"Well well well! So this is Tartamos!" Dark smirked, getting a view of the rocky floor and dark clouds above him. An army of Dark Soldiers were right behind him, wearing their usual attire. "Interesting place… I always heard about this place, and I always wanted to conquer it. And without that pesky blue hedgehog and that freak with the antennae, it will all be easy!"
"What the heck? What's this guy doing here?" Bowser gaped spotting Dark Doom and his army. "Look, if you're here to take over, then take a hike. I'm busy talking to this old geezer here!"
"Hold on a second, Lord Bowser... Let me talk to them." Camikon suggested, flying over to Dark. "And who might you be?"
"The name's Dark Doom. I'm the king of the Dark Creatures, an alien race that I had created just like a certain father of mine. Don't mind me, I'm just here to conquer your world and become its new ruler! So, you can either surrender now, or die to my army!"
The Dark Soldiers aimed their weapons at Camikon and the others, while Dark crossed his arms and grinned.
"So... What do you say, old man?"
"Bleh! Why do we always have people who want to take over MY world?!" Camikon scowled. "It's just disgusting! If you wanna try to take my land, then you'll have to get through my army first!"
"Oh, really? Show me your army!"
"Gladly," Camikon grinned, raising his wand. "Come here, my fellow Tartaras!"
At that moment, an army of Tartaras came flying in, such as grunts, soldiers, swordsmen, brutes, and even some royal guards. They had their weapons ready and aimed at Dark and his army.
"So, what's it gonna be now, you young whippersnapper?"
"Hmmmmm... Your army is rather big." Dark remarked. "But just because you got yourself a big army, doesn't mean they're powerful. They need to be well-trained!"
"Oh, don't worry, they've been created to do tasks like fight you creatures off," Camikon laughed.
"Please! As if your army can do a thing to my superior Dark Creatures!"
"Ugh… I had enough of this." the Crystal King shot an ice beam directly at Dark, freezing him in a solid ice cube. "Heh heh heh! There's your little ice sculpture, King Bowser!"
Unfortunately, due to the heat in Tartamos, it didn't take long for Dark to thaw out. At this point, he had enough and pointed his black gloved finger at the army.
"Dark Creatures! ATTACK!"
The Dark Soldiers rushed toward the Tartara Soldiers, who easily shot some of the soldiers with their blaster rifles, which were strong enough to go through their armor. Dark found himself gritting his teeth in anger as a few of his minions fell.
"All right, so I guess you're not as weak as I thought. But I'm not finished yet! Fire away, my minions!" Dark yelled as the Dark Soldiers managed to shoot down a few Tartaras.
At this point, lasers were firing everywhere, and both sides had soldiers falling.
"Bah! This is starting to get annoying!" Camikon spat, getting sick of seeing his minions fall. He began to raise his wand as he shouted, "GET OFF OF MY LAWN!"
With his magic, he was able to make a barrier of flames appear between the two armies.
"What the heck is this?!" Dark growled, his hand nearly getting caught in the flames.
"Sir, it appears that we're being blocked by this fire barrier," one Dark Soldier informed.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious!"
"We're awaiting your orders. What shall we do?"
"As much as I don't want to do this, we might as well retreat for now," Dark suggested before glaring daggers at the Tartaras and Camikon. "Hear me out, old man! We'll be back to destroy you and your army! This place will be MINE! And there's nothing you can do to stop me!"
"Do what you want over there," Camikon shrugged. "It's all barren where that side is anyway! Go set up a crumby camp for all I care."
"So be it," Dark turned away from Camikon and his Tartaras and started to leave, his army following him. Once they were gone, everyone on the other side seemed satisfied.
"Now THAT was awesome!" Red grinned. "Too bad it was short."
"Yeah! Maybe we should've tried to get a little involved in it. You know, form our tower and attack or something like that." Yellow suggested, soon getting punched by Red afterward.
"Shut up, Yellow!"
"Both of you put a sock in it!" Bowser boomed. "Listen here, guys! I want you all to stay in the castle and do whatever the heck you want! Tomorrow morning, I'm going to push Chopper and Mario into a volcano!"
