Virus Protection(Invite Only)

[Jilak]

(OOC: Yeah, the Jilak returns. Me and Mugen for now, ask one of us and we'll discuss it over IM. The usual, yo)

A certain boy genius, set up in a certain lab, on a certain island, was certainly having a bad day. First, an experiment to clone a sentient computer virus had gone wrong. Second, he'd run into his old arch-rival. Third, and this is most important: the failed cloning experience looked almost EXACTLY like said rival's sister. Not to mention, he was currently virus protection-less, as the sentient virus mentioned above had taken out his prized rambo.exe. I mean, really, could his day get any worse?

Well, yes. Yes it could. His arch-rival walking out on him in the middle of a deal in DISGUST was pretty bad. Being too late for his prized insects was pretty bad. Let's just say his week, since he'd cloned Uno, had been pretty bad. At the very least, he hadn't seen the virus for a while.

Of course, since this was his worst week ever, he did. While viewing his surveillance cameras set up in the hotel. And he seemed to be with someone. Another virus? Maybe. He looked... odd, however. And had a gun. And as far as Mandark knew, a sentient virus wouldn't NEED a gun. Which made him wonder how much of a fool the man must have been to travel with Zero. Didn't he know the virus could delete him at any second? Didn't he know...

Mandark was cut off in the middle of a thought when Zero began to go into digital distortion. He watched for a bit before the camera in that room went out. Great. Just great. But what could make his day even worse?

Well, his computer currently registered a virus attack. But Mandark had a feeling the 'attack' wouldn't be on the computer...

[mugenginga]

Uno had been distracted with her own hands at the moment. Basically staring at them and trying to get them to break into distortions. It wasn't all that successful, but it was somewhat amusing the way the action mimicked what Zero had been doing moments before the feed to Mandark's computer went out. Really, it was about as successful as Zero's attempts had been, which should have been a red flag. Perhaps Mandark was just too stressed to notice.

She managed to succeed in getting her left hand to burst into data. She let out a rather cute and Dee Dee-like giggle about half a second before the transparent data shot past her in a uncontrolled stream. The giggle shifted to a surprised shout and Uno hit the floor, causing her own form to break into the similar manner of distortions, just with the characteristic pale pink tint unique to her.

The next bit of development probably caught Mandark's attention. Oh, it probably more than did so. Zero had always taken his human form within a instance of crashing into Mandark's lab. In fact, it usually caused such a system overload the a screen or two would explode. No such problem this time, and the alerts on the computer faded as soon as the disorganized distortions were out of it.

The distortion seemed to be floating off in random directions before popping out of existance and being replaced in the main mass. To add to the "interesting" situation, Uno's data was taking on her human shape before the transparent data was even close... Uno managed to regain her human form, but the data that had come by for a visit still seemed to be having trouble even holding the shape, let alone taking it...

[Jilak]

Now that was interesting. Mandark hadn't been paying much attention to Uno, but the thing is, it was slightly hard to miss. Was she... holding form better than Zero? Better than the ORIGINAL? Furthermore, the virus didn't seem to be messing with his computers, now... the reading faded after the cloud of distortions appeared in the room, in fact... which meant...

Yes. This was very... delicious. Mandark deduced the problem in a second. Something he had done must have rewritten the virus' coding, and now he was coming back to the boy genius for help. He suppressed a laugh. No, no. Better to confirm his suspicions before leaping into anything. Zero could have simply been putting up a show, after all. Didn't want to get himself deleted due to his intuitiveness.

"Zero? What brings you back to my not-so-secret laboratory?" Mandark asked, smirking a bit. Could he even respond in the shape he was in, currently?

And like that, his day was suddenly going amazingly. Small favors, people, small favors.

[mugenginga]

The data better described as Missing No. was aware of the amused question being directed at it. Had it been capable at the moment, it would have probably glared at Mandark. Or fried one of his weaker systems, either way. However, there was no negative reaction, just a bit more "activity" in the distortions for a bit. It seemed to be fighting of all things. The fight seemed to have some effect, and finally a human shape was formed. A close look would reveal the shape was holding its head.

