Once everyone took a step in the castle, the large door immediately closed shut behind them. The entry room standing before them was huge. The ground was made of red carpet with a symbol of Maquano on the bottom. They could also see some stairs up ahead with two hallways going to the left and right. Along with that, there were a couple of doors in this room too.
"Whoa… This is some castle Camikon's got here." Sonic remarked, staring at the interior with awe. "I didn't think it would be something like THIS…"
"It reminds me so much of the Palace of Shadow with the red," Chopper mentioned. "And I don't like that..."
"You're right, it does remind me of it," Vivian agreed, also taking notice of a Save Block right by the door. "Hey, Chopper, you should hit that Save Block."
"Good idea," Chopper walked over to the Save Block and he jumped under it, saving his game. "Now we don't have to start those previous two sections all over again!"
"Yeah. Those chapters were pretty long." Bombette nodded in agreement, only to pause for a moment. "Wait... What am I saying?"
"Say, Chopper..." Flyer started. "Did you turn into that dark form from the King's Star?"
"I...really don't know," Chopper answered, taking out the King's Star. "I just got really mad, and suddenly, I don't know what's going on. But this star's power is real evil. It's like...the Shadow King's power is in this thing!"
"Poyo? (What about the Queen's Star?)" Kirby asked.
"The Queen's Star?" Chopper took the Queen's Star out. "Now that I think about it, but I guess the Shadow Queen's power is in this thing as well. It's pretty evil, too!"
Mario: There's the Dark Star, too.
"The Dark Star? Uhhhh... I don't know whether to call it evil or not. It just summoned black holes, right?"
"Well, the 'dark' part of its name does sound awfully evil," Scrub commented.
The group stopped when they suddenly heard a noise coming from one of the doors nearby. Curious, the group headed over to the door where the noise was coming from. Since no one had dared to open the door, Mario decided to reach for the knob first and open it. The walls were made of fire, and the floor was a brownish red. A Tartara juggling a couple of beach balls was in the room, wearing a clown's hat.
Mario: What the heck?
"What is it, Mario?" Chopper asked.
Mario: ...See for yourself.
They took a look at the room and were left with surprised looks at the Tartara. They weren't sure what to feel at this point. Well, except for Tamber, who began to snicker.
"That Tartara looks like a clown!" Tamber laughed.
The Tartara overheard them and stopped juggling. All the beach balls fell to the ground and proceeded to bounce around as the Tartara faced them. Not only did it wear a clown hat, but it also had clown-like ears and a red, clown nose.
"Oh, crud..." Chopper gulped. "Well, it's only one, so taking it on wouldn't be a big problem!"
The Tartara had grabbed one of the beach balls and looked up at the group. Suddenly, the ball was surrounded in many spikes.
"Whoa! It's a spiky ball!" Shadower gasped.
Along with that, three red-eyed Darklings had appeared around it, firing red energy balls in their direction. Shadower had used his Shadow Smite to strike them all and lower their defenses, while the rest took action by taking down the Darklings with hammers, jumps, or many other different attacks. They were soon finished when Scrub had used his Stampede to destroy them all. Now all that left was the Tartara, who threw the spiked ball in their direction. They all managed to avoid it in time and look back at the Tartara in shock.
"I knew clowns were always evil!" Chopper gulped.
Tamber cracked his knuckles and rushed at the Tartara now that it was open. He landed a Combo Punch on it, with the last punch sending it flying to the wall. To finish it off, he picked up a boulder and proceeded to throw it.
...Well, he would've, but Sonic had beaten him to it.
"HEY! I was going to finish that enemy off!" Tamber complained.
"Well, I guess you were too slow," Sonic shrugged. "Also, that Tartara dropped a key."
"Really? Let me see!" Chopper demanded. Sonic quickly tossed the key over to him, and they had made their exit from that room. "Let's check one of the other rooms!"
They walked over to the door next to the one they were in and opened it. There was nothing in the room. Well, at least that's what everyone but Shadower believed.
"There's some hidden blocks in here," Shadower informed, pointing in the direction of each block. Chopper hit them, but all he got was a coin and a Master Shroom. Seeing no reason to be here, they left the room and went up the stairs. There were two doors that were locked, and each had different keyholes. The door to the right seemed to match the key Chopper had.
