CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Home Sweet Home
Fresh, crisp air. Something Natalie had not felt in a long while, especially ever since she had been brought to Hell. It had been mostly cold she felt for a long while, and feeling a bit of sunlight hit her face, Natalie began to wake up.
The sun was setting, being a sweet orange color, as the sky was a beautiful shade of pink, which was reflected off of the water of a nearby river. Natalie began to smile warmly, knowing she was home. This was the park she and her friends always liked to walk around when it was nice out.
A poster caught Natalie's attention on a telephone pole. A missing poster, with her face on it. Along with her, was Nick, Michael, and Caela. Just how long had they been gone? It was amazing that someone noticed too.
Oddly enough, the first person to get up besides Natalie wasn't even one of her friends, but Mario. Natalie had almost forgotten that a handful of characters had gone along with them, so it was… jarring to see the cartoonish, italian plumber not change his appearance by much when he got up and began moving around.
It was going to be hard, having them around and not drawing any attention. Thankfully it was getting dark out, so it might be less difficult at such an hour. Maybe disguising Kratos, Reimu, and Arle would help too. As for Master Chief, Natalie had no idea what he looked like underneath that helmet, since she did not play Halo games, she hoped he was a normal human though.
Mario's first course of action was to wake Kirby of course, along with Sonic. "Poyo!" Kirby greeted, which startled Michael enough to wake him. Rubbing his eyes, Michael tried to shake Caela, in hopes of getting her up next.
Yawning in exhaustion, Caela got up to her feet. "Is… everyone alright?"
"Yeah, I think so. Natalie, could you get Nick up?" Michael asked.
Doing so, Natalie lightly nudged him, which was enough to get a reaction out of Nick. "I'm up, I'm up!" He jumped, looking around, shocked to see what they really were back in their world. Even crazier to Nick, was how characters from Gamindustri really managed to come with them.
"They're in our world now… I can't believe it! They're with us!" Nick laughed.
"That's not entirely a good thing. How are we going to get back to our homes without, you know, someone thinking they're losing it?" Michael pointed out.
"Poyo?" Kirby chimed in, as his body became ghost-like, in the same way that Natalie, Nick, Michael, and Caela could do that. Mario and Sonic were shocked for a good moment.
"Well, uh…" Sonic spoke, tapping the side of Arle's body with his shoe to wake her up next. "I think we just found a way, if we can all do that." Attempting it for himself, Sonic's found his body turning nearly invisible.
"I don't understand, what's-a going on?" Mario wondered, while Arle finally got up. "We're able to make ourselves into ghosts like you could, but we can't transform? Instead, we can be solid at anytime?" To test his questions, Mario touched a bench while solid. He could feel it just fine. Becoming translucent at will, he touched it again, and Mario's gloved hand passed through the bench.
They were going to have to find out more about this if they could, but not before heading for one of their homes. Though, it was difficult agreeing to whose house they should stop at…
—
Even though everyone was freaking out to make sure they didn't miss any pieces, wanting to stay longer if that was the case— especially the Dark Champion— it was generally agreed that they couldn't spend another minute in Hell's bottom circle. Gabriel and Uriel stayed behind, mainly since the latter could thaw out the Eternal Champion, and others that were imprisoned, once the angel recovered.
They couldn't keep the CPUs worrying, so they brought parts of the machine all the way back up, hoping to repair it in Planeptune's Basilicom. While Neptune and Angela were glad to see everyone was okay, especially Mr. Grimm, Nepgear wasn't sure what to think about Mars, while Histoire was freaking out.
Surprisingly enough, the other CPUs were present in Planeptune as well. Noire and Uni had recovered a bit, but were still bandaged up. It was as if something was serious if they had to be all brought together.
"Where are those four right now?" Histoire asked.
"Back in their world, Sonic, Arle, and others are with them." NiGHTS replied.
"No… please, you have to hurry to bring Sonic and the other Gamindustri residents back, Bleu as well if she really is there!"
"Histoire? What's wrong?" Billy Hatcher wondered.
