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 1101- Night of the Processing Deleted, Part 3
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Daemon stood defiantly before her enemy. The giant zombie was at least twice as tall as she, yet she refused to back down. Not waiting for him to make the first move, Daemon lunged at the monster, kicking him square in the chest. It was like hitting a brick wall, except that a brick wall would have collapsed under the force of Daemon's kick. The zombie barely flinched. Instead it was Daemon who fell, bouncing off her unyielding target and landing hard on her back.
Before she could get up, the big zombie sprang into action. It was faster than its brethren. In fact, it was faster than most processing beings. It grabbed Daemon by one leg and swung her into the nearest wall. The cement and drywall crumbled, leaving a Daemon-shaped indentation in the wall. Continuing its relentless assault, the zombie slammed Daemon against the wall three more times. Then, lifting her bruised and bloodied form in both arms, it threw her over the railing with all its might.
Enzo watched the battle being played out before him in horror. His mind told him to do as Daemon had said and get out, but his legs would not move. And that was bad, because once Daemon landed in the first floor with a sickening *THUD*, the monster turned its attention on Enzo. It stalked toward him, raising its massive hands. Having just seen those hands beat Daemon, of all people, into submission, Enzo had no trouble imagining what they could do to him.
He threw a desperate glance to where Daemon lay...except she no longer lay there. He had just enough time to wonder where she had gone before a hand shot up through the floor beneath the overgrown zombie, grabbed its ankle, and pulled it down through the floor of the balcony, into the lobby below.
Enzo turned away from the gaping hole in the balcony and ran for the nearest door.
* * * * *
The police station was as disturbingly quiet as the rest of the town. No zombies attacked as they climbed the steps to the main entrance. Of course, nothing being easy, the front doors turned out to be locked.
"There has to be another entrance," Dot said.
"Maybe around back," Bob suggested.
"Should we split up again?" Matrix asked.
Dot vetoed that idea. "The last thing we need is to get separated again."
"But we still need to find Enzo too. And what happened to Daemon?" Glitch asked.
"Well, let's be realistic," Bob replied. "She's probably...you know."
"I don't think so," Matrix said. "I've never seen anyone so hard to delete. She's around, somewhere."
"But where?" Dot wondered.
"Does anybody else hear that?" AndrAIa asked.
"Hear what?"
Before AndrAIa could answer, the double doors in the front of the police station flew off their hinges as a huge figure in a black raincoat smashed through them. The giant flew over their heads and landed in a heap at the bottom of the steps. In the doorway stood Daemon. She was a mess; her clothes torn, covered in dust, and bleeding from half a dozen rather substantial injuries, including a nasty gash in her stomach. She was also enraged, and barely noticed the sprites as she stalked toward her enemy.
"See," Matrix muttered.
As Daemon approached the giant, he rose shakily to his feet. He bore just as many wounds as Daemon, but as he was clearly undeleted, it was hard to tell which, if any, were from their battle.
"Daemon!" getting her attention, Dot tossed the Virus her gun. Daemon had intended to finish off the zombie with her bare hands, but she was not above accepting help. She caught the gun and emptied it at the giant zombie. A few of the shots went wide, most hit the chest, but three caught the monster square in its forehead. The big guy went down hard and stayed down.
"Are you all right Daemon?" Bob asked.
"Much better now," she replied.
"What did you two do to each other?" Matrix asked, surveying the wreckage that had once been a lobby.
"Mostly violence."
"Those cuts look pretty bad," Glitch said, "maybe we should..."
"I will be fine," Daemon said. "I have had worse."
"Uh, Daemon, you've still got shrapnel sticking out of you," AndrAIa said, pointing to a short, twisted scrap of rebar lodged in Daemon's shoulder. Trying to appear casual, Daemon grabbed the fragment of metal and yanked it out. A pained expression came over her as she tried to keep from crying out.
"Perhaps...Perhaps I should...just wait here...for a moment..." She said through gritted teeth.
"There's got to be a first aid kit around here somewhere," Bob said.
"Maybe in those offices," Glitch suggested, pointing across the demolished lobby. A door marked 'Office' led into a side room separated from the main lobby by frosted glass windows. Amazingly, the glass was still intact.
They didn't find a first aid kit in the office, but they did find...
"Enzo?" Dot asked.
The young sprite was huddled in the corner of a cubicle. He was dirty and bruised, and the bite on his shoulder had to be hurting him terribly, but when he heard his sister's voice he sprang up and ran to her as if he wasn't wounded at all.
