Infinity's End

Chapter 10

 

Colony X-000001

 

                Heero sauntered nonchalantly down the road until he reached the Looking-Glass Insurance Company building.  Large raindrops splashed into the puddles in front of him.  The loss of Arys had apparently caused Infinity to return to her old ways of wreaking havoc.  As a result, the colony was experiencing the same network shutdowns, power outages, and freak weather as before.  Heero adjusted the radio transmitter he wore in his ear and stopped in front of the door.  Once under the protection of the porch, Heero closed his umbrella and threw it to the side.  He turned and tapped his ear, signaling some unseen observer at a window of the building across the street.  He lowered his hand to his pocket.  He patted the disk residing there and smiled.  Soon, he would have his Arys back, and Infinity would be destroyed. 

                "Mission is a go, Heero."  Duo's familiar voice in his ear prompted him forward.  He reached for the doorknob, but the door swung open before he could open it.  

                "Don't try to open any doors, Heero.  I'll take care of that for you," Arys said.  "Infinity might have sabotaged them."

                "Understood."  Heero walked through the door.

                A long sterile hallway met him on the other side.  A voice met him as well.  It was Arys' voice, but Infinity's tone.

                "Well, Heero Yuy, I've been expecting you.  Please, enjoy your stay..." 

                Wicked laughter reverberated off the white walls and faded away, leaving Heero in silence.  Behind him, the front door swung closed.   Heero fingered his gun.  The lights flickered off with a soft pop.  Then, red lasers crisscrossed across the room.  Heero jumped back as one singed his shirt. 

                "Have you ever played computer games, Heero?"

                Heero studied the lasers tracing different paths in the air in front of him.  There were so many!  He pressed a finger to the transmitter in his ear, lodging it more securely.

                "Here's the game." The lasers moved faster, their light almost had Heero mesmerized.  "You are player number one.  The only difference is... you only have one life.  No extra lives, no continues."

                Heero tried to see across the room.  He knew from the blueprints Arys had shown him that the control room was at the end of the hallway.  "Arys, some help?"

                "Working on it.  Give me a second."   

                With a clash of static, Duo's voice came on.  "Arys can't get to the laser control system.  Looks like you're going to have to get to the control room without using the hallway."

                "I can open doors for you and direct you, but Infinity's too fast for me.  Every block I put up is instantly pulled back down.  It's as if she knows what I'm going to do."  Heero heard a loud slam that he assumed was Arys slapping the desktop in frustration. 

                "Um, Heero, you've got two enemies heading your way."  That was Duo.  

                "What?"

                Arys came back on.  "You've got two hoverbots heading toward you.  They're armed with lasers that can kill you with one shot."

                "Hoverbots? I've never heard of them."

                "Go left, Heero!"  Arys shouted. 

                Heero dove through a door that opened on his left hand, catching a glimpse of two robotic devices flying through one of the doors at his right.  The door shut behind him, and he heard two thuds as the hoverbots careened into the closed door. 

                "OZ-designed hoverbots were never used in warfare due to their uselessness in large-scale battles.  OZ sent them here as Infinity's guards."  Arys' voice was calm, as if she were reading from a textbook.

                "OZ built this place?"  Heero rolled to his feet, pulling his gun as the door began to glow red in certain spots. 

                "To house Infinity.  The building has a self-destruct mechanism that can only be activated by her."

                "I need weak points.  The hoverbots are coming through."

                "The laser turret attached to them.  Destroying that will render them helpless.  They don't have shields."

                Two round pieces from the door clanged to the floor.  The hoverbots burst through the resulting holes, but Heero was ready for them.  With two well-placed shots, both hoverbots exploded in a shower of flame and debris. 

                "Ventilation shaft above you, Heero.  It leads directly to the control room."

                "Old trick, but it'll have to do."

                "You don't have a choice.  You've got at least ten more of those hoverbots locked on to your coordinates."

                Heero looked up at the ceiling and jumped up to grab the shaft's grating.  It came off in his hands and he threw it to the ground.  With a strong leap, he disappeared into the shaft. 

 

_________________

 

                Duo peered over Arys' shoulder at the laptop computer screen.  Arys was going too fast for him to see what she was doing, but he had his peripheral vision trained on the map displayed on a full-size monitor to the laptop's right.  On the map, a moving blue dot representing Heero slowly made its way to the control room.  Five red dots representing the hoverbots congregated in the room Heero had just left. 

                Duo moved to sit in his chair beside Arys, placing a hand against his ear. 

                "Heero, those hoverbots are looking for you."

                "Don't you think I know that?"  Heero's slightly exasperated voice startled Arys and she mistyped something on the keyboard.

                Arys slammed a hand down on the desk again, rocking it slightly.  "She got me again!"

                "Turn right, Heero," Duo said before speaking to Arys.  "What are you doing?"

                "I'm trying to deactivate the bots.  She's blocked me at every turn."  Arys glared at the screen. 

                "There's one more thing I haven't tried..."  Arys whispered thoughtfully before getting lost in the network again.

                Duo sighed and continued directing Heero.   "The grating to your right leads into the control room."

