One of the things the group had first started with was looking back after passing the Tartara Royal Guard. They wanted to make sure that it wouldn't be coming back in their direction. Plus, with the lack of rocks around for them to hide, it wasn't going to be easy.
"That was a close one back there," Sonic sighed. "If that monster spotted us, we'd be toast!"
Mario: Let's hope there aren't more of them...
"If we find more, I'll try to make sure my Void ability gives you guys a hand," Shadower assured. "There's no way I'm going to let you guys get spotted."
Chopper nodded, and the group decided to move on ahead. There wasn't that much around, but they were still careful of some of the yellow cracks and steam still around. Thankfully, there were no Tartara Royal Guards around this area, leaving them relieved. However, there were some Darklings patrolling, but to them, it was no big deal after those previous two Darklings.
The first thing Chopper did was run up to the closest Darkling and stomp on it, destroying it within seconds.
"And that takes care of that," Chopper said as he landed on the ground. The other Darkling was about to hurl an energy ball at him, but Mario had sprang into action and destroyed it with his Super Jump.
With that out of the way, they had come across another gate ahead, only this time there was no switch to open it. However, the barred gate was in a position for Chopper to slip through it. Everyone had turned sideways and slipped through the gate, allowing them to progress ahead.
The next area had some plumes of lava shooting up from small craters this time. One had nearly scorched Mario's boot when he had not noticed.
Mario: This place is dangerous!
"Hmmmm... Well, those craters on the floor should indicate that we should avoid them." Flyer suggested, noticing said spots. "Of course, fire won't always shoot up, so when there isn't, feel free to walk across. ...But I still wouldn't recommend it."
They nodded in agreement and carefully moved through the rocky path, avoiding any flaming spots. Their progress was going pretty well for them, until they had come across a long path of small, flaming craters. Chopper had decided to try to run through it, but he wasn't fast enough. The flames had sent him skyrocketing back to the group.
"Ow..." Chopper mumbled, slowly getting up. "Well, running it won't work."
"Maybe I could pull you into the shadows before those flames come out?" Vivian suggested.
"Ummmm... Sure, let's give that a try!"
The two made their way through the fire plumes more successfully this time, with Vivian pulling Chopper into the shadows each time the fires shot up. With this strategy, it hadn't taken that long for them to get to the other side. However, there was still the trouble of getting the others across as well. Thankfully, that process had not taken too long either.
After that, Sonic was the first one to go up ahead, but he put himself to a halt when he noticed two Tartara Soldiers looking out at the lava, as if they were at the beach.
"Heads up, guys... We've got some Tartaras." Sonic warned. The others decided to make sure they weren't spotted and tried to spy on them.
"So… How are things with you today?" asked the first Tartara.
"Oh, the usual," the other responded, who picked up a rock and made it skip across the lava. "Nothing too interesting or anything. Just enjoying the good old life of a Tartara…"
"Huh... I never thought you could skip a rock across lava." Sonic thought. "I oughta try that sometime!"
"Well, what do you say-" Before the Tartara could finish, it was kicked into the lava by a Darkling. The Tartara had emerged from the lava, giving the Darkling a glare. "What the heck was that for?!"
"Tartaras don't die in lava?" Scrub gawked. "Wicked."
"Doesn't sound too wicked when they're our enemies..." Berry trailed.
As the Darkling laughed at the Tartara's humiliation, Chopper decided that this was the perfect opportunity to spring into action. He conjured up a light ball and hurled it at the Darkling, destroying it in a flash of light.
"What in the world?!" the two Tartaras turned around see Chopper, his hand glowing yellow.
"Wait a second... What's Chopper doing here?" the first Tartara gawked. "Shouldn't he be in jail or something? ...Wait, he managed to escape?! This isn't good!"
As the first Tartara began to back away, the second one grabbed the other by its arm and pulled him back, its blaster aimed at Chopper.
"You fool! Why should we be afraid of him?! Considering he's sentenced to death, it would make sense to shoot him down down! Besides... We'd get a promotion if we beat him!"
"Hey... Yeah! Let's do it!" the first Tartara grinned, firing at Chopper. He quickly dodged their attacks and managed to jump on one of their heads. It didn't appear to do too much, which was bad when he was knocked to the ground by one of their projectiles. Before they could shoot at him again, Kirby inhaled one of their shots and spat it at the first Tartara, knocking it back into the lava.
