Disclaimer: The characters of Reboot, the system of Mainframe, and all other such Rebootish things are copyright to Mainframe Entertainment Inc, and to some extent Alliance . . . dang, can never remember the full name. Please don't sue, I cannot afford savage attack lawyers, or even an attack chihuahua.

Although a MST3K-ing would be welcome. Just tell me where you put it up, neh? :

I also fully appologize to Slack and Hash, my unwitting and unknowing muses in the writing of this fic. May they forgive the lunacy my viewing of their creativity has spawned, and snitching lines from their '10 things I would Like say' page. Their beyond lovely Reboot website (with some of the BEST fanfic & art I've seen!) is at: http://www.c4vct.com/kym/slachash/

Full cheers, praise, and maniacal laughter for Hanako! Without the List to help keep my ego pricked /before/ my friends could read this . . . well, I'd be getting a LOT more teasing than I am now. And those who post at The Lists forums, for saying things that have made me
laugh, and kept me generally level while writing this. May they not lynch me with rubber penguins and fried green tomatos.

My own loony webpage is at: http://www.geocities.com/coravix/
All flames will be re-directed to the incinerator, my brother's bedroom, or used to cook oatmeal.

- - - - - - -

This is a Reboot fanfiction from the slightly questionably sane mind of Silent Steel. Spellcheck, a beta reader, Insane Asylum Inmate #1457, and several cans of Pepsi1 were utilized in the creation of this fanfic. While seasons 1-3 of Reboot have been declared absolute canon in the creation of this fic and will be followed to the best that human
memory can manage without DVD or videotape assistance, post and pre timeline of the series has been declared open territory.

And somebody already shot the 'No Hunting' sign. With buckshot.


Time equivilents:

Pica = Second

Nano = Minute

Micro = Hour

Cycles = Day/24hours

Kilo = Month

Second = Year

(Yes, I know it sounds dumb, but it works in my head. Which says something about the state of my mind)

-------------

### Warning: Incoming Fanfiction###


Virii

By Silent Steel

- - - ^ - - -

"So this Megabyte bloke might be back? And he's the one responsible for the system nearly wiping out completely?"

Ray asked, smoothly gliding around a tree that stood in his path through the park. Bob opted for just going over the tree, causing Ray to briefly shake his head in disbelief.

"Yeah . . . biggest headache in my life . . . What's driving me basic is how in the Net did he get back into Mainframe? The last anyone saw of him was when he got yanked into the web, and you got into Mainframe from the same portal. There hasn't been any gates or even really that many tears since the restart."

They both dodged a drinking fountain, and headed downwards, towards the lower levels of Floating Point Park. Only a few binomes were out and about . . . apparently, many were too spooked to risk being out where they might be at risk. Of course the new building on the highest island in the park might have had to do something with it.

"And between you and me, mate, a virus doesn't have a null's chance of sneaking into Mainframe."

"That's what worries me. Someone or something /did/ sneak into Mainframe, and for the life of me, I can't figure out how."

Both of them instinctively ducked as the explosion rang out above them. Exchanging a glance, the two headed up for the source of the noise . . . Hexadecimal's new residence upon the highest island in the park. Just in time to see the place lock itself up tighter than Dot's diary. After a few circles around the tower and no signs of outside damage, the duo came to a stop about midway up the thing.

"Wot caused that now?"

"With Hexadecimal, who knows?"

- - - - - - -

" . . it's simply in case things get out of control, Hexidecimal."

Dot attempted to assure the mildly annoyed virus via vidwindow, carefully keeping a smooth smile in place upon her face. Hexidecimal raised an eyebrow in a sweetly skeptical gesture, leaning her chin on one daintily-clawed hand.

"We do have to make sure the system is safe . . and to put it bluntly, you attract trouble."

Mouse, situated at a control terminal just out of Hexadecimal's field of vision through the vidwindow, raised an eyebrow herself at Dot's apparent lack of tact. Off to one side of the command center, Bit Binome turned to his partner, Byte Binome, and murmured quietly,

"Ten credits she just laughs."

"You're on."

A bet proven to cause Byte to lose ten credits to the sound of Hex's soft laughter. But all humor was shoved aside in moments by the Virus.

"So . . what do I owe this surprise to?"

Dot blinked in surprise at Hexadecimal's question.

"You didn't cause that explosion?"

Hexadecimal fluttered her eyelashes coquettishly at Dot, leaning back in her throne.

"Whyever would I do so?"

Dot glanced down at the terminal in front of her, stifling her annoyance with the ease of long practice, bringing up the records from when the explosion happened.

"According to this . . . the explosion happened within one of the lower levels of your tower."

In the vidwindow, Hex leaned back, blinking a few times in a rather thoughtful manner. With a wave of her hand, she brought up a vidwindow next to her, angled just so. As Dot watched, that thoughtful expression faded into something neutral . . . just before the vidwindow connection between the tower and the principle office was closed with the sharp gesture of one claw, Hex's voice rang out in a startled shriek. Bit Binome fell off his chair from where he'd been doing a victory dance.

