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...

142. Near All World's End

CHAPTER 20-4

-Near All World's End-

With the sky being unlike the other areas they were in, Chopper and Tipral knew that they were going into the more dangerous area of The Void. And without the help of Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi, making their way through here was not going to be an easy task. And Chopper and Tipral had a feeling that they'll have to put up a bit of a fight against the enemies too.

"Well, it looks like we're in the inner part of The Void," Chopper said, looking up at the evil sky nervously. "I can't believe we have to move on without my friends..."

He quickly blinked for a second and shook his head. "No! That's not something I need to be thinking of right now. Our friends wanted us to keep going, and that's something we need to do!"

"Yes, and with only us left, reaching the core of The Void will be difficult. However, I don't think there is anyone else that is trying to stop us from reaching the True Chaos Heart, so we should be fine from here on."

Chopper took a step forward and looked up at the black and dark purple sky. "Considering how deep we are in The Void, I can't help but feel that this place reminds me of Dark Subspace World a bit. Maybe Darksprine Troopers might be in here? ...Nah. They're all gone!"

"Hmph... Think whatever you want, I don't really care." Tipral stated. "Ugh... I can't get that name out of my head! I should REALLY thank Chopper for bringing up something like that..."

"Tipral, is something bothering you?"

"Hmmmmm? No, I'm fine. But you're not going to be helping us if you continue to ask me that. While you're the person I hate more than anyone else, I understand that we have to work together."

Chopper gave him a nod. "Yes, I know we have to work together, even if we don't get along too well. ...But, maybe we might become friends later on."

He brought his hand out in a way to shake Tipral's hand, but his counterpart swatted his hand away. "Don't even think about it, Chopper! I'm not here to make friends with you."

Chopper's smiled faded away, and he decided to turn around. "Well... I guess we better get going then."

They saw the path ahead and noticed that, just like most of the start of each chapter in The Void, it was pretty flat. There were also some platforms above the ground with ? Blocks above them. Chopper jumped on the first platform and hit the block to find a Mushroom. It was disappointing, but he decided to split it into two so they could both recover 10 HP.

When he landed on the ground, Chopper also had other thoughts. He lost his friends, sure, but what about those Sages? Is it possible that they could help them? No, not likely. He's already too far in The Void to get help from them!

"Oh, by the way, Chopper..." Tipral started. "I already know about those three Sages. You don't have to keep it a secret."

Chopper's eyes widened as he turned to Tipral. "H-How did you know about them?!"

"The Dark Prognosticus happened to inform me before I lost it, along with the Dark Star Scepter. It stated, 'When a Pure Heart is lost, one shall search for the three Sages to find the Pure Heart. But only one shall know about the sages, and nobody else.' And I had a feeling that the 'one' was you."

"But I thought no one else knew about that!" Chopper gaped. "How did the Dark Prognosticus catch something like that?"

"I'm not sure, but it doesn't bother me too much. But, I'll be fair and not tell anyone about this."

Chopper gave him a nod before he heard the sound of a spear being thrown. He recoiled when he saw the spear land right by his feet. The two looked up and saw a Dark Skello giving them a glare.

"Hwahwahwa! So yer the fools that Master Shadow Doom hates so much!" the Dark Skello cackled. "I'm goin' to please him and take ya down!"

"A Dark Skello? Here? How did you get in here?" Tipral gawked.

"A door appeared in the Comet of Darkness, and a couple of us decided to go in here! And look at what we happened to run into! I'm goin' to please Master Shadow Doom now!"

"Shade's gone," Chopper stated.

The Dark Skello's eyes widened in shock, but they soon turned to anger as it took out another spear and aimed it at them. "Then I shall avenge him! You won't be leaving this place alive!"

Chopper opened his mouth and inhaled the Dark Skello's spear near him and spat it at the undead creature. Tipral teleported up to the Dark Skello and fired a barrage of Star Punches, followed by a single Star Kick that finished it off. He also teleported up to a platform and hit two ? Blocks that were there. To their dismay, two Death Shrooms came out and began to scurry around the place.

Sure, one Death Shroom could be dealt with easily, but two? Chopper did not feel comfortable at this point – which soon became worse when he saw dark purple Void Bones rising up ahead and two Dark Skellos charging their way. Tipral stepped in front and swung his arms to fire some Star Spears at the Dark Skellos. One even hit the Void Bones and did severe damage to it.

Chopper was hoping to get into some action, but he couldn't shoot a fireball in time when he noticed the undead army annihilated and the Void Bones reduced to ash thanks to Tipral's Star powers. But the two Death Shrooms were coming back their way, but Tipral also destroyed them in as well.

"Well, I guess the only thing I can do is simply follow," Chopper murmured as he followed Tipral up ahead. There were Void Bones resting on the ground beside the door, which happened to be blocked by a barrier. Chopper took this as a chance to attack, so he threw a fireball at it. Sadly, it didn't seem to have any effect.

"Huh? How come fire didn't work?!"

"That's because these Void Bones are much different," Tipral explained. "Because they were taken in by The Void, they have gained a few more defenses. However, light power might do the trick."

Chopper smirked and aimed at the ground near the Void Bones and shot some light magic from his hand to deal some massive damage to the enemy. However, it was Tipral that finished it off with his Star Magic. But even then, the barrier around the door wouldn't shatter.

But Tipral happened to sense something, so he gestured Chopper to switch them both into 3-D. He agreed and flipped into 3-D to find a secret trail behind the door. This led to a small area where two Void Bones were, as well as a door.

Chopper jumped on the two enemies with his light stomp and then hurled a large light ball down at them to defeat them. Once they entered the door, they were met with a light orb at the end of the small area, and two dark purple Pigarithms called a Boaraithms with tusks moving around. It was certainly much faster than the previous types of these ugly things.

"I haven't seen these things in a long time," Chopper gaped.

"Well, it's better to just get rid of them right now," Tipral declared, stomping on the closest Boaraithm. It shrunk to a smaller size, but this time, there were two of them scurrying around if the big Boararithm was ignored. Chopper gaped, but Tipral ignored him and snapped his finger to split the enemies into four.

"Oh, geez... Not only is the smaller version faster, but it's worse with four of them!" Chopper gaped.

Tipral did not let Chopper's words bother him as he teleported in between the four small Boararithms and used his Star Burst to destroy them. That left the other Boararithm, so Tipral approached it, but Chopper managed to jump on it first to make it smaller and split it into two. Tipral, getting angry over this, kicked Chopper at one of the Boararithms to split them and shrink them.

"Hey! Why did you do that?!" Chopper exclaimed. "Did you even listen to me before?"

"You were in my way," Tipral noted. "The only way we're going to actually work together is if you don't get in my way when we're fighting enemies."

Chopper quickly got up and kicked the larger Boararithm near him to split it into two smaller ones, which he finished off with a sweeping kick. All that remained was the light orb after Tipral finished the rest. He simply tossed a shadow ball at it, causing a tremor to occur in another area.

"Uh oh... That didn't sound good..." Chopper gulped.

"That tremor didn't sound like the previous ones," Tipral remarked. "We should leave and check what that was."

"Good idea."

They left the area and returned to the door in the previous area. The barrier surrounding it was now gone, which gave them access to the next area. They took no time and quickly entered through the door.

"Well well well! It looks like they finally ventured their way into the inner part of The Void!" a mysterious voice echoed through the area. "And with only two of them, surely things will be dangerous – especially with all the obstacles ahead! Oh, they will be trapped like a puppy surrounded by small cans of food! But in order to fully complete my plan, I need them out of the way first!"

The voice paused, as if it knew there was someone watching. "Oh, and attention to you people reading this like a bunch of lazy, unemployed workers. I have a favor to ask you. Will you not tell those two of my existence? For those of you who refuse, a small price you will have to pay. …A price that has to do with being my slave for all eternity! Follow them, and don't let them spot you. I must get them at the right moment. Ciao!"

---

Next area-

When Chopper and Tipral walked out of the door, the first thing they were greeted was a Dark Skelloknight in the center of the area, and on the platform, there was a Dark Wizrim grinning at them. There were also a couple of old pillars around as well.

"So... It looks like we have some welcomed guests!" the Dark Wizrim hissed. "Why don't we show them around?"

"Of course," the Dark Skelloknight readied its large sword and came charging at the two.

"Hmph... You pathetic weaklings again? Please... We've already fought you enough times." Tipral scoffed, readying his Star powers. "Oh well. I could always crush another one of Shade's minions!"

Tipral jumped in the air and fired a Star Spear at the Dark Skelloknight to destroy its armor and leave it vulnerable. He then proceed to jump on its head a couple of times and leave it no chance to attack. Chopper couldn't help but watch him pummel down the Dark Skelloknight, but he had problems as well.

"Don't think you're gonna be going so easily," the Dark Wizrim warned, appearing in front of Chopper, who recoiled. "There's a reason why I'm even here in the first place!"

The Dark Wizrim swung its scythe wand at Chopper, who ducked by flattening himself, which helped him avoid the weapon. He then jumped on the Dark Wizrim's head with a light jump and kicked it over by the Dark Skelloknight.

"I think I might have an idea," Chopper thought, jumping in between the Dark Skelloknight and the Dark Wizrim. Tipral stopped fighting the Dark Skelloknight and made it bring its attention to Chopper instead.

The Dark Skelloknight lunged forward and tried to hit Chopper, while the Dark Wizrim swung its weapon at him at the same time. He had just enough time to jump and let both enemies hit each other instead. Both took a large amount of damage and allowed both Chopper and Tipral to jump on them to defeat them.

"Yeah! We defeated them!" Chopper cheered. "And it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be!"

"Don't get too excited just yet," Tipral noted, approaching the door nearby. "Apparently this door is locked."

"Oh... Well that stinks. Do you have any ideas?"

Tipral looked at one of the pillars and knocked one over with a Star Punch. All that was revealed in the pillar was a Max Shroom Shake. Tipral took it anyway and put it away, while he smashed the other pillar, only to find a Dark Skello hiding in it.

"Oh... Uhh..." the Dark Skello blinked before it got up and aimed its spear at the two. "Yer goin' down! Taste my spear!"

It was about to jab at Tipral, but he grabbed its spear and threw it to the side. Despite being freaked out, the Dark Skello took out another, so Tipral snapped his finger and destroyed the Dark Skello with Star Magic. He then kicked the third pillar and knocked it over, revealing a Void Key.

Tipral picked up the key and walked over to the door just up ahead. Once the lock was off, they proceeded into the next area and found the road to be flat – until they noticed the ground curved up to the wall ahead. Not to mention there were Darklings with purple eyes and purple bulbs on their antenna that had black spikes. Also, their hands were more like claws by being long and pointy.

"Well, look what we've found!" one Darkling hissed. "That pale green boy looksss ssso familiar!"

"Oh, yesss! Why don't we help him out?" the second Darkling suggested.

"Ooh... That'sss a good idea!"

The two Darklings flew Chopper's way, but he and Tipral started moving and quickly went past the two Darklings, causing them to spin around. They were left dazed and confused as they watched the two make their way up ahead. Nevertheless, they faded away and caught the two before they could go up the wall.

"Where do you think you're going, kid?!" the first Darkling exclaimed.

"We didn't have a chance to sssee much of you!"

"See me? ...Hold on, aren't you those Darklings from Dark Subspace World?!" Chopper gaped. "Oh, geez..."

"Ssso nice of you to figure out! And now, we ssshall make you pay for what you did!"

Both Darklings fired their energy balls Chopper's way, who shrieked and jumped on top of one of them. Tipral did the same thing, except he slammed his fists on the other Darkling to leave it in severe pain. Unfortunately, his Star powers were not enough to defeat them so easily.

"Hmph... I guess these things are a lot stronger than I thought..." Tipral trailed.

"That'sss right! And there are more than jussst usss here!" one of the Darklings cackled.

Chopper bounced off the Darkling he was on and hurled a light ball down at it, causing its eyes to widen in pain as light started to envelop from its body. When it was fully enveloped by the light, it was destroyed, leaving the other Darkling surprised. But it attacked anyway until Tipral kicked it and got destroyed by another light ball.

"Looks like light power can destroy these guys easily," Chopper smiled. "I'm actually relieved to have this power, when I think about it more."

"Honestly, you don't have to tell me. I just wanna get a move on right now." Tipral stated.

Chopper shrugged and charged up a Speed Dash to take off and go up the wall. But what he didn't expect was a dark glowing barrier that got in his way and made him fall back down.

"What the heck?! Those looked like those glowing platforms from cyberspace!"

Tipral decided to skate up the wall to see himself, but he didn't expect the barrier to appear so quickly in front of him. He bumped into it and fell down near Chopper, who was already up.

"The only way we'll actually get through that is if we stop time," Tipral noted. "I guess I'm going to have to do that, but we have to be quick. It won't last forever, you know."

"Yes, I know," Chopper nodded before Tipral stopped time for the exception of them. Chopper charged his Speed Dash again and took off without the barrier getting in his way. Tipral followed him up the wall and noticed the wall curve up underneath a path, making them move upside down instead.

But they had to jump off because there were spikes facing them. They were surprised to land on a glowing dark platform that seemed to be slowly moving to the left and leading to a spring pointing to the upper right.

"Well, this might be helpful," Chopper smiled, despite seeing a black Vironoid with purple eyes appear out of a small portal and land in front of them. It was certainly bigger than previous Vironoids, that's for sure. But a powerful kick to its face by Tipral's foot was able to knock it off.

They were about to relax for a moment, but the Void Vironoid managed to latch onto the platform from below with its spider-like legs and climbed back up to them. Chopper decided to throw an ice ball to leave it frozen, and when Tipral teleported above it, he slammed his fists on its face and disintegrated it, making it drop a Thunder Shield item, which could prevent them from taking damage from electricity.

"This should help us!" Chopper smiled, picking up the item and noticing the spring getting closer. "OK, we should jump right now."

They used the spring to launch themselves up to the path to discover a Void Vironoid attacking a Dark Skello. The undead creature wasn't doing such a good job at defending against it, but it was certainly putting up a fight. The Void Vironoid was swiping its sharp legs at the Dark Skello, and it was using its spear to block its attacks. But the two had a feeling that the Void Vironoid would win.

But when they approached them, they stopped fighting and went after them instead. Chopper was able to knock the Dark Skello away by striking the ground near it with light energy. Tipral grabbed a hold of one of the Void Vironoid's legs and then hurled a shadow ball into its face. While it was trying to shake itself back together, Tipral defeated it by teleporting in front of it and using his Star Burst.

"Pathetic," Tipral scoffed.

Chopper defeated the Dark Skello by simply inhaling the thrown spear and spitting it back at it. "OK, they're out of the way! Let's get going!"

They headed over to the door ahead and ran into another small area with two Darklings firing their dark magic at them right away. They both got hit by the attack, with Chopper falling asleep and Tipral becoming paralyzed.

"Gnnnnngh! I can't move!" Tipral grunted. "What kind of effect does this magic have?!"

"Our magic can have any effect!" one Darkling cackled. "It'sss ssso niccce!"

Tipral growled as he tried fighting off the paralysis. The Darklings knew he was ticked, especially since a purple glow was around him. "I swear, I'm going to murder you two!"

The Darklings didn't look at all threatened, but they decided to turn to the sleeping Chopper. Since he was not fighting back, they decided to hurl their energy balls at him. This work him up and left him with a burn.

"Ow!" Chopper cried. "Am I burning right now?!"

"Just shut up and get rid of them!" Tipral hissed.

Chopper blinked before turning to the two Darklings. He tossed a fireball at one and an ice ball at the other. He then dashed over to them and performed a light spinning kick, which made them explode from the light. Tipral also managed to break out of the paralysis.

"You know, that Thunder Shield item could've came in handy there," Tipral noted. "But it's too late for that."

"Yeah," Chopper nodded as he looked back ahead. "Say... Where's the door? I see a wall here..."

"Then check in 3-D."

He flipped into 3-D and noticed something strange that he noticed. There was a light purple rift torn through the wall that gave off a chilly feeling when Chopper approached it.

"Hmmmm? What's this?"

"What do you see?" Tipral asked before Chopper flipped him into 3-D. "Hmmm? A rift in The Void? I suppose with us getting closer, there are some things being torn away around here."

"Well, we might as well go in," Chopper declared as he jumped in. Tipral followed through, which brought them into an area with a long curved purple and black checkered half pipe in a 3-D perspective. Both instantly moved as fast as they could through the half pipe and noticed a couple of bombs in their way.

"Geez! I never expected this! If this was a game, we'd probably be controlled in a 3-D perspective with us moving forward instead! Then again, that's what the narrator said..."

"I don't know what you're talking about, nor do I care," Tipral scoffed, trying to catch up to Chopper. But because they were at equal speed, and Tipral as behind, he was not likely going to get to him. But he didn't focus on him too much, because he was too busy dodging some of the bombs in his way.

But when there were bombs all over the ground, the two were forced to jump over them and then meet up with a Dark Wizrim that flew down and blocked their way. Chopper responded by bringing his fist in front of him while charging up some light energy too. This sent the Dark Wizrim flying away and allowing the two to continue.

"What kind of rift is this anyway?" Chopper wondered, moving over to the right to avoid another bomb. "It feels so...weird."

"I don't know, but I think I see another rift up ahead," Tipral noted, pointing up ahead at the rift ripped open. After jumping over some bombs, they jumped into the rift and were taken into a small area.

"Whoa... Everything's back to normal." Chopper sighed. "That was pretty cool, I'll admit! But sometimes I want to slow down too..."

Up ahead were two Dark Skellos and two Darklings over by the door fighting each other. Of course, they heard Chopper and Tipral and went after them instead. Chopper jumped on the Darklings with a light jump, while Tipral used his Star Burst on the two Dark Skellos to send them flying away and defeat them.

"That was hardly a challenge," Tipral scoffed.

"Yeah, I agree," Chopper nodded. "Anyway, let's go over to that door ahead."

They walked over to the door and entered it, but they ended up falling through the door and landed over by the open rift. Chopper was left incredibly confused, while Tipral started to ponder.

"Looks like we have one of these puzzles that we need to figure out..." Tipral trailed.

Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed something odd. There were two pathways, with one to the left and the other to the right. He helped Tipral into 3-D and took the left path into a small area with a light ! Switch floating above them. Tipral whipped out a shadow ball and fired it up at the block. A door ended up appearing before them, so they headed through...

...Only to be back where they were before.

"Huh?! What's with this puzzle?!" Chopper gaped.

"We should try the other way then," Tipral suggested.

Chopper flipped him and Tipral into 3-D and took the right way instead. When they reached the small area, they noticed a pipe sticking out and a door up ahead. They decided not to risk going into the door and went down the pipe instead.

---

Through the pipe-

The first thing they were greeted was a dark purple and black shell coming their way. The Void Koopatrol got up after hitting them and began to charge at them with the spike on the top of its helmet. While it was left open, Tipral knocked it over onto its back with a Star Punch, and then Chopper jumped on its belly to defeat it easily. With a Void Koopatrol having no defense when flipped over, attacking it then was not so hard.

"I think this is some kind of tunnel," Chopper noted as he prepared to run ahead, but he recoiled when he saw something strike the ground near him. "Whoa! What just hit the ground?!"

"It looks like there are Void Thwomps here," Tipral noted, looking at the dark purple Thwomp with purple eyes. "And since they're moving fast, I don't know if running past them would work."

"Then I'll flip," Chopper declared, going into 3-D and running around them. He ran into a Darkling waiting for him at the end of the tunnel-like area and simply jumped on its head to find a dark ! Switch on the ground. He threw a light ball back at the Darkling while throwing one at the switch, causing the area to shake a little.

What surprised him was a small little line illuminating on the pathway, so he followed it back to the main area and noticed the line moving up, to the right, down, all the way to the left, up, to the right, and then up to the door.

"I think I know how to get through this," Chopper smirked.

"Yes, I can see that illuminating line on the path," Tipral said as Chopper flipped him into 3-D. "I guess those two other doors were simply decoys. This must be the right way to go."

The followed the illuminated path until they reached the door. After opening it, they were led into an area with a steep hill ahead and another one beside it, but there was a apparently a long string on that side leading down to the bottom for some reason. Nevertheless, they ran down the hill and reached the bottom to run into a dark purple Boomboxer with purple eyes and a black headphones called a Void Boomboxer.

"Oh, great... Not these guys." Chopper sighed, avoiding the sound waves that were being fired his way. About ten of them were being fired at once, and not only that, but the Void Boomboxer spat a musical note out that hit Tipral in the face.

"Unnngh!" Tipral covered his antennae, as if he heard something loud. "That music note is too loud for me!"

"I didn't hear anything..." Chopper trailed, but once he got hit by the Void Boomboxer's music note, he heard a loud noise and covered his antennae. "Aaagh! OK! I see what you mean now!"

Tipral shook off the loud sound and jumped on the Void Boomboxer to leave it stunned. Chopper also shook off the loud noise and jumped on its head afterward. But since it had high HP, Tipral had to finish it off by throwing a Star Spear.

With that enemy out of the way, they decided to see what was ahead. The flat ground was short, but they noticed a reel handle going up the steep hill they previously saw before when they went down the other hill. Tipral grabbed it, but then he felt Chopper grab a hold of him, so he shook off the pale green gumball and let him drop.

"There's no way I'm going to let you touch me like that," Tipral said coldly. "You can get up here yourself."

"I was just going to hold you by your foot," Chopper shrugged. "And believe me, I've been through worse."

Tipral ignored Chopper and let the reel handle take him up to the top of the hill. When he let go, it went down to Chopper, who grabbed it and used it to reach Tipral. The first thing they noticed was the large gap between them and the door ahead.

But they also happened to notice a glowing white orb flying high above them. It slowly passed them, and when they got a better look at it, they noticed it was another world The Void had already consumed.

Just thinking about it made Chopper feel a little sad.

"What are you getting so upset about?" Tipral asked emotionlessly.

"Seeing another world get consumed kinda fills me with a bit of sorrow," Chopper explained. "And giving up the final Pure Heart like that... I don't want it to be all in vain."

Tipral suddenly remembered something that he never got to say because he did not want to say it around anyone else. But now that they were the only ones lingering around The Void, he knew this was the perfect time to say it.

"Chopper..."

Chopper looked up at Tipral, wondering what he wants to say to him. "What is it?"

"I never thought you had it in you to give up the Pure Heart like that. You always seemed like an annoying kid when I first joined you back in The Underwhere. However, while going through the Comet of Darkness, you've somehow matured a bit. And seeing you give up the Pure Heart makes you more...respectable."

"Are you saying you have some respect for me after what I've done?"

"You could say that."

"This...is very surprising from you," Chopper realized. "You hated me ever since I first met you, I defeated your parents and Maquano, and I managed to kick your butt a couple of times. And you've hated me for so long...and now you have a some respect for me after what I've done? That's...nothing I'd expect."

"Yes, I know. In all honesty, saying it around your friends would not be such a good idea because it would still linger over them and probably annoy me. I'm hoping you don't do the same thing."

"Well..." Chopper looked back at the gap. "I guess I shouldn't. Anyway, we need to find a way to get over here."

Tipral tossed a Star Spear at the gap and noticed it didn't go further down the deep gap. In fact, they saw a platform flash in front of them for a small moment before fading away. "Looks like we found an answer to that."

Chopper flipped Tipral and himself into 3-D and noticed when one of them hit the gap with a projectile, there was more to the platform than they expected. It actually branched off to the left and then to the right to the door. Chopper kept throwing light balls so they could see the path and eventually reached the door.

Entering the next area, they found a flat ground with a couple of bottomless pits. There was a black Longator with purple eyes between two bottomless pits as well. Past the Void Longator was another Void Boomboxer that didn't happen to notice them.

"Huh... This area feels like one similar one in Castle Tipral..." Chopper trailed. "You know, those Longators?"

"Yes, I would have to agree you with there," Tipral nodded as he tried to get a better look at the door far ahead. "OK, we just need to go through that door. Nothing special."

When Chopper jumped over a pit, the Void Longator stretched its head and tried to hit Chopper, but he was able to stomp on its head easily and perform a stylish move in the air. Tipral followed him and hit the Void Longator with a shadow stomp and then a Star Spear to finish it.

Chopper, wondering if he inhaled one of the Void Boomboxer's projectiles, decided to inhale the music note it shot his way. Upon swallowing it, he gained the Mike ability and used it to destroy the Void Boomboxer instantly with terrible singing. Tipral even covered his antennae to avoid hearing him.

"Yeesh... I have such a bad singing voice..." Chopper sighed. "Well, now that that's out of the way, we should move on."

They entered the door, only to come out of the previous door they entered.

"What?! Is this some kind of puzzle again?!"

"This is very strange..." Tipral pondered. "Seeing puzzles like this isn't exactly what I expected."

He looked up and noticed a small rift tear open. Sparkly magic came out and came Chopper's way. Tipral quickly pulled him away and let the magic hit the floor instead.

"What the heck?" Chopper gawked. "Whoa... I guess you really did save me there. But it's strange to see you do this for me..."

"Don't get too used to it. If you were gone, then getting through this place would not be as easy." Tipral noted. "So neither of us can die here."

"Well, this gives me an idea, though," Chopper looked at the rift slowly closing and flipped him and Tipral into 3-D to enter it. To their surprise, they were not in another half pipe. They were just in another flat area that looked a little smaller. There were three light ! Switchs above them, though.

However, there was something different about these blocks. They were all flashing, with the first one flashing two times in a second, the middle flashing once and the final one flashing three times in a second. This gave Tipral an idea and hurled shadow balls at the three blocks the same amount of times each one flashed. They felt the area around them shake for a bit before it stopped.

"What do you think happened?" Chopper wondered.

