Legal Stuff: The people at Mainframe made and own ReBoot. I just like playing around with their characters.
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Author's note: This chapter had a LOT of errors when I first posted it. I have fixed those now. Chapter six should be out by the end of the week.
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The Best of Both Formats
By
The 18th Angel
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101- The Queen
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The conference room was silent. All eyes rested on Dot, their owners stunned by her revelation.
"Is this even possible?" AndrAIa asked.
"I know it's hard to believe." Dot whispered. "But it's real."
"How?" Matrix asked. "How did he..."
"He took my code." She shook her head. "All he had to do was ask. Once I was infected...I couldn't refuse."
"I kill him! I'll delete him for this!"
"Right now we have to figure out how to get Terabyte out." Dot said.
"You don't really think he'll hurt her, do you?" Mouse asked. "Ah mean, she's his daughter."
Dot shook her head again. "He doesn't care about that." She said. "He only made her so he can become Gigabyte again. He'll drain her energy. He'll erase her just to become more powerful. As long as she's with him, she's in real, mortal danger."
"What can we do?" AndrAIa asked.
"Ray, can you portal in there again?" Dot asked.
"It'd be risky." He said. "There's no way of knowing where she is. If we don't make the portal right next to her, we'll never get out alive."
"If we can sneak in there and make a tear, either one of us can portal out." Bob said.
"NO GOOD." They turned to where Clash stood, guarding the door. "MEGABYTE WILL HAVE FOUND ALL THE SECRET ENTRANCES BY NOW. WE CANNOT SNEAK IN AGAIN."
"What other options do we have?" Matrix said. "Either we sneak in or we shoot our way in."
"Either way, one or more of you is likely to get hurt." Welman said.
"I won't risk that." Dot said firmly. "We'll just have to find another way. If I can just get to her, I know Terabyte will come with me. She's terrified of Megabyte."
"The only problem is getting you to her then getting both of you out of the Tor alive." Bob said.
"Whatever we do we have to do it soon." AndrAIa broke in. "If you're right about how fast she's compiling, it won't be long before she's strong enough for Megabyte to drain her."
"I just can't believe he'd do that to his own child." Welman insisted.
"You don't know Megabyte like we do, Dad." Matrix said. "He only cares about himself."
"He doesn't even think of her as his child." Dot added. "She's just a tool to him. ...An expendable asset."
* * * * *
Terabyte sat alone in her 'room', four walls and a bed. Tears ran down her cheeks and she found that, for all her strength, she was powerless to hold them back. It was all she could do to remain silent. Her father did not tolerate crying.
But she couldn't help it. Her mother had been kidnapped. The Guardian had sent that robot to take her away. Without her, Terabyte was lost; alone. She had grown again; she wondered if her mother would even recognize her anymore. She had to be at least 1.7 now, as Sprites figured physical age.
"Is she in there?"
"Yes sir."
Terabyte looked up, hurriedly wiping away her tears. Her father was out in the hallway. Sure enough, moments later, his face appeared in the doorway.
"It's time. Come with me."
"Yes, father." She said quietly. Time for what? She wondered. But questions, like tears, were not permitted.
He led her through the tunnels into the doctors laboratory, where she received her shots every second. But the atmosphere in the room was different this time. It seemed busier somehow, as if some kind of energy ran through the Binomes as they moved about. Purpose; that was it. Something big was going on.
"Father...?"
"Herr Doktor." Her father ignored her inquiry. "Are we ready?"
"Almost Mein Kaiser. I need to make a few more adjustments to ze equipment."
"Well hurry up. Any second now, Dot will have the Guardian back in here. I want to be ready when he arrives."
"Ya. All will be ready, I assure you."
Finally, Terabyte couldn't contain her curiosity.
"Father, what's going on?" She asked. "What's Mommy doing with the Guardian."
Her father seemed to consider his response for a moment. "The Guardian has your mother...and he's going try to come back for you. Were going to perform a little...procedure here so we can fight him."
"What are we going to do?"
"You're asking too many questions."
"But Father..."
"Enough." He snapped, silencing her. "Herr Doktor, prepare for energy transfer. Set output rate to 505. Open the chambers."
"Chambers?" Terabyte was beginning to get scared. Two large pods in one corner slid open, revealing operating tables, one of which was equipped with restraints.
"I...don't need to be strapped down." She said, trying to keep her vice steady. "We're...just doing another transfusion, right? I can handle it. Really."
