Author: Before we begin, fair warning: this story will contain major spoilers to Bomberman 64, Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, and Bomberman Hero. If you would like to avoid those, turn back. Otherwise, read on!

Planet Bomber, a lush blue and green planet with a pink moon, orbited quietly through space, as a black and gray ship silently approached. Inside the ship, lights were dimly lit, with various devices running with soft humming noises and beeping on occasion. Standing in a wide room, a round, light blue, human-like figure walked up to a large window, trailed by a purple and red cape.

"There it is," observed the blue figure. "Still standing after all these years. And still dealing with those fools they left in charge of it."

A door swept open and the figure turned as two others entered. One was a black and purple armored knight-like fellow, the other similarly armored, but in white and gold. Each had their face obscured by a helmet, with the former covered by a gold helm that coated all but his red eyes, and the latter wearing a lifted golden helm and a white visor that stood over his blue eyes. Upon approaching the blue figure, they bowed and knelt to the ground.

"Sire," came the voice of the black one. "We've approached Planet Bomber."

"He can already see that, fool," snapped the white one. "Shall we go forth, sir?"

"Not you two. Not yet," murmured the blue figure. Clearing his throat, he pointed to the black knight. "Altair, if she is ready, you will send her to deliver the message."

"Of course, sire," Altair nodded. "After that, though…?"

"You and Sirius still have work to do," coughed the blue figure, brushing a long gray beard from beneath his face. "Get to it. If we hope to succeed, we need to make sure this plan works." He adjusted the monocle over his left eye and pointed them back out the door.

"As you command," Sirius calmly spoke as he stood up, "Master Bagura."

Both Sirius and Altair bowed to Bagura before they exited from the room, leaving their leader to his thoughts.

"Something strikes me off about those two," muttered Bagura to himself. "But they're necessary pieces to my plan." He looked back out the window and over to Planet Bomber. "They will see my ways soon enough."

On Planet Bomber itself, a figure in a white helmet and a blue outfit rolled away from the fires of an explosion. He grabbed the ground with his pink-gloved hand and pulled himself to a stop. Around him was a metal and brick walled labyrinth, with an open, yet out of reach, ceiling, and a green floor.

"Not bad," he chuckled to himself and looked up. A blue blur sped from down the maze toward him, launching a red bomb from a slight distance.

"You're toast, Bomberman!" came a shout as the red bomb landed near the white and blue fellow.

"Not yet," called Bomberman as he raced around a corner before the explosion went off, blasting apart a few brick walls on either side of its detonation.

Peering out from behind a metal wall, Bomberman watched as the blue armored figure slowed to a halt and looked around. A gold visor stood over his dark eyes, sitting almost like hair that poked from beneath the pointed blue hood. An orange scarf flapped below his mask, from the breeze of the explosion's aftermath, giving the figure an appearance of a ninja.

"Come on out, Bomberman," yelled the blue ninja. "I've got you beat this time!"

Lighting a black bomb fuse and holding it for a moment, Bomberman laughed. "Sorry Nitros," he called out and tossed the bomb around the corner. Nitros whirled around to see a the bomb as it plopped down on the floor behind him and burst, firing out a line of flames at the ninja bomber. He shouted as he flew back, charred by the fire, and collapsed to the ground.

"Training Session: Complete," voiced a computerized announcer.

"And that's the game," Bomberman laughed and gave a thumbs up.

The labyrinth suddenly vanished into a blue wireframe lighting, which slowly disintegrated soon after. Left were the two bombers and a bare white room.

Nitros pushed off the floor, sitting back on his knees. "I failed…again," he sighed.

"Nah, you're still learning," Bomberman corrected as he walked over to the ninja and extended a hand. "Honestly, you're getting much better at this stuff."

"Really?" asked an unconvinced Nitros.

"Sure! You're a great trainee," Bomberman complimented, and scratched the underside of his helmet, where his chin would be. "In fact, you're beginning to remind me of when you were scary good."

Nitros shuddered. "Can you not remind me of that? Being an empty puppet for someone else was not what I had in mind when they said they could help with my training." He took Bomberman's hand, which lifted him up from the ground.

