Chapter 3
The Loonakids were flying through space in the game world before finally landing on the moon and bouncing like crazy until they simply landed in a dog pile…and their life counts all at once went from 8 to 7.
"OH, COME ON!" Lucy groaned as she helped her friends up.
The game droid then flew up. "Message from 726-4938."
They knew the number though hardly anyone else did: Loonatics HQ.
"Do you accept?"
"You bet," Robert smirked.
The droid opened a video image screen.
"OK," Daniella sighed from the other end, "Here's the deal: any further help in the game from us would be cheating so we're cutting off from here on out."
"What help?" Nadine asked sarcastically.
"That's kind of what I've been saying," Wendy commented.
"Forget it!" Tech groaned, "Now, listen, you do still have a lifeline. You can open it now or save it—"
"NOW! Give it now!" Ryan cried.
"You can bring in one person from the outside to help out."
Ryan exchanged looks with the others… "Call up our contact files."
The droid then relayed the contact info.
Austin: Powerful, athletic, knows karate.
Macy: Intelligent.
Elena: Strategic.
Brenda: Knows karate.
Jack thought that over. "Wait, wait, wait, go over Brenda."
Pros: Superior strength, superior speed, experience in all fighting styles.
Cons: Temporarily physically disabled.
"Jack, the droid's right," Kelly said, "Her leg still hasn't healed from the fight with Valentina and Esmeralda. She needs three more days."
"We don't have three more days, but we also don't have a better shot than a Slayer!" Jack rebounded. And for once, his argument made sense and could not be countered by any of the others.
"We already have her on the line if you wanna make the call," Sophie said.
The Loonakids exchanged looks…
"Bring in Brenda," Ryan agreed.
"Selected!" the droid cried as the image screen was replaced with the dial of a phone-teleportation spell, "One moment."
Suddenly, the images began to summon a person and the countdown on Ryan's watch flew down to 6:00:00.
Then all the pixels formed into the being and collapsed…dropping the injured Slayer to the moon rocks.
"Ouch," Jack groaned as he and the others rushed over to help her up.
The Slayer named Brenda Sanders groaned as she messed with her half-broken leg. "What just happened?! Where are we?!"
"In a video game," Sarah stated bluntly.
"…what?!"
"Long story short, madman named Toymaker wants to enslave all the kids in the world, we have to shut the game down before he can get that far."
"…oh…is it odd that this is a normal occurrence for me by now?"
"Speaking from experience…little bit."
Brenda, leaning her injured side on Jack, then noticed something. "What's that?"
Ryan looked. "It's a power-up." He looked it over and smiled. "I think you might want this." He tossed it over to her.
She caught it perfectly (Slayer reflexes) and the light collapsed and flowed into her leg, mending it completely. She smiled and shook herself off. "Whoa. I know this is digital and all but THAT SO TOTALLY ROCKED!" She smirked, hopping giddily. "OK, now what?"
"Well, we've got somewhere to be." Michael led them off.
Meanwhile…
An evildoer with dark hair, dark eyes, and a pale-from-lack-of-sun complexion stood in his lair, watching the Loonakids (and Brenda) on a digital screen (as if everything else wasn't digital). He smirked. "Think you can catch me, do you, kiddies? Well…you will."
On the digital moon…
The gang was walking to an arena from which robot parts were flying.
"What is there an inventors' convention in there?" Kelly joked as she led the gang in.
Nope. Robot battle.
Once the battle was over, the host then walked up. "Ooh! Courageous new contestants. Welcome to the Robo-Con."
"We need to get to Level 2!" Benny explained.
"Well, you came to the wrong place. This is the Arena of Misfortune. If you wanna get to Level 2 now, you've gotta fight and win."
Naturally, everyone backed up, leaving Ryan standing there.
"Perfect."
"What?!" Ryan cried even as he was being dragged off, "Wait! I didn't—" Too late. He was thrown into a lift that yanked him up to the top floor.
The host then looked at the other nine of them. "You'll have to wait on standby to assist…and backup play when he loses." He shooed them into a control box before they could say anything in return.
Ryan finally got to the top of the player's box while the others shuffled into the control booth…and saw the host there.
"Hey there."
"What—how did—you were just—"
The host just pulled him off to a platform and attached a game control laser to the wrist not holding the stopwatch (which by now read 5:43:28).
Ryan looked at him. "OK, I can see where we're going here but…who am I fighting?"
"Her."
Across the arena, a young girl with wavy brunette hair and sparkling silver eyes was also on a platform arranging her battle gear.
Ryan blinked, seeing her over a monitor on the platform. "I can't fight a girl! …unless she's a supervillain or something."
"Just don't get too trashed. Then I win bonus points!" The host kid scurried off.
Ryan started looking over the control gauntlet. He couldn't figure it out. "This isn't standard issue! These buttons aren't labeled!"
Too late. The doors opened to reveal that the platform was a control platform for a large robot (that appeared a lot like his battle suit). The controls then locked into his boots to keep him from falling off. But that didn't keep him balanced, especially since he was freaking out.
He quickly scrambled with the buttons and figured out one. "Whoa! Mimic feature! OK, right foot, left foot." He started walking. "Right foot—GAH!" He started struggling to keep balance. "HOW DO YOU WORK THIS THING?!" He then half-collapsed. But at least he got his balance back. "Oh boy." He then dropped.
The others winced from the booth.
"That's gotta hurt," Sarah groaned.
