Chapter Eleven

The Good, the Bad and the Viral

"Ratchet? Come in," Pyrus raised up her holograms from her main computers.

"I'm here," Ratchet appeared on the monitor.

"Alright," she signed, "Let's get down to business."

They had all gathered around. Ratchet and Pyrus had finished their review of the scan and samples they had collected. They hadn't even given a hint of what they had found. Ratchet seemed weary. Pyrus was noticeably distracted. Whatever they had found must have not been good or something disturbing.

As Pyrus began to type something into her holomonitor, Cerberus in its green gelatinous form pulled itself from the three computers and wrapped around Pyrus' arm. She gave a little smile and petted it. It seemed to quiver with excitement. It tried to merge with the screen she was working on, but she stopped it.

"No. No," she pushed it away, "I don't want you to use this data as a chew toy."

It backed off, but still remained coiled around its creator's arms.

"You have developed some needy tendencies," she smirked, "Interesting. I'll have to look at your personality matrix later. For now," she ordered, "continue Gate Keeping protocols."

The blob flashed green like it was answering back.

"Sorry," she apologized, "Ratchet and I have come up with some interesting findings."

"How are Bumblebee and Bulkhead?" Optimus asked somewhat nervously.

"Stable for now," Ratchet brought up their vitals, "Thanks to the water cooling, their core temperatures are remaining low. No sudden spikes in processor activity either."

"Let's keep it that way," Pyrus brought up 3D models of Ratchet, Bulkhead and Bumblebee, "Ratchet and I were beginning the scans on Bulkhead and Bumblebee when their processors started going into overdrive."

"We started with Bulkhead. It was going well until his temperature began to rise," Ratchet explained, "That's when Bumblebee's processors started initiating more than it could handle… you saw what happened…," he seemed embarrassed.

"We came to the conclusion that the malware must have sensed the scan as an attack," Pyrus continued for him, "It communicated between the two and began to try to burn everything out. A survival response is the best way I can describe it. Thankfully," she sighed, "We were able to support the pair while their systems ran rampant. That left us with few options to scan them."

"The radio scan you designed worked…," Ratchet started to say.

"It's fuzzy…," she snorted, "I like cleaner data."

"It was the best we could do without alerting the malware," Ratchet almost sounded like he was scolding.

"What did it say!? What did it say!?" Sari could barely contain herself.

"...," Pyrus didn't seem to want to answer, "Do you want the good news, bad news or worse news first?"

"Good," Optimus picked without thinking.

Pyrus brought up several holographic images. Some were of Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Ratchet and their various sections. Others were a series of numbers and strange symbols. Optimus recognized the symbols as Cybertronian. He wasn't sure what it was it all meant though as it only seemed like gibberish. Pyrus must have noticed his stare.

"Cybertronian language is fascinating… a shame I won't be able to dev into further after this is all said and done," Pyrus let out a sigh, "The first part of the good news is that Ratchet is immune and we know why."

"You know why. I didn't understand a thing you said," Ratchet huffed.

Pyrus shook head as she clicked her tongue, "Ratchet. It's simple. Halberd was able to enter your systems, but due to the incompatibility of its infection protocols and your… operating system, it could not initiate its full programming," she explained, "Though you seemed to get a heavy viral load, most likely through Bumblebee's electric attack, it had no way to replicate in your systems nor did it find a way to burrow into your communication array. This caused a conflict in Halberd's programming which triggered its self-degradation procedures. Hence why it was falling apart when we were collecting samples."

"Still not any clearer…," Ratchet still didn't understand.

Neither did anyone else.

"I guess what is important is that we now know why you're immune," she let out a frustrated sigh, "and what is causing it."

"If you know why he's immune and what's doing this, then does that mean that you have a cure or vaccine or something?" Sari asked impatiently.

"We're getting to that," Pyrus brought up an image of Bulkhead, "but first we need to look at the bad news," she waved her hand over the image that began to highlight several areas in red, "The malware seems to have infected Bulkhead's extremities first. Mostly non essential systems. However," she pointed to his head, "It has moved into his central processor which is why he was beginning to experience paranoid delusions."

"I'm no medic, but even I know that's no good," Optimus was growing more worried.

"The good news for Bulkhead is that the malware is moving much slower through his systems," Ratchet reported, "Pyrus believes that it's because of his… girth."

"He has more hardware to infect so the malware is slow to spread," Pyrus explained, "Which is good as it hasn't made its way to his… Spark was it?" she looked at Ratchet.

"Yes," he confirmed, "So far the malware has not infected his Spark nor its support systems."

"What about Bumblebee?" Optimus was afraid to ask.

"Two words. Not. Good," Pyrus collapsed the image of Bulkhead and brought up one of Bumblebee.

His entire body flashed red. There wasn't a speck that wasn't covered. Pyrus pulled at a few sections to highlight and enlarge them. Neither she or Ratchet seem to want to say anything. They knew it was bad. Everyone there could see that it was bad.

"Does… does that mean…?" Sari looked at Pyrus.

"It is as it appears," Pyrus confirmed, "Bumblebee is completely infected… including his Spark… He's very compromised… and we aren't sure the extent of the damage… There's no way of knowing how bad it is until the malware is removed from his systems. There might not be much left…"

"... no… no… NO!" Sari ran up to Pyrus, "Please tell me that there's something you and Ratchet can do. Bumblebee is going to be okay… right? He has to be okay," she began to cry into Pyrus' long black coat.

"Sorry kid," Pyrus didn't look down at her..

