Kit's sector had become a ghost town, but that was all right. Dot thought it was better that way; less chance of casualties. The CPU's had all left to rechange and she knew that she was the only thing standing between Daemon and Mainframe. Dot stood, strapped into the exoskeleton, waiting for Daemon's response. She had laid out her terms; leave Mainframe or be deleted. The ball was in the virus' court now. Everyone knew that Daemon wouldn't give up so easily, but Dot still had to try.
Mouse went to her master's side, not willing to let her face any danger alone.
"Do not interfere." Daemon warned Mouse.
"I, uh…" Mouse was taken aback by the hostility in Daemon's tone, " I just want to help."
"You have helped enough. You have already served your purpose by becoming a vessel to spread the word."
"... My purpose? But-"
"Do not disobey me."
Mouse paused. Daemon's words came across as cold; unfeeling.
"Yes, Daemon…"
"Now, keep the guardian busy. Once I take out the command..com of this system they will all fall in line."
Mouse turned from her master. She had been so sure of her decision, up until that point. She had thought of Daemon as so much more than just her boss. She even believed that Daemon was starting to develop feelings for her. But maybe she was wrong. Those kind words Daemon spoke to her before coming to Mainframe suddenly felt meaningless. Had she only said those things so she would step into that machine; so she could become a tool to spread the word?
Mouse shook her head, trying to stay focused. She looked over at Bob, sorting out what her next move should be. Daemon told her to keep him busy so that was exactly what she was going to do.
Daemon stepped closer to Dot, slowly closing the large stretch of pavement between them.
"So, Daemon, what's your answer?" Dot asked even though she already knew what the virus would say.
"I am afraid you're in for disappointment. I have no intention of leaving, and you certainly don't have the strength to delete me."
Dot's face hardened. She had expected that. Daemon didn't seem like the type to give up without a fight. Dot smiled; she was alright with that. She wasn't the kind of sprite who gave up either. Mainframe was her home, and she would protect it to the bitter end.
Dot and Daemon stayed motionless, each waiting for the other to make their first move. Daemon smiled, raising a hand suddenly. Dot reacted, picking up a nearby car, and throwing it at the virus. Daemon jumped and the car rolled into a nearby building. Glass shattered on impact, the metal of the car crumpling. Daemon looked at the wreckage, surprised by the amount of force it was thrown with. She truly knew that Dot had meant every word.
Daemon looked back at her with a coy smile. She lunged towards Dot with lightning speed. Dot swung, missing the virus by inches. Daemon grabbed hold of the exoskeleton, pushing it back into a lamppost. Dot stumbled, but regained her footing quickly.
"Dot, can you hear me?" Specky's voice came through her earpiece.
"Loud and clear." Dot responded as she threw another punch, this one landed, but barely phased the virus.
"I have a new program I'm downloading to your suit now."
Daemon ran around to Dot's rear. The one disadvantage she had was speed. The suit couldn't keep up with Daemon, who was impressively quick. Dot fell forward, catching herself in time. Instead of getting up she swiveled and clawed at the virus. Daemon jumped out of the way, moving back to a cautious distance.
"It's specifically engineered to target cron viral code. Your weapons should be ready in a few minutes." Specky explained.
Dot got up, eyes glued to Daemon. She ran at her, grabbing Daemon and slamming her to the ground. The pavement cracked on impact.
Bob motioned towards his wife, but Mouse stepped in his way.
"Eyes on me, guardian." She hissed.
The sprite in black armor swung their trident, connecting with Mouse's arm. Mouse grunted in pain and looked at her attacker. She bawled her hand into a fist and swung, hitting them hard. Her hand connected with their jaw, causing their helmet to fly off. It bounced against the ground, rolling away.
Both Bob and Mouse looked at AndrAIa in shock as she fell to the ground. AndrAIa got up on shaky legs, trident still in hand.
"You…" Mouse paused, looking into AdnrAIa's bright aqua eyes. They were filled with an intensity she had never seen before from the sprite. A single drop of blood trickled from her nose and AndrAIa wiped it away, not taking her eyes off the virus.
Mouse was shocked. She never would have guessed that the sprite she had been fighting was AndrAIa. She was so timid and weak during their last encounters. Mouse was certain that Ray had broken her spirit beyond repair. The game sprite who looked back at her didn't look unsure of herself at all. Time and misfortune had molded her into someone entirely new.
