Captain N 2006

by Sigmasonic X

Nine years after the disappearence of the first Game Master, Kevin Keene, a guy named Jon Jones is sucked into his Gamecube and becomes the newest Game Master. Minichapter 2 has been updated with an important note.

6. Paradoxic Smashfest Day 2 Morning

The symbol "&" will show the thoughts of characters.

"-I" will act as a section break.

"-" has replaced all astericks, as they do not show up here.

All new formats will be applied to the previous chapters after the redone version is finished.

Currently, both parts of Ch. 4 use this format.

Jon woke up that morning and went to the stadium. There wasn't much to say there. Inside the building, he went on the same path as before and ended up in the same location, the commentator's box. There, he sat with Toad and Soup Erman, as they watched all of the fighters walk onto the field. The preliminaries were starting soon, but no one gave a crap, so the only people watching were the Hands and the commentators. Similar to the Olympics, all of the competitors walked around the Smash Ring, holding the flag of their origin, but since no one was there, the announcers didn't bother to talk about Hyrule while the broadcast showed the fighters from Dreamland.

However, at that moment, the Hand Matter Envelope started up without warning. This most likely was not supposed to happen, since everyone stopped walking, looked at it, and ran away as it's reach extended to their area, but not even the quickest fighters were able to get away before the field engulfed them. After a few seconds, the machines shut down and everything was back to normal. However, all of the fighters were gone.

"...?" said Jon, Toad, and Soup at the same time.

Now Loading…..
Level 4: Paradoxic Smashfest
Because Son of the Mask Sucks Ass...
Day 2 Morning: Preliminaries and First Fights, Great Beginning to a Bad Day

"I assure you, that was not supposed to happen," claimed Master Hand as he was confronted by the commentators.

"I'll believe you, since I can't think of a single way you could profit from kidnapping all of the fighters," Jon replied. "How did the envelope capture all of the fighters? And where could it have sent them?"

"The Hand Matter is stimulated by electrical impulses to turn into various shapes, so theoretically, with the right equipment, the people caught in the field could be transported into the computer program. The fighters may be inside of the hologram database, but exactly which program is uncertain," the giant hand explained.

"... Okay, I'll accept that explanation, but only because this is a video game world."

"However, I still haven't invented a device capable of doing that, and very few other people know how to manipulate the Hand Matter, so it is much more likely that the fighters were already kidnapped and them walking onto the field as just a prerecorded hologram. I'll go call the police about this, but you three can help security search for the fighters inside of here."

At that moment, one of the guards came into the room. "Sir, we found something on the cameras."

Master Hand turned to the commentators. "These men will go for me. I'll go get the police."

"Right, follow me," the guard said the announcers came with him to the security room. "The cameras show a red, metallic object moving up and down, but our visual range can't show all of it. We feel that it may be a robot related to the kidnapping."

"We'll go check it out," Jon said with a brief burst of bravery.

"I'll just stay here, I don't have any weapons," pointed out Soup the tin can robot.
-I
-I

"Here it is, ventilation room 3."

"You can go in first," said Toad.

The door was opened very slowly and Jon used his pause to sneak into the room undetected. Though it was hard to see, he found the faint outline of the hidden robot, and unpaused.

"Hey you! Uh, hands up!"

"Huh? What are you doing?" asked the robot as he turned on the light in the room, causing the Game Master to reel back from eye pain. Eventually, vision came back and the figure was identified.

"Proto Man? What are you doing here?"

"I was just sleep-mode-ing here for the night," he simply replied.

"Wait, so you are a Proto-Hobo, aren't you! You said you weren't last night!"

"I never said thatI said that I had a place to sleep, and in my mind this counts as a place to sleep. That hotel is way to expensive for a non-fighter, so I didn't bother. So anyway, I heard a lot of screaming outside, what was up with that?"

"All of the fighters were kidnapped and we're looking for them. The security guards saw part of you on the cameras and sent me to investigate."

"I'll be in there in a minute!" yelled Toad through the door.

"Was Rock kidnapped too?" asked the red robot.

"I'm pretty sure he was."

Suddenly, the mushroom man burst into the room, ignoring the robot and yelled, "Outside! Quick!"

Thus, the three ran to the Smash Ring and looked at the sky. While Toad ran around in circles screaming, everything outside of the stadium seemed to turn more and more green with every passing second.

"What's happening?" asked the nerd.

"There's a barrier forming around here. It's used to protect space bases from attacks, but as a result, it's impossible for anyone to get in or out. The only ways to get rid of it are to shut it down from the inside, or to have it bombed, which could result in the stadium being destroyed too, along with us, and we can't have that happen," explained the giant white glove, ending his statement with a twitch.

"Did you manage to get the police?"

"My brother was caught outside of the field, but I think he managed to get them."

"'My brother'? What do you mean?"

"I'm Crazy Hand, Master Hand's brother."

"You are? You don't seem that crazy to me."

"Oh, that's just when I fight and come up with ideas. Otherwise, I'm just a dumber version of my brother, with a twitch."

"...Are you sure?" Jon asked. Proto Man sighed and leaned against the wall whistling while Toad continued screaming.
-I
-I

"Boy, that brain examination was a lot of fun, huh?" said Prof. Bird.

"Yeah, we stayed up all night!" pointed out Dr. Jones.

The Good Scientists then opened the doors to their rooms.

"Uh, gentlemen, I believe that someone has wrecked our rooms," Prof. E. Gadd remarked. "And my new device is gone!"

"That new unidentified pokémon Ash brought is gone, too!" exclaimed Prof. Oak.
-I
-I

"Lord Crump! Please dispose of this piece of trash, and I hope you'll actually complete this mission!" ordered the floating robotic head from the Bad Scientists.

"But sir, didn't you steal this for a reason?" asked a rather hairy midget in a red uniform with a white X.

"Yes, peer pressure! All of the other scientists took something last night, and I would be the odd one out if I didn't, so I took the only thing of value! Now please, take that thing out of my sights."

"But sir, couldn't we, err, you, use the pokémon in here for the good of the X-Naut army!"

"'For the good of the X-Naut army'? Lord Crump, Ash Ketchum captured this pokémon! How useful could it be! Again, get rid of it!"

"Right away sir!" As Lord Crump ran to the trash can, he realized, "&Wait, if I throw this away, then the pokéball's button may accidentally be pushed up against and the creature will be released. Besides, I could make some money by selling this on eBay! BUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHWait, why am I only thinking of laughing? -ahem- BUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUH!" Thus, he turned away from the trashcan and walked to his computer. However, he looked out the window of the hotel room and noticed something. In fact, pretty much everyone left in the building noticed it. "Is there supposed to be a barrier around Hand Stadium?"
-I
-I

"For the last time, I am Crazy Hand," the giant hand asserted.

