* * *
Dot sighed and looked at herself in the mirror. Everything about her looked tired, slumped, and defeated. Losing Dad had been the worst thing that had ever happened to her, even worse than Mom's accident. At least then she had had people to comfort her, to be there for her. But her dad was a null somewhere, and so were many of her friends. Plus hundreds of others she never knew. Those that were still here were too busy dealing with their own losses to help. Worst of all, she had felt the sadness of all of this death and pain having come from Dad's experiment, what he had hoped to be the highlight of his life. What was planned to be a shining future turned out to be just the opposite.
The guardians, who had done tremendous work mending tears and stabilizing the system, had remained so distant and impersonal. Didn't they care? So far, the only guardian who had attempted to comfort her had been Bob, the guardian she had first blamed for the whole incident. Having to listen to the guardians explain what had happened the best they could had been hard on her. She could feel the whispers about her father peeling away at her. Dot looked down and remembered the sad smile Bob gave her before having left for the Super Computer again. At least he had tried to make things better.
Enzo had shown a total lack of enthusiasm for anything lately, but she had been too busy drowning in grief and self pity to take enough notice. Dot struggled against tears. Struggle, struggle, struggle. That's all she seemed to be doing nowadays. Her grief seemed to have no end. First Mom, then Dad. It wasn't fair. She should be deleted now. If only she wasn't late. Then all her troubles would be over. Why did Dad die when she didn't? What made her so worthy of life? Why was it so much harder o be the one to survive? Looking at herself in the mirror, she realized she needed someone who could offer her advice to help her through this time, someone to tell her what to do. The experiment had been over a second ago. Dot turned away from the mirror, and went to see Phong.
* * *
Dot's heels clicked quietly as she walked through the open hallways of the Principle Office. She had called Phong ahead of time and asked if they could talk, and Phong had graciously offered her to meet him in the Read-Only room. Turning the corner, she found the door leading to the room, and double-clicked on the doorknob to enter. Phong stood waiting, the large read-only vidwindow laid out in front of him. Phong smiled, but said nothing, waiting for her to speak first.
"Phong, I need to talk," she paused, "The experiment…everything's gone so wrong. What do I do? I…" Dot tried to finish her sentence. She had been the one who wanted to talk, but now she couldn't even find the words she needed.
Phong looked up at her levelly. "My child, like polishing a gem without friction, a person cannot become stronger without trials. I cannot tell you what it is you are to do. That decision is yours alone. But let me show you some footage recorded recently." He tapped on a button on the read-only window, and a scene of two binomes picking through the rubble popped up. "What do you see, my child?" Phong asked.
Dot looked down, almost dully at the scene, and said, "I see the wreckage caused my Dad's experiment." She was surprised by the tone of bitterness she heard in her statement.
"And…?"
"And what?"
Phong pointed to one of the binomes.
"They're cleaning up the rubble, trying to fix up things," she noted.
"Exactly. They remorse for their loss, but move on to make things better. They build for a brighter future, despite a dark present," he answered, touching his six fingertips together.
"Is this what you think I should do?" Dot asked. When the old sprite didn't reply, just looked at her with his gray eyes, she returned her gaze to the vidwindow. Dot looked hard at the window, as if trying to search for a hidden answer to a trick question. Her eyes blurred out after a nano, and she saw her reflection in the vidwindow. A reflection still tired, slumped, and defeated. The binomes were moving on, so why wasn't she? She realized that things were changing now, for the better, and she should as well.
Phong saw the realization in Dot's face, and finally answered, "Dot, I do not think words are what you need now. I think what you need…is action." Phong stroked his beard and said lightly, "Actions speak louder than words, you know," and smiled at his clever saying.
"Thank you, Phong," she said gratefully.
* * *
Megabyte looked at his newly rallied troops. Such modest beginnings. A little over a hundred binomes had been infected. Still, it was something, wasn't it? He supposed he could have infected more, but he had to lie especially low when the guardians showed up. It was surprising though, how ineffective they were. The guardians were smart enough to check for both forms of code from his previous life, but they hadn't even suspected to check for any alternate forms for the same strain of virus. It was rather amusing really; they were looking for one virus, when there were two entirely new ones all along!
Most of his infected minions were busy on the quiet construction of his new compound. Nothing suitable for him yet, but they were working on it. A binome was working on sealing up a containment unit, until he found his hand sealed to it. Trying to shake the containment unit off, he managed to know knock over several boxes and make a scene of himself. Megabyte realized that he probably should have 'hired' someone competent in the building industry, instead of mostly CPUs and med doctors.
