CHAPTER 16-1
-Five Separate Ways-
A dark gray door was drawn and colored as the heroes walked out and noticed their surroundings. They were standing on a black floor with no white outline, unlike Castle Tipral. They noticed the lanterns on the ground with black flames with a purple center, and they also noticed that the floor itself had a symbol of a black star. It almost resembled a dark Warp Star.
"So we're finally here… Tipral's Palace…" Timpani trailed.
"Well, it does look pretty…dark, not to mention big," Luigi commented.
They looked at the pathway leading up to the large palace up ahead. The large door leading into Tipral's Palace had a black star on it with a purple frame. The windows were even hard to see because of how dark the palace looked. One thing for sure was that this place was huge. It was bigger than Castle Tipral.
"Man, look at those lanterns. They're all so dark. Kind of fits Tipral, I suppose…" Sonic trailed while rubbing the side of his head. "So… Where do you think he may be in this large palace?"
Mario: I'm not sure.
"Poyo, (Well, from what I believe, I bet he's somewhere far in the palace,)" Kirby believed as he took a couple of steps.
"So… How about we get going? I mean, we should be able to…" Blade stopped when Mario and Luigi began to flail around in panic. "Wait… What the heck is up with them? Why are they flailing around like idiots?"
"Uhhhh… Blade? Doesn't it look like they're flailing around because we're actually in space at the moment?" Chopper asked, raising an eyebrow. Unfortunately for the two brothers, they couldn't stay out in space without a helmet.
"Oh, dear… So Tipral's Palace is somewhere in space? Well… I think we better go inside as fast as possible…" Timpani suggested while looking a little shocked at Mario and Luigi.
"Poyo? (How were they able to talk before?)" Kirby asked.
"Uhhh… I think it was because they didn't know they were in space." Chopper pondered as he looked up at the black sky with a little bit of a dark pink in the background. They could even see a couple of stars as well. One of them kind of reminded Kirby of his home planet, Pop Star.
"OK, no time to talk! We gotta get going!" Sonic grabbed Mario's arm and began to run over to the palace up ahead. Chopper shrugged and grabbed Luigi's arm to bring him over to the front of the palace.
"Come to think of it… How come we're not suffocating out here?" Blade questioned. "Is it because Mobians can survive out in space, yet not in water?"
Kirby shrugged as he followed Blade over to the front entrance of the palace. There really wasn't anything special about the front entrance, but the door was significantly big. Chopper flipped into 3-D and entered through the door with everyone else.
Inside Tipral's Palace-
"Whew! I can finally breathe!" Luigi gasped before sighing in relief. "Man! You don't wanna know how awful it was without any air! I thought that I was going to pass out before we even got inside!"
Mario: No kidding!
"Well, now that we're in the interior portion, how about we see what's happening here?" Sonic suggested as he took a couple of steps in the room. The floor and walls themselves were black, but not as dark as the color in Castle Tipral. They could definitely see the floor and walls and chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
"A palace… Why does this ring a bell to me when I think about Tipral too?" Timpani pondered before Chopper turned to her. "Ummmmm… Nothing, really! I was just having some thoughts…"
"Timpani, do you know more about this Tipral character than any of us?" Blumiere asked.
"Let's not put her under a lot of pressure," Chopper suggested. "Maybe our answers to that will be revealed later. For now, we have to… OW!"
Chopper cried as a Koopatrol with dark blue armor poked his butt with the spiky point on its helmet. It cackled as it looked at the heroes through its glowing, soul piercing eyes. From investigating it, it was a Dark Koopatrol.
"Hey, Koopinator! How's it going?"
"Wait… Koopinator? Who the heck is that?" Blade gawked as he drew his katana. "Eh, who cares? Let's just take care of this guy!"
Blade jumped toward the Dark Koopatrol and attempted to slash at it. It simply jumped back and avoided Blade's attack with ease and got into its shell. It threw itself at him, but he managed to put Barry up to block the Dark Koopatrol easily. He then followed up with his Dragon Beam. But even then, that didn't finish it off.
"Poyo, (They're not as easy as the ones from Castle Tipral,)" Kirby said as he attacked the Dark Koopatrol with his Final Cutter, finishing it off for real. They noticed that the hallway was flat and full of a couple of enemies. It was kind of like Castle Tipral too.
"I will admit, this does have the 'castle' feeling from my previous castle," Blumiere remarked as they explored the room.
Mario: Yeah, it does feel like that…
"Don't remind me of Castle Bleck…" Luigi shivered as they found some Koopas with black shells up ahead. They were wearing sunglasses unlike the usual Koopa Troopas. They were called Dark Koopa Troopas, according to Timpani.
Chopper simply jumped on the Dark Koopa before it could attack and knocked it over. Unlike the other Koopa Troopas, this one didn't hide in its shell. It was simply lying on the ground, struggling to get up.
"Ah! Just like when we fought Koopas before this adventure!" Chopper remarked. "Kind of interesting…"
Mario: Those Koopas were kind of annoying.
"I think you're talking about that Crystal Star quest right?" Luigi recalled. "I remember you speaking to me about those, Bro. I wish I went on your quest… But, at least I went on my own!"
Mario: I'm unsure if you're speaking the truth or not.
"How about we finish this Dark Koopa off, huh?" Sonic suggested as he noticed the Dark Koopa get up. He clenched his fist and attacked it with his Sonic Wind, leaving it stunned from the blue gust of wind and allowing Chopper to finish it off by tossing a charged rainbow ball.
"I can't believe we were distracted with a discussion when we had an enemy to take care of…" Chopper trailed as he looked up ahead to find two black Goombas up ahead. With a shrug, he went over to attack, but one of them ended up giving him a nasty headbonk.
"Wait… That Goomba just bonked you with its head…" Blade trailed.
"Ow… Yeah, I know that, Blade. No need to remind me of that. Geez… That headbonk was pretty painful, I'll admit."
