Comments: ... Wow, nothing to say. Heed disclaimers. I'd really appreciate any favorite song lyrics you have. I use them at the beginning of each  chapter!
Disclaimer: ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO ME and me alone! Show some respect and
ask if you're going to use them!

*** CHAPTER 03 : GIGA ***
__

Haven't we met
You're some kind of beautiful stranger
You could be good for me
I've had the taste for danger

Beautiful Stranger
Madonna
__

"She's alive." The doctor said as the weary D.A.V.E team relaxed in the waiting room chairs. "Its quite a mystery isn't it? A strange woman found floating in a stasis tube in the middle of a secret laboratory that's coming down around your ears! What an adventure it must be to be a part of D.A.V.E!"

The comment elicited a chorus of groans and a perky thank you from Daphne. Toki waved a hand and they settled down. Even in his battered condition he still held himself like a leader of a victorious battle. Mariah punched Saka and shushed Daphne and Anya; who'd just arrived anyway.
;
"What can you tell us doctor?" He asked carefully.

The doctor, who happened to be a woman with straight strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes, shrugged and smiled. "Apart from the fact that she might be around 24 and that she's a girl, there really isn't anything to go on."

Toki nodded. Mariah groaned about all the work just to haul her up. Saka snapped his gum, and everyone stared.

"What?"

"Are ya'll suppose'd to chew gum in a hospital?" Mariah queried.

Saka frowned. " I don't see a sign saying otherwise; do you?" Mariah crumpled her face and stuck out her tongue in response before turning back to the conversation. The doctor had left and now Anya was explaining what she could about the lab.

"There really isn't anything in the schematics for the place. Basically they either conveniently forgot to draw it in," Toki lifted an eyebrow, "or someone dug it out AFTER they built the building. I really can't think of how anyone could do that without the city knowing..." She paused as Toki stretched out and yawned. "Sorry to bore you sir." She stated placing a gloved hand on her hip.

"My apologies Anya." He said, a smile beaming through despite the tired look of his eyes. "I haven't had good relations with my pillow lately."

"You and the rest of the D.A.V.E team sir." Saka complained rubbing the back of his head making his hair stand on end.

"ANYWAYS!" Anya blurted out. Never liking the fact that she wasn't the center of attention. "I think we should send a team down to figure out just what's down there."

"Agreed." Toki nodded. "Send anyone but us..."

"Agreed."

"Ah completely insist!"

"You all suck." Anya pouted crossing her arms. "I wanted to go down."

"So go! We certainly won't stop, or miss you..." Saka barely ducked a swipe from the short woman aimed at his head.

Suddenly before the argument turned ugly Toki stood up and walked stiffly down the hall. They all stared in wonder at the lithe figure as it disappeared beyond the 'no entrance' doors.

"Is he allowed in there?" Daphne said aloud to no one in particular.

"Probably not." No one in particular responded.

Saka jumped up and followed quickly. Everyone teetered behind ready to pin anything on him. They walked down the narrow hallway being pushed aside by hospital staff and nurses. Toki was only a few paces ahead now. He turned into a room away from normal view and disappeared again.

They piled up peaking through the doorway at him, one head on another in a vertical line. Somehow Toki didn't see them, or didn't care; either way he approached the bed where their mystery woman lay prone.

She was pretty. Her hair was varying shades of blue, lighter near the roots and darker at the tips. A large scar marked her otherwise flawless face and a rectangular cybernetic implant was visible on the opposite side. She was small, probably only five feet at most.

Toki stood beside the bed and watched her for a moment before moving a strand of her blue hair aside to look closer at her implant. Saka squeaked as he watched warranting a slap in the back from Mariah who had a very strange look in her eyes. Probably jealousy.

Just then the girl woke with a start and sat straight up in the tiny hospital bed. Her hair swinging up behind her and settling over her shoulder. She glanced from Toki who'd backed off three feet, to the line of faces in the doorway and back again. An eyebrow raised and finally, she spoke.

"I am Giga Prime, a highly sophisticated anti-viral program. What may I ask is the nature of the emergency?" She blinked solemnly and Toki returned it with a confused look. "I assume you would not have woken me if there was no problem." She stated with a rather irritable look, obviously grumpy about being woken.

Toki shook his head. "Sorry, no."

With a humph she settled back into her bed and crossed her arms. "So why have I been activated then?" She queried.

Before he could answer the rest of D.A.V.E came falling into the room. Now in a neatly stacked pile with Daphne on top mewing almost pitifully. They smiled timidly and those that could free a hand, waved. The girl waved back with a perplexed look on her face. Toki smacked his forehead with his hand.

"The rest of your team I assume?" She stated. Her eyebrow arched dangerously high. Pulling the corners of his mouth back into a look that would have been amusing had it not come from him, Toki nodded.

Anya was the first to recover wiggling her way out of the pile of bodies. Her headset was crooked and her handkerchief askew. "HI! I'm Anya Romenko." The girl nodded in acknowledgment and Anya smiled.

"I'm Daphne!"

"My name is Toki."

