Jay couldn't believe it. The Technos were still in the city. Anger suddenly started to bubble up inside of him; had they not caused enough trouble already? He felt a hand on his arm and turned to see Darryl giving him a warning look. Jay nodded in response and managed to restrain himself. Lex, however, was not as successful.

'You guys just hang around like a bad smell don't you?' he sneered at the hard-faced blond, still the only one of the four to have taken off his headgear.

'Get out of here!' the Techno ordered them, ignoring Lex's jibe. 'This place isn't safe, and there is nothing to loot; nothing you Virts could use anyway.'

'You must be confusing us with some other 'Virts,' Slade said. 'We're not looters, we're the Mallrats, and we're here to clean up the mess your master started.'

The Techno gave a laugh as if Slade had said something unintentionally funny. 'That won't be necessary,' he said. 'As you can see we have everything under control.'

Jay couldn't take any more of the man's rudeness and before he knew it he was pushing himself in front of Lex and Slade, bringing him face to face with the Techno. 'Don't you think you've done enough?' he spluttered angrily.

The blond-haired man sneered at Jay and was about to say something when there was a stir behind him. The figure who had alerted him to the Mallrats' presence now removed its mask, revealing a dark-skinned young woman with short, dark red, corn row braids that clung to her scalp. 'Jay?' she said. 'Cable, it's Jay!'

'I know who it is!' the blond-haired Techno snapped.

'Spinner?' Jay said, recognising the woman. 'Is that you?' He couldn't believe it, could it really be her?

'You remembered,' she smiled, blushing slightly. Jay felt his cheeks burning too. How could he forget? She cleared her throat before getting back to the matter at hand. 'It's alright Jay, we're here to help,' she said, then looked towards Cable. He nodded as if to give permission for her to divulge this information, and at the same time the other two figures removed their protective headgear to reveal a man with messy, shoulder-length black hair, and a woman with short, blonde spiky hair. 'This is Link,' Spinner said with a gesture towards the woman. 'And this is Tag.' The black-haired man nodded when she said his name. 'The four of us have gathered together the remnants of our tribe, to try and salvage something.'

'Why bother?' Lex sneered. 'The city can do without your sort.'

Jay nodded. 'The last I heard, you were one of Mega's proteges, Spinner,' he said quietly.

'I was part of his team, yes,' she said, sticking her chin up defensively and looking a little hurt. 'But I was working for him, Jay, not with him. As far as I knew, this was a pharmacy.' She gestured towards the lab and Lex smirked. 'Besides,' she said with a self-satisfied smile. 'Who do you think fixed it so that Mega couldn't access the lab?'

The Mallrats looked at each other. 'That was Ram!' Lex said, frustrated. 'Tell her Jay!'

Spinner looked at Jay, still smiling to herself, and he swallowed before answering. 'Well,' he started. 'We don't know for sure that it was Ram. We just assumed.' Lex shook his head in disbelief, shooting a look of utter disgust first at Jay, then at the Technos.

'Contrary to popular belief,' Cable said, matching Lex's glare. 'Most of us Technos actually wanted to make the world a better place. Of course most of us never reached positions of power, and those that did abandoned us.' He shot Jay a contemptuous look. 'Leaving Ram and Mega to do what they liked.'

'That's not fair! It wasn't like that!' Jay said defensively. 'If I'd stayed it would only have put me in danger, and what use could I have been to anybody then? I did what I could.'

'It all turned out hunky-dory for you though, didn't it? Shacked up in the mall while we were stuck in here.'

'But that's over now,' Link pointed out. 'Ram and Mega are gone. We could really use you on our team, Jay.' Cable ground his teeth angrily, making no secret of how he felt about what Link had just said, but surprisingly he didn't say anything against it. 'Most of the Technos have fled the city,' she continued. 'And some became so disillusioned with what they stood for that they've run off to join the Ecos. If you were with us, I'm sure they'd come back.'

He didn't know what to think, let alone say. A new Techno tribe, working this time in the city's best interests, and they wanted him to join them.

'Jay, you're not seriously considering this are you?' Lex asked, disgusted.