The Dark Goombas laughed as they were prepared to attack again, but Mario stomped on the first one and used a Super Ground Pound to defeat it. Luigi decided to attack the other Dark Goomba with a flutter jump attack. Blade finished it off by slashing it.
"Well, there's not much else around here, so I guess we could continue on," Luigi suggested as they walked over to the door ahead. When they entered the next room, they saw a Darkling firing a red spell at the group. Chopper reacted in time and hurled a rainbow ball at the spell to counter it.
"I bet Tipral's in control of these guys since Maquano's gone…" Chopper trailed as he stomped on the Darkling to finish it.
"Poyo? (Any more around here?)" Kirby asked, eyeing the room. There didn't appear to be anything around, but they did see some windows and a couple of pillars in the background.
"This palace sure does look nice, even if it's dark," Luigi commented as they walked over to a door just up ahead. "It's nice and clean… But it still has that evil aura around it…"
Mario: Wait, I see more than one door!
"Yeah, I see that too!" Chopper nodded. "Wait… I see…three more doors? What the heck is going on here? Did Tipral know that we were coming here and set us up in some sort of trap?"
"There must've been a reason why the minions were ready…" Blumiere trailed.
"Well, are we supposed to just go through one door and explore it?" Sonic asked with a confused look. "But, to me, that sounds like it's going to be a lot slower…"
"Poyo, (We gotta do something, though,)" Kirby said as he flailed his arms around. "Poyo! (If we don't do anything, we'll probably be too late to stop Tipral from reviving The Void!)"
Mario: Well, I say we start with the third door…
While they began to ponder, Timpani and Blumiere began to speak to each other in private so the others wouldn't be able to hear them. The good thing was that the heroes couldn't hear them mumble.
"I say we…"
"Timpani and I came up with a solution to your problem," Blumiere interrupted.
"Problem? We never had a problem in the first place…" Chopper trailed. "We were just trying to think of where we were going to go first. You know, that traditional thing that people think about?"
"Well what we were thinking about was having you guys split up. You guys can each take a door so you don't have to focus on one door at a time. That said, two people will have to stay with each other through one of the doors." Timpani explained.
"Split up? But… I don't want to be left behind!" Luigi gulped.
"Remember what happened last time we ended up being split up?" Chopper remarked. "We were separated for a very long time, and things actually turned out for the worse! Remember The Underwhere and Castle Tipral?"
"Didn't we split up before in that Christmas world?" Blade asked.
"Yeah, we did that there too," Sonic nodded. "To be honest, I think I'll agree with Tippi and Count Bleck on this! Being separated from each other isn't a nice thing, but we got new moves! I think we can take on anything on our own!"
Mario: Well, I don't think we have much of a choice…
"Poyo? (I mean, wouldn't splitting up make things a little easier?)" Kirby asked.
"OK… Fine." Chopper sighed. "I guess we have no other choice. We'll split up. Now, the only question is… Who are the two people that will go together?"
"I'll go with Sonic," Blade announced.
"Really? Why?" Sonic asked.
"Don't you remember? You're pretty much my idol ever since the Green Hill Zone days! Plus, we barely ever had some time to talk to each other throughout this quest. What? You don't like the idea?"
"I have nothing against the idea… But, OK. I guess a fan of me can come with me. It's not like it's going to hurt me."
"Wait… Why don't I go with Mario?" Luigi suggested. "My bro and I should stick together! I mean, we're pretty close!"
Mario: You need to learn to fight on your own.
"Wh-What?! B-But… Bro…!"
Mario: If you could go through a mansion on your own, then you can stay on your own for a little while.
"You should listen to Mario…" Timpani trailed.
"Well… I still hate the idea anyway!" Luigi cried. "And I only did that once! There's no way I can do it again, especially with monsters more threatening than GHOSTS!"
"But, I thought you were the great Luigi?" Chopper gaped. "I heard people say that you were a brave man who could take on any challenges! Surely you're something like that, aren't you?"
"…Wait, really?"
"Oh, yes!" Sonic nodded, understanding what Chopper meant. "We've heard so many tales of you going out and defeating such tough enemies. In fact, you did defeat the evil Chestnut King, did you not?"
"Actually, the Chestnut King was actually the princess's fiancé, which was a shame, but I did travel bravely!" Luigi jumped out of cheerfulness. "All right! I'll try to go through one of the doors on my own!"
"You guys sure you can handle this?" Blumiere asked.
"Poyo! (I've been on countless adventures on my own before!)" Kirby assured. "Poyo! (There's no way that this one's going to stop me!)"
"Same here," Chopper said as he pointed to himself. "I mean, I probably wouldn't be here if I saved my home planet Clara! But, yeah… Now that I think about it, I think we are fine splitting up for a bit."
"Now, only two questions remain…" Blade trailed. "Which Pixls do we take with us?"
"Well, since we should each take some Pixls with us… I guess I'll hold onto Starbow, Cudge, and Slim, if that's OK with you guys."
"Poyo, (I'll take Carrie, Thoreau, and Flippay, I suppose,)" Kirby said.
"Well, then that leaves me with Screwdy and Reflecto," Sonic announced.
"I'm fine with Hommissile and Barry," Blade assured.
Mario: I'll hold onto Kickbrin and Piccolo.
"Well… I guess that leaves me with Bonjourang and Crystaline…" Luigi trailed as Crystaline flew over to him. "Wait, doesn't Kirby use her mostly? Wouldn't you need her?"
"Poyo, (I'm good,)" Kirby assured.
"So it's settled. All of you have your Pixls with you." Blumiered nodded in approval. "I believe this plan might work!"
"All right, now let's choose a door…" Chopper trailed. He noticed Sonic and Blade walk over to the first door. Instead of going over to the second one, he decided to walk over to the fourth door instead.
"I'm gonna mix it up a bit!"
"Poyo! (Then I'll go with the third door!)" Kirby stated as he skipped over to the third door. Mario decided he would take the second door, leaving Luigi with the last door next to Chopper.
