BYTE ONE: SET IT UP

____________________

It had happened again. Bob had been minding his own business when suddenly Dot had appeared in front of him, completely naked, and posed in an inviting position.

     Then she'd turned into a demonic version of Miss Brodie and screamed "DO YOUR HOMEWORK!", at which point homework monsters rose up and started eating his code, and thankfully that was when Bob woke up.

     Maybe ignoring that Dos Literature homework was a mistake… he thought, before tapping his Icon and calling up his clothes skin for today (a very old T-shirt with the Guardian Icon on and scruffy jeans). He lurched his way downstairs to the kitchen, his mind needing a good cup of Java or five to wake up. His parents were already there, leading to the uncomfortable position of having to talk to them about school while also trying to stay awake.

    And they also brought up The Subject.

    "So, how are you doing in Mechanics?" asked his father, a mechanic from a line of mechanics and spouse of a mechanic.

    "Pretty good," Bob lied. "I'll be fixing cars in no time!"
    "That's my boy!"

    They never asked specific questions, which was a blessing- Bob kept forgetting what an interociter was and his teacher was on the verge of paying him to stop taking the class.

    He set off on Zip-Board, narrowly avoided mid-air collision with a speeding Ray Tracer, touched down in front of the illustrious crumbling wreck that was Mainframe High School, and had just one second to register the cry of "BOB!" before he was knocked flying.

    A strong blue arm reached out and grabbed him before he hit the ground.

    "I'd best be careful if I were you, Bob," said a pleasantly deep British accent. "Don't want to hurt ourselves now, do we?"
    "Ah, thanks Meggy."
    Sigh. "Really, why does everyone have to abbreviate it so? It's most irritating…"
    The Matrixes came towards them. Leading the group was Enzo II, heavily enthusiastic; behind him came Enzo I, who insisted everyone called him Matrix and who sported stubble & a (V)-engraved contact lens to seem cool- he glared daggers at his twin for showing them up. (Originally he hadn't had a twin, but there'd been an accident at the hospital involving the labour and a Copy Function).

   Walking past them was Dot.
   Ah, Dot.

   Her face was an exquisite creation, with her hair a vibrantly-dyed mess and her sharp eyes peering through those sexy half-glasses. Her purple velvet dress hugged close to her body, curving around her breasts, while her right shoulder was left exposed with all its smooth skin. Her legs were clad in torn fishnets, her inner thigh contained a heart tattoo and her leather boots nearly came up to her knees. To Bob, this was the embodiment of desire and-

    She smiled and blushed slightly. "Hi Megabyte."
    They always go for his accent. Why is that?

    The young virus smiled with all three rows of teeth. "Ah, the lovely Ms. Matrix." He gave a slight bow. "Always a pleasure. I shall see you in Business, I presume?"
    She grinned wickedly. "You think I'd bunk off when I've been beating your scores for the last minute? Dream on."
    "I shall, Ms. Matrix. I shall…"
    A slight smile on his face, he strode off confidently, leaving Matrix to voice: "That guy creeps me out."
    "Why? He's one of the best students, best athletes, best-"

    "You see how he talks? It's always like he's planning something."

    "I'm not getting into another debate with you on virus integration this early in the second, OK? I have to get to class."
    A few nanoseconds after she'd gone, Bob said: "We don't have class for another ten nano's."
    "Well, that's Dot for ya!" said Enzo. "So- how about a quick game of Jetball?"
    "Not right now."
    "OK. Want to perve over Dot some more?"
    Bob went an interesting shade of purple. "I did not, I was not- stop laughing-"

**************************

Megabyte strode down the corridors, attracted longing glances from all the girls and hails from the boys. He was a popular guy, young Megabyte, and one of the great figures in the high school social pecking order.

    And yet he ducked into a vacant classroom where a lanky Binome was waiting for him and glancing around furtively.

