Sheentastic Voyage

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 2:

When Sheen and Libby arrived at the lab shortly after 2:00 PM that afternoon Libby still harbored some doubts about the situation. "Are you sure that Jimmy said we could use his lab for this?" she asked as they approached the clubhouse behind the Neutron house.

"For the tenth time, yes," Sheen replied in a weary voice.

"Are you absolutely sure?"

Sheen gave an exasperated sigh. "For the eleventh time, yes."

"Are you positively –"

Sheen cut the question short with a shriek of frustration. "For crying out loud, woman! How many times are you going to keep asking me that?"

Libby responded to the outburst with the time-tested female tactic of putting her attacker on the defensive. She folded her arms with a frown, saying, "Well, if you're going to act like that maybe I should just go home."

Her strategy worked, for Sheen immediately caved. "No, don't do that. I'm sorry. Really. But why can't you just believe me when I tell you that Jimmy said it was okay for us to use his lab?"

"Do we really have to go into that? I mean, he's got some pretty serious science going on in there and that really hasn't been your strong point. It's like Cindy letting Carl borrow her tai chi video courses."

Sheen was goggle-eyed at this. "Carl is taking tai chi?"

"No, Carl isn't taking – that's the whole –" Libby tried to think of some way to get the point across to Sheen and gave up. "Never mind. It just doesn't add up, somehow."

"Hey, Jimmy trusts me. We're buds, remember?" They had arrived at the clubhouse by this time and both immediately spotted a note taped to the door. Removing it, Sheen read the contents out loud. "'Sheen. The lab is all set up. Just ask Vox for whatever you need and DON"T TOUCH ANYTHING! Jimmy.'" He thrust the note in front of Libby's face in triumph. "You see?"

Libby took the note from Sheen's hand and read the last line that Sheen had not noticed. "'P.S. If anything should go wrong notify me immediately.'" She looked at Sheen with a perplexed expression. "What could go wrong with making a mix CD?"

"Yes, what indeed?" Sheen answered evasively pulling a hair from his head. He held it in front of the DNA scanner mounted to the side of the door and waited.

"DNA match confirmed. Welcome, Sheen," Vox announced after a few seconds.

Sheen beamed at Libby as the clubhouse door opened to admit them. "There, you see?"

"And don't touch anything," Vox added as the two entered.

"Oh, man," Sheen muttered as Libby sniggered. Together they crossed to the chute leading to the lab and Sheen, in an attempt to be chivalrous, made a sweeping bow. "After you, mi lápiz color morado."

Libby stopped at this and looked hard at Sheen. "Did you just call me a purple crayon?"

A dreamy, faraway look appeared on Sheen's face. "Yeah. I just love those stories." Suddenly aware of Libby's stare he caught himself and added quickly, "I mean when I loved them. When was just a kid. Before I found out about Ultra Lord." He grinned weakly as Libby disappeared down the chute, shaking her head in baffled confusion. Once she had gone Sheen wiped his brow with the back of his hand in relief, dropped down after her, and entered the lab.

"Okay, Sheen," said Libby as she surveyed the lab. "Let's get to it. Where are those tunes you told me about?"

"Leave it to me," said Sheen. "Vox! Activate console!"

In response to Sheen's command Vox replied, "Activating console." At the same time a panel of lights on Jimmy's main console lit up and the main viewscreen displayed the message "INSERT DISK WHEN READY". As Libby looked on over his shoulder Sheen seated himself at Jimmy's keyboard, inserted a disk into the console, and began pressing buttons. After watching Sheen for several seconds Libby leaned closer and frowned.

"There's something familiar about those controls," she commented.

"Well, if you've seen one audio mixer board, you've seen them all," answered Sheen.

"And it looks as through there are two duplicate sets."

Sheen smiled weakly. "Stereo?" he suggested.

Libby shook her head. "No, that's not it." She scrutinized the panel more carefully. "Since when does a mixer board have control pads and a joystick?"

"Uh…"

Suddenly Libby recognized the control array. "Wait a minute! Those are controllers for an X Station!" Irritated, she backed away and placed her fists on her hips. "Sheen, did you drag me down here to play video games?"

"What? Me? How can you say that?" Sheen protested.

"Game simulation beginning," announced Vox. From speakers somewhere in the lab the digitized strains of the Ultra Lord theme song began to play as the main viewscreen displayed the prompt, "PRESS START TO BEGIN".

Libby uttered a low growl of annoyance. "Sheen, I don't believe you. You lied to me?"

