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Under Viral Rule
By: Albert Einome
It was a sunny and bright second, but that didn't matter to Professor Albert Einome. What did matter to him was to stop the virals that were entering the door, barely noticed. Prof. Einome and his assistant were in Taskbar Towers, and were trying to stop newly-infected viral binomes. No, Megabyte had not returned, but another virus had come to Mainframe and was trying to take it over.
Crouching low, Prof. Einome tried to move closer to the virals. He signaled his assistant to follow. But before they go very far, the virals got the attention of everyone.
"All right! I want all of your hands up now! Move out! If you resist you will be deleted! All right, come out!" one of the virals said. He held a shock rod and was ready to shock anyone that crossed his path.
The other binomes unhappily obeyed his orders, but didn't know why there were still viral binomes in the system.
"I thought they'd all been wiped out by the restart!"
"Maybe Megabyte's come back!"
"Where's Bob when you need him?"
The Professor decided he had to make his move, and make it now. Aiming low, at the viral's icon, Prof. Einome shot the gun. As soon as the zapping was heard, panic spread out. Everyone thought it was the virals shooting. Then one noticed one of the virals was acting kind of funny. Suddenly, a cloud of data hovered over the viral binome, and then he was surrounded by green data.
Some stepped back. Others looked around. The other virals didn't know what was happening. But most of the others knew what the green cloud was- an anti-viral program.
After a few nanos, the green data disappeared, and everyone saw that the viral binome was no longer viral. He was as normal as usual. The non-viral binome then looked around and wondered... What? Why are they looking at me?
The other virals soon used this quiet moment to start shocking and filelocking more binomes. Panic began again. In the midst of all the panic, the Professor and his assistant crept over to their zipboard, which was hovering around the other side of the building. They go on, and flew above the mass of binomes.
"Vell, it seems to vork. I'm glad it did. So, how to ve get the other virals?"
"I don't know, Professor. That's a good question. Maybe we can take the targeting sight off this other gun-"
"And put it on zis one! A no-brainer!" The Professor then moved the sight, and looked around the crowd for a viral binome. He found one, and fired.
The green beam went sizzling down, and before the viral could move, it struck him with the full force of an airbus. He fell to the ground, but that didn't stop the green data from changing his processor and uninfecting him. After much trying and avoiding, Prof. Einome finally uninfected each and every one of the viral binomes.
Some of the binomes came up to congratulate him.
"Oh THANK YOU for saving us! How did you get that gun?"
"Vell, it's an invention of mine. I hav quite a few."
"I want one of those!"
"I am zinking of giving it to ze P. O. to use in zer guns and to the CPUs."
Suddenly a Vidwindow popped up right next to the Professor. It showed the evil virus.
"So, Professor. You've gotten rid of my infection, but can you do that to my entire army?" Another Vidwindow popped up, this time showing the virus's army, which now contained over 200 binomes. Obviously he had been busy. "I think not. Oh well. Time to take the Principle Office!" the Vidwindows closed.
"He's going to take the Principle Office? Zen zer's no time to waste! Come, ve must hurry back to my lab!" With that, Prof. Einome and his assistant got onto their zipboard. The other binomes waved goodbye, and then went back inside to get back to the boring process of work.
* * *
The virus sat back in Megabyte's old chair, relieving old memories of how he met Daemon, and was chosen as "Honorary System Conqueror" And so began a flashback.
It was many cycles ago, and he, as an aspiring virus, already had a legion of quite a few binomes and a few sprites. Then, while visiting the Supercomputer, he met Daemon. Tall, striking, and really beautiful, she worked her charm on him. She decided to make him one of her own "Special Viruses" and told him to meet her at the Main Plaza the next second.
Finally the second arrived. He went to the Main Plaza, and sure enough, Daemon was there, with her many infected Guardians. He was struck with awe in how one virus could infect so many Guardians. Daemon made a short speech, and then inducted him into the Cabinet as "Honorary System Conqueror". He would go out to many systems, and take over the main binome population. Then Daemon would step in, and then that system would be added to Daemon's line of power. But still, something lacked.
He wanted power too. He wanted to have a system to his own, to play with and experiment. But alas, Daemon wanted everything he had. And so, he became a wandering virus, and he barely met Daemon after the ceremony- Her minions told him everything he needed to know.
