Upon walking out of the door, they knew it was getting a lot darker than before. Even the lightning in the background had gotten much closer, too, making them know that they were much deeper in Dark Subspace World. Up ahead was a long, narrow road leading to the door, with a couple of pillars off the road as well. Though they thought they'd be safe from enemies, they were wrong when they found some Darksprine Troopers patrolling the area.
"Wow... We're getting a lot closer than we thought." Scrub gawked, staring at the background. "Things are probably going to get intense."
"Yes, that would be logical," Flyer agreed.
"But that's not going to stop us! Let's go!" Chopper started to make his way through the long, narrow pathway of darkness. Unfortunately, this was when the Darksprines began to stop them.
"There they are! Stop them!" the two Darksprine Troopers began firing at Chopper and his friends. The young gumball was able to inhale one of the shot and spit it out at both Darksprines.
"That kid can inhale things…" the Darksprine at the back pulled out a Subspace grenade. "Stand back! I got a grenade!"
It tossed the grenade back at Chopper, but that didn't do much, as he was able to simply kick it back.
"Kick it back! Kick it back!" the Darksprine at the front kicked the grenade back at Chopper. He kicked it back once again. It kept going back and forth…until the Darksprine missed the kick.
"Dude! Kick it! Kick it!"
"I know! I-"
The grenade blew up and it took out the two Darksprine Troopers, thus allowing Chopper and his group of friends to continue on to the door ahead, leading into an area that had a large amount of blue blocks blocking their way. There was a red one with a bomb in it, though.
"Hit the one with the bomb on it," Flyer suggested. "I'm pretty sure we'll be able to move on through there."
"All right, I'll do it," Chopper tossed a fireball at the red block, making it blow up all the block in their way. They came up to a glowing yellow platform that created a couple of other platforms to help them cross over the bottomless pit below. It led them over to a door, which had an area through it with another road. However, one section of it was too high for them to reach. Well, Flyer did not think that.
"Surely my flying could get us up there, Chopper," Flyer suggested.
"Go for it!" Chopper smiled as Flyer grabbed his arms and flew up to the ledge. Once they were up there, he gave the others some help as well. They were all relieved when they reached the top, but it wasn't over yet. Now the road had a couple of gaps in the way.
"And now we've got some gaps to cross…" Chopper sighed, taking a look at the gaps. "All right, Scrub. Looks like you're going to have to help me here."
"Oh, yeah!" Scrub fist pumped. "Now we're talking!"
Chopper got on Scrub, and he began to flutter across the gaps. Thankfully, this process hadn't taken too long
"You know, thinking about it more... I feel like Yosho did a better job at fluttering around. Then again, he only fluttered up. You're crossing gaps."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Scrub asked, feeling a bit offended.
"Nothing! You're still very helpful, and I wouldn't be here without you!"
"Yeah, that's true. You'd probably be stuck in the Glitz Pit if I weren't here, Contadre."
"On the other hand, some of the stuff Yosho did was funny," Chopper admitted. "I heard that one time he spoke to a statue."
"Who told you that?"
"I think it was Koopla... She didn't like that job in the Nightclub Casino. I feel kinda bad for her..." Chopper trailed, the two reaching the door. "Anyway, maybe you should go help the others."
"Got it!" Scrub nodded, making his way back to the others.
After he helped the others get across, they proceeded on to the area ahead, which was small and had a symbol of a lemon, grape and orange on the ground. There were no enemies around, and the door was up ahead.
"Hmmmmm… I wonder what these symbols mean." Chopper pondered before walking into the next area. There, they found a couple of switches in red, orange, yellow, green, pink, and purple.
"Looking back at the other room, this looks like a puzzle that requires you to hit the switch of the color in the other room," Vivian stated, looking down at the switches. "Ummmm… Yeah. I think that's how it is."
"Let's try it out, then!" Chopper pondered for a moment. "Vivian, do you remember what was in the other room?"
"If I can remember, there was a lemon, grape, and an orange on the floor. It's one sour and two sweets."
Nodding, Chopper used his Spin Jump on the three switches to make a chest appear from black smoke. He grabbed the key inside and used it to unlock the door ahead. It led them into a room with a door up ahead with a Save Block, which was locked. However, there was another door to the right of it, so they took that one instead, going into a room with a pathway and two large blocks with a purple and black arrow on them. The black one was a bit higher up than the other, so it was in their way.
"I think I can handle this," Chopper hit the small, black block with his foot, making the larger block fall. Berry helped Chopper cross the large gap by whacking him from behind with her hammer. However, he wasn't expecting that to happen so soon. "Oof! Berry, next time you need to make sure that I'm seeing that…"
"Sorry..." Berry trailed, an apologetic look appearing on her face.
