Disclaimer:
Captain N was produced by Nintendo and DIC Entertainment. The Wii, Zapper, and Power Glove were produced by Nintendo. World of Warcraft was produced by Blizzard.
New Captain N: Warp Zone
By: RB3
Explorers of Videoland 1: The Game Master
Welcome to Videoland, a vast series of universes where the worlds of video games come to life. From the grim, dystopian worlds of a first person shooter to the strange and whimsical worlds of a role playing game, all existed as separate sub-worlds and universes within the greater Videoland. Linking these worlds together was the series of interdimensional gateways known the warps. Thanks to the warps, travelling to a new world was as simple as walking through a doorway.
However, there existed a world which linked all the others. In ancient times, Charles Power discovered this hub world, which was the heart of Videoland. He had built his home over this massive array of warps and used them to carry out trade between worlds. He amassed such wealth that he ascended to nobility. However, it wouldn't be long before he learned of dangers from these myriad worlds. Fearing the day his warp hub would be used as a tool for evil, he had the warps sealed, isolating Videoland's worlds from each other.
For countless years, the seal stood, guarded by the Power family for generations. Eventually, King Charles XXI came to power as the king of Videoland's hub world. His rule was marked by benevolence and wisdom, but age caught up to him like all humans. Fortunately, he had two heirs who could take his throne when the time came. They were Princess Lana Power, and Charles XXI's chosen successor, Prince Lyle Power. However, though his reign was far from over, it would also be marked by great turmoil...
A young man with unkempt blond hair gazed upon a gigantic viewing screen in the heart of his family's palace. He wore rectangular glasses and a white prince's uniform. He was Lyle Power. His screen represented the warps as a network of tube like structures connecting the various worlds together. Most were highlighted in pink, representing the influence of the seal. However, several storm clouds were situated at various points in the network which arced lightning chaotically across the warp.
The bespectacled young man frowned. Before him was a group of console operators, the technicians who maintained the equipment which sustained and monitored the seal. "Your majesty," addressed one of the operators. "The seal is destabilizing further. Another storm had formed in the network by the Mushroom Kingdom. If this continues, the seal could collapse and the warp would open again."
"I know," replied Lyle, letting out an exasperated sigh. "Continue monitoring."
Lyle left the warp monitoring room. He had seen these "warp storms" increase in number and severity as he grew up. All this was because the universe of video games was always expanding. New video games were being created constantly, which brought new worlds into existence. With each new world came new sets of warps, all of which had to be covered. The seal could stretch like an elastic band, but even it had limits in how far it could be taken before snapping. The warp storms was the seal fraying right before everyone's eyes.
Lyle had travelled to the throne room to report his latest observations to his father, Charles XXI. Charles was a wizened old man dressed in a puffy blue noble's shirt, an orange tunic with matching pants, and the golden crown of Videoland on his head. Charles listened to his son's report with great concern. "I see, so the situation grows worse," remarked Charles.
The wizened man stroked his beard deep in thought. Beside the king was Lana Power, his daughter. She was a lovely brunette in a midriff-revealing two-piece ensemble. Her top was pink, and she wore a pink belt over a white skirt which tapered to her right. On her head was a golden tiara adorned with a green jewel. "Father, we mustn't give up hope. Remember the legend!"
"Aye, when the seal fades, a hero shall come from beyond the warp. He shall be known as the 'Game Master' and bear an emblem of his home land. Though not hailing from Videoland, his knowledge of it will be great nonetheless. With the power of 'motion control,' he will help move Videoland past one of its darkest times," replied Charles, repeating the legend as his own parents had taught him.
"Yes, you taught that to us, father," said Lana. "I believe the Game Master will come soon. We need to stay strong until then."
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The annual California Swimming Championships were underway. The contestants were young men from high schools across the state. All were dressed in Speedos, swim caps, and goggles, waiting for the next race to begin. At the centre of the five was Kevin Keene, aged sixteen, representing Northridge High in the red Speedo. The swimmers took positions at the starting line by the foot of the pool. When the referee blew the whistle, all of them dove into the water and sped forward.
The racers were neck and neck at first, until Kevin and a rival two lanes over to the right pulled ahead of the pack. It was between Kevin and that swimmer as they raced down the last stretch of the pool. Kevin put in everything he had, shooting ahead of his rival by a head. He touched the other end of the pool, just seconds before his rival did the same. "Alright Kevin! WOOOO! Way to go!" the crowd erupted, cheering their champion from the bleachers. When Kevin was told his position in the race, he raised his arms in elation.
