Chapter Eight

Analyzing the Situation

"It FELT so real!" Sari couldn't hold back her excitement.

She tried to explain what they had been witnessed to, but her thoughts were brief and unfocused. Optimus and Prowl were having a hard time keeping track of what she was trying to tell them. They only understood that the key had shown the pair something. Something that Pyrus seemed to understand. Or at least that's what she said. Optimus looked over to her. She had been sitting quietly on the floor assembling her computers. There were seven of them, but she was only concerned with about three of them at the moment. After taking another 'glucose' reading, she had determined how much organic sustenance she needed to consume. With this she started to feel better. Optimus was thankful for that.

"And then the blob of data squeezed the other one into a tiny little ball," Sari mimed with her fists, "And then it squeezed and squeezed until the other blob fell apart and then the big blob started to eat it up… that was kind of gross," she admitted, "It all seemed quiet then, but then the blob exploded and knocked us back into reality," she finally finished her retelling of events.

"That was quite an experience," Prowl remarked.

"But what does it mean? What was the Key showing you?" Optimus pondered out loud.

Sari could only shrug her shoulders, "I don't know. Ask the hacker."

They all looked to Pyrus, who didn't notice their stares. Either she really didn't care or she genuinely didn't notice. It took a clearing of Prowl's vocal processor to get her to even glance over at them.

"...," she snorted in response, "... working… explain in a moment… Have patience," she looked directly at Sari.

Sari was about to say something, but Optimus shook his head no. It was best not to antagonize the young woman while she was setting up her equipment. Sari understood, but still huffed and crossed her arms in frustration. Every moment was precious. The longer they stood around doing nothing, the longer Bumblebee and Bulkhead suffered. Ratchet seemed to be stable and not really affected by whatever was on the computer, but it was hard to say how long that would last.

Sari was having a hard time being patient. It was never her strong suit. Especially when it came to those that she cared about. She just wanted everyone to be okay. For them to wake up and they could go back to goofing off or playing video games or watching videos on the internet… she just wanted things to return to some sane form of normalcy. That's all she wanted. Normalcy. She could feel the tears trying to fall from her eyes, but she couldn't let them come. Not now. She needed to hold it in. For them.

"... alright…," Pyrus finished plugging in an assortment of wires, "My system is partially set up…"

"Partially?" Optimus asked in confusion.

"For now I don't need the full system," she explained as she slipped on a pair of elbow length, fingerless black gloves.

They looked like normal gloves, but they soon revealed themselves as something more. With a wave of her hands, lines of rainbow color came to life all along the gloves. They pulsed and seemed to breathe. Every movement she made, they responded with pulses of light.

"Time to get to work" Pyrus seemed to say to no one in particular as she waved her left hand at the three computers she had been working on.

They lit up at the wave of her hand. The rainbow set to lights swayed back and forth with every moment of her hand. A small smile appeared on her face as she moved her hands about. Particles of light rose and began to form a glowing orb. It shifted and twisted about as it took shape. Though it looked solid, upon closer inspection one could see that it was made up of ones and zeros. Its color slowly changed to a jade green. Sari stared at it in awe. It looked familiar to her.

"Is that Cerberus?" she asked.

"I see that you remember it," Pyrus pulled the green blob of numbers towards her.

It obeyed willingly and wrapped its flexible gelatinous body around Pyrus' left arm. It was a strange sight to see. Even though the blob of data was made of light, it almost seemed alive. Pyrus whispered something to it and wiggled with excitement. The green blob slithered its way off her arm and hovered over the three computers. It took the form of a spiked ball. The ball compressed until it exploded out sending its spikes across the room. Sari and the Autobots jumped as the spikes flew through the air.

"They can't hurt you," Pyrus snorted, "That was just a holoprojection of Cerberus starting its scan. Like its creator," she smirked, "Cerberus has a flair for the dramatic."

"Scan? What are you scanning for?" Optimus asked.

"I'm looking to see if the malware has spread to the other computers here," she brought up a holoprojection of the Autobots' base, "Geez… such primitive firmware. Surprise you haven't had more issues," Pyrus clicked her tongue, "This simply won't do."

Without asking permission, Pyrus began to highlight the various rooms of the base. Optimus could recognise that she was pulling up systems and poking through them. Her fingers moved nimbly through the air as she turned and pulled bits of data apart. Cybertronian technology was more advanced than that of Earth, but he had never seen holographic technology like Pyrus'. She could easily move through each room and analyze the computers and systems used in each. She went through all the rooms save for the medbay and finally the main room. All the computers flashed with a green light until the color faded. Pyrus' computers came back alive as the green blob that was Cerberus reformed above them.

"What do you have for me, my precious program," Pyrus greeted Cerberus.

The blob stretched out into a thin green screen. Pyrus pushed aside what she was working on and took a look at what her program found. She shifted through the data quickly and seemed to be looking for something in particular. She mumbled to herself and shook her head. She didn't seem to find what she wanted.

"Not a trace…," she thought out loud, "It appears that was only on the one computer that exploded… other malware detected and destroyed… but no sign of Halberd or…," she went quiet.

"Halberd? Oh yeah," Sari remembered something, "Isn't that the thing that your antiviral program crushed and then blew up? And didn't you say you made that thing?"

"Yes on both…," Pyrus stared at her screen.

