Super Paper Chopper

by Mechanical Oven

After being lured into a trap by a party invitation, Chopper must save all worlds from a new group of foes from different dimensions and an old enemy. Can he and his friends save all worlds? Or will they be destined to be destroyed in a matter of time...

135. The Comet's Space Gadget

CHAPTER 19-4

-The Comet's Space Gadget-

"Whoa… Take a look at THIS place!" Chopper gaped as he noticed a couple of glass windows that showed the outer area of the Comet of Darkness, where they could actually see space. "So we finally get a better look at this galaxy from here, huh?"

"Poyo, (Yeah, it does look pretty nice,)" Kirby agreed. "Poyo. (I think it looks a lot nicer than Starlite Galaxy.)"

"I don t think we've ever really seen space before, Blade recalled. Unless you wanna count the time we were in Tipral's Palace when we were fighting against Dimentio Doom. You know, out on that asteroid?

"Poyo. (Actually, we've been out in space before.)"

"Ummmmmm... Look, I have no idea what he said. Can you translate it, Chopper?"

"He said that we've been in space before," Chopper replied.

"What? No we haven't!"

"Actually, we did. It was before you joined us. We were trying to get the fifth Pure Heart, which turned out to be in Outer Space. You know Squirps, right? I think he said that he helped us get to the Whoa Zone in Outer Space."

"...Oh, him! Yeah, now I remember! Anyway, there's not much else to say, so let's get a move on.

"Yeah. The sooner we go, the sooner we can crush Shade." Tipral said as he carried on ahead. Everyone shrugged and followed him.

Everyone was interested to see all of the lab stuff around. The ground was a mixture of the purple alien color and silver, and the large windows showed a great view outside. There were large tanks filled with alien fluid, and there were even some small terminals as well. Some Dark Wizards were by some of them and creating more Dark Wizards that were inside.

"So THIS is how the Dark Wizards were being made..." Chopper gaped, trying to be quiet before Tipral rushed in and defeated the Dark Wizard before it could finish. When he looked at all the tanks, he couldn't help but take a closer look at them.

That lab equipment around... So much of it looked familiar to him.

"What's wrong, Tipral?" Chopper asked.

"...It's nothing special," Tipral replied as he walked off, leaving the heroes to gawk at him.

"Yeesh… What's with him?" Luigi wondered.

"Beats me," Chopper shrugged. "He was just looking at one of the tanks, and then when I ask him something, he simply walks off like it wasn't my business. Or maybe he just hates me."

"Maybe the latter," Blade answered.

"Well it mattereth not," Luvbi declared. "After how he was being toward us, I'd rather stayeth out of his business. Alas for me, methinks. Anyway, we should movest on."

Everyone agreed and moved forward, walking past a couple of experiments along the way until they caught up to Tipral, who was taking a look at more of the tanks while he was walking.

"Look, Tipral… You can tell us what's going on." Chopper noted.

"It's nothing special. I was just taking a look at this place." Tipral replied before knocking Chopper back with a punch. "And you just happen to be in my way too!

"Whoa! No need to do that!" Blade gaped. "He didn't do anything wrong to you!"

"Poyo? (What's your problem?)" Kirby asked.

"And why dost thou always have to hit my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked. "Thou art as monstrous as thou art hideous!"

"Look, if you re going to keep that up, you might as well leave," Tipral suggested. "I told you guys not to get in my way before. I think you should do the right thing and leave me alone…"

"Oh, prithee… Is something bothering you?" Luvbi asked, giving him an annoyed look.

"You are, apparently."

Luigi let out a sigh, but he stopped when he saw two Dark Wizards coming toward them. "Guys! No time to be talking now! We've got company!"

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped as he saw the two Dark Wizards fire dark magic at the group. However, it ended up hitting Tipral instead. What made things worse was that it angered Tipral. A lot.

Tipral clenched his fists as he made his way over to the two Dark Wizards. They looked brave at first, but their eyes widened as they got struck by a Star Spear he hurled at them. They were soon finished off when Tipral slammed his fists down on their heads, making them drop a Star Shroom Shake. He, of course, picked it up before moving on.

Up ahead was a door, but they ended up stopping when they noticed a new enemy rise in front of them. Chopper instantly recognized the monster. It was a yellow creature with cyan eyes, a robotic head, and mechanical hands.

"No way… Is that…a Stardie?!" Chopper gaped.

"Wait… A Stardie?" Tipral gawked as the monster tried to attack with its robotic claw, which Chopper tried to block with his hammer. Unfortunately, it didn't do too much.

"How dost thou know about that thing?" Luvbi asked.

"I found these things five months ago in the Gravity Gadget in Starlite Galaxy," Chopper explained. "They were pretty annoying if you ask me."

"I feel like I've seen these a long time ago…" Tipral murmured, remembering about a monster like that. He was left in a little trance as he began to think. An image of girl telling him that there was a monster called a Stardie was on the loose.

"Heads up, Tipral!" Blade hollered, making Tipral get out of his trance as he got hit by the Stardie's claw. He was knocked back, but he didn't let that stop him. He jumped forward and hit its face with a Star Punch to leave it off guard.

"Attack it now while you can!"

Blade nodded and unsheathed his katana. He rushed toward the monster and slashed at its body, but he was quickly thrown back by two cyan lasers it fired from its eyes.

"Maybe I could do something about that robotic head, KA-BOOM!" Hommissile mentioned, making Blade smirk as he grabbed Hommissile and threw him at the Stardie's head, making it explode.

"And that s how you wrap it up!" Blade declared as he walked into the door. Everyone else followed him into another area that looked a bit similar, except there weren't any tanks around. There were only smaller windows and a couple of Dark Wizards.

"Say, I wonder where all the Skellos went," Chopper wondered. "I don't see them around here…"

"Maybe they were only at the beginning areas of the comet?" Luigi mentioned.

"Well, if that s the case, then we won t have to worry about them anymore," Blade declared. "Nope! Not at all!"

"Blade… I don t think you've even seen them."

"Oh… Well dang."

"Let's take care of those Dark Wizards first," Chopper suggested, his fist surrounded in a yellow glow. One Dark Wizard spotted them and alarmed the others, allowing them to use their magic to create spikes on their heads.

"Poyo? (They put spikes on their heads?)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo… (Weird…)"

"Even if they didst put spikes on them, I knowest Chopper will taketh them on with ease," Luvbi smiled, resulting in Chopper sighing.

"Let's… Let's just take these guys down…" Chopper suggested as he turned back to the Dark Wizards, which fired dark magic projectiles their way. He was able to toss a light ball at it, causing a small explosion.

Kirby took this time to run over to one of the Dark Wizards and inhale it. He spat it at the other to send them flying back to an Stardie that was there. It didn't attack them, but it jumped over them to reach the six.

"Stardie…" Tipral trailed as he clenched his fists. He said nothing else as he fired a Star Spear at it to leave it severely weakened. Afterward, he jumped on it and then slammed his foot on its head to disintegrate it.

All that was left were the two Dark Wizards.

"How do you know about these Stardie?" Chopper asked, giving Tipral a suspicious look.

"You heard me murmur that?" Tipral growled.

"Well, I kinda did… Were you watching me when I was going through the Gravity Gadget?"

"No. I just encountered them once." Tipral bluntly answered before snapping his fingers at the two Dark Wizards. Luigi finished them off by throwing Bonjourang at them, leaving Kirby disappointed.

"Poyo… (Awwww… I wanted to finish it off…)" Kirby sulked.

"Sorry Kirby, but I don't think you can get everything you want," Chopper shrugged as they continued on. "It's strange that this place doesn't have any obstacles in the way. It feels a bit smooth here!"

"Yeah, I'll say!" Luigi agreed.

As they continued on, there were two doors, with the last one being at the far end of the room. They entered the closer one to find a small room with a couple of broken lab equipment and a large, empty tank.

"This room looks really old," Luigi commented, noticing how much of the stuff around them didn't even look like the stuff from the previous room. "And this large tank looks like it hasn't been used in a long time."

"Who would need that big of a tank to begin with?" Chopper wondered.

"Mayhap the mustachioed fatty would maketh a good fit in thither," Luvbi noted.

"Hey! That's my brother you're talking about!" Luigi gaped.

"But thou hast to admit that thy hairy brother would maketh a good fit for thither, dost thou agree?"

"Not in the slightest!"

"I think it was some kind of weirdo who was big compared to the other creations they must've had here," Blade shrugged. "I don't know… Chances are that could be the case. Or maybe they were running out of tanks?"

"Well, the only thing of interest here is this ? Block," Chopper noted as he hit the block. An Ultra Shroom came out, so they split it with the help of Blade's katana to recover 50 HP.

"Let's get going," Blade suggested as everyone left the room. Everyone but Tipral, that is.

He walked over to the empty tank to get a closer look at it. "I swear… This room feels awfully familiar to me. It looks like it hadn't been touched in centuries."

Tipral walked over to the table that was near the tank. There happened to be an old note with dust left on it. He decided to pick it up and blow off the dust before reading the paper.

And then his eyes shot open in shock upon reading it.

Dear Shadow King and Queen,

Progression on your ultimate creation is almost complete in the SSS (Synthetic Space Station)! We decided to name the creation as Tipral. We listened to everything you told us to give him. That DNA you both gave us to create him will surely help him become stronger when he's out crushing those who stand before you. However, we had a bit of a problem too. You see, we realized that too much power would be dangerous enough to not only destroy everyone, but even himself. We created these two rings known as Star Rings that will go on his wrists to help control his power so he doesn't end up harming himself. Thankfully, with both of your Negative DNA, his destructive abilities will be off the roof! We are looking forward to bringing you your creation.

We have dubbed this Project X

Tipral lowered the paper and looked around him. He had finally realized where he was this whole time in this area.

"The Synthetic Space Station... This is the place where I was born…" Tipral trailed as he closed his eyes. "But, is it true that I have the Negative DNA in me? They said I was supposed to be emotionless, but back then…"

However, he also realized Shade nearly ruined his first home, which made his shocked expression turn back to an angry one as he clenched his fists.

"Shade… So he decided to take this lab and completely transform it? Oh, now I have more of a reason to crush him once and for all… He hasn't really messed with me before, but now he finally has!"

He kicked the door open, where he noticed Chopper and his friends looking at him in surprise. Apparently they didn't get much further in the hallway. But they did seem a bit surprised by his expression.

"Whoa, Tipral… What's wrong?" Chopper gawked.

"Listen, Chopper…" Tipral began as he walked over to the group. "When we get to that alien, let me give him a good beating! You let me do that, and perhaps I might not harm you as much."

"Poyo? (Wait, what's going on?)" Kirby gawked.

"Look, I'm not going to tell you why I want to crush him now, but I think he's crossed the line now."

"And he hasn't crossed the line before?" Blade gawked. "He MURDERED Wenbi! I didn't know that person, but I sure don't like it when someone ends up hurting an innocent person! Especially one that he tried to convert into destroying us!"

"Yea, verily…" Luvbi agreed, lowering her head as she remembered Wenbi. "I doth feel sorry for his loss… He risketh his life to savest us."

"I know nothing about this Wenbi person," Tipral scoffed. "Let's just get going. I don't want to be staying in this place forever. It sickens me…"

"Ummmmm… All right…" Luigi trailed as they made their way to the door ahead, which was being guarded by another Stardie. Tipral took no time to finish it up as he hurled a couple of Star Spears at it.

"That didn't even take that long!" Blade gaped.

"Let's move on," Tipral declared as they entered the door. To their surprise, they were no longer in the inner part of the Comet of Darkness, but the outer part. They were practically out in space at this moment.

"Whoa! We're no longer in the inner part!" Chopper gaped. "Does this mean we're going to be traveling through space from now on?!"

"I dost not think Mother and Father are out hither, though…" Luvbi trailed. "I doth think Shade might be in the center of the comet."

They noticed a couple of pathways were above them and not even straight. In fact, there was one floating path above them that looked like it was upside down. However, up ahead was a green switch that was pointing up.

"What in the world…?" Luigi gawked as he walked over to the switch.

"Hold on, Luigi… Don't touch that!" Blade cried. Unfortunately, Luigi didn't get the message and ended up touching it. It began to brighten as everyone was taken off the ground and sent upward.

"Poyo! (Ack! This isn't safe!)" Kirby cried until they found themselves on the path that was previously above them.

"Nay, this doth not seemeth bad," Luvbi assured. "Thou hast only changeth the gravity of this place! I doth suppose this place hast plenty of that hither."

"Whoa, really? We actually get to change the gravity around here?" Chopper gaped. "No way! That actually sounds cool! I mean, the Whoa Zone had that, but it really wasn't out in space!"

"And it's nice to see that I'm not suffocating either," Luigi sighed. "I guess this area doesn't lack oxygen."

"Yeah, so that should be helpful for you, Luigi. Now, let's get a move on…" Chopper ran on ahead, not caring that he was upside down. Even though they were upside down, that didn't mean they were safe from harm. A Dark Wizard and a Dark Assassin happened to be waiting for them on the pathway.

"This shouldn't be a problem," Tipral assured as he charged at them. Kirby, however, was there to stop him.