"No, that cannot be allowed." The doctor told her father. "Her instincts vill take over for self-preservation before ze process is complete."
"Self -preservation? What's going on?"
Her father gave the doctor a look that could freeze a firewall.
"Do you want your mother back, Terabyte?"
"Y-yes."
"Then you must allow me to take back some of the energy I gave you. Otherwise I won't be strong enough to rescue her."
"But...why can't we just go and rescue her together? I'm strong enough now, I could help..."
"NO!" She shrank back from her father. "You are not going anywhere except into that chamber, young lady. Don't make me tell you again!"
A memory stuck in her head; something he father had said. That girl exists for one purpose. You're job is to keep her out of my way until she can fulfill that purpose.
"It's going to kill me, isn't it?" She whispered. "You don't just want some of my energy; you want it all."
"Get in the chamber."
"How can you do this to me? I'm your daughter! Don't you care about me at all?"
"Enough dramatics." Megabyte replied in a low growl. "Get in that chamber!"
"No! Leave me alone!'
Enraged, he grabbed her by the wrist and tried to drag her to his waiting death machine. "I am through asking nicely! GET INSIDE!"
"I HATE YOU!" She twisted out of his grasp easily, fighting back her tears. "You never loved me at all did you? You've been using me since the second I was initialized! Why father? What did I do to make you hate me so much?"
Megabyte sighed dramatically. "Oh dry your eyes, child." He yawned. "You're breaking my heart."
And suddenly, her eyes were dry...dry and burning with rage. Without a word, before she could think long enough to reconsider, Terabyte reached out and plunged one fist into her father's chest. Her hand ripped through layers of metal and wire, eventually closing around his CPU. She grinned up at him coldly as the first real terror he had felt in a long time filled his eyes.
"Not yet." She jerked her hand back, taking Megabyte's CPU with it.
Megabyte fell to the floor. He was still alive, but not for long. Terabyte turned to his minions, all of whom had been so eager to delete her for his sake.
"Dispose of that." She ordered. The Binomes closest to her took that as an opportunity to get further away and began dragging the body out of the lab. "Anyone who wants to beg for forgiveness can stay. The rest of you had better be out of here by the time they're done."
In the corner of her eye, Terabyte saw the doctor trying to sneak away. She reached a hand out and grabbed him with invisible force, pulling him toward her.
"You were in on this from second one, weren't you?"
"Neine! I vas only following orders!"
"Here's the deal Herr Doktor." She said in a low, menacing whisper. "We're going to get my mother back from the Guardian. I want a list of every power at my disposal in my hands by the end of the second, or so help me, I will have you 'researching' the inside of a tear! Verstehen?"
"Ya! Ya, My Queen! It vill be done!"
* * * * *
Dot found Bob in the Read Only Room. He and Enzo sat together at the table, looking through the archives.
"What about this, Bob?" Enzo said, pointing to his vidwindow. "A Hidden File command."
"It's a good idea Enzo." Bob said. "But you have to stand absolutely still for it to work."
"Oh." Enzo said dejectedly.
"Don't worry." Bob assured him. "We'll just keep looking."
"Hard at work I see." Dot said.
"Dot!" Enzo jumped up and ran to hug her. "Bob and I were just looking for ways to get in there and stomp old Megabreath! Did you come to help?"
"Actually, I thought you might like to take a break." Dot said, handing him a few units. "Why don't you run down to the Diner and get some energy shakes?"
"Sure Dot." Enzo gave her another hug and ran out.
"You didn't tell him?" Bob asked as soon as Enzo was gone.
"About Terabyte?" She asked. Bob nodded. "I didn't know how. I still don't."
"I know." Bob said, taking her hand as she sat down. "I won't lie to you...I think it's going to be hard on him. But he's a lot stronger than he seems and..."
"Is it...hard on you?"
"What?"
"I mean...I've been telling you all that we have to rescue Terabyte, and I never even thought how you...how all of you might feel."
"You think we don't want to help her?"
"Well she's...she's Megabyte's child. I can't help loving her...but you..."
"Listen to me." Bob said. "She's a child. And she's in danger. I have to help her however I can."
"Yes because of the Guardian Protocol. But..."
"No." Bob said. "Because you asked me to."
* * * * *
They had dropped him at the edge of G-Prime. His loyal followers, suddenly not so loyal. Swimming through the haze of pain, he had managed to drag himself to his feet and stagger toward the center of the city. His CPU, the source of his power, had been destroyed. His only hope for survival now lay in the Core.