                "I see it.  I'm in."

                Duo turned to Arys.  "It's up to you now.  If those bots get to him in the control room..."

                Arys pounded the enter key.  "I win, Infinity."

                The red dots on the map flickered and vanished. 

                "What did you do?"

                Arys grinned.  "Triggered the self-destruct."

                Duo shrugged.  "You're home-free, Heero.  The hoverbots have been neutralized." 

                "Got it."

                Arys leaned back, staring at the computer screen blankly.  "Have we won?"

                Heero's voice registered on the speakers.  "I've downloaded Arys' memories.  Uploading the virus now."

                Arys jerked back in her seat as her display went black.  "It's her..."

                Duo leaned close so that he could see the computer.  A message flashed across its screen.

               

                You think you've won, Arys?  Think again...

 

                Arys tapped her keyboard.  Nothing appeared on the screen.  A second message typed onto the black background.

 

                You can always make another mirror.

 

                Duo and Arys watched in horror as the cryptic words tumbled off the screen one by one, as if falling to the unseen floor beneath them.  The screen changed back to the network directory Arys had been hacking into.  The dark-haired girl gazed at the display, fright filling her gray eyes.  She turned away from the laptop to speak into her mike.

                "Heero!  She's initiated the self-destruct sequence!  You've got to get out of there!"

                "On my way."  Heero sounded reticent.  "The virus has been uploaded."

                "Forty-five seconds until the building explodes," Duo stated frankly. 

                Arys still stared at the screen.  She sat as if she had been knocked senseless.   Make another mirror.  Was Infinity truly gone?  Arys searched the network for any trace of the AI as the self-destruct sequence counted down in one corner.   Her search came up empty.  The virus had wiped out the AI from the network.  A loud boom followed by a violent shockwave knocked Arys from her chair.  The glass windows shattered, spraying deadly shards everywhere.  Duo caught her in his arms and tried to drag her away from the windows, but a second shockwave slammed into the building, sending them both to the floor.  Panic struck Arys, and she leaped to her feet, running to the window.

                "Heero!"  She called through the broken glass.

                Duo moaned on the floor.  Heero slammed open the door to the hotel room and walked inside, holding a disk in his hand.  Arys ran toward him, relieved to see that he was safe. 

                "I have your mem... oomph!"  Heero found himself backed up against the door.  Arys had flung her arms around him so hard that it had knocked him off his feet. 

                Duo staggered to his feet, holding one arm.  "Oh thanks, Arys.  You run to him and he's fine!  I'm the one who's hurt!"

                Arys pulled away from Heero and took Duo's arm.  She grabbed a roll of bandages from the desk and deftly wrapped his wound.  Heero glared at Duo; the braided pilot just stuck his tongue out at him.  Arys patted Duo's arm.  He winced.

                "Thank you, Duo."  Then, she went back to Heero, who promptly gathered her into his arms and kissed her.

                Duo plopped into his chair and leaned his elbows back against the desk, ignoring the pain in his arm.  He sighed as he watched Arys and Heero kiss.  He pulled the headset off and threw it on the ground.  "I just can't win."

               

_________________

 

Peacemillion II

 

                Sally tugged on Heero's arm.  He had fallen asleep outside the medbay, waiting to hear how Arys was doing. 

                "Heero!  She's back!"

                Heero opened his eyes to see Arys standing beside Sally, gray eyes studying his happily.

                "Hey."  She smiled.

                "Hey yourself."  Heero stood up, taking her hands in his. 

                "She's gone.  I can't hear her anymore."

                Heero pulled her toward him, giving her a quick kiss.  At his feet, Duo stirred.  He had been sleeping on Heero's shoulder before Heero had been woken up by Sally.  He sat up and rubbed his eyes.  Then, he saw Arys and Heero kissing.  This time the scene did not bother him in the least.

                "Arys is back!"  Duo ran down the hall, yelling as he went. 

                Soon, the entire group converged on the reunited couple.  Arys greeted them eagerly.  Quatre gave her a shy smile.

                "It's good to see you back to your normal self, Arys."

                Arys gave him a hug.  "It's good to be back."

                Colonel Une weaved her way through the group crowded around Arys.  Heero gripped Arys' hand in his and she gave him a quizzical look. 

                "Welcome back, Arys Walker."  Colonel Une shook Arys' hand.   "You've defeated Infinity and the colonies will thank you."

                Arys nudged Heero, smiling at Colonel Une.  "I had some help."

                "Can you still hear her, Arys?"  Colonel Une asked.

                She shook her head.  "Infinity?  No, her reign in my mind's ended."

 

__________________

 

Somewhere in the Earth Sphere...

 

                The lone building stood silent in the nondescript downtown.  In an office abandoned for the night, a lone computer powered on of its own accord.  The usual black screen came up, but the boot-up never reached the operating system.  A cursor flickered onto the top left side of the screen.  It slowly typed out across the screen.

 

                Program running...

 

                Carriage return.  The cursor moved down to the next line.  In white letters appeared the next statement.

 

                Filename: Infinity.exe