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]

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.