by Jareth, The Viral Guardian. Co-written by Electra

Chapter Five: The Electra Chronicles

Part Four

"Where's the girl?" Daemon asked, as she and HexAnate reentered the room.

Hexadecimal glanced at the empty manacles that hung from the ceiling, then to the glowing pool. "The girl? Why, she...err..."

"Hexadecimal! How could you?"

Hexadecimal pouted. "But Mother, I just..."

"How could you delete her before I got here? We get so little time to bond, you and I. We could have done that together."

"Oh, well," Hexadecimal replied. "These things happen."

"Indeed. You never did tell me what happened to that mask of yours." As she spoke, Daemon climbed back into her throne. Hexadecimal floated into the air with a giggle and came down in her mother's lap.

"Well," she began," do you remember Guardian 452?"

"The one who escaped into the Web?"

"That's the one. Isn't he simply.."

"Yes, he is." Daemon grinned, but it quickly became a frown. "He did this to you?" Daemon ran her hand along Hex' smooth face...warm and soft, not at all like the mask she was created with.

"You know, it's a shame. I couldn't find anyone in the dungeons worthy of my beautiful new mask. I'd give it to you, but then I'd still only have two children. The point of making it was to have three again." Daemon glanced at the pedestal...then did a double-take as she realized that it was empty. In a single, catlike movement, she sprang up and perched on the back of her throne, throwing Hexadecimal from her lap. Hex caught herself midair and turned to face Daemon.

"Hexadecimal! Where have you taken my mask? Tell your mother the truth!"

"Me?" Hexadecimal asked innocently. "I haven't taken it anywhere."

Just then, the double doors opened again and Jareth and Matrix entered, between them carrying the still-tied Backslash. Matrix dropped his half of Backslash.

"This isn't the defense grid!" he yelled. "You lied to us!"

Backslash grinned. "Of course I did. Did you really believe all that crap about mislabeled doors? No one's ever broken into the Principle Office before."

"Lore!" Daemon leapt from her perch on the back of her throne to the center of the floor, then rose gracefully to her feet. "Return my mask, immediately!"

"What mask?"

"The one you stole from me."

"What? What are you talking about? I just got here."

"HexaAate. Search him." Daemon commanded. Jareth sighed and dropped his half of Backslash, as HexAnate slithered towards him.

* * * *

Electra raced as fast as she could down the hall, trying to find Jareth. "I have a great idea, everybody. Let's split up!" she panted, mocking herself. "I am such an idiot..."

She stopped dead when she reached the fork. Alarms began blaring from the hall she had just come from, and a patrol of Guardians was approaching from the front. She heard more footsteps, turned, and saw that yet another patrol was coming from her right. She was trapped. She looked down at the mask in her hands.

"Oh well," she sighed. "When in Rome..." Electra closed her eyes and slowly raised the mask to her face.....

* * * *

Jareth dodged a claw, jumped over another, and sent an glowing golden orb right into HexAnate's chest. She shrieked and fell over backwards, where she lay twitching on the floor.

"Well that was easy." He said as Hexanate disappeared, leaving the small blue blinking device behind on the throne room floor.

Daemon watched all this with some interest. Jareth saw as her eyes flicked towards something over his left shoulder. Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted off the ground from behind.

"Now Mother, what is all this about?" came the rich, eloquent voice of his assailant.

Jareth couldn't see his attacker, but he didn't need to. Not even he could possibly forget that voice.

Megabyte was back.

* * * *

This time, Electra didn't scream. She did almost pass out again, but she didn't scream. When the pain stopped, Electra stood up. At least, she thought she was standing. She felt weird, like she was floating.

When Electra looked down, she noticed that she wasn't even touching the ground. Her tight fitting clothes were no more. Instead, she wore a loose blue dress that was floating around her, as was her hair. As the Guardian Patrols advanced on her, her new eyes transfixed on them. She raised one of her hands and shot out a wave of blue energy. The Guardians all fell to the floor, twitching in agony until they disappeared.

Well, she thought, so much for that.

It was then she realized that she couldn't breathe.

* * * *

"So let me get this straight. You made a mask to replace me, You were going to use it on Turbo, but Electra pointed out the mistake, so you took him back. Hex kills her, you lose the mask, and you blame me?" Jareth was wearing his angriest face. "Why am I blamed for everything that she does? This happened before we were Viral, too! It's not fair!" Jareth turned from Daemon and glared at Hex. "And why did you have to do that to Electra? What did she ever do to you?"