"Those days are behind you," soothed Bomberman. Then, he teased, "Although, not too far, considering that I'm still blasting you to bits!"

Nitros chuckled. "Yeah, you got me there."

The two stepped out of the white room, into another one filled with computer devices. A Black Bomberman waved from behind a control room window and Bomberman waved back to him.

"I haven't beaten him yet, either," sighed Nitros.

"You'll get there," Bomberman assured. "Trust me, this stuff takes time. Becoming a professional Bomber Guard takes practice and learning how to protect the planet is no easy task."

"I understand," nodded Nitros. "But I really want to be able to help out soon! And maybe going out and exploring the solar system sometime! And meeting new creatures and other kinds of bombers! And—"

"Yikes, Nitros, take it easy," chuckled Bomberman. "One step at a time. It's not like the world will end in the next few seconds."

Abruptly, a siren sounded and red lights began flashing around the room. Nitros and Bomberman exchanged looks before running to the elevator. Bomberman hit a button and the elevator rose, headed up to the surface level.

"Trouble," monitored Nitros. "They must think you're away or something."

"I doubt it," murmured Bomberman. "They're just looking to cause trouble regardless of who's standing in their way."

With a buzz to sound its arrival, the elevator doors opened. "Time to find out who 'they' are," called Nitros. Bomberman nodded and the two ran out, rushing past the beige lobby and to the outdoors of the base, skidding to a halt on the dirt and gravel path they stood on.

A crackling noise erupted from both sides. Bomberman looked left and right, noticing the fires that lit the trees outside the base.

"Bomberman, look!"

Nitros pointed forward and Bomberman gazed in the direction. A red and orange armored figure stood before them, keeping the legs together in a feminine manner, with one hand turned at the waist. Her yellow and red helmet resembled both hair and fire, which stood above her black visor that shrouded her pink eyes. She had one hand outstretched holding a fireball.

"Remember me, Bomberman?" cooed the red knight before them.

"Uh, give me a minute," pondered Bomberman. Nitros stifled a laugh while the red knight growled, causing her fireball to flare up. Snapping his fingers, Bomberman shouted, "Artemis of the Masked Trio!"

"Fantastic to see that I am remembered…somehow," grumbled Artemis.

"Hey, I face a lot of bad guys," countered Bomberman. "And a lot of them use fire or bombs of some kind."

"Fair enough," huffed Artemis.

She nonchalantly tossed the fireball at Bomberman and Nitros, who jumped away as it blasted. Artemis created two more fireballs from each hand, firing the first at Nitros, which sailed right over his shoulder and nearly singed him. Tossing the second one back and forth, she pitched it to Bomberman. The fireball split into three smaller flames, speeding out in different directions. Watching them separate, Bomberman carefully stepped in between the path of two fireballs, and narrowly managed to avoid getting hit.

"Won't you just burn already?" Artemis complained to Bomberman, before tossing another fireball at Nitros without even looking.

"Now what fun would that be?" Bomberman mocked her, lighting a black bomb and throwing it at her. She leaped away from it, only to be hit be a red bomb from Nitros.

Stunned from the hit, the blast knocked her backward. "Ugh! Impudent little fool!" shrieked Artemis as she tossed a few bombs and fireballs at Nitros. A black bomb rolled beside her and blasted her back again.

"Give up, Artemis," Bomberman laughed. "I don't know how you're alive, but coming here was a mistake. You can give up now or I'll have to end this the hard way."

"I don't know the meaning of surrender," yelled Artemis.

"Well, you tried," Nitros reassured his ally.

Bomberman picked up a bomb and began to charge it, as did Nitros. Before the two could launch the bombs at Artemis, a green force field jutted from around her and pushed the two back. Tossing the bombs away, the two looked back to find a green and gold knight standing alongside Artemis. His gold visor shadowed his white mask and green eyes. Adorned on his green helmet were two white and yellow, wing shaped devices. One large, X-shaped plate rested over his armor, with a red light that shined and faded with the force field.

"I had this handled, Orion!" snapped Artemis as the green knight turned to her.

Nitros tried to run forward, but Orion threw a bomb at him, forcing him to retreat.

"We need to go," whispered Orion. "You've held them here for long enough."