Uno managed to push herself to her feet in that time. She looked at her hand and got an expression not unlike a pout for a moment. She'd just managed to change it when... she looked up and blinked. She knew that digital signature, of course. But something seemed different about it then before. Sick, maybe? That word didn't seem right either. She glanced at Mandark and noted his expression. Whatever was wrong with Zero, Mandark seemed amused by it. She decided to sit down and watch.

Finally, a solid three minutes after the data had come in, Zero's human form managed to stabilize. He stumbled backwards and grabbed the console behind him with his left hand, holding his head with his right. He looked tense and had he been truly human it was pretty clear he'd be breathing heavily. He did, oddly enough for not needing it, take in a deep breath. He straightened up and slowly removed his hand from his head.

"Wipe that look off your face," Zero growled at Mandark.

[Jilak]

And that was all the confirmation Mandark needed. This was DELIGHTFUL. He'd managed to alter the virus' coding, which led to him needing his help. Just as he'd expected. The pieces of the puzzle all fit together. Had Mandark looked at his screen, he'd note the fellow he saw with Zero was currently being talked to by a couple of guys in suits. They seemed to have... blue gloves? Who wore blue gloves before labor day? I mean, really. Oh, and now they were GRABBING the guy. That was just rude.

In any case, Mandark was dissolving into chuckles, which dissolved into a loud bout of laughter. But no, he had to pull himself together. Had to hold some semblance of professionalism.

"Is it that you need help? You, the virus that nearly destroyed my equipment, after I, Mandark, boy genius, altered your code? Is that it?" Mandark asked.

[mugenginga]

Zero was maintaining eye contact with Mandark. He didn't notice the display on the "boy genius"' screen. His look was nothing short of a seething glare, and there was some definite hatred. On an interesting note, it was a different sort of hatred then the kind he'd given Mandark when he was cloned. There was some definite outside annoyance going on there as well. The seething glare only increased as Mandark began to chuckle. How did the modern world put it? Payback's a bitch? With his form stabilized he took a few deliberate steps towards Mandark. He stopped about five feet from the teenager and held up his hand.

"You did nothing to my coding, so abandon that frame of thought now," Zero growled.

Uno jumped to her feet. She'd noted the change of display on the screen and was about to say something, but then Zero had advanced towards Mandark. She ran forward a bit until she was the same distance from Zero as he was from Mandark. She balled her hands up in fists and tried to focus a bit. Nothing really succeeded in that regard, so she just leaned forward.

"Leave him alone!"

"Shut up!" Zero shouted at Uno. She winced and took a step back as if she'd been hit. Zero turned back to Mandark, "If you don't help me, I'll find someone who will and your lab won't survive the next visit," he growled, "How would you like all your data to be recovered to your little boyfriend's databases, hrm?"

[Jilak]

Mandark wasn't exactly sure when it had happened. It was probably the fact that Zero had referred to his foe as his 'boyfriend'. But no, no. In all honesty it was more that he'd yelled at Uno. Perhaps it was because she looked so much like Dee Dee, but Mandark felt the need to... protect her. And the insult hadn't helped either, that was for sure. The point was, he felt an unmistakable feeling of RAGE begin to well up inside of him. And before he'd known it, he'd flipped various switches on his chair. His lab was armed.

"You know as well as I do that there's no one else on this island that can help you. Furthermore, if that's how wish to react, I can keep trying lab defenses until one gets you. And you won't survive the trip through my computer if I have anything to say about it. So if you want to survive THIS visit, I demand to know what's going on. Do you need my devices or not, virus?" Mandark questioned.

And then the men in suits were dragging the gentleman back to his bed, forcing a small device in his hand. It quickly disappeared underneath his skin. And then they looked to Mandark's hidden camera, grabbing the man's gun. They shot it. The screen went blank...

