Part V
Bob was in terrible condition when the ambulance CPU arrived, accompanied by Matrix, Enzo, Zipp, AndrAIa, and Dot. He lay in the spot where the game cube had rested, predominantly motionless, though every so often a flash of electricity raced through him. He appeared to be partially erased, yet some sort of deadly energy could be seen rushing through his code. Fortunately, he was unconscious.
"See?" declared Enzo.
Matrix dodged several binome medics carrying a stretcher. "This just happened to him all of a sudden," he said, gesturing at Bob. "One minute, he's fighting giant ants. The next..." His voice trailed off as his sister knelt down beside Bob.
He looked horrible, half deleted. Dot stroked his cheek, ignoring the slight shock that ran through her code. "Oh, Bob, what happened to you?" she whispered. What if it was something irreversible? And what had her last words been? You brainless jerk?
The binomes picked Bob up, dumping him on the stretcher. Dot walked alongside, squeezing Bob's hand inside her own, until a binome suggested that it might be easier to get him into the ambulance if she would let go.
Dot watched the ambulance fly off. I'm so sorry, she thought.
Enzo walked shyly up to Dot. "Is Bob going to be deleted?" he asked softly.
In spite of herself, she smiled and shook her head. "No, no, he probably won't."
"We need to find out exactly what happened to him," said AndrAIa, jumping on her zipboard. "They're taking him to the Principal's Office."
"Then let's go!" yelled Matrix. He grabbed Enzo's wrist and sped off.
Dot watched them leave. She should probably go, too. She sighed and walked over to her zipboard.
"Are you okay, Dot?"
Dot spun around. "Oh, Zipp! You scared me. You've been so quiet; I forgot you were here. Why didn't you leave with the others?"
Zipp smiled. "I wanted to make sure you're all right. I'd feel terrible if I were in your shoes."
Dot wiped away a new tear. "It's just, well, we were fighting earlier, and I didn't get a chance to apologize. It's situations like these that hurt the worst. I don't think he'll be deleted or anything."
Zipp nodded understandingly. "He won't," she said cheerfully. "It was some sort of freak act of the User. I'm sure Bob will be fine." So Dot was hurting. Dot didn't know the definition of the word. But she'd know soon enough, if everything went correctly. "Come on. I'll prove it to you."
After what seemed like an eternity, the door burst open, and Phong rolled into the room, hands clasped, head bowed.
"I am sure you are all desiring to know how Bob is doing, my children," he said.
Dot ran into the room. "How is he? Is he okay?"
Phong raised his head slightly. "Dot, I'm sorry..."
Dot shrieked and fell to the floor. Zipp leaped from the couch.
"...For not assuring you earlier," he continued. "Bob has been fine for about a second. He is still unconscious and drained of energy, but whatever had happened to him is over."
Zipp now collapsed to the floor.
"Bob is fine?" echoed Dot, climbing to her feet.
"That's... that's wonderful!" exclaimed Zipp, still on the floor. "What went wrong?" What went wrong?!
"It seems that Bob was attacked by some sort of magnet," replied Phong. "One edited into energy."
"A magnet?" Enzo's eyes went wide. "Alphanumeric."
Matrix stood up. "A magnet wouldn't do all that."
"Perhaps it had some other command stored into it," Mouse suggested.
Phong nodded. "You are correct, Mouse. It appears that a deletion command was encoded into the magnet energy. Somehow this was released."
"But from where?" asked AndrAIa.
"It is unknown. Fortunately, the game cube warped the signal."
"Strange," said Zipp. She was now sitting in lotus position.
"Ya' got that right, sugah," said Mouse. She frowned at Zipp. The cartridge Zipp had given her flashed into her mind. Should she mention it?
"Surprise!" Hexadecimal appeared in the doorway, her mask depicting a cheerful yet clueless smile, typical to Hex. "I heard about Bob. Is he all right, the poor dear? Anyway, I baked brownies!" A platter of something that smelled delicious materialized in her hands.
Zipp stared at Hex. What was Hexadecimal doing here? She crouched low on the floor, hoping she wouldn't be noticed.
Hex skitted about the room, handing out brownies. "And Zipporah! You need one, too." She picked up a brownie to hand to Zipp. Then she froze, her face switching to surprise. "Zipporah! What are you doing here? Oh, never mind! It's so nice to see you again!"
Zipp forced a smile, praying Hexadecimal wouldn't say too much.
Everyone in the room turned to stare at Zipp and Hex.
"Zipp, you know Hex?" asked AndrAIa.