Suddenly, a beep came from Jon's GBA. "Just a minute," the Game Master said as he pulled his gaming device out and found that he had an email. "That's weird, nobody knows my email except for the people in the castle, and this isn't one of them." He opened the message and it read:

GME MAST3R IF U WANT 2 SE TEH COMP3TI2RS AGANE U MUST GO 2 TEH S3CR3T ANTRANC3 (ASK MASTAR HAND) 2 DA V3RY D3PTHS OF THIS AERNA!11! IF U DONT COMA TEHY WIL AL DEI!1!1111!1!11!11! OMG LOL BWAHAHA!1!1!1!11!111!2!1!11!11!1!1!11!11!111!11! OMG WTF

Signed, UkNN03N
Dated Today at 10:37 AM

"I never bothered to learn 12-year-old-AIMish, but maybe I should have," commented Proto Man.

"I'm sorry that I forgot to ask this, but what are you doing in here?" asked Crazy Hand.

"He was the only audience member, but he went to the restroom during the March of the Fighters and heard noises from the ventilation room," Jon lied. "Anyway, the message says:

Game Master, if you want to see the competitors again, you must go to the secret entrance (ask Master Hand) to the very depths of this arena! If you don't come, they will all die! BWAHAHA!

Signed, UkNN03N
Dated Today at 10:37 AM

"The secret entrance? Though the letter says to ask Master Hand, I know where it is, too," revealed Crazy Hand. "I'll show you where it is, but I'll stay here to keep contact with the outside and to give you instructions. It would be a good idea for all three of you to go down there, because it's quite dangerous, so follow me."

Jon, Proto Man, and Toad followed the airborne hand, with the mushroom still continuing his screaming. After going into the hallway, they walked through a series of hallways until they reached an elevator, and used it to reach the highest point of the stadium, right above where the now-open sunroof was. Also on this area was a pink Bob-Omb standing next to two giant handprint-scanners.

"General Bobarang, activate the cannon!" ordered Crazy Hand. The general nodded, waddled over to a control panel hidden below the handprint scanners, pressed a button, and cannon popped out of the ground a few yards away.

"A cannon? This is the secret entrance?" asked Proto Man.

"Normally, me and my brother would have ourselves scanned at the same time to open a panel in the floor, but since he isn't here, you have to use the cannon to crash right through it. I implemented this myself."

"Ah, so that's why they call you Crazy Hand," noted Jon. "So, exactly how much will this hurt?"

"Quite a bit."

"Awesome! Let's go!" Toad exclaimed as he pulled a helmet out of nowhere and put it on. On the helmet, the words, "L is real 2041," were written.

"It would probably be better for us all if I went first," stated Proto Man.

"Wait, Crazy Hand?" asked Jon.

"Yes?" the white-gloved hand answered with a question.

"Do you think you could use your bomb attack to weaken the secret entrance?"

"I suppose I could," he acknowledged as he hovered over the entrance site and sprinkled bombs all over it. After about a minute, Proto Man jumped into the cannon, and he jetted downward at an incredible speed. If he didn't have his trusty shield up and if Crazy Hand didn't weaken the ground, the impact would have probably broken quite a few of his sunglasses, but since he did have his shield up, his 20 pairs of Racer X Sunglasses were unharmed. And his scarf, too.

"Ah, good, the entrance is revealed. You can just walk back down and jump in if you like, now," revealed Crazy Hand.

"Wait, can't we just ride you down? You can fly, after all... In fact, we could have just ridden you up here! Also, why is there an elevator leading up here? If you wanted to keep people away from here, you could do that by making flying up here to only option," pointed out Jon.

"... I guess I forgot. As for the elevator, General Bobarang has to get up here somehow." The Bob-Omb jumped up at the mention of his name, but went back to sleep after a few seconds. The white glove lay flat on the ground and motioned for everyone to get on. The Game Master did, unsurely gripping one of the fingers, but Toad the toad stood away.

"No way! I don't want to look like a kafookalooka," he simply said as he walked out of everyone's visual range. Next thing they knew, Toad was on the ground floor and strutted down stairs revealed by Proto Man's hole. The mushroom man chuckled at the mention of this.

LATER...

"I will have to keep in contact with everyone outside, so I can't come with you," Crazy Hand explained. "You can keep in contact with me, however, by sending me an e-mail on that GBA. I'll try to respond as quick as possible." With that, the giant glove hovered away from the trio and fly out of the hole.

The area they were in was well lit and there didn't seem to be any dust around. Past the stairs leading down there was a long hall with white stone walls, marble tiles, and a metallic ceiling with steel support beams. At the end of the hallway, there was a large room, around the size of the Smash Ring itself, which the three, unwillingly in some cases, ran to. On the other side of the room was a large gray door, but it wouldn't open.

"I guess we'll have to blast through," Toad said as he pulled out his bazooka. He fired a shot at the entrance, but to no avail.

"It looks like we'll have to ask Crazy Hand about this," the Game Master thought out loud as he pulled out his GBA.

"I don't think we need toothere's a jack-in port right over there, and it seems obvious that it would unlock the door," Proto Man pointed out.

"Hmm... I guess you're right. After all, why would a Game Master have to use a hint system to get through a game?" Jon decided. "Do we all have net navis?"

"I technically don't, but I could download my consciousness into the machine."

"I do, and it's modeled after me," the mushroom man revealed. "Awesome, huherr, but unfortunately, it's, uhh... broken right now, yeah..."

The Game Master found Toad's lie obvious, but he continued unhindered. "Okay, then let's" he was about to say, but was interrupted by Proto Man downloading himself into the network. Sighing, Jon did the same.
-I
-I

INTERNET: HAND STADIUM STAGE NETWORK MAIN DATABASE

After the typical uploading sequence, both Jon and Proto Man found themselves in an area identical to the room they were in previously, but the hall leading back to the entrance, and all of the walls, were gone. They were replaced by white empty space and a large series of links, represented by stylish arrows printed on the ground.

"So where do we go now?" asked the nerd.

"Why would I know?" Proto Man responded.

They both stood still for a while, but Jon finally broke the silence. "Maybe there are multiple locks, and there's one at the end of each link?"

"If that was true, this would take longer than I thought. That being said, we shouldn't waste any time here. The link over there looks as good as any."

The robot dashed to a shortcut on their left, followed by Jon, and after a brief flash of light, they found themselves in a new area with a rather large laser cannon aimed right at their position. Sighing, Proto Man put up his shield, protecting the nerd and himself, as the blast fired. The attack should have deleted them, regardless of the Proto Shield, but a message popped up.

"What? An e-mail?" Jon noticed as the pop-up took the full force of the blast, pushing it, and the two fighters as a result, back to the main database.

"That was a strange coincidence," the Red Bomber noted. The e-mail read.