"But, Jareth..."

Jareth took one wide step to the left. A moment later, Megabyte flew right through the space he had been standing, slamming into the wall. His blue skin was now as black as Jareth's mask, and the crest on his head had become the same gold as his claws. In addition to the color change, four long black tentacles now grew from his back, and they continually waved about in the air as though they were attempting to catch something. Apparently, the Virus had survived the Web my merging with a Web Creature. A similar blue, blinking device was clipped to his side. Matrix stormed after him, with the look on his face that was reserved especially for Megabyte.

"Oh, take it outside, you two," Jareth said. With a wave of his hand, he transported them both to the street outside the front doors of the Principal Office.

Moments later, Electra flew into the room, crashing right into Jareth. She helped him back up after she got up and was going frantic with hand gestures.

"What is it ‘Lectra? What's wrong? And what did you do to yourself?"

She hit him and continued to signal to her new face.

"I don't understand, Electra, What's wrong, Why can't you just tell me? Are you hungry? Do you need to use the bathroom? I don't now where it is here...."

She hit him again, and continued to gesture at her face. Finally, Hex came up with the solution.

"I got it! She can't breath. She doesn't know how to use the mask. Okay, Electra, Visualize the mask changing. It should obey your will. Go on."

Electra complied, and the mask fell from her face. "There now. Are you alright?"

"Yes. thank you Hex." She hit Jareth again for not helping her. "Did I look hungry to you?!"

"No, you looked...hey, wait a minute. You're alive. You got better."

"What?"

"But you're glowing. Someone left you in the microwave too long."

"What?"

"And what happened to your face? It's still a mask."

"WHAT?"

"Shark--Mirror."

With a loud beep, Shark complied. Jareth handed the mirror to Electra.

Electra gasped as she saw her reflection. Her skin was now glowing a pale, electric blue. But the thing that surprised her most was that her face was now a golden mask, identical to the one she had stolen from Daemon.

"What? But...how?"

Daemon, furious at being ignored for so long, shocked them all with a bolt of static from her hand. "It's not important. What's important is that you return my mask immediately!"

Jareth snatched the mask held it over his head. "You want it? Come and get it."

"Very well." Daemon said standing. Another blast from her hands knocked them all across the room. Jareth dropped the mask as he was slammed against the wall. Daemon walked over and casually picked it up. She calmly strode back to the pedestal and returned the mask to it's proper place.

Once the precious mask was secured, she turned back to Jareth and Electra, a look of absolute fury on her face.

"Give me one good reason....never mind. There aren't any." Daemon raised her arm, charging a massive energy blast.

Without thinking, Jareth unfurled his wings and wrapped them around Electra. In a flash, Jareth's polished ebony mask was spinning out of the room. Daemon's blast knocked a large, smoking hole in the wall, but Jareth and Electra were long gone.

* * * *

Jareth and Electra exploded onto the ground of a brightly lit room. Every surface seemed to be covered by some sort of computer terminal.

Jareth shielded his eyes, unaccustomed to the bright light. "Umm...Electra? Could you please get off me?"

"As soon as my head stops throbbing," Electra replied, her eyes shut tight. "What was that?"

"That was me, saving your life. Again." Electra pulled herself to her feet, then helped Jareth to rise.

"Oh, come on. When have you ever saved my li--" Electra stopped short as she caught sight of the monitors that surrounded the room.

"J, we found it. We finally found it."

"Huh? What were we looking for?"

"Jareth, this is the security room."

* * * *

Matrix grunted in pain as he was slammed against the wall of the Supercomputer's Principal Office. The force of the impact left a Matrix-shaped imprint in the wall, cracking the solid rock.

Matrix shook his head. His vision cleared just in time to see Megabyte lunging at him, claws extended, the jagged blades of his left hand reaching out to shred his flesh. As fast as he could, Matrix jumped aside. Megabyte's claws sliced into the stony wall of the P.O....and stuck.

"This looks familiar," Matrix said. "But something's different. I mean, besides your new look, Megabyte. Now, what could it be?" Matrix took a few steps back from Megabyte, framing him with his hands. "Oh, I see what it is." A moment later, Gun was leveled directly at Megabyte's head. "This," Matrix growled. "Gun--Command Line: Full Delete!" The large green sprite took aim, as his targeting eye swivelled around and began to glow red, thrumming loudly.

