Part 2
by
Mark Moore
"Where in the hell are we?" Greg asked.
"Actually, I think we're still in Videoland." Armina said.
Suddenly, the door of the time machine was destroyed, courtesy of Mega Man and his blaster. All of the N Team veterans ran out.
"Damn! Those N Twirps are loose!" Mother Brain yelled. She converted into her three-wheeler mode. "Angela! Wily! Hop on!"
The two scientists eagerly obliged.
"Roll for it!" Angela yelled.
Mother Brain sped towards a warp and entered it. The warp closed.
"Damn, she got away." Alex said.
"Where are we, Lana?" Carrie asked.
Lana wasn't paying attention to them. She was looking around the Megaland Convention Center. Something felt wrong. She couldn't tell what. Something. That's all her mind was able to come up with.
A hand touched her right shoulder. "Lana?"
Lana was pulled from her thoughts, startled, and turned around to face Carrie.
"Don't do that!" Lana yelled. "You scared the shit out of me!"
"Sorry!" Carrie said. "Are you all right?"
"You look spaced out." Luke said. "You been smokin' a doobie?"
Lana looked at all of them. "Something's wrong."
"What?" Sandra asked.
Lana shook her head. "I don't know."
"Hey, you know what?" Roberta asked. "I feel it, too."
Sandra looked around. "The place looks different! It's not decorated for the party!"
"We've traveled through time!" Greg said.
"I knew it!" Simon claimed.
"How much time do you think has passedicus?" Kid Icarus asked.
"Mega Man, check your sensors." Lana said.
"Let's see how far in the future we are." Armina said.
"Or the past." Carrie added.
Lana shuddered. "Let's hope not."
"According to my mega sensors, the current date is..." Mega Man paused, then looked up at the Queen. "September 9,...1989."
Lana gasped. "September 9, 1989 - the day Kevin arrived in Videoland!"
"And Mother Brain's here." Sandra pointed out.
Lana's face grew pale. "Oh, shit."
On a hillside in Megaland...
"As far as I can tell, we were all accidentally sent back to the day that Captain N was brought to Videoland." Dr. Wily explained.
"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!" Mother Brain said with a smile.
"How do we get back?" Angela asked.
"Who cares about getting back?" Mother Brain asked.
"You intend to stay here - in 1989?" Angela asked.
"Of course! In this point in time, I have a perfect opportunity to conquer Videoland! And I know just how to start!" Mother Brain cackled laughter.
Back at the Convention Center...
"I guess we should go back to the Palace." Greg said.
"No!" Lana shot.
"Why not?" Alex asked.
"We have to stop Mother Brain before she reaches the Palace of Power." Lana said.
"All right, let's go." Armina said.
Lana shook her head. "No. The energon crystals that powered the time warp were destroyed. We have to find some more."
"Where?" Roberta asked. "There's only a few left in Videoland."
"Now there is, but nine years ago there were a lot! I mean now there are only a few - I mean nine years from now - " Lana dismissed it with a wave of her right hand. "Aw, screw it. We'll split into groups. The new kids will go look for the energon crystals. I and the rest of the veteran N Team members will go to Sun World and stop Mother Brain."
"Okay." Sandra agreed.
"Just remember that raw energon crystal, not transformed into energon cubes, is highly unstable." Lana warned.
They all nodded and split up.
In the Palace of Power...
"This can't be happening to me!" Kevin said to himself.
Irate, Kid Icarus flew over to Kevin and grabbed him by the collar. "Sure is, Kevinicus! It's happening to all of us!" He released Kevin.
"If you cannot help us," Lana told him with growing despair, "Mother Brain will conquer all of Videoland, and our freedom will be lost forever."
"Hey! You've got the wrong guy." Kevin informed them coldly. "I'm going home." He turned to the warp and motioned for Duke to follow. "Come on, Duke." The warp disappeared just before he got to the wall, so he walked right smack into the wall and then fell on his back. "Ugh!"
"Oh!" Lana gasped.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" Simon laughed. He put his hand on Lana's back gently. "There, there, don't worry, Princess. I'll save Videoland." He smiled sweetly at her, but this did little to console her.
Lana closed her eyes and began to cry. She turned Simon away and ran to a lift platform. It lifted her to the floor where her room was.
"Your Cuteness, wait!" He ran off to catch up with her.
Kid Icarus and Mega Man turned to Kevin, angry at him.
"You were her only hope, but you let her down!" Kid Icarus snapped. He flew away.
"You get a low score for this game!" Mega Man snapped. He left and caught up with his friend, Kid Icarus.
On the road to the Palace...
"A-hee!" Mother Brain said. "It won't be long until history is changed, and I begin to conquer Videoland!"
Angela repeated this phrase silently in her head. Something disturbed her.
Elsewhere on the road...
"Lana!" Armina yelled.
The new kids ran up to the veterans.
"We've got the energon!" Carrie said in excitement.
"And in cubes, too." Lana said in wonder. "How'd you manage that?"
"We got them from Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus. They had some to spare." Greg informed the Queen.
Lana was confused. "Who?"
On the sinister asteroid known as Metroid...
The group stopped near the tower.
"Mega Man, give me a hand." Kevin instructed. "That looks like an opening."
He put one foot into Mega Man's hands, and Mega Man propelled him upwards at a very high speed. As he soared through the air, Kevin screamed. He fell through the roof of the tower, and he landed on and squashed Lana's guard into video dust.
"Princess!"
Lana turned towards him and smiled in delight. She ran to him, and they embraced each other.
"I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with Videoland." she said.
