CHAPTER 18-5
-A Tragic Destruction-
Chopper's stomach felt uneasy as he saw The Void slowly grow bigger in the sky. Now that it was practically at its full size, he knew that they had very little time to reach the top. Even Ortorain looked worried about his world, according to his expression that they all noticed.
"How much time do we even have left?" Chopper asked. "The Void's HUGE!"
"I can't really say how long. Honestly, I don't know." Ortorain sighed. "I'm not the Creator of Time, you know. That's what my cousin's sister's father's brothers' mother's son does. And even then, I'm sure we wouldn't have the time to find him…"
"OK… I don't know what to say there…" Luigi trailed before they felt a slight tremor from The Void. "Oh, boy… If there's a tremor, then we know this world doesn't have much time until its destruction…"
"Indeed. This way, heroes." Ortorain ordered as he flew off. Everyone instantly followed the small alien to where he created a platform with his scepter. The glowing pink platform lifted off the ground and carried the heroes up.
What was nice was the view.
Mario: What a nice view!
"I think this is the only view where we'll get to see everything in this world…" Sonic trailed as he noticed how much to this world there was. "We didn't really go through much of this world and already we're seeing everything about it."
"Yes, it is indeed a very nice view," Ortrorain agreed. "When I created this dimension, I wanted to make the elevator that leads to the top of this place have a nice view. Luckily, no Dimensional Ghosts know about this place, so it should be safe."
However, that's when a Dimensional Ghost appeared.
"…I guess I was wrong."
Chopper immediately threw a rainbow ball to leave it stunned. Kirby got his mechanized hammer ready and prepared to swing it at the ghost.
"Uh oh… That's not safe!" the dimension creator cried as he used his scepter to zap Kirby and get rid of his Masked ability.
"Poyo?! (Why did you do that?!)" Kirby exclaimed.
"That ability is too dangerous, especially for this elevator! If you even struck this platform with your hammer, it would be powerful enough to shatter the whole thing! I'd recommend you use it when you absolutely need it. Save it for something important."
Ortorain created a smaller mask of King Dedede's mask and gave it to Kirby. He was about to inhale it, but Chopper closed his mouth, telling him that he shouldn't use the ability right now.
"Poyo… (OK… I'll use it when it's absolutely necessary…)" Kirby sighed.
"Ummmm… there any possibility that someone could fall off this thing?" Luigi asked as he looked down and gulped. "Because I don't feel very safe…"
"Well… If you trip or something, it's a possibility that you could fall…" Ortorain shrugged. "It's the most unsafe elevator in the whole universe."
"What?! Oh, no! Why am I on here, then? I'm going to end up dying because of this elevator!"
"Oh, you are quite the gullible one, Luigi! I was just kidding, there! Even if you fell, I could use my scepter's power to bring you back here! Don't you worry about a thing! However, I can't say the same thing with this world…"
"Oh, good…" Luigi sighed in relief. "But, really, don't make a joke like that. I can get quite scared of something like that. It makes me feel worried."
"Luigi, just relax. Everything will be fine." Chopper assured. That is, until they felt another small tremor. "…Or not."
The beautiful purple sky was no longer seen. In fact, The Void had become the sky now. While it wasn't about to destroy Dimensional X right about now, everyone began to feel worried over it.
"Oh geez… Look at The Void!" Blade gaped as The Void nearly towered over the world.
Mario: Can we make this thing go any faster?
"I believe I should do that. I apologize if I didn't do this any sooner." Ortorain apologized as he made the elevator travel faster. They easily made it to their destination. They found a large door up ahead with four openings. The frame was a glowing pink, which looked beautiful to everyone.
Mario: What's with those openings on the door?
"It doesn't look like an ordinary door…" Luigi trailed.
"You see, this door requires something special in order to unlock it," Ortorain informed as he pulled the four cards out. "The reason why I had you guys seek the cards in your worlds and Sammer's Kingdom was so you could open this door. Although, there was unfortunately a price that had to be paid…"
"Our worlds…" Sonic trailed.
"Indeed," he nodded as he placed the cards in their correct space. The cards slowly began to combine into a symbol, which opened the door. "There you go, heroes. With this door open, we have opened the way to the top of this world."
"Then we should go through before we're too late," Chopper declared, walking into the door. Everyone exchanged nods and followed him through the door. There, they found a long road with a couple of hills and one large hill that resembled a lump.
"Well, just because we got through the door doesn't mean we're at the portal yet, I suppose…" Sonic trailed.
"We better move quickly then," Chopper readied a Speed Dash as he grabbed Kirby and Luigi's hands. He took off and went through a couple of hills, especially the large one in front of him.
Sonic followed them while holding onto Blade and Mario. The path didn't feel too long for them, but they got worried when they felt some small tremors as The Void slowly began to grow.
"I can barely stand to look at The Void," Blade shuddered.
"I know," Sonic agreed. "It's really bad…"
Once they made their way to the end of the pathway, they found a ladder leading up to a tower ahead. It wasn't a large tower, but it sure was at the top of the world, that's for sure.
As everyone climbed, the tremors began to get worse. Luigi's heart began to beat faster every time he heard a tremor, and his hands began to tremble in fear at The Void's size. Even Ortorain looked worried.
"My world…" Ortorain thought as he looked at The Void.
They got onto the platform at the top of the ladder and jumped on the top of the tower. There, they found a small staircase leading up to the final globe. Ortorain quickly flew over and fired a laser from his scepter at it, which began to reveal a portal.
"The final portal… At long last." Ortorain sighed as the portal revealed itself. However, where it would lead to was not revealed yet. "Heroes… This world will lead you to the Pure Heart. Please remember that…"
Before he could continue, the violent tremors were at its worst. Nothing could be seen from the sky except for The Void. There were even a couple of white flashes before more shaking.
Mario: We're too late!
"Dimensional X is meeting its end…" Ortorain trailed. "Go now, heroes! Don't waste any time!"
"Wait, what about you?!" Chopper asked.
"...I will stay here. I promised my father I wouldn't abandon my job as dimension creator, and that requires me to protect this precious world. If this world is to go, then I shall go as well."
"What? But… You can't be serious…" Luigi gasped. "You're…going to sacrifice yourself to help us?"
"It's...the least I can do as a creator. All of you must go. Now." Ortorain used his scepter's power to fire a rainbow blast at the portal, opening the way into the world. It began to suck everyone in, to their surprise. "Remember this, heroes. The Pure Heart you seek is exactly where you guys started."
Because of the force of the portal, both Sonic and Blade were sucked in, due to being closer to the portal. A couple of more white flashes appeared before Mario and Luigi were sucked in, leaving Chopper and Kirby, who were trying to reach Ortorain and fight back the force of the portal.
"Ortorain! Don't sacrifice yourself!" Chopper cried as he grabbed Kirby's hand. Unfortunately, the force even pulled Kirby in. He decided to reach for Ortorain's hand. "Look, Ortorain, there's still a chance for you to save yourself! Grab my hand! Please!"
"I'm sorry, Chopper," Ortorain said as his head hung low. "I cannot leave my world. I made a vow to protect this world, even from danger like this. If it means I have to sacrifice myself, then I will do it."
"But… But…"
Ortorain used his scepter's power to make the force of the portal stronger, sucking Chopper in before he could plead for him to come with them again. The portal closed, leaving only Ortorain left.
"I'm sorry…" he sighed as he closed his eyes and shed a tear. "I guess I can finally see my father again…"
As he said these last words, Dimensional X slowly began to fade away.
?-
"Ughhh… I don't feel so good…" Chopper moaned as he slowly got up. After rubbing his eyes, he realized he was in a jungle, with the trees and mushrooms being a bigger size than usual. Everyone else got up and noticed the same thing too. They noticed they were right by a lake in an open field.
"Poyo…? (Where are we…?)" Kirby asked as he rubbed his eyes. "Poyo… (This place looks familiar…)"
"Hold on a minute… This is my home planet, Clara!" Chopper gasped. "I don't believe it! The nineteenth Pure Heart is located here on my home planet?! That's…very shocking!"
