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I wished I could have watched the greeting between Dot and Bob, but I was busy trying to keep up with Mouse. Did I mention she was incredible? Did I mention how fast and random she was? Yeesh.

….There was the random number generator… sneaky little Megabyte nesting it so deeply in here. Mouse grinned. "I've got it." She pulled up the link and mashed it off. The streaming digits in the console evened out. She backed off. "Thank you Glitch."

I compacted back down to normal size. Aw… no problem. Heh, she actually thanked me!

I flew back to Bob's wrist and stuck on.

Matrix nodded slowly and tightened his grip on Gun. "Time to erase that monster. Save Enzo, Dad and Phong."

"No, Matrix." Bob stopped him again.

"Bob." Dot stepped forward, her two bodyguards trembling in a huddle behind her. "I know you don't like it, but we have to."

"I still say we don't. We can reprogram him! Like we did with Hex."

"I'm sorry." Dot said, sharply. "I'm not giving Megabyte a PID and a waver. He's done terrible things. He's holding my family hostage…"

Bob shook his head. "I've got to believe it's not his fault, Dot. I've got to believe that viruses can be made good. I can't live with the thought of a User creating something that was purely evil."

Dot was on the verge of tears, I could sense it in her energy patterns. "He's trying to delete us, Bob! What's more evil? He's doing all this just for fun!"

Bob tried to respond but couldn't. I monitored him closely. Dot calmed herself down and continued.

"Perhaps some viruses can be changed, but sometimes life is more than just proving a point. If we don't act now, who knows what Megabyte will do. He's got control of the Principle Office. Once he finds and deletes us he can load up the Gateway Command and invade the Supercomputer. Are you prepared to risk everything for the sake of some theory? Your past, your present, your future? Our future? Please, Bob, you've got to see that this has to be done."

Bob brooded, his heart pounding. Dot put a hand on his arm. "Hex knew… sometimes we've got to make sacrifices. For the greater good, some people have to die."

"We're talking about a living thing." Bob replied. "Deleting a living thing."

Mouse looked up from the console. The firewall dropped behind us. "I've turned off Game Mode. We've gotta watch for guards but I'm pretty much in control here. I can open this door anytime…"

"Bob." AndrAIa pressed.

Mouse looked him in the eye. "If you're so against it you don't have to do it. Just stay here and we'll take care of Megabyte."

"Yeah, stay behind." Matrix snapped at him. "I let him go once, I'm not making that mistake again."

"Just let me try." Bob pleaded to them. "Let me have one shot, then you can do whatever you want. But just let me try."

Everyone paused. Dot held the power in the situation. They waited for her to speak. "Okay Bob," his heart lifted, "one shot. But that's all."

"Thanks." Bob snapped down to me. "Glitch! Do you have a decent scan of Megabyte?"

'Sure, I explored his entire code looking for that piece of you that he stole, Bob. I've got a pretty decent map of it on file.'

"Great. Run a scan for the code pattern that defines his predatory viral functions."

'Scanning… … …'

I searched through. I didn't want to tell him, but there really wasn't one piece that made him good or bad, it was a lot of things, just like no one number in an encryption can open a door. Still there was a sequence that defined his behavior patterns. I fished it up and displayed it for Bob to see.

"Thanks, now write up an algorithm to block out that string and get ready to fire it." He looked up at the who's heart was very heavy. Bob's shoulders drooped a little. "We've only got one shot."

I quickly compiled the needed elements and formatted into a crude wrist cannon. Bob looked to Mouse.

"We're ready."

Mouse looked to the others. They nodded. She hovered her finger over the button. "Here goes… 010, 01, 0!"

The doors flew open. A voice was heard within. "No! They're HERE SIR!"

Megabyte turned to us. The movement was slow, a cape of thick gray cables cascading down from his body. The cables twisted through the stairs and up the walls, attached to the consoles and scanners, permeating the guts of Mainframe's defenses. He sneered down at us. Little Enzo's voice pattern traveled through the tension in the air.

"Dot? Bob?"

"Hold on, little brother." Dot called over to him.

Megabyte chuckled deeply. "So there you are Miss Matrix. I thought I had you cornered. You are a tricky one aren't you." He looked to the woman beside her. Mouse held her katana ready. "Of course that was probably your doing, Mouse. Tsk, tsk…leading my scanners all over the map tracking your signal…. You always were the artist." Mouse bared her fangs. He looked straight at Bob. "Come to delete me, Guardian? Have you finally… learned… your… lesson?"

He absorbed the negative effects of his words like a sponge. Bob looked darkly on him. "Glitch! Fire!"

I shot from his arm, twisting and fastening at the center of Megabyte's chest. The virus reeled in shock. "What?"

"Glitch!" Bob called. "Download program!"

I transferred the masking code into Megabyte's data. He looked up to Bob, seeking answers. He really had no idea what was coming, I completed the transfer and geared up.

"Glitch! Run program!"

I did so… the countercode rushed in aimed straight for the element at the heart of Megabyte, the part that made him viral. A white light edged its way out from around me like the branches of circuitry lacing a synthetic suit. He tried to claw me off of him, raking white stripes in his own skin. "Noooooo!" His cables snapped, the tendrils flying madly about the room, tearing bulkheads from walls, dislodging the beams of the staircases and breaking windows. The Binomes were thrown about, battered by the flailing cords. The power Megabyte had over Wellman's robotic body faded and the null rushed his son and fellow captive under cover. A chunk of the ceiling fell and crashed, revealing the level above. Bob shielded his face as bits of the room smashed into the walls around him. Dot and the others backed into the doorway. I continued to tear away and replace Megabyte's core.

The white light spread over him. His eyes blanched. Shakily he raised his arm and tried to flip open a panel above his wrist. It had been degraded shut, so he dug in his claws and pried it open with an intensified cry of pain. Inside he accessed his self-destruct command. "Guardian!" He shouted through clenched teeth over the sound of the ruination of the War Room. He held his arm out to Bob, showing the swelling energy therein. "I will blow this system out of the Net before I will cross over!"

Bob's face was struck with panic. He expected me to work faster than this. He wanted me to turn this monster good before he could do any more damage. Megabyte's will was stronger than I'd expected. There was no way to jettison him out of the PO this time, he was going to take us all out. I could feel his data start to turn over to the self-destruct command in my grip.

Abort program. Recalibrate. I had to save the system. If I didn't we'd all be erased.

I drank some energy from his well, the format raw and nasty compared to Bob's sprite energy. Tears opened around him as his tendrils pulped what was left of the machinery. I couldn't wait for a command. Nanos were vital.

Let's just pretend Bob said 'Glitch! Anything!'. Just for kicks.

I made a portal. Megabyte and I vanished into it and teleported out of the system.

I could hear Bob shouting my name as we left.