"I guess we can only go through here," Chopper approached the door to his right and inserted the key in its place. The door opened and, he entered the next room. Sadly, it was no hallway, but it was a round room that reminded him of the round ones in the Palace of Shadow. There was chandelier hanging up on the ceiling, and the floor had a red carpet. A couple of Tartara Soldiers were in the room talking.
"So, what are your plans for tomorrow?" a Tartara asked its fellow comrade.
"Well, I'm probably going to go to the beach when we can finally come out of this place, and maybe we might even make some more money by fooling people just like we did with King Dedede!" the other replied.
"Ah, King Dedede… What a great customer he was. But now he's crying like a baby over his castle being taken away! Ha ha! He should've realized that we don't mess around!"
Unfortunately, Chopper and his friends did not have a chance to hide, as a Darkling had spotted them and alerted the others.
"We've got some unwanted guests here," the Darkling informed.
The two Tartaras stopped talking and they turned to Chopper and his friends.
"Yack! What's Chopper doing here?!" one of the Tartaras cried. "Shouldn't he be in prison or something!"
"I think he got out..." the other whispered. "It probably explains the noise outside.
The two Tartaras looked out the window and found the Galaxy Soldiers, Blade, Bang, and Night fighting against the Tartaras. They were left in shock.
"What the... What is this?!"
"Oh, yeah... We were kicking your friend's butts with their help." Chopper noted.
"And we're here to put an end to your evil," Sonic declared, pointing at the villains.
"Yup!" Chopper agreed, aiming the palm of his hand at the two Tartaras. "So it's time to give up!"
"Sorry, but there's no way we're giving up! Especially our business!" one of the Tartaras hissed. "We're rich 'cause of it! You know who needs to give? You, obviously!"
The Tartara aimed its gun at Chopper and fired, but he easily jumped out of the way and struck it with a light ball. Flyer flew above him and fired an energy shot from his arm cannon, leaving the Tartara paralyzed.
"I know how to take care of this!" Tamber grabbed the Tartara and lift it up above his head. "Time to throw you outta here!"
Tamber ignored the objections of the Tartara and tossed it out the window. He grabbed the other Tartara and threw that one out as well.
"I didn't quite understand why you threw them out the window..." Bombette trailed. "I don't think that did anything. At all. It just gave the others outside some more trouble."
"Well, I wanted to throw them out the window!" Tamber proclaimed.
Chopper looked out the window and noticed that there were shots coming from higher up in the castle. "I think there are snipers above us. I think we should take them out."
"But we don't have a way to get to the upper floor," Vivian pointed out.
"Why don't we check through this door then?" Chopper suggested, eyeing another door in the room. They all exchanged nods and opened the door into a room with a couple of platforms attached to the walls. Flyer studied the height of the platforms and smiled.
"Looks like this is my time to shine!" Flyer smiled, walking over to Chopper. "Are you ready to fly, Chopper?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," Chopper replied. He grabbed onto Flyer's feet once he flew up. "I'm gonna hang tight. There's no way I'm gonna let go!"
Flyer nodded and made his way up to the first platform. After they took a small break, they had flown up to the next platform where the door was. Chopper had let go of Flyer and landed in front of the door.
"That takes care of that," Chopper sighed.
"Hey! What about us?!" Berry shouted.
Chopper looked down at everyone else. "Uhhhhh... You think you could help them out, Flyer?"
"Well, I suppose I can," Flyer nodded, making his way back down to provide help for the others. Well, at least those who couldn't fly up. After everyone was near the door, they entered a small hallway. There didn't appear to be any doors leading to the balcony, but they saw a small crack with some light in it. Chopper took a peek through it and saw a balcony with two Tartara Snipers.
"What do you see, Contadre?" Scrub asked.
"I see the snipers, that's for sure! Let's just slip through here and welcome them!"
The group nodded and turned sideways, allowing them to easily slip through the crack. Once they were outside on the balcony, they watched the Tartara Snipers aiming at their opponents. However, they were moving pretty quickly, making it difficult to shoot. Thankfully, they did not hear the group enter the balcony as well.
