Inside The Game/Part 8

Back in Gametron, on board the Carrier, Hefty was feeling the walls and noticing that they were slowly weakening and becoming less solid, like being inside an Imaginarium fantasy setting that was fading away. If the derezzing process took a while to make the wall disappear completely, Hefty thought, then perhaps there may be a way out for him and Yori.

He went over to Yori, who had her head buried in her hands, looking down on the floor in despair. "Yori, there may be a way for us to escape," Hefty said. "I still have power that Razor doesn't know anything about. We could smurf what's left of the ship and smurf it straight to Sarkamel's Citadel."

"Hefty, leave me alone," Yori said, refusing to listen. "We have failed."

"We're only going to fail if we don't try," Hefty said. "Look at this...the wall is about to..."

And then Hefty saw, just as the room was growing dim, that Yori's glow was also growing dim as well. "Yori!" Hefty cried out, catching her before she fell down.

Yori opened her eyes to see that Hefty had caught her and revived her. "You brought me back to life," she said, sounding grateful. "But how, and why did you do it?"

"I smurfed that because I need your help," Hefty said. "Now let's smurf out of here."

And so Yori followed Hefty as they escaped the cell before it was completely derezzed. - On the surface of the mesa outside of Sarkamel's Citadel, Razor's guards were herding the Tower Guardians into the citadel, with Tazer standing guard at the shuttlecraft to make sure nobody else would interfere in what was going to happen.

"Come in, my little Gametronians," a voice like Gargamel's, only louder and fiercer, spoke. "I have been expecting you. Soon you will all become part of me, and together we will be complete."

Inside the Citadel, on a giant throne sat Sarkamel, a giant being dressed in glowing red armor that looked very much like Gargamel. He watched as the Tower Guardians came inside one by one, only to be put into cages that hung from the inner chamber's walls where they each felt their energies being drained.

"Aaaah, yes, I can feel the power coursing through me...the power to shape the world into my image," Sarkamel said as he closed his eyes, taking deep breaths through his nose as if in deep meditation, savoring every moment.

Outside the Citadel, Tazer heard the sound of a disc slicing through the air, but didn't react in time to pull out his disc when the disc struck him and disintegrated him into nothingness. Auron caught the disc as it returned to him and then headed straight for the citadel.

However, Auron's actions did not go unnoticed. Sarkamel opened his eyes and realized something has happened. "Be alert, Razor," he warned. "I sense the presence of a Game Warrior on the mesa. He is coming to destroy me."

"RAZOR!" Auron's voice shouted from outside the citadel.

Razor stepped outside and saw Auron with his disc in hand, ready to do combat with his adversary. "I don't know how you survived, slave, but it doesn't matter," Razor said. "Prepare to terminate."

Razor pulled out his disc and threw it at Auron, who used his disc to block the throw and then threw his disc at Razor as a counterattack. - Hefty and Yori reached the control panel of the Carrier that was near one of the large windows overlooking the scene. "Yori, see what you can smurf with the controls," Hefty said. "We're going to steer what's left of this ship over to the Citadel."

"I'm on it, Hefty," Yori said, as she pressed some buttons.

As that section of the ship passed through the wall that was derezzing the entire Carrier and remained intact, Hefty looked at the Citadel and noticed how much it looked like Gargamel's castle. "Okay, you big creep, this is is," he muttered while the section of the ship drew even closer. "It's going to be between you and me, and only one of us is going to smurf out of here." - Empath was in Handy's workshop with Snappy and Slouchy, playing against the Game Master in his own game, when Polaris Psyche had entered looking for Handy and found Empath instead. "Empath, what are you doing in here?" Polaris asked.

"This smurf is currently playing a game against the Game Master in the hopes of Hefty might be set free, Polaris," Empath answered.

"And he's smurfing a really good job playing it too," Sassette added.

"Yeah, he's going to be smurfing that imp's tail when all is smurfed and done," Snappy said, sounding excited.

"Handy will not be pleased if he returns from his errands and finds that you have been playing games with the Game Wand instead of letting him try to find a way to get Hefty out of the Game Wand, Empath," Polaris warned.

"Aw, come on," Snappy groaned. "You're not going to smurf on us to Handy, are you?"

"This may be the only way we can smurf Hefty out of there," Sassette said.

"Not only that, Polaris, but this may be the only way to keep others from being taken away as well," Empath said as he was playing.

Polaris sighed, uncertain of what to do. "This one will inform Handy that you are currently watching over his equipment in his workshop, although this one does feel rather uncomfortable in not being completely honest to him who has entrusted you with the care of his equipment."

Both Snappy and Sassette sighed. "You won't regret this, Polaris," Snappy said.

"Even if we will for not listening to Handy in the first smurf," Sassette said.

Polaris left the workshop to head elsewhere in the village to attend to other matters. On his way there, he ran into Papa Smurf. "Excuse me, Polaris, but have you seen where Empath has smurfed to lately?" Papa Smurf asked.

"He's currently monitoring the equipment in Handy's workshop to make sure nobody else interferes with his rescue mission concerning Hefty, Papa Smurf," Polaris answered.

"Hmmmm," Papa Smurf said, looking at Polaris in a scrutinizing manner as if he was examining the verity of Polaris' statement.

"Papa Smurf, is there something wrong?" Polaris politely asked.

Papa Smurf then sighed. "It's nothing, though I could have smurfed that I had a funny feeling about what Empath may be smurfing right about now. I'll let you continue with your job of monitoring the village and let this matter smurf."

Polaris watched as Papa Smurf walked away. "This one understands, Papa Smurf."

To be expanded on.