"If they mess around too much with relics, similar to the New Game Plus, I fear the worst may happen!"
"Relics, besides the New Game Plus? What are you referring to?" Xavier questioned.
She was going to lose it any moment, stress and worry was overwhelming the oracle. Sighing, Histoire held her head, hoping someone else would explain it for her. "I am afraid the one responsible for creating the New Game Plus was the Lord of Games." Vert explained, handing a cup of black tea to the Dark Champion. "Histoire fears that messing too much with them could signal his return. That is impossible though, when he was killed."
"His own essence could be inside of…" Histoire murmured, biting her fingernails. While most went quiet, Rez was attempting to piece together the machine, with the help of Dr. Eggman and Nefarious, who were constantly disagreeing with each other. It made Rez wish that he had asked for someone else's assistance.
"Histoire, what other things did L.O.G help with, besides the New Game Plus?" Mr. Grimm asked next, lifting a very excited Angela off the ground, who didn't seem to know what was going on.
"Back before he revealed his true colors? I… I have to look into that again." Histoire murmured, going back to do exactly that. Again, no one was really sure how to react to this being revealed only now. They wished that they had been told sooner, but it didn't matter at this point. Getting Bleu and others back to Gamindustri mattered more.
During this, Scervo examined Mars out of curiosity, not paying mind to the arguments Eggman and Nefarious were having. "So, considerin' how that Mercury lass was super serious and loyal, what's this one like?" He asked Orbot and Cubot, who were standing in place. "She's a savage in-battle, but is she like that all the time?"
"No," Orbot replied, "when Mars isn't in her 'merciless machine' mode, she… spouts memes."
"What?"
"Take my word for it, you don't want to talk to her. Much less, want her on your side. Dr. Eggman tried too hard to emulate Neptune herself."
Scervo didn't understand what any of that meant, but he almost didn't want to know either. Being an ancient robot, most of that wouldn't click with him anyway. Mars had been entirely silent too, so maybe it was best not to set her off right now. The work on repairing the machine continued, realizing they had to hurry at this point.
—
Agreeing to stop at Nick's house over everyone else's, Reimu promptly threw herself on his couch when they got there. "Did anyone see us on the way here?" Caela asked. "The last thing we need right now is to be questioned by the police or something at this hour."
"I hope not. How are we going to hide eight video game characters?" Natalie groaned.
"Erm, nine, actually." Clank corrected. "I am present—"
"Ten." Arle interrupted, Carbuncle jumping off of her back. "Carby has been with me the whole time we were down in Hell, but he was quiet."
Like Reimu, Carbuncle instantly made himself comfortable on the couch, taking a nap on it. "Okay, is anyone else hiding characters behind their back?" Michael sighed, out of breath from the long walk back to Nick's house, with no stops whatsoever.
"Think any our parents are going to be worried?" Natalie muttered. Nick's first instinct was to check his cellphone, which had lost connection ever since they fell into Gamindustri. No surprise, it was blown up with missed calls and text messages.
"I think you should all go home. Maybe bring your favorite characters with you."
"But I just got here!" Michael complained.
"Yeah, but I'm gonna be responding to a lot of stuff. I suggest doing the same."
"What story do we make up even? No one is going to believe what we just went through!" Caela said.
"Uh… okay, hold on." Nick replied, trying to think of something that could work. "We were kidnapped, but we never saw who took us away? We escaped though, but ran out of phone battery so we couldn't respond right away. That shouldn't arouse too much suspicion, right?"
"That will cause a lot of suspicion! What are you talking about!?" Natalie pointed out.
"Not really, it's not like the police do much in this town. Remember that person who kept stealing consoles? They still haven't caught them!"
"Who goes around stealing consoles?" Sonic wondered.
"I still don't know. They go around nabbing prototypes. It's the weirdest thing." Michael replied.
Clank and Master Chief couldn't help but wonder about that, if it had anything to do with Gamindustri, or if some loon was going around collecting prototypes. "Listen, right early in the morning, once we clear all of this up, we're going to search for Bleu." Nick said. "But we also have to be careful, y'know, maybe you guys can uh, make yourself invisible entirely?"
