It was not often the virus wandered into the city alone.
Usually he was accompanied by a number of his infected; they were a group of shadows, monsters appearing in the late cycles to make programs mysteriously disappear. But lately he tired of their company; they were base, mindless creatures, animals at best… And while he shared their tendencies he was not like them.
So Abraxas came to be crouched on a rooftop alone, idly flicking stray voxels from his fingers and onto the street below. They were the remains of some poor basic that had strayed out past curfew, and into an alley that was just dark enough. Her deresolution had been surprisingly swift; he did not intend to take back any new infected tonight.
Just as another cube hit the ground below with a tiny, almost imperceptible clink, a group of sentry rounded the corner; and Abraxas immediately turned to duck out of sight, leaping down the other side of the building to land in the opposite alley.
He would have preferred to derez the lot of them (and oh so easily could), but he was not yet so far gone that he forgot the importance of being subtle. Clu was either unaware of his continued presence in the system, or graciously allowing it as long as Abraxas… behaved. Whispers, rumors among the basics of a virus in the system instilled fear; reinforced the need for the admin’s protection.
The virus growled under his breath; the vague voices in his head whispered this was most likely the case; even now he was only a tool.
But just as the growl passed his lips he heard it; footsteps on the still damp pavement from the recent energy rain - and he whirled around to meet whoever had been unfortunate enough to wander into him.