Nintendo Power

 It was hard to say the Agaman jungle was ever truly quiet. Every moment that threatened to be silent would inevitably have the rustle of leaves, the chitter of insects, or the squawking of some colorful bird cut in to remind you these trees are filled with life, and that was if you were lucky enough that the sound was coming from something as harmless as a hoatzin. 

Still, there was an unusual sense of calm that surrounded a young lady as she stood in the jungle, not an ounce of fear in her despite being hopelessly lost. Instead, her eyes were transfixed on the leaf of a large fern before her, her own arm extending with a much tinier one to nudge the end of it as delicatly as she could.

Despite her neutrally cheerful expression, Gamecube was patient as she did whatever work she had committed herself to, but her slow pace and willingness to wait on the natural world wasn't shared by her audience.

A tiny twosome approaches from between the trees...

The girl in red sputters as a low hanging branch rubs itself across her face, "What is Gamecube doing here? She's just making us more lost..."

"She's having fun!" the blue one chirps, scampering forward as her slower twin ambles after, "Let's see what she's up to!"

Gamecube doesn't flinch as the little Switch twins approach. In fact, she doesn't even acknowledge them until the blue girl was up against her arm to the point her breath was subtly causing the leaf to flutter. "Whatcha up to, Gamecube? Harassing the wildlife?" Blue asks, her eyes drawn to a small snail that was crawling from the fern onto the edge of the held leaf.

Gamecube takes in a deep breath before speaking, "So I was thinking... You know how salt kills snails and slugs? And they're the only animal that is? Well, people say that vampires and demons can be harmed by salt too. Does that mean people thought slugs were such monsters that the thing that kills them could be used on other evil things? I just wanted to be nice to this little snail since it probably has it rough with everyone thinking its such a bad guy."

"I think it looked pretty happy on that leaf," Red grumbles, "You're just bothering it."

"If you really wanted to move it," Blue chirps, "You could just FLICK! it across the jungle! That would get it far away fast!"

"I'm going to move it to a leaf on a healthier plant," is Gamecube's only answer to the twins, waiting for the snail to properly be aboard before shuffling over to another fern to complete the transfer. Blue cocks her head curiously to understand, but Red Switch was already leaning against a tree as she shakes her head at the diversion.

However, the little scene wasn't to last for long, as another girl stumbles into the small space between the trees.

"Oh look! It's the girl I was looking for! And some of the girls that were looking for the girl that I was looking for, or is it one girl who is now two girls looking for one girl that I was looking for?" Virtual Boy rambles off, strolling over and approaching Red Switch first.

"Are you done being lost now?" Virtual Boy asks cheerily.

Red huffs, "Yeah, I guess. Come on you two, there will be more snails to bother somewhere else. I guarantee it."

"Yipee!" Blue cheers, skipping over towards her counterpart only to notice Gamecube just blankly staring at the others. Blue scampers back, grabbing Gamecube's hand to pull her along as they follow Virtual Boy back towards an area that looked more like a path.

In the small patch between the trees, the two remaining members of this small group both turn to see Virtual Boy leading the others through the trees.

Game Boy Color's expression shifts from understated worry to outright relief as she runs forward, hugging Gamecube. "You done had me worried sick! My heart was done ready to leap outta my chest when I notice you weren't with us no more!"

"Hey, I want a hug too!" Blue says, reaching her arms out towards the taller Nintendo girl.

"It's not fair if only Gamecube gets them..." Red grouses, filtering her own desire for one through her attitude. Game Boy Color only put her hands on her hips as she looks down at the little pair.

"Switch, why're you splitting for no reason? You're just gonna make yer personality drift worse."

Red rolls her eyes, "The drift ain't that bad."

"But if it'll get me a hug, I'll dock!" Blue squeaks, grabbing her companion in a side hug before reaching towards a small zipper that appeared between them. Pulling it up, the tiny twins suddenly shifted from half the size of Game Boy Color to being a little taller than her...

"There, I'm back to normal." Switch states flatly... before giddily grabbing Game Boy Color too tightly, "Which means I get my reward now!"

Game Boy Color laughs before pushing her back, "Alright, enough mush! We gotta get back to getting outta here. Thanks fer wrangling them, Virtual Boy."

Virtual Boy straightens up at being addressed before doing an overly enthusiastic nod, "I told you I could do it! Before I left, and now, I'm telling you I could do it again because I have proof I did do it!"

Game Boy Color got sassy once more, "Like how you told me you could drive a car?"

Virtual Boy dips her head from side to side, "Well I can drive a car! But I didn't say I knew how to! I had seen people do it in the movies and it looked easy enough to copy, but there wasn't a movie to watch while driving so my memory wasn't good enough to keep me from hitting all those trees."

"Don't be too hard on her, GBC, this has been a blast!" The last voice cuts in.

