Part 1

Hey guys, I was playing games recently, and the idea for this
fanfic popped into my brain. This fanfic presents me with a
new challenge, as I am going to try to write the entire thing
*online*. I find that doing so puts a pressure on me that has
unpredictable results. I just hope it doesn't hurt the quality.
Hey, there's the quality now! Hi quality!

"Hi, 8-Bit! ACCCCKKK!! Pressure! I'm su--su--suff--sufficating..."

Right.

Anyway, let's begin our tale, well calculated to keep you in
SUSPENSE!

As we open this quickly-crafted macabre tale (you know that's
actually pronounced "McCobb?" Really! Anyone want some corn
on the Macabre?), we see a certain demented scientist, one
Professor Norton Nimnul, playing some arcade game which we
can't see the title nor the screen of since the camera is in
a bad location. He can only see Nimnul wiggling the joystick
and pressing the buttons, going "Yes, YES!!! High score!"

I hope I didn't just put a bad image in anyone's mind.

Then, Nimnul's face twisted into a MACABRE expression, as an
idea suddenly graced his mind. No longer worried about a high
score, he let go of the stick. As if it could sense his feelings,
the arcade machine let out an "ARRRGGGHHH!"

Nimnul turned, and walked away with grim determination. "This
is the ultimate plan," he thought, "This is the one that will
make me ruler of the world! And this time, those pesky rodents
won't stop me!"

As he left the arcade, a voice from the game he was playing
stated "I hunger."

Rescue Rangers, IN:

Space Arcade!

Featuring the Rescue Rangers (Doi!),

My characters, Frog, Pennywinkel, Mademanna, and introducing
the Halfmaster.

Also featuring The Shadow, star of books, radio, and TV, as
well as Spidey and He-Man, and a lot of stilted prose!

As we begin, for once in my writing, the action has already
started in the Big City where the Rangers dwell. The Rangers
have easily spotted the evil Nimnul...
"Flying on an ostritch?" Chip asked, confused, for indeed it
did seem as if Nimnul was making a getaway on an ostritch, a
flying ostritch, and carrying one of those spears or whatever
that knights in medieval times used for jousts.

"Okay, so what did he steal this time?" Frog asked from the
back seat of the Ranger Plane.

"Some sort of mechanical parts, I think." Chip answered.
"I say we follow him and find out."

Chip, being quite the chipper chipmunk, didn't wait for anyone
else's okay before he acted on that particular thought. Indeed,
he sped up, putting himself right over Nimnul.

Nimnul, meanwhile, was flying right over and forward of the cop
car belonging to Kirby and Muldoon, who were commanding him to
land his Ostritch and give himself up. Nimnul, however, refused
to do so. In front of him, he was holding onto what looked like
some sort of controller, like the kind used to play video games.
He swiftly started pressing one button over and over, which
seemed to cause his ostritch to fly up and up, over and over,
out and out.

It almost crashed right into the Ranger Wing, but this ostritch
was not only flying, but flapping its wings like that made it go
faster as well, and it was speeding like a Road Runner when it's
height was even with the Ranger Plane.

This worried Chip, so he slowed down until Nimnul was about a
yard and a half ahead of them. Then he said "There."

"Hey, Chip," Gadget suggested, "How about we try to stay even
with him long enough for Frog to take him out with that Kame-
Whateveritwas? Or Pennywinkel could do it, or Mademanna... oh
wait, Mademanna can't, can she? Oh, guess it's one of the other
two, then, unless you can, Chip. Darn, I should've put a
tranquilizer dartlauncher on this thing. Do you think I should
put a Tranquilizer Dartlauncher--"

"That's fine, Gadget. Frog, do you think you can do it?"
Recieving no answer, Chip asked Gadget to look back and check
on Frog. She did so, and saw him standing in his seat, ready
to launch a Kamehameha. Pennywinkel, being ever thoughtful,
held onto his legs so he wouldn't go falling off the Ranger
Wing and to his immenent doom. She would've offered to do
the firing, but Frog's grip and presence of mind weren't half
as good as her own, and he would've dropped her.

