v.05.01 - The Hunt Begins
"Any luck, Mouse?" AndrAIa asked nervously as the hacker poked at the keypad.
"Sorry Sugar, looks like we're stuck." Mouse signed as she stepped away from the door. AndrAIa spoke reluctantly.
"So that means..."
"We're not gettin' out of here the easy way," the purple sprite responded, watching as her friend bit her lower lip.
"I was afraid you'd say that."
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"Any ideas on how to get out of here, Matrix?" Bob said, looking around the space.
"Just one." Matrix swiftly lifted Gun and aimed at one of the doors.
"Matrix, no!" The guardian grabbed the green sprite's arm and brought the aim or Gun's barrel to the floor. "We'd like to keep everything in one piece, if possible."
"Bob, this isn't just a few little punks who think they can mess up Mainframe - this is Megabyte. I'm not going to let him destroy my home again." The renegade spat, crossing his arms.
"Look, just relax...we'll figure out something." Glitch began whirring and clicking from Bob's wrist. "Hey...that's not a bad idea. I don't know if Turbo will agree, but it's worth a shot. Matrix, don't blow anything up while I'm gone!" Before Matrix could say or ask anything, Glitch had made a portal and Bob was gone.
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Dot let out a heavy sigh. What was she going to do? Everything was going wrong. How could this be happening? She could hear Hack and Slash jabbering in the background, but had tuned them out. She needed to think. She ran a hand over her face and sighed again. There was nothing she could do; nothing. The thought stung her as she reluctantly put her back to one of the walls, slid to the floor, and put her head on her knees. She hated being helpless. Rather, she feared it, though she'd never admit it to anyone else. She choked back tears.
"Oh, User..." She mumbled to herself feebly, praying that everything would be alright.
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Megabyte spread his hands out on the control panel before him.
"I think, perhaps, we should have a little fun with them." The virus stated smoothly as he watched his captors on the screen before him, a venomous grin growing on his face.
"No!" Enzo screamed, wriggling free of the nullbot that held him. Charging at Megabyte at top speed, he leapt into the air to tackle him, but was caught around the throat.
"You, Boy, seem to have illusions of grandeur. It makes you quite the nuisance." The metallic giant hailed two virals. "Put him somewhere, and see that he knows what's good for him if he wants to survive." He ordered firmly, dropping the small sprite to the floor. "He is in your charge. Now get him out of my sight...before I change my mind." He idly examined his claws and turned to the nullbot. "As for you, Mr. Matrix..."
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"Here, jam that in the door, and we'll pry it open." Mouse suggested, motioning to AndrAIa's trident.
"I don't think that will work, Mouse." The gamesprite admitted. "I think it would break."
"No, let's try it..." One of the doors in front of them opened, but there was no sign of anyone there. "Do you think that someone's gotten to Megabyte, Sugar?"
"Maybe, but I don't know if we should -"
"Come on!" Mouse grabbed her blue-haired friend and began running.
Doors were opening up left, right, and center. It was baffling. As they ran, AndrAIa kept her ears tuned for trouble, and caught a hint of marching feet...the occasional wisp of words. Virals were nearby.
"Mouse...slow down for a nano. I think we're being followed." Their footsteps came to a slow and AndrAIa's concentration peaked. Her expression transformed from pensive to concerned. "We're trapped."
"What? No, I'm sure we can fight our way out..." The confidence in the hacker's voice wavered.
"I mean, how many could there be?"
"I don't know..." The gamesprite said slowly. "But we're surrounded. No matter where we go, we're in for a fight."
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Dot leapt to her feet as the doors flew open and shut. She heard Matrix coming - she knew his footfall like the back of her hand.
"Dot?" His voice echoed.
"Matrix, I'm he-" The door slammed shut in front of her. "Crash it!" She yelled.
"Dot, watch out!" Slash blurted. The turned to find herself facing the nullbot that had been captured by Megabyte.
"Dad? Are you o-" The machine reached for her throat, but she caught the hand before it made contact. This was not the Welman Matrix she knew.
"Hey, you do not mess with our friends!" Hack yelled.
"Yeah, or we...mess with you?" Slash glanced at Hack.
"Right, we mess with you!" The two bots pulled out everything they could - extra arms, weapons, anything in their possession - and a fight commenced. It was a short-lived conflict, however. The infected Welman grabbed each bot from behind, cupping his mechanical hands over their heads, and in a seeming effortless motion, he crushed the two of them. He had crumpled their steel skulls like they were tin. He could return his focus to the sprite.
Dot was a step ahead of him, though. As he turned to attack her, she leapt into the air and kicked him to the ground. She didn't know how to defeat him, but until one of the doors opened again, she could fend them off.
With each hit, she prayed harder for one of the doors to open. Her steps faltered, and she was caught. The nullbot again sought to take a tight grip on her throat, and slammed her into a wall. The clawed at her opponent's hand. She couldn't let her own father delete her...especially when he had no control over himself to stop. She heard the doors again...more than one had opened.
