We're Back folks! πππ
I am so so sooo SORRY that this took so long to post. It's been a very rough month for her after the passing of my Uncle Aaron. π But we managed to find a good place to lay him to rest.
But now that this dark and miserable time of my life has passed, I'm back. And ready to dish out more. π
Now before I start. I want you guys to know that Dianex AKA Sormur's variant Danielle. She won't be a full fledged female version of Stormur's character. Instead. Much like how She-Hulk. Supergirl. Batgirl, Batwoman, Jessica Drew's Spider-Woman. Lady Thor and even the upcoming female Black Panther are not dimensional variants of their counterparts.
So Danielle will be a girl that's coming out of her cold and brooding phase and will have a brand new groove. To become a brand new person.
Also I've edited the last two chapters and changed her name. Instead of Thundress. Her name instead is Maveress. The female Maverick.
You know, like how a female priest is called a priestess or a female actor is called an actress. Or a female emperor is called an empress.
A female Maverick is called a Maveress.
"Sure it ain't in the dictionary. But so are most of the strange words American Anime comes up with." Maveress winked.
"Hey! You broke into my turf!" Maverick exclaimed with a glare. π‘
"I used your turf as a springboard." Maveress smirked smugly. π
"You stole my springboard." Maverick glared. π
Also have you guys seen the 'She Hulk Attorney At Law' show and the finale? Yeah I know the people of YouTube City hated it. But you know what? To each their own. If they're free to hate it. I'm most certainly free to love it. Sure I have my personal issues with the pacing and their portrayal of a pacifist Abomination and the lack of action and fighting scenes. But I love the portrayal of Jennifer Walters. I loved the Daredevil appearance and I especially loved the fourth wall humor throughout the show. Especially the one that happened at the end.
I'm sorry if that offends anyone. But I do. Especially the 'K.E.V.I.N.' bit.
Long story short She Hulk's tv show is not the best but still entertaining in its own right and it has given me some ideas for later.
I'm gonna give She Hulk Attorney At Law a 7.1 out of 10.
Butβ¦.The Harley Quinn Series gets a total 9 out of 10 from me.
I've just recently watched it and boy it is funny as hell! ππππ
Especially that part with Nightwing trying to do a Batman voice!
The parts with Bane have me in stitches. I thought the Mister Freeze conclusion was more satisfying than the animated series. And Harley Quinn's relationship with Poison Ivy is more genuine, interesting and un-pandering than what Disney has ever done.
Seriously Disney! Leave that area alone for other studios! You're just not good at it! Just stay in your safe for everyone kids zone and leave it representation up to the imagination. Because when you represent certain groups. It's only going to appeal to them. But when DC does it. When Netflix does it. They know how to make it more fluidβ¦.Though CW is starting to suck now.
"Seriously CW's Gotham Knights show looks crappy. But the upcoming video game looks awesome!" Maverick beamed. π
"What's 'it'?" Maveress inquired.
I'm trying not to give any spoilers for those shows, alright?!
"You mean what's in this chap-" Maveress almost asked.
LET ME FINISH!
"Okay! Chill." Maveress eased the author. π¬
Also I watched Werewolf By Night. Totally what the Dark Universe of monster movies should've been. I think the PG-13 side may have slowed it down just a little bit considering how bold other horror flicks are. But it was still a great Halloween special nonetheless! ππ
I'm gonna give Werewolf By Night a 8.3 out of 10
It was a scary blast. Especially when the Mummy failed hard. And this short film of the MCU might give me an idea for that upcoming chapter based on the Tangled episode 'Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf.' But I wanted to be mostly focused on that episode and to not steer out of focus for that standalone MCU show.
So if anyone has any ideas to enhance the chapter based on that Werewolf episode of Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure. Let me know. π
For now this current chapter here will take place right at the ending of the episode Return of the King. π Minus the Cassandra cliffhanger.
And before we start. Let's answer some comments.
KingdomWarrior125: Oh Variant is just a baby here. He's being taken care of by some nurses and female servants in the castle nursery. While he won't be in this chapter. He will show up every now and then, later on. π
SPYRO 101: Thank you again Pal! Especially for helping me write this chapter. π
RustyPete12: Thanks! yeah I know it's a lot of ground to cover. But yeah, having the Saporians team up with the Ravagers made a lot of sense seeing that the Ravagers invaded Corona in Aiden's second story. And yeah I would've done a second version of KH II Guardians but with Orion. But that would take a long long time to do and I really wanted to get this story going. Besides he literally does the exact same thing Aiden does in his story with Sora. So that one practically connects the dots. Plus there will be flashbacks to what Zhan Tiri looked like as a Heartless and as a Nobody later. But there are a few more big surprises in store straight ahead. π. As for the King and Queen's lost memory issue. That episode of Tangled that's titled 'The King and Queen of Hearts' will leave you some hints on how they're memories will return. I'm also glad the Optimus Prime inspiration of Yozora impressed you. Mind you he won't be a full fledged prime knock off. Because he does have a teen personality like Riku to keep up with Orion's witty side. ππ
olehbilenko93: Thank you! I appreciate your support. π
Also there's a cameo of two major contributors to animation and comic books in the first scene with Orion in this chapter. May they both enjoy paradise for all the smiles and thrills they gave with their works. ππ
Alright! Now that we're all here!
LET'S GET DANGEROUS! π
Rapunzel's Trip To The Arcade.
Down in Eugene's bedroom...
Eugene had difficulties adjusting with his father King Edmund of the Dark Kingdom, formally known as Camelot. They had just gotten back from a quest to find the missing sash of Eugene's family line. Only to find out Edmund set the whole thing up and inadvertently got Eugene in the cross hairs of the Stabbington Brothers.
Luckily Rapunzel came with Max and Pascal to save them. And brought them back home. Eugene forgave his father when he found all of his old toys and his father was really keeping tabs on him while guarding the Moonstone, before they came and Cassandra stole it. But whatever.
Eugene found his playing cards. Two headed coin and loaded dice. His old hand mirror and an old Flynn Ryder book. Which actually got Eugene more open to reconnecting with his father. Even if he didn't want to at first for abandoning him. But he soon understood his father had no choice. And Eugene accepted that he was once a prince.
But... He won't even accept the fact that his real name is Horace!
Anyhow. Whilehe was on the floor. Eugene showed Rapunzel and Pascal a wind-up toy raven which resembles Edmund's pet raven Hamuel.
"Guys, Check this out! Isn't he Great?!" Eugene said excitedly.
As he set the wind-up raven toy on the floor after winding it up, he let it start walking towards Pascal, who knocked it back, and made it turn around and return to Eugene who picked it up.
Just as a yo-yo came down from behind Pascal, making the Chameleon turn his head behind him in time to see Rapunzel yanking the yo-yo back up by the string.
"Hey-hey-hey, guys!" Rapunzel started with excitement as she held the yo-yo in her hand. "I invented a move. I call this one 'stroll with the bloodhound'."
Rapunzel performed the move with the yo-yo, scaring Pascal into jumping on to Eugene's shoulder. Because it was like the yo-yo spun while walking up to the little chameleon. Eugene just smirked as the move she just did was actually 'walking the dog', an already known yo-yo move.
"Ah, Blondie, they already invented that move. It's..." Eugene started to say, but he stopped when he saw a threatening glare from Rapunzel, which made him smile nervously and change his response. "You know what? Never mind."
"Ahem!" They heard someone clear his throat, and stood and turned to see Edmund standing there with a smirk. Eugene's father.
"Edmund! Oh uh! We were- uh, we were reminiscing! hahaha." Eugene tried to explain with a nervous chuckle as Rapunzel moved to stand right next to his side while he hid his wind-up toy behind his back. "Not playing. Reminiscing, like adults- with my old toys."
Rapunzel gave him a teasing smirk before handing him his yo-yo as Pascal moved to her shoulder. She then walked past Edmund, and gave him a pat on the shoulder with an encouraging smile before she left the room to let the two talk in private.
"I decided we didn't need that old Sash, anyway." Edmund started to say as Eugene discreetly, or as discreetly as possible, threw the toys that were in his hands to the side before holding his hands behind his back. "Xavier and I made you a new one."
Edmund then handed Eugene a new Sash, which was white with a gold stripe, and the Corona emblem on the front, bringing a smile to Eugene as he looked at it.
"White and gold, just like the Flynn Rider Book." Eugene muttered with a smile as he looked up at his father.
"It's one of my favorites, you know?" Edmund said with a smile.
Eugene then surprised him slightly by wrapping his arms around him in a hug, which he returned with a happy smile.
A sign of their mending relationship.
Just then. Groot came by the door and knocked as Edmund turned and gasped in shock while he was still hugging Eugene.
"I am Groot." Groot waved with a friendly smile.
Edmund bolted as he turned and drew his sword. Which alerted Eugene who jumped at his dad's sudden reaction.
"Holy Molerats! It's a cursed tree of the realm of Sycamorus! To me son, we shall vanquish-" Edmund declared in alarm as was about to say.
"Woah woah woah! Cool the adventure fuel, Dad. It's fine. He's a friend." Eugene eased his dad's tension while lowering Edmund's sword.
"I am Groot?" Groot tilted his head with a raised eyebrow. Translated: "Did you just call him, Dad?"
"Hey! What's up Grootie, my boy?!" Eugene greeted with his teeth grit and a big forced smile as he hissed. "What are you doing here?!"
"I am Groot." Groot answered.
"Can he say anything else but an intro?" Edmund inquired as he was calmer.
"Unfortunately no. It's like the only language he has." Eugene explained with a deadpanned expression.
"I can!" Rapunzel came back over with some refreshments of cookies and milk for Eugene and Edmund as she heard the commotion and came to greet Groot. "Hey Groot. How are you?"
"I am Groot." Groot answered with a smile.
Rapunzel understood his statement.
"Ryan needs me down at the club?" Rapunzel asked.
"I am Groot." Groot revealed.
Rapunzel gasped before squealing in excitement.
"Yes! My first Guardian Assignment!" Rapunzel exclaimed happily. "I've been waiting for this!"
"I'm happy for ya Blondie. Hope you have a great time while you let our other alien pals know not to surprise our itchy slaughter finger guest here." Eugene said to her encouragingly while hinting for the others to know to let him bond with his father today.
"What about you? Don't you wanna come too?" Rapunzel asked, slightly confused.
"Actually, I was hoping to spend some time catching up with my Dad. And coming to terms and all." Eugene said, gesturing to Edmund. "But don't worry, I'll be sure to join you on the next one."
Rapunzel smiled sweetly at him in understanding.
"I understand, Sweetie. Hope you have a good time yourself." Rapunzel said kindly before giving Eugene a quick kiss on the lips. "Wish me luck!"
With that, Rapunzel raced out of the room in excitement. Groot was about to follow before turning back to Eugene and Edmund.
"I am Groot." Groot muttered, translated: "First Assignment Jitters." Before giving a polite wave. "I am Groot." Translated: "Nice to meet you, sir."
Groot then walked off to catch up with Rapunzel, leaving Eugene with a smirk as he was happy for Rapunzel. While Edmund looked greatly confused and dumbfounded.
"Man. Those Sycamorus folk sure have gotten more social since I've been gone." Edmund remarked.
"Ha! Are there even such a thing as Sycamorus?" Eugene snorted doubtfully as he closed the door.
Later down in the Mav Club...
(Bee Gees - Stayin Alive)
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk
I'm a woman's man, no time to talk
Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around
Since I was born
And now it's alright, it's okay
And you may look the other way
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive
The music by the Bee Gees played as Groot and Rapunzel rode the elevator. The Mav Club have had a few improvements since the last time Rapunzel was here. Like the elevator looking more shiny and modern.
"I am Groot." Groot said to Rapunzel."I am Groot." Translated: "Yozora and Orion will accompany you. Along with Donald and Goofy."
"Great. But what about You, Friday and Hoshi? What will you be up to while we're gone?" Rapunzel asked as they waited for the elevator to make it to their destination.
"I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot." Groot answered. Translated. "I'm sorry. But Rocket and I will be busy shopping for new weapon mods at the market in planet Knowhere. But you can ask if Friday and Hoshi are available."
"Umβ¦Sure butβ¦.." Rapunzel nodded before looking curious. "Knowhere isn't anywhere in the Nova territory, right? Because you and Rocket still have three years left on your probation."
"I am Groot. I am Groot." Groot assured. Translated: "Knowhere is outside of Nova regulations. Don't worry, we'll be fine, and I'll keep an eye on Rocket."
Then the elevator door opened as the Mav Club was seen, lit and online as usual.
"Good. The last thing any of us want or need is for you and Rocket to get yourselves locked away again. So you better behave yourself, Mister." Rapunzel said sternly before stepping off the elevator.
"I am Groot." Groot crossed his heart and promised.
And as Rapunzel grinned and walked casually into the Mav Club. The lair was still playing the Bee Gees music while there were beeping noises heard.
'Greetings, Princess.' PRO greeted.
'Howdy, Princess! How's da biz?!' TEC greeted.
"Hey, PRO. Hey, TEC." Rapunzel greeted as she walked over to the terminal. "How's everything going?"
'Booming as usual! Seriously, don't walk in the weapons test room. Your ears will bleed.' TEC warned.
*"I heard that!"* Rocket yelled in the speakers.
'Mav is just wrapping up a meeting with the Chairman and Head of R&D of Multicorp.' PRO stated.
"Don't worry, it's nothing important." Friday walked over to Rapunzel along with Hoshi.
