Everything Dexter had seen before this point, from countless experiments gone wrong to catastrophic malfunctions, should have at least made him a little more prepared for this situation – enough that he wouldn’t have reacted in such an embarrassing manner, anyways – but seeing something apparently entirely unbound to the laws of common sense and basic mechanical understanding come out of his computer system was frightening at best.
And the thought hadn’t even occurred to him before: how much damage has this virus done already? What had it done before it decided to make itself known? How many of his indispensable blueprints and documents were already corrupted with malicious code, reduced to tools used as a means to spread? Would his computer even detect that anything was wrong? How would he ever know that his laboratory was safe again?
– He has to steel himself in the face of the malicious entity as it spoke, hands still tightly gripped around the handle of his weapon – though their trembling had lessened considerably. Believe it or not, he could recognize when he was catastrophizing – sometimes.
The way it used its words and constructed its sentences (as well as just about everything else) still has him on edge, however – maybe it’s just haphazardly throwing sentences in its speech in an attempt to convince him – and he raises his weapon to follow as it gets up from the floor. His finger twitches over the trigger, both anxious and hesitant to press down and give him an easy way out of the whole situation, but the final statement the being makes sparks something else within him, inciting his fear to switch to anger.
Dexter removes one of his hands from his blaster, using it as a support to lift himself back up to his feet. He briefly assumes a defensive pose – before he steps forward, glancing between the monitor and the entity with his fingers curled tightly at his sides – though they didn’t remain there long.
“You think – You think I would be STUPID enough to –” his voice cracks, but he pauses only momentarily, “– let you back in? To BELIEVE that you’ll just LEAVE my laboratory and leave it unharmed after you have already TRESPASSED and seen –”
Yet another realization strikes him in that moment; a grave realization that nearly floored him with how serious the consequences would be.
This thing knows about his laboratory.
His shock is immediately apparent: he abruptly stops speaking, freezes in the middle of gesturing, and nearly drops his weapon again.
If he didn’t get rid of this thing in time, his secret would be out. Everything he created would be open to the world, and the knowledge of his laboratory would spread relentlessly like wildfire with no water to put it out.
Dexter raises his blaster again, aims it point-blank at the virus, and fires.
Ah, here we were again. That ugly sound. That killing intent. Were humans always going to be this way?
Though Vibri was always the cheery individual, she never truly ignored how quick to violence other species seemed to be. She was beginning to lose track of how many times a weapon had been pointed at her. Some were more effective than others, but the outcome was usually the same. Normally she’d just see herself out, as this one didn’t seem to be a dangerous entity, but she was currently locked in, so to speak. A power line would be out of the question, when it could be easily cut off.
One long step was all it took, one quick and fluid movement as her legs stretched to a completely abnormal length to step over the projectile in an impressively blink-and-you-miss-it display. Another step, and she was already behind him.
She knew that if she just stood there, in perfect point-blank position, he’d easily just turn and fire at her again. Not that it’d be anywhere near deadly to something like her, but this was getting nowhere fast. Instead, she quickly shot herself towards what seemed to be a large... thing. She didn’t quite know what exactly it was, but it sure was an important-looking box that had a lot of blinking lights.
She wasn’t interested in holding the boy’s own machines hostage, but it seemed to be her best option to make him hesitate long enough. At this point she was less concerned about her own wellbeing, and more confused as to why this child was so willing to hurt another being. She was trespassing, sure, but this seemed to escalate a lot faster than a simple intrusion.
“Be careful, small human. If Vibri was not strong, you would have done a bad thing. Vibri does not know what you do here, but is it worth that?” Though her voice always had an upbeat tone to it, something about her words this time seemed stern, even motherly.
“Do not hurt things you do not understand.” Surely, that meant something to the young scientist, if nothing else.