Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long with this update- I've been really sick for the past week or so and haven't felt like doing much of anything besides sleeping. I'm feeling better now though, and the next chapter shouldn't take as long as this one did. Anyway, I heard they hadn't released Season IV to you Aussies yet? You can download the whole season off the file-sharing programs Morpheus and Kazaa, or if you aren't into that sort of thing I can send it to you over AIM, though that'll take awhile. Anyway, here's something I thought of- think of the smallest thing you could possibly change in the Reboot universe, and write a fic off it. Like, what if Enzo hadn't lost the game and been lost in the web? What if Megabyte had made it to the Supercomputer before Daemon, or Hexadecimal hadn't had Skuzzy to keep her from going totally insane? Lol, just a thought. Anyway, on with the chapter- and as always, please R&R!!! -Tom
Part II: INVASION
Time: PastDot barely had time to think as the huge arm of the EXO crane came swinging toward her in a deadly arc. She stood frozen with sheer terror, unable to move- knowing that to stay where she was would mean certain death, but unable for some reason to force herself to move. Her mouth opened in a silent scream of horror, wanting to shout for someone, anyone to help her- but nothing came out. She knew then that there was no way out of this one. The final nanos seemed to stretch out to eternity in her mind, yet counted down all too swiftly toward the final, inexorable impact…
Then out of nowhere, Ray was there. Twisting desperately as Baud swooped down out of the sky, Ray's strong arms picked her up and set her gently behind him, the crane's thundering passage mere inches from Baud's underside causing the Surfr to falter for a nano in midair. The crane arm impacted into a building with stunning force meters away, a violent explosion rocketing across G-Prime. Rock fragments and pieces of stone the size of a small car slammed into the underside of Baud with killing force as the shockwave washed outward, Ray shuddering with pain and holding together only long enough to get them safely down to the ground.
Energy blasts shot through the air from the far side of the crater as Matrix reacted with lightning speed, on his feet in an instant with Gun aimed at the deadly crane arm as it swung back for another strike. Blue pulses of pure energy vaporized a section of the crane close to its base on the back of the giant EXO unit. The mechanism seemed to stall abruptly in mid-swing, falling harmlessly into the pit left by the game cube's departure.
With a roar of challenge, the towering EXO unit itself detached from the skyscraper it had been anchored to, its feet crashing to the ground with an earth-shaking impact.
"What's going on?" Matrix shouted over the noise of the battle, strafing the unit with short blasts from Gun as he raced toward the others on the far side of the crater. "That EXO unit's going berserk- and there's no pilot!" Phong wheeled up to where Dot lay motionless beside Ray, merged now with Baud, shuddering as he saw the seemingly crazed EXO unit's arms swinging randomly at the nearest structures, its normal color being supplanted with a deadly black that spread ever upward, finally consuming the apex of the machine. "It's gone viral!" Mouse shouted, charging into the action with her katana drawn. It had indeed, Phong realized as the machine continued its rampage through G-Prime. And it was headed straight for them.
"Dot! You've got to get out of there!" Matrix cried as he raced toward them, barely managing to dodge as a massive EXO arm swung through the space where he'd been only nanos before. He snarled with frustration as he took aim with Gun once more. The thing was just too heavily armored- none of his shots were having any effect! A resounding crash filled the air as Mouse swung furiously with her katana, managing to dismantle one of the unit's enormous arms. It wouldn't be enough, Matrix could tell, as the monster machine loomed closer and closer…
"Dot!" he shouted again, shaking her shoulder violently. "Listen to me! You've got to get out of here now! We'll both be deleted if you don't move!" Dot didn't respond, shuddering sobs wracking her body as she curled into a tight ball next to Baud. With a growl of frustration, Matrix hoisted Dot's inert form over his shoulder, turning to run, trying to carry her to safety- but already he could see that it wouldn't be enough. The gargantuan unit was simply too fast for him burdened down with his sister- and it was Dot the thing seemed to want, he realized, as it abandoned its mindless destruction of the area's buildings to come straight for them. Matrix ran ahead desperately as the machine closed, the streets becoming too narrow as they got closer to the heart of Mainframe to dodge its relentless, rampaging pursuit.
A thunderous explosion erupted in the streets behind them, the unit staggering from a direct hit as an enormous beam of pure energy slammed it hard into the side of a towering skyscraper. Bob levitated into the air behind it, his eyes filled with a grim sense of purpose as he readied himself for another blast. Binomes scattered in panic away from the site of the battle, desperate to escape the line of destruction that raged toward the center of Mainframe. The EXO unit turned, its one remaining arm swinging furiously toward the gadfly that had dared to sting it so- and Matrix saw his chance. A weak spot appeared in the giant's gleaming, armored skin scarred now by battle damage. A small patch of armor had been torn clean away near the machine's power core, the reactor's red glow visible beneath inner armor belt. If he could just hit that one spot…
Matrix's bionic eye swiveled in it socket, targeting the beast that tried to swat the valiant Guardian out of the sky. "Gun… command line. Targeting…" His face furrowed into a mask of concentration as the gleaming red reticule centered over the unit's power core. "High Ex!"
The machine swung again, Bob darting quickly out of the way as the arm's momentum carried it into an elderly binome, sending him flying into a nearby building. With a roar of rage, Matrix pulled hard on the trigger. Gun's report was loud in his own ears as the explosive round streaked forward, directly on target. The EXO unit roared in frustration as the explosion knocked it to the ground, windows shattering all over the district as the high-compression shockwave hit. His face pale as he concentrated all his energy into one final blast, Bob's hands shot forward, a massive beam finishing what Matrix had started: the final belt of armor was torn away, and the machine shuddered as its power source shut down. Mouse leapt from a nearby awning with katana poised, not sure if the machine was completely offline as Bob slumped to the ground, exhausted by the furious battle.
AndrAIa and the others came up beside him as a crowd of binomes began to gather around the downed behemoth, gesturing excitedly at the monster machine that had devastated half a sector. Med teams raced onto the scene, paramedics carrying wounded binomes away on stretchers. "Are you all right, Sugah?" Mouse asked gently, putting an arm around Dot's shaking shoulders. "No…" she whispered, lifting her tear-streaked face to look into the hacker's concerned eyes. "I thought all this was finally over… and now it's happening all over again." "At least the threat's over for now," AndrAIa said, her trident extended as she walked up to stand beside the others.
"Yeah," Matrix said as he snapped Gun back into its holster, its barrel hot from the past few minutes of constant firing. "But what made it go berserk like that- and how would a virus somehow make it past all Mouse's protections to invade Mainframe?" With these troubling questions occupying their minds, the sprites turned and walked through the open doorway of the Principal Office, the spread of heavy shields mushrooming out behind them.
Hmm, so what'd you think? My first "action" chapter for the Reboot fandom so far… if you've actually read all the way up to this point, please leave a review! Thanks, lol –Tom
Damn, these chapters are SHORT when I look back at them! In comparison to the fics I used to write for other fandoms, or most of the other ones here in the Reboot section… don't know what it is exactly, that makes me write ten times less in the same amount of time. How do y'all do it! lol