"Well, this is the only world we haven't been to so far…" Blade trailed. "This reminds me of when we accidentally came here and thought we were back home. Boy, were we wrong."
When Chopper got a clear view of the sky, he gaped when he saw The Void was ready to destroy this world as well. Thankfully, the size of it wasn't big like Dimensional X.
"Great… Tipral just HAD to try to destroy my world as well." Chopper growled clenching his fists. "I swear, we're going to make him pay…"
"Yeah, we need to stop him," Sonic agreed. "He pretty much DESTROYED everything we loved!"
"Hold on, what happened to Ortorain?" Luigi asked, looking around the jungle. "Did he come with us?"
"He… He…" Chopper stammered. "He saved us from The Void's wrath by sacrificing himself…"
"Poyo, (I think I recall that,)" Kirby remembered. "Poyo… (I can't believe he just gave himself up like that to help us… I don't know what to say…)"
"Well, where should we go from here anyway?" Blade asked. "Apparently the Pure Heart is located in your world, Chopper. Did Ortorain tell us where we could even find the Pure Heart?"
"Hold on… I'm starting to recall something." Chopper pondered, thinking about what Ortorain said that was important. He said something about it being 'where they started'. But, what could that mean?
"Well well well! If it isn't Chopper! How nice of you to show up!" the heroes whirled around by the path deeper into the jungle and saw a leaf with purple eyes wearing a crown made of vines, as well as his arms. His legs, on the other hand, were made out of tree bark.
"Trinado… What are you doing here?"
"I live in the jungle, idiot. Besides, I really can't go into the castle anymore after some kind of barrier blocked my way. Someone must've set it up to prevent me from getting in."
"Hold on a second…" Chopper began to think once again until something struck him. "Ortorain said that the Pure Heart was where we started."
"What do you mean by that?" Luigi asked.
"Don't you get it? Where did our adventure start?"
"Poyo? (In Flipside?)" Kirby shrugged.
"No! In Trinado's Castle! Don't you remember when we had that party that Tipral set up? Well, I think I'm starting to remember a pale green heart I saw on the wall. That MAY have been the Pure Heart!"
"Trinado's Castle? Of course!" Sonic realized. "That's where we started before Tipral came in and took us to Sammer's Kingdom! We better go there!"
"What are you talking about?" Trinado barked as he pulled his two pink poison swords out. "Look, if you think you're going to go invade my castle, you better think again. That's MY place, not yours!"
"Trinado… We're not going to take any of your stuff." Chopper groaned. "We need to find something called a Pure Heart there to get rid of The Void that's going to destroy our home world."
"Wait… Are you kidding me? Sure, I'm not exactly a good guy, but I'd rather not have my world go. Then again, seeing you go first would be a lot better!"
"Why don't you take us to your castle then?" Blade suggested, reaching for his katana just in case.
"Didn't I tell you? It's being blocked by a dark barrier! I can't shatter that thing!"
"Poyo? (Then how do we get through?)" Kirby asked.
"Anyway, how about we have a little fight, just for old time's sake, Chopper?" the leaf king smirked as he readied his two poison swords. "I'll tell ya: I'm going to have some fun poisoning you!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Chopper warned, conjuring up a fireball that he held toward Trinado. "I have fire, which could easily burn you. Not only that, but I could just use Piccolo to cure my poison ailment!"
"Oh yeah?" Trinado punched him in the face and attempted to strike him with his poison swords. Chopper jumped out of the way and threw a rainbow ball instead, leaving Trinado off guard.
"Well, you may have rainbow energy, but I have something better!" Trinado conjured up a large poison sword that he held with two hands. It was certainly bigger than any other sword, even a Skelloknight's sword. "So… What's it going to be, Chopper? You wanna live? Then bow down to me!"
"Heck no!" Chopper retorted.
"We can take you down!" Blade taunted.
"With this thing in my hands? I think not! Obviously with this thing, not only will it slice you in half, but it'll poison you." Trinado explained. "So, how does that feel?"
"That doesn't feel good at all!" Chopper frowned. "How can you just defeat us now when we're getting close to the end of the story? …I mean, we really don't have time for this crud."
"Well, once I finish you off, I'm going to find a way outta here. Anyway, let's stop the talking and settle this, because I am…"
Before Trinado could finish, he was paralyzed by something that hit him from behind. He soon fell over, and it was revealed that Flyer shot him from behind.
"Don't even try to hurt my friend," Flyer warned as Trinado's sword disintegrated. The heroes, on the other hand, were gaping at their winged friend.
"F-Flyer?!" Chopper stammered. "B-But I thought…"
"You thought I was swallowed up by The Void?" Flyer said. "Well, I thought I was, but I accidentally pressed a button on the teleporter when I was thrown in. I guess I was teleported here, which is in danger as well."
"Whoa… That's pretty surprising." Sonic gawked. "Well, at least someone from Toad Town survived."
"Actually, I wasn't the only one," Flyer said as four others were behind him. They were C-2 Choppor, Ghoster, Berry, and Tamber. They were all glad to see them, especially Berry, who had hearts over her head as she saw Chopper.
"It is a pleasure to see you all again," C-2 Choppor stated. "We thought death was upon us, but we unintentionally ended up here."
"Yeah, what a relief…" Ghoster trailed. "Too bad the rest of our friends are gone along with the Mushroom Kingdom…"
Mario: I know…
"We should probably go to my house," Chopper suggested. "I think I might have left something there that I don't want to forget. I think it's a little important."
"What's the important item you need?" Sonic asked.
"It's something that'll help us heal our HP, that's for sure. It's good. VERY good. And considering the fight I was in earlier... I think it'd help."
However, when Kirby saw a chest on a tree branch, he floated up to it and opened it to find a can with a rainbow Mushroom on it. When he brought it down, Chopper's antennae sprung up.
"It's something like that!" Chopper gasped. "I think I still had some Master Shrooms that we could somehow make as shakes. I don't know HOW we're going to do that, but we'll find a way."
"I'll see if I can help you," Flyer announced as Chopper headed off to the left, leaving Trinado unconscious. Everyone shrugged and followed him to the door into a flat area with a couple of Darklings roaming around.
"Darklings? Here?" Luigi gasped.
"Yeah, apparently. But it's no big deal." Chopper assured as he finished one off with a simple jump. After jumping over a small pit, he found a ? Block near the door. Upon hitting it, an Ultimate Shroom popped out.
"Well, so much for this…"
"I guess I didn't really need to heal you?" Berry wondered.
"Doesn't matter, we can still use this anyway," Blade declared as he sliced it into six pieces. The six heroes ate them and recovered 100 HP and carried on over the pit and to the door.
"It's weird that we're moving left…" Sonic trailed. "Usually we go to the right…"
In the next area, they found a couple of small star blocks stacked up to block their way. Chopper was able to smash them easily with his hammer and smash a large yellow block up ahead.
"Scanners detecting some invisible enemies," C-2 Choppor warned. "Be on the lookout."
However, what made things worse was when a Phantom Hand rose from the ground and attempted to grab Chopper's foot. He shrieked in fear as he grabbed a hold of Berry, who smiled at him.
"It's all right, I'm here," she replied as she hugged.
"Wait…" Chopper blinked before realizing he was holding onto Berry. He gasped and stepped away from her while Blade slashed at the Phantom Hand with his katana, getting rid of it.
"Aw, come on… Oh well." Berry sighed. "Although, to be fair, I really shouldn't be thinking about Chopper all the time when the world is near its end…"
Before Blade could do anything else, another Phantom Hand appeared and grabbed Blade's legs. Tamber immediately glided over to the hand and pounded it with his fists, making it shriek.
"Ugh… That shriek is irritating." Tamber cringed.
After Tamber gave it one last punch, it was defeated. Up ahead, they noticed a bridge crossing over a river. Two small leaf enemies with dark clouds around them named Leafions noticed them and charged.
"So the Leafions are corrupted by The Void too?" Chopper gawked as he hurled some fireballs at them. He attacked one of them with a flaming kick just to show a little bit of style. Berry bashed the other with her hammer.
