Disclaimer: If you don't know by now, you obviously haven't been paying close enough attention.
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Queen of the Crashed
By
The 18th Angel (aka DaemonFan)
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Chapter 111- Strange Bedfellows
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The Supercomputer
Guardian Headquarters
Viral Containment Sector
* * * * *
"We found her in a write-protected chamber just after the infection cleared." Turbo said, leading Bob down into the Viral Quarantine area. "Apparently she had a program in place to generate an exact replica if and when she was ever deleted."
"How much does she remember?"
"Hard to say." Turbo replied. "Her history files are intact right up to the nano she deleted in Mainframe, but... She's not exactly...all together."
"What do you mean?"
"Well for one thing, having her code scattered all over the Net didn't do wonders for her psyche." Turbo said. "And then once we found her we spent minutes trying to break her down. Even the Level X deletion chamber had no effect. So eventually we just stuck her in a quarantine cell."
"And she's still down there?" Bob gasped.
"Well...no one's...actually checked lately." Turbo said. "But I can't imagine she went anywhere."
Bob shook his head silently. More than an hour, all alone in a dark, cramped quarantine cell seemed unbelievably cruel treatment, even considering who they were locking up.
The Guardian at the checkpoint saluted sharply.
"Sir! How may I be of assistance Sir?" He asked.
"You can give me the key to one of the Quarantine Cells." Turbo said.
"Yes Sir! Which cell, Sir?"
"29A." Turbo replied.
The young Guardian's face paled a bit from shock and fear. "29A, Sir?"
"You got a hearing problem, mister?"
"No Sir!"
"The key please."
"Yes Sir!" The guard handed Turbo the key to the cell.
"Cell 29A, huh?" Bob asked. "We don't think too much of our guest do we?"
Turbo frowned. "You weren't infected for very long, Bob." He said. "You don't know what it was like. Deleting innocent people, infecting systems, and loving every nano of it because it made her happy." He shook his head and actually seemed to shudder. "She's a monster, Bob. If she really is our only hope...then we're just lucky we never found a way to delete her. Because any one of us would have jumped at the chance."
"Yeah." Bob said. "Well, let's just hope she's still sane after sitting in the dark for two hours."
"What makes you think she was sane to begin with?"
* * * * *
The cell was dark; a few meager beams of light from the doorway the only illumination. A delicate female voice that Bob remembered far too well could be heard whispering in the darkness.
"Visitors? For me? Do come in, I've been so lonely down here."
Bob threw a sideways glance at Turbo, who nodded and swung the heavy metal door open. Bob took a tentative step into the cell. He couldn't see a thing.
"Glitch; lantern." Bob said out of habit, remembering a nano later that Glitch wasn't with him, and could very well have already been destroyed in Exabyte's decompression for all he knew. No; if Glitch had been destroyed he would know. But that didn't change the fact that he was facing a Super-Virus without even a Keytool to defend himself.
In the light that spilled in from the open doorway, Daemon looked exactly as she had at the time of her deletion, what seemed like days ago. Her pale green hair flowed weightlessly about her shoulders, despite the still air of the cell. She still wore her crown, another artistic representation of a clock that encircled her head. Her armored clothes seemed a bit rusted from the damp quarantine cell, but the rest of her looked brand new.
Blinking rapidly, Daemon looked up at Bob.
"You are a Guardian." She said, somewhere between a question and a statement.
"That's right."
Daemon smiled. "I've always liked Guardians." She said, almost to herself. "They all liked me too...at first."
"Daemon..."
"How do you know my name?"
"This...isn't the first time we've met." Bob said. "I was there in Mainframe, remember?"
"Mainframe..." Suddenly, Daemon gasped in surprise. "I know you." She said. "My Messenger. But what has happened to you? You are no longer one with your keytool."
"A lot of things have changed since then, Daemon." Bob said gently.
"Yes. I suppose so." The Virus said. "I do not know what has happened. I completed my function, yet here I am. It is...depressing. I suppose I must complete it again. But look at my hourglass; it is empty. How will I know when my time is up?" She gestured to her ever-present hourglass necklace. Just as she had said, there was not a grain of sand in the glass.
At least Daemon was somewhat lucid. She seemed a little confused, but her thought processes didn't seem to have been corrupted too badly by her long imprisonment. Given time, she would probably return completely to her old self, though whether that was a good thing or not was still open for debate.
