Gamers' Challenge (16 page)

26: Battle in the
Light Grid Chimaera vs Knight

The antivirus program ravenously careened into the light grid, mouth wide open, ready to consume. It touched the edge of the trap and, in a rush of static, was sucked into the grid, condensed to less than half its previous size. It screeched and howled as a multitude of manic faces momentarily rippled across its surface. It whirled like a tornado, throwing itself against the sides of the grid. Green energy crackled at every touch, coursing through the program and making it scream louder.

Finally the program ceased its struggles. It settled onto the ground into a nebulous mass.

‘You want to play?’ A deep, gurgling sound emerged from the creature. ‘I have been learning to play.’

The creature undulated and pulsed. A lion’s headgrew from its depths, roaring as it emerged. The static continued to take shape - a lion’s body formed, with muscular legs and sharp, sharp claws. From its rear, in place of a tail, snaked a serpent with wild eyes and long fangs, hissing and spitting as it thrashed about. From the middle of the lion’s back sprang the head of a goat, with fierce eyes of fire, twisted horns and snapping jaws. It was an impossible creature, three animals in one, with an ungainly appearance.

The chimaera’s three heads gnashed their static teeth, sparking and sizzling, the creature’s bulk dwarfing the knight. It crouched low to the ground, its serpent tail flicking from one side to the other, forked tongue darting in and out of its mouth. It crept towards the knight as if stalking prey, then paused. Fixing three sets of eyes on its opponent, it leapt.

The knight flung itself to one side, swinging thesword o’light. As the chimaera leapt past, the sword came down on its tail, severing the serpent from the rest of the creature. The decapitated snake shrieked and spat, writhing on the ground, before dissolving into nothingness.

The chimaera howled with its two remaining heads and launched itself at the knight, the lion’s jaws ready to savage its prey.

The knight sprang forward, faster than anythingwearing armour had a right to. It thrust upwards with its weapon.

The sword o’light sliced into the belly of the beastas it sailed over the head of the knight. The static that made up its form parted like the Red Sea and landed in a shapeless heap. remained at the entrance of the base. Emboldened, they crept closer to the grid.

The knight barely had time to turn around beforethe static took on a new shape. Within seconds a huge dragon, larger even than the chimaera, was glaring down at the knight. It threw back its head and roared a deep and guttural sound with a crackly, electronic undertone.

‘Plaaay!’

The dragon reared on its hind legs and thrust its head forward, jaws wide open. A burst of orange flame erupted from its mouth.

The knight held up its shield, deflecting the flames.

Back on all fours, the dragon roared again. It lifted an enormous, lumbering foot, ready to charge its opponent.

The knight sprang forward with the samemovement it had used against the chimaera, thrusting upwards with the sword. Although the sword o’light sliced up into the gigantic foot, it was not enough to stop it. The dragon’s foot stomped to the ground, crushing the knight beneath it.

A booming voice roared through the grid. ‘I have been learning to win!’

27:
Charging Up
 

The Ultimate Gamer let go of the joystick. His sheen had faded and his colour darkened with patches of grey and black.

Are you okay?’ called Zyra.

‘No,’ answered the Ultimate Gamer. ‘The antivirus program is stronger than I had anticipated.’

‘The IDD,’ said Tark, glaring at the professor.

The professor cringed, but as Tark looked away, his face brightened. ‘Of course! Yes, yes, yes. That is it!’

‘It is more than that,’ said the Ultimate Gamer. ‘It
is
different from the last time I encountered it. It has learned to play. It is ... enjoying the game.’

Unnoticed, the professor edged his way across the common room and slipped out towards his workshop.

On the screen, the dragon was grinding its foot intothe ground. It swung its body around and lumbered across the light grid, throwing its bulk against the perimeter. The grid crackled with energy, snaking tendrils of green coursing through the dragon. push. The Outers that had gathered around the grid shrank back.

The Ultimate Gamer took hold of the joystick.

‘Resume play.’

Looking up at the screen, Zyra and the others saw pinpricks of light forming into a new shape - a dragon, albeit a smaller one. The larger dragon stepped back from the grid perimeter and charged its new opponent.

As the dragons on the screen reared up andgrappled with each other, claws slashing, mouths spewing fire, Professor Palimpsest came rushing back into the common room, the newly charged IDD clutched in his arms.

‘This is it. This is it. This is it!’ He scurried towards the Ultimate Gamer’s podium.

‘Stop him!’ shouted Tee.

Tark and Zyra ran at the professor. As Tark wrestled the IDD from his hands, Zyra pinned the professor’s arms behind his back.

‘No, no, no,’ the professor cried. ‘I’m trying to help! Yes!’

Zyra gave his arm a twist, making him yelp.

‘Yeah, sure ya is,’ said Tark, levelling the IDD at the professor’s chest. ‘Wonder wots would ‘appen if I gaves ya a burst o’ this?’

The professor shook his head frantically.

An agonised wail brought their attention back to the screen. The Ultimate Gamer’s dragon was on the ground. The larger dragon ripped it apart with its claws, literally wrenching off one of its arms.