"Dot!" Matrix had come into the room. Dot's cheeks were flushed...her hands had fallen to her sides. She looked forlornly at her brother as he approached and began struggling with the robotic creature. He couldn't free her. A sprite as strong as Matrix couldn't pry that metal hand away.
The renegade stepped back and brought Gun level with the engine of Welman's mechanical body.
"Gun, Energy Blast!" The shot penetrated the motor of the bot, and smoke began to leak from it. Electricity began to spurt in dashes like the lightning of so many games. Dot was still trapped. The grip had loosened, but the electric currents rushing through her body were consuming her. Matrix kicked the bot away from Dot and caught her convulsing form as it fell. She was wide awake...but weakened to the extent that she couldn't sit up on her own.
"Mmm-Matrix..." Dot murmured to the burly sprite that was holding her in his arms and walking into another hallway. "W-what...what about..." Matrix flinched as he heard a loud popping sound behind him - like something had exploded. He dared to turn just enough to see what the noise had been, and almost dropped his sister when he laid eyes on the sight. The null that had been in the glass helmet had exploded. Dot had seen it too.
"No...no, no, no..." She was trembling, and Matrix tried to hold her closer to his body to stop the shakes. "No!" She shrieked it with a ferocity that the renegade had never heard before. "You deleted him! You deleted our father! Our father!" She screamed and wriggled, falling out of his arms, crawling away from him.
"Dot! No!" In a few strides he was right beside her again, but she pushed him away with every ounce strength she could produce.
"Get away from me, you...you son of a virus!" She was crying and yelling and fighting with surprising strength...doing everything she could to resist him. "How could you? How could you!"
"Dot..." Her words had cut Matrix deeply. "No, Dot, no...don't, don't say that..." He bent down to reach for her, and this time she was starch stiff. The fear was practically emitting from her. "Dot, what is-" He let out a yell as he felt claws slash across his back and he fell to the ground in front of her. He reached for Gun, but sliver tubing had taken hold of his arms, and at the end of one tube, a spike hovered around his throat. For the first time since his return to Mainframe, Matrix was actually afraid of Megabyte. Panic took him and he bellowed at Dot for dear life.
The volume and timbre of his voice bouncing off the walls with such terror pulled the woman from her fearful and grief-induced paralysis, and she threw herself at Megabyte's feet.
"Please...no...Megabyte, don't do this..." The virus' icy gaze fell on her as she looked up at him, pleading for her brother's life.
"Well, he's of no use to me alive, my dear." Megabyte stated silkily, his vicious grin appearing.
"No, no...Megabyte...please..." She fell dumb for a nano, and then reached for her icon. "If...if you let him go..." Matrix was running an incessant argument to his sister - he had wanted her to run, not give in. "I'll...join the viral forces...willingly."
"I'll let him escape, this time, but if I catch him again, I will show no mercy." Megabyte said flatly, and Dot nodded, dropping her icon into his open hand, enduring Matrix expression of sheer grief as he was released. "Go..." She whispered, as the tears streamed down her face and dizziness made her sway when she stood. Reluctantly, the renegade obeyed. Otherwise, all of this would have happened for nothing.
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"Get ready, Mouse. They'll be here any nano now." AndrAIa stated, readying herself to fight.
"I can't believe we're even bothering to resist, Sugar. It's not like we're going to win." Mouse replied, drawing her katana.
"Well we have to at least try. We can't just give up." No sooner had the words come out of the gamesprite's mouth when the four doors around them opened simultaneous. At least fifty virals stood at each entrance with their weapons squarely pointed at the girls. AndrAIa cleared her throat.
"Of course, I could be wrong." She gave her friend a weak smile as they both lowered their weapons.
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Matrix emerged from the Principal Office in shock. He could feel the energy streaming down his back, but he had to figure things out. Everything was going wrong. Where were Mouse and AndrAIa? What had happened to Bob? How could he have ever left Dot in Megabyte's hands? If anything happened to her, Matrix would never forgive himself. He'd stay out of the P.O. until Bob got back. He knew that couldn't defeat Megabyte alone. Was he being a coward? He had never voluntarily backed out of a fight, but now...
The light was fading, and any binomes foolish enough to be out were heading home. The cycle was coming to a close. Matrix disappeared into the shadows. If the virals were going to cause trouble, he didn't want to be a part of it...he had more important things to worry about.
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"How can I help you, Bob?" Turbo asked as he showed Guardian 452 into his office.
"Well, Mainframe is in a bad way right now...Megabyte has - "
"No. Sorry, Bob." Turbo should have known it was coming. " I know what you're going to say, and we don't have guardians to spare right now. Everyone is working around the clockchip to get things back to normal." The Prime Guardian spoke sharply.
"So what? You're just going to let it be destroyed?" Bob pleaded. "You can't do that, Turbo. Mainframe has-"
"Mainframe was an experiment gone wrong." Turbo almost couldn't believe he was feeding this lie to Bob again. "You've been told that before, Bob. I don't like to repeat myself." Bob gawked at him for a moment.
