We enter a small dark room, the harsh blue light of a computer monitor shines upon a fat man drinking his third red bull. He adjusts his glasses, the reflection of long lines of code shifting in his lenses. He places a pudgy finger against his bottom lip and stares at the screen. He exhales and begins to tap on the keyboard adding to the endless rows of jargon; his finger hesitates over 'enter' for a moment lingering above. He taps the key and a black window pops up onto the screen, Gabe leans back in his chair with a huff; the black window then flashes an image of the logo for Funsoft. Gabe is still, his mouth agape. The title screen for Sword of Narfinex then fills the window; Gabe chuckles holding his fat arms into the air in victory, slowly spinning in his chair.
He grabs his cell phone next to the computer and begins to make a call as the scene fades.
We go to an endless meadow of green pasture, the ocean breeze blowing the blades of grass. Game Girl is lying on the ground, her eyes closed. Suddenly she inhales sharply and sits up with wide eyes, her breathing turns heavy; she looks around at her surroundings in confusion, but ever so slowly a smile creeps onto her face. Her irratic breathing turns into laughter and she falls back into the cushion of grass beneath her.
"I'm alive!"
She shouts as she giddily throws her limbs in the grass.
"HEY!"
A voice shouts from the distance. Game Girl lifts herself up and looks towards the source, she smiles widely.
"Game Boy!?"
Her eyes water slightly as the two rush over to one another and embrace each other in a hug. GG wraps her arms tightly around GB and sniffles.
"I thought you were dead!"
"You-ugh cho-kch-in me!"
Game Boy says as Game Girl accidentally bear hugs her friend. Paige releases her grasp once she realizes.
"Oops, my bad. Kinda forgot my own strength."
Game Boy drops to his feet and rubs his back with a cough.
"Heh, yeah. You know if you didn't steal my powers this situation would have been switched."
Paige rolls her eyes.
"Pff I didn't steal anything, it was my turn to use them. I'm player 2 apparently, and you decided to jump into a suicide mission."
"Baaah" He throws a dismissive hand. "Salamander tactics!"
Paige squints at GB.
". . . Did you mean semantics?"
Game Boy looks embarrassed.
". . . I dunno."
The pair look at one another and begin to laugh for a little while. The joy soon fades as the two look at one another again and their surroundings
"So, where are we?"
GB looks out to the sea.
"Looks like we're somewhere on Emerald Coast. How did we get here is the bigger question I would say. . . What was the last thing you remember?"
"Not sure; I just remember everything dark and cold. Like I was in a pit. It was awful."
Game Girl looks down at her feet, GB's eyes widen and he shifts his collar.
"That's neat." GG looks up at GB with a slight death stare; Game Boy looks to his right quickly. "Oh hey a conch shell!"
Game Boy strolls over to the shell, avoiding eye contact, Game Girl rubs her brow and looks around at her surroundings. GB picks up the shell and blows into it producing a low 'toot'. He giggles to himself.
"We should go see Gretchin, she'll know what happened. Game Boy, c'mon."
Game Girl holds her hand out to GB who places the conch shell to his side and goes towards GG; he tentatively grasps her hand and looks away with some shyness. GG exhales and speaks.
"Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A . . . Fast Travel . Gretchin's hut."
The pair vanish with a swoosh leaving behind the calm serenity of the coast. The scene shifts quickly to black.
{missing font type}- ERROR ⚠️ unable to find necessary data in "loading_screen_hints"
We travel back to Earth, back to the large man in his lonely, dark room. Gabe presses his cell phone to his ear; tapping his fingers on his desk in rhytm. A perky voice picks up on the other end.
"Hello!"
Gabe straightens himself up in his chair.
"Ai! Hi, hello!"
"Gabe! How are you?"
"I am doing great, guess who got Nirva's Sword fixed?"
"Wow! And I thought I was the programmer."
"To be honest if you handled it you could have got it fixed in a month instead of two years..."
Ai giggles.
"Well, you were always a perfectionist. The main point is that the game's running."
"Just the main points, the ROM is working fine but still need to play-test it. Purge it of any bugs and technical issues; there's a bunch of random coding that doesn't belong, links to questlines are broke... Did you know we had loading screens in this thing? It was meant to come out for the SNES and we have loading screens!? What were we thinking?"
"If I remember correctly you heard about the CD Nintendo that eventually became the PlayStation and wanted to update the game to move onto that system instead; since the Super Nintendo was ending its life cycle."
Gabe thinks for a moment.
"Yeah that makes sense. In hindsight, it was a stupid idea. Should have just brought the game out when it was done; that way it wouldn't have been canceled and I wouldn't have been visited by the main character talking about corruption and crap."
". . . How long have you gone without sleep?"
Gabe hesitates and stumbles over his next words.
"Uh, yeah sorry. Just been working too hard."
"Get some rest. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"
"Good plan, goodnight Ai."
"Night."
