|
|
Part Six: The Gloves Come Off
“I’m taking off the kid gloves and putting on the very mad gloves!” - Tick, The Tick
“This is incredible! For a week and half nothing happens, and now people are dropping like flies!” Dot turned to Cecil. “How many did you say were out?”
“Four, Madame.”
“Four. In two cycles. I can hardly believe it.” Dot noticed that Bob, Matrix, and Enzo had grown strangely quiet, and AndrAIa was holding back a laugh. Dot focused her attention on the Game Sprite. “You know something about all this, don’t you?”
AndrAIa responded with an overly innocent smirk. “Not all of it. Ow!” she gasped as both Enzos kicked her under the table. She slapped them both on their heads in retaliation. Her victims looked at each other, then back at her, sly expressions appearing on their faces. Sensing the danger she was in, AndrAIa extended her fingernails. “Don’t make me use these,” she warned. The pair shrank back instantly. “We’ll be good,” Little Enzo said submissively.
Dot enviously watched her retract them. “Oh, to have those nails,” she remarked.
Bob fixed her with a half-smile. “And just what would you do with hardware like that?” he asked -- a bit suggestively.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she shot back in the same tone.
“Easy, you two; there’s a little kid in the room,” AndrAIa cut in.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Enzo asked indignantly.
“Never mind,” the adults chorused back. The young Sprite opened his mouth to protest this latest example of age-based injustice when Hack and Slash made a very noisy entrance.
“We have to tell him. . .”
“Yes, I know we do. . .”
“But we can’t tell anyone else.”
“Right.” Slash paused.
“Why not?”
“Because then they could figure out that we don’t have
them!”
“Oh. So we tell Cecil. . .”
“Uh-huh. . .”
“And no one else?”
“That is correct.”
“What about them?” Slash pointed at the boothful of Sprites.
“What about them?”
“I think they heard us.”
“So?!”
“So we weren’t supposed to tell them!”
“I know.”
“Well, we just did!”
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
“Did not did not did not!”
“Did too did too did too!”
Dot decided to interrupt before things got ugly. “Uh, boys?”
The two robots instantly broke off their argument and turned to her. “We need to talk to Cecil,” Hack said.
“You mean Cescil,” Slash pointed out.
“That’s what I said.”
“No you did not. You said Ceecil.”
“Oh, what difference does it make?”
“Ceecil is not his name. Cescil is.”
“Guys! Guys. Calm down. Cecil, you have visitors,” Dot called out.
“You see, she said Cescil.”
“Slash, that’s enough,” Dot said mildly.
Cecil came gliding around to the front of the diner. He regarded his guests with a rather aloof expression. “Yes?” he asked.
The two robots looked at each other, embarrassed. Hack went first. “Well, you see...”
“We were inside the Principle Office,” Slash offered.
“Yeah, yeah, we were inside the Principle Office, and we were trying to do it in there...”
“No, you were the only one. I was not doing anything because Mouse said it was against the rules.”
Hack gave him an icy glare before continuing. “So, Phong sent us outside because he said we were making a mess...”
“Yeah, he sent us outside. Only I was not doing anything. I was the victim, but Phong yelled at me anyway and said that we couldn’t do that inside....”
“So we went outside and I tried to get him...”
“But I was ready so he couldn’t.”
“Yeah, but I did get you.”
“I got you too!”
“I was first!”
“No, you were not. It was at the exact same time. That guy on the sidewalk said so.” The two abruptly turned to Cecil. “We’re out,” they said in unison.
The crowd in the diner had been watching the previous exchange as if it were a tennis match; they took advantage of the lull to make sense of what they had just heard. Bob spoke up: “Let me get this straight. You two had each other?” Hack and Slash nodded. “And you both shot each other at the same time?”
“Yup.”
“Exactly.”
“That is correct.”
There was a brief moment of silence as everyone tried to come up with the right words to say. The right words turned out to be a snicker from Matrix, which soon had everybody laughing. Cecil, however, maintained his composure. “Very well, gentlemen; I shall take your names off zee list.” He turned to go, and almost made it out of the room before starting to chuckle himself. Hack and Slash were still trying to figure out just what the heck was so funny when Ray entered the diner. Matrix called out to him. “Hey, Surfer. You missed all the fun.”
