CHAPTER 16-2
-Showdown in the Basement-
With Sonic and Blade gone, or possible still alive, but missing, Kirby took a deep breath and continued his way through the hallway. There wasn't too much of importance around this hallway. He did see a couple of pictures on the walls with Tipral and other minions such as Mimi on them. He noticed through the hallway, there were also a couple of black Waddle Dees called Dark Waddle Dees, from Kirby's perspective, that is. Some light from the stars came through the window, making it a little easier to see.
"Poyo… (Well, looks like it's just me from here…)" Kirby trailed as he decided to stop. "Poyo. (At least Chopper, Mario, and Luigi are all fine, but both Sonic and Blade are no longer around.)"
He looked over at the Pixls with him. "Poyo? (And what about the Pixls that Sonic and Blade had with them? What will happen to those? They can't just be left in the palace or be destroyed!)"
The Pixls, looking confused, gave him a nod, since they couldn't understand what Kirby could say to him.
"Hey, Kirby!" Kirby stopped from hearing Chopper's voice through the communicator. He pulled it out to find Chopper was indeed contacting him. "How is it going on over there for you?"
"Poyo, (Well, nothing special,)" Kirby shrugged. "Poyo? (What about you? Have you found anything?)"
"Nope. Nothing but a dead end where I am. I suppose I should just go back and help you, then?"
Kirby gave him a nod, but his smiled soon faded when he heard something negative coming from him.
"Huh?! The door… It disappeared! Am I actually STUCK here?!" the Chopper gaped, making Kirby gape as well.
"Wait… Did you say that you're stuck in a room?" Luigi gaped, now getting in contact with both Chopper and Kirby. "Does that mean you're going to disappear just like Sonic and Blade?!"
"I don't know… It doesn't seem like anything bad is happening to me right now… I guess I went the wrong way, unfortunately. But, you guys still have some hope!" Chopper assured. "Now stop talking to me and keep going!"
"Poyo, (Understood,)" Kirby gave him a nod and put his communicator away. He looked over at one of the mirrors in the hallway and looked at his reflection through it. Luckily, there wasn't any sign of Shadow Kirby.
Sighing in relief, he ran on ahead. The Dark Waddle Dees that were putting some pictures up noticed Kirby running in their direction and immediately got their spears out to attack. Kirby inhaled the first one and spat it at the second. Unfortunately, this didn't defeat them. What the pink puffball did, however, was duck and do a sliding kick that defeated both Dark Waddle Dees.
"Whoa… It's the hero that can eat stuff!" one Dark Waddle Dee gaped as it's arms began to tremble with the spear in its hands. Kirby pulled his Final Cutter out and defeated it with a couple of slashes.
He wished that there was an ability he could copy, but he was lucky when he found a red, limbless dragon enemy breathing fire out of its mouth called a Galbos sitting on the ground. He inhaled it and gained the Fire ability.
"Poyo! (This should do nicely!)" Kirby smiled as he turned into a fireball and began to plow through whatever was in his path. However, he stopped when he looked at one of the pictures of Mimi and Tipral.
"Poyo? (Is Tipral Mimi's boyfriend or something?)"
However, he remembered back in Merlee's Mansion that Mimi did have a crush on him, so he just simply moved on. Up ahead he noticed a Wheelie charging for him. He didn't seem to care about getting its ability, so he burnt it with his Fire Breath.
"Poyo, (Geez, being alone means that there's no one to talk to,)" Kirby realized as he stopped for a moment. "Poyo? (Is this really a good idea for me?)"
His thoughts were interrupted when he got hit by a Dark Waddle Doo's beam attack that it fired from its large eye. He responded by charging at it as a fireball and defeating it easily.
"Oh, and Kirby…" Chopper began as Kirby heard him through his communicator. "If you find anything important, such as, say… Tipral, you should let us know. We could probably help you if we had a chance."
"Poyo! (Got it!)"
He plowed through two more Dark Waddle Doo in his way until he reached the door with the dark purple trim and the dark star in the center. He opened it and found a room with a platform up above him and a Dark Sword Knight.
Even though the Dark Sword Knight had a nice ability, Kirby decided not to take the ability and instead burned it with his Fire Breath. He then made his way over to a door that was being blocked by a row of small star blocks.
"Poyo, (I know how to handle these,)" Kirby simply destroyed them with his Fire Breath and walked over to the door. To his surprise, however, he saw that there was a lock on the door.
He tried burning it with his Fire Breath, but that didn't help him at all. He even tried to use the flames on his head to burn it away too! Sadly, nothing seemed to work.
"Poyo…" Kirby frowned in disappointment and turned away from the door. However, he did see that the door resting on the platform was actually not locked. So, taking in some air, he floated up to the door and entered it to lead him outside.
Two platforms were right beside the door he walked out of, which happened to have two Dark Sir Kibbles standing on them and throwing their cutter blades. Kirby ignored them and walked on ahead to find a Dark Hammer Bro. throwing hammers straight at him.
The pink puffball used his Fire Breath in retaliation to burn the Dark Hammer Bro. to ashes. However, he did notice a platform that seemed to be moving up just up ahead. He took it up to another platform that had a Dimensional Rift above him.
"Poyo? (What's this?)" Kirby used Flippay's ability on the Dimensional Rift to make a blue ! Block appear. Upon hitting it, a door appeared right in front of him. So, he simply entered it into a small hallway.
What shocked him was that there were statues in this room. One seemed to be a statue of Tipral…made out of Rubees.
"Poyo… (I'm guessing Mimi made this…)" Kirby trailed as he walked past it. He also saw a statue of Mimi as well, proving that this was probably a room where Mimi put a lot of her stuff.
Kirby wanted to say another thing, but he noticed a black Boomboxer skipping around in the hallway. He wanted to go up to it, but he wasn't going to. He decided that it would be called a Dark Boomboxer, just be original.
