Foreword: On this week's foreword, I'd like to once again express my amazement that the story has actually reached sixteen chapters (twelve "story" chapters, three "extras" chapters, and one "prelude/extra" chapter). Usually, I only make it to one to four chapters (If you ever join the MFC and look for my old, OLD stories of "So This is What It's Like"/"Welcome to My World" and "MFC Survivor", you'll find yourself reading good examples of that.), but something happened somewhere along the line, forcing me to keep writing. Though, hai, I DO have you to thank (Leaving poor LS-sama wondering if he's right about Zero or not is something unthinkable. ^_^;), I admit that my own interest in finding out what I did next to the cute li'l Pokémon researcher kept me writing. It's this interest which had been absent in my previous stories, which is one of the reasons why I'm amazed at THIS story.
Of course, then came the reviews. People out there (not just the MFC) literally wrote that they loved the story. It's the fact that so many people enjoy this that helped me produce more of the story so that others online with nothing better to do can stumble across it and, like you, entertain themselves. It makes me happy that people whose names I've never heard of until they review find that they can't help but enjoy the world I've created for them, regardless of whether or not they might think Bill is an utter moron. (Side note: Please don't insult Bill in the review box. That's not the point of it. -_-) And when I'm happy, I'm inspired, and when I'm inspired, I write. So, yes, this is why I thank you for keeping the story going for so long. Domo arigatou! =D
Anywho, all babbling aside. On with the show!
***
Episode 12--
Antivirus
Jude smiled. "It's true!"
Bill turned away from her, facing the interior of his lighthouse.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Bill finally replied.
"You can go into Pokémon bodies, can't you?" Jude asked.
"If you can call wearing a Pokémon costume going into Pokémon bodies," he answered. "Do Mom and Dad know you're here?"
"Of course. But they don't know I came because I wanted to help."
"Help? Why would I need help?"
"You would need help with Warp, wouldn't you?"
Bill sighed, trying to keep himself from completely revealing everything he wanted to keep secret to his family.
"You have an active imagination, Jude," Bill commented.
"Bill, I know it's true!" she insisted. "I know you can shift! I know you're part of Warp, whatever it is, and I know it was you in Cyndaquil!"
Bill's eyes widened once more, but his back was turned toward Jude, so she couldn't see.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"You... I don't know how you did it, but you went into Cyndaquil," Jude explained. "MY Cyndaquil. It was you who kept me from joining a gang, and it was you who had been taken away by those creeps Dr. Crocus ordered around! I followed Gengar, and I heard everything they said!"
Bill paused for a moment, turned around a bit, and began to close the door. Jude stopped him from closing the door completely.
"Bill!" she cried.
"Go back to Goldenrod, Jude," he said to her. "You shouldn't be here."
"It's true then, isn't it?"
Frankly, she was beginning to get on Bill's nerves. "No, it's not true!"
"Quit lying to me!" she yelled.
There was a period of silence. He gave her a stern look as she gave him a determined one. Finally, he was the one who gave in. His look softened as he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.
"It's true, then?" she inquired.
"Yes, it is, Jude," Bill replied. "I can shift, which means I can transfer my mind and soul into Pokémon bodies. However..." He once again gave her a grave look. "You must never tell ANYONE about it. Not a single soul. Promise me."
"I promise," she vowed.
"Good. Then go back to Goldenrod and never speak of this again."
"WHAT!?"
"Go back to Goldenrod and never speak of this again," Bill repeated.
"But..." Jude blinked. "But I want to stay here and help you!"
"If you stay here, you'll only be in danger," he told her. "A lot of people are after me because of my ability. I can't risk putting you in the middle of all of this!"
"I can handle it!"
"Jude..." Bill sighed. "You're my sister. I don't want to have anything bad happen to you."
"There won't be anything BAD happening to me!" she argued.
"Jude!"
"Come on!" Jude pulled out a PokéBall. "I'm strong enough to take care of myself!"
He growled. "I have NEVER met anyone so arrogant, so cocky, so foolish, so absolutely stubborn, so..."
"So much like you were when you were my age?" Jude raised an eyebrow.
He paused, as he was caught off guard by this sudden (yet actually accurate) remark. "Touché."
"So...?"
Bill sighed once more. "I can see that you won't quit until you have your way. Alright. You may stay here, but please, just do as I say. You'll get in less trouble if you're not the one causing it."
For the first time in her life, she hugged him. "Thank you!"
'I hope she'll be okay. I won't be able to watch over her if I'm on a shift,' Bill thought as he waited for her to let go.
~~~
"So, Agents Daphne and Theo have failed," Crocus repeated as she paced around her office.
"I'm sorry, Mistress," Oracle apologized again. "There was no way I could stop any of it."
"It's alright," Crocus responded, maintaining calmness before turning to Chester, who stood beside Oracle. "Chester, do you have any suggestions?"
"I'm sorry, doctor, but the team can't come up with anything," Chester replied.
Crocus paced again.
"Of course!" Crocus said, as she realized something. "In his original report, McKenzie stated that the changes that caused him to become a shifter had been done to his DNA. Perhaps if we can study a sample of his DNA, we can figure out a way to undo these changes..."
Crocus turned to both of her employees.
"Oracle! Send two agents to McKenzie's lighthouse and have two others send a virus into his Alpha program as a distraction. Chester, give the two going to the lighthouse any equipment needed to take any sort of sample you need, preferably blood sample," Crocus ordered.
"Yes, ma'am!" both responded before scrambling out.
"Crocus," Keios addressed. "Status report."
"One failure so far, Master," she replied. "However, I believe we're on to something now."
"You had better hope so," Keios responded. "I want McKenzie dead before he can realize his full potential..."
~~~
Bill was in a guest room, helping Jude unpack. He attempted several times to make conversation with her without talking about Warp, but because the two weren't too close to one another, he didn't know what topic would interest her.
Finally, he came up with a topic of universal interest as soon as the last article of clothing had been stored away.
"Would you like something to eat?" he asked.
"Oh... Is your cook here?" she inquired cautiously.
"No, she's still on vacation," he replied.
"In that case, I'm not hungry."
"I was thinking about ordering something from a Chinese restaurant in town, but if you're not hungry..."
"In that case, I'm starving."
"Alright then..." He paused. "Wait... What was that all about!?"
"No offense or anything, but from what I've heard, you're a terrible cook," Jude said lightly.
He cocked his head. "Terrible?"
Jude smiled. "You flunked the required cooking course in home ec. when you went to Westwood Academy. Not to mention you set fire to the home ec. room there on five separate occasions."
He laughed. "Okay! So I can't cook. Everybody has their flaws, and mine is the fact that everything I've made in the kitchen should be classified as radioactive."
Jude cautiously joined him in laughing before slowly loosening up. It actually felt kinda good to her, sitting there with her brother whom she barely knows, enjoying a good joke... even if that joke had been one's insult to himself.
"But you were wrong. I didn't set fire to the kitchen five times; I set fire to the kitchen three times," Bill admitted before reluctantly adding, "The other two times, I set fire to myself."
~~~
A few minutes later, Bill led Jude down into the cellar. After all, he HAD to show her around if she was going to stay there.
"This is where you work?" she asked in awe as soon as she could see the state of the cellar.
"For the most part, yes," he replied.
"I've always imagined it to be... a hell of a lot neater..."
He smiled, then noticed the computer was still on.
"What took you so long!?" Ziggy asked.
"Sorry Ziggy," he apologized.
Jude jumped. "Woah! What is THAT!?"
"THAT would be Zigurat Alpha, known to Bill as Ziggy," Ziggy replied. "And you're Jude, huh?"
"Yeah. How'd you know?" Jude blinked as she walked forward to the computer.
"Ziggy knows everything," she replied with a grin.
"Actually, she wishes she could," Bill told Jude with a grin. "Now that you know about Warp, I can tell you exactly what role she place in it. She is my informational database, my aide, and my guide, especially when I'm on a shift. And when I'm not on a shift, she keeps me company."
Jude blinked. "So, in other words, she's your cyber girlfriend."
Ziggy blushed, but Bill rolled his eyes.
"She's NOT my cyber girlfriend," Bill responded in a cold tone. "I'm not that desperate."
They both looked at him with skeptical glances.
Bill shrugged. "Well, I'm not."
Both girls continued to stare.
"I think I'll..." Bill motioned behind him to the cellar steps. "I'll go place that order now."
Quickly, he ran off and up the stairs.
There was a period of silence. Ziggy and Jude looked at each other, smiled, and burst out laughing.
