This is story #4 of the Paige Dyson Chronicles "Guardian Girl."

To those who came in late, Paige Dyson was abducted by surfer rogues in order to reprogram her. After a failed rescue attempt, Paige is on the verge of deletion...and Bob refuses to leave her side...and Megabyte is going take full advantage of the situation.

ReBoot—The Paige Dyson series

Guardian Girl

Ep. 05.01.04

Chapter One: Offline

Mainframe

Mainframe was quiet as a game cube left the system, allowing Matrix, AndrAIa and Enzo to leave. They were excited, well, Enzo more of all that they had beaten another User.

AndrAIa looked Matrix who was staring off into the bright sky around Mainframe. "What's the matter lover?" she asked him.

Matrix was silent as he stared out into space.

Enzo was about to stare with them, when a VidWindow opened to reveal his sister Dot in the Principle Office.

"How was the game little brother?" she asked.

"Hey sis," Enzo answered. "We totally clobbered the User. AndrAIa had this wicked cool fighting move and then Matrix used his special fire breath and…"

"Enzo," AndrAIa said. "Everything went fine Dot."

"What's up with Matrix?" Dot asked. "Is he…?"

"Staring off into space?" she answered. "Oh yeah. I think he's worried about Bob and the others. Any word from the Supercomputer on when they're planning on coming back?'

"Nothing yet," Dot replied, her shoulders drooping. "I hate to say this, but I'm worried about all of them too."

"They'll come home soon," AndrAIa tried to reassure them and looked back to Matrix. "They have to come home soon," she whispered as she stared at him.

But Matrix continued to look toward the sky, oblivious to anything around him.

Supercomputer: Guardian Academy

Ray Tracer sat patiently at the stinging sensation through his arm. The encoding tube that stretched from his bicep snaked along the floor toward the computer where Mouse was currently punching keys on the control board.

"Just a few more microns," she said, staring at the screen of Ray's codes. "How are you doing there lover?" she asked him.

"About as well as a bloke with a null attached to his arm can be," he replied. "Are you sure that this is going to work?"

"It's only an idea," she answered. "Grip onto something, because here comes the final push."

Ray lurched up in the reclining chair, hollering at the pain of his codes being sucked out one final time.

She shut down the machine once she had enough of the surfer encoding, raced over to Ray, and disconnected the cuff around his arm. "I told you to grab onto something."

Ray reached up for a quick kiss; she assumed he was obviously faking the pain that he was in.

But Mouse still enjoyed the lip-lock and only returned it back to him.

The doors to Texiera's lab / Akron's Lab as Prime Guardian Turbo entered to see if the hacker Mouse had successfully copied Ray Tracer's surfer code.

But what he found was the hacker and web surfer in a tight situation.

Turbo coughed a second and got their attention. "I was just checking to see if you were done yet Mouse," he asked.

Mouse went back to the console and pulled out the data disc. "Right here sugah," she replied. "I just hope that my idea works. Paige can't be frozen between upgrades for too long or she'll be deleted."

"The User has been sending in games so much lately that I don't think that they notice Paige's delicate condition," Turbo told them. "Let's go tell Bob that we're ready."

He left and Mouse and Ray were right behind him.

Infirmary

Guardian Bob sat alongside the shutdown body of Paige Dyson; holding her multi-colored hand in his. Glitch's keytool cords were wrapped around her wrist monitoring her heart rate and giving her spurts of energy to keep her body alive.

He hadn't slept in seconds, but he didn't want to be resting and find out Paige had been deleted.

Bob would never be able to forgive himself.

The doors to the infirmary opened, but he knew that it would be Turbo hopefully with Mouse and Ray Tracer who had gone to try something.

"Any change?" Turbo asked.

"No," he replied. "Turbo, she's cold as ice. Glitch and I have been giving her energy, but she still won't respond to me."

"We may have a way to bring her back online," his former mentor told him. "Mouse is ready with the surfer codes to at least restore Paige that far. The rest of the code should be able to repair itself after that is returned to her."

"Let's do it then," Bob replied and hooked up the cuff to her arm. He then leaned down toward Paige's ear. "You stay with me, you hear," he whispered. "I can't lose you again."

He walked over to Mouse who inserted the code disc into the computer. "Are you sure that this will work?"

"No guarantees love," she replied, "but I'm going to do my best. Here goes nothing…" and she pressed the load button.

Ray Tracer's codes began to flow through the tube and toward Paige on the table.

The three of them watched Paige's code begin to heal itself on a separate screen. Her surfer encoding was returning to normal; merging the surfer blue code with her regular pink code.

"It's working," Bob said. "It's working," he shouted and lifted Mouse off the floor with joy.

The computer suddenly sparked loudly at the overload of coding going into Paige.

