Chapter 3: The U.A.V Academy [Present Day]
It has been a year since Void Ranger and an adorable light blue chimera with a pink dress, bangs in her hair, a ponytail and 2 tails named SNT worked together to save the computer world from the wrath of Total AV and his army of evil Void Ranger clones who called themselves Optical Illusions.
Since the destruction of the virus infested missiles and Total AV flying into orbit, the computer world was at peace once again.
SNT and her chao friend whom she rescued from Total AV who had a purple school uniform, orange hair and a wing pin named Saki Chao were back home on their floating island called Angel island.
They were helping a famous blue hedgehog named Sonic The Hedgehog and his friends fight off an evil mad scientist with a crazy mustache named Doctor Eggman. He was trying to take over the island in order to build his theme park.
Although SNT and Sonic double boosted and destroyed Eggman's machines, Sonic was still feeling salty from what SNT had done a year ago when she and Void were inside the space shuttle together.
Sonic eventually brushed it aside as he thought it was only just a one time slip-up. But little did Sonic realize, the terror for him was far from over.
Later that year in the summer, back at the united anti-virus movement headquarters; the home for every anti-virus software in the universe, a new building was built next door to the establishment.
Void Ranger opened the doors to walk inside as he was ready to spend the next couple of years studying about cyber security, virus culture, and how to detect and remove viruses and prevent them from spreading.
Void Ranger walked into the classroom carrying his books while wearing a black tuxedo as he approached the 3rd desk near the window.
As Void placed his books on the desk and took his seat, he saw the beautiful chimera who helped him save the computer world.
She was wearing a school uniform, a watch on one of her wrists and she was carrying the same books as Void was.
It was SNT, and she was looking as beautiful as ever. She took her seat next to Void and smiled at him; excited to see him again,
"SNT?!" Shouted Void as he looked surprised to see her, "What are you doing here at the U.A.V academy?"
"Void!" Shouted SNT as she walked up and kissed him, "Didn't you hear? We're now in the same class together! After Saki Chao and I returned home to Angel Island, Minister Norton sent me an invitation to join the U.A.V academy for a summer course on the same topic we're studying! Isn't this great?!" Shouted SNT as she hugged Void.
"Oh SNT, and I thought you were gone forever!" Shouted Void looking very happy to see her.
"Void Ranger, I never left." Said SNT as they shared a tender kiss while the bell rang and class was about to begin.
Just then, Minister Webroot and Mistress ClamWin opened the door to enter the classroom with books in hand.
She approached her computer as she turned it on and was ready to teach her class about cyber security.
But before ClamWin could greet her class, Webroot had a choice of words to say.
"Sacrifice, tis a word that can make a difference in the rules of war. For us, sacrifice is a code that we bared for hundreds of years, a true soldier of the U.A.V knows that the life of a computer hangs in the balance. A true soldier of the U.A.V is willing to save computers, fight for computers... Or die for computers." Said Webroot revealing to the class the harsh reality of becoming an anti-virus.
"This guy is a loon." Whispered a random student sitting in the back row on the left side of the classroom,
"Watch it bro, my mamma's half loon." Replied another random student sitting next to him who looked like a bird.
"In 48 hours, we'll be deploying you all to the firewalls in order to defend cyberspace against an army of spyware sent forth by the one and only... Optical Illusions." Announced Webroot.
"This guy is crazy." Void whispered to SNT.
"Therefore, we have no other choice but to send you all to boot camp as soon as possible; in hopes that you all prepare for your first exam against Optical Illusions. If you succeed, we will be proud to call you our finest soldiers. And it will be an honor to have you serve in battle." Said Webroot as he bowed before the class.
Webroot then waved his hand over to ClamWin.
"Now if you should listen to my colleagues. Mistress ClamWin who will teach you all about virus culture and Minister AVG who'll be teaching P.E (Physical education) in the gymnasium. I promise, you'll all be ready for your first exam in no time. Good luck soldiers... dismissed!"
Webroot then ended his orientation speech with a soldier salute to the students before marching out of the classroom.
Once Webroot exited the classroom, Mistress ClamWin approached the class and began to speak.
"Students, welcome to virus culture. Tis a course that will teach you about virus theory. You'll be learning how viruses are created, what their payloads can do to damage computers and what steps should be taken to avoid getting infected by viruses." Said ClamWin as she began to launch a command prompt window on her computer.
"This morning, as a special treat. In order to introduce you to the course you'll be learning, I have with me a live demo of a very old virus from the MS-Dos era."
ClamWin then switched on a large holographic screen in front of the class and opened up a list of programs loaded onto MS-Dos.
She then began to explain every detail about the virus the class was gonna learn about on their first day.
"Today, we'll be taking a look at the Abraxas 2 Dos virus. When we type in the virus program and hit enter, it will proceed to infect files. If you run the program a second time, it will initiate a musical payload that may or may not damage your ears. And during this process, it will either return control to the user or hang the machine." Explained ClamWin as she infected her computer with the Abraxas 2 virus.
Void looked excited as he was curious to learn more about the entire virus removal workflow. He raised his left hand,
"Excuse me professor, how does one go about removing the virus?"
"Unfortunately, because anti-virus software weren't as advanced as they are today, you'll have to reinstall MS-Dos over the top to create a clean copy of the operating system." Explained ClamWin.
