Paper Andrew & The Thousand-Year Door

by Parent12D

AU. What if someone else went to Rogueport instead of Mario? What if someone explored the region in his place? What if someone else collected the Crystal Stars just to find Princess Peach? This story has the answers as an original character goes on the exact same journey that Mario went on in the Rogueport region in the tale of the Thousand-Year Door.

69. Storming X-Naut Fortress

OK, readers! This is the 69th chapter of this story!

Now, I don't have much to say for this chapter, aside from the fact that we're reaching the climax of Chapter 7.

'Basically', this chapter focuses on Andrew and his friends storming through the X-Naut Fortress, fighting X-Nauts and Yuxes, solving puzzles, collecting elevator and card keys, needing to enter an access code, taking part in another quiz game like the one from Shhwonk's Fortress, and finding their way into the factory part of the fortress.

And some other stuff will end up occurring too. How will this go for the eight traveling heroes? Read and find out, now!

---

IN THE FRONT HALLWAY OF THE X-NAUT FORTRESS:

Immediately after walking through that door, Andrew and his friends were greeted with a surprise. Two figures were standing right in front of the door that was ahead of them.

"What the...?" Andrew murmured as he squinted to get a good look at these two figures.

They were X-Nauts for sure. But they looked kinda different from the regular X-Nauts that he fought previously with his friends. For starters, their hats, colors, gloves, and boots were black instead of white.

Also, the lens of their goggles was red instead of blue, and the rims of them were more yellow-orange, as opposed to just being yellow. Lastly, the X in the center of the jumpsuits was white instead of black.

Otherwise, they wore the same red jumpsuit as regular X-Nauts do, and the heels of their boots were also red. Andrew was convinced that they were X-Nauts, but they seemed to be a different variant of the X-Nauts in general. These were known as Elite X-Nauts.

"Hmmmm, Andrew, dearie?" Ms. Mowz took notice of them as she had observed them from a distance. "Those happen to be X-Nauts, similar to the ones that invaded the Great Tree a while back, yes?"

"That's right," Andrew nodded before exclaiming. "But these X-Nauts look...different. But why?"

Before anyone could say anything else, the two Elite X-Nauts took notice of Andrew and his friends at the end of the hallway, indicating that they had some intruders.

"What the...?" One of the Elite X-Nauts was startled by their presence in their fortress. "Who's that, dude?"

"Whoa!" The other Elite X-Naut yelped as he recognized the muscular man from the reports that Sir Grodus had given to him about him. "That's Andrew!"

"Andrew?! The very Andrew that has been a hindrance to Sir Grodus's plans?!" The first Elite X-Naut queried. "The same one that has the other six Crystal Stars?! THAT Andrew?!"

"Yes!" The second Elite X-Naut nodded before making the proper suggestion. "So, let's get him?"

"You read me loud and clear, dude," the first Elite X-Naut snapped his fingers and then declared. "CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!"

In an instant, both Elite X-Nauts charged right for the eight heroes. Andrew took this as their cue to get out of the way, as he rolled out of their path. His friends followed his lead and they were able to dodge them too.

"Whoa! Goombella?" Andrew turned to face her. "These are a kind of X-Naut, are they?"

"You betcha that they are, Andrew!" Goombella had had Tattle Log out as she found the page that they were on. "Specifically, these are Elite X-Nauts. These guys are the creme de la creme of the X-Nauts."

"So they are the highest-ranked X-Nauts," Andrew quickly figured out. "Similar to how Koopatrols are highest highest-ranked soldiers in the Koopa Clan?!"

"Exactly," Goombella nodded before she continued reading from her Tattle Log. "Anyway, they'll use regular attacks as well as boosting their power or size."

"So they attack just like regular X-Nauts," Andrew remarked.

"Yes. But don't let your guard down against these freaks, Andrew," Goombella had to warn him. "Elite X-Nauts are tough, but you just have to smack away until they go down."

"Good idea," Andrew cracked his knuckles and faced them. "So let's give them a fight, and let them know HOW we were so successful with collecting six of the seven Crytal Stars!"

With that, Andrew charged forward and started things off by performing his Power Jump on one of the Elite X-Nauts before using his Power Swing on the other one when he slammed his Ultra Bat into his back, knocking him down.

"Whoa! Yowch!" One of the Elite X-Nauts yelped. "This dude is tough, man!"

"It's not over yet, you idiot!" The other one declared. "We can still win this! This fight is just getting fighting!"

At that moment, both of them charged right for Andrew. One of them got decked in the face by his face, but the other one landed a Body Slam on him.

"Whoa! You AREN'T kidding when you say they're tough!" Andrew shook off the pain that he endured. "Very well, then. Let's give it our all, guys!"

Goombella was more than willing to oblige as she walked over and dished out a Headbonk on one of the Elite X-Nauts, hitting him twice. Koops then stepped up and went into his shell before he unleashed his Power Shell on them, plowing through both of them.

As soon as Koops did that breakdance routine, Flurrie stepped up and used her Body Slam on the second Elite X-Naut, crushing him and delivering more damage to it.

"Aw yeah! We can beat these dweebs in no time!" Yoshiam declared eagerly. "Now it's my turn!"

Yoshiam then walked up and used his Gulp move to grab one of them with his tongue and into his mouth. Immediately afterwards, he spat him out right into the other one, doing damage to both of them.

"My, my! How marvelous!" Flurrie proclaimed. "We shall beat these no good scoundrels soon enough!"

"Ugh! This battle is falling in their favor," one of the Elite X-Nauts moaned. "This calls for drastic measures."

"I'm way ahead of you, dude," the other Elite X-Naut went ahead and took out a beaker of potion.

Walking up to his comrade, the Elite X-Naut gave it to him, which resulted in him growing bigger. Koops seemed a little startled by that.

"Ummm... Andrew? Did you see that?" Koops pointed out. "That Elite X-Naut just grew bigger! Might be trouble for us if we don't do something!"

"No kidding," Andrew frowned. "We'll have to be on guard and make sure that they don't damage us!"

"But how do you suppose we should go about with that, old boy?" Bobbery had to ask him. "From what I'm seeing, these louts seem to have great accuracy. And if we're not careful, they could 'possibly' put the hurting on us, eh?"

"Unless..." Andrew mused as he rubbed his chin. "We were able to throw them off and trick them into attacking each other."

"How d'you suppose we can go about with that, Andrew?" Goombella asked him. "You got a plan?"

"Sure I do. I think one of us can infatuate these two into attacking one another," Andrew slowly turned to face Vivian. "Vivian, do you think you can do that?"

"Of course, Andrew," Vivian floated upward. "I'll give it my best."

From there, Vivian put on an extra cute-looking face, getting the Elite X-Nauts a little confused. In a matter of seconds, she blew air kisses towards them, in the form of hearts. Once they were struck by them, their eyes turned into hearts, as they were completely confused in the head.

"Whoa dude," one of them uttered. "What just happened to us?"

"What are you talking about, idiot," the other one snapped as he thought his comrade was Andrew. "You can't fool me! You're ANDREW!"

The first Elite X-Naut dangerously turned to face him. "Maybe it's YOU that's Andrew!"

In a matter of seconds, both of them were brawling with each other, hurting themselves in their confusion. Andrew had to chuckle at their complete idiocy and had the rather wry thought of how this would make a great dinner and a show if it weren't for the fact that they were still on a journey.

While the two Elite X-Nauts were beating each other up, Bobbery took this as his cue to summon three of his Bomb Squad time bombs, which landed right near them and would go off in five minutes.

Vivian then went ahead and waved her index finger in the air, unleashing her Fiery Jinx on them, which engulfed both Elite X-Nauts into flames. This got them to react accordingly.

"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!" Both of them yelled. "WE'RE ON FIRE!"

In a few moments, they put out the flames and were covered in charred stains. The second Elite X-Naut then slapped the first one and sneered at him.

"Get a hold of yourself, man! This battle's not over yet!" He told him. "Do you still have the Thunder Rage that we got from Sir Grodus earlier?"

"Oh yeah," the first Elite X-Naut remembered as he took it out. "We can use it right now!"

"Now you're talking my language!" The first Elite X-Naut stated.

"Whoa! Presto!" Yoshiam yelled. "We're gonna get struck by lightning thanks to that if we don't do something, man!"

"I know! But what can we...?" Andrew then cut off his sentence when he noticed something; Ms. Mowz wasn't with them.

He looked ahead and saw that Ms. Mowz gingerly approached the Elite X-Naut who had the Thunder Rage in his hand. This got his attention as he looked at her.

"What the...?" He remarked. "What's this little white rat gonna do to us?"

"Don't mind me, dearie," Ms. Mowz told him seductively. "I'm just passing through."

In a matter of seconds, she had performed her Kiss Thief on him. She did this by kissing the Elite X-Naut into a trance, getting him all lost in the head. While he was unable to focus, Ms. Mowz jumped on in and swiped the Thunder Rage from him before she stormed right back over to Andrew, where he gained possession of it.

"Whoa. What did you just do to him?" Andrew queried after he blinked.

"Oh, nothing," Ms. Mowz told him slyly. "Just a little trick that I'd like to call Kiss Thief."

"Kiss Thief, huh?" Andrew mused. "Well, it certainly got us out of a jam just now."

"Dude! Snap out of it!" The other Elite X-Naut had to slap his partner out of that trance. "Get a hold of yourself and use that Thunder Rage!"

"Oh right! Of course!" The Elite X-Naut remembered when he saw that his right hand was empty. "What the...? Where'd the Thunder Rage go?! I just had in a moment ago!"

"What do you mean you don't have it anymore?! You just had it, you dope!" The other Elite X-Naut yelled. "Don't tell me that you just lost it, you brainless nimrod!"

"Hey, X-Nauts!" Andrew called out to him with a sly smirk and Ms. Mowz stood right next to him as he showed them the Thunder Rage. "Looking for THIS?"

"Oh NO!" The first Elite X-Naut screamed upon realization hitting him. "THAT LITTLE WHITE RAT MUST'VE STOLEN THE THUNDER RAGE!"

"Took you long enough to figure it out, you numbskulls," Andrew told him dryly with a smirk. "And now it's time to turn the tables on you two."

In a matter of seconds, Andrew activated the Thunder Rage. Immediately afterwards, they were both struck by lightning, causing more significant damage to both of them. They were stunned by how they were able to do that. By now, the big Elite X-Naut had shrunk back to normal.

