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...

136. A Soft Light in the Darkness

CHAPTER 19-5

-A Soft Light in the Darkness-

Once the seven landed on the ground, they noticed behind them was a large, purple background with a couple of stars. High above in the sky were some dark clouds, which were difficult to see because of how far they were. Up ahead was a tunnel that was moving down, and on the pathway leading to the tunnel were a couple of Dark Bats flying over.

However, Tipral could feel immense power in this area of the comet, which forced him to close his eyes tightly and put his hand on his forehead.

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

"I can feel it everywhere," Tipral cringed.

"Feel what?" Sonic wondered.

"All of the dark power here… They're coming from all the Dark Wizards. They must be a lot stronger in this area than the previous ones. I suggest we stay cautious around here. After all, this is the way to Shade after all."

"But I wonder what those dark clouds up in the sky are…" Chopper trailed as he looked at the clouds. Luvbi fluttered beside him and looked up as well. "This is the deepest part of the comet, so I suppose it's going to be the darkest as well."

"Yea, verily," Luvbi agreed, despite feeling a bit nervous. While she was used to dark places, The Underwhere was nothing compared to the Comet of Darkness. All the monsters residing in this place… All of it didn't make her happy in the slightest. The only thing that made her safe was Chopper, the boy of her dreams, and hopefully the one she would marry in the future.

"Look, I don't care whether or not this place is heavily guarded," Blade said as he twirled his katana. "'Cause there's no way we're going to let some alien kid prevent us from getting the Pure Heart! We already know his strategy anyway, so defeating him shall be a breeze! Especially when it's seven against one…"

"Well I dost not know how thou art going to make thy way through hither, because I am not a fighter," Luvbi stated. "However, I'm hoping my sweet prince will protect me like a real prince wouldst!"

"Luvbi, your gushing isn't helping anyone here!" Tipral snapped. "You wanna know why I hate you so much? You keep insulting me for no reason, and you can't ever shut up about Chopper! I don't know who to hate more, you or him! …Though technically, I think Chopper's worse after what he did to me."

"Well if I weren't hither, there wouldst be no way my sweet prince would've been able to make it hither! Plus, he wouldn't hath defeated Bonechill without my help either!"

"Bonechill? You met that monster?" Luigi gawked.

"Yeah... It's kind of a lot story..." Chopper trailed. "But I know now that my uncle sold his soul to him, when I thought he was a great hero..."

"Oh, I know how that feels, man…" Blade trailed. "Finding out someone you've admired turned out to be not what you expected can be a little tough. It's happened to me before when I was around your age. I just…don't remember it."

"Well at least my parents weren't big lies."

"Pray, Chopper! Why don't thou speakest about thy parents?" Luvbi suggested, smiling sweetly to him. "I wouldst love to hear about thy parents, thou knowest!"

"Poyo… (That won't make him feel any better…)" Kirby trailed.

"All I can say is that my parents were soldiers from the Star Force," Chopper stated.

"Didst they have hobbies?" Luvbi wondered.

"I don't remember what my mom did, but my dad always liked watching weird TV shows. I think my mom mentioned the word 'otaku' to him once."

"…An otaku?" Blade couldn't help but laugh, but he was trying not to. "Are you serious? A soldier, an OTAKU?! Man! That's gotta be the funniest thing I've heard in a LONG time!"

Mario: Blade…

"Oh, yeah… Sorry."

"All right, look, we don't have time to stay here and talk," Tipral cut in. "If we're going to be getting that Pure Heart, then we need to go through and crush Shade's army! …Then we can get to crushing him."

"Yeah, we might as well go," Chopper agreed.

"Well, guys, I guess it looks like we've reached the climax of our little game," Sonic announced. "Time to make the little Dark Wizard pay for his invasion of The Overthere and The Peaceness!"

"Let us away!" Luvbi demanded. "We can't slacketh now when we art so close!"

With that, the eight made their way to the tunnel ahead, with Chopper, Sonic and Tipral increasing in speed through the bright, pink tunnel. When they got out, they noticed a long road up ahead with an unreachable ledge above them and a couple of bridges.

"Heads up, guys!" Blade alarmed. "Dark Creatures are firing down at us!"

Mario noticed some of the shots firing down at him and ducked to avoid some of them. Chopper held up Starbow and made shootings stars hit the Dark Creatures and knock them off the bridge. Sonic was able to finish them off with a Spin Dash.

Some Dark Wizards were also on the bridge and happened to still be up on the bridge. Kirby simply used his thunder magic to strike the Dark Wizards with lightning and defeat them with ease.

Afterward, they moved on ahead through the long road, ignoring a couple of other Dark Soldiers that were trying to attack. Some threw plasma grenades, but at the speed they were going, it didn't seem like they would catch them.

A Dark Brute landed on the ground with a plasma launcher and prepared to fire. Tipral took action by getting up on its head and hurling Star Spears down at it, while Mario bashed it with his hammer. It was finished off when Blade threw Hommissile at the alien, destroying it.

"Looks like they're throwing everything they've got at us!" Blade smirked. "So this is going to be some fun!"

Up ahead, they happened to notice a strange ship that resembled a rock appear over the road and above the bridge. Before they could even get to it, they noticed a bone-like arm come out of the ground in front of them.

"Poyo? (Uhhh… What's that?)" Kirby sweat dropped.

A Skelloford ended up rising in front of them with its poison mace. It attempted to swing at them, but everyone jumped out of the way. Chopper ended up throwing a couple of fireballs at it to scorch it.

"Braaaaaagh! The flames! They burn!" the Skelloford howled.

Blade gave the monster a blank look as he was able to finish it off with ease with a Dragon Beam. "Wow… That was pretty easy. That thing barely even put up a fight anyway!"

"It was a lot more threatening on that battleship…" Luigi trailed.

"Mayhap thou already knowest how they are fought," Luvbi predicted. "Nevertheless, I knowest my sweet prince can takest on anything!"

"I don't deserve the credit…" Chopper face palmed.

"Right now, we need to try to see what that ship is," Tipral suggested, clenching his fist. "Destroying that shouldn't be too much of a problem!"

When they hurried over to the ship, they noticed it drop a Dark Brute down with a large, blue beam. Tipral fired a Star Spear up at the ship, but it quickly flew away, preventing him from harming it.

"Great… It escaped…"

"It's not the end of the world, but whatever," Chopper gripped his hammer and landed an upward thrust on the Dark Brute. Kirby froze it with some ice magic, and then Luigi finished it off with a mere jump.

"Well that was pretty easy," Sonic noted as they made their way to the end of the road. They noticed a ledge above them with two Dark Wizards and a Dark Brute holding a jagged sword waiting for them from above.

"Hey! Looks like they're here!" the first Dark Wizard cackled. "How about we give them what they so rightfully deserve!"

"Excellent idea," the Dark Brute replied as it jumped down from the ledge and tried to slice at the heroes. Chopper chucked an ice ball at the Dark Brute, but it brought its hand in front of it to block the attack.

"What the… How did it block my attack?!" Chopper gaped.

"Silly boy! Unlike other Dark Creatures, we brutes are capable to blocking some projectiles with our hands!"

"Huh… I never expected that…" Blade trailed.

"Then we'll have to try something else," Sonic declared as he clenched his fist and struck the Dark Brute with a Sonic Wind. It was barely able to lift it off the ground, but it gave him the chance to knock it out with a Homing Attack and defeat it.

"Wha?! Those guys defeated that brute!" one of the Dark Wizards gaped, while the other smacked its head.

"Look, they may have beaten them, but we're still here! And we're certainly not going to let some weirdos get to Master Shade Doom so easily!"

"Hey!" Blade growled. "You look like the weirdos here!"

"I mean, if they do, then chances are he could be crushed!"

"Then let's get 'em!" the two Dark Wizards landed in front of the group and fired their magic at them. They ducked to avoid the attacks, but Tipral simply teleported above them and fired a Star Spear down at them. Chopper then tossed a light ball at both to leave them in pain from the light energy.

With them weak, Kirby used his magic to strike the wizards with lightning. With them gone, they could get up to the door with the ledge. Although, the only problem was… The ledge was too high up.

"I think I might be able to reach this ledge," Luigi declared as he used his Super Jump to launch himself up to the ledge. He happened to notice a spring right by the door, so he grabbed it and tossed it below him.

"Try to use this to go up, OK?"

They took turns using the spring and got up to the ledge. Tipral was the first to land on the ledge, but something hit him from behind. He felt what was behind him and discovered a piece of paper to be there.

"Hmmmm? Where'd this come from?" the dark being got it off the back of his head and noticed some writing on it. He instantly knew whose writing it belonged to as he looked at it in silence.

"Hey, what's that you got there?" Chopper wondered as he walked over to the paper, only to have him get pushed away by Tipral, who wasn't making eye contact with him. All he did was simply walk through the door in silence.

"Well that was odd…" Luigi trailed. "There was something strange with him just now…"

"It mattereth not," Luvbi declared. "If something is bothering him, then it doth be none of our business. I mean, looketh what he hast dost to us!"

"I guess he didn't have as much of a good life as we did," Luigi shrugged. "Though, I'm not so sure what DID happen to him in the past. At least we've have a good life throughout our childhood and such."

"…Yeah," Chopper frowned, walking through the door, leaving Luigi confused.

"What? Did I say something bad?"

Mario: Don't blame yourself, Luigi.

They headed through the door and noticed a large gap up ahead. There weren't any enemies around, but they did see Tipral near the edge of the cliff, while Chopper was walking toward his direction.

Tipral looked down at the letter and started to read it.

Dear Tippy,

Hey there, Tippy! It's me, Mimi! …I was getting worried about you, because you haven't shown up in the palace. We've been waiting for you for days! When will you be back? …Or are you REALLY coming back? Things haven't been getting any better in the palace lately. O'Chunks is starting to get a little lazier than before since you aren't around. Fawful and Mr. L have been fighting each other for the past few days, and they even made border lines. Nassy is trying to discipline them and get them to stop, but it's not working! They're just out of control! And Fawful's pig thing bothers me sometimes when it walks by. I don't like it! Dark Doom could help, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. It's like he doesn't care anymore. They really seem to miss you. I miss you! Sniff… Please… Come back. I didn't even get the chance to tell you about my feelings toward you. You see, I… I… Golly, I can't really even say it to you if you're dead. I just hope you're alive...

Love,

Mimikins

P.S.: I went into your room and found a picture that looked a little old and damaged. I was thinking I'd put it here for you to look at.

Tipral looked down at the photo that he was given and noticed it was him and a little girl out on an open field. It was definitely one of his most cherished memories, despite him trying to get rid of it.

"I'll hold onto this picture for now…" Tipral slowly put away the picture and looked at the letter again. It looked as if Mimi put a lot into it, because he noticed some wet spots that could've been her tears. "They must really miss me back in the palace… Well, I would've been there if it weren't for him!"

"Hey, Tipral, I noticed you holding onto a photo," Chopper noticed. "What was it?"

"It's none of your business, Chopper," Tipral replied angrily as he put away the letter. "And what're you doing right now?"

"Hey, are you all right, Chopper?" Luigi cut in as they walked over to the two. "Sorry if what I said hurt you or anything..."

"Don't worry Luigi, I'm fine," Chopper assured.

"OK... …Wait, we have a large gap here. How are we supposed to get past that?"

"Mayhap thou canst holdeth me and alloweth me to flutter over the gap, my prince," Luvbi suggested as she fluttered over to Chopper.

Mario: That's probably not going to work…

"Poyo? (Maybe we have to check this gap in 3-D?)" Kirby suggested. "Poyo. (Maybe we'll find something there.)"

Chopper nodded and flipped into 3-D. He saw a narrow pathway with a couple of glowing saw blades spinning around, which made him back away from the narrow path.

"Uhhhhh…"

"Pray, what doth be the matter?" Luvbi asked.

"There are a couple of saw blades on the narrow path!" Chopper cried. "How am I supposed to get through that so easily?!"

"Just shut up and let us go through this," Tipral snapped. "Your complaining isn't going to get us anywhere, you know. It's probably not too hard to dodge those saw blades anyway!"

Chopper let out a sigh and helped everyone else in 3-D. They carefully made their way across the narrow pathway and jumped over the saw blades. There was a large, square-shaped platform ahead, so they landed on it and went back into 2-D to be greeted by a Dark Assassin.

"Well, what do we have here? A couple of intruders making their way through here?" the Dark Assassin gawked as it raised its gun and fired. Blade fired a Dragon Beam to send it flying off the platform.

"That takes care of it!" Blade declared until the Dark Assassin came back.

"I think thou art not able to throw it off a cliff…" Luvbi trailed.

Tipral sighed and snapped his finger, defeating the Dark Assassin with his Star Magic. Now that Chopper's Flip Gauge was full, he and everyone else went into 3-D and began to carefully walk through the narrow path again.

Once they reached the end, they went into 2-D again and walked through a tunnel and onto a bridge. Below them was a bottomless pit, which Chopper found to be a bit better than toxic alien slime.

Up ahead on the bridge were two Dark Assassins that teleported out of their sight and appeared behind them. Luigi heard the teleportation sound and whirled around to find them firing at them.

"G-Guys! They're right behind us!" Luigi cried.

Mario turned around, but he ended up getting blasted, along with everyone else. Kirby, however, was able to defend himself and barely take any damage with his Defend ability. He decided to freeze them with an ice spell to prevent them from teleporting.

"Poyo! (OK! They can be hit now!)" Kirby cheered.

"If only I can understand what thou art saying, gumball…" Luvbi sighed as Kirby gave her a confused glance. Nevertheless, Blade was able to use his Dragon Beam on the Dark Assassins to finish them off.

"And that takes care of them," Blade declared as they carried on ahead to the end of the path. They noticed two poles that they could climb up to reach the ledge above them. There were only two platforms between the poles.

"Oh, boy… This again." Chopper sighed.

"I bet some sparkies are going to appear and try to shock us…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: Then we'll have to be fast.

They grabbed a hold of the poles and started to climb upward. When a Sparky appeared, it began to move its way up the pole in an attempt to electrocute the group. They noticed this and jumped on the platform closest to them. Thankfully, it wasn't too far from where they jumped off.

Mario: This might take some time…

Eventually they reached the top of the pole and got onto the ledge to their right to run into some Brick Blocks that were in front of them. Blade, knowing what he had to do, threw Hommissile at the blocks to make them explode.

"There we go! All set!" Blade smirked.

"Let's hope we don't have another…" Chopper paused when he saw the door ahead was being covered in a couple of small star blocks. "OK… I was hoping there wouldn't be another thing in our way, but I guess this just had to be here…"

He held Starbow up and managed to destroy the blocks in their way, allowing them access to the door. But he stopped and flipped into 3-D to see a square-shaped hole up ahead, so he went through it to run into a chest that contained an item called a Spark and Chain, which could create an electric ball and chain to attack enemies around. He returned to the group and showed them the item.

