Daemon Rising, part 4a

[a1enzo]

[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

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[ami_imperfect]

"Enzo!"

This would be Dani, hopping off of her barstool after her milkshake was interrupted by the appearance of her friend.

She stops short when she sees the two 'bots, and Frisket. "Whoa. Who're your friends?"

[hack_slash_bots]

The two robots look from Danny to Dani in bewilderment.

"Your name is Danny?"
"And your name is Danny?"
"They can't both be Danny. Which one is really Danny?"
"The boy must be Danny. Danny is a boy's name."
"No it isn't! Besides, the girl said her name was Danny first!"
"So what?"
"So the boy Danny must be copying from the girl Danny!"
"The girl Danny coulda copied it first..."

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.

[a1enzo]

"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.

[ami_imperfect]

"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.

[a1enzo]

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."

[ami_imperfect]

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.

[a1enzo]

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."

[ami_imperfect]

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.

[a1enzo]

"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."

[ami_imperfect]

It takes Dani a minute to get what Enzo means.

"You mean, he's not stable?"

[a1enzo]

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."