The Apple Boy Series

Apple Boy 11: Treasure of the Deep

Our story picks up right where we left our heroes at the end of the last story: Playing Yo! Noid for the NES. "Man, this pizza eating contest sure is easy!" Apple Boy said, while playing the game's pizza eating contest. Now, for those who have never had the chance to play Yo! Noid before, the pizza eating contest is a minigame in which you, as the Noid, go up against the area champion, represented by a pink Noid, in a pizza eating competition. And by that, I mean you select a higher number than the champion in order to eat more pizza. Not very fun, but hey...that's what happens when you play Yo! Noid. Andromeda had cleared the Lab Room out of any debris from the Time Machine disaster, and was now working on his own personality chip, something that the Submarine Man had accidentally left out of Andromeda's design. First, however, he'd need to see what one of these personality chips even looked like. So, he left the Apple Tower, and flew off to the Skymarine, which was back up and running after the incident with the Chronosphere. He snuck onboard, and went looking for either Frostbite or Brute. Strangely, he would find somebody completely different: A fourth Omni-Metal. "WHO ARE YOU?" Andromeda asked. "I AM MERCENARY," answered the navy green Omni-Metal, "I TAKE IT THAT YOU'RE ANDROMEDA, THE ONE I WAS BUILT TO REPLACE?" "YOU WERE BUILT TO REPLACE ME...OF COURSE," Andromeda said, "AFTER I DEFECTED TO THE SIDE OF THE DEFENDERS, BALDOVIS WOULD BE NEXT TO DEFENSELESS WITHOUT ME. HE WOULD HAVE TO MAKE A REPLACEMENT," "AND HE DID, THAT BEING MYSELF," Mercenary said. "DO YOU, BY ANY CHANCE, HAVE A PERSONALITY CHIP?" Andromeda asked. "YES, BUT..." Mercenary was cut off by Andromeda firing a blast of energy directly at Mercenary's chest, powering him down. "LET'S GET A LOOK AT THAT PERSONALITY CHIP," Andromeda said, opening a panel on the back of Mercenary's head. There was a chip, located right about where the frontal lobe would be. "AT LAST, SOMETHING TO MODEL MY OWN CHIP AFTER," Andromeda said to himself. "That will be no help to you, Andromeda," said the Submarine Man, who was behind Andromeda. Andromeda turned around and swept the Submarine Man off of his feet...or, boots? I don't know, but he made the Submarine Man fall over. Andromeda then pointed his palm at Submarine Man, ready to fire an energy blast if needed. "WHY DID YOU NOT GIVE ME A PERSONALITY CHIP" Andromeda asked. "You were a prototype, Andromeda. Quite a successful one, might I add. The first personality chip was made with Frostbite," explained the Submarine Man, "You don't even have a slot for a personality chip to go into!" Andromeda pulled out a mirror and opened the panel on the back of his own head. Submarine Man was right, there was no slot to put a personality chip in, unlike with Mercenary, or any other Omni-Metal. "I'LL BE HEADING OUT NOW, THEN," Andromeda said, busting through the walls of the Skymarine, heading back for the Apple Tower. Because Andromeda smashed through the walls of the Skymarine, its altitude began to quickly, and exponentially drop, before crashing into the ocean."Not again..." groaned Submarine Man. Back at the Apple Tower, Apple Boy was growing tired of playing Yo! Noid. "I can see why this game only cost $20," Apple Boy said, annoyed, "Here, Kaiden. Wanna take a crack at it?" "Hell yeah, dude! I'm down to play some Yo! Noid!" Kaiden exclaimed. Apple Boy walked off to his bedroom, and sat down at his desk. He turned on his computer, looking for a price that Yo! Noid could be sold for. Unfortunately for him, it was being sold for below what he bought it. "Dammit...what a waste of money. I'm gonna go vent about it on Twitter," Apple Boy said. So, he logged onto his Twitter and vented about it to his 87 followers. Something like this, "yo noid is such a waste of money fr, bought it during the chronosphere disaster for $20, now it's only worth $7. #piracyisavictimlesscrime" Words of true wisdom, I know. After he posted this, he just scrolled through Twitter mindlessly. That is, until he came across an article claiming that there was a Treasure hidden in the Southern Ocean. Apple Boy took a look through the article, and it said that in some Undersea Ruins, there was a golden relic of seemingly ancient times. Apple Boy took great interest in finding this treasure, and went off to tell the other Defenders about it. "Guys, guys!" Apple Boy said excitedly, walking back into the living room. What he saw, confused him to say the least. Kaiden was taking apart the Yo! Noid cartridge, and fiddling with the