The Contras only have about a couple hours left to prevent mass destruction, leaving little to no room for error. Unavoidable or not, a time-critical mission is typically never done without having to deal with enemy opposition, especially if their main goal's to slow down the heroes.
DISCLAIMER: Contra belongs to Konami, whereas Bomberman still remains a property of Hudson Soft as of March 1, 2012. WarioWare, on the other hand, is owned by Nintendo. Any songs "used" throughout the course of this fanfic are properties of their respective owners, along with any characters that aren't within the three franchises listed here, unless stated otherwise.
Chapter 9: Averting death!
[Danger BGM: Crisis Mission (Metroid Fusion)]
Mission 3C: GolemBase
Time grows short, as the Contras have less then 2 hours to destroy GolemBase and the illegally-stockpiled ICBMs within.
Only by stopping Golem Bomber and Volcano Bomber shall the death of mankind in Europe and Africa be averted...
August 30, 20XX
9:54 AM
Never one to let us die at the hands of somebody else but herself, Arctic Bomber frantically led the way throughout GolemBase, killing countless Nazi zombies in the process. "We've got to hurry, and stop those ICBM thingies NOW!" We were all caught in surprise by her unusual concern about the oncoming destruction, but allowed her to continue. "I mean, seriously! If those evil missiles blow up Europe and Africa just to kill us, then Aaron would die as well! Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, EVER screws him up but me! That's why I've come inside GolemBase with you guys, to cool Golem Bomber and Volcano Bomber's jets!"
"Now we're surprised you even care about his safety," said Bill.
"A true Bowling Queen never leaves a fellow bowler to die! I'm gonna smash Golem Bomber 100 times over, till he cries to his mommy and stops threatening to blow us all sky-high! This way!"
"Whoa, wait up!" shouted Lance, as the unusually aggressive Mistress of the Cold continued to lead the way, despite not knowing where Golem Bomber's lair was located. She didn't even care we'd have to survive plenty of booby-traps along the way. There were more undead Nazi soldiers of the Afrika Korps coming at us, but that didn't stop Arctic Bomber from freezing and blowing them away. Even Cheerful White and Cool Black were amazed at what Arctic's doing to help us, though we were supposed to avoid as many random encounters as possible. Throughout our exploration, we tried to contact Penny Crygor for some helpful power-ups, but because of GolemBase's thick exterior, all attempts were futile.
"You better watch out, you evil Nazi freak-shows! This Bowling Queen's gonna literally freeze you in your tracks!" The undead soldiers jumped towards her, only to miss. She got out a can of Star Drink that she "borrowed" from Cheerful White and Cool Black, and shook it real hard. "Have you zombies seen this one?" Then she opened the pull tab, releasing the energy drink itself with force since she shook the can repeatedly. Henceforth, its substance sent the zombies disintegrating both from the force of its spraying and the Star energy within. As soon as the room was clear of all Nazi zombies, we ran forth once again - taking care to avoid lava spouts coming from the seemingly bottomless pits. Eventually, we found some minecarts, which we hopped on to proceed further.
"Are you sure these will get us closer?" asked Cheerful White.
"If we don't get killed, then yes," answered Cool Black.
Try as we might, we were still unable to avoid as much contact with the Nazi zombies as possible. They roared as they threw spears at our minecarts. Typically, zombies couldn't maneuver very well, let alone wield a spear or even gun properly, but apparently Golem Bomber's zombies were able to hold their ground. Otherwise, when not throwing spears, they'd just charge forth mindlessly in hopes of swiping us to death and feeding on our brains. After all, what zombie wouldn't feast on a victim's brain? Either way, as soon as we reached the end of the tracks, we jumped off our minecarts and continued running as fast as we could. All our fighting along the way has done nothing but reduce the time we had left to take out the ICBMs. Meanwhile, Penny finally managed to teleport some power-up pods directly from Crygor Labs for us to shoot open. Bill picked up the Ice Breath, Lance got the Crash Missiles, and I snagged the Drill Shot.
Afterwards, a large stone head with a beak-like nose came crashing down from above, splattering lava around the area. Bill used the Ice Breath from his M16 machine gun to neutralize the splotches of lava, while Lance attacked the stone head with his Crash Missiles. Then it spat out some energy orbs, which we avoided with discretion before we blew it to gravel. Though the point of the fight was to eat up whatever little time we had left to avert the launch, we had no other alternative but to destroy the stone head in order to go forward. Just then, Boxer Bomber and Trigger Bomber jumped out, revealing the destroyed stone head to be a machine.