"Why is it always me that gets the last pick?" Luigi asked.
"Well, you didn't say it first…" Sonic trailed. "Now, are we COMPLETELY sure that we should all be traveling alone? I mean, how the heck are we going to communicate with each other? Our communicators are broken!"
"Dang… I should've asked Flyer about that." Chopper face palmed.
"Thankfully, I happen to have a couple of spare communicators with me," Blade pulled out five communicators and tossed one to each. "So, there's a little button that you can press to turn it on. As long as you have that one, you'll be able to contact with each other. It's a good thing I got these linked to each other, or else I don't know HOW we would be able to contact each other…"
Mario: These don't look too compatible…
"They're not better than Flyer's but I think they'll work. They'll show one of us on the screen and allow us to speak to each other."
"So… Are you guys all ready to go?" Timpani asked.
"Yup, I'm all set!" Chopper said as he grabbed Timpani's wand and put it away. "Let's go, guys! …And good luck."
With a nod, all six heroes entered their door to their own room.
Sonic and Blade-
"So, I guess it's just you and me for now through this castle…" Blade trailed as they walked into the next room through the first door. "I can't believe that we're working together!"
"Are you going to ask me for my autograph or something, Blade?" Sonic asked. "I mean, don't get me wrong. I'll sign something for any fan. I was just curious, that's all."
"Well… Nah. We're trying to find Tipral, which is most important. What say you and me go check out what's around here. I think we're wasting some time by sitting around and doing nothing."
They noticed that there was Motobug with a black back and a gray head charging straight for the two. Sonic took action by curling up in a ball and hitting the Dark Motobug head-on with a Spin Dash.
"Oh, yeah!" Sonic gave stylish pose after using one last Spin Jump to destroy the Dark Motobug. Blade gave him a strange look as he walked past him. This hallway didn't have much except for a ? Block just up ahead and a couple of Dark Buzz Bombers flying around as well.
"Isn't it weird that this part has Badniks that were most likely brainwashed or created by Tipral?" Blade asked as he threw a shuriken at one Dark Buzz Bomber to send it crashing to the ground. He finished it off by slicing its head off and making it explode.
"Now THAT'S how you finish off a Buzz Bomber!"
"Ehhh… Not as cool as how I finish 'em off."
"Oh, come on, Sonic! You KNOW that that was cool!" Blade grinned as he bragged about it. "You're not able to slice robot's heads off, but with this katana, I can do something like that ea-"
He stopped when he got shot by a projectile fired by another Dark Buzz Bomber. Sonic sighed as he attacked it with a Spin Jump a couple of times and destroyed it. Blade sweat dropped and followed Sonic up ahead.
"Slow down, hedgehog! You're going too fast!"
"Well, I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest thing alive! What are you going to expect?" Sonic grinned as he stopped and attacked a Dark Motobug in front of him. "I thought ninjas were patient?"
"Uhhhhhh… Sort of. I don't remember EVERYTHING about ninjas, honestly. Ever since my sensei died, some of the things I learned about for ninja history kind of drained away, which stinks."
He noticed another Dark Motobug coming their way, so Blade got himself ready and gripped his katana. With a single slice, he was able to slice the Dark Motobug in half and blow it up.
"Weren't there these animals in these?" Blade asked, looking confused.
"I know Eggman would trap animals on them," Sonic recalled. "But, since these are on Tipral's side… I don't think they work with the help of animals. Perhaps with some dark power?"
"Well, maybe those answers will be revealed when we find Tipral."
"IF we find Tipral."
"Yeah, that's a true statement," Blade walked over to the door just up ahead, which was being guarded by two Dark Buzz Bombers. "All right, here's the plan! You take one of 'em and I'll get the other!"
"Good plan," Sonic prepared himself and attacked the Dark Buzz Bomber closest to him. It only took three Spin Jumps to destroy it, while Blade had to slice it up a bit to defeat it, with him slicing the stinger off first.
"Man, this thing's a pain!"
"You just gotta relax and fight it. I think an explosion would be able to finish it."
"And you just gave me a brilliant idea," Blade grinned as he tossed Hommissile at the Dark Buzz Bomber. Destroying that left all of the enemies in the room destroyed, allowing them to enter a small room ahead with a couple of small poles leading up to a door on a platform. They noticed past the poles was a staircase with a door down below.
"What do you think could be in that door below?"
"Well, from seeing the door up above, I don't think we can go through there," Sonic pondered. "So, what we should do is just take the door down that staircase. Maybe there might be some fast-paced areas there!"
"If there are, then I'm in trouble," Blade said as they walked down the stairs and landed right next to the door. They noticed that there was a Dark Crabmeat sitting right in front of the door with a bored look.
However, once it took notice of the two, it fired dark projectiles from its claws and hit the two. It laughed maniacally until Sonic defeated it with a simple Homing Attack. At that point, they both heard their communicators going off.
"Hey, Sonic! Blade! How's it going?" From what they could hear, it was Chopper's voice coming from the communicator.
"You're already calling us already?" Sonic gawked. "We're…kind of in the middle of exploring this palace."
"I know. I just want to know what you guys saw."
"Well, I just ran into some kind of hallway…" Luigi trailed. "In fact, I don't see anything special about this area."
"I'm just continuing my way through a hallway too. So far, nothing interesting except some Darklings. I don't think this should even be a tough place to go through anyway!"
"Well, it's nice to hear that," Blade said, as if he didn't care. "Look, we'll alert you if we find anything important. For now, we're just going to continue on through here, if that's all right with you."
Everyone through the communicator agreed and let Sonic and Blade enter through the door in front of them. It ultimately led them into a room with a path below them, but they noticed that they couldn't go down from there. What they DID see was water flowing down a slope.
"Oh, no… Don't tell me we REALLY have to…"
"Looks like it, Sonic," Blade said, walking over to the slope. "It looks really slippery. I don't think we can resist sliding down…"
"Well I am, because I'm not going down there!" Sonic crossed his arms and turned away from Blade. However, the cat had an idea of his own. He stood right in front of Sonic and pushed him down the wet slope.