Turning his attention away from the crowd of binomes hovering over the one with a containment unit stuck to his hand, Megabyte started to wonder about Hexadecimal. She was going to be a problem. He needed to find a way to silence her. However she had managed not draw attention to herself so far had been beyond him, but Megabyte knew this wouldn't last for very long. Stealth was crucial at this time, and if Hex started blowing up half of the city, the whole system would be on alert. Then it would only be a matter of time before they found out about him as well. And with such a small army, he would have absolutely no hope of fending off the systems defenses.
He was thinking about sending her a time delete bomb disguised as a mask when he felt himself step on something soft and squealy. Looking down, he saw it was green null. Disgusting annoyances, they should be ex--, Megabyte cursed, then stopped. The null was a striking green and white. Megabyte remembered little of his former existence as Gigabyte, but he recalled strongly a green sprite in a white lab coat operating the gateway hardware. Professor Welman Matrix, the one responsible for his creation, and the destruction of the Twin City. No mistaking it, this was the same sprite. How did he get all they way over here?
Grinning, Megabyte bent over to pick the null up. The null tried to squirm away, but the virus snatched him up easily. Inspecting it closer, Megabyte became sure this was the sprite. Megabyte's grin deepened at the irony of the situation. "I suppose I owe you a thank you, now don't I? It would be most rude of me to leave you to slither on the streets, after I've become so indebted to you, so…why don't you stay for a while?" Megabyte laughed.
* * *
Dot opened the door to her family's apartment and went in. She had been looking for Enzo, but so far hadn't found him. When she had asked Cecil at her Diner, still receiving repairs, Cecil had went into a fit over whether he looked like a nanny. Enzo wasn't at school either. Dot looked in Enzo's room and found him stroking a puppy by his bed, sniffling. His eyes were red. He must have been crying for a while.
"Enzo," she asked, coming in, "are you okay?"
Enzo covered the puppy in a flurry with his blanket and explained quickly, "Oh, Dot! I didn't see you coming. Um, I guess you saw the puppy, huh? He's really strong, and he started following me around after we bumped into each other at Old Man Pearson's place. Oh! Uh, I know I'm not supposed to go there but—Dot?! What happened to you?!" Enzo gaped at Dot, having finally looked up at her for the first time. All her old clothes were gone. Instead of purple dresses, lace up boots, the purple star makeup on her cheek, and her wild haircut, she had a shorter, more rounded haircut, short burgundy boots with heels, and a simple, pretty peach jumpsuit.
"Like it?" she asked meekly.
"Yeah, but…how come you changed your outfit?"
Dot walked over and sat down on Enzo's bed. She pulled the covers off the dog and gave him a pet. The dog gave a short whimper. "You been crying?" she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. Enzo nodded to Dot. "Enzo, things will get better, because…they're changing for the better. So am I." Dot felt like she was lying through her teeth. "And I think we should both try to make things better too. Together." She said, feeling her own pain present with her.
Enzo felt a sob clutch his throat. He remembered how miserable he had felt when Mom died. Just like now. But that was different. Dad and all his friends had been there. Now the tears seemed to be endless. How could they still move on? Dad and Mom were gone. How could you forget them?
Dot saw the anguish in his face. She squeezed his shoulders, trying to comfort him, and herself. "Mom and Dad may both be gone, but we still have each other, and that's what matters, right?" she asked.
Enzo looked up at Dot. Dad had said that exact same thing after Mom died from the accident when working to repair a nullified sector. Mom may be gone, but we still have each other, and that's what matters, right? Enzo recalled. They all knew the risks involved in her job, but none of them had ever expected she would die. But even her death didn't stop Dad. Instead, they all relied on each other for support, and things did get better. After a while, it stopped hurting, and things went back to the way they should. Overcoming losses with the ones you love had been a value both Mom and Dad had, and even though they were gone, he still had Dot, and that was all he would need. Enzo remembered the guardian too. Bob, right? Having someone with a cool a job as him would have been alphanumeric to have around, if things hadn't been so sad. Bob had said things would be better too.
The dog next to him barked in encouragement. Dot and Bob were right. He cleared his eyes, and smiled at Dot. "Yeah. That's what matters."
Dot gave him a big hug. Poor Enzo had been through a lot already, and now she was going to see that both of them were going to live happily again. Right now, Enzo was the most important thing in the net to her. All they had were each other.
The young dog let out another bark, not wanting to be let out on this touching moment. "What about you, boy, you wanna be in on this?" Enzo asked. Another bark followed from the dog.
Dot let out a quick sigh. Things were looking better already. "So," Dot asked, "what are you going to call him?"
* * *
Hexadecimal squealed with delight. Now, who said she couldn't make friends? She had one right here.