I am sorry that I forgot to mention this earlier, but when you reach the end of the path, there will be a jack-in port. Inside, you will find the database of every solid-light hologram used in the stadium, but do not go into any of the links. Every one leads to a virus-deleting program, in case someone was to sabotage the tournament and managed to find the secret entrance. To find the true entrance, used the attached program.

Signed, Crazy Hand
Dated Today at 10:49 AM
Attachments: scanenter.exe (scan for viruses?)

Jon turned to Proto Man and asked, "Aren't you going to say something like, 'I thought you said a Game Master didn't need to use a hint system,' ?"

"If I did, you would probably try to make a smart response about how sometimes you need to talk to a character to move the plot or something, but it would only make you look like a jackass. Despite some of the things I do, I'm not really into making people look stupid."

Following about a minute of downloading, a rectangular device with a button on top popped into Jon's hands. After doing the obvious action, all of the links disappeared and a platform appeared above the duo's heads. The two jumped on top of it and ran through a link there, leading to another area with many links, though they all had labels now.

Another e-mail came up:

I once again forgot to mention this earlier. The lock for the door where you arein the real worldcan be found at the end of the of the Dreamland Adventure sequence. Be careful, for this tournament my brother and me have updated all of the hazards, and they will be quite real there.

Signed, Crazy Hand
Dated Today at 10:51 AM

"You know, it's weird," pointed out the robot.

"What?" Jon replied out of curiosity.

"If whoever is holding the fighters hostage wants to kill us, why hasn't he attacked our bodies, or have something other than the normal security attack us here?"

"I assumed that it was the typical first-levels-are-easier-later-ones-are-hard thing, but if you want a normal explanation, maybe he doesn't know that we're here."

"I suppose that may be. We haven't exactly gone that far, and there hasn't been anything to suggest that he's been spying on us. Either way, we better hurry up."

"Yeah, if the enemy doesn't kill us, Toad probably will out of boredom."

They ran to the Dreamland Adventure link and found themselves in what seemed to be an exact replica of the Vegetable Valley from Kirby Adventure/Nightmare in Dreamland.

"Vegetable Valley Room 1 Theme from the aforementioned games"

"You know, this is the second time I've been in a forest level in Dreamland," Jon explained, only to find that his partner was already well ahead of him and blasting away some Bronto Burts and that were flying at him, but his progress was forced to a halt when he came to the raised platform that you had to fly over in the game.

The red bomber turned to the side and seemed to be walking in place. Then he ran in place, and finally he dashed in place. While he was slightly ticked off, he stood still thinking for a minute, and as a final test, fire a plasma blast to his side, only for it to disappear. Suddenly, Jon appeared behind him. "What are you doing? Couldn't you wait for me?"

"Is it my fault that you have a slow reaction time?" the robot replied, which got the Game Master rather angry, as his entire videogame life was centered around having a fast reaction time.

However, his years as a geek showed him that it's not exactly a good idea to fight someone who could clearly beat him up at close combat, so he concealed his anger enough to let out, "So, why haven't you walked past this platform?"

"Oh, right, I tried to, but for some reason I can't. This world must have only been programmed so that we go that way or back, but there's another way to get past here without multiple jumps," he said as he stepped back and fired a fully charged Proto Buster attack into the dirt mound, causing it to fall apart and crash into the ground. As they continued on, Proto Man tried to destroy the enemies only to find that the Game Master was already shooting them at before they even appeared.

Eventually, they both reached the door at the end, which would lead to the next room, but it didn't lead were he expected.

End "Vegetable Valley Room 1 Theme"

"Is there supposed to be an ice area right after a forest? I may not be a Game Master, but this doesn't look right," the crimson whistler commented.

"Theme from the first room in World 7-4 in Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland/Adventure"

Jon replied, "This must have been a way for the Hands to get a bunch of Dreamland areas together in the Adventure mode."

"Well, I hope you aren't cold, because I'm going ahead with or without you," stated the robot as he dashed forward while whistling, but Jon quickly grabbed his scarf.

"Wait, why do you want to get this over with so quickly?"

"Because we need to save all of the fighters."

"Including"

"Yes, including my brother Rock. Do we have to make a cheesy moment out of this?"

End "World 7-4 from Kirby's Adventure"

"Cheesy Touching Moment From a Sitcom Music"

"Blues, it's okay that you feel guilty for not being able to save Rock. No one can protect everyone all the time! Now come on and give me a great big hug!"

"No, whoever's doing that stop right now!" yelled the robot into the sky.

Jeez, fine. People these days don't appreciate a classic touching moment. End "Cheesy Sitcom Music"

"... I was kidding about the hug thing, by the way."

"I sincerely hope you were."

NOTE: It will be explained in the re-written Ch. 1 that the characters can hear the music.
-I
-I

Meanwhile, on the road to the Main Region Warp Port, the Runaway Five Tour Bus drove.

"Hey Dan, why don't you turn on the radio! It's getting pretty boring back here, and Eggplant Wizard's games aren't helping much!" yelled one of the band members.

"Hey! Can't you see I'm trying to perform a delicate operation!" yelled the talking eggplant from the back seat.

"What are you doing back there anyway!" asked another band member.

"Well, Bill, I'm trying to insert this 12-foot eggplant into King Hippo's mouth without cutting it up," he explained, "I'm injecting all of the liquids inside it into Hippy and I'll have him eat it when it has shrunken down to an eatable size11 feet! Jawsome omega, huh!"

"Yeah, sure, jawsome omegaOh, hey, Dan! Could you turn it up! Yeah, that's good!"

"-Bzzt- This just in. Today -bzztactly 10:30 AM -bzzt- all of the fighters participating in the fabled Super Smash Bros. Tournament have suddenly disappeared as -bzzt- activated without warning, engulfed every participant and transferring them to some unknown location. Only a few minutes afterward, a barrier appeared around the Hand Stadium, sealing in everyone left and keeping everyone else out.

Among the people still in the stadium are Crazy Hand, Game Master Jon Jones, Senator Toad Toad, Blues Light AKA Proto Man, and security guards Todd Andrews, Kimberly Chentar, -bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt-"

Dan then started hitting the radio. "Stupid thing!"

"-bzztbzzZZZZZzzztBob Vomfu. Master Hand has this to say.

'I assure everyone that none of this is intentional. Though contact with my brother inside of the barrier, we have confirmed that all of this is the work of a mysterious kidnapper, whose only request was for the Game Master to go into the depths of the stadium. Currently, Mr. Jones, Toad, and Proto Man and trying to stop him and are making good progress from what I understand. I expect that everyone will be safe by the end of the day.'

We will have more on this story as it develops."

"Hey Bill, did you hear that?" asked Dan from the driver's seat.

Bill answered, "Yeah, it's a good thing we decided not to go to the preliminaries like we planned to before we got this delivery."

