodded and used his Ground Pound to hit the third, first, and then the second stump. This triggered a door to appear right in front of them.
"Let's go, guys! I don't want to miss that meeting point!" Blade suggested as they walked into the next area. There happened to be some small beams of light that were far down, but they looked like they could be used to go up to the platform ahead. Only someone who had a good balance could do something like this…
"How do we get through this?" Sonic asked. "I don't think we have the ability to grab a hold of those beams of light unless we want to fall to our dooms…"
"That's where I come along," announced Blade as he used his ninja jump to jump on top of the first beam. He turned to his friends and grinned until he heard a howling sound coming from a Super Dark Bat flying their way.
"Blade, get rid of the bat!" Luigi shrieked.
"Don't worry, dude. I've got this." When the Super Dark Bat flew toward Blade, he gripped his katana and sliced at it. It wasn't necessarily dead, but after throwing a shuriken at it, he was able to defeat it.
"Hold on a second… How are WE supposed to get over there?" Chopper asked with a confused look on his face. "It would be nice if we would be able to get past these things…"
"Don't worry, I have an idea, but it involves you and Kirby being thrown…"
"Crud…" Blade grabbed Chopper first (since he was closer) and threw him over the beams and onto the platform leading up to the platform ahead. Next, he grabbed Kirby and threw him over to Chopper. "Start inhaling, boys!"
"Poyo? (What?)" Kirby gawked.
"Just listen to him, Kirby," Chopper suggested as he prepared to inhale the group over to them. Kirby did the same thing and made sure NOT to get anyone in his mouth. After a bit, they succeeded and proceeded ahead. There was a searchlight across the chasm, but after jumping, they were brought across.
"Man, these searchlights are good transportation," Sonic stated.
"And we just happened to find another light-speed circuit!" Luigi smiled as they all grabbed each other's hands and went through the light-speed circuit.
Next area-
"I think I'm going to be sick…" our hero in green moaned as he got out of the light-speed circuit. Mario was the first to walk out, but they happened to notice that the area was flat and full of Vironoids and Dark Creatures. The sky was black with a bit of red, showing that they were actually near the vast sea of…well, nothing.
"Wow, now look at that background," Chopper smiled, looking at the background. "That gives me the feeling that we're close!"
"I think beyond that door, we'll be able to get to the meeting point," Timpani informed. "However, with those enemies up ahead, how are we going to get through this? This does look rather…difficult."
Mario looked up at the ? Block above him. With one punch, a Mega Star popped out and landed in his hand. As he clenched his fist, he felt a huge amount of power within him that transformed him into a giant 8-bit version of himself.
"Well… I guess that solves one thing." Sonic said.
Mario: Let's-a go!
With Mario's Mega Star ability, he began to trample through everything in his path. Even the Red Vironoids stood no chance against him! Mario just seemed rather relaxed while trampling his foes.
However, when he reached the door ahead, he turned back into his normal self. Mario groaned, but he knew it was best not to complain about it. The rest of the group managed to catch up to him and follow him through the door ahead.
"Wow… I gotta admit, that was… Well, I don't know how to describe it." Chopper said, unsure what to say at the moment.
"Heroes! You're here!" Everyone looked on ahead and saw a large, orange and blue ship. A door was open just for the heroes, where they could see Colonel Disk waving for them. "You guys made it just in time!"
"What do you mean 'just in time'?" Sonic asked as they walked over to the ship. They noticed that the ship was close to the edge of the floor. Luckily, it wasn't at a point where it would tip over.
"We've been waiting for quite a while, man! We were almost about to leave you guys! Just get in here already so we can actually discuss things!"
With a shrug, everyone walked into the ship. When the door closed, they could all feel the ship hovering over the ground and taking off. Luigi felt the most uncomfortable at this moment.
"All right, squad! Listen up!" Colonel Disk shouted, getting everyone's attention. "These six people from another world will be joining us today for the battle against the Vironoids! So, make sure you give 'em the respect that they deserve! …As heroes, or whatever the heck they are."
"So, ya ready to take on those Vironoids?" one Computernoid asked, elbowing Luigi, who rubbed his shoulder and looked at him nervously.
"Er… Yeah, I guess I am."
"Well that's the spirit, mate! We're gonna show those Vironoids who's boss!"
"Now then…" Colonel Disk opened up a screen with Luna on it. "Your mission is to deactivate all four towers around the Vironoid Tower. When you do that, you'll have access to the computer room. There's something called a Viro Core that created the Vironoids – which was created by the Vironoid leader. Destroy that, and all of the Vironoids will be defeated. Heroes, I'm counting on you to deactivate the towers, since you seem to have the skills to do so. Head to the red orange tower when you're finally done, OK?"
"Wow… That's a lot of information you just gave us with all of that text…" Chopper trailed. "Can you explain it in a…easier way?"
Luna merely face palmed at the child. "Deactivate the four towers and find the computer room in the Vironoid Tower."
"Four towers? OK... So what is this computer room?"
"It has all of the data of the Vironoids," Luna explained. "If we can get that data and destroy the Viro Core, then the Vironoids will be history!"
"All right, four towers doesn't seem so bad."
"Well… You may think that, but it's not an easy task." All six heroes looked down at Timpani's wand, despite not being able to see what Timpani's expressions or face looked like. "However, none of the Computernoids have the skills to deactivate the towers like you guys. I believe you six will be able to pull off the job."
"All right, that sounds fines to me," Sonic nodded. "So, where's this ship going to drop us off anyway?"
"Drop us off? Oh no, man! We're gone freefall from where the ship's going to stop!" Colonel Disk smirked under his helmet (if he's wearing one…). Luigi's face suddenly turned pale as a ghost.
"W-We're going to fr-freefall?!"
Mario: You're out of your mind!
