Reboot: Condition Critical,
1.1, The Hunt Begins

---------------------

Mega-Enzo continued walking down the corridor, not yet turning at any intersection, as he was tracking those closest to the War Room...his first prey -- the Hacker and former Game Sprite. Mouse and AndrAIa.

His new Trojan Horse abilities had not only given him the ability to shape-shift and create aliases, but a plethora of others, including the improved ability to track anything he wanted to prey on, which at the moment was the two battle-hardened, warrior-like women.

"The two bumbling fools really should be my first, simply because of their stupidity," he mused as he carelessly crept down the hall, "but I suppose I can only blame myself for that, and the lovely Ms. Matrix is with them, and I have other plans for her."

He pondered about what he had in store for Dot, and thought about doing the same to his current prey, but after thinking it over, decided against it for several reasons.

"It must only be her," he growled in the little Enzo Matrix's squeaky, high-pitched voice, "or else it mustn't be at all."

--**--**--

Dot and the bot brothers had stopped again, this time in the centre of an intersection, and they were deciding which way to go because the linear path they had chosen to follow had shifted just a few millies ago when the walls shifted, something the Command.Com had been anticipating, for she had memorized most of the Principle Office's defence system's mechanism, save for the last few Phong had installed during and after the whole Daemon ordeal.

"Which way do you think we should go, boys?" Dot asked, partially trying to make the brothers feel like they were needed in the situation, and partially not knowing herself and not wanting to make a decision that may end up being fatal in the end.

"Maybe we should go left," Hack suggested, rubbing his chrome dome.

"Right," Slash agreed.

"No, left," Hack said, thinking his brother had disagreed with him.

"Right."

"No, left."

"Right," the blue bot repeated for the third time in a row, too slow to realize what was transpiring.

"Left."

"Right."

"Left."

"Right."

"Lef-" Hack began, but was cut off when Dot smacked the side of his head, annoyed by their stupid 'disagreement'. "What was that for?" he cried out, caressing the spot he been hit with his hands.

"For being so stup-" he started before biting her tongue as she realized what she was about to say. "I mean, for being so, uh, well, stupid. Yeah. Stupid."

"It was his fault," Slash accused, pointing to his brother, who was still milking his slapped spot. "It was all him -- he said to go left, and I agreed with him, and he thought I was disagreeing with him."

"What did you just say?" Hack questioned, infuriatingly.

Dot stepped in front of Hack and repeated the angry bot's question, "Yeah, what did you just say?" only more curious than infuriated, as she was intrigued how Slash had solved the problem on his own, something everyone always thought was an impossible feat for either of Megabyte's former right-hand men.

"What do you mean?" Slash asked.

"You said, 'It was all him -- he said to go left, and I agreed with him, and he thought I was disagreeing with him', didn't you?"

"Yes. I'm sorry."

"No, don't be sorry -- you just did something smart."

"I did?"

"Yes. You just figured out what was happening, proving you have logic after all," the Command.Com explained, expressing herself more with her free-flying hands than vocal expression. "I'm simply amazed."

"Uh, thank you," Slash said, still not entirely clear on what was going on. "I do it all the time."

Dot smiled, as she knew the bot was confused about her words, and simply said, "Let's keep moving boys -- we don't want to get caught by Megabyte or any of the dangerous defence mechanisms."

The brothers agreed, and followed Dot as she turned down the left corridor, the way Slash had suggested they take.

--**--**--

Mouse and AndrAIa were standing still, back-to-back, AndrAIa's ears perked, as she had heard a faint voice come from behind them in the distance, and it sounded somewhat like Enzo.

"Do you think it's really him?" Mouse questioned, tightly gripping her katana and dagger. "It's possible it's Megabyte."

"What do you mean, Mouse?"

"Face it sug', we never saw the little Sprite and his dad get out of the War Room, meaning Megabyte could've taken either of their forms, and none of us would know it's him because we all completely trust the two of them," the Hacker explained, leaning in close to AndrAIa and talking in a whisper. "It'd be the perfect plan, and a likely one for Megabyte to use."

"Maybe so, but we can't take that chance, Mouse. I mean, if it really is little sparky, we have to help him," the former Game Sprite said. "Besides, if it is Megabyte, he won't be able to take on both of us."