"Poyo! (Hold on a minute!)" Kirby cut in.

"What do you want, you pink puffball?"

"Poyo. (Let us have a chance to fight. If you're going to be traveling with us through here, you have to at least let us have our chance to fight.)"

"Is that why you stopped me?" Tipral asked as he gave a glare at Kirby. "…Fine. I suppose I have no choice but to let you guys do your thing. However, don't expect me to listen to you the whole time…"

"Oh, don't worry, you'll get to fight something," assured Chopper as he jumped onward and gave the Dark Wizard a light sweeping kick. Blade unsheathed his katana and smirked at the Dark Assassin.

"It's been a while since I've taken down some Dark Creatures!" Blade smirked as he disappeared in a puff of smoke and appeared behind the assassin, slashing it a couple of times with his katana. Luigi joined in by using his Cyclone to send it upward and use his Super Jump to finish it off.

"Hold on… Why the heck are the Dark Creatures here with Shade?!"

"I'm not entirely sure," Chopper answered as he bashed the Dark Wizard with his hammer. "Although, I do think Dark said something about his army leaving him."

"Back in Dream Land? Oh, yeah… I think I remember that."

"Poyo… (Poor Dream Land…)" Kirby trailed as he finished off the Dark Wizard with his Cartwheel and then his Final Cutter. "Poyo? (So is that all of them?)"

"I know we ran into some Dark Brutes…" Chopper recalled. "They're real nasty, as well as the Dark Skelloknights."

"Dark Brutes? I always hated those." Blade frowned. "They're big, fat - well, I wouldn't say fat, but large. They're also pretty disgusting creatures too."

"You've fought them before?" Luigi gawked.

"Of course I did! It was back in the Dark Mobian War. Back then, I was pretty good-looking and cool at the time, showing off my muscles and…"

"Oh, verily?" Luvbi asked with an irritated look. "Thou art surely making this up. Is thy brain that small?"

"Well… That's actually more of my friend, honestly." Blade recalled. "Bang would always do that. I was just the ninja who fought a couple of Dark Creatures that were attacking. Nothing special."

"I'm not too surprised to hear about you making that up," Tipral commented.

"Whatever. Let's just get moving. I don't want the blood to get in my head."

Everyone agreed and moved on ahead. They could see a platform up ahead, so they jumped on it and reached the next gravity switch that wasn't even touching the ground. This time, it was pointing to the right.

"Mayhap the gravity with changeth in a different way…" Luvbi trailed as Chopper touched the switch, making them all forced to the right on another pathway. They noticed downward was a Dark Assassin and upward was the right way, with a Dark Wizard, of course.

"Which do we take care of first?" Luigi sweat dropped as he looked both ways. "Both enemies are rather dangerous…"

"Poyo, (But we managed to take them down before,)" Kirby remarked, "Poyo! (We should be fine!)"

The Dark Assassin made its move first by teleporting out of their vicinity and appearing in front of Luvbi, who let out a gasp. Chopper jumped up a bit and bashed the Dark Assassin with his hammer.

"Phew… That was close…" Chopper sighed.

"Yeah, no kidding," Blade mentioned as the Dark Wizard fired dark magic at them. He spun his katana around and managed to deflect the projectile back at the wizard. It dodged, but it didn't stop Blade from striking it with his katana.

Kirby lunged at the Dark Wizard and tackled it to leave it off guard. When he got back up, he inhaled it and tried to take its ability. The only thing he got from it was absolutely nothing.

"Poyo? (Wait, I got nothing from that?)" Kirby gaped. "Poyo! (That's not fair!)"

"Well, I guess not everything gives you an ability," Chopper shrugged. "Let's just move up from here."

The group made their way up the wall until they found a platform that was moving u and down. It appeared to be sideways as well, so when it came close, they jumped on it and crossed over to the next pathway.

"I bet my Super Jump's going to be screwy around here," Luigi sweat dropped. "Especially with the gravity!"

"Actually, I don't feel the blog flowing into my head," Blade blinked. "I used to before, but it doesn't feel like it now."

"We're coming up to a loop," Tipral informed as they continued up. Chopper and Tipral helped the three through the loop and then found a spring that launched them up to a ledge where an arrow pointing up was.

They touched it, and soon they were on a large purple block that acted like a pathway. Their eyes widened when they saw an Stardie stretch its arm out and try to claw at them. They dodged, but it almost made Luigi fall off.

"Ack! I think I'm a little too close!" Luigi shrieked.

"Don't worry, I gotcha," Blade assured, grabbing his arm and pulling him toward him. Chopper decided to deal damage by using Starbow, while Kirby used Crystaline to freeze it.

"Poyo! (We did it!)" Kirby cheered.

"Uh… I wouldn't say that just yet, Kirby…" Chopper trailed.

"It's starting to breaketh out," Luvbi informed as the ice shattered around the Stardie. It was still in good shape, which made it bad when Kirby gulped.

"Take this!" Tipral shouted as he fired a Star Spear toward the Stardie, causing it to disintegrate and drop some Star Juice. When Chopper looked at it, he noticed it could recover 130 HP.

"Hey! This might come in handy!" Chopper smiled.

"Pray, what is it?" Luvbi wondered. "Dost it maketh thee fall in love?"

"…No. It's juice that heals you. If it was, I'd be barfing by now."

"But love doth be something special!"

"I don't think it's bad, it's just that I…"

"Enough of love already!" Tipral snapped. "Do we REALLY need to be discussing this? It's REALLY getting annoying!"

"Yeah, we're moving on," Chopper declared as he ran on ahead until he found a spring that could launch them down to another pathway that was down below (or above if they were looking up in the way the gravity was).

"Hold on a minute…" Blade pondered. "If we use this spring, will we be going up because of how things look for us, or are we going down because we're not at normal gravity?"

"Beats me," Luigi shrugged. "I'm not an expert on this kind of stuff…"

"Who cares? We just wanna go!" Chopper replied as he jumped on the spring and let himself get taken to the next pathway below (or above).

Everyone followed him to the next pathway and found another loop. What interested Chopper was when he was on the opposite side of the loop. He wasn't upside down for just a brief second.

"I think I can get through here no problem," Blade declared, turning into a log and appearing past the loop before Chopper.

"How'd you do that?" Chopper gawked.

"Ninja skills. Enough said."

Kirby and Luigi had no problems getting over the loop because their abilities were enough to let them go over it. Up ahead was another green switch which was pointing down, but it was moving around.

"Why is that switch moving?" Tipral wondered until he looked up. "Oh, now I see why…"

"What is it?" Luigi asked.

"We gotta be careful when using this switch. Just look above…or below you."

Everyone looked up in their direction and saw a pathway covered in spikes. The only thing they happened to notice was a platform moving left and right slowly.

"So thou hast to toucheth that switch at the right time…" Luvbi trailed. "That doth soundeth risky…"

"I just hope we don't get skewered by those spikes…" Luigi gulped.

"If you do, I'm not helping you," Tipral mentioned.

"You do realize we might need Luigi's help for some of this," Chopper defended. "And you seem to be targeting Luigi for some reason. What's he ever done to you anyhow? I'd say he's the nicest guy I've met!"

"Poyo, (Yeah, he is,)" Kirby agreed.

"Yup," Blade nodded. "He is nice."

"OK, whatever. I don't want to get in another pointless argument just like we always do." Tipral grumbled as he looked up and then at the switch. "At least try to help me find out when the time has come to hit the switch."

"All right," Chopper sighed as he did the same thing as Tipral.

"If anything bad happens, I'll try to help out," Carrie noted.

"Poyo, (But you can only carry one person at a time,)" Kirby mentioned, while Chopper simply translated.

"Well… We might have to come up with a way."

"I was thinking of that one thing we did in Fort Francis, but it was pretty uncomfortable," Chopper mentioned.

"What?" Tipral gawked.

"Nothing, really."

Unfortunately, Luvbi ended up touching the switch, which made everyone plummet downward. Everyone's eyes widened for the exception of Tipral's, because he was able to hover over the spikes with ease.

Luigi was lucky to land on the platform, while Blade ended up landing on Carrie, who happened to be hovering over the spikes. Kirby took in some air and floated over them, while Chopper grabbed onto his feet.

"Phew… OK, that was a little too close." Chopper sighed.

"Yeah, TOO close…" Blade sighed as well. "My heart is literally racing right now!"

"Luvbi, why did you hit the switch?" Tipral asked, glaring at her.

"That was an accident," Luvbi retorted. "Thou shouldst not be rude when asking a question like that!"

"We could've been skewered!" Blade gaped.

"Well, at least we're not dead…" Chopper sighed as Kirby floated over to the pathway past the platform. They noticed a gap between them and another pathway ahead, but below was a door that they could enter.

"Hey, this looks like something we could go in," Blade noted as they jumped down the platform and headed through the door. They were back in another lab-like area with a couple of tanks, as well as some Dark Soldiers ahead.

"We're back in the lab area…" Tipral trailed while clenching his fists, which Chopper noticed.

"Whoa, you seem a bit angered, Tipral," Chopper noticed. "Of course, you always are, but this looks different."

"Don't even ask me, Chopper. I have my reasons…" he lunged forward and hurled a couple of shadow balls at the Dark Soldiers. A Dark Worm ended up rising in front of him, but impaling it with a Star Spear was all he needed to get rid of it.

"I'm going to make them all pay for destroying one of the few homes I've ever had!" Tipral thought as he walked up to a Dark Creature, grabbed it and threw it at the other before destroying them with a Star Spear.

"Well… I guess that takes care of that." Luigi shrugged as he hit the ? Block nearby. A Dark Shroom popped out and began to move all over the room, which made the plumber yelp.

"Agh! A Dark Shroom!"

"At least it isn't a Death Shroom…" Blade trailed, readying his katana as he slashed it a couple of times when it came close. He hit the other block, which had a Super Shroom.

"Poyo? (That's it? A Super Shroom?)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo… (That's disappointing…)"

"Well, you never know… There might be something else that'll be helpful." Chopper assured as they reached the end of the hallway to a door up ahead.

They entered through, only to find a stump in the small area. Not even Screwdy's corkscrew was able to work on it, which Blade happened to test.

"Uh oh... This doesn't work!" Blade frowned.

"Obviously we're missing something," Tipral noted.

"That looks like something only my bro could do," Luigi informed. "But, he's nowhere here, though."

"Dost thou mean thy smaller, chubbier hairy brother?" Luvbi asked.

"H-Hey! Don't scoff my bro like that!"

"Well, then we're going to have to go back," Chopper declared as he left the area, along with the others. They noticed the tanks were filled with alien fluid. "You think that's the alien fluid stuff that we had to go through before?"

"Then that could meanest that they dumpeth thy fluids thither…" Luvbi trailed.

They decided to check all the tanks, but they noticed one was empty, and there appeared to be something knocking on it from the inside.

"Wait a minute… Is that you, Bro?!" Luigi gaped, noticing his older brother begging to be let out. "Don't worry! I'll get you out!"

Luigi attempted to punch at the tank, but his punch didn't appear to make a crack in it. "My punches don't do much!"

"I guess the glass is pretty tough," Blade commented as Chopper tried smashing it with his hammer. Not even a dent was left on it.

"Yeah, it is," Chopper agreed. "A hammer doesn't even work well on it!"

"Well, I doth see a button hither," Luvbi noted, pointing to the button below the tank.

"Oh… I forgot about that." Luigi face palmed as he pressed it, causing the tank to open up and allow Mario to jump out.

Mario: Phew! I'm free!

"Bro! I missed you so much!" Luigi cried as he hugged his brother, who hugged back and gently patted his back. "How'd you get in there anyway?"

They let go, while Mario explained all the details to him. "Hmmmm… So you're saying you were out cold after that explosion and you suddenly found yourself stuck in that tank?"

Mario: Yeah, that's right.

"Well, I had to be stuck in a dark room with Bowser, who wouldn't stop whining in there! You don't wanna know how annoying that was."

"I was left on some observatory with no one else around," Blade noted. "It kinda stunk."

"Poyo, (I was put on a dartboard,)" Kirby explained. "Poyo. (I think that's much worse.)"

"I was sent out into space on some asteroid," Chopper explained. "I even met Squirps there, who happened to rescue you guys, right?"

Mario: I do think I remember him helping us…

"Apparently Ortorain told him that you guys were in trouble…"

Mario: That's interesting… But what's Luvbi doing here?

"For thy information, mine parents were kidnapped by yon alien kid," Luvbi explained.

Mario jumped up a bit and realized who it was.

Mario: This is where Shade resides?!

"Apparently," Chopper nodded. "And that means he's holding the last Pure Heart."

"Yeah, which might be why he was after them before," Blade realized. "I mean, he came to The Overthere for the Pure Heart, right?"

"That could be," Tipral answered, which got Mario's attention, making him get in a fighting stance.

"Hold on, Mario. He's actually on our side at the moment." Luigi explained, making Mario stop and ask why. "Well, we all have a common enemy, so we decided to take Shade down together. At least, that's what Chopper said…"

"And I don't have anything with me either. No Chaos Heart, no Dark Star Scepter, and no Dark Prognosticus."

Mario: How did you lose them?

