4.04: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Word.

[nofileext]

There's a tiny hourglass on a choker around Daemon's neck. It's always been there. At the moment she was first compiled, the sand was all in the top half of the glass, and it's been slowly draining through ever since.

Now, as she stands at the threshold of Mainframe's Principal Office, the last grain of sand comes to rest.

Daemon stops dead in her tracks. As she speaks, her words seem to echo in the infected ground and sky around her:

"I am Daemon.
I am not an entity; I am a time.
My time is now.
The Word is CRON."

"NO!" Bob gasps. "Not a Cron virus..."

Daemon's body shimmers, blurs, then dissolves in a cascade of orange sparks. All that's left is a vaguely person-shaped mass of green light where she stood. (Is this really Daemon? Was the girl just another puppet, another vessel for the Word?)

The light flows upward and outward, losing its shape and coherence as it goes. It spreads through the system, through the open port, through the portals still open above the Principal Office. Every system in the 'Net is bathed in its green glow.

Throughout the 'Net, every sprite, binome, and numeral who remains touched by the Word stops dead in their tracks, just as their mistress did. They close their eyes and begin counting down.

"111100... 111011... 111010..."

Comments

[mendanddefend_archive]

The world is spinning. Why is it spinning? Bob fights to keep his eyes open. Everything is in motion except...

"Hex? What... what are you doing?"

[nofileext]

"Don't worry, my love," Hex croons as she dances with Bob--her Bob, her Guardian. "I will care for you and make you well, then you will love me as I love you--totally!"

[command_dot_com]

"Get off him!"

Dot grabs the now over-powered virus's shoulder.

...Prrrrrobably not the smartest battleplan.

[nofileext]

Incensed, Hex fires a quick burst of energy at Dot, knocking her away. Bob is hers, spammit, and no interloping sprite is going to change that. Even if they have slept together. Even if they love each other. Hex loves him more, and soon Bob will love her back.

[renegade-enzo.livejournal.com]

Matrix catches Dot as she flies back, setting her down gently.

"I knew this was a bad idea!"

[mendanddefend_archive]

There's something wrong with Hex's face. The crack--no, he saw that before, didn't he? There's something else. Bob squints, and realizes what it is: her lips aren't moving anymore.

"Hex... you're... ill again..."

[nofileext]

"Ill?" Hex's mask abruptly changes from a frown to a snarl of righteous rage. "But I've never felt so alive! The power--I have the entire power of the Core surging through me!" A smiling mask. "Nothing can harm me, or you, now."

[mendanddefend_archive]

"You're wrong."

She has to know. They all have to know, even if they can't do anything about it, so he keeps talking despite the pain.

"Daemon's virus... w-when the countdown reaches zero, we'll all b-be deleted. Everyone. Everyth-thing."

[nofileext]

Hex pouts. "Oh, but how will our love survive?"

[mendanddefend_archive]

Bob looks more exhausted, more defeated, than you would ever believe to be possible.

"I-it won't, Hex. I'm sorry."

[nofileext]

"Well, that's just not good enough."

Hex turns to shout at Phong, who's been watching from the top of the steps. He's the one who knows everything, he must know a way to stop them from being deleted, mustn't he?

"YOU! Stop this thing!"

[nofileext]

Phong does tend to have all the answers... when they exist. "There is nothing we can do! We have the completed cure, but it is impossible to administer it in time!" Not to the entire 'Net.

[nofileext]

Welman, who has been waiting patiently by the Gateway controls, finally speaks up. "Well," he says thoughtfully, "the only thing that could spread through the 'Net fast enough would be a benign Virus."

[nofileext]

"A virus to cure! Brilliant!" How delightfully Zen! Except... He looks at the only two viruses currently present. "Ohhh dear."

[bprd_agent_red]

"Hey pops, I ain't been a virus thingy long but you tell me what to do an I can get it done for ya." Hellboy volunteers seeing as to how his usual shtick isn't working much and that countdown is getting closer.

[nofileext]

Phong looks at the strange red virus with concern. He would not ask this of a visitor to their world, even a virus, but if someone doesn't do it, they will all be deleted anyhow.

"You would have to go through the gateway machine bearing the cure, and spread it as you would your infection in the moment of transfer. But..." He looks helplessly at Welman.

[nofileext]

"The cure itself should survive the transfer," says the null-man, "but the virus carrying it..."

[nofileext]

Phong nods. "The gateway is targeted to every 'Net address at once. Anyone passing through will be torn apart. It was meant for Daemon."

[bprd_agent_red]

"Oh that's just friggen great." He mutters.

"I come here, get knocked off a building by a girl and lectured at by Mr. Professor over there an now I get torn apart. You all better build a damn statue of me when this is done with." He points a stone finger at Phong. "With a plaque that reads, "Hellboy Was a Bad Ass Dude". And let the kids have school off on a day you name after me too."

He doesn't need to make a decision about whether or not he's going to do it, of course he is. There's a world in danger here and even though it's not his own, his job is to protect. So that's what he's going to do.

[nofileext]

"Ahem."

Hexadecimal gestures toward Hellboy, and the other virus is blown backward against the wall of the Principal Office.

"I'll do it, thank you," she says, a little indignantly.

[bprd_agent_red]

"Yeah, what?" He asks, turning towards the voice. Then he's flying backwards too fast to even get an 'aw, crap' out and crashing into a wall.

And that's just one hit too many for Red today. He lays in a heap in the selfmade hole, debris falling down on and around him.

[nofileext]

"I'll do it," Hexadecimal repeats. "Just give me the cure and I'll solve everything."

[mendanddefend_archive]

"Hex... you won't survive this. It's a one-way trip... total f-fragmentation..."

[nofileext]

"But you will survive."

Hexadecimal lays Bob gently on the ground, then whirls and leaps at Matrix, grabbing his icon before throwing him to the floor. In a flash of light, the cure is transferred to her system.

"Virus hater!" Hex snarls as she tosses the icon back to the prone renegade. "Learn from this."

With a purposeful stride, she turns toward the Gateway.

[a1enzo]

Enzo steps in to block her path. "Hex, stop! I don't want you to go!"

He was just getting to know her. Even if she's bonkers again, there's more to her than just the madness.