Inside The Game/Part 5

Hefty, Auron, and Zeron were speeding away along the roads of the canyons leading to the Factory Complex. So far they haven't seen a sign of Commander Razor's Game Tanks, so apparently luck -- or the Creators, as Auron and Zeron might say -- was on their side.

They were heading towards a bridge crossing over a deep ravine, however, when a Game Tank did appear from behind them. It slowly moved its turret toward the bridge and took aim just as Auron was crossing over it and Hefty and Zeron were about to turn onto it.

The cannon blast destroyed the bridge, knocking Hefty and Zeron off their Beamcycles. Auron's Beamcycle managed to leap the rest of the way to the other side, where he turned around and saw that the bridge was destroyed.

"Hefty! Zeron! Are you there? Talk to me!" Auron called out through his communicator.

Then he heard over the communicator: "This is Game Tank Leader One to Commander Razor. We've de-rezzed two of the escaped Game Warriors and are now in pursuit of the third."

"NO!" Auron shouted, sounding anguished. He saw the Game Tanks on the other side of the ravine firing shots toward him. He turned the Beamcycle around and headed straight down the narrow passageway toward the Factory Complex. There was just nothing he could do for them now except to contact Yori and his Creator.

Meanwhile, Hefty picked himself up from amidst the wreckage of the bridge and saw that Zeron was unconscious. He also saw that the Game Tanks were coming towards them and so dragged Zero into a very tight passageway in the hopes of escaping the Game Tanks as they passed by.

"Hang on, buddy, we'll smurf you some help," Hefty said as he carried Zeron through the passageway and toward what looked like a junkyard. On top of that pile of junk, Hefty saw a small building that they could use as a hideout. Hefty carried Zeron into the building and laid him to rest before he laid himself down in exhaustion. "And I thought this was supposed to be easy," Hefty muttered to himself as he tried to close his eyes and rest.

A minute or so later, though, Hefty could hear noises in the small building, as if something has been turned on. He woke up and saw that he was actually inside the control room of a vehicle, which now shone brightly with energy.

Zeron woke up when he heard the machine noises. "You shouldn't be able to do that, Hefty," he said, sounding puzzled.

"Shouldn't be able to do what?" Hefty asked. "I didn't do anything. I just smurfed in here and everything in here just smurfed on like that."

"This is a Patrolbot, Hefty," Zeron explained, sounding very weak. "Only Sarkamel is able to control these things and bring them to life."

"Patrolbot?" Hefty asked, sounding curious. He watched as more parts of the vehicle formed around the control room section until it became whole, except for one of its feet which fell off because it was too damaged.

He then took a look at the controls. "This must be what smurfs this whole thing around," he pondered as he briefly handled the controls. He pushed the handle on top, and soon the Patrolbot moved forward, drifting this way and that as it moved down the passageway it was traveling.

"How could you do this?" Zeron asked. "You shouldn't be able to steal a Patrolbot."

Hefty looked at his friend still lying there. "Hey, are you okay? We'll smurf you somewhere to get you fixed up."

"Come over here," Zeron said, his voice sounding pained.

Hefty brought the Patrolbot to a complete stop, then came over to where Zeron was laying. He looked like he was very close to death, at least from what Hefty could tell. His circuit lines were becoming faint and dim.

"Oh, my Creator," Zeron groaned, wincing in pain as he could feel his spirit slipping away. He opened his eyes to see Hefty looking at him. "You wouldn't happen to be a Creator, would you?"

"I'm just a Smurf, not a god, Zeron," Hefty answered.

"You came from the world of eternal light...that makes you a Creator to me," Zeron said. "Hefty...please help Auron...you are...our only hope...now."

"Zeron!" Hefty cried out as he watched Zeron close his eyes and breathe his last, before his body just disintegrated into sparkles of light and then vanished.

To be expanded on.