Saturday, October 8, 1994, 10:15 AM

"This beach is as cool as the one on California Games!" Lana exclaimed.

She, Kevin, Simon, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus had decided to take a vacation and discovered another world with a beach besides California Games. Lana was wearing a pink bikini. Kevin was wearing the blue swimming trunks he had bought at Mears yesterday. Simon was wearing dark green swimming trunks and cheap goggles. Mega Man had taken off his armor and was wearing blue swimmimg trunks. Kid Icarus was wearing blue swimming trunks and a matching sleeveless shirt. Lana, Kevin, and Simon were lying on their beach towels while Mega Man and Kid Icarus splashed around in the ocean.

Lana closed her eyes. "I'm beginning to relax already."

"I think we all needed to relax." Kevin said.

"I'll say." Simon said, looking in his mirror. "All this stress is giving me wrinkles!"

Kevin and Lana groaned.

"It's hot here!" Mega Man exclaimed as he and Kid Icarus walked up to the group.

"You're telling me!" Kevin wiped the seat off his forehead with the back of his hand. "Kid, could you get me a Pepsi?"

Kid Icarus nodded and searched through the cans and bottles of sodas in the cooler Kevin had brought along. "These have weird namesicus." He pulled a green 2-liter bottle from the cooler. "7-UP?"

"That's good." Kevin said. "Pass it over."

Kid Icarus handed the bottle to Kevin. The red dot on the bottle that separated the '7' from the 'UP' suddenly jumped off the bottle. Kevin jumped back in surprise. The dot sprouted hands and legs and wore shades.

"I saw one of those in one of the commercials on your world." Lana said to Kevin. "Isn't that a Cool Spot?"

"I remember those commercials! But how'd it get here? I thought this was a video game universe!" Kevin had a confused look on his face.

"That must mean..." Lana didn't have to finish her sentence.

"Guys!" The spot waved its arms.

The N Team looked at it.

"You're the N Team, right? I need your help!"

"With what?" Lana asked.

"Someone set traps in the places that my friends and I visit most often!" the spot explained. "All my friends have been captured!"

"Do you know where they're aticus?" Kid Icarus asked.

The spot nodded. "This way!"

Kevin and Lana picked up their belts off of their towels, Simon picked up his whip, and Kid Icarus picked up his bow and quiver.

Cool Spot led the group to the right, being careful not to get stepped on. Soon they found a black-and-white cage with another spot in it.

"How do we get the poor guy out?" Lana asked.

Kid Icarus plucked a feather from his right wing and used it to pick the lock.

"Where'd you come up with that trick?" Kevin asked.

"My father did that when we tried to escape Wily's fortress about a year ago." Kid Icarus replied.

The cage opened, and the spot walked out.

"Spot!" the once-trapped spot exclaimed. "Man, am I glad to see you!"

"Nice to see you, too, Spot." the first spot said. "Now let's go find the others."

The other spot nodded, and the group walked on.

"Whoa! Talk about pier pressure!" Kevin said, dodging a bee.

The group was searching for the third spot near the docks. They had been searching for what seemed like hours.

"Are you sure you saw them come here?" the first spot asked the second.

The second nodded. "They were here last I saw. They can't be too much farther."

Simon looked around as he walked. Not watching where he was going, he tripped.

"You okay?" Lana asked.

"I'm fine." Simon replied. "I just tripped over this thing here." He picked up a cage.

"Hey, you found their friend!" Kevin exclaimed.

Kid Icarus unlocked the third spot's cage. The spot walked out.

"All right!" the third spot exclaimed. "It's about time you came! The others went into the wall."

The other two spots nodded and led the N Team towards the next area.

The group walked until they came to a toy store. The spots led the N Team around the building to the back wall. There was a mouse hole near the center of the wall.

"They went through here?! Lana asked, indicating the mouse hole.

One of the spots nodded.

"How are we gonna get through?" Simon asked.

Kevin thought a moment. "Hey, Kid, have any shrinking arrows?"

Kid Icarus nodded, pulled an arrow out of his quiver, and shot it into the air. The N Team shrunk until they were the same size as the spots.

"Are we ready?" one of the spots asked.

The N Team nodded, and the group walked through the mouse hole.

"Watch out for mice, spiders, mouse traps, and nails." another spot warned the N Team as they progressed through the wall.

After jumping over mousetraps and nails, dodging bits of cheese the mice threw at them, and destroying the mice and spiders that got in the way for what seemed like hours, the group finally got to the next cage.

Kevin blasted the lock, destroying it. The fourth spot jumped out of its cage, and the group continued their journey.

"I thought we'd never get out of that wall!" Lana said.

The N Team was still about the size of the spots.

"This looks tricky." Simon said.

The N Team was at the edge of a small pool. Lily pads and small water toys floated in various places in the pool.

Mega Man pointed up above the toy rockets, blimps, and UFOs. "There's the cage."

"This'll be easy." Kevin said. He looked at Lana.

Lana nodded. "Everyone hold onto me or Kevin."

Simon and two of the spots held onto Lana. Mega Man and the other two spots held onto Kevin.

Kevin and Lana pressed the "Up" directional buttons on their Power Pads. Kid Icarus flew up behind them. The free spots destroyed the lock on the captured spot's cage. The captured spot jumped out of the cage.

"Shall we continue?" Lana asked.

"This is a big store." one of the spots said. "There could be more traps in here."

"The others went that way." The fifth spot pointed to an area not too far from the one the group was in.

"What are we waiting for?" Kevin asked.

The group moved on.

"Crap." Lana looked around.

Blocks, toy vehicles, robots, wind-up teeth, slime balls, shoes, and various other items were scattered throughout the area.

