Sorry to have kept you waiting! Other than that, here's the first chapter.
DISCLAIMER: Contra is owned by Konami, whereas Sofia the First is a property of Disney - as in, Disney Junior. The concept of one world merging with Enchancia is courtesy of writer Ghost Archer...at least I think so, judging from what I read thus far.
Chapter 1: A new breed arises
[Opening BGM: Title - Prologue (Contra 4)]
The year is 2641 AD...
Five years had passed since the Alien Wars, and only three years after Majors Bill Rizer and Lance Bean of the heroic Contras defeated the evil Red Falcon's partner-in-slime, Black Viper, with the help of First Sergeants Mad Dog and Scorpion. Mankind was slowly beginning to recover, all the while trying to forget the damage those two monstrous commanders of sheer terror inflicted upon our planet Earth. Nevertheless, civilization was still in turmoil, the extreme concentration of people and goods in the few areas having turned the cities into hotbeds of crime after escaping the sheer devastation. To make things worse, the rapid development of genetic engineering and cyborg technologies during the war had spawned a new, fearsome type of crime unimaginable before the conflict.
To combat this threat, a government agent known as Commander Doyle had set up a special team of elite troops, the "Unified Military Special Mobile Task Force." Taking the name of the heroes who had saved the planet during the Alien Wars, the public called them the Hard Corps. Bill and Lance were amongst the first heroes to have joined the group with high hopes that more people would follow in their footsteps someday.
It's the holiday season in Neo City with festive decorations all over the place, its citizens looking for a respite from the usual hustle and bustle. But unknown to the populace, the forces of evil were using this otherwise peaceful moment to advance their dark plans. Someone infiltrates the city's defense computer complex and unmanned weapons begin to run amuck on the streets, attacking the populace at random. Buildings were wrecked, people were being hunted down like sick dogs, and no sooner had the city been set ablaze by enemy fire.
"...And as you can clearly see, our world is once again in chaos," briefed Commander Doyle. "Our security has been breached by an unknown hacker, but that's not the only problem. Reports also indicate an unmanned robot is running rampant throughout Neo City, killing people and wrecking buildings as it pleases. Majors Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, I want you to proceed to the area ASAP and restore order!"
"We're on our way, chief!" saluted Bill.
"Consider it done," acknowledged Lance.
"In the meantime, we will try to support you by transferring some power-up capsules to your location," said the chief. "Its targeting system isn't exactly perfect, per se, so you'll need to keep your eyes peeled for any of these pods that float by if you intend on upgrading your Contra Rifles."
[Stage BGM: Neo City (Contra 4)]
Somewhere on the streets of the war-torn city, the rogue robots were casually firing their weapons at random...until all of a sudden, an ATV came ramming them down at an incredible speed! It kept on going until it crashed into a parked car, and out came Bill and Lance through the ATV's windshield, ready to spring into action once again.
"Ready to roll, buddy?" Bill asked Lance. "It sure is good to be back, but let's press on and see what we find about this unmanned robot."
"True that. We can't let these mechanized mobsters bully us around like this!"
The robots took note of Bill and Lance's presence in the scene of the crime and turned their attention towards one sole objective: vaporization on sight. The two Contras returned fire on the enemy, shooting down two power-up pods that flew over them. Bill got the "D" icon, adding the Homing Missiles to his Contra Rifle, whereas Lance picked up the "A" icon to upgrade his own gun's default weapon into its Vulcan Laser form. Afterwards, a mechanical spider busted out of a damaged building's entrance with its flamethrower at the ready. The Contras jumped over the stream of fire and counterattacked the machine, igniting its fuel tanks in just seconds. It malfunctioned from the damage, causing it to pause momentarily just before speeding off to the right, prompting Bill and Lance to jump over it again as it crashed into another building and exploded, causing it to fall over for them to use as a ramp to proceed once more.
No sooner than they reached the rooftop of another destroyed building did they notice a giant one-eyed robot walking in the horizon, firing a sweeping laser across the streets that caused columns of fire to explode from the ground, moving from the far left to the right. Once the damage was done, the cyclops jumped up high and landed itself next to the building Bill and Lance were on, nearly crushing them. Realizing they would be next to be incinerated by the fire columns, Bill and Lance aimed their Contra Rifles up high and shot the giant robot's red eye as it fired the sweeping laser again, narrowly avoiding the flames prior to blowing the cyclops to pieces of scrap metal. Then two more power-up pods were teleported here, granting the "B" and "C" icons for Bill and Lance to pick up after shooting them.
"I'll take the Spread Gun," said Bill, installing the "C" icon into his rifle.
"I've got the Crash Missiles," added Lance, putting the "B" icon directly into his own gun.
After exchanging words with each other, the Contras jumped onto two rotating platforms in order to reach the third, stationary one. Hanging onto it for dear life, they braced themselves as it spun them around and flew forward onto the ground, right before it got blown up by the supposed unmanned robot standing on the rooftop of a nearby building.
