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While Johnnie-O and the Ripper played their little cat and e the situation The Ripper seeray Confederate Army uniform, complete with that odd little hat There eapons strewn around the flight deck that the Ripper kept reaching for, but Johnnie-O kept kicking them out of reach None of those weapons were Civil War issue There were very modern, very efficient auto with countless bullets and loadedthe Civil War, but now he had an entire arsenal of modern military ordinance

"Leave ht outta their sockets!"

"I'd like to see you try!" yelled Johnnie-O, finally getting a grip on him The ripper tried to pull on Johnnie-O's arms, but they were tooNick would not have believed if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes The Ripper reached right through Johnnie-O's faceand pulled out his brain

Johnnie-O froze with the sudden shock of it, and Nick could only stare in disbelief

A brain

Right there in the Ripper's hands

It was just like Isaiah had said

It didn't look like a real brain; it looked more like a plastic -- perhaps so Johnnie-O once saw in a classroom somewhere This was Johnnie-O's memory of a brain, and the ripper now held it in his hand like an oversize walnut

"Aaaaaaah!" wailed Johnnie-O in the kind of abject terror that can only co your brain held out before you "Give it back! Give it back!" Painless though it was, there was so about this--not just the fact of seeing one's own brain held up for observation, but to suddenly have one's very consciousness separate and apart from one's body, and yet still tethered as if by some weird wireless connection For Johnnie-O, the sensation was far worse than pain

"AAAAAH!" he screamed "Put it back in! I swear I won't touch you, just put it back in!"

"Maybe I'll just squish it beneath my feet! Squish, squish!"

"Noooo!"

It infuriated Nick to see Johnnie-O helpless and huive therenade, and held it up to the Ripper

"Give hi in your hed at that "Won't ets blowed up, I'll just pull back together again, like it was nuthin'!"

"Yes," Nick said with a grin "In theory "

The wider Nick's grin got, the more worried the Ripper became "Whadaya mean, theory?"

"IThey heal in seconds, surebut if you're blown to sonna find one another again?"

Clearly the Ripper had never thought of this

"You have till the count of three" Nick reached for the pin, ready to pull it "Onetwo " "Fine!" The Ripper went over to Johnnie-O, as nohi his intensely eot worht back inside him

The Ripper then scrambled over the vertically mounted chairs and reached up toward the spacecraft's control panel--then hit a button

A hatch popped open like a trapdoor right beneath poor Johnnie-O, as still just recovering froh the open hatch into darkness Nick could hear hi into whatever filled the cargo hold of the shuttle

"Was that really necessary?" shouted Nick

"You're next!" threatened the Ripper

Nick was angry enough to pull the pin on the grenade and blow thee, found a foothold, and climbed toward the Ripper

"We're just here to talk! Why can't you calh to listen!"

"I warned you!" said the Ripper, and he reached in through Nick's chest, gripped his grubby hands around Nick's ed

To the aet Nick's heart at all Instead his hand came out covered in chocolate

It surprised Nick as much as the Ripper, but he tried not to show it

The Ripper stared at his hand, then at Nick, and for the first tihtened "Whatare you?"

And although Nick never, ever used the words hirowing reality he could no longer deny

"I are," Nick said "And you've made me veryVERYMAD!"