"What about us?" Tutankoopa asked.
"Oh. Right. You can come if you want."
"Chopper will finally be destroyed?" the Crystal King almost sounded astonished. "At long last... He will be out of our sights forever!"
"Yes… You all go ahead and go to your castle at the moment." Camikon suggested. "For now, I shall be returning to my castle at the moment! I have some things to take care of."
At that moment, Camikon flew away toward his castle. The rest of the Tartara army retreated, while Bowser, Kammy, and his minions returned to Bowser's Castle for the day.
Prison-
"Oh, man… I can't believe we have to be stuck in this horrible prison…" Chopper sighed, sitting down on a rusty, metal and uncomfortable bed. It was attached to the wall through two chains, and there weren't any blankets or pillows either. "I really don't like this..."
"Geez... These beds are so uncomfortable," Flyer remarked, sitting on his bed in one of his own cells. "How do people handle this?"
"I wish I knew," Chopper shrugged, trying to adjust himself on the bed, trying to find where he felt more comfortable sitting. To make matters worse, there was a bit of lava in his own cell. The Tartaras had decided that this was the worst cell, so he was given the honors of sitting in it.
"It's hot in here!" Scrub groaned, trying to fan himself with his hand.
"I was pretty used to the desert's heat, but this place... Yeesh!" Berry frowned. "I think it's off the charts!"
"If we had something that could cool us off, I would very much appreciate it," Flyer said.
"Or you could be a man for once and suck it up," Tamber added.
"Hey!" the Tartara Prison Guard, who was named Johnny, came walking in the hallway and looked at the eleven prison cells that everyone was stuck in. "Shut up in there, will ya?"
"How about YOU shut up, all right?!" Tamber yelled, making Johnny back away.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You just stop being loud." Johnny went back to the office and began to drink some coffee
"That guard's weird," Scrub remarked.
"His voice is stupid," Tamber added.
Meanwhile, in Vivian's prison cell, she had lit up a small flame with her finger to see what was around her. There were some handcuffs hanging on the wall, and there were even a pile of bones in another corner.
"Oh… I wish we could do something..." Vivian sighed in a sad tone.
"Why can't you just go into the shadows to get out?" Bombette suggested.
Vivian had decided to give it a try, but she had instantly emerged from the ground. "That won't work. There's some sort of barrier underground."
"Poyo? (There's a barrier?)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo? (You mean we're doomed?)"
"I'm not so sure what to do..." Vivian sniffled.
"Hey, Vivian…" Chopper started, hearing her sniffles. "Why are you crying?"
"Sniff… Sniff… It's just… I don't know what to do. I didn't want it to end here... It would've been much better if it had ended in a better way..."
"Yeah, no kidding," Berry agreed. "It would've been real nice for things to end on a much happier note."
"Uh huh," Chopper agreed, looking over at the bars on his cell. "Man... I wish this cell wasn't directly facing me so I could easily slip through it sideways."
"That'd be nice," Tamber said. Suddenly his stomach began to grumble. "Say, when are we going to eat?"
"Beats me," Chopper shrugged, turning his attention to the guard. "Hey! When is lunchtime?!"
"Lunchtime?" Johnny brought his head up and checked the clock. "Oh gosh! I just realized it's past lunchtime! It's time for you guys to eat!"
The Tartara grabbed a bag of rotten meat and tossed one into Tamber's cell first, along with a ketchup bag. He was about to eat it, but then he noticed it was disgusting, so he threw it out of the cell near Johnny.
"What? You don't want it? Oh well... More for me, then!" Johnny picked up the piece of meat and gulped it down. "Mmmmmm! Delicious! Maybe I should star—OHHHHHHHHH…"
"What's with him?" Shadower asked.
"Ohhhhghghghgh… My stomach!" Johnny cried, immediately rushing into the bathroom and locking the door. "I can't hold it in anymore!"
"Well, that was something..." Sonic trailed.
Mario: What now?
"So much for that." Tamber grumbled, dropping the ketchup on the ground and stepping on the pack angrily, splattering the ketchup everyone. "Oh, great! Now there's ketchup on the floor!"
