Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the YouTubers, Virus!Cry or Mad!Cry. YouTubers belong to themselves (I mean seriously, we can't own people, that's illegal.) Virus and Mad!Cry belong to the people that first created them in Tumblr. You rock. Image belongs to artisticalassassin from deviantArt

A/N: I'm still working on the title, if you got a suggestion, let me know in the reviews or PM me. In fact, for the reviews, if you like it you like, fine, but I do ask to have some helpful criticism to help improve my rusty ass writing skills or tips on making the chapters better for you. :3 Also I apologize in advance if any of the characters (YouTubers) are acting Out Of Character. I only know a little of their personalities and habits (Or none and just guess) on many of them. Sorry. :(

Anyway... helpful guide.

/ - anything in those is usually text from a computer

Flashbacks are italicized, unless its computer text or Virus speaking

Virus' dialogue is in italics unless in flashbacks.

-_- And apparently I can't do the .EXE without FanFiction flipping its shit. So I may go with either a comma to replace the dot or ... or just a dash, whichever you guys prefer. Let me know. :)

I'm so sorry for taking a long time for this chapter, so I made it extra long, I think, for you guys! I was a bit stuck and of that snag, my chapters will be a little on the slow side. I apologize in advance for that, but I hope you understand.

Chapter 4 - File Corruption

The gamer snapped out his memories in time to see Virus lift Pewdie up from the floor by the collar of his shirt, the rest of the lanky frame sagged in his grip. The virus's eyes glowed in apparently victory, only to jerk in surprise as Cry bull rushed him and ripped him away from the blonde. "Get the fuck away from him, damnit!" Cry snarled as both of them tumbled to the ground, letting his fists fly in a flurry of punches at the virus. The program hissed in pain and struggled, warding off blows with his forearms and firing his own punches to force the other off.

But the brunet refused to budge, taking the hits and only kept adding more of his own, his anger fueling the strength behind the blows. Catching Cry's fist, the virus' eyes glowing brightly in rage. "Get the fuck off of me!" Virus snarled, glitching out from under the gamer, leaving him there in surprise at the disruption of his brash attack. Virus re-glitched behind him and slammed his foot against Cry's back hard, earning a cry of pain before the human crumpled beneath his shoe. The virus didn't grin or soak in the fact that his target lay whimpering beneath him; he only breathed hard and growled, eyes flashing. "You don't know when to give up, do you, Cry?"

Cry only moaned and whimpered, trembling at Virus' foot pressing painfully against his back. He panted harshly as he tried to cope with the pain and grunted in response, glaring at him from the corner of his mask the sat askew on his face. Gathering his strength, the gamer pushed himself slowly up, only to feel Virus press his foot back against him, even though a strange expression crossed the virus' face. "Why even bother getting up? The more you struggle, the more painful it will be. Just lay there and accept the fact you lost."

The brunet let out a bark of a laugh as he still struggled to his hands and knees. "'Why bother getting up', you ask?" He snarked, panting and turned his head again to grin at his digital copy. "Because fuck you, that's why." The grin was short lived before another cry of pain tore through his throat as the virus growled and slammed his foot against his back again, making the American gamer collapse back against the pavement.

"Just. Accept. It. You. Lost!" Virus snapped, punctuating each word with a stomp against his creator's spine. He felt nothing for the cries and yells of pain as he stomped the YouTuber over and over for a minute. Then pressed his foot painfully against Cry's back, pressing him against the pavement, as if to crush him into the asphalt and spat his words angrily. "For the last fucking time, stay down! Pewdie's reinfection will only last a minute then I'll come for you and take control of your body."

"Fuck you, sir!"

Virus bristled, lifted his leg and brought it back down for another stomp but didn't anticipate Cry's reflexes. Even though he was crawling with pain, the brunet was quick to flip over onto his back, and braced his arms for impact as he caught the virus' stomp. "Pysch, you mother fucker!" He gave a quick grin at the program's startled expression as his hand lashed out and gripped the other's leg. His grin only grew wider as green electricity raced up his arm and jumped into the virus' body in a harsh shock.

Virus screamed, his body going ridged from pain and the electricity's paralyzing effect. The data maintaining his form jumped from the shock and his form flickered in corruption as his voice warped further and grew in volume. Cry winced in being so close to the shrieking but didn't break his grip on the virus, sending another pulse of electricity into him. The screaming pitched higher, the pain too intense for copy to maintain the background illusion and the scene from The Last of Us shattered, revealing Cyber Space once more. At last, Virus managed glitch away from Cry and hurriedly hurled himself a fair distance from both humans. He doubled over in pain, partly paralyzed as he struggled to minimize the damage done to his coding and to keep his image from twitching and flickering as badly.