"Boy, what a thrill of a fight you've given us today!" beamed Trigger Bomber. "I was gonna do more than just lock you in, but it seems there's no need this time."
"The meteors are about ready to take off and incinerate your kind in the flames of hell!" added Boxer Bomber. "We all knew you were gonna come here, but then again, I'm sure you already know by now. So long, foos!"
Lance, still eyeing the fleeing Chaotic Bombers, advised against chasing them down. "We'll have to let them go for now. That means you, Arctic Bomber."
The Mistress of the Cold sighed, but went along with us anyway. "Right..." Finally, we reached Golem Bomber's lair, but just before we stepped inside, Ami and I recalled the time Magnet Bomber tricked us with laser-trip mines back in his personal lair at MagnetBase. Neither of us were about to fall for the same cowardly act again, when Ami simply tossed a Fire Bomb at the stone gate. It exploded, blowing the gate open but suddenly not setting off a chain reaction inside. As it turned out Golem Bomber apparently isn't as cowardly as Magnet Bomber was, we stepped inside but remained cautious. We saw Golem and Volcano standing in front of us, having heard the explosion while they were busy preparing the illegally-modified ICBMs for launch.
[End BGM]
[Alert BGM: Tower of Zot (Final Fantasy IV)]
"Was this really necessary?" questioned Golem Bomber.
"Let's just say we were checking for landmines," replied Bill.
"Landmines? Pshhh! Why would we wanna booby-trap my own lair if we're gonna waste all of Europe and Africa anyway? Still, you've got some nerve coming here." He paused momentarily to glance at Cheerful White and Cool Black. "Ah, so you've managed to save Shiro and Kuro from Pretty Bomber's reign, eh?"
Cheerful White corrected, "Evil Pretty, you mean."
Cool Black added, "We've come to stop you again like before!"
"I'm afraid this won't be like last time, Bomber-boys. You wanna know why? No, ask him, not me. He's the one who came up with the idea for disguising the ICBMs as flaming meteors."
"The point is," said Volcano Bomber, "I'm assisting him in doing the one thing I couldn't do last time: to incinerate you! Golem, let's show them our power!"
"That's right! You're all fated to be killed here anyways by us: Golem Bomber and Volcano Bomber!"
Arctic Bomber scoffed. "No need to keep hammering it in, jackasses! You try to screw up this planet with your nukes, you're gonna get what's coming to you in spades!"
"Boy, somebody seems kinda rude lately," muttered Golem Bomber. "But it's no concern of mine or Volcano's. I think our transformations oughta give you an attitude re-adjustment before you die!"
Lance interrupted, "Not if we can help it! Aaron and Ami cheated death so Bill and I could help them stop Magnet Bomber!"
Volcano Bomber smirked mockingly. "And you two cheated death to return the favor by destroying Pretty Bomber, I presume? Enough talk! Your time of incineration has come!"
[End BGM]
[Boss BGM: Beast of Beat 9/8 (Metal Slug 7)]
Golem Bomber and Volcano Bomber both broke the dark Smash Balls they pulled out, transforming them into their respective forms: Golem Phantom, and Volcano Golem. Thankfully, I kept the Drill Shot for my Contra Rifle during our battle inside GolemBase, but chances are, it wouldn't be so easy this time. Immediately, Volcano made a brief announcement: "Don't even think that the room we're in will guarantee you a victory! Look below here and see!" The center of the lair gave way, revealing a lava pit; Volcano Bomber jumped on in.
"Wait a minute!" I protested. "There's something wrong with this picture! I mean, for one, there's no way the Sahara Desert, let alone Egypt, could have an active volcano!"
"That's because GolemBase is an artificial active volcano," answered Golem Bomber, "courtesy of Volcano Bomber! Like I said, this was all his idea."
Ami huffed. "Doesn't mean we won't shut it down!"
Arctic Bomber stepped up front, eager to dish out the pain. "Golem! Volcano! In the name of those who love bowling, I will kill you!"
Volcano Bomber taunted, "Ha ha ha! Stupid Bomber-girl! Don't you know your ice powers can't stop us, because of the Super Titanium alloy?"
"Come forth, my undead minions!" called Golem Bomber. "Golem Phantom beckons thee!"
