Headquarters, Sector 0
Metro City, Canada
May 31st, 2015
12:33 PM
"Heath "Oz" Ostreicher"
"Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200." I said, reading the card I had just drawn.
"Ha ha ha!" sneered Marcus, "You've been in jail a lot this time, Oz."
"I'd rather be in here than out there where I'm in danger no matter which side of the board I'm on." I said.
"Don't you think it's weird that even if you're in jail you can still collect rent and buy houses or hotels? I mean you're in jail!" said Riley.
"That's the part of the process you're questioning?" asked Rachel, "In this game they send you to jail just because you landed on a certain space or got doubles three times."
"Enough you two!" snapped Chloe, "It's my turn and I'm rounding Marcus' Corner of Cruelty."
"Go ahead, roll," said Marcus, "Anything lower than an 8 and you'll be mine…"
Chloe kissed the dice before putting them in her hands to roll.
"Come on, come on…" she muttered before rolling them.
The first one quickly landed on a 5. She watched with baited breath to see what the other one would be. As it went, there were times when it seemed like it was about to stop on a number that would let her clear Marcus' area, but ultimately, it stopped on a 1.
"Aw, crap." she muttered.
"Ah! You landed on Pacific Avenue," said Marcus, "Excellent choice. With three houses on it, you owe me $900 for rent."
"Must you rub it in?" asked Chloe, "Just take the money."
"Pleasure doing business with you," said Marcus, "Okay, now, I'm going to buy another set of houses on my green and red properties." said Marcus.
"That leaves you with less than $100." I said.
"I'll be fine, I should be able to pass "Go" soon, plus, I've still got all four railroads which give me $200 anytime someone lands on one."
Marcus put his houses into place. He now had four on each set of his properties. Yes, I know, even before you ask, Marcus, the green ranger had the green properties. It's just a coincidence. I'm the yellow ranger but I didn't own any yellow properties.
"Alright then, roll the dice if you're so confident." said Chloe, handing them to him.
"Don't mind if I do." said Marcus.
The dice landed on a 2 and 4.
"Hey, look at that, I'm on Community Chest!" he said.
Marcus drew the card and read it aloud.
"You are assessed for street repairs. $40 per house, $115 per hotel," said Marcus, his voice trailing off at the end, "Are you kidding me!? Did I seriously just get bitch-slapped by karma in a game of Monopoly!?"
Chloe tried to restrain herself, but she wasn't able to contain her snorts of delighted laughter.
"Serves you right for being such a douche." said Chloe.
"Man, I'm going to have to mortgage…" said Marcus, "Well, I'm not getting rid of my greens because they're my best weapon, so I guess I'll have to sell some of the houses from my red properties and then mortgage this railroad and, um, I guess this one too."
"Alright, now it's my turn," said Riley, "Hand me the dice please, Marcus."
Riley's role sent him to the nearest railroad, which, as it turns out, just so happened to be the same one that Marcus had just mortgaged.
"Seriously?" asked Marcus.
Then it was Rachel's turn, and she also landed on the nearest railroad, which was the other one that Marcus had just mortgaged.
"Wow, your luck really does seem to be taking a turn for the worst." she said.
"Well, I'm still safe and sound in jail," I said, "So I think I'll just buy a few houses on my-"
I wasn't able to finish. The sirens had started blaring their usual sound. We left our game suspended, since most viruses were no match for us now that we had Sawyer on our side. Trojan had yet to really step up his game, and we didn't expect this to be the time he'd do it, so once we dealt with the virus, we were going to come back and finish our game.
We all gathered around the middle of headquarters. Silver, Sawyer and Jenna were already there waiting for us.
"It's attacking Sector 17," said Jenna, "I wonder if Trojan is up to something?"
"I can think of only two reasons why he would choose to attack the Medical District," said Silver, "Either he's up to something, or he wants us to think he's up to something so that we'll get distracted."
"Medical District…" said Sawyer, "As in there's lots of hospitals?"
"Yes," said Silver, "As well as several dozen medical research centers."
"I really hate hospitals." said Sawyer.
"You shouldn't have to go inside them," said Riley, "But I can understand if you'd rather sit this one out."
