4.04: Time for some thrilling heroics.

[nofileext]

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.

Comments

Re: Team Cure

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

He hesitates a moment, then continues struggling.

"Yes! I'll hurt him!"

Re: Team Cure

[a1enzo]

"You? We love that dog! And you'll hurt him?"

The serenity and the smiling were incongruous, and more than a little scary, but that was just a mood. This goes directly against everything Matrix - Enzo - is.

"Would you hurt Dot, too? Would you hurt Bob? Phong?"

Re: Team Cure

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

Matrix looks slightly confused as he still struggles against Frisket, like something was trying to make its way to the surface in his mind.

"Yes!" he says through gritted teeth. Then, sounding as though changing his mind, he yells, "No!"

Frisket yanks on his arm again, biting down harder. Matrix tries not to cry out in pain, but fails.

Re: Team Cure

[notascreensaver]

AndrAIa struggles against the robots. "Matrix!"

How could they do this? If only they knew the peace she felt.

Re: Team Cure

[hack-slash-bots.livejournal.com]

Hack clamps a hand over her mouth.

In addition to the two hands he's using to hold her back already.

...don't ask.

Re: Team Cure

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

Matrix gets another confused look on his face.

"No!" he shouts again, with a much more firm tone to his voice this time.

Re: Team Cure

[a1enzo]

"Matrix," Enzo insists, "this isn't you! You can't let the virus control you! You hate viruses!" Get under his skin, that's the ticket. Remind him who he really is. "You hate Megabyte!"

Re: Team Cure

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

He shakes his head slightly.

"M...Megabyte?"

Re: Team Cure

[a1enzo]

He seems to be getting through to Matrix. He could just cure him now, but, somehow, this seems more important.

"Bob made you a Guardian! Gave you a field upgrade to fight Megabyte, to fight viruses!" So fight it! You care so much about being strong, be strong!

Re: Team Cure

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

He stares at Enzo for a moment, looking like he was reaching for something, something buried deep within his code.

"Guardian...?" he says, looking down at his own icon, his hand slowly reaching up to it.

Re: Team Cure

[a1enzo]

It's worked. It really seems to have worked.

"Down, Frisket." The dog releases Matrix's wrist.

Re: Team Cure

[hack-slash-bots.livejournal.com]

At the same time, Hack releases AndrAIa's mouth.

Re: Team Cure

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

Matrix barely even noticed that Frisket let his arm go. He looks confused, still looking down at his icon.

"My icon...I...I'm..."

I'm a Guardian. My function is to mend and defend.

He reaches up, doubletapping his icon. It switches from Game Sprite mode to Guardian mode, that familiar gold and black symbol he'd always wanted to wear himself as a child.

When his icon changes, it releases the antivirus code Hiro had given him. It wasn't complete, but it would help, at least. Blue light shines from his icon, then spreads throughout his body as it took effect.

A moment later, the Word has been rendered silent in his code, at least for the moment.

Matrix, the renegade, was back in control.

Re: Team Cure

[a1enzo]

Enzo heaves a sigh of relief. "How d'you feel?"

Re: Team Cure

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

He blinks, looking slightly dazed, but composes himself quickly.

"Fine...I'm fine," he says, trying to make it sound like nothing serious had happened to him at all.

What? It's Matrix. He does that.

Re: Team Cure

[a1enzo]

"Is she still... y'know, in there? 'Cause we fixed the cure. In Milliways. It works all the way now. I've got a copy." He removes his icon and holds it out.

Re: Team Cure

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

Matrix nodded slightly. He pulled off his own icon and held it out towards Enzo's, transferring a copy of the cure from the younger sprite's code to his own. He put it back on, and felt the cure moving through his code, destroying everything that was left of the Word in him.

After a moment, he turned to look at AndrAIa. She was still infected. He couldn't stand to see her like that.

He pulled his icon off again, and started to walk towards her.

"Your turn."

Re: Team Cure

[notascreensaver]

"MATRIX! How could you abandon her? How could you give up peace? It's waht we've wanted all along?"

She was aghast that her lover could possibly turn away from the Word.

Re: Team Cure

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

Matrix doesn't even bother trying to explain to her. He knows what it's like being under the influence of the Word. You don't care about what anyone else has to say, you just care about spreading it further. He knows anything he'd have to say wouldn't do any good.

He just walks closer to her, holding his icon above hers. A small beam of light goes from his icon to hers as he used the antivirus to cure her.

Re: Team Cure

[notascreensaver]

The cure fights, and AndrAIa twists, before she stops suddenly, her eyes wide and her mouth open.

"User."

Re: Team Cure

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

Matrix turns to Hack. "Let her go," he says calmly, and the mook-bot complies, backing away a bit.

He turns back to AndrAIa, placing one hand on her shoulder and the other gently on her cheek.

"You okay?"

Re: Team Cure

[notascreensaver]

She touched his face gently, nodding. "Yeah. That was. . .weird."

AndrAIa shivered. "I hate viruses."

Re: Team Cure

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

"You n' me both," he says dryly.

He'd like this little 'reunion' to be a bit more tender, but he realizes that there's a Virus that needs to be stopped.

"Okay," he said, turning to Enzo. "You seem to know a bit more about what's going on than we do, so...what's the plan?"

Yes, he's asking little Enzo what to do. Savor the moment, it doesn't happen often.

Re: Team Cure

[a1enzo]

Oh, he is.

"Dot sent me to Milliways before it happened, and I got a bunch of people digitized and brought 'em to help," he says in summary. "Some of us are goin' around curing people, and Danny and Hellboy are fighting Daemon to distract her while the others get a truck and fill it with explosives so Matilda can throw it at her."

^_^

Re: Team Cure

[notascreensaver]

AndrAIa was, thankfully, an expert at Enzo to intelligible translations, and picked it up quickly.

"Oh, I have got to see this."