by
Cynthia Chan
At the California Games
"I can't believe this is happening!!" Carrie cried.
"All this water going to waste, and all because of that stupid machine!!"
"I know what you mean, Carrie," said Armina, "but we won't let that happen, will we?"
"No way!!!"
The girls were superheroes now, Armina in her blue-armoured bodysuit and Carrie in a bodysuit of glittering red metal and rubies. Keisha, Sandra and Roberta wore skirts, because they were not heavily involved into physical action like Armina and Carrie. Also, Armina and Carrie's outfits had long sleeves like the boys. Both wore their long hair down to the waist, and each wielded her own weapon in her hands. Carrie stared into the ocean.
"Just a few more seconds 'till they come and suck the whole beach dry," she stated.
"Three ... two ... one," counted Armina, "Blast off!!! There they are!!" She pointed to two figures on a submarine ship. Wily and Aino were in full view of the heroes.
"Gotta get to the submarine and destroy the controls!!" shouted Armina.
"How??" asked Carrie, "I can swim, but what about you?"
"Gonna try something, back me up on this one!!" She ran to a cliff, where the water was deep and dove off. Carrie, in fear of her leader's safety, went off after her.
"Armina!!!" she cried as she hit the water.
A sudden change took over her underwater. Carrie's legs joined to form a red tail, and she didn't feel the need to surface for air. Carrie was a mermaid now.
"So, Zelda wasn't kidding when she said we could be anything!!" Then, "The sub!!!" She used her tail to propel herself to the plunging sub, and she spotted, with glad surprise, Armina swimming way ahead of her, also a mermaid.
"I don't get it," complained Alex. "Why can't we go underwater and become mermaids and mermen, and stuff like that? That would have been cool!!"
"Because we have to go inside the submarine, and once we change, we can't change back until we reach solid, dry , NATURAL land," answered Roberta, "A submarine's floor is artificial land, not natural, and our tails would be useless."
"But why can my sister and Carrie go?" asked Armand.
Keisha answered, "Because their work is on the outside, or that's what they told us. They're going to stop Wily from drilling a hole in the ground, while we sabotage the ship's insides."
The Team were chatting inside their own watercraft. It was a sleek pink ship, its shape resembling that of the Planeteer's GeoCruiser, except larger to include sleeping quarters, a kitchen, a bathroom, a room where they would put on scuba and space suits, and a lounge. Of course, there was the dispatching room, where they would leave and come on the ship, and the main bridge, where all the controls were, even the warp generator.
"Dr. Right and his students built this baby three years ago as a present for the Queen's 21st birthday." announced Sandra, looking around the ship. "The S.S. Starlight's the best and the fastest ship in all of Videoland!"
"And the best looking, too," bragged Queen Lana, "That must be the reason why the doctor gave it to me for my 21st birthday!"
"Don't forget Your Majesty, for your coronation ceremony, too!"
"How could I? It was the best present that I received! Of all MATERIAL things, of course!!"
The ship veered towards the sinking submarine and at Lana's orders, her pilot Lytideon positioned the ship under the now-floating submarine of brown metal.
"All right, Lytideon," ordered the Queen, "guard the ship until we return. Signal us if there's any trouble, and we'll do the same for our side."
"Yes, your highness," answered the brawny male pilot with blue hair. He proceeded to the escape hatch and made sure that everyone aboard got out. Then Lytideon shuffled to the kitchen to pour himself a cup of tea, and relaxed on the main bridge.
Inside the submarine...
"Kylie! Laestrygonia! Kipper! Sindelle! Keep working on that water crisis!" shouted Angela Aino from an upper deck. "I need that teleporter now! Gerrard! Get your butt moving before I move it into the hellfire!"
"YESSIR!" shouted a man who was reading comic books and now running around in circles. Angela rolled her eyes and ignored Gerrard.
"I thought we would first drill a hole into the ground and connect it to my water trams!" whispered Dr. Wily, angrily.
"Patience, Arthur, patience," answered Angela, "The teleportation system is faster than water trams. I've got a ship waiting in Kongoland with the energy converting dam. When we flood Kongoland with a waterfall, the converter will turn the water into chemical energy that will fill up the energy cells needed to power the time machine. You know how costly it is to replace the cells that we lost two weeks ago!"
"I see That's all I need to know."
