Part 10: Second Coming

Finally, success.

After another nerve wracking trip back to his room for more combat equipment (and nearly getting shot by the sentry cannon Gizmo had forgotten he'd put there), and then criss-crossing the Hive, his eyes glued to his motion detector to prevent anyone from getting the drop on him, Gizmo had by the process of elimination located the computer that was powering the shield surrounding the HIVE. Once he shut it down, they would actually be able to escape.

Of course, life only dangled the success in front of him so it could cruelly yank it away, as Gizmo came to the end of the hallway that his map said led to the room that had the computer.

Or what had been a room. Now it was a giant pile of rubble coming out the open door. Unknown to Gizmo, this was the very room where Zippy and Hermes' race had ended, where Zippy had touched off the second coming of the horror, and where Brother Blood might still lay, buried under tons of rubble.

Gizmo stared, his arms raising helplessly and then falling to his sides. All that work for nothing. Even if Gizmo had had the assistance of one or more of the Hive's strongmen/women, it would take hours to move all the rubble.

They were trapped, at least until the shield gave out. With nothing assaulting it except heavy rainfall…Gizmo did the math. The incident had begun around 7 PM: Gizmo had lost his watch and wasn't paying attention to clocks but he estimated that it was nearly 2 AM now. Another minor irony: that meant Halloween was over. It was Nov 1st, All Saints Day. But the word there was DAY: as long as it was night, chances were the creatures would still reign supreme. And assuming the shield had activated soon after the incident, Gizmo estimated it could run for another six or so hours, at most.

It looked like there was nothing left to do but curl in a ball and hope the monsters didn't find him.

Gizmo thought that plan over for several seconds and rejected it. Normal people gave up: he was a genius. He'd solve the problem.

And something had indeed occurred to him. If the shield was still up, then the computer was still running well despite being under all the rubble (good construction, but Gizmo knew that: he'd helped build the damn things). And Gizmo was always way ahead of the average geek in terms of gear. And that gave him an opportunity.

The setup was complicated, but for a lack of a better term it was similar to wireless internet. Except instead of logging into the World Wide Web, Gizmo would log into the computer nearly, buried under rubble or not, and get into its systems to shut down the shield. The process was still a long way from perfection, but Gizmo could definitely try and use it here: he'd programmed the damn thing.

"Heh heh heh. I'm such a genius." Gizmo chuckled to himself as he sat down, yanking parts and devices from his suit and assembling a workstation within a minute. He put his motion detector down next to him and turned it up as high as it could go: nothing was catching him by surprise (he hoped). He quickly assembled his 'signal beacon', connected it, and then after cracking his fingers, began entering a blur of commands, data streaming past his eyes as he tried to take the first step of actually getting into the system without having a wire connection to it.

Nightwalker and Jinx's problem had a far simpler solution: run like hell.

However, after her initial panic of a new slasher and Billy's brutal death wore off, Jinx suddenly had a small epiphany.

"Wait a minute!" She said, as she and Nightwalker rounded a corner. "Why are we running?"

"What?" Nightwalker yelled, needing to yell over the roar of the chainsaw.

"We took down three super-powered monsters! Why are we running away from a big retard with a chainsaw?"

"Because in these close quarters HE has the advantage! We need room! Don't think of it as running! Think of it as…advancing in another direction!" Nightwalker yelled, and Jinx was struck by a sudden sense of déjà vu.

"Well, can't we at least TRY and fight back?"

"…Sounds good!" Nightwalker, and stopped on a dime. As Leatherface shrieked around the corner, he raised his gauntlets and shot several orbs into Leatherface's body, the monster squealing in pain as they struck him, even though about half of them bounced off his chainsaw. Jinx fired a few hex blasts, and the area around Leatherface exploded, knocking him onto his face with a crash. Unfortunately, he didn't land on his chainsaw, and within two seconds he was getting back up. Nightwalker cursed as he and Jinx started running again.

"Missed getting the original, where Leatherface was more amusing and creepy and sad then dangerous, could have just gotten something else, but noooooo, had to get the remake where he's built like a linebacker and has a 40 pound chainsaw!" Nightwalker muttered to himself as the duo turned and ran down another hallway.

Their mortal enemy, the Locked Door, was awaiting them. Jinx let out a wordless shriek of frustration.

"Well here we are again." Nightwalker said, as he reloaded his arm gauntlets.

Leatherface came thundering around the corner, and Nightwalker shot him in both knees, dropping him flat. Of course the bastard didn't land on his own chainsaw again, and as he was getting up Nightwalker spun around, shoved Jinx aside as she fiddled with the panel, and violently kicked it. With a shower of sparks, the door opened up.

"Why didn't you shoot it?" Jinx asked.

"A bullet's too good for it." Nightwalker replied. "I think we're getting back to the training rooms, once we're there we can KKKKRRRRRR-EIIISSST!" Nightwalker shrieked as the two of them stopped dead.

This time, there had been no cue. It had been a normal hallway and then suddenly darkness flashed over it and it was anything but normal.

The ground was so covered in sticky something or other that its makeup was impossible to tell. Light bulbs dripping blood swung crazily overhead. And this time…

It was a display.

On one side was a clear wide grating, beyond which was a well lit room, in which a bed rested. On the bed were a pair of mannequins, covered in blood, blood that sprayed on the walls and floor as one brutally raped the other, blood curdling screams tearing from invisible mouths, assaulting Nightwalker almost like a physical blow, as he backed up so fast he nearly fell over and took Jinx with him before he tore his eyes from the sight and started running. He only made it a few steps before he stopped, as Jinx stared in horror at her own sight. It was another grating, another room, which in this case held an easy chair, a TV, and a man. At least one could assume it was a man. His face was utterly pulverized, smashed to indistinguishable gore, tiny bits of what had once been flesh dripping from the ruin, as he looked out on the pair of them, looking despite no longer having eyes.

Jinx's whole digestive track seemed to be doing flip-flops. She didn't know if she wanted to vomit, faint, or just let her mind break and go quietly into the darkness.

Pulling her face was the sight almost seemed like Nightwalker was turning a rusty gear, but he did it, and what motivated him was a returning roaring buzz.

"He's still after us! We have to move!" Nightwalker said, looking into Jinx's face. Jinx saw her own terrified visage reflected back at her, and that snapped her out of it, as she nodded and turned to go.

And then a bloody hand slammed through the grating and seized her shoulder. Jinx screamed as she was yanked backwards, as the man, the thing with the destroyed face, had gotten up and grabbed Jinx, Jinx feeling hot breath on the back of her neck even as she screamed and tried to get loose, Nightwalker helping as he tried to yank Jinx free with one arm and get a shot at the monster with the other.

And then Leatherface was there, his chainsaw swooping down out of the darkness.

It struck flesh and seized into it, boring its way through muscle and bone like it was nothing…but it was the creature behind the grate's arm that had been caught, Jinx yanking out of his grip and away just in time, and a low wet gurgle emerged from the monster's throat as Leatherface sawed his arm off, Nightwalker and Jinx running for it.

Leatherface yanked his chainsaw from the destroyed arm, not fully severed but mostly there, and then with a grunt of annoyance he pushed it, his body slamming into the stuck arm and actually snapping it off, fresh blood spraying on his clothes as he pursued. If he saw anything in the hallway, he gave no sign.

A screen popped up on Gizmo's workstation.

"Yes! I am invincible!" Gizmo cackled, and immediately located the shield mechanism. Glancing over his shoulder before he began to make sure he was alone, he began rapidly typing again.

It only took him seventeen seconds to complete his task, as the computer informed him the shield was off.

"Booyah!" Gizmo said, doing a peace sign…and then realizing what he had just said. "Argh! Crudd'n Crudborg, fought him too many…"

And then a new screen suddenly popped up on his workstation, pulling Gizmo's eyes to it. They widened: it was a warning screen. The system was reading what he had just done as a hack.

And if it did decide it was a hack, it would do everything it could to kick Gizmo out of the system, block him, and undo whatever he had done. And apparently Gizmo's unorthodox entry had caused it to read him as an outsider.

A bead of sweat ran down Gizmo's forehead. No! He couldn't come so close to be done in now!

Gizmo's hands furiously began typing again, as he began launching into every single program he knew to try and prevent a reversal.

Having no idea where he was going and not even caring, Wilby ran, ran like all the demons of hell were on his heels instead of just one.

Pyramid Head followed, and you wondered why Wilby was doing such an all out sprint, as his pursuer was walking very slowly, his gigantic knife apparently so heavy he had to drag it behind him, though the fact that he was holding it with one hand hinted that perhaps there was more to it then weight. His head permanently dripped due to the massive pyramid he wore, he walked with his crotch almost thrust out, slowly but surely stalking Wilby Tierney.

But why? Why was he after HIM? Pyramid Head had been the manifestation of the dark side of the protagonist of Silent Hill 2, James Sunderland. As one found out in the game's plot, Pyramid Head had been created by the dark powers of Silent Hill, a cursed town that served many purposes, including the punishment of sinners. The town held a mirror up to the souls of the malefactors, all of whom on some level knew that they deserved and wanted to be punished for their crimes, and it manifested whatever dark secrets lay locked in their hearts. Pyramid Head had been a creation of rage and malefic sexual desires, a nightmare phallic symbol called to James to punish him for his sin, the sin the player eventually learned of even as James did…

But Pyramid Head had been created for James specifically. Even if he had been called to the realm of reality as the 'face' of Silent Hill, he still needed to match up with his victims. Wilby didn't know why Pyramid Head had butchered poor Zippy…

(Her soul-shattering guilt, false as it was, and her thoughts that she had sinned and deserved to be punished for it, was what had brought about her fate. But while James WAS guilty in the end, Zippy's guilt was questionable, which makes one wonder how and why Pyramid Head killed her…unless one understood that Silent Hill was not the master force in play, but rather a factor of another force, a force which didn't need to follow such strict rules, a force that, unbeknownst to many, was growing stronger by the hour…)

…and he didn't know why Pyramid Head would want to come after HIM. He barely mirrored James at all. So why…

Wilby's questions were stopped by the needs of his body, as his oxygen-deprived lungs initiated another asthma attack, and despite the fact it was the last thing he wanted to do Wilby stopped, pawing through his robe through his inhaler, finding it and sucking the medicine down to try and relax his contracting lungs, more air starting to come in…

And then Pyramid Head walked around the corner, like he had no concerns whatsoever. Wilby screamed and took off again, dropping his inhaler.