"Oh, relax already! We've been doing this for YEARS when we battled the Vironoids!" Colonel Disk assured. "It reminds me of the old days where we had a war against them back in another area of cyberspace. I don't remember what it was…"
The ship came to a sudden halt and the hatch opened up. "Well, looks like this is our time to shine, ladies! Let's go kick some Vironoid butt!"
"Listen, heroes," began the Computernoid beside Luigi. "If there's anything you need, just call for me. I'm the guy with all the info here."
"What? Not a chance!" spat a Computernoid near Kirby. "You know nothing about giving people information! Don't you remember when we were fighting at the Viro Wars? You didn't even give info to people on what to do!"
"But, I did save you guys from the big virus that almost destroyed us all!"
"But that's NOT giving information!"
"Quit arguing like five-year-olds, G-52 and G-53!" snapped Colonel Disk. "I understand you wanna be better than the other, but you better get your behinds down there before I MAKE you!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Sorry, sir!"
Both troopers jumped out of the ship and began to freefall down to the battle. Colonel Disk looked over to the heroes and gave them the signal. "All right, heroes! I think it's time you got down there and deactivated the four towers."
"B-But I don't wanna freefall!" Luigi cried.
"Oh, boy… Looks like we have another baby here… Do you want me to give you a bottle? Heck, I'll go get you a bib and a rattle so you can cry! Not good enough for ya? Well, maybe I oughta get you a nice diaper with 'I'm a baby' on it! Oh, yeah! You're going to be crying yer butt off all day and night twenty-four seven!"
At this point, that's when Luigi lost it. "No one insults me like that! You wanna see me jump out of this ship?! Well I'll show you what I can do!"
Luigi took a couple of steps back and made a dash for it. He jumped out of the ship and was about to freefall down…until he paused and noticed that he was floating in midair.
"Wait! I changed my mind! I don't wanna-" Unfortunately for him, he ended up plummeting to his doom. Everyone could even hear his scream, which almost made some of the remaining Computernoids laugh.
"Well that was a dumb move he pulled off there," Colonel Disk said as he turned to the heroes. "So, I reckon that you guys aren't going to be dumb like him and actually take some parachutes?"
"Wait, why didn't you tell him about the parachutes?!" Chopper asked, his laughing being put to a halt.
"I dunno… I guess because that was funny…"
"Ugh… Oh, whatever. Let's just get the parachutes and freefall down…" Chopper grabbed a parachute like everyone else and walked over to the outer part of the ship. With them, they all jumped out of the ship and began to freefall into the battlegrounds.
"GEROMINO!"
"Whoa… This is pretty intense." Sonic gaped as he saw many lasers firing toward Computernoids and Vironoids. Of all the fights they've seen, this was probably the biggest one yet.
"That battle between the Tartaras and Dark Creatures just can't compare to THIS," Chopper stated.
"Poyo, (I have to agree with you on that,)" agreed Kirby.
Unfortunately, one of the lasers that were firing struck Chopper's hand, making him drop Timpani's wand in the process.
"NO! Tippi!" he cried.
"Chopper!"
They could all hear Timpani's cry as the wand began to fall. But, surprisingly, it ended up falling right in front of the large tower.
"Ugh… There's no way we can even get that wand with that huge barrier in the way! …HOLD ON, TIPPI! I'LL GET YOU BACK! DON'T WORRY!"
When they put their parachutes on, they began to lightly fall until they landed on a red orange platform that was close to the largest red orange tower in the center. Right now, a couple of Computernoids on the same platform were finished shooting two Vironoids that were attacking.
"Where's Luigi?" Blade asked until they heard a moaning sound coming from near them. He looked behind him and saw Luigi, who happened to look dazed. "Wow… He was right. That was a dumb move to pull off."
While they helped Luigi up, Colonel Disk stretched his arms and sighed. "Can you feel that breeze, heroes? That's the breeze of WAR!"
"Well, I personally don't like that breeze…" Chopper trailed.
"You heroes have a job to do, so you better get to work!" Colonel Disk pointed to the Blue Tower in the background. "I would recommend going to that tower first… It's probably the closest one from here anyway. I would go for the Red Tower for last…"
"Right!" Chopper nodded as he turned to his friends. "Come on, guys! I say we use that blue light-speed circuit pad to our left! If we can deactivate those towers, we'll be able to get rid of that barrier, gain access to the tower, get Tippi's wand back, and find the computer room!"
"That sounds like a lot," Luigi moaned while still dazed.
"Well, I guess that IS a lot," Sonic realized as he walked over to the pad. "So… It looks like we might to go into 3-D if we're going to be heading toward the Blue Tower. However, how do we even get in?"
"We should be able to find a way," Blade hoped.
With that, they all stepped on the pad and were suddenly going at incredibly speeds through the light-speed circuit. They noticed that many Computernoids and Vironoids were falling down to the abyss to get disintegrated instantly. Another thing they had to be careful with were the firewalls.
"What?! More firewalls?! Come on!" Chopper frowned, dodging the firewall that was up ahead.
"Why do we have to go through all of this?" Luigi cried.
"Yeah, I wish it was easier," Blade agreed.
"I do too..." Chopper nodded, dodging another firewall. "But right now, let's focus on getting to one of those towers."
Blue Tower-
After their little ride through the light-speed circuit, it took them all onto a blue platform, where they happened to see two Blue Vironoids guarding the area. They looked different with their blue armor and blue eyes, but they weren't as strong as the Red Vironoids.
"OK, these guys don't look too tough," Chopper said before getting frozen by one of the Blue Vironoid's lasers. Blade face palmed as he used his fire slash to unfreeze him. Of course, he didn't actually attack him.
"What just happened?"
"Poyo, (The Vironoid froze you,")" Kirby explained as he inhaled a laser from it and got the Ice ability. With it, he began to use his Ice Breath on the Blue Vironoid to freeze it. He kicked it toward the other one to leave it stunned.