"I'm sorry I didn't take you seriously before." he replied. "I couldn't believe that this was real."
She shook her head as they released each other. "Oh, it is I who should apologize to you."
Mega Man, Kid Icarus, and Duke broke into the room.
"Don't worry about it, Princess." Kevin said.
Suddenly, the door the group had used shut tight! Lana gasped.
"Huh?!" Kevin yelled in surprise, looking at the door.
Mega Man struggled to open it again, but to no avail. He shrugged. "We're locked in."
Then, the hologram of the ugliest being in Videoland appeared to them. "So, this is what the Ultimate Warp Zone has sent to defeat me, huh?" she asked, addressing Captain N.
He was instantly angry with her for all that she had put Lana and Videoland through.
"We'll see just how good you are when you try to survive...the corridors of Metroid! Eee, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee!"
Unfortunately, Kevin, Lana, and Duke were all perfectly positioned on the trap door! It opened and dumped the three into the center of Metroid.
Back on the road to the Palace...
"I don't get it, Lana." Greg said. "Why don't we just go to the Palace and warn your past selves about Mother Brain?"
Lana shook her head. "We can't!"
"Why the fuck not?!" Sandra yelled. "Um,...Your Majesty?" she quickly added.
Lana stopped, as did everyone else.
The Queen looked at them all. "Let me ask you all something. What will happen if Mother Brain kills our past selves?"
"You'll be erased from existence." Armina replied, as if it was obvious.
"You've been watching too much Back To The Future." Luke said.
"What's at stake is more than meets the eye." Lana said. "We won't get 'erased from existence', as you say. History will be altered, and we will have been dead for the past nine years."
"And?" Roberta asked.
"And...we'll still be on Earth." Sandra realized.
"Oh, well, no harm to us." Luke said.
"You're not seeing it!" Lana said. "Take this one step further. If we've been dead for the past nine years, would Mother Brain have invited us to the party in 1998?"
Armina shook her head. "No."
"Would she have tried to send us back in time?" Lana continued.
Keisha shook her head. "No."
"And would Mother Brain have ended up back in 1989?" Lana asked.
Armand shook his head. "No."
"So, if Mother Brain never went back in time, how can she alter history?" Lana asked.
"So,...everything goes back to the way it was." Carrie said. "Mother Brain's attempt to fuck with history is futile."
"If everything goes back to the way it was, then Mother Brain does go back in time!" Lana yelled.
"Oh, man, I got a headache." Luke said.
"It's a time paradox!" Lana said. She faced Greg. "Now, Greg! Now, do you see what will happen?!"
Greg shook his head. "Not really."
"Imagine the universe - past, present, and future - being destroyed!" Lana yelled.
The others grew pale.
Back on Metroid...
"Oh, brother." Mother Brain said, dismayed at her idiots' utter lack of intelligence. She turned to the team and grinned wickedly. "I'll deal with you myself!"
Kid Icarus flew up to her and fired an arrow at a lever, causing her to spin around uncontrollably!
"Oh, no!" Her jar was now a blur, and electricity fired everywhere.
"Quick! Into the warp zone!" Kevin said, noticing a warp out of Metroid. "It's too dangerous to finish her off!"
"You may have stopped me this time, Princess, but next time, I'll be stronger than ever!" Mother Brain vowed. Her voice was now high, squeaky, and twice as fast, due to the spinning.
"So will we, Mother Brain." Lana vowed. "So will we."
Outside the Palace...
"Here we are!" Mother Brain said. She converted into her tank mode.
"Mother Brain, stop!" Lana shouted.
Mother Brain looked at her. "You're too late, Queen Lowlife!" She aimed her guns at the Palace. "I'm going to destroy the Palace, the N Team,...and Captain N!"
"You're mad!" Lana yelled.
"Actually, I couldn't be happier!" Mother Brain said. "I and my instruments of destruction will finish you off for good!" She prepared to fire.
Suddenly, Angela realized what was going on. "Mother Brain, don't! You'll destroy everything!"
"What?!" Mother Brain yelled in surprise.
"History has to unfold the way we originally experienced it!" Lana shook her head. "Everything that is, the existence of the entire universe, depends on it!"
Mother Brain realized what the Queen meant. "Aw, shit."
The Megaland Convention Center
Saturday, December 6, 1998, 10:25 PM
"I hope you've learned your lesson, Mother Brain." Lana said.
"And that is?" Mother Brain asked.
Lana grinned. "Don't screw with history. You'll end up fucking us all."
Luke threw his head back and laughed.
The Palace of Power...
Everybody was seated in the living room, in casual clothes, relaxing after their mission.
"Man, what a tiring day that was." Greg said. "I'm exhausted!"
Lana sighed. "Me, too."
"I wish I could've met Kevin." Keisha said. "Maybe he could've given me some pointers."
Lana smiled. "I can tell you what happened."
The Palace of Power
Saturday, September 9, 1989, 10:30 PM
Simon was eager to be rid of Kevin. "Yes. Well, it was very nice of you to drop by." he said. He waved good-bye. "Do come back and visit us soon in, say, twenty years?"
Kevin turned back for one final look at the group and turned to the warp. He was about to pass through when...
"Kevin?" his mother called scoldingly. "You'd better not be playing that foolish game! You have homework to do. And don't forget to take out the trash!"
"On second thought," he said, "I guess I could stay just a little while longer."
Lana came up to him. He looked back to her over his left shoulder, and she kissed him on his left cheek. Simon gasped, horrified.
"Let's face it. I'm hooked!" Kevin twirled his Zapper and fired it off towards an unimportant part of the ceiling.
GAME OVER