"I can't keep hiding forever." said Sawyer.
"Rangers, you have a go," said Jenna, "But please be careful, we don't know anything about this virus yet and the Medical District is a very important part of Metro City. Do whatever you can to protect it!"
We arranged ourselves together into formation.
"Silver," I said, "Try and remember that it was my turn in Monopoly."
He gave me a disapproving look and raised his eyebrow. Jenna however, smirked.
"Ready?" asked Riley.
"Ready!" said the rest of us as Sawyer pumped the clutch on his Digitizer.
"CYBER POWER, ACTIVATE!" we shouted.
"RENEGADE, POWER UP!" shouted Sawyer.
After transforming, we all teleported to Sector 17. Even though it's actually one of the smallest sectors in Metro City, it's also one of the most important, like Jenna had said.
It was only about ten square city blocks in size, and many of the research buildings were also part of the university. A lot of people think that it has a bunch of hospitals, but in reality, it only has one: The Health and Education Association Laboratory and Teaching Hospital, or "Health" for short, which is made up of many different buildings.
If you're a doctor that spends a lot of time there, then you'd know your way around like the back of your hand. But if you've only been there a couple of times, this place is like a giant maze. No matter who or what you're looking, it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
"Does anybody see anything?" asked Red.
"Just lots of doctors and buildings." I said.
"Maybe Trojan sent the virus here just to screw with us and make our heads spin?" said Green.
"Silver, can you direct us? We don't see any viruses around here." asked Red.
"The signal is enormous," said Silver, "The entire area seems to be a hotspot."
"That could mean a lot of things," said Jenna, "The virus could be able to make it's signal appear much larger than it is. Or it could be that there's something else amplifying the signal. Or perhaps there's actually a whole bunch of viruses. The possibilities are endless. Until you find it, we're in the dark."
"Could Trojan just have wanted to make us think he sent a virus?" asked Blue, "Maybe it's a red herring or something to lure us into a trap?"
"It's not possible to send anything to or from Cyberspace without a physical form," said Silver, "It either has to start off as matter and transform into data, or vice versa."
"If we're getting a signal, then there's definitely something there that's creating it." said Jenna.
We all looked around, but there were so many people that it made it hard to notice anything other than the people.
All of a sudden, a massive blast of energy came from right above us. We had only seconds to react, but surprisingly, I managed to dive out of the way and the blast missed me by a hair.
All the people in the area saw this and ran screaming in all directions. It was complete chaos, but there was nothing I could do to calm them down. In fact, it was probably better to let them run away to someplace safer.
I saw that the others had already got back up after the blast had knocked them all down.
But now I could hear a weird, ringing sound, just like an alarm clock. I felt a rush of wind as something zipped right past me. I spun and saw just the faintest glimpse of movement. It was heading towards Orange, who was looking somewhere else.
"ORANGE, LOOK OUT!" I shouted, running over to her.
I dove at her, but wasn't fast enough. Something pierced right through her chest, but left no marks behind.
"AAHH!" she shrieked.
She collapsed to floor and her suit dissolved away. She was unconscious.
"Orange has been hit!" I called.
"By what!?" gasped Blue.
"I don't know, it moved too fast," I said, "But it made that ringing sound just before it attacked."
"I didn't hear anything," said Purple, "Did the rest of you?"
They all shook their heads. So, I was the only one that heard it? Weird.
"Where did it come from?" asked Red.
"I couldn't see, but it narrowly missed me." I said.
"Silver! Orange has been hit!" said Red, "Teleport her back to Headquarters!"
"We can't," said Jenna, "Something is scrambling the teleporter's GPS functions."
"She's a sitting duck out here. Especially without her suit on!" snapped Blue.
"She's in civilian form?" asked Silver.
"Something shot right through her and she de-morphed." I said.
"Trojan must have given this virus an incredibly powerful weapon if it can power down a ranger in one shot." said Silver.
"Wait a minute!" I said, "There's that sound again!"
"What sou-" asked Green, just as something went clean through his chest.
He fell down and I saw his suit dissolve too.
"Now Green has been hit!" said Red, "Silver, get them out of here!"
