Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bob, Guardian 452, hero of Mainframe and the defender against evil threats, was in his garage back at Eight Ball Apartments, with his face obscured by the large, red hood of his beloved car, digging deep into his engine's bowels in an attempt to repair the classic 262 convertible which, as usual, to no one's surprise, was giving him a difficult time.

It's got to be a problem with the port rerouter coil, I'm sure of it! he thought stubbornly. Or maybe it's the axial interface plug? A distended turbo lock? Bad drivers? Ah, spam it! All the training in the Guardian Academy never taught me how to deal with this!

Sighing, Bob decided maybe it was time to give it a rest for now and head back on into the house. Maybe he could catch that new movie on IHS; The Last Guardian. As a Guardian, Bob was intrigued about the idea of only one Guardian on the Net against an army of viruses.

Bob shivered. On the other hand, maybe it's not such a great idea.

It had been five hours since Megabyte's ultimate defeat only several minutes after the start of his dreadful "Hunt." With some aide from the Codemasters and new revelations about the Keytools brought to light, the Mainframers were able to successfully thwart the insane virus from initiating a cascade reaction that would have deleted all of Mainframe and every Sprite and Binome in the system. Megabyte himself was taken to the Supercomputer to advance the research of the Guardian Collective's Viral Science Division teams, and for the most part, life among the denizens of Mainframe had since returned to normal.

Well, almost normal, anyway.

"BOB!" Enzo shouted through a vidwindow which had suddenly popped up in his apartment, and Bob nearly ran into the floating object.

"Is it Dot?" Bob asked, immediately concerned.

The young Sprite nodded with all the boundless energy of youth.

"Uh-huh. She's at the Principal Office. We need you!" Enzo said with an unmistakable air of urgency.

"I'm on my way, Enzo, just hang on!" Bob told the green-skinned boy as a determined expression flashed across his face.

Enzo nodded again, looking even more frenetic than before.

"Just hurry!" he cried as the vidwindow disappeared.

Bob ran outside to the patio and decompressed a zip-board, speeding off towards the Principal Office in the distance.

Milliseconds later, Bob could be found within the infirmary at the Principal Office, cradling a bundle of wrappings in his arms while Dot slept peacefully under the energy covers, and etched across Bob's face was an expression of pure, unadulterated joy as he gazed down upon the sleeping face of a baby Sprite. It was apparent she had inherited a lot from her father, namely skin color, which was of a light periwinkle shade of blue, but she'd also inherited her mother's black hair, chin, and nose. Bob practically radiated pure happiness as he held the tiny Sprite in his arms, simply content to just stare at her and enjoy the time he was spending with her like was no next second.

The door slid open and Phong entered.

"Ah, Bob, there you are. Still attending to young Pixel?"

Bob smiled. "Well, Dot's a bit out of it, so I figured, let her have some downtime while I get acquainted with my daughter."

As he said that last word, he positively glowed with delight. It was hard to believe that after everything which had happened throughout their lives, something as wonderful and bright as a new life could be here. It was almost like a dream to Bob after so many hours of agony and struggle. His time in the Web might never have happened in his mind.

Phong nodded, respecting this bit of wisdom.

"Would you care to hold her, Phong?" Bob asked him.

Phong shook his head, slightly disconcerted at Bob's idea.

"Oh... no, I wouldn't want to intrude," he protested.

"I insist," Bob said, smiling. "You're more than just this system's administrator, Phong, you're family to us."

"Well..." Phong was warmed by Bob's words, and he was slowly being swayed. "Very well, but not for too long."

Phong wheeled over as Bob handed the sleeping form of Pixel Matrix over to him. He stroked his long fingers across her face lightly, causing the little infant to wiggle her nose and giggle innocently in her sleep.

Bob laughed.

"I didn't know you were so good with kids, Phong."

Dot had apparently woken up, and was now watching the whole thing with an air of tired amusement.

Phong had the good grace to blush at Dot's words.

"Oh, well, when you have inputted as many cycles as I have, my child, you will be sure to quicktime a thing or two," he explained.

Dot smiled. "True."

Bob got up and walked over to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"Hey, how're you doing, Dot?" he asked, sounding concerned about her.

Dot shrugged a little. "Not too bad, just a little tired. When can I expect to be back at work, Phong?"

Bob chuckled. "That's Dot for ya. Even with a new daughter to look after, she still wants to work. You're hopeless, Dot."

She punched him in the arm in mock anger.

"Where's Matrix and AndrAIa, Phong?" she asked Phong.

Mouse and Ray had been out-of-system when Pixel was being born, and they were on their way back to Mainframe to see her, but before she'd nodded off, Dot remembered AndrAIa and Matrix were there.

"In the War Room, I believe, finishing up the latest system reports for this cycle," Phong replied.

"While we're on the subject," Bob said, sounding thoughtful as he rubbed his chin, "when is it gonna come time for Matrix and AndrAIa to start their own family like us? It has been five hours, after all."

"I told you before," came a rough voice from the door, "we're happy to keep things the way they are. We don't need to get married."

Matrix had entered the room, looking gruff and disinterested like he always did.

"They need you up in the War Room, Bob," he informed the Guardian without preamble. "We have a small situation."

"What kind of situation?" Bob asked, a frown crossing his face.

Matrix shrugged his massive shoulders. "I'll explain more when we get up there."

"All right, then," Bob agreed, moving over to the doorway.

"Wait up, guys, I'm coming too," Dot grunted as she tried to rise from the bed to follow them.

Before they could protest, Phong glided over to Dot and handed her Pixel, resting his hand on her arm as he said tenderly, "What you need now is rest, my child. Give your format time to adjust, and then you can be back up and working around the cycle."

Dot sighed, knowing Phong was right.

"All right, Phong," she said, sounding very unhappy with it.

With that little crisis resolved, Bob and Matrix left.

"What's going on?" Bob asked as he entered the War Room behind Matrix.

A CPU captain came up and saluted Bob, who gave him a curt nod and said, "At ease, Captain. What's happened?"

"Sir, as you know, Professor Matrix was running a few tests on the Gateway Command, but a few microseconds ago the energy readings of the Gate started spiking," the One Binome told him. "We don't know what's causing it and even the Professor himself is at a loss to explain the strange phenomenon. All we know, sir, is the amount of energy it's currently producing — if you'll please just follow me over here, sir..."

The CPU Captain walked to a console and typed in a command. A graph of the Gateway Command appeared on the main vidwindow, followed with a chart of various readings taken from the sensors.

Bob absorbed the data swiftly, and his eyes widened in total shock.

"That's impossible," he whispered. "Not even the Core generates that much power."

