Megabyte paced across the throne room, pulling his royal robe around his
clothes while two servants fitted him into his crown. Despite his
impatience for the public execution to be carried out, he couldn't help but
glorify in his richly oriented position. King over his own castle.
Megaframe, to be exact.
"The execution will take place in exactly half an hour," A messenger said, entering the room. Megaframe smiled at him, not because he was carrying out his orders, but because not far from now all his enemies will be nothing but flames.
It caused a smile on his face, but suddenly a feeling of discomfort swept over him.
He didn't remember himself being this ruthless before. Usually someone was always there to stop him, stop him right before something bad goes right. So far nothing had stopped him.
Bob.
Where was Bob in all this? He had seen a glimpse of him at the first public execution when he rescued Dot, but where was he now?
Suddenly very concerned, he glanced toward the doors leading out of the room. That's when he noticed the messenger was waiting for a response.
"Make it fifteen minutes," Megabyte said. "I will head out there right now."
The messenger seemed a bit surprised, but didn't argue. He simply bowed his head and left the room to carry the order out to the executioners.
Megabyte smiled again. Better to be safe than sorry.
***
Bob glanced out the window from one of the top floors. The platform in the center of the town was being set up for execution again. This time there were four stakes.
One reserved for AndrAIa, one for Matrix, one for Ray, and one for Mouse.
Did they know? Do they have a chance of escape?
"Uh.hello?" A voice broke his thoughts and he turned to see Mike the TV waiting impatiently for him down the hall. "You want to get this over with or not?" He tapped his foot against the marble floor.
"Coming," Bob said, leaving the window. "Okay, which way is the.king's bedchambers?"
"It's up the next flight of stairs and down the hall," Mike directed, leading him down the hall. "It's really not that hard to find, actually, you'll recognize it by the two guards standing at the door."
"Then we'll just have to get past the guards."
Mike nearly stopped in his tracks, but kept going. "Okay," he shrugged, "if you say so."
"We have to be quick about this. I want to get this over with before any more of my friends die."
"Hm.strange request."
"Huh? Oh, just keep moving!"
***
Mouse had a very foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach. Looking out the dungeon window she could see just the edge of the execution platform, four stakes standing erect on it. Villagers were throwing hay around them.
"We don't have much time left," she said, not taking her eyes away from the window.
Ray approached her. "We have an hour, two hours tops."
"Or maybe just half an hour," Matrix spoke up. They turned to see him sitting against the cell bars, AndrAIa next to him. He stared fixedly at the floor. "Megabyte.I don't know what to think but he's.he's behind all this. Dot was my sister and he."
AndrAIa put a hand on his arm. He glanced at her, then shook his head. "We won't be here long. That's not necessarily a good thing."
"We have to get out," AndrAIa said, standing up. "What, I've done it once, now there's four of us, we can do it again-"
The dungeon door opened then and eight guards walked down. They all parted and a messenger entered. He was dressed in the same uniform as Ray. Obviously the replacement.
"It is time," he said. "If any of you even make an attempt to fight back, we will end you right here."
***
As Bob entered the above floor, he noticed that the hallways got wider and more elaborate with fancier designs and carvings. Mike didn't even seem to notice as he led him down corridor after corridor. Every last section looked like the one they presently were in.
"I thought you said it would be easy to find," Bob hissed.
"I did say that, didn't I?" Mike said, almost gleefully. They came to a turn and he stopped, just barely poking his head around the bend.
"We're here," he whispered suddenly.
Bob poked his head around too. Sure enough he saw a door at the far end, blocked by two guards.
"Good," he said under his breath. "Now go out there and distract them."
"Wha-? Me? Why me, why can't it be you?"
Bob started to shove him around the bend but the TV appliance fought back. "You-" shove "are-" shove "the jester!" With one final push sent Mike into the next hallway.
Mike turned to go back, then realized it was too late. The guards had already seen him. They remained where they were, eyes fixed on him.
