“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it's the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him with his friend.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
With barrel-sized dents in his armor, MegaMan came upon a new land. It was truly inexplicable, venturing mere steps from a construction site to find a world filled with no skyscrapers or even a fast food chain in view. It was almost as if there had been a rift in time and dimension, and MegaMan had stepped forward unaware that the transformation had even took place. But, I find talking about cross-dimensional background and possibilities boring, so we're going to act like its actually pretty natural.
In the fair, fair land of Hyrule, which seemed much more barren than usual, MegaMan sought the famed hero Link and/or the maiden princess thingy Zelda. Just like Donkey Kong and the mustached plumber, Link and Zelda were already popular guests of King Sack of Rhye. MegaMan could not help but feel a tad cursed to have been born in Capcomia, for if only his origin were in Nintendopolo, his place among the ranks of the chosen would be set in stone. A las, even he could not hold the idea for long; to blame his misfortune upon his country was not noble at all, and not very fitting of his character.
Coming across a jagged hole-of-sorts in the rock wall, a thing some might dub a 'cave', MegaMan was lured in by the glow of a small campfire. Inside, he found not Link, but rather an old sage. It's hard when comparing a monkey to a man, but MegaMan judged he was even older than Cranky, and immediately thought to step back out before being noticed. But MegaMan's stereotype of elders being annoying windbags was unfortunately not entirely unfounded, and the man rushed at the instant he heard something besides the breath against his beard. Rather than cursing his country, MegaMan now confounded his clunky cowboy-sized boots.
After what seemed like yet another eternity, listening to not so interesting facts about dodongos and digdoggers, MegaMan ventured the question of Link and Zelda's whereabouts, whose location according to old fool was apparently a mystery to everyone. Attempting to make haste and not waste of the codger's confusion, MegaMan took flight, exclaiming that he had people to smash and places to brawl. The sage pleaded the already-gone robot to please take him with him, away from this horrible lost world with a bunch of aged men and women and monsters hiding in small caves. It may have been a short meeting, but he would never forget the time he shared with the mysterious blue stranger.
Sometimes, you have to stop whatever you're doing, and realize that even after all the barrels, all of the firebugs and hammers, that it's not even about Donkey Kong anymore. Everyone knows the age old tale of the destined rivals, one Billy Mitchell and his opponent Steve Wiebe. You all know of the hardships faced by each, the devastating toll the game takes on your body, your mind, and your soul. So it should be no surprise that when you get involved in something so full of sweat and tears, competition in its purest of forms, you get fixated. You worry about the points, you see the ladders and barely miss the barrels. It's complex.
MegaMan didn't find Donkey Kong nor fabled 'Jump Man', but he did get barrels thrown at him by a girl.
It was not easy traversing the pitfalls and perils of the jungle for MegaMan. Scattered between the rubber trees and the willows were various spinning bananas, balloons, and golden tokens, all of which were meticulously picked up by our friend, the blue bomber. You see, the world MegaMan comes from too has power ups placed here or there, but never in such abundance as what MegaMan was now witnessing. Of particular note were the letters spelling out 'K-O-N-G', which MegaMan believed carried a big promise. Granted, he had collected them a dozen or so times already, but he felt certain that the next set would bring a truly useful reward to his efforts.
The sheer amount of collecting had nearly taken its toll on poor MegaMan, until at last a ray of hope shot out in the form of a wrinkly old monkey. The resident Cranky Kong, who, in some shape or form had relations to the famous name of Donkey Kong, sat rocking back and forth in his lonesome, on the porch of a building that read 'Cranky's Cabin'. The old shack was a real mess too: boxes and tires were piled loosely among one another, and a rickety old Nintendo sign, hanging only by a single nail, swayed to and fro to the same eerie rhythm of Cranky's rocker.
The aged ape yammered for some time, much to MegaMan's chagrin, about the glory days of video games before all the pixels and processing power. MegaMan could not help but feel the ugly gorilla had some sort of pre-rendered hate for anything bigger than 8-bits, and painstakingly edged out the question of whether or not the old-timer had recently seen Diddy or Donkey Kong between rants.
"Nope." said Cranky.
"Bummer." said MegaMan.
Unfortunately, it had seemed that this stop, too, had been for naught. But even as MegaMan stepped away from the decrepit hut, the ramblings of the elder chimp echoed in his helmet. He knew where he had to go. To travel back to that age where high scores meant something. Well, more than they mean now anyways. I guess.