"We should find out," Tipral suggested as Chopper flipped them both into 3-D and jumped through the rift. When they got to the door, another magic sparkle fired out of a rift and hit Tipral from behind.

"Unnngh! Who's firing those?!"

"I'm not so sure..." Chopper trailed. "Though, by the sound of it, it feels like I remember hearing it before..."

"Well it doesn't matter right now. We need to get a move on." Tipral stated as he opened the door and headed through. Chopper followed him through the door as well.

When they came out of the door, they noticed two different paths they could take. The only below had a large bottomless pit with small, square-shaped platforms with the outer part being purple and the inner part being a black color. It almost reminded them of the square pixels they could see in The Void.

The upper path, on the other hand, had black Crystal Bits with purple eyes that were waiting for anything to come by. A black Duplighost with a purple trim and purple eyes was also lurking around as well. There was a loop ahead, but overall, there wasn't too much, but it was certainly an easier way to go.

"I'm not sure which way we should go..." Chopper trailed. "The top path looks easier, but there are more enemies there... But the lower area appears to have no enemies, but the jumps look difficult."

"We'll take the lower path then," Tipral decided. "I don't want to waste my time with those enemies."

Tipral teleported over to the lower path and onto the second platform. Since Chopper couldn't teleport, he had to be careful and jumped on the first platform. While he was quite a fast person, small platforms were certainly not his thing. Tipral wasn't having such a hard time, that's for sure.

Tipral made it to the larger platform that led down to a hill. When Chopper finally crossed the platforms, they headed down and ended up running into a door. A Void Duplighost was certainly waiting for them. It was about to transform, but Tipral delivered a Star Punch that sent it flying toward the void-like wall. Chopper would've used his Mike ability, but Tipral already took care of the enemy.

Nevertheless, they went through the door to find an area filled with many Copy Abilities and a ? Block. Inside the block was a Master Shroom that they split to recover 200 HP.

"Wow... Look at all of these abilities!" Chopper gaped. "There are so many of them!"

"And there's another door here," Tipral mentioned. "Just pick an ability so we can get going. We can't stay here forever."

"Yeah, good idea," Chopper jumped over to the Paint ability and decided to use that. "I don't think I used this power in a while... Plus, it's very helpful!"

With the Paint ability in his hands, Chopper Tipral through the door and into the next area. The door they came out of was in mid-air, and it made them land near another door to the left. Dark purple Void Clubbas were sleeping, but their eyes were slightly opened. Also, there was a hill going up.

The Void Clubba got up as the two approached and tried to swing its spiked club at them. Thankfully, they had enough time to recoil and avoid the slow attack.

"At least these guys are slow," Chopper noted as he jumped over to the Void Clubba and covered it in yellow paint, causing it to become paralyzed and take damage from electricity. Tipral delivered a kick to its face, but even then, it still wasn't finished off.

"Great... These guys have a lot of HP." Tipral sighed. "No matter... These guys are slow."

Chopper finished off the Void Clubba by jumping on its head, and then they proceeded over to the hill ahead. There were some dark purple Spiny Tromps coming down their way. Fortunately, Chopper's flipping helped them get past them. The only problem was that there were a couple of holes on the hill that couldn't be seen in 2-D.

"Oh... Well this is nice..."

The holes weren't too easy to avoid, but the Spiny Tromps coming down were also a bit of a problem as well. At the top of the hill were two Darklings and a Dark Skello Bomber that were fighting each other. But when Chopper and Tipral arrived in the scene, they went after them instead. Unfortunately, it didn't take much for them to lose the fight against the two.

"Well, that takes care of that," Tipral stated as he walked over to the door. He was about to open it, but when he touched it, the door wiggled and fell on top of him. Chopper tried to get the door off, but it was too heavy for him.

"Why are there fake doors now?!" Chopper gaped.

When the door got back in position, Tipral was cringing in pain as Chopper helped him up. "A fake door... Then where could the real one be?"

Chopper decided to check in 3-D, but he didn't see any hidden passages around. "Well, there's certainly nothing around here."

"Then that means we have to look back down the hill," Tipral noted. "We were led into a dead end."

They made their way back to the previous door that they were by before and noticed another path. There were skinny platforms that they had to jump across to find another door sitting on a platform.

"This might be the door," Chopper smiled as he entered through, only to come out of the door they passed by. Tipral decided to go through to avoid having to make his way across the platforms.

"Hmph... Looks like both ways are not the way to go." Tipral stated while crossing his arms. "There has to be a way."

They looked back at the Void Spiny Tromps and noticed one was sparkling. An idea sparked in Chopper's head as he tossed a light ball at the Void Spiny Tromp. Surprisingly, it did damage. But when he hit the other Spiny Tromp near it, it didn't do any damage.

"Weird... The sparkling Spiny Tromp can take damage, while the others don't? You find that a bit strange, Tipral?"

"Hmmmmm... Maybe we might have found out where we can go..."

Tipral snapped his finger and hit the sparkling Spiny Tromp with Star Magic to destroy it. A rift portal was left behind, which gave the two an idea to go in. But once they entered it, they noticed something was weird.

They were floating in midair.

"Oh, geez!" Chopper cried. "What happened?!"

Not only that, but they were also moving to the right. It was almost like the half pipe, but this was in a 2-D perspective and almost like a 2-D shooter in a way.

"This must be some strange remains of other worlds here," Tipral deduced. "It's strange, but we have to go through it."

All they could do was forge onward and avoid a couple of bombs called Void Bombs, which, if struck, would leave off a massive explosion. They did their best to avoid the bombs and noticed enemies such as Dark Wizrims come in and try to swing its scythe wand at them.

Chopper dodged its scythe and hurled some light balls at it at a fast pace, while Tipral hurled shadow balls at it. Because of how fast they were throwing their projectiles, the Dark Wizrim didn't have a chance to attack them again. To Chopper, he felt like he could throw projectiles faster while in the air.

Obstacles such as rocks and Void Bombs were continuing to get in their way, so Tipral destroyed one with a Star Spear. Unfortunately, the explosion ended up catching them in it and sent them flying back. Tipral was left annoyed, but he decided to stay calm and avoid the bombs.

"I never would've expected to be an area like this here..." Chopper trailed, dodging a bomb by moving below it. "It's almost like Outer Space in a way... Except we're moving forward without trying to."

Another Dark Wizrim appeared in front of Chopper and tried to slice him, but he managed to get out of the way just in time. Its scythe barely touched his foot, making him left off guard for a moment. Tipral hurled a Star Spear at the Dark Wizrim and knocked it away, which gave Chopper the chance to hurl a couple of light balls and then cover it in white paint to leave it frozen.

He shattered it with a flaming kick and proceeded over to the rift that was up ahead. Tipral followed him through into a long area with a door up ahead. They were surprised to see nothing around.

Well, except for a Dark Skelloknight that was holding its sword near itself on the flat side, as if it were a statue, waiting for the enemy to approach.

"Huh... Well this doesn't seem too bad." Chopper smiled. "Just a Dark Skelloknight! We've seen these guys before, that's for sure!"

When they approached the Dark Skelloknight, it swung its sword back and readied its weapon while putting up its shield. "Halt! You will not be passing through this door!"

"And who's stopping us?"

"I am, you fool..."

"Well, if it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get," Tipral declared, cracking his knuckles. "It surprises me that a door leading into here was in the Comet of Darkness..."

"At first, I wasn't sure what it was, but many went in, and some never returned," the Dark Skelloknight explained. "But now that my enemies are here, I can finally accomplish the task I was given by Master Shadow Doom!"

The Dark Skelloknight charged at them with all its might, but it was surprisingly shot by a blast that pierced through its armor and hit its chest. The Dark Skelloknight recoiled and held its chest in pain as it looked up at the two.

"How did you...?"

"Hey, that wasn't me," Chopper answered with a shrug.

"I didn't pull that off either..." Tipral trailed. "I don't think we're the only ones here..."

Maginan and Dark Maginan Troopers began to fly down while firing at the Dark Skelloknight. Chopper ducked to prevent himself from getting hurt, while Tipral gawked at his firing soldiers.

"So, YOU people shot me..." the Dark Skelloknight cringed. "What kind of people are you?!"

"All we know is that you're part of Shade's army," a Dark Maginan said as it landed in front of the armored undead knight and aimed its blaster at its head. "And being minions of Tipral, we don't like that!"

"So you might as well surrender and die!" a Maginan suggested.

"Hmm hmm hmm... There's no way I'm going to surrender this easily!" the Dark Skelloknight used the strength it had to stand up and raise one of its gauntlets, as if it was trying to make Tipral's army stop.

"That undead knight's just raising its arm! Nothin' special!" another Dark Maginan scoffed. "Let's just destroy this guy, huh?"

Maginan Troopers were ready to fire, but they were hit by a dark magic attack coming from a Dark Wizrim that appeared beside the Dark Skelloknight. Several other minions such as Dark Skellos, Dark Wizards and Dark Skellofords appeared and began to fire their weapons.

In the end, it turned out to be a massive battle, and Chopper and Tipral could only watch.

"I can't believe we're seeing a massive battle!" Chopper gaped.

"Well this can give us time to get past them," Tipral stated while crossing his arms. "They're all too busy destroying each other, which gives us a chance to get past them easily!"

"But we might get hurt if we go past them!"

"And don't you remember about moving fast? It's not hard with that kind of speed!"

"Oh... Well, I guess we'll give it a try..." Chopper readied a Speed Dash and raced his way past both armies. Unfortunately, one Dark Maginan threw a grenade, and Chopper happened to be near it, which caused him to get sent flying over to the door with his Paint ability knocked away.

"Ack! Come on, not my Paint ability!"

Tipral had no problem getting through both armies. All he had to do was teleport past them, and he was already over by Chopper. The only thing they saw was a Save Block and no ? Block. However, in 3-D, Chopper discovered...an Ultra Shroom.

"What? Just an Ultra Shroom?! What a bummer..." Chopper split it into two to recover 50 HP, while Tipral did the same. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing...

"All right, let's get moving," Tipral suggested as he opened the door. Chopper followed him through, wonder what would lie ahead.

---

Through the door-

While the previous area where the battle took place was rather big, Chopper and Tipral entered an even bigger area. The size of the area could be compared to large areas Chopper had seen such as the top of the castle back by Lineland Road and the big area near the Shrine of the Sages.

"Whoa... This area is huge." Chopper gaped.

"Yes, it is admittedly big," Tipral agreed. "Though, I'm not so sure if this place is safe..."

The dark purple and black floor didn't feel any softer, which made Chopper ponder for a moment. When they took a step away from the door, it ended up disappearing, making Chopper's eyes widen.

"Oh, crud! The door's gone!"

"Then all we can go is move on," Tipral stated as he walked on ahead. "However, I don't see a door around here..."

Chopper decided to follow him, but he didn't have a chance to take enough steps when a loud, booming robotic voice roared through the large area.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

Tipral stopped and looked around carefully for the dark robotic voice. With the ground shaking violently, he was extra wary, but he didn't have to look around him when he noticed a large dragon-like creature rising from the ground.

It was a black robotic dragon resembling both Dracktail and Arctail with a dark purple underbelly and larger wings and claws. The side of its head had dark spikes, and even its antenna was covered in darkness. And because it was bigger than the two previous dragons, Chopper had no idea how to react.

"WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?! I DEMAND ANSWERS!" shouted the large dragon. "I AM VOIDTAIL, A CREATOR FROM THE TRIBE OF DARKNESS. I HAVE BEEN SLEEPING IN THIS DARKNESS FOR 1,500 YEARS, AND NOW YOU TWO COME HERE AND WAKE ME UP. YOU ARE FOOLISH TO WALK IN HERE."

"We're in your territory?" Tipral questioned. "Well guess what? We're not turning back. We can't even do that anyway because the door's shut."

"THEN YOU TWO ARE TRAPPED HERE. AND THOSE WHO ARE TRAPPED WILL DIE BY MY CLAWS."

"You're probably the third dragon I've seen on this adventure," Chopper noted. "To be honest, even if we fight, you're most likely going to lose."

"SO... YOU HAVE BESTED OTHERS LIKE ME?" Voidtail questioned.

"That's right."

"SO YOU BESTED MY TWO MECHANICAL SIBLINGS... THEN I SHALL PUNISH YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO THEM! AND I SHALL NOT MAKE THIS EASY FOR YOU!"

Voidtail let out a roar as it sunk into the ground, making Chopper's eyes widen a bit, while Tipral was left confused. "Chopper, what is this dragon thing doing?"

"It's getting ready to fly out..." Chopper trailed, getting in a fighting stance. "We better be ready!"

Tipral stepped back as Voidtail flew up into the air while shooting dark fire out of its mouth. They looked up and watched as small fireballs began to rain down from the sky. They took no time and dodged the fire that was raining at a very fast pace, especially since it came from a dragon.

Chopper even tried to get rid of some fireballs with his ice balls, but they didn't seem to be too effective, unfortunately. The only thing he caught was its unknown amount of HP and its Attack of 22.

"Hmph... Well, it's just going to fly away from us?" Tipral asked.

"No, not likely," Chopper shook his head before he saw Voidtail above them flying into the background. "It's flying into the background... I suggest we be careful now..."

When it turned around, it began to fly toward them while opening its mouth. It breathed more fire, which created a large wave of fire that the two barely escaped from. They also had to worry about getting charged at by the dragon as well, which wasn't as easy when it was moving rather fast.

"Not even Arctail did this..." Chopper frowned.

Voidtail then flew to the right and began to drop a couple of bombs on the ground near Chopper and Tipral. They quickly took off and tried to flee from the bombs until Voidtail flew off the borders of the large area.

"Where is he going?" Tipral asked as the dark dragon was out of their sights. "And how is he going to come over here?"

"He's going to...charge straight at us," Chopper gulped, seeing Voidtail charge their way while chomping the ground. "But I do believe I have a solution to this!"

Chopper flipped Tipral and himself into 3-D and stepped aside to allow Voidtail to pass them. With its back exposed, they jumped on the robotic dragon and hitched a ride up into the dark skies.

"So we're hitching a ride on this dragon's back? Very interesting..." Tipral mused. "So we're supposed to hit that antenna, huh?"

Chopper gave him a nod and prepared to fight against the black Voidles that appeared on Voidtail's back. They were shooting small, round dark projectiles out of their beak mouths, but the difference between the Arcles and the Voidles was that these shots were homing.

"Uh oh... Their shots are homing!" Chopper gaped, dodging one of the shots that went past him. Thankfully, they didn't turn around and follow him, which was a relief.

Tipral made his way over to Voidtail's head while knocking away a couple of Voidles with some Star Kicks. The first thing he did was hurl a shadow ball at Voidtail's antenna, but it didn't seem to have any effect.

"Great... That doesn't work." Tipral grunted.

"Maybe you shouldn't use any attack involving darkness," Chopper suggested, which made Tipral fire a Star Spear at Voidtail's antenna instead. The results were Voidtail screaming in pain from the attack.

"NO... NOT THERE!"

"It looks like someone can't handle an attack to the antenna!" Tipral said as he snapped his finger and hurt Voidtail with Star Magic. Voidtail howled out in pain again and decided to spin its entire body to shake them off.

"YOU SHALL FALL!"

Both Chopper and Tipral jumped at the right moment before they could end up falling. This allowed them to stay on Voidtail's back and deliver more attacks. Chopper even threw a rainbow and light ball to make Voidtail scream again.

"I know I had to hit Dracktail three time to make it go in a loop, and for Arctail, it was ten..." Chopper pondered. "I wonder what it is for Voidtail?"

"That's not important. What's more important is destroying this thing!" Tipral prepared another Star Spear, but he got shot by one of the Voidle's projectile. Chopper also got hit by one, which made him throw a fireball to knock away a Voidle. Tipral, however, grabbed one Voidle and threw it at Voidtail's antenna. Chopper would've questioned how he did it, but he decided to go back to throwing light balls at Voidtail's antenna.

After ten hits, Voidtail couldn't take it anymore. "THE PAIN... YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!"

Voidtail began to perform a loop to get Chopper and Tipral off. Chopper, having experienced something like this, did his best not to fall off. When they couldn't get further on Voidtail's back, Chopper jumped off its tail and ended up landing on its antenna, which made it screech in pain. Tipral simply teleported over to Chopper.

"So this is all it's going to do?" Tipral wondered. "If so, that's a bit pathetic for a robotic dragon. Especially for one that is supposedly stronger than its brothers!"

Voidtail responded by turning its entire body upside down to make them fall. But the two were able to jump in time and land on its underbelly instead. Voidtail looked down at them in frustration.

"YOU TWO ARE VERY STUBBORN TO STAY ON," Voidtail commented before shooting a purple projectile out of its mouth. "BUT YOU CANNOT HOLD ON FOREVER."

Chopper tried to block the attack by throwing a light ball, but Voidtail's attack was bigger, so the light ball did nothing and ended up knocking Chopper back. Voidtail took this as an opportunity to turning its body again, so it did just that. But to its disappointment, Chopper and Tipral were still on.

Tipral grabbed a hold of Chopper and tossed him up to Voidtail's antenna. His light punch was enough to harm Voidtail, but Chopper also managed to deliver a couple of jumps to its antenna. Tipral teleported up as Chopper finished and stomped on its antenna with Star energy.

"ARRRRGH! I HAD ENOUGH!" Voidtail flew downward and started to go into the ground below. Since Chopper and Tipral couldn't hold on then, they jumped off and landed on the ground, wondering where Voidtail could remerge.

"This dragon isn't as strong as it said it was," Tipral scoffed. "Well, it'll be its own fault when it ends up meeting its demise."

They noticed the ground shake near them, which gave them the idea to jump back. They were barely able to escape getting harmed by Voidtail, who flew out of the ground while keeping an eye on them. They didn't know, but this robot had one trick up its sleeve.

Instead of flying into the background, Voidtail dove down at the two in an attempt to chomp them. Tipral grabbed Chopper and teleported out of harm's way, letting Voidtail dive back into the ground in the process. It soon rose out of the ground and flew to the right.

"I guess it plans on charging at us," Chopper said, getting ready to flip. "Be ready to get on its back!"

But instead of charging at them, Voidtail stopped and raised the upper part of its body so it could get a better look at the two. It opened its mouth and began to spit dark fireballs at them, which Chopper was able to counter with a couple of charged ice balls, which was more effective than normal ones.

"I don't think Voidtail's going to let us get on its back so easily," Tipral mentioned. "So we're going to have to improvise!"

Tipral snapped his fingers and used his Star Magic on Voidtail's nose. While it didn't do any harm, Voidtail let out a hiss and tried to gobble him up. Tipral teleported out of the way and let Voidtail's head get stuck in the ground.

"Oh! That's not bad at all!" Chopper smiled. "I like that idea!"

"Get on this thing's back quick before it gets its head out of the ground," demanded Tipral while he jumped onto its back. Chopper followed him and landed on Voidtail's back just in time when the robot pulled its head out of the ground. It looked around for the two, but it couldn't find them.

"YOU TWO ARE AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE," Voidtail said. "YOU ARE NOT VERY HEROIC IF YOU ARE HIDING FROM ME."

It flew up in the air and tried to scan for the two, but it realized where they were when it felt pain from its antenna. Voidtail turned its head and saw Tipral firing a Star Spear straight at its antenna. It certainly wasn't going to let itself get hurt so easily.

Voidtail used its claw and let it take the hit instead. It then opened its mouth and began to breathe dark flames upon Tipral and Chopper, leaving them with a nasty burn while getting hit by some of the Voidles.

"Grrgh... Are you asking me to push myself to a greater limit?!" Tipral hissed, clenching his fists in anger.

"Tipral, we're not going to get anywhere if we decide to yell at it," Chopper noted. "We need to just stay calm and take Voidtail down."

Tipral was hesitant at first, but he agreed and began to fire Star Spears at Voidtail's antenna, while Chopper hurled some light balls. Voidtail decided to fly in another loop to get them off, but Chopper and Tipral knew its strategy and managed to land on Voidtail's antenna together after jumping off its tail.

"YOU TWO REFUSE TO GET OFF MY BACK. NOW I WILL MAKE IT MORE DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO STAY ON!"

"Just try," Tipral scoffed as he and Chopper landed on its head. "You'll just try and try, but you're not going to get us off."

"THEN I WILL HAVE TO RESORT TO THIS," Voidtail turned its head and started shooting dark fireballs at the two while using its claws to swipe them off. Chopper ducked like a pancake under the claws, while Tipral put up an invisible box that protected them from the fire.

"Hmmmm... Maybe I have something I should also show you!" Tipral clenched his fists and swung them back. "Star Rain!"

Star energy shaped like small spears began to rain down from the sky and ended up hitting Voidtail's antenna a couple of times. Chopper ran up to Tipral, who threw him up to Voidtail's antenna and deliver a light kick. Voidtail screeched and began to spin its body around.

"That's your idea of trying to get us off? Please..." Tipral scoffed as he used his dark shoes to hover in midair, while Chopper grabbed a hold of Voidtail's antenna. The robot dragon tried to shake its head violently to get Chopper off, but it wasn't doing that good of a job.

"Uuuwaahhh!" Chopper cried, being left dazed when Voidtail ended up giving up. But since they attacked its antenna about forty times, Chopper realized that they needed to throw ten more attacks to take it down.

And since he was holding on to the antenna, he could probably take it down easily!

But before he could attack, he saw a Voidle flying his way, causing him to get knocked off Voidtail's antenna and land on the dragon's nose. But Voidtail was too busy screaming in pain to deal with Chopper.

"This should finish you off," Tipral declared, snapping his fingers a couple of times and letting multiple Star Magic attacks hit Voidtail's antenna nine more times. Chopper expected it to be defeated, but it didn't appear to be.

"Oh... I guess it's not finished..." Chopper gulped, suddenly getting shaken off by Voidtail. Tipral tried to get to him, but Voidtail spun its body around and made him fall to the ground.

Chopper ended up landing on the ground face first, while Tipral was able to land on his two feet. Voidtail even flew down and stopped near them so it could raise its head and ready itself to attack. It started off by opening its mouth and charging up a fireball, which gave Chopper an idea of his own.

"Maybe this could work," Chopper said as he charged up an ice ball.

"Chopper, it's probably not going to do much harm," Tipral noted. "That's dark fire, and it's much different than normal fire."

"My ice attacks did something to the other fireballs, though."

"That's because they weren't massive like this one."

"Hmmmm... Then I have an idea!" Chopper charged up a light ball and combined it with the ice ball. With them combined, he fired them at Voidtail's mouth. With ice and light combined, Voidtail couldn't take the attack, and its charged up fireball was gone as well. It also did damage to its systems as well.

"BZZZZZZZZZRT!"

"Ha HA! That worked!" With Voidtail's head crashed onto the ground, they took this chance to jump on its head again and deliver pain to its antenna. Tipral started hurling Star Spears, while Chopper was hurling his elemental hand attack. They even worked together by combining a light ball and shadow ball and threw it at Voidtail's antenna for their tenth hit.

From those hits, Voidtail quickly raised its head and tried to shake it to knock the two off, but it wasn't doing such a good job at it. It's claws, however, were able to at least get a good hit on both of them.

"IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT ELSE I CAN DO, THEN WATCH THIS!" Voidtail's tail struck the Voidles on its back and made them surrounded in electricity. Chopper accidentally touched one and got a bad shock.

"Ouch... Well, we're not hitting them physically." Chopper started hurling fireballs at the Voidles while Voidtail flew up. This time, it decided to fly upside down so it could make the two fall. The Voidles didn't even fall and were stuck on Voidtail's back as if they were magnets.

But Tipral wasn't going to let himself fall so easily. He grabbed a hold of Voidtail's back and tried to keep a hold of it. He saw Chopper fall, so he grabbed a hold of his arm and tried to pull him up. However, it was not exactly easy either.

"Oh, geez... I can't believe what we're in right now!" Chopper sweat dropped. "Are you going to be able to get closer, Tipral?"

"Not likely," Tipral grunted. "I'm holding onto you, while I'm holding onto Voidtail. How is it possible for me to move?!"

Chopper pondered for a second until he turned to the Voidles. Some were firing projectiles at them, so he started throwing light balls to get rid of them. He then turned back to Voidtail's antenna and started hurling light balls with his free hand. It seemed to be doing the trick.

"YOU TWO ARE STILL ON?!" roared Voidtail.

Chopper fired one last light ball at Voidtail's antenna, causing it to fly right-side up again. Chopper and Tipral were back on their feet, and they were ready to finish this fight once and for all.

The antennae boy started off by grabbing Tipral's arms, and then he started to swing him around, which knocked away the Voidles that were approaching them. He released Tipral, who struck Voidtail's antenna about six times. Once he landed, Chopper fired a light and rainbow ball at its antenna. At this point, sparks were flying around Voidtail.

"AAARGHHH... SYSTEMS...MALFUNCTIONING!

"This is the end for you, Voidtail," Tipral declared, clenching his fists, which were surrounded in Star energy. "Star Rain!"

Tipral Star Rain rained down upon Voidtail, and its antenna was struck multiple times, which was enough to defeat the dragon.

"AAAAARGH! I'M FINISHED!" Voidtail cried. "I DON'T BELIEVE IT. HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO BEST ME? WHO ARE YOU TWO?"

"I'm Tipral, a deadly creation," Tipral answered.

"And I'm Chopper of Clara, and I'm also the hero of the Light Prognosticus!"

"SO YOU TWO ARE NOT JUST ORDINARY PEOPLE... VERY WELL... I ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR ABILITY. I WILL LET YOU MOVE ON FROM HERE. BUT BE WARNED. I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO WAS CREATED BY THOSE ANCIENTS! THERE IS ANOTHER. ONE WHO IS MUCH STRONGER THAN ME AND WITH MORE ABILITIES. YOU BEST BE WARNED."