The swimmers returned to their locker rooms to change out of their soaking wet suits. Minutes later, the swimming association announced the winners, with Kevin Keene scoring first place. He had been awarded with a large gold, cup-like trophy and donned his school's Letterman jacket, a white-sleeved red jacket emblazoned with a black letter "N." When he got home, he put his new trophy on a shelf, right next to the others he had won from other swimming competitions. He admired his new prize on the shelf.
Several days passed and summer vacation began for Kevin and the rest of Northridge High. The young man looked at himself in the mirror as he combed his brown hair. "You handsome devil you!" he remarked as he applied the finishing touches on his hair.
Kevin noticed a beagle with a brown spot over his eye brushing up against him. "Woof!" barked the dog.
"Hey Duke, you seem eager to go to Disneyland today," remarked Kevin.
"Woof woof!" barked Duke, Kevin bent down to hug him, and Duke licked his face.
"Whoa, easy there boy!" said Kevin. "We're not going 'til this afternoon."
Kevin went down and ate breakfast for the day and returned to this room to finish packing. His suitcase was full of clothing and hygiene-related items such as a toothbrush and floss. He looked at his clock, which said he had two hours to spare until lunch. Kevin turned on his Wii console and activated its Virtual Console software. He selected "Punch Out," an old arcade boxing game from Nintendo. Kevin steamrolled all opponents until he reached King Hippo, an obese boxer who wore a crown.
After the boxers moved closer to battle, Kevin opened by throwing a jab to the face. King Hippo easily blocked. Kevin tried a body shot, but was easily blocked. King Hippo launched his counter punch, but got sidestepped. He opened his mouth in preparation to punch, when Kevin promptly popped him there. It knocked King Hippo's shorts down, revealing a bandaged navel. Kevin unloaded the body shots, each hit knocking Hippo's pants down even as he kept trying to pull them back up.
A knocking came from the door to Kevin's room. "Kevin?" asked a female voice.
"Come in mom," replied Kevin. He unloaded more body shots until King Hippo finally got his shorts back up.
A bespectacled blonde in her forties opened the door. Though her hair was greying from age, Kevin's mother was still a very attractive woman with a pleasant demeanour. Her name was Sonia Keene. "Kevin we're going to Disneyland after lunch. Did you pack your things?" she asked.
"Yep, just finished a few minutes ago," replied Kevin.
"Good, lunch will be in about half an hour," said Sonia. "Don't be late."
"I won't," said Kevin. He had managed to deck Hippo's open mouth again. Hippo dropped his shorts, allowing Kevin to unload more body shots until he had felled Hippo.
Before Sonia left, she noticed an unusual mark on the wall behind Kevin. On closer examination, it appeared to be a crack in the paint, one of many. "Hmm, we'll have to repaint soon," Sonia said to herself.
Suddenly, the image of a swirling, vortex-like mass of clouds appeared on the screen. "Whoa!" Kevin remarked, as electricity leaped out of his TV, latching onto him. He stumbled back, flailing his limbs to maintain balance and knocking over his chair as he stumbled back.
Sonia grabbed Kevin's hand. "Kevin hold on!" she cried, trying to pull Kevin over to her while holding onto his window sill.
Kevin could see and feel his mother straining against the force of the lightning's pull. Her grip weakening rapidly as the pull eroded her strength. However, it was the window sill which gave out first. A piece of it tore off with a barely audible crunch. Kevin was dragged into the TV set, taking his mother along with him. They hurtled through what appeared to be a tunnel filled with storm clouds arcing lightning. Despite the danger, they miraculously passed through safely. They hit something at the other end and blacked out.
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"Ow," remarked Kevin as light filtered into his eyes. When his blurred vision finally cleared, he was greeted with the sight of a beautiful brunette in a tiara. She was seated on a stool near the bed. "Where am I? Who are you?" asked Kevin bolted upright.
"Relax, I'm not an enemy," replied the brunette. "I'm Princess Lana Power. You're in my palace in Videoland. When the warp dumped you here, you hit your head on the ground and blacked out. We have been taking care of you while you recovered."
"Yeah," replied Sonia. "I got pulled in with you. You broke my fall when we landed here."
"What is this place?" asked Kevin, unsure if what he heard was correct.
