On a distant Saturday evening, you could hear cries from the Queen's bedroom. For a few moments, only a dog's whining accompanied the cries. We go, however, to the room across the hall in the Palace, where a vampire hunter and his two roomates are trying to get some rest.
"I wish she could just keep it down!" screamed Alex, the tall, broad-shouldered young man with long dark hair, wearing nothing but a pair of blue jeans at the moment.
"You shut up!" chided Armand, the equally tall and broad-shouldered man with long blond hair, wearing white pajamas.
"My hair!! Now look what you two have done to it!!" complained Simon, the blond-haired man wearing bunny-print pajamas with matching bunny slippers. "Now I'll never get any sleep!!"
"If it's so important," Armand announced, "we should pay a visit to the Queen's bedroom and see what's bothering Her Majesty."
"All right, then," both men answered him, and the trio marched across the hall, only to be greeted by Armina, Sandra, Keisha, Mega Man, Kid Icarus and Gameboy.
"Can't sleep?" asked the boys.
"Were going to," answered Keisha, "but the Queen locked me and Armina out of the room."
"We heard crying, so we came to see what's up," Sandra told them. "I'm still waiting for my roommates to come back from their evening patrol."
"Roberta and Carrie?" someone asked her.
"Who else?" Sandra rolled her eyes, "They're supposed to come back from patrolling Shadaloo. I don't know what's keeping them."
Then the door opened, and the Queen was standing there, wearing her golden crown and a pink nightgown. "I suppose you're all wondering why I was crying. I heard everyone talking in front of my door."
"So, what's the story?" asked Alex. This time, no one shut him up, since they were all just as curious as he was. "Someone die? You thinking about your ex-boyfriend Ken? Is there someone else in your life?"
"Yes, someone did die, and yes, I was thinking about Ken and yes, there is someone in my life. It's the third question that I want you all to know, and that's the one that leads to the first and second questions." She let them inside the room, and took out a picture from her drawer. It showed a young boy with short hair, a red-and-white jacket with the black letter N on the left side, a yellow T-shirt worn over his blue jeans, a pair of black-and-white sneakers, and the Queen's Power Pad and Zapper on his belt. He was accompanied by Duke in the picture. "This is Kevin Keene," Lana announced, "the original Captain N. This picture was taken eight years ago while we were picnicking in Shadaloo with Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li, and discussing attacks on Bison's palace. I had another picture of the five of us togehter, but I was thinking about Ken and all the things he had done to me, and so, I tore that one to shreds after breaking the glass."
"That would explain the mess we saw when we got here," commented Armand. "What was your relationship with this Kevin like?"
"Well, we almost got off on a rocky start. The Palace of Power was under assault, and I was at my wits end. I summoned guards, called for heroes, formed the N Team, but nothing seemed to work against Mother Brain. On top of that was the disappearance of my father, King Charles. I was just about to give up when the Ancient Prophecy brought Kevin and Duke to Videoland." She sighed. "At first, I was skeptical about him, and he upset me even more by wanting to go home then. Then I was kidnapped, and he led the N Team to save me. He then decided to stay, and stay he did, for three years. Then came a crucial moment in his life, his dying mother. I had no choice but to send him home. But since the Ultimate Warp Zone was stable enough only for one living being, and since Duke ran to my side, he had to go back alone. That was the last I saw of him."
"Okay, you've told us the general stuff, let's get on with the juicy details, if you may, that is," suggested Sandra.
"Huh?" asked Alex. "I thought you loved adventure, not romance."
"So I'm a sucker for romance. You all know my obsession for old Swept Away books!"
"Well, if you insist," answered Lana, "But I think it's time for Roberta and Carrie to come back. Why don't we wait until then?"
"All right, you're the boss."
In India of Shadaloo...
"I think it's time we headed home, what about you, Carrie?" asked Roberta, flying in her butterfly armor.
"Just one more round, Roberta, then we'll go," answered Carrie, surfing the air on her surfboard.
"All right, then. You cover the left side of that area, I'll cover the right."
"Sure!" They went their separate ways. A few minutes later, Carrie noticed something like a shooting star. "Looks like it's wish time," she muttered. "I wish I had a boyfriend." She giggled. Then, "Wait a minute! I have Rick, don't I? Oh yeah, I dumped him the moment I saw Eddie Vedder strut on the stage two years ago." She paused. That was when she heard screams. "That's no shooting star!!" she cried and hurtled herself towards the source of the screams. As she got closer, she could not believe what she saw.
