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]

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.

[nofileext]

Ah, Enzo. Sweet, innocent little Enzo. The only one besides Bob who dared to think of her as a friend.

"I adore children," she says as she leans close.

[a1enzo]

"But you could never eat a whole one!" He giggles nervously.

[nofileext]

Hex passes a hand over her mask, and its expression changes to an evil, sharp-toothed grin... then back to a smile.

"Still only joking!" she says in a sing-song voice. "Here, young Guardian..."

She reaches out to touch Enzo's icon. It turns red and black, outlined with gold.

"A gift." She nods toward Matrix, still sprawled on the ground. "So you don't turn out like him."

[mandercommander.livejournal.com]

Bruck looks...well, rather befuddled. "She's a virus...what is she doing..." What in the Net is going on here?!? This does not compute at all.

Bruck is, needless to say, being somewhat torn apart mentally by the thought of a virus doing something...you know, good. It just doesn't make any sense based on his programming.

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"She's saving the world," Danny said, after checking Hellboy out and making sure he was only just unconscious. It was hard to tell with sprites--or viruses. They didn't exactly bleed or anything, unlike him, who was oozing ectoplasm in places.

Out of the corner of his mouth, he muttered to Bruck, "Dude, don't talk her out of it."

[mandercommander.livejournal.com]

"But she's...a virus. Viruses aren't supposed to do that..." That's below his breath to Danny, and almost definitely inaudible to Hex. Brief pause. "Blame my programming. I can't help it."

[bprd_agent_red]

Hellboy stirs showing that he was just unconscious and starting to come out of it. Sitting up slowly he brings a hand to his head and dusts rubble off of his face, "What the crud happened?"

He looks up to see what's going on and tries to dig himself out of the rubble so he can get on his feet and finish this thing. Only problem is that last knock really took a toll on him and he's pretty slow in his movements.

[first-sixth.livejournal.com]

"From where I was standing, it looked like Hex had a few ideas about you taking her place." Tommy absently starts blasting some of the rubble out of the way; he may not like Hellboy all that much (it's an attitude thing), but he's never been one to leave a teammate buried in a pile of broken building.

Even if said teammate is a demon-turned-virus who, given relatively little time, would be able to take care of things himself. There is much to be said for Ranger mentality; Hellboy can snarl about it if he wants, but it'll probably fall on deaf ears.

"She seems pretty determined to take care of things herself, honestly."

Which, Tommy supposes, is her right and privilege. Besides, just because something was bad once (and is still susceptible to turning back) doesn't mean it's incapable of doing good. Power knows, he's had to do his own fair share of atoning.

[bprd_agent_red]

And Hellboy is mad, but not at Tommy at the moment.

"Is she doin my job?" He asks angry and trying to get to his feet that much faster. "Nobody does my job."

He's the one who's supposed to take the knocks and explosions and get torn apart by wierd gizmo thingies. Because he can take it. And if he can't someone else shouldn't have to go in his place. That's his job.

Tommy's blasts do enough so he can pull himself free and back onto his feet. Shoving past Tommy he starts heading back towards Phong. If he could fly he might make it, as it is he's not recovered enough to run and so Hex should have no problem getting through the Gateway first.