Chapter 2:

Whilst two of the three goddesses of the Morisato household returned to Heaven for system debugging and a third stayed with a hapless human being trying to think a way to get closer to the said third goddess, another unnatural being, that should never be on Earth anyway if it wasn't for a certain trio of well-known Goddesses, was planning her latest attack into the Goddess Network of Yggdrasil. In her cave somewhere in the mountains near our hero's home, Demon Mara was putting the finishing touches to her virus program.

"Hmm..this might just work."

The thing about Mara was that she was a demon, and a very persistent demon at that. One of those people that never knew when to give up. But when Mara felt that she was on to a good thing to take over the world all in her Lord's name, there was no stopping her. Stooped over a large monitor and typing at the keyboard faster than Skuld pumped up on a vat of ice-cream, Mara's project was nearing completion. With the tap of ctrl + s, the program saved to her hard disk and floppy disk simultaneously and she eased back into her chair as the screen confirmed the backup.

"At least that went smoothly."

The problem about being exiled on Earth was the lack of Seraphic KK compliant hardware to use to interface with the Goddess network. Instead, Senbei had had to find her the most up-to-date Human computer system available to serve his mistress in her latest exploits.

Windows XP.

The job would have gone a lot more speedily if she had found out that the inferior software ran at half the speed of a goddess terminal and was prone to crashing, even after she downloaded the latest patches off the internet. Throughout the last month of work on the new virus, Mara had become increasingly more aware of the message "Windows has performed an illegal operation and has to be shut down." The inefficiency of Earth software was a real bore, but at least it was Senbei's idea in the first place, so she could kick his arse for making such a poor decision in the first place.

"Ah, my mistress, I see you have finally finished your program."

Senbei's crooning voice in a vague attempt to gain some favour met Mara's ears.

"No thanks to you, you pathetic excuse for a genie" snapped the demon. "But at least I can begin my new plan of action to take down the Goddess network."

The Goddess Network. Yggdrasil. The Tree of Life, the leaves and branches intertwined with crystal data banks. Probably the most sophisticated network in the Universe, comprising of an infinite number of pathways to each individual aspect of everyday life, protected by a dedicated team of system debuggers, several firewalls and Peorth, the 4th Goddess and newly- drafted system operator after the unexpected decision by The Almighty to exile the previous sysop (naming no names of course). To get into Yggdrasil would be like.Colditz? Nah, too easy. there are no comparisons, It would be unthinkable for anything to get illegal access to Yggdrasil, because if something goes wrong and screws up the Tree of Life, major badness is a dead cert.

So for someone to think they have the answer to get into Yggdrasil, they are either the best programmer in the universe (at which point they would be scouted by Goddesses looking for better sysops) or they are very self assured and confident. I think it's safe to say that Mara was the latter.

"So lemme get this straight" questioned the genie. "You're gonna hack Yggdrasil and see what you can get from them once you're in?"

"Yes." replied Mara quickly, as she turned to the computer and retrieved the disk. "When the prissy goddesses run their scanning programs, they need to down some of their firewalls in order to get 100% access. Then, I can strike, and the world will be mine!!"

Mara's impressive idea and stance as she stood over Senbei with an evil grin was more than enough to convince anyone that she was, for once, right. But Senbei had his doubts.

"Don't you have any idea what you're looking for once you get in?"

". " Mara was so concentrated on the objective of getting inside and then the result of world domination that she had no idea what to do if she succeeded in getting through. When she succeeded, she corrected herself, this has no chance of failure. She was bound to find something of interest and if not, she could always take pot luck and load another base virus into the system and see what happens. Ah, the infinite possibilities.

"That's not your place to comment, slave!" She retorted, smacking the side of his head with the keyboard as he was slung to the other side of the cave, hitting the floor with a groan. "Gottit?"

A second, louder groan signalled his apology and he slumped to the floor. It's good to be a demon, she mused as she straightened herself out, watching for the opening in the security grid of Yggdrasil on her specially developed computer program as she sipped on a cup of fresh coffee. Her time was coming, the first Demon ever to hack Yggdrasil, and make her place in history.

