“Excuse me…what did you just call me?” Kevin exclaimed, looking down at the smaller, elderly green haired man in front of him.

“Mayor Keene. It’s really quite simple. Mayor is your title. Keene is your last name. You are the mayor. Hence, you are Mayor Keene. I do hope this isn’t coming as much of a shock to you. Young people are supposed to deal with this sort of thing much better,” the man stated, pushing the glasses up on his exaggerated nose. The short man appeared to be an exact double of Groucho Marx, except he had a large stalk of green hair cropping out of the top of his head.

“Right…and you are?” Kevin Keene asked, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. If he weren’t so busy demanding answers from the man he might have noticed that he was actually wearing jeans, as opposed to a crimson colored suit of mechanical armor. In fact, Kevin’s entire ordeal with Mega-man and Dr. Wily was slowly drifting to the back of his mind as he digested what was going on directly in front of him.

“As I stated earlier, I’m Dr. Wright,” Wright exclaimed in a professional tone, straightening the dull brown blazer of his suit before seeming to stand as upright as possible. His beady eyes glimmered behind the spectacles, which he proceeded to press up on his nose once more. “Professional and lifetime advisor to the mayor of this wonderful place!” he exclaimed with pride, gesturing to the expansive office they stood in. The room was large and very modern in appearance, yet sparsely decorated. Besides the couch Kevin had awoken on, there was only a mahogany desk to furnish the room. Behind the desk was a set of wall to wall windows looked out into what appeared to be the clouds.

“And, what is this place exactly?” Kevin asked quizzically, ambling over to the windows. He moved behind the desk and peered out through the glass. All he could see was clouds, directly in front of him, above and below. It was a haunting sight.

“You don’t listen very well, do you?” Wright said, his professional tone dropping slightly in favor of a more frustrated sounding voice. But the hint impatience quickly fell away, and his words returned to their normal level of business. “This place is Sim City. Although, it’s not much of a city at the moment. In fact, it’s not much of anything. That’s why all you can see is clouds.”

“What do you mean?” Kevin asked, looking away from the clouds for a moment. As opposed to all of the characters he had met in the last world, Wright seemed to have a bit more of a clue as to what was going on.

“There’s nothing but clouds out there because that’s the truth of it all. At this moment in time, nothing exists outside of this tower, and even the existence of this tower is questionable,” Wright explained, beginning to go off on a tangent.

“Hold up there…you’ve lost me…” Kevin rubbed his head, having trouble keeping up with the little man.

“Yes, I suppose I have,” Wright nodded, motioning his head to the space besides Kevin. “Have a seat, and I’ll explain everything.”

“You must be batty. There’s no seat th-,” Kevin began to protest, looking to where Wright had indicated only to find that a black leather office chair had appeared beside him. His jaw dropped, and the sudden feeling of light-headedness made him think that taking a seat wouldn’t be such a bad idea. The leather felt good against his weary body, and Kevin let his eyes flutter shut for a moment. When he next looked around there was a flat screen computer monitor on the once barren desktop. The screen jumped to life, displaying an ivory white skyscraper with a black backdrop.

“That, Mayor Keene, is Sim Tower. And that,” Wright said as the image zoomed in on an office on the top level of the skyscraper, “is you.” The image of Kevin staring at a computer screen had now appeared on the screen in front of Kevin. He was looking at himself. “Inside of this tower lies the creative capability of a demigod. You are that demigod, Kevin. Mayor Keene, the demigod. From inside this tower you can mold the world around you, although there are some elements that are beyond your control.”

“So? What am I supposed to do with all this?” Kevin inquired, slowly beginning to understand the scope of what was going on. He slowly began to remember the video game that was Sim City. Although he had never really played it, he had heard about in, and its many incarnations.

“Well, as far as my understanding goes, it is Mr. Mojo’s intent that you proceed with the construction and advancement of Sim City,” Wright said in a bland tone.

“Wait…you know about Mojo? But how? Why?” Kevin asked, sitting upright in his chair. If Wright knew something about Mojo, then maybe he would know a way to escape the video game universe the blubbery cable director had placed him in.