It was then the five-minute time limit expired, as the three Bomb Squad time bombs went off, blowing up in both of their faces and dealing some more damage, where they shook off the soot that was all over them.

As soon as they came to their senses from the blast of those Bomb Squad time bombs going off in their faces, they both attempted to use Body Slam on Andrew again.

This backfired since Andrew countered back. One of the Elite X-Nauts got decked in the face by Andrew's fist, while the other one was met with a roundhouse kick across the chest.

They were both sent backward as they winced from the counterstrike that they were met with.

Goombella decided to have some fun by approaching the second Elite X-Naut and performing her Multibonk on him, striking him at least 8 times in a row. Koops then got into his shell and unleashed his Shell Toss on the first Elite X-Naut.

"All right, dearie, it shall be my turn," Flurrie floated over to one of them. "I shall be glad to give this cad a beating he shan't ever forget!"

With that, Flurrie grabbed one of them and unleashed her Lip Lock attack on him. She was smooching him and draining him of his energy, which she added to her own as soon as she was done.

Yoshiam decided to give it a shot as he laid four Mini-Eggs; a result of being Ultra Ranked, and tossed them at the two Elite X-Nauts, two to each of them. Shaking his head from doing that, Yoshiam then flutter-jumped and headed over to the first Elite X-Naut and then dished out his Ground Pound attack, striking him six times in a row.

Now it was Vivian's turn, as she then sank into the shadows and appeared in front of the second Elite X-Naut and decked him with her Shade Fist, causing him to suffer from a minor burn to the head, which he had to put out.

"All right! We're getting there!" Andrew declared. "Just a little more left and then we can send these guys packing!"

"Allow me to do the honor, Andrew," Bobbery stepped up. "I shall teach these two ruffians a thing or two for daring to stand in our way."

He then marched up to the first Elite X-Naut and lit his fuse. Once he was in front of him, he started flashing red and unleashed his Bomb attack on him upon exploding. This got the first Elite X-Naut to be sent backward, right into his partner as they both fell on the ground.

"Hmmm mmmm mmmm, I think it's my turn to have some fun with these two," Ms. Mowz snickered as she approached the two of them. "I should be able to send these X-Nauts into a daze in a flash!"

After putting some focus into it, Ms. Mowz unleashed her Tease move on them. She created three copies of herself as they moved all over the place, getting the Elite X-Nauts a little lost on what to do.

"Uhhh, dude? What should we do?" One of them queried. "I feeling lost! There's four of those rats now!"

"Don't just stand there!" The other one bellowed. "Let's attack them!"

And that's what they tried to do. They tried to perform their Body Slam on Ms. Mowz and the Ms. Mowz copies. Unfortunately, because they were in a daze, and the fact that they charged for the copies, they completely missed their target.

"Hmmm, now it's our turn," Ms. Mowz had declared. "Let's show them why I'm called the globe-trotting badge thief!"

Her copies agreed as they performed their Love Slap on both of them. Ms. Mowz and one of her copies attacked one of the Elite X-Nauts, and the other two copies struck the other one. Needless to say, the copies were as strong as the original, since they were able to deal damage on them too.

As soon as she was done, Ms. Mowz's copies had vanished, and she marched back over to Andrew's side.

"Wow. That was Tease?" Andrew blinked at this. "That was pretty incredible!"

"Wowsers," Goombella had to admit. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but that was pretty effective."

"Hmm mmm mmm, glad to see that you think so, Goombella," Ms. Mowz commented. "And you too, Andrew."

"Right. OK, guys. They seem almost worn out for wear," Andrew declared. "Now it's time to finish them off!"

Andrew decided to deliver the final blow on them by performing his Multibounce on both of them first. He then followed this by Power Bouncing on the first Elite X-Naut 11 times in a row before using his Ultra Bat swing to cream the first one into the other one. Both of them had suffered a significant impact from that, as they were worn out and slammed into the wall.

Once they slid back down, they felt their heads bobbing back and forth as they slowly got back up. They realized that they bit more than they could chew and that there was a reason why Andrew and his friends were so strong. So they knew what they had to do now.

"Dude? I think we've met our match!" One of them yelled. "You know what we should do now?"

"Yes," the other one said. "We better run and inform the boss about this!"

"Right!" The first one nodded as they turned around and made a run for it.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" They screamed while running through the door, which closed right behind them.

Andrew dusted his hands and put his Ultra Bat away as a result.

"Well, that takes care of them," Andrew sighed. "Anyway, you guys figured out what this means, right?"

"Sure did, Andrew! If these X-Naut dweebs are here..." Goombella proclaimed. "That's 'totally' it! Then the Crystal Star must be here, too, don'tcha think?"

"Yeah, 'definitely'!" Koops nodded in agreement. "It 'definitely' means the Crystal Star must be here, too!"

"I daresay, these X-Naut buffoons being here must mean the Crystal Star must be here, as well!" Flurrie declared dramatically. "Why, Peach must be here, as well!"

"No kidding!" Yoshiam snapped his fingers. "The Crystal Star and Peach must 'definitely' be here, too! We gotta go find 'em, Presto!"

"Yes!" Vivian beamed while clasping her fingers. "Let's find her and the Crystal Star, Andrew!"

"Yes, I'm quite sure of it!" Bobbery commented. "The Crystal Star must be here, as well as our dear Peach, wouldn't you say? Let's find her and the Crystal Star, dear boy!"

"Yes, I'm positive! The Crystal Star must be here, as is Peach, too!" Ms. Mowz said. "Let's find both of them, dearie!"

"You said it, guys!" Andrew pointed to the door that was ahead of them. "Let's go storming through the X-Naut Fortress just to find Princess Peach and claim the final Crystal Star!"

"You betcha! I mean, this seems to be the only way in or out," Goombella had to comment. "The stars look 'really' nice through these windows, but I guess now's not the time... We gotta princess to rescue and a Crystal Star to claim from these X-Dweebs."

"You've read me loud and clear, Goombella," Andrew declared as he managed to open the door ahead of them. "Let's get cracking!"

All seven of them nodded as they followed Andrew through the door as they were about to explore the X-Naut Fortress.

---

They then ended up in the fortress corridor, with an elevator that required an Elevator Key to activate. There was a single Elite X-Naut in the Level 1 area of the corridor, but Andrew and his friends dispatched it fairly quickly when he tried to pick a fight with them. Andrew was taking in the setup of the fortress, and had to admit, it was pretty advanced in technology.

"This place looks highly futuristic guys," Andrew murmured. "Who would've thought that this would be their hideout?"

"Yeah. And this is only a fortress corridor," Goombella had to comment. "An elevator connects it to the lower floors. I guess this fortress extends pretty far beneath the surface of the moon, huh?"

"Wouldn't it be a surprise if this base extends 'all the way' to the moon's core underneath the crust," Andrew remarked.

"Can't argue with that," Goombella proclaimed. "I mean, I hate Grodus, but I gotta give him some props for a pretty cool evil hideout."

"I hate Grodus too, and I never even met him," Andrew agreed before adding. "Still, this place sure beats being stuck at Bowser's Castle for sure."

"Definitely," Goombella beamed.

"Hey ummm...Andrew? Bad news," Koops frowned as he had checked the elevator. "This elevator won't work. Wonder why it won't..."

"Lemme see that," Andrew then checked it and saw the small red-lit terminal that was on the right. "That's the problem, Koops. We need an Elevator Key to use this elevator! We'll have to go find it!"

"Mercy me! Wherever shall that Elevator Key be?!" Flurrie gasped at this. "Where do you suppose it could be, dearie?"

"I dunno, Flurrie," Andrew commented.

"Hmmmm, maybe it might be in that room," Ms. Mowz pointed to the door that was in front of them. "We should check that room out for ourselves, Andrew."

"Good idea, Ms. Mowz," Andrew said. "Let's investigate."

In a matter of seconds, the eight of them went through the door to see what was in there. The room they had just entered was a booby-trapped room where the group had to walk through a specific path to get to the other side. Said path ended up flashing in front of Andrew's eyes, who yelped and jumped upon seeing this.

"Holy cow!" Andrew yelped. "What kind of room is this? Some sort of treasure room that's under some heavy traps or something?"

"I think so. This room looks like it was meant to store something..." Goombella gazed upon the tiled floor in front of her. "It's booby-trapped, I think."

"I think that one was obvious," Andrew pointed to the flashing tiles. "Stepping on the wrong tile here could result in a massive shock."

"Yeah. Like, duh!" Goombella rolled her eyes as she then asked an unexpected question. "Not to 'totally' change the subject or anything, but how's your memory, Andrew?"

"Why do you ask?" Andrew asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"If you have trouble recalling the full path, you oughta leave and reenter," Goombella suggested.

"I don't think I need to do that," Andrew sighed. "I happen to remember the pathway that we have to take just to get to the other side. But you guys might wanna stick close and remain behind me as we navigate through these tiles, OK?"

"Gotcha, Andrew!" Goombella obliged as she winked. "You're in charge!"

"Ummmm... OK. If you say so," Koops shuffled his feet before sticking near him. "You're the man, after all!"

"I do believe that is a wonderful suggestion, darling," Flurrie exclaimed, floating into Andrew's space. "We shall get started at the earliest convenience."

The rest of his friends nodded as they also stuck close to Andrew. Andrew seemed satisfied as if it looked like he was protecting all seven of them.

Without saying anything else, Andrew went ahead and walked across the tiles in the pathway that he saw when he first entered the room, with his seven friends sticking behind him. By the time they got to the other side, they had approached a grey mechanical-looking treasure chest, which Andrew decided to open up.

"Well, what do you know," Andrew then pulled out what was in there, and it was an Elevator Key that was blue. "Look at what I found, guys. It's an Elevator Key."

"By Blubbery's blotches, dear boy!" Bobbery expressed his shock. "You suppose that those X-Naut ruffians must've put it in there and left it in this tightly secure room with floors that'll shock the feet, eh?"

"I'm more than certain that that's the case, Bobbery," Andrew nodded. "The X-Nauts know that I'm here with you guys, and we've come to claim the Crystal Star and Princess Peach. So they're making sure to pull out all of the punches on us."

"Yeah, so what? In any case, Presto, we got the Elevator Key that we're looking for," Yoshiam pointed out. "Should we check and see if it'll allow us to use the elevator out there?"

"I agree," Vivian nodded. "We'd better get moving and find the princess and the Crystal Star soon. Let's take the elevator to see where it'll lead us."

"That's exactly what we're gonna do," Andrew nodded.

