Pixeled Wings
Chapter I : Memory Promise
Disclaimer: Oh god, my title sounds like pickled wings…… anyways, if I did, I would've made it into a manga and anime too.
A/N: I've read many Daemon fics so far, and, geez, all of them except one, (which is very good) portray her as the most evil-evil thing there. Aww…… makes me sad.
I remember my last Reboot fic, it was my first ever…… and gosh was it ever terrible x-x.
.
"Love…… what is love?"
"Have I ever felt love?"
"It somehow seems…… familiar."
"Mon but dans la vie…… est constitué de retrouver ma mémoire."
.
"Uh Bob," Dot managed to raise an eyebrow at his doing.
A large collage was hung on the wall, somewhat messy with many pieces of different material jutting out, "You're just in time to see my master piece hung on our wall! It's of all the exploits we've accomplished over the hours!" he admitted proudly.
It was very colourful, maybe too colourful for Dot's taste, but it did hold many memories she loved. Some of the pictures have also reminded her of hard time as well.
"This!" the blue-skinned guardian pointed to a metal object sticking out, "is when we had that magnet issue, remember?" he smiled, "and this!" yet another thing seemed to be standing out quite well, "was the letter Enzo sent to each other when we had a fight."
The hollogram opened for a few nanos, but died out within a range of microseconds due to the lack of power.
"Oh what's this?" finally dared to approach the wall as she stood beside her husband, clearly referring to a screenshot of a big, blue, dinosaur-looking creature…… fairly odd……
"Uhm, that was Megabyte in a game when he played with Matrix…… Yeah, well, unfortunately, that's to remember Megabyte……"
"Oh…… right……"
Having Megabyte look like a stupid monster did seem a bit better than having a screenshot of him as a virus, roaring…… like usual.
"Hey, this is my favorite one, yes, last one to show you I promise! The rest can be later," this time, it was a nice screenshot of the two, in wedding attires, "I know that was only two cycles ago, but, can't help having that to look at……"
Dot smiled at the sweet picture. That picture seemed to be the only thing that fit inside her mind.
.
"Is she captured?" one of the older sprites, seemingly the leader asked the minor ones. They all nodded simultaneously earning yet again another smirk from the older male, "then send her here," he ordered once again.
Within the next few nanos, new guardians entered while two of them tightly held a petite virus by her wrists. She seemed unusually calm, yet somewhat lost and weak at the same time. Her eyes were shut tight in a way that made her seem to be suffering, but nonetheless, the man turned towards them and commanded them to leave as they followed suit their master's wish.
Finally, as his attention fell back on the super-virus, his arm shot towards her throat then pinned her into the wall. His harsh words rang in her ear as she tried to pry free, "You failed……" he whispered, "I thought you would be the right one, yet, I was sadly mistaken."
"I… I may have failed…… -yet my function….-is complete……" the young girl managed to word despite the iron grip on her throat.
Snorting loudly, he released his grasp as she sagged to the floor, breathing heavily, "You were lucky I had managed to gather you up after your infection failed. If it weren't for me, you would've faced deletion. Is that what you want my dear Daemon?" he spat.
"Better for me, worst for you, no do you really think?" Daemon stated through gritted teeth, equally pissed.
"How about sending you somewhere 'fun' when you are on the brink of deletion?" he eyed her consciously, indifferent to her emotions. Not that she was even programmed to feel.
"You promised…… you promised to give my memory back after that!"
He smirked once again, "Oh did I really? I'm surprised you even remember that after being scattered over the Net. Well, forgive me, but your job isn't complete. Have I to remind you this!"
A large hologram appeared over mid-air as it held a whole map of Mainframe's city, glowing with a green tint, as streaks of green crissed-crossed around buildings as a zoom up of the map was shown.
"Is taking over the whole system that important to you? Ruling over zombies sure seems fun," her sarcasm had frozen the guardian's blood.
"Your function was consisted of infecting the whole web, then deleting every single bits and pieces of it!" he barked, "then after the user rebooted the system, I would be able to control everything! Your infection would have remained!"
"Big dreams for such a man," Daemon slowly lifted herself up with the support of the wall. All of her child-like innocence gone from the moment she had entered this place.
A laughter rang out in the room, it was disturbingly too happy yet the super-virus knew he was insane, "I have no more need of you! A perfect clone was established by me while you were sent to fight, and it is as powerful as you, each flaws fixed, each quality reinforced…… soon, so will you be at my mercy…… but will you be even alive long enough to see me reign the system? I don't know, really."
