Electric Delirium

I sat up on the table in the lab, my electric blue eyes glancing around; Doctor Light was nowhere to be found, nor were my fellow Light Numbers.  I glanced down to my body now; there was no sign of any scuffle, though my memory banks said different.  With a sigh, I laid back down on the table, closing my eyes.

A voice echoed in my mind.

"I could kill you here, but where would the fun in that be?  Not much fun if you ask me, just wasting a pretty face like yours."

I shuddered.  Why the hell was he haunting me?  He scared the hell out of me, and yet I couldn't stop thinking about him.  Was it because he was scaring the hell out of me? Or was it something else?

I shook, placing my left hand on my right arm.

My body was paralyzed and I was shaking like a leaf.

"How can one who is on the move all the time stop?"

His voice was haunting me even more.

But that question was a good one.

How can one who is on the move all the time stop?  The hands of his clock never stop.  He's never left shaking like a leaf with his feelings frozen like this.

I hated Quickman more than any other robot right now.  How could he do this to me?  He beat me senseless and now he's haunting my mind too?  How could this happen?  Foolish.  So foolish.  This isn't me.  I'm supposed to be smarter than this.  My wits are supposed to be much sharper.  And I can't even concentrate now.

A mocking, sarcastic voice echoed in the lab.  "Just hurry up.  There isn't any time to waste if you want to fight me again, you know.  Or anything else for that matter."

I glanced around, paranoid.  That voice was familiar and chilling.  I knew that voice.  The sound of footsteps pattered all across the floor, but I could see nothing but a flash of an orange-crimson color.

Suddenly, it stopped, but a voice spoke up.  "How do you say this...I really think that love is nothing more than a waste of one's precious time.  After all, our lives are pretty short--you're living proof of that, you weak slowpoke--so why should I waste any of my precious time on anyone other than myself?  There's so much I wanted to do with my life, and things are really picking up for me now that I've quit helping with Wily's world domination schemes and decided to make a name for myself on the racing circuit.    If you want me to be completely honest, I think people waste their time with love.  Robots too.  Why should we love?  It's just a waste of our precious time that we could be spending on ourselves!  What fools, if you ask me.  Really, I'm not jealous of anyone like them.  And yet...ever since I fought you I couldn't get you out of my head.  You're like a little bug in my system, you see?  So I gotta kill you to get rid of you."

"...You're wrong."  I muttered.  "You're wrong, Quickman."

He froze up, his stormy greenish eyes staring at me.  I don't suppose he thought I would even argue with him in my state.  Hell, I didn't think I would.

"How can you say I'm the wrong one?  Just look at all the people and all the robots that waste their lives on love.  My own brother, Bubbleman is nothing more than a fool now, wasting all his free time and money on that Splashwoman chick.  And Flash is always wasting his time obsessing over Megaman...and...damnit it doesn't matter!  I came here to kill you while you were alone!  I've been watching, you know."  Quickman growled, whipping out one of his razor-sharp boomerangs.

I huffed defiantly.  "You're not here to kill me.  Look at you.  You were watching me.  You were waiting to be alone with me.  That's something someone in love would do."

"And what would you know of love? Are you in love?  Because that's seriously foolish and doesn't befit a guy that could have beaten me on several occasions during that fight.  Honestly, what is it with ever--"

I couldn't take it anymore.  I was still in pretty bad pain--Dr. Light hadn't quite fixed me up as good as I thought--but I pulled myself off the table, suddenly pinning him to the wall with all the force I could muster.

"Why would I want to be in love with someone like you?!"  I screamed.  This was so unlike me!  "You beat me half to death and then probably left me for dead!"

"I didn't."  He protested.  "I didn't leave you for dead.  I could have, but I wanted to fight you again one day.  That's the only reason I brought you back here.  Don't you get it?  I gave enough of a damn that I wanted to fight you again.  I could have left you for dead.  But you know, I think I liked fighting you.  No.  I loved it.  But I'm not in love with it because it would be stupid to be in love with a concept."

I froze up, shaking with rage.  "You're lying to yourself! Stop it!  Stop it!  And don't ask me how one who is on the move all the time can stop because I still don't know how!"

Suddenly, I felt myself thrown again, just like when he and I had fought.  This time it hurt more, striking the cold metal floor of the lab.  He towered over me, glaring and gritting his teeth.  He then leaned in--I was powerless to do anything at the moment except let him seize me by the throat.

"Shut up.  Shut up you fool.  It's all your fault I'm going to have to do this..."

He raised his boomerang.

"I could sever your head with a well-thrown Quick Boomerang, you slow-poke.  But now I have you in my hand, and a boomerang in the other.  And I'm going to jam it into the heart of your motherboard."

"So then you're going to stab me in the heart, and you'll be to blame."  I scoffed weakly.  "You give love a bad name."

"I'm not in love with you!"  Quickman growled, suddenly slamming me onto the table and straddling me, the boomerang raised above us.

I could see it coming down.  Closer.  Closer with blinding speed.

And then he jammed it into the table and got off me, shaking like a leaf.  I gulped, sitting up and reaching out for him, only to be smacked harshly.  He glowered at me, narrowing his intense green eyes.

"I hate you.  I hate everything about you.  Why?  Why do you insist that I love you?  Because I spared you twice?  Because I brought you back to be repaired?  Get it through your titanium skull.  You're the one in love..."

My eyes did not waver.

He didn't seem to understand.  He  was just digging himself deeper by lying to himself.

Suddenly, he pinned me back down on the table, grabbing my wrists.  I trembled some, wondering what he was going to do.  Then it happened.  

A silvery tear of mercury dropped from his eye onto my cheek.

He was shaking like a leaf as he collapsed onto me.

----

My eyes opened up.

"Where...am I?"

Dr. Light stood over me, tools in hand as he repaired the circuits in my arm.  "Ah!  You're awake!  I thought your systems had gone offline from all the damage..."

"No...no.   I think...I think I fell asleep from all the damage.  But...I know I wasn't here..."  I murmured.

"Someone brought you here."  Dr. Light smiled lightly.

"I...I think I know who."  I spoke softly, a faint smile on my face.

Heh.  Maybe I'm the one in love.

One day.  One day, Quickman.