Child's Play

[Shinigori V2]

Yeah. Are you sure I should be beating the ever loving crap out of her? Kid replies.

----

Vi glares at Silvie, and somehow, Silvie feels mildly uncomfortable from it. "Look. I'm trying to help you. She is a total tool. But no, you've insulted me and called my very taste into question, as if that's some indication that I'm a bad guy or something. So no, nevermind, I'm not helpin' you."

[NebulaQueen]

Silvie gulped, before she glared back and placed her hands on her hips.

"Hey, I was trying to apologize for that, okay?! But if you want to be that way, then fine! I take it back! Oh, and right now, you're being an even bigger jerk than Thirteen is, and that's saying something!"

[Besyanteo]

Not completely. I just.... Erg. She's pissing me off and I can't fix the kernel if she's actively trying to break it and stop me. I can't do anything special to make her leave, and without this the data is at risk. I need this to help us fix the computer. If you have a better idea, though... I mean, we could try the direct approach.

He looks at DJ.

"Leave. I'm going to fix this and you're not going to mess with it anymore."

[Shinigori V2]

DJ grins wide again, cocking her head to the side and putting a finger to her chin. "I wouldn't be a very good DJ if I didn't take requests, now would I?"

Kid tenses up, and almost has a chance to charge. Almost.

DJ raises her hands, and suddenly, a horrible, horrible noise is echoing through the area, bouncing off the floor and into the pair's ears. Kid screams and falls to the ground, holding her ears- What's an annoying noise for Enzo is absolutely deafening for Kid's larger, much more sensitive ears. DJ grins lopsidedly, continuing to project her horrible noise, but speaking just above it so Enzo can hear. "Ya like it? I call it, "Leave", see? Ya see what I did thar?!"

---

"Look." Vi says, huffily. "I'm givin' you one last chance to knock this crap off!"

[Besyanteo]

Enzo wills a soundproof, transparent cube to surround DJ. He doesn't know what they're made of in the real world exactly, but they're all data here so that ought to be irrelevant.

If that works, he'll try to summon a carbon copy of the corrupted Kernel to work on.

[BrainWalker]

Max raises a distrustful eyebrow.

"One last chance for what? What were you even trying to help us do, anyway? Teach us to be snooty bitches? You seem to be good at that."

With each passing line of conversation, Max trusts Vi less, and the trust level didn't start out very high. He tries to see if he can't access her data or something, and find out a little more about her. Or maybe see if there's any information on a 'Violetta' somewhere... didn't Kid's info show up in their Wunderkind database as soon as she showed up? He also decides to send out a broadcast to all his siblings.

Yo, guys, it looks like we've got an uninvited guest over here. You guys in the other building were looking at Wunderkind data, right? Does the name 'Violetta' mean anything to anyone?

[Kelne]

No, nothing, Emily sent in response to Max's query, There's three names that have been damaged, so hers might be one of those. Somehow, that didn't seem quite right though. At least, not that important one. Why had this particular chunk of wall had to be the one to go? Wait a minute...

She peered through the hole at Sam, "How come there's a hole in the wall now? There wasn't when I was out there." This was also some seriously weird architucture for the two areas to connect like that, but the whole building was basically a manifestation of computer data, so it couldn't really be expected to make sense by the standards of the real world.

[Idran1701]

Hearing Emily's voice, Sam looks back to the hole, and heads back to the wall. "Oh hey! Kid was practicing, and she punched it, and it broke! It was pretty cool. She went off with Enzo for now, but maybe she'll show you too when you come back over here."

[Kelne]

Emily throttled down the urge to, well, throttle Kid. Who knew how important that destroyed information might have been? But it was done, and there was nothing to be done about it. It wasn't as if she could have known. "Right," she said at last, "Look, I'm just going to check if there's anything else to be found in the building. I think it might be important. Give me a yell if you need me. Actually, Darren, could you head back to Sam? I don't think I'm likely to need the help, and he might."

[ChristianC]

"Uh... okay, Benji, Razzie, I'm A-Alexis, and I'm g-going to take you two to our bus now, and there are movies and s-stuff there, so you w-won't get bored..."

"And we can figure out what to do with you once we're done here" she added to herself mentally. She began pacing back to their little bus, but halfway there people began speaking over the com-net, and she slowed her pace to listen in.