Feeling a bit of energy flow back into her veins, Daemon urged a punch towards the individual, strong enough to delete him in a mere microsecond, but as usual, a barrier had pushed her back as it sent her flying across the room and into the wall once again.
He uttered a small tut, "ah, now, have we forgotten THIS too?" the man carelessly swung a small device in his hand, "you cannot go against the function I have programmed into you. Besides, I can't let you die just yet. I need that split personality of yours to come in handy. You were firstly programmed to be merciless, but that fool of a boy turned you to a playful puppy!"
'Fool of a boy?' the super-virus thought, 'what boy?' everything seemed crammed in her thoughts at the moment as something that wanted to resurface etched along the top of her brain.
"Well, with the Guardian community on my side, clueless to what they're missing, I must say, I am a smart man," those words were threatened to be swallowed back up by the same person one day, "now if you please my lovely, I must make preparations and you, shall wait patiently in a cell."
He softly placed his hand on Daemon's face, raising it so her eyes would stare into his. She felt too weak, and torn to fight back as the man took advantage of that and stroked her jaw line. She twitched, slowly raising her hand to strike despite the lack of energy.
"Now, now, I don't think being thrown against the wall again would be smart."
No, in fact the virus knew it wasn't. Plus being as slow as noticing one of your own was plotting against what their function really was, was pretty idiotic of them…… the guardian faculty that is……
She just hoped they spared him in the end so that she would be the one ripping that throat of his off.
.
A dense fogged area covered most of the territory, making it both hard for seeing and breathing. Lone howls could be heard throughout the distance, either carried on by the close pixels in the air or either the creatures were close by. Nothing could be assumed as good so taking precautions was the best way.
Trying hard, and focusing his sight on a particular spot, the well-built and tall man reached out for the sword that lay dormant on his back. It took the demon several micro-seconds to recognize the danger it was in within the boundaries of his environment as it tried to dash away.
"Now!" Matrix yelled as the woman beside him fired an arrow into the creature's chest.
It shrieked loudly before dropping dead onto the harsh grass, somewhat pathetically.
"Great, all we needed was the shriek……"
As if on cue, the low howls that were heard before grew louder until it became a threatening growls.
"You! The one who has slain our fellow comrades, prepare to die!" one of them shouted to them, as it neared baring it's large teeth.
"Clichéd, wouldn't you say Matrix?" AndrAIa smirked knowingly, holding her crossbow tightly and fingers ready at the trigger.
"Yeah. Stupid dialogue as well if you ask me," the sword Matrix held gleamed within the weak, yet edible gleams of moonlight.
"You fools!" it hollered again.
Smirking, the male sprite lunged forward to strike his opponent, but instead of feeling the blade cut through dense flesh……. Well it didn't feel like anything.
"GAME OVER, USER LOSES," the monotone voice announced as everything dispersed by being pulled into a giant vortex overhead Mainframe.
AndrAIa watched her lover fall unto the hard asphalt as she tried to stifle a laugh. If was comical to see him fall when he was on the determination of deleting something……
"What!"
"Bob finished the user off before you got the chance to cut things up," the ex-game-sprite pointed out as Bob came grudgingly towards them, somewhat tired, "Hey Bob, up for an energy shake?" the only female cheerily waved at the guardian, ignoring the immature groan from her lover.
"That would be good…… The user almost blew my head off……"
But before Matrix could intervene, a large vid window popped up right in front of his favorite guardian's face, earning yet again, another groan from the muscular man, "Bob! It's been awhile," the male voice flowed out from the non-existant speakers.
"Hey! Argent! Yeah it's been awhile, I see you've grown," he smiled back, "finally graduated?"
"Yeah! Check this out!" soon, instead of the new guardian Argent, a keytool took over the vidwindow's space, "it's name is Overload, and it's bran shiny!"
"Calm down Argent, last time you got something as shiny, it almost bit your hand off……"
"That net creature was shiny AND cute okay!"
"Whatever you say….."
"Hey, sorry to interrupt some friend reunion, but we got to go……" Matrix took AndrAIa by the wrist and started to drag her away, muttering to himself, "last time he had one, I was forced to go to a guardian conference which lasted for atleast a second. All they were discussing was about nulls for pets…… nulls……"
After they became but small specks through the distance, the blue-skinned guardian turned back to the Vid-window, "so, why'd you call me for?"
The other male shrugged, "those good news I guess. Hey how's it going with Dot?"