"Hold on, I wanna finish it!" Chopper cried as he chucked a couple of fireballs at the Blue Vironoid, burning it to a crisp. "Yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about! Burnt to a crisp!"
"All right, now that we've got that out of the way…" Sonic noticed a little barrier on the platform ahead. He noticed a little something down there, but that looked more like an exit to them. Nevertheless, they walked over to the front entrance, which seemed to have a light-speed pad. A blue one, actually.
"Oh, man… Another one of these." Luigi gulped as everyone grabbed each other's hand and began to head into the pad. They started to go at incredibly speeds through the circuit. There were even blue lights that surrounded them in the circular-like tunnel.
When they got out of the circuit, they fell right on top of a purple cubed platform with a red spring right beside them that led up to a blue platform. As everyone got up, they looked at their surroundings. There were a lot of blue lights and the sky around them looked more of a blackish color. When they took the spring onto the platform, they were greeted by two Blue Vironoids.
"Uh oh… Well this is just what we needed…" Blade sighed as he gripped his katana. "Well, let's take these guys down!"
He rushed toward the first Blue Vironoid, slashing its legs a couple of times with his katana to leave it off guard. It tried to fire its ice beam at him, but he used his katana to block the attack. Strange that a katana had such an ability…
"While it's off guard, attack it!" he cried as Mario gripped his hammer and bashed it in the face. Kirby finished it off by freezing it with his ice breath and kicking it straight at the other to stun it.
"Poyo! (My badge really does come in handy!)" Kirby smiled as he used his Ice Sprinkle attack to hurt the Blue Vironoid a little more. Chopper followed up by stomping on it and freezing it with an ice spinning kick. He decided to simply kick it to the large step leading up to another platform, shattering it.
"Hey, I think I see some kind of barrier ahead," Luigi noticed as they jumped up to the platform and then to another. They noticed three different colored panels on the ground. The left was green, the middle was blue and the right was yellow.
"Oh, boy… It's another one of these puzzles…" Chopper groaned as he pulled his communicator out. "The only way to get some information right now is through someone on the communicator. Too bad Tippi's not with us now…"
"So, you need my help again, Chopper? Well, let's hope it's something I might know about." hoped Flyer as his face appeared on the communicator. Chopper aimed his communicator down on the panels on the ground to show him what was going on.
"Hmmmmm? Well, this is interesting! From what I can see, there are three different colored panels on the ground! Chopper, maybe you should try changing their color to the same as one of them? Perhaps a jump will do the trick!"
Mario jumped on the green panel, turning it into a blue color. When he jumped on the yellow one, it turned green, but when he jumped on it again, it turned blue and relinquished the barrier.
"Ah! See? I knew that it would work!"
"Wait, you knew about this?" Luigi asked.
"Well, I had a feeling that that's what you needed to do, so that's why I kind of suggested that little idea."
"Ah. I see now. Well, let's continue on then." Chopper decided, going into the small little tunnel room until a green barrier blocked their way. Nevertheless, he kicked it a couple of times with some ice and fire kicks to shatter them.
"Uhhhh… OK, I guess that was a bit unnecessary for you to go all out on that barrier like that…" Blade trailed.
Walking to the end of the tunnel, they ran into two yellow Security Drones. It was quite simply, because Blade simply threw shurikens at them and made them split into four green drones, while Chopper used Starbow to make shooting stars rain down on them and destroy them.
"Poyo! (Look!)" Kirby pointed to a green platform that appeared right near the wall to give them an extra lift to the little cliff, where there was a beam of light moving upward. They simply grabbed a hold on the beam and landed on a pathway that only appeared in 3-D, so Chopper got everyone into 3-D and walked around the path that seemed to be shaped like a hexagon.
"Wow, this sure is intense," Sonic commented when they reached the opposite side, where a green barrier tried to stop them, but they easily passed it and used the spring to grab a hold of the next beam moving upwards until they landed on the next level, where they found a spring. With it, they reached the top of the platform and found across the gap, another unbreakable barrier. But there happened to be two panels off at the distance.
"I see a red and green one…" Blade pondered as he pulled two shurikens out. He threw them at the red panel and transformed it into a green, which matched with the other. Now that the barrier was gone, out heroes jumped over to the tunnel ahead and saw two lasers that led to some kind of terminal with a blue core inside of it. From what they knew, this must be what they had to deactivate.
"More lasers? Haven't we seen enough of these?" Luigi asked as they got past them using Slim's ability.
"Well, what are ya going to do about it?" Chopper asked as he walked over to the terminal and noticed a little plug connected to it. "Wait… This thing's powered by a PLUG?!"
"Poyo? (How can we get it out?)" Kirby tried to pull it out, but it wasn't strong enough for him. In fact, everyone tried, but they couldn't pull it out!
Mario: What about Thoreau?
"Let's try using him," Chopper tossed Thoreau at the plug, who tried pulling at it with all of his might. Surprisingly, he was able to pull it out and deactivate the core in the Blue Tower. They also noticed the current in the center platform rising up.
"Wait… I think I might remember that being an exit from earlier!" Sonic recalled. "Let's try using that!"
With that, they walked on the platform and allowed themselves to be carried out of the Blue Tower and back to the entrance. They could all see that the tower itself was a darker color than before, showing that the tower is no longer active.
"Well… I guess we should head for the Yellow Tower." Chopper suggested, looking at the Yellow Tower off at the distance. "That's probably the closest one to here, I believe…"
"I guess there's no harm in that," Luigi agreed until everyone joined hands and went into the circuit. "…Except for this!"
The battle-
"All right, squadron! We're starting to get surrounded here!" Colonel Disk shouted as he pulled his two pistols out and began to fire at the Vironoids like crazy.
"Don't worry, I've got the grenades!" announced G-43, who threw a grenade at one of the Vironoids. Luckily, it was a sticky grenade, which stuck to any enemy. There was no escape for the Vironoid as it exploded with a couple of others.