Ray shrugged. “If all goes as planned, I’ll stir up a little more before the cycle’s out,” he said. Bob scooted over in the booth to make room for him, but Ray shook his head. “I’m not here for long, mates. Just need to take care of something. AndrAIa, could I talk to you?” He suddenly sounded very serious. “In private?”
AndrAIa, taken aback by his tone, slowly stood up. “Uh, sure.” She followed him out of the diner, wondering what in the Net could have him acting so somber. Once outside, she turned to him. “Is everything all right?”
Ray looked at the ground, avoiding her eyes. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, AndrAIa, but --” he detached his water gun from his belt -- “you’re about to be out of the game.”
AndrAIa stared at him in shock. So that was why he had brought her outside! She shook her head. “You sneaky little -- WHOA!” AndrAIa leaped out of the way as Ray fired. The spray of water just missed hitting her in the stomach. She made a mad dash for cover, short spurts of water soaking the pavement just behind her as the Surfer continued to shoot. She dove behind a dumpster and unhooked her own Super Soaker. “So you wanna go, huh?” she muttered. Pumping the handle, she stood and took aim at her assailant. “Bring it on!” The girl pulled the trigger and held it, sending a long stream of water toward Ray, who barely ducked in time. AndrAIa held in the trigger and tailed him across the parking lot with the resulting snake of water. Ray took refuge behind Bob’s car. He looked up quickly as a shadow fell across him. “Oh, good morning, love.”
Mouse smiled down at him. “Problem?”
“No, no. I got it.” Ray pumped the handle of his weapon and looked back over the car, firing three shots toward the dumpster -- all misses. AndrAIa peeked over the top of her fortress and responded in kind, missing Ray but drenching Mouse, who was standing in the line of fire.
“Hey! Dre, watch it!” the hacker shouted at the dumpster. “Sorry, Mouse!” AndrAIa’s voice sang out. “Yeah, Ah’ll bet you are,” Mouse muttered with a smirk. She leaned in for a kiss from Ray before heading inside the diner. “Don’t hurt each other,” she remarked.
Mouse sauntered inside the diner and made herself comfortable in the booth. After exchanging greetings with her friends, she said mildly, “By the way, Ray and AndrAIa are shooting at each other in the parking lot.”
“WHAT?!” They all turned to the front window just as it was splattered by a wayward shot. Enzo ran to a front booth for a closer look, followed by the others. Cecil blinked in disbelief. “My word, “ he said.
“My goodness...” Dot was practically speechless.
“My car!” shouted Bob as a long arc of water from AndrAIa fell short of its target and rained into his uncovered front seat.
Ray shook his head at the car’s brief shower. “Nice try, Annie Oakley, but you’ll hafta do better than that!”
“What, you mean like this?” AndrAIa shouted back. Ray ducked again as the girl unloaded on the car. When the bombardment ceased, he called back, “No -- like this!” He aimed high, sending a stream arching over the parking lot and landing behind the dumpster. AndrAIa let out a squeal of terror and pressed herself against the dumpster as water rained down in front of her, barely missing her feet. Ray released the trigger and stared in her direction, waiting for a surrender. What he got was AndrAIa’s voice singsonging out, “You missed me!”
The Surfer banged his hand against the car door in frustration. He was preparing to fire again when he heard a noise behind him. He turned. “Phong! What brings you here?”
The old Sprite shook his head sadly. “I must apologize, my son; but it is part of the game, after all.” He opened his built-in drawer and produced a Super Soaker, pointing it right at Ray’s head.
Ray scrambled to get out of the way of Phong’s shot. Then he vaulted over the car and started to run for the diner. AndrAIa saw him, though, and began to fire on him as well. Knowing it was hopeless to dodge water from two fronts on foot, he whistled for his board. It shot out of the diner and swept him into the air, out of the line of fire.
“Hey, that’s cheating!” AndrAIa yelled out.
“Deal with it!” he shouted back. He swung around at the far end of the parking lot, dodging shots from Phong the whole time (luckily the old Sprite wasn’t a very good shot), and came back in, planning to take an aerial shot at AndrAIa. The Game Sprite wasn’t about to go out that easily, though. Ray couldn’t come straight at her because of Phong’s assault; he was forced to weave all over the lot. As he swerved to avoid a close shot, she took careful aim and fired. The water jet connected with the back of the surfboard, sending Ray flying. AndrAIa emerged triumphantly from behind the dumpster. “I got you! You’re out for a millisecond!”