"Come on… I need a clear shot!" the Tartara Sniper groaned, keeping his aim on Silica.
"I got this covered," Flyer whispered. He flew over to the sniper and he used his Wind Storm to blow one off the balcony, sending him plummeting to the ground in front of Silica.
"What the…" Silica gawked, spotting the sniper in front of her. "I think they got one of the snipers, guys!"
"Well, in that case…" Night pulled his axe hammer out and slammed it on the Tartara Sniper.
"Aw, come on! I wanted to take it out!" Bang whined.
"Oh, quit your whining already, Bang," Blade said with an annoyed look on his face. "You'll get your chance soon enough. Just don't whine like some kind of baby, all right?"
"Fine…" Bang pouted.
"Ooh... I wouldn't want to be that Tartara." Bombette cringed, seeing the Tartara explode into dust. "Well, that's one down, and one to go!"
"Yup! And I know what to do!" Chopper picked up a pebble an threw it straight at the remaining Tartara Sniper's head, leaving it stunned. Bang saw that the sniper was stunned and unable to fire, so he took out his sniper rifle.
"This time I'm gonna get the shot!" Bang aimed at the sniper and fired, making it fall off the balcony. "Yeah! Now I finally got a chance to take one down!"
"Good for you," Blade replied without care.
"Well, looks like Bang took care of that guy," Chopper sighed in relief. "Now we don't have to worry about any snipers. I think they should have an easier time."
"I don't think so…" Flyer pointed to the Tartara Royal Guard that walked out of the castle with its giant sword. "That monster has 110 HP, an Attack of 21, and a Defense of 4. Yeah... That's gnarly. Personally, I would stay away from these guys if I were you…"
"Stay away from them? At this point, I'm definitely not! We would have to fight them eventually!"
Flyer shrugged and followed the group back inside the castle, where they kept moving through the hallway. A Darkling rose from the ground and tried to attack, but it was destroyed by Chopper's light energy.
After a while, they found themselves in front of a small door. Chopper opened it into a small, dark room with dark blue walls and chains. There was a large Dark Block in the center of the room as well.
"I guess it's smashing time," Tamber said.
"Uh huh!" Chopper pulled his Master Hammer out and he destroyed the block with his recent hammer technique. Flyer, however, couldn't help but shiver from the darkness.
"Maybe we should find a way to light up this room," Flyer suggested.
"Sorry, but there aren't any light switches in here," Shadower stated.
"Dang..."
Chopper noticed a dark X on the ground. However, he was stopped by Shadower, whoa noticed some writing on the wall. Chopper approached the wall and took out a light ball. There, he saw some something written.
"What's this?" Chopper got a closer look, but he was left frowning. "I don't understand it... You think you can read it, Flyer?"
"Sure thing," Flyer walked over to the writing and pondered. The frown on his face did not give the group hope. "I don't understand what it says..."
"You don't?" Berry gawked. "What about your translator thingy?"
"...Oh, right. Thanks for reminding me of that." Flyer took out his translator gadget and held it near the writing. "It reads, 'To the one that can read this: the wall in the room with the platforms can be blown up. There you shall find the stairway to the next floor.' Hmmmm... I guess this is back in that platform room?"
"And it looks like it requires my help," Bombette smiled. "So... We're going to have to backtrack our way back there, right?"
"Let's check out this dark X first," Chopper suggested, using his Gravity Stomp to break through it. He had landed in a small room with a small opening to his left. He told everyone else to come down, and they had landed in front of him. They quickly transformed into a tube and rolled through the opening. They were led out into the main room through an opening on the wall and landed where the unlocked door was.
"We're all the way back here?" Scrub gawked. "Well that's a bummer."
"Well, we at least have an idea of where to go," Flyer mentioned. "Let's head back to the room with those platforms."
Everyone agreed and returned to the room where they found the two Tartaras. Taking the other door in there led them back to the room with the platforms.
"All right, so we need to blow up the wall just up ahead," Chopper reminded. "So, Bombette, ready to blow something up?"
