Heroes of Dreamland, Book 3: The World of Nintendo (OLD)

Return to Earth, The Silhouette Explained

Byte's POV:

I groan, feeling really stiff, like I've been sleeping for a long time. Opening my eyes, I expect to be in my cave, but I'm not. I'm in some ruins.

At first, I panic, but then I begin to recognize where I am. This is the old Nintendo building, I've dug through the ruins here many times.

With a sigh, I decide to stay out here a little longer before I head home. It'll be good to have a bit of a breather from everything before I go see how things are going, now that the World Government has suddenly quit existing.

Pulling out my handheld supercomputer, I go to the 'photos' section. I got a picture with each of the different groups of heroes before I left. Of course, I'm not going to show them to anyone. Nintendo World's going to be my little secret. I have a feeling the characters really wouldn't like it if tons of visitors started showing up.

I'm smiling as I look back through the photos, when all of a sudden I hear a 'bing.' You know, the kind of noise a device makes when its battery is low. I look at my handheld supercomputer. I charged it less than two months ago, I should still have at least half-battery. I do, so what's complaining about needing some juice?

The 'bing' sounds again, and I get up to look around, bonking my elbow on something in the process. "Ow," I hiss, turning to glare at whatever inanimate object just hurt me. And then, my heart stops for a moment.

Right next to where I was sitting, there is a yellow, star-shaped, console-like box. I pick it up carefully and look at it. It's just like a video game console, except there's no place to put in a disk or cartridge. I look at it closer, until I see something hastily scribbled on it, in Japanese, with a black permanent marker:

任天堂 ワルド

I don't know how to read the first part, since it's in kanji, but the second part I quickly translate, since it's in katakana, which I taught myself (along with hiragana) around a year ago. "'Warudo,' world." That's enough for me to guess the rest.

It says, "Nintendo World."

I'm not sure what to feel. That whole world, that whole galaxy, even; is inside this box that I hold. A box that I was inside of, as a file, until Rose sent me home. It makes some sense, though. Only in a computer could 'magic' actually exist and work.

It 'bings' yet again, and I know what I'm feeling now. Panic. This whole world has been running on one battery for the past eight hundred-some years, no wonder it's almost dead. I need to get it a fresh battery, and stat. Or... I don't even want to think about what might happen. What would happen.

I grab my handheld supercomputer and tell it to teleport me home, hoping that even though the government's collapsed, it'll be able to do that for me. Thank goodness, it can, and moments later, I'm at my front door.

"Byte! Where have you been the past several days? You had us worried sick, and then the World Government disappeared, making us begin to think the worst! Do you have any idea what you have put us through, young lady?!?" my mom storms the instant I walk in through the door.

"I'm really sorry, Mom, but I don't have time to talk about this right now," I say breathlessly, trying to get around her and into my room.

"You had the time to disappear, you can talk to me for a while," she says, calmer now. Human emotion moment is over, apparently.

"Please, Mom," I beg. "This box is about to die. I need to get it a new battery, and now. You could never have any idea how important this is."

"The World Government is gone, and you're worried about a box?" my father joins the conversation incredulously, appearing from the hallway. "Just let it die, you can give it a battery later."