"Poyo! (Don't worry, we're here for you!)" Kirby assured.
"Don't think I'm finished yet!" the Tartara hissed, flying out of the lava and landing by its comrade. "We're not like the cowards we were two years ago! We're much stronger...and richer!"
"Yeah, we've made TRILLIONS!" the second Tartara cackled. "It was a smart move to take that stupid king's castle from him after he refused to pay us."
"Yeah... We know about that." Chopper said.
"We also gave him several demon beasts to take you down! ...Though, seeing as you're still standing, it's obvious that didn't work."
"He already told us that," Shadower said. "In fact, one of the reasons why we're here is to take back that king's castle."
"Take back the castle? Good luck with that!" the first Tartara laughed. "That ain't going to be easy for you!"
"Well, we'll see about that," Chopper replied, getting ready to fight. "Let's get back to our battle!"
"Yes, let's," the Tartara made another attempt to fire, but Chopper pulled the Star Rod out and deflected the shot. He swung the Star Rod again, which successfully struck through the Tartara's armor. "Argh! I'm going to get you for that!"
The Tartara shot again, but Chopper blocked it with the Star Rod once again and fired another star. Before they knew it, the Tartara had exploded into dust upon it defeat, leaving the remaining Tartara shocked. It looked at the group before fleeing, knowing it stood no chance.
"What a chicken," Tamber snickered. "That thing reminds me of those girls who always run away from stuff!"
"What gives you that idea?" Berry asked, casting a glare.
"Well, it's fairly obvious!"
"Name one."
"Errrrr... Lot's of them!"
"Let's save the arguing for later and progress onward," Flyer suggested. "We definitely don't want to be standing here for long..."
When they had left the area, the first thing they noticed were some plumes of fire appearing horizontal this time. Chopper looked down at it and noticed the lower section did not appear to have any flames. As he looked at it carefully, Scrub had approached the flames.
"I'm not going to lie, but those flames look cool," Scrub smiled, pointing at it. Unfortunately, his finger was a little too close, causing him to feel a burning sensation. "YEOW! MY FINGER!"
He started to blow on it, taking out any flames. Though he was relieved the fire was gone, his finger continued to sting.
"Why did I have to touch those flames in the first place? I'm such an idiot!"
"You're not an idiot, Scrub," objected Berry. "Look, people make mistakes all the time. You'll probably learn next time not to touch fire."
"Nah, you kind of are an idiot," Tamber stated, leading Berry to silence him by bonking him on the head.
"Ignore him. He barely learns."
"I kinda know that. Anyway, let's see what's ahead, Contadre!"
Chopper nodded and transformed into a tube. Everyone had joined him in it before he started to roll under the flames. Once he was past that, he transformed back to normal and found a couple of gravestones ahead.
"Gravestones? What are they doing here?" Bombette wondered. As she took a step, a hand has emerged from the ground. Coming out was a Fire Bones, ready to attack. "Ugh... Not these things again!"
"You shall never go on…" the Fire Bones moaned, taking out a bone and whacking Chopper with it.
"Hey!" Chopper smacked the Fire Bones with his Star Rod, making it collapse to the ground. "Let's go before this thing comes back up."
They rushed on ahead, but the Fire Bones had managed to grab Mario's foot. He struggled to break free from its grip, but Sonic brought the enemy down to make it release Mario.
Mario: That was close...
"Don't worry, I got your back, Mario," Sonic assured. "Though, I think now we gotta be careful when passing by those things..."
Mario: Yeah.
With that, the group continued their way through, dodging any small craters shooting up lava. A couple of Darklings were around here, but they had managed to do away with them with a barrage of their own attacks. Afterward, they came across a boulder blocking the way of a bridge.
Not only that, but they could hear explosions from behind the boulder.
"Whatever's behind here doesn't sound good..." Flyer trailed. "Tamber, you should be careful when smashing that."
"Don't worry, I've got this," Tamber said confidently, throwing a punch at the boulder and shattering it. Just as he did, a red Bullet Bill with flaming eyes had come flying toward him. He was lucky to get out of the way in time before it hit the rocks behind them. "That was close!"
"What were those? Flaming Bills?" Chopper gawked.
"Looked like it..." Flyer trailed. "But it wasn't exactly on fire..."
Looking up ahead, they spotted the rest of the bridge over the lava, and at the end was a Bill Blaster painted similarly to the Flaming Bill. They decided to call it a Flaming Bill Blaster.
