Chapter 2: SoBig Orientation Zone [3 Months Ago]
"Mister Void, pay attention!" Shouted Minister Webroot who was snapping his fingers in front of Void's face as he was reflecting on his dark and painful past.
Void snapped out of it and shook his head.
"Forgive me Minister Webroot." Said Void as he bowed his head in shame and slowly followed the dark green minister who was giving Void the tour of the newly built U.A.V academy.
Webroot then led Void into a hallway where he opened up a door leading to one of the classrooms.
"And this is the classroom where programmers study computer science, virus culture, disinfection and removal as well as disassembly and recovery." Said Webroot as he introduced Void to one of the potential classrooms Void will be learning in once he enrolls.
"So this is where the journey of the anti-virus begins." Said Void as he looked inside to see an entire classroom full of computers.
"Precisely mister Void, if students wish to become a programmer for the U.A.V, they will spend a maximum of 5 years in this academy. A student wishing to be come a minister on the other hand would have to spend 15 years in this lovely establishment. Once all exams have been passed, an identity will be administered from one minister to another." Explained Webroot.
"But before this can happen, all students are to be examined through a gruesome gauntlet where they will face an onslaught of viruses and other forms of malware. If they survive, they will finally earn the title as minister of the U.A.V." Concluded Webroot.
"Hmm, interesting." Said Void as he walked out of the classroom while looking back at the room he stood in minutes ago.
After visiting the classroom, Webroot and Void then walked by the locker rooms where Webroot introduced Void to the area where he'll be putting all of his personal belongings inside.
"And this is the locker room. I won't go into much detail, but lets just say that one of these lockers is off limits to all students." Said Webroot.
Void looked confused, "Wait, what? A locker off limits, but that doesn't make any sense. How can a locker be off limits to students?" Void asked as he became suspicious, until he noticed exactly which locker Webroot was referring to,
it was a rusty locker taped up with the yellow 'Crime scene, do not cross' tape. Void got closer and closer to it, wondering what was inside.
As Webroot was ready to leave the locker room area, he called for Void Ranger to follow him.
"Come mister Void, keep up!" Void hesitated but eventually followed Webroot to continue the tour.
Finally, the tour ended with Void and Webroot entering the dormitories where Webroot opened the door and showed him where he'll eventually be sleeping,
"And this is the dormitory, this is where you'll sleep, only one person is allowed per dorm. The time is now 9 o'clock, time of curfew on weekdays is 6:00pm, on weekends; its 9:23pm. Have a good night mister Void." Said Webroot as he left the room, shut the door and turned off the lights.
Void looked back confused, "Wait a minute, what the hell? It's not even 9:23pm yet, why are the dormitories closed?" Void thought to himself as he looked at the closed door.
He turned around, switched on the lamp light on his desk and began to explore his surroundings. The dorm room was a yellow and red stripped room with a wooden desk, and a bed next to each other. It wasn't fancy but it sure wasn't shabby either.
He then approached the bed and undid his covers.
When he got inside the bed sheets, he began to lie down and ponder on what new adventures await him when he finally enrolls in the academy.
Meanwhile, back at the U.A.V headquarters, inside the registry keys room; a room filled with file cabinets which contained serial numbers and activation codes for every software on the planet,
A thunderous boom was heard inside one of the file cabinets.
The sound was so loud that a pink armored looking robot named Hacker walked out of his office and headed to the top floor via an elevator where the registry room was located.
"Huh? Who's waking up our programmers at this time of night?" Hacker yawned as he was inside the elevator.
Upon exiting, he approached the alarm panel and typed in the codes before opening the security doors to walk inside and see what the commotion was about.
Hacker then reached for the light switch and turned on the lights of the registry room.
"Alright, lets see what the damage is this time." Hacker said as he began to approach the cabinets.
As he slowly searched around the room for what was causing the booming noise, he suddenly heard another boom, and another one, followed by another one.
"GAH!!! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!!!" Hacker shouted as he jumped; upon hearing the noise.
Hacker was terrified as he knew something bad was about to happen. "Hello, is there anyone in here?!!!"
Suddenly, Hacker noticed a file cabinet that was shaking and smoking; as if it was ready to explode.
"What... in the name of hell..." Hacker thought as he slowly approached the shaking cabinet.
He reaches into the file cabinet next to the shaking one and pulls out a blue and aqua blaster that Void's ally used in the battle against viruses previously. It was the quantum P2K blaster.
