nofileext | 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.

Current Mood: creepy

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From:

nofileext

Daemon has spent the last few cycles with Mike the TV. Danny's going to have to be a lot more annoying to match that.

The supervirus turns toward Danny and Hellboy with a friendly smile. "Hello. I don't remember seeing you before..."

From:

fryertuck

From the FentonPhones came a whistle. Danny had only viewed Daemon at a distance on his first trip, so the video feed had not been terribly detailed. "Dude, you didn't tell me she was hot!"

From:

goinghost.livejournal.com

From:

bprd_agent_red

Hellboy looked over the woman and shrugged, "I'd say kinda a pukey pink. An eh, only so-so in the hot department. Her can's too big, never did get into the J-lo look."

He turned his attention to the surrounding area, gave a nod towards the two prisoners and looked back to Danny, "So, we start breaking stuff now or what?"

From:

goinghost.livejournal.com

"I dunno. I like a girl that can fill out a mini skirt. Especially plaid ones." A pause. "As for breaking stuff, let's make this official."

He cleared his throat.

"To blatantly steal some really awesome words from a friend: as duly designated representatives of system Mainframe, Daemon, you are now ordered you to cease any, and all, viral activity and return forthwith to your place of origin, or to the nearest convenient, uninhabited system away from any and all others."

He looked over at Bob's prone form, and the fake geniality--and the humor--was gone. "Okay, now we start breaking stuff."

With that, he charged up a fist full of ecto and blasted as hard as he could in Daemon's direction.

From:

nofileext

The force of the blast blows Daemon backward against the rounded 'floor' of the subsphere. When the ecto clears, the floor is scorched but Daemon herself is unharmed.

Which isn't to say that she doesn't look more than a little ticked off as she charges back upward through the air toward Danny and Hellboy.

From:

bprd_agent_red

"Oh, plaid. Nice." Hellboy smirks. When Daemon charges he steps up, hauls back his giant stone fist and swings, timing to connect with her when she gets to them.

From:

nofileext

As she approaches, Daemon holds out both hands and catches Hellboy's fist, stopping it dead. Then, without shifting her grip, she whirls the demon/virus around and throws him like a hammer in an Olympic decathlon.

From:

goinghost.livejournal.com

Hoo boy, ouch.

That was some throw.

Meaning they definitely couldn't hold back on this one.

Which was good considering that Danny wasn't the type to hold back when fighting girls. He had so many female enemies that didn't hold back when fighting him that he couldn't. That she was easy on the eyes didn't matter, especially in the face of what she'd done.

Free will was a precious thing. Mainframe was a world with set functions and formats, but it was just as precious here as it was in his world. He'd known personally what it felt like to lose his on several occasions, to have things effect his mind, thanks to various enemies: Freakshow, Ember, Blodwen...

But you know, no time for ruminating on the subject. He was a little too busy speeding over through the air, diving down, and grabbing onto Hellboy so he didn't drop 10 stories, then changing direction and zooming up at full speed, dropping him back up on the roof.

"Now now, Big Red was just saying 'hi' his own very special way, weren't you, Red?"

He zipped forward, and right when he got near her, he phased through her, and then a gloved hand grabbed the stupid crowny thing attached to her head from behind. He yanked viciously as a boot stomped into her back with superhuman force.

"This is mine."

To Red, it probably looked quite a bit like a 'I hold, you punch,' sort of move.

From:

bprd_agent_red

"Aw crap." He mutters as he goes sailing through the air. "AW CRAP!" He shouts when he sees the long drop below him as he flies over the edge of the roof.

Then he's being pulled back and dropped off back in the fight again. He'll thank the kid later. For now...

"Yeah, hello and goodbye lady!" With that he hammers his fist down at her as Danny holds her, hoping that Danny remembers the part where he warned him to be ready to phase when he started throwing his weight around.

From:

goinghost.livejournal.com

Thankfully, his timing was excellent, and he phased right when the punch connected.

From:

nofileext

And once again Daemon goes flying, grunting in pain as the air is knocked out of her lungs. She soars several hundred yards before she manages to catch herself in midair. As she returns, she's scowling not at Hellboy, but at Danny. "You. You are not a sprite. You are not a virus. What are you?"

From:

bprd_agent_red

Hellboy looks Danny up and down and then back at Daemon, "He's the toothfairy, couldn't ya tell?"

He rotates the wrist of his stone hand and beckons her with his other, "C'mere an I'll help you knock out a few choppers and he'll give you a quarter."

From:

goinghost.livejournal.com

"I don't know. From now on, I'm thinking I should hold at least the same standards as Santa, in which case, sooomebody's going to get coal under her pillow," Danny remarked.

To Daemon, he said, "I could tell you what I am, but because of all you've done to hurt this system, and all the others like it, I won't. That'll only make up for a tiny fraction of what you've done, but it's something."

His voice was full of gleeful mockery. They needed to get her her angry. They needed her too upset to pay attention, and if he could use this, he would.

He flew at her, charging through the air with fists full of ecto energy. All the better to punch her with.

"I bet that drives you nuts, huh? Not knowing? Viruses--I figure you're the ultimate control freaks."

After all, whether chaos or totalitarian control was their game--either way, it was their way or the highway.