"Hmmm... Andrew. You better look at this," Ms. Mowz pointed to the tiled floor which all of them turned gray and was no longer a hazard to step on. "The trap floor must've been deactivated in here since we claimed our little prize. It should be safe for us to walk over it now, sweetie."

"Good eye there, Ms. Mowz," Andrew set foot on the gray tiled floor. "Let's get a move on!"

And that's what they did. Before they left, Andrew had claimed a Super Shroom in the ?-block that was on the back side of the formerly booby-trapped room. He put it into his backpack before he walked out with his seven friends.

They then went to the elevator, where Andrew went ahead and inserted the blue Elevator Key into the red glowing pad. It had accepted the Elevator Key, as the light turned green. Andrew had left the Elevator Key behind as there was no longer any need for it.

"Well, now that that's been taken care of, we can use the elevator," Andrew activated it and caused an elevator to come up and allowed them to step in.

As soon as the eight of them stepped into the elevator, the door closed up, and Andrew was given an option as to which floor they wanted to stop at; being at either Sublevel 1 or Sublevel 2. Naturally, Andrew had decided that they should check out Sublevel 1 first, so that's where the elevator brought them.

---

As soon as the elevator stopped, the eight of them got off onto Sublevel 1. They were ambushed by a regular X-Naut and an Elite X-Naut, but Andrew and his friends were able to dispatch them quickly. From there, Andrew decided to see what was in both rooms on this floor.

Unfortunately, this proved to be fruitless, as the room to the left was a storage room with a crane that they could use to retrieve the goods above, but it was missing a Cog that was needed to operate it.

As for the room on the right, they needed to input an access code to unlock the door. And since neither Andrew nor his friends knew what the access code was, they had no choice but to use the elevator again to reach Sublevel 2.

They then got off of the elevator as they set foot on Sublevel 2. The eight of them realized that they were in a rather long hallway. Andrew knew that they had a lot of ground to cover here, and his Goomba, Koopa, Wind Spirit, Yoshi, Shadow Siren, Bob-omb, and Little Mouser friends all knew the same thing.

They decided to take a left to the door on the far left when they were ambushed by another X-Naut. This one was an X-Naut Ph.D., and he was tossing beakers of chemicals at the heroes, which they were just barely able to dodge. This got Andrew to react on the spot.

"Whoa!" Andrew yelped. "Is that a kind of X-Naut?"

"Sure is," Goombella explained as she was reading from her Tattle Log. "Specifically, that's an X-Naut Ph.D. Guys like this invent all the annoying things we fight."

"So they are probably the ones who have created the Yux species that we've encountered so far," Andrew figured it out. "Not to mention they're probably the ones who built that Magnus von Grapple mech that we fought before."

"Believe me, Andrew, I 'totally' wouldn't be surprised," Goombella nodded. "'In fact', I'm pretty sure that they helped Beldam with constructing the Superbombomb from before."

"They did," Vivian nodded hastily as she said. "I only heard my sister say that they aided her in the creation of it. But I know that they helped Beldam with it."

"No kidding," Andrew sighed as he jumped out of the way of another beaker of chemicals that was thrown at him. "Anything else?"

"Yes. They like to throw beakers of chemicals. The chemicals do all kinds of stuff, like making things huge or burning people," Goombella informed him.

"I think that one was already obvious," Andrew huffed.

"They may also use potions to heal themselves or make themselves impossible to hit," Goombella told him. "X-Naut PhDs are 'REALLY' annoying, so take them out before they boost themselves."

"No need to tell me twice," Andrew gave her a thumbs up. "I'm all over it!"

With that, Andrew jumped out of the way of another beaker that was hurled at him, and he then landed on the Ph.D. with a Power Jump. He then grabbed him and decked him across the face before finishing it off with a good Power Swing with his Ultra Bat to the head. The X-Naut PhD was out cold in a matter of seconds.

"Now that that's all set," Andrew put his Ultra Bat away. "Shall we check out this room over here?"

"Gotcha, Andrew," Goombella beamed as she put away her Tattle Log. "Let's go check it out!"

With that, Andrew opened the door and walked through it, with his seven friends trailing behind him. Once they entered the room, they found out that it was another floor-trapped room like the one with the Elevator Key that they had gone through before.

"Is this another floor-trapped room that we just entered?" Andrew scratched his temple at this.

"Could be," Goombella did a shrug of some kind. "If you wander off the correct path, it looks like you'll take damage, don'tcha think?"

"No doubt," Andrew then commented. "We would be in for one shocking surprise if we did. That's for sure."

"Can't argue with that," Goombella laughed before adding. "Rooms like this ALWAYS have a hint, though. It's like, a law. See anything like that?"

"Well, we'll have to check and see if there are any clues for us to follow," Andrew had to rub his chin. "But what could it be?"

"Hey Andrew? Look at that over there!" Koops saw something on the wall that caught his attention and Andrew looked at it for himself.

It was a charted map of some kind. And if what it showed was correct, then it might show the pathway that the group has to take just to get to the other side.

"You don't suppose that shows the path that we need to take to get by here, don't you Andrew?" Koops had to scratch his head.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was," Andrew sighed. "Let's see if we can follow that pathway that's displayed."

"Why, I do believe that it a fabulous course of actions, Andrew," Flurrie remarked. "Shall we make our way through this treacherous trap floor that is in front of us, darling?"

"I'm already on it," Andrew approached it. "Just stick close to me, guys."

They obliged as Andrew led himself and his friends through the tiled trap floor in front of them, taking the same path that was shown on the charted map that Koops found. So far, it seemed to be consistent since none of them had suffered from a massive shock from the tiled floor.

They were more than confident that they were making their way, and they remained confident once they made it to the other side, safe and sound. Needless to say, they were ecstatic that they got through another tiled trapped floor puzzle safely.

"All right! We did it, Presto!" Yoshiam was heard cheering. "This booby-trapped floor was no match for us either! We ROCK!"

"I must say, this trap that those scoundrels set up for us was not enough to trifle with us," Bobbery proclaimed before he noticed that chest again. "In any case, old boy, there's another one of those strange-looking chests that we saw before right in front of us."

"Yeah. It does look 'exactly' the same," Andrew approached it. "Well, let's see what's inside of it."

Andrew then opened the chest and pulled out what was inside of it. It was a Card Key. Specifically, it was red-violet. Andrew examined it and realized that it looked important.

"Huh? This is some kind of Card Key," Andrew put it in his pocket. "I have a feeling that we're gonna have to use it for something important later."

"Hey Andrew, look at the floor," Vivian pointed out. "The electric trap must've been deactivated since we collected that Card Key. This means we should be able to get by here safely now, right?"

"That's right," Andrew nodded. "So since we have a Card Key, let's get out of here."

"Yes. That would be a good idea," Ms. Mowz rubbed her chin. "Let's see what else we can find elsewhere."

Andrew nodded as he led his seven friends through the room and towards the exit. After Andrew claimed a Sleepy Sheep from a ?-block on the back side of the room, he left the room with his friends, and they decided to check out another room that was nearby, with a green-lit light above the door.

---

As soon as they entered, they ended up in the chemical lab where Peach went to create that potion that made her invisible at one point.

There was also an X-Naut PhD in the room, messing with some chemicals before he decided to throw one of them at Andrew. Andrew was one step ahead, and he had dispatched the PhD in a matter of seconds.

"Well, I'm convinced that this must be the laboratory," Andrew rubbed his chin. "This is where they make all of the potions and chemicals by using chemistry techniques."

"I wouldn't be surprised. Grodus must have his researchers work on various potions here," Goombella leered over to look at the beakers of chemicals. "I don't think we should touch any of this stuff, though..."

"Yeah," Andrew sighed. "We don't know what any of these chemicals do."

"No doubt," Goombella shared. "One wrong move and...KABOOOOOOOM! ...Know what I mean?"

"Well that's certainly the fastest way to fail a chemistry test," Andrew remarked. "Anyway, there are a bunch of memos lying around here. Do you suppose that the PhDs here have written them at some point?"

"It's likely," Goombella shrugged. "Maybe we oughta check 'em out, just to be sure."

"Got it," Andrew went to the blue one that was on the left wall. "Huh? What does this one say? Hmmmm... Notice of new seminar! Topic: 'Galloping Toward an Era of Risk-Free Potions'. Participation is NOT voluntary."

"Ummmm... What?" Koops was confused by that.

"By the stars!" Flurrie gasped. "Whatever does that mean?!"

"I'm not sure," Andrew rubbed his chin. "But I get the feeling that they're working on an era of risk-free potions. Which comes off as suspicious since there's no idea what their potions are capable of."

"I have to wonder, do these louts intend to invent some kind of Frankenstein monster of their own?" Flurrie had to query. "Oh, the horror! It shall be like that one movie that I starred in one!"

"I highly doubt it, Flurrie," Andrew remarked. "Although since we've witnessed what they've done in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if they do attempt to do such a thing. In any case, I remember that movie quite fondly myself. I believe it was called the Frankenkoop. Is that right?"

"Yes! That's exactly what it was called, hon," Flurrie declared. "Ah, and that one was a classic too, I shall say."

"Yeah," Andrew nodded with a smile. "Now what does this one say."

Andrew then saw another paper on the desk, which he read. This is what it said. "Keep the workspace orderly!"

"OK. Say what?" Yoshiam was confused by this. "What kind of nut would want to write out a message such as that?"

"Neatfreaks. That's who," Goombella told him simply.

"No kidding," Andrew had to cross his arms. "Although it doesn't hurt to have things in an orderly fashion, there is such a thing as taking it too far."

"Yeah," Koops agreed. "Man, I'm not that orderly about things. Sure, my closet at home has all of my favorite hoodie t-shirts arranged correctly. But I'm not this much of a neat freak."

"Hmmm," Vivian nodded before she then noticed another memo right next to it. "Hey Andrew? What does this memo say?"

"Let's read it and find out," Andrew then went ahead and read what was on the paper. "I have some stuff to do, so I'm not coming in 'to' work tomorrow, and that's that. Huh?"

"By Chowderton's cheeks!" Bobbery flinched at that. "It would appear that some scallywag is resistant about coming to work tomorrow, so whoever wrote this is precisely yearning to handle business elsewhere. Perhaps as an excuse to miss out on a hard day's work in this here laboratory, eh?"

"It's likely," Andrew shrugged before thinking. "Though now that I think of it, is this Sir Grodus 'really' horrible to his X-Naut soldiers, especially when they fail at trying to exterminate me? Because from what I've witnessed, they seemed scared about reporting their failings to him, including Lord Crump."