Since floating over it wouldn't be a good idea, he decided to charge right at the Dark Boomboxer as a fireball. He wasn't able to defeat it, but he was able to get past it.
However, it started to fire sound waves from its headphones at Kirby. He removed his Fire ability and inhaled the Dark Boomboxer to gain the Mike ability. Perhaps this would be useful for later on?
Nevertheless, he walked over to the door up ahead and entered a small room with a couple of Dark Waddle Dees and Dark Waddle Doos. They seemed ready to make their attack on Kirby, but he instantly pulled out a megaphone.
"POYO! (GET OUT OF HERE!)" Kirby yelled through the megaphone as they were all destroyed. Luckily, a chest was drawn at the end of the room for him to get a Palace Key. "Poyo, (Now to go back to that door,)"
Sighing, Kirby backtracked all the way back to that one room.
Room with locked door-
With the key in his hands, Kirby unlocked the door into a small room with a row of spikes. Since he had Carrie to help him, he jumped on her and allowed the Pixl to carry him across the spikes and to the door.
"Poyo! (This is so easy!)" Kirby cheered until a Dark Waddle Doo hit him with a Beam attack, knocking his Mike ability away. When it hit the spikes, it was gone.
Filled with anger, Kirby grabbed the Dark Waddle Doo and threw it over to the spikes, defeating it instantly. However, this made him feel a little sorry for the Dark Waddle Doo due to his cheerful nature.
"Poyo… (Gee, now I feel a little guilty for doing that…)"
He then remembered that he defeated countless other enemies in ways worse than spikes, making him feel not as bad. Kirby moved on to the next room, which, surprisingly, only had a path moving down. Some small star blocks were in his way, so his Cartwheel was able to help him go down.
After slipping under some platforms, he noticed that there was a blue ! Block that was too high to reach and a black pipe on the ceiling dropping black Squigs called Dark Squigs. They seemed to spit out dark projectiles at him.
But, it was no match for Kirby's inhaling. He simply swallowed it, but another Dark Squig came out of the pipe and landed in front of him, making him frustrated.
"Excuse me, hero… But maybe you could use my help to get that blue ! Block that's up there." Thoreau informed, poking Kirby. "Believe me… I think you'll get to where you want!"
"Poyo… (Well, might as well give up a try…)" Kirby threw Thoreau at the Dark Squig and was now holding it up after he brought it over to him. He threw it at the blue ! Switch, making a door get drawn.
"See? Sometimes you just need someone to be a little handy!"
Kirby opened the door into another room. What surprised him at this point was a green Sword Knight standing in the small room. He was standing over by a blue ! Switch that happened to be in the room. Past him was a dead end.
"Hey, Kirby! It's me, Sword Knight! You know, one of Meta Knight's servants?" he spoke up, getting Kirby's attention. The pink puffball walked over to him immediately.
"Poyo? (Sword Knight? What are you doing here? …Or are you even Sword Knight?)" Kirby pondered as he looked at Meta Knight's servant. There didn't seem to be anything that showed that it was a disguise. Nothing at all.
"What? Are you implying that I'm not the real Sword Knight? Look, let me explain. Tipral came to Dream Land one day and abducted Meta Knight. I tried to find him, but sadly, I couldn't. He came back another day and abducted me into this palace! I've been trying to get out of here ever since…"
"Poyo, (Well, I can't really help you at the moment,)" Kirby said. "Poyo. (I'm trying to help stop Tipral from summoning the Chaos Heart and summoning The Void. I could probably help you after finding him, though.)"
"No, Kirby… You can't just leave me here…" Sword Knight gasped.
"Poyo! (I'm not going to leave you here!)"
"Really? Well, that's a relief… Luckily, I was able to find out where we can find Tipral. I discovered that this blue ! Block can help us get to his exact location. I'll let you do the honors of hitting it, since you are the hero."
Kirby looked up at the blue ! Block for a minute. Something seemed fishy here.
"Poyo? (Are you sure that you're really Sword Knight?)" Kirby asked. "Poyo… (This looks like some sort of trick…)"
"Trust me, Kirby. I'm not trying to trick you!" Sword assured. "All I want to do is help you stop Tipral. I mean, if you're not quick enough, then you'll probably end up failing your quest!"
"I don't trust this guy one bit!" Carrie spoke up.
"Why would he make us hit such a block, amore?" Flippay sang.
"My gut says not to listen to this guy," Thoreau informed.
Kirby pondered for a moment. There was no door past Sword Knight, so there was no way of continuing on. If he hit the blue ! Block, chances are that he would end up falling into some sort of trap. He was definitely in a pickle here.
"Poyo, (Well, might as well do it,)" Kirby hit the blue ! Block and was suddenly falling through the floor. As Sword Knight heard a loud thud, he began to laugh.
"Hee hee! I sure got you, Kirby! For the second time!" Sword Knight was surrounded by purple smoke as he turned into Mimi. She was wearing a hot pink dress with a light pink trim and a red heart in the center of her dress.
"So, how does it feel to be fooled a second time, meanie-head? That's what you get for trying to mess with Tippy!" she spat as she teleported out of the room.
Basement-
"Poyo… (Well, that didn't lead me anywhere except for a basement…)" Kirby moaned as he slowly rubbed his head. He got up and looked around him. He was in a small room with a cobweb at the corner of the ceiling to his left. He noticed a Shadow Boo was right behind him.
Luckily, he was able to turn around and take it down with his Final Cutter. Luckily, Shadow Boos didn't turn invisible when you faced them like normal Boos. They usually just attack you!
When he finished it off, he noticed that there was also a Rubee statue of Mimi and Tipral together. For some reason, it seemed as if Mimi made that without Tipral's permission. Despite being disgusted with it, he opened the door into a room with a small staircase going down to a door ahead.
"Poyo? (Why am I suddenly reminded of Merlee's Mansion?)" Kirby pondered as he walked down the stairs. A Dark Cherbil was waiting for him down there, but he inhaled it and spat it at the wall, destroying it.
