The DeadNet's grids flickered, collapsing under the weight of Mr. Hackar's encrypted wrath. Brush D. Rush's paintbrush pulsed with corruption energy, its dark vibrations a double-edged sword in his hands. Willie Widow White hammered at the data node's defenses, her titanium fists sparking as she bypassed its locks. Disco danced through the chaos, his kittens dazzling Pirware and Malrus, who slunk through the shadows, their malware threads coiling for an ambush. Glitch's laughter haunted Brush's brush, a reminder of his costly mistake.
Hackar reappeared, his matrix-face now a fractured mosaic, pulsing with cold fury. "You wield my prisoner's power," he sneered, conjuring a swarm of encrypted drones—each a buzzing shard of code. They dove toward Brush, their edges slicing the air. Brush painted a cannon, its barrel warped with corruption, and fired a chaotic blast that scattered the drones into glitchy sparks. The recoil shook him, the corruption energy burning his hands.
"You're learning," Hackar said, his voice sharp. He raised both hands, summoning a towering firewall of encrypted flames that roared toward the trio. Willie shouted, "The node's almost open! Hold him off!" Brush painted a dome of corrupted light, its surface writhing like liquid static. The flames battered it, cracks forming as Glitch's voice whispered, "Use me. Break him."
Brush hesitated, then leaned into the corruption. He painted a massive cannon, its form unstable, dripping with glitched ooze. It fired a beam of raw chaos, punching through Hackar's firewall and grazing his matrix, which flickered violently. Hackar snarled, retaliating with a storm of code-shards that tore through Brush's dome, grazing his arm with a sting of corrupted data.
Disco leaped in, his kittens forming a sparkling barrier to shield Brush. "Bad vibe, Hackar!" he yelled, but Pirware's screech cut through as the virus rebel lunged, its shards pinning Disco's avatar. Malrus's threads snaked toward Willie, slowing her work on the node. Brush's brush burned hotter, teaching him to shape corruption into a blade. He slashed, freeing Disco and scattering Pirware, but the effort left him dizzy, the corruption seeping deeper.
Hackar laughed, his matrix stabilizing. "You're becoming like me," he said, opening a portal of pure encryption behind him. "One more round, boy." He vanished, leaving the DeadNet trembling. Willie's voice rang out, "The node's ready! We need to move!" Brush gripped his brush, the corruption's edge both power and poison, as they braced for Hackar's final strike