~~~
It didn't take long for Bill to place the order for Chinese food, but he gave Ziggy and Jude a few minutes to calm themselves from laughing. Or at least Ziggy.
He returned downstairs cautiously. Ziggy was talking endlessly, and Jude was looking around. Jude looked up and smiled before pointing to the device Bill had been working on earlier in the day.
"What's this?" she asked.
Ziggy stopped talking.
"I don't... actually know," Bill replied. "I know how to build it and how it works, but I don't know what it's for or why I'm building it."
"Weird..." Jude blinked. "Then why don't you stop?"
Bill shrugged. "I can't."
He looked over at the device. It was actually two, but it appeared as one. The first part was a visor, Sailor Mercury-style, and headset. The second was a PokéDex-like device, only completely black.
"It's almost done, so I suppose I'll find out what it's for soon," Bill added.
Jude was about to reply, but suddenly, there was a noise upstairs. The three fell silent.
"What was that?" Jude asked cautiously.
Bill shook his head. "I don't know."
Even Ziggy remained silent as they listened. Footsteps... upstairs. Across the ceiling, and... Stop.
Complete silence.
All of a sudden, there was an explosion. Startled, Bill grabbed Jude and pulled her to the floor with him. He looked over her and beyond a table to see an Electrode rolled down the steps, taking the door with it along with a cloud of smoke.
"What the hell!?" Jude screamed.
The cloud of smoke cleared, revealing a pair of teens in black. The first was a girl with ruby-red eyes and shining, blonde hair done in a braid on the left side of her head, pigtail style, touching her left shoulder. Her partner was a young man with fire-red hair and pale blue eyes.
"Allow us to introduce ourselves," they said in unison.
"Twin stars, shining bright!" the girl announced.
"We'll dazzle you with our soulful light!" the boy added.
"Two royals in our dark kingdom-side!"
"Spreading our empire far and wide!"
The girl struck a pose. "Capella!"
The boy followed. "Sirius!"*1*
"Er... EX Rockets, blasting brighter than a supernova's flash!"
"Surrender now; you won't win the clash!"
By this time, both brother and sister stood up, looked at each other, and blinked.
"You know, I've lived in a big city for pretty much my whole life," Jude said. "I've heard a lot of Team Rocket mottoes, but that's the first time I've heard a motto THAT pathetic."
"Hey! It took us a long time to write that!" Capella sniffed. "Rude little girl!"
Jude rolled her eyes and mumbled, "Geez. Don't quit your day job."
"What was that!?" Capella snapped.
"Nothing." Jude narrowed her eyes and smirked.
"Anyways, we came here for a reason," Sirius said. "We want something from you, Bill. Why don't you cooperate and give us what we want?"
"Because I'm not stupid?" Bill suggested.
"Well, then we've got a little surprise for you," Capella told him. "We've uploaded and activated a virus on your cute little Ziggy that can completely disable then delete her, and we've got the program that DEactivates it." She held up a disc. "If you like your cute little toy at all, you'll cooperate."
Bill looked behind him at the computer. Already, the virus must have taken effect. Ziggy was already frozen and pixelated.
"I don't have to do anything for you!" Bill replied to Capella and Sirius as he activated an antivirus program.
Unfortunately, the program was slow, and the virus was quick. Ziggy was getting worse fast, but the program still hadn't gotten to her yet.
Suddenly, Jude yelped, and Bill felt a pinch on his arm. He looked over to see Sirius holding Jude back while Capella put a needle in a box. Jude stomped on Sirius as Capella backed away. Soon, Sirius joined her near the steps.
"So you don't want to cooperate," Sirius growled. "Suit yourself."
Capella picked up Electrode and threw out a smoke bomb. When the smoke cleared, the ex Rockets were gone, and Ziggy was 25% down.
"It STILL hasn't treated her," Bill told Jude as he noticed the status of the antivirus program.
"So what are you going to do?" Jude asked with a worried glance. "Ziggy's really cool, and I'd hate to see her destroyed by a virus."
"My thoughts exactly," he replied as he pulled a PokéBall from a desk drawer. "Inside this lies what may be the key to saving Ziggy."
"What is it?"
"Porygon! Go!"
At his command, the pink and blue Pokémon appeared and hovered in place.
"What do you plan on doing?" Jude asked.
"If I can shift into Porygon and pass into my computer's mainframe, there's a chance that I could bring the antivirus program to Ziggy," Bill explained.
"A chance?" Jude blinked. "What do you mean by 'a chance'?"
"Well, every Porygon is made of data," he responded. "If this virus is corrupting data and deleting it, then there's a chance that, if I make one wrong move, I could end up deleting my host before the virus gets Ziggy."
"And if your host is deleted...?"
"Then I go with it."
"One question. ARE YOU CRAZY!?"
Bill shrugged. "Maybe."
He placed his hands on Porygon's head and concentrated. Within moments, he blacked out.
~~~
Jude had watched Bill shift and could only stand by as he passed into his computer.*2* And just like that, she was alone in the cellar, only able to watch Ziggy continue to endure the virus.
"Oh, man! I wish there was something I could do..." Jude muttered as she stared at the computer. "But what?"
Behind her, she heard a ringing. She turned around to find a glow on the black PokéDex-like device. Cautiously, she went over to it and saw the screen glowing in a white light.
"Jude," a voice addressed her softly.
"Who is this?" she asked as she picked up the device.
"My name is Zero," the voice replied through the device. "I am yet another being who has helped your brother with his mission to help those in need. And now it is your time to join Ziggy and become a watcher."
"A watcher?"
"Yes, Jude. One who watches over shifters, like your brother, while guiding them through whatever situation they may be in. Do you choose to join many around the world like you?"
"Well..."
"If I said your brother needs you now, would this sway your decision?"
Jude blinked. "He needs me?"
"Of course," Zero replied. "At this very moment, Bill is lost within his own computer as he tries to search for Ziggy. Three lives, that of Ziggy, of Porygon, and of your brother, all rest on your next decision."
"Woah... Wicked," Jude muttered. "Alright. Tell me what to do."
"Though consciously, he doesn't know it, I've asked Bill to make these for you," Zero explained. "The visor and the rest of the headgear are equipment that allow you to see Bill and his environment while transmitting your image as a hologram to him. The device that you hold in your hands right now is part informational database, part locator device which works much like a regular PokéDex would.*3* Simply put the equipment on, and I'll take care of the rest."
"Thanks, Zero," Jude said as she put the visor and the rest of the gear on. "You're pretty cool."
"Thank you, Jude. Prepare to be uploaded..."
~~~
When Bill came through to the other side, he found himself in... something not unlike the area used to battle the Mythic Dragon in Yu-gi-oh!, if anyone needs a visual.
{Um... O-okay...} He looked around. {I never really thought... that this place would be this big...}
"Bill, can you hear me?"
He blinked. {Zero?}
She appeared next to him. "Ziggy is an important part of things to come. Unfortunately, you cannot seem to find her at this point. However, I have been able to locate someone who can help."
{What sort of someone?} he asked.
Zero smiled lightly as Jude appeared as well, in holographic form.
Jude looked around. "Wicked..."
{You sent JUDE to guide me?} Bill blinked.
"I cannot stay to guide you myself, and other watchers are busy looking after their own shifters," Zero told him softly. "She was the best I could find."
{And how did you get my latest inventions to work?} Bill inquired to Jude.
"I will explain everything later," Zero responded for her. "Right now, Ziggy is in trouble. Please, go now before she is gone forever!"
With that, Zero disappeared.
The black PokéDex-like device emitted yet another high-pitched sound. Jude took one look at it.
"According to this thing, the antivirus program has just arrived to our left about twenty yards."
The two looked over to see a green light slowly creeping along a wire on the floor several yards away.
"If you jump into that, you might get Porygon to absorb some of the antivirus program coding," Jude said. "After that, we'll have to go directly northeast to get to Ziggy."
{Thanks, Jude.}
"Wait!" she stepped forward. "If you went into that light, wouldn't you be electricuting yourself?"
{That light is nothing more than a mass of electricity and data,} Bill responded calmly. {Porygon can absorb data as if it were harmless food, and due to its Pokémon side, this particular Porygon can handle anything less in voltage than a mere Thunder Shock. If I'm correct, which I highly doubt that I'm not, the voltage flowing through this computer is lower than that of a Pikachu's Thunder Shock. I should be fine.}
"And you call me cocky. You're the one running into a 'mass of electricity and data', claiming he can come out without a scratch."
{That's not called cockiness; that's called knowing your Pokémon,} he told her. {Now come on! Ziggy needs us!}
Quickly, he ran (or a Porygon version of "ran") forward, followed not long after by Jude.