"AndrAIa?" Bob gasped.
"I can help you." Mouse said, "Daemon can help you. You've already been through so much."
"Daemon can't help me, or any other sprite!" AndrAIa panted as she spoke. She was exhausted. Even normal movements took a lot of energy in that suit; running around and fighting was even more taxing.
"Why are you fighting us?"
"You say you want to help, but is this really helping?" AndrAIa said pointing at what was left of the street.
Mouse looked around. Most of the neighbouring buildings had shattered windows. The pavement was broken and cracked in several places. No sprites were around, just them. The neighbourhood had been completely decimated in a matter of minutes, and it only got worse the longer they fought.
"You're who we're fighting for." Mouse explained.
"Me?"
"Sprites like you who've been held back because of their code. When we're all viruses then we're all equal."
AndrAIa paused. She had heard that before. AndrAIa gave a small laugh. It was all making sense to her now. Mouse and Daemon had been working with Megabyte. She was unsure who's initial idea all this was, but it was clear that the execution was a collaborative effort.
"Funny… I've heard something similar from a virus just as corrupted as you. A virus who thought that just because he suffered it justified tearing the net apart. The net is flawed; sprites and viruses alike. This will make no difference. Beings will always be at odds with one another no matter what their format is. You can't force them to change if they don't want to."
"You don't know what you're talking about!"
"What happened to the Mouse who told me that my code couldn't hold me back? That just because my code said one thing, didn't mean I couldn't be something else."
Mouse paused. It wasn't that long ago, but still she had to fight hard to search for the memory. She remembered saying those words, but she also remembered how broken AndrAIa had been that night. She had been targeted because she was a game sprite, and for no other reason.
"We're unifying the net!" Mouse finally said.
"You're destroying the net! Look at what you're doing to this system. You can't force sprites to be something they're not. The net is meant to be diverse."
"...You… you just don't understand." Mouse scowled, "I'll just have to make you understand. Once you're a virus you'll see."
# #
Out in the dark recesses of the web a fleet of ships gathered. They flew side by side as they closed in on Mainframe's web address. One ship pulled ahead of the others, its passengers in disbelief as they looked down on the containment field around the small system.
The guardians within it looked at Turbo, awaiting orders.
"By the User…" Turbo said. He had hoped that the distress signal wasn't completely accurate.
"What are your orders, Prime Guardian?" One of the guardians asked.
"What do the scans reveal?"
"The containment field has a strong reading of… Cron viral code."
"A cron virus."
He opened a channel to all the ships under his command.
"Take the containment field offline." He said.
Over cycles upon cycles of going up against hostile viruses, the guardians were well versed in cracking viral code of all kinds. Turbo patiently waited as his team worked. It was mere child's play for them, but was quite a task for a small system with hardly any resources. Within seconds the containment field faltered and slowly faded away.
"Containment field has been neutralized."
"All right guardians," Turbo said, "this system needs our help. There could very well be a hostage situation taking place. Your main goal is to ensure the safety of every sprite in Mainframe."
"And the virus?"
"We are to assume that the cron virus who did this is hostile. Take no prisoners."
# #
"Any word on that upgrade, Specky?" Dot panted.
"Just a few more seconds."
Daemon launched a large chunk of debris at Dot who barely got out of the way in time. The whole ordeal was laughable. Dot knew that if Matrix was there she would have been ridiculed. She never was one for sports, and it showed. The suit was doing most of the work and she was already feeling winded.
Suddenly a wave of bullets rained down from the sky. At first dot thought the CPU's had returned, but then she looked up. Dozens of ships hovered above them in the sky; guardian ships.
Dot smiled. Her distress signal had made it through. Things were starting to look up.
"Warning, incoming game. Warning, incoming game." The system voice cried out.
"Of course." Dot muttered under her breath.
They had gone so long without any games that she had forgotten what an annoyance they were. Games always seemed to fall at the most inconvenient times. It looked like it was going to land near them too.
As the sky darkened Dot tried hard to stay focused on the virus in front of her, who didn't seem at all bothered by the guardian's arrival or the presence of a game.
A large block of purple game energy slowly began to descend. A few of the guardian ships flew to intercept its path. Dot sighed, relieved. At least she didn't have to worry about what was going on inside the game. The guardians would win, no problem. The game landed, shaking the ground on impact. Suddenly, Specky yelled into her ear piece.
"Upgrade complete!"
