War on the Home Front One Saturday morning,...

"We're under attack!!" yelled Armand one day after a rocket blast interrupted a very challenging chess game against Greg.

"Tell me about it!" replied the blond-haired robot who was formerly Cut Man. He looked around. The rocket landed about five metres from the totally blasted north wall of their makeshift gym on the outskirts of the Palace. Armand and Greg's clothes were now tattered and torn.

"What a way to ruin a great chess game!" Armand complained. "And just when I was about to beat you!"

"Me? Hah! I had you cornered there!" Greg pointed to him.

Suddenly, a sharp whistle blast rang in the air. The two boys ran out to investigate. They heard a man shouting orders, and hurried footsteps that seemed to be heading towards the front of the Palace.

"Uh-oh,..." muttered Greg.

"Yeah, I know the feeling," answered Armand.

"Rebels."

"You got it."

"I hate rebels. Especially when they're attacking us!"

"We better warn the Queen!" With that note, Armand suddenly heard explosions. They came from the ground. And they seemed to be approaching them.

"LAND MINES! OH, SHIT! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!!" Armand cried out. Then, he told Greg: "Can you hang on to my back? I'm gonna see if this flying stuff works!"

"That'll be great, considering the fact that I can't fly myself!"

Greg hung on to Armand's back, and Armand closed his eyes and muttered the same words that Zelda chanted the first time he got here. A few minutes passed. Then: "Oh, my lord, Armand, you did it!!! WE'RE FLYING!!! WE'RE OFF THE GROUND!!!!! WE'RE REALLY FLYING!!!!!!!"

Armand opened his eyes. Sure enough, they were ten feet off the ground. He yelled and shouted: "YES!!! IT WORKED!!!! IT REALLY WORKED!!!", and proceeded to fly in circles.

"I think I'm going to be sick!" cried Greg after all that flying. Then he yelled "Look out!" as a rocket neared them.

Armand looked out. He swerved just in the nick of time, and flew even higher. "Now what?" he asked his robot friend.

"Now's the time we get inside and warn the others!"

"I couldn't agree with you more!" He swooped down to pick up a rock and then flew as fast as he could to the window in the new Communications Room. As he readied the rock he said to Greg: "You know, I almost never do stuff like this. This is an emergency, though." He threw the rock and broke the glass. Then he and Greg flew right in.

In the Communications Room, Armina and Lana were surveying maintenance being done to the Palace's security system. Everything seemed to be in check. Dexter walked in.

"I checked the security cameras on the left wing of the Palace, and they work just fine," he told the women. "So do the ones in the front yard. So I just don't know how they could just freak out at this time. Maybe just a glitch in the software."

"Let's hope so," said Queen Lana. "I hate to think of what could be worse." She was wearing her black leather bodysuit with the Zapper and Power Pad. She wore her shoulder-length hair down.

"Looks OK," said Armina, "Nothing here has been touched, so the Palace should at least look fine to me."

A rock came through the window, shattering the glass of the large window. A voice shouted, "Looks can be deceiving, sis. Remember what you taught me?" Armina could not believe what she saw next.

In flew her brother, Armand, and Greg was hanging on to his back. As the two approached a wall, Armand suddenly jerked to a standing position, and gracefully landed on the floor, letting Greg off to run to Dexter, yelling, "This guy's a freaking maniac!!"

"Armand, what do you mean by that?" asked his sister, incredulously.

"We're under attack." he replied, matter-of-factly. "Rebels again. And this time, they've got rockets."

"Yeah," agreed Greg. "Chess-game-hating rockets. One of them totally tore off one of our gym walls!"

"And land mines everywhere!"

Armina ran to the broken window and looked down. The ground was ruined by explosions, and sure enough, it was riddled with land mines. She confirmed her brother's accounts when she saw only three walls on the wooden gym, and a hole where the rocket landed. Lana came to her and saw everything, too. She yelled, "Why can't I have a normal kingdom and be a normal Queen in a normal outfit, and only have to worry about normal wars and be attacked by normal enemies who just happen to not know ME personally!?!?!?!?!"