"There's something else, sir," a Zero Binome working at a computer terminal interrupted. "We've picked up some type of high intermittent virtual resonance pulse. It's scrambling all our sensors, sir, but from what little we were able to ascertain from that signal, it appears to be originating from somewhere outside of Cyberspace."

"What?" Bob exclaimed, now totally floored.

"There's no way!" Matrix agreed.

But further conversation was cut off when the War Room suddenly trembled underneath their feet. The System Voice rang out, cool and clear, like it always was. "WARNING, INCOMING DATA TRANSFER. WARNING, INCOMING DATA TRANSFER."

"Oh, no!" said one of the scientist Binomes. "Sir, there's an energy distortion forming around the city, it's surrounding us!"

On the vidwindows displaying images of the city, lines of energy shot across the sky like zaps of light.

"Can you pinpoint the point of convergence for the distortion?" Bob said.

A Zero Binome on the other side of the War Room called out, "Here, sir! It's hard to tell exactly where it's coming from and it appears to be originating from all around us, but the focal point for that distortion clearly intersects at one location — the Gateway Command."

"Dad!" Matrix said worriedly.

"Captain, patch me through to Welman!" Bob ordered.

The Captain pressed a few buttons on the control console, and the vidwindow's screen now filled with Welman's anxious face; or so Bob assumed, anyway, since it was hard to judge the facial expressions of nulls. The Guardian noted vaguely that they were all a good distance from the Gateway Command, and thanked the User that Welman had at least had the foresight to take that standard security precaution.

Before Bob could say anything, Welman launched into a report.

"All systems showing normal! According to our data, there should be no reason behind that buildup of virtual particles in the Gate!" he said, sounding immensely frustrated. "No residual flux charge, no increase or drop in the energy/ion containment fields, no static in the harmonic wavelengths, no nothing! It should all be working fine. All we did was upgrade the ping function!"

"Welman, get everyone out of there now, and that's an order!" Bob commanded, prepared for the worst. "We'll evacuate all nonessential personnel from the Principal Office, and leave behind a utility team. Maybe they can figure out why the Gate is —"

But a bright light from the Gate behind Welman interrupted Bob and with a startled cry of surprise from Welman and the research team the vidwindow went dead. A crackle of thunder assaulted Bob's eardrums and the floor underneath pitched, sending Bob and the rest of the War Room workforce flying to their knees from the force of the explosion.

"Dad! No! This can't be happening!" Matrix yelled.

"Calm down, Matrix," Bob said. "Glitch, get me a line. Put Welman through."

If you can, he added silently to his faithful companion.

To Bob's surprise and quiet relief, a picture of Welman Matrix appeared on the Keytool's hard surface.

"Welman, are you okay?" Bob pressed insistently.

Welman's nullsuit seemed unharmed, though the Professor himself sounded a little shaken up.

"Uh, uh, yes, I'm fine," he reassured the Guardian. "Uh, though I can't understand why —"

"Professor!" someone called him from off-screen. "You better come take a look at this!"

Welman turned to face the speaker — while he was doing that, Bob took the time to survey the War Room. The computer interfaces and vidwindows had all gone dead, but it looked like everyone was fully functional.

"Everybody all right?" he inquired.

There were murmurs of agreement, so Bob glanced back down at Glitch. "Professor, wha..."

"Bob!" the Professor's voice sounded urgent. "I think you'd better get down here! There's something you should see."

Bob exchanged a glance with Matrix, wondering what in the Net it could be.

"I'm heading down there! Clear the halls so no one gets in my way," the maverick ordered gruffly, exiting the room.

Bob followed him.

As soon as the two arrived in the Core Room, they knew something was wrong. A group of Binomes were clustered a few dozen feet away from the Gate, which was now completely shut down. Bob was relieved to see no one had been deleted or sustained any fatal injuries, but on closer inspection, he noticed every person in the chamber had on their features an expression of shock and awe as though they were gazing at a corrupted file.

Bob and Matrix ran over.

"Dad, are you all right?" Matrix demanded. It was not his function to act sentimental, except maybe to AndrAIa, of course, who understood him the best — and speaking of the Game Sprite, she was there, too, and had the same not-quite-believing expression on her face.

"I'm fine, son," Welman reassured him.

"What is it, Professor?" Bob asked, stepping closer. "Why did you call us he..."

But he trailed off suddenly as his eyes caught sight of... something lying amid the gaggle of onlookers.

It appeared to be a Sprite, maybe v.3.0 or older, and he wore a very strange clothing format. He had on blue a spandex jumpsuit with white gloves and boots. His skin was of a rich peach color, with pointy black hair which poked up around his head like a surrounding halo as well as hard features and an elongated face that gave it the look of a heart.

For a moment no one spoke.

Then, Bob at last broke the silence.

"Um, what is that?"

Chapter Text

After a microsecond, the Professor spoke.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "We were trying to shut down the Gate when, all of a sudden, there was a surge in the energy output of the Gateway Command. We thought we were gonna be deleted any nanosecond, but then there was a large explosion, and this thing came through the Gate." He shrugged. "Of course, I don't know what it is."

"Glitch," Bob commanded, and the Keytool beeped in the affirmative. "Full-spectrum scan. Let's see what this thing is."

A bunch of readings began scrolling across Glitch's face, and Bob frowned at what he was seeing.

"What is it, Bob?" Matrix demanded, noticing the sudden change that had come over the Guardian.

"Is there something bothering you?" AndrAIa added.

"I'm not sure," Bob replied, looking puzzled. "I'm having trouble getting a clear lock on this thing — whatever it is, its code is much denser than the typical Sprite; it's almost like it was compiled in extremely harsh parameters, like the kind found in the Web."

"The Web?!" everyone around him screamed in horror.

"By the User!" Welman exclaimed. "Do you think this thing came from the Web, Bob?"

"Hard to say, really," Bob replied. "It's not compiled like something you'd find on the Net, that's for certain, but all lifeforms in Cyberspace share a similar format, even Codemasters; as far as I can ascertain, this thing doesn't have an icon; no PIDs. It's almost like..."

And then Bob gasped.

"No, it can't be..." he whispered, stunned.

"What?" Matrix asked him gruffly. "What's wrong, Bob?"

"Well, I was just thinking... but no, it's impossible," Bob muttered to himself. "No way. This really can't be happening... although that would explain all of these strange readings that Glitch picked up just now..."

"What?" Matrix pressed, sounding irritated now at Bob's evasions.

Instead of answering, Bob turned to the CPU captain who had followed them down to the Core Room.

"Captain, you said the signal emanating from the Gate was coming from an area outside Cyberspace, right?" Bob said.

The Captain saluted. "Yes, sir, Guardian."

