Thorne loomed over them, his digital eyes scanning their vitals. "End of the line, Subject Zero."
"Wait!" a high-pitched voice interrupted.
Thorne turned. Lily was standing on top of a central server rack, looking small but strangely confident. She held up a single, glowing blue gummy bear.
"You want the final chemical bridge, right?" she asked, her voice trembling just a little. "The thing that makes the upload stable? Adrien didn't have it. Ashley didn't have it. My parents gave it to me."
Thorne paused. The "Chemistry" he sought was incomplete; he could feel his digital form fragmenting. "Give it to me, child."
"Catch," Lily said, flicking the candy into the air.
Thorne lunged for it, his massive claw closing around the small treat. But as he pulled it toward his face, he realized it wasn't a chemical bridge. It was wrapped in a microscopic EMP filament.
"That's not a bridge," Adrien yelled from the console, his fingers hitting the final 'Enter' command. "That's a virus!"
The gummy bear exploded in a flash of blue light. It wasn't a big explosion, but it was enough to short-circuit Thorne's sensory array for three vital seconds.