"What's that supposed to be?" Luigi asked.

"It looks like some kind of ball and chain…" Tipral trailed. "Although, I don't know if that's even going to help us here…"

"Poyo, (It's better than nothing,)" Kirby shrugged as they headed through the door to an area with the path moving down. They found a Dark Wizard waiting for them at the bottom, so Sonic went into a ball and rolled down to knock it away.

"Ummmmm… There's nothing else here." Sonic noticed as he got out of his ball form.

"Well, when in doubt, flip about!" Chopper smiled as he raised a finger and flipped into 3-D with everyone else. While they had no idea how he was about to do it by raising a finger, they noticed a road down below, as well as a ramp they could jump off, so they jumped down and went back into 2-D.

They found a Dark Assassin waiting for them, but Chopper quickly froze it with an ice ball, followed by Kirby's fire blast, which was able to thaw out the Dark Assassin and allow Mario to finish it off with a simple jump.

They then jumped off the ramp and landed on the ground below them. There was a staircase going down to two Dark Assassins that were wearing black armor instead of purple.

"Well, looks like they're sending the best of the best!" Sonic smirked. "All right, then! We can take 'em!"

"Hold on, Sonic…" Blade began as he pulled the blue hedgehog back. "Those guys look a little menacing… We gotta think of a plan first!"

"We usually do what we do most of the time: attack them when they're off guard," Chopper informed. "I don't think we make that many plans…"

"Oh… Then you can go ahead, Sonic."

Sonic smirked and rolled down the staircase and hitting both Dark Assassins, though these were called Elite Dark Assassins. After they got hit, they teleported away from Sonic and over to Luvbi.

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper whipped out his hammer and spun it around, hitting both Elite Dark Assassins and knocking them back.

"You know, that girl looks like she could be hung up for decorations," one of the Elite Dark Assassins mentioned.

"Nay! I'm not a decoration!" Luvbi shouted. "I'm a Nimbi princess! Thou dost not hath the right to treateth me like a decoration!"

"Well you're in our territory now!" the second Elite Dark Assassin mentioned. "That means we don't care what you are! We decide what you are, and to us, you're a decoration!"

Luigi finished them off with a Cyclone, followed by his Super Jump. Once they were gone, he landed on the ground and smiled. Afterward, they went down the staircase, but they were stopped by a ledge with a barrier to prevent anyone from getting up there. Since there wasn't anything else around, Chopper flipped him and everyone into 3-D to find a pathway only in 3-D to lead them to the other side of the ledge before going back into 2-D.

"Interesting…" Tipral trailed as he looked to his right to find a platform stuck in the wall. "Well, I don't know how we're going to get that thing out, but it's better if we go to the left instead."

Everyone was about to take the left, but they saw a plasma grenade coming toward them. Chopper inhaled it, which ended up exploding inside of him. When he opened his mouth, smoke came out.

"Poyo? (Did that hurt?)" Kirby asked.

"…Yeah," Chopper slowly nodded before falling collapsing.

"Errr... Is Chopper all right?" Luigi asked.

Before anyone could answer, Tipral had approached Chopper and gave him a kick, causing him to cough and quickly get up, feeling much better.

"THANK YOU!" Chopper cried as he quickly got up and coughed out the rest of the smoke. "You saved me, Tipral!"

"You keep thanking me, and my fist is going to be between your eyes!"

"…Let's keep going!"

They noticed the Elite Dark Soldier was hiding behind a glowing shield which didn't seem to be affected by any projectiles. It seemed to absorb them, which irritated them, especially Tipral, whose attacks didn't seem to shatter the shield.

"Annoying shield!" Tipral growled as he raised his arms and trapped the Elite Dark Soldier in a box. With a snap of his finger, an explosion occurred inside, and once it stopped, the Elite Dark Soldier was gone.

"What the heck?" Sonic gaped.

Mario: Isn't that Dimentio's attack?

"We saw that when we fought Tipral," Luigi recalled.

Tipral ignored them skated until he found another wall. Chopper flipped him and everyone into 3-D and noticed a staircase, so they went up and went back into 2-D to be on the ledge they couldn't reach before. Well, they were actually near it.

Upon reaching the edge of the ground, they found a gap ahead, so a simple jump was what they needed to meet with two Dark Wizards behind some shields.

"Heh heh! With these shields, those heroes won't be able to hurt us!" the first Dark Wizard snickered.

"Yup! This is just what we needed for this place!" the second Dark Wizard grinned until Tipral teleported behind them. "Wait… But he's still here!"

"Yes, I know," Tipral replied before whacking them both with a Star Punch. He knocked them into the shield, which fell over and allowed the heroes to reach them. Mario defeated one by bashing it with his hammer, while Blade used his katana to land a combo on the remaining Dark Wizard.

With that, the group jumped over another gap and found a yellow block in front of them. Chopper simply bashed it with his hammer to reveal a blue ! Switch. He kicked it to make a platform stuck in the wall stick out for them.

The only problem? It could only be accessed in 3-D.

"Geez… That stinks." Blade sulked. "How come there's a lot of 3-D stuff here?"

"Well, it hasn't been used much…" Chopper trailed. "I'm personally fine with that, though!"

He flipped him and his friends into 3-D, allowing them to cross the other side and go back into 2-D. There was a door up ahead blocked by a force field, while two Dark Skelloknights were waiting for them.

"TWO Dark Skelloknights?!" Luigi gaped. "Th-That's a little too much!"

Mario: Well we've managed to take on armies before!

"Wait… Oh, yeah! But that was mostly you…"

Mario: You were there…

"Look, if you're going to cower around like the coward you are, then go right ahead," Tipral scoffed, clenching his fists at the two Dark Skelloknights. "Right now, I'm going to give these two what they want!"

He swung both of his arms and fired Star Spears at the Dark Skelloknights, shattering their armor entirely. This time, he decided to shape-shift into one of the Dark Skelloknights with armor.

"…He just shape-shifted," Luigi gaped.

"Well, he can do that…" Chopper trailed.

Tipral lunged at them and brought his sword down on the two Dark Skelloknights. He knew he could do more damage with the sword, so he continued to hack at them until they were defeated. With that, he transformed back into himself.

"I should've thought of this sooner or later…" he trailed. "It could've come in handy for other fights…"

"Hmph… I'm not that impressed, verily…" Luvbi huffed.

"And I honestly don't care if you're not impressed. Right now, it seems like that door's still not working" Tipral noticed a lonely platform far ahead, but there was a large gap. He simply jumped and used his teleportation powers to reach it and give it a kick, allowing them full access through the door.

"So what are you guys waiting for? Let's move! We still have that alien kid to crush!"

They nodded and headed through the door into the next area. There, they found a purple rail going down to a pathway below. At the end of the pathway, there happened to be two platforms over a bottomless pit, as well as two Elite Dark Bats.

Everyone looked at each other and nodded before going down the purple railing and landing on the ground. A Dark Wizard fired dark magic rapidly at them while they were able to dodge the magic.

Chopper tossed a light ball at the Dark Wizard, leaving it stunned while Mario was able to take it down with a Super Ground Pound. Afterward, they made their way to the edge of the ground, noticing the platforms up ahead.

"Dark Bats, huh?" Sonic noticed the Elite Dark Bats over the platforms. "So… I guess I'll use them while you guys go ahead and do this the old fashioned way."

"Old…fashioned way?" Luigi gawked.

Mario: Jumping on the platforms…

Sonic jumped in the air while in a ball and attacked the Elite Dark Bats with a Homing Attack. The rest of the group, meanwhile, used the platforms to make their way over to a round area below them.

They looked down at the ground and noticed some purple energy inside the glass-like floor in the center. It looked nice, but it seemed like if they did anything wrong, it could cause some serious damage to them.

"I don't recommend touching that…" Blade suggested.

"Tell us something we don't know," Tipral suggested.

"Poyo… (Well I think that was important…)" Kirby trailed.

They made their way down the small slope to find another gap between them. They noticed up ahead was a giant hologram of Shade.

Mario: That's just a hologram…

"If we found him now, it would've made this all too easy for us," Sonic remarked as he looked down the gap. There was nothing below them, and when he looked up, he could see the dark clouds. "I don't like those clouds…"

"Mayhap Shade is above them?" Luvbi wondered.

"I don't know… Let's just try to get over here." Chopper took a look off at the distance and saw a blue ! Switch. "Tipral, maybe you can hit that switch for us? I'm sure it'll help us get over there…"

"Very well," Tipral teleported to the other side and gave the switch a good whack, making a bridge appear for them. They crossed over, but that's not all the blue ! Switch did. Two Phantom Hands appeared and grabbed Chopper by his feet.

"EEEEEK! Get them off me!" Chopper screamed.

"Poyo… (Uh oh… Phantom Hands…)" Kirby gulped.

"My prince! Let me helpeth thee!" Luvbi hollered as she grabbed Chopper and tried to pull him away from the Phantom Hands. Blade gripped his katana and made them release Chopper by slicing at them.

"There we go. They let go of you." Blade assured.

"Thanks…" Chopper sighed in relief. With those enemies out of the way, they continued on ahead and noticed another blue ! Switch, but it was being guarded by a Dark Brute who was holding two jagged swords. This didn't bother them in the slights, especially when Blade used his Dragon Beam to send it flying.

"And that solves that problem," Blade declared as he kicked the blue ! Switch. A platform hidden in the wall stuck out, allowing them to jump on it, but they noticed a road above them to their left.

"I think I can reach that," Luigi noted as he used his Super Jump to reach up. He found a spring, so he kicked it down to help the rest of the group get up. To their left, they found another ledge.

"I'm going to make this easier for me," Tipral declared as he teleported up to the ledge. Everyone was left annoyed, but Luigi used his Super Jump, while Kirby floated up. Blade took out two kunais and climbed up the wall to reach the ledge.

"It's a good thing I can use these," Blade muttered as he reached the top.

That left only Chopper, Luvbi, Sonic, and Mario. Luvbi wasted no time and grabbed a hold of Chopper, despite his objections, and brought him up to the ledge. Once she let go, Chopper quickly stepped away from her.

"Hmmmmm… I have an idea!" Sonic used his Whirlwind in order to reach the ledge, but while he did that, he let Mario get lifted off the ground and onto the ledge. Up ahead, to their left, they saw another blue door.

"I'm not wasting any time here," Tipral noted as he skated over to the door and entered. Everyone else followed him as well. Upon entering the next area, they noticed a small pathway leading up to some rocks. Tipral tried smashing at the rocks, but nothing was revealed to be behind them except for a Max Shroom Shake.

"Nothing? Dang..." Chopper frowned.

"I guess there's nothing here…" Sonic trailed.

"Unless Chopper flipest into 3-D!" Luvbi chirped.

Mario: That's what I was thinking…

Chopper couldn't help but look at the purple torches that were around by the ledge they were on when he flipped into 3-D. He saw a pathway below them, so they jumped down and went into 2-D to find the tunnel going at a downward angle to a loop.

"Ah! Some speed!" Sonic grinned. "This should be interesting…"

"But we can't move through a loop!" Luigi cried.

"Yeah, that's true," Chopper agreed. "We'll do what we usually did, Sonic."

Sonic nodded and grabbed both Blade and Mario's arms, while Chopper grabbed Kirby and Luigi's. Tipral skated down the tunnel on his own while the rest sped through. Luvbi had no choice but to follow by flying.

"And they forgotest me!" Luvbi huffed. "How rude they art to leave a cute girl such as myself hither all alone!"

There were two loops they found, and the first one they were reaching appeared to have a couple of torches on the edges if they were to go into 3-D. It wasn't a big deal, but Luigi didn't feel good when he was upside down.

"Ugh… I don't like being upside down…" the green plumber moaned. "My head feels weird now…"

"Poyo, (Well it doesn't for me,)" Kirby replied.

As soon as they got through the loops, they ran down the pathway before them. Up ahead, they happened to notice some Dark Soldiers waiting for them, along with two Dark Skellos that were talking to each other.

Apparently, one ended up punching the other.

"Hey! What'd ya do that for?!" the first Dark Skello exclaimed.

"Ya told a stupid joke, ya know!" the second Dark Skello replied.

"Shut up, you two!" one Elite Dark Soldier snapped. "The intruders are here, so it's our job to take care of them!"

"Yeah! You two go up first! We'll set up a shield." the second Elite Dark Soldier mentioned as it put up a glowing shield while they got their weapons ready, as well as some grenades.

"Even if they get past us, they won't stand up to those Dark Brutes!"

When the Dark Skellos charged at the seven, Blade was able to cut the spear, making its pointy edge come off.

"Ha! Now you don't have a spear!" Blade mocked. "Now it's a…it's a stick!"

"Such a stupid joke you made, Blade…" Tipral groaned.

"Well, technically it's a stick," Sonic noted.

"Yeah, so I win," Blade declared.

"Just get out of my way!" Tipral barked as he whacked Blade out of his way and hit the two Dark Skellos with Star Spears. He hurled two shadow balls and defeated the two monsters with ease.

"Crud… Those two guys were useless…" the third Elite Soldier groaned.

"But we got the shields ready!"

"Of course."

Tipral threw a Star Spear at the Elite Dark Soldiers, but their shields prevented them from getting harmed by his attacks. Tipral growled as he clenched his fists, but then he remembered he could teleport, so he teleported behind the shields and throw the Elite Dark Soldiers over it.

"All right, if you want a chance to attack, do it now," Tipral declared.

"Oh… Cool!" Chopper smiled as he jumped on one of them while perfuming a stylish move. Kirby used his Magic ability to strike them all with lightning, while Mario and Luigi teamed up and stomped on one of the Elite Dark Soldiers to finish it off.

"I call finishing one off!" Sonic called out as he used his Sonic Wind to attack one of the Elite Dark Soldiers and finish it off with a Homing Attack. Blade took care of the other with a Dragon Beam.

"Thou dost know that my sweet prince can helpeth thee get past the shields by going into 3-D," Luvbi informed.

"My teleporting is much better," Tipral declared. "That won't be necessary."

"I think it might be an easier way to avoid getting hurt, too," Chopper added.

"Guys… No time to be talking!" Sonic cried. "Dark Brutes up ahead!"

There happened to be three Dark Brutes blocking the way up ahead when they hurried onward. There was also an Elite Dark Soldier on a high ledge manning a turret that fired light purple plasma rapidly.

Mario had an idea and used one of the shields to protect them from taking any damage. Most of the group liked this idea and stayed behind Mario, but Tipral simply snapped his finger and knocked the Elite Dark Soldier away.

"Grrrrrr! Well, let's see how you like this!" the Elite Dark Soldier took out a plasma grenade and threw it. "GRENAAAAAAAAADE!"