"Do you think you could change it to a music channel!" yelled Eggplant Wizard.

"Sure," Dan replied as he changed the radio to a jazz station.

"How about something else?"

Dan was turning the dial and passed by a station with loud rock music.

"Keepitthere! Keepitthere!"

Dan turned the dial back.

Just imagine that all of the babbling is Japanese.

Ghklaeyueuigke ONE WING-ED FRIGHT! Kneihigoallfhgey NO SREEP TO-NIGHT!

"...What is this!" asked one of the unnamed band members.

"This is J-Rock, Manny! It ROXXX!" yelled Eggplant Wizard as he made... that sign. I'm not cool enough to know the name, but you make it when you listen to Metallica and stuff. You clench your middle and ring fingers while keeping your pointer and pinky up. Anyway, he was making that sign.

"RYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAH!" said King Hippo as he sat up, despite having an unnatural amount of needles inserted into him, and started banging his head. EP soon joined him.

"...You guys do realize that we're a jazz and blues band, right?" asked another unnamed member.

Ukknegkhaeylahamin JELSEY IS HELL! Nlkghoindglhjeghd I HAD TACO BELL!

"Wait, why is a Japanese singer singing about New Jersey?" asked Manny.

"And Taco Bell?" added Dan.

"I don't know, but it still ROXXXX!" exclaimed the wizard.

"You already made that point," noted Bill.

"No, before I said it ROXXX. Now it ROXXXX!"

Lhgnelkgybnlagheds I BREW UP THE WORLD! Penrkekhgknekhtbnelae I ED UP A GIRL'D!

"Okay, this is becoming too silly for me, I'm turning this thing off," spoke Dan as he did what he said.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the two idiots exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter anyway, we're already at the warp port," the driver noted.

"Oh, really? Then let's GO!" King Hippo yelled and he and Eggplant tried to jump out of the windows with little success.
-I
-I

"Well, at least we're finally out of that ice level," noted Proto Man as he across the lake that they were supposed to cross. "I can see the lock program on the other side, but it's too far out of range for my blasternot to mention that the 2-D thing won't let me hit it, because it's past where the path curves. It looks like we have to go into the water."

"Actually, I don't think we have to," Jon said as he pressed START on his controller, and after a few seconds, he seemed to teleport a few feet away. "Well, I managed to get across by walking on the water, but I couldn't find a way to get you over there. However, I managed to think of another way!" He slid one of his E-cards through his controller and dropped it into the water. The controller turned into a piano, which casually floated on the blue waters. "We shouldn't have much trouble with staying on in this Popstar-based world," the Game Master explained as he hopped on and, like he predicted, the piano didn't tip over at all.

"I have to admit, that's pretty clever," the robot complimented as he too jumped on the piano. He turned green and what seemed to be a propeller came out of his gun-arm, speeding the instrument across the lake.

Eventually, the two reached the other side of the lake, and as the piano drove onto the shore, the Game Master pressed a button below it and it transformed back into a controller. "There's a fighting platform right over there on the path, where I assume we will have to fight some bots," Jon said. "Of course, by assume, I mean that I ran into an invisible wall and a message told me to defeat all of the Kirbies to move on."

"Bots?" Proto Man asked.

Sighing, he answered, "Bots are computer-controlled opponents, usually in multiplayer modes."

They ran up a wooden ramp with the nearby ocean shining orange from the sunset, and found themselves on a dock made of planks. On cue, a three Kirbies jumped down from somewhere off screen, each wearing a different hatone wore Mario's cap, one with Fox McCloud's ears, and the other with Samus Aran's helmet.

Battle... BEGIN!

"Gourmet Race Theme From Kirby Superstar"

Jon fired a B-Blast at the Fox Kirby, but it quickly put up a barrier similar to Jon's and the attack was reflected back toward him, and the surprised Game Master was hit by the full force of the blast, but was miraculously unharmed, only knocked a few feet away. Proto Man dashed toward the Mario Kirby and punched him a few times, knocking him away, but after going a certain distance, the robot fired a fully charged Proto Buster shot at the pink thing while it was still in the air. The force sent it even farther and it exploded after going a certain distance.

"Oh, right this is like the SSB games where you can only be killed by getting knocked off of the screens, but exactly what difficulty level are these enemies being set at? They can power shield, butwait, power shielding!" Jon exclaimed as he seemed to realize something. Samus Kirby, at this point, fired a Charge Shot at the Game Master, but by putting up his barrier at just the right time, the attack was reflected back towards the shooter, sending the Kirby flying off of the screen. In reaction to the two deaths, a couple of more Kirbies jumped down, these copying Princess Zelda and Donkey Kong. "Proto Man! There are only supposed to be four fighters here, but there are five, so maybe the system is ignoring you, which means that you can go over to the lock without fighting these guys!"

"Maybe I should stay and you go," the robot replied as broke Fox Kirby's barrier by rapid-firing it, and used his shield as a bat, knocking him away. "I seem to be having an easier time."

"No, you can go. You got here right after me, so while the program making this would let me leave, it may let you."

"...Okay, fine. That doesn't make much sense but I'll try it anyway." The crimson android dashed past his opponents and straight through the invisible wall.

At this point a Ness Kirby hopped down to replace Fox and the Zelda Kirby turned into a fireball hurtling toward the Game Master, but he managed to quickly jump over it and sniped a few A-Shots at it. However, the Ness Kirby fly up behind him and smashed Jon into the ground using his hammer, but he still didn't seem to feel any pain from it. At this point, he noticed a percentage gauge over his head, similar to in the Super Smash Bros. games, and the higher the percentage was, the easier it would be for him to be knocked off the stage. Also standing above him was the Donkey Kong Kirby, who was powering up his Giant Punch, but the Game Master managed to put up his barrier in time to withstand the attack.

Despite the Kirby's short arms, the punch slammed into the barrier with great force, leaving only a thin layer and knocking Jon a few feet away, right into the path of Zelda Kirby's stone attack. The nerd noticed the pink puffball transforming into a purple stone above him and tried to run out of the way, but he unfortunately still had his protective barrier around him, usually rendering him unable to move, but this time, he suddenly found himself behind the DK Kirby facing towards him. "&Wait, what just happened. I guess I must have rolled (an evasive maneuver where you roll behind or away from something in SSB Melee). I'll figure out how later," he thought as the Kirby turned around in reaction and the nerd tried to sink his nerdy fists into the puffball to little effecthowever, if Princess Peach could hurt highly skilled fighters with her slap, then a geek could do some damage, and the punches prevented to gorilla Kirby from fighting back. He quickly ended his weak combo with a B-Blast, sending it flying off screen.