"What are you thinking?" Welman asked the blue-skinned Sprite.

"Yeah, come on, spill it for us, Bob," AndrAIa agreed.

Bob glanced back to his friends, frowning intently. "Nothing concrete, but, well, all I know is you won't find other lifeforms like this anywhere else in the Net or even in the Web. No PID means this thing shouldn't exist in our reality, and yet, it's still here. Its code and format is unlike anything we've encountered before — I doubt that even the Guardian Archives would be able to come up with a file on this creature... and it appeared at exactly the same time as that mysterious pulse signal so the two are obviously connected..."

"What are you really saying, Bob?" Matrix said shrewdly.

"I'm saying I think this thing came from someplace outside the Net, the same as that pulse signal," Bob explained. "I know you're all going to think my memory files are corrupted, but as impossible as it may sound, I suspect this Sprite is really... the User."

Everyone around him gasped.

"Bob, are you serious?" Welman asked.

Bob nodded. "Deadly serious."

"But that's impossible, Bob!" AndrAIa objected. "No one's ever been able to prove the User even exists."

"I know, but it's the only explanation that fits the available search parameters," Bob said.

"So that thing could be a User!" Matrix growled furiously, as Gun detached itself from his leg holster and flew to his hand. He leveled Gun at the unconscious being. "We should delete it now before it wakes up."

"Hold on, Matrix," Bob said. "We don't know anything about him."

"What's there to know?" Matrix demanded. "He's a User! In Games he tries to delete us and nullify the system."

"But imagine all the things we could learn from him, son!" Welman said.

"I don't care about learning anything from him," Matrix snapped, Gun now glowing a dangerous red in its targeting sights.

"Sparky, don't be this way," AndrAIa said, laying a warm, delicate hand over Matrix's enormous bicep. "I know we had a rough time in Game Cubes, but Professor Matrix is right. This could be the most important discovery in the history of the Net."

"How can you say that after all we've been through?" Matrix inquired incredulously as he shook her off.

Before any of them could say anything further, however, the being before them suddenly groaned. Everybody but Professor Matrix, Bob, AndrAIa, and Matrix gasped and backed up several feet away from him.

"He's waking up," Welman noted.

"Move aside!" Matrix commanded, pointing Gun directly at the slowly recovering User.

Bob grabbed Matrix's hand, guiding it down before the maverick Guardian could shoot the User.

"We can't just erase him, Matrix!" Bob objected passionately. "Not while I'm still this system's Guardian."

Slowly, the User made his way upright, holding his head.

"Ugh, where the hell am I?" he demanded as he rose to his feet.

Bob, feeling himself to be a sort of representative of the group, moved forward to deal with the situation.

"I am Guardian 452," he declared. "Please state your name and function."

Now that he was standing, the spiky-haired User turned a fiery glare on the veteran Guardian.

"And who are you?" he said rudely, suddenly smirking. "The welcoming committee?

"He asked you a question!" Matrix snarled, lifting Gun up again. "If you're smart, you'll answer it!"

The User turned a smug taunting face on the green-skinned renegade.

"And what if I don't feel like playing this pointless little game?" he mocked him.

"Sparky..." AndrAIa said warningly, but Matrix ignored her as his prosthetic eye slid into focus as he aimed Gun at the User and what was unmistakably a red target appeared across the User's chest.

"I blast you into a thousand bits of code," Matrix responded harshly.

"Wait, Matrix..." Bob began, hoping to stall the coming violence, when suddenly, the User burst into laughter!

"As if you could ever harm me with that silly thing. How sad, a man your age playing with toys," he said with a cruel grin.

"Oh, that is it!" Matrix shouted.

"MATRIX, NO!" Bob cried, but it was too late.

BAM! A gigantic bomb of pure energy erupted from Gun's barrel and slammed point-blank into the User's chest, however, to the surprise of everyone there, he just stood there, staring down at the spot that it had hit; it didn't look like it had even fazed him!

"I'm sorry, was that supposed to hurt me?" the User taunted.

"That's impossible!" Matrix said, his good eye widening.

"Matrix, stand down!" Bob barked. "You'll accomplish nothing by doing this!"

"Oh yeah?" Matrix retorted, taking aim again. "Just watch me!"

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

A hail of fire erupted from Gun's nozzle as Matrix unloaded a whole barrage of energy grenades on the User, who simply stood there the whole time smirking as each blast dissipated harmlessly against his torso.

After a few microseconds, Matrix ceased firing, standing there with a look of total, abject shock written upon his facial features.

"No way..." he whispered, sounding stunned.

The User in front of him laughed again. "There, you've had your little fun. Now... it's my turn."

Suddenly, the spiky-haired User moved quicker than their eyes could really follow; one nanosecond, he was standing there with legs spread apart and arms braced; a nanosecond later, he had launched himself at Matrix with startling speed.

WHAM!

The User's elbow connected solidly with Matrix's jaw, sending him flying a hundred meters as Gun fell from his slack grip.

"SPARKY!" AndrAIa cried, concerned.

THUD!

Matrix collided with the far wall on the opposite side of the Core Room, which cracked under the force of the impact.

"Oh no, Matrix!" Bob called out.

The renegade slid down the wall, seeming a bit dazed but otherwise unharmed. Turning his face back up to stare daggers at the now cocky User, he extended his hand out, and reacting to the command, Gun lifted up and flew across the chamber into his waiting hand.

"ENZO, STOP!" Welman said, hoping to put an end to the violence.

But Matrix, either because he didn't hear or him or didn't care, ignored his advice and unleashed more energy bombs on the User.

"That again, huh?" the User sighed. "How disappointing. Haven't you figured it out yet? GUNS DON'T HURT ME!"

And with that the User shot off into the air, heading directly for Matrix!

"He... he can fly!" Welman remarked, sounding utterly fascinated.

"File it away for later, Professor!" Bob said worriedly. "Matrix is gonna get himself killed if we don't do something!"

"No, that's not happening!" AndrAIa said determinedly.

And she whipped out her trident and engaged it in "spear mode."

"I don't care who this man is, he's not erasing Matrix!" she announced. "Not while I'm still processing!"

Bob glanced down at the Keytool by his side. "Glitch, hang glider!"

And at once the construct rearranged its shape into said hang glider. Knowing that Matrix couldn't last for long against the insanely powerful User, Bob raced to the ledge of the platform that the Principal Office's subsphere normally occupied and jumped off the side towards the User with the Game Sprite performing a series of athletic flips to keep up.

On the other side of the chamber, the User set down in front of Matrix.

"I hope you realize the futility of your efforts," he growled. "No one challenges Vegeta and lives to get away with it."

Now furious, Matrix threw Gun to the side and launched himself at the User, winding his fist back for a punch.

