Chapter 6

Ryan didn't even bother starting to fight. He ran for it, the puzzle pieces floating through the air forming extra platforms and not allowing him to fall into the abyss below.

Artie just followed until he had him cornered.

Ryan instantly started trying to whack with the staff but he kept missing.

Artie then hit him with his own staff.

He blocked with his but that didn't for long before Artie finally pulled a spin move that knocked him over hard enough to drop his life count to 3. Naturally, he started running again. Once he was enough in the clear, he started using what spare time he had to figure out what all the staff could do. Finally, he was able to form an ice shield with it but Artie just smashed through it when he caught up with him.

Demi winced from the viewers' platform. She couldn't watch this.

Artie then formed a claw with the staff and grabbed Ryan by the throat, holding him up to a wall that formed.

Ryan quickly made use of his legs to kick him back, falling to the platform…but also falling his life count to 2.

"Not that I'm rooting for anyone in particular, but those were some really cool moves," Greg commented from the viewers' platform.

Artie then knocked Ryan into the wall, collapsing it and collapsing his life count down to 1. He then hit him with all he could and threw him into the next platform.

Ryan lay there, half-conscious, down to .5.

Artie came up. "I'm really sorry about this, Ryan." He held up the staff, forming an electric current—that quickly collapsed and deactivated entirely. He looked at the staff in confusion, pounding it a few times to see if it was just a short circuit of some sort.

Suddenly, Ryan's platform began to retract to the gang. "What's going on?"

"You've been tagged," the Toymaker's voice announced.

"What?!"

"Someone has chosen to take your place."

Ryan looked at his friends as they pulled him to the platform. They all shook their heads to confirm it wasn't them.

Then he realized who was missing.

He turned around. "DEMI! What are you doing?!"

"You've got a mission, Ryan! I don't!" Demi called back as her platform pulled her over to Artie.

"No, don't do it!"

"Fight!"

The fight lasted all of five seconds. Demi attempted to throw Artie but he dodged every attack, finally pulling his own on the platform at her feet, collapsing it…and making her fall into the abyss.

"Demi! Game Over!"

Ryan just stared at this in shock.

Michael looked at his brother. "You OK, buddy?"

"…I never even got her phone number."

Nadine smirked. "Come on, buddy…we have work to do." She then led him off.

Artie came back. "I'm sorry, guys, but…my family…" No one responded so he simply followed him off as the platform dissolved into floating puzzle pieces again behind them.

In the Toymaker's lair…

Toymaker watched the whole debacle. "Bring it on, kiddos. When you find me, the world will truly pay the price. Here in my cyber-prison I was forced to create. Now I will destroy!" He then crushed the table in one smash. "On with the game!"

Back with the gang…

They finally entered Level 4, their time by now only 2:00:00.

"Alright, we're here," Rick said, "Now where's Level 5?"

"That's it!" Brenda snapped, "First of all, I'm getting a little sick of you people! Second, you don't ask the questions around here, that's Jack's job!"

"Yeah!" Jack snapped as well, "…wait, what?"

"And third—"

"We're going into Lava Mountain," Ryan said.

"We're doing what?" Sarah asked.

"Beyond that is the passage to Level 5."

"So we go through a mountain of hot molten rock to get there?" Lucy asked, "Yeah, I don't think so."

"Oh, so suddenly you're the game expert?" Rick asked, "Very funny. We're following your game boss."

Lucy sighed and pulled Ryan aside. "Look, I've put up with them for enough time already. We only have two hours left, we don't need them holding us down."

Ryan sighed. "It's too late now, we promised them they could tag along. Look." He held up the map disk when the three Beta testers weren't looking. "This is how I know where to go. Trust me, we can do this."

The team exchanged looks.

"Alright then," Benny sighed, "Lead the way."

Ryan smirked. "Let's move, people!" He then led them off.

Only a few minutes later, they were at the peak of…

"Lava Mountain," Robert sighed, "…nice place this time of year."

"It's summer, I'd prefer to not be surrounded by more hot things," Jack groaned.

Brenda groaned, too. "Why is it that every video game has to have lava?"

"Alright, that's not true!" Greg corrected, "Halo doesn't have lava. And I doubt most of the Ubisoft and Littlest Pet Shop games would have something like that in their workings."

Kelly looked over the edge and kicked a rock down the mountain. It fell into the lava and immediately disintegrated. "For once, Jack's right. It's too hot. We'll have to climb around it or it's Game Over."

"But I have six lives left," Rick said, "Artie's got all nine, Greg has—"

"It doesn't matter! You fall in, you lose. Games usually get tougher as you go along. This is one of them. We'll have to go another way." She started leading them off back down the path.

Ryan looked at the map disk before following. "This doesn't make any sense." He sighed, putting it back in his pocket, and walked off.

In the Toymaker's lair…

Toymaker watched the whole thing on his digital screen. "Unbelievable. I give them the health pack, I give them the map—what more do they want?!" He then thought of something and smirked evilly. He walked over to the control panel. "Send in the Tinker Toys." He opened a glass case and hit the button inside…

Back on Lava Mountain…

The gang continued on when suddenly they ground shook.

"What's going on?" Brenda asked cautiously.

Suddenly, the ground before them split to release dozens upon dozens of metal creatures.

"TINKER TOYS!" Artie cried, rushing them off.

Brenda stayed at the back to fight off the ones that got too close, then gained enough speed to level with Greg. "Wait, what's worse?! Lava or Tinker Toys?!"

Greg looked back then started running again. "DEFINITELY TINKER TOYS!"

"What do we do?!" Benny cried.

Kelly rushed to the edge of the peak…and jumped off.

"KELLY!" Sarah rushed up.

Her sister fell off the edge and pried part of the rock off the wall with her acceleration. That way, when she fell into the lava river, she had a surfboard.

The others exchanged looks for a second then quickly followed her example. They skated over the lava through the mountain and down to the doors.

In HQ…

"What's going on?" Daniella asked she and the others watched the kids progressing through the lava river.

"They're headed off-course," Tech said. He then checked their aim. "The Toymaker's driving them right to his lair!"

"Oh-this-is-a-disaster!" Rev cried, "They'll-never-shut-down-the-game-they'll-get-too-close-the-Toymaker-will-get-loose-Zadavia-told-us-not-to-let-that-happen-WHAT-DO-WE-DO?!"

Tech thought it over… "We have to drown them."

Everyone looked at him in shock.

"They'll get Game Over'd and Daniella can shut the spell off and pull them back here! We can take over from there if we work it out right."

The parents exchanged looks…and then Sophie looked at Austin.

Austin thought it over… "Do it."

Tech typed in the codes…and hit the button.

In the game…

The gang continued on through the Lava Mountain. Suddenly, a rumbling emerged.

There was a large lava monster.

"That's new," Greg commented.

The lava monster growled, raised a large rock, and threw it into the river. It instantly threw him out.

"Greg!" Ryan cried.

The lava monster continued.

"Artie!" "Rick!" "Benny!" "Lucy!" "Jack!" "Robert!" "Kelly!" "Sarah!" "Michael!" "Brenda!" "NADINE!"

Then he got in trouble. The lava monster had the biggest rock yet.

"…me."

SPLASH!

In HQ…

Tech just waited until finally exploding in shock. "What happened?!"

Daniella held up her sparking wand. "They fell in. The spell is working. It should be breaking."

"They should've gotten their Game Overs. …they should be back here." He looked over the vital signs to find them all off the sensors. "Where are they?"