Sheentastic Voyage

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 13:

This is so not good, thought Libby. As well as being a formidable opponent in his own right Ultra Lord was Sheen's ultimate hero. Sheen would never willingly believe that Ultra Lord was responsible for what was happening to Vox. His reaction to such news could vary anywhere from simple disbelief to vehement rejection. Attempting to convince Sheen that Ultra Lord was the enemy was dangerous in another way as well. If Ultra Lord even suspected that she – or they – considered him an enemy his reprisal would almost certainly be as swift and deadly as his attack on the occupants of this room. On the other hand, she knew that had to tell Sheen. He had to know the truth, and there was no way she could handle Ultra Lord alone. She hesitated, not sure how to proceed, and Ultra Lord sounded almost impatient when he spoke.

"Are you ready, battle buddies?"

"You bet!" Sheen replied enthusiastically.

"Uh…wait a minute," Libby stammered. "Don't you think we should check some of these other passages? Just to make sure that we won't be surprised from behind by someone we may have missed?"

"Good thinking, Love Monkey," Ultra Lord proclaimed as he headed towards one of the side passages. "Let's go!"

Libby put an arm out to stop Sheen from following. "I have another idea," she said. "Why don't we split up? That way we can search three times faster."

Ultra Lord paused and regarded her in silence. Was he programmed to stay with the players? Or did he suspect something? Libby felt sweat beginning to bead on her forehead as the masked eyes seemed to bore into her very soul. Finally he said, "Good thinking, Love Monkey. Let's split up!" Without another word he darted down a passageway, weapon drawn and ready. When he had left the room Libby heaved a sigh of relief.

"Okay, Libs," Sheen said as he gestured to two other corridors. "You take that passageway, and I'll take this one."

"No, Sheen." Libby shook her head. "We –"

"You want to take this one, and I'll take that one?"

"No. What I want –"

"Well, we can't take the same one!" Sheen protested. "You said we should split up!"

Libby clamped a hand firmly over Sheen's mouth. "Will you amp down and listen for a minute?" Sheen nodded as he gave a muffled reply. "Okay." Libby dropped her hand and went on as Sheen gave her a quizzical look. "I know this will be hard for you to hear," she said. "But the virus we're after…I think…" Sheen's expression of innocent bewilderment made what she had to say all the harder. "I mean…I'm pretty sure that…"

"Yes?" Sheen inquired when Libby couldn't go on.

Summoning up all the will she had Libby let it out. "I think that it's Ultra Lord."

Sheen's frozen expression seemed both comical and heart-rending at the same time. As Libby began to reassure him Sheen suddenly burst into laughter. "That's a good one, Libby!" he managed to gasp out between guffaws. "For a second there I actually thought you were serious."

"Sheen…"

"I mean, the idea Ultra Lord being the bad guy. That's great! What until I tell Jimmy and Carl. Neither of them think you even have a sense of humor." He straightened up and wiped his eyes, which had begun to tear. "Oh, man. Give me a second to catch my breath."

"Sheen…" Libby tried again.

Sheen had managed to regain his composure and turned again to Libby. "So, seriously…which passage did you want to check? This one or that one?"

"Sheen!" Libby barked, making Sheen jump.

"What?"

"Listen to me. I'm serious." The steel in Libby's voice convinced Sheen that she wasn't joking, and he looked at her narrowly. "Ultra Lord is the virus we're searching for. We have to stop him."

Sheen shook his head in denial and began backing away from Libby. "No," he said. "That's not true. You're lying!"

"Think about it, Sheen," Libby said trying to keep her voice calm and use reason. "The virus didn't appear until after we uploaded the Ultra Lord program. Vox didn't detect any viruses when we did. The only things that got inside the system were what we put into it."

"There could have been something else in the game. Something Vox didn't recognize," Sheen argued.

"Remember the room where you found Ultra Lord's mask? Well, take a look." She covered the room that they were in with a single sweep of her hand. "Look familiar? Ultra Lord destroyed that room and everyone in it just the same as he did in here. Can't you see what's going on?"

"It's just coincidence." Sheen shook his head stubbornly. "Ultra Lord was fighting whatever was there. We're lucky that he survived."

Libby kept trying. "He was doing what he was programmed to do, Sheen. He's trying to win the game. He's trying to defeat his enemies. Well, look around you! Everyone in this room is part of Jimmy's system. If they're his enemies, then so is the system that made them. He's fighting the system!"

Sheen put his fingers in his ears. "I can't hear you," he called out in a sing-song voice. "La, la, la, la, la…"

Libby grabbed Sheen's arms and tried to pull them away. "You told me today that a hero is anyone you choose. Well, the same goes for enemies, Sheen. We told Vox to give the program whatever it needed. But when it tried to access privileged resources Vox tried to shut it down. Ultra Lord considered it an attack and is fighting back. He wants to shut the system down because he decided that Vox was the enemy. He wants to win this game. But the only way to do that is for him to destroy Vox."

"You don't know that for sure."

"No, not for sure," Libby admitted. "But everything tells me that I'm right about this. I need you to trust me on this." She went on with difficulty. "We've known each other quite a while now, and we've been through a lot. I would never say anything that would hurt you if I had a choice. Do you really think I'd say something like this if I didn't think it was true?"

Sheen looked troubled.

Libby's voice became suddenly quiet. "We're friends, Sheen. Being friends sometimes means trusting them when your mind and heart say otherwise. Without that trust there's no way we could ever hope to be more."

"Then why can't you trust me?" Sheen argued back, his voice as tortured as his face. "I'm telling you that Ultra Lord isn't evil. He's good. He wouldn't do the kind of things you say he did." He shook his head and his voice became anguished. "I thought that maybe you understood. I tried to tell you but I guess maybe it's something you can never understand. Why can't you believe me?"

"Because this isn't Ultra Lord, Sheen. The Ultra Lord you believe in doesn't exist. This is just a program based on Ultra Lord. He's not real." She reached for his hand and took it in hers. "Sheen, I'm begging you. We have to shut this program down before it destroys the system. It's not just you and me at stake here. It's Jimmy and Cindy and Carl maybe everyone in Retroville. Ever since Yolkus I've been able to look up to you because you tried to be everything that Ultra Lord meant to you. You can be the kind of person some people wait a lifetime to find. I need you to be that now. Help me to stop him before it's too late."

Sheen stared at the ground and said nothing for a long time. "You're wrong, Libby," he at last said quietly. "He is Ultra Lord. And Ultra Lord is a hero. He's the greatest hero ever. He would never let anyone get hurt. He'd die to protect them."

"Sheen…" Libby pleaded.

"All clear, battle buddies," a voice called out from behind them. "Are the other tunnels secure?"

"There was nothing there, Ultra Lord," Sheen answered as he gave Libby a somber look. "Nothing at all. Maybe there never really was."

Libby looked away but said nothing.

"Then let's press on, assistant avengers," Ultra Lord said as he moved past them towards the final passageway and pointed ahead of them. "The evil lies this way. The ultimate battle is about to begin."

End of Chapter 13

Author's Notes:

I meant to have this up earlier but had issues with slow dial-up connections on an overloaded server and then spent more time than expected installing a wireless cable modem to replace the dial-up modem. Fortunately everything seems set now.

Some people may find this chapter vaguely disturbing because it brings out a schism between Libby and Sheen, but I tend to think it really crystallizes their personalities as I seem them. Libby seems to be the most objective, pragmatic, and level-headed of the group (aside from her passion for music) while Sheen lives on the fringe of reality at times. I think that these differences in the long run would tend to complement rather than oppose each other although in a serious relationship there would be the occasional rifts similar to this situation.

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