THUMP!

In an instant, the User known as Vegeta had caught the punch in his palm like it was nothing.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Vegeta demanded. "Maybe I haven't made myself clear yet, you worthless insect."

And Vegeta applied pressure to Matrix's fist, who cried out in pain; it was like crushing his hand in a hydraulic press!

"You don't stand a chance against the Prince of Saiyans!" Vegeta shouted.

WHAM! In response, he brought his fist into Matrix's stomach, sending the maverick Guardian keeling over from sheer agony.

BAM! And Vegeta followed up with a strong punch to Matrix's cheek that sent him flying into a wall, burying him under a pile of rubble. A microsecond later, Matrix burrowed his way out of the debris with a savage cry and a death glare at the User.

"I don't care what it takes or how strong you are!" he said. "You're going down, User!"

"Oh, really?" Vegeta asked, smirking. "And just how do you plan to do that? So far you haven't managed to hurt me even once."

Growling fiercely, Matrix threw another punch at Vegeta, which the flame-headed User ducked with super speed to avoid. Matrix followed up with a series of punches, kicks, uppercuts, and side swipes that didn't hit the User even one time!

"Will you stand still and let me hit you?!" Matrix grunted from sheer frustration.

"Have it your way," the User said as he stopped dodging rapidly.

WHAM! And just like that, Matrix slammed his fist directly across the Saiyan Prince's jaw, which didn't even budge him in the slightest! And Matrix, however, fell to the floor cradling his shattered hand — it felt like punching the hardest steel known to Cyberspace.

"Let's see you take this!" Vegeta said.

And just like that, the floodgates were opened as Vegeta began pounding every square inch of Matrix that he could see. For a few microseconds, the world became a blur of pure agony as Matrix endured the worst beating he'd experienced in cycles.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

"Oh, what was that, you little green bean?!" Vegeta snarled while he maintained that furious barrage. "You said you were going to take me down! What's wrong? Why haven't you done that yet?! Don't tell me you're having second thoughts?"

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

And finally, Vegeta ended with a vicious punch to Matrix's chest, and with a sickening crunch of broken bones as multicolored liquid spewed from his mouth he flew back several meters and didn't get up again.

Vegeta spat to the side. "How pathetic. Well, he won't be bothering me anymore."

Suddenly, Vegeta sensed an attack coming from behind him, and within the space of a fraction of a single nanosecond, the User spun around, catching the incoming spears before they'd impaled him.

"No!" AndrAIa growled. "How did he know I was coming?"

"And what did you think you were going to do with this?" he told the orange-skinned female mockingly.

"You just leave him alone!" she fired back. "Your fight is with me now!"

The User laughed. "Oh really? Well, by all means, let's see what you can do... right after I do this!"

Lifting that trident easily, Vegeta hefted AndrAIa up into the air as though she were made of paper, much to the Game Sprite's surprise, and aimed his hand out at her. Yellow energy gathered in his palm and a nanosecond later, he blasted it up, straight at the helpless AndrAIa!

She cried out in pain as the blast caught in her stomach and dragged her out across the Core Room — the beam of energy arced above, and then slowly, came down several hundred meters away, smashing into the floor with a colossal explosion!

KABOOM!

Vegeta laughed like a corrupted program.

"What a weakling!" he cackled. "But she made a great fireworks display!"

And just then, a voice called from the side. "Glitch: Wide-field energy beam!"

Instantly, a much stronger beam of energy, yellow in color, collided against Vegeta's torso. Without so much as flinching, the User turned to the side and found Bob standing there with his arm aimed at the Saiyan Prince.

"Stand down and desist!" Bob ordered sternly. "I'm ordering you as the defender of this system and trust me, bub, you don'twanna make an enemy of the Guardian Collective! There's more of us than there are of you!"

"Oh, and why would that be?" Vegeta said mockingly as he turned aside and started walking towards Bob. "If they're all as disgustingly weak as you are, my blue friend, then I have absolutely nothing to worry about!"

"Glitch, wide-field energy beam, full power!" Bob commanded. "Continuous discharge!"

And again, that energy beam slammed right into the User, but again, like before, it didn't seem to have any effect!

"When will you maggots get it through your head?" he asked. "You can never hope to match the powers of a Saiyan warrior!"

"Glitch, draw additional power from the Core!" Bob said frantically.

Without warning, the intensity of the beam increased as it seemed to appear as little more than a solid wall of light, connecting directly with Vegeta's body, who continued walking forward without seemingly any discomfort!

"Ouch, that almost tickles," Vegeta sneered.

"I don't believe it!" Bob gasped. "He's absorbing the energy!"

Suddenly sensing that discretion was the better part of valor when dealing with Users Bob discontinued the beam and turned to run as he desperately cried out to his Keytool, "Glitch — get me out of here!"

Immediately, the Keytool shot out a grappling hook and latched onto a ledge several hundred meters away as Bob swung away in retreat.

"Oh no, you're not getting away that easily!" Vegeta vowed.

In response the Saiyan shot into the air, heading directly towards the fleeing Guardian! Bob only had a microsecond to look back in horror as Vegeta's fist made contact with his face, sending Bob flying down into Core as his screams slowly died down.

"What a disgrace," Vegeta remarked. "They call themselves warriors? I've known Tuffles who fight better than they did!"

He glanced upward at the ceiling looming high above and frowned thoughtfully. "Now, where am I? I never should have agreed to be a part of that damn woman's experiments. Oh, well. I suppose I can figure it out easily enough."

And with that said, he blasted off into the ceiling as he smashed right through it towards his freedom...

Mouse was in Dot's room in the infirmary.

"Oh, she's a little darlin', Sugah," Mouse said to Dot.

"Yes, she is," said Dot fondly. "But where's Ray? I figured he'd want to be here for this."

Mouse's face fell. "We... broke up, Sugah. Last minute."

"Oh." Dot looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, Mouse... I didn't know."

"That's all right, there, Dot," said Mouse. "I guess we can't all have happy endings like you and Bob or Matrix and AndrAIa."

"Is there somebody else?" Dot asked slyly, knowing Mouse was hiding something.

Mouse shrugged, winking mischievously. "Maybe. But I ain't tellin'."

Dot knew she was fighting a losing battle, so she said, "Okay."

Then Dot's communicator beside the bed beeped twice, stopped, then did it again.

"Oh, this spamming thing?" Mouse said irritably. "I'll shut it off."

"No, Mouse!" said Dot. "I left it on just in case, twice means urgent!"

She snatched it out of Mouse's hand and clicked it on, pushing her new baby into Mouse's arms as she said, "Yes?"

