Greetings all, and thanks to all those who have reviewed.
I hope that all is well with him.
Replies are where they should be.
Chapter 32: Disorder
He took off before I knew what was happening.
In roughly four short minutes, Wanderer had changed from a weary, bruised wreck of a program lying unconscious on the floor, to a raging, sword wielding maniac.
In getting up, he had to push past me. He did so with no apparent effort, as I fell backwards onto the pitch black floor I couldn't help but feel a curious sense of pride which is how I imagine parents feel when their children succeed at something. Strange.
I soon had it locked down and hastily pushed myself back to my feet. Wanderer was now flinging people aside who stood between him and wherever he was trying to get to. I looked in the direction he was facing, and saw Morpheus, who appeared to be loading a gun of some description.
'He must know by now that we're not Demons' I thought as the adrenaline started flooding through my veins. 'So why is he attacking us? Why is he trying so hard to get to Morph…?"
***********************************************************
I saw the face that the familiar voice belonged to as one of the humans belted me across the face. My head and upper body snapped around, and I saw myself.
It was hard for shock to find space in the cocktail of senseless rage and adrenaline that was occupying so much of my attention, but it did anyway. The only words that seemed appropriate for the situation were.
"What the fuck?"
I whispered that to myself a few times before I remembered the other face behind me. Rage quickly overcame the shock, as well as any part of me that cared that another me was standing a few meters away from me. Anyway, I swung round and ducked as a string of gunfire from Morpheus flew in my direction. The next load of bullets came from another human. These I was forced to evade with the inhuman speed that is commonly associated with Agents.
***********************************************************
I barely felt myself do it.
The only thing I seemed able to feel was numbness. Wanderer knew that this was the Manticore who had killed Seamus. He had to. If anything of the old 'us', (what we were like before we became two separate people), remained in him, he wouldn't go around slicing every Morpheus he saw in half. He had to know.
And then I knew. I looked with confussion, disbelief and growing hatred at the man who had killed my brother. The man I served under.
Whilst I was thinking this, I had, almost unconsciously, pulled my gun from its holster. The grip I had on it was turning my knuckles white. Lifting it felt like trying to run whilst in a dream.
The bullet that slammed into my shoulder was somewhat easier to feel.
***********************************************************
It wasn't as easy as it would have been last time if the others hadn't interfered.
Morpheus wasn't a pushover when it came to fighting. Sure I had the advantage with strength, all thanks to the wonders of modern technology, but he seemed to know when I was going to throw punches, and he knew exactly when to get out of the way.
The two punches he landed on my face after evading a kick to the stomach felt like getting cut grass blown in your face during a windy day. My brain it seemed was too engulfed with rage and the single minded desire to kill Morpheus to allow something irrelevant like physical injury to get in the way.
It soon occurred to me that I wasn't going to get anywhere carrying on like this. I needed to be faster.
Focusing my mind as best as I could, I launched another punch at a speed which would have made my arm blurry to normal vision.
Morpheus was flung backwards. An unbelievably powerful surge of satisfaction flooded through me. It was nothing, I told myself; compared to what killing him would make me feel.
I was cut off in mid thought as I felt a slight grip on my shoulder. I expected it to be another of the humans who had clawed themselves off of the floor. Instead I found myself looking at yet another familiar face.
Fear instinctively surged through me as I remembered having a hand rammed into my chest and being engulfed in a grey, metallic ooze that for all intents and purposes, killed me for three months.
Smith looked at me with a grin. He could undoubtedly see the fear on my face.
But the fear was subsiding. I wasn't the mere mortal I once was. I knew now that I stood a fighting chance against this creature, and the thought of repaying him for the suffering he'd caused the 'world' brought forth similar feelings of satisfaction that clouting Morpheus had brought forth.
I should have known better.
The first punch was blocked effortlessly, and his first punch came at me before my brain had realised that he'd blocked mine.
I flew back to a position quite close to Morpheus, who appeared to have passed out. Before I could even think about pulling myself back to a standing position. I saw him towering above me.
I instantly drew my gun from my holster and fired off a few shots. With any luck, him having to dodge them would buy me the time I needed to get up, get the others and go.
Instead, the bullets stopped a few inches short of his face. Another grin came across Smith's face as the bullets rained down on my torso like slow moving hail stones.
I heard a hiss of pain that sounded like it had came from me. IT took me a few moments to realise that it hadn't, well it had but. Well, it came from the other me. I looked over to him and felt a sudden, surprising surge of anger as I saw blood leaking from his shoulder.
One hand was cradling this shoulder; the other was pointing a gun in our direction. I couldn't tell if he was aiming at Smith, me or Morpheus. I soon found out however as he fired.
To be continued
Right, now for replies:
Angel-of-lightness: This MSN messenger thing might take a while as I've probably said three times before. I can't remember one way or the other though so I'll say it again. Suffice to say I've run into a few problems, virus based and sister based which need to get sorted out first. If you wish I can ring again, failing that i'll hide paper aeroplanes in the exhausts of random cars that may or may not be grey.
And I still blame you for the existence of communism.
Thankings for reviewings
Agent Josie: That's nice to know. I shall have to blame you for something, otherwise the equation will be unbalanced and the world will be split into fifths. One of these fifths shall be populated with clones of Elton John and 14 stoats. In short, it's your fault that people taking exams aren't supplied with tranquilisers. Thanks for reviewing.
LiMiYa: Conversations didn't really seem appropriate given the circumstances. Oh well, thanks for reviewing. I hope that I got the right email address and that the snooker table image cleared things up for thee.