The citizens of Mainframe ran and hid as he passed them on the street. He would have laughed if the pain in his empty chest were not so intense. Staggering, barely able to remain upright, bleeding his last drops of energy all over the sidewalk, he could still fill the little Binomes with dread.
The Principal Office lay ahead of him. He paused in front of the main bridge. He had to get into the Core, but it wasn't likely that they would let him simply walk in. And he couldn't fight them in his condition.
A terrify and humiliating realization came to Megabyte. His experiment, like so many before her, had gone out of control. But this time there would be no recovery, no second chance. He was going to die. Megabyte gritted his teeth and stepped out onto the bridge. He couldn't survive this time; but before it was all over, he had a message for the Guardian. And for Dot.
* * * * *
"So...If it wasn't Terabyte, then what's been bothering you?" Dot asked.
"Bothering me?"
She nodded. "You've been distant ever since I got back; Mouse said you tried to put a hole in your living room wall... I thought you were just upset about Terabyte. If that's not the case, then what's the problem?"
Bob sighed. "It's something I haven't thought about in a long time." He said. "I...I think that, losing you...made me think of Annie again."
"Annie?" Dot asked.
"My sister. Anne Interface." He smiled, remembering. "I was the only one who called her Annie."
Dot was speechless for a moment. In all the time they had known each other, Bob had never mentioned having a sister. Now that she thought about it, she knew almost nothing about his family.
"Is she...?"
"She's alive." He said. "Sort of. She's in a quarantine cell in the Supercomputer, under constant sedation."
"What happened to her?"
"My father was a Guardian." Bob said. "So was his father, and his father's father...you get the idea. One second, Dad fought a Virus called Centry. He thought he deleted her, but...that night, she followed him home. This time he killed her...but not before she infected Annie. There was nothing we could do for her. The Guardians just...put her in quarantine, in case there was ever a way to remove the infection. ...I was 0.4 when they took my sister away. Annie was only 1.0."
"Bob..." She left her seat and put her arms around him, trying to offer what comfort she could.
"It...basically destroyed my family. Mom blamed Dad; Dad blamed himself... And Steven, that's my brother...Steven and I just got...caught in the middle. I know my parents still loved us. And they still loved each other. I think they were just afraid that showing it would invite tragedy."
"Oh, Bob" She couldn't think of anything to say. No words would make it better. Instead, she held him tighter and let him continue.
"Things...got better when I went to the Academy. At least I thought so. But when I came home on vacation...I realized just how far apart we'd become. Especially Steven and me. We can't even talk to each other any more without fighting. I haven't seen him since before the war. And the strangest thing is, we never even know what we're fighting over. I never understood why...the one thing that made it necessary for us to be close, is the thing that tore us apart." He shook his head, as if trying to shake off the bad memories.
"I couldn't save Annie. I know I was just a kid, but I felt like it was my responsibility to protect her. And then...when I couldn't save you, it was like it was happening all over again. I guess that...did something to me. I guess I...kind of lost it."
"It wasn't your fault." Dot said. "What happened to Annie wasn't your fault and what happened to me wasn't your fault."
They were silent for a moment. She could see in Bob's eyes that he knew she was right. But accepting that and believing it in his heart would take a lot longer. Their eyes met, and everything they had both gone through seemed to crash down upon them. Every lonely second when they were parted suddenly burned bright in their memories.
"Dot..."
"I know."
They both realized the truth at the exact same moment. They were meant to be together, as surely as two Sprites ever were. They couldn't be apart any more. Steadily, the moved closer together. Just as their lips met, a vidwindow popped up over the table.
Matrix seemed surprised, and a little embarrassed, by the view that greeted him, but he clearly had important information because he collected his thoughts quickly.
"Bob, I think you should come out here. Right now." He said urgently.
"What is it?" Bob asked.
"It's Megabyte."
"He's attacking?"
Matrix hesitated. "...He's dying."
* * * * *
They had Megabyte propped up against a wall outside the Principal Office. As Matrix had indicated, he was on the verge of deletion, and it was easy to see why. A steady stream of energy flowed from a gaping hole in his chest. Every few nanos, his bitmap faded briefly into transparency.
"You found him like this?" Bob asked.
"He was dragging himself across the bridge." Matrix said. "He said he had something important that he had to tell you. I would have just deleted him...but I figured it'd be kinda redundant."
Bob frowned and knelt down next to Megabyte.