"Well, Sure, I guess," Bombette shrugged, letting Chopper throw her at the wall ahead. She blew up, and a large hole was revealed, showing a stairway going up to the second floor.
"Well, what do you know?" Sonic grinned. "Let's head up!"
Sonic was the first to run up the stairs. Soon after, the others followed until they eventually reached a door. They opened it into a wider hallway, having mostly Fire Bones lying on the ground.
"Crud… Fire Bones! I hate these things…" Shadower groaned.
"I just hate that my flames don't do anything to them," Vivian frowned as the Fire Bones rose up from the ground.
Chopper quickly took action against it by using his Ice Smash, hoping that it would stop it in its tracks. Thankfully, Bombette's Bomb was able to take care of it. With that, they decided to skip some of the doors around and reach the end of the hallway. There, they found another staircase going up to the third floor.
"That's it? Well that was easy!" Chopper smiled, running up the staircase to reach the third floor. When the rest came up, they approached the door, only to notice something on the door.
"Wait… This door's 'Out of Order'?" Berry gawked. "That makes no sense! Door's don't go out of order!"
"Nothing goes out of order around here!" Scrub rolled his invisible sleeves and stormed over to the door. He landed a punch on it - which did absolutely nothing. "What?! How come that didn't do anything?!"
"Doors don't just open when you punch them," Flyer noted.
"Dang... For a moment, I thought that'd work. So, what do we do?"
"I don't know…" Chopper trailed, looking over at the wall with a sigh. However, he quickly noticed a tiny flap on the wall. "Hey, wait... What's that flap over there?"
"A flap?" Vivian gawked.
"Yeah! It's on the wall!" the the antennae hero pointed at said flap. "Hey, Kirby, want to inhale that?"
"Poyo! (You betcha!)" Kirby smiled, skipping over to the wall and using his inhaling ability to peel off the flap. The paper went into his mouth, and a doorway was revealed. Through there was a small room with a chest. Kicking it open, Chopper found a Castle Key inside.
"Hey, maybe we can use that key to unlock that other locked door we saw in the main room!" Sonic suggested with a snap of a finger.
"Yeah, I was thinking about that," Chopper nodded.
"So we have to backtrack ALL that way?! You gotta be kidding me!"
"Ummm... I see a little crack we can slip through." Vivian said, pointing to a little crack shining in the room. "Maybe that'll help us?"
"Let's try it out!" Chopper suggested, slipping through the crack sideways. Though the fall was long, it eventually led them into another small room with a small crack to their right. This time, it was horizontal, so they had to lie down and inch their way through. This had led them back into the main room, and they had come out through the wall and landed right in front of a locked door.
Chopper smiled as he looked at the keyhole's shape and the key he carried. As he was ready to unlock the door, the room had suddenly shook for a brief moment. Curious, they looked down the stairs and gaped.
A Tartara Royal Guard happened to be patrolling the area.
"Oh, crud! One of these guys!" Scrub cried.
"Shhhhhh!" Flyer shushed, covering Scrub's mouth. "Stay quiet!"
The Tartara Royal Guard had heard a sound and turned in the direction of where the group was. However, it saw nothing, and after looking for a couple of seconds, it shrugged it off and resumed patrolling.
"That was too close..." Vivian whispered, the group reappearing through Shadower's Void. "Maybe we should avoid the Royal Guard?"
"No way!" Chopper objected. "I'm not running away from these guys anymore! I've done a lot of that in the past before, and that idea is usually not the best! Plus, didn't Dark take on one of those things? And we beat him! If he took down one of those guys, then we can as well!"
"Yeah, I'm with Chop," Sonic agreed, putting on a confident look. "Sometimes ya just have to face some of the big boys. Besides, it's just one guard! We can take it no problem!"
"Huh? What was that noise?!" the Tartara Royal Guard turned to the corner by the stairs where the group was. There was no hiding this time, as the guard had easily spotted them. "Well, what do we have here? It looks like I found a couple of unwanted guests in Lord Camikon's Castle!"
"Well, if you want to fight, then we're not turning back!" Chopper declared, pointing at the giant enemy. "You're probably much weaker than Dark!"
