The time-travel continues, only now our heroes have the four Fiends of Chaos to tangle with.
DISCLAIMER: Bomberman belongs to Hudson Soft, despite the company being in Konami's hands as of March 1, 2012 (with the latter having bought them out). WarioWare, on the other hand, is owned by Nintendo, whereas Contra belongs to Konami. Final Fantasy is a property of Square-Enix. Any songs "used" throughout the course of this fanfic are properties of their respective owners, along with any characters that aren't within the four franchises listed here, unless stated otherwise.
Chapter 3: Soaring through time
[Stage BGM: Pyramid (Dragon Quest III (SNES/Super Famicom))]
The time now was the year 47 BC, in the ancient desert land known throughout history as Egypt. During that period, there existed the last pharaoh who ever lived, her name being Cleopatra VII Philopator, whose mother is believed to be Cleopatra V Tryphaena. Hailing from Alexandria, Egypt, Cleopatra was made into a ruler alongside her brother, Ptolemy XIII, when Ptolemy XII Auletes (her father) died in March 51 BC. However, even when she was married to her younger brother, she insisted that she had no intention of sharing her power with him. About 5 months later, her words came true as she dropped his name from official documents.
Although she was eventually banished from her throne in favor of Ptolemy XIII in 48 BC, she came across Julius Caesar during the Roman civil war (also known as "Caesar's Civil War"). During that time, he seized the Egyptian capital, thus imposing himself as arbiter between the rival claims of Ptolemy and Cleopatra. His reason for doing so was because Ptolemy had killed Pompey, the Roman consul, and added insult to injury by presenting Caesar with Pompey's severed head. In the meantime, Cleopatra took advantage of Caesar's anger toward Ptolemy by having herself smuggled secretly into the palace to meet with him. She eventually became his mistress in 47 BC, and he in return altered his plans for Egypt by choosing to help Cleopatra reclaim her throne.
As soon as Arctic Bomber finished telling all she knew about ancient Egypt (if not everything), Cheerful White and Cute Pink were unsure of who to trust once their time machine had arrived. Thankfully, though, Arctic Bomber was competent enough to make sure her young friends were not misled into doing anymore damage to the space-time continuum than Sirius might have done. Right after they arrived, they stepped outside to recap what Arctic Bomber told them.
"So how do you know all this stuff about Egypt?" asked White.
"Bill and Lance told me these historical facts," answered Arctic, "intent on showing me what not to do whenever I start my own winter kingdom for real. For example, beauty ain't everything."
Pink added her two cents to the answer, "I thought the first priority was for you to control your anger."
"I know, but that's not the only thing I gotta take into account."
White, on the other hand, thought of something else. "Speaking of which, I only knew about Egypt back when I played Cleopatra Fortune on my PlayStation. I had it along with Bomberman: Party Edition, Bomberman Fantasy Race, and Tetris Plus..." He stopped himself in mid-sentence, realizing he got himself carried away. "Sorry for changing the subject. You were saying, Arctic?"
"I'm saying we ought to be careful on who to trust."
"You mean like Cleopatra was a bad person back then?" questioned Pink.
"Well, duh! She wanted all the glory to herself when she kicked her brother out of ruling alongside her, remember? Hell, I heard she even tested various deadly poisons on condemned persons and animals for daily entertainment!"
The Mistress of the Cold thought for moment about what she said, letting out a sigh in the end to calm herself. She was worried that any socializing with Caesar and/or Cleopatra might risk jeopardizing the mission to save the space-time continuum. "I'm sorry for that sudden outburst. I just don't want to lose you two during our quest to restore world history back to its former glory. But since our time machine detected something's amiss in this time period, I say we investigate the source of the problem without siding with either one of the two dictators. More importantly, we can't get involved in the Roman civil war that's currently going on at the time. But once we're done, we screw off."
"So in other words, we don't socialize with Caesar or Cleopatra too much," said Pink. "Wait, don't the people of Egypt speak Arabic?"
Arctic nodded in response. "That's just what I was hoping for, which is why I decided to keep the translator device from our late summer campaign, just in case. Technically, because I'm the only one who has it, you'll have to rely on me to translate for you, so don't be surprised. Oh, and I think they spoke Egyptian rather than Arabic at that time. Or maybe Egyptian Arabic all the way to the present, but I'd rather not go too much into detail about it. All we need is my translator device set to the right language and we're good to go from here."