"BLADE! What are you DOING?!" Sonic began to slide down the slope, making him scream like a little girl. "You know that you're putting me in danger here! Help me, Blade!"
"No way! You're going to slide down whether you like it or not!" Blade followed him down the slope and fell in the water. They noticed that through the pipes they were in, there was a current to the left that could carry them back, a current below them going up, and one over to the right that could carry them that direction.
However, it was impossible for both of them to speak, since they couldn't breathe underwater. All they could do for the moment was use gestures to interact with each other for the moment.
The current carried them all the way over to a door that they entered to find themselves in a room with a couple of platforms floating on top of the water. One of them happened to have a chest.
Seeing this, Blade carried Sonic up to the surface and threw him up on the platform. Both gasped for air as they sat on the platform and shook the water off them.
"Blade… Don't try anything like that again…" Sonic wheezed. "While I'm a person to forgive quickly, something that can get me nearly destroyed isn't something easy for me to forgive…"
"Well, then how was I supposed to get you into the water? You probably wouldn't say yes anyway… Now, let's go and…"
Blade stopped when a Dark Chopper leaped out of the water and nearly bit his foot off. "Geez! What are there, Choppers in here now? …Well, I guess I better go tell Chopper there are Choppers here."
"I'll handle the Choppers while you go get the Palace Key," Sonic suggested. "I've dealt with these guys ever since the Green Hill days. I know their strategies. Just be fast before it comes back up."
"Gotcha," Blade leaped over the water while avoiding the Dark Chopper. Sonic clenched his fist and allowed his Sonic Wind to attack the Dark Chopper. While it was stunned, he used a Homing Attack to destroy it.
"Uh oh…" he grabbed the edge of the platform and struggled to pull himself up. Half of his body was in the water at the moment. "Blade! You better hurry up! I don't know how much I can hold onto this!"
"Hold on, I'm coming!" Blade grabbed the Palace Key that was in the chest and helped Sonic up.
"Blade… You didn't have to do that…"
"Oh… Well so much for that. Let's just get out of here."
Previous room-
After being carried through the currents, they jumped out of the water through that exit that they couldn't go down before. Relieved to be out of the water, they headed back to the other room.
"Hopefully getting this key wet doesn't affect it in any way," Blade hoped as he tried drying the key with his breath. "And apparently breathing on it doesn't do much of a thing to it…"
"Dude, why are you even BREATHING on it?" Sonic asked, looking confused at Blade. "No one's gonna touch it when you have your breath on it!"
"It's not like I'm going to have it forever…" Blade walked up the stairs and looked over by the poles. "OK, so apparently I'm the only one to get up here… Maybe if I gave you a piggyback ride, I could get you up there?"
"That doesn't sound too comfy…"
"Well too bad. We need to get up here."
Sonic gave up and got on Blade. He began to use his ninja jumps to land on top of the poles and make his way up to the door on the platform.
"All right, now I can get off." the blue hedgehog jumped off of Blade and landed on the platform right in front of the door. "Wherever this leads, it must lead to somewhere important."
They opened the door and entered an area that was outside of the palace. There were a couple of Dark Crabmeats walking on the black floor and shooting projectiles out of their claws. When they looked at the sky, they couldn't help but gaze at some of the stars.
"I can't believe Tipral has his own palace in SPACE!" Sonic gaped. "Is that something easy to do?"
"I have no clue," Blade answered as he sliced a Dark Crabmeat in half. "All that matters is that we find him and stop his plans. I mean, summon The Void back? That's VERY dangerous!"
"Yeah, we better get to that," Sonic curled up in a ball and used his Spin Dash to clear the way of all the enemies. When he got to the end of the path, he realized that there was a wall in their way. He tried to find a way up it, but there was no curve by the wall to help him go up to the ledge.
"Well that's nice. I can't get up here."
"You may not be able to, but I certainly can!" Blade pulled two kunais out and began to climb up the wall. "You can thank Ninbi for teaching me this! Too bad my senseai never did…"
"OK, but when you get up there, try to see if there's a way for me to get up there. You know I can't stay here forever."
"Got it," When Blade climbed to the top and grabbed the ledge, he noticed there was a white crack on the floor. Wondering what this was, he decided to jump and throw Hommissile down to it. To his surprise, the whole wall he climbed up blew up.
"HOLY… I just blew up a whole wall!" he gaped as he landed on the ground. Smoke rose from the air around him, but it just so happened that he revealed a door up ahead.
"There we go! There's the door!" Sonic ran past Blade, who nearly fell over, but managed to follow the blue hedgehog to the door. There was a ? Block that contained an Ultra Shroom, so they split it into two and ate it to recover 50 HP.
"It's nice that we don't get small pieces at this point," Blade smiled.
"You mean when we have to cut it into six or seven pieces for each of us so we can recover HP? Yeah, that is kind of nice."
Blade kicked the door open into a room with a staircase that reminded them of the stairs back in Castle Tipral. But it was not safe going up. They noticed two Dark Fire Bros. spitting dark fireballs down.
"So they're simply Fire Bros. with a darker color and black helmets…" Sonic trailed as he dodged some of the fireballs. "Well, I guess it's…interesting. But, yeah. This place isn't too different from Castle Tipral."
Sonic decided to attack the Dark Fire Bro. that was blocking the way with a Homing Attack. Blade helped out by hurling Hommissile at it as well and using Barry to deflect any fireballs coming close to him.
"These guys really don't underestimate us," Blade snickered.
"True," Sonic nodded as they climbed up the stairs and took down another Dark Fire Bro.. They noticed that at the halfway point, there was a door right next to them. They decided to enter it to find themselves outside again.
"Hmmmmmm… Nothing interesting around here except for a Dark Motobug and a shining light coming from one of the stars…" Blade trailed. "Wait, shining light? Do you think something would happen if we used Reflecto on that?"
