Disclaimer: Oh you know the drill.
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Queen of the Crashed
By
The 18th Angel (aka DaemonFan)
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Chapter 110- Decompression Sickness
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When the glow had faded, the sprites uncovered their eyes and dared to look.
"Did we...win?" Lain asked.
"Look." Interface pointed at the seed. "What's that?"
"We failed." The leader said. "It didn't destroy Exabyte. It compressed her into that. A Fractal Seed."
"So she could be decompressed?" Interface asked.
"Yes. If a Virus ever got enough power, it could decompress the seed and release her."
"Can't we destroy the seed?"
"Impossible." The leader shook his head. "That little jewel contains all of Exabyte's power, it would take a magnet bigger than the Net itself just to put a scratch on it."
"So what do we do with it?" Lain asked.
"The Web!" Interface said.
"What?"
"Think about it." He continued. "The Web is much larger than the Net, from what we see it's spammed near infinite, and it's nearly impossible to survive there. Plus outside the four of us, nobody in the Net knows the Web exists. If we shot the seed in there, no one would ever find it."
"It's risky." The commander said. "We know Exabyte can influence her children even when she's compressed. She'll have them all looking for the seed."
"All the more reason to hide it where no one would ever want to look." Interface said. "If this works, no one will ever find her."
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Mainframe
The Present
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"Bob." Someone was shaking him gently. "Bob, wake up."
Bob sat up, rubbing sleep from his eyes. Dot was leaning over him, looking concerned. It took Bob a moment to recognize his surroundings. He was in the read only room, surrounded by vidwindows, graphs, charts, and ancient readme files.
Slowly, the past few milliseconds came back to him. They had all been researching the history files late into the night, looking for any information that might be useful in preventing Exabyte's restoration. He must have fallen asleep.
"What time is it?"
"1400." Dot said.
Bob groaned. Three milliseconds. In three milliseconds, Terabyte expected him to hand over Glitch and Copeland, or she would delete Enzo. Bob bore no illusions about the girl's mental state. If her demands were not met in precisely the way she described, Enzo wouldn't live to see the next second. But if she got the keytools, and Exabyte arose, they would be lucky if any of them made it out alive.
They needed a plan, some way to rescue Enzo without surrendering the keytools. The problem was that Terabyte seemed to be completely random. An insane enemy was the last thing you ever wanted to fight because madness bred unpredictability. No amount of planning could account for an enemy whose attitude and tactics could change at any time, and for no reason.
"This is bad." He said, almost to himself. "This...is very bad."
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Terabyte gritted her teeth, looking away even as she jabbed the needle into her arm. She had always hated needles; her first clear memories were of her injections and the searing pain that followed. But she couldn't avoid needles any more, because the syringe, once a source of pain, was now the only thing capable of taking it away.
The pain had started small at first, a dull ache in her bones that began just after she escaped from the Web. Back then, an I/O shot or two was all it took to make the pain go away. As the pain intensified, more and stronger drinks were needed. Eventually, no amount of drink could help, at which point she had started using Dust. That had worked for a while, but eventually the pain overpowered even that.
So here she was, injecting herself with enough tranquilizers to put down a full-grown web creature. And even that was becoming ineffective. But it didn't matter now. By the end of the second, her goddess would be free. And she would undoubtedly reward the faithful servant who ended her forced slumber. Terabyte smiled; the Great One, Exabyte, had spoken to Terabyte from her jeweled prison. She had learned the Great One's history, and had a glimpse of her power. She had only to ask and the pain would be gone forever.
"So you're a junkie too?" Enzo asked.
"Don't make me gag you again." Terabyte warned the boy through gritted teeth. "This is strictly medicinal."
"Whatever." Enzo said.
"I wouldn't suggest being so rude to the Great One when she awakens." Terabyte said. "She doesn't have my sweet and gentle disposition."
"I'm not worried about that." Enzo said. "Bob will never give you Glitch."
"Oh?" Terabyte smiled. "So your brother-in-law, your childhood hero, will just allow me to delete you, and you aren't worried?"
"I didn't say that. He'll find a way to get me out of here without giving you anything."
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"Where did she get the seed, Megabyte?" Bob asked. "And don't tell me you just had it lying around."
"It found me during my little trip to the Web." Megabyte replied.
"You mean you found it, right?"
