INFINITY ROAD
Prologue: Nerd in a Nutshell
Hi, I'm Mike Jefferson, I love Video Games, Movies, TV, Sport and Reading. I live in Redmond, Washington, just a half hour away from the Microsoft Campus. My Dad works there as one of the top games developers. Little did I know that one of his games would change my life for ever…?
Chapter 1: Call to Arms
So I woke up on the 1st June 2013. I planned the whole day in my head. I'd wake up, turn on my 60" TV, turn to Comedy Central and watch Two and a Half Men until my Mom called for breakfast. I swung on to the end of the bed and reached for the TV remote when, my IPhone rang, luckily, because I'm a bit of a neat freak, I could find it easily. I tapped the answer button. It was Dad.
"Hey Bro," Dad said, "We've just finished Project Infinity, Get Mom to bring you down to HQ as soon as you can."
"Roger that, sir!"
I clicked off my phone and whipped some clothes out of my draw and pulled on my XBOX ONE hoodie and Microsoft Access Card. I skidded downstairs and ran into the kitchen and almost fell over because the floor was so slippy.
"Careful Mike." My mom said this when she saw me pretty much doing the splits across the kitchen floor.
"What d'ya think of the new hood, Mom?"
"Nice!" Mom said. I turned to face her and saw that her hands were behind her back.
"What's behind your back"
"Oh, Just the Car Keys"
"Wait a minute, did you switch on the audio on the CCTV camera in my room"
Turns out Mom was spying on me, instead of baby monitors, my geeky Dad decided it would be better if my parents could watch me as well as hear me.
"LET'S ROLL." I shouted enthusiastically. This made my Boxer Dog Joe jump to his feet and jump on me.
"Joe, I'm fine, get down."
Joe rolled back on to his pillow and whimpered disappointedly. I patted him on the head and turned towards the front door. I charged out of the door and into the car before my dearest mother could lock the house up. I booted up a little something I had built into the car with my dad.
"This is Captain Mike Jefferson calling Microsoft Headquarters, do you copy?"
"We have a spot for you in the landing bay," said a voice.
Standing on the other side of the com unit were two men.
"Ah, um, Chairmen Gates, President Mattrick."
"So, you like your reserved spot."
I didn't notice that we had arrived and 30 minutes had passed. Bill Gates and Dom Mattrick were standing in the window of the main access window. I stepped out of the car and clicked my heels in attention.
"At ease, Captain." President Mattrick said. "Follow me, and use this." The President of XBOX gave me an access card reading: 'VIP ACCESS ALL AREAS PASS' (Not that the one I already had was fake or anything.) I swiped my pass on all the locked places.
"Mike, take a right and swipe the locked door and then hit 4, 6 and 8 in that order on the keypad." I did so.
A computer screen was in front of the next door, it said: 'INPUT VOICE PATCH'
Don came up behind me and whispered in my ear.
"Say your name, it will let you through."
"Uh, Mike Jefferson."
"Patch recognised, welcome Mr Jefferson."
The screen slid to the side revealing a large door, which revolved into a circle. I nervously stepped over the bump in the bottom of the door. A large silver dome was on the inside of the door. Dad overtook me and pulled a metal cube from a briefcase.
"Mike, put this inside the cube-shaped hole in the gap in-between the top and the bottom of the dome," said Dad.
"Got it." I replied. I did as Dad said, and, to my surprise, the tiny black crystal inside turned a very bright green and the silver dome began to slowly revolve with the top and bottom on top each other. A large blue energy ball floated into the centre of the room.
"Computer, can you bring up the energy readouts."
"Yes, Mr Mattrick."
The computer screens revealed a very bouncy chart titled: Core Energy Record.
Suddenly, I heard a voice coming from the energy ball.
"WE'VE-A-FOUND YOU" said the voice. Suddenly, alarms began to blare.
"OVERLOAD, OVERLOAD OVERLOA-."
The computer screens were giving off shots of static.
"Dad, Don, I think the ball's getting bigger!"
