Reboot: New Generation

Chapters

Medusa Bug
Game Crash
Caged In Storage
Corruption
Unplugged
New Protection
Propaganda
Firewall
Game Over
The Tearing
Racing The Clock
Between a Byte and a Game

Medusa Bug

Hack and Slash slide as fast as they can across the twisted bridge of Lost angels. “Oh she’s not happy,” Slash says.

“No, she is not,” Hack agrees as they make it to the end of the bridge connecting to the Mainframe. Megabyte’s forces are waiting at the end of the bridge for them. They make their way through them before sliding up to a limo. The window rolls down to reveal Megabyte sitting in the back.

“Did you get it?” Megabyte asks.

“Yes,” Hack says.

“Of Course your evilness,” Slash says.

“Evilness!?” Hack asks, slapping Slash over the head.

“What?” Slash responds. Megabyte sighs as he extends his hand out.

“The weapon,” Megabyte says before Hack hands him a little black box with hexagons for the walls. “Finally we will know what she was hiding,” Megabyte says before rolling the window up. An Avid window pops up, showing Hex flying out of her tower with an angry face.

“MEGABYTE!” Hex yells out as she flies towards the city. “You cheat! You lie!” Hex yells out before stopping at the end of the bridge. “Very clever of you,” Hex says, her face turning into intrigue.

“Of Course it’s clever,” Megabyte responds. “I got the brains after all,”

“Yes you did,” Hex says. “But you didn’t get the power!” Hex yells as her hands turn orange.

“General,” Megabyte says as the limo takes off. The video window changed into Megabyte’s general. The binom salutes Megabyte before going back to normal. “Slow down my sister will you?”

“Of Course my liege,” The general says before the video window disappears.

“Hack, Slash,” Megabyte says as the video window pops up in front of the two. “You know what to do,” The two nod before sliding over to the bridge. The bridge has been overtaken by millions of colorful, worm-like, nulls charging toward them.

“All right, here we go!” Hack says as he extends his arms around the bridge in front of the.

“We just need to,” Slash says as he does the same.

“Come on,” Hack replies back.

“Lift!” The two yell as they break the bridge and lift the piece up into the air before throwing it down to the data sea below. The nulls fall off the bridge and into the sea. Hex sighs as she slowly shakes her head.

“I guess I’ll do this myself,” Hex says, her hands glowing orange again.

“Fire!” The general yells. The ships shoot at Hex with all they got. Explanations cover her up from the binoms. The shooting slows down to a stop. The smoke goes away to reveal Hex surrounded by a golden, shiny orb. Her face smiles as she wags a finger at them.

“Now now,” Hex says before her face turns into anger. “How rude!” She yells before sending an orange beam at the ships. The ships explode on contact with the beam.

“Finally,” Pipp says, closing the hood of her car. The car is hovering above the ground with a nice humming sound. She looks over at Sparky sitting in the passenger seat. “Where did Hutch go?” Pipp asks. Sparkly shrugs his shoulders in response. Pipp sighs before walking back to the dinner’s entrance. Sparky jumps out and runs after her.

“And you are sure there’s nothing wrong in level 31?” Hitch asks for a binom on a video window.

“Nothing out of the normal Mr. Blaze,” The binomial response.

“Just call me Hitch,” Hitch responds as Pipp and Sparky walk into the diner. Spotting him sitting at the bar.

“Yes Mr. Blaze,” The binom says before the video window disappears. Hitch sighs as he pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Hitch!” Pipp yells at him. Hitch flinches before turning towards Pipp with her hands on her hips in anger. “I told you, you are having a break if you like it or not,” Pipp says as she and Sparky walk over to him.

“A guardian's job is never done,” Hitch responds as Pipp and SParky stand on the weather side of him.

“But guardians do take breaks,” Sparky spits back before the two grab him by the arms and lift him off his seat.

“Wait! No!” Hitch yells as he gets dragged across the dinner by the two. “I need to check on level 35!” Hitch struggles against the two as he is dragged out of the dinner.

“You can check on the level after you take a good break,” Pipp says as the two place him into the back of the car.

“It’s not like the level is going to be attacked by some kind of bug,” Sparky responds as Pipp gets into the driver's seat.

“Ya, you two are right,” Hitch says before sighing. ”I’ll take a break,” He says as Sparky jumps into the car.

“Good, because I got a great spot for you,” Pipp says before driving off into the air.

“She has deleted the entire army, Sir!” The general says to megabyte over the video window. Megabyte sits in his chair in his tower with the box in his left hand.

“Has she come into the Mainframe yet?” Megabyte asks.

“No Sir,” The general responds. “She went back to her tower,”

“Good,” Megabyte says before closing the video window. “I think it’s time we find out what my dear sister has been hiding from me,” Megabyte says looking down at the box. He presses the top with his thumb before it starts opening up. His eyes widen as his hands begin to turn a gray, marble color. “No!” He yells as he starts tapping the button on his chair. “It’s a bug!”

The gray color slowly slides up his arm as he scans the bug. “Medusa Bug, no known cures,” The computer says before a vid window of Hexadecimal shows up in front of Megabyte.

“How are you liking my little toy?” Hex says, her face smiling.

“You tricked me!” Megabyte yells up at Hex.

“I thought you liked being foaled?” Hex says as her face turns into sadness. “Oh well,” Hex says, her face turning into joy before she starts laughing. The vid window collapses as the bug fully infects Megabyte and starts to take over the tower.

“Ya, I think you two were right,” Hitch says. He lays on top of a picnic blanket on the ground with his hands behind his head and sunglasses over his eyes. He sits up a bit and looks over at Pipp with her head in the car’s engine. Hitch was laying in the center of a roundabout. “You know I could help you out with that and get us up in the air quicker,” Hitch offers.

“No,” Pipp quickly responds back, turning to look over at him. “I’ve got this,” Pipp says before going back to the engine.

“If you need the car expert, then just call me,” Hitch responds, going back to laying down.

“Give me some credit,” Pipp responds. “I got the car flying for the first time,” Pipp looks around the hood of the car to Sparky in the driver seat. “Try it,” Pipp asks before Sparky hits the ignition. The car shakes a bit as the ignition sound rolls over itself. Pipp sighs as Sparky stops revving the engine. “What is wrong this time,” Pipp says, going back into the car.

“If you really don’t want me to help, you could always call the car repair,” Hitch says.

“And pay them for fixing a simple part, no thanks,” Pipp responds. “Try it,” Sparky again hits the ignition. The engine comes to life, causing the car to float off the ground. “Yes!” Pipp yells in happiness before the car engine stops and drops the car back to the ground. “Damn it!” Pipp says before going back into the engine.

“You could also call Zipp,” Hitch says, sitting up as Sparky moves over to the passenger seat. He looks at something in the distance as Pipp looks over at Hitch with anger.

“She’s probably busy fighting someone in some system,” Pipp responds with anger in her voice. She goes back to the engine as Hitch takes the hint and looks over at Sparky.

“What is it Sparky?” Hitch asks, turning to look where he was.

“It’s Frisket,” Sparky says, squinting as Hitch removes his sunglasses and places them on his head. “He’s running from something,” Frisket runs for a bit before turning back around and barking at the gray-colored thing covering the ground. The buildings touching the gray turn gray as well.

“What is that,” Hitch says, standing up slowly. Frisket gets surrounded by the gray stuff as he barks at it. The gray color swarms him and freezes him while turning him gray.

“Frisket!” Sparky yells, getting Pipp to stand up straight and look at what they are looking at.

“Glitch! System scan!” Hitch yells with worry in his voice as the gray stuff starts heading toward them.

“Get in the car!” Pipp yells as she quickly attempts to fix the car.

“No time,” Hitch yells running over to the trunk of the car. “Pop the trunk Sparky,” Hitch says before Sparky retches over to the driver seat and pops the trunk. The trunk comes up a bit. Hitch grabs the trunk and pulls it up before grabbing the three zip boards inside the trunk. He closes the trunk before running over to them. “Head to the Principal Office,” Hitch says, handing Sparky his zip board. Sparky nods before throwing down the zip board and jumping on it.

“Why did you bring those?” Pipp asks, grabbing the zip board from Hitch as Sparky flies away.

“Your spark plug is old, and you need a new compressor,” Hitch says before throwing down his zip board. “Now move it or else you will end up like Frisket,” Hitch says, jumping onto his zip board and following Sparky. Pipp sighs as she throws down her zip board and flies after the two.

“What is it?” Sparky asks as Hitch catches up with him.

“Glitch hasn’t said,” Hitch says, looking down at his key tool. “All I can tell you bud is that it’s some kind of bug,” Hitch says as Pipp catches up to them. “Phong might know what it is,”

(Time Skip)

“It is the Medusa Bug,” Phong says to the group. They all stand around a video window set like a table in front of them. The screen shows a map of Mainframe as it slowly gets infected by the bug.

“The Medusa Bug!” Hitch says, worried digging deep into his voice. “I thought that was just a myth?” Hitch says in confusion.

“It is more than a myth my boy,” Phong replies. “And it seems Megabyte started it,” Phong says, tapping on Megabyte’s tower. The map zooms in on the tower as it gets infected. “Whether on purpose or on accident, I do not know,” Phong says, slowly shaking his head.

“Probably on purpose,” Sparky responds.

“But he was infected as well,” Pipp responds. “Why would he do that?” Pipp looks to Phong as Hitch thinks to himself.

“Again my children, I do not have the answers you seek,” Phong replies.

“What about Lost Angle?” Hitch asks, taping the map. Zooming it back out before tapping on lost angles. It zooms in on the island.

“Completely untouched,” Sparky says, leaning on the video window.

“And it’s not spreading across the bridge,” Pipp notes.

“That might be because of the bridge being broken,” Hitch says, sliding the map to the bridge. The section connecting the Mainframe is gone.

“So Hex must have tricked Megabyte into setting it off,” Phong deduces as he scratches his chin.

“So we have our culprit,” Hitch replies. “Now to stop this bug and pay a visit to her,” Hitch thinks aloud.

“What does the bug do?” Sparky asks Phong.

“It freezes everything it touches,” Phone says, tapping the vid window and showing a street sign, a building, and a sprite. “It eats energy until the thing is deleted. First goes signs, then buildings, then sprites,” Phong explains as the sign, building, and sprite disintegrate into a pile of ash. “Of course, your dad might be immune to it,”

“I don’t want to stay and find out,” Hitch says, crossing his arms over his chest.

“That’s bad,” Sparky says.

“Very bad,” Hitch nods in agreement before he walks over to Phong. “I need to see the armory,” Hitch commands. Phong nods before turning around and sliding towards a wall. Hitch follows as Phong raises his hands above his head and looks up at the wall.

He takes a deep breath before whispering, “Yada Yada Yada,” The wall opens up before Phong slides in with Hitch following behind him. Hitch and Phong walk into a giant room with weapons and armor. Vid windows open up in front of them in a grid pattern with the front of a cabinet being displayed.

“Ok,” Hitch sighs as he places his hands on his hips. “I’m gonna need a Compressor, Exnter, Firewall inverter, and a reset command,” Hitch says, looking up at the wall of video windows. Phong looks up at Hitch as he looks around the room for a few seconds. Hitch looks down at Phong as he pushes his glasses up his nose. “Well?” Hitch asks.

“We are not the supercomputer Hitch,” Phong replies. “All I can give you is this,” Phong says as he stretches his arm up to the highest vid window before tapping on it. The cabinet pops out of the void window before Phong grabs something inside. He pulls out an eraser before pulling his arm back down to him as the cabinet closes back into the void window. Phong shows the eraser to Hitch.

“An erase command?!” Hitch says, his worry growing. “Not even a firewall?” Hitch asks, taking the eraser from Phong.

“Why do you think Megabyte and Hex are still here?” Phong asks. Hitch sighs before nodding.

“Ok,” Hitch says. “I think I can work with this. How many do we have?”

“Three,” Phong responds as he clasps his hands together.

“Three tries to get this bug gone,” Hitch replies. “Can you at least give me an energy booster?”

“That I can do!” Phong says before sliding away.

“Everyone head inside!” Pipp yells as she stands outside of the Principal office. Spirits and binoms walk along the bridge into the building. Sirens blare throughout the system. Sparky walks up to Pipp before Hitch comes flying out on his zip board with the erase common and a mechanical device attached to the command in his hands.

“Ya!” Sparky yells.

“Be Careful Hitch!” Pipp yells out. Hitch sighs as he flies towards Megabyt’s tower. He slows to a stop before looking down at the command in his hands.

“Hope this works,” Hitch says as he activates the mechanical devices. He raises the command over his head and throws it at the tower before flying away. “Glitch, video window Phong,” Hitch says before turning around as the command hits the ground, causing an explosion that starts to delete the bug.

“Is it working?” Phong asks Hitch.

“So far,” Hitch says, looking over at the vid window next to him. The explosion starts to slow down before stopping. “Oh, no,” Hitch says before the explosion collapses back on itself. The bug returned back to the area the explosion had been at. Hitch sighs before looking back at the vid window. “It didn’t work,” Hitch says.

“Oh dear,” Phong says, looking down at the ground as he claps his hands together.

“I need those other two erase commands,” Hitch says.

“You aren’t going to try to use them at the same time are you?” Phong asks, looking up at Hitch.

“No,” Hitch shakes his head. “That would cause a compression loop we don’t want to detail with right now,” Hitch says as Phong passes the two erase commands through the vid window. Hitch grabs them before Phong retracts his arms back.

“Good,” Phong says before the video window flips around to Sparky.

“Did it work?” Sparky asks as Phong slides up to Sparky.

“No,” Hitch replies as he shakes his head. “But I have an idea,” Hit responds as half of the video window is suddenly taken up by Pipp.

“And here I thought you were mister knew it all,” Pipp says with slight anger in her voice.

“Hey, all I said was I could help, but you refused it,” Hitch replies.

“That’s not…” Pipp says before Hitch closes Pipp’s window.

“So what are you doing?” Sparky asks.

“I’m going to throw one down and try to use Glitch to enhance its energy output,” Hitch says as he places one of the eraser commands on his hip.

“That could overclock Glitch,” Sparky responds.

“He’s been overclocked before,” Hitch responds, holding his arm up for him to see Glitch. “You can handle it, right?” Hitch asks Glitch, who responds with happy clicks and beeps. “He says yes,' Hitch says before closing the video window.

He takes a deep breath before raising the command over his head and throwing it at the tower. He points his key tool to where the command landed before yelling, “Glitch! Energy transfer!” Glitch’s gear props up and points at the new explosion before sending out a yellow lazer. The explosion grows fast as it passes Hitch. Hitch rocks back and forth on the zip board from the shock before leveling off.

Gitch starts to overheat as the explosion grows. Electricity starts to shoot off of the key tool. “Glitch!” Hitch yells, but it is too late. Glitch explodes, causing the gear and the orange rod to fall off of the key tool. “Glitch!” Hitch yells as the explosion collapses again.

“Glitch, buddy, can you hear me?” Hitch asks, looking down at what was left of Glitch on his arm. Glitch beeps at him, causing Hitch to sigh. “So now you are out of it for a while,” Hitch says before flying back towards the Principal Office.

“It did not work?” Phong asks as a video window shows up in front of Hitch, moving with him.

“Nope,” Hitch says, showing Glitch to Phong.

“Oh, dear,” Phong responded.

“There are two more options,” Hitch explains. “One, we talk to Hex and see if she will get rid of the bug for us,”

“Is there a second option?” Phong asks.

“You open the core up so the beam goes through the top of the Principal Office in a beam to the sky. I then throw the erase common in and head back in and pray to the user,” Hitch explains.

Phong sighs as he taps on the video window in front of him. “I’ll open the top up for you Hitch,” Phong says before the video window disappears. Hitch flies up to the top of the sphere-shaped Principal Office. In the center of the roof is a white platform that slowly starts to open up. It completely opens before a bright white light shoots straight up into the air. It hits the sky and bends back down towards the Mainframe.

“Here goes nothing,” Hitch sighs as he pulls out the last eraser command. He raises it up and throws it into the beam before flying away. The beam turns light purple. The color spreads to the rest of the light. Hitch flies down to the door before flying into it. The bridges connecting the Principal Office disappear as giant shields cover the doorways. A giant blue orb surrounds the Principal Office.

Hitch flies over the big hallway, now filled with spirits, towards Phone, Sparky, and Pipp standing on the other side of the room. Hitch slows down and lowers down to the ground before stepping off his zip board and picking it up. He places the zip board on his hip as he walks up to the group.

“Is it working?” Hitch asks as a vid window appears in front of them like a table.

“It seems so,” Phong replies with genuine shock in his voice.

“Let’s go!” Sparky says, fist bumping the air. Pipp sighs before turning towards Hitch.

“Hitch, look I'm sorry for being a bit angry at you,” Pipp Apologizes.

“It’s all right,” Hitch responds, looking over at Pipp with a smile. “Whatever happened between you and your sister is your problem, not mine,” Pipp smiles before stepping close to him and wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

“Thanks,” Pipp says as Hitch hugs back. The two quickly separate when the video window beeps.

“Oh dear,” Phong says, shaking his head.

“What is it,” Hitch says, leaning on the vid window and looking down at the map of Mainframe. “No,” Hitch replies as his eyes widen.

“It’s coming back up the energy stream!” Sparky says as Hitch throws down his zip board.

“Shut down the stream, then open a part of the force field for me when I tell you,” Hitch commands as he steps onto his zip board. Phong nods as Hitch flies back down the room. He makes it to the other side, but before he can give the word, a loud siren sound emits into the room. “No!” Hitch says as he looks up at the ceiling. The ceiling starts turning gray before heading down the walls. “Sparky!” Hitch yells before flying back toward the other end of the room.

“Dad!” Sparky yells, turning towards Hitch before running after him. Hitch stretches his arm as Sparky does the same thing, but it is too late. Sparky gets covered in gray as he freezes in place.

“Sparky!” Hitch yells as he slows down in front of his son. Tears start streaming down Hitches cheeks as he places his hands on Spark’s shoulders. The gray stuff crept up his body and freeze him as well.

Author's Note

First cliffhanger, what will happen?! You'll just gonna have to wait a few days to find out.

Game Crash

Mainframe sits in a gray, desolate quiet. No one is moving, not a sound from anything. No sound except the sound of laughter from Hex. She sits in her chair with a vid window of Mainframe in front of her with her pet scuzzy. Scuzzy is a sphere-shaped cat-looking sprite with a green gem on its head. He floats next to Hex as she laughs.

“How do you like what I’ve done to Mainframe?” She asks scuzzy, who doesn’t respond. “Well! Why so stoned face!” Hex yells at Scuzzy before calming down and realizing, “Oh wait, I forgot you are literally stoned,” Hex says before tapping on the frozen Scuzzy, causing him to float a bit back. “Oh well,” Hex shrugs as she leans back into her chair.

Spirits are frozen mid-run in the Principal Office. Some tried to run away, while others tried to hide. Standing on the far end are Pipp, Hitch, Sparky, and Phong. Pipp is looking up at the ceiling in horror while Phong has accepted his fate. Sparky is stuck in mid-stride with Hitch on his zip board holding onto Sparky’s shoulders.

The gray, concrete-like substance bursts off of Hitch as he screams out in raging anger, “HEXADECIMAL!” He sighs as he looks over at Phong. “I guess you were right, old friend, I am immune,” Hitch says before turning back to his son in his hands. “Lucky me,” Hitch says, his heart breaking at the distress on Sparky’s face. He pushes away from Sparky before using his zip board and flies over the spirits in the room. “Time to make a visit to Hexadecimal,” Hitch says as he flies out of the room before making his way out of the Principal Office.

He flies high over the city of Mainframe as he heads for the island of Lost Angels. Hitch looks at Glitch with sadness in his eyes. “Glitch, can you do a system scan?” Hitch says. Glitch beeps back at him before a small screen appears on the little blue box that was left of Glitch. “Nothing,” Hitch sighs. “As I feared. How much time do I have before total deletion?” Hitch asks before the sky turns purple.

He stops moving as the announcer yells out incoming game. A Gamecube is starting to fall onto the city. “Glitch, where is the game going to land?” Hitch asks, looking down at Glitch. Glitch beeps before a vid window appears in front of Hitch showing the location of the Gamecube. “I won’t be able to make it,” Hitch says as he watches the Gamecube land on a sector of the city.

Hitch goes back to flying toward the island before Glitch beeps again. Hitch stops and looks down at Glitch. Glitch projects another vid window in front of Hitch, who looks at it before his jaw drops. “No!” Hitch says with horror written on his face. The Gamecube was turning gray as its normally chaotic purple pattern slowly fades away.

“Warning, game crash in progress,” The announcer says as the Gamecube is completely frozen.

“No, no, no,” Hitch says, shaking his head back and forth. “Glitch, open up task manager,” Hitch commands. Glitch beeps back at him before popping up another vid window with a list of tasks. At the top is the game, listed as not responding. Hitch quickly taps the icon before going to the bottom left of the void window and pressing the end task. A pop-up appears saying admin password needed.