Because of Daemon's selfishness, a spark grew inside the virus. He wanted to retaliate so bad, that Daemon would never know what hit her. Maybe even secretly gain power of a whole system and try to overthrow her. If he was a supervirus, he wouldn't want power. He believed in fairness, even if that meant taking over systems. But, even as an infecting virus with transfinite energy levels, he was no match for Daemon's awesome power. Daemon may even be able to take over other viruses! But in the meantime, he would do her bidding. But one day, she would fall. Hard.
* * *
Professor Einome landed in the back of his lab, so he wouldn't draw any attention. The last thing he needed was for people to start asking questions. He went in the back door, and found the thing he was looking for- a small container, labeled "NORTON DATA FILE". Satisfied with his findings, he ran back out the door, locked it, and sped off towards the Principle Office.
Once at the Principle Office, he notified the CPUs that a full-scale emergency had begun. The tactical binomes went up to the War Room, and Prof. Einome told them the plan.
"Okay, ve hav a problem. It seems a virus has entered ze system," he paused so the binomes could gasp, "and it has already started to infect other binomes. To stop zis virus, we must use whatever firepower we can. Fortunately," he pulled out the container, "I zink I hav somezing zat vill do ze trick." He passed it to a binome, and told him, "Here. Plug this into the I/O port attached to the gun. Change the guns so zey fire zat. Zat should stop ze virals. It worked before, I hope it vorks now." He turned back to the other binomes. "Okay, now ve have to fire at the virals. How are zey doing?" he called to a binome looking at a map.
"The army isn't moving, but I believe the virus is briefing them. They could move any second," the binome said.
"Vight. Zen, get to your guns, and be veady."
"Sir! I'm done converting the guns to anti-virus mode. What should I do with this container?" the binome asked.
"Give it to me." The Professor caught it. He handed it to the CPU commander. "Here. You go change your guns and get ze CPUs up in ze air. I'll stay here and man ze stronghold."
"Right sir," the CPU commander said. He ran off.
"All vight, iz everybody ready? I hope so."
"Sir! We have confirmed movement on the ground! The virals are moving!" the binome at the map said.
"Shall I give the order to attack, sir?" a binome said.
"Yes. Fire."
* * *
The viral binomes were crowded around G Prime. They were waiting impatiently. When was their master going to tell them to attack? Suddenly a Vidwindow opened with the virus' face on it. The virals cheered.
"Yes, yes. All right, are you all ready?" The viral binomes all cheered in unison. "Begin the Principle Office attack!"
The binomes marched together in unison. It was like a bunch of robots, all programmed to do the same thing. Except these were living binomes, taken over. But to them, it was nothing. It was just... them.
Soon the lasers started to fire, but they fell short of the advancing army. Some of the binomes laughed at the rays- some almost stopped altogether, but were pushed along by a neighbor's shockrod.
Back at the Principle Office, Professor Einome wondered why the guns were not effective.
"How could zey be missing?" he asked.
"Well, I think it's because the guns are programmed for air combat, not ground combat."
"Are ze CPUs veady yet?"
"Yes, sir, awaiting orders."
"Vell, hav zem take off! Zis is war! Ve must FIGHT!"
"Um... yes sir!"
"Sir, I have a full tactical readout on the approaching army," a Zero binome said. "It seems some of them have guns that can penetrate the Principle Office's hull. Very damaging, but very short range."
"Hmm... good point. As zoon as all ze CPUs are up in ze air, put up the shields. We can't fire anyzing from in here, anyvay."
"Okay, sir." He went back to his work.
On the lower parts of the P. O., the CPU pilots ran to their vehicles. They then lifted off and above the army of binomes.
"All right, we're above the army. THX-1138, you out of the hangar?" the commander asked.
"Yes, sir, I'm the last one. Whoa! Would you look at the size of them!" THX-1138 said, surprised.
"Yeah, it's certainly pretty big. All right, gimme the speaker." His co-pilot gave it to him.
"ALL RIGHT, YOU VIRALS. STAND DOWN, AND DROP YOUR WEAPONS, OR YOU WILL HAVE TO BE TAKEN BY FORCE. OTHERWISE WE CAN DO THIS IN A NICE, ORDERLY MANNER. PLEASE DROP YOUR WEAPONS NOW." The commander's voice blared through his speaker.
The virals looked at each other, and many said, "Nah." They began to fire.
"Geez, I knew this was going to happen. Fire the guns! And watch their blasts! They're very powerful!"
The CPUs opened fire. Within the first few nanos many binomes got uninfected. But the rest were constantly firing an endless array of beams and rays at the CPUs. Behind the battle, the shields went up, but no one noticed. The battle had begun.