Just as Matrix squeezed the trigger, Megabyte attached all four of his tentacles to the wall he was stuck to. Using all his strength, he tore out a large slab of the P.O.'s wall. He swung it around, placing it between him and Matrix. The blast from Gun hit the large piece of rock, showering the area with sand and rubble.

As the dust cleared, Megabyte examined his shattered claws. They appeared to be undamaged....well, no more damaged than before. His eyes narrowed dangerously. Where was that boy?

A low groan issued from beneath a particularly large piece of debris.

Megabyte marched over to it and threw it aside. Sure enough, there lay Matrix, barely conscious. Megabyte couldn't decide whether to grin evilly or hatefully, so he managed to do both.

"Now, then....let's try this again." He raised his left hand, extending his undamaged claws, one by one. He reared back his hand, prepared to strike...and was blasted back against the wall, striking one of the metal support beams he had exposed. He shook his head. What had hit him? Just as Matrix did, he tried to clear his vision. A surprisingly small figure came into focus. A girl, blue skin, brown hair and eyes. Guardian uniform, Keytool leveled at his head.

"Do I...know you, girl?"

"No, but I know you. Megabyte, right?"

Megabyte nodded.

"You can call me Kit."

* * * *

"So we found the Defense Grid." Jareth said rubbing his sore neck. It was kind of hard to land comfortably when you holding someone who's as heavy as if they'd been drenched in water. "I finally managed to get where I was going. That's never happened to me before. Now what do we do?"

"I'm not exactly sure... I thought you'd know." Electra floated a little up into the air.

"Wha?" Jareth said, shocked, but accepted it one nano later. "Stay down won't you? I'm feeling sick watching you float like that." He pulled her down so she was just under eye level.

"Great. You're jealous now."

"Of what? You? Ha?" Jareth half-lied. He didn't really want her power, he just thought it looked cool. Stuff on her floated, like her hair, her clothes, not to mention herself.

"Whatever." She turned away from him.

"Ack! Get your hair out of my face." Jareth squinted through her now-turquoise hair.

"Sorry." Electra pulled it over and looked at the console. "Alright. Whatever you do. Don't push that big red button. Okay? I'll try to shut off the grid." Electra turned towards the console in front of her.

"Red button?" Jareth started off towards the other side of the room where the red button was. Nanos before he reached it, Electra tackled him from behind.

"That was close. Jareth, what did I tell you about the red Button?"

"Hmmm? Oh, that. I don't know. I was going to press it and find out what it did."

"I know. Ow, how can I stop you from pressing it?"

"I don't know. What's it do?"

"Ummm..." Before she could stop herself, Electra reached over and pressed the button. She closed her eyes painfully. "Why," she asked, "did I do that?"

Jareth sat down comfortably cross-legged on the floor. "Because I would have," he said.

Electra braced herself for the alarms.

* * * *

"It would be wise of you to stay out of my way." Megabyte hurled at Kit.

Kit rolled to side, dodging Megabyte's tackle. Glancing around, her eyes fell on a baseball-sized rock, lying amidst the rubble. As quickly as she could, she kicked the rock into the air, caught it in her hand, and threw it dead on at Megabyte.

Megabyte sliced the rock neatly into thirds before it ever reached him. "A rock? You can't be serious."

Just then, a sudden loud hissing made Megabyte glance down at his belt. Though he had succeeded in deflecting the rock from his face, one of the pieces had struck the small blue device he had been fitted with. It was now hissing, sparking, and emitting clouds of purple smoke.

A look of shock, then one of terror crossed Megabyte's face. "No!" he shot a glance from the device to the ground he stood on. Sure enough, like the edge of a piece of paper held to a flame, the gray stone of the floor was encroaching on his black metal legs. The further it consumed him, the faster it went. "NO!" he yelled, as the stone of the Medusa Bug closed in over his head, sealing him fast.

Kit watched all this with amazed expression on her face. "Well. That's...worth knowing." Kit helped Matrix to rise.

"So THAT'S why the Medusa wasn't affecting him. Or HexAnate." Matrix glanced at the doors of the P.O., which were still stuck fast. "We have got to find a way in there, Kit."

"What's going on it there, anyway?" Kit asked, concerned.

"Last I knew, Bob was in a File Lock, Frisket was petrified, Hex is probably having a tea party with Daemon, Jareth is annoying as ever, The viral rebels are stone, Backslash is tied up in the throne room... Oh! And Hexadecimal killed Electra."