Blade gasped and used Barry to deflect the plasma grenade, but his efforts didn't seem to work out for him when he found out the grenade was actually stuck on Barry. The Pixl himself was sweat dropping as well.

"Oh, geez… I can't shake this thing off!" Barry cried.

"Well… Then we're taking cover!" Blade cried as he ran from Barry, just like everyone else. The grenade exploded, but Barry seemed to be just fine. No one noticed any scratches or burn marks left on him.

"So… Us Pixls aren't harmed by those items?" Carrie gaped.

"This should help us," Crystaline noted.

Blade fired his Dragon Beam to destroy the Elite Dark Soldier. With no one using the turret, they hurried on over to the Dark Brutes, who had their weapons ready to fire at them. Luigi ran up to one and tried to knock it back with his Cyclone, but it didn't seem to make it budge.

"What the heck?! That didn't work!" Luigi gaped.

"Well, you know what they say… The bigger they are, the harder they fall!" Sonic noted.

"Hmph… I don't think we should waste our time with them." Tipral suggested. "There's three of them, and that's going to waste our time."

"For once, I doth agree with the dark, hideous one," Luvbi agreed. "This could be hindering our time!"

They quickly ran past the Dark Brutes by jumping over them or going into 3-D. They found the pathway moving down a little until it became flat up ahead by a lift. They couldn't help but notice some of the purple smoke that was around. The dark clouds above were still there, and they noticed some back, small skyscrapers in the background too by the elevator.

"At least we don't have to jump down from here…" Luigi sighed. "That looks like a BIG drop."

"Poyo, (Let's get on the elevator and get going,)" Kirby suggested as everyone got on the elevator. Kirby kicked the red ! Switch on the ground, making the elevator move down to the lower level in the area.

"I wonder if there's any kind of town here…" Chopper wondered.

---

Outside Shade Doom's Castle-

Outside of Shade's Castle, there happened to be an assembly going on, with one Dark Skello up on the stage. A couple of Skellobits, Skells, Dark Skellobits, Dark Skells and even some Skellobombers, etc. were sitting in their chairs, listening to the Dark Skello speaking.

"And then when those heroes come here, we'll give 'em what they so richly deserve!" the Dark Skello declared.

"Ummmm… Hold on a second…" a Skellobit cut in. "Shouldn't we be patrollin'? That is our job, after all…"

"Well… Uh… We're technically out here, and we can obviously see what's goin' on… This IS patrollin'! Trust me, yer just fine!"

"OK…"

"Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah. And once we're done with those heroes, we're goin' to toss them into some of those pouches an' keep 'em sealed there fer eternity! That should surely please Master Shade Doom when he sees his enemies sealed ferever! Hwa hwa hwa!"

"Excuse me, but what's going on here?"

"Oh, nothin' it's… Wait, Necromancer?!" the Dark Skello's eyes widened as the Necromancer flew up on stage and pushed the Dark Skello out of the way, making everyone silent.

"What are you guys doing? Shouldn't you be patrolling?" the Necromancer asked.

"Well… This is patrollin'!" the Dark Skello explained. "We were just…makin' plans for when the heroes arrive! We wouldn't want ya to think we would just go out there without a plan, right?"

"Ummmmm… Yeah… Look, I need to talk to you guys about something…"

"Is it about patrollin' this castle and protectin' it from any heroes?" a Spiky Skellobit asked.

"Well, yeah. Pretty much. …Well, kind of." the Necromancer pondered. "Hmmm… How should I put this? You see, you're all being replaced."

"Oh, of course we can," the Dark Skello chuckled. "After all, we're- Wait, did you say we're bein' REPLACED?!"

"Yeah, but you're not fired. You're… I suppose you're getting demoted. I highly doubt you'd stand a chance against them, really."

"Then who's replacin' us?" a Skellobomber asked.

"Those guys…over there," the Necromancer pointed at the Dark Wizards and Wizrims over by the castle's front entrance. There were even some Elite Dark Assassins and Elite Dark Brutes wearing armor in the group as well.

A Skell's eyes widened. "Are you SERIOUS?!"

"We've been doin' this for a LONG time…and yer replacin' us with the more evil guys?!" the Dark Skello gaped.

"Well, that's the point," the Necromancer explained. "They're evil…and strong…and they're actually SMART with their fights. You better go patrol the lower area of this comet. While you do that, perhaps a good friend can guard this place."

The Necromancer snapped his finger, and a gray cyclops wearing purple armor and carrying two black daggers slammed the door to Shade's Castle open. From the look on his face, he was definitely angry.

"Listen to me, Cyclut. I want you to stay here and keep watch of this area for those heroes. If you succeed, we will reward you. If you fail…then don't come back to us. Ever."

The Necromancer flew off after Cyclut gave him a nod. While he stayed put by the caste's front entrance, The Underwhere army were left shocked, as if they were suddenly betrayed by their master.

"This is a load of bull," a Skellobomber muttered.

"I know, right?" a Spiky Skell agreed.

"You gotta be kidding me…" the Dark Skello gaped. "They took my JOB!"

"Dey tuk er jerbs!"

"Ya, dey tuk er jerbs!"

"Tuk er jerb!"

"DEY TUK ER JERBS!"

"DURKA DUR!"

"Derka dur!"

"DEY TUK ER JEBS!"

"Dey tuk er jebs!"

"Tako derka der!"

"Dey tuk er jebs!"

"They tuk ur jebs!"

"Deka jeb!"

"Dey tuk ur jerb!

"THEEEEY tuk ur jerb!"

"Dey tuk er jerb!"

"And most importantly…" the Dark Skello began, glaring at the army. "DEEEEEEEY TUUUUUUUK ERRRRRRR JEEEEEEEBS!"

The Underwhere army stood in silence as they blinked a few times.

"What the heck did we just do?" a Spiky Skell Bomber gawked.

"We did what destiny told us to do…" the Dark Skello trailed. "Our jobs…taken. By these…WEIRDOS!"

"We might as well go to The Underwhere then…"

"No. Forget Shade Doom's idea! We're stayin' right here an' finishin' the job! We're not lettin' these guys tuk er jerbs! …Ahem! Sorry about that."

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention…" the Necromancer added as he flew back in. "We could hear everything you were saying."

"Oh... Crud."

---

Back with the heroes-

When the elevator stopped, they all stepped out and noticed a couple of buildings around them. They weren't big, but they didn't appear to have any enemies lurking around the area. Well, except for a Wizrim and Skelloford, that is.

"Well, looks like this turned out better than expected!" the Wizrim grinned, looking at the purple alien sac on one of the building's walls. "Eventually this thing will be transformed into one of us!"

"Look, I don't know much about you guys, but how'd ya get these wizard guys?" the Skelloford wondered.

"Oh, our master created us! However, for some… We threw them into these sacs and let the fluids inside do all the work. Eventually they'll lose their mind and body and be transformed into a Dark Wizard! They won't even remember a thing from their past!"

"Hmmmmmm? That sounded interesting…" Sonic trailed, trying to listen in to their conversation. "So they get some real PEOPLE into those sacs and transform them into Dark Wizards?!"

"I thought Shade just created them?!" Chopper gaped.

"Well, now we know what he's doing is pretty messed up," Blade declared. "We should try to free these people from these sacs!"

Mario: I was just thinking the same thing, Blade.

"Who said that?!" the Wizrim gasped as it turned around and noticed the seven. "So… It looks like you guys just showed up!"

"Shut it! We know everything about how these wizards are made!" Chopper snapped. "I suggest you free them NOW!"

"Yer… Yer kiddin', right?" the Skelloford gawked.

"Hmmmm… So they know our secret now… Well, since they do, we might as well show them!" the Wizrim stepped out of the way and showed a Flipsidian, a person from Lineland Road, a prisoner from Merlee's Mansion, a Swamint, a Nimbi, Donut, Santa Claus, a Sunny, a Mooner, the remains of a Computernoid, a non-Old English Nimbi and a Cradian were kept in some of the sacs.

"Poyo… (Everything we've seen… They're…turning one of those people into wizards…)" Kirby trailed sadly.

"So, do you like what you see?" the Wizrim grinned. "Master Shade Doom knew that creating some wizards himself could consume a lot of energy, and not to mention it would take him a while to recovery said energy. Eventually he resorted to this, which we all agreed was a much better idea for him to save some energy! Plus, he loves to see people suffer like this!"

"Nay… Doth he plan on doing this to mine…parents?!" Luvbi gasped.

"You mean that king and queen of death? Oh, trust me… He's going to take care of them! There's no way you'll be able to help them either!"

"This… This can't be…" the Nimbi girl's head lowered down. "If mine parents becometh one of them… I wilt be alone!"

"We're not going to let that happen," Chopper assured. "We're going to save them before anything bad happens to them!"

"Not if we do somethin' about it!" the Skelloford barked as it swung itself around, using its club to spin around. Blade quickly readied his katana and was able to slice the club in half, leaving the Skelloford vulnerable.

It stepped back, but Tipral was able to do away with it by smashing at it a couple of times. The Wizrim tried to stop him by swiping at him with its scythe, but Chopper hurled a light ball to prevent it from attacking.

"Why did Chopper do that?" Tipral thought. "I wouldn't expect him to actually save me from getting hit…"

While the Wizrim was blinded, Blade began to land a combo on it with his katana, and then Mario performed a Super Ground Pound, leaving it very low on HP. Luigi was the one to finish it off with his Cyclone.

"Phew! That's finished…" Luigi sighed.

Mario: But we need to free those people!

Unfortunately, it was too late. The people in the sacs started to transform into Dark Wizards. Everyone, with the exception of Tipral, was gaping when they broke out of their sacs.

"Oh no... We're too late..." Luigi gasped.

"I can't looketh at them the same way now…" Luvbi shuddered.

"We can't save those people now, but it's not like I would help them…" Tipral trailed, hurling a shadow ball at a Dark Wizard. "The only thing we can do is destroy them! We have no other choice…"

The heroes were unsure whether to fight, but they were forced to do so and began to fight back. Thankfully, they were able to defeat the Dark Wizards and hit the Save Block nearby. They ended up finding a large gap ahead with some small lasers pointing horizontally. It seemed to be moving up and down.

"I see the door up ahead, but the gap is too long," Blade noted.

"That's where I come in," Tipral said as he used his teleportation to get himself across. He teleported everyone else across as well and found a ? Block. They found an Ultimate Shroom inside, so they took it to recover 100 HP.

When they entered the door ahead, they found a large tunnel with a couple of Elite Dark Soldiers, Dark Wizards and even Wizrims waiting for them. There also happened to be a couple of Brick Blocks around as well.

When Chopper hit the ? Block near him, a Mega Star popped out and began to bounce around the floor. Chopper was about to grab it, but Tipral kicked him away and grabbed it himself.

"Hey! I was about to grab that!" Chopper gaped.

"I saw what this thing did to me before, so I'm going to use it again to gain that power!" Tipral declared, now transformed into a giant 8-bit version of himself. The enemies in his way didn't look frightened, but Tipral wasn't going to let them get away as he stomped with way through the tunnel.

"Poyo… (The first Mega Star we see here, and Tipral ends up getting it…)" Kirby pouted.

They simply followed Tipral, who continued to plow through everything in sight. Nearly everything but an Elite Dark Soldier was left standing when Tipral went back to normal size. It pulled out a plasma grenade and threw it toward Tipral, but he simply threw a Star Spear at it to blow it up.

"Uhhh… Take this!" the Elite Dark Soldier fired at Tipral, but there was no way it stood a chance against him. With a Star Burst, the Elite Dark Soldier was defeated, allowing them to move on through the door ahead.

When they came out of the door, they noticed a small path leading up to a ramp. There appeared to be another hologram of Shade there as well.

"Hey! It's another one!" Luigi noticed.

"That might just be a decoy to trap us, but it's our only clue we have right now," Sonic said. "Guess we'll just have to follow him!"

"Yea, verily. Following the holograms might helpeth us." Luvbi agreed.

They found a Dark Spiky Skello waiting for them up ahead, but it took Chopper his hammer to defeat it with ease before they jumped off the ramp and landed on the ground below.

There was a cage in front of them, but it was being blocked by two Elite Dark Assassins that teleported in front of them. A Dark Wizard was flying above them and using its magic to hurt the group.

"Great… This is going to be fun." Sonic sighed as he hit both Elite Dark Assassins with a Spin Dash. Kirby used his lightning on the Dark Creatures and Dark Wizard, which knocked it to the ground.

Kirby smiled and pummeled the Dark Wizard with a couple of fire spells until it was defeated, while Luigi used his Cyclone to send both Elite Dark Assassins flying up. He defeated one with his Super Jump, while Tipral teleported up to the last Elite Dark Assassin and landed a combo of kicks and punches before slamming his fists down on it to send it to the ground. With a final stomp, it was defeated.

"Well that seemed pretty easy…" Blade trailed. "I can't believe we can take on guys like them!"

"Well, that's because we've gotten stronger, I suppose…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: Uh huh!

The cage revealed a blue ! Switch, which Kirby was able to hit. Over by one of the large blocks in the background, they could see a platform reveal itself. Chopper brought everyone into 3-D and helped them get to a spring to get them on the platform sticking out of the block. And getting onto the pathway up ahead before going into 2-D.

"Well, from what I can see, the door is being blocked by lasers…" Chopper trailed. "And I can see a dark crystal right near me."

"Poyo? (What about the other crystal I see ahead?)" Kirby asked, pointing to a light crystal past a platform.

"I'm going to need to be over there," Tipral said as he skated over there. "It seems like we need to activate these quickly before they wear down."

"I'm up for that," Chopper nodded.

"OK then… You better be ready."

Chopper threw a light ball at the dark crystal, while Tipral threw a shadow ball at the light crystal. This caused the lasers by the door to disappear and allow them access through it.

When they reached the next area, they noticed a wheel by the wall ahead, which looked like something Sonic could use, so he got in a ball and used his Spin Dash on it, causing a stump to appear.

"Hit that quick, 'cause I have a feeling it's going to go back in the ground!" Sonic shouted.

Mario: I've got it!

Mario quickly landed a Super Ground Pound on the stump to slam it to the ground. The barrier blocking the ledge above them leading to a door shattered, allowing Luigi to Super Jump and Kirby to float up.

"Another ledge my prince needest help on," Luvbi smiled as she turned to face Chopper.

"Oh... OK, I guess." Chopper shrugged, grabbing a hold of Luvbi before she fluttered up the ledge. Tipral simply teleported up to the ledge, while Blade got his kunais ready and began to climb up to the ledge.

Once Sonic used his Whirlwind to get him and Mario up, they headed through the door to find another green hologram of Shade mocking them on the pathway.

"Another hologram?" Luigi sighed.

"That might just be a decoy to trap us, but it's our only clue we have right now," Sonic declared. "Guess we'll just have to follow him!"