"You know, I think we should give it a little try," Sonic defeated the Dark Motobug with a simple Spin Jump and ran over to the light. He took Reflecto out and began to reflect the light on the gray spot on the wall. This ended up making a chest appear right in front of him.
"What's in that chest?" Blade asked.
"We'll find out," the blue hedgehog kicked the chest open to find a Star Shroom Shake. "Well… I guess this is better than nothing."
"We're going back inside."
Inside-
"Well, we're back inside."
"Well duh. It said that we're inside…" Blade said, giving Sonic an irritated look. "Let's try to get ourselves up here. We've got to take care of a few Dark Fire Bros. that are on these stairs too."
And so, they began to continue their way up the stairs, clearing the way of the Dark Fire Bros. blocking their way. After defeating the last Dark Fire Bro. with his katana, Blade reached the top of the staircase with Sonic.
"Man, I hope that's the last staircase we have to climb," Sonic sighed.
"If there are more, then you're carrying me…" Blade mumbled as he opened the door. To their surprise, they only saw another hallway, but they noticed that there was a large amount of dirt in the center of the floor. A Dark Crabmeat, a Dark Motobug, and a Dark Buzz Bomber were in this room.
"Man, this is just too easy! They really expect to think that we can't get past these guys?" Sonic grinned as he ran up to the Dark Crabmeat and attacked it with a Spin Jump. Blade ran past Sonic and sliced the Dark Motobug.
"Easy pickings," Blade smirked.
That is, until he got shot by the Dark Buzz Bomber's projectile.
"Dang… Well, it managed to hit me."
"Relax, I can handle this," Sonic ran past Blade and attacked the Dark Buzz Bomber with a Spin Jump. "Well, unfortunately I don't see a door up ahead. But this dirt might hint something…"
"Like what?"
"Remember back in that Sweet Kingdom? I was able to use Screwdy on some of the cake around…"
"The world where nearly everything was edible? Oh, yeah! That one! So, what are you planning on doing right now? Is this going to result in you disappearing like before?"
"Oh, don't worry. I'll be back." Sonic used Screwdy's corkscrew to drill through the dirt and land in a room below him. It wasn't big, but it had a large screw right next to him.
"Huh… Not too surprising."
He used Screwdy's corkscrew yet again to make the room shake. From what he heard, Blade could feel it when he yelled at him about the shaking. With that, he used another corkscrew, but on the spring this time to send him flying back up to the room where Blade was waiting impatiently.
"You heard that shaking, right?"
"Of course I did. I made it shake." Sonic said.
"Well that sure was a heck of a thing you pulled off. Anyway… A door just appeared in this room, so we should be able to move on now." Blade hurried over to the door and prepared to open it, but Sonic ran over to him first so they can walk into a hallway with strange meat hanging from the ceiling.
"Meat? What is this, a butcher shop?" Blade gawked as he noticed a couple of Biosparks charging straight for them. "Oh, boy! Looks like we've got company here!"
The ninja readied his katana and unleashed his Dragon Beam upon the Biosparks, sending them flying back. He then proceeded to slice the meat hanging from the ceiling in half. One of them had a Mushroom inside.
"We're…seriously going to eat that?" Sonic gaped.
"Well, it does heal our HP…" Blade trailed. "Or better yet, we can eat some of this meat here."
"Raw meat? Nah, I'm good."
"Well, suit yourself," Blade decided to bite into the meat to recover 10 HP, while Sonic simply ate the Mushroom to recover 10 HP. Surprisingly, it didn't taste bad. In fact, it had a good taste!
"All right, so what else is here?" Sonic asked.
"Nothing special. Just a door over there." Blade walked over to the door just up ahead and opened it. It led them outside once again, but they saw a fence in the background. To their left, they could see a red spring, and to their right, they saw a red ! Switch and a yellow spring on the wall.
"OK… I'll stay here while you hit that, Sonic!"
"I wonder if there's going to be some running here…" Sonic trailed as he ran over to the red ! Switch. He hit it with a Spin Jump, making the floor near blade move down like a slope to a new path. He used the yellow spring to get back over to him.
"Did you just see the floor shift down?" Blade asked.
"Uhhhh… Not really."
"Well, it happened. It looks like we can only go down by running down. But, since you're fast, I think you'll be the only one capable of getting through all of this."
"Well, I have an idea," Sonic grabbed Blade's arm and went over to the spring. He let it push him down the path going down and allowing him to gain some speed. The path soon turned to a loop which led over to a slope going up. They stopped right by a wall, but there was a platform moving up right next to them that they took to go up to a door sitting on a platform.
"I have no idea where this is going to lead us," Blade gawked.
Well, it ended up leading them inside the palace again, but this time they saw another staircase. This one only had two Biosparks on the first part of the staircase and two Dark Buzz Bombers over by the other.
"Well, we might as well go up," Blade readied his katana and finished off the two Biosparks with ease. "I wonder why enemies Kirby has faced in the past are in this sector of the palace."
"Beats me," Sonic shrugged as he used his speed to run up to the midpoint of the staircase. He used his Homing Attack to attack the two Dark Buzz Bombers that were firing projectiles.
"Hold on… Don't you see something up on the wall? It's kind of hard to see because of how dark this palace is, but I noticed that there were six screws…" Blade noticed. "I think I saw the first, fourth, and fifth one down. So, I suppose in some other room, you have to use a corkscrew on them. Just don't screw up!"
"And here I thought I wouldn't have to hear any more bad puns…" Sonic face palmed.
"Oh, you know that they're awesome. Just watch out for Bang, though. He's always making such immature jokes, such as when I found a name called Hawk, he asked if his first name was Mike."
"…I think that's worse."
"Exactly! I had to keep duct tape over his mouth because of that! But, you know… Silence IS golden…but duct tape is silver."
"OK, let's just move on. Try to remember those screws, all right?" Sonic suggested.
