The fans tried to grab me and touch me, which wasn’t a terrible thing, but I had a match to win. Luckily, the security guards intervened. They pushed the crowd back several feet, giving me room to stand up. Finally, I pulled myself to my feet, and hopped over the guardrail. Looking down, I could Prototype’s boots sticking out from underneath the apron as he searched for the apple.

I quickly grabbed his boots and jerked backwards. To my surprise, I lost my balance immediately and fell back against the guardrail, landing hard on my ass. In my hand, I held a pair of empty boots. I looked up just in time to see Prototype running around the opposite side of the ring in his socks and up the entrance ramp, laughing all the way.

“Prototype has the apple and the lead!” said Davros.

“WE SHALL SEE ABOUT THAT!” bellowed Zeus.

He gripped his hand into a fist above his head. Light flashed and the god held raw electricity in his fingers. With a mighty heave, he tosses his thunderbolt across the arena, over Prototype’s head, where it hit the Tron and blew the entire thing out with a surge of sparks. There was a loud groan of breaking metal as the structure which supported the giant screen began to collapse. A shadow passed over Prototype as it began to tilt forward.

Proto could only watch in horror as the entire metal frame fell forward. There was a tremendous crash and Prototype was buried beneath the Tron.

“HAHAHA! ZEUS – ONE! PROTOTYPE – ZERO!” the god laughed. Davros looked up at him.

“That’s only a nylon screen supported by an aluminum frame, you know,” he said. Zeus scratched his bearded chin.

“YES, WELL, OF COURSE I KNEW THAT!” he said. “I JUST WANTED TO SEE IF YOU KNEW THAT!”

The fabric began to move and a bulge rose from beneath it as Prototype got to his feet. I could hear him cursing as he tried to navigate his way out from under the Tron’s screen. Not wasting a moment, I ran around the ring and up the entrance ramp. I ran straight across the frame of the Tron until I was close enough to dive and knock Proto over.

No sooner was he down than I saw a flash of gold out of the corner of my eye. The apple had rolled out from beneath the wreckage. Ignoring Proto, I quickly picked it up, and dashed up the ramp and through the curtain. I had heard Davros say that the EC meeting was in Conference Room B on the far side of the arena but where was that? I’d arrived so late that I’d had no time to wander the building or even consult a map. Did Proto know where it was, I wondered.

Suddenly, I noticed a steel trashcan off to the right, in a dark corner. Thinking quickly, I picked up the trash can, being careful to keep the lid on tight. I smashed the can against a pipe, creating a massive dent in the center. I lay down on the floor, on my back, and removed the lid of the trashcan, tossing it aside. I took handfuls of rotted, sticking garbage and covered myself with it, then set the can on its side, next to my head. I rolled the apple across the hall. A moment later, I saw the curtain through I had come begin to rustle and shut my eyes.

“Where the **** did that litt- . . . oh, there you are,” I heard Proto say. I could heard him approaching me. “What’s this? Another visit from my favorite mysterious figure?”

Proto kicked me hard in the ribs. I had known he might try something like that, so I used every ounce of self-restraint I had to keep from crying out or even wincing.

“Hmmm . . .” Prototype said, then “Ah-ha!” Apparently, he’d spotted the apple. I followed the path of his footsteps with my ears as he walked across the hall to retrieve the apple. I listened intently as he picked it up, stood still for a moment, and then began to walk off down the hall, apparently satisfied that I was indeed unconscious.

Once I heard him turn the corner, I opened my eyes, and popped to my feet.