Meanwhile, Urd and Skuld dropped into Heaven via their portals and met at Urd's Fountain, the fountain of time, situated at that thick root of Yggdrasil that extended to Asgard and beyond into the outer reaches of Heaven. Urd's fountain was carved of crystal and marble, and had the power to divine the past for answers to the future, or so they said. Above the spay of the fountain, Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, the crystal glinting in the full rays of the sun as the spire of the trunk spiralled into the upper parts of Heaven. It's worth noting that in Heaven, the sun shines all day in a cloudless sky, so the picturesque view is never lost to the Gods and Goddesses. Quite an impressive sight.

"Who would have thought it? My own little fountain, all of my own" smiled Urd as Skuld joined her.

There were other gods and goddesses gathered there; Urd's Fountain was a major meeting point for people all over Heaven who wanted to seek the advice of the Almighty or administrative jobs in the upper reaches of Yggdrasil, or for lovers and friends to meet after a long shift at work or in the training schools. But today, it seemed that there had been a total recall on most gods and goddesses before they made the big event. The air was thick with the voices of the deities, together with the birds and animals that inhabited the forests surrounding the clearing where Urd's Fountain stood.

"Yeah, well, just you wait, I'll get my own statue soon, you'll see" replied Skuld as she pulled a face at her sister as Urd led Skuld through towards the lifts that would take them to the main control room near the top of Yggdrasil, where they were to report as soon as they got to Heaven, to Peorth. As floor by floor rushed past the two norns, they watched the unending and green landscape stretch farther outward, with a feeling of nostalgia. No matter how many times they were met by that view, it never ceased to be breath-taking.

With a subtle ping, the elevator stopped at the control room, and they stepped into a hive of frenzied activity. The room was a ring, circled around the hole in the centre that was the main conduit of Yggdrasil. All throughout the lower floors, more lower-grade gods and goddess sat at their separate terminals facing the conduit, with some goddesses sat in hovering chairs inside the main conduit, looking at the endless wall of lights and glyphs of Yggdrasil's outputs, occasionally stopping to correct them here and there. Peorth looked up at the lift at the sound of the ping from her place by a fellow worker, stood up and strode towards them.

"Hey Urd, Skuld, glad you could make it a little early this time." She greeted them in a friendly tone, a refreshing tone from the one he usually used to organise the department to save the world. She was a little overdressed by Peorth's normal standards this time, preferring to wear her white goddess dress instead of the black skimpy outfit.

She led Skuld away to a co-worker who took her towards another door marked in Goddess Glyphs "De-Bugging section" and returned to Urd, who had taken her place in a hover-chair similar to Peorth's in readiness to be briefed. Peorth joined her and began to speak.

"So, has ma cher K-boy got anywhere with Belldandy yet?"

Urd rolled her eyes. "Trust you to want to know. Of course he hasn't done anything yet, you know Keiichi."

Peorth seemed a little surprised and a smile came onto her face. "I'm surprised, I would have thought in a year their little relationship would have gotten somewhere. Maybe he just needs a little bit of education -"

"Already tried that, and it doesn't work. He's not man enough." Cut in Urd. "Now if you don't mind, let's get this show on the road."

Peorth's face lost her expression and became serious. "What's this? You actually want to work?"

"Well let's just say I had a hard night last night, and I don't really want to miss Beavis and Butthead, so if you don't mind, can we just get this over with?"

Peorth accepted that perhaps Urd wasn't in a talkative mood that day, and proceeded to run through all the normal pre-scan diagnostics, a screen flipping up and hovering in front of her body as she sat in her seat and joined Urd as they moved into the main conduit. Taking an ornate microphone from the seat, Peorth activated the Yggdrasil Public Announcement System and spoke in English for the whole of Yggdrasil to hear, her authoritarian yet silky voice booming out.

"Attention all Gods and Goddesses! Main System Debugging beginning in 20 Earth minutes. Assure your local system manager of your readiness in good time before we are due to start. Anyone not already at a terminal make your way to you appropriate section immediately. I repeat, Main System Debugging beginning in 20 Earth minutes."

As Urd ran through all her normal diagnostics, Skuld met up with the rest of her Debugging team in the crystal mazes that were the main hard drives of Earth. Overseeing the whole operation for that sector was Vala, a prophetess, famed for her truthful divination of the major wars of the twentieth century some several centuries before they even occurred. Gathered before her were a gaggle of several goddesses, younger and slightly older than Skuld, all waiting her arrival.

Vala called out to her as she approached the group "Skuld! The Almighty has requested that you lead this debugging team. You have seven members, all of which are ready."