"What did you want to tell me, Megabyte?" He said. "Better make it quick, I'd say you haven't got a lot of time left."
"Don't...mock me...Bob." Megabyte gasped. "I just came here...to tell you...that you are all dead!"
"Looked in a mirror lately?" Matrix asked. "You're the one with the sucking chest wound."
"Who did this to you?" Bob asked.
"I believe...you've already made her acquaintance." The dying Virus said. He looked up at Dot. "We have...a very...disobedient child...My Dear."
The light in his eyes went out and he slumped back against the wall.
"Terabyte..." Dot said, horrified. "She did this."
"I thought you said she was just a little girl." Matrix said.
"She must be fully compiled now." Dot said. "He must have tried to take her energy."
"And she fought back." Bob finished her thought.
"Go Terabyte." Matrix said.
"Let's get him inside."
"What?" Matrix yelled.
"I just had a thought." Bob said. "Our facility is as good as the one in the Supercomputer. So why haven't our doctors been able to heal Phong? I think Megabyte took a big piece of Phong's code when he stabbed him. That explains how he was able to lock Mouse out of the war room and why Phong hasn't gotten better. All the medicine in the Net can't help him if his code is missing. We need to keep him alive at least until we can get that code back."
* * * * *
He awoke. That was the first big surprise; he hadn't expected that to happen. The next surprise was that he was in the Principal Office. And the third surprise was that he was strapped down.
"I knew you wouldn't let me die, Guardian." He said, for Bob had to be somewhere in the room. "Too sentimental."
"Actually it was nothing like that." Bob replied from across the room. "You just had something we needed to get back."
"Ah so you figured out my little bit of larceny did you?" He chuckled. "Good wasn't it? Phong is the brains behind Mainframe, without him the system will crumble with or without me."
"Then I guess it's too bad for you that we retrieved his code in time. He's doing much better now, resting comfortably, in case you're interested."
"Not particularly." Megabyte said. "So then why, pray tell, am I still on-line?"
"You said we were all dead, didn't you?" Bob asked.
"That's right, Guardian. My daughter will be destroying you all presently."
"I'll never get you, Megabyte. You don't claim her as your daughter until after she rips your heart out?"
Megabyte had to grin despite himself. "She's more vicious than I gave her credit for." He said.
"Then I guess we'll need you to help us stop her."
"Now Bob, that's not nice. You and I both know that I am not long for this Net."
"I thought about that." Bob stepped out of the shadows. Megabyte could see him rolling a small disk over his knuckles. It was too big to be a coin, what was it... An Icon!
"What are you doing with that?"
"Oh this?" Bob held up the Icon. "This is for you. You see when Hex; you remember Hex, don't you? Well, we ran a medical on her when she became a Sprite and it turns out that the process created an entirely new bitmap for her. It removed all the wounds you gave her, in fact."
He placed the Icon on Megabyte's chest. The black and white disk rotated once before sinking partially into Megabyte's armor.
"You can't do this to me Guardian!" Megabyte said. "You're not that cruel! This is a fate..."
"A fate worse than deletion, I remember." Bob leaned over and whispered menacingly, even hatefully, to him. "And that is exactly what you deserve." With a quick tug, he disconnected the IV that had kept energy running into Megabyte.
"I'll be back in a millisecond." Bob said, heading for the exit. "By the time I return, I expect you'll be a...new man."
* * * * *
"Let's see...useless, useless, depressingly useless...ugh, just disgusting..." Terabyte turned angrily on her new subjects. "Did my father do *anything* worthwhile in his life or did he just spend all his time on idiotic science projects?"
"Well My Queen..." One of the Binomes began.
"No, don't answer that! I don't really want to know..."
"Yes My Queen!"
Terabyte rolled her eyes and went back to searching her father's belongings. Most of his personal effects had been destroyed when the building above them exploded; one of these seconds she would have to find out how that happened. Everything else he had valued was stored in one room on the seventh level of the tunnels. Her first act after instilling the necessary fear in her late father's followers to assure their loyalty was to make a concerted effort to see if he had left her anything useful.
So far, however, all she had found were a bunch of inane plans for draining game energy, harnessing tears, and creating hybrid file types. Actually that last one interested her a little bit for reasons she didn't understand...but felt she should. Her failure to find anything she could use against her enemies was maddening, infuriating. All she wanted was to have her mother with her, but that damn robot had stolen her and given her to the Guardian. Her mother's abduction, followed by the revelation of her father's evil intentions, left her feeling hollow and alone. The only way she could be happy would be to rescue her mother.
