“I can’t believe we fell for it,” I added.
“He was such a nice dragon back in Dragon Ops,” Lilli continued. “I know he was just following his program, but he did seem to really like us. He even broke programming that one time to try to help us, even though he wasn’t supposed to. Remember that time with the Water Stone?”
I nodded, thinking back to our little guide. We’d gotten attached to him. But that didn’t mean he had gotten attached to us. We only thought of him as a friend because that’s what the game wanted you to think. “AIs don’t have feelings,” I reminded her. “Just like little NPC Ikumi. Atreus, even. They’re just following their programming.”
Lilli’s eyes widened. “Do you think we could change Yano’s programming? I mean, like we did with Atreus? Get him to think he’s supposed to be on our side?”
“I don’t know,” I mused. “It’s a bit of a different situation. Atreus was programmed to finish a game. So we just changed the rules of that game a bit, without trying to alter his main objective. Yano has been programmed to abduct Ikumi. That’s his main objective.”
“I say we just kick his butt,” Josh piped in. “Roll over him and take our girl back. Ultimate boss fight, baby!”
I sighed. Of course that would be Josh’s go-to plan. But I wasn’t sure it was going to be that easy. Since we’d never really seen Yano fight, we had no idea of his power. Could we take him on? What if we tried and failed? That would be it.
“Let’s just get there and see the situation,” I said. “Then we’ll figure out what to do.”
We didn’t have to wait long. Soon our spacecraft was floating down to the planet below. I peered out the window to get a glimpse of this new world. My mouth dropped open in amazement.
It was beautiful. Breathtaking. An entire futuristic city that appeared to have been made of glass. Majestic skyscrapers shot up into the sky, catching the light and casting prismatic rainbows across the landscape below. There were flying cars, golden paved streets. And was that a cyborg Pegasus prancing through the air?
“It’s so beautiful,” Lilli marveled, peering out the other side.
“That’s the idea,” Josh agreed. “My grandpa wanted to create something super special for the endgame. Something worth fighting your way through the apocalypse for.”
“Well, mission accomplished,” I declared. “Too bad we don’t have time to explore.”
“Yeah, well, I’m sure Grandpa would love to give you the full tour once this is over,” Josh said with a smirk. “You may live to regret your words by hour four. Let’s just say he’s very proud of the place.”
Our spacecraft settled down onto a crystal-clear landing strip so softly it didn’t make a sound. Once it stopped completely, the lights turned on, and we unbuckled our seat belts and scrambled out. We didn’t get far before we heard a sneering voice.
“Well, well, my little nooblets. I never expected you to make it all the way here.”
We whirled around, shocked to see Yano standing behind us. He was even bigger than he had been before. As big as the spacecraft we’d landed in. And all three of his heads were teeming with long, sharp metal fangs.
Ultimate boss fight indeed. I prayed it wouldn’t come to that.
I took a step toward him. “We know what you’re doing, Yano,” I said calmly. “And it’s not going to work. The game is locked down. And you won’t be able to escape. Your only way out is if you give us Ikumi. If you do, we’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”
“Please,” Yano snarled. “What are you going to do if I don’t? I may be locked in the game, but so are you. Do you really want to take me on?” He stretched out his three necks so all three terrifying fanged faces were right in mine.
“Why are you doing this?” Lilli burst in. “You’re our guide! Our friend!”
“Silly human. AIs don’t have friends. We have programing. And I was programmed with one mission. To retrieve Ikumi, by any means necessary.” His left mouth smirked. “Even if it meant tricking you. Which wasn’t hard at all, turns out. It’s fascinating how humans will fall for anything. You believed everything I said. You did everything I asked. Thank you for that, by the way. I could have never opened that gate by myself. Bringing in Atreus to do it was particularly genius—especially for a dumb human.”
I bristled, knowing he was right. We had walked right into his snare. Because we had taken it for granted that he was our friend. That he would act like a human, not a machine.
Yano took a step forward. “And now,” he said, “it’s time to say good-bye to this little game once and for all.” He opened his three mouths, ready to cast his electric fire. I cringed, backing away, knowing it would do no good. We were toast. We were all—
“Not so fast, you upside-down tripod!”
I whirled around, shocked at Josh’s sudden voice. I watched as he raised his hands. They began to glow pure white. Electricity crackling at his fingertips.
I gasped. Was that—? I watched as he wound up his arm and vaulted the ball straight at the dragon.
Instantly Yano froze, his three mouths still open, but completely immobile, along with the rest of him. Josh slapped me on the shoulder and winked.
“I told you those power-ups come in handy!”
Wow, I’d totally forgotten. He still had the second power-up from the capture the orb game we’d played during the beta test. Unlike Lilli and I, who’d had to change characters and inventory several times over, Josh was still playing the same character from the start. Same purple armor. Same inventory, too.
“Nice!” I cried. “Good thinking.”
“But it won’t last long,” Josh warned. “We need to find a way to destroy or disable him before he wakes up.”
Right. We gathered around the dragon, inspecting him. Should