To replace DK, a Pikachu Kirby appeared, but ignoring it, Jon decided to try out another Smash Brothers move and grabbed the stone Zelda Kirby, returning it to its normal form, but the Game Master was forced to drop him when Ness Kirby started rapidly punching him like he was Seiya, Ranma, or... any other anime character that has a rapid-punch attack. Eventually, the punches knocked Jon far back enough to avoid them, but unfortunately, he was also knocked right into the range of Zelda Kirby's Nayru's Love attack, which surrounded it in a field of magic energy and batted the Game Master into the air, past Ness and back onto the ground. As the Pikachu Kirby, which just stood there until now, shot a Thunder Jolt attack which hopped across the ground toward his opponent, the Game Master leaped into the air to avoid it. Ness Kirby used one of his copied character's psychic attacks, PK Flash, to send a burst of green energy toward the airborne fighter, but utilizing more SSB powers, he used the double jump to get out of the attacks way and air-dodged backwards to avoid Zelda Kirby's Final Cutter attack, which had the fusion of male and female jumping high into the air spinning with a sword and crashing into the ground, sending a wave of energy across the floor. After making sure that he landed on the wood ground after the shockwave was gone, Jon Jones quickly fired a B-Blast right into Ness Kirby's mouth, sending him flying off screen.

Before the Pikachu Kirby could attack, Jon ran to it, hitting him with his gun and shooting the A-Beam at the same time for an added effect, but as opposed to the geek punches he did earlier, this attack sent the Kirby flying away as a burst of light emitted from it. "&What the heck was that&?" he thought as a Young Link Kirby appeared to replace Ness Kirby. While the attack did good damage, it didn't quite kill the puffball and he jumped back up after landing on his back. "&Wait, I get it! I can block, dodge, etc., so why shouldn't I be able to smash&?"

Smashing refers to special attacks in SSB that can be used to knock an opponent far away and do quite a bit of damage. They can be done by smashing the control stick either left/right, up, or down and pressing A at the same time. In Jon's case, his forward smash attack is a burst of light from his gun that sends his opponent flying.

"&Hmm, if I can smash and air-dodge, maybe I can&..."

The Game Master made a short hop, but before he visibly left the ground, he air-dodged diagonally into the ground, quickly sending him towards Zelda Kirby despite apparently standing still. This was the wavedash, a technique commonly used by skilled SSB players. It sends you toward forward quickly, and since it seems like you're still standing still, you can attack, dodge, or even grab opponents. For this instance, the nerd tried the same motion he used to smash earlier, but he held the pose he had right before attacking, making him glow yellow. He was powering up his smash. As soon as he got in range of the Zelda Kirby, he unleashed the attack, sending his opponent flying off screen.

In reaction to the death, an Ice Climber Kirby jumped down, leaving Jon to face Pikachu, Young Link, and Ice Climber Kirby, with several more waiting to appear. However, he now knew how to take care of this.

If you didn't get all that, here are Jon's new abilities:
Power ShieldBy timing it correctly, Jon can reflect an attack with his shield.

DodgeBy attempting the run while his shield is still up, Jon can quickly roll.

GrabJon can grab things. Not very useful.

DoublejumpJon can jump a second time while in the air.

Air DodgeSame as dodge, except it's in the air, he can move in all directions, and he moves a shorter distance.

SmashJon finally has a decent short-range attack. He can send people flying with an energy burst from his gun, which he can power up, but he can only do it forwards, upwards, and downwards. The downwards smash is slightly different, but I'll address that as it comes up.

WavedashA technique used by skilled Smash players. Jon makes a short hop, but before he visibly leaves the ground, he air dodges diagonally into the ground, sending him dashing across the ground while appearing to stand still. This allows him the block, dodge, attack, etc. while moving, and he also moves much quicker than usual.

End "Gourmet Race Theme"
-I
-I

"Professor Gadd, please hand me the hilariously large wrench," ordered Master Hand. He and the other good scientists seemed to be working on something, and they turned one of the hospital rooms into a makeshift laboratory in order to do so. A group of people watched this from the hall, looking in through the window.

"Wow, look at them go," commented the crocodile affiliated with the bad scientists.

"They've been working on a way to take down the barrier around Hand Stadium without killing anyone ever since they first got the news," explained Nintendo Head.

Okay, I think I've gone far enough without explaining who these guys are. The crocodile is Prof. K. Roolenstein from Donkey Kong Country 3, Nintendo Head is Dr. Neo Cortex from the Crash Bandicoot games, the floating robotic head ordering around Lord Crump was Grodus from Paper Mario 2, and the guy that turned into a chicken-man was Dr. Tongue from Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Anyway, back to the plot.

While everyone stared at his rivals, Dr. Robotnik momentarily turned around to look out the other window. "It sure is quite outside. While there isn't anyone running around screaming, whoever's behind all this is practically setting them up for one. Everything is a lot more tense, so if I, say, blow up a building, everyone would run and scream twice as hard as if I just blew up a building last month."

"... I'm not really following you. So, because the tournament has been delayed, everyone's staying in their homes, and they would react more to a bomb now than any other time?" asked Prof. K. Roolenstein, K. Rool's cousin.

"Yeah, pretty much. It goes to show you how much society has degenerated when everyone is staying in their homes over a tournament being cancelled."

"And theirs that matter of around 20 people being sealed in, with even more missing," added Dr. Neo Cortex.

"Yeah, that too."

"Either way, whoever's causing this, I sure am proud of him," admitted Cortex. The other scientists agreed. "... Or her, it could very well be a girl. Really, even us mad scientists have to support equal opportunity."

"Speak for yourself," said Wily.

"You know, there just aren't enough mad scientist women," stated Roolenstein. Every scientist there agreed, even the good scientists behind the glass door.

Eggman complained, "Really, the only girls I've even seen recently in real life were M-Earth's president's secretary, Sonic's annoying girlfriend, a secret agent bat-whore, and a young rabbit with a chao slave."

"A rabbit with a chao slave? I never heard about that, but it sounds interesting," replied Dr. Albert Wily.

"You must not have been here when I told it. Anyway, there's this little girl rabbit that goes traveling around with Sonic and his friends, and despite being, what, six years old, she can still run really fast, and she can use her chao to destroy my robots. I repeat, A CHAO CAN DESTROY MY BADNIKS!"

"Wow, that must really suck," admitted Cortex. "Does the chao still destroy your robots after that upgrade you gave them recently?"

"No, now all that chao does is stun them, but it's still rather embarrassing."

Cortex began talking again. "If you think that's embarrassing, I recently found out that even with my brain removed, I was still smarter than that stupid bandicoot, Crash, yet he still manages to beat me!"

"Did you use that Mechabandicoot robot that you and N. Gin made?" asked Eggman.

"Yeah, I did. I guess I don't have the same luck with robot clones as you do," admitted Neo.

"Speaking of Nitro Gin, where is he anyway?" asked Wily.