They noticed on the bridge, there was a Corrupted Leafion holding a horn and using it to call in other Leafions. Ghoster used his psychic abilities to lift the horn out of its hands and let it hit it.
"Well that should take care of that," Ghoster smiled. "I gotta say… I've never been to this area of your planet before, Chopper. It's pretty cool!"
"Oh, yeah… We found you at the mountain area." Chopper recalled. "How was Ghost Town doing for you anyway?"
"Ehhh… The usual. There's been a lot of parties there too ever since the world got saved and all that. Plus, we even got to…"
"I suggest we get moving before we end up having another long conversation," C-2 Choppor suggested, interrupting Ghoster. Everyone shrugged and found a small hill going down across the bridge. Chopper used this to his advantage and ran down, while Flyer flew over the hill and over a spiked pit.
"I always wonder why there are spikes," Flyer wondered. "Don't you think it was Maquano who put them?"
"But Maquano's gone," Berry recalled. "Chopper got rid of him, right?"
"Uhhhh… Technically we all did." Chopper shrugged. "We all had a part in fighting him. Anyway, that's not the point. We need to cross these spikes."
"That's easy," Tamber assured as he glided over the spikes. "See? Nothing to worry about! The only ones who can't really fly across are you, Berry, Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi."
"Poyo, (We can always use Carrie,)" Kirby suggested.
"Who's Carrie, if I may ask?" Berry asked.
"This is Carrie," Luigi answered, pointing to the cross Pixl, who waved at Berry. Mario decided to go over the pit first with Carrie, followed by Luigi, Sonic, and then Blade.
"Want me to carry you across, Chopper?" Flyer asked.
"No, I don't think so," Chopper assured as he got on Carrie. However, Berry had joined him. "Wait, what?!"
"It'll make things easier," Berry assured. "There's enough room for the two of us!"
With a wink from her, Chopper sweat dropped as Carrie carried them across. After they got past that, they found a loop ahead. Chopper and Sonic easily went through, but for everyone else, they had to get help from people like Berry, who used her hammer to send them flying, or Flyer, who carried them over the loop. Afterward, they found a row of Brick Blocks with two Corrupted Leafions standing on them.
Mario instantly knew what to do. He simply punched underneath the blocks and knocked them off. Sonic followed up by attacking them with his Spin Dash, and Luigi finished them with his Cyclone.
"Huh… Chopper, how strong are these guys?" Luigi asked.
"Not too strong," Chopper informed. "They don't take too long to beat anyway."
They smashed a couple of Brick Blocks, but one of them revealed to have a black Mushroom with red eyes. From C-2 Choppor's scanners, they could tell it was called a Dark Shroom.
"Dark Shrooms are pretty dangerous," Flyer informed. "They not only deal a lot of damage, but they curse you with darkness that slowly drains your health…"
"Ouch… That's not good." Chopper hurled a rainbow ball at the Dark Shroom, but not even that finished it off. When it got closer to the group, Tamber tried to punch it, but its eyes made him shriek.
"Heh heh… I thought you were the tough one?" Berry scoffed.
"Oh, shut up… Don't get me there…" Tamber pouted as Berry smashed the Dark Shroom with her Ruby Hammer.
"Sometimes I don't get women," Blade shrugged. "They always tease ya!"
Berry decided to hit another Brick Block, but this one contained a Death Shroom. This time, she was trembling at it and went behind Chopper.
"I'm not attacking that!"
"And I'm not attacking it either," Flyer declared, going behind Chopper.
"Will you guys quit going behind me?!" Chopper groaned. "Seriously, why me? Why not go behind Mario or Luigi?"
"H-Hey! Don't bring us into this!" Luigi cried.
When the Death Shroom made its way to Mario, he was able to bash it with his hammer. Blade managed to beat it instantly with his Dragon Beam, leaving nothing left of the enemy.
"Well that takes care of that," Blade declared as he hurried to the door ahead. Everyone followed him into the next area, which had a bottomless pit near the edge of the ground and two Darklings hurling their spells. Luigi managed to stomp on one, while Mario finished off the other.
"I'm getting some nostalgia here," Chopper smiled as he jumped over the gap and found a door being blocked by star blocks. With Starbow, he was able to destroy the blocks and clear the door.
Of course, a Darkling was in the way, but with a simple bash from his hammer, he was able to get rid of it and enter the door.
When they all walked out of the door, they noticed a large mushroom house that awaited them. There was a mailbox with a sign labeled "Chopper" on it, and there were two gravestones next to the house.
"What is this place?" Luigi asked.
"This is my house," Chopper informed. "I haven't been here for such a long time… It feels great to be back home."
"What are those two gravestones doing over there?" Ghoster asked, pointing to the two gravestones. Chopper's smile slowly turned to a frown.
"Those are my parents' graves…"
"Your parents'…graves?" Luigi gaped.
"Yeah. When I defeated Maquano the first time, I decided to make a grave for both of my parents. Usually every day, I would go outside and visit them. I've been doing this for about six years…"
"Maybe I should've done that for my parents..." Berry trailed.
"Well… Let me show you my house, if you didn't remember."
Everyone followed him inside to where the living room was. Blade happily jumped on the red sofa and sat down, stretching his legs out and purring a little bit. Berry sat on the sofa as well and took her boots off. Her feet were oval-shaped like Chopper's but a lot smaller. Tamber sat on a green bean bag chair and walked over to the Nintendo Wii.
"Nice to be back here," Tamber smiled as he picked up the Wii remote. "So… Anyone want to play the Wii?"
"Tamber, we're not going to be here for that long," Flyer informed. "In fact, we only came here because Chopper has some items that could be useful."
"Well I don't care," the furball was about to turn the game console on, but he noticed the broken television. "What the heck? Why's this thing broken?"
"Oh, yeah... I ended up breaking it." Chopper said nervously.
"...Did you end up watching something that terrified you?" Flyer asked.
"I didn't mean to!"
"...OK, I'll get you another TV," the Wingel sighed, approaching the TV. "Well, actually, maybe now's the time for you to get a new one anyway. There's these HD TVs that are coming out."
"Really? Can you get me one?" Berry asked.
"I could, but no promises. Anyway, where were those items you said you had, Chopper?"
"I think they're in the kitchen," Chopper said as he walked over to the kitchen. "Although… I'm not sure HOW I'm going to make them into shakes. I need to find some sort of idea, honestly…"
"Perhaps I could be of assistance," C-2 Choppor stated as he followed Chopper in the kitchen. "As a robot, I am programmed to do many things."
"Well I'm going too," Flyer declared as he followed into the kitchen. Since Kirby loved the kitchen, he walked in as well, leaving the rest to relax.
"Well, what can we do here while they get what they need?" Luigi asked.
Mario: Play a game?
"How about truth or dare?" Tamber suggested. "That might be entertaining. How about I start! Ghoster, truth or dare!"
"Dare me," Ghoster suggested.
"I dare you to skip your turn!"
"…Wait, what? How can one skip their turn?"
"I don't know… I just know something like that."
"Well… I guess I have to skip my turn." Tamber pouted as he crossed his arms.
"All right… Mario, truth or dare?" Sonic asked.
Mario: Truth.
"Why do people say your fat when you're usually moving around often?"
Mario: That's not a nice thing to tell your friend…
"Yeah, I kind of agree," Berry nodded.
"OK, I guess it was a little too harsh. Anyway… Berry, truth or dare?"
"You can dare me."
"Hmmmmmm…" Sonic pondered, thinking of a dare. "Well, making you kiss Chopper seems a little too obvious."
"I'd definitely do that!"
"Well if you want to, go for it, but I'll dare you to put your boots on his head while he's not noticing just for laughs."
"Wouldn't he notice?" Luigi gawked.
"Beats me. But that sounds funny."
"Well, I'm going to do my dare. Besides, I'm sure my boots smell nice anyway!" Berry smiled as she rushed into the kitchen with the boots. She noticed Chopper was opening the fridge, only to find a note.
"What the heck? What's this doing here?" Chopper gawked.
"Poyo, (Some kind of note,)" Kirby noticed.
"Let's take a look," he pulled the note off the refrigerator and began to read it.