"Wait... Who is this other being created by the ancients?!" exclaimed Chopper.

"THAT YOU WILL FIND OUT YOURSELF. FOR NOW, I WILL TELL YOU NO MORE."

Voidtail let out a scream as its back began to explode and reveal it dark, bony spiny from underneath. Chopper wasn't so surprised. He already saw the previous two dragons with a bony spine. It also split apart and fell from the sky.

"Let's not waste any time," Tipral suggested. "We should get off."

Chopper nodded and jumped off Voidtail's head with Tipral before its head could explode. Once they landed on the ground, they happened to see a Voidle fall in the background, which was another reminder of the other two dragons.

Up ahead, a door was drawn and colored purple and black, which gave them the idea that Voidtail made the door appear before its death. The two approached the door and noticed some remains of Voidtail fall behind them.

"Let's hope that'll be the last we ever have to run into another one of those guys..." Chopper hoped. "That was the third one I faced!"

"I highly doubt we'll run into more of those," Tipral said. "Anyway, we should move on."

"Hold on... What do you think Voidtail was saying when he spoke about another being created by the ancients? That sounds kind of dangerous..."

"I wouldn't worry about it."

They opened the door and found themselves on a small platform with a ? Block next to them. Chopper struck it and found the Parasol ability. He gained the ability and looked below the platform. There were apparently some Void Waddle Doos floating downward with their own parasols. Also, there were a couple of Void Bombs around too.

"Oh, geez... This looks dangerous..." Chopper gulped. "But I guess I can descend slowly..."

He jumped off the platform and used his parasol to slowly float downward while avoiding some of the Void Bombs. Tipral decided to descend on his own by using his dark shoes, which helped him float down slowly.

"Wow, you seriously have a lot of things similar to me," Chopper gaped. "I guess because we look kinda similar."

"Yes, I will agree with you there," Tipral replied. "You should be aware of your surroundings. Me talking to you might keep you off guard."

Chopper realized this when he found himself near a Void Bomb. He quickly moved out of the way, while Tipral was about to throw a Star Spear at it. However, realizing from last time that the radius of the explosion was big, he decided against it. But he did use his Star powers against the Waddle Doo so they weren't in his way.

They weren't too far from the ground, but the last obstacle in their way were Void Bombs lined up horizontally. They seemed to slowly move as well, and there was only one opening to go through. Chopper managed to descend through the opening, but when Tipral went down, he was a little too close to a bomb, which made them all explode and made him drop to the ground in pain.

Chopper almost got caught in the explosion, but he was able to softly land right by Tipral, who grunted in pain. There was a Void Sir Kibble up ahead that threw its cutter blade their way, but Chopper put up his parasol and blocked the attack before swinging it at the enemy. Tipral got up and finished it off with his Star Magic.

There was a door up ahead, so they took no time and headed through into a flat area with two Dark Skellos that spotted them. The first thing they did was charge their way, but when Chopper jumped on one of them, he ended up phasing through it.

"Huh?! Why did I phase through that enemy?" Chopper gawked.

The Dark Skellos changed at Tipral and ended up going through him. He noticed them slightly flashing when he turned his head to them. "Looks like those aren't real. The Void might be trying to play tricks with us."

"But they look so similar!"

"Then if you don't see them slightly flashing, then that means they aren't real. Try to keep that in mind."

Chopper gave him a nod and scurried on ahead to find a Void Cursya blocking their way. Having dealt with them before, Chopper knew not to make any physical attacks and hurled a light ball to defeat it. Just one hit defeated it. Way too easy!

He smiled as he delivered a punch to a Darkling while his fist was surrounded in light power. Sure, his punches weren't exactly the strongest, but with light power against Darklings like that, it was easily destroyed. He hurled a light ball at another Darkling ahead, but it only phased through it.

"Drat... That wasn't real..."

Chopper prepared to run on ahead, but he noticed something else was strange. There was a small portion of the ground that was flashing too. This gave him the idea that he would simply fall through the ground. He jumped over it, while Tipral performed a teleporting dash in midair to pass it.

The area wasn't too long, but they happened to find a door up ahead that was flashing, so when Tipral tried to open it, his hand phased through the door.

"Hmph... So the door's aren't real either..." Tipral trailed. "Hmmmmm... Then let's try this wall here."

Chopper approached the wall and flipped him and Tipral into 3-D. They saw the left corner flashing. "OK, that was way too easy! Do they really expect us to think that these puzzles are hard?"

The two went through the flashy part of the wall and came across a small area with a flat floor, but when they went into 2-D, the floor was covered in spikes for the exception of a platform a door was on. Unfortunately, that door was flashing as well.

"OK, I guess I stand corrected..."

"Hmmmmm..." Tipral turned around. "I suggest we go through that flashy floor. Maybe we might find something there."

They left the small area and went over to the flashy section of the floor in the larger area. When they fell through, Chopper slowly floated down to a dark crystal that happened to be there. Once he landed, he tossed a light ball at the dark crystal and felt the area shake around them. Whatever was happening, it was occurring somewhere else.

Thankfully, a spring was there to help them, so they used it to launch themselves out of the pit and back on normal ground. They noticed the door up ahead was no longer flashing.

"So that dark crystal made that solid..." Chopper trailed. "Well that was interesting!"

"Let's move on," suggested Tipral while he headed through the door with Chopper. When they entered the next area, they noticed how small it was. There was barely anything in it! Well, except for another torn rift.

"Another torn rift? Man, we're seeing a lot of these!" Chopper gaped as he approached the rift. He and Tipral jumped in, only to find themselves in the same area. Everything around them was completely black, but they were outlined white, while the floor was outlined white too. The area was much longer than before.

"I... I look kind of like you!"

"That rift changed how this area looks. We both look rather similar in a way..." Tipral trailed.

They noticed two Darklings ahead were similar to them as well, but their eyes and their bulb were white along with their outline. They flew after them, but Chopper and Tipral sprang into action and jumped on their heads to take them down.

Chopper tried to flip into 3-D, but when he threw his arms up, he didn't feel himself entering the third dimension. "Huh?! I can't flip in 3-D here!"

"Really? That's odd..." Tipral trailed. "Well, we can't do much around here except for moving on."

They didn't seem to find much around, but they approached a platform and got on it. It slowly ascended upward while there were Void Bats flying around and trying to swoop down and attack. Tipral used his Star Rain to get rid of them and waited until a platform to the right appeared for them to jump on.

Once on the platform, they noticed some some Void Bats flying above them and dropping bombs on them. Thankfully, Chopper's parasol was able to defend them against the bombardment of bombs being flung at them.

"Thank goodness for this parasol..." Chopper sighed.

The platform carried them over to a platform that formed stairs as soon as they stepped on it and made their way up to find a hill going down. They decided not to ask questions and quickly went down, which helped increase their speed. One section of the downward hill stood out, though. It had a light glow to it, which was something no one would expect from a dark world such as The Void.

"Whoa... Look at that!" Chopper gaped as he ran on the light part of the hill. No longer was he black with white outlines, but back to his normal color. "Whoa! This is really weird!"

Tipral skated past it and was normal like Chopper was, but as soon as they passed it, they were back to the previous appearance. "That was strange... Hmmmm... I guess we might find more of these around here."

When they reached the bottom of the hill, there was still no slowing down. They ran past through a couple of speed boosters that increased their speed even more and led them up a curved wall that was glowing as well. Chopper was actually very delighted to be going up a glowing wall for a change considering that bad stuff that happened in The Void.

"I can't believe there's actual LIGHT in The Void!" Chopper gaped. "This is so…unique!"

Above them was a glowing light ring they happened to go through, which launched them up in the air and made them land on a glowing cloud. However, when their feet were not on the cloud, the previous appearance was shown. Nevertheless, Chopper hit the ? Block above him and found a Death Shroom, which went off the cloud and over to a spike pit below to the right. And past that pit was another pit, but there were no spikes located there.

"So the Death Shroom isn't affected by spikes…" Tipral trailed. "Well we can take care of it when we go down that pit."

"At least the parasol'll help me," Chopper sighed as he jumped off and began to slowly float past the spike pit and over to the other pit. Tipral performed his teleporting dash and then slowly descended with his dark shoes. Chopper landed first, but the Death Shroom bit him, which took away half of his HP.

"Ack! You've gotta be kidding me!"

Tipral knocked it away and used his Star Spear to destroy it. "You should be careful when there's a Death Shroom around…"

"Ugh… Yeah." Chopper grumbled. "Well, at least the door's here."

They headed through the door and went into the next area to find a white ! Switch in front of them. Chopper gave it a good kick, which made the ground around them shake. They noticed a path open up ahead, but it was covered in dark mist. When Chopper approached it, he couldn't go through because of how painful it was, but Tipral was able to walk through it with ease.

"Hmmmm… Well, this doesn't seem to be affecting me." Tipral noticed as he walked over to a white ! Switch floating above him. With a simple strike, the dark mist near Chopper disappeared, allowing him to get to Tipral. There wasn't much up ahead except for a small portion of the ground having a glow. They stepped on it so Chopper could use his flipping powers to go into 3-D.

He happened to notice a path over to the left corner in 3-D that was not glowing. When Chopper stepped off the glowing section, he noticed a glow around him which was slowly beginning to fade away. The two quickly went over to the path before the glow could fade away. When it did, though, Chopper and Tipral were thrown back into 2-D and were in a long, but small tunnel.

The only thing they had to worry about were the Void Koopa Strikers that were kicking shells around. Tipral kicked one back and hit one of the Koopas, but it did very little damage, so he jumped on one's head to make it retreat back into its shell. He kicked it and knocked it toward two other Void Koopa Strikers in the way. Despite not being defeated, both Void Koopa Strikers kicked some shells their way.

"I've got this!" Chopper declared, using his parasol like a bat and swinging the shells back at the Void Koopa Strikers. Tipral jumped on one of the shells and delivered a Star Punch to one of the Void Koopa Strikers to send it flying to the end of the tunnel. There was a small portion of the background taped up, but when one of the enemies crashed, the tape fell off and a torn rift opened up.

"Another rift? Let's check it out." suggested Tipral, who dashed over to the rift while Chopper followed from behind. They ignored the Void Koopa Strikers and jumped in, despite them going after them. Everything was no longer black around them, and they were also back to normal.

"Whew… That sure was something." Chopper sighed. "Anyway, I don't see much around here except for another long road."

They heard two others jump out of the rift, and when they turned, they saw the two Void Koopa Strikers land and prepare to charge at them. They simply jumped and let them run on ahead.

That is, until something grabbed a hold of them and began to suck the life force out of them. Chopper was left in shock, but Tipral was still left with the angry expression on his face.

"Isn't that…a Metroid?!" Chopper gawked. "What are they doing here?!"

It wasn't just a Metroid, but a black Metroid called a Metroid X. As soon as it finished sucking the life force out of the two Void Koopa Strikers, it recovered some HP and even grew a bit bigger in size. It squeaked when it saw Chopper and Tipral and began to fly toward them. Tipral tried to hit it with a Star Spear, but it hardly did any damage.

"Hold on a second…" Chopper charged up an ice ball after jumping over the Metroid X and hurled it at the alien. It was instantly frozen, which allowed him to perform his spinning kick, which was enough to shatter the alien and destroy it for good. "Ah! Now I remember!"

"What?" Tipral questioned.

"Metroids can't stand ice! I guess my ice powers might come to use here!"

"Then you should be wary of any of those things. It doesn't seem like normal attacks are going to hurt those aliens."

Up ahead, they noticed two doors they could go through. A platform with a small staircase led up to the upper door, while there was a lower staircase that went down the lower section. Most of the time, they would choose the upper path, but they decided to take the lower one instead. That ended up leading them to a pit with a ladder beside them on the platform they were standing on. There were two Metroid Xs flying around in midair too.

Chopper decided to slowly descend down while throwing ice balls at the Metroid Xs. Tipral followed him and punched the frozen Metroid Xs to shatter them and reach the bottom of the area. The only thing they found was a small block lying on the ground. When Chopper picked it up, he cringed in pain when he felt something shoot up into his hands.

"Unnngghhh! What's going on?!" Chopper exclaimed while staring at his hands. He noticed a dark glow around his hands and also saw a slight image of a dark version of him in front of him letting out a cackle before fading away. He threw his hands forward, and a dark blast of energy was fired forward and ripped through the wall ahead. The dark glow around his hands faded away.

"That…was weird… It felt like that dark box thing had some strange dark power in it that seemed a bit temporary. But it was so painful…"

"Let me try it," Tipral picked up the box and felt dark energy drive into him. Unlike Chopper, it didn't feel painful to him, and his hands were surrounded in a dark glow as well.

When a Metroid X flew at him from behind, he swung his fist back and struck the Metroid X. This time, he was using the dark power, and that was certainly enough to take down the Metroid X.

"So… It looks like I was given a little something to help me! Not bad!" Tipral walked over to the ripped wall and noticed something. There happened to be a Void Key lying on the ground. Tipral scooped it up and put it away. "Let's check the other door."

"All right," Chopper nodded.

---

Previous area-

When they walked out of the door, they noticed a Void Creature that spotted them firing at them. Tipral ended up firing a blast of dark energy at the Void Creature and taking it down with ease. There was also a Void Vironoid, but a Metroid X ended up getting to it first and sucking the life force out of it. Tipral jumped up to the Metroid X and used a dark kick to easily defeat it.

"It looks like that new dark power is coming in handy!" Tipral noticed. "And now I have no problem taking down these aliens."

"Metroids," Chopper corrected.

Tipral jumped over to the upper path and made his way over to the door. Surprisingly, the door wasn't locked, so the two headed through into an area with a couple of broken tanks on the ground. For some reason, the area they were in was almost like a destroyed facility, but all that was left were broken tanks and even some Metroid Xs that were lurking around.

"More Metroids..." Chopper gulped. "You certainly DON'T want these guys to even touch you! I heard they can suck the life out of you!"

A Metroid X perked up and spotted Chopper. It charged at him, which he countered by bringing his parasol in the way. The Metroid X simply snatched it and ate it as if it was a life force. Chopper took this opportunity to freeze it with an ice ball and jump on it to shatter it.

"With all these Metroids around here, it makes me feel like Samus's world was destroyed by The Void..." Chopper realized. "I've never met her personally, but it would've been really cool to see her."

Tipral fired dark energy at two Metroid Xs to wipe them out and noticed some remains of enemies they've seen before around. There were Void Koopatrols with their life force completely drained, as well as some Dark Skellos. They were practically lifeless!

"Wow... I don't know what was with those Metroids..." Chopper gaped. "Look at what they did with these enemies!"

Tipral decided to take a good look at them for a minute. They didn't seem like that was the only thing that happened to them. In fact, some Dark Skellos were missing a few arms and legs, and their spears were split in half.

"Hmmmmmm... It seems like those Metroids weren't the only things that were here." Tipral pondered. "I don't think those Metroids could literally tear up those Skellos and destroy most of a Koopatrol's armor."

Chopper took a look himself, and a sudden feeling of horror was in his eyes. Could there have been something much more dangerous lurking around? It may not be the size of Voidtail, but it could be something more dangerous...

Nevertheless, they progressed ahead and saw a long pit of dark toxic substance. Tipral simply used his dark shoes to make his way across while taking Chopper across. They were met with a Dark Skelloknight by a locked door that had its shield smashed and its sword sliced in half. Even most of its armor was torn up!

"Unnghh..." the Dark Skelloknight spotted Chopper and Tipral and tried to stand up. "Y-You..."

Tipral was ready to finish the Dark Skelloknight, but Chopper stood in front of him. "No, Tipral! I think this...whatever he is has suffered enough."

"This Skelloknight is going to attack, so we have the right to attack," Tipral retorted. "So get out of the way!"

"There is no use," the Dark Skelloknight said while limping. "My sword is ruined, and there's not much I can do. But have you seen the monster?"

"What monster?" Chopper asked.

"It is something unlike anything I've seen. It's been wandering around this area with those strange alien creatures, but instead of sucking the life out of things, it just tore them apart! It was even strong enough to break through my armor and destroy my sword. That's how deadly the monster is."

"Well, we can't do much, so we should be going," Tipral said as he took out the Void Key. "There's no point in helping."

"Tipral, this guy may not be on our side, but is it right to just leave it here to die?" Chopper wondered.

"No, leave me here," the Dark Skelloknight suggested. "I'm already in pain, and it's better that you go on ahead. Truth be told, I kind of want to return to The Underwhere. I can finally rest in peace there. And I certainly don't want to waste your time, considering that you're doing something yourself."

Chopper stared at him with a surprised look for a couple of seconds. "Wow... A lot of enemies we've faced have simply attacked us, but you... You're actually not too bad."

"Thank you... Now please go. And if you see that monster, don't hold back. That tail of his, however, is the most dangerous part of him."

Chopper nodded before he followed Tipral through the door. All the Dark Skelloknight could do was lie back down and slowly close its eyes, hoping to return to The Underwhere very soon.

---

Next area-

When Chopper and Tipral walked out of the door, they came across some spikes in front of them that stretched out through most of the area. There were also Dark Skello Bombers flying around and throwing their heads down. Chopper hurled a light ball to defeat one with ease. With them out of the way, Chopper and Tipral looked at the spikes carefully.

"Hmmmm… Maybe there might be a secret here?" Chopper wondered. "That might be a possibility…"

He flipped Tipral and himself into 3-D to discover a secret path among the spikes. However, it was small, so they had to be careful. It didn't help that some Dark Skello Bombers up ahead could also go into 3-D. What a bummer.

Nevertheless, they got past through the path by going up, to the right, up some more, etc. When they flipped back into 2-D past the spikes, they found some dark, toxic gas nearby, which Chopper was unable to get through. Tipral, on the other hand, was able to do it with ease with the help of his dark shoes. But he felt something in his way. He placed his hand on the invisible wall that he happened to feel.

"What's this? There's something strange here…" Tipral trailed.

Chopper wanted to see what it was, but he couldn't, so he went into 3-D to see what it was. "Oh! Tipral! I can see some kind of wall in the way! All you have to do is jump, since it doesn't completely block your way!"

Tipral listened to Chopper and jumped over the invisible wall and landed on solid dark ground. There was a door up ahead, and also two Dark Skellos and a Spiky Dark Skello over by the door snickering and cracking stupid jokes. Needless to say, Tipral was certainly not amused.

But there was something he noticed above him. There happened to be a light ! Switch when he looked up. Unsure of what it would do, he tossed a shadow ball at it, and suddenly Chopper was teleported over to Tipral.

"Whoa… Thanks for teleporting me here!" Chopper gaped. "Usually you're not able to teleport others from a distance like that!"

"That wasn't me…" Tipral trailed.

Chopper paused for a moment. "Wait… Then who did?"

"It doesn't matter anyway. What matters is that we get past those three enemies that are blocking the way."

When the three enemies heard them, they turned their heads and quickly got in their fighting stances, with the Dark Spiky Skello in front. "Well well well! What do we have here? Yer the people that Master Shadow Doom hates so much! It's so nice to see you two here!"

"Don't get too excited," Tipral replied. "Your leader is dead. He ended his game when he tried to end ours."

"Wait, what?!" one Dark Skello gaped. "Ya mean our leader's finished?!"

"Yes," Chopper nodded. "You might as well give up now."

"Wait, you except us to give up so easily?" the Dark Spiky Skello aimed its spear toward the two. "Well think again, punks! We'll show you no mercy!"

They charged at them, but they stopped for a moment when they fell over in pain when they felt like something pierced through them. Chopper and Tipral were left confused, but they noticed dark lightning strike down on the three enemies and turn them into a dark purple color. Their spears both had points on both ends as they got up and spun their weapons.

"So… This is how some of the enemies have become…that." Chopper gaped. "That's a bit surprising."

The Void Skellobits let out battle cries as they charged at them. Chopper tossed a couple of light balls at them, while Tipral snapped his finger a couple of times to hit them with Star Magic. However, Chopper ended up getting hit by one of their spears, and one even threw a spear at Tipral.

"Ugh… Things aren't looking too good here." Chopper gulped. "I mean, I lost half of my HP so far, and from this damage, I don't know how long I'm going to last!"

"Then use one of the Shroom Shakes to heal yourself," Tipral suggested. "Then you won't have to worry about a game over."

Chopper agreed, but they still had to worry about the Void Skellobits first. Tipral teleported to them and used his Star Burst to finish them off, and then they proceeded over to the door, with Chopper using an Ultra Shroom Shake to recover 50 HP.

"You know, I'm still wondering how I got teleported over here…"

"It's not important. Let's just go."

They finally entered through the door, but unfortunately, they did not happen to know that they were being watched on their way through.

"My my, it looks like my plan is going smoothly," a mysterious voice whispered. "Oh, that block was just a little present for you to keep going, Chopper. Ah ha ha ha. Once I set my eyes on them like a cat stalking its prey, I knew they would indeed be tough foes… I shall continue to follow them and see what they are capable of performing!"

---

Next area-

Chopper and Tipral walked out of the door onto a platform, but the only thing they saw was a glowing yellow platform near them. They simply jumped on it to create a couple of more glowing platforms that led upward.

"Well, looks like this is all there is here," Chopper shrugged.

"Then let's move on," suggested Tipral.

But when they went up the platforms, there were some Darklings that appeared and tried to attack. Chopper hurled some light balls and took care of them. But that wasn't the only thing occurring. Below the supposed bottomless pit was an actual ground, and there was certainly more going on down there than what they expected.

It was a battle between the Maginans and Shade's army.

"Get those missile rollin' Demolition Maginan!" a Dark Maginan shouted. "If we don't get any explosives in here, we're goin' to get screwed!"

"I'm on it!" the Demolition Maginan, which carried explosives and had a bandoleer with grenades, took out a missile launcher and fired at some Shadow Wizards, Dark Wizards and even Dark Wizrims. Many were sent flying, and even Skello body parts hit parts of the platforms Chopper and Tipral were on.

"Whoa... This is definitely not a safe area to be in!" Chopper gulped. "Why are they fighting?!"

"My minions don't like Shade's army," Tipral explained. "Since Dark hates Shade, it's only fair to allow our minions to fight them. Besides, I think they were getting in the way anyway."

"Medics! Quit your whinin' and go help those Maginans in need of assistance!" the Dark Maginan shouted again, making the medics go out and help the ones that were injured. Most of Shade's army could not handle the blasts and explosions the Maginans fired at them, but some of them were able to harm Tipral's army.

"Yeesh! That looks so intense!" Chopper gaped.

"Keep it down, Chopper!" Tipral shushed. "While they are fighting Shade's army, they're still after you!"

Chopper realized this and nodded to him before going up the platforms and to the top one. A door happened to be there, and two Void Skellobits were in the way, ready to charge at them. There was also one Metroid X that was floating around as well, so Tipral destroyed it easily with his dark power, while Chopper started hurling light balls at the Void Skellobits. Chopper even charged up a light ball and threw it at the enemies to take care of them.

With that out of the way, they carried on through the door into a small area with a couple of pillars around them. There wasn't a door to be seen, but there was certainly something else that was in the room. Four Dark Skelloknights were standing like statues with their swords pointing upward. Chopper's eyes widened in shock, while Tipral was left unfazed.

"Whoa... I don't think we fought four of them at once!" Chopper gaped.

"I think they'll each attack if we get closer to each of them, so as long as we fight only one at a time, things won't be as difficult," Tipral informed.

Chopper agreed and slowly began to approach the first Dark Skelloknight. It took notice of him and began to slowly make its way over to Chopper. However, the other three Dark Skelloknights noticed its companion going, so they followed it as well, which made Chopper left with a puzzled look.

"Ack! Now they're all after us!" Chopper shrieked.

"Don't get too cowardly, Chopper," Tipral snapped. "I think I have an idea to take them all down."

He summoned his Star Rain to destroy the four Dark Skelloknights' armor, leaving them completely vulnerable. But Tipral wasn't finished just yet. He clenched his fists and was surrounded in a purple glow. Even though the Dark Skelloknights were quicker without their armor, that left them open for any attack, especially a Star Blast coming from Tipral.

Chopper, knowing that the attack was dangerous, got on the floor away from Tipral and covered his head as Tipral unleashed his Star Blast upon the four Dark Skelloknights. It didn't destroy them completely, but they were left with very little HP. Chopper even got a little hurt by the blast radius.

"So they're not finished yet. Well, then I should just finish them off one by one." Tipral snapped his finger and let his Star Magic hit the four Dark Skelloknights and defeat them. Some ended up dropping Ultimate Shroom Shakes, but behind some of the pillars that were destroyed, there was a Max Shroom Shake and also a blue ! Switch. The switch ended up creating a door up ahead.

The only thing they were led into was a small area with a Save Block, a ? Block, and three abilities such as Mirror, Plasma, and Tornado. Chopper decided to go with Mirror, since it was an ability he never got to use in a while. The ? Block contained a Star Shroom, so they split it to recover 150 HP.

Another thing they noticed were a couple of dead Void Creatures on the ground that had their armor torn up from something. Chopper seemed a bit disturbed by this, and the thoughts of the dangerous monster returned to his head.

"Oh, geez... I don't like this one bit." Chopper shivered as he hit the Save Block.

"Don't worry too much," Tipral suggested. "If this monster appears, we can take it."

Chopper let out a sigh as they headed into the next area, which was rather large in size. It wasn't as big as the area where they fought Voidtail, but it was quite an interesting place, especially with the two panels that were in the center. One was black while the other was pale green.

"Panels... Let's go take a look at them." Chopper suggested, walking ahead and stepping on the pale green panel. Tipral stepped on the black one, and suddenly, the ground around them began to ascend upward into the sky. "What's going on here?!"