"Are you all right Enzo?" Dot asked, hugging him and checking for other injuries at the same time.
"I'm fine," he insisted, pulling away. "But I'm out of bullets."
"That makes...a lot of us."
"Sorry," Daemon said, handing Dot her empty gun, "It was your idea."
"Did you get him?" Enzo asked Daemon.
The Virus nodded. "He is now fully deleted."
"So now we're all together, where's this underground lab?" Matrix asked. "That's where we have to go to end the game, right?"
"Enzo," Daemon asked, "You got down here by the stairs correct?"
"Yeah," Enzo said, "They're right through there." He pointed to another door, opposite the windows. "But there's a grate blocking the stairs down to the basement. We'll need a key to get down there."
"Why don't you search the latest body," Exabyte's disembodied voice taunted them. Everyone lifted their guns, despite their lack of ammunition, looking for a target. But it was just a voice, echoing in the distance.
"She's toying with us," Bob said.
"Do you think biggie out there really has the key?" Matrix asked.
"Well if you can't trust a psychotic evil User, who can you trust?" Glitch deadpanned.
"One way to find out," Bob said.
* * * * *
The key was right there, lying at the foot of the steps amid the splintered remains of the front doors. However, the key was all that was there.
"Uh...where's the body?" AndrAIa asked.
"I deleted him," Daemon insisted, "I watched him die. We all did."
"Well at least the key's here," Enzo said.
"Yes, that should provide immense comfort for you when our large friend crushes your head with one hand," she replied. Enzo gulped, terrified.
"Now we know why Exabyte was so helpful," Bob said. "She wanted us to know he was still alive. More scare tactics."
"You always think the worst of me, Guardian."
They spun around. This time Exabyte really was there, not just her voice.
"Well you and I got off to kind of a bad start," Bob reminded her.
"I admit, at first I was quite eager to wipe you all from the face of the Net," Exabyte said. "But then I spent some time researching your exploits, all of you. You Mainframers may be the most powerful group of sprites in the Net. Strong enough to fight that which was created to destroy me," she cast an evil look at Daemon. "Imagine what we could do together."
"You've gotta be kidding."
"I never kid, Guardian. I have trapped you in this game to show you the wisdom in allying yourselves with me. Now I demonstrate that I can be as merciful as I am mighty. That key will lead you directly to the escape vehicles and out of this game. You have my word that the Undeleted will not attempt to impede your progress. Except of course, for her!" Again, Exabyte glared directly at Daemon.
"Oh, I do not get to join your club?" Daemon feigned disappointment. "I am crushed."
"This deal hinges upon you leaving the Destroyer to be deleted by my servant. It is only fitting," Exabyte said. "She was created to destroy me. And I created him to destroy her."
"I don't get it," Matrix said. "If you hate Daemon so much, why not just kill her."
"Thank you Matrix, so glad to know I am appreciated," Daemon snapped.
"No, he's right," AndrAIa said. "You can delete with a touch, why send some big dumb zombie to do your dirty work for you?"
"My offer stands, do you accept or not?"
"You can't touch us, can you?" Matrix asked.
"Why is he taunting her?" Dot hissed at Bob.
"Because he understands," Bob whispered back.
"If you're so powerful, prove it," Matrix continued. "Kill her like you killed Clash. I won't try to stop you, she ruined my life."
For the first time, Exabyte looked helpless.
"You can't touch us. You stuck us in here and now all you can do is project your image at us, trying to frighten us into submission. But how afraid should we be of someone who needs dead people to do everything for her? And since we have your key now, I don't think we'll be needing your help any more."
Exabyte's eyes narrowed. "I offered you your lives and you choose instead to protect a worthless Virus. More's the pity. Now I will have to destroy all of you. You may be safe from me in this place, but outside you cannot protect yourselves." She got right in Matrix's face. "And when the time comes, Renegade, I will make sure your suffering is the greatest of all."
In a flash of fiery light, she vanished.
"Where did you learn to bluff like that?" Dot asked.
"We spent about an hour in a poker game," Matrix answered.
"Don't remind me," AndrAIa laughed, "I thought the User would never get tired of that thing."
"Anyway we both got pretty good at bluffing. But this was more a case of calling her bluff actually."
"Pretty big risk," Bob said.
"Well I figured if I was wrong we'd only lose Daemon."
"Once again, I am overwhelmed with your compassion," Daemon said.
"Deal with it. That part about you ruining my life wasn't a bluff. Now talk; what did she mean you were created to destroy her?"