He strapped on his 'award-winning' smile and stepped forward. "Heeeelloooo! I'm Mike the TV, the king's wonderful, most entertaining jeeester! Have you had your laughs today?"
Bob watched as the TV approached the guards slowly, then started inching his way around the other direction to approach the door. So far the guards hadn't seen him. They were too busy trying to figure out what Mike was trying to do.
Mike jumped up in the air and landed with his legs spread out, his arms in the air. "Buuuucket o' nothin! FREE for only 99.99.99! Great offer, won't last long at all!"
The routines were just too familiar for Bob. He himself had the fight off the urge to run out and bop the TV over the head. But he had a mission to accomplish.
He managed to reach the room, and slowly started creeping behind the guards. He froze suddenly when one of them sensed him.
Mike saw him too. Immediately he jumped in front of him and yelled, "Is that your face or did your neck throw up?"
The guard immediately glared at him. "Hey!" he said. He started stepping forward and Bob slipped behind him and into the room.
The King's bedroom was huge, almost the size of a hut down in the village. He stood in the center of it and just looked around. Huge bed, furniture, elaborate curtains, bright colors.
But no system clock.
"It has to be here somewhere," he mumbled to himself as he started searching the room. "It's so big how could someone miss it?"
"Bob!" Mike suddenly screamed, running into the room. The guards came in after him, with three more guards on their way.
"Oh now what did you do?" Bob cried, exasperated.
"Halt!" One of the guards commanded.
"I don't think so," Bob said. He looked around, then grabbed the curtain rod above him. Swinging it, he wacked one guard upside the head and the other in the stomach. Mike watched on in awe.
"Wow," he commented.
"I wish glitch were here with me," Bob grunted in mid-swing. Unfortunately the third guard caught the rod and yanked it out of his hands. Bob's eyes widened and jumped back as the guard threw it to the floor.
Then unsheathed his sword.
***
AndrAIa could feel the crowd watching her as the guards marched her and the others on to the platform. Their weapons and armor had been taken away from them, leaving her in the cloth underclothes she wore underneath. Matrix wore his pants and a loose shirt, making him feel very naked without all the metal on top. Ray was stripped of his uniform and now wore only the pants and under shirt, and Mouse remained in her cook outfit.
And they had bruises all over. Before being brought out they had their own private hearing where they each got battered nearly to deletion. At least to exhaustion. Neither one of them were strong enough to fight back.
Megabyte sat on the side, watching almost gleefully. The new messenger stepped onto the platform. Actually there were two of them. Hack and Slash.
"These four have been charged with treason-" Hack began.
"And going against the king-" Slash added.
"And murder," Hack said.
"Yeah, yeah, murder. Forgot about that."
"And their sentence is-"
"The sentence is-"
"Death!" They both said in unison.
Matrix let out a soft growl in Megabyte's direction, but AndrAIa looked meaningfully at the knight, just barely shaking her head. "No," her expression said.
There were way too many guards to even start struggling.
Each one was tied to a stake and the executioner stepped forward.
***
Dot woke up again, this time alone in Phong's room. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, and for a minute forgot where she was.
Then remembered.
She felt a lot better, but she was so weak she could barely move. She sat up slowly and winced at the pain in her chest. The wound.
There was a whole lot of yelling coming from outside, then silence. Frowning, she stood up and looked toward the window.
She could just make out the center of the townsquare, where a platform had been set up.
Four people were tied to stakes, their backs to her. She squinted, wondering who was being executed.
Then she recognized AndrAIa's green hair and Matrix's bulky build. Mouse and Ray followed and her eyes widened.
"No," she whispered, shaking her head. She grasped the bars on the window and tried to see better. The executioner was just stepping onto the platform. "No!" she yelled, but her voice came out hoarse, barely louder than a whisper. "No!"
She shifted her position suddenly to try to reach through the bars, but the wound screamed out pain and she gasped, falling back. She had forgotten all about it. The pain was so intense that blackness took her again.
***
One guard left. Somehow with Mike's help, Bob had managed to fight off two more. The last one looked mean though. Horribly mean.