'He'll never come back,' spat Cable. All the same, everyone looked at Jay, waiting for his answer.

'Go on Jay, tell them,' Darryl pleaded. 'Tell them you're staying with us.'

He sighed heavily, coming to a decision. 'I guess Cable's right,' he said. Cable gave a satisfied smile, but Spinner looked away sadly. 'I'm sorry Spinner,' he said. 'I just can't do it. I'm with the Mallrats now. I am a Mallrat.' As the four Technos looked at him he suddenly became more aware of the uniform he was wearing. It felt tighter than usual, and the 'T' on his forehead seemed to burn.

'You can't have it both ways, Jay.' Spinner told him. 'There are going to be a lot of changes in this tribe. If you're going to stay with the Mallrats that's fine, but you won't have any authority here anymore, you have to know that.'

'I understand,' he said. 'And I've made my decision. I really hope you succeed where we failed.' Spinner smiled and Tag nodded thoughtfully. Now that Jay had made his position clear, Cable seemed willing to open up a bit more about the four's plans for the reformed Technos, although he clearly still disliked him.

'We're in the process of neutralising the virus,' he said. 'Spinner and Link are making good progress working out what's in the blasted thing.'

'You guys managed to dilute it a bit with the sprinklers,' Spinner explained. 'But we can hopefully make it completely harmless.'

'The main thing was just to stop it from getting out,' Slade said. 'We came back to finish the job.'

'Well as you can see we've got everything under control now,' Cable reminded him. 'You might as well go back home.'

'We haven't finished what we came here to do yet,' said Slade. 'There are a couple of bodies in the control room we need to recover.'

'Ram and Mega?' asked Link. 'So that was you? Good job. Let them rot, I say.'

'No! Ram died saving one of us, and Mega was my brother.' The Technos raised their eyebrows in unison at Slade's statement but otherwise showed no sign of surprise. 'They deserve a proper burial,' he continued. 'Can we take some things from your store to carry them?'

Cable shrugged. 'Take what you like, we're relocating to the power station anyway,' he said. 'We're going back to what the Technos should have been about in the first place, providing power.'

Jay was impressed, although his companions appeared to be a little more wary. Part of him was still itching to help these four people to lead the Technos in a new direction – after all, their aims were what he had originally joined the tribe for – but he had made his decision, and despite feeling as if he had lost a part of himself he was happy with it. Spinner was right, though. If he could have had it both ways he would have jumped at the chance. She had always been able to see right through him. How long had it been since he had left the Technos? And he was still wearing their uniform. Amber and Ebony had questioned him about it several times in private, but there had always been excuses; liaising with Mega, giving orders to other Technos when the city was at risk from the Zootists. He could hardly be taken seriously without it, could he? Deep down, though, he knew that he had wanted to keep the link with his former tribe alive as a safety net. Being a Techno was all he had ever known since the virus, at least until he came to the city. They had helped him through the deaths of his parents and given him hope for the future of this new world. They had been a huge and important part of his life, but perhaps it was finally time for him to cut his ties and move on. The Technos didn't need him anymore, and he trusted Spinner, if not the other three, to turn the tribe around for the better. He had responsibilities to the Mallrats now, and he had made a commitment to Amber. Surely ditching his uniform would help her to trust him as well.

Slade thanked Cable and took Darryl into the storeroom to fetch whatever it was he wanted, leaving Jay with Lex and the Technos, but not for long. 'If you'll excuse us,' Cable said. 'We have some unfinished business to attend to.' He put his protective headgear back on and went into the lab, motioning for the other three to follow him. Link and Tag entered after him, but when Spinner turned to leave Jay stopped her.

'Spinner, wait!' he called.

'What is it?' she asked, walking over to him and Lex. Even in the bulky suit she was wearing her hips moved enticingly.

'I wanted to ask you a favour.' He thought for a moment she looked disappointed, then she was all smiles again.

'I can't promise anything,' she said. 'But go on, ask away.'

'You worked on the Paradise programme didn't you?'

