Chapter 41: "Locked"

A bony hand reached out at my throat, making me choke.
"And here it comes now," he whispered hoarsely. "The end."
Tab! I hit the button a split second before his Delete ray could connect. A mixture of frustration and surprise on his face, Writer turned round and said that dreaded word again.
"Delete."
Uh-oh. I couldn't Tab again so quickly. Only one option left, Alternate and...
It worked! The ray stopped midway.
"Freeze Frame? Interesting. Now we truly have a battle on our hands."
"Bring it on," Beads of sweat started forming on my brow as I tried to control the Freeze Frame.
"Smart you might be," he swept aside my Freeze Frame as though it was a pesky fly. "But still your powers are controlling you."
No time to waste on needless banter, I proceeded to the next power: Control and C, followed by Control and V - Copy/Paste!
Unfortunately, after the first duplication the C and V buttons had sunk. Unlike Telly, I could only Copy one of myself at a time.
All the same, surely he couldn't take on two people at the same time. We both charged forward, one from the left and one from the right.
"Wrong move!" He caught a fist with each hand and Caps Locked, twisting our arms. "Let me show you how it's done!"
My eyes grew wide in horror as he lifted us twelve feet above the ground, preparing to feed us to the flames. I glanced around wildly at the array of buttons before me, desperately searching for one that could save me.
"In case you are thinking of using some powers to counter, save it," he roared. "Forget that you ever had any - Scroll Lock!"
Scroll Lock? What did that do? I peered at the buttons and gasped out loud. Almost all of them had sunk down! I tried pressing frantically, but to no avail. All my new-found powers could no longer be used! This didn't look good.
"It has been a good 41 Chapters...time to move on!"
My heart almost stopped beating. I had never felt so close to death before ever. What would happen to me if I died in this story world? Would I be able to come back to live in the real world?
I didn't have time to entertain those thoughts, for we were already being flung straight into a raging inferno. I took one last look at my buttons. Still sunken. Death!
But just moments before the flames could reach me, a body broke my fall and pushed me forcefully out of the way. My back thumped hard onto the ground, so hard I feared something might be broken. Who could possibly have rescued me again?
It was my Copy. Of course! Writer had just Scroll Locked me, but not him. Inches away from the fire, my Copy had Tabbed to where I was and pushed me out of harm's way.
"Farewell, Courageous One." I saluted him as he perished in the flames.
"You would've done the same for me," he appeared to say. "Fight."
"NO!" Writer's face grew distorted. "You cannot keep narrowly escaping Death like that! IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!"
"Maybe so," I tried to heave myself up. "But nothing is impossible in a story like this."
His twisted face grew even redder. "Impossible yes, illogical no. You now have no more powers left and no more possible allies. I, on the other hand, can make myself as strong as I wish. There is no way, ABSOLUTELY NO WAY in the name of the Writer and the Creator that you can not die and let this story end with my next attack."
I swallowed hard, fists raised.
"Chapter 42," he brought up his hand. "IS the final Chapter. DELETE!"