I had my back turned to both Dad and the President, I turned because it seemed like they were ignoring me. I then saw why. They were frozen, and I recognised the thing they were standing on.
"A Smash Brother's frozen form."
This wasn't me taking to myself, someone was behind me. A small looking shadow was reflecting off the wall.
"It can't be!"
It was.
Mario of the Super Mario Brothers was standing right behind me.
"This is some kind of joke, right?" I smirked. "Dad's down in the dorms somewhere and you're just being projected by hidden cameras."
This lead to an hour long argument about whether Mario was real or not.
"I think this is the only way we can settle this, Mario."
"Touch my hand, Mike."
I touched Mario's hand and, expecting it to glitch, our hands touched.
"I told you!" Mario said ignorantly.
"So I guess you've chosen me for something."
"After we defeated Tabuu for the second time, he basically exploded, and The Smasher's got sucked inside what he left behind, along with every single hero and villain in every video game, TV show or movie EVER!"
"The villains are now trying to use their powers to revive Tabuu and start a Core War, or at least that's what Luigi and I are calling it."
"So you want me to join the heroes and fight against Tabuu and the villains."
"JOIN THE HEROES MIKE!"
"Mario, you should have just said that in the first place, I ACCEPT!"
Chapter 2: Entering My New Life
"Okay, so first we are going to head to the Mushroom Kingdom Labs for you to receive your new armour and meet Aka-Red and Dr. Sheldon Cooper."
"AKA-RED AND SHELDON COOPER AS IN THE LEADER OF SUPER SENTAI AND THE BIGGEST NERD IN HISTORY."
"You got it!"
"Well then, what on Earth are we waiting for?"
I nodded to Mario and said: "Today, we enter the Core!"
"Wait, what about Dad and Don?"
"Simple: Defeat Tabuu, everything goes back to normal."
"Simple!" (NOT!)
I stepped a couple of paces ahead of Mario so that I was face to face with the Core.
"After you." Mario said politely.
I could feel my whole body just shaking with pure fear. I took in a deep and calming breath and walked through the blue light. Everything around me was bright blue.
I squinted through the light and I saw a ripple open through the portal and I heard a voice echo through the portal.
"Here they come, Dr. Cooper, you'd better stand back.
"Don't be foolish, I've rubbed on my anti bruising cream."
There they were Aka-Red and Dr Cooper P.H.D. I jumped out of the core, which was actually just a teleportation bubble, swiftly followed by Mario.
"Aka-Red, Dr. Cooper, um, it's a pleasure."
"Same to you, Mike."
"Indeed, Welcome to the Mushroom Kingdom."
Dr. Cooper and a small Mushroom looking creature said this at the same time.
"Good Morning Professor Toadsworth." I said trying to sound as bright as I possibly could.
"Doctor Cooper, should we begin the skill suit's activation."
"I certainly see no cause for delay."
I asked what the 'skill suit' was but Toadsworth just answered with: "You will soon see my friend."
We reached the labs after descending several staircases.
"Professor, at last."
Princess Peach and Toad were stationed at one of the computer desks.
"Good to meet you, your majesty, and you Toad."
"Likewise, Mike."
"We should begin immediately." Toadsworth said.
"I agree. I've heard somewhere that Bowser was preparing an all-out assault on the Palace." Sheldon explained.
"Is this gonna hurt?" I asked cautiously.
"All we are going to do is slightly manipulate your body to fit the 'skill suit' and give you your own special power."
"Okay, let's go."
I lay down onto the board inside a small metal coffin.
"Computer, initiate skill suit application."
I felt sharp growing pains in my arms and legs. I was getting taller, but not older. Then I felt it, the metal armour covering me. My body felt like a freshly built C3-PO ready to serve. I faintly heard clicking noises as all the hydraulics were being tested. It took several minutes before the whole process was completed. My helmet had an inside like the Iron Man suit. A small screen came up on the front of the helmet.
It read: SKILL SUIT ACTIVATED, WELCOME MR JEFFERSON.
"You should be able to stand up now."
I stood up straight. The activation message slid off the screen and was replaced with:
ARTI SYSTEM ACTIVATED.