Slicing away at the brush with her stylus as she talked, 3DS repeatedly turned her head to the others between panting at the exertion of clearing a path. "We came all the way to the jungle, might as well get the jungle experience!"

Switch chimes in, "Would be a lot more fun if we had any clue where we are. Game Boy Color, shouldn't you be using one of your amazing gizmos to call for help?"

Game Boy Color raised an eyebrow, "C'mon now, Switch. First thing I did was check t'see if I could get someone out here to rescue us. What kinda self-respectin' inventor would I be if I can't whip up something that gets reception out here? Problem is, didn't know what to tell 'em 'bout where we are. All these damn trees look alike!"

"So that leaves me as the rescue effort!" 3DS chuckles, "Don't you worry your pretty little heads. One time me and a group of friends ended up on the wrong side of a mountain when a snowstorm hit. Dug us a little hidey hole to wait out the freeze, even carried one of them home on my back!"

"Yeah, but we're not on a mountain," Switch sighs, "But I do feel so much safer in your big muscly arms 3DS~"

Virtual Boy leans over towards Gamecube, "Is that flirting that Switch is trying? Or is she drifting again? Or maybe she usually drifts away from being flirty and now we're seeing the real her!"

As the girls continue to go back and forth though, Gamecube suddenly cuts through. "Hey team..."

"I think I'm being kidnapped."

Virtual Boy was suddenly aware the girl next to her was wrapped in dirt from the waist down, leaping back in surprise and tumbling to the ground herself as the jungle begins to shake. Gamecube rises up into the air as something more clearly recognizable as a fist squeezes around all but her head. 3DS yanks Virtual Boy clear of the shifting soil, watching as earth and plants rise much higher than the canopy until the beast began snapping the nearby trees as it revealed itself.

With a defensive growl the earthen beast snaps its jaws at the girls before it, 3DS prodding its gums with her stylus to force it back. "Okay, I can still handle this!" 3DS calls out in a panic, looking up at the arm holding Gamecube and trying to jab her weapon at it only for the beast to swipe her away and into the brush.

"Ah shit, 'course it would grab our girl with the best battle tech!" Game Boy Color pulls out the altered version of the system she's named for, but with the mountain of a monster easily tearing apart the jungle around them, she's forced to back off rather than try to pull of her intended tactic, her eyes locked on Gamecube and only slightly relieved to see that she didn't seem to be reacting too much to the situation.

 

"Well fuck, Gamecube is pretty much dead. Unless I do something!" Switch calls out, grabbing her jacket zipper and yanking it down so she turned back into the Joycon Twins.

 

Red stands in place, raising her arms and shaking them as she mumbles "HD Rumble...", the ground beneath the beast starting to quake and causing its attempts to extricate itself from its hiding place to become sloppier. The beast was distracted, and that was the important part, buying the other girls more time to concoct a plan for how to deal with this, their first true battle outside of simulations GBC had put together.

 

3DS pulls herself out of the brush, shaking her hair as she points her stylus at Virtual Boy. "Hey VB!"

 

Virtual Boy's eyes were locked on the beast only for her to suddenly straighten up. "Oh! That's right! VB is your nickname for me, because it's my initials! What do you need?"

 

"You're really into drawing, right?"

 

"Oh! Yes! Thank you for noticing!"

 

"Sketch me up something really quick so I can Pop it!" 3DS calls out, waving the end of her stylus to follow the code word.

 

"Oh of course! Give me a second to do the drawing you asked me to do!" Virtual Boy whips out a well worn sketchpad, tongue sticking out as she hastily scribbles out an image as best she can. Content with her work, she holds it up to 3DS, the other Nintendo girl ready to make the image pop off the page as 3D image... before seeing what it was.

 

"VB... why'd you just draw yourself?"

 

"Oh, well, I have a very good reason for that! See, you needed me to draw something really quickly, so I figured if I drew a second me, you could make it pop out and then we could work together to draw what you needed twice as fast!"

 

"Oh pure, sweet little VB..." 3DS groans, but Game Boy Color pushes her aside to shout.

 

"Hey Virtual Boy, use your visor! Mess with him some more"

 

Virtual Boy nods and quickly pulls out her unique gizmo, putting it over her eyes and causing all of the area before her she could see to be basked in a red glow. The earthen beast bellows at the unexplained shift, Red following over in shock and stopping her rumble. Virtual Boy was seeing a menu before her only visible through the visor, and she quickly begins to tweak the options of the reality before her, altering the monster before her...

And suddenly, that bellow from the beast became much louder, the other girls covering their ears as the trees shook and animals fled from the terrible cacophony.

"WHAT DID YOU DO, VIRTUAL BOY?!" Game Boy Color shouts.