"Because somebody already does, Lana!" smirked some guy on the viewscreen. Lana turned to face him. She gasped.

"Ken! Not you again!" she cried.

"Ken Masters? So everyone was right about you!" scowled Armina. "You dirty son-of-a-"

"Now, now, now, young lady, watch your tongue," scolded Ken as though he were her father. "We've got children here. Right behind you." He pointed behind Armina, and she turned to see.

"Hi, Armina," said Keisha in a yellow dress and matching sandals. She was accompanied by Prince Luke of Videoland, Princess Mary Harkinian of Hyrule, and Lonnie Right. "We just came back from playing at Mary's house, when we saw the rockets flying! What's going on?"

"It's Ken," answered Lana, and the kids understood.

"That's right, kiddies, it's me!" announced Ken. "And if you don't surrender your throne to us, we'll take it by force! Oh yeah, I forgot! We're already doing it!"

"You're wasting your ammo, mister!" shouted the new Captain N. "You can take us down all you like, but you'll never take over Videoland!"

"That's what YOU think!" he smiled. "My forces have come up with a new substance that can burn your Palace walls to ashes! It's in our guns and rockets, if you wanna know so much. Well, I gotta head back to the front lines now. See you later ... or not!" The image disappeared from the screen.

Keisha turned to face the crowd. "Mary, I want you to go home and tell your parents about this attack. We need them here now!"

"Got it!" said Mary.

"Dexter and Mega Man, you two are to accompany Mary back to Hyrule. Come back with Link and Zelda ASAP!"

"Sure thing, Captain N!" said Dexter as he, Mega Man, and Mary exited through a warp.

"Lonnie, you go back to the lab with Greg. It's safer there for both of you, and Dr. Right may need your help!"

"OK, just wish I had the fun of beating rebels!" she complained.

"There will be plenty of time for that when you get there. Now go!"

Lonnie and Greg headed back to the lab. Keisha looked at the remaining people. "Lana, please find Roberta, Alex, Sandra and Carrie, and tell them to meet us near the front lines. We can't fight without them here!"

"OK," Lana took off. Keisha turned to Luke, Armina and Armand.

"Let's get Luke an arsenal of weapons and armor," she commanded them. "Come on, Luke! You're now one of us!" Luke followed her and the Lafleur twins to the Weaponry Room.

"Whoa, when Keisha says 'let's go', she really means it!" sighed Alex, running towards the Palace, trying to catch up with long-legged Roberta, who was already way ahead of him.

"I cannot believe it, Mr. Grande. We have only run two miles, and you are already whining!" She ran faster.

"I just wish I had my car, that's all. There's not a warp in sight!"

"It was your stupid idea for us to run all the way down to Honest Ted's to meet the airhead blonde in a bathing suit you saw in one of their commercials!"

"Yeah, she was dreamy," His eyes wandered off, as he pictured the girl now, long blond hair, barefoot in a bright red one-piece suit, sitting next to him as they drove off in his car heading for the beach. Roberta stopped long enough for him to catch up. Then she smacked him on the face.

"You always go for the airheads, don't you?" she yelled. "I could have stayed home and read Shakespeare!! At least HE'S got some class!!"

"All right! I'll shut up now!" The two resumed running. Roberta ran faster than ever. "Wait up!" Alex yelled, but to no avail. She ignored him and kept on running.

"Wowie, time sure flies when you two are having fun!" Sandra whistled. She was a witness to yet another game in Football World. Carrie played fullback, Rick Walker, quarterback, and their team was beating the hell out of the rivals. Sandra sat on the bench with some other players. She was wearing blue jeans and a pink sweater, with white sneakers and socks. Everyone else was in football uniform, pants, helmet, cleats and all.

"And another touchdown! The N-Team wins!!" shouted the announcer.

"YEAAAH!!!!!! ALL RIGHT!!!!" cried Rick, who scored the winning touchdown. He was joined by Carrie and other players who hoisted him high in the sky. He jumped off as soon as he saw Sandra and he ran to her. "WE WON!!!!" he yelled.