"All right! You really showed them who's boss, G-43!" Colonel Disk complimented. "Good work, soldier!"
"Sir! Sir! The Blue Tower! Look!" G-67 pointed to the Blue Tower, which was no longer a bright color. "I think the heroes did something with that tower! They must've deactivated it!"
"Excellent! That's one down, three to go!"
"Say, I have a little suggestion on what we can do after this war," another Computernoid suggested, making Colonel Disk look over to him.
"And what's that, H-69?" Colonel Disk asked.
"Maybe we should watch some-" That was when H-69 suddenly got obliterated by a missile fired at him by a Vironoid. Everyone screamed in terror at H-69's death while the colonel himself face palmed.
"Dang it, H-69! See, thinking about other things during a war is what will get you shot!" Colonel Disk got his weapons ready and also began flying with his jetpack afterward and began firing. "All right, soldiers! Let's show 'em who's boss!"
Yellow Tower-
"And… Woo!" Chopper cheered as they landed on a yellow platform. Up ahead, they happened to see another platform and a large gap between that and a platform that had different colored pads and an unbreakable barrier. Between the gap were two purple cube platforms.
"So this must be the entrance to the Yellow Tower…" Sonic trailed as he jumped onto one of the purple platforms. "Well this is going to be an interesting experience, if I have to say for myself!"
"We'll see how it turns out," Blade wondered as they crossed the platforms and found another colored panel puzzle. Due to it being a Yellow Tower, Kirby decided to turn them all yellow to allow them into the entrance. There was a yellow pipe standing there like it was an entrance.
"That's the first pipe I've seen in a while!" Luigi gaped.
"Let's check and see what's through here," Chopper suggested as he was the first to go down the pipe. Everyone followed him into a room with a yellow platform and a hallway up ahead across the gap. Unfortunately, at the edge of the hallway, there happened to be a laser.
"Poyo?! (How are we supposed to get past THIS?!)" Kirby exclaimed.
"We'll find a way…" the pale green gumball took a couple of steps until he saw a glowing platform appear for them. It connected to the platform they were standing on and the hallway.
Mario: This is our chance to use Slim!
With Slim's ability, they were able to get past the lasers and into the doorway leading into the hallway. Unfortunately, Chopper and Sonic got hurt when they ran into a Dark Worm that rose from the ground.
"Wait… Dark Creatures are in here?!" Blade gaped. He also noticed two Yellow Vironoids in the room that were firing an electric laser. He got hurt by one of them and got paralyzed as well.
Mario: This isn't good…
"I'll help you, Blade!" Luigi cried out as he used Piccolo to cure Blade from his status ailment. With that, the ninja rushed to the first Yellow Vironoid and slashed it as many times as possible until it was gone.
"That's what happens when you try to paralyze me, Vironoid!"
The Dark Worm, on the other hand, attempted to go back into the ground, but Kirby prevented that with his Ice Storm ability. It left the Dark Worm frozen for a bit and let Chopper shatter it with his hammer.
"Now we just have to worry about that last Vironoid…" Chopper trailed.
"Leave that to me!" Sonic smirked as he used a Whirlwind to keep the Yellow Vironoid occupied. Afterward, he charged up a Light Speed Dash and went all out on the monstrous virus, defeating it within seconds.
"Well, I guess you ARE the fastest thing alive…" Luigi trailed.
"Yup! Now let's get moving." Sonic suggested as he ran on ahead…but soon had to brake when he saw a bottomless pit near the cliff. When he looked up, he saw a couple of floating colored panels fused together. It looked like someone with a good jump could reach that.
"Well, I guess this is my time to shine again," Luigi announced as he used his Super Jump to launch himself up to the platform. He matched them all to a yellow color, which made a glowing green platform appear for everyone to reach to him. When they got on it, the platform started to move up slowly.
But what was the problem? Two Yellow Vironoids happened to be crawling on the walls!
"Crap! We need to use projectiles against them now!" Blade groaned as he tossed a couple of shurikens at the Yellow Vironoid to their right. With one toss of Hommissile, it began to plummet down the bottomless pit, never to be seen again. As for the other Yellow Vironoid, Sonic managed to paralyze it by using Reflecto's ability to reflect the laser attack back at it.
"I'll take care of this!" Chopper smirked as he chucked a couple of fireballs at it. He finished it off with a charged fireball that incinerated the Yellow Vironoid entirely.
When the platform floated up to the edge of the next pathway, everyone jumped off and landed on top of another Yellow Vironoid. Luigi's stomps was all they needed to defeat it.
They jumped on the platforms and landed on some colored pads that surrounded a large pillar. Chopper was forced to go into 3-D and match them all into a yellow color – even though he could've matched them as a different color.
Afterward, the panels began to slowly float up until they reached the top of the pillar to find four more colored panels. Kirby changed them all yellow and created a glowing green road to lead to a light-speed circuit pad.
"Ooh! Another one of these in here!" Chopper gazed in awe.
"What?! Oh, no… Not again…" Luigi gulped as they took the circuit into another room, where they could see a yellow core in the center of a platform ahead. They happened to see another terminal, but compared to the one in the Blue Tower, this one was a yellow color.
"Time to pull the plug off this thing!" Chopper threw Thoreau at the plug, and he managed to pull it out of the terminal, deactivating the tower and creating a current flowing up on the platform.
"All right! Two down, two to go!" Blade grinned as they all took the current to the exit of the tower. They noticed that two Yellow Vironoids that were guarding the entrance disintegrated instantly.
"Poyo? (Did those Vironoids disintegrate out of nowhere?)" Kirby gawked.
"Yeah… I just noticed that." Chopper nodded as they used the light-speed circuit to leave the Yellow Tower area. However, on their way, they ended up stopping by a yellow platform with a normal Vironoid lurking around.