Pink turned her attention towards White. "Well, White, I'm afraid we have no choice."
"I dunno." White scratched his head briefly. "Maybe Caesar and Cleopatra aren't as bad as we might think at first. But you're right: I hope we don't get forced into slavery..."
His best friend shook her head no. "I doubt it. We're both kids, remember?"
"Yeah, but it's obvious no one in this time period has ever seen a Bomberman before. That, and we still have a lot to learn about Earth's history since we're not born here."
"Then we tell them we're like gifts from the heavens."
"Uh, I don't think that's necessary, Pink..."
Arctic Bomber intervened at this point. "Does it matter whether you tell them or not? Chances are, they'll just think we came from the Egyptian gods, anyway. In short, no need to worry about slavery and crap. Like I said, when we resolve the situation at hand, we clear out, even if Caesar and/or Cleopatra tell us otherwise."
The Great Roman Civil War itself, which occurred from 49 to 45 BC, was one of the last politico-military conflicts in the Roman Republic before the establishment of the Roman Empire. Whether this was the cause of the problem on the Bombers' part or not, they walked in to investigate. Arctic Bomber turned on her translator device, so that whenever the Egyptian locals spoke their native tongue, she could understand them and translate for White and Pink. According to the locals, they felt that something about Cleopatra herself had changed. It was as if she became more tyrannical than they thought before. She had suddenly stopped caring about rebuilding her empire, instead focusing on herself.
"Is Cleopatra..." White was at a loss of words.
"I dunno," said Pink. "It sounds to me like she's stopped caring about her own people."
"Maybe Julius Caesar has something to say, that will help us."
"Guys, I warned you against any socialization with him and Cleopatra," reminded Arctic.
Pink asked worriedly, "But if we don't find our answers soon, who knows what'll happen as the years go by?"
Arctic Bomber shrugged, but then gave in to the Bomber-kids' pleas. They decided to go and talk to Julius Caesar himself. When asked about Cleopatra, all he could say was that she stopped talking to him, ever since a purple-robed skeleton showed up. He tried to reason with her, but the skeleton scared him off with a threat: anymore questioning would risk his death. Arctic Bomber knew for a fact that he was supposed to have died on the "Ides of March" (or March 15, 44 BC), but she kept it in her head so nobody heard it but herself.
"Then it's settled," commented White. "We'll go in there, and defeat this purple-robed skeleton monster."
Changing her translator device's settings to translate from Greek, Arctic listened to what Caesar was about to say. "Είσαι τρελό? Έχει γη-αποσυντιθειμένος εξουσίες. Αυτός θα μπορούσε να χειριστεί την Κλεοπάτρα σε πεθαίνουν από την πείνα το λαό! (Are you crazy? He has earth-decaying powers. He could manipulate Cleopatra into starving her own people!)"
As Arctic translated for her allies, Pink told Caesar, "Not if we blast him into bones first."
"Στη συνέχεια θα χρειαστείτε αυτά, παράξενο τους φίλους μου. (Then you will need these, my strange friends.)" Caesar willfully handed over three iron daggers, fearing the "out-worlders" wouldn't stand a chance without them.
"We'll handle them with care," said Arctic.
[End BGM]
Upon hearing the words "earth-decaying powers", Cheerful White and Cute Pink were able to recognize the skeleton monster as the Lich, for they heard stories in which he wreaked havoc alongside the other three Fiends of Chaos in Final Fantasy I. The Bombers stepped inside with courage, ready to destroy the source of Egypt's distress. Then the monster's voice rung out loud, "Who speaks to me?"
White shouted in response, "The three of us! Why?"
"Ha ha ha ha ha...you have no idea who you're dealing with. My master sent me to conquer Egypt, firstly by manipulating this vain woman into starving her own people! Do you think you have what it takes to defeat the Lich, the Fiend of Earth?"
[Boss BGM: Boss Battle A (Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (GBA, via FFI))]
The Lich attacked by casting Fira, Thundara, and Blizzara on the group. They were hurt, but not bad since Arctic Bomber can absorb ice spells to neutralize the effects of Fira. They retaliated by throwing their bombs at him, inflicting burning damage. However, he was only getting started.