"Dot," Bob said, sounding wounded, "sorry to bother you, but... we have a situation! There's a User loose in Mainframe!"

"What?" Dot exclaimed. "No way!"

"Yes," Bob answered. "I wouldn't have disturbed you, but this is for real, Dot. He's already dispatched with Matrix, AndrAIa, and me without any effort! We could be looking at another Daemon or worse than that. I know it's still so soon after Pixel was born, but we need you — you're the only one with the experience and the tactical knowledge to coordinate our defense efforts. And if you're careful, there probably shouldn't be any issues. At least I hope so. The CPUs are mobilizing, full security alert. How soon can you be in the War Room?

"I'm on my way," Dot said, switching off the communicator.

"What was that all about?" Mouse asked.

"Mouse, I'm sorry, but could you look after Pixel for a while? They need me for something."

"Sure thing, darlin'," said Mouse, "but what's going on?"

"There's a User in Mainframe," Dot replied, sounding tense.

And Dot left, leaving a stunned-looking Mouse behind.

Chapter Text

The Saiyan Prince flew high into the skies over Mainframe, looking down upon the bustling city that he saw below.

"Ah, how nauseatingly tranquil!" he spat disgustedly. "Just the sight of it makes me want to retch!

He suddenly smirked as he generated a ki blast within his palm. "I'd be doing them all a favor if I blasted the entire area!"

Laughing maniacally where he now hovered, Vegeta suddenly adopted a serious air as he glanced from side to side.

"But seriously, where the hell am I?" he growled. "What planet am I on now... is this still Earth? Bah, damn that foolish woman and her useless experiments!"

Okay, I won't solve anything by just floating around here, the Saiyan Prince thought.

"But what do I do?" he added out loud.

And then it hit Vegeta. I'll go off and find somewhere to decide my options. And a smirk lit up his face as he soared away into the clear blue skies of Mainframe. And if any more of these weaklings come after me, then so much the better.

Without breaking stride, Dot pushed through the two guards outside the door as she stepped inside the War Room, the central nexus for all of Mainframe's defensive operations and tactical preparations against virus threats, though it had never crossed through anyone's processer they'd be using their military command hub to repel an actual User.

As per their current situation, Dot had traded in her normal clothing format for her traditional "war jumpsuit," as fashionable as it was functional, and as always, she looked great in it.

"Report," she commanded as she stepped down the sloping side stairs towards the strategic map of Mainframe inlaid before them.

Specky, a junior assistant who always seemed to be on duty in the War Room, saluted.

"Sir, ma'am, five microseconds ago the city's sensors picked up an unidentified object flying through the air at a high rate of speed," he said smartly. "We confirmed that the ID profile matches no known resident within the city of Mainframe."

"Give me a visual," Dot replied.

Working the controls by his station, Specky brought up the image of Vegeta on the viewscreen, from his hard arrogant features, to his odd clothing format, to his strange hairstyle and muscled body; all in all, he looked quite unlike anything Dot had ever seen before.

He really is a User, she thought, her mind now switching over into "determination mode." I don't know if we stand a chance against him, but we can't give up! All of Mainframe, and perhaps the entire Net, depends upon us.

Just then, a vidwindow popped into existence before Dot's face.

"Dot, what's the status?" the blue-skinned Sprite demanded.

"We have visual confirmation of the User over Mainframe," she reported back. "But he doesn't look to really be doing much, just hovering around. It's like he doesn't comprehend where he is."

By now, Phong had wheeled himself into the War Room, his neck pipe swiveling around so quick it seemed his oblong head would fall off.

"Dot, what is happening?" the senior Sprite wondered.

"There's a User loose in Mainframe, Phong," Bob informed him.

"Oh dear..." Phong breathed. "What long-ranging effect this will have on the Net and Web, I'm afraid that only time herself will be able to predict."

Dot shook her head. "It gets even worse. Apparently, it's been classified being on the same threat level as a Class 5 virus, possibly more, and it's been confirmed hostile, so you can bet it won't hesitate to turn all those abilities on us." She turned to the CPU captain who had coordinated with Bob and Matrix during the breach with the Gateway Command not ten microseconds ago. "You, report... how goes the evacuation of Mainframe's civilian population into their emergency bunkers?"

"Sir, ma'am, we've sent out a Stage 2 threat advisory and volunteer personnel are herding as many as they can into the designated shelter areas and other low points of cover," the captain responded smartly.

Dot took this all in with a nod, satisfied by what she had heard.

"Good," the green-skinned woman said, turning her attention away from him again. "Because it looks like we're going to need all the CPUs at their posts to hold off the enemy if we are gonna have a hope of surviving this disaster."

A moment later, another vidwindow popped up before them.

"Sir, ma'am!" the CPU Commander on the other side said, snapping off a salute. "The CPU special defense force have all been fully mobilized, ready to take the battle to the intruder."

"Good," Dot said smoothly. "Dispatch the ABC units to hold a reserve position outside the city. They'll be the last line of defense to keep the User from escaping Mainframe — for the rest, I want full deployment ASAP, standard attack formation; come at him from all sides, boys."

"I'm going to call for help," Bob responded. "Keep him busy until I can call in reinforcements. Bob out."

And the vidwindow vanished, leaving Dot to ponder the situation.

"Glitch, Net-wide alert," Bob instructed the small device. "Put me on a general broadcast frequency."

The Keytool beeped in the affirmative, and Bob spoke.

"I am Guardian 452 of System Mainframe," the silver-headed Sprite stated. "We have a User loose in the city. We need all the help we can get; if you're receiving this message, please come to our assistance. There's no telling what the User intends to do next."

On either side of him Matrix and AndrAIa rose up, both seated astride the hoverbikes they had used to rise into battle many times before.

"When I get my hands on that User, I'm going to make sure he wish he'd never come to Mainframe!" the renegade growled angrily.

"Easy, Matrix," Bob chided him. "There might be a chance we can still resolve this situation peacefully."

"What?!" Matrix exclaimed incredulously. "Are you serious? Bob, no way, you saw what he did back in the Core Room! I'm telling you, there's no negotiating with that... that... monster!"

And Matrix's grip on the handlebars tightened.

Bob shook his head, feeling adamant. "To be fair, Matrix, you didn't really gave him the opportunities to explain himself, you just pointed Gun at him. There's got to be a better way to stop him than like this, I just know it! Think what it could mean for the Net! All we could learn, what would go to waste if we act too rashly here."

Matrix scoffed furiously.

"You sound like you did when you thought we could reprogram Megabyte and looked how well that turned out!" the one-eyed Sprite hurled savagely at him, before softening his tone. "Remember, I know Users, Bob. You don't. I fought hundreds of them when we were lost on the Net. They're all ruthless, cold-booted killers!"