"Security at the warp port wouldn't let him in. Really, just because he happens to have a weapon of mass destruction imbedded into his skull and he happens to be a bit over the edge doesn't mean he'll cause any trouble!"

"Anyway, back on the subject of mad scientist women," said K. Roolenstein, "what were you trying to say before, Ivo?"

Robotnik turned to him. "Oh, right. The point I was trying to make is that I haven't had any real experience with women since college, and even then, that was only because they were forced to sit next to me."

"Same here," admitted Wily. All of the other mad scientists agreed.

Afterwards, they just stood there, not sure what to do. Suddenly, the silent-until-now Dr. Tongue said, "You know, I once used one of my potions to wreck havoc in the suburbs as a tentacle monster and did a bunch of stuff that's H... it was great."

"Is that so?" Dr. Cortex said as he wrote down notes.

"That reminds me," mentioned Roolenstein, "has anyone seen Grodus anywhere?"

"How did you get Grodus from something H?" asked Eggman.

"Actually, now that I think about it, where is that floating robot head anyway?" Dr. Wily piped in.

"Last I heard, he went back to his old moon base and sent Lord Crump on a mission to find the Ultimate Position or something," explained N. Cortex.

"Ultimate Position?" asked Dr. Tongue. "Is that something H too?"

"No, it's an army formation or something. If you put an army in a certain position, they're power greatly increases or something. It's an old legend, but some of his X-Nauts found proof that it's real, and being the guy he is, Grodus just left without telling us," Cortex continued.

"Wait, so how did you know?" asked Robotnik.

"I was hacking into his computer in order to get that great pop-up blocker of his and I found this information in his notes."

"That so?" commented Wily. Once again, the hall was silent, ignoring the sounds of industry inside the hospital room.
-I
-I

Proto Man ran along the beach, but he was in no hurry, as shown by his calm whistling. From what he could still see from that distance, Jon seemed to be handling himself quite well for someone who should have very little close-combat experience, and despite having a rocky start, he seemed to be having a relatively easy time with the Kirbies now. "&Maybe I underestimated him a bit&," he thought. However, this was not the only reason he didn't rushsince the multiple Kirbies have yet to be defeated, none of the enemies past that area have been created yet.

After just a few more minutes, he reached the lock. It was right past a set of three platforms connected by orange blocks with stars imprinted on their sides, where the outer platforms where only half as long as the middle, which had Whispy Woods, a living tree, blowing gusts of winds and dropping apples from its branches.

"&Oh right, I remember this place from the broadcasts of the previous tournaments. In the Adventures, you would encounter the Giant Kirby here, but with Jon still on the last fight, he shouldn't appear&."

The robot hopped across the platforms until he got to the last one. The lock was dark green with glowing light green lines along its surface, and it was a tall crystal, around twice as tall as Blues. It floated a few inches above the ground with a golden ring outside of it floated at the crystal's middle section around 1 foot away at all points.

Proto Man shot a fully charged blast at the lock and it blew away a chunk of the program. He repeated this action a few more times until the lock was finally deleted. At this point, he was about to log out, but he remembered, "&Oh, right, I have to tell the Game Master. I'll just e-mail him... Oh, that's right, I still don't know his e-mail address, but I think I can send it to his location. According to my scanners... Jon's around section 1001.38454.28842 of the Hand Stadium Mainframe. E-mail sent&."
-I
-I

Meanwhile, back at the dock, Jon was only down to three Kirbies: King Game and Watch, Yoshi, and Roy. He rolled out of the way of one of G&W Kirby's burnt sausage attack, and quickly jumped over a tongue attack from Yoshi Kirby, only to smack right into Proto Man's e-mail. He didn't even have time to think "WTF" before Roy Kirby multi-punched him (for further reference, this is the Vulcan Punch). However, as soon as the attack knocked him back far enough, he wavedashed backwards, giving him enough time to see what threw off his groove. "&An e-mail&?"

I destroyed the lock, we can go now.

Signed, Proto Man
Dated 11:07 AM

Jon pulled out his GBA and pressed START on it, only for a message to pop up.

ERROR: No PET connected. Please have your operator reconnect for the proper logging out sequence.

"&...WTF IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN&!"

Looking at the screen of his game system, there was only static as opposed to the top-down view of himself. He tried again, to get the same message. After quickly getting some distance between him and the remaining Kirbies, Jon typed up an e-mail to Toad.

TOAD WTF R UOU DOING RECONECT US NOW!

Signed Jon
Dated 11:08 AM

After waiting a bit, avoiding the other fighters along the way, he tried to disconnect again, this time successfully.
-I
-I

After a flash of light, Jon found himself lying on his stomach with his arms in a rather uncomfortable position. By the time he managed to get up, Proto Man had, too, come back to his body.

They found themselves in a completely different rooma circular one made of brown stone, or at least something that looked like it, around as large as the previous room, but the ceiling was much higher and the hallway back to the surface was gone. There was instead another hallway leading further down into the complex, in front of which Toad ran in circles screaming.

"What's going on? I'm pretty sure this wasn't the room we were in before," Proto Man remarked.

Toad started to slow down his running and his screams lowered in volume until they were entirely gone. After a few more seconds of panting, he answered, "Right before you sent the e-mail, Jon, we were attacked by a bunch of guys shaped like stars. I didn't get a good look at them but they seemed gray. Anyway, they were hurling all of these flames and stuff, so I pulled you away from the terminals, shoved you into my kart racer, and drove around avoiding the attacks. Your e-mail saved me from a lightning attack, by the way, even though I could have handled it. At this point, I noticed two things: the monsters came from behind that one sealed dooryou know, the one I couldn't open without accidentally destroying the world with my cosmic powerswhich was now open, and there was a teleporter in the middle of the room we were in. So, I had two choices before the things killed us, 1. Go through the door where there are probably more of those things, or 2. Go through the teleporter. So, I went through the door, only to find that I was right and there were more of those things, so I turned around and drove into the teleporter. It sent us here, but I quickly blew up the teleporter so they wouldn't follow us." Following this, he started gasping for air, realizing that he said all of that without breathing.

"Gray stars that shoot fire and lightning? We weren't fighting Starro possessing Dr. Fate, were we? Purple can look kind of like gray if you don't pay attention," the Game Master asked.

"Considering that this is VIDEOLAND, not... whatever-those-guys-are-from-land, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't Dr. Fate," Toad remarked.

"Hmm, when thinking of videogame characters like that, nothing really comes to mind. It could have been security robots, some random scientist's creations, Starmen from Earthbound, or a number of enemies from obscure games that no one heard of besides me. I'll e-mail Crazy Hand about this." Thus, Jon e-mailed Crazy Hand. After about a minute, a new message appeared in front of him, but it seemed to either flash or go staticy every other second.