Pyramid Head, more because it was in his way then anything else, stepped on it and crushed it underfoot as he continued on after Wilby.

Wilby had no idea where he was going, what section of the Hive he was in now, even if he was still going in a straight line. He just knew, much like Zippy, he had to run, as he ran through an open door…and skidded to a stop as the hallway morphed around him, just like with Nightwalker and Jinx.

Paintings.

The walls were now covered with paintings, lit behind glass. Wilby stared bleakly at the walls, unable to believe what he was seeing.

But that was the point of Silent Hill.

It didn't just scare you, it messed with you. It encapsulated you and refused to let you go in anything less than a body bag. And Wilby was no different than Harry, James, Heather or any of the other victims of the madness that was that small foggy town off the coast of a lake.

The paintings, placed behind that musty glass, images that seemed to haunt his present, and probably his future. It was dark brown and red in colour, lumpy in some places, smooth in texture in others, set upon maddening stained tiles and stretched material that could have been skin made to act like canvas. On closer inspection, if Wilby had been brave enough to make one that is, he would have seen they were painted in blood. Blood that was both very old and VERY fresh.

Wilby cowered away from the images as he made sense of them. The focal point of the picture in front of him was a mural, almost a tapestry of pain and hate: a man coming to a town and settling down, cowering away when he was threatened, by seemingly everyone, and then…a great destruction came upon the village. And he ran away again, leaving his life, his loves, his hates and everything behind to suffer so he might live. It was a cycle, a never-ending route of suffering and misery that seemed to engulf everyone that had any connections with this unfortunate man. Except him, because he always fled.

Wilby groaned and turned away, his horror dragging him, gnawing at him to turn, and like a good victim he did so, unquestionably. The grating on the other side of the room was an open plane, as barren as it was desolate, and until he figured it was a replica of the room he was in he would have had no compulsion to think it was nothing more than a nexus of the emptied, fevered thoughts that had concocted this vile machination of 'god'.

And then it ran by. Whatever it was, Wilby couldn't tell, it's arms, face, body, all fused in to a squealing mass of flesh, a mass that seemed to repulse itself in its own insanity, as it ran, and ran, or at least shuffled with the greatest speed it could muster.

Until a spear stabbed the creature in the back of course, halting its movement and its pain, halting everything that it had once been, Or at least once tried to be, as it was nothing more than a monster…and nothing less than a human.

The spear had come from nowhere, but before Wilby could make sense of it all, the stage blurred before him, and suddenly it too was a painting. And the hideous thing was no longer there. Someone new had replaced it.

Pyramid Head.

Wilby wanted to run, but once more he was compelled to look, almost as if he had wanted to. This picture that was worth a thousand words, and another thousand for good measure.

It was a painting about judgement (and one of the main promotional shots of Silent Hill 2, though Wilby didn't recall that at the moment).

Pyramid Head's visage, its image, its likeness stood there proudly armed with what might have once been described as the spear of Longius, the biblical figure who stabbed Jesus to make sure he was dead, now putrefied and corrupted to form this weapon, more a spike than an actual spear now. The same weapon that had struck down the monster before the young man. And behind it, or him, in the mist hung a collection of chambers, each supporting or constraining a victim that was being tried and then put to death in the prison that was underneath the historical society on the very boarders of the lake.

In the game this was a hint to Pyramid Head's origins. Here though, something…was notably different about it.

In one of the cages was a man, like all of them, but he was bigger, broader, stronger than all the others, and yet despite this he was curled up in his cage, his prison, all dignity gone, his form crawled and withered like a foetus, his honour and pride stripped from him like layers of skin.

It didn't take a genius to see who it was supposed to be.

And with his eyes seized by these sights, it was only the sense of movement that made Wilby turn around.

Pyramid Head stood there, unmoving, as if he was waiting for Wilby to resume his running.

Wilby stared in horror for a second, and then he did just that, finally tearing his eyes from the horrible paintings as he ran past them, continuing down the hallway, trying to outrun it all.

And Pyramid Head followed, as if he already knew the outcome and was just going through the motions of getting there.

Mammoth had indeed been hiding how much the stab wound had hurt him: even with Shimmer's blood trick he was still slow and lethargic, needing Shimmer's help to escort him down the stairs and to the training room to the right, where they rested. Mammoth knew he was in a bad way: he'd lost a lot of blood and quite possibly had holes in places that wouldn't do well to have holes. But he couldn't just lie down: he still had to get his sister out of here. Jason had almost got her, and that tore at him. She hadn't been at the Hive long, she hadn't been properly trained, properly 'seasoned' for lack of a better term. She knew how to use her powers but she didn't know how to USE them: the only reason she'd managed to fight Jason in the clock tower had been a cornered animal mentality. She was too soft, too nice, and too vulnerable for this kind of experience. He had to get her out of it, because without him she'd be lost and easy prey.

Rhinoceros Beetle was still AWOL: in a way Mammoth was glad. He was a third wheel in every sense.

But when Buzz Bomb walked in, Mammoth also wished he could switch the two.

"Ah! My meat shields! It is good to see you again! I trust you are well?" Buzz Bomb asked, smirking. Mammoth growled.

"I still have enough strength to break you in half smart ass." Mammoth said as he got up.

"Pshaw! As if!" Buzz Bomb said, as he fluttered on his wings and zipped around Mammoth. "We're already doomed. The worst you can do is guarantee that I'm not possessed or turned into a zombie or something."

"What? We've beaten back our attacker! We're not doomed!" Shimmer said.

"Who are you kidding? We all know that everybody here is expendable because there isn't one hero among us! We aren't acting out the whole horror movie, we're just the opening scene where a bunch of unsympathetic slobs get offed!" Buzz Bomb retorted.

"A seven hour opening scene?" Mammoth said.

"It's all going to be edited down, and then shown as bonus materials on the DVD."

"Then who are the main characters then?" Shimmer asked.

"Those accursed Titans!"

"Who, may I point out, are over fifty miles away." Mammoth said, fighting back a brief spell of dizziness before he continued. "What are the slashers going to do, hitchhike?"

"If the shark in Jaws The Revenge could not only figure out where the people were going to fly, but then beat them there despite IT BEING A SHARK and them BEING ON A PLANE, then these villains can find the Titans!"

"That movie sucked anyway."

"And Jason X was a cinematic masterpiece? He still proved to be a pain in the neck." Buzz Bomb said. "Until my boom of course."

"Don't get cocky. Even if you put him down for keeps, who knows what's left?"

"The aliens from Aliens, or maybe the aliens from Pitch Black, or hell why not the Thing from the…Thing, heck we could have the Killer Klowns from Outer Space show up…"

"That wasn't a question I wanted answered!" Mammoth snapped. "Grah. What's next, The Blob?"

"I don't think the Blob would be much of a threat." Buzz Bomb said.

"Why not?"

"It's a blob!"

"If I remember correctly it's a big nasty blob that can slither through any crack and corner and causes a burning acidlike sensation when it touches living tissue."

"It's a blob!"

"They made not only a movie but a sequel and then a remake for a non-threatening monster?"

"It's still a blob!"

"Why are we having a prolonged argument about The Blob?" Shimmer asked.

"Oh, who knows?" Buzz Bomb said, winking at the screen. "But in reality folks, it doesn't matter if Quiltface and Luthor the Geek show up, we're all doomed. It's the heroes that survive horror films, and not a single one of us is a hero."

"How much ammo do you have left?" Belinda asked her two surviving soldiers.

"Two full clips." Kane replied.

"Down to one and whatever I have left in my gun." Patrick replied afterward.

"Ditto." Belinda said, looking unhappy. She turned to Flay. "And you kid?"

"Uh…most of my whips are still ok, but they're not really designed to work in such a small space…" Flay said, as he looked around the room the four of them were in. The route they had taken had eventually dead-ended to this room filled with machine parts. Belinda had opted they go into the room, lock the door, and make a stand there. In the open they'd be easy prey for the Tall Man's army, and if they kept running they'd exhaust themselves before the Tall Man did. Here, they might have a chance.

Though Flay didn't think it was much of one.

"That's ok kid. You stay in the back. We'll take point. If they get past us, well, you won't have to worry about hitting us."

"…Why would you do something like that?" Flay asked.

"Hey, you're the elite H.A.E.Y.P member kid. We're just the ones who washed out of your program, or were never that special to begin with. Blood keeps us on pretty much to die for you. May as well do our duty." Belinda said, in the calm cynicism of the person who knows the only option left for them is a final blaze of glory.

Flay just stared, and Belinda turned back to her men.

"All right. We're going under the assumption that he'll drill and melt through the door rather then just rip it off the hinges. If it does that, maybe we can pick them off one by one. Watch out for those golden spheres, they have a…"

"HEY!" Patrick yelled, and Belinda snapped her head around as her eyes widened.

Flay had moved. He was now standing outside the door. He nodded to the three, and then he reached down and pressed the keypad on the other side, even as Belinda realized what he was doing and lunged for him.

The door closed in her face, and before she could get to her own keypad Flay, in one smooth motion, snapped out his electric/sonic whip and cracked it, the tip shattering the console and shorting out the lock, as Belinda found out when pressing her own keypad resulted in nothing more then the usual spark spray.

"NO! KID! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! NO!" Belinda said, pounding on the door, as Flay put his whip away. The door reduced the angry yells and pounding to muffled thuds, but Flay didn't have to hear the words to know the question.

"Believe me, if I knew, I might feel more confident." Flay said, as he turned and walked away.

"Shit! The stupid kid locked us in! What gives! The organization is supposed to be training him to be a bank robber and assassin, why the hell did he do that?" Belinda wondered.

"Guess he's still considering his opinions." Kane said.

"Shut up and crack the lock!"

"Why?"

"You think I'm going to let some stupid kid kill himself? Forget it! Crack the lock!"

Flay heard none of this, as he made his way out to the training room that the storage hallway led from. He went to the middle and stood there, waiting.

It didn't take long for the humming whine to return, as a sphere zipped in. Flay tensed, but the sphere stopped several feet from him, and then it shot out a stalk that an eye actually emerged from, looking at Flay. It then turned around and zipped back through the door.

Flay waited, doing a mental inventory.

The Tall Man came a minute later, stepping through the door. His dwarf servants clustered around him, while the air around him swiftly filled with spinning spheres.

"So. You've come to accept your death." The Tall Man said.