"Well, that's your fault if-" Flyer paused, another idea coming in. "Hey, Tamber! Lie down on the ketchup and don't move!"
"Why?"
"Trust me. You'll thank me later."
Tamber grumbled and decided to remain motionless on the ground. Meanwhile, the sound of Johnny's painful moans from the bathroom caught everyone's' attention.
"Ohhhhh geez!"
"What's going on in there?" Scrub asked.
Mario: It definitely sounds painful.
Eventually the moaning stopped, and they all heard a sigh of relief.
"Whew! Now that was relieving!" Johnny panted. "Anyway, I better flush this- WHOA! That's a new record!"
"A new record?" Shadower gawked in bewilderment before they all heard flushing and a running faucet for a few seconds.
"Well, I better get back to those prisoners..."
"OK, Tamber, don't move!" Flyer whispered.
Johnny walked out of the bathroom and returned to the prison room. Everything seemed fine and dandy...until it noticed Tamber lying in a pile of red substance.
"What the…!" Johnny looked at Tamber through the cell with a shocked expression. "Wha… What do I do? Should I check his body?"
After a tough decision, Johnny unlocked the prison cell and walked in. "Boy… I don't know what happened, but the death must've been brutal. Now, let's just see here…"
Johnny bent down to get a closer look at Tamber...but he soon found a fist meet with his face.
"Ack! My face!" Johnny cried. "Was this some kind of trick? I HATE these kinds of tricks!"
Soon enough, Tamber had bashed the Tartara in the head, knocking it out instantly.
"Weakling!" Tamber grinned, grabbing the key. He started to unlock the other prison cells, and just for the heck of it, he unlocked Chopper's cell last.
"Thanks, Tamber… You did a good job there." Vivian complimented.
"Yeah, yeah, keep thanking me! I deserve all the credit anyway!"
"Well, I technically came up with the idea," Flyer pointed out. "But, you did do a nice job, so good work, Tamber. Now we just need to find a way out of here."
"And find that demon as well," Chopper added.
Flyer had noticed some stairs nearby and pointed to them. "There's our way out of here. Let's go!"
Everyone hustled up the stairs and out of the prison room. They were taken to a large hallway made of red marble. A couple of pillars were holding the ceiling up. There weren't any windows, but between the pillars they could see what was outside: a rocky island surrounded by lava.
"Camikon wasn't lying when he said this place was surrounded by lava," Sonic said, looking uncertain at the lava. "This could be difficult... But it's definitely not going to stop us, right?"
"Yeah!" Scrub agreed, while Chopper had come to a stop when he found two ways to go: one way left, and the other right.
"Well, there aren't any enemies in sight," Chopper sighed in relief. "But... Where do we go?"
"Let me think for a moment," Flyer said, pulling out a compass, but he was having problems, too. "Wait a moment... I don't even know where the exit is, so why am I taking this out."
"Wait... So you don't have any ideas?"
"Not at the moment. Sorry..."
"Dang… We don't even know where to go! Uhhh...let's try the right." Chopper rushed to the right of the hallway, only to find a large door with a lock on it. "…Nothing here, I suppose. Well, except for this locked door.
"There's probably a key we need to find," Shadower said. "Let's check the other way."
"Yeah, I guess so," Chopper ran toward the left direction to find another door, which was luckily not locked. This led them into another hallway with a couple of prison cells. They appeared much older and rustier. Not to mention it was dark and difficult to see in the room.
"Poyo! (I can't see a thing here!)" Kirby cried.
"Let me light the room up," Vivian suggested, raising a finger and letting a small flame emit from her finger. Chopper had created a light ball in order to slightly light the room. Getting a much better look, they noticed a couple of bones resembling a Koopa's lying on the ground. They appeared red and had black boots.
"Those are new Dry Bones..." Chopper trailed.
"That is, if they're Dry Bones," Shadower corrected.
Just then, the one in front had risen from the ground, revealing its orange eyes. After a tattle from Goombella, it was revealed that this was called Fire Bones, and that they had 83 HP, an Attack of 19, and a Defense of 4. What was worse was that fire would not be able to stop them.