Both combatants left each other alone, using the time to recuperate and regain strength as fast as they could. The two of them glared at each other from where they were, panting before Virus looked away first, closing his eyes to focus on repairing himself, trembling and twitching as electricity sparked and jumped from him. He growled at the feeling of being paralyzed and quickly used his own to try to neutralize Cry's. The gamer, on the other hand, reveled in letting his back be soothed by the coolness of the transparent floor, letting his body cope and recover from the blows. Just as he was to close his eyes to relax his body some, a shadow fell over him.

"Holy shit! What happened to you, Cry?!"

"Gaah~!" Cry screamed and jolted in place, staring up at a familiar sandy blonde that blinked quizzically at him. "Pewds?! Oh my god Pewds, are you okay?!" The Swede grimaced as he rubbed the side of his head from where he had been struck unconscious. The brunet flinched at seeing the cracked ear piece of Pewdie's iconic headset, proving just how hard Cry had struck to protect himself. The guilt of that still weighed on him.

"I'm fine, but damn you hit hard..." Pewdie answered, catching the other man's flinch then gave him a half-hearted glare, "I'm fine, really. Don't worry about it, Cry." He then grimaced again while looking over Cry's roughed up look. "You should worry about yourself, you look worse than I do. What the hell hit you? The Bro?" His face scrunched up in a comical scowl. "The barrels?"

Cry snerked at his friend's face and suppressed his giggles, "I wished. But..." He pushed aside his mirth and grasped the blonde's offered hand and pulled himself up, flicking a wrist over to the virus that stood a little ways from them. "I was actually getting my ass kicked by that asshole."

Looking in the direction the masked gamer had pointed out, Pewdie saw the viral twin of his best friend, glare at them in rage. The green electricity still sparked around him briefly before being dispersed by his own electric charge and repair system. He was not in a happy mood. "And this asshole is going to keep kicking your ass!" the virus spat, dashing forward and unfortunately for the two they were lined up nicely to both being tackled. Virus slammed shoulder against Cry's chest and kept charging; forcing the gamer to collide into the equally startled Swede and sent them both flying with a powerful shock. The two friends tumbled to the ground in a tangle, yelping in pain and shock as Virus glitched away, leaving Cry to look around wildly.

"Oh shit, where did he go?" The brunet shifted his gaze, trying to locate the digital double and avoid another attack. "Pewdie... do you see him?"

"No... but that fucking hurt." Pewdie muttered, "What the hell has Virus been eating to hit that hard?" He then happened to look up and paled at the oncoming attack, "Ah... Cry! Get off of me! Incoming!"

"What? Ahh~!" Cry glanced up, yelped and the two friends shoved each other away. They hurled themselves aside as Virus dropped down, spearing the swords into the spot on the floor they had just been on. Twisting his face in frustration, the virus ripped his weapons out, causing the glassy floor in that one area to shatter from the damage. And in that time, Cry was already on the move, bringing out his own twin swords and slashing at the virus, who smirked and dodged the attacks. "Seriously, I'm getting sick of your shit, Virus. You're not getting my body, you're not taking over my life and I sure as hell am not going to be stuck in this hell hole! Let me delete you so Pewds and I can leave!"

Virus only smirked at his counterpart, idly wondering if he should mention that one very important thing. But he figured it was much more fun to let him keep thinking he'd win against him. A flicker of movement came from his side and he reacted instantly. The virus brought one sword up to block Cry's overhead slash, catching both blades and held them back surprisingly easy. His other sword went up and he threw it at an oncoming fist. Pewdie yelped in surprise as the digital Brofist was struck then shattered as the electric sword exploded within it, corrupting the coding and causing it to fizzle out. "Ah-ah! This fight is between me and Cryaotic, you were just the bait."

"The hell its not my fight!" Pewdie growled, rushing forward and threw another punch, a second large fist materializing and coming at the virus. "You dragged me in here for something other than being the bait! I'm not leaving Cry to fight by himself!"

"If you insist." Virus sighed then grinned, his eyes glowing as he spun around the American gamer and letting his other blade disappear, surprising him as he had just placed more of his weight in trying to break through his guard and causing him to stumble forward. The viral being chuckled as he grabbed onto Cry's exposed arm, swung him completely around and threw him into the Brofist's path. The brunet yelped at the oncoming attack then cried out as the fist slammed against his chest with enough force to send him flying backwards toward Virus, who merely glitched away to avoid him. "But having you double team against me may even work in my favor anyway."