"Omigosh! I never thought of it that way!" Goombella blinked. "In that case, I feel that he punishes them horribly for their failings."

"Yeah. I don't even want to think about that," Andrew as he saw one last memo near the red button to the right on the front of the Concoctionator. "Anyway, let's see what this last memo says, shall we?"

"Go ahead, dearie," Ms. Mowz encouraged slyly. "It might be as entertaining as the last one we read."

"Right," Andrew then walked over and read the last memo. As soon as he was in front of it, he cleared his throat and read it out loud for his seven friends. This is what it said.

"When leaving the lab, always do your all-point inspection in the loudest voice possible!"

Andrew had to raise an eyebrow at this. Why was it necessary to inspect the loudest voice possible? Do the X-Nauts prefer doing things with loud and hammy voices? Or were all X-Nauts deaf in the ears?

"I'm honestly unsure about this memo," Andrew scratched his right ear. "Do all X-Nauts need to have loud voices when doing all-point inspections?"

"Probably," Goombella made a playful face as she rolled her eyes. "Or maybe they're, y'know, deaf in the ears or something. They must be, considering how most of them we ran into were 'totally' chewing the scenery. Know what I mean?"

"I sure do," Andrew then focused on the room they were in. "And more important, this machine is probably used to concoct potions."

"Y'know something?" Goombella had to ask. "You ever wonder if Princess Peach had to make a potion in here before?"

"Given what has happened on this journey, I wouldn't be surprised," Andrew shrugged. "And I'm more than certain that it was a potion that made her invisible."

"I daresay, I shan't be too surprised either, given the circumstances," Flurrie said. "Anyhow, since there's nothing else in here, shall we proceed to tour the rest of this rather state-of-the-art base that these X-Louts call their fortress?"

"You got it, Flurrie," Andrew gave her a thumbs up and smirked at what she had just referred to the X-Nauts as. "Let's go, guys."

And so the eight of them left the chemistry room to look through other rooms that are in the X-Naut Fortress. After stepping back into the corridor of Sublevel 2, they passed by the elevator that they came out of, and got ambushed by a Z-Yux.

From the experience that they picked up back outside of the fortress, they were able to dispatch it with some extra teamwork, getting the Z-Yux to explode shortly afterwards. Once they were done with that, they then ended up going into another room that was nearby.

---

The room that they stepped into had a bunch of monitors and running computerized screens with a teleporter nearby hooked to some wires to the left. There was a red button that needed to be pressed before they could activate the teleporter. Andrew's pupils grew to the size of saucers once his sight was set on the teleporter.

"Holy cow," Andrew uttered breathlessly. "Is that what I think it is?"

"I think so," Goombella murmured in agreement. "This looks like some kinda teleporter. Who knows where that thing would send us!"

"A teleporter can send us anywhere else," Andrew then came up with a theory. "But a teleporter has to be hooked up and connected to another teleporter that's in a different location. Do you think maybe there's a teleporter on Earth that is connected to this one?"

"It's possible," Goombella was not able to joss the theory. "Maybe that's what the X-Nauts used to go between the moon and the earth. I think we have to switch it on and then stand on the platform to use it."

"Yeah. We can try it out later when we get the final Crystal Star and save Princess Peach," Andrew pointed out. "For now, there's nothing else for us in this room that we can reach. Let's press on."

"Yes. I think it'll be best to leave this room for now," Ms. Mowz proclaimed. "Let's search elsewhere for stuff that'll be useful to us."

Andrew nodded at that. There was a Cog in the teleporter room, but since it was too high up, they couldn't reach it. Therefore, they had to leave and check out another room, until they could retrieve the Cog that was on top of the controller.

For now, they went to the right and went into the next room over. Once they entered it, they found out that the room had three glass experimental tubes with miniature Yux species in two of them, the left one and the center one.

There was also an X-Naut PhD in the room, who might've been responsible for the creation of them. Additionally, a regular Yux was accompanying him, which Andrew hadn't seen in a while since he drove the X-Nauts out of the Great Tree.

Nonetheless, both of them went down in no time, and they were dispatched. The PhD was out cold, while the Yux exploded right on the spot. Andrew was a little shocked when he saw some Yux in the glass tubes that were used for experimentation.

"Wow," Andrew had to wipe his eyes at this. "They're 'actually' working on some genetic mutation on the Yuxes that we faced previously."

"Sure seems like it," Goombella had to cringe at the sight of it. "This looks like a lab for genetic experimentation...maybe Yux were made here."

"Possibly," Andrew shrugged. "And that X-Naut Ph.D. we took care of might've been responsible for it."

"Yeah. I guess they must have some pretty advanced technology if they can do stuff like that," Goombella proclaimed.

"We've seen what the X-Nauts are capable of so far, based on what we experienced previously," Andrew said. "So I wouldn't be surprised."

"Yeesh. These X-Nauts are way too creepy if they're doing some science mumbo jumbo here," Yoshiam commented. "Something about this wigs me out, Presto."

"I know, Yoshiam," Andrew nodded. "I feel the same way."

"Hey, by the way, Andrew... You see up there?" Goombella changed the subject by pointing to the ceiling in the far right corner. "One of those ceiling panels is loose."

"Maybe one of the X-Nauts is in charge of handling the heating and air conditioning within this fortress," Andrew guessed.

"Regardless, don't you have some super move or something that can get us up there?" Goombella queried.

"Why, yes. I do have the Spring Jump. There might be a bar up there that I can grab onto," Andrew suggested. "You guys will just have to hang onto me while I Spring Jump us up there. Got it?"

"Right," all seven of them said simultaneously.

Andrew walked over to the corner with his friends grabbing hold of him once he was underneath that spot. In a matter of seconds, Andrew performed his Spring Jump and was launched up into the air vent.

Once he moved over to further ground in the air vent, he jumped down and was able to explore the air vent. His friends let go of him afterwards. And with Ms. Mowz's help, Andrew was able to claim a Star Piece that was in the southwest corner of the air vent.

As soon as he pocketed that, Andrew then went through one of the closed air vents with his friends as they went into Paper Mode. They ended up back in the teleporter room, but this time, they landed on top of the controller to the right.

Now that he was high up, he was able to spot the Cog for himself, as he seemed confident that they'd need it for something important, perhaps for the Crane on Sublevel 1.

"Hey! That Cog looks like it could be important to us," Andrew then turned to face his Koopa friend. "Koops? Would you mind getting that Cog for us?"

"Sure thing, Andrew," Koops nodded as he approached the edge of the controller with Andrew.

From there, he went into his shell and was launched to the Cog by Andrew. In a matter of seconds, he had successfully retrieved the Cog and went back to Andrew like a boomerang. Andrew picked up the Cog moments later and examined it closely while Koops got back onto his feet.

"Ummm... Wow. What a strange Cog," Koops then had to ask. "What do you suppose that's for?"

"Hmmm... This might be a hunch," Andrew rubbed his chin. "But I bet this goes to the machine we saw earlier on Sublevel 1. And I believe this is what is needed to operate that crane we saw earlier."

"Oh, my! I do believe that is a pretty marvelous assumption, dearie," Flurrie admitted proudly.

"Yeah," Andrew put the Cog into his backpack for now. "Anyway, I think we should explore the rest of Sublevel 2 before we can go and operate that Crane."

"Gotcha, Andrew," Goombella winked at him. "We should 'totally' see what else might be on this floor for us!"

"Hmm mmm mmm mmm, I do agree with that one," Ms. Mowz smirked. "We better check the last of the rooms here."

And with that, the eight of them jumped down and exited the teleporter room again. They passed another elevator that led them further down into the base, but since it required another Elevator Key, and they didn't have it, they had to ignore the elevator for now, until they could find it.

After dispatching another Elite X-Naut that ambushed them, they ended up in another room. This was the locker room that Peach used to get into that X-Naut uniform that one time when she had to ask Grodus a question. Andrew had to scratch his temple at this.

"Huh? This appears to be a locker room," Andrew remarked. "Do you suppose that X-Nauts change into new uniforms in here?"

"Yeah. I mean, duh! It wouldn't be called a changing room for nothing, y'know?" Goombella told him in a playful sassy manner. "I guess even X-Nauts have to change out of their uniforms... But what do they look like under those suits?"

"I've been wondering that myself," Andrew had to proclaim. "What DO X-Nauts look like underneath those suits?"

"I'm...not gonna think about it," Goombella had to shake her head at the possible thought that she was getting.

"Yeah," Andrew sighed. "It's one of those questions that aren't gonna be answered. So we might as well forget about it."

"There's a ventilation duct in the ceiling at one end..." Goombella had to frown at this. "That's not good for privacy!"

"Especially if a Peeping Tom decides to spy on someone that is changing up in here," Andrew said. "I wonder if Princess Peach ever had to change out of her dress in one of these changing stalls."

"It's likely," Goombella said. "Anyway, there are two memos written on the bench over here. Might have something that could help us along, don'tcha think?"

"Yeah. You could be right," Andrew walked over to them. "We might as well check out what these memos say."

Andrew decided to read the one on the right first, which was a bigger memo paper. This is what it said on the paper.

"How to activate the switch: ...[Left, Right, Middle]... Do NOT forget!"

"By Blabberton's beards! Andrew, old boy, what do you suppose this memo is referring to," Bobbery was a little confused by this. "Could it possibly be that perhaps it might be directions on how to operate one of these state-of-the-art contraptions that these scoundrels have been using, eh?"

"I'm more than certain of that," Andrew rubbed his chin. "And you know what? These might be telling us how to operate that Crane that's on Sublevel 1 after we put the Cog back into it."

"Hey Andrew? Let's check out that memo over there," Vivian pointed to the other one on the left.

"Good idea," Andrew nodded as he walked over and checked it out. "Let's see what is written on this one."

Andrew then looked at it and read what was written on the memo. This is what it said.

"Today's code is [014029]. Do NOT forget it!"

"Omigosh! Andrew!" Goombella concluded. "Think maybe that's the access code that we need to enter that one room that we couldn't get into before?"

"You know what? You're probably right," Andrew nodded. "And I think both of these will prove to be useful once we're done exploring the rest of Sublevel 2."

"Good idea, Andrew," Koops agreed. "Looks like there's one other room on this floor. We better check it out."

"Right," Andrew smiled as he motioned his group to follow him. "Let's go."