“Of course I know about Mojo. I also know about the pickle you’re in at the moment. I know a great deal, and I always have. That is what’s required of a man in my profession. How I came to know these things is a slightly different story,” Wright said, beginning to go off on a tangent again. Kevin interrupted before the green haired man could build up a head of steam.

“Can you help me get out of here?” Kevin pleaded, his voice taking a suddenly desperate quality. By now he was practically out of his chair, ignoring the screen and staring directly at Dr. Wright.

“I’m very sorry Mayor Keene, believe me…but I cannot help you. And even if I did, I am unsure if I would be able to reveal such information to you. Just believe me when I say that it is in your best interests to proceed with Mojo’s wishes,” Wright explained, sounding slightly less exuberant.

“Well, at least this won’t involve being flattened like a pancake,” Kevin replied after a few moments of thought, referencing back to his encounter with Dr. Wily. “Where do I start?” Kevin asked in resignation.

“Well…” Dr Wright began…

#5 - Why Me?
"Mayor Mess, Part One"

By Ben Wolfert

And that’s how I started off as mayor. Pretty weird, right? I mean, having that much control. I didn’t give it much thought then, and it really wouldn’t occur to me later just how much power I was wielding. Managing a city and peoples lives through a video game really sorta desensitizes you to the consequences of your actions. Anyways, the first step of being mayor was choosing what sort of landmass I wanted to construct my metropolis on. I’d like to think I picked a potential filled landscape. It had a lot of lakes and park areas. The only drawback was that there was a dormant volcano in the corner of the map. But I figured I’d just work that into a tourist attraction, you know? Because when it came down to it, being mayor is really about spending money to make more money to spend it again in the hopes of constantly increasing profits. And I figured that if I did a good job, Wright might be able to get me out of this whole mess. Well, as you can see, I figured wrong. I’m still here, stuck in the never ending nightmare.

Now that I think of it, this portion of my story probably won’t yield too many results. But for me to completely retrace my steps, this needs to be told. Just pay close attention, because I prolly won’t be. I’m too busy telling this story to listen for hints as to why Locke is trying to destroy the world. I just get the impression he’s being led on…

Anyways, after choosing the landmass, I had to start building. I had an array of buildings at my disposal, the most basic of which were residential, industrial, and commercial compounds. I could control everything through the monitor on that desk. I would select what type of unit to build, and where to build it. As soon as I had confirmed my order, little people would scuttle out of the tower and begin building. Time moved much faster outside the tower. It would only take a few moments for my builders to do their work. A new neighborhood would be constructed in a matter of minutes. People began to move onto my map. Within two hours, I had managed to build a town. Things became automatic. Formulaic, if you will. Build residence away from industrial zones. One police station to every four commercial areas. Be sure to toss in some park space here. A stadium there. Anything to increase profits. By 8 o’clock that night, or at least, 8 o’clock by the office’s time telling devices, I had a small city. And that was when the door to my office opened. Dr. Wright had left after giving me the basic tutorial, popping in once every so often to drop a hint or two. But this time, it wasn’t Dr. Wright.

“Excuse me, Mayor Keene?” a soft, feminine voice drew Kevin’s eyes away from the population statistics on the screen. He looked up to the door, which had opened a crack to allow entrance to stunning blonde haired woman. Kevin thought his eyes, which had grown accustomed to staring at a computer screen all day, were playing tricks on him, and he quickly rubbed them vigorously. When he drew his hands away, the young woman was still there, looking more then attractive in a red skirt that ended just above her knees and tightly drawn red blazer. Golden blonde hair dropped below her shoulders, and bright blue eyes seemed to glimmer in the dull light of the office.

“Uhm…uhm…yes?” Kevin said, obviously somewhat flustered by the sudden appearance of the beautiful woman in his office. He did his best to regain his composure, sitting upright in his chair and attempting to organize his desk before coming to the realization that there wasn’t anything there besides the computer monitor that had been his life for the past ten hours.

“I’m terribly sorry to disturb you, but I have some paperwork regarding the latest population statistics…” the woman cooed.