“Dangit Phong!” Hitch curses as he quickly tries a few passwords. Each one is denied before Hitch gives up and looks down at Glitch. “Do you think you have enough power left to crack a password?” Hitch asks Glitch. Glitch responds in beeps before the password box starts to rapidly go through the password. “Great, brute force,” Hitch says before Glitch beeps back at him. “I know it’s the only thing you can do right now,” Hitch responds as the announcer comes back.

“Game Crash imminent,”

“Here up Glitch!” Hitch yells. “Or else they will be partially nullified!” Hitch yells as the Gamecube starts to flicker as cracks start to show in the gray outer skin. White light starts to glow from the cracks before eventually going up in an explosion. “No!” Hitch yells as he watches the explosion whip out the buildings in the sector. Glitch beeps as the password goes green before fading away. “Too late Glitch,” Hitch sighs before closing the vid windows.

Hitch turns and keeps flying toward Hex’s island before the sky turns purple again. “What!” Hitch yells in surprise. “Not another one so soon!” Hitch says before looking down at Glitch. “Where is the game going to land this time?” Hitch asks as he stops. Glitch beeps at him as Hitch’s heart sinks. He looks up to see the Gamecube coming down on him. “Crap!”

Hitch yells before flying back the way he came. “Come one zip board, don’t fail me now,” Hitch whispers down at his zip board. But it was no use, the Gamecube landed on top of him, causing him to run into the wall of the game.

“Just my luck,” Hitch grumbles as he rubs his nose. “When I don’t want in a game, I end up in one,” Hitch says as he steps off his zip board before picking it up and placing it on his hip. “Without Glitch, I’m gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way,” Hitch says, turning around to see he is at the end of a long wooden hallway. The wall goes up about two times his height before ending in an open roof to the blue sky.

“Here goes nothing,” Hitch says before double tapping his icon and yelling, “Reboot!” Green energy covers him before fading away and revealing him in a cat costume. He looks down at himself with a little confusion. “A cat, then what is the user?” Hitch says as a sound catches his attention. He looks up to see a giant mouse at the end of the hallway. It looks at him before running down another hallway.

“That must be the user,” Hitch says as he runs after the user. He slides to a stop at the turn and looks down the way the user just ran. Nothing but a long hallway with more turns that the user could have taken. “Great, he’s fast,” Hitch sighs. “And a literal cat and mouse game,”

“Hitch!” a loud, deep, and obnoxious voice yells out. Hitch sighs in deep annoyance before turning around as a walking golden crt tv walks up to him. “It’s been too long, how’ve you been!”

“Mike,” Hitch sighs as Mike keeps talking.

“Why haven’t you come back to the apartment?” Mike asks. “I have so many new products to show you,”

“Mike,” Hitch says with a bit more annoyance in his voice.

“Like the bucket-o-nothing!” Mike yells out in a dramatic voice.

“Mike,” Hitch says a bit louder.

“It’s a bucket of nothing for only ninety-nine ninety-nine ninety-nine!” Mike says.

“MIKE!” Hitch yells in anger, causing Mike to flinch as Hitch stares daggers down at the tv.

“Sorry,” Mike responds. Hitch sighs before pinching the bridge of his nose.

“This is why your remote ran away,” Hitch responds. Mike goes to talk but is interrupted when the ground jolts and shifts before returning to normal. “Crap,” Hitch says, looking up at the sky as it slowly starts to turn gray.

“What’s that?” Mike asks, looking up at the sky.

“And I thought you were the news anchor?” Hitch asks, looking down at Mike. He shrugs in response before Hitch sighs. “It’s the Medusa Bug I failed to stop from infecting Mainframe,”

“The guardian couldn’t stop a simple bug!” Mike says in shock.

“That’s the problem,” Hitch responds. “It’s simple and fast. Now if you don’t want to be partially deleted, then you will either help me delete the user, or stay out of my way,” Hitch explains, squatting down to Mike’s level.

“Yes sir!” Mike says as he salutes Hitch.

“Why does everyone keep calling me sir,” Hitch whispers to himself as he stands back up. Hitch turns around and starts walking down the hallway, checking down the other hallways as he passes them. Mike follows behind him as he hums a song.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Mike asks, looking up at Hitch. “What is partial deletion?”

“It’s when part of your code is forever deleted, no backup, no save state,” Hitch explains before stopping in front of a wall. He looks up as he scratches his chin. A smile crosses his face as he takes a few steps back before running at the wall. He jumps up and pushes his foot against the wall, jumping off of it and up towards the legend of the wall. He is stopped by an invisible energy wall that saps him back to the ground.

“You ok?” Mike asks, looking down at Hitch on the ground. Hitch takes a deep breath before sighing.

“Honestly,” Hitch says, sitting up. “No,” He states before standing up. “I’m not ok,” Hitch says before walking down another part of the maze. “I’ve failed as a guardian, I’ve failed my friends, I’ve failed to keep my son from danger, and now I’m going to get us all either deleted or partially deleted depending on if the user gets all six of the cheese coins before the game crashes,” Hitch explains in frustration. Mike stops walking as he turns and looks down one of the hallways.

“When you say cheese coins, do you mean that thing?” Mike asks, pointing down the hallway. Hitch stops and turns around to look at Mike.

“What does it look like?” Hitch asks before walking over to Mike. Hitch looks down the hallway to see a giant coin with a generic-looking piece of cheese etched into the golden coin. “Ya, that’s it,” Hitch says, walking over to the coin. “There are six of these all around the maze, and the user needs to get them to win the game,” Hitch explains as Mike walks up to him.

“So how are you going to stop him?” Mike asks.

“Well, let’s see what we have here,” Hitch looks over his body. “The tail doesn’t help,” Hitch says, looking back at the cat tail where his normal one used to be. “I wonder,” Hitch says before flexing his fingers. Sharp claws come out of the ends of his fingers. “Nice, I got claws,” Hitch says with a smile. “Meaning,” Hitch says before squatting down and jumping as hard as he can up. He springs into the air before ramming into the invisible energy field again. He falls back to the ground and lands on his feet. “High jump, check, landing on my feet, check,” Hitch says before turning to Mike. “Why haven’t you rebooted yet?”

“Null stole my icon,” Mike says, pointing to where his icon would rest normally on his face. Hitch sighs before looking around.

“Glitch,” Hitch says, looking down at his key tool. “Can you pull up the task manager?” Glitch beeps back at him before sparks fly off the key tool. “Right, you're broken and I can’t access video windows while in the game,” Hitch sighs before looking down at Mike. “So, how about you go and look for the user and anything that could help us, and I’ll stay here and protect this coin, ok?” Hitch explains.

“As you wish sir!” Mike responds before walking away.

“Stop calling me sir!” Hitch yells out as he watches Mike walk around the corner and disappear. Hitch sighs in reive before tensing back up again as he hears a loud thud from behind him. He turns around to see a part of the wall has fallen over with a binom laying on top of it. The user lands on top of the binomial and sniffs it.

“Hey! User!” Hitch yells out, causing the user to straighten up and look over at him. “Over here you overgrown mouse!” Hitch yells as the user runs towards him. “I hope this works,” Hitch whispers as he brings out his claws and is ready to jump. The user stampedes toward him as he stares down the user. He jumps up into the air, towards the user. He flies over the top of the user, barely scraping the energy field before falling back down on top of the user.

Hitch grabs his legs to hold onto the user before raising his hand and scratching the user a few times. The user screams out loud before the mouse collapses into little cubes. Hitch stands up and retracts his claws.

“Ya!” the binom yells as others join him. “We are saved!”

“Not yet,” Hitch responds, turning towards the group that had formed behind him. “The user has three lives, and we have only killed one of them,” Hitch finishes as the ground shakes again. “And the game is starting to crash because of the bug that has taken over Mainframe,”

“We know you can save us!” the binoms respond back. Hitch smiles down at the little spirits.

“All right, listen up!” Hitch commands as he places his hands on the sides of his hips. The group of binoms straightens up as Hitch looks down at them with a serious expression on his face. “I want you to spread out and find all the coins like the one behind me,” Hitch says, pointing behind him. “I then want you to try and set up traps to either delete or capture the user,” Hitch says as he scans the group. “You got that?”

“Yes sir!” They all yell.

“And don’t call me sir,” Hitch sighs. “Now go,” Hitch says, pointing over to them to leave. The group nods before running back down the way they came and spreading out into the different hallways.

“That solves one problem,” Hitch whispers to himself.

“Hitch!” Mike yells as he runs over to him.

“What is it Mike?” Hitch asks, turning around to face Mike.

“I found something that will be VERY useful,” Mike says before pulling out a small mouse trap.

“Nice work Mike!” Hitch says before taking the mouse trap from Mike. “Keep finding stuff like that and we’ll be home free,” Hitch says before the ground shakes again. “That’s if the bug doesn’t crash the game first,” Hitch whispers as he walks over to the coin. He throws the mousetrap at the coin, causing it to turn a light brown.

“All right, now we wait,” Hitch says as Mike turns down a hallway.

“Hitch!” Mike yells as he runs back to Hitch.

“What is it?” Hitch says, turning to see the user, how much bigger, turning the corner towers them. “Crap! He found an upgrade!” Hitch says before backing away. “We need to hide!” Hitch says before running behind a nearby hallway. Mike follows him as the user walks over to the coin. Hitch leans around the corner to watch the user.

The user sniffs the coin as he looks it over. He smiles before licking his lips. He goes and bites down on the coin. But before he can swallow, a giant mouse trap appears under him, springing the metal part down and crashing the mouse's neck. The user disintegrates into dust before the mousetrap does the same.

“Good, two down, one more life to go,” Hitch says before the ground joints hard. “Oh no, no, no, no!” Hitch says, shaking his head. The walls around them start to phase in and out of reality as new walls form. The user shows up and disappears at random as binoms run around in panic.

“This does not look good,” Mike says as he turns transparent.

“The game is beginning to crash!” Hitch yells as the game stabilizes. “This is bad, very bad. If we don’t end this game soon, we will have a fate worse than freezing!” Hitch yells as he drags his hands through his hair in worry. “Mike!” Hitch yells as he turns towards Mike. Mike flinches before turning towards Hitch. “I need you to go find more traps, all right,” Mike nods before running away.

“All right, user, where are you,” Hitch says as he walks up to the coin. He looks down the hallways. Each one starts to shift and disappears before reappearing. “There you… are?” Hitch says as he spots two users from different directions. “That’s not right, there is only one user in this game. Unless the crashing is causing a lagged version of the user to show up,” Hitch thinks as he looks between the two users coming from opposite hallways. “Which one, which one,” Hitch repeats to himself as he taps his chin with his finger.

“Iene Miene Mine, YOU!” Hitch says before running towards one of the users. He jumps up into the air and front flips over the top of the user. Hitch’s feet scrape the top of the energy field before he pushes against the field, sending him down toward the user. He goes straight through the user before it disappears. He faces plants into the ground as the user gets to the coin. Hitch shakes his head as he sits up.

“Ouch,” Hitch says as he rubs his jaw. He looks over to see the user eating the coin before turning around and heading back the way it came. “Oh no you don’t,” Hitch says, standing up and running towards the user. He jumps into the air and lands on the user's back. He digs his claws into the giant mouse as it starts to move rapidly around in an attempt to fling Hitch off its back.

“Curse the giant upgrade,” Hitch grumbles as he digs his claws deeper into the mouse as he tries to stay on. The user crashes into the walls of the maze, causing some to fall over. Hitch looks up to see Mike in the path the user was heading. “Mike!” Hitch yells, getting the walking tv’s attention. “Help!” Hitch yells before thinking, “Can’t believe I just asked Mike for help,”

“Mike the tv to the rescue!” Mike triumphantly states as he pulls out a spray bottle with rat repellent written across it. He spares it at the user, causing it to stop in its tracks before backing up a bit and crashing against the wall widely.

“I said help! Don't make it worse!” Hitch yells, trying to hold onto the user as they thrash about. Hitch uses his claws and drags himself up onto the mouse's face before looking into the user’s eyes. “Game over user,” Hitch says before clawing the user's eyes out. The mouse screams and pulls up as it covers its eyes. Hitch falls to the ground on his back. The game around them turns purple as it starts to leave. The announcer says game over as the Gamecube disappears and the sky returns back to normal.

“Yes!” Mike says as a group of binoms run over to them.

“You saved us Hitch!” the binomes yell out in a cheer.

“Not yet,” Hitch says as he throws down his zip board. “The bug that froze you in the first place is still at large,” Hitch says as he jumps onto his board. “But I know how to return the Mainframe back to normal,” Hitch says as he flies away. The gray color slowly returns to the sector.

“How do you like my new statue, Scuzzy?” Hex asks, turning around to face Scuzzy still floating by her chair. A row of frozen binoms floor behind her. “Oops, forgot you were made of stone,” Hex says with a little giggle as she turns back around. “Well, at least I like them. It’s not like they are falling to pieces,” Hex says with a maniacal laugh right before one of the binoms falls apart. “He was weak,” Hex comments on the statue's disintegration.

“Nice statues you have there,” Hitch compliments as he puts his legs up onto the arm of Hex’s chair. He then places his hands behind his head as he leans back in the chair.

“Oh, Hitch,” Hex says, turning around to face him. “What a lovely surprise, you aren’t made of stone?” Hex asks as her mask turns into a questioning face.

“Guardian code protected me from the bug, which might I add is very clever,” Hitch responds.

“Oh really?” Hex asks as her mask smiles.

“Ya,” Hitch says, sitting up. “Tricking Megabyte into using the bug, genius,”

“Oh Hitch, you know how much I love your compliments,” Hex starts as she turns her head away in a fake blush. “But please get out of my chair!” She yells, turning back around to face Hitch with her mask turned into an angry yell.

“You just had to ask nicely,” Hitch says as he stands up.

“Now what were you saying about my Medusa Bug?” Hex asks as she floats down to the ground near Hitch.

“I was saying just how clever of an idea it was to freeze Mainframe by using your brother's greed,” Hitch says as Hex floors around him.

“Ya, that was great of me, wasn’t it,” Hex says as she taps her chin with a wicked smile.

“Now nothing will change and you will always know exactly what will happen,” Hitch says as Hex floors in front of him.

“What was that?” Hex asks him, her face turning into question.

“Mainframe has now become so predictable. With the entire city frozen, you’ll know where everyone is at all the time,” Hitch says as he starts to dig deep into Hex’s mind.

“No!” Hex yells flying away from Hitch. “Stop it, I know what you are doing!” Hex outstretches her hand as she uses her magic to float Hitch into the air. Hitch grabs his throat as it starts to contract his airflow.

“No more Mebaybite, no more me, no more chaos,” Hitch says with a big gin.

“No! No!” Hex yells as she starts to freak out. “I can’t let this happen!” Hex yelled before snapping her fingers. Hitch drops to the ground as a pulse of energy is sent from Lost angels across the system. The energy clears the bug as it touches it until none of it was left.

“That was easy,” Hitch wipers as Scuzzy slides over to him. Scuzzy looks up at Hitch before making cat-like beeping sounds. “I made her go a bit crazy,” Hitch responds to Scuzzy. Scuzzy responds with a deed-pained expression. “Ok, crazier than normal,” Hitch says as Hex floats down to them.

“Now it was nice to see you again Hitch,” Hex says, clasping her hands together and placing them under her chin. “But could you,” Hex raises an arm up as her mask turns to anger. “Get out of my lair!” She yells as the ground below Hitch glows.

“Oh no,” Hitch says, looking down at the ground. “Not ag…” He is cut off when the ground springs up, sending him into the air and throwing him out of her lair. He goes flying up into the air and towards Mainframe.

“He did it!” SParky yells, pumping his fist into the air.

“But how?” Pipp asks as she watches the Mainframers leave the giant hallway-like room of the Principal Office.

“He must have convinced Hexadecimal to undo it,” Phone butts in. “How, I do not know,” Phong says, slowly shaking his head. The group flinches as a loud crash rings threw the room before Hitch falls down in front of them, deleting the vid window that was hovering there.

“Dad!” Sparky says with happiness and worry as he squats down. “You ok?”

“I think so,” Hitch responds as he sits up. He stretches his back before stretching out his neck.

“So how did you do it?” Pipp asks, holding a hand out for Hitch. Hitch grabs it before standing up with Pipp’s help.

“I realized that Hex loves chaos,” Hitch starts as SParky stands up. “So I used that against her. I told her that everything would never change again and that there would be no more Megabyte, or me,”

“So she reverted it because she likes the chaos of Mainframe?” Sparky asks.

“Exactly,” Hitch responds before stumbling a bit. Pipp catches him and helps him stand. “I think I need an energy drink and a hard reset,” Hitch says, rubbing his head.

“I know just the place,” Pipp responds.

“Wow, you were right,” Hitch says as he lays on a picnic blanket in one of Mainframe’s parks. “This is what I needed,” Hitch says before sipping on his energy drink.

“Try it again!” Pipp says to Sparky. Sparky hits the ignition again. The car hums to life as it floats off the ground.

“You were right about the broken compressor,” Pipp says as she shuts the hood of her car.

“Told ya,” Hitch says, sitting up as he looks over at them. Glitch beeps before the gear and orange road fly over to Hitch and land back onto Glitch. “I’m guessing your back to full power then?” Hitch asks Glitch as Pipp and Sparky walk over to him. Glitch beeps back as the two sit down with Hitch on the blanket.

Caged In Storage

Hitch flies over the city of Mainframe on his zIp board. The wind blows threw his hair as he rushes across the sky. He takes a deep breath in before sighing. “What a beautiful cycle,” Hitch says as he looks around at the beautiful blue sky. His face turns into confusion as the sky turns a dark red. He slows to a stop as the electric sounds rings out.

“Incoming Plugin,” The announcer says, causing Hitch to be even more confused than before.

“Glitch, Vid window Phong,” Hitch says as he looks down at Glitch. Glitch beeps before a vid window appears in front of Hitch.

“Oh dear,” Phong whispers to himself as he looks down at a vid window of his own.

“Phong, what’s going on?” Hitch asks.

“You mean you don’t know?” Phong asks, looking up at Hitch. Hitch simply shakes his head before Phong sighs. “The user is plugging something into port 2, but I can’t see what yet,”

“It could be a data transfer like the net,” Hitch responds.

“I do not think that is the case,” Phon replies.

“If you figure it out, tell me,” Hitch says, pointing his thumb at himself. “I’ll head to Port 2 and check out what’s going on,” Hitch says before closing the vid window and flying towards the ports at the edge of the city.

Hitch flies down to the ground as he comes up to the ports. A row of docks lined the side of the city. He gets off his zip board as he spots Sparky and Pipp flying down on their zip boards. Hitch picks up his zip board as they fly towards him.

“Dad!” Sparky yells out as he jumps off his zip board and runs over to Hitch. “What’s going on?!” Sparky asks, sliding to a stop in front of Hitch.

“I don’t know,” Hitch says, shrugging as Pipp picks up her and Sparky’s zip board.

“Well, whatever it is, it’s got Phong worked up,” Pipp says, handing Sparky his zip board before putting her’s away.

“I wonder why that could be?” Hitch responds as a vid window of Phong shows up in front of the group.

“It is because the last time we had an external device hooked on, It brought Gigabyte,” Phong explains.

“Right,” Hitch sighs. Sadness creeps into his eyes as Pipp looks down at the ground.

“We don’t need a repeat of the twin city,” Phong says as he taps the vid window in front of him. “It looks like the plugin is almost done,” Phong says as he looks down at the vid window.

The sky turns golden as a tunnel shoots off from the side of the city and heads out into the endless sea of data. The tunnel seemed to go on forever. The group walks to the entrance of the tunnel as the sky turns back to normal.

“USB 1.0,” Hitch says, walking up to the tunnel entrance and looking down the tunnel.

“Scanning for viruses, now,” Phong says before pressing a button on his vid window. The tunnel turns purple as a laser grid starts moving down the hallway.

“I’ll head in with it just in case there is a virus,” Hitch says to Phong.

“Be careful my child. We do not know what is inside yet,” Phong warrens. Hitch nods before throwing down his zip board and jumping onto it. He follows the laser grid as Sparky tries to follow him, but is stopped by Pipp grabbing his shoulder.

“It’s too dangerous for you to go,” Pipp sternly states. Sparky sighs before nodding in agreement.

“Do not worry Sparky, he will be ok,” Phong comforts the young spirit.

“Good,” Megabyte says as he watches Hitch fly into the tunnel. Megabyte taps his finger together as the vid window closes. He pushes a button on his chair before another vid window appears with the general of his army. “Is the fleet ready?”

“Ready and waiting for your command sir!” The general says as he salutes him.

