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

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..."

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YT turns away, rolls her eyes, and points her index finger into her mouth in the universal sign for "gag," but she's clearly only doing so out of some kind of habit or feeling of obligation.

Matrix knows he won't be any help in the medlab, so he decides to stay back to help deal with the crowd of people that Enzo'd brought with him.

Of course, that's when he notices the two surfers coming through the portal. He decides to wait a bit before heading over to fill them in, since he knows how...amorous...Ray and Mouse could be at times.

After giving them a few nanos to get reacquainted, he heads over, giving YT a nod and looking over at Ray.

"Hey," he says, continuing the day's streak of dour greetings.

Ray waves a hand in the direction of Matrix's voice, but otherwise, his... attention... is still on Mouse.

Looks like YT has to hold up the other end of the conversation here. She moves away from the pair of snogging sprites. "I was chasing Ray down when the cure hit," she says. "Luckily he didn't hold a grudge or anything."

AndrAIa wandered over and wrapped her arm around Matrix's waist.

"How are you?"

The other people didn't matter. They could take care of themselves. Especially Mouse and Ray. Beside, she was still somewhat xenophobic especially knowing what the strangers used to be.

Matrix slips an arm around AndrAIa when she walks up, smiling gently at her.

"I'm fine," he says. However, he came over here for a reason, so he turns back to YT.

"Anyone get hurt?" he asks the surfer.

YT's looking around for her pod. "Anyone seen Hiro?" He's the only person unaccounted for right now.

Mouse and Ray finally had to come up for air just before YT asked this question. "I'm afraid I had t'give 'im a li'l knock on the head, darlin'," Mouse answers, sounding embarrassed. "Should be fine when he wakes up, though."

Important business concluded, Ray looks cheekily at Matrix and AndrAIa. "Hello, mates! What all did I miss, then?"

She hugs Matrix briefly, before giving Ray a wan smile.

"Nothing much. Just the end of the 'net."

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

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