[End BGM]
[Boss BGM: A Spirit of Bushi (Contra: Hard Corps)]
"That's not the unmanned robot!" noted Bill. "Somebody is inside that thing!"
The robo-suit jumped down from the roof onto a parked car, forcing the Contras to jump out of harm's way as it got smashed into pieces. Brandishing a gun in its right hand, the robot jumped to various parts of the makeshift arena, including two raised platforms, while periodically shooting at Bill and Lance while standing or ducking. Bill held on to his Spread Gun while Lance backed him up with the Crash Missiles, their combined firepower blowing away the robot's gun in the process and knocking it backwards momentarily. But then it jumped back up and did a laughing pose, detaching its torso which sprouted blades and flew up to chop the skyscraper in half. Then the torso re-attached itself, while the Contras wasted no time attacking the robo-suit's weak spot and ducking beneath the spinning blades. The robo-suit switched its attack pattern and dashed forward, knocking Bill and Lance over (and taking away their Spread Gun and Crash Missiles). Then it did a cocky dance, thinking it had done the impossible, shortly before the Contras blew it up, revealing its pilot: a tall, cybernetic man with a half a blonde mullet on his head, along with an implant that covered his right eye and his body almost entirely mechanical.
In a nutshell, he appeared to have been once a human mercenary-for-hire before he ended up like this today, leading Bill and Lance to assume he was heavily injured at one point and had to be surgically converted into a cyborg to survive.
[End BGM]
"Who, or what, are you?" asked Lance.
"Heh heh heh...you can call me Deadeye Joe," introduced the cold-blooded mercenary-for-hire. "If you wanna know more than that, then come and get me!" He flew off in his jetpack just before Bill and Lance recieved a distress call on their video communicators.
This is Dr. Geo Mandrake of the research center. If anyone can hear this transmission, please come and help! We are under attack by an unknown group!
"Damn!" cursed Bill. "What should we do?"
Lance thought for a moment. "Hmm...if we chase Deadeye Joe now, chances are he's intent on distracting us from the real objective at hand. I say we rescue the research center on the double!"
Bill nodded in agreement. "Good idea, Lance. Let's just hope we can get there in time..."
[Stage BGM: Port Town (F-Zero GP Legend)]
And so the Contras requested two hoverbikes from Commander Doyle, who had said bikes teleported to their location. Then they sped off to the west on the freeway.
"Crap! At this speed, we'll never get there in time!" But before Lance could say anything else, he noticed a high-tech plane with a railing on its bottom passing by and hovering above him and his buddy.
"Hey gang! Looks like you're having some trouble," called the vehicle's pilot from the driver's seat. "Grab onto my machine and I'll take ya to where ya want to go!"
"The Air Police... You guys sure have good timing!" complimented Bill, jumping off his bike and onto the plane's railing while Lance followed suit.
"Look out! One of the bad guys is coming up from behind!" The group saw an armored tank rushing on the highway and plowing through Bill and Lance's bikes, blowing them up, and then maintained its position behind the plane in order to fire a volley of missiles, each breaking open to reveal a jetpack-mounted robot with a laser rifle in its hands. Bill and Lance jumped over the missiles and blasted the robots that came out, sending them hurtling into the tank to damage it. After gunning down a total of six jetpack robots, the tank blew up, leading the Air Police cruiser to take Bill and Lance high into the clouds.
Without warning, a lone robot soldier with a jetpack flew into the scene and launched his grappling hook onto the allied plane's railing. Bill switched over to his Homing Missiles and fired away, forcing the robot off the plane but for a moment. He reappeared for an encore after Bill and Lance jumped onto the body of the aircraft with their boots' magnetic technology turned on so they wouldn't be blown off easily by the maximum velocity. This time the robot was chasing the plane and shooting occasional downward angled laser beams at the Contras, who retaliated with their own shots until he crashed and burned. Finally, an enemy hydra plane in the form of a huge blue aircraft descended from out of nowhere to fire a tri-barreled gun on each of its wings, wielding a flamethrower on its nose. The pilot of the allied jet maneuvered out of harm's way so as to not get shot down, but the enemy craft remained somewhat unpredictable. Bill and Lance used whatever firepower their Contra Rifles still had in order to destroy the hydra plane, keeping their aim as steady as possible. When the enemy craft burst into flames, it smashed into the Air Police cruiser, bringing the group down with it.
"Rats!" grunted the pilot. "We took one... We're going down! It'll be a rough landing!"
[End BGM]
The plane skipped across the ground a few times before finally crashing and skidding to a halt, whereupon Bill and Lance were thrown onto the ground. Luckily for them, the plane crash-landed right at the doorstep of the research center! On top of that, they were still able to receive support from Commander Doyle's technicians as two power-up capsules appeared over them. Bill got back his Spread Gun with the "C" item, while Lance got the "D" item for the Homing Missiles this time.