"I told you, I can't!" said Silver.
"Try harder!" I snapped.
"We can't lock on to any of you!" said Jenna, "It's almost like Sector 17 keeps jumping around!"
"Come on, let's try and move them out of harm's way!" shouted Purple.
Then I realized what was probably happening. We were being shot at from somewhere we couldn't see.
"No, don't!" I yelled as Purple ducked down to try and grab Marcus' arm, "It can still see us!"
Purple whipped around to look at me, but stayed low to the ground.
"Do you know where it is, Yellow?" asked Purple.
"It's picking us off from afar, one by one," I said, "But I can't see from where!"
I heard the ringing sound again, but I was ready this time. I used my visor to zoom in and out at the tops of all the tallest buildings. If the virus was up there sniping us, I would find it... Or so I thought. The sound got louder and I saw a blur come from somewhere, it went right through Purple, and even he wasn't strong enough to take the hit. His suit dissolved and he fell to the ground, just like the others.
Now I think I understood. We were being sniped, but not from something with a gun. Whatever this was, it was literally using it's own body as a projectile to travel faster than the eye could see.
"Crap! Purple!" yelped Blue.
"Did either of you see where it came from!?" snarled Red, obviously frustrated.
Without warning, Blue got taken out from behind. Red panicked and placed himself over top of her to protect her from any further attacks. He kept pounding his fists on the ground in protest, as if it would somehow wake up Rachel.
"Red, get up and move!" I called, "It'll have a harder time hitting you if you keep moving!"
Even though I hadn't really been moving either, for some reason, I hadn't been hit yet. Maybe it had something to do with why I seemed to be the only one that could hear the strange ringing sound.
One final alarm clock sound jerked me out of my head and back into reality.
"Red! Move, you're next!" I screamed.
Either he didn't hear me, or he was just so overcome with worry for Rachel that he didn't care anymore. The attacker pierced right through his head and he became limp as his suit dissolved.
"ENOUGH! SHOW YOURSELF!" I roared.
I was the only one left that could still fight. The others were all still sprawled on the ground, unconscious and in civilian form.
I heard the ringing sound again as the shooter finally came to a stop and revealed itself in it's true form. It looked like a weird cross between a goblin and a bird. All of it's features were pointy and sleek, which I suppose was to help it move through the air.
I was standing right there, out in the open, but the virus didn't acknowledge me at all. It was almost like it couldn't see me. I watched it walk around and look down at each of it's victims. That's when I realized that it was tallying us up. It got to five and then looked around desperately. It knew there should be another one, but even though I was right there, it couldn't find me.
Then it jumped into the air and hovered above the others. It seemed to be gathering energy. I realized what was about to happen, but I was too far away to stop it. It sent an enormous orb of energy plummeting to the ground which, in an immense explosion, decimated the ground around my fallen comrades.
"No…" I whimpered, "This-this can't be happening… They're not, they can't be…"
I was going to run over to them and try desperately to wake them up, but I couldn't. There was nothing left in the range of the blast. The attack had completely destroyed everything; there wasn't even so much as little piles of ash.
I knelt down and smashed the ground with my fists. This isn't real, I tried to tell myself. If I pinch myself really hard, I'll wake up from this horrible nightmare and they'll all be alive and well.
"They're dead… They're all dead!" I snarled, turning on the virus, who had just landed back down, "You monster! I'LL KILL YOU!"
I dove at the virus, but never made it. In the middle of my lunge, there was a bright flash of light and then a whooshing sensation. It felt like something had grabbed hold of my back and was pulling me backwards very quickly.
When it stopped, I looked around to discover that I was somewhere else. It looked like I was somehow back in Headquarters. Riley, Rachel, Marcus, Chloe and me were all playing Monopoly, just like we had this afternoon.
I remember we had asked Sawyer if he wanted to play, but he said no because that was the game he used to play with his sister, Ellie. Instead, he was reading over on the other couch.
"You're all still alive?" I muttered, too quietly for any of them to hear me.
"Okay, now, I'm going to buy another set of houses on my green properties." said Marcus.
"Whoa! Déjà vu!" I said.
"Déjà what?" asked Chloe.