"Friday. Hoshi." Rapunzel greeted each of them with a hug for both Keyblader girls. "How are you two doing?"
Friday was wearing a black tank top with a white jacket. Both with a midriff and long blue jeans and black boots.
While Hoshi was wearing a white sleeveless t shirt with a blue skirt and matching leggings with heel shoes.
"Doing well. Friday and I are about to head out with the boys soon." Hoshi smiled as as she and Friday hugged her back.
"And we just picked out the perfect outfit for you, if you'll follow us." Friday smirked.
"It's a requirement. We don't want anyone asking what world are you from. Or think your in a Renaissance fair or something." Hoshi meekly added.
"Ooh, like going undercover? This is gonna be fun." Rapunzel said excitedly. "By the way. What world we're going to? What's it like?"
"We're not spies, Rapunzel, we're more like...Casual citizens under the radar." Friday corrected which made Rapunzel smugly smirked at her at how obvious that sounds.
"Anyway. We're actually going to the world, or rather the town where Orion was born. A modest place called Twilight Town." Hoshi answered.
They lead Rapunzel to the wardrobe in the armor customization wing. Which resembled a small lounging area for a dressing room.
"Wait, are you serious? We're going to the place Ryan used to live before coming to my world?" Rapunzel asked with curiosity and excitement.
Hoshi pulled out a chair for Rapunzel to sit near a mirror on the wall for observing new outfits, which made Rapunzel enthusiastically fix her long blond hair a bit.
"Definitely! We stop by that place every other weekend. Since our first visit was back during our quest to stop Syndicate XIII." Hoshi beamed.
"Only Ryan has been to other worlds before yours. His favorite places to go was Xandar. Disney City and the Marvel world." Friday stated as she came over with an outfit set on a coat hanger and a pair of purple sneakers.
"Plus we have some friends of ours living in Twilight Town." Hoshi added.
"Alright. Now, I know you have a very commited code against wearing shoes. But for the sake of blending in. You'll have to wear these." Friday said as she held some sneakers up in front of Rapunzel.
"It'll go good with your outfit. I...picked them myself." Hoshi said softly with a nervous smile.
But thankfully Rapunzel wasn't resistant at all considering her trademark no shoe rule.
"I understand. I may not like shoes. But I know they're needed sometimes. This just happens to be one of them." Rapunzel said in understanding, while she took the new clothes into her hands. "It also helps that the outfit looks so cute."
Hoshi and Friday sighed in relief before Hoshi opened a door to a dressing bin for Rapunzel to get dressed in her new street outfit. Pascal waited on the bench outside to let his friend get ready in privacy.
After a few minutes of getting dressed, Rapunzel stepped out. She stood in front of the mirror and felt a decent balance in the sneakers she was wearing. She turned to face the girls.
"What do you think?" Rapunzel chirped as she held her hands out displaying her new attire.
Rapunzel now wore a pink hoodie, which was partially open at the top revealing a black tank-top with the Snuggly Duckling Logo on the front. She also wore purple warm-up pants with yellow suns dotted all over, And for the first time, Rapunzel wore pink and black sneakers.
Pascal's eyes lit up as he gave two thumbs up and crawled back up to Rapunzel's right shoulder.
"Wow, you look great Rapunzel." Hoshi beamed happily.
"I have to say, the modern style definitely suits you." Friday smirked.
"Thanks. I really love my new outfit." Rapunzel said with a big smile. "If you guys ever decide to retire from saving the Multiverse, you could really make a killing in fashion design."
"Thanks. It's on the list in case we ever do." Hoshi smiled with a slight giggle.
"All we need now is an approval from our fashion evaluator." Friday remarked and looked up to call something. "Hey Bit?!"
Just then a tiny floating orb came flying in. Surprising Rapunzel. This orb constantly and briefly changed color and contracted with the spikes becoming longer and sharper, before changing back to its original appearance. This was the Bit from the Grid.
If you people read the other story, you already figured that out.
"Woah!" Rapunzel's eyes lit up in surprise seeing that thing.
"Do you think her outfit will help her blend in?" Friday asked the Bit.
Bit hovered around Rapunzel observing her looks before it zoomed up in front of everyone.
"Yes." Bit answered as it changed into a yellow octahedron briefly before shifting back in its original form.
"Does it need any improvements at all?" Hoshi asked.
"No." Bit answered while it briefly changed color and contracted with the spikes becoming longer and sharper, before changing back to its original appearance.
"Wow. that's soβ¦.." Rapunzel said in awe, looking bit over and tilted her head curiously at Bit. "What is it?"
"It's a Bit. A living binary digit from the Grid. Normally their associated with a program to store and translate codes. But now Yozora became his new program." Hoshi answered.
"Yes." Bit answeree in agreement.
Pascal smiled at the two colors bit kept changing into and he started flashing the same color with his chameleon camouflage skills.
"Also Bits are binary while being none binary. By that I mean they're not a boy or a girl, so we refer to all Bits as either 'it' or 'they' ." Friday explained.
'They're more 'they' than those celebrities who refuse to check in their pants.' PRO snorted.
'Make up your damn mind, Demi Lovato!' TEC exclaimed.
Rapunzel giggled at PRO and TEC, their antics all too similar to her brother, before smiling at bit.
"It's nice to meet you Bit. I'm Rapunzel." Rapunzel introduced herself.
"Yes." Bit responded.
"Also they're only response is positive and negative. All systems have them. Including the two clowns who run this place." Friday stated while referring the clown part to PRO and TEC.
'You take that back! We're two halves of a whole clown!' TEC snapped.
'Idiot...' PRO deadpanned referring to TEC.
Just then. Donald and Goofy walked in while wearing their usual adventure attire to come to inform the girls about something.
"Hey girls!" Donald greeted.
"Yozora sent us here to tell ya that- ***Gasp!*** Oh my Gawrsh! Rapunzel's wearing shoes! It's a sign of the apocalypse! EVERYBODY RUN!" Goofy yelled in fear while pointing at the shoes Rapunzel was wearing. Before he ran while waving his rans in panic and crashed through the mirror. Shattering it.
*CRASH!*
"YAAAAAAAAA-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOEY!" Goofy's holler echoed from behind the shattered mirror.
*Thud!*
"I'm okay!" Goofy echoed from the other end.
Friday Hoshi went over and looked into the broken mirror as Friday peered past the hole Goofy just created.
"Huh." Friday raised an eyebrow curiously.
"What?" Hoshi asked.
"Nothing, I just never knew this place came with another basement." Friday answered.
Pascal raised an eyebrow at the whole thing.
Donald sighed in exasperation.
"I'll go get him." Donald said in annoyance before he hopped through the hole to retrieve Goofy while his grumbles echoed.
"Wow. That was just... Wow." Rapunzel muttered. "I mean, I know that me wearing shoes is very rare. But was that really the response people would normally go with when they see me wearing them?"
'You should've seen their response to your appearance in Once Upon A Time.' PRO deadpanned.
Just then the girls heard a large door open from the conference meeting wing. And they walked out to go and see. Sure enough They saw Orion in a crimson business suit and tie. Walking out of the room with two men.
One man had a mustache while wearing a dark gray suit and tie. And the other name was older looking witha bit of grey on the sides with sun glasses on and a mustache. He was wearing a black business suit and tie.
"Remember. Check our stocks. And delay the merger." Orion noted to them before they walked up to the others.
"Who are they?" Rapunzel whispered curiously.
"What up, Zel. I'd like to meet to old friends and business partners of my father. This is Stan Lieberman of R&D. And Multicorp's chairman. Walter Elias." Orion greeted his sister while introducing his business associates.
"Hello Princess." Walt greeted held his hand out for a handshake.
"Good to finally meet our Princess of the hour." Stan greeted as he held his hand out.
Oh, it's nice to meet the both of you." Rapunzel said politely with a smile, as she shook both of their hands. "So, what brings you both to Corona today?"
"Oh the usual business mumbo jumbo. Walt and I were also in a meeting to discuss the next step in public security for your world." Stan answered with a grin.
"We heard about how your world was invaded by the Ravagers. We're terribly sorry about how they broke World Order protocol on our watch." Walt said with a sympathetic smile.
"No need to apologize. It wasn't your fault that those space pirates chose to harm my people." Rapunzel said reassuringly. "But I do greatly appreciate any help you can give us to make sure something like this does not happen again."
"Which is why I have to level with you about something. Your castle dungeon, you may know it or not. But it's dangerously close range to not only where you live. But its ground level is even more dangerously close to this place. If that femboy Andrew had found the secret tunnel to the Mav Club before we got here. Things would've been in deeper crap than it already was earlier." Orion stated seriously." Which is why Stan, Walt and I are talking about designing a new place to hold prisoners."
"We won't start production without your approval though. It should be your father's but given the current state he's in. It's on your word now." Walt assured.
Rapunzel was greatly surprised by this, but she began to think. Shifting the Kingdom's incarceration system could take some work, in terms of legal purposes. But in the end. They were right. It was a bit unsettling that the people who have tried to kill them are locked up so close to where they all sleep. And if they did find Orion's Lair, things would have ended horribly.
Even Pascal nodded at Rapunzel because he thought it was a good idea. And a much needed one at that.
"You're right. Maybe it is time to set up a different method of holding prisoners. You have my full permission to carry out your plan." Rapunzel said, agreeing with the idea.
"Good. If you can sign this contract." Walt held out a pin and paper for Rapunzel to sign. "We will began immediate production for our prison project to be moved to your world."
"And it's on my word when it's ready and operational." Orion assured his sister.
"Don't worry I trust you, little bro. Especially to help keep our home safe." Rapunzel said before taking a pen and signing the contract. "Although I do wonder what we're gonna do with the dungeon once it's no longer being used."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Maybe the Captain will turn it into a wine hall or an extended armory when he gets back." Orion figured while referring to Cassandra's adopted father.
"Well. We'd better be on our way. It's a pleasure to meet and do business with you, Your Highness." Walt smiled as he gave a small bow along with stan.
"As our company motto says. Excelsior!" Stan bumped his fist in the air before he and Walt left to the Space Bridge to their world.
"That's not really our motto. He just loves saying that." Orion whispered to Rapunzel before he offered his arm to Rapunzel for her to lock with Rapunzel's as he quipped. "Anyhow. Let's get going, my 'ciudad natal' ain't getting any younger."
Rapunzel just smiled and locked arms with her brother.
"Yeah, let's go get this mission started." Rapunzel said before the two of them began making their way to the mission room.
Once Rapunzel. Orion, Friday and Hoshi walked into the mission room. Which were a bunch of chairs surrounding an holographic display orb. Goofy and Donald were there after they got out of the basement they just down. And Yozora was standing near the display orb ready to relay the mission.
"Hey there, Princess. Glad you could join us." Yozora smiled and nodded to Rapunzel.
"Thanks. I'm glad to be here." Rapunzel said, excitement in her voice at the prospect of her first mission while she and everyone else took a seat in the chairs. "So, what's the mission?"
Yozora held his hand out to the holographic orb and exspanded a display of Twilight Town in front of everyone.
"We've just recently heard about some strange activity coming from a familiar name in town. Word is, that Litwak's Arcade is shutting down due to a system error in all of his games available." Yozora stated.
"But what's so strange about that?" Donald asked.
"Because the activity around the area is very questionable. Because according to the specs. The arcade games have no physical damage inside and out. Not even anything wrong with the building's power. So something's up." Yozora stated as he paced around the display while facing the team.
"You think it could be Heartless?" Hoshi asked.
"Could be. We can be sure unless we see for ourselves." Yozora answered.
"So, we're gonna be going there to investigate what's wrong? Sounds good to me." Rapunzel said.
"Actually. Orion and I are going to go in ourselves so we don't spoke anything that might be lurking in the building. The rest of you are gonna be close by but not too close for when we need to spring into action." Yozora stated.
"I can bet two hundred bucks or units this might be a generic rehash of those cyber Heartless we fought on the Grid." Orion figured and looked at the readers. "You folks hardly needed a potion against those lame asses."
"Also we'll be taking the Solar Flare gummi ship to head there. Have you ever been in the air before, Rapunzel?" Hoshi smirked.
"My friends and I were once turned into birds during our journey. Does that count?" Rapunzel asked with a smirk.
"Damn. Glad you weren't with us when we became lions. Cause I bet you smelled like Popeye's seasoning." Orion quipped at that revelation. While referring to their visit to the Pride Lands.
"Oh, like you could've caught me. You would've been eating my dust." Rapunzel said with a smirk.
"I could still fly as a lion." Orion revealed with a grin.
"In this case, I'm the Road Runner, and you're Wile E. Coyote. How do you think it'll end for you." Rapunzel said smirking, while showing off her new Knowledge of Loony Toons.
Orion gave a blank stare for a few seconds.
"Meeting adjourned?" Orion deadpanned.
"Yep." Yozora snickered.
"Alrighty..." Orion teleported away for a few seconds. Before he came teleported back wearing his keyblade wielder outfit. "Who's gonna ride the flare?"
"Dips." Yozora nonchalantly held his hand out.
"Damn it!" Orion hissed and sulked.
"Alright Guardians. Let's move out." Friday said as they stood up.
Then everyone followed Yozora to the hanger of the lair. Ready to blast off into space.
Later inside the upper deck of the Solar Flare III...
With multiple seats stationed in front of the front window of the ship. Built as something stronger than steel to prevent from shattering and a good view of where the ship goes and where they'll be flying.