~~~
The green light looked bigger than the both of them had imagined. Jude blinked at it and ended up looking away due to the light's brightness.
"Are you sure you can handle THAT?" she asked her brother.
She got no reply.
"Bill?"
She looked over to find that the spot he should have been in (right next to her) was empty. She found the light dimming and shrinking to a point where she could look at it. She found a shape floating out of it, only to find it being the Porygon.
{You were saying?}
"Whatever," Jude replied. "You're right. There. Are you happy?"
If he had a mouth, he would have smiled right then. {Quite. Now, how far do we have to go to reach Ziggy?}
Jude looked at the Dex. "Uh..."
{Jude, how far do we have to go?}
"See for yourself."
She flipped the device around to allow her brother to read it. His eyes widened at the distance.
{There's enough space in here for THAT sort of distance!?}
"I'm surprised there's YARDS in here, so I guess space isn't a problem in here."
{I suppose you're right.}
Jude nodded, sighed, and looked at the device. "I guess we have to start running now to get to her before it's too late."
{I'm way ahead of you... literally! Hurry up!}
Jude looked up to see her brother already on his way to Ziggy's location.
"Hey! Wait for me!" she yelped before putting the device in her pocket and running after him.
~~~
The virus slowed down. Ziggy twitched and opened her eyes to see Zero holding back a little, digital monster,*4* the virus that had been feeding on Ziggy.
"Ziggy, are you alright?" Zero inquired with a worried tone.
"I've been better," she replied weakly. "Can you get rid of that thing and get me back online?"
Zero shook her head. "That isn't one of my powers, unfortunately. However, Bill is on his way. He can help you."
"How?" Ziggy asked.
"You'll see when he gets here."
"How long will it take him to get here?"
"He is travelling quickly, for the last thing he wants is to see you disappear into oblivion," Zero explained. "Already, he is halfway here." Zero looked over her shoulder with a worried glance. "I hope he will make it here on time, though. I must be honest with you, Ziggy. The virus has done a great deal of damage on you."
"You don't have to tell ME that," Ziggy said with a cough.
"Right now, I'm trying to grant Bill some time by holding back this creature," Zero continued as the virus struggled in her arms. "Unfortunately, I cannot hold on forever."
"Please, Zero, hold on for dear life," Ziggy begged.
Zero yelped as the virus bit her arm, but she continued to hold on.
"I'm not sure I can," Zero replied to Ziggy. "I'm not strong physically."
Ziggy groaned and closed her eyes. Zero shot another fretful look over her shoulder.
'Please hurry, Bill,' the girl in white pleaded mentally.
~~~
Zero is... well, good with emotions. Both sending and receiving. She can sense, for example, if you're sad, even if you're pretending to be happy and have convinced others around you that you have not one ounce of sorrow in your body. Likewise, anyone for literally miles around can tell what she's feeling, as if she sends out certain vibrations in the air that happen to be different signals for her emotions. In this case, she wanted Bill to hurry, so she sent her "vibrations" of her troubled emotion to him.
It got the effect she wanted. Bill sensed Zero's emotion and knew something was wrong. He picked up the pace, hoping to arrive at his destination quickly enough.
"Hey! Wait up!" Jude cried from behind him. "Wait! OOH!"
Bill looked back to see Jude fall backwards. She immediately got up and kicked an invisible wall.
"What the hell...?"
{This must be one of my security walls,} he explained. {I've programmed them to protect any sort of major data from average hackers. Only those with unique digital signatures I've left on them can pass through. Unfortunately, the transmitter I've put into the devices you happen to be using haven't had the signature put on them yet. That's why I had told you earlier that I haven't finished these inventions yet.}
"Then how do you explain how the virus got through?"
{Antiwarp must have a highly skilled hacker working for them.}
"So what now? I can't go in with you."
Bill thought for a moment. {Stay here then. I'll go in by myself and complete my mission, then come back to you.}
"What if you need me?" Jude asked.
{I'll be fine,} he assured her before turning and leaving as quickly as possible.
Jude could only watch her brother leave before emitting a frustrated growl and taking a seat on the floor, cross-legged.
~~~
It was only a few more moments later when Bill finally arrived at the corridor which contained Ziggy. Zero looked up.
"Bill... I'm glad you could finally make it..."
Just then, the virus bit her. She screamed and held her arm as the digital bastard bounced back onto Ziggy. Zero faded away, leaving Bill alone with the decaying Ziggy and the corrupting pest.
{Ziggy, can you hear me?}
As she made weak attempts to shake off the virus, Ziggy shot an annoyed look at Bill. "I'm sick; not deaf, moron!"
{I'll ignore that,} he muttered. {Ziggy, I've brought the antivirus program. ...Now what?}
"You don't KNOW!?"
{Well, I haven't exactly channeled a computer program out of my own body before, and apparently, neither has Porygon.}
"I'm doomed."
{For a sick being, you have a pretty healthy sense of sarcasm.}
Ziggy groaned, trembled, and fell to her knees as the virus continued to eat away at her.
{ZIGGY!}
Bill floated around her. He never felt so useless in his life...
~~~
Jude was on her back, staring up at the ceiling like one would lie down on a bed of grass and stare up at the stars.
'What's taking him so long?' she asked herself.
She held the PokéDex-like device up so she could stare at its blank screen.
'If only I could get in the action...'
As if to answer her question, the device beeped, and the screen began to glow. The glow faded, revealing a set of directions on a white background. Jude sat up as she read the first line.
"Send these instructions to Bill." She blinked. "Yeah, that'd be easy... If I knew how..."
As if in a second response, another line appeared below the instructions.
"Open channel 01. Connecting... Connection complete?" Jude blinked. "Weird..."
{Ziggy! Hang in there! Oh, god... What do I do now!?}
Jude blinked once more, then smiled. "Oh! This must be a communication channel!"
~~~
Bill stopped upon suddenly hearing his sister's voice. {Jude?}
"You can hear me?" she inquired.
{Yes, but... How? Your signal should be blocked.}
"Direct channel into you," Ziggy managed to mutter as she curled up on the floor. "Same thing I have."
"Right, what Ziggy said," Jude said. "Listen, Bill, Zero sent in some instructions that might help you."
{Go on,} he urged.
"You've been trying to get the antivirus program out of Porygon," Jude said. "According to Zero, after you flew into that light, you, or okay, your host, BECAME the antivirus program."
{Alright, so how do I help Ziggy?}
"All you have to do is come in contact with the virus," Jude replied. "And no, it's not that easy. The little ass hole--"
{Jude!}
"Sorry. The little BUGGER."
{Much better. Go on.}
"Anyways, the little bugger is pretty d... dang aggressive. It's not going out without a fight. Well, that and Zero says there might be a chance that this is gonna hurt."
{Hurt? Define "hurt."}
"Several different 'hurts' there," Jude admitted. "There's the 'Ow, stupid static electricity' hurt, the 'Ow, I slammed into a wall' hurt, the 'Ow, I stood at the edge of an explosion' hurt, and the ever-so popular but, trust me, less probable, 'Ow, I'm dead' hurt."
{Thank you, Jude, for putting that pleasant idea into a much nicer perspective,} Bill told her with a high amount of sarcasm.
"Don't mention it," Jude replied. "Uh, just get the virus away from Ziggy, just in case it DOES turn out to be that nice, 'Ow, I'm dead' possibility."
{That shouldn't be TOO hard...}
He swooped in close to the virus, nearly knocking it off Ziggy. The green ball of ugliness hissed at him as he came back around to try again. Clearly, it was getting annoyed, but it wouldn't abandon its prey too soon. There was one other option, and that was to use an offensive attack.
Tri Attack did quite nicely.
The virus flew backwards, hissed and screeched, but got back on its "feet". It ran toward Ziggy again, but once again, Bill swooped forward, managing to knock the virus back.
On contact with Small, Green, and Ugly, sparks flew off everywhere. Indeed it was painful, but Bill remained in contact with the bugger for as long as he could. When he could take no more, he pulled away.
This time, the pest was angry. To relieve its anger, it threw itself at the Porygon and latched on. Hey, no one ever said it was SMART.
Electricity flew everywhere, and two screams echoed around the corridor. Ziggy managed to look up and watch the whole show in amazement and fear.
Only a few minutes later, Bill couldn't take it anymore, and he threw the virus off of him. The virus, on the other hand, fell unconscious before striking the floor and exploding.
There was a period of silence as Bill dropped to the ground, trying to catch what breath he could. He finally looked over at Ziggy, who had fallen asleep and was slowly being restored automatically.
