Okay, it’s been weeks in the making and I’m quite prepared to spend several MORE weeks on it if that’s required. Does this sound even vaguely original to you? Please be brutal. And I mean BRUTAL. I’m having one of those lets-all-remove-our-teeth-with-pliers-and-massacre-our-fiction kinda days. I probably won’t use this beginning anyway… <_<

Prologue.

Its some time early evening when all hell breaks out in the junkyard.

He still calls it “catastrophe junkyard” –the same as its counterpart back in the sixth dimension. It’s an apt enough name. He can make catastrophe happen here, if he wants it to. Sometimes he does.

Tonight is starting to look like one of those times. Then again, he can never be totally sure what he wants from one minute to the next, can he? All he knows in this minute is that he wants the Lightning Knight’s destroyed, and tonight, he can do it without even having to touch them.

He sees the Lightning Knights falling to their knees. One of them falls straight from her vehicle in the air and hits the dirt with a painful thud. The mortals go down too, before they even have time to realise what he’s doing. All around him metal clashes against metal, ripping and tearing. Already broken glass shatters into fragments. Waves of energy radiate between the wreckage and concrete walls, as everything he sees becomes cast in blinding blue. A boiling sensation rises up inside of him and blazes outwards, turning his right eye red.

‘What is this? ‘Where did this come from? Does it even matter? You know what it is. It’s power. Pure, undiluted power. Strength is all that matters. Now you have it.’

Everything, at least in the immediate vicinity, is under his control. He can crush them to a pulp, if he has to. If he wants to. It’s exhilarating. It’s always incredible, to feel that kind of strength when it emerges from under all the rage and hate it uses as fuel.

‘…The power to destroy all weakness. Including Ace Lightning? Him and all Lightning Knights. Isn’t that what’s right? Isn’t that what should happen?’ The stress around him increases, sparking out from deep inside his mind. He’s not scared. He’s never scared. Fear is for the weak and worthless. No, it’s anger he feels, anger and pain. A part of him wants to ask for help. A part of him wants to say Ace’s name, but it leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

Virtue is weakness. Kindness is cowardice.

‘No… I can’t.’

Ace is moving. He shouldn’t be able to. He should be trapped, held down by magnetic pressure, and yet he’s fighting it. He’s trying to reach out a hand. Random knocks it away, bringing his claw down hard on the outstretched arm. If he had been human, his bones would have cracked, but though human emotions may have made him disgustingly mortal, he still has the strength o a Knight.

Virtue is goodness, and he destroys goodness wherever he finds it. Just like he’ll destroy him. That’s how it works. Nothing more complex than that. Kindness is weakness, and Random Virus destroys that weakness. It’s in his program.

‘No!’

Shards of pink electricity surge nearby and when he looks, he sees it coming from Sparx’s body, bursting out from her heart. She lets go of her sword and it vanishes as it clatters into the dirt. He feels his own thought waves burrowing into her. Burrowing into all of them, threatening to tear them apart.

‘No. Stop it!’

* * *

He barely has time to get to his feet before the wave of energy hits him, and then he’s back on the ground again.

He means to move. He tries to, anyway, only all of a sudden, something doesn’t want to let him. Something that tightens around his arms and legs and chest, like an invisible grip tearing at him from inside. It feels as if the junkyard has gone completely crazy. One minute he’s standing there, trying to aim the wrist cannon, and the next, he can’t stand because of the pressure crushing him from all sides and the pain in his ears. He can feel and see the world shaking all around him, as if they’ve been caught in an earthquake. He hears the thud and crack of Chuck’s laptop hitting the ground and smashing into pieces, but he can’t turn his head to see what his friend is doing.

And through it all, he hears the yelling. No, not yelling, worse than that. It’s a scream. A high pitched screaming, beating in his ears. Sparx? No way. Not Sparx… Sparx doesn’t scream like that. She’s a Lightning Knight, so she probably can’t even FEEL the kind of pain or fear that’d do that to you.

That’s when he realises that the sound isn’t coming from her. Sparx’s voice has been drowned out by the rattling of the junkyard all around them, her mouth is open and her eyes are screwed shut as she digs her sword into the dirt to help her keep her balance, but all the same, it isn’t her. He clutches his own throat and feels the screaming sputter.

'It’s me…'

It seems as if the junkyard is at it too. The concrete walls are trembling, glass is breaking, shards of metal are shrieking as a growing pressure rips them apart.

‘Ran…om!’ Ace was still close enough for Mark to hear him, barely. His voice was breaking up. He wants to reach out and grab his arm, but his hands seem glued into the dirt. ‘You… don’t… hurt us, Rand…don’t do…. stop!’

Random… Random Virus? It was him doing this?

It didn’t stop. It got worse. The air felt as if it was turning into liquid. Invisible shards of energy battered his face and body. Breathing was impossible.

‘What… the… hell?’

Oh, and ICness, don't forget the ICness.

...Why is this killing me so much?

I like it! :P Random is becoming psychopath! Ace is on the floor! Sparx is crying! Wow, wow and wow! :D

Cryng? I'm pretty sure she's not crying *rereads* nope, she's not crying. Thank you all the same.

Whoops. I meant to say screaming. Sorry. :(

Easy mistake :) but she's not doing that either :P

Its so good, hope theres more!

Thanks, but I still don't know whether it fits the story.

V. chilling. :wub:

Ty, still don't think I'm gonna use it.

Damn. :blink: Scarab, that is good. Don't worry if it takes ages to come out with, sometimes the stuff that doesn't seem to flow out, but takes ages to get out sounds the best.

I really like it. Is Random's power working on Mark and Chuck as well or just the Knights?

Pretty much everyone - it's only got a small range, but they're within it.

Ok. Just checking. You just said something about it being magnetic type field so I wondered if it would only work on the Knights. Just be careful how much it's hurting the Knight's cus if its hurting Mark and Chuck as well they won't be able to take as much as the Knights.

understood and noted :)

LOVE it! Use it!

I will if it works with the rest of the fic :P

MAKE it work. :P

I suppose I could try very very hard :P

Very, very hard. *glares coldly at Scarab, trying to creep her out*

*shudders and edges away* :blink:

*has given up trying hard* :P

I waited a week. Then I reread it. Forget it. Either this is gonna be severely edited or it's being entirely removed. Why didn't you guys TELL ME the grammar and structure was so atrocious? :P Doesn't sound that much like Random either, sooo... just forget you saw it.