ROM Chip. "What...what are you doing, Kaiden?" Apple Boy asked. "Hacking the game," Kaiden answered. "Ok, that's fine. There's some sort of artifact at the bottom of the Southern Ocean! You guys want to go find it?" Apple Boy asked. "No can do, Apple Dude. I can't swim, so it wouldn't really be a good idea for me to go with you," Kaiden said. "That's ok, Dominator, what about-" Apple Boy started. "Can't, sorry. Most of my staff down at the deli is out sick," Dominator said, "Turns out some stomach bug is going around," "Oh...that's fair, gotta make money. Fireball...actually, you know what maybe not, I mean...fire and water don't really mix, last time I checked," Apple Boy said, "Orange Girl, what about...Orange Girl?" Orange Girl was not in the living room. "She's working on that story she wants to get published," Fireball answered. "Alright then," Apple Boy said, "I know that Andromeda's working on that personality chip that he wants, so I suppose I'll go by myself," And so...he did. He went into the Apple Garage, attached a tow cable between the Applemobile and the Apple Jetski, and drove off to the coast of Virginia Beach. He parked the Applemobile, unhooked the Apple Jetski, brought it to the water, and went off in search of the Southern Ocean. He rode the jetski aimlessly for about half an hour, until realizing that the Jetski had a built-in GPS. "Oh, for crying out loud," Apple Boy said to himself upon realizing this, "See, this is why I bring other people along with me," He turned on the GPS and set a course for the Southern Ocean. "Man, VehiCorp sure did a good job with these Apple Vehicles," he said to himself. "In 2.5 nautical miles, turn left," the voice in the GPS said. Apple Boy started to get a bit lonely, having nobody to joke around with. Just then, the GPS voice chimes in saying, "Be careful, there's been a hazard reported ahead!" Apple Boy was confused, because he didn't see any hazards in front of him. "Hmm...something must be up with this GPS..." he said, looking closely at it. And then, a certain someone came up from out of the water, coughing and spluttering. "Submarine Man?! What are YOU doing here?" Apple Boy asked, shocked to see his enemy."Oh, not very much, Andromeda broke into the Skymarine looking for a personality chip, which he doesn't even have the components to use, and crashes the Skymarine in the process," Submarine Man explained. "Oh, I see. I thought you were after that golden artifact hidden in the Southern Ocean," Apple Boy said. "Nah, treasure hunting's not really my thing," Submarine Man said, "and I didn't really think it was your thing either," "It's really not, it's just that all my friends are busy, so I thought it'd be fun to go on a solo adventure, which I haven't done since the Apple Tower was built," Apple Boy explained. The two just kinda looked at each other awkwardly for a moment after that."Well, I'd better get going. That treasure isn't going to find itself," Apple Boy said, bidding the Submarine Man farewell. Apple Boy sped off towards the next GPS direction as Submarine Man treaded water. "Turn left, and then, for 1.5 nautical miles, continue straight. Your destination will be below you!" said the GPS voice. "Oh...well that was quicker than I expected," Apple Boy said, a bit disappointed. Other than seeing the Submarine Man, nothing interesting was happening to Apple Boy throughout his journey. He was starting to get incredibly bored, when he realized that he didn't really enjoy going on solo adventures. "If only Kaiden, or Andromeda, or Dominator were here," Apple Boy said to himself sadly, as he continued straight for 1.5 nautical miles. "Your destination is below you!" said the GPS voice. "Oh, I'm here!" Apple Boy said, a bit excited now. He got off the jetski, and dived deep into the water. "Oh, wait a minute..." Apple Boy thought to himself, "I need to breathe, don't I?" He swam back up out of the water to grab a scuba kit from the back of the Apple Jetski. Donning the scuba kit, he then proceeded to dive back into the water, to search for the ruins containing the treasure. As he dove deeper and deeper, he started to see the ruins, a bit. "There they are, the ruins!" Apple Boy said to himself, "Pretty soon that treasure'll be mine!" Apple Boy swam as fast as he could towards the ruins. And as he did that, he noticed an inscription on one of the pillars. "He who enters this temple alone, shall not return without a..." Apple Boy reads, with the last word being illegible, "Man, I wonder what that last word is...eh, it's probably not important," Apple Boy swam into the temple, prepared