That's when he began to sense her. It was unusual. Outside, she was but a mere hologram, with no body and nothing to call real except her essence. Inside this computer world, she WAS real, with a tangible body and... a scent.
If he had a mouth, Bill would have smiled at this. He didn't know how, but Ziggy smelled like strawberries. It was an absurd thought, but it was true.
He reached out to touch her. She felt like a natural human being. Apparently, she felt his touch, because she groaned a bit and shivered.
He wanted to stay by Ziggy's side until she was restored completely and awake, but it was Jude who stopped him.
"Hey, Bill! What's going on in there?" she asked.
{Nothing,} he responded. {I'll be there in a moment.}
He looked at Ziggy one last time.
'She's cute when she's asleep and not incessantly speaking,' he thought as he turned to leave.
~~~
The siblings returned to the real world (and real body, in Bill's case). When they arrived, Jude smiled and took off her headgear.
"That was SO COOL!" she exclaimed happily. "I felt like that hologram guy who follows that scientist dude around in that one show..."
"I believe you would be referring to Al Calavicci, Sam Beckett, and Quantum Leap,*5* respectively," Bill told her as he sat up on the floor.
"Yeah!" Jude nodded. "Wait... How did you know that? I thought you didn't watch TV."
"I'm a casual fan of Quantum Leap," Bill replied. "In fact, Ziggy was partially inspired by the Ziggy in the show."*6*
"What do you mean by 'casual'?"
"I happen to be only member 548 of the Kanto section of the Quantum Leap Fan Club."
Jude stared at him.
"The higher the number, the more you're into it," he explained. "Members number one through seven can act out every episode in the series, and members eight through fourteen are all girls who wish they had a chance to 'leap' onto Scott Bakula, if you know what I mean."
"Uh... huh..." Jude blinked. "Penny wasn't kidding when she said you were a nerd."
"You had to have Penny tell you that?" Bill joked.
Apparently, at that moment, Ziggy had been restored enough to make an appearance. She stretched, yawned, and smiled.
"Hello, Ziggy," Bill greeted as he stood up. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better!" she replied cheerfully. "Bill, if I could, I would kiss you! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for saving me!"
"I suppose we're even then," he said.
"Even?" Ziggy blinked.
"Yes." Bill nodded. "Technically, when you guided me through my early shifts, you saved MY life. So now I've saved yours. Am I right?"
Ziggy put a finger to her mouth as she thought about it. "Yeah. I guess so..."
"Hey! What about me!?" Jude asked. "Don't I get a thanks!?"
Bill smiled and put a hand on his sister's shoulder. "Of COURSE you get a thank you! If it weren't for you, I'd still be lost in there!"
"So, does this mean you want me around now?" Jude asked cautiously.
"Mmm..." Bill let go and turned away. "No. After this week, you'll be going back to Goldenrod."
"But BILL--!" Jude cried.
He turned back to her and smiled. "I was just kidding, Jude. You're welcome to stay here and help Ziggy and me for as long as you want."
Jude smiled broadly and punched the air. "Wicked!"
Bill cocked his head. "Um... I'm not sure exactly if that's a good thing, but I'll take it as one."
Ziggy cleared her throat. The two humans turned to her at last.
"By the way, Zero wanted me to explain something to you," she said. "First off, she got your inventions working, Bill. And it's about time I told you what they are, too. See, you're not the only shifter in the world, as you saw with Apollo and Antiwarp. There's actually hundreds of 'em, all trying to remain, well, less obvious. And each shifter has a human watcher who has what Jude's equipped with: the visor and headset, or the 'link gear', and the hand-held device, or the 'COM device'. They're supposed to allow all watchers to keep in touch with their respective shifters as well as other shifters and watchers. Each of Zero's followers gets one somehow, be it falling from the sky, delivered by one of Zero's Pokémon friends, or through the method that Bill went through, what Zero calls 'puppet building'."
"That explains a lot," Jude muttered as she looked at her COM device.
"Zero has followers?" Bill inquired. "How many?"
"Put it this way," Ziggy answered. "Anyone who wants peace in the Pokémon world is, though they don't know it, a follower of Zero. Those who do know it, well, they're our trusted allies."
"Yeah, but wasn't Benadict Arnold a trusted ally of the Americans?" Jude asked.
Bill stared at her.
"History is my favorite subject, especially when we get into the bloody, military details," she told him with a shrug.
"It's not that, though that DOES surprise me," Bill said. "It's the fact that you have a point that scares me."
"What's that suppose to mean!?"
"Only that... er..." He gave her a nervous look and lowered his head. "I'll shut up now."
"Wise decision," Jude sneered.
~~~
Chester withdrew the syringe from the bag and emptied the crimson contents into a vial. He carefully handed it to Dr. Crocus, who only glanced at it.
"With this, we can find the key to disabling -- and dismantling -- Warp," she muttered. "That pesky know-it-all won't get in our way the way he got in Loki's..."
Cautiously, she took a cotton swab, dipped it into the red liquid and spread the liquid onto a slide Chester held up for her. Together, the pair finished preparing the slide and placing the rest of the blood in the vial in a safe spot before any further procedures.
Chester looked up at his superior, who gave him a nod. He then placed the blood into an advanced machine to scan for chromatin of some sort located in the white blood cells.
By studying DNA in this particular location, there was a chance that Crocus could develop something that could first correct the DNA in Bill's blood, then spread the "correction virus" (oxymoron not intended) to the rest of his body. This study could help Crocus decide on how to prepare the virus to have it be carried on the blood cells and through his system quickly and easily, not to mention what to make the virus out of so that the white blood cells avoid it.
The results were printed out. Crocus took one look at these papers and smiled.
"It's so simple," she whispered.
~~~
Zero sat on a rock in the center of her lake. She thought back to the fight between the virus and the antivirus occuring in Bill's computer. In a way, it was a foretelling of things to come.
Keios remained in the shadows, hovering above her, unable to touch things on the ground due to the holy properties of the earth of this particular area. He hissed at Zero. She stared up at him defiantly.
"Coward," he snapped. "If you were any better of a being, you would join me in the air."
She said nothing relevant to his comment. "You are blocking the moon. Please move."
"You're always reliant on something," Keios insulted. "The moon, your family, your lake, Mercurius, Apollo and Artemis, and now... the Prime."
"I am reliant on no one," she replied. "I ask them to aide in my cause, and they do so. You, on the other hand, are reliant on every puppet you have ever used, forcing them to do your bidding because you know you cannot do it yourself."
Keios sneered. "One day, you will regret speaking to me in such an insulting manner."
Keios vanished, allowing the moonlight to flow down onto Zero. She stared at the moon with a soft glance.
"Darkness versus light," she muttered. "Not unlike the battle staged today. However... Will he be ready...?"
She looked down at the waters and closed her eyes.
***
End episode 12*7*
---
Footnotes:
*1*: Capella is a system of stars orbiting around each other, two yellow giants and two red dwarfs, in a constellation called... well, I can't remember what it was called. I'll get back to you on that. ^_^; As for Sirius, no, he's not named after Sirius Black, though I have nothing against the Animagus. ^_^ He's actually named after the star system in the constellation Canis Major, made up of two stars orbiting around each other.
*2*: I would say HOW he did this, but I got lazy. ^_^;
*3*: This is going by the game, in which a PokéDex is both an information database on all Pokémon as well as a locator device for each Pokémon nest.
*4*: No reference to Digimon intended. o.o;
*5*: Okay, so this season we're going to have a lot more Quantum Leap references. ^_^; There's that direct joke (inspired, by the way, by a clip from the show Jag involving a Quantum Leap convention), the black PokéDex-like device (aka COM device), which is like a less-colorful handlink (and, okay, was named after the device Yamaki gave the kids just before they entered the Digital World in Digimon Tamers), and possibly a few more things. Let's all give a nice "yay" to Quantum Leap! YAY!