"Hey, Kirby! Are you there?" Kirby took his communicator out and found Chopper contacting him.
"Poyo! (Hey, Chopper!)" he greeted. "Poyo! (Turns out Mimi disguised herself as Sword Knight to send me down in the basement…or that's what I think!)"
"Mimi sent you down to the basement? Oh, boy… Is there any way you can get out of there? You think you could get to Tipral through the basement?"
"Poyo, (From what I'm thinking, I don't think so,)" Kirby replied while shaking his head. "Poyo. (I guess the only thing I can do right now is explore the basement and find Mimi. Hopefully there's some leftover food for me here, though.)"
Kirby closed his communicator and entered the door just up ahead. He found himself in a hallway with a locked door up ahead and two other doors. Another Dark Boomboxer was in the room, along with a Dark Wheelie. He inhaled the Wheelie to gain the Wheel ability and ram the Dark Boomboxer in his wheel form.
"Poyo, (I don't need the Mike ability. Singing always bothers me.)" he said as he walked into the first door closest to him. He noticed a couple of platforms up above him leading up to a chest on the top platform. There were green Swoopers called Swampires flying around in the room that looked like they wanted to suck the HP out of him.
When one tried to fly down to Kirby, he rammed right into it as a wheel and used his Cartwheel to attack it afterward. He then grabbed it with Thoreau and threw the Swampire at another one that flew down. Needless to say, he was able to take down both easily.
"Poyo! (That's what happens when you try to suck away my HP!)" Kirby said boldly as he began to float up to the top platform. He found a Palace Key inside, which was just what he needed.
Knowing that he had to go, he left the room and decided to check the other room beside him. This room was much smaller and felt more like a closet with a couple of chests on the ground.
"Poyo? (Is this their pantry or something?)" he pondered as he found a couple of healing items inside, such as meat and vegetables. Though they looked bad, they only looked like they could heal 1 HP.
He simply shrugged and returned to the hallway to unlock the door that would lead him into the next room.
But, what caught him off guard was that he found himself in a maze. There were literally three other doors in the small room, with two of them sitting on a platform. Kirby sweat dropped as he stepped in the middle of the room.
"Poyo… (Oh, boy… This reminds me of Merlee's Mansion…)" Kirby groaned.
He looked around to see if there were any enemies. The only thing he caught sight of was a tear drop enemy called a Sparky bouncing around. Knowing of what abilities this thing was capable of, Kirby got rid of his Wheel ability and took the Plasma ability instead. His skin turned to a green tint and his feet were now an orange color, almost resembling Chopper a bit, except with the feet.
"Poyo! (This should be useful later on!)" the pink puffball smiled as he floated up to the platform over to the left to enter another similar room. However, there was a Darkling floating around here.
Using his Plasma ability, he simply used his spark attack to surround himself in a shield of electricity and electrocute the Darkling until it was finished. He wanted to see if there was anything here, but all he saw was a door to his left.
He entered that room to find a generator that didn't seem to be working. For some reason, it didn't have any electricity flowing through it.
"Poyo! (I got it!)" Kirby began to charge up some power in his ability and fired an intense plasma shot at the generator. Not only did it power it up, but it also made the rooms a bit easier to see.
That's when he took his communicator out to see how everyone else was doing.
"Poyo? (Guys, did you see anything different in your area of the castle?)"
"Anything different? Not here…" Chopper trailed. "I'm trapped in this room, remember? I didn't see anything change."
"What did Kirby say?" Luigi asked. Chopper simply translated for him to make things easier. "Oh… Well, I didn't see any changes. Sorry, Kirby. Maybe it only affects your area?"
Mario: Nothing here…
"Poyo… (Oh… Well, I guess it only affects my area then…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo. (I'll contact you guys when I find some more information. Maybe I might discover some interesting things down in the basement.)"
With that, he decided to go back to the door he took that brought him into this room and back at the beginning of this maze. This time, however, he took the top right door to see what lurked there.
"Poyo? (Another room that looks the same? Geez…)" Kirby noticed in the center of the room, there was another Rubee statue of Mimi, as if this was practically her own area of the palace.
When he jumped down to the floor, the Rubee statues began to move and fire Rubee shards at the puffball. He gaped as he surrounded himself in a spark shield to protect himself.
"Poyo?! (The statue can move?!)"
When the Rubee statue of Mimi charged at Kirby, his spark barrier ended up shocking it and paralyzing it. With this, Kirby fired a couple of Plasma Needles at the Mimi statue and destroyed it.
"Poyo… (All right, let's see where I should go next…)" the pink puffball pondered as he looked over at the door to his right. He wasn't sure if he should walk to the one above him, so he took the lower right one.
This one apparently led him into a small hallway with Firebars hanging from the ceiling and ground. Unfortunately, since Chopper wasn't here, there was no way he could get past them in 3-D. He decided to wait for them to get at a certain angle so he could run past them.
"Poyo… (I can't be too slow here…)" he panted as he stopped and looked back at the Firebard. "Poyo… (Those things could burn me if I don't act fast enough…)"
He hit a ? Block that was close to him to find a Super Shroom pop out. Kirby simply ate the Mushroom to regain 20 HP. Since he had no one else with him, he was able to eat the entire thing.
"Poyo! (Eating the whole thing tasted pretty good!)" he squealed as he created another electric barrier around him with his fully charged plasma attack ready. Kirby didn't unleash it, but when he walked over to the next set of Firebars, he wasn't harmed.
He smiled as he reached the end of the hallway and found a Dark Waddle Doo holding a spear guarding it. He unleashed his Plasma Wave straight at it and destroyed it, allowing him to enter the next room.
"Poyo? (So, what's in this room anyway?)" Kirby asked as he entered the next room.
What he found was another Rubee statue, but this one resembled Tipral unlike the other one. It jumped off its pedestal and charged for the pink puffball. He was able to jump out of the way and strike it with a Plasma Needle, but it wasn't enough to finish off the Rubee Tipral.