    "Jawohl, Grossenbitter! I thought you weren't comink today."
    "Why Herr, you really think I'd miss out on our new… input, would I?" He sneered in a way most wouldn't expect from him. "Let's see."
    From one of Herr Doktor's pockets came two small pill bottles. Nimbly the virus took them both and inserted them into a slot on his arm.

    "Excellent. This should keep us in profit for the next minute or so, I'd say. Pass a message to Chauncy and the others though- Mark Renton is behind on his payment. Maybe he needs some incentives."

    "Ahaw, ya ya, I get you!"

    "Good. Run along now."

    Viruses were traditionally motivated towards power or subversion. Since the Viral Integration Act was passed, this motivation was fulfilled through careers and social standings. Megabyte wanted more. Dealing in the GIGO drug was a very useful way of doing that- and surely it couldn't be his fault if there were fools weak enough to buy it from him.

    Speaking of power, he'd seen the way Dot Matrix was looking at him. There was potential there. A bit of seduction, then introduce her to GIGO to make the conquest complete. Yes, that would do nicely.

********************

"IT'S ALIVE! ALIIIIVE!"

   "That's the last time I'm leaving food in my locker over the weekend," muttered Bob, dumping the offending object in the bin.

    "And so the first to be voted out of the Big Brother house is The Hideous Mutant Cheese Sandwich, one of our more-"

    "Mike?"

    "Yeah?"
    "Shut up."

    Mike wandered off, muttering about oppression of free speech, and Bob steeled himself for another lesson of Mechanics. On his way there, he noticed Mouse and fell into step alongside her. She smirked, her default expression.

   Mouse was… well, she was a bit odd, to be frank. No-one knew where she came from or where she lived, and some took the view that she just slummed it in the G-Prime streets. She was an energetic and almost wild girl, fixated on one day becoming a Hacker. Her Programming grades were high enough to make it seem plausible, and when asked why she did Mechanics her answer was always "So Ah can build myself a Ship!".

   It was also pretty obvious that she was attracted to Bob. But she was also attracted to Ray Tracer, and no-one was quite sure if even she knew who she really wanted.

   "So, you're still plugging away with grim determination, eh sugah?"
   "I don't believe in the no-win scenario!"
   "Ah think you should start."
   "Can you feel the love in this System, ladies and gents?"
   Mouse whacked him playfully in the shoulder before looking over his shoulder, grimacing slightly and speeding up. Bob had just enough time to wonder why before two leather-clad arms wrapped around him from behind.

    "Bobby!"
    "urk."

    Hexadecimal. Brother of Megabyte, but you'd never know it to look at her. She was completely dotty, floating (literally) through the school hallways and messing up in every subject except for Art. She was always clad in some variation of leather fetish-wear and nobody was sure why, though she did once come in naked after forgetting to put her clothes on (the on-the-spot excuse of "IT WAS ART!" didn't work). More disturbing was her face or lack of it, as her emotions were only shown through a series of changing masks.

    Hex was the loner of the school. She had no real friends and many students would gossip and sneer behind her back. She didn't seem to notice or care though, lost within her own little world. She had an obsession with Bob created after he made the effort to talk to her. He found the attention a little disturbing but he never dared voice that to her. Partly because in his eyes she was incredibly hot, but also happened to be a disturbing individual.

    Despite that, he felt sorry for the virus. And it wasn't just because of how the rest of the school treated her- it was also because he knew that she may be genuinely mad.

   And he knew what the CPUs and Guardians would do about a mad virus.

   So he talked to her and defended her in front of his friends. What else could he do?
  "Hi… Hex… Er, this isn't really a good time, I have to get to class-"

   A confused mask appeared before being replaced with a smiling one. "Oh yes, classes!  Completely slipped my mind! Ah yes, off I go to Art then!"
    "That's not till later."
    "Do you doubt me?!" Her war mask appeared for a second before she said: "No, wait, you're right. Oh yes, it's Cooking now! Oh, I do so love making those little cookies…" The confused one returned again. "I don't know why people don't like me making the cookies look like them though."
   "Uh, I don't know either Hex. I guess it could be the, uh… facial expressions."