"Shut it down," Ray said as he was looking to Paige who was trying to restart, but was now in the same pain that she was when the overload had taken place a couple seconds ago. He got the cuff off her arm.

Mouse was able to shut down the operation. "Running a scan," she said.

Paige's body was scanned on the table and showed everything on the screen and saw that Paige had absorbed some of the surfer code, but there were still large gaps of nothing or Akron's programming that still remained.

"I'm sorry sugah," she said. "I tried."

"No Mouse," Bob said, mournful. "You tried. That's all that mattered." He then returned to his vigil at her bedside and continued to monitor Paige.

Mouse and Ray left the infirmary and met Turbo in the hall passage.

"Any change?" the caring uncle asked.

"She began to absorb some of the surfer code until Akron's programming suddenly kicked in and overloaded the computer," Mouse explained. "She got some of it and is holding steady, but there is no telling how much longer that will keep her alive."

The trio was silent.

"Prime Guardian Turbo," Texiera arrived to talk with them. "There may be one last hope."

"What is it?" he asked.

"Most sprites keep a downloaded file in their home system as a backup of their codes in case anything happens to go wrong," she suggested. "If we could get it, we could simply restart her from the last backup copy that she has of herself."

"But that could result her to being a guardian before she rebelled," Ray added in. "Maybe even younger. It all depends on how well she's been making a backup copy of herself."

It was silent until Turbo finally said, "I don't think we have much of a choice. If we must deal with a younger, more rebellious Paige, then we must accept this consequence. Anything to restore her again."

"Surfer," Texiera said, "do you think that you could fly to her home system and retrieve the data disc."

"I don't even know where she is from," Ray replied.

"I do," Mouse said. "We'll go to the Paradiso System and retrieve it. We'll be back within the second. Let's go Ray."

And the two of them left the guardians.

"I have a better idea," Turbo told Texiera. "Stay with Bob."

"Where are you going Prime Guardian, if I may be so bold?" she asked.

"To call in a favor to an old friend," he replied and continued walking.

Prime Guardian Turbo's Office

In his private office, Prime Guardian Turbo sat at his desk in full guardian attire and opened a VidWindow. "Copeland, call this number," he ordered of his keytool.

The static vanished to reveal a zero binome secretary at her desk. "Thank you for calling Maximillion Machinery & Functions," the zero greeted him with her nasal tone. "How may I direct your call?"

"Maximillion Dyson, please," Turbo requested.

"I'm sorry sir, CEO Dyson is just not available to take random Vidcalls," she told him. "I can direct you to any of his partners who would be…"

"I need to speak to Maximillion Dyson at once on behalf of the Supercomputer Guardian Academy on urgent matters," Turbo interrupted the secretary.

"I repeat sir," she said, "Mr. Dyson is not available to take random Vidcalls. I will direct you to any of his partners who would be…"

"Tell him it concerns his daughter Paige," Turbo ordered, interrupting the binome again.

The screen fuzzed out and darkness appeared. In the piercing darkness, two red silts stared at him from the office, but his extravagant long white hair flanked his navy robes. "Prime Guardian Turbo," the man said.

"Maximillion Dyson," Turbo replied. "We need to talk."

"Calling in that favor I see," Maximillion replied. "How did you make it through to my number?"

"I'm not calling in my favor, but I will make it my favor if you don't help me save your daughter," he said.

"Paige? What is wrong with her?"

"She's in trouble. Trouble beyond your wildest imagination."

Comorian Supercomputer Sector

Within the Comorian's storm ridden supercomputer, a large spire tower rested on the hovering platform above the volatile energy sea. Lights of different colors fired up the tower where MAX was clearly blazed across the smooth spire.

Binomes loaded materials and supplies from the Maximillion skyscraper into the awaiting ship that was being prepared for launch to the Supercomputer.

Once all the security officers created a path from the skyport elevator to the shuttle, the doors opened to reveal the man known as Maximillion Dyson standing there.

His darkened features were hidden behind his mask and white hair. His dark gray cape, protecting him from the constant rain of the Comorian system glided behind him to shield his blue and black uniform.

He walked passed with cane in one hand and large silver case in the other and entered the shuttle.

"Let us go pilot," Dyson replied. "Supercomputer as fast as you can."

"We'll be going VIA the T-1 line sir," the pilot said. "We'll be there before anyone will notice that we are gone."

Dyson rested the case on his lap in his throne like chair. "Don't worry my darling," he mumbled to the case, stroking it with a gloved hand. "In here, will be your new life, in service to my greatest project ever." He opened the case to stare at the unearthly pink and teal glow that came from it.

His shuttle took off and entered the Net to their destination: the Supercomputer of the Guardians.

Wonder how Maximillion Dyson is going to save Paige? You are going to have to read, review, and see.