"Got it!" Blade took out an empty scroll and began writing this down. With that, they went up to the door above them and entered a small room with, not too surprisingly, five screws.
"Well, better do what I have to do. You wrote the stuff down, right?"
"Yeah, I did," Blade showed him the scroll. It showed the first, fourth, and fifth screw down. Sonic gave him a nod and used Screwdy to bring the first, fourth, and fifth screw down.
This triggered a door to appear right next to them. They decided to head on through into a room with a wall in the way and some kind of barrel that appeared as if you could jump on it to move it down.
"Wait a second… I remember something like this…" Sonic pondered as he destroyed a Dark Crabmeat and ran over to the door. "This… This is that barrel back in Carnival Night! I remember it!"
"What's so bad about a barrel?"
"Oh, nothing really. I remember I spent a LONG time trying to figure this out. Apparently, you have to press up or down to move it. Kind of funny, isn't it? 'Cause you don't really use those buttons often!"
"I'm sorry, I don't get what you mean…"
"Forget it…" Sonic hit the ? Block right next to them, which contained an Ultimate Shroom. Blade sliced it in half to split it and allow them to recover 100 HP. Afterward, Blade hit the Save Block near them.
"All right, let's go," Blade followed Sonic onto the barrel and somehow made the barrel move up to the high ledge above them. A door happened to be there, so after jumping off the barrel, they entered the door.
Next room-
"Man… That sure was a lot to go through…" Sonic sighed as they walked out of the door. This was surprisingly a small room, but they noticed that there wasn't anything around here. "Great… I think we hit a dead end."
"Are you saying that Tipral's not around here?" Blade gawked.
"Yeah, I think there's nothing here. We might as well get out of…"
"GRARBLE!" the sound of that voice caused them to freeze and turn around. What they didn't notice in the room was a burly man who happened to be waiting for them to show up. When they looked back at the door, they noticed that it was barred.
"It's a trap!"
"Looks like yeh finally made it!" O'Chunks cackled. "But, look at this! Yer at a dead end 'ere!"
"Dang it!" Blade shouted. "We went through here for nothing, and we're trapped!"
"What's going on?" Chopper asked through his communicator. Sonic pulled it out to get in contact with him.
"We're at a dead end…but we ran into O'Chunks," Sonic sighed. "So apparently Tipral is nowhere to be seen around here."
"Poyo… (Oh, boy… That's not good…)" Kirby trailed.
Mario: Try to persuade him to let you go.
"Uhhhhh… Did you leave that meat in the hallways of Tipral's Palace?" Blade asked.
"Meat? Great dancin' balloons! Why did I leave me meat there?!" O'Chunks gasped, but soon stomped the floor. "Well, I don't care anymore! I promised Tipral that I would stop yeh heroes, but I suppose takin' down two is better than nothin'!"
"Man, you never seem to learn, O'Chunks…" Sonic smirked. "You always think you're going to win, but you don't in the end!"
"Not to mention we've got some brand new moves to show ya!" Blade added, drawing his katana. "So, if you wanna come at us, you're more than welcome to!"
"All right, if it's a fight yeh want, then it's a fight you'll get!" O'Chunks shouted as he raised his arms. "LET'S CHUNK IT OUT!"
O'Chunks instantly charged straight at both Sonic and Blade, knocking them straight into the wall. He cackled as they fell on the ground and landed on their butts. He was about to attack again, but Sonic got up and hit him in the belly with a Spin Dash, knocking him back a little bit.
"You may have brawn, but we've got speed and agility!" Sonic smirked. "And, ya know… That's better than brawn."
"Well, we'll see about that!" O'Chunks growled as he started to rocket himself by using his strange farting to fly up. They looked up to see where the bearded man would be and jumped out of the way. When he landed headfirst, he tried pulling himself out.
"This gives me a chance!" Blade threw Hommissile at O'Chunks, leaving him covered in soot. Luckily, O'Chunks managed to get himself back up and back into action, but he couldn't help but notice a few things on them.
"Where'd yeh get those burn wounds from? Lemme guess, yeh heroes were fightin' someone?" O'Chunks asked.
"We were fighting a dark wizard, who was much stronger than you were," Blade explained. "So, chances are… We're going to be winning this fight."
However, from looking at his HP bar, he had about 300 HP, which was exactly how much Shade had in his final form. But this wasn't even Shade. It was O'Chunks; someone who never won against them!
"OK, I think we've got this," Blade smirked as he ran over to O'Chunks and used his agility to avoid his punch and slash at his arm with his katana, leaving a cut on his arm. But, it didn't do too much to stop him.
"'Tis only a scratch! I can still fight yeh!" O'Chunks grabbed a hold of Blade's legs and began to swing him around. Upno releasing him, Blade began to fly all over the place, hitting the ceiling and the floor until he fell flat on the ground.
And while that happened, O'Chunks did another stupid dance.
"Don't just stand there! Do something!" Blade wheezed as he looked up at Sonic.
"I know what to do… Sonic Wind!" Sonic clenched his fist and summoned a blue gust of wind to stop O'Chunks and damage him with the intense wind's power. This allowed Sonic to use a Light Speed Attack on him to attack him multiple times. What was nice was that the bearded warrior couldn't get him!
"Stop yer movin', quillhead! I ain't done with yeh just yet!" O'Chunks growled as he began to swing his arms around.
"Well, you're too slow, that's what!"
"Sonic… Don't say that ever again." Blade grumbled as he got back up, but soon got trampled when O'Chunks stepped on him and knocked Sonic to the wall with a powerful punch. Blade wheezed as he got up, but readied Barry once O'Chunks came for him.
"I dare you to hit me!"
O'Chunks shrugged and jumped in the air to attack him with his stomp attack. Blade put Barry up and defended himself from the attack, making the bearded warrior yelp. This allowed Blade to slash at him a couple of times with his katana.
"So, you had enough yet?"