"It's a boy!! And he needs help!!" she cried. She flew right next to him and positioned her arms as if to catch a baby. She then flew under the boy, grabbed him, and flew down to a nearby village.
As soon as Carrie laid the boy down on her board, he awoke. She examined him. He was a tall one, for sure, with short brown hair, bright blue eyes, wearing a yellow T-shirt, jeans, sneakers and a red school jacket. Carrie knew that jacket. "Northridge High School, I'll bet. But what is he doing here?" she whispered.
"I don't know about that, either," answered the boy, who gave her a shock. "I was going to ask you."
"Who are you?"
"First tell me where I am, and why I've changed?"
"You're in the Shadaloo world. The country here is India, home of the great priest Dhalsim. How would you know if you've changed or not?"
"Sorry, I don't remember anything, not even who I am. How I've changed, well, I just have this feeling that I did."
"You don't even remember your name?" she asked incredulously.
"I don't even have a clue to it!" he yelled, already frustrated.
Carrie looked around and spotted the village. She said to him, "I'm going to take you to a safe place. Maybe Dhalsim will be there, and he'll help you with your memory."
"Thank you," he answered, and the two hopped on her board to the village.
"I can't wait anymore!" shrieked Sandra in the Queen's room. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but your silence is too much for me to bear! I yearn for romance!"
"We must wait -- " In came Roberta. "Roberta, where is Carrie?" she asked.
"She's still doing her rounds, as far as I know. She told me that she will be back in an hour."
"I can't wait that long for her to come back." Lana paused, "Okay, Sandra, I'll tell you all the things Kevin and I did together, and alone." Everyone gathered to hear her story. "There was one time when I made a fool of myself in front of Zelda and Link in Hyrule by starting a food fight with the locals..."
October 16, 1998...
"That's it!" cried some big, burly guy after Lana spilled some stew on his new robe. She had stained his clothing for the fifth and last time at a dinner that Zelda hosted in North Castle. "FOOD FIGHT!!!"
Everyone hauled food at each other. Kevin pulled Lana under a table to avoid getting hit. Link participated for the fun of it, throwing food at everyone that he saw. Someone threw lettuce at him, and he tossed Hyrulian salad dressing back at him. A woman lassoed her husband with spaghetti rope and doused him in spaghetti sauce. The guy that Lana stained fetched the princess and dunked her face in cream pie. Kevin got angry and stodd up from his table. He tossed the still hot, sticky taffy at the guy. He fired some meatballs at the Game Master. Meanwhile, Lana took advantage of the shift in attention, and proceeded to attack the attacker with a huge cake. She knew she had to work on her aim, because she threw the cake, and it landed -- right in Zelda's face as she stepped in to see what was going on.
"Lana!!" cried her best friend in horror. "Who started this?"
All hands pointed to Lana, except Kevin, who was still brushing off meatballs.
"Lana, why would you want to do this?" Zelda angrily asked. "I come here to slice the cake and now it's all over me!"
"I'm sorry, Zelda!" Lana apologized. "I accidentally spilled some stuff on that guy, and he called a food fight!"
Zelda was livid. She walked away, leaving an apologetic Lana to face the ground and run out of the castle. Kevin followed.
"Lana, are you all right?" he asked, holding her. "It’s not your fault that he started it."
"Yes it is!!!" she screamed, sitting on the soft grass. "It is!! I made a fool of myself in front of all of Hyrule!"
Kevin put his arm around her waist. "No, it’s his fault for being a jerk. He was rude, inconsiderate to the Princess of Videoland, and he was downright gross to begin with. This was the guy that belched right in front of you at the start of the dinner!"
"And you held my nose, so that I wouldn’t smell his burps, or the vomit that he lurched up when he tasted Zelda’s wine," Lana whispered. "You even stood up for me by throwing that taffy in his face!" She laughed.
"That guy should have seen his own face!" He also laughed. "All covered in taffy!" He took his finger, and wiped some pie off Lana’s face. He licked his finger, and saddened. "That man made a total waste of this pie!"
