Chapter Four: Battle, and Aftermath
There were four of us standing ready, myself, Lord Fear, Elspeth, and her double.
I noticed Lady Illusion, glaring with folded arms at Elspeth, standing next to Lord Fear. She'd been attempting to follow her lord around since she returned to the carnival. He'd actually reprimanded her for stalking him. Nevertheless, she was determined to follow her programming and gain absolution for the treachery of the other woman. She'd had to explain the situation of her loyalties to the other minions several times over, and after a while had simply settled to dealing out death glares to anyone who so much as mentioned the word "traitor".
Lady Illusion was cold, and confident, and pure in her complete devotion to her programming. Attractive, in her way, but an empty shell, nothing more than a program. She claimed she'd obey me, fanatical in her loyalty to evil, but I wondered what she'd do if she knew I'd abandoned my own programming some time ago. Nothing that could harm me, obviously, but it could prove interesting. Lady Illusion stood next to her lord again, and I was half-reminded of my arrival in the mortal world, when she'd been the one to try to fight me while he had run. Pathetic creature.
Elspeth stood beside me, her steady gaze avoiding the other two. She'd been silent since we returned from the Programmer's, but even before I'd chosen to reprogram her she'd never had a lot to say for herself. She was equally cold, though I suspected to Ace she'd shown a warmer side of her nature, fragile and glittering as an ice sculpture. She was quiet and subdued, and I wondered how much she was aware of my control over her, and the imminent danger to her lover. Her face was expressionless as usual, and I wasn't sure how much she knew of what was going on, or how much she cared.
"Our plans are complete, and our enemy approaches," I said, and was met with agreement from all sides.
- -
The mortal brat was foolish to wander through our carnival at a lonely time, and we'd used him to lure our greater prey into the trap.
He was bound to a wall by Pigface's slime as we waited for our foes to arrive.
Predictably enough, the Lightning Knights—the three of them—turned up, and I'd made sure I was well prepared for them.
Ace instantly flew to the human's side, and blasted the slime from him before turning to face its originator.
He found it easy enough to send Pigface flying, but he was thrown into the air himself after a well-placed explosion created by Lady Illusion.
"Leave now, kid," Ace said quickly, preparing to fight. "The three of us can take it from here."
The mortal nodded, and ran. I noticed he didn't have his glove, and I did not bother to stop the weak child.
I saw Ace turn to face Lady Illusion, and his eyes widened as he noticed Elspeth in the background, standing beside me.
Lady Illusion attacked him viciously—trying to make up for the crimes of the other no doubt; she'd said to Lord Fear "I have no feelings of any sort," though I'd suspected there were more than a few elements of hate in her programming—and he had no choice but to respond.
I could tell he was confused, but he fought on.
Lady Illusion cackled as she threw another explosive at his face.
"And you were the reason why the other betrayed everything? I will destroy you, Ace Lightning."
There was a red blast of swordflame through the air, and she looked up to see Sparx setting the Flash's course for her.
Lady Illusion jumped out of the way, and with the next crystal ball forced her archfoe to leap to the ground and commence a battle on more equal terms.
I saw Ace, staring at Elspeth, react a bit too slowly to dodge Googler, and he fell to the ground. Anvil stood over him.
"Ace confused. Anvil confused too," the thing said, looking at Elspeth and Lady Illusion with furrowed brow. "But Anvil crush anyway!"
Behind me, I heard the Virus approach, and directed Elspeth to occupy him.
This battle was proving interesting. I've always enjoyed the thrill of the hunt.
I watched Sparx and Lady Illusion in a deadly dance of swordflame and sphere. Neither was winning as yet, but they were both smiling in the exhilaration of battle.
Ace regained his feet, and fired a blast at Lord Fear, leaping into the air as Fear turned the Doom Wagon to bear down on him.
The two of them had been enemies for a long time, and it was interesting to see the symmetry of enmity play itself out: Lady Illusion and Sparx, Ace and Lord Fear, in two fierce battles.
Elspeth—no longer the program, no longer anything I did not authorise—dodged a blow from Random, and leaped onto the Ferris wheel to launch a crystal ball.
The cyborg used his claw to shield himself as best he could, but he could not deflect the explosions. Turning his attention to the Ferris wheel, he started it spinning using his powers.
She tried to hold on to the fast-moving wheel. Currents of electricity started to run through it, and she fell to the ground with a cry.