"Ah'm Mariah! Pleased to meet you sugah!"

Everyone looked at Saka in anticipation. However he crossed his arms and turned his head to the side. Obviously in no mood to talk at the moment. Funny. Usually he was the first to speak to a pretty girl.

"That stick in the mud is Saka." Anya teased punching him lightly.

"A pleasure I'm sure." Whoever she was, this girl was very polite.

"And what did you say your name was again?" Daphne meowed, her voice was low and scratchy from whatever cat genes were in her.

"I am Giga Prime, a highly -"

Anya raised a hand cutting her off. "Yeah, anti-viral program yatti-yatta. You know you should work on that introduction of yours."

"I'm not sure I understand..."

"Honey, people are gonna think ya'll are crazy if you keep saying stuff like that!" Mariah lifted a finger.

"But I am -"

"But honey, ya'll are a human, not a program."

"I am a anti-viral program!"

"Sugah that just ain't possible!"

"Whatever reservations you all may have about me I can assure you I am who I say I am." By this time Giga had sat up straight and despite her small stature; she was becoming very imposing. Mariah backed off and raised her hands in surrender.

Saka wasn't willing to give so easily.

"What were you doing in that stasis tube?"

"Regenerating." Came her short and direct reply, which knocked Saka for a loop. "I told you I am only to be awakened in an emergency." Suddenly she stopped and glared.

"Pardon my being so forward; however you seem to have me at a disadvantage. Might I ask who you are and what you're doing waking me from my regeneration cycle." It was a statement, not a question.

"My fault." Toki explained. "I should have said something sooner. We're members of D.A.V.E; you are aware of what we are right?"

She blinked. "Destruction of All Viral Entities. You are to destroy any opposing viral force with any means possible. Barbaric, crude, and possibly the slowest people to date with that ability, my creators condoned your methods and therefore built me."

"My aren't we cocky." Mariah quipped placing a hand on her hip. "And here we are savin' your tail from havin' the walls of the lab come crashin' down 'round your ears!"

"The lab was destroyed?!"

"I was going to say that." Toki muttered.

"Sure ya'll were. Anyway, we didn't have a lot of time so we up and hauled you out of that mess of blue goo and carried ya'll right on out of there. We were lucky we could carry you and that scientist guy."

Giga sank heavily back into the bed. "It was all destroyed? Who would do that?"

Toki sighed, "We don't know. Hopefully we will though, in time of course."

"How many people survived?"

He sighed even deeper. "From what we can tell, only one person. A scientist in the same lab as you, he'd hidden under a table.

"Other than him we aren't sure; there's a lot of unexplored tunnels down there."

She shrugged. "They don't lead anywhere in specific. It's mostly my training ground. The only labs are the three you were in." Her gaze moved from Toki to the heart monitor screen which was bliping at regular intervals. "When CRACKED needed to test a new code line of operations they'd set me loose against a virus in those tunnels. They'd test how long it took for me to adapt and move in for the kill."

"They set you loose?" Anya questioned leaning on the foot of the bed. "Are you saying you're an android?"

"In a manner of speaking. If I am an android I'm the most up to date one you'll ever meet. Like all humans I have emotions, feelings, a heartbeat. However I am still a program downloaded into a body held together by cybernetics and wire. Relatively I could pass as a human to even the shrewdest of doctors and scientists. However I'm not human, I am just an anti-viral program."

"You can destroy viruses?" Saka joined with Anya on the edge of the rapidly crowding bed. "Even we can't so that yet."

She shook her head. "I don't destroy them, I can contain them in a stasis field where then they can be, decompiled, or deleted, or have their coding changed." Puckering her lips Giga sighed. "I work on the operating basis of a normal anti-virus program, only in real space." She looked him over, "Can I see that knife?"

"Sure I guess..." Saka grabbed the knife from his boot and handed it to her. She took it and looked it over.

Giga gave him a questioning look. "So, now that you've woken me for an indefinite period of time, what do you intend to do with me?" There was an eerie silence in the room as the group pondered what to do with her.

"Join D.A.V.E." Daphne blurted out.

"Uh, well..." Toki stuttered, running a hand through his hair making it spike at the ends. "You can't just join D.A.V.E.... it takes years of training and expertise..."

"Um... Toki. She's better equipped to handle the viruses then we are." Mariah pointed out.

Toki went to reply, however an alarm sounded as he opened his mouth. Suddenly pandemonium broke out and hospital staff rushed by the doorways ushering non-patients out and patients back to their rooms before closing the door. Mariah ran out to the hallway and grabbed anyone she could to question them. Saka grabbed Giga's clothes from the back of the bed and ushered her into the bathroom with an order to change quickly. Meanwhile Daphne and Anya set up Anya's computer and opened the virus tracking system.

"It's in the hospital, two floors door." Anya yelled over the alarm.

"Where's it heading?" Toki yelled back.

"Our way."

"Figures... All right everyone," Everyone stopped and awaited instructions. Toki hesitated, but only for a moment before giving commands. "Saka, take point out in the hall; direct anyone who runs by to the nearest exit. Anya, keep tracking that thing I need to know its exact location. Daphne, you and Mariah get Giga out of here."