Yozora sat in the Captain's chair while Orion was in the co captain seat. Friday and Hoshi were sitting on the right with Rapunzel's seat in between. And Donald was seated next to Goofy on the left.
"Here. You'll need to chew on this." Friday handed Rapunzel a piece of gum. "It'll prevent nausea some people have in their first launch."
"Thanks." Rapunzel said before putting the gum in her mouth and started chewing and she hummed when she tasted the flavor. "Mmm, Strawberry. My favorite fruit."
Or at least one of her favorite fruits. Friday even gave a small piece of gum to Pascal who was on Rapunzel's shoulder.
"Actually, that's not strawberry flavored. It's suruv fruit. My mother used to grow those in our garden back home." Friday revealed.
Rapunzel was in awe at tasting fruit from another world, but had a sad smile for Friday at the mention of her late mother.
"Brings back good memories, huh?" Rapunzel asked gently.
"Mostly." Friday muttered with a nodded.
Then the Dragon Ball Z theme started playing from the ship's speakers.
"On this next episode of a Verum Ball Z. Spike travels with his partner the Red Wall Street. Lady Blue Spike, Speedy, The Toon Town Duo. And their new recruit, Barbie, the Golden politicians are out running errends. Shopping for cloths. And finding a possible way to extend and give this chapter purpose besides getting past the into. Will they find danger or a wild goose case bigger than the goose in the group? Find out on this exciting and basic filler episode, of Verum Ball Z!" Orion mimicked the narrator of Dragon Ball Z while playing the theme in the background.
Yozora sulked his head against the wheel. "Ugh...I thought he wouldn't do this anymore." He groaned and muffled against the wheel.
"I don't think he'll ever stop with those, Sweetie." Hoshi said to Yozora.
"Heh, sometimes, I think he should." Friday said with a fond groan.
"HEY! Who are you calling a Goose!?" Donald snapped at Orion.
"Easy, Donald. I think he's just messin with ya." Goofy said.
"Wow. If this is what you guys have to deal with every time you go to another world, I almost feel sorry for you." Rapunzel teased with a giggle at her brother's antics.
"Anyway...Prepare for lift off." Yozora straightened up.
Then he started the engines of the ship. As the Solar Flare began to hover. The other gummi ships were seen in the hangar as they were still stationed inside. One of them we'll be used for Rocket and Groot later. The hanger exit hatch doors opened one by one. Revealing a large tunnel for them to fly out of the hanger. The jet boosters roared which sent chills down Rapunzel and Pascal's spine.
Then the Solar Flare slowly flew forward and gradually increased speed through the exit tunnel of the hanger. Pulling their chairs back a bit as everyone was strapped in.
"Woooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" Rapunzel increased her yell as she had a big smile feeling how fast this ride was going. Even Pascal had the same reaction.
Then as it began to speed up, Yozora expertly held onto the controls and flew the gummi ship magnificently. And finally pass all the lights of the tunnel that turned slowly towards a right and then an up. The ship was heading towards the exit hatch straight ahead which had a view of the sky. which was a large hatch that opened near the harbor and lighthouse of the city. The citizens watched and the children thrilled as they saw the Guardians' ship fly out through the hatch and into the air.
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Rapunzel cheered loudly and all giddy as she held her hands up and looked out the window of the ship to see how high they were going.
Then as the ship flew even higher up in the sky. Yozora made the ship do a barrel roll as it flew out of the view of the Kingdom. The other Guardians were amused about how much fun Rapunzel was having. And as it passed over the clouds. Rapunzel's face was lit up with joy the entire time, while Pascal was on her shoulder while covering his eyes in fear.
Then as it was passing over the sky and breaking through the atmosphere.
"Get ready...here's your first glimpse of space. Zel." Orion said as the stars in space were finally seen. And the whole Earth was seen in view.
Rapunzel gasped as she looked out the window into the vastness of space.
"It-it's beautiful." Rapunzel said in awe, with Pascal nodding in agreement from her shoulder. "I've never seen anything like it before. And you guys get to see this view all the time?"
"And take a look. That down there. That big blue ball known as Earth. That's where you've been your whole life." Yozora pointed out towards Earth when it came into view.
"I remembered my first feeling. Besides... the aspirin." Orion sighed and quipped. "But think about it. You are literally the first real resident of this world to pass the highest cloud, way before Neil Armstrong is born here."
Rapunzel got a good look at the Earth in front view of the ship. And from where she was sitting. Sure the Princess has seen the globe of Earth in holograms. Pictures, comics and even from the movies Orion showed her in the past. But never in person. And nothing can compare to it.
"Wooow." Rapunzel gasped in awe at the sight of her world from all the way up in space. "I feel so small, compared to how large the world is. And that's just our world."
"Yeah. your world is small. But it's a part of something much bigger. Which you're about to see." Yozora stated
"Three two one! HYPERSPACE!" Orion exclaimed as Yozora slammed the switch down.
Then the ship zoomed off into space. And pass the borders in between realities. Until the ship made a stop at their destination.
Later down in Twilight Town...
As the sky was blue and shining as any other world in the world of Twilight Town. The group were suddenly beamed down to the train station Plaza. With a good view of the clock tower above and the ramp leading down one of the best parts in town.
Orion and the others spread out as he took a deep breath and exhaled.
"In the immortal words of every coming of age. protagonist. Home again home again." Orion remarked as he looked out in the view as Rapunzel was in awe of the view standing next to Orion. "Breathe it in, Zel. You're in another universe. More specifically, my home universe. Home town, etcetera. Even the air is not in Kansas City anymore. Formerly known as Corona.
"Oh my Goshβ¦... I'm in another world." Rapunzel said softly, her excitement building. "This is amazing! And look at everything. I want to see everything this new world has to offer!"
Just then as the team was getting Rapunzel a chance to mentally settle on the fact that she was standing outside of her world. The same feeling she had when she was outside of Corona during her journey.
Two girls around the same age as Friday and Orion came out of the train station.
One of them looked unamused to see Orion there.
The first Teenager had white skin, and short dark blue hair. And she wore a black leather jacket over a white undershirt, black jeans, and black high-heeled boots. She also wore sunglasses.
This was Danielle formally known as Stormur. The ex-nobody of Orion.
The other girl with Danielle was Claire Farron.
Claire was sixteen as well. She had white skin and purplish-pink hair that went above her shoulders. She wore a light pink top with the straps on her outer shoulders. She also wore blue denim shorts, and black sandals.
"Greaaaat, look what the red clouds sent in." Danielle said in her bored annoyed tone as she was unamused seeing Orion.
Orion turned and beamed humorously. "Emo Storm!" He exclaimed.
"It's 'Maveress.' you intolerant shit." Danielle hissed.
"That's 'Emoneese' for handsome." Orion muttered to the others.
"Hey Dany. How is everything." Friday smirked and gave her a fist bump.
"So far. Everything's better than the syndicate. Especially Red Fusion Dr. Pepper here." Danielle grinned in response as she fist bumped her back.
"Zel, this is my ex-nobody and former dickless nemesis turned even more of an ass-ache competition. Danielle. AKA Maveress, the first and only female Maverick." Orion introduced.
The other girl Claire seemed slightly distant, and tough but friendlier than Danielle.
"Woah. Um⦠Hi there. It's so nice to meet you." Rapunzel said in amazement while she held out her hand to shake. "Ryan's told me a lot about you."
"Hopefully not too much." Danielle smiled modestly as she accepted and shook Rapunzel's hand.
"Pff! Nah! I didn't tell her about the part where I won the second fight." Orion jested as if he was waving it off.
"And won the first and third fight." Danielle listed snarkly.
"And where I slammed a building on you." Orion listed.
"And tossed a mountain on you." Danielle listed smugly.
"And bury you in lava." Orion listed as his eyes narrowed.
"And decapitated you." Danielle listed and shrugged.
"And took you down as a T-Rex!" Orion snapped.
"And sliced you in half." Danielle added with a smirk.
"Only to come back together! and-" Orion almosted stated with a glare.
"And barely survived a class red thunderstorm." Danielle smirked mischievously.
"YOU CAN'T END THE O.J. M-MAN, WOMAN!" Orion exclaimed as his hair lit on fire from the competitive anger.
"You don't need my help for that." Danielle grinned with her arms crossed.
"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I DON'T!" Orion bellowed.
"She got her wits and electrical abilities from me." Friday whispered smugly to Rapunzel.
"I can see that." Rapunzel muttered as she was thrown for a loop from finding out how many times Orion and Danielle have tried to kill each other.
"Cool the X-Factor juices, Babe. I think they're here to end some trouble." Claire patted Danielle's shoulder.
"It's fine. He's just got a red face that can't help but turn redder." Danielle remarked before she introduced Claire. "Everyone. This is Claire Farron, she moved in a few months back to attend the university in town. And we work together."
Both at school and in multiversal adventures. Two successful female heroines and top grade students.
"Oh. So you two are like, roomates?" Hoshi asked curiously.
"Claire's my girlfriend actually. But yeah we both pay rent." Danielle clarified with a grin, while she revealed her relationship with Claire. "A cosmic female duplicate like myself can operate just fine without a generic tragic backstory."
Danielle meant that as a mocking tease at Orion.
"Whoa! Pump the hate brakes, Fox & Friends! Sorry but you used to be so anti-people, I'm just surprised anyone would date you. Especially Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony." Orion quipped in a remark about Claire's hair.
Which made Claire laugh a little.
"I like this wacko." Claire smiled at Orion.
"Give it time." Danielle deadpanned rolled her eyes.
"Well, 'main leads from Life Is Strange' , you already know me. This is everyone else, AKA the cast of this fanfic." Orion gestured to the team while he muttered to break the fourth wall.
And everyone introduced themselves to Danielle's girlfriend Claire.
"Hi. I'm Yozora." Yozora introduced himself.
"I'm Hoshi." Hoshi introduced herself with a nod and a smile.
"I'm Donald." Donald said, giving a salute.
"Hiya, I'm Goofy." Goofy introduced himself with a tip of his hat.
"And I'm Ryan's sister, Rapunzel. And this is Pascal." Rapunzel said, gesturing to Pascal on her shoulder.
Pascal gave a two finger salute. Which made Claire give an amusing smile and Danielle a raised eyebrow look.
"All the Polly Pockets across the multiverse have em." Orion quipped referring to all other Princesses.
"Wait. Rapunzel? Like from the fairytale?" Claire asked curiously.
"Yep, that's me. Although my real story is a lot more different than what is in the books." Rapunzel commented.
"Much better than the book actually." Danielle complimented. "I like your first story better."
"Awe. Thank you. Why is that?" Rapunzel gushed with a smile.
"Because he's not in it." Danielle smirked at Orion.
'Bite me.' Orion mouth out.
'***k you.' Danielle smugly mouthed back.
"I gotta say for amusing rivals. You two are kinda alike." Rapunzel remarked as Pascal nodded smugly.
"Oh God..." Orion prevented a dry heave.
"Ugh! Barf!" Danielle looked nauseous.
"Zel, do not. Do not-...Blasphemy." Orion choked.
"Kill me with something heavy and pink instead." Danielle covered her mouth.
"Wow. you really are his Ex-Nobody, with all your antics." Rapunzel said with a smirk, before an evil teasing smirk graced her lips. "Although since some of her abilities came from Friday, I think Danielle is more like yours and Friday's daughter."
"What?..." Danielle grit her teeth.
"ZEL!" Orion exclaimed. "Come on, Sis! Damn!"
"Oh hell no." Friday face palmed herself
All this time. Pascal was laughing and squeaking real hard on Rapunzel's shoulder. "Hahahahahahaha!"
"Come on! Was Bizarro Superman's son?! Was Ewan McGregor Tom Lincoln's son from The Island?! Was Ben Reilly's Spider-Man's son?!" Orion exclaimed some examples.
"Now don't talk like that, Mister. You'll hurt your little girl's feelings." Rapunzel said in a teasing tone, waving her finger at him in a tsk tsk tsk motion, enjoying the reactions she was getting.
Before anyone else could respond or deject or blow up at Rapunzel's words.
"Claaaaire! Hurry up! We're gonna miss the movie?!" Claire's little sister called from over at the ramp to Tram common and Market Street.
Claire's sister's name was Sarah. And Sarah was a young girl, three years younger than Claire. She had long pinkish hair. She wore a sleeveless jacket with a sleeveless button-up shirt underneath. She also wore a plaid-skirt with a black trim and black stockings with white boots.
"Saved by my girl's sibling." Danielle sighed in relief.
"Coming Sarah! Sorry we gotta go. Little Sis will kill me if we miss the 3:40 o'clock show time. Nice meeting you all." Sarah waved with a smile before she and Danielle hurried away.
Orion exhaled as he was glad that was over.
"Are you gonna make more awkward in-jokes for everyone we meet here, Zel?" Friday inquired.
"Only if it messes with my brother." Rapunzel said with a teasing smirk.
"Alright but one important rule about sisters. Try not to mix the ladies into the tease next time. Because I think it's weird as ***k at the thought of being Danielle's mom. Especially considering that I almost killed her during our last fight." Friday nervously revealed.
"Ouch. Oof. Well I'll keep that in mind for next time, then." Rapunzel winced with a nervous and awkward smile.
"Anyhow. This is where we part for now. Orion and I will take the train down to the arcade. The rest of you show Rapunzel the sights around her and you know, be ready for when we call." Yozora suggested.