“Good,” Megabyte says with a big smile. “Bring fleet one-one, and fleet one-zero to sector six and prepare to fight for port 2,” Megabyte explains. The general nods before the vid window collapse. “Say goodbye to your guardian Mainframe, because this will be the last you see of him,” Megabyte thinks to himself before laughing.

“Dam,” Hitch says, looking around at the tunnel as he continues to follow the laser grid. “This is a long USB tunnel,” Hitch says before looking down at Glitch. “Glitch, vid window Pipp and Phong,” Hitch says before a vid window appears with a split screen of both Phong and Pipp.

“Are you there yet?” Pipp asks as Sparky tries to look at the vid window.

“Not yet,” Hitch replies.

“I think I’ve figured out what the external component is,” Phong says with a little joy in his voice.

“What is it Phong?” Hitch asks.

“It’s a ten-gigabyte hard drive!” Phong says, barely able to keep his excitement under control.

“What!” Pipp and Hitch say at the same time.

“That’s almost double our current capacity!” Pipp says with a big smile on her face. “There is so much we could do with that kind of storage!”

“That’s amazing!” Hitch replies as he gets to the end of the tunnel. He stops at the exit as he looks out into the flat doom-like system. “Wow,” Hitch says as he looks around at the empty platform. “I’ve only ever heard of this stuff in read-me files,” Hitch says before turning back to the vid window. “I’ll look around and make sure everything is…” He is interpreted when the sky turns dark purple.

“Warning, Incoming Game,” The announcer says as a Gamecube starts to fall into the empty hard drive.

“Looks like I have a game to win,” Hitch says, pointing over his shoulder at the game.

“Go for it!” Sparky yells as he jumps up to be seen on the vid window. Hitch closes the vid window before flying toward the game. Hitch gets into the game before it lands as Pipp’s and Sparky’s vid window closes.

“Looks like we’ve got a new place to expand,” Pipp says, looking down at Sparky. Sparky looked up at her with a big smile.

“I’m sorry to say Mis Petals, but that’s not going to be yours,” Megabyte says. Pipp and Sparky turn to see a fleet surrounding the port with Megabyte on a vid window above the fleet.

“Hitch!” Pipp quickly says, looking over at the vid window. The vid window shows static.

“Sorry, but your guardian will never be returning,” Megabyte says with a wicked smile. “Delete them and everyone else who gets in the way!” Megabyte commands before the fleet fly toward the port.

“Run!” Pipp yells as she and Sparky throw down their zip boards before jumping onto them and flying out. A couple of ships follow them as they try and leave. “Shit,” Pipp whispers as she looks back to see the three ships following them. They start shooting at them as they fly along the port. The two start to dodge as Pipp says, “We need to lose them,”

“I know a way!” Sparky yells before sharply turning into an alleyway. Pipp quickly follows as one ship follows them down the alleyway as the other two go up above them.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Pipp asks as they turn down another alleyway.

“I’ll explain later, just trust me,” Sparky asks, looking back at Pipp with a pleading look. Pipp sighs before nodding. Sparky smiles before flying on into the open street. The two ships fly down to block their way. “Crap!” Sparky yells as they turn sharply so as to not run into the ships. Pipp ducks as a laser bolt flies over her head and delete a pole.

“We’re almost there,” Sparky says before looking back. He jumps up into the air as a bolt runs past his feet. He lands back onto his zip board before turning hard into another street. Pipp follows behind him as the two ships plow past them before turning around and following after them. Sparky turns sharply again with Pipp almost directly behind him. Sparky quickly opens up a manhole cover and flies down it. Pipp grabs the cover and places it back in place as she follows Sparky down.

“They won’t be able to come down here,” Sparky says as the two fly above the data waist. The tunnel was made out of stone with dim lights drilled into the ceiling. Flowing below the two is a stream of trashed data. “I know a safe place we can exit from,”

“How do you know this?” Pipp asks as she flies up next to him.

“Dad made me train for when I become a guardian,” Sparky starts to explain. “He would chase me like Hack and Slash do, so I found ways around the city to get away,”

“You really are a clever spirit,” Pipp says with a smile.

“It’s dad that helped me learn,” Sparky responds.

“Pipp!” Phong yells in distress as the vid window pops up in front of them. “I can’t get a hold of Hitch!”

“It’s Megabyte. I think he is jamming our signal to him,” Pipp explains.

“He’s even taken over the port,” Sparky adds.

“Are you two ok?” Phong asks.

“Thanks to Sparky,” Pipp says, looking over at Sparky with a kind smile. Sparky smiles back as he puffs up his chest a bit.

“Are you in the trash deposit?” Phong asks.

“One of the many lines that lead to old man Pearson's data dump,” Sparky responds.

“Is that where we are going?” Pipp asks.

“You bet ya,” Sparky responds.

“Have at thee user!” Hitch yells as he takes a swing with his sword at the user. The user jumps away from Hitch before holding up his shield. Hitch is covered from head to toe in yellow iron armor. In his right hand is his sword, and on his left arm is Glitch extended out into an energy shield. The user is a sentient set of blue armor with a sword and shield.

Hitch stares down the user as the user readies himself to run. The user charges Hitch with its shield. Hitch holds his shield in front of him before the two shields crash into each other. Hitch grunts as he tries to push against the user. He digs his feet into the ground as he slows down. He looks back to see he is standing at the edge of a cliff.

Hitch looks back right as the user swings at him. He ducks before rolling in between the user’s legs before quickly standing up and turning around. He slashes at the user, but his sword is blocked by the user’s shield. It then strikes back but is also stopped by Hitch’s shield.

“Look’s like we have come to an impasse,” Hitch says before pushing his shield again the user’s sword, sending the user to stumble back and lose his sword. Hitch takes a few deep breaths as the user raises its shield up in front of it. Hitch smiles and he straightens up. “That shield isn’t going to help you from fall damage,” Hitch says. The user looks behind it at the cliff before turning back to Hitch.

With a big smile on his face, Hitch raises his foot up and kicks the user's shield, causing him to fall off the ledge and into the cannon. “This is Mainframe!” Hitch yells as the user falls to the ground. The user hits the ground and falls into a million pieces. The announcer says game over as the Gamecube raises off the ground and leaves the system.

“That was easy,” Hitch says as he watches the Gamecube leave. Glitch returning back to normal. “No annoying binoms to get in the way of me winning really helps,” Hitch says as he throws down his zip board before jumping on it and heading back towards the tunnel. “Glitch, vid window Phong,” Hitch says before a vid window appears in front of him, following him as he flies.

“Phong?” Hitch says. The vid window shows static. “Glitch, vid window Pipp,” Hitch says before the vid window changes to a very bad picture of Pipp. “Pipp!” Hitch yells as the image cuts in and out.

“Hitch!... You…” Pipp tries to speak but keeps cutting out.

“Glitch,” Hitch says, stopping before looking down at Glitch. “Boost signal,” Glitch beeps as the orange rod sticks up off of Glitch before extending up a bit. Hitch looks at the vid window as it stabilizes.

“Hitch!” Pipp yells. “Can you hear me?”

“Now I can,” Hitch responds before Pipp sighs. “What’s going on, I can’t reach Phong?” Hitch asks as he continues to fly towards the tunnel.

“Megabyte must be scrambling our vid windows,” Pipp explains.

“He attacked us at the port,” Sparky pips in as he flies up to Pipp.

“You two all right?” Hitch asks with worry in his voice.

“Of course we are,” Pipp responds. “All thanks to Sparky,” Pipp says, pointing at him with her thumb. Sparky smiles and puffs up his chest as Hitch smiles at him.

“Training came in handy?” Hitch asks.

“Very much,” Sparky responds, relaxing back to normal.

“So what happened at the port?” Hitch asks.

“I told you to get out!” an old man-sounding voice yells at Pipp and Sparky.

“Hold on, we have to talk to Hitch, then we’ll leave you alone!” Pipp responds back to someone off vid window. Pipp turns back to Hitch as he hears grumbling in the background. “Sorry about that, we are hiding in old man Pearson's data dump,”

“That explains the trash,” Hitch says. “Butt what happened at the port?”

“Megabyte attacked us and now has control of the port!” Sparky yells as he grabs the vid window. “He’s blocking the port so you can’t get out!”

“What!” Hitch says before an energy beam breaks the connectors on his zip board, sending him screaming toward the ground. He lands with a loud thud as the ground cracks around him. He quickly sits up and sees a few of Megabyte’s ships coming out of the tunnel. “Shit!” Hitch yells as he stands up quickly. “Glitch, energy shield!” Hitch yells as the ships fire at him.

Glitch’s gear extends out to fill up his entire arm before the screen turns yellow and sends out an energy pulse that ends a few feet away from the gear. Hitch holds the shield in front of him before the beams hit him. The shield deflects the beams away from Hitch as he slowly starts to walk back words.

Hitch looks over at the two pieces of his zip board reforming not too far from him. He turns and points Glitch towards the zip board in a way that he is still covered by the shield before yelling, “Glitch! Tractor beam!” Hitch says as the orange part goes up to Hitch’s hand before expanding a bit. An orange color and a loud hum emit from the rod's tip. The zip board comes flying towards Hitch. Hitch grabs it as the rod returns back to normal.

Hitch throws down the zip board as he deflects the laser beams. “Glitch! Energy barrier!” Hitch yells before the gear, with the shield, goes shooting toward the tunnel. Hitch jumps on the zip board and flies up and out of the range of the ships. The gear stops in front of the closest tank before the energy shield expands out and blocks the tunnel entrance and any other ship in the area.

“Glitch, vid window Pipp,” Hitch says as he takes deep breaths. A vid window pops up in front of him as he catches his breath.

“What happened?!” Pipp yells in distress.

“A few of Mebagyte’s ships have gotten threw the USB tunnel and shot at me,” Hitch starts explaining. “I’ve got them trapped with an energy shield, but that won’t hold long,”

“I’ll see if we can patch Phong threw with us,” Sparky says as he taps on the vid window. The screen splits in half as static shows on the other side. The image slowly clears up to show Phong frantically tapping on the vid window in front of him.

“Oh dear,” Phong says as he taps his finger together.

“Phong, what’s going on?” Hitch asks.

“Oh!” Phong says in surprise as he looks up at Hitch. “Hello Hitch, Pipp, Sparky,” Phong greets the group before pushing his glasses up his nose.

“What’s happening Phong?” Pipp repeats Hitch’s question.

“Well,” Phong says, looking down at his vid window. “It looks like Megabyte has complete control of sector six,” Phong says before looking up at the group.

“No!” Hitch yells with worry clearly on his face. “That’s all of the ports from one to seven!” Hitch says as he runs his hand threw his hair.

“Not good,” Sparky says as he slowly shakes his head.

“No, not at all,” Phong says, looking back down at his vid window. “Pipp, Sparky, come to the principal office,” Phong requests. Pipp nods before closing the vid window, leaving Hitch and Phong. “Hitch, just…”

“Hang in there,” Hitch interrupts. “I know, and I’ll try,” Hitch responds before closing the vid window. Phong sighs as he looks down at the remaining vid window in front of him. On the vid window shows the new hard drive with a corruption bar on it. The bar is at one percent.

“This is not good,” Phong sighs to himself.

Author's Note

Sorry for the chapter being a bit shorter than the others. I hope you liked the first chapter based on the show but with a plot I came up with. Also, cliffhanger! What's going to happen? You're just gonna have to wait and see.

And if you see anything wrong with the spelling, grammar, or you see anything else wrong with the chapter, please tell me.

Corruption

Entering the port is a big syringe-looking gun. Sitting by the entrance is a white box big enough to hold someone. The box is connected to the device going down the USB tunnel. “Come one! Move it!” The general yells before a vid window of Megabyte appears behind him.

“Update,” Megabyte says before the general turns to face him.

“The hard wear is going into the hard drive now sir,”

“Excellent,” Megabyte smiles as he taps his finger together. “How is our guest?” Megabyte asks, leaning forward in his chair.

“She is ready and waiting for orders,” The general responds.

“Good,” Megabyte responds before the vid window closes.

“Not good,” Phong whispers as he watches the vid window as Megabyte’s new devices roll into the tunnel.

“What is that?” Sparky asks. Leaning on the table as he tries to look up at the big vid window.

“It’s Megabyte’s new Hardware,” Phong says, turning to Sparky.

“Do we know what it does?” Pipp asks, looking away from a group of vid windows surrounding where she sits.

“Not yet,” Hitch responds as his face appears on the vid window. The three look up at him. “But I think I’m about to find out,” Hitch says as he looks over the edge of the building, looking down at the exit port. The hardware rolls out before stopping just outside of the exit. Ships swarm out and around the device as it lifts up and points at the Principal Office.

The clear part of the syringe-like device starts turning blue as it hums. After a few seconds of nothing, the end glows blue before shooting off toward the Principal Office. It rams it, causing the energy to disperse across it.

“No,” Hitch whispers as his mouth drops.

“Not good,” Sparky responds.

“What’s going on?” Pipp asks.

“Megabyte is attempting to ram the Principal Office and infect the system’s core,” Phong explains.

“Meaning the drive would be corrupt enough for the user to realize and unplug it,” Hitch responds, turning back towards the vid window.

“How are we going to stop it?” Pipp asks.

“It looks like the energy is being supplied on Mainframe's end. Probably to make it easier to defend the hardware and power supply separately,” Hitch says as he surveys the area below him. “I’ll try and take out the Hardwear, you guys find the power supply and take it offline,” Pipp nods before the vid window disappears. “Now how to approach this,” Hitch thinks as he looks at the ships surrounding the Hardwear.

“Glitch, disassemble,” Hitch says pointing Glitch at the Hardwear. The gear shoots off towards the device. The gear flies past the ships before heading toward the hardware. It tries to land, but gets deflected off and goes back up to Hitch. The gear lands back on the key tool as Hitch whispers, “Of course, it wouldn't be that easy,” Hitch sighs before standing up and throwing down his zip board. “Hopefully they have a plane to get the power source turned off because there is no way I can go head-on with those ships… right?” Hitch asks himself as he steps onto the zip board.

“I still do not agree with young Sparky helping,” Phong says to Pipp as she monitors a few different vid windows with different generals. Pipp wears a skin-tight one-piece combat suit with an earpiece that has a microphone attached leading to her mouth.

“I don’t agree with it either,” Pipp responds, taping the earpiece before turning to Phong. “But Sparky is somewhat experienced. As long as he’s with me, he’ll be fine,” Pipp says, pointing at herself with her thumb.

“I hope you are right,” Phong responds as the door to the command room opens up. Revealing Sparky dressed in a similar skin-tight combat suit. He has a gun attached to his right hip, while a zip board is attached to his left.

“I’m ready Pipp,” Sparky says, putting his hands on his hips while puffing out his chest.

“All right,” Pipp says, standing up before closing the vid windows. “Remember the plane?” Pipp asks as she and Phong walk over to him.

“We get dropped off by a CPU while the others attack. We slip by on our zip boards and shut off the power,” Sparky resits.

“Good,” Pipp responds, nodding with a small smile on her face.

“Be careful my children, Megabyte is a tricky sprite,” Phong warns.

“Don't worry,” Sparky responds. “Me and Pipp can handle it,” He says before turning towards Pipp. “Right?”

“Right,” Pipp responds.

“Besides,” Sparky says as he grabs the gun on his hip. “I have this energy gun to help defend myself,” Sparky says while pointing it at the wall across the room while looking down the sight. “I haven’t shot one in a few cycles, but I think I still have it,” Sparky lets out a yelp as he accidentally pulls the trigger, causing a laser bolt to bounce around the room before disintegrating into nothing. Phong and Pipp look at Sparky with disappointment as Sparky smiles cheekily. “Safety was off,” Sparkly says as he puts the gun away.

“Glitch, shield!” Hitch yells as he squats low on his zip board. He flies barely off the ground, as low as he can get. Glitch turns into the energy shield again. Hitch holds it in front of him, covering most of the front of his body. He flies below the beam for a bit more cover.

The ships turn and start shooting at him. The lasers bounce off his shield and redirect to the ground or into a building. Hitch grits his teeth as he pulls out a little yellow ball from his pocket. “Do your stuff restart common,” Hitch whispers, looking down at the little ball. He throws it up into the air once he gets close enough to the hardware.

He takes a sharp turn to the right and flies down an alleyway as the ball glows a bright yellow. Cracks start to show in the ball as it goes threw the laser. Hitch makes it far enough away and turns around to watch as the ball explodes into a bright red color, causing the ships to fall out of the sky as the hardware shuts off. Hitch smiles before flying towards the device.

“Glitch, energy gun,” Hitch says as the shield morphs into an energy gun in his hand. He flies up to the hard wear while dodging the attacks of viral binoms. He shoots back at them, causing them to be electrocuted and pass out. He makes it to the computer on the side of the hardware.

“Glitch,” Hitch says as he steps off his zip board. “Decode,” Hitch brings his left arm close to the terminal so Glitch could reach. An orange rod extends from Glitch and connects to the device. The device starts to power back up as ships start to shoot at him. “Glitch! Do something!” Hitch yells as an energy shield forms around him. Hitch looks around him to see beams deflect off the shield. “Where was this, five cycles ago!” Hitch yells at Glitch. Glitch beeps back before a laser bolt barely misses Hitch.

“Oh, that’s why,” Hitch looks to see holes forming in the shield as it attempts to deflect the bolts. “Glitch, you done yet?” Hitch asks. Glitch beeps back as the orange rod detaches. “Good enough, we need to go now,” Hitch says as Glitch morphs back into an energy shield as Hitch flies away again. He covers his back with the shield as he flies away. He ducks around a corner before turning around and stopping.

“Hu…” Hitch says with slight confusion in his voice. He flies over to the corner to see the ships surrounding the hardware again as it continues like nothing happened. “Glitch, vid window Phong,” Hitch says before a vid window appears to his right.

“Yes?” Phong asks.

“Megabyte is going all in with the hardware,” Hitch says, ducking behind the building as a ship fires on him. “We NEED to stop it,” Hitch emphasizes.

“Pipp and Sparky are all ready on their way to stop the power source,” Phong says. “What makes you think Megabyte is going all in?”

“The ships, they didn’t chase me after I got some data from the hardware,” Hitch responds.

“Any useful data?” Phong asks with a little hope in his voice.

“I only got enough so I can redirect the beam with Glitch,” Hitch explains. “I didn’t have enough time to get anything else,”

“That is ok,” Phong responds. “Just hold on,”

“And this is where we get off,” Pipp says, sitting on the edge of the CPU ship. Sparky sits next to her as they watch the ground below them change to an ocean of data.

“Here we go,” Sparky says before pushing off the ship with Pipp following him. The two throw down their zip board before landing on them. The two speed towards the port, staying low to the ocean as they fly towards it.

“Looks like they are distracted,” Pipp says. The CPUs fighting the ABCs in the sector as they pull them away from the port.

“I guess we underestimated their ship numbers!” Sparky yells, looking back to see a small group of ships following them. They start shooting them before the two start dodging. “Dad’s key tool would be very useful right now!” Sparky yells as he jumps over a laser bolt.

“Use your gun!” Pipp yells over to him.

“Right!” Sparky yells before grabbing his gun off his waist before pointing at the ships. He flips the safety off as the gun targets the first ship. “Eat energy!” sparky yells as he shoots at the ship. Three shots scrap the ship before two go down the center, causing the ship to blow up.

“Good work!” Pipp yells out.

“Thanks,” Sparky says, aiming at the next ship while doundging the laser bolts the ships shoot at him.

“Keep doing that, we’re almost there,” Pipp says, looking up at the city’s port. Sparky grits his teeth and squints his eyes as he aims at the moving ship.

“Take this you hunk of metal!” Sparky yells as he shoots laser bolts at the ship. The ship dodges the shots as it shoots back. Sparky dodges as he keeps firing back. Pipp flies up towards the port with Sparky following her. Finally, one of the shots takes out the ship, leaving one more. The ship shoots four bolts out, one hitting Pipp’s board out from under her feet, the other making Sparky dodge. Sparky slips off the board due to over-correcting before grabbing onto Pipp’s leg, who had grabbed onto the edge of the city.

“Hold… on…” Pipp says as she tries to pull them up.

“Go faster!” Sparky yells, looking down at the ship speeding up toward them. Sparky shoots down at the ship but misses almost all of his shots.

“Grab the ledge!” Pipp yells. Sparky puts the gun on his hip before grabbing the ledge and pulling himself up onto the city. He quickly turns around and pulls Pipp up as the ship shoots and flies by them, causing their hair to blow in the wake of the ship.

The ship turns down and flies back towards them. “Oh no you don’t,” Sparky says, grabbing his gun and pointing it at the ship. “Game over viral binom,” Sparky says, shooting a few bolts up at the ship. They hit, causing the ship to explode into little pieces.

“Ooookkkaaaayyyy…” Pipp says with a little worry in her voice as Sparky puts his gun away.

