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Bob ended up being the place to be! It was like a keytool fraternity in there! Apparently the fact that I had merged with Bob made him the only body capable of hosting keytools as energy. Until their arrival, the rest of them had translated to physical form in walls or stored themselves in data consoles. Kink had even nested herself into the core of her guardian's home system, which left her a little frazzled and rather spacey. I guess becoming radiation and being radiated had the same affect. They came in the night one by one, sneaking into Bob while he was asleep. By morning there were twenty-three of us. That left seven still floating out there somewhere lost or erased.

It was a burden and a blessing. To start with, I had all the help I needed holding Bob's bits together. There were at least fifteen of them devoted to that. The rest were stuck on trying to find a way to fix me, which was of chief importance. Copeland managed everything. When the fighting caught up again each of the 'repair us' teams split in half devoting energy to give Bob powers. Even with the backup his strength seemed to be waning. Most of the keytools had been weakened by existing without a physical form and all of them were missing code without their guardians. I felt useless… I wasn't allowed to do anything except exist.

Martin poured his dose of energy into me. "Wow, Glitch, this is amazing! I mean, you actually merged! I can't believe I'm transmitting to a merged keytool, this is incredible."

"Well don't just gawk." I said, feeling irritable. "And don't tell me I'm talking like a sprite either… User knows I've heard that from at least fifty people today."

"There are only twenty-three of us in here, Glitch." Martin reported. "And you wouldn't tell that to yourself so technically you can only have heard it twenty-two times."

"Would you log off?" I spat. "This isn't a picnic, you know, I'm not something to study or stare at. Bob and I are in trouble and I'm getting a little claustrophobic so just leave me alone."

"Sheesh, fine." Martin went back to stabilization duty.

I was beginning to feel pain now. I'd never felt pain before, not even when Megabyte nearly squeezed the life out of me. It was the same feeling that had come in through Bob's hand in the core. I felt like I was being pulled apart from the inside. A wave of wincing pain passed through us and Bob phased. Copeland's signal boomed over our heads. "Stage 2 divisions drop duties and reinforce the host! Now!"

Martin stopped loading me with energy, another quarter of the fixit squad gave up posts and poured some reserve into Bob's system, the wave passed soon and he was back to solid form. I sighed as the feeling ended. My nurse keytool turned again to me. "You okay?"

"Not really." I felt terrible being so brash, and spoke again to him a little kinder. "Sorry, Martin, I'm alright, I'm just having a hard time with this. I never imagined things could go this wrong."

"You're doing your best." Martin said, considerately. "Its all any of us can ask. Without you we'd all be lost."

"Glitch." Copeland butted in. "Something's going on out there, can you take a look?"

"Can't you take a look for yourself?" I asked.

"You're the merged not me." Copeland replied. "You're the one with the access to Bob's sprite senses. I can barely use my scanners from inside here."

"We all have our problems." I said, less than compassionate. The guilt kicked in even stronger with Copeland. "I'll take a look." I pulled some energy and came into Bob's awareness. He took a bit of a start. I guess he had forgotten I was there.

I heard his voice: "Copeland, his keytool's name is Copeland."

Now I took a double take. Was my attention in or out of Bob right now. This was getting strange. We were in the brig, by a holding cell. There was a sprite in there in a Daemon Shock Troop uniform. There was something about that voice pattern. I sent signal down into Bob's data. "Copeland! Get over here!"

"What is it Glitch?"

"Its Turbo!"

"What?" Copeland nosed up close, as if crowding me would help him see something. "Where? How do you know?"

"He's standing right there! We've got him in a cell."

"Is he alright?" Copeland demanded. "He's not hurt is he?"

"He's infected." I reported. "But otherwise I think he's okay. They're trying to get information out of him." The Daemon infection was really rather creepy. It seemed to have robbed Turbo of his own free will. He was a lobotomized drone as peaceful as an idiot who didn't know any better. I didn't break this to Copeland, he was lucky he couldn't see. I had respect for Turbo too, and this was hard. Bob let me know he wanted to give his Prime a little Glitch medicine to see if it would help.

The sad thing was, I knew I couldn't give him what he needed.

"Copeland." I said. "Bob's going to try and cure him. He needs me to help but I barely have enough to do anything right now. Can you add some? You've been more than generous about sharing your energy so far…"

"I'll do anything." Copeland said quickly. "If there's a chance…"

"Okay, here goes then." I said, gearing up for the transfer.

Copeland called behind him. "GUI, Errol, Grace, lend me a hand." The other keytools floated into proximity. "I'm going to give Glitch all my energy. Back us up okay, keep us online."

"But Sir?" GUI buzzed. "Is that wise? What if something goes wrong and you get erased? We need you!"

"And Glitch is weak!" Grace agreed. "If he goes we're all doomed!"

"Do as I say." Copeland commanded. "That's my guardian out there! He deserves no less than everything I have. We're all professionals here. If something happens, you know what to do."

"No fear, Sir." Errol announced. "We have plenty of backup. We will not fail you."

My programming was set now. Bob took a hold of the bars of the cage. I transmitted to the chain that was assembled behind me. "This is it. Everyone ready?"

"Compiled ready." Copeland said firmly.

I read his meaning as loudly as if Bob had said it. "Then here goes." I opened the channel with the healing energy. Copeland transferred his power into me. The three others transferred their power into him. The seventeen keytools left over sensed what we were doing. I found they sent energy, what little they could spare, up through our ladder and out to Turbo who's condition was improving painfully. I transferred I could, but my grip was slipping… I felt that ache from before, the one that spread throughout my whole being, begin to take its course again. For the first time I recognized what it felt like. It was as if all I was, every place I'd found to hook onto Bob's code back at the download, was being stripped off. We were coming apart as a jigsaw puzzle, the edges frayed and jagged like torn tapestry. The wave hit strong and hard. I felt the sting and let go of the channel, closing the link. Bob fell to the ground, his body phasing to near deletion. Copeland and I faded into darkness.