"It took a lot of energy out of some of us just to be completely solid for a few minutes, so I don't know about that." Reimu grumbled, as she got pulled off the couch by Master Chief. "Hey! What are you doing?"
"We're going with Caela back to her house, where you can rest there. Stop being lazy, you can walk more." Ratchet and Sonic couldn't help but chuckle at the both of them, as everyone except three Playstation characters remained at Nick's house. This was going to take a long while. Kratos wondered how different time passed in this world compared to Gamindustri. Probably nothing too drastic, he hoped.
—
Night-time in Gamindustri, either it was beautiful, or very dangerous. Monsters often lurked at such a time, and most of the CPUs remaining in Planeptune suggested that their beloved characters return to their respective nation.
The main exceptions were Dr. Nefarious and Rez, who remained in Planeptune to try and help with the machine. This left the oracles in charge mostly. In Lowee's case, there was Master and Crazy Hand, while Lastation allowed P-Man to help too.
Leanbox, wasn't so lucky. They had one very clingy oracle, who constantly worried over Vert when she didn't return, or when the CPU didn't give attention. This combined with Master Chief not being able to also try to take charge, the residents struggled to put up with Chika Hakozaki.
"Chika, please, try to control yourself." Glacius spoke.
"Why is my dear sister not back yet!? She cares more about Caela than me suddenly, doesn't she!?"
"This concerns everyone, not just Vert."
Rather concerned by the obsessive oracle, Rin looked over to the others. "Is this something that happens normally?" She asked quietly, hoping not to raise Chika's attention over to them.
"Chika is spoiled, and wants Vert's attention all the time. If anything something closely resembling a sibling enters Vert's life, she gets really upset. It's stupid." Kazooie groaned, preparing to hide in Banjo's backpack. "If she's going to do this for the rest of the night, how am I going to get any sleep!?"
"Brains!" Stubbs shouted, the talisman still stuck on his face this entire time.
"Is this guy ever going to shut u— wait, why is that still on him?" Sho asked.
"I think it's for the better that it stays on him really." Conker said.
"Concerning what was said about L.O.G, now I know why I came back." Jack Walters finally spoke up, sitting in a wooden chair. "backup data. When I was deleted, someone must have booted something up again… I know I wasn't the only one who came back either, most likely." Some shuddered at the thought of a particular orange bobcat coming back from the dead. Hopefully, he wouldn't be bothering those in Leanbox however, and pester those in Planeptune or Lowee instead.
Madotsuki had fallen asleep, but only while balled up on the floor. She was probably listening to what Walters said, and felt a certain event being recalled to her. The moment the detective tried to sacrifice himself, to be exact. One that she wanted to block out.
"All of you get rest. Especially you, Chika. We don't need you worrying over Vert when she's just in Planeptune." Marcus ordered, which lead to a comical sight of Captain Smiley shoving Stubbs back into the basement, while ripping the talisman off of him finally, before locking the door.
Being that he was a restless sort of character, the Gunstringer looked over to El Diablo. "Why are ya still here? Shouldn't yer devilish carcass go back to Hell?"
"Not until Satan and many others are thawed out. Particularly, I need those reapers to bring back the souls of those you killed… again. So my queen can return to her throne. If not, then I may not be a very happy devil." Even though that last part sounded serious, he merely chuckled. "Trying to kick me out so you can be alone with that one, now that the shrine maiden is gone, is that right?"
"Sh-shut it, buckeroo, not what I had in mind! Dunno how ya even…"
"Figured it out? Your actions in Hell against Samael spoke volumes, that's what. Maybe I should let her know." El Diablo kept laughing, until a gun was pointed directly at him. "W-wait now, I was simply jesting you, amigo! Gyah!" Ignoring his apology, the Gunstringer began firing at El Diablo's shoes. The rest of the night went on like that, until Dust had to break up their little dispute for making too much noise.
—
"Where were you!?"
"Are you okay!?"
"You're back!?"
"Everyone was wondering where you were!"
"We thought you died!"
