RPG Don't Shoot The Goombas

[Shy]

[center][b]Zeh[/b] - Yoshi
[b]Xra[/b] - Sonic
[b]James[/b] - Mario
[b]Lady Katana[/b] - Pikachu
[b]Wehboo[/b] - Makar
[b]KittyLynn[/b] - Toad
[b]Desbreko[/b] - Samus
[b]Solo Tremaine[/b] - Fox McCloud
[b]Semjaza Azazel[/b] - Bang
[b]Ronin Dragon[/b] - Ryu
[b]Mitch[/b] - Aya Brea
[b]The Vampire: Ed[/b] - Kain
[b]Domon[/b] - Sephiroth
[b]Charles[/b] - Johnny Cage
[b]Queen Asuka[/b] - Princess Toadstool
[b]Oekakiotaku[/b] - Jin Kazama

..and I will play as Pac-Man. :)[/center]

[color=darkblue]I leaned back in my chair and sighed. Several of us had been sitting around a large pellet-shaped table, trying to develop a counter-assault to the latets string of attacks by the Next-Gens. On all fronts our forces were slowly being erradicated. Emerald Hill had falen vistim to an airship atack the night before, and there was a general feeling of uneasiness in the room. The Mushroom Kingdom was a world away from the battles at Liberty City and Corneria, but their effect's could still be felt. At least for now, we had nothing to fear.

"Momma Mia!' Mario shouted as he slammed his fist on the table, knocking over my bowl of pellets, "How are we a-gonna stop this mess?"

"I don't know about the rest of you," I commented, "But we seem to be having trouble organizing our troops. We have lost digital communication due to MegaMan's defeat on the battle network. Sonic lost contact with his troops and mysterious disappeared for half of the battle. Because of this carelessness Traverse Town is under siege."

Amy the hedgehog glared at me from across the table. She knew that I didn't like her boyfriend, and that I blamed him for the recent defeat at Emerald Hill. Lord knows that I wouldn't let anything like that happen to Pac-Town. Maybe I'm just being suspicious, but you can never trust a lady who always keeps a hammer within arm's reach.

"That is completely false, Pac," Amy argued, "Sonic was trapped in an extradimensional space during that time, and couldn't do anything to help those people."

I rolled my eyes, "It wasn't an extradimensional space, it was a bonus stage."

Light laughter echoed through the room, thigns were finally starting to perk up a bit. Roll entered the room, and whispered something in Mario's ear. He smiled, and whisphered back something in her ear. During this time I noticed that Diddy King hadn't touched his banana dinner throughout the entire evening, I wondered if something was bothering him.

Suddenly, a tall, pink-haired woman in an orange mini-skirt entered. Behind her trailed a small camera crew, and surprisingly enough, a group of background dancers, something about this person seemed very familiar. Mario adjusted his hat, stood up and greeted the woman.

"Hello Ulala, I'm glad that you could join us."

"Hey there groovy cat, I'm thrilled that you allowed an interview for Space Channel 5. I'm even more grateful of the unrestricted access that you have granted us aboard the Great Fox so far. The whole thing is outta sight!" Ulala winked at Mario, causing him to blush. She turned around, faced the camera and began to conduct an interview with the plumber.

"So Mr. Mario, as secretary of defense for The Classics, could you please explain how this entire war began?"

"Certainly. A year ago a huge battle between the greatets gaming villains and heroes began. Many people know this as the "Project Gamer" conflict, named after my a-evil brother's secret plan to take over the gaming world.

Weeks passed, and eventually these villains were defeated once again. But after the battles there was a huge conflict about hos these villains should be punished. The classic characters wanted to trap them within a poorly designed prison cell like they traditionally do, but the newer and more violent characters wanted vengance. The two sides began to fight over how they should be dealt with, until one day the villains mysteriously vanished. Nobody knows exactly what happened to them, but the Mushroom Kingdom has it's suspicions..."

Ulala smiled, and winked at the camera for no apparent reason.

"Hey, that's awesome. We'll be right back ater this important word from our sponsors."[/color]

[Guest Zeh]

[color=006600][i]Lost. I'm lost again. It seems everytime i do something, it never goes as planned. Right now i should be at a meeting, with Pac-man, Mario, and the gang. Instead i'm hiding behind a tree, my back against it, listening in on a conversation between two men. I dare not peer around to look at them, fear has frozen me. I held an egg at the ready, incase they notice my presence.[/i]

[b]"You hear about the attack on Emerald Hill last night?"[/b] One voice proposed, obviously to another. It seemed in a casual manner.

[i]Maybe they were just innocent bystanders, i took a deep breath.[/i]

[b]"I hear it went real well, did we get anyone?"[/b] Another voice replied.

[i]There goes that thought, maybe i should stay and listen. A little spy mission never quite hurts, now, does it?[/i]

[b]"I think they said they got some arrogant hedgehog, or another."[/b] The first voice said in an overbearing manner.

[i]I froze for a moment. Hedgehog? Hmm... who do i know thats a hedgehog...?[/i]

The second voice piped up again [b]"Come on, lets get going, we can't wait here all day."[/b]

[i]This could be a bit useful to know... A captured hedgehog? Who am i kidding. If only i could remember back wichways Mushroom Kingdom was... [/i]

Absent-mindedly, trecking back the way he had came, Yoshi looked about for something familiar. Something familiar he found, but not what he was hoping for.

[b]"They even have spy's now? Gotcha, ya little snoop."[/b] The man said nonchalantly.

[i]It was the man who had first spoken! I turned toward him, amazed at who it was...[/i][/color]

[color=9999cc][size=1]OOC: Someone else use it as a beginning.[/size][/color]

[James]

In the Mushroom Kingdom of all places, weird and relatively pointless events occurred with some frequency. Enter the 16-Bit Festival, an event that attracted gaming icons from all corners of the world. Everybody from the Ice Climbers to Princess Ruto would be in attendance and it was critical to ensure that security was as tight as possible. Mario, as the Secretary of Defense for the Mushroom Kingdom, was in charge of organizing security for the event.