   "Really Bob? Don't people realise if they were cookies they'd scream in horror as they were cooked?" The war mask went away, replaced by a smirking one. "Anyway, I'll see you around. Ta ta…"
   Bob was now running late for Mechanics. It did not help that when he ran in, "Old Man" Pearson (so named for being a grumpy son of a glitch) called out: "So, the Angel of Deletion returns to plague the hardware."
   "Last lesson was an accident!"

**************************

While Bob attempted to avoid mass destruction, Dot and Megabyte sped through their work in an attempt to outdo the other. Occasionally they'd catch each other's eye and smirk, both neck and neck at the moment.

     Sitting near Dot was a pimply Binome by name of Specky, a name he'd had before he'd even needed glasses, and the glasses themselves were held together by tape. And he didn't notice the contest going on, as he was too busy staring at Dot.

     She regarded him as a friend. He was in love with her. The only girl in existence to notice him beyond jokes? Of course he'd fallen in love. You had to feel sorry for him because Dot didn't even know about it and there was never any real chance of reciprocation. Specky was doomed, really.

    Near the back of the class lurked Gavin Capacitor, an attempt at a moustache on his mouth-block and a home-made pirate's hat on his head. He didn't like the name Gavin though. He ran the Saucy Mare's gang and preferred to be called Captain or the Crimson Binome. Not for him the life of a sector-dwelling worker. He wanted to roam the Net in a ship of his own. He wanted to visit all the Systems out there.

     His mate Christopher wanted the life of an accountant. The two had it all planned though- they'd set up a trading company with Gavin as manager and Christopher doing the accounts and the rest of the gang working as deckhands on the boat. It could work, Capacitor told himself. It could work.

     Dot's dreams of the future included running her own diner, owning majority shares in the key businesses of the System and being Command.Com. When she dreamt, she dreamt big. After all, didn't her father tell her at a young age how she could do and be anything she wanted?

    On the personal side of things, her dreams were shakier. There was Megabyte, and then there was Bob.

    Megabyte was a perfect match really. He just meshed with her- his intelligence and ambition mirrored her own. And she knew he was interested.

    Bob didn't match her at all. Yet there was something endearing about him. His optimism, maybe, or maybe his morality and kindness. Maybe just that she'd known him for so long. Or his hot physique. And while he'd never stated as much, even fragging Hack and Slash could tell he was attracted to her.

    Arrrrrg. This stuff confused Dot. Too hard to plan.

***************************************************

Lunchtime finally arrived and the young Sprites rushed towards the canteen, ate their food quickly in order to avoid tasting the horrible taste, and then went about their business.

   Said business was a bit odd for the school Pong team. As Pong jocks, they had a high social status and a license to be jerks. They knew how it all went. What they never expected, however, was to have someone like Phong on the team.

    Observe:
    Daemon walked by the Pong team. She was a vivacious young Virus and everyone liked her. She just has an infectious personality. The Pong team watched her go (except Hack and Slash, deep in argument about a topic they couldn't even remember).

   "Now that is a fit girl," said Turbo. "Nice rack and everything."

   "She is athletic indeed!" said Phong. "Her form supple and graceful like the willow… Hmmmm, no, that simile doesn't fit, for willows aren't really graceful and lack the crown of spikes that Daemon has-"

    "Phong, I didn't mean fit as in… ah, never mind."

    This happened a lot. The team could never stop hanging around Phong though as that just isn't Done for teams. Phong himself always wondered why his metaphors, similes and sayings resulted in blank faces unless Megabyte was around.

     Off near the grounds of the school, AndrAIa and Brenda (a One biker Binome who wore a padded furry bra for fashion reasons) were discussing bikes. Again.

