DEMON FIRE

By Grand High Idol

Part VII

Although Buzz was still a bit shaken from the previous battle, he readily agreed to go with Dr. Marbles. Nodding, he slowly walked up beside him, then followed him out the door of the weaponry chamber and out into the main entrance.

It was when they were in the middle of the room (near the fountain that Buzz and Delete had both landed in earlier) when Dr. Marbles finally took a deep breath, then said calmly, "Buzz…may I be obliged to ask you a question?"

"Huh? Oh, sure, go ahead," Buzz replied, looking up at him in a tired notion.

The Doc sighed, then looked down at Delete's lifeless body. He then cast his gaze on Buzz, and continued, "I know by fact that Delete is your brother…your younger one at that. While most brothers would find it hard to destroy their sibling, you managed to attack him and kill him without letting him go easy. And I know it wasn't rivalry. How did you do it?"

Buzz looked at him in silence for a moment, then sighed and, finally finding his answer, replied, "Because I knew 'dat it wasn't Delete doing 'da fighting. At foist it was hard for me even to try and pick up the sword, but 'dat was when I realized 'dat Delete was no longer 'dere…it was only Blackjack…only Blackjack…" He trailed off.

Dr. Marbles stared at him in silence for a moment, then replied, "What you did took an extreme amount of self-regret, whether it was Blackjack or not. Before I told you, you probably knew that it would spell the end for him, didn't you?"

Buzz nodded. "I didn't want ta kill him…" He now looked like he had second thoughts. "But right when he pinned me down, he said 'dat everyone was going ta die after he took care of me…everyone 'dat I knew…and I didn't want 'dat ta happen. Brother or not, I knew 'dat sparing one life wasn't woith the snuffing out of six others. So…I finally was forced to do so, even if it meant killing Delete…I wanted ta get Blackjack away from me…forever…"

Dr. Marbles turned his gaze straight ahead as he continued, sounding calm, "He is away, Buzz. After this ordeal, I doubt he'll ever try and get near another one of you again. I'm sure that everyone thought that he was gone for good once he died, I thought so as well. But we should all know that the life of the spirit lives on…as long as that remains, no one really is gone from existence. But it takes one long to finally understand, and sometimes it has harsh consequences."

Buzz didn't reply but seemed to understand; a gaze of deep thought was etched into his face as they at last reached the doors of the museum. The Doc, taking care not to drop the two lifeless forms he held in his arms, pushed on one of the glass doors with his shoulder and headed out down the stairs. Buzz, still looking deep in thought, followed him.

They strode in silence down the stairs and to the curb, where the two remaining Poddleville policemen and the mayor were still waiting. They looked half-asleep, but immediately stood to attention when they saw the Doc and Buzz standing at the curb, just as they had when the three Earth children came down the stairs earlier.

"Well, what happened? Where's the killer?" the first policeman commanded.

Dr. Marbles sighed, then said, "The true killer has been taken care of; I doubt that you will ever see him in your presence again. In the meantime, we need a lift back to Control Central. I lent the children my only cybercoupe."

The policeman stared at the two, then turned to look at the policeman adjacent to him, as if asking permission to do so. The second policeman merely shrugged; the first policeman turned back to look at them. He sighed, then said, "Very well, I suppose we can give you two a lift. The two that you're holding at the moment look like they need care at once. And—" the policeman glanced at Buzz, then gasped and brought his hand to his mouth. "Good Lord, what in cyberspace happened to your side!"

"Huh?" Buzz said, still in thought, then realized what he was talking about and glanced down at his cut side. It was still stinging greatly, but in the flurry of past events he had let it slip past him…now he noticed once more that his side was completely totaled; that and it was still bleeding greatly, as robot blood couldn't scab over like ordinary human blood could. He wondered why he hadn't already passed out from blood loss…

After this, he turned his gaze up toward the policeman and said, "Oh…'dat's just what happened when I took care of 'da killer."

"He completely totaled you!" the policeman continued, his only eye still wide. "What—how—how did you take care of him?"

Buzz made an annoyed noise. Dr. Marbles looked at him, then turned back to look at the policemen. "He'd rather not answer questions right now…if you do want an answer, he was forced to stab him through the chest with Incaligur's rival. Now, if you don't mind, I suppose we could get a lift…"

"Oh, right!" the policeman said, quickly turning up his head and snapping out of his trance at the same time. "I suppose you'd best get on now…we're going to drop you off, then call the rest of the office to search the museum for evidence of who the killer actually was. He may be dead, but, like I said before, we still need a good clue of as to who exactly it was."

Buzz nervously looked up at the Doc, who returned the gaze, but the two said nothing and simply mounted the policemen's cyber-scooter. The second policeman on the scooter got in the front, then started it up. The scooter at once lifted itself off the ground, then took air, and they soon left Poddleville behind entirely…

"Matt? Matt? Answer us!"

