Mouse held up one foreleg, examining the purple hoof on the end of it. "This is really weird," she commented.
"You get used to it," Wayne answered. "Try to relax. It's easier to follow the Game character's instincts if you don't think about them too much." He switched his flaxen tail as he surveyed the valley below them. "Look, there's the User now." He pointed to a small cloud of dust rising from a ribbon of road on the valley floor.
"How can you tell that's the User?" Mouse asked, watching the dust cloud's slow progress.
"If that was Turbo, he'd already have sent Copland to put a restraining field on both of us," Wayne said in an acerbic tone. He folded his arms and scowled, tail swishing.
"What about the Game sprites?"
"They're right there," Wayne nodded at the far slope of the valley. "It looks like they're going to attack, and Game sprites don't usually attack their own kind."
Mouse took a few cautious steps, and came to stand beside Wayne. Her lighter frame looked almost delicate beside the ex-Guardian's stocky barrel. Mouse watched the Game sprites rush down the slopes for a moment, then asked, "So do we join in, or let the Game sprites handle it?"
"Let's see what happens to the Game sprites, and find out what we're up against."
Mouse gave Wayne a long look, her lavender eyes searching, then turned to look out over the valley. The two of them stood on the slope, switching their tails and watching.
The User's party met the Game sprites just outside the tiny village huddled beside the dusty track. Yells and the clang of steel on steel floated up to the pair of sprites above. The dust rose, obscuring the combatants.
"This may be a very short Game," Wayne observed.
All of a sudden, a series of bright sparks shot out from the dust cloud. The sounds of battle ceased, and a tight knot of limping figures emerged from the dust, headed for the village.
"Looks like it's going to last a little longer, Sugar," Mouse commented.
Wayne nodded. "There must be magic in this Game."
"Magic?"
"'A usually inexplicable set of abilities allowing the possessor to defy the normal parameters of possibility'," Wayne quoted. "Hazards of Known Games. First-level cadet course."
"So we're outgunned," Mouse concluded.
"Not necessarily," Wayne answered. "Magicians usually aren't that good at hand-to-hand combat, and unless they've got some sort of magical shield capability, they're not very well protected from arrows, either. We just have to get past their warriors."
"And how do we do that?"
"They've lost some hit points fighting with the Game sprites. If we attack now, we'll catch them off-guard and weakened."
Mouse looked doubtfully from the Wayne to the village and back. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there more of them than there are of us? As in five to two?"
"Aren't you the one who wanted to take a few risks?" Wayne started down the slope.
"Yeah, but I wasn't planning on taking every risk that came along," Mouse muttered as she followed.
If Wayne heard, he ignored her.
"AndrAIa! We need you!" Mr. Christopher careened into the power room, his glasses askew and thin hair tousled. "He's loose!"
"What?" AndrAIa asked. "He broke out of a filelock?" She slid off the massive main generator housing, and wiped her hands on an already-filthy rag tucked into her belt.
"The Captain says Megabyte must have put an escape algorithm into him. Hurry!" Mr. Christopher was almost jumping up and down in his agitation.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," AndrAIa answered.
The small cabin held no furniture except the built-in bunk and a three-legged stool, but it was more than filled by the struggle taking place inside it. Princess Bula held Matrix crushed against her chest, pinning his arms but leaving his feet free to kick at whatever was in range, including a hatless and swearing Captain Capacitor. The former pirate had unlimbered a vocabulary full of arcane curses and unintelligible threats that sounded all the worse for their incomprehensibility. Dot huddled against the far wall, sporting a rapidly-darkening bruise around one eye and clutching her stomach as she gasped for breath.
"By the Code, lass, get him under control!" Capacitor yelled as he spotted AndrAIa running down the corridor. He ducked as the stool flew over his head and crashed into the wall.
AndrAIa flew across the room in two long leaps, and tapped the side of Matrix's neck with the relatively clean nails of her left hand. Matrix turned and snapped his teeth at her, then his wild eyes rolled back into his head and he relaxed.
Bula dropped the still-twitching sprite onto the bunk. "He not so cute now," she observed, panting a little.
"He's always been a fighter," AndrAIa said sadly. She sat down on the bunk beside her childhood friend and rolled him gently onto his back, then stroked his cheek. "He won't stay paralyzed for long. We have to get him to a doctor. Now."
"Aye," Captain Capacitor agreed. He picked his hat up off the floor. "And since our hostess is a bit preoccupied, we will have to find a surgeon ourselves. Mr. Christopher!"
"Yes, Captain?" The first mate peeked carefully around the doorjamb from the corridor.
"Look alive, lad! Inform the crew that we will be going on a little outing. Break out the hand weapons."
"Ooh—fight! I go get ready," Bula announced. She pounded one fist into the other palm, and squeezed into the dark passage, heading for her bunk.
"You're not planning to kidnap a doctor, are you?" Dot asked hoarsely as she rose from her crouch.
"Of course not, good lady!" Captain Capacitor exclaimed. "We are simply going to ensure that the best physician in this LAN understands how very serious the case is. I assure you, we will be the souls of discretion." He bowed with a flourish, then left.
"Some things never change," Dot murmured, laughing a little.
"And some things never stop changing," AndrAIa replied. She took Matrix's hand in hers, and folded the gray-skinned fingers around her palm.
Wayne picked up speed as he jogged down the valley wall toward the village where the User had gone. His wide, heavy hooves sank into the damp soil, but he wrenched them loose by main force, and moved up to a canter.
"Hey!" Mouse tripped over her own feet as she struggled to coordinate four legs instead of two. "Wait for your backup!"
Wayne dropped back to a walk that was stiff with impatience. "They might not stay long. We have to get there before they recharge."
"Honey, if you don't slow down, we're going to be the ones who need recharging." Mouse pulled up alongside of Wayne, and stumbled again as her left rear hoof got tangled up with the left front one.
"If you quit wasting energy fighting the Game character, you'll have plenty left to fight the User," Wayne retorted. "I told you, relax."
"It's kind of hard to relax when I'm trying to keep up with a Guardian trying to get himself deleted," Mouse shot back.
"I'm trying to defeat the User," Wayne growled. He picked up the pace.
Mouse matched his gait. "Uh-uh, Sugar. If you were worried about the User, you'd have come up with a better plan than just charging in outnumbered."
Wayne abruptly jumped to an extended trot, his legs reaching farther across the grass with every stride. "You don't know what we're dealing with. You've never been in a Game before, for User's sake."
"I don't have to know what we're dealing with to have a pretty good idea what you're dealing with," Mouse told him. She picked up a rolling canter without apparent effort.
"What, someone else playing with my head? Haven't I had enough of that already?" Wayne threw himself into a canter as the slope flattened out into the valley floor. "Did Turbo put you up to this?"
"He didn't have to," Mouse snapped.
"Leave me alone!" Wayne took off at a full gallop, leaving Mouse sneezing and stumbling on the dusty road.