"Daemon..." She turned her attention back to Bob. "How would you like to get out of here?"
"You will release me?" She perked up immediately, regaining some of the childlike innocence and enthusiasm that had made her so disturbing a Viral conqueror.
"Not exactly." Bob said. "We need your help. We're going to take you to Mainframe. Now...if you help us, and if you behave yourself, you can spend the rest of your runtime in Mainframe instead of here."
Turbo uttered a sound of protest behind him, but he hid it behind a false cough an instant later.
"Do we have a deal, Daemon?" Bob asked.
"Oh yes, Bob." Daemon said. "We have a deal."
* * * * *
Terabyte laughed quietly, watching the CPUs dismantle their big guns and withdraw their forces. They hadn't had a chance at penetrating the power shield, of course. But watching them try had been an amusing diversion while she waited for the decompression cycle to finish. She looked up to where the Great One was decompressing high above her. There was still no visible form, just a steadily expanding pulse of energy.
-Terabyte...-
Terabyte snapped to attention at the sound of the Great One's voice, much louder now that her prison was beginning to break.
"I'm here, Mistress."
-Go to the Supercomputer.-
"The Supercomputer?" Terabyte asked. "Why?"
-The Guardians have gone there. They will summon our great enemy.-
"Our enemy?"
-The Destroyer. She awakens even as we speak.-
Terabyte reached out and used some of the shields massive energy to form a portal into the Web, even as Exabyte showed her the quickest way to the Supercomputer.
-Go. Stop them before they can bring the Destroyer here.-
Nodding silently, Terabyte stood up and stepped into the portal.
* * * * *
"How fast can we evacuate the System?" Dot asked.
"Assuming there are no problems, we can have the entire population relocated in thirteen milliseconds."
"Relocate to where?" Welman wondered. "To hear Bob and Turbo talk about this Exabyte, they won't be any safer in another system than in Mainframe."
"But they've got a plan, right?" Enzo said. "I mean, they barely said a word before they ran off to the Supercomputer, they must be getting something *really* good, right?"
* * * * *
"Have you gone completely random?" Turbo yelled.
Daemon was cleaning up in the adjacent shower room, under the guard of twenty heavily armed Guardians. As soon as she was out of earshot, Turbo had turned on Bob.
"Sir I..."
"You don't have the authority to make a deal like that, Bob!" Turbo roared. "What in dell were you thinking?"
"I thought it was the only way to get her to agree." Bob said. "What other option did we have? Tell her to come out and risk her life helping us so we can lock her back up again when it's all over? Somehow I didn't see that going over too well."
"Have you forgotten what she is? What she tried to do?"
"Of course not." Bob said. "It's because of what she is that she's the only one who can help us. And as for what she did..."
"I hope you're not about to tell me that everyone deserves a second chance." Turbo cut him off.
"You're the one who suggested we use her, sir." Bob said. "I never would have known she was down here at all."
"I suggested that she might be strong enough to get through that energy shield." Turbo replied. "We're getting her out for that reason and that reason only. I *do not* want you turning this into another viral rehab experiment. Understood?"
"Fighting over me already?" Daemon asked, emerging from the showers, cleaner and wearing with her clothes now looking brand new. "Do not let me interrupt."
"No..." Turbo said quickly. "Just Guardian business. We'll finish this later." He added quietly to Bob.
"Looking forward to it." Bob muttered.
Suddenly, sirens rang out through the building.
"Battle stations!" A panicked voice called over the loudspeakers. "We're under attack!"
* * * * *
The Supercomputer's CPUs were all over Terabyte practically before she even set foot in the system. It started small, three Binomes with guns yelling at her to freeze. Terabyte grinned and swept the little fellows aside with a wave of her hand, sending them crashing through a nearby shop window.
As she got closer to the Guardian Headquarters, the resistance became noticeably stronger. She raised her armor as gunfire assaulted her. The shooters were hidden in reinforced structures placed strategically around the Guardian base. Well, that could be taken care of easily enough. She had learned some great tricks in the Web; one in particular would come in very useful right now.
Terabyte felt her hands heat up as energy began to gather in her palms. Raising her hands, she fired the energy at the bunkers, collapsing them both in a cloud of smoke and debris. The path into the base was clear.