* * *
The virus knew this would happen. He knew the oh-so mighty CPUs would start un-infected his entire army. But what no one but him knew was that he had sent at least 25 crack agents into the sewer to sneak into the Principle Office the hard way. Of course, every way was a hard way, but that didn't matter. What did matter was that they snuck inside, and then infected everyone on the inside. They would shut down the shields, and then he would rule. Daemon would then step in, and of course, he would lose another system. But for now all that mattered was the success of his crack agents.
In the P. O. the main control room was a buzz with activity. The binomes were monitoring the CPUs, the army, everything. Not a single binome was lying around. Suddenly a small map beeped.
"Sir! We have a breach!" a binome said.
"Breach? Someone has breached us? How could zat be? Are ze shields down?"
"No... the shields are at full power. They must have gotten in some other way. How do we stop them?
"Ve'll have to use vat's around us. Go and get a lot of scrap metal. And some velders. Hurry!"
The binomes ran off in search of some metal and welders. After looking through the junk pile in the P. O, they finally found what they wanted. They ran back to the Professor.
"Ah, gut. You hav found ze metal und ze velders! Excellent! Hurry! Let's make somezing- a gun, or somezing- that we can put the anti-virus code into!"
The binomes started hard at work. Some stayed at the positions to monitor the outside battle, but many were trying desperately to make a device. Finally a One made something that looked good and substantial.
It was a small device, but the code could fit inside. It had 4 antenna, which would be used to broadcast the rays of the anti-virus code. It could be turned on from remote, but each needed a fair sized amount of power to activate them.
The Professor congratulated the binome, then told everyone to try to make a copy of the device. Within micros at least 10 devices were welded and finished. After about 15 devices were made, the binome at the map said, "They're coming closer! No, wait... they aren't. Oh no! They're shutting off power from the Core!"
The other binomes gasped. Without power from the Core, Mainframe would deteriorate!
"Wait, no, they're only shutting off power to this section. They're trying just to stop us from watching the battle. And maybe put down the shields."
"Zat is not gut. Ve must put zese devices up qvickly before the virals reach zis room. Hurry! Go a gut distance from here and put zem on ze walls. I hope zis works."
"Professor, how will we power the devices and put the code into them?" the Professor's assistant said.
"Vell, I vas looking at charts for ze Principle Office, and I noticed that ze power cables and datalinks are interconnected in ze walls. So you could put zese anywhere, and the code and power would reach them. But if zey shut off our power, ve can't give ze command to turn zem on..."
* * *
A CPU went on fire and crashed to the ground, deleting a few viral binomes.
"Okay guys, don't let that happen again! Avoid their blasts! Swing Mark 9802 and watch them! THX-1136, keep up the good aim. We're about halfway through!" the CPU commander said.
"I read you, commander. I'll keep a steady blast," THX-1136 said.
On the ground, sure enough half of the virals were un-infected and trying their luck at fighting the virals. Some gave up and fled. Others stayed to fight, but most were filelocked or shocked until they fled. The remaining virals, however, were tougher then ever. Focusing all their attention on THX-1136, they were firing over and over and over. It was endless.
In the hallways of the P. O., the crack agents shuffled along. Quickly they arrived at the place they needed to get to. A One took out a hefty wire cutter. A Zero put on some rubber gloves and took the wire cutter. He also got out a pickaxe, and began to chip away at the wall.
After some time, the Zero finally got through the wall. Taking the wire cutter, he put them over the power cable, and then it snapped. The lights dimmed. They knew their work was almost done. They picked up their stuff, and moved towards the command center.
* * *
Professor Einome was worried. Would the virals shut down the Core's power? Backup power would be enough to keep the command center online, but not enough to power the devices. Suddenly, the lights dimmed, and many instruments went off. Then a red light glowed, and the instruments went back on. Everyone knew what that meant. The virals had gotten through to the Core's power.
"Now how do we power those devices, Professor?"
"I don't know... I just don't know..."
"Sir! it seems the viral group has changed plans now! They're moving towards this room!"
"Are zey far from here?"
"Um... about a bit or two... I think. My datascreen's a little random from the short poweroutage."
"Yes, I understand." He sighed. "Soon zey vill reach us, and ve vill hav to be taken under control."
"Oh, Professor, don't think that way. Look how far you've come; all the inventions you've made. You've done so much, and now you're just going to give up?" His assistant sat down by him.