"Well this is great... It's been a while since we ran into these." Shadower sighed.
Despite the complaints, they made their way across the bridge anyway. The first couple of steps resulted in a fight between them and a Flaming Bill. What surprised them was that when they exploded, they could leave a burn on anyone upon impact. They were very cautious of them each time they charged.
Vivian had volunteered to give a hand with the Flaming Bills, using her Veil to hide the group each time a Flaming Bill had approached them. Once it passed, they would emerge and continue on until another one came their way. This was repeated about three times until they reached the Flaming Bill Blaster.
"Time to make a first strike!" Chopper unleashed his Master Hammer the Flaming Bill Blaster first, taking 14 out of it for his first strike. Goombella's tattle had revealed that it had 83 HP, no Attack, and a Defense of 4. Chopper didn't take it as a big deal and slammed his hammer upon. Scrub had pitched in by striking it with his Mega Egg.
The Flaming Bill Blaster shot a Flaming Bill, which had 14 HP, an Attack of 19, and a Defense of 3. It was easily finished when Chopper used his Master Glove ability, followed by Bombette's Explosion.
Though the Flaming Bill Blaster was reduced to 27 HP, it still fired another Flaming Bill, which soon came to end when Chopper attacked with another giant light orb of energy. The Flaming Bill Blaster was finally finished off by Tamber's Power Punch, making it explode.
"Oh, yeah! Now we're talking!" Tamber bragged, punching the remaining Flaming Bills off the bridge. "I. Am. AWESOME!"
"Uhh… I guess so, Tamber." Chopper slowly began to walk up ahead into the next where, where they found a red and black Tartara base with a gate in the way. The gate appeared to be open. "Hey, look! An open gate!"
"Let's head on through before it closes," Flyer suggested.
While they made their way towards the gate, one Tartara Soldier was sleeping on the job on top of the gateway. Because of that, one of its comrades had to wake it up using its assault rifle
"Ow! What'd you do that for?!" the Tartara Soldier exclaimed.
"Look," the partner pointed to the eleven coming their way. "See? Chopper's escaped from prison! You're not going to let him pass, are you?"
"Whuzzat?" the Tartara was still a bit drowsy, but a nice slap in the face got it conscious when it looked down. "Whoa! Chopper's coming here! I guess I better do my job…"
The soldier got up from its seat and pulled the lever to close the gate.
"Aw, crud! They're closing the gate! Let's move faster!" Chopper increased his speed, but despite his speed, he was not fast enough to get past the gate. "Oh, crud... That's not fair..."
"Bah ha ha ha ha! Too bad for you!" the other Tartara laughed. "You escaped from prison, so now you're gonna have to stay here! Enjoy, kiddo!"
"They seriously blocked us from moving on?" Tamber gawked. "That stinks!"
"Actually, I might be able to fly up there," Flyer noted, looking up at the height. "It's high enough, that's for sure."
"Then let's do this!" Chopper smiled as Flyer grabbed his arm and lifted him off the ground. They had flown up to the top of the gateway where the tired Tartara decided to lie down and rest now that the job was done.
"Ah… Nothing like a good old…" the soldier was struck in the head by Chopper's hammer before it could close its eyes. "What the… How'd you get up here?!"
"We flew up here," Chopper answered, pulling the lever up to open the gate. "OK, guys! Make it quick before it gets closed again!"
Everyone listened and walked through the gate. Chopper and Flyer waved goodbye to the Tartara as they jumped down and went past the gate. The Tartara would've complained, but since it was tired, it went to sleep again.
"That was a close one," Shadower sighed. "But, it makes me wonder... Considering that we saw that stain-glass window of Tipral in the minister's room, you think it's possible that my brothers and the Shadow Sirens are with these guys, too?"
"Maybe..." Chopper pondered. "I never thought of that. ...Were you and Vivian here before?"
"I never was," Vivian replied, shaking her head. "I never knew about Tartamos in my life..."
Before Chopper could reply, they all heard the sounds of more projectiles coming their way. Chopper was unfortunate to get struck by one of the Tartara's shots.
"I got 'em, guys!" one Tartara shouted.
"Ugh... Well that hurt." Chopper mumbled, but he easily shook off the pain.
"Blast it! He's still up!" the Tartara spat. It shot once again, but Chopper deflected the attack with the Star Rod. Once he fired a star, the Tartara was defeated.
"Whoa... That actually took care of it? Neat!"