"Well, hello Scuzzy," she greeted her new creation. Playing with nulls had been fun for the past few seconds, and Hexadecimal had developed quite a connection with them. They were very easy to control, what with being mindless worms and all. But that had bored her now. Watching the guardians from the shadows had also been fun, but they didn't stay very long. She recalled the blue one. Hexadecimal had immediately recognized him from her days as Gigabyte, or Kilobyte, actually. One of the few details she had bothered to fish from her memory. He had such a soft touch. Such a scene, what with him trying to comfort the locals; Hex didn't know if she should be touched…or disgusted.
* * *
Megabyte drummed his finger on his new console. It was rather nice, and fit perfectly. Sitting with legs often left one stiff after a while, but without them, it was quite comfortable. His minions had been rather disturbed by his request at finding a way to detach his legs. But, they had managed, and now he floated intently at his console chair, while his legs were off to be polished. As he watched Mainframe's news on the vidwindow, not really paying any attention, he wondered if his legs would end up being shinier than the rest of his body. Didn't want that…
Nibbles, his recently acquired pet, and formerly Welman Matrix, interrupted his meander of thought. Megabyte liked his pet's name. One of the few 'cute' things that wasn't annoying. His pet null was staring at one of the vidwindows raptly, and Megabyte's gaze turned to what Nibble's was watching.
"Oh, oh, oh! And here's a spot of other good news as of lately," Mike the TV chirped from the vidwindow, "The opening of Dot's Diner, after many reconstructions and hardships of it's owner Dot Matrix (a close, personal friend of mine), is finally opening next cycle! Many citizens are eager for the opening, as Dot's Diner is being boasted as having the fastest food in Mainframe! Wow!" Mike continued to go on about the diner, but Megabyte paid little attention. Dot Matrix? Some footage was shown with a picture of Dot and Enzo while Mike carried on about how this magical opening was brought to you by Zippo Transports. Nibble's 'head' leaned closer to vidwindow, as if not daring to miss out on one bit of this scene.
Megabyte looked in interest at the two sprites on the screen. The resemblance to their former father was uncanny. They were, unmistakably, the spawn of Professor Welman Matrix. Interesting. It seemed the null had not lost all attachments to its previous life. Mike went onto other news, and Nibbles promptly lost interest, and slithered away. The virus watched Nibbles momentarily, but his attention was turned back to the vidwindow as Mike announced more breaking news.
"And this just in folks, but it appears we're going to be having a system upgrade! Hang onto your motherboards, we have an exclusive interview with the Principle Office Secretary, Phong!"
Phong. Megabyte had hardly been here a while and already he disliked the old sprite. The bearded old fool had proved to be more troublesome than he had thought. Megabyte had to be extra careful and speedy with his actions in order to prevent detection under Phong's relentlessly scrupulous watch. Most binomes and data sprites he infected often had associates who would voice their concern to others as soon as that binome or sprite went missing under Megabyte's control. If found missing, that could lead to a search that would end with him. Often Megabyte had to silence those concerned ones through infection too. Then he had to infect the associates of those associates. In others words, he had to infect faster than word of mouth. A difficult task, but not impossible. And it had led him to a nice, well-rounded army. Sort of.
"I am happy to announce, on behalf of the Principle Office staff, that we have detected an upgrade being initiated soon. We are expecting the upgrade to be downloaded from the User into our system in one second," Phong announced from the vidwindow, "The command.com asks that all citizens be aware of the systematic power down and make any necessary arrangements to avoid any inconveniences. We will be briefing you on the contents of the upgrade as soon as all upgrade operations have been completed."
"Thank you, Phong! And remember folks, you heard news of the upgrade here first! We'll be playing continuous reminders for anyone who missed out the first time on this exciting news. And now, a word form our sponsor…"
Megabyte thought for a moment. A system-wide power down? Naturally, the Principle Office's defenses would be at their highest, so it would be impossible for him to try to take control of that. Especially since all of his equipment would be powered down along with the rest of Mainframe. However, that still leaves the citizens of Mainframe. All CPU's would certainly be present at the Principle Office, minus a few CPU scouts patrolling streets for safety precautions. Plus, all communications and travel vehicles will be unable to function unless otherwise operated from the Principle Office. That left the citizens almost completely unguarded and unaware of anything until the system becomes powered up again. Excellent.
Even with his equipment stalled for the moment, Megabyte realized he could infect a large portion of the population himself while the rest of the city lie unsuspecting. The perfect way to infect undetected. It would be quite strenuous to infect so many manually, without the aid of his recently built PID machines to convert his new 'recruits' for him, but as the army of his grows, the effort would be become less. Once he became satisfied temporarily with his new mass of loyal followers, he would finally be large enough to fend off any attacks against the Principle Office, and finally 'set up shop'.
