milliways_bar | Daemon Rising, part 4a

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Daemon Rising, part 4a

[In this installment, a virus approaches Mainframe with her new helpers, a boy plays catch with his dad, seduction is attempted and cut short, and plans are put into motion. Speaking of which, here comes one of those plans now!]

Little Matrix enters the bar with two bots, a dog, and a look of determination. He looks around the bar, mentally reviewing as he does so the tasks he has been charged with. Wait here until someone comes to fetch me. Until then, stay with someone on the safelist. And find Programmers. Someone who can fix the cure so it's more compatible, and find out why it didn't work when Bob tried to...

Oh no! Bob! I forgot to tell Dot...

Matrix freezes, then wheels around and charges back past his escort toward the Door.

It's locked.

[Not plotlocked in any way. Go for it.]

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Enzo's pounces don't usually turn into hugs, just tackles, but this one does. After a few seconds, though, he looks confused and releases her.

He gives a short, embarrassed giggle. "No, it's, um, Bar gave it to me for some holiday a few min - er, months ago, to make me look like Matrix, and, well..." He shuffles his feet. "I wanted people to listen to me," he mumbles. "No one stops him from helping." He looks uncomfortable. Somehow, what seemed like perfectly logical reasoning a couple cycles ago sounds kinda stupid now.

It...doesn't make sense to Dani either. "You wanted people to listen to you, so you started dressing like your older self?"

"It made sense when I did it..."

She sighs. "Enzo, you know dressing like Matrix isn't going to make you like him, right?" Dani asks. "I mean, look at me! I'm Danny's copy, but that doesn't make me Danny."

He sighs. "Yeah. Hex explained about it. She used to be a chaos virus," he adds. "She's really smart, now that she's sane."

This would be a perfect place for Dani to insert a zinger about Vlad, but unfortunately ~~the mun~~ she can't think of one right now.

"So what's with the escort?" she asks instead, nodding her head over her shoulder in Hack and Slash's direction. It's not that she isn't glad to see you Enzo, really; it's just that you've come in alone before.

Enzo welcomes the change of subject; he really doesn't want Dani to think he's stupid, and the prior topic was rapidly heading in that direction.

"Dot's letting me help now!" he proclaims - see, maybe the outfit did work! He fishes in his belt and pulls out a small window filled with binary. "See, we've got a cure for Daemon's infection, but it's not working right yet. So Dot sent me here to find someone who can fix it. And it's really important, so they're my bodyguards." Yeah! That sounds a lot better than 'babysitters'.

Dani grins. "So that means you're close to winning the war, right?"

Now all she needs to do is find someone who can stabilize her without killing her or Danny, and then she can finally come to Mainframe!

"Y-yeah," says Enzo, with a rather sickly grin of his own. Of course they'll win, and soon.

Right?

Yes. Because there were too many people that'd be willing to help them.

"...Enzo? Why are you dressed like a biker?" asked Danny as he floated over.

He was ghosted out, mainly because he wasn't sure if his parents were around and if he ever needed to BE ghosted out in the bar, this way he wouldn't have to run off to the bathroom or something to do it.

As he got a closer look... "Actually, why are you dressed like the bigger, jerkier you? The little, less-jerkier you is ten times cooler. And what's with the robots?"

Siiiiigh. "Hi, Danny. It was an error, okay?"

Heck with it. He taps his icon, and a shimmer runs down the length of his body - rather like one of the Glowing Concentric Rings of Science that mark the Phantoms' own transformations, except this hugs his shape more tightly - erasing the Matrix costume and leaving his usual outfit in its place. Look, Dani, another thing we have in common!

As he moves his icon back to its usual place on his cap, he says, "That's Hack, and that's Slash. They're being my bodyguards."

The two robots look from Danny to Dani in bewilderment.

They continue to bicker back and forth. If you think they're confused now, you should have seen them when Little Enzo first appeared after the restart.

Oh-kay.

"They're a few chips short of a whole processor, huh," he said quietly to Enzo.

"I'm Danny with a 'y.' She's Dani with an 'i'. That makes them different names, so no one's copying a name from the other."

Then something finally registered. "Bodyguards from what?" he asked, starting to look concerned. "Why do you need them?"

"Uh-huh," whispers Enzo.

"Nothing here, I think," he says, with a slight note of worry to indicate the fact that now that Danny's mentioned it, he's wondering if he'll actually need them. "They're just in case. I'm on an important mission!" he adds proudly.

"Hi, Danny." Dani would have greeted him earlier, but she was too busy facepalming at Hack and Slash.

Looking over at Enzo she asks, "Well, do you have to start right away? Or do you have time for a shake first?"

Because she's got a milkshake to finish, and shakes (milk or energy) always go down better with friends.

"Hey Dani." Kinda ditto, although it was mental facepalming.

"What kind of mission? What's going on back home, Enzo?"

He shrugs. "It's probably gonna take a while anyway. I'd like a shake." And he starts to lead the motley procession toward the bar. "Frisket!" Frisket, who has wandered a little distance off in search of new and interesting people to growl at, barks and comes to heel.

As he walks, he talks: "You remember about the war? Daemon? Well, it got going for real."

Dani can't supress a grin. "Great!" she says as Enzo leads the way to the bar.

She listens as Enzo starts to explain the war to Danny, biting her lip.

Nuts.

"Like full-out war?"

Enzo nods. "The Guardians got in and put us online, and now Daemon's coming herself. We put up firewalls to keep her out, but..." He winces. "She's got Mouse helping her now. And AndrAIa, and YT. And Matrix."

Dani looks over at Enzo in surprise. "When did all that happen?"

The last time she saw Matrix, he was tossing Enzo and Dani outside to get them out of the path of Jack and Maddie.

Whoa. Whoa! This was bad.

This wasn't just war, this sounded like they were losing.

"What about Dot and Bob?"

"Dot's got a plan. I think she's gonna evacuate everyone to an offline system, 'cause she had Dad make his old gateway machine again. She's probably got something else in mind too, 'cause she always does. And she sent me here 'cause we've got a cure for the infection but it didn't work when Bob tried it on Turbo and I'm s'posed to find programmers to fix it. But Bob..."

He looks up at Danny, getting frantic again. "I have to go back and tell her, but the Door won't let me! Bob... I heard him and Phong talking, Phong ran some tests and Bob..."

He turns to Dani then. "He's like you."

It takes Dani a minute to get what Enzo means.

"You mean, he's not stable?"

Enzo winces again and nods. "If he keeps using his Glitch powers, he'll fragment completely. But it's worse for him, 'cause you can stop using your powers if you want."

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