"Wait!? You made the thing that's affecting my crew?" Optimus was surprised.

"What? No. I made the Trojan malware that was attached to the file that your friend tried to download, but it's not designed to cause this kind of damage. It only creates backdoors into systems for me," she explained, "I don't know what is affecting your friends… yet. I was hoping to find a trace of it somewhere in your other systems so I could isolate it and study it," she sighed, "but since I can't find anything… I'll have to collect samples from your friends…"

Optimus could tell that she was hesitant to do that, "Is there a reason why you don't want to do that? Or why didn't you start with that?"

Pyrus pointed to the remains of the computer, "That's reason number one. I use Cerberus for most types of scans I run as you have just witnessed. If whatever is affecting your friends has something to do with what Sari and I were shown earlier, then it's likely that Cerberus will perform its destruction protocols again. Although," she thought for a moment, "It could be more because of your personal matrix. Might sense your sentience as an unknown program and try to contain it. And if that doesn't work," she once again pointed to the ruined computer, "Well… you've seen what happens."

"Any other reasons?" Sari asked.

"Reason number two," Pyrus held up two fingers, "Because I know how Cerberus will most likely react, that means that I can't conduct a normal scan. I'll have to do it manually," she sighed, "That will take about an hour… or longer. Plus, I only have a basic understanding of how your systems work," she shrugged her shoulders, "I'll have to do a lot of experimental probing. That is if your friends' systems can handle it."

"Why would a scan be taxing on their systems?" Prowl was confused.

"I would like to know that as well," Ratchet appeared on the main screen.

Pyrus cocked her head, "You must be the medic Optimus referred to. Ratchet? Correct?"

Ratchet grumbled, but answered, "Yes. I'm Ratchet."

She crossed her arms, "On guard already I see. That is advised when dealing with someone like me."

"Don't think that I'm going to let you anywhere near my or my patients' processors," Ratchet warned her, "I don't trust you."

"Again. That is advised," Pyrus agreed with him, "You're obviously smarter than the rest of your comrades. They just let me do a full scan of your base's systems. Rather naive of them. I could have destroyed everything and left you with nothing. That is well within my nature and reputation," a sinister smile formed on her face.

A chill ran down Sari's spine as Pyrus smirked. It was true. She could have burned the entire place down if she wanted to. The notorious hacker known as Pyrus was never known for mercy. She left a wake of destruction wherever she chose to do so. She very easily could have done that.

"However," she shrugged her shoulders, "my intense curiosity has gotten the better of me. I would rather figure out why my Trojan was hanging around in some random site than obliterate a kid and her robot friends… Although," she pondered something, "he did kidnap me," she pointed to Prowl, "I am still mad about that."

"And I apologize for that. I had my reasons as you now know," Prowl apologized to her.

"Clearly," she obviously wasn't in the mood to accept his apology, "Ratchet," she turned her attention back to the screen, "From one computer expert to another… of sorts, I promise that I won't do anything that will harm you or your 'patients'. A manual scan will require me to work through each system and run it through its paces. That will stress them as you probably know. It will take my delicate touch and your knowledge to complete the scans with minimal issues."

"And I can take your word for it?" Ratchet was skeptical.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," she offered, "I don't even need you to. All I want is for you to trust in my skills. If you can at least do that, then I can trust in yours. Do you think you can do that?"

For the whole night, Pyrus had been angry, moody and down right mean since she got there. Not that she was to blame for that. She had been taken against her will and brought somewhere strange to look into something even stranger. She snapped and insulted whenever she could. But now she was speaking to Ratchet with a tone of respect. She could have just been hiding her true intentions though. Although if she was going to do something, she would have so by now. Wouldn't she?

Ratchet looked behind him, then back to the screen, "Seems like I don't have a choice. But I'm keeping my optics on you. Any wrong move…," Ratchet started to warn her.

"What? Are you going to squish me? Dissect me so you can understand organics better?" Pyrus snorted, "Don't make threats unless you plan to carry them out. When I make a threat, I mean what I say," she growled.

Ratchet gritted his servos, "I… I understand… but I will stop you if you try anything," he yelled.

"Understood," Pyrus nodded her head in agreement, "Cerberus," she waved her hand over her computers, "guard mode. Make sure else gets in or out and let me know if you find anything, but do not engage. I will handle it personally."

The thin green screen in front of her flashed. Maybe it was indicating that it understood its new set of orders. It began to drip and slither its way back into Pyrus' computers. Sari felt like gagging as she watched it squirm about. Pyrus must have taken notice.

"You have a problem with my program, kid?" Pyrus asked in a harsh tone.

"It's just so gross the way it moves," Sari shivered, "It creeps me out."

Pyrus bent down and grabbed one of the computers she hadn't hooked up, "I make my programs and malware very organic like. Computers usually don't know how to handle something like that, so it makes my malware very effective," she started to head for the medbay, "For programs like Cerberus, it makes it easier to communicate and command it. Optimus. Prowl," she looked over her shoulder, "Maintain quarantine protocols until further notice. I've isolated the medbay to make sure that whatever has infected Ratchet and the others won't escape. Should have been one of the first things you did…," she grumbled as she walked away

"I'm coming too! Oomph!" Sari ran into Pyrus' leg.

"No," she said coldly.