"This is bad," the doctor said, watching the displays of her portable scanner as it examined Matrix. "How long ago was this eye replaced?"
Dot, seated at the foot of the bed, shrugged helplessly and looked to AndrAIa. The Command.com's left eye had swollen shut, and she fingered the greenish-black bruise that had spread across her face. Captain Capacitor, who had "escorted" the gray-haired physician all the way from her practice to her patient, stood in the doorway, sword sheathed and hat in his hands.
"That's a little complicated," AndrAIa started. "I think it was about six seconds ago."
"But that's impossible," the puzzled doctor protested. "The scarring is at least five minutes old."
"It is," Dot explained. "AndrAIa and Matrix have spent a lot of time in the Games, and Game time is accelerated."
The doctor looked from Dot to AndrAIa and back, then dropped her eyes back to her scanner. "It would take a lot of Game time to account for the discrepancies here," she murmured.
"Is eleven minutes enough?" AndrAIa asked with a tinge of bitterness in her voice. "We lost our childhood to the Games."
The doctor looked up at the lovely young pirate, and slowly nodded. "That would explain how a design only released eight seconds ago can be surrounded by five minutes of scarring."
Matrix stirred, tugging against the cargo straps the crew had hastily rigged as restraints. AndrAIa sighed, but resolutely tapped a nail against the captive's right arm. Matrix's struggles subsided.
"Can you do anything for him?" Dot asked impatiently.
The doctor avoided Dot's eyes in favor of the scanner. "Whoever did this knew his stuff. According to my scan, there's a fail-safe code on every interrupt."
"By Gar-Nass," Captain Capacitor cursed softly.
"Booby traps?" Dot said, stricken.
"Essentially," the doctor replied soberly. "And even if I could remove the viral code safely, I'm not sure how much the code would reintegrate."
"What are you saying?" AndrAIa asked slowly.
The doctor sighed. "I'm saying that if everything goes perfectly, he'll be blind and mentally unstable."
"And at worst?" Dot asked in dread.
"At worst one of those booby traps will go off during surgery, and set off a disintegration cascade," the doctor said sadly. "I'm sorry."
Dot closed her one working eye and took a deep, shuddering breath. AndrAIa's long legs folded beneath her, and she sat down hard. She wrapped her arms around her knees, and trembled, tears leaking from her enormous blue-green eyes.
Captain Capacitor stumped across the floor, his peg leg loud in the hushed cabin. He put his hand on Dot's shoulder. "This vile deed will not go unpunished, my Lady," he told Dot in a tone that spoke of battle and steel. "I will track the murderous wretch across all of cyberspace if need be, and justice will be served by the guns of the Saucy Mare."
"This has nothing to do with justice," Dot rasped. "This is about revenge."
"Eeyaa!" Wayne charged through the open doors of the village tavern with an arrow nocked and his wild eyes flickering from purple to green and back. He let the arrow fly, and it embedded itself in the wall behind the User's party. Village Game Sprites scrambled for cover. Wayne wheeled, kicking over a table with a rear leg while drawing another arrow from his quiver.
Something whistled by his ear, and Wayne instinctively leaped sideways. The User's Archer drew another arrow and let fly at near-point-blank range.
Wayne dropped to the floor even as he yelled his defiance and sent his own arrow toward the User's Sorcerer, huddled under a table with the Thief.
Wayne's arrow plunged through the Sorcerer's robes, wounding the magic-user in the arm.
The Archer's bow twanged again, and Wayne turned his head just in time to see the arrow plunge deep into his equine right shoulder. He screamed and tried to stagger to his feet, but the wounded foreleg buckled and he fell.
The User's Warrior appeared from the back rooms, its armor missing and right arm bandaged. It held its sword in both hands and advanced on Wayne as the injured sprite struggled to get up.
Wayne met the User's blank, pitiless stare, and reached for another arrow. Something slashed across his arm, then darted toward his throat. Wayne caught only a glimpse of the Thief's arm before it was knocked aside by a flailing purple hoof.