Bob found a vase on the nearby table and made a move to throw it at him, when the guard caught a hold of his arm. The Guardian's eyes widened in surprise as he threw him backward. Bob put out his arms to regain his fall, but he flew against the curtains. He grabbed onto it to stop his fall, but the curtains went down with him-
Revealing the system clock behind it.
Bob stood up, surprised. It was huge! And there was, hidden in a hidden part of the room, concealed by just a curtain.
That's when he saw the problem. Some sort of device had been tacked on to the system clock, sabotaging time. The Y2K bug. And Megabyte had tacked it up there.
Reaching forward he prepared to yank it off when a hand grabbed his leg. He cried out as he fell forward, hitting the ground. The guard towered over him, sword in his hand, a devilishly evil smile on his face.
***
AndrAIa could feel the wood of the stake rubbing against the bruises on her wrists and back. She knew she looked horrible, and so did the others. Mouse tried struggling, but one of the guards slapped her hard across the face, nearly causing her to black out.
The executioner now stood, holding a flaming torch in her hand. Megabyte glared at her. He had forgotten about his dear sister, Hexadecimal. That was okay, he'd get to her after the executioner. She was a mighty big enemy of his as well.
Hexadecimal leaned over and lit each of the bundles of straw. The four convicts immediately pressed themselves against the stake, hoping to keep away from the fire. The fire wasn't what was getting to them though.
It was the smoke.
Already it filled AndrAIa's lungs, her bundle being lit the first. She tried her hardest to breath normally, but ended up coughing, then heaving when trying to breath again.
"Hold on AndrAIa," she heard Matrix's voice. His voice sounded hoarse. She glanced over at him, almost lovingly. He looked back at her, willing her to hold on.
Then she blacked out.
***
Bob kicked at the guard and Mike leapt on to him, tackling him from behind. The guard cried out, leaving the Guardian alone for. Bob got to his feet and approached the System Clock, wondering how in the world he was going to fix it. Could he just yank the device off? Would that work?
He glanced back. The guard was now pounding Mike the TV. He had to work fast or.
The window. With the curtains now out of the way he could see through it. See the townsquare. See the fire.
"Oh no," Bob said, squinting to see better. His four friends were tied to stakes already. He could see Megabyte there, watching, his eyes glowing.
Blinking, he turned away from the window, willing him to get moving. If he didn't do something quickly.
Suddenly the guard attacked him, leaving Mike on the floor. Bob cried out and flew forward as the guard hit him right in the back of the head.
Blackness threatening to take him, Bob grabbed on to the device to keep from falling. His weight brought him down though, tearing the device off with him.
He hit the floor, the device bouncing away. Everything seemed to freeze for him as he lay there, fighting back the darkness.
Dot.AndrAIa.Mouse.Ray.Matrix.
"Bob!" he heard Mike's voice, then everything started fading.
"Bob! Bob!"
***
"Bob? Bob?"
"Hey, can you get some water over here?"
"Bob, wake up!"
All he could see was darkness, but he could most definitely hear Dot's voice towering over him. She was alive!
His eyes opened slowly and at first everything was a blur. A green and black blur. Slowly everything corrected itself and Dot now stood there, looking down worriedly at him.
"Dot?" he said, not sure if he was seeing right.
She nodded. "I'm here, are you okay?" She touched his forehead and he winced. There was a cut there but he didn't care. He reached up and hugged her.
"I'm okay," he said breathlessly, "I love you Dot, I love you, I'm glad there's nothing wrong with you."
He withdrew and lay back on the cushion he was on. She looked a bit puzzled.
"I love you too," she said, "but I'm okay."
Suddenly another head appeared and he recognized it as a binome. Then AndrAIa, Matrix, and Mouse towered over him.
"Are you alright Bob?" AndrAIa asked.
"That was quite a hit you took there," Matrix said, pointing at his forehead.
Bob slowly sat up and looked around. He was back in the diner, but it was back to normal. The TV was still on and binomes were running around, dancing to music. Streamers were everywhere.
The New Years party.