"No. I've had enough of it." Flay said, as he yanked out a handle, his plasma-energy whip snapping out with a hissing sizzle. "Leave us alone, or suffer the consequences."

The Tall Man's face screwed up, as if he couldn't comprehend the concept of Flay's actions. At least Mike and Reggie always had guns.

Well, he didn't need to understand. He just had to do his duty.

And as if by some unspoken cue, the dwarfs swarmed forward, even as the air behind the Tall Man suddenly filled with spheres, and even as that happened Flay yanked another whip out, adding a second deadly cutting line of plasma to his arsenal, and leapt to meet his foe.

The best were remembered, and Flay had always considered himself to be one of the best.

"I mean, in a lot of ways there aren't any heroes left whatsoever. Everyone's all 'Ohhhh looka me, I'm so DARK and MOODY and ANGSTY, I must be SO mature and REFINED'. Doesn't anyone remember the days when World's Finest would have covers of the heroes riding on bikes or playing checkers? I miss those days…" Buzz Bomb said, looking away from Mammoth and hence not seeing the hands slowly creeping around his head as Mammoth prepared to strangle him. Shimmer yanked them away, Mammoth looking disappointed for a second before his face took on a serious cast again.

"Ok then. Let's move. Buzz Bomb, you go first." Mammoth said, standing up and wincing a bit in the process.

"What? Why me?"

"I can give you five good reasons." Mammoth said, as he counted off each finger on his hand that closed into a fist.

"Point taken." Buzz Bomb said.

"Plus you seem to have a knack for surviving." Mammoth added.

"Oh that's simple. It can be attributed to my excessive cowardice and willingness to use those around me as shields and decoys." Buzz Bomb said. Mammoth's eyes narrowed again.

"Well I guess your-ARRRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" Mammoth screamed as the blade suddenly burst through his gut, splattering a horrified Shimmer and Buzz Bomb with blood, and as Mammoth looked down in utter shock the blade was yanked out. Mammoth collapsed.

"No…" Shimmer whispered.

Burnt as black as sin, his body a crazy patchwork of metal and fabric, his mask melted across one side, Uberjason stood there, eyes blazing, blood dripping from his morph/machete. They always thought they had him. They always thought they had enough. He was JASON VOORHEES! Nothing would EVER be enough!

"See? Without him, he would have gone for ME first." Buzz Bomb quipped, even as Uberjason raised his blade and Shimmer screamed again.

The mule kick was unexpected, slamming Jason into the air and across the room again, as Mammoth slammed the unstoppable killer away from his sister. Strangely feeling more of an icy numbness then actual pain, Mammoth got up, putting his hand to his stomach and finding it coming away wet with blood.

"Baran!"

"Selinda…" Mammoth said, as his vision swam before him, and he fell back onto his hands and knees, blood dripping from his wounds.

"Come on!" Shimmer said, getting under her brother's arm and hoisting him up, even as Uberjason was getting back up again. "Buzz Bomb, hold him off!"

"But he…"

"DO IT!"

"Yes ma'am!" Buzz Bomb said, as he rose up on his wings, even as Shimmer began dragging her brother to safety. Buzz Bomb flipped open a panel on his bee abdomen, and then he flew at Uberjason.

"Didn't have enough last time huh? I guess you really want to feel the BUZZ!" Buzz Bomb proclaimed, as he fired a spray of lasers at Uberjason and then grabbed and hurled several grenades he apparently had premade earlier and hurling them at the slasher. Uberjason vanished in explosions, and Buzz Bomb flew up near the ceiling and dropped two more bombs down, causing the explosions to triple in size. Luckily by then Shimmer was pulling Mammoth into the next room, as Buzz Bomb flew down to look at his destruction with a mad grin.

"S-U-C-C-E-S-S! That's the way you spell…!"

All aflame, Uberjason walked from the explosions, the fires starting to die immediately, barely noticing that he was even ON fire. Buzz Bomb screamed and fled for the same door Shimmer and Mammoth had exited from, Uberjason following like the approaching of death itself.

"This way!" Nightwalker yelled, as he and Jinx went around the corner of a plus sign shaped hallway and headed down towards the training room, as their foe, who in his own way wanted Nightwalker and Jinx to feel the buzz, continued his chase, the chainsaw roar an ever-familiar sound.

Nightwalker and Jinx made it to the training room, not even noticing the blood stains and scorch marks that marked the battle that had been fought there mere minutes earlier, as Nightwalker began reloading.

"Ok! Step One! We get that chainsaw away from him! Step Two! We hit him until he falls down and doesn't get back up!"

"Sounds like a plan!" Jinx said, as she cracked her neck, shoulders, and knees.

Leatherface charged into the room, waving his chainsaw around before slicing it down at the pair, but no longer hemmed in by the hallway, the two split apart in an acrobatics display. Jinx went in first, kicking Leatherface in the side and then dodging away from his chainsaw swipe, which allowed Nightwalker to shoot him several times in the back, and as the monster squealed in agony Jinx ran in and tried to yank the snarling chainsaw from his grip. Leatherface's eyes, barely visible under his mask of human skin, blazed in response, and he violently yanked the weapon sideways, throwing Jinx away and to the ground. He stalked over and raised his chainsaw, and then Nightwalker flipped over him and kicked him across the face, and as he staggered from the loss of balance Jinx sprang up via her hands and slammed both her feet into Leatherface's gut, and as he then doubled over Nightwalker spun and kicked him on the side of the head. As the psycho fell, Jinx's eyes glowed as she reached out into the chainsaw's mechanisms…and was violently repulsed by some kind of feedback, a feedback that slammed into her head like a jackhammer and nearly knocked her senseless.

Leatherface reared back up and thrust the chainsaw forward.

It grazed Jinx's stomach, as Nightwalker yanked her away and fired the last of his orbs in the current clip into Leatherface's face, sending the lunatic rearing back with the squealing wail that marked his every agony. Nightwalker shot the last orbs of his other clip into Leatherface's hands, trying to break or sever the digits, but the chainsaw blocked most of the shots, and Leatherface quickly lowered it and then charged again, smoke billowing from the weapon.

"We need more room!" Nightwalker said, trying to back up, but Leatherface closed the distance even faster, swinging his chainsaw in a wide low slash, which wouldn't have cut off Jinx's hair horns if she hadn't already lost them to Sil, and glanced off Nightwalker's helmet as he tried to duck, knocking him for a loop. Jinx fired off a hex blast into the chainsaw, causing it to snarl to a halt, and then she leapt and spun, kicking Leatherface in the chest and knocking him back. Nightwalker shook off the brain rattling and he and Jinx ran for it, heading for the next room as Leatherface got his chainsaw working again and headed after the two.

Nightwalker almost stopped when he got into the next room. The place was an utter wreck, as if someone had detonated a large bomb inside it, the walls, floor, and ceiling an utter mess, small fires still burning in some areas.

"Damn! What happened here?" Jinx echoed.

"Don't know, but we can't fight…"

Leatherface lunged from the door, slicing his chainsaw down, and Jinx and Nightwalker sprang away, avoiding the blow as sparks shot from where the weapon grazed the floor.

"Jinx! Next room! We need-AUCK!" Nightwalker gasped as he did a cartwheel flip and started to run…and then his legs plunged through a weakened part of the floor, going up to his knees as he fell down, the limbs twisting painfully and leaving him motionless. Leatherface seized onto the prone target, as Nightwalker got back up from the actual fall and tried to yank himself free. Leatherface's shadow fell over him, and he looked up, the chainsaw reflecting in his helmet, and he snapped up an arm and aimed…

His gauntlet just made a dry clicking sound. He'd forgotten to reload.

Leatherface almost seemed to grin, as he swung down the chainsaw.

Jinx appeared from nowhere, ducking in under Leatherface's range and stopping the slash by blocking Leatherface's arms with her own forearms, her knees nearly buckling under the blocking effort, and sweat broke over her face as she tried to resist Leatherface's lunacy-fueled strength, the chainsaw snarling just above her as she grabbed onto his arms, slick with blood, and tried to push it away, but Leatherface was just too strong, as he drove Jinx down…

Until she adjusted her ankle and kicked him in the balls as hard as she could. There, he was still a man, and as he shrieked/squealed in agony she tightened her grip and shoved up with all her strength while the monster was weakened, ramming the body of the chainsaw into Leatherface's face. Leatherface staggered, and Jinx leapt up and slammed both her heels under his chin, knocking him clear off his feet as Jinx completed her flip. She turned and grabbed Nightwalker, her better positioning providing the leverage needed to yank Nightwalker's legs free.

Nightwalker could only stare at her. She smiled slightly and nodded, and then she was off running, Nightwalker by her side.

Leatherface shook off the blow and got back up. Stubborn meat. He'd take great pleasure tenderizing it.

"Grahhhhhhhhhhhnnnnn…" Gizmo snarled, as he furiously fought with the computer, almost tempted to grab it and start shaking it, yelling 'Speak to me!'. It shouldn't have been this hard. Maybe the computer was faster, but it could only follow its own basic programming, programming Gizmo had written, on top of the fact the computer couldn't improvise. Gizmo hadn't expected it to be easy, but he should have had it under control by now. It was almost as if something was aiding the computer, consciously trying to screw him over…but was that possible? Gizmo remembered the blog entry, what the 'essence' of the films had supposedly done, but there was a world of difference between influencing panicky humans and an unfeeling computer…

It was as if it was getting stronger…

And so Gizmo fought on, ignoring his cramping fingers.

And not noticing the figure as it stepped into the hallway behind him.

Gizmo continued rapidly typing, pausing to wipe the sweat from his brow, and started up again…

And realized that his motion detector was buzzing. His head snapped around.

Nothing. The hallway was empty.

Gizmo stared for another second and then turned back to his work. Must have imagined it.

"Selinda…" Mammoth whispered, and then coughed violently, blood oozing from his mouth.

"This was never a one way partnership Baran. Not when we were kids, and not now." Shimmer replied, trying to be brave for her injured brother, as she dragged him through yet another training room (how many damn rooms did they have? Had they started multiplying like rabbits?), leaving a trail of blood.

Buzz Bomb, er, buzzed through the door after them.

"He just won't go away! No matter how many times I boom him!" The bee teen complained.

"Then jam the door!" Shimmer yelled.

"Great idea!…I have absolutely no idea how to do that."

"Just do it!"

"Deeeeeeee…" Buzz Bomb whimpered, looking around, trying to ignore the approaching form of Uberjason. "Jam it, what can I jam it with, maybe something big…hey he's pretty big…" Buzz Bomb said as he looked at Mammoth.

