Chapter 14: Fire
I have to admit, this kid has guts. Seriously. He's completely lame and helpless when you take me out of him, but you wake the beast? Get ready to feel the fire, baby. Or rather the bullet.
Take it from me, Rocky has never used a gun in his life, and he is terrible at how to use it now. He is aiming at everything but me. It's kinda hard to move around, yeah, but it's clear he's just spamming the trigger.
For me and my dynamite sticks, yeah I like them, but I almost got blown in the face with one. Then I thought, Hey, we're doing really bad with these types of weapons so why don't we trade? So I called to him, "Hey, truce for a moment? Trade?" He stopped his fire, and eyed me suspiciously, but shrugged.
"Sure." He said, and threw his gun to me. I threw him a few packs to be fair, but who wants to be fair!? So I started the countdown early.
"End truce in 3-2-1 go!" I cackled.
"Wait-!" Rocky didn't have anything to say at that point, 'cause he got a wave of bullets all pointing at his face. He dove for cover, doging all of them.
I grinned even larger. "Let's see what you've got Rocky! You can't hide forever!" I yelled at him through the chaos.
Rocky, still trying not to get hit, threw a couple of lit dynimite sticks blindly. One almost hit me, but I wasn't about to tell him that.
"Ha!" I laughed, trying to doge as many sticks as I could, while he threw his sticks with no direction of whatsoever, not knowing if they'd hit me or not.
"You're terrible! What is wrong with you?!" I laughed, shaking my head. "Any decent person would know how to use a gun, but this…is is low, even for you, Rocky! Though, I guess it would make sense. You weren't good with me, and you're even worse without me! You almost lost your only job, fool! Yet here you are in your misery-confused, sad, and without any life whatsoever! YOU. ARE. NOTHING. Face it Rocky. You'll never be free!"
Well, that was it. It finaly, happened, but he snapped. Rocky flung himself out from his hiding place, either to hug me or to kill me. His eyes were full of rage and fire. Yep, probably to kill me.
I grinned. This is what I wanted to see. Rocky had dug deep and found his inner Maniac. He was on fire. He threw stick after stick of flaming dynamite, and I kept having to stop my fire to dodge the countless flaming sticks he flung at me.
Then suddenly, I heard a click. I looked down at my gun, shocked. I ran out of ammo.
"Uh oh." I thought. "Maybe a little too much on fire. Maybe even literally."
I looked up from my gun and saw Rocky.
Time seemed to slow down as he threw the stick Right. At. Me.
I was completely frozen.
Full of dread and horror of what was about to happen.
It was a direct and perfectly timed throw. Almost at my stomach, it exploded. It threw me off my feet. I landed face-planted on the dusty floor, aching too much to get up.
The house started to catch on fire from our battle. My vision began to get blurry. I coughed. Weary, I knew I was dying. Then my thoughts came to Rocky, and I knew there was still hope.
But Rocky won. Anyone with a brain would know that…as did I.
Rocky panted hard, but still managed to get over to over to where I was.
"It was nice having life." I rasped, doing my best to make the words come out.
His eyes widened. "No." He whispered to me.
"Yes!" told him, then coughed. "It…it was fun while it lasted. You've got big firepower, y'know? Never…lose it. It's your gift. Use it the way you want…along with me."
He looked confused. I didn't blame him. I mean, I didn't even know if I had the power myself to do this.
"You want to be free, right? Want me? Well, You've got me. You've earned…it." I let out a long, sad sigh. It would be boring being stuck in Rocky again…but there was no other way. Hopefully he will get well enough for me to live again.
I held his hand and looked in his eyes, the same ones that first showed the fire hidden deep inside him, was streaming tears down his face, whether because he was too emotional, or because of the smoke that was getting stronger. I had to get this over with. I inhaled, and maybe for the first time got serious.
"Goodbye Rocky. Never let go of the fire. Never let go of Lackadaisy-just be more careful. Oh, and give Wick a scare for me." I smiled.
"Wait! D-don't leave me! I-I know you were a bad guy and all, but this…this isn't fair! Isn't there something we can do?!" Rocky asked, earnestly.
I chuckled. "You'll see me in spirit, kid." I gave him one last smile, a wink, and then closed my eyes, fading away. Letting me drift back into Rocky…where I belonged.