"I just thought, if I turned up the volume on his roar, that might attract another monster in the area to come over and beat him up for us! That way none of us get hurt!"

"And what's your plan if that monster DID show up?" Red Joycon grumbles.

"Oh, I didn't think of that..."

Game Boy Color rushes over and holds her game system up towards the visor, "Here, let me just handle this." A spark leaps from system to visor, Virtual Boy shivering as her control is rested away so Game Boy Color can instead control the Options Menu. The monster before them both was raising its arm up to smash the two girls to pieces, but with a quick option change, the arm's attempt to slam down instead lead to it slamming UP!

Rising high up into the air, the earthen beast's limb confused the creature as it behaved in the opposite manner than expected. It tries to look at its arm to understand, but it's head moves down instead, the creature completely unable to comprehend the fact its controls has been inverted!

"Perfect! Thanks GBC! Time to get to work!" 3DS leaps into action now that things were safer, digging her stylus into the ground to launch herself up as the dirt Pops out beneath her. Jabbing the weapon into the grassy back of the beast, 3DS causes huge hunks of rocky flesh to Pop right off as well, the monster unable to do anything but flail around in confusion. This made 3DS's efforts to get to Gamecube much harder as the limb holding her move with little logic, but soon 3DS lunges forward, pressing her stylus's tip onto Gamecube's hat... and propelling her right out of the monster's hand with the Pop power!

Gamecube sails up into the air, realizing her situation and scrambling to pull out her special tool. A Gamecube controller fumbles between her hands before suddenly, a press of a button causes another figure to form in the air...

"WAVEBIRD READY FOR ACTION!" The robotic girl calls out, its jets activating as it grabs Gamecube and prevents her from falling. Gamecube begins fiddling with her controller, Wavebird pointing its arm cannon down before calling out "ODAMA!" and firing an enormous pinball down onto the beast's head, smashing apart more of its rocky flesh.

However, the inverted controls only lasted so long, and with a quick surge upward, Wavebird is smacked by the rearing beast and sputters off into the branches of a tree.

"We need to wrap this up before they harm my poor sweet Gameycube more!" Blue Joycon calls out, running towards the rearing beast and placing herself directly beneath its belly as it falls back down. No girl tried to stop her or showed concern, but that was because with a simple utterance of "HANDHELD!" her unique power activates. The beast is surprised to find it doesn't land back on jungle floor but is instead held aloft with ease by the little blue half of Switch. Weight didn't matter to her now, but there was one hold up...

"Hey 3DS, there's no way my other half can chuck that. Weight distribution is still a thing even with Handheld mode on." Red Joycon says, tugging the much more athletic girl's coat.

"Good point. Then let me do the honors. SO LONG, AND STAY GONE!" 3DS yells as she jabs her stylus into the beast's chin and Pops it, the force propelling the monster up and away across the trees.

3DS hoots and hollers at her victory, but Game Boy Color as immediately focused on Gamecube, a spark from her game system hitting Wavebird and allowing her to pilot the robot over while holding the small Nintendo girl. "Ah no, ah damn! She's gonna be okay, ain't she?"

Virtual Boy comes forward, pulling Gamecube out of Waverbird's arms and setting her up in a standing position despite how limp the body wanted to be. After a bit of rough shaking that made everyone else flinch though, Virtual Boy managed to get Gamecube to wake up. "Say something, Gamecube!"

"...So, I was thinking, has anyone ever tried to eat playtpus eggs?"

"HAHA! YUP! SHE'S BACK TO HER OLD SELF ALREADY!" 3DS guffaws, the other girls sighing in relief and moving to hug their strange companion.

They hardly had a chance to celebrate their safety though, as suddenly something else tore through the trees, Game Boy Color moaning as she anticipates the bigger beast that Virtual Boy had tried to summon...

Only for a van kitted out with pest control tools to appear between the trees, an impossible small woman leaping off the top and looking between the Nintendo girls before her. "Hey, any of you kids seen a creature with one HELL of a roar?" Giggle asks, "It sounded sort of like a jaguar and a water buffalo got frisky while an elephant was watching, with maybe a little crocodile thrown in there too. Whether it's peeping or participating I don't know, but there's no way something that mean sounding isn't causing trouble wherever it is!"

"We took care of it," 3DS said smugly.

"Ah man!" Giggle pouts, "Well, I guess I should be happy people are safe, but I've been really curious about the wildlife around here! I thought I was gonna see the granddaddy of them all!""

"I don't know if it had a family," Virtual Boy adds, strutting up until her toes was uncomfortably close to Giggle, "Or if it was even wildlife! It was alive and wild, but it was made of dirt and covered in plants. Maybe it was a plant that took over the dirt, but then the teeth would still have to come from somewhere, and the eyes too."