"CRY!" The blonde yelled in horror as he watched his friend crash into a crystal like structure. The data streaming through it flickered from the damage but returned to normal after a bit, illuminating the masked YouTuber as he lay crumbled against the wreckage. His own digital body flickering and glitching lightly as his data tried to keep itself together to repair some of the damage to stave off deletion. "Oh my god, what have I done? Cry!" The Swede yelled again as he bolted toward the American in hopes of helping him but Virus glitched in front of him.

"Let me show what a real punch is like, Pewds." Virus sneered, crouching slightly and jumped forward, ramming both of his fists repeatedly into Pewdie's gut in rapid succession then finished with a cross, sending the taller man sprawling onto the clear floor. "Your Brofist can cause a lot of damage but if you can't even aim the fucking thing right then the only person you'll ever hit is the one you're trying to protect. How sad."

Pewdie curled up, going into a coughing fit as he tried cope with the pain and trying to breathe. As he rolled painfully on the floor trying to regain his breath, he worried about Cry and his mind flashed back to what he remembered when he first woke up in Cyber Space.

*~*~*~*Flashback*~*~*~*

Pewdiepie was lost.

Pure and simple.

Last he remembered was playing Bloody Trapland with Cry and then something happened. Whatever it was landed his Swedish ass here in Cyber Space, lost and having no idea how to get out of there. Was he even really there?Or was it some bizarre dream he was in? He didn't know but he did like appearance, watching the lights with awe as he moved through the world that felt familiar to him.

As he went, the blonde paused multiple times to examine the structures and flooring. He was surprised to see rapid moving binary code encased what looked like glass, then up at the streaming data that flowed to and from the vortexes in the distance. It was fascinating and yet something was completely off. He looked around himself again, seeing tall and short crystalline-like structures, the flowing data and pulsing lights of circuitry. It looked like a huge multiple layered city like you see in science fiction flicks but... one key difference between this one and the ones in the movies.

It was empty of life.

Don't get him wrong, he loved the place and it teemed with a life all its own but, there wasn't anyone else around. 'Where is everyone?' The YouTuber thought as he continued on his way, nervous at the lack of people here in this huge metropolis of lights. He couldn't possibly be the only one here, there had to be someone else here... Maybe Cry fell into this as well? Even so, why? What were they doing here for? He didn't have the answers for those questions so he went on his way.

Some time had passed and the more he thought about it the more he was sure he was just lost. Everything looked the same, beautiful but the same, there wasn't any kind of landmarks that looked different enough to let him know if he just wasn't going in circles. As he moved on, he heard a faint shout, or at least thought he did. The Swede perked up and looked around, straining to hear the sound, praying he just wasn't starting to hear things.

"Pewdie!"

There it was! It was too faint for him to make out who it belonged to, but if he was right, then it would be Cry. He smiled widely and raced for the direction of the sound, glad to hear another voice besides his own and thanked them for continuously call him so he could follow. He leaped onto platforms and paths as he ran for the distant voice, the futuristic scene a blur as he chased the voice. He didn't care who it was as long as it was a friend and he wouldn't be alone in such a strange world. He took a breath and was about to call back out when he skidded to a halt, eyes wide. Someone stood in the middle of the walkway, glazing out into the darkness toward the vortexes.

Brown hair, green hoodie, white mask... It was him wasn't it?!

"Cry!" Pewdie shouted happily, running towards his friend, relieved to see him. So happy to see him, the blonde failed to see the startled reaction from the shorter male before quickly regaining composer. The brunet smiled behind his mask and turned slightly to look at the YouTuber, showing only the portion of the mask that looked visibly normal.

"Pewds, there you are!" Cry called out, sounding just a bit off. If Pewds didn't know any better, he thought it sounded... warped and he seemed to struggle to sound normal. The brunet coughed and rubbed at his neck before speaking again. "I was looking all over for you!"

The blonde shook off the strangeness of it and smiled anyway as he got closer. Something must've been stuck in his throat to sound like that for a second. "I was looking for you too, bro. But I got lost..." It was then that the Swede had the sudden feeling of being in danger, the hairs on the back of neck prickled and everything in him told him to get away from Cry as fast and as far as possible. Pewdiepie froze and took in Cry's appearance as a whole. Glowing electric blue circuitry peppered on his entire frame, and a slight glitch effect as if the person was trying to keep it to a minimal. It couldn't be...