"THINK HARDER MORON!" Mammoth yelled, and then coughed again, more blood running down his chin.

"The keypad!"

"Right!" Buzz Bomb said, as he ran over to the keypad. "What's the code for 'Keeping Out Psycho Killers'?"

"Just hit buttons until the door reads an error and closes to prevent a break-in!" Shimmer yelled, as she continued to try and drag her brother free. There were two exits, and both were closed, and both their keypads were shattered. But that didn't matter: she could turn the doors to salt or paint or salty paint, anything that was less solid.

Buzz Bomb was frantically punching buttons, trying not to look up, everything would be fine as long as he didn't look up…

He looked up.

Uberjason reached for him.

"AIIIIIIIAAHHHHHHHHH!" Buzz Bomb screamed in a very Chris Tucker like fashion.

The door closed on Uberjason's arm, stopping the grasping fingers an inch away from Buzz Bomb's head. He staggered back, as the arm futilely reached for him.

And Mammoth collapsed, unable to support his own weight any longer.

"Baran!" Shimmer said, trying to get her brother turned over so she could look at his wounds.

"Ha ha ha!" Buzz Bomb said, sticking his tongue out at Uberjason.

Uberjason's other hand reached into the gap and began yanking, forcing the door open a bit and freeing his stuck arm. Buzz Bomb went back to the Chris Tucker scream.

And then a loud buzzing came from the door, and it stopped moving. The magnetic defense had kicked in. Uberjason shoved angrily at the door, but it refused to budge another inch.

"Hah! Neener neener!" Buzz Bomb said, as Uberjason tried a few more times, and then his arms pulled away. "That's right run! You would have found out just how invincible you are! Which would be not enough!"

A tremendous boom rang through the room, and the door dented inward as Uberjason hammered on it. Shimmer suddenly found Buzz Bomb hiding behind her: she had never even seen him move.

"Stop that! You have any medical supplies in that stripy butt of yours?" Shimmer asked.

"Uh well not sure…"

"JUST LOOK AND DO IT BEFORE HE BREAKS IN!"

"Yes ma'am! Geez, following the cliché that the innocent finds hidden reserves of strength, gee, that's a surprise…"

Uberjason continued to crash against the door. The odds were that once he broke in, the first thing he would do was hideously murder Buzz Bomb.

"All right, all right! The classics are best! Geez…"

The sphere lanced for Flay's head.

And exploded as the plasma coil smashed against it, expertly flicked, as Flay finished his corkscrew back-handspring and landed, leaping to the side as he slashed his whip out and sliced a dwarf in half. He fell onto his shoulder, rolled, sprang up, ran for the nearest wall, leapt off it, and spun through the air in a somersault, his whips whirring around him and smacking spheres from the air like flies.

The Tall Man wasn't exactly what you could call impressed, but even he had to admit he had never seen a human boy handle his Sentinels so efficiently and brutally. But this only had one ending…

Flay landed, kicked a nearby dwarf in the head, then ducked under several flying spheres and slashed out, catching all of them in one lash, a series of explosions that blasted behind Flay as he did a no hands cartwheel and backflipped away, expertly keeping his own whips from striking him and avoiding two positron laser blasts, as he sprang to his feet and snapped out both whips, blowing up the two golden spheres that had fired them.

And then a silver sphere rammed into his stomach, and then a second later a dwarf jumped on his back, stabbing a scalpel at his neck. Flay yelled as he grabbed the scalpel, and then screamed as the drill began to piece his skin. He yanked backwards, ramming the scalpel into the dwarf's eye, and as it screamed Flay reached down and yanked the sphere free before it could drill too deep, ramming it into the other eye of the dwarf and then throwing him off his back. But more dwarves came, and Flay could only cut down two before they swarmed him, stabbing and slicing, forcing him down under their weight, fresh blood appearing on his shoulders, arms, and legs, and Flay yelled and screamed…and then he twisted and shifted out of his jacket, the dwarfs all falling into a heap as Flay pulled himself from them. They leapt up, cursing…

One massive whip slash sliced them all to bits. As they fell apart, Flay reached into his now ruined with yellow goo jacket and expertly extracted the two whips he had concealed in there, getting them out and on his body before any spheres could attack him.

A meatgrinder sphere was the first to try, and it was slashed in half, the pieces flying around Flay as he finished resetting his whips and leapt, flying gracefully through the air and dodging spheres along the way. He landed and dove through the nearest door, ending up in another training area. A wide-open training area. Uh oh.

Spheres followed him in, and he slashed them to pieces, and then glanced down at a tiny meter embedded in the hilt. Crap. His energy whips were starting to run low on power, and they were his best weapons. But Flay had more then one trick up his sleeve.

A silver and golden sphere lanced at him, and Flay slashed the silver sphere from the air and then cartwheeled away from the golden one's whirling buzzsaws, as he simultaneously deactivated one whip and yanked another from his arsenal. It was technically his weakest whip: the anti-grav one. By itself, it didn't do much damage. But the special technology built into it allowed anything he wrapped around it to become incredibly light…light enough for Flay to swing it around with ease.

And Flay had a good target idea, as he lashed out, the whip end wrapping around the golden sphere, and as it veered in confusion Flay twisted, grabbed, and yanked, swinging and slamming the golden sphere down into the ground, knocking it dead. But the whip stayed wrapped around it.

And the dwarves were starting to arrive, but they got a nasty surprise, as Flay spun the whip up and lashed it out, his improvised spiked end slamming into the side of a dwarf's head and sending him flying in a spray of yellow goo. Flay backflipped and leapt again to avoid two spheres attacks and smashed them out of the air with his remaining plasma whip, even as he smashed another dwarf in the chest with his improvised bludgeon whip and then actually smacked another sphere from the sky with it.

Blades whirling, a barrage of buzzsaw and armsaw spheres attacked, tearing through the air as Flay. Flay yanked his bludgeon whip back and spun his plasma whip in front of him, forming his own deadly blade.

It cut most of the spheres down. Most.

Two buzzsaw spheres made it through. One missed him entirely, another tore through the bandage on his cheek and sliced open the old wound.

And one armsaw sphere plunged deep into the right side of his chest, boring in, and Flay screamed again, stumbling back as he grabbed at it. The whirring blade hurt almost as much being pulled out as it did going it, and Flay through it to the ground and stomped on it, then spasmed as fresh agony slammed into his chest. That had begun sawing into a rib, he had felt it…

But more spheres and dwarves were coming, he couldn't relent now, block the pain, shove it down, as he rolled away from another armsaw sphere and sprang up. He lashed one of the buzzsaw spheres coming back for another go from the air, bludgeoned a dwarf on the top of his head, spun and slashed two more spheres away, then swung up another arm and smashed another dwarf who was leaping for him from the sky, and then he backed up as he spun his whips around him in a fierce, varying pattern that caught all attackers as they approached, the last of the spheres and dwarves crashing to the ground as Flay finished his last moves and slammed his whips down, his eyes darting about for his next attackers…

And realizing, strangely, there were no spheres around him any more.

What there were was dwarves, emerging from the shadows and from behind things on the outskirts of the room. Damn, there had to be at least fifteen of them, three times the number that had piled on him before. And it was clear they all planned to attack him at once…

When the lone silver sphere attacked him, as it flew through the air, its blades snapping out, going for Flay's head. When he attacked it, all the other dwarves would attack as well, overwhelming the teen, as the sphere flew in…

And right into the lash of another whip, the sphere entangled like its brother had been, but even as Flay did that move the dwarves were charging…

As Flay yanked the whip back, and in a blur of movement he entangled it and the anti-grav/makeshift bludgeon whip together, even as he flicked a switch on the anti-grav whip.

The dwarves closed in.

"Goodness gracious." Flay said, as he grabbed the middle of the entanglement and began spinning it above him with one hand, and then reached up with the other, aiming for another switch.

"Great balls of fire!"

And the whips ignited, Flay's flame whip linked with his anti-grav one, and just before the flame reached his other hand Flay hurled it, and the whirling creation flew off as it fully ignited, Flay having turned the two whips into a gigantic bolo, weighted at each end with a sphere, and kept in the air by the increased anti-grav power.

It tore into the dwarves, slicing and igniting them at the same time, rending through their bodies like they weren't there, some falling dead immediately or some trying to flee as the fire engulfed their body.

Flay turned around as the rear guard attacked, but even as it did the whip spun around Flay, as if it was consciously protecting its master, and began ripping and burning its way through that group as well. One dwarf made it through and attacked Flay, but Flay dodged, kicked it in the chest, whirled around the staggering dwarf, and grabbed his head, loudly breaking his neck as he spun away from the body, as the dervish he had created tore through the last few dwarves. All aflame, another dwarf charged at him in a suicide dash: Flay's eyes narrowed, and then in a blur he uncoiled another whip from his form, lashing out and seizing the dwarf as he stomped, his knife shooting from his boot, and then Flay yanked, pulling the dwarf through the air as he slashed out with his foot and sliced the dwarf's throat open. As it hit the ground, Flay wrapped his normal whip around him and turned away, walking over to his fallen plasma whip where it was melting into the ground, pulling it up…as another flaming dwarf stabbed at his back.

The blur of motion was punctuated by a thunderous crack.

The last dwarf fell in pieces, as the flaming hybrid whip whirled back at Flay, the fire going out, and Flay reached up and seized it with his hand, his gloves protecting him from the heat even as he snapped the plasma whip off, and then in one smooth flowing motion, untangled the flame and anti-grav whips, their spheres ends breaking off in a shower of burned metal.

He glanced at his anti-grav whip: damn. It had been pretty badly messed up with that stunt: probably would have fallen to the ground within a few seconds if Flay hadn't grabbed it when he had. He wrapped it around him, even as he turned around again.

The Tall Man stood there, in the doorway, glaring at Flay, as if he couldn't believe that despite all that had happened Flay was still standing.

In a sense. His body was covered with wounds, and every breath caused a sharp pain to shoot through him. The Tall Man could see this as well.

"You play a good game, boy…" The Tall Man said, as the spheres came, from behind him, dozens and dozens still, staying around their master, waiting for their next order. "But the game is over."

Flay glared balefully.