Bob blushed at that question, "Ah er…… We're married," he chose that pause to cover his ears.
"WHAAT! Are you serious! Congrats!"
Some nearby binomes jumped up in surprise as they all stared contently at the two sprites, all alarmed.
"Sorry," Argent muttered, "I haven't changed much as you know……"
"No, you haven't," Bob sighed, "Well, after all that Daemon crisis and Megabyte chaos gone…… Mainframe's been a bit more peaceful and everything so we decided to get married. And well, you know, all's good."
Another long pause followed after Bob's sentence, as they both stared at each other blankly.
"…………………….. Did you say Daemon? What Daemon crisis?" the red headed guardian asked, a bit bewildered.
"You haven't heard of this? It's been Net-wide, the biggest fight we've ever battled in Mainframe. Daemon, super-virus you know…… Plotted to infect everything then delete…… She could've had a second chance if you ask me…… didn't seem evil, yet a bit too happy," he went on, "she's the first virus I saw who's non-brutal. Well, in some case……"
"…………"
"You okay? Quite sudden to become quiet. If it's about that, it's okay, everything's fine now. We defeated her with the help of Hexadecimal a half hour ago."
Everything seemed to remain silent until Argent spoke up again, "Is…… she deleted?"
"Well, to my knowledge, probably so. But don't worry, I don't think you'll face another virus like that, ever," Bob added the last word proudly.
"……………."
"You okay?"
"Uh, yeah, just uh…… Ah well got to go, see you soon!"
"Yeah, take care!"
The Vid-window shut itself as the lone guardian was left there to ponder by himself, 'well that was odd, Argent was always happy nonethless the circumstances…… Maybe he's just afraid of viral danger he'd have to face. Who wouldn't,' Bob reasoned with himself. Yet he'd probably know what was wrong with his friend sooner or later.
.
"Guardian of the codename Turbo, please report to the virus quarantine department immediately," a voice boomed within the great halls of the supercomputer.
The muscular sprite looked up as he rose from his seat and stalked off towards the destination he was called to. The documents that remained untouched on the desk layed there, awaiting their masters arrival later on.
Lately, they were even getting strange readings inside the supercomputer itself. It was like, the viral activities they were to carry out in means of deleting the left over viruses have increased. On top of that, they seemed so intense that fragrance of virus were left there, lingering in area…… Or was it even the remains of a virus there? No one knew or cared to see what business lay upon them.
The leader of it all, Excel, seemed to be in a more cheerful mood as well. During the war against Daemon, he seemed too care-free for anyone's liking. Yet the Guardian faculty have had too much on their hands to care about him…… or even suspect him.
The nearby armed guards that patrolled the hallways saluted to Turbo as he returned the gesture. Soon, a long corridor that led to the main Virus Quarantine room awaited him as he walked forth.
"Ah, Turbo!" a voice welcomed him as Excel appeared through the other doorway, "It's a pleasure to meet you here. I ask to speak with you…… alone," he gestured towards another room.
Feeling a small bite of suspicion, Turbo nodded and followed him into the further room clearly labeled, 'Analyzation Room.'
It was dark, but quickly illuminated with the automatic lights. Everything was too dim to see as the taller man squinted, shielding his eyes out of sheer instincts, blinking several times until his eyes got used to the bright-filled room.
"Dear Turbo……" he began as many odd machines that seemed to be unnecessary for virus analyze, "as you have known. That hard war we fought against Daemon seemed to be putting us on edge. If it weren't for that other virus, the system would've been doomed!" Excel added dramatically.
"Please get straight to the point……"
A tank of green and viscous liquid swarmed around in a cylinder tank.
"I have been working on a project for these past hours, knowing that it would be our greatest weapon. After it is complete, we will never have to lose another binome or sprite ever, again……" the man trailed off.
"Go on," demanded Turbo, impatient by the other male's hesitation.
"I would like you to assist me in completing this project. All I need you to do is grant me permission from the guardian facility and-"
"-Wait, what kind of project? I need to see it first."
There was a pause.
"It's right in front of you Turbo."
The cylinder-shaped tank's liquid started to swirl, swifter until it formed something inside. The remaining glowing, neon green floated around the figure as it became more and more apparent.
"What? What the dell are you creating?" he asked bewildered at the unconscious figure inside the reservoir.
It was a virus identical to Daemon, yet everything seemed to be in a darker shade of colour, so dark that the uniform now seemed to be black and grey, as for the crown glintered crimson.
