00100000

Mouse greeted us as cheery as ever. If I didn't know she was a data shredder on the inside, I'd have probably passed her off as harmless by now. Of course the scale-like armor and sword on her back helped. Dot must have felt the same way regarding the outfit because she was hiding behind her. Mouse waved at us. "Hi boys."

"Hi." Bob greeted. "Hello Dot."

Dot snuck back into her little hole.

"What's up?" Mouse asked.

This time talking to Mouse was not the favorable scenario. "I need a word with Dot."

If I wasn't mistaken Mouse's voice pattern seemed greatly relieved. "Good! You to have things to talk about! I'll be moseying along."

"No wait!" Dot said quickly. Mouse seemed anxious, Dot searched for an excuse to keep her there. "What if that's not Bob?"

By the Net… Dot, really? Do we have to run this race all over again?

Bob rolled his eyes. "Oh brother."

The attempted to support her argument. "How do we know its really Bob? He could be –"

"Megabyte!" Her bodyguards freaked out and sped off to who knows where. Useful pair of tin cans.

Mouse was right with me… for some reason I sensed she wished she was getting paid for this. "Some bodyguards…"

Matrix came to our defense. "Sis, of course it's Bob! I've been with him all along."

Bob tried to put on a smile. "Dot, its me! It's really me, can't you tell?"

What a viral thing to say, guardian. Use a little more tact than that okay?

"No… I can't … not now."

"Look Dot we-"

Tact Guardian!

"I need you back at the Principle Office."

Much better.

"Megabyte's out there, somewhere, help me catch him and we can end this, together."

There was a pause, I scanned Dot for a response. Having been introduced to the extremes of sprite emotions first hand, I found it strangely fascinating trying to determine how my quasi-logical friends were feeling. I think she was coming around, a little. She wanted things to be upgrades and daisywheels just like we did. "Okay, Bob, I do want this to end."

We took off for the PO. Dot's plans were always full of flavor. I hoped this one would pack a punch. Once inside the orbital building she seemed grounded. "Okay, what we need to do first is force him out of hiding."

"If we can expose him once, I can get a lock on him." Matrix offered tapping his left temple with the edge of his gun.

"What would get him to drop his guard?" AndrAIa asked. "He's still Megabyte. He's still smart."

"We've always brought him down by his greed." Dot resolved. "Its fool proof."

"Will he be expecting that?" Wellman asked.

Bob shrugged. "Hasn't stopped him in the past."

Dot looked to her father. "I need you to build another Gateway Command."

"Another one?" Wellman nearly groaned. I found it very amusing.

"We'll escort the gateway command down to the archives." Dot determined. "Megabyte will attack and then we'll have him cornered."

Seemed pretty easy to me. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.