Up, up, up the digital tower LarryBoy climbed, fighting off Temptation's robotic guards and neutralizing the power ports of the rising platform in order to switch off the green force fields. Level by level, he chased the platform and the apple sitting on top of the prison cell, and every so often he caught sight of the rhubarb woman trapped in a video-game induced trance.
Petunia barely responded when LarryBoy had tried to call to her, so he saved his breath for the task of hero work. From what he could see, Temptation's artificial world had outfitted the gamer with a pink light suit similar to the official artwork of the Laser Cycle franchise. Her usually exuberant and truthful eyes, which had earned the trust and hearts of Bumblyburg citizens, were now glazed over as she robotically worked to beat the high score.
Temptation, the red apple with big, baleful eyes, watched LarryBoy's every move. She had sneered and taunted LarryBoy when he first started the chase after Petunia, but the more the cuke crusader pressed on, the quieter his foe became. In a guise of comradery, she wore a blue helmet similar to Petunia's, but she was far from anyone's friend. She promised unlimited happiness through overindulgence, but those who listened to her found themselves prisoners of their own vices. Temptation sought only control of others, to subdue and subjugate wherever she could. Now that LarryBoy knew her tricks, he was determined to rescue his city and his friends from her strangling webs.
"Just a little more, Master Larry," Alfred cheered in LarryBoy's earpiece. "Temptation can't do anything without her webs of deception, so your victory is assured!"
"I thought these were 'webs of temptation'?" LarryBoy returned.
"They can be two things at once."
He quickened his pace. With each fire of his plunger, the green force field of Petunia's cell weakened until at last the mechanisms sputtered and shut off completely.
"No!" Temptation growled, shaking the front pair of mechanical spider legs like fists.
Triumphant, LarryBoy shot his other plunger at the catwalk above him and zipped up onto the now still platform.
"You're free, Petunia!" he cried, bounding toward her with a relieved smile. "Let's get out of here!"
Petunia did not look up from the handheld console. The buttons continued to click in her grasp.
"Petunia?" LarryBoy reached her, and when he saw the glazed look still in her eyes, a sudden sinking realization overtook him. He grabbed hold of her slim shoulders and gave her a quick shake. "Petunia! C'mon, snap out of it! Petunia! Please, c'mon!"
A dark laugh erupted above him on the roof of the cell. "Not so easy, is it, dumplin'?"
LarryBoy spun and charged out from under the covering to glare up at the smirking apple.
"Let her go!" he commanded, his nasal voice reverberating off the digital walls. "You can't keep her here!"
"Says who, exactly?" she snickered. "What, did you think shutting down the force field was some kind of a boss level? This world may look like a video game, but that doesn't mean I have to play by video-game rules, LarryBoy."
His face fell, but then he clenched his jaw, his blood beginning to boil.
"What do you get out of this?" he demanded, stomping forward a step. "What did Petunia ever do to you?"
"Nothing at all," Temptation answered with a sniff. "If someone else had been Bumblyburg's ace reporter, then they would be in here instead. Perhaps widdle Petunia should have picked a different career."
"I could say the same thing about you, Bad Apple," LarryBoy threw back. "At least Petunia never had to hurt somebody to get ahead."
"My, my, my! Aren't we cranky?" she snickered. "The big, strong superhero can't wescue the pwetty pwincess because her mind is still in another castle. What is a plunger-headed hero to do?"
LarryBoy let out an aggravated breath. "You haven't won this! I'll find a way to snap her out of it."
"And waste precious hours while I target the rest of the town? You're making this too easy, LarryBoy."
"I'm not leaving her!"
He spun and charged back to Petunia, who still clicked away at the console. LarryBoy made a grab for it, thinking he might have success if he just physically separated her from the machine — and a shock erupted from the panels beneath his feet. LarryBoy yelped and leapt back, gasping.
"Master Larry, are you okay?!" Alfred cried in the radio.
"Alfred, I just learned that spandex conducts electricity," he panted, shuddering.
"Hold tight, Master Larry," his butler answered, clearly trying to mask his alarm but failing. "I'll think of something."
"We don't have much time, Alfred," LarryBoy said, glaring at the electrified panels. "Can't you hack into the system and shut everything down?"
"I wouldn't try that," Temptation chuckled overhead. "I have a few fail-safes in place — but you'll find they're not so safe after all."
Behind him, LarryBoy heard the hum of hovercraft descending, and he spun to see Temptation floating, held up by the metal power belt from which her spider legs protruded.
"Instead of tuckering yourself out with this fruitless endeavor, maybe you'd be interested in a trade?" she suggested.
LarryBoy frowned. "Like what?"
Temptation tilted her head, her green lips widening into a cruel smile. "You, for her."
LarryBoy fell back a step. "What."
"You" — Temptation pointed a spider leg at him, then jabbed it toward Petunia — "for her. You stay here, and I'll let her go. How about it, hero?"
He blinked his masked eyes several times. "You'll let her go?"
"Out of the question!" Alfred said sharply in his earpiece. "Master Larry, get out of there, quick! Before you fall to another temptation!"
LarryBoy stayed where he was. He frowned at Temptation. "How do I know you'll keep your word?"