Ray was chuckling as he walked up to them, a bottle in his hand. "This hit ya mate, right after the clock hit 2000," he said, handing it to him. "You blacked out right there."
"It was kind of funny if you thought about it," Mouse put in. "One minute we were all celebratin', the next you were on the floor."
"What?" Bob frowned at them. "That.you.execution.?"
They all gave him a funny look. "What?" they said in unison.
"You were probably dreaming," Dot said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You have been out for about an hour now. Happy New Year?"
He looked all around at the binomes dancing, then at his friend. Was it really all a dream? It couldn't have been! It was too real to be a dream!
Hack and Slash were sitting at a booth at the far end of the diner, throwing food at a few binomes and laughing. When they caught Bob watching them they stopped like kids just being caught doing something bad.
Hexadecimal was actually at the party, and he took a double-take when he saw her wearing a black cloak. She took it off though, and it proved only to be an outer garment. She saw him looking and winked at him. Her face was repaired still, not cracked.
Finally he looked back at his friends. They were looking at him, concerned.
He smiled, suddenly realizing the absurdity of it all. "Yeah, you're right," he said, "it was nothing."
Dot laughed and hugged him. "That must have really gotten to your head."
"Yeah." he looked around. "It must have."
***
Megabyte sat where he was, ignoring what was going on outside the pod. All there was, was web after web after web. But he was too angry to enjoy the view.
"No!" he shouted, banging his hand down. "The plan was perfect! How could it have gone wrong? How could have it? It was going perfectly, perfectly!" He stood up and started pacing.
He had them at his grasp. AndrAIa, Matrix, Ray, Mouse, Dot. He HAD them! He was so close to victory!
"Somehow someone changed it, someone got to the system computer," he realized. "But who could it be? I had everyone there, everyone was right in front of me except-"
He stopped in mid-sentence.
Bob.
He let out a loud yell of frustration, ignoring the looks he got from his new hired workers. EVERY time! EVERY time he was close, Bob was there to stop it.
Every time.
"Well, he won't be lucky next time," he swore. "Next time I'll do something he can't keep me from doing." He looked out the window to the web surrounding him.
Next time.
The End..or is it?
"The execution will take place in exactly half an hour," A messenger said, entering the room. Megaframe smiled at him, not because he was carrying out his orders, but because not far from now all his enemies will be nothing but flames.
It caused a smile on his face, but suddenly a feeling of discomfort swept over him.
He didn't remember himself being this ruthless before. Usually someone was always there to stop him, stop him right before something bad goes right. So far nothing had stopped him.
Bob.
Where was Bob in all this? He had seen a glimpse of him at the first public execution when he rescued Dot, but where was he now?
Suddenly very concerned, he glanced toward the doors leading out of the room. That's when he noticed the messenger was waiting for a response.
"Make it fifteen minutes," Megabyte said. "I will head out there right now."
The messenger seemed a bit surprised, but didn't argue. He simply bowed his head and left the room to carry the order out to the executioners.
Megabyte smiled again. Better to be safe than sorry.
***
Bob glanced out the window from one of the top floors. The platform in the center of the town was being set up for execution again. This time there were four stakes.
One reserved for AndrAIa, one for Matrix, one for Ray, and one for Mouse.
Did they know? Do they have a chance of escape?
"Uh.hello?" A voice broke his thoughts and he turned to see Mike the TV waiting impatiently for him down the hall. "You want to get this over with or not?" He tapped his foot against the marble floor.
"Coming," Bob said, leaving the window. "Okay, which way is the.king's bedchambers?"
"It's up the next flight of stairs and down the hall," Mike directed, leading him down the hall. "It's really not that hard to find, actually, you'll recognize it by the two guards standing at the door."
"Then we'll just have to get past the guards."
Mike nearly stopped in his tracks, but kept going. "Okay," he shrugged, "if you say so."
"We have to be quick about this. I want to get this over with before any more of my friends die."
"Hm.strange request."
"Huh? Oh, just keep moving!"
