00001000

As each team entered and exited, systems were taken offline. We began to take the board in our hand. But it was almost hard to be excited when all you did was open and close portals. Bob and I spent much of our time floating around the city, fixing instabilities resulting from the frequent tears and the siphoning of core energy.

Daily life went kind of like this: float around the city fixing stuff, fly back to the PO to pop open a tear and let one or the other team in, head down to the war room to refuel, get new coordinates, pop open another tear and let the team back out, fly around, come back, let the other team in… it got sort of routine. The war room was an upbeat and positive place, to the Rebellion's eyes we were winning, and admittedly it looked like it, but I remembered that we were just closing off the peaceful systems. Our little resistance hadn't even begun to fight the infected systems yet. The hard stuff had yet to start.

Things got a little more interesting when Hex started stalking us. She didn't like the tight air of the PO, and no one trusted her enough to let her help with the plan. Well, except Bob, which put a little bit of friction between he and Dot. Bob enlisted Hexadecimal as Tear Locator 101… meaning she would float around like she always did, except this time when she spotted a tear or an instability she'd actually TELL us instead of ignoring them. I guess you work with what you've got.

Then came the cycle when the boredom was interrupted, something I'd be thankful for except for the circumstances. It was the fateful second when Daemon finally took interest in us.

It was the day Ray and Capacitor didn't come back.

Bob and I were headed back up to the roof after the typical refresh and get-new-address-from-Mouse session. Matrix and AndrAIa floated behind us on a pair of souped up hoverbikes. They really seemed to like those bikes, I guess it suits them. Matrix revved his engine.

"Okay, Bob, open the portal."

I reminded my guardian that he was scheduled to open a door for TeamB in less than 25 nanoseconds. He nodded and turned to his friends. "Wait for me to let the others in first."

Matrix leaned back and crossed his arms. "Fine. I'm anxious to go."

"You're not in the least bit drained?" AndrAIa asked. "This will be our fifth trip this cycle."

"I could do this all minute." Matrix replied. "It gets my energy going."

She laughed at him. "There must be some guardian protocol in you somewhere Sparky."

"Should be." Bob replied. "I put it there." I counted off the nanos. Bob waited and threw open the portal casually when I was done. Glimmers of another system could be seen warped around the bubble. It was hard to read, but Bob's eyes registered activity. Something that looked like a guardian spider cruiser skimmed the surface. I couldn't make out the shapes of either the surfer or the reconstructed Mare. I was starting to get a little worried, considering the pirate ship was a little hard to miss. The portal was very strategically timed. It was to be opened thirty nanos after Mouse got the signal from the system that the shutdown was ready. After that we'd open the portal for ten nanos and then it would close, sealing the system behind it. After that, no one could get into that system, and it was safe.

We all knew the drill, yet here the portal stood open, waiting patiently for someone to come out. It must have seemed like an eternity to the sprites. Bob and I of course knew the exact time, and there were five nanos left.

There was motion on the portal, a ripple like something passed narrowly by. AndrAIa and Matrix leaned over their handlebars. Something came through. A laserblast! It flew past AndrAIa's head and she ducked. More laserblasts, hitting the roof around us or shooting up into the sky. We held our breaths. Three nanos. The laserblasts increased in intensity and gained a direction, which happened to be straight for us. Bob and I swerved to the left. Matrix and AndrAIa banked right. The laserfire persisted as we studied the rippling surface for any sign of our companions. Two nanos. One. The portal closed. Everyone stood in silence.

Besides the burn marks on the roof of the Principle Office, there was no sign that the belligerent system ever existed. Calculating the rate of increase on the laserblasts all it would have taken would be three nanos max before the guns firing them would have joined us on our side. What happened was impossible to say, the only truth was that we were missing half our team, and our friends.

A vidwindow popped up. Apparently it had taken a bit for Dot to recover too. "Get down here. We need to talk."

Bob and the others didn't need a second's thought, we shot down the side of the PO, paused at the front door long enough for AndrAIa and Matrix to ditch the bikes and charged into the war room. Dot dashed straight to us when we arrived, but Matrix was the first one to get a word in. "What happened?"

"The virals –" Dot replied, she seemed to be full of adrenaline, her hand shaking a little as she pointed. The blue dot that represented the system we'd just sealed was glowing green.

Bob was getting scared now. Across the board, blue systems changed to green, even some we'd already sealed. Mouse was typing madly in the corner. "There's no way to reach Ray and the Captain, the line is closed!" She pounded her fist on the console. "No!"

"We're too good." AndrAIa said, sadly.

I couldn't help but think we weren't good enough. But that's just me. The entire room was looking pretty down, all their efforts had been for naught, and now we were half-staffed and up against a more powerful virus than most had imagined. Dot took this moment to rally her troops. She really did make a good I know this is hard on all of us, but we can't let a bad turn of events bring us down. Ray Tracer, Captain Capacitor, and the crew of the Saucy Mare were friends and comrades, warriors to the end. They came from outside to help us in our time of need, but now they are casualties. We mustn't let their sacrifice become a stumbling block, instead, lets take it up with us and honor their memories by defeating Daemon! When Daemon is gone there will be no more casualties, and the Net will be free again! We have to strive toward that hope! We are the only ones who can stop her, and to do so we need to be as strong, as diligent, and as driven as we can! I'm ready to take that initiative! Can you stand with me?"

The room was empowered by her speech. They let out a cheer. Bob's heart was soaring, I nearly felt crowded by it. Dot turned to us and leveled her voice, sounding more serious than she had ever been. "Guys, I've got a new strategy."