Mouse and Dot glanced over at one another in surprise, hands hovering over their respective terminals, the word Hexadecimal had shrieked echoing through their heads. Behind Mouse, Byte helped Bit back to his feet as she said,

"Whatever that honey'd be finding impossible, ah /don't/ want to encountah."

" . . . I worry more about what do /we/ do if Hexidecimal can't, or won't, handle it."

- - - - - - - -

Phong nodded, lifting the small cage from the cabinet. Jostled by the movement, the small critter inside gave a sleepy whine in protest, before settling back down.

"So that is how."

The one on the other side of the vidwindow nodded, one hand rising briefly to rub over a scar running from left eye to chin.
"With some consequences."

The door to Phong's office opened quietly as the old command.com headed out, a thermos tucked under one arm, the cage carried in another. Behind him, the vidwindow closed without a single word of farewell. But then, they had never needed many words to say many things.

- - - - - - - -

They stepped into Dot's Diner, Ray with his board under one arm as usual, Bob with his minimized zip board held loosely in one hand.

"Bob!"

Bob looked up in dread -- only one person ever said his name like that -- and like always, he was a little too late in reacting. Young Enzo crowed victoriously from his new perch on Bob's stomach, chattering away a mile a minute. Questions spilled out of the young sprite's mouth as fast as possible, flooding Bob in a deluge of barely understandable words. At one of the back booths, Matrix shook his head, scratching Frisket behind the ears as he turned to look at AndrAIa. She chuckled softly at the look in his eyes, placing her hands, then her chin, upon his shoulder as she murmured,

"Finding it hard to believe you ever were like that, lover?"

Matrix grunted in reply, turning back to scratch Frisket behind the ears. AndrAIa simply smiled at him.

With young Enzo under one arm, Bob walked the length of the diner to drop the boy on Matrix and AndrAIa's table. The boy blinked in mild startlement a few times before scrambling over to the opposite bench from his elder self. Nearly kicking Bob in the face by accident as the Guardian sat down. Ray opted to sit on his board instead, having it hover level with the seat. Bob cleared his throat, and gave all of them a silencing look, nodding to Dot and Mouse when the vidwindow to the princlple office opened.

"Okay . . . As everyone here knows, we've got a situation on our hands, and as of yet no clear evidence as to /what/ is happening."

Dot nodded once, removing and folding her glasses to set them down, then unconsciously took control of the meeting by sheer presence.

"Thank you, Bob . . . Enzo, Matrix . . I need for you two to stick together."
A somewhat wry smile briefly crossed Dot's face.

"But Dot! I can take care of myself!"
Enzo promptly protested, only to get hauled back into his seat by his older self, who grunted in reply,
"No, you can't . . yet."

The last word was only added due to AndrAIa giving Matrix a look. Matrix transferred his gaze from AndrAIa to Dot, his frown deepening.

"And why me?"

"Because, quite frankly, I trust your reflexes if something goes after you two . . . I need to know you're safe."

Those words definitely caused a few blinks of surprise around the table . . . the Dot of old would /not/ have admitted a weakness. But then, none of them were exactly unchanged, even young Enzo . . . as there was now Matrix in his life. Like it or not, their sister was /not/ giving up her brother again, old or new.

Matrix grunted in surprise, but enough of his annoyance remained for him to speak again.
"That still doesn't explain why /me/. The principle office should be safe enough."

"Enzo has ancient languages class in five nanos."

"WHAT?!"

Dot gave them a sweet smile.
"Enzo's teacher was quite relieved to hear you would be there to protect her class on their fieldtrip today . . now, you don't want to be late, do you?"

Matrix's mumbled reply as he snagged Enzo and headed out the door was inaudible . . likely a good thing, as there was a high chance it was also very improper for mixed company. AndrAIa gave the retreating Back Of Matrix (TM), a fond smile before turning her attention to the
meeting at hand.

"So, what are my marching orders?"

Mouse beat Dot to the punch, as if she'd been waiting for the question. Considering how frazzled she looked, and it took a /lot/ to make Mouse look frazzled, she probably /had/ been waiting.
"Shugah, ah'm goin' tah need your help here at the Principle Office . . . Phong was helping me, but he said he had somthin' he needed to do in the archives about a compiler."

Bob blinked in surprise, leaning back in his seat.

"Now that's unusual . . . usually you can't pry Phong away from the main rooms of the Principle Office with a crowbar. And how would a compiler help now? I thought Mainframe couldn't run one."

"Apparently the restart included a system upgrade . . . everything's speeding up."
Dot put in, pulling her glasses back out of her pocket.

"Maybe he thought of something?"
Ray asked, leaning back on his board to lie flat on his back, the board itself angling up just enough that Ray could still see what's going on, but not so far as to make him slide off. Which he ended up doing anyway out of startlement when outside, the system voice said,

"Warning. Incoming game. Warning. Incoming game."

Both AndrAIa and Bob were out of the diner before Ray lifted his head from the floor. Cecil sniffed haughtily from where he was serving a pair of green-mohawked bondage binomes energy shakes. Even as the system alarms continued to ring, Ray /could/ overhear Cecil's muttered
comment as the maitre'd headed into the back of the diner.
"No manners whatsoever. Simply no manners at all."