"Backslash is there?" Kit said her expression changing completely.

"Focus." Matrix lightly tapped Kit on the back of the head. "I thought that Electra's death would have shocked you more."

"WHAT!? Electra's dead!?"

"As I understand it, Hexadecimal did her in."

"Now we really have to get in there," Kit said.

At that moment, the double doors opened wide.

* * * *

No alarms. Electra slowly opened her eyes.

"Ummm....'Lectra? I think that was the button."

"You mean the one that..."

"Uh-huh."

Electra strode across to one of the consoles. It hadn't de-activated all the security like she'd hoped, but the front doors were now open. That was a start.

"Jareth, help me out here."

"What should I do?"

"Look for something do disengage the security systems."

"Okay."

There was a pause.

"Ummm...Electra?"

"Hmm?"

"What will it look like?"

"It should say Security, or Disengage, or something like that."

Jareth sat back down on the floor. "Sorry. Can't help you."

Electra sighed. "Why not?"

"Just let me know when you find it."

Electra continued to search for the appropriate panel. "This would go a lot quicker if you'd help."

"No....no, I don't think it would."

"Ah! I think we have something."

Jareth rose and went to stand beside her. "What is it?"

"What, can't you read?"

Jareth sighed. "You know, I'm getting really sick of being asked that question. No, I can't. So what's it say?"

Electra blinked. "Ummm...It's the panel we've been looking for. Just give me a second and I'll have the entire defense grid shut down."

Moments later, the lights in the room went out.

"Whoops," Electra said.

* * * *

Bob lay alone in the abandoned dungeon, the dampening field on his armor draining out what was left of his energy. His eyes were blurred, he could barely see. Not that there was much to see, anyway. The Viral Rebels in the cell with him were solid as a rock, and statues aren't much company. As he watched the tool GigAnate had been holding crumbled to dust. The Medusa had been active a bit too long, things were beginning to break down. It was only a matter of time before the entire system went.

Suddenly, the lights in the dungeon went out. Something must have happened to the power. Only the faint outline of the glowing green numbers covering his silver armor were visible. And they, too, were fading. His vision was finally starting to go out altogether.

Or was it? He actually didn't feel so bad anymore. His strength seemed to be returning. Bob shook his head, jarring himself fully awake. He wasn't imagining it. The file lock was gone! Bob stumbled to his feet. As he did, a wave of dizziness passed over him. He might not be locked anymore, but he needed a recharge badly. But where could he find one, with all the power to the P.O. cut off?

* * * *

"Ummm...I think I hit the wrong switch."

"You think?"

"Just shut up and do something."

"Shark--Flashlight."

Jareth swung the bright beam around, finally landing it right in Electra's golden face. Electra switched to a flinch, bringing an arm up to shield her eyes.

"Don't shine it on me! Shine it on the control panel."

Jareth obliged.

"Now hold it there for a minute," Electra said. "I'll try to fix this."

* * * *

Matrix and Kit rushed down the halls of the Principal Office. The two had finally arrived back at Daemon's throne room. For some unexplained reason, their progress had not been inhibited by any guards at all. It was almost as if....

Kit reached for the door, but Matrix grabbed her hand.

"Oww! Matrix! What is it?"

"This is too easy. We never should have made it this far without a fight."

Kit paused. "You're right. We didn't run into a single sprite on the way here. I figured it was just because of the Medusa thing."

"That doesn't affect Guardians."

"So it's a trap?"

"Almost definitely."

Cautiously, Kit opened the door. The two strode, side by side into the large..and conspicuously empty throne room. As soon as they were a respectable distance inside, the door slammed shut, causing both to spin around.

At the sound of boots hitting the ground behind them, they spun again.

There, crouched in a feral pose, was none other than Daemon herself. Her emerald green hair was now tied back behind her head like a ponytail, and her jet black eyes started to shine red.

Just then, the lights went out. The only thing visible in the room was the flashing of the blue device clipped to Daemon's belt.

"Oh, sure," Daemon said to no one in particular. "Spoil my entrance."

* * * *

"Right," Electra said, typing madly at the keyboard. "I think I've got it." With a click and a whirr, the light came back on....then exploded, showering the room with sparks.

"Ummm...I'm guessing that wasn't what you meant to happen," Jareth said.

"Not exactly, no." Electra turned back to the monitor. "No, it's okay. Only the lights in the Security Room blew. Well, a few in a couple of the storerooms, but nowhere important."