SPECIAL EXCITING NOTE!!: Hello die-hard fans of Startopia! You may have thought your loyality to reading my ragged old writings would go unrewarded, didn't you!? Well think again, because this exciting exclusive announcement is just for you, the mundo big time level 100 fans:
A Brand New MegaMan Comic is coming your way via me!
This is top secret, on the down low, hidden away only for you news! I know you're giddy and exploding with anticipation to let your friends know, so I'll give you a few good sites you can drop this bomb on, and be credited with finding the latest and greatest info on the net ; )
T'was the fall of some year ending in a 7, when our fair, noble, and just hero MegaMan found himself in the middle of nowhere, in a storming forest filled with a general aura of uneasiness. Fortunately, aura's tend to generally be outside the scope of MegaMan's radar, but the rain was kind of a downer anyway. The ironically named 'Sunshine Forest' was apparently in the middle of some sort of turmoil. One that, while sad, was no where near the sheer magnitude of MegaMan's plight.
In hot pursuit of one 'Lucas', MegaMan had marked Tazmily Village as stop number one in his long quest. In MegaMan's cybernetic brain, it only seemed natural to seek out those who had already been announced on the roster, and gain some knowledge, some hope, some inkling of something that would help in himself joining the fray. Unfortunately, the locals seemed just as stumped as he regarding the whereabouts of the young lad Lucas.
With the constant 'drip-drip' on his glistening helmet azule, MegaMan stood pondering, plagued by the questions which pulled and punched and pizza-pied his metallic cold heart of steel since the King's announcement. Why had he not been personally notified? How was he supposed to be noticed? Where must he go to picked? And when would he know for sure that it was too late?
A strike of lightning brought a flare of dramatics to the scene, but did not disturb the foreboding tone of this first point in the journey. After a long wait, enough for perhaps a small sample of a sad symphony, MegaMan bid adieu to the funky cowboy and his cohorts, and wished them luck in tracking Lucas down. But MegaMan knew, deep-down, that Lucas was already at his destination, and would not be found in this damp spot of darkness. Tromping north, he headed toward the Jungle Japes, leaving behind his sorrow, melancholy, and bologna sandwich.
Like all good stories, the journey of one blue robot boy on his path to join a legacy of the greatest apes and astronauts in existence began on a dark and stormy night. In the 2006th year, word had spread vast and wide that King Sack of Rhye wished to enlist a gallery of heroes worthy of competing in the deadliest of coliseums. It was to be an enormous whirlwind of cultures, colors, creeds, and creatures, striving to be recognized as the ultimate symbols of video-computer society.
However, as sought after as such glorious honor was, no citizen of this digital kingdom had any clue as to how to become one of the chosen. The majority played ignorant, believing that their failure to acknowledge of the ordeal would give them a humble image, and otherwise make them appear to have never cared whatsoever if and when they were eventually not added to the roster. Master Chief was among this crowd, and made his 'unintentions' clear with the infamous technique of never removing his helmet. While he cleverly guised the anxious look in his eyes, closer inspection of the Chief's personal plasma pistol reveals the inscription 'They finished the fight without me : (", even today.
Others made it clear they wished to have no part in this clash of the titans, such as the legendary Vampire Slayer, Simon Belmont. Being a classic hero of the NES days, about 66% of all non-vampires agreed Simon Belmont would be a shoe in for the tournament, especially with his very, very distant cousin Solid Snake having had his giant boot in the door from day one of the brawl's announcement. Simon, on the other hand, made it clear he would not be involved even in promotional sticker format: "I've got my own plans on the horizon. Big plans. The kind with vampires and vampire slayers and mixes of the two. I don't know who thought having plumbers and marshmallows duking it out was a good idea, but you can be sure I'll have no part in it." Sir Belmont was questioned further, but he promptly rose his red crystal and was flown away in his private tornado.
But enough about these other chumps. The real meat and potatoes here is about a guy who went the distance. He knew this was the biggest and baddest of battles to come about since the beginning of time, and was willing to do everything and anything but nothing for something. The something, that is, of being in the aforementioned smash 'brawl' tournamentamajig. Some called him 'the blue bomber', and others dubbed him 'the super fighting robot'. However, all knew him as none other than MegaMan.
