A/n: Right, I have scared myself writing this. From a fic challenge from Scarab Dynasty. It was supposed to be a drabble though… but I think it turned out a little long.

Challenge: Quote: "Things seem to have gotten out of hand" include the words/attributes "demon" and "television"

Disclaimer: No, none of them are mine.

Out of Hand

"Things seem to have gotten out of hand…" Random commented bluntly.

Ace couldn't agree more. They all stared at the portal that now covered half the sky. Kilobyte hadn't had all the pieces of the amulet, but with the Master Programmer's help he'd managed to create this.

"Damn…" muttered Mark, eyes fixed on the portal, which now began to spew out a dark cloud of flying creatures. They were still too far away to see clearly, but they would arrive soon enough. And when the portal touched the dirt of the earth, there would be more, one's that didn't need wings to carry them towards the planet they were about to ravage and destroy.

Sparx's sword clinked as it was drawn out of thin air. "I guess we'd better start kicking some butt…"

Ace didn't reply. As much as he was trying to fight it, fear was growing inside of him. There were too many creatures to fight. They couldn't save this world by destroying every single minion that got in. They'd be destroyed before they'd gotten though the first legion, and there was a hundred times that on the horizon already. It doesn't matter if I go down anyway. None of us are really real. None of them deserved to exist; they had as much right to life as the demons swarming towards them from the depths of the sixth dimension – the game. As if finding that out hadn't hurt enough, as things had started to get worse Mark had told him about considering deleting everything at one stage. Only because things had gotten so bad, that he hadn't seen any other way Mark had quickly tried to explain. But, he hadn't, he'd pointed out to Ace's angry expression, desperate to get the point across that he'd started without thinking.

"I'm sorry for what I tried to do, Ace. But I stopped. I couldn't go thought with it. The point is we still won. I guess it isn't over until it's over or something, but we can still win this. I know it looks bad, but we've still got a chance."

That was before the portal had opened in the sky.

"Ace…?" Random asked, when Ace made no attempt to reply to Sparx.

"Okay…" Ace finally said. "We'll go kick some butt."

"Yes!" said Sparx, almost unfazed by the fact she was certain to go down fighting. Perhaps she was choosing to think more about the fighting. She leapt on the Lightning Flash and tore up into the sky, racing to engage the minions before they reached the earth.

Ace stood and watched her go.

"Ace, what are you planning?" Random asked. The Knight was unsure, Random could tell.

Ace seemed to think for a moment, glancing over at Mark and Chuck beside him. "Just take out as many evils as you can, okay Random?"

Random stared hard at Ace. That didn't sound like much of a plan.

"Just do what I tell you, alright?" Ace snapped when Random didn't more. "We've got to win this somehow!"

Random would have argued, but at that moment what looked like a shaft of black coloured lightning snapped across the sky. It hit the dirt of the carnival and at its tip a portal opened, a Buzzbeast appearing at its mouth. The creature turned towards them and roared, the sound underlined by the grating noise of the buzz saw built right into the beast's back.

"Woah! It's a Buzzbeast!" Chuck exclaimed. "Oh crap…"

The creature gripped its claws into the dirt and launched itself at them, it didn't look like it could leap through the air like that, but it was. Its massive jaw met Random's claw as it landed, the buzz saw grinding into his arm with the horrendous sound of metal on metal. It cut out seconds later as Random managed to hack into the mechanical parts of the beast's body and shut them down. It looked confused for a moment, but it wasn't without weapons. Its tail came down, the smaller buzz saw attached was unable to function while Random had control of it, but the beast could still use it as a razor sharp piece of metal.

Mark turned to Chuck, tugging his wrist cannon so it sat more securely in his fist. "Come on."

"Huh?"

"Well, we've got to do something!"

Another shaft of black lightning touched down, this time, a zombie materialised. Mark took it out with a blast.

"Don't worry, Ace. We'll defeat these things somehow."

More extensions from the main portal began to hit the earth and there was no more time for talking. Mark took out a few of the weaker minions, Chuck dropped his laptop on the ground and picked up a broken piece of piping lying on the ground. The next zombie that appeared got it in the face.

Ace blasted Googler as he bounced around the corner. It took fifteen percent of his power to take him down.

This isn't going to work.

And this world would be destroyed by one that wasn't even supposed to exist. Something about that was just not right. He was a Lightning Knight, he was supposed to 'Do Right and Fear Not.' Help those who couldn't help themselves. Not destroy them just by his and everything else that was a part of his world's 'existence.' So the fact stood. He had to find someway to win this. It didn't matter what happened to him, only that he could save this world. He might not be real, but he'd fight for those that were. Anyway he could.