That's when the red lights started to flash, and the blaring of the alarm made Jareth clasp his hands to where his ears should have been.

"NOW the alarm goes off?!" he asked, incredulous.

"Uh-oh....powering the system back up blew a fuse somewhere. We started a fire. The emergency extinguishers aren't responding. It's spreading fast."

"Cool."

"Cool? Do you understand what's happening?"

"No, not really."

Electra turned and grabbed Jareth by the lapels of his coat. "Jareth, the Principal Office is burning down."

* * * *

Bob breathed a sigh of relief as the lights overhead flickered back on. He stumbled over to the nearest computer terminal. "Computer--locate closest recharge point."

The computer complied..and the location it showed was approximately five feet from where he was standing.

"Huh?" Bob glanced over...and sure enough, there was a recharge station, presumably for the guards stationed here to recharge their weapons.

"That'll do."

* * * *

"Do the others know?" Jareth asked.

"How could they?" Electra replied. "That blackout shorted out half the systems in the P.O. Internal communications are out. Alarms are out. We've got to go warn them, before the whole building burns to the ground."

"Okay. Then what are we waiting for? Let's go." Jareth turned around and started for the door, but stopped just short of it. "Umm... 'Lectra?"

"Yeah?"

"Which way?"

* * * *

Unlike Kit, Matrix had absolutely no trouble seeing in the dark. Unfortunately, neither did Daemon. She leapt strait at them, claws outstretched. Before she could connect, Matrix tackeled Kit and knocked her out of the way. Daemon kept going, but managed to turn around in mid-air, her feet connecting with the wall. From there, Daemon leapt again, this time up towards the ceiling.

Matrix climbed to his feet and looked wildy around the room, hoping to see his opponent. His eye finally fell on the hole in the ceiling where Daemon had broken through the flimsy tiles.

"Matrix, what's going on?" Kit asked.

"Stay down." Matrix cocked his gun at the ceiling and let loose with a huge load of ammo, showering the room with bits of splintered tile. But no Daemon.

"Come on," Matrix muttered under his breath, "Where are you?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Kit caught sight of something in the dark: a small, blue flash of light. The device on Daemon's belt! Sitting up, Kit aimed her Keytool at the device.

"Clip--Energy Beam!" With a whirr and a click, Clip complied. The energy blast briefly illuminated the pitch black room, striking it's target with flawless precision.

The device shattered, spraying the area with blueish-white sparks, just as the lights overhead flickered back on. Daemon stood still as a stone.

Kit blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light. Matrix ran over and helped her to her feet.

"Good shot," he said.

"Yes, very good."

Shocked, Kit turned from Matrix to face Daemon, who was now moving freely.

"How do you like my statue impression?"

"But....you....," Kit was clearly confused.

"I know what you're thinking. ‘Why isn't she affected by our little Viral Bug?'Well, sorry, little Sprites, but a good Virus never reveals ALL her secrets."

"We don't need the Medusa to deal with you," Matrix growled. He leveled his Gun at Daemon and fired, not once, not twice, but thrice.

Daemon held out her hand. The blasts from Gun began to slow down, slower, slower, until the floated in front of her in a dead stop. The Supervirus snapped her fingers, and the balls of energy instantly dissipated.

"Please," Daemon said. "When you refugees managed to infiltrate the Principal Office, I thought you were going to present a challenge. But if this is the best you can manage, then I don't see how you managed to get this far. But, no matter." Daemon raised her hands above her head. The lights in the room dimmed as Daemon pulled the energy from the very air, concentrating it into one large orb of energy. "The game ends here."

Daemon threw the charge at the two Guardians with all her considerable strength. Matrix and Kit flinched, expecting to be deleted instantly....but that instant never came.

Opening their eyes, the two saw the last thing they expected.

"Jareth?"

"Electra?"

Daemon was equally shocked.

The two were hovering between them and the fireball, using their own considerable power to hold it back.

Jareth turned to face them...literally. His body didn't move, but his head spun so that it was facing completely backwards. "But of course. You didn't think we were just gonna let you get incinerated, did you? Oh, ye of little faith, Matrix."

"Jareth? Could we focus here?" Electra asked, sounding a little strained. After all, she wasn't very good at using these new powers just yet.

"Oh, sure. What do we do with this thing?"

"Well," Electra reasoned. "What do you do with a gift you don't want?"

Jareth switched to his most sinister grin. "Return it!"