"We are creating a good version of a virus. She has all abilities from the last one, Daemon as for her format and function will be different and more precise. She will serve us under our supervision. All we need to do now is the permission grant and the insertion of a tad-bit from Daemon's data."
"Have you gone haywire! What if she gets out of control!"
Excel chuckled and shook his head at Turbo's rage. He knew it would happen this way, "that is why I have installed a chip inside her body. If she does, with a simple touch of the button, a high sound impulse will strike the files as she cringes in pain," he flicked a small square-object which resembled much to those often-seen remote controls, "but that is why you shall follow my orders as well Turbo……"
The guardian clenched his fists, he had no idea what he meant by following his wishes, but that man needed a beating, and NOW.
The blond-male didn't notice the hidden sprites in the shadows as they approached him, silently, one of them holding a small chip and the other, a binding rope. As they came closer, Turbo also advanced on the shorter man, probably not intentionally wanting to beat him, but, well…… he just hoped glaring was enough.
"Now, boys!"
The guardians tackled him down, more than three of them trying to settle him down on the floor, snapping his keytool off and binding him tightly. As soon as the buff man couldn't move anymore, the sprite whom held the chip took a small knife and jabbed it lightly into Turbo's skin. The bigger man managed to keep his face straight, yet his sight became blurry as the fragment that was placed inside his bitmap seemed to sink in with the rest of his body.
"Now Turbo, I shall repeat this once again. Do it, or……"Excel pressed the button.
No one could hear him yell.
.
The tall buildings stood stock still, casting their soaring shadows upon the dull, gray asphalt of the server known as Menu-Screen. It was a rather beautiful day, as the many sprites and binomes that lived there enjoyed the warm day to play or work on daily events.
All except one……
A small boy kicked a lonesome pebble making it skip across the road, happily for a moment until it came to a halt, awaiting it's next push. He walked slowly beneath the energy lit buildings that casted much dusk upon him. Isolated areas, most known for danger always suited him. Today was planned out, everything went accordingly, expectantly and most of all…… normally. He always lived lonely, felt lonely, and ever since all of this started, everything became dark within his files.
Sure he had big dreams of becoming a guardian, to avenge his lost family and friends to that one virus, yet he never knew if he could reach that far.
Lost deep in thoughts, the little boy ventured out further and further down the alley……
"You! Boy!" two heavily armed soldier-like sprites advanced towards him, both breathing heavily as if they ran for an eternity.
The boy whipped around, blinking several times at the intruders, "huh?"
"Have you seen a little girl with very pale hair run by here?" one of them asked, his voice holding a tint of annoyance.
"N-no! I've been here, all alone, I never see anyone come here!" he replied, red hair messily holding his eyes which held fear.
"Liar! We know she's somewhere here! Tell us NOW!"
"Calm down Rec, you're scaring him. He's probably telling the truth, no one saw her head this way. We better and find her quick, she can't go very far with that injury," Rec's partner muttered to him, lowering his gun.
"Fine…… but you, boy, if I ever catch you lie, you'll never see Menu-Screen ever again. Is that clear!"
"Yes….. yes sir……" his hands trembled. The boy clenched them, desperately trying to act brave, yet it didn't work. As soon as the soldiers left, he sank to his knees, unable to believe what he had done. Acted so cowardly towards mere protectors of the city…… What was with the girl they were searching for anyway? A little girl with combatants looking for her? That somehow didn't make sense……
After the soldiers disappeared from his sight, on the other end of the alley he had just walked from, came other hurried footsteps. The red-headed sprite gasped, desperately backing into the wall behind him, anxiously looking at the newcomer. His processor told him to run, yet his weak legs remained plastered upon the asphalt.
Low groans echoed as well, ragged breath trailing, slower footsteps…… then finally the dull thud that followed silence. The male infant's own breath seemed as tattered, but he couldn't help but feel a great dash of curiosity peak. What if it was really the girl they searched for? What is she was dangerous? What if it was another random virus that threatened to delete him? What if…… what if…… he trailed off…….
The boy slowly stood up…… and retraced his steps back to where he had walked from. He would soon know……
.
A/N: Please leave a review. I know not many people will enjoy their fic because blah, Daemon's not their favorite character but, psh, I'm writing for the fun.
Coupling, of course. Bob and Dot, who wouldn't know…… Matrix and AndrAIa, pretty obvious and uh…… Mouse…… with Surfer? Turbo, I er, don't know XD.