A list of names? Was it a wunderkind list? Well, that would make sense, but what about those red names? None of the names were any familiar to her at all, so she remained quiet, still listening. And now someone had broken... whatever it was that Enzo and Janet had done! Situation?

She set down Benji and Razzie next to the bus and looked over at the building? What the heck was going on?

...hostiles?

She tensed up, but looked down at the micro-kinds and told them "J-just wait in the bus for now, okay guys? We'll explain what's g-going on later, but w-we're on a very i-important mission r-right now..."

Violette...

No, that didn't ring any bells, but that settled it. Keeping her eyes open for any further surprises Alexis began to move over to where Sam, Kid and the others had gone.

[Shinigori V2]

Enzo manages to create a cube of what he believes should be sound proof material around DJ. She scowls at him, and a moment later, the cube simply shatters to dust. "'s easy!" DJ says. "All ya's gotta do is get th' right sound, AND YA CAN BLOW UP ANYTHIN'!"

She begins to cackle wildly, seemingly more from the idea of blowing up anything than actually having triumphed in any way. Enzo gets the feeling that his opponent is good with sounds, but not exceptionally bright.

----

"I'm trying to show you the error of...You know, forget it." Vi says, turning and beginning to walk away. "You had your chance!"

----

The Juniorkind wave, and run into the flare-drive, where hopefully Janet is awake enough to watch them. Moving quickly, Alexis reaches the doorway of the building the other group went to, where she can see Kid and Enzo laying on the ground, performing a deep dive, and Sam talking to Emily through a..hole in the wall.

As all the children go about their relative business, a quick update flashes into their database.

[NebulaQueen]

"You know," Silvie said loudly, with a pointed look at Max, "maybe she doesn't know what's wrong with Thirteen. Maybe she's just walking away so we don't figure out that she's a big, fat, liar."

[Besyanteo]

With all the noise DJ was making, it was hard to concentrate. He hated things like this... loud, dissonant noise. Her abuse of English didn't help much either. The Database update coming through didn't help much, and she was gloating on top of everything. Kid was suffering every minute he hesitated. He very seriously considered rushing her with his cane, even though the idea terrified him. He might get hurt, and that had always had a terrible power over him. Especially since...

Wood. She was right that all things had a resonance frequency, not everything that had a resonance frequency would shatter. She probably just assumed that one meant the other. Was she also...? Yes, unarmed. Maybe she just hadn't activated her weapon, maybe she didn't know how to. Either way, it was worth a try. As he asserted his will on the system, more ideas came to him... Cork, Rubber, and a plastic sheet. HE would do it in almost that order: Cork, wood, rubber, and then the thin plastic coating. A (relatively) light, bouncy, yet very solid semi-sphere: A golf ball. Not only would she not be able to shatter any of it, but even if she could form up a weapon, she'd spend ages bouncing around trying to get back out. Even then, she'd have to crush enough of the cork to be able to move freely first. He worked a layer at a time, as fast as he could without utterly exhausting himself.

[Shinigori V2]

DJ seems pretty surprised as she is suddenly the core of a giant golf ball. The sound fades, as it can't make it's way through the cork, and Kid seems to be recovering quickly.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo sighed with relief. The sound was gone. Kid looked like she would be ok. Still though, he couldn't feel the real satisfaction he'd been hoping for when he gently but firmly shoved the giant golf ball off the remains of his kernel, to roll away where the hell ever.

"Sorry Kid. I... I didn't know she could do that. Are you ok?"

He went to work restoring the Kernel while he waited for her reply. Since he was here, he might even try to beef it up and add some defenses this time.

[BrainWalker]

Max considers Sylvie's assertion. "You know, I think you might be on to something there. It must be depressing to have so few friends that the only way you feel you can make new ones is by making up stupid bullshit about other people's friends to try and drive them apart so you can swoop in and take their place."

At more or less the same time, Max notices the database update and sends out a response to everyone. Who the heck is this 'DJ' person?

[ChristianC]

"H-hey, Sam... what's going on in here? How can you be t-talking to Emily?" Alexis looked around inside, wondering what's gone down in here, "Did you meet another wunderkind?"

[Shinigori V2]

Kid sits up, still holding her ears and wincing. "Y..Yeah, I'm okay. My ears are ringing, but...She didn't hurt you at all, did she? It didn't seem like you heard it."

---

Vi turns, glaring death and daggers (And probably a number of other D-words) at Max. "What...Did you say?"