That summed up all of the calls and messages Natalie had gotten. It was stressful, responding to each one and trying to be consistent with her storytelling. The story Nick made up, that was. She had to write it down, just to repeat herself perfectly, without messing anything up.
What's worse, the police actually did show up at Natalie's house. Sonic, Arle, and Carbuncle had to hide because of it. At 6 A.M., no less. Not exactly the way Natalie ever wanted to start her morning. "Did any of you get a visit from the law?" Natalie grumbled at her laptop, which had a group call on.
"No." Nick said.
"Yes." Michael groaned.
"I didn't— oh crud, door's ringing, that's probably them now. Gotta go." Caela then ended her part of the call to go answer the door, which made Nick start giggling.
On the plus side, after this, there would be no more "missing person" papers or whatever else. But on the other, they were probably going to be bothered all day. Their priority was finding Bleu, and fast so this could all be over with. Yet, it seemed now the real world was a new obstacle. "Maybe we should lay low and stay at home for a little bit, if we're going to be pestered so much." Michael suggested, drowsily.
"How are we going to do that!? We have to find Bleu, and get her back in Gamindustri!" Nick retorted.
"I dunno, maybe… send someone normal-looking out there?"
When Michael said that, there was a bit of a pause. If not for Arle's… slightly anime-esque look, she could fit in with normal people. Same issue probably applied to Reimu. There was probably better luck on Nick's end, with Kratos.
"Give Kratos some face paint possibly, Nick. He could go out there and look for Bleu." Natalie finally replied.
"I don't even have any face paint!"
"Well then, when Caela comes back, should we ask her if Master Chief had a normal head?"
"That's going to take a while, considering when I was questioned." Michael mumbled over the call.
"We should be doing this ourselves! We promised to find Bleu!" Nick snapped.
"You say that, but then the cops are going to pay you a visit next."
"Good reason to get out of the house now."
"They'll probably find you, but if you wanna go out there… I'm going back to sleep." Michael yawned.
"I might do the same, I didn't get enough of it." Natalie agreed.
That settled it then, as much as Nick would have preferred going with Natalie and Michael, he could get a head start, and search for Bleu. Not before leaving a message on the chat for Caela to read though, once she came back. He hoped that she would catch up maybe, since she certainly had the energy, unlike Natalie and Michael.
Of course, Nick believed that Natalie and Michael would also join in after their nap. There was no reason not to, after all. Now that he thought about it more though, the thought of being constantly bombarded by people who wondered where they went did intimidate him a little.
—
"So those four kids finally came back! Crazy, isn't it? Supposedly they were kidnapped." He sighed, having gone on a long, morning jog, and returned for lunch with the nameless, amnesiac woman. "First the police can't catch someone who steals, what was it? Video games? Then they can't help you with your identity or memories. Now, they couldn't even stop a kidnapping, find missing people, and they all managed to get out on their own!"
"Don't you think zey should bring in more professional people, Birdie?" The woman asked, sipping her cup of coffee as they sat in a diner.
"Yes, I do! I mean, sheesh. This place is screwed if all of these things are going down. How long had they been gone for? Almost a month? Usually by then, people assume the worst, but there they are. No thanks to—"
"Bleu!?" Nick exclaimed, running into the diner, panting. Both Birdie and the woman looked at him, mildly surprised to see him show up, and in such a hurry. Ratchet, Clank, and Kratos were with him, but remained invisible to anyone that could have been nearby.
"Hey, you're one of those kids, aren't you?" Birdie asked, while the woman began staring off a little. "I'm sorry about what happened, that must have been awful! What brings you here? Hungry? I can buy you something on the house." Birdie was always a caring sort of guy, something that made him easy to get along with, Nick could see why already.
"No, I'm here to talk with Bleu… that's your name, right?"
"Blue?" Birdie raised a brow, not understanding what Nick meant.
The woman however, started to hold her head. "Do you mean… moi?" she pointed at herself, not understanding why Nick would know that, and if he was serious. It must have been true though, because unlike other names people had been trying to identify her with, this one was giving her some sort of headache.