'And' with that, the eight of them left the changing room and headed to the door that was on the far right of the Sublevel 2 corridor.

---

The room that they had entered was revealed to be Grodus's throne room, as the eight of them took in its appearance for themselves.

Vivian recognized it from the past two times that she had been in this room with her sisters, sporting a perturbed expression on her face.

Meanwhile, the rest of them were confused and taking in what they were seeing. Andrew was convinced that this was probably the throne room where Grodus spent most of his time plotting his annihilation.

"You know guys? This must be Grodus's throne room where he made all of those plans to try to eliminate me," Andrew proclaimed. "It also looks highly advanced and futuristic in appearance."

"No doubt. This place is a bit overdone, huh?" Goombella rolled her eyes at this. "It just screams, 'Hey! I'm an evil mastermind!'"

"It wouldn't be called his throne room for nothing, now would it?" Andrew queried with a smirk.

"Yeah," Goombella then had to ask. "I wonder if poor Princess Peach got dragged in here before?"

"They probably dragged her in here just to find out about where the Magical Map was, and she refused to tell them," Andrew concluded. "Then the X-Nauts found out that I was after the Crystal Stars, along with the Shadow Sirens, they learned that I had possession of the map, and the rest is history."

"Can't argue with that," Goombella nodded. "We have six of the seven Crystal Stars now. Think maybe Grodus might have possession of the final Crystal Star that we're after?"

"Probably. He has Peach, and it's likely he has the Crystal Star too," Andrew remarked with a frown. "Still, I wouldn't be surprised if the Shadow Sirens had met with Grodus in here at one point or another."

"They did," Vivian uttered while gulping. "Andrew? This is where my sisters and I met with Sir Grodus when I was still on their side. And yes. They WERE planning on how to dispose of you and steal that Magical Map of yours. It...It's still painful to recall, with all of the times Beldam punished and abused me..."

"I know, Vivian," Andrew assured her. "But you're now on my side, and all of that awful stuff is behind you. You don't have to worry about that anymore."

"I know," Vivian smiled. "And I thank you for this, Andrew."

"It was my pleasure," Andrew gave her a reassuring smile in return.

"Ummm... Andrew?" Koops saw something and he decided to point it out. "Looks like we're not the only ones in this room! Look!"

Andrew then looked and saw what Koops was pointing at. It was another variant of the Yux species. Not only was this one bigger than the regular Yux. It was also red instead of green, and its circles were cyan instead of yellow-green.

This was an X-Yux, and it was most likely the same X-Yux that was guarding Grodus's room when Peach became invisible. The X-Yux had fired its Ring Toss at the eight of them, triggering them to get out of the way of the attack as they looked startled.

"Mercy me!" Flurrie gasped in fright. "'Pray' tell, could this be another variant of that Yux species that we had fought before, darling!?"

"I think so, Flurrie," Andrew panted. "It looks like a different kind of Yux. Goombella, do you know what kind of Yux it is?"

"Hold on! I have it in this Tattle Log!" Goombella told him as she looked at a page in her Tattle Log that she already opened up. "OK. That's an X-Yux. I hear this is read as Cross-Yux, not as Ex-Yux."

"Cross-Yux?" Andrew raised an eyebrow at this. "Then would it be smarter to say 'that's a Cross-Yux' instead of saying 'that's an X-Yux'?"

"Don't ask me, Andrew. I'm just telling you what is written in the book. In any case, whoever wrote it must've picked up on the typo, but kept it in there," Goombella explained before she continued reading from her Tattle Log. "Anyway, this is a new Yux designed to protect extra-important areas..."

"You don't say," Andrew gave her a look.

"They were designed to be unbeatable. They're not," Goombella read in a rather blunt manner.

"I can see that," Andrew tugged on his handkerchief. "Anything else?"

"Yes," Goombella continued. "Unlike the regular Yux and the Z-Yux that we fought previously, this one can produce two Mini-X-Yuxes at once, as opposed to just one."

"Great," Andrew moaned at this. "That's just what we needed..."

"AND, it has an excellent success rate of immobilizing opponents," Goombella gave them another warning.

As soon as she said that, the X-Yux shot another Ring Toss at the eight of them, getting them to leap out of the crosshair. Yoshiam seemed rather perturbed by this new version of Yux.

"Whoa, man! That doesn't sound good! It would stink if one of us were unable to move thanks to this freakazoid!" Yoshiam declared. "Presto! We gotta take this creep down right away!"

"He's right," Goombella agreed. "We gotta do something about that if we're gonna win."

"In that case, we're gonna have to give it all we got to take this genetic experiment down!" Andrew yelled. "Let's take down this X-Yux, FAST!"

And with that, the battle went by pretty quickly. The trick that Andrew had in mind was to use one of his Shooting Star items on it, along with allowing Vivian to use Fiery Jinx afterwards. Along with everyone else pitching in to help out, the X-Yux was dispatched, exploding right on the spot upon being defeated.

"Whew," Andrew wiped his forehead. "That was pretty tough, guys."

"It sure was, Andrew," Vivian agreed. "Gee whiz. Looked like we weren't gonna win for a second there. But we came through together."

"I must say, that ruffian surely did put up quite the fight against us, if I may add," Bobbery had to admit.

"In any case, we got rid of it," Andrew proclaimed. "So we won't have to worry about it anymore."

"Hmmm... Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Oh!" Ms. Mowz sensed something beyond the door at the end of the hallway. "Sweetie? I believe there's something valuable beyond this door, right here! It might be best for us to check it out!"

"Great idea, Ms. Mowz," Andrew smiled as he approached the door she was pointing to. "Let's go."

With that, the eight traveling heroes went through the door, which led into Grodus's room or his office. It looked just the same as it did when Peach went in there to find a Data Disk when she was invisible. Andrew had to take in his surroundings as he commented on the room.

"Whoa. Some snazzy office," Andrew remarked. "Is this Sir Grodus's room, or his office?"

"I was wondering the same thing, Andrew. What's this room for, huh?" Goombella queried. "Is it some kind of office for the X-Naut boss or what?"

"That's what I was thinking," Andrew scratched his right ear.

"Maybe we should give it a once-over to make sure we don't miss anything," Goombella suggested.

"Good idea," Andrew then looked around until he was in front of the desk. "There might be something useful in here."

"Boy, and what's with these tanks full of Nibbles?" Goombella took notice of the tank of Nibbles that was beyond the glass of Sir Grodus's office.

"What the...?" Andrew looked for himself and was startled. "Whoa! How and why does Grodus have all of these Nibbles in these tanks?!"

"Beats me," Goombella shivered at the sight of them. "But jeepers, that creeps me out."

"It creeps me out too," Andrew agreed with a frown. "You don't suppose that Sir Grodus keeps these Nibbles as part of some sadistic privilege, which he used to bite and attack anyone that dares to oppose him?"

"I-I think so..." Goombella gulped. "Jeepers, Andrew. Can we change the subject? I don't think I'd make a good Goomba meal for any of these Nibbles."

"I'm more than willing to," Andrew agreed wholeheartedly. "Now what could be in this office that could be of some use to us?"

"Hmmm... What's this I see?" Ms. Mowz jumped on top of the desk where the computer was. "Could this be a card of some kind that could prove to be of significant value to us with finding the last Crystal Star and saving Princess Peach?"

"What?" Andrew walked over and saw what she was holding in her hands. "Let me see that, Ms. Mowz."

She was willing to hand it over as Andrew looked at it. It was another Card Key. The only difference was that this one was green instead of red-violet. Andrew realized that this would be imperative to them, just like the other one.

"Hey! It's another Card Key," Andrew proclaimed. "And something tells me that this one will be important to us as well!"

"Good idea, Andrew," Goombella smiled. "We could 'totally' use that for whatever purpose it serves, just like the other one."

"That's what I was thinking," Andrew put the Card Key in his pocket with the other one. "Well, aside from that, there doesn't seem to be anything else in this room that we could use. So we better get going."

"Yeah, Andrew," Koops nodded. "Let's go back to Sublevel 1. Maybe we ought to use that Cog to get that Crane to work and grab those items that are above. What do you say?"

"All right," Andrew smiled. "Let's go for it."

And with that, the eight heroes left Grodus's office as well as his throne room. They had checked out every room on Sublevel 2, so they decided to head back to Sublevel 1. After some walking, they made it to the elevator and went back up to Sublevel 1.

---

Once they were on that floor again, they went to the left where the Crane was located. Andrew then approached the machine with an empty cog slot in it, which had a pink paper taped below it.

From there, he took out the Cog and properly placed it in there. It started running again, and now Andrew had to activate the Crane to get it to work.

"All right," Andrew looked at the buttons on the machine connected to the engine where the cogs were running. "Now the buttons are flashing. So we'll have to activate them."

"Absolutely," Flurrie nodded. "Now, I do believe that you know the order in which to press those buttons in, do you not?"

"Yup," Andrew nodded. "And if that memo we found in the changing room is correct, this SHOULD work."

After stretching his fingers, Andrew went ahead and pressed the three buttons in a specific order. First, he pressed the left-sided button. Then, he pressed the right-sided button. And finally, he pressed the button that was in the middle.

To his relief, he had activated, and he then went over to the control panel to get the crane to work. His friends were pretty impressed that he was able to operate it effectively. Especially Ms. Mowz, who was eager to see Andrew use the crane to get the two badges, the Star Piece, and all of the coins from the platform above.

"Hmm mmm mmm, you did well activating that crane, Andrew," Ms. Mowz told him. "Now let's see if you'll be able to use it to claim the prizes that are up there, my sweet."

"OK," Andrew then started pressing the buttons on the control panel. "I'll do my best."

To say that he did his best at utilizing the crane to grab the goods from above would've been an understatement. After putting in some time, patience, and focus on the crane, Andrew was eventually able to retrieve all of the goods that were up there.

First and foremost, there were the two badges. They were revealed to be a Feeling Fine badge, and a Feeling Fine P badge, both of which found their way into Andrew's badge kit in his backpack. Then there was the Star Piece, which he pocketed with the rest of his Star Piece collection.

Lastly, there were the six coins that were up there, which he had gotten and placed into the coin bag with the rest of his money. As there was nothing else up there, Andrew felt that their work there was done, and now they could move on with finding the final Crystal Star and Peach.

"OK, guys, looks like we're done here," Andrew then suggested. "Why don't we go to that room that requires an access code to get into, since we have the access code memorized?"

"All right," all seven of them agreed with him as they left the crane room.