Dot backed away as the remaining guardians opened fire on Daemon. Much like with the CPU's she gave no reaction, showed no pain. The bullets seemed to bounce off of her like she was invincible.
Daemon held out her hand, coating one of the guardian ships in a soft green light. She flicked her wrist. The ship began to spiral out of the sky, landing straight into the side of the game cube. The ship was instantly met with an onslaught of ferocious energy. The white and purple lightning ran up and down the ship until it combusted in a fiery wreck.
Dot gulped as she watched it drop from the sky. Daemon had been going easy on them. They had no idea the full extent of her power. As the remaining ships continued to fire Daemon looked at Dot and smiled, slowly floating into the air. She raised both her arms and looked up at the sky. The game cube was a few feet behind her, providing a vibrant background for her frail form. Her silhouette gracefully rose.
She began to gently wave her hand back and forth, taking control of all the remaining ships. Her glow spread through all of them. Instantly the bullets ceased.
"No." Dot said.
She planned on destroying them all.
Dot aimed her weapon, not confident that it would be more powerful than what the guardians had to offer. She uncapped the trigger that lay in the palm of her hand and pressed down on the button. She fired.
A single beam of energy flew from the exoskeleton out towards Daemon, striking her in the arm. Daemon let out a small scream. To everyone's surprise her arm disintegrated. She looked around in panic and then down at Dot. Slowly her arm started to grow back, lavender flesh bubbling out of the stump to reconstruct the lost appendage.
Dot fired again, this time hitting her leg. She began to fire in rapid succession, trying to cause more damage than what could be regenerated. With each shot a chunk of Daemon's flesh was ripped from her form. Slowly she began to fade, floating back down towards the ground. Dot showed no mercy firing over and over again.
Daemon's hold on the ships gave out and they began firing upon her once again. The pavement around her broke up with each shot creating a cloud of dust around her.
"No!" Mouse screamed in horror as she looked on, powerless to stop them.
Dot kept up her assault and so did the guardian's until they were out of ammunition. They watched silently, as the smoke cleared. Where Daemon had stood a blob of energy took up space, trying frantically to regenerate. It had the silhouette of a person, but no distinguishing features. The strange, skeletal form stumbled around. Everyone watched in horror as the energy tried to limp away. The mass let out a high pitch screech and turned to Mouse.
Dot aimed for the center of it and fired. The beam piercing what would have been Daemon's heart, if she even had one. It seemed to turn to Dot and then reached out before slowly crumbling away. Softly the green light began to fade as flakes of her code scattered, fluttering away into the system, becoming one with the net. Daemon crumbled until there was nothing left.
Mouse looked on in a stunned silence. The sudden quiet around them was almost deafening to her ears. Daemon was gone. No one cheered or rejoiced, just silence. In the brief moment of peace Mouse couldn't help but think of Daemon and everything she'd done; everything Mouse helped her do. She really did want to save the net, and Mouse wanted to help her do it.
Looking around at the worn out faces surrounding her she felt a sudden emptiness inside; one brought on by sudden realization. She hadn't even wanted to become a virus. She did that for Daemon, and now Daemon was gone… Daemon was gone. That thought echoed in her mind over and over until she felt cold.
Mouse looked down at her hands, the hands of a virus. The hands of a monster.
"In life there are winners and losers." Mouse said to herself with a smile. She knew what she was, and it didn't matter if she was a sprite or virus, it wouldn't make any difference.
AndrAIa looked at her, not sure what to even say.
Mouse walked over to the game sprite. The movement caught the guardians' eyes, which is exactly what the virus wanted. They aimed their weapons at her, waiting for an excuse to open fire.
"Mouse…" AndrAIa looked at her with pleading eyes, "It doesn't have to end like this."
"You were always too kind…" Mouse whispered, just loud enough for the game sprite to hear. "You're a winner. I was born a loser, there's no changing that."
Mouse placed a hand on her sword. The katana had stayed by her side through everything. She never felt the need to draw it, not until that moment.
"Mouse, please don't." AndrAIa pleaded for the virus' sake.
"See ya around, sugar."
Mouse winked before drawing her sword. In one sure motion the silver blade was revealed.
BANG.
AndrAIa flinched as Mouse's warm blood splashed against her face.
The virus stumbled, and was enveloped in a bright white light. Mouse shattered, pieces of her scattering away; reduced to viral code in the wind. She was completely gone before even hitting the ground.
End Log