Megabyte smiled inwardly. Things couldn't have possibly played out any better.
* * *
Cecil looked for the tip at the table he had just waited at.
Nothing.
And people wondered why he detested customer service. Seemed the only person who said 'please' or 'thank you' or didn't greet him with a "Hey Ceecil!" was Madam Dot. He saw her hand wave over the top of a wall of vidwindows, immersed in business applications. Tracking along his ceiling railway, Cecil trailed to greet her.
"Madam?"
"Cecil, would you please take this and input it into the Diner's profit files?"
"Of course."
"Thank you."
Cecil turned around to start his errand when he bumped into Enzo. Or rather, Enzo bumped into him.
"Hey Ceecil!" Enzo smiled.
Cecil barked out a "Hmph!" and stalked off to finish his function. Enzo hopped into his seat and looked at Dot. Only, her face was hidden in screen after screen of vidwindows. He swerved left and right, but she seemed to be surrounded. Enzo plucked a vidwindow out in front of him, and finally saw Dot.
"H-hey! I'm not finished with those data transactions. I need those for the Willison account!" Dot said, startled. Enzo shrugged and handed it back.
"Sis, don't ya think ya have enough stuff to do?" Enzo asked.
Dot sent him a funny look. "It isn't 'stuff', Enzo, it's business deals and partnerships and agreements. I have to make sure I do my fair share of the deal. Right now I'm trying to have Al's Wait and Eat agree to a partnership with me. And then I have all these to input and…" Dot became yet again engrossed with her work.
Enzo rested his chin on his hand. So much for that, he thought, And I thought Ms. Brodie's version 2.0(2nd grade) class was hard! Still, it was pretty neat having a sister who already owned one-fifth of Mainframe's business and growing. Even if it did take really long for her to do whatever she did.
"All finished," grinned Dot, pleased at her work.
"Really?"
"Yep."
Enzo shifted his hat over to the side more. "Can we access a byte to eat?"
"Sure," Dot leaned back more comfortably in her seat, "Why don't we eat here?"
"Does that mean I'm gunna have to pay you?" he asked honestly.
Dot laughed. "No. It's on me." She beckoned to Cecil again and processed her order. Cecil quickly turned and hurried off before Enzo could add onto the list. For the first time in a long time, she had been feeling really happy, no longer so empty anymore. She felt a twinge of guilt for her happiness, but she brushed it aside. Now wasn't the time, she had no reason to feel guilty for being happy again.
All her friends, coworkers, customers, and especially Phong and Enzo had been so supportive of her. She had plunged herself into work to keep any thoughts other than business from seeping in, although she wasn't sure this was exactly what Phong had meant by 'taking action'. Playing business woman and being a parent for Enzo wasn't easy, but it was certainly better than drowning in sorrow, and she had finally gotten a rhythm back into her life that she needed. The Diner was open with other promising businesses, the upgrade would be here soon (that's why she wanted to get her 'stuff' together before Phong cut the power), and friends, family, and not to mention customers were with her. Dot smiled inwardly. Things couldn't have possibly played out any better.
* * *
Phong searched for his lost cup of cocoa, only to find it still in his hand. He was sure he had set it down… Taking another sip, he put his cup on a floating table off to the side, careful to remember it's location. Power down was next cycle, and so many preparations had to be made. Phong was feeling rather anxious about the power down, although, to be honest with himself, he didn't really know why. Ever since the explosion that created Lost Angles, too many odd things happened, too many coincidences. All of which tied to the hopelessly explained incident of Lost Angles.
"Perhaps I am just paranoid. It seems the incident of Lost Angles has shaken me even deeper than first thought" Phong said quietly to himself, taking a sip of his warm coco. Once the upgrade came, he would be able to relax. He wondered what would come with the upgrade. But first, where did he set his coco again?
* * *
Dot looked over her shoulder to see Enzo waving goodbye. Phong had invited her and a few other friends of his for the opening of the contents of the Upgrade. The whole city was buzzing in anticipation. Cecil gave a short wave, and herded Enzo inside.
When she arrived at the walkway leading onto the Principle Office, Dot waved to some CPU flyers she knew overhead and joined a group being led in by Phong.
"So, Number 9, how's your back?" Phong asked the numeral. 9 gave a short shrug and rolled his eyes. Phong turned to Dot. "Are we all ready?" Everyone nodded.
Once at the pinnacle of the Principle Office, Phong called out "Pinnacle Elite, Core Control!" and the sphere lowered slowly into the Core Control Chamber. When the pinnacle had arrived at the chamber, Dot was astounded by the size. The chamber glowed a warm green, but was fairly small, almost like an island. But the inside, the hollow spherical area containing the control chamber was enormous, almost surreal. It almost seemed to have transfinite parameters, just like the Archives. Dot felt the inside start to hum to life.