"Oh… It's a normal Vironoid. Well I guess it shouldn't be a…" Unfortunately for Chopper, he got knocked away by a couple of missiles, but the Vironoid was instantly blasted by a Computernoid carrying an assault rifle.
"Don't worry, heroes! I've got you covered! Just keep moving, all right?" the Computernoid suggested.
"Ummmmm… All right, I guess that's all right." Luigi said while shrugging. The light-speed circuit pad up ahead was what they needed in order to reach the Green Tower that was just up ahead.
The battle-
Back with Colonel Disk and his squad, they were actually holding themselves very well, despite losing H-69 to a couple of the Vironoids. Colonel Disk was using his incredible skills as a colonel to blast all of the Vironoids surrounding him and use melee tactics against them.
"There's too many of them! We're dead meat!" J-98 cried.
"Oh, stop with that already! We know we're gonna take 'em down like bosses!" After clearing a circle of Vironoids, around him, Colonel Disk took this time to pull out a medpac and heal himself from any damage he took. Afterward, he began to open fire with his two pistols.
"This reminds me of the Hacking War at the Geek Palace back in '93, when I defeated the King Nerd with my bare hands," he recalled after shooting down two Vironoids.
"I heard the King Nerd battled you in cards, sir," G-32 recalled. "I heard you lost ten times before blasting him and coming back covered in cards after a week."
"Hey, you can it, G-32! Those guys were just lying! If you were there, you would've known what happened!"
"Uh, sir… I was there, and we remembered waiting during your battle." G-53 mentioned. "…Only, you were there for two weeks!"
"Ahem…" Colonel Disk coughed as he fired. "All units maintain radio silence!"
Green Tower-
"Ah! The Green Tower!" Chopper smiled as they landed on one of the green platforms. "Man! This is definitely a tower that I like! Although… This kind of green fits for Luigi more than it does for me…"
"Well, this tower IS kind of cool, I suppose…" Luigi trailed until he got hit by a green laser from a Green Vironoid. Unlike the others, though, this one actually poisoned him.
…Until Mario played a song from Piccolo to cure him of the status ailment.
"Great… Now these guys can poison us." Blade grumbled as he threw Hommissile at the Green Vironoid, keeping it off guard. Kirby ice skated toward it afterward and froze it with his Ice Storm attack.
"Poyo! (I love this ability!)" Kirby squealed as he kicked the frozen Vironoid into the other Green Vironoid, leaving it stunned for a couple of seconds and allowing Chopper to attack it with a sweeping kick.
"You know, a close range attack IS a bit risky against these guys…" Blade warned as Chopper stomped on the Green Vironoid's head to finish it off. "Well… I guess I'm too late for that!"
anyway, they jumped a couple of platforms until they reached a gap with a green platform ahead that had a green spring. Luckily, there happened to be two purple platforms that could help them cross, so they used those to reach the platform and find another puzzle involving colored panels.
"Since this is the Green Tower…" Luigi pondered. "Why not make them all green?"
He jumped on the colored panels and turned them all green. There, they saw the entrance up ahead in a green pipe. They didn't bother asking questions. What was important was that they went into the pipe.
When they jumped out of the pipe, they landed on a large green platform and saw two floating colored panels in between the platform and the pathway ahead, which was being blocked by another unbreakable barrier.
"Poyo? (So are we underneath the Green Tower?)" Kirby asked.
"Looks like it," Chopper confirmed as he turned the two panels to a green tunnel and got rid of the barrier. There happened to be two Green Vironoids near the slope going up, however.
Using Starbow, Chopper managed to defeat both Green Vironoids and continue on through the narrow pathway up the slope. A Super Dark Bat happened to stop by and fired a wave of energy at him, knocking him back.
"I got this," Sonic announced as he hit the Super Dark Bat with a couple of Homing Attacks. After its defeat, they jumped out of the little tunnel room and landed on six colored panels. But, since they stepped on the panels, they changed to a different color.
"Crap… This isn't what we wanted…" Blade face palmed.
"How about we all stand on one panel so we can focus on changing one?" Luigi suggested, standing in one of the middle panels. They all worked together to change them to a green color. With that, the panels began to glow and they all began to slowly move upward to a green platform.
"I've gotta admit, this place is actually pretty cool," Chopper commented. "Although… I HAVE said that in the past before."
They jumped on the green platform and jumped to the next one close to them, where they saw another Green Vironoid patrolling the area. Kirby started off by using his Ice Storm attack to keep it off guard, while Chopper used an ice spinning kick on it to freeze it. Kirby then kicked it against the purple platform ahead and shattered it.
"Dang… And I wanted to be the one to defeat it." Blade frowned.
Nevertheless, they continued up onto the platform and saw another tunnel shaped like a hexagon. Only this one was a lot bigger. Chopper landed on two yellow panels and changed them to a green color, making the platforms glow and slowly move to the end of the tunnel.
"Hold on… I'm seeing something ahead!" Luigi gulped as he saw an unbreakable barrier past two panels facing up instead of being down on the ground. "How are we supposed to get through this?!"
"I'll try something," Blade threw two shurikens at the blue panel, since the other one was yellow. It changed that blue panel to a yellow one and got rid of the unbreakable barrier. "See? All better!"
Mario: That was close…
"Poyo? (How was that close?)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo… (We weren't really that far from the barrier…"
They stepped off the platform after it reached the end to be greeted by a Green Vironoid. Blade was able to fight it this time, slicing it a couple of times with his katana and damaging it with a fire slash. Luigi followed up by finishing it with his Cyclone attack.
"There's ANOTHER?!" Luigi gaped as there was another tunnel with panels that they needed to change green. They were able to do it easily and allow the platform to slowly cruise over to the end.
Of course, they had the panels to worry about too.
