#/* pater: aparently british informal alternative to dad? */

[not-that-dillinger]

A message appears, in gold font on a black background, on Ed's personal device screen. Not an email or text or chat. This is something unique, its own thing, a computer messaging another computer. And yet the words of the message are not those of a computer, but of a person calling out to a void.

"Hello? Is anyone out there. Anyone receiving me?"

//not a meme//

Julian froze at the message. Slowly, wide smile spread across his face. It was not a kind smile, nothing like Ed's. It was that of someone who took pleasure in the suffering of others and was very often the source of it.

"So this is what you've been trying to protect, Junior?" he asked the empty room. "A pity you destroyed the laser. I would have loved to have seen your cute little tamagatchi world, met your little pet."

Julian had been a senior in high school when the initial disaster of the DataWraith project had occurred, and he'd been working with fCon's team to rebuild it since he'd graduated college, but Pater still hadn't allowed him to take an active role and see what the inside of the computer looked like.

It seems like Junior had, despite his betrayal to the family.

Hello, Clu,

Julian messaged back.

Eddie's told me so much about you! I am very excited to finally meet you!

Perhaps he could rebuild the laser and see his dear brothers virtual world. Julian was going to have so much fun destroying everything his brother held dear and then watch his brother completely shatter, trapped and unable to do anything about it. And maybe once he'd destroyed his brother's little world, he would have proven to Pater that he was worthy to be an active part of the rebuilt Data Wraith program.