"Not me in particular," Daemon said. "You see, I was not always as I am now. The Cron format existed long before I was initialized. It was created during to contain Exabyte, or to destroy her if containment failed. Until recently, I bore that format. I still have what remains of it in me."
"If you're supposed to fight her, why did you try to destroy the Net?" Dot asked.
"That was the method chosen to destroy her. The only way to be sure she could not return."
"Isn't that kind of like removing a disease by deleting the patient?" Bob asked.
"It was necessary, because of the way Exabyte infects. Her code is powerful enough to permeate the entire Net, to be in all places at once. Unless all of her is destroyed, she will survive any attack. The first Guardians compressed her into a fractal seed and threw it into the Web. However, some viruses believed that this measure was not enough. They knew that Exabyte would call to her children. And so they formed the Word, a secret society of viruses dedicated to ensuring that Exabyte remained imprisoned. The Word infiltrated every level of government in every system. They made sure that no one even believed in the Web. Meanwhile, the highest Acolytes made sure that Exabyte's children never found her.
"The Cron format was created to be the Word's greatest warrior. Most of the time, the high Acolytes were enough to stop the Web from opening onto the Net. But when a large enough threat appeared, such as a virus attempting to access the Web, one Acolyte would be chosen to carry the Cron format, becoming the living embodiment of the Word. This happened three times. Each time, the offending Virus was destroyed and the Word became dormant again. In the past ten hours, the Web became more and more well known. The regular Acolytes were not enough to take care of the situation, and so I was chosen from among them to become the Word. When the Web began to actively invade systems, we knew that Exabyte could no longer be contained by any means short of destruction. That is why I set out to erase the Net."
"So all that talk about Unity and everything was a load of spam," Matrix said.
"That is one way of putting it," Daemon said, "I knew that when my mission was complete, every being in the net would be deleted. But I saw no reason to fill everyone's last seconds with terror. Had I succeeded, you would all have died happy."
"Don't try making yourself out to be some kind of hero!" Matrix said. "What about all the people who lived in terror before you 'brought the Word' to them? What about the people you deleted in your mission?"
"I never said I was a benevolent program, Matrix," Daemon replied. "Exabyte is correct to call me the Destroyer. That is my function, the function of the Word. But whenever possible, I try not to be cruel, or inhumane. Yes, I have killed. I have brought war and terror to innocents. I set about to delete every man woman and child in the Net. And if I still had the power, I would do it all again if it meant destroying her. I carry the memories of those who were Daemon before me; I have seen the things Exabyte did during the last Great War. She delights in one thing, inflicting pain. In my dreams, I have seen her do things that wake me in the night, screaming, things that would shatter your mind if you saw them. The destruction I brought would have been merciful in comparison to what she will do."
"So stop her," Bob said, "That's your function, isn't it?"
"It is not that simple, Bob," Daemon said. "The Cron format had the power to elevate a chosen Virus, making its host the Super Virus Daemon and the power to destroy the entire Net, causing the Web to crash and destroying Exabyte forever. But as you can imagine, such a thing requires tremendous power. And of course there is no reason for the source of that power to be able to recharge."
"Are you saying...?" Dot began.
"The Cron format is no more," Daemon nodded. "It expended itself fully to destroy the Net, but was stopped. The parts of it that resided in my Code remain, so I am still Daemon. But the Cron's true destructive power can never be used again. And I do not know if my power alone is enough to stop Exabyte. I simply do not know."
* * * * *
Something was wrong. Something was terribly, horribly, unfathomably wrong. As he paced back and forth across his living room, Megabyte found that even his admittedly superior mind was ill equipped to handle the amount of wrongness he currently felt.
The second had started so well. A glass of rather expensive I/O, a good readme file, and no sign of the Guardian. Then the game had dropped on Baudway, trapping Bob and, according to the reports, most of his crew inside. That wasn't wrong. Actually the outside chance that the Guardian and his posse might end up as nulls, however unlikely, was rather amusing.
Then Exabyte had made her announcement. This put him firmly in the target category, not a place he wished to be when dealing with the very originator of his viral strain.
And yet the message, though certainly distressing, was not what was wrong either. The problem, the massive wrongness, was what he found himself wanting to do about all this.
He wanted to help.
The compulsion had come over him almost before Exabyte's vidwindows had vanished. The feeling that he, and only he, could save Mainframe now. The only question was why he should suddenly want to save Mainframe. Especially since offering his expertise meant dealing with Phong, and Bob should he survive the Game.