This year, the fesitval was to take place on the enormous lawn in front of Toadstool Castle. The fact that Princess Toadstool had absolutely nothing in the way of royal guards, despite the fact that she was a Princess, was definitely a worrying sign. And yet, Mario was confident. He stood on the castle's drawbridge and waved his arms in the air excitedly, as a large group of Goombas, Hammer Bros. and ParaKoopas stood to attention.

[color=red]"Now, today we-a gonna practice the drill!"[/color] said Mario, his little voice echoing through the gardens.

[color=orange][i]SQUISH!![/i][/color]

Mario spun around and eyed the group suspiciously. [color=red]"Hey!! What's-a going on here?!"[/color]

[color=green]"Nothing, sir!"[/color] said a nearby ParaKoopa.

Mario tapped his foot and stared into the crowd. Just as he was about to turn around and lead the troops to their positions, he heard that sound again...

[color=orange][i]SQQQUUUIIISSH!![/I][/COLOR]

[color=red]"[size=4]That's it! What is-a going on over there?![/size]"[/color], yelled Mario at the top of his lungs.

He approached the troops and inspected them carefully. As he did so, he heard muffled giggles coming from the second row. Mario pushed his way past the first row of ParaKoopas...and then he saw it. Two ParaKoopas were taking turns stepping on a plump Goomba. The Goomba didn't seem to mind. In fact, it appeared to be asleep (:sleep: ).

[color=red]"[i]Wake up!![/i]"[/color] squealed Mario.

The Goomba's eyes snapped open suddenly...

:excited: [color=purple]"Bah, wha...what is it?! Are we under attack?! HELP, HELP!!"[/color]

...as it began to run around in circles, its little feet shuffling like crazy underneath its bulbous body.

Mario rolled his eyes. He pointed to the Goomba with a stern look on his face, as he prepared to lecture it on the finer points of being in the army, when suddenly...

:sleep: The Goomba fell asleep once more.

Mario rolled his eyes. [color=red]"Aye! How can-a we ever hope to beat these enemies? I'm-a going back into the castle for a warm bath and some of Peach's chocolate cake..."[/color]

[Domon]

[COLOR=darkred][i]Sephiroth stood atop a hill looking over a small city, it was an okay size. It had a decent population but it was still not worth his time but it did have restaurants and shops with items he needed to purchase. He started down the hill into the city. As he walked down the sidewalk he saw people run for their houses or whatever and hide and peek out and look at him.

As he continued down the street he saw a small cafe, he decided to go in and get some food. As soon as he entered the group sitting there went silent as a graveyard while the black-clad, sliver-haired man entered and pulled up a seat in nearby corner, as he did this a young waitress walked up to him nervously.[/i]

"Ummmmm....How can I take your order??" [i]She stuttered while shaking like a leaf.[/i]

"I'd just like something to eat. I don't care what you bring me, just bring something edible." [i]The man replied coldly.[/i]

"Uhhhh...Right I'll bring you the blue-plate special." [i]She said as she scurried off to the kitchen.[/i]

[i]As soon as the waitress disappeared to the kitchen some bonehead muscle-head strode up to Sephiroth thinking he was a wannabe and turned him around forcefully and picked him up by the collar of his coat and looked him in the eye.[/i]

"Who do you think you are??? You think you're funny dressing up Sephiroth and trying to scare people. Is that the case??"

[i]Sephiroth just stared at him with his icy, uncaring green eyes. After a few brief moments of silence he smirked and replied icily.[/i]

"Who said I wasn't Sephiroth??"

[i]And with those words he brought his knee up into the man's stomach who then instinctivly released his grip and as the man regained his breath and stood up he was looking at the blade of Sephiroth's Mursame.[/i]

"How about you sit down before I kill you now??"

[i]The man dumbstruck sat down obidiently. But Sephiroth wasn't done, ignorant people should be disposed of and the smart should know never to trifle with the strong. This man was ignorant and needed to be disposed off. Sephiroth lifted his arm and pointed his hand, palm facing towards the man's face and muttered the word's "Fire 3" with that a large fireball sparked to life in his palm and in the blink of an eye it had shot out and was now burning the man to a sheer crisp.

While the man burned and died in agony Sephiroth walked out of the cafe and flicked his hair as a large amount of cops appeared around the entrance of the cafe. The sliver-haired man grinned, unsheated his Mursame and jumped into the fray, he was too fast for the cops to hit and within seconds all those cops were on the ground dead and in pieces. Wiping the blood from his sword Sephiroth walked back out of the town called Liberty City the way he came. There was an airport not to far from where he was.

As he continued along the roadside he saw the massive airport with different planes from different places. There were planes from Traverse Town, Mushroom Kingdom, etc. He decided to get on any plane, just as long as he could wreak havoc or whatever suited his whim.

Once he arrived at the entrance doors and entered the main lobby Sephiroth caught sight of several guards patrolling for him, fortunately he caught sight of the one charging for him, unfortunately the guard didn't catch sight of the Mursame pointing straght out at his chest and ran himself through the sword, but at the sound of the man's gurgled cries the other guards ran to their now dead comrade's aid but Sephiroth had pulled his sword out of the pitiful corpse and headed for the windows and jumped through excpet he realized it was now a 50 ft. drop down. "No matter." He thought to himself, he opened his wing and glided down, folded it back up into his body and ran for the nearest plane and dove into the cargo hold. As soon as he entered the cargo hold of the plane he hid behind a massive pile of miscilaneous junk just waiting for the plane to take off so then he could climb up into the cabin and mingle among the passengers, unfortunately for him Sephiroth had no idea where the plane was going.[/i][/COLOR]

[Charles]

We're in the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The place is [i]filled[/i], baby. That's right. [i]Jam packed![/i] Count'em. Eighteen-thousand strong--all eyes on a podium at the head of the arena floor. It's a flash bulb frenzy.

Johnny Cage's back is turned to the cameras--his arms folded. He's a two-dimensional sprite, digitized to perfection; he drips with all the realism the early nineties could possibly render--the same realism that made Mortal Kombat a box office smash. A single spotlight separates his form from a surrounding pitch-black void.