And then he re-ignited his plasma whip, and as it sizzled Flay brought the flame whip handle to the plasma whip handle. With a snapping noise, they locked together. Out came the electric/sonic whip, out came the other plasma whip, all the handles joining, and even as the Tall Man watched Flay yanked a metal tube from his boot and pulled out his last, normal whip, leaving the anti-grav whip coiled around him, as he snapped the tube over the end of the normal whip, the tube sliding in and splitting apart into five deadly barbed and bladed ends, as Flay slammed the handle of that whip into the other four, and in a whirring of marvelous technology, all five merged into one convenient grip.

Flay had just redefined the cat o' nine tails.

Flay cracked his omega hybrid whip, and then gestured at the Tall Man.

"I haven't BEGUN playing."

The Tall Man's face screwed up.

And then the spheres were flying again, determined to cut Flay down.

The feeling, as Flay lashed out, was mutual.

Wilby had long forgotten where he was, everything lost in the need to run, which is why he found himself stopping as he ran through the latest door.

He was on a bridge above one of the storage rooms, the type used to hold large objects. Which was on the right side of the Hive base. Except Wilby had run so much he was amazed he was still on the right side of the Hive base. Maybe he'd gone in a big circle?

Whatever the case, he couldn't dawdle, as he started across the bridge that spanned the room.

And stopped again in surprise.

What lay below, as mentioned, was mostly large pieces of equipment. Frameworks, generators, and the like. The walkway was just for moving over it: when pieces needed to be removed the drones and students used special anti-grav machines (similar to Flay's whip technology) to lift up the pieces and remove the roof so they could be brought to the trucks and ships that took them to where the actual base was being built. As a result, there wasn't a lot of noise in the room except when they were moving stuff.

And now…there was a lot of noise, as Wilby looked over the edge. His eyes widened in surprise: down near the floor, covering it entirely, were engines, fully assembled and running, powering nothing and seemingly angry about it, as they growled and roared.

Wilby was puzzled: even IF drones had left assembled engines down there, what were they doing on? Without being placed in their proper structure, the engines were dangerous, with numerous ways of grabbing people and sucking them into the clanging gears ala the demonic steam press engine of The Mangler…

And Wilby abruptly remembered why he was running, as he glanced down the hallway he had just come from.

Pyramid Head stood there, as if he had decided to take a time out along with Wilby.

Wilby screamed again (which wasn't much: his voice was getting pretty hoarse) and ran…and found out he shouldn't have been paying attention to the engines: the door at the other end was closed.

Stopping and entering the open code didn't work. Nor did entering any of the codes Wilby knew. By then Pyramid Head was approaching again, slowly, dragging his massive knife behind him, steadily eating up the distance between him and Wilby.

Filled with frustrated fury, Wilby stood back and transformed, and then ripped the whole panel off the wall. That didn't do anything. Digging his hand in just gave him a shock his insulated suit only partly blocked. Growling with a faint undertone of sobs, Wilby attacked the door, trying to get leverage to force it open, shockwaves of pain shooting up his arms as he dented the door slightly and then tried to pry it open…

It buzzed loudly and stopped, opened only a crack. Wilby furiously fought with it, but all the strength in the world didn't matter if you couldn't exert the proper leverage on something. In one final burst of fury, Wilby pounded on the door…it gave, a little, but so did Wilby's hands, as he felt several bones crack, the pain so fierce he lost his concentration and returned to his normal form, staring at his bloody hands, who seemed to mock him with his utter lack of fortitude.

Pyramid Head stepped through the doorway, cutting off Wilby's escape route.

Wilby looked down at his lone remaining escape option: jumping. He immediately realized it was pointless: even if he didn't land on an engine (and that was likely, they were everywhere), the fall would break his legs and leave him trapped down there until he bled to death.

He was completely and utterly trapped, as he looked back at Pyramid Head. He whimpered and then curled up in a ball against the doorway, hoping it was quick.

And Pyramid Head slowly continued to approach…

Nightwalker was aware of a faint recurring booming noise, but he couldn't quite place where it was coming from…

And he didn't get the time, as Leatherface surged from behind him, his snarling chainsaw barely missing Nightwalker's back, as he dodged and flipped away. He fired two shots at Leatherface, but the bastard had his chainsaw back in front of him again and the shots were deflected off it. Jinx threw a hex blast, but Leatherface amazingly dodged it.

"I thought he was retarded!" Jinx yelled.

"That's the original! Remake, who knows!" Nightwalker said, as he looked around the room. Three exits. One somewhat to his left, one more to his left, and one behind him, which if Nightwalker recalled correctly led to the clock tower. But he couldn't see a reason to go that way…

Leatherface gave him one, as he charged once more, stabbing his chainsaw at the teen in black. Nightwalker ducked…and then his luck ran out, as the chainsaw tangled in one of his shoulder 'wingcloths' and seized it, yanking Nightwalker towards Leatherface. Leatherface squealed in demented joy, and while he couldn't actually slice Nightwalker with the chainsaw due to the shoulder cloth jamming his weapon, he could still use it as a bludgeon, and he did, slamming it down on the back of Nightwalker's head and making strange colors appear in his vision as he collapsed at Leatherface's feet. Jinx ran in to help, but Leatherface whacked her with a surprise backhand and she staggered away, as Leatherface pulled at the material entangled in his chainsaw.

He managed to yank it two-thirds of the way out before it started again, shredding what remained as Leatherface tossed the scrap away. With another snarling squeal, he swung up the chainsaw…

Jinx pounced on him, clawing at his eyes and actually biting him on his human skin mask, which succeeded in the plan: distracting Leatherface, as he staggered backwards, and Nightwalker followed through as he expected Jinx wanted him to by doing a twin-kick combo to Leatherface's gut and then shooting him with both gauntlets as Jinx got out of the way, knocking the shrieking lunatic down. Jinx returned to his side, spitting and retching.

"That was a hell of a thing to do."

"I'd expect no less from you, especially considering you seem to attract this shit." Jinx said, spitting once more.

"That's undecided…" Nightwalker replied, and then looked back at Leatherface as he got back up. "What?"

Leatherface charged, and Nightwalker instinctively retreated…and realized Leatherface had cut him off. He'd forced Nightwalker to go the one route the teen knew ended in a dead end, perhaps literally. Had the maniac actually planned for this, or did some dark evil force aid him? Probably the latter, as Nightwalker gestured for Jinx to run for it and the two fled, running through the door that led into the bottom of the clock tower.

Nightwalker noticed that water was running down the walls, a strange thing, but one he could ponder later: Leatherface was on his ass. Jinx started up the stairs, and as she did so Nightwalker turned and emptied what remained of his clips into Leatherface as he came in the doorway after them. It knocked him down, but that just seemed to make him madder, and Nightwalker heard him shriek as the teen started up the stairs after Jinx.

They had made it up two flights and were crossing a small length of floor to the next set when it happened: Jinx stepped too hard on a floorboard overdue to be replaced and it snapped, Jinx screaming as she fell through the floor, much like Nightwalker had before, though with her it was only one leg. Nightwalker hopped over her and turned around.

"Help me!" Jinx said. Nightwalker knelt down.

The roar of the chainsaw sounded, impossibly close, and Nightwalker's head snapped up at the sound. Even with the glass hiding all expression, Jinx could tell he was scared…and she could also sense something else…

Leatherface charged up the stairs, and it seemed indeed a dark evil watched over him: while Jinx's relatively light step had trapped her, Leatherface's heavy stomp did nothing.

Leatherface heard it as he was halfway up the second set.

"NO! NOOOOOOO! YOU BASTARD! YOU BASTARD!" Jinx screamed as Nightwalker fled, leaving her stuck in the flooring, having finally snapped from it all. He'd left Jinx behind to save his own skin, as Jinx furiously tried to free herself.

The shadow loomed over her.

The chainsaw snarled like a demon from hell.

Jinx looked up, fear-brought tears streaking from her eyes, as Leatherface stood over her, and with a satisfied grunt he thrust the chainsaw up.

Jinx's scream echoed through the whole tower.

"Arggggggghhhhhhhh!" Gizmo snarled himself. "I am not losing to a crappy program! You got me! I'll die first!"

Not the wisest choice of words, but Gizmo was too mad to notice, as he continued to battle it out against the obstacle that stood between him and an escape from the base.

He never understood how much the deck was stacked against him.

Thuds continued to ring throughout the room, the door steadily growing more deformed as Uberjason hammered on it, as Buzz Bomb frantically searched in his bee abdomen for medicine of any kind, at Shimmer's insistence of course.

"…cough drops, Pepto Bismol, a copy of Al Snow's last good match, pack of gum, only known nude photo of Halle Berry, last week's newspaper…hey wait I got it, a nine letter word for 'mass killing' that starts with b is bloodshed…"

"KEEP SEARCHING!"

"Oh geez, man, I should be paid more for this! Or even paid at all. WILL YOU STOP THAT BANGING, I CAN'T HEAR MYSELF THINK!" Buzz Bomb yelled at the door.

"No that's just normal for you: means there's nothing there." Mammoth muttered, and Buzz Bomb glared at him and dug around some more. "Ahhhhh, there we are!" He said, extracting a roll of gauze. Shimmer grabbed it and unraveled it a bit before she pressed it to Mammoth's wound.

"Well I'm done see you later…" Buzz Bomb said, getting up and starting to walk away before Shimmer grabbed him and yanked him back down.

"Help me with this!"

"But I hate the sight of blood!"

"Then how have you lasted all evening?"

"…Sudden case of deuteranopia?"

"JUST HELP ME!"

And the door continued to slowly be kicked in.

The epiphany, like many, was sudden, unexpected and absolute: Wilby realized he was going to die.

Well, he'd had a pretty general idea of that before, but now it fully crystallized in his vision. And he found it no longer scared him, nor did it seem peaceful. Rather, it offended him. Offended him a great deal.

It seemed like everyone was always on his back. Sabotage bullied him and got away with it. Platinum Blonde treated him like her own personal servant. Blood was never happy with how much he could lift or push, he was always furious that one punch from a drone could take Wilby out. And of course, Juryrig hadn't even noticed he'd left him behind, and Mammoth thought of him as nothing more then a hindrance. And now here he was, cowering, waiting for a death that he prayed would be peaceful but he knew wouldn't be, because he'd seen what Pyramid Head had done to Zippy.

And he'd just roll over and take that too.

…TO HELL HE WOULD.