While this was being arranged, Nimnul was aware not only of
the sound of small propellers behind himself, but also of
a bunch of squeaky voices. He looked over his shoulder, and
wasn't the least surprised to see these familiar rodents
chasing him. He didn't say anything, he merely smirked, and
suddenly sent his ostritch into a dive.

The Rangers, surprised, followed in their own dive, almost
wishing they hadn't, as Nimnul had led them into an alley full
of pipelines, possibly for water, possibly for delivering
secret messages, but still impeding progress. Nimnul himself
just barely managed to swoop, dive, and make it around several
of them. The Rangers had it a lot easier, travelling in a smaller
vehicle.

Nimnul, clearing the alley, quickly glanced at the ground. He
saw something, and whatever he saw he percieved as a good thing.
Saying to himself "Those rodents won't expect *this*!" he turned
out of the alleyway.

The Rangers soon followed, and strted turning upwards, following
Nimnul into a loop. Chip signalled for Frog to begin charging
up.

"Ka--"

The rangers were halfway at the top of the loop.

"Me--"

Now at the top.

"Ha--"

Going down.

"Me--"

Chip saw what Nimnul was aiming for: An open manhole! So the
mad scientist planned to pull a daredevil stunt! Chip sped up,
to be right behind Nimnul, so that Frog's aim would be true.

But before, Nimnul had, much to his own shock, made a terrible
mistake. A sewer worker who had been leaving the manhole, had
closed it just as Nimnul zoomed downwards. The sewer worker
was not aware of what his simple act had done for a few more
seconds, then...

"Ha!"

Frog's blast zoomed down at Nimnul, who barely realised it as
he crashed straight into the concrete road. The Rangers, having
been too close to save themselves, soon followed. The Ranger
Wing crashed, and unexpectedly, the magical force of Frog's blast
began to merge with all the mechanical explosions resulting from
Nimnul's Ostritch...

How will this turn out? Tune in next time for part two! Same
Bat-time, same bat...

SPIDEY: Oh, be quiet. Batman's not even in this fanfic!

HE-MAN: Jealous, Spidey?

SPIDEY: Not as much as you are of my keen outfit!

HE-MAN: Careful, fella, I've mangled camera men for less than
that!

Space Arcade Part 2

Well, it took a bit of sleep, but now here's the continuation!
BTW, please review, PWEASE! (Sorry, it's just that it's been
a long long time since my work has been reviewed).

When we last left off... The Rangers had crashed right into
Nimnul who himself had crashed right into a street.

The authorities and paramedics arrived not soon after Nimnul's
fateful collision, surrounding the scene. One paramedic stepped
out and checked Nimnul's pulse, confirming that he was still
alive. He yelled to an officer "He's out cold!"
"Will he make it?"
"I'm not entirely sure. The best hope for him is to get him to
a hospital."
So, two aids brought out a stretcher, and lifted Nimnul's
unconscious form onto it. Then they brought it back to the
medical van, and shut the door.
The officer took one more glance around the scene, noting the
suspicious gimmicks that now lay broken among the street, Nimnul's
strange ostritch-machine, for one, and what looked like a
miniature airplane type thing, made out of trash, with an RR
logo painted on a part of it.
The officer pondered what, possibly, could RR stand for? And
he kept wondering all the way back to the station.
All over the street, there was no sign whatsoever of the Rangers.

"Ooooohhh..." Chip awoke with a moan, holding his hand to his
head as if it would ease the pain. Then, he suddenly forgot the
pain as he saw all his friends laying around him. Suddenly a
dread came over him, and he rushed over to Dale, and shook him
while pleading for his friend to awaken.

Dale finally stirred, stretched, yawned, and sleepily said "Hey
mommy, what's for breakfast?"