*6*: Actually, that's true. I tried to give Ziggy the hologram the "big ego" that most leapers say Ziggy the hybrid computer had. And by the way, it shouldn't be surprising that Bill knows about Quantum Leap. Because the story takes place in the future, the show would be as old as Leave it to Beaver is to us, for example. So he could have seen it at any point in his life. And by the way, yes, I can imagine Bill liking this show. Either that or he'd sympathize for and identify himself with Dr. Beckett. And I mean "sympathize" and "identify" both in a strong sense. ^_^;
*7*: Woo! One of the longer episodes (eighteen pages, seventeen and two-thirds of which are the actual story) with a few decent subplots. ^_^ Though it leaves you with more of a mystery you came in with, especially that scene at the end, which was actually a foreshadow for the end of season three/the movie. Wow. I'm getting WAY ahead of myself... o.o; Anywho, didn't I say Jude would be important later? Yep. I did. Episode four, buddy. =p Well, guess what? She's going to be even more important later on, much like Ziggy. ^_^ And finally, just for the record, if Zero's starting to sound like a Mary Sue, I apologize. ^_^;;;
Of course, then came the reviews. People out there (not just the MFC) literally wrote that they loved the story. It's the fact that so many people enjoy this that helped me produce more of the story so that others online with nothing better to do can stumble across it and, like you, entertain themselves. It makes me happy that people whose names I've never heard of until they review find that they can't help but enjoy the world I've created for them, regardless of whether or not they might think Bill is an utter moron. (Side note: Please don't insult Bill in the review box. That's not the point of it. -_-) And when I'm happy, I'm inspired, and when I'm inspired, I write. So, yes, this is why I thank you for keeping the story going for so long. Domo arigatou! =D
Anywho, all babbling aside. On with the show!
***
Episode 12--
Antivirus
Jude smiled. "It's true!"
Bill turned away from her, facing the interior of his lighthouse.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Bill finally replied.
"You can go into Pokémon bodies, can't you?" Jude asked.
"If you can call wearing a Pokémon costume going into Pokémon bodies," he answered. "Do Mom and Dad know you're here?"
"Of course. But they don't know I came because I wanted to help."
"Help? Why would I need help?"
"You would need help with Warp, wouldn't you?"
Bill sighed, trying to keep himself from completely revealing everything he wanted to keep secret to his family.
"You have an active imagination, Jude," Bill commented.
"Bill, I know it's true!" she insisted. "I know you can shift! I know you're part of Warp, whatever it is, and I know it was you in Cyndaquil!"
Bill's eyes widened once more, but his back was turned toward Jude, so she couldn't see.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"You... I don't know how you did it, but you went into Cyndaquil," Jude explained. "MY Cyndaquil. It was you who kept me from joining a gang, and it was you who had been taken away by those creeps Dr. Crocus ordered around! I followed Gengar, and I heard everything they said!"
Bill paused for a moment, turned around a bit, and began to close the door. Jude stopped him from closing the door completely.
"Bill!" she cried.
"Go back to Goldenrod, Jude," he said to her. "You shouldn't be here."
"It's true then, isn't it?"
Frankly, she was beginning to get on Bill's nerves. "No, it's not true!"
"Quit lying to me!" she yelled.
There was a period of silence. He gave her a stern look as she gave him a determined one. Finally, he was the one who gave in. His look softened as he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.
"It's true, then?" she inquired.
"Yes, it is, Jude," Bill replied. "I can shift, which means I can transfer my mind and soul into Pokémon bodies. However..." He once again gave her a grave look. "You must never tell ANYONE about it. Not a single soul. Promise me."
"I promise," she vowed.
"Good. Then go back to Goldenrod and never speak of this again."
"WHAT!?"
"Go back to Goldenrod and never speak of this again," Bill repeated.
"But..." Jude blinked. "But I want to stay here and help you!"
"If you stay here, you'll only be in danger," he told her. "A lot of people are after me because of my ability. I can't risk putting you in the middle of all of this!"
"I can handle it!"
"Jude..." Bill sighed. "You're my sister. I don't want to have anything bad happen to you."
"There won't be anything BAD happening to me!" she argued.
"Jude!"
"Come on!" Jude pulled out a PokéBall. "I'm strong enough to take care of myself!"
He growled. "I have NEVER met anyone so arrogant, so cocky, so foolish, so absolutely stubborn, so..."
"So much like you were when you were my age?" Jude raised an eyebrow.
He paused, as he was caught off guard by this sudden (yet actually accurate) remark. "Touché."
"So...?"
Bill sighed once more. "I can see that you won't quit until you have your way. Alright. You may stay here, but please, just do as I say. You'll get in less trouble if you're not the one causing it."
For the first time in her life, she hugged him. "Thank you!"
'I hope she'll be okay. I won't be able to watch over her if I'm on a shift,' Bill thought as he waited for her to let go.
~~~
"So, Agents Daphne and Theo have failed," Crocus repeated as she paced around her office.
"I'm sorry, Mistress," Oracle apologized again. "There was no way I could stop any of it."
"It's alright," Crocus responded, maintaining calmness before turning to Chester, who stood beside Oracle. "Chester, do you have any suggestions?"
"I'm sorry, doctor, but the team can't come up with anything," Chester replied.
Crocus paced again.
"Of course!" Crocus said, as she realized something. "In his original report, McKenzie stated that the changes that caused him to become a shifter had been done to his DNA. Perhaps if we can study a sample of his DNA, we can figure out a way to undo these changes..."
Crocus turned to both of her employees.
"Oracle! Send two agents to McKenzie's lighthouse and have two others send a virus into his Alpha program as a distraction. Chester, give the two going to the lighthouse any equipment needed to take any sort of sample you need, preferably blood sample," Crocus ordered.
"Yes, ma'am!" both responded before scrambling out.
"Crocus," Keios addressed. "Status report."
"One failure so far, Master," she replied. "However, I believe we're on to something now."
"You had better hope so," Keios responded. "I want McKenzie dead before he can realize his full potential..."
~~~
Bill was in a guest room, helping Jude unpack. He attempted several times to make conversation with her without talking about Warp, but because the two weren't too close to one another, he didn't know what topic would interest her.
Finally, he came up with a topic of universal interest as soon as the last article of clothing had been stored away.
"Would you like something to eat?" he asked.
"Oh... Is your cook here?" she inquired cautiously.
"No, she's still on vacation," he replied.
"In that case, I'm not hungry."
"I was thinking about ordering something from a Chinese restaurant in town, but if you're not hungry..."
"In that case, I'm starving."
"Alright then..." He paused. "Wait... What was that all about!?"
"No offense or anything, but from what I've heard, you're a terrible cook," Jude said lightly.
He cocked his head. "Terrible?"
Jude smiled. "You flunked the required cooking course in home ec. when you went to Westwood Academy. Not to mention you set fire to the home ec. room there on five separate occasions."
He laughed. "Okay! So I can't cook. Everybody has their flaws, and mine is the fact that everything I've made in the kitchen should be classified as radioactive."
Jude cautiously joined him in laughing before slowly loosening up. It actually felt kinda good to her, sitting there with her brother whom she barely knows, enjoying a good joke... even if that joke had been one's insult to himself.
"But you were wrong. I didn't set fire to the kitchen five times; I set fire to the kitchen three times," Bill admitted before reluctantly adding, "The other two times, I set fire to myself."
~~~
A few minutes later, Bill led Jude down into the cellar. After all, he HAD to show her around if she was going to stay there.
"This is where you work?" she asked in awe as soon as she could see the state of the cellar.
"For the most part, yes," he replied.
"I've always imagined it to be... a hell of a lot neater..."
He smiled, then noticed the computer was still on.
"What took you so long!?" Ziggy asked.
"Sorry Ziggy," he apologized.
Jude jumped. "Woah! What is THAT!?"
"THAT would be Zigurat Alpha, known to Bill as Ziggy," Ziggy replied. "And you're Jude, huh?"
"Yeah. How'd you know?" Jude blinked as she walked forward to the computer.
"Ziggy knows everything," she replied with a grin.
"Actually, she wishes she could," Bill told Jude with a grin. "Now that you know about Warp, I can tell you exactly what role she place in it. She is my informational database, my aide, and my guide, especially when I'm on a shift. And when I'm not on a shift, she keeps me company."
Jude blinked. "So, in other words, she's your cyber girlfriend."
Ziggy blushed, but Bill rolled his eyes.
"She's NOT my cyber girlfriend," Bill responded in a cold tone. "I'm not that desperate."
They both looked at him with skeptical glances.
Bill shrugged. "Well, I'm not."
Both girls continued to stare.
"I think I'll..." Bill motioned behind him to the cellar steps. "I'll go place that order now."
Quickly, he ran off and up the stairs.
There was a period of silence. Ziggy and Jude looked at each other, smiled, and burst out laughing.
~~~
It didn't take long for Bill to place the order for Chinese food, but he gave Ziggy and Jude a few minutes to calm themselves from laughing. Or at least Ziggy.
He returned downstairs cautiously. Ziggy was talking endlessly, and Jude was looking around. Jude looked up and smiled before pointing to the device Bill had been working on earlier in the day.
"What's this?" she asked.
Ziggy stopped talking.
"I don't... actually know," Bill replied. "I know how to build it and how it works, but I don't know what it's for or why I'm building it."