“What?” Sparky says, turning to Pipp and shrugging. “I always wanted to say that,”

“Let’s keep moving. I have a feeling they know we are here,” Pipp says, running towards the port as viral binoms run towards them. Sparky follows her as the binoms shoot green lasers at them with their black staffs.

“There it is!” Sparky yells as they run up to the glowing white box sitting next to the port. The few viral binoms that guard it turn around and point their staffs at them. “I’m getting real sick of Megabyte’s viral binoms,” Sparky says, taking out his gun again and shooting the binoms. The bolts hit them square in the chest, causing them to get pushed back and fall over before getting disassembled.

“They're persistent, you can give them that,” Pipp responds as they run around the back of the box. “Shit,” Pipp says, looking down at the encrypted lock. “It’s in basic,” She complains as Sparky leans around the corner and shoots at the oncoming viral binoms.

“Do you think you can crack it?” Sparky asks. “Also, bad word,”

“Maybe,” Pipp responds as she pulls out a tablet before hooking it up to the lock. “And yes, shit is a bad word, why point it out,” Pipp asks as she starts tapping on her tablet.

“Dad says you shouldn’t use bad words,” Sparky says, shooting at the viral binoms. He ducks around and hit some before ducking back around the corner as they shoot back.

“Then your dad is a hypocrite,” Pipp responds.

“Ffff…uck…” Hitch grunts as he uses Glitch to lift a broken building back up and mending it back together. He sighs as he catches his breath. “The system is getting worse,” Hitch says to Phong in the vid window next to him.

“Can you delay the hardware?” Phong asks.

“Maybe for a bit before Glitch starts to run out of power again,” Hitch responds.

“Then do it,” Phong says. “It’s better than nothing,”

“Ya, I was afraid you would say that,” Hitch says before closing the vid window and flying over to the beam. He flies up into the air and looks down at the beam as it drills into the Principal Office. “Here goes nothing,” Hitch says, pointing Glitch at the beam as Glitch turns into a big laser pointer. “Glitch, deflect,” Hitch says before a red laser beam shoots out of the laser pointer and towards the beam below.

The laser beam hits the other beam, causing it to deflect the beam and send it into the sky. Hitch smiles as he looks back at the Principal Office. There is a giant hole where the beam was concentrated on. The building and the surrounding buildings have started to decay and fall apart.

“A few more nanos of that laser and this system is filed away,” Hitch says as he watches a few buildings collapse. “Glitch, do you think you can redirect the beam at the hardware?” Hitch asks as a group of ships start to fly toward him. Glitch beeps before it starts adjusting the angel.

The beam starts to move down towards the hardware. Deleting a few ships as they cross its path before inevitably hitting the hardware. The hardware starts to glow brighter as the beam get’s more intense. Glitch starts to spark as Hitch’s arm starts to heat up from Glitch.

“Glitch, stop,” Hitch says before Glitch turns off the beam and returns to normal. The beam from the hardware collapses in on itself and causes the hardware to short circuit. “That should slow him down,” Hitch says before flying away from the oncoming ships. He ducks around a building as a vid window of Phong shows up in front of him.

“The system has indicated that corruption has stopped,” Phong says, looking down at a vid window in front of him. “What did you do?”

“I reflected the beam back onto itself,” Hitch explains. “It will be a few cycles before Megabyte gets the hardware back up, and in that time I can fix the damage he has caused to the system,”

“Good,” Phong responds.

“As long as a game doesn’t fall and the user doesn’t win, we are fine,” Hitch says, right before the sky turns purple and the electric sound rings out through the system. “I just had to say it, didn’t I?” Hitch says as the announcer announces the incoming Gamecube.

Hitch flies toward the falling Gamecube as the vid window closes. He looks around to see a fleet of Megabyte’s ships surrounding him as others fly ahead. “Not this time,” Hitch says before pointing Glitch at the ship below him. “Glitch, energy saw,” Hitch says as the gear turns into a mini circular saw. “Slice them up,” Hitch says before the gear shoots off of the key tool and towards the ship.

The gear cuts the ship in half, leaving the binoms in the air for a few seconds before they look down and start falling. The gear flies around and hits all the ships around Hitch as he flies toward the falling Gamecube. The gear returns back to the key tool before going back to normal.

“Good work Glitch,” Hitch says, looking down at the key tool. Glitch beeps back happily before beeping in fear. “What are you…” Hitch looks up to see two ships flying quickly in front of his way to the Gamecube. “Not again!” Hitch yells as he smacks into the ships. He grabs onto the top one as his zip board goes flying away from him.

“Glitch, retrieve zip board,” Hitch says, pointing Glitch between the two ships and at the zip board. The gear shoots off and towards the zip board. Hitch lets go and start falling as Glitch returns back with the zip board. Hitch grabs it as the gear returns back to the key tool. He throws down the board before landing on it and flying toward the Gamecube.

“NO!” Hitch yells as he stops before slamming into the Gamecube. It had landed before he could get in. “This is bad, very bad,” Hitch says as the ships make a run for the port. “I’ve got to get out of here, NOW!” Hitch says before flying after the ships.

“That's strange,” Sparky says as the viral binoms retreat a bit before stopping their fire.

“What is it?” Pipp asks, looking up from her tablet and down at Sparky.

“The viral binoms,” Sparky says before turning to Pipp as he puts his gun away. “They’ve stopped firing at us and they’ve retreated,” Sparky explains.

“They are probably thinking of a way to get to us,” Pipp says, turning back to the tablet.

“Are you done yet?” Sparky asks.

“Almost,” Pipp responds as Megabyte’s ships start to fly out of the USB tunnel. Sparky looks up at them as Pipp looks over at them. “Now that is strange,” Pipp comments as the ships trickle out.

“The hard drive is going to collapse,” Phong says with terror in his voice as the vid window pops up next to Sparky. Sparky flinches before turning towards the vid window.

Pipp turns to Phong before asking, “What did you say?”

“The hard drive is corrupted and a game fell without Hitch getting into the game,” Phong explains.

“That explains the ships,” Sparky responds.

“You don't have to stop the hardware anymore,” Phong says as the door unlocks.

“Too late,” Sparky says as the door flies open, smacking Pipp and sending her flying across the ground before sliding off the edge. “Pipp!” Sparky yells as Pipp grabs onto the edge of the port.

“Thanks for freeing me,” Hex says, walking out and stretching her arms out. “It was getting a bit small in there,”

“Hex!” Sparky yells in utter confusion.

Unplugged

“Hello young Sparky,” Hex says, patting Sparky on the head. “Did you get me out, because if you did, that was quite clever of you,”

“No,” Sparky says with a little irritation in his voice as he looks up at her. “That would be Pipp,” Sparky says, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at Pipp, who was claiming back up onto the port.

“Oh,” Hex deadpans before her mask returns back to a smile. “Well, I better be off. I’ve got a brother to murder!” She says, her face turning into anger.

“Wait!” Sparky yells before Hex pops out with a bright flash of light. Sparky rubs his eyes as Pipp walks over to him.

“You ok?” Pipp asks, crouching down a bit and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m fine,” Sparky says, pulling his shoulder away from Pipp. He looks inside the container to see chains dangling from the wall. “Looks like Megabyte tricked Hex into powering his hardware,”

“He’s going to be in a world of hurt when she gets to him,” Pipp says, looking inside the box.

“You insolent fools!” Megabyte yells as he smashes his fist into the arm of his chair. The viral binom on the vid window starts to shake. The binom tries to shrink down as small as he can as Megabyte stares daggers into him. “I told you not to retreat from the Hard drive!” Megabyte yells, his voice seething anger at every word. “Stop Hitch from leaving the hard drive at all cost!”

“Y-yes!” The binom responds before shakily saluting. “Of course!” He says before the vid window collapse down.

“You did me dirty!” Hex yells as she appears in front of Megabyte. “You lied to me, You deceived me!” Hex yells as he walks closer to Megabyte, who is unfazed. “And you chained me up!” Hex says, leaning down face to masked face with Megabyte. “That was downright kinky,” Hex says before waving a hand in front of her face as her mask turns into a smile. “I liked it,”

“Of course you did,” Megabyte responds as Hex pulls away.

“Of course I could help the good guys defeat you for what you did to me,” Hex says, turning her back to him.

“But you won’t,” Megabyte says.

“How did you know?” Hex sarcastically says, turning around to face him with a surprised mask.

“Because I know my own sister,” Megabyte responds.

“You could always read me like a data dump,” Hex responds. “What do you want me to do?” She says as Megabyt’s smile widens.

“Shit!” Hitch yells as he dodges the crumbling city. “And I thought having to defend against Megabyte’s forces was bad,” Hitch says before one of Megabyte’s ships shoots at him. He doges before pointing Glitch at the ship. “Glitch! Short circuit!” The gear tilts up and at the ship before charging a yellow ball of light. The ball of light shoots off to the ship, hitting it directly before lighting zips around the ship. It goes spiraling down before hitting a building, causing it to collapse onto it.

“This is very bad,” Hitch says as he looks at the guarded port.

“Game over, user w-w-wins,” The announcer says, glitching out a bit as the game leaves. The moment the game leaves the system, a loud crash booms out across the system. The sky turns black as the ground shakes. The electric sound ring out as the announcer says, “Crash imminent,”

“And it got worse,” Hitch says before turning back towards the fleet waiting for him. “Glitch, how much power do you have left?” Hitch asks as he dodges the laser bolts from the ships. Glitch beeps back as Hitch smiles. “That's just the amount I need,” Hitch says before pointing the key tool toward the fleet. “Glitch, EMP!”

Glitch charges up a blue sapphire before turning into a catapult and flinging it at the fleet. The ball hits one of the ships in the center of the fleet, causing it to shut off and careen toward the ground. The EMP grows in size, causing the ships to power down as they touch the EMP.

“Nice work Glitch,” Hitch says as he flies down and into the USB tunnel. “Now to just get to the other side before the user…”

“Unplugging initiating,” The announcer says as the tunnel turns a bright blue.

“Oh, no,” Hitch says before shaking his head franticly. “No, no, no!”

“Where is he?” Pipp whispers in frustration as she looks down the USB tunnel. Her arms crossed over her chest as she taps her foot.

“Come one dad,” Sparky whispers. “Where are you?” Sparky asks to himself as he starts to get nervous. The tunnel turns blue as a red laser grid appears, filling the tunnel before moving away from the two.

“What?” Pipp asks as a vid window pops up next to her. She turns to see Phong on the vid window, pushing up his glasses as he looks down at the vid window in front of him. “Phong, what’s going on?” Pipp asks, causing Phong to jump a bit as he looks up at her.

“It seems the user has started to remove the external hard drive. The system is scanning the data inside before it can be removed,” Phong explains. “I can only delay the scan for so long before it’s completed,”

“Give Hitch as much time as you can give him,” Pipp responds with worry on her face.

“I will try my child,” Phong says before the vid window closes.

“There he is!” Sparky yells as he sees Hitch at the other end of the tunnel.

“Sparky! Pipp!” Hitch yells out with a big smile on his face. “Yes, I’m going to make it!” Hitch says before the ground shake. The sky turns yellow as the tunnel turns a bright yellow as well. “I shouldn’t have said that,” Hitch says as his zip board starts to fail.

“Dad!” Sparky yells out, throwing down his zip board before trying to get on. Pipp grabs his arm and pulls him off the zip board before he can go anywhere. “Hey!” Sparky yells, looking up at Pipp in anger. “Let me go!” He yells struggling against Pipp’s grip.

“If you go after him, you could end up stuck with him!” Pipp yells as Sparky starts to slip from her grip.

“I would rather be with dad than without him,” Sparky snaps back in anger. Pipp’s heart breaks as the words sink into her head. Tears form in her eyes before her face turns into anger.

“Hey!” Sparky yells as Pipp grabs his gun from his hip. She quickly sets it to stun and points it at him. She shoots him, causing him to fall to the ground. She sighs as she drops the gun next to him.

“I hope you can forgive me Sparky,” Pipp whispers. “It’s for your own safety,”

“What the heck?” Hitch says in confusion at what he just saw. He has no time to process it as his zip board gives out and sends him into the ground. He skids across the ground to a stop. He sits up as he rubs his head. “No,” Hitch says as tears start to run down his cheeks. “I’ve failed,” Hitch looks up to see the exit still very far away. The end starts to detach from the port.

Pipp and Hitch’s eyes meet as they express sadness to each other across the gap. Sparky grunts as he sits up on his knees. He grunts as he rubs his head in pain. Hitch blinks as he gets an idea.

“Glitch,” Hitch says, looking down at his key tool. “Activate emergency guardian code number one,” Hitch says before Glitch beeps back. “Of course, it’s an emergency!” Hitch yells back at Glitch. “Go to Sparky,” Hitch says before Glitch completely detaches from Hitch’s arm and flies down the tunnel toward Sparky. “Take care of him for me Glitch,” Hitch whispers as he watches his key tool fly away.

“Ow…” Sparky says as he rubs his head. “What happened?” Pipp helps him up as he looks up at her.

“I stopped you from helping Hitch in fear you would be stuck with him,” Pipp explains.

“Wait…” Sparky says as his brain buffers. “Dad!” Sparky turns to see Hitch sitting on the ground with tears flowing down his cheeks and a smile on his face.

“What is Glitch doing?” Pipp asks as Glitch flies up to Sparky before landing on his left arm.

“Glitch, what are you doing?” Sparky asks. Glitch beeps back at him before settling down. “I’m the what!” Sparky says in disbelief.

“What is it?” Pipp asks, but before Sparky can respond, the tunnel completely disconnects from the port and starts to disintegrate.

“Dad!” Sparky yells out as tears fill his eyes.

Hitch smiles before saying, “I love you Spary, make me proud,”

“Hitch,” Pipp whispers as the tunnel disintegrates around him. It starts to disintegrate him as he yells out in pain. Tears flow freely down Sparky’s face as he kneels on the ground. The tunnel, now fully gone from the port, leaves no trace of Hitch.

“NNNOOOOOOooo!” Sparky yells out as his heartaches. He stands up and runs towards where Hitch was before being grabbed by Pipp.

“We need to go,” Pipp says as she wipes the tears from her eyes.

“No,” Sparky refuses as he tugs at her hand.

“We need to go now!” Pipp says, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb at Megabyte’s fleet fighting the CPUs and winning. Sparky sighs as Pipp throws down her zip board and jumps onto it. Sparky jumps on his and the two fly toward the Principal Office.

“Sparky, please let me in,” Pipp says, knocking on the door to his room in the Pricipal Office. She sighs as Phong slides down the hallway towards her.

“He needs time Pipp,” Phong says as he stops in front of her. “He just lost a hero, and a father,”

“I know,” Pipp sighs, looking down at the ground with sorrow on her face. “We all lost a hero,”

“The real question is, are you ok?” Phong asks, gently placing a hand on her arm.

“Of course,” Pipp says, straightening up. “Why wouldn’t I be?” She asks, looking down at him.

“Hmm…” Phong thinks to himself as he twiddles his long beard. “I will not push you further, I fear you will not be happy with me. But I will be here if you ever need me, my child,” Phong says, clasping his hands together.

“Thanks,” Pipp responds with a kind smile before releasing something. “What do you mean by I will not be happy with you?” Pipp asks, question in her voice.

Phong sighs before saying, “Come with me,” Phong says before turning back down the hallway and sliding away. Pipp follows him down the hallway away from Sparky’s room.

The two enter into the control room where a group of binoms talk at the table. Other binoms run the many computers lining the top overlooking the table. Pipp’s eyes widen when she spots a familiar mare leaning against the far wall.

Standing on the other side of the room is Zephyrina Storm, also known as Zip. She wears a skin-tight blue shirt with an unzipped camo coat. It’s paired with blue jeans, combat boots, a katana on her hip, and sunglasses on her forehead. Her red hair sticks up like a mohawk with a streak of light blue going threw it.

Zipp and Pipp make eye contact before Pipp’s face contorts into passive-aggressive anger. Zipp sighs as Pipp and Phong walk over to her. She pushes off the wall as Pipp stops in front of her.

“Long time no see sis,” Pipp says, looking up at her with slight anger.

“Please don’t say your still mad at me,” Zipp sighs. “Can we at least put that behind us right now, Mainframe needs us,”

“You have no idea what Mainframe needs!” Pipp yells, angrily pointing her finger in Zipp’s face.

“Chill your jets Pipp,” Zipp says, raising her hands in front of her face to defend herself from Pipp’s finger.

“Please Pipp, calm down,” Phong says, looking up at Pipp. “I know you two have had your differences, but please, calm down for the sake of Mainframe,”

“How can I!?” Pipp yells, looking down at Phong. “She’s a backstabbing, lying cheater!” Pipp says, pointing over at Zipp.

“Lying, maybe, cheater sometimes, but a backstabber I never was or am,” Zipp responds as Pipp turns to face her.

“And what would you even know about…” Pipp starts before the giant vid window beeps before Megabyte shows up on the screen, sitting in his chair. The two turn to look. Zipp grits her teeth and clenches her fist as her eyes narrow at the virus.

“Am I interrupting a family reunion?” Megabyte asks, looking between the two.

“Not at all,” Pipp responds with great hate hissing between her teeth.

“You’ll pay for what you did to Hitch you backstabbing virus!” Zipp yells out in anger, pointing up at Megabyte.

“It’s nice to see you too Storm,” Megabyte responds with a wicked smile.

“You keep my name out of your mouth,” Zipp hisses at him as he chuckles.

“While it was nice to see you, Zipp. I have a supercomputer to go to,” Megabyte responds.

“You’ll find that quite impossible,” Zipp responds, crossing her hands over her chest and smiling.

“What do you mean?” Megabyte says as he lanes closer to the vid window. His face contorted into anger as he stares down at Zipp.

“I’ve detached the ports from the net and encrypted them,” Zipp says as a smile slowly creeps onto Pipp's face. “You aren’t going anywhere,”

“Cheek mate,” Pipp responds crosser her arms as well. Zipp and Pipp look at each other with smug smiles before Pipp nods. Zipp nods back before they turn back to Megabyte.

“Your attempt to keep me in is futile,” Megabyte responds, leaning back into his chair. “You have no guardian, your CPUs are trashed, and Mis, Storms isn’t going to change much. I will get into the Principal Office and I will get a portal to the supercomputer,” Megabyte says before the door to the command room opens.

“You’re wrong!” Sparky yells out in anger, pointing his finger up at Megabyte.

“What did you say to me boy!” Megabyte responds in disgust.

“I said, You. Are. Wrong!” Sparky yells out as Pipp and Zipp look over at him. “We do have a Guardian,”

“Who might that be?” Megabyte asks as Sparky double-taps his icon. The black and white icon pushes out a bit before slowly flipping upside down. It pushes back in before blue light starts crossing his body, starting at the icon. His entire body is scanned over by the blue light. His clothes are replaced by a dark blue guardian uniform with dark blue boots to match.

“I am Guardian Sparky Blaze!” Sparky yells out at Megabyte as Sparky points to himself. “And I am the emergency guardian of this system,” Sparky says before squinting his eyes at Megabyte. “So just try and attack,”

New Protection

“Sweep sectors two and six to make sure they're clean,” Pipp says, leaning over the map of Mainframe in the control room. In front of her is a vid window of one of the binom generals out in the city. Zipp stands next to her, looking over the map with Phong rolling up between the two.

“Yes sir!” The binom says, saluting before the vid window collapse.

“This is bad,” Pipp says as she watches a sector next to Megabyte’s sector start to turn purple. “We fight off one invasion and Megabyte heads to the opposite side and takes three more sectors,” Pipp says, looking down at Phong.

“We must keep trying,” Phong responds.

“Hitch would know what to do,” Zipp says as she looks over the map.

“Well he’s not here, now is he,” Pipp responds with a little hostility in her voice as she looks over at Zipp. Zipp looks over at Pipp with worry in her eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“No, I’m sorry,” Zipp resoinds. “I shouldn’t have commented on it. It’s a bit too soon,” Pipp smiles, causing Zipp to smile.

“Thanks,”

“No worries,” Zipp responds as Sparky walks up to them.

“That’s bad, very bad,” Sparky says as he watches another sector fall to Megabyte.

“Please don’t say that again,” Pipp says, turning to look down at Sparky.

“What?” Sparky responds, looking up at her as he shrugs. “It’s what dad always said,”

“And I don’t want to be reminded,” Pipp responds. “And I thought I told you to reboot into something else,” Pipp says, gesturing to Sparky’s Guardian uniform.

“But I’m the new guardian,” Sparky responds back.

“The kid is right,” Zipp backs up Sparky, causing him to smile up at her. “Besides, he looks good in the uniform,”

“Ya, well it reminds me of Hitch,” Pipp responds back as tears form in her eyes. She quickly wipes them away before taking a deep breath in. “You’re too young to be a guardian,”

“But dad made me a guardian,” Sparky retorts back.