Spinner giggled and her eyes sparkled mischievously. 'You kept tabs on me? How sweet! Yes, I did have a role in that project, working for your brother as it happens.' Jay's face fell at the mention of Ved. 'I'm sorry Jay, I wasn't thinking. Have you heard anything about him?' She looked mortified at having brought up the subject.

'Nothing,' he sighed. 'And now the only two people who might have been able to tell me something are dead.' Lex shifted uneasily on his feet and Jay guessed that he was thinking about Tai San. There was an awkward silence before Spinner continued. 'As I was saying,' she began after clearing her throat. 'I was working for Ved, as part of the team designing the neural interface.' Lex's eyes glazed over. 'The headsets,' she clarified, and a look of recognition appeared on his face. 'Anyway, before you say anything I'm not proud of it, but I didn't have any choice.'

'There's always a choice,' Lex said.

She shook her head. 'Ram already knew how good I was, and I would have been deleted if I'd refused.' She winced when she realised what she had said and thoughts of Ved flashed through Jay's mind once more. 'You still haven't asked me that favour,' she said, trying to change the subject.

'I'm getting there,' he told her, but not unkindly. 'I don't know how much you know about what happened yesterday, but Ram created some sort of artificial intelligence programme and gave it control of the whole network, including the lab although he didn't know it existed at that point. Something went wrong with the programme and it decided to finish what Mega started.'

Spinner's eyes widened with every word. 'Wow. That kind of technology, it certainly explains a lot, but why are you telling me this?'

'A good friend of mine, Jack, was the one who disabled the programme and turned on the sprinklers from inside the system.' He looked at Lex for confirmation and got a nod in reply.

'Inside!?' Spinner cried. 'The human brain was never meant to handle that kind of interaction! How is he?'

'That's just it, we don't know. He seems to be in some sort of coma. I was hoping…maybe you could have a look at him?'

'What?!' Lex spluttered, but both Jay and Spinner ignored him.

She thought for a long while before answering. 'I'd have to clear it with Cable first, you understand?' Jay nodded. 'I'm sure he'll agree, I mean it's the least we can do after he saved the city, but don't get your hopes up Jay. This is way out of my league, I don't know half as much about this sort of thing as Ram did.'

'If anyone can do it,' he said. 'You can.' They shared a lingering look before she zipped up her biohazard suit and turned back towards the lab.

'I'll meet you at the mall when I've sorted things with Cable,' she called back as she left, the suit's hood muffling her voice. Jay was now left alone with Lex in the corridor.

'If you're done picking your jaw up from the floor?'

Jay closed his mouth. 'Don't be silly Lex.'

'Just so you know, I don't trust any of them, especially her!'

'Now why doesn't that surprise me,' Jay sighed. Lex was probably jealous because Spinner hadn't taken any interest in him.

'Alright guys,' Slade said as he and Darryl emerged from the storeroom. 'Sorry it took so long but we're ready to go now.' Each of them carried a stretcher in one hand and a roll of blankets in the other. 'What's wrong?' he added, noticing the look on Lex's face. 'Have you two fallen out already?' he joked.

'Jay here has invited his Techno girlfriend to do her experiments on Jack!'

'What?' Darryl said, confused. 'Is this true Jay?'

'Of course it isn't true! She's just going to check him out, you know, give her professional opinion. She knows her stuff.'

'And he believed her!' Lex added.

'Of course I believe her! Anyway, I was only trying to help. I didn't expect a reaction like this.'

'Ah, so you were trying to play the hero were you?'

'That's not helping, Lex,' Slade said. 'Although I wish you would have consulted us before asking her, Jay.'

'She was going back inside the lab,' he replied, irritated. 'If I'd waited for you and Darryl we wouldn't have been able to follow.' Slade still looked unconvinced.

'Ellie should decide,' Darryl suddenly said, causing everybody to look at him. 'Well she is his girlfriend. If she doesn't agree then we forget it.'

'That sounds fair enough,' Jay conceded. Slade nodded in agreement and Lex shrugged his shoulders in defeat.

'Right then,' said Slade. 'Now that we've got that sorted, we can finish what we came here to do.' He hoisted the stretcher he was carrying onto his shoulder and marched purposefully down the corridor, leaving the others with no choice but to follow.