Once they left that room, they headed for the terminal that required the access code as Andrew got ready to type out the access code into the terminal.

"OK. Now the access code needed happens to be..." Andrew then typed in 014029 into the terminal. "014029, like that memo said. Now let's press enter and see if it accepts it."

Andrew then went and hit the enter button with his index finger. A message was heard coming from the terminal which got his attention.

"Access code accepted." The light on the terminal turned green and the door was unlocked, allowing the eight of them to enter.

"Awesome," Andrew beamed. "Now we can see what's in this room. Come on guys! Let's roll!"

The muscular man entered the room that was unlocked. His Goomba, Koopa, Wind Spirit, Yoshi, Shadow Siren, Bob-omb, and Little Mouser friends all followed after him as they went into the strange room that they hadn't checked out yet.

---

The room that they entered wasn't all that spacious. There was some steel-fenced flooring below them, with some rather advanced wiring parts underneath. The ceiling and walls didn't seem noteworthy, being that they fit in perfectly with being a part of the X-Naut Fortress.

But the elephant in the room happened to be what was standing atop the steel box at the other end of the room. It was a robotic Thwomp of some kind. Just taking notice of it on there was giving Andrew some massive deja vu. Goombella also felt the same as she had to comment on it.

"What's this room for, huh?" Goombella then commented on the robotic Thowmp on the steel box. "I feel like I've seen that face somewhere before..."

Feeling that it was coming back to him, Andrew had to share his thoughts on it. "Goombella? It's coming back to me! Do you remember when we had to head to Shhwonk Fortress and dealt with a Thwomp that was similar to the robotic Thwomp that's here?"

"Well sure I do," Goombella gave him a confused look. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"What I'm saying is that this robotic Thwomp is just like the one we met at Shhwonk Fortress!" Andrew declared. "And I already know that this one will have us take part in a quiz game show to retrieve something important!"

"Omigosh! Andrew! You're so 'totally' right!" Goombella had to yelp. "This does remind me of what we dealt with at Shhwonk Fortress!"

"I beg your pardon!" Flurrie was confused, as was the rest of them, aside from Koops. "Andrew? Goombella? Whatever do you mean by that?"

"OK, guys," Andrew decided to explain it to them. "When Goombella and I started our journey to collect the Crystal Stars, we had to go to Shhwonk Fortress before we could get to Hooktail Castle to get the Diamond Star, the first Crystal Star we had to get. And we had to take part in a quiz game show to reach the sewers where the Sun Stone and Moon Stone were, which were needed to get to Hooktail Castle!"

"Ummm... Yeah. I remember that," Koops commented. "You two went to Shhwonk Fortress when I struggled to ask a favor of you. And it wasn't until AFTER you went there that I pleaded to travel with you two to Hooktail Castle. Man. So much time had gone by since then."

"You said it," Andrew sighed. "And it looks like we're gonna have to take part in this game show too."

"Whoa, dude. That 'definitely' something," Yoshiam had to blink at this. "Well, don't just stand there. Go for it! Get this quiz game show thing underway, Presto!"

"That's exactly what I'm gonna do," Andrew approached the robot Thwomp bust. "Let's see what the deal with this robotic Thwomp is exactly."

Andrew then went and touched it, with his seven friends by his side. The robotic Thwomp on the steel box started to shake the room a bit. Andrew didn't react at all. He dealt with this before, so it didn't come as a surprise to him.

In a matter of seconds, the robotic Thwomp's yellow eyes lit up, as he took notice of Andrew and his friends having gotten into the room. He then decided to start talking to them.

"Who are you, huh?" The robotic Thwomp started asking. "You came here to get the elevator key so you can access the computer room?"

"Well, we do need to use the other elevator that is on Sublevel 2, and I guess it does lead to the computer room," Andrew proclaimed. "And if you have possession of that Elevator Key, then yes. That's what we're here for!"

"Yeah, I thought so," the robotic Thwomp huffed. "Well then, you're gonna have to beat me to get it!"

"Right," Andrew crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Not like we haven't done this before."

"And if you lose, your life is MINE!" The robotic Thwomp ignored Andrew's comment. "You hear me? MINE!"

"Sure," Andrew told him dryly.

"So, what do you say?" The robotic Thwomp wondered if he'd go along with it or not.

"Don't hold back, Presto!" Yoshiam was heard beaming while jumping up and down. "Go on! Let's challenge this chump!"

"All right, then," Andrew gave the robotic Thwomp a confident look. "You're on!"

Right on the spot, the robotic Thwomp felt some sort of flash go through his flashy eyes. It's as if he was anticipating the eight of them to go along with the challenge, and possibly fall in defeat afterwards.

"Mmmm hmmm hoo ha ha!" The robotic Thwomp cackled smugly. "You're MINE now!"

In a matter of seconds, the steel box that he was resting on slammed into a red button that was on the wall behind him. Immediately after it was pressed, the mechanical room that they were in instantly transformed into a game show with all the colorful flashy lights. It looked the same as the ones for the 65th Super Fun Quirk Quiz.

And just like before, Andrew and his seven friends found themselves behind a game show stand with a red button on the counter. As for the robotic Thwomp, his stand now had flashing circular lights, a microphone was in front of him, and he was wearing a red bowtie with white polka dots, just like the other Thwomp from Shhwonk Fortress.

"By Blubbery's blotches!" Bobbery reacted to this. "Andrew, old boy? Do 'tell', how did we ever end up taking part in a rather commonplace game show of some kind, eh?"

"I know how you feel, Bobbery. But Goombella and I had been through this before," Andrew told him. "And trust us, as a team, we should be able to get these answers right. Just wait and see."

"OK, Andrew. I trust you too," Vivian said softly. "I'll try my best to help you out if you need it."

"Yes. We'll all be glad to assist you whenever you're in a jam," Ms. Mowz promised.

"They're right," Goombella smirked. "We can do this. It'll be just like the last one!"

It was then the robotic Thwomp decided to get this show on the road, as he then spoke into the microphone.

"And here we gooooo, folks! The main event!" The robotic Thwomp spoke like a game show host. "The 66th Annual Quirk Quiz! YAY!"

"The 66th Annual Quirk Quiz?" Flurrie had to raise an eyebrow at this. "Mercy me! I do believe that they must have a rather strange quirk for names. Why, or rather, they must be running short of ideas for us."

"Too right," Yoshiam huffed as he crossed his arms. "Talk about being completely cliche."

"If you get 5 correct answers to the following questions, then you win, win, WIN!" The robotic Thwomp continued, ignoring what Flurrie and Yoshiam said. "But if you get just 3 wrong answers, you're toast! You don't wanna be toast, folks!"

"Yeah," Koops had to gulp at this. "Andrew? Might be a good idea to get five questions right. I mean...I don't think I can stand the thought of being toast. Wouldn't be a good fate for us."

"No worries, Koops," Andrew assured him. "We can do this."

"Well, what're we waiting for, huh? Heeeeeeeeeeere we go! Question Number One: Exactly what's hidden here?" The robotic Thwomp got the show underway. "Is it A.) Card Key, B.) Monkey, C.) Elevator Key, or D.) Pretty Lucky?"

"You just told us what was held in here," Andrew told him in a deadpan tone. "So the answer is C.) Elevator Key!"

"You suuuuuuure about that?" The robotic Thwomp decided to ask him.

"Uh, yeah! Duuuuuuh! You heard what Andrew said," Goombella snorted while rolling her eyes. "We're certain that the answer is C. So that's 'totally' our final answer."

It was then a dinging sound went off in the background, a sign that the answer was correct, as the Thwomp's yellow eyes turned blue.

"Good job there, you two," Koops commented. "That was rather close."

"Don't worry about it," Andrew smiled gracefully. "We can do this if we work together."

"You betcha!" Goombella beamed as the robotic Thwomp reacted to this.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! You're correct!" The robotic Thwomp yelled angrily. "Crud! But that was an easy one... You won't do so well on the next one, I GUARANTEE that! Here we go, sucker!"

"Very well," Andrew gave him a straight face as the robotic Thwomp's eyes turned yellow again. "Let's get this over with."

"Now, Question Number Two! What's the name of the girl in Petalburg who's waiting patiently for Koops's return?" Koops perked up when he heard the robotic Thwomp ask the second question. "Is it A.) Petuni, B.) Marilyn, C.) Flavio, or D.) Koopie Koo?"

"Ummmm... I know the answer to this! She's my girlfriend after all," Koops stepped up, put on a brave face, and gave him the answer. "The answer is D.) Koopie Koo."

That dinging sound went off again, which meant Koops got the question answered correctly. Andrew was grateful that he answered it for them as the robotic Thwomp's eyes turned blue from how they got the right answer.

"Good work, Koops," Andrew admitted. "You wasted no time in answering that one."

"It was my pleasure, Andrew," Koops nodded. "As I said, she's my girlfriend. And how couldn't I know the name of my 'own' girlfriend?"

"Very fair point," Goombella blinked and smirked. "Glad to see that you got it correct for us."

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! You're correct!" The robotic Thwomp bellowed again. "Crud! But that was an easy one... You won't do so well on the next one, I GUARANTEE that! Here we go, sucker!"

"I daresay, you've told us that before," Flurrie crossed her arms at that as the robotic Thwomp's eyes turned yellow again. "Why, I do believe that we shall see for ourselves!"

"Now, Question Three! Goomba, Lava Bubble, Buzzy Beetle, Boo. How many feet do they have? Total!" The robotic Thwomp asked them the third question. "Is it A.) 4 feet, B.) 6 feet, C.) 8 feet, or D.) Defeat?"

Wuh? Defeat? What kind of an answer to a question is that? Andrew thought in bewilderment at what he just heard.

"Oh, my! Dearie me!" Flurrie did some counting and figured it out. "Andrew, my darling? I do believe that that would add up to 6 feet, in total. Shall I give this rather strange fellow the answer?"

"Go for it, Flurrie," Andrew encouraged. "Remember, this is a team effort we're giving here."

"Absolutely," Flurrie stepped up and cleared her throat. "Ahem! My good sir, I do believe the answer is B.) 6 feet!"

That dinging sound was heard once again, showing that the Wind Spirit actress was correct in her answer. The robotic Thwomp was fuming as his eyes turned blue again, with Andrew grateful that his group was succeeding, and he smiled at Flurrie.

"Thanks, Flurrie," Andrew had to hug her, which got her to blush and look at him saucily. "I'm grateful that you did that for us."