"We just got started!" O'Chunks growled as he dodged Blade's shurikens. So, he decided to throw some kunais at him. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to do a thing when O'Chunks knocked one back with a punch.
"What the heck?! How can you block a kunai with a PUNCH?!"
"Sometimes yeh never know what yeh can do!" O'Chunks grinned as he charged straight at Blade with his elbow in front. The ninja jumped over him and threw Hommissile at his back upon crashing into the wall.
"Well, looks like you did a good job with keeping him off guard," Sonic commented as he ran up to O'Chunks and struck him in the head with a Homing Attack. He performed a stylish move and even hurt O'Chunks when he tried to grab him.
"Nope! You can't do that! This badge here allows me to hurt anyone who tries to attack me while performing a stylish move!"
"Grrrrrr! Well let's see yeh counter this!" O'Chunks pulled out a can of beans and dumped them all in his mouth after opening it. He felt his stomach gurgle a bit as he swallowed them.
Knowing what was coming, Sonic and Blade brought their guard up to prepare themselves…for the worst.
"Time teh chunk yeh!" O'Chunks began to rocket his way to Sonic and Blade while farting out smelly gas that began to fog up the entire room. The two heroes coughed as O'Chunks rammed them into the wall.
"DUDE! This smells like…beans!" Blade wheezed.
"That's because he ate beans, Blade…" Sonic said.
O'Chunks finished his farting and felt a little exhausted. Even with the foggy clouds in the room, he couldn't see the heroes. However, for the duo, it was easy to track O'Chunks down because of the size of him and the sounds of his stomping.
"Ah-ha!" Sonic curled up in a ball and attacked O'Chunks with a Spin Dash to the stomach. Blade followed up by giving him a kick to the head and a slash to the back while landing stylishly.
"We're kicking his butt, that's for sure," Blade said as he whirled around to O'Chunks. Unfortunately, he ended up getting punched in the face by O'Chunks large fist, leaving a bruise on his cheek.
"Why are you even hurting an animal? That's animal abuse!"
"Well, yer me enemies! An' it be Tipral's orders anyway! If I don't listen teh 'im, then I won't get what 'e promised me!" O'Chunks explained as he picked up Blade and threw him at Sonic, knocking them both to the ground.
"Time it's time teh crush yeh both!" O'Chunks picked up a piece of the ground and threw it at the duo. Luckily, since they had time to get up, they got out of the way and attacked him at the same time.
"Heh heh heh! Now that's something!" Blade smirked.
O'Chunks turned around with an angry look as he jumped and stomped on Blade. Sonic was able to avoid the attack easily, but it help Blade, he used his Whirlwind attack to try to send O'Chunks flying.
Sadly, it didn't work.
"What? Aw, weak!" Sonic frowned.
However, it did keep O'Chunks off guard for a little while, allowing the blue hedgehog to curl up into a ball and hit him in the stomach with a Spin Dash. He was also able to save Blade as well.
"Whew… Thanks for the help, Sonic…" Blade wheezed as he quickly got up. "Now let's finish this guy. I don't know how much HP he has left, but we should be able to beat him easily when he's using brute force."
"Yeah," Sonic agreed.
At that point, O'Chunks rocketed himself in the air with his gas and came down on the two headfirst.
"Gra ha ha ha! Now yer chunked!" O'Chunks grinned as he crossed his arms at the two dazed heroes. "Now teh finish yeh!"
"Oh, I don't think so…" Blade pulled out an Ultimate Shroom Shake and took a sip from it. Sonic took the next sip and crushed the can. He threw the can at O'Chunks's head and left him dazed.
"Now's our chance!" Sonic cried as he attacked O'Chunks with a Spin Jump and a Bounce Attack. Blade followed up by unleashing his Dragon Beam attack on the bearded warrior and sending him flying back.
"What in me mum's gravy?! What kind o' attack was that?!" O'Chunks gaped as he got up. "Did yeh unleash a dragon upon me?!"
"More or less," Blade smiled.
"And now we're gonna wind it up a bit!" Sonic clenched his fist and used his Sonic Wind on O'Chunks once again. A blue gust of wind was enough to knock him over and allow Sonic to run up to him and use a Homing Attack.
"Urgh… So yeh healed yerselves an' now yer just gonna do all o' this teh me?!" O'Chunks wheezed as he grabbed Sonic by the legs and began to swing him around.
"Hey! You're the one that wanted to fight us, you hypocrite!"
"All right, I better do something," Blade tossed Hommissile at O'Chunks in order to get a good shot, but the bearded warrior was actually smart and put Sonic up, making him get hit by the explosion instead.
"Blade! You got me instead of him!" Sonic cried.
"Uh oh! Sorry 'bout that, Sonic! That was an accident!"
"Heh heh heh!" O'Chunks grinned as he threw Sonic at Blade. Luckily, the ninja managed to jump out of the way and throw some shurikens at O'Chunks. Two of them got caught in his arms, but it didn't matter to him.
"What is he, invincible?"
"He shouldn't be…" Sonic trailed.
O'Chunks pulled the shurikens out and threw them against the wall. He charged at the two again, but they were smart and jumped out of the way. Blade tossed a couple of more shurikens at him, but they didn't do too much.
"Yeh know, from all o' that trainin', I was trained teh handle things like that!" O'Chunks informed as he grabbed Sonic by the legs and began to swing him around. Upon releasing him, the blue hedgehog began to fly all over the place. He began to dance afterward, allowing Blade to strike him with Hommissile.
"OW! What a cowardly move, yeh dirty cat! I thought ninjas were honorable?"
"I am honorable, but if I have to protect my own friends, then I have to do that," Blade hissed, leaving a cut on O'Chunks chest as he slashed at him. O'Chucks grinned as he grabbed a hold of him and tried to crush him.
But Blade ended up turning into a log instead.
"Wha…? 'Tis a fake?!"