"Apparently Dimentio's ghost is still lurking around, and he was able to somehow use the power he had to throw me in this place."

Mario: Well, it's glad to be back with you guys, I suppose.

Mario has rejoined the party!

"All right, so that means we need to find Sonic now," Chopper declared. "Now we can… Wait, there was something in that other room we didn't get a chance to do. I think you might be able to help us, Mario."

They headed back in the room up ahead to the stump. Mario took a look at it and nodded to the group before using his Ground Pound, which caused a hidden chest to be revealed under a sheet of paper.

"Man, those paper effects are pretty cool," Blade commented.

"It's better when it rips through the background," Chopper said as Mario opened the chest and got a Gravity Key.

Mario: A Gravity Key?

"That looks like it could be what the keys for here are," Luigi noted. "Let's just get out of here."

---

Space Gadget, Area 1-

Mario: Oh! This is strange!

"The gravity doth have many strange effects hither…" Luvbi began before glaring at Mario. "So if thou art going to whiniest about it, then thou might as well stayeth in the back of the group, mustachioed fatty!"

Mario: I'm not even that fat…

"Sometimes I doth get sick of being around yon hairy twins& I verily didst not enjoyeth thee taking me up to The Overthere before… At least my sweet prince Chopper came hither and madeth me enjoy the way to The Overthere for once."

"Poyo… (Talk about being a jerk…)" Kirby trailed.

"I second that," Chopper agreed.

They decided to move on, but this time, they were met with some platforms that had spikes on the bottom or spikes on the top. Occasionally, they would spin around, which left some of the people twitching.

"…How are we…going to get through that?" Blade gawked.

"Thou hast to figure out thyself," Luvbi decided. "I am going to simply flutter upward. I will definitely taketh my sweet prince up!"

"Uhhh… I'll take care of myself, thank you." Chopper assured as he jumped on a platform with spikes on the bottom. "I don't wanna touch those spikes, that's for sure…"

"This shouldn't be a problem for me," Tipral said as he teleported to the platform once Chopper landed on it. Luigi used his Super Jump to reach the platform as well.

"Do you know where the door is?" Luigi asked.

"Apparently it's upside down," Chopper pointed over to the right, where a door upside down on a platform happened to be there. There was a gravity switch pointing up at the top of the area.

They each made their way up the platforms and touched the switch, making the gravity change. This time, they had to land on the platforms when the spikes were on the top, to their dismay.

Mario: This isn't what I expected…

"Yeah, I know what you mean, Bro," Luigi agreed.

When they made their way across the platforms, they entered through the door nearby and came across an area where they saw a pathway ahead with a glowing bridge that flashed and disappeared after five seconds. There were also Dark Wizards with stumps on their heads.

"…Stump Wizards?" Blade gawked.

"I guess that name maketh sense…" Luvbi trailed.

"But those stumps look too tough for us to take them on," Luigi noted.

Mario: I think I might be able to do something!

The red plumber jumped on top of the Stump Wizard, which tried to shake him off, but he was able to squish it with a Ground Pound. They could all see the wizard's eyes widen in pain by Mario's weight before getting disintegrated.

"Wow… The look of that wizard looked pretty… I don't know what to think about it." Blade blinked.

"Poyo, (Well take a look at that bridge ahead,)" Kirby noted, pointing to the flashing bridge ahead. It disappeared and then appeared again after three seconds. "Poyo... (It's probably going to take a lot to get past that…)"

"Maybe a Speed Dash might work!" Chopper smirked as he prepared to charge up a Speed Dash.

"And you're going to risk that?" Tipral asked.

"What else is there for me to do anyway?"

"Fine, go ahead and get yourself hurt. I could care less."

Chopper took off, going across the bridge before it could disappear. Tipral didn't look too surprised, but he simply teleported over to the other side with ease, leaving Kirby, Blade, Mario and Luigi to cross on their own.

"Well I'm not helping thee," Luvbi said as she fluttered across.

"Thanks," Blade grumbled.

"Poyo, (I think I can get over this,)" Kirby assured as he took in some air and began to float across. Chopper turned around and inhaled the others so they could get across and spat them out.

"You disgust me, Chopper," Tipral scoffed.

Chopper ignored Tipral as they carried on ahead. They found a gravity cylinder going upward, and once they got close to it, the gravity around it pulled them in, making them land on the cylinder.

"Wah! Why am I on here now?!" Luigi gaped.

"Isn't this like the one we saw in that battleship?" Chopper recalled.

"Poyo, (Yeah, it was,)" Kirby nodded.

Mario: I suppose the best thing to do is go up…

They walked up the gravity cylinder until they got onto the top, where they found a spring leading up to a green platform above them. There happened to be a Dark Wizard and a Stump Wizard waiting for them.

"Well, you know what to do, Mario," Luigi noted.

Mario gave his younger brother a nod as he jumped onto the platform and used his Ground Pound to defeat the Stump Wizard. The Dark Wizard took notice and struck the plumber with its dark magic.

"Bro! Hang on, I'm coming!" the green plumber jumped onto the platform and helped his brother out by using his Cyclone on the Dark Wizard. He then finished it off by jumping on its head.

"Well that takes care of them," Blade declared.

When everyone else got on the platform, they found a switch with an arrow pointing to the left. Once Mario touched it, they were sent flying to the left onto a pathway curving upward with a Dark Assassin near it.

Luigi grabbed a hold of Bonjourang and threw him at the Dark Assassin. While it didn't do much, it gave Chopper the opportunity to defeat it by using Starbow's ability to make shooting stars rain down.

"Hey! They didn't simply rain down! They actually rained down how the gravity is like with us!" Chopper smiled. "I like that!"

Mario: Yeah, I guess it's not too bad!

"Now we need to get through this pathway," Tipral noted. "Apparently it's going to require a lot of speed."

"Dang it… Another thing I can't get past." Blade grumbled.

"Don't worry, we'll figure out a way through this," Chopper assured.

"Well, I could always use those kunais to climb up…"

Blade pulled out his kunais, but before he could do what he planned on doing, Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and took off, while Tipral simply skated through the pathway that curved to the right. Even though it felt like they were upside down, if they stopped, they would end up getting pulled by the gravity.

Thankfully, going through that pathway wasn't necessary for the rest of the group when Chopper touched a gravity switch pointing to the right. They were taken to a long purple platform in height over to the right.

Mario: At least we didn't have to go through that.

"I don't blame you," Luigi nodded.

"Thou shouldst thank my sweet prince for helping thee all," Luvbi suggested, while Chopper shook his head and told her that they shouldn't. "Why not? Thou didst help us!"

"You're giving me too much credit…" Chopper trailed as he ran on ahead to find a Dark Wizard. He inhaled one of its dark spells and spat it back at the enemy, while Kirby finished it with ease with his Final Cutter.

"Poyo! (It's all clear!)" Kirby announced.

Upon reaching the end of the platform, they came across a gravity cylinder above them. There happened to be a spring that looked like it could help them reach the spinning drum as well.

"I'll try to go through first," Tipral decided as the spring launched him up to the gravity cylinder. He noticed a green switch on the spinning drum that was pointing down. "You guys might want to come here first."

"How so?" Luvbi wondered.

"Because there's another switch here."

"Well, we better listen," Chopper shrugged as he used the spring to launch himself to the spinning drum. Everyone else followed afterward, which let Tipral hit the switch so the gravity could be altered again.

While it didn't look like anything changed, when Tipral reached the top of the gravity cylinder, he was able to jump on top of it to find dark green platforms and another gravity cylinder up ahead moving upward.

"More of these, huh? I guess there's a lot in this place…" Tipral trailed.

Mario: But I'm sure we can handle it.

They jumped off it to find a Dark Wizard charging up a magic attack. Tipral, on the other hand, ended up throwing it off the platform to get rid of it with Thoreau. Unfortunately, that didn't help when it used its wings to fly back up.

"That's not going to work," Blade shrugged.

"Try all you want, but throwing me won't help you!" the Dark Wizard cackled.

"Fine then," Tipral grabbed the Dark Wizard and started to smash it with his Star Punch before disintegrating it with a Star Kick. Afterward, he jumped to the gravity cylinder ahead to get sucked in by its gravity.

When the rest got on the gravity cylinder, they noticed another one next to it, which happened to suck them in next. All they could do was move up until they reached the top and found a pathway ahead moving at a downward angle.

"Ooh! This should be nice!" Chopper smiled.

Mario: We could slide down here, which might help us.

"You think that's going to help us?" Luigi wondered.

Mario: Yeah, let's try it!

Mario and Luigi both slid down the slope while knocking a couple of Dark Wizards out of the way. They happened to find a gravity cylinder pointed to the side rather than upward, so they got on it and began to spin around on it.

"I'll go next," Tipral decided as he skated down the slope, his speed increasing as he traveled down. Chopper followed afterward, with his speed increasing as well. Kirby and Blade were forced to slide down while they watched Luvbi flutter down.

They jumped on the gravity cylinder ahead and watched as they began to move on it while it spun. They then jumped off of it and found a pathway leading to a door ahead. There was a Dark Wizard standing on top of three ? Blocks, while a Stump Wizard was over by a door.

Blade walked under the block and gave it a good punch from underneath, damaging the Dark Wizard and knocking it off the block. An Ultimate Shroom happened to pop out, so he sliced it into six for the group to eat and recover 100 HP. He then finished the Dark Wizard off with his Dragon Beam.

"I sure hope we find Sonic…" Blade trailed. "He's GOTTA be somewhere around here!"

Mario went over to the Stump Wizard and attacked it with a Ground Pound. When it was defeated, they headed through the door into the next area, which had a green pathway ahead with a high ledge ahead.

Luigi took this time to use his Super Jump to reach the ledge, while Kirby took in some air and floated up. Blade pulled his two kunais out and began to climb up, and then Tipral teleported up to the ledge.

That only left Chopper, Mario, and Luvbi.

Mario: This isn't good.

"I think I doth have an idea for thee, Chopper!" Luvbi winked.

"Uh oh... I hope you're not doing what I think you are..." Chopper gulped, noticing her get close to him.

"Actually, I just plan on carrying thee up thither."

Mario: What about me?

"Thou art too fat for me to taketh up! Plus, I dost not want to feel the hair that doth happen to be on thee!"

"…That's nice of you to say that, Luvbi," Chopper blinked before he felt himself getting grabbed by Luvbi and taken up to the ledge. That meant only Mario needed to get up the ledge.

"Poyo, (I'll get him up,)" Kirby decided as he used his inhaling to get Mario up to the ledge. With that, they carried on ahead to a couple of small, floating asteroids around the area that were slowly rotating vertically.

"Asteroids? You think this might be a problem for us?" Blade wondered.

"As long as we stay on them, we should be fine," Tipral assured as he jumped on the first one. Thankfully, there were no bottomless pits around, so they all felt relieved to find out they would be safe anyway.

"So what's it like?" Chopper asked.

"Find out yourself."

Chopper gave Tipral a blank look as he jumped on the asteroid. There was another one up ahead that had a spring on it, so when the others got to that asteroid, they were launched across a large gap and found an Stardie waiting for them on another green path.

"I've got this," Blade declared as he tossed three shurikens at the Stardie's head. He then jumped up and brought his katana down on it. Despite this, he ended up getting knocked back by its claw.

Kirby brought his attention to the Stardie and used his Final Cutter to strike it. He noticed a floating asteroid above them, so he tried to grab its head and try to throw it up. But, unfortunately, because he had bad physical strength against this watery monster, it didn't work.

"Poyo... (Well that worked out nicely…)" Kirby trailed as he got smacked away by the Stardie. Chopper tossed a rainbow ball at it next, but he ended up getting smacked when its arm extended over to him.

"You guys are pathetic if you can't take this thing on with ease," Tipral scoffed as he finished it off with one snap of his finger.

"We weakened it, you know," Blade mentioned. "You got pretty lucky, honestly."

Mario: Let's check that asteroid above us.

"I think my Super Jump might reach it," Luigi declared as he launched himself up to the asteroid. Luvbi smiled at Chopper, which caused him to make his eyes widen when he got lifted off the ground by her.

"No! Don't do that again!" Chopper cried.

"Stayeth calm, my prince! It will makest this much easier." Luvbi suggested while descending. When she let go of him, he quickly jumped over to the asteroid ahead and found a green pathway with a small staircase going up.

When everyone crossed over the asteroids, they went over to the small staircase and found a Dark Assassin and Dark Wizard waiting for them. Chopper tossed a charged light ball at the Dark Wizard, while Mario readied his hammer and bashed the Dark Assassin before it could teleport.

After Luigi used his Cyclone on the Dark Assassin, it was all over for it. Tipral proceeded to finish off the Dark Wizard by firing a Star Spear at it. He noticed its eyes widen in pain as the Star Spear impaled its body.

Despite it looking brutal to some of the people, they went up the staircase and found a pathway above them, as well as a green switch pointing up. Kirby gave it a touch to change the gravity so they were upside down.

"Poyo! (I love altering gravity!)" Kirby cheered.

"Yeah, it's pretty fun," Chopper agreed.