"Hmph... Well, looks like we're going to be heading up. Interesting..." Tipral commented as he looked down at the floor. The dark floor seemed to give off a reflection of his own face, which he could see very easily. Chopper even looked down at his reflection and decided to make a stupid-looking face. However, there was something else in his reflection as well.

Glowing purple eyes.

"Huh? What's that?" Chopper gawked as he looked up and heard a loud howl from above. A black dragon monster with spiky shoulders, a tail with a jagged edge and jagged wings was flying their direction. However, something seemed odd about this monster. It's almost if Chopper recognized it.

The monster swooped down after Chopper ducked and ended up missing his attack. When he turned to the two, he spread his wings out and let out another roar.

"Isn't that...Ridley?" Chopper gawked. "Last time I ever saw this guy, he was in Hell! But now... Now The Void's darkness has gotten into him... This could be dangerous..."

Ridley, now known as Ridley X, opened its mouth and fired a beam of dark energy their way. Chopper quickly conjured up a mirror and managed to reflect the attack back at Ridley X, which caused him to screech and plummet downward. That is, until he flew back up while in a bit of pain.

"If this monster wants a fight, then we'll give it one," Tipral declared. "This thing doesn't even look remotely scary!"

"Yeah, I suppose you're right..." Chopper agreed before turning to Ridley X. "OK, Ridley! Bring it on!"

Ridley X roared and flew over the platform. They noticed he had 580 HP, an Attack of 22 and a Defense of 12. With his long tail, he tried to jab at them, but Chopper and Tipral jumped back, but not far enough to fall off the platform. Tipral fired a Star Spear, but Ridley X dodged it with ease.

"He's a fast flyer, I'll admit," Tipral sighed. "But that won't guarantee victory!"

Ridley X flew slightly up and began to shoot dark fireballs down at them. Chopper put up some barriers, but they quickly shattered and hit the ground. Thankfully, the platform wasn't caught on fire, or else there would be a real problem. But that wasn't all Ridley X was going to do. He swooped down and attempted to grab one of them, but Chopper was able to use his Mirror Shards to hurt Ridley X instead and leave him off guard. This let Tipral deliver a Star Kick to Ridley X's chest, which seemed to be glowing a bit for some reason.

Chopper shot a light ball straight into Ridley X's chest, which made him let out a scream before slamming the platform and causing a shockwave. But since both Chopper and Tipral were on the ground, they were left stunned. Plus, the shockwave hit them as well to leave them off guard even more. This allowed Ridley X to swing his tail and knock them over.

"That thing's tail is pretty long," Chopper realized. "Much longer than I thought!"

Tipral got up first and fired two Star Spears at Ridley X. One struck his chest, while the other ended up hitting his tail, which was good enough. Tipral also teleported when Ridley X swooped down to grab him and then appeared behind him to strike his head with a Star Spear.

Chopper jumped up and watched Ridley X fly back and prepare to charge at them. He flipped into 3-D and move to the right so he wasn't in Ridley X's way. Chopper went back into 2-D as soon as Ridley X flew past the platform to plan his next move against the dragon-like monster.

"So… Have any ideas, Tipral?" Chopper asked.

"No. We just started this fight." Tipral hissed.

Ridley X slammed his whole body on the platform, which started to tilt to the left. Chopper felt himself sliding off, but he tried to stay on by attempting to run to the other side of the platform. While that happened, missiles were fired from Ridley X at Tipral, which sent him flying Chopper's way.

"Missiles? He can shoot missiles?!" Chopper gawked before putting up some barriers. They blocked the missiles, but the barriers were shattered in the process. That didn't stop him from firing some Mirror Shards at the monster, though. Tipral also added in his Star Magic to strike Ridley X twice before he could fly into the background.

The two were left surprised, but there was no time to be acting like that when Ridley X quickly flew their way and then upward as soon as he got close. When Chopper and Tipral looked up, they saw Ridley X flying down directly at them. Tipral responded with his Star Rain, which was enough to send the flying dragon monster crashing onto the platform.

Tipral also fired some dark energy straight into Ridley X's mouth. Since he was used to getting blasted in the mouth, it wasn't all that much of a big deal. He simply grabbed Tipral and slammed him onto the platform, while Chopper was whacking Ridley X with his wand to get him to release him.

Ridley X felt Chopper hitting him, which was doing very little damage to him, so he looked down at the small hero. Instead of grabbing him, he flicked his finger at him to knock him over. He then turned his attention back to Tipral and let out a roar. Tipral was left unfazed. But Ridley X didn't care. He opened his mouth and prepared to eat him, but Tipral's eyes flashed purple, which caused Ridley X to be get hit by his Star Spark, making him release Tipral.

"Your teeth don't scare me," Tipral scoffed, jumping up to the stunned Ridley X and delivering a Star Punch to his nose. He fell over on his back, and when he got up, his tail was stuck to the platform. He tried to get his tail out, but it didn't seem to work. And since he was too busy trying to pull his tail out, this left him open for a couple of more attacks.

Tipral clenched his fists and fired two Star Spears at Ridley X's chest. This brought his attention back to Tipral and it even made him lunge toward him. Tipral took one step back, which was too far for Ridley X to grab him when he tried to approach him. However, he was not all about brawn anyway. Unlike most monsters, he was quite the intelligent one.

He decided to turn his attention to who he believed to be the weaker one, Chopper. He was still knocked over, and getting a hold of him wouldn't be a bad idea. And he was even close enough for him to reach!

Ridley X grinned and approached the pale green gumball. Chopper slowly got up and saw Ridley X coming his way, making him jump up in surprise and use his Mirror ability to split himself into two clones. When the space dragon attacked one of them, his hands simply phased through the clone. The two Choppers soon became one as Chopper split himself into two, with one appearing on the other side of Ridley X. Chopper smirked as Ridley X slightly screeched before the clone disappeared. He stepped away from him afterward.

"Looks like someone's stuck!" Chopper smiled, noticing Ridley X's tail stuck to the platform. "We could just stay back here and use ranged attacks!"

Unfortunately, Ridley X was able to get his tail off the platform, which allowed him to lunge forward and attack. Tipral grabbed Chopper and teleported them behind the space dragon. Ridley X searched for them, but when he turned around, his tail ended up hitting both of them, which got his attention when he heard their grunts. He grinned as he grabbed both of them and flew up in the air.

Chopper struggled to get himself free from Ridley X's grasp, while Tipral did nothing and let the monster look at him in the eyes. His eyes flashed purple again as a Star Spark struck Ridley X and forced him to release him and Chopper, who landed back on the platform.

"Yeesh… I thought this Mirror ability would come in handy, but it doesn't seem to be doing much!" Chopper sighed. "I need some kind of other power to help me!"

Ridley X hovered down onto the platform and spread his wings out to summon a couple of enemies. A Metroid X, a Waddle Doo and a Knuckle Joe appeared. Chopper instantly removed his Mirror ability and inhaled the Knuckle Joe to gain the Fighter ability. Maybe this one would help him more!

"This should work much better with fighting," Chopper smirked, charging up an energy ball while Ridley X fired a couple of missiles their way. Tipral snapped his finger a couple of times and let his Star Magic destroy the missiles. Chopper finished charging up the energy ball and fired it straight at Ridley X's chest, causing him to let out an ear-piercing screech that made Chopper and Tipral cover their antennae.

"Aargh! This ugly monster is WAY too loud!" Tipral hissed.

"And that screech is WAY too painful for me to hear!" Chopper added.

Ridley X covered his chest in pain, but he decided to go back up into the air again. Obviously his strategy by being around the two wasn't working, and he needed a new one to win this battle. He flew away from Chopper and Tipral and then flew their way while dropping a couple of bombs on the platform. One blew up near Chopper and knocked him back a bit.

"Looks like he's deciding to fight while in the air," Tipral noticed. "We'll have to get him while he's open."

When Ridley X flew over the platform again and dropped a couple of more bombs, Tipral tried to fire a dark blast of energy his way, but because of the speed he was going, the attack missed. Tipral was a little annoyed, but he had a little idea of his own. It would surely work against someone like Ridley X!

Tipral waited for Ridley X to come back, and once he was near the platform, he used his Star powers and stopped time for a brief moment. Ridley X was over the platform with no defenses up, so Tipral used his Star Rain to pummel him down, and then he fired a Star Spear straight into his chest. Once he stopped time, Ridley X stopped and held his chest in pain for a moment.

Chopper seemed satisfied when he noticed Ridley X cringing and cheered. While they were distracted, Ridley X opened his eyes, grinned, and then he fired missiles their way. Chopper stopped and flipped into 3-D to dodge the missiles. When he went back into 2-D, he saw Ridley X opening his mouth and firing a small, dark beam onto the platform, which Tipral got hit by. He retaliated by firing a Star Spear, but that was easily dodged.

"I'll admit, for an ugly monster that uses a lot of power to fight, he is smart," Tipral commented.

"Yeah, he does know how to come up with a strategy…" Chopper agreed. "Does he even have control over himself? I know The Void can do some really bad things to some people. Then again, I bet Ridley would be the same whether he was this or not."

While Ridley X was ready to fire another beam, Chopper rushed up to him and used his Rising Break to strike Ridley X's jaw and sent him flying away from the platform due to how powerful the attack was. However, that didn't stop Ridley X from firing his beam attack, which came their way.

"Oh, geez!" Chopper jumped just in time to avoid the beam, while Tipral teleported above the beam to dodge it. Ridley X flew over the platform again and dropped a few bombs, with one being a Void Bomb.

"Chopper, whatever you do… Don't. Touch. The bomb." Tipral warned. "It'll stay there for a while, but maybe we can get that monster to touch it so it'll hurt him instead of us."

"I guess that's not a bad plan…" Chopper slowly nodded. "But we need to get Ridley on this platform."

They saw Ridley X flying their way over on the left side, but he changed things up by spinning his body around like a drill. He moved so he was moving across the platform to knock them off. But Chopper and Tipral outsmarted him and flipped into 3-D, which made Ridley X run into the Void Bomb instead. Let's just say he was left with some major injuries after that.

When the two were back in 2-D, they noticed the damage left on Ridley X. Parts of his body were scarred, with a purple glow coming from each scar. Since Ridley X was a little off guard, Chopper jumped and kicked, firing an energy wave straight at Ridley X. He didn't even have the time to react.

"Take that, Ridley!" Chopper taunted before landing on the platform. "Honestly, you're not as tough as I thought you'd be!"

"I concur," Tipral agreed. "Flying around isn't going to help you, you know."

Ridley X responded by landing on the platform and clawing at them. Tipral tried to block his attack, but it was too powerful and made him flinch. Chopper was able to get in a Vulcan Jab, but he stopped when Ridley X's tail jabbed near his foot. Despite this, Chopper was able to throw in a fireball and scorch the Space Pirate leader. This made Ridley X fly back up and take off once again.

"Hmmmmmm... Maybe if we burn his wings, he might be forced to stay on the ground and fight us." Chopper pondered. "And then we can deal some serious damage to him!"

"The only problem is that attacking him while he's moving in the air is difficult," Tipral noted. "I would have to freeze time if we were to burn his wings."

"Well, then we have no other choice."

Chopper's antennae twitched as he heard Ridley X roar again. He flew over them while dropping a couple of bombs down. Tipral create a box around the bombs so they would explode inside them. This actually gave Tipral an idea of his own.

"Hmmmmmm... This invisible box could actually come in handy." Tipral realized. "But it may be dangerous. I'm going to need your help here, Chopper."

"All right," Chopper nodded. "So what's that plan?"

Tipral explained the whole plan, and all Chopper could do was nod. "OK, I guess I'll try it out. Though, I don't know if I'm actually going to succeed in this task."

They saw Ridley X fly above the platform and come down while spinning his body. When he crashed onto the platform, the two were stunned for a brief moment, but Chopper sprang into action and jumped on Ridley X's head and then onto his back. He started to deliver fire punches and fireballs upon him to deal some massive damage to him, while Tipral prepared to create a box around him.

Unfortunately, things didn't work out when Ridley X flew back up and tried to shake Chopper off. But rather than continuing to shake, he actually tried to grab Chopper off his back. He had arms, so why not use them?

Chopper gasped and tried to avoid his claws. He knew he was an intelligent monster, but he didn't expect him to try to grab him off his back. Plus, he didn't want to be grabbed by something like Ridley X anyway, so he was forced to abandon his plan and jump on the alien and back onto the platform.

Tipral was certainly not pleased.

"Why did you get off him?!" Tipral exclaimed. "You were supposed to stay on!"

"I know, but he was actually trying to grab a hold of me," Chopper explained. "Trust me, this is not the generic monster that most people have seen or faced. Ridley is a smart and strategic fighter!"

"Then we have to outsmart him."

Chopper suddenly had an idea and waited for Ridley X to fly down. Once he did so, Chopper tried to distract him and kicked his nose with light energy. Ridley X responded by trying to grab him, but since he was smaller and faster than him, it was a bit difficult to do so.

When Tipral was given the cue, he trapped Ridley X in an invisible box, which he tried to break out of. Thankfully, Chopper wasn't in the box either, so this gave Tipral the opportunity to snap his finger and let an explosion commence inside the box. They could hear Ridley X screech in pain from each explosion, which was something both of them were not happy to see.

But when the box was gone, Ridley X was still standing, but still looking a bit battered up. Even his wings were a bit damaged, but it didn't stop him from trying to take off and throw a couple of bombs at them. Both ended up getting hit and were left a little exhausted as well. But they still had enough energy to fight back.

"His wings appear to be weak, so I think one attack should work," Tipral unleashed his Star Rain and let Ridley X get hit by the attack. His wings ended up burning, and he was forced to land on the ground. Even then, he wasn't going to let himself go so easily. Even on ground he was a force of nature.

"It's just you and us now," Chopper declared. "There's no flying anymore! Now we can finish this!"

Ridley X roared as he lunged toward them and tried to knock them off. Chopper threw his arms up and went into 3-D to go around him before flipping again. When Ridley X noticed his targets were gone, he turned his head slightly to see if they were behind. Chopper and Tipral (who teleported over by Chopper) didn't expect to get hit by his long tail when he turned his entire body to them.

"We better be careful of that tail now that he's on the ground," Tipral warned. "It could get in our way."

Ridley X grinned and used his tail to knock them near the edge of the platform. He knew they couldn't fly, so knocking them off wouldn't be much of a problem. He decided to lunge at them again, but Tipral struck him with a Star Spark and left him stunned. Since his chest was vulnerable, Chopper ran up to him and delivered a kick to his chest. It didn't send him flying back, but it surely did hurt him a lot.

"Better hit him in the chest," Chopper suggested as he jumped off the monster's chest and skid back across the platform. Ridley X roared at them and prepared to shoot a blast of energy out of his mouth. But Tipral forbid him from doing that and fired a Star Spear straight into his mouth to leave him stunned once again. Two Star Spears were fired at Ridley X's chest, but that only got him angrier.

To make himself stronger, Ridley X's eyes flashed, and he was suddenly growing in size. He didn't grow too much, but his size was like a quarter of the platform. And with him towering over the two, it certainly did make him look menacing, especially the roar he let out on them.

"So you grew in size. That's hardly threatening." Tipral scoffed. "You're still the same as ever."

Ridley X tried to claw at them, but Tipral jumped on his head, while Chopper ducked like a pancake and barely avoided Ridley X's claw. Tipral continuously snapped his finger and harmed Ridley X with Star Magic, which left him distracted for a moment. Chopper took this chance to charge up an energy ball and hurl it at Ridley X. Because of this, he summoned a Starman and Metroid X to attack. Tipral destroyed the enemies, while Chopper hit Ridley X's face with a light spinning kick.

"You should realize that bigger doesn't always mean better," Chopper noted, throwing in a punch at the space dragon's nose. "Plus, it makes you an easier target!"

Ridey X responded by trying to bite at him, which made Chopper recoil and land on the platform. Knowing that he was much bigger, that meant he was heavier as well, and why not use his weight to his advantage? With that, Ridley X decided to jump in the air rather than fly (since, you know, his wings were burnt), and then he came down and caused the platform to shake violently.

Because the two didn't see it coming, they were left a little stunned. Ridley X shot a beam at them and knocked them off the platform. Victory was now his. Bigger usually isn't better, but sometimes it is if you're someone like Ridley X.

He approached the side of the platform, but his grin suddenly faded when he saw Chopper grabbing a hold of the edge while holding onto Tipral, whose eyes were closed at the moment. Chopper's Fighter ability was also knocked out, so he was left with no ability now.

Ridley X could've just stepped on Chopper's hand to get him to fall, but he was a bit sadistic, and watching some people suffer was much more entertaining. His breath certainly caught Chopper's attention when he looked up and saw Ridley X looking down at him.

"Ummmmm… Hi?" Chopper sweat dropped.

Ridley X grinned in response, but all he got was a light ball to the face, causing him to screech and back away. Chopper, using the strength he had in him, threw Tipral up onto the platform and then pulled himself up. It was very difficult for him to do that, but in an emergency like that, he had to push himself to do something difficult.

Tipral was still a bit unconscious, so Ridley X decided to try to go after him. Chopper forbid this and stomped on his head with a rainbow jump. Ridley X let out a slight screech, but he swatted him away with his claw back by Tipral and then let out a roar before getting ready to use his tail against him.

"Eat this!" Chopper cried, charging up a light ball and firing it straight into Ridley X's mouth. He felt pain in his chest, which started to glow from the light ball. Chopper decided to use his spinning kick on his chest, which caused greater pain to the alien. This suddenly gave him an idea. He charged up another light ball while punching Ridley X's chest with fire energy.

Once Ridley X could get a hold of himself, he grabbed a hold of Chopper and tossed him up into the air. He could've just ate him if he wanted, but why not have a little fun? Using his tail, he smacked Chopper to the ground and left him a little exhausted. His face was left a little bruised when he got up, and he was slouching a bit.

Ridley X began to approach Chopper, while he threw a couple of fireballs at him. He didn't seem to stop moving from the fireballs, but they were surely hurting him. So instead, Chopper charged up an ice ball and threw it at Ridley X to leave him frozen for a brief moment. He used this time to drink a Max Shroom Shake to recover all of his HP, while he put the rest in Tipral's mouth so he could recover all of his HP too.

"Unnghh..." Tipral slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Chopper. "Did you just do that?"

"Well who else?" Chopper shrugged.

"Hmph..." Tipral huffed while he slowly got up. "I didn't expect you to do something like that for me, especially since I did a lot of bad things to you."

"Well, Tipral... You did kind of save me back at the Voidtail fight. You grabbed me when I was about to fall, and I thought I should actually return the favor. You even helped my friends and I through a lot, and I was actually surprised when you let me have the seventeenth Pure Heart. And if I didn't return the favor, I'd feel too guilty!"

"I see... Well, I guess I have no other choice but to thank you for what you've done for me."

Chopper couldn't help but smile. "I kind of wish you were more like this. You actually seem a bit like a friend now."

Tipral gave him a nod before they saw the frozen Ridley X shake and break out of its icy prison. "There's no time for conversations now. It looks like we better finish this fight up! I don't think he's got much left!"

Ridley X started off by trying to jab them with his tail, but they jumped in the air, with Tipral landing on his tail. He approached his head, forced his mouth open, and then he fired a Star Spear into his mouth, while Chopper landed a light kick onto Ridley X's chest. The alien screeched and grabbed a hold of Chopper and threw him at Tipral.

But that didn't change things that much. Tipral fired a Star Spear, but Ridley X lowered his head and let it go over him. He let out a short roar before lunging at them. Tipral grabbed Chopper's arm and teleported them behind the alien. Ridley X decided to use his tail to try to find them, but they knew what was coming and avoided his tail.

Chopper decided to eat one of his own fireballs to gain the Fire ability. When Ridley X whirled around, he prepared to fire a beam, but Chopper turned into a fireball and fired himself straight into Ridley X's mouth. He didn't go further into his body, but now Ridley X was coughing small bits of fire from his mouth. Tipral punched his chest with his Star Punch, making Ridley X gasp.

"Look at you! You were putting up more of a fight before, and now you're weak!" Tipral scoffed. "You're even less intimidating – not that I found you intimidating in the first place."

Chopper even turned into a fireball again and struck Ridley X in the chest. He tried grabbing the antennae boy, but the fire was a bit too painful for him, making him screech and move his claw away. When he got out of his fireball form, he breathed fire on Ridley X's face. Sadly, his ability wore off when he got smacked away by Ridley X's claws.

"Ugh... Great. Now my Fire ability's gone." Chopper sighed.

"It's no big deal. We've worn him out big time." Tipral explained. "I don't think he's got much left now."

Ridley X then remembered something. He could still knock them off the platform! But then there was the fact that the two had more strength in them now, so it didn't seem like that would work. The only option he had was firing missiles and using some of his physical attacks against them. But while he pondered, he felt something hit his chest and force him to let out a screech.

"Thinking for too long won't help you, you ugly monster," Tipral scoffed, kicking his face and leaving Ridley X exhausted. He would've done something else, but Ridley X hissed and grabbed Tipral and Chopper and held onto them tightly. He rose his head and shot a couple of fireballs so they would rain down on them.

Chopper struggled, but he couldn't get his arms out of the monster's grasps. They were too strong for him!

The fireballs rained down and struck the two. Ridley X didn't seem to get harmed by them for some reason, but every time Tipral got hit by a fireball, he was getting much angrier at the monster. Ridley X let out a small cackle until he look at Tipral, who was now surrounded in the usual glow.

"You're forcing me to throw in my deadliest attack, are you not?!" Tipral exclaimed, his eyes flashing and striking Ridley X with his Star Spark. He and Chopper landed on the ground after Ridley X lost his grip on them, but it didn't appear that Tipral was finished just yet.

Ridley X decided to think quickly and grab Tipral again, but Tipral was able to grab his arm and prevent him from grabbing him. He squeezed it harder, and it was starting to hurt Ridley X's arm in the process.

"We're finishing this fight my way," Tipral declared. "And you won't find it pretty!"

The space dragon's eyes widened as Tipral clenched his open fist. He knew that he wasn't going anywhere now, and that this fight was over.

"STAR BLAST!"

Chopper gulped as Tipral unleashed his Star Blast upon the entire platform. There was a blinding light that prevented Chopper from seeing what happened, but he was certainly getting sent flying off the platform, and that was not what he wanted.

But Ridley X had it worse. MUCH worse. His whole body was starting to incinerate from the attack. Pretty much everything from him incinerated and was gone. But was he gone for good? Maybe. Maybe not.

Once the flash was gone, Tipral was the only one left standing on the platform. He looked down at some of the ash that was left behind – most likely from Ridley X after he destroyed him. But his thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone crying out near the platform.

He approached the other side of the platform and saw Chopper hanging onto the edge.

"Oh, geez…" Chopper gulped. "I don't know what's gonna happen now…"

He felt grab a hold of his hand and pull him up. Once he got on the platform, he saw that Ridley X was gone. "Oh… So I guess Ridley's gone for now. Though I don't believe that will ever be the end of him."

Chopper looked back at Tipral. "Well thanks for helping me up. I was a little worried that your attack would end up knocking me off the platform."

"Be lucky that you survived," Tipral replied. "And there was no way I was going to let your game end. I need you."

"Need me? Why?"

"Because that's the only way we'll get through this darkness. You have light power, while I have dark. Both of those would be needed if we were to progress through this place. Also, if you weren't here, I don't know if I would've stood a chance against that ugly monster."

"I guess I understand what you mean," Chopper nodded. "I don't think I could go through here on my own, and I'm actually very thankful you're here to help, even if we were enemies."

Tipral gave him a nod before they felt the platform slowly move to the left. "Hmph… Well, looks like the platform's finally moving again. I guess defeating that ugly monster helped fix that problem."

There was actually a ledge up ahead that led over to a door. When the platform stopped in front of the ledge, Chopper and Tipral got off the platform and walked over to the door. Relieved to no longer be in a fight, Chopper opened the door into the next area.

Upon walking into the next area, they noticed some platforms leading down to a larger platform below, and then there were more platforms moving down from the left to another large platform, etc. However, there were a couple of Shadow Wizards lurking around, especially two that were on one of the platforms. They've only fought these guys in Shade's Castle, but now they're up against them again.

Then again, they're not as tough, since a lot of enemies have stronger attack power than them.

Chopper and Tipral got in their fighting stances and dodged the magic the Shadow Wizards fired at them from their wands. Chopper jumped on the first Shadow Wizard on the first platform, while Tipral got the other wizard on the second platform. They didn't even have a chance to hit them when Chopper and Tipral jumped on their heads. One even dropped a Master Shroom Shake, so lucky for them.

"This should be useful," Chopper smiled as he picked up the item and put it away. "OK, let's see what lies below us."

They headed down the two smaller platforms and onto the larger platform. Tipral suggested that they jumped down from here, but when Chopper looked down from the right, all he saw was a bottomless pit. However, there was a secret path in 3-D that they found that led them to a secret door only seen in 3-D. It brought them into a small area with abilities such as Tornado and Suplex. Chopper chose to take Suplex and then threw himself at the Darkling to give it quite a beating.

Once they were done there, they left the secret area and went back to the large platform. There was a Shadow Wizard waiting down at the second large platform to the left after they jumped down a couple of platforms.

"So nice to see Master Shadow Doom's enemies here!" the Shadow Wizard hissed. "I shall make him proud and destroy you myself!"

Not wanting to repeat what he said to other minions of Shade, Tipral jumped and fired a Star Spear down at the Shadow Wizard. Chopper followed up by grabbing the wizard and slamming it on the platform after a large leap. With that out of the way, they went down to the last large platform before reaching the bottom, and a Dark Wizrim happened to be waiting for them on that platform.

