"Come on, Six Machine!"

The Crimson clad hero leapt into the air, twirling about, then doing a back-flip and landing in the legendary Six Machine, the robotic Swiss Army Knife. Explosions flashed in the black background for no apparent reason, but finally he sped off out of the metal hangar, nearly running over Jigglypuff, who ran off crying.

The first part of the base to be finished had been the hanger. And with over 200 people (mostly generic reformed enemies) running it smoothly and efficiently, it was a good thing, too. Without this place, transport would be much, much, much more difficult.

Banjo ran up to the flight "power-ups", grabbing a 200-feather pack, and tossing it in his, as he jumped onto a flight pad, then off, nearly reaching the ceiling before gravity stopped him, but did not bring him back down, thanks to the Freaky Beak of the Week, Kazooie.

There were three levels to the hangar. The bottom level was underground, filled with water, and had several pipes of all sizes heading out toward the various seas of the world. There was a pool, roughly 20 feet by 30, a rectangular shape vertically going from the entrance, at the slightest diagonal angle, ready for ships and submarines to be transported. The second level was for low flying, small planes and ground-based vehicles and heroes. It was also filled with power-ups of all kinds.

The third level, which the Ice Climbers were currently on, was made simply as a hangar for planes. Most could take off by way of four large, rectangular holes in the plain, steel walls, but the roof could open up in the case of large flying machines, or ones like helicopters that just needed height.

"Wait a second!" Popo yelled, skidding to a stop. "We have no transportation!" he yelled back to his sister, who proceeded to look shocked, or at least pretend to, since she didn't know what "transportation" meant.

"Oh, no?" said a voice from the sky, just before a red and brown blur swept down, then out of the hangar, taking Nana and Popo with it. The blur turned out to be Banjo and Kazooie, Banjo holding one Ice Climber in each arm. Soon the Machine of Six joined up beside them, then behind then, considering it was coming toward and a little to the right of them. It soon turned and flew on even terms of speed and height with the Bear-and-Bird/Brother-and-Sister duo of duos.

"So, what took you so long?" the Crimson Clad hero grinned, somehow managing to look totally cocky and totally cool and totally idiotic at the same time.

"Had to pick up a couple hitchhikers," said Banjo, grinning right back, managing to get two of the three adjectives above going for him.

"Rather heavy hitchhikers…"Kazooie grumbled. Suddenly, she exploded with anger. "It's enough I have to carry this gigantic hunk of fat with me everywhere, now I've got two little annoyances on for the ride, with about 10 pounds of parka and a hundred of power-ups! Who else wants a ride, huh! Maybe I could pick up your girlfriend, huh, Mr. Commander? Or, should I say, Mr. Pretender! I'd honestly be surprised if this guy can actually fight, or even move in that TIGHT RED COSTUME THAT HAS LEFT ME SCARRED FOR LIFE!"

There was a long silence after this. Nana broke it with the simple question, "Is Kazooie feeling okay?"

"I don't think so…" replied Banjo. "She usually goes off on a much longer rant than that…"

Shortly after Nana treated the bump on Banjo's head, ("All better! kiss) land came into view.

"Finally, heh," chuckled Viewtiful Joe, "At this rate, I'm thinking the average flying snail could pass us."

(Short silence)

"Flying snails?" said Popo.

Before Joe could retort, a lime green laser beam shot by them.

"They've been expecting us!" shouted Banjo, as Kazooie dodged to the left.

"No, duh!" Kazooie responded as more lasers quickly followed the first one.

"Enough talking!" Joe yelled, moving his craft's left wing up slightly, then bringing it down, dodging two lasers in quick succession. "Concentrate on dodging those laser beams!" he continued as he brought the left wing down, stopping on the plane's side, moving to the left and above of Banjo-Kazooie. "I don't want any casualties on this mission, do I make myself clear?" he finished, righting himself and firing off a few missiles in the direction the lasers were coming from.

"Sir, yes, sir!" Banjo shouted back, moving his arms slightly to the right to keep Popo and Nana from getting hit.

"Yeah, whatever!" Kazooie shouted, maneuvering in between three nearby lasers. The Ice Climbers were still too surprised to respond verbally, but each gave a small nod.

Suddenly, Six Machine's left wing blew off.

"VJ!" Popo yelled into the explosion.

"Hack…wheeze…" came a choke from inside the smoke, as it cleared. "No worries," said Viewtiful Joe, giving off another cough or two. "I wasn't hit. Just a small malfunction…still, let's hope that was the only malfunction." He looked down at his readings, trying to predict what could possibly still happen to his machine, and what just did. "Hmm…" he murmured.

"What is it, VJ?" Nana called out to him.