Dear Fink-rats,
Do you honestly have the fury to reach the heart that is pure? Fawful says no to your faces! It is impossible of the impossibility to reach it when the barrier of darkness is having the blocking! I have suggesting… You should have the leaving before Green Antennae's precious world and the heart that is pure gets destroyed!
The being of enemy,
Fawful
P.S.: I have fury!
P.S.S.: I have chortles!
P.S.S.S.: I scoffed the pizzas of slicing that had the leaving in the refrigerator!
"You gotta be kidding me!" Chopper barked. "Curse you Fawful and your appetite to eat the last slice of pizza in the fridge! And I was saving that for a special moment too!"
"How old was it?" Flyer asked.
"Uhhh… About a month old."
"A month?!" Berry gawked, thankfully not heard by the others as she put her two boots over Chopper's antennae.
"Well, at least the Master Shrooms are fine," Chopper smiled as he pulled a couple out. "Now… How the heck are we going to make them?"
"I'll handle that," C-2 Choppor assured as he took the Mushrooms and put them inside of him. After a couple of screws, they came out, but in cans. C-2 Choppor handed them to Chopper, who gasped.
"But how did you…?"
"I'm a robot. I can do many things."
"OK… I guess you made your point there." Chopper sighed as he turned around and saw Berry giggling. "Berry… What are you doing here? Did you want to come to help us too? I think you're a little late…"
"Well that's fine," Berry assured. "By the way… You look kind of funny!"
"Funny?"
"Poyo? (What's on your head?)" Kirby asked, pointing to the red boots on Chopper's head.
"I don't see any… Wait a second." Chopper felt a pair of boots on his head. "Berry… Why did you put your boots on my head?"
"Well, we got what we needed, so let's leave your house," Flyer suggested. "We can't waste our time."
"All right, now let me get my boots back," Berry took the boots off Chopper's head and put them back on her feet. Afterward, they went back in the living room, where they saw Tamber bashing his head against the wall. "Tamber, what the heck are you-"
"It's a dare," Tamber responded with a dazed expression. "Don't ask about it."
"Hold on a minute…" Luigi trailed. "If we're leaving, does that mean we have to go all the way back to where we came into this world?"
Mario: That's going to be annoying…
"Eh… It wasn't THAT much…" Chopper trailed. "Sometimes you just have to live with it. Besides, the worst backtracking for me was the Twilight Trail. I hated that."
"Poyo, (I don't think I had to go through there as much compared to you,)" Kirby recalled.
"Well then we better get going if we want to get there faster," Sonic suggested. "Tamber, stop hitting the wall with your head."
"Finally!"
Near the pond-
"Well, it's cool to be back at the pond," Ghoster commented as he floated over to the pond. "So… How on earth are we supposed to get to the castle anyway? Where is it?"
"It's in the upper part of the jungle," Chopper explained. "If I could recall, there's something that can help us get up there. Now where could it… Oh! There it is! The beanstalk!"
"Beanstalk?" Flyer gawked. "Since when did a beanstalk appear here?"
"After Maquano's defeat, I went back home and found a magic bean left by my door. It didn't say who it was addressed to, but I didn't care at the time, considering I was relieved and all. I planted it around here, and it turned out to be a beanstalk that led to the upper jungle! How cool is that?"
Mario: Is that how you got to the castle?
"Uh huh! We'll use it to reach the upper jungle, and then we'll be close to the castle!"
Everyone agreed, but Luigi noticed something. "Hey… What happened to that leaf king? He's not here…"
"Poyo? (Maybe he left?)" Kirby shrugged, unsure.
"Well, wherever he went, it's not too important to us. Let's just take this beanstalk." Chopper jumped on a large leaf hanging from the beanstalk and allowed it to slowly ascend around the beanstalk. Everyone else jumped on it and let it take them up.
"At least we don't have to go through the swamp," Berry sighed. "I personally didn't like it there."
"I remember when Bang went down a vine to the swamp. He ended up sliding down there with the vine in between his legs!" Blade recalled.
"Oh, I think I remember that," Flyer remembered. "But at the time, I was a little grouchy to even care."
Upper jungle-
After about two minutes, the leaf brought them up to the top of a tree, where it was flat like the ground below. What most of them knew was that the trees were very tall in this world. Their tops usually have a flat surface, just like the one they got on. There were even some loops leading to other trees as well.
"Ugh… I can't bother to look up at The Void…" Chopper trailed as he glanced at The Void. "It's not going to be easy to see this world go like this…"
"Then we better go. Now." Flyer suggested as he saw a loop up ahead making a corkscrew. "I suppose I'll fly over there. Anyone need help getting over there?"
Mario: I know I do!
"Yeah, same here," Luigi added.
"OK, then we're going to have to do something here…" Ghoster pondered. "Yeesh… When you have this many people, sometimes it takes time."
Flyer flew those who couldn't go through the corkscrew over to the next tree, while those who ran through the corkscrew did that and met them. They found two Corrupted Leafions by a ledge up ahead that could be reached by a round, grassy platform.
Mario jumped on the platform and reached the ledge to bash one of the Corrupted Leafions with his hammer. Luigi also stomped the same one with a jump, and then Blade attacked the other Corrupted Leafion with a fire slash, disintegrating it quickly.
"Thankfully these guys are weak to fire," Blade sighed in relief as he found a large vine with a couple of large fruit leading up to a platform where a large vine-like path was going down.
"I think we can use the fruit to go up," Berry realized when she jumped on it and bounced her up to the next fruit. It was almost like a spring.
"Poyo! (That fruit looks delicious!)" Kirby cheered as he opened his mouth. That is, until Chopper stopped him.
"We can't eat that! …I wish we could, but we need to use them!"
Kirby sighed as he floated up to the vine-like path above, while everyone else with the exception of Flyer, C-2 Choppor, and Ghoster used the fruit. Upon reaching the slide, C-2 Choppor scanned it.
"Scanners indicate that we could use this vine to slide," C-2 Choppor informed. "Since it's large, grinding on it isn't possible."
"Well, then we're sliding, I guess," Sonic said as he went down first, followed by Blade, who accidentally hit Sonic's quills with his feet.
"Ow! Why do your quills have to be so pointy?!" Blade screeched.
"At least they didn't stick to you…"
"Yeah, I suppose that's true."
When they got off the vine path, they landed on a platform where three Corrupted Leafions were. Chopper simply used Starbow to take them out, and he used a bouncy mushroom to bounce up to a high ledge above them. There, they found some tall grass.
"Leave this to me," Blade assured as he cut the grass. A chest was revealed, which he opened to find a Master Shroom Shake. "Well! Looks like we're finding more of these babies!"
They jumped off the ledge and landed by the mushroom. Chopper decided to check what was in 3-D and, to his surprise, he saw a secret platform to the right. Since he got everyone else in 3-D, they jumped over to the platform and found a flower with propellers instead of petals.
"What the heck? A flower with propellers instead of petals?" Flyer gawked. "Since when does this world have something like that?"
"Well, it looks like it could use some wind," Sonic noticed. "Care to make this thing go?"
"I'll try to get it to work," Luigi declared as he used his Cyclone to make the flower spin rapidly, detaching itself from the stem and floating around. There was a handle that looked like it could be grabbed, so Chopper grabbed a hold of it.
"I don't remember this being here…" Chopper trailed as the rest of the group formed a chain as the flower flew off the platform. Nearly everyone was holding on for dear life, especially Chopper, since if he let go, they would all be falling.
"Don't make us fall, Chopper!" Tamber barked, hanging at the bottom. "That means no messing around with your girlfriend!"
"Why would I ever mess with… She's not my…"
"OK, we get it already," Ghoster mumbled as he decided to fly. Besides, since he's a ghost, there's no chance of him hanging on. "So where is this thing going to anyway?"
"It's heading to the top of a large tree," C-2 Choppor informed, noticing the large tree up ahead. "I believe it's the Elder Tree."
"It's the oldest tree on the planet," Chopper smiled. "Brings back the time when I spat tree sap on a couple of bad guys."
"Tree sap?" Sonic gawked. "You seriously drank tree sap?"
