Episode Fifteen
*written with help from Clearsky*
Guardian's Meeting Room
"Turbo!!" Bob shouted. The Prime Guardian moved ever so slowly. Bob knew what had happened. Turbo had taken the shot for him.
Tower looked at the fallen Guardian, and sneered, "I KNEW we couldn't trust you!" he muttered. He raised his energy rifle to Bob once more.
"STOP..." Turbo gasped from the ground. He looked at his keytool, "Copeland... containment... field..."
"WHAAAAT?!?" Tower shouted angrily as he was locked in Copeland's containment field, "Curse you, Turbo!!"
Then Turbo fell unconscious.
*** P.O. Corridors
"Oh, cursors!!" Mouse swore as she was forced to lean on Ray for support. She tried to ignore the pain in her leg.
"Now Mouse.. don't tell me a little cut is causing you such pain..." Hexadecimal commented.
Mouse glared at her, "This AIN'T a little cut, Hex!"
Hexadecimal stopped, and looked down the corridor, "Oh my.. we have some visitors..."
The group had come face to face with six infected Guardians.
*** Guardian's meeting room
Bob quickly went to Turbo, "Wake up..! C'mon!! Wake up!!" Bob shook his friend.
McAfee gently pushed Bob away and got on her knees. She placed Turbo's head in her lap, and looked down at him, ignoring the large energy hole in his uniform -- the one that seemed to go right through his skin. "I was not wrong about you after all..." McAfee smiled.
Turbo looked up at her weakly, "Ah don't understand... ! Ah still answer to my Guardian protocols... but ah don't want to..." he shook his head, "Ah've tried to ignore them.. but.." his breathing became labored.
"Your core keeps calling out to you.." McAfee explained. "I can help you, Turbo. Do you wish for my help?"
"We've had... this conversation... before..." Turbo began as he remembered what she had said while he was in the holding cell. But before he could answer, he began to convulse. McAfee put a hand to his chest, and his convulsions stopped for the moment.
She looked down at him with kind eyes, "Do you wish for my help?" She asked again.
Turbo blinked. Then finally nodded, answering in a whisper, "Yes... please... Help me..."
*** P.O. Corridors
Mouse looked at the interruption, "Oh... this is just what we need..." she muttered sarcastically.
"We will not let you get past us, " a red skinned Guardian said.
"Now ah don't really care what you will and will not allow us to do!!" Mouse snapped. She stepped lightly on her injured leg and pulled out her Katana, "Cuz ah'm gonna do what I wanna do!"
Ray stepped up beside her, hands once again glowing with green energy. He concentrated a moment as the Guardians charged, spreading a shield wall across the passageway. Three of the Guardians had gotten through before it came up though, and Mouse had her hands full trying to keep them away from Ray. The other three who were blocked by the shield fired at it, guns at full blast. Ray gritted his teeth and tried to hold the shield but almost lost his concentration as a Guardian punched Mouse.
"You keep that shield up honey! Keep it up as long as you can! I'll cover ya!" Mouse shouted.
Ray nodded and poured more energy into the shield, but he didn't have that much left. His shield wasn't really meant to be used this way either, which made it all harder.
He couldn't see Mouse, for which she was grateful. She stood on her good leg, and tried to fend off two of the infected Guradians. Hexadecimal had taken the other one and was 'playing' with him, and Mouse shuddered as she heard the Guardian wail in pain. She blocked another strike by her attackers and slashed out, narrowly missing her target. Mouse hissed in pain as she twisted her leg a bit, but continued to keep the Guardians between her and the shield, away from Ray.
*** Guardian's meeting room
"Close your eyes... and rest, Turbo," McAfee began.
Turbo's eyes went wide, "Ah... ah don't... want to... to cease.. cease functioning...!" he gasped, frightened.
McAfee smiled sweetly, "Do not worry. Please... trust me,"
"Let me.. keep... my eyes.. open..." Turbo begged.
McAfee nodded, "Very well. I will begin..." McAfee put her hands to Turbo's temples, where the glowing veins pulsed.
"What are you doing?!!" Bob asked worriedly. AndrAIa put a calming hand on his shoulder, silently telling him not to interfere.
A golden glow began to surround Turbo, but soon started to fade. "Her hold on you is strong..!" McAfee began, somewhat surprised. Suddenly, she looked up, and removed her hands.
"No! Don't stop! You have to help him...!" Bob pleaded.
McAfee placed Turbo's head on the ground. Bob looked at his friend. He was not moving. "McAfee...??" AndrAIa began, "What is it?!"
McAfee's golden eyes went wide, "She is here!!" She stood up, and faced the back of the room. The part that was covered in shadow, "Do not hide like that, Daemon! Come out!"
A laughed answered, "Oh... Guardian McAfee! So polite! At least the stories had that right! Unfortunately, you do not look nearly as formidable as I had been lead to believe!"
"Enough! Show yourself!" McAfee answered.
"Very well," the voice replied, "It seems the time for the final battle has begun!"
Out of the shadows came a female super-virus.
*** P.O. Corridors
Mouse was having trouble fighting off the two Guardians, but managed to finally chop their guns in half, forcing them to use their fists. However, Mouse had lost more then a bit of energy in the fight and was weakening. She glanced over at Ray, who was almost at the end of his strength. The energy shield was starting to buckle, but the guardians' guns were almost out of power too. Mouse then glanced over at Hex who was still 'playing' with her victim, and shuddered.