They were surprised to find another asteroid ahead that didn't appear to be too high for them to jump onto. Some of them felt a little awkward when they were on the bottom of the asteroid.

"So… What now?" Blade asked.

"I think this asteroid can moveth if thou hast enough speed," Luvbi mentioned as she noticed some arrows on the asteroid.

"So you put yourself to some use for once," Tipral commented.

"I didst help! This doth be none of thy business anyway!"

"She did admittedly help me through the comet at the beginning," Chopper noted.

"Hmph… Well, whatever. Let's just get this asteroid moving."

"Got it!" Chopper began to charge up a Speed Dash while Tipral skated on it to make the asteroid move to the right. They ended up touching another green switch, which made them land on another movable asteroid. Down below was a pit of spikes.

"Ugh… I don't like the spikes…" Luigi shivered.

Mario: Don't use your Super Jump here then.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right on that."

Chopper and Tipral gained some speed as the asteroid began to move to the right. They found a green switch nearby pointing to the right, so when they touched it, they ended up on a purple pathway with two Dark Soldiers waiting for them.

Kirby tried to inhale them, but because they were too big, it didn't work out for him. He decided to use his Final Cutter, while Blade slashed at one of them with his katana. He even delivered a fire slash to leave it with a burn.

They were finished off when Chopper spun his hammer around rapidly with light energy, causing the two Dark Creatures to disintegrate.

Mario: Aren't the Dark Creatures on Dark's side?

"Yeah, they were, but some of them ended up with Shade because they thought he was better now," Chopper answered.

Mario: …Oh! I think I do recall Dark saying something like that!

"Anyway, let's keep going, all right?" Luigi suggested. Everyone agreed and made their way up the pathway. They noticed a gap that Chopper couldn't jump over, so Tipral used his teleportation to cross over the gap with ease.

"Thou dost know I can help thee across, Chopper," Luvbi winked.

"No thanks, I'm good," Chopper replied.

Kirby decided to move on ahead by taking in some air and floating across the gap, which left Chopper, Luvbi, Blade, Mario and Luigi to cross over. That is, until Kirby started inhaling.

"Why is Kirby doing that?!" Luigi gaped.

Mario: He's helping us across!

"Yeah, even though Tipral could've clearly helped us," Blade added.

"And of course you have to bring me up…" Tipral face palmed. "How original…"

Chopper sighed as he carried on ahead while he noticed the pathway began to curve right side up. When he ran through that, he found a switch pointing down to the ground. He ended up touching it while the rest of the group was trying to get on that part of the pathway. Thankfully, they didn't have to worry when the gravity went back to normal.

"Well that solves that," Chopper shrugged.

They came across a door up ahead, so they entered it into an area where they found themselves on a platform right beside a Dark Wizard and a large water block that happened to be ahead.

"Water?! In space?!" Blade gaped.

"Trust me, I've seen this before," Chopper assured.

"Poyo, (Back in Starlite Galaxy,)" Kirby added.

Mario: We'll just have to swim through this.

"Well, let's hope it won't be long. I can't hold my breath forever." Blade noted as they jumped into the water block. There didn't appear to be much around, but when they got out of it, they landed on a blue pathway with a shorter water block ahead. However, when they reached another block, Blade had landed on top of it thanks to his ninja skills. "Heh heh! This should come in handy!"

Blade walked on ahead over the water, while the rest had to swim through it. Tipral, on the other hand, actually used his feet's ability to go over the water. Luvbi flew into the water so she could use her idea. Unfortunately, that didn't work out for her until they found another large water block ahead. There happened to be a pathway below, while there was a door on a platform above.

"Well, time to hold my breath again," Blade sighed as he jumped in, along with the others.

"Poyo, (Let's go up,)" Kirby suggested.

Knowing what Kirby said, Tipral swam up to the platform, while the others followed. Chopper was able to reach up to the platform and pull himself up afterward. The group made their way through the large blue door and found themselves in a lab-like area, except the difference was that it was a small room with a force field barrier up ahead that had someone inside.

"Well, this room is a bit quiet…" Luigi trailed.

"Guys?! Is that seriously you?!"

"Wait… Sonic?!" Blade noticed Sonic trapped in the blue force field cell and hurried over to him.

"Hold on, Blade! Don't touch it!" Sonic called out before Blade ended up touching it and getting electrocuted. "There's an electric barrier over it…"

"Sonic?! Really? How'd you get trapped in there?" Chopper asked. "You're better than this!"

"This isn't my fault, Chopper… I was unconscious and found myself in here. I guess those baddies decided to throw me in here."

Mario: Any way we can get you out?

"Well, I m sure there s someone who's holding a key…" Sonic trailed. "But, I don't think that person is somewhere around here. You might wanna check out somewhere else."

"All right, we'll do that," Blade nodded. "You just stay there and try to keep yourself safe."

"Good! …Wait, what's Tipral doing here?!"

"We don't have time to explain those details," Tipral noted. "Maybe I'll tell you when we get you out of your cell."

"Seriously… Why would Tipral be helping us out?" Sonic thought. "After all he's done to us and our worlds… I still can't forgive him for that!"

"We'll be back, so don't let your game end…or something," Chopper said as they all but Sonic left the room and returned to the previous area. Blade took a deep breath before jumping back in the water.

"Poyo, (It's still weird to see blocks on water in space,)" Kirby commented as he jumped in the water. Everyone else jumped in and found a pathway below when they ended up falling out of the block.

To their surprise, there was a door just up ahead, as well as a water block above. They decided to take the door instead, which brought them into an area where they found a loop ahead on the blue ground.

"Lots of color changes here…" Chopper trailed.

"Yeah, that's for sure," Blade agreed.

They went through the loop, but they stopped when they noticed a blocked pathway up ahead. However, there happened to be a gravity switch slightly above, so they used it to make them upside down. There was a long platform that they stood on, and below them was a platform with a door right side up.

"How are we supposed to get to that?" Luigi wondered.

"I can see another switch nearby," Tipral noted, pointing to the green switch near the door. When he touched it, they all landed on the door and entered it into another lab-like room, but this room was much bigger, almost like a battle arena.

"Huh… I don t see much around here…" Chopper trailed as he searched the area. All he could see were some capsules and one up ahead that appeared to be frozen. "Hey, what's that?"

When he walked over to the capsule, he noticed a green Mushroom with red eyes and fangs holding a blaster and also a key. Chopper turned to the others and gestured them to come over.

"What is it?" Blade asked.

"The key's in there!"

"Really?" Luigi wondered as Chopper pressed a button to open the capsule. The mysterious alien Mushroom stepped out of the capsule while Mario and Luigi s eyes shot wide open.

Mario: Oh, no…

"I didn't expect to see something like that here…" Luigi gulped.

"Pray, why art thou so surprised, yon hairy twins?" Luvbi asked.

Mario: We've seen an alien like this as babies!

"Babies? Are you serious?" Chopper gawked.

"Yeah, they're called Shroobs, and they're not friendly," Luigi noted.

The Shroob quickly rubbed its head and looked around the area. When it took notice of the group, it raised its weapon and prepared to open fire. Thankfully, they were all able to get out of harm s way.

"So, this Mushroom wants to fight us for the key?" Tipral asked as he clenched his fists. "I'll give this thing just what it wants!"

"(THIS KEY IS MINE! DESTROY!)" General Shroob shouted as it prepared to shoot another pink blast from its weapon.

"Did you guys understand that thing?" Blade gawked.

"Poyo, (Not at all,)" Kirby replied.

"(And you two mustached people remind me of two babies I've seen! …Well, it doesn't matter. I'm free from that capsule, and now I m going to start things off by ending all of you!)"

"Well, I don't know what it s saying, but it sounds like it wants a fight!" Blade declared, unsheathing his katana. "Let's go!"

Blade charged toward General Shroob, blocking its blast that it fired at him with his katana and attempting to strike it. However, it drew a blade itself. It was a curvy alien-like beam sword that was light purple.

"What? It's got a beam sword?"

"Well, beam swords are cool," Chopper shrugged as General Shroob struck Blade with its beam sword and left him dazed. This gave General Shroob the opportunity to knock him back with a blast from its gun.

"(MY GENERAL SKILLS OUTMATCH YOURS! DESTROY!)" General Shroob declared as it jumped in the air and fired a couple of more shots. They could see it had 450 HP, an Attack of 19 and a Defense of 8. This thing didn't look like it was going to mess around.

"Wow… You don't see Shroobs do that!" Luigi gaped.

Mario: It must be a different kind…

"…Or something made it become like this. It looks a little mutated, too!"

General Shroob charged up a shot from its gun and fired toward the group. Luvbi was in the way, which made Chopper grab her and pull her out of the way. Mario was able to use Reflecto to deflect the blast back at General Shroob.

Mario: He's stunned!

The red plumber gripped his hammer and smashed General Shroob's head to deal massive damaged, followed by his powerful Ground Pound that did even more damage. However, it wasn't long until General Shroob was able to blast Mario away.

Chopper ran in and tossed a light ball at General Shroob, who put up a glowing pink shield that ended up deflecting the shot back at him. He ended up inhaling and swallowing the light ball instead. Sadly, he didn't gain an ability from it.

"He can deflect projectiles too… That's nice…" Chopper sighed.

"Poyo! (Well that s not stopping us! We need that key!)" Kirby clenched his fists as General Shroob spun around and fired a blast from its gun at Kirby, who inhaled it and spat it back at the Shroob. This gave Luigi and opportunity to send it flying upward with his Cyclone.

While it was in the air, Luigi attacked it with a Super Jump, and soon after, Tipral slammed his fists on the Shroob's head to send it flying to the ground.

"(YOUR FEEBLE ATTACKS WILL NOT STOP ME! DESTROY!)" General Shroob yelled as Tipral landed on the ground and struck it with Star Magic. "(DESTROY! DESTROY!)"

"I don't know what you re saying, but if you re planning on giving that key to us, then go ahead and do it," Tipral declared, clenching his fists. Sadly, this didn't work when he got blasted by General Shroob's gun.

"Guh… I guess that's a no."

Tipral quickly got up as Blade brought his katana down on General Shroob, who attempted to use its beam sword to fight back, but Blade simply kicked the Shroob in the face and performed a downward slash on General Shroob.

Mario helped Blade out by using Kickbrin, who was delighted to be back with Mario on General Shroob to send it flying toward the capsule.

"Don't make it get trapped in there!" Chopper cried. "We don't want that!

"(FREEZING ME WILL NOT GET YOU THIS KEY! DESTROY!)" General Shroob screeched as he began to fire rapid shots at the group. Chopper and Kirby were knocked back (though Kirby was able to defend himself), while Blade spun his katana to deflect the shot.

"I wonder if I can land a combo on this guy…" Blade wondered before he got whacked in the face by General Shroob s shield. "Hey! That wasn't very nice!"

General Shroob jumped up again and began to fire down at the group with its gun. Because the Shroob was up in the air, this gave Luigi the opportunity to strike it, so he used a Super Jump to knock it to the ground.

"We can repeat this whole process to make this fight easy, you know," Luigi mentioned.

"Or maybe we can use an item?" Chopper wondered as he had a Thwomp Crusher for an item. "This could help us, perhaps?"

"Go ahead and use it," Blade nodded as Chopper summoned a large Thwomp to fall on General Shroob, flattening it entirely as the Thwomp disintegrated afterward. It quickly got itself up and fired a charged shot that knocked Chopper back.

"Poyo, (I could really use an ability to copy,)" Kirby pondered as General Shroob fired a laser toward him. When he inhaled it, he ended up getting the Laser ability, which allowed him to fire a shot directly at General Shroob.

"So Kirby's got an ability? Well that's good." Chopper slowly nodded as he got himself up. He used Starbow to make shooting stars hit General Shroob, which then allowed him to bash its head with his hammer.

General Shroob quickly shook its head and tried to attack with its beam sword, only to get kicked in the face by Tipral, who teleported in front of the Shroob to hit it. With a punch, he knocked it to the ground.

"All right, I suppose we can finish this up," Blade declared as he rushed toward General Shroob and attempted to bring his katana down on it. General Shroob retaliated by using its beam sword to block the attack and kick Blade in the crotch.

"Gah! Stupid…mushroom thing!"

"We should keep using that mirror Pixl against its ranged attacks," Tipral suggested. "It seemed to work before."

Mario: Yeah, that makes sense.

Mario grabbed Reflecto again, but General Shroob was no fool. It rushed toward Mario and used its beam sword to attack while Mario brought his hammer up to defend himself. Sure, a hammer wasn't as strong as a beam sword, but his Ultra Hammer could stand up to a weapon like that.

While General Shroob was occupied with Mario, Luigi attacked the alien with a flutter jump. He tried to snatch the key from General Shroob, but it whirled over to him and whacked his nose with its shield.

"Youch!" Luigi cried.

"(YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME! DESTROY!)" mentioned General Shroob as Chopper managed to kick its head with light power on his feet. He even used a light jump to deal some extra damage as well.

"I don't know what you said, but I don t think you saw THAT coming…" Chopper trailed as he ducked when General Shroob attempted to slice at him horizontally. Tipral fired a Star Spear at General Shroob s head to stop it, while Kirby charged up a laser attack and prepared to fire.