But they also heard something below them on the bottom ground. It sounded a lot like Bullet Bills being fired…

"Oh, great… I don't like the sound of that." Chopper sighed. "Just what I wanted to hear around here…"

There was no time for complaining when the Dark Wizrim tried to hit them by swinging its scythe. Chopper ducked under it, while Tipral teleported above its head and fired a dark blast at the enemy. The dark attack seemed to do a lot of damage, so Chopper added a light ball to the mix. To their surprise, the Dark Wizrim didn't seem to stand a chance.

"Wow! Usually these guys would take a while to defeat!" Chopper gaped. "And now they're like pushovers!"

"Yes, I guess you're right there," Tipral said, jumping down onto the ground. They found a long pathway ahead, but there was also a large gap that led over to a door ahead. A dark purple blaster called a V. Bill Blaster was firing Void Bills their way. But hey, it's not much of a bad thing now, since they don't have to get into RPG fights with them!

Chopper grabbed the first Void Bill approached them and threw it onto the ground to let it bounce off the ground. It crashed into another Void Bill that knocked both of them away.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to do that again with the large gap between them and the door ahead. The V. Bill Blasters were still firing Void Bills their way, but there didn't appear to be anything hidden in the gap. It was just another bottomless pit.

After ducking under another Void Bill, Chopper pondered over what they should do. Tipral could probably use his teleporting dash to get over the pit, but what would he do? Sometimes help is necessary, but there are times where one has to do the job on one's own.

"I'll just teleport you across this gap," Tipral suggested.

"No, I might have a better idea," Chopper declared, now finished thinking. "Maybe this idea might work for me!"

When a couple of Void Bills were fired, Chopper bounced off each Void Bill and landed right by the door and in front of the V. Bill Blasters. He would've used a hammer to take down the blasters, but all he could do was jump on them and even land a couple of kicks. Tipral eventually teleported over to him and finished off the V. Bill Blasters.

"An interesting move you pulled off…" Tipral commented. "Now let's progress onward."

Chopper opened the door into an area with a loop nearby. It was actually a very small area, which didn't bother Chopper in the slightest when he charged up a Speed Dash and went through the loop and down to a lower section. There, he found a door in front of him.

"Hey, Tipral! I found the door!" Chopper called out.

Hearing that, Tipral went through the loop and landed near Chopper. "So you have… Well this was a rather pointless area to be in. Might as well get moving."

They opened the door, but to their shock, they ended up falling through a bottomless pit that led them back to the previous door. Chopper slowly got himself up and looked at his surroundings.

"What the… Oh, don't tell me this is one of those stupid puzzles!"

"Looks like it," Tipral confirmed, getting up as well. "If that's not the way we need to go, there surely there's another way we can go."

Chopper decided to flip Tipral and himself into 3-D, which revealed a pipe behind the door they were near. Chopper was unsure whether to be happy or ticked, but he went into the pipe with Tipral nonetheless.

The pipe ended up taking them on top of the loop, where a pipe happened to be hanging over. They also found a platform and a ledge leading over to another door, where a Dark Wizrim and Void Skellobit were. They didn't appear to be battling, though. It seemed like they didn't care about each other.

"You know, I expected them to attack each other at this point, but I guess not," Tipral said. "Well, we might as well finish the job ourselves."

Tipral fired a dark blast of energy at the two enemies and sent them flying over to the wall. Chopper then grabbed the Void Skellobit and threw him at the Dark Wizrim before hurling a light ball at them to defeat them. With a smirk on his face, he approached the door and opened it for Tipral.

"You don't have to hold the door for me."

Chopper blinked for a moment and decided to just go in himself, with Tipral entering through next. They were led into a small area with the door up ahead. However, there were two Void Skellobombers flying around and dropping some Void Skellobait. Tipral teleported to one, but he stopped when he felt the ground shake slightly. When he moved back, it stopped shaking.

"Something's not right here…" Tipral trailed. "Why is the ground shaking when I approach this one section, but not when I'm here?"

"Kinda strange, if you as me," Chopper commented. "Should we try flipping?"

"That's probably for the best."

Chopper threw his arms up and flipped Tipral and himself into 3-D once again. This time, they found a glowing purple line that was leading over to the door ahead. Of course, the line was not going straight. It went up slightly, then to the far right, up, slightly left, down, left, up, and then to the right and then up to the door. It only took them about a minute and a half to follow the line to the door.

They were brought back into 2-D before entering the door to an area that looked familiar to them, especially with the shooting and explosions. Upon jumping on one of the glowing platforms, they discovered another battle between the Maginans and Shade's army. So far, the battle was evenly matched.

"Eat this, wizard scum!" a Maginan Demolitionist shouted while throwing a plasma grenade at a Dark Wizrim. It tried to pull the explosive off, but because it was stuck, it was impossible to get off. The Dark Wizrim exploded, along with a couple of other wizards around it.

"Yeah! Take that!" a Maginan shouted as it shot at a Shadow Wizard. Another Dark Wizrim appeared behind the Maginan and prepared to slice its foe with its scythe wand.

"Behind you!" a Dark Maginan warned before getting hit by a Shadow Wizard's dark magic. The Maginan turned around and saw the Dark Wizrim swing its scythe, so it rolled away to dodge the attack and fired at the Dark Wizrim. Unfortunately, its fate was soon sealed when an Elite Dark Soldier fired a plasma grenade at the Maginan.

"Uh oh…"

KA-BOOM!

Chopper's eyes widened at the sight of the explosion. Sure, a Maginan Demolitionist was able to conjure up an explosion from a plasma grenade, but it was nothing like this! This was NOTHING compared to the grenades the Dark Creatures had in the Comet of Darkness!

"Geez… This is a little intense here…" Chopper trailed. "Maybe it's best for us to move on."

"I think it is for the better," agreed Tipral. "One side wants us both gone, and another wants you out of the picture."

Chopper nodded and jumped up the last few platforms before reaching the door. The two entered into a hallway with knocked over pillars on the ground. They saw the door just up ahead, which made Chopper smile.

But when they took a couple of steps, they heard the ground shake. Above them, they saw the ceiling was starting to slowly descend onto them. With Chopper's eyes widened, he performed a Speed Dash and tried to reach the door up ahead. The only problem was… The door was starting to move further away from them.

"What the heck?! What's up with this area?!" Chopper gaped.

"It must be a lot longer than we thought," Tipral explained while following Chopper. "Whatever you do, DON'T STOP!"

They continued onward, and Chopper couldn't help but worry about the ceiling and the door ahead. Something was bound to happen, and it wasn't going to be good. All they could do was run for the door.

But as they made progress, the door was not moving further, but closer, which indicated that they were reaching the door. They took no time to stand around as soon as they got to the door and quickly opened it and headed into the next area.

They were surprised to see what was beyond the door.

"No way…" Chopper gaped as the door slammed shut. "Is this a dream?!"

Chopper and Tipral found themselves in a large courtyard with black flowers, a bridge going over some black water, and a large tower in the center. The ground was no longer purple and black, but now it was gray. The Void's sky could still be seen, but there was no lightning striking the background. In fact, with the flowers and a bit of grass, it made this place feel a little serene…in a strange way.

"Who ever thought a courtyard would be in The Void?" wondered Chopper. "It's almost like that courtyard in Dark Subspace World and the Palace of Shadow. Except there weren't any flowers to be seen there…"

There were no enemies in sight, nor were any people. Only Chopper and Tipral were lurking around the courtyard.

"So there's nothing to bother us. I'm fine with that." Tipral said while he crossed his arms. "I don't mind having a break."

"Yeah, agreed," Chopper nodded, walking across the bridge and hitting the Save Block. He also hit a ? Block near him to acquire a Master Shroom. He ate a piece and handed one to Tipral.

"No, you can have that."

Chopper raised his eyebrows. "What? Really? Why not? Don't you need to heal yourself?"

"I didn't take too much damage, and I know you enjoy those," Tipral replied. "Plus, I think it's fair for you to do that. You helped me out there against Ridley, and you even defended me before when your friends did not like the idea of me joining. I think you deserve to have that whole Master Shroom."

"Are you sure?"

"Go ahead and have it. I'm not going to repeat myself again."

"OK… Well, thanks." Chopper finished off the rest of the Master Shroom. "I'm really surprised with this change. I guess with the True Chaos Heart going crazy, you actually want it to be stopped."

"The reason why I want that thing to be stopped is because if it isn't stopped, everyone is going to die. Not even The Underwhere or The Overthere will be left when the True Chaos Heart is finished with its job."

"That's a scary thought… Well, let's not waste any time. We need to keep moving!" Chopper declared, crossing over the next bridge and making his way to the end of the courtyard. "Uh oh…"

"What is it?" Tipral asked.

"There's no door here!"

"What?! Great… Then this is a problem…" the dark being pondered while Chopper looked over at the tower. "Well… I think I do have an idea, Chopper…"

Chopper cocked his head as Tipral pointed to the tower. "You see that tower there? If I'm correct, that is the Tower of the Chaos Heart. I once read about a tower like that in the Dark Prognosticus, and it holds information on The Void and the Chaos Heart's power. It's been around for 1,500 years, so I'm not sure if all the information is still in there."

"How do you know that's the exact tower?" Chopper wondered.

"There was an image of it in the book. It was very old, but I recognize its appearance. But the only problem I see here is how we're going to get to that tower."

Chopper noticed a glowing light orb on its pedestal, but when he tried picking it up, it wouldn't come off the pedestal. He looked over at the other side of the courtyard and noticed the same thing. "Ummmmm… What about these orbs? They kinda stand out in this courtyard."

"Orbs?" Tipral approached Chopper, who backed away from the orb so he could get a closer look. "What are these doing here in the first place? They seem very out of place in this courtyard…"

"That's what I was thinking too! Maybe you should…" Chopper stopped there when Tipral shot a shadow ball at the orb to change its appearance into a dark orb. "…Yeah, you can do that."

Tipral teleported to the other light orb and turned it into a dark one. This caused the ground to shake violently as a bridge was drawn to reach the Tower of the Chaos Heart. However, the only way to access that bridge was to go into 3-D.

Chopper approached the center of the courtyard with Tipral and flipped into 3-D. They crossed the bridge and made their way to the entrance of the tower. The door itself was black, while the whole tower was gray, as if it was to resemble the Chaos Heart. There was even a gray heart embedded in the door as well.

Taking a deep breath, Chopper opened the door and entered the tower with Tipral.

---

Inside the tower-

The Tower of the Chaos Heart's interior was not exactly what Chopper thought he would see. The room they entered was not exactly big, but there was a lift in the center of the room that could take them up to another floor if they wanted. The walls and the floor were gray with small black hearts all over the place, but the center of the floor had a large, black heart. There was an eerie feeling in this tower, and for some reason, Chopper didn't like it.

"Ugh… I don't like this place." Chopper quivered. "Don't you ever get that feeling of being lonely, Tipral?"

"Perhaps…" Tipral answered, not paying too much attention to his question. "Hmmmmm… I believe we can gather information on the Chaos Heart at the top of this tower. That lift can take us up there."

The two approached the lift, but they paused when they saw it ascend on its own. Chopper tried to jump to get to the lift, but it was too high for him to reach. Tipral even tried to reach it, but not even he could reach it.

"Gah! Dang it! I guess that lift is too fast for us." Tipral growled.

"Couldn't you just teleport us to the top of the tower?" Chopper asked.

"My teleportation is limited, remember? I can't teleport all the way to the top of this tower."

"Ah, so you've arrived!" a dark, mysterious voiced called out, which echoed through the room. "I've been waiting for your arrival."

"Huh? Who said that?!" Chopper cried. "In fact, who are you?!"

"Show yourself," demanded Tipral. "Maybe then we'll go a little easy on you."

"Relax, I'm not here to fight! In fact, I'm here to congratulate you two on making it all the way here! You've fought through many hardships, and you even managed to overcome the dangers of The Void. That takes a lot, and that proves your bravery has gone unnoticed."

"You didn't answer my question!" Chopper exclaimed before hearing a click, as if someone was taking a picture. "Ummmmm… What was that little click sound?"

"Very well, I might as well introduce myself. I am simply a servant of the Ancients, sent here to give power to the true hero. I am impressed with how you ventured through this darkness, and I have a feeling you are indeed the true hero. Believe me, my eyes do not deceive me. But whether you are the true hero of the legend or not is yet to be seen… I will give you a new challenge!"

"A new challenge? We don't have time for your challenges!" Tipral barked. "We have more important things to do!"

"Hush, dark one," the voice retorted before a couple of black blocks landed on the ground. "I will assign you two two trials that you must complete. Only then will you be allowed to see me and gather the information you want on the Chaos Heart."

Chopper looked down at the blocks in confusion. "So what do you want us to do with these then?"

"You must put those pieces together like a puzzle. What you'll be putting together, you can figure out on your own. However, you will only be given two minutes to finish the task, or else you cannot progress to the second trial. I'm afraid there are no continues, my friends… But if you do complete the task, you will progress to the second trial."

"Putting pieces together? That doesn't sound like a difficult task…" Tipral mused.

"You two may now begin."

They looked up and saw that there were two minutes on the clock. Chopper quickly picked up one of the pieces and tried to see where they had to put it. However, Tipral grabbed the piece from him and dropped it on the ground.

"Hey! What was that for?!" exclaimed Chopper.

"We should take care of the corner and outer pieces first," Tipral suggested. "It makes things much easier."

Chopper shrugged and gathered some of the outer pieces and put them together. It didn't take too long to get that out of the way. When the outer parts were all put together, they only had a minute left.

"All right! We have all the outer pieces with just a minute to spare!" Chopper smiled. "…Wait, a minute? That's not good…"

"Then we need to be quick," suggested Tipral, putting some inner pieces together. They only had four pieces to go, and thirty seconds left. "OK, we just need one more piece now. Where is the other piece?"

Chopper's eyes widened as he looked around him. "Uh oh… I don't see that last piece anywhere!"

He was about to walk over to Tipral, but he accidentally tripped and fell over. Tipral noticed this and walked over to him. But instead of helping Chopper up, he noticed what he tripped over.

The last puzzle piece.

He would've asked why Chopper was standing on it, but there was no time for questions. Tipral grabbed the piece and put it in its exact spot. It ended up forming a puzzle of the Chaos Heart.

"Well done, you two! You completed the first trial! I knew you two were able to do it!"

"It wasn't that difficult," Tipral scoffed, crossing his arms and glaring at the walls. "Tell us what's next."

"Very well, if I must…" the dark voice began. "Take this lift to the second floor and I will tell you what your second trial is."

The lift from before came down, so Chopper and Tipral got on and let it take them up to the second floor. While the first floor was gray, this room was a darker gray with the same black hearts on the walls and floor. Except this time, there were statues of familiar enemies around.

"While the first trial tested your brains, this one will test your strength," the dark voice explained. "The second trial involves defeating all of the enemies that I summon in this room. Every single one. This time, there is no time limit. Your game just can't end, that's all!"

"Just a fight against a couple of enemies? That's not too hard!" Chopper smirked. "Tipral and I can handle that!"

"Well, so much for not fighting here," Tipral murmured. "But that's not much of a big deal. I don't mind destroying anything you summon."

"Excellent! Though, I must warn you… This may not be an easy task for you, for these enemies were created by my power. However, if you succeed, then I will recognize you, little boy, as a true hero and grant you great power. As for you, dark one… Perhaps I can give you a little bit of this power as well."

"I don't want your power," Tipral retorted. "But I will fight what you throw at me."

"With all that said… Good luck!"

Two dark beams shot some statues and made four Void Goombas come to life. Chopper and Tipral got in their fighting stances and waited for the Void Goombas to attempt to headbonk them. Tipral delivered a Star Kick to one that was about to attack, and Chopper grabbed one and slammed it on top of another. To make things easier, Tipral used his Star Rain to get rid of the rest of the Void Goombas.

"OK, that was too easy!" Chopper exclaimed. "That wasn't even a challenge!"

Two other statues were struck, and two Void Koopatrols were now roaming freely. One ended up charging into Chopper, leading to his ability being knocked away. Tipral simply punched the ground with a Star Punch when the enemies were near him. The small shockwave knocked the Void Koopatrols on their backs, leaving them vulnerable to be attacked.

"Now we have an easier time attacking these guys," Tipral noted. "Better start attacking them while you can."

Chopper quickly got up and jumped on the closest Void Koopatrol's underside. He continued to bounce off the enemy while performing stylish moves until it was finally finished. Tipral sent the other Void Koopatrol flying with a Star Punch, and then he finished it with a Star Spear.

The third round contained a black Dark Skelloford, a Dark Wizrim and a Dark Skelloknight. Tipral decided to start off by destroying the Dark Skelloknight's armor so it would be easy to take down. Chopper decided to use his speed in order to fight against the Dark Skelloford, knowing that it was slow with the club it carried. He delivered punches and kicks to its face, while Tipral focused on the Dark Skelloknight. The Dark Wizrim decided to stay at a far range and fire dark magic from its weapon.

After a couple of hits, Chopper was able to take down the Dark Skelloford, and Tipral's Star Burst helped finish off the Dark Skelloknight. Now all that was left was the Dark Wizrim, who flew over to them and tried to attack them with its scythe wand. Tipral's Star Spark helped hurt and stun the enemy, while Chopper attacked with his light spinning kick.

Tipral was about to kick the Dark Wizrim, but it used its weapon to block Tipral's foot. Chopper's light ball, however, was able to defeat it with ease.

"Well, that should be the last of them," Chopper sighed. "Man, who ever thought we'd have to take on those kind of guys? I mean, we've seen plenty of them!"

"Don't relax so soon, hero. There's just one more round." the dark voice called out. "Let's see how you go up against this!"

Over by the left corner, two Dark Skelloknights appeared, but behind it was a Skelloknight in dark purple armor, a helmet that completely covered its faces except for its purple eyes, a black tuft of hair on the top of the helmet, a large, black sword, a black cape, and a dark purple elegant shield. It raised its sword, which began to glow with dark energy.

"What kind of Skelloknight is THAT?!" Chopper gawked. "Is that supposed to be a Void Skelloknight or something?!"

"Looks like it," Tipral confirmed, using his Star Rain to get rid of the Dark Skelloknights' armor. The Void Skelloknight's armor, however, was not broken off, to their surprise. "Well it looks like my Star powers aren't doing much to that thing's armor."

Tipral decided to take care of the Dark Skelloknights first and continued to use his Star Rain on them. The attack simply bounced off the Void Skelloknight's armor as if it was nothing. Nevertheless, the Dark Skelloknights were out of the way, and all that was left was the Void Skelloknight.

"OK, how are we supposed to beat this thing?!" Chopper gaped. "It's practically invincible!"

"Not every enemy is invincible," Tipral noted. "Have you even tried your light power?"

"Oh… Well, no." Chopper tossed a light ball at the Void Skelloknight, but it didn't seem to do too much. However, it did seem to have an effect, because the enemy suddenly became blind from the bright light. "Oh! That DID do something!"

Chopper decided to use a charged light ball and hurled it at the Void Skelloknight. This time, it actually did something better. A bright crack appeared in the Void Skelloknight's armor, and while it was blind, there was no one stopping them from breaking its armor. Tipral rushed in and punched the crack, which was enough to break the armor off the enemy.

"Good. We found a way to break this enemy's armor. Now let's finish it off while we can."

They saw under the Void Skelloknight's armor was a dark purple tunic, so its upper part of its body wasn't completely bare. But who cared about that? Chopper certainly didn't when he tossed a light ball at the Void Skelloknight before it could knock Tipral away with its large sword.

"Gah! …Well, this enemy is certainly stronger than before." Tipral grunted, quickly getting up and hitting it with a Star Spark. "But that's not stopping me from taking it down!"

He fired a Star Spear, but the Void Skelloknight put up its shield and blocked the attack. Meanwhile, Chopper hit it from behind with a couple of light kicks, which was able to help bring its HP down easily. Tipral soon finished it off with a Star Spear.

"FINALLY!" Chopper sighed. "They're gone!"

"Well done! You two have passed the final trial! But before you meet me, please use this to heal your wounds."

A glowing light appeared next to them, and when they stepped on it, they were fully recovered. "Now, please take the lift."

Chopper smiled when he saw the lift appear for them. They used it to reach the third floor, which had a black background with gray hearts on the walls and floor. In the center of the room was a large pedestal with a replica of the Chaos Heart. It was obviously not real because dark power was not flowing from it.

But up on the ceiling, they noticed some dark mist hovering over.

"Are you that mysterious voice?" Chopper asked. "Well, we're finally here, so could you give us that power you promised?"

"And the information on the Chaos Heart," Tipral added.

The dark mist didn't appear to respond, which annoyed Chopper a bit.

"Well? Are you going to say something?"

"Heh… What's up, you two?" the dark voice asked, sounding more sinister than before. "Oh, did I promise you some power and information? Heh heh heh… Sorry, but that was all just a lie! About those dumb Ancients… I don't really work for them one bit!"

"Wait, so you made us do all of that for nothing?!" Chopper gaped. "You son of a…fish!"

"So you made us waste all of that time for something like this?!" Tipral growled. "If that's the case, we should get going."

They were about to leave, but the lift was gone and the hole was also sealed, preventing them from escaping.

"Wait… So you weren't created by the Ancients?" Chopper wondered, curious about what the voice said before.

"Don't get me wrong, you two. They did CREATE me…but I work for my own cursed powers! Anyway, the name is Shadoo. I've been watching you explore The Void, testing you to study you, and now… I have completed all of my clones! Well… The clones for the heroes are not fully complete, but the minions are! Now that they're gone, I can take their place!"

The dark mist suddenly faded away, and instead a flip box appeared and revealed a shadow version of O'Chunks. Chopper jumped in surprise, while Tipral's antennae perked up.

"Grah-fargle bargle! Now yer gonna get a taste o' me chunks!" Shadoo O'Chunks shouted. "Not only did I get their abilities, but also their personalities! Time teh chunk on it!"

"Wait a minute… A shadowy…thing that can duplicate into other things…" Chopper pondered. "Where have I heard that before?"

"Probably from when I helped the Pixl Queen!" Shadoo O'Chunks answered. "Yeh should've listened teh yer friend about me tryin' teh make 'im get rid o' yeh, but looks like I've got teh do it meself! Such a shame… It would've made more sense teh be fightin' yer stupid pink friend!"

"Don't even CALL my friend stupid! Come on, Tipral! Let's take this guy down!"

Tipral nodded and lunged forward, getting ready to make his move on Shadoo O'Chunks. Surprisingly, he only had 100 HP, an Attack of 21 and a Defense of 8. That was surprisingly not threatening.

"Yeah, I tried teh get 'im teh get rid o' yeh, but since it wasn't workin', I decided to leave an' return 'ere," Shadoo O'Chunks explained. "But when I saw yeh all makin yer way 'ere, I decided teh use me powers an' whatnot teh make clones o' yeh an' finish yeh if yeh ever got 'ere! An' now I plan teh replace yeh when yer finished!"

"That's not happening," Chopper declared, jumping on Shadoo O'Chunks's head. "You see, I've fought Tipral's minions plenty of times! By now, I pretty much know their move set! There's no way you stand a chance against me!"

"That may be true, but the dark one 'as never fought 'is minions!"

"Oh, really? I don't think they're so tough myself. If they lost to Chopper before, then I'm sure I won't have any problems defeating you either."

Shadoo O'Chunks managed to grab a hold of Tipral and swing him around before releasing him. He was about to perform a dance, but Chopper was able to land a spinning kick and leave him off guard. Usually he would do something such as use Thoreau to leave him stunned, kind of like when he first fought O'Chunks. But now he doesn't have any Pixls, so that would be a difficult task.

Chopper jumped out of the way when Shadoo O'Chunks punched the ground near him, which caused a small earthquake. This gave Tipral the chance to hit him with his Star Spear, followed by a Star Kick. Shadoo O'Chunks tried to grab him again, but Tipral teleported above him and landed a stomp on his head.

"The thing is with O'Chunks is that he's slow and focuses more on brawn than brains," Tipral noted.

"I may not be so smart, but since yer nothin' but a wee toddler, I can toss yeh around like a sack o' potatoes!" Shadoo O'Chunks scoffed while pounding his chest. Since he was distracted, Chopper tossed an ice ball and froze the dark bearded warrior, while Tipral snapped his finger and struck Shadoo O'Chunks with Star Magic. Tipral would've made another attack, but Shadoo O'Chunks was no longer frozen, and this allowed him to land on top of Tipral with a ground pound.

Noticing this, Chopper inhaled the yellow star left by Shadoo O'Chunks's attack and spat it back at him. He was now off Tipral, who Chopper helped up, and that also allowed both of them to combine a shadow and light ball together to throw at Shadoo O'Chunks. This left him dangerously low on HP.

"Look at that, you're almost finished already," Tipral noticed, looking at Shadoo O'Chunks's HP bar. "You're not exactly the strongest enemy we've run into. In fact, I'd consider you one of the weakest."

"Well I'm not goin' teh let meself lose so easily!" Shadoo O'Chunks shot back. "Try teh take me down! I dare yeh!"

Tipral shrugged and fired a Star Spear at Shadoo O'Chunks. The dark bearded warrior grinned and jumped in the air, hoping to strike Tipral once again. However, his plan backfired when he saw Tipral teleport in front of him.

"Thought you could try to escape one of my attacks, huh?" Tipral wondered.

Before Shadoo O'Chunks could say anything, Tipral grabbed him and tossed him to the ground. With both fists ready, he slammed them down on Shadoo O'Chunks and destroyed the doppelgänger of O'Chunks. While this Shadoo could've used O'Chunks's stronger form, it didn't appear that he did.

"That's it?" Chopper gawked. "That was hardly a fight!"