Chip, filled with joy and relief, hugged his friend and said
"Dale, you're okay!" This shocked Dale into being totally
awake, and he responded "Hey, what's going on here?"

"I'm not sure. Come on, we have to revive the others."

"Duuuhhh... okay."

Within minutes, the others in question had been revived.
Frog and Penny each took a few minutes, because those two
wacky kids happened to enjoy being knocked out. But when
they did come to, they pondered what everyone else wanted
to know.
"Where are we?"

Where, indeed, for they were at some sort of intersection.
The walls were blue, and the roads were lined with glowing
yellow spots (Which Chip imagined must be some sort of night
light). Everything else was pitch black.

"Hmmm," Chip wondered, and he advanced towards one of those
yellow dots in the road. He found it to be about the size
of a walnut to a chipmunk, and also that he could pick it
up. "Hey, these aren't streetlights!" he exclaimed. Then,
on a sudden compulsion, he bit into it. He let it stay in
his mouth for a minute as a thought processed through his
mind, then he bit off a piece, digested it, and exclaimed
"Hey! These are edible!"

Immediately, Dale picked one up, and was about to taste it
himself, when suddenly a voice cried out "Don't eat those!"

Dale was shocked silly, and asked loudly "Who said that?"

No answer. Chip, too, called out "Who said that?"

Chip and Dale, both vexed about not getting an answer, started
calling out left and right "Who said that?"

Gadget, however, saw something that shocked her senseless. The
shock and fear made her unable to get any words out, as she was
stuttering too much, so she backed up, and tugged at Chip's
jacket. When he turned around, she pointed. Then Chip saw it,
too:

A big, blue, towering ghostlike figure was looking down at them
with a look of twisted pleasure, and was slowly advancing on them.

Monty managed to stutter out "Wh-Who are you? What ya gonna do
with us?"

"Eat you." The ghost answered. Chip and Dale could now tell
the voice that had talked to them earlier did *not* belong to
this ghost.

But speaking of that voice, that evil laugh resounded all around
the maze again, more loudly than ever. The ghost even heard it,
and he suddenly took on a confused expression, letting out "Wha--?"
As he looked around.

Suddenly, a few yards behind the Rangers, a caped man appeared,
wearing a scarf around his mouth, and a black hat. In his hands
he was carrying some big round yellow thing which the Rangers
might have mistaken for Cheese with a moving mouth, had it not
been for the fact that Monty couldn't smell it.

As the ghost gasped in shock, the caped man pulled out a blinking
yellow orb and shoved it into the mouth of the yellow round thing.
Then he quickly took and threw said yellow round thing at his
ghostly adversary, who had now turned blue with fear and was
starting to run. But he didn't make it, and the yellow thing ate
the ghost, leaving only a pair of flying eyes, which flew off before
they were eaten, too.

"Uhhh, thanks!" Chip managed to say, turning to the spot where
the man was still standing. "Who are you?"

"I'm just a Shadow."

"Hey! It's the Shadow!" Frog blurted out stupidly. "One of the
best and most unique superheroes ever concieved!"

"Well, in that case," Dale asked, "Where are we? And why can't
we eat these things?" He held up one of the yellow pellets Chip
had formerly mistaken for a streetlight.

"Not all that tastes wonderful is good," The Shadow cryptically
explained, "A bite of that would've doomed you to a bitter
existence, and trapped you in the inescapable maze."

"What maze?" Chip asked.

"This one!" The Shadow raised his arms to indicate all around
him. As he was doing so, Chip finished off the rest of his
half-eaten pellet.

The Shadow noticed this, and said "Didn't I tell you not to eat
that?"

"Sorry, but it was already half-eaten anyway..."

"You fool! Now it's caught you in it's grasp! Your best hope is
to not eat another one. Come, follow me, I know a way out."

