Release 1.20

Eugene sprung toward Anabella with a speed I would have though impossible from his his short, spindly legs. He spun the bundle of cables over his head like a lasso, releasing them a few feet from Anabella. However, while she'd been shocked into paralysis for a few short moments at Eugene's sudden attack, Anabella was now regaining her senses. She sidestepped quickly, and the cables whizzed past her head, narrowly missing her.

Anabella screamed at Eugene. "Stop this right now, you little twerp, or I swear you'll be pulling those cables out of your ass in a few minutes!" Unfazed, Eugene reeled in the cables, and positioned himself for another lunge. "All right, kid, if that's how you want to play it..." Anabella yelled. She grabbed a keyboard from the workstation beside her and swung it toward Eugene threateningly. "You're about to find out how it feels to have a Caps Lock surgically removed."

There was still no sign the Eugene was paying any attention to Anabella's threats, though I will admit to a small amout of personal admiration at her creative abilities, considering the pressure. Eugene again flung the cables at Anabella, who raised the keyboard to block them. The wires spun around the casing like plastic tentacles, and a tug from Eugene sent the keyboard flying from Anabella's hands, with an ease I would have thought extremely unlikely considering Eugene's total lack of upper body strength. The same thought must have occurred to Anabella, who was now looking at Eugene with an expression of disbelief, anger, and maybe even a small amount of fear.

Embarassing as it may be for me to admit, until that moment I had stood transfixed by the events going on around me, but seeing that look on Anabella's face seemed to snap me out of it. Slowly, I began to inch myself backwards, out of Eugene's field of vision. It didn't take long -- Eugene seemed to have focused complete on Anabella, and never took his eyes off her as he methodically untangled the keyboard from his cables in preparation for yet another attack.

I knew we only had a few moments before Eugene renewed his assault. I backed up as quickly as I could without causing any unnecessary noise which might attract Eugene's attention. I watched him for any sign that he was even aware of my presence, but there were no indications that he was paying attention to anyone but Anabella. At least not until I came crashing down on my butt.

I had tripped over the Analyzer's VR suit, which I had left on the floor after removing it earlier. As I fell, my arms reached out for anything to break my fall, knocking over a chair in the process. Eugene's gaze shifted at the sudden noise, and he was now focused on me. He had finished untangling the keyboard, which he tossed aside absent-mindedly as he again raised the cables over his head. "You know, Biff," he said, "You're really beginning to annoy me," and he dashed toward me.

I tried to back up, but hadn't yet regained my footing. I scrambled backwards, like some kind of uncoordinated crab, in a feeble attempt to evade Eugene's charge. I could see Anabella moving behind him, but my awkward position, and the fact that I was paying more attention to Eugene at this point than anything else, made it difficult to determine what she was doing.

"You're not getting away this time," Eugene said as he came withing a few feet of my position. This time? Strangely, I was unaware of ever having been chased through a computer room by a psychotic boy genius with a copper lasso before. However, I wasn't about to deny him his delusions at a time like this. I watched as he spun the cables, and aimed them toward me.

Suddenly, I saw Anabella appear behind him, the Analyzer helmet in her hands. Just as Eugene was releasing the cables, she jammed the helmet down, backwards, onto his head, knocking him to the floor. The lasso landed on the floor in front of me, and seemed to twitch to a stop on the cold tile.