"Yeah, that's great! Good job! Now, how about we all get some food? Watching you people play made me hungry!" Sandra suggested. The others agreed, saying that they were starving.

Suddenly, a hologram appeared. It was Queen Lana:

"Attention Alex Grande, Roberta Dimanno, Sandra Tolera and Carrie Wong. The rebels are attacking the Palace, this time with rockets. We need you all at the front yard now. If you can find a warp out from where you are, go find it. If not, you will have to arrange for another method of transportation. The com links are down, because of the rebels, otherwise I could have reached you two hours earlier. Please come quickly, this is an emergency. Thank you. Lana out." The hologram disappered.

"We better run now!" yelled Carrie, getting panicky.

"There's no way of telling what could happen!" answerd Sandra.

"You know, ever since I started playing here," said Rick, "I've been getting to know this place inside out. I can find you a warp out."

"Great. To the Palace, please. And I'd like for you to come, Rick. No way are you gonna miss out on all the fun!" Carrie invited him.

He kissed her hand. "For you, princess, anything." They and the other players of Football World quickly filed out of the stadium, still in uniform.

"Let me see...," mumbled Armina, as she fumbled through all the weapons in the Weaponry Room. "We've got magic swords!"

"Nah, not my type," said Luke, looking at her and her brother tear apart a whole shelf full of weapons. Keisha, having already done her share, sat on a marble table. Luke was heavily armored with armor.

"Laser cannons?" asked Armand.

"Nope. Too big."

"Golden fire slingshot?" asked Armina.

"Too small."

"Laser rifles?"

"Like I'm gonna just slice and dice somebody, yeah, right!"

"Rocket Launcher?"

"We already have enough damage to the Palace as it is, people," said Keisha. Then she turned to Luke and said, "Well, we've looked at everything, but one. This one you'll have to like, because it's the only one in stock." She handed him a flame thrower and pumped gasoline into it. "Put it on." He did, sliding his hands through and into the fireproof gloves that were connected to the hoses coming from the backpack. Bell-shaped trombone horns protruded from the glove end of each hose.

"Cool!" he shouted as he squeezed both triggers and burned a big hole in the wall. Luke grinned sheepishly as he turned to the angry stares of Captain N and two of her Defenders. "I guess this will come out of my allowance, won't it?"

"You bet your butt it will!" answered Captain N. Then she said to her crew. "Let's move out! To the front yard!"

The four of them raced through the hole to join the action already in progress at the front yard of the Palace.

"Wow, the gang's all here!" Captain N noted the familiar faces of Lana, Simon, Mega Man, Kid Icarus, Zelda, Link, Alex, Roberta, Sandra, Carrie and Rick fighting the forces of the Resistance. Keisha ran to join the fight, Zapper in hand, telling the others, "We only morph into the Commando Elite when we need to!" Armand nodded and took out his sledgehammer and Zapper. Armina did the same with her Zapper, and Luke had on his flame thrower and a Laser Rifle, just in case.

Rebel forces attacked with gusto. But the defence was strong, too strong for some of the rookies. Zelda, surrounded by troops, aimed her arrow upwards, yelling, "I shot an arrow in the air, and where it goes..." The arrow turned into an arrow shower. She continued, "... you ALL should care!" The shower hit the surrounding rebels by full force. Each ran as an arrow hit and knocked him or her out. Zelda smiled. "Never mess with a princess, you slimy dogs!" she gloated.

Lana fared better. The Queen showered her attackers with a series of hadou-kens, sho-ruy-kens and tornado kicks. Many died and many more cowered away. She once axed a woman that charged toward her by a flying kick in her stomach. Then Lana, when she was surrounded again, flew up into the air and delivered a massive energy shower to the ground, killing or stunning every rebel that dared to come within 10 feet from her.