Void got off his chair and stood in front of his desk.
"Has Minister Norton or any other minister ever faced the Abraxas 2 virus before?"
"All ministers dealt with Abraxas 2, all except for AVG who was basically a coward back in the day. That was until Avast acquired his scripts to beef up his virus definitions."
Void suddenly realized that ClamWin was insulting AVG. He began to stand up to her and snapped.
"At least AVG was capable of blocking Trojan horses and helping me last year when we fought my father Total AV and his virus syndicate; Optical Illusions!"
"SILENCE!" Shouted ClamWin as she approached Void looking furious, "ONE MORE WORD OUT OF YOU AND I'LL HAVE YOU EXPELLED FROM THIS ACADEMY, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
"Admit it ClamWin... you always hated me." Said Void as he stormed out of the classroom.
SNT got up from her seat and ran after him, "Hey wait, get back here! Void!" Shouted SNT as she chased him down the hallway.
ClamWin looked back at the 2 students leaving the classroom.
She then bowed her head in shame as everything Void said about AVG was true. She unfortunately was still in denial as she always refused to accept AVG into the ranks.
Void headed down towards the gymnasium as SNT caught up with him.
"Hey, where do you think you're going? We don't have P.E yet silly." Said SNT as she grabbed Void's hands and looked at him.
SNT looked at Void and realized he wasn't happy, "Void Ranger, what's wrong?"
Void slowly looked back at SNT, he was very upset and was ready to cry.
"I don't like the way she insulted AVG like that. We both know AVG, he recently became a strong anti-virus since he helped us last year against Optical Illusions." Said Void.
SNT hugged Void and reassured him,
"Everything will be fine Void, I promise." Void slowly hugged her back and smiled as he was happy to have SNT comfort him while he was feeling down.
Void and SNT eventually stopped hugging each other, but he still held onto her waist and looked at her.
"Now... about ClamWin insulting AVG..." Void wondered.
"Could it be that she and AVG have had a history together?" Asked SNT as she slowly placed her hand on Void's chest.
"I honestly don't know SNT. But I want to find out." Said Void with a determined look on his face.
He gave SNT a quick kiss on the cheek before running towards the hallway leading to the gymnasium.
Just as Void was heading towards the gymnasium to speak with Minister AVG, SNT looked back towards Void and blushed, "What a robot."
SNT suddenly shook her head and shouted, "What am I doing? I have to get back to class!"
SNT then ran back into the classroom to continue her studying.
Meanwhile, as Void approached the gymnasium, he suddenly heard a voice coming from an empty classroom just beside the gym.
He listened in and heard Minister Webroot speaking to someone on his computer through a video chat.
Suspicious, Void hid behind the door and secretly eaves dropped in the conversation.
Unfortunately, the voice on the other end was a calm yet sinister voice that only Void knew too well.
"The viruses are with us tonight... My old friend." Said Webroot as he spoke towards what looked like a minister wearing black and red armor, and a red cape with a red shield and black keyhole logo.
It was very difficult for Void to tell who it was because the computer screen was glitchy and very static.
But the voice coming from the chat clearly didn't fool him whatsoever.
"Excellent!" Said Total AV who was happy to chat with Webroot.
"Total AV? How in the hell did he survive after our last encounter?!" Void whispered in shock.
"Tell me Webroot, how long have we parted company since we last saw each other in college?" Asked Total AV.
"40 years." Responded Webroot.
"So Webroot and Total AV knew each other long before Webroot joined the U.A.V." Whispered Void as he was starting to understand that Webroot and Total AV were best friends during their school years.
"But now that we are reunited after 40 years, it's time to put my next plan in motion which can hopefully overthrow the U.A.V." Said Total AV as he rubbed his hands together.
"That's great to hear, so what is it?" Asked Webroot who was eager to hear his plans.
Suddenly, a giant worm entered the classroom through the ceiling vents and approached Webroot.
He shockingly began to pet the worm as the worm sniffed him.
"So... all this time, Webroot was a traitor." Whispered Void as he secretly watched Webroot petting the giant worm.
"May I introduce to you... the SoBig worm. Tis a worm that shuts down email services and mass mails itself onto millions of computers. It was deactivated on November 7th 2003. But thanks to my programming skills, the SoBig worm has finally returned... Stronger than ever." Said Total AV.
Webroot continued petting the worm while Void secretly looked on.
"Now listen up Webroot, on November 7th which is also the 60th anniversary of the SoBig worm's deactivation, we will strike all the email services from around the globe in hopes that emails and text messages will cease to exist. Once all communication services have been shut down... a more dangerous form of malware will rampage throughout the servers." Said Total AV.
Webroot applauded for Total AV's plan but immediately stopped to explain the risks behind the overall scheme.
"Tis an exquisite plan my old friend. However, we have one major flaw... What about... Your son?" Asked Webroot implying that Void Ranger had previously fought and defeated his father in cyberspace.
Total AV approached the computer screen with a furious look on his face,
"Train the boy, teach him the ways of the united anti-virus movement. And then... give the worm it's 'blueberry desert.'" Growled Total AV as he wants revenge after Void destroyed his defense platform last year.
"Yes minister, it will be done as ordered sir." Responded Webroot as he bowed before Total AV before switching off the computer to exit the room.