"Or is that just what you wanna see, Matrix?" Bob asked him sadly, and sped a bit further ahead on his zip-board, leaving him to ponder his words for a couple nanoseconds before dismissing it as another thought crossed Matrix's processor.

I won't let you hurt those I care about! Not again!

Vegeta, floating quite a distance from the city itself, suddenly found, to his great amusement, that the locals had scrambled together some sort of a military defense, encircling him from all sides as only a few hundred meters in all directions CPU police cars dotted the azure expanse, making him feel nostalgic, for his memories wistfully returned back to the days when he was still a planet pirate.

"Well now; this appears to be entertaining!" He grinned. "Seems I've become quite a popular figure in this little backwater shanty town. I do wonder if they can present any more challenge than they did before? Might even force me to break a sweat!"

He shot his gaze into one of the green vehicles and observed as the being within, a peg-looking entity, jerked back, clearly feeling rattled merely from the restrained, calculating glare which the Saiyan warrior was shooting at him, and he felt his stomach twist slightly from it all.

Bah, they're not warriors! They're measly, pathetic little insects! Raditz could take them! He smirked. Or any of those weakling fighters from the various worlds I've crushed beneath my boot heel.

And then, rumbling loudly in midair, two hoverbikes rose before his field of vision, though to the fore was the blue humanoid he had dealt with previously. The pure-blooded Saiyan smirked, folding his arms while he addressed him directly.

"So, it's round two, is it?" he sneered, as arrogant as he ever was. "Don't expect me to go easy on you this time."

"Wait," Bob implored, hovering a bit closer so that the two were only a few feet apart. "I have to ask, why are you doing this? Please... don't let it be this way."

"You're wasting your time, Bob!" Matrix snarled, sounding like a caged animal ready to pounce on his prey, and AndrAIa revved a bit closer.

"Let him try, Sparky," she said sensibly. "No matter what, he's not leaving, so let's try and work things out peacefully, for once?"

Matrix rolled his eyes, but conceded the point, as the confrontation before them unfolded, Sprite and Saiyan, Guardian and Prince locked in a stare-down of wills. In response to his query, Vegeta chuckled.

"What do you maggots hope to gain by pursuing me any further on this?" he demanded. "Please... for your sakes, if you possess any kind of value you place on your own lives you'll turn those little toys around and run crying back home to hide under your covers! Otherwise you'll force me to engage you again. And if there's anything you probably should have learned by now, never underestimate how powerful I really am! But then, I guess some people are slow learners..."

Bob kept on, undeterred, his idealism shining through in the face of even this seemingly dire situation — any other being apart from Vegeta would have felt impressed, who simply looked bored.

"Please, I beg you, think of all we'd be throwing in the recycle bin!" Bob insisted passionately. "First contact with an actual User could be the most important discovery in the history of Cyberspace and change our whole perceptions of reality — and ourselves. Just, come with us! You'll be detained and interrogated, but I give you my word you won't be harmed. And then we'll try and sort through all this like civilized people."

Seeing that the other entity looked to be unmoved, Bob resorted to cold, hard pragmatism.

"After all... you can't hope to fight an entire army," he concluded, playing his trump card, though deep down he wasn't sure if that was really true, for Daemon had done so quite casually. "Do you really wanna be deleted here?"

Vegeta tossed his head back and just roared with laughter.

"An amusing little offer, but I think I'll pass, thanks." And here Vegeta's cruel mirth dropped in a flash as hard ice filled his face in a fearsome glare. "Besides, there's no way in hell you runts are going to keep me locked up. Before that happens, I'll destroy you all myself!"

Matrix, finally having heard enough, snapped.

"THAT'S IT, YOU'RE DEAD!" he bellowed.

And from the bike's rear hatch opened up a staggering array of rockets, missiles, and other heavy artillery which could leave large swaths of destruction across the city if they were to hit buildings and streets and side levels rather than the smug opponent before him.

Bob, sensing what was imminent, sadly pulled back and gave the command into Glitch's circular viewscreen. "Commence attack!"

And with that, the User Wars began in earnest.

On the main vidwindow at the very center of the War Room, Dot watched as Matrix, with his typical lack of subtlety and forethought, launched a veritable hail of heavy armament on the enemy User, and the several hundred CPUs flanking them broke formation, assuming battle postures.

Of course, she did far more than just watch.

"Baudway gunners, fix your targets!" she rapped out with rigid professionalism. "Kits division, deploy all smart cannons, but keep them below street level. We don't want it getting messy if the battle moves inside the city itself. Attack wing, go with offensive pattern delta, defense wing, recommend pattern beta!"

On the screen stretched before them, the enemy User, having withstood the full barrage of Matrix's bombardment, now took off soaring through the skies, shooting off some form of energy blasts from his palms that, upon making contact with the surrounding CPU attack cruisers, detonated them in a blast of sparks and twisted metal wreckage, sending them and many of the unfortunate pilots who had been unable to eject in time, careening down as raining debris toward the Energy Sea or the streets below.

"Commander, sir, ma'am, heavy artillery in sector fourteen, reserve squadron reports lock-on to the enemy!" a CPU captain suddenly informed Dot.

"Good," Dot replied, never missing a beat, even though inside, her core-com faltered and a single drop of sweat rolled down across her temple. "Order them to lay down a firing spread, full batteries, along coordinates 109 mark 396. Specky, I need an overview! What's our status update on the primary laser cannon?"

The brief delay which followed as Specky consulted with the console before him gave Dot precious few nanoseconds to consider all of their options, for on the main vidwindow, it was becoming increasingly clear that this was an opponent unlike anybody they had ever faced before — not even Daemon, as within only two microseconds into the progression of the battle, whole scores of CPU squadrons had been gutted, sliced open along the energy beams which the User fired and destroyed or otherwise disabled, left permanently out of action and further contributing to the whittling of their numbers even as the hostile User himself looked to have sustained little to zero damage, employing a complex pattern of aerial maneuvers, zipping, spinning, twisting, dodging from one side of the battle to the next to another corner nearly faster than the eye could follow, leaving nothing but destruction and erasure in his wake.

In only a couple microseconds he's done this much damage to us?! Mainframe's command.com marveled, disconnected to it all with the cold, clinical manner that came to her during times of command or great crisis. He's so fast, much faster than Daemon ever was, it's like... like nothing we do will harm him! Dot steeled her jaw. At this rate, we might just have to go with Option Zero if he's going to keep pushing us back even though I don't actually want to resort to that doomsday contingency...

Specky chimed in with his status update.

