4.01: Son of Nullzilla

[nofileext]

"What's a 'Nullzilla'?"

"Watch this." Phong presses an MPEG file into Enzo's hands, then turns back to the video feed of the null cocoon, his brow crinkling with worry. He has no great love for Hexadecimal, true, but she has just saved the system, and now she might be... well, not deleted, or the nulls would have dispersed by now. But there's no question that she's in trouble.

There's a team of security and medical binomes standing by in case things change for the worse. Right now, the goal is to figure out why the nulls mobbed Hex to begin with, and work out a plan from there.

Comments

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

Matrix watches the screen with disgust. He turns to look at Bob.

"I told ya we should've never given a Virus a PID!" he says angrily. "Nothin' good's gonna come outta this!"

[mendanddefend_archive]

Bob scowls back. "Matrix, Hex just saved us. Have you no compassion?"

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

"For a Virus? No."

He points a finger accusingly at Bob. "And we didn't need her help until you sent us into the Game!"

Then, almost childishly, he adds "We were doing fine."

[command_dot_com]

"Matrix!" Dot chides her over-sized little brother.

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

Frisket leans out from behind Matrix's legs. He gives a loud growl in Dot's direction.

[notascreensaver]

AndrAIa scowled at both Enzo and Frisket. "Frisket!"

[mendanddefend_archive]

"It's all right, Dot. Let him get it out of his system."

[command_dot_com]

Suddenly a pair of bots zoom across the screen.

"Nibbles!"

"Come back little fellow!" And it's no brain-blue in the lead as the null runs in the opposite direction that the mookbots went.

"There he is!"

"Coming through!"

"Henchbots in a hurry!"


"Now what...." Dot groans. Like she needs to deal with THEIR antics right now...

[mendanddefend_archive]

"They still look after Nibbles?!" says Bob incredulously.

[command_dot_com]

"I think they're just covering their ASCIIs," Dot's voice practically drips with annoyance at those two.

[a1enzo]

Dude! Sis never cusses, at least not around Enzo. He hopes this isn't a sign of overwork or something.

[command_dot_com]

"...just in case Megabyte comes back." She continues.

[mendanddefend_archive]

"Oh, thanks for that thought."

Like they don't have enough to worry about as it is...

[nofileext]

Speaking of things to worry about...

Nibbles, apparently seeing an opening, makes a sharp left turn toward the cocoon, quickly becoming lost in the mass of nulls. The cocoon itself starts to shift and warp--it almost looks like a face, now. A weird, eerie moan rises up...

And it speaks.

"I LIVE! DAUGHTER... HELP!"

[mendanddefend_archive]

.
.
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"Woah. That's new."

[command_dot_com]

.
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Dot stares stunned before speaking very, quiet and almost scared sounding.

"Enzo?"

[a1enzo]

It's been half as long for Enzo as for the others since he heard that voice. It's distorted, but oh User it's familiar. His lip begins to tremble.

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

Matrix stares at the screen, shaking his head slightly.

"I...I can't believe it..." he says, stunned.

[notascreensaver]

AndrAIa held onto Matrix's arm, frowning lightly at the vidwindow. "What is it?" She looked at Dot. "You two look like you've seen a ghost."

[a1enzo]

Good guess, AndrAIa. Only Enzo's friends with ghosts, of a couple different varieties, and this is far, far more horrible. All this time, they thought he was just deleted... this is almost worse.

"Sis?" wails Enzo. "That's Dad, isn't it? That's our dad!"

[mendanddefend_archive]

"...what?"

Bob can't believe he's hearing this. It's impossible. It's absurd. It's...

[command_dot_com]

It's right there in front of her face. Dot's not sure what to feel right now, but it is definitely not a good feeling. All these bikilocycles...

"Bob... that's our father. That... thing... is Welman Matrix."

She couldn't stop staring at the vidwindow screen, oh User why...