Carrie and Rick conspired together. Carrie connected some flammable cords to some tankers on the fireproof ground. They picked up a rocket (the rebels accidentally fired a dud) and used it as a football (the dud was light enough for one person to carry it). Carrie had the rocket while Rick ran far to catch it. Dodging men and women, Carrie jumped high and threw the rocket. Rick jumped and caught it. Using a lighter to light its fuse, he aimed at one particular tanker (the master tanker) and hurled the rocket down. Just before impact, Rick jumped off the tanker and landed some 50 feet away from it, in a crouched position with his right fist in the ground. Seconds later, the tanker exploded. Fire travelled along the cords connecting the tankers, and they also caught fire and exploded. Rebels that were not lucky enough to escape themselves were either burned or saved by the N-Team veterans, who ushered them into the dungeon.

Keisha zapped her way through ninety people (there were about 1000 rebels attacking the Palace!) towards a missile launcher. She zapped the guy that operated the machine and used her Power Pad to jump on to the seat of it. She hoped to find another missile launcher and destroy it. She found one and shot a missile toward it. Luckily the woman that was sitting there survived the explosion, yelling "My hair is on fire! My hair is on fire!" The woman ran away, all covered in soot and ashes. "I should have been a fashion model, but noooo...," muttered the woman as she stopped for breath. Then she ran at the sound of gunfire.

"You deserve it, you rebel scum, you!" screamed Keisha from the missile launcher. She hopped off it, having had her fun, and went to join the battle. She saw a man come at Luke, who forgot how to work the flamethrower. Captain N ran furiously to stop him.

"So, you little punk!" He picked Luke up by the head. "You think you can get away that easily? Why don't you go home to your Mommy?"

Luke stuck his tongue out at him, as he frustratingly tried to work his weapon.

"YOU LITTLE BRAT!!! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!!!" the man screamed, as he threw the boy on to the ground and launched a rocket hurtling towards him. Lana turned around.

"LUKE!!! NO!!!!" she cried as she heard rockets fired.

Suddenly, there was quiet.

"No explosion," whispered Alex. Then one stupid guy took advantage of the situation and attacked him. Alex grabbed him and kneed him in the gut. Then he uppercutted the poor guy out of the sky.

"Huh?" someone asked as the smoke cleared.

Luke was unharmed. Keisha had taken the force full blast. But she wasn't hurt either. She had morphed into her Commando Elite uniform, and had blocked the blast with her angel wings.

"It's time," she commanded.

"COMMANDO ELITE!" shouted the Defenders as they transformed into uniform. Alex extended his left hand and brought it to his heart. His car came out from the left side and arrived at his feet.

"You wanna ride?" he asked, but by the time he did, everyone but Keisha and Luke had left. "Everyone's a critic," he muttered. "Oh, well, you two might as well hop on." Then he and the kids drove around, flaming and firing at rebels on the way.

Among all the chaos, Ken managed to sneak away. Slipping into the shadows, he crept into the Palace with something in his hand. Since his own soldiers took out the guard robots and all other mechanical security devices, it was easy for him to slip by unnoticed by the N-Team. He appeared in the Communications Room and opened a channel. The face of a little girl with long brown hair in pigtails came on.

"Kitty," he opened his hand and revealed some disks, "I have the data disks right here. I'm going to upload the information right now."

"How many times do I have to tell YOU," she screamed, "DON'T CALL ME KITTY! I get enough of that from Daddy. I am NOT a little girl!"

"Sorry, Miss Katherine." He strolled over to a computer and opened a CD-ROM drive. He placed one of the disks in it and closed the drive. The computer began processing. Katherine smiled.

"Daddy's going to be so pleased!" she said. "The disks contain all of the identities of the current defenders of all the worlds! When you're finished uploading, Daddy can use the information to control all of their minds at once!"

"But how is your father going to do that? All he has is information."

"With the mind sweeper, silly!" Katherine showed him a giant machine. "This baby allows Daddy to control and absorb different mind patterns at the same time! All he needs now is the information so he can identify the different mind patterns!"

"Oh. I see," he answered.

"And you know what happens if you fail..."

Ken gulped. Katherine continued, "And it's gonna be worse for your wife and kid."