"Do not think you can get by me so easily!"
With that said, he increased his physical capability by casting Haste on himself, while decreasing the Bombers' movement with Slow. He was temporarily given an easier time to pummel the threesome with his punches and swipes from his bony hands, and repeated his usage of the Fira, Thundara, and Blizzara spells. Despite their slow movement, the Bombermen were able to fight back with their bombs. As soon as Slow's effects wore off, the Lich cast Death, summoning the Grim Reaper to steal their souls.
"You cannot kill the undying! Your time is nigh!"
"Care to wager on that?" retorted Arctic Bomber, drawing the Grim Reaper's attention by taunting him, intent on giving White and Pink ample time to break the Lich's concentration - and kill him as well. After another barrage of cartoon bombs thrown at him, he was reduced to nothing but bones, which dissipated from existence along with the Grim Reaper. Had they not acted quickly enough to end this battle, let alone interfere with the Lich's concentration on his Death spell, they surely would have fallen before his undead might by now, and the space-time continuum forever tainted in King Sirius's favor. Either way, they watched as Cleopatra came to her senses...
[End BGM]
Without delay, Arctic Bomber set her translator device to Arabic - at least in its Egyptian form. But to avoid any complications, she simply called it Arabic and listened to Cleopatra's voice. "ماذا.. ماذا يكون قد فعل؟ الدقيقة الأولى، كنت أتحدث مع يوليوس قيصر، ولكن ثم الدقيقة القادمة، أنا يحدقون على هذا الهيكل العظمى اروابهم الأرجواني و... (What...what have I been doing? The first minute, I was talking with Julius Caesar, but then the next minute, I gazed upon that purple-robed skeleton and...)"
Suddenly, Caesar walked on in to the throne to speak to the Egyptian queen in Greek, prompting the honorary Contra to change her translator device's settings again. "Ήταν χειραγώγησή σε δικούς σας ανθρώπους πεθαίνουν από την πείνα, από το τέρας. Πήρε το πλεονέκτημα της δύναμής σας... (You were being manipulated into starving your own people by the monster. He took advantage of your power...)"
Cleopatra sighed painfully, guilty for what happened when she neglected him and her people. "Έχεις δίκιο. Θα πρέπει να γνωρίζουν καλύτερα από το να τον εμπιστεύεστε. Δεν αντέχω τις συνέπειες του τι θα μπορούσε να είχε συμβεί, μου επέτρεψε να συνεχίσει... (You're right. I should have known better than to trust him. I cannot bear the consequences of what might have happened, had I allowed it to continue...)"
"And now, he's gone, thanks to our efforts," White said happily.
"Now, do you promise to look after your people more, as you rebuild your empire?" asked Pink.
Cleopatra answered in Arabic, again prompting Arctic to switch the translator device back to the Egyptian language. "على الرغم من أننا لا نضمن أنها ستوقف الحرب الأهلية الرومانية، واعدكم بأن تتخذ أفضل رعاية بلدي وطن. الوداع. (Though we can't guarantee it will stop the Roman civil war, I promise to take better care of my homeland. Farewell.)"
And thus, the three Bombermen left to return to their time machine. With Egypt free of foreign disturbances, they set course for several more years ahead. They took a guess as to what year they would stop at next, until the time machine detected a disturbance in ancient Japan.
[Danger BGM: Time Warp (Zoda's Revenge - StarTropics II)]
"AAAAAAHH!" The three Bombermen screamed, as they were eventually warped into another time and place.
[End BGM]
[Stage BGM: Zipangu (Dragon Quest III (SNES/Super Famicom))]
Cheerful White, Cute Pink, and Arctic Bomber had now fast-forwarded in time to the year 210 AD, when Himiko was ruling ancient Wa (Japan) as a shaman queen of Yamataikoku. According to the early Chinese dynastic histories, the Yayoi period people chose her as ruler following decades of warfare among the kings of Wa. However, months before the arrival, she suddenly became obsessed with sacrificing any of the women that she could find, claiming it to keep Orochi, a legendary 8-headed and 8-tailed dragon, from tormenting her kingdom any further. Arctic Bomber was able to recognize a little bit of the situation at hand, from a walkthrough she read on Dragon Quest III one time, thus enabling her to predict something fishy is going on with Himiko's sudden demand that women are to be sacrificed to Orochi.