At this point, Kirby knew that he probably wasn't going to find Tipral around here. All he could think of at the moment was a way to get out of the basement. The Rubee Tipral wasn't helping either.
He protected himself once again when the Rubee Tipral started to fire a Rubee shards at him. Luckily, he didn't get harmed by any of them.
"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby fired a Plasma Wave at the Rubee Tipral and managed to destroy it. "Poyo… (If this is a different version of Tipral, I wonder what fighting him for real would be like…)"
He pondered until he realized something. "…Poyo! (…Nah! We fought him before! I think taking him on should be just fine!)"
He walked over to the chest up ahead and opened it to find a Palace Key inside. Taking the key with him, he returned to the maze room with the other doors and decided to see which one he would take.
In the end, he floated up to the upper right door and entered it to find himself in the upper left door. In the center of the room was a Swampire flying around. It noticed Kirby and attempted to fly down.
However, when Kirby used a spark shield to guard himself, the Swampire was electrocuted and nearly paralyzed, allowing Kirby to finish it off with his Final Cutter ability.
He then jumped off the platform and landed on the ground. He checked the other three doors and pondered whether he should go into one to his right or one to his left.
"Poyo… (Should I take the bottom left door or the bottom right door…or should I take the upper right door…)" Kirby pondered as he looked over at the doors. In the end, he went through the bottom left door.
"Poyo? (Wait, what? I'm back in another room I was already in?)" the pink puffball groaned as he noticed he came out of a lower right door.
Unfortunately, he had to turn back because he was already in this room before. Instead, he went up to upper left door. There, he found another similar room, but this one had a Dark Longator, which was capable of stretching its head to the left or right (if you didn't remember).
He jumped down to the ground and waited for the Dark Longator to extend its head over to him. With his Plasma attack fully charged, Kirby fired a Plasma Wave at the enemy and drained the majority of its HP away.
"Poyo?! (It's still alive?!)"
The Dark Longator smiled as it knocked Kirby back with its own head. It still made that weird noise that Kirby remembered from these guys from Planet Blobule. Instead, he surrounded himself in a spark shield and allowed the Dark Longator to extend its head at it and defeat it.
Since he came out of the upper right door, he decided that it would be interesting to go through the lower right door. To his surprise, it ended up taking him to a room with a staircase leading up.
"What's wrong Kirby? You sound like you're excited…" Chopper trailed as Kirby began to cheer at the sight of the stairs.
"Poyo! (I finally found the right way out of that annoying maze!)" Kirby cheered. "Poyo! (Now I can finally get through more important things in this area, such as getting out of here!)"
He climbed up the staircase, but noticed that there were Dark Waddle Doos with spears trying to jab him with them. The pink puffball avoided them and gave them a couple of Plasma Needles to help them out.
When he reached the midpoint of the staircase, he noticed another door. He decided to enter it into an area that seemed to have a fountain of Tipral holding up the Dark Star Scepter. His mouth had water flowing down into the fountain, which was a black color.
"Poyo? (Why's the water a black color?)" Kirby gawked.
He decided to see if there was anything important. He did notice a blue ! Block up on the scepter, but he couldn't necessarily reach it. The only option to getting that was to grab an enemy with Thoreau.
He checked the area for any enemies. He happened to spot a Dark Squig walking around near him. Kirby grabbed it with Thoreau and threw it up at the blue ! Switch. A chest appeared for him, but when he opened it, there was only a Star Shroom Shake.
"Poyo… (Well, this is better than nothing…)" Kirby trailed as he put the shake away. "Poyo. (Might as well go back into the palace.)"
Inside-
When he went back in the castle, he began to make his way up the stairs while avoiding spears the Dark Waddle Dees were throwing and reached the top of the staircase. A lock happened to be on there, possibly to prevent Kirby from continuing on.
"Poyo? (Do they really think they can hold me back?)" Kirby smirked as he broke the lock off with the Palace Key he got in that one room in the basement.
When he entered the next room, he noticed that there was a ladder going down, but a couple of gray enemies with eyeballs called Flamers seemed to be making their way up the walls.
But, just as usual, Kirby put up a plasma shield to protect himself and began to climb down the ladder, shocking any of the Flamers near him. He simply smirked as he landed on the ground and encountered another Rubee Tipral.
"Poyo, (Well, I think I know what to do here,)" Kirby readied himself and fired a Plasma Wave at the Rubee Tipral. However, even though it took damage, it was able to fire some shards at him and strip him of his Plasma ability.
"Poyo! (No! My Plasma ability!)"
He tried to get a hold of it, but the Rubee Tipral destroyed it by firing shards at it. This nearly forced Kirby to eat one of the shards and gain a hold of the Needle ability, now with yellow skin and orange feet!
"Poyo… (OK… The Needle ability isn't so great, but I think I'm gonna have to use it…)" Kirby trailed as he fired needles from his helmet at the Rubee Tipral. Fortunately, there was no way that it could counter it, so it ended up getting defeated.
With that, he simply pressed on ahead through the hallway. Some spikes seemed to appear right in front of him at points, so he got on Carrie to make sure he could get through this place safely.
He got rid of his Needle ability and replaced it with the Sword ability when he found a Dark Blade Knight patrolling the area. To him, it would work just fine.
"Poyo, (I see the door just up ahead,)" Kirby smiled as he entered the door. He found a couple of platforms attached to a rope when he walked into the next room. He noticed that there was also a bottomless pit down below.
"Hey, Kirby! Do you know where you are at the moment? I know you're in the basement, but can you give a little description?" Chopper asked as Kirby heard him through the communicator.
"Poyo, (I can see a platform attached to a rope,)" Kirby informed, pulling his communicator out. "Poyo. (I think if I cut it, that platform's going to go, so I'm going to be wary about that.)"