And he began walking. The other Rangers, having no better plan,
followed him. Chip lagged behind, eyeballing all the tasty treats
he knew he was passing up. He stopped, and slowly began to pick
one up, but at that time Gadget turned, and managed to stop him.

"Awwww, but Gadget..."
"No, Chip." was all she would say.

They continued walking, around corners and through passages, each
time passing up the delicious pellets. After awhile, the craze
finally took over Chip, and he broke away to gobble one up.

"Chip!" Gadget cried out, causing The Shadow and everyone else
to turn and look, and everyone caught Chip in the act.

"Fool!" the Shadow said, "If you keep that up, you'll be stuck
here forever!"

"But Shadow," Frog argued, on a sudden thought, "Pac-Man eats
these things, and he hasn't been--"

"Pac-Man has never left this maze!"

"What? But the cartoon, and that Pac-Man 2 game for SNES, and
Pac-Land, and..."

"Those were alternate universes. This Pac-Man inadvertently
stumbled into this maze, and like your friend, became addicted
to the pellets. He can not leave the maze any longer, for his
craving has grown so great that leaving them for even a day would
kill him. It is unfortunate that he doomed his entire family to
such a fate as well."

"He's right, Frog," Pennywinkel said, "Haven't you ever wondered
why the original Pac-Man never had an ending?"

"Exactly," the Shadow said. Then he knelt down, and picked up
Chip, saying "I'm going to carry you, so I can keep you out of
trouble!" Then he stuffed Chip in one of his pockets. Then he
began walking again.

Eventually, having wandered around the maze enough, not
encountering any ghosts, they followed a passage that had
light at the end. Everyone was glad to finally be out of
that maze. Everyone, that is, except Chip.

But they weren't home free just yet...

SPIDEY: Yea, 8-Bit has to stretch the story a bit longer.

HE-MAN: One must wonder why he prefers to write stories
about some rodents as opposed to cool heroes like us?

SPIDEY: Ahh, Different Strokes, I guess.

HE-MAN: You know, we should be professional MiSTers.

SPIDEY: Yea, we should...

Space Arcade Part 3

As the Shadow led them out of the maze, having to carry
Chip who had accidentally taken a bite of an addictive
pellet, they came upon an open forest. The path in front
of them led directly to a pond. The Shadow, interested,
chose that path, and told the rest of the Rangers that he
would have to put them in his pocket with Chip.

"Surely you're not going to swim with us in your coat?"
Monterey questioned.

"Of course I can't, there's crocodiles in the lake!"

And now the Rangers were nervous, and Dale emplored "No, no,
that path over there seems better, let's go that way!"

"Calm down, little guy. The Shadow knows what he's doing.
There is a trick to passing these crocodiles that I am well
versed in."

And then, much to the protest of everyone, The Shadow ran
and leaped right into the lake--and landed on the head of
a croc. The Rangers looked around in compounded surprise.
Only now did they notice that the crocs weren't moving, and
were lined up perfectly in a straight line. With two more
quick jumps, The Shadow had passed over the heads of the other
crocodiles and had put himself on the other side of the lake.
Not bothering to admire his own work, he walked on, coming on
more ponds and not-that-deadly obstacles.

Finally, he reached a clearing. Normally, here would be some
big guy spewing fireballs at him, but instead, there was a
small stand, that contained a small castle. Small for him,
maybe, but...

"Okay, everybody out," the Shadow said, holding his hand to
his pocket. The Rangers, some of them gladly, got out of the
Shadow's pocket, not caring to stick around to see him be a
daredevil, and they just could not stand his evil-sounding
voice. Chip was still sore at him, but he realized that may
just be the pull of his addiction gnawing at him.

So, when the Shadow placed them all down at the entrance to
this small-for-humans castle, Chip reluctantly said "Uhhh....
Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Monty had been about to shower the Shadow with questions, like
who are you, where you come from, who sent you, etc. But just
then, the Shadow disappeared, laughing his evil-sounding laugh.
Monty suddenly found himself nervous, and rushed Chip into the
castle, not hesitating to shut the drawbridge.