"Wowsers," Goombella blinked. "Flurrie, how did you know the answer to that question?"

"Well, I shan't lie to you guys when I say that I had partaken in checking and massaging people's feet in my spare time," Flurrie told them slyly. "I've seen many a species over that have and have not got feet! Therefore, I had seen and observed many feet during rehearsals for the filming and production of the films and plays that I starred in. It was absolutely fascinating and rather compelling if the truth must be told."

"Yeah," Andrew said with a dreamy sigh. "That sounds beautiful."

"You think so," Flurrie gave him a seductive look. "Then maybe you might be willing to let ol' Madame Flurrie check your feet out at some point? Hmmm, Mr. Hunky Muscles?"

"Oh, sure," Andrew blushed. "We can talk about that later. Right now, we have a quiz show to accomplish."

"Oh, right. How could I have forgotten," Flurrie laughed sheepishly. "Oh, silly Flurrie."

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! You're correct!" The robotic Thwomp let out another annoyed grunt. "Crud! But that was an easy one... You won't do so well on the next one, I GUARANTEE that! Here we go, sucker!"

"Bring it on," Yoshiam bellowed. "There's nothing we can't handle!"

"We're on to Question Four! It's elementary...for non-idiots! Where was the one, the only, Diamond Star?" The robotic Thwomp moved on to asking the fourth question. "Is it A.) Glitzville Arena, B.) Cortez's Ship, C.) Hooktail's Belly, or D.) Poshley Sanctum?"

"Hmm mmm mmm mmm mmm," Ms. Mowz said slyly. "Andrew, dearie? I believe you told me that you got the Diamond Star from Hooktail itself, from Hooktail Castle. And it was in its belly, yes?"

"That's right," Andrew then encouraged. "Well, go ahead, Ms. Mowz. Tell this robotic Thwomp what the answer is."

"As you wish, you handsome muscular cheese hunk," Ms. Mowz stepped up and then answered the robotic Thwomp. "The answer is C.) Hooktail Belly."

"You suuuuuuure about that?" The robotic Thwomp asked, in an attempt to throw her and the rest of them off with their answer.

"Uh, yes. I think she's sure about it," Vivian decided to speak up. "We know the answer to it for sure. And we say that the answer 'really' is C."

It was then that the dinging sound went off again, indicating that they answered the fourth question correctly. Andrew was impressed by how well his team was doing with this.

"Wow. We're doing good, guys," Andrew smiled. "We almost got it. That Elevator Key should be as good as ours."

"Yes. It shall be," Ms. Mowz proclaimed. "We only need to answer one last question correctly before we can obtain it."

"Exactly," Andrew nodded as he looked at the robotic Thwomp.

It was at this point that the robotic Thwomp's patience had reached its limit. He needed to make things 10 times harder for Andrew and his friends.

"GWAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! You're correct, you jerk! You've already gotten FOUR correct? You're KIDDING me!" The robotic Thwomp boomed furiously before declaring. "Well, fine! I'm 'gonna' toss an extra-hard 'one' your way! You happy now, sucker?"

"Harumph! I do say, we're most certainly ready for whatever challenge you throw our way, my good man," Bobbery declared. "So out with the question, and let's have at it!"

"And now, Question Five! What was the name of the very first champion at the Glitzville Arena?" The robotic Thwomp asked them the fifth question. "Is it A.) Prince Mush, B.) Prince Macho, C.) Prince Marsh, or D.) Prince Matthew?"

"Yo! Presto!" Yoshiam tugged on his sleeve to get his attention. "The first champion of the Glitz Pit happens to be Jolene's brother right? Wasn't he Prince Mush?"

"That's right. It was Prince Mush, and he is Jolene's brother," Andrew confirmed with a nod.

"Cool. Just checking, man," Yoshiam then volunteered. "Mind if I answer this question for you, dude?"

"Go for it, Yoshiam," Andrew gave him an encouraging smirk. "Let's wrap this up!"

"You got it, Presto," Yoshiam gave him a thumbs up and then gave the robotic Thwomp a confident look before yelling out the answer. "The answer is A.) Prince Mush!"

At that moment, the dinging sound went off for the fifth and final time, as the eight traveling heroes managed to win the game. Which meant that they were safe from being toast.

"All right!" Andrew cheered victoriously. "We did it, guys!"

"Yeah!" All seven of them were just as happy as Andrew was at that moment.

As for the robotic Thwomp, he was completely flabbergasted as his eyes were blue again. He couldn't believe it. The eight heroes answered five questions correctly.

Which meant now he had to part with the Elevator Key that he was guarding. To say that he was outraged by the fact that he lost just like the Thwomp from Shhwonk Fortress would've been an understatement.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Cuh-Correct!" The robotic Thwomp yowled. "That's five correct answers! Crud! You win!"

In a sudden fit of rage, the robotic Thwomp made the steel box that he was perched on top of slam into the red button on the wall, pressing it again. This time, the gameshow room disappeared and it was transformed back to being a mechanical room; in the X-Naut Fortress.

The stand that Andrew and his friends were on had disappeared too, along with the robotic Thwomp's bowtie, microphone, and those flashy circular lights that were on the steel box.

"Well, I must say, that was quite a jolly good game that we partook in if I do say so myself," Bobbery had to admit as their eyes were on the robotic Thwomp again.

The robotic Thwomp's eyes were yellow again as he was fuming from the humiliating defeat that he had to suffer through.

"I'm so mad right now, I can hardly see straight! I lose! I LOOOOOOOOSE!" The robotic Thwomp roared as he then saw Andrew's look that showed that he was waiting for his prize. "Fine! But I 'really' hate you! Take this, you bum!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Andrew said with a sarcastic tone. "Now, the Elevator Card, please?"

Without saying a word, the robotic Thwomp had caused the Elevator Key to fall from the ceiling, and land right in front of Andrew.

"PBBBBTHBTH!" The robotic Thwomp made a 'pfft' noise as he gave Andrew one last glare before his yellow eyes dimmed out and he was shut down indefinitely.

Feeling satisfied by their win, Andrew walked over and grabbed the Elevator Key. The Elevator Key looked just like the other one, only it was red instead of blue.

"Well, now that we got the other Elevator Key, let's go back to Sublevel 2 and use this Elevator Key to use the elevator, and explore Sublevels 3 and 4," Andrew gave them the suggestion.

"Yeah," the seven of them chimed in unison.

Andrew put the Elevator Key in his pocket as he exited the room with his friends. They were planning on heading back to Sublevel 2, where they would be able to use the other elevator just to check out Sublevel 3 and Sublevel 4.

---

As soon as they made it back to Sublevel 2, they approached the other elevator that would lead them further down into the X-Naut Fortress. Andrew had used the Elevator Key on the small red-lit terminal on the right of the elevator.

Just like before, it turned green, and then an elevator came up to escort further downward. Andrew no longer needed the Elevator Key as he left it there.

Andrew decided to see what was on Sublevel 4 first. Sadly, the room to the left; the room that Peach was being held in, had nothing essential in it, and the only thing there was an Elite X-Naut who was strangely patrolling the bathroom.

Andrew managed to dispatch the Elite X-Naut rather hastily since Goombella thought that he was a creep for hiding in the bathroom. And Andrew agreed with her.

They weren't able to get into the computer room either, as the door was locked on the inside. Andrew had to wonder WHY the door was locked. Did Sir Grodus have something to do with this? 'Clearly', he must've since they couldn't get in.

With very few options to explore on Sublevel 4, Andrew had no choice but to explore Sublevel 3 instead. He and his rather diverse crew went back up to Sublevel 3, where two regular X-Nauts tried to ambush them. They were dispatched in a matter of seconds, as Andrew decided to check the room to the left first.

The room was yet another floor tile trap room, just like the previous two. However, unlike those two, this one had lit tiles moving slowly across the booby-trapped floor, which got Andrew a little confused by what he was seeing.

"Huh? What the...?" Andrew rubbed his chin. "It's another booby-trapped floor room like the other two, but this one has lit tiles that are moving forward across the room."

"I've noticed that too," Goombella agreed with him. "If you stay on the tiles that were lit up, I think you'll be OK, Andrew."

"Well, I guess that's what we're gonna have to do," Andrew proclaimed.

"Er..." Goombella was hesitant to finish her sentence as she gulped. "But you should 'totally' go first, one way or the other..."

"That's what I was gonna suggest," Andrew then issued. "All of you stick close to me, and we should be OK."

"Got it, Andrew," Koops nodded as he and the others all huddled up to Andrew. "Don't want to become a shellshocked Koopa... Ummm... If that makes sense..."

"Don't worry," Andrew nodded with that smile. "I understand."

And with that, Andrew went onto the lit tile with his friends sticking close to him as he followed the path that a couple of lit tiles in front of him were leading him. This took him several minutes to navigate through the booby-trapped tiled floor since the lit tiles kept taking him in a detour direction.

Eventually, the lit tiles led them to the other end of the room, much to their relief as they got onto solid safe ground where that same mechanical-looking treasure chest was resting. At that moment, they were catching themselves after having gotten through that dangerous tiled floor.

"My, my! I feel like I might swoon!" Flurrie declared after panting. "That was quite the preposterous route that we followed just to get by this treacherous floor, wasn't it, dearie?"

"It sure was," Andrew agreed. "But the important thing is that we made it by safely."

"Anyway Presto, looks like there's another one of those weird-looking chests," Yoshiam pointed out. "Guess we should open it and find out what's inside, right man?"

"Good idea," Andrew approached the chest and opened it up.

From there, Andrew reached in and grabbed whatever was inside of it. When he held it out, it was revealed to be another Card Key. This one was yellow. And just like the other two, it looked important.

"Well, what do you know? It's another Card Key," Andrew looked at it. "Looks like I have three of them now."

"Hey Andrew? Do you think those three Card Keys that we collected go to something important?" Vivian queried as he put the Card Key away with the other two. "After all, it might have something to do with the one room on this floor that we haven't checked out yet."

"Good point," Andrew agreed with her as he saw the tiled floor in front of him fizzle out and was now safe to walk on. "Let's go."

After obtaining an HP Drain item from the ?-block on the south side, the eight of them left the room and decided to check out the other one.

---

Once they were in there, they saw three terminal panels against the wall, with the door in front of them being locked unless all three panels had a Card Key inserted into them.

"Harumph!" Bobbery wondered. "Andrew old boy, you don't suppose the room beyond here is under some tight surveillance, do you not?"