"Brown hair in a bun, yellow shirt with an ascot, blue skirt, amnesia… You're Bleu! Look, it's a long story, and I can't explain it here, but—"
"Whoa, whoa, you kids know who she is!?"
"We found out just recently!" Birdie wondered if this had to do with the kidnapping, although, this was simply because he didn't know the truth. "Like I said, we need to talk about it elsewhere though. My friends will be joining me soon. Where do you guys live?"
"I'll take you, but uh," Birdie then gestured to the diner's kitchen. "I'm waiting for my lunch. If you're in that much of a hurry though, I understand!"
Nick was a little impatient right now, but he was going to have to wait for his friends anyway, and it would be a little mean to deny Birdie of his lunch. Whipping out his phone, Nick instantly messaged the other three that he had found Bleu, and that all would probably go uphill from here.
Nick waited as much as he could. Ratchet and Kratos knew he was getting agitated, with the finding of Bleu and a little lack of sleep. They were feeling a bit the same too, but they didn't know what they could do or say without raising suspicion. Meanwhile Birdie got his lunch and was enjoying it despite the current situation, and Bleu trying to figure out what exactly that name meant to her. It didn't help her headache that she kept seeing something that looked like silhouettes of a big man and a cat-like being.
The others finally showed up, Natalie and Michael still rubbing their eyes while Caela looked like she needed some aspirin. Their characters were right behind them, invisible as well, but still visible to each other.
"That's her?"
"Yep."
"She remembers nothing?"
"Not a thing."
"Does she think you're crazy?"
"He probably does, not sure about her."
Birdie was almost done when he head that remark. He almost glared, but decided to just go with the possibility that these kids actually knew something about Bleu. After he paid the check, he brought everyone back to his home so they could talk.
—
An apartment building. Not a shabby one either, though it was pretty clear that most of the care for it must have been done by Bleu. Particularly with the decorations. Michael couldn't help but think, now that he was more awake, that Birdie looked familiar. Mario and Kirby were speechless, waiting for a chance to say something to the young man.
"Bleu, this is… going to be hard, but," Natalie then looked at the air. "Okay guys, show yourselves."
Birdie and Bleu had no idea what to expect, until all ten characters suddenly made themselves visible before their very eyes. Birdie nearly jumped out of his skin, primarily focusing on Mario and Kirby, while Bleu outright gasped.
"Do you recall any of us by chance, Bleu?" Clank asked politely. "I understand your shock, and unfortunately, it's only going to be more, erm—"
"Th-those two are Nintendo characters though, why did they suddenly show up like some sort of ghost!?" Birdie stammered, holding his own head this time. "Ugh, man, I could never stomach the colors even if they're nostalgic, they're such an eyesore. I mean, no offense or anything, I just instantly get a headache… That is, unless I'm seeing things right now."
Mario folded his arms, knowing that something was definitely odd here, but he didn't want to interrupt Clank. "You are not, I'm afraid. We all come from Gamindustri, a dimension where characters that many see as virtual entertainment, exist. The lands are split into nations, where a goddess— or, god— reigns over one of them. They're known as CPUs; Console Patron Units.
"Bleu, you yourself were a CPU in Gamindustri known as Blue Heart, but were unfortunately exiled from the heavens and lost your nation; Deeyo. You struggled to get revenge, and then also revive other fallen gods, and succeeded at the latter. However, at such a cost, you sent yourself through dimensions, and ended up here, losing your memory."
All of it was moving too fast for Bleu, her hands trembled, head pounding. "Your oracle, Adalnan. He misses you greatly, and saw you as a mother. Gex, the gecko, viewed you in a similar manner along with Isaac Clarke, even though he barely knew you. You may look like a woman in her thirties at best, but you are truly over hundreds of years old, and can never age." Kratos continued, causing her to dig her fingernails into her hair.
"We were never kidnapped, we just said that to cover the truth." Caela spoke next. "When you used the New Game Plus, sometimes parts of it would scatter, left behind by you. We all got too close to a chunk of it, and were sent into Gamindustri! That's how we know all this, and how we came back with these guys. If we told the truth to anyone, we would be seen as crazy!"