"Bleh heh heh heh! Oh, really? Well, then challenge accepted." the Royal Guard pulled out its large sword. "When I eliminate you, it will be I who becomes second-in-command to Lord Camikon!"
"That sword is huge!" Vivian gaped. "Are you sure about this, Chopper?"
"Uh huh," Chopper whipped up a light ball and tossed it straight at the Royal Guards face.
"Augh!" the Tartara Royal Guard covered its face in pain. After Berry struck it with her hammer, it lowered its arms and gave Chopper a menacing look. "You just sealed your fate..."
The Tartara Royal Guard opened its mouth and breathed fire in Chopper's direction. He jumped out of the way and swung the Star Rodin its direction, making a yellow star strike the guard. Tamber quickly punched the Royal Guard in the foot, dealing 8 damage and reducing it to 84 HP.
"If you think you're going to do much to me like this, then think again!" the Tartara Royal Guard raised its foot and brought it down on Chopper, flattening him like a pancake. Thankfully, he managed to get himself up and take his hammer out, striking the guard with his Master Hammer technique. "YARGH! What was that?!"
"That's my Master Hammer ability!" Chopper smirked. "I bet it really hurt!"
Flyer flew up to the guard next, striking it with his Flying Attack. Once he returned to the group, the Tartara Royal Guard put its sword to use and swung it at the group. Thankfully, they managed to guard the attack and only take 20 damage instead. With that, Shadower lowered its defense with a Shadow Punch, and then Chopper jumped on the monster afterward.
"Ugh... Maybe you're not as weak as I thought..." the Tartara Royal Guard moaned, getting weaker by the moment. He had brought it sword down upon the group, but they successfully Superguarded it instead. Chopper had leaped in the air and struck the guard with his Gravity Jump, and thanks to Sonic's Spin Dash, it was down to 4 HP. "I don't understand! You're smaller than me! I should be beating you!"
"You know what they say, size doesn't matter in a battle!" Sonic smirked. "Now let's finish this!"
Vivian went into the shadows and rose before the Tartara Royal Guard. With her Shade Fist, the large monster had fallen over in defeat and exploded into dust. It had dropped a couple of coins and even some hearts and flowers had dropped as well. Taking them, Chopper had at least recovered a little bit of HP and FP.
"I don't believe it… We took that thing down?" Flyer gaped.
"Well, since we fought many things, that shouldn't have been too difficult," Chopper mentioned.
"Since we took care of that Tartara, we should get going," Vivian suggested. "That key you have should take us to the other locked door."
"Yeah, we better get going," Sonic suggested. Chopper agreed and walked went back to the door to the left. Using the key, he unlocked the door, breaking off its lock. The door opened for them, and they walked into a hallway with torches on the walls. They black in color, and it only made people shiver more.
"I don't like it here…" Berry shuddered. "Those torches remind me of the Shadow Queen..."
"It definitely feels a lot different from the other part of the castle," Chopper admitted. "It's a lot darker than in the Palace of Shadow."
"And that's going to be real annoying," Bombette groaned.
"Yeah... I'm not looking forward to this." Chopper walked on ahead to the door after destroying a Darkling with his light energy. They found a room with stairs going up to a door, just like in the other rooms.
"If they have these futuristic guns, how come they don't have an elevator?" Tamber asked.
"Beats me," Shadower shrugged as he and the others went up the stairs. Along the way, they had found a Tartara Soldier and a Darkling attempt to attack them, but they easily defeated them and reached the top of the staircase. They entered the door ahead into a large, round room nearly the size of Gloomtail's room. Two Tartaras were in the room as well, having a discussion.
"So, we're gonna go see if we can make some more Demon Beasts and sell 'em to customers, right?" the first Tartara asked.
"Yeah! We find a sucker- I mean, a customer who is interested in buying our Demon Beasts, and we get a profit from them!" the second explained. "And if they don't pay, then we decide to take something from them that costs the same amount as they owe us! Whether they pay or not, we get money out of it! And then the cycle repeats with another customer. This'll make us filthy, stinkin' rich!"
"I like the sound of that," the Tartara agreed with a nod. However, when it turned around, it noticed the heroes in the room. "Uh oh... Chopper's here! We gotta get outta here!"