"We've done this before." I said.
"You mean play Monopoly?" asked Marcus, "Yes, we have. Very good Oz!"
"No, you twit!" I said, "I mean that we've played THIS particular game of it before."
"Are you on some sort of new medication we should know about?" asked Riley.
"You don't believe me?" I scoffed, "Alright then… Marcus, after you put your houses in place roll the dice."
"Fine." he said.
"It's going to be a 2 and a 4." I said.
He rolled the dice and it was indeed a 2 and a 4.
"Lucky guess," said Marcus, "Well, that means I'm on the Community Chest square."
"The card will charge you $40 for each of your houses." I said.
Marcus lifted the card and held it aloft, but didn't read it yet. He looked at me and then at the card, then back to me, then back to the card. This went on for a while until he finally flipped the card over and read it aloud.
"You are assessed for street repairs. $40 per house, $115 per hotel…" said Marcus, his voice trailing off at the end. He looked at me again, his mouth open in both confusion and disbelief.
"You're going to have to mortgage now because buying those houses didn't leave you enough to pay for the street repairs," I said, "Don't mortgage any of your railroads because on their next turns both Riley and Rachel will land on one of them."
"Okay," said Rachel, "Let's say that we believe you Oz. What next?"
"I'm not sure," I said, "Maybe I've developed psychic powers?"
"Can you tell what I'm thinking right now?" asked Chloe.
"About how great my rock hard abs are?"
"Not even close."
"Okay, then I don't have psychic powers," I said, "But I still knew what was going to happen before it happened… It was almost like I had-"
"Already lived through it once before?" asked Sawyer.
"Yes!" I said, "That's exactly what it was like!"
"Alright then, what's going to happen next?"
"Well let's see. The first time Marcus had to pay for his houses, he blew a gasket, but because I told him this time he didn't, which means that Riley and Rachel haven't taken their turns yet. The last time, when it was my turn, right before I could roll the dice, I was interrupted by the sirens," I said, "Which means that assuming my math is right, they should be going off in about 10 seconds."
Nothing happened at first, but then after a few more seconds the sirens started to go off.
"Aha! There, see!? I was off by a few seconds but I was right!"
Everyone was looking at me as though I had some sort of monster growing out of my chest.
"What? I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy!"
They wouldn't listen to me. Instead, Silver decided to bench me rather than sending me to fight the virus with the others. Jenna came over with a medical flashlight and shined it in both my eyes.
"I can see fine, thanks." I said.
"Apparently better than fine," said Jenna, "Apparently you can see the future?"
"I don't know what the hell's going on," I said, "But I just can't shake this feeling that I've done this before."
"You mean this conversation?" asked Jenna.
I turned to look at the monitors and saw that the others were at Sector 17 now. By now the virus should have started attacking them, but it wasn't.
"Where did you get that cut on the side of your head?" asked Jenna.
"What cut?"
She held up a mirror so that I could see what she saw. There was a huge gash running from my left cheek all the way to my ear. A metaphorical light bulb just appeared above my head.
"The virus..." I muttered.
"What about it?" asked Jenna.
"That's how I got my cut," I said, "The virus almost hit me the last time, but I moved out of the way just in time, or at least I thought. It must have still grazed me."
"The virus that the others are searching for right now?" asked Jenna.
"Yeah, it makes a ringing noise when it attacks, but I was the only one that could hear it," I muttered, "Maybe it somehow marked me when I technically got hit by it but didn't get knocked out."
"Well it doesn't look like they've found it yet." said Silver.
"Of course!" I sighed, "Because now that I'm not there, things might happen differently. When I did this the first time, all six of us went to fight the virus… It blasted me far away and then it-it killed the others. I ran over to them, then turned on the virus, but before I got too far, I was back in Headquarters and we were playing Monopoly again."
"Heath..." said Silver, "You sound like you've lost your mind."
"Please! Stop calling me Heath!" I snapped, "I hate that name! It was my father's name! Silver, please, just call me Oz like everyone else."
"Fine... Oz," he said, "You sound like you've lost your mind."
"That's only because nobody else remembers," I said, "I promise you, I'm fine. You have to let me join the others, they need me! I'm the only one that can hear the virus!"