"Nowhere to go but up." Kevin said, grabbing onto a shoelace and climbing up to one of the lower shelves.

One by one, the others did the same.

Kevin blasted the toy robot on that shelf. "Piece of cake."

"Uh, Kevinicus,..." Kid pointed to something above Kevin's head. "You're standing under a - "

A green slimeball landed on Kevin, knocking him down and covering him from head to toe with slime.

"Slimeball." Kid Icarus finished.

"Kevin!" Lana knelt down next to Kevin. "Are you all right?"

"Did anybody get the license plate number of the glob that hit me?" Kevin joked, standing up and wiping off all the slime he could.

The group continued climbing up shelves and fighting all opposition.

"There's the next one!" Simon exclaimed after the group had climbed for a few minutes.

They continued until they were at the cage. This time, Simon used his whip to pick the lock on the cage.

"Now where to?" Mega Man asked.

The spot the team had just rescued pointed to a toy train track. The N Team and the spots headed toward the tracks.

"What the - " The group had reached the tracks, only to find that most of them sloped steeply downhill or uphill. Kevin had stepped on a downhill track and was now sliding out of control down to what he hoped was the bottom.

"Now what?" Simon asked.

"Follow him." Lana replied. She stepped on the tracks and slid down.

Everyone else did the same.

"This is insane!" Kevin said, looking around at the sloped tracks and tubes. "How are we supposed to get back up?"

"Hey, guys!" Mega Man shouted. "Up here!"

The group looked up. Mega Man and Kid Icarus were near the end of one of the tubes.

"Go through the tubes!"

One by one, the rest of the N Team and the Spots went through the tube Mega Man had gone through.

"Awesome!" Kevin exclaimed.

"Now to get to the cage." Lana said. She pointed up and to the right, where another captured cool spot was.

"I can use my Power Pad." Kevin said. "But I don't think I have enough energy to last through any more battles if I do."

"I have two Weapon tanks with me." Mega Man said. "We should be okay."

"If you say so." Kevin said.

The rest of the group held onto him and Lana, and they pressed the "Up" directional buttons on their Power Pads, followed by the "Right" directional buttons. Lana destroyed the lock on the captured spot's cage.

"Where to now?" Lana asked.

"The train." one of the spots replied.

"Where's that?" Simon asked.

"Right in front of us!" Lana shouted.

The group quickly got off the tracks as the train drove by.

"Here's our ride!" Kevin said, jumping onto one of the cars.

The others did the same.

"We all here?" Kevin asked.

"Where's Kid Icarus?" Lana asked.

An arrow landed in the middle of the group. A rope was attached to it.

"Up here-icus!" Kid Icarus shouted from the balloon he was standing on.

Kevin climbed up the rope, followed by Lana, then Mega Man, and then Simon. The spots climbed up last.

"The cage is up here somewhere-icus." Kid said. "I saw it a moment ago."

The group jumped across the balloons and UFOs for what seemed like forever, though it had only been a few minutes.

Lana pointed to an object on the next balloon. "There it is!"

Two UFOs hovered between the group and the balloon that had the cage. The group jumped across the two UFOs and landed safely on the balloon. Mega Man destroyed the lock on the cage this time.

"Do we have everyone?" Kevin asked.

The spots shook their heads.

"We're short four spots." one of the spots replied.

"I saw them head for the wall." the spot that was just freed said.

"We'd better hurryicus." Kid Icarus said. "I don't know how much longer my shrinking arrow will lasticus."

The group moved on.

The N Team and the cool spots retraced their steps through the toy store, into and out of the wall, and across the dock, freeing one spot in each area they had gone back to.

The group got to the beach just as the shrinking arrow's effect wore off, and the N Team members grew back to their normal sizes.

A few yards away, the group saw a man carrying a small object.

"He has the last Spot!" Lana exclaimed.

"That's Will!" one of the spots said. "He's been trying to capture us for years! He's most likely the one who set the traps!"

The man saw the group and started to run.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Lana ran after the man, as did the rest of the group.

It didn't take long before the N Team had Will surrounded. Simon held his whip as if he were ready to strike at Will. The other members of the N Team pointed their weapons at Will.

"What do you want?" Will asked.

"Hand the spot over." Kevin ordered.

Will did what he was told. Kevin freed the spot.

"If you ever try to capture our friends again, we will come back with the rest of the team." Lana threatened.

"And next time we won't be so nice!" Simon added.

Will nodded, his eyes wide with fear. Simon put his whip away and walked away. Mega Man and Kid Icarus did the same with their weapons. Lana and Kevin followed the others.

The N Team packed up their stuff and headed for the warp. The cool spots were with them.

"Thanks for the help." one of the spots said.

"Yeah, you guys are way cool!" another said.

Kevin smiled. "Don't mention it."

"Don't forget to contact us if he or anyone else cause any more trouble for you." Lana reminded them.

The spots all nodded.

"Well, guys, are we all ready?" Kevin asked.

Everyone said his or her good-byes.

Kevin opened a warp back to the N Team's house, and he, Lana, Simon, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus jumped through.

That night, the VGM concert took place on Spot World. The stage and the chairs were all set up outside on the beach. The N Team and the spots sat in the front row, along with Doctors Right and Shiroshi and their robots.

Kevin, Lana, Mike and Stacey walked onto the stage and took their places. After setting up their instruments, they turned on their microphones.

"Good evening, everyone!" Lana shouted.

The audience cheered.

"Our first song tonight is in honor of our good friends, the Cool Spots!"

The band began playing their version of Wipe-out, the title music to the Cool Spot game.

When they were finished, the audience cheered wildly - the Cool Spots the loudest, even though they were a lot smaller than the other people in the audience.

GAME OVER