Random Virus stood over her, and raised his claw.
"Weak," he said. "I have every reason to destroy you."
"I'm not weak," she said, and didn't make any move to rise.
"You are evil. Now run like the coward you are!"
Random slashed his claw through the air to make his point, and she barely flinched. I could tell the cyborg had only hit the air.
"I'm not weak," she repeated, and stood up, folding her arms and looking him in his red-tinged eye.
Random stared, and didn't move.
"Then fight me. Prove you're strong."
"There's more than one kind of strength," she said, and disappeared.
The cyborg blinked, and I waited.
I'd commanded her to fight him…
- -
In another part of the battlefield…
"Okay. Fine. I'm confused.What's going on," Sparx said, glaring at her enemy and aiming the sword for another blast.
"I am Lady Illusion," the program said, "and you would be doomed, girl." She threw a crystal ball.
Sparx dodged, and laughed. "And you said you loved him. I was right about you."
"That would be the traitor," Lady Illusion said, anger in her voice. "I am evil. Love is for mortals and weaklings."
"I'm still confused…" Sparx said, and raised her sword. "That doesn't matter right now."
She sent a blast of swordflame at her archfoe, and forced her to back into the shooting booth.
Lady Illusion threw another crystal ball, but Sparx easily caught it on the point of her sword, and the next four crystal balls her opponent sent were similarly deflected.
Then it was Sparx' turn to fire, and she sent three powerful blasts flying at her opponent. The final one hit, and Lady Illusion fell to the ground.
Sparx grinned, but turned quickly at Anvil's approach behind her.
She didn't miss a beat, and sent a volley of blasts at Anvil, who disappeared into thin air.
I saw Elspeth reappear behind Random—ah, excellent, I'm still in control—and she dodged as he sent his fist towards her.
She couldn't match his strength, but she was fast, and as she avoided his blows she launched several crystal balls, moving almost too fast for my eyes to follow. She was half-smiling, enjoying the use of her abilities.
With a final throw, she knocked him out, and his head flopped down as he shorted out.
The animation I'd seen in her face as she fought disappeared as she realised she'd won.
"Leave him for now," I said, and she returned to stand beside me.
Meanwhile, Ace found himself hard-pressed by foes, Googler using his spiked form to propel himself off the side of the Haunted House to strike Ace in the air, while Lord Fear continued to send blasts at him—none too discriminatory with regard to aim, I noticed.
Sparx saw her friend in danger, and called the Flash to take her into the air to defend him.
She was too late. A final blast from Lord Fear, and the Lightning Knight fell out of the sky, his head hitting the roof of the Haunted House with an ominous crash.
"Ace!" I heard a scream, and Sparx swooped past and grabbed him just before he hit the ground. He didn't move as she did her best to gather him into the Flash.
I used a tentacle to try to crash the vehicle into the wall of the Haunted House. Sparx managed to pull off a sharp turn, her face screwed up in concentration, holding on to Ace with one hand, and ended up only scraping the guttering.
The Flash was smoking from the effort, though, and I saw a blast from Lord Fear cause it to stumble in the air again. Even so, Sparx somehow got it to rise.
"This is for Ace!" she said, pure hatred in her voice, and fired at the Doom Wagon, sending it to the ground. I noticed Staffhead fall some distance away from his master, but I didn't intervene.
If he is destroyed it may be better for me in the long run, I know I'll have to deal with him myself eventually…
Sparx brought the Flash over for another shot at her skeletal foe.
Behind her, Lady Illusion raised a crystal ball in defence of her lord, and threw.
Her aim was perfect.
As per programming.
The bomb hit the engine, and the Flash started to smoke. Desperately, Sparx turned it around and started to flee with her live cargo.
I saw a symmetry again between the four of them, Sparx carrying an unconscious Ace from the battlefield, while Lady Illusion stood beside Lord Fear.
I let the two Knights escape, for the time being. They'd fought with courage, and I knew the hunt would be over soon enough.
I'd hoped that when Random Virus roused himself from his slumber he'd be willing to join us, but he wheeled himself away with a green glow in his eyes before I could stop him.
No matter. They would all be gone by tomorrow.
- -
He wasn't conscious for most of that frantic ride. The engine had taken a pretty harsh blast, and I was relieved when I finally saw the Tower. The Flash was still smoking as I landed it as best I could, huge clouds of black rising in the air, though I was more concerned for Ace.