"Experi -Turbo, how can you say that? Mainframe has defeated some of the strongest virii in the Net!" It was easy to see the mix of anger and disappointment as the blue sprite ran his hands over his face.
"But Bob -"
"What about Daemon, Turbo?" His arms flew out from his sides as he gestured to the surroundings. "Would any of this - would we - be here right now if Mainframe, if Hexadecimal, hadn't taken her down? Turbo, the entire Net would be gone now if it weren't for Mainframe."
"I'm sorry, Bob. My hands are tied. Mainframe is at the bottom of the list right now. I'll try, but -"
"I have to go." Bob was taking on a tone of indifference. "We're just wasting time here. Mainframe needs a guardian." With the sole intent of leaving guilt, he added: "I thought things were different now, but I guess I was wrong."
"Well, for what it's worth, I'm sorry." Regret was dripping from the Prime's words as Guardian 452 made a portal and exited the office without a glance back at his Superior. At times like this, Bob was ashamed to be a member of the Collective.
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Dot opened her eyes. When had she blacked out? She didn't know she had, although she had been dizzy. Maybe that was it. She looked at her surroundings. She was in her office. She sat up slowly and cleared her head. "Now where did this come from?" She said to herself quietly, running her hand over the black couch she was sitting on. It didn't matter.
"Ah, you're awake." A vidwin popped up in front of her, and she jumped. "My dear Dot, am I really that frightful?"
"Oh, no...I'm sorry. I just woke then. You startled me." She forced a fake smile for him. "What can I do for you, my Lord?" She asked, resisting every urge to vomit at giving him such a title.
"I'll be there in a moment; we'll go over things then."
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Mouse was shoved into a small cell with nothing to do but watch as the bars slammed down in front of her face.
"Don't put that one in a regular cell!" One of the virals said to a small group of others as they dragged AndrAIa along. "She'll fire those nails at you!"
"Let me go!" She shrieked, writhing to try and free herself of them.
"Honey, there's just no point." Mouse said defeatedly. "We surrendered; now we have to face the consequences."
The gamesprite finally caved and was pushed into a cell. A weak sigh escaped her as the energy wall was activated. Their fate now rested on the shoulders of the other sprites.
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"Ah, my dearest Dot, how are you feeling?" Megabyte asked as he entered the small office and took a seat beside her on the couch.
"Better. Now, what can I help you with?"
"Down to business, as always, I see. Well, there is something we must discuss." He said, turning directly to her.
"Yes?" She was anticipating something big. She didn't know what, but she knew it was coming.
"Well, you'll have a certain level of conflict if I leave you as you are. You see, you work for me, but I work to destroy those whom you love. Therefore, you cannot be entirely loyal to me. That must be fixed." The virus smiled evilly when he saw the expression on Dot's face.
"But, but Megabyte-" She had no words to express how she felt. She had thought that maybe she could work from the inside on a solution to defeating this menace, but now she was in trouble.
"Now, be calm my dear. This will hurt."
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Mouse shook her head.
"What do you think is goin' on out there, Sugar?"
"I don't know, Mouse." AndrAIa responded, dying to be free of her prison. If only she had been put in a normal cell.
"Don't worry; things will work out; they always do." The hacker offered a smile. "Matrix and Bob and Dot will come out of this okay - I'm sure of it."
"It's not them I'm worried about. It's Enz-"
The doors to the holding room were opened, and in stumbled a battered Enzo Matrix, led by several viral troops. The child could barely stand. He had been beaten beyond belief. AndrAIa covered her mouth. She was going to cry. Enzo had a cut on his eye, just as Matrix had. It was like being pulled back to that horrible moment when they had lost that game. Mouse gasped and began to label the virals with every obscenity she could produce. Curses flew and tempers flared, but all AndrAIa could do was look on helplessly while Enzo was brought to a cell of his own. The instant she was free, she was going after Megabyte.
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"Come on, Bob, where are you?" Matrix asked under his breath. He couldn't wait much longer. He felt like he was going to lose his mind. To be completely useless was such a maddening state.
A portal opened in the sky and Guardian 452 appeared on his zipboard. He had wasted so much time. Hopefully things hadn't gone entirely random while he'd been gone. He spotted Matrix and was on his way down to the renegade when innumerable vidwindows appeared all over the system. Megabyte stood ready to address the public.
"Citizens of Mainframe, as you know, I have taken control over the Principal Office, and, essentially, the entire system. I know that I am not well-received by the general population, but there is one who has deemed me worthy, one whom you all trust."
The virus stepped aside and Dot was revealed - her head lowered and her eyes closed. She wore a metallic blue suit with the viral skull cut out of it. The eyes began at her collar bone with the viral emblem in the place of her normal icon, while the nose rested on her sternum. The mouth ran across her stomach. She raised her head, and her eyelids flickered open, revealing green irises and red pupils. She smiled softly. "All hail Lord Megabyte."
Bob nearly fell from his board.
"This is bad, very bad."