They ran through the pathway ahead, noticing some creepy tentacles hanging from the ceiling. A Phantom Hand rose up in front of them and attempted to grab Mario's feet, but he bashed it with his hammer.

Mario: Don't even try to get in my way!

An Elite Dark Soldier holding a shield fired at them with its weapon, but Sonic was able to hit it with a Homing Attack to knock its shield away. This gave Chopper the opportunity to hurl light balls at it. They ran into an Elite Dark Assassin and a Dark Skelloknight that was guarding a dark ! Switch.

"Looks like I can hit that switch," Chopper smirked.

"Let's take care of the enemies first," Blade suggested, slashing at the Elite Dark Assassin, while Tipral got rid of the Dark Skelloknight's armor. Chopper then held Starbow up and allowed her to make shooting stars hit both enemies and defeat them.

"Now the switch just needs to be hit…" Luigi trailed.

Chopper got to that and tossed a light ball at the switch, which created two platforms in 3-D to help them get across another road they need to access in 3-D. Using his power, he got him and everyone else into 3-D to help them cross the gap and get to the other side before going into 2-D.

"You know, we really need to get that flipping technique," Blade suggested. "Who gave that to you, Chopper?"

"Bestovius."

"We ought to go see him sometime…"

"Not now," Sonic cut in. "We need to get the last Pure Heart. I'm sure we're getting much deeper into the comet."

"Yes, I can feel it…" Tipral trailed as he skated on ahead through a small tunnel and through a long pathway with a ledge above them in the background with some Dark Wizards and Elite Dark Soldiers manning turrets firing projectiles down at them.

"Ack! We're under attack!" Luigi cried as he gripped his cap and pulled it down slightly. Sonic held Relfecto up as he ran through the pathway. Some small rubble was in their way, but Tipral's Star powers were able to smash through them with ease.

Mario: I wish we can stop them…

"Poyo! (I think I can do something!)" Kirby used his Magic ability to make lightning strike the enemies above. However, on the pathway, there were some Dark Wizards firing magic at them.

Chopper opened his mouth and inhaled some of the projectiles to spit back at them. Kirby froze one with some ice magic, but one Elite Dark Soldier fired at Kirby and knocked away with Magic ability.

"Poyo! (No! Not my ability!)"

A Dark Wizard on the ledge fired magic at it to shatter it, leaving Kirby saddened. However, his sadness ended when he noticed everyone running on ahead, so he followed them, despite not being as fast as some of them.

When they got to a tunnel ahead, they found a Dark Brute waiting for them. It was carrying a plasma launcher, so they knew they had to get close to deal some damage. After all, projectiles would be blocked by its hand.

Kirby started off by using his Final Cutter on the alien, and then following up came Tipral's Star Burst. Luigi was able to finish off the Dark Brute quickly with a Super Jump while it draped down a bit.

"Phew… Well that was close." Luigi sighed.

"Yea, verily," Luvbi nodded.

Upon entering the tunnel, they were brought into an area with some rubble blocking their way to the door ahead. Tipral simply destroyed it with a Star Spear and found a door up ahead on a small slope. In 3-D, however, there was a hidden pipe they found that led them into a room with some Copy Abilities.

"Hey! This might be helpful!" Chopper smiled.

Kirby decided to go with the Yo-yo ability, while Chopper decided to pick up the Plasma ability. Unfortunately, he had accidentally touched Luigi with it, giving him a nasty shock.

"Whoops… Sorry about that…"

"Unnghhh… Don't worry about it." Luigi moaned.

---

Outside-

When they jumped out of the pipe, they went to the door ahead and entered to the next area, which had another road, but it appeared to be moving slightly at a downward angle. Thankfully, there were no enemies around.

"So it's all clear from here?" Sonic wondered.

"Don't jump to conclusions so soon, hedgehog…" Tipral warned as he skated on ahead. As Chopper ran, an electric barrier surrounded him to protect him from getting hurt at some points.

At the end of the path was a ramp they jumped off to land on a platform. Their eyes widened when they realized they were surrounded by a couple of Dark Skellos, Dark Skello Bombers, Dark Wizards and Elite Dark Soldiers.

"You might wanna surrender now," a Dark Wizard grinned. "You're outnumbered!"

"Heh heh! I wanna get the green plumber!" a Dark Skello snickered. "He looks like he could be tested on with my spear!"

"Wh-What?!" Luigi gaped.

"And you know, the girl could be helpful with some of the work around here…" another Dark Wizard grinned. "Maybe we can make her into a Dark Wizard! It makes me wonder what a female would look like as a Dark Wizard…"

"Nay! Thou art NOT going to dost that!" Luvbi retorted.

"Dark Wizards are genderless, you know…" a third Dark Wizard noted, making the other face palm.

"Oh, silly me… Like it matters anyway…"

"Let's give 'em just what our master wanted!" an Elite Dark Soldier grinned as it began to fire. Sonic brought Reflecto up and managed to deflect the shot back at the Dark Creature.

"Grrrrrgh! DESTROY THEM!"

The enemies began to open fire, with some Dark Skellos throwing spears. Blade put up Barry to block the spears and then tossed a couple of shurikens at the Dark Skellos. Chopper was able to make a Dark Wizard fall over with a light sweeping kick, followed by a Plasma Wave he fired at a couple of enemies.

Blade decided to make things interesting and began to spin his katana around while moving toward the Elite Dark Soldiers. They brought up some shields, so Sonic knocked them away with a Homing Attack.

"Go get 'em, Blade!" Sonic grinned.

Blade nodded and managed to slash at the Elite Dark Soldiers to defeat them. Unfortunately, more soldiers landed on the platform. When they all looked up, they could see a ship.

"Another ship from those Dark Creatures…" Chopper trailed.

"So, if they're going to constantly spawn more of these enemies, then I have no other choice…" Tipral clenched his fists as he was surrounded in a purple glow. Upon noticing this, Chopper's eyes widened and instantly stepped back.

"What's he doing?" Luigi asked.

"A Star Blast…" Chopper gulped.

The pale green gumball managed to grab a hold of Luvbi and keep her safe as Tipral unleashed a Star Blast, which destroyed all the enemies around them, as well as the ship. The heroes got hurt from it as well, but they were at a further range, so they took less damage.

Mario: That was dangerous!

"You should be careful where you attack," Blade suggested, coughing a little.

When Chopper let go of Luvbi, the Nimbi girl blushed as she swooned and was hoping for a kiss, but Chopper noticed his Plasma ability was gone, making that ability nothing but a waste.

"Poyo, (I still have my Yo-yo ability,)" Kirby noticed.

"All right… Let's move on…"

They noticed a platform come down to pick them up, and then they got on and let it take them up to a ledge where a door awaited. The eight entered to find an alien slime that made some sort of rail.

"This looks like something we could hitch a ride on," Sonic said.

"But that might harm us…" Chopper trailed.

"Then I'll go first," Tipral decided as he got on the rail. When his feet touched them, it didn't seem to harm him. "Guys, it's all right. You can get on this if you want. Just be careful…"

Sonic got on next and began to use it as if it were a grinding rail, just like Chopper did. Kirby, Blade and the Mario Bros. used it as a slide and allowed it to take them out of the small area and into a larger area with a couple of taller skyscrapers.

"Wow… Look at this!" Luigi gaped as they saw some Dark Bats flying over.

"Watch out. Those things can…well, I'd rather not say it. But they'll drop something on you if you're not careful…"

"Thou shouldst not mention that…" Luvbi sighed, who happened to be holding onto Chopper, who had no choice but to hold onto her while they made their way over the large, bottomless pit down below.

Mario: Luigi, don't look down…

"I… I won't…" Luigi gulped as he ended up looking down and yelping. "OK! I don't wanna be around here now!"

Thankfully, they left the bottomless pit area and went into a tunnel that led them into a smaller area with two large stairs with two Elite Dark Assassins waiting for them. A Wizrim was there as well, and it ended up throwing its weapon toward them.

Kirby, however, was able to knock its weapon away with his yo-yo and pull the wizard over to him so he could slam it on the ground. Chopper spun his fists with light energy and attacked it until it was defeated with ease.

"It's weird that we had a mini-boss against this, but now it's a normal enemy…" Chopper trailed.

"Poyo, (I noticed that too,)" Kirby agreed.

Kirby grabbed one of the Elite Dark Assassins on one of the ledges before it could teleport. He was able to send it flying up to the ceiling, which allowed Blade to throw his katana up and let it stab it.

"And that's how you take down a Dark Creature with style," Blade smirked as he managed to catch his katana when it fell. Unfortunately, he ended up getting blasted by the last Dark Assassin.

Luvbi gave him an unimpressed look while Tipral teleported over to the Elite Dark Assassin and used his Star Burst and then tossed a Star Spear at it to finish it off. The rest of the group climbed the two big steps and found a large tunnel with another hologram of Shade.

"What is he doing?" Chopper gawked as he noticed Shade sticking his tongue at them.

"He's taunting us, I presume," Sonic answered.

"Dark taunted me many times," Blade recalled, jumping down to the lower ground. "Hey, Shade, if you can hear me, you stink!"

"Ummmmm… Yeah… Let's just move on." Sonic sweat dropped.

"Please…" Luvbi groaned.

They ran through the tunnel ahead, with Tipral hitting a ? Block nearby. A Speed Flower popped out. When he grabbed it, everything turned out to go at a faster pace, especially the Dark Wizards blocking the way of the rubble.

"Everything'ssofastnow!" Chopper chirped.

"Verily? Ohme! Itdothseemethlikethat!" Luvbi noticed.

Tipral stayed silent as he blasted through the Dark Wizards and the rube with his Star fist, as well as some rubble up ahead. He found another ramp leading over to a road that looked seemingly familiar.

When they jumped off the ramp, Luvbi grabbed onto Chopper so he wouldn't fall off, but it didn't matter that much, because everyone else managed to get on the road just fine. They saw a bridge above them with a couple of Dark Wizards, Elite Dark Soldiers and even Dark Brutes firing down.

"Take this!" an Elite Dark Soldier cried as it threw a plasma grenade down. Since everything was moving at a fast pace, the grenade blew up quickly and knocked them all back. Chopper protected Luvbi so he took the hit instead. That's when the speed went back to normal.

"Oh, Chopper… That was verily sweet of thee." Luvbi blushed. "I doth sense that thou dost careth about me…"

"I only did that because you're the only one who can't really fight..." Chopper trailed, unaware of two Dark Wizards on the bridge aiming their wands. ONe had fired a dark magic projectile at him, knocking him order. "Ow! That hurt!"

"Next time we go to order something, I'm buying it for you," one Dark Wizard congratulated, making the Dark Wizard who hit Chopper happy.

"Looks like we've got some enemies to deal with! Let's fight!" Blade informed as he readied his katana and attacked a Wizrim in their way. Tipral snapped his finger and knocked a couple of enemies off the bridge.

"Someone man that turret!" a Dark Brute ordered, pointing to a turret on the bridge.

"Lemme take care of it!" a Dark Wizard manned the torrent and began to fire. Tipral noticed a shield, so he hid behind it while he tossed a shadow ball at the turret to damage it. Sadly, that didn't seem like enough.

"Great... We're going to need more than that…" Tipral groaned.

Luigi pondered for a moment until he had an idea. He grabbed Bonjourang and threw him toward the turret. He was able to hit the Dark Wizard instead, making it fall off the bridge and on the road. Tipral skated up to it and bashed its head with his fist to defeat it.

He found more rubble in the way ahead, so he was able to smash through it and find a ramp at the end of the road. When he turned around, he noticed an Elite Dark Soldier throwing a plasma grenade down at the group. They were running over to Tipral, who noticed an explosion as they jumped.

But then he noticed a crate of plasma grenades. He grabbed one of them and threw it on the bridge where the enemies were.

A Dark Brute noticed the plasma grenade land right in front of it, so it kicked it - only to notice it being stuck on its foot instead.

"Oh, no… You've gotta be kiddi-"

The explosion was quite a powerful one, being able to take out all the enemies on the bridge. The Wizrim left charged, but Mario was able to send it flying toward the explosion with the help of Kickbrin.

"Ha HA! Take that!" Kickbrin smirked.

Mario: Nice work, Kickbrin!

"Good. Now we can progress." Tipral nodded as he took off on the ramp, while the rest of the group followed him. They were taken to the largest are they've seen so far, with a couple of ships over the big area. There were three platforms, with each being connected by a bridge.

What made it worse was that there was a huge army of Dark Skellos, Dark Creatures, Dark Wizards, and many other dangerous monsters waiting for them.

"Listen up!" the Wizrim began. "We can't let these heroes breach through that door ahead at ALL costs! We can't let him breach Master Shade Doom's Castle!"

"The castle!" Chopper gasped. "So we're getting close…"

"It looks like those ships are supplying more troops," Luigi gulped, looking up at the ships flying around. However, he noticed a turret was right near them.

At this point, Chopper couldn't help but smirk.

"Oh, YES! THIS is what I'm talking about!" Chopper cheered as he manned the turret and began to fire at the ships. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to be doing quite good with it with the confusing controls.

"How do you use this thing?!"

"You're too novice for this," Blade stepped in as he shoved Chopper out of the way and took control of the turret. "This job is for men!"

"But you're only fifteen…"

"And that's older than you."

"Yeah… Good point."

As Blade took control of the turret, he began to fire at the ships, and not to mention the enemies that were charging. A Wizrim appeared behind Blade, but Sonic was able to hit it with a Homing Attack, followed by Tipral kicking it and sending it flying away.

"Thou knowest, my prince…" Luvbi began. "Thou may only be ten, but I still won't judgeth thee in any way."

"Thanks..." Chopper replied, watching Blade fire at the ships and destroy them.

After he destroyed the last ship, a Dark Wizard fired a charged magic attack that made Blade's eyes widen and force him to jump away from the turret before it could explode. Even then, there were tons of enemies to deal with.

Mario: There's too many of them!

"Hmmmmm… I think I might have an idea…" Tipral trailed. "You know, Chopper, light power CAN help you at a time like this, like my dark power can."

"What do you mean?" Chopper gawked.

Tipral raised his arms and began to create a large shadow ball. "You see, if we can combine light and dark power together, it might be powerful enough to destroy all of these enemies! Though, I don't know how this is going to work…"

"But I can't do that!"

"Really? Then explain how you could use that Master Glove attack to create a large light ball of energy? I'm sure you're capable of doing that right now!"

"Hmmmm… Maybe I'll give it a try…" Chopper raised his arms and began to create a ball of light energy. It began to grow bigger with the more power he held in it. Tipral did the same thing, and once both energy balls touched each other, they combined into one.

However, Luvbi couldn't help but feel that it wasn't enough. She closed her eyes and let out some white energy that she remembered using against Bonechill to help. When Chopper and Tipral looked up, they noticed how strong it looked.