It might have been part of the program, or might have been just because of who he was, but for as long as I can remember I have loved Ace Lightning. It was…almost inevitable, from the time we spent together and all the missions we went on. I've spent all the life I can remember working with him. He was courageous and fearless, and genuinely good, and no matter what did the right thing. No matter what the situation he always had some bad pun or weird joke to make about it, and I found I could laugh with him. Sometimes I'm too impulsive and I don't think things through, but whatever I did he was always there for me, and calmed me down with a single glance and a smile. And, yes, he is very good-looking, but I'd never say so to his face, it'd give him a swelled head. He's…tall and handsome and brave like all the fairytales say, except I wasn't the beautiful princess but the faithful companion, and I doubted he'd even noticed I was a girl.
Not that I'd ever told him how I felt. I'd known for a while there was something between him and Lady Illusion, and, well, I'm not the type to talk about my feelings. I'm much better at blasting stuff. But he's always been my closest friend, ever since my first memories of the Sixth Dimension.
For some reason, when I'm in the mortal world, my memories of the Sixth Dimension are…patchy. The two places are very different. The Sixth Dimension's colourful and bright and blurry, while the mortal world is sharp and detailed and so very there. I have a lot of memory files about the mortal world, more than I have for the Sixth Dimension, some of which I don't want to keep. Mostly they involve Ace in danger, or her doing something.
It's always been personal with you and Ace, I told her once, and I remembered, back in the Sixth Dimension, the fights between them, all dazzling motion and contrasts. They were opposites, positive and negative, and never surrendered to each other no matter how hard they battled. Lord Fear always preferred to get others to fight for him, and she was his most powerful minion—not that that really says a lot, she's not as good as she thinks she is. And certainly no better than she should be, but that's another rant.
Flash.
Londres, night. The towers of steel and glass rise high, a man-made jungle in the darkness.
The site of another battle.
He grabs her, and takes off into the air carrying her.
I can't see their faces, but I hope she's scared.
She stops trying to struggle, moves her hands to grip him more tightly, and both of them disappear in a second of bright light.
I speed up the Flash, and try to find them.
I see them reappear just next to a large building, still moving at the same speed, and she angles it so that his head slams into the stone. They both drop and land on the fire escape, and it takes him a while to stand up.
It looks like she's low on energy too, because she attacks with foot and fist rather than using her powers. He tries to block her, but he's dazed, and she's faster and lighter than him. Even so, there's something like a smile on his face.
The fighting. They like it. It is fun. And it's all we know how to do, really.
I swoop from the sky, and fire at her, and she teleports away.
"Two against one? We'll continue thus later, Lightning," she says as she goes, and I think there's a smile behind her voice.
"Thanks, Sparx," he says absently, after a while, but he's still looking at the point she disappeared from.
Flash.
It's over, they're defeated. Looks like the prison in the Sixth Dimension's going to be full this time around.
Wait. She's……gone. I have to find her.
"Ace! Lady Illusion. She's escaped!"
"Let her go, Sparx. We've got the others, and we probably won't be able to find her. She is a shapeshifter." He shrugs.
"She's around here somewhere. I'll get her."
I call for the Flash, and do a sweep of the streets.
I see the running figure, a nondescript young man in a trenchcoat, and I follow him as he makes his way through the crowds of humans that usually occupy Londres in the daytime.
Some of them look up at me in shock, and I fire through the crowd, pinpointing the beam to hit right on target.
She stumbles, and keeps moving.
By now, a few redcoats have arrived—the usual police force, pretty hopeless compared to us, but after all they're only human—and I alert them to her.
She knocks a redcoat out with a single punch, and grabs his sword. She's nearly powerless, and shifts to her normal form.
There's five of them still standing, and one of her, but she's fast.
Four…three…
The three remaining redcoats surround her, but she's not going to give up without a fight. She doesn't have anywhere to run, anyway.
Time for me to step in.
I fire a single beam from the sky, and she collapses in an unconscious heap.
I remember the crowd cheering, and one of the redcoats saluting me.
Ace shrugs, again. "We could have let her go," he says. "It's over."
He was wrong, and I was right. It was she who escaped from prison, pulling out a dagger buried in her arm and killing a guard, rescuing the others, and starting the whole chain of events that led to us coming here.
