The T.R.I.P.S. 21 Test
At a converted fortress, Gyachung-La, high in the Tibetan mountains, the Psicone Corporation is testing its latest invention — the T.R.I.P.S. 21, an acronym for Total Reality Integrated Player System.
T.R.I.P.S. 21 allows a person to actually enter the Gamescape through a unique, computer-generated portal. Anyone passing into the portal will have his or her atoms integrated into the Gamescape by a complicated process of quantum-mechanical osmosis.
Present at the test are:
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Mrs. Yuriko Tashoku, President of the Psicone Corporation
•
Michiko, daughter of Mrs. Yuriko Tashoku
•
Zitz, Rash, and Pimple, otherwise known as the BATTLETOADS
The Kidnapping
The portal is switched on and the Gamescape is revealed: a rolling plain with four figures barely visible in the distance. Gradually, the figures get closer and are seen to be four Psyko Pigs mounted on horseback — the Pigs of the Apocalypse.
Suddenly, the Pigs gallop straight at the portal, bursting through it and into the test room. One of them grabs Michiko Tashoku and leaps back through the portal.
When Zitz tries to stop them, he is clubbed senseless and draped over a saddle. Before anyone else can do anything, the Pigs of the Apocalypse are galloping away into the Gamescape with their two captives — and to make matters worse, the Gamescape begins to leak through the portal into our world!
The Evil Plot
A prerecorded message flashes up on the Gamescape screen, confirming Professor T. Bird's suspicion that the evil genius, Silas Volkmire, and his malevolent partner, the Dark Queen, are behind the kidnapping and the Gamescape leakage.
Silas has hooked himself up to a Gamescape Generator somewhere beyond the portal, with the wicked intention of transforming the entire world into his very own Gamescape Kingdom, over which he and the Dark Queen will rule.
Meanwhile, Michiko and Zitz are being conveyed to his dreaded lair, the Dark Tower, where they will be destined for doom if anyone tries to stop him. But he must be stopped! — and Rash and Pimple are the 'toads to do it!
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