He growled. "You leave them out of it, you bitch!" he shouted.

"Just doing my job, Ken. And now, if you'll excuse me, Daddy's expecting me. Ta ta!" She disappeared. Ken kicked a computer. He opened two more drives and placed the other two disks into them. When he shut the drives, he stood back and shouted profanities.

"So I got caught up in booze, OK? I had it all: Eliza, Mel. And then Lana had to go up there and be so beautiful. Yeah, Lana! Why'd ya have to be so beautiful?!?" he screamed. Then he caught his breath and continued. "I suppose I deserved it, though. Because of my cheating, I lost her and I almost lost Eliza, too. I was a jerk in jail. Then Bison had to free me, at the cost of my wife and son." He suddenly looked to the sky and stared, fists clenched and raised. "How many of my soldiers must I lose before my debt is repaid, Bison??? Huh? You tell me! You tell your goddamned kid, too! Why should my family suffer your torture, when I already do as you say?? Tell me!! Why???"

He dropped his hands and hung his head. There was no more to say. Something indicated that the upload was complete. Ken opened the drives and grabbed the disks. Without warning, he threw all three through the open hole and left the way he came in. Simon caught him with his whip and Ken struggled no more.

"Hey, something came out that hole!" Sandra, now in Commando Elite, found a disk that glided onto the Palace ground. She whipped some guys back into their truck and picked up the disk. She found two others lying alongside some dead men, and rushed into the Palace.

Armand and Armina had a high time flying around carrying rebels in their arms and dropping them off in unusual places. Some were lucky and fell to the ground. Others literally flew by the seat of their pants and landed on rockets that were, unfortunately, headed for the undented Palace. Others found themselves next to half-naked people using the toilets in the rebels' outhouses, and yet others found themselves right on time for Lana's target practice session. The twins gave each other a high-five.

Alex and the kids jumped out of the car to meet Roberta flying higher and higher with a rebel caught on her leg. She was trying to get him off. Well, you know what happened. Alex played the hero, flew up and chopped the guy's head off. The body lost its grip and fell, splitting in half on Keisha's blade. Roberta turned and smacked him.

"Prithee, dear sir, I had that bastard where I liketh him! You did not have do that!"

"Well, excuuuuse me, Shakespeare! I was trying to save your ass!"

She harrumphed and left the scene. Keisha flew up to him. "Honestly, I don't get it. What is wrong with that woman, anyways?"

After batting three-for-three, Carrie proceeded to fire at the incoming rebels. Keisha joined her and fired her sword at them, too. Suddenly, someone from the Palace came. It was Lonnie with a big, fancy gun. "Everyone get behind me!" she commanded, and the entire N-Team, including Luke and Duke, appeared behind her and the doctor, who had just emerged. Lonnie fired a big, blue shot at the rebels, the shot encompassing them all and Ken and disappearing.

"Just like that..." muttered the doctor. "A big warp gun. Useful when you're outnumbered."

"Where are they now?" asked the queen.

"In Prisonworld. Long time since the inmates had any visitors."

Back in the Palace...

"Something's wrong again!" shouted Greg.

"What is it?" asked the queen. Greg pointed to the disks that Sandra held previously.

"These disks, I think they're information disks!"

"Did someone try to steal information while we battled?" asked Keisha.

"No," said Greg, a strange look on his face.

"Then what?"

"I think something has been uploaded into our computer."

"A virus?"

"I don't know. If it is a virus, it's dormant."

"OK," said Lana. "I think this whole war thing back there was just to upload whatever info there was on the disks into our computers. I'll check it out." She left, and reappeared a few minutes later.

"What is it?" asked everyone.

"It's information about us. Each and every one of us."

"We have that in our computers already!" said Armina.

"But this is detailed information. Something that we would never put down into the systems. I think something sinister is going on."

"Which means..."

"Which means that this is a reminder of our struggles in Videoland," explained Keisha. "We've gotta prepare NOW. The war's just esclated today. And it's going to get worse..."

GAME OVER