I hope that all is well with him.
Replies are where they should be.
Chapter 32: Disorder
He took off before I knew what was happening.
In roughly four short minutes, Wanderer had changed from a weary, bruised wreck of a program lying unconscious on the floor, to a raging, sword wielding maniac.
In getting up, he had to push past me. He did so with no apparent effort, as I fell backwards onto the pitch black floor I couldn't help but feel a curious sense of pride which is how I imagine parents feel when their children succeed at something. Strange.
I soon had it locked down and hastily pushed myself back to my feet. Wanderer was now flinging people aside who stood between him and wherever he was trying to get to. I looked in the direction he was facing, and saw Morpheus, who appeared to be loading a gun of some description.
'He must know by now that we're not Demons' I thought as the adrenaline started flooding through my veins. 'So why is he attacking us? Why is he trying so hard to get to Morph…?"
***********************************************************
I saw the face that the familiar voice belonged to as one of the humans belted me across the face. My head and upper body snapped around, and I saw myself.
It was hard for shock to find space in the cocktail of senseless rage and adrenaline that was occupying so much of my attention, but it did anyway. The only words that seemed appropriate for the situation were.
"What the fuck?"
I whispered that to myself a few times before I remembered the other face behind me. Rage quickly overcame the shock, as well as any part of me that cared that another me was standing a few meters away from me. Anyway, I swung round and ducked as a string of gunfire from Morpheus flew in my direction. The next load of bullets came from another human. These I was forced to evade with the inhuman speed that is commonly associated with Agents.
***********************************************************
I barely felt myself do it.
The only thing I seemed able to feel was numbness. Wanderer knew that this was the Manticore who had killed Seamus. He had to. If anything of the old 'us', (what we were like before we became two separate people), remained in him, he wouldn't go around slicing every Morpheus he saw in half. He had to know.
And then I knew. I looked with confussion, disbelief and growing hatred at the man who had killed my brother. The man I served under.
Whilst I was thinking this, I had, almost unconsciously, pulled my gun from its holster. The grip I had on it was turning my knuckles white. Lifting it felt like trying to run whilst in a dream.
The bullet that slammed into my shoulder was somewhat easier to feel.
***********************************************************
It wasn't as easy as it would have been last time if the others hadn't interfered.
Morpheus wasn't a pushover when it came to fighting. Sure I had the advantage with strength, all thanks to the wonders of modern technology, but he seemed to know when I was going to throw punches, and he knew exactly when to get out of the way.
The two punches he landed on my face after evading a kick to the stomach felt like getting cut grass blown in your face during a windy day. My brain it seemed was too engulfed with rage and the single minded desire to kill Morpheus to allow something irrelevant like physical injury to get in the way.
It soon occurred to me that I wasn't going to get anywhere carrying on like this. I needed to be faster.
Focusing my mind as best as I could, I launched another punch at a speed which would have made my arm blurry to normal vision.
Morpheus was flung backwards. An unbelievably powerful surge of satisfaction flooded through me. It was nothing, I told myself; compared to what killing him would make me feel.
I was cut off in mid thought as I felt a slight grip on my shoulder. I expected it to be another of the humans who had clawed themselves off of the floor. Instead I found myself looking at yet another familiar face.
Fear instinctively surged through me as I remembered having a hand rammed into my chest and being engulfed in a grey, metallic ooze that for all intents and purposes, killed me for three months.
Smith looked at me with a grin. He could undoubtedly see the fear on my face.
But the fear was subsiding. I wasn't the mere mortal I once was. I knew now that I stood a fighting chance against this creature, and the thought of repaying him for the suffering he'd caused the 'world' brought forth similar feelings of satisfaction that clouting Morpheus had brought forth.
I should have known better.
The first punch was blocked effortlessly, and his first punch came at me before my brain had realised that he'd blocked mine.
I flew back to a position quite close to Morpheus, who appeared to have passed out. Before I could even think about pulling myself back to a standing position. I saw him towering above me.
I instantly drew my gun from my holster and fired off a few shots. With any luck, him having to dodge them would buy me the time I needed to get up, get the others and go.
Instead, the bullets stopped a few inches short of his face. Another grin came across Smith's face as the bullets rained down on my torso like slow moving hail stones.
I heard a hiss of pain that sounded like it had came from me. IT took me a few moments to realise that it hadn't, well it had but. Well, it came from the other me. I looked over to him and felt a sudden, surprising surge of anger as I saw blood leaking from his shoulder.
One hand was cradling this shoulder; the other was pointing a gun in our direction. I couldn't tell if he was aiming at Smith, me or Morpheus. I soon found out however as he fired.
To be continued
Right, now for replies:
Angel-of-lightness: This MSN messenger thing might take a while as I've probably said three times before. I can't remember one way or the other though so I'll say it again. Suffice to say I've run into a few problems, virus based and sister based which need to get sorted out first. If you wish I can ring again, failing that i'll hide paper aeroplanes in the exhausts of random cars that may or may not be grey.
And I still blame you for the existence of communism.
Thankings for reviewings
Agent Josie: That's nice to know. I shall have to blame you for something, otherwise the equation will be unbalanced and the world will be split into fifths. One of these fifths shall be populated with clones of Elton John and 14 stoats. In short, it's your fault that people taking exams aren't supplied with tranquilisers. Thanks for reviewing.
LiMiYa: Conversations didn't really seem appropriate given the circumstances. Oh well, thanks for reviewing. I hope that I got the right email address and that the snooker table image cleared things up for thee.