Note: Chapter 10, time to celebrate!
Currently Listening To: BoA - Scream
"Feeling better yet?"
"Have you been slipping something into my drink?"
"You should really try getting some sun, Syndrome. You're so very pale."
"Stop changing the subject!"
"Don't worry, I've got it all covered."
"Viral!"
The following weeks had been no less than chaos for the supers.
The city of Metroville was in an uproar and it was all anybody could do not to give in to the sudden and malicious attacks against them. Viral, with Syndrome's borrowed technology, gave hell and high water to the former hero's comrades while he recovered safely underground. This lead many a super to wonder if Viral was working alone, or if he'd dispatched of Syndrome himself after their fiasco downtown. His omni-droids had nearly taken over fifteen city blocks, but their creator was never anywhere to be seen.
"Syndrome can build anything within the realm of possibility to pit against us, and Viral? We're still not entirely sure of the extent of his 'abilities', if he has any at all. Even that being as it is, I'll give Syndrome credit for picking a damn strong alliance." Rick Dickers stood before a projector with the two suspects' pictures and known information. Before him sat all the city's supers and Mirage with her paperwork. He strode across the floor slowly, tapping the pointer in his hand.
"Assuming Syndrome's even still alive. He's been awful quiet." Frozone frowned.
"Someone's upgrading those omni-droids." Elastigirl responded, pointing to the next slide with details on their latest robot kill. True, the upgrades weren't anything to scream about, but the fact that it was being done was good enough to question the validity of Syndrome's disappearance. As far as any of them knew, the only person with intimate knowledge of the creatures was the creator himself.
"Should've hit that button a long time ago." Mr. Incredible hissed, and several murmurs of approval followed. Another super spoke up immediately, addressing the strong man with a rather angry voice.
"Well, we didn't. And now we've got to deal with him before he deals with us. You of all people know of his track record with killing us off!" Mr. Incredible was just about to stand and retort back, but yet another super stood instead, hushing the group.
"Whether we want to accept it or not, both Syndrome and Viral are nothing but civilians underneath that layer of technology. They're only human, and humans make mistakes, they slip up, and they have a nasty little thing called pride. There's gotta be a way to take them out!"
"Syndrome's biggest advantage is his own mind. Until we can figure out how to turn him into a vegetable, he'll always be three steps ahead of us." Frozone pointed out with a finger to the air.
"Gotta find him first." Muttered Dash. While the young super was often overlooked due to his inexperience, this statement was widely accepted with a morbid silence.
"Viral's spiders did a number on him before he left. He's probably not strong enough to face us head on, which would explain why spider-man has all of his robots and tricks." Incredigirl sighed, leaning back far in her chair. She hated talking about this. She didn't want to think about the person who so cruelly used her, let alone face him again. While the other supers discussed this possibility, she chanced a look over at Mirage. The beautiful woman didn't look any more pleased to be there. Only a moment after that, everyone's attention was pulled towards the projector. The picture was slowly fizzling away.
"I hope I haven't interrupted anything important, Mr. Dickers." Viral smiled. The entire slideshow had vanished, replacing the picture with a video of the very discussion they were having. The spider keeper stood within a dark room lit by nothing but computer screens. In the background Incredigirl could make out another body... but who was it? "I'm glad to finally meet all of you in person. Well, sort of." He chuckled.
"What do you want, Viral." Elastigirl demanded. The long haired man smirked, raising an eyebrow.
"Nothing at all, mademoiselle. I've got everything in the world that I could possibly want. Oh, and Syndrome says hello." Viral reached up and tilted the camera. The man who had been at the desk behind him turned around and flashed a peace sign before whirling back around in the chair and returning to work. "You've all been so worried about his health, I thought I should assure you that he's recovered quite nicely."
"Hope he's ready to go back to the turbine that he lucked out of last time." A super muttered.
"That's hardly a nice thing to say about a former friend," viral tisked, and Syndrome chuckled to himself in the background. Incredigirl looked away from the screen, unable to listen to Viral's nonsense. She looked down at Mirage again, noticing that the woman was on her phone with a dark expression. "But anyhow, I only came to pick up a few things that careless Syndrome left behind. I hope you don't mind. I left a little present after we're all done here, though. Do take care, supers. Mr. Dickers."
"What the-!" Mirage muttered from her phone, peering at it with wide eyes. The supers turned towards her immediately. Her address book was deleting itself! Almost simultaneously, every computer in the room flashed to life, loading their operating systems. Several NSA officials ran towards them, all reporting that the computers were completely unresponsive. Even the projector's images began to waver, disappearing one pixel at a time. Rick Dickers moved towards his own computer, watching in horror as every file, every vital piece of information on the computer spontaneously deleted itself.
"Dickers! The NSA office! It's happening there too!" A super shouted over his phone, which also began deteriorating as he spoke. Mirage yelled angrily, throwing her phone down in a fit of rage. The dirty bastard had used her own trick against her! Used it, and improved it. It wasn't easy to remain invisible to the world, and she'd learned a good number of tricks back in the old days - but this - this was stealing! Her eyes flashed towards the projector however, for suddenly a television program had flashed on and displayed a concerned reporter giving them all the news they dreaded the most.
"This just in! All around the world, major government bureaus have experienced a sudden terrorist attack against their servers! Data everywhere is missing, and officials are in a panic. we've been informed that perpetrators are -" Before the reporter could say anything further, all screens in the room went black. The moment didn't last long, however, for a small green text began typing itself out. By the time it finished, rooms all over the world had cleared out in a hurry.
This device will self destruct in ten seconds.
Love,
Viral