Still, Megabyte couldn't shake the desire to do something, to lend his knowledge and experience, if not his brawn, to the coming battle.
He should call Phong. No, he absolutely should not call Phong. The last thing he needed was for Exabyte to arrive and find him collaborating with the enemy. Then again, if he lent his assistance, perhaps she could be stopped, or contained again. It came down to a question of which was greater, his fear of Exabyte, or his sudden, inexplicable desire to be helpful.
He opened up a vidwindow and began dialing.
* * * * *
The twisting, labyrinthine halls of the police building's sub-basement seemed to stretch on forever. Every so often, a metal staircase would lead them down another level, into even deeper darkness. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Undeleted had resumed their attacks with a vengeance. It was as if Exabyte were directing her fury through the shambling corpses, which may not have been far from the truth.
Since most of them were out of ammunition, it was up to Matrix to keep them safe from the zombie hordes since Gun never went empty. Occasionally, their explorations would yield a box of bullets, but they never lasted. In the long periods between, Gun was all that stood between the group and all sorts of nasty deletion.
In the plus column though, the skeleton key let them open all the locked doors. It was just a matter of figuring out which door would lead them out of the game.
Matrix swore in frustration as they reached yet another dead-end.
"I guess maybe we should have gone left at that last T-junction," Glitch said.
"You think?" Matrix snapped. "I hate to be all demanding, but you know what might be really helpful? A map!"
"Well sorry, I left my map of the game I've never seen in my other pants!" Glitch replied.
"This isn't helping, you two," Dot said. "Let's just go back there and go left this time.
"Alternately, we could face the reality that we are lost," Daemon muttered.
"This has to be the lowest level," Bob said, "This was as far down as the lift went and we haven't seen any other stairs."
"So what now?" AndrAIa asked.
Bob sighed. "We go back to the T-junction and go left this time."
* * * * *
"So that's how it is," Megabyte finished explaining his desire to help. "What do you say?"
Phong, Mouse, and Ray regarded him silently for a few long nanoseconds.
"Want me to shoot him?" Mouse finally spoke up.
"No," Phong shook his head, "Shooting would be too good for him."
"Do you accept my assistance or not?" Megabyte asked, annoyed.
"What exactly are you offering us?" Phong asked.
"My knowledge of Viral tactics, and my considerable experience in the art of war."
"Well we've got Daemon for that," Mouse pointed out, "And I gotta say, she was better than you at both."
"Perhaps, but realistically, you must acknowledge the fact that Daemon may not emerge from that Game. In fact, it is possible none of them will. And where would that leave you?" Megabyte asked.
"Why should we trust you?" Ray asked. "You don't really have a great track record."
"As you all love to remind me," Megabyte replied, "I am just a Sprite now. If you lose, I lose. I'll be just as deleted as everyone else, not a prospect I relish."
Phong sighed. "If you truly wish to help, I suppose we can find some use for you," he said.
Mouse was somewhat less forgiving. "If you even so much as think about thinking about betraying us, I'll delete you."
* * * * *
"We're close," Glitch said happily, "We've got to be!"
"I hope you're right," Dot said. She couldn't shake the feeling that Exabyte was laying waste to Mainframe while they stumbled around in these tunnels.
"Well if we stay down here long enough, we'll probably find the exit by accident eventually," AndrAIa added.
"There's only a few unmarked tunnels left," Matrix said. He had been using Gun to mark each hallway with paintballs. That way at least they wouldn't keep taking the same wrong paths.
"Well let's give this one a try," Bob said, starting down the nearest unmarked hall. The hall sloped even further downward, but unlike the rest of the facility the air inside was fresh, not stagnant.
"This must be it," Bob said. "That air has to be coming from an opening at the other end."
They continued down the dimly lit corridor for another few microseconds before it ended in a heavy metal door.
"I've got a good feeling about this one..." Bob said, using the skeleton key on the door. The door ground open slowly to reveal the giant zombie waiting for them. "...and it's gone."
The giant batted Bob out of the way, slamming him against a wall, and roared in fury. Matrix tried to pull Gun up, but the Undeleted sent him flying as well.
"Run!" Daemon told the others, stepping forward. "Get to the escape vehicle!"
"But what about you?" Enzo asked.
"Just go!" Daemon yelled.
They didn't need to be told again. AndrAIa and Dot helped their men get up and the group ducked past the zombie, who was focused entirely on Daemon.
"The Word..."
"That is right," Daemon grinned. "Come and get it!"