"Let's see if I can do something about those," Chopper hoped as he chucked two fireballs at the green panel, changing it to a red. The other panel was red, so the barrier simply went away.
Mario: There's one more…
"Oh… Then I'll just throw one." Chopper threw an ice ball at the yellow panel ahead, due to the others being green. It changed green and got rid of the barrier ahead and allowing the platform to leave the tunnel.
Unfortunately, for them, they were about to run into a wall ahead.
"It's a dead end!" Sonic warned as he jumped off of the paneled platform and landed on a large, purple cubed platform. Everyone else jumped off as well and landed near two more colored panels.
"I'm feeling so nervous…" Luigi said as he breathed heavily. "My heart is pounding like crazy!"
Mario: Just relax, Luigi.
"Well, we still need to continue on," Chopper noted, pointing to the panels. "We need to deactivate the next terminal, so we're better off doing this right now."
They all got on the paneled floor when Chopper changed it to green and slowly began to ascend with the platform until they reached two glowing green platforms leading over to a doorway ahead.
"Jump, guys!" Sonic shouted as he jumped over to the platforms and reached the doorway. It only changed the platforms to a yellow color, but that didn't stop everyone else from crossing.
Luigi gulped as he jumped on the last platform, which turned into a red color. However, he was already near the end, so it didn't really matter. With one jump, he landed on the edge of the doorway and followed the rest of the group.
They looked at all of the green lights around this room, but there was still one Green Vironoid left. However, since they were near the terminal, Chopper tossed Thoreau at the plug and pulled it off successfully, making the platform's current move up. Not to mention that the Green Vironoid was destroyed in the process as well.
"Yeah! No more poison Vironoids!" Blade fist pumped as he jumped to the current and allowed himself to be carried to the exit.
"Woo! Three towers down! Only one more left!" Chopper smiled as he and the rest of the group got carried out of the tower and up to the entrance. They noticed that the amount of Vironoids in battle were actually depleting, to their surprise.
"Well, this IS what happens when you eradicate three different kinds of Vironoids…" Sonic said.
"Well it's working out for the Computernoids too! See?" Luigi pointed to the Computernoids, who looked like were winning the battle. "I think our chances of winning are greater!"
"Yeah, well we still have one more tower…" Chopper noted, pointing to the Red Tower dead ahead. "Good thing it's kind of close to the Vironoid Tower. Otherwise we'd be in some trouble!"
Mario: Let's head there now!
As they headed through the light-speed circuit, something began to bother Chopper for some reason. It's almost as if the Vironoids in the tower KNEW that they'd be there…
"Is it possible that there was a spy giving information to the Vironoids?"
The battle-
"Oh, heck yeah! We're winnin' the fight!" Colonel Disk announced as he finished blasting two normal Vironoids. "The heroes are doing a real nice job out there! They already deactivated three towers!"
Before the colonel could say anything else, he got a call from Luna. "Colonel! We just recently received news that three towers have been deactivated. Was it those heroes that took care of them?"
"You betcha! They're already heading over to the Red Tower! I'm pretty sure we're going to win this war once and for all! The Vironoid race will finally be rid of forever!"
"Uhhhh… Sir? We still have the red ones to worry about!" noted H-47. "They're the most dangerous of them all!"
"Well quit crying about it and fight!" Colonel Disk readied his blasters and aimed. "Time to blast these guys 'till their game is over!"
The colonel rushed toward the rest of the Vironoids and began to fire at them.
…Like a boss.
Red Tower-
"Poyo, (Well this is one interesting tower,)" Kirby commented as they got off the light-speed circuit and landed on a red platform. What was bad, though, was that there were three Red Vironoids ready and firing at them with fire lasers.
"WHOA!" Blade ducked as a fire beam went over him. "Did you just see that?! That could probably incinerate ANYTHING!"
"Tell me about it!" Chopper agreed, pointing to a Computernoid that got incinerated by the blast. "Who ever thought that these guys would be like THIS?!"
"Well let's just fight 'em!" Sonic suggested as he distracted one Red Vironoid with his Whirlwind attack. Mario began to bash it with his hammer afterward and used a Ground Pound to finish it off.
The second Vironoid fired a fire blast, but Chopper managed to counter it with a charged ice ball. Kirby helped by using his Ice Breath to freeze the Red Vironoid. With one kick, it was sent over to the last Red Vironoid, which caused it to become dazed.
"This looks like a job for Luigi!" Luigi announced as he used a Cyclone to send it flying in the air. He finished it off with one last Super Jump. "Yeah! We finally got rid of those enemies!"
"Now we just need to get across here," Chopper made a huge leap over the gap and landed on the red platform ahead. They saw the entrance across another huge gap ahead, but they had to deal with another colored panel puzzle.
It only took one jump from Mario to step on the blue panel and change them all to red. It also created a red bridge for them to cross as well. They found another color-coded puzzle, but they all jumped on the blue panels so they would all change red and allow the unbreakable barrier to disappear.
Mario: There's a door up ahead!
"Let's head in!" Chopper ran down the slope and entered through the door leading inside of the tower. Everyone could see that there were two Red Vironoids near the slope going up, so they got in their fighting stances.
"W-Wait! More of these guys?!" Luigi stammered.
"No time for that! We gotta kick some butt!" Blade tossed Hommissile at the first Red Vironoid, followed up with a couple of slices from his sword. He finished it off with a hurricane slash, which sent it flying toward the other Red Vironoid. Sonic finished that one off with his Light Speed Dash.
However, before they could make a couple of steps up the slope, a red Security Drone appeared out of nowhere. Chopper simply grabbed Starbow and made shooting stars rain down on it and destroy it within seconds.
"It's a good thing Starbow can help us with something like this," Chopper smiled.
They made their way up the slope and reached the end of the path. They ended up reaching more colored-coded panels. Sighing, the heroes turned them all to a red color and waited for the platform to slowly ascend to a large gap leading over to a light-speed circuit. There was also a large wall in the background with a couple of footsteps and a sign showing someone charging up some speed.