It's been a four-day affair, the first highlighted by anti-classic gaming demonstrations and the burning of effigies of old school heroes like Pac Man and Mario. The second day was devoted to Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade signing autographs and participating in different fan exhibits. The third was punctuated by an inflammatory speech by Simon Belmont on the subject of the ?Old Days,? prompting Minneapolis police to bring the riot gear out when the incensed fans tried to reestablish the N64 versions of Casltenvania as worthy titles of the series in the Metrodome, disrupting a Twins/Mariners game.

This, the final day, is a State of the Union Address of sorts by the icon, Mr. Cage (Johnny to his friends). The crowd cheers when it knows to and stays subdued most of the time. He stands in his best gray vest and gray tie suit, hair slicked back.

Behind Cage and the podium is a huge blowup of the Mortal Kombat logo, an ominous black dragon in a perpetual circular prison. The podium itself is a massive black lectern, with several microphones, peaking around Cage?s upper chest. It has the logo on the front of it as well. The initial applause has faded from Cage's entrance, and everyone sits down to listen to this very important speech. As per Convention protocol, all attendees are in their best dress clothes, each wearing a "Classic Games are the past; We want tits and @s$" button on the right breast of their shirts. Cage raises his hand for silence, and begins to speak.

"Welcome, welcome, everyone," he says.

He says "Yes, indeed, welcome to the final day of the National Anti Classic Gaming Convention! It?s really turned out well I think, with thousands coming to Minneapolis this Labor Day weekend, and eighteen thousand here in the arena today. This, the final address of the Convention, is an appraisal of the current state of our struggle to move [i]forward[/i] in arcades and living rooms across America."

Cage raises his hands for silence, until the flashing cameras cease their blinking and the fans' hysteria calms to anxious banter.

"It is a good news, bad news situation" he says. He says, "First, the good news. Since our struggle began to establish graphics and gore over actual gameplay mechanics, we have gained a massive fan base to support our campaign and our troops. This was evident this weekend obviously. BMX XXX sells second only behind that of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City."

The well-informed crowed applauds and cheers, obviously content with their M-Rated games.

"But on to larger matters. The bad news. It seems to me that since our successful raid on the Emerald Hill Zone, we have drifted apart a large bit. We've lost Sweet Tooth, and Leisure Suit Larry is off in Mexico somewhere filming cutscenes for a studio that will remain--[i]nameless[/i].

The crowd begins to chant "Acclaim," but Cage continues nevertheless.

He says "We've been inescapable, and no classic beatnik could shake our grasp on gaming. Unfortunately, the "Next Gen" movement has lost steam and become misdirected. I have taken it upon myself to be the "Next Gen" diplomat, the Ombudsman for n00b matters, but it hasn't been needed, since the "Next Gens" appear more concerned with individual pursuits than the goal of 'Yesterday Men' conquest."

"Our faction," he says "still numbers strong, with Tommy Vercetti, The DOOM Marine, Duke Nukem, Kain, that big bad scary bald dude from [i]Bio Freaks[/i], Dante and myself leading the charge. Less than the nine we had on our arrival, but still twice as large than any other gaming army in the world worth mentioning. We need to utilize these numbers to quash any resistance to us, gradually eroding the morale and power of the past greats until there is no foundation for it to stand on anymore."

Cage spins around on his right heel, resembling a flat sheet of paper. He begins to walk forward, slowly transforming into a three dimensional model--much to the delight of his fans.

His sleek, sexy, movie star shades catch the flashes of their cameras and the glint of the spotlight with expert ease. His return from Hollywood could mean only one thing, it could only be directed towards one purpose. A revolution is at hand. A war is at hand!

"How do we accomplish this," he says "Even a member of the Sonic Team could figure this out. [i]Mortal Kombat![/i] We capture all the classic outposts, either through peaceful or aggressive means. If I--I mean [i]we[/i], we, can weather [i]Street Fighter[/i], then we can stand up to anything! Yeah!"

[Solo Tremaine]

"THOOOOOM!"

The engines of the Great Fox roared into life as the gigantic starship took off from the airfield, having recently restocked its supply of fuel, ammunition and sickbags.

Fox sighed. Aerial battles over Cornaria were one thing, but if he had to speak to that dratted newswoman again he'd blow her oversized pixels to kingdom come.

"How are we doing, Peppy?"

The wisened rabbit scratched his ears. "We should be there soon. Loading times are fairly lax in this zone."

"Right." Fox rubbed his forehead. The stress was starting to make him moult. "How much of the cargo did we manage to get on board?"

"Everything seems to be in order. Slippy's checking it over now."

[i]"You mean he's gotten himself stuck underneath a box again..."[/i] Fox thought. It wasn't that Slippy was completely incompetent, he was just... mostly incompetent. In the embarrassing defeat at Cornaria against the Fireblade he spent half of the time trying to gun down Falco.

In a war you needed a brain, and Slippy's was by far the best when put to mechanics. And preferably as far away from Fox as possible. How anyone could have a voice like that and not be mistaken for a Pokemon was beyond him.

"We should try and upgrade our materials sometime." Fox said idly, checking out the starship's specifications.

"That's why we're travelling to the Mushroom Kingdom, isn't it?" Falco piped up from the corner, not lifting his head from he magazine he was looking at the pictures in.

"No." Fox sighed again. "We're going to the 16-Bit Festival." He'd rather be defending his planet, but General Pepper said he'd 'take care of it', which meant that there'd be a panicked transmission in about five minutes telling them that "We're outnumbered and can't hold out much longer!" Yes, battles were great fun.

Still, at least the cakes at the festival were good.

[Xra]

Sonic woke up in a cage, garded by a soldier.

[COLOR=blue]"Wha....Tails? Where are you!?"[/COLOR] He looked around and saw that he was alone in a big room, and in the room next door he heard people talking.

[COLOR=blue]"Hmm...[SIZE=1]maybe I can get out of here[/Size] O Service men?[/color]

[COLOR=orange]"What do you want ya runt?"[/color]

[color=blue]"I'm hungry, get me a chili dog, pronto!"[/color]

[Color=orange]"Yeah whatever."[/color]

(now that he's gone, its time to get to work.)

