Celebration rocked the Guardian Collective. The elation of the Guardians boiled over, and an impromptu party had been created. Rom sat in the far corner with a group of Codemasters and ignored the party. The Guardians would be their way home, but it was strange for them to place such faith in a group that had proven themselves to be so young.
The female master had lost her web sector to the Invader early on, and was among the first sisterhoods to be annihilated by it. Rom closed her large purple-black eyes and relaxed. Her web senses expanded outwards into the Super Computer. She saw the Academy, and a group of foolish cadets battling in a holodeck. She felt the electrical buzz of the Super Computer core, and she saw virals being placed into the deletion chambers. Rom focused on this image, but before she could smile smugly to herself she felt something. She focused on the feeling, concentrating her senses on it. Something was familiar here; a code was familiar, and without a word of warning she tore open a rift in the Net and headed towards the code.
Andraia walked towards the tech bay. Caster had released her after placing a neural inhibitor on the back of her neck to block the images. Andraia sighed and itched at her neck. The small disk latched onto her skin constantly buzzed and made her neck feel numb.
"You are not a Guardian." Rom said when she emerged from the rift behind Andraia. At Andraia's startled body language, the master retracted her pike and dipped her head. "Be calm. I am a Web Codemaster and the Guardians have no objections to my presence. I am not here to harm." Rom took a tentative step forward, and her dread locked hair fell over her shoulder as she leaned closer to Andraia. "You are very special. I have only seen such interesting coding once."
"I am a game sprite. AI class, but I left the games a long time ago." Andraia had backed up and her arm fins had extended.
Rom cocked her head.
"In one of my pods, I had a young web whale. He was different, extremely intelligent and he contained strange code. May I scan you? It will not hurt you."
Andraia nodded and the master's pike emitted a soft purple light over her body. Andraia guess that had she refused, the master would have scanned her anyway.
"The code was from you. A web whale was birthed from your code." Rom said after the scan was done.
Andraia absently touched her arm where she had been bitten during her journey into the Web.
"Yes, I was bitten by a web creature, and it took my code."
Rom scratched her head with her long fingers.
"You should have been deleted. While web life does not need Net energy to grow, it attracts them and the absorption of Net energy acts as a catalyst for their growth. But you," Rom pointed at the game sprite "should not have survived."
"A Guardian rebuilt the code I had lost." Andraia rubbed the back of her neck.
"Special you are indeed. A game sprite out of a game who survived a code drain." Rom's voice hinted admiration.
Andraia nodded, and a thought came to her.
"I think the sea whale and I are connected. I was seeing things; a web creature, and I was talking to it. I thought I was dreaming. I have an inhibitor blocking the images, but maybe…" The game sprite stopped when the Codemaster's eyes to widened to unnatural sizes.
"What are you…"? Her words were cut off as she prepared to defend herself from Rom, who had raised her pike and slashed her with it. Andraia proved no match, the Codemaster was far too fast and she felt a jolt of energy surge though her.
The energy roared into her brain at first, and then she felt the inhibitor overload and fall away from her neck. Instantly, she felt as if a dam had broken in her mind. A flood of images washed over her, and the sprite sank to the ground clutching her head.
"What do you see? What do you see?" Rom asked desperately.
Andraia only shook her head in mute response. It was a backlog of messages from the web creature. Andraia had no idea that she had subconsciously fought the images for many minutes now. Only after constant exhaustion and emotional unwell being had the web creature finally punched through her mental defenses. The images and messages rushed passed her mind's eye. She caught glimpses of fleeting images; images of death and infection. She saw a search engine floating dead in the web. Its carapace had been sundered open. Her vision rushed forward into the engine, and she saw a search engine sprite being absorbed by something… Green skull? But before she remembered the significance, she saw something else.
"Oh, User." Andraia looked up at Rom, fear in her eyes.
"What do you see? What did the web whale show you? Is his pod still alive?" Rom held Andraia tightly by her shoulders.
"I need to talk to Turbo." Andraia said bluntly.
Rom gripped the sprite's hand and with her other, she ripped a hole in the Net and dragged Andraia to the Prime Guardian.
"Sensors are having problems scanning the Web, sir. But, the images we have gotten show us that the viral's forces seem to be relatively small, and now that we have our key tools, we should be able to clean up the Web fairly quickly." Jarrel said.
Turbo nodded.
"We've also guaranteed ourselves that systems will never have to be destroyed because of a stray web creature."
A rift opened in Turbo's office, and Rom charged through it dragging Andraia behind her.
"An attack!…" Andraia stopped and looked up as klaxons went off.
Turbo looked down at Copeland.
"Command! Report!" He ordered.
"Distress calls, sir! From all over the Net!" The reply came from a frantic sounding Guardian.
"Turbo," Andraia pushed his arm down and saw Copeland. "Oh, hey, you got your key tool back!"
"Andraia, not now. I need to know what is happening out there." Turbo firmly moved Andraia out over way, but Rom stopped him.
"Guardian, listen to her! She knows what is happening."