"G…go back…" the Fire Bones moaned, throwing a flaming red bone at Chopper. He managed to inhale it and spit it back at the Fire Bones, making it collapse on the floor. They sighed in relief and passed the enemy, but they didn't have time to relax for long when a couple of other Fire Bones rose to attack.
"I think I'm going to have to change things a little," Chopper changed to his Ice ability, but when he tried breathing ice on the Fire Bones, it didn't seem to do too much. "Well, this doesn't work. ...Maybe this?"
He changed to his Water ability and he squirted water on the Fire Bones. This time, it appeared to be more effective, doing more damage than a normal attack. His Tidal Wave was enough to put an end to the Fire Bones. With that, they moved on ahead and found a small, wooden door in front of them.
"I wonder where this leads," Sonic opened the small door into a room with a rope hanging from the ceiling, and an axe hanging on the wall. "Well... This is...an interesting sight."
"This place is unsettling," Vivian frowned, looking up at the rope. "I'm sure the Tartaras used to use these..."
"OK, I'll admit, even I find this to be freaky," Bombette commented. "Maybe I'll just get out of this room while you check out this place."
As she turned, however, she had found a Fire Bones blocking the way and holding an axe.
"You shall not pass…" moaned the Fire Bones.
"Uhhhh... Chopper? We have some company!" Bombette shrieked, stepping back. "This thing's got an axe!"
The rest had turned around and shrieked as well at the sight of the Fire Bones holding the axe up like an executioner. It brought the axe down, but Bombette was able to step back in time to avoid it. Thankfully, it wasn't going to be attacking soon, since it was struggling to pull the axe off the ground. Bombette tried charging into it headfirst, but that hardly made the Fire Bones budge. Her Bomb, however, had managed to make it collapse.
"Phew! At least explosions are still effective..."
The axe dropped to the ground, but it was slowly enveloped in black smoke that reminded them of the smoke from the Tower of Riddles. When the smoke cleared, the axe was gone.
Mario: Was that axe real?
"I don't know... It looked real, though..." Berry trailed.
This wasn't the only freaky thing in this room. There was also a pile of bones in one corner, along with another door with a small, barred window. When they got a look inside there, they saw the bones of what resembled a small dragon. No one had wanted to go into that room, not only because there was nothing in there, but they just couldn't bear it.
"I hate this place. I really do." Tamber admitted, not caring what the others had to say about his comment.
"Perhaps that one door is where they keep something that...devours prisoners," Flyer gulped. "But it doesn't appear to be living any more. It just makes you wonder what these guys treat prisoners and pets..."
"I knew Tartaras were evil, but this is pushing it," Chopper commented. He tried his best to look away from any bones he saw, but something had caught his attention ahead. He had spotted a crack in the wall up ahead just asking to be destroyed. "Hey, Bombette... Do you mind blowing up this wall?"
"I don't mind. ...Unless we find more bones." Bombette replied, allowing Chopper to pick her up and throw her straight at the wall. Once she blew up, a hole was revealed that led to a balcony outside. However, the balcony was not too far from the lava. In fact, it was pretty close!
Chopper had spotted a red chest sitting on the balcony, so he opened it and he picked up a Prison Key inside. It was red and spiky, so he was carefl when he put it away.
"Well, we got the key," Scrub said. "I suppose now's the time to go all the way back to where we found that locked door, huh?"
"Yeeeeeeah… That's going to be fun." Tamber groaned. "I hate backtracking."
Locked door-
"All right, let's see what's through this," Chopper pulled the Prison Key out and he used it to unlock the door. It led to a room filled with stairs going up and stairs going down.
Unfortunately, they had to go down because there was a door upstairs that was locked. To make things worse, the basement area had a broken hallway, along with even lava. The pathway even had a few gaps with the lava down below.
That, and the hallway was dark.
"Great… Another dark hallway." Chopper sighed. "This really does make me think of the Palace of Shadow..."
"Poyo, (That places was pretty dark, too,)" Kirby remarked.