[Domon]

[COLOR=darkred][i]Sephiroth sat still untill he heard the roar of the plane's engines come to life. As this happened Sephiroth stood up from his crouching position and surveyed his surroundings. It was a rather large cargo hold, just a little [b]too big[/b]. While he was moving out of the pile of junk he had been hiding behind he heard a door open with a quick FWOOSH. "Damn it." Sephiroth cursed mentally as he climbed out of the junk and ran behind something else to survey what was going on. As he did this a green toad walked in with some kind of digital pad and started taking inventory. After a quick looksy Sephiroth came to the conclusion that the toad face was weak and couldn't accomplish any type of physical combat.

Slippy stood checking over some of the inventory and this time was hoping he wouldn't get caught under a box again. Although it felt odd in the cargo hold today, like someone or something was watching him. But he didn't care, just as long as he had a quick way to get ahold of Fox. He turned his attention to another box of random items and starting going through that list.

Sephiroth grinned, now was his opprotunity. He stood up walked up behind the frog faced creature. Just as he did the thing turned around and nearly got a scream out but it fell short as Sephiroth brought the flat side of his Mursame down onto the creature's stomach and knocked him out. He drug the things limp unconscious body behind a pile of junk and covered it up and headed for a nearby elevator.[/i][/COLOR]

[Kei]

[color=royalblue]Pikachu sat on the sill of a window in one of the many towers of Toadstool Castle, watching over the troops recently given up on by Mario. He chuckled softly at his lack of humor. He'd found the little Goomba funny. But since this was a big event and with the recent attacks, the troops training was important.

Pikachu leaped from the sill and agily landed on one of the lower roofs. He kept up this pattern of skillfulness until he reached the last one, where he promptly slipped on a loose tile and crashed into the flower bed below, startling a Koopa Troopa that was weeding there. Pikachu rose rubbing it's head and looked up sheepishly at the angry gardener.

"AH! Do you know how long it took me to plant those 'mums?! Now you've gone and crushed them all!!"

"Sorry 'bout that..." Pikachu said in his little language. The gardener gave him a quizzical look, then looked even angrier than before.

"I don't know what you just said, but I [i]do[/i] know that you'd better get out of here before I give your tail a trim with my hedgeclippers!!"

With a yelp, Pikachu ran off full-throttle for the troops, not once looking back. He finally stopped and rested on a nearby Koopa.

"Geez... I said I was sorry...." he mumbled. He then looked up at the Koopa he was leaning against and poked him to get his attention. The Koopa looked down, and Pikachu gave a smart salute.

"What're you trying to say? That you're training us now?" the Koopa responded. Pikachu nodded quickly, and saluted again smiling, expecting the Koopa doing the same in response. The Koopa gave Pikachu a long look, then burst out in hysterics.

"Hey, you guys!! The little mouse wants to play leader!! Hahahaha!"

The echos of laughter that followed was enough to bring Mario back outside.

"Hey! What's-a goin' on here?!"

The troops took one look at Mario, and laughed even harder. Pikachu walked over to him, smiling himself. He tugged on Mario's pantleg trying to stop from joining in the laughter. Mario looked down with an annoyed look on his face.

"Well? What's-a so funny?"

Pikachu made rubbed his hands around the outside of his mouth, and audibly started giggling. Mario looked at him oddly and followed the motion. When he looked at his hands, he found them covered with chocolate frosting.

"If the cake's that good, I'll go have some myself!" Pikachu said laughing while walking off to the castle kitchens.[/color]

[Desbreko]

[color=indigo]The purple gunship cruised at high altitude, a mere speck in the sky when viewed from the landscape below. It was a fast and agile ship, quite at home in both atmosphere and the vacuum of space, and it was home to the toughest bounty hunter in the galaxy: Samus Aran.

"We're approaching the castle," read the text that appeared in the corner of Samus' visor. She liked the new link between her and the ship's computer. With the upgrade, she could converse with the computer at any time over the encypted wireless link no matter how far from the ship she traveled.

"Thanks, Adam. I'll take it from here." Samus leaned forward in her seat, taking the controls.

"No problem, Lady."

As the ship switched over from auto-pilot to manual, Samus sent the ship into a sloping dive. On the horizon she could just make out the red dot that was the roof of Princess Peach Toadstool's castle. As she approached, the large crowds of the festival came into view as a sea of multi-colored specks, swarming around the castle and in the nearby town. Circling around so that she was coming in from behind the castle, she set the ship down softly, wanting to attract as little attention as possible.

"Don't let anyone in," she said as she opened the bottom hatch and dropped down to the ground.

"That seems to go without saying," the text scrolled out on her visor.

"As it should," Samus said as she stepped out from under the ship and started around to the front of the castle. The sun glinted off the emerald green visor of her crimson helmet and she could see her reflection in the moat as she walked along the edge of it, the orange and yellow [url=http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/gba/b/mf_2.htm]Fusion Suit[/url] bending and forming to her body as she walked.

Rounding the corner, she saw the rows of troops in front of the castle, with Mario standing in front of them. The troops seemed to be in a bit of disarray, she noted. She wondered if Mario would try and recruit her; the classics could use another hero--or heroine--the way things had been going. She was reluctant to get involved, but she could use the money. Being a bounty hunter had its ups and downs, and right now an up would be quite welcome.

We'll see, she thought. Right now I'm just here for the festival; he can talk to me afterwards if he's interested. Striding past the lines of troops, she headed for a large, open tent set up on the main lawns of the castle to provide shade from the noon-day sun. There were a few tables and chairs set up around an open-air resteraunt that had been erected next to the tent, and Samus sat down at one on the edge. Surveying the crowds, she wondered what events were planned for the day and who all was here. The 16-bit era had been one of the greatest in the history of gaming, so the attendees were sure to be many and varied.[/color]

[Queen Asuka]

[color=hotpink][size=1]Princess Toadstool smiled happily as she brushed her hair in the mirror. She was very excited about the upcoming festival, despite all that had been going on. She figured it was nice to have a little break away from it all...and a break was what she definately needed.