"I mean exactly what I said." Megabyte said. "When I first arrived in the Web, after getting over my surprise at being able to survive, I infected a few Web Riders and had them take me to the nearest portal back to the Net. Before we got there, however, I felt...something drew me into a data storm. The storm parted for me, then closed again deleting my companions when they tried to follow. The seed was floating there in the center of the storm. It called to me, and told me where I could find the surfr to take me back to Mainframe."
"It talked to you?"
"More than that, Guardian." Megabyte said. "Weren't you listening? The seed wasn't just floating in that data storm. It was controlling it. Between that little jewel and Terabyte, I'd say the former is the greater of your concerns. Now that they've teamed up...I can't imagine how you plan to stop them."
"But it's just a stone!" Matrix said. "It's an inanimate object. I mean, if Exabyte's that powerful compressed, why go to all the trouble of decompressing her at all?"
"Because despite its ability to affect its surroundings, the seed can only exert the barest fraction of Exabyte's full power."
"Wait. Give us a nano to process this." Turbo said. "This thing can control a data storm, and that's only 'the barest fraction'?"
Megabyte nodded.
"Okay." AndrAIa said. "I think we're all suitably scared now. So what are we going to do about it?"
"In my professional opinion as someone who was once a Virus, I would suggest formatting a last will and testament."
"That's not funny, Megabyte." Bob said.
"No." Megabyte agreed. "It isn't."
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"He has a point, though." Turbo said after Megabyte had left. "If we don't show up with the Keytools, Enzo will die. But if we give them to her and let her raise Exabyte, everyone in the Net could die. Even the Guardians can't fight a User."
Bob shook his head. "I don't believe in the no-win scenario. There's a way out of this. We just haven't figured it out yet."
"Yeah." Matrix said. "But can we figure it out in the millisecond we have left?"
"I just don't believe Terabyte would kill Enzo." Dot said. "Deleting strangers is one thing, but he's her family. She can't have sunk that low... Can she?"
"I hope not." Bob said. "But we have to take her at her word, for Enzo's sake."
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"It's time. Let's go." Terabyte said, deactivating the file lock that held Enzo in place. Enzo took the opportunity to stretch his legs; after milliseconds seated, his limbs had fallen asleep. Before he could even work the feeling back into his legs, Terabyte's assistant, Bryce, grabbed him roughly by the collar.
"You heard her." The big Sprite said, pushing Enzo forward. "Move it!"
"I can walk on my own you know!" Enzo snapped.
"Of course you can." Terabyte said. "You can also run on your own. And if you were to run, for argument's sake, away, the consequences for poor Bryce would be extraordinarily painful." She shook her head. "I very much doubt he'll be letting you out of arm's length. I mean I haven't known him that long, but he's always struck me as the type who enjoys having all four limbs."
Bryce was silent as always, but his eyes betrayed his emotion. Infection may have made him Terabyte's slave; but enough of his will was left that he was utterly terrified of his mistress. Which meant that if Terabyte told Bryce to guard him, Enzo didn't have a shot in dell of getting away. All he could do was trust Bob and Dot to get him out of this alive.
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Floating Point was eerily silent. Of course that was to be expected with every civilian cleared out only a half-dozen Sprites in the entire sector.
"Let's make sure we all know the plan." Dot said, wanting to hear it again, just to confirm that it wasn't the craziest plan they had ever come up with.
"As soon as Terabyte gets here Phong will disengage the Sector and have it move out to C." Bob said. "That should at least prevent civilian casualties if...when things turn sour. Turbo and I will distract her by pretending to start making the trade. Then Matrix takes out whoever's holding Enzo... And by 'take out' I mean incapacitate." He fixed his brother-in-law with a firm look. "Remember, being infected is *not* punishable by deletion."
"Fine by me as long as everything works out." Matrix said. "But if I gotta make a choice between him and Enzo you know who I'll choose."
Bob half-nodded at that. "Once Enzo is safe, we'll try to incapacitate Terabyte and portal her into the quarantine unit."
"I'm still a little shaky on the part where you two almost give her your keytools." AndrAIa said. "The way I understand it, if she gets hold of them for even a nano it's 'Game Over, User Wins', right?"
"That's why this mission has zero margin for error." Turbo said. "We need to get Enzo free the second Bob and I start to make the trade, before she has a chance to realize we're holding back."