When he saw a Flamer moving around the platform, Kirby simply fired a Sword Beam at the rope to cut it and send it plummeting into the bottomless pit. He then floated ov4er to the platform past that one to find a pink bird-like enemy called a Birdon flying around.
Even though he could use the Wing ability, he wanted to hold on to his sword, so he simply spun it and took care of the Birdon easily, allowing him to reach an upper platform that brought him to the end of this room.
"Poyo… (Wait… Is there anywhere else to go?)" Kirby gawked as he looked around. He looked up and noticed that there were more platforms. "Poyo! (Oh! There's some right there!)"
By taking in some air, the pink puffball began to float up to the platform above him. Two Dark Waddle Doo holding spears happened to be sitting on the platform, watching for anyone coming.
"Hey, I see someone coming up here!" the first Dark Waddle Doo warned. "Get your spears ready!"
"Got it!" the other Dark Waddle Doo prepared itself, but Kirby was able to knock the other back by letting out the puff of air he had left in him. This allowed Kirby to get on the platform and jab at the two enemies.
"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby cried as he repeatedly slashed at the two enemies and destroyed them in a flash.
He decided to move on ahead by floating up to the platform above him where a door was. There weren't any enemies, but upon entering the door, he found three paths to go above him. One had a couple of coins, another had enemies that were like an orange, round ball but with pointy ears called a Scarfy, and the other had a row of small star blocks in the way.
"Poyo? (How am I going to get through here?)" he pondered before getting his ability knocked away by a star-shaped enemy wearing a blue cape called a Starman. Knowing what he had to do, Kirby inhaled the Starman and gained the Hi-Jump ability.
He decided to take the path that the coins were, so he leaped up to the path to his left with his Hi-Jump ability and landed on a platform with a ? Block. A Mushroom happened to be in there, so no surprise on that.
Since he couldn't inhale with an ability on, he just grabbed the Mushroom and ate it whole to recover 10 HP.
"Poyo, (Better than nothing,)" Kirby said as he jumped up to a platform above him. He noticed that there was a Scarfy floating around the gap between the platform he was standing on and the one up ahead.
He simply flew over the Scarfy, but when his back was turned, the Scarfy's face changed to more of a Cyclops with large fangs that are sharp enough to bite through anything. It began to go after him without him knowing.
"Poyo… (Wait…)" Kirby turned around and noticed the Scarfy move on the platform. Its face looked exactly the same as what it had been before when he saw it. "Poyo? (How'd that move?)"
He decided to take it out by leaping at it with his Hi-Jump attack and blowing it up. With that taken care of, he went over to the door just up ahead to find a small room. There was a Birdon in the room and two Rubee statues. One of Mimi and one of Tipral.
"Poyo! (I'm getting rid of this!)" Kirby dropped his Hi-Jump ability and inhaled the Birdon to gain the Wing ability. "Poyo. (I think this should help for now.)"
When the Rubee Mimi fired shards, Kirby flew over them and swooped down at it and rammed into it headfirst. He knocked it straight at the Rubee Tipral, making them shatter into small Rubee pieces.
"Poyo… (Now that was interesting…)" Kirby fluttered over to the door just up ahead and entered a room where he saw some familiar people doing some work that he remembered seeing before.
"Keep jumping, little fleas!" an Ackpow was flinging his whip at a couple of prisoners that Kirby remembered seeing back in Merlee's Mansion. In fact, they looked as if they were the same exact ones!"
"What's da matter? Getting all worn out?" he cackled as he hit one of the prisoners in the leg, making him screech in pain. They were apparently hitting blocks that had electricity stored inside. "Boss Mimi doesn't want this place to be dark! You all know that she hates the dark!"
At this point, Kirby pulled out his communicator.
"Poyo… (Chopper, bad news… I think Mimi brought in some of the prisoners from Merlee's Mansion here…)"
"Wait… Really?! Oh, geez… Why does she need to imprison people in the first place anyway?" Chopper asked.
Mario: Maybe because she's too lazy?
"That makes sense," Luigi agreed.
"Poyo, (Well, I'm going to try to set these prisoners free,)" Kirby announced. "Poyo! (I'm tired of seeing these people get tortured! It's horrible!)"
He put his communicator away and flew over the prisoners and to the Ackpow whipping at the prisoners. When he looked up at the pink puffball, he nearly gaped.
"What the…! I remember someone like you before!" the Ackpow recalled. "You're that flea that worked in Merlee's Mansion a long time ago! What? You come here to work for Mimi again?"
"Poyo! (I don't think so!)" Kirby dove down and hit the Ackpow in the head, knocking him over. "Poyo! (I'm setting these guys free!)"
"Whoa… Did you just see that?" one prisoner gaped. "He just rammed into that person who was whipping us! What a trooper!"
"I'd sure like to get his autograph!" another prisoner said.
"Ugh… Wait until I tell Boss Mimi about this!" the Ackpow groaned as he slowly got up. "She sure will be mad when she finds out one of her old workers attacked me! That's pretty low for a prisoner like you!"
"Poyo, (I'm not a prisoner,)" Kirby retorted as he kicked the Ackpow in the stomach and fired a couple of feathers. The Ackpow screamed as he ran from the feathers and ran past the prisoners to escape.
"Wow… Well, I guess we're…free?" a prisoner gawked.
"Poyo, (Yes, you're free,)" Kirby nodded with a smile.
"Oh, boy! Now we don't have to worry about doing any more work!" a third prisoner cheered. "I gotta hand it to you, gerbil. I never knew you would be able to attack that person like that!"
"Maybe you can be our personal bodyguard!"
"Poyo… (Uhhh… I can't do that right now…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo… (I have to find someone named Tipral and stop him before it's too late…)"
"Uhhhh… What's he saying?" a prisoner whispered to another.
"I have no idea. I don't understand that language." he whispered back.
"Poyo… (Ugh… Well, I'm going I suppose…)" Kirby groaned as he began to walk away from the prisoners. They all looked at him with confused looks, but they decided to leave the room right away.