Game Master, I got your e-mail, though it was rather fuzzy. You're currently on the path to the mainframe computer, but with this lockdown, you'll have to destroy more lockstwo to be more exact. They're in the Mushroom Kingdom simulation and the Pokémon Stadium.

Oh, right, and both the door and the teleporter would have lead to the mainframe, but the door path would be much longer. That path would have only been used if the teleporter failed.

As for the gray stars, they aren't any of our security robots. We used the wireframe men to guard everything, but it should be assumed that the intruders killed them all. It would probably for the best if someone stayed behind at all times when you logged onto the network as security.

Oh, and by the way, you may have noticed that there haven't been any items appearing. The items are from a separate program, but with you destroying the first lock, I can now reach it from the computers up here. I should have the items up and running in no time.

Oh, and one last thing. In case you have not figured this out yet, the programs in the computers mimic the effects of the Hand Matter, so you don't actually get hurt and are instead made lighter with every hit. However, this doesn't limit your abilities and it doesn't give you the ability to smash, dodge, etc., like you can if you were in contact with it in real life.

Signed, Crazy Hand
Dated 11: 11 AM

Yes, I notice the strange abundance of e-mails in this chapter.

"I guess we might as well go now," Proto Man said as he walked back over to the terminal he and Jon were plugged in only a moment ago. "Like Master Hand said, someone should stay behind while we go to the Mushroom Kingdom program."

"Crazy Hand, not Master Hand," pointed out Jon.

"Whatever."

"Wait, did you say we're going to a Mushroom Kingdom simulation?" asked Toad.

"Yeah."

"Awesome, I know that place like the inside part of my eyelids! However, I won't go with you, you know, because you suck and my navi can kick your ass right now."

"Didn't you say your navi was broken before?" Proto Man sarcastically queried.

"No, that's just your bad memory. Just like I have better weapons than you, I have a better memory, thus, I rock. Even if it was broken, I probably would have fixed it by now, because I still rock."

"...So Jon, you're staying behind?" asked the robot.

"Yeah, I just got this new power up in the program and I want to test it out," Jon answered. "I had all of this adrenaline flowing through me, so doing all of those moves was probably easier during the fight than it is now."

"Wait," Toad paused. "... You got a new ability... and I wasn't there!"

"Yeah, I did."

"...I must be losing my skills! I must practice!" Toad concluded as he ran right up to the terminal. "Jack-in! AwsomeToad.EXE! Execute!" He then pulled out a PET, plugged the cord into a port, and stared at the screen.

Proto Man shrugged and uploaded himself too.

"Uh, Toad, I thought you were going to practice. It looks like your navi will do all of the work," Jon pointed out.

"When I said practice, I meant practicing my navi skills. Even I can't just teleport into the Internet, so I have my navi do everything there."

Jon looked back and practiced his new moves. They still managed to work in a non-computer environment, and as soon as the Game Master confirmed that they all translated well, he stopped and decided to take a game break of indefinite length.
-I
-I

Meanwhile...

"Ah, here we are in Phantomile," said Dan as he drove the bus through the beautiful jungle surroundings. "It's certainly gotten better after that entire thing with Ghadius and Nahatomb or whatever their names are."

"This is another one of those dreamworlds, right?" asked Bill.

"Yeah, it is."

"So anyway, Manny, what's going on with King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard?"

"After eating that huge meal, they finally fell asleep. Thank god," Manny replied. "It would probably be a good idea not to play any music until they wake up themselves."

"Right, here we are," Dan said as he stopped the bus at an old gas station. Yes, a gas station in the middle of the jungle. He opened the doors, stepped out, and grabbed a note off of an old pump. After he got back in, he read, "Go to the Reel World through the Sony entrance. This will be your last stop."

"The Reel World? Isn't that where that guy, Viewtiful Joe, is?" asked Bill.

"I'm pretty sure it is. Oh, and by the way, they included tickets for all six of us, but we'd have to pass off Eggplant Wizard and King Hippo as luggage."

"Do we really have to?" asked Bill.

"They'd probably sneak on anyway like when we came here, so, yeah."

"Well, I guess it's back to the warp port," Manny commented. Thus, the bus started up again, turned around, and headed back down the road.

Suddenly, Eggplant Wizard woke up as he looked out the window. "Hey look! There's a red rabbit!"

King Hippo woke up too. "Let's go kick its ass!"

"GO TEAM VENTURE!" they both yelled, making the Venture sign and again trying to jump out the window, still unsuccessfully.

"Maybe we should make the windows bigger," said one of the unnamed band members.

"Why's that, Sam?" asked Bill.

"Next time they tried to jump out, we could leave them behind."

"You know, maybe we shouldn't have let them on," commented Dan.

"No kidding," replied Manny.

While all of the band members seem the same, I actually inserted VERY subtly personalities. However, I'll give 120000000000 Internet fakebills to whoever can figure them out, because I sure can't.
-I
-I

After the typical jack-in sequence, Proto Man and AwesomeToad.EXE, Toad's navi, found themselves back on the network, but as opposed to appearing in the room of deadly links, they found themselves already at the level selection room. "I guess since we needed to destroy the first lock to get down here in the real world, they didn't bother to send us back to the beginning," Proto Man commented.

True to his word at the beginning of this part of the chapter, AToad.EXE did, indeed, look exactly like the real Toad... except for the fact that he didn't. The basic shape was correct, but he looked very similar to a typical navi with a curved metal plate replacing a mouth, etc. "Greetings, my name is AwsomeToad.EXE, or AT for short. I do not believe we met," said the navi, extending his hand.

"AT, this is Proto Man. We have to work with him to destroy a lock here. He may be an idiot, but you'll have to be nice to him until I tell you not to," Toad explained to him.

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, we're going into the link labeled Mushroom Kingdom Adventure. Just follow my lead," the red robot explained.

"Yes, sir."

"No!" Toad yelled to his navi.

"...Yes, dude?"

"No!"

"Yes, guy?"

"No! That's it, manual overdrive, activated!" Toad announced. AT.EXE glowed for a moment, but it dimmed down. "Well, thanks to some virtual reality gloves, helmets, etc., I am now in control," he explained. As Toad moved in real life, AT moved on the Internet.

"...I'm getting the feeling that you just plain don't like robots," Proto Man commented.

Ignoring this, Toad ran into the link, followed by the red bomber. They found themselves in a world that looked exactly like Princess Peach's castle in Mario 64.

"I guess it's pretty obvious where we should go," decided the robot as he ran up to the castle doors, only for a message to pop up.

The doors are locked. You should find another way in.

"Stand back," AT/Toad commanded as he pulled out his bazooka. After the crimson whistler jumped out of the way behind the mushroom, the lunatic fired a shot, but it harmlessly exploded on the door.

"Deja vu," commented Proto Man, referring to the last time Toad, ineffectively, tried to shoot down a door in this chapter.

