"Megabyte's out there, Dot," Matrix protested as his sister tucked him into bed aboard the Saucy Mare II just a half-microsecond later. "I can see a lot further than anyone else on the ship." He tapped his right cheek with unintended force, and winced.
"The Surfr and the Web Riders will watch for Megabyte, Enzo," Dot told him. A lantern swinging just above her head cast odd shadows across her bruised face. "Remember what Doctor Bingen said—"
"She said I need to get up and move around," Matrix argued. "I have to get some exercise. To get my coordination back."
"I don't think she meant 'go chase viruses through the Web'," Dot said firmly. "Listen, little brother," she said in a gentler tone. "Megabyte isn't the only trouble on our hands right now. We have to get home and plan what we're going to do next. In the meantime, you need to rest up and take things slowly." She bent and gave Matrix a sisterly kiss on the forehead. "Will you promise to at least try to sleep before you go looking for something heavy to lift?"
Matrix sighed. "All right, Sis." He lay back on the narrow bunk. "Wake me up if you see anything."
"I promise," Dot said. She turned and left, her shadow ungainly with the weight of Matrix's gun tucked under her belt.
Alone, Matrix sighed again, and carefully folded his hands behind his head, his eyes aimlessly tracking the shadows back and forth across the ceiling.
"Boring, isn't it?"
Matrix twisted his neck to look at the sprite in the doorway. "What?"
"Being stuck down here." Davic spun a short, stubby Caen across his palm in a few expert circles. "You look an upgrade or two better than you did the last time I saw you," he said as he entered the room.
"If you're not a hallucination, then I am better," Matrix answered.
Davic grinned. "I don't know about you, but if it were me, I'd hallucinate something a lot prettier than me to keep myself company." He swung Caen into the bulkhead with a solid thwack, which the keytool noisily protested. He examined the scratch he had made on the hardened wood, then shrugged. "I guess I'm real. Too bad."
Matrix's eyebrows lifted, and his face twitched into a hint of a smile. "So what are you doing down here, if you're not some random piece of my memory?"
Davic scowled, and started swinging Caen through a complex, spinning pattern in the cramped cabin. "The Prime dumped me down here as part of his bargain with Capacitor."
"Bargain?"
"Seems the good captain doesn't like to be reminded of past errors." Davic's stick-work with Caen sped up, and he passed the spinning keytool from hand to hand as he spoke.
"What's he got against you?"?" Matrix asked.
"Not as much as I've got against him," Davic answered. Caen was now only a blur of light flashing around Davic's swiftly-moving limbs. "The Captain and I go way back," Davic growled. "I know a lot of things he'd rather I didn't." Caen brushed the ceiling, then dropped into a pattern of strikes and jabs almost too quick to distinguish from each other. "Capacitor knew Turbo wanted to get on his good side for tactical reasons. He used that to get me out of the way." Caen chattered as it spun in his hands, then abruptly halted as it slapped into his outstretched palms. "That's why I need you."
"Me? What for?" Matrix's tone was low, and just a bit wary.
"Capacitor's little trick left a little gap in the code up there," Davic said, indicating the ceiling with his eyes. "Someone needs to be up there to watch him and that Surfr guy."
"Ray? You think he's going to sabotage us?"
"I'm not sure he is who he says he is," Davic answered.
"You think Megabyte…?" Matrix paled a little, then his jaw set and his eyebrows lowered. He deliberately looked up at the ceiling, then slowly turned his head, his right eye clicking softly. "There," he said, staring into what appeared to be a solid wall. "He's out with the Web Riders." He turned back to Davic, and his eyes refocused. "What makes you think Ray's Megabyte?"
"His story is a little too perfect," Davic said. "He says he managed to get to a little out-of-the-way system no one's ever heard of just in time to escape getting deleted by the shock wave, and then he pulls out a bit of evidence he just happened to find on his way here. Evidence that seems to prove that our old buddy the Trojan Horse virus got caught in his own trap." Davic shook his head. "I don't buy it, and I don't think Turbo does either, but he's busy watching Capacitor. I'd watch his back for him, but I'm stuck down here."
"So what about Bob? He knows Megabyte and Ray as well as I do," Matrix asked.
"Bob's busy chatting with the Web Riders. They really want that regeneration file he promised them." Davic shook his head. "Look, I know you're still recompiling, but you can track the Surfr without using the scanners, and no one will ask you any questions if you go up on deck and happen to sit where you can hear the comm transmissions."
Matrix looked away again, and his right eye buzzed. "He's out there," he murmured.
"Count on it," Davic said.