"Yeah… It was kind of gross, but since I got that inhaling ability, I could literally eat anything I wanted without caring. That said, there are some type of food I don't like…like chili dogs…"
"What's wrong with chili dogs?" Tamber asked.
"I just don't like them…"
When the flower landed on top of the Elder Tree, they all saw a vine path going down to a loop. Because of the slope, it looked like it would be a fast run through this entire pathway for Chopper and Sonic.
"Poyo, (This looks dangerous,)" Kirby gulped.
"Well you can float," Chopper pointed out. "Everyone else probably has a bigger challenge than you!"
Kirby realized that and decided to float over the large pathway going down. Chopper and Sonic instantly took off, going down the pathway and through the loop. Because of their speed, the vine path was going upward, which helped them with that downward slope from before.
As for the rest of the group… Those who could fly were able to take them across. Apparently they landed on a large flower hanging from a tree and used a bounceable mushroom to jump up to a small tree branch.
"At the top of the tree, we should be able to get to the castle," Chopper pondered as he grabbed the branch and pulled himself up. He was able to knock a Corrupted Leafion that attempted to step on the others' hands to get them to let go. When the rest got onto the branch, they couldn't find anything but a Dimensional Rift.
Mario: There's the Dimensional Rift!
"What's a Dimensional Rift?" Berry asked.
"Only one I can get through, amore!" Flippay sang as Luigi used his ability to reveal a blue ! Switch. He gave it a good punch, which revealed a vine path that led inside of the tree only by going into 3-D.
"Great… We can't get through there." Tamber groaned.
"Doesn't Chopper have that flipping thing?" Flyer recalled.
"Yeah, I do, as a matter of fact," Chopper declared as he flipped him and everyone else into 3-D. There, they took the vine path into the tree and found a mushroom when they flipped into 2-D. It brought them out of the tree and onto a vine path leading over to the castle, where a dark barrier appeared to be blocking the way.
"That's a big castle!" Luigi gaped. "How many floors are there?!"
"About three," Chopper confirmed.
"Excuse me, Chopper… But aren't you forgetting something?" Tamber asked.
"What am I forgetting?"
"The barrier? We can't get through with that thing in our way!"
"Oh… Dang it! Why do I have to forget such details like that?!"
"Poyo? (So how are we going to get through here?)" Kirby asked.
"Well, I have no idea… We don't even have anything that can counter darkness anyway! Not even rainbow energy can take THAT kind of power on! Oh… If only we had some kind of light power to counter this barrier…"
"Maybe if I could think for a minute…" Flyer pondered. "I could probably think of an idea. I know there IS some kind of way to get rid of this barrier…"
"Hmmmmmm… Well, what if we went up to the sky?" Berry suggested. "Isn't some god person there or something?"
"Cloudrod? Oh yeah! He was the one whose game I almost ended…and I'm kind of ashamed of that too."
"That was all in the past, Flyer. You realized that and helped." Chopper assured. "However, I have no idea how we're going to go to the sky… I'd rather NOT travel around the whole world. We probably wouldn't have enough time!"
"But I took you to Dimentio Doom!" Starbow spoke up. "Remember, hero? You could use me to get up to the sky easily!"
"…Why didn't I think of that before?"
"Unfortunately, I'm only able to carry six people…"
"Six people?" Ghoster gawked. "Does that mean not everyone can go up there?"
"I guess not," Tamber frowned. "Well, it looks like you guys are probably going to go up there, right?"
"I guess so…" Luigi trailed.
Mario: Can't you bring those who can't fly up?
"Look, I may be able to fly, but it doesn't mean I can fly forever," Flyer explained grumpily. "My wings are eventually going to get tired. Listen, we'll stay here and wait for you guys to get rid of the barrier. We promise we won't move."
"That'll be lame," Tamber sighed.
"But it's better than getting hurt," Berry informed.
"Well, I do enjoy kicking butt than waiting…"
"All right, then it's settled," C-2 Choppor declared. "Just make sure you're careful up there…"
"Of course we'll be careful!" Sonic assured. "We usually try to be careful anyway!"
When Starbow grew to a bigger size, the six heroes got on her.
"Wait! I need to say goodbye!" Berry shouted as she jumped onto Chopper and kissed him on the cheek, leaving the antennae hero's eyes widening in fear. When she let go, she gave him one last wink. "That's my goodbye to you."
"You could've just gave me a high five or something…" Chopper trailed, wiping his cheek as Starbow ascended into the heavens.
"Hoo boy… This is going to be The Overthere all over again…" Blade sighed. "Just great."
While the heroes went up into the sky, the rest of the group sat and sighed. Tamber began to draw something on the ground with a stick.
"So… You guys wanna play a game of truth or…"
"NO!"
"OK, fine."
Rainbow Sky-
Upon landing on a cloud, they noticed the blue sky was very difficult to see because of The Void's presence. Even then, the sky was pretty close to space, which is why they saw a couple of stars.
"Wow, I can even see the stars here," Luigi gaped before realizing it was cold. "B-But it's so c-cold here for some reason…"
"Well, we are high up in the sky," Sonic shrugged. "That would be a little expected, honestly…"
"And it's not THAT cold…" Chopper trailed. "I see no reason to shiver."
"It's all in your head," Blade explained.
"It is?" Luigi gawked as he stopped shivering. "Huh…"
"Just think 'I'm not cold' and you should be just fine," Chopper assured as he turned around, only to hear shivering. He turned around and noticed Luigi stopped. "Uhhhh… What was that?"
"Nothing!"
"I don't think you get it. You're not cold. Remember that."
When he turned away again, Luigi began to shiver. What gave it away was when everyone heard his teeth chatter.
Mario: I don't think you get it, Luigi…
"You shouldn't feel as cold as people like Kirby or Chopper," Blade pointed out. "You have overalls, gloves, a hat, and even hair to keep your warm! What do they have? Not much."
"Hold on… I don't think I feel cold anymore!"
"I guess I talked some sense into ya, huh?"
"Well… Maybe…" Luigi trailed. "By the way, who is this Cloudrod guy that was mentioned before?"
"I don't know much about him, but he's apparently a god that lives here," Chopper explained. "Kind of strange how you think of it, but I live with it anyway. I believe he can get rid of that barrier."
They noticed there weren't any clouds to jump up, to their surprise. However, they did see a door just up ahead. All they did was run over to it and go into the next area. Little did they know they were being watched.
"Excellent… That fool finally came back, along with some of his disgusting friends as well! This should be fun…"
Next area-
When they opened the door, they saw a cloudy platform across a gap, where they found a cloud enemy called a Cloudrin flying around and flying above the group in an attempt to hit them with lightning. The only thing interesting about it was the darkness in it.
"It's a Corrupted Cloudrin…" Chopper sighed, hurling an ice ball to freeze it, while Blade finished it with a fire slash when it came down to the ground. With that, they jumped over to the next cloud and found a green enemy with wings called an Annie flying around. When Chopper inhaled it, he gained the Angel ability.
"Woo hoo! I got the Angel ability! Which means I can fly around wherever I want!"
"You know, I think I saw a cloud pathway above this area," Blade noticed as he looked up. "Though it's kinda high up…"
"Poyo! (I'll go up!)" Kirby cheered as he floated up to the cloud, while Chopper followed him thanks to his wings. Thank goodness Luvbi wasn't here, or else she would be all over him with that ability on.
When they got to the upper clouds, they noticed between the gap of two clouds, there were two Gordos slowly ascending and descending, which made it look difficult to get to the next cloud.
"Great… This isn't what I like to see…" Chopper groaned as he fluttered in the air with his wings in an attempt to go in between the Gordos. He managed to succeed, as well as Kirby, and they found another cloud platform with spikes.
"Poyo! (Don't worry! We can get through this!)" Kirby assured as he used Carrie to go over the spikes. Chopper simply flew across and found another Annie flying around. This time, it was a Corrupted Annie firing dark arrows.
"I've got this!" Chopper cried as he fired a couple of arrows at the Corrupted Annie. Once it was defeated, they reached the last cloud, where they found a Star Shroom Shake sitting there.