"Alright..." said Silver.
I morphed before I left and then teleported to the others' location in Sector 17. When I got there, I immediately heard the ringing.
"Everyone be careful, you can't hear it, but this virus makes a sound when it attacks." I said, cautiously.
"If we can't hear it, then why can you?" asked Red.
"Because it grazed me last time we fought it."
"Dude, this is the first time we've fought this virus," said Green, "Besides, it hasn't even shown up yet."
"Oh it's here alright. It's watching us from it's perch."
"So you're saying that this is the second time we've faced this thing?" asked Purple, "What happened the first time?"
"It... It got away." I said.
Just then I heard the telltale ringing. An attack was coming, but I still didn't know from where. Last time the first shot was the one that grazed me, so I moved away from where I had been standing the last time. The ringing got louder and louder until it was deafening. I felt agonizing pain in my chest and the ringing stopped.
There was a bright flash of light and then a whooshing sensation. It felt like something had grabbed hold of my back and was pulling me backwards very quickly. Oh no... I was being pulled back through time again! That pain I felt must have been from me getting taken down by the virus!
That's not fair! I thought it was just me that was feeling like we'd done this before, but apparently the virus was looping as well. It knew that it missed me with the first shot, so it waited until AFTER I moved out of the way and then shot me in my new position.
Which also must mean that anytime we fail to defeat the virus, we get sent back to before it happened. But since I got grazed by it, I'm immune to it's tricks. I'm the only one that can hear it before it attacks and I'm the only one that remembers the previous loops.
"Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200." I said, reading the card I had just drawn.
"Ha ha ha!" sneered Marcus, "You've been in jail a lot this time, Oz."
"Ha ha ha!" I sneered back, "I know what card you're going to draw!"
"Wait, what?" asked Marcus.
"We're stuck in a time loop," I said, "But I'm the only one that remembers."
Big surprise, they didn't believe me. I would need more proof than just knowing the outcome of the Monopoly game. Silver benched me again and Jenna came over with the flashlight again.
"You're not going to find anything." I said.
"You can't know that." said Jenna.
"Actually, I can," I said, "You looked in my eyes last time too."
"So, Heath, you say this is the third time this has happened?" asked Silver.
"Could you please stop calling me that?" I asked "I know it's my name, but it was also my asshole father's name. Just call me 'Oz' like everyone else."
"Alright, Oz," said Silver, "Can you tell me everything that happens?"
"What's the point? You'll just forget again." I said.
"Not if I write it down."
"That won't work."
"I wasn't finished," said Silver, "What if I write it down and give it to you?"
"You're thinking that it might be able to come with me through the loop?"
"We won't know until we try." he said.
"The only problem is that no two loops have been the same." I said.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the first time Marcus freaked out when he read his Community Chest card in Monopoly, but the second time I told him what it was going to say, so he didn't freak out. But this time we didn't even get to the point where he rolled the dice, so he never drew the card."
"What about the end of the loop?" asked Silver, "Does anything in particular happen that triggers the next loop to start?"
"Now that you mention it, yes," I said, "The first time, I was the only one that was left standing and it couldn't see me for some reason. The second time it hit me and I went down."
"It sounds like it happens every time you lose against it." said Jenna.
Now I think I'm starting to understand. Every time a new loop starts, the virus is able to see all of us. The first time it hit me, it was only a graze, but it was enough for me to become invisible to the virus. The second time, I was taken down in a single shot, and without me, none of the other rangers would be able to hear the ringing sound, which means they would inevitably lose.
"I also know that unless I'm not there with the others, the virus won't show up," I said, "Last time it didn't start shooting until you finally let me go."
"That's probably because Trojan gave it specific instructions to take out all six of you," said Jenna, "It didn't want to attack until you showed up."
"Can you also write down the part where I ask you to start calling me Oz?" I asked, "That way I won't have to keep telling every single loop?"
"Sure," said Silver, handing me the note, "I wrote this by hand so that you can show it to me as proof about the loop. It's also got a little message for my past self."
"Technically it's your current self," said Jenna, "Past would be if he was going back in time. Whereas he's more just reliving the same day over and over again."