"Weird..." Jude blinked. "Then why don't you stop?"
Bill shrugged. "I can't."
He looked over at the device. It was actually two, but it appeared as one. The first part was a visor, Sailor Mercury-style, and headset. The second was a PokéDex-like device, only completely black.
"It's almost done, so I suppose I'll find out what it's for soon," Bill added.
Jude was about to reply, but suddenly, there was a noise upstairs. The three fell silent.
"What was that?" Jude asked cautiously.
Bill shook his head. "I don't know."
Even Ziggy remained silent as they listened. Footsteps... upstairs. Across the ceiling, and... Stop.
Complete silence.
All of a sudden, there was an explosion. Startled, Bill grabbed Jude and pulled her to the floor with him. He looked over her and beyond a table to see an Electrode rolled down the steps, taking the door with it along with a cloud of smoke.
"What the hell!?" Jude screamed.
The cloud of smoke cleared, revealing a pair of teens in black. The first was a girl with ruby-red eyes and shining, blonde hair done in a braid on the left side of her head, pigtail style, touching her left shoulder. Her partner was a young man with fire-red hair and pale blue eyes.
"Allow us to introduce ourselves," they said in unison.
"Twin stars, shining bright!" the girl announced.
"We'll dazzle you with our soulful light!" the boy added.
"Two royals in our dark kingdom-side!"
"Spreading our empire far and wide!"
The girl struck a pose. "Capella!"
The boy followed. "Sirius!"*1*
"Er... EX Rockets, blasting brighter than a supernova's flash!"
"Surrender now; you won't win the clash!"
By this time, both brother and sister stood up, looked at each other, and blinked.
"You know, I've lived in a big city for pretty much my whole life," Jude said. "I've heard a lot of Team Rocket mottoes, but that's the first time I've heard a motto THAT pathetic."
"Hey! It took us a long time to write that!" Capella sniffed. "Rude little girl!"
Jude rolled her eyes and mumbled, "Geez. Don't quit your day job."
"What was that!?" Capella snapped.
"Nothing." Jude narrowed her eyes and smirked.
"Anyways, we came here for a reason," Sirius said. "We want something from you, Bill. Why don't you cooperate and give us what we want?"
"Because I'm not stupid?" Bill suggested.
"Well, then we've got a little surprise for you," Capella told him. "We've uploaded and activated a virus on your cute little Ziggy that can completely disable then delete her, and we've got the program that DEactivates it." She held up a disc. "If you like your cute little toy at all, you'll cooperate."
Bill looked behind him at the computer. Already, the virus must have taken effect. Ziggy was already frozen and pixelated.
"I don't have to do anything for you!" Bill replied to Capella and Sirius as he activated an antivirus program.
Unfortunately, the program was slow, and the virus was quick. Ziggy was getting worse fast, but the program still hadn't gotten to her yet.
Suddenly, Jude yelped, and Bill felt a pinch on his arm. He looked over to see Sirius holding Jude back while Capella put a needle in a box. Jude stomped on Sirius as Capella backed away. Soon, Sirius joined her near the steps.
"So you don't want to cooperate," Sirius growled. "Suit yourself."
Capella picked up Electrode and threw out a smoke bomb. When the smoke cleared, the ex Rockets were gone, and Ziggy was 25% down.
"It STILL hasn't treated her," Bill told Jude as he noticed the status of the antivirus program.
"So what are you going to do?" Jude asked with a worried glance. "Ziggy's really cool, and I'd hate to see her destroyed by a virus."
"My thoughts exactly," he replied as he pulled a PokéBall from a desk drawer. "Inside this lies what may be the key to saving Ziggy."
"What is it?"
"Porygon! Go!"
At his command, the pink and blue Pokémon appeared and hovered in place.
"What do you plan on doing?" Jude asked.
"If I can shift into Porygon and pass into my computer's mainframe, there's a chance that I could bring the antivirus program to Ziggy," Bill explained.
"A chance?" Jude blinked. "What do you mean by 'a chance'?"
"Well, every Porygon is made of data," he responded. "If this virus is corrupting data and deleting it, then there's a chance that, if I make one wrong move, I could end up deleting my host before the virus gets Ziggy."
"And if your host is deleted...?"
"Then I go with it."
"One question. ARE YOU CRAZY!?"
Bill shrugged. "Maybe."
He placed his hands on Porygon's head and concentrated. Within moments, he blacked out.
~~~
Jude had watched Bill shift and could only stand by as he passed into his computer.*2* And just like that, she was alone in the cellar, only able to watch Ziggy continue to endure the virus.
"Oh, man! I wish there was something I could do..." Jude muttered as she stared at the computer. "But what?"
Behind her, she heard a ringing. She turned around to find a glow on the black PokéDex-like device. Cautiously, she went over to it and saw the screen glowing in a white light.
"Jude," a voice addressed her softly.
"Who is this?" she asked as she picked up the device.
"My name is Zero," the voice replied through the device. "I am yet another being who has helped your brother with his mission to help those in need. And now it is your time to join Ziggy and become a watcher."
"A watcher?"
"Yes, Jude. One who watches over shifters, like your brother, while guiding them through whatever situation they may be in. Do you choose to join many around the world like you?"
"Well..."
"If I said your brother needs you now, would this sway your decision?"
Jude blinked. "He needs me?"
"Of course," Zero replied. "At this very moment, Bill is lost within his own computer as he tries to search for Ziggy. Three lives, that of Ziggy, of Porygon, and of your brother, all rest on your next decision."
"Woah... Wicked," Jude muttered. "Alright. Tell me what to do."
"Though consciously, he doesn't know it, I've asked Bill to make these for you," Zero explained. "The visor and the rest of the headgear are equipment that allow you to see Bill and his environment while transmitting your image as a hologram to him. The device that you hold in your hands right now is part informational database, part locator device which works much like a regular PokéDex would.*3* Simply put the equipment on, and I'll take care of the rest."
"Thanks, Zero," Jude said as she put the visor and the rest of the gear on. "You're pretty cool."
"Thank you, Jude. Prepare to be uploaded..."
~~~
When Bill came through to the other side, he found himself in... something not unlike the area used to battle the Mythic Dragon in Yu-gi-oh!, if anyone needs a visual.
{Um... O-okay...} He looked around. {I never really thought... that this place would be this big...}
"Bill, can you hear me?"
He blinked. {Zero?}
She appeared next to him. "Ziggy is an important part of things to come. Unfortunately, you cannot seem to find her at this point. However, I have been able to locate someone who can help."
{What sort of someone?} he asked.
Zero smiled lightly as Jude appeared as well, in holographic form.
Jude looked around. "Wicked..."
{You sent JUDE to guide me?} Bill blinked.
"I cannot stay to guide you myself, and other watchers are busy looking after their own shifters," Zero told him softly. "She was the best I could find."
{And how did you get my latest inventions to work?} Bill inquired to Jude.
"I will explain everything later," Zero responded for her. "Right now, Ziggy is in trouble. Please, go now before she is gone forever!"
With that, Zero disappeared.
The black PokéDex-like device emitted yet another high-pitched sound. Jude took one look at it.
"According to this thing, the antivirus program has just arrived to our left about twenty yards."
The two looked over to see a green light slowly creeping along a wire on the floor several yards away.
"If you jump into that, you might get Porygon to absorb some of the antivirus program coding," Jude said. "After that, we'll have to go directly northeast to get to Ziggy."
{Thanks, Jude.}
"Wait!" she stepped forward. "If you went into that light, wouldn't you be electricuting yourself?"
{That light is nothing more than a mass of electricity and data,} Bill responded calmly. {Porygon can absorb data as if it were harmless food, and due to its Pokémon side, this particular Porygon can handle anything less in voltage than a mere Thunder Shock. If I'm correct, which I highly doubt that I'm not, the voltage flowing through this computer is lower than that of a Pikachu's Thunder Shock. I should be fine.}
"And you call me cocky. You're the one running into a 'mass of electricity and data', claiming he can come out without a scratch."
{That's not called cockiness; that's called knowing your Pokémon,} he told her. {Now come on! Ziggy needs us!}
Quickly, he ran (or a Porygon version of "ran") forward, followed not long after by Jude.
~~~
The green light looked bigger than the both of them had imagined. Jude blinked at it and ended up looking away due to the light's brightness.
"Are you sure you can handle THAT?" she asked her brother.
She got no reply.
"Bill?"
She looked over to find that the spot he should have been in (right next to her) was empty. She found the light dimming and shrinking to a point where she could look at it. She found a shape floating out of it, only to find it being the Porygon.