"Sir, ma'am, Alpha Platoon Baker Nine Charlie reports another seven microseconds, forty-six nanoseconds before the primary laser cannon is fully charged and ready to lock on to the enemy position," he said, swiveling an eye to her.

Dot shook her head frantically. "That's not good enough! In seven microseconds, there won't be anything left of the attack force!"

And it will be Megabyte all over again... she added gravely, but not out loud. And Daemon.

On the main vidwindow, the User gleefully raced down from the sky, trailing two dozen CPU cruisers in his wake stitching the space before and to both sides of him with intense cannon fire, which he expertly, effortlessly evaded or otherwise ignored. Still plunging on down towards the Wall Street Sector, the User descended to street level and, without so much as even slowing down, kept on going, plowing through many of the sector's most important business skyscrapers as he now bodied his way through the heart of Mainframe itself. And to the horror of the still-watching Principal Office staff, the unstable structures, torn apart at their foundations, swayed shakily for a bit, then came toppling over as gravity won the war, leaving a huge and growing swath of pure and total devastation behind in simply thirty nanoseconds to perhaps a microsecond of his decision to bulldoze through arguably the most important district in the system.

Worse than Daemon, Dot amended with a fresh dimension of dawning horror.

"Sir, ma'am, 33% of Wall Street Sector has now been deleted!" Specky yelped, swallowing nervously to try and suppress his fear. "That's gonna severely slow down Mainframe's data processing capacities by a factor of over 68%!"

"Commander!" the CPU Binome from before piped in, having been listening to something over his headset communicator. "We are reporting a loss of nearly 40% casualties to the CPU force!"

Dot tensed herself, resolve strengthening.

"Captain," she called to the Binome, her voice laced with grim realization. "Make preparations for Option Zero."

Many of the CPUs and Principal Office staff gaped with horror at her order; there was even a muffled gasp from someone in the room.

"Sir... ma'am," Specky said, sounding completely gobsmacked. "Option Zero was designed as a failsafe measure, a bluff! Worst-case tactical scenarios have projected with the actual deployment of Option Zero civilian casualties would range anywhere from as low as 25% to as high as 50%! The losses would be staggering, we'll be deleted!"

Dot grit her teeth, feeling irritated at the precious time now being wasted, though she bit back her initial harsh retort, since she really couldn't blame her subordinate; a tiny part of herself was recoiling at the very thought of actually carrying it out, but if the alternate was total deletion at the hands of an enemy that was proving to be as ruthless, cunning, and efficient as Daemon had ever been at the pinnacle of her infection then it was a choice which Dot would live with, however much it grieved her... just like she had been forced to do many times during the tragic course of Mainframe's Viral Wars.

"Option Zero was meant to protect us against a new supervirus, so that a repeat of Daemon would never happen again," Dot rattled off, her icy cold tone a mask to conceal the heavy shadow on her core-com. "We will do what's necessary to stop the enemy and defend Mainframe. Ready the calculations."

Still the CPU captain and Specky hesitated, and now Dot had finally reached the limits of her patience as Commander of Mainframe's defense forces.

"That's an order!" she barked furiously.

"Yes, sir!" The CPU captain saluted.

"Aye, sir, ma'am!" Specky agreed, gulping down still more anxiety.

Dot blew out her breath, and returned her attention over to the vidwindow, upon which a veritable slaughter was taking place.

I'm giving you enough time to try to subdue the User, Bob, Matrix, AndrAIa. If you can't do it, well... then I have no alternative. I must deploy Option Zero no matter how many innocent lives it costs us. Please...

And here a single tear tracked her cheek, masked as it was by the calm authority at which she belted out commands at rapid speed, a remnant of those hellish times she'd spent fighting the Viral Wars.

Take the decision out of my hands on whether so many will be erased!

But something in her core-com told her this choice was inevitable...

Matrix gunned the engines on his bike as hard as he could, trying to keep up with the wildly cackling User, a fierce scowl upon his face.

He's just like all the rest of them! he raged inside. Arrogant and cruel! They don't care how many of us die just so long as they can have a good time!

Worse yet, his bike's HUD indicated he was running out of missiles, and his laser batteries were flashing at only 56% power… he couldn't sustain much more of this! Swerving around an explosion of CPUS, the green-skinned renegade sent out a mental command, and Gun came spiraling into his right hand, where he unleashed a massive energy bomb upon the User.

BOOM!

This, however, turned out to be not such a bright idea; for the User himself regarded the blast as little more than an irritant and had now locked his full attention on to Matrix, peering angrily up toward him through the storm of battle engulfing the system.

"You again?!" he snarled.

And in a flash he appeared before Matrix, latching onto the engine's exhaust, while Matrix revved the pedals at top speed in his attempt to break free, swing about, and come at the User from another angle — but it seemed luck wasn't with Matrix, for Vegeta was single-handedly holding the bike in place, despite the enormous pressure Matrix was putting out.

"No way, impossible!" he cried out.

And Vegeta held up his palm, aligned directly with the troubled youth's chest, and now suddenly Matrix had a distinct bad feeling about this.

"Throughout this battle, you've done nothing but constantly underestimate me!" Vegeta hurled at him. "You've been nothing but a thorn in my side, and you've failed to learn from all the mistakes you made. You're nothing but a loose end, and now, the time has come to remove that loose end."

He smirked as energy gathered within his palm.

"Goodbye."

Which then formed into a yellow ball, and Matrix reacted.

"No, don't you dare!" he shouted at him.

Frantically, Matrix tried to think of something, anything that would get him out of this dire situation — even pulled the trigger down on Gun, but...

... it was too late, as the yellow blast enveloped Matrix.

And suddenly, all of him knew nothing at all.

Off to the sidelines, AndrAIa had witnessed the death of Matrix.

"MATRIX!" she screamed, her core-com tearing in two.

And with that, AndrAIa swung her hoverbike on its afterburners and took off roaring after the User with hate-filled revenge, determined to make him pay, for if she would not live in a world with Matrix as a part of her life, then the Game Sprite sure as buffering would ensure she'd avenge his deletion, and be coming to join him soon.

Bob, likewise, had seen the whole thing happen, and felt an unearthly rage fill him like it never had before. "Matrix, no... it can't be, it just can't be!"

Vegeta, you monster! he growled inside his head.

And yet hours of Guardian training and his own good sense kept him restrained, held back from tearing off after Vegeta much the same way which AndrAIa had done; for he was slowly coming to realize what a futile gesture it was.

"What the spam am I supposed to do now!" Bob hollered helplessly. "He's unstoppable! And yet... if we don't stop him here he'll invade the entire Net, and Matrix's death will be for nothing. WHAT DO I DO?!"

Suddenly, the Keytool at his arm let out a series of beeps and whistles, urgently attempting to get his attention.