"Rrraauugh!" Mouse yelled as she reared. Her head brushed the thatched roof of the one-story tavern. She kicked the Thief in the face and dropped low to grab its dagger as it fell. Her hooves landed solidly on the wooden floor, brushing the arrow in Wayne and making him yelp.
"Hang on, Sugar, the cavalry's here!" Mouse threw the dagger end-over-end into the advancing Warrior's chest, then nocked and loosed an arrow toward the Archer.
The Archer ducked, and Mouse hastily hopped her rear legs over Wayne. She reached down and grabbed his arm. "Come on, get up! We've got to get out of here!"
"No way! We can finish them off!" Wayne took an arrow out of his quiver and slammed it into the prone Thief without bothering with his bow.
"Finish them off!" Mouse exploded. She dodged as an arrow sang by the spot her head had been an instant earlier. She let go of Wayne to fire off an arrow of her own. "We've lost the element of surprise, honey!" she yelled as she sent another arrow toward the Warrior. "They're wounded; let the Game sprites take care of them!"
"The Game sprites will take care of them!" Wayne shouted back. "The User will stay here and rest until its party is healed, and possibly even hire more Game sprites to protect it! This could be our only chance!" He loosed another arrow at the Sorcerer, which had drawn a circle on the floor and was now murmuring while waving its wand slowly over the diagram. "Mouse, the Sorcerer!"
But it was too late. The Sorcerer completed the spell, and the air around Wayne and Mouse shimmered, then turned icy.
"What's happening?" Mouse shrieked. She tried to step back, only to bump against an invisible barrier.
"We're going out like Guardians!" Wayne bellowed. He shook his fist at the User. "Crash you! To mend and defend!"
The Sorcerer spoke one final word, and the two system sprites vanished.
"Aria!" Turbo cried again. He dropped his sword and reached out as he ran. He broke the Siren's fall, but both he and Aria tumbled to the ground as the User's Warrior crested the top of the hill. The Warrior blinked as the power of Aria's music faded.
"Aria," Turbo panted. He cradled her in one mailed arm and hesitantly brushed the fingers of his other hand across the damp stain rapidly spreading across her chest.
"It is mortal," Aria whispered. She moved slowly in Turbo's arms, one hand reaching toward her injury.
An arrow sang overhead, followed by a clang. "Turbo! The User!" Bob loosed another arrow at the Warrior, but the projectile only dinged the User's gleaming armor.
"I've got it," Davic growled. He stuck one toe under the end of his club, and tossed it upwards into his left hand. He stomped up the hill in three long strides, the club whistling as he swung it through the air. Caen chittered and wrapped itself around Davic's head.
Bob glanced down the road, where the Sorcerer was frantically digging through its pouch, which Bob's arrow had pierced through. "Oh, no you don't," Bob muttered. He took another arrow from his quiver, lined up his shot, and stood absolutely still for a long moment, his eyes narrowed. The Sorcerer pulled an age-darkened bone from its pouch, and raised it over its head just as Bob let the arrow fly.
"Sorcerer…destroyed," the Game reported.
"One down, three to go," Bob said.
The User's Warrior danced aside as Davic's club swung down towards it. Davic let out an ogre-growl that shook leaves off the surrounding bushes, and made a grab for the User as it circled around him.
"Aria, stay with me. Just hang on," Turbo begged.
Aria touched her icon. "Again, you must choose, my Prime," she murmured.
"Aria, I—"
"Choose," she repeated. Her blue eyes drifted shut.
"Aria? Aria!" Turbo howled.
"Turbo, watch your back!" Davic bellowed. An arrow sang past his shoulder as he swung his club at the Warrior again.
"Davic, watch out for the Archer!" Bob yelled. He fired another arrow, this one aimed at the Archer hurrying up the slope.
Davic roared as the Warrior escaped his attack again, then shrieked as an arrow grazed his tree-trunk thigh.
The Warrior's sword glinted as it slashed toward Turbo and Aria. Turbo's head snapped up, and he caught the Warrior's wrist in an iron grip.