Pyramid Head showed absolutely no change in expression when Wilby got up: he was about 2/3 of the way across the walkway by now and still continued to approach (though one could argue he couldn't show any expression anyway: he did have a huge bloodstained metal pyramid covering his head, after all), dragging his knife, the knife he would use on Wilby…

If Wilby didn't use it on him first, as he concentrated and transformed, returning to his massive strong form. Enough running away. Time to fight!

And fight Wilby did, as he swung out a fist the size of Pyramid Head's whole upper body. It would have caved in a car.

One wouldn't say Pyramid Head didn't budge, but whatever he was made of, it was clearly much much denser then a human body. The blow did stop him, even made him stagger back a step…but that was it.

Pyramid Head almost seemed to cock his head at Wilby, though considering how huge his head covering was tiny motions were pretty hard to catch.

Then he started raising his knife.

Wilby kicked him, again like it was striking a solid wall, as Pyramid Head slowly, slowly lifted his knife, as Wilby kicked him again…and then the knife came slashing down. It grazed Wilby's leg as he retracted it, but the knife was so heavy and sharp it still cut fairly deeply, and Wilby yelled in pain and went down, clutching his knee. The giant blade clanged down on the floor in front of Pyramid Head, and he slowly started to walk forward again, dragging the knife for another strike.

Wilby slammed his hand forward in a palm strike, hitting Pyramid Head dead center. The shock radiated up his arm, and once again Pyramid Head barely budged. It was like he was reflecting Wilby's own blow back at him, as Wilby staggered back, holding his aching arm and then his bleeding leg. Pyramid Head approached, as he started lifting his knife again.

Wilby punched him in the head. That only succeeded in breaking a finger or two, and Wilby recoiled again with a yell, as Pyramid Head brought his knife up…

And slashed down.

Wilby caught it.

The weight of the blade seemed to affect even him, digging into his palm, sending blood shooting out from between his fingers, but for once Wilby tried to ignore the pain, block it out, because he was strong, he had the strength of a thousand men, and if one man had bested this demon then he sure COULD…!

He yanked the knife free from Pyramid Head's hands, and somehow that made the demon stagger, as if he'd lost a part of himself, even as Wilby opened his blood-encrusted hand and transferred the knife to the other one, the huge blade more like a normal sword to the giant, and he knew just what to do with the knife.

He gave it back to Pyramid Head.

Blade first.

Down through his namesake.

The blade bit deep, and within the giant helmet some kind of dark liquid began to ooze, but Wilby wasn't paying attention to that, as he surged forward, grabbing up the monster, holding his shockingly cold body in his hands…

For a moment, he felt a terrible sense of regret.

And then he hurled Pyramid Head off the walkway, down towards the roaring engines.

And one found him. A snarling, ripping, breaking sound tore through the room as Pyramid Head fell onto one, and like a living thing it consumed him, though it destroyed itself in the process.

Rhinoceros Beetle lowered his hurting arms, taking a deep breath and letting it out. He glanced at the ceiling.

"You and me James." Wilby said, referring to the main character of Silent Hill 2. "You and me."

And then it hit him all over again, as Wilby remembered something else. About the game Pyramid Head had come from, how he tied into the main character…and how it tied into Wilby's actions.

Pyramid Head did try to kill you, but he also served an important plot function. His function was to make the main character, James Sunderland, realize something. To do this, he committed several foul deeds, deeds you only understood in retrospect, deeds that mirrored the actions of James…

Including the part where James had to…

Wilby whirled away from the balcony.

He never saw the spear as it jabbed out and pierced through his chest.

It was strangely painless, as Wilby's jaw went slack, as he looked at Pyramid Head, the second Pyramid Head, having seemingly come from thin air, from where Wilby had been crouching moments before…and it had come from thin air. Because Wilby had just created him.

Pyramid Head was a creature created to punish, a creature that mirrored what the creator desired. Zippy had, through her cruel treatment, desired to die…and Pyramid Head had granted that wish. But Wilby had shed no blood. He hadn't even thrown a punch at anything beforehand. If anything, he had helped poor Floral go onto her rest.

And Wilby realized that he hadn't just been fleeing in terror, running like a coward. He had been trusting his gut, the subconscious process that told him he wasn't supposed to fight Pyramid Head. He was supposed to run, supposed to escape…and Wilby knew, somehow, that if he chosen to do nothing, had he remained cowering on the floor, Pyramid Head would have stopped before him, perhaps observed him a bit, and then turned and walked away, no reason given for its purpose.

Until Wilby had had his epiphany, and given Pyramid Head a reason to strike him down. Murder.

Just like how the first Pyramid Head had been the representation of a murder James had done. And just like how a second had emerged when James in the course of the game had been forced to kill someone else.

And how Pyramid Head only truly died when you accepted this fact, instead of battling them in a metaphor of denying it.

His epiphany had been false. He'd been perfectly, and cruelly tricked.

And it had killed him.

The spear was removed, and Wilby collapsed, his body shrinking back to normal. He was struck once more on how there was no pain, just a terrible coldness.

What had tricked him? What had forced the thoughts into his head that he should have fought back? What had lured him to his death?

Horror films had characters acting stupid: they rarely had them tricked into doing it…

And as the darkness began to crawl into his vision, Wilby had another realization.

It was growing stronger.

It had been let back into the world, and the longer it remained, the stronger it grew. To the point where it could not just send out agents of deaths, and not just suggest the actions of those they sought out…but deliberately lead them into their clutches.

And as Wilby's vision grew ever darker, out of the corner of his eye he saw Pyramid Head standing nearby, setting his spear on the ground. His purpose was done, the sins were punished, and now it had only one course left.

Self-destruction, as it impaled its body on its own spear. It shuddered and then went still.

Wilby's last thoughts were pity for what remained of the Hive…and the world, if this curse could not be contained here. After all, the darkness of movies was fleeting and fake. The darkness of life was nearly infinite.

Wilby's death rattle escaped him, as blood slowly began to pool around his body, even as Pyramid Head faded away, his part in the drama over.

And the darkness in the room almost seemed to shift, flowing away, the engines shutting off, as the darkness flowed to the door and left, leaving Wilby's body behind.

It can be so easy to decide what to do based on looks, as Leatherface's chainsaw swung up.

Jinx screamed in terror.

The chainsaw came down.

And the scream abruptly cut off.

"Sucker." Jinx said,

She pulled her leg from the floor, her trapped position revealed to be herself holding in the hole, as she dove to the side, barely avoiding the chainsaw. Nightwalker hadn't run and left her to die. He'd pulled her free and then suggested that maybe she could act like she was still trapped. Jinx had agreed and done a marvelous job.

Looks can be deceiving.

The chainsaw bit into the floor, spewing sawdust, and Jinx hurled a hex blast into the spray, causing it to spray up even higher and into Leatherface's face, the maniac recoiling as the wood dust burned his eyes, and then Jinx kicked him in the side of the knee as hard as she could, causing Leatherface to stumble, but he still had hold of his chainsaw, yanking it free, still whirling, and Jinx was in a very small space, easy prey…and refusing to be so, as she kicked Leatherface in the knee again and then leapt up and kicked him in the face, making him lose his balance and crash against the banister, his chainsaw over the edge.

As Nightwalker leapt from a higher stairwell, bounced off another, and came down with a vicious downward kick, his foot slamming against the chainsaw body as Leatherface began lifting it again, and with a clear snapping noise of fingers breaking the chainsaw was wrenched from Leatherface's hand, tumbling down to the bottom of the stairs, as Leatherface squealed in pain, even as Nightwalker, in an amazing bit of balance, landed on the railing that Leatherface's arm had dangled over and with a quick step and leap he had positioned himself behind him, where he fell to the floor…

(With a loud cracking sound that he registered at the end of his thoughts…)

And kicked Leatherface in the back of his knees. The knees began to buckle, even as Jinx swung back and slammed her whole arm against Leatherface's throat, and the lunatic went down…

(Another crack…)

As Nightwalker swung up, leapt up, and brought his knee down on Leatherface's face. He heard something else break, though he couldn't tell what.

And then the cracking sound grew much larger, and Nightwalker and Jinx looked at each other as they finally realized what the stairwell was trying to tell them: they shouldn't have fought on it. And now it was giving up the ghost.

Jinx ran backwards even as Nightwalker leapt forward, as the floor gave out from under them and the whole section behind them broke off and crashed to the ground, taking Leatherface with it.

And the two crashed into each other and fell down, Nightwalker once again on top of Jinx.

"We have to stop meeting like this." Nightwalker said.

"Yeah." Jinx replied, a bit more breathy then she'd like, as Nightwalker got off her and she sat up.

And screamed. A hand was hanging onto the side, a hand that was joined by another and then a face, as Leatherface began pulling himself up from where he'd grabbed the edge, blood pouring from the mouth of his mask.

"Doesn't seem to care for giving up does he?" Nightwalker said, as Leatherface yanked his upper body onto the landing. Jinx started for him and was pulled back to her surprise. "No, this area's too unstable. Let's go up to the clock tower: we can finish him off in there."

Jinx realized the intelligence of the decision and nodded, and the two headed up the stairs, even as Leatherface fully pulled himself up and stood up. He mewled in sorrow, looking down the one and a half stories where his chainsaw lay under a small pile of rubble. If he went down to get it, he'd never get back to the meat. But how, as he started forward, pulling himself up the stairs, could he get the meat without something to cut it with or…

It clattered at his feet. Leatherface looked down.

The meat was tough, but he had friends. He would make sure his family got a great meal, even if they weren't here now…

Nightwalker saw where the water was coming from: the whole top of the clock tower was partially flooded, water coming from everywhere, including blowing in from a hole in the wall (where had that come from?) and leaking through the badly cracked clock face. The water was due to the storm that still raged outside and the fact that Mammoth's blow that had 'dealt' with Uberjason had rattled open all the plugs and fixed parts that Brother Blood had had students install earlier. Of course, the only reason it was wet at all was because Gizmo had shut down the shield and let the rain in, not that Nightwalker knew that.

Nightwalker looked around a few seconds, and then conveyed the plan he had concocted with a few gestures. Jinx understood, and as Nightwalker slipped away into the darkness she stepped in front of the ladder. When Leatherface emerged, she would distract him and lure him in, and then Nightwalker would jump him from behind, and they'd take care of him.

She heard the ladder creak. He was coming up. Good. She'd meet him with pain when he arrived.