Ray picked himself up off the pavement. “You didn’t get me, you got the board.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The board doesn’t count.”
“It does so! It’s part of you, isn’t it?”
“Well, yeah, but it still doesn’t count in this game.”
AndrAIa exhaled in frustration. “Time out. I’ll go ask Mouse.” She headed for the diner, opened the door, and stuck her head inside. “Hey Mouse, if I hit Ray’s board, it counts as hitting him, right?”
Mouse thought for a nanosecond, then shook her head. “ ‘Fraid not, sugah.” “Told ya!” Ray shouted from outside. “Oh, shut up,” AndrAIa called back. Reluctantly she turned back to the game -- and came face to face with the nozzle of Ray’s Super Soaker. “You put up one hell of a fight, love, but I think it’s time to end this.”
AndrAIa quickly raised her gun and pointed it at him. The two stood like that for a full microsecond, staring each other down. Finally, AndrAIa drew in a breath and pulled the trigger. Ray flinched -- nothing. AndrAIa looked at her water gun in surprise. She tried again; still nothing. Ray grinned. “What’s the matter? Out of ammo?” he asked innocently.
AndrAIa set her jaw and looked him right in the eyes, ready to meet his shot with dignity. At least I made him work for it, she thought.
Ray slowly started to pull the trigger. His victim was helpless, and he wanted to enjoy this. But then he noticed AndrAIa’s gaze slide over his shoulder. “Behind you!” she said.
The Surfer just rolled his eyes. “Gimme a break, AndrAIa,” he said. Then a voice behind him spoke up. “I am afraid the girl is not bluffing, my son.” Phong had rolled up behind him and was also ready to fire. Both Sprites stared at him in shock. No, not at him; at something behind him. Phong warily looked over his shoulder: a Super Soaker was now aimed at his head -- and Dot’s finger was on the trigger. She had come out the back door of the diner and was ready to make short work of her target.
The woman gave her old friend an apologetic smile. “Sorry about this, Phong,” she said -- then shot a stream of water right in his face. Applause rang out from the spectators inside the diner as Dot strutted back inside. Phong sighed in defeat and followed her. Ray and AndrAIa watched them go, stunned smiles on their faces. As they met each other’s eyes, however, the matter at hand returned. Ray raised his gun just as AndrAIa sidestepped out of the way. Ray started to go after her, but he lost his footing; AndrAIa nimbly jumped over a low shot and dashed inside the diner, slamming the door in his face. “Ha!” she scoffed from behind the safety of the glass. As a final triumphant gesture, she stuck her tongue out at him and turned her back. As she faced the interior of the diner, she found Matrix and Enzo standing directly in front of her. They didn’t say anything -- they just stood there, looking at her. Something in their expressions was making AndrAIa uneasy; “What?” she ventured.
The brothers exchanged a glance that AndrAIa knew she couldn’t trust; but before she could process what was happening, the pair shoved her back outside and held the door shut.
AndrAIa banged on the door. “What do think you’re doing?!” she shouted through the glass. “It’s payback time!” Enzo called back with a grin. AndrAIa’s mouth fell open. “But...” she started to protest, but was cut short by a blast of water hitting her in the back. She groaned and leaned her head against the door, beaten. Matrix released the door and let her back inside, followed closely by her victorious assassin. The Game Sprite proceeded toward the booth, but stopped halfway and turned to face the trio of Sprites that had caused her downfall. She seemed to be searching for just the right words, the ones that would succinctly express her feelings of betrayal, however exaggerated. But all she could come up with was, “You three suck,” before sitting down. Matrix just laughed and sat down next to her. “Drop the act, AndrAIa. You thought it was funny, too.” AndrAIa giggled. “Yes, it was. And, I did hold out longer than either of you,” she added with a kidding smile.
Mouse shook her head. “Ya know, for not bein’ allowed to know who’s in and who’s out, we’re all pretty well informed.”
Bob shrugged. “Yeah, but you have to admit, it’s been a very entertaining morning.”