Hex laughed. "Well, I only met her once, but Zipporah is my..." A binome doctor walked down the hall, past the open door. "Would you like a brownie?" She dashed after the binome. Zipp gave a sigh of relief.
"That was interesting," declared Mouse, watching Hex leave.
"Quite," agreed Phong. "Pity Zipporah has also met Hexadecimal." He cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should all leave, as that Bob will not be disturbed."
"I could show Zipp around Mainframe," AndrAIa volunteered. "Now that we know Bob will be all right."
Matrix sighed and shook his head. "Not another shopping escapade."
AndrAIa only smiled.
Zipp stood up. "Shopping? Why not?"
The two girls ran off.
"Those two get along well," Mouse observed. "It's kind of nice for AndrAIa to have a female sprite closer to her one age around."
"Who am I supposed to be with?" Matrix whined.
"You can go do some target practice, darlin'," replied Mouse. "Or play with Enzo."
Matrix looked down at Enzo, who stood smiling up at him. "Wanna go to the Data Slides?"
Matrix groaned.
Dot smiled faintly and rolled her eyes. "I guess everyone could use a little break after that scare."
Mouse nodded. "Amen, Dot. Howabout..." She stopped talking as Dot, apparently not listening, followed Phong out of the waiting room. To see Bob, no doubt. Mouse shook her head. That was an odd little byte of hypocrisy. There was no way to get that sprite to relax. Her eyes shifted over to Enzo, who was still bouncing around with excitement. Well, the Data Slides sounded like fun.
"Zipp, don't you even dare pity yourself. You're going to be deleted for this one!"
"All right, all right. We can delete each other. We'll come out at the count of three: 1; 2; 3!"
AndrAIa and Zipp walked out of their dressing room stalls. They looked at each other, smirking,, but too embarrassed for actual laughter.
"How often do you do this again?" asked AndrAIa. She took a step, trying to keep her balance while wearing 9-inch hot pink platform sandles. She wore an unbelievably tiny black mini-skirt topped with a pink sports bra with little white bunnies embroidered on it.
"Actually, I haven't done this for about a cycle," admitted Zipp. "So how do you like what I picked out for you?"
AndrAIa pretended to gag. "How do you like yours?"
Zipp stared at her. "It's red." Zipp wore a bright red, midriff-baring tube top and a floor length skirt slit open on both sides. It was also red. "I hate red and I feel like a slut. Is this revenge for the Victoria's Password ensemble?"
"Yes," AndrAIa replied angelically. She titled her head and batted her eyelashes.
That was too much . Both girls burst out laughing. They changed into their own clothes, dumping the outfits on a rack.
"That's enough of that," said AndrAIa as they headed out of Demo into the crowd of mall crawlers.
"You're right," agreed Zipp. "Besides, The Space doesn't have the right clothes for that game anyway. We could always stalk people, if we need something else to do."
"How about him?" AndrAIa pointed to a binome zero who was walking out of a comic file shop.
"Good choice."
They followed the binome, keeping at a short distance behind him. He didn't seem to notice for some time., but then he stopped and turned around to stare at the girls, who pretended to look at a display window. The binome turned around and practically dove into a unit store. Trying hard not to giggle, Zipp and AndrAIa went into the store, where they stared at the binome over the shelves. He pretended not to notice, but after about five nanos, he left the store.
As soon as he was clear of the store, the binome broke into a run. But he couldn't loose him. Panic seemed to shoot through him.
He turned another corner, one that led into Giga's. He could loose them there.
But Giga's was closed.
He slid into the wall, falling to his knees. Zipp and AndrAIa slowly approached him.
"Why won't you let me be?!" he suddenly cried, his arms reaching towards the ceiling. Then he dropped his face to the floor and began to sob loudly.
Laughing, the girls walked off. "Now he was interesting!" acclaimed Zipp.
AndrAIa nodded. "It was nice that he was so paranoid. Want to go to Baudstrom's, buy something on clearance just so we can get the bag, and walk around acting like snobs?"
"Definitly!"
They entered Baudstrom's, and were immediately welcomed by a flock of binomes armed with bottles of perfume. Somehow they managed to escape, only to find themselves at the cosmetics counter. "Help," Zipp murmered.
A binome in a white jacket held out a tray of makeup samples. "This is our new collection for this cycle," she said, offering Zipp a sample tube of red lipstick. "This is Fire Wall. It will flatter your particular skin tone."
Zipp grimaced.
AndrAIa took an eyeshadow sample. "I need some more eyeshadow," she mused. "What other shades do you have?"
The binome ran off, and AndrAIa turned to Zipp. "Do you need any eye makeup?"
Zipp shook her head. "Nah. I don't wear the stuff."
