There was a celebration. The crew of the Saucy Mare was celebrating their friendship with the Web Riders. Enzo and Andraia were very happy to meet the leader of the Web Riders who they seem to know and refer to as "Bob."

I was watching the vidwindows on the upper deck. Andraia came up to me. I looked at her and smiled. "I was wondering, do you have a name, girl?" she asked.

Girl perked up from her resting spot entwined around my arm. "Ssssssssssss," I said. I didn't expect Andraia to understand.

She looked confused and said, "How about if we just call you 'Healer'?"

I shrugged. It'd take too long to guess my real name. "Well thank you for saving my life, Healer," she said.

Just then Enzo came to Andraia. He wrapped his arm around her waist. They both looked at the vidwindows, eager to go back to their 'Mainframe'. I decided to join the party.

When I went in, the surfer just swallowed a slug and everyone was cheering about it. I didn't understand what was so special about that. I pushed him aside and took a handful of the slugs. I popped them into my mouth one by one as if I did that everyday (which I do).

The last one I held in front of my chest where Girl's and Boy's heads rested. They saw the little slug and started fighting over it. Then I noticed that everyone else was staring at me. I decided that I didn't like the atmosphere here so I took a basket of the slugs and went to the upper deck again.

After Girl, Boy and I ate all the slugs, there was nothing more of interest. I fell asleep with my eyes open.

I woke up to shouting. Energy charges were blasting at our ship. They said it was a trap set up by Mouse. Mouse! They knew her! Maybe she's in Mainframe! But if this ship is destroyed, I'll never find her. Mouse probably did her best hacking to make this trap. There is no hope trying to take down Mouse's defenses. Unless....

Everyone else was doing their best to evade the traps but I knew that won't be enough. I searched franticly throughout the ship. I found a small laptop owned by Mr. Christopher. Mouse once gave me a lesson on hacking so I easily accessed it. I wrote a message.

I went back to the upper deck. I found Mr. Christopher and showed him the laptop. I made an urgent noise and ran to find Bob. I did that to let Mr. Christopher know that I had the laptop and I needed it.

I found Bob with Enzo and Andraia. They have gotten us past the energy charges but were being pushed towards the tear and the Web Riders have been pushed away by Mouse's trap. I ran up behind Bob and took his keytool before he could react. "Hey!" Bob yelled. Enzo, Andraia and the surfer ran after me.

I ran for the air lock. I couldn't get the door open so I pounded against it and made urgent sounds. The others had caught up to me. "Hand me the keytool, Healer." Enzo said.

I pointed at the door.

"I think she's trying to tell us something," Andraia said. "Maybe she has a way to get us past Mouse's traps and she needs Glitch."

Enzo looked at her thoughfully and opened the air lock door for me. I went out in the air lock with the surfer to help me. I pointed to the tear and gestured to the surfer to go closer. "You know, the tear will delete us if we get too close," he said almost as if he thinks we were too basic to know. Girl, Boy and I all bared our fangs and snared at him. "Ooookay..." he said and he went closer.

When we were close enough, I gestured for him to stop. Gssssllesshssss!" I shouted. Even though most people can't understand, it has meaning. I said, "Glitch, stablizer!" Glitch understood.

She didn't have enough power to stablize the whole tear, only a bit of it. I gave the laptop to Boy and told him to throw it into the stablized part of the tear. He went towards the tear and threw the laptop into the part-portal. But he couldn't get back. Moving through water or anything anti-gravitational is just natural for any snake but the tear had gravity. Boy was being sucked into the tear. He screamed in terror. Girl and I screamed in dismay. He was gone.

But a few nanoseconds later, Mouse's traps disappeared and the tear stablized itself. Mouse got my message for help! If she got the message, she probably got Boy too! But maybe the portal sent him to another part of Mainframe. Maybe he didn't even survive.

The surfer took me back to the ship. He went back into the Web after. He felt that his place was in the Web. Everyone was cheering about my success though they didn't really know what I did. I went to a corner by myself. Everyone was busy preparing to go back to Mainframe.

Only Andraia noticed my sadness. "What's wrong, Healer?" she asked me.

In response, I faced her and rubbed Girl's head. She noticed that Boy was gone.

"Don't worry," she said, "I'm sure you'll get him back."

I gave her a doubtful look.

She smiled. "Well I once thought that Bob wouldn't survive the Web or if we would even find him. We stayed hopeful and in the end, we found him."

That gave me confidence. I looked at her and smiled.

The ship's crew was getting excited. We were entering the portal. Enzo and Andraia kissed each other. Bob was so full of joy that he was almost crying.

I narrowed my eyes to hide my joy. But I was happy. I will find Boy. I will find Mouse. And I will finally return to the Net.

TO BE CONTINUED...