Her eyes went wide with fear. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks as she shook her head back and forth in disbelief. She didn't want to be true. There had to be something that they could do. She couldn't lose him… she just couldn't…

Optimus knew that Sari wouldn't be able to handle another loss. He wasn't sure if he was strong enough to handle it. He was the crew's superior and in charge of their safety and well being. He couldn't do that. He was responsible for what happened to them. Even if it was their choice, he was still responsible for their actions. Bumblebee was always impulsive and quick to act before he thought. It was Optimus' job to make sure that Bumblebee… his crew grew.

"What… what is causing this?" Optimus asked

"...," Pyrus didn't seem to want to answer.

"Well? Are you going to tell them or am I going to have to?" Ratchet growled at her.

She turned her head to him and snorted, "... I'm getting to it."

Collapsing the images of the infected Autobots, Pyrus brought up a screen that had a bunch of zeros and ones. Another with those numbers in a shapeless blob. Cerberus, who had been quietly observing, began to bristle and slither towards the image. Pyrus stopped it and told it to hush. It remained bristled, but backed off.

"I knew that my Halberd Trojan couldn't do this kind of damage," Pyrus pulled the image of the blob out into a 3D model, "It's not within its programming parameters. But… this isn't just Halberd… my Trojan was hollowed out by another," she began to peel away the numbers from the blob, "Say hello to the true perpetrator."

She peeled the blob like it was an orange. The bits she pulled away fell to the floor and shattered into thousands of shards of light. What was at the center of the blob was a single line of code that was coiled upon itself. With a bit of force, Pyrus straightened it out until all it could be seen. Unlike her other holograms, this one glitched in and out and twitched about. Cerberus withdrew from its place on Pyrus' arm and slunk its way around her neck. It almost seemed afraid of the image.

"What is it? Is it some sort of malware?" Prowl asked.

"Yes…," she answered distantly.

Prowl picked up on her hesitation, "You're familiar with it… or at least your program seems to know it."

"I don't blame Cerberus for its reaction… I understand now more than ever why Cerberus initiated its destruction protocols," she stared at the code, "It wasn't because it couldn't contain… well it couldn't… but it was a fear response."

"Fear response?" Optimus was confused.

"It's only natural… for it to be afraid of the monster that it came from," Pyrus caressed the quivering blob.

"Where it came from? What do you mean?" Optimus was confused.

"... I made this… this monstrosity… a beautiful amalgamation several types of malware… something that can't be excised from a system once it's burrowed in," her voice became strange, "This is only a piece of the monster I created oh so long ago… something that I made to consume everything… to make the world as I felt…," she looked down at the key that hung around Sari's neck, "... It knew… it knew that I was the creator of what was affecting your friends. It knew the purpose of Hydra… What are you, I wonder."

Optimus recalled Sari saying something about a text conversation, though brief, between the Key and Pyrus. Something about consuming and it won't stop and it's not what she wanted. It didn't make sense at the time, but now it was starting to come to light.

"What is Hydra?" Prowl asked.

"One of my greatest and most terrible creations," a sad smile formed on her face, "Hydra was the embodiment of my hollow self. It would consume everything… leaving computers… companies… people… broken… empty shells. A beastal piece of malware that no matter how much a person tried… you destroyed one part of it… and it would reform more powerful than before… each piece ripped off would become its own malware… burrow and devouring… I programmed it to leave nothing behind… this…," she ran her hand over the coding, "is just a small piece of it… and it caused so much damage… I made this monster…," she let out a laugh.

"You are a monster…," Sari whispered.

Everyone looked over to her.

"YOU ARE A MONSTER!" she screamed.

Her voice echoed through the place.

"You're a monster! Because of you and your stupid virus… you're Pyrus virus, Bumblebee and Bulkhead might die! They're my friends… my first friends ever…," Sari was beginning to sob, "I hate you," she began to pound her fists on Pyrus' legs, "I hate you!"

Pyrus just stood there and took it. She let Sari continue to hit and wail at her. Her expression never changed. She didn't speak a word or attempt to push Sari away. Sari cried and sobbed until she collapsed into a heap on the floor. Tears and snot coming from every place they could. She looked up at Pyrus with weepy eyes. The hacker hadn't said a word or changed her expression.

"Are you done?" Pyrus asked in a flat tone.

"You don't care… do you? You don't care that you hurt people," Sari slowly stood up, "YOU REALLY ARE A MONSTER!" she ran off in the direction of her room.

Optimus started to go after her, but Pyrus stopped him.

"I would let her settle down first," she warned him, "You won't win any father of the year awards by rushing in there. Let her cry herself out and give her time. She's not in a good place. And I assume that you aren't either," she looked up to him, "Give yourself time to process what is going on and prepare for what is coming. It's going to get complicated. It's going to be rough. Dealing with Hydra is a delicate matter and takes all my mental prowess to combat it. There are reasons why I don't use it anymore," she let out a heavy sigh as she collapsed her holomonitors, "Ratchet… I need to rest for a bit… this has been… trying… Call me if there are any changes…," she walked off to be somewhere alone.

"I'll do that," Ratchet grumbled before he signed out.

Optimus watched as Pyrus wandered off. He wanted to stop her and ask more questions about this Hydra she was talking about, but Prowl stopped him. He understood. There was a lot to take it and adding more to the confusion would do no good. She was right when she told him to take time to process all that was happening. Bulkhead and especially Bumblebee were in clear and present danger. They still didn't have a way of helping them or at least neither Ratchet or Pyrus indicated a way to cure them. They just knew why Ratchet wasn't affected. How this would help Bulkhead and Bumblebee, Optimus wasn't sure. He wasn't sure of anything. The only thing he was sure was this was not over. He had so many questions, but they would have to wait. He would have to wait.