At that moment, everything blew up. Or at least it seemed that way. Long-range mortars exploded all around her, CPUs strafed her with machine gun fire from the air, and several Guardians tried to capture her in Anti-Viral cocoons. Terabyte fought back as well as she could, bringing down several CPUs with energy bolts, but even she couldn't fight an army single-handed.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the attack ceased. Looking up, Terabyte saw three figures standing in the huge doorway. Two were the Guardians she had seen in Mainframe. The third was a woman; short, pale skinned, and undoubtedly a Virus. This had to be the Destroyer the Great One had spoken of.
* * * * *
"Terabyte!" Bob gasped.
"How did she know...?" Turbo wondered aloud.
"Who is that?" Daemon asked. "There is something odd about her."
"My name is Terabyte." Terabyte answered Daemon. "And I was sent here to destroy you."
A strange sound rang out next to Bob. It was a sound so out of place in the current situation that for a moment Bob didn't recognize it; laughter. Daemon was laughing.
"What's so funny?" Terabyte demanded.
"You, little one." Daemon replied, earning a look of fury from Terabyte. "You and whoever sent you. Do you not know who I am?"
"The Great One called you the Destroyer. Personally I don't give a null's ascii who you are, I'm just here to delete you."
"Silly girl." Daemon said. "You cannot delete me."
"Uh...Daemon." Bob said. "It might not be a good idea to taunt that one."
"You doubt my abilities, Bob?" Daemon asked, looking hurt.
"It's not that." Bob said. "It's just that...she's the real deal."
"Well I am out of practice." Daemon said. "Still, we will not know until we try." She turned to Terabyte. "Very well, I will..." She nearly took a CPU cruiser in the face before she could finish accepting the challenge. Terabyte had used Bob's distraction to pull the car out of the sky and hurl it toward Daemon. Daemon caught the car with one hand at the last second.
"Get out of the vehicle." She said to the terrified driver, who nodded and leapt out onto the pavement. "You do not play fair." She said, tossing the car back at Terabyte. The half-virus ducked, but when she came up, Daemon was already in front of her, moving so fast that all the stunned Sprites saw was a blur.
With a punch that cracked the pavement beneath them, Daemon sent Terabyte flying into the building behind them, which crumbled from the force of the impact.
"Fortunately, neither do I."
Terabyte exploded from the wrecked building, her armor completely extended and rage glowing in her eyes. She attacked Daemon with a blinding series of punches, kicks, claw swipes, and energy blasts, but the Super-Virus countered them all, floating high into the air. Terabyte followed, levitating as quickly as she could to follow Daemon. Just when she seemed to be catching up, Daemon lashed out with a fierce kick that sent Terabyte plummeting to the ground and crashing through an elevated road.
* * * * *
The kick had been bad enough. Smashing through the highway had been worse. And having the highway collapse on top of her for a micron in both directions only added insult to injury. Screaming in pain and fury, Terabyte clawed her way out from under the rubble, painfully aware of the dents in her armor and the energy leaking through the cracks. Daemon floated down calmly to stand before her. The Destroyer didn't have so much as a scratch on her.
"I would love to keep this up." Daemon said. "But I do have other places to be."
"This...isn't over." Terabyte gasped, using her power to open a Web Portal. "I'll be...seeing you again. Real soon!" She stepped into the Portal and disappeared.
"I cannot wait." Daemon said.
* * * * *
"Nice work." Bob said. "Although I doubt we've seen the last of Terabyte."
"Nice work?" Turbo yelled. "Look at this place! This has gotta be twenty-thousand units worth of property damage, not to mention the seventy civilians who were injured. Its amazing there were no fatalities!"
"Forgive me." Daemon said. "I was more concerned with defeating the enemy than worrying about breaking your pretty buildings."
"What a surprise." Turbo muttered under his breath.
"On the other hand, Sir, she did cut the projected casualties in half." Bob said. He turned to Daemon. "Just try to be more careful in the future."
"Bob!" Dot's face popped up in front of them in a vidwindow. "Hurry it's..." Her voice trailed off when she saw Daemon. Her face went pale. "What the...?"
"No time to explain, Dot." Bob said. "What's happening?"
"It's the shield!" Dot said. "It's breaking! I think she's about to wake up!"
* * * * *
TBC