"Sure thing Yozora." Goofy gave a thumbs up.
"What?! You're leaving us with the girls?!" Donald gawked.
"Awe don't be such a downer Don. Think of it as babysitting. Besides we'd rather not spook our secret attacker away with the sound of a farting Transformer." Orion teased before he and Yozora walked away before he muttered to himself in annoyance . "Daughter? Really?!"
"See you guys later. And be careful." Rapunzel called to them as they walked away.
"Wait...Angry farting Transformer?!" Donald glared turning red as steam blew out of his ears.
"And Ryan couldn't resist setting off the ticking duck bomb before walking away." Friday deadpanned.
"Come on girls, and Pascal, Donald and Goofy. Let's hit the main area." Hoshi beamed as she gestured the others to follow as they all went down the ramp past Station Heights.
Down in Tram Common...
This area of Twilight Town was very lively with shops. Restaurants. An outdoor movie theater near the alley and a fancy caffe. And a trolly that was running everywhere across town. It's the first sign of life for anyone who enters the town from the train. And Rapunzel loved it the moment she saw everything that was here.
"This is where we actually first entered this world." Hoshi stated to Rapunzel as they walked around.
"It's also where Orion used to hang around as a toddler." Friday revealed.
"I bet this is where he got his love of movies, huh?" Rapunzel said as she looked around more, having noticed the outdoor theater.
"He mostly liked the mall's theater these days. But yeah, pretty much." Friday shrugged.
Just then Donald and Goofy came back from the Sweetstand shoppe and had two blue looking ice-cream bars.
"Here ya go, Rapunzel." Goofy handed Rapunzel her bar.
"You gotta try it! It's sea-salt ice cream." Donald revealed as Friday and Hoshi got their bars from Goofy too.
"Thanks, Donald, Goofy." Rapunzel thanked them both as she accepted the Ice cream. "I've wanted to try this since Ryan told me all about it."
"My favorite is still classic vanilla. But this is a winner on its own." Friday remarked as she bit into her ice cream bar and savored the favor.
Rapunzel nodded and took a taste of her own ice cream. Her eyes immediately widened.
"Oh wow. This is so good." Rapunzel said before taking a few more licks. "It's salty, but sweet at the same time. It's incredible."
"Oh yeah. It's what brought towns like this and Radiant Garden on the map." Hoshi chirped as she was enjoying her ice cream.
"The trolley will take us down to the mall. It's a ladies paradise. We just need to wait five minutes for it to show up." Friday stated.
"Sounds good to me." Rapunzel said, taking a few more licks of her frozen treat before a question came to mind. "By the way, where's Ryan's old house anyway?"
"Well...Orion doesn't really remember." Friday revealed as they all stood and waited for the trolley.
"He doesn't?" Rapunzel asked as she finished her dessert. "Why's that, do you think?"
"Well. Genevieve always believed it had something to do with repressed memories. He took it real hard the day after...well you know." Friday referred to his family's death.
Given that Genevieve was Orion's therapist back home in Corona. It would definitely be this case.
"R...Right." Rapunzel said with some hesitance. "Do you think he'll ever remember?"
"Maybe. We're not sure. But I'm not gonna push him. It took years for him to get over his sister. And he's been the best I've seen, ever since he met you." Friday stated in thought.
"Yeah. It's best to let him remember on his own, when he's ready to." Rapunzel agreed.
"Hey look! The train's here!" Goofy pointed at the incoming trolley.
"Trolley!" Donald corrected.
"Ahyuck! Gesundheit." Goofy responded smugly.
"Ahhh..." Donald exhaled in annoyance.
Then everyone stepped on board the trolley and the doors closed as it drove on a steady speed towards the mall in town. Also known as a girl's supermarket, recess and white house.
Later down at Litwak's Arcade...
Orion and Yozora were both stand out at the empty parking lot of Litwak's arcade. Which was a moderate commercial building connected to a pawn shop. Nail Salon and a barber shop next door on both sides.
Orion pondered as he noticed the closed sign with condemned yellow tape all around the entrance. Even some more condemn sheets blocking the entry.
"How do you go from operational one day and a cliche crime scene the next?" Orion inquired looking at the building.
"Yeah. It does have a CSI vibe just looking at this building, doesn't it?" Yozora said as he looked at the door. "Well, the reports did say that all the games were going crazy. Maybe the games got infected with something, or even hacked. Is it possible to hack into an arcade game?"
"I doubt we'd be doing a Gears Of War type meeting in the mission room if it was a hacker. I think computer viruses are way above our pay grade." Orion snorted.
"You mean your pay grade?" Yozora inquired amusingly.
"Exactly. I'm telling you, Man. This got paranormal written all over it. And here we are without a vacuum and Bill Murray to back us up." Orion stated with some witt.
"Well we're not gonna find out just standing here, making pop culture references." Yozora remarked as he spotted a vent on the roof. "That could get us in. But maybe-"
Suddenly Orion was already on the roof.
"Way ahead of you, Spike!" Orion waved as he pulled the vent open.
"Show-off." Yozora muttered with an eyeroll before using flow-motion to reach the roof.
Orion then went through first. And then Yozora. After crawling through a short vent and making a sharp turn left. Orion looked inside the main area of the arcade from behind some vent blades and he teleported himself and Yozora inside. They looked around and saw that all of the games were covered in white sheets as if they were contaminated or preventing dust. In fact all the games were off and covered.
Normally the arcade would have multiple themes of different classic games playing in the background with kids laughing or cursing over losing a round of Streets Fighter. Now it's nothing but empty vacant thrillers and void.
"Did this place get hit by a pandemic allegory or something? What happened here?" Orion asked while looking around and making a fourth wall comment.
"You know, this sort of feels like a scene from a slasher horror movie, don't you think?" Yozora said, on guard for anything that might happen.
"Nah. If it was, there'd be blood all over the walls and an amateur porn star's corpse on the ground. My hunch says the Heartless." Orion figured as he slowly looked around the place.
"I think you're right. I feel an alarming amount of darkness around us." Yozora said, looking around them. "But where is it originating from?"
"Hmmmm..." Orion pondered as he looked around and saw something that was out of place.
Especially in a place where 'kids' come to play video games together.
"Find anything?" Yozora asked as he was checking behind one of the games.
"Maybe. What's the one thing you wouldn't find in an arcade for kids?" Orion asked.
"I don't know. Animals? illegal substances. There are a lot of things I would not find or expect to find in an arcade for kids." Yozora said with an eyeroll.
"No, Spike yoy can actually find those things in a Sonic or Mario game. I'm talking about a theme. A genre. In this case. Horror at its best. Made like it's an 80s game." Orion pointed at the game in the corner.
The title on the console was 'Resident Evil X'
RESIDENT EVIL X?! As in 10?!
"What? How is that even possible?" Yozora asked, walking over. "They haven't even completed Resident Evil 9. How can this be here?"
"And that ain't even half of it. Take a look at the 10 symbol. Doesn't that X look vaguely familiar?" Orion pointed at the red looking ten 'X' on the console's logo.
It looked thorny...with no heart emblem to finish the look. Yozora instantly realized what Orion meant.
"The Heartless Emblem." Yozora's eyes widened. "They're inside the game?"
"Dark game. Dark creatures...Crap I sound like a Facebook evangelist right now." Orion muttered before he called in his girlfriend to bring the others in.
"Friday, I think we found something. Head to our location...No just find a quiet area and use the warp point location I've sent you." Orion informed on his gummi phone.
After that Orion used his gummi phone to link to the gummi ship's teleporter. Then he submitted a location and sent it to the rest of the team.
After a few minutes. A bunch of swirling light rays appeared on the ground near the snack bar like a circle, which was called a warp point. Primarily used to help the team quickly return to areas they've already been to. Orion didn't think he ever needed to create one here.
Then suddenly, Friday, Rapunzel and Pascal, Hoshi, Donald and Goofy appeared right at the warp point. Hoshi and Friday had a few shopping bags and Rapunzel had two of them in her hands while looking giddy and excited.
"Thank God they didn't take her to shop at Victoria Secrets." Orion said to the readers. "I think deviantart's got enough pics as it is."
"Ryan! Ryan! I had so much fun at the mall!" Rapunzel beamed excitedly as she held up her shopping bags. "I had no idea there was such a wonderful place to find such amazing new clothes! I can't wait to wear them back home. ***Gasp!*** Maybe we could introduce malls to our world! And these amazing designs! I can see it now!"
Rapunzel was both excited and hyper after their trip to the mall.
"And here I thought you were gonna come back with the entire mall in one of those bags. That place is to women what Rotten Tomatoes is to Sandra Bullock." Orion quipped.
"She almost did." Donald deadpanned looking exhausted from being dragged all over the place.
"Anyhow. I think we found the problem in this place." Orion stated as he gestured for them to follow him.
"Uh...Yeah! The lights are off." Goofy said obviously.
"No." Yozora said patiently and pointed at the Resident Evil game console. "That is the problem."
"Resident Evil X? They haven't had a 9th one yet though." Goofy said as he scratched the back of his head, being familiar with the games through his son Max, and his teammates.
"I don't think that's what he meant, ya bone head!" Donald snapped at Goofy.
"But how can a videogame be the problem?" Rapunzel asked while looking confused but slightly nervous, as she did sense something was wrong with the game.
"I don't know. But I sense a darkness emitting from the game itself." Hoshi said while looking at the game with slightly narrowed eyes. "But I don't understand why, though."
"I think I know why. Look." Friday said with a serious tone as she pointed at the game, pointing at the heartless emblem, which made the team gasp.
"WAK! The Heartless?!" Donald quacked in shock.
"Gawrsh! Does this mean the Heartless are inside the game?!" Goofy asked with a bit of concern.
"Basically. The problem wasn't something lurking around here. But in there. And it's affecting the other consoles." Yozora stated.
"Why don't we just unlock or smash it?" Hoshi asked curiously.
"Already tried that in between our call and the authors' typing. Zel? Smash the screen with your frying pan." Orion gestured to the Resident Evil console. While making a fourth wall comment.
"You don't have to tell me twice." Rapunzel said, pulling her purple vibranium frying pan out of thin air.
a trick the Princess learned from Donald and Goofy so she didn't attract attention by walking around town with a random frying pan. She held it up and swung it like a bat at the screen.
**Bang!**
Everyone looked on in shock as the screen was unharmed and unaffected by Rapunzel's frying pan.
"It-It didn't even scratch the screen!" Rapunzel exclaimed in shock. "And I hit it as hard as I could!"
"It's protected by a thick field of pure darkness. Which means we're gonna have to go in and smash it from the inside. And by that I mean out the back door." Orion stated.
Pascal looked at his own butt curiously wondering what he meant by that.
"Not that kind of back door." Orion deadpanned much to Pascal's relief.
"For those of you that are familiar with our visit to Radiant Garden, will be familiar with the-" Yozora almost hinted.
"Please tell me this is going where I think it's going." Orion braced himself.
"Mav. Bring out the ENCOM SHV 20905." Yozora smirked.
Then Orion shifted into Maverick before he pumped two rock gang signs down.
"***K YEAH!" Maverick bellowed before he searched his ring's tiny dimensional storage. "Where did I put the badass laser..."
"Wait, what are we doing?" Rapunzel asked, confused by all this. "And what is this ENCOMβ¦.?"
" Neh uh uh! No talking please, I'm in my own little personal mall craze. If this is going where I think it's going..." Maverick shushed her while searching. Then he stared at the readers. "AND WE ALL SURE AS SHIT KNOWS WHERE THIS IS GOING!..."
'Whew boy.' PRO deadpanned.
"Ah-ha! There you are, my pretty!" Maverick beamed as he pulled out what he was looking for.
Which was a twenty inch metallic ray with a stand as he placed it on a table and faced it towards the surge protector at the outlet behind several consoles.
While Maverick was setting up the laser. Hoshi noticed something from behind one of the games. She pulled back the sheet a bit. And then noticed. The game behind it, which was the game called Sugar Rush, was still running. Then she did the same to peek behind a Mortal Kombat game. Then Sonic The Hedgehog. And Sugar Rush. And Hero's Duty. Then the Fix-It-Felix Jr game. All the same.
"Wait a second. All of these games are still on. They're just on mute." Hoshi noticed since they had no sounds coming from the demos playing in the backgrounds." Hoshi said to the others.
"But...That's impossible, they don't even have a volume control on these things." Friday inquired looking at them.
"Alrighty! Who's gonna be our guinea pig- I mean volunteering lab raaaaeh- You know words are contagious. Who wants to go first?" Maverick asked as he used a remote to turn on the shiva laser and move its pointer towards his team mates.
The ones who have been to the grid, already knew. Which in this case is everyone but Rapunzel and Pascal, who both looked nervous.
"He's just kidding Rapunzel. It's completely harmless." Hoshi assured the Princess, while she and Friday were both giving Maverick a look.
"And what exactly is this laser thing supposed to do again?" Rapunzel asked as she was still not sure what was going on.
"Locking on to everyone...And..." Maverick finished activating the laser.
'What's the Password?' The laser's computer voice requested.
"EA Sports suck." Maverick responded.
"Password Accept. Activating Shiva Laser." The laser responded.
Maverick then teleported it to the middle of the team as he was one one knee holding his hands out in the middle of the team. And in front of the laser.
"Saaaaaaaaaay SIM Card!" Maverick beamed.