The boy made a pained noise, then brought his hand up to his chest. The wound that had been inflicted in him earlier was bandaged over, but he could still feel the pain every time he did so much as twitch. He had remembered who had done this to him too…it was a dark figure, a figure of Delete's anatomy…he had stabbed the blade directly through his chest…he wondered why he was still alive after that. He also wondered where that odd voice was coming from…it seemed so far off…

"Matt!"

Even though his vision was clouded, and his hearing sounded to him like he had been submerged into a tank of water, he at once recognized the voice as Jackie's. Slowly removing his hand from his chest, he gave one or two raspy breaths, then finally said, as weakly as his breathing was, "Jacks?"

"Matt!" he heard her say again, only this time she sounded obviously—not to mention extremely—happy. He could feel her arms around his neck; he knew that this was because she didn't want to damage him more in the chest area. "Matt, we were afraid that you weren't going to make it—"

"Well, I did," Matt told them. He breathed deeply, then tried to sit up, even though he knew better, but as he did so a white-hot pain shot through his chest wound. He yelped in pain and fell back down onto the cot that he was recovering on. He heard Jackie make a frightened noise, and thus responded by saying, still weak, "I'm—I'm fine, Jacks, really."

"You sure don't sound fine," Inez commented. Matt groaned again, trying his best not to move, then finally made a response to this, as he could not remember what happened to him after everything went black, or even before, for that matter. It happened so quickly, and the loss of blood had made him too dizzy to think straight…

"What happened…to make me like this?" Matt panted.

Jackie and Inez uneasily glanced at each other, then Inez drew a deep breath and said to him, "Matt, it was Delete who did this to you…he stabbed you through the chest when you went to confront him. He was about to kill Jackie, too, and he would've succeeded if it hadn't been for that sudden fall of the mobile shape—"

"Delete!" Matt said angrily, recalling what had happened before. "Where—where is that traitor? As soon as I find him I swear that I'll—"

"Calm down, Matt," Inez told him, gently placing her hand on his chest in order to prevent him from getting back up again. "Delete is being worked on in the other room. He was stabbed through the chest, or so the Doc told us, but the wound somehow closed, and it's now possible for him to be revived. You're just angry for what he's done, is all. Just calm down…"

"As soon as I can get back up again, I'll make it so that he's never revived," Matt growled angrily; then he took in a shaky breath and laid his head back down on the pillow. Inez and Jackie crossly looked at each other again; this wasn't something that they'd expect to hear out of Matt, but instead shook it off and sat down on either side of the bed next to him, so that they could be near his side until he fully recovered.

It was then that Digit came in. The three kids turned to look at him as he leaned against the doorway, then ran his wing along his forehead and said to them, "The Doc's almost got Delete rebooted…he's going to come to any minute now, he says."

They heard Matt growl; Inez, desperate to get the subject off of Delete's revival, quickly turned her gaze away from the boy entirely and said to Digit, "So, how are you doing? Any major internal damage to report?"

Digit shook his head; he looked greatly relieved as he did so. "The Doc examined me first, and he said that although the kick placed a lot of force on my internal areas, there wasn't any major damage to be reported. I'm just going to be a little bruised in that area for a few days, is all." He shrugged. "Of course, it's no big deal for me, seeing what I've been through already."

Inez nodded in relief. "That's good." She looked over at Matt, who still had his face set in a vengeful gaze, then turned back toward Digit, then looked at Jackie. Seeming to be lost for words, she shrugged her shoulder; the other two looked at her oddly, as if expecting her to do something more. She was about to ask how Buzz had been doing when Dr. Marbles finally arrived in the doorway, Buzz—his side heavily bandaged—at his side.

This answered her question at once; she felt no need to ask and merely smiled at the Doc the moment that she made eye contact. The Doc shot her a small smile back, then cleared his throat abruptly and announced, placing his hands behind his back, "I do believe that Delete is now fully booted, children. He is suffering from an internal injury due to the sword—" Buzz frowned slightly at the mention of this—"But after a few thorough scans of his structure I don't think it's quite that serious. He should be fine within a few days, but until then, Buzz, you must make up an excuse for his lewd behavior, not to mention his absence from the Wreaker."

Buzz made no verbal response but merely nodded, as Matt growled and said angrily, "You should've left him dead, Doc. The only way he's good is when he's dead, and I know that from experi—AAAH!" He tensed in shock as another surge of pain shot through his chest wound, stopping him short. He groaned, then brought his hand to his chest and panted a few times before finally returning to his normal state. Dr. Marbles shook his head in disapproval.

