Over the next couple of days, Lily got on as often as possible to see if Iris was online. She didn't come online very often, but when she did, they not only played, but also talked together. They became good friends. Lily discovered that Iris was partially mute, besides not being able to help but talk in code. She kept making entries in her makeshift dictionary. Most of Iris's codes were easy for Lily to translate, while others took a minute or two to work out. Iris's codes were more of a challenge than the program from Roger, and therefore more fun to solve. Lily looked forward to those days when Iris joined her games. But at some point Iris stopped joining the game. Two weeks passed and Lily was left without a friend once again. Matt hadn't come back at the end of the period of time like he said he would. He did, however, start to join her Starcraft games every once in awhile. Often he would get offline mid-game, saying that he had to get back to work. More and more time went by. Lily was past the point of frustration. She was filled with anxiety and anger at whoever was keeping her brother far away and whoever stopped her new friend from coming online.
One day, she was playing and OutdoorsAreEvil60 joined the game. Matt. As much as she was glad to know he was there and alive, she couldn't help but feel a flicker of annoyance. Why couldn't he be there in person? She scowled to herself as Matt said,
-Hey, sis!- She felt angry. How could he say that so casually?
-How long're you going to be gone this time?- She didn't even try to mask her emotions.
-You okay?- Matt asked.
-Do I sound okay?- Lily snapped back.
Matt tried to say something else, but Lily gave an angry retort again. Why did Matt have to be gone now of all times? Just when Mello… Finally, she took a deep breath and made a conscious effort to sound like she was in a better mood.
-Look, I can't help you right now. You need to be here in person. Sorry for being grumpy. :)- They played in silence for a couple rounds. Lily used her masked anger and put it into beating her Zerg opponents senseless, killing hundreds. Then suddenly Matt said,
-Ah, sorry. I have to go!- and disconnected. Lily pushed the chair back with her feet, away from the computer. She swore loudly to herself, which she rarely ever did. She stood up and stomped out the door. She needed to get away from her computer. Now. She walked to Roger's office and asked for permission to leave the building and go down to the lake. She desperately needed to get out and go for a swim or something. Roger said it was fine as long as she was back by 11:00.
She ran back to her room and put on a bathing suit under her t-shirt and shorts, then she walked down the long hallway and out of the building. Then she skipped down the trail to the lake and dove in. The cool water immediately calmed her. She sat on the gravelly bottom, holding her breath and feeling the water flow around her. When she couldn't hold her breath any longer, she rose to the surface and took a gulp of air. One of the older boys, a brunette, was there. He gave her a look and opened his mouth as if to say something. He didn't get a chance. Mello came down the path. He actually smiled when he saw Lily.
"Hey, Lils. You okay?" The brunette looked taken aback that the tough kid and second place in intelligence of Wammy House would be talking to an eight year old, let alone address her by name.
"Yeah. I'm fine now. It's just, you know."
"Yeah, I know. Hang in there, 'kay? It's hard for me, too." By now, the brunette boy just looked flustered. He was probably thinking, 'What on earth could make Mello feel bad?' This particular brunette happened to have been around the day Mello came to Wammy House in the first place, and Mello certainly hadn't been teary-eyed and sniffly like most newcomers. He acted as if he was completely unaffected by his parents' deaths. Lily completely ignored the brunette, keeping her eyes on Mello.
"I know it is. That's part of what makes me mad. I guess he couldn't know…"
"True that. When you're done swimming, will you help me with something?"
"Sure, Mello. Of course I will." The brunette stood up with lightning speed, his face red. Apparently, Mello's behavior overwhelmed him to the point of a mental breakdown. He ran down a side path towards a wooded area. Lily laughed lightly. She waved after him, cocking her head to one side. Mello grinned. With a splash, Lily dove back into the lake's depths for a moment, then resurfaced.
"Okay, I'm done now." She pulled herself out of the water and shook her hair, spraying Mello with water droplets.
"Hey!" Lily put her t-shirt and shorts back on over her bathing suit after drying off to the best of her ability. She and Mello walked back up to the school. Lately, although she technically wasn't supposed to, Lily had taken to sleeping in Matt's bed in the dorm he shared with Mello instead of staying in her room by herself, so some of her stuff was in the bedroom. She took a quick shower and changed clothes. Then she came back into the bedroom and sat down next to Mello.
"So, what do you need help with?"
"I think someone tried to hack into my computer."
Lily blinked.
"How do you know?"
"Last time Matt was here, he installed virus detection software. The computer was beeping earlier and a red light flashed, then suddenly it stopped." Lily frowned thoughtfully.
"So that means either they got booted by Matt's systems, or they found what they wanted and left. Either way, I'll put up some extra protection for you. I won't say I'm a better hacker than Matt, 'cause I'm not, but I'm almost as good if not as much so. There's a firewall, if you can call it that, exactly, that I've been working on for a really really long time. I'm not sure even Mattie knows about it. I nicknamed it Infinity Shield."
"And what exactly does it do?"
"Exactly, even I'm not sure. It's not finished, but basically, it works a lot like Minecraft. It destroys and builds. It's supposed to take the computer data and dissolve it into attobytes! That's one quintillionth of a byte! That shouldn't even be possible. Anyway, once it's broken down, it builds up layers of firewall around groups of about one petabyte each. That's 100 attobytes, one trillionth of a byte. It also attaches to whatever hacked into your computer. Even if it's not there anymore, it can somehow trace the trail of yoctobytes (one septillionth of a byte) that hacking always leaves behind. If the Infinity Shield worked perfectly, it would theoretically make the computer untouchable and at the same time tell us what computer this person is hacking from, where the computer is, what software was used, and everything that has ever been done on the computer or with the software. Like I said, I've been working on this for years, and it will most likely take several more to perfect it. In the meantime, the prototype stage should suffice." Mello stared at her as if he'd never seen her before. In one breath, he said, "You're a fucking genius!" Lily smiled proudly.
"If Matt doesn't already know about Infinity Shield, don't tell him, okay? I want to be the one to show him, and only when I've worked more of the kinks out."
"Got it," Mello replied obediently. Lily smiled at him, then sat down in the computer chair and began to work.
((A/N: and with that, I proclaim that there shall be a time skip. Two days, how 'bout? Don't worry. You'll find out what happened with Infinity Shield later, but an important matter in the story has come up and I must address it. You'll see in the next chapter.))