"Because keeping her alive gives me leverage," she chuckled, her eyes rather like a cat enjoying its game with a mouse she just caught. "You won't get any bright ideas of trying to escape my webs again if you know sweet, sweet Petunia's safety is conditional on your being a good boy. With all the other pillars in Bumblyburg soon to be under my control, I can afford to let one plucky reporter go. So, what do you say?"
LarryBoy glared at her, stepping closer to Petunia. "And what's stopping me from throwing her over my shoulder and escaping your web with her, huh?"
"I wouldn't try it," Temptation taunted. "She's wired into that game console in a pretty intricate way. Trying to remove her without disabling the entire web might be too much of a… shock for her, if you catch my drift."
A wicked chortle shook her round frame. LarryBoy's eyes snapped toward Petunia, and he retreated a step in alarm. Only then did he notice a large ring around her lower stalk, and the ring was attached to the electric panels by a cable.
"You wouldn't…" LarryBoy breathed.
"Try me," the apple challenged. "But I can release her and let her go on her merry little way if you stay here with me for the rest of your days — or hours. I try to be flexible with these things."
LarryBoy gulped, but another glance at Petunia's glazed-over eyes stopped a shudder from going through him. He knew he could not rescue her from the machinery in his own power, but there was no way he could leave her here, at Temptation's mercy.
At that moment he recalled his recent Bible study with Alfred. The two had made a point to study Scripture at least once a week, both to keep themselves spiritually strong in the face of darkness and to help each other as brothers-in-Christ. This past week Alfred had had them focus on Jesus' words to the disciples at the Last Supper, particularly John 15:13: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
Intellectually, he had known that Jesus was talking about His own upcoming sacrifice for the whole world, but Larry had heard that specific verse so often, he had not fully appreciated what Jesus had meant or what He must He must have been feeling when He looked upon His close friends for whom He would be literally dying within twenty-four hours.
As he gazed at his entranced friend, LarryBoy caught a glimpse of what His Savior must have felt. The dread of LarryBoy's own bleak future pitted against the desire to keep somebody he cared about safe from harm gave him a moment of oscillation — if he stayed he might be dooming all of Bumblyburg to Temptation's webs — if he left, he might not get another chance to rescue Petunia — if he stayed, another hero might rise up to help Bumblyburg, but the chances of that were slim — if he left, Petunia would no doubt be subjected to every cruel thought that passed through Temptation's mind.
Temptation could even kill her if she wanted, and there would be no one to stop it.
His gaze traveled over Petunia's face, and his heart seemed ready to burst with emotions which he could not fully voice.
Sucking in a long breath, LarryBoy closed his eyes and clenched his jaw.
"Deal."
"Master Larry, you can't—!" Alfred yelled in his ear, but with a press of a button, LarryBoy silenced the radio.
Temptation's eyes gleamed with wicked triumph.
"Excellent!" She let out a cruel chuckle. "I should have tried that a lot sooner. You superheroes are so predictable."
LarryBoy ignored her taunt. "Let Petunia out of her weird trance now."
"Once she leaves this world, she'll be back to normal, dumplin'," Temptation hummed. "Don't get any bright ideas about escaping this world now, because if you do, I can always track your pwecious Petunia down and throw her in something much worse."
"No need for threats. I'm a cuke of my word," LarryBoy declared bravely, but he could not suppress a small shiver.
He glanced at Petunia and took a hop toward her. Would he ever get the chance to tell her just how much her friendship had meant to him? Could he express the enormous weight in his heart with just a few words?
"Can I at least say goodbye?" he whispered.
"That wasn't part of the deal, dumplin'," Temptation sneered, looking quite pleased with his anguish.
LarryBoy blinked rapidly, feeling his throat constrict, but he steeled his nerves.
"Then get her out of here already," he charged. "You got what you want."
Temptation's hovering mechanism switched offer, and her mechanical legs carried her over to Petunia. She lifted one leg and brought it slashing down through the air, and at once a rip appeared in the open space. LarryBoy caught a glimpse of the inside of the news van where Petunia usually operated out of. With another leg, Temptation took hold of Petunia by the shoulder. The mechanical ring opened automatically, and the apple unceremoniously tossed the unresponsive rhubarb back into the real world.
"Hey!" LarryBoy protested. "Not cool!"
Meanwhile, Petunia landed on the floor of the van and bounced — and groaned. Her pink light suit disappeared, revealing her favorite trench coat. Blinking, she raised her head, and she froze, staring at LarryBoy still in the pocket dimension.
"Petunia—" he started to call to her, but Temptation promptly lifted her spider leg again and brought it down over the doorway, making it disappear like a mark erased from a whiteboard.
"Looks like you're stuck with me, LarryBoy," Temptation chuckled. "Was it worth it?"
The finality of his decision seemed to hit him then — he had no way of escape; Temptation could change this world to suit her whims (which would probably make things super unpleasant and yucky for LarryBoy); there was no other superhero in Bumblyburg to come rescue him, and if Alfred tried to come help, the poor butler could get hurt in the process.
Yet seeing the malevolent glow on Temptation's face made him think of how easily this world could have become a death trap for Petunia if he had left her behind, and he squared his shoulders.
"If it keeps her safe from the likes of you, I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
THE END
A/N: Sequel idea if I ever got around to writing it: Alfred helps Petunia become Vogue, and they rescue LarryBoy.