[Stage BGM: Gekokujoh Norakura (Contra: Hard Corps)]
They blasted open the door with their Contra Rifles and ran inside to encounter Dr. Mandrake, an elderly scientist about a few inches shorter than them, surrounded by a squad of soldiers with guns. When they noticed Bill and Lance, they hesitantly ran away, leaving the doctor behind. "Are you okay?" asked Lance.
The scientist coughed momentarily as though he were just recovering from a traumatic event. "I'm fine, but you must stop them! They're after the alien cell!"
"Alien cell?"
"We got it from Red Falcon's remains in the Alien Wars five years ago," answered Dr. Mandrake. "It's very dangerous, so we were keeping a close eye on it!"
"So the rempaging robot was just a clever diversion after all!" stated Bill. "Good thing you thought ahead, Lance!"
The red-clad Contra smiled in return. "Thanks, buddy. Is there anything else we should know, doctor, or not anymore?"
Dr. Mandrake nodded in response. "Yes. There is just one more detail I must share with you: They're also targeting an artifact from another world beyond time and space, called the Amulet of Avalor. We don't know a lot about its origins, but it is said to possess a magical power of unimaginable proportions!"
"We'll keep an eye out for that as we go along," commented Bill. "Thanks for calling us in to help, doc!"
Now it was time to go after the terrorists. As Bill and Lance entered the next chamber they were swarmed by soldiers left and right, snipers on platforms and laser sword-wielding troopers running on the ground. Had Bill not picked up the Spread Gun, he and Lance would have surely been overrun by now and lost their Contra Rifles' power-ups. They made sure to shoot at every angle as they ran on through, climbing up the wall to take out the enemy soldiers taking potshots at them, and reaching the top of the research center. The "A" and "B" power-up capsules showed up for Bill to shoot, picking up the Vulcan Laser for the default machine gun while letting Lance get his Crash Missiles back. Finally they entered a huge chamber with a large glass containment unit in the background which had been smashed open. The remaining terrorists here escaped through the door up ahead.
"Aw crap, we're too late!" shouted Bill, just seconds before both doors slammed shut, leaving one large, inescapable chamber. In the smashed container's place was an astral projection of His Ugliness himself, Red Falcon! Only his head appeared on the screen, but even that was merely enough to show off the cross of a skeletal dragon and a chimera.
[End BGM]
[Alert BGM: Boss Approaches (Contra 4)]
"Hello, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean," greeted the alien monster, his monstrous voice striking fear in the hearts of even the bravest of warriors. "Surprised to see an old friend? You have no idea how special this moment is for me. This is no chance encounter, I can assure you."
Bill and Lance gasped, the latter being brave enough to speak his word in response. "Red Falcon?! But how's that possible? We crushed you five years ago!"
"Oh, but you thought wrong! You see, I have just one loose end to tie up before I begin my reign as the undisputed ruler of the universe. I do NOT like to lose! You two were a blemish on what would otherwise be a perfect record of domination, terror, and invincibility. Besides, I'm still a bit miffed about the fact that you managed to defeat me three times in a row. And if that weren't enough, you teamed up with Mad Dog and Scorpion to kill my second-in-command, Black Viper, in Contra 4."
"So you knew about that incident from 3 years ago, too..."
Red Falcon snorted. "Even in death, or so Black Viper told me right after you sent him to hell. Anyway, to relieve the pain of my humiliation, and prevent you both from being a further pain in my ass, you must die. It's been nice seeing you one last time. Robo-Corpse, do the dirty deed." His astral image crackled and faded out of existence.
[End BGM]
In Red Falcon's place was a giant skeleton robot with a bluish hue, the very same menace that Bill and Lance encountered twice during the Alien Wars. It appeared as though Robo-Corpse were ready for them this time as he let out an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, from his eyes, disabling their Contra Rifles and all the acquired power-ups instantly.
"By order of Lord Red Falcon, you'll be destroyed here and now!" declared Robo-Corpse, hiding himself behind the containment unit and throwing in a volley of time bombs all over the chamber.
"Dammit! It looks like we're done for!" panicked Bill.
"It's been nice knowing you, buddy!" cried Lance.
As the time bombs ticked down from 3 to 0, the Contras held hands and shut their eyes tightly, accepting defeat and the inevitable demise. Suddenly, an interdimensional time portal materialized itself out of nowhere, sucking Bill and Lance in just before the time bombs exploded, destroying the entire chamber. Even so, they held on tight so as to not lose each other.
"Wh-what's happening to us?!" worried Lance.
"I don't know, but whatever you do, DON'T LET GO!" shouted Bill.
But without warning, Deadeye Joe appeared again in his jetpack and punched the Contras, causing them to lose their grip and fall through on the opposite sides. He cackled maliciously, having accomplished what Robo-Corpse almost did, and flew away into the horizon of the time portal.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Where the interdimensional time portal had taken Bill and Lance, nobody knows for sure...at least, not until the next chapter.