32
Archangel was dying. He knew it, but damn it, that Agent would kill Red if he didn't do something. But what could he do? His legs were paralysed and he was fast losing blood.... He saw the phone Red had dropped near him. It took effort and most of the strength he had left, but he managed to get it.
What? It's dialled?
On the other end, Marcus picked up his cell phone. "Hello?"
Archangel could no longer remember English. He hoped to God whoever had picked up would understand. "Agent... after Red. We're in... Japan... help him...." The phone fell from his fingers, and he waited to die.
Marcus hung up the phone that moment and took a key ring from his pocket. "Sekhmet...I have a debt to repay. Try to stay here." He started to walk towards the closet. "What is it?" she asked him worriedly.
"Red and Archangel are in trouble."
She nodded and let him go.
Red could feel his lungs burning as he pelted through what was likely the one forest left in all of Japan. He'd not been here since freeing Archangel three years beforehand... A swift glance over his shoulder revealed the Agent gaining on him, and Red cursed the size and hair that made him a blatant target.
The next instant, a bullet slammed into his shoulder, then a second one hit his leg. He hit the ground hard, cursing. He rolled over, drawing two pistols and firing at the oncoming Agent, who dodged every one.
The Agent didn't dodge, however, when a figure in a black and white trench coat slammed into his side. Red blinked. Who the hell... "Marcus!?"
Jameson rounded on the vampire with a snarl, planting a powerful fist into his gut. Marcus backed up, coughing as he slammed a foot around into the Agent's skull. "Run!" Jameson snarled as Red scrambled to his feet and took flight once more, limping now. Marcus dropped into a fighting stance.
Jameson followed suit, forgetting Red completely. "For interfering, you will die!" he snapped. "For hurting my friends, I offer you the same fate." Marcus replied. The Agent laughed harshly. "Friends? They're humans; they wouldn't befriend a program. If anything, they are using you."
"I would not expect one such as you to understand." Marcus retorted. "You're a weak, pathetic fool, to disillusion yourself . Humans care only for themselves. Look at that human," he gestured in the direction Red had vanished to. "He's abandoned you and left his dying crewmate behind."
"There was nothing he could do to help me or him. I can handle you fine on my own."
"So you say." Then the Agent lunged at Marcus, bringing his fist around to strike at the vampire again. Marcus tried his best to block, but he was a little slow, and was knocked off balance. He responded, however, by falling on his back and kicking both legs out at the Agent's torso, rolling back up to a standing stance.
The Agent sprang to his feet, an oddly insane look on his face. "I wonder what a vampire's wings would be like?" he mused as he readied his special code. Marcus's gun was in his hand. He stepped backwards, through a tree. Jameson stopped for a moment. "Interesting... your code is not at all stable."
"The same can be said of yours."
"Which among us is the more deviant, I wonder?"
"One could argue that your sadism is a very human trait, Agent. Unless," he continued, "you managed to corrupt a cat program somehow."
"I no longer care. Who would, as long as I complete my job!" He lunged at Marcus once more, his fist shattering the trunk of the tree in his path as he went after the vampire. Marcus replied by firing several shots point blank at the Agent, trying to dodge away through another tree.
Jameson avoided them all, relentlessly coming after the vampire. Marcus leapt back, kicking out for the Agent's head. Jameson grabbed Marcus' leg and slammed him against the ground. Marcus kicked out with his other leg after grunting on impact, straight for the face of the Agent again. Again Jameson dodged, the look on his face one reminiscent of the Twins'.
Marcus rolled up to his feet and dodged through a few more trees, continuing his handgun's assault. Still the Agent was able to dodge the bullets, and he fired back at Marcus. The bullets smashed into trees, and those that would have hit the program simply passed straight through, with absolutely no fanfare. The vampire reholstered the gun and then got into a fighting stance again. "It appears there's only one way to solve this."
The Agent was staring at the vampire. "That isn't possible," he growled. "Very little is." Marcus agreed.
"No Exile should be able to do that!"
"You assume I am merely a single Exile." Marcus fell back in the fighting stance a little, making it more stable.
"What?"
I am both my evil and good self. I am complete." Marcus replied. "I can see the error in your code, Agent. No more will be hurt by you."
"There is no error!" Jameson screamed, lunging for him.