And then he realized how they could win.

Mark had taken out two weaker minions when Anvil showed up. The massive beast roared.

"Anvil smash puny mortals!" And then took a swing at Chuck.

Chuck ducked and moved out of the way, but he'd backed himself up against a booth.

"Anvil smash you now!"

"Ah!"

Mark saw Chuck was in trouble, and ran up behind Anvil. His wrist cannon blasted into Anvil's back. But it wasn't at full power and Anvil turned around with a roar; he was unable to see what was shooting at him, but took a swing anyway. The blow connected with Mark's chest with an audible crack, flinging his body across the ground until he skidded to a stop in the dirt.

"Mark!" shouted Chuck. He ran past Anvil and knelt beside his friend. "Dude? Are you okay?"

Mark rolled over with a groan, one arm wrapped around himself. He shoved the other at Chuck. "Take… it."

"What?"

"Take the… " Mark tried to shout, but only ended up gasping in pain. "… wrist cannon."

"But, wha… what about you?"

Mark just glared at him and shoved his arm harder at Chuck.

Chuck looked back at him and then slid the weapon off. Everything was happening too fast, it all felt like it should be happening on the television, not in reality. But this was real.

Up in the sky the creatures, with the portal close behind, had covered more than half the distance. Their ranks were solid black lines across the sky. And then the ranks seemed to be torn apart by a dagger. A sharp shaft of something fast that cut into the first line, and then the second, all around it creatures disappearing under the assault of pink shafts of lightning that spewed out around it. A sizable hole was left in the front of the army by the time enough of the flying creatures managed to converge on and obliterate the disturbance.

I can finish this, Ace thought. Now. He looked around at the battle ground. Random had managed to take out some of the minions that appeared between fighting off the Buzzbeast, but now the creature had him held to the ground. Its buzz saw sputtered periodically, trying to break through the control Random had over it. Random was just barely holding it off; one of its sickle claws dug into his shoulder, pinning him down and causing his power to leak in blue spurts.

Ace looked over at Chuck. He hadn't moved far from Mark, still blasting even though the wrist cannon was running low on power. And Mark still lay on the ground, unable to help. Ace felt his insides twist. He couldn't let this happen.

Ace knelt down and opened the lid to Chuck's laptop sitting on the ground in front of him. It didn't take him long to find the correct game screen. He glanced around one last time. And his eyes fell on Mark. Who was looking straight at him. The kid knew exactly what he was going to do. But he couldn't move to stop him. Instead he just looked at him, and Ace couldn't tell whether he wanted him to do it or not, or if he just couldn't, or didn't want to believe he would.

Ace turned away, unable to look any longer, turning his concentration back to the game screen. And pushed the delete button.

Chuck blasted another minion that appeared. Then had his attention taken by a screech from the air, a black creature with leather wings, red eyes, and claws that reached towards him. Chuck aimed a blast, but the wrist cannon only sparked pathetically. And then the creature stopped, as if frozen in the air, and then disappeared in a swirl of black and purple.

The Buzzbeast screeched as the buzz saw on its tail dug into its own side. It had swung it too close to itself, and Random had taken control, tearing into the creature with its own weapon. The two disappeared in the same swirl of black and purple, entangled and embedded in each other.

Mark gripped the piece of the amulet around his neck, watching as Ace faded away. A game wasn't supposed to end this way. What game ended in the hero being destroyed? In the hero giving up? But it wasn't a game anymore. And then, as the purple and black faded, taking any creature surrounded by it, that game ceased to be anything else that it had become.

"Dude? What happened!" Chuck looked around, confused.

Mark didn't answer, instead staring at the computer lying in the dirt, or perhaps at the space where Ace had been.

"Mark…?" Chuck knelt down next to him, placing his hand on his friend's shoulder.

Mark continued to stare at the computer. "Ace… deleted it."

"Deleted what?"

"The game. Everything. I told him…" Mark choked and then shut up, instead just trying to get air into his lungs with as little pain as possible.

"… ok… look, I'm going to call an ambulance of something. As long as they'll actually come… everybody's gotta be going nuts with portals in the sky and stuff…" Chuck trailed off, pulling out his mobile phone and dialling.

Mark still looked at the computer, fighting the tears that burned the back of his eyes. Ace hadn't only wiped himself out to save them; he'd wiped everyone else out. The human race, he, couldn't be worth that much. But maybe Ace had thought they were. Mark finally shut his eyes to the place where Ace had last stood, and gripped his hand harder around the piece of the amulet, the metal pressing solidly into his palm.