Right... as I feel to lazy to write an essay, I am posting the second shipping fic for this I wrote. (The first being Fight the Tides, which actually worked :P )
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Sparx pushed the controls of the Lightning Flash, urging it to gain altitude. The machine whined in protest, the engines straining. It was almost out of power, that and the under carriage must have been severely damaged by one of Lady Illusion’s bombs. “Come on, you stupid machine!” she growled, pushing the engines further. The Lightning Flash just wouldn’t respond. Something must really be wrong.
Sparx had flown down to the carnival, without informing Ace. The bad guys needed to be kept on their toes and lately Ace seemed too afraid of Kilobyte to do anything at all. If he realised she’d gone off by herself again, he’d probably lose it. It would certainly be hard to explain what was wrong with the Lightning Flash. Unless she fixed it first. Problem was she didn’t know what was wrong.
But she did know someone who could fix it. Random Virus. He’d made the machine for her after she’d lost her ability to fly. She could still remember the amused look on his face when he’d presented her with the vehicle. Sparx had to admit, she had gotten pretty excited. Excited enough to nearly tackle hug Random.
Sparx managed to limp the Lightning Flash over the junkyard then let it fall to the dirt under its own weight, using the remaining power to simply slow it down.
“Hey, lugnut!” Okay, she was asking for his help. “Random! You around, anywhere?” She wasn’t sure why she normally insisted on insulting him. They had always gotten on decently before. Before Random had turned evil, that is. Well, he’s not really evil. Not completely, she reminded herself. After that she could swear he’d totally lost it.
A piece of junk clattered to the ground behind her and she spun around. Random stood behind her.
“Yeah, I’m around. Wish I knew where,” he growled. He looked tired. His right eye flickered between red and green.
“Guess I couldn’t bother you for help?” she hazarded. Who knew what mood he was in; she’d at least take a chance.
“I…” he trailed off. His evil was pushing itself on him. Superimposing itself over his mind and trying to erase everything else. Everything he’d ever stood for he could now never be truly sure of.
“Hey, come on, snap out of it!” Sparx cut in.
Random blinked as he tried to stay in control. He managed to push his evil down enough to look Sparx in the eye without switching in between. “What do you want?”
“The Lightning Flash’s broken. You wouldn’t be able to fix it would you?”
He didn’t quite get that; his evil must have taken over for a micro second. “You want me to fix what?”
“The Lightning Flash, hello!” She had to get him to fix it before it faded out, otherwise she’d have to find another piece of the amulet to get it back. “In case you didn’t notice it is broken! Notice that bit of metal hanging off…”
“I’m not stupid, alright!” Random yelled, both to shut her and his evil side up.
Sparx blinked, taking half a step backwards.
Random looked at her. She was weak. He could snap her in his claw like so many matchsticks. “NO!” he roared swiping his claw through the air.
“Woah!” yelled Sparx, ducking and jumping back. She needn’t have bothered. Random seemed to rein his evil in and turned the swipe onto a car hulk that rested beside him, breaking through and tearing up the rusted body until his claw finally hooked on something solid. His eye flickered as he tried to regain control.
“Hey, I can always come back later,” said Sparx, finally realising that now was probably not a good time.
“No, don’t.” Random growled in reply. “Just leave me alone.”
“Why?” Sparx demanded, not liking being told what to do. “So you can sit here fighting with yourself until one of you wins?”
“I don’t want to hurt you… or anybody. If you don’t leave, I … will destroy you!” In those last few words Random’s sentence changed from a warning to a threat, and as his evil wrenched control it became an inevitability. He tore his claw from the side of the car, causing the already damaged vehicle to sag heavily to the side.
Sparx backed away and pulled out her sword. “Back off, lugnut. I’m not afraid to use this!” There she went again. Insulting him as if he was just another one of the evils.
Random ignored the comment and took a swipe at her, locking with the Sword of Jacob.
Sparx pushed his claw away with the blade and brought it up as he swung again. This time Random grabbed the sword, a move that for anyone else would be considered plain insane, but his metal claw felt none of the sword’s electricity. He flung it aside where it impaled into the ground next to a discarded forklift.
Realising fighting Random without a sword would be suicide Sparx whistled for the Lightning Flash. The machine made an attempt to come for her but it was too damaged and nosed back into the ground, its engines whining uselessly.
Time for a different tack, Sparx thought. Unfortunately it was one she seldom used and when she did only seemed to get her into further trouble. “Calm down Random. I’m a Lightning Knight like you.”