"Oh, come on," said AndrAIa, grabbing a mirror. "All the more reason to start now. Here, take off your glasses." She reached for the shades.
"No!" Zipp turned her face away.
AndrAI yanked her hand back, startled.
"No," Zipp repeated, calmer. "I mean, I'd rather not take off my glasses. It's too bright in here."
AndrAIa nodded automatically, her eyes still on Zipp. "Oh. Sure thing."
"Bob?"
Bob groaned and struggled to open his eyes. They felt so heavy... He felt like he had been hit by a CPU.
"Bob?" The voice was strange. Familiar. It sounded far off, but he was certain it was nearby.
"Bob?" the voice repeated. "Are you awake?"
He was sure he recognized the voice. He turned his head.
A face blurred into focus. "Bob?"
"Dot?" He rubbed his eyes. Yet, it was Dot.
"Bob!" Dot shrieked with delight and bent over to kiss him. Bob willingly complied.
"What happened," he asked, as soon as he could get a breath. He sat up, pulling Dot into his lap. "We were in the game, and I remember some jolt, and after that, nothing."
Dot repeated what Phong had said.
"A magnet? But where did it come from?" he asked.
Phong wheeled over. "It is good to see you awake, my son. You seem to be in perfect condition, though you probably feel weak. As for your question, I have Hack and Slash working on it right as we speak."
"Dot!" Enzo called from outside. "Matrix pushed me down the Data Slide!"
"That's the idea!," yelled Matrix.
Enzo entered the room. "But he- Bob!" Dot had barely enough time to move before Enzo bounded onto the bed, crushing Bob.
Matrix and Mouse entered, smiling as soon as they saw Bob.
"That was a quick recovery!"
"Good to see ya conscious, sugah."
Hack and Slash then came in. "Phong! Phong! We found it!"
Everyone turned to look. Hack and Slash were carrying a small cartridge between them.
"I saw it first," said Slash.
"No, I did."
"You did?"
"No, I did."
"But I touched it first-"
"Thank you!" said Phong gratingly. He took the cartridge and examined it. "Yes, I think this may be what we are looking for. I'll have someone run it through some tests for absolution. Now where did you find it?"
"Here!" they said in proud unision.
Enzo snickered and Phong shook his head.
"It was in the Main Room," said Hack.
"Yes, in the room where Dot works."
"But we work there, too."
"The Main Room," echoed Matrix. "You were in there this morning, Dot."
Everyone looked at Dot, who's jaw dropped open. "What...?"
Bob's eyes flashed with rage. "You did this? Oh, I see. It was during that fight." His voice dropped. "I didn't realize you were mad enough to delete me!"
"But I..." Dot began. "That... that thing. I radioed it out this morning, after one of my meetings."
"I didn't know you would to that," said Enzo, horrified.
"But I didn't know what is was!" she said. "Mouse gave it to me and..."
All eyes flashed at Mouse, who paled. "I..." She had been right.
"Hi, everyone!" AndrAIa skipped into the room, loaded with shopping bags. She jabbed a bottle of lotion into Matrix's face. "It's from Download and Code Works. It's that new Tangerine Spice flavor." The seriousness of the room hit her. "What's going on?"
"Mouse tried to delete me," Bob muttered. "Only I can't see why she would."
"I..." Mouse stuttered. What was she supposed to say? She didn't know what it was either? She was innocent?
"It wasn't Mouse."
Zipp stood in the doorway, trembling. Shopping bags lay at her feet.
"What did you say?" asked Phong.
"Mouse didn't try to kill Bob," Zipp repeated softly. "I asked her to radio that cartridge out for me. It was me who tried to delete him."
Bob's eyes narrowed, and with a surprising burst of energy, he leaped from the bed. "And why?"
Zipp sneered, baring her teeth. Fangs. "Because you killed my husband!" she screamed.
She took off her shades.
In the time she had known Zipp, Mouse had rarely seen her without her sunglasses. Mouse had never thought much about it; she had always passed it off as some little quirk of Zipp's. It was harmless, so Mouse had no need to ask questions. Zipp liked to wear them, and that was that. Perhaps Zipp was embarrassed about her eyes. Not that Mouse blamed her. They weren't that attractive. Zipp had actually laughed when Mouse had tactlessly told her that once. But that was cycles ago. Mouse had not, back then, realized anything unusual about Zipp's eyes. Now she knew better.
As Zipp pulled the glasses away, Mouse saw her eyes once more. They were nicely shaped into large ovals, fringed by startingly green lashes. But the eyes themselves consisted each of a bloodred dot set in a background of green. Mouse recognized them immediately: Viral eyes. Megabyte eyes.