“The young sprite is right,” Phong interjects. “He is the new guardian, and Hitch did make him a guardian,”

“You aren’t suggesting what I think you are,” Pipp responds.

“We need all the help we can get,” Zipp responds.

“While Sparky may be young, he can at least help fight off the games to keep our minds on the real fight,” Phong explains.

“Hello,” Sparky responds, waving his arms around. “Did everyone forget I am right here?” Pipp sighs as she turns to Sparky.

“You can be guardian,” Pipp reluctantly says.

“I didn’t need your approval,” Sparky responds, crossing his arms over his chest.

“But you are going to need help,” Pipp says, turning to Zipp. “Would you go in with him into the first few games?“

“Gladly,” Zipp responds. “When the next game drops, we are going to kick some major user butt. Right, guardian?” Zipp asks, turning to Sparky. Sparkys smiles up at her as he puffs his chest out.

“Right,” Sparky nods before the entire map turns a light purple. An electric sound rings out as the announcer says incoming game.

“Looks like we have our first mission,” Zipp says as the game cube shows up on the map as a three-dimensional cube.

“That is way too close to Megabyte’s territory for comfort,” Pipp says, looking at where the cube is going to land as Zipp and Sparky walk to the door. “I’ll send some CPUs to escort you two!”

“Thanks!” Zipp responds before the two walk out the door. Pipp sighs as she turns back to the map. Phong gently places a hand on her arm before Pipp looks down at him.

“Is there anything you would like to talk about?” Phong asks.

“Maybe later,” Pipp responds. Phong nods before sliding away.

“There it is!” Sparky yells, pointing at the falling Gamecube. He and Zipp fly over the city on their zip boards as two CPU ships guard them.

“Good, just a bit further,” Zipp says before a group of Megabyte’s ships start flying towards them. “Not good!” Zipp says as her face turns to worry.

“Glitch… Aaauu.. Shield,” Sparky says. Glitch beeps before morphing into an energy shield. “Get behind me,” Sparky says, raising the shield in front of him as the CPUs fly off to attack the ABCs. Zipp ducks down behind Sparky as shots start to fire. One of the CPU ships takes out a hand full of ABC ships before going down. Sparky turns around as Zipp keeps behind his shield. Bolts bounce off Sparky’s shield before the game completely lands.

“Nice thinking,” Zipp congratulates Sparky as Glitch returns back to normal.

“Thanks,” Sparky responds, looking up at Zipp with a small smile on his face. “Now Glitch, game states,” Sparky says before Glitch beeps and shows the stats on the screen. “I… have no idea what most of that means,” Sparky admits as Zipp looks around.

The two have ended up at the top of a castle wall. The castle wall surrounds a decent-sized castle in the center. The castle sits atop of a hill with a forest to one side and an ocean to the other. A steep cliff divided the Castle from the ocean below.

“A tower defense game?” Zipp asks.

“In a sense, yes,” Sparky responds before Glitch returns to normal. “It looks like the game is about defending the castle from the user,” Sparky explains as he walks over to Zipp, standing on the side of the wall, looking out to the forest. “We need to kill him three times before he can get the holy hand grenade that lays inside of the castle,”

“If he does get it?” Zipp asks, looking down at him.

“Then the castle goes boom, and game over for us,” Sparky explains, using his hands to mimic the explosion.

“Then what do we have to do?” Zipp asks.

“Good work commander,” Megabyte says, tapping his finger together with a big smile on his face. “Keep them bouncing around,” The commander nods before the vid window changes into Hex. “Is the hardware in place?” Megabyte asks.

“Ready, and waiting to destroy!” Hex says, maniacally laughing. Pointing at the Principal Office is a giant gun-looking device with a clear barrel. At the end stands Hex, next to two yellow handlebars that lead directly to the power source.

“Good,” Megabyte says with an evil grin. “Charge it up and shoot when ready,” Megabyte commands.

“Yes, sir,” Hex says with a sarcastic respectful tone. Megabyte rolls his eyes as Hex turns around. She grabs the yellow handles, moving the weapon a bit before using her magic and changing the weapon.

“Let’s see how well you fare against this, Guardian,” Megabyte says, emphasizing Guardian with seething anger and spite.

“What is that?” Pipp says, looking up at the giant vid window. The screen shows the outside of the Principal Office and the weapon pointing at them.

“It looks like Megabyte’s new weapon,” Phong responds.

“And it looks like Hex is powering it,” Pipp responds as the vid window zooms in on Hex, who is charging the weapon.

“This is not good,” Phong says.

“Get the shield up!” Pipp yells at the binoms on the computers around her. “And do it quickly, we have no idea how long it will take for her to charge that thing,” Pipp commands. The binoms get to work, typing onto the computers. The blue shield rises up around the Principal Office as the weapon shoots at them. The shot bounces off the shield and up into the sky. The entire building shakes from the impact of the beam.

“How long can we hold the shield up?” Pipp asks, turning to Phong.

“Maybe five or six more shots,” Phong estimates as he does math in his head. “If we put all the power into the shields we could resist up to ten,”

“We’ll keep that as a last resort,” Pipp responds before the building shakes again. Another beam strikes the shield and goes up into the air.

“Come one, you have to listen to me!” Sparky yells out to the binoms. Some run and hid, while others work on separate traps and weapons. Sparky stands on a barrel in the center of the courtyard.

“Why would we listen to you?” A binom asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Because I’m the guardian,” Sparky says, pointing at himself. “If you don’t we could get deleted!”

“Hitch was the guardian, not some kid,” Another binom pips up.

“I’m his son!” Sparky yells in frustration.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Another binom responds.

“That’s it!” Sparky yells, flinging his arms up into the air in anger before hopping off the barrel. He walks over to the nearby tower and walks in.

“Hitch would never have gotten angry,” a binom whispers to the other. The other binom nods in response as Sparky walks out onto the castle wall. Zipp leans on the wall, looking out into the forest with the wind blowing in her hair. She looks over at Sparky, who looks down in anger as he walks over to her.

“I take it they didn’t listen?” Zipp asks.

“They are either hiding or doing their own thing,” Sparky angrily flings his arms around while looking up at Zipp.

“At least some are doing something,” Zipp says, trying to cheer up Sparky.

“The last time they tried to help it almost go dad deleted,” Sparky grumpily mumbles s as he crosses his arms and places his face in them as he leans against the wall.

“Could you tell me again what the user looks like?” Zipp asks, looking out into the forest as a giant wooden rabbit is slowly moving towards the castle entrance below them.

“They should look like greek warriors, why you ask?” Sparky asks, looking up at Zipp.

“Because I think we have company,” Zipp points down at the giant wooden rabbit below them. The doors to the castle open before the rabbit starts to roll in.

“No!” Sparky frantically yells. He quickly turns around and runs to the other side of the wall facing into the courtyard. “Push the rabbit back out!” Sparky yells as the doors close behind the rabbit. “It’s a trojan!” Sparky tries to warn, but it’s too late. The side of the rabbit opens up to reveal a very muscular-looking stallion covered in greek styled armor. In his left hand is a short sword, and in the other is a greek shield. “Crap!” Sparky yells as the user starts to attack the binoms.

“At least he’s a looker,” Zipp says, looking over the edge with a little smile. Sparky looks over at Zipp with a dead-paned expression on his face. “I was just trying to lighten the mood,” Zipp says, raising her hand up in defense.

“You can lighten it by rebooting and helping,” Sparky responds before jumping over the edge of the wall. “Reboot!” He yells while double tapping his icon. He lands on the ground, now dressed in roman styled armor from the top of his horns to the lips of his feet. Strapped to his left side is a claymore. Sparky stands up before pulling the long claymore out of its sheath. He holds it up in front of him with both hands.

The user turns around and looks over at Sparky as Zipp lands next to him. She is rebooted into a Samurai. She pulls out her katana and holds it out in front of herself as Sparky looks over at her.

“Talk about the clash of the centuries,” Sparky comments.

“Wierdest castle game, ever,” Zipp agress with Sparky. “Look out!” Zipp yells before Sparky jumps away from the user’s sword.

“Now that was just cheap,” Sparky responds before charging toward the user. He takes a swing at the user but is blocked by the shield. Sparky looks up at the user with fear as he tries to back up with the heavy sword. The user takes a slash at Sparky but is stopped by Zipp’s katana.

The user looks over at her as she starts taking slashes at him. The user blocks most with his shield and sword, but some slip by. The attacks only cause minor damage to the user’s armor. Zipp is stopped when the user blocks the katana with its shield before pushing the sword away. Zipp stumbles back as the user takes a slash at her. Zipp ducks, causing the user to miss.

Sparky charges at the user as he is distracted and swings his sword at the user’s head. The claymore slices right threw the user’s neck, causing it to rocket off before landing on the ground. Blood spurts out the top of the neck as the body collapse. Sparky sighs as he relaxes.

Lighting starts to appear around Sparky as he looks frantically around himself. The lighting takes over his body, causing him to drop his sword and scream in pain.

“Sparky!” Zipp yells as she quickly stands up. The lightning goes away as Sparky stumbles a bit. “Are you ok Sparky?” Zipp asks, walking over to him before gently grabbing him to keep him steady.

“I know what the game is!” Sparky says in epiphany. “It explains the cultural appropriation, ” Sparky whispers before looking up at Zipp and saying, “It’s Highlander!”

Pipp sits alone in one of the meeting rooms. She sits at the end of a round table with her in her hands as she lets tears flow down her cheeks. The door opens, causing Pipp to shoot up and quickly wipe the tears out of her eyes. She looks over to see Phong sliding over to her.

“I was just…”

“You are hurt, my child,” Phong says, interpreting Pipp. “Please, will you talk to me about it?” Pipp takes a deep breath in before nodding.

“It’s about Hitch,” Pipp starts. “He and I didn’t always see eye to eye,” Pipp lets out a chuckle before saying, “He worked too much sometimes.” Pipp sighs as she combs her fingers threw her hair. “But with all the adventures we went on, I think I started to like him,” Pipp looks over at Phong, who nods knowingly.

“It’s not just the loss of a friend, but someone you loved,” Phong replies. “Is that why you’ve been protective of young Sparky?” Phong asks, placing a hand gently on her shoulder.

“He reminds me of Hitch,” Pipp sighs, looking down at the table. “His overconfidence, his knowledge… the uniform,” Pipp says as she swallows a lump in her throat. “He really is the new guardian. I just don’t want to lose him,” Pipp says, looking up at Phong.

“I understand,” Phong sighs. “Butt Sparky is a young sprite now tasked with protecting Mainframe. I think you know better than anyone he is ready for that responsibility,”

“You’re right,” Pipp responds before standing up. “And, thank you Phong,”

“I will always be here for you Pipp,” Phong replies before the building shakes.

“Not if those shields fail,” Pipp says, grabbing the tablet off the table and walking out of the room and into the command room. “How are the shield holding?” She asks the binom at the computer as Phong follows her out.

“We are at seventy-present power,” the binom responds.

“Good, keep them as powered up as you can,” Pipp says, looking down at the table with the map of Mainframe. Her eyes meet with the purple Gamecube as she sighs. “Please keep Sparky safe sis,” Pipp whispers to herself.

“Sparky! Duck!” Zipp yells over to Sparky. He ducks down behind the wall as arrows fly over his head. Zipp is ducked down behind the wall as well.

“How many arrows does this dang user have?” Sparky asks as he loads an arrow into his bow.

“Enough to feel like an army!” Zipp yells over to Sparky.

“I didn’t need an answer!” Sparky yells back, more than a little annoyed. The arrows stop before Sparky pops over the wall and points his bow down at the ground below. Standing at the entrance is the user, trying to get into the castle. Sparky pulls back the bow and aims for the user’s head. Sparky’s hands shack a bit before letting go of the string. The arrow goes flying toward the user before going straight threw the user’s head, causing the head to come off. The user’s body collapses to the ground before disintegrating.

“Nice shot,” Zipp says, looking down at the user.

“Thanks,” Sparky says, standing all the way up.

“That’s two lives, right?” Zipp asks, walking over to Sparky.

“Yep,” Sparky nods. “One more life to go,” Sparky turns towards the courtyard and look at the binoms that had gathered at the door. The binoms cheer as he looks down at them. Sparky looks a little shocked as Zipp walks over to him.

“Looks like they are ready to listen,” Zipp says, looking down at Sparky.

“Do you really think they will?” Sparky asks, looking up at Zipp.

“You’re the one wearing the guardian uniform, aren’t you?” Zipp asks, tilting her head to the side. Sparky smiles and nods before turning towards the binoms. He climbs over the railing and jumps down to the ground in front of the binoms. The binoms stop talking as he stands up.

“Look,” Sparky starts, looking around the group that had collected. “I know I’m not like my dad, and that I am just a kid. But I’ve been trusted by my dad to protect you all. He gave me Glitch and the emergency code. You don’t have to like me, but please just trust in me,”

Binoms start to whisper amongst themselves before one walks up to Sparky. “What do we have to do? Guardian,” The binom says, looking up at Sparky. Sparky smiles and takes a deep breath in.

“This is the last life of the user, so he’s going to have a lot more firepower. We must get ready for it.” Sparky looks up at Zipp. “Zipp, keep an eye out for the user, and shout when he comes!”

“On it!” Zipp says, turning around and looking out to the forest.

“Now I need a group to barricade the door,” Sparky says, pointing at the door. “Another group to be archer on the wall, and another to stand guard with me down here for when the user gets threw the doors,” Sparky explains. “And whatever you do, don’t let the user get to the holy hand grenade inside that castle!” Sparky yells, pointing at the castle behind the binoms. “You with me!” Sparky yells, thrusting his fist into the air.

“Yes!” The binoms yell before they split up into groups.

“Now we just have to pray we have enough time,” Sparky whispers to himself.

Sparky stands in front of the barricaded door with his claymore out and ready. Glitch is extended out into an energy shield. Standing behind him is a small army of Binoms with swords and shields. Sparky taps his foot against the ground as he waits impatiently. He looks up at Zipp, who is looking over the edge of the wall. A line of binoms stay hidden under the wall with their bows at the ready.

“Users incoming!” Zipp yells, ducking down.

“Users!” Sparky yells.

“He has reinforcements!” Zipp yells out.

“How many?” Sparky yells back.

Zipp ducks over the edge of the wall before ducking back down. “About five, including the user!” Zipp yells.

“Great,” Sparky sighs to himself. “This is going to be harder than I thought,” Arrows start flying over the wall as the door starts to get slammed against. “Sheild up!” Sparky yells as he covers himself with his energy shield. The other binoms use their shields to block the incoming arrows. The arrows bounce off the shields harmlessly. A few stick into the shield a bit before falling off.

The door starts to crack as the barricade starts to fall apart. Sparky readies himself as the door begins to break down the center. The wooden door shatters into many small pieces. The barricade falls to the ground as the user steps into the courtyard. Four other similar-looking warriors follow him in.

“Leave the user for me!” Sparky yells before the binoms charge at the other warriors. The user looks over at Sparky before smiling. Sparky grimaces before charging at the user. He swings his sword at the user, who blocks with his shield before swinging down at Sparky. Sparky dodges before taking a swing at the user’s legs. The user blocks the attack with his sword before pushing Sparky’s sword up into his face. Sparky stumbles back into the courtyard as the user walks towards him with a wicked smile.

Sparky regains control as the user swings at him. Sparky rolls to the right before stabbing at the user. He blocks the attack, cutting right threw the claymore. Sparky stumbles a bit with the end of his sword cut off. He looks at what's left of it in shock. The user swings at him before Sparky blocks the attack with his energy shield.

“Hey!” Zipp yells, jumping down from the wall. “Over here you overgrown colt!” Zipp taints as she pulls out her katana. The user pushes Sparky to the ground, causing Sparky’s sword to slip out of his hand as he hits the ground.

The user squats up with Zipp. The two staring each other in the eyes, waiting for the other to make a move. Zipp uses her wings to blast herself forward. The user swings at her, but Zipp dodges and rolls under the user. She gets up and quickly turns around and takes a slash at the user’s head, but is stopped by the user’s shield.

The user goes for a jab, but Zipp dodges. She goes in for another attack, but the user stops it with his shield before pushing the katana and her away. Zipp stumbles to the ground, her katana flying out of her hand as the user looms over her with his sword raised up.

“Hey!” Sparky yells. The user turns his head to see Sparky running up at him with Glitch turned into a claymore. “There can only be one!” Sparky yells before cleanly cutting the user’s head off his shoulders. The announcer says game over as the Gamecube lifts off the ground.

“Thanks,” Zipp says as Sparky helps her up.

“Don’t thank me yet,” Sparky says, looking around to see Megabyte’s fleet surrounding them. Zipp looks around at the ships surrounding them as Sparky readies Glitch.

“How many can you take?” Zipp asks, grabbing her katana.

“Tow, maybe three on a good day,” Sparky responds. Zipp looks at him in worry. “What,” Sparky shrugs. “It’s the honest truth,” Zipp shakes her head as the ships slowly lower down to them. The binoms huddle up around the pair as the ships land.

“Ready?” Zipp asks.

“When you are,” Sparky responds.

“3,” Zipp whispers.

“2,” Sparky responds as the top entrance hatch of the ship opens.

“1,” Zipp responds before she charges towards the ship as Pipp comes out of the hatch.

“Wait!” Pipp yells. Zipp stops and Sparky turns around and looks up at her.

“Pipp!?” Zipp and Sparky say in confusion.

“We stole some of Megabyte’s ships to get you out of here,” Pipp responds, gesturing to the battlefield around them.

“Maybe tell us before we try and delete you,” Zipp responds as Sparky sighs. “Come on Sparks,” Zipp says, gesturing to him before running over to the ship.

“Sparks,” Sparky whispers to himself with a small smile. “I think I like that,” Sparky says, running after Zipp.

“The shields, they can’t take much more!” a binom yells in fear while looking at the shield’s charge.

“Give it all you can!” Phong yells back at Pipp, Zipp, and Sparky walk into the command room.

“What’s going on?” Sparky asks before the building shakes, almost causing Zipp and Sparky to fall over.

“Megabyte is using a new weapon to try and get into the Principal Office,” Pipp starts to explain.

“It’s the same one he used to corrupt the hard drive,” Phong adds as he slides over. “But we have shields,”

“And they won’t last much longer under constant fire,” Pipp responds.

“Is Hex the one charging the weapon?” Sparky asks.

“Yep,” Phong and Pipp say at the same time.

“I could see if I could get more power into the shields,” Zipp offers.

“How would you do that?” Phong asks.

“I’ll show you,” Zipp says, walking past Phong and towards the nearest computer. Phong follows after her, leaving Pipp and Sparky alone.

“Sparky,” Pipp says, turning towards Sparky. Sparky looks up at Pipp with a questioning look on his face. “Look, I’m sorry for lashing out at you earlier,” Pipp takes a deep breath before squatting down to his level. “I just want you to be safe,”

“You just have to trust I will be safe,” Sparky responds. Pipp noose before patting SParky on the shoulder.

“Do you have any ideas?” Pipp asks as she stands back up. “Guardian,” Pipp says with a smile. Sparky smiles before the two make their way to the giant map of Mainframe.

Propaganda

“Keep him covered,” Pipp says to the commander. The command salutes before the vid window closes. Pipp looks up at the big screen in the command room. It shows Sparky heading to where the Gamecube is going to land. “Be safe Sparky,” Pipp whispers.

“He’ll be fine,” Zipp says, gently placing a hand on Pipp’s shoulder. Pipp looks back at Zipp before responding.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I watched him in the game,” Zipp responds, leaning against the table. “He saved my life and won the game. He really is a lot like his dad,”

Pipp sighs before nodding and saying, “I hope you are right,”

Sparky speeds across the sky above Mainframe on his zip board. His face is full of determination as he heads to the falling Gamecube. “Wha!” Sparky yells as the zip board is swiped from under him. Sparky goes flying down and lands face-first into the flat roof of a building. He rubs his face as he staggers back up to his feet.

“Who took my zip board!” Sparky yells, turning around to see a group of angry binoms, Some of the binoms being viral, standing behind him. One holding onto the collapsed zip board. “Give that back!” Sparky yells as he runs over to get the zip board, but the binoms move, causing him to stumble a bit. He quickly turns around as a viral binom with an afro, steps to the front of the group.

“You don’t deserve Hitch’s key tool!” The binom yells. The others yelling in agreement with the binom. “You are just a silly, little, kid!” The binom says. Each word coming out of the binom’s mouth angers Sparky.

“If you don’t let me in the game, the sector will be nullified!” Sparky yells back.

“You will cause the nullification!” The binom retorts.

“I have no time for this,” Sparky says before looking down at Glitch. “Glitch, zip board,” The gear detaches and attaches to the zip board. Glitch pulls the zip board away from the binom holding it and returns it to Sparky before the gear returns back to the key tool.

“Get him!” The binom yells as Sparky throws down the zip board. He quickly hops onto it and flies away from the group and towards the almost fallen Gamecube.