Vivian saw a couple of unlit torches, so she raised her finger and let it sparkle. All of the sudden, the torches started to light up, making it easier to see through the hallway.
"MUCH better! Thank you, Vivian." Sonic took a small stroll through the hallway, but he stopped at the gap. "Whoa... Well, there's no jumping over this, that's for sure."
"It's pretty far as well," Chopper added. "I don't think Scrub can handle this."
"Awww..." Scrub pouted.
"Then allow me!" Berry pulled her hammer out and swung it at Chopper without him noticing, making him cross over. Sadly, his landing wasn't exactly perfect. "There you go! Now you're across!"
"Ugh… Why didn't you warn me?" moaned Chopper as he got up. He saw a dark ! Switch right next to him, so he shot a light ball at it to fill up the gaps. "Well, that takes care of one thing!"
With the gaps no longer getting in their way, everyone had followed Chopper ahead. Unfortunately, they had come across a dead end.
"Well... So much for that." Bombette sighed. Shadower, however, noticed that the wall was rather translucent.
"Wait a sec… I don't think this is a dead end." Shadower turned his hand invisible and noticed that it went through the wall. "Ah! So there IS something behind here!"
"Neat! Let's check it out!" Chopper smiled, using Shadower's ability to become transparent and walk through the wall into a small, secret room. A chest was revealed to be there, and inside was another Prison Key. "Yes! Another key!"
"Well, that was a lot easier than I thought," Flyer commented.
"But we still have to backtrack. AGAIN." Tamber groaned.
Frowning, the rest began to backtrack their way to the upper floor.
Upper floor, locked door-
"All right, here it goes!" Chopper tossed the Prison Key into the door, unlocking it. When they entered, they noticed how much shinier the floor appeared to be, and it was a lot larger than the previous rooms they walked through here. In the center was a statue of Camikon, but beside it, there were small remains of a statue.
"Looks like we're in the main area… Nice!" Sonic grinned.
They were about to explore the area, but they were put to a halt when they saw two Darkling. One had a red bulb on its antenna and red eyes, while the other had a blue bulb and blue eyes. When the two Darklings weren't looking, the group hid behind the ruins of the other statue and started to listen in to their conversation.
"So, how do you think the prisoners are in their cells?" the red-eyed Darkling asked.
"Oh, I bet they're doing fine…not!" chortled the blue-eyed Darkling. "I bet they're crying like little babies! If they are, then I need to find a camera and record it."
"I wonder if it was a good idea entrusting the prisoners to that prison guard. I mean, Johnny's got some serious issues with the bathroom!"
"What are those guys talking about?" Shadower asked.
"Beats me..." Chopper shrugged, unfortunately being loud enough for the Darklings to hear them.
"Huh? Who said that?!" one of the Darklings had looked in the direction of the voice and spotted the group behind the ruined statue. "Hey! What's Chopper doing out of his cell? ...Wait a minute, the prisoners are out of their cells!"
"Yeah, they shouldn't be out here! We ought to take care of 'em!" the blue-eyed Darkling suggested. "Let's jump them!"
They rushed toward the group, but Chopper managed to shoot some water at them, causing them to wince. Afterward, Chopper had removed his Water ability and found out they had 85 HP, an Attack of 19, and a Defense of 0, according to Goombella's tattling.
"Darklings with that much HP? That's surprising..." Chopper remarked. "But I'm not going to let that stop me! I've beaten them before, and I can do it again!"
Chopper jumped on top of the blue Darkling, and after bouncing off its head, he hurled a light ball at the red-eyed Darkling starting screaming in pain.
"AGGGHHH! The light! It… It burns!" screamed the red-eyed Darkling. "How did he get that kind of power power?!"
"Shut up, you! Take it like a real Darkling and fight!" the other scoffed. It noticed its buddy get hit by Scrub's Ground Pound attack afterward.
"Oof! Oh, you're gonna pay for that!" the red-eyed Darkling hurled a red energy ball in the shape of an circle at Scrub, knocking him back. Chopper got hit by a blue orb of energy by the other Darkling.