"No, I didn't. Really. We'll make the CD…eventually…but first –"

Libby didn't give him a chance to finish and started towards the door. "You know, Sheen," she shot back over her shoulder, "I thought that I was actually starting to really like you. But after your lying to me like this I don't think that's a problem anymore."

"No, Libby," Sheen called as he hurried after her. "I wasn't lying. I really wanted to spend time with you. That's the truth."

"Well, this sure wasn't the way to do that," she snapped without stopping. "You know I don't like playing video games. And I don't like people playing me even more."

Sheen had dropped to his knees and wrung his hands in supplication. "I know. But this is the best game ever. Getting the chance to even play it was going to be the greatest thrill of my life." His voice took on a pleading, almost broken, tone. "I just wanted to share that with someone I…really cared about..."

Libby had reached the door and stopped just short of it. He had to play that card, she thought as she stole a backward glance. Sheen was not looking at her. Instead, he was still on his knees staring at the floor, a pitiful picture of abject misery. Libby let out a sigh of resignation and shook her head. I'm going to regret this, she chided herself. I just know it. She walked back and laid a hand on Sheen's shoulder. "All right," she said, as Sheen looked up with a hopeful expression on his face. "I'll do it."

Sheen scrambled to his feet and threw his arms around her. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" he exclaimed, nearly babbling.

Libby shoved him roughly away and gave Sheen a stern look. "Hey, remember the lab rules," she reprimanded.

"What rules?"

"Don't touch anything!" She stalked back to the console, muttering darkly, as Sheen followed behind her. She slid into another chair beside Sheen as he eagerly touched the START button. "How do we play this?"

"That's part of the challenge. We have to help Ultra Lord, but exactly what we have to do is something we need to figure out. But don't worry. I know everything about Ultra Lord." He looked up in anticipation as 3-dimensional letters formed on the screen, reading

ULTRA LORD ULTIMATE

FINAL VICTORY

Libby read the words. "Is this going to be some kind of fighting game?"

"I sure hope so!" exulted Sheen.

Libby looked doubtful. "Can't we just go around collecting things and put them together to break the enchanted spell on some beautiful princess and –"

Sheen gave a derisive snort. "Yeah, if we were like 5 years old. This is a real game!" As he continued to watch a shape began slowly to form on the screen, finally becoming the rudimentary wire-frame form of a man in a purple costume. From the speakers the flat, distorted sounds of a man speaking issued.

"Ggreeeettiinnggss…bbaattttllee….bbuuddddiieess…" it said, like a recording playing at the wrong speed "Wwoouulldd…yyoouu…lliikkee…ttoo…jjooiinn…mmee…iinn…tthhee…uullttiimmaattee…baattttllee…aaggaaiinnsstt…eevviill…?"

"This is the greatest video game ever?" asked Libby in disbelief. "I really haven't missed much, have I?"

Sheen slammed his fist against the controller in frustration. "What's the matter with this thing?" he demanded.

Sheen's question had been purely rhetorical but Vox took it as an inquiry. "Insufficient resources allocated for process."

"Come again?" asked Sheen.

"Insufficient memory and CPU time assigned to simulation," Vox clarified.

"Oh. Is that all?" Sheen considered it. "Can you give it more?"

"Specify desired resource allocation for simulation."

"As much as it needs," Sheen answered impatiently. "Just get on with it!"

"Complying," Vox responded. "Restarting simulation."

Once again, albeit much faster, the game title appeared on the screen and a much more realistic 3-dimensional image of Ultra Lord appeared on the screen. "Greetings, battle buddies," a rich, resonant voice echoed. "Would you like to join me in the ultimate battle against evil?"

"Now that's more like it!" Sheen said as he eagerly pressed the button to begin the 2-player game.

"I have to admit that's a lot more impressive," Libby added as the figure of Ultra Lord faded and the realistic image of an alien landscape took its place.

What neither of the two noticed was that, on one of the many status panels around the lab, a light marked "SYSTEM INTEGRITY" changed from its normally placid green to an ominous blinking red.

End of Chapter 2

Author's Notes:

Although this story (like most of my others) is getting off to a slow start I always feel that laying the background is important. As well as helping with the supposedly logical development of the story it gives the reader a chance to actively anticipate what's going to happen next rather than simply be a passive observer of what's going on. It might be more exciting to have Jimmy and the gang thrust right into the middle of things but in my honest opinion nowhere near as satisfying.

Page 4 of 4