"Matt, if you know what's good for you it's best that you don't move," he ordered the boy. "Just relax yourself for the time being; you'll heal much faster that way."

"Right, Doc," Matt muttered; then he sank his head back down onto the pillow of the cot he was currently lying in, let out a long, slow breath, and closed his eyes, muttering, "He'll pay dearly for this…" The two girls looked at each other; they knew exactly whom Matt was talking about, but refused to say anything.

"May we see Delete?" Jackie finally asked the Doctor, breaking the stillness of the room as she looked up at him. "I want to see how he turned out…"

The Doc shook his head again. "No, I don't think I want him to have any visitors for the time being, with the possible exception of Buzz," he informed her. "Ever since I managed to boot his system, he hasn't regained consciousness, nor is he showing any sign of ever coming to it for quite a few days. He appears to be in some type of coma, but I think it was only the cause of the wound…either that or the moment of shock he received when Blackjack left him…" He trailed off as he stared past them, at the pale walls of the room.

"Oh…" Jackie stared down at the floor for a few moments, then finally turned to look back up at the Doc. "What about the policemen? What if they find out that he was the one who was terrorizing everyone? What happens then?"

"Well…" Dr. Marbles paused for a moment, then continued, sounding quite calm despite the situation that Delete had been put into, "He did steal Incaligur, and within his killing range he did over ten million cyber-dollars' worth of damage to the blade alone…he's also guilty for manslaughter."

"But it was Blackjack who was doing those things, not him," Digit pointed out.

Dr. Marbles nodded as he turned his gaze toward the bird. "We all know that very well, and I'm sure that the police won't be finding anything anytime soon…Blackjack, if I can recall, was quite good at covering up his tracks." He paused for a moment yet again, in deep thought. "But if they do manage to find anything, I'll inform them of all that has happened in the past few days. They do not know of Blackjack, I don't think, but they know that I am an honest man."

It was Jackie's turn to nod now. She glanced down at the floor again, finally realizing how hard it must've been for Delete…even for someone like her it was hard to imagine what you would think or feel if a demon had taken over your body, controlling your mind, your soul, like you were some kind of puppet and the demon was the puppeteer, making you dance with as little as one jerk of a string. She then thought of Delete in his coma state…I hope he comes out of it soon, she secretly hoped to herself as she rested her head in her hand…

The streets were dark this time of night, and Delete was shivering intensely as he slowly stepped down the damp sidewalk, his arms crossed tightly over his chest for warmth, and his only source of light being the moon overhead. It appeared to be pouring rain, which didn't help him any more; it was pattering down on his head, his shoulders, and soaking him thoroughly as he continued to walk. He shivered intensely, then drew his shoulders closer together and made several small noises from the back of his throat as he continued to step.

It was then that he looked up at the sky overhead, which was nearly entirely cloudy save the fact for the moon shining through a particularly thin cloud overhead. He shivered again and was about to turn his head back down when something warm, wet, and bright red plopped down onto his face. Curious, he raised his hand to his cheek, where the object had hit, then slowly ran his palm down it and drew it back. He then held it up to his face to examine it, and nearly gasped.

The object had turned out to be a rather large drop of blood…and it had fallen from the sky, of all places. He emitted a small whimper, then looked up toward the sky, his eyes wide, as the raindrops all changed from clear to bright red…they rained down on the streets, staining them bright red, coating everything in sight…he was included. He opened his mouth in a weak cry, then, deciding that it would be best to head back toward where he had come from, quickly whipped around—in time to see a figure that looked exactly like him, of a brilliant lavender hue, step out from behind a nearby, now blood-soaked building.

He knew immediately who this was, and uttered another small cry as he slowly drew back. Blackjack, however, would not take this for an answer, and, the lifeless expression on his face hardened and unchanging, slowly moved his feet forward in a step toward him. Delete, now whimpering softly, took another step back, his gaze still locked on Blackjack; Blackjack took another step forward in response.

Now clearly terrified out of his mind, Delete quickly whipped around and started to bolt down the street; however, Blackjack wasn't about to give up on him that easily. Delete heard him utter a low growl as he watched his victim depart, then he heard the sound of his clone's shoes striking the pavement. Blackjack was clearly chasing him…and there was nowhere to run. Every shadowed alley in this area, he knew, all had dead ends, and the street that he was currently running down now seemed to stretch on forever.

There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere.

He's going to chase me forever, Delete thought to himself, swallowing hard as he continued to run, trying his best to pick up speed in hopes of losing Blackjack over the horizon. He's going to do this to me for the rest of my life…and I can't go on like this forever…

Behind him, he suddenly heard Blackjack shout through the bloody darkness, in an ice-cold, horrifying voice that made a chill run down his spine, "There's no use running! You cannot escape and you never will!" Delete continued to run, tears starting to stream down his face as he tried his hardest to lose Blackjack. Blackjack once again shouted through the darkness, even more coldly and loudly than the last time, "You have failed me, Delete! You have failed, and for that you must die! YOU MUST DIE!"