A little pixel face came up on the square screen on my arm.
"YEEEEEEEESSSSSSH, is it good to be awake or not?"
"Hey, you must be Mike, okay here's my first piece of advice, don't let Tony Stark only give you the crappy Mark I skill suit."
"It's too late for that buddy." I said.
"Plug me in to the computer network opposite where we are standing and the suit will upgrade to the latest model, Mark X, automatically."
"Okay."
I did as ARTI said and, sure enough, the screen came up with a new message:
MARK X UPDATE IN PROGRESS, 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 85% 100%
MARK X UPDATE COMPLETE.
"How on earth did you do that?" Toadsworth asked.
The screen came up with several readings:
LIFEFORMS RECOGNISED: SHELDON COOPER, AKA-RED, PROFESSER TOADSWORTH, PRINCESS PEACH, MARIO AND TOAD.
NO REGISTERED WEAKSPOTS.
The helmet was now showing several different screens.
"So cool." I said
"I know right?"
The coolness was interrupted by a large explosion.
"BOWSER'S FORCES ARE HERE!"
"Ready the cannons boys."
"Mike, say: 'arm tracker missiles'."
I did so and the screen changed again.
MISSILES ARMED AND READY TO FIRE ON COMMAND.
"I really feel like Tony Stark."
MAIN TARGETING COMPUTER SEARCHING FOR HOSTILES
"Your majesty, get to the safest point you can, Mario, Aka-Red and I will hold Bowser and the Koopa Troopers off."
Peach nodded and she ran up the stairs swiftly followed by Toadsworth and Toad.
I found it hard to walk in the suit for the first couple of steps. We ran to the outside of the castle and sure enough, Bowser was already trying to get past the Toad Guards.
"Soul Summoning, Deka-Red."
I saw Aka-Red making the change into the red leader of Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger.
"MIKE, TAKE THIS!"
A Mobirates, the transformation device of Kaizouku Sentai Gokaiger, was thrown over towards me and also a thing Aka-Red called the 'Legacy Ranger Key'.
"Mike, this little puppy allows you to transform into any Ranger from across Sentai History without it having to be that exact Ranger Key. Just say the name of the Ranger and it will be the one you change into."
"Okay, I choose Himitsu Sentai Go-Ranger!"
The cool bit about this was that if you said a full Sentai Team, the Skill Suit would clone itself and change into the remaining four team members.
"Let's get us some Koopas."
Mario had joined us by then. He grabbed a Fire Flower and started shooting small balls of fire at the Koopas. Bowser was up in his ship loading cannonballs into the ships weaponry systems.
"INCOMING, SHIELDS UP!"
I had also learned all the voice actions for the controls on the Skill Suit. A large shield came over the suit. The ball bounced off the shield and headed back up to the Bowser's ship.
"So, Mario, you found the kid who is going to 'save the heroes'."
I answered before Mario had the chance:
"Hi, Mike Jefferson, Bad Guy's worst nightmare!"
Bowser just growled at me, but then, he noticed the hole in the middle of his ship.
"Lord Tabuu, forgive me."
"RETURN!"
That growly voice was Tabuu, although as far as I knew Tabuu was just a spirit who couldn't talk. Bowser and his Troop were teleported away from the battle.
"What's wrong with him?"
We were going to find out soon…
Far away, inside the depths of the Core. Bowser had been summoned to Tabuu's quarters.
"YOU LET THE HEROES AND THE HUMAN LIVE!"
"Sir, I can't express how sorry I am."
"SILENCE, RETURN TO YOUR CASTLE UNTIL I NEED YOU NEXT!"
"Yes sir!"
"WAR-MACHINE, COME TO ME!" Tabuu roared.
We decided to head to a place I'd be more familiar with: New York.
"Mike, you have an incoming call from Iron Man." ARTI informed me.
"Patch me through, ARTI." I said.
"Hey Mike, I need you to come down to Avengers Tower, I got a little present for you."
"ARTI set a flight route from this position to Avengers Tower."
The jets in the feet of the suit fired and away we flew.