"Hey! I think I know what to do here!" Chopper readied himself as he charged up a Speed Dash. "I just need to use this in order to go across this gap!"
"Wait… Really?" Sonic gawked.
"Of course! That's probably the most obvious thing!" Everyone grabbed a hold of Chopper's hand and formed some sort of chain. When he took off, he ran on the wall and got off when he touched the light-speed circuit pad, which began to transport them through the circuit.
"I'm getting really tired of this!" Luigi cried.
"Well deal with it, Luigi," Blade said. "We've all been doing this!"
"Well… Let's just relax for now and… Holy…" Chopper's eyes widened as he gazed in awe at the large spinning pink globe as they were thrown out of the circuit. Unfortunately for them, there was no ground around them.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
At that point, they started to plummet to their doom…
…Until they suddenly began to float.
"What the heck? What just happened?" Chopper questioned. "We were just falling a minute ago!"
"Poyo… (This is just too weird…)" Kirby trailed.
"Well, let's not ask any questions! Let's try to get on solid ground first!" Sonic suggested as they noticed a platform with a stronger current moving upward. They floated over to it and allowed themselves to be carried up to a couple of purple cubed platforms that were spinning around.
However, it seemed that the only way to get on them was for Chopper to flip into 3-D. When they were in 3-D, their mouths were agape at the size of this whole area. It looked like this was one of the Vironoid's bases…
And there were also a crap load of Red Vironoids at the top, near the terminal.
"There's too many of them!" Blade grumbled. "How are we supposed to take them all down?"
"We'll just have to rush straight for the terminal then…" Chopper trailed as they jumped from platform to platform until they reached the solid red ground on top of the large globe. The Red Vironoids happened to spot them and open fired.
"WAAAAH! I don't know how much I can take of these guys!" Luigi cried.
Chopper kept them occupied with Starbow's ability, while Kirby threw Crystaline at a couple of them to keep them frozen. That's when Chopper rushed toward the terminal and threw Thoreau at the plug.
"C'mon, Thoreau! You can do it!"
With one pull, Thoreau managed to pull the plug off the final terminal, causing all of the Red Vironoids to be eradicated.
"We… We did it…" Sonic sighed in relief as he gave a thumbs up. "Good work, guys!"
"Now all that's left is the Vironoid leader…" Luigi wheezed.
"Wait… How do we…" Blade noticed a red pipe right near them. "Oh… Never mind."
They also noticed two badges that appeared as well. One had some sort of shield on it, another had something with a figure-8 pattern on it, while another one happened to have someone inhaling something.
"Hmmmmm… The figure-8 pattern one appears to be something only I can use…" Chopper trailed as he equipped it. "So, apparently I'm able to charge up Speed Dash a lot faster! Nice!"
He picked up the other badge, which had to do with inhaling. Apparently it doubles the attack power of Chopper or Kirby's inhaling ability. And, since Chopper's inhaling attack does less damage, he decided to equip it, making both of their inhaling equal.
"Poyo! (No fair! You got two badges!)" Kirby sulked.
"Uhhhh… What about this?" Chopper picked up a badge that had a balloon. "This is something only you can use. It allows you to float faster than before. That might be an advantage for you."
"Poyo! (Oh! Then I'll take it!)" Kirby smiled as he equipped it.
Mario: Are we going to go now?
"Yup! Let's go!" Sonic nodded as they all headed through the pipe and left the Red Tower for good.
Later-
Our heroes returned to the remaining Computernoids with exhausted looks. They actually seemed to congratulate them and give them more credit than they actually deserved, unlike a certain person…
"Good work, heroes! You deactivated the four towers!" Colonel Disk congratulated. "Now the Vironoid Tower's shield is finally gone! You can gain access to it now!"
"The Pure Heart you're looking for is through there," Luna informed. "The Vironoid leader is most likely the one holding it. Defeat it and the Viral Core should be destroyed, eradicating the Vironoid race for good."
"Man… It's going to be so satisfying beating the crap out of the leader!" Blade smirked. "So, why don't we go pay it a little visit?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a perfect idea," Sonic nodded.
"Wait… Now?!" Luigi gaped.
Mario: Of course!
"We need to get Tippi's wand anyway," Chopper noted. "I don't want to leave her wand standing around. It's a bad idea."
They noticed a couple of Computernoid gun ships flying around the huge area. They didn't seem to have much of a purpose, but they decided to take the light-speed circuit over to the front entrance of the Vironoid Tower.
And, luckily, Timpani's wand was right in front of the door.
"Don't worry, Tippi! I'm here!" Chopper shouted as he picked up her wand.
"Chopper? You came for my wand?" Timpani immediately responded as she heard Chopper's voice.
"Yeah! It looks like you almost thought we'd never come back."
"I never thought that. I was just a little worried if you and your friends would be able to come back here without losing your lives."
"We're not going to let that happen!" Blade assured. "Now that we've taken care of the four towers, it's time for the big one!"
"I suppose you're right. We should get going now if we want the Pure Heart." Timpani agreed. "Luckily, I can feel its presence coming through this door… We shouldn't be too late!"
Chopper hit the ? Block to make an Ultimate Shroom pop out. They all took their piece and recovered 100 HP. After that, Chopper hit the Save Block to save their game. With that, they progressed through the large door and into the tower.
"Good luck, heroes… You're going to need it." Colonel Disk mumbled as he watched them head into the tower.
But before the colonel could speak again, they heard an explosion coming from the sky.
"What the… What was that?!" Colonel Disk exclaimed.
"Sir… I think one of our ships were destroyed…" G-53 gulped, pointing to the pieces of the ship that began to fall.
"What? No way… That can't be right… We already defeated all of the Vironoids here! Something's not right…"
"Sir! I saw one of the ships blow up out of nowhere!" G-Pilot informed through Colonel Disk's communicator.