Delete uttered a quiet sob as he continued to run, trying to speed up but at the same time wanting more than anything to slow down. I was right, he thought to himself as he ran down the seemingly endless sidewalk. I'll give anything just to have Buzz back…I want Buzz…I don't want to be alone…with Blackjack, of all things...He panted harshly as he continued to run. And my chest hurts…how my chest hurts…make it stop…make it stop…

"Delete!"

Delete, upon hearing his name, finally felt the blackness leave him at long last. Groggily, he opened one eye partway, then shifted slightly and groaned, placing his hand on his chest. He still felt the tensing pain that had occurred in the alley with Blackjack…Blackjack…he wondered why he had suddenly left that dark street, why the voice calling him was no longer Blackjack's, and why he was no longer fleeing for his life. He whimpered this time, and clutched his chest with one hand, a few tears forming in his eyes from both pain and fright. Finally opening his eyes all the way, he could see a man who appeared to be Dr. Marbles, and Buzz, standing over him.

"Buzz…?" he whispered, his voice sounding rather weak; he then groaned again and brought his other hand to his chest, as Buzz finally smiled; the Doc did the very same.

"It's about time ya woke up!" Buzz exclaimed, giving him a playful punch in the arm. Delete yelped quietly from the impact, then removed his other hand from his chest and rubbed it on the area where Buzz had made contact. He shot his older brother an angry glare, then finally sighed and let his arm flop limply to the side. He didn't want to move. He didn't want to talk. He didn't even want to breathe, for that matter; he felt much too weak to seemingly do anything at the moment.

"What happened to me…?" he finally murmured, staring up lifelessly at the ceiling. The Doc and Buzz shot each other uneasy glances, then finally looked back down at the robot. Not wanting to tell him the full details, they were silent for a moment, as if in thought once again, then Buzz finally said, trying to change the subject, his voice sounding very forced:

"Delete…I'm sorry."

Delete's eyes widened slightly as he tilted his head over in his brother's direction. "You what?" he asked, at first not fully understanding what he was saying. Buzz growled, then said again, sounding rather annoyed this time, just as much as forced:

"I said 'dat I'm sorry, okay?"

"For what?" Delete asked. Buzz slapped his forehead in frustration, then continued:

"For calling you all 'dose names…I knew 'dat I shouldn't have, but I was somehow just, well, angry 'dat 'da boss took 'da whole glass square incident out on me, when it was you who'd caused it in the first place…I didn't exactly mean it—" He shifted his gaze to the side uneasily—"But either way I thought 'dat I owed yas an apology."

Delete smiled weakly at Buzz. "Aw, that's so nice—"

"Alright, alright, we don't need ta turn 'dis into a soap opera," Buzz interrupted, crossing his arms. He paused for a few moments, then continued, "You see, Delete, well, after I picked on yas…well, you sort of went of into a state of unconsciousness. We've been trying to get you rebooted for nearly—what, now, two or 'tree days now…" He couldn't help but think how fake the whole thing actually sounded to him. But of course he couldn't tell Delete that he had been possessed by Blackjack, stolen Incaligur, killed three people, injured another three, and was finally stabbed by Buzz himself…

Delete blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah, really." He then smiled. "But you'll manage okay…we just need to keep you in for a day or so before we go back. But either way, I ain't going anywhere, so 'dere's no need to feel alone or hated anymore…" He paused for a moment, then, biting his lip and looking rather reluctant, finally said, "Uh, I suppose 'dat you can go ahead and…comfort yourself…"

Delete felt a few tears leave his eyes; he then picked Buzz up and hugged him tightly to his chest. Buzz didn't hate him after all…he wasn't alone anymore…and he knew that they would probably never experience something like this again, either one of them. He had Buzz's friendship back, and for now, that was all that mattered to him…

Meanwhile, near the storm gutters of the Cyberspace History Museum, blackish-red blood was still slowly trickling from the flood drain and down within the pipelines, which had rusted with age and were filled with water. The blood now slowly dripped its way into the drain, each drop plopping into the rusty-colored water at a steady pace, never faltering once. There had been a great deal of bloodshed, after all…

However, what no one ever would notice from this time on were the noises that came from within the gutter as the blood trickled down and mixed with the water of the flood drain. As the light from the policemen's flashlights beamed down upon the drain and flooded light through the narrow slits, the blood seemed to smoke before it faded into the water, and a quiet, hissing voice echoed its way throughout the tight, metallic walls:

"Siht rof yap lliw uoy…"

Before all fell silent forever more.

THE END