Reluctantly, Artemis nodded and charged a fireball. It expanded in size, growing almost as large as her body. She threw it forward, as it burst in front of Bomberman and Nitros. The flames surrounded the area in front of them, obscuring their path and view enough to force the heroes watch their opponents as they fled.

When the fire cleared, Bomberman took a good view of the surrounding area, which included burnt grass, charred and chopped tree trunks, and a dried up pond. With a sigh, he turned to Nitros, who nursed minor burns.

"Well, that pretty awful," muttered Nitros. "Just who were those two, anyway?"

"Zombies," joked Bomberman. More gravely, he continued, "They were enemies from a past journey of mine. They forced me to duel them to the death, and I won."

"Uh, they didn't look very dead to me," teased Nitros.

Bomberman nodded. "No, which isn't good news." A beeping noise sounded and Bomberman pulled out a small yellow device.

From it, an old man's alarmed voice sounded, "Bomberman, is everything all right? I received word that Bomber Base was under attack."

"It was, Dr. Ein," Bomberman answered. "By some old enemies of mine."

"That's not good," murmured Dr. Ein.

"It gets worse: they're supposed to be dead," explained Bomberman.

"Hmm, that is quite troublesome," observed Dr. Ein. "We've received word that the Elemental Stones were almost stolen, but things appear to have calmed down about that. However, there are more attacks like this popping up across the solar system. We need to you figure out what's going on and put a stop to this, Bomberman!"

"Right, I'm on it," reassured Bomberman. "I'll take the mini-ship over to the station."

"Good to hear," Dr. Ein sounded. "I've also called in a couple of friends to help you out, and they should be here soon. Come as soon as you can!"

"Will do," responded Bomberman and put the device away.

"Need any back up?" a hopeful Nitros asked.

"Well…there is room in the mini-ship for two people," Bomberman pondered. "So, sure thing, you might as well start helping the planet by helping me!"

"Yes! Great," cheered Nitros, and then more seriously added, "I won't let you down!"

Bomberman laughed, "You better not!"

The two raced off to the airstrip behind the base. There, they found a small white rocket ship, and quickly boarded it. Bomberman started the mini-ship and launched it from the strip and into the air, and shortly after, space.

...

Author: Ok, there's the first bit of the story. If you don't know, the characters in this story are from the older games on the N64 and Wii Virtual Console.

For the main heroes, I decided on Bomberman (the series protagonist / P1 in Battle modes) and Nitros (brainwashed villain in Bomberman Hero). I tried making Bomberman more of an experienced hero, but one that keeps a more upbeat, playful attitude, which kind of follows the Cheerful White personality he's sometimes given. Nitros never had a chance to be a protagonist, so I wanted to give him a shot at heroics. According to the aftermath of Hero, Nitros is meant to be a trainee at the Bomber Base (who just happened to be on a ridiculous power trip via brainwashing). So, I tried making him a little more naïve and eager to follow in Bomberman's footsteps. There are three more main heroes that will join them, two that will show up next chapter with Dr. Ein.

With villains, I wanted to start with the main evil threats from Bomberman 64, who were a small group, but pretty fun and clearly underutilized. Sirius and Altair seem like the types that are begrudgingly working together. Artemis likes causing trouble and is sort of arrogant. Orion is the good little grunt that follows orders. Bagura, also known as Bagular and several other translated names (which is the only reason I stuck with the Japanese name), is going to be the main threat, since he's the most common recurring archenemy. There will be a few other villains as well, and not just nameless grunts that serve as cannon fodder for Bomberman and friends. They're chasing the Elemental Stones from The Second Attack because unrevealed reasons (no spoilers for you).

It's a bit of a rocky start, but I'm hoping to create a Bomberman story that meshes some of the series together. As of writing, Hudson Soft is no longer a company, and Konami hasn't announced any plans for Bomberman, so the series is dormant. Hopefully it will come back to life, but while we're waiting, I thought this could be a good read. I don't think I can grab stuff from every corner of a Bomberman game, but I'll try to tie it altogether. It's hard since there is no specific canon, but I'll manage and fiddle with it as I go. Anyway, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!