"You don’t have to be sad, Kevin!" Lana happily reassured him. "It was, after all, his own pie! He baked it himself!"
"The guy bakes a pie and he smashes your face into it!" Then, "Imagine the pain he’s gonna have when he finds out he wasted his own pie!"
Both of them laughed. "Let’s clean up, then get back to the castle," Lana suggested. "We have some explaining to do for Zelda, and we gotta clean her up too!"
"We had a laugh, we were a riot!" Lana laughed. The others smiled, and Keisha went to her bed and grabbed a teddy bear. She brought him back to the circle. Simon produced his teddy bear from behind. Both were brown with black beady eyes and a big red bow tied around the neck.
"Twins!" Sandra laughed, and Simon joined in.
"Yeah, Teddy's got a twin!" Simon laughed.
"He must be too tired to defend his ego," Alex whispered to Armand. Armand nodded.
"Would you like to hear more?" Lana asked them.
"Sure," Armina nodded.
"All the adventures that the N Team had, you probably read in the Videoland Archives. There was one, however, that was too exciting and disturbing to be written into them. The time Kevin stopped me and my high school's bully from starting an intergalactic war between our home worlds."
"How about I call you Draven?" she asked the boy.
"Sure", he answered. Then they saw Dhalsim.
"Please take care of him," Carrie pleaded.
"I know who he is," he replied, "but such knowledge must not yet be revealed. I will train him in all I know."
"Thank you. Draven will be in good hands."
"Draven?"
"Go on," prodded Armina, "Tell us who the bully was."
"She was a supermodel schoolgirl. She was so paper-thin, I swear, she could slip under any door in the school. That's why my doors are rubberized and sticky on the sides. On many occasions, Zelda and Kevin would have to protect me in the school halls, side-by-side, from her and her nasty friends. I think the main reason she picked on everybody in school was that some punks made fun of her fat older sister, who is now in the University of Megaland, studying robots and artificial intelligence. She picked on me, especially, because I was the Ruler of Videoland, and I couldn't do a thing to help her sister avoid the punks. She thought I was one of them, so she started beating me up. The one serious confrontation occurred when I decided to stand up to her..."
King Charles Public High School, Cafeteria
Wednesday, May 16, 1990, 12:00pm.
Princess Lana was halfway through her lunch, consisting of noodles and meatballs with milk, when she started to talk to Kevin, sitting across the table, eating a chicken and meatloaf salad. Lana had on her royal clothes that day, and Kevin had his trademark clothes, minus the jacket that he stored in his locker.
"I hate algebra," he complained. "The teacher's boring, and doing the homework's a total struggle!"
"Look on the bright side, Kevin," she answered. "At least you're not fighting Mother Brain!"
"This is worse than Mother Brain!" he countered. "Who knew she could only attack on Saturdays?"
"Yeah, I had no idea she had to go to work! In an office!" Lana laughed.
"Right next to all those human co-workers! No wonder she wants to rule Videoland!"
"Hey, shortie!" yelled a blond, paper-thin girl, approaching the Princess. "Your boyfriend's cute. Can I borrow him?" Lana growled.
"Lily, this is none of your business!" she shouted at her. Kevin ignored Lily.
"Hey, you still up for that fight after school? You better be, 'cause I'm gonna knock you to next week!" she slammed her right fist in her left palm. "Just like that!" She was addressing Lana.
"This is not necessary!" yelled Kevin.
"You stay out of this!" yelled both girls. Then Lana said, "Yeah, I'm still up for it!"
"I was a mess then," she explained, "but I showed her then! She's still serving time for bullying the Queen!" She laughed.
Lana would tell more stories until the sun was up. She told them the one of Kevin and her going on a picnic in the wrong place at the wrong time, and many more tales. As soon as they finished, Carrie came in.
"You're late. You missed storytime." Lana smiled.
"Sorry. I had to help a boy."
"I was telling everyone all about my boyfriend, Kevin."
"Can you show me a picture?" she asked. Lana obliged and gave her the very first picture of him. Carrie gasped.
"He looks exactly like the boy I helped!"
Lana was surprised. "He does?"
"Yeah, exactly alike." Carrie then retired to bed.
So maybe Kevin's still out here, she thought, I wonder what he's doing here? The thought would stay with her for a long time.
GAME OVER