Everyone in the room gasped. Weak, Bob stumbled backwards onto the bed.
"No wonder Frisket hates you," muttered Matrix. "He doesn't like virals."
AndrAIa stared at Zipp, horrified, disgusted. "What are you?"
Zipp, eyes still on Bob, opened her mouth to speak, but Hack and Slash scooted forward. "Zipporah!" Hack exclaimed. "We did not recognize you."
"Hey, I did," responded Slash. "We have not seen you for awhile . We missed you."
"Yes," agreed Hack. "We missed the way you tortured us."
"Too bad your father isn't here."
"Yes, Megabyte would have liked your weapon."
"But it was a very bad thing."
"Hack, Slash," said Dot sternly. "Be quiet."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Dot looked at Zipp in disbelief. "You're Megabyte's daughter?"
"That's correct," replied Zipp bitterly, still focusing on Bob. "He's my daddy."
"So you're a virus?" spat Bob. "Sadly, I can believe that. Too bad Turbo never knew."
Zipp laughed suddenly. "Of course he didn't! Why would I tell him what I am? I'd have been thrown from the Guardian League a whole kilo sooner than I was. And how would that look? And, to tell you the truth, I'm only half virus. My mother was a sprite. I inherited her looks, except for the eyes. That's why I wear my glasses. People would panic if they saw a viral-eyed Guardian. Still, I don't think Turbo would care either way if I was a virus or just a hybrid. Anyhow, he's next on my list, as soon as I finish with you, Bob."
Matrix leapt in front of Zipp, who didn't flinch. "You're not touching him, virus! What did he ever do to you?" He pressed his gun against her skull.
She laughed and took a step back. "What did he do to me? I already told you."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" yelled Bob, again rising.
Zipp's eyes bore into him. "I need my revenge," she hissed softly. "I need my revenge against the Guardians. And you are a Guardian, are you not? And you were most likely there." She took a deep breath. "Try to remember. Out in the middle of the Web, no systems near, no one to harm. Everyone except Vi and me. I didn't know how long you tracked us down, or how. But it wasn't fair." Her voice cracked. This was no acting. This was real.
Mouse strode up and grabbed Zipp's arm firmly. "You never told me any of this." She squeezed hard. �You never told me you were viral. And who is Vi? Someone I know?" A fellow hacker?
Zipp screeched in annoyance and yanked her arm away. "Vi was the virus I helped into the Super Computer. That's right. Helped. When he first contacted me, I had no idea he was a virus. But I did inherit Megabyte's brains. It didn't take me too long to figure out the truth. But then again, the truth didn't matter. He was wonderful. I didn't care." She smiled; not a hard, cruel smile, but one that was sad and sweet. Mouse remembered it. The old Zipp's smile. "I loved him," she continued. "He rescued me from Deletion Row. We later married, and then we just left for the Web. Piracy is a good leaving. We didn't harm too many people. But then all the Guardians had to come and ruin everything!"
"It wasn't a fair fight. It was Vi and myself against a hundred or so Guardians. You all appeared out of nowhere." Her voice had risen, so now Zipp was speaking in the high-pitched tone of a scared little girl. "Vi told me to stay in the ship. He rushed out before I could stop him. I heard him scream..." Tears rushed from her cold green eyes. "And he was gone."
"Oh, yes," said Bob thoughtfully. "The Viral Web project. It was designed to wipe out all virals loose in the Web. But that was terminated a cycle ago and-"
"And that is just when my husband died!" Zipp shrieked. "And you admit you were there. You just admitted it!"
"No, I didn't!" Bob said. "I was not a part of it. I declined Turbo's request that I join."
"Oh? So now you're a coward?"
"We had our own problems to deal with here."
"And I had no problems?" Zipp pulled a small object off of her belt. A box. She popped off the lid. "I had to hear my love's dying scream. Perhaps Dot here would like to hear the same."
Inside the box was a magnet.
"No!" screamed Dot. "Zipp, I swear-"
Zipp marched over to Dot, pushing Matrix out of the way. She grabbed Dot, twisting her arms behind her back. Dot yelped in surprise and pain.
"Or perhaps this will be a better torture for Bob," sneered Zipp. "Now that you two have made up, you can really suffer, watching Dot be slowly erased by a magnet. Yes, I think that'd suit you much better. You'd suffer what I have." She held the magnet above Dot's head.
Bob's eyes flashed to Dot, and he stood up. "Don't you dare!"
Zipp winked at Dot, and shoved her in Bob's direction. "Don't worry so much. I like you all too much to delete all of you."
Somehow, no one believed her.