“Oh ok…you can just put them down somewhere…” Kevin said in a bit of a daze, absorbed in the flawless appearance of the blonde beauty. He failed to recognize the odd occurrence of receiving paperwork, as opposed to having the information displayed before him on the computer. Kevin had become so engrossed that he almost didn’t notice Dr. Wright popping through the now fully open doorway.

“Ah, I see you’ve met your new secretary, Anna,” Wright said, stepping up alongside the woman. The shorter man, unlike Kevin, seemed absolutely impervious to the hypnotic qualities of Anna’s appearance. Wright simply acknowledged her presence with a nod, although if Kevin were paying closer attention he might have noticed a slight look of dismay brewing in Wright’s mustached-face. The advisor appeared as if he wanted to say something, but he remained silent. Kevin’s stomach took that moment to give an opportunistic growl. He had been so wrapped up in double checking every statistic and keeping up with the welfare of his burgeoning city that he had forgotten to eat.

“Hey, would you want to go grab a bite to eat?” Kevin interjected into the moment of silence, looking up at Anna. The blonde only smiled, nodding her head. “I CAN leave to go eat, can’t I?” Kevin asked, turning then to look at Dr. Wright. Wright seemed to frown slightly before speaking up.

“Of course you can…just make sure that your excursions don’t interfere with your work. You could very easily eat in here…Sim Tower can present you with all you need to live,” Wright said, trying to make an argument for staying in Sim Tower. His normally cool and collected front seemed to have deteriorated slightly.

“I know, but this office is starting to get to me,” Kevin said to Wright, although he was constantly exchanging glances with Anna. When he finally did break away to look at Dr. Wright it was to shoot an almost critical look to the advisor. “I mean, I think I deserve some time off. I’ve been paying attention to every bit of info that’s come to me through this damn computer. Hell, I’ve even been checking the volcanic activity readings, and it’s dormant! Come on Doc, just cut me a break and stop lecturing,” Kevin pleaded.

All Dr. Wright could do was shrug as Kevin practically jumped out of his chair, running around the desk and over to Anna’s side. They locked arms and Kevin practically pranced out of the office, thoughts of his city and his girlfriend being the most distant things in his mind at that moment. If asked who Jen was, he probably wouldn’t be able to remember right away. The fatigue of managing a city all day coupled with the sheer shock of being hurtled into the world of a video game had seemed to place Kevin’s mind in a state of limbo, and if he didn’t emerge from it soon his mental wandering would catch up to him…

“Dr. Wright won’t get off my back about the rising pollution,” Kevin groaned, taking a bite of the pizza slice in front of him. The outdoor café seemed to bustle with activity around the table for two where Kevin sat staring at Anna. This was their seventh straight meal out together. Each dining session had become progressively longer, and every time Kevin was in the office he seemed to spend more time daydreaming about being with Anna than actually doing work. He had become less meticulous in his work, only checking the most important numbers regarding his city. Population was going up. Per capita income was up. And that was all that mattered to Kevin. In his own mind, he was doing an amazing job. But why was Dr. Wright nagging him so much then?

“He’s just looking out for the city. It’s his job. He wants everything to be perfect,” Anna cooed. Anna seemed to say almost everything with a purr in her voice. It was one of the things that made Kevin constantly look forward to being with her. In fact, Kevin didn’t seem to care what she said as much as how she said it. They didn’t share particularly deep conversation, nor did they seem to have an overly large amount in common. But after being confined to an office all day with only a computer as his companion, Kevin didn’t seem to mind. She was stunning. She was easy-going. And she seemed to listen closely to every word he uttered. He could curse and she would flinch. He could complain and she would nod sympathetically. All the computer would ever do was shift to another screen displaying yet another set of boring statistics that seemed inconsequential to Kevin. How poverty was up a little. How the volcano was acting up a little. As long as people were coming in and bringing their money with them, that was all that was important. Anna seemed to understand that, even if that was the only thing Kevin really talked about.

“Yeah…I guess so…but pollution is due to rise with an increase in act-“ Kevin said before stopping mid-word. His eyes trailed past Anna and into the street alongside the café. Walking past was a teenage girl with blonde hair and an average build. She wasn’t much compared to Anna, but there was something incredibly familiar about her.

