Chapter 3

Terrin, Cat, Ori, Ani, and Illan stopped in the system. Terrin caught a glimmer of a portal closing in the sky.
" Ori, Ani, you two find the Command.com. Cat, search for binomes and sprites. Illan, let's go. Don't worry Cat. I'll protect him," Terrin smiled.
" Who said I was worried?" Cat said, giving Terrin a kiss. Terrin and Illan headed down to Level 78.
" You were right with your feeling, Illan," Terrin gasped, looking at the symbols.
" Dad? Are you okay?" Illan asked.
" Yeah, kiddo. That's Daemon's sign. It brought back bad memories, but at least Cat, Ori, and Ani were able to get me out of harm's way and brought me home," Terrin smiled, ruffling Illan's hair. The two passed the red symbol, and Terrin's feet gave way.
" Dad?" Illan cried. Tentacles reached out and pulled Illan and Terrin into the mark.

Twelve Hours Later.

Kiyan finished his homework just as Bob entered.
" Kiddo, it's time for bed," Bob said. Kiyan's younger sister Andra was already asleep.
" Ah, Dad, do I have to?" Kiyan asked.
" Kiddo, if you don't Sierra isn't going to be sleeping in your room next second," Bob said.
" Oh, alright. I'll do it," Kiyan murmured.
" Good. Now, go to sleep," Bob said, " And that's an order form the Assistant Prime Guardian." Bob turned out the light and shut the door. That was when the veiled woman appeared. Her tentacles wrapped around Andra and Kiyan.

Now.

She entered her lab, putting the two young children on two beds. She looked over her arrangement of toys. A renegade, his younger brother, three children, five binomes, one 'hero,' a champion P.O.N.G. player, a Guardian, and a grown game fighter. She sighed.
" You!" she yelled to one of her assistant binomes, " How long until I can go after more of these pathetic creatures?" she growled.
" Lady Malestorm, it will take several microseconds for the capture program to be at full strength. For now, you must be satisfied with the current selection," the binome said.
" Then I shall go to the Web and retrieve Megabyte. There is no time for us waste, and he has great infection powers that we must have. He may be damaged. I want the Viral Reprogramming Bay ready for Megabyte," she chuckled.

" What?!" Dot cried.
" That's right, a game sprite came through the portal as I was beginning the close," Bob reported.
" Bring them straight to me," Dot ordered, then called Specky. " Specky, I need you to prepare Mouse's old game sprite to reboot system."
" Yes, sir, ma'am," Specky said, closing the window. Bob entered, holding the game sprite by the hands, the game sprite was struggling.
" Excuse me, but I want to speak with you," Dot told the winged sprite.
" Yeah, well, la-de-freakin'-da," the sprite growled.
" Pal, you don't know who you're messing with. I'm sure it's because of my brother that you're even out of your game," Dot growled.
" Hey, lady, I was perfectly happy in my game. It's not my fault that one of those binomes knocked off my icon, and it's certainly not my fault that your brother made me restart. Now, I want to be on my way," the sprite said.
" Fine. But don't say we didn't warn you, because the net is very dangerous to game sprites who don't even know the meaning of the word authority. There are sprites who aren't as kind as we Mainframers are, and I'm certain you would fall to a virus," Dot growled, " Bob, let him go." Bob followed Dot's order, and the game sprite began to walk out of the P.O.