***
Mouse had a very foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach. Looking out the dungeon window she could see just the edge of the execution platform, four stakes standing erect on it. Villagers were throwing hay around them.
"We don't have much time left," she said, not taking her eyes away from the window.
Ray approached her. "We have an hour, two hours tops."
"Or maybe just half an hour," Matrix spoke up. They turned to see him sitting against the cell bars, AndrAIa next to him. He stared fixedly at the floor. "Megabyte.I don't know what to think but he's.he's behind all this. Dot was my sister and he."
AndrAIa put a hand on his arm. He glanced at her, then shook his head. "We won't be here long. That's not necessarily a good thing."
"We have to get out," AndrAIa said, standing up. "What, I've done it once, now there's four of us, we can do it again-"
The dungeon door opened then and eight guards walked down. They all parted and a messenger entered. He was dressed in the same uniform as Ray. Obviously the replacement.
"It is time," he said. "If any of you even make an attempt to fight back, we will end you right here."
***
As Bob entered the above floor, he noticed that the hallways got wider and more elaborate with fancier designs and carvings. Mike didn't even seem to notice as he led him down corridor after corridor. Every last section looked like the one they presently were in.
"I thought you said it would be easy to find," Bob hissed.
"I did say that, didn't I?" Mike said, almost gleefully. They came to a turn and he stopped, just barely poking his head around the bend.
"We're here," he whispered suddenly.
Bob poked his head around too. Sure enough he saw a door at the far end, blocked by two guards.
"Good," he said under his breath. "Now go out there and distract them."
"Wha-? Me? Why me, why can't it be you?"
Bob started to shove him around the bend but the TV appliance fought back. "You-" shove "are-" shove "the jester!" With one final push sent Mike into the next hallway.
Mike turned to go back, then realized it was too late. The guards had already seen him. They remained where they were, eyes fixed on him.
He strapped on his 'award-winning' smile and stepped forward. "Heeeelloooo! I'm Mike the TV, the king's wonderful, most entertaining jeeester! Have you had your laughs today?"
Bob watched as the TV approached the guards slowly, then started inching his way around the other direction to approach the door. So far the guards hadn't seen him. They were too busy trying to figure out what Mike was trying to do.
Mike jumped up in the air and landed with his legs spread out, his arms in the air. "Buuuucket o' nothin! FREE for only 99.99.99! Great offer, won't last long at all!"
The routines were just too familiar for Bob. He himself had the fight off the urge to run out and bop the TV over the head. But he had a mission to accomplish.
He managed to reach the room, and slowly started creeping behind the guards. He froze suddenly when one of them sensed him.
Mike saw him too. Immediately he jumped in front of him and yelled, "Is that your face or did your neck throw up?"
The guard immediately glared at him. "Hey!" he said. He started stepping forward and Bob slipped behind him and into the room.
The King's bedroom was huge, almost the size of a hut down in the village. He stood in the center of it and just looked around. Huge bed, furniture, elaborate curtains, bright colors.
But no system clock.
"It has to be here somewhere," he mumbled to himself as he started searching the room. "It's so big how could someone miss it?"
"Bob!" Mike suddenly screamed, running into the room. The guards came in after him, with three more guards on their way.
"Oh now what did you do?" Bob cried, exasperated.
"Halt!" One of the guards commanded.
"I don't think so," Bob said. He looked around, then grabbed the curtain rod above him. Swinging it, he wacked one guard upside the head and the other in the stomach. Mike watched on in awe.
"Wow," he commented.
"I wish glitch were here with me," Bob grunted in mid-swing. Unfortunately the third guard caught the rod and yanked it out of his hands. Bob's eyes widened and jumped back as the guard threw it to the floor.
Then unsheathed his sword.
***
AndrAIa could feel the crowd watching her as the guards marched her and the others on to the platform. Their weapons and armor had been taken away from them, leaving her in the cloth underclothes she wore underneath. Matrix wore his pants and a loose shirt, making him feel very naked without all the metal on top. Ray was stripped of his uniform and now wore only the pants and under shirt, and Mouse remained in her cook outfit.