“I’m not a Lightning Knight!” Random yelled back at her.
Yup, she’d stuffed it up already.
“The Lightning Knights are weak! I have no part in them!”
“You did once,” Sparx tried. She was actually feeling slightly scared. Certainly not in the same way Ace must be of Kilobyte but more of the fact that if she was destroyed now she couldn’t be sure Ace could bring her back. It may have sounded stuck up, but she wasn’t sure he’d be able to defeat Kilobyte without her. All of her escapes seemed exhausted, this was the only one left and it wasn’t one that Random frequently entertained. “You were a Lightning Knight once…”
“Silence! I am no coward! You are the weak one!”
Sparx caught the flicker of his right eye. “You don’t seem so sure.”
Random stopped and glared at her. “I said I was going to destroy you.” He grabbed her arm in his claw and pushed her up against the metal sheeting fence.
“Watch it!” Sparx growled before continuing. She was sure she’d hit on something. “You’re in denial aren’t you? You’re so obsessed with destroying weakness because you can’t destroy your own.”
“I will destroy my good side! It’s weak. It cannot survive.”
“If your good side’s so weak how come you can’t control it?”
“Be quiet!” Random yelled. His eye flickered green then back to red.
Yes, she was getting somewhere. “You know what? That’s probably because it’s not weak. It’s strong.”
“NO!” Random growled, his eye flared red. “I’m destroying you now!” Behind the cyborg Sparx saw the forklift she’d seen before start moving. It picked up speed towards her, but it wasn’t moving that fast. A ram from it would hurt but it wouldn’t kill her. That’s when she noticed that one of its forks was half broken off, leaving a sharp spear of metal.
“Random!” she yelled and shut her eyes.
Someone called his name. It brought him back to the surface and Random ripped control out of the hands of his evil side. Why was Sparx calling for him? He saw the forklift at the last second and used most of that second realising what was going to happen. When he did he had no time left to recontrol it.
Sparx braced herself for the impact, but was unprepared for the one that came from the side. She opened her eyes in time to see the ground and just managed to get her hands out to brace herself. Behind her she heard the forklift crash into the metal sheeting.
“Well you left that a bit late…” she said swinging back around to face Random, but cut her sentence short in shock.
Random’s good side had taken control in time to get her out of the way. But he hadn’t had time to move after doing it. The broken prong had pierced through his side extending just out of his back. Blue energy dripped out around it.
Sparx stood up slowly. “Random? Are you ok?” What sort of stupid question was that?
“I’m fine,” Random growled. Gathering his strength he gripped the forklift and pushed it backwards. His face contorted with the effort but he kept pushing, also putting the machine into reverse with his mind until it finally pulled free. It rolled backwards under its own power for a bit before finally coming to rest.
Sparx got up off the ground, unable to take her eyes off Random. The cyborg had slumped down as the machine released him. He just hung there with blue energy crackling out of his side.
Random saw Sparx move towards him from the corner of his eye and straightened himself. I’m not weak. Pain shot through his side and he nearly doubled over again, but he ignored it. She was not going to see him in weakness.
“I don’t think so. We need to get Chuckdude to give you the flame upgrade or something.”
“I don’t need help!” Random yelled. The denial only seemed to weaken him further. He looked down at his side and closed his eyes as he felt his strength drain. Who was he kidding? He rephrased his statement. “I don’t deserve help.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sparx demanded.
“Sparx, look at me. I’m not a Lightning Knight. I don’t know what I am.”
“Um, hello, but what does that have to do you getting help? Come on, we can go find him.”
Random just shook his head.
“Don’t be an idiot!” said Sparx.
“I’m not an idiot,” Random growled. He slumped over with a groan. Sparx grabbed his left shoulder and Random grabbed onto her to steady himself. She could feel him shaking. “I would appreciate it if you’d stop treating me like one,” he added quietly.
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too. For being such a pathetic excuse for a Knight.”
“Random, you’re the strongest Knight I know,” said Sparx. She could feel Random shaking even more and he was starting to fade. They wouldn’t have time to find Chuck now. Random had taken too much damage.
“I’m not. I can’t defeat my evil,” Random finally replied. “Now I don’t have the chance. I don’t want to go down in a junkyard. I don’t want to go down as what I am.” He hung his head, unable to maintain eye contact with Sparx.