"No problem, there should be a secret entrance over here," the fungus revealed as he turned to the side and took a few steps in place.

Blues explained, "In case you're wondering, we can only go in two directions on the pathforwards and backwards."

"It looks like you're right. But, other than the cannon, there's no other way in, and the cannon's locked off..."

"Well, there has to be something somewhere around here..."

"Maybe we should e-mail Master Hand."

"Crazy Hand, and I don't think we really need him right now. Maybe there's something over at this tree," the robot commented as he walked up to a tree and started feeling around on the bark. For some reason, he started fading away, and soon disappeared.

"Proto Man?" Toad then walked up to the same tree, standing still. He faded away and disappeared, too.

Toad reappeared inside the castle, where Blues was waiting. "I guess the Hands programmed a warp there. There wasn't one there in the real castle," the mushroom-man explained. The inside of the castle generally looked the same as it did in the game, but there were now only three doors, one on both sides of the staircase, and one at the top of the stairs. The path sent the two to a door at the right of the stairs, leading them diagonally across the sun emblem on the center floor. Inside the door was a large room with a painting at the end. On the painting was a picture of a jungle with kremlings, crocodile-like enemies, from Donkey Kong Country walking across a path. The two jumped into the artwork and it sent them to another location.

After a flash of light, Proto Man and Toad found themselves in a large jungle area with a tree house behind them and enemies in front. "This looks like the Kongo Jungle, where Donkey Kong lives," noted Toad. "My guess is that we have to get to the end, but it shouldn't be too hard."

They went through all of the enemies and eventually reached the end, where the found themselves on a raft hanging off the edge of a waterfall. Suddenly, two small gorillas jumped down out of nowhereMini-DKs.

Battle... BEGIN!

"DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64, or the remix from SSBM"

Toad started the fight off by pulling out his bazooka and firing toward one of the miniature apes, but it managed to roll out of the attack's path. The other Donkey Kong then used an attack called the Spinning Kong to spin like helicopter blades toward Proto Man, but the robot interrupted this with a fully charge Proto Buster attack. For further reference, the Kong fighting Toad will be D1 while the one fighting Proto Man will be known as D2.

After avoiding the attack, D1 ran to the talking mushroom and grabbed him, carrying the fungus over his head like his namesake. He walked over to the edge and was about to throw him over, but the robot quickly changed colors and shot two spinning green disks toward the monkey, the Gyro Blades. The projectiles hit Donkey Kong 1 right in the back, causing him to jump up and release Toad. While Blues was preoccupied, the other DK powered up a Giant Punch attack and unleashed the attack's shear force on the robot.

Suddenly, a bat appeared near the mushroom. "&It looks like Crazy Hand managed to reactivate the items! Sweet&!" he thought. Due to the punch he received, the red robot, Proto Man, landed just behind Toad, but he managed to get up and run back to his opponent. Toad picked up the bat by its handle, and right as DK1 got in range, he swung it. Stars came out of it as it slammed into the monkey, and a satisfying "tshweeee" sound came as he hurtled away from the fungus off of the raft he was on. However, he didn't go far enough, as with a well-timed Spinning Kong attack, he managed to hover back onto the battlefield, on the platform above the fungus.

After running back to the Kong, Blues Light changed colors to green again and threw a pair of Gyro Blades at the miniature D2, but it managed to block the assault with it's shield, even if it left little. Before the robot could attack again, Donkey Kong grabbed a large hammer nearby and started swinging it madly. The music changed to the theme that plays when you receive a hammer in the original Donkey Kong game, and Proto Man quickly dashed away, knowing how dangerous it was. However, he managed the stop the attack before it happened by changing colors to a bluish shade and threw a large black bomb at the monkey. Normally, it would have taken a while for it to explode, but DK2 stupidly smacked the bomb with his hammer and it blew up, sending him off the stage. He would have probably made it back, but due to still having a hammer in his hands, the ape continued attacking, forcing him to fall in the river below and die.

Toad fired a bazooka at D1 as he jumped down from the platform above, but the gorilla managed to airdodge out of the way and punched the fungus, forcing him to explode in a cloud of spores. The sudden release of spores was so great, that it sent the Donkey Kong right off screen to his death.

As the last Donkey Kong flew off the screen (the one Proto Man was fighting), a yellow star appeared out of the waterfall and landed in the middle of the raft. The star had two dots representing a face, and it hovered over the ground slowly spinning.

RED TEAM WINS! YOU GOTTEN... POWER STAR!

"Cool, a Power Star," Toad remarked as he walked up to it, though very tired from his self-defense mechanism. He then grabbed it, spun around once, and held the star into the air. Suddenly, he disappeared.

"...Toad?" Proto Man asked. Sighing, the robot logged out of the terminal, but quickly logged back in. He made his way back to the Mushroom Kingdom program, used the warp to get inside of the castle, and found the mushroom at the other end of the room.

"Hey, I've been waiting for you!"

"How did you get there?"

"I guess the Power Star sent me over here and recharged my health, and I can get in that other door now. I have an ideastand in the sun emblem in the center of the room!"

The red bomber shrugged and walked to the location specified as he whistled. Toad, too, walked over there, which was where their paths met. The fungus grabbed Blues' hand and tried to drag him along his path, but to no avail. "Well, it looks like you'll have to start all over," noted Toad.

"Lucky me," the other groaned as he went back into the DK painting. Toad, however, went into the other door to find a painting of a construction site. After a flash of light, he found himself elevated well above the ground on a path of red bars and ladders circling around a building under construction and going up.

"&I wonder where I am&," he thought as he started walking. Thankfully, the restriction of only being able to go two directions made it impossible for him to fall. After a while, he noticed a barrel bouncing toward him, which was blown away by a bazooka. "&I think I have a pretty good idea now&." He tried to walk forward, but stopped. "&Damn. The Eye of the Fourth Wall is focused on what I'm doing right now, so I can't teleport. Looks like I'll have to go through this the actual way. And I can only freeze time to explain things, so that won't work either&."

The mushroom continued up the path of bars, shooting any barrels that rolled toward them, being unable to jump over them. Along the way, he came across a Maxim Tomato, which recovered health, but Toad found it useless since he was yet to be hurt. Eventually, the fungus reached a bar right before a platform raised into the air by a pulley. "&Oh, right, I've heard about this. It's one of the new stages. ...Well, this is stupid. I definitely don't want to fight the guys that will probably be there, yet I went ahead. Why? I better wait for Proto Man&."And thus, he just stood there.
-I
-I

Meanwhile... or, actually, a few minutes before the previous event

As Jon played on his Game Boy Advance, he started feeling kind of bad. "&You know, maybe I should be helping them right now&."
-I
-I

Strange place to end…

Thus ends day 2, part 1. Next time:

"So you're the one behind all this!" Toad yelled. "…Wait, who are you, again?"