[i[Gabe tosses the phone onto his couch behind him and covers a yawn; he goes back to the computer with a slight smile. He unravels a controller beside the monitor and plugs it into the tower, the scene, once again, fades to black.[/i]
We go to a small dingy hut in the middle of the forest; inside Gretchin the short witch in her purple robes swirls a large wooden rod in a bubbling cauldron. She looks up with an exasperated sigh and with a flick of her wrist pushes two small stools into the center of the room; Gretchin places an elbow on the edge of the cauldron and looks to the stools. With a swoosh Game Boy and Game Girl fall into place, they greet Gretchin with a smile.
"Hi Gretchin!"
She says with a wide smile and wave. Game Boy blows a victory toot through his conch shell.
". . . Game Boy may I see that for a moment?"
"Sure!"
GB tosses the conch at Gretchin who catches it with ease, she inspects it for a moment before tossing it behind her and out the window. GB watches the shell sail through the air with a gasp and pouts at Gretchin.
"Good to see you're alive and well."
"Ditto. Any idea what happened?"
"Hm."Gretchin goes back to her stirring as she ponders. "It seems The Corruption did eventually take over, with such quickness none us could have done anything. However, it appears that someone on Earth fixed our world. Took their sweet time if you ask me."
Game Girl nods along, as GB oblivious looks at the shelves of potions and balms.
"So what, everything is back to normal?"
Game Girl hops off the stool.
"It seems to be, although I feel a change in the wind and air."
Game Girl walks to the door and opens it.
"I'm sorry am I boring you?"
"I'm not doing this!" :|
The two watch GG leave the hut with raised eyebrows as she goes into a jog, Game Girl looks back increasingly worried.
"Um, help! HELP!"
Game Girl goes outside and enters the forest, the two inside go to the open door to inspect what's going on.
"Fascinating."
Game Girl moves around in rigid motions as she looks around the forest and back to her friends.
"WHY ARE YOU NOT HELPING!?!" >:(
"Lol why? This is fun to watch, you look like a robot. Beep boop!"
GB starts to do the robot. Gretchin ambles out onto the small steps leading to her hut.
"Game Girl, does it feel like you're being . . . puppeted?"GG doesn't say a word she just frantically nods with wide, terrified eyes. "Hm, it appears Narfinex is more 'fixed' then I previously anticipated."
GB stops his robot dance and looks to Gretchin.
"Fixed? Dude, she looks pretty broken in my opinion."
"Don't call me dude. And if Game Girl is being puppeted that means someone is playing the video game for the first time possibly ever."
Game Boy eyebrows shift up as his mouth opens slightly in awe.
"That's so cool! . . . Wait, what's Paige doing?"
The two look to Game Girl who has her Warhammer equipped and is taking aim on a fat white chicken, the plump bird eyes GG with slight chirps.
"Little chick, please run away now, please. I really don't want to do this."
GG sulks as she looks back to the house, Gretchin and GB back up inside the hut and peek around the door; GG quickly turns her head to the door and to the chicken before swinging her hammer to the side of the bird. The chicken lets out a loud cry as it is hurled through the air and flaps its wings to a less than graceful landing; it calls as it panics, feathers falling from its plume. The bushes and trees shake around as the air fills with the sound of flapping wings. Game Girl's knees shake as she exhales.
"Oh sweet Nirva give me strength."
Game Girl's hands grasp her weapon tightly as hundreds of chickens flap through the brush and make glancing passes at GG who gracefully dodges the hellish onslaught of feathery fowl.
Game Girl
100%
As the chickens land they scamper off to safety; Game Girl has her hands full as she tries to deal with the bullet hell she currently finds herself in. She tries her best to duck and weave but gets scratched a few times; the flying attack finally concludes as the many, many chickens hop along the ground pecking at the grass, GG is lightly wounded eyeing the area and has a brief moment of calm before the ground quakes which causes the chickens to scatter in a fluster. GG loses her footing as the quakes become louder and the time between quickens; trees fall in the distance until a monstrous, ancient rooster bursts from the forest; at least the size of a house its call can be heard from miles around.
Game Girl
88%
King Cock
100%
"COCKLE-COODLE-DOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Game Girl eyes the beast as it quickly cocks his head around. She mumbles to herself.
"Okay player, let's hope you now my moveset."
The gigantic rooster peck down and breaks the earth with it's might beak but Game Girls hops out of the way and swings her Warhammer against the cockerel's head and dazes the creature; GG then twirls her wrist quickly and, to her surprise, hurls the hammer towards King Cock but comically ducks and charges our hero. GG jumps high into the air and lands on the foul fowl's back; the monster panics as rushes around in one spot and flaps in a frenzy causing GG to grasp a hold of its plumage. She then begins punching the beast in the back of the neck with her spare hand which only angers the beast who heads straight into the forest. GG defends herself as King Cock charges through the foliage and is hit with a barrage of branches and bushes until she is finally knocked off just before a clearing. The creature stands in the opening and turns to face his foe, kicking up dirt as it readies its next attack; GG quickly kips up to her feet and runs circling the enemy trying to close the gap. King Cock with a caw charges once more but misses his target by mere inches; Paige pulls a 180 and raises a hand to the rooster and a beam of energy expels from her palms and burns the boss in the beam.