Phong stood levelly at the center of the core control platform. He saw Dot looking around in awe with the others and smiled. This was her first time in here, wasn't it? The last time they had had an Upgrade, both Welman and his wife had been present. Had it really been so long ago? Phong wondered what Dot must be feeling right now. The old sprite turned to an open vidwindow.
"Citizens of Mainframe, please prepare for the power down at once. I repeat, please prepare for the power down immediately."
***
Megabyte could hardly suppress his grin. It was all starting now.
"Rally the troops," he snapped, "I want the nearest sector contained and ready for infection the instant the power down takes place."
* * *
Hexadecimal looked up at the sky. It was getting darker. My, what was happening? Oh, who cared? It was certainly entertaining. Was the system going to crash? Hexadecimal put on a happy face. This was going to be so much fun!
"Scuzzy, take a look at this." Hexadecimal smiled. Scuzzy sputtered and started to deflate. Hexadecimal grew impatient. "Are you listening to me?" she yelled, but Scuzzy was silent, a victim of the power down, having been assembled loosely from different components of appliances found by Hexadecimal. The virus turned away. Scuzzy was being boring right now, so she shouldn't waste the light show for it right now.
Hexadecimal stared up for a while at the dim sky, then grew irritated. That was it? Hmph, if this is big news for the Mainframers, well, she would have to show them some real fun, wouldn't she? She was about to go off to uproot a building or something of the sort, when the sky suddenly blazed of yellow.
**ATTENTION. INCOMING UPGRADE.**
**ATTENTION. INCOMING UPGRADE.**
Hexadecimal's eyes reflected the same yellow in the sky. My, it was very pretty…
* * *
Dot squinted. It was so bright! She remembered how big the upgrade had seemed watching from her family's apartment when she was little, but up close it seemed even more awing. Mainframe's sky swirled and mixed of yellow, a sea of light coating the sky. A monotonous female voice alerted the system of the upgrade, and a box the size of a dozen containment units hurtled down. It landed impossibly perfect onto the platform given the speed it came down at. The sky lingered a warm yellow for a nano more, and evaporated. All eyes fell from the sky onto the box.
"Shall we see what's inside, my children?" Phong asked cheerily as he reached the box.
* * *
Phong turned to a vidwindow leading to the population of Mainframe and reported, "Citizens of Mainframe, power up has been completed, and all communication and travel is back to normal. I am very pleased to inform you the upgrade was a complete success. We have received from the User a paint program, a viral erase command, and a word processing program with an attachment added on. All files have been put into application and will be stored in the Archives later on. If you have any questions or concerns, the command.com and I will be happy to answer you at the following number."
Dot read the number posted on the vidwindow announcing the news in Mainframe's sky. She wondered if the command.com was really Phong. He seemed to do everything for the command.com and—
"DOT!"
Dot looked around. Enzo had popped up right beside her. She had only gotten in the Diner a nano ago…that little guy was fast! "Dot!" Enzo cried in suspense, "what was it like? It must have been so cool to see it up close! When I'm older, can I see it too? What was it like? Was it fun? I heard that something exploded! Did something explode? Oh, can Frisket come too and maybe—"
"Enzo!"
"Huh?"
Dot heaved a sigh. "How about we sit down and I'll tell you every little detail, okay—", Dot stopped. Enzo was already in a chair halfway through her sentence. She shook her head and sat down. After Enzo had drilled her about how "alphanumeric" the upgrade was up close, Dot went to explain the contents.
"Phong put the paint and business program into the archives, along with Dad's backup portal hardware," she said, careful not to wince and the thought of her father, "The viral erase command is being researched in accordance with the stuff the guardians gave us."
"Like Bob?"
"Yeah," she affirmed, "and the attachment added on the word processor was opened and applied, but it seemed to be mostly useless data. That might get put in the archives too."
Enzo grinned. An upgrade, how cool! And Dot got to see it. Enzo admitted to himself he was a little jealous of his big sister. She always had something to do. But Dot had promised that she would let him see an upgrade when he was an adult, and when it was safer. He could barely wait until then. Enzo wiped his nose with his sleeve and took a quick sip of his energy shake.
* * *
Megabyte was tired, but it was a good tired. The infection had been an absolute success. He now held sway over a hefty chunk of the population. It was draining having to infect all of those sprites and binomes himself, but it was so satisfying watching their faces change from horror and hopeless defiance to total, undying loyalty. He ran his hand along the smooth console. Damn, this felt good.