He went in swinging, trying to knock her Hellboy's way so he could knock her back his way, and so one, and so forth...

It would be kind of like keep-away, only throwing the person around instead of some of her stuff.

From:

nofileext

"You are mistaken," Daemon begins, looking concerned. "I have harmed no one--"

But then Danny's fists start flying and she's too busy blocking and dodging to say anything else.

From:

bprd_agent_red

"Yeah? Well Bob there might disagree with you." Hellboy noted, stalking forward as Danny engaged her.

When she was close again he swung, this time with his flesh hand which was less powerful then the stone fist but faster.

From:

goinghost.livejournal.com

Danny had experience with talking during a fight. It was almost unconscious at this point. Like riding a bike.

"You took away the most important thing in the world: their ability to choose to love you or not. You changed them," Danny said, furious and still swinging. "You changed them so that they were willing to nearly--" Please, oh please let it only be "nearly" "--kill themselves to do what you want. There's not much worse you could have done."

From:

nofileext

"I showed them the Word," Daemon replies calmly. "Nothing more."

By accident or design, the battle is driving the three fighters further and further from the center of the subsphere, to where the Principal Office roof curves down toward the ground.

From:

command_dot_com

Dot stares open-mouthed at the battle taking place above her. They are fighting the Lady of the Word.

From:

goinghost.livejournal.com

He and Hellboy danced between one another, Danny minding where Hellboy's strong fists were as promised so the BRPD agent could let loose without having to worry about his team-mate.

"Don't even try to pretend like it's something special and magical. You reprogrammed them. You changed their code. That's all your Word is: numbers that you used to change who they are."

The sad thing was, it seemed like she really believed what she was saying. It was a point that had come up when he'd argued with that big-headed kid in the bar: Villains always thought they were right.

They sometimes deluded themselves into thinking it, lied to themselves as much as they lied to everyone else.

But with this, he figured it was more than that. He remembered what Bob had said, after he'd accidentally been turned human, about feeling like he had no purpose. That's what all sprites had--all viruses had--automatically.

They had to fulfill it. They had to become what they were meant to become, and didn't even really have much of a choice, enough of a choice to not want it.

("But me, my future... I'm inevitable.")

He wasn't exactly consciously aware of where the feeling came from, but for some reason, it welled up in him.

"It's wrong...even if you can't help what you are."

He pitied her.

Nearly faltering, he threw one of his punches a little too hard, to compensate. If it connected, Daemon'd have one hell of a head ache, but if she managed to dodge or redirect it, he'd be thrown off balance.

From:

bprd_agent_red

"Vampires. Zombies. Monks who hook thier fingers together and shoot balls of fire at you." He commented, punctuating each with a swing. "They all got better lines then you lady."

Hellboy soon realized that he was free to punch and move as he wanted to and the kid would be able to avoid it. The kid was good. Even if he was wrong. Not being able to help what you are is bunk. If a demon can fight on the side of the angels a virus out to be able to leave a system alone.

"She can help it." He snarled, coming down hard with his fist. "She's just to weak to want to try."

He then whirled round and brought his tail into play, swinging the heavy appendage at Daemon, not aware of Danny's clumsy throw.

From:

nofileext

A frown of puzzlement and concern creases Daemon's brow, even as she dodges out of the way of her attackers.

"Such anger... why do you do this?"

From:

goinghost.livejournal.com

The way she parried nearly sent Danny right into Hellboy's tail, but he managed to phase through it in time.

However, he had some forward momentum so without the tail to stop him, when he went solid again, he hit the ground pretty hard ("Oof!"), rolled, and then skidded slightly to a stop.

Then got back up again. For a moment, he briefly toyed with the idea of using his ghostly wail, but it was too risky. Even if he stopped before he felt drained, it still might sap his energy too much and force him to transform back.

And he really didn't want to find out what happened to three-dimensional solid, carbon-based matter in a world that was made entirely out of energy and data.

Reason was just as distracting as fighting, wasn't it? And even though a part of him agreed with Hellboy--the part of him that was proud of himself for fighting so hard to avoid a horrible future--he also remembered the fact that he had, essentially, failed. If it weren't for some divine intervention on Clockwork's part, maybe he might not have turned, especially knowing what was to come, but what if the divine intervention had gone the other way? What if someone had forced his ghost half out of him after he'd been marked by such a tragedy, after being made so angry?

He floated in the air and sent an ecto blast her way just to get her attention, then said, "What if another virus reached into you and changed you, Daemon? What if they changed who you are? Wouldn't you want to be the same as you are now instead of made into something else?"

He wanted to at least try to make her understand.

From:

nofileext

If he were talking to a different sort of virus, Danny might actually be successful. But in this case it's rather like trying to convince a bacterium to stop causing strep throat.

"I am the Word," she replies, looking even more confused. "I cannot change what I am. It is unthinkable."

From:

goinghost.livejournal.com

Pity.

But he couldn't let pity stop him.

Sometimes you had to ignore what made something what it was, because there was no way to change it.

There had been no way of saving his evil future self, even if it had once been him.

"If you can't even want to be different from what you are then I'm sorry we have to do this."

He flew at her fast, hands charged, planning on grabbing onto her head and blasting.