Chopper moaned as he got up and walked up the small steps to a wall with the little flap sticking out. "Hey, Kirby! Think you can inhale this?"
"Poyo? (Inhale something? I can do that!)" Kirby took in some air before floating across over to Chopper. He noticed the flap sticking out, so he used his inhaling ability to tear the piece of paper off and eat it.
"Good! Now we can see what's through here." Chopper made his way into the doorway created, which had a bunch of bombs leading over to a key. Well, it seemed like a long course to go through. At first, there were stairs to the north leading up to a floor with spikes that'll pop out, and then a little narrow pathway with bombs all over the place.
"Yikes… This is going to be a challenge." Bombette stated.
"Hey, I can do this! Don't worry!" Chopper turned sideways in order to go between the bombs that were in the way of the stairs. After that, he went over to the floor with the spikes that popped out and went back in the ground.
"Vivian! You're going to need to help me here!" Chopper called out.
"I'm coming!" Vivian sank into the shadows and then she rose up in front of Chopper. At this moment, they had to cross their way through the spikes by sinking into the shadows and rising up when the spikes would disappear. It didn't take long to complete this process, and once that was done, he reached a narrow path with bombs all over the place.
"Oh, crud..."
"Just suck it up and do it already!" Tamber shouted.
"Oh, fine…" Chopper pouted as he slowly made his way through the pathway, trying his best NOT to touch the bombs. At first, he had barely touched a bomb, leaving him more nervous than before. In the end, he reached the chest, which contained a Subspace Key. "That takes care of that!"
Unfortunately, accidentally threw a fireball, causing all of the bombs around him to explode, some dark green energy appearing inside before disappearing. Surprisingly, Chopper was not hurt by the bombs.
"Well... Looks like that worked." Chopper blinked, returning to his friends.
Mario: At least you're safe.
"Yeah... I am..."
"Let's go take care of that locked door," Shadower suggested.
Chopper nodded, and they began to make their way back to the locked door.
Locked door-
Once Chopper inserted the key in its place, the door opened up, leading to a large road before them.
"Whoa… Talk about a long road." Sonic gaped. "I can't even see its end!"
"Yeah..." Chopper trailed, taking a couple of steps ahead. "Maybe this road will take us to the center."
"If that's true, then I have no problem walking through here," Scrub smiled.
As Chopper looked up at the road, he was suddenly interrupted by a voice.
"So, you finally made your way here, Chopper... I'm not too surprised." Turning around, Chopper spotted Tipral walking right beside him. Though he looked battered from their previous fight, he still looked like he could hold his own.
"Wait, what's he doing here?" Tamber gawked. "Didn't we beat him up?"
"Some people just don't get as easily beaten than others, I guess..." Chopper trailed, walking on ahead with Tipral while facing him. "Well, we are pretty fast, you know. And it takes a lot to take us down."
"What are they doin-" Scrub was interrupted by Tamber, who wanted to listen to their conversation.
"You know, thinking about it, if it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't have made it here," Chopper recalled, thinking back to Clara. "You really made a big difference when you said that we had to go see that Cloudrod guy."
"That's only because I didn't trust your little friend," Tipral said, looking back at Flyer. "I was only doing what I believed was best. And right now, stopping you is my priority."
"Stop me? For what? Is someone telling you to stop me?" Chopper asked as he began to start jogging, along with Tipral.
"I was sent to see what you were capable of," Tipral answered, which left Chopper confused.
"Huh? You wanted to see what I could do? For what?"
"To see how strong you were. And from what I've seen, you are quite good. I'd say you'd almost be a match for me. Almost. Tell me, Chopper… How did you do it?"
"How did I do it? What do you mean?"
"How were you able to destroy the Shadow King and Queen and also collect all the Crystal Stars so easily?!" Tipral asked in an angrier tone.
"Well, all I did was stomp, use my hammer and use my elemental hand attacks. That, and I copied some abilities and used against them. ...Wait, why's that important? Who sent you after us?"
"That's too much information for me to tell you. Despite looking like me, you are quite an interesting boy. But I'm afraid I can't let you live!" Tipral declared, increasing his speed. Chopper began to increase his speed as well. "Your quest to save this universe will come to an end!"
"If that's how you want to play, then fine!" Chopper declared. "Come on, guys! We'll show him!"
Everyone nodded and tried their best to follow, but only Sonic was able to keep up with Chopper and Tipral.
"I shall finally put an end to you and your pathetic friends!" Tipral roared. "None of you will leave this world alive!"