Walking out of her room, she headed straight for the kitchen.

"It's lunchtime, and I'm a bit hungry..." she told herself as she walked through the halls.

There were many goombas and koopas all over the place, which made her a bit nervous, but she trusted that Mario knew what he was doing. As she entered the kitchen, the girls in there made a big fuss over her as usual.

"Anything we can get you, ma'am?"
"You look so dazzling today, your Highness!"
"Aren't you so excited about the Festival?"

Peach smiled at them all and nodded. "How about we focus on lunch for everyone?" The girls giggled and set themselves to finishing up the preparations. Princess Toadstool made her way over to a chair and stared out the window for a bit, wondering what was next.[/color][/size]

[Xra]

As the gaurd left the room, Sonic crunched up into a little ball and started his famous spin dash. He charged it to maximum and laid a full assault against the bars of the cage. They didn't break, but they bent enough to just squeeze out.

Now Sonic was on the move. He didn't know where to go, but he managed to slip by all the guards untill he heard someone say in the background:

[COLOR=orange]"Hey the prisoner got out!"[/color]

[COLOR=blue]"Uh Oh, I gotta get outta here!"[/color] Sonic blew his cover. He started running through all the halls, avoiding all the guards. Alarms started blaring.

[COLOR=blue]"This doesn't look too good. I may get caught again and it could be wor-Wait a minute. That won't happen. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!"[/color] He started into his spin and continued though the halls.

[Semjaza]

Meanwhile...

The sun was shining while waves from the ocean lapped up on the beach. A small crab scuttled along the shore, hurriedly trying to get away from the young woman who was chasing it.

[I]Ahh. Finally, back to relaxing. That last mission was far bigger than I ever imagined... At least Professor Plum is safe, but it's too bad I couldn't save Micheal from being possessed by that demon. I wonder what became of him anyway...? The guy was pretty creepy even before he met that demon... with his beedy black eyes and sharply cut mustache. I'm probably better off not knowing, actually.[/I]

The young girl ran over to Bang, showing off the little crab she had finally caught just before it burrowed back into the sand. Her name was Mary, his girlfriend of several years at this point. They had been through a lot together... he even had to save her on his last mission.

Mary was saying something, but Bang had stopped paying attention by then. He kept thinking about how similiar this was to his last mission. Relaxing on the beach with Mary, who back then still had a bizarre obsession with crustaceans. His first vacation in god knows how long, and it was ripped apart thanks to his career as a Secret Agent. All that was missing this time was a call from his agency.

Bang sat up, half expecting his phone to go off. He stared off into the horizon, but all he could hear was the sound of seagulls squaking and waves quietly rolling over on the shore... That and Mary blabbing on about seashells and crab anatomy, but he had since learned to tune her out when she went on and on about such things.

Bang hoped his vacation would go without a hitch for at least a few more days... After all, he was invited to some sort of party and didn't really want to have to run out during the middle of it. He leaned over and dug around in his backpack, pulling out a small, white envelope he had received earlier in the week. It had a peculiar mushroom shaped seal on the back, something he didn't recognize. It had been torn open by Mary before he even had a chance to read it, and it had been sitting in his bag since then.

Mary told him it was an invitation to some sort of gathering, and she insisted they should go. Bang felt a bit uneasy about it though, so when Mary ran off to catch another crab he pulled the invitation out and read it.

"16-Bit Festival? What the hell is a 16-bit?" Bang, being from the NES days of games that dated the year as 199X, had no idea what to think of it. He had been too busy with his last few missions (and the small bits of his own life he actually got to spend having fun), that he wasn't exactly up with current events.

It was too late to question. Mary had already purchased the tickets they needed to get there. He couldn't back out now... otherwise the evil airline company would charge him a large fee that cost even more than both tickets. They were set to board later that night, so Bang just decided to go with the flow.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Mary added the 16 crabs she caught during the day to her collection at home, which already took up its own room. She spent a few hours naming all of them too. Luckily, this was the only eccentricity that Mary had. She was a very nice, loyal and brave person otherwise.

So, finally, they headed for the airport after packing... Bang refused to show up 2 hours ahead of time like the airline suggested. He thought only suckers fell for that, and he'd much rather be doing something enjoyable... Rather than listening to annoying children cry and old people complain.

So with that they boarded their plane and headed towards the Mushroom Kingdom... a wonderful 16 hour flight. At least he had some Ritz Bitz.

Bang and Mary took their seats. Bang looked the plane over - he liked to always be prepared for any situation. Mostly nothing out of the ordinary... a bunch of tourists. There were a few little guys that looked like they had mushroom tops on the their heads, which caught his eye. They looked somewhat like the seal on his invitation, so he figured they were Mushroom Kingdom natives.

The only other one of interest was a muscular man in white, karate-esque clothes and a red bandana. Bang wasn't sure what to think of him, but decided to keep his eye out just in case. It was part of his job anyway, really.

[Break]

[color=669900]Makar had always wanted some time to get away from the Forest Haven and the whole of the Great Sea. He'd heard about 16-Bit Festival, and of all the great things he would see there. Visiting other places had never been great fun for Makar, the only time he'd strayed outside of his home was to enter the Wind Temple to help save the land he lived in. He thought it was all a bit too scary for him, so he wanted to take it easy this time and just go have some fun at this festival.

After asking permission from the Great Deku Tree, he and the other Koroks were transported from the Great Sea to the Mushroom Kingdom to enjoy the festivities. But now he stood lost in a crowd of people, having no idea where the other Koroks were.

He felt slightly intimidated by all the strange-looking things that surrounded him. Most of these things were taller than him, so he could barely see the sun through the bustling crowd. Nevertheless, he made his way through the crowd, brushing past everyone's legs as he went. He had no idea where he was going, mainly because he couldn't see where he was going.

He had squeaked "Sorry!" quite a few times now, and was getting annoyed that people didn't notice him at all and kept bumping into him. He wasn't [i]that[/i] small after all, and he was sure that these people were able to look at the ground. Jingling, he ran from something that nearly kicked him and straight into something very hard.

