Valerie watched her companion shake slightly with the effort of fighting off an invading force. "Can't you fight him?" she asked, backing away. She could hear the gears in his legs protest the movement as he took a step forward.
"I can't even move my head," he said from between clenched teeth. "Technus has partial control of my brain because of all the implants. I can't…" He gasped as he finally lost control and lunged forward, barely missing the target. Fortunately, Technus seemed to realize that his host had no range weapons and began to circle warily, looking for an opening.
The ghost hunter started to fire at him, but found that she couldn't. She thought that she shouldn't care about him since he was the son of her mortal enemy but…he really wasn't that bad. Or maybe she was just getting soft. Either way, she gave a disgruntled huff and asked, "What can I do?"
Sandruu opened his eye; his expression was one of pleading. "Most of my implants are on my right side, protected by a metal plate. If you can hit me hard enough, you should be able to shut them down."
Apparently, the invading ghost had been listening. He lashed out with one leg, machine-strength easily overcoming any balance issues cause by the human's lack of cooperation. Valerie rolled beneath the attack and jumped to her feet just in time to slam into his outstretched arm. She staggered away, holding her head.
"Wanna give me a hand here maybe?"
The ghost paused and the cyborg blinked. "Um…look out?"
"Gee, thanks." Somehow, she had the impression that she was being laughed at by both of them. She flipped backwards to avoid another kick and aimed a punch just below his ribs. That time, she knew she was being laughed at, but the pain in her knuckles kept her from an immediate retort.
"Okay, what part of massive internal damage are you not getting?" Sandruu demanded, worry and desperation making him sound angrier than he actually was. "Find something to hit me with!" Then his brain caught up to his mouth, and he grinned nervously.
Valerie returned with a dry glare and decided not to respond. Instead, she jumped back again and turned to run. There had to be something around she could use as a weapon that wouldn't do any permanent damage. She heard Sandruu yell something, then she was tumbling across the ground and praying her ribs hadn't been broken. She rolled out of the way before Technus could stomp on her head and decided that she had no other choice. She summoned her weapons and fired.
The human cried out in agony, but the machine couldn't feel pain. If it had been Sandruu in control, the blast might have worked. Since it was Technus, the girl quickly found herself in a wrestling match. It was almost like the time she had wound up fist fighting with Skulker, something she had pledged would never happen again. At least, the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter was made out of normal metal. Sandruu's limbs were some kind of futuristic alloy that was a lot harder when it hit her in the stomach. Or maybe it was just that his hands were smaller and able to hurt a more focused area. Or maybe it was both.
Whatever it was, trying to fight back did no good since all she could do was damage his human side. The ghost in control of his machine side remained unfazed. At least, without control of the vocal chords, he couldn't rant on and on about himself.
Valerie finally managed to squirm free, aching in a dozen places and grateful all over again for her protective armor. She wasn't sure how much more of a beating it could take; even her fist fights with Skulker never usually lasted this long. Still, it would have to do unless someone randomly showed up to help, like Electra had...
Sandruu had called her, hadn't he? "I can't believe I'm doing this..." she muttered breathlessly. "Kat! Get out here!"
Said ghost girl appeared looking somewhat irritated. "Oh, now wh-Hey!"
The ghost hunter twirled her stolen weapon and turned back to her opponent. "You're going down, ghost!" Behind her, Kat smiled slowly and vanished again.
Technus stopped and shook his host's head. "He says, 'She's going to kill you for that later'," the cyborg translated.
"Like to see her try!" Valerie returned and swung the copper cane. It clanked against Sandruu's arm and was nearly ripped out of her hands, but she managed to hang on.
"You know that thing's made for conducting electricity, not fighting, right?"
"You got any better ideas?"
"None that he won't overhear."
Valerie blocked another kick aimed for her ribcage and dodged a punch, then swung the cane around as hard as she could. Sandruu crumpled like a rag doll. After a moment, Technus reformed hovering above him. "Ah, that had to hurt," he mentioned, on the verge of laughter. Suddenly, he stiffened; he almost seemed to be listening to something. "Ha!" he announced at last. "The Master calls me! Consider yourself lucky, human child!"
Valerie let him go in favor of running to her fallen comrade. When he failed to respond to her prompting, she fumbled for his pulse, suddenly certain she'd killed him.
"Is he still breathing?"
"What do you care, anyway, ghost?" the girl demanded quietly without turning.
Electra kneeled down on the cyborg's other side. "I think the question, my dear, is what do you care? After all, he is Phantom's son if Clockwork is to be believed."
Sandruu moaned and turned his head slightly, then cracked open his single eye before closing it again. "Ow..."
"Are you okay?" Valerie asked, truly concerned.
He sighed and turned his head the other way. "...you didn't...have to hit me that hard..."
"Wh...but..." the girl answered, hunting about for a response. "Well, maybe you should have been more specific!"
He winced at the sound and slowly sat up. "Please don't yell. My head is still ringing." Anyone else might have meant that proverbially; however, in the silence, the ghost hunter actually was aware of a faint ringing.
There was an extended silence, which Electra finally broke. "Anyway, in case you were wondering, that dragon's plotting something. I don't know exactly, but it was something about increasing his reign. Cheerio!"
A few moments later, Sandruu shook his head and instantly regretted it. "He must have decided we're not bothering about."
"Well, then let's go prove him wrong!" Valerie exclaimed, jumping to her feet.
The cyborg followed at a significantly slower pace. "Just shoot me..." he muttered. "Just shoot me in the head, and get it over with...just kill me and end the pain..."
"Suck it up!" the girl teased. She was of the opinion that he more than deserved that after hitting her as hard as he did.
Sandruu rolled his eyes. "That's easy for you to say. You don't have to listen to a bell choir playing three octaves too high in your head. When I get out of here, I'm going home to Stratford, and I'm never leaving again."
"So what's the future like?"
"You'll find out when you get there."
She scoffed and folded her arms. "Fine...Andrew."
It was several minutes before he even noticed and shot her a cockeyed glance. "Congratulations. You win a cookie."
"It wasn't that hard," she pointed out.
Sandruu shrugged. "I'm bad with names. I don't even respond to F...antom half the time. So Lucy said, 'Just stick an S on the front.'" His voice rose to a high falsetto for the quote, doubtless a poorly-done mockery of his sister's voice. "Oh, that's great, Luce. Why not a D? 'No, that's perfect! We'll call you Dandruff!'"
Valerie was doubled over with laughter and barely able to breathe. "Dandruff!" she gasped. "Oh, I am so calling you that from now on!"
"Yeah, that's what she said. White haired little git..." He grinned that lopsided grin of his and looked over at the howling ghost hunter. Maybe she wasn't so bad, after all.