"G-Pilot! Tell me in a calm manner… What happened?"
"Well, I was just flying around this place for a little bit until something hit G-Pilot 2's ship! So, I was just wondering if it was a Vironoid attack, but it looked NOTHING like one! Vironoid's don't really attack our ships! In fact, it looked more like some sort of DARK attack!"
"What? Are you sure about this?"
"I'm bloody sure! For some reason, it looked like it was—AAAAAAAAGH!"
Everyone heard an explosion coming from above. "G-Pilot? G-Pilot?! …Oh, no… This isn't right! Something's wrong here!"
"What happened?" G-53 asked.
"I… I lost his signal. He's gone."
"Colonel Disk! We're having a big problem at the base!" Luna cried, getting Colonel Disk's attention. Great… Just what he needed. Another problem.
"I think there's some kind of sudden attack going on here! We felt a huge tremor coming from inside of this place. From what I can tell, this is no Vironoid attack…"
"Find a safe place, Luna! We can't let you die!" Colonel Disk ordered.
"Hold on… Colonel, I'm seeing something out the window. It looks like some sort of dark star that's- AAAGGGGGHHHH!"
"Luna?! LUNA?!" Colonel Disk noticed that the screen on his communicator went blank. "LUNA! NO! Please answer me, Luna!"
"I've lost her signal too," G-96 informed. "I can't get her signal either… I'm sorry to say this, Colonel… But I think we just might be the only Computernoids left around here."
"What?! You're telling us that the whole base is gone?!" G-53 gaped.
"I can't get into any contact with anyone in base. I'm sure that none survived the sudden attack."
"Then be ready for anything, soldiers," Colonel Disk said as he readied his blasters. "Something could come right out of nowhere if we're not careful…"
He suddenly heard another explosion. This time, it came from a couple of the Computernoids themselves. His last five men were now reduced to one.
"Wait… What was that?! G-10! Did you see something?!"
"Sir… They got destroyed…" G-10 whimpered. "It's just you and me now…"
"No… This can't be right… My whole army that I worked so hard to train… They're…gone…"
Colonel Disk's head hung low, but he didn't seem to notice a dark star heading straight toward him. However, G-10 seemed to notice it.
"Colonel! Watch out!" G-10 pushed out of the way, but this led to him being the one getting hurt. His lower half of his body was completely destroyed. He wasn't screaming, but he was definitely moaning.
"G…G-10! Wha… What did you just do?" Colonel Disk kneeled down and brought G-10's head up. "Did you… Did you just sacrifice yourself to protect me…?"
"Cough…cough… Colonel… I'm sorry… I'm sorry I couldn't learn to be a better trooper for you…" G-10 wheezed throughout his sentences. "I tried really hard to make you proud… But I… I just couldn't do it… I'm just a wuss."
"Don't say that, G-10… You're going to be all right! We need to get you all better!"
"Look at me… My lower half is gone… How are you going to fix me if I'm like this? Just leave me like this… I don't have much time to live anyway. Just remember something, Colonel…"
"What is it?"
"…Don't feel disappointed, please…"
With those last words, G-10's eyes slowly closed and exploded right in front of Colonel Disk. He slowly got up and looked down at G-10's remains in sadness.
"Rest in peace, G-10… Rest in peace…"
"So, it looks like you're the only one of your kind left. It must feel depressing for you, doesn't it?" the colonel paused for a minute and looked behind him. He saw Tipral crossing his arms while holding the Dark Star Scepter.
"You… You're the one who's responsible for destroying my army and the base!" Colonel Disk raised his pistols and open fired. "You're going to PAY for what you've done!"
Unfortunately, the shots didn't do anything. Tipral simply deflected them away easily and struck him with a dark star. However, this didn't destroy him, but left him in a severe condition.
While Colonel Disk was breathing heavily, Tipral walked up to him and looked down at him.
"You foolish cyberspace being… You and your army were so stupid to lure the heroes right into our trap! You should be ashamed for yourself!" he scoffed.
"Wha… What are you talking about?" Colonel Disk wheezed.
"There is no Vironoid leader! All of this was just a hoax to lure the heroes right into a trap! There is no Viro Core either! However, the Vironoids were not fake. Nobody leads them. So… I decided to entrust one of my minions to brainwash them in order to make them stronger and more intelligent!"
"You… You… You're not going to get away with this…"
"I already have," Tipral brought his fist down on his head with Star energy on them. "Sure, the Vironoids may be no more, but it doesn't mean that my plan is finished just yet! The heroes are JUST where I wanted them!"
"Then I'm not going to let them fall into your trap!" Colonel Disk tried to move, but because of his injuries, he was unable to reach the light-speed circuit pad.
"Try all you want in that condition, but you're not going to get anywhere. I might as well let you join with your own kind at this moment. You wouldn't want to be the only one of your kind left, do you?"
Colonel Disk was silent for a moment, unable to speak to Tipral. However, after a while, he spoke.
"…You're right. If I'm the only one remaining, where else am I going to go? My army's finished, my commander is also gone. It's better that I join with them instead… I'm sorry, heroes, but I've failed you… I wish I could do something else, but it's not going to help…"
"Hmph… Very well. Then it's time to take your final bow, Colonel Disk!" Tipral waves his wand and aimed it at Colonel Disk. He began to charge up a dark blast that was about to hit him.
"Heroes… Just don't give up just yet… The Computernoids may be gone, but you still have your mission to complete…" the colonel thought to himself as he watched a dark projectile come his way.
Soon enough, his vision had gone blank.
Some pretty dark stuff at the end... Yeah, the moment between Colonel Disk and G-10 may have been a bit cheesy, but I wasn't taking it too seriously (maybe some of you did, though).
As for the chapter name... Well, take a guess what it's based off. :P