Lord, why put me on the spot like this? wondered Skuld as she ushered Vala aside.

"Why me? Can't you get someone else to do it?"

"When it's the Almighty's word, you've got to do it." Retorted Vala. " I think he wants to see how you react. Just organise them and get them debugging."

15 minutes to organise a squad of debuggers, great. Skuld could think of better things to do, but given the current situation, she had no choice.

"It's simple. You get a hammer like mine and you whack 'em." She explained as she reached for her hammer and demonstrated on a bug that had popped out of one of the main crystals and smacked it hard, the bug squealing in pain and then disappearing in a shower of sparks as the gems on her hammer glowed brightly for a few moments and then dimmed. "Easy"

The assembled agreed and on Skuld's demand, brandished their own anti-bug weaponry. Most favoured hammers and axes like Skuld, whilst a few had lightning guns and energy weapons, no doubt dreamt up in some garage in Asgard. Some of the members were fresh out of training school, whilst others were more seasoned veterans like Skuld, and as the 10 minute warning sounded on the YPA system, Skuld ordered her troops into three groups determined by their abilities, Skuld leading one of them down into the centre of the maze. After Skuld urged them to communicate as much as possible about the whereabouts of Bug Nests and themselves on communication devices supplied by Vala, they positioned themselves into their appropriate places and waited for the final countdown.

Skuld retrieved Mini-Banpei from her bag and rested him on her shoulder as he initialised himself, working as a scanning device for bugs for Skuld's group, creating a low whirring sound of mechanics as he did so. This was going to be one tough day, considering the number of expected bugs to be released after the relax in system security.

As Peorth sounded the five minute warning, on Earth everything went on as normal. Nothing could ever possibly persuade the inhabitants of Earth that in a few minutes one of the most important events in the last few centuries was about to happen. But that didn't stop Keiichi from getting on with his day, even though it was minus two goddesses. But as he rode on his cycle with Belldandy smiling in the sidecar, he felt reassured that nothing out of the ordinary was going to happen. He had the plan - go shopping with Belldandy, lunch in a nice restaurant and then perhaps a movie later on. And maybe more after that, he thought to himself, as he reached the outer limits of town, riding past the road that led down to the Nekomi Institute of Technology. The sky was blue and the sun was shining. Nothing, it seemed would go wrong today.

A sudden light flashed repeatedly across Mara's monitor. Had she not been saturated in caffeine, she would have missed it. A message window opened on her monitor as she moved her mouse to the button placed next to the status indicator:

"Yggdrasil Firewall status - 65% operational strength"

The time had come. It was now or never. All Mara had to do was wait for the security in Yggdrasil to drop within acceptable levels before she could start her attack. The screen blinked again and a new message sat in the window.

"Yggdrasil Firewall status - 38% operational strength. Do you wish to launch virus now?"

Emphatically, Mara chose the "Yes" option, near breaking the mouse button as she made sure that she clicked the right button. The last month's work had all been leading to this moment and soon, Yggdrasil would be under attack, and she could control the system at will. An evil laugh escaped her lips as the status monitor flashed a new and dangerous message:

"Virus sent. Awaiting Yggdrasil reply."

It caught the whole network of Yggdrasil by surprise, I mean, no one expected an attack on Yggdrasil. Debuggers in the lower levels of the catacombs of crystal data cubes near the base of the Tree of Life first reported a surge in bugs five minutes after Peorth ordered the deactivation of some of the firewalls protecting Yggdrasil's systems. Afterwards, the virus surged slowly but devastatingly onwards up the Tree of Life, shutting down terminals and hijacking date links to colleagues that needed help. The screams of pain and yells of surprise of gods and goddesses on the lower levels echoed the sounds of hell as fires suddenly started on broken machinery and spread through the offices and command consoles. As Peorth and Urd began to hear the reports, they immediately took evasive action.

"Get everyone out of the conduit, now!" ordered Urd, trying to keep as calm as possible as the lights below her in the Tree fell dark, as Peorth ushered the other sysops out of the chamber and into the higher levels.

"What are you going to do!?" shouted Peorth as she moved back down to Urd's level, just below the level that the virus had lately spread to.

"I'm gonna cut it off with magic. You try and get the firewalls operational again! And warn Skuld and the other debuggers in the hard drives, they'll need help if this thing grows any further!"