After Mario and Sonic took down the last Tartara, they had progressed on ahead until they found two paths. There was one north leading to a castle in the distance, and there was another to the right.
"Which one should we take?" Chopper wondered.
"Let's take the right," suggested Flyer, who began to move to the right. Chopper shrugged and walked through the gate to the right, only to find out that the bridge before them had been destroyed.
"What the... The bridge is out." Bombette gawked.
"Heh heh heh! Well, looks like it worked out as I planned!" cackled a Tartara who was at the other side. "You were ALMOST there, but once I heard about you guys escaping, I decided to destroy the bridge! You're doomed now!"
"You mean we can't do anything to get across?" Vivian asked.
"That's right! So enjoy spending the rest of the day here trapped! 'Cause tomorrow, you're going to die!" the Tartara flew upward and began to make its way back to the city.
"Great… Now we can't even get across." Sonic groaned, kicking a pebble off the bridge and into the lava. "So, now what are we supposed to do?"
"Well, we can just take that other pathway to that castle," Shadower suggested. "It sure looked weird, though... I mean, it seemed so out of place, having that peace sign and that yellow color..."
Chopper's antennae sprung up and Kirby gaped. "Wait! That's King Dedede's castle!"
"You sure?"
"Uh huh! I recognize it when we were making that stupid anime!"
"Poyo! (Maybe there's something there!)" Kirby agreed, heading back to the previous area and skipping over to the castle. Everyone else followed him toward the gate.
Outside Castle Dedede-
Two Waddle Dees with spears were watching the castle carefully, looking for any sign of intruders. Their appearance, however, was mostly the same, but with one major difference. Their eyes were now red.
Eventually one of the Waddle Dees had looked down at spotted the heroes coming their way. It readied its spear, but it was suddenly stopped by the other. They muttered a few words, and after some head shakes and nods, they finally took aim at the group and started throwing their spears.
"Heads up, guys! There are a couple of spears coming down on us!" Berry shouted.
"Vivian! Try to get rid of them!" Chopper suggested while dodging the spears.
"Ummm… OK…" Vivian raised her finger, and once it sparkled, the two Waddle Dee were engulfed in flames and thrown off the gateway. Both of them had landed on the rocky ground headfirst, causing them to become unconscious.
When the group stood before the closed gate, Flyer had flown up to the top of the gateway and pulled the lever, causing the gate to open up. With that, he returned to the group gratefully.
"All right! Let's head inside the castle!" Flyer suggested. "Maybe then we'll find a way to get Dedede's castle back to Dream Land."
Everyone agreed, and they rushed into the castle's entrance.
Meanwhile, back with Dark Doom-
"I don't like this place one bit," Dark mumbled as he looked at a couple of gravestones that were around this horrible area. A couple of lava pits were around too, which he had constantly told his soldiers to beware of. "Well, if we're going to have to stay here, then we might as well do something. We can make ourselves a base so we can prepare ourselves to fight against those Tartaras. We just need our supplies..."
"Uhhhhhh... I don't know about that..." one Dark Soldier trailed.
Dark turned to the soldier with a suspicious look. "And why not?"
"Well... You see... I was trying to find a safe place to put our supplies so they would be safe. I eventually found this well and decided to keep it in there." the soldier explained, appearing more uncertain by the minute. "Unfortunately... I had problems getting it out..."
"It's in a WELL?! Why would you DO that?!" Dark hissed, his eyes glowing yellow with anger.
"Well where else was I supposed to put it? There wasn't any place I could, really…"
"Go fetch it out of the well. Now."
"What? I'm not going in there! First off, I can't even get it out of there. Second, that well's filthy! You can't make me do it!"
"Oh, I'll make you," Dark grabbed the Dark Soldier, and after finding the well, he tossed it in. "Enjoy getting all of that stuff back up here!"
As he walked away from the well, the Dark Soldier could only look at the inside of the well with disdain.
"Oh, man... This well's going to ruin my recently washed armor!"
Inside Castle Dedede-
"Hmmmmm… So this is Castle Dedede, huh?" Sonic asked. "Doesn't look too like anything incredible..."
"You know, there's one thing that's bugging me..." Berry trailed, pondering over something. "Didn't Silica get sucked into that portal, too? Where do you think she went?"
"I wish I knew," Chopper trailed, coming to a halt when he found two ways to go. "So, which way should we go?"