"Really? Oh, crud!"
The two Tartaras pressed a button on their wrist pads, and they were out of the room in the flash.
"Where the heck did they suddenly go?" Chopper asked, looking confused.
"And what kind of technology was that?" Flyer wondered. "I'd personally like to get one of those."
"Hold on… I think I see a little map of the castle here," Sonic rushed over to the map on the wall. "So we're on the second floor at this moment… They say that Tartara Corporations is on the eighth floor and Camikon's room is up on the tenth floor."
"Tenth floor ! There are ten floors in this castle?!" Tamber gaped. "That's ridiculous!"
"Well, we're gonna have to live with it," Chopper sighed, approaching the door. "I think that map said that this door leads to a staircase, right?"
Mario: It can go up to the eighth floor.
"Oh... Well, that saves a lot of trouble." Tamber realized. "Here I thought we'd be going through the WHOLE castle."
"It's not a bad idea to check the other floors, though," Berry suggested.
"No... Don't give them any ideas!"
"Well, maybe we should..." Vivian suggested. "There could be secrets."
"I'm all for that!" Chopper smiled. "Let's check the place out!"
"Dang it..." Tamber mumbled, following the rest through the door into a tall room with many staircases. "I hate you guys..."
They had started by going up to the third floor door. This time, it didn't appear to be out of order, so they entered it to a hallway with only two doors. The first door they had found closest to them had a bathroom. There wasn't much in there except for a Max Juice inside of the cabinet. Scrub had taken a look at the toilet. Instead of toilet water, it was replaced with lava.
"Yo, Contadre! Check this out!" Scrub hollered, getting Chopper to go over to him.
"What is it?" Chopper asked, seeing lava in the toilet. "Wait... Isn't there supposed to be water?"
"Well... Errr... Yeah?"
"...Let's just get out of this room," Berry suggested, exiting the room first. The others left as well and went to the next door ahead. They had taken care of a Darkling that was in the way and entered the door into a small guest room. There was a nice, comfy bed and a mirror. Chopper had chosen to sleep in it for a brief moment to recover his HP and FP before leaving. They found another door at the end of the hallway, which was revealed to be the door that was "out of order".
They left the third floor and headed up to the fourth. They found two doors here as well, but the first door wouldn't open, despite there being no lock. Tamber tried punching it open, but to no avail.
"Great... There's nothing here." Tamber grumbled, leaning against the wall. He paused for a minute and noticed a crack near the door. "Hey, is that crack something?"
Chopper took a look at the crack, and he instantly smiled. He turned sideways and slipped through into a small tunnel. When the others joined him, they found the tunnel's slope going slightly up, and in front of them was a thin block. Chopper simply pushed it, but when he stepped away, the block started to slowly move down. He couldn't push it out of the end of the tunnel either, since it was too big to fit through the doorway. Then he thought of using Vivian to go underneath it. She had pulled them all into the shadows and gotten underneath the block, allowing them into the room.
The room they came across had a desk, a shelf, and even a moveable chair. There was also a big speaker and a radio in the room. Scrub tried turning it on, but it didn't play anything. They soon realized it was broken.
"Poyo? (What room is this supposed to be?)" Kirby asked.
"I'm not sure..." Chopper trailed, taking a look at the desk. Flyer had taken a look at the shelf and found a couple of journals. After reading through them, he had an idea of what this room was.
"I believe this is Maquano's private room," Flyer deduced. "And this is some records of the past...mainly involving you, Chopper."
"Let me see," Chopper took a look at the records and couldn't help but giggle. "It's kind of funny how I managed to first beat him when I was four..."
"Well, there's no point in being here. Let's get outta here." Tamber suggested, opening the door from the other side. They had decided to check the second door in the hallway, which was labeled "Lord Maquano Only". Chopper ignored it and burst open the door. It was pitch black, with the exception of the center room. There was a metallic bed with straps on it that could be moved around with a little control panel near it. When Flyer look at it, he had an uneasy feeling.
"I don't like this room..." Flyer shuddered. "It feels as if...I had been here before."