"Poyo! (Gotcha!)" Kirby smirked as a pink laser fired out of his visor and struck General Shroob. At this point, things were starting to become a little easier for the group now that they knew General Shroob's strategy.

But that was when General Shroob realized this after Blade was able to deliver a kick to its face. It grabbed a plasma bomb it happened to be carrying and threw it toward the group. It actually stuck on Tipral, which he tried to get off him.

"What is this supposed to be?" questioned Tipral.

"(TASTE MY BOMB! DESTROY!)" General Shroob cackled. "(YOU SHALL BE DESTROYED! DESTROY!)"

Before anything else occurred, the grenade exploded and knocked Tipral over by the door. General Shroob grinned as it prepared to fire at him, but Mario was able to stop the alien by jumping on its head.

"Sonic's speed could really help us against this thing," Blade remarked as General Shroob charged at him with its beam sword. The two ended up clashing, with both of them attempting to push each other back and attack.

Kirby was about to come in to attack, but Blade turned his head to Kirby with a stay back look which made the pink puffball back away. However, because he left his sight off General Shroob, it gave the alien an opportunity to strike back.

…But it failed when Blade used his hurricane slash to drive General Shroob back.

"(IMPOSSIBLE! DESTROY!)" General Shroob gaped.

"You think I'm going to let myself get hurt like that? Of course not!" Blade scoffed as he taunted his foe. Mario jumped on General Shroob s head afterward and then attacked with his powerful Super Ground Pound.

General Shroob cringed in pain as it was left dazed, allowing Kirby to shoot multiple lasers at the Mushroom alien. When he fired a charged shot, General Shroob used its shield to protect itself.

"Poyo… (That shield is a bit of a problem…)" Kirby trailed.

What made things worse was when General Shroob drew another blaster it happened to have and began to dual wield.

"It can dual wield guns now?!" Chopper gaped. "You gotta be kidding me!"

"You guys are acting like it's a huge deal," Tipral said as he cracked his knuckles. "Honestly. It isn't."

When General Shroob fired two blasts at Tipral, he threw two Star Spears to create an explosion. This gave him the opportunity to throw a shadow ball at General Shroob to leave it cringing in pain.

"(DARK POWER! DESTROY!)" General Shroob cried.

"It appears he doesn't like that. I should start using that more."

"Maybe light power might do something too," Chopper mentioned as his clenched his fists, which began to have a light glow surround them. Tipral clenched one of his fists as well, which had dark mist around them.

General Shroob brought its shield up to protect itself, but Mario bashed its head from behind with his hammer, which allowed Chopper and Tipral to throw a shadow and light ball at the alien.

"You know, we do kind of make a good team…" Chopper trailed.

"Don't even think about something like that," Tipral warned. "I still hate you for what you've done to me."

"I'm not saying we should. I still hate what you did to us!"

They stopped and turned their attention back to General Shroob, who got stomped on the head by Luigi's flutter jump. It pulled two shields out and used them to block Luigi's Cyclone afterward.

"Two shields? How can it use two?" Luigi gawked.

Mario: I guess it just likes to carry two?

Kirby tried to shoot at General Shroob, but it used its two shields to block the laser and deflect it back at Kirby. It was about to hit him, but Mario grabbed Reflecto and deflected it back at General Shroob.

"Bro! He's just going to deflect that attack back!" Luigi cried.

Mario: Thanks for saying that out loud…

"(FOOLISH ORGANIC BEINGS! NOW YOU HELPED ME OUT! DESTROY!)" General Shroob shouted until it got struck by a dark punch from Tipral, leaving it in severe pain.

"OK, so we re definitely more than halfway done with this guy," Blade noted. "Although, we need to somehow get rid of those shields… Is there anything that can stop them?"

"Maybe I can freeze them?" Chopper suggested.

"Well, I suppose you could try."

Chopper started off by using Starbow to make shooting stars fall on General Shroob. After a couple hit it, it used its two shields to protect itself from taking any damage. That's when Chopper tossed an ice ball at one of the shields, leaving it frozen solid.

"(MY SHIELD! DESTROY!)" General Shroob gaped as Chopper froze the other. "(Well that's great… Now my shields won't help me here!)"

Kirby smiled as he fired a charged laser at General Shroob, who cringed upon getting hit. However, this didn't mean that it was going to give up just yet. It turned to Kirby and fired rapid shots from its two guns and then drew its two beam swords.

"Two beam swords aren't going to help you win a fight," Blade mentioned before he got struck by the two beam swords. He gaped when he saw General Shroob spinning its two beam swords around him.

"Holy guacamole! How can he do that?!"

"No time to question that, Blade. We just need to fight!" Chopper called out as he flipped into 3-D to avoid General Shroob's spinning beam swords. When he went back into 2-D, he was behind the Shroob and jumped on its head while performing a stylish move. He also attacked with a light jump before getting knocked back by its beam swords.

General Shroob pulled out another plasma grenade and threw it toward Tipral again. This time, however, he teleported out of the way, but now it was coming toward Luigi. Mario gasped and pulled his brother out of the way so it hit the wall and exploded.

The Shroob charged at Kirby next with his beam swords, but Kirby's Final Cutter was all he needed to block its attack and strike it with the blade. Blade then slashed at it and struck it with a fire slash.

"(I've got an idea that won't require me to come up to you!)" General Shroob raised its two beam swords up, which seemed to resemble the letter X before it threw one of its beam swords.

"Whoa!" Chopper gaped as he ducked. Tipral, however, managed to catch the beam sword without a problem.

"(GIVE THAT BACK! DESTROY!)"

"Oh, you want this, right?" Tipral asked as he looked at the beam sword. "Here, I'll give it back to you."

He teleported up to General Shroob and transformed the beam sword into a dark beam sword with his dark energy and managed to slash the alien general with it, leaving it screaming in pain.

"I don't think you need these weapons anymore," Tipral said as he kicked General Shroob with a Star Kick and took its other beam sword. He smashed their hilts, which destroyed both beam swords.

All that left General Shroob was its blasters and grenades.

Well at least attacking in close range should be easier, Blade noted as he prepared to make another move. General Shroob grabbed its blasters and began to rapidly fire at Blade while he blocked some of the attacks. Mario took this time to get on Blade's head so he could jump on General Shroob. This plan turned out to be a success after Mario attacked with a Super Ground Pound.

Now that General Shroob was open for an attack, Blade landed a combo with his katana and finished off with a Dragon Beam, which sent the Shroob flying to the wall and leaving it in severe pain.

Kirby walked over to the alien, but once it pulled out a plasma grenade, Chopper pulled Kirby out of the way and inhaled it instead and spat it back at General Shroob, which exploded and left it flying in the air.

"(THIS IS NOT GOING WELL FOR ME! DESTROY!)" General Shroob cried as Luigi attacked with a Super Jump, while Tipral kicked it to the ground.

Chopper was about to toss a light ball at General Shroob, but he noticed Luvbi looked calm. Apparently she seemed to be praying with her wings held together. He decided not to question her, so he tossed the light ball at General Shroob.

"OK, he's almost down," Chopper sighed.

"Perfect. The sooner we get rid of this ugly Mushroom, we can free that annoying hedgehog friend of yours." Tipral said as he jumped up and threw a Star Spear down at General Shroob.

When the general looked at itself, it noticed it was heavily bruised up and knew it was going to be over soon. But even still, it didn't give up. General Shroob aimed its two blasters and began to fire charged shots.

"Watch out, Bro!" Luigi cried as Mario ducked under some of the shots. He even used Reflecto to deflect one of the shots back at General Shroob to leave it stunned.

Mario: I guess one more hit should do it!

"Yeah! Go for it, Bro!" Luigi cheered.

Mario gave him a nod and charged straight at General Shroob. Unfortunately, his attack failed when General Shroob whacked his nose with one of its blasters.

"(TAKE THIS! DESTROY!)" General Shroob shouted as it threw a plasma bomb at Mario, who gasped and jumped over it. It was now on the ground, and it wouldn't get off either.

But then General Shroob threw the Prison Key over by the bomb.

"(DESTROY KEY! DESTROY!)"

"Oh, no! You re not doing that!" Chopper growled, but unfortunately, the grenade exploded, which made his gasp. When the explosion was gone, the key was gone as well.

"Poyo! (No! The key!)" Kirby cried.

"We needed that key!" Luigi cried.

"(YOU HAVE FAILED! DESTROY!)" General Shroob smirked. Mario, angered by the Shroob, jumped on its head to finish it off, which made it fall over on the ground. However, it seemed to be grinning. "(I...WILL HAVE...THE LAST LAUGH... DESTROY... DESTROY... DE...STR...OY...)"

"I can't believe that jerk did that!" Blade hissed as General Shroob exploded. Unsatisfied with their victory, they decided to walk away from the capsule.

"So now what?" Chopper asked. "We can't free Sonic now!

"We fought that thing for nothing!"

"Actually… I wouldn't say that…" Tipral trailed.

"What do you mean? Chopper wondered before noticing the Prison Key in Tipral's hands. "Wait a second… Is that the key?"

"Yes it is. What do you THINK it is?!"

"But… How did you get it?"

"Stupid Chopper… You don't remember my ability to stop time, don't you?"

Mario: You stopped time before the grenade exploded?

"Yes. However, it was very brief, so none of you noticed. If the key was destroyed, its parts would be everywhere."

"But why did you do it?"

"Because we probably can't destroy that stupid alien kid without that blue hedgehog. I'm sure we need him if we're going to progress."

"Yeah, good point," Luigi agreed. "Though, is that all you keep thinking about?"

Tipral ignored him and walked over to the door, but he happened to notice Luvbi still praying. "And what is she doing? Was she doing that the whole time?"

Luvbi heard him and opened her eyes to give him a glare. "If thou must knoweth, I was praying for my sweet prince to stayeth safe from harm! What else could I dost? I can't fight like thee!"

"Hmph… Whatever… Let's just go back to where that blue hedgehog is."

---

Area 4, Sonic's prison cell-

"Sonic! We re back!" Blade called out as the six entered the prison room. Sonic's ears perked up as he stood up and ran over to the group.

"Aw, man! Thank goodness! I was getting tired of being in here!" Sonic sighed. "You don't wanna know how bad this place is…"

"Stand back," Tipral ordered as he used the key to unlock the cell. Sonic jumped out and made a pose.

"Yes! I'm finally out of there!"

"That means we're all back together again!" Luigi realized. "Oh, man! It feels great to not be separated!"

"Yeah, it sure does," Chopper agreed. "Now that we have everyone here, we can stop Shade and get the Pure Heart he has!"

"Wait, Shade's here?" Sonic gawked.

"Yeah. This is his base. Well… We re kind of outside the comet at the moment, but that's not problem. We'll probably get to the center of the comet, which must be where he is."

"Oh… Well, I'll help you stop him so we can get that Pure Heart…but why is Tipral here? He destroyed our worlds!"

"You know I m responsible for getting that key," Tipral noted. "And besides, I don t have my scepter, book and even the Chaos Heart with me now. Plus, Chopper agreed to work together to stop Shade anyway."

"Oh, yeah… Two enemies having a common enemy… I see what you mean. But I'm still not going to forgive you for what you did."

"I know you won't. But right now, I want to crush that alien kid, so we re not going to stay here any longer!"

Sonic rejoined the party!

"C'mon! We re not staying here any longer!" Sonic stated as he sped over to the door, which almost knocked Luvbi down.

"Hmph! Have some manners for once, Knave!" Luvbi scoffed, giving the blue hedgehog a glare.

"…What's she doing here?"

"It's…kind of a long story," Chopper sighed as he sweat dropped. "Long story short, her parents were kidnapped by Shade."

"How does the king and queen of death, who just might be the most powerful beings in the universe, get captured by some alien kid? That doesn't make any sense!"

"Then again, Fawful makes no sense."

"Good point…"

They left the prison room and returned outside. Before Sonic could make any comments, they threw him in the water and listened to him choking until he landed on the pathway below.

"What the heck, guys?! Why didn't you tell me there was water?!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Because we knew you'd freak out," Blade answered as they made their way to the door. However, they decided to look up at the water block above. "Let's check that way."

"Yes, we should," Chopper agreed as he jumped into the water block and swam up and found an underwater path to the right. Blade grabbed Sonic and helped him through to a door that led into a secret room with a large row of coins.

"Poyo? (This is it?)" Kirby gawked.

"No, there should be more…" Chopper trailed as he flipped into 3-D. Not only did the coins multiply, but he saw a blue ! Switch on the ground, so after collecting the coins, he kicked the switch to reveal a couple of Copy Abilities.

"Paint ability? Oh, man! I need that!" Chopper grabbed the Paint ability, while Kirby decided to take the Magic ability to replace his Laser ability. He now donned a red wizard's hat.

"Wow, you guys are lucky," Blade commented.

"We sure are! Now let's go back to the fifth area."

---

Area 5-

"Oh, is this what was in your way?" Sonic asked as they made their way to the blocked door with the large blue wheel in the front.

"Yea, verily," Luvbi answered. "They didst say thou couldst possibly dost this, Knave."