Upon entering the next room, Kirby noticed some stairs going down. Another thing he saw was dark grass on the floor. Why would there be something like that? There wasn't a door leading outside at all. There wasn't even a door!
Nevertheless, he walked down the stairs while avoiding a couple of Dark Waddle Dees in the process. He was able to dive down at a couple, but that was it. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he noticed that there was a Save Block and ? Block. He decided to hit the ? Block first. An Ultimate Shroom happened to come out of there.
"Poyo! (Oh, boy!)" the pink puffball squealed as he ate the Ultimate Shroom to recover 100 HP. After hitting the Save Block, he moved on to the next room.
Next room-
Upon entering the next room, he noticed that it was rather small. There were a couple of windows in the room as well, but there wasn't anything else around.
"I've finally got you!"
"Poyo? (Wait… What?)" Kirby noticed Mimi standing in the center of the room, giving him a cocky look. He walked up to the green girl and gave her a glare. "Poyo? (Why are you smirking? I got out of your trap!)"
"Oh, you're so silly! I actually LET you come here on purpose! Wanna know why? You're at a dead end!" Mimi cackled. "That's right, dummy! There's no way you're going back!"
Kirby looked past her and noticed that there was no door. He gulped and attempted to turn back, but when Mimi snapped her finger (if she even has one), bars came down on the door and the windows, preventing him from escaping.
"Poyo?! (I can't get out of here?!)" Kirby gaped.
"What's wrong, Kirby?" Chopper asked through the communicator.
"Poyo! (I found Mimi, but she trapped me in this room! I have nowhere else to go now!)"
"It's almost like with O'Chunks… Kirby, I guess the only thing I can tell you to do is to just fight Mimi. She's trying to stop you, and you don't want that to happen. I think that's the only option."
"Poyo? (Really?)"
"Yeah, really."
"Mimimimimimi! Looks like you have to deal with me then!" Mimi smirked. "And what makes it better is that none of your dumb friends are here to help you! Not even that pale green one!"
"Poyo, (Shut up,)" Kirby snapped. "Poyo! (We've beaten you several times! This won't be any different!)"
"That may be true, but this time I've got better strategies to fight you! Remember when I surrounded myself in Rubees?"
"Poyo… (Yeah, and…?)"
"Well, how about I make it a little interesting!" Mimi surrounded herself in a couple of red Rubees. "You didn't fight me like this when we battled one-on-one! Now you're going to get it now!"
"Poyo! (Oh, I don't think so!)" Kirby flew up to Mimi and attempted to ram into her headfirst. However, the Rubees surrounding her ended up harming him instead and knocked him back. "Poyo… (Dang… I just remembered that those Rubees protect her from getting hurt…)"
"Golly! Looks like someone realized something!" Mimi giggled as she fired a couple of Rubees down at Kirby. "Oh, and that hat you're wearing makes you look soooo dumb!"
Kirby growled and knocked the Rubees back by firing a couple of feathers at them. He tried flying at her again, but he couldn't even get close to her. His only option was to attack the Rubees surrounding her.
He fired a couple of feathers at her Rubees, which were able to knock her Rubees away. Some of the feathers even hurt her too, making her scream in pain.
"Ouchy! Why do you have to be so mean like that?" she cried, her eyes starting to water.
"Poyo, (You're not fooling me,)" Kirby retorted, flying straight for her. Mimi grinned and fired a Rubee upward, knocking Kirby to the ground and also knocking his Wing ability away.
"Let me help you with that!" she fired a Rubee at the yellow star bouncing around the room and shattered the star. "Now this should be a breeze for me!"
She flung a couple of Rubees at Kirby, but she forgot about his ability to inhale things. That's what Kirby did exactly. With them in his mouth, he spat them out at Mimi, sending her flying to the wall. She hissed in anger as she raised her stick arms to surround herself in a circle of Rubees.
"Well, you won't get me in the air now!"
From what Kirby noticed, Mimi had 275 HP overall, which is a lot compared to what she had before. He decided to try to fight back with his new abilities, like his Final Cutter. He pulled the blade out and slashed at her with it.
"Poyo? (Weren't expecting that, were you?)" Kirby smirked.
"How did you get something like that?!" Mimi gaped as she held her arm in pain. "Last time I remember, you didn't have a dumb ability like that!"
Kirby simply gave her a glare and attacked her when he had the chance with his Cartwheel attack. It left the psychotic girl off guard and even kept her from summoning more Rubees.
However, she ended up summoning fire Rubees at Kirby. However, he inhaled one of them and gained the Fire ability. At this point, he used his Fire Breath to deal some damage to the green girl.
"I can't believe it! Already am I getting my butt kicked by him!" Mimi thought as she fell to the ground. "I gotta find a way to make this a little easier for me! Something that'll help me win this fight!"
When she got up, a cloud of purple smoke surrounded her and transformed into Parakarry. "Luckily, I was able to copy your friend's identities and be able to transform into them!"
"Poyo? (All of them?)" Kirby gawked.
"All of them," Mimi swooped down while in a shell to send Kirby flying back to the wall. From what Kirby could see, Mimi's form of Parakarry was a darker color with red eyes instead of the normal black.
"Oh, and if that's not enough, then maybe this will be!" Mimi flew up to the ceiling and surrounded herself with fire Rubees while getting in her shell. At this point, the only thing Kirby could do was defend, so he brought his guard up and tried not to take the worst from her.
Luckily, when he defended himself, he didn't take too much damage. In fact, he took very little, which began to infuriate her a bit.
"I think I should change up a bit," she transformed herself into Bow instead and pulled her fan out. She used it to smack Kirby with it and make him spin around in a humorous fashion.
"Poyo… (Ow… That actually hurts…)" Kirby moaned.
"Mimimi! I never knew how much a smack would be so satisfying!" Mimi cackled as she turned invisible to prevent Kirby from ramming into her as a fireball. When she became visible, she tried to attack him with a Power Smack, but he managed to get into a fireball and hit her instead.