When I teleported back to Sector 17, the situation looked exactly the same as it did the second time. I was already morphed and landed right next to Red.
"Although none of you remember it, this is actually the third time we've faced this virus." I said.
"Is this a continuation of your little outburst earlier?" asked Green.
"Yeah, something like that." I said.
"Why do we keep having to fight this thing?" asked Orange.
"We're stuck in a time loop," I said, "Every time we lose this battle, we get sent back to earlier today in the middle of the Monopoly game."
"So then you know how to break the loop?" asked Purple.
"Not yet, but even if I did, it's not that simple."
Before I could finish explaining, I heard the ringing sound again. The virus was coming, but I don't know who it was aiming for. The last two times it was me, but I don't know if I'll be the first target this time too.
Just like how we're stuck in the loop, the virus is too. So maybe it will try to do things differently this time in the hopes of breaking the loop. If I don't know who it's going to attack, being able to hear the ringing sound is useless.
Until I could come up with a sure fire way to predict the virus' actions, there was no point in trying to fight it and break the loop. So, even though I knew it would cause another loop, I didn't do anything. I just stood still and waited for the attack.
It hit me again. I felt the familiar sensation as the loop was the triggered.
I interrupted the Monopoly game again. The Rangers went to Sector 17 again. Silver benched me again. Jenna looked in my eyes again.
"Silver, this is for you." I said, handing him the piece of paper.
I was actually dreading that I would reach for the paper and that it wouldn't be there. But, luckily, it was right in my pocket where I left it. Silver took it with a curious look on his face.
"This is my handwriting..." he said, "I gave this to you?"
"Yeah, we wrote it together in the last loop in the hopes that I'd be able to bring it with me through the loops," I said, "Luckily it worked."
"We can also keep adding any new information we learn so that you can bring that with you too." said Silver.
"I guess the only way to really break the loop is to defeat the virus," said Jenna, "Oz, have you noticed anything yet that might be a weakness we can exploit?"
"Well, I don't think it can see people that it's already hit," I said, "In the first loop, it grazed me, but everyone else got taken down. I was still alive, standing there out in the open, and it didn't even attack me."
"Trojan's hacking skills are top notch," said Silver, "But he even he can't create a completely perfect strand of corrupted code. No matter what, they're all going to have at least one weakness."
"So maybe this one's weakness is that it can only see it's targets?" Jenna suggested.
"It grazed me, which although didn't take me down, counted as a hit, which might have been enough to make me invisible." I said.
"That doesn't seem to make sense," said Jenna, "If it's weakness was that bad, Trojan never would've sent it out. He would've waited until he could fine tune it and try to work around that weakness."
"And the only way we can figure out what that weakness is is by identifying the virus. But since nobody can ever get a good look at it, we have nothing to base the search on." said Silver.
"I saw it," I said, "During the first loop."
"Think you can draw it?" asked Jenna.
"I can barely draw stick figures," I said, "But I could describe it."
"Man, I'm glad I took that art class." said Jenna.
I described with as much detail everything I could remember. The pointed limbs and sleek design. The bird/goblin features that I noticed during the first loop. When she was done, Jenna handed me the piece of paper with the drawing on it.
Now I had two pieces of paper clutched tightly in my hand. Just then I felt the familiar sensation as the loop was the triggered again. What the hell? What did I do that time?
Maybe I left the others alone for too long? Or maybe the virus was on to me? Was it in control of the loops?
I'll skip all the unimportant stuff. You know what happens by now. As Jenna shined her flashlight in my eye for what felt like the billionth time, I spoke up.
"I ask you. What could possibly be in my eye that would explain this?"
After I showed Silver and Jenna the information I had gathered thus far, I started brainstorming by myself.
"I'm thinking that maybe the virus is the one controlling the loops," I said, "Last time I didn't even join the other rangers and the loop was still triggered."
"I think I've got it," said Silver, "It's the Clock Virus. It says here that it can bend time to it's will. That's how it's able to use it's own body as a projectile, it's speeds itself up and slows others down."
"Why does it slow others down?"
"I doesn't say why," said Silver, "I guess that's just how it's power works."