"Really?" Chopper gawked.
"It's a strange feeling, that's for sure..." the Wingel slowly stepped away. "Look, let's just leave this room, OK?"
They agreed and made their exit out of the room. They headed up to the fifth floor this time. It appeared to be a dining area, as the closest door had brought them to a dining room with a long, black table. At the end of the table, there was a chair that looked like it was made for a leader. Kirby was excited to be here, but was disappointed when there was no food around. When they got to the kitchen, however, he was excited to see plenty of food in the fridge.
"Poyo! (Oh, boy!)" Kirby cheered, stuffing some food in his mouth. Chopper decided to dig in as well, unable to resist the food. Eventually their friends had to drag them out, despite their objections. A Darkling had caught them in the kitchen, too, but it was immediately taken out by their attacks.
Since there was nothing else on the fifth floor, they went up to the sixth floor this time. The first door wasn't so interesting, only leading into a small, empty room. The only exception, however, was a small opening that Chopper rolled through as a tube. He was led into a tiny room with a chest containing a Max Shroom.
After leaving that room, they had decided to check the other door. Now this room was a lot more interesting, having a large terminal before them and a lot of buttons on the panel before the red chair. The monitors also gave out a light blue glow to the dark room as well. Chopper approached the panel and looked at the many buttons. Flyer had went beside him and decided to see what images they had, particularly one that showed a facility.
"Hey... Isn't that the place where I found Robo Chopper in Star Forest?" Chopper gawked. "Does that mean...those Tartaras have been spying on us this whole time?!"
Mario: I don't like the sound of that...
"Well, at least we know that these Tartaras were up to something..." Flyer trailed, pressing a button to delete their data. "There! That should sabotage them!"
Chopper smiled and gave him a thumbs up. Seeing as there was nothing else left, they left the sixth floor and went up to the seventh. There were only three doors this time. The closest one had brought them into a room with a shelf in the upper left corner, and a bed over by the upper right corner. There was also a desk near the bed as well. Considering that they were magic books, it was safe to assume that this was Camikon's room. The blankets even had a depiction of a wand on it!
Sadly, there was nothing interesting in the room, so they left that and headed to the next room. This one appeared to be more of a training ground. It was large, and there were a couple of dummies of Chopper attached to the ceiling. Some were even badly damaged.
"I don't like this room..." Chopper mumbled, seeing a doorway ahead. This brought them to a wide room with a narrow, steel grate floor, and lava below with plumes of lava firing upward through the floor. It was going awfully fast, that's for sure.
"Geez... I definitely wouldn't want to get caught in that." Sonic cringed.
"Me neither..." Chopper nodded. "But I see a chest up ahead too..."
Suddenly, and idea had struck Berry, and she approached Chopper. "You know, I have an idea, Choppy."
"...What?"
She decided not to bother asking the question and leaned forward to kiss him. Chopper immediately bolted, going past the lava plumes and reaching the chest ahead. He had found some Rainbow Juice inside, which stopped the lava plumes and allowed him to return to his friends.
"Honestly, I wouldn't mind a kiss from you, Choppy," Berry said sweetly.
"Ewwww! That's gross!" Chopper gagged, leaving the training room and making Berry let out a sigh.
The other door had brought them into an armory. Unfortunately, a couple of Tartaras were already in there, and they ended up going after them. Bombette's Explosion and Tamber's Star Diamond Fist, on the other hand, managed to do away with them.
They chose to leave the armory immediately and made their way up to the last floor these stairs led them to. When they had finally entered the eighth floor, they found a door in the center, and a door at the end of the hallway. Tamber had set foot in the hallway and sighed.
"FINALLY!" Tamber let out. "We're at the eighth floor!"
"So, was it worth going through those other floors?" Shadower asked.
"Heck no!"
Chopper shrugged and took a look at the door in the center. There were words written on it, being labeled "Tartara Corporations".
"This must be the place where King Dedede ordered those Demon Beasts," Chopper said. "So we finally get to see these guys."
He burst the door open into a room with many computers attached to the walls, along with many panels below them. Along with that, there was a machine in the room that looked like a teleportation device. A lot of Tartaras were in the room as well, and they seemed to be in the middle of a conversation.
