Chapter 7

Ryan pulled himself out of the lava river, gasping for breath and shaking himself off dog-style.

"I thought I was a goner," Artie groaned as the others either brushed lava off themselves or helped up Ryan, "I saw my life flash before my eyes…all I could hear was my father saying 'You blew it, Art! No untold riches for you!'"

Ryan sighed once he was cleared off. "Why was the lava so cold? I thought it was immediate Game Over."

"I don't know," Robert sighed, "But look what we've got here." He helped the others move some rocks out of the way to reveal the doors to Level 5. "So…how do we open it?"

Meanwhile, Greg approached Rick and Artie and sat them down on a rock while the others continued to work away on the door. "Rick, Artie, we have to talk. It's about the Loonakids over there, highly sensitive." His two friends looked at him, their full attention on him. "I've been rereading my Tech Manual. It talks about a Deceiver in the game that misleads players down paths no one will survive…and I think there might be more than one Deceiver." He accented that by looking at the Loonakids and Brenda.

"What do we do?" Artie asked.

"We'll have to get rid of them. Or risk losing the game."

Rick nodded and led his two friends over to the doors.

Kelly was finally giving up on opening them. "This is hopeless. How much time do we even have left?"

Ryan sighed, looking at the timer. "30 minutes."

"What happens in 30 minutes?" asked Rick.

"This place gets flooded with players from around the world…" Sarah said.

"Oh, great, competition."

"…and the Toymaker takes over their minds."

"Huh?"

"That's why we're here," Lucy sighed, "We have to stop that."

"How? By shutting down the game?"

"Well, I didn't tell them."

"Lucy!" Benny snapped.

"WHAT?!"

"We're not letting you shut down the game!" Rick snapped, "At least not until we get the great prize of Level 5."

"That's what we've been trying to tell you!" Michael growled, "THERE IS NO PRIZE! You get imprisoned in the game forever, game over!"

"Oh, really? Fine. But first we're gonna see just how fast your life count can run backwards!"

Brenda got in the way. "You'll have to go through me first."

"What are you gonna do, girly?"

"This 'girly' can pry your arms from the sockets and beat you to death with them!" Kelly snapped, "And forget her, you still have to take on the Loonakids for your little plan to work!"

"Stop saying that! We know you're not the real Loonakids!"

"You want proof?!" Nadine growled, her eyes glowing pink intensely, "FINE!" She exploded a burst of fire into the doors to Level 5, blowing them from the hinges and across the room before anyone could realize what she did.

Jack then glared at her. "Why couldn't you do that five minutes ago?!"

Something then caught Ryan's attention. Something glowing.

Ryan cautiously walked into Level 5.

Then the glow faded to reveal a certain player.

"…Demi?"

Demi smiled. "Ryan! Come on, guys. I found the switch to shut down the game. And the exit portal!"

Nadine looked at her. "How'd you get back?"

"There must've been a glitch."

Nadine was still suspicious. So she tried for the first time to read her mind…and got nothing but static. "…Ryan…who gave you that map?"

Ryan looked at her. "She did, why?"

"I'll tell you why…she's not real."

"What are you talking about?" Demi asked, "I'm the one who's been helping you guys through the game! Now do you wanna win or not?"

Nadine then clenched it…by being the first to touch her and showing that her hand went right through her. She was a hologram. "The Toymaker designed her to lead us here and keep us from taking down the game. She's the reason this level's unwinnable. She's the Deceiver."

Ryan looked at her in shock. "What?"

Demi looked at him. "…sorry, Ryan. It's in my programming."

"Congratulations!" Suddenly, the Toymaker's image appeared overhead. "You made it to the end of the game, you've won! And your prize is…you get to stay here. Forever. Welcome to the game."

Suddenly, the image was replaced by three large robots.

Robert quickly held up a rock shield but it couldn't possibly hold them forever. "FIND THE EXIT PORTAL! GO! RUN!"

They ran to find the way out, the Loonakids using their powers however they could to hold off the robots in the meantime.

Kelly finally used her half-Vamp agility to run up the wall to one of the robots and pry out its circuit board, landing on the ground next to the resulting mass of nuts and bolts…and finding something next to where she landed. She turned a wheel to reveal that doing so opened a portal. "I FOUND THE WAY OUT! EVERYBODY GET OVER HERE!"

Everyone made their way to her.

Ryan, his eyes glowing green, used his tech powers on the portal to hold it open and then spread the electrical blast throughout the room, turning off everything there and thus shutting off the game.

Well, he turned off everything but the portal and the robots.

Ryan and Kelly continued to hold the portal open as everyone rushed through.

Demi watched…and rushed up to the wheel, pushing Kelly through the portal and taking control.

"DEMI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"SAVING YOU! GO!"

Ryan looked at her as his spell and the glow in his eyes subsided.

Demi sighed, her eyes watering. "I can't hold it forever, Ryan."

Ryan looked at her…and then rushed through the portal, closing it behind him.

The tunnel they were now in led directly to the portal out.

"Well, nice meeting you…heroes," Greg smirked.

"It's been real," Rick said, "…sort of."

Artie shook Michael's hand…making him wince and collapse a little. "Thanks, pal."

"…thanks, could you let go now?" Michael groaned.

Artie complied.

The three boys finished their goodbyes…and made their way off.

The Loonakids and Brenda then exchanged looks.

Jack smirked at Brenda. "You were great. The way you took on those Tinker Toys? Hot! …I mean cool! Cool."

Brenda smirked…then looked down and sighed, her smiling fading. "I don't know if I can leave yet." She looked at leg. "It feels awful being hurt—I didn't know Slayers could go through that."

"No one's invincible, B," Benny said, "We should know."

"You're a hero," Jack smiled, taking her hand, "Maybe more so than some of us."

Brenda smiled. "…for someone so self-centered, you sure know how to charm a Slayer. Come on." She then walked over to the portal and, in unison with the Loonakids, jumped through.

Five minutes later…

The gang was now finishing their reunited moment.

"You did it!" Wendy cried, hugging her son, "And you made it out!"

"Did you ever doubt we would?" Robert smirked at his aunt, "Come on, we've been through worse than that!"

"Guys, I hate to break through our little moment here," Tech said, "but we've gotta go over this. How exactly did you shut down the game?"

"During the last level when I opened the portal out, I overloaded the circuit board systems," Ryan explained, "It seemed to work at the time."

"Oh, it worked, the game's off, but we need to make sure we did this correctly."

"Warning! Warning! Communication security breech!"

Suddenly, the Toymaker was on the screen.

"…and that's why."

"I'm coming back. To settle the score. For imprisoning me! For using me!"

"I thought we'd never heard of this guy," Brenda said, leaning on her crutch.

"…Zadavia never said that," Sophie suddenly realized.

"All I wanted to do was to right the wrongs, start over, a new world order—a new chance. To give everyone a SECOND CHANCE! But no! So now I'm taking this game to the next level!"

BOOM!

Suddenly, the tower shook as the earth did outside.

"What's going on?" Archer asked in a panic as Sarah held him.

Sarah looked around. "…I think I know." She rushed from the building, everyone following her close.

They made it outside…to find the street empty.

"…uh…where's the big bad?" Brenda asked.

Sarah thought fast. She whipped out the 3D glasses and put them back on. "WHOA!"

Everyone followed her example.

They could now see at least a dozen robots on the street, ready to attack.

Lexi panicked. "…game on."