{You were saying?}
"Whatever," Jude replied. "You're right. There. Are you happy?"
If he had a mouth, he would have smiled right then. {Quite. Now, how far do we have to go to reach Ziggy?}
Jude looked at the Dex. "Uh..."
{Jude, how far do we have to go?}
"See for yourself."
She flipped the device around to allow her brother to read it. His eyes widened at the distance.
{There's enough space in here for THAT sort of distance!?}
"I'm surprised there's YARDS in here, so I guess space isn't a problem in here."
{I suppose you're right.}
Jude nodded, sighed, and looked at the device. "I guess we have to start running now to get to her before it's too late."
{I'm way ahead of you... literally! Hurry up!}
Jude looked up to see her brother already on his way to Ziggy's location.
"Hey! Wait for me!" she yelped before putting the device in her pocket and running after him.
~~~
The virus slowed down. Ziggy twitched and opened her eyes to see Zero holding back a little, digital monster,*4* the virus that had been feeding on Ziggy.
"Ziggy, are you alright?" Zero inquired with a worried tone.
"I've been better," she replied weakly. "Can you get rid of that thing and get me back online?"
Zero shook her head. "That isn't one of my powers, unfortunately. However, Bill is on his way. He can help you."
"How?" Ziggy asked.
"You'll see when he gets here."
"How long will it take him to get here?"
"He is travelling quickly, for the last thing he wants is to see you disappear into oblivion," Zero explained. "Already, he is halfway here." Zero looked over her shoulder with a worried glance. "I hope he will make it here on time, though. I must be honest with you, Ziggy. The virus has done a great deal of damage on you."
"You don't have to tell ME that," Ziggy said with a cough.
"Right now, I'm trying to grant Bill some time by holding back this creature," Zero continued as the virus struggled in her arms. "Unfortunately, I cannot hold on forever."
"Please, Zero, hold on for dear life," Ziggy begged.
Zero yelped as the virus bit her arm, but she continued to hold on.
"I'm not sure I can," Zero replied to Ziggy. "I'm not strong physically."
Ziggy groaned and closed her eyes. Zero shot another fretful look over her shoulder.
'Please hurry, Bill,' the girl in white pleaded mentally.
~~~
Zero is... well, good with emotions. Both sending and receiving. She can sense, for example, if you're sad, even if you're pretending to be happy and have convinced others around you that you have not one ounce of sorrow in your body. Likewise, anyone for literally miles around can tell what she's feeling, as if she sends out certain vibrations in the air that happen to be different signals for her emotions. In this case, she wanted Bill to hurry, so she sent her "vibrations" of her troubled emotion to him.
It got the effect she wanted. Bill sensed Zero's emotion and knew something was wrong. He picked up the pace, hoping to arrive at his destination quickly enough.
"Hey! Wait up!" Jude cried from behind him. "Wait! OOH!"
Bill looked back to see Jude fall backwards. She immediately got up and kicked an invisible wall.
"What the hell...?"
{This must be one of my security walls,} he explained. {I've programmed them to protect any sort of major data from average hackers. Only those with unique digital signatures I've left on them can pass through. Unfortunately, the transmitter I've put into the devices you happen to be using haven't had the signature put on them yet. That's why I had told you earlier that I haven't finished these inventions yet.}
"Then how do you explain how the virus got through?"
{Antiwarp must have a highly skilled hacker working for them.}
"So what now? I can't go in with you."
Bill thought for a moment. {Stay here then. I'll go in by myself and complete my mission, then come back to you.}
"What if you need me?" Jude asked.
{I'll be fine,} he assured her before turning and leaving as quickly as possible.
Jude could only watch her brother leave before emitting a frustrated growl and taking a seat on the floor, cross-legged.
~~~
It was only a few more moments later when Bill finally arrived at the corridor which contained Ziggy. Zero looked up.
"Bill... I'm glad you could finally make it..."
Just then, the virus bit her. She screamed and held her arm as the digital bastard bounced back onto Ziggy. Zero faded away, leaving Bill alone with the decaying Ziggy and the corrupting pest.
{Ziggy, can you hear me?}
As she made weak attempts to shake off the virus, Ziggy shot an annoyed look at Bill. "I'm sick; not deaf, moron!"
{I'll ignore that,} he muttered. {Ziggy, I've brought the antivirus program. ...Now what?}
"You don't KNOW!?"
{Well, I haven't exactly channeled a computer program out of my own body before, and apparently, neither has Porygon.}
"I'm doomed."
{For a sick being, you have a pretty healthy sense of sarcasm.}
Ziggy groaned, trembled, and fell to her knees as the virus continued to eat away at her.
{ZIGGY!}
Bill floated around her. He never felt so useless in his life...
~~~
Jude was on her back, staring up at the ceiling like one would lie down on a bed of grass and stare up at the stars.
'What's taking him so long?' she asked herself.
She held the PokéDex-like device up so she could stare at its blank screen.
'If only I could get in the action...'
As if to answer her question, the device beeped, and the screen began to glow. The glow faded, revealing a set of directions on a white background. Jude sat up as she read the first line.
"Send these instructions to Bill." She blinked. "Yeah, that'd be easy... If I knew how..."
As if in a second response, another line appeared below the instructions.
"Open channel 01. Connecting... Connection complete?" Jude blinked. "Weird..."
{Ziggy! Hang in there! Oh, god... What do I do now!?}
Jude blinked once more, then smiled. "Oh! This must be a communication channel!"
~~~
Bill stopped upon suddenly hearing his sister's voice. {Jude?}
"You can hear me?" she inquired.
{Yes, but... How? Your signal should be blocked.}
"Direct channel into you," Ziggy managed to mutter as she curled up on the floor. "Same thing I have."
"Right, what Ziggy said," Jude said. "Listen, Bill, Zero sent in some instructions that might help you."
{Go on,} he urged.
"You've been trying to get the antivirus program out of Porygon," Jude said. "According to Zero, after you flew into that light, you, or okay, your host, BECAME the antivirus program."
{Alright, so how do I help Ziggy?}
"All you have to do is come in contact with the virus," Jude replied. "And no, it's not that easy. The little ass hole--"
{Jude!}
"Sorry. The little BUGGER."
{Much better. Go on.}
"Anyways, the little bugger is pretty d... dang aggressive. It's not going out without a fight. Well, that and Zero says there might be a chance that this is gonna hurt."
{Hurt? Define "hurt."}
"Several different 'hurts' there," Jude admitted. "There's the 'Ow, stupid static electricity' hurt, the 'Ow, I slammed into a wall' hurt, the 'Ow, I stood at the edge of an explosion' hurt, and the ever-so popular but, trust me, less probable, 'Ow, I'm dead' hurt."
{Thank you, Jude, for putting that pleasant idea into a much nicer perspective,} Bill told her with a high amount of sarcasm.
"Don't mention it," Jude replied. "Uh, just get the virus away from Ziggy, just in case it DOES turn out to be that nice, 'Ow, I'm dead' possibility."
{That shouldn't be TOO hard...}
He swooped in close to the virus, nearly knocking it off Ziggy. The green ball of ugliness hissed at him as he came back around to try again. Clearly, it was getting annoyed, but it wouldn't abandon its prey too soon. There was one other option, and that was to use an offensive attack.
Tri Attack did quite nicely.
The virus flew backwards, hissed and screeched, but got back on its "feet". It ran toward Ziggy again, but once again, Bill swooped forward, managing to knock the virus back.
On contact with Small, Green, and Ugly, sparks flew off everywhere. Indeed it was painful, but Bill remained in contact with the bugger for as long as he could. When he could take no more, he pulled away.
This time, the pest was angry. To relieve its anger, it threw itself at the Porygon and latched on. Hey, no one ever said it was SMART.
Electricity flew everywhere, and two screams echoed around the corridor. Ziggy managed to look up and watch the whole show in amazement and fear.
Only a few minutes later, Bill couldn't take it anymore, and he threw the virus off of him. The virus, on the other hand, fell unconscious before striking the floor and exploding.
There was a period of silence as Bill dropped to the ground, trying to catch what breath he could. He finally looked over at Ziggy, who had fallen asleep and was slowly being restored automatically.
That's when he began to sense her. It was unusual. Outside, she was but a mere hologram, with no body and nothing to call real except her essence. Inside this computer world, she WAS real, with a tangible body and... a scent.
If he had a mouth, Bill would have smiled at this. He didn't know how, but Ziggy smelled like strawberries. It was an absurd thought, but it was true.
He reached out to touch her. She felt like a natural human being. Apparently, she felt his touch, because she groaned a bit and shivered.