Makar toppled right over and squealed, he looked up and saw that he had ran into someone else's leg, but it was covered in orangey-red armour. He got to his feet and looked up curiously. A tall person, covered in the same armour, with some yellow parts on it and some kind of green glass for an eye. It looked kind of menacing for something Makar's size, so he took a few steps back as it turned to look at him.. [/color]

[Guest Zeh]

It was... Luigi!?

Falling back into his usual italian accent Luigi winked at Yoshi. [color=green][b]"you-a gotta be careful, wondering around like this."[/b][/color]

I looked about for the 'other' person, but it didn't seem that there was one. I heard the voice again, it seemed to be in Luigi's direction. [color=green][b]"Hey, over here."[/b][/color] It was, again, Luigi. He must of known i was here.

[color=green][b]"You know the 16-Bit Festival is going on now, why-a are you all the way over here?"[/b][/color] Puzzled, Luigi said.

[color=00cc00][b]"Yoshi!"[/b][/color] I turned around, allowing Luigi to hop up on my back.

[color=green][b]"It's just-a down the path we have to travel. If you're wondering about the-a Hedgehog thing, we all already know about it. Sonic can take care of himself..."[/b][/color]

It didn't much matter to me. I loved fairs. I'm only here to do as Mario, Peach, Luigi, or anyother one bids. This was one of the biggest gatherings of the year, i was thrilled to get there.

[Solo Tremaine]

Fox could see the Warp to the Mushroom Kingdom appearing ahead of them. They weren't going to be that late after all.

Slippy had been a long time in the cargo bay. Something must have happened to him... again. Sighing and lifting himself out of the chair, Fox started making his way down to find him.

As he wandered over to the lift shaft, he jabbed a button on his communicator device.

"Slippy, are you there?"

No answer. That was a little strange. Usually, no matter what the situation, SLippy would always be able to reply. He loved his gadgets.

"Slippy, do you read me?"

It was a bit of a silly question, really- if he wasn't answering, then the chances were that he wasn't reading him at all. Still, best to be sure, in case he was in the middle of something he couldn;t be distracted from.

The lift doors swept open and Fox walked inside, his tail flicking tensely behind him. As a precaution, he unclipped the blaster from his belt and held it tightly in his hand. Sometimes it paid to be paranoid.

[James]

[color=red][size=4]"Gah!! Must...remove...chocolate!!"[/size][/color]

[color=blue]...[i]SPLASH![/i]...[/color]

[color=red][size=1]"Ahh. Mama-mia, that's better. Phew..."[/color][/size]

Mario sat down in the water, which reached his neck. It was all warm and cosy, as though someone had only just run the bath. Mario didn't care though; the embarssment caused outside the castle was too much for him to bare. For a moment, Mario entertained the thought that people might link his chubbiness to overeating. But he quickly forgot that thought, as memories of Peach's tasty chocolate cake swirled through his mind.

He was sitting in a rather elaborate bathtub. It was white and pink, with bulbous, exaggerated legs and a large pink curtain running around one side. The tiles were like a white and pink chessboard and the quirky golden window frames made Mario feel at home. Ah yes, this was definitely Peach's bathroom. It occurred to Mario that he'd never seen it before, which struck him as being a little odd.

Nevertheless, the water was just fine. Mario carefully washed his moustache in the water. His hat and overalls were hanging on a nearby clothes hook; everything was in order...well, not [i]everything[/i].

[size=6][b]>>SLAM!<<[/b][/size]

Mario immediately leapt from the tub as the bathroom door slammed open.

[color=sienna]"Ohh dear! Please excuse me! I didn't know anyone was in here!"[/color] said a funny little voice.

Mario landed with a thud on the ground in front of the tub. Thankfully, a large ring of soap bubbles had enveloped Mario's round little body and only his legs, arms and head could be seen.

The man standing in the doorway was someone whom Mario instantly recognized...

[color=red]"Professor!! What are you doing here?"[/color] cried Mario.

The little professor was carrying a small bathrobe and slippers with him. He dropped the two items on the floor and waved his hands around frantically.

[color=sienna]"It's not what you think, Mario! I've travelled a long way, you see. So I thought I'd just refresh my spirit a little while I'm here. I'm sure the Princess doesn't mind."[/color] The Professor paused and looked at the bathtub, Mario and the trail of water running along the floor that connected the two. [color=sienna]"Ah, but I see you've already been here. :blush: "[/color]

Mario nodded, the dazed expression on his face unchanged. He stood up, waddled over to the clothing rack, collected his hat and overalls and promptly dashed past the professor and into the nearby hallway.

[color=sienna]"Oh dear,"[/color] mumbled the professor, [color=sienna]"I think it would be wise if I locked the door..."[/color]

[Domon]

[COLOR=darkred][i]Just as Sephiroth was about 10 ft. away from the elevator, the doors swished open and Sphiroth came to a dead halt and got into an offensive sword stance, his hand digging around the hilt of his sword.

Fox was still pondering why Slippy wasn't answering his comm page, it was too odd for the little guy. His vice grip on his blaster tightened as he entered the cargo hold, he looked around for Slippy and at first missed the black-clad man standing there but then he saw him when he realized he was looking at an intruder.

As soon as Sephiroth saw that it was some Fox-faced alien he drew his Mursame and brought the sword point down and charged at the thing. Unfortunately Sephiroth didn't see the blaster and just as he neared 2 feet Fox brought his blaster up and fired off a shot. All the silver-haired man could do was jump to the right but the blaster hit its target and bit into his shoulder and pierced through the skin it barely missed the joint of where his arm met his torso. He brought a gloved hand up and felt it, no blood, it had been caughterized (sp?) and wouldn't bleed out, just yet.

Fox: I'm warning you. I won't hesitate to shoot you in the head!

[i]Sephiroth just looked at him icily and charged up a blast of thunder magic, if he could knock out the lights maybe he could get out of here.[/i]

Sephiroth: Thunder 2.

Fox: Huh??