"My palace in Videoland," replied Lana.
"Videoland?" asked Kevin.
"She told me the same thing," replied Sonia. When Kevin regained more of his lucidity, he noticed that Sonia was not wearing her usual clothes. She was now dressed in a hooded white robe. This ensemble made her seem radiant and saintly. "Oh, my clothes? I found myself wearing this when I got here. I don't know how I got them."
"You look like a priestess from an RPG," Kevin remarked as he sat up.
"I do, don't I?" asked Sonia rhetorically.
"Kevin, please don't push yourself. You're still recovering," said Lana.
Kevin noticed a set of guns and a glove and across the room. The first was more like a grey pistol and was in a holster, lying on a desk. It looked very much like the Zapper light gun peripheral for the old Nintendo Entertainment System. The second weapon was much larger, looking more like a bazooka. He recognized it as a Super Scope, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System's equivalent of the Zapper. The last item, the glove, was an article of grey clothing which had a control pad with buttons on it. In fact, it was a Nintendo Power Glove.
"You had them when we landed in the palace," informed Sonia.
"I had them?" asked Kevin.
"Your weapons are standard firearms used by my family and the palace guards. The Power Glove is the symbol of my family, but it looks like you have the real thing," said Lana. "When you came through the warp, both of you must have gained special weapons and powers. Now I know you must be the Game Master."
A female servant knocked on the door to the guest room. "Your Majesty, the King wishes to see you," informed the maid.
"Okay, I'm coming," replied Lana. "Kevin, please get more rest. I'll be back later."
Lana got up to leave with her maid. "Hey wait!" said Kevin, trying to reach for her, which resulted in a bizarre effect taking place. Lana had zoomed back to Kevin's side, as though a tape had been rewound to an earlier segment. "Whoa!"
"What?" asked Lana. "Why am I back here again?"
"What just happened?" asked Sonia.
"I... I don't know," he replied. "I tried to reach for you and you came back to me."
"This must be one of the special powers you gained when you passed through the warp," said Lana. "Please rest. I need to see my father."
"Your Majesty, please hurry, the King is waiting," said the maid.
"Coming," replied Lana. "We'll talk later."
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"So, you believe our guest is the Game Master of legend?" asked Charles.
"Yes," replied Lana. "His jacket is a Letterman jacket, which represents his high school. That can't be a coincidence."
"Hmm, let's give him a chance to prove himself. Lyle just gave me the latest report. He is certain that in a week, the Mushroom Kingdom warp will open completely, with more coming in the days ahead. Why don't you take our guests and explore this world? Learn about it, and report back what you find. If you can, recruit suitable allies who could help us," said Charles.
"I understand. I should provide some basic training before we go," said Lana.
Lana returned to the guest room to check up on Kevin and Sonia. "Hello your Majesty," said Sonia.
"Just call me Lana. There's no need to be so formal," said Lana. "I just came back from meeting my father."
"What did he say?" asked Kevin, sitting up.
"He ordered us to explore the other worlds of Videoland and learn as much about them as we can," replied Lana.
"He did? All I do is serve coffee and my son is still in school," said Sonia. "We're not cut out for that."
"Our palace was built near a great warp zone which connects all of the other worlds of Videoland. The seal on the warps is beginning to collapse. Soon, our palace will be exposed to dangers beyond the warps. We fear that an evil force might use our warp zone to terrorize the rest of Videoland. We don't know what form this evil might take, but we need to be ready. Please help us," requested Lana.
"I'm just a normal kid. Plus, my dad and our friends must be worried sick about us. My mom and I should get home as soon as possible," said Kevin.
"I don't think you can," said Lana. "The seal on the warps is growing unstable, which is creating storms. You were lucky to survive your trip here. You might not be so lucky the second time. Even if you did, the warps are still opening. Your home would be at risk if our palace were to fall. Please help us, for the sake of everyone."
Kevin sighed in resignation. "Alright, I guess I can't refuse if you put it that way."
"Are you really going to do this?" asked Sonia.
"What choice do we have?" Kevin asked in response. "If we don't do anything, it might not matter even if we could go home."
"Okay, I'll help," said Sonia.
"Still, I'm not this big hero. I'm just a kid. What can I possibly do?" asked Kevin.
"You're the Game Master. Your knowledge of the game worlds will guide us to success," replied Lana.