*** Outside the P.O.
"They're coming around this way!" A web-rider yelled at one of the volunteers as they crouched behind a ruined wall. The volunteers were holding their own, but just barely. The web-rider rallied his troops around him and counter-attacked the guardians, throwing them back from where they had started to pour through a gap in a wall behind them. The volunteer beside him kept shooting at the Guardians in the front, but the other volunteers and web-riders were almost completely surrounded.
The web-rider sent out a red target... and grinned as his victim suddenly realized what the small red blot on his chest meant. By then it was too late. The web-rider laughed as an explosion blossomed in the middle of the enemy lines. "It is a good day to die!" he shouted to his fellow web-riders in modem speak.
Uncertain, the Guardians started to withdraw a bit. The web-rider smiled and searched for another target.
*** Guardian's meeting room
Everyone stared at Daemon as she made her way out of the shadows.
Her skin was black as night, and lightly frosted with glowing yellow veins. Her eyes were silver, and her hair golden. She smiled, showing sharp fangs, and extracted long white claws from her graceful hands.
Daemon stood tall, reveling in her frightening beauty. She narrowed her eyes, and glared at McAfee.
"So... it has come down to the two of us now..." McAfee said matter of factly.
"So it seems.." Daemon replied, "But are you truly strong enough to fight me, McAfee? After all... you DID use much of your energy outside, and quite a bit more fighting Paige." She chided as she gestured to an unconscious Paige.
"I can still fight..." McAfee said.
"Let us see!" Daemon replied.
Without warning, the virus swiped at McAfee with her claws. McAfee barely ducked out of the way.
The anti-virus chanced a look back at Bob, "452... take Turbo to the infirmary..." She commanded. Bob hesitated, "HURRY!" It was the first time McAfee had raised her voice.
Bob quickly complied. With help from Matrix and AndrAIa, they were able to hoist Turbo in the least painful way possible, and carry him out of the room.
While McAfee was pre-occupied, Daemon took another swipe at her. The blow connected, and McAfee could feel a stinging pain in her cheek, and the flow of warm liquid dripping from the wound.
McAfee's pupils narrowed until they were slits. Her eyes became a solid gold, and small, graceful claws protruded from her fingers. She closed her eyes for a moment, gracefully crossing her arms in front of her chest.
Daemon looked at her, "What are you doing?" she asked.
McAfee did not answer as two large golden wings emerged from her back. She opened her eyes and looked at her opponent. "No more playing..." McAfee began, "It is time to end this!"
*** P.O. Corridors
"What about McAfee...?" Matrix asked as the group ran out of the Guardians meeting room and down the corridor.
"We can't worry about her now!! We have to help Turbo!" Bob replied.
As they turned a corner, they ran into the heat of battle. Mouse, Ray, and Hexadecimal were sadly outnumbered by six infected Guardians.
*** Guardians meeting room
"You know... you are a very old program, McAfee... and in badly need of an upgrade,"
McAfee narrowed her eyes, "I am not too old that I cannot fight you! My user knew what it was doing when it created me!"
"As did mine!" Daemon replied. She shot a viral strain at McAfee, who quickly wrapped her wings around her body. The viral strain seemed to bounce off. "Ah... your armour! I forgot the great McAfee keeps her armour within herself..!"
"So... it seems you know more of me then I do of you. But I am used to that. You are a relatively new virus, and, as you said before, I am a relatively old program..." McAfee commented. McAfee closed her eyes, and furrowed her brow. Daemon didn't notice McAfee's painful wince. The virus' attack had partially gone through her wing. "She is more powerful then other super-viruses. I must adapt." McAfee quickly fired a beam of gold energy at Daemon. The super-virus dodged it.
Daemon shot another stream at her and she twisted to one side barely in time, but McAfee flipped out one wing and batted aside the bolt before it could snap around and attack. That, however, left one side open for the next bolt that Daemon threw at her, and she was driven back a step as the viral strain opened a wound on her side.
"Ha! First strike - and first wounding... is mine! You ARE old, McAfee..."
McAfee wasn't waiting around for Daemon's next attack. She used the step back to lead into a bracing stance, even as Daemon laughed at McAfee's apparent weakness. McAfee concentrated her energy and let the power build in her wings, then snapped them forward and shot a tremendous burst of energy at Daemon. The lash of power caught Daemon dead center, but Daemon had shields even as McAfee did. Not as powerful, maybe, but they still deflected most of the blow. Not enough to stop her from being flung back against the wall, but enough that the blast didn't open a wound.
Daemon snarled and glared at McAfee. "So.. you DO have teeth..."
Daemon shot out multiple strands of infection, trying to wrap McAfee in them, but McAfee leaped towards Daemon, and Daemon overshot. One of the viral strains did reach behind and strike McAfee's back, but all it did was throw her forward onto Daemon. The two of them rolled and Daemon managed to strike McAfee arcross the face again, opening a gash along her unwounded cheek.
Daemon sprang away to get a clear shot at the anti-virus. McAfee looked up at the super-virus and raised her wings around her again as her enemy readied another bolt...
Disclaimer: All ReBoot (tm) characters are property of Mainframe Entertainment.
The character of Paige is property of Joey Cruz
All other new characters are property of ME.. ^_^
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