"You're vight. But how am I supposed to stop zem now?"
"Sir! Reporting a tear in one of the hallways!"
* * *
The crack agents kept shuffling down the hallways. They knew soon they would reach the control room. Soon Mainframe would be thier's.
One of the Zeros kept looking at walls. They were pulsating with a white light. He was about to say, "Hey boss-" when a tear appeared right in front of them. The virals quickly turned around and ran. After running for a few nanos, they turned around to find that the tear had turned into a portal. They were wondering why the tear would turn into a portal, when something fell out of the portal. The portal closed up and disappeared. The virals slowly walked over to the small device on the ground. They picked it up. It was a keytool. A One smiled and told the others to keep going.
Back at the control room, the binomes were wondering why the tear had turned into a portal, then disappeared. They also wondered why the virals had stopped where the portal used to be. Had something fallen out of the portal? Then they noticed the virals were coming towards them- and quicker.
"Sir! They're approaching faster! It's like they're running! And we can't activate the anti-viral devices on the walls because our power is out. What shall we do?"
"Just vait- and prepare yourself. They probably vill hav help from ze portal. Get a veapon! And be veady."
The binomes picked up crude weapons and waited. It seemed to go on for milliseconds. Finally a knock on the door was heard, then a loud bang. Large dents appeared in the door. After much banging, the door busted open. The viral group was ready to do business.
"All right, drop your... um... things and come quietly. We'll deactivate the shields, and then we'll take you to our leader to be infected. Okay? Then get to it."
The binomes didn't waver or move. A One asked, "How are you going to make us?"
The lead One smiled and took out the keytool he had found. "We're going to stop you with this." After a closer look, the binomes saw it was Glitch! Even after this astounding discovery, the binomes weren't very afraid. They all knew one thing. "All right then, you're not going to do it. Um... alright you keytool, I want you to do as I say or I'll destroy you! Now, shoot them with a photon beam!"
Glitch just started making beeps and started to buzz.
"Geez, what's he saying? Hey, any of you guys know Keytool?"
"I do!" The Professor said. "Und he iz saying to put him down or he vill deliver a powerful shock through your entire body."
"Un-huh, yeah right. Like this little keytool would- ARRRRGGGHHHHH!" The binome's sentence was cut short by Glitch vibrating with electricity. "Ow..." He fainted, dropping Glitch. The other binomes took a moment to notice this, then attacked the other binomes. The virals fled in fear, dragging their leader behind them.
The Professor picked up Glitch and said, "How did you get here, Glitch? I thought you had melded with you Guardian!"
Glitch replied by beeping and whirring.
"Oh, you have a message for us? Okay. Here," he gave Glitch to a binome, "plug him in."
The binome did as told and put Glitch in the slot. On the screen came a picture of Bob, looking like his old self, with the blue Guardian uniform, except he still had his Web hair.
Bob began. "Ahem. Testing. Okay. Hello, Mainframe binomes. As you may already know, all the sprites of Mainframe have been taken by Daemon," the binomes gasped at this, "in order to take over Mainframe. Now, Daemon has some weird powers, but she has a limitation. She can't infect Guardians who have melded with their keytool. She says it's too hard, because it's beyond her abilities to infect a keytool. After going through a horrible un-melding process, she noticed Glitch was a beat-up, worthless, keytool, which I know he's not." Glitch beeped happily at this. "Daemon told me to decompile Glitch, but I could never do that to an old friend. So, please use Glitch wisely. I'm sure he'll be of hel- oh, hello. Yeah, I'm going to go decompi-" The video cut short. The binomes all stood solemnly, until a One noticed something.
"Hey, Professor, look at this," he said.
* * *
Outside, the virals were still fighting with full force.
"Okay, we've almost got them cornered. Now just fire and we'll be done real soon." Suddenly the P. O.'s shields went down. At first no one noticed, but then many virals did, and ran as quickly as possible towards the entrances to the P. O. "Oh, bit."
In the Tor the virus was watching the battle gleefully.
"Oh, finally. Those crack agents are of good use. Well, I'd better call them back, so they can help me round up these un-infectees." He patched into a speaker. "Hello? Okay, time to come home!"
Back at the P. O. the binomes were dumbfounded. How in the name of the User did the shields get put down?
"It doesn't matter now. Vat does matter is zat ve stop zose virals! Ve must try to turn on ze viral erasers! If only ve had a source of power!" Glitch started to beep. "Vat? You say ve you vight be able to patch up the broken links? Perfect! Okay, link Glitch up!"