[mugenginga]

Zero was able to pick up on the electronic orders sent to various areas of Mandark's lab. Well, he'd hit a sore poin in any case. Whether it was the boyfriend line or something else, Zero didn't care. The sentient virus was still convinced he couldn't be killed, but there would be issues if he were blasted by Mandark's systems. Issues that wouldn't have been there before. He straightened up and gave a smirk at the situation, and the shift of position allowed him to catch the camera.

He watched the scene play out and his frown deepened. He seemed to forget about Mandark for the moment, and remained focused on the screen until the gun was fired at the camera and it went black. Well wasn't that just icing on the cake? Now the man who was more or less responsible for the current state of affairs was in some kind of trouble. He'd looked unconscious and Zero was in no condition to send a bit of data through the Island's wireless connection and try and get a reading on anything in the room. He looked back towards Mandark and glanced at Uno for a moment before turning back to Mandark and continuing.

"I'm sure I could find someone else." Zero growled. After all, the data on Mandark's computer proved he wasn't the only self proclaimed 'boy genius' on the Island.

"To be honest I doubt you can do much. You can't even understand her coding, let alone mine. Still..." Zero was snarling at this point, and it seemed less anger at Mandark in specific and more an extreme annoyance at the entire situation. He shook his head, "The answer is yes. A... situation has done something to my program."

Uno had stared at the display on the screen after Mandark jumped to her rescue. For some reason or another, she figured that's what had happened. Maybe it was the data that had "corrupted" her creation. After all, Dee Dee was anything but unaware of Mandark's advances. Far smarter than Dexter would ever give her credit for. Still, all that aside those men worried Uno. That thing that had drilled into the man's hand hadn't seemed... nice. She looked towards Zero. So she was right? There was soemthing wrong with him?

[Jilak]

Mandark's hands relaxed a bit. Okay. No need to get all worked up in the middle of his victory gloat. And besides, if he helped Zero, he might understand more about Uno's coding. Maybe help her along in her distorting. But there were far more pressing matters at the moment, and he was honestly curious as to what had happened.

He pulled out a small device, running it around the virus. It emitted a beeping sound every other second. That was... odd. His programming didn't seem nearly as corrupted as Uno's, and yet he was having more trouble with what he could do than SHE was. Odd indeed.

"So when did these problems start? Do you have any idea as to WHO could have altered your data? Because it would take quite the scientific mind, if my readings are correct." Mandark returned.

[mugenginga]

Zero tensed up as Mandark pulled out the device. That alone said something for the mental state of the virus. The one who seemed capable of looking proverbial death in the face and giving it the middle finger was tensing up over a simple device. After a moment he relaxed and let Mandark run his tests. He noted the odd look on Mandark's face, but said nothing. After all, he was quite aware of the coding issue.

"Would knowing that possibly help?" Zero said. He continued without waiting for a response, "It wasn't anyone with a 'scientific mind' in any case."

"Mandark, I think the person on your screen got some kind of doohickey put in his body..." Uno stated, pointing at the screen. Using quite possibly one of the least scientific words known to man, naturally.

[Jilak]

"It was just a simple tracking device, nothing to worry about. And regardless, it's not our problem." Mandark responded to Uno, continuing to watch his device. Still quite odd. And perhaps something he should elaborate on.

"Well, if I could find the fellow, I could find out exactly WHAT he did to do this to you. What device he used and the such. Because, see, if you'll look here for a second." Mandark turned to his computer screen, bringing up a display of millions of zeroes.

"Okay, so, to put it into mathematical terms, this is you beforehand." He tapped away at his keyboard for a sec, before anywhere from 2-10 became 1.

"And this is you after the altering. Now, I'm sure you already knew this, so I've just FIGURED OUT your problem. But to fix it... I think I'd have to reverse whatever the person did. Do you know?"

[mugenginga]

Uno glanced at the blank screen again as Mandark spoke. It hadn't seemed that simple. She didn't know why she had that feeling. She hadn't sent out any data to try and read it... had she? She blinked and looked at her hands. Had she?