As Hacker charged up the blaster and aimed it towards the shaking cabinet, the cabinet's door finally explodes and shockingly; a giant worm emerges from the destroyed cabinet.
"AHHHHHHH!!!!" Hacker shouted as the worm roared in front of him in unison.
Shocked and terrified, Hacker makes a run for it while the giant worm begins to slither to chase after him.
When Hacker reached the security door to make his escape, he quickly hit the panic button near it which caused the sirens to blare.
"Go back to the dirt, you filth!!!" Hacker shouted as quickly reached for the door knob just as the worm began to jump forward and bite him.
Hacker finally closed the door shut and ran for his life as the giant worm hit the door and fell to the floor.
"I hope you get snatched up by a bird, you b*d!!!" Hacker snarked,
As Hacker rushed back to his office, 2 ministers were waiting for him with their arms crossed.
One of the ministers was McAfee, a muscular robot who wore red and orange armor and a red cape, while the other minister named AVG wore blue and dark blue armor and a dark blue cape.
Hacker then heard a roar that only he knew too well who's voice it was coming from. "HACKER!!!" Roared Minister Norton from a few rooms apart.
Both ministers approached Hacker with an angry look on their faces and their knuckles cracking. Hacker swallowed his own saliva; thus, Hacker knew he was in deep trouble. "Gulp."
Moments later, the 2 ministers brought Hacker into a room which looked similar to a courtroom filled with floating holographic monitors and computers surrounding the room.
Sitting in the jury were the majority of ministers of the United Anti-Virus movement. All of which were anti-viruses that helped the blue robot back at Optical Illusions.
As McAfee and AVG slammed Hacker onto the testimonial stand injuring him in the process,
"Oww!" Hacker shouted as he grabbed onto his shoulder and tired to rub off the pain.
Mistress ClamWin and Minister Norton approached the podium with a document containing a list of charges filed against him.
Norton opened up the document and began to read the charges. "Attention Hacker Ranger, you scumbag!! You have been brought before the U.A.V courtroom today to stand trial for your crimes such as breach of trust and unauthorized intrusion of malware. Hacker Ranger, how do you plead?"
"Not guilty minister, my firewalls are impenetrable by any code that either we or Optical Illusions carry." Said Hacker trying to defend himself.
"Your firewalls have failed us once again Hacker. Your nuisance will eventually lead to our downfall!!" Yelled Norton as he continued reading the documents while the jury began taking notes.
Norton then turned to McAfee and asked him, "Minister McAfee, if you could please read the testimonial reports?"
Minister McAfee stepped towards the podium as Mistress ClamWin gave him the reports.
McAfee then approached the jury and began to read out loud for all to hear.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have before you, a written testimonial from the CEO of Macrosoft to the United Anti-Virus movement, and I quote... On September 25th at exactly 9:00pm, a severe level threat was detected in the registry room of this very establishment. It looks to be a worm of some sorts and it's size is to be as large as the eye can see." McAfee read.
"It's target?... Macrosoft Outbox which handles email services to millions of computers worldwide. Thus the worm attacked Outbox and disabled millions of email addresses from sending emails to all contacts within every user's address book. On top of that, with Outbox disabled, the worm has also mass mailed itself to every last email address infected by the worm." McAfee continued.
"As the CEO of Macrosoft, we've been forced to shut down all servers of Outbox users to prevent damage from spreading. Now although this is a mandatory step to prevent further infections, it does not reverse the damage that has already been done to Macrosoft Corporation.
As a result, I hereby challenge the United Anti-Virus movement to find and bring forth one of their best bounty hunters to search and destroy whatever caused the outage of Outbox in the first place. Failure to comply with these orders will result in immediate termination of the entire United Anti-Virus movement as well as criminal charges brought upon all ministers and programmers within U.A.V headquarters.
Furthermore, if anyone wishes to accept this bounty hunting mission, he or she will gladly be rewarded with 200000 dollars for information that will lead us to the destruction of this threat as well as the arrest of the virus' author. Sincerely, the CEO of Macrosoft. End quote." Concluded McAfee.
Minister Norton then turned his attention to Hacker,
"Hacker Ranger, you are gonna help us find this bounty hunter. Whether he or she lives in Timbucktoo, I want this bounty hunter trained and brought here before us in order to take down this large worm!" Minister Norton ordered.
Minister Norton then gave Hacker an ultimatum, "And if you should refuse or you revert back to your nuisance, it will be deletion for you and for all of us!!!"