The Saucy Mare II bustled with activity. Captain Capacitor bellowed orders to his scurrying crew and frequently interrupted Dot and Turbo's strategy session with his own salty comments. Bob's ongoing conversation with the Web Riders echoed through the Web shielding. AndrAIa, down in the engine room, was running tests on the fuel cells, and her reports to Mr. Andrews sounded over the in-ship comm. It was carefully controlled bedlam; and as far as Wayne MacHewlett was concerned, none of it existed.
Wayne frowned at the screen of color-coded binary code he'd spent the last microsecond tapping out, his purple eyes intent. He touched the display screen, and a section of the code obediently followed his fingertip to a new place in the string. The string changed color, reflecting its new arrangement, and Wayne's frown deepened.
"That's not right—put it…no," Wayne muttered in an undertone as he worked. "Have to turn it—there…now let's see…only need it once…"
"This seat taken?"
"Hm?" Wayne blinked, and looked up. "Oh, hello. I take it you're feeling better?"
"Some," Matrix agreed. He grabbed an upturned bucket, and sat down on it beside Wayne. "I got bored."
"That's a common problem among injured Guardians," Wayne said.
Neither of them said anything for a long moment. Matrix crossed his ankles and his eyes went distant.
Wayne lifted an eyebrow at the younger sprite, then turned back to his display, muttering a little more quietly as he worked.
"So, what is all that?" Matrix finally asked, his eyes still focused well ahead of the Mare's prow.
"The counter-infection for the Green-Eyed Monster," Wayne answered absently.
"Green-Eyed Monster?" Matrix repeated.
"It suits the symptoms," Wayne shrugged. "We have to call it something."
"Yeah, but—" Matrix broke off as his eyes widened. "What in the Net—"
A shriek of Websong and feedback hit the ship like a breaking wave, rattling the ship's timbers and deafening everyone aboard for a long moment.
An electrical squeal rose from belowdecks, then petered out as the lights flickered, went out, then came back up again.
A vidwindow opened before the sound died away to more bearable levels. "We've found something!" Ray cried. "There's something out here, come on!"
"That was him!" Matrix yelled. He scrambled to his feet and pointed. "I saw him! Megabyte! Megabyte's taken control of the Web Riders!"
"Squeak-thrum-clatter alive! It's alive! Something purr-twitter the blast!" Bob switched back and forth between Websong and standard DOS in his excitement.
"Mr. Andrews, status!" Captain Capacitor bellowed.
"What did we hit?" Davic demanded as he came up the hatchway.
"Ray, what's happening out there?" Mouse asked.
"He's not Ray, he's Megabyte!" Matrix insisted.
"What did you see, Enzo?" Dot asked tightly.
"…Web only knows how it survived," Ray was saying. "The Web Riders and I can get whoever's in there out, but—"
"Captain!" AndrAIa's voice interrupted on the in-ship com, "That energy wave depolarized our primary power cells—"
"Stay on course, Capacitor!" Turbo vaulted over the poop deck rail and landed on the wing of his ship. "Davic! You're with me." He dropped into the pilot's seat as the canopy opened.
"Belay this!" At Captain Capacitor's roar, the entire ship seemingly froze, with the exception of Turbo, who flipped switches with one hand and fastened his safety straps with the other.
"He's out there," Matrix moaned. "He's out there recruiting a new army. I saw him." He had sunk back to the deck under his sister's hand, and he rocked back and forth, staring wide-eyed past the thick Web shields of the Saucy Mare II.
"Enzo," Dot said quietly, desperately. "Matrix, tell me what you saw."
Matrix's eyes slowly refocused, and he turned to look at his sister. He took a deep breath and held himself still. "I saw Megabyte," he said clearly. "He's out there, Dot." He shuddered, but kept his eyes steady.
Wayne knelt beside the big green sprite. "Look at me, Matrix," he commanded softly. "Someone get me a flashlight," he ordered no one in particular.
"Doctor?" Dot asked, her brows furrowing.
"What are you doing?" Matrix asked tightly, as Wayne touched his wrist.
"I'm trying to check your process rate," Wayne explained in a matter-of-fact tone. He held Matrix's wrist for a moment, then let go. "Higher than I'd like," he murmured.
"Wayne, does he need 'lifted out?" Turbo asked from his seat.
Wayne accepted a hand-sized flashlight from one of the crew, then shone it into Matrix's left eye for a long moment before answering. "His code is stable for now."
"So I'm not hallucinating," Matrix said harshly. "That's what you meant, isn't it?"
"That's not what I said," Wayne answered mildly.
"Let's go below, Enzo," Dot said worriedly. "You need to rest."
Matrix resisted for a moment, then looked at his sister's stricken face, and softened. He allowed Dot to tug him toward the hold.
"Davic and I will go out there and see what the Web Riders have found," Turbo stated. "Captain, open the launch hatch, then get your batteries back online and get out of here."
"Gladly, Guardian," Captain Capacitor grumbled. "And may the Web take ye both," he muttered under his breath.