Bob headed for Silicon Tor as fast as his zipboard could go. He knew he was taking a big risk, flying high and in plain view over Megabyte's domain, but he didn't have the time for a stealthy approach. Better to just get in, grab the computer core and get out as quickly as possible. If he didn't get it back, he wouldn't be the only one to suffer for it – Dweila would probably call in a viral incident team to delete both Megabyte and Hexadecimal. And a lot of innocent dataforms would probably get caught in the crossfire.
He realized then that he was, against all sense, more afraid of Dweila than he was of Megabyte. That really bothered him.
But he had other things to deal with now. He was close enough to Silicon Tor to make out a large hole in the wall near the top of the tower – although he had no idea what might have created it, but it its ragged edges and irregular shape made it obvious that the hole was not supposed to be there. For Bob, however, the hole was not a nuisance, but a shortcut to Megabyte's throne room.
~***~
"How long will it take to break the encryption, Herr Doktor?" Megabyte leaned over the binome's shoulder (so to speak) and watched him as his fingers played over the console keys. The computer core was standing on a small pedestal nearby; a thick cable, plugged into its uppermost end, connected it to the code-breaking machine the Doktor was working on.
"Less zen half a millizecond, Mein Herr," the binome informed him. He pressed a final button and the two large grids of colored lights on the upright part of the apparatus flickered to life. Megabyte looked up at it with satisfaction.
"Very good," he told his servant. "It will only be a matter of time until I have my portal…"
"I don't think so!" a familiar and most unwelcome voice objected from behind him. The virus whirled around to see Bob fly in through the unfortunate hole in the wall. He usually turned up at the most inconvenient times but…how had he found out about the computer core?
Megabyte had sent Hack and Slash away once they had made their delivery, and he had not called any of his soldiers up to the throne room. That had been, he realized, a mistake – he would have to deal with the Guardian himself. "Call the guards," he told Herr Doktor as he rushed to meet his adversary with extended claws. The scientist didn't need to be told twice – he darted out of the room to get reinforcements.
The cursed Guardian managed to dodge Megabyte's charge and swooped up to the ceiling of the throne room, then made a beeline for the computer core on its pedestal. Megabyte spun around and made a great leap, intending to pounce on Bob and tear him to pieces with his claws. But things didn't work out that way.
"Glitch! Energy shield!" The bright yellow barrier came up just as Megabyte hit the Guardian, knocking him off his zipboard. Bob rolled away from Megabyte and got to his feet as the virus tried to collect himself, then brandished his keytool. "Glitch! Cutter!" he ordered. The keytool's gearwheel became a small buzz saw, which zipped across the room to sever the cable connecting the Guardian computer core to the code-breaking machine. The latter device emitted a loud buzz and the lights across its face froze as it was disconnected from the object of its operations.
"You will pay for that, Guardian," Megabyte growled as he got to his feet and took a swipe at Bob. His opponent dodged, darted under his guard and ran for the pedestal. Before Megabyte could get in another swipe, the Guardian took a flying leap, grabbed the computer core in his arc over the pedestal and hit the floor rolling.
But his efforts would be to no avail if he couldn't get out of the Tor. Megabyte leaped again, this time putting himself between Bob and his zipboard as the Guardian was heading for it. Without even a pause Bob changed course and headed for the hole in the wall, just as the door to the throne room burst open and a score of Megabyte's vial soldiers poured through.
Megabyte didn't know what Bob intended to do, but he wasn't going to wait and find out. "Get him, you fools!" the virus ordered. The binomes formed up, lowered their energy pikes and began to shoot at the fleeing Guardian. One bolt would have hit him if he hadn't been in the process of jumping through the gap in the wall and into the open air beyond.
The virus and his minions had only a few cycles in which to be shocked, for the Guardian rose into view again, suspended in the air by his keytool's helicopter rotor, the computer core held securely in the crook of his right elbow. He grinned triumphantly at Megabyte as Glitch flew him away to the Principal Office.
Megabyte slammed his fist into the palm of his other hand as his archenemy vanished into the distance. "Cursors! Foiled again!"
~***~
Dot breathed a sigh of relief as Bob came in through the hangar door, the computer core under one arm. She ran to him as he touched down on the floor nearby. Glitch retracted the rotor blade it had brought him in on, and he started shaking his arm vigorously to get the energy flowing again.
"Are you all right?" Dot asked him. Bob stopped shaking his arm and smiled at her, then held out the computer core. She took it carefully, noting the remains of the cable plugged into its input/output port.
"I'm fine," he said, tapping his icon to change back into his dress uniform. Then his smile vanished. "Umm…where's the inspector?"
Dot grinned. "Playing Pong with Phong."
Bob blinked. "How did he…"
"Don't ask," Dot interrupted, rolling her eyes. "I'll get this installed in the ship again – you go rejoin Dweila before she gets suspicious." Bob nodded and started jogging for the door, then stopped and turned to her again.
"Dot?"
"Yes?"
Pause.
"Thanks. For everything." Dot smiled to herself as Bob turned again and headed out of the hangar bay.
~***~
The inspector actually seemed to be in a good mood when Bob saw her off a quarter of a millisecond later. Maybe it was because she had beaten Phong at his favorite game. And maybe her present good mood was the reason why Bob didn't find her so intimidating now, although there might have been more to it than that.
"Well, I must say that I'm impressed by your performance, Bob," she told him. "You've passed your inspection with flying colors."
If Bob had not been feeling so drained at the moment, he might have had to force himself to keep from jumping for joy. "Thank you, ma'am."
Dweila looked at him in an odd way for a few moments. "About what we discussed earlier…there's still time to change your mind."
Bob shook his head. "No thank you, ma'am. My answer is the same."
After a moment of silence, she nodded. "Very well, then." She saluted, and Bob returned it. Then the inspector turned, entered her ship and closed the hatch. Bob stepped back as the white craft rose into the air. It passed slowly over the CPUs and binomes in the hangar bay, then picked up speed once it departed the bay door. In a few cycles it was nothing more than a bright spot in the distance over the Energy C – then it was gone.
"Bob!" he turned around just in time to be knocked to the floor by an overenthusiastic Enzo. "Dot told me that you got the computer core back from Megabyte! How did you…"
"Enzo…can't…breathe…" Bob gasped out. The little sprite muttered an apology and clambered off him. Bob sat up, trying to catch his breath. He got to his feet as Dot approached.
"I passed," he told her, a grin spreading over his face. Now that it was all over, he felt light enough to float up into the air.
"Congratulations!" she replied. "Now…how about we celebrate at the Diner, to make up for you missing the picnic?"
That invitation was the best thing that had happened to him all day. "Dot, that sounds like one of your most brilliant plans yet."
~END FILE~