[i]As soon as Sephiroth said those words a large ball of electric energy sparked to life in the palm of his hand and all he had to do was just have it hit something.. He looked right at a control panel and threw the blast of lightning at it, it made contact with its target and the lights then went dead.

Fox cursed under his breath, this intruder had done something to knock out the lights. His ears then twitched and perked, he could hear soft yet heavy bootsteps heading for the elevator at the other side of the hold, he raised his blaster and began firing off shots blindly he swore he'd hit that guy right on the arm so how could he keep moving?? Maybe if he hit him in the leg then. No, he hadn't even touched the man because he heard the elevator's doors open with a whoosh and the close. All Fox could do was bring his comm device up.[/i]

Fox: Guys, we have an intruder so sound the alarm![/COLOR]

[Kei]

[color=royalblue]Pikachu waddled happily into the kitchens and noticed the Princess sitting at the table looking out the window. She seemed to be deep in thought. Pikachu ran over, narrowly avoiding a servant carrying a tray of food and hopped up on the table. Peach seemed a bit startled by his sudden appearance. He quickly bowed and sat down smiling.

"Well, hello there, Pikachu. Did you get hungry?"

Pikachu shrugged and pointed to the recently attacked cake.

"I just wanted to see what was so good that Mario practically fell into it."

"Oh. It seems Mario's been here. He does love that cake of mine. Did you want some?"

"Here's some sandwiches for you, Princess," a servant said setting a small platter of light sandwiches in front of her with all sorts of condiments. Pikachu immediately attacked the bottle of ketchup, happily opened it and began licking it from the bottle.

"I guess you're fine with that, then." Peach said with a laugh.

She picked up a sandwich and bit into, getting that far off look in her eyes again. Pikachu noticed and looked up at her, tilting his head. Peach looked at her little friend and petted him.

"I'm just wondering what will happen with this war. All these attacks have me worried. I just hope everyone will come out of this okay... Especially Sonic. I heard he'd been captured."

Pikachu waved his paw at her, indicating she shouldn't worry.

"Sonic can take care of himself. He's probably on his way back by now...unless he stopped by a chili dog stand on the way back..."

"Hm? Are you saying I shouldn't worry?"

Pikachu sighed at his inability to communicate properly with humans and nodded.

"Perhaps you're right...."

"Yeah... Perhaps..." Pikachu mumbled, then returned to eating his beloved ketchup.[/color]

[Solo Tremaine]

Fox yelled down the communicator again.

"Lock down the ship! Close all of the security doors and make sure he doesn't get in the bridge!"

"Who, Slippy?"

"NO! There's a Next-Gen on board!" he shouted, ripping a panel from the wall next to the elevator. Thankfully these lifts hadn't been maintenanced in years- it crawled up at a snail's pace.

"Keep going through the warp until

Suddenly, red lights began flashing around the ship and mechanical whirrings echoed around the cargo bay. The 'thud' of security doors closing on the decks above made Fox feel a little more at ease. With any luck, this guy wasn't going anywhere.

He clambered into the hole he'd made and started climbing up the narrow ladder in the lift shaft. Because of the lockdown, the lift had stopped mid-floor.

The ship began to shake slightly. They'd entered the warp. When they were at the festival they'd be able to get reinforcements from Mario's lot. Mind you, these Next-Gens were extremely deadly. They'd been known to take out entire roomfulls of people in seconds.

He kept his blaster pointed at the lift as he climbed up the ladder. He had no idea what to do. He'd not had much experience with hand-to-hand combat. He just hoped they'd be able to get to Mushroom Kingdom in time...

[Domon]

[COLOR=darkred][i]Sepiroth stood in the elevator looking at the melted hole in his shoulder plate, he'd been sure to cast Cure 2 on his injury as soon as he hit the elevator. Whoever this guy was he was pretty good with a gun. Had he aimed any lower he would have cleanly taken off Spehiroth's arm. While he stood in the elevator Sephiroth noticed that the thing was crawling at a snail's pace and now security alarms were going off. "Heh, fine with me." After reaching the floor above the cargo hold Sephiroth pressed the emergency stop button, except the door wouldn't open. "That can be fixed." Sephiroth thought with a glint of malice in his eyes. He unsheathed his Mursame and quickly cut the doors into 4 pieces or 4 tirangles.

Meanwhile on the bridge Peppie and Falco stood around at their stations wondering how they got an intruder in without picking him up.

[b]Back on the floor Sephiroth was on.[/b]

Sephiroth cursed under his breath, he had to dodge several wall mounted laser cannons or just blow them up with magic and he was running out of magic power. Just as he rounded the corridor's end he saw a huge security door blocking his path.[/i]

"The just don't know when to quit!" [i]The man thought out loud. He brought his sword up and sliced the door like butter under a hot knife, as soon as he was done the door fell down into pieces and Sephiroth proceeded on his journey to the bridge.[/i][/COLOR]

[Xra]

[COLOR=blue]"When will these halls end?"[/COLOR] Sonic was still running through the endless halls. He soon came up to one that was quite narrow, so he continued through. There were guards in front of him, so tried to rush back. It was just his luck though that he saw guards behind him as well.

[COLOR=blue]"I'm in deep now, uhoh."[/COLOR]

[COLOR=orange]"We have you now hedgehog."[/COLOR]

[COLOR=blue]"Aak this is i-"[/COLOR] Before he could finish, a part of the wall fell down, and who of all people was behind it?

[COLOR=orangered]"Hey Sonic, thought you could use a hand."[/COLOR]

[COLOR=blue]"Ahh, Knuckles. Perfect timing!"[/COLOR]

[COLOR=orangered]"Enough chitchat, lets go!"[/COLOR]

Sonic and knuckles both went out the hole with everyone behind them. Tails was waiting outside with the Tornado.

[COLOR=sandybrown]"Sonic, hurry!"[/COLOR]

All three got into the plane and left into the sky, leaving all the guards behind.

[The Vampire: Ed]

"From the shards of tattered dreams, I rose-unwilling. Tossed upon tides of pain that flowed and ebbed and left me searingly awake. And more revoltingly - alive."