"OK, maybe they are a lot tougher than I thought," Chopper said as he tossed a light ball at the red-eyed Darkling. Kirby followed up with a Cartwheel, bringing the enemy down to 45 HP. After they attacked, Chopper had decided to use the Island Star to take 20 out of them both with an Earthquake, while Kirby used his Squishiness on Chopper to make him dodgy. Chopper couldn't help but smiled when both Darklings missed their attacks. After Chopper and Berry made their attacks on the red-eyed Darkling, it was down to 15 HP.
"Two more hits and this Darkling is finished!" Berry smiled.
"Oh, geez... I'm not feeling too good." the Darkling gulped. It simply attacked Chopper with a red energy ball, while the other threw in another as well, but it was over for the red-eyed Darkling with the red bulb when Chopper jumped on it, followed by Sonic's Spin Dash.
"All right, one down, one to go!" Chopper cheered, smirking at the blue-eyed Darkling. "So, ready to give up?"
"You may have taken down my buddy, but that ain't going to stop me!" the Darkling hurled a blue energy ball at Chopper, who proceeded to guard it. Afterward, he brought his hammer out and bashed the Darkling's head with it, with Shadower striking it with a Shadow Punch afterward, leaving it at 55 HP.
The Darkling fired another energy ball, but this time it hit Shadower instead. Afterward, it got stomped by Chopper and Mario, and at this point, the blue-eyed Darkling was starting to get exhausted.
"Whew… This is getting intense." the Darkling huffed, hurling another attack at Chopper. He easily guarded the attack by bringing his arms in front of his face, and then he struck the Darkling with a Rainbow Spin. "I don't know how long I can take this..."
"Then give up," Scrub suggested.
"In your dreams!"
Bombette charged at the Darkling with her fuse lit up and unleashed her Bomb attack upon the Darkling, bringing it down to 15 JP. "Just two more hits, and it's history!"
"Argh! You pests!" the Darkling attacked Chopper and took another 19 out of him. But once it went down to 5 HP by Vivian's Shade Fist, the antennae hero hurled a light ball at the Darkling. "Oh, crud… Not the light!"
The Darkling's eyes widened in pain as the light enveloped its body and caused it to explode.
"Well, that takes care of that," Chopper sighed in relief before he made his way over to the exit. Unfortunately, it was blocked by a large amount of rubble. "Great... Well looks like we're blocked."
"I don't know, Chopper..." Vivian trailed, spotting a panel with a piece of paper ripped in half. "What about that?"
"Oh. Right." Chopper replied with a sheepish look as he stepped on the panel. "OK... It's time to put this move to its use again!"
Using his "cursed" move, he managed to rip the piece of paper where the rubble was off. Revealed underneath was a door. They opened the door, and they all smiled when they found themselves outside of the building.
"Oh, finally! We're out of that horrible place!" Berry said happily.
"Yeah! We're finally back in the light!" Scrub cheered.
"Whoa, don't get your hopes up just yet," Flyer cut in, pointing to the lava surrounding the rock they were on. "Remember what Camikon said? Even if we were to get out of prison, we'd still have an issue getting off this island with this lava."
"Oh, great… So we're basically stranded." Tamber pouted. "Real nice..."
"Maybe there is something around here," Vivian pondered. "We probably just can't see it."
"What idea do you have?" Chopper wondered. Soon enough, Vivian had grabbed him and pulled him into the shadows. When the others noticed their disappearance, they spotted a blue ! Switch to reveal itself.
"Hey... It's one of those blocks." Shadower gaped. "How come I never saw that?"
"You guys can come back up now!" Bombette shouted. The two rose up from the shadows in response, only for it to disappear. "I swear that I saw it here…"
"Y'know, I always wonder what it's like in the shadows," Tamber pondered. "Is it incredible?"
"I'm not exactly sure..." Chopper replied. "So where was the switch?"
"It was right over here," Bombette answered, standing over where the block was. Chopper went over there and jumped to hit a blue ! Switch. To their surprise, they had found a surf panel get created through the flipping of cardboard nearby.
"Hey, we didn't see that in a while," Flyer recalled.
"I've never seen that before," Tamber remarked.