[Idran1701]

Sam turns. "Alexis? How come you're here, is everything okay with your group? Emily's over in this other room, see? Kid punched a hole in the wall!" He shakes his head. "I haven't seen any other Wunderkind, nope. Enzo woke up, and he needed Kid's help with beating up someone or something I guess, so they both went back, and I'm watching to make sure they're both okay."

[Besyanteo]

Enzo shakes his head.

"I heard her, it's just... she uses resonance frequencies to damage things around her. She was targeting you, not me, so I was just bothered and had a lot of trouble thinking. But... I think if there's a next time, she'll be after me then instead."

He nodded to the gigantic golf ball as it slowly rolled away.

"Hopefully that will take a while. A long long while."

He kept concentrating on the remains of his Kernel; trying to clean it up, put it back into place, and fix any obvious errors in the code.

[Kelne]

Emily obligingly waved at Alexis through the hole in the wall, before heading back the way she'd come, this time taking the other branch of the corridor. The sight of her passing by so soon after moving out of sight might well give anyone glancing down the corridor a headache. Sam seemed to have things under control, and if there were a bunch of maybe sort of hostile wunderkind running around, it'd probably be a good idea to finish exploring before they wrecked up the place.

[ChristianC]

"I... I don't know where they are, they went through the rubble back there, and I was going to stay as a look-out, but I found these o-other wunderk-kind, juniork-kind, and I thought I should see w-what's happening over here. A-are you guys in trouble?"

She stepped through the door, giving Emily a wave in response, and looked at Kid and Enzo with wide eyes. "A-are they... d-deepdiving? I-is that how it looks? I o-overheard on the radio and... oh... the radio!" She covered her mouth and looked around before:

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have talked out loud!

[NebulaQueen]

Silvie thought long and hard over what Max said and...and in all honesty, most of it flew over her head. So, she said the one thing that came to mind:

"He said you're dumb!"

[Spleen]

Darren jogged out of the building. "Nothin' to shoot rockets at in there," he declared when he was back on the other side of the wall. He saw the dent left by Kid. "Damn...did Kid really punch that in? Nice punch, girl."

[Animala]

Lauren closed her eyes. This was going to get ugly. Why did this have to come up now, and here? She opened her eyes, and with a look of determination, engaged the XLR8 and slid between Max and Vi.

"Wait, wait, wait!" She let her momentum turn her to face Max before she disengaged the XLR8. "If you're just gonna yell at each other that's okay, but don't try to get her to start a fight! This isn't what fighting's for!" She turned around to face Vi. "And you! A lot of people say they're on you're side and then aren't. Words don't mean much. Thirteen actually helped us. She showed us how to save Kid! I mean, I know..." Lauren waved her hands vaguely. "Thirteen's kind of a wizard or something, and there's always someone who doesn't trust wizards. Maybe that means we can't be friends right now, but this isn't what fighting's for."

Lauren bit her lip, her tirade faltering a bit. "And...if we have to fight...please, not here? I don't want anything to get broken..."

[BrainWalker]

Max was going to say something, but ends up getting cut off. When Lauren is finished, he raises a finger and offers a minor correction to her plea.

"More broken."

[Shinigori V2]

"Yeah." Vi says. "Maybe we can't."

She turns to begin walking away, leaving the 'facility' behind. "Doesn't make sense, does it? Nothing they've told you adds up to what Thirteen's said. Someone's lying. Well....Bye."

With that, Vi simply...Vanishes. Silvie, Max, and Lauren get what might be a troubling message:

Copy program has run it's course.

----

As Enzo works, Kid stands guard, watching the golf ball as it occasionally shifts. Suddenly, it simply collapses, as if it's core were suddenly gone. In the remains, there's no sign of DJ.

Copy program has run it's course.

----

Emily walks down the opposite hall, and after a few minutes of walking, notices a hallway to her right. Glancing down, she notices Sam and Alexis, as well as Darren just outside. She's somehow gone a complete circle without ever turning.

[ChristianC]

Alexis turned to look at Darren, having not realized she must've passed him on the way in.

Darren? Nothing to shoot? What's going on in here? Who's DJ? Are the others here? How can...

She shook her head back and forth, looking at everyone present, looking utterly perplexed.

Did you guys get into a fight? What's Enzo and Kid doing? Did Enzo wake up? What's going on in here?