* * *
Phong took off his glasses. This couldn't be happening…a viral infection? The reports of endless missing citizens, and then the construction of an ominous red building. No doubt. They had a virus. Wasn't losing the Twin City at the hands of a virus enough?
"Thank you, my son" Phong said weakly to the CPU, the deliverer of this new bad news. He closed out of the vidwindow and stared hard into the blank floor, although not really focusing. The only way the virus could have entered this system was through the upgrade. It seemed the attachment added to the word processing program truly wasn't as empty as he had thought it was. How could he have been so careless? And this virus's infection rate was off the charts. The upgrade had been just last second…and already a fifth of Mainframe was infected. What to do now…what kind of action should he take?
Stealth and cunning seemed to be this virus's biggest weapons. Phong doubted this new virus infected so many by brute force. His infection would be slowed greatly if revealed…however, Phong worried the virus may use more drastic measures to continue. Binomes and sprites would be sure to suffer, regardless if they were infected or not. But there seemed to be little other choice. He could not sit by and watch a virus consume Mainframe. He and others would have to rise up and face this new threat, only then could Mainframe be able to resist this new virus.
* * *
Enzo reached to retrieve his yoyo from under a table. His hands found it and he got up, banging his head on the table. He rubbed his head tenderly and found Cecil talking to Dot, both with very serious looks on their faces. Uh-oh. Did Cecil find out he was the one who spilt the energy shake on the food processor? Enzo hesitated, but decided to go over and ask what was up anyway.
"Um, hi guys. What's up?"
"A new virus, that's what. Just got a report today." Cecil replied knowingly, wiping back his hair.
Enzo gaped. "A new virus? What's it like? Is it big and scary with a zillion teeth and twenty heads and acid stingers? Is anyone hurt? Are they okay? What is the virus doing? Why didn't Phong tell everyone about it on the big screen in the sky, so everybody can see it?"
Cecil huffed and said, "Phong didn't air it in the sky because if the virus saw it, it may attack. That's why he sent everyone personal e-mails. He didn't say what it is, or what it looks like, but it's seems dangerous enough, I suppose because of it's infection abilities. That's why everyone is going under special guard until everything gets dealt with. Does that clear everything up for you, young master?" Enzo was about to ask more, but Cecil didn't wait for him and tracked off.
Dot tapped the corner of her organizer with her finger. A virus. She was already sick with them, what they did to the Twin City. Well, she was going to support Phong's campaign to stand up to the virus all the way. Mr. Pearson had been in here earlier today, with his aroma, going on about how he'd can the virus if it ever set foot on his good property. She hoped the rest of Mainframe was up to it too.
* * *
Megabyte was busy fantasizing about how wonderful it would be once he had Mainframe under his control, when he was interrupted by an opening vidwindow. He turned his console around to face his intrusion, and found Hexadecimal grinning toothily down at him.
"Ah, Hexadecimal. How is my lesser half?" he chided nastily.
Both Hexadecimal and Megabyte noticed that the other was inspecting their fingernails at the same time and both put their hands down immediately.
Hexadecimal ignored Megabyte's comment, and smiled back, seemingly benevolent. "My dear Megabyte, such quiet chaos you've caused! This is even more interesting a result than that small stampede of nulls I sent to the Kits sector." Hexadecimal laughed loudly, but stopped abruptly and went on. "Now they have people walking in pairs, and CPUs crawling everywhere. I had to dispose of some that trailed to close to my new lair here at Lost Angles."
"What do you mean by that? Walking in pairs? CPUs?" Megabyte asked suspiciously.
Hexadecimal snickered at her brother's lack of knowledge. "Why, Phong had sent an e-mail out to all the registered PIDs of this system. Scuzzy happened to hack into one of these e-mails and extract the information for me," she answered. Reading Megabyte's confused expression, Hexadecimal pointed to Scuzzy. "That's Scuzzy, my pet. Wave hello, Scuzzy!"
Leaning back in his control console, Megabyte scowled and asked "And you contacted me for what reason?"
"Scuzzy and I have noticed your lapdogs circling around my perimeters." Hexadecimals eyes turned red. "You wouldn't be up to something, now would you? There's…nothing of interest here, so why bother sending your minions here?"
"Oh, you know. Making room for my infection. Nothing to be so moody about." Megabyte responded nonchalantly.
"Well, infect in the other direction. I can't control my hungry nulls all the time…"
Megabyte was about to retort something nasty to Hexadecimal's threat, but the had closed out the vidwindow before he could speak. He was hardly interested in Lost Angles, but finding a way to contain Hexadecimal was definitely a priority. Herr Doktor had some plans to offer, but he was busy working on his two new robot helpers at the moment…
* * *
Igor waddled towards Herr Doktor with the two new robot's brains in a jar. He could've been able to walk faster, if only his foot hadn't been a brick…The Doktor stood ready at the table with the two new robots, Hack and Slash, ready for their brains to be placed inside their craniums.