"Sir..." Mariah began.

"No buts Mariah, Giga can't help right now."

"Sir..." Mariah tried again. Toki lifted a hand to silence her.

Finally Daphne stepped forward. "Sir, Giga's already out there..."

"HOW?! She was just here!!" Toki whirled around causing Saka to move out of the way of his arms.

"Sir, she's faster and stronger than any normal human." Daphne explained. Toki slapped his forehead.

"Well then get out there and help her." He dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

**

Giga ducked behind another wall to avoid the energy blast. Rolling to her left she carefully crept out of the alcove around to the back of the virus. It stood still, with no movement to track it had no power to follow her. She slowly inched her way forward crouched low taking long strides.

It moved out of her view and began a radar sweep of the room. She stood still as the red beam passed over her body making her implant and earrings reflect red.

"Shit..."

The virus, seeing the reflecting jewelry moved in her direction. Scrambling on the smooth floor Giga tried to round another corner but a cable snagged out and wrapped around her ankle sweeping her off her feet. It flipped her upside down directly in front of the virus' gaping hole of a mouth. She swung sporadically in front of the ugly creature as it tried to determine her fate.

Just as it started to push her into its maw she bent up to grab her ankles and removed the knife from her boot. She slashed at the offending appendage causing it to retract and drop her unceremoniously to the floor. Taking no time to inspect for injuries she rolled and clambered behind a desk. Energy blasts ricocheted off the top of it and dropped chunks of ceiling onto her head.

Then the assault stopped. Giga eased a bit in wonder. She looked up at the whole in the ceiling to see two old women staring at her behind inch thick glasses. Giga frowned at them and signaled them to move. The old ladies quickly disappeared. Meanwhile the attacked had halted completely. She was about to stand when a red laser beam swept over her again. The virus was scanning for movement again. Crouching into a battle stance she readied her attack.

When the virus turned and blasted where she had been hiding she jumped out of the way and to the other end of the room. Before the virus could track her again she pounced on it and grabbed its head. It let out a blood-curdling scream she ripped out an antennae and back flipped off.

"You're all so slow..." She pouted before pointing a finger and summoning a energy blast of her own. It hit the monster square and enveloped it in a bubble. Falling back she landed on her butt and grunted. " I should've paced myself..."

"GIGA!"

She turned to see Toki racing down the hall, guns ready; with Daphne and Saka on his heels. Anya and Mariah keeping them company on the radio sets. Giga raised a hand and smiled. They came to a halt in front of the giant bubble and stared slack jawed.

Toki looked pointedly at the girl who stood up. "You did that?"

"I told you, I don't kill them..." She shrugged. "Truth be told it usually isn't this bubble-like."

"Well, would you look at that..." Daphne exclaimed pawing it causing the virus bubble to bounce against a wall. She giggled and repeated the step again with the same results. "Not only is the virus contained, its fun for the whole family!"
;
Saka raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. If your whole family is retarded..."

"Shut up!"

"Make me..."

"CHILDREN!" Toki yelled. A stunned silence swept the room. His sudden outburst was replaced by a placid look. "Can we please stop fighting? This is a hospital!"

"I agree!" Giga said nodded sharply. "Misconduct is strictly prohibited in a place of healing!"

"You destroyed the place!" Saka whined.
;
    She blinked in surprise. "Yes, I suppose I did didn't I?" She smiled and blushed. "Whoops."
/font>
"HEY! Are ya'll all right?" Mariah's voice wafted from down the hall. She and Anya walked carefully into the room with bedpans at close hand. It was a sight. Daphne snickered uncontrollably.

"Yeah you laugh." Anya sneered. "But if I actually had a weapon in which to use I wouldn't look this ridiculous." Saka was laughing so hard tears ran down his face and he had to sit heavily on the floor.

"Toki sir." Daphne squeaked trying to keep her voice even. "When are we going to put in a request to make Giga a member of D.A.V.E?"

"You want me to be part of D.A.V.E?" Giga squeaked pointing to herself. "I don't know, I don't play well with others..."

"Me either." Saka added.

"Yeah but that's because nobody likes you sugah!" Mariah quipped with a smirk. "Giga'll do just fine with us... don't ya'll think so?"

"But -"

Toki nodded. "I'll put in the request on Monday. I'm calling in sick tomorrow... I need sleep." He yawned and turned walking out of the room.

Anya, Daphne, Mariah, and Saka followed him waving goodbye to Giga who stood in the middle of the room with rubble at her feet.

"Guys..." She whispered. "Where do I go?"

"Back to bed." Anya suggested and left.

'Back to bed...' Giga repeated mentally. She turned and followed walking alone down the glossy white hallways back to her room.

She glanced over her shoulder at a room with the door left open. Lying on the bed was a man with curly dark blonde hair streaked with bronze. She stopped for a moment and stared then continued coming to her room.

However, now another man was in the opposite bed.

***END FILE***

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