    "This is a nice bike! V3- good handling, high acceleration, stylish design… where did Megabyte get the money for this, and can I borrow some?"
    "Yeah, it's pretty snazzy," said Brenda. "But I dunno- they're never replace the Hardware-Diodeson's. Those are just iconic. It's not a V3 they're using in Easiac Rider, is it?"

    AndrAIa gave a slight shrug before noticing Matrix coming over. Giving a slight wave, she yelled "Hey! Fancy a ride into Baudway!"
    "Sure!"

    Backspace a few metres, and you'd see Dot watching from a seat in the grounds, looking slightly disturbed.

   "Maybe I'm being a bit too sensitive here, but does anyone else think Matrix's girlfriend is a little, er-"

   "Skanky?"

   "Not quite the word I was looking for, Mouse. More… loose."
   "Skanky."
   "Oh log off."

   "She does have a point," said Bob, speaking through a mouthful of food. "I'm sure AndrAIa's perfectly nice but… just process that wardrobe. Says it all."
    "I like AndrAIa," said Enzo. "She's cool."
    "But you thought it was cool when Friskett swallowed that UNFORMAT command."
    "It was!"
    "I rest my case…"

    Mouse decided to leave the remains of her lunch and turned to Bob with an evil grin. "So sugah, planning on telling us all about Mechanics?"
    "I didn't mean to create a Tear! It just- happened!"
    "Your parents still don't know about all this?" asked Dot.

    "Are you random?! I'm not going to tell them! They'd flip! They're just too set on me continuing the family business. I just lie about it and get Mouse to forge my reports when I get them."
    "You should just stand up to them about it."
    "Huh. Easier said than done."

    Enzo looked up, a mercenary little glint in his eye. "What was that about forging reports-"

    "No, Enzo."

    "Listen to your sister. She's big and scary." Bob took a look at his watch and groaned. "Oh cursors. Five nano's till Dos Literature."
     "You didn't do the homework again, did you?"
     "Not as such, no."

***************

The end of the day arrived, to the eternal joy of all students and teachers involved (except Smiley the Maths teacher, who was even happy to get Enzo's Friskett-chewed homework). Only a few students hung around once the bell had rung, most of them being the Saucy Mare gang on their way to Baudway. Cries of "arrrrr" echoed throughout the school.

    Mouse was hanging around too, and was faintly annoyed about the whole thing. She had things to do, where was he?

    "Ah, Mouse. What a delightful-"

    "You took your sweet time, honey!"
    "I had a few items of business to take care of," said Megabyte. "Nothing to concern your sweet self about. Now then…"

    His arm slot opened up, depositing his GIGO stash, and he tipped three pills out into his hand. Mouse nodded with satisfaction and handed over the money.

    "That should do me for a week. See ya round, sugah."
    The virus smiled indulgently, up until the point when she'd Zip-Boarded up of site. Annoying bitch.

   But things were looking up. The next Pong match was due soon, he had several customers ready to be fully exploited, things with Dot were going smoothly and best of all, Renton would not be skipping his payments again.

   He wondered vaguely what was on at the Electro-Cinematique.

*****************

"Avast Mr Norton, you scurvy C-Drive! You clearly have the taste of a comatose bilge-null!"
   "Arrrrr, there be nothin' wrong with the Small-Town Binomes' sea shanties!"
   "Blow me down, you be a fool!"

   The sounds of the Saucy Mare gang faded away into the night. Hexadecimal had barely registered them from her room- she'd been too busy working on her latest masterpiece. Now it was finished and she stood back to admire it.

    The smiling face of a messiah-like Bob looked out of the canvas. Originally that had been it, even if she'd had the idea of giving him scales, lengthening and slipping him into silver body armour. But dotted around the image were grotesque figures that only barely resembled Sprites and in the background, the charred bones of the Mainframe High School with rotting heads impaled on it.

    It was only now that Hexadecimal noticed that the heads resembled several of the other students.

    She stared at it a bit longer before her mask transmuted into a joyous grin.

   "Perfect."