Project: MASK

Viral Intentions

Chapter 2

The typing burst into bits of code, swirled on the black screen and reformed into that of a mirror image of the gamer. Brown hair, green hoodie and a white mask that sat snug on the image's face. An exact replica of Cry with a few key differences in appearance. Cry's hands curled into fists as he glared at the screen, gritting his teeth at the return of Virus, who watched him on his screen. Not good... not good. Even he prayed it was just a nightmare, the gamer decided to see if this was real. "Shouldn't you be dead?" he asked the image, not bothering to hide his irritation.

"Deleted." Virus corrected, staring at the young man with eyes of a much lighter shade of blue compared to the human's normal hue, "To you I should be, considering how I was deleted." He closed his eyes in remembrance as he lightly fingered the jagged edge of where his right eye should be covered by the mask. Instead that portion of the mask was missing; small fine cracks webbing from the edge and the jagged line for a mouth almost seemed to stretch just a tad. Then Virus' eyes opened and narrowed them at Cry. "And I appreciate it if you could tell our dear friend, Snake, to not shoot me in the face next time. Deletion may just be an inconvenience for me, but being shot in the face isn't a thrilling experience."

"If it was that much of a pain, then why didn't you just stay deleted?" Cry grumbled under his breath, propping his cheek on his fist, glad for something to focus on other than his unease at the digital copy's presence. He still couldn't get used to hearing his own voice speaking to him in a warped sound and tone. Creeped him the fuck out every time he heard him.

"Silly boy, I'm a virus. It should be obvious that you can't delete a virus so easily. Kill one, another appears."

"And a pain in the ass that is" the American muttered as he thought of ways to get rid of the virus and continue the rest of his day in peace. Or whatever amount of peace he could get. Wonder if any of the Late Night Crew were awake at this hour?

"All the more pleasing to me." He grinned behind his broken mask. "But enough idle chatter... I have something of yours that I know you would want back very eagerly."

Cry rose a brow to that declaration then glanced at the tower of his computer. What exactly could be in there that he wouldn't want to lose so much? Games? Music? Video files? His recent recordings? He sighed, eyes flicking back to his digital duplicate. "My recordings? As annoying as it would be to lose those, I can re-record them just as easily-"

"No, not those."

The YouTuber blinked, "Huh?" That wasn't it? What else could he have..? He narrowed his eyes as he focused on Virus' face. He had a look of seriousness but the glint in his eye, the glow they gave out as a smug grin formed. Last time, Cry learned that the virus' eyes often glowed whenever he was excited, upset, was up to something, or made them glow at will to intimidate others. A gut feeling warned Cry that the program was up to something... and it wasn't his usual tricks either. There was something more... dangerous about him now.

"Its not the recordings... or anything in you precious hard drive. Data is easily replaced, I know that far better than you or any of your damn Crew." Virus replied, his smirk turning devious and allowed himself a chuckle. "No, its something much more important. Or should I say 'someone'? Oh the things you learn in cyber space."

The gamer stiffed at the wording and tone, thoughts racing in trying to figure out what he meant. 'What could he possibly mean by that?! Who does he have?! HOW could he have gotten them! There's no way he could...' He paused then sighed, relaxing himself, his breath a little shaky as he ran a hand through his messy hair. It was a bluff, a tactic to shake him up and force him to make a deal with the program. But everyone was safe and sound, away from the realm of cyber space. "Aha, nice try, Virus, but there's no way you can get anyone." The brunet said, tapping his fingers on the desk, "The only way you could get anyone is if we slipped on the virtual reality helmets. And we're not keen in doing THAT again." He smiled in victory at seeing through the program's lie and shot him the smile to get him to confess that he was lying.