"I say the right," Tamber walked over to the right to find a door that leading downstairs. This had coincidentally led them to a room with a communicator on a table. "Hey, I found something interesting! You guys gotta see it!"
"What is it?" Chopper followed Tamber downstairs and was pleasantly surprised with what he found. "Oh, it's nothing speci- Hey, is that one of those communicator thingies?!"
"I guess so."
Chopper suggested that everyone come downstairs, and they had come in and were surprised with the communicator as well.
"A communicator? We can use that to contact someone!" Shadower gaped.
"Who should we contact?" Chopper wondered.
"Maybe we should get in contact with someone from Dream Land…like Fumu!" Flyer suggested. "Or maybe even the Mayor of Professor Frankly."
"You just want to talk to Fumu, don't you?" Bombette asked, not waiting for an answer. "Well, it's not a bad idea."
"All right, let's see what I can do," Chopper approached the communicator and studied it for a moment. This went on for a while until he turned to the group, appearing puzzled. "Uhhhh... I don't know how to use it."
Sighing, Flyer went up to the communicator and got it to work. He made sure that it was making contact with Dream Land. He gave the phone to Chopper, and he started to wait for a response.
To his luck, he did.
"Hello?"
"Who's speaking, please?" Chopper asked.
"Chopper? Is that you? It's me, Fumu! Where are you?"
"Well, you're not going to believe this…" Chopper took a deep breath. "Apparently, we're in a place called Tartamos. It's where the Tartaras live, apparently."
"All right, at least you guys are all right. ...You're all right, right?"
"Yeah, we're fine... Except that we had to escape a prison and stuff. Right now, we're in King Dedede's castle, but we don't know how to get it here..."
"Don't focus on that right now. Try to find a way out of there, OK?" Fumu suggested. "It may not stop Dedede and Escargon from crying like babies, but at least you'll be safe."
"How are the others doing?"
"Well, right now, we're in the Mayor's house. Hold on, I think the Mayor wants to talk to you."
"Chopper, is that you?" the Mayor spoke up.
"Yeah, it's me," Chopper nodded.
"I'm deeply sorry for getting you into this mess... I shouldn't have taken that letter too seriously."
"Well, I'm sure things would go bad anyway... Besides, I think I should be thanking you! I think we can finally put an end to who's really behind this!"
"Chopper, are you so sure?" Professor Frankly spoke up.
"Of course! I think right now, it's safe to assume that this was all Camikon's doing. I mean, who else who's alive hates me more than anyone else? That guy, obviously!"
"Hrrrmmmm... Well, if you're deciding to stay here to stop this madness, then we shall not stop you. The only thing we can do at the moment is cheer you on."
"All right. Thanks, guys. We should probably get going now..."
After saying his goodbyes, he hung up the phone.
Mayor's house, Dream Land-
"So... Chopper and his friends will not leave Tartamos until they put an end to this darkness..." Frankly trailed, hanging up the phone. "Well, we cannot do much to stop them now, right?"
"I'm sure what they're doing is for the better," Fumu assured.
"I suppose so..." the Mayor sighed, hearing King Dedede and Escargon's sobs from outside. "I would greatly appreciate it if those two would take their crying elsewhere... It's not helping us at this moment."
"I wish the same thing," Bun agreed, watching the two cry from afar in the darkness.
"I can't believe that we're still homeless! We're doomed!"
"I wish I could do something to cheer you up… But… I don't have anything!"
"When will they stop crying? It's getting irritating!" Fumu groaned.
"Let's not try to get too annoyed by their cries," Frankly suggested. "Perhaps we should try to solve the issue on that Magical Map."
"I suppose so..." the Mayor agreed. "Though, I find it coincidental that I got two letters regarding the Crystal Stars."
"What were they?" Fumu asked.
"Well, one was sent by Mario, and the other didn't have any name on it," the Mayor had taken both letters out and showed it to them. Frankly was the first one to study both.
"Hrrrmmmmm... So Mario sent the Magical Map to you?" Frankly asked, continuing his study. "It's strange... I don't think Mario even knew of this place..."
"Then that means Mario DIDN'T send the letter," Fumu realized. "It must've been someone else!"
"Yes, that is correct. As for the other letter... It says that only the Crystal Stars could help save the universe, but that didn't turn out to be true... Obviously we were all fooled by this... And I find it strange that there were thirteen more Crystal Stars out there. Not even I knew of this."