Hope looked away from the screen, sickened.

‘There must be something we can do to help!’

With a shudder, the Ultimate Gamer released the joystick and slumped back in his chair. Growing patches of black spread through his body like oil spills.

‘I can help!’ yelled the professor.

Zyra tightened her grip on his arms.

‘The IDD gave the power of the Interface to the antivirus program. Yes.’ The professor struggled against his captor as he spoke. ‘The Ultimate Gamer could, perhaps, also tap into this power.’

‘Possibly.’ The gamer lifted a feeble hand and tapped a key. A panel slid back on the side of the podium. ‘Connect it.’

The professor tried to get free, but Zyra held him fast. ‘Please, please, please. You’ve got -’

A piercing scream cut the professor off.

On the screen, the static dragon was pressed up against the grid’s perimeter. One of its clawed feet had broken through and was clutching the leg of an Outer, dragging him towards the grid. Several Outers held onto his arms, pulling, trying to save him.

‘That’s Chuck.’ Zyra’s voice was barely a whisper.

‘Let him go,’ called Tee, pointing at the professor. Palimpsest grabbed the IDD from Tark and scurried to the podium. He examined it quickly then stuck the end of the device into a connection port.

‘Hope, hope, hope,’ he said, squeezing the trigger.

The Ultimate Gamer sat bolt upright as static zipped around the gold loops that encircled him.

On the screen, the dragon had won the deadlytug-o-war. It yanked Chuck into the grid, bellowed a victory roar, and snapped its jaws on him. Chuck exploded in a burst of dissipating pixels. The dragon then thrust its claws back through the grid’s perimeter.

The Ultimate Gamer’s hand shot forward and grasped the joystick. ‘I’m back,’ he said, in Bobby’s voice. ‘And I’m charged.’

28: Battle in the Light Grid - Dragon vs
Unicorn

The dismembered dragon dispersed into pinpoints of light, as if its very molecules had separated. Like a cloud of fireflies they swarmed through the grid and gathered around the head of the larger dragon. The creature roared, snapping at the lights and bringing its foot back into the grid. As the perimeter repaired itself, the dots of light left the dragon, swarmed to the other end of the grid and took form.

The dragon looked down at the unicorn. It paused, assessing its new opponent, then reared up. Thrusting its head forward, it opened its jaws wide and flames spewed forth.

The unicorn backed away as the flames hit the ground where it had stood. It pawed at the ground and bucked, shaking its head from side to side, its sparkly white mane and forelock fluttering majestically.

‘Oh, yes.’ The dragon spoke in guttural tones, barely distinguishable from a roar. ‘Bring it on!’

Again, the dragon reared back and released an onslaught of flames. The unicorn dodged to one side with a movement that seemed both impossible and extremely un-equine. It steadied itself, planting all fours firmly, looking up at its opponent with crystal-clear, ice-blue eyes. It bent its right front leg and lowered its head, as if kneeling. Still on its hind legs, the dragon laughed and roared in triumph as it charged.

But the unicorn was not submitting. Its spiralling horn glowed with a pearlescence that began at the base and extended to the point. The dragon ceased its roar as a blaze of light surged from the unicorn’s horn. The light encompassed the dragon. It lashed out with its claws, but to no effect. The light had substance, and it constricted the creature’s movement. The dragon’s forelegs were pushed in against its body. Its head began to bear down - the neck squashing into the torso. The light formed into a sphere, forcing the static to lose the dragon shape completely. The light sphere got smaller and smaller, compressing the static.

The static spun within the sphere of light, around and around with giddying speed, like a whirlpool. The sphere wavered, bending towards the whirling mass. With increasing speed, it was sucked into the depths of the static, like galaxies into a black hole.

The spinning ball undulated, its surface like astormy sea, anguished faces occasionally bobbing to the surface. Expanding, it began to morph again.

Not waiting to see what form it would take, the unicorn pawed at the ground like an enraged bull and attacked the static. Its glowing horn plunged into the depths of its adversary. As the unicorn tried to back up for another assault, it found that it could not retract its horn, no matter how hard it pulled.

The enlarging mass of static rose up into the air, taking the unicorn with it, legs flailing helplessly.

Shooting up to the top of the light grid in a sudden, violent motion, the static rammed the unicorn into the edge of the grid. Green sparks engulfed the animal, crackles of energy coursing over the white surface of its body. As the static lowered a little, the light abated and the unicorn went limp, its mane singed, its hooves smouldering. The now dull horn cracked and split apart at the base, as the unicorn’s body fell.

The moment it hit the ground, it fragmented intomyriad pinpoints of light.

29: Super-charged

‘It hasn’t been wiping files and programs,’ gasped the Ultimate Gamer as he released the joystick. ‘It’s been absorbing them. Every virus program, every corrupt file has become a part of it.’

‘What does that mean?’ asked Zyra.

‘It has become a virus itself The ultimate virus. Ready to consume ... everything.’