Then the laser flashed as it shot out a beam that zapped them and it began to freeze the Guardians, and the beams ran down their body's and erased them right before their eyes. What was happening is that the team was suddenly digitized into codes. And then they were sent inside the mainframe of the arcade itself.
Inside Game Central Station...
Suddenly the team appeared into an area that strangely reassembled the entrance to a subway station. Complete with four escalators and an interior that was designed with standard gray brick walls. The area was large, open and empty.
Everyone looked alright and looked just the same. As Maverick looked down at himself and ariund the area.
"Huh...I thought this place would look more...Blade Runner with circuits with retro shiny metallic themed everywhere." Maverick figured.
'This place ain't exactly a MAC mini or the Emoji Movie.' TEC remarked.
'Not until the cash grab sequel.' PRO deadpanned.
'***k you! I loved the sequel!' TEC snapped back.
"Well, at least we don't look any different." Friday said, before letting electric sparks crackle in her hand. "And it looks like we still have our powers here."
"And our weapons, too." Hoshi said, summoning her keyblade for a second before unsummoning it.
"Good. We don't want a repeat of what happened our first time on the grid." Yozora said, looking around.
"Yeah. And we got locked up without sail." Goofy said.
"Bail!" Donald snapped before facepalming himself. "Oh brother."
"Okay! Time out!" Rapunzel said loudly to the team, as she got there attention. "Could someone please tell me what's going on and where we are?"
Pascal squeaked in agreement with his arms crossed as he wanted to know too.
"Well assuming that this place isn't based on anything in 2018 and probably based on the best year for superheroes formally known as 2012..." Maverick pondered as he looked around while breaking the fourth wall.
'Except for Ghost Rider Spirit Of Vengeance.' PRO deadpanned.
'Screw that movie!' TEC exclaimed.
"Also these two are still inside me and not in person." Maverick noted about his A.I.s before he looked at the tunnel exit ahead.
If this was anything like the Grid. PRO and TEC would be here in person with them as Programs. Instead they're still functioning as Maverick's A.I. Assistants.
The team tunnel had a bright light ahead. And not in that dying kind of way. They looked up at the label above the exit. The back didn't have one, on account of it not leading anywhere. And the fact that a game wasn't plugged into that area. Maverick flew over to scout ahead.
"Game Central Station?" Yozora read the sign curiously.
"HOLY SHIT'N'CHEASE DIP! GUYS! YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!" Maverick echoed loudly from the other end of the exit tunnel.
Everyone heard him and ran to the other end of the tunnel to meet up with him. And when they did, they gasped in awe at the sight before him.
In front of them was Game Central Station, which looked like a large train station, with pathways that look like the inside of outlets with the plugs plugged into them. And each entrance had the name of a game overhead. And all around were hundreds of video game characters walking about, chatting and going about their days.
"Now this is impressive." Friday said in awe.
"Definitely not what I was expecting when we got here." Yozora commented as he looked around in amazement .
"It is just like the Grid butβ¦different." Hoshi said with wide eyes. "Each video game is its own world, with each one connected to this place. And all the game characters are alive as well. They have their own hearts. I can feel it."
"Wow. This is definitely an eye opener." Donald muttered in a flabbergasted expression.
"Yeah. I don't think I could ever look at a video game the same way again." Goofy said with a nod of his head.
"Video game characters..." Rapunzel muttered before her eyes widened to their limit in realization. "Are you saying we're literally inside a world of living Video game Characters?!"
Pascal squeaked in shock as well.
Maverick shifted back into Orion so he could see this place with his own eyes as he was in a total trance of awe.
"Not just any random ones, Gold Mine. But the ones that started video games. Characters from games that the average teens today have forgotten. Starting with Atari, Sega and Nintendo. And beyond." Orion said to Rapunzel as he was slowly walking ahead of them. "Here I was expecting some secret utopia of free video games, like Playstation Plus or something. But I like this better. I swear nothing can ruin this moment for-"
***BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!***
A red circuit gate flashed over the entrance making them jump.
"Shit!" Orion exclaimed in fright and breathed in relief. "Man that was loud."
Then suddenly a blue guy in a uniform with glasses and an electric circuit over his faded bald area suddenly showed up in a flash with a pen and clipboard.
"Names?" The guy said casually.
"Uh..." Rapunzel wasn't sure how to response as everyone else felt the same way.
"Look, I can tell you're all new here. I'm just the SurgeProtector meant to keep in and out anything that could threaten this station and the games that need it." The guy stated.
Apparently he's the Surge Protector that acts as the overseer of Game Central Station and the arcade's denizens. He operates the systems within the surge protector. It probably sucks for him whenever there's a heavy thunderstorm outside.
"Surge Protector." Yozora muttered in understanding.
"I guess we never bother to ask how it ever works inside." Hoshi shrugged.
"All ask again. Names?" Surge Protector asked as he was holding his pen and clipboard.
"R-right. I'm Yozora. He's the Maverick and the rest of us on the Guardians of the Unknown." Yozora stated.
"Hi." Rapunzel and Hoshi meekly waved at the same time.
"Unknown? Hmmm. Sounds like an antivirus software." Surge Protector assumed as he wrote down their names. "That's what you are, right? Otherwise I can't let you in if you're not from any game."
Orion looked up at the sign above the tunnel they just came from. And he quickly used his neon powers to display a sign as a cover for there true identities, while the Surge Protector wasn't looking.
Yozora hesitated at first until Orion tapped his shoulder and pointed up at the sign. Which now displayed 'GOTU Protection Software.'
And Yozora quickly understood. It's a World Order cover for them in this place.
"Yeah, yeah! That's what we are. We're an antivirus group. We came here because we heard there was trouble lurking around the arcade." Yozora answered and gave Orion a grin who winked back.
"Oh you don't know half of it. You all may proceed. Make yourselves at home and come meet me over by the first blocked game entrance as soon as you're ready." Surge Protector stated as he wrote on his clipboard and then zoomed out like a circuit.
"I think we've just been drafted." Yozora remarked.
"If only the I.R.S. was this gullible- I mean co-operative." Orion quipped and stated in excitement. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm so damn anxious to meet the locals!"
"So am I." Rapunzel squealed with Pascal squeaking.
"Well you heard the literal blue collar security guard. Let's make ourselves at home." Friday reminded as they began to walk ahead.
"Oh and Rapunzel, that means you can take your shoes off for now." Hoshi smiled at the Princess.
"Sure cause some of the locals here never do. Take those two for instance. " Orion gestured as the two main characters walked by. And Orion instantly lit his eyes up and did a double take.
It was Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter who walked by. Ryu was the one wearing a red headband over his short brown hair and a white karate gi with his sleeves torn off, with a black belt and bare feet to fit the theme of his game.
While Ken was dressed the same way but with a red karate gi and without a headband over his blonde hair. Who is barefoot like someone in Karate class as well.
"This time the tabs on me." Ryu stated to Ken.
"Thanks Ryu. I'll be sure to punch you less harder in the next demo." Ken remarked as they walked away.
Everyone was so fascinated to see them.
"They look so much better in person then they ever did on the Xbox." Yozora said while smiling at them in amazement.
Orion gawked a few times looking at them before he slapped himself. "Come on Mav, get a grip. Keep your game face on!...What the fuck is a game face anyway?" He hissed to himself.
"Oh my Gosh! This place looks soβ¦..Interactively epic!" Rapunzel exclaimed as she slipped off her shoes off to stand barefoot before putting her shoes away. "I hope I get to meet some of my favorite characters!"
"I doubt we'll meet my main favorites, due to them being Playstation exclusives. Like Ratchet & Clank. Nathan Drake. Jack and Daxter. Joel and Ellie, ***k the sequel..β¦." Orion pondered as he listed.
'Sony's a selfish little boy who never wants to share his toys.' PRO remarked while rhyming.
'Venom and Morbius has the scars to prove it!' TEC quipped.
"My favorite video game characters are actually some of the characters from Assassins Creed. Like Connor. Edward. Eivor. Ezio. But if I had to go with two exclusives. For Xbox I'd say Master Chief from the Halo." Yozora listed while looking around.
"Ah man! I have over ten different custom Master Chief helmets hanging in my game room back at the mansion!" Orion expressed his fandom like an excited gamer.
"And then there's Kratos from God Of War! Another Playstation classic!" Yozora beamed of what was on the list.
"Damn it I forgot about him! That dude literally slaughtered Greek & Geek mythology!" Orion quipped.
"Some of my favorites are actually some female strength inspirations. Like female Shepard from Mass Effect. Samus Aran. And Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West." Hoshi beamed casually as she was excited as the others but kept a calm soothing air. Since that is her natural expression.
"Mine are actually the characters from Red Dead Redemption. I liked the sequel better. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. I have a few more down the list. Some of them you and the others already named off. But my favorite will always be Lara Croft." Friday revealed with a smile.
"The Tomb Raider?" Hoshi asked as they were walking with the group together.
"She was one of the females that inspired me to get my figure. Up there with Miranda Lawson. Talia and Catwoman from Arkham City. Even Quiet from Metal Gear. They all boosted my health morale." Friday remarked as she listed.
"Wow, Friday. I'm so glad I took health tips from you. Because it worked more than well on you." Hoshi said as she was impressed by the results on Friday's hot figure.
"Thanks, Hoshi. And you're extremely nubile as well. You'd fit right in with the ladies from Dead Or Alive." Friday complemented Hoshi with a smile.
"Awe. Thank you." Hoshi beamed giddy like before she looked at Rapunzel. "What are your favorites?"
Rapunzel was still focused on seeing all of the video game characters that walked on by, she was like a little girl who found the biggest toy store on the planet.
"Huh?" Rapunzel was pulled out of her daze by Hoshi's question. "Favorites?"
"Yeah. I mean your favorite video game characters." Hoshi clarified.
"Oh! Well, a couple of my favorites are Mario and Sonic, the Hedgehog." Rapunzel said, looking around some more, hoping to see those two characters. "As Ryan would say, Sometimes you can't beat the classics. And I really hope I get the chance to meet those classics."
Then suddenly a blue streak of light sped around as it circled the team. Catching them off guard.
***Zoom!***
Then the streak stopped in front of them, revealing it to be none other than the blue spiky haired, red sneaker wearing, white gloved, wide blue eyed Hedgehog himself. Sonic The Hedgehog.
"Boom! Say my name and thy wish is granted!" Sonic beamed while doing his signature post. Then he dropped it and asked. "What was my name heard right? Or was that the not so cheap restaurant's name?"
"Holy... frick." Orion's eyes were wide seeing him.
Rapunzel stared eyes wide and jaw dropped in total shock before letting out an ear-piercing squeal in excitement, making everyone flinch a little at the volume.
"OH MY GOD! IT"S SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!" Rapunzel exclaimed in delight before rushing over and taking Sonic's hand to shake profusely while talking really fast. "It's such an honor to meet you! I'm such a huge fan! you have no idea! You're one of my favorite video game characters! I can't believe I get to meet you in person!"
Sonic of course kept his cool and his signature grin as he shook her hand with his hand rapidly moving, to keep up with Rapunzel's excitement.
"It's fine, I keep up with spastic fans who like to bash the buttons on the console. That and I'm the fasted thing alive." Sonic assured the team before he responded with a smile to Rapunzel. "As long as you're not that alien looking Princess chick from Sonic 06, we'll get along just fine."
"Sonic 06?" Rapunzel asked with a curious smile.
"One of my next previous gen titles. But trust me, you don't wanna spin with that game. Cause it was the woooooooorse!~" Sonic humorously harmonized that last part.
"Oh come on. It couldn't have been that bad. Could it?" Rapunzel said with slight disbelief. "I mean, any game you've been a part of must have been a hit."
Orion bit his bottom lip and whispered in Rapunzel's ear.
"He doesn't like to mention this. But they had a bland-as-kitty-litter human girl kiss Sonic to bring him back to life...We're talking beastiality." Orion whispered. "Like French kissing your pet guinea pig, beastiality."
"Believe me, lady. I'd rather suffer another Progressive commercial than to ever play in a game like Sonic 06. I mean they sucked all of my charm and wit out. Made me stiff in almost every level. And don't even get me started with the glitches...Or." Sonic shuttered as he gagged a bit as he added. "The climax."
Ergo. The climax that Orion mentioned. Everybody knows that Sonic isn't a ladies man. Because he's too busy being fast and all about action. Thus why Sonic is always running and going on adventures. He doesn't slow down for romance.
Even Rapunzel knows that.
"Trust me, Rapunzel. You would have much better progress doing laundry than to play that game." Friday stated in agreement to Sonic and Orion. Before she showed something on her Gummi phone. "Here's a video of Orion rage quiting the game."
Rapunzel looked curiously at the video. Along with the rest of the team. Even Sonic looked over as Friday showed them all.
They saw Orion in the video looking positive as he was sitting down as he loaded up Sonic 06 on his Playstation 3 and looked casual. Then the video said '72 hours later'.
Orion finally looked messed up in the video as he was bashing the buttons and his clothes looked messed up and turned and his eyes were bloodshot. Before he shrieked and stood up and slammed the controller to the ground and started ranting and pointed at the TV.
***"***k this game! ***k this game! ***k it ***k it ***k it!"*** Orion yelled and screamed as he started shooting the ceiling with a neon handgun. ***"***K ***K***K***K***K***K***K***K***K***K***K***K***K!"***
Orion was ululating that last part before the video went static.
"Yeah... it's that bad." Sonic said nervously after seeing that video.