"Ugh… I thought you wouldn't be so rude to us." Sonic sighed as he curled up in a ball and used his Speed Dash on the wheel. This caused the blocked door to open up and allow them through. There, they were met with two Dark Soldiers that began to fire.

"Dark Creatures?! Here?!"

"Do we have to explain again?" Luigi sighed.

"No. We re just going to continue on." Tipral decided before he noticed one of the Dark Soldiers take out a grenade and throw it toward the group.

"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby raised his arms and made lightning strike both Dark Soldiers to paralyze them. Sonic waited for the grenade to explode before he curled up in a ball and defeated both Dark Creatures with a Spin Dash.

However, he continued to roll down because the pathway began to move down. Upon seeing this, everyone hurried down to get to Sonic. That's when he hit a gravity switch, causing them to all fall upward on another pathway.

"Whoa! What happened?!" Sonic gaped as he got out of his ball form.

Mario: You changed the gravity.

"Really? Wow! I wasn't expecting that!"

"Just shut up and keep moving," Tipral suggested as he began to hurry on ahead while Sonic looked confused. Nevertheless, they followed Tipral until they encountered some Thwomps slamming the pathway, and they were upside down as well!

"They're moving too fast…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: I know we could probably flip to get through them…

"Ummmmm… I don t think I can flip into 3-D when upside down." Chopper sweat dropped. "Sorry…"

"Then I'll just have to stop time," declared Tipral as he swung his arm. "This shouldn't be a huge problem for me."

Tipral stopped time just at the right moment for them to get past the Thwomps. When everyone made it through, he reverted time back to normal and noticed the pathway going at a lower angle from their perspective.

"So I suppose speed doth be important hither?" Luvbi wondered.

"Beats me, but I'm loving this!" Sonic grinned as he ran down, while Chopper followed next after his Speed Dash. They ended up going through a loop before finding another gravity switch pointing to the right.

They waited for everyone else to catch up before they touched the switch. They were falling toward the right and landed on a green pathway with a small ledge ahead. An Stardie was waiting for them.

"Wait, didn't we see this thing before in Starlite Galaxy?" Sonic gawked.

"Yeah, we definitely did," Chopper nodded.

"Well I'll handle this thing," Sonic curled up in a ball and attacked its head with a Homing Attack. It surprisingly worked, considering that he homed in on the Stardie by its head. After two more attacks from Sonic, it was destroyed.

"That's still not that good," Tipral scoffed. "That's not a very effective strategy against some stronger enemies."

"Well it worked," Blade noted. "Anyway, moving on."

"Yea, verily," Luvbi agreed. "I doth want to be somewhere safe with my sweet prince!"

Chopper ended up sweat dropping, but he continued on and followed by jumping on the ledge and finding another gravity switch that was pointing to the left. They noticed there was a yellow pathway over there.

"Kinda reminds me a bit of that one place in the Space Colony ARK," Sonic recalled.

"Then you might know what goes on around here, right?" Tipral wondered.

"Errrr… I'm not sure. I've never been in this area before…"

Mario: We might as well hit that switch.

"Poyo! (I'll hit it!)" Kirby touched the switch, which made everyone fall to the left and land on the yellow pathway. There wasn't much else around except for a spring pointing to the right. From what they could see, it could bring them behind the green pathway they were previously on.

They did this and ended up behind the green pathway. They found another gravity switch that led them down. This time, they found a gap between the blue path they were on and the pathway leading up to a path curving up to a door on a ledge.

"Hold on a second…" Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a bridge and also something behind the ledge. When he crossed over, he noticed a pipe, so they all decided to go in and find themselves in a lab-like room, which would resemble an underground room.

"Wait a second, what's that?" Blade asked as they looked up at the purple Megabite, which happened to be a Terabite. It began to fly all over the room, attempting to bite at the group. Luvbi even let out a shriek and fluttered over to Chopper.

"Helpth me, my sweet prince!" Luvbi cried. "I dost not want to get hurt by that thing!"

"Ugh… I'll get rid of it." Tipral groaned while he snapped his finger, damaging the Terabite. But, like most of these enemies, it didn't do much damage. "Great… I forgot these enemies don't take much damage…"

Kirby took this time to make lightning strike down on the Terabite a couple of times to finish it off. A chest appeared in the center of the room right by Tipral. When he opened the chest, he found a Max Shroom Shake inside.

"All right, I suppose this'll help us…"

"Now let's get out of here," Chopper suggested as they left the lab-like room and returned to the space area. They made their way up the ledge and entered the door, which led them to an area with a path curved up to a ledge just up ahead for them.

"Didn't we just see that, though?" Luigi gawked.

"Poyo, (We saw it in the previous area,)" recalled Kirby.

Sonic shrugged and used his Spin Dash to go up the curve and get on the ledge, while Chopper used a Speed Dash to make his way up. Up ahead was a large gap, but there was a blue wheel on the floor. There also happened to be a Dark Wizard between the gap firing magic.

Thankfully, Kirby was able to take care of it by using an ice spell to leave the Dark Wizard frozen solid. After Sonic finished his Spin Dash on the wheel, a glowing yellow rail appeared.

"Hmmmm? A glowing rail? That's interesting…" Sonic trailed.

Mario: It doesn't look like it s going to last forever…

"Then we need to move fast," Chopper suggested as he ran across the rail while ignoring the frozen Dark Wizard. Tipral teleported over to the other side, while the rest simply followed to a railing above them that was moving up.

"That transport device looks like it still works," Tipral noticed as he grabbed a hold of it. He was instantly taken up to a platform above them that had a Dark Soldier and Dark Brute waiting for him. He didn't take much time to finish them off with his Star powers before the transport device went back down to the others.

"Poyo, (It looks like we can only go one at a time,)" Kirby noted as he grabbed the handle next and let it take him over to Tipral. After a while, everyone else managed to get up to the platform and find another curved pathway going up.

"Oh, come on!" Blade whined. "Not everyone here can do this!"

Sonic went into a ball and used his Spin Dash to go up, while Chopper charged up a Speed Dash to make his way up. Blade resorted to climbing up with his kunais, while Kirby floated up and Luigi used a Super Jump.

Mario: What about me?!

"I'm still not helping thee, mustachioed fatty," Luvbi scoffed.

"Come on, Luvbi, just do it," Chopper sweat dropped. "I'm not going to take off my Paint ability just to get Mario up here."

"But he doth be heavy for me! He might weigheth a ton!"

Mario: Well I certainly don't.

"Ugh… Fine. I'll do it myself." Sonic sighed as he jumped down, grabbed Mario and made his way back up after building some speed. They eventually carried on and found a yellow block that was in the way ahead. There was a pathway above them that appeared to look like a tunnel.

"OK, I think we need to smash this thing," Blade declared as Chopper whipped out Cudge and smashed the block with his hammer, revealing a yellow spring. They used it to launch themselves up to the pathway above that led into a tunnel.

"Whoa, what's that up ahead?" Sonic asked, pointing at the Dark Brute carrying a larger gun in its hand.

"Dark Brute… And it's holding a Plasma Launcher…" Blade gulped.

Mario: Oh… That doesn't sound good…

"I think I have an idea," Chopper sped over to the Dark Brute and painted it green to poison it. "Now it'll take a bit of damage for a bit with it poisoned. I think this should make it easier for us."

Tipral understood and fired a Star Spear at the Dark Brute, while it fired a plasma blast from its weapon toward them. Sonic grabbed Reflecto and deflected the shot away and back at the Dark Brute.

Since it was low on HP, Mario bashed it with his hammer to become victorious.

They continued on through the short pathway until they reached a railing curving up to a ledge above them in the tunnel. They did the usual and got themselves up, with Luvbi being forced to carry Mario up while complaining about his weight.

Up ahead, they noticed a wall that was in the way. They couldn't even find a switch around to find out if it needed to be opened.

"Hold on, let me check in 3-D," Chopper went into 3-D and noticed three holes he could jump down. He helped the rest of the group into 3-D and decided to take the middle hole. They were greeted with a speed panel upon landing, which sped them up to a glowing railing that helped them reach a door.

"Quickly! Through here!" Luigi cried as they went through the door into an area where they found a high ledge ahead. Sadly, it looked like it wasn't high enough for Luigi to jump over.

"Hey, look! I see three puzzles!" Thoreau noticed a pipe nearby with a Dark Wizard coming out and two red ! Switches that required them to be hit quickly.

Mario: I suppose you'll be useful here!

"Well, eetz about time I got to do something useful here!" Bonjourang cheered. "Zis puzzle doesn't look too hard for zee likes of me!"

Luigi grabbed a hold of Bonjourang and threw him at the switches, which he was able to hit at once. Mario, meanwhile, tossed Thoreau at a Dark Wizard so he could grab it for Mario and allow him to throw it at the blue ! Switch. This triggered a large spring to appear near the ledge.

"Prithee, doth this be some kind of joke?" Luvbi gawked. "Thine reward is merely a large spring?"

"Hold on a minute…" Sonic trailed as he checked the spring. "I think we can use this for something. I mean, we can put our own weight on this thing, right?"

The seven jumped on the spring, while Luvbi decided to fly up to the ledge herself. When they jumped at once, the spring didn't appear to move.

"This isn't going to work. We need some more weight to get this to work." Tipral informed.

Mario began to ponder, but after realizing what he could do, he jumped in the air and used his Super Ground Pound to send everyone flying up to the ledge. They landed right in front of Luvbi, who backed away and gave an irritated look.

"Thou always hast to land close to me," Luvbi groaned. "Thou couldst hurt mine gorgeous face!"

"As if that was really important..." Blade muttered.

Meanwhile, Sonic noticed a gap up ahead, but there also happened to be a small asteroid by them as well.

"Guys, I think we have a problem…" the blue hedgehog trailed.

"What is it?" Luigi asked until he noticed too. "Oh… This isn't good!"

"Wait a minute… Is that a blue ! Switch up ahead? If that's the case, then we need something to help us hit that thing…"

Mario then had an idea after looking at the asteroid. He took Kickbrin and used him to knock the asteroid over by the block. Once it was hit, a spinning drum pointing up appeared before them.

Mario: There we go!

"But why a gravity cylinder?" Luigi wondered. "I never liked those…"

"It's not big deal. You just go to the top and that's it." Tipral said as he jumped near the gravity cylinder, which pulled him in and allowed him to go up. Everyone shrugged and followed him up.

"How dost thou get out of the gravity?" Luvbi asked, getting sucked in by the gravity cylinder.

"Poyo? (Maybe fly away from it?)" Kirby shrugged.

"My sweet prince, canst thou tellest me what that gumball said to me?"

"Poyo?! (Gumball?!)"

"Ummmmm… OK, he said that you could probably fly away from the gravity cylinder." Chopper shrugged.

"Oh… Mayhap I will." With that, Luvbi fluttered out of the gravity cylinder's reach, allowing her to fly upward while the others reached the top. They landed on the pathway ahead, which had them being introduced to a plasma grenade from a Dark Soldier.

"Whoa! Heads up!" Sonic cried as he ducked. Tipral ended up grabbing it, but he couldn't throw it back because it was stuck to his hand.

"What the…! I can't get it off!" Tipral hissed as he felt an explosion from his hand. His glove was covered in soot afterward, but he didn't let it bother him as he clenched his fists in rage as he dove at the Dark Soldier and continued to beat it with a couple of Star Punches.

"Whoa, someone's pretty ticked…" Blade trailed as Tipral finished the Dark Creature off with a dark punch. He then got back up and looked at his soot-covered hand.

"Kind of reminds me of when you ended up punching the wall," Chopper recalled as he went over to Tipral, who ended up whacking his face with his other fist despite not even facing him.

"Bringing back horrible memories isn't going to make things any better, Chopper," Tipral remarked. "You're better off shutting up about that, or else the next time we meet another Dark Creature with a plasma grenade, it'll be YOUR hand that gets it!"

Chopper blinked before slowly backing away. Tipral glared at him for a moment before looking away and noticing another pathway a bit above them that was covered in flames. Touching it would be incredibly dangerous.

"Well that's great…" Luigi sighed. "How are we going to get through a flaming pathway?"

"Maybe I can help!" Crystaline chirped. "After all, I can freeze things!"

"But doesn't fire melt ice?" Chopper pondered.

"Yea, it dost," Luvbi agreed.

"Well, I certainly won't!" Crystaline assured as Kirby grabbed the snowflake Pixl and tossed her on the flaming pathway. It turned into a frozen one instead, allowing them all to make their way across to a railway going down.

"I'm going first!" Sonic declared as he rolled down the railway while in a ball. Mario and Luigi slid down, while Chopper and Tipral sped down with ease. Kirby and Blade… They only walked down there.

After the railway ended, they found a gravity switch pointing to the right. Mario gave it a good poke as they were all sent flying to the right. They ended up landing in a water block that was long in height.

Sonic, of course, was not having an easy time. Not only that, but he couldn't swim, which was making him sink out of the water block. Blade was thankfully there to help him escape from such peril though.

They continued to swim upward until they found a larger water block that was large in height and width next to it, so they swam out of the block and went in the larger one. Kirby touched the gravity switch pointing down so the gravity went back to normal. Past the water block was a platform with a door and a Dark Wizard waiting.