As Mandark asked his final question, it occured to Zero to find it odd he wasn't telling Mandark the situation. Really, it would give the teenager no extra knowledge to realize that it hadn't been a device that messed him up. It had been a conversation. A sort of mental rewiring, so to speak, via indirect methods. What harm would that cause, anyhow?

It came to him quickly enough, and his eyes narrowed. If Mandark was paying attention to his screen, he'd realize that another "1" had blipped onto the screen and a sort of current went throught he wiring overall. Zero caught the blip from the screen and looked up. Well, that confirmed it, which made things rather complicated. Being born from a programming glitch as he was, even he couldn't figure out the specifics of his coding. And he knew damn well any forceful alteration could harm more than it could help.

He shrugged, "I highly doubt its anything you could fix."

Well, shit. That small change had just confirmed it was because he was basically defying the way his program was coded. Whether the writing and purpose had been unintentional or not, by not followig it he was royally screwing himself over. Who knew where, or if, it would end.

For the first time, Zero realized that 'death' might be possible... which was followed by no less than four zeros blipping to ones on Mandark's screen. It was followed by a snarl from Zero and he reached over to bat Mandark's reading device out of his hand.

[Jilak]

"Are you sure? If you don't fix the problem soon, I'm afraid it will only get worse. The way I see it, you would either a: lose access to your viral abilities, becoming basically human, or b: become a simple, non-sentient program. Maybe not even a virus. I could be incorrect, but with the data you've given me, these are the only two conclusions I can see." Mandark responded as his device was batted away from him.

"Furthermore, I believe Uno's coding may react in a similar fashion. I'm not certain, due to the way she was created, but her programming may improve as yours... well, becomes this. I'd have to run further tests, but it's possible. If you're willing to wait a bit for results. Unless you have somewhere else to be?" Mandark asked, mind going back to the man he'd seen on-screen. Who was that fellow, and what relation did he have to the current problem? Was he another scientific mind Zero had enlisted to help with his problem? Or was he the CAUSE of the problem?

Furthermore, why didn't Zero wish to tell him what had caused it? So many unanswered questions that Susan was curious about.

[mugenginga]

Zero narrowed his eyes at Mandark. Both were more than a bit possible. Mandark had missed the other option, the one that had caused the changes in the coding. The fact was, he might just vanish. Computer coding was not able to survive outside of a digital housing. The most it could do was be sent via waves to and from computers, but it couldn't actually exist without a housing. So at worst, he'd cease to exist withough taking anything else with him.

He was turning away when Mandark spoke again. He stopped as he mentioned Uno. He might have smirked had he not been in such a sour mood. So it came down to that, then? That smirk he hadn't given formed. So his prediction made in jest wasn't that farfetched, either. He turned around as Mandark's voice changed a bit with his question and put his foot over the device he'd caused Mandark to drop. He then crushed the small device by putting all his weight on it. Uno jumped back in surrpise as a piece shot past her. Zero gave a dark smile as the continued input on Mandark's screen froze and blanked off.

"That isn't an option anymore, now is it?"

[Jilak]

Mandark stared down at his destroyed invention and felt an unmistakable rage build up inside him. Really, he was pissed. These inventions, they were like... family, to him. The good family that he had never had. The ones that wouldn't name him 'Susan'. Uno included. And now, not only did Zero destroy ONE of his inventions, he prevented him from improving/helping another? What... what was WRONG with the man?

"...get... get out. Just... get out." Mandark managed to get out, seething. It wasn't one of his overblown rages, he honestly felt like killing the virus. Only, you know, he COULDN'T. Being a... virus, and all. But, truth be told, that might soon be a possibility. And Mandark REFUSED to help Zero again.

And honestly, what had sparked the breaking of his invention? Really, Mandark could see no honest reason. He'd tried to HELP the other, even IF he tried to help Uno as well! And he was... morally OBLIGED to, when you looked at it. Being that he was the reason for her existence, and all that. Sort of like a parent but not.