"Perhaps those Crystal Stars were made by that demon who gave me the letter?" the Mayor pondered. "Perhaps he had put in a power that would doom us all if all the Crystal Stars were to come together!"
"It must be... Unfortunately, it managed to get us. But, I don't think all hope is lost just yet. Chopper and his friends are still out there, looking for this great evil."
"Let's hope they can stop it," Bun said.
Castle Dedede-
"All right, at least we told everyone that we're all right," Chopper said, putting the phone down. "So, what do you think we should do next?"
"Well, the logical thing to do here would be to continue our search through the castle," Flyer suggested.
"Sounds good! Let's check it out!" Sonic decided, running back into the hallway. Everyone else had followed, and they had taken the other pathway this time. As they were getting to the end of the hallway, they noticed another path to the left, along with three shadows.
Feeling suspicious, everyone went against the wall and tried to remain quiet.
"We better be careful..." Vivian whispered. "There could be some Tartaras in here..."
"Maybe we can give them a little surprise," Berry mentioned. "They probably won't see it coming."
As the footsteps got closer, everyone exchanged nods and prepared to take action, getting their weapons out just in case.
"OK, ready guys?" Chopper asked. Everyone gave him nods, and he smiled. "All right! Let's do this!"
The eleven jumped into action and prepared to make their attack. They came to a sudden halt when they realized that these were not Tartaras standing before them.
"Wait... Meta Knight?" Chopper gaped, seeing him and his two servant, Sword Knight and Blade Knight. They had gotten in their fighting stances, but they soon realized who they were and lowered their guard.
"Meta Knight's here?" Shadower gawked. "But how?"
"We happened to be in the castle when we felt this earthquake," Sword explained. "Only, it wasn't an earthquake... The castle was being lifted off the ground and taken here. And... Yeah. That's why we're here."
"Great! At least we know there are some people who are here!" Chopper smiled, approaching Meta Knight. But the look on his face was enough to make Chopper stop smiling and lower his head. "Oh... Right... I'm sorry for not listening to you, Meta Knight... You were right the whole time... And now the universe is in big trouble."
"I guess this explains how you and your friends are here," Meta Knight said, wrapping his cape around himself.
"Yeah... But now the universe is in trouble thanks to my stupid little stunt... You must be pretty mad."
"After all of those times I've told you about the Crystal Stars, you still didn't listen to me. However, I knew that whether you collected them all or not, the results would still be the same." Meta Knight explained. "However, that doesn't mean all is over."
"All isn't over yet? What do you...?" Chopper paused, suddenly realizing what he was talking about.
"Yes. There is still a way to stop this great evil who's responsible for this. And I feel that after facing you all those times, you just might be ready."
"Wait... All of those fights were to determine if we were capable of fighting these Tartaras?" Flyer gawked.
"Correct."
"So, you're not mad at me for what I did?"
"No. I knew that despite my warnings, you would still continue on. People were encouraging you to do the same thing. However, we can still put an end to these Tartaras and save the universe. You are looking for that wizard, correct?"
"Yes," Vivian nodded.
"We had spotted him flying past here," Blade explained. "He doesn't even bother checking this castle out, so we were pretty safe. What do you say we go to his castle and pay him a little visit?"
"Now we're talkin'!" Sonic smirked, only to remember something. "But that bridge is out. There's no way we're getting across."
"There is a secret passageway behind the castle that we can take. Follow us." Meta Knight turned around, and he and his two servants began to head in the opposite direction. Everyone else followed him until they were standing before a door. "Just beyond this door is another pathway. It'll lead to a volcano."
"I think Camikon was planning on throwing us in there," Bombette recalled.
"Well, since we're not being thrown in there, it shouldn't be too bad," Chopper remarked.
Mario: It better not be like Mt. Lavalava.
"Even though I don't know what that place is like, I'm sure it's not," Chopper opened the door to find a long, narrow pathway ahead surrounding by lava.
"This doesn't look too bad," Tamber commented. "It's just a long, narrow path..."
"There's ghosts in that lava," Sword noted.
"Oh... That stinks."
"I suggest we be careful walking as well," Meta Knight suggested, walking down the small pathway leading to the narrow one. "You definitely do not want to fall into this lava."
"Oh… Well this is going to be nice." Chopper groaned as he and his friends followed Meta Knight and his servants to the narrow pathway.
We've gone pretty much three chapters with no major fights. Well... That's probably about to change next chapter when they go up against something big...