"Sure, I've played a lot of video games, but I haven't played every game in existence," said Kevin. "Even with my mom's knowledge, there are still many games we haven't seen."
"Even if you don't, you still know more than we do, much more," said Lana. "You also have motion control, the power move things with a gesture. With some training, you should be ready."
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Over a week, Kevin and Sonia spent time in one of Power Palace's state of the art training facilities. It was a simple black room with stripes of yellow paint to mark off sections of the room like a grid. In the cabin overlooking the room, Lana worked the controls for this room, a sort of holographic projector. To Kevin, this room was much like a "holodeck" from the TV series Star Trek. It also reminded him of the "Danger Room" from the X-men comics and movies, which he thought was cool.
"I'm going to spawn targets to practice your aim," announced Lana.
A structure similar to a firing range stall appeared around Kevin. He readied his Zapper and fired at the moving, human-shaped target. Instead of bullets, his gun fired beams of blue energy. They perforated the paper target much like a bullet did. "How was that?" asked Kevin.
Lana looked over the display screen, which showed the state of the target. Of his ten shots, Kevin had landed seven of them directly on the heart. The other three hit the face. "Pretty good," she replied. "Have you ever fired a gun before?"
"No, this is my first time. The only guns I've ever fired were part of an arcade machine," replied Kevin.
"What kind of video games do you like?" asked Lana. "There must be all kinds."
"I like a little of everything. I like games by Nintendo, multiplayer shooters..." replied Kevin. "I also play a few RPGs, but not as much as my mom. She is a big fan of them."
"I see, I guess that's why she ended up in those robes. She can use magic," said Lana.
"No kidding," remarked Kevin as he looked towards Sonia's area. "Look at her go!"
Sonia's hands became aglow with golden light as she prepared a holy spell. A blast of holy magic descended on the paper target, much like a hammer slamming onto its head. The target crumpled under the force of her attack. "I'm like a priestess from World of Warcraft. That was a Smite spell," she replied.
The holy magic scattered and some of it touched Kevin, who felt a surge of wholesome, rejuvenating power fill him. "So that means you're a healer?" asked Kevin.
"Yes, I'm triggering a Discipline Priest's 'Atonement.' Whenever I damage with certain spells, I can splash holy magic onto nearby friends to heal them."
"So, you can support and dish out the pain... Cool!" remarked Kevin.
Kevin continued shooting at targets. He was amazed at how great his accuracy was. It wasn't a case of being skilled, since he had never fired a real gun in his life. It was more like a "force" was guiding his hand to where he should aim. Was it the Power Glove's doing? If so, it was a useful tool. In the heat of a battle, it was very easy to become agitated and become inaccurate. This effect could counter it, allowing him to maintain accuracy.
For a change of pace, Lana created a dusty, dry wilderness with several target dummies far in the distance. "Let's try some long distance sniping this time," said Lana.
The targets were too far away for the Zapper to hit accurately, even with the Power Glove's help. This was where the Super Scope came in. Kevin holstered his Zapper and materialized the Super Scope. The bazooka-like weapon had a scope for spotting distant targets. He lined the crosshairs on the dummy and pulled the trigger. A bolt of energy pierced the target and felled it. Kevin continued to snipe dummies until he had picked each of them off.
"Okay, that's good. You're going to be the sharpshooter for our team," said Lana. "Your next training will be in a live situation."
When the next session came, Lana created a modern city and then three terrorists for Kevin to fight. These men were dressed in camouflage and ski masks while armed with submachine guns. As Kevin traversed the town, he soon came upon the group, who fired at him from cover behind a car. He fled into an alley and became pinned around a corner by their fire. He took a step back and noticed a balcony above. He climbed up to it and onto the roof, where he approached the edge quietly.
The terrorists were still firing at the alley, still believing he was there. Two of them left cover to investigate the alley and attempt to flank him. As they approached the alley from the rear, Kevin lagged them back onto the street. As they stood there confused, Kevin shot them. The third tried to return fire, but Kevin gestured to motion control the bullets into veering off course. Kevin scored a retaliatory head shot on the terrorist.
"Nice Kevin, very nice," remarked Lana, despawning the city.
Kevin found himself standing in the training room with Sonia. "Yeah, well done," said Sonia.
"You guys could still use more training, but I think you can manage now. We'll be going tomorrow, so get a good night's sleep," said Lana.
END OF CHAPTER