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

[notascreensaver]

No. Oh no.

"I've seen this before!"

It was not a good thing. Not a good thing at all.

[mandercommander.livejournal.com]

Well, Bruck can tell that this is a Bad Thing from that reaction. However...

"Why are they counting down?" That's said in a rather nervous bout of confusion.

[queenofmay]

"And what's a cron virus?"

Marian understood panic, if not why, though she had come to understand the 'virus' term lately.

"Actually, better would be just telling us how to stop it."

[first-sixth.livejournal.com]

Tommy looks very worried.

"I'm not sure that we can stop it. Generally something or someone blowing up and then glowing green is a pretty bad sign."

Especially when large numbers of people then begin a countdown immediately afterward.

[steadfastknight]

Where there had been a car, there was a sprite, catching himself in the middle of a skid with one hand against the street's surface - that'd burn later, but he'd get over it.

A timed payload. Why hadn't any of his scans told him--

"Oh heavens," he murmured as he stood, staring, worried - he could disconnect, but--...

"I'll live." Because he had to.

[seker-pride.livejournal.com]

"We have little choice but to find a way to stop it, or our efforts will be wasted."

He looks at those still infected. They seem ... oddly ... blissful. As blissful as one could get when counting down to one's suicide.

"Would be a shame to have gone to all this trouble for nothing."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"This is hardly ideal," says Matilda. "What are we going to do?"

It's Tommy she looks to. He seems to have been the most sensible of her companions so far, and despite his apparent pessimism, perhaps he can be persuaded to pull something out of his metaphorical sleeve.

[l33t-mouse.livejournal.com]

Mouse looks up at the green glow, her expression bleak. "I don't know, darlin'," she says numbly.

[first-sixth.livejournal.com]

Tommy thinks for a moment, trying to remember whether or not he's ever encountered anything like this in his own history. He finds that he can't recall anything off the top of his head, but more than a few battles do give him at least a general idea. The solution that first jumps to mind is the most logical one that he can think of -- only problem is, he has no idea how to make it work here.

"An antidote," he says slowly. "Up until this point we've been using something that has to be individually transmitted from person to person. But in my not inconsiderable experience, a lot of the time the only way to defeat an enemy has been to best him at his own game. So to beat a virus, maybe we need to start thinking, and more importantly acting, like one ourselves."

He takes a deep breath. "We need something, a cure or antidote, that will not only counteract Daemon but that has the ability to spread as rapidly as she does. Something that'll neutralize her -- like force-feeding the 'Net a really big antacid tablet." Tommy grimaces. "Though if we haven't got anything like that on hand... I don't think it's something we really thought about needing."

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

Danny looked around, rubbing his aching head, and spotted Hex over with Bob.

"Enzo said she used to be virus, and she definitely looks like one again." He pointed to Hex, who now...looked like one, after coming out of the core. "Virus against virus?"

[first-sixth.livejournal.com]

After a long and considered look at Hex, Tommy nods again. Not that situations like this were what he had in mind when he signed up for all those biology classes in undergrad, but hey.

"Exactly. It'd be like throwing antibodies into the mix. If we could get something with a virus's speed and capacity for spreading to function like an antibody for Daemon, that would theoretically halt the process of infection.

There's a "but" coming, and it's a big one.

"But antibodies can only neutralize viruses and toxins. They can't reverse damage that's already been inflicted; that's why treatments that involve them, like administering antivenin to someone who's been bitten by a snake, have to be done quickly." He gives a wry grin. "Daemon was all about time, and to beat her, I think we're going to have to be all about it, too. Think fast, and act as quickly."

You know, before that creepy countdown finishes.

[bprd_agent_red]

Hellboy listens as the others discuss, taking the time to catch his breath. Daemon knocked him around pretty good, not that he'll admit that of course but this pause in action is good for getting his second wind.

"So whadda we gotta do to make one cancel out the other?" He asks, doubting it'll be as simple as setting Hex and Daemon at each other in a cat-fight, as entertaining as that might be to watch.

[first-sixth.livejournal.com]

"Well, that's the problem, isn't it? Viruses aren't like fighting fish, throw two of 'em in a tank and hope yours wins. What we need really is more like an antivenin, and those are more or less manufactured. Inject an organism with the target venom, it'll produce antibodies, and then you harvest those antibodies for use.

"Meaning that we'd have to give a virus, or whatever, the equivalent of a neutralizing agent. Kind of like an expedited manufacturing process."

Tommy sighs and shakes his head. "Of course, I don't exactly have something like that tucked away on me, so unless someone happens to, this is all just a pretty piece of theory, really."

He serious hopes that Mainframe has something in its arsenal.