"See what I mean?" Friday deadpanned.
"I'm glad I spent extra on a bullet proof ceiling. Otherwise the neighbors' cat would've sued me." Orion muttered about the bullets flying everywhere.
Rapunzel looked completely shocked with her jaw dropped at everything she had just seen and heard in the explanation video. Even Pascal was blown away. The Princess took a moment to collect herself before she spoke.
"O-kay? Never go near that video game. Got it." Rapunzel muttered before shaking her head to clear her thoughts before putting on a smile. "Anyway. It's nice to actually meet you, Sonic. And hopefully we can hang out a bit once whatever craziness is going on here is taken care of."
She was referring to the Heartless situation.
"Thanks. Me too. And yeah, something bizarre is happening in this 8-bit to 60-bit corner. And I'm with SP and a few others to get to the bottom of this." Sonic stated as he gestured for them to follow him over.
By 'SP' he meanted the Surge Protector.
"Wait. All of the other game characters doesn't know about this?" Hoshi asked.
"We have to keep that way to avoid a panic around the station. Some of these characters go overkill when they panic. Take the folks from the folks from Mortal Kombat. And emphasize 'overkill' if you catch my drift. " Sonic expressed making some of them wince.
Mortal Kombat is a cringe when it comes to kills. And gore.
Just then Sonic led the team up to the first blocked game gate entry which was being blocked by a dark forcefield. And apparently there was some physical hardware in between the entry that were keeping the forcefield up.
The team also saw the Surge Protector speaking with two other video game characters.
The big one was a muscular and beefy man with large Donkey Kong -like hands and feet, made for crushing and smashing things. This man also has spiky dark auburn hair (red in 8-bit), thick eyebrows, a big pink nose, rosy cheeks, brown eyes, and a small gap in his upper front teeth. He was wearing a pair of burgundy-red overalls with a broken left strap, worn knees, and tattered leg cuffs. And a large red-orange plaid-patterned shirt with ripped-off sleeves which had three yellow buttons at the neck, two of which are buttoned up, and he also wore a teal-green undershirt beneath his plaid shirt.
This was the character Wreck-It-Ralph from the game 'Fix-It-Felix Jr'.
The other character with him was a short young girl with fair skin, rosy cheeks, a pink nose, and hazel eyes. Her hair was black and pulled back into a ponytail, it was decorated with a various assortment of small candies, and the scrunchie appeared to be made of red licorice. She wore a light mint-green hoodie with strawberry bootlace tassels, and two Reese's Cup wrappers for a skirt. Her mismatched leggings were striped with teal and white, and the left is additionally accented with purple "double stripes". She also wore black boots with red frosting scribbles on the soles.
This was Vanellope von Schweetz, the lead racer of the racing game called 'Sugar Rush'.
"Any luck yet?" The Surge Protector asked.
"Uh let me check." Ralph answered and cupped his hands to ask while looking up above the open hatch of the gate entry's circuitry. "FELIX! ANY LUCK?!"
***"Nope! Not a diddly squad worth of answers! Pardon my French but where in deep doo doo if we don't get to the bottom of this!"*** Felix answered from the other end before he crawled out to catch his breath and pop his back a bit. "Whew nelly."
This was Fix-It Felix. The main star of the game Ralph was from.
Felix appeared to be a small man who wore a light blue plumber's shirt, dark blue jeans and a blue cap with gold initials, along with an aqua name tag on his shirt, a white undershirt, blue eyes, and brown hair. He also wore light brown leather work boots and work gloves along with a plumber's tool belt. While carrying a solid gold reparman's hammer.
"Awe man. How are we gonna get in there? Anyone from a game called Hong Kong 97 clearly is living a luxurious life. It's like their 97th game so it must be doing something right to be here." Ralph sighed looking at the title on the gate's entry logo.
'Hong Kong 97'.
"Relax, bud. I'm sure it doesn't have all the interesting things about Hong Kong. Like ninjas...And sports cars...High rise buildings...And neon lights..." Vanellope tried to assure before her face slowly scrunched up thinking about all the exciting things about Hong Kong they can't get to in there. Before she spazzed out. "WE GOTTA GET IN THERE!"
"And here they are. Our antivirus guardian group." Surge Protector gestured over at the Guardians coming over with Sonic.
"Whew. Thank goodness you're all here." Ralph sighed with relief before he smiled and began introductions. "I'm Wreck-It-Ralph. The bad guy from Fix-It-Felix Jr. But you can call me Ralph.
"And I'm Felix, the main character of said game." Felix introduced himself with a positive smile.
"And I 'et moi' is President Vanellope von Schweetz, of my fellow country known as Sugar Rush." Vanellope playfully introduced herself in a regal/political like fashion.
"Oh yeah. I've pla- uh heard of that game." Yozora said as he recognized the name Sugar Rush.
"So do I. We all wish they made her game a DLC for Team Sonic Racing." Orion said and remarked to the readers as he broke the fourth wall.
"It's nice to meet you three. I'm Rapunzel. And on my shoulder is Pascal." Rapunzel greeted while introducing herself and Pascal before gesturing to the rest of the team. "This is Orion, Friday, Yozora, Hoshi, Donald, and Goofy. Together, we make up the Guardians of The Unknown."
Then Venellope held her hand up to ask the team something.
"Question. If you don't know what it is, why are you guarding it?" Venellope asked.
The team looked at each other for a brief second. They wanted to answer that they consider the Multiverse as the Unknown. And that every world that has the light and the people who live in it is there responsibility
"Blame the guy who wrote the name in his mom's attic." Orion shrugged at the readers.
"Basically it's just a slogan for anything that might attack this place. Like computer viruses of various sizes you've never seen before. But we have." Yozora explained.
"So...you're like glorified digitized hall monitors?" Venellope asked with a sarcastic grin.
"Nope. That's his job." Orion quipped pointing at the Surge Protector who was busy writing down on his clipboard.
"Oh hardy har har." Surge Protector scoffed in a bored tone.
Which made the Guardians, three game characters and Sonic laugh a bit. "Hahahahahaha!"
"Alright I'm convinced. You'll fit in just fine." Venellope remarked with a smile as she gave the team a thumbs up.
"Of course they'll fit in. The entry's wide enough for an entire crowd to walk through." Ralph gestured to the main entrance to Hong Kong 97.
He basically took Venellope's words literally. Ralph would get along with Drax, or probably up until Drax decides to rip his head out.
"Is that's where the problem is?" Friday asked looking up at the entrance.
"Oh it's not just this game. It's several other games as well." Felix stated as he pointed out to the wet side of the arcade.
The team looked out to see four other entry gates with the same dark barrier. Each an entrance to a different game. And each to a strange title. One of them was Resident Evil X.
"Four other games have been corrupted?" Hoshi said in concern.
"Probably made by the Heartless who thought that Fallout: New Vegas was a good idea." Orion quipped.
"Well. Maybe we should start with this game in front of us." Goofy figured.
"Is there a way for us to get inside?" Donald asked.
"I've been trying to figure that out. But this dang burnt misty looking field is blocking our way in." Felix answered in mild frustration about the way into Hong Kong 97.
"Hey, Yozora. Why not give your keyblade a try? That might just open the path for us." Hoshi suggested to her boyfriend.
"It's worth a try." Yozora said with a shrug, before summoning his keyblade and pointing it at the entrance to Hong Kong 97.
From his keyblade, light gathered at the point of the blade before a beam shot out towards the entrance. Moments after connecting, everyone heard the sounds of tumblers moving, like something being locked or, in this case, unlocked. A flash of light blinded everyone for a moment before the light faded, revealing the path to Hong Kong 97 was open.
"Oooooh." Ralph and Felix said in awe.
Even Venellope was amazed.
"Woah...Are some of you guys from a JRPG?" Venellope asked.
"If we were. There would be a ten year gap in between sequel and a need to keep up with a studio's mainstream just to earn more celery." Orion quipped while mildly breaking the fourth wall.
"So. What are the chances this game has shitty looking ninjas?" Friday asked as she was a little skeptical about the number.
"Or maybe the game's based on Samurai Jack's worst lost episode." Orion figured as he looked at the others and shifted into the Maverick. "Just in case."
"Right. Better safe than sorry." Friday agreed before shifting into Shift.
"Yeah. Who knows what we might face in there." Yozora agreed and shifted intonVerum Rex.
"Whatever it might be, we can handle it." Hoshi said, shifting in Swift.
Ralph. Felix. Sonic and Venellope were impressed by their armored forms. And they figured that their armored forms were part of their trademarks for advertisement.
"We've got it covered from here." Verum Rex said to the video game characters.
"Alright, we'll wait out here in case anything happens." Ralph shrugged.
"Shout if you need backup. And a fast back peddle!" Sonic winked.
Verum Rex nodded as he walked in first and the other Guardians followed.
Inside Hong Kong 97...
Once everyone passed the entry gate into Hong Kong 97. Everything was black. As they stood with nothing in view. Except for the light coming from the large game screen in front of them. The team guessed that it was for the people who lived inside the game consoles. It was a window to the outside world for the video game characters. A view of the arcade and whoever will play.
But for the Guardians. It will be a reminder that everywhere is better than here.
And they waited for the game to start. Almost more than five minutes. Of awkward silence.
"Any minute now." Orion deadpanned.
"If we have to wait any longer, I'm going to snap." Shift gritted out in annoyance.
"Or die of boredom. Even a heartless attack is better than this." Verem Rex muttered.
"It's sad to say that's true." Swift agreed.
"Tick... Tock... Tick... Tock..." Goofy muttered, swaying side to side as they waited, making Donald irritated.
"Would you cut that out, ya big Palooka!?" Donald snapped.
"So, while we're waiting, anything you can tell me about this game?" Rapunzel asked as she never played this game before.
"Honestly I've never played it. You guys?" Swift asked.
"No." Verum Rex shook his head.
"Not really." Shift answered with her arms crossed.
"Nope." Goofy answered.
"Uh uh." Donald shook his head.
"Well...I never played it. But I do know some back story. For example, yhis loading screen was so long. That in the remotest parts of Southeast Asia, it is still considered the number one preferred form of execution." Maverick stated as he displayed a clip from the film Kentucky Fried Movie.
***"Send him to play Hong Kong 97"*** Someone said in a different language.
Then the prisoner screams as he's being dragged away. ***"NO! NO, PLEASE! ANYTHING BUT THAT!"***
'Yeah...I'm gonna call bullshit.' PRO deadpanned.
"Oh, Come on, Ryan. Even I know that that's not true." Rapunzel said with mirth as she rolled her eyes at her brother's antics.
"Alright fine. The best I know is that game was apparently made for the Nintendo's cousin, the Super Famicom in Japan, but never saw its way to the rest of the world. This is one title that we definitely didn't get on the Super Nintendo." Maverick revealed.
Super Nintendo?" Rapunzel asked. "What's that? Something exclusive to superheroes?"
"No, crap I forgot to tell you about it. Well you see back when video games were limited to dots and flat gray pixels. The absolute most innovative game system that took the early 90s by storm, was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System." Maverick stated as he used his phone to display a holographic image of it.
In fact he had two images of the Super Nintendo displayed. One in the box and one outside of it.
"Oh yeah. This game took the whole gamer world by storm. Games like Rampage. StarFox. Super Metroid. Legend Of Zelda. Mario Bros. All started from this console. Video games wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn't for Nintendo." Swift beamed.
"Even Trish was obsessed with it in her childhood. I still have it." Maverick remarked.
Maverick had an image of the Nintendo in its box and one without its box displayed for Rapunzel to see.
"Wow. That's impressive." Rapunzel said as she saw the images. "So it's basically the Genesis of all game systems?"
"Technically Sega got the name 'Genesis' before Nintendo could. But in a way, yeah. The Nintendo was one of the first in video game innovation that encouraged other game companies to push the boundaries. Because back then. The very first game was Pong." Swift revealed as Maverick displayed a video image of Pong.
Which was just two lines going up and down to block a ball like ping-pong. And it still was a boring sight to see for a modern gamer. A dotted line in the middle and two displays of numbers to count the rounds won on both ends.
"That right there is actually the very first video game. And probably Sonic's grandfather. Hell, this game is all their grandfather." Maverick remarked.
"Woah." Rapunzel said in awe. "I know I've seen quite a few of the newer games. But for some reason, the older ones are cooler, in a way."
"Oh you say that now. But imagine all the games you've seen me play at the mansion or on my phone. Pretend none of them exist and this is all we had. Pretty much, some folks got bored with this one quickly. Then we ended getting something better like Pac Man. Galaga. Q*bert and a few others in the 80s. But Nintendo is what brought kids into the living room and glued them to the TV. Cause before Nintendo. Most kids would rather go outside and blow bubbles or smash mailboxes than play video games." Maverick stated.
"I don't know if that sounds like a good thing or a bad thing.' Rapunzel said with a smirk.
"I didn't live in the 80s so who knows?" Maverick shrugged.
Then suddenly the theme of Hong Kong 97 began to play. And the lyrics sounded like it was an old audio. In Chinese and on a infinite loop.
'Wo ai Beijing Tiananmen~ Tiananmen shang taiyang sheng~ Wo ai Beijing Tiananmen~ Tiananmen shang taiyang sheng~ Wo ai Beijing Tiananmen~ Tiananmen shang taiyang sheng~ Wo ai Beijing Tiananmen~ Tiananmen shang taiyang sheng~'
"Ugh! Finally!" Donald exclaimed.