“Come on, a little faster,” Sparky urges the zip board as he goes as fast as he can on it. He pulls back before running into the game cube. “Damit!” Sparky yells, looking up at the Gamecube as it solidifies. “Those damn binoms,” Sparky grits threw his teeth before turning around and flying back towards the Principal Office.

“Those damn binoms!” Pipp yells in anger as she slams her fists into the table.

“Pipp, calm down,” Zipp says, placing a hand on Pipp’s shoulder.

“How can I be calm when a sector is going to be nullified!” Pipp yells, turning to Zipp in anger. Zipp backs up and raises her hands up in defense.

“You don’t know that,” Zipp responds. “Maybe the binoms will win this time,” Zipp shrugs.

“They never win,” Pipp responds, still angry, but with a lot less vigor.

“She is right you know,” Phong pips in.

“But maybe with everything going on…” Zipp is unable to finish the statement before the game starts to lift off the ground.

“Game over, user wins,” the announcer says as the Gamecube leaves behind an empty sector in its wake.

“Those stupid binoms!” Sparky yells in complete and utter hate as he slams the door open to the command room. All the binoms in the room flinch as Sparky angrily walks over to the group around the table. “Why would they stop me!” Sparky yells, slamming his hands down on the table, causing Phong to flinch.

“Sparky,” Pipp responds, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Calm down,”

Zipp chuckles before whispering, “Hypocrite,” Pipp looks over at Zipp with a little annoyance while Sparky shrugs Pipp’s hand off his shoulder.

“How can I calm down when an entire sector is now nullified!” Sparky yells, throwing his arms up into the air. “And it’s because of those stupid binoms!”

“Anger at things you can’t control will not fix anything,” Phong says, sliding over to Sparky. “You must let go of the past, and learn from it,”

“But what lesson did we learn from this?” Sparky responds, anger still present in his voice.

“That Megabyte is using propaganda,” Zipp says, looking up at the giant vid window. The others look up to see it showing the afro binom putting up anti-Sparky signs on a building.

“That explains it,” Pipp says before the vid window goes black again. “Is there any way of fighting against that?”

“By making Sparky a hero like Hitch once was,” Phong points out. “If we make him a living icon for the Citizens of Mainframe, they will trust him and lead us to victory!”

“But how do I do that?” Sparky asks.

“That…” Phong says before pausing. “I do not know,” Phong sighs as he shakes his head.

“Maybe if Sparky keeps winning games, they will see him as a hero,” Zipp suggests.

“That might work,” Phong responds.

“I just need to get into the next game that drops,” Sparky responds before the sky turns purple and the city rings out with an electric sound.

“Speak of the user,” Pipp says as she turns to the map of Mainframe on the table. “It’s dropping in sector six,” Pipp says before turning back to face Sparky. “Be careful, Megabyte controls that part,”

“Don’t worry about me,” Sparky says, pointing at himself. “I can get there no problem,” Sparky says confidently before turning around and walking towards the exit. He walks out of the door as Pipp sighs.

“I hope he’s right,” Pipp says, before turning to the vid window.

Sparky goes flying across the sky towards the Gamecube as fast as the little zip board can carry him. He flies much higher so the binom can’t grab his zip board from under him this time. He looks down to see a bunch of binoms with signs, protesting him. Sparky sighs as he slowly shakes his head.

“Wha!” Sparky says as he is jolted forward. He looks back to see one of Megabyte’s ships behind him. His eyes widen as he goes to fly down, but another ship blocks his way. Three other ships fly in to surround him, leaving him with only one option, to go forward.

“Crap!” Sparky yells. He is charging straight into another ship that blocks his way. He smacks full force into it, causing his zip board to go flying into the Gamecube before it drops down without him in it. Sparky grabs onto the ship before pulling himself up and onto the top of the ship.

“Screw you Megabyte!” Sparky yells out in anger as he punches the ship. “Fuck,” Sparky cries as he cradles his hand. “Note to self, don’t punch metal,” Sparky whispers to himself as the top hatch of the ship opens up and out pops a viral binom with an energy gun. Sparky looks up before shouting, “Glitch! Energy shield!” Sparky raises glitch up as the gear extends out and turns into a shield before the viral binom starts shooting.

Sparky slowly scoots toward the binom as he keeps shooting. Sparky get’s close enough that the gun is touching the shield. The binom goes to shoot, but the gun explodes in his hand due to the shot going back into the gun.

“Lights out,” Sparky says before punching the binom across the face. The binom spins around before falling back into the ship. Glitch returns to normal as Sparky climbs into the ship’s control room.

“That’s the second time,” Pipp says, gritting her teeth as the vid window of Sparky closes. The building shakes again as Sparky walks angrily into the command room.

“That virus will pay for this,” Sparky growls. His anger is so great you could roast a marshmallow from just the heat from his head.

“How much more can the shield take?” Pipp asks, looking up and over at Zipp, who is working away at the computer.

“I’m giving it all I can,” Zipp says, before looking over at Pipp. “Two or three more shots and we are toast,”

“Phong, is there a way to stop that weapon?” Pipp asks, looking across the table at Phong.

“The only way to stop it is if we could get close enough to disable it and distract Hex,” Phong explains, looking down at the table.

“I have an idea,” Sparky says as he raises his arm up.

“What is it?” Pipp asks, turning towards Sparky.

“If we send a few CPUs along with me and Zipp, then we could get close enough while they distract Hex,” Sparky explains. “I then can use Glitch to try and dismantle the device,”

“That could work,” Phong nods as he scratches his chin.

“Ok, I’ll call on as many CPUs I can spare,” Pipp says. “You two stay out of range in this sector,” Pipp says, pointing down by a sector near the weapon as Zipp walks down to them. “When I say you can go, then go,” Pipp says. Zipp and Sparky nod before heading for the door.

“You ready to kick some Hex butt?” Sparky asks, looking up at Zipp.

“Ready and willing,” Zipp replies back before the door closes behind them.

“So they are planning to hit Hex and the Hardwear,” a viral binom says to Megabyte. Megabyte chuckles as he leans back into his chair while tapping his fingers together.

“Another futile attempt to save their city,” Megabyte smiles. “Pull fleets two and five to protect Hex, she must not be disturbed,” Megabyte commands.

“Yes sir!” The viral binom responds, saluting before the vid window collapse. Megabyte starts slowly laughing as he thinks of all the ways he could delete the city.

“Oh Phong,” Megabyte sighs. “You think you can just send a fake guardian and a backstabbing hacker to save your city?” Megabyte asks himself. “What a pitiful idea,” Megabyte says, slowly shaking his head.

“I wonder how much longer we have to wait,” Sparky says, his arms crossed over his chest as he taps his foot. He leans against the building with Zipp. CPU ships wait, hidden amongst the building above the two.

“Be patient, she is probably trying to get all the CPUs she can,” Zipp responds before a vid window pops up in front of them.

“Everything is ready,” Pipp says as her face pops up onto the vid window.

“We clear to attack?” Zipp asks as she and Sparky stand up straight.

“Clear and…” Pipp stops as the map in front of her flashes red. “No!” Pipp yells, looking down at the map.

“What is it?” Zipp asks with worry in her voice.

“Megabyte is pulling two fleets to protect the weapon!” Pipp yells before looking up at Zipp and Sparky. “Be careful, this is going to be harder than we thought,”

“When was it ever easy?” Sparky asks as he throws down his zip board.

“Good point,” Pipp responds as Zipp throws down her zip board. “But still, be careful,”

“We will,” Zipp responds before closing the vid window and flying after Sparky, who had already taken off into the sky. Zipp flies up next to Sparky as they head toward the weapon. The CPUs follow behind them.

“There they are,” Sparky says, looking over at the fleet of ABCs headed for the weapon. “Attack!” Sparky yells back at the CPUs. The CPUs head toward the ABCs, leaving Zipp and Sparky flying toward the weapon. Sparky looks down at Glitch as he beeps. His eyes widen before he yells, “Dodge!”

“Shit!” Zipp yells as the two dodges a laser bolt from behind them. They look back to see two ABCs following them. “You keep going!” Zipp yells before stopping and turning around. She pulls her katana out and heads for the ships. The ships fire upon her as Sparky makes it to the bottom of the weapon.

He flies up to the platform before stepping onto it. He ducks and pulls a bit back to dodge Hex’s magic attack. He strands before swinging his arms around as he tilts a bit on the edge of falling off the platform. Hex flies over and grabs Sparky, pulling him in close to her.

“What a lovely surprise!” Hex says, slowly caressing Sparky’s cheeks. “And well dressed too,” Hex says, causing Sparky to blush a bit.

“Thanks?” Sparky asks with a hint of confusion in his voice.

“I hope you are as fun to try and delete as your father!” Hex says with a big smile before throwing Sparky over the edge of the platform.

“Glitch!” Sparky yells, pointing Glitch up at his zip board. “Zip board!” Sparky yells before the gear detaches and flies fast up to the zip board. It attaches itself to the zip board before beeping. Glitch then guides the zip board down below Sparky. Sparky flips around and lands on the zip board before pulling up. The gear returns back to the key tool as he flies back toward the platform.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” Sparky says, flying up to the platform before stepping off the zip board. He quickly picks up the zip board as Hex turns around to face her.

“You really take after your father,” Hex says, clasping her hands together and placing them against her cheek while smiling sweetly. “Let’s see how well you fight!” Hex yells as her face turns into anger. She raises her hands up and points at Sparky. Her hands start to glow white before shooting out a yellow bolt.

“Glitch!” Sparky yells but doesn’t finish as the bolt hit’s his chest, causing him to fly back off the platform. Sparky throws down the zip board again and lands on it. He looks up in time to see Hex flying after him. “Glitch! Aaauuu…” Sparky blanks as Hex starts getting closer. “Anything!” Sparky yells as he parses himself for impact.

Glitch detaches and turns into a light post, stopping Hex in her tracks with a metallic bang. Sparky slowly lowers his arms and blinks a bit as he watches Hex slide off the pole and falls down towards the ground. “Now that’s what I call a high light,” Sparky says, chuckling to himself as Glitch returns back to normal and lands on his arm again.

Sparky flies over to the platform before stepping on again. Sparky picks up the zip board and places it on his hip before walking over to the controls.

“Glitch,” Sparky says, looking down at glitch. “Hack?” Sparky asks. Glitch beeps before extending the orange rode out and inserting it into the command terminal. “All right then,” Sparky says as glitch beeps and turns. Glitch’s screen flashes blue at the same time it beeps.

“How dare you!” Hex yells in seething anger as she charges toward Sparky. Sparky has no time to move. Hex takes Sparky to the ground, causing the rode and gear to rip off of the key tool and stay in place. Sparky grunts as Hex charges up a fireball in her hand.

“Glitch!” Sparky says, pointing the key toll at Hex before releasing what had happened. “Shit!” Sparky says, looking up at the angry virus on top of him.

“Goodbye, Sparky!” Hex says with a wicked smile. But before she can do anything, a laser bolt hits her. Throwing her off the platform and falling towards the ground again. Sparky sits up to see Pipp with a laser gun in her hand.

“Thanks,” Sparky says as he stands up.

“Don’t thank me yet,” Pipp says as Hex flies back up.

“How dare you Pipp!” Hex yells before charging past Sparky and towards Pipp. Pipp flies away with Hex following behind her.

“Ok,” Sparky says, watching Pipp fly away before turning and running up to Glitch. He gently pushes the key tool base up into the gear, reattaching it. “Have you figured out how to dismantle it?” Sparky asks. Glitch beeps back, causing Sparky to sigh. He goes to speak, but the sky turns purple, and electric sound rings out as the announcer booms out across the city.

“Incoming game,”

“Really?” Sparky says, looking up at the game dropping just in front of him. Glitch retracts back to normal as it beeps. “That will work,” Sparky says, looking down at Glitch before throwing down his zip board and jumping onto it. He goes and flies under the Gamecube before it lands down, cutting the weapon in half and causing it to explode.

“No!” Megabyte yells from his chair as he slams his fist into the arm of the chair. He first his teeth as he watches his weapon gets destroyed on the vid window. “You damn incompetent crazy virus!” Megabyte curses. “I’ll get you back for this Sparky, and you, my dear sister will be punished,” Megabyte says as the vid window collapses.

“Nice,” Sparky says, looking around the game. He stands on one of the starting lines of a race track. Other binoms stand on the other places as they reboot. “Formula One racing,” Sparky smiles before double tapping his icon and yelling out, “Reboot!” The green energy overtakes his body. It replaces his clothes with an orange racing suit and helmet. A formula one car appears next to him.

Sparky climbs into the car as the other binoms do the same thing. The user appears next to Sparky in a shark-painted car. The light in front of them lights up and starts at red. The racers rev up their engine as they wait. Sparky looks over at the user, who looks back at him. Sparky, with determination on his face, smiles at the user. They angrily look back before the two turn back to see the light turn yellow. Sparky prepares to step on the gas.

The light turns green before Sparky steps on the gas. His tires spin out as the other racers speed past him. “Come on, come on,” Sparky says, revving the gas a bit to try and get the wheels to grip. The wheels finally find tracking. “Yes!” Sparky yells as he races after the other drivers. He looks at his dashboard to see he is in thirty-seventh place. “Damn, I’ve got some catching up to do,”

Sparky presses the gas all the way down, causing his body to press into the seat as he rockets down the road. “Excuse me,” Sparky kindly says as he passes a racer. “Pardon me,” He passes another. “Just coming through,” Sparky says before turning around a corner. “I need to go faster,” Sparky says, looking over his dashboard. “Right!” Sparky yells in epiphany.

He hits the button on his steering wheel, causing the engine to blast like a rocket ship. The front end of the car pops up as he speeds down the road and past the other racers. His front end drops down as he slows down. He looks at the dashboard to see he is now in tenth place. “Much better,” Sparky says before turning back to the track.

“Shit!” Sparky yells as he speeds toward a ramp that had just popped up in front of him. “Oh no, you don’t!” Sparky says in determination. Sparky quickly turns the car into neutral before hitting the break and turning sharply. Sparky’s car drifts for a bit sideways before slowing down and stopping in front of the ramp. Sparky sighs before his eyes widen again.

Racers come head onto him. They do their best to drive around him. One clips his back, causing him to completely face the oncoming racers. Sparky puts the car back into drive before sharply turning around and heading down the track after the racers.

“Let’s see you try that again user,” Sparky says as he slowly comes up to the user in first place. The user looks over as Sparky drives up next to him, almost matching his speed. The user pushes a button on his dashboard, causing spikes to come out of the hubcap of the wheel.

The user slowly closes the gap between the two cars. Sparky’s eyes widen when he notices the spicks. He slams on the break, causing him to whiplash as the user’s car zooms ahead. Sparky hits the gas and speeds after the user. The user looks back to see Sparky on his tail. He pushes a button on his dash before two metal tubs pop out of the back of the car. Oil starts coming out of them and onto the track.

“Oh no you don’t,” Sparky says, quickly turning to the right and dodging the oil slick. A binom ends up sliding on the oil and starting a pile-up in the middle of the road. Sparky slowly catches up with the user as they make it to the second lap. Their cars turn into hovercrafts and the ground turns into a plastic slide-like road.

“Second lap,” Sparky says, a little impressed. “Let’s see how much farther you get,” Sparky says before pushing a button on his new dashboard. The front of his hovercraft lists up a bit to reveal a gun-like thing poking out. It shoots out spikes up and over the user’s craft. The user runs over the spicks, causing the craft to slow down as it loses air. This allows Sparky to speed past the user before losing him around a turn.

“Goodbye user,” Sparky says with a smile on his face as the front closes again. The user speeds past him in a new hovercraft, causing him to swerve so as to not get hit by the user. “Never mind,” Sparky says before correcting his craft and racing after the user. The user looks back before pushing a button on his new dashboard. The back of his craft opens up a bit before mines fall off the back and float on the track.

“Minefield!” Sparky yells in panic. “Slalom,” Sparky says, much calmer as he weaves in between the mines. He uses the sides of the plastic slide-like road to keep completely away from the mines before having to go back down. He makes it throw as other binoms go into the minefield. Most run into the mine, causing their craft to blow up and send them flying into the air. One binom does what Sparky did and slaloms between the mines. He makes it to the end, but before he can celebrate, he runs into a stray mine, causing him to go flying off the road as his craft blows up.

Sparky races towards the user as they make it to the next and final lap. “Let’s see how you do with flying,” Sparky says as their crafts turn into airplanes. Sparky pulls up and lifts off the ground. The ground turns back to a normal race track as orange rings appear in the sky. The user flies through with Sparky close behind him. The user pulls back and flies up and over Sparky.

“What is he doing?” Sparky asks as he watches the user fly over him. The user lines up with Sparky as he readies a missile. “Shit!” Sparky yells as the user launches a missile at him. “Oh no you don’t,” Sparky says before pushing a button on the side of his cockpit. Flares fly out of the back of the ship, causing the missile to fly towards one and blowing up. “You can’t get rid of me that easily,” Sparky says with a smile.

The user shoots off another missile toward Sparky. Sparky presses the button again, but this time nothing happens. “Oh no,” Sparky whispers to himself as the missile flies towards him. Sparky tries to dodge the missile, but it keeps behind him no matter what he does. Sparky sighs as he braces for impact, but it never comes. He looks back to see another ship colored white with red stripes flying behind him where the missile was.

“This is your captain speaking,” Zipp says into her radio. “No more missiles, meaning smooth flying from here on out,” Zipp says with a smile as Sparky sighs.

“When did you get into the game?” Sparky asks.

“When it dropped,” Zipp responds. Sparky rolls his eyes at Zipp. “I’ll slow down the user, you get to the finish line,” Zipp commands as the user flies up to her airplane.

“All right,” Sparky says, nodding before speeding away. The user follows him with Zipp right behind the user.

“And that's how we beat the user!” Sparky says, fist bumping the air as he talks to Pipp. Sparky, Pipp, and Zipp are walking down a hallway in the Principal office toward the command room.

“It sounds like you’ve gotten a hang of being a guardian,” Pipp responds, smiling down at Sparky.

“Some binoms still don’t trust me,” Sparky responds as he lets his arms rest against his sides.

“You won’t be able to win everyone at once,” Pipp responds as they make it to the door. “Just listen to those you know have your back,” Pipp says as they walk into the command room.

“Surprise!” the binoms yell as confetti is thrown out over Sparky.

“W-what?” Sparky says in confusion. He looks around the room to see decorations hung around, food and drinks set up on the map table. Overhead of the table is a big banner that says, happy birthday Sparky. “I completely forgot about my birthday!” Sparky yells in surprise.

“We didn’t,” Zipp responds, placing a hand on Sparky’s shoulder. Sparky looks up at Zipp as a small smile creeps onto his face.

“Happy 110 Birthday Sparky,” Pipp says, placing a party hat on Sparky’s head. Sparky smiles before looking up at Pipp.

“Thanks. I can’t believe I’m finally 6,” Sparky says before running over to the table with the food. Zipp crosses her hands over her chest as she and Pipp watch Sparky grab some cake and happily talk with the binoms.

“Hitch would be proud of him,” Zipp says, turning to look at Pipp.

“He would be more than proud,” Pipp responds, looking over at Zipp. “He would be ecstatic,”

“Coco?” a binom asks, holding up a tray to the pair.

“Thanks,” Pipp and Zipp say as they grab the hot cocoa. The binom walks away as they take a sip of the hot cocoa.

“Hey Pipp,” Zipp says, looking down at the hot cocoa.

“Ya?” Pipp asks, looking over at her sister.

“I’m sorry for abandoning our system in search of adventure,” Zipp says, looking over at Pipp with genuine regret in her eyes. “And I’m really sorry for abandoning you and mom…” She is caught off guard when Pipp hugs her. Pipp smiles a squeezes Zipp tight. Zipp smiles as she wraps her arms around Pipp.

“That’s all I ever wanted to hear,” Pipp says, pulling away.

“So,” Zipp says, shrugging. “We good?”

“We’re great,” Pipp says, raising her cup up. “To a new start,”

“To a new start,” Pipp and Zipp clink their drinks together before taking a good sip of their cocoa.

Firewall

“Nice shot!” Sparky says high-fiving Zipp as the Gamecube lifts off the ground.

“Couldn't have done it without you Sparky,” Zipp responds, smiling down at him as the Gamecube disappears into the sky.

“Sparky! Sparky!” The binoms around them cheer.

“Thanks, everyone,” Sparky says, looking around at the binoms. Zipp’s eyes widen as the binoms run away. “What?” Sparky looks confusingly as the binoms run away. “Was there something wrong with my breath?” Sparky asks, attempting to smell his breath by using his hand to blow his breath back at him. Zipp taps Sparky on the shoulder. “What is…” Sparky stops in fear when he turns around to see Megabyte standing in front of him. Hovering behind Megabyte is a fleet of his ships. “Megabyte!” Sparky yells in anger as his face reflects his feelings.