"AndrAIa, it's like Phong said -- we don't know the extent to the Virus's new powers. In his fight with Bob and when we captured the alias, he could've just been playing weak to deceit us so he could come here and do this little hunt thing of his, and take us all by surprise. That's not a chance I really want to take, especially not in a time like this."

AndrAIa was surprised by Mouse's words, and retaliated by saying, "Look Mouse, we're either to get out of here online, or we're not, so there's no sense in playing safe if we're just going to get deleted, and I by no means want to go out knowing I turned my back on Enzo. I love Matrix, Mouse, and as a result, I have those same feelings for little Enzo. So for me to not try to help him is for me to give up on Matrix, and if we do come out of this intact, that's not a feeling I want to live with for the rest of my life, especially not when I'd have to see him, or rather both of them, every second. So if you're just going to stand here and not even try to find out if it's really Enzo, or just Megabyte, that's fine by me, but I won't be here with you." She then walked away from Mouse in the direction of where Enzo's voice was coming from.

But, after she took a few strides, she heard footsteps advancing behind her. She turned to see Mouse, and said, "I'm glad you change your mind."

"Well, it's not every second I find myself trapped like an actual mouse in a maze," she said with a smile. "And besides, I could never let a youngen be alone in such a dangerous scenario."

AndrAIa smiled, and continued walking, and was glad that Mouse had decided to join her, for she herself wasn't entirely sure it was actually the real Enzo whose voice she was hearing, and not just Megabyte in cloak.

"Just be ready for anything, AndrAIa," Mouse warned, just half a footstep behind. "If it is Megabyte, who knows what kind of tricks he'll try to play on us."

"Right." AndrAIa then stopped, and strained her ears to hear Enzo's voice again, but she heard nothing, save for light footsteps headed in their immediate direction. "Mouse," she said as quietly she could, turning back to face the Hacker, "stay behind a bit and keep out of site, just in case it is Megabyte. That way, we can take him by surprise if he tries to attack me."

"Are you sure? I said before that we don't know the extent to his abilities. It could be safer if I were with you," she suggested.

"No, it's okay; I have my nails and wrist blades," AndrAIa reminder her friend, raising her hands in the air and flaunting her teal, barely extended wrist blades, with which she was accustomed to using in tight situations, such as when she had faced off with the infected Guardian in the Port system where she and Matrix ran into Captain Capacitor and the crew of the Saucy Mare. "I'm not scared."

It was a lie, and they both knew it, though neither said anything of it because they both knew that pursuing the possible Enzo could very well end up resulting in their deletions. So Mouse remained behind in the shadows while AndrAIa moved towards where the footsteps were coming in an attempt to meet halfway.

"Good luck, AndrAIa," Mouse let out with a deep exhale. She tightly gripped her katana and dagger, and kept an eye on the former Game Sprite, ready to leap into action the nano she was needed.

--**--**--

Bob and Matrix had been walking for nearly half a cycle, and had yet to come across an intersection or sidepath in the corridor they were on. And even though the corridor had twists and turns in it, it still didn't keep the linear path from getting on their nerves, enough even to make them wish the walls hadn't shifted and they were still back fighting the once innocent-looking Sweepers.

"Spammit to Dell!" Matrix cursed, turning to pound on the wall. "This corridor's been going on for only the User knows how long!" He continued beating up on the wall, and Bob, knowing better, kept his distance and let the renegade get his frustration out, while he himself stood quietly wondering how the rest of his friends were doing.

He and Matrix had been in the Holding Cell Room when they realized the Megabyte they had caught was just an alias, and they had been on their way to the War Room when Megabyte's announcement came on through the PAs, so he really no idea how everyone had managed, and who was with who if the survivors had been split into groups. And to make matters worse, all the Guardian could think about was how stupid and careless he had been for not realizing sooner that they had captured an alias, and not the real thing.

"I should've known," he quietly said, arms crossed, and staring down at the floor. "I should've known."

While Bob mused over what he thought was his blindness even though anyone could've made the mistake, and everyone actually did, Matrix had finished punching the wall because he wanted to save his fists for Megabyte's face, and had resorted to kicking it with his heavy boots.

The two continued to deal with their frustration in their own ways until out of the silence came a familiar buzzing sound.