The binomes did as told, and hooked Glitch to the main control panel.
"All vight... Glitch.. um... Power Surge!"
Sure enough, Glitch started using his systems to try to make power for the control panels. The control panels started to glow and hum.
"Hey, Professor, you might want to step back..."
"Nonsense. Nothing could hap-" The Professor then accidentally rested himself on the panel. Instantly, he was a blur with electricity and data. Suddenly, the binomes noticed a change, other than the fact his hair was standing straighter up than usual. It seemed his regular icon was being changed by all this electricity, and was changing into another icon!
A Zero put on some rubber gloves and pulled the Professor away from the electrified control panel. He was shaking all over. And his icon had changed too.
"Ohh.... ow...."
"Hey, Professor, look at your icon!" an eager One exclaimed.
"Vat? Vat about my icon?" He turned his eyeblock to look at his icon, and sure enough, it had changed. Instead of a regular diamond-in-the-middle-of-a-circle, his icon now had the picture of a Bohr model of an atom on it, which was pulsating. "Yes, I do feel different. But my head iz ringing like crazy!" The other binomes laughed. Then Glitch stopped charging and beeped. "He iz done!"
"Okay then, let's activate the anti-virus commands! The virals are already approaching!"
"I'll press it, zank you." The Professor went up to the button, and smacked it down.
* * *
The virals were entering the P. O. at all points possible. They were flooding into everywhere, even though there were 50 or so left.
A One walking out of formation was the first to spot the strange devices. He pointed it out to some neighbors, and they stopped to look. It was a small oval-shaped device, with 4 antenna pointing to the top, bottom, left, and right.
Suddenly the devices started to hum and glow green. The binomes started to run back into formation, but there was no escape. The antenna started to gather points of green light on the ends, first one antennae, and then the next. When the points were the size of a pebble, the rays of the anti-virus program shot out into all the binomes. There was no escape.
Many tried to hide around corners, but the rays were everywhere. But, when the viral code had been taken away, they all felt a lot better.
In the control center, everyone high-fived each other. There were many congratulations. Soon the Professor grew tired, and decided to go to his lab/café to go eat. He called his assistant over, and told him to take an anti-viral device and the anti-viral code. He wanted to make some changes to it.
Flying over the middle of Baudway, Professor Einome contemplated what he had just helped do.
"I did not know zer vere so many vays to help sprites. I mean, I did zings I didn't zink I could ever do. And I got a new icon!"
"Yes, you certainly are lucky, Professor!"
But on the ground, an eye watched the two fly overhead through a sewer hole. A green eye with a red pupil...
Later the two landed at his café. He went in, and ordered 2 energy shakes.
"Hey, Professor how's it going?" his waiter asked.
"Phew, I am so tired. I just stopped a whole army of viral binomes from taking over ze Principle Office. but, I did get a new icon! See?"
"Whoa! You did all that? No wonder you're so tired, Professor. Here, I'll go get some food too."
"Okay, vatever you vant."
After finishing his meal, he and his assistant went into his lab. The Professor began to splice the code under a microscope.
"Hmm, zis iz very interesting. It seems it iz made up of a tiny bug that eats away at viral programming. How odd..."
Suddenly the system voice came online. "WARNING: INCOMING GAME. WARNING: INCOMING GAME."
"Uh-oh. I'd better pack up." He quickly put the code back together and back into its container. "Vere iz that other invention I wanted to test? Maybe zis might be a good time..."
Outside the Professor heard, "AAAA! It's right over us! Hurry! Get out! Hey Professor, the Game's right over us! You'd better run!"
The Professor paid no heed. "Perfect! Now vere iz it?"
"Here it is! I found it, Professor."
"Ah, zank you. Gut, now to vait for the Game."
"I don't think you'll have to wait that long..."
The sound of Game energy came closer and closer, until the Game descended upon the café.
Copyright information: ReBoot, Bob, Glitch, Daemon, and related indicia are © Mainframe Entertainment Inc. ReBoot, Bob, Glitch, Daemon, and related indicia were used for a non-profit purpose and therefore it is OK. Albert Einome, the virus, the Professor's assistant, all those cool anti-virus things, and the main story are © Albert Einome (me). You can copy this story for non-profit purposes only. If otherwise, contact me (agbstarwars@hotmail.com) Thank you! Have a nice day.