"Hello, User," Turbo rasped as he rose to his feet. "I am the Prime Guardian. You killed my love. Prepare to die." He plunged his mailed fist into the Warrior's face. The Warrior tumbled backward onto the torn grass. It rolled, managing to hang onto its sword. Turbo let out a bellow, and launched himself at the Warrior just as it regained its feet. They both went down with a rattle of steel.
"Yeah, what he said," Davic growled as he swept the Archer into the air with his club. The Archer flew out over the trees, finally plunging back down somewhere over the horizon.
"Archer…destroyed," the Game said.
"Now that's gotta hurt," Bob remarked from the foot of the hill. Glitch squealed, and Bob turned in the road just in time to meet the Thief as it leaped. The Thief grabbed Bob around his sprite torso, and swung itself onto the Guardian's equine back, reaching for Bob's throat with its dagger.
Bob reared. "Get off me!" He bucked, then kicked out with his rear legs. The Thief fell off Bob's back, but flailed as it fell, slicing Bob across the withers.
Bob yelled, but landed on all four hooves. The Thief landed flat on its back with a whoosh of outflung breath.
Bob approached the scrabbling Thief with a menacing step. "That…hurt," he told the Thief. The Guardian of Mainframe carefully placed one forehoof onto the Thief's heaving chest, then circled to bring his rear legs into play. He kicked the dagger away, then flicked his tail disdainfully as he aimed an arrow at the Thief's face. "Why don't you go find something else to do," he suggested conversationally. "Before you make me mad." He lifted his hoof, and the Thief scrambled out from under the Guardian and took to his heels. Bob watched for a long moment, keeping his bow drawn.
"The Thief has deserted," the Game voice announced calmly.
"That's three," Bob said wearily.
"Make that four," Davic rumbled. He jerked his head toward Turbo.
Turbo sank the Warrior's own sword into it. "You lose, User," he growled. He yanked the sword out and threw it down as the Warrior dissolved into fluttering bits of color. Turbo turned his back and stalked back up the hill. He knelt beside Aria, and gently arranged her dress around her body before taking her hand.
"Turbo?" Bob asked as he and Davic came slowly up the hill. "Turbo, I—I'm sorry."
"I am, too, Bob. Sorrier than you could ever know," Turbo answered. He looked up into Bob's sad brown eyes, then tapped his icon.
Bob watched Turbo's icon fold, then click into Game Sprite mode. "Turbo, what are you doing?"
"I'm staying with her, Bob." Turbo lowered his eyes, and smoothed Aria's hair. "This is her Game. It'll recognize her source code and restore her when the Game starts again. Then she'll change back to System Sprite and return to the Net."
"But…the Collective," Bob protested. "It could be minutes before the User inputs this Game again,"
"Or even hours," Davic said quietly, folding his arms across his chest. "You sure you want to risk that?"
"I know what I'm doing," Turbo said. He met Davic's eyes.
Caen clicked, and Copland responded with a subdued murmur. Pavane hummed.
"Thank you, old friend," Turbo told his keytool.
Copland beeped.
Turbo looked from Davic to Bob, then back. "Go find Wayne and the other User."
"So that's it?" Davic demanded. "You're just going to sit here while the entire Net crashes?"
"I've done my duty, Guardian," Turbo said bitterly. "I left her once. I won't do it again."
"Let him be, Davic," Bob tugged gently at Davic's belt, which was as high as he could reach.
"Bob? You're just going to let him abandon us? Leave the Collective?"
"I'm not happy about it either, Davic, but we have to respect his decision. Besides, he gave us an order."
"I don't take orders from him anymore," Davic growled. "I don't take orders from anyone but the Prime." He turned and stomped off, leaving a trail of flattened shrubbery and torn-up trees.
Turbo sighed. "You'll keep an eye on him, won't you?" he asked Bob.
"If he lets me," Bob answered. "He'll be all right, Turbo."
"Yeah," Turbo agreed. He nodded toward Davic's trail. "You'd better get going before he gets too far ahead of you."
"I don't think I'll have a hard time following him," Bob said ruefully. He turned after Davic anyway, slinging his bow over one shoulder. "Stay frosty, Turbo."
"You too, Bob. You too." Turbo watched Bob trot off, then shifted and sat down beside Aria, watching the road.