In fact, there happened to be two Dark Wizards in the water.

"Poyo! (Dark Wizards are in the water!)" Kirby gaped as he used his magic to strike the two wizards with lightning. Blade swam up to them and finished them off by slashing at them with his katana.

When they got out of the water block, Chopper was able to get his lips off of Luvbi's and continuously spit in disgust as Sonic attacked the Dark Wizard with his Sonic Wind, followed by a Homing Attack. Luigi finished it off with his Cyclone.

"I wonder how long we have to go through here," Luigi wondered.

"Hopefully soon…" Chopper trailed, entering the next area. To their surprise, they had come across a starry road. "A starry path? Wow!"

"I can actually see some of the comet," Sonic mentioned, noticing how much darkness was covering the place. "That's the comet, right?"

"We're not even far from it…" Blade trailed. "In fact, I still see some bits of the comet ahead. I'm talking about the rocky platforms."

"Really?" Sonic sped up ahead through the starry path. He ended up going through a loop on his way and finding a small ledge with the path he was running on having a spring facing him. He ended up braking in front of it.

"That was TOO close…"

"We've been through eight big areas so far…" Tipral trailed as he braked by the spring with his air shoes, which created flaming skid marks on the starry path. "If there's ten, then we're not too far from being finished here."

"I bet there's a way through this outer area that can lead us straight to Shade in the comet," Chopper pondered as he jumped on the ledge and noticed the moving purple rocky platform ahead.

"You think the gravity has something to do with this?"

Mario: Most likely.

They jumped on the platform and managed to defeat the Dark Assassin waiting for them. They couldn't help but take a good look at the starry sky before waiting for one of the platforms ahead. Two platforms happened to be circling around, so after jumping on one, they jumped on one that had an arrow pointing up.

"Ooh… This might be dangerous…" Sonic trailed.

"Poyo? (How so?)" Kirby wondered.

"I'm sure there's…wait, there IS a platform upside down!" Chopper gaped as he looked up. He gave the switch a whack, and then they were lifted off the ground and onto the platform above them.

"I don't know why, but this whole gravity thing is kind of making me sick…" Luigi mumbled.

Mario: Well let's not try to get sick, OK?

They waited for the next platform to come over by them before jumping on it. Sonic started to tap his foot because of how slow the platform was moving, but when they found the next one, which was moving up and down, they jumped on and found another starry path upside down.

"This should be interesting…" Blade trailed.

They walked across the starry pathway and found a switch that brought the gravity back to normal. They ended up landing on a large, yellow star, which surprisingly didn't seem to burn them.

"Wow! We're standing on a star!" Chopper gaped.

"But that doth be strange when stars art verily hot," Luvbi mentioned.

"Well apparently this one isn't," Sonic noticed.

They noticed another one ahead, so they jumped off the star and landed on a red one instead. Luigi recalled red stars being the coldest, while blue were one of the hottest. However, he stopped when he noticed a rocky platform high above them. His Super Jump was able to reach it, while Kirby floated up there himself.

"Oh, boy… Hold on a second." Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a pole to climb up. He got everyone else into 3-D and climbed up the pole with ease until they got on the platform, which Chopper went back into 2-D.

"Poyo… (Uh oh… This isn't good…)" Kirby gulped, noticing some gray platforms ahead slowly fading away and reappearing. "Poyo. (We have to be careful here.)"

They waited for the platform to reappear before jumping on it. There were a couple of other platforms they had to jump as well, so they quickly got on them until they landed on a purple platform with a couple of gray platforms close to each other disappearing at a fast pace.

"So what ideas dost thou hath, heroes?" Luvbi asked.

"You know, I'm not actually a hero," Tipral mentioned. "I'm only here to destroy that alien and help get that Pure Heart he has."

"Look, that's not important right now," Sonic cut in. "We need to be fast to get through this."

"I know what to do!" Chopper smiled as he charged a Speed Dash and took off at the right moment, which helped him reach the starry pathway. He ended up finding a ? Block and Save Block near him too.

Blade took his time and used his hurricane slash to make everyone get sent flying over the platforms, while Luvbi was forced to take him across, which she didn't seem to enjoy.

"I'd rather helpeth my sweet prince through hither than thee!" Luvbi sulked.

"Oh, quit whining!" Blade said, giving her an annoyed look. "Ya gotta deal with it!"

Chopper hit the block and a Star Shroom popped out. Blade sliced it into seven pieces so they could all recover 150 HP. Afterward, they made their way across the long, starry path and over to a long, rocky platform with two purple rocky platforms above it. There also appeared to be spikes on the background of the platform.

"Gee… This doesn't look nice…" Luigi trailed.

"Well well well… It looks like you people made it this far!"

They looked up and saw the Necromancer fly down and land in front of the group with his sword ready. Everyone quickly got in their fighting stances.

"So, you're here to fight, right?" Chopper asked.

"And I hope thou hast not laid a hand on mine parents!" Luvbi growled. "If thou hast, then I will make thee pay!"

"Oh shut up, you. They're not even hurt!" the Necromancer snapped. "Well… Not yet, that is! And look at this! It appears everyone's back together again!"

"I'm going to rip that helmet off your head pretty soon," Tipral threatened as he clenched his fists in anger. "I want you to tell Shade that I'm coming for him, because I have a bone to pick with that kid!"

"Feisty little…"

"What's with that below your eye anyway?" Blade wondered, noticing the crack below the Necromancer's right eye.

"That was caused by that kid you have with you!" the Necromancer hissed, glaring at Chopper. "You… You nearly ruined my helmet from that weapon you carried!"

"All right, let's stop already," Chopper cut in. "Let's just fight, all right?"

"…Oh, yes. I almost forgot! Actually, I'm not here to fight you. I wanted to introduce you to a special friend…or rather, a type of minion created by Shade! It's a Dark Wizard much stronger than before! Trust me, a Wizrim is just what you need!"

The Necromancer flew up and struck white lightning on the ground, summoning a Dark Wizard with orange eyes, no legs, a black cape and a large wand that also resembled a scythe. The hood it wore reminded everyone of a grim reaper.

"So, what do we have here?" the Wizrim asked. "It looks like we've got a couple of unwelcome guests who need to be put out of their misery! No worries, great Necromancer! They will be gone…pretty soon!"

"Excellent! Do not fail me!" the Necromancer grinned as he flew off. "And don't think that's the last of that thing! There's plenty of more Wizrim's especially around the deeper area of the comet!"

"All right, so we just have to deal with this guy…" Sonic trailed as he taunted the Wizrim. "Bring it on!"

"With pleasure!" the Wizrim grinned as it flew forward, its dark mist being left behind as it moved.

Blade noticed the Wizrim had 460 HP, an Attack of 19 and a Defense of 9, which reminded him of the Egg Dimensionator for some reason. With that aside, he readied his katana.

"Sonic Wind!" Sonic shouted as the Wizrim was surrounded in a blue gust of wind. It cringed as it crashed on one of the floating platforms.

"Gah! This place will be your grave!" the Wizrim hissed as it fired dark magic from its scythe wand. Sonic ended up getting hit, but that didn't hold him back, especially when he was able to get up quickly.

Mario: A scythe that's also a wand? This could be tricky…

"Well, we've faced worse things…" Chopper trailed, tossing a light ball at the Wizrim. It quickly avoid the attack and brought its scythe down in order to hit Chopper. It ended up missing and getting its scythe stuck on the ground.

Luigi took this chance to jump on its head, which caused its eyes to widen in pain. He also added a flutter jump to the mix as well.

"Enough with that!" the Wizrim roared as it pulled its scythe out of the ground and managed to strike Luigi with it. The Dark Wizard didn't notice Mario bashing its head with his hammer in retaliation.

When the Dark Wizard turned to Mario, it fired magic at Mario that knocked him back. Blade tried to slash the Wizrim with his katana, but it was able to block his attack with its scythe.

"Yeesh… This thing knows how to block weapons!" Blade blinked.

"So what shouldst I do?" Luvbi asked as she watched the fight.

"Find someplace safe!" Chopper cried. "Anywhere!"

"Of course."

"Hmmmmm… Maybe when I'm done ending your games, I might have an idea of what to do with that angel." the Wizrim grinned under its hood as Chopper ducked under its scythe that was about to slice him in half.

"You're not going to do anything to her, 'cause we're going to beat you!" Chopper shot back while gripping his hammer. He jumped in the air and spun it vertically at the Wizrim, hitting its face and making it cry out in pain.

"What's this? A stronger Dark Wizard crying out?" Tipral noticed. "I thought they could take as many hits as it could?"

The Wizrim hissed at Tipral as it fired dark magic from its scythe at him. He tossed a shadow ball at one of the projectiles to destroy both, allowing him to swing both his arms down to fire two Star Spears.

It tried to get away, but the Star Spears were quick enough to hit the Wizrim and leave it open for another attack, so Kirby used his Magic ability to make lightning strike the Wizrim and electrocute it.

"Gah… You may have your special kind of abilities, but dark magic triumphs all!" the Wizrim boasted.

"Poyo, (We'll see about that,)" Kirby smirked as he fired some icicles toward the Wizrim, which it managed to block by putting its scythe in front of it. It then flew up, which gave Luigi the chance to attack by using his Super Jump, which he was about to hit easily.

The Wizrim tried to hit Luigi with its scythe, but Blade was able to clash with the Wizrim and win it by kicking its face - which was vulnerable, and then he attacked it with a fire slash, leaving it with a nasty burn.

Sonic delivered a Homing Attack to its face while it was off guard and used his Whirlwind to send it flying upward. Sadly, it didn't appear to work for him.

"What? My Whirlwind can't do a thing to this guy?" Sonic gaped.

"I don't have any legs!" the Wizrim reminded. "I can't actually be lifted off the ground! And with the gravity around here, it's not like it's going to do a thing!"

"Hmmmm… That may be, but we can still hurt ya!"

"Yes, just like I can hurt you…"

Sonic attempted another Homing Attack, but the Wizrim brought its weapon up to block his attack. It struck the blue hedgehog with its scythe before getting pelted with a couple of shooting stars, which Starbow happened to be summoning.

"Take this!" Chopper cried as he hurled a light ball at the Wizrim's face. Not only did it leave it crying in pain, but it also blinded the Dark Wizard.

"My eyes! I cannot see!"

"Then that gives me the chance to attack!" Tipral declared, snapping his finger to strike the Wizrim with Star Magic. He then teleported over to it and used his Star Burst to send it flying up.

"Oh, cool! Now I can use my…" Luigi got cut off when Tipral teleported up to the Wizrim and began to beat it up before kicking it to the ground. "I… I could've attacked…"

The Wizrim cursed out as it managed to strike Tipral with dark magic from its scythe wand. The dark being tried to defend himself, but it didn't seem to work for him when he ended up getting knocked back.

While the Wizrim appeared pleased, Mario jumped on its head and performed a stylish move before using a Super Ground Pound to leave its eyes widening in pain. It tried, but it couldn't escape.

Mario: He's open for an attack!

"Poyo! (Great!)" Kirby smiled as he created a fire spell that scorched the Wizrim before it threw its weapon at Kirby, knocking him back. Chopper, using his paintbrush, was able to paint the Wizrim green to poison it.

"So, you can poison, huh? Well, being a wizard, I do have some skills of my own!" the Wizrim caught its scythe and used its magic to cure itself of the poison, leaving Chopper to gape.

"Are you serious?!" Chopper exclaimed. "That's not fair!"

"When you have seven people fighting against you, you'd probably consider that fair in your eyes."

"Oh… I guess you have a point."

Kirby fired a lightning spell at the Wizrim, but it quickly dodged the attack and charged at Kirby, only to get hit in the face by Bonjourang. It didn't do much, but it brought its attention to Luigi - until Blade threw Hommissile at the Wizrim, bringing its attention to Blade.

But unfortunately, it didn't have enough time to take action when Blade unleashed his Dragon Beam at the Wizrim, sending it flying toward one of the platforms it happened to be near.

"Ugh… This isn't going too well for me…"

Chopper ran over to the Wizrim while it was dizzy and used his Paint ability to paint it white, freezing it, which allowed Mario to attack it with a Super Ground Pound. The Wizrim broke out of its icy prison and hit both Chopper and Mario with its scythe.

When it tried to attack Blade, he rolled out of the way and used Barry to block off its scythe attack. He unleashed another Dragon Beam, but it quickly got out of the way and hit Blade with dark magic.

"Geez… He can dodge that attack!" Blade gaped.

"Because he's most likely faster than that attack," Tipral noted.

Blade blinked as he ducked when the Wizrim attacked him. Tipral ducked as well and got on his hands and began to spin his feet around, which hit the Wizrim a couple of times from the Star energy on his feet.

"What's that supposed to be?!" the Wizrim questioned.

"Looks like he's doing some kind of dance move…" Luigi trailed.

"It was an idea I had when trying to fight you," Tipral explained as he quickly got up and sent the Wizrim flying back with a Star Kick to the face. It growled as it quickly shook its head and threw its scythe.

Tipral teleported out of harm's way, while Sonic ended up getting hit by the scythe. The Wizrim teleported to the other side and caught its scythe, which it aimed at the group and fired multiple magic projectiles.