Knowing what to do, Chopper changed to his Water ability and stepped onto the surf panel. However, when he summoned a wave to carry him across, he found no water. In fact, nothing had risen out of the lava.
"Wait... What's going on?" Chopper gawked, trying to use the ability. He looked down at the panel in disappointment, but instead of a water symbol, the symbol was fire. "Wait... I have to surf over lava with my Fire ability?!"
"That sounds...interesting," Flyer said, unsure of how to comment on it.
Chopper was unsure at first, but he had removed his ability and changed to his fire one. This time, the "cursed" power appeared to work when a small wave of lava reminiscent of his tidal wave had been summoned, with it floating behind him when he was lifted off the ground.
"Vivian and Shadower can help the rest of you get across here," Chopper decided. "There's land not too far, so when I get over there, I'll try to give a sign of where to come."
They gave him a nod as he started to surf over the molten lava before him. Some fireballs had risen from the lava in front of him, but he made sure not to touch them. Thankfully, they would go back into the lava and wait for a couple of seconds to rise back up.
Once Chopper had finally reached the other side, he landed on the red rock and let the fire wave disappear upon removing his ability. He turned to his friends and gave them the thumbs up, and then Vivian and Shadower started bringing everyone to him one at a time. Thankfully, that process didn't take too long.
When his partners were all at his side, they were disappointed to see that they weren't back where they originally once were. The area around them was a lot different. There appeared to be steam coming up from the ground, and there were some small sections with some yellow cracks. Flyer recommended not touching them. A gate happened to be up ahead, but it was closed.
"Yeeeeah… Now I wish I was back in Starlite Galaxy," Chopper sighed. "At least that place wasn't dangerous."
Chopper walked over to the red ! Switch that was by the gate and struck it. It opened, but it didn't take long for the it to close.
"Hey, Chop, maybe if we go fast enough, we can get past that gate," Sonic suggested.
"Oh, yeah! I remember!" Chopper nodded, kicking the switch again. He and Sonic quickly grabbed their friends and sped past the gate before it close on them. Once they were past, they sighed in relief and let go of their friends.
Unfortunately, they were unaware of a certain wizard watching over them through his wand.
"Argh... Curse that Chopper." Camikon hissed as he continued his way to his castle. "Well, I should've known that he would've escaped from his prison. After all, Johnny isn't that reliable of a Tartara..."
As he flew past the city, he thought he had spotted a white figure hiding behind one of the buildings. This caught him by surprise and made him look down at the girl.
"What's this? There's another person down here in Tartamos? Hrrmmm... Perhaps she is another friend of Chopper's. I could simply handle her myself, but I doubt she'll be able to do much on her own! I'll let the Tartaras handle her when they see her!"
Putting his wand away, he increased the speed on his broomstick and took off to his castle.
Unfortunately, their time to take a break was very little, as Chopper and his friends had spotted a Tartara Royal Guard patrolling the area.
"Heads up, guys… There's a Royal Guard here." Chopper warned. They quickly stepped back and noticed some rocks around. "Maybe we can use those rocks to hide, or maybe Vivian's Veil or Shadower's Void."
"You might wanna keep your voice down," Flyer suggested. "It might hear us!"
Unfortunately, that was enough to get the guard to stop patrolling and look back. Thankfully, they had managed to hide behind the rock in time.
"Hrmmm... I thought I heard something..." the Tartara Royal Guard trailed, approaching the rock they hid behind. Just in case, Shadower used his Void to make everyone invisible right when the guard started to sniff the rock. It, however, did not detect anything. "Hmph… Must be my imagination…"
The Tartara Royal Guard carried on ahead, not paying attention to the rocks. They were lucky that it was going through the gate behind them.
"All right, now let's move!" Chopper rushed on ahead along with everyone else before the Tartara Royal Guard could detect them. One thing for sure that this place was a nightmare to everyone.
But that wasn't going to stop them.
I think one of my favorite lines in this had to be when Chopper was complaining about the bars of the cell not being in the proper direction for him to slip through. Also, the surfing part was originally a paper airplane panel, but I thought it'd be interesting to put lava surfing instead.