BYTE TWO: MANIPULATE DATA
________________________________
"Dad, we're
heading off now! Dad?"
There came a non-committal mumbling
from Wellman's room. Dot didn't bother trying to get anything else out of him-
all those late nights at the labs were really getting to him. Still, at least
he tried to get home on time every other day.
She eyed Matrix suspiciously as he came
out of his room looking bleary. "You came in past midnight again. What
are you up to?"
"I was out with AndrAIa."
Dot paused for a moment before
understanding kicked in. "Oh bloody hell, I wish I hadn't asked now…"
"You think Dad suspects anything?" He
looked pretty worried at this thought.
"Matrix, he's in later than you are most
nights. I doubt he's figured it out." She suddenly winced. "I hope Enzo hasn't
figured it out. He's a lot smarter than we give him credit for."
"Now there's a thought I could have
done without."
The conversation would have gone on
longer if they hadn't noticed Enzo come out of his room and by the look on his
face he'd heard everything. As the three Zip-Boarded to school, Matrix turned a
very interesting shade of red.
*********************
Hexadecimal hovered a few feet above the heads of the other students, humming tunelessly to herself as she thought about the day ahead. This time she did have an Art lesson and… well, she wasn't sure what the other lessons were, but she'd figure it out eventually and BOB!
She swooped down and landed directly in front of him, her mask beaming.
"Ah, Bob! You're in early!"
"Hex! You, uh, you startled me."
This was true. But Hex was also standing uncomfortably close, her chest only an inch from his. His hormones were acting up.
"So… um… how are you doing in Art?"
"Brilliant! We've started on our
course about the Sprite body and basic nudity!" Her mask switched to a frown.
"The teacher doesn't seem to be too pleased with me doing self-portraits in
this course."
"Urg. I… I can't imagine why."
A nanosecond's thought and Bob really wished he hadn't said that. Hex's new smirk scared him.
"So, Bob…"
"IT'S THE LURRRRRVE HOSPITAL!"
"Mike!" burst out Bob gratefully.
"Hey, it's Mike! How're you doing?!"
"Great! I've seen a 4.7% decrease on my car tax ever since I switched to Churchill car insurance! Now I too can afford one of these fabulous Null-print settees, all for the incredibly price of ninety-nine-ninety-nine-ninety-niiiiinnnnne!"
Hexadecimal started giggling, a wild and discordant outburst that even made Mike fall quiet with worry.
"He's funny!"
"He is?"
"Anyway, I must be going- byeee!"
Mike waited until she was out of earshot before saying, in a sonorous tone, "Here we see the wild Hexadecimal in her natural habitat, just as mating season gets under-"
"MIKE!"
There was a slight cough behind them; the Matrixes had arrived and Dot looked slightly disturbed.
"Ah," said Bob. "You saw all that then."
"Yep," said Enzo, a big grin on his
face. "Man, Hex is alphanumeric!"
"That's not the word I was thinking
of," muttered Matrix.
"So- Bob! Did you ever get that Dos Literature homework done?" Dot's voice was slightly shrill. Hex and her attention to Bob was not a line of conversation she wanted to go down.
"Oh yeah, didn't take that long."
"A two-millisecond essay didn't take
that long?"
"Well, once you get the characters
and symbolism and everything from Of Nulls And Ones straight, the essays
are pretty easy. I'll never be able to look at a wabbit the same now…"
"Our back garden once got a wabbit.
Bred so much it nearly crashed the whole place!"
"Then we sicced Friskett on them." Enzo
had an evil little grin on his face. "It was great."
"That dog scares me."
"You only say that because he tried
to gnaw off your leg that one time…"
******************
Biology lesson. Still on Webcreatures. Well, Megabyte knew enough about Webcreatures to tune out the lesson and dwell on his problems.
His secondary problem was Capacitor and his little gang. He was used to assembling his gang on Level 31 but those idiotic pirate imitators were starting to visit that area with annoying regularity. They were a nuisance and had to be done away with. He made a mental note to get Chauncy to launch an attack- best to send a message before Capacitor came across something he should have, like the viral's various dealings.
His primary problem was Bob. Logically, the threat of being caught as a criminal were greater than rivalry over a female Sprite, but Megabyte was becoming fixated. If we wanted something and faced resistance in getting it, he would become obsessed with it. So it was with Dot.
She was going to be his. It was a power thing.
That blue twat had to be taken out of play for her affections. But, of course, without it seeming obvious that he was trying to do so. Ah well. It shouldn't be too difficult.
A few seats away from him was Specky, similarly lost in thought over Dot. You could almost have seen the lonely adolescent longing within him. Not that anybody bothered to notice him.
There was currently a rash of hormones floating around this school. This was unlikely to end happily for most concerned.
