Prologue: Future Franchise
"This looks cool," Trevor noted.
"What does?" his twin sister, Alice, questioned.
The two were standing inside their local EBGames store, browsing new releases and looking at posters. It was more Trevor's thing than Alice's, but she tagged along anyway because they didn't like being apart. "You know how VRMMORPGs have been gaining popularity lately?" Trevor asked.
Alice turned to look at him in surprise. "VRMMORPGs again? What does that even stand for?"
"Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games," Trevor spelled out for her. "I knew that," Alice quickly covered herself, before adding, "This again? You know about the fiasco Sword Art Online turned into,"
Sword Art Online had been the first VRMMORPG. A seemingly innocent game, ten thousand players had eagerly logged in to be the first to experience virtual reality. This had rapidly backfired as it turned out that, due to the way the madman Kayaba had programmed it, not only was it impossible to log out of the game, in the event that your health points hit zero the NerveGear would immediately send a lethal dose of electricity into your body, causing instant death. Over the course of two years, nearly four thousand people had died before the game was beaten and shut down.
"That was three years ago, sis," Trevor snorted, absent-mindedly twirling his blonde hair in his fingers. "They'd never let something like that happen again,"
"Still, it could," Alice protested. "With the old NerveGear rig, maybe. But the new AmuSphere is totally safe," Trevor protested. "Regardless, I don't want to take the risk. I'm sticking to my console games," the female twin snorted.
"They're making a Skylanders VR game," Trevor told her.
The blonde girl whirled in surprise, her long hair twirling behind her. "Whaaaaaat?"
X
Both twins were dedicated Portal Masters and fans of the Skylanders video game series. There were entire shelves of Skylanders figures in their rooms.
"It says here that they're calling it Skylanders: World of Heroes. They've basically mashed together all the level maps of the previous games with all new content to create an entire explorable world - remember Lego Universe?" Trevor asked. Alice nodded, that MMO had been the only one they had ever really gotten into in the past. "Remember the rocket transport system?" Universe had employed a system where you could build a rocket and use it at certain places to transport yourself between the various locations. "Uh-huh,"
"They have something similar to that, but with hot-air balloons and airships and way more places to visit," Trevor told her. Alice peered over his shoulder at the computer. "Ooh, a trailer. Let's watch it," she excitedly pointed out. Trevor shrugged and clicked on the trailer, full-screening it. The two twins budged over, providing equal space for each.
The screen was black, before slowly opening to a panorama of a world full of various series of floating islands. The two recognised the Dragon's Peak from Spyro's Adventure, and neighbouring it was Time Town from the fourth game, Trap Team. The camera passed both of those, before reaching what was immediately recognised as the island that the Core of Light was on, with several imposing, majestic buildings surrounding the green dome that housed the artefact. The camera zoomed to a balcony, and the twins gasped in unison at the sight of a large room with a massive Portal of Power in the middle. A huge blue hologram of Eon was being projected from the Portal, with his back to the camera. He turned and broadly smiled. "Greetings, inhabitants of Earth! Using this new ability to travel between Earth and Skylands created by Mags and Hugo, I have opened the infinite majesty of the world of Skylands to all! By using this new power, you can send your minds into Skylands and take on a new physical form using your Skylanders figures. An entire world of wonder and adventure awaits!" he declared, sweeping his translucent arms upwards.
"Classic Eon," Trevor smirked, and Alice nodded as the camera swept upwards, through a skylight, and eventually stopped high into the sky, revealing Skylands spread below it like a massive patchwork. Suddenly, Eon was there again. "All this awaits you in Skylands," he began, but the camera suddenly got twisted around, and Kaos' massive floating head was there in his place. "BOO!" he yelled. "Don't forget, Poser Masters. I'm here too," he boomed, before vanishing in an ominous evil laugh.
Eon reappeared, and coughed awkwardly. "Ahem. Er," Eon seemed to be at a loss for words. Trevor and Alice chuckled in unison, this was an unexpected turn. "Great adventure awaits you in Skylands," he repeated, before hurriedly looking to his left. "Switch this off!" he whispered to someone off-screen. Sure enough, the screen went black, and the commercial ended. The twins blinked. "That was a little unusual," Alice noted. "Regardless. Looks awesome," Trevor grinned, and his twin agreed, glancing at the screen. "It's being released in two and a half months," she noted. "We should start saving,"the twins resolved in perfect unison, before looking at each other and giggling. 'That is so fun,' Alice commented in Trevor's mind, and he nodded in agreement, snapping his fingers and switching the computer off.
A/N
A/N
So, third time's the charm. Hopefully. But hey, I don't have anything better to do, so, what the heck? I'm hopeful that this one might actually last more than two chapters. Wish me luck! Shine bright!