Bob's head cocked up, as did Matrix's, who had stopped kicking the wall, and was now facing the direction where the buzzing was coming from.

"By the User!" the renegade exclaimed. "It's the Sweepers again, Bob."

"Yeah, but how many? We were lucky to get out online last time; if there are more, we're as good as being in the Recycle Bin."

Matrix shivered at the thought of the Recycle Bin, a place dreaded even more than the Fun House Game, both of which he had heard many stories about throughout his hours, and quickly retrained his thought on the approaching cleaning tools-turned-lethal defence mechanism. "Let's do this, Bob."

"Right."

With that, the two began running head on towards the Sweepers, and when they were in sight, Matrix took the first shot with Gun, and also the second and third, and then Bob finally shot a couple Sweepers with Glitch's energy blasts.

The Sweepers returned fire, and their sheer numbers, about fifty-two as Matrix counted, forced the two to return, as they were vastly outnumbered and didn't stand a chance.

"This is pathetic," the once-Guardian complained.

"What is, Matrix?"

"We're being outdone by a bunch of lousy cleaning tools."

"Correction -- a bunch of lousy cleaning tools modified to have highly advanced defensive weapons for use in dealing with security breaches in the Principle Office," Bob stated.

"No one asked for you to get technical."

Bob laughed. "I'm sorry, Matrix; it's my Guardian programming."

Matrix nodded, and remembered about the little bit of Guardian code that was in him, and wondered why it wasn't kicking in. He soon after shrugged it off as unimportant at the moment, as he heard the Sweepers slowly advancing on his and Bob's location. "What are we going to do?"

"Stand and fight? What else are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know, you're the Guardian..."

"And you're the Game-hopping renegade."

"Yeah, but in all my hours, I've never run into a large pack of lethal Sweepers out to get my ASCII," Matrix came back, picking off a Sweeper he could faintly make out in the darkness of the corridor. "But you on the other hand seem to have lots of past experience with them. Care to fill me in on anything?"

"Just because I know something about Sweepers," Bob jokingly whined, trying to relieve some of the tension that was building in the near-deletion situation. "But there was that one time..."

"No time for it now," Matrix interrupted him, shooting five blasts off with Gun. "Gun, Cherry Blossom mode!"

Gun left Matrix's hand and began spinning, attaching targeting patches to all the Sweepers in its range.

"Bob, get down! Gun, shoot!" Matrix commanded, dropping to the ground to avoid getting hit by any wild or deflected shot of Gun's.

Gun's spinning became even more faster and rapid, and it started shooting at the Sweepers, sparks flying everywhere. It continued until it sensed all of its targets offline, and returned to Matrix's waiting hand, the renegade immediately jumping to his feet, Bob doing the same.

"Good job, Gun," he said, patting the top of it. "Now to finish off the stragglers." He took a few steps and shot the remaining Sweepers, turned to Bob, who had a mixed look of shock and surprise on his face, and asked, "Now what were you saying before about Sweepers?"

--**--**--

Mega-Enzo could sense his prey, only they weren't moving away from him, but rather backtracking towards him.

"The fools," he snickered, starting to think about what he should do when the three of them met up. "They're walking right into my trap. And frankly, I would've thought Mouse to be smarter than this."

The Virus-in-disguise rubbed his chin as he came up the perfect way to destroy Mouse and AndrAIa, so he then prepared himself to act in part of Enzo, as not to give away his guise.

"This is going to be pixelacious!" he tried out one of the young Sprite's key phrases. After hearing himself say it though, his entire body shivered. "I can't believe I just said that," he mused, a bit disgusted with himself due to his having a high standard of his vocabulary, and that of little Enzo coming nowhere near to matching that of his own. "But if it must be done, it must be done. And my revenge must be done."

He then turned a corner and saw the faint outline of AndrAIa's body moving closer in the distance.

"AndrAIa!" he called out, running towards her full speed. "AndrAIa, it's me, Enzo! This is alphanumeric!"

The vixen seemed as though she couldn't see through his charade.

--**--**--

Walking, AndrAIa stayed close to one of the walls, as it provided the most shadow to act as a cover. She didn't want to be out in the direct open if Megabyte decided to activate anymore of the Principle Office's defence mechanisms.