"Ha HA!" Blade attacked O'Chunks from behind with a diving kick attack, leaving him off guard and allowing Sonic to attack him with a Homing Attack, followed by his Spin Dash. O'Chunks tried to catch the blue hedgehog, but his efforts were fruitless when Blade slashed his arm with his katana.
"Well, he's not lookin' too good. I suppose a couple of more attacks should finish him off, don't you agree?" Sonic asked.
"I definitely agree," Blade nodded.
However, O'Chunks pulled out the can of beans, opened it, and dumped it all in his mouth. He began to let out a large amount of gas that made him fly toward the two Mobians. They gaped and jumped out of the way before they could get in harm's way of O'Chunks's…gas.
"Cough…hack…wheeze… Why does this smell so bad?!" Blade grimaced.
"Don't ask me! Ask the one who did it!" Sonic coughed.
What made it worse was that they couldn't see what was around them. Well, they could see a little bit, but the whole room felt translucent from here. But, like before, they were able to hear O'Chunks's movement through the room.
"Now I 'ave the battle now!" O'Chunks cackled as he charged at the duo. Hearing him, they jumped out of the way and attacked him from behind. Sonic used his Sonic Wind to clear away the fart clouds and make it easier for them to see.
"Wha…? 'Ow'd yeh do that?!" O'Chunks gaped.
"Why don't you thank the rainbow near The Peaceness?" Sonic smirked. "All right, O'Chunks! You're goin' down now!"
"I like teh see yeh try!" O'Chunks knocked Sonic away with a powerful punch, making Blade fight back by readying his Dragon Beam.
"I can give you another Dragon Beam if you want," Blade warned as he got in a fighting stance. "And trust me. This is probably going to blow you away!"
"Then I'll take yeh down, Blade!" O'Chunks began to charge at Blade, but he wasn't fast enough. Blade was able to strike him straight in the chest with his Dragon Beam and make him cry out in pain.
"AAAAAAARGH! YEH GOT ME!"
O'Chunks was kneeling on the ground as usual as he was defeated. Sonic and Blade noticed all of the bruises and cuts left on him from the fight. They, too, were covered in bruises from O'Chunks's attacks, but not as much as him.
"I can't believe I lost again! An' this time it was against two people! Tipral gave me the power teh chunk yeh, but I failed?" O'Chunks coughed.
"We DID say that we got some abilities ourselves…" Blade informed as he put his katana away.
"Uh-huh," Sonic nodded. "Maybe joining Tipral was not such a good idea in the first place?"
"'EY! I respect 'im, yeh know! If it weren't fer 'im, I wouldn't 'ave been able teh get me chunks up a bit! Plus, 'e even promised me a new world when 'e'd summon The Void."
"That doesn't mean you should just join him!" Sonic frowned. "…But, I don't think we're going to knock some sense into ya. We're just going to head back."
When they turned around, they noticed that the barred door was no longer there. "Wait… Where's the door?!"
"What? The door's gone?!" O'Chunks gaped as he immediately got up. "Then… 'Ow are we going to get out o' 'ere?!"
"Wait, YOU didn't plan this?!" Blade gaped.
"Why would I do that?!" Before the Mobians could answer, they felt an earthquake from down below. They noticed part of the ground was cracking as well.
"Hey, I hear something from one of your communicators…" Luigi trailed. "But I don't feel it!"
"What? No one else is feeling anything?" Sonic gaped. "Then… What's going on here?!"
Before an answer could be given, the floor ripped apart and all three began to scream as they fell. At that point, everything went blank for them.
Kirby-
"Poyo? Poyo?! (Uhhhh… Guys? Guys?!)" Kirby shouted through his communicator as he heard the earthquake coming from a communicator. "Poyo? (What's going on through there?)"
"Kirby? Is that you?"
"Poyo! (Yeah! It's me! For some reason, I just lost contact with both Sonic and Blade!)"
"Really? Oh, boy… I guess you're not the only one…" Chopper trailed.
Mario: I can't get in contact with them either!
"What's going on?!" Luigi cried. Everything suddenly grew silent for the moment. Nobody even dared to speak for a moment.
"Poyo… (I think they're gone…)" Kirby frowned.
"No… They can't be gone!" Chopper cried. "Come on! Don't let this be like Castle Tipral all over again!"
Kirby began to ponder for a minute. He wasn't too far in the area he went through after going through the third door. But, after about thirty seconds, he knew what he had to do.
"Poyo, (I'm going to keep going,)" he declared. "Poyo. (Sonic and Blade would want us to do that.)"
"I think Kirby's right," Blumiere agreed, hearing him through Chopper's communicator. "If we were to stop right now, the whole universe would be put in grave danger. We can't just stop here."
"Ugh… I suppose we should do that." Chopper groaned. "I don't like leaving others behind, but we're in a dire situation here. I guess we should just move on forward from here."
Kirby gave a nod and put his communicator away. He noticed at the end of the hallway, there was a Star Block waiting for him.
"Poyo? (What's a Star Block doing here?)" he asked himself. "Poyo? (Is this the end of my area already? I don't think that's entirely possible…)"
Despite this, he ran over to the Star Block and gave it a small punch. Now he felt how hitting a Star Block felt like.
END OF CHAPTER
Through the dangerous rooms of Tipral's Palace, Chopper and Co. were forced to move onward on their own through their own rooms of the palace. With Sonic and Blade gone, they knew things were going to get a little serious. Unfortunately, for Chopper, he ended up running into a dead end through his hallway. Mario and Luigi didn't find anything special. However, Kirby still moved onward the most, despite Sonic and Blade going missing. "Poyo… (There's no point in just standing around…)" the pink puffball trailed. "Poyo. (If we need to find Tipral immediately, then we better do it now.)" What lied ahead for Kirby?
Definitely one of the more interesting chapters in this story, in my opinion. At first, I wasn't sure what to do for this world, since I didn't want it to be completely like Chapter 8. But, then I came up with this idea, which, in my opinion, works a lot better than the other idea.
Stay tuned for more (unless you didn't like it)!