"Oh no, you don't!" I interrupted. "Up, up, down, down!"
Ami followed, "Left, right, left, right!"
"B, A, Select, and Start!" Ami and I shouted simultaneously, activating our 30-hit Konami Barriers to protect ourselves from any molten rock thrown around, while Bill and Lance followed suit. Golem Bomber summoned the zombie Bombermen, along with the Nazi zombies, to do battle. He shot out some fireballs from his hands, while the zombies charged forth and threw some explosives (bombs and potato masher-shaped German grenades) at us. Ami blew them back with her Wind Bombs, taking out the zombies - and putting them on wall-mounted "revenge carts." Meanwhile, Volcano Bomber threw a few rock-hard punches, but our Konami Barriers took some damage for us.
"I see you have acquired better protection," he said, "but even that has its limits compared to mine! I promise you, this won't be like last time."
The Hellfire Fiend threw some lava bombs from his hands, doing more damage to our Konami Barriers despite our efforts to dodge around. We couldn't afford to get exhausted upon the expiration; stopping Volcano Bomber was our primary concern. Throughout the entire fight, I had made certain not to lose my Drill Shot since it was by far the only weapon hard enough to penetrate Volcano Bomber's rock-hard body whenever he transformed into Volcano Golem. Meanwhile, Cheerful White and Cool Black shared their Star Drink with each other, giving their bombs the power to penetrate Golem Bomber's Super Titanium-reinforced body.
Blaze Bomber's voice came on through our communicators, obscured by static due to GolemBase's thick exterior. ...read me? Can you hear me...Star Beacons expired...we're defenseless!
"Sounds to me your precious time has already run out," mocked Golem Bomber. "You can't hope to shut down our base, much less dismantle our artificial ICBMs!"
"Your pathetic barriers are reaching their limits as well," taunted Volcano Bomber. "You have lost!"
"Aaron," said Ami, "we can't use our Final Smashes while our Konami Barriers are on."
"I know. It's the fail-safe mechanisms built-in to our Contra Rifle and Bomberman Watch to prevent overcharging."
"Then we'll just have to go out in style! Just like last time, I'll draw Volcano Bomber's attention, while you expose his energy core with your Drill Shot! Don't worry about whether his attack patterns have changed or not, just make sure to hold onto the Drill Shot."
Just then, Arctic Bomber interrupted our brief moment. "Ahem! Less chat, more killing already! We're outta freakin' time, you know!"
"Not yet," I replied calmly. "We have but one more card to play."
Time was running out. We had no time left to move around; Ami distracted Volcano Bomber while I opened fire on his body with my Drill Shot, eventually exposing his energy core. Cheerful White, Cool Black, and Arctic Bomber were gaining the upper hand along with Bill and Lance, as they weakened Golem Bomber's form. Ami ended the fight with her Thunder Bombs, causing the energy core to malfunction and detonate, killing Volcano Bomber. We avoided the flying debris as they took out Golem Bomber and his zombie minions. He began exploding, and an orange streak of light flew out of his body before the blinding explosion occurred. Now it was all coming back: when we defeated the Dastardly Bombers, we barely saw streaks of light flying out of their exploding bodies. The blue one was Magnet Bomber; the pink being Evil Pretty Bomber's...It seemed that the Five Dastardly Bombers have the ability to flee in their spirit forms, despite their actual bodies exploding upon defeat.
[End BGM]
We ran into the cell room and released more of our imprisoned friends: Acrobat Aqua, Young Cricket, and Master Mantis. Afterwards, we rushed toward the controls for the meteors and ICBMs, and altered them to self-destruct. We were all too exhausted to work our way out of GolemBase, but luckily, we had an emergency exit gadget Penny built for us (of course, by combining Star power with the purified Red Falcon chips). We held each other's hands, and teleported out. Once we got out, we led everyone to safe distance, all while radioing Blaze Bomber our current location.
The end results were: the GolemBase was destroyed in the huge explosion with no nuclear radiation coming out of the exploded ICBMs, much to our relief, and we all returned to our helicopters safely as the following minutes passed. It was a hot mission, but we finished it. In fact, we've just saved millions of innocent lives from certain death. Since we Four Contras were too exhausted from having used the Konami Barriers to continue, we headed on back to Diamond City, CA, in the United States for now...
TO BE CONTINUED...
Europe and Africa are both safe at last, and that just leaves Plasma Bomber and Brain Bomber standing.