Daemon Rising, part 4b

[a1enzo]

[Due to the wonders of Millitime, this takes place the morning after this thread, yet at the same time is happening right now. Whoa.]


Contrary to his own expectations, Enzo slept pretty well last night. No nightmares, although he did have a weird dream in which Hex turned into a pile of nulls with Mike the TV's voice. At any rate, he's well rested and ready for some world-saving.

But first, breakfast. He's at the Bar, eating a large waffle with far too much Maple syrup. Frisket has a bowl of something you're probably happier not knowing about.


[Leading to a supply run, mass digitization and mission briefing, and divers excitement and alarums.]

[First two subthreads are plotlocked. Enzo, at least, would welcome greetings in the third.]

Comments

[a1enzo]

Enzo nods. Then his smile brightens as something occurs to him. "Hey, now that the 'Net's safe, you wanna visit? I mean, once they've got the atomizer working so you don't get stuck or anything?"

[ami_imperfect]

Dani's smile also brightens. "Yeah, that'd be fun!" Although... "'Get stuck'?"

[a1enzo]

"As a sprite. You can't come the way Danny did, not if you're still unstable, so we'd have to digitize ya. That part of the laser works fine, that's how we got everyone into Mainframe to help, but they're still fixing the part that turns you back into matter."

[ami_imperfect]

"... Oh."

Wait until she gets stabilized, or wait until the atomizer gets fixed.

"Either way, it's probably gonna be a little while, huh?"

[a1enzo]

"Yeah, but they're trying to fix the atomizer soon, 'cause most of the people who came to help fight Daemon had to be digitized, so they're all sprites right now." He grimaces. "We didn't really have time to wait."

[ami_imperfect]

"True." Dani can understand that.

[a1enzo]

Eventually, someone will tell Enzo what 'atomizer' actually means. When that happens, he will be very embarrassed indeed.

Now that the change of topic has lifted his mood a little, Enzo realizes just how hungry he is. He may not have fought himself, but he did plenty of running around and the whole thing was quite draining. "Two cups of green stuff, please." Bar, understanding his intention, materializes one in front of him and one in front of Dani.

[ami_imperfect]

Dani looks at the green stuff. She's had milkshakes and such from Bar before, but never anything like this.

"Uh, Enzo? What is this?"

[a1enzo]

"It's the only thing I know that humans and sprites can both drink. I dunno why. It's pretty good." It's also disturbingly iridescent, but what can you expect from something of which the whole point is that it's completely, 100% artificial?

[ami_imperfect]

She picks up the glass, looking at the contents with an analyzing eye. Yeah, can't tell she was cloned from the kid of two scientists can ya? Looks safe.

Dani sniffs it, then takes a cautious sip.

And grins.

"Hey, this is good!"

[a1enzo]

Enzo nods as he takes a swig, then wipes his mouth with his hand. "'Sweird, though. I mean, if it's matter, I shouldn't be able to drink it, and if it's energy, you shouldn't be able to drink it. So what is it?"

[ami_imperfect]

"Beats the heck off me," Dani answers, taking another sip of the green stuff.

[a1enzo]

"Is there anything else? Something that other worlds are made of?"

[ami_imperfect]

"I can't be sure, but I think the Ghost Zone might be part ectoplasm." Which is, now that she thinks of it, what the green stuff looks like. It's not creepy enough a similarity to make her stop drinking, though. "I'll have to ask Danny."

[a1enzo]

Enzo doesn't know what ectoplasm is, but he'd never heard of matter until Milliways either. He shrugs and drinks in silence for a while.

"... When... Bob comes back..." Enzo forces himself through the implication there to reach the happy thought on the other side, "it's gonna be so awesome! Just before he passed out," there it is again, but "Dot asked him to marry her."

[ami_imperfect]

"Really? Cool!" Dani doesn't have to ask if Bob said 'yes'. Of course he said 'yes'. And even if he couldn't physically say it, then he still thought it right?

[a1enzo]

"Uh-huh! I could just barely hear 'em."

What he said amounted to 'yes', anyhow. Actually, it amounted to 'well, duh.'

[ami_imperfect]

"That's so great. I can't wait to meet him...and your sister and the rest of your friends."

[a1enzo]

"Maybe you can come to the wedding!"

He slumps a little as another thought occurs to him. "I hope we can get Dad there, too. If we can even find him."

[ami_imperfect]

"Yeah!"

She blinks at Enzo in confusion. "Why? What happened to your dad?" The last Dani heard, he was a giant null monster.

[a1enzo]

"Remember I told you Hex brought him back? She put the nulls together to make his body and made him, y'know, able to think right and talk and stuff?"

[ami_imperfect]

Dani takes another sip of her green stuff, nodding. "Uh-huh."

[a1enzo]

"Well... she's gone."

[ami_imperfect]

She gets it.

"No more Hex...no more null-monster that was your dad? That sucks."

[a1enzo]

Enzo nods. "He's just a null again. And those all look the same 'cept for colour, and there's still a lot of green nulls."

He manages a small smile - more of a smirk, really. "I bet Hack and Slash'll find him, though. I dunno how they can tell which one he is, but they can. They've looked after him for ages, since he was Megabyte's pet." The smirk turns into a grimace. "He called him 'Nibbles'. We didn't know it was him, though."