Tattle: That's Tipral. How was he able to recover so easily from that fight? Well, it looks like he's still hurt, but for someone to keep their energy after a big fight… Wow. Max HP is 540, Attack is 23, and Defense is 0. Just like before, he'll try to attack you with his Star Spear and his Star Punches. Careful, Chopper… He may be your polar opposite, but he's not one to mess with. Watch out for some of his attacks, such as the ability to make Star energy fall upon you guys... Now THAT'S dangerous!
"All right, let's get things started!" Chopper tried to knock Tipral off the road with his own elbow, but he ended up using his Jump on him instead. Sonic, on the other hand, had managed to use his Homing Attack to deal 10 damage to him.
"Hmph! Take this!" Tipral managed to move ahead of Chopper and swung both arms, tossing a purple Star Spear at him and Sonic. That was when Chopper had struck him with a Gravity Jump, taking 30 out of him. When Scrub finally caught up, he used his Ground Pound to deal 10 damage.
Tipral quickly teleported and then dove down at Chopper when he appeared from behind. He successfully guarded the attack, taking only 22 damage instead. This did not stop Chopper from throwing him down and hitting him with a light ball, which seemed to cause some serious pain to him.
"Ugh… You do have some fight in you…" moaned Tipral, who managed to get himself up. He ended up getting hit by Kirby's Cartwheel, knocking him off the road.
"Poyo! (Hey, that was easy!)" Kirby cheered.
Tipral ended up appearing in front of Kirby, striking him with a Star Punch.
"Poyo?! (Huh? What happened?!)"
"It's that teleporting he has..." Berry trailed. "I don't think we're throwing him off this road..."
"Whoa… That's bad." Chopper clenched his fist and punched Tipral with light energy. Vivian left a burn on him with her Shade Fist afterward. Tipral, however, managed to shrug it off, and he struck Chopper with his Star Kick, knocking him back near the edge of the road.
"It's the end of the road for you, Chopper," Tipral was about to use another Star Spear on him, but then Chopper managed to perform a Wall Jump and strike Tipral, doing 26 to him. Tamber used a Combo Punch on Tipral to take 12 out of him, leaving him with 401 HP.
Tipral growled as he began to run on ahead, snapping his fingers to make Chopper get hit by Star Magic. Unfortunately, the attack didn't do much when it was Superguarded.
"You're not getting away from me, Tipral!" Chopper called out, speeding after him. When he caught up, he managed to strike him with a light ball when he got close to him. Berry managed to hit him with her hammer when he slowed down to make an attack.
"Take this!" Tipral surrounded himself in a Star Barrier, striking anyone close to him such as Chopper and Berry. "I'll make sure nothing holds me back in defeating you!"
"Well that's fine!" Chopper quickly got up and tossed an electric ball at him. "For someone who's fake, you sure have some strange abilities…"
"Enough with that act," Tipral silenced, getting annoyed. "I was made a thousand years ago."
"A thousand years ago? What happened then?" Vivian asked.
"That's none of your concern," Tipral replied harshly, approaching Vivian. "I've moved on from my awful past, and now I can focus on destroying you fools!"
Before he could attack her, Mario had gotten his hammer out and struck him with it. In response, Tipral grabbed him and swung him at Vivian.
Not happy with this, Chopper inhaled Tipral and spat him away from them. When he fell to the ground, he suffered 10 from the attack. Scrub followed up with his Ground Pound.
After rubbing his head, Tipral punched Scrub in the nose, leaving the poor Yoshi to hold his nose in pain.
"Ow, my nose!" Scrub cried.
"Then you shouldn't have been so foolish," Tipral stated harshly.
"Hey, what's your problem hurting babies?!" Chopper exclaimed, glaring at Tipral.
"I'm NOT a baby!" Scrub shouted.
"I don't care who I hit," Tipral said. "You're all my enemies here, and leaving all of you alive is considered a threat."
Frowning, Chopper leaped in the air and struck Tipral with a jump, with Flyer using a Flying Attack. Before he could return to his friends, Tipral grabbed the Wingel and swung him at Chopper.
"How is he using us as weapons?!" Flyer exclaimed, finally being dropped.
"Because he knows when to make an attack?" Chopper shrugged, quickly using his Inhale on Tipral, while Tamber's Combo Punch brought him down to 297 HP. Chopper ducked when Tipral tried to punch him, and then he jumped up high and came down on him with a Gravity Jump, dealing 30 damage. Kirby helped bring him to 257 with a Cartwheel.
Tipral quickly shook his head before snapping his finger. Kirby was struck by his Star Magic, which sent him flying up for a brief moment. When he had landed on the floor, Tipral stopped moving, allowing the others to catch up.
"So no more running?" Chopper asked, putting himself to a halt.
"As much as I like running, at least we're having a real fight," Sonic smirked.