They noticed a large drop down below, so they decided to slowly float down, where they realized they passed a couple of platforms with some small blocks sitting on top of some spikes on the clouds.
"Well thank goodness you came back down here," Luigi sighed. "Where'd you guys go anyway?"
"We went to find a Star Shroom Shake!"
"A Star Shroom Shake?" Sonic gawked.
Mario: That might be helpful!
They decided to continue on ahead to a cloud platform up ahead, where they entered an area with a small little green bridge that looked thin. They couldn't help but feel there was something below.
Past the bridge was another cloud with a ladder leading up to a green platform. They noticed the clouds had a shade of pink to them, just to make the clouds look a little fluffier and more like strawberry ice cream.
"Poyo! (I could eat those clouds if I wanted to!)" Kirby cheered.
"Although that wouldn't work out for you," Chopper joked.
He flipped into 3-D and went under the bridge. He ended up finding an alternate path, so he decided to see where it went. It actually led to a bounceable cloud that could go up to a large cloud to the right. However, he decided not to go that way and returned to his friends with the help of the bounceable cloud near him.
"So, what was down there?" Luigi asked.
"Just an alternate way to go. I guess it makes this area less linear, am I right?"
"I guess so," Blade shrugged as they jumped up to the cloud above them. Thankfully, they didn't have to try to use any high jump to reach up there. Afterward, they climbed up the ladder and got to the green platform. This time, there were more Corrupted Cloudins moving fast around them, trying to zap them with lightning.
"Now's best for a Super Jump!" Sonic called out.
Luigi nodded and attacked the Corrupted Cloudins with his Super Jump, knocking them to the ground, allowing Chopper to fire arrows at them while smiling. Afterward, they jumped onto a cloud to their upper right to find a ? Block that contained a Super Shroom.
"I'll get that," Blade declared as he sliced it into six. All six of them ate their piece to recover 20 HP.
"A Super Shroom really isn't much now that we have more HP…" Sonic trailed.
Mario: Ultra Shrooms are more worth it now.
"Yup," Chopper declared as he flew over to a long cloud to their left, where they found two Corrupted Annies and a Darkling hurling a spell at him. He fired an arrow at the Darkling, while Blade threw Hommissile at the Corrupted Annies.
They noticed up on another cloud above them, they found a door. They simply entered it into an area where they didn't have to go up. In fact, they saw a bottomless pit just up ahead with purple and pink clouds growing bigger and shrinking every couple of seconds.
"Poyo, (Those are weird clouds,)" Kirby commented.
"But they remind me of marshmallows…" Chopper trailed, gazing at them. "…Dang it! I need to stop thinking about food at a time like this!"
When the first cloud got bigger, they jumped on it, and went to the next one. After jumping on the cloudy path ahead, they noticed there were some more small bottomless pits. There were some Corrupted Cloudins floating above the area, waiting for something to show up.
Chopper decided to take a step near the Corrupted Cloudin's boundary and let it come down to zap him. What he did was charge up some power for his bow and fired three arrows at the Corrupted Cloudrin, defeating it.
They soon found another bottomless pit, but they noticed there was a current moving upward, so when they jumped over the pit, the current took them up. This worked well for Kirby, considering that he could float higher up. However, when they found another Corrupted Cloudrin, Sonic was able to hit it with a Spin Dash before getting over the bottomless pit.
They noticed a pathway going up after reaching the last cloud. Apparently it was leading up to a door above them, so by flying and jumping, they reached the door and headed into the next area, where they were standing on a large cloud.
"Yeah… This is Overthere Stair all over again." Blade groaned as he looked up at the clouds above him. "This is going to be fun…"
"Relax, Blade. This is nothing compared to Overthere Stair." Chopper assured. "At least we can actually jump up these clouds rather than use higher jumps."
"But what about the bad guys here? I see a Darkling over there, you know!"
"You said 'over there', as if I was saying The Overthere."
"Ugh… Stop bringing up The Overthere…" Blade jumped onto a cloud above him and finished off the Darkling with a couple of slashes from his katana. The rest of the group followed him to a ? Block, where they found a Dark Shroom that tried to attack them. Thankfully, Mario took care of it with his hammer.
Mario: This is seriously getting a little intense…
"I agree," Luigi nodded as he found a bounceable cloud up the next cloud. They used it to launch themselves to great heights. It also made Chopper lose his Angel ability when he got hit by a Corrupted Cloudrin, which Kirby took care of afterward by inhaling it.
"OK… So we shouldn't be too far from Cloudrod's Shrine." Chopper sighed. "Let's go check that sign up ahead."
They jumped on a cloud next to them and found a sign.
A Fruit Tree is hidden somewhere around here.
"Poyo? (What do you think that means?)" Kirby asked.
"A fruit tree is hidden around here," Chopper confirmed as he flipped himself and everyone else into 3-D and found a secret path leading to a door. They found themselves right next to a tree with a little rainbow and a couple of fruit hanging on. When Chopper bashed it with his hammer, the fruit came down, as well as a key, which hit his head.
Mario: A key!
Mario picked up the key and put it away, while Kirby ate one of the fruit. Strangely, it didn't seem to have any effect on him.
"Weird… How come that fruit had no effect?" Sonic gawked.
"Must be normal kind," Chopper shrugged as he ate a fruit himself, recovering some of his HP. Everyone else thought, "Why not?" and ate some fruit to recover some HP as well, making them relieved.
"At least we managed to heal our HP," Luigi sighed.
"Let's get out of here," Blade suggested as they headed back to the door.
Previous area-
When they got back to the previous area, they simply went to a cloud to their left and found two Corrupted Cloudrins. Chopper fought them by stomping on them while performing stylish moves and used the bounceable cloud to go up to a small cloud, where he found a door.
"I think I found the door, guys!" Chopper yelled until everyone else got up to him. "See?"
"Yes, we can see it," Blade assured as he kicked the door open to a flat area. There, they saw two Brick Blocks and a ? Block in a row, and a couple of Darklings and Corrupted Cloudrins up ahead.
"Wait… You think a Mega Star's in there?" Sonic wondered.
"If so, then I'm getting it," Chopper declared as he hit the ? Block. Sonic was indeed correct. A Mega Star popped out and landed in Chopper's hands, transforming him into a giant 8-bit version of himself.
"YEAH! I'm 8-bit again!"
He began to cheer happily as he began to trample everything in his path. Not a single thing was left when he reached the end of the cloudy path. Unfortunately, his ability didn't last very long when dark power struck him and turned him back to himself.
"…Wait, what just happened? That didn't wear off on its own!"
"That's because I did that," a ghastly voice boomed through the area. When everyone else reached Chopper, they looked around for the voice.
"Wh-What was that?!" Luigi stammered.
Mario: I feel as if I heard that voice from somewhere…
"Same here," Chopper agreed. "It DOES feel familiar!"
"Of course my voice sounds a little familiar to some of you! After all, you guys did ruin my plans to destroy the universe five months ago!"
A black phantom resembling Maquano vaporized out of nowhere and floated down to the group.
"Wait… Maquano?! But… Aren't you supposed to be dead?!"
"Oh, I am dead. What you see right now is my phantom, which I was able to leave behind after my death in Dark Subspace World."
"So… You're still in The Underwhere?"
"Technically, I still am, but since this phantom is mine, I have full control over it, and because of that, I decided to use it to put an end to you and your friends! That way, I don't have to worry about you when I come back to life!"
"You can't break out of The Underwhere," Blade explained. "It's impossible!"
"Then how do you think I was able to come back after all those times?"
"Wait… How on earth do you manage to get yourself out of there?!" Chopper gaped. "That's insane!"
"Believe me, it's not so easy, but I usually tend to leave a shadow of my power behind to go down to The Underwhere and take control of one of the D-Men to get to where my powers are being held and give them back to me. While I don't have as much power right now, I'm sure I can finish you off!"
"Oh, really? What makes you think that?"
"Because it's nearly impossible for you to defeat a phantom with what you have! Rainbow power? Please, that doesn't hurt phantoms!"
"…What?"
"Hold on, you weren't paying attention to me, is that correct?"
"I wasn't paying attention to that last bit."