Hacker was terrified upon hearing Norton's orders,
"But minister Norton sir, where the hell are we gonna find a bounty hunter?!!" Shouted Hacker.
"Ministers, perhaps I could be of some assistance?" Asked Webroot who had just entered the courtroom.
"Ah, minister Webroot, welcome to the trial of one of our programmers, And it seems that you're over one hour late!" Shouted Minister AVG as he turned his head to confront Webroot.
To put it simply, their partnership with each other is usually very salty.
"Minister AVG, tis wonderful to see you again. Arrogant as always I see." Webroot snarked.
Webroot then approached the podium to speak to Minister Norton, "Minister Norton, I overheard you were in desperate need of a bounty hunter to tackle this 'So Big' worm."
Norton growled towards Webroot as he wasn't in the mood for jokes.
"Grrr! Minister Webroot of the U.A.V, this is no time for sexual innuendo jokes. Our company is on the brink of collapse, and if we don't get a bounty hunter here as soon as possible...!!!" Norton shouted.
"Minister Norton, ministers. I deeply sympathize your dire situation. With that said, I would like to propose a proposition before you minister." Interrupted Webroot as he bowed before Norton and ClamWin.
"Much assistance would be greatly appreciated Minister Webroot." Responded Norton as he closed the document he was holding.
Minister Webroot then took out a cardboard box and a torrent file and placed it onto a table towards the jury.
"Behold, one of the many pirated softwares on the planet... Vegas Pro. Capable of blue screening thousands of computers worldwide. A program that is as reliable as Windows Defender and AVG!" Shouted Webroot as he waved his hand over the torrent file.
AVG felt offended over Webroot's words,
"Hey! Was that a shot?!!! TAKE THAT BACK YOU SON OF A B*H!!!" Shouted AVG as he tried to run and punch Webroot only to be held back by Hacker and McAfee.
"Calm down AVG, tis only a pun. Now then, I have with me a traditional worm. Watch what happens when I release it into the wild." Said Webroot as he slowly opened the cardboard box revealing a small worm.
The jury became outraged as the worm began to slither towards the torrent file.
The worm then proceeded to bite and mangle up the torrent file until it was no longer recognizable.
After the worm destroyed the torrent file, Webroot drew his sword and destroyed the worm with a single slash.
Norton looked confused by Webroot's demonstration, "Minister Webroot, what does this prove?"
Minister Webroot picked up the destroyed torrent file and began to explain to the jury the functions of a worm while showing the torrent file to everyone in the room.
"As you just witnessed, this worm stepped in and bit this software to it's core. Thus causing infection to be imminent. You see, when a worm infects software, it disables programs from running, which is exactly what Macrosoft was invaded with. This attack is a message... The SoBig worm has returned after 60 years of dormancy." Concluded Webroot.
All the ministers of the jury began to gasp and clench their teeth looking terrified and disgusted.
"Alright minister Webroot, so how do we stop this SoBig worm?" Asked Norton as he was slowly losing his patience.
"In order to stop this SoBig worm, I hereby propose a trial for students who wish to join our academy. From there, whoever can delete the SoBig worm from existence will be rewarded with the large cash reward offered by Macrosoft and will become the perfect candidate to join the U.A.V academy." Suggested Webroot.
"That may not be such a bad idea, what say you minister?" Asked Hacker looking impressed as he approached Norton.
"Hmm, how long will the trials last for?" Asked Norton who was very concerned about the time needed to complete the mission before Macrosoft shuts the U.A.V down.
"10 days minister." Answered Webroot.
"10 DAYS?!!! MACROSOFT WILL SHUT US DOWN BY THEN!!!" Roared Minister Norton as he slammed his fist onto the podium.
Hacker then thought of an idea and approached the jury as he turned his head towards Norton and ClamWin,
"Ministers, sir. What about Void Ranger? We've already seen everything he's capable of, lets just skip the trials and bring him before us. What say you minister?" Suggested Hacker.
Norton placed his hands together in a canopy and thought about it for a minute.
"Very well... After all, what's the point in recreating the wheel when it's already made for you. Minister Webroot, summon the blue boy and take him to school." Minister Norton ordered. He then got up from his seat and began to exit the courtroom.
"Yes minister, I promise not to fail you my lord." Answered Webroot as he bowed before the ministers as they began to leave the room.
As Webroot was leaving the courtroom, Minister AVG looked back at Webroot with an angry look on his face. "I hate that guy."