Flyer had looked down at the rings attached to Tipral's wrists. "I always wondered why you always have those rings on your wrists."
"These rings are what I need to control my powers. I have to keep them on at all costs, or else it's possible I'll die." Tipral explained. "Of course, you won't live to see that."
"I don't think you're going to stop us," Chopper retorted, slamming his hammer on him, followed up by Bombette's Bomb. "And maybe you should learn to smile!"
"Give me one reason why I should!" Tipral hissed, landing a punch on Chopper. "No matter what, you can never get me to smile!"
"Yeesh! This guy is violent!" Scrub used his Gulp ability to inhale Tipral and spit him out. "He's almost as violent as that robotic version of Chopper!"
"Metal Chopper? Ah, yes… I know that robot. He can't even do anything good. He thinks he's good, but I see him as an idiot."
"At least we can agree on something," Chopper smirked, kicking Tipral with light energy on his feet. After that, Tipral managed to use his powers to freeze everything around him. At this moment, he started by attacking everyone with punches and kicks. When he stopped, everyone had already taken 25 damage.
"What the heck?! What just happened?!" exclaimed Sonic.
"You don't know? Well, I'd rather not waste your time with an explanation." Tipral replied while crossing his arms. Sonic shrugged, and Chopper delivered a Gravity Jump on Tipral, taking 30 out of him. Flyer struck with another Flying Attack next.
"Take this!" Tipral tossed a Star Spear at Chopper, only for him to guard it.
"Sorry, Tipral, but I don't think that's going to work!"
Tipral growled at him when he got hit by another Gravity Jump and the Cartwheeled from Kirby. He decided to raise his own Attack by 23 instead so he could unleash a Star Blast upon them all.
"Uh oh…" Chopper pulled a Max Shroom out and ate it to recover all of his HP while Vivian pulled them into the shadows to avoid Tipral's ultimate attack.
"Star BLAST!" Tipral yelled, unleashing his powerful attack. To his dismay, he didn't hit anyone, but he was able to kick Chopper when he emerged from the shadows.
"All right… It's time for…ART ATTACK!" Chopper pulled the Ruby Star out and began to draw circles around him using his finger. "And this is the star I managed to take from you!"
"Yes... I know..." Tipral trailed angrily. "If only I had that star, you would be in serious trouble."
"But you don't, so there!" Chopper smiled, finishing his eleventh circle and dealing 33 damage to Tipral. Bombette immediately followed up by using an Explosion on him for the heck of it, bringing him down to 90 HP. "Bombette! Don't waste so much FP!"
"Well, it helped you, though," Bombette mentioned.
"Oh, yeah... It did."
Tipral ignored the group and opened up his hand, revealing a dark ball of energy that came flying toward Chopper. In retaliation, Chopper had thrown a light ball at Tipral, leaving him wincing in pain.
Mario: Sometimes I wish I had light energy.
While Tipral was left off guard, Kirby ended up hitting him with another Cartwheel, taking 10 more out of him.
"Time to put this to an end!" Tipral teleported and then appeared in front of Chopper, landing a punch on him and leaving a red mark on his face. Chopper, on the other hand, managed to punch Tipral in the face with light energy.
"We should be done pretty soon!" Scrub smirked as he used a Ground Pound on him, bringing him to 50 HP. Tipral fired two Star Spears this time, both of them hitting Chopper and Scrub. Chopper decided to hit him with another Gravity Jump, and after Kirby used a Cartwheel, he was down to 10.
"Argh... I'm not going to lose just yet…" grumbled Tipral as he hurled another shadow ball at Chopper. He managed to guard it and give Tipral a smirk.
"Well, here it goes…" Chopper conjured up another light ball and fired at Tipral, depleting his HP to 0 and making him fall over.
"Impossible…" Tipral moaned. "I was created to be the most powerful being in the world! And then you come in and bring me down..."
"Well, if someone told you that, then they were lying," Chopper said, approaching the injured Tipral. "Now that we beat you, you have to answer our question! Who's behind all of this?"
Tipral moaned as he looked up at Chopper, giving him his angry look. "I'll never give you the answer to that…"
"Why not?"
"Because… I… I promised him that I wouldn't tell a soul unless they knew about him too." Tipral mumbled. "I may have failed to stop you, but there are other obstacles in your way... The Darksprine Troopers... Those bombs... You probably wouldn't stand a chance again him either..."
"What do you mean?" Chopper questioned. Tipral had no chance to reply, as he lost the strength to do so and ended up passing out. "Crud… Well, looks like we're gonna have to find out ourselves on who 'he' is."
"Yeah... And we'll teach this guy a lesson for trying to mess with our world." Berry agreed.
Knowing what they had to do, the group started to sprint ahead, making their way to the end of this long road.