"Sure, Master Shade Doom may have some great dark magic of his own, but his wand is not a scythe!" the Wizrim cackled.

"Well it's a sword that can summon fireballs from the sky…" Chopper trailed.

"Oh, really? Well, that's nothing special compared to this!"

The Wizrim noticed Kirby creating fireballs and firing them toward it, so it spun its katana around to deflect the fireballs. Everyone gasped as they took cover to avoid the fireballs.

"Hey! That's my move!" Blade cried.

"You didn't make it up, you know."

The ninja cat gave it a face as Luigi managed to use his Super Jump on the Dark Wizard, leaving it to try to attack Luigi. Its efforts failed when Mario used Kickbrin to knock the Wizrim to the ground.

Sonic made his next move by using a Spin Dash to hit the Wizrim directly. When he got out of his ball form, he ended up giving a thumbs up before the Wizrim flew up and aimed its scythe down at the ground.

"Let's see you handle THIS!"

The Wizrim fired a dark beam from its scythe that shot the ground and destroyed the middle part of it. Kirby stepped back, barely escaping the powerful attack the Wizrim performed.

"Poyo! (Part of the ground is destroyed!)" Kirby gaped.

The Wizrim grinned and fired small dark magic projectiles at the group, with Sonic using Reflecto to deflect them back at it and hit it. Chopper tossed a light ball, since he was too far to use his Paint ability.

This time, the Wizrim slashed at the sky with its scythe to open up a portal. Dark ghosts began to fly out and come down on the heroes. They didn't hurt them, but they were left distracted by them for the Wizrim to attack with its scythe.

Mario: That was just a distraction!

"Well, that happened to work out better than I thought!" the Wizrim cackled as the group tried to punch at the ghost. "Try all you want, but you can't actually hit a ghost!"

"If only we had Tippi's wand with us…" Chopper grumbled. "…Wait, maybe rainbow energy could work?"

He tossed some rainbow balls at some of the ghosts. While they weren't wiped out, they were left vulnerable, allowing Sonic to use his Whirlwind to catch them in a whirlwind and send them toward the Wizrim, whose eyes widened as it got hit by all the ghosts.

"How'd you do that?!"

"Oh, it's just something I'm only capable of doing," Sonic smirked. "Although… I think Shadow's capable of doing that too…"

The Wizrim looked like it didn't even care as it rushed over to Sonic and tried to hit him with its scythe. Sonic rolled out of the way and managed to get in a ball and attack it with a Spin Dash, while Luigi managed to stomp on its head afterward.

The Wizrim growled as it raised its scythe and made a dark beam fire upward. They noticed it coming down and homing in on them, so they ducked under one of the platforms so they wouldn't get hurt.

"Well that worked out a lot better than I thought," Blade commented.

"What? My attack didn't work?!" the Wizrim gaped. "Those platforms are seriously starting to get annoying…"

Mario: Good thing we used them, that's for sure…

"Now we can get back to crushing this poor Wizrim," Tipral remarked as he threw a shadow ball to keep the Wizrim off guard. He decided to grab Crystaline and throw it at the wizard to freeze it.

"I don't think that's going to keep it frozen forever…" Luigi trailed.

"I know, but that should give me some time to crush it!"

"Hold on, we're in this together," Chopper cut in, painting the Wizrim red to thaw it out and also leave a burn. Before the Wizrim could do anything else, Chopper charged up a fireball and threw it at the Wizrim.

"Grrrrr! Stupid ability!" the Wizrim used its scythe to knock away Chopper's ability, leaving him without an ability.

"My prince! Art thou all right?!" Luvbi gaped, getting interrupted by her praying when she sensed Chopper in trouble.

Chopper told her he was fine as we quickly got up. The Wizrim prepared to hit Chopper with its scythe again, but Blade jumped in and clashed with it by using his katana. Kirby also helped by using his magic to strike lightning down on the Wizrim.

"Thank you, Kirby!" Blade thanked as he slashed at the Wizrim to deal some massive damage. "Really appreciate it!"

"Poyo! (No problem!)" Kirby cheered.

The Wizrim hissed and managed to fire dark magic at both Kirby and Blade. The pink puffball's ability was knocked away, but he managed to inhale it again and regain his Magic ability.

As Kirby cheered, the Wizrim threw its scythe to try to hit Kirby. Mario noticed this and used Kickbrin to knock it out of the way and bash the Wizrim in the head with his hammer while it was unarmed.

"I'll have to improvise," the Wizrim muttered as it tried to punch Mario with its fists. Mario jumped out of the way with ease as Tipral jumped toward the Wizrim and managed to kick its face.

"With you weaponless, you'll go down very easily," Tipral remarked.

"Well… Not for long!" the wizard grinned as Tipral got hit by its scythe from behind, making his eyes widen in pain as the Wizrim caught its scythe and managed to fire dark magic at him. The only problem? Dark attacks didn't hurt him that much.

"You know I'm a dark being, right? Dark attacks aren't really going to do much against me!"

"So you're a ghost?"

"No, not quite…"

"Then what are you?"

"I am…"

Tipral was cutoff when Kirby fired icicles at the Wizrim, followed by Sonic's Homing Attack. It wasn't like Tipral cared if he didn't finish his sentence anyway, so he fired a Star Spear at the Wizrim, and then he let Chopper blind it with a light ball.

"Augh! My eyes!" the Wizrim cried.

With it vulnerable to Chopper's attacks, he decided to jump up and deliver a spinning kick, and afterward, he held Starbow up and let her shooting stars fall down on the Wizrim to deal some more damage.

"I'm sure he'll be finished quickly!" Starbow cheered. "His HP is rather low, from what I can see…"

"Yeah! I can see!" Chopper nodded.

"But that doesn't mean it's over…" the Wizrim growled, raising its scythe and ripping through the ground, tearing it apart with ease. Tipral tried to grab the scythe, but it didn't seem like it was working.

"This isn't going to work," Tipral groaned. "Try freezing it or something."

Chopper nodded and hurled an ice ball at the scythe. Unfortunately, that didn't appear to work, so Kirby used his ice magic to freeze it. That didn't work either, which left Mario to bash its head with his hammer.

Mario: One more hit might finish it off!

"Then leave it to me!" Sonic declared.

"You know it's nearly ripping through the ENTIRE platform," Blade noticed as the platform began to shake. "So you better be fast!"

"That's my middle name!" the blue hedgehog curled up in a ball and jumping up and spun around the Wizrim, surrounding it in a whirlwind he created. It seemed to be working, because its scythe was starting to slip away.

In the end, it ended up releasing its scythe, allowing Sonic to deliver the final blow with a simple Homing Attack.

"Don't think you'll see the last of the Wizrims!" it cried as it flew upward in pain. "I may be defeated, but you'll see plenty of us! And I'm sure they'll be much, MUCH stronger than me!"

With those words, the Wizrim slowly disintegrated, leaving the whole group to find a platform appear before their eyes. It had a door, which made most of the group (except for Tipral) smile.

"Poyo! (Yes! We're done with that thing!)" Kirby cheered.

"Uh huh! And we didn't have to use any items either!" Chopper smiled.

"Oh, how is my sweet prince doing?" the pale green gumball felt himself being hugged from behind when Luvbi was able to tackle him to the ground.

"Get off, please!"

"Nay! I hath been too far from thee for quite a while!"

"It was only about seven minutes…" Blade trailed.

"It took us seven minutes?" Luigi gaped.

"Yup."

Eventually Luvbi had released Chopper, who successfully managed to avoid any of her angelic kisses. However, everyone's attention was quickly drawn to Tipral when he pointed at the door ahead.

"We have this door to go through," Tipral noted. "We're not wasting any time. We're going. Now."

"Yeah, we need to," Chopper agreed. "We wanna get that Pure Heart immediately!"

Everyone nodded and headed through the door. They noticed they were getting closer to the comet as they noticed the area around them looking a bit dark. It was difficult seeing the stars, but what they could see was a platform high above them.

"How're we supposed to reach that?" Sonic gawked.

"Wait… Look at that!" Luigi pointed to a flying saucer that was right beside them.

"Pray, that dost remindeth me of the saucers my prince and I saw while exploring the comet…" Luvbi recalled.

"But there's no alien slime stuff here," Chopper frowned. "How's this supposed to work?"

"Hold on…" Tipral jumped on it, and he realized it could jump to incredible heights. It even put Luigi's Super Jump to shame. "It looks like this thing can help us get through here!"

There were a couple of more – seven to be exact. They each got on a saucer and leapt up to the platform above. Luvbi, of course, could obviously fly, so there was no reason to use a saucer.

There weren't many platforms they had to use when they found an upreel handle that could help them lead up to another platform, so they grabbed it and let it reel them up to the platform. They noticed some falling platforms around the huge gap.

"Geez… This might be a little difficult." Luigi sweat dropped.

Mario: Well we conquered many platforms before!

"Yeah, that's true…"

They waited the right moment before jumping from platform to platform. Some Dark Wizards tried to stop them, but Kirby took care of them by using his thunder magic to knock them away.

To their surprise, they were already at the end of the area when they noticed another large gap ahead. Only this time, there weren't any platforms to help them cross. Chopper went into 3-D and noticed nothing to help them.

"Well, we're in trouble," Blade stated.

"No we're not. I'll just teleport everyone across – except for Luvbi." Tipral noted.

"What? Why not me?" Luvbi asked, giving him a glare.

"Because you can fly yourself!"

"Hmph! Thou art not as much of a gentlemen as Chopper!"

"Just… Just do it." Chopper sighed as Tipral teleported everyone across. They went into the door and into an area where they found a rail moving downward. They noticed they were getting much closer to the comet at this point.

"Is this… Area 10?" Luigi wondered.

Mario: I think so.

"It appears we're near the end…" Tipral trailed. "We should be in the comet sooner or later."

"Then let's go!" Sonic shouted as he got on the rail and began to go down. Chopper followed next, with Luvbi fluttering after him. Tipral waited for everyone else to go down before he went down himself.

As the rail ended, everyone jumped off and were led to a tunnel that reminded them of another tunnel they went through. Nevertheless, they ran through the tunnel, knocking the Stardie that was in their way and got to the spring that brought them up to the ledge with a pit up ahead.

"So, it appears there's a pit here?" Chopper wondered as he looked down. "I can't see that much of it…"

"Well we doth have no option," Luvbi noted. "We hast to get a move on!"

"Yeah… You're right."

Everyone jumped down the pit and landed on a red pathway below that began to move down. They noticed behind them was an explosion. Apparently they ended up stepping on a demolition switch to trigger it.

"Uhhhhh… Run!"

Chopper grabbed Kirby and Luigi's arms while Sonic grabbed Blade and Mario's and began to run down. Tipral skated down himself as he noticed Luvbi grabbing onto Chopper's antennae so she wouldn't get caught in the rubble.

"Why was there a demolition switch there?!" Luigi cried.

"I don't know! It might've been placed there because Shade knew we were going through here!" Chopper shouted.

"No time to talk!" Sonic cried. "Just keep running!"

Tipral appeared the most calm, probably because he feels nothing but anger inside of himself. He looked back and noticed the rubble getting closer, so he sped up and noticed a spring down below.

"So, it looks like we're getting out of here soon…" Tipral trailed.

"What do you mean?" Chopper questioned.

"There's a spring coming up."

They all noticed dead ahead was a spring. Upon touching it, it launched them off the pathway and straight for an entrance in the comet.

Before they knew it, they were back inside the comet.

When the group landed on the ground, they noticed the mixture of both gray and purple on the ground before them. They appeared to be in a tunnel, though, so they didn't get a glimpse of the sky.

"Well… We're back in!" Sonic smiled. "Never been in the comet, though…"

"And I can see a Star Block up ahead!" Chopper gasped as he saw the Star Block ahead. "I'm going to go hit it!"

Chopper quickly rushed toward the Star Block and gave it a whack to break it. At this point, everyone was relieved.

Tipral, however, still had his own thoughts from before.

"All right, Shade… Be prepared! Now I'll be coming for you!"

END OF CHAPTER

With Sonic and Mario back in the team, Chopper and Co. were finally reunited and thus stronger. It took them some time, but they were able to escape the comet's space gadget and make their way back in the comet to the way leading to Shade Doom himself. Tipral continued to think about his revenge as the heroes continued through the tunnel. "We art getting closer to mine parents!" Luvbi gasped. "Oh, I bet they'll be so happy to see me again…" Everyone had their own trail of thoughts until they found another pit before them. Knowing it will take them to the right way, they jumped down while Chopper muttered, "Shade Doom, you're going down!"

---

And so with Chapter 19-4 finished, that leaves only Chapter 19-5. Yeah, we're getting pretty close to the end of this story. And it's also where things get a lot darker, probably much darker than Super Paper Mario (although, I'm sure it already is darker than it).

So yeah, I actually enjoyed this chapter. Some things were revealed, and I liked some of the fights against General Shroob and the Wizrim. However, I'm not sure if this is going to top Chapter 19-5, which has so much more to it.

You might wanna be prepared, because next chapter will probably be the longest chapter in the story so far. :P