Turbo closed his eyes, took a deep breath and turned back to the ex-Mainframer.
"Okay Andraia, what is it?"
Turbo stormed out of his office and into Command Central.
"Net wide vid window message: This is Prime Guardian Turbo of the Super Computer to every Command.com. Close all ports. Cut all power to the ports and firelock the codes to them. Guardians will be entering your systems via portals to deal with the situation. Seek refuge for the time being."
Turbo closed the vid window and contacted Dryden, the web incursion team leader, and Garrison.
"Dryden, one incursion team per invaded system. Make sure each team has one key tool bonded Guardian. Work with Garrison to integrate the viral incident teams as well. I want this problem solved. Use people from internal security if you have too." He turned to the Guardians working at Command Central. "Have our scanners picked up the viral in the Web yet?"
"No sir. We're trying again now."
In one corner of the Command room, a portal opened and Bob stepped out.
"What's happening?" Bob stepped back hastily as another Guardian rushed in front of him. Bob looked at Turbo and pointed. "Hey, the key tools are back!"
"No time to explain. Andraia, tell him." The Prime turned to a work consol and began scanning the status of the Net.
"There's a virus from the Web on the Net." Andraia started to say.
"I know that part. Mainframe's got a direct line to the Super Computer. Wait, a virus from the Web? That's not possible. Viruses don't come from the Web…" Bob's sentence trailed off as Andraia continued to speak.
"The virus has search engine capacities. It got it from a search engine it attacked a while ago. Now its jumping from any system with an open port and leaving a mass of web creatures in them."
Bob's eyes widened. He knew the protocol for web creatures in a system.
"Oh no."
"Don't worry about systems. Too many systems are flooded. The viral, web and internal security teams are on the job." Turbo said from his consol. "How's Mainframe?"
"Uh, good. Our ports were closed so we weren't invaded."
"Can Mainframe spare some troops to help us clear some of the systems?" Turbo asked.
"Yes. We've got some experience in fighting the web too. I'll have them ready in less than half a cycle."
The Prime Guardian nodded and sent co-ordinates of the invaded systems to Mainframe after Bob portaled away.
Andraia sat in her corner booth of the mess hall with her head in her hands. Around her lay the Guns that once belonged to the Guardians with key tools. Now, under the request of Turbo, the Guns had been reprogrammed to accept new Guardians.
She had been conversing with the web creature, and through the web creature Andraia was able to scan the web using the creature's senses. Rom told her that the Guardians would help the masters reclaim their home, but Andraia saw the true battle force the viral had at its disposal and knew it was far too much for even the Guardians with their key tools. The web creature linked to Andraia, who she now called Harvey, showed her this.
Andraia groaned.
"This is bad. This is very bad."
The Invader, Andraia now knew, was Megabyte. He looked like had mutated and become part web creature. Andraia leaned back in the booth, folded her hands together and called out with her mind.
Harvey? Show me what is happening now.
Harvey appeared in front of her. He now appeared in the shape of seal to calm her mind. He swam head first at her, and when he collided with her, he saw.
Mouse?
Andraia caught a flash of electric hair, but realizes it is a yellow colour instead of orange. The yellow haired sprite was also mail, and he typed furiously into a workstation. Behind the obviously frightened sprite was Megabyte. Harvey and the other web creatures floated around them. Andraia couldn't hear what they were saying, but when the sprite was done he stood and began demanding something from Megabyte. The mutated viral nodded, outstretched a hand to give something over to the sprite, but instead of payment, Megabyte sent tentacles shooting from his arm and into the sprites body. Andraia flinched in her chair as the sprite deleted.
Megabyte wrapped his body in tentacles and floated past Harvey. Through Harvey's eyes, Andraia saw Megabyte move into a port. The other web creatures followed and Andraia saw these were more than just the sea whales. Andraia only recognized the M and X classed creatures out of the mass that entered the port. Harvey was the last to enter, but before he did, he paused in front of the portal.
That's the…
Super Computer. Harvey answered sullenly.
Megabyte was heading for the Super Computer!
Andraia snapped out of her trance and shouted for a vid window.
"Command!"
"Andraia, sorry, we're a bit busy…" The lime coloured Guardians said.
"The ports! Close the ports!" The game sprite screamed as she ran towards the exit.
"Huh? Oh they are. Don't worry." The Guardian replied.
But the Guardian was wrong, and explosions rocked the Super computer. Andraia grimaced as her highly sensitive ears picked up the roar of the invading web creatures. Andraia skidded to a stop as a rift opened in front of her, and Rom stepped out.
"Game sprite, what has happened?"
"Command! Bring me to Command!" Was her only reply.
"I was there. The ports are jammed open and the Invader's forces are still coming though. The codes to the ports were hacked and changed. The Guardians cannot close it." Rom hissed as she heard gunfire go off.
Andraia slapped her forehead. The yellow haired sprite was a hacker. The tech sprite looked down at her leg. Eagle was the only Gun not commissioned to another Guardian. It was still in sleep mode.
"Bring me to the port. I have a plan."