"Does it say anything else?" asked Jenna.
"Wait a minute," he said, "Apparently it's partially blind. Anything that falls within the yellow colour spectrum is completely invisible to it."
"That's it! That's it weakness!" I exclaimed, "It never could see me, it just took a shot in the dark and got lucky. That's why it grazed me the first time, but actually hit me the second and third times."
"But what about why only you can remember the loops?" asked Jenna.
"That's probably because when the virus grazed him, a small fragment of it's time bending abilities rubbed off. Not enough to control time, but enough to be aware of it." said Silver.
"Call the other rangers back," I said, "Only I can fight this thing."
"Unless of course I write a small program that will temporarily make all of their suits yellow too." said Silver.
"How can you do that?"
"I could explain it, but you probably won't understand it." said Silver.
"Good point," I said, "I'm going to go meet them in Sector 17."
When I got there, I landed right at the same place as the other loops. But when I looked around, I chuckled to myself as I saw that their suits were all yellow like mine.
"Why did our suits change colour?" asked Green, even though his suit was yellow.
If it weren't for the fact that I could hear their voices, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell them apart at all. Except for Rachel Chloe, with their skirted uniforms.
"Long story," I said, "This virus can't see the colour yellow. We're invisible to it now."
"How do you know all this?" asked Orange.
"This isn't the first time we've faced this virus." I said.
"Remember his little hissy fit earlier about Monopoly?" asked Green, "He claimed that we'd done all this before."
"But only I remember the loops," I said, "Let's hope this is the last one."
I heard the ringing sound again. Since we know it can't see the colour yellow, it has to be firing blind again. The chances of it missing completely were entirely in our favour now.
"Download weapon!" I called.
It landed right in the middle of the courtyard we had been waiting in. This time everyone saw it. It kept scouring the area, but of course, it kept looking right past us.
"It really can't see us..." muttered Red.
"Who said that!?" screeched the Virus, "I don't see you, but I can hear you!"
"I did." I said.
"No you didn't, it was me!" said Green, mockingly.
"Don't listen to them, it was me!" said Blue.
"Stop lying, we all know it was me!" said Orange.
"ENOUGH!" roared the Virus, "Stop hiding!"
"We're not hiding," I said, "We're standing right in front of you."
"I don't understand..." said the Virus, "Why can't I see you?"
"Doesn't matter," I said, "You're finished."
I swung my hammer as hard as I could to deliver a savage uppercut. It went flying high into the air and then plummeted back down with a sickening smack.
"Sawyer," came Jenna's voice, "The Virus Reaper XS can combine together with full sized Virus Reaper to give it an extra kick."
"With a virus this dangerous, there's no such thing as overkill." said Silver.
Our weapons disintegrated into a flurry of data. The five different swarms combined and reshaped until they solidified into the Virus Reaper.
"Virus Reaper, online!" we announced together.
Each of us grabbed a handle. Blue and Orange shared the one at the back.
"Transform weapon!" said Purple, "Cannon mode!"
The bladed piece of his scythe came off and then the blaster floated up and out of his holster. The two weapons merged together and Purple grabbed it. Then he brought it over to us and attached it to the top of the VR.
Purple stood aside and gave us the honours of finishing off the virus. We took aim and started the countdown.
"Four..." said Blue.
"Three..." said Orange.
"Two..." said Red.
"One..." said Green.
"FIRE!" I shouted.
With an electronic twanging sound, the VR shot the bolt. There was a loud boom as it broke the sound barrier. But this time, the bolt wasn't alone. Now it was accompanied by a lethal purple arrow made of binary.
The two projectiles spiralled around each other before both of them pierced right through the virus. Our shot returned to the VR like a boomerang, but Purple's shot kept going and eventually disintegrated.
The virus became rigid and fell backwards, exploding when it hit the ground. During this time, the VR disappeared and all six of us struck a pose.
Later on we were back at Headquarters. Silver was removing the temporary program he had written to change everyone's suits yellow. Meanwhile, it was my turn in Monopoly. I rolled the dice, taking great satisfaction in the fact that I had no idea what the outcome of the rest of the game would be.