Then the opening screen titled. As it was just... A bunch of Japanese and Chinese letters stacked in sentences. The title 'Happyloft'. Which was the name of the company that made this game. And a green dot spinning upwards like an options menu indicator next to some options for English. Chinese or Japanese.
'Fun fact. Happyloft only made one game. The one you're standing in.' PRO deadpanned.
"Oh God." Maverick and Shift exhaled.
"How the Hell was this game even running before the Heartless showed up." Shift hissed in annoyance.
"Was the arcade so desperate for games, that it just took whatever they could get their hands on?" Verem Rex said allowed.
"Well, someone in Twilight Town must have liked this game. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had it set up in the first place." Swift countered.
"I think it was nice of them to give the option of what language we could get the game in." Goofy said.
"Of course you would think that." Donald rolleed his eyes.
"Okay? What exactly do we do now?" Rapunzel said as she looked around for what they were supposed to do.
Maverick walked over and slapped his hand on the English option. Having no words for how annoying this game they're in is.
Then suddenly the words faded as another set of words came up for them to read.
*'Games Wanted!'***
*'We well sell your original S-NES game. (1/3 of your gross profit will be yours) We welcome games of any kind so please send us your floppy. contact you after careful considerations.'*
The team read it and were a little baffled.
"Wow. You can't make shit on your own so you expect us to make it for you?" Shift inquired.
"Brought you by 'Happyloft'. Do it yourself. We sure as hell can't." Maverick said in an announcer voice.
"That's just sad." Rapunzel said with a shake of her head. "What? Was this game also made by someone else and they just took the credit for it too?"
Then another set of words appeared as it was another statement from the company. Which was just more desperation to sell the game.
*'Would you like to sell our products at your store?'*
*'We are looking for dealers worldwide. We will heavily discount orders for more than 50 pieces. Please ask us for details.'*
"Jesus! How desperate were these guys?! Even the makers of Anthem weren't this malnourished to sell their products!" Maverick exclaimed in ridicule for those words.
"I think we should have chosen a different language a few minutes ago." Rapunzel said with utter bafflement. "We wouldn't be able to understand this nonsense, and it would look cooler."
"Speak for yourself, Rapunzel. Unfortunately, Ryan and I understand both Chinese and Japanese. So it would not help either of us." Shift commented.
'Am I the only one who thinks it's weird that they have three different languages considering that the game didn't travel very far?' PRO inquired.
'It's a traveling game?!' TEC asked in excitement.
'I wish.' PRO scoffed.
Then finally the title screen appeared as on the top were more words in Chinese and the Happyloft logo with its copyright mark. And the year 1995 displayed.
And the title screen included an image on the right of Xiaoping. Or rather just a head shot of him. And an image of Jackie Chan in a fighting pose. That was stolen from a scene image of a movie Orion's crowd knows about.
"WHAT THE CHOP SHITS?! JACKIE CHAN IS IN THIS GAME?!" Maverick shrieked in shock. And not an excited one.
"Isn't that a shot from Wheels On Meals?" Verum Rex recognized the image pose.
"I believe it is." Swift said with disbelief.
"If Jackie Chan ever saw this I'm sure he would have sued. Or gone all Kung Fu on their asses." Shift said with a shake of her head.
"Gee, it's like the makers of this game were a bunch of can artists." Goofy said scratching the back of his head.
"CON ARTISTS!" Donald snapped at Goofy.
"Right. Con artists. Hoo Hoo Hoo HOO!" Goofy said with a laugh, making Donald groan.
"My God. Is nothing sacred to these people?!" Rapunzel exclaimed as she threw her arms up.
"Hold on. The game was written and released in 1995? Then why the ***k would you even call it Hong Kong 97? Why not Hong Kong 95?" Shift inquired looking at the year above the title screen.
"Maybe these guys thought the game was two years ahead of its time." Rapunzel said with a shrug.
"Hey look." Donald noticed the screen changed into something else.
An image of a group of guys in red doing Kung Fu poses like a temple or an underground fight club. And some dialogue displayed.
***'The Year 1997 has arrived. A herd of ***kin' ugly reds are rushing from the mainland.'***
"Uh...What mainland?" Swift inquired in confusion.
"What are reds?" Verum Rex asked in confusion.
"Why 1997?" Shift asked. "And did they just use the f word in a game for an arcade for minors?"
"See folks. This is how you bankrupt a company before their first product even starts." Maverick said to the readers.
"Maybe this game has a lot more positive attention in Asia." Rapunzel said with a shocked expression. "A better question would be why the people who run the arcade would have this game here in the first place if it has all this insanity?"
"Sorry I'm letting my wife's comment sink in. Did they really need the F-word to ***kin' drive home the ***kin' point? This was before cursing in games was common. I remember how shocked I was when I first played Rambo on the Nintendo and saw the word 'Hell'. But here, they dropped the F-Bomb! THEY DID IT! A game made for the Super Famicom! It's the closest you'd ever get to a Super Nintendo game that says "**K"! " Maverick exclaimed and exhaled."Whew. I needed to get that out."
"Why do I get the feeling that getting this stuff out is gonna be a common theme while we're here in Game Central?" Rapunzel said with an amused look.
"That's because it is gonna be a common theme for him." Shift said with an eye-roll. "Let's just hope that we don't end up in Superman 64 while we're here, or we'll really be getting an earful of it."
***Wo ai~ Beijing Tiananmen~ Tiananmen shang taiyang sheng~ Wo ai~ Beijing Tiananmen~ Tiananmen shang taiyang sheng~ Wo ai~ Beijing Tiananmen~ Tiananmen shang taiyang sheng~***
"And the song is still going." Maverick deadpanned.
'Boy this one will be a humdinger!' TEC beamed.
Then the background scene changed to former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten standing on a podium with the image of Bruce Lee right behind him like a mural. And presenting Jackie Chan who still has the same pose as the title screen.
And more words were shown underneath.
***'Crimes rates skyrocketed! Hong Kong is ruined! Therefore, the Hong Kong government called Bruce Lee's relative, 'Chin' '***
"Bruce Lee's relative. Just happens to be as skilled as Bruce Lee. Not a brother, a son, or even a cousin. Just some unspecified relative. Doesn't make any sense. Like, if you were related to, I don't know, Michael Jordan, would that mean that you're automatically good at basketball?" Maverick inquired.
'Isn't that like if you're a distant relative of Bobby Flay. You're gonna be an instant expert at cooking?' PRO guessed.
'So if I was a relative of KJP. Does that mean I'll be immediately shitty at press conference speeches?!' TEC guessed
"That's like saying you're Crocodile Dundee's great nephew, so you're good at hunting crocodiles." Shift snarked.
"Or maybe if you're Elvis Presley's third cousin three times removed, that means you're the newest king of rock n roll." Rapunzel joked.
"Sorry Gold'N'Purple. But there's only one new king in that area. And it's AC/DC." Maverick responded to Rapunzel's joke before he added in a ridiculing tone. "But seriously though. How is being Bruce Lee's relative instantly make you a black belt?... And again. Did Jackie Chan know about this?! Let alone got paid?!"
"If he did, it was probably with counterfeit money, or arcade tokens." Swift said jokingly.
"On the bright side, I think I found out which one is Chin." Shift said sarcastically, pointing at the image of Chin.
"But who's the guy at the Podium?" Rapunzel asked.
"That would be Chris Patten, former governor of Hong Kong." Swift answered Rapunzel.
"It's as if they couldn't make one up in a fictional game to avoid political backlash." Shift snarked sarcastically.
Then the scene changed to a black and white slightly faded image of a bunch of dead bodies. With Chen on the right and still in his pose.
With yet again more words.
***'For the massacre of the reds. Chin is a killer machine. Wipe out all 1.2 billion of the red communists'***
Then Maverick finally realized as he saw Jackie Chan's Wheels on Meals scene pose image and the text reference 'Chin'. Then he looked back at the team and then the screen. And he looked back and forth a few more times.
Before Maverick bursts out laughing while hunched over and wheezing hard.
"BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA...*INHALE DEEPLY* Chan is Chin?! What are the odds?!" Maverick exclaimed and exhaled before he mocked the scenario." Boy I gotta tell my cousin 'Rick' about this- Hehehehehahahahahahahahahah!"
"Unbelievable. All they did was change one letter in his last name." Rapunzel said in pure bafflement.
"In my opinion, I think it's insulting for these assholes to use Bruce Lee's name like this to weakly sponsor another legendary actor." Shift said angrily. "And considering Bruce Lee died twenty-five years before this game came out, this is disrespecting the dead."
"Excuse me. But the goal is to wipe out 1.2 billion?" Swift said with bafflement, starting to get worked up herself. "If I'm not mistaken, in 1995, that would have been the ENTIRE POPULATION OF CHINA! Bruce Lee's relative is so powerful, he's the equivalent of a thousand nukes!? He's gonna murder the entire population of China by breaking their necks!? I mean... How ridiculous can they get!? Even when Bruce Lee would take down 20 people, it took him a little bit of time..."
Swift paused in her rant as everyone was looking at her, making her blush in embarrassment.
Swift chuckled nervously as she rubbed her arm. "Sorry. I uh...Got straight As in international economics." She timidly said.
"She beat me by three digits." Verum Rex remarked about how smart his girlfriend is.
Then suddenly the image faded and the scene changed to the dark blue background image of Deng Xiaoping.
And the game doesn't start as more words are shown!
***'However, in mainland China there was a secret project in progress! A project to transform the diseased Tong Shau Ping into an ultimate weapon!'***
Maverick gawked at the image. Before he slapped himself and held his hands up a little. He inhaled and exhaled.
"So. Let's get down to brass tacks. You dumb ass, turd bombs used the image of one of China's best leaders Ding Xiaoping. Spelled his name wrong. Brought him back to life as an ultimate killing machine? While Ding Xiaoping was still alive and didn't die until two years later." Maverick said that in a nonchalant way. bored deadpanned. Before he smacked his lips and rubbed his hands together before he exhaled. "This is gonna be painful I just know it."
'It already is.' PRO and TEC replied.
"How the hell did these people get away with doing this?" Verem Rex asked.
"I don't know, but if I was Ding Xiaoping, I would not be happy about this." Swift said with a shake of her head.
"It would be like making a game where Hitler, and they spell his name incorrectly and make him a hero." Shift snarked at the further insanity.
"Gee, I wonder when the actual game play actually starts." Goofy said while rubbing his chin.
"I don't know. But it better be soon." Donald gritted out with irritation. "All this nonsense is really ruffling my feathers."
"This would be like taking my parents and turning them into evil Tyrants." Rapunzel said with ticked off look while Pascal stuck his tongue out to mock the people who made this game.
"Note to self. Down ever ask these people to make a Corona game." Maverick said to the readers. Which had a double meaning.
'Oh oh! It would be be like if I made a game called "New York 2017". 'Mother***kin' demons from the planet Jupiter have arrived through the Manhattan portal. The leader of. United States calls upon Master Joe. John Wayne's half-cousin's step-son to annihilate the 2.5 octodecillion alien scum of the universe. However, on Jupiter's secret moon, a master plan is conceived to resurrect the astro-demonoid Dill Clyntin into a mecha-doomsday machine!' TEC stated in excitement and humor.
'You got greedy.' PRO deadpanned.
'Yeah I know...' TEC exhaled.
'Anyhow be prepared,Team. According to the programing of the game play. If you get hit once. It's game over and you'll have to start over.' PRO warned the team.
"Are you shitting me right now?!" Shift snapped.
"So if any of us get hit even once, we'll have to go through this insanity all over again?!" Verem Rex exclaimed.
"And I thought this game couldn't get any worse." Swift shook her head.
"Gawrsh! That makes things much more difficult." Goofy said.
"Ya think?!" Donald snapped. "If any of us get hit, we'll have to do this all over again. We're gonna be stuck here forever!"
"But this can't take forever. There are other games out there that need our help." Rapunzel said with a determined look.
"Not a problem." Maverick waved his hand at the team and gave them each a neon shield to light up around their bodies like an aurora. "They can't even hurt your feelings with a ten foot pole with those on. And they'll stay on as long as I say so."
"Oh boy!" Donald cheered.
"Gee, that's great!" Goofy said happily.
"Now we can fight without having to worry about constantly dodging every attack." Verem Rex said.
"Yeah, always being on the defense would have made things more difficult." Swift said.
"Good thing. Now we don't have to hold back. And we can fight like usual." Shift said, getting ready for anything.
"That's my brother, always looking out for us." Rapunzel said with a smile.
"Cut the balloon juices guys, I get it. I care and you all adore me for it. Now START THE ***KING GAME!" Maverick bellowed up at the screen.
Then the scene changed into finally showing the game which was just an unclear blue-ish background of whatever the two guys in front are. And a bunch of moving NPCs moving down from the top of the screen in an unclear swerve fashion. As they moved like cheap 8-bit props. And as the team was about to fight them.
Shift waved her hand and struck them all with lightening.
***Strike!***
Thus all the NPCs were dealt with in the first wave. And then the second wave came in as the scene changed to an Asian Coca-Cola logo.
"Coca-Cola? What the f- oh whatever!" Maverick exclaimed in annoyance before he clapped his hand hard causing a wave of heat to wipe out the next said of red communist NPCs.
Even though most of them are wearing casual brown Chinese uniforms.
And then a car drives by from below for some reason.