"Ouch! I thought ghosts couldn't get hurt by attacks!"
"Poyo, (Well, then you thought wrong,)" Kirby smirked.
"Ugh… Well, take this!" Mimi attempted to scare Kirby with Spook, but it didn't do much to him. "Wait… How come your not frozen in fear? That should've done SOMETHING!"
"Poyo! (I've seen scarier things than that! So, it would make sense for me to not be scared!" Kirby jumped up to Mimi and attacked with a flaming Cartwheel, knocking her to the wall. Out of anger, she transformed into C-2 Choppor instead.
"Let's see how this one works…" she aimed her arm gun at Kirby and fired a blast straight at him. The pink puffball ended up jumping out of the way and used a flaming Cartwheel to crash into her.
She growled and began to fly in the air with the jetpack on her back…er, head, if that's what it's on for C-2 Choppor. Nevertheless, she was able to fire a couple of missiles down at him to send him flying.
Unfortunately, for Kirby, this also got rid of his Fire ability.
"Mimimimimi! That's what happens when you try to hurt me!" Mimi cackled. "Now, let's see what this does…"
She ended up firing a paralyzed shot straight at Kirby, but he inhaled it instead and spat it at her, paralyzing her instead. Kirby instantly pulled his Final Cutter out and struck her with one swing.
"Poyo! (Not even transforming into Chopper's friends is going to stop me!)" Kirby declared before getting knocked back by a powerful laser attack.
"Oh, I'm sorry… Did you say that transforming into others won't stop you? Well, looks like that did, dummy-head!" Mimi smirked as she transformed back into herself. "I don't like being a robot anymore. I've got some better options!"
She surrounded herself with green Rubees with a poison scent coming from them and began to fly down toward Kirby. He gasped as he jumped out of the way. However, it didn't stop the psychotic girl from firing a poison Rubee at him, causing him to become poisoned.
"Poyo! (Ack! I'm poisoned!)" Kirby coughed.
"NYEAH!" Mimi began to fire a couple of poison Rubees down at Kirby while he was poisoned, but even then he had some strength to get out of harm's way. He even inhaled one and spat it at the Rubee shield surrounding her.
"I've got an idea!" she instantly flipped into 3-D so she couldn't get hurt by any of Kirby's attacks. "Mimimimimi! Now you can't hurt me!"
While she taunted the pink puffball, he pulled an Ultimate Shroom Shake out and recovered 100 HP and also cured himself of the poison on him. He started off by inhaling any poison Rubees left on her and waited for her to go into 2-D again.
Once she appeared, he instantly spat the Rubees at her, leaving her off guard for a couple of seconds. However, it didn't stop her from transforming into one of Chopper's friends. Someone such as Vivian.
"Poyo… (Uh oh… She turned into Vivian…)" Kirby gulped. "(Poyo… (Those fire powers can be deadly…)"
"I'm glad you realized that," Mimi sunk into the shadows and rose up in front of Kirby. With a single flaming punch, Kirby was left with a deadly burn. She giggled and prepared to use a Fiery Jinx.
Seeing this, Kirby gulped and put his guard up. The Fiery Jinx itself struck him, but since he was able to use his Defend ability, he took little damage and didn't get a longer burn effect on him.
"What? How come that didn't work?! Ugh…" Mimi started to get a little frustrated and hurled a couple of fireballs at him instead. Kirby inhaled one to gain his Fire ability back, and he also rammed into her as a fireball.
This time, she tried something different. She stored up some fire power in her hands and unleashed a Fire Wall attack upon Kirby. But, as a fireball, he was able to go through the big wall of fire and hit Mimi instead.
"NYEAH!" she transformed into Berry and swung her hammer straight at Kirby's face, knocking him back.
"Poyo… (Great… Now you transformed into the girl that likes Chopper…)" Kirby groaned. "Poyo… (Wait… That's not bad at all. She's not as threatening as Vivian, that's for sure!)"
"Oh, yeah?" she charged at Kirby and gave him a punch to the face that nearly sent him flying to the wall, getting rid of his Fire ability in the process too.
"Poyo? (What the heck?)"
"Hee hee! Well, that turned out to be useful!" Mimi giggled as she gripped her hammer and slammed the ground, sending a pink wave straight at Kirby. He gulped and began to float over the wave, but it didn't stop Mimi from spinning her hammer and summoning a pink tornado at him.
Kirby, unfortunately, got stuck in the pink tornado and lost his Fire ability as well when he fell to the ground. Mimi simply slammed the ground with her hammer to make red hearts fall from the ceiling.
"Poyo? (Is she for real?)" Kirby gaped.
He simply used his Defend ability to keep himself from getting hurt by any of the hearts. However, he was able to inhale a heart and spit it at Mimi, knocking her to the wall and allowing Kirby to strike her with his Final Cutter.
"Ugh… Well, I'm not using this form. She's definitely not as cute as me, that's for sure!" she transformed into the last form, Flyer. This time, she was able to use Flyer's wind powers to blow Kirby back while firing a blast from the arm cannon he has with him straight at him.
"Poyo! (Whoa!)" Kirby inhaled the blast and spat it back at Mimi, knocking her back. She tried to fly over him, but he was easily able to strike her with his Final Cutter attack, leaving her completely off guard.
"Why is it so hard to use this form?" Mimi growled. "This is so stupid!"
"Poyo? (Maybe because you don't know how to use the abilities Flyer has?)" Kirby shrugged.
"…NYEAH!" Mimi transformed back into herself and surrounded herself with ice Rubees instead. She threw a couple down at Kirby, but he inhaled one of them to gain the Ice ability to prevent himself from freezing from the ice attacks.
"Poyo, (I have an idea,)" Kirby threw Thoreau over at one of the ice Rubees to pick it up and threw it straight at Mimi and her shield of ice Rubees. He managed to take down a couple and even hurt her in the process.