Never realizing he had the exact same plan for her, as a figure started to loom over the top…

And then the sledgehammer flew forward, Jinx's eyes going wide before it caught her in the forehead. Leatherface began yanking himself up: the angle hadn't been good enough for him to do any serious damage but he'd knocked her for a loop, as he pulled himself onto the floor and stood up, Jinx lying dazed as he reached down for the sledgehammer, the weapon Jinx had never expected, and neither had Nightwalker from where he stood on the other side of the hole, shocked. Where had he gotten that sledgehammer? Had he just pulled it out of his ass?

Never knowing that there was all kinds of equipment lying around the clock tower, equipment that Shimmer had found herself. Who's to say that there wasn't another sledgehammer lying around, one that someone had made sure fell into the wrong hands…

Nightwalker didn't bother pondering, as he jumped up on the ledge and leapt over the hole that led down through the middle of the floor, the barrier ledge surrounding it, as he landed on Leatherface's back, trying to keep him away from Jinx. Leatherface struggled furiously as Nightwalker pounded on him, even shooting an orb into his shoulder, but this time Leatherface had the advantage as he leaned down, scooped up his sledgehammer, and brought it up into Nightwalker's face, the blow glancing off his helmet but still knocking him off the maniac, and as he crashed to the floor, Leatherface turned back to Jinx, who was rising, her eyes still a bit dazed…

"JINX!" Nightwalker screamed.

Leatherface swung the sledgehammer.

Jinx still had enough sense to dodge backwards, but not enough, as the sledgehammer slammed into her arms and sent her stumbling…

"JINX!"

The clock face, weakened, shattered when Jinx slammed into it, her momentum carrying her backwards into the open air, as a scream tore from her throat…

And then she fell.

"NO!" Nightwalker screamed as he flipped up…and went right into a swinging roundhouse blow from Leatherface. He also dodged it, but got shoved back enough to crash into the wooden barrier that surrounded the hole, the wood cracking dangerously as Leatherface turned away from him and headed for the shattered clock face.

Where Jinx hung, holding onto the edge for dear life, trying to ignore the bits of glass digging into her fingers or the rain now soaking her form, as she looked up, hoping against hope it was Nightwalker…

And screaming when she saw it was Leatherface, as he contemplated her for a bit and then raised the sledgehammer. He could pick up her remains later…

Nightwalker rammed into Leatherface from behind with a jumping knee lift, trying to knock Leatherface right out the window after Jinx, but luck was not on his side: instead of going straight out Leatherface went to the left as he went forward…and slammed into the metal framework that held up the clock arms and mechanisms. The impact finally finished Mammoth's job, as the whole clock tower face disintegrated and the mechanism flew apart, gears and the arms tumbling past Jinx, glass raining down around her as well…

A large piece sliced open her shoulder, and her fingers lost their grip, and she fell, screaming…

And grabbing onto a snarl of chains that had come out of the shattered clock mechanism, chains that now dangled into thin air and gave Jinx something to hold onto, barely, as she slipped down a bit before stopping, her fingers turning white as she tried to hold on.

"Help! Help!" She cried, even as Nightwalker spun Leatherface around, rammed a powerful punch into his gut, and as he started doubling over grabbing him and flipping him over his body, slamming the cannibal into the ground as Nightwalker flipped back over Leatherface, slamming his knees into his chest before he reared up and slammed both fists into Leatherface's face, now slick with blood.

"NOW STAY DOWN!" Nightwalker said, and became aware of Jinx's cries as he pushed off Leatherface and ran over to the edge. "Llarenes!"

"Nightwalker help me!"

"I gotcha!" Nightwalker said, getting down on his stomach and stretching out. Jinx reached for him, and then she slipped farther down the chains with a shriek, the rain soaking the metal links and making them slippery.

"Don't panic Jinx! Just climb up a bit and take my hand!" Nightwalker said, reaching out further. Shivering, Jinx tried to climb the chains, ignoring her pain, her fear…and she did it, hauling herself up twice to put herself in reach of Nightwalker's hand. He reached out.

Their fingers touched…

And then intertwined, as Nightwalker seized her hand and started to pull Jinx up, as she looked relieved…

And then screamed again.

The sledgehammer slammed into the back of Nightwalker's head, knocking him flat on his stomach and chest, his grip slipping from Jinx as she lost it and slid back down the chains, and even as Nightwalker tried to get back up Leatherface brought the wooden handle of the sledgehammer around his head and clenched it against his throat, yanking Nightwalker back as he futilely tried to reach Jinx, Leatherface choking the life out of him as he hauled him away from Jinx's vision.

As she slipped again, sliding down the chains, stopping near the last fifth of the length, spinning in the air, as she screamed again, trying to hold on, but the chains were so slick…

Nightwalker furiously fought with Leatherface as he yanked him around, despite the screaming pressure in his lungs and the horrific grip around his neck, feeling his muscles start to hyperextend in the prelude of his neck being snapped, and he fought and clawed and tried to shoot Leatherface but he couldn't get the right angle for any blow on any part of his body…

The answer was so simple that when it occurred to him he nearly shot himself afterward, as he reared up and stomped as hard as he could on Leatherface's foot.

That loosened the grip, just enough, for Nightwalker to elbow Leatherface in the side, then slammed his helmet into his face, as he broke out of the sledgehammer choke and whirled around…

And the scream filled his ears, long and drawn out, and even as Nightwalker's heart seized up as he realized what it was his body continued what it had been ordered to do, kneeing Leatherface in the balls.

"JINX!" Nightwalker said, even as he leapt up and roundhoused Leatherface across his face in the final phase of his 'autopilot', the killer stumbling away as Nightwalker ran for the edge.

Gone.

Jinx was gone.

There was no sign of her below, but Nightwalker knew she couldn't teleport. He'd been too late, and Jinx had paid the price.

No…he'd been delayed.

His fist clenched as hard as he could, even as he turned around to face the rising Leatherface, the killer that hadn't even needed his chainsaw to do the job.

"…What is it with you?" Nightwalker growled. "You seek me out? You want me? You want my blood? You want my skin?"

Leatherface squealed as he brought the sledgehammer back up.

Nightwalker was up close and pounding on his face before Leatherface knew what was going on, the blitzkrieg staggering him.

"HERE'S MY SKIN! HAVE IT! HAVE A GOOD LONG TASTE!" Nightwalker screamed as he slammed blow after blow into Leatherface's mouth. Leatherface finally tried to grab Nightwalker again, but the teen did a full split and punched Leatherface in the gut, then rolled backwards, leapt up, ejecting his clips in mid-air, and slamming new ones in and aiming as Leatherface looked at him.

The orbs barraged him, driving him back, making him drop the sledgehammer as they bit into his form, fresh blood, his blood, springing up, as Nightwalker fired until he ran out of ammo. He walked forward, ejecting the clips as he scooped up the sledgehammer, Leatherface putting down his arms to be able to see after Nightwalker's barrage…

Nightwalker slammed the sledgehammer across his face, a spray of blood and broken teeth coming from the blow, even as Nightwalker brought the hammer back, reared it up, and slammed the wooden handle down across his knee, breaking it. He stepped up, kicking Leatherface in the gut, then backhanding him across the face, then side kicking him in the shoulder, then roundhouse kicking him across the face, attacking too fast for Leatherface to interrupt, as the maniac staggered backwards…

He bumped up against the barricade around the hole, and perhaps understanding what was happening, finally, he shoved off it with a violent, inhuman shriek.

"Go back to the land of fucking make believe." Nightwalker snapped.

And he leapt, spun, and smashed his foot right between Leatherface's eyes, sending the psycho cannibal stumbling back again and crashing through the barricade, tumbling down into the stairwell, a long wailing shriek cutting off as Leatherface smashed and crashed against the stairways on the way down, ending with one final crash, and then dead silence.

Nightwalker lowered his arms as the rain poured in through the massive hole behind him, the wind causing what was left of his shoulder-wings to dance in the wind.

He turned and walked back to the shattered clock face, looking down as if doing so might cause Jinx to miraculously reappear. But she didn't. Nightwalker pressed a button on his helmet and zoomed in, trying to see any sign of her.

Only a flash of lightning allowed him to see it: a hole in the roof, the inside too dark with shadows to see.

And blood on the roof around the hole.

She was gone. As tough as she was, even she couldn't have survived the fall.

"…I'm sorry Llarenes." Nightwalker said, as he turned and walked away.

He never even noticed the rain suddenly vanishing, as if someone had flicked a switch.

Gizmo stared at the computer screen for a long moment, then lowered his head in disbelief.

He'd lost. The computer had kicked him out, locked him out, and reversed the changes he had made. He'd been beaten by a machine. Not to mention that meant he and his friends were locked in here until the power ran out, which wouldn't be for hours. Considering their situation, it could very well be days.

Gizmo had his own way of speaking and insulting, but at the moment he recalled a quote from somewhere: 'If you're going to express an ambiguous, ugly brutal feeling, sometimes it is necessary to use ambiguous, ugly brutal language'.

Gizmo felt that way.

"Shit." He said.

He stared at the computer a few more seconds, and then snapped it closed and tossed it on the floor. It was useless to him now, as he stood up, stretched his legs, and began pondering what his next course of action should be.

And then he heard them, a strange series of repeating noises off in the distance. He cocked his head, trying to figure them out. Sounding like repeated thuds.

His hands blurred, and Gizmo was suddenly holding another large gun. He may have already exhausted his best, but he still had a lot of firepower at his disposal.

Pity the creature that found him first.

The trip down the clock tower was slow going, due to the now rather delicate nature of the stairs. Nightwalker made the trip carefully, not wanting to fall and break an ankle. That was the last thing he needed.

Leatherface's body lay at the bottom, covered with some wood. Nightwalker hopped down next to him, debating whether or not to spit on the body, decided it was pointless, and turned and started walking.

And stopped.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

It wasn't over.

As Leatherface rose from where he lay, pieces of wood falling off him, as he reached down and pulled his chainsaw from beneath the wreckage, and despite his injuries, he somehow still stood, as he yanked on the chainsaw and restarted it with another roaring snarl.

Nightwalker turned around. For some reason, he was not surprised.

"All right then." He said. "Let's finish this."

Leatherface charged, as if he didn't feel his wounds, as if all he felt was the need to make Nightwalker feel the buzz.

"All right we're done! Let's get him out of here!" Shimmer said, as she tried to lift her brother.

"Hey! That wasn't in my contract either!" Buzz Bomb said.

And the door finally came smashing down. Buzz Bomb screamed and left Shimmer as he ran for the door, trying to get it to open, as Shimmer yelled at him and tried to drag her brother by herself. Mammoth helped, but it was minimal, as Uberjason started across the room after them.