She then saw Enzo running towards her, calling out her name.

"Little sparky!" she shouted back, still remaining partially in the shadows. "Where's your dad?"

"Mega Breath got him," he said sadly, still running to her. "But I was still able to get out because I'm too good for that stupid Virus."

They finally reached each other, and hugged.

--**--**--

Mouse was in the shadows close to where AndrAIa and Enzo were, and heard the young Sprite eagerly inquire, "Where's Mouse?" He was looking around to see if he could find her whereabouts himself. "Wasn't she with you when you left the War Room?"

"Yeah she was, but then we got separated when the walls shifted," she bluntly lied, not wanting to give up Mouse's cover in case it really was Megabyte. She withdrew from the hug, and asked, "How was Phong when you got out of the War Room? Was he inf-"

"Yes," Enzo solemnly said before AndrAIa could finish her sentence. "And was my dad. But it doesn't matter because we can kick Megabyte's ASCII from here to the Supercomputer!"

"Ha-ha," AndrAIa laughed, thankful for the young Sprite's relieving the tension that had been felt since Megabyte's threatening announcement. "I wish we could, but we're only three -- we should try to find Bob, Matrix, Dot, and the boys before doing anything. That way we'll be able to attack in numbers."

"Three? But I thought you said you and Mouse got separated by the shifting walls?"

"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" She decided it really was Enzo, because she figured Megabyte would never be able to act all that well as a young, energetic Sprite, especially Enzo, so she explained, "We weren't sure if you escaped the War Room or not, so you could've been Megabyte using his Trojan Horse abilities, so we decided to lie just in case so Mouse could back me up if you were Megabyte. I'm sorry for lying, little sparky."

Mouse then watched as AndrAIa turned to summon her over, and saw Enzo's body start to mutate in some way. Realizing AndrAIa had been fooled, Mouse shouted, "AndrAIa! Look behind you!"

The former Game Sprite spun around, but it was too late -- Enzo was standing innocently.

"What is it, Mouse?" AndrAIa questioned, turning back to face Mouse.

"It's not Enzo!" she shouted, running towards them. "It's Megabyte! Get away from him! It's Megabyte!"

AndrAIa was looking at Mouse in confusion, and the Hacker was getting closer to her and Enzo, but before she could reach them, the walls began shifting again.

"Curse the User!" Mouse hissed, as a wall shifted to block her off from AndrAIa and Enzo. "Now she's alone with Megabyte! Spammit!"

Mouse dropped to her knees, and letting her katana and dagger slip out of her hands, began crying, for she had just let her friend down, and because of it, AndrAIa was probably going to be deleted by the predatory Virus without knowing it was him until it was too late.

--**--**--

Slash was still confused about Dot's reaction to him blaming his brother for causing their latest argument, but he remained quiet about it as they slowly tried to make their way to the Cell Holding Room, for he didn't want to distract Dot from her planning, as he knew that at the moment she was his and his brother's only hope at surviving their former master's devious plans.

"Boys," Dot started, "when Phong rebuilt you two, did he do any alterations to you?"

"What do you mean?" Slash asked, both him and Hack agreeing that he should be their spokesman, as Hack wasn't as bright as his brother.

"Like, did he give you guys any extra data, or alter your coding, or anything like that?"

"I can't really remember," the blue bot told her. He then turned to Hack and asked, "Do you remember?"

"Remember what?"

"What she said."

"Yeah, she said, 'like, did he give you guys any-'" he started, but stopped when his brother smacked the side of his head. "What was that for?"

"For being you," Slash responded, shaking his head in something that could be considered disgust. "I meant do you remember if Phong changed anything about us when he put us back together?"

"Not that I can remember, but I do know that he installed maps of Mainframe in us so we could protect Dot better."

Dot smacked her own forehead with her hand, while Slash shook his head again, this time fully in disgust, as at the moment he couldn't believe he and his brother were of the same model, and the same version at that.

"What? What did I do?"

"Forget it," Dot told him. "Now tell me again, what kind of maps did Phong install in you two?"

"Well, I think he only put them in me, and then in Slash, he put the k-" he was silenced by Dot's hand in his mouth, who said, "I don't care who has the maps; I just want to know what they're of."