Megabyte floated around, still motionless. His leg was still damaged, and web creatures were around every turn. The Web Riders were attempting to delete him. Obviously, Bob had given them a description of him. As his enemies began to surround him, a ship appeared out of nowhere, and a beam swept him up. Megabyte twisted, seeing who had saved him from the Web Riders.
" Megabyte, I presume? A woman asked. Megabyte tried to speak, but found that his vocal processors must have been damaged by the web creatures.
" Milady?" a binome asked the woman.
" What is it? Never mind. Go. Have whatever it is put on a report and place it on my desk. Now, Megabyte, I'm sure you want power- Power over Mainframe," the woman snickered. Megabyte snickered. Surely, this woman must know that Mainframe was dying when he left- that it was probably offline and deleted by now. " Megabyte, Mainframe was restarted and restored. All viral traces have vanished from there. You are the only virus who has ever made it out of Mainframe with their original programming intact. Your sister was healed by Guardian Bob, and now lives among the sprites of Mainframe as one of them. Now, we must talk," the woman snickered, then, Megabyte felt that the beam that held him in place began to go down. Megabyte looked, and saw a pool much like that he had used on his sister to include a collar to control her. Megabyte looked up at the woman, a plea in his eyes. All Megabyte saw was cold darkness, then silver all around him, then passed out.

Malestorm was pleased with the results. She had Megabyte and was in the process of altering him to suit her needs. First, she checked his memory banks. There was a clutter of things a virus need not know. Owed favors, firewall containment disrupters, games, why, Megabyte had wasted ram on useless material. Malestorm swiftly deleted it. Next, she looked through his visual memories. All those henchmen, and they accomplished nothing. Malestorm know that even if he retained those memories, Megabyte would never have the same army. No, Malestorm deleted that as well. Malestorm soon decided to wipe out everything except who he was, what he was, and, most importantly, who his enemies were. Malestorm smiled at the thought of all the chaos Megabyte could control- as long as he was under her control.

AndrAIa sighed, looking over the information that was piled up all over the Principal Office's War Room. " Dot's gotten too overprotective," she muttered. She felt the unborn child in her belly kick, undoubtedly hungry. After all, AndrAIa hadn't eaten in microseconds. " Hey, sugar," Mouse said behind her. " Hi, Mouse," AndrAIa sighed. " Now what are you doing in here? Dot told you to take it easy. And if I know anything about this system, and pregnancy in general, it's that this is too much on the hard side," Mouse said. " And just what do you know about pregnancy?" AndrAIa asked. " A lot more than most people would think, now get out of here, or I am going to have to call security and have them escort you out of here.

Matrix was running down a dark, deep corridor. He was trying to find something, but he didn't know what. Matrix reached for Gun, but found empty air. He came across a door, and opened it. Inside was Megabyte. Matrix ran to delete him, but when he looked in Megabyte's eyes, he saw AndrAIa. Now, he was in the Principal Office- but of a system he'd never seen before. He looked around and saw Backup, who vanished in a flash of white. Matrix blinked, and Dot was in front of him, and Matrix was pointing Gun at her. He looked down, looked back to Dot, and saw that in her place was Hexadecimal with a hoard of nulls behind her. Hex turned, and Matrix felt an uncontrollable urge to follow her. Instead of walking after her, though, he dropped to the floor a followed after her like a snake. Matrix searched for a reflective surface, and saw that instead of his face, a green and black null was staring back at him.

" Malestorm. Make your report. And make it fast. I've got better things to do than to waste my time hearing you give me reasons for your stupidity," the faceless form growled. " My liege, I am attempting to rewrite the memory of the renegade and the virus Megabyte as we speak. I presume that there will be excellent results soon," Malestorm smiled. " Why do I get the feeling that you know you are doomed to failure and you know it?" the being on the other side of the hologram growled, " And that you think you can hide it from me." " My lord, I would never do that," Malestorm said. " For your sake, you'd best not," the form said and cut the link.

The renegade awoke in a dark room. He shifted, uncomfortably, then heard a voice telling him to calm. For some reason, this voice calmed him, and he sighed. A woman stepped forward. " How are you feeling?" she asked. " Well, but, where am I?" he asked. " You are on board the ship The Eye of the Storm. I am her commander, Malestorm," she stated, and the renegade realized that it had been her voice that had been telling him to calm. " Why am I here?" he asked. " First, I would like your name," she smiled. The renegade searched his memory, but found he could not remember! He didn't know who he was!