Daemon heard all this, but wasn't able to dodge in time. Her own blast caught her full in the face, blasting her back through her throne, the wall, and, in fact, most of the rest of the Principal Office.

Electra turned back to Matrix and Kit. "You guys need to get out of here."

"Why?" Kit asked.

"We...er....," Electra began.

"What?" Matrix asked imaptiently.

"We sort of started a..ummm...a..."

"Fire," Jareth said helpfully.

"Yeah, that's it," Electra finished sheepishly.

"You started a fire in the Principal Office? That's no big deal. The P.O. has all kinds of automatic--"

"All offline.

Now Kit began to look worried.

* * * *

Two running, two flying, the four of them made their way through the burning halls of the Supercomputer's Principal Office. They got stuck only twice; once when the way ahead of them was blocked by a burning beam, and Kit and Matrix had had to be airlifted over it, and once when Electra's dress got caught on a piece of debris. Before too long, the group had escaped the building and were gathered on the street out front.

"What about Frisket? He's still in there," Matrix said.

"Stone doesn't burn," Kit reminded him.

"But what about Bob?"

"Bob is just fine," said a voice from the doorway.

The party of four turned, and were astounded to see none other than Bob himself, casually leaning against the doorframe.

"Bob!" Matrix actually smiled.

"Fully charged and better than ever." Bob walked over to join the group. "What happened to Daemon?"

"We finished her off," said Jareth.

"Not quite, Lore," said another voice.

As the Mainframers watched, Daemon descended the stairs and approached them, a look of pure malice on her face.

* * * *

Jareth switched to a sinister grin. "Still going, huh?" Unfurling his ebony wings, he rose a few feet into the air, Electra right beside him. "Fine by me. Let's go!"

Daemon laughed derisively. "My, my, my. Are you thinking of attacking me again? Just what kind of son are you?"

"What?" Jareth asked, incredulous.

"What kind of a son would attack his own mother?"

Jareth couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You ordered my execution!"

Daemon waved the argument aside. "It's not as if you would have survived for long anyway."

"We've done okay so far," Electra quipped.

Daemon sighed. "Very well. Let's see what you can do, little sprites."

Jareth raised both hands into the air, a large ball of golden energy appearing between them. "Catch!" Jareth threw the ball at Daemon with all his strength.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Daemon nimbly leapt aside, allowing the charge to detonate the pavement where she'd been standing.

Electra brought both hands together, aiming them at Daemon. A sapphire-blue beam erupted from the point where her hands met, surrounded by a swirling white mist. It struck Daemon, encasing her head to toe in crystal-clear ice. It wasn't enough, however....moments later, a cracking sound split the air as a single fissure spread across the surface of the ice. Moments later, the entire block of ice splintered apart. Daemon now stood on a stretch of pavement that was both badly scorched and covered with shards of shattered ice.

Producing a few fireballs of her own, Daemon fired two quick shots and blasted both Jareth and Electra out of the air.

Managing somehow to land on his feet, Jareth switched to the angriest mask he had. He flexed his bony white fingers, his black fingernails extending into the razor-sharp, six-inch-long claws that ran in his family. Rather stupidly, he lunged at his mother.

Daemon grabbed Jareth's outstretched arm and swung him around her head, hurling him back towards the P.O. The Viral Guardian struck Electra as he flew, knocking her from the air. The two of them struck what was left of the stone wall of the Principal Office, and slid to the ground...out cold.

Matrix drew his Gun and leveled it at Daemon's head, but the Supervirus blasted the firearm from his hand before he could get a shot off. Matrix yelled out in pain, clutching his scorched hand. A second blast from Daemon caught him upside the head, and a moment later, he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Slowing down, Daemon turned to Bob and Kit, the only uninjured opponents she had remaining.

"Who's next?" she asked, casually examining her nails.

Kit stepped forward, but Bob held her back. "I am," he said.

* * * *

"Truly. Are you sure you wouldn't like me to finish off your friend there first? It's very rude of you, you know. Getting yourself deleted and leaving no one to protect her."

"Kit's a Guardian. She doesn't need my protection."

"Indeed? Then why, may I ask, are you so anxious to go first?"

Right on cue, one of the petrified signposts on the street crumbled to dust.

"Ah," Daemon said. "I see. That little bug of yours is more destructive than it seems. Petrifies first, then destroys? And I suppose the pattern is low energy first, then higher? Hmmm....I suppose that your friends can't all be Guardians, can they?" Daemon took a few steps closer, deliberately taunting Bob. The Guardian's face was strained; his fists were clutched at his sides. Daemon grinned maliciously.