"All right, then! I guess I should stop with the chatter and destroy you already!" Phantom Maquano threw his arm back and conjured up a dark orb of energy and threw it down at the group. Luigi shrieked as he jumped out of its reach.
"What do we do?!" Luigi gasped.
"Let's not worry about him! We need to go!" Chopper cried as he went through the door. There, they saw a cloud path with a couple of bottomless pits around. Phantom Maquano cackled as he teleported into the area and attempted to attack by swinging his sword at them.
Mario: Heads up!
They managed to jump out of the way of the phantom's sword and ran off, jumping over some of the bottomless pits. Phantom Maquano growled as he fired a dark sword beam at their direction.
"Eep!" Chopper cried, using his Speed Dash to dash through the clouds and reach the door ahead. It wasn't a long area, that's for sure.
When they entered the next area, however, they found a shrine just up ahead past a staircase. They quickly went up before Phantom Maquano could appear, but he was much faster and managed to hurl some more dark balls of energy.
"Cowards! All of you!" he barked as he saw Chopper hit a ? Block for an Ultimate Shroom and a Save Block to save their game. They instantly entered the shrine afterward. "Hmmmmm… Well, there won't be anywhere to run for them now!"
Cloudrod's Shrine-
"Finally! We made it!" Chopper sighed as they got into the shrine. The interior was a pale yellow color, and it resembled Grambi's Shrine a bit, which wasn't too surprising for the group. There, they saw a small white figure with a long, gray beard, yellow robe with long sleeves, and hair made up of clouds. He was also sitting on a cloud.
"Chopper… Is that really you?" Cloudrod gasped as Chopper and his friends rushed over to him.
"Uh huh!"
"Well... What brings you here?"
"We're trying to get the Pure Heart located here," Sonic answered.
"The Pure Heart? Ahhh… I do remember that this world is in grave danger. If I could recall, the Pure Heart is in Trinado's Castle, correct?"
"Yeah, but it's being blocked by a dark barrier," Luigi mentioned.
"Uh huh… Well, I will definitely help you. This shouldn't take too long…"
"Oh no you don't!" Phantom Maquano growled as he teleported into the shrine and kicked Cloudrod to the wall before turning to the heroes. "Now then… Since you have nowhere else to go, now's the perfect opportunity to finish you guys once and for all!"
"Great… Wait, what about the door?" Chopper realized as he looked over at the door, which was apparently blocked by a dark barrier. "Wait a minute… So YOU were the one who blocked the entrance to Trinado's Castle?!"
"What? I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about… Bah, it doesn't matter. Time to end your games, heroes!"
"Weird…" Sonic trailed. "So he didn't do that…"
"Well, we can't just sit here and let ourselves get kicked around!" Blade said as he unsheathed his katana. "We might as well try to fight."
"You've got some guts, I'll give you that – even if I said that there wasn't anything you could do to beat me," Phantom Maquano commented as he hurled another dark ball of energy down at the group. Chopper inhaled it and spat it back at Phantom Maquano, which didn't do a thing.
"Ugh… It did nothing." Chopper groaned.
"Chopper! Remember the weapon you first used when you battled against Maquano the first time?" Cloudrod asked as he slowly got up.
"The Spectrum Sword? Yeah… I love that weapon!"
"Well… I believe that might be something you could use to fight back against him. In fact, I have that weapon right here!"
Cloudrod made a beam sword with a silver hilt and rainbow-colored beam energy shaped like a sword appear and let it come toward Chopper. When he grabbed it, he was surrounded in a brief, spectrum glow.
"Wait, what is that supposed to be?" Sonic gawked.
"It's a beam sword...or rather, the Spectrum Sword," Chopper smiled as he swung it. "It's so strong, that I don't need to inhale it to use its ability!"
When Phantom Maquano noticed it, he seethed with anger.
"That sword… That's the weapon that you first used against me, Chopper." he clenched his sword and fired a blast of dark energy from his hand down at Chopper, who managed to swing it back at Phantom Maquano, who got knocked back from the attack, but was able to push it back.
"Poyo? (Is this a game of tennis?)" Kirby gawked.
Chopper gasped as he saw the attack being hurled back at him, but with another swing of his beam sword, he was able to throw it back at Phantom Maquano. Blade was able to distract the dark phantom, leading him to get hit by his own attack.
"Well, I put myself to good use that time," Blade grinned.
"Ungh… Stupid cat." Phantom Maquano growled as Chopper rushed toward his nemesis and slashed him with his beam sword. To his surprise, it actually seemed to deal damage to him.
"Hey! I can actually hurt him!" Chopper gaped. "Take some of this, Maquano!"
When Phantom Maquano got back up, he knocked Chopper back with his sword. Blade tried to hurt him with his Dragon Beam, but the phantom was able to fly out of harm's way and hit Blade with a dark sword beam.
"Well, now that Phantom Maquano is vulnerable, we should see his stats," Chopper took a look at the phantom's stats and gawked. "His Max HP is ? and he has an Attack of 18? OK… That's weird."
"Even if I'm vulnerable to some of your attacks, you still don't have enough to destroy me," Phantom Maquano scoffed as he slammed the ground, creating a dark pulse that forced everyone to jump.
Mario: Mama mia!
"Well, haven't we seen worse?" Luigi wondered.
Phantom Maquano charged at Luigi in order to slash him, but Chopper was able to step in and slash at the phantom with his beam sword. Sonic also managed to hit him with a Homing Attack.
"It doesn't look like he's screaming in pain…" Sonic trailed. "You think it's hurting him?"
"Well, we need to do something, that's for sure," Chopper said as he fired a sword beam straight at Phantom Maquano. However, that didn't stop him from attacking Chopper with his sword, which left the hero off guard.
Before Phantom Maquano could attack, he sensed Mario coming with his hammer, so he flew straight up and made Mario accidentally hit Chopper with the hammer instead, leaving him dazed.
Mario: Sorry about that…
"Don't worry about it…" Chopper groaned as he jumped toward Phantom Maquano. Sadly, he was too high for them all to reach. "You know, I think he's only vulnerable when he's actually hit by a powerful attack. I know my beam sword is strong enough to at least hurt him…"
Phantom Maquano grinned as he swung his sword, firing a beam of dark energy down. Thankfully, they were able to jump out of harm's way and have Luigi hit him with Bonjourang to leave him off guard.
"What?!" Phantom Maquano gasped as Chopper fired a Spectrum Sword Beam, sending him flying to the wall and allowing the pale green gumball to hack him. But it didn't take long for Phantom Maquano to get up and send a dark shockwave toward Chopper by pushing his arm forward.
"Look, Maquano… The world's about to end soon, so maybe it's better that you left?" Blade suggested.
"So THAT'S what the purple void in the sky was… Well, no matter, I'll still be able to make my escape before the world gets destroy, so I'll just take the time to destroy you anyway!"
Phantom Maquano flew toward Sonic and knocked him back with his sword while kicking Blade in the face, knocking him over on his back. Chopper even tried to hack him with his beam sword, but the phantom was able to block his attacks and hurl a dark spell at him.
"What's funny is that you're not as powerful as our previous fight," Chopper realized.
"I told you before… It's because I'm just a phantom! Must you always forget what I tell you?"
"If it's not important, then I tend to forget…"
Phantom Maquano clenched his fists as he slammed the ground, making another dark shockwave appear and strike everyone. While he did this, there was a tremor coming from outside.
"Oh, man… I don't know if we have much time now!" Luigi gulped.
Mario: We can't just fight this guy forever!
"Imbeciles! You're not going anywhere!" Phantom Maquano sneered as he swung his sword toward them, making them step back from him. "We fight 'till our game is over! ...Well, you are at least."
"Well, then let's just finish this," Chopper groaned as he jumped toward Phantom Maquano and clashed with him. They tried to push each other back with their swords, but Phantom Maquano was able to step on his foot and hack him with his phantom sword.
"Dang it!"
"Ahhh… Now this is what I like to see!"
However, before Phantom Maquano could make another shot, he was zapped by white energy coming from Cloudrod, who was keeping him still with his magic.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"
"Listen, these heroes don't have the time to fight you," Cloudrod groaned. "Now, Chopper! Finish him off!"