Flash.
It's always been personal between those two. They're the strong ones, the special ones, drawing all eyes onto them when they enter a room, the powered ones, travelling in flashes of speed and light.
Me, I'm…more normal. I don't have Ace's powers, and I'm not a freak like her. I'd be almost human if it wasn't for the sword. Little girl, she called me once, and I guess compared to her—how old is she anyway, I bet she's ancient, maybe even older than Lord Fear—maybe I am. She's beaten me almost every time we've fought. But I've got my own strengths.
There was something between them, I guessed, not that Acesaid anything, or that I was actually in the mortal dimension at the right time. The way she reacted to me, and to Ace accidentally being hurt (very briefly and slightly, it WAS an accident) told me there was something there, not that Ace himself ever told me anything. I didn't let that get in the way of the mutual hatred between her and me, and I remember going to hunt her down in rage. She imprisoned me, and Ace had to come to rescue me, which put him in danger.
And she said she liked him. Hah. That's almost funny, only not in a good way. Plotting something probably, she's always been evil. Playing both sides against the middle, I know she's evil and just clever enough. I remember that night, the final battle, standing there in the dark trying to fight. She imprisoned Random and me, I felt my energy starting to drain away, and she stood there and laughed.
Later, I saw Ace dancing with her. There was a spark of electricity between them, and I can't deny it was a pretty enough picture, the two of them together in the moonlight, one last farewell.
I can't dance.
I wished it was me, that he'd turn and realise who his real friends were.
She disappeared—thank goodness, I hope she's stuck in the Sixth Dimension—and I didn't fight her again for a while, though I thought I saw a glimpse of her as we left the mortal dimension.
I remember, running through the Sixth Dimension, Ace had left me alone, I couldn't do anything but run away from the hordes of zombies and vampires and freaks and even walking catci for Zoar's sake, it was a nightmare I couldn't leave, and she was there, stopping me from finding Chuckdude—Ace's name for him, everything I do has something to do with Ace—and escaping to freedom. I haven't forgiven her for that, but I haven't forgiven her for anything. And I don't have a reason to.
Despite her efforts, I returned, and soon after fought her, and I won, knocking her off the Flash and into Kilobyte's waiting tentacle. Sure, she lived through that one, but—as I said on a later occasion—the next time I see her, she is dead meat.
I had my sword to her throat, and let her go when he told me to.
If I didn't care about him, I would have—should have—killed her. And she trapped us, drowned us in pig snot, and somehow Ace still seemed to actually like her. Love her.
I flew across the Carnival, trying to hurt as many Evils as I could before I went to tell Ace of Kilobyte's plans, and she knocked me out of the sky.
Something else I won't forgive her for.
"Ace…loves Lady Illusion," I told the human girl, trying my best to keep my tone as casual as possible. Somehow she'd figured out that I liked him.
Maybe it had something to do that at least every second sentence I say somehow relates to him. He's the…sun in my life, golden and blazing and these days only flying away from me. I'll be there when he comes back.
I can't run from my feelings forever. He complains about the human emotions, but I've always had emotions, love for him and hatred for her and the desire to fight.
I couldn't defeat Kilobyte that time, but he was there for all of us again, doing the right thing. Or so I thought.
She appeared on the ground, flickering, and for a few seconds I couldn't think of anything more than hate as he held her in his arms.
She said she loved him, but she was lying.
I saw the look in his eyes, and Random and I both moved forward to comfort our friend.
- -
I remembered what I'd seen that particular day and the day before that, how she'd returned with Kilobyte, and what I'd seen in Ace's face when he realised she was working for his enemy.
She hurt him. I won't forgive her.
Ace, I know what it's like to lose someone you love. I live it, every day. Why can't you see how I feel about you?
I remembered there were two of them now—two too many—and remained confused. Ace was still miserable, still trying to destroy Kilobyte and Lord Fear at all costs, and I hated her for doing this to him. The man I loved.
He's a fool, but he's still my friend. No matter what.
I saw him stir then, and he opened his eyes and said my name.
- -
A/N: Flash, my only reviewer. Thanks a lot. :) I hope you're not still confused. Anyone else who's reading this, I accept: anonymous reviews, flames, constructive criticism, one liners, one worders, and everything in between. If you're reading this, please drop mea review, thanks.