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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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."

"So you're evacuating your home, Bob's destabilizing, and the bad guy's invading."

Bob was willing to help him with some of the run of the mill day to day and got hurt for it.

The least he could do was help when they really needed it.

"Enzo, you said you need a programmer to fix the cure, right? A friend of mine might be able to. In the meantime, do you think there's anything I could do to help back there? To hold them off? I can go inside computers in my ghost form so I should be able to go into Mainframe."

Enzo beams with gratitude. Then he frowns again. "Maybe, but I can't open the Door for you. I'll tell you if I get it unlocked, though!"

He perks up again. "Anyway, Dot told me I should stay with someone on the safelist she made for me, so that's you!" He grins with mischief.

Dani clenches her fists. More than anything she wishes she could go with Danny and help.

"Are you sure?" she asks him. "I mean, what if you get infected?"

Enzo's next piece of news makes her brighten, though. "Cool!"

"I guess if you can't open the door, I'll just have to wait with you until you can anyway."

He tilted his head at Dani.

"We're not exactly made of programming code, are we? This is like a computer virus infection. I bet I'd be immune. If you went, you probably would be, too." A pause. "You're not allowed to go, though."

"I wasn't asking to," Dani responds, looking offended (or trying to).

Not until the war is over and she's stabilized, anyway.

The mun considers that they've had more than enough time to reach the bar, so Enzo clambers onto a stool and orders his shake and a saucer. He pours out a little into the saucer and puts it on the floor for Frisket, who definitely deserves a treat.

He nods at Danny. "Or if you're busy I can stay with Dr. Stantz, or Foxtrot, 'cept I don't think Dot really wants him watching me too long," he adds with a giggle. "She said to wait here 'til someone comes to get me... oh." He looks disgusted. "That's why!"

Once they get up to Bar, Dani retrieves her shake from earlier.

Having never had parental units, she looks at him confused. "What's why?"

"The Door won't let me out 'cause Dot said for me to stay here!" He heaves a frustrated sigh. "How'd it know?"

Dani shrugs. "'Cause its Milliways?"

From where he floated near them, Danny jerked a thumb toward Dani.

"What she said. The Bar knows all." He waggled his fingers spookily.

"Then it should know that I really need to tell Dot about Bob!" Enzo shouts at the Bar.

The Bar does not respond.

Enzo slumps. "I shoulda told her before. But she was too busy, and then I forgot 'cause I was all excited about Dad..."

"What about your dad?" Dani asks curiously. Obviously, by his use of the word 'excited', it's a good thing.

"Wait a second. I thought you said your dad was...um...one of the differently alive."

Enzo pauses. The what now? "You mean dead?"

A nod. "One more half than I--and Dani--are."

"He was." Enzo grins hugely.

"You mean your dad's alive now?" There's a big grin on Dani's face. "That's so cool!"

"That's great! But how exactly?" Danny asked. "Since there are a lot of ways."

Digital ghosts?

"He's kind of alive." Enzo waggles a hand iffily. "See, it turns out back when the accident happened, he wasn't deleted like we thought, he was nullified, we're not sure how, it usually only happens 'cause of Games. And Megabyte was keeping him as a pet, only we didn't know it was him 'cause Megabyte called him Nibbles and you can't really tell who a null used to be, they're just blobs. But Hexadecimal, she used to be a virus but now she's a sprite but she's still able to control nulls, and she brought him back! She made him a whole body out of other nulls and he's like the head, it's supercooled, only we can't touch him 'cause they're still nulls and they'd drain our energy, but that's okay 'cause he's back!"

"So you're dad's a...null-thing?" Dani has no idea what a null looks like, so she can't imagine what Mr. Matrix must look like right now.

Still, she can think of worse things to be when coming back from the dead (like zombies). So she grins. "I'm glad you have him back, Enzo."

It was difficult tracking all that, but you know, when your life created alternate timelines and you fought meat monsters, stuff that was usually pretty out there didn't sound so out there.

"That really is great Enzo," he said. "Your dad was all smart and stuff, right? Maybe he'll help everyone figure out a way to fight Daemon."

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