"I wouldn't say it's finished so soon…" Tipral trailed, still sensing Shadoo's presence. "He's still here."

"That's right!" the two saw a shadow doppelgänger of Mimi appear in front of them. She cracked her neck once again in order to transform into her spider form, which Chopper found to be unpleasant. Tipral never even saw her transform into her spider form, and he was a bit surprised.

"This is how Mimi transforms?" Tipral gawked. "Well, that's a strange way to transform. But it's no big deal."

When Shadoo Mimi was in her spider form she began to shoot black Rubees at the two. This was another point where Chopper felt like he needed Thoreau, but then again, he had his ability to inhale objects!

"Might as well use it here," Chopper thought, inhaling the Rubees and spitting it back at Shadoo Mimi. Tipral even landed a jump on the doppelgänger girl and left her a little dazed. Shadoo Mimi had 100 HP, an Attack of 21 and a Defense of 9, so nothing had changed from Shadoo O'Chunks that much. Plus, Shadoo Mimi's fighting style was very obvious to Chopper, so he landed a jump on Shadoo Mimi as well.

"So, what does Mimi do in her spider form, if I may ask?" Tipral asked.

"Throw Rubees, climb up the walls, drop Rubees. Mostly Rubees." Chopper answered, trying to make sure Shadoo Mimi wasn't listening in carefully. "She's not that difficult, honestly."

Shadoo Mimi ended up whacking Chopper with one of her spider legs. "Oh… And I think she does that too."

"Mimimimimi! Oh, you dummy heads are so stupid sometimes!" Shadoo Mimi cackled. "This is going to be soooo easy for me!"

"Don't get your hopes up," warned Tipral, his eyes flashing and making Shadoo Mimi get hit by a Star Spark. Despite being stunned, she was still able to fire a Rubee at Tipral's face. He quickly got it off him and threw it back at Shadoo Mimi, who let out a slight scream.

She fled from the two and climbed up the walls so she was up on the ceiling. That's when Rubees were beginning to rise from the ground and hit both Chopper and Tipral. She seemed satisfied, but not satisfied enough. She started dropping a couple of Rubees down, with one of them nearly hitting Chopper's foot.

"Yeesh! That was a bit too close!" Chopper cried. "But what stinks is that I don't know how to get her down… Thoreau helped Kirby and I get her down when we first fought her in her spider form."

"Then I have an idea," Tipral used his Star Rain and let the attack hit Shadoo Mimi and make her land on the ground. Chopper inhaled another Rubee and spat it at her, followed by a jump to the head. One of her six spider legs ended up snapping off.

"EEEEK! Not a spider leg!" Shadoo Mimi cried. "I'm going to make you regret that, stupid hero!"

"It's not my fault you want to destroy me," Chopper shrugged. "I was just defending myself!"

"Well you're the ones who gave me more of a beating than I did! But anyway, I don't want to get off topic. Time to go bye bye!" Shadoo Mimi jumped over to the left side of the room and began to charge at Tipral. Using his teleportation powers, he teleported at the right moment, and then Chopper jumped over her so she could crash into the wall. While she was dazed, Chopper chucked a fireball and left her with a nasty burn.

"Since spiders hate fire… I guess this works!"

However, Shadoo Mimi wasn't burning like crazy from Chopper's attack. She smirked and began firing Rubees his way. He prepared to guard, but Tipral's Star Magic blocked the Rubees and made them drop to the ground. He also hurt Shadoo Mimi with his Star Magic because she wasn't making any moves.

"The only ones whose attacks I mostly know are Fawful and Dark's," Tipral recalled. "But Mimi doesn't seem like too much of a threat to me."

"But I'm not truly Mimi! So I may not play exactly like she does!" Shadoo Mimi exclaimed.

"That's true, but you're much weaker in that form," Chopper smirked, inhaling a Rubee and spitting it at her. While she was dazed, he threw a rainbow ball and made another spider leg snap off.

"Will you stop that?!"

"Gladly," Chopper smiled, letting Tipral jump and land a Star Punch on Shadoo Mimi when she least expected it. She was left dazed again, so Tipral decided to yank off a spider leg himself.

"Pathetic," Tipral scoffed, dropping the spider leg on the ground, which angered Shadoo Mimi as she whacked him with one of her three remaining spider legs. Tipral skid across the floor with his arms up, barely guarding the attack Shadoo Mimi left on him. Chopper was prepared to freeze her, but her spider legs attached to the ceiling and floor so she could spin her head. Four Rubees appeared on her head so neither of them could hit her.

Chopper tried firing the ice ball at her, but the Rubees around her were able to stop the attack.

"Great… The best we can do is… Wait!" Chopper flipped into 3-D with Tipral and moved aside so Shadoo Mimi could fly all over the place in a straight direction. When she finally stopped, they went back into 2-D and saw how baffled Shadoo Mimi was when she saw them unharmed.

"What?! How did you DODGE that?!" Shadoo Mimi gaped.

"You must've forgotten that I could flip," Chopper said, jumping on her head and making her fourth spider leg snap off. Tipral helped stun her again and made her fifth spider leg snap off with his Star Spear. For them, things were looking good, but to Shadoo Mimi, they were not.

"You've only got one spider leg left," Tipral noted. "Did you really think you would stop us in this form?"

"At least I was able to weaken you," retorted Shadoo Mimi.

"Hardly," Tipral snapped his finger and left Shadoo Mimi stunned with his Star Magic. To finish her off, he jumped and landed a Star Kick on the doppelgänger of Mimi, which not only snapped her last spider leg off, but also defeated her when she disintegrated.

"Considering that Shadoo has more duplicates, there's bound to be more," Chopper said, getting in a fighting stance.

Shadoo Fawful appeared with his Headgear and let out a cackle. "At last! The battle of all battles will begin! Fawful will destroy you, and then you will be mixed within the dressing of a salad that is made of shadow!"

"Yeah… He still doesn't make sense." Chopper face palmed, hurling a light ball at Shadoo Fawful and making him screech in pain. "At least the light power does hurt him the most. Maybe I should start using that more?"

Shadoo Fawful still had 100 HP like the other two doppelgängers, but his Attack was 22, and he had a Defense of 10. Not to mention he still had that speech pattern that Chopper found very annoying.

Tipral, however, felt a little more confident against Shadoo Fawful, since he once fought against him back in The Overthere. While he doesn't remember his move set a hundred percent, perhaps he might start to remember as they fight him.

"Come on!" Chopper taunted, ready to take on Shadoo Fawful. The dark doppelgänger shot dark globs energy out of his Headgear, which landed near his foot. Chopper got rid of the dark energy with the help of his light power, which he shot near his foot. He prepared to fire another light ball, but Shadoo Fawful was already hit by a shadow ball.

"So the Dark Antennae has striking!" Shadoo Fawful spat, shaking his had rapidly before taking out his blaster and shooting at Tipral. He was able to dodge two of the shots, but ended up getting blasted by the third. He let out a grunt while Shadoo Fawful couldn't help but cackle.

In order to shut him up, he hurled a Star Spear and sent him flying to one of the walls. It left his Headgear a little damaged, but it was still able to work just fine. To make matters worse, Shadoo Fawful was starting to fly all over the place, making it difficult to catch the dark doppelgänger.

"You lack the attacking to catch Fawful!" scoffed Shadoo Fawful, who continued to shoot dark globs of energy down at the two. Chopper ended up getting hit by a couple, but Tipral couldn't take it any longer and decided to stop time in order to make things work his way.

Once everything was frozen in time, Tipral could see Chopper already getting hit by some of Shadoo Fawful's attacks, while the doppelgänger himself was grinning, despite his shadowy appearance being difficult to see his grin. Tipral started off by hitting him with his Star Spark, and then he hurled two Star Spears, followed by a snap of his finger as soon as time went back to normal.

"Urk! Fawful feels pain!" Shadoo Fawful cringed, feeling the large amount of pain delivered to him. An explosion emitted from his Headgear, causing him to crash over by the right wall.

"Great! We…got him?" Chopper gawked, unsure of how his Headgear exploded. "Hold on a second… How the heck did his Headgear explode in the first place? Did you do something, Tipral?"

"I simply stopped time and did a little bit of damage to him and his Headgear," Tipral answered. "Now that he can't fly around anymore, it's best for us to finish the job."

"I have pain…" Shadoo Fawful muttered while getting up. "But Fawful still has the energy of a flying moose! Now you shall taste Fawful's fury, with an extra hint of sprinkles on top!"

Chopper face palmed and charged up a light ball while he dodged Shadoo Fawful's blaster. The shot ended up hitting Tipral instead, who retaliated with a Star Spear. Chopper was forced to duck again and let Shadoo Fawful get hit by the attack before he could fire his light ball. It was enough to leave the beany doppelgänger blind and in pain.

"Ouch! Brightness! It is the light of pain!"

"Don't you mean, 'Ouch! HOTNESS! It is the overheat!'?" Chopper wondered, trying to imitate Fawful's voice. All he received was Shadoo Fawful's laser sword hitting him. "Ouch! Now THAT hurt!"

"Keep in mind that this isn't the real Fawful," Tipral reminded. "He's not as powerful as the real Fawful. He's just a clone."

Chopper nodded as he ducked under Shadoo Fawful's laser sword. Tipral decided to pull Chopper out of the way so he could punch the doppelgänger in the face. He was hoping to break his glasses, but it was probably difficult to see because of Shadoo Fawful's appearance. He decided to add a Star Kick so he could see Shadoo Fawful crash into the wall. Tipral was reminded of the real Fawful betraying him so he could become leader.

"You know, because of how angry I am at Fawful for betraying me, I can simply take all of that anger out on you!" Tipral realized, teleporting over to Shadoo Fawful and grabbing him. "Too bad that person is still alive, or I would have already destroyed him by now!"

"Tipral! Calm down!" Chopper cried, seeing Tipral throw Shadoo Fawful across the room. The doppelgänger was low on HP, and only one more attack would most likely do him in.

But he had no time to react, because Tipral already destroyed him with his Star Spear. "And that takes care of you."

Unfortunately, Shadoo still had more doppelgängers. Shadoo Mr. L teleported in between Chopper and Tipral and struck a boastful look.

"What? You destroyed three of my clones already?! L-ame! Hey, Mr. Palegreenkid Thatjumps Andcopies Abilities Andruns Reallyfast! And you too, Mr. Darkone Thatlooks Likepalegreen! Let's just settle this once and for all! Have at you!"

"Mr. L… Well, he's just like Luigi…in a way." Chopper pondered. "This shouldn't be too difficult!"

Shadoo Mr. L conjured up some electricity and fired it Chopper's way. "Oh… I completely forgot about his thunder powers!"

Tipral teleported in order to dodge his attack and snapped his finger so Shadoo Mr. L could get hit by Tipral's attack. The doppelgänger jumped on his head and taunted before hurling an electric ball their way. Chopper inhaled it to gain the Plasma ability, and he surrounded himself in an electric barrier once Shadoo Mr. L tried to jump on him. The results were quite shocking.

"No fair!" Shadoo Mr. L whined. "You can't just take my powers and do that to me!"

"There aren't any rules in this fight," Chopper smirked, charging up a Speed Dash to create a small electric barrier around him. Once his attack was fully charged, he fired his Plasma Wave upon Shadoo Mr. L and left him paralyzed. He had 100 HP, an Attack of 22 and a Defense of 11.

"Good thinking, Chopper," Tipral complimented before hitting Shadoo Mr. L with his Star Spark. "Taking his ability and using it against him? That's the best idea I've heard for a while. Especially since it can paralyze."

"Gah! That… That makes no sense!" Shadoo Mr. L howled. "And here I thought this doppelgänger would be very useful…"

"Doesn't look like it!" Chopper smiled, jumping on Shadoo Mr. L's head and even landing a shocking kick. Eventually Shadoo Mr. L shook off the paralysis and tried to attack with a Super Jump. But since Chopper and Tipral were on the ground, the attack was deemed pointless.

Shadoo Mr. L made a face, but that didn't stop him from hitting Chopper and Tipral with his electric attack. Tipral was paralyzed, but Chopper didn't seem to be too harmed by the attack. In fact, it helped him charge up another Plasma Wave that he fired on the doppelgänger. Shadoo Mr. L wasn't going to last very long.

Chopper thought this fight would be a lot more difficult, but he didn't care. He prepared to jump on Shadoo Mr. L, but he had a plan himself and used his Super Jump to knock away Chopper's Plasma ability and even deal some massive damage.

"Ho ho! Now who's got the last laugh now?!" Shadoo Mr. L chortled.

"You certainly won't," Tipral replied, teleported in front of Shadoo Mr. L and striking him in the face with a Star Punch. That was enough to destroy the doppelgänger of Mr. L, who was much easier than they thought.

"This isn't over yet," Shadoo hissed, appearing as a dark doppelgänger as Dark Doom. "I still have this doppelgänger left! And even if you defeat me, I will still have more doppelgängers to use against you!"

Chopper gave Shadoo Dark an irritated look, but he shrugged and dodged Shadoo Dark's kick. This doppelgänger was certainly the strongest of the five, with 100 HP, an Attack of 23 and a Defense of 12. Tipral knew some of Dark's moves himself, but he knew of all the minions, he would most likely put up the biggest fight by using strategy, speed, and power.

But Chopper faced Dark plenty of times with his friends, and they were able to take him down no problem. Since Chopper knew Dark's attacks, he was able to avoid Shadoo Dark's blasters and kicks.

"You need to come up with a new strategy with that doppelgänger," Chopper scoffed. "'Cause it's certainly not going to do much to me!"

Tipral ducked when he saw Shadoo Dark fired two shots his way. He was not one to duck like a pancake like Chopper, but he had his ways of avoiding shots. Tipral teleported up to Shadoo Dark and landed a Star Kick on him. He would've landed a punch if Shadoo Dark didn't use his cape to teleport away from him.

"Don't think I'm letting you win so easily this time," Shadoo Dark hissed. "You've destroyed my other creations, and now I'm going to throw everything I've got on you!"

Chopper hurled a light ball his way, which Shadoo Dark tried to block with his cape. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work, since it went through and struck the evil doppelgänger. "Huh?! Your light powers seem to go through my cape! How is that possible?!"

"Maybe because light power triumphs dark," Chopper answered, his fists surrounded in a light glow. "And I'm going to make sure that my light power takes you down!"

"Then again, dark can triumph light," Tipral added. "But that's not important. I just want to crush this guy off so we can finally get out of here."

"That is if you can get out of here!" Shadoo Dark smirked, teleporting over to Tipral and grabbing him. He jumped in the air and spun around like a twister before slamming his opponent to the ground. Tipral let out a grunt as he got up, but he was able to get in some Star Magic on Shadoo Dark before he could make another move. Chopper also made him trip with a light sweeping kick once he approached him.

But as soon as Chopper could jump on him, Shadoo Dark grabbed him and threw him onto the ground. He cast of a grin that Chopper couldn't see, but he wasn't paying too much attention to his facial expression. The two blasters in his hand were a much bigger threat.

"Say your prayers, hero!" Shadoo Dark cackled.

He was about to pull the trigger, but he was struck by a Star Spear and knocked away. His shots ended up hitting the replica of the Chaos Heart, but instead of breaking it, the shot ricocheted off the replica and hit Shadoo Dark instead.

Chopper seemed satisfied, which made him charge up two light balls. Tipral charged up two shadow balls and waited for Shadoo Dark to get up. He quickly fired the two shadow balls his way and left the doppelgänger flinching from each shadow ball. Tipral was wondering how a dark being such as Shadoo was getting hurt by dark energy.

But then Chopper threw his light balls at Shadoo Dark, which seemed to do much more damage than the shadow balls. "You, hero…Now that I think about it, you're probably the bigger threat to me! Maybe I should focus on getting rid of you first!"

Shadoo Dark jumped in the air and prepared to hit Chopper with a lightning fast kick. But, Tipral had other plans when he stopped time just before Shadoo Dark could strike Chopper. He started off by hitting him with some Star Magic a couple of times, and then he landed a Star Punch. Once he reverted time back to normal, Shadoo Dark found himself knocked to the wall.

Tipral approached Shadoo Dark while he was trying to get up. He noticed the angry eyes of Tipral getting closer, and his fists were surrounded in a purple glow, indicating that he was ready to finish him off. Shadoo Dark found the chance to make his move and shot Tipral before he could land a punch on him. He teleported up to him and then landed a couple of kicks and punches to send him flying to the wall.

"Hold on… Wasn't I supposed to get rid of the hero first?" Shadoo Dark realized before turning to Chopper. He drew his blasters and fired at him, only to have his shots get thrown back when Chopper inhaled and spat the projectiles back. "Lucky shot, hero! For a kid, you certainly do put up a bit of a fight!"

"Why thank you!" Chopper smirked. "I've been doing this hero business for six years, so of course I might put up a big fight!"

"Six years… I see… But all of that hard work won't get you anywhere here! You see, this place is-"

Shadoo Dark felt something strike him from behind. Tipral happened to fire a Star Spear his way to interrupt his little speech. "Look, you can cut the monologue so we can actually finish this."

Shadoo Dark turned his head to Tipral and started to fire at him with one blaster while firing at Chopper with the other. Chopper quickly flipped into 3-D while Tipral teleported above the doppelgänger to land a Star Kick on his head. But that didn't stop Shadoo Dark from firing a Swift Strike at him.

"I should remember to use this more often," Shadoo Dark reminded while he fired small meteors Tipral's way. Chopper went back into 2-D and jumped on Shadoo Dark and then landed a light slamming kick to add in a little more to his attack. This angered Shadoo Dark, who grabbed Chopper and threw him straight at Tipral. Both crashed onto the wall, with Chopper being left in a daze.

"Well, looks like the tides have been turned to my favor! Heh heh!" Shadoo Dark smirked. "It ends here!"

"Now hold on a second…" Chopper paused, now out of his daze. "What kind of name is Shadoo anyway? That's such a stupid name for someone like you!"

"My name represents the word 'shadow', and it makes sense for me because I can become shadows of others. Your name, however… It makes no sense! It doesn't even fit you!"

"Oh, yeah? Then I'll prove it!" Chopper's right hand was surrounded in a light glow, but he first threw a rainbow ball at him before performing a chop that wasn't stronger than his punch, but it was able to still hurt Shadoo Dark and leave him low on HP. "Is that enough for you?"

Shadoo Dark knew he couldn't handle anymore, so he tried to make a getaway, but Tipral grabbed a hold of his cape and pulled him back. "I'm not done with you just yet, Shadoo! The fight's not finished!"

Shadoo Dark struggled to get away, but Tipral's grip was too strong. A Star Spear was all Tipral needed to finish off Shadoo and leave the doppelgänger of Dark in defeat.

"Unnghh… Wh-What?! I was…so very…close. How was this possible? I copied them exactly how I imagined…and I was defeated?!" Shadoo Dark gaped. "No… I cannot lose so soon…"

Shadoo Dark disintegrated, but Shadoo was not completely gone. The dark mist left from Shadoo made an escape over to the blocked exit.

"So long for now, you two! Don't expect this to be the last of me!" Shadoo hollered before making an exit out of the tower. Thankfully, the blocked lift was now open for them, but before anything else could be done, a dark ! Switch appeared in the room.

"Great… He got away." Chopper sighed. "And he said something about this not being the last time we meet. …I kind of wish Kirby was here for this. He would love to get back at this Shadoo for trying to mess with him."

"Shadoo's gone for now, so we shouldn't worry about him at the moment," Tipral noted. "But this switch… You need to hit it."

Chopper nodded and struck the switch with a light ball. That was all he needed to make something outside the tower shake. Surely something big happened, so they wasted no time and left the tower.

---

Courtyard-

When they got out of the Tower of the Chaos Heart, they noticed the end of the courtyard to the right now had a door. Chopper smiled as he approached the door, but he frowned when he turned back to the courtyard.

"I don't think we'll be seeing a place like this anymore…" Chopper trailed.

"Well, not everything is that peaceful here," Tipral noted. "We're in The Void. It's supposed to be filled with danger."

"I guess you're right. Let's get going, I suppose." Chopper opened the door, and he and Tipral entered a small area. The floor was back to being dark purple and black, and the air around them was heavy like before. There were three white blocks in the area, which almost reminded Chopper of those blocks in Castle Tipral.

"If this puzzle is just like the one in my castle, then this shouldn't be hard," Tipral declared, hitting the second block to create a door. He entered, only to come back out ten seconds later.

"What is it?" wondered Chopper.

"It's a dead end. There's nothing of interest in there."

"Oh… Then let's try the third one!" Chopper hit the third block, which made a door for them to walk in. They found themselves in another similar area to the previous one. There was a Darkling roaming around, but a light ball was all Chopper needed to destroy it.

They chose to hit the first block, which created a door. It led them into another area with three blocks. But instead of hitting the second block, Tipral hit the first block.

"Sometimes each block isn't always used," Tipral noted. "We should try going through the first door again."

"All right…" Chopper shrugged, following Tipral through the door. This time, instead of the same area, they were met with a larger area with two pits and a locked door ahead. A Save Block was over by it as well, which made Chopper smile. "Hey, we may be nearing the end!"

"We're not near the center of The Void yet," Tipral informed. "However, we should be going into deeper territory through that door. Unfortunately, it appears to be locked…"

Chopper noticed some ripped holes in the background, which gave him an idea. He flipped Tipral and himself into 3-D and jumped through one of the holes. They found a chest and two ? Blocks. Not to mention there were two Dark Wizrims and two Dark Skelloknights.

"Yipe…" Chopper gulped. "Four strong enemies!"

The two Dark Skelloknights detected Chopper and Tipral's presence, so they began to make their way over to them. Sure, there was no Void Skelloknight in sight, but two Dark Skelloknights was a bit difficult too. And fighting two Dark Wizrims was no laughing matter either.

Nevertheless, the two began to fight the enemies, with Chopper handling the Dark Wizrims, and Tipral handling the Dark Skelloknights. All Tipral had to do was use his Star powers to break their armor off and then teleport so he didn't get hit by their swords. It didn't take too long for him to take down the two Dark Skelloknights.

Chopper probably had an easier time, thanks to his light power. He simply threw light balls at the two Dark Wizrims, and they were soon finished. He did get hit a few times, but it wasn't anything big.

He opened up the chest to get a Void Key, and he also hit the first ? Block to find an Ultimate Shroom. He split it with Tipral so they could recover 100 HP. The other block contained a Star Shroom, so they ate that too to recover 150 HP.

After going back to the other side of the wall, they stopped and heard another battle occurring below them. Only this time, they weren't as close to the fight like last time. They could see it was a fight between more Maginans and Shadow Wizards, Wizrims, etc. The Maginans were obviously winning.

"Heh heh! Do these fantasy idiots really believe magic and swords will help them?!" a Dark Maginan scoffed, blasting a Dark Wizrim. "Our weapons are vastly superior!"

A Void Skellobit charged at one of the Maginans, but its spear did squat to its armor, so one of the Maginan's allies shot it for them. There were even some dark purple Maginans in the fight, and they seemed to be vastly superior to the other enemies on the battlefield.

Then came a Void Skelloknight that joined into the fight. It raised its sword and swung it, which was enough to send a couple of Maginans flying back. One Dark Maginan approached it while blasting at some other enemies.

"Yeah, yeah… You got dark purple armor, so what?" the Dark Maginan taunted, while the Void Skelloknight remained silent and cast a glare upon the trooper. A retractable blade came out of the Dark Maginan's wrist as it tried to lunge its fist forward. "Well bring it on!"

But there was one trooper Chopper noticed that caught him off guard. There was a taller trooper in black and dark purple armor. Purple eyes could be seen through its helmet containing a black visor, and a pair of purple spike protruded from the sides of its head. It held a black laser rifle and wore a jetpack that seemed vastly superior to the Maginans.

"You people can fight all you want, but there's something more important for me to do," the trooper declared. "Us remaining Darksprine Troopers are NOT going to let our leader's nemesis get away with destroying him! He may think we're all gone, but he will be proven wrong…"

Chopper gulped as the Darksprine flew away from the battlefield. "Oh, no… Not a Darksprine Trooper… I remember those guys being much bigger threats than anything I've faced thus far!"

"Then we shouldn't linger here any longer," noted Tipral. "Unlock the door so we can get moving!"

Chopper nodded and hit the Save Block near the door. With that out of the way, he took out the key, unlocked the door, and headed through the door with his dark counterpart.

---

Next area-

Once through the door, they noticed the area they stood in was just like any other fighting arena. In fact, the two were no longer surprised to see an area like this because they've already encountered these kinds of places! But at the same time, they were surprised, because they knew there was no one else they knew that wanted to get rid of them.

…Or was there?

A loud booming sound could be heard from The Void, and that gave them a feeling that they weren't safe here. Thankfully, the tremble was slight, and things began to calm down afterward.

"Strange… Why would we be in a similar area like this?" Chopper wondered. "Haven't we already encountered all of your minions?"

"Yes, we have," Tipral nodded, but his antennae started to twitch. "But… I can feel some kind of strange power in here. A power that feels so familiar. It feels like…magic?"

"Ah ha ha ha! Salutations, Chopper and Tipral! It's been a while…"

Chopper and Tipral saw Dimentio in the center of the area, greeting them with his demented smile. The two were left in complete shock as they approached the excited jester.

"D-D-Dimentio?!" Chopper gaped and left completely off guard by the sight of Dimentio. "But… You… Tipral's Palace…"

"You thought I was destroyed back at Tipral's Palace?" Dimentio finished, giving him a smirk.

"Y-Yeah…" Chopper slowly nodded, his eyes still bugged out.

"My my, Chopper… You seem rather surprised by me being here. And you too, Tipral! I'm sure you two missed seeing me wander around and giving you pleasant dialogue."

