"This can't be!" I said. The scietists had all been subdued, the security guards and the ninja whores surrounding them. I myself was at the mercy of the one-legged whore as she pointed one of those little knife things Raphael from the Turtles used at me. And there was my dear friend Dr Dave at the mercy of our supposed ally Tisiphone Adler as she held his own dagger to his throat. Never before had we been defeated so utterly. We always found a way out. But escape could there be from this?
Still, there was always hope when it came to Dr Dave, I thought...until I saw the look on his face. He looked singularly dejected. Completely beaten. I'd never seen such a look before, not even when the Chinaman had been poisoning him and he had decided to take his own life (which turned out to be a masterful act, granted.) There was no glimmer of hope in his eyes.
"OH but it is!" said Dr Dace. "You figured out so much, Dr Dave. So, so much. Yet you couldn't see what was right in front of you! Did you really think a woman like Miss Tisiphone Adler would side with you? Knowing what I planned to do, of course she'd be on my side! It was just far too a tempting off to her!
"Did you sleep with him?" asked Dr Dave, coldly.
"What business would that be of yours?" laughed Tisiphone, cruelly. My anger threatened to burst to the surface as she mocked my friend. "We were never intimate, Dr so called Dave! But no, Dr Dace and I never slept together..."
"Because I was the one sleeping with him!" said the one-legged whore, walking over to Dr Dace. Then they started making out!
"That's right!" said Dr Dace. "I had one thing you never had, Dr Dave. A wife! No, Wackson doesn't count."
"I was snooping around, trying to find out who the legendary Dace was," said Tisiphone. "I didn't know which way I'd go at first, if I'd join him or try to stop him. All I saw was him taking money from the rich and stupid...then I started to like him."
"I had placed my wife in Tisi's whorehouse to watch her," said Dace. "I knew she'd been snooping around, of course. I had my wife approach Tisi with an offer. She could join me, be the only FEMALE criminal in my new world order...in return for handing me Dr Dave's head on a platter! Your only weakness, Dr Dave, the only time you've ever been defeated before was due to your feelings for this woman...and I seduced her to the DACE side."
"He has the coolest stuff," said Tisiphone, nastily.
"So what now," said Dr Dave. "You make me watch as you kill everyone you don't like?"
"Oh, the machine isn't quite finished yet," said Dr Dace. "And this scientist revolt is most unfortunate...but I can always torture them into finishing the work! Besides, I taught myself all the schematic of the machine, I can do the work myself. No, we're not going to wait that long. I know how dangerous you can be, Dr Dave. Even now you're playing your escape. That's why I'm going to kill you right away."
"NO!" I said again.
"You monster!" said cute scientist girl, but I was so worried about Dr Dave that I didn't even give her a comforting hug.
"I had created a machine designed to kill my enemeis, I find it QUITE amusing!" said Dr Dace, as we walked to another room, Tisi holding the knife to Dr Dave's throat all the time. There was a circle on the middle of the floor. "Stand in the centre," ordered Dr Dace. Tisiphone walked Dr Dave to it.
"I just want you to know," she said to him. "You meant NOTHING to me." Then she spat on the floor.
"GRRR!" I said. "I hate using such language about a lady, but you have forced my hand! Tisiphone Adler...you are a NINNY!"
"Dace," said Dr Dave, quickly. "If there's any humanity in you, promise me you'll let Wackson live."
"I don't want to live without you!" I cried.
"Oh, I was planning to," said Dr Dace. "Seeing him suffering will arouse me sexually! Now, as you can see, you're standing on a metallic surface. It will soon begin to rotate. Once it rotates 180 degress, you will fall into the pit below. What's at the bottom of that pit? KILLER SPIKES! You will be impaled, Dr Dave! Ironic, isn't it!"
"Not really," said Dr Dave.
"Shut up!" said Dace. "There is no escape. The walls of the pit are smooth, there's nothing to hold onto. The platform will rotate 360 degress and it will be empty. Then we shall know you have fallen. We shall know you have died. Any last words?"
"Just this," said Dr Dave. For a brief, foolish moment I thought he'd deliver some action movie line and spring into action, winning his freedom. But instead he turned to me. "Wackson, you have to be brave. I know you'll feel like life is over. But I promise you, things will get better. It may take years, but they will. And remember, days can feel like hours sometimes. You are the finest man I have ever met, Wackson. It was an honour solving crimes with you."
"Dave..." I said. I tried not to cry. I tried to be strong for him. But I failed.
"ENOUGH!" spat Dr Dace. "KILL HIM!" And just like that, the platform began to rotate. I watched Dr Dave try to stay on his feet, but he slipped and fell. Then he was out of view, as it completely rotated over. It continued to turn...until it had completed 360 degrees. And just as Dr Dace had said, it was now empty. Dr Dave had fallen down the pit. Dr Dave had died. And with him all hope.
TO BE CONTINUED!?!?