* * * * *
Enzo struggled as Glitch dragged him across the hangar. At the far end, a subway car waited to get them out. The others were heading toward it as fast as they could, but Enzo resisted. Or at least he was trying to resist. Glitch wasn't that much bigger than he was, but it felt like she was almost as strong as Matrix. He couldn't break free of her grip.
"Let me go!"
"Enzo, what's gotten into you?" Glitch asked
"We have to go back! He'll delete her!"
"She can take care of herself!" Glitch said.
"Glitch, please! She saved my life, we have to help her!"
"We are getting on that train, right now!" Glitch insisted.
"No!" With no other choice, Enzo stepped as hard as he could on Glitch's foot. With her thick boots, she was more surprised than injured, but it was enough to loosen her grip. He pulled free and ran back toward the entryway.
"Enzo!" Glitch called after him.
"I know what I'm doing!" He yelled back. "Don't leave without us!"
* * * * *
Daemon lashed out at the giant. She knew from before that one massive blow wouldn't do the trick. But if she could just keep one step ahead of him, she could wear him down with a flurry of smaller attacks. The only trouble was that this particular undeleted was fast!
As she finished off a particularly devastating combo with a kick to the head, he reached up and grabbed her ankle before she could react. The next thing Daemon knew, he had thrown her against the wall. She heard a sickening crack and felt a sharp pain in her side as at least one rib gave way. But she couldn't let that stop her. She had to buy time for the others to get away.
Rising painfully to her feet, Daemon dove back at the giant, hooking her foot out to trip him. As soon as she felt him start to go down, she flipped around and planted another kick in his face as he fell. The monster barely reacted. He was up on his feet just as quickly as Daemon. A nanosecond later, he had her arm in one hand and was twisting. She managed not to scream when her arm broke, but her enemy wasn't done yet. It kept twisting, intent on ripping the limb off completely.
"Hey, you big dipswitch! Let her go!"
The giant turned at the sound of the new voice. A thick metal pipe swung through the air and slammed into his wrist, causing him to drop Daemon. Enzo backed away from the giant, holding the length of pipe out in front of him. He had been lucky to catch the monster by surprise, but he knew he was no match for it now that he had its full attention.
"Enzo..."
"Get to the train!" Enzo cut her off. "I'm right behind you!"
Daemon nodded and scrambled to her feet. As she passed him, Enzo swung his pipe again, this time at the control panel for the hangar door. The panel exploded in a shower of sparks and the door began to drop. Enzo rolled under, with the giant hot on his heels. A huge hand shot out through the rapidly narrowing gap, trying to snare his leg, only to be severed a moment later when the door slammed fully shut. On the other side, the giant gave its first sign of pain, a bellow that shook the entire hangar. Then it began banging on the door, threatening to tear it down.
Daemon and Enzo ran for the train even as the door gave way behind them. Even missing one arm, the giant was faster than an injured Sprite and a half-deleted Virus. It was closing on them, almost there. The train was too far, they wouldn't make it. The giant reached out with its remaining hand to grab Daemon... and exploded into a hundred pieces. Daemon looked up to see Bob in the doorway of the train, holding a long, green metal tube; a rocket launcher. Bob lowered the smoking weapon and helped them aboard. As the train rumbled down its track, out of the station, what remained of the giant's body turned to dust, and then disappeared completely.
* * * * *
--GAME OVER--
Emergency crews were ready to take care of the survivors as soon as the Game lifted off. Two Binomes in white uniforms rushed Daemon into an ambulance, which sped off toward the principal office. Another doctor began treating the bite on Enzo's shoulder.
"What happened?" Phong asked.
"Exabyte," Bob said. "She took over the Game, tried to get us to join her."
"I suspected as much," Phong nodded sadly.
"You did?" Dot asked. "How?"
"We got a message of our own," Mouse replied.
"Exabyte offered us the opportunity to surrender," Phong said.
"Enough is enough," Bob said suddenly. "It's time we stopped waiting for Exabyte's next move. It's time we took this fight to her."
"But we're not ready to..." Matrix began.
"Then we'll get ready!" Bob said. "This is our home! Our System, our Net! And I for one have had enough of this monster threatening it! I don't care if she is a User! We have two Guardians, the greatest Hacker I've ever known, the most advanced Web Browser in the Net, a Super-Virus, and the best strategists anywhere." He turned to Dot, Phong, and Welman. "Tell us how to delete her. We'll take care of the rest."
Everyone was quite for a long time. It was Phong who finally spoke up.
"I may have a plan."
* * *
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TBC
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