“What do you want?” Zipp asks while Sparky gets Gitch ready.

“I want you to send a message to Phong,” Megabyte growls down at the two.

“We will do no such thing,” Sparky says, pointing Glitch up at Megabyte. Before Sparky can react, Megabyte grabs him by the beck and lifts him up to his face. Megabyte angrily stares into Sparky’s terrified eyes as Sparky tries to break Megabyte’s hold on his neck.

“You will do what I tell you delivery boy,” Megabyte growls at him.

“Let him go,” Zipp says, pulling out her katana.

“As you wish,” Megabyte says, dropping Sparky onto the ground. Sparky lands on his butt before he quickly stands up and retreats to Zipp. “You will listen carefully boy because the only reason I don’t have you and Storm deleted is because I need you to deliver a message to Phong for me,”

“Then spill it!” Zipp replies. “What is it,”

“There is no way to win this war. You may be safe, but the people of Mainframe aren’t,” Megabyte says, leaning down to face Sparky. “And their only hope is not in some guardian wannabe,” Megabyte straightens up as Sparky looks up at him in anger. “But in giving me a portal to the Supercomputer,” Zipp puts her katana away as Megabyte walks away. “And make it snappy delivery boy!” Megabyte says before lagging. Sparky grits his teeth as he clenches his fists.

“I will get you for this!” Sparky yells out in great hatred. A hatred that can not be easily described in words. One of pure and utter hate for one who had ruined their life.

“Oh dear,” Phong says, tapping his finger together. He sits at the front of a round table in a conference room. Zipp and Sparky sit on one side of Phong while Pipp sits across from the two.

“There is no way we are giving up a portal to the Supercomputer,” Pipp responds, shaking her head.

“And I’m not going to open the ports for him,” Zipp responds, crossing her arms over her chest.

“But if we don’t stop him, then he might end up taking over,” Sparky says, looking between the two.

“Young Sparky is right,” Phong chimes in. The three turn and look at him as he talks. “We need a way to win,”

“Or at least contain him long enough for us to find a way to delete him,” Pipp thinks as Zipp scratches her chin.

“We do not have much in a way of containment,” Phong replies as gears turn in Zipp's head.

“Hmm…” Zipp thinks as her eyes dart around the room.

“You got something sis?” Pipp asks.

“What if we created a firewall,” Zipp asks, looking over at Phong.

“We could make a crude firewall,” Phong replies. “But it would only keep other viruses out,”

“Not if we invert it and trap Megabyte in his sector,” Zipp responds back.

“Oh,” Phong replies with intrigue. He scratches his chin as he thinks. The three watch intently as he looks up at the ceiling. He slowly nods before looking back at the group. “That might just work!” Phong says with happiness in his voice.

“I’ll get on that,” Zipp says, standing up.

“I’ll show you to our weapons,” Phong says, sliding after Zipp as she walks to the door.

“I guess we make sure Megabyte doesn’t try anything while you work?” Sparky asks as he and Pipp stand up.

“I’ll try and be as fast as I can,” Zipp replies, looking back at the two. “Try and keep Megabyte in his sector,” Pipp and Sparky nod before Zipp follows after Phong.

“So, what do you have in mind?” Phong asks as He and Zipp walk down the hallway.

“I was thinking of taking a viral capture command and mixing it with an inverse command,” Zipp explains.

“You should add a delete command inside of a booster to make a firewall that can really keep Megabyte in,” Phong adds.

“Oh, kind of forgot about the delete part of a firewall,” Zipp responds, scratching the back of her head.

“Almost all of Megabyte’s forces are in his sector now,” Sparky says to Pipp projected onto a vid window in front of him. Sparky hoovers on his zip board just outside of Megabyte’s sector with a fleet of CPUs backing him up.

“Good,” Pipp replies, looking down at the giant map in front of her. “Keep them there as long as you can,” Pipp says, looking back up at Sparky.

“I think Megabyte thinks we are giving up,” Sparky responds.

“What makes you say that?” Pipp asks.

“Because here comes dum and dummer,” Sparky says as he watches Hack and Slash flying over to him on their jet backs strapped to their backs.

“Hey,” Hack says before being interrupted by Slash.

“We want out!”

“Sssshhhh!” Hack responds, covering Slash’s mouth. “Megabyte might be listening!‘

“Oh, sorry,” Slash responds after Hack had removed his hand from his mouth.

“What do you want?” Sparky asks, crossing his arms over his chest. The vid window flips so Pipp can see Hack and Slash.

“Megabyte has sent us to talk about a deal,” Hack says, a little louder than what a normal voice level would be,

“We need help,” Slash whispers to Sparky as Hack continues in a louder-than-normal voice. “We want to defect,”

“Really?” Sparky asks. Slash and Hack node before Sparky sighs. “All right,” Sparky turns to the vid window. “Let them in,” Pipp nods before the vid window closes.

“Thank you,” Hack says before the two fly off toward the Principal Office.

“So you want to help us?” Phong asks for clarification. He and Pipp stand at the map table with Hack and Slash across from them.

“Yes,” Slash says.

“We’ll do anything!” Hack yells in distress

“What changed your mind?” Pipp asks, crossing her hands over her chest.

“Megabyte has been making us do evil things!” Hack yells.

“Very evil things,” Slash adds as he nods.

“But that’s why he hired you, right?” Pipp asks with a great deal of confusion in her voice.

“Yes,” Hack says. “But normally Hitch stops us before we can do anything bad,”

“But no offense to the kid, but Sparky is no Hitch,” Slash chimes in.

“They're not wrong,” Pipp mumbles under her voice. “As long as you don’t backstab us, we have a deal,” Pipp says, extending her hand out.

“Of course!” Hack responds.

“We would never backstab!” Slash yells with offense in his voice as Hack shakes Pipp’s hand.

“Do you think that was wise?” Phong whispers to Pipp as Hack and Slash celebrate.

“Yes and no,” Pipp responds. “Once Zipp is done, get her to keep an eye on them,” Phong nods before rolling away.

“How did it go?” Sparky asks as a vid window pops up in front of Pipp.

“Hach and Slash are now with us,” Pipp responds, turning to the vid window.

“Can we trust them?” Sparky asks, tilting his head to the side.

“Not completely,” Pipp admits. “But I’ll have Zipp keep an eye on them,” Right when the words left her mouth, the sky turns purple. Sparky looks up at the sky as a Gamecube starts to drop. The announcer booms out incoming game.

“I’ve got a game to win,” Sparky says, looking back at Pipp. “See you after,” Sparky says, closing the vid window before flying off towards the Gamecube. “Glitch,” Sparky says, looking down at Glitch. “Where is the game going to land?” Glitch beeps at him before Sparky sighs. “That’s way too close,” Sparky says as he makes it under the game as it lands on the line between Megabyte’s sector and Mainframe’s.

“That’s festive,” Sparky says, looking around the area. He stands up on top of a big snowy hill. The area is lined with pine trees decorated with Christmas lights. He flinches as loud sound booms out. He turns to look at a factor-looking building behind him. The doors open to reveal the user as a big man dressed in red and white with a Santa hat.

“Ho ho ho,” The user chuckles, taunting Sparky with the presents in his hands. Sparky smiles and squints his eyes at the user.

“Let’s tango,” Sparky says. The user lays down a sled before pushing off of it and down the hill. “Reboot!” Sparky yells, double-tapping his icon as he jumps up and over the edge of the hill. He lands on a sled as he slides down the hill after the user. Sparky is now also dressed in white and red with a Santa hat.

“Ho ho…” The user starts slowly laughing as he turns around to face Sparky behind him. “Ho!” The user yells, pulling out a giant snowball bigger than his body. Sparky’s eyes widen as his jaw drops.

“What the!” Sparky can’t finish his thought before the user throws the giant snowball at him. Sparky turns the sled and dodges the snowball. Sparky looks back to see the snowball slowing down before rolling back down the hill after them. “Crap!” Sparky says as the snowball follows him. Sparky swerves back and forth, but it’s like a tracker was placed on Sparky. The snowball kept on him as it grows in size.

“Ho ho ho,” The user movies Sparky. Sparky grits his teeth before an idea comes to his head. A big smile forms on Sparky’s face as the idea grows in his head like the snowball rolling after him. Sparky turns and slides up behind the user, who looks back at him in confusion.

“Glitch,” Sparky says with a smile. “File Corrupt,” Glitch beeps before Sparky turns a bit transparent. His body flickers a bit as the snowball rolls right threw him. Sparky solidifies as the user’s eyes widen. The snowball runs over the user, flattening him into nothing.

“Take that user!” Sparky yells as he stops the sled. The user’s body disappears as a ghost in the shape of the user floats up. Glitch beeps, getting Sparky’s attention. “Three lives!?” Sparky asks in confusion. Glitch beeps back before Sparky sighs. “Of Course, it couldn’t be that easy,”

“Ho ho ho!” Sparky looks up the hill to see the user on a bigger sled. The sled blasts past Sparky. He lifts his arm over his eyes to cover his face from the snow that got kicked up into the air. Sparky grits his teeth as he points Glitch at the user’s new sled.

“Glitch!” Sparky yells. “Grapple!” The end of Glitch shoots off with a rope attached to it. The end of the grapple grabs onto the back of the sled. Sparky turns his sled pointed to the user’s sled before the grapple pulls him toward it. Sparky slams against the back of the sled, causing his to break apart. Sparky grabs onto the edge. The user looks down at him as Sparky dangles over the edge.

“Ho ho ho,” The user holds up an ice knife before bringing it down. Sparky moves his hands, causing the ice knife to get embedded into the wooden sled. Sparky smiles as Glitch returns to normal. Sparky swings his body and jumps up onto the sled, landing feet first on the ground. The user pulls the knife out before turning to look at him. Sparky pulls out an ice knife from his coat as the two stares each other down.

“Glitch!” Sparky says as he doges down. The user swings over his head as Sparky rolls behind him. “Energy Pulse!” Sparky says as the user attempts another swing. Sparky blocks it with his arm. Glitch beeps before letting out a big explosion of energy. The user goes flying back into the sky. Sparky smiles before throwing the knife up at the user. The knife slices clean threw the user’s body. The user lands on the ground and collapses into a pile of snow.

“That’s what I call being too chill,” Sparky says, crossing his arms over his chest. Glitch beeps as he looks down at him. “What?” Sparky says, looking down the hill. His eyes widen as he realizes the sled was on a collision course with a tree. Sparky jumps out of the sled right before it collides with the tree. He rolls a bit before standing up. “All right then,” Sparky whispers before turning to look up the hill.

“Ok, now it should work,” Zipp says, emphasizing now as she backs away from the little setup she had put together. She and Pipp stand behind a plastic shield. In front of them are four cylinder-shaped devices with domed lights on the top.

“I’ve got the fire extinguisher,” Pipp says, holding the fire extinguisher with her finger in the pin ready to pull.

“Trust me, it will not catch on fire this time,” Zipp says, pointing the button in her hand at Pipp.

“You said that last time,” Pipp responds. Zipp rolls her eyes at Pipp before pushing the button with her thumb. The domes of the machines light up a fiery red before fire spurts out of them. They go up a bit before converging together, creating a firewall box.

“See,” Zipp responds, gesturing to the working firewall as Phong slides up to them.

“Are the inverted firewalls ready?” Phong asks with a little hast in his voice.

“Ya?” Zipp says with a bit of question in her voice as Pipp puts down the fire extinguisher.

“Good, because Megabyte is getting suspicious,” Phong replies, tapping his fingers together. “He threatens to delete Sparky once the game lifts up,”

“Then we better get them laid down fast,” Zipp says before turning to Pipp. “Can you get me a fleet to protect me as he lay them out along the sector?”

“You didn’t even need to ask,” Pipp responds before the two run out of the testing room.

“Ho ho ho!” The user says as his sled slides up a ramp and over the cliff. Sparky uses Glitch’s grapple to pull back a pine tree with a big ice spike on it. The user pulls out a parachute to slow down his descent.

“Ho ho this!” Sparky yells before Glitch detaches from the tree, sending the ice spike flying toward the user. The spike rams threw the user’s body, causing him to burst into snow. The game lifts off the ground as the announcer says game over.

Sparky’s eyes widen as Megabyte glares at him from the other end of the game. Megabyte stomps over to him as Sparky backpedals. Megabyte looks down at Sparky with anger in his eyes. “Maybe I didn’t make myself clear,” Megabyte growls as he grabs Sparky by the neck. “I want that portal!”

“Glitch,” Sparky crocks out. “Energy pauls,” Glitch beeps before sending an energy pulse into Megabyte. He is pushed back a bit as Sparky flies backward. Sparky lands on his feet as Megabyte looks at him with anger.

“Don’t toy with me boy,” Megabyte says, going to walk over to him, but is interrupted when a gray cylinder device falls in front of him. Sparky looks up to see Zipp’s ship flying overhead with a fleet of CPUs. Glitch beeps before Sparky looks down at the screen. The screen on Glitch turns into Pipp in the command room.

“The firewall is ready on your command guardian,” Pipp says. Sparky nods before looking over at Megabyte.

“Asta la vesta Megabreath!” Sparky says as he pushes a button on Glitch. Glitch beeps in response before the cylindrical device lights up fire red. It then spurts out fire up into the sky. The rest around the sector erupts like the one before it. They meet in the sky, forming a lid on the firewall.

Megabyte growls at Sparky as he walks away from him. “I will get out of this rudimentary firewall!” Megabyte yells as Sparky jumps on his zip board. Sparky looks back at Megabyte before calmly flipping Megabyte off and flying away. Megabyte grits his teeth before turning around and walking back to his ship.

Game Over

“Hey Sparky,” Zipp says, walking into the conference room. Sparky leans his head on his hands while his elbow rests on the table. Sparky looks over at Zipp as she enters the room. Cheering and parting echos into the room from the command room. “You’re missing out on the party,” Zipp says, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb.

“How can they party when Megabyte is still in Mainframe,” Sparky responds, leaning back in the chair he is sitting on.

“Because we are closer than ever to getting rid of him forever,” Zipp says, walking over to Sparky. “For once in the last few cycles we can rest,” Sparky takes a deep breath before standing up. “Heck, even Pipp us having fun for once,” Sparky chuckles before nodding.

“I’ll try,” Sparky responds. Zipp nods before Sparky makes his way to the door. Zipp follows him out of the convince room and into the command room where binoms are partying. The binoms start cheering when Sparky steps into the room. Groups of binoms swarm him and congratulate him. Sparky smiles awkwardly as he looks around for Pipp. “Excuse me,” Sparky says to the binoms before pushing past and walking over to Pipp by the map table.

“Look’s like you go popular,” Pipp says as Sparky walks over to her.

“I didn’t even do anything,” Sparky responds back with a shrug.

“You gave them hope,” Pipp responds.

“But…” Sparky is unable to respond when the big vid window turns on, showing the outside of the firewall around Megabyte’s sector. The two turn and look as Zipp walks up to them. The binoms in the room go quiet as they turn to look at the army lined up along the firewall.

Pipp chuckles before saying, “Of course, he would try to get out,” The group watches as Megabyte’s forces shoot at the firewall. None of the shots even make a scratch on the wall. The fleet stops shooting as the sky turns purple.

“Warning Incoming Game,” The announcer says as the Gamecube starts to drop.

“That’s my cure,” Sparky says before turning and heading for the door.

“Hey, Sparky!” Pipp says, walking over to him and squatting down to eye level.

“What is it Pipp?” Sparky asks, turning around to face her.

“Please be safe,” Pipp says before hugging him.

“I’ll be fine,” Sparky says, hugging back.

“You promise to come back?” Pipp asks as the two separate.

“When haven’t I?” Spark asks, pointing at himself. “Now if you don’t mind, I have a game to win,” Sparky then turns around and runs out of the room as Pipp stands up and watches him leave.

“Don’t worry,” Zipp says, walking up to Pipp. “He’ll be fine,” Pipp turns to Zipp. Zipp smiles at her, causing Pipp to nod and smile back.

“You’re right,” Pipp says before turning around and walking back to the map table.

Sparky flies fast over the city towards the falling Gamecube. He makes it under the cube with no problem. He steps off his zip board before grabbing it and attaching it to his hip as he looks around.

“Glitch,” Sparky says, raising Glitch up to his face. “What is the game?” Sparky asks as he steps into the arena-looking area. It’s a flying marble iland with roman styled pilers and stained glass paintings floating around the area. Glitch beeps as Sparky looks down at the screen. “Immortal Konflict?” Sparky whispers to himself as one of the paintings light up. “The user needs to get five wins in a best out of five fight,” Sparky looks around as the user’s lit-up painting goes back to normal as another one is selected. “But there are twelve playable characters,” Sparky says as the user picks a big devil looking character. The character steps out of the painting and solidifies into a creature. The user holds a sword in his left hand. The paintings light up again as the user chooses his first appointment.

“Let’s see if I can outsmart you user,” Sparky says, running over to the highlighted painting. He stops in front of it and double-taps his icon as the user selects the painting. “Reboot!” Sparky yells, but nothing happens as the painting flies to the middle of the ring. An angel steps out of the painting, holding a sword in both hands. The painting behind the angel is destroyed as the two face off.

Sparky’s ear twitches as he hears a loud barking sound. Sparky turns to see Frisket running up to him. “Frisket!” Sparky says, kneeling down as the dog runs up to him. “What are you doing here?” Sparky asks as Frisket licks Sparky’s face in joy. “I haven’t seen you in a long time boy,” Sparky says before Frisket lets out a little whimper. Sparky looks over to see the angel being beaten down by the user.

The angel tries to crawl away, but the user grabs the angel with its right hand and lifts him up into the air before crushing the angel’s head in his hand. The user throws the body away as the angel responds behind the user. He turns around to face the angel running right at him. The user grabs the sword with his right hand before shoving his sword into the angel's body. Blood slides down his blade as the user grabs the angel’s head again and crushes it.

The user pushes the angel's body off his blade as the announcer yells out in a dramatic voice, “Final round!” The angel spawns back, but this time doesn’t charge the user down. The two stare each other down as they walk around in a circle. The user charges down the angel this time, but the angel dodges and gets a stab at the user. The user grabs the angel’s sword and pulls it towards him, pulling the angel towards him. He then stabs him with his sword before throwing him to the ground.

Sparky swallows a lump in his throat before saying, “Oh, boy,”

Megabyte stands on top of one of his ships within the fleet that flies in front of the firewall. His arms are crossed over his chest as he taps his foot patiently. A ship towing a platform flies towards Megabyte. On the platform is a vertical circle that holds an unconscious Hex in its grasp. The ship slows down and stops next to Megabyte’s ship. Megabyte steps onto the ship as a viral binom in a doctor's outfit walks up to him.

“Is she ready?” Megabyte asks, looking down at the binom.

“She is still asleep, but she is fully functional,” The binom responds in a very german accent.

“Good,” Megabyte replies with a big smile. “Wake you up,” Megabyte demands.

“Of course my liege,” The binom responds before walking over to the control panel next to the cantonment field. The binoms hits a few buttons before Hex is shocked. She lets out an ear-piercing scream before the shock dies down. Hex’s scream turns into laughter as Megabyte walks up to her.

“That was dreadfully fun,” Hex says with a big, evil smile on her mask. “Now let me go,” Hex begs.

“Unless you help me, you will not be freed,” Megabyte responds back.

“And why not?” Hex asks, her mask turning into question.

“Because they have placed a firewall around us,” Megabyte says as Hex looks around at the wall of fire containing the sector.

“Oh they are smart,” Hex says with a wicked smile. “Let me guess, you want me to open a hole in the firewall?” Hex asks, looking down at Megabyte.

“That is the plane,” Megabyte responds.

“And what if I decide not to once you have released me from these reached confinements?” Hex asks in anger.

“Doc?” Megabyte asks, looking down at the binom at the control panel. “The collar please,” Megabyte asks kindly but with an evil twist in his voice.

“With pleaser,” The binom responds, handing Megabyte a metal collar with a green gem in the center.

“What is that?” Hex asks with genuine curiosity.

“A new… fashion statement you could say,” Megabyte says as he clips the collar around Hex’s neck. “Release her,” Megabyte says, looking over at the binom. The binom nods before pushing a button on the panel and letting Hex go free.

“Now it’s time for you to pay!” Hex yells in utter rage as her hands charge a big fireball in front of her.

“Now now Hex,” Megabyte calmly and slowly says as he flips open a panel on his arm, revealing a controller. “We don’t want a mess on our hands, now do we?” Megabyte pushes a button, causing the green gem to glow brighter. Hex yells out in pain as she falls to her knees. The fireball disappears as Hex clasps at the metal collar. Megabyte pushes the button again, turning off the gem and letting Hex relax.

“What have you done to me!?” She yells, standing up and stepping into Megabyte’s face.

“A simple delete common to keep you in check is all,” Megabyte responds before hex pulls away.