"Man... I never thought that we'd work so well as a business!" one Tartara grinned. "We've made SO much out of this!"
"Yeah," a familiar Tartara nodded. "Though, it's unfortunate that King Dedede refused to pay us. I did warn him of the consequences... But, we did get something good out of it in the end!"
One Tartara, however, had spotted Chopper and his friends. "Guys... We've got a problem... Chopper's here!"
The others brought their attention to the heroes and pulled their weapons out. ...Except that they didn't have any.
"Oh... Right. We're only businessmen..." one Tartara frowned. "Uhhhh... Maybe you guys can spare us?"
"Well... It wouldn't be right to attack some people who are rather harmless..." Shadower trailed. "But, we promise not to hurt you if you simply put an end to your business."
"And give back Dedede's castle as well," Chopper added.
"Oh, that? Well... We can't."
"What? Why not?"
"Because Camikon left a little spell on it. There's no way you can bring it back unless the source of the darkness is destroyed!"
"Well... We were planning on doing that anyway... So thanks." Chopper said, unsure of how to feel.
"Oh, don't worry..." one Tartara trailed, slowly reaching for a grenade behind its belt. "Now, if you'll excuse us... We should be...DESTROYING YOU! HA HAAA!"
It threw the grenade in Chopper's direction, which proceeded to land in front of his feet. Chopper merely kicked it back and watched it explode, destroying the Tartaras in the process, along with the computers and the teleporter.
"Wait, that teleport could've been our way out off-" Scrub paused, suddenly remembering where the castle was. "Oh, right... We can't."
"Well, there goes their whole business," Flyer said, looking at the computers destroyed from the grenade. "If they don't have people to give them monsters, then they can't make any money."
Vivian had spotted a key once the smoke had cleared and picked it up. "It looks like they had a key as well..."
"Let's save it. It could be useful!" Sonic suggested.
With Tartara Corporations unable to continue their business, they decided to leave the room, with Chopper writing "Out of Business" on the front of the door. They headed to the door ahead and found a staircase leading up to the ninth floor. There, they found the door leading into the hallway locked. Vivian unlocked the door, and they proceeded into a small hallway. There were only two doors. The closest one had brought them into another bedroom. It looked similar to Camikon's, but there was no shelf, nor were any magic books. In fact, looking down at the carpet, they saw Maquano's head.
"So... This must be Maquano's room..." Chopper trailed. "I guess Camikon left it be. No point in being here, I guess."
After leaving that room, they decided to go over to the other room. This had led them into a large, circular room with five unlit candles in the center. It was almost as big as Gloomtail's room.
"There's...hardly anything here," Shadower remarked. "Just some unlit candles..."
"Might as well light them up," Chopper tossed five fireballs straight at the candles, lighting them up. Just then, black smoke appeared in the center of the candles, and materializing out of it was a red chest. It had that same, eerie sound as well.
"The way that chest appeared was just like in the Palace of Shadow..." Vivian shuddered.
Suddenly, the flames detached from the candles and started to circle around the group. Most of them appeared wide-eyed as they watched the flames continuously circle until they started to ascend above them. All fives flames had suddenly combined together, until they slowly began to shrink into nothing.
"The heck was that?" Tamber gawked.
Soon enough, an evil laughter had echoed through the room, leaving everyone frozen in fear. It hadn't lasted too long, as if ended up getting softer until they could no longer hear it.
"Is it just me, or did I hear some evil laugh fill the room?" Sonic gawked.
Mario: You're not the only one.
"Whatever it was, it's finally gone," Flyer sighed. "The way those flames had moved around... That was so strange."
"Well, we have the key with us," Chopper mentioned, holding up the key. "So we should get out of this place!"
"Yeah, I would like that," Vivian agreed.
The others agreed, and they all left the ninth floor and returned to the staircase. With that, they headed up to the tenth floor for their showdown against Camikon.
If you had read the first Paper Chopper story, then I'm sure you might remember a few of these areas here.
Next time, Chopper and his friends take on the evil wizard Camikon and hope to put an end to Tartamos once and for all!