"Get out of the way, Dimentio!" Tipral roared. "Or I'm going to blow your head off this instant!"

"And you haven't seemed to change either, my good friend! Why, I was just thinking of you guys while I was off being dead like a god who is stalking a person he is interested in."

"I don't want your stupid similes, Dimentio. GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Dimentio ignored Tipral and noticed the group. "And what's this? You are the only two left of seven! You seem to be missing a pink pancake, a blue spiky hedgehog, a fluffy cat, and two hairy men! It seems like your little army has fallen apart!"

"As much as I want to incinerate you, we probably don't have the time for that. I suggest you get out of the way or else!"

"Hold on, Tipral… I wanna know HOW Dimentio is still alive!" Chopper said as he cast a glare at the jester. "You are going to explain everything to us right now!"

"Ahhh, I see now. You two are interested in how I came back to life?" Dimentio wondered.

"Honestly, I don't care. Just leave now."

"Ohhhh… Yes, you two have very limited time in this realm! Very well, allow me to take my bow and exit the show so you can reach the core of The Void." Dimentio smiled, snapping his finger and disappearing while leaving the air to ripple near him.

"What the…" Tipral gawked.

"Well, just as soon as you defeat me! Ah ha ha ha ha."

"No way…" Chopper frowned. "We're not playing another one of your stupid games!"

"So, you don't wish to know how I managed to come back to life? Such a shame… I just wanted to have a little fun, and you refuse to play my game?"

"I'll just move on through the door then," Tipral decided, approaching the door ahead and attempting to open it. Sadly, he couldn't get anything.

"…Oh! Did I mention I used my magic to block the door? The only way you'll be able to go through is if you play my game! The same rules are applied to before. Only this time, I'm not going to make it as easy for you, for you two have proved to be worthy foes! If you can finish my little game of tag, I might share some information on my comeback…involving magic!"

"Grrrrr!" Tipral growled. "Fine! We'll play your stupid game! And then when we're done, I'll simply crush your head and then move on!"

A dark ! Switch appeared above the two, which Chopper knew he had to hit. As much as he didn't want to play this stupid game with one of his biggest enemies again, it was the only way to progress. With a light ball in his hand, he hurled it straight at the dark ! Block, and they were soon out of The Void.

---

CHAPTER 1-2

When Chopper and Tipral appeared from the ripple of air, they noticed the green grass on the ground and the path up ahead. The sky above them was completely blocked by The Void, indicating that this world's end was coming.

"We're back in…Lineland Road?!" Chopper gaped. He turned around and noticed the other path going to Mount Lineland. "Strange…"

"I can see that clown up ahead," Tipral noted, pointing to the jester who was simply flying away on his own past the weak enemies. "I'd like to catch that freak before it's too late!"

"All right, let's hope I remember where to go…" Chopper walked over to the pipes after jumping over some bottomless pits and pondered. A Piranha Plant popped out of the middle pipe and tried to bite him, but his fireball took care of it. "Oh! I think I know what to do here!"

He flipped into 3-D and discovered the same Brick Block behind the pipe. He hit it to create a ladder that led up to a small trail of clouds.

Tipral followed Chopper up the ladder and onto the clouds, where they jumped off and landed on a hill moving up. Chopper jumped on a Koopa and kicked its shell over to the Waddle Dee before getting knocked away by a Spiny Tromp rolling down the hill. All Chopper did was flip into 3-D and go around the Spiny Tromps before reaching the top of the hill and finding a light ! Block.

"I'll handle this," declared Tipral, hurling a shadow ball at the block, causing them to get teleported out of Lineland Road.

---

CHAPTER 2-1

"Whoa… This is Gloam Islands!" Chopper gaped. He also happened to find Dimentio flying ahead. "And there's Dimentio!"

Chopper found himself on a small island, and there was a small one just up ahead past some cannons that were underwater. He could just swim over there, but not in 2-D. That's way too dangerous.

"I think I have a better idea," Tipral said before teleporting to the other side. He also helped Chopper to the other side as well so he didn't have to deal with the cannons.

They thought they would have to travel through this entire area to find a block, but they happened to find a dark ! Switch on the island with a couple of coconuts hanging from the trees. They stood back so they could fall on the ground and explode before Chopper struck the block with a light ball. They were soon out of this world.

---

CHAPTER 3-2

"Hey… We're in the Tile Pool!" Chopper realized, noticing the water around him. They happened to see Dimentio taking the way to the left past the undertow. They followed him while avoiding the Bloopers and Cheep-Cheeps that were swimming around.

Thankfully, Sonic wasn't around to deal with the Tile Pool, so Chopper didn't have to worry about taking him through the undertow. The light ! Block, however, happened to be at the very beginning of the area.

"Huh… Well, I never knew we'd see this block here…" Chopper trailed.

"Let's just get out of here," Tipral said before striking the block with a shadow ball, teleporting them out of the Bitlands.

---

CHAPTER 4-3

The two were teleported into Outer Space, in a large area with many Brick Blocks in sight. From what Chopper could remember, this was where he had to go find Squirps some chocolate so he could open the gate. However, the only difference was that the blue wormholes were all gone.

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

"Outer space, or rather the Space Bypass," Chopper answered. "And Dimentio's bound to be around here somewhere."

There were Eeligons roaming around on the Brick Blocks, but they decided to ignore them and search around for a dark ! Block. It happened to be located in the upper right, rather than the way to Twinkle Mart.

"Well that was easy," Chopper said before striking the block with a light ball and teleporting out of the vicinity.

---

CHAPTER 5-5

The two were teleported into King Neptunian's Palace, but what they thought would be peaceful and clean turned out to be just what Chopper had seen when he came here before. Polluted waters, a brownish floor, and ruins everywhere with destroyed plants.

"And here I thought Neptunian would fix this place up," Chopper frowned.

But before they did anything else, they noticed they were in an underwater tunnel, and the current happened to be pulling them away. Chopper decided to stay calm and let the current pull him through the tunnel, and once a pole came up ahead, he grabbed it so he didn't get hit by any spikes.

"I don't believe I was here before," Tipral mentioned.

"Well, that explains why you don't know of this area," Chopper said. "Though, I think we were here before."

He let go of the pole and passed a couple of other poles, causing him and Tipral to be carried downward and to the bottom of Neptunian's Palace. Chopper could tell by the blue walls and also the waterfall they happened to come out of. Beside Neptunian's door was a light ! Block.

Tipral conjured up a shadow ball and hit the block to teleport them out of Neptunian's Palace.

---

CHAPTER 6-4

"Uh oh… Not the Sand Castle." Chopper gulped as he and Tipral were teleported in the Sand Castle. Or rather, on it because they were outside on a bridge. "Wait a second… Wasn't this world destroyed?"

"Or maybe this is just an illusion…" Tipral pondered.

"Ah ha ha ha. You're doing very good so far!" Dimentio applauded, using his magic to bring in an army of Big Bandits to charge before disappearing. He left behind a dark ! Switch as well at the end of the bridge.

However, because these Big Bandits were weak, they were easily defeat Chopper's jumps and Tipral's Star powers. They were literally gone within seconds.

And that gave Chopper enough time to get them out of this desert by hitting the dark ! Block. The thought of how they were able to come here was strange, but he didn't want it to linger over his head for too long.

---

CHAPTER 7-5

"The Overthere?" Chopper gawked, noticing his surroundings. They were indeed in The Overthere, but instead of being near the shrine, they were in Overthere Sector 2, where they saved a Nimbi from some Skellobits. There was also a door up ahead that led into Overthere Sector X. But by now, that place was empty.

But The Void in the background was much bigger than before, and it was certainly prepared to swallow up this world soon. They decided not to waste any time and jumped over to the other cloud and over the small pillars. They assumed the light ! Switch was where Blubi was.

"Great… We're going to have to make one heck of a climb." Chopper sighed, trying to reach one of the clouds above him. Tipral was thankful enough to teleport him and Chopper up the clouds and up to the small Overthere building where Blubi once was.

"You know, I wonder how Luvbi's doing right now… I mean, after what happened with that final Pure Heart and all… She must be depressed right now!"

"Honestly, that's not important," Tipral replied. "We're supposed to be focusing on catching Dimentio!"

"Yeah, I suppose you're right…"

Tipral tossed a shadow ball at the light ! Block, and they were soon out of The Overthere.

---

CHAPTER 8-4

"Wait… Castle Tipral?" Chopper gaped as he and Tipral were teleported into Castle Tipral. They were in a room with mirrors, which Chopper was certain it was the first one because a couple of Dimentios appeared behind the mirrors and fired magic their way.

"What's the matter?" Dimentio mocked. "You don't remember your own castle, Tipral?"

"If only you'd stop being a coward, I can destroy you," Tipral hissed. "I wanted to simply move on, but since you have to do this, you're REALLY getting me angry!"

"Just ignore him, Tipral," Chopper suggested. "He's purposely trying to get you angry. He's Dimentio. He's demented."

Since there was no dark ! Block around this side, Chopper decided to go into 3-D with Tipral and jump through one of the fake mirrors. To the left in 2-D, there was a dark ! Block waiting for them.

"Too easy!" Chopper smirked before teleporting out of the castle with Tipral once the block was struck.

---

CHAPTER 9-1

"What is this world?" Tipral gawked when they were teleported into a world full of sweet treats. "Why is there so much candy and sweets in this world?"

They saw Dimentio fly past a Choconut that spotted the two. It began to charge at them until Chopper ate the enemy. He had a strange feeling in him, but he tried not to let it out, because it would be bad.

They made their way down the hill ahead and then ran into a large, jelly-filled donut. Chopper remembered what he had to do on this thing and began to run on it. Tipral did the same thing, causing the donut to move up to the ledge above them. That was where the door was, but when Chopper tried to open it, it wouldn't open.

"There's no block around here!"

"Then it must be located somewhere else…" Tipral pondered, jumping off the ledge. The donut still didn't go down to the bottom, but Tipral did notice something. It happened to be a light ! Block. "Well looks like I found our answer."

He struck the light ! Block, and they were teleported out of the ninth world.

---

CHAPTER 10-3

Chopper and Tipral found themselves in a mountain, but they could see that they were at the top. How did they know? There was a sign telling them this was the top, and there were the snowboards, skis and tube on the ground as well.

"Wait a minute… Do we have to go down this mountain?!" Chopper gaped.

"If that's the only way we can go, then we have no choice," Tipral answered. "Just forget the skis. We can go down the mountain ourselves."

"OK…" Chopper followed Tipral down the mountain. He was a bit cold, since he didn't carry any winter wear with him. Also, he definitely wanted to avoid the water in this world after what it did to him last time.

After making their way to the bottom, they were at the frozen lake, which was nothing but chunks of ice floating in the water. The center ice chunk happened to have a dark ! Switch waiting.

"There it is," Tipral said. "We need to get there."

Chopper nodded and hopped to each ice chunk until he got to the center one. Tipral teleported over to him so Chopper could strike the dark ! Block with a light ball and teleport them out of here.

---

CHAPTER 11-2

"Phew! I'm no longer cold!" Chopper sighed while being teleported to the next world. It was, of course, the Metallic Fortress. "Oh… It's this world. This is definitely one of those worlds I didn't enjoy too much."

Chopper moved up the small hill and saw some electricity on the ground. "And it just HAD to be this part…"

Tipral noticed a Robbie and a Securibot lingering around, so he decided to destroy the Securibot with a Star Spear. A light ball instantly destroyed the Robbie, which surprised Chopper.

"Now we don't have to worry about them," Tipral noted. "Let's go."

They jumped over the electric floor and went around the tall pipe via flipping. The loop afterward was very simple, and it was able to help them go down the hill faster and stop by the door. Apparently there was no block there.

Chopper had an idea strike his head as he ran back through the loop and used the platforms to go on top of the loop. Tipral followed him and discovered a light ! Block was floating on top of the loop.

"Hmph… Dimentio sure knows how to fool us." Tipral said before hitting the block with a shadow ball.

---

CHAPTER 12-4

Both Chopper and Tipral were teleported into a hallway, and both of them definitely knew where they were at this point. After all, they both explored this mansion eight chapters ago.

"We're in the Mansion of Nightmares?" Chopper gawked. "Well… This is interesting."

"And how are we supposed to find the next block?"

"I have an idea," Chopper went into 3-D with Tipral and explored the only hallway in 3-D to reach another hall. Back in 2-D, they discovered a dark ! Block over by the left. Chopper struck it with a light block and they were out of the mansion.

---

CHAPTER 13-1

The two were transported into Sun Town, which was surprisingly empty at the moment. Chopper was wondering why people weren't walking around, but then he realized what it could've been.

The Void lingering up in the sky was big. Very big.

"Oh, geez… This isn't good…" Chopper frowned. "This world may decay pretty soon…"

"I see the block over there," Tipral informed, pointing to the left. The block was surprisingly right there in front of them, but they didn't have much time to be around anyway. Tipral struck it with a shadow ball, and they were soon out.

---

CHAPTER 14-2

"Hey… It's one of those virtual worlds I was placed in when I was into cyberspace!" Chopper gaped, noticing the green virtual world around him. They saw Dimentio fly up ahead, but they were soon stopped by Chopper Viruses and Kirby Viruses.

"Oh, yeah… I forgot about them." Chopper jumped on the Chopper Virus, while Tipral hit the Kirby Virus with Star Magic. But realizing that they had limited time, they passed them and went down the hill to get launched up by a spring. They landed on the ledge and went past the viruses of Sonic, Blade, Mario and Luigi and reached the door to find a dark ! Block.

With one light ball, they were teleported out of cyberspace.

---

CHAPTER 15-5

"Wait… Is this the path to Elbi's Shrine?" Chopper questioned as they were teleported to The Peaceness.

"The Peaceness? Oh. This place…" Tipral realized after looking at the sky. "Well this place is doomed to fall too, so we should get a move on."

They made their way up the stairs to Elbi's Shrine, but they didn't find a block in sight. They felt the ground shake around them, indicating that The Void grew bigger.

"Crud… I don't know if we have much longer to be here." Chopper gulped.

"Hold on…" Tipral walked over to the edge of the floor and noticed a block on the cloud. "We can jump off here and hit the block."

"You found the block?"

Chopper followed Tipral onto the cloud and teleported out of The Peaceness after Tipral struck the light ! Block.

---

CHAPTER 16-4

"What the… I don't think I've been here before." Chopper paused, noticing his surroundings in Tipral's Palace. "I mean, I've been in this palace before, but it wasn't a room like this."

They were in a room with a couple of high platforms they were standing on, and also there was a door ahead that most likely could not be opened. Nevertheless, they began to search around for a block. Sadly, they found nothing.

"Nothing's here…" Tipral trailed. "Though, have we checked in 3-D?"

"Oh… No we didn't." Chopper flipped into 3-D and saw a small tunnel to his left. He and Tipral jumped into the tunnel and found the dark ! Block at the end. Chopper got a light ball ready and threw it at the block, teleporting them out of the palace.

---

CHAPTER 17-3

They happened to teleport in the very first area of the forest, but by the end where the door was. Dimentio happened to be flying over to the left.

"Huh… We're back in this underground forest…" Chopper trailed. "I'm surprised we aren't huge here."

"No time to be thinking of that, Chopper. Follow him!" Tipral demanded.

They went down the hill and ran past a few Brushers and spinning tops. They didn't have the time to fight them. They just wanted to get to the next block and get out of this place. Chopper was not much of a fan of it.

After going through the bumpy path, they found the staircase leading up to the cavern. The top of the staircase happened to have a light ! Block waiting for them. Tipral skated up the stairs and struck the block with a shadow ball.

---

CHAPTER 18-1

Chopper soon had a deep frown when he realized where the block teleported them to. Gone was all the color of all the worlds they've chased Dimentio through, and now they were in the World of Nothing, the remains of what were Dimensional X, Sammer's Kingdom, Mobius, the Mushroom Kingdom, Pop Star and Clara.

Chopper was unsure of what to say when Tipral spotted Dimentio flying on ahead.

"Let's just go after him," Tipral suggested.

"OK…" Chopper sighed before he began to trudge through the remains of the worlds. He even saw the black lifeless bodies of his friends around too. Apparently no one dared to go into the pale green door of Flopside Tower when the news came out about the worlds being destroyed.

But what saddened him even more was when he realized he was with the person who destroyed these worlds. But then again, Tipral did have a bit of a change when they were working together. Now they're on the same page with their goal.

Before Chopper could think of anything else, he heard Tipral's voice holler, "Chopper, the dark block's here. Hit it so we can get out of here."

Chopper noticed the dark ! Block near the remains of some of Chopper's friends, so he struck the block so he didn't have to see their lifeless bodies in front of him.

---

Sagein Galaxy-

"Huh? What is this place?" Tipral gawked, noticing the rainbow-like trail they were now standing on.

"We're in…Sagein Galaxy?" Chopper gaped. "Why are we here?"

They could hear Dimentio's cackling ahead, forcing them to follow him through Rainbow Trail. Chopper wasn't expecting to be back here, but he was glad to return to this place – without having to deal with Robo Chopper or Maquano.

They ran through a couple of corkscrews and loops and eventually reached the area where Chopper faced Phantom Maquano. They knew they were close to the end of the trail, but the light ! Block was already near them at this point.

"Hmph… Let's just get out of here." Tipral said, hitting the block with a shadow ball and disappearing with Chopper.

---

CHAPTER 19-5

"Whew… We're finally at the last area!" Chopper sighed, getting teleported to the large area with Tipral. They knew this was the big area where they fought an army of Dark Creatures and wizards. The turrets were still there, and the door up ahead happened to be open.

"Let's move!" Chopper said before running off to the door ahead. Tipral skated after him through the door and up the stairs. Surprisingly, there happened to be no enemies in sight, which was very nice.

The door to where was once Shade's Castle was open too, and they noticed everything was a bit of a wreck. Some pieces of the platform they fought Shade were on the floor, but the castle still remained above them.

"Not much has changed since we were here…" Chopper realized.

"That I can agree with," Tipral said before noticing the dark ! Block near the rubble. "Chopper, there's the dark block. You might as well hit it."

Chopper nodded and approached the block. With the light power in his hand, he struck it, and they were teleported out of the Comet of Darkness.

---

The Void-

When the two were finally teleported back into The Void, they were actually relieved to be back in the darkness. As much as it was nice to see those worlds, trying to chase after Dimentio was a big pain.

"Finally… We're finished!" Chopper sighed.

"So, were you enjoying my little game?" Dimentio chuckled, grinning at the sight of the exhausted two.

"Dimentio… We had enough of your stupid games." Tipral growled as the two approached him.

"I must congratulate you two on making it all the way back here! You were able to go through twenty worlds, yet you seem a little exhausted!"

"That should be enough of your games for now," Chopper stated. "You're not messing with us any longer."

"Messing around? Oh, no. Magic is something to be taken seriously. You should've known that by now. But, why did I decide to play that little game with you? Perhaps just to have a little laugh! Ah ha ha ha. Did you have a little laugh too?"

"Shut up, Dimentio," Tipral hissed, firing a Star Spear his way. Dimentio summoned a Rubee and blocked his attack. "What the…"

"Now now, Tipral… We won't be having any of that right now! Anyway… Since you two have finished my game, I suppose I should be fair and explain everything to you. That is what you want, right?"

"Yes, explain to us HOW you managed to come back to life!" demanded Chopper. "I mean, you were destroyed after you took the Chaos Heart for the third time! There's no way you could've lived after committing suicide!"

"Hush now, Chopper so I can explain," suggested Dimentio, making Chopper stay quiet. "You see, after I destroyed myself back on that asteroid, I actually left a shadow of my spirit behind. You see, for my plan to work, I had to let myself lose to you!"

"So you purposely di-"

"When did I say you could talk? …Now, where was I? Ah, yes! To fully complete my plan before coming back to life, I had to not only gain power from my own magic, but from your minions, Tipral! Chopper, remember when O'Chunks was going nuts in that cavern?"

"Yeah…"

"That was just me possessing him! Wasn't that simply magical? And from that, I was able to gain some of O'Chunks's powers! As for the others… They were much easier to gain their abilities since they were already in one place! …Well, except for Dark, but getting his powers was simple too."

The jester turned away from the two and continued on. "However, my plan wasn't fully complete. I still had to get myself to come back to life. To do this, I had to send Tipral to the Comet of Darkness and Chopper to Sagein Galaxy so he could restore the Pure Heart with the powers of the three sages. So with that, you could finally get to the comet and meet up with Tipral and your friends so you could defeat Shade Doom."

"Wait, so you did all of that?" Chopper gawked. "As much as an evil, psychotic jester you are, I have to commend you for that. That did help us get the last two Pure Hearts…"

"And that's what I was planning!" Dimentio smirked, turning back to Chopper and Tipral. "With Shade finally defeated, I just needed him to use his dark magic to bring me back to life. You see, the only way a shadowy spirit can be brought back from the dead is if a dark wizard uses his dark magic on the spirit."

"So you… Hold on a second! Does this mean Shade is still ALIVE?!"

"Very much alive. In fact, he's actually in this darkness too! Isn't that just wonderful? Ah ha ha ha! Now he can get his revenge on you if he ever finds you! And now that I am alive, I can finally get what I want: the True Chaos Heart!"

"Too bad you're never going to fulfill your plan," Chopper declared, getting in a fighting stance. "We're still here, and we're going to stop you!"

"Oh, yes, I nearly forgot about what I was going to do with you," Dimentio realized. "Since you two are a waste of time, I shall end your games. So, Tipral… Shall we get started?"

"Tipral? But what about me?"

"Yes, you are in fact a nuisance, but I think it would be much more enjoyable to face off against my ex-leader! I want to see how strong he has become ever since we fought back in his castle! You are of no importance to me…yet."

"Well I'm standing by his side," Chopper declared. "He's helped me through a lot in this darkness, and he's even saved my life a couple of times! Why should I just leave him to fight you? We're in this together now, and we're going to destroy the True Chaos Heart and save every world!"

Before Chopper could continue, he was suddenly punched from behind, knocking him over. As he got up, he cast Dimentio a glare, but he noticed he was too far to even punch him. But then Chopper turned to Tipral, who had been glaring at him while his right fist was clenched.

"T-Tipral…?" Chopper gasped.

"Chopper, I was never your friend," Tipral stated coldly.

"Wh-What?! B-But… What about all of those times you helped me?!"

"I helped you because I was trying to gain your trust. If I never helped you or saved you, you would still be angry at me, and you would not want my help. I was surprised at how much you trusted me, even when I destroyed your world. It just shows how gullible you are."

"Then my friends would've seen through you!"

"They would have… You're right. But they were convinced by you that I was actually trying to help you guys stop the True Chaos Heart. See, they trust you much more than they would trust me. Does that make sense?"

"…So you've been using us this whole time so you could reach the True Chaos Heart. Is that it?" Chopper asked, a hint of both sadness and anger in him. "So you're still the same as you've been? And let me guess, you want the True Chaos Heart's power as well?"

"I'm glad you finally figured it out," Tipral slowly nodded. "Dimentio's not the only one with that kind of plan. But for now, our partnership is over!"

Chopper's head hung low with a feeling of betrayal in his mind. Tipral crossed his arms before Chopper looked back up at him.

"I'll at least give you a headstart," the dark being stated. "The closer you get to the True Chaos Heart, the more dangerous it'll get. Maybe you need all of that time if you want to reach it first."

Chopper stood silent again before turning away. "Here I thought I could trust you with your help. I guess I was wrong..."

He slowly began to walk off in sadness over to the door ahead, which was now unlocked by Dimentio's magic.

"Ah ha ha ha. How tender. I think I almost shed a tear." Dimentio chuckled emotionlessly. "All this time, Chopper was just being used by Tipral so he could reach the True Chaos Heart himself! I will commend you on your efforts, Tipral! Gaining his trust and making his friends trust you a bit! You did a much better job than I did! Bravo!"

"Shut up, clown," Tipral snapped. "I will deal with him later. For right now, it's you who's going to have their game end once and for all! And I will make sure your game ends for good!"

"Ah… The anger in you builds up like a pot overflowing with boiling water! I see we both want to use that dark power for destruction! Since we're on the same agenda, maybe we should work together?"

"Don't even try to convince me. I will NEVER work with you. Now stay still so I can finally blow your head away!"

"If we must use the act of violence, then so be it," Dimentio declared, floating off the ground. "And now we battle, like two cowboys who are waiting to pull the trigger on their guns on a cold, snowy day!"

Dimentio cast off a grin and easily dodged Tipral's Star Spear coming his way. With the new powers he had gained, he can finally test them for the first time. And who was a better person to test them on other than Tipral?

"Oh, Tipral, there are so many powers I want to show you. It'll be exciting, like a child eager to open a present on Christmas day!" Dimentio smiled while hurling his magic down at the dark being. All Tipral did was dodge it with his teleporting powers.

"I already know your moves, Dimentio," Tipral replied. "I've faced you before, and I didn't forget what you could pull off!"

From looking at Dimentio's stats, Tipral saw he had 600 HP an Attack of 24 and a Defense of 14. Yikes… That's a lot more than the other enemies they've faced…other than the Void Skelloknights. But that was a different story. He wanted to reach the True Chaos Heart, and he wasn't going to let some jester get in his way.

For the first time, it truly felt like a villain vs villain battle.

Dimentio was prepared to hurl more of his magic at his enemy, but Tipral teleported in front of him and struck him with a Star Kick. The jester didn't get sent flying, but he teleported away from Tipral instead so he could use his magic again. This time, he tried creating a box to trap Tipral in, but the procedure was slow, and trying to catch him in a box during a fight was difficult.