"Point is!" Game Boy Color butts in, looking at the Verminator van before her, "We've been lost out here in the jungle, and we're wonderin' if we could bum a ride off ya to somewhere civilized?"

"Oh of course! I'm always ready to help a batch of oddly dressed girls in need! I already got human cargo back there, or ghost I should say, so it might be a little tight," Giggle says, waving her hand over as a side door of the van opens up to reveal Kogasa.

"Hey look, more people in the jungle! Wait! No! I should have popped out of there in a much spookier way!" Kogasa says, smacking her forehead as Fuan laughs. "I missed my big chance to surprise a bunch of people all at once!"

"If you want to try again I'll be surprised," Virtual Boy says with a wave.

"Really? That's great! Give me a second." Kogasa says, closing the van door... before opening it immediately. "Surprise! Or Boo!"

"...Oh sorry, I guess I was wrong." Virtual Boy says with a sigh.

"Hop on in all of you," Giggle instructs, ushering in the two Joycons first since she thought they were just two truly small young ladies rather than one woman split into two people. "We might not have room in the back for all of you and all of the equipment though. Hmmm..."

Giggle looks towards Hening in the front seat, the alien finally forced to participate in the conversation. "You sit up front with me, Giggle."

"But we gotta have someone supervising them all in the back!"

"The ghost girl can do it."

"But she might try to surprise them by opening a canister of gas or something!"

"Good point." Hening looked over his other options. Blue Joycon was waving enthusiastically to be picked, meaning she was right out, but soon Game Boy Color stepped forward.

"Guess it would make sense for me to take the seat since I'm the leader. Don't know if I trust Virtual Boy near a wheel for a while neither so it's either me or 3DS, and she'd just want to offroad the rest of the way."

3DS shrugs, "It's true."

Hening shakes his head at the suggestion. "I'll take the one who isn't trying to get up here or hasn't been identified as a potential threat," he says, pointing at Gamecube, only for Gamecube to point at herself after.

"Me? If you really want me to." she says, heading over to sit beside Hening.

"Have fun up there Gamecube!" Virtual Boy says as she hops in the back, Kogasa quick to greet the new hitchhiker and making the back of the van a place that likely wouldn't be quiet until they hit the Agaman city limits.

After everyone is in and the engine starts though, the front seat is surprisingly silent, Hening and Gamecube not communicating until the young girl pipes up with a thought. "So I was thinking, they say ancient aliens built the pyramids and we probably got our cell phones and advanced technology from aliens too, but where do those aliens get their stuff from? If the aliens reach us they probably are more advanced yeah, but they had to invent those things on their planet, so why can't we have invented them naturally too?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Hening's holographic words float in the air, Gamecube shuffling in her seat after reading the harsh reply.

"Sorry, I'll stay quiet then."

And then... she did. For so long Hening had to keep checking on her, wondering if she had fallen asleep or even left the passenger cab. But no, she was sitting there in silence, something Hening was not used to after so much time with Giggle's energetic persona. "You don't have to be completely quiet." Hening finally says.

"Okay." Gamecube says... and then for a while longer, nothing is said again until Hening proves to be the one to continue the conversation.

"I'm Hening."

"I'm... well I'm not supposed to say my real name. Everyone's supposed to call me Gamecube now."

"What does that mean? They can't take your name away, can they?"

"It's not that it's gone. It's part of the job. While I'm working with the other girls I have to stick to the role." Gamecube is quiet for a bit, listening to the muffled sounds of the girls talking in the back before speaking up again. "I didn't know what I was getting into with this. I thought I was just going to tell people the games I like. But then we got lost in a jungle and fought a big monster and I have no idea to react to that kind of thing. I just lock up and say the first thing that comes to mind since I can't do much else..."

Hening slows the car as he listens to Gamecube, surprised to see the girl's face turn more pensive and even sad as she looks down at her knees. "I know all about a job that turned out to be something different than expected. I've had two of them. The question you need to ask yourself is if the job's worth doing. Get out of there while you can if it isn't, but if it is, it's not always going to be nice or easy. You'll probably have to do things you don't like, but the work can still pay off. So what kind of job do you think being Gamecube is?"

Gamecube reaches into her pocket and pulls out the controller she uses to control Wavebird, contemplating on it for a few quiet minutes as she composed herself. "I like spending time with the other girls. They're all really nice to me, even if I don't know how to talk to them yet. I don't want to lose that, and I'd like to help them if I can."

"There you go." Hening starts driving the Verminator at a regular speed again, the front seat calm as Gamecube begins to smile again as she focuses on the thoughts in her head. Hening seemed eager to continue this relaxed and reasonable conversation in some form though, "So what does your job entail besides being called Gamecube?"

"Well I am working under Nintendo to promote their products, but mostly, there's this girl Game Boy Color used to know, and we're heading out to Agama to do something involving the arcade that girl runs..."