for the treasure that he'll find there. "Uh oh, there's traps everywhere!" Apple Boy exclaimed to himself. There were ocean mines littered all over the temple, as were there poison dart launchers, spikes, and pufferfish. "Man...how am I gonna avoid all of these?" Apple Boy asked himself. He braced himself mentally, and then began swimming to the other end of the temple, hoping to not be injured by any of the traps. He makes it through mostly unscathed, save for a few poison darts, and getting pricked by the pufferfish. "Ow, dammit!" Apple Boy said aloud, the scuba mask coming off of his mouth. Strangely, he doesn't begin drowning when this happens, much to Apple Boy's confusion. "Wait...I can breathe UNDERWATER?!" Apple Boy said in shock, "Holy crap, the fellas are gonna lose it when they hear about this!" Excitedly, he ditched the scuba tank and went on swimming through the temple, in search of the treasure. "Ugh, where IS this stupid thing?" Apple Boy asked himself, getting a bit frustrated. He swam for a little while longer, until he saw something that perplexed him. There were lasers around the temple, green lasers. "What are these lasers doing here? I thought this was an untouched ancient temple!" Apple Boy said, "This is getting sketchy...I'm outta here!" Apple Boy began to swim towards the exit, now realizing that it had been blocked off by a wall that very clearly hadn't previously been there. "There's no way in hell that was there before...oh well, I guess I gotta keep going!" Apple Boy said. He swam back towards the room with the green lasers. He avoided the lasers as best he could, fearful of their effects on him. He actually did wind up hitting one of the final lasers as he made it to the end of the room. "Ow, dammit!" Apple Boy said. The laser pierced through his outfit, burning a spot on his leg. "That'll take a while to fix," he continued. He continued swimming through the temple, spotting the corpses of other divers who had come in search of the treasure, and had died trying. But, something odd that Apple Boy had only realized after the fact, is that for every corpse he saw, he saw an identical corpse only a few feet away. "That's certainly bizarre..." Apple Boy mused, "Lots of treasure-hunting sets of twins in the world, it seems," He swam for just a little while longer, until he came across the treasure! "There it is," Apple Boy said in excitement, "It's a...it's a..." Apple Boy was dumbfounded at what he saw. The treasure appeared to be a golden figurine, akin to a trophy. It was of a hamster sitting in a microwave. "THAT's the treasure?!" Apple Boy asked, confused, "Who would ever sculpt something like that?!" He swam closer to the treasure, and noticed a plaque on it, reading: Based on a true story. "Well, that's just horrendous," Apple Boy murmured to himself, "Oh well, treasure's treasure," He grabbed the treasure and began to swim towards the door, which once again, was replaced with a mysteriously appearing wall. "Damn it, that's twice now," Apple Boy said angrily, "What is UP with this place?!" He then soon found out what was up with this place, as another laser began flashing on the ceiling. "Oh dear," Apple Boy said to himself, "I'm probably going to die here," And then, the laser rapidly scanned Apple Boy, which confused him immensely. "That didn't even hurt, what was the point of that?!" Apple Boy asked. Just then, a hatch opened below him, sending him, the treasure, and all the water in the room down a series of interconnected tubes. Apple Boy bumped against each corner of the tube, because the water was rushing so fast he could barely move himself. "Now I know how the dishwater feels when I drain it!" Apple Boy said, each word being punctuated with a bump against part of the tubes. The tubes went on and on, ending at a sort of cannon, which would shoot him towards land. Apple Boy flew out of the cannon, treasure in hand, and he landed right by the Applemobile. "How convenient," Apple Boy said to himself. He popped the trunk of the Applemobile, grabbed a towel, and dried himself off, and then proceeded to dry off the treasure. He then hopped into the car, and drove back to Fruitbowl City, treasure in hand. Back in the temple, something strange was going on. There was a sort of crystal, growing where the treasure had been initially. In a way, it resembled Apple Boy, but if Apple Boy was a 3D Model made in the era of the Sega Saturn, PlayStation One, and the Nintendo 64. The crystal creature's eyes were shut, and it was incredibly small. The development of the Crystal Clone had officially begun.

The End