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Where else to go with an exploding virus? The Web of course! The nature of the web would see Megabyte's bits scattered to the four corners of known space, unable to affect the Net again. I snapped off him and floated freely, hoping my inertia would carry me far enough away to save me when he blew in three nanoseconds. The mighty virus Megabyte, terror of Mainframe, self-destructed with a forceful flash of light that propelled me through the void toppling end over end. An unstable tear ripped wide from the spot, lighting up the web. My signal became snowy, but I could still sense web creatures off in the distance turn their attention and flee at the sight of the rip. I sensed sprites, codes that might have matched the webriders we'd met when Matrix and I found Bob. They followed their pods away from the blast, swirls of orange fragmenting data forming around the break. The tear was becoming the eye of a storm. I was caught in the twist of it, being spiraled in.
I'd thought for a moment about whether or not keytools degraded in the web… now I thought about surviving at all. I quickly sent out a broad-range distress signal, in case any perceptive sprites or vessels were willing to brave the storm and rescue me.
The bright crackling brilliance of the tear increased in size. I found myself tangled in the mess of data fragments. Almost all my signal was being lost in the colliding particles, yet what was this? An ID? Who the…of course… the only sprite brave enough or basic enough to jump into a storm like this. The Surfr himself.
Ray located my signal and scooped me out as easily as if I were setting on a table. Grabbing the edge of the SurfBaud, he banked hard and shot straight out of the storm without more than a scratch. He turned back over his shoulder, then grinned down at me. "Hey, I know you."
I know you too! Fancy meeting up in a place like this.