“You saved my life,” Sparx tried. She couldn’t save him now but she wasn’t letting him go all upset.
“From what, myself?” he growled. “I don’t want this. But it’s everything I deserve. I only wish it could be different. But I messed up. I was too weak. I let evil in and now I can’t get rid of it. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for. It’s not your fault.”
Random looked back up at Sparx. “It is. And because of it I missed out on…” he cut his sentence short.
“On what?”
“Sparx, didn’t you ever feel that there was… could’ve been… something between us? Back in the sixth dimension. Before I got like this?”
“What do you mean?”
Random seemed to think over his reply before leaning towards Sparx and kissing her gently on the cheek. “I missed out on you.”
Sparx blinked at him. “Didn’t expect that answer,” she finally got out.
Random turned away and tried to push himself away from her. “I’m sorry. You don’t…” he didn’t finish suddenly doubling over again, holding his arms around his middle.
Sparx felt something move in her heart. It was underlined by the memory of when Random had made her the Lightning Flash. She’d hugged him, nearly knocking him down. When she’d finally let him go he’d looked away, embarrassed by Sparx’s excitement. He was still the Random she’d known. And he was still a Lightning Knight. Nothing he did would change that.
“Random?”
The Lightning Knight looked back at her, weariness evident in his eyes.
She stepped up and kissed him back. Slowly and gently she pressed her lips against his. Random seemed surprised for a second but then gave in, holding onto her as if she was the only thing keeping him out of the sixth dimension. Blue energy sparked between them for a second.
When Sparx finally stopped Random didn’t move, probably too weak. Perhaps he was just waiting for his energy to run out. Sparx looked at him standing in front of her with his eyes closed, his shoulders heaving slowly up and down.
Then Random opened his eyes and looked at her. They were filled with tears. But he also seemed surprised. And stronger?
Random broke his gaze and stared down at himself. Sparx followed his eyes. Where the forklift had ripped him open was still surrounded by a bit of Random’s energy but the hole was gone.
“Ok, that’s weird…” Sparx started.
“No its not,” Random cut her short. Then he smiled. “I think you just saved my life.”
“But how? You were… nearly gone… I only…”
Random shook his head. “A lot of things in this dimension seem strange but… you… I didn’t think you’d feel like that. Feelings have power in this dimension.”
“I guess so,” Sparx replied looking down at her hand which was splashed with Random’s energy. Well she did get pretty close to him.
“Do you really feel like that?” Random asked.
Sparx looked back up at him.
“Or was that only because I was going down?”
“What do you mean? Hello, it fixed your side up didn’t it?”
“Yeah… but…”
“How much more convincing do you need!? Do you want me to kiss you again?”
Random just blinked at her, then smiled again. “I knew I liked you for a reason. Thanks.”
“For what? If I hadn’t come you wouldn’t have gone crazy and stabbed yourself with that machine.”
“And if I hadn’t run it at you I wouldn’t have had the chance to save you. You wouldn’t have been able to save me. And we wouldn’t be standing here. Together.”
Sparx grinned at him. “True.”
Random grinned back at her then finally, unable to contain himself, grabbed her up in a bear hug and spun around in a circle.
“Woah!” Sparx yelled. Random set her down and smiled sheepishly at her. “I take it you’re okay with this relationship then?”
Random grinned at her before replying. “Perfectly.”
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Yeah... I think I wrote that for the gore... :blink:
Ha! No more dirty little secrets between us, H.
All that dirty laundry, aired. :P
I remember this, I remember this! squee! ^_^
Same. :) Not bad at all, though I find it a bit hard to believe that Random would have been interested in the very much younger Sparx before intervening events happened and she grew up a little.
Hm… there’s a possibility I think that he might have been interested in her. But knowing Random I doubt he would ever have acted on it, whether he has program problems back then or not. If the problems he has now had been present then, he wouldn’t have instigated a relationship for fear of people getting hurt. And even if he didn’t have the problem then her age would undoubtedly discourage him from anything of the sort. And the chances are if he did have feelings for her, he would come to later regret it in a situation like this.
I love romantic psychology, me.
Nod--I can imagine him liking her from a distance without knowing her too well, but due to her age and his program he'd not act on it. And I have the feeling that if they did attempt to pursue a relationship for some reason, they'd only end up boring each other--he likes quiet and intelligent introspection and technology, and she's all for the action and casual insults. But I probably shouldn't be saying this after H's goodfic. :P