A Phoenix From The Ashes
By Majin Magus
Chapter Six
Bob, Matrix, Megabyte, and Phoenix
arrived at Daemon's lair expecting a battle. Instead, there was no one around.
Not one sound echoed through glowing halls of blue and black.
The room the guardians and viruses
had just appeared was circular, and had wires hanging from the ceiling. A
keyboard hung suspended in thin air by a panel that might be the door. The
walls, floors, and ceiling all were a dull blue, then turned black. After a bit,
the black became dull blue again.
"What in the net…?" Matrix muttered,
looking around the room, his gun in his hand. His eye focused on a few things,
then he blasted the ceiling. A hole exploded open and he jumped to the next
floor.
Bob looked at the hole. "What's up
there?" he called. After a second, Bob jumped up too. Megabyte followed and so
did Phoenix.
As soon as the two viruses were up
with him, Bob turned to Megabyte. "Are you going to try to delete me while
we're here? Don't try; I'm faster than you. Plus, that wouldn't add to your
chances of defeating Daemon," he asked pointedly.
"I won't settle with you until I've
settled with Daemon," Megabyte replied, walking out of the room and into the
hallway.
Phoenix glanced at Bob and smirked. "You're faster? That would
explain how we got in so few hits in that fight," she mocked.
Bob was just about to protest to this
when there was an explosion heard just outside the room. Matrix, Bob, and
Phoenix raced out into the ebbing corridor to see an infected Guardian glaring
Megabyte, his gun raised.
The Guardian was an olive green
color. He was about Five feet Eight, and had a similar outfit to what Bob was
wearing before he and Glitch combined. The whites of his eyes ebbed green.
"You who have entered great Daemon's
lair…die," the Guardian muttered, pulling the trigger. Everything seemed to
slow down as the blast from the gun sped at Megabyte. The Guardian grinned.
There was a bright flash and Bob,
Matrix, and the Guardian opened their eyes. There, right in front of Megabyte,
was Phoenix. She had her left palm open.
"How…?" the startled Guardian cried,
staring at Phoenix. Her arm seized up, surging with the new energy. She made
her hand into a fist, controlling the power from the blast.
Without another word, and because she
was much faster than Bob and Matrix, Phoenix leapt at the dismayed Guardian.
Her teal blue claws on her knuckles flashed out as she neared the Guardian.
With a slash, the possessed Guardian was dead, a severe cut across the front of
his neck.
Silently, very silently, the four
continued down the hall. The immense power that was Daemon's grew more visible
as they walked, so it was evident they were going the right way.
As they walked, Phoenix felt a bump
on the back of her head. Before the virus could turn and fight, she was
unconscious.
*
When Phoenix finally came to, it
wasn't on the cold hard floors of the infected Super Computer, it was on the
cold hard floors of the wrecked Principal Office.
Sitting up bolt straight, Phoenix
stared around. If she was here, then the fight must be over. As she stood up,
she heard a voice behind her.
"Everything is back to the way it was
except for one thing." She knew it was Megabyte's voice.
Phoenix had her back to him. "Oh? And
what's still different?"
Megabyte's claws came out and he
quickly slashed Phoenix in the back, a killing blow. As she fell and her body
faded away into deletion, Megabyte sneered.
"You were the different thing."