********************
End of Biology, leaving behind a class disturbed by the Web Spore's mating cycle. And there was Dot, heading toward her locker with a vacant look in her eyes as her mind filled with stats, graphs and finances.
"Ah, the lovely Ms. Matrix! Such a pleasure
to see you again."
"You see me every day, Megabyte."
"And it's always a pleasure."
She grinned. "You're being charming today. What's the occasion?"
"Oh, I just wondered what you were doing
this lunch."
"Oh! Erm. Ah. Just… hanging with my
brothers!" Inside her head, she winced. Not even Hack and Slash would view that
as sincere- alright, maybe Hack and Slash.
"Ah, family. I'm afraid I don't quite get
on with my dear sister the same way you do with your brothers. I'm afraid most
of the school had to witness her, oh how shall I put this, amorous
attentions towards Bob. She really has no concept of subtlety."
"Yeah, I saw that." She grinned
again, this time trying to avoid acting like the thought of it hurt.
"Hmmmm. You should probably inform him to
stop drooling so much next time she does that. It was rather sickening."
There was a slight uncertainty in
her eyes that hadn't been there before. "I'll see you later, I've got another class."
Megabyte watched her go, a slight
smile on his face. Manipulation was quite easy when nobody expected you to do
it. Thank the User for his thespian abilities and the Viral Integration Act-
they made things so much easier.
And so many viruses didn't take advantage of this. They actually integrated. Just ten, fifteen hours ago they had been picketed against, crowds of Sprites crying "No blankers in our schools". Blankers from how they erased the minds of those they infected. They infected because they were viruses and that's what they did, and yet so many betray that to be like Sprites.
Daemon. Hexadecimal. Father.
Traitors.
One day he would have the power and the opportunity, and he would see all three dead in the most painful and degrading ways he could think of.
-
There was another lesson before the big lunch break, but it was Geography for most of our cast and nobody wants to suffer through that. (Bob had a Mechanics lesson but managed to avoid any major gaffs so what's the point?)
Phong, as always, found himself with the jocks. He wasn't really paying attention to anything- neither was Hack and Slash, too busy arguing over whether or not their mailman was Norton reincarnate.
"Daemon's blatantly a lesbian," said
Hardboot, pointing towards the offending virus further down the corridor. "Ever
see her go out with anyone? No."
"She even turned me down once!
Blatant dyke."
"He's not Norton!"
"Do we ever get any infected mail
from him? NO!"
"…all right, I'll give you that…"
"Hey, Phong! I bet you couldn't score a
date with Daemon if you tried. I just bet you."
"Hmmmm?" The golden Sprite looked
up, currently distracted from his train of thought. The word Daemon had managed
to get through to him though, so off he trundled since he had nothing better to
do.
"'allo!" Daemon fixed Phong with her usual radiant smile, her voice tinged with a slight accent.
"Ah, Daemon! I was very impressed with your explanation of Latter-Second Co-userists in Religious Programming. I admit I have been traditionally sceptical of the sect's beliefs but your defence was illuminating!"
"It only makes sense. A User that creates
our Systems and bring us upgrades can not be the sort of User who would nullify
us in Games or create hostile dataforms! That would just be silly. Clearly
there must be a second User of equal power and high malevolence."
"It would indeed explain a lot of
things- but, have you considered the Web? What would be the point of its
creation, even for a malevolent User? Breaches are few and far between, it
serves no use for Him."
"Ah, but there is an answer for
that…"
The jocks watched with awe as Phong
and Daemon walked off.
"I don't believe it."
"How did he do that?! My
complimenting her butt didn't work, what did he use?!"
"HE IS NORTON!"
"Norton was a tall Sprite with a
glowing halo around his head! Our mailman isn't!"
"Norton didn't look like that!"
"He does in the paintings!"
*********************
Capacitor, Sally and Christopher were gathered near the lockers, talking piratey. Well, Christopher tried to but he could never quite get the hang of it.
Gavin was starting to be concerned. His friend had gotten involved in the gang, true, but he didn't seem quite comfortable a lot of the time. And to be honest, it was unlikely that he was going to like it in a nautical enterprise if he had to actually be on the boat.
So… what? What could he do? Give up on his plans? Sever ties with Christopher? The latter actually seemed like the better choice- Christopher would be able to take a career that he'd be happier in –but cut ties with his best friend? Gavin didn't want that.
A few lockers across, three girls (two One Binomes and a Data Sprite) were chatting away.
"What I don't get is how a cool guy like
Megabyte gets that for a sister?"
"Yeah, I know! Have you seen
her clothes? I mean, ick. What is she, mad?"
"More like mad/1. Hex is just a complete freak-"
WHAM
The corridor fell silent and all eyes turned to Bob. His fist had slammed into the lockers next to the girls, and he was trembling with anger.