"My readouts. Apparently, the entire island is coated by a force field, negatively charged. The lasers are negatively charged, too. So, logically…" he switched on the voice command to the Six Machine. "Electric force field, negatively charged! Go!" With those words, a crackling ball of blue-clear electricity surrounded the Six Machine. Three lasers, each headed for the Six Machine, suddenly veered off course, steered away harmlessly.

"Okay…that was pretty cool…" grudgingly admitted Kazooie.

"Eh, Elementary School Science. Opposites attract, so un-opposites repel." With those words, the lasers stopped.

"Huh?" said Joe.

"I was thinking that too…" said Banjo.

"No, I mean…the lasers have stopped, but there are three rather large negative charges heading toward us…Six Machine!" he suddenly shouted, turning on voice command again. "Positive split-second energy wave! Go!"

Suddenly, a red-clear wave of energy replaced the force field, and expanded to massive proportions, followed by a crackling of blue energy before three stealth fighters, a black-gray color, with black tinted windows, appeared in the sky. This all happened in a split second. The Six Machine seemed to slow down a little, though.

"Stealth fighters? They really were expecting us!" shouted Banjo, as all looked on in awe at the three machines heading toward them. Suddenly Nana gasped.

"VJ!" she shouted again. "Your ship! It's mal-…malfin-… breaking again!"

The movie-magic maker looked to his right wing, to see a small "leak" of fire and smoke emerging from it. He turned back toward the jets, a little scared looking. Then, one of determination came across his face. A roar of flame shot out from his tail as his plane boosted toward the fighters…

…Then past them.

"Hey!" shouted one skeleton pilot/ pirate to another, unheard by our heroes. "He's getting away!"

"Let him go," said the one in back of the triangle-shaped formation. "He won't last long with one wing blown off and the other leaking."

Of course, Joe wasn't intending to last long. He fired off a missile from his remaining wing seconds before the wing was blown off. The missile, having passed through his force field and receiving a negative charge, then created a small hole, just big and lasting just long enough to pass through.

Three cannons in a triangle formation, one in back, just like the stealth fighters, suddenly came into Joe's view as the smoke cleared again. Each one was black-gray, sloppily made, but dangerous looking, with two turrets and wires and computer screens and pieces of metal jutting out randomly all over each cannon. Each one's base could have also been the base for a water tower's container, black metal and foreboding as they were. Joe took this all in before the one on the right suddenly exploded from the very missile he'd fired, the shockwave denting the left cannon, and knocking the right-most turret off the middle-back cannon.

Meanwhile, Kazooie had come in much closer to the three planes, aiming her beak toward the right one. She fired off her Beak Bomber, pushing her wings back to send them skyrocketing forward, her beak damaging the left wing of the right-most one, then causing the middle-back one to explode after she bounced off the right-most one, which now went hurtling into the one on the left due to a bent wing, but mostly bad piloting skills. Everyone looked back just in time to see the explosion.

"Pretty…" said Nana, as everyone else sweat-dropped.

Meanwhile, Viewtiful Joe steered his plane to the left, heading toward the cannon on the left. As he steered and his craft rocked about, A "line" of circles appeared in the force field, creating a rather large opening, which quickly got smaller on the right as it got larger on the left.

As Joe leapt out of his plane, the Six Machine crashed into the cannon, causing a massive explosion that obscured Joe and his fate. Had he landed on the ground, safely? If so, where, and if not, what happened to him? Banjo, Kazooie, and Popo all ran these questions through their minds as they headed toward the island. Nana liked the pretty colors the explosion created.

Suddenly, a great white flash of light appeared beneath them, circular in shape, 40 feet diameter.

"What's that?" asked Nana of anyone who could answer.

"It's a magnet, most likely negatively charged, so Joe was able to pass it," replied Banjo smartly.

"How do you know?" asked Popo.

"My belt buckle just flew off," responded Banjo, a lot less smartly.

"For all our sakes, pull your pants up as we land," said Kazooie, just before firing off a grenade egg into the last cannon's remaining turret, causing it to explode. Shortly after, she squeezed through the force field's hole, landing on the base of the former left-most cannon. Banjo set the Ice Climbers down gently, and then quickly pulled up his pants.

"So, which way did our general land?" Kazooie asked, then said, "I think it's…"

"That way!" said everyone, all pointing in different directions. There was a short pause before everyone said "That way!" again, pointing in the opposite direction they were before. They covered all eight directions on a working compass this way.

Banjo pulled up his pants again before saying "Maybe we should split up…"

"NO!" shouted Nana, suddenly frightened. She leapt onto her brother's head, now eye level with Banjo, just before saying, "Haven't you ever seen horror movies? When they split up, the monster picks them all off…one by one…" she finished quietly, cowering in her parka best she could.

"Please get off me, sis…" Popo said, oddly calm.

After Nana did, Banjo said, "Alright, alright, we won't split up…on one condition!" He pulled up his pants. "Someone has to get me a substitute for my belt buckle…"