That was also all that the N Team needed to know, too. Armina and Carrie swam up to the six N Teamsters in scuba suits.
"How do you propose we get inside?" Keisha asked her, "Look, the plans are gone now. They're not drilling a hole into the ground."
"I know, and I wish I knew a better way out of our mistake," explained Armina, still in mermaid form, "but we gotta go on, make up as we go kind of thing. Carrie and I will continue to eavesdrop from the outside."
"Right," said Keisha, "I think I know how to get in without them knowing." She looked at one wheel and swam up to it. "Sandra, come with me. You grab the door with your lasso. Roberta, go help her with your sash. Armand, Alex, Armina and Carrie and Her Majesty will use their weapons and help me bang that door open! Now everyone to work!"
They all circled around the door. Sandra and Roberta in scuba suits scurried to the sides of the door and knotted multiple sides of the handle with their ropes and pulled. Lana, Keisha, Armina, Armand, Alex and Carrie all attempted to break open the door with weapons and Zappers.
"I can't go on much longer," complained Lana as she fired a Hadou-Ken at the door. "My Zapper's all out and so will I after this last shot."
Keisha handed her her whip. "Take this and help the others pull the door open, then, Your Majesty."
Lana accepted the whip and swam to the others pulling at the door handle. After so much pounding, Carrie had an idea. "This may take up all our Zappers' energy, but we'll need it. If we aim them together, we can blast the door right in!"
"It's worth a shot," said Armina, "All opposed?"
No one raised his or her hand. It was a go. "Set Zappers on kill," said Keisha, "and we're sure to open this door!" They did, and Sandra and Roberta threw their Zappers towards the other members.
"Keisha! Armina! Catch!" and the girls caught the Zappers and each fired the two guns in her possession. The others surrounded them and did the same. Then everyone swam in one direction, firing at the door, until they reached the same place. The door fell through, but Sandra, Roberta and Lana were quick enough to swim away, pulling the door with them to buy time for the others to go in.
"INTRUDERS!! WE HAVE INTRUDERS!!!" shouted the computer. Wily and Angela panicked.
"Power on the teleporter!!" she shouted. "Take care of the intruders, guards! Let me take a look into the viewer!" She looked into the viewer, and lo and behold, there were the N Team. "Well, if it isn't Dexter's little Goof Troop!!" she snickered. "I think I know how to take care of them!" She turned to a man, grabbed him, and dragged him down the stairs with her. "Jonathan, I have a special job for you. Now you're going to go down and ..." she whispered the rest into his ear, and he nodded as they parted their ways.
"We better get moving!" whispered Keisha. "Somebody get Armina and Carrie some wheeled chairs so they can move around." It was apparent that what was said about human form and dry land was true: Armina and Carrie were stuck in mermaid form until they reached the shore. A girl with a couple of wheeled chairs rolled them towards the girls, and they hopped on.
"Thanks," said Alex, "do I know you?"
"I'm Betty," said the girl. She had long, red hair and wore a navy blue nylon bodysuit. "And you?"
"I'm in love," said a very flattered Alex, but Sandra smacked him in the face. "Ow!" he shouted and Armand kept him from smacking Sandra back. He then turned to the girl and asked her, "Where are you from?"
"California Games. I came to see what's going on with our water."
"We are too," Armina spoke from her chair. "Seems to me this is the last ocean ever that Mother Brain hasn't taken over yet. We've tried to rescue the other bodies of water for the past few days, but with unsuccessful results. This is our last chance to stop her from going back in time and kill the original Captain N."
"I see," replied Betty, "but what's so important about the waters?"
"Mother Brain believes that if she can control the waters, that she use them to go over a hydro-dam, converting the water to pure energy and powering the time machine."
"So you pretty well know what she's up to, right?"
"That's right. And we're going to stop her before any more madness continues." Then she heard a voice on the PA system: "We have intruders. Summon defences immediately!"
"We have trouble," Carrie informed the rest of them, "and I'm no help because of my form."
"Oh, yes you are, Carrie," asnwered Armina. "We both are. I know how." To Armand, Alex, Sandra, and Roberta: "Take out these guys. We don't need more trouble than we already have." To Betty: "Go and find somewhere safe to hide. Then find a way to get out of here." To Keisha and Lana: "You don't need me to tell you what to do. Just do it." Then to Carrie: "Let's go to the controls."