"Oh. They're maps of Mainframe. Some are of the entire system, some of Lost Angles, some of the different sectors, some of the Principle Office, some of -"

"Okay," she interrupted him. She put a hand on Hack's shoulder and asked, "What format are the maps? Text or Vid?"

"Both, why?"

"Show me the Vid versions of the ones of the Principle Office," the Command.Com instructed.

Hack did as she requested, and loaded up several Vidwindows, each with live-action maps of the Principle Office, though only an outline of the corridors and the different rooms.

"This is great," she said aloud while silently thanking the User. "The maps change according to how the walls shift. With this, it'll take us no time to get to the Holding Cell Room."

Hearing this, Hack and Slash hugged each other, and Dot once again thanked the User, this time out loud.

"Hack, you keep a look out, while Slash, you do the same, but keep this map up," she pointed to the most detailed map, "so I can navigate us to the Holding Cell Room."

"Roger," Slash said.

"Roger?" Hack asked.

"Don't," said Slash, using the one word for a purpose, as Hack could now tell his brother wasn't looking to get into another one of their stupid arguments, which they often had over nothing.

Both of them then shut up, loaded their hands into laser cannons, and listened as Dot co-ordinated their movements according to the shifting walls, which they found by looking at the map, appeared to be shifting in no particular pattern in random spots of the Principle Office.

After a while of changing their paths according to the shifting walls, and half the time feeling as though they were travelling in a circle, they reached the outside of the Holding Cell Room.

"Hack, cover Slash while he checks out the room," Dot ordered.

"Right." He extended both arms in front of him and watched as his brother entered the room, the door opening after sensing his presence, and checked it out. He came out a milli later, and looked Dot in the eyes.

"What is it?"

"It's empty."

"No, it can't be," Dot stammered, tears building up in her eyes. "It just can't be."

"What do we do now, Dot?" Slash questioned, patting the Command.Com's shoulder. "Do we stay here, keep looking for Bob and Matrix, or go back to the War Room?"

"Yeah," Hack chimed in, "what do we do?"

Letting the tears out and shaking her head in sorrow, she replied, "I don't know, boys. I don't know."

--**--**--

"What was up with Mouse?" AndrAIa asked Enzo after repeatedly jousting the wall that separated them from Mouse with her trident. "She thinks you're Megabyte."

"I don't know," the young Sprite responded, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe her circuit's overheating."

"Be nice, little sparky," AndrAIa said, trying to keep in her laughter. She then retracted her trident and hooked it to her belt. She stared at the wall for a milli and then turend to Enzo and said, "I don't know if we should look for Mouse now, or just keep on our way to the Holding Cell Room to meet up with Bob and Matrix."

"I don't know about Mouse," he started. "I mean, she was acting kind of weird, don't you think? She thought I was Megabyte back there."

"You're right; it's not like Mouse to go around accusing people of things like that without any proof, and before we came looking for you, she said she wasn't going to because she didn't trust you, and then decided to when I said I was and was ready to leave her alone," the former Game Sprite informed her boyfriend's younger self. "But still, we can't be sure, can we? I mean, Megabyte was in the War Room and didn't have a chance to copy Mouse's code."

"Well, Mega Breath was an alias in the War Room and fooled Bob and Matrix, and ended up being Frisket, and no one would've suspected him because no one thought Megabyte had the chance to copy his code, but he did, and probably created an alias to take Frisket's form so he could pull this trick and confuse us all!"

"Whoa, whoa, don't go into overdrive, little sparky," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder to calm him. "If the Megabyte in the War Room really is an alias, then we're all in even more danger, so the first thing we should do is try to find Bob and Matrix, because they've been together since the wedding, so in order for Megabyte to copy on of their codes, he'd have to be witnessed doing so by one or the other," AndrAIa concluded. "I think you're right -- we leave Mouse to herself, and concentrate on finding Bob and Matrix. I mean, she can defend herself, right? She was able to escape from the Guardians in that one story she told us when we, I mean when I, was younger, right? I would imagine she could at least hold off Megabyte on her own."

"Right."

"So let's go find Bob and Matrix." She took off down the only path there was, Enzo close behind, on their way to find Bob and Matrix.

--**--**--

Mega-Enzo followed AndrAIa closely behind, and laughing to himself in his mind, thought, "My revenge has begun."