4.04: Time for some thrilling heroics.

[nofileext]

The Mainframe populace go about their business as usual, if disturbingly cheerfully. The air is filled with cars and zipboards, not CPUs and tanks.

Everything's quiet, more or less.

Of course, given the group that's just coming in from Milliways, that's not liable to last long.

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[a1enzo]

First through the door is their native guide, ready to explain features of his world or give directions to the bathroom if anyone forgot to go before.

[a1enzo]

"Alphanumeric! Let's see..." He holds his icon over the action figure and concentrates. There is a sparkle of white light, and the green veins fade. "Yes!"

[twiceahero]

"Well then, it looks like we're good to go on the anti-virus end. This is your turf, kid, where do we go from here?"

[a1enzo]

"Down to the garage, to get the zipboards."

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[first_sixth]

Tommy's immediately on the alert the second he walks through the door. For all that they're in a relatively safe place, experience has taught him that this has the potential to change very quickly. You don't survive as long as Tommy has in his profession without a healthy measure of caution.

That's not to say that he's not fascinated, of course. Now that he's gotten over the initial reaction his power had to the transition from matter to energy, he's feeling much better. Being in Mainframe, a place where a body like his current one actually belongs, helps.

"Very interesting," he murmurs. "I'm guessing this is your house, Enzo?"

Tommy's not entirely sure what he'd been expecting, but for all that the environment is different, it's still... well, normal.

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[a1enzo]

Normal except for the pulsing green light-tendrils all over everything. Enzo nods.

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[first_sixth]

"What is this stuff?" he asks, examining the tendrils creeping over a wall. He's not touching them, of course. "And I never got around to asking you where we're going to be forming ourselves into teams and getting our gear ready. This hardly seems like the place."

They're in a hallway, after all. Tommy would feel more comfortable knowing that they're going to have some space to get set up and make sure that things are working properly.

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[a1enzo]

"That's what the infection looks like." It's safe to touch, they're walking on it, after all, and Enzo had to touch it on the Door besides. But Tommy's hesitation is quite understandable; Enzo hesitated before touching the Door, too.

"The only other gear we need is the zipboards, so I guess we're starting in the garage."

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[precocioustilda]

An obscenely large stack of crates enters.

It's followed by... another obscenely large stack of crates.

After a number of them have passed through, they're joined by a brightly coloured little girl with a mischievous grin, who turns around to levitate the last few through.

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[a1enzo]

The hallway now looks a bit like a box-fort, but without any door. This may turn out to be a problem. From within the fort, a muffled voice says, "Help?"

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[precocioustilda]

"Oh-- sorry!" says Matilda. "One moment, please."

She's remarkably quick when she needs to be; soon the boxes are lined up in ceiling-high stacks along one wall of the hallway, with gaps for doors, and nobody trapped behind any of them. (This last is really the important part.)

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[a1enzo]

Enzo grins; no harm done. They'll have to make a real box-fort later.

The crates are actually rather comforting. They mean there's something around that isn't marked by Daemon's infection.

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[precocioustilda]

Matilda gives a tiny, adorable smile in return.

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[always_k_i_t_t]

An icon was thrown through the door courtesy one of Kitt's open doors in the bar proper. In midair, the icon activated and from it grew Kitt's emulator: Kitt in sprite form.

"Good heavens," he murmured and dusted himself off - for all he knew he didn't need to. "This is different."

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[a1enzo]

Enzo grins; that was cool. "You all functional? Careful of the boxes."

One wall of the hall is lined floor-to-ceiling with Matilda's firework crates; they're the only objects present that aren't covered with glowing green veins of infection.

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[always_k_i_t_t]

The infection itself makes Kitt wince. Everything...

He sighed as he looked around him, able to feel the illness of this system. "I'm perfectly all right, though I wish I could say the same about your system. This is a terrible state. I can see why you needed the help."