"Alright, so the problem we're facing here is probably similar to what happened to Cleopatra back in ancient Egypt. Only now, like in Dragon Quest III, the real Himiko was eaten by Orochi, who then took upon a magic disguise as her. If what I read is right..." As she gathered her thoughts, she changed her translator device's settings to Japanese.
"How can a dragon disguise himself as a human woman like Himiko?" Pink asked confusedly.
"I think I remember playing that RPG classic itself before," replied White. "Maybe he did it because the Archfiend, Baramos (an overweight, humanoid dragon), gave him that ability to do so. A one-eyed Boss Troll did the same for the king of Samanao, only he had a Change Staff with him for the impersonation business."
Rather than just bust on in to Himiko's residence and expose her without proof of evidence, the three Bombermen asked some locals about the 8-headed dragon himself. Translated from Japanese, the people told the heroes that they last spotted Orochi taking residence in a nearby shrine, using it as his personal sacrificial chamber. Then they feared that Arctic Bomber and Cute Pink were chosen as sacrifices so that the beast won't come out and wreak havoc, but Cheerful White assured them that this weird problem will be resolved if he leads his friends in to slay Orochi.
[End BGM]
[Fight BGM: Battle (Dragon Quest III (SNES/Super Famicom))]
Inside the shrine, the 8-headed dragon awoke at the heroes' presence. He breathed flames from his mouths for burning damage, but Arctic Bomber was quick to counter it with her snowstorm. Then she materialized an ice sword to use against the dragon, while Cheerful White and Cute Pink relied on their bombs and iron daggers to slay him. The beast lunged forth in an attempt to eat the Bombermen, but they dodged every bite just by a few inches. Before they took him out with well-timed stabs, they kicked him in the belly so hard, he coughed up a few people that miraculously survived getting digested, including Himiko herself.
"どうしたのですか。私は本当に行っている長い間、獣の腹内側ですか? (What happened? Have I really been gone for so long, inside the belly of the beast?)" wondered Himiko, though she was polite enough to thank her rescuers for getting her out of Orochi's belly.
"Well, this is quite unusual, but I guess that counts as fixing history," said White.
"We're not done yet," interrupted Pink. "That dragon is getting away!"
Orochi feigned defeat by walking out of the shrine, intent on retreating to the real Himiko's residence. The three Bombermen led the surviving victims directly into the vicinity, and found the beast standing next to the fake Himiko.
[End BGM]
Inside the mansion, Cheerful White warned angrily, "Whoever's impersonating the Queen of Yamataikoku, show yourself!"
The impostor began to speak, albeit in their same language. "You wish to know my identity? I did not expect mere mortals in odd-looking helmets, such as you three, to be able to find me out so quickly. I heard about you from the Lich when you defeated him in ancient Egypt."
Arctic Bomber smirked. "Even a bit of video game knowledge can work wonders in real life."
"It matters little on how you exposed my ruse. I was sent here by the mighty king in golden armor, my new master, to incite horror upon ancient Japan, with the legendary Orochi provided for me in my ruse."
[Boss BGM: Boss Battle B (Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (GBA, via FFI))]
The impostor revealed herself as a red-skinned snake woman with blonde hair, and six arms on her serpentine body, each brandishing a sword. "The power of the burning flame has always been, and still is mine alone! Those who oppose Marilith, the Fiend of Fire, shall burn in hellfire!"
Cute Pink became confused. "So is this the real Orochi, or just a clone? If you're talking about Sirius, I doubt he had an ability to summon demonic creatures into the living world."
Arctic Bomber groaned in annoyance. "We'll ask him about it when we see him again, okay? Because right now, we have a Fiend of Fire to cool off!"
"Flattery will get you nowhere, mortal! Kill them, my loyal minion!" Orochi let out a roar in response to Marilith's command.
"Sorry, but nobody's burning and eating us today." denied White.