Chopper nodded and ran toward Phantom Maquano. With his beam sword up, he struck down on his nemesis, knocking him to the ground, but not before slowly getting back up and groaning.
"Still… Even if you landed the blow on me, you will not defeat me." Phantom Maquano growled. "But, I suppose I'll be fair just this once and let you go. However, if you guys somehow manage to escape death, be prepared to face me again!"
Before he teleported out, he threw once more dark blast at Chopper, destroying his Spectrum Sword ability and leaving him with no ability.
"Hey! He got rid of my awesome ability!" Chopper frowned. "You gotta be kidding me!"
"Poyo, (Well, at least that's over with,)" Kirby sighed.
"Thanks for helping us," Sonic thanked. "But why didn't you do that from the beginning?"
"Well, it's because when Maquano harmed me, I didn't have the strength to actually use my powers," Cloudrod explained. "Thankfully, I was able to get the strength I needed and help you win the fight. Of course, now that he's out of the way, I will gladly get rid of the barrier for you guys."
Near Trinado's Castle-
"All right… Anyone got a five?" Tamber asked, holding cards made of dirt.
"We're not playing 'Go Fish'…" Berry trailed before looking up at the sky. "You know, I wonder how they're doing up there. Let's hope Choppy isn't in some serious danger right now…"
"Must you always refer to only Chopper?" Ghoster asked. "Sure, we know you like him, but it's not always about him in your world…"
"That's something that has been bugging me… I always refer to Chopper most of the time. His other friends are good people too! But, anyway, let's hope they come back safe."
"Scanners are sensing something coming down!" C-2 Choppor alerted. "Everyone get out of the way!"
They jumped out of the way as white lightning struck the barrier and shattered it, revealing the way into the castle.
"No way… They actually did it!" Flyer gaped. "Man, I can't believe it!"
"Hooray!" Berry cheered.
However, little did they know there were a couple of shadows behind them.
"Hey, guys… When did it suddenly get dark?" Flyer wondered.
"Nyeah heh heh heh!"
"That laugh doesn't seem like it came from any of us…" Ghoster trailed.
"I suggest you turn around."
When the five turned, their sights went black as a couple of sacks covered them.
Later-
"OK, guys! We're back!" Chopper called out as they landed back by the castle with the help of Starbow. However, they seemed to notice something wasn't right.
"Hold on… What's this?" Thoreau gawked.
"Somethin' ain't right here," Slim noticed. "Hey, pards… Weren't yer friends here?"
"Poyo? (Where did they go?)" Kirby wondered before they felt a small tremor from The Void.
"Well we don't have time to look," Chopper stated. "We don't have much time!"
"Chopper… You just want us to leave our friends behind?" Sonic gawked. "That's…not like you."
"Look… As much as I don't want to do that, we really have no other choice… Even I feel bad for something like that."
"Meh… Well I'm not going to like that… Let's just go." Blade sighed as they went to the front entrance of Trinado's Castle. When Sonic kicked the door open, they went inside into the room where everything began for them.
"Everything looks the same as it was…" Luigi trailed.
Mario: I guess nobody bothered to come here…
They noticed everything didn't seem to change, such as the balloons and the "Thank you!" hung up by the ceiling. The chips and dip were still there, as well as the punch.
"Hmmmmm…" Chopper grabbed the bowl of chips and dumped them all in his mouth. After swallowing them, he didn't feel so satisfied. "…These chips are stale. I guess that's what happens when you're out on an adventure."
"Poyo? (They're stale?)" Kirby gaped. "…Poyo. (…Well, I guess it's better than nothing.)"
While Kirby dumped another bowl of chips in his mouth, Chopper noticed there was something missing in the room. Something very important.
The Pure Heart.
"Hey… Didn't you say the Pure Heart was here?" Luigi asked as he scratched his head.
"Yeah… I saw it when I first came in here to meet you guys… Maybe it's somewhere else in the castle…"
While Chopper began to search around the room, Sonic noticed something. There was an arrow painted red leading over to an elevator up ahead.
"Uhhhh… Chopper? Was that red arrow here before?" Sonic asked, pointing to the red arrow.
"Red arrow?" Chopper gawked as the group looked at it. "You know… I don't think I have! That's…strange."
"Do you think it might lead us to the Pure Heart?" Luigi asked.
Mario: Only one way to find out!
They followed the red arrow over to the elevator. They first hit the ? Block by the elevator to get a Star Shroom, which Blade sliced into six. Afterward, Chopper hit the same block and went to the elevator, where they noticed a new button on it. It was labeled "roof".
"The roof? Well… Maybe we should go there!" Luigi suggested.
Chopper pressed the button to go to the roof and the elevator began to ascend quickly. All they could do was wait patiently to reach the top.
Roof-
"Well! Looks like yeh finally showed up!" Right when the heroes walked out of the elevator, they were greeted with a familiar voice. "So, 'ow'd it feel teh lose yer worlds like that?"
"O'Chunks…" Blade growled, clenching his fist in anger. "And don't you DARE talk to us about our home worlds!"
"I guess it hit yeh big time, didn't it?"
"Mimimi! I bet you were completely shattered!" Mimi cackled.
"Poyo! (Your homes might get shattered too, you know!)" Kirby retorted.
"That's all right, because Tippy will make us greater worlds for us!"
"And such fury Fawful will get too!" Fawful cackled.
Mario: Where are our friends?!
"The friends that had sacking, you mean?" Fawful opened some of the sacks to reveal the friend's tied up.
"Guys?!" Luigi gaped.
"That's right! We managed to find them and capture them!" Mr. L grinned. "It was pretty easy, I'll tell ya that."
"Guys… Did you even try to fight back?" Chopper gaped.
"They came out of nowhere…" Flyer wheezed. "And they even damaged Choppor!"
They noticed C-2 Choppor was badly damaged. "I guess they did that because they considered him the biggest threat…"
"And we have that ghost friend of yours in here," Dark grinned as he held a vacuum cleaner in his hand.
"Are you serious?!" Sonic gaped. "You put Ghoster in that?!"
"It's the least we can do."
"Guys, don't waste your time trying to save us! Get the Pure Heart!" Berry cried as Chopper noticed the pale green Pure Heart was in between them and the minions.
"The Pure Heart! But… Why here?" Chopper wondered.
"It was to lure you into a trap," Dark explained as The Void nearly became the sky now. "…Well, I guess it's time for us to get going! Sorry, but we're not going to waste our time playing a game."
"A game?" Luigi gawked.
"It's a long story…" Blade groaned.
"'Ave fun in the aftergame! Chunks away!" O'Chunks waved goodbye as he farted his way out of the world.
"Later, dummy heads! Let's hope The Void gets you this time without any help from that stupid dimension creator!" Mimi scoffed as she teleported.
"May the fury drain out of the heads in your brain!" Fawful cackled as he took his hovering platform out.
"L-ater, losers!" Mr. L grinned as he grabbed onto Dark's cape.
"Even if you somehow manage to live, it's all over for you," Dark noted as he teleported him and Mr. L out with his cape.
"Poyo! (We still have a chance!)" Kirby cried. "Poyo! (We need to get the Pure Heart quickly!)"
However, because of the white flashes and the strong tremor, they were forced back because of The Void's intense power.
"This world… It's coming to an end…" Tamber trailed.
"I wish we could do something, but we're tied up here…" Flyer frowned. "I guess this is…the end."
"And to think everything would be back to normal after Maquano's defeat… Violence never seems to go away, as well as the destruction of many worlds. But, I don't think all is lost… At least, for me." Berry said as she shed a tear. "I'll finally be reunited with my parents…"
Chopper attempted to use a Speed Dash to reach for the Pure Heart, but the force of The Void was too strong for even him to get close.
"…I can't do it. I've... I've failed to save my planet…"
His head hung low as he shut his eyes while everything began to fade away, unable to bear the destruction of his home world. His friends, his home world, the Pure Heart. Everything.
The worlds he and his friends cared about. Gone.
If you thought this story was already dark, just wait until we see what's left behind...