"Vill you hurry up? Ve haven't all cycle! Lord Megabyte vants dem ready as soon as possible! Hurry up!" Herr Doktor shouted impatiently from the table, his heavy accent marring his words.
Igor laughed at how funny the Doktor looked when he got mad, and stumbled over his brick foot. The jar, and the brains, went flying. They crashed and splattered right in front of Herr Doktor, now piping mad. "ACK! You nincompoop! Look what you have done! Now Lord Megabyte vill have our heads!"
The malformed binome went into great sobbing tears at his accident. Herr Doktor sighed, and his shoulders slumped. "Ah, you big baby. Here, get a dustpan and sveep up da mess. Ve'll put da brain remains in da heads anyway, and Lord Megabyte vill be none da wiser." Igor sniffled the last of his tears away and went to work.
"Hack and Slash here!"
"Ready for our first mission, sir!"
"At your command, sir!"
"Just say the word, and we're on it!"
"Like a null on energy!"
"You betcha!"
"Ready to go!"
"QUIET!"
"Yessir!"
"As you wish, O metal-plated one!"
Megabyte looked at Herr Doktor, and raised an eyebrow. "And you are telling me these are my new 'right hand robots'?
Herr Doktor nodded vigorously, Igor right behind him. "Yes, my lord. Zhey are state of da art, veaponry enhanced battle robots. Da very best ve could come up vith." Herr Doktor answered, starting to sweat at the brow.
Megabyte's scowl changed into unbelieving exasperation. This was the best they could come up with? Taking over Mainframe may be harder than he thought. "They seem like a pair of scatterbrains to me," he sighed.
Herr Doktor and Igor exchanged nervous glances.
* * *
Dot drummed her fingers on a table at the diner. Honestly, she spent more time here than she did at home. She wondered how Mr. Pearson was doing. He hadn't sent in any banking requests, or threats of what he'd do the next time Enzo came onto his property. Dot also worried about Al. Al and her were very close. Both he and Mr. Pearson were on the borderline of the virus's territory…she hoped nothing bad had happened.
Enzo whirled in. He promptly plopped next to Dot. "Hey sis! Hey…what's a matter?"
"Just a little concerned, that's all."
"Ohhhh, it's 'bout that virus, huh?"
Dot blinked. "Yeah."
Enzo sniffed with a small degree of pride. "Don't worry, Mrs. Brodie and all the other teachers have made us do virus drills," Enzo noticed Dots curious expression and added, "Yeah, we all hide under our desks while one of the teachers call Phong, then we sneak out the back. Some new trap door they're building! It goes underground 'n stuff. We had a drill today. Mrs. Brodie, she got stuck! Boy, it was funny. We laughed hard until she gave us detentions…yea. That's why I was late. Um, sorry. Anyways…"
Dot sighed inwardly. Drills? That would never help…especially set up like that. That virus would have its infected slaves everywhere. It would never matter where you ran. And Enzo…
Dot spoke up. "Enzo, I—" she couldn't bring herself to finish. This was too much for a little kid. Too much for her. She should mind her own business. Enzo looked back, waiting for her to finish. "Um. Enzo," she smiled weakly, "how did they get Mrs. Brodie out?" Enzo immediately became animated and gesticulated enthusiastically as Dot watched him and sighed again.
* * *
Al Waiter's handed out some stale food. Heh, they actually paid for this stuff. He felt like barking a laugh, but the smell of the food drowned that out quickly. A numeral, Number 8, asked again for his food.
"Sorry, chum. Coffee break."
"BUT I BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOOD SINCE I WAS FOUR!"
Al's Waiter sighed. "What's you number?"
"Eight! Are you blind?"
Al's Waiter resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I meant your ticket, buddy."
Number 8 rattled off his number and handed in the ticket. "See here? I'm next. Gimme my food!"
Al's Waiter looked at the ticket, then tore it up. "Not anymore. Please take another ticket and wait your turn, pal." Number 8 screamed fury, and Al's Waiter
walked into the back room. The trash heap over flowed the garbage can. Al's Waiter decided it could wait till next cycle. He called out to Al, "Hey! You gunna vidwindow Dot or am I gunna have to do that too?"
"What?!"
"Yes, then, huh?" Al's Waiter mumbled to himself and dialed for Dot. They were supposed to have another meeting, business and such. Whatever. Dot surprised face popped in front of him. "Meet Al and me tomarrow here, OK? Same old, same old," he said, and closed out the vidwindow bleakly before Dot could respond. He heard the new roller skater waiter trying to calm down Number 8 out front, much to failure. Al's Waiter sat on a stack of food to be delivered and picked his teeth.