"Wait… I don't remember that kind of power being put in there…" Tipral trailed.

"I didn't see that," Luigi shrugged, which made Luvbi sigh in relief. If she gave that away, the sages wouldn't be safe anymore.

Nevertheless, Chopper and Tipral threw the large energy ball toward the enemies, whose eyes widened as they were instantly defeated by the large ball of energy. One Wizrim was sent flying over by the edge of the bridge and was almost about to fall.

Luigi quickly ran in and kicked it off, sending it plunging to its doom.

"Whew! We did it!" Luigi sighed.

"I don't see any more enemies around here…" Sonic trailed. "Looks like we can progress onward."

"Poyo? (Don't suppose that was the last in the group?)" Kirby wondered as they hurried on ahead to the door. They were led into a tunnel with a staircase before them. They were purple and demon-like. Some tentacles were hanging from the walls like before, and the torches were black instead of purple.

"Oh, yeah… We're definitely getting close…" Chopper slowly nodded as they made their way up the staircase. They could feel the eerie wind blow through the room as they made their way to the top.

Up ahead was a large, purple door, along with a Save Block and ? Block. Inside the ? Block was a Star Shroom, which they split to heal 150 HP, while Chopper hit the Save Block to save their game.

"All right, let's go through here," Tipral suggested. "I want to finally have my chance to crush Shade once and for all!"

Chopper looked at his friends, who exchanged nods as they made their way through the door. One thing for sure was that getting that last Pure Heart from Shade was most likely not going to be easy.

---

Next area-

When the door opened, the eight noticed a dark purple castle up ahead, and they also happened to see a purple sky around as well. However, above them were still some dark clouds.

"There it is. Shade's Castle." Chopper said.

"Let's go now! We don't have time to mess around!" Sonic said until they felt the ground shake.

"Poyo?! (What's happening?!)" exclaimed Kirby.

They saw the castle began to come off the ground and ascend past the dark clouds in the sky, leaving everyone but Tipral to gape.

"He saw us coming…" Blade trailed. "Now how are we supposed to get to his castle now with it up in the sky?!"

"And past those dark clouds," Luigi added.

"Oh, no… Now we can't saveth my mother and father…" Luvbi trailed sadly. "How art we ever going to maketh our way up thither?"

"DEY TUK ER JEBS!"

"Wait, what was that?" Blade gawked. "And why did that sound so strange?"

"It's coming from over there," Tipral noticed, pointing at a large army from The Underwhere that were listening to a Dark Skello ramble on. A couple of Dark Wizards, Dark Creatures and other dangerous monsters were waiting by where Shade's Castle used to be.

"Listen now, Underwhere monsters!" the Dark Skello began. "When those other guys are preoccupied, we're goin' to charge at 'em and knock 'em away! There's no way they'll be able to stand to that!"

"Look, we can hear everything you're saying," a Dark Wizard spoke out. "Do you have a problem with us?"

The Dark Skello watched as the Dark Wizard flew down to him, so it grabbed the wizard and gave him a threatening look.

"Listen here, wizard dude! It was OUR job to guard the castle! That Necromancer has NO right to demote us like this! Besides, we've been waitin' to pummel the heroes for a LONG time! While you guys? You could've just gone out to do it yerselves!"

"Orders are orders," a Wizrim stated. "You listen to him, and you might not have to suffer. After all, he freed you from Underwhere Prison, so in return, you must listen to every word he says!"

"All right, what's going on here?" Chopper interrupted as he waved his arms around. "We're over here, for Pete's sake!"

"Chopper! Don't give away our position!" Tipral growled.

"It's not good…" Sonic trailed.

"Wait a second…" the Dark Skello let go of the Dark Wizard and turned his head by the door the eight came out of. "Holy… It's the heroes! And they brought that girl and…their enemy with them?"

Upon hearing this, Cyclut, who was snoozing, quickly woke up and made his way over to the group. When he looked at them, he let out a roar right in Chopper's face. The antennae hero couldn't help but waft the air away.

"Geez! You're breath stinks!" Blade grimaced. "Get a breath mint or something! It'll help you, you know…"

Cyclut growled and punched Blade, sending him flying back.. The rest of the group quickly got in their fighting stances as Cyclut gave them all a glare with his single eye.

"MAN this guy's ugly!" Sonic commented.

Cyclut jumped over to where Chopper, Luigi and Tipral were standing and gave them a loud roar. Blade quickly got up and shook a fist at Cyclut.

"Wh-What does he want?!" Luigi cried.

"If he wants a fight, then I'll be willing to give him one," Tipral declared.

Cyclut took out a photo of him and a Dark Wizard and put it right in front of the three. When Luvbi fluttered over to Chopper, she noticed the picture as well.

"That…doth be nothing more than a Dark Wizard…" Luvbi trailed.

"Wait… That wizard has red eyes…" Chopper trailed. "He kind of reminds me of Giyron. …No, that IS Giyron!"

Mario: Giyron?

When Cyclut looked back at the picture, a tear came down his face as he began to whimper. Afterward, he put the photo away and let out another roar in anger as he took out his two daggers.

"Uhhhh… Yeah! He can take them down!" the Dark Skello declared. "And if he fails, then we'll do it!"

"All right! It's about time I got a chance to destroy someone different for once." Tipral said as he clenched his fists. Cyclut growled and charged at Tipral and tried to bring his daggers down on him.

The only problem? Tipral was faster than him, and the fact that his daggers were stuck on the ground.

"Weird… I don't see any HP on this guy…" Chopper trailed, noticing his HP was ? and his Attack was 19. While Cyclut was pulling his daggers out, he charged up a light ball and hurled it at Cyclut. He noticed it didn't do too much.

When Mario tried to jump on Cyclut's head, he also noticed it didn't do much.

Mario: We're not dealing that much damage!

"Whoa, really?" Blade gaped. "It must be his armor then…"

Kirby was able to fling his yo-yo at Cyclut before he pulled his daggers out. It seemed to slightly push him back over by the big hole that Shade's Castle left. It was certainly big and almost like a bottomless pit.

"Poyo, (I think if we knock him down that pit, we might be able to win,)" Kirby informed.

"Knock him down there? I'm fine with that." Tipral nodded as he snapped his finger and knocked Cyclut back. The Cyclops growled as he began to throw a couple of daggers to knock a couple of them back.

"Did you notice that when sharp objects hit us, we just get knocked down or something?" Chopper noticed.

"Yeah, I did," Luigi nodded. "It's kind of weird, but I'm fine with it."

"Thou all shouldst start driving him off the edge!" Luvbi nagged, despite them trying to dodge the daggers Cyclut was throwing.

Once he stopped throwing daggers, he began to rush toward the group, but Luigi's Cyclone was able to drive him back. Unfortunately, that didn't stop Cyclut from simply jumping in the air and slamming the ground with a shockwave to send the heroes flying back. The Underwhere army began to cheer for him.

"Yeah! Go Cyclut!"

"Kick their butts!"

"They're goin' down!"

Cyclut turned to the crowd and raised his arms as he bobbed his head, as if he was telling them to keep it going. Unfortunately, this left him completely vulnerable, so Sonic got in a ball and managed to charged straight at him with a Spin Dash and knock him back.

"Oh… I think that was a bad idea…" a Spiky Skellobomber sweat dropped.

Blade smirked as he fired his Dragon Beam at Cyclut while he was vulnerable. Not only did this knock him close to the edge, but it left Cyclut open once again, so Tipral kicked him off the edge.

"Well that was easy," Tipral remarked. "Did Shade honestly think something like THAT would be able to stop us?!"

He paused when he saw Cyclut grab the edge of the ground and pull himself up. It didn't seem like he fell at all, which shocked some of them.

"Dude… He can climb up with daggers too?!" Blade gaped. "That's not fair!"

Cyclut roared and punched Tipral, who got sent flying to Chopper and knocked him back as well. Cyclut grinned and then turned his attention to Luigi, but Tipral got up and fired a Star Spear at the cyclops.

"We're not done yet, you ugly cyclops," Tipral muttered as the cylops turned his attention to him. He let out a growl and charged at him with his two daggers. He was able to bring them down, but Tipral teleported out of the way and appeared a couple of inches away from him.

When Cyclut looked up, he ended up getting a foot to the face, which knocked him on his back. Despite this, he was still able to get up while not taking much damage. Cyclut grinned and taunted them.

"Face it, our attacks aren't going to do anything," Chopper groaned.

"Didst I tell thee to throweth him off the edge?" Luvbi asked.

"Yes, but it doesn't seem to be working…"

Mario: We gotta make sure he actually falls.

"You got any plans, Bro?" Luigi asked.

"Mayhap the love between two will helpeth us!" Luvbi chirped as she looked at Chopper, whose eyes widened as he stepped back. Tipral, on the other hand, slowly shook his hand as he glared at her.

"Such a pathetic idea, you little brat… It's obvious that we need to destroy him! Your other idea was better anyway." Tipral noted.

"Well love doth be important! Thou dost not understand love like my prince and I dost!" Luvbi grabbed a hold of Chopper, who began to frown as he tried to break free.

"I know nothing about love…" Chopper trailed.

Tipral gave her a bigger glare until he got hit by Cyclut, who was able to bring his daggers down on him from behind. He got knocked back, but he was able to get up and sneer at Cyclut while Kirby managed to pull the cyclops back with his yo-yo.

Kirby tried to taunt the cyclops, though he ended up getting hit by his daggers. But that didn't stop him from using his Final Cutter and striking Cyclut. This gave Blade the opportunity to slash at him with his katana, but it didn't seem to work.

"Crud… My katana's doing nothing…" Blade sweat dropped.

"Try throwin' yer daggers and usin' yer big ones!" a Spiky Skellobit hollered, which Cyclut listened and began throwing daggers. While he did this, he got his two large daggers ready and tried to strike the seven with them.

"Luvbi, you might wanna find a safe place…" Chopper suggested. "You don't wanna get hurt, right?"

"Yea, I'll findeth a safe place," Luvbi nodded. "Good luck, my sweet princes."

With that, she fluttered to a safe area. Chopper was unfortunately distracted and ended up getting struck by Cyclut's daggers.

Blade couldn't help but face palm as he threw a couple of shurikens at Cyclut. They simply bounced off his armor, making Cyclut snicker at him before hitting Blade with his two daggers.

Luckily, Blade was able to attack him with his Dragon Beam, which was strong enough to send him flying backwards. This gave Luigi the opportunity to throw Bonjourang at him to knock him back a little further.

"Hey, this isn't turning out to be too bad!" Luigi gaped.

"We just need to make sure this guy gets right to the edge!" Sonic said as he clenched his fist and allowed Cyclut to get hit by his Sonic Wind. The cyclops growled and knocked Sonic back with a dagger he threw.

"Gee, for a big guy like him, he's a fast one…" Chopper trailed as he gripped his hammer and blocked Cyclut's daggers. Unfortunately, that only pushed him back a bit while Cyclut snickered. Thankfully, Kirby was there to spin on his head while dashing at Cyclut with his Break Spin attack. That did nothing but get Cyclut's attention.

Kirby gulped as he was grabbed by Cyclut and thrown at Chopper, knocking them both on their backs. Tipral saw this as an opportunity to attack, so he fired a Star Spear at Cyclut's back to make him turn around.

Of course, Cyclut was still laughing because his armor protected him from harm.

"Hmph… So that's how you're going to play, right? Well, might as well get back to knocking you off the edge!" Tipral jumped up and threw a couple of shadow balls at Cyclut, who tried to block them with his two daggers. They ended up getting knocked out of his hands and right by a Dark Skell.

"Uhhhhh… So, is he goin' to take these?" the Dark Skell wondered.

Cyclut was about to take out two extra daggers, but he stopped for a moment and looked down at Tipral, who was using his fists to punch at him. Even if it didn't do anything, it was knocking him back a bit.

Instead, he decided to use his own fists to try to punch at Tipral. Both of their fists clashed with each other as they delivered a punch to each other. Cyclut's large fists didn't stop Tipral, however.

"A fist fight, huh? Well this should be interesting…" Tipral used a Star Punch to make his punches stronger, which was able to knock Cyclut near the edge. The cyclops turned around and noticed this, making him sweat.

"What's the matter? You're getting scared? For someone who's supposed to be one of Shade's stronger minions, you're not that strong. Now then… It's time for you to say goodbye!"

Tipral was able to knock Cyclut off the edge, sending him to his doom. He let out a huge scream as he ended up falling down the bottomless pit.

Though, the rest of Shade's army could notice Cyclut giving a thumbs up to them before they saw him plunge to his doom.

"Well… That was a bit…disappointing…" Chopper trailed. "It didn't seem to take that much to win the fight…"

"It doesn't matter. What's done is done." Tipral declared.

"That cyclops lost…" a Skellobit trailed.

"Yeah! That thing didn't even beat 'em!" a Spiky Skell commented.

"Hold on… Now that he's gone, maybe we can finish the job!" the Dark Skello realized. "Everyone! Grab yer spears! We're goin' to finish off the heroes!"

"Excuse me, but that's our job," a Dark Wizard cut in.

"Well YOU took our jobs!"

"Yeah, dey tuk er jebs!" a Skellobomber shouted from the background.

"Pray, what art they saying?" Luvbi gawked.

"Listen here, undead creature," a Wizrim hissed. "Shade ordered US to stand guard here! You guys were demoted, and therefore, you must leave!"

"You know, we kinda got rid of most of the enemies around this area…" Chopper trailed, but his words were merely ignored.

"Well it's yer fault fer takin' our jobs! We were here first! Ya snooze, ya lose, pal!"

"Look, it's either you go, or we have to settle this the hard way," the Dark Wizard warned, aiming its wand at the Skellobits.

"Oh, so ya wanna go, huh?" the Dark Skello aimed its dark spear at the Dark Wizard. "Then bring it on!"

Both armies clashed and suddenly, a big battle between the two commenced. The eight were nearly gawking at the whole event, unsure on what to do at this point.

"You know what? We should just sit here and relax." Sonic suggested, sitting down and stretching. "We could use a break for once!"

"Ummmmmm… OK…" Luigi trailed as he sat down and yawned. "Man… This hero stuff does make you a little tired, huh, Bro?"

Mario: Yeah. Definitely.

They obviously knew the Dark Creatures, Dark Wizards and Wizrims would be able to win the fight, but with how many undead there were, it seemed like some of them were taken down with ease by many Skellobits, who were perhaps the weakest in the group by far.

However, because they were so weak, it only took the others about a hit to wipe them out. The Wizrim used its scythe to wipe a huge amount of Skellobits clean. The Skells and Skellos, however, took a little while to take down.

"We won't let these guys take our jobs!" the Dark Skello shouted.

"YEAH! THEY CAN'T DERKA DUR!"