Action took place. Armand, Alex, Sandra and Roberta took on the guards. Alex swung his axe at one and sliced his chest open. He took off the mask and found that the assailant was not a monster, but was human. He was shocked to see that he wounded a human and that there was so much blood. "Be careful, Alex!!" shouted Sandra, "This isn't the simulator, for Pete's sake!"
"I know, I KNOW!!" he cried back, slinging his axe across his back and taking on the guards with his bare hands.
Armand smashed two guys with his sledgehammer and looked on as Alex punched a guy in the stomach.
Sandra roped off two women and slung them off their feet. Roberta hovered over her enemies and threw grenades from here and there, making them sneeze from pollen extract, then run screaming as monsters appeared out of nowhere and chased them off.
"Guess I showed them!" she bragged.
At the Control Room...
"Gathering data ... done!" said Armina. "Only one command left for us to destroy."
"The teleportation device?" asked Carrie.
"Yup." Then, "I'm going out to check on the guys. You stay here and wait for me, OK?"
"Sure." Then Armina wheeled out of the room. She checked, but there was no one in sight. Then Armina lowered herself with a lift to a lower floor. That's when she saw the surprise.
"Surprised, aren't you?" asked Wily. "I had the liberty of trapping your friends while you were away!" Then, "Close," and she could hear Carrie's screams as the door closed on her.
"NOOO!!!" cried Armina, "what have you done with our friends??!!??"
"They're soon going to enjoy the Falls, just like you will be. Get her!!" cried Angela. Armina screamed and lashed out with her sabre, but in the end, it was no use. Soon she was packed in a barrel with the others. As Angela closed the barrel, she complimented Betty. "I couldn't have done it without dear Elizabeth. While your pals were fighting my guards, she lured them all into this barrel. What a gal!"
"What a traitor!" Alex muttered as the barrel closed.
Then something funny happened. The ship disappeared with the water, and everything ended up in Kongoland, at the highest cliff, where a dam was waiting for the water.
"We're in Kongoland!" whispered Carrie. "I've got to get out of here!" Then she found an escape hatch, and wriggled herself through. "I've got to stop eating those Hostess Twinkies," she muttered as she escaped.
She climbed out of the ship and reached dry land. There she had legs again, and her surfboard appeared. "Now to get all this water back to the California Games, and save my friends as well!" Over on the cliff where water now raged, she heard voices:
"Once our water falls, so will you in this barrel," boasted Angela, "and it's curtains, because once the water falls, the safetly latch will be broken and all of you will fall 15,000 feet straight to that metal plate full of spikes!" She looked down the water fall, and found the spiked plate.
"Angela, it's time to go to the bottom and supervise our dam," annouced Wily.
"You won't get away with this!" cried Armina. "Our friend's still free! She'll get you!"
"For what? We'll deal with her later!" she said. Then, "Let's go." And she and Wily left the scene.
Minutes later, the latch broke and the barrel plummeted. But Carrie wasn't far off. She flew on her board and grabbed the barrel before it could hit the spikes. She landed the barrel on dry land and everyone got out.
"Thanks," said Armina, as she reached human form again.
"No problem," was Carrie's answer, as she raced to the falling water. She wished she could control the stream and found that she could by surfing. So she raced to the end with her board and used it to touch the water. It obeyed her commands and off went Carrie with water flowing behind and below her, towards California Games. As soon as she got there, she flooded the world back to normal with a tidal wave of water. She landed on the sand.
"Now I got to go back and help everyone get Wily!" She warped back, only to find that he got away.
"He flew the coop. Sorry," was all Armina could say.
"That's fine," she answered.
Later in Kongoland ...
"It wasn't hard, after this experience, to get all the waters back to their own worlds!" Carrie chuckled. "I mean, for me, it was easy!"
"I'm glad it was easy for you," said Keisha, "I couldn't have done it!"
"You'll learn, you're still young."
"Hey," announced Alex, "wanna go surfing tomorrow? Big contest, you know."
"No!" shouted Carrie. "I've had enough water experiences to last me a lifetime. If I see water again, I'm going to scream!"
"That's too bad," he said, "because now we're gonna have to give you a bath!!" And everyone dumped glasses of water over her head, but she still was human, since she was on land. Carrie screamed, then laughed, and everyone joined in and had a fun time that night.
GAME OVER