"Yeah. Looks like there are some security systems set up out here," Andrew rubbed his chin.

"Of course. There are three panels here," Goombella motioned to the panels. "I guess that means we need three Card Keys, huh?"

"Well, I have all three Card Keys right here," Andrew took out the three Card Keys. "So we better use them to unlock this door."

"There must be something pretty important behind this door to have such security..." Goombella murmured as Andrew approached the panels.

"Like maybe the Crystal Star must be beyond this room," Andrew guessed as he inserted the Card Keys into the terminal panels. "And maybe the princess must be in there too!"

"Gotcha, Andrew!" Goombella beamed as the door in front of them had been unlocked thanks to Andrew inserting those Card Keys into the panels. "Now we can get by here! C'mon!"

"You know, sweetie, I could've broken into the security panels for you, if you had liked," Ms. Mowz proclaimed. "I have experiences with sabotaging security systems such as this in the past."

"Perhaps, but I saved us the trouble from doing so," Andrew sighed as he approached the door. "Now come on. Let's see what's in this room."

They didn't argue with him as they followed his lead. They then ended up in the factory part of the fortress. There were plenty of moving gears and platforms shifting back and forth in the background. And there was a conveyor belt right on the other side of the barred fence, which was not running right now.

An X-Naut PhD had attempted to ambush Andrew and his group, but Andrew outdid him and knocked him out in a matter of seconds. He had also found a Power Plus P badge that the PhD had dropped before becoming unconscious. Andrew picked it up and claimed it for himself as he put it on with the rest of his badges.

"Is this supposed to be a factory?" Andrew tugged on his handkerchief.

"I guess. I mean, this is the X-Naut factory," Goombella exclaimed. "I think they make all kinds of stuff here."

"You suppose that the Magnus von Grapple mech that we fought before was created in here?" Andrew queried.

"Likely," Goombella said. "It's pretty complicated, what with the crane and the pipe, and all those gears... Maybe we should just take this room one bit at a time, don'tcha think?"

"We might as well. We have a lot of ground to cover," Andrew sighed. "The problem with that is the conveyor belt isn't running, and we have to get by there to proceed."

"Hey uh, Andrew," Koops saw a blue switch on the other side of the barbed fence. "Look. There's a switch over there."

"Yeah. Maybe that'll activate the conveyor belt. But none of us can jump over there alone. So I'm gonna need some help with this," Andrew then turned to face Bobbery. "Bobbery, I'm gonna pick you up and hoist you over to where that switch is. And once you're over there, you can go ahead and use your Bomb on the switch to activate it. Got it?"

"Capital thinking, old boy," Bobbery gave him a determined look. "Very well. You may start when ready!"

"I am. Just get ready to light that fuse of you," Andrew went ahead and grabbed a hold of Bobbery. "Now here I go!"

Andrew then tossed the old admiral Bob-omb over the fence, as he had lit his fuse. Once over there, he approached the switch, started flashing red, and they used his Bomb move to explode and activate the switch.

As soon as he did that, the machine that the conveyor belt was connected to turned on and the conveyor belt was running like normal. By now, Bobbery had regenerated himself and landed right next to Andrew.

"All right! Now we can take the conveyor belt," Andrew went into Paper Mode with his friends as they slid right through the slot and were standing on the conveyor belt.

"My! Fabulous! That was impeccable planning, sweetums!" Flurrie cheered. "Now, I do believe that there's a wall in front of us, forbidding us from proceeding any further."

"I know that. But we can get by it easily," Andrew then instructed. "Everyone but Vivian, grab a hold of me!"

They did as they were told as they grabbed Andrew, except Vivian, who already knew what Andrew was planning for her to do.

"OK Vivian, I'll need you to use your Veil move to drag us into the shadows, so we can get by this wall," Andrew told her.

"All right, Andrew," Vivian nodded. "I'll be sure to do that."

As the conveyor belt was moving, Vivian dragged Andrew and the others into the shadows to get by that wall. Once she did that, they went right under the wall and were now on the other side. Seeing this as her cue, Vivian resurfaced back up with Andrew and his other friends, as they were now on the other side.

"Awesome! Now we can continue through the factory," Andrew then informed them. "We got a lot of ground to cover, so we might as well use these cranes and pipes to our advantage, just so we can get by this area."

"You got it, dude!" Yoshiam whooped. "Let's get by this area and find out where the last Crystal Star and the princess is being held!"

"Hmm mmm mmm, I look forward to this as well," Ms. Mowz smirked in amusement. "Let's press forward, shall we darling?"

"Right," Andrew nodded as he motioned his friends to follow. "Let's get this done and over with."

And so the eight traveling heroes had worked their way through the factory maze, using the cranes and pipes that they needed to use to get by. A lot of time and patience had to be put into getting through the factory room if they had any hope of reaching the door at the very top of the factory room.

Thanks to them using the pipes and cranes to get by, Andrew got possession of an Ultra Shroom that was on the left high platform in the background of the factory. Additionally, a Z-Yux had ambushed the eight of them in the center of the factory room, but Andrew dispatched it in a matter of seconds, with the help of his friends, as it exploded shortly afterwards.

After some trekking through the background, using the gear cogs, cranes, and pipes to get by, Andrew had to make use of Paper Airplane mode to get to the platform to the right, which contained a blue Card Key needed to activate the panel to unlock the door at the very top of the room.

He also relied on Koops to hit the blue switch that was on a platform, which he activated while they were standing on the crane that was moving back and forth. A bunch of iron stairs appeared that led to the door at the very top.

---

After quite a bit of time had passed, Andrew and his friends had finally navigated their way to the door that was at the top, after Andrew inserted the blue Card Key into the terminal panel, which unlocked it.

"By the stars, that seemed to be quite the workload that we have got done right there, hon," Flurrie wiped her forehead. "I haven't done that much since the day that I starred in one of my many films. Why, I do believe that it happens to be called The Day the Shroom Stood Still."

"That's exactly what it was called," Andrew jumped up the stairs with his friends following right behind him. "And I enjoyed that one too."

Flurrie nodded happily as they kept climbing up until they reached the very top. Once they were right in front of the door, Andrew decided to inform his friends about something.

"OK, guys. We've finally made it," Andrew sighed. "Whoever is in this room must have possession of the Crystal Star and the Mushroom Kingdom Princess. So be on guard, and don't hesitate to fight back if we have to. Got it?"

"Gotcha, Andrew!" Goombella beamed and winked at him. "Let's 'totally' wreck this dweeb who's been causing us so much trouble all this time just to collect the Crystal Stars and rescue Princess Peach!"

"Yeah... Ummmm... I'm ready too, Andrew," Koops gave him a thumbs up. "Let's do this quickly and get the last Crystal Star and the princess from the X-Naut leader... Before anything else happens..."

"Why, I am most certainly ready as well, Andrew," Flurrie swooned. "We shall show this lout a thing or two, as well as claim that Crystal Star and that adorable princess! Come along, darling!"

"Aw yeah! This is what I've been waiting for, Presto! That final Crystal Star is as good as ours!" Yoshiam whooped in an eager man. "Time to take down the leader of these X-Chumps and rescue Princess Peach along with the Crystal Star. Let's rock, dude!"

"I'm also ready, Andrew," Vivian nodded confidently as she smiled. "We better put a stop to Grodus's plans, get the final Crystal Star, and save Princess Peach before it's too late. Let's go!"

"Aye! I am certainly ready as well, Andrew," Bobbery nodded. "Let's give this X-Naut boss the ol' one-too and claim that Crystal Star for ourselves. I am assuming that we must rescue her Highness of the Mushroom Kingdom as well, eh?"

"Hmm mmm mmm mmm, I do think this is a good idea," Ms. Mowz proclaimed calmly. "Let's beat this X-Naut boss, claim that last Crystal Star and rescue the princess before things go downhill and take a turn for the worse for all of us."

"Great to know that we support each other, guys," Andrew beamed as he approached the unlocked door. "Let's do this."

"Yeah!" All seven of them cheered in unison.

With that, Andrew opened the door and made his way into the room. Goombella, Koops, Flurrie, Yoshiam, Vivian, Bobbery, and Ms. Mowz followed right behind him as they were all hoping to face the X-Naut boss and claim the princess and the Crystal Star from him.

But what they didn't know was that the room that they had entered wasn't exactly the X-Naut boss. And there was something else in there planned that Andrew and his friends would have to deal with instead to claim the final Crystal Star. Nonetheless, they would find out about it for themselves, once they got situated in that room...

---

END OF CHAPTER 69...

All right! That's the end of this chapter. Whew. It took me a while to write this chapter. There was quite a bit of content to write in this chapter. And considering that I took a day off on Christmas, it was going to take me a while before I had finally finished writing it.

Yeah, I had decided to cram all of this into this chapter to make Chapter 7 have fewer parts compared to Chapter 6, especially after having found out how long the chapters to Chapter 6 were. Still, I do like how I placed out and set up everything that had to be done in the X-Naut Fortress in this chapter.

Also, as far as how I depicted Ms. Mowz's Tease attack here, I decided to add some modifications to it, to make it more useful compared to the game, in which Ms. Mowz can cover more ground with the copies that she created while doing that move, showing how both Elite X-Nauts got affected by her Love Slap attack.

One other thing that I'd like to point out here is in regards to the quiz game that Andrew and his friends took part in by that robotic Thwomp. I used the game show in chapter 6 as a template for how I wanted to set it up here, as well as using the lines from the game's script itself. And I had all eight of them take part since it's a team effort, and Andrew would've encouraged it.

As for Flurrie's pastime in regards to feet, it's just some that I came up with on the spot, seeing that she might've done something like that in her spare time, as well as giving her depth besides being a famous actress. Which is ironic, considering Flurrie doesn't have any feet. Still, I hope you are all good with this.

Anyway, we've just about reached the climax of Chapter 7. So the next chapter will involve Andrew and his friends facing Lord Crump for the fourth and final time, in the upgraded version of Magnus von Grapple.

Additionally, they'll learn that Peach had been taken away from the fortress, as well as Lord Crump being clueless about Grodus's true plan behind this. 'Basically' it'll show them taking down Magnus von Grapple 2.0, working together as a team, all eight of them, to claim the Crystal Star, and a few other things will occur.

How will this go for the eight heroes? Find out next time, readers!

For now, only if you like, you can leave a review and let me know what you thought about this chapter overall.

Otherwise, I have nothing else to say. So until next time, I do hope you all will take care of yourselves. And on that note, thanks again for reading, everyone!