"BA'CAAAAAWWWWWW!!!"
Game Girl
62%
King Cock
43%
The rooster king flails in place before setting eyes on GG once again; his throat bulges quickly and he breathes a line of fire at our heroine; GG face turns to sheer panic but her legs move her out of the line of damage as she holds an arm behind her while moving. In the distance, her Warhammer comes sailing from the distance through the woods and lands in between her hands, the panic washes from Paige's face.
"Holy crud that is the coolest thing I have ever seen!"
Paige desperately avoids the flames before gaining a slight distance and Shift-Slides towards King Cock hammer in tow and uppercuts the creature almost knocking its beak off. King Cock spins through the air and lands on it's back, GG takes advantage and Romper Stomper directly onto the cockerel's underside; its eyes bulge from its socket as all the breath leaves its lungs. As if on a trampoline Paige is thrown into the air and with a mighty battle cry falls back to toward her enemy and hammers King Cock's cranium knocking the fowl unconscious.
Game Girl
62%
King Cock
0%
.
Paige stands next to her victory and enjoys the spoils of EXP and loot the boss drops; she picks something up from the ground and inspects it.
"Huh a key. Neat."
She places the key in her bag and stands motionless in the clearing tapping her foot. After an embarrassing length of time, she realizes something.
"Oh, I've got control again. Okay. That was an experience. . . Annnnd I'm talking to myself again."
She rests her Warhammer on her shoulder and nonchalantly strolls back to Gretchin's hut. After a minute or so she reaches the home to see Gretchin resting on a stump outside and Game Boy resting against the hut, gently patting a chicken in his homes.
"Hey guys! Thanks for the help!"
She says with a shocking amount of sarcasm.
"You had it covered."
"At least the person controlling you did."
"Yeah, that was odd. So what now?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like, is The Corruption gone? Are we in an actual full released game? What do we do in the meantime?"
Gretchin thins for a while.
"I'm unsure. Preoccupy yourselves, I would like to investigate this 'new' Narfinex more."
Gretchin slowly lifts herself off the stump and hobbles back into her shack; our heroes watch as she enters and look to one another.
"Preoccupy ourselves? How?"
Game Girl thinks.
". . . XWF?"
"Heck yeah!"
He allows the chicken to flutter away as the pair jump and high five. Freeze frame. Star transition and fade to black.
"Hi Ezra!"
"Hi XWF!"
"Been awhile!"
"Sorry about that. I'm sure we'll understand at some point."
Game Boy pops up behinds Game Girl and eerily says.
"fₒᵣₑₛₕₐdₒwᵢₙg"
Before disappearing again. GG looks back unimpressed then back to you, the audience!
"Thanks for that dude. Real necessary."
"yₒᵤ'ᵣₑ wₑₗcₒₘₑ"
"Stop it!" (＃ﾟДﾟ)
"Anyhoo. I'm sorry I've been gone, I love XWF and most of the people here, and it was sad when I thought I could never return. But, I'm back and I'm really, really happy. Now, as for my opponent one Ezra Blackwater, I'm happy I get to show some attention to the brother that always seems to be forgotten."
"Paige thought she was choosing the redheaded one!"
Game Girl throws an elbow back into GB, we only hear an 'oof'
"That doesn't matter! It was random anyway. . . Ezra, you seem like a polite gentleman and it's an honor to face you, maybe Donovan would have been a better challenge, but hey, you've got that solemn stoicism to you that shows you have some self-confidence despite lacking outwards confidence that you apparently need to be a wrestler. Forgive the pun but you don't seem to have that electricty that exudes from the real stars here. Oh well, this is your first big match, right? You got jitters perhaps? Doesn't matter. In all honesty, I'm not trying to be rude or insult you, just trying to have fun and you kinda seem to be in need of a laugh or two."
"All you do is say there's more to your powers but I kinda don't think there is, you're basically a faulty power conduit. That was rude, I'm sorry. And the only other thing you talk about is your family, which is sweet but it really shows you don't have a high opinion of yourself. I'm facing you Ezra, not Donovan. I like your dad, Azrael is a name I know fairly well and highly respect but this isn't about him, it's about you and you just seem like you'd rather be anywhere else. I know I've been absent for so long but honestly, it's just been a bizarre... Year? Century? I'm not even sure anymore."
"I just want you to know I'm looking forward to our match, and win or lose I hope you have fun because I sure as heck will."
"No powers barred. . . Seems like have a real advantage in that area. Like, my creator just kept adding and adding and I'll keep getting more and more when I level up. You shouldn't have just specced in one tree or you could have been as cool as me haha. Not much a static shock can do when I'm on the other side of the room shooting energy blasts at you."
Game Girl chuckles for a moment before sighing and looking away. She fixes her hair and back to you.
"I'll see you at our match Ezra, I'm happy to meet you and be back, and I only hope I can prove that I was that force to be reckoned with way back when I was that force. Good luck Mr. Blackwater, and remember, if you fail there's no shame in hitting reset and starting again."
Hard Reset -->
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