Dot tried to utter a word to Al's Waiter before he closed out, but was cut off. Oh well. A trip to Sector 31 again. Maybe she should surprise Enzo and pick him up from school. She would have to keep a sharp eye to keep him from launching himself into trouble, but that wasn't really a problem for him to tag along. Turning to her organizer, she started reorganizing her schedule to find adequate time to meet with Al. It was very time consuming to have business meetings with him.
* * *
Enzo desperately tried to suppress a giggle. A repairman got stuck in the tunnels out as Mrs. Brodie told him, "Now, I told you it was far to small!" The bell rung and Enzo longed for the door, but Mrs. Brodie was still in a fowl mood, and only dismissed them after they were all seated perfectly. He raced to freedom, and waved goodbye to some of his binome friends. Dot stood at the corner and smiled.
"Hey, Dot! What're you doin' here?"
"Mm…I have a business meeting with Al, and decided to take you with me." Dot said.
Enzo was happy to be picked up. And even happier to go to level Thirty-One. Dot NEVER let him go there unless he was under her tight supervision. He nodded and took her hand as she led him to their car.
The contrast between level Thirty-One and the rest of Mainframe was sharp. Everything was dim and wet on this side of town, and the null problem was horrendous. A red tower stuck out sorely in the distance. Dot walked towards Al's Wait and Eat, Enzo tagging along closely behind her. The florescent sign flickered persistently, refusing to go all the way out. A crash came from inside, and shouting followed. That was pretty typical of Al's, except the people inside came rushing out. Fights at Al's normally had people running in to watch, not running out in panic. Dot grabbed Enzo's hand and led him to the side of the building.
"Enzo, stay here. Don't go with ANYONE. If you're in trouble, shout for help, alright?" Dot instructed. Enzo's round face nodded back, full of worry. She turned and walked inside, and found the room being torn apart by a couple of robots. Al and Al's waiter were being held in the corner, and all the other customers were fleeing out to any exit they could find. Dot ran to Al and Al's Waiter to see if they were okay. The two matching robots whirled around and spotted Dot.
"Hey you!"
"You there!"
"Freeze, lady!"
"DON'T make me use this!"
Dot asked, "Who are you? What's going on?"
Al's Waiter answered for the robots, "Those two are called Flap and Jack—"
"HACK AND SLASH!"
"Get it right!"
"—And they're smashin' up the place for our money and our lives! Those two work for the virus! They blew up the garbage disposal! How will this dump ever be able to function again?"
"WHAT?!" Al shouted in despair.
The two robots bristled and headed towards them. Dot stood her ground. Both robots loomed over them, and capture was pretty certain. Then a voice rang out: "What're you two doing? You should have finished ages ago! Let's get going!" A huge armored tank hovered outside the door, operated by a viral binome. Hack and Slash stumbled over each other and emptied the cash drawer, and a pile of greasy food, into a bag before they wheeled into the waiting tank. The tank sped off.
All of them breathed a sigh of relief. Dot stopped mid-breath, and ran outside to find Enzo. He was gone!
"SIS!"
Wheeling in the direction of the voice, Dot saw Enzo running from behind some ruins in the distance. They hugged for a moment and Dot asked, "Enzo! I thought I told you to stay put! Why didn't you stay?"
"Sorry, but they woulda seen me. They had tanks out back! They were huge! And—and, they said somethin' 'bout getting ready to move into another sector! That's why they're lootin', maybe." Enzo explained.
Another sector? That means the virus isn't playing around anymore, Dot thought. They needed to warn Phong! Dot whipped out her organizer and dialed his number.
* * *
Phong had just received a nasty call from Mr. Pearson about the mess the virus's flunkies had caused him, and how he was going to give them a piece of him mind next time when Dot called, looking very worried.
"Yes, my child? What is the matter?" Phong asked.
"Phong, I think the virus knows were onto him. Enzo overheard them talking about expanding by force…" Dot looked questioningly over her shoulder at Enzo, who nodded, affirming.
"I see. Thank you Dot. I will have the system on alert immediately" Phong paused then said, "Dot, you and Enzo should come to the Principle Office. I could use the help, especially hearing young Enzo's discovery, and it would be much safer."
"Right. Thanks Phong." Dot said and closed out. "Al? Are you okay?"
"What?"
"I guess that's a 'yes'…Enzo? Let's go!
"Okay!"
"Al? Were leaving for the principle office. Stay safe! We'll be back!"
"WHAT?!"