nofileext | 4.04: Time for some thrilling heroics.

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daemonplot

4.04: Time for some thrilling heroics.

The Mainframe populace go about their business as usual, if disturbingly cheerfully. The air is filled with cars and zipboards, not CPUs and tanks.

Everything's quiet, more or less.

Of course, given the group that's just coming in from Milliways, that's not liable to last long.

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Directly in the path of Mouse's stagger is a large, cold dog nose.

"Frisket!" cries a recovering Enzo.

Mouse's topples backward over the dog and, before she can recover, has a Frisket sitting firmly on her midsection. Even in her current state, she's hesitant to try and wrestle something with that many very sharp teeth.

Before the Word can overcome her survival instinct, Phong rolls forward and touches a certain spot on Mouse's neck.

The hacker's eyes roll up so far that only the whites show, and then they close as she goes limp.

Enzo scrambles for his icon and administers the cure while he safely can.

As the viral smell dissipates, Frisket grunts and gets off of Mouse, which is probably best for her recovery speed.

Mouse twitches as the green webbing on her temples and forehead recedes, then fades. A few moments later, she groans and opens her eyes. "I think I owe y'all an apology," she says weakly.

"It's not your fault. Are you okay?" Enzo has gotta learn that neck trick.

"Close enough, sugar," Mouse answers, levering herself into a sitting position and sheathing her katana. "Okay," she says, planting her hands on her hips, "exactly how much trouble are we in?"

"Bob's almost deleted from making all those portals for Daemon, and we threw an exploding truck at her but it only made her mad."

Mouse's expression says that report was about what she expected. "Who else've ya cured so far?"

She expected an exploding truck?

He ticks off on his fingers. "Matrix, AndrAIa, Hex, Dot, Bob, and a bunch of binomes. And Hack and Slash were with me already so they're not infected. Oh, and we brought a bunch of people from Milliways to help."

"So we ain't totally fragged after all," Mouse says. "If we stay here too long, though, we're gonna be. Let's get movin'. You lead."

Enzo resumes running in his original direction. "D'you know if there're any doctors in the medlab?"

"I believe so," gasps Phong, who is hard-pressed to keep up, particularly after that fight. His stamina is not what it once was.

"We better be careful, though. Hiro's still infected, far as I know, an' he might be hangin' around here."

"Has anyone seen YT?"

She got into this 'cause of him. Her and all the others. They needed the help, but guilt is still piling itself on top of everything else.

"Ain't seen her since the Supercomputer. Daemon had her usin' my code t'unlock the firewalls we put up on hub systems." Mouse has reasons to feel guilty as well: going AWOL to fight Daemon put the firewall codes in the hands of the enemy. "I'm guessin' she's still at it."

"Frag." Mouse, you are such a bad influence.

They have reached the medlab. Enzo readies his icon and presses his back to the wall beside the door.

Hiro has no idea that his work on a cure for the Word has been completed; he knows only that he hasn't finished it yet. In point of fact, he's in the medlab, just about to delete it, humming cheerily as he carries it over to a trash bin that appears to have been translated into three dimensions from a Mac desktop.

Mouse waves Phong to the side and puts a finger to her lips. She presses her ear to the door for a few tense picoseconds, hearing the humming inside.

She pulls away from the door. "Just what I thought," she whispers, "he's in there. Ain't no way to get through the door without makin' noise." She frowns thoughtfully. "You two, hide around the corner over there an' let me handle this."

They nod, and an anxious Enzo and a tired-out Phong slip around the corner.

Once they're out of the way, Mouse sneaks quietly down to the end of the corridor, draws her sword, and then starts running. As she passes the medlab she calls, "Hiro! I need ya at the Core controls, it's an emergency!" She keeps running as if she's on her way there, but when she gets to the other end of the corridor, she starts tiptoeing back.

It's not that he really needs to dispose of it; he and Mouse are the only hackers he knows of with the skillz to do anything with it, and neither of them would offend their Lady like that (as far as he knows). But as long as it exists, there's a risk that someone might tinker with it and rob the Net of the joy and peace that only the Word can bring. So, much as he hates to destroy his own work, he has a higher duty.

But when he hears Mouse's call, he decides he's got a more immediate priority. He sets the cure down near the bin, figuring he can dispose of it properly when he gets back.

He doesn't make a conscious decision to bring his swords, any more than most people need to make a conscious decision to bring limbs with them when they go somewhere.

Mouse is reasonably confident that Hiro can dodge her cut or draw his own sword in time to deflect it, especially since she's sort of pulling her punch a little. She's aiming to distract him, tire him out - not delete him.

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