"Your stupid words aren't going to help you win," a Dark Wizard scoffed. "You can always give up now while you can."

"Heck no!" the Dark Skello retorted as he charged at the Dark Wizard. The eight noticed a huge explosion, with a couple of Skellobits and Dark Creatures getting blown away from the blast.

"Holy guacamole! This is one heck of a battle!" Blade gaped. "And we're not a part of it!"

"Good thing, too," Chopper agreed, taking out an Ultimate Shroom Shake and sipping it to recover 100 HP. "Anyone want some?"

Everyone nodded, with Kirby snatching it from Chopper first so he could recover his HP. Tipral was the last to take a sip from the shake, and then that's when it was empty. He simply disintegrated it with his own magic.

"Do they really think they can keep this up?" Tipral asked.

"Probably not," Sonic shrugged.

"Poyo! (But it's better than us fighting!)" Kirby smiled.

When the explosion was gone, all that was left was the Dark Skello and Dark Wizard, who were both trying to push each other back with their own weapons. They both gave each other death glares while at it too.

"Listen, wizard-head!" the Dark Skello hissed. "Ya might as well stop now while ya can! 'Cause yer army's all gone!"

"Oh, really? Well look at your army! It's gone too!" the Dark Wizard mentioned.

"What?! You serious?! Oh, crud… This isn't good…"

"Oh yeah… Now that both army's are gone, our chances of defeating those heroes are slim. Nice going, genius."

"What? You guys came in and took our jobs! That's YOUR fault!"

"No, it's yours!"

"No, yours!"

Tipral couldn't take it any more and fired a Star Spear between the two, sending them flying off the edge and into the same pit that Cyclut fell off as well.

"OK… I guess that solves that." Luigi said with a blank face.

"Yup! And now the whole army's out of the way!" Chopper smiled as the rest of the group noticed two large hands grabbing a hold of the edge of the ground. Their eyes widened when they saw Cyclut slowly pulling himself up.

"…What? What is it, guys?"

"Behind you…" Luigi gulped.

Chopper turned around and saw Cyclut standing before them. However, his armor was gone, which showed his gray chest that was covered in many scratches and bruises. His helmet still remained on him, but now he was holding onto a large, jagged coffin.

"What's that? A coffin?" Chopper gawked.

"How is he still alive?!" Tipral gaped. "That pit was most likely too deep! …Or perhaps he was able to save himself first. But how did he get the coffin?"

Cyclut let out a roar as he swung the coffin and knocked Chopper back with it. Now that his armor was off, he was able to be hurt, so Tipral tossed a couple of shadow balls at him, causing him to cringe in pain.

"He seems weak…" Sonic trailed. "I don't know how much he can take either…"

Cyclut began to spin around, as well as the coffin. Both Kirby and Mario were knocked back, with Kirby losing his Yo-yo ability. He cried out, but this wasn't the time to be crying over something like that.

However, Cyclut stopped spinning when he got on top of the coffin and let it open up. There, they saw the ghost of Giyron come out, which began to chase them. They instantly ran away as Cyclut tried to smash them by bouncing around the area with the coffin.

"That's the wizard we fought in that dark place!" Luigi cried as the ghost of Giyron began to chase him around. When he began to chase Chopper, Luvbi gasped and grabbed him before she flew up to avoid Giyron.

"Luvbi! Let go!" Chopper cried.

"Nay! I dost not want thee to get hurt!" Luvbi retorted. "Thou shouldst be safe!"

While Cyclut began bouncing around, Giyron returned to his coffin. He got off the coffin and held it like a weapon again. Mario bashed his stomach with his hammer, making his eyes widen in pain.

Mario: It doesn't look like he can take any more.

They could see how Cyclut struggled to hold the coffin. In fact, perhaps the fall might've taken away the energy he needed to fight. But that didn't stop Tipral from firing a Star Spear at Cyclut.

"Hmph… He's almost about to drop the coffin. Let me help him with that." Tipral skated over to Cyclut and fired two Star Spears so they could hit Cyclut's arms. To the cyclops's dismay, the coffin ended up falling over him and leaving him completely lifeless under it.

"He didn't seem to have much left anyway…" Sonic trailed as they walked over to the lifeless Cyclut. They noticed his spirit rise out of the coffin, along with Giyron's.

They slowly began to rise out of the comet.

"At least they died together…" Chopper trailed.

"Now then…" Tipral began as he looked around the area. There was no one except for them left. He then looked up at the dark clouds. "Now we have to get to Shade's Castle. I've been waiting for this whole moment…"

"Yeah, but we don't have anything to help us get up," Blade noted.

However, something ended up appearing out of the coffin. It appeared to look like some kind of glowing white orb. Everyone walked over to it and looked down at it.

"Well, I'm not touching it," Luvbi decided.

Mario was the first to touch it, and once he felt it, he found himself surrounded by a red glow, making the others surprised. Kirby touched it next, giving him a pink glow, Chopper got a light green one, Luigi's was green, Sonic's glow was blue, and finally Blade's was dark blue.

"Whoa… I feel like some kind of power is surging into me…" Blade gaped. "As if I… I could launch myself high up!"

"Hmmmm?" Tipral decided to touch it, and he was instantly surrounded by a dark glow. That's when the orb shattered. "I guess my power was too much for that thing."

"Well, whatever this power is, why don't we try using it to get to the castle?" Sonic suggested, giving his friends a smirk.

"Of course," Luigi nodded as he jumped upward with his fist above him. At this point, he was now flying up, along with Mario, Chopper, and Kirby, who did the same thing. Luvbi didn't need their help, as usual, and flew up herself.

As they flew up, Sonic and Blade looked at each other and nodded before going up. That left only Tipral, who watched the group go up. Before he could go up, he began to think about the lab he was created in that was now a part of the comet.

"Shade… What you did to the place I was born was unacceptable." Tipral growled. "And now, you're going to pay with your life!"

Tipral then flew up thanks to the dark power he received.

When they all reached the front of Shade's Castle, the power they received wore off upon landing on the ground in front of the door. Tipral was the last to land and saw the door before them. It was gray and had Shade's face drawn on, which angered him.

"All right… Here it is." Chopper said. "He's right through this door."

After giving each other nods, they entered the castle.

---

Shade's Castle-

Once they entered the castle by kicking the door open, they noticed the interior was dark purple, just like Shade's Castle. There wasn't much around this hallway except for the red rug extended to the door ahead. There were some new Dark Wizards around this room with dark gray hoods and purple eyes. They even had a black trim around their hood as well.

"Wait… I thought we were done with his army?!" Luigi gaped.

"Oh, no… That's not true. You see, Master Shade Doom has other ones around here. We're called Shadow Wizards, and we don't like seeing you people around here!"

"Shadow Wizards…" Chopper trailed. "So these guys are his strongest minions? How come they were never around the outside of the comet?"

"'Cause we were told to stay here and wait for you guys," another Shadow Wizard answered as it aimed its wand at them and fired dark magic at them. They had much more HP than a Dark Wizard and had an Attack of 20, which shocked most of them.

"Those guys do 20 damage?!" Luigi gaped.

"Well that's not stopping me," Tipral declared, snapping his finger and hitting the Shadow Wizards with Star Magic.

"They got a lot of HP…" Luigi trailed as the Shadow Wizards got up and formed a tower. They all fired dark magic projectiles at once, which made Chopper get everyone into 3-D to stay safe.

Once they were back in 2-D, they were able to attack the Shadow Wizards from behind and defeat them with ease. They were just about the only enemies around the hallway, to their surprise.

"Strange… I thought we'd see more of those guys…" Sonic trailed.

"Poyo… (I guess Shade didn't have a lot…)" Kirby bet.

"Well it mattereth not. We must goest onward!" Luvbi declared, fluttering over to the purple door ahead. Everyone followed her to a much larger room with a couple of doors around and a staircase going up to the second floor of the room. There were also some statues of Shade between some of the doors.

"Weird… There aren't any enemies lurking around here…" Chopper trailed. "And the security back in the other room wasn't that great either."

"Well, the only thing we can do here is to check this place out," Blade noted. "So… How about we get to that?"

"I'll go check one of the rooms," Tipral declared as he walked into a purple door in the middle of the room. There, he found a table and a couple of papers sitting on the table, which Tipral noticed.

He picked up the papers and noticed a photo of the space station he remembered being on before. He also found some blueprints to the comet taking in the space station and becoming part of the comet. There was even a little note as well, so he picked it up and read it.

With this space station, we'll be able to double the amount of our army and make them even stronger with the type of resources that space station has inside! It'll come in handy for more Dark Wizards… But I also came across a photo that I found in here… I managed to get it in color, too.

Tipral noticed the photo by the side, and there he saw a picture of him and the same girl he saw before. Only this time, it was in color and looked much cleaner. He noticed a rainbow ribbon in her light brown hair that looked almost like butterfly wings.

Rainbow butterfly wings to be exact.

And then he began to remember the rainbow butterfly that was traveling with Chopper before. However, his anger got to him first when he read the note, so he grabbed it and tore it to pieces.

"The more I think about it, Shade must really want me to end his game if he's revealing all of this stuff here," Tipral growled. "And I will definitely grant him the wish to die, if that's what he so chooses!"

Tipral bashed the door open and took one more glimpse at the photo before putting it away. That was all in the past, and he didn't let it get to him. Timpani's gone, that's all he knew. He noticed over to his left, the rest of the group was checking out the gym Shade had.

"Nice gym…" Blade commented, seeing the dark background and the purple floor. Some of the weights looked pointy on the edges. "Although, why does Shade need a gym like this?"

"Maybe it was for someone like Cyclut…" Sonic pondered. "You saw how big he was!"

Mario: Oh yeah!

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Chopper agreed. "Anyway, let's check some other room."

They were about to go into the room Tipral was in, but he stepped in front of them. "There's nothing in here. You don't need to go in."

"Huh? Why not?" Luvbi questioned.

"There isn't anything in there. I checked it earlier."

"OK, fine… I guess I'll check upstairs." Chopper decided as he went up the stairs.

"Wait for me, Chopper!" Luvbi cried as she followed Chopper, who didn't seem to want her to come with him. But, because he didn't want to sadden her, he had no choice but to let her come.

"I guess we'll check down here?" Luigi shrugged.

"Poyo, (Might as well,)" Kirby nodded.

When Chopper got upstairs, he noticed two doors to his left. The first one appeared to be black, so he went through that door first, with Luvbi followed him in. They found the inside to be black with a couple of swords on the walls and even a helmet. There were even books on undead magic as well and even a dartboard of Chopper and his friends.

"So, this must be the Necromancer's room…" Chopper trailed. "That helmet and the other weapons in his room shows it. Plus, there's a skull on his bed."

"Chopper, look at that over thither," Luvbi said, pointing to a picture of four knights fighting against the Necromancer. One was blue, green, orange and red. They were carrying swords and firing magic such as ice, poison, fire and electricity at the Necromancer, who was flying above them with many dead bodies on the ground.

"I do recall the Necromancer saying something about four people who defeated him… So those are the ones, I presume?"

"It doth look like it… I wonder what happened then…" the Nimbi girl trailed as Chopper saw the four knights had mustaches and other stupid things drawn on them like stupid-looking teeth (even though they were wearing helmets).

"Well, if there's one thing I know, it's that he hates them so much, he wants to make them look stupid…with mustaches."

"We shouldst leave hither for now," Luvbi suggested.

"OK… Just one second." Chopper grabbed the marker the Necromancer had at his desk and drew a mustache on the Necromance in the picture. He also gave him stupid-looking glasses as well. "Heh heh heh!"

When he left the room, he noticed Blade trying to kick the big door ahead down. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be opening because of the lock on the door.

"Come on! Why can't we unlock this thing?!" Blade cried.

"That's because the door's locked," Sonic mentioned.

"Yeah, I know, but we should be able to cut that lock off! I think it's only fair anyway."

"Poyo? (What did you find, Chopper?)" Kirby asked, floating up to him.

"The Necromancer's room was where I just got out," Chopper explained. "It's…actually kind of cool, if you ask me."

"Poyo! (Really? Let me see!)" the pink puffball pushed Chopper out of the way and rushed into the Necromancer's room, making Luvbi give the pink puffball a face.

"That was rudeth of him!" Luvbi huffed. "Who doth he think he is, pushing my sweet prince liketh that?!"

"I'm not even hurt… Let's just check the other room…" Chopper moaned as he quickly got up. They headed to the door to the far left and noticed the door was a bit grayish with some black to it. Two, purple eyes also appeared on it as well. "If I'm not mistaken, this is probably Shade's room."

When they entered the room, they noticed Tipral was inside as well, which he was able to spot them. There was a lot of gray on the walls, and there was a jar of the same, green liquid that Shade always seemed to have come out of him when badly hurt. There happened to be a picture of Shade with his green, forked tongue out.

Long story short, it was a creepy room.

"What are you two doing here?"

"Well what are you doing here?" Chopper asked.

"Checking to see if Shade has something interesting in here… All I found was a key." Tipral showed Chopper a key. "It doesn't look like I found anything special here. …Oh, this diary, perhaps. But it's protected by dark power."

"Then I'll handle it!" the pale green gumball used his light power to do away with the dark power, allowing him to open the diary. "I might as well check through here. There might be some important stuff here…"

And he did indeed find something important. Something very shocking.

Heh heh heh! Excellent! Everything is going exactly as planned! Not only did I manage to get this entire comet finished up, but I was able to take away Dark's army! Heh... He really believed I was just some slave to him... Truth be told, I'm just a parasite that invaded this universe and started as a speck of darkness! When I first arrived, I took on this form from someone and started from there. There was one thing I immediately noticed that was lacking in the world I landed in… I always liked the sight of people's death! I always thought it was…exciting. Oh, how much I want to let out my desire to make people suffer and make them end their own games under my control! Hee hee hee!

But I can't let those fools discover my secret. But even if they did find out, they'll have to witness my true terror upon them! And maybe those two I have captured… Perhaps I could rip them apart when I'm through with the heroes!

"No way…" Chopper gaped, now in complete awe over the writing in the diary. "I… I can't believe it!"

"Pray, Chopper… What doth be the matter?" Luvbi asked.

"Just… Just look at this!" he handed the diary to Luvbi while he was in complete shock. She took a good look through the writing and was shocked.

"Wh-What?! So this Shade is not the Shade we hath known for so long…"

"What? You found something?" Tipral wondered as Chopper took the diary from Luvbi and gave it to him. He decided to read through it and was a bit surprised as well. "Hmph… This isn't something I expected. So he was actually a parasite this whole time..."

"And not to mention this guy is CRAZY!" Chopper nodded.

"Well, now we know his secret, so we might as well expose it to him and tell him there's more to him than we know about."