She found a small safe in the corner with an elaborate file lock on it. A casual squeeze crushed the lock, allowing the safe to swing open. Inside were a few more plans, perhaps his *really* good schemes, a small bottle of some strange liquid, and a box. The plans were useless to her so she ignored them.
Examining the bottle revealed it to be something called I/O; aged eighteen hours, whatever that meant. It had been locked in the safe so it had to be good for something. Terabyte opened the bottle, wincing at the strong fumes that arose from within. She took a long drink and nearly dropped the bottle.
The harsh liquid burned all the way down her throat. Tears sprung to her eyes. Part of her wanted to gag but she resisted, absolutely certain that the I/O would be just as bad coming up as it had been going down, if not worse. She coughed violently until the burning subsided. No wonder this stuff was locked away; it was poison.
Before she could throw the bottle away, write her father off as a complete psychopath, and begin searching for an antidote, a strange feeling came over her. It started in her stomach and radiated through her entire bitmap; a warm, pleasant feeling that set her limbs tingling. She looked at the bottle again with a new respect. If this was some kind of poison, it provided a very merciful deletion. She took another drink. Being prepared helped her cope better with the burning sensation of drinking the I/O. Oddly, the drink seemed to have the effect of removing her sadness. The burning liquid melted away fear, sorrow, and loneliness, leaving behind only anger, and its dark cousin hatred.
After another comforting pull from the bottle, Terabyte turned her attention on the final item in the safe. It was a small, velvet lined jewelry box, slightly bigger than an Icon. She opened the box and gasped.
A small, black jewel lay in the box. Delicate bands of gold flowed across the jewel's surface, never resting for even a nano. Instantly, recognition flooded her mind, telling Terabyte exactly what this object was. And what she had to do with it.
"Oh Daddy..." She whispered. "You were holding out on me."
* * * * *
"I still can't believe it." AndrAIa said. "That's Megabyte?"
The Sprite seated before them, handcuffed to his chair, certainly didn't look like the Viral overlord who had terrorized her as a child. She had to look very closely to see anything besides an angry, muscular Sprite in his late 3.0s. It was the eyes that convinced her. His dark blue skin and bright red hair helped, but it was the neon green eyes and fiery pupils that convinced her.
"I assure you, child, this is only a temporary condition." Megabyte said bitterly.
"No one's afraid of you anymore." Mouse said. "You might wanna start gettin' used to that."
"Tell us about Terabyte." Bob said.
"What about her?"
"What did you do to her?" Dot yelled.
"You knew the plan as well as I, My Dear." Megabyte said.
"Stop calling me that!"
"So you tried to drain her and she took exception." Bob said.
"That's correct." Megabyte said.
"So explain to me again the part where she going kill all of us? Seems to me you're the only one she has issues with."
"Oh really Bob? I suppose you didn't have her mother kidnapped, then?" Megabyte grinned. "She hates you just as much as she hates me."
* * * * *
Terabyte stretched her arms and legs, enjoying the feel of her new clothes. All her father had ever given her were robes made of some rough fabric. She had sent a few of her subjects to the nearest clothing store to bring her something more to her liking. They obviously had difficulty deciding; they had brought her a tailor.
A quick infection and three milliseconds of fitting later, she found herself in the most comfortable outfit she had ever worn. She had picked out a pair of leather pants that fit like a second skin and a blue silk shirt. The short sleeves were slit at the top, held together with two small knots. Another slit just below the neck allowed her to feel the comforting presence of her family heirloom, which she wore on a short chain around her neck, against her skin.
Finally, satisfied with her wardrobe, she turned to her childhood tormenter.
"Well Herr Doktor? What do you have for me?"
"Well My Queen. You have all ze powers of a Class 5 Super Virus; flight, claws, transfinite..."
"Yes I know all that!" She snapped. "I've been me for a while now."
"Of course. Forgive me, My Queen."
"That's the decision I'm trying to make, remember?"
The doctor's eye widened in fear. "Uh...in...in addition to your...considerable Viral powers, we have five legions of Binome troopers, sixty ABC units, und..."
"Mobilize them all." Terabyte said. "We attack the Principal Office tonight!"
The doctor nodded gratefully and ran to alert the troops.
"Hang in there Mommy." She said quietly. "I'm coming to save you."
* * * * *
TBC
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