Marilith hissed at her would-be aggressor's remark. "How shall I fry you with my flame magic for the dragon: medium well, or well-done?"
Arctic scoffed. "Oh, that's just lame!"
Marilith came swinging her swords about, while Orochi charged forth for another go at gobbling up the three Bombermen. Arctic Bomber neutralized the Firaga spell and the dragon flames with her icy wind, freezing the aggressors. White and Pink thrust their bombs at Orochi with all their might, so that the blast not only destroyed the ice, but it also shattered the beast into pieces. It turned out not a moment too soon, that he wasn't cloned for real, but actually a stone statue brought to life by magic. As for Marilith, she broke out of the ice with her sharp blades.
"You may have broken the Fiend of Wind's spell, but the battle is not over yet."
"You mean...Tiamat?" wondered White.
"Long before I was awoken prematurely, she had laid waste alongside the Kraken to the world in which the accursed Warriors of Light lived in."
Pink turned over to her best friend, having put two and two together on what Marilith was talking about. "White, I'm beginning to see a pattern in our quest..."
White nodded. "Me too. Chances are, we'll be fighting the Fiend of Water himself next, but the ocean is his natural habitat, isn't it?"
Marilith interrupted their conversation with an angry hiss. "If my flames will not cut your friend's ice...Death shall be just! Come forth, Reaper! Your caster beckons thee!"
Arctic Bomber smacked the front of her helmet in disgust. "Aw man, not this again!"
By casting Death, Marilith summoned the dark-robed Grim Reaper with a scythe in his bony hands. First, he went for Himiko to make up for Orochi's demise, but the two Bomber-kids swatted him away with their iron daggers. Just as he was about to chop their heads off and take their souls, Arctic Bomber broke Marilith's concentration with her Bowling Bombs, causing the Reaper to dissipate. The Fiend of Fire grew mad, her sword attacks becoming wilder as she slithered about. Part of Himiko's residence became damaged during the process, not to mention Marilith bringing down a barrage of Firaga spells. Despite all that, Arctic Bomber acted fast to put out all the flames with her snowstorm before anybody got killed. Eventually, after blasting the deadly blades out of Marilith's hands with their own barrage of bombs, the heroes triumphed over her. In death, she dissolved into ashes, which slowly but surely disappeared out of existence afterwards, as did her six swords that were knocked to the floor.
[End BGM]
With ancient Japan free of the Fiend's reign, Himiko expressed her apologies to her people, in regards to the women whom were wrongly sought for the sacrifice to Orochi. Then she asked White, Pink, and Arctic why they looked so different. Rather than tell her they were Bombermen from the future, they covered it up by saying that they used to be human, until a witch cast a never-ending spell on them.
"魔女で終わることのない呪文ですか?それは恐ろしいです. (A never-ending spell by a witch? That's dreadful...)" said Himiko.
"Yes...but we are making the best of it as we go," noted White.
"There are other places for us to go, but we're grateful for your offer to stay here and guard your people," added Pink.
Himiko nodded with a smile. "分かりました。あなたの 3 人が平和と別れの旅行します。 (I understand. May the three of you travel in peace, and farewell.)"
After bidding the people of Yamataikoku adieu, the three Bombermen returned to their time machine. They had set course for a thousand more years into the future, but not to the year 1944 yet. The time machine detected another disturbance in the space-time continuum, originating in the year 1620. That's when they wondered how it was able to detect disturbances that happened many years from the time period they were in before.
Prior to their departure, White took note of the condition at hand. "I'll bet our time machine's antivirus must have altered Sirius's computer virus, so that instead of it taking us and our machine to any randomly-chosen time period, it detects whatever disturbances he and his minions are causing!"
Pink beamed in agreement. "Well, how about that! And it only took us about two time trips after we landed in the Ice Age, to figure it out."
"Anyway, you better hold on again, 'cause here comes another bumpy ride in time!" warned Arctic Bomber, starting the time machine once more.
[Danger BGM: Time Warp (Zoda's Revenge - StarTropics II)]
"AAAAAAHH!" The three Bombermen screamed, as they were eventually warped into another time and place.
[End BGM]
TO BE CONTINUED...
Two Fiends of Chaos down, and only two more to go before our heroes would finally be free to time-warp to 1944!