"But that couldeth be risky…" Luvbi trailed. "He doth say that he would showeth us true terror…"

"He said he wanted to make someone end their own game through his control. Does that sound like terror?" Chopper asked. "Well, I think so! I mean, Maquano enjoys destruction - heck, he destroyed Mondrao for fun! But Shade… He sounds like he's a complete WACKO!"

"Well I prefer to call him Shade for now," Tipral declared. "Anyway, we have the key, and now we're going to get out of here."

They left and went over to the locked door, where everyone else was trying to get open. Blade was the one who was trying to bust through more, though.

"C'mon, door! Open up!" Blade growled until Tipral showed him the key. "Oh, thanks."

"Guys, we found something incredibly shocking…" Chopper trailed.

Mario: Really?

"Poyo? (What is it?)" Kirby asked.

"See for yourselves!" Chopper handed the diary to Kirby, who opened it and began to read through. The other heroes gathered up and looked at it as well. As much as they didn't want to read through that huge writing, they did it anyway.

And boy, were they shocked.

"Wh-What?! I-Is all of this actually true?!" Luigi stammered.

"Yeah… All of it…" Chopper slowly nodded.

"All this time, he was just a parasite…" Blade trailed.

Mario: This really is some important info!

"We're going to expose Shade with this," Tipral said as Chopper took the diary back. "That might weaken him…"

"Or it couldst maketh things worse…" Luvbi trailed.

"Well, it doesn't matter," Chopper said. "We're going through that door."

They hit the ? Block nearby to gain a Star Shroom, which they all took to recover 150 HP. After Chopper hit the Save Block, they decided to head through the door.

When they came out of the door, they noticed they were in a big room with purple walls and some portraits of different worlds they've seen before, such as Lineland Road, Pristine Palisade, Sweet Kingdom, etc.

And below them were bodies. Dead bodies.

"Why art there dead bodies hither?!" Luvbi gaped.

"I don't know! I don't like it!" Luigi cried.

"Hold on…" Sonic paused and looked down at the bodies. "Those bodies look like enemies we've seen in different worlds!"

"And I doth see some D-Men, Nimbis, and even some of those ice people we hath seen!" Luvbi noticed, who was saddened to see innocent lives on the ground as well.

"Poyo! (Hey! I saw a room like this on a picture in the Necromancer's room!)" Kirby realized.

"Ah, so I see you like this room," a voice cackled in the room. "I designed it myself!"

They saw the Necromancer standing across the room with his wings out and his arms crossed. "So, you finally made it all this way… Can't say I'm surprised."

"Heh heh… You still have that scar on your helmet." Blade chuckled.

"Oh, I'll give you a scar to look at," the Necromancer growled. "Anyway, so how do you like this room I designed? I made this battle arena just for you guys! It really suits me, considering what I can do!"

"Enough! Mine parents better be fine!" Luvbi roared. "I'll maketh sure thou meeteth thy end, foul creature!"

"Heh heh heh… HA HA HA!"

"What's so funny?" Sonic asked.

"Do you honestly believe that I'm afraid of YOU, you little brat?!" the Necromancer cackled. "Look, I can see how I could be afraid of a little boy with powers, but a little girl? PBBBBBBBBBTH!"

"OK, can you explain to me why you have all of these dead bodies here?" Chopper asked.

"I'm glad you asked. You see, whenever someone dies by my hands, I decide to take them and throw them here. Yup, that means I've traveled to every world you went to and killed at least one of each enemy and person you've encountered!"

"Poyo… (That's messed up…)" Kirby trailed.

"Look, I don't care about your explanations," Tipral cut in. "I just wanna fight you so I can go and destroy Shade once and for all!"

"Oh, and we know his secret too!" Chopper smirked. "Trust us, he's not what you seem."

"I already know Shade's secret," the Necromancer confirmed, slowly nodding to them. "He explained everything to me. Even I was in a bit of shock, you know…"

"He's so going to get weakened when we expose this to him," Blade smirked. "But seriously, what he did was horrible beyond belief!"

"All of us villains are horrible in their own way, including me!" the Necromancer raised his arms and made both doors seal shut, preventing them from escaping. "Now that you all can't escape, we can finally settle this once and for all! No Nimbis to help you this time, heroes!"

"Then throw everything you got at us!" Tipral exclaimed. "Maybe your helmet can be a little gift to Shade before I destroy him!"

"We'll see about that!" the Necromancer flew up and zapped the ground, revealing a couple of Goombas, Squigs, Koopas, Blastboxers, Skellobits, Waddle Doos, and Snowmen that charged.

"Luvbi, you might want to find a safe place," Chopper advised, getting into a fighting stance. "This might get ugly…"

"Of course," Luvbi nodded as she fluttered to a safe place in the room, while the Necromancer was flying over the ground, watching the enemies charge at the seven.

"All right! So we finally get to kick some butt!" Blade grinned. "And on some enemies we haven't seen in a while! This should be PRETTY easy!"

"Let's get started," Chopper smirked as he gripped his hammer and began to spin it around him. Many enemies were instantly defeated from his attack, but he ended up getting hit by a Boomboxer's sound wave, though it didn't do as much now.

Kirby smiled and opened his mouth to inhale the Boomboxer and spit it at a Waddle Dee ahead. He then inhaled the Waddle Doo and got a hold of the Beam ability, which allowed him to fire a beam whip from his wand at a couple of enemies in his way.

"Hey, Necromancer!" Sonic called out as he finished his Spin Dash to take care of a couple of enemies. "You might want to try a little better than this!"

"Hmmmmm… Then maybe I will!" the Necromancer zapped the ground and summoned some Dark Intruderbots, Shadow Boos, Sunoids, Moonoids, Red Vironoids, Dark Skells, Warbots, and Dimensional Ghosts.

"Oh… Now the big ones are here…" Blade gaped, but that didn't stop him, especially when he used his Dragon Beam to attack most of the enemies. It didn't defeat them, but with Tipral's Star Burst, he was able to take out most of the enemies.

The Dark Skell, Warbot, and Dimensional Ghost were a little more challenging. Chopper had to leave the Dimensional Ghost vulnerable by tossing a rainbow ball at it. Kirby used his beam attack and fired an energy whip at the Dimensional Ghost. Mario bashed the Dark Skell with his hammer, and Luigi was able to finish it with his Cyclone.

Sonic quickly finished off the Warbot, while Tipral defeated the Dimensional Ghost, leaving nothing else left.

"Oh, don't think that's all!" the Necromancer zapped the ground to summon Dark Skellos, Dark Wizards, Elite Dark Soldiers, and even a Wizrim and Skelloford to aid him. Though this looked like a problem, they used their agility to attack, with Blade using some fire slashes on the Skelloford and Chopper tossing some light balls at the Wizrim. Tipral threw one of the Dark Wizards back and snapped his finger to defeat it.

"Even now, we've grown stronger than these things!" Tipral scoffed. "Face it, Necromancer! It's all over!"

"Oh, really?"

"Just watch this," Tipral was able to freeze time, and while he did that, he attacked every single enemy as fast as he could. Once he finished up, he reverted time back to normal and defeated all but the Skelloford and Wizrim. Even then, they were low on HP.

"Oh, I got this!" Luigi declared as he jumped on the Skelloford to defeat it and dodged the Wizrim s scythe and jumped on its head to defeat it. "There we go! They're all gone now!"

The Necromancer clenched his fists in anger, with a purple glow surrounding them. However, he calmed down and slowly flew to the ground.

"So… Then I guess it's up to me to finish this." the Necromancer declared, drawing his sword. He raised it and let lightning strike down on him. They noticed a dark mist was left behind him as his sword changed to a pure black color. He now gained purple eyes, which almost reminded them of Shade s transformations with purple eyes.

"What did you do?" Chopper gawked.

"Powered myself up, of course! You see, Shade gave me a little something that would boost my agility, speed and even power! Now let us put an end to this, heroes! And then when you're finished, I'll take care of that girl and her parents!"

"Thou wouldst not dare!" Luvbi shouted.

"Oh, trust me… I will. Now my sword is much stringer and capable of using powerful dark magic!"

"You don't scare me," Tipral scoffed. "Honestly, this isn't going to last very long."

"We'll just see!" the Necromancer grinned and flew forward, striking Tipral with ease with his sword and sending him flying to the wall with his armored boot. Everyone else gawked as Tipral slowly got up, but the Necromancer wasn't done yet. He grabbed as hold of Tipral and slammed his face to the wall.

Even though Chopper didn't like Tipral, he was helping him at the moment, so he had to do something. He hurled a light ball straight at the Necromancer s back, making him cringe in pain as he turned to Chopper.

"Unngh… Light power…" the Necromancer growled. "So you managed to get a hold of that, didn't you?"

"Yeah, right after I beat you before!" Chopper smirked.

The Necromancer took no time and used his necromancy to make dead hands grab a hold of Chopper s feet, which made his eyes widen. The Necromancer hurled purple balls of dark magic at him, which he tried to put up his arms to block, but it didn't seem to work that much.

However, he was able to see what his stats were. His Max HP was 480, he had an Attack of 20 and a Defense of 10.

"Oh… Well he's dangerous…"

Kirby frowned and charged up a beam attack and fired it at the Necromancer to stop him, which he was able to succeed in. The dead hands disappeared, but the Necromancer wasn't going to go down without a fight. He used his undead magic and jumped high up in the air and fired a skeleton down toward Kirby. But, he was able to destroy it with ease with another charged up beam attack.

"Impressive… I honestly thought you were one of the weaker ones…" the Necromancer trailed.

"Poyo! (I'm NOT weak!)" Kirby retorted, giving him a glare.

"Well, it doesn't matter. Especially with what I can do!" the Necromancer snapped his finger and Kirby was sent flying up thanks to an undead fist that appeared under the pink puffball. He grinned and flew up to strike Kirby with his sword multiple times.

While the Necromancer was in the air, Luigi was able to attack him with his Super Jump to knock him to the ground. However, it didn't stop him from getting up and knocking Luigi back with a skeleton.

"Oh, man… His attacks are pretty strong…" Luigi moaned.

"Oh yeah, and did I mention my undead powers are far more powerful?" the Necromancer grinned as he fired a dark skeleton toward Mario. Kickbrin was able to help him and shatter the skeleton, but it didn't bother the Necromancer one bit. He swung his sword and fired a Dark Sword Beam his way. Since his sword had dark energy, his Sword Beam had dark energy as well.

Mario: Uh oh…

Mario tried to block it with his hammer, but the attack ended up knocking him back. The Necromancer flew up to him and struck him with his sword a couple of times, but Mario was able to at least bash his head.

"Hey, maybe we can have an even sword fight?" Blade suggested, jumping forward to attack the Necromancer. He was able to strike him back, but the Necromancer whirled around and slashed at him. Thankfully, he was able to recoil and throw a couple of shurikens, which he was able to slice in half with ease.

Blade gawked while the Necromancer kicked his stomach and knocked him to the ground on his back. The Necromancer gave him an evil look as he raised his sword up. But of course, he was interrupted when Tipral grabbed him from behind and threw him back.

"We're not done yet," Tipral growled as he fired a Star Spear once the Necromancer hit the wall. He cringed in pain as the attack nearly impaled his chest, but he was able to get back in shape and throw his sword like a boomerang at Tipral…

…Which he happened to catch.

"You know, you're going to have to try better than that, Necromancer," Tipral scoffed, but he noticed the Necromancer wasn't getting angered. In fact, he seemed to be grinning. "And what's so funny?"

"Just watch," the Necromancer put his arm in front of him and opened his hand to allow his sword to get out of Tipral s grasps and return to him. Once he grabbed it, he trapped Tipral with his dead hands and was able to fly up and bring his sword down on him.

Tipral cringed, but he was able to kick him away and get up before tossing a shadow ball at the Necromancer, who retaliated by blocking the attack with his sword. Not only that, but it made the sword s power stronger.

"All right, now I know that I can t do that…" Tipral grumbled as he took Carrie when the Necromancer summoned more dead hands. Carrie was able to go over the dead hands and allow Tipral to fire two Star Spears at the Necromancer, which hit him head-on.

"Hey, guys! How come I didn't get a hit on him yet?" Sonic wondered as the Necromancer spun his sword around to block the next projectile Tipral fired. Since he was distracted, he clenched his fists and used his Sonic Wind of the Necromancer. This gave Blade a chance to attack him with his katana and finish off his combo with a Dragon Beam.

The Necromancer gave them a smirk under his helmet as he flew up and dove at an angle near the seven. Kirby brought his guard up to take minimum damage, while Blade used Barry to interrupt the Necromancer s attack.

"Oh, yes… Don't think I forgot about you!" the Necromancer ran straight at Sonic and began to slash at him multiple times. Even when the blue hedgehog brought Reflecto up, it didn't appear to do anything.

"Gah! I guess projectiles only get deflected…" Sonic cringed as the Necromancer made a dead fist strike Sonic upward so he could lung at him with his sword moving up. Mario tried to help, but the Necromancer kicked his stomach to make him fall over on his back.

"You guys are so pathetic!" the Necromancer scoffed. Here I thought you'd be a lot stronger against me! But look at you all! I'm practically kicking your butts! Heck, that boy was able to put up a fight back by that observatory!"

"That's because you powered yourself up…" Chopper trailed, gripping his hammer.

"Yeah, and I'm loving it!" the Necromancer lunged forward, but Chopper was able to attack him with a light sweeping kick before he tossed an ice ball at him. He only stayed frozen for about a second before getting out.

"Sorry, but freezing me won't work!"

Chopper grumbled as the Necromancer rushed over to him and tried to hit him with his sword, but he jumped up and stomped on his head while performing a stylish move in the air.

As he landed on the ground, the Necromancer flew up and managed to zap Chopper with white lightning to knock him over. It also gave Luigi a chance to attack with his Super Jump, which knocked the Necromancer to the ground.

"I should be more wary where I fly…" the Necromancer hissed as he glared at Luigi, who threw Bonjourang at him and left him dazed.

"Now! You can attack him!" Bonjourang cried.

Luigi nodded and jumped on the Necromancer s head, but once he jumped off him, the Necromancer grabbed his foot and threw him to the ground. He brought his own fist to the ground and made a large, undead dragon appear on top of him.

"Yup! Now it's go time!"

The Necromancer rode around the dragon as it flew all over the room, knocking the seven over and getting hurt by a couple of fireballs. When it disappeared, the Necromancer jumped off and brought his sword down to the ground, creating a dark shockwave.

"Yeesh… He's learned a lot since I fought him before." Chopper gaped as he was flown to the wall.

"Chopper…" Luvbi trailed, flying over to him. "Thou must have an idea to defeatest him, right?"

"In all honesty… I'm not sure what to do against him… The only thing I can do is just fight."

"If she isn't a part of the fight, then she shouldn't be here," the Necromancer mentioned, readying a Dark Sword Beam.