"Those transformations were completely useless," she whined. "How do you know about them?"
"Poyo, (I don't know much about Parakarry, Bow, and C-2 Choppor's abilities, but I sure do know about Vivian, Berry, and Flyer's abilities,)" Kirby informed, striking her with his Final Cutter and using his Ice Storm to leave her frozen.
"Poyo! (There! She's done!)"
Unfortunately, she wasn't. A fire Rubee was all Mimi needed to unfreeze herself and deal massive damage to Kirby with his Ice ability on. It didn't take away his ability, but it did leave him with another nasty burn.
"Thought I would be finished, right?" Mimi smirked as she fired fire Rubees at Kirby. He simply used his Ice Storm to freeze the Rubees and kick them at Mimi, leaving a couple of bruises on her face.
"Poyo! (Well, look at you! You are pretty bruised up, aren't you?)" Kirby smirked.
"Well I can say the same thing to you, meanie-face!" Mimi whined as she raised her arms and summoned poison Rubees to come down on him. He used his Defend to protect himself and froze the Rubees afterward. With a kick, he sent them flying at Mimi, leaving her off guard.
Despite being low on HP, Mimi wasn't going to stop here. She transformed into Flyer again and summoned a hurricane to blow him back and blast him with her arm cannon. It got rid of Kirby's ability, which she destroyed by blasting it.
"I'm getting a little used to this!"
When Kirby got up, she transformed into Rubeline and charged at him with her hammer. He jumped out of the way of her hammer and managed to kick her in the face, changing her back to Mimi.
"All right, that's it!" Mimi fired multiple types of Rubees at Kirby, but that wasn't going to stop him. He inhaled a bunch of them at once, making Mimi gulp as he spat a large star straight for her.
"Poyo! (That should do it!)" With a crash, he heard a scream coming from Mimi as she tried to fly up in the air to avoid it.
"OUCHIE!"
She kneeled down on the ground in pain as Kirby walked over to her. "How could you do this to such an innocent girl like myself?! I never did anything to you!"
"Poyo?! (Are you kidding me?!)" Kirby gaped in disgust. "Poyo! (You did a ton of stuff to us!)"
Mimi merely gave him a face as she got up, limping toward him. "But, it didn't really matter whether I beat you or not. All is going according to plan! Mimimimimi!"
"Poyo? (What do you mean?)" Kirby noticed Mimi's eyes widen as if she was going to turn into a spider. "Poyo… (No…)"
"However, I think it's time for phase two of this fight!" Mimi was about to crack her own neck, but when Kirby turned back, he noticed that the door was gone.
"Poyo? (What happened to the door?)"
"Wait, what?" Mimi stopped for a moment and looked at the door as well. "Huh? I… I never planned this out at all!"
"Poyo? (You didn't? Then who did?)"
"I have NO clue! Does this mean we're trapped in here forever?!"
"Poyo… (I… I don't know…)"
The two began to feel a violent tremor in the room, shocking them both. Mimi tried to escape by teleporting out, but it was too late. The whole wall began to rip off and space itself began to suck them out.
"Poyo! (I don't know why this is happening!)" Kirby cried. "Poyo! (But… I can't hold on any longer!)"
Both screamed as they were sucked into space. Everything suddenly went blank for them, as if they were gone.
Mario-
Mario gasped as he heard something coming from his communicator. He heard a violent tremor coming from it, but he couldn't feel it from the room he was in. From what he knew, it was coming from somewhere below.
However, after a certain amount of time, the tremor stopped, and it was silent.
Mario: Did you guys hear that?
"Yeah… I heard a loud tremor coming from the communicator…" Luigi said. "Did any of you feel it?"
Mario: Not me!
"If it wasn't any of us, then it must've… Oh, no… Kirby!" Chopper gasped as he tried to get his signal. "Oh, it's no use… I can't get a hold of Kirby! I think something bad happened to him…"
"Wh-What?!" Luigi gaped. "S-So… It's just us three now?!"
Mario: I think so…
"Oh, man… Well, this isn't good. I can't do anything because I'm trapped in this room, and I don't know where you guys are at the moment. I guess… I guess one of you will be able to find Tipral." Chopper sighed.
"What's wrong, Chopper?" Timpani asked through Chopper's communicator.
"I was just hoping that being separated wouldn't end up like this. And now look what we've come to. There's just me, Mario, and Luigi. And now look at what happened to Kirby, Sonic, and Blade…"
Mario: Hey! They might not be dead yet!
"Maybe that's true… I mean, back in Castle Tipral, they weren't dead when they were lost within the castle. Maybe there's some hope! …But maybe there isn't."
Mario: Look, I'll continue on and see if I can find Tipral.
"I think you should do that, Bro," Luigi agreed. "I mean, you're my bro! You can practically conquer anything!"
Mario gave a nod and decided to move on ahead. He noticed at the end of the hallway that a Star Block was floating above. Knowing what he had to do, he struck the block with his fist.
Mario: Hopefully Tipral's through here…
END OF CHAPTER
Not only were Sonic and Blade missing, but Kirby too disappeared without question. Chopper, feeling uncomfortable in the small room he was sitting in, decided to sleep for a bit. Mario, on the other hand, had the courage in him to continue on through the palace and find Tipral. "All right, this shouldn't be too tough to go through…" thought Mario as he slowly opened the door to his own area of the palace. Perhaps Tipral would be found through the second door of the five? Mario decided to check while stroking his mustache.
My thoughts on the mini-boss? I thought it was very interesting. I mean, you never see Mimi use her shape-shifting powers to fight you in Super Paper Mario. I didn't want it to be a lot like the Mimi battle in the desert, so I added a little twist, and voila! And yes, I used the partners that were in Flipside.
Anyway... The next part is going to involve Mario! ...It might be another tough one because he doesn't really speak in the Paper Mario games (he just explains something through gestures or by moving his mouth without words coming out from the text). So... Be ready for some Mario next time.