Dot sighed. It wasn't the craziest plan ever, but it sure was near the top. She didn't get a chance to comment on this however, as Terabyte stepped out of Kits Sector and strode purposefully across the park. Just behind her, a large male Sprite with infected blue-and-green eyes dragged Enzo by the collar.
They met in the center of the park. Dot noted thankfully that Terabyte's full attention was on Bob and Turbo. If they were lucky, she wouldn't notice when the entire sector began moving.
"Keytools. Now." Terabyte wasted no time on pleasantries.
"Let Enzo go first." Bob said, letting Matrix move surreptitiously into position.
"We both know I'm not stupid." Terabyte replied. "One of us needs to stop acting like I am."
"If we give you the Keytools, what guarantee do we have that you won't hurt Enzo."
"None really." Terabyte said with a shrug. "But that's just life."
The next few nanos passed almost too quickly for Dot to follow. A shot rang out to her left. Behind Terabyte, the infected Sprite fell over, clutching a bleeding wound in his leg and crying out in pain. As soon as he let go, Enzo darted past Terabyte and ran to Matrix. Terabyte growled in frustration and leapt at Bob.
"Glitch, hold!" Bob yelled, sending out a beam of golden energy that held Terabyte in midair. Dot dimly heard Turbo do the same. So far everything was going well. Then everything went wrong.
The Seed around Terabyte's neck began to glow, the bands of color that flowed across its surface speeding up until the entire jewel seemed to be woven from gold. Before Bob or Turbo could react, an invisible force reached out and grabbed their Keytools. The beams holding Terabyte disengaged immediately and she fell to the ground. The jewel pulled away from her neck, snapping the chain that held it, and floated high into the air. Glitch and Copeland followed it, orbiting around the glowing Seed. Navi and Surge detached themselves from her belt and joined their fellow keytools in their orbit. As soon as all four had reached the same height as the Jewel, a bright light shot out of each keytool's lens. The light was so intense, even Terabyte had to shield her eyes from the brilliant glare. The Keytools were spinning faster now, moving so fast their shapes blurred.
Suddenly, everything stopped. For a moment time seemed to stand still. Then, without warning, everyone except Terabyte was thrown backwards picked up by invisible hands and tossed in all directions. Dot looked up in time to see a huge burst of energy explode from the Fractal Seed, engulfing Terabyte and stopping just short of where they had all come to rest.
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"Bob! Dot!" Phong called into the vidwindow. "What is happening?"
The screen was empty; clear blue sky filled the window.
"Someone respond!" Phong cried desperately.
A few nanos later, the vidwindow tilted down, revealing Bob, looking utterly defeated. Behind him, the others were struggling to their feet, including - Phong noted with a rush of relief - Enzo. But further back, a dome of angry red energy filled most of the screen.
"What happened?" He asked, afraid that he already knew the answer.
"We...couldn't stop her." Bob said. "We had Terabyte contained but...Exabyte grabbed the Keytools without her help. Pretty soon...she'll be free."
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"Target Locked."
"Fire." Dot said.
The Binome manning the big gun nodded and pressed the trigger. A bolt of energy shot out of the huge barrel, streaked across the huge gap between the separated sectors, and impacted harmlessly on the giant orb of energy in Floating Point, diffusing its energy across the dome's massive surface.
"That's seventeen shots." Specky said. "All with no effect. Should we load number eighteen?"
"No." Dot sighed. "I think we can safely say that would be a waste of ammo."
"That's it then." Bob said. "We can't stop the decompression from out her and none of our weapons can punch through that energy shield. If Phong's reading the rate of decompression right, we have about another second to process."
"Wait a nano." Mouse snapped. "Don't tell me we've come this far just ta' give up now. There's gotta be somethin' else we can do."
"You already said you can't hack through the barrier, Ray's portals won't go inside the barrier, and none of our weapons are strong enough to scratch it. Probably the only thing that has a chance of getting through that shield is Terabyte, and she wouldn't help us even if she was on this side."
"Funny how there's never a Super-Virus around when you actually need one." Matrix muttered.
Turbo looked up abruptly at Matrix's comment.
"Uh...Bob." He said reluctantly.
"Sir?"
"A...very bad idea just occurred to me."
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TBC
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