"That's right," she said. "Only Guardians are immune, correct? So I suppose the rest of your friends are just standing around the System. Not long now before they all start to decompose. They're all going to crumble to dust. Everyone you love, everyone you care about, they're all going to waste away, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it."

Bob's lips parted in a grimace. Small arclets of static electricity ran across his chrome- plated Glitch Armor. Sweat began to bead on his forehead. Daemon's grin grew still broader.

"Well? No angry words? No witty comeback? Come on, Guardian. I'm the only thing standing between you and your friends' lives. Haven't you got ANYTHING to say?"

Bob actually grinned. "I can't," he said. His eyes flicked towards something over Daemon's shoulder. "I'm concentrating."

Daemon caught that glance, and her face fell instantly. She spun around, looked up...her eyes widened, but it was too late.

The large chunk of levitating concrete fell as Bob released his telekinetic hold, catching Daemon completely off-guard. Kit flinched at the sound of crunching bone, and even Bob blinked.

"Is she...?"

"Deleted?" Bob asked. "Probably." With a wave of his hand, Bob began to lift some of the rubble off of the Supervirus. Once she was visible, it became clear that she was, indeed, dead.

A third voice rang out from behind them. "So that's it?"

Kit and Bob spun round, and there was Jareth, crouched amid the rubble. Electra had been propped in a sitting position against the ruined wall beside him, but she was still unconscious. Matrix sat on the rubble beside him, a surly expression somewhere beneath his broken jaw.

"You're awake?"

"Apparently."

"And just how long have you been sitting there?"

"Long enough," Jareth stood and walked over to where his mother's prone body lay, limping only slightly. "So that's it? Game over?"

Bob nodded.

"Bit of an anticlimax, no?" Jareth nudged Daemon's body with his foot.

"I don't care. It's over. Can you release the Medusa?"

"Huh?"

"The city is stone," Kit explained. "Can you un-stone it?"

"Oh!" Jareth said. "No. Ask Hex."

"You called?" Hexadecimal asked, appearing beside him.

"Where have you been? Mom's dead," Jareth said.

"Is she?" Hexadecimal appeared surprised, but didn't seem depressed in the least. She half-turned, glancing at Daemon's broken body. "Er....why is she still there?"

Bob blinked. Kit looked to him for an explanation, but he had none. Jareth was equally bewildered.

The five of them gathered in a close knot around Daemon's body, but then it began to give off a bright white glow, and the Mainframers backed off as quickly as they could.

As the light faded, Daemon's features changed. Her skin lightened from a deep purple to a brilliant fuchsia. Her sightless, unblinking eyes faded, no longer solid black. They were now normal sprite's eyes, the irises a deep emerald green. Her form-fitting black leather flowed like clay, changing into the supple blue body armor of a Guardian, complete with solid gold bracers. Her dark green hair faded to a golden blonde. She no longer looked anything like the Supervirus they had known...but she still looked stupefyingly familiar to Jareth's fragmented memory.

Matrix recognized her from her portrait in the Hall of Guardians. He managed to blurt out her name, despite his broken jaw. "Sierra?"

No sooner was the word out of his mouth than the body began to glow once more. However, this time it was no gentle glow, but a shockwave that blasted everyone back from the former Prime Guardian. As they watched, Sierra's mouth opened, and out came what appeared to be a large, silver snake. It grew in size as it emerged, unfurling great, long, taloned arms. When it had finally separated completely, it was at least three times longer than the height of an average sprite, and it was far from clear how it had ever managed to get into Sierra's body in the first place.

The large silver dragon turned it's leviathan head, flicking the air with it's forked tongue. It glared malevolently at the small group of sprites that had unmasked it.

Hexadecimal snapped her fingers. Instantly, the stone receded, and the system came to life once more. Moments later, the other Mainframers had joined them, and stood in a circle around Daemon's true form.

Daemon reared back and roared, shooting off a small silver orb into the skies above them. When it reached it's apex, it exploded, leaving a shining, silvery orb in it's wake.

Kicking off with her powerful hind legs, Daemon rose from the ground, swimming through the air as a fish through water. Before anyone had time to react, Daemon had vanished into her portal. The portal winked closed behind her, as if it had never been.

Daemon had fled, escaping to parts unknown.

To be continued........


Back