Zipp walked around the room, smiling as if she were amused. "Let's see. How shall I seek my revenge, now that my first attempt failed?"
"Shall we find out?" AndrAIa stood in front of Zipp, pressing the needle sharp prongs of her trident against Zipp's neck. "I don't know who you are," said AndrAIa, gripping the trident tightly. "But you aren't Zipp. She's not like this. And you are not walking out of here alive."
Zipp took a step back, but the trident was only pressed deeper, even into pain. "Easy, AndrAIa," she said. "How do you know what I am like? The only one correct about me here was Bob." She fell backwards, landing on her hands and springing back in a flip, only to feel Matrix's gun against her back.
"Shoot her!" shouted Enzo.
Zipp pulled out her magnet and threw it to the floor, causing everyone to shriek and jump back as it began to spin. "I can see I am no longer welcome here," she said. "Enzo, want to come play with me?"
He glanced anxiously at the magnet, then stared up at Zipp in horror. "No way!"
"Too bad." Zipp grabbed him by the collar and yanked him towards the door.
"Bob!" Enzo cried.
"Enzo!" Bob clenched his teeth and started towards the door.
"Careful, Bob," said Zipp. "You don't want to wear out your strength. Hertz, retrieve Magnet!"
The keytool beeped. The magnet hovered above the ground momentarily before speeding off towards Zipp, grazing Matrix across the cheek. He gave a cry of pain and pressed his hand against the wound.
Zipp was already racing down the hall, dragging Enzo behind her, the magnet securely attached to Hertz. No one would dare go near her with the magnet. Bob and Matrix continued to chase her, but Bob was weak and Matrix was concentrating more on his magnet wound. Zipp wondered if she should attack him now. No, she thought. It would be too easy. She wouldn't be able to enjoy it. Besides, she might delete Matrix in the process, and AndrAIa wouldn't like that.
Outside, Zipp jumped on her zipboard, swining Enzo, still shrieking and clawing, over her back. "Hang on," she hissed as they took off. "I wouldn't want to drop you."
"You would, too!" Enzo yelled. "You're just like old Mega-breath. Bob will stop you."
"Bob?" Zipp laughed. "I know. Then I'll delete him."
Dot watched as Bob and Matrix returned. Without Enzo. Bob was panting, and looked like he would collapse any nano.
"You should not be running around like that so soon," Phong said softly. "You need a chance to recover your energy."
"Enzo," Bob started. "Zipp has him. We couldn't rescue him in time."
His words struck Dot hard. What would that Zipp creature do to little Enzo? She ran up to Bob. "Where did she take him? Did you see where they went?"
Bob shook his head sadly. "I don't know, Dot. They had vanished before we made it outside. Knowing Zipp... I really wouldn't know what she would do."
"I bet anything she took him to Megabyte's Tor," said Matrix. The magnet had left a faint mark on his face. "After all, he's her father." He spat out the last statement.
"Well, sugahs, I for one vote that we go find Zipp and do something," said Mouse. She was slumped against the wall, her arms folded defensively across her chest, her eyes full of shock and anger. "I'll get Ray. She must be stopped."
"But why did she do something like that?" asked AndrAIa. "It's like, one nano, she's this sweet girl we all love, and the next..." She shook her head. "A nano later she's gone random and has become this entirely new person. A virus. Mouse, you know her the best. Has she ever acted like this."
"Never," said Mouse. "I'm really not to sure what to think. She's changed. Yesterday, she was the Zipp I knew." Almost. Mouse wanted to hit herself. She had suspected something was different, yet she hadn't done anything. "I haven't an inkling of what's processing in her mind, but she's powerful and therefore dangerous."
"Zipp seems to be consumed by her need for revenge," mused Phong.
"Yeah, but does she have to take it out on my little brother?" said Dot. "Zipp or no Zipp, he needs to be rescued?"
"Do we have to rescue him?" asked Matrix. "I'm kidding," he growled, seeing everyone's glares.
Bob cleared his throat. "Is this a good time to say �I told you so'?"
Far off, on the other side of Mainframe, Zipp was curled up in her father's chair, staring at the glasses she held in her hands. Enzo was locked up in one of the other rooms. She could still hear him screaming.
What had happened tonight? she asked herself. What had happened to her plan? No one was supposed to get hurt. It was supposed to be a clean, little, copy-and-paste job. Why had she freaked out like that, admitting everything?
She had scared everyone. Mouse. AndrAIa. Herself.
Then she laughed. What was she talking about? Everything was going perfectly. Maybe not as expected, but it wasn't too late to kill Bob. She shook her head. Just keep focused, Zipp, she told herself.