"Thank you ever so much for making this easier for me..." Virus purred, turning fully to face the Swedish YouTuber and letting the facade drop, his body glitching and his voice back to its warped state. "For a second there I thought Cry would reach you first. And yet fortune smiles upon me to have you come to me. I'm honored you would do such a thing."

'Oh no...' Pewdie backed away hurriedly, terror rising the longer he was within Virus' sights. The viral being only smiled wider, his visible eye glowing as he stalked slowly toward his victim, made all the more menacing now that his entire face was cast in shadow. "Really now, what kind of friend are you if you cannot even tell the difference between Cryaotic and myself?"

Pewdie didn't bother to hear anything more, instead he turned on his heel and fled, racing as fast as he could away from the virus. He didn't even screamed, he just wanted to get away from him for however far his legs could take him. Something flickered to the side and Pewdie, upon reflex, ducked under what was swiping just above him. Virus smiled, holding the electric blade in his hand, "Fast, aren't you?" The blonde only leaped away and continued to run but no matter how far or how fast he moved, Virus was just right there, glitching easily in front of him.

In a last ditch effort to lose the virus and then try to find Cry as quickly as possible, Pewdie hurled himself off the current level to the level below. He cried out as he hit one of the structures with his side but was lucky that it had a gentle slope that curved to the floor below and just slid with it. He rolled to a stop on the clear floor below, coughing at having the wind knocked out of him but managed to lose the virus for a bit. He pulled himself up and holding his side in pain, limped over to hide in the shadows of a nearby data tower, hoping to recover a bit before having to make another run for it.

Someone clicked their tongue and Pewdie spun around to see who it was, yelping in terror as a hand gripped him by the front of his shirt and pinned him harshly against the side of the data tower. Pewdie shook as he looked down at the one that gripped him tightly. "Silly little Swede... Did you honestly think you could lose me in MY world?" Virus grinned up at his face then forced himself to try to stabilize his voice for a bit of cruelty. "What's the matter, Pewds? You look as though you just saw a ghost..."

The blonde closed his eyes and shook his head to get the sound out of the cold words, refusing to mesh it with that of his best friend. "It's not Cry... It's not Cry... don't let him fool you.."

"Aww... does the little Swede not like the new me?"

"Not Cry... Not Cry..."

"Psst. Pewds... you know what my favorite PC game is?"

Pewdie opened his eyes at the strange question then wished he hadn't. A serpentine like digital appendage had appeared from Virus' back and hovered in the air, fixated on the blonde. Blue eyes stayed glued to the appendage in fright and didn't want to even think what that was going to do to him. "It's Slender." Virus whispered in Cry's stable voice as the limb swiftly looped under his arm and speared through Pewdiepie's stomach.

His eyes went wide and screamed in agony, only to have it muffled as Virus' free hand clamped down on his mouth to avoid it having being heard by who Virus knew was looking for the blonde. Energy, the equivalent of blood for the digital world, seeped from the wound as the appendage began the hacking, tearing through the firewalls that kept the human safe. Pewdie moaned and whimpered in pain, sagging against the wall as he felt the viral hacking crawl through him.

/Coding hack of file Pewdiepie-EXE now processing/

"Don't worry, I'm not trying to kill you." Virus purred, grinning behind his mask and still keeping Cry's voice going, even using his famous giggle. "I'm just rewriting your coding, wouldn't Cry be excited to see you now?"

Pewdie shivered at the idea, vision doubling as he lost more energy. He began to panic at seeing the patches of circuitry spreading along his body, feeling the virus dig deeper to gain control of his coding. He gathered what strength he had and began to struggle and thrash wildly to dislodge the hacking appendage. But at every movement he made in his struggles only caused more pain to jolt through him, black dots dancing at the edge of his vision.

The virus clicked his tongue, his focus not at all broken during the Swedish gamer's struggles. "The more you struggle, the more painful it'll be to hack you." Virus chided him, grinning as Pewdie let out a sharp yelp and his body glitched a bit. "There we go, firewall down..."

/Coding hack complete/

"Now to prepare Cry's little present!" He used Cry's giggle again as the appendage charged and glowed with the viral coding, "I won't lie... the infection is going to hurt like a mother fucker."

He released the charge and Pewdie screamed through his hand...

/Viral data upload processing.../

/ERROR: Pewdiepie-EXE file corruption – 25%/

/ERROR: File corruption – 60%/

.

.

.

/ERROR: Pewdiepie-EXE corruption – 100% Unable to read file data.../