"That box trick isn't going to help you here, you know," Tipral hissed, letting his Star Magic get to the jester. Despite hitting him, he didn't appear to be in any bad condition. Then again, this was the start of their battle.

"So, Tipral… What do you plan on using with that Chaos Heart, hmmmm?" Dimentio wondered, teleporting behind Tipral. "You never explained to me why you want that True Chaos Heart. To destroy all worlds?"

Tipral replied by elbowing his face and knocking him back. "My answer is none of your business, clown!"

"Hmmmm… A feisty one you are… Well, I was planning on ending your game, so I might as well do it now!" Dimentio snapped his finger, and suddenly a bright, blinding light appeared, preventing Tipral from seeing. He tried to figure out where Dimentio was, but all he received were magic attacks from behind and to his face. This only got him angrier now that he was being attacked while he was nearly blind.

Dimentio's laugh only got him angrier as he attacked with his Star Rain. He still heard the jester laughing at him, which made him know that Dimentio didn't even get hurt by his attack.

"Stop hiding, clown!" Tipral roared. "Come out and show yourself so we can actually fight!"

"I'm right behind you," the jester smirked, appearing right behind the dark being. But when he turned around, he disappeared in a flash. Tipral clenched his fists in anger before he felt himself get surrounded in an invisible box. When he turned around, he saw Dimentio giving him a demented smile.

"So, how does it feel to be so easily fooled?" Dimentio smirked, getting ready to snap his finger.

"And you're just going to defeat me right now?" Tipral asked. "I'm sure you wanted a better fight than this."

"You're absolutely correct, my dark friend. And that is why this is most likely not going to end your game."

With a snap of his finger, the box exploded from the inside, harming Tipral as well. The white flash was gone as well, making it much easier to see what was around. Tipral, though, was kneeling on the ground in a bit of pain, but it wasn't enough to do him in so easily. He beat this clown before, and he's going to beat him again. That Chaos Heart was going to be his!

"You seem exhausted, Tipral! Just like a man who was working hard all day!"

"Enough with the similes!" Tipral yelled out, firing a Star Spear that was able to strike Dimentio. "Your similes are the last thing I want to hear from your mouth, clown! That's asking me to end your game in a painful way!"

"But why would you want to end my game…" Dimentio asked, snapping his finger and disappearing. When he appeared again, there were now three Dimentios flying around. "…When I'm here to entertain? After all, I'm a magician, and magicians are made to entertain!"

"You don't entertain me, Dimentio. In fact, you make me want to tear your head off. And your entertainment makes me want to bang my head against O'Chunks's behind."

"Looks like someone has no sense of humor. I'm just wasting my time with my entertainment. Let us get back to our duel!"

The three Dimentios raised their fingers and fired five blots of magic in Tipral's direction. Remembering this attack, Tipral teleported past the magic attacks and tried to punch one of the Dimentios. His fist ended up phasing through it, and it allowed one of the other Dimentios to hit him with his magic.

"I'm afraid you've chosen poorly, my friend," Dimentio stated.

"I'm not, and never will be your friend, you poor excuse of a clown!" Tipral hissed, snapping his finger and hitting the correct Dimentio with his Star Magic. He ended up disappearing while leaving the air rippled before teleporting above his dark foe. He was about to create another explosive box, but Tipral used it as a platform to hit him with a Star Spear.

Perhaps now was the time to show Tipral some of his newer magic skills. He raised his hands up and allowed flames to rise up from the ground. Tipral noticed the flames and stood in between them. This was just like Galacta Knight's fire geysers, but these looked much more difficult to avoid.

He even spun his body so he could fire icicles in all directions at a fast pace. They soon melted and became freezing cold energy that left Tipral frozen. Dimentio smirked and snapped his finger, triggering a magic attack involving a lightning bolt zapping Tipral and leaving him paralyzed.

"Ah ha ha ha. It's so nice to see you suffer like a starving and abused dog." Dimentio smirked dementedly. "Things seem to be my way now after the beating you gave me back in your castle!"

Tipral tried to fight the paralysis, but Dimentio knew he was having a difficult time and decided to float to the ground and walk over to him. "Face it, Tipral. You can't win against me now. I've got all the power in the world!"

"And power is all you care about?" Tipral cringed, still struggling over the paralysis. "For a villain, your goal is very clichéd. Even Maquano wanted a similar goal at one point."

"Oh, and what are your intentions, Tipral?" Dimentio wondered. "Why don't you share them with me!"

"I don't need to tell you my intentions," Tipral began as he broke out of his paralysis. "Because they are not any of your business."

He delivered a shadow punch to Dimentio's face, which sent him flying to the right wall over by the door. Just to make sure Tipral wouldn't get out, he used his magic to seal the door. He'd take care of Chopper later. For now, he wanted to have some fun with Tipral.

"The Dark Prognosticus states that only a dark being's power can handle the power of the True Chaos Heart," Tipral explained while he approached the jester. "You cannot handle it. It'll only destroy you and your soul."

"Ah, yes, that book," Dimentio began, suddenly reminded of the book. "Of course that's what the book would say. Like Tippi would say, nothing is decided by fate. That book was just a means to ruin one's life!"

"And how do you know this?"

"Isn't it obvious, Tipral? My knowledge of the Dark Prognosticus is like a student being given the obvious answer when he still has no knowledge of the question!"

That's when realization came to Tipral. "You… So you're the one who wrote the Dark Prognosticus… You're the true originator."

"Ah ha ha ha. Why of course. I wrote the entire book to tear away the souls of those who read it! And you happened to be one of the few whose soul was torn away thanks to my writing! You see, that was another key to bringing me back to life when I was first defeated by Mario and Co.! I mentioned myself in the book so if anyone tried to take the book, I would be brought back so I could resume my plan to watch those suffer from the prophecy and take the Chaos Heart for myself! I really must thank you for all of this, Tipral. If you hadn't gotten that book, my plan would've been a complete waste."

"Well there's a flaw in your explanation," Tipral explained, trying to punch Dimentio but missed. "My soul was already lost before I got a hold of the Dark Prognosticus. That was all a thousand years ago."

"Ahhh… So you once did have a soul." Dimentio smirked, rising up into the air once again. "Well, none of that is important. I don't need you anymore, so I must dispose of you."

Dimentio tried to hit him with another thunder spell, but Tipral teleported in front of the jester and landed another shadow punch on him. He would've punched him again if he didn't teleport away from him. Dimentio decided to teleport again after a snap of his finger so there were three Dimentios instead of one.

Knowing what he had to do, Tipral let his Star Rain rain down in the area, which helped discover the real Dimentio when he got struck. He teleported, and the other two clones were also gone and reappeared on the ground.

"My my… Maybe it's time I showed you my brand new powers." Dimentio declared. "That's one of the few reasons why I came here to fight you!"

With his fist clenched, the jester struck the ground with a powerful punch, which made the ground around them shake. Dimentio grinned as Tipral was suddenly struck by a couple of dark rocks that fell from the sky. He tried to defend himself, but the shaking left him stunned and unable to move.

To add to this, Dimentio clenched both fists and used an ability he would never expect to use. He let out a large fart and began to fly all over the area. Tipral, now being able to finally move, saw him fly his way and delivered a powerful Star Punch. It was enough to stop Dimentio's attack and leave a small amount of gas behind. In fact, all they could hear was a small squeak.

"Ah, such an unnecessary sentence from a writer, like a boy making an inappropriate joke in a strict area," Dimentio said before noticing Tipral jump in the air and fire a Star Spear in his direction. To counter this, he summoned a red Rubee and fired it at the attack. Both clashed and exploded.

"So I assume you've gotten all of my minion's powers," Tipral wondered as he landed on the ground. "I was already fighting doppelgängers of my minions earlier, so this shouldn't be anything new."

Dimentio fired another Rubee at the dark being, but it was easily destroyed when Tipral fired dark energy at him, which was enough to deal a lot of damage to the jester. But he still kept his smile and fired his magic his way, which was able to strike him and allow him to make his next move.

"I'm not sure what is more enjoyable; playing around with my good friend Tipral, or reading and exposing our dear Mimikins's diary to everyone else?" Dimentio smirked as he prepared to freeze Tipral. "Well, I constantly read the girl's diary, and sometimes that gets old. But this doesn't feel old!"

Tipral prepared to hit him with his Star Magic, but the jester flipped into 3-D. "Ah ha ha ha. Don't think I forgot about this ability now!"

"Flipping into 3-D isn't going to make you a better fighter," Tipral scoffed. "So come out of there so we can actually fight rather than having you hide!"

Dimentio responded by hurling his own magic down at Tipral. While he was not visible in 2-D, his magic was able to be seen. Tipral fired a Star Spear at the magic and made it explode. Disappointed, the jester flipped back into 2-D and tried to scorch him with his fire magic. Sadly, Tipral knew the position of the flames and was able to get in between two flames that rose up.

Instead of using his own magic, he snapped his finger, and he was suddenly holding two blasters. "I'm not one to carry blasters around, but that small bean minion of yours does have the ability to use blasters and laser swords! …Oh, yes, and he can use that Headgear too. His manner always seemed like a laughing school boy…"

"I was hoping to get my hands on him, but that dark power he absorbed turned him into a little critter," Tipral noted. "When you're finished, I plan on ending his game, and then I'll most likely be going after Chopper and the True Chaos Heart!"

"There's just a little question I'd like to know," Dimentio began. "Do you really think you can defeat Chopper?"

"He has beaten me in the past, but that was because he had help. I never fought against him when he had no assistance. Since he no longer has help, the fight is likely to be in my favor this time."

"I see… But it's a shame you may not have your chance to fight him yourself. After all, you're facing someone who can do THIS!" Dimentio fired both blasters Tipral's way, and he was able to knock him back by the right door. The jester prepared to fire again, but Tipral threw a Star Spear his way.

But Dimentio had other plans. Using Nastasia's power, he was able to change the direction of the Star Spear and send it back Tipral's way. Not expecting the attack, he ended up getting hit by his own attack. That was something Chopper would usually do against him, but seeing something like that from Dimentio was unexpected.

"Surprised?" the jester smirked while Tipral got himself up. He was certainly not looking too good from this fight, and he seriously needed to get his act together. He was being toyed around by this freak show!

Dimentio changed the blasters into laser swords and teleported in front of them so he could swing them his way. Tipral jumped back and dodged the attack and tried to hit the jester with a shadow ball. Sadly, the attack was blocked by Dimentio's weapons, so Tipral teleported behind him and struck him with a Star Kick. Both of Dimentio's laser swords dropped, so Tipral disintegrated them with his Star powers.

"That's enough of those weapons," Tipral declared. "Haven't you already learned by now? I already faced doppelgängers of my minions. Of course I'll be expecting the same thing!"

"Oh, really?" Dimentio's hands were surrounded in green electricity, which he used to summon lightning the size of a tornado. It began to come Tipral's way, but his teleportation helped him reach Dimentio and jump on his head. That was obviously something that came from Mr. L.

He also added in a couple of small meteors that began to go after Tipral. A couple were knocked away, but the rest were able to hit Tipral and leave him a bit exhausted. Dimentio raised his arms and summoned a giant meteor that nearly took up the whole floor. Thankfully, Tipral got to safety before the meteor could even harm him.

As soon as the meteor was gone, Dimentio hovered over Tipral and looked at how exhausted he was. "Now look at you, Tipral. You so worn out, like an elephant who had been jogging all day without a break. Not even you are strong enough to defeat me now! But just think of what powers I will possess with the True Chaos Heart. It'll be very…magical."

"I told you already that you couldn't handle power like that," Tipral stated. "The power will most likely overwhelm you and destroy you! The Dark Prognosticus states that I have the power needed to cause utter destruction to the universe with the help of the Chaos Heart. That is, if it's really true."

"Oh, yes, it's true that you yourself can cause such destruction with the True Chaos Heart. After seeing what powers you were capable of when you were created, I knew I found the right person capable of using the Chaos Heart's power!"

"Wait… You've known about my whole past?"

"Absolutely," Dimentio nodded. "In fact, you're one of the reasons why I wrote the Dark Prognosticus! After seeing what you could do, I just had to find a way to use you as my puppet to get the Chaos Heart! Though you yourself were not one to use your power at the time, the count's father was able to make you let it out! I was hoping for you to get the Dark Prognosticus, but apparently the count was the one to get it first."

"So you're one of the reasons why I've become this?!" Tipral hissed, getting ready to grab a hold of the jester. "The more I think about it, you deserve to be burned, frozen, electrocuted, stung, bitten, torn, and blown up for everything you've done to me!"

"Oh, I didn't do everything," the jester assured, dodging Tipral's Star Spear. "Your emotions got to you first, and you caused yourself to mostly become this. You lost your only friend, and now you've become an evil being…like me!"

"I already said this before, and I don't want to have to repeat myself again. I'm THROUGH with the past!"

"Or ARE you? Hmmmm? Perhaps you still dream about past events like a girl who can't get over a breakup? Do your thoughts of your friend, Timpani, still trouble you, my dark friend?"

"ENOUGH!" Tipral stood up and struck Dimentio with a powerful punch called a Star Nightmare. The punch was so powerful, that a couple of items dropped from Dimentio's inventory. A couple that looked very familiar to Tipral.

"So… You've been carrying the Dark Star Scepter and Dark Prognosticus ever since you sent me to the Comet of Darkness?"

"Unngh… Even as a shadowy spirit, I am still capable of carrying things…" Dimentio coughed before getting back up. "Now be a good friend and give those items back to me."

Tipral picked up the two items and cast the jester a glare. "Do you really think I'm going to give these back to you? The Dark Star Scepter and the Dark Prognosticus were two items I needed to use the True Chaos Heart to its full potential. And now that I have my scepter back…"

He raised his scepter and fully healed himself. "I will show you what I'm capable of!"

For the very first time in a while, Dimentio was actually nervous. Sure, he had all of Tipral's minions powers at his side, but the Dark Star Scepter was one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. And he was facing the person who knew how to wield the weapon!

Dimentio tried to protect himself by surrounding himself with a couple of Rubees, but when Tipral swung that scepter, he fired a dark star that went through Dimentio's Rubee shield and struck the jester. He even tried firing some dark Rubees his way, but Tipral spun his scepter and blocked the projectiles with ease.

"You may be a skilled manipulator, but I think it was very dumb of you to bring this scepter with you when you were planning on facing me," Tipral noted, using his dark shoes to approach Dimentio easily. He could float, but he needed the Chaos Heart's power to do that.

"Ah ha ha ha… Yes… Now I see…" Dimentio said nervously. "I guess I've underestimated your power…"

Tipral stopped and looked down at the jester, who was hiding a smirk. Before he could get closer, he used his magic to trap Tipral in another invisible box. "Well, looks like I've taken care of you, scrappy."

"Scrappy?!"

"Oh, you don't know too much about your background? You were never meant to be this incredible dark being! You were just created to be used by your 'parents' and then get thrown away like a broken toy! You're just some dark being with immense power that only had temporary use. How ironic that that didn't turn out right..."

He didn't want to believe it, but Dimentio was indeed correct. It didn't seem like his parents cared for him too much when he first met them and only cared about their revival. If he was truly an ultimate being, he would've gotten a little more respect, which he never received that much.

"You may be correct, but that's not going to stop me from achieving my goal!" Tipral swung his scepter at the invisible box and shattered it completely, making Dimentio a bit surprised.

Tipral jumped far back and then flew forward while rapidly firing dark stars Dimentio's way like a machine gun. The jester tried to dodge some of them, but he got hit by a few before teleporting away from the dark being. While Tipral was worn out at first, the same thing was starting to happen to him now.

Dimentio prepared to fire more of his magic at Tipral, but he was able to turn to the jester and fire a small dark beam that destroyed the magic attack and knocked Dimentio to the ground. But he wasn't done there. Tipral skated up to the jester, waited for him to get up, and then struck him with his Star Nightmare.

"Why fight now, Dimentio? Why fight now?" Tipral asked. "You're not going to be winning this fight when I'm holding this scepter."

"Ah ha ha… Yes, I do see that… But I'm not defeated yet." Dimentio noted. "Even when you hold that, I still have the strength to fight back!"

The jester struck the ground with a powerful punch to stun Tipral and let rubble fall down on him. He then grabbed the dark behind in a way O'Chunks would, swung him around, and released him so he was flying all over the place. Dimentio couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"So this is the kind of fun O'Chunks gets when he does this," the jester smirked. "Too bad his brain is small like a dodo bird jumping off a cliff. After all, he lets himself get distracted so easily with his stupid dances and poses!"

While Tipral was getting up, Dimentio spun himself and allowed his ice magic to get to business. Many icicles pelted Tipral when he got up, forcing him to put up his Dark Star Scepter for protection. Sadly, not every icicle was blocked from his weapon.

"You may carry a powerful weapon, but you are not invincible with no Chaos Heart," Dimentio stated. "And because of that, I can make you fall over like a tripping baby!"

The icicles soon became freezing cold energy, which made Tipral teleport away from so he wouldn't become frozen like before. Dimentio even tried to paralyze him, but Tipral was quick and was able to avoid it.

"Did you forget that I'm much faster than you?" Tipral asked.

Dimentio ignored his question and snapped his finger again to teleport. He reappeared as three again, with each firing five shots of magic down at Tipral. They would've been effective if Tipral didn't deflect them back at the jesters with a single swing of the scepter. A couple phased through two Dimentios, but a couple got the real one and forced him to teleport while getting rid of the two clones.

When he teleported again, he used Dark's powers and fired a Swift Strike at Tipral. But that wasn't able to push him back when he easily jumped over the attack and struck the jester with another dark star. Tipral also healed some of the damage Dimentio left on him from some of his previous attacks.

Despite being in a bad condition, Dimentio wasn't going to give up so easily. He had all this power, and he wasn't going to let it go to waste. With a snap of his finger, he was able to hit Tipral with his Star Magic.

"What the… How do you have my powers?!" Tipral gaped.

"Don't you remember when we fused back in Castle Tipral?" Dimentio reminded. "When you separated us, I was left with a bit of your power. I suppose you were left with a bit of my power as well…"

"Yes, I was."

"Then we both share something in common," the jester smirked. "See, this is why teaming up wouldn't have been such a bad idea! But, once again, you disappoint me, so I'm forced to end your game instead."

"That is if you actually do that," Tipral retorted, charging up an attack in his scepter. "There's no way I'd let you take me down so easily, especially with this weapon in my hands!"

The attack was fired, and out came a large, dark beam that Dimentio was caught in. He let out a scream in pain, but tried to keep his positive look at the same time. At the same time, he was able to use his magic and strike Tipral with green lightning. This interrupted his attack and left him in a slight paralysis.

"Very clever, clown…" Tipral growled.

"I believe the correct term is jester," corrected Dimentio. "Or perhaps 'overlord' will fit me more once I take over the True Chaos Heart and use it to become the ruler of all worlds! I might call the universe 'Dimentio's Paradise'!"

"You're never going to have your paradise, Dimentio. Not when I'm around…" Tipral broke out of his paralysis and swung his scepter at Dimentio's face, leaving a small bruise on his mask. …If that is even his mask.

"Such a harsh attack! Your behavior is like an uncontrollable child who would hit their elders if they refused to listen to him!"

"I don't like you, so of course I'm going to do that. You should know better, clown."

"So be it…" Dimentio sighed and flew back so he could try to hurt his foe with a couple of Rubees. He even added a couple of meteors to make it more difficult for him to dodge them. Tipral easily teleported over to the jester and knocked him to the ground with a Star Punch. He added some dark stars to the mix to prevent Dimentio from getting up. Last but not least, he fired a small, dark beam that created a hole in the ground.

He landed on the ground and looked down at the hole he created. With Dimentio finally defeated, he turned away from the hole and began to walk over to the door ahead.

Well, until he was knocked over by a magic spark.

"Ah ah ah, Tipral!" Dimentio scolded while teleporting in front on him. His poncho and hat were a bit dirty and a little ripped from the attacks dealt by Tipral. "Creating holes in the floor are not going to help you win a fight, you know."

Tipral hissed as he raised his head. "Get out of my sight!"

"Still filled with anger, I see… I'm actually going to miss your anger when your game is finally finished."

Tipral quickly got up and tried to punch the jester, but dodged the attack easily. "Now you're getting to my serious side, Tipral. And you certainly don't want me to be serious. It does dampen the mood and makes me a bit crazy."

He ignored Dimentio and let his eyes flash before Dimentio was unexpectedly struck by his Star Spark and left stunned.

"Time I showed you what this scepter can REALLY do!" Tipral exclaimed, knocking the jester away with his Star Nightmare, while at the same time he was charging the scepter's power. Once fully charged, he fired a large, dark beam at Dimentio, but this time the jester did not have the strength to attack.

Once he finished that attack, Dimentio was still standing, but still weak. Tipral charged up more power with his scepter so it was soon surrounded in a dark glow before charging at Dimentio. All Dimentio could see was Tipral charging at him before he was struck by the dark power within the scepter.

"NOOOO!" Dimentio cried in defeat as he fell to the ground. Tipral approached him and took out the Dark Prognosticus.

"I guess I might as well finish you with something you made yourself," Tipral raised the book to make the final blow, but he felt something slip out. "Hmmmmm? What was that?"

He found two pictures lying on the ground, so he picked them up and got a closer look at them. The first picture showed a little girl with light brown hair, a white dress and a rainbow ribbon resembling a butterfly in her hair with a dark round being that Tipral knew was himself. The other picture showed the same girl, but more grown up with a blue man in a top hat, cloak and monocle that looked a lot like Count Bleck. In fact, those two people looked like the ones he first met when he got the Dark Star Scepter.

Tipral finally realized who that girl was in the picnic. It was Timpani, his best friend. The one he nearly left to die.

"So… You finally put the pieces together…" Dimentio weakly said as he got up. "The same girl whose game you nearly ended was Timpani all along. And that butterfly… That is what became of her when you hurt her. Isn't that just…magical?"

Tipral noticed Dimentio's demented smile and almost lost it. "I don't want to hear a word from your mouth!"

"OK! I… I cry uncle, Tipral! Mercy! You're much too strong for me, and all I can do is say uncle!"

"Fine, keep it that way," Tipral declared. "After all you've done for me, I suppose letting the Dark Prognosticus finish you off will give off a bit of irony."

"Y-Yes… That is a bit of irony. My own creation is what will be finishing me off. …However, I believe I can't let that happen just yet."

Dimentio raised his hands and created a box around Tipral, whose eyes widened. "What are you doing?!"

"Completing part of my plan," the jester smirked. "I'm obviously not going to let you of all people take me down. With you finally out of my way, I can focus on the True Chaos Heart! And maybe I'll pay that boy Chopper a little visit as well!"

"So, you want things to end this way, huh?" Tipral raised his arms and created a box around Dimentio. "If you're going to be taking me down like this, then I'm bringing you down as well! So long, Dimentio… I may go down, but at least I'm bringing you down as well!"

"If that's the case, then I have one thing to say to the both of us…" Dimentio began as he prepared to snap his finger. "Ciao!"

Both snapped their finger at the same time, and both boxes began to explode from the inside. Tipral could be heard screaming from the explosions, but the only thing he could think of was those two pictures and even Timpani.

He almost regret his actions…

Almost.

---

Through the door-

Chopper heard a loud explosion coming from the door, which caused the area he stood in to shake violently. His arms and feet were shaking, and he almost lost his balance on the dark floor.

The shaking soon stopped, and Chopper couldn't help but dart over to the door in an attempt to open it. He tried pulling it, but he couldn't get the door to open. Tipral was stuck in there with Dimentio – if they are even alive.

He slowly shook his head away and hung his head low. "I guess it's just me in this darkness… I can't believe it. All of my friends are gone, and someone I thought I could trust was just using me this whole time… I guess Tipral was right. I am pretty gullible…"

He looked up at the dark sky and saw some of the lightning flashing in the background. "And not only that, but I'm starting to talk to myself! I guess this is what happens when you're all alone in a dark world. …But I guess if both Tipral and Dimentio were finished off, that means I don't have to worry about them getting in my way. But… It stills makes things feel very lonely for me…"

Chopper took a deep breath, raised his head, and clenched his fists. "But there's no way I'm going to back down so easily. My friends would want me to move on, and that's exactly what I'm going to do! And if Tipral or Dimentio are still alive, I'm not going to let them get in my way either! I'll go destroy the True Chaos Heart for good!"

With his monologue finally finished, he found the final Star Block up ahead and made a dash for it. Once under the block, he gave it a punch from underneath and broke the block.

If only he was able to smash the block with a friend…

END OF CHAPTER

The darkness became heavier and greater through the deeper section of The Void. Blade, Kirby, Mario, Luigi, Sonic, and Tipral were all gone. Chopper was all that remained. Without his friends to help, traveling through The Void would be very difficult for the young hero. It was up to him to reach the center of this darkness and put an end to the True Chaos Heart once and for all and save all worlds from their destruction. With Tipral's betrayal, Chopper took no time to grieve for him, nor did he take the time to cry for his other friends. Chopper knew he had to move quickly and ran as fast as he could through The Void alone. What thrilling conclusion awaited him? Chopper made his way to the deepest section of The Void while the frigid wind blew through his antennae.

---

Well that sure was something, wasn't it? ...OK, I'm sure most people knew that Tipral was planning on betraying Chopper in the first place. Go blame Chopper for trusting him then. :P

I actually liked the whole villain vs villain fight between Tipral and Dimentio. I really think it was one of the moments that stood out big time. See, this is what I said about Chapter 20 getting better. But will Chapter 20-5 beat this one? Well, we shall see.

Some people are probably wondering if there will be any new enemies in this place, since most of the enemies you've seen are pretty much enemies we've already seen in this story. Well, expect some new enemies in the next part! After all, it's the last chapter before the final battle!