Peorth looked a little defeated under the strain of having to cope, but obeyed, furiously tapping her keyboard as she returned to the top of the conduit.

In a few seconds, Urd summoned her Angel and together, in a blast of white light, they sent a searing white light down and through the connections of the conduit, sweeping through Yggdrasil's systems, hardwired into the crystal walls of the Tree. The virus tried to get through, but instead was repelled by Urd's power. Steadily, they managed to send it back down the column, preventing access from any of the other more critical systems. It began easily enough for the goddess of the past, but it soon became worse as the virus fought back, pushing steadily against the wall of Urd's power.

Meanwhile, in the crystal walkways, Skuld and her team were having to destroy an increasingly large number of small and medium-sized bugs.

"I thought she said it was going to be easy" shouted a god into his microphone.

"Just shuddup and get smashing, Julius" shouted Skuld back, as she led her team forward, inch by inch.

All throughout the area came the constant sound of deleting bugs and the slamming of hammers of the surfaces of the drives, occasionally interrupted by the hum of electrical and energy weapons attacking whole groups of bugs in one go. Even Mini-Banpei managed to delete a few with his rocket punch as the gems on Skuld's hammer shone brightly with power as they assimilated the bugs' power into the hammer.

Eventually, the numbers became overwhelming, and Skuld ordered the retreat to the pre-arranged point, where they met and made a last stand defending the entrance to the conduit of Yggdrasil, where Vala was clearing the area of the last of the bugs that had wandered her way. They all joined together in a short prayer to the Almighty whilst they had time to stop and wait for next wave of eight-legged things. When they finally came near, the ten deities attacked with as much vigour as they could summon from The Almighty, eventually leaving their regroup point to run the surviving bugs down.

"Oh yeah, we rock!" shouted Skuld, her hammer shining brightly as she crushed a fleeing bug. "Keep going, we got them on the run!"

Despite all odds, and some injuries on the part of some of the gods and goddesses, it looked as if they were going to win. Even though they had no idea of the battles between the virus and the inhabitants of Heaven that were raging on in the centre of Yggdrasil.

"Yggdrasil Firewall status - 57% operational strength and rising. Virus terminating. Yggdrasil bridge destabilising."

Damn it! Mara hadn't counted on the Lord of Terror's alternate form lending a hand on the system debugging, and she was sure that her virus would be powerful enough to withstand the effects of Urd's powers. Or so she thought.

So far all she had access to was the main resources

Ah, So her plan hadn't gone completely right, but the glory was all in the struggle, she reminded herself. Things weren't over yet, not by a long shot. She launched a small scrambler virus after the main attack and waited for the signal. A familiar window flipped up on her screen.

"Virus sent. Awaiting Yggdrasil reply."

What the scrambler would do was the multi-million yen question, and even Vala could not begin to predict the effect it might have on an exposed system like Yggdrasil.

"AggghhhhhHHH!!" Urd's scream echoed through the conduit as she desperately tried to drive the virus further down the conduit. It had been a hard battle, but if she couldn't stop it soon, then she would surely lose, and that would be it, all her efforts for nothing.

"Need any help?"

La Rose Magnifique hovered alongside Urd as Peorth dropped down in her hover chair and added more firepower to Urd. The virus stood less chance against two first-class goddesses and after expending the last of it's energy trying to fight the white energy bolt from the two goddesses above, it seemed to lose it's grip on the Yggdrasil system and terminate under the obscene power of the goddesses, leaving only a faint hiss of warm metal and scorched plant material as the smoke cleared.

"Sysop Peorth, firewalls are all intact and operational!" came a voice of one of the terminal workers from the top of the conduit, prompting Peorth to raise her head upward as her Angel rejoined her. Urd's Angel seemed to collapse into her owner's body by comparison, and Urd's unconscious body slumped into her chair as the strain of fighting the virus had taken it's toll.

As Peorth joined her friend, she couldn't make a judgement on whether she was alive, unconscious or dead. Slowly, she took control of the hover chair and took her to the safe limits of the upper floors, whilst she witnessed the gods and goddesses regaining control of the main systems after the strike. The once clean and pristine surroundings of the inside of Yggdrasil system control were soiled forever with scorch marks of fires and the destruction caused by equipment flung awry.

Things like that could be easily cleaned up, she promised herself. What mattered was getting Urd to safety, and then rejoining her colleagues to regaining stability in the system. If it was ever possible to piece this place back together.