Life with the Video Game Cast

Chapter 10

Along the rocky road, we drove for 2 more hours. I felt myself drifting off to sleep. Suddenly I knocked out, then I felt myself slump over.

When I woke up, I saw there was a jacket over me. I looked to my side and saw Shadow was sitting there, fully awake, looking straight ahead. I looked over at the small logo and saw he had put his G.U.N jacket over me. "Thanks for the warmth! It was soft!" I smiled, handing back over his jacket. "You're welcome. It suits you well." he murmured. "So what do you really feel on a regular basis?" I asked him. He looked surprised by the question, but he sighed softly. "I feel... free. My anger, my sadness, all that negativity that's supposed to follow me, it doesn't. Understand that just because I sound mad or grumpy... it doesn't mean I am. Keeping up that role isn't easy. Especially since I don't like hurting anyone. I do like the weapons part. That's one thing I do love. But at the end of the day... I don't want to always be depressed." he explained.

I felt bad for him. Keeping up a sad act must've been exhausting. Especially since he had a tragic background. "It'll get better. We're going to fix it." I promised him. He smiled softly and held out his hand in a fist. I fist-bumped him and we both were happy to end this tyrant once and for all. Another hour went by before we stopped outside the town and the main area where the characters were living. But when I looked out the window, I noticed we weren't where we were supposed to be at. "Where are we?" I asked confused. No one answered me since they were too worried about something else. Mario and Luigi looked around and wandered off into some part of the woods. I took note of the place around me, and now I was able to see the huge, glowing, green tower just sitting out there in the middle of nowhere, a gate was blocking our way. "Oh great, what do you need now!" I heard a voice snap. I turned around to see Wario come out of the bushes with his brother at his side.

"Listen Wario, we really didn't want to be a thorn in your side, but we need your help!" Mario cried. "No! I refuse! What have you ever done for me? I can't! I won't! Figure it out yourself!" Wario snapped, walking as fast as his legs would let him. "You don't a-get it! If we don't get to the tower, we might never get the normal life we desire. All we need to is get past the security and help us get through to the motherboard. We'll do anything you want afterward, you've just gotta let us go through!" Mario begged. "And what makes you think we would a-help you with anything? If we get caught, who do ya think they'll be coming for?" Waluigi snapped. "But we won't fail you! All you have to do is let us past those gates and we'll deal with everything else!" Luigi promised them. But they still wouldn't budge one bit. "No way, no how! You'll have to put up with it. No one can defeat that guy and you know it!" Wario snapped and they both began to stomp off.

"You're wrong!" I shouted. Both brothers stopped in their tracks and snapped their heads around to look at me. "Oh yeah? And what can you do to make it different? You're just like the rest of us! You'll be lucky if he doesn't completely delete your code!" Waluigi questioned me and he was getting up in his face. His odd-looking mustache kept twitching as I took in a deep breath. I was going to regret this but it was the only way we were going to get through. With a closed fist, I reared it back and aimed right for his nose. But when I swung at him, his body started glitching and I went straight through him. "What the-!" I cried before crashing to the ground. "Stupid boy. Who do you think you are to be this way? You're embarrassing your franchise by doing this!"

"Please! Guys, he's not here to hurt anyone! He speaks the truth! We have to get to that tower! He's not one of us! That's why we need him on our side!" Mario cried. Both of them looked confused and investigated me closer. "Hmm. You're right! He doesn't have pixels in his eyes. Or anything. But even so, how's one virus going to help us?" Waluigi questioned. "I can help because many of the things you guys do don't affect me! Like- oh! Monika, show them you can't access whatever you were trying to access!" I explained. She nodded her head and walked over to me, then began tapping my forehead multiple times. "See!" I told them. "Pfft! That's child play! How do we know you couldn't have just secured your memory cloud?" he asked suspiciously. Well, he did have a point. "I bleed blood! Um, Tails! Hit me!" I urged. "Are you sure about-?" "Just do it!" He looked guilty but he smacked me hard against my lip, it barely splitting. Blood barely seeped out as I wiped it away, it showing up on my hand. "S-See?" I winced showing them. "Ha! The horror world has blood! You think we'd fall for that?" Wario cackled. "Oh my gosh! What do I have to prove to you that I'm not from around here!" I shouted in frustration.

That's when it hit me, they never saw the crystal or my book. "The thing is, my world knows everything about you! And here's the proof!" I said to them, handing them both the book. "The only explanation I got to why I was here, was this. I found a crystal in a lake near where I lived. Because it sensed this, it took me to your world. I was excited to see you guys since you've been around my whole childhood! But seeing you unhappy, didn't give me a nice feeling. This isn't fair. This book practically lies to everyone around the world. The only thing I can do now is to fix what others can't. Even if it means I might never get to go home. You don't have to join the battle. Just help us to finish it."

Both brothers briefly flipped through it, looking at all the people and other things inside. The realized the crystal that I had was in fact Lyrics. It made them frown and I think I might've heard a few sniffles. "So you found one of Lyric's crystals eh? I guess we can-ah believe it now." Waluigi sniffed. "Our dear friend was punished from trying to get help from the outside world. It's only fair we help him. He doesn't deserve to be trapped inside that code box." Wario sighed. We watched as they both pulled out something from their pockets and handed them over to Mario and Luigi. "Those keys can access everything in the Coding Tower. But you'll have to be careful. There are all sorts of guards inside there that would do anything to get your hands on you just to get on his good side. All we can do is make sure the security doesn't go off." he told us. "Thank you. We owe you big time!" Mario smiled.

After a quick smile, we hopped back into our vehicles and waited for the gate to open up. Once they did, each of us just drove inside. I looked back, waving at the opposite brothers who smiled and waved back. We were one step closer to that tower. And I couldn't believe it, now, I was getting nervous.