The last girl to speak got over her moment of fear and started to yell back.
"What? What is your problem?"
"Ye being an irritating wench,"
muttered Sally.
"Log off! I'm not talking spam from some
pathetic little freak pretending she's a pirate when everyone knows you come
from fragging Beverly!"
Sally's eyes narrowed and a slight
smirk appeared on her face. "Ha! That be rich, insults coming from such a lowly
piece of null-discharge only brave enough to insult a virus when she's not
in earshot."
There wasn't really a counter to that. The girls left the area in a huff and Capacitor gave a thumbs-up to Bob, who was now starting to feel pretty embarrassed about doing that in public.
"I don't see why people find it odd, pirates coming from Beverly Hills…"
***************
More lessons passed. One of them was SEX Education, which didn't do Specky much good at all. In the midst of his hormonal yearnings for Dot, a lesson like that with Sex spelt out in full caps? Arg.
He had to go for it. He couldn't stand waiting any longer.
School eventually ended and the Binome was able to track her down. She was with Mouse at the time, so he had to signal her over into an empty classroom to talk privately- signalled because he didn't dare try speaking in front of a witness like Mouse, who was starting to smirk.
"So is this about the Business Studies homework?" asked Dot. "I can help you out with that, it's quite simple once you get the hang of-"
"It's, er, not that." Not for the first time, he wished he had a more impressive voice.
"Oh? Well, what is it then?"
He paused for a moment, trying to figure out the right words to say. Then he gave up and launched in.
"W-would you like to go out tonight?"
Dot frowned. "What do you- oh. Oh!"
In his mind, Specky had imagined how this would go. She'd be swept off her feet by his charm, they'd go off, it would all be great. In real life, she looked horrified. She was actually just stunned, she just hadn't expected Specky to ever say something like that, but to his insecure mind this was his ideal rejecting him, being repulsed by him.
"I-I can't, sorry Specky, I just have a lot scheduled in for tonight and the rest of the week, so, er, try catching me some other time, BYE!"
"Bye," he said softly, a nano after she'd left. "Spam it."
***********
Level 31 at night was just like Level 31 in daytime. Dark, dingy, Null-infested, the only real light coming from the flickering sign above Al's Diner.
Perfect spot for a gang of pirates, Gavin thought. Plus the drinks were good at Al's and the slow food was pretty good once in a while (he'd made an order three days ago, it should be ready tomorrow).
"Arrrrrrr! Our like will always find its
way to ports like this!"
"Aye, Cap'n! Suits us, so it does!"
"Away, blasted null! Chew on someone
else's shoe!"
Usually they'd spend a millisecond or so just doing this. Sprites would pass them by, looking at them oddly before carrying on. Today though, there were none. They'd seen another gang approaching, and nobody in G-Prime was stupid enough to get near a gang fight.
"Cap'n," said Andrew. "Hostiles off
starboard."
Capacitor peered over at the new
group. It was roughly the same size as his gang but… they were all wearing the
same thing. Blue suits with bike helmets, almost like a military uniform. Icons
that seemed green and eyes with green/red contacts.
They were pretending to be viral? Why
would anyone do that?
And they were armed. Not all of them
but three armed guys were more than the Saucy Mare gang had.
"Get ready for-"
The virals charged.
The lead viral rushed towards Capacitor with a length of pipe, holding it straight so it would be ready for easy bludgeoning. This guy was trained. Gavin quickly kicked out straight, catching the guy in the chest and knocking him down. The next blow landed on the arm, making him let go of the pipe- Capacitor grabbed it and whipped it downwards at the head of a viral Zero attempting to jump him.
Around him, the gangs were reaching stalemate. Virus and pirate alike were taking down each other, landing blows and spilling energy from cracked blocks and bruised mouths. There was no mercy- those with weapons used them and even Miss Sally wasn't spared a beating.
He went for the armed virals first- those weapons were an advantage. Quick blows with the pipe and they were disarmed and the pirates had the weapons. The tables turned. A whack at the head of the lead viral and the group backspaced- not fast but slowly, as if they meant to.
Three of the pirates were down and bleeding; the rest were bruised, occasionally bloody, but still in on piece. Capacitor raised his pipe and gave a triumphant "ARRRRR!", garnering an enthusiastic response.
Then he noticed Christopher. He was bruised across the left side of his face and he'd just picked himself off the ground. In the fight, he'd gone down far too quickly and if it hadn't been for the rest of the gang holding their own, the virals would have been able to seriously hurt him.
Gavin knew that Christopher could do better on his own, that he wasn't completely happy with the gang. Now he knew his friend could get put in hospital. Maybe deleted.
No. He had to get Christopher out of the gang.
For his own sake.
-