And they had bruises all over. Before being brought out they had their own private hearing where they each got battered nearly to deletion. At least to exhaustion. Neither one of them were strong enough to fight back.
Megabyte sat on the side, watching almost gleefully. The new messenger stepped onto the platform. Actually there were two of them. Hack and Slash.
"These four have been charged with treason-" Hack began.
"And going against the king-" Slash added.
"And murder," Hack said.
"Yeah, yeah, murder. Forgot about that."
"And their sentence is-"
"The sentence is-"
"Death!" They both said in unison.
Matrix let out a soft growl in Megabyte's direction, but AndrAIa looked meaningfully at the knight, just barely shaking her head. "No," her expression said.
There were way too many guards to even start struggling.
Each one was tied to a stake and the executioner stepped forward.
***
Dot woke up again, this time alone in Phong's room. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, and for a minute forgot where she was.
Then remembered.
She felt a lot better, but she was so weak she could barely move. She sat up slowly and winced at the pain in her chest. The wound.
There was a whole lot of yelling coming from outside, then silence. Frowning, she stood up and looked toward the window.
She could just make out the center of the townsquare, where a platform had been set up.
Four people were tied to stakes, their backs to her. She squinted, wondering who was being executed.
Then she recognized AndrAIa's green hair and Matrix's bulky build. Mouse and Ray followed and her eyes widened.
"No," she whispered, shaking her head. She grasped the bars on the window and tried to see better. The executioner was just stepping onto the platform. "No!" she yelled, but her voice came out hoarse, barely louder than a whisper. "No!"
She shifted her position suddenly to try to reach through the bars, but the wound screamed out pain and she gasped, falling back. She had forgotten all about it. The pain was so intense that blackness took her again.
***
One guard left. Somehow with Mike's help, Bob had managed to fight off two more. The last one looked mean though. Horribly mean.
Bob found a vase on the nearby table and made a move to throw it at him, when the guard caught a hold of his arm. The Guardian's eyes widened in surprise as he threw him backward. Bob put out his arms to regain his fall, but he flew against the curtains. He grabbed onto it to stop his fall, but the curtains went down with him-
Revealing the system clock behind it.
Bob stood up, surprised. It was huge! And there was, hidden in a hidden part of the room, concealed by just a curtain.
That's when he saw the problem. Some sort of device had been tacked on to the system clock, sabotaging time. The Y2K bug. And Megabyte had tacked it up there.
Reaching forward he prepared to yank it off when a hand grabbed his leg. He cried out as he fell forward, hitting the ground. The guard towered over him, sword in his hand, a devilishly evil smile on his face.
***
AndrAIa could feel the wood of the stake rubbing against the bruises on her wrists and back. She knew she looked horrible, and so did the others. Mouse tried struggling, but one of the guards slapped her hard across the face, nearly causing her to black out.
The executioner now stood, holding a flaming torch in her hand. Megabyte glared at her. He had forgotten about his dear sister, Hexadecimal. That was okay, he'd get to her after the executioner. She was a mighty big enemy of his as well.
Hexadecimal leaned over and lit each of the bundles of straw. The four convicts immediately pressed themselves against the stake, hoping to keep away from the fire. The fire wasn't what was getting to them though.
It was the smoke.
Already it filled AndrAIa's lungs, her bundle being lit the first. She tried her hardest to breath normally, but ended up coughing, then heaving when trying to breath again.
"Hold on AndrAIa," she heard Matrix's voice. His voice sounded hoarse. She glanced over at him, almost lovingly. He looked back at her, willing her to hold on.
Then she blacked out.
***
Bob kicked at the guard and Mike leapt on to him, tackling him from behind. The guard cried out, leaving the Guardian alone for. Bob got to his feet and approached the System Clock, wondering how in the world he was going to fix it. Could he just yank the device off? Would that work?
He glanced back. The guard was now pounding Mike the TV. He had to work fast or.
The window. With the curtains now out of the way he could see through it. See the townsquare. See the fire.