“Jen…” Kevin whispered, muttering his girlfriend’s name. He watched the girl walk away, and the reality of his situation began to catch up to him. He was Kevin Keene, high school senior snatched out of his home by an evil cable programmer and placed into a reality comprised of video games produced for an antique video game system. He was a prisoner inside the machine, and here he was out on a date with a woman that not only did he not know, but he wasn’t even sure if she really existed!

“What?” Anna asked in her normal purr of a tone, but now Kevin found the sound of her voice almost repulsive. Everything that he had ignored began to catch up with him. Why she had brought him papers. Why he even needed a secretary. And that was the bone chilling moment when Kevin realized whose fault all of this was. His own. He swore that Mojo was behind Anna’s appearance, but it was his own fault that he had acted so predictably. Kevin had probably reacted just as how Mojo expected. But what was going to happen now?

“I’ve got to get back to Sim Tower,” Kevin said, standing immediately and gathering his belongings. Anna said something in protest (the most original; opinion she had shown in any of their conversations), but Kevin ignored it, beginning to sprint through the streets of the metropolis that had developed around the ominous Sim Tower. And for the first time since he had arrived in this world, it began to rain. And even as water began to pour down on Kevin’s world, the ground began to shake with the tremors of the nearby volcano as the rain splattered silhouette of a monster reared its headed. Bowser had arrived.

Mega-Memo

I liked your Captain N series so far, and I have a few questions: Is Princess Lana, Simon Belmont, and Mother Brain going to be in future issues? Will there be a Captain N ongoing after the mini? That's all for now. - Patrick

Well, I’ll address the second question first. As you can tell, Captain N will be ongoing, as long as I have a say. I’ve got a lot scripted, and hopefully I can motivate myself to keep writing. Despite the large gap of time between the release of this issue and the last one, I finished this issue in three days. It’s just a matter of sitting down. As to the characters you mentioned (from the Captain N cartoon), I can guarantee the appearance of at least the last two. No plans in the immediate future for Princess Lana.

Hello. I just finished reading CaptainN #1 & 2. I really enjoyed your style in both issues. It made me want more. Your use of subplots was very intriguing. Now I'm looking forward to more issues of CaptainN so I can figure out exactly who it is that brought Kevin into this world. Not to sound stupid, but is this based on the cartoon of the same name? Obviously I'm not very familiar with the cartoon or I wouldn't be asking. As far as future game worlds, Final Fantasy would be good. How about some other classic NES games like Metroid, Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Brothers 3. It would also be really cool to do something like Golgo13, you know the whole super spy bit. While we're talking about suggestions, switching from first person view to third person view was kind of confusing. Just my $.02. Well I'm really looking forward to the next issue and hopefully many more to come.

Seth Harris

Hey Seth,
Thanks for the feedback. It’s always very much appreciated. This series is based off of the cartoon with the same name. As for other classic series, the next one to be featured will be one of the ones you listed, so stay tuned, it’s going to be epic. Also, the switching between view points is to illustrate a difference in time. In case you haven’t realized, or new readers are just joining, the italics represent Kevin speaking from a future tense, telling his story to what appears to be a doomed world. This will come into play very soon, so keep a close eye on the italics. I kept them to a minimum this issue.

Ben, I for one am really stoked to see someone using Mojo as an the major foil in an ongoing series. I love Mojo, think he has "tons" of potential (ah, I kill me) and look forward to seeing him continue to torment Kevin.

Hmmm ... well, my favorite game on the original NES was Contra, so I'd love to see Kevin put in that kind of scrolling/running environment, going up against heavy weaponry which slowly gives way to the malevolent Geiger-esque xeno-organic entity behind it all. Of course, I never could get that far without the cheat codes; I don't know if Kevin would be so lucky ...

DG

DG,
I discovered what you see in Mojo when writing him. He’s absolutely repulsive and sadistic, and that makes him a lot of fun to write. Watch the next issue, our bulbous villain is returning to have another chat with Kevin. As for Contra…yeah, damn tough games. While it hasn’t been ruled out, there are no plans for it in the near future. Sorry.

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