The rest of the team stood guard but wondered if they were ever going to be needed considering that Maverick and Shift were handling everything.
Then as they were about to drop their guard. The game froze as well as the music.
"Oh thank Saga!" Maverick exhaled in relief that the endless annoying loop song was over.
And suddenly All of the NPC that were frozen. Instantly shifted into a black aurora and suddenly came out as a group of Shadow Heartless and a group of Ninja Heartless. These Heartless had the appearance of Soldier Heartless but with ninja bands and with nunchucks.
"Heartless?" Rapunzel gripped her frying pan as she was face to face with some Heartless for the first time.
"Heartless." Shift nodded as she summoned her keyblade and split it into katannas.
Three Shadow Heartless hopped towards Rapunzel. But she swiped her frying pan and bashed them aside. Wiping them out instantly. And did the same for six more incoming Heartless. Then when some Ninja Heartless ran in to attack her. But Rapunzel loosened her long blond hair and used a strand to whiplash two of them away and block their nunchucks with a strand like a shield, only for Swift to zoom by with her speed and wipe them out to help Rapunzel. Who of course smiled in response.
Swift smiled back as she ran with such speed as she zoomed around with the streams of her armor's colors. Running fast around the game and using her keyblade to slash at over thirty of the Heartless.
Shift used her Katanna Keyblades to slash and spin around the area to take out ten to twenty of the Ninja Heartless.
Donald and Goofy were swinging their weapons and casting fire spells to take down forty. Even ice spells.
Verum Rex and Maverick stood back to back as their Keyblade's were shifted into arm cannons as they took turns blasting at over eight Heartless. Working as a duo as the entire doing their best to wipe the floor of all of the Heartless.
Soon Verum Rex saw something bizarre. Strange and horrific up ahead. A large Heartless In the shape of Xiaoping's head. Hopping around in the middle of the group of Heartless. Its hopping in a 8-bit fashion was causing the Heartless to multiply. So Verum Rex ran over and jumped over the group before he pounded his fist into the head. And did a backflip into the air and slammed his Keyblade into the head.
***SLASH!***
And just like that. The fight was over.
then the Head Xiaoping Heartless faded away and all of the Heartless were instantly dispatched. The game went black and they stood around nothing. And suddenly. Some words popped up.
***'Solve the enigma of 97. To reveal the keyhole'***
"The keyhole to what?" Maverick inquired as he dropped the shields now that the fight was over.
"Maybe the keyhole to this game?" Verem Rex took a guess.
"Maybe. The game itself is technically its own world." Swift said with a shrug.
"But what would the answer be?" Shift asked, trying to think.
"I don't know, butβ¦... I'm still reeling from the thrill of fighting the Heartless for the first time Eeak!" Rapunzel beamed and squealed as she was full of energy.
"Ahyuck! The answer is simple. Everyone knows 98 comes after 97."Goofy said with a chuckle.
"Oh brother." Donald groaned, facepalming at his friend's stupid answer.
"No wait...97...There it is..." Maverick said in realization.
"What's up, Ryan? Did you figure it out?" Rapunzel asked her brother.
'It's best if we let him talk for this one.' PRO suggested.
'Bring out your popcorn and ibuprofen bottles everyone!' TEC advised.
Maverick went from between talking to his friends and talking to the readers at the same time when he spoke his thoughts out like a Sherlock episode. While Maverick paced back and forth between the team as they stood there.
With images of his example popping up every now and then.
"No hold on... The strange thing is that the real Deng Xiaoping died in the year 97 *Gasp in shock* THIS GAME PREDICTED THE FUTURE!? No wait. The year 1997 was the year the United Kingdom returned the rule of Hong Kong back to China. There was also a movie back in 1994 called Hong Kong 97. Only not based on this game but in fact. The film forecasted this in the tagline: '99 years of British rule are about to come to an end... Hong Kong will never be the same.' The movie stars Robert Patrick, the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Judgment Day takes place... in 1997. Part of Deng Xiaoping's ear is sort of cut off, *gasp* like when Mike Tyson bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear in 1997. The car, I'm willing to bet, is a Mercedes Benz, in which Princess Diana died in '97. And what was the year Coca-Cola launched Surge? '97." Maverick spoke on and on as he was trying to find the conclusion but the hints and clues kept piling up.
"Are you able to follow anything he's saying right now?" Rapunzel said as she started to get weirded out by his ramblings.
"Still trying to understand him when he talks normally." Shift responded.
" And what was the year Coca-Cola launched Surge? '97. And it's no coincidence all my surge protectors were made in China. Rebooting the entire game after you die? Just like Symphony of the Night. '97. Jackie Chan, uh, Rumble in the Bronx, uh, the Bronx, New York City, the Big Apple *Gaaaasp* The year Steve Jobs returned to Apple in '97. The unstoppable, unrelenting song is called I Love Beijing Tiananmen, also known as I Love Peking Tiananmen. Peking Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing *Double gaaaasp!* And Scrooge McDuck had his 50th Anniversary of his entertainment bracket in '97! This game here was such a titanic failure. *triple high pitched gasp!* Titanic, the movie from '97! Why was this game's sole purpose to direct us to the number 97? Huh. Like the NGC-97 galaxy in the constellation of Andromeda, the princess Andromeda who was chained naked to a rock to be sacrificed to a monster. Like Princess Leia and Jabba in Return of the Jedi *bigger gaaaaaasp!* The Special Edition of Star Wars in '97!...Oh ***k we're back again. Man, I was just trying to get a final answer here...Let me think a little bit more." Maverick pondered finally after multiple loops to bring out an answer which led to another clue.
"Uuugh! Shoot me!" Donald exhaled and hunched in annoyance.
"Don't tempt me, roast duck. At this rate, I might just shoot myself to spare myself this agony." Shift gritted out.
"Ryan. I love you. But please get to the point." Rapunzel smiled as her eye was twitching slightly.
"Nuh uh uh! Don't detract me!" Maverick waved it off before he resumed.
'He's almost done folks. Hang in there.' PRO stated.
"I was just trying to get a final answer here, but I went full circle, *gasp* like the song that keeps looping. A game that keeps repeating. Maybe it's all about a cycle, an endless cycle. Old, shitty games that become new again! The past becomes the future, birth and death, on and on, it's the cycle of life! The game is the meaning of life! And the thing that keeps life going: reproduction...and food...which becomes... shit." Maverick concluded as he looked at the team. "In conclusion. The answer...IS THAT THE GAME IS ***KING SHIT!" He bellowed at the blank screen, while his head and shoulders were literally steaming all over and smoke emitted from his furious fire powers.
Then some words appeared.
***'CORRECTED!'***
After that. A light was shown in the middle as the keyhole to the game finally revealed itself. Like a key to a world.
Then Maverick patted Verum Rex's arm. "You're up Silver Spike." He winked.
"Seriously?! That's the answer?" Verem Rex Said with disbelief before he just shook his head. "You know what? Nevermind."
Verem Rex then held his keyblade out and pointed it at the keyhole. Light began to gather at the tip of the Keyblade, before a beam of light shot out, connecting with the keyhole. The sounds of tumblers were heard, and a flash of light shined out, blinding everyone as the world turned white. When the light finally faded, it revealed that the world had drastically changed.
Then suddenly the black screen faded as they were suddenly standing in the area of a city. In fact everyone was standing on the rooftop of a building...In New York city.
Everyone looked around confused at first. And then...
"Wait a second..." Verum Rex's eyes widened
Then the true theme of the video game the team were standing in played in the background.
(TMNT Theme!)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
Heroes in a half-shell!
Turtle power!
Then suddenly four giant turtles suddenly climbed up from the side of the building. Each of them looking like young ninjas with bandanna masks. One in orange. One in red. One in purple . And the main one in blue.
Yep folks. This was the arcade game of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade game.
And the turtles were there. Leonardo. Donatello. Michelangelo. And Rafael.
"What up gamer bras!" Mikey greeted the team.
"And...You all are?" Donnie asked.
Maverick face shifted to total shock with wide mask eyes as he just pointed and huffed "habababababababa!" several times trying to get his words out. Before he passed out from pure fandom.
"Aaaaand he passed out." Shift deadpanned.
"Well of course he would pass out. We're standing in front of some of his favorite cartoon characters." Verem Rex said.
"He lasted a few seconds longer than I thought he would.
"Gawrsh! It's The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!" Goofy exclaimed.
"Oh Boy!" Donald said happily.
"Oh my God. This is..." Rapunzel started in excitement, having seen the cartoons, but paused as a thought came to her. "Hold on. So this was never Hong Kong 97?"
"Dude. Does this place look like Hong Kong to you?" Ralph inquired with his arms crossed.
"Wait...We were fighting ninjas in that game. So what if the Heartless turned this classic Ninja Turtles game into Hong Kong 97?" Verum Rex concluded.
"Well that definitely sounds like dark corruption for ya." Swift remarked.
"Helloooo?! Where right heeere! We can hear every word you're saying and not sure that they aaare!" Leo sang as he called over while waving.
"Oh. Sorry. We got a bit distracted." Rapunzel said, putting on a friendly smile. "You see, your game got corrupted with a virus, turning it into another game, one that was horrible. However, my friends and I were able to remove the virus. So everything should be back to normal here."
"Oh so you're all just a group of antivirus programs! Whew. For a moment I thought you all were here to go turbo or something." Donnie sighed with relief as he wiped his forehead.
"Going Turbo?" Rapunzel asked while looking confused.
"Long story." Ralph deadpanned.
"Well since you're all busy. How about we help you?" Leo offered with his brothers in agreement.
And after we're done. We all mowsie on over to Tappers for Root Beer and Pizza? It's on me!" Mikey offered with sincere high regards for fun.
Then Sonic ran in and stood next to the Ninja Turtles.
"And the root beer's on me." Sonic winked.
Then Maverick rose back up from a OK'ED shocked state to answer them.
"Here's my version of hell yeah...Yippe-Cowa-Mothah-***kin-Hasta-Ya-Worst-Nightmare-Bunga BEE-YATCH!" Maverick beamed in a low growl.
"YEAAAAAAAAAH!" The Ninja Turtles cheered with their weapons in the air.
"What do ya say Team and Sis? Ready to viral-purge the other games then live to slice pizza and chug root beer?" Maverick grinned at the Guardians and his sister Rapunzel.
Especially since they'll be doing it with the Ninja Turtles and Sonic. And other video game characters they've yet to meet soon.
"Gawrsh! That sounds great!" Goofy beamed.
"Oh Boy! Count me in!" Donald exclaimed.
"I think I could go along with that idea!" Verem Rex gave two thumbs up.
"I agree! It'll be a blast!" Swift said in agreement.
"Like I could say no myself!" Shift said with a nod.
"Oh my Gosh a thousand times over! A Pizza Party with my favorite game characters?! This is a dream come true!" Rapunzel exclaimed happily as she began jumping up and down on her bare feet in excitement.
"Well. If we're gonna do that, we're gonna need to parole those other games first." Donnie reminded them.
"Right. Guardians, back to the station." Verum Rex declared as they all nodded and ran together.
The Guardians along with Sonic and the Ninja Turtles ran across the platforms and roof tops that lead to the exit tunnel to Game Central Station. It was a good thing they didn't enter the game's version of Central Park or it would've taken them more than twenty minutes to get back.
Nevertheless. They all were heading back to the main entrance where Ralph, Venellope and Felix will be waiting to help them move on to the next game. And hopefully one that was less painful than Hong Kong 97.
Still no matter what it is. Orion the Maverick. Yozora AKA Verum Rex. Rapunzel and all the others will see it through. Because the Guardians of the Unknown fights for all life across the worlds. Even if some of those worlds are in video games.
"By the way. What's the next game we're heading to?" Maverick asked Sonic while they were heading out with the others
"Well..." Sonic leaned up and whispered in Maverick's ear as he listened...
As Maverick heard the title Sonic whispered, his face instantly had a look of dread as if his smile dropped under the mask.
Just from hearing the title of the next game.
Then Maverick bellowed. "HOLY MOTHER FU-"
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW FOLKS! πππ
Whew! That was a lot of ground to cover.
First off. Yes that was a Walt Disney and Stan Lee cameo I just did there with Orion's business associates. π
And I gave the Bit from the Grid of Tron and my KH II story it's first appearance.
Danielle finally got to appear and meet Rapunzel.
As for Danielle's girlfriend Claire Farron from Final Fantasy XIII. Much like with Connor's story. This one will feature Final Fantasy characters different from the other two Maverick-verses. I made Claire younger to fix Danielle's age appearance since the KH games have altered the age of other characters before. Like Tidus for example.
And yes. That is the 'Ralph Breaks The Internet' outfit Rapunzel is wearing for her first modern attire. Pretty neat touch up, right? ππ
Also we finally got to visit the Game Central Station AKA the world of Wreck It Ralph. They got to meet the main stars along with Sonic The Hedgehog. Don't worry, Sergeant Calhoun and other video game characters will show up later. ππ
And I have this plot of great arcade video games being corrupted by the Heartless and turning into awful video games.
We just saw their reaction of them defeating the Heartless of Hong Kong 97 and turning it back into a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game. π’
So what's next and what kind of bad video game would make Maverick react the way he did?
Find out in the next chapter! π
Thank you all so much for reading!
Don't forget to Fave and Follow if you like what you see and be sure to leave your reviews and comments to let me know your thoughts!
And as always Disney/Square Enix fans!
FISTBUMP! ππππππππππ