"Oh no," Bob said, squinting to see better. His four friends were tied to stakes already. He could see Megabyte there, watching, his eyes glowing.
Blinking, he turned away from the window, willing him to get moving. If he didn't do something quickly.
Suddenly the guard attacked him, leaving Mike on the floor. Bob cried out and flew forward as the guard hit him right in the back of the head.
Blackness threatening to take him, Bob grabbed on to the device to keep from falling. His weight brought him down though, tearing the device off with him.
He hit the floor, the device bouncing away. Everything seemed to freeze for him as he lay there, fighting back the darkness.
Dot.AndrAIa.Mouse.Ray.Matrix.
"Bob!" he heard Mike's voice, then everything started fading.
"Bob! Bob!"
***
"Bob? Bob?"
"Hey, can you get some water over here?"
"Bob, wake up!"
All he could see was darkness, but he could most definitely hear Dot's voice towering over him. She was alive!
His eyes opened slowly and at first everything was a blur. A green and black blur. Slowly everything corrected itself and Dot now stood there, looking down worriedly at him.
"Dot?" he said, not sure if he was seeing right.
She nodded. "I'm here, are you okay?" She touched his forehead and he winced. There was a cut there but he didn't care. He reached up and hugged her.
"I'm okay," he said breathlessly, "I love you Dot, I love you, I'm glad there's nothing wrong with you."
He withdrew and lay back on the cushion he was on. She looked a bit puzzled.
"I love you too," she said, "but I'm okay."
Suddenly another head appeared and he recognized it as a binome. Then AndrAIa, Matrix, and Mouse towered over him.
"Are you alright Bob?" AndrAIa asked.
"That was quite a hit you took there," Matrix said, pointing at his forehead.
Bob slowly sat up and looked around. He was back in the diner, but it was back to normal. The TV was still on and binomes were running around, dancing to music. Streamers were everywhere.
The New Years party.
Ray was chuckling as he walked up to them, a bottle in his hand. "This hit ya mate, right after the clock hit 2000," he said, handing it to him. "You blacked out right there."
"It was kind of funny if you thought about it," Mouse put in. "One minute we were all celebratin', the next you were on the floor."
"What?" Bob frowned at them. "That.you.execution.?"
They all gave him a funny look. "What?" they said in unison.
"You were probably dreaming," Dot said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You have been out for about an hour now. Happy New Year?"
He looked all around at the binomes dancing, then at his friend. Was it really all a dream? It couldn't have been! It was too real to be a dream!
Hack and Slash were sitting at a booth at the far end of the diner, throwing food at a few binomes and laughing. When they caught Bob watching them they stopped like kids just being caught doing something bad.
Hexadecimal was actually at the party, and he took a double-take when he saw her wearing a black cloak. She took it off though, and it proved only to be an outer garment. She saw him looking and winked at him. Her face was repaired still, not cracked.
Finally he looked back at his friends. They were looking at him, concerned.
He smiled, suddenly realizing the absurdity of it all. "Yeah, you're right," he said, "it was nothing."
Dot laughed and hugged him. "That must have really gotten to your head."
"Yeah." he looked around. "It must have."
***
Megabyte sat where he was, ignoring what was going on outside the pod. All there was, was web after web after web. But he was too angry to enjoy the view.
"No!" he shouted, banging his hand down. "The plan was perfect! How could it have gone wrong? How could have it? It was going perfectly, perfectly!" He stood up and started pacing.
He had them at his grasp. AndrAIa, Matrix, Ray, Mouse, Dot. He HAD them! He was so close to victory!
"Somehow someone changed it, someone got to the system computer," he realized. "But who could it be? I had everyone there, everyone was right in front of me except-"
He stopped in mid-sentence.
Bob.
He let out a loud yell of frustration, ignoring the looks he got from his new hired workers. EVERY time! EVERY time he was close, Bob was there to stop it.
Every time.
"Well, he won't be lucky next time," he swore. "Next time I'll do something he can't keep me from doing." He looked out the window to the web surrounding him.
Next time.
The End..or is it?