"Hey, leave her out of this!" Chopper grumbled as Luvbi flew back up. The Necromancer readied his Dark Sword Beam, but Kirby was able to tackle him to the ground and deliver a kick to his face. "Ummmm… Yeah! Good work, Kirby!"

Kirby smiled and readied another beam whip, but the Necromancer was able to kick him off and tear his beam whip with his sword. He grabbed Kirby and knocked him forward with a single swing from his sword.

Kirby let out a gape as the Necromancer flew forward until Mario used Kickbrin to stop him. The Necromancer simply flew up and spun his sword around at a fast pace to attack everyone. Blade was able to block his attack with his sword, but it wasn't enough to prevent himself from getting hurt.

"Ugh… Even if I block this guy, it's not going to do much…" Blade growled. "I gotta try something else."

The Necromancer brought his sword back as he began to store some power in his sword. Kirby quickly used his Final Cutter to strike him, while Chopper tossed a light ball at the Necromancer, who cringed in pain from the attack.

However, it didn't stop him from unleashing a large, dark tornado that came flying their way. Chopper flipped into 3-D with his friends to avoid the attack and then went back into 2-D to give the Necromancer a bash to the head with his hammer.

"What the… How did you…?!"

"I can flip into 3-D, you know," Chopper mentioned.

The Necromancer clenched his fist in anger and hurled a purple ball of energy toward him. Chopper inhaled it and spat it back at the Necromancer, but he was able to block it with his sword with ease.

"You'll have to try better than that!" the Necromancer scoffed before he felt himself getting kicked by Sonic.

"Don't even think about it," Sonic warned before he felt his leg being grabbed by the Necromancer, who flew up and threw him to the ground. He flew down and tried to put his sword through him, but Sonic was able to get out of the way and get the Necromancer s sword stuck in the ground.

As the Necromancer tried to pull his sword out, Kirby fired a charged beam attack at him, and then Mario delivered a Super Ground Pound to his head. Once he got his sword out, he blocked Mario's hammer and used a small dark gust to leave Mario dazed.

"Hey! That almost looked like my Sonic Wind!" Sonic gaped. "Except it was smaller!"

The Necromancer merely chuckled at Sonic and fired a Dark Sword Beam at him to send him flying. He quickly turned around and managed to block Chopper's hammer, which he tried to use to bash him.

"This new power gives me a better reaction!" the Necromancer explained. "So you're all going to beg for mercy now!"

However, Chopper was able to punch the Necromancer's face quickly with a light punch and make him dazed, allowing Chopper to bash him with a fire smash, leaving a burn on the Necromancer.

"Sure, you have a fast reaction time," Chopper began. "But I'm sure I'm much faster than you."

"Hmmmm… Maybe… But that won't help you here!"

Tipral teleported in between Chopper and the Necromancer and knocked them both back with a Star Punch. The Necromancer rubbed his helmet, while Chopper was moaning in a bit of pain, which made Luvbi a bit worried.

"Why didst thou dost that?!" Luvbi asked, glaring at Tipral.

"Because he was in my way," Tipral explained. "Now, allow me to take it from here."

Tipral watched the Necromancer get up and use his undead magic to make dead hands grab a hold of Tipral's feet. But that didn't stop him from snapping his finger and hurting the Necromancer with Star Magic.

"You know, Necromancer… Even if you hold me here, I can still fight you."

"Well, we'll see about that!" the Necromancer spun himself like a drill as he came flying toward Tipral. He teleported out of the way, while Chopper was forced to duck under the Necromancer. When he crashed into the wall, he got himself up, but he was quickly pelted by a couple of shooting stars.

Chopper smirked as he jumped over the Necromancer's sword slash, allowing him to bring his foot down on his head with ice energy on his foot. It didn't freeze the Necromancer, but it left him a little cold, which gave Luigi the opportunity to attack with a flutter jump.

"You made a dumb choice, plumber," the Necromancer hissed as he gripped his sword and began to swing at him. Luigi yelped and jumped over him, but the Necromancer didn't stop there. He hurled his purple magic at him and then knocked him to the ground with a skeleton he hurled at him.

"Eeek! I don t know what to do!" Luigi cried as the Necromancer flew up and store some power in his sword to use on Luigi. Blade stopped him and threw a shuriken to turn his attention to him while Tipral knocked him to the ground by bringing his fists down on him.

Now that the Necromancer was on the ground, Mario bashed his head with his hammer and then used a Super Ground Pound on him. The Necromancer was able to get up and make lightning strike Mario, making him cringe in pain.

Mario: So painful…

The Necromancer looked behind him and felt himself getting hit in the back by Kirby's charged beam attack. He flew toward Kirby and delivered a quick slash from his sword at him to knock away his ability.

"Poyo! (My ability!)" Kirby tried to get his ability, but the Necromancer caught the yellow star and shattered it with a single slash.

"Looks like you re not going to be having any ability to help you," the Necromancer chuckled as Kirby gave him a glare. Chopper took this opportunity to fire a charged light ball at the Necromancer to knock him to the ground.

"All right, that's it!" he declared as he slowly got up. "I'm surprised you all managed to push me to these limits… I guess it's time to change things a bit!"

"What do you mean?" Chopper asked as he saw the Necromancer hold his sword up again. Dark lightning struck it and made his sword longer and bigger. More dark power surrounded it as the Necromancer grinned.

"Whoa… His sword's much longer and bigger…" Blade gaped. "Dang! Not even I could do that!

"Blade… Now's not the time…" Sonic trailed.

"Well his sword is a lot stronger now."

"Now I'm capable of using powers beside darkness! Now I've got the elements on my hand as well! Just watch!" the Necromancer swung his sword at both Mario and Luigi, which made them frozen solid.

"Whoa!" Chopper ran over to the two and used his fire power to thaw them out. Tipral, however, didn't seem as scared and hurled a Star Spear at the Necromancer, who flew over to Tipral and tried to bring his sword down on him.

He tried to avoid his attack, but he ended up getting hit by his sword. There happened to be sleeping powder, which ended up putting Tipral to sleep. Blade was about to wake him up, but the Necromancer poisoned him with his sword.

So, Chopper was forced to slightly slap Tipral to wake him up. When he realized it didn't do much, he tried again, but this time, Tipral grabbed his arm and gave him a death glare.

"You made a dumb choice to do that, Chopper," Tipral growled as he threw Chopper at the Necromancer, knocking the two to the wall. Luvbi, on the other hand, was gasping at Tipral for what he did.

"Thou art a foul dark monster for sure," Luvbi commented. "My sweet prince was trying to help thee, and all thou dost is throw him!"

"Do you want to join him with that Necromancer?"

"N-Nay…"

When Chopper slowly got up, the Necromancer punched him in the face and used his sword to leave him with a burn. That, however, didn't stop him from kicking his chest with a light kick. Meanwhile, Blade used Piccolo to cure himself of the poison.

"Ahhh! Much better!" Blade smirked as he turned to the Necromancer. When it was all clear, he fired a Dragon Beam at the Necromancer. It did enough damage to him, but when it stopped, he gave Blade a smirk.

"Hey! What's so funny?!"

"Oh, you didn't know, didn't you? I can do something similar to that now!" the Necromancer fired his own Dragon Beam. The only difference was that it was black instead of orange.

Blade gaped as the Dragon Beam hit him and knocked him to the wall, while the Necromancer cackled and slowly began to fly over to him. But, with him in the air, Luigi was able to hit him with a Super Jump.

"You little…!" the Necromancer grabbed Luigi next time he used a Super Jump and brought his sword down on him to leave him paralyzed. Mario helped Luigi and got him out of the way before the Necromancer could put his sword in his body.

"Grrrrrrr! Get back here!"

Mario allowed Kickbrin to knock him back, allowing Kirby to get on Carrie and jump on the Necromancer s head. When he got up, Kirby was able to hit him with his Final Cutter with ease. He used his own sword to block Kirby s blade when he tried to hit him again. He kicked him back and was about to hit Kirby with his sword again.

"And stay frozen, puffball," the Necromancer growled, glaring at the frozen Kirby. Chopper jumped in and stomped on the Necromancer s head and then tried to thaw Kirby out, but the Necromancer paralyzed him with his sword.

"Ack! I can't…move!" Chopper cried.

"Then that means free attacks for me!"

Blade struck the Necromancer with his katana and used Piccolo to cure Chopper of paralysis. The antennae boy then thawed out Kirby while the Necromancer flew back to attack. He was, unfortunately, struck by Sonic's Sonic Wind.

"Did you honestly think I would let you try to attack while my friends are helping each other?" Sonic asked, giving the Necromancer a glare. He fired a Dark Sword Beam at Sonic, but he jumped out of the way and delivered a Homing Attack to him.

"Ungh… I don't know what s going on, but I'm not doing as well as before…" the Necromancer coughed, giving them a glare.

"Maybe because you wasted a lot of the power?" Chopper wondered.

"No… I can still feel that power in me. And I know it will destroy you!" the Necromancer swung his sword toward Chopper, but he ducked under it and managed to make him trip with a sweeping kick.

"Obviously you're not going to win when it's seven against one," Tipral pointed out, firing a Star Spear at the Necromancer, but he was able to block it with his sword and leave a burn on Tipral with his sword.

"Sure, it's seven against one, but I've got more skills that makes me triumph over you guys! Look at your own HP! You're practically running low by now!"

Mario: He's right…

"True, but look at you!" Chopper pointed at the Necromancer's HP bar. "You're running pretty low yourself! So that makes us even! …Right?"

The Necromancer growled and lunged forward, with Chopper bringing his hammer up to block his attack. Tipral managed to grab the Necromancer from behind and throw him up in the air with a kick before teleporting to him from above and slamming his fists down on him.

"Let's hope we can win this…" Luigi trailed.

When the Necromancer got up, his eyes were filled with rage as he flew up and began to make lightning strike everywhere on the ground. He was able to electrocute everyone, but Mario suggested that they all stood still. The Necromancer fired lightning down on them again.

But it ended up missing.

"Wh-What?!" the Necromancer gaped. "How come my attack missed?!"

Mario: Lightning can't hit the same place more than once.

While the Necromancer was infuriated, Luigi knocked him to the ground with a Super Jump, and then Tipral was able to kick him to the wall with a Star Punch. The Necromancer was quick to get up, but he was staggering a bit.

"Hmph… Not bad…" the Necromancer coughed, realizing that he was very weak by now. "But not enough!"

"Oh, I don't think so!" Chopper declared jumping toward the Necromancer. He turned around and brought his sword up, but Chopper was able to knock it away with a single swipe from his hammer.

"Wh-What?!"

"It's over for you!" Chopper charged up a light ball and hurled it at the Necromancer, which made his eyes widen in pain. He let out a scream before he fell over on the ground on his back. All the dark power slowly faded away. His sword turned back to normal, and his eyes turned back to a red color.

"I… I can't believe I lost…" the Necromancer moaned. "Master Shade… I'm sorry I've failed you.

"Well, thou got what thou deserveth," Luvbi declared, fluttering down to the group and giving him a glare. "After all what thou didst, thou hast paid the price!"

"All I wanted to do was please my master… But, I'm starting to realize something… My old master was a much better master to me than Shade… At least he gave me a little more respect than Shade."

"What do you mean?" Luigi wondered.

"You remember that Nimbi who joined Shade, right? Well, once he joined us, Shade began to pay more attention to him than me… It's almost like he thought I didn't exist!" the Necromancer clenched his fists in anger. "I've given him the help he needed, and I even stayed loyal to him. Did he give me anything in return? No. The only thing he did for me was freeing me from Underwhere Prison."

"So he didn't care about his own people?" Tipral wondered as he crossed his arms. "Can't say I'm surprised."

"But now, I've failed Shade, and I'm afraid I can't dare to see him again for failing him three times…" the Necromancer trailed. "So… I must ask you guys…to end my game."

"Wait… What?!" Chopper gasped. "But… None of us can do that!"

"You must… That is my last wish. You people are heroes, right? Your job is to help people, and right now, I wish for you to help me end my life."

"Dude… There's gotta be another way." Sonic said. "There's no way I'm going to end your game! That's… That's too far!"

"And yet, you people have nearly destroyed massive amounts of enemies and some that were holding the Pure Heart, such as Master Mind. Yes, I saw you guys fight against him. In fact, when I was ending others' games in other worlds, I happened to find that city and decided to watch the fight between you and him."

"Yes… I remember that…" Blade trailed. "All the Cradians were practically brainwashed either way. They threw us out of the city too."

"If you guys could destroy that guy, then you can destroy me… I will be free then."

"But…" Chopper stammered before Tipral walked over to the Necromancer.

"If that's your wish, then I will do that," Tipral declared, preparing another Star Spear.

"Hold on, Tipral! This isn't the way for us to do it! We can't just destroy him! It just doesn't feel right…"

"That's just you guys. I go my own way. And if he wants to die, then I'm going to give it to him." Tipral pushed Chopper out of the way and prepared to fire a Star Spear at the Necromancer.

"Farewell, heroes… It looks like I'm returning to my prison. Perhaps this time, for good…"

Once Tipral fired his Star Spear into the Necromancer, his eyes widened in pain until he stopped moving. They noticed his body slowly fade away, as if it was being taken back to The Underwhere where he belonged.

"And we never got to see what he was like under his helmet," Blade mentioned.

"Well, it doesn't matter at this point," Sonic shrugged. "He got what he wanted, and now he doesn't have to deal with Shade anymore. But… How do we get out of this room?"

"Yeah, I just realized that!" Luigi gaped. "The Necromancer didn't unlock the doors for us!"

"Hmmmmmm… Let's see…" Chopper looked down at the sword the Necromancer dropped. He picked it up and threw it straight at the door, which surprisingly destroyed both the door and the sword. "Oh… I was hoping I could use that."

"Well why doth that matter now?" Luvbi asked. "Hurry! We canst maketh it to mine parents quickly!"

They agreed and headed through the door ahead. There, they found the center of the room to be light purple, while the rest was darker. There was a Save Block and a ? Block in the room, so Chopper first hit the ? Block, which contained a rainbow mushroom called a Master Shroom.

"Hey, it's one of those!" Sonic noticed.

Mario: Yeah, it is!

"Poyo! (And it's really good, from what I heard!)" Kirby smiled as Blade divided it into seven pieces. They all ate their piece and recovered 200 HP in no time.

"That was GOOD!" Blade smiled. "Probably the best shroom I've ever eaten!"

Mario: But now we must go.

"The hairy man doth be right," Luvbi agreed. "Come on, my sweet prince! Let us movest on!"

"Yeah, we gotta do that," Chopper nodded as they all stepped on the light purple part of the room. Soon enough, the section they stood on was starting to ascend.

They knew that the final Pure Heart was close.

---

This and the next chapter are my favorite in the entire story so far.