The chainsaw dug into the metal floor, sparks flying as Nightwalker flipped backwards and shot Leatherface in the shoulder. Leatherface squealed, as he always did, blood flying from his mouth, but he shrugged off the blow and kept after Nightwalker, trying to shove his chainsaw into his face and forcing Nightwalker to retreat again. The chainsaw swung through the air, and Nightwalker ducked under it and kneed Leatherface in the stomach, then elbowed him in the head, then danced back as the chainsaw swung at him again, nipping his chest and taking a bit of armor with it. He leapt backwards to avoid the next slash and realized he had leapt through a door and was now in a hallway. He glanced behind himself for some reason, and then jerked back as Leatherface charged at him.

Nightwalker shot him in the knee, and as he fell he kicked him across the face. But Leatherface, as usual, didn't stay down long, and he was up and swinging again, forcing Nightwalker back.

"Ah! Let me out! Let me out! I don't have time for the secret knock!" Buzz Bomb said, pounding and clawing at the door.

"Buzz! Come help me! I can melt the door! Just help me move Baran!" Shimmer yelled.

"Oh right!" Buzz Bomb said, as he flew over to Mammoth…and then Uberjason's shadow fell over him. "OH WRONG!" He yelled, fleeing back to the door.

"BUZZ BOMB!" Shimmer said, as she dragged her brother another step…and then looked behind her.

Uberjason was almost on her, and he was clearly moving faster then her.

And for some reason, she stopped, dropped Mammoth, and stood up before Uberjason, holding up her hands.

"STOP!" She yelled.

Uberjason stopped.

Buzz Bomb's eyes nearly bugged out through his helmet.

"…Go away!" She said.

"If this works, I will eat my next bomb." Buzz Bomb said.

Then the door slid open.

And Uberjason apparently decided that whatever Shimmer was trying wasn't going to harm him, as he took another step forward and raised his machete. Shimmer screamed and threw herself over Mammoth's form.

And the rail driver slammed into Uberjason's chest, throwing him across the room and pinning him to the wall.

"For the sake of crud, didn't I KILL YOU?" Gizmo snapped, as he pulled out a miniature length of metal and inserted it into the setup he had for his gun, as the length of metal first enlarged from a shrinking/expanding ray and then was seized by the magnetic field as Gizmo charged up the gun, aimed, and fired again, another rail driver piercing through Uberjason.

"Gizmo! It's good to see you!" Buzz Bomb said. "At least you'll be here when I unleash my ultimate revenge!" He quickly added.

"What?" Gizmo said.

"Nothing nothing!"

"You said something about revenge?"

"Um…yes?"

"You mean on the Titans right?"

"Yes yes the Titans!" Buzz Bomb said. "For starters." He added in a whisper, one Gizmo didn't hear as he walked up to Shimmer and Mammoth.

"Mikron!" Shimmer said. Gizmo grimaced.

"Never thought…you'd still be alive…I thought the annoying ones…died first in horror films." Mammoth sputtered.

"How do you explain him then?" Gizmo said, pointing to Buzz Bomb. Buzz Bomb protested, but Gizmo was already ignoring him. "These wounds are bad. Can you walk Mammoth?"

"Enough."

"There's a med station nearby. I'll take you…"

"Problem!" Buzz Bomb yelled, and Gizmo looked up.

As Uberjason yanked the final rail driver shot from his body, and then, eyes burning with fury, he once again began to advance.

The chainsaw missed his head by an inch, and Nightwalker had to slam Leatherface's arm up to get it away from him before he fired three solid punches into Leatherface's chest, his hand coming away slick with blood as he dodged away, the chainsaw slicing into the wall on his left with another spark eruption.

Leatherface kept coming, making that inhuman squeal. Despite all he'd been through, Nightwalker couldn't help but pity the creature. He was human only in the most rudimentary of senses, more like a creature of vicious impulse and manipulative cruelty, a monster but not one at his core. In his own way, he was a victim.

That wouldn't raise any mercy within him though, as Leatherface swung his chainsaw up and slashed it down at Nightwalker.

Nightwalker didn't flee this time: he ran in and grabbed the chainsaw by the body, stopping the downward slash, all his muscles clenching up as he took the brunt of Leatherface's ruthless strength. But it was a strength lessened by brutal injuries, while Nightwalker's was fuelled by cold rage, as the two fought over the chainsaw, the blade snarling between them, Leatherface shrieking at Nightwalker while Nightwalker's impassive face stared back…

There was an inscription upon the blade, Nightwalker realized, now that he was so close. THE SAW IS FAMILY.

And Nightwalker knew all too well the burden of family. A blessing…a curse…with BITE!

Nightwalker shoved with all his might, and the blade plunged into Leatherface's torso, tearing into his flesh, drawing the loudest shriek yet from the maniac, as he stumbled back, pulling the chainsaw from the gushing wound, blood pouring down from the diagonal gore that ran from the upper right part of his chest to the upper left part of his stomach, blood spraying from the still whirling blade, even as Nightwalker danced back, his hand going to his belt…

And still fueled by his own insane rage, Leatherface raised the chainsaw and charged once more, swinging down at Nightwalker.

Nightwalker dodged to the side, and as the chainsaw swung down he dodged in again, left hand reaching out, and then he actually seized Leatherface's wound and yanked it open, a horrifying squeal coming from the psycho as Nightwalker raised his other hand and pressed the short timer button on his detonator.

"Feel the BANG!" Nightwalker snapped, and shoved the detonator into the wound.

The chainsaw swung back up, as Nightwalker flipped away, turned, and dove on the floor, as Leatherface raised his weapon and screamed to the heavens…

And exploded, his body disintegrating into a shower of gore and viscera that sprayed all over the hallway and all over Nightwalker. His chainsaw clattered to the ground, sputtering out.

Slowly, Nightwalker rose up, looking back at where Leatherface had been and then looking utterly disgusted at the mess that covered him, shaking his arms and head in an attempt to get it off.

"I HATE blood." Nightwalker muttered, as he sloughed off what he could of the gore.

And realized something.

The chainsaw was still there.

Nightwalker stared at it.

The chainsaw remained there.

That might not be so surprising, except Nightwalker remembered what had happened to the Nemesis. When he was dead, he vanished, every part of him.

Yet Leatherface's chainsaw remained.

Nightwalker continued to stare.

It continued to stay on the ground, as if taunting him.

And Nightwalker came to realize what Wilby had and Gizmo suspected.

It was getting stronger.

No wonder a human like Leatherface could endure so much.

The person in charge wanted him too.

And then, off in the distance, Nightwalker heard the noise.

Another battle.

And Nightwalker found his bloodthirst wasn't quite slaked.

Nightwalker walked forward, grabbing up the chainsaw as he did so. If they wanted to hang around…

He pulled the cord. It roared to life.

Then he'd use it to hang them all.

Uberjason had taken approximately five steps when the third rail driver slammed into his body and pinned him to the wall again.

"How many of those do you have?" Buzz Bomb asked.

"One more on me, one stuck in my boot for emergencies. Plus a fair amount of other ammo: maybe if we're lucky it'll do him in!"

"Oh please! I boomed him three times! You know what that did? NADA." Buzz Bomb complained.

"SHUT UP AND HELP ME CRAPFACE!" Gizmo snapped, and Buzz Bomb yelped and began firing lasers at the prone Uberjason, who was trying to get the third rail driver out of him. "Shimmer, get Mammoth to the medical center. Lock yourself in. If I don't come back in fifteen minutes, stay there. We can't get out of the base."

"Why not?"

"Because it cheated!" Gizmo snapped cryptically, as Uberjason yanked out the third rail driver. He started coming forward again.

The forth went low and knocked him on the ground rather then back, as Shimmer began helping her brother out the door. Gizmo cursed as Uberjason started getting up again, as Buzz Bomb landed next to him.

"Hey Gizmo, I have an idea! Remember that force field you used on me last April Fools? The one even Wilby couldn't break through?"

"Yeah."

"Do you have it?"

"Yes. I did." Gizmo said, and pointed at Uberjason. "HE broke it."

"…Running time!" Buzz Bomb said, as he turned and flew away.

"HEY! YOU CRUDDIN SHIT! COME BACK YOU…ARGH!" Gizmo cursed as Buzz Bomb flew past Shimmer and Mammoth and disappeared down the hallway. "Baran! Selinda! Keep going! I'll handle Ugly here! I hope…" Gizmo said, as his rail gun began to convert into another weapon: Gizmo didn't have the time to open up his boot before Uberjason reached him. The gun having transformed into twin laser weapons, Gizmo opened fire on Uberjason with a barrage of hot plasma blasts, even as his backpack shifted behind him.

Uberjason continued to approach.

A storm of mini missiles flew from the backpack and slammed into Uberjason, and then a large cannon extracted from the apparatus, aimed, and fired another gigantic energy blast, the shockwave of which knocked Gizmo on his rear. He scrambled up, glancing behind him. Mammoth and Shimmer were gone: good. Now if only…

Uberjason walked out, shot to shit once more and ignoring it as he always did. Gizmo's heart sank. No matter what he did, Uberjason just kept coming. What was it with horror villains? What would work? Overwhelming firepower didn't work, giant explosions didn't work, electricity didn't work, what was needed? Something symbolic?

The orb slammed into Uberjason's head. Gizmo arched an eyebrow.

Uberjason turned to see the source of the attack, and then the snarling roar sounded up as the smoke cleared.

"You again." Nightwalker said. "Well I've already avenged Jinx. May as well start on what you did to Zippy." Nightwalker said, and lifted the roaring chainsaw. "Remember what Tommy did to you? You'll wish he was me."

"Selinda…" Mammoth whispered, as Shimmer dragged her brother down the hallway.

"Just hang on Baran, I know first aid, I can patch you up…"

"Leave me…"

"No!"

"I said I'd get you out…one way or another…I'll just slow you down…"

"Baran, shut up." Shimmer said as she dragged her brother into a room of some sort. "We're both getting out. We always made the most important decisions together. And that's the way it's going to be for a very…long…time…" Shimmer trailed off as she saw who was standing in the doorway.

Her heart went cold. She knew who that was. Knew his white mask.

He stood there, looking at them. He'd observed long enough. Time to kill.

After all, it wouldn't be Halloween without him.

Shimmer looked in sheer terror on the face of Michael Myers.

And the piano music began to play…