He wanted to stay by Ziggy's side until she was restored completely and awake, but it was Jude who stopped him.
"Hey, Bill! What's going on in there?" she asked.
{Nothing,} he responded. {I'll be there in a moment.}
He looked at Ziggy one last time.
'She's cute when she's asleep and not incessantly speaking,' he thought as he turned to leave.
~~~
The siblings returned to the real world (and real body, in Bill's case). When they arrived, Jude smiled and took off her headgear.
"That was SO COOL!" she exclaimed happily. "I felt like that hologram guy who follows that scientist dude around in that one show..."
"I believe you would be referring to Al Calavicci, Sam Beckett, and Quantum Leap,*5* respectively," Bill told her as he sat up on the floor.
"Yeah!" Jude nodded. "Wait... How did you know that? I thought you didn't watch TV."
"I'm a casual fan of Quantum Leap," Bill replied. "In fact, Ziggy was partially inspired by the Ziggy in the show."*6*
"What do you mean by 'casual'?"
"I happen to be only member 548 of the Kanto section of the Quantum Leap Fan Club."
Jude stared at him.
"The higher the number, the more you're into it," he explained. "Members number one through seven can act out every episode in the series, and members eight through fourteen are all girls who wish they had a chance to 'leap' onto Scott Bakula, if you know what I mean."
"Uh... huh..." Jude blinked. "Penny wasn't kidding when she said you were a nerd."
"You had to have Penny tell you that?" Bill joked.
Apparently, at that moment, Ziggy had been restored enough to make an appearance. She stretched, yawned, and smiled.
"Hello, Ziggy," Bill greeted as he stood up. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better!" she replied cheerfully. "Bill, if I could, I would kiss you! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for saving me!"
"I suppose we're even then," he said.
"Even?" Ziggy blinked.
"Yes." Bill nodded. "Technically, when you guided me through my early shifts, you saved MY life. So now I've saved yours. Am I right?"
Ziggy put a finger to her mouth as she thought about it. "Yeah. I guess so..."
"Hey! What about me!?" Jude asked. "Don't I get a thanks!?"
Bill smiled and put a hand on his sister's shoulder. "Of COURSE you get a thank you! If it weren't for you, I'd still be lost in there!"
"So, does this mean you want me around now?" Jude asked cautiously.
"Mmm..." Bill let go and turned away. "No. After this week, you'll be going back to Goldenrod."
"But BILL--!" Jude cried.
He turned back to her and smiled. "I was just kidding, Jude. You're welcome to stay here and help Ziggy and me for as long as you want."
Jude smiled broadly and punched the air. "Wicked!"
Bill cocked his head. "Um... I'm not sure exactly if that's a good thing, but I'll take it as one."
Ziggy cleared her throat. The two humans turned to her at last.
"By the way, Zero wanted me to explain something to you," she said. "First off, she got your inventions working, Bill. And it's about time I told you what they are, too. See, you're not the only shifter in the world, as you saw with Apollo and Antiwarp. There's actually hundreds of 'em, all trying to remain, well, less obvious. And each shifter has a human watcher who has what Jude's equipped with: the visor and headset, or the 'link gear', and the hand-held device, or the 'COM device'. They're supposed to allow all watchers to keep in touch with their respective shifters as well as other shifters and watchers. Each of Zero's followers gets one somehow, be it falling from the sky, delivered by one of Zero's Pokémon friends, or through the method that Bill went through, what Zero calls 'puppet building'."
"That explains a lot," Jude muttered as she looked at her COM device.
"Zero has followers?" Bill inquired. "How many?"
"Put it this way," Ziggy answered. "Anyone who wants peace in the Pokémon world is, though they don't know it, a follower of Zero. Those who do know it, well, they're our trusted allies."
"Yeah, but wasn't Benadict Arnold a trusted ally of the Americans?" Jude asked.
Bill stared at her.
"History is my favorite subject, especially when we get into the bloody, military details," she told him with a shrug.
"It's not that, though that DOES surprise me," Bill said. "It's the fact that you have a point that scares me."
"What's that suppose to mean!?"
"Only that... er..." He gave her a nervous look and lowered his head. "I'll shut up now."
"Wise decision," Jude sneered.
~~~
Chester withdrew the syringe from the bag and emptied the crimson contents into a vial. He carefully handed it to Dr. Crocus, who only glanced at it.
"With this, we can find the key to disabling -- and dismantling -- Warp," she muttered. "That pesky know-it-all won't get in our way the way he got in Loki's..."
Cautiously, she took a cotton swab, dipped it into the red liquid and spread the liquid onto a slide Chester held up for her. Together, the pair finished preparing the slide and placing the rest of the blood in the vial in a safe spot before any further procedures.
Chester looked up at his superior, who gave him a nod. He then placed the blood into an advanced machine to scan for chromatin of some sort located in the white blood cells.
By studying DNA in this particular location, there was a chance that Crocus could develop something that could first correct the DNA in Bill's blood, then spread the "correction virus" (oxymoron not intended) to the rest of his body. This study could help Crocus decide on how to prepare the virus to have it be carried on the blood cells and through his system quickly and easily, not to mention what to make the virus out of so that the white blood cells avoid it.
The results were printed out. Crocus took one look at these papers and smiled.
"It's so simple," she whispered.
~~~
Zero sat on a rock in the center of her lake. She thought back to the fight between the virus and the antivirus occuring in Bill's computer. In a way, it was a foretelling of things to come.
Keios remained in the shadows, hovering above her, unable to touch things on the ground due to the holy properties of the earth of this particular area. He hissed at Zero. She stared up at him defiantly.
"Coward," he snapped. "If you were any better of a being, you would join me in the air."
She said nothing relevant to his comment. "You are blocking the moon. Please move."
"You're always reliant on something," Keios insulted. "The moon, your family, your lake, Mercurius, Apollo and Artemis, and now... the Prime."
"I am reliant on no one," she replied. "I ask them to aide in my cause, and they do so. You, on the other hand, are reliant on every puppet you have ever used, forcing them to do your bidding because you know you cannot do it yourself."
Keios sneered. "One day, you will regret speaking to me in such an insulting manner."
Keios vanished, allowing the moonlight to flow down onto Zero. She stared at the moon with a soft glance.
"Darkness versus light," she muttered. "Not unlike the battle staged today. However... Will he be ready...?"
She looked down at the waters and closed her eyes.
***
End episode 12*7*
---
Footnotes:
*1*: Capella is a system of stars orbiting around each other, two yellow giants and two red dwarfs, in a constellation called... well, I can't remember what it was called. I'll get back to you on that. ^_^; As for Sirius, no, he's not named after Sirius Black, though I have nothing against the Animagus. ^_^ He's actually named after the star system in the constellation Canis Major, made up of two stars orbiting around each other.
*2*: I would say HOW he did this, but I got lazy. ^_^;
*3*: This is going by the game, in which a PokéDex is both an information database on all Pokémon as well as a locator device for each Pokémon nest.
*4*: No reference to Digimon intended. o.o;
*5*: Okay, so this season we're going to have a lot more Quantum Leap references. ^_^; There's that direct joke (inspired, by the way, by a clip from the show Jag involving a Quantum Leap convention), the black PokéDex-like device (aka COM device), which is like a less-colorful handlink (and, okay, was named after the device Yamaki gave the kids just before they entered the Digital World in Digimon Tamers), and possibly a few more things. Let's all give a nice "yay" to Quantum Leap! YAY!
*6*: Actually, that's true. I tried to give Ziggy the hologram the "big ego" that most leapers say Ziggy the hybrid computer had. And by the way, it shouldn't be surprising that Bill knows about Quantum Leap. Because the story takes place in the future, the show would be as old as Leave it to Beaver is to us, for example. So he could have seen it at any point in his life. And by the way, yes, I can imagine Bill liking this show. Either that or he'd sympathize for and identify himself with Dr. Beckett. And I mean "sympathize" and "identify" both in a strong sense. ^_^;
*7*: Woo! One of the longer episodes (eighteen pages, seventeen and two-thirds of which are the actual story) with a few decent subplots. ^_^ Though it leaves you with more of a mystery you came in with, especially that scene at the end, which was actually a foreshadow for the end of season three/the movie. Wow. I'm getting WAY ahead of myself... o.o; Anywho, didn't I say Jude would be important later? Yep. I did. Episode four, buddy. =p Well, guess what? She's going to be even more important later on, much like Ziggy. ^_^ And finally, just for the record, if Zero's starting to sound like a Mary Sue, I apologize. ^_^;;;