"An' I hope we never see that guy again!" He blurted out.

"Monty!" Gadget exclaimed, "He saved our lives!"

"Yea, but at what price? Did you see how he disappeared like
that? Magicians usually aren't to be trusted, you know.
Especially with a laugh like that!"

"You can't judge people by the way they--" She had just been
about to say "Laugh" when suddenly she saw Chip dart, and
realized too late that he was heading for a pellet similar to
the ones from the maze. "--Chip, don't!"

But Chip had already grabbed the pellet, and had bitten into
it... only to almost break his teeth discovering that this
pellet was a crystal, not food. "Darn," he said while everyone
else sighed with relief.

Chip, in a sort of frustration, grabbed the collar of Frog's
coat, and demanded "Where are we?"

"Now Chip--" Gadget started.

"Gadget, I know what I'm doing. Frog's from another universe,
he probably knows what's going on. And if he doesn't, she does!"
he ended, pointing at Pennywinkel.

"Ah," Frog thought, "And here I thought we had been relagated to
the realm of pointless tag-alongs."

"No jokes! Now what's going on?"

"All right, all right... Well, About the only pattern I can see
is that these all seem themed after old arcade games."

"Games?" Chip sounded suspicious, "Okay, then how do we win this
game?"

"Umm... pick up all the crystals before those monsters do."

Chip looked. Indeed there were monsters on the board, and they,
too, were gathering crystals.

Chip let go of Frog, dashed for the board, and angrily shouted
"Then what are you waiting for? Get those crystals!"

The others looked at each other, shrugged as if to say "Okay"
and then dashed for the board, picking up as many crystals as
they could carry. It helped that they all had sacks appear
out of nowhere on their backs, though only Gadget stopped to
question that, but Chip constantly pushing everyone like slaves
didn't give her a lot of time to do so.

As they dashed over the board left and right, Dale stopped, and
looked up. Then he began climbing a wall.

"What are you doing, you goof?!" Chip exclaimed.

"There's a door up here! It could be a way out!"

"No, goof, you're going to gather crystals like all the rest
of us!"

"Chip, give Dale a chance!" Gadget chimed in.

"Right, lad, he may have found an easier solution to our
problem!"

"I'm almost there!" Dale called down, which was pointless since
we could all see he was, but just as he caught the doorknob, red
letters spelling out the message "They got the last crystal, no
bonus." Appeared in front of all of them, and they quickly turned
and looked. Indeed, a monster was holding up the last crystal
and *gloating*.

Then, suddenly, the floor fell away. Dale held onto the now-open door
for dear life as the others fell into darkness...

SPIDEY: Wow, another cliffhanger, what a shock!

HE-MAN: Easy, now! Who knows what's gonna happen next?

SPIDEY: If you just set up another Shadow reference I'm gonna...

Conclusion Summary

After the breakaway, all the Rangers would've had to go through seperate games
and reunite. Dale would've had to go through Haunted Castle (A Castlevania
spinoff), Chip would've probably had to go through After Burner, then Galaga.
Zipper would've had to tackle Space Harrier. Monterey Jack? Mike Tyson's
Punch-Out (natch). Gadget would probably had to avoid falling Tetris blocks.
Eventually they'd all reunite, and have a battle with Sinistar, after which it would've
turned out they were trapped inside Nimnul's head, where he reigns dominant,
thus setting the stage for The Last Hope, my next fanfic.

Oh yea, and that "Halfmaster" character I was supposed to introduce... unfortunately,
I couldn't think of a place to insert him into the story. He's a superhero who has the
power of being able to make a clone of himself. The catch is that, every time he does,
his brain gets shared by all his clones, and thus he becomes more and more idiotic as
he makes more clones. It gets back to normal, however, when he pulls all the clones
back inside him.