"Glitch?" he remarked, sounding stunned.

The Keytool kept up with its jargon.

"Yes — and you aren't damaged you were like last time, so there's a greater chance of success, true..." Bob uttered hesitantly. "But is that really what you want? If this works, there won't be any coming back for you."

Glitch answered in a way that definitely sounded off as an affirmative, and Bob smiled, feeling his core-com warm by what he'd just heard.

"No you're right." He floated backward on his zip-board. "There's no other way. If we're to stop the User here, now, then we need to resort to desperate measures." He shut his eyes, bathed in the glow of the building energy emitted by his trusty partner. "Thank you, Glitch."

And his eyes shot open as only two words escaped his lips.

"GLITCH, DOWNLOAD!"

AndrAIa gunned her engine for all it was worth, feeling tears sliding down her cheek, and though Matrix was dead, she might as well have been channeling his spirit with the crazy plan she had just hatched.

I'm gonna ram that User head-on! she declared. And then... we'll see how much of a pounding that... that... that creature can really take!

At the last nanosecond, however, the Saiyan Prince seemed to spot her, and rather than shy away from her approach on the hoverbike he merely smirked, clearly guessing precisely what she'd plotted to do.

"And just what difference do you think that will make, girl?" he demanded. "Still, if you feel you want to die in vain so be it!"

AndrAIa swooped down through the cerulean skies, the User growing steadily larger in her field of vision, until, finally, she made contact, impacting against him with all of the strength she was capable of making...

... and found to her horror, that her bike had slammed to a complete halt in midair, frozen in place as if the User's body were made of some sort of hardened material, absolutely unmoved by the engine spitting and roaring into his side.

"Not even a dent on you?!" AndrAIa grunted. "You're a true monster!"

"Now, now; that's not fair," the User sneered mockingly, even as the CPUs surrounding them came blasting in with a hail of laser fire, none of which appeared to so much as even grazinghim, for he continued his discussion as though he didn't even notice them! "He's the one who started this little dispute! You remember, back down there."

"Matrix had good reasons for distrusting Users!" AndrAIa threw back in his face. "And as it turns out, they were justified! We had no idea the Users were anything like you! You thrive off of making other beings suffer!"

"Awww, seems you're taking his death pretty hard," Vegeta taunted. "Did you like him or something? That's it, isn't it? So go ahead, try and avenge his death. I'll even give you a free shot on me — though you should know by now, nothing you do will make the slightest bit of difference. In this pitiful little world, I AM GOD!"

Now thoroughly enraged to the point she was seeing red, AndrAIa whipped out her trident and launched herself off the hoverbike in the space between them, no longer so controlled and analytical, but simply blinded by her feelings, wanting to rip the User before her apart with her bare hands... only to sense, prior to contact with her target, the spiky-haired entity bat her aside casually, like he were swatting a fly, so that she tumbled down head over heels through the air.

I failed... AndrAIa grieved as she spiraled on down towards the hard, unforgiving concrete below. I failed, and he'll survive... but at least I'll see Matrix again soon... though, what sort of afterlife is it with Users like him running it?!

Suddenly, she felt the loud roar of a jet engine, and something solid catch her fall before she could begin to reach terminal velocity — and rearranged herself in a type of a cockpit, shaking herself furiously to try and regain herself.

"Wha... bluargh... wulargh... huh? What?" she asked no one in particular. "How did I survive...? Who? What? Where? How?"

"Hang on, honey," a well-refined voice with a distinct Southern twang informed her, and a nanosecond later, AndrAIa spotted Mouse. "I'm gettin' you out of here."

"Mouse, what the...?" AndrAIa wondered curiously.

"Orders from Dot, Sugah," the orange-haired Sprite replied with an impish smile alighting her features. "I'm to gather you and Matrix and head out-of-system along with Pixel. Where is he? We need to haul our bitmaps out of here as quick as we can, if there is gonna be any hope of stoppin' that User back there!"

AndrAIa hung her head, struggling to contain the feelings coming over her, but, blast it, she couldn't help but cry, the mental image burned now into her head at just how easily, how effortlessly that User had blasted him out of existence.

"Matrix... Mouse, he... h-he's... gone," AndrAIa wept.

Ship shook as Mouse felt her core-com shatter.

"WHAT?!" she bellowed. "HOW?! When did it happen? What do you mean, gone? You can't just mean he's deleted? Not Matrix?! That stubborn ol' Sprite?!"

AndrAIa nodded dejectedly.

"That's exactly what I mean, Mouse," she said softly, still sobbing. "The User was just too much for us, and he... he didn't make it."

Mouse cursed silently under her breath, seemingly taking this just as hard as AndrAIa was, and a few microseconds passed in silence before finally AndrAIa spoke up, tone urgent but also full of a strangled sort of enraged mourning.

"Mouse, we have to go back!" she pressed. "Matrix... he was deleted for nothing! We have to make sure he wasn't erased in vain. That that User will get what's coming to him! Please, Mouse... don't just... run away!"

Mouse shook her head, though her fingers trembled on the controls.

"No can do, sweetie," she said seriously, but the tremor in her tone betrayed her true feelings. "We're to report to the Guardian Collective on what's takin' place in Mainframe. If, like Dot suspects, the worst comes to worst, we'll most definitely want to be out-of-system."

AndrAIa eyed Mouse shrewdly. "Why are you saying that, Mouse? And why bring Pixel along, too? What is it that you are not telling me...?"

Mouse hesitated, as if not sure how much she wanted to reveal, but before AndrAIa could press her again, she responded, her voice laced with a current of deep regret and powerless outrage, and her words froze AndrAIa's core-com.

"Dot's implementin' Option Zero."

"WHAT?!" AndrAIa shouted, now totally blown away. "Do you know what that will do to the city? There might not even be a city left once Option Zero is put into effect! Has Dot popped the motherboard?!"

"I'd say not, honey," Mouse answered gently. "She's the command.com of this system and knows the strategic and tactical situation. That's why it's up to us to tell the Guardians exactly what's happenin' here today, and take her daughter out of the line of fire. You know how I feel about this, Sugah — I'm not one for fleein' when the goin' gets tough, but we both have our duty."

AndrAIa sighed sadly. "I suppose so."

She turned her head out of Ship to peer at the embittered war still going on against Mainframe's haggard defenders and the single User, and at the moment she really couldn't disagree with Dot's decision, for it was a sound strategy based as much on empirical pragmatism as it also was on her newborn maternal programming, though somehow she had a sinking feeling she wouldn't see Mainframe again, and laid her cool hand along the pane of glass before they arced up toward the containment, offering a final thought right before the system quickly passed out of view.

Goodbye, Mainframe.