Kain slumbers upon his thrown back in Nosgoth dreaming of his nightmarish role in Blood Omen 2. He often dreaded even agreeing to it, for it's plethora of glitches and newly added plot holes only ruined the good image of the former nobleman, Kain. Kain, in his sleep, mutters phrases from Blood Omen 2 while gritting his teeth and growling slightly. Perhaps his dreams were on the many hours he had spent getting his lines right, and playing the role to perfection only to be bungled by incompetent programmers who can't even get their lip synching right at the most important part to the game.

Kain suddenly stirs, and awakens clutching his head with his right hand while trying to shake the thoughts of his blemished image from his mind.

"Oh, what a horrible dream. I must contact my agent about my future with Eidos, and the Blood Omen series. I don't think I can stand doing another one. I'll stick to more theatrical entertainment from now on, if this is the way it's going to be. But then they'd probably replace me with Ben Affleck, with Matt Damon as his little sidekick. They always stick those two idiots together..."

"Master, you have a visitor." A vampire says as he enters Kain's thrown room. "He says he is - your master."

Kain stands up immediately seeming enraged by the mere notion that someone clams to be higher than he. "Who is this fool, this poor deluded soul whom believes he to be mightier than I?" Kain asked with a look of anger.

"IT IS I!!" A voice booms out. Kain looks around confused, there seems to be no one else in his presence except his vampire soldier. The soldier clears his throat, and points down. Kain's eyes grow wide, his lip quivers uncontrollably, then suddenly a roar of laughter escapes from Kain's mouth.

"My god, I haven't laughed like that in such a long time. Thank you, my little friend." Kain says as he fights back further laughter looking down upon a small 2D sprite. The 2D sprite points at Kain, and yells with his oddly loud voice.

"I am your master, the sorce of all vampires - I am Dracula!!!" The 2D sprite said revealing it's identity, but Kain laughs again staring at him.

[center][img]http://www.classicgaming.com/castlevania/dx-duod1.gif[/img][/center]

"You? My master? No. No one is my master, especially not some runt 2D sprite from the Castlevania games. You're a joke!" Kain says as he points at Dracula.

"Hey, f**k you buddy!" Dracula replied surprising Kain with his foul mouth. "I am the Prince of Darkness you sniveling idiot!"

Kain raises his eyebrow, then simply grabs a wine glass filled to the brim with blood turning it over to pour the contents onto the paper thin Dracula. Kain grabs Dracula by the leg, and picks him up quickly folding him in several places. After a moment Kain holds up Dracula shaped like a paper airplane.

"Well, my lord, have a nice flight." Kain says as he flings Dracula out the window soaring through the air like a feather.

"I'LL BE BACK! YOU'LL SEE! I'M GOING TO TURN 3D, THEN GO MEDIEVAL ON YOUR ***!!!" Dracula shouts as he disappears into the darkness that is the sky.

Kain reaches for his sword, the Soul Reaver, at the side of his thrown grasping it by the handle. Quickly Kain brings it up lopping this vampire soldiers head off. An explosion of blood come forth from his neck as Kain sneers evilly at the now headless body stumbling about.

"Idiot." Kain said as another soldier came in to see what all the commotion was all about, Kain looks toward the other soldier watching the body collapse. "If that little twit Dracula comes back, don't let him in. Throw him out. Or, I'll kill you too."

The vampire solider nods as he slowly backs out of the room, leaving Kain to his own silence. Kain rubs his head feeling a headache coming on.

[Queen Asuka]

[color=hotpink][size=1]As Peach finished her lunch, she put the tray back in the kitchen where the maids were already beginning to clean up. All of them, being Mushroom Kingdom inhabitants, had the little mushroom top for a head. She smiled absently and walked out of the kitchen, to the dining room. There, different shifts of goombas and koopa troopas were taking turns eating lunch. She shuddered again and walked out of the room. Pikachu followed her, cradling the bottle of ketchup for dear life.

She walked through many corridors and finally came to the empty throne room. Many flowers and garlands had been strung around the room for the celebration, along with paper lanterns. The sunlight lit the room in a dazzling white and her throne stood directly in the center. She sat down quietly. Pikachu took a place at her side.

"I guess I'm just feeling a bit lonely," Peach said.

Pikachu looked at her inquiringly.

"Mario and Luigi have been so busy, they really haven't had time to be with me. I talk with my maids and with the people of the kingdom, but none of them really know me..."

She didn't say anything else as she started running a hand through her long blondish hair. Pikachu looked away, feeling uncomfortible, not really grasping the human emotion very well.[/color][/size]

[Desbreko]

[color=indigo]Looking down at the small, plant-like being that had bumped into her leg, Samus switched over to her Scan Visor.

[center]Morphology: Korok
These intelligent plant creatures are a peaceful race that inhabit Forest Haven with the Great Deku Tree. Using small leaf propellers, they are able to fly and glide for short periods of time. It is believed that long ago they once inhabited human-like bodies and were known as Kokiri.[/center]

Samus switched on her helmet's microphone, letting others besides Adam hear her. "Who might you be?" The little Korok looked afraid as it gazed up at her. "I'm not going to hurt you," she said, trying to reassure it. She guessed she probably did look more than a little intimidating, especially to something so small. It seemed to do the trick, though; the Korok unfolded it's little leaf propellar and started it spinning, flying up to stand on the table that Samus was sitting at.

"Who are you?" it asked.

"My name is Samus Aran." She looked at the Korok; it looked back. Both were curious about each other. Samus was always interested in new life-forms.

"I'm Makar. Everyone else just walks past. Thanks for noticing me."

Some text scrolled across her visor. "Looks like you've made a new friend."

"Looks like it," she said with the microphone switched off. This creature sort of reminded her of the Etecoons that she first found on the planet Zebes, only it could talk. With the microphone back on, she replied, "Someone has to look out for the little ones in life." She smiled behind her visor, remembering her mad dash out of the exploding planet Zebes, stopping only long enough to rescue the Etecoons and Dachoras that had helped her during the mission.[/color]