[Besyanteo]

I think our intruders have just made a hasty exit. Is everyone ok?"

Copy program... He inserted his hand into the stuff of the system carefully. It would be easier to use a construct like the Kernel, but he wanted an answer now: He searched for hardware connected to the system other than their own flare drive; anything that the other wunderkind could have entered or left on. The alternative... well, it would imply they had their own basis for a system set up somewhere, so far as he knew, and he didn't like the idea of that at all.

[Idran1701]

We're okay over here! Sam turns to Alexis, shaking his head. "We didn't get into a fight, but I think Enzo needed to inside...um...wherever the place he dives to is. He woke up and he was okay, but then he dove again because he had to fix other stuff, and he had to take Kid with him. I dunno who DJ is, though. And Darren just really wants t'shoot stuff like usual is all."

[Spleen]

"Yup," Darren said. "I've got rockets but nothing to blow up!" He demonstrated by arming and disarming them. "So what do we know? Anyone figure out how we're meetin' other people in a computer yet?"

[BrainWalker]

"Umm... okay? Didn't see that coming."

Max looks to Lauren and Sylvie, who seem to be doing okay. Yeah, Enzo, we're okay down here. What was that all about, anyway? I couldn't read Violet's data at all. It's like... it was incomplete or something. But she was way too... way too real to be a fake, if that makes any sense.

Copy program... what does that mean? Were the 'invaders'... copies of real wunderkind? Was that even possible? Data is actually pretty easy to copy... Is it as easy as copy/paste? Max decides to experiment and see if he can create a similar temporary copy of himself.

[Kelne]

Deciding that if she wasn't careful she'd wind up in one of those infinite loops, Emily headed back to rejoin the others, "Well, it looks like the room of names is all there is in this building," she said, absently scanning the floor to see if she could spot a broken-off chunk of wall just on the off-chance.

[ChristianC]

Alexis looked... confused, but nodded to Sam's reply, looking back at Darren and shrugging a little. Even if the weapons were unlocked, his rockets would be heard a mile off, better safe than dead.

The whole... twisting of room-space-thingy made her head hurt just thinking about, so instead she just... waited around to see what Enzo or Max would tell them to do... they usually had good ideas.

[Shinigori V2]

Enzo's search proves fruitless, DJ and Vi had some other way onto the server remotely. That...Can't possibly be good.

His kernel, however, is still in relatively good shape. Thankfully.

----

Emily looks around and finds no chunks of wall on the floor. They seem to just be...gone.

----

Max tries to copy-paste himself, and gets nothing except an error message: Error 122: System resources too low to facilitate command.

[Besyanteo]

System resources... What? That was an odd error to be getting now. He checked to see what processes, if any, were running that would eat up system resources.

[Shinigori V2]

There are about two dozen, normal stuff all running to keep the computer together. Except, one at a time, they're being automatically shut down.

The computer is crashing.

[Besyanteo]

... Well. Shit.

Everyone drop what you are doing and get to the flare drive. The system is crashing. I have no idea what will happen if we're still here when it does. Kid, cease deep diving and leave with them.

Enzo didn't actually follow his own advice, though. Not yet. He invested himself more fully into the system, trying to gain as much control as possible, both through his Kernel and direct interface. From there, he would attempt to create a logical partition around the shielded data back-up he created earlier. In theory, if everything else died, the data drive from this machine could still be plugged into a different system and that information recovered. He'd put too much time and effort into this to just cut and run now. They were going to salvage SOMETHING, dammit.

[Kelne]

Oh, hell. "You heard him, get moving," Emily said firmly, "We really don't want to be caught here when the computer crashes." She hated to imagine what would happen to them in that event, but she didn't think they'd survive the experience. "I'll wait and make sure the others make it out. I can move pretty quickly if I need to."

So saying, she started monitoring the system herself, trying to work out just how much time they had before it all came crashing down. She was glad she'd thought to take a few snapshots of the names; it didn't look like she'd be going back there. Except of course that those files would be stored on the server, which was about to fry itself. She'd just have to make sure to pull those files in after her when she got back to the bus. Next time, she vowed, she was bringing a datapad or something of the sort.

[Idran1701]

Nodding at the order, Sam tries to pick up Kid, trusting that Enzo knows what he's doing. "Both of you, come over here an' help me out, or get Enzo! We needa get them there too so they don't hafta run when they wake up!"