There was a pause, as so many keywords were rushing to Bleu. "Eet's… not zat I do not believe you, I do, considering what eez before my eyes right now." Moving her shaky hands away from her head, Bleu looked at them. "What do I even do as zis… CPU? How do I…"
"You have the ability to change forms, to become CPU Blue Heart. However, given the world you are in, that may not be possible, as far as I'm aware." Master Chief replied.
"This is such craziness—"
"Birdie," Mario interrupted finally, "you're-a no different than her."
Nearly everyone except Kirby was stunned to hear this suddenly revealed. "What? Are you saying Birdie is a CPU also?" Sonic asked, in a rather joking manner.
"No! I mean that he also lost his memories, and gets headaches looking at us! Birdie, I remember you!" Mario explained, much to the young man's shock. "You were that one boxer, after Little Mac who wanted to follow in his-a steps—"
"Wait, you mean," Michael began to wake up a little more, "this guy is… the protagonist of Super Punch Out, for the SNES!? How did I not see it before!?"
"That's-a right." Mario kept going. "Birdie, you beat Glass Joe's student; Gabby Jay, many others… including the Bruiser Brothers! But then years later after you became the champion, you vanished!"
"Poyo!" Kirby exclaimed, as if trying to confirm Mario's words as truth.
"Because you were forgotten like Glass Joe said… you were spirited away. Like Bleu, you didn't remember a thing. That's-a why you took her in when you found her, didn't you? Because like her, no one was able to identify you, or help you regain your memories."
"Ironically, the one thing he can't stand looking at because it gives him a headache, was the link to who he was it seems." Michael smiled, no longer feeling as groggy.
"It's-a sad… two other boxers, Challenger and Mark Tyler disappeared too according to rumors. Now I can't-a help but wonder if they shared your fate, and are out there somewhere." Mario finally finished, looking down at the floor, feeling guilty no doubt that this had happened.
Birdie however, saw many things flash before his eyes.
His victory against Gabby Jay, Bald Bull, Masked Muscle, Mr. Sandman, Mad Clown, Super Macho Man…
Rick and Nick Bruiser, the last two who stuck out the most, making Birdie champion of the Special Circuit. He remembered holding that belt up high, and talking to those he had defeated afterwards, just to thank them for being a good sport.
But then, one day, after years of early retirement, a violet portal opened up. Filled with eyes, and hands that grabbed him, Birdie screamed as he was pulled into the void, someone laughing at him, in a playful manner.
After that, he woke up, with zero memory. The only thing that retained, was his passion for training and becoming the world's greatest boxer again. No one could properly help him remember, so people began to call him "Birdie" because of his… rather messy hairstyle.
He blinked. Remembering who he was finally. Mario could tell that's what Birdie was realizing as well. This whole time, a former resident of Gamindustri, had been helping a fallen CPU. Little Mac's lost successor, was standing there, knowing who he was, and now realizing what he wanted to do.
Not only did he want to help Bleu, but Birdie wanted to go back home, and reunite with the other boxers if they remembered him. "Birdie?" Bleu murmured, trying to make sure he was alright.
"Bleu… they're telling the truth. You have to be a CPU!" Birdie exclaimed, startling her once more. Tears began to form in her eyes, unsure of what kind of reality this was. It was one she accepted, but one that frightened her quite a lot.
That was when there was someone began banging on the door, grabbing everyone's attention. "Mr. Birdie?" A rather congested voice spoke up on the other side. "I got some reports that one of them missin' kids came home with ya, I would like to speak with 'im."
Nick had a feeling that this meant him. Unsure what else he could do, Birdie opened the door, right as all the Gamindustri residents— minus him and Bleu of course— became completely invisible. No surprise, an officer stood there, looking like he had a sunburn on his face.
Finally, it was Nick's turn to be questioned about the kidnapping. Birdie hoped he didn't have to be roped up into it, as did Bleu. Poor Nick was definitely going to be exhausted by the end of it though.