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

[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.

[nofileext]

Especially if Hex makes sure that the Gateway is ready to go. She turns and fires a stream of code at Welman.

[nofileext]

Welman begins to move, jerkily, toward the control panel. "She--is--controlling me!" he wails.

[a1enzo]

Enzo stares forlornly at Hex. He really doesn't want her to go, but there's nothing else they can do. And there's nothing else he can say.

[nofileext]

Hexadecimal has said all she has to say to Enzo. Bob and Dot, on the other hand...

"Bob, I have always loved you." Her mask is sad now, a tear frozen in place on her fractured cheek. "Dot, look after him and... be happy."

Only one thing left to say.

"NOW."

[nofileext]

Welman's 'hand' is forced down against the Execute button on the control panel.

The Gateway blossoms to life.

Hexadecimal is pulled through in a stream of glowing data.

[mendanddefend_archive]

"Hex..." croaks Bob, reaching out toward the portal.

But it's already too late.

[nofileext]

She is... everywhere. She is everyone. She is everything.
I infect the entire 'Net,
Of course she won't survive this. No one could. Her mindbodyself is stretched too thin, across thousands of systems and millions of programs.
through systems, peoples, and cities,
It would drive any sprite mad.
from this place: Mainframe.
But madness is an old familiar friend to Hexadecimal. She laughs in delight as her code and the antivirus it carries is spread through the whole of cyberspace.
my format: Virus.
She holds on to her individual consciousness long enough to put a simple message in the minds of those she has cured: Be free.
The Queen of Chaos.
And then she lets go.