Marcus stayed in his stance until the last moment, and then stepped to the side, his foot sticking out and his arms lashing to grab the Agent and use the rogue's momentum to hurl the program into a nearby tree. Jameson was momentarily stunned, but swiftly whirled on Marcus to attack again.
Marcus was already in his stance again. The Agent was faster. the Agent was stronger. But the Agent was angry and disoriented. Marcus intended to keep him that way. The vampire-program immediately began to lay into the rogue Jameson with a flurry of punches and kicks, determined to keep his opponent off balance.
Against all logic, it was working. Perhaps that, then was the flaw in the Agent's programming -- he felt emotion. He knew frustration. And he denied that he had a problem.
Marcus' fist suddenly connected hard with the Agent's head, the vampire then dropping to avoid a punch from Jameson and sweeping into the rogue's legs, knocking him off his feet. Time seemed to slow then, and as Marcus rose as he turned a complete circle, the vampire snapped out a side kick, which connected straight into the stomach of Jameson, sending the Agent through the air and into a tree. And through the tree. Time then resumed normalcy.
Slowly, the Agent rose, a manic glint in his eye as he prepared a certain code. He had wondered what sort of wings a vampire would have....
The vampire stepped back into the fighting stance, shifting his weight until his hands were forward. Then his arm twisted, and Marcus gave the, "come get some" gesture. This would take exact timing.
Jameson came, slamming his hand forward at Marcus' chest, preparing to initiate his new talent. Marcus let the blow hit, his arms dropping to his side, and his right starting to crackle with white energy. The rogue Agent laughed, a frighteningly insane sound, and forced the code for wings into the vampire.
Marcus's code flickered. Nothing happened.
"WHAT!?" Jameson cried. But it had worked on that rebel!
My code is unstable, remember? I am complete. Wings are redundant and faulty programming. I destroy redundant and fault programming. Like you." Marcus was passionless. Suddenly, his hand snapped up, crackling white, and snatched the Agent's arm. The code for Jameson's limb shattered, severing it from the elbow up. Marcus lifted the hand and bit down on it, the arm almost instantly fading in a flash of white and a faint modem-noise.
The Agent screamed then, a high, keening sound.
"I should torture you for what you have done." Marcus's fangs glinted in the moonlight, both his hands now crackling. The Agent then knew an emotion he had never before felt.
Fear.
He turned then, and tried to run.
The Vampire was in front of him. "You deserve no pity."
"G-g-get away from me!"
Marcus stepped forward. "You take wings. You hurt for your own pleasure. You have forfeited yourself." Jameson had no words. He could only try to escape. However, there was no place he could run. "You wished to know what my wings would look like?" Marcus continued slowly advancing on the Agent.
Jameson backed away, his eyes never leaving the Vampire.
Marcus's code flickered, having absorbed the program from Jameson. Suddenly, two massive, brown, batlike wings spread wide behind him. "I am going to utterly and completely delete your code, forever. Make peace with the source, Agent, though there you will not be returning."
The Agent tried again to run. Marcus dropped from the sky in front of Jameson. His glowing hand shot out, slamming straight through the Agent. Then, before Jameson could react, the Agent was spun and pulled towards Marcus, wings closing around the two as the vampire sunk his teeth into the back of Jameson's head.
Jameson screamed one last time, then was silent.
A weakened college kid fell to the ground when Marcus opened his wings, which flickered into non-existence. Luckily, he was whole, and merely unconscious, not dead. Marcus looked down at his hands, now no longer glowing. Then, he set back on the way he came, to find Sekhmet. He finally had an answer.
She was sitting with Archangel's body, his head in her lap, stroking the dead rebel's hair and crying. Marcus put a hand on her shoulder. "I was too late to save him..."
"He was so young... so very young," she whispered.
Marcus said nothing for a moment. "Humans have an afterlife belief, do they not?"
"Some do. I do not know if he did."
"Then let us hope he is there now."
She nodded sadly. "At least... he didn't die alone," she said softly, brushing his bangs from his forehead. "Come.." Marcus began. "Let us bury him properly, and then go home." She nodded, rising and laying him down gently. They buried him next to the place he had grown up, and then, Marcus and Sekhmet departed, returning home, a hero departed, and a villain gone from the world.
Final chapter goes up tomorrow; all reviewer questions answered then.