“Cleaver,” Hex says, scratching her chin. “But you do realize the moment I get this thing off, I will kill you,”

“I just need you long enough to get Mainframe under my control,” Megabyte says, extending his hand. “Will you do that for me?”

“Of course!” Hex says, grasping Megabyte’s hand with both of hers. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Hex lets out an evil chuckle before spiraling into a made cackle, with megabyte joining in with a deep, evil filed laugh of his own.

“What are they doing?” Pipp asks, looking up at the vid window. The vid window shows the outside of the firewall. The fleet lined up along the firewall with Megabyte and Hex at the front of the fleet.

“It looks like they are planning to try and break threw,” Phong says, scratching his chin. “Potentially Hex could break threw a segment of the wall and let the fleet fly out one by one,” Phong says, turning and looking up at Pipp.

“If they do get threw, wheel blast them the moment Megabyte slips out,” Pipp says before a vid window pops up next to her with the general. “General,” Pipp says, turning to face the binom.

“Yes sir!” The binom responds, saluting Pipp.

“Get the turrets facing the firewall up and ready to fire,” Pipp says. The binom nodes before the vid window collapse and the two look back up at the big vid window.

Hex floats up into the air as her hands turn an orange color. The turrets at the entrance to the Principal Office turn on and turn towards the firewall near them. He points her magic into a stream and sends it into the firewall. The wall slowly opens up into a hole the size of one ship.

“Head for the Principal Office,” Megabyte commands his leading officer. The officer nods before the vid window collapse. Megabyte turns to watch as his fleet one by one goes threw the hole in the firewall.

“Hold your fire,” Pipp commands over the communications. She watches and waits as the fleet comes out and towards the Principal Office.

“We must fire now!” Phong says with great worry in his voice.

“That damn coward,” Pipp whispers. “Fire at them with everything you’ve got!” Pipp yells out. The turrets point and shoot down the ships. The few remaining try to turn around and head back. A few get shot down as they retreat.

Hex laughs maniacally as Megabyte watches his fleet burn. “Close the hole!” Megabyte commands, looking up at Hex.

“As you wish,” Hex responds, stopping her magic. The hole in the wall closes as the remaining ships rame into the firewall, exploding on impact.

The biomes in the Principal Office cheer in joy as Pipp sighs. Phong pats Pipp on the back. “Do not fret my child, we will get rid of him soon,”

“I hope you’re right,” Pipp responds, looking over at the three-dimensional Gamecube on the Mainframe map.

“Final Fight!” The announcer says as the user picks his last opponent.

“Come on!” Sparky yells, waving his arms around as he stands in front of a stained glass painting of a yellow ninja. “Over here!” The user hovers over the painting and selects it. “Yes,” Sparky whispers before quickly double tapping his icon and yelling out, “Reboot!”

The painting of the ninja transfers to him. Now he is dressed in a yellow ninja outfit with no other weapons but his bare hands. He looks around at his outfit before tugging at the mask around his mouth. He pulls it off before taking a deep breath in. “You can’t breath in these things,” Sparky says before throwing the mask to the ground.

“First round!” The announcer says as the user readies himself. Sparky raises his fists up and gets ready to fight. “Fight!” The announcer yells. Sparky waits patiently as he stares up at the user. The user stares back as the wind blows between them.

“Come on,” Sparky whispers. “I know you want to,” The user gets impatient and runs at Sparky. Sparky smiles as he jumps up into the air. The user swings where Sparky was, causing him to miss. Spark flips over the user and grabs onto its back. “Snakebite,” Sparky says, digging his first pinky claws into the neck of the user. The user screams in pain before falling to the ground. The body disintegrates on impact with the ground. Sparky quickly gets up and readies himself for the next fight.

“Second round!” The announcer says as the user reforms. The user glares at Sparky before the two start walking in a circle. The two stare each other down. Sparky makes the forest move. He quickly runs over to the user and slides under him. He quickly stands up and slams his palm into the user’s back, sending him flying to the other side of the arena. The user slams into the pillar before turning around in anger.

Sparky smiles as the user charges Sparky down. The user swings his sword as Sparky jumps up and over the user again. He grabs the user’s horns and pulls them with him. Sparky lands on the ground and slams the user’s head into the ground. Sparky goes for the killing blow, but the user grabs his hand and pulls him up and slamming him back into the ground next to him. Sparky lets out a grunt as the user stands up. Sparky attempted to move but the user steps on Sparky and crushes his chest.

“AAAAAhhhhh!” Spark yells out in pain.

“Sparky!” Pipp yells as her heart skips a beat. Sweat drips down Pipp's neck as she takes a few calming breaths.

“You all right Pipp?” Zipp asks, wrapping her arm around Pipp’s back.

“I…” Pipp stalls a bit as she looks away from Zipp. “I just don’t wave a good feeling about Sparky,”

“He’ll be fine,” Zipp resounds before sliding her arm off of Pipp’s back. “How is the Gamecube?” Zipp asks, looking back and up at a binom at a computer terminal.

“All energy signs are normal,” The binom responds.

“See,” Zipp says, gesturing to the binom as Pipp looks up at her.

“It’s just… it felts like Sparky just screamed out in pain,” Pipp says, clutching her fists near her heart. “I don’t want to lose him,” Pipp says as tears fill her eyes. Zipp looks down at Pipp in worry before wrapping her arms around Pipp and pulling her into a hug. Pipp wraps her arms around Zipp’s lower body as she lets out tears onto her sister’s chest.

“Let it all out,” Zipp says, rubbing Pipp’s back.

“It’s just,” Pipp says, swallowing a lump in her throat before finishing. “He’s all I have left of Hitch,”

“Sparky will be fine,” Zipp says as Pipp looks up at her. “If he’s neared anything from his dad, it’s never to give up,”

“I’ll agree on that,” Pipp smiles as she awkwardly laughs and sniffles.

“He’ll be a great guardian once he gets a bit older,” Zipp says as she and Pipp separate.

“He already is,” Pipp responds, looking down at the map with the purple Gamecube on it.

“That was a bit overkill,” Sparky says, coughing up blood as he stagers back up. “Don’t you think?” Sparky looks over at the user on the other end of the game. Frisket growls at the user while hiding behind Sparky’s legs. The user looks back with a glare as Sparky wipes the blood off his mouth. Sparky straightens up as his back cracks. A light glow envelops him, removing all cutes and bruises from his body.

“Final round!” The announcer yells out as Sparky gets ready for the last fight. The user immediately charges Sparky down. Sparky easily doges and hopes away. The user turns around as Sparky smiles.

“Too slow big guy!” Sparky taunts the user, causing him to get angry and charge at him like a bull. Sparky doges again before jumping up onto the user’s back and jumping off, pushing the user’s head into a pillar. Sparky lands on the ground as the user pulls his head out of the pillar in anger.

“Maybe they should rename this game to sad combat,” Sparky says, taunting the user again. The user charges at him and swings his sword. Sparky doges up and over the user. He lands on the ground before jumping toward the user with his hands ready to attack. The user whips around and slices Sparky’s stomach open. Sparky’s eyes widen as he is thrown back and into the ground. His head hits the wall as blood spills out of his body.

The user stomps over to him as Sparky struggles to move his legs at all. “Shit! I can’t feel my legs!” Sparky thinks as he watches Frisket try and slow down the user. The user flings Frisket across the room, knocking the dog unconscious.

“Glitch,” Sparky croaks out in pain. Blood spits out of his mouth as the user turns to face Sparky. “Emergency guardian code number two seven two,” Sparky says as the user towers over his limp body. The user leans down and grabs Sparky’s head with his hand. Glitch beeps as yellow lines run up Sparky and to his icon. The icon changes from its normal black and white to a dark blue with a yellow triangle extending out from the icon.

“I’m sorry Pipp,” Sparky says as tears form in his eyes. “I’ve failed you,” Sparky whispers as the user starts to crush Sparky’s head. He screams out in pain as his upper body convulses.

“The game, it’s ending!” The binom yells, looking down at Pipp at the map table.

“All right,” Pipp says, turning to the vid window next to her.

“Game over,” The announcer starts as Pipp talks.

“Get an ambulance and a squad down there to get Sparky out as fast as you c…” Pipp is stopped as her eyes widen in shock the moment she looks up at the big vid window.

“User wins,” The announcer finishes as the Gamecube disappears into the sky. The sector is now completely gone, only a hole left where it stood.

The vid window next to Pipp closes as tears form in her eyes. Her heart sinks down into her stomach as her hands shake. Her entire body fallowing suit as the tears fall down her face and on to the ground. “No,” Pipp whispers in disbelief. Zipp just stares up in wide-eyed shock at the remains of the sector. “No,” Pipp says a bit little louder. “NO!” Pipp yells out in pain as she slams her fist into the table. “Sparky!”

Silence falls over the room, all except Pipp’s crying of pain. Faintly echoing out from Megabyt’e tower is his bold cackling laugh as he watches the Gamecube disappear. “Goodbye boy!” Megabyte spits out the word boy in spite before laughing again.

Author's Note

So a quick note. I've hit 50,000 words, which was the goal, but sadly it happened mid-chapter so you won't see it just yet. The reason is because I'm going on a break from the story. I love this story and will continue it, but I need a bit of a break from writing 1,660 words a day for a month straight. I hope to see you when I pick the story up again.

Your friend,
The Irish Brony

The Tearing

The small, beautiful city of Mainframe sits in the middle of a sea of data. Ports connecting the Mainframers to the rest of the net. Flying along the port is Guardian Hitch Trailblazer. He stands on his zip board, which consists of two circles with a bendable metal bar between them. He is dressed in a light blue uniform with orange shoulder pads. On his chest is his Icon, a bright gold with a black triangle in the center.

“There he is!” a scratchy high pitched voice yells. Hitch looks back to see a brown ship with guns aimed at him charging towards him. Hanging off the side of it is Hack, a red robot built by Megabyte. He has broad shoulders and a body that leads to a point where a little metal ball allows him to move smoothly on the ground. His face is just a dome with eyes.

“Get him!” A much deeper voice yells out. Pulling up beside Hack is another ship. This time Slash is hanging off the side of it. He is a blue robot with the same design as Hack.

“That’s what I was going to say,” Hack says back to Slash.

“Oh, sorry,” Slash apologizes before yelling out. “Charge!” His ship pulls in front of Hacks and heads for Hitch.

“Hey!” Hask yells in anger before pulling up next to Slash again.

“Those two have some seriously slow clock speed,” Hitch says, looking back at the pair. He looks forward before turning down a street road.

“Split up!” Hack yells. Slash’s ship pulls away as Hack follows Hitch down the narrow road. Hitch looks back to see only Hack following him.

“Where did Slash go?” Hitch whispers. Glitch, a blue square with an orange rod and a display that looks like a gear, beeps at him. He looks down at his left arm as Glitch shows an overhead few of where he was. Slash was flying overhead, blocked by the buildings. “There you are,” Hitch says, looking up as Slash pulls a head off Hitch and blocks his way. Hitch stops his zip board as Hack’s ship stops. Slash’s ship turns around to face Hitch as SLash yells out in excitement.

“He’s trapped!”

“Yes, He’s trapped!” Hack yells back before the two start charging at Hitch.

“Trapped?” Hitch says, a little offended. “I don’t think so,” Hitch says with a smile on his face. He jumps up, off his zip board, and back flips as the two ships use the robots as jousting roads. Hitch lands on the zip board as Hack and Slash’s body parts fall to the ground.

“I hate when this happens,” Hack says as their heads land next to each other.

“Ya same,” Slash responds as he looks around. “Where is my arm,” Right on cue, Slash’s arm lands on his head before rolling off. “Oh, there it is,”

“Sorry boys,” Hitch says as he circles the two slowly on his zip board. “Better luck next cycle,” Right then, a vid window pops up in front of Hitch. On it is the virus, Megabyte, sitting in his chair at his tower. He is a tall, bulky sprite with dark purple skin and a jawline that could pick an eye out.

“Hitch,” Megabyte calmly says in a deep, dictator-like voice.

“Megabyte,” Hitch replies with a little anger in his voice.

“Why must we do this cat and mouse? It’s just a small favor I ask of you,” Megabyte says as he looks at his claw-like fingernails.

“I don’t know,” Hitch says as he crosses his arms over his chest. “Maybe it’s because I don’t work with viruses,” Hitch says, shrugging. “Just a hunch,”

“Oh, Hitch,” Megabyte says, shaking his head disapprovingly. “If you keep resisting, I might have to get your friends involved,”

“You stay away from them!” Hitch yells in anger. Megabyte slowly laughs before the video window disappears. Hitch quickly takes off down the street. Before he can get far, another vid window pops up with Sparky, a little, light bluish-greenish dragon. Hitch’s eyes widen as he hits the vid window at full force. He grabs it so he doesn’t fall to the ground as his zip board goes flying.

“Dad, you ok,” Sparky asks in worry.

“Glitch, fetch zip board,” Hitch says. Glitch detaches its gear part and sends it to the zip board. “Ya, I’m fine, what’s going on,” Hitch asks, turning back to Sparky on the video window.

“It’s not good, someone trashed Dot’s Dinner!”.

“What!” Hitch responds as the zip board returns under his feet. He lets go of the vid window and lands on the zip board. The gear part returned back to Glitch.

“You need to come quick,” Sparky says before the vid window collapses. Hitch speeds away towards the dinner as fast as the zip board will carry him.

Hitch turns the corner on his zip board as his eyes widen in shock. The once beautiful dinner was now wrecked. Windows shattered, tables broke, and stools and chairs were thrown out onto the street. The letter d on the sign lies on the ground in the parking lot.

“That’s a first, Dot’s is down,” Hitch says as he slows down and lands in front of the door. Laying in front of the door is a big, bulky red dog with orange stripes sleeping soundly. Hitch steps off his zip board before picking it up and placing the two circle disks together. The metal part disappears as the disks merge together. He then places the board on his hip before turning to the dog on the ground.

Hitch slowly raises his foot and carefully lifts it over the dog’s body. The dog growls without opening its eyes. “R-right,” Hitch stuttered out with genuine fear in his voice. He puts his foot down and looks to see a window he can get through. Before he can do anything, the dog gets up and starts barking at him. “Good Frisket,” Hitch says as he slowly backs away, towards the broken window. Frisket barks at him and follows him. “It’s me, Hitch,” Hitch says as he makes it to the window.

Frisket jumps at Hitch, who blocks by using his foot to push Frisket out of the way. Frisket bits down on Hitch’s foot as a tug of war starts. “Frisket, let. Go.” Hitch says, tugging his leg away, causing his boot to slip off and sending him sliding into the dinner. He lands on the table and slides across it before his head bumps into another body.

He looks up to see Pipp looking down at him with a smile. Her purple hair curled and combed to perfection like most days. She wears a tight pink crop top with a light blue unzipped coat over top with blue jean shorts. Her black and white icon is placed on her coat pocket,

“Have you ever heard of a door?” Pipp asks as Hitch sits up. He slides off the table before responding.

“Have you ever heard of a Frisket,” Once the words left his mouth, his boot came flying into the dinner. It lands on the ground, torn up and wet. Hitch sighs as he looks at his boot. “Now I have to compile up a new boot,”

“That’s the least of your worries,” Pipp responds.

“What do you mean?” Hitch asks, looking down at Pipp.

“Dad!” Sparky yells out in excitement. Hitch and Pipp turn to see Sparky running at full force at Hitch. Hitch has little time to prepare as Sparky jumps up and slams his entire body into Hitch’s body, toppling him over onto the ground. Sparky is dressed in a baseball-like shirt with his age on the shirt pocket reading 101 and blue jeans.“Dad, it was crazy, goons came and trashed the place,'' Sparky says, shaking Hitch a bit before standing up on top of his chest.

“Sparky,” Hitch chokes out before Sparky goes on a rant.

“I mean totally deleted, offline, canceled,” Sparky says, swinging his hands wildly with his words.

“Sparky,” Pipp gently but sternly says as she places a hand on his shoulder.

“Yes Pipp?” Sparky asks, looking up at her.

“I think Hitch gets the point,” Pipp says before the two look down at Hitch.

“No kidding,” Hitch responds.

“Oh, sorry dad,” Sparky says, getting off of Hitch before helping him up.

“What I want to know is who would do this?” Pipp asks.

“It was probably Megabyte,” Hitch responds. “He’s asked me for a little favor, but because I haven’t done it, I think he’s trying to get to me threw you guys,”

“Just a little favor?” Cecil asks as he slides along his rail over to the group. He is a crt tv looking spirit with arms that lead to big white gloves for his hands. His face is on the screen. “Maybe you should do it so we can keep functioning,” Cecil crosses his arms and slides away on his railing in the dinner ceiling.

“He might be right,” Hitch says, shrugging.

“No, no way are you doing anything for that virus,” Pipp responds. “If he wants to mess with you, he will have to mess with all of us,” Pipp says, getting a cheer from the binoms in the dinner.

“Ya, we aren’t afraid of old Megabreath,” Sparky says, puffing up his chest and putting his hands on his hips. “Why would I take him on by myself if I could,” Sparky says as a vid window pops up behind him with Megabyte on it. Sparky turns around to see Megabyte looking at him with irritation. “Bail!” Sparky yells before darting behind Hitch’s legs.

“My, what a messy establishment you hang out in,” Megabyte says, placing his fingers together and taping them together.

“Ya, no thanks to you,” Sparky yells at him before hiding behind Hitch again.

“For your information, we are still running fine,” Pipp replies.

“Now come my dear, all I want is a little favor from my favorite guardian,” Megabyte replies with an evil kind smile.

“I’ll be doing you no favor, Megabyte,” Hitch replies. “I’m going to plug myself in right here and protect my friends from whatever you throw at us,” Right when the words slip out of his mouth, the sky turns a dark purple as an electric sound rings out.

“Pitty,” Megabyte says as the vid window closes. He pushes a button on his chair as another vid window pops up. This one is of his lieutenant viral binoms “I want 10 ships patrolling the game cube, we don’t want Hitch playing any games before he does my favor,” Megabyte says before closing the video window.

Hitch runs out of the diner and throws his zip board to the ground, where it uncurls and becomes two again. A feminine voice from the sky rings out from the sky repeating the same words, “Warning, Incoming game,” Hitch jumps onto the zip board before flying towards the purple box dropping from the sky.

“Hitch! Wait!” Pipp yells as she and Sparky run after him.

“He’s not going to make it,” Sparky says.

“Not with Megabyte on his rump he won't,” Pipp says before running towards her car. Sparky follows after her.

Hitch flies over the city skyline as he heads for the gamecube. He jolts a bit before stabilizing again. He looks behind him to see one of Megabyte's ships on his ass. Another one flies under him while two follow up beside him, bumping him in the process. “Hey!” Hitch lets out as another ship flies over his head. “Oh no,” Hitch says. In front of him, a ship blocks his way into the game cube.

He hits the ship at full focus, sending his zip board flying into the sector before the gamecube lands just next to the ship. Hitch tries to hold on as his head spins. His hands start to slip as Pipp drives her flying car over to Hitch. He makes it under him right as his hands slip. He lands in the back seat before Pipp drives away.

“I knew they would be here,” Pipp says as Hitch sits up, still a bit dizzy.

“Did I make it?” He asks, turning to the two in the front seats.

“Not quite,” Sparky says, turning around in his seat to look at Hitch.

“Darn,” Hitch says before collapsing into the seat.

Pipp landed the car on a side road overlooking the gamecube. Hitch gets out and quickly walks over to the edge of the road. “Glitch, Game stats,” Hitch says before Glitch’s screen shows a graph. Pipp and Sparky get out of the car and walk over to Hitch.

“Do you think they can win?” Sparky asks, looking out at the purple gamecube.

“I hope so,” Pipp responds back.

“Oh no, no, yes!” Hitch’s emotions swing wildly as he watches the data change. “No, wait… nop,” Hitch says with a hint of sadness in his voice. “Wait, yes! They might actually,” But before Hitch can finish his sentence, the gamecube shoots up into the sky and disappears as a voice from the sky says.

“Game over, user wins,” The words reverberate in the head of the three ponies. They look in horror and shock at the sector. The entire sector was gone, replaced with nothing.

“The lost,” Hitch says in disbelief as a little anger slips into his voice.

“The sector is offline, deleted, nullified, no backup,” Sparky says before stopping when Pipp gently places a hand on Sparky’s shoulder. He looks up at her while she looks over at Hitch with worry on her face.

“I should have gotten in,” Hitch says, turning away from the two.

“There was nothing you could do,” Pip responds as the pair look at him with worry in their eyes.

“I should have just done a little bit of a favor, then none of this would have happened,” Hitch says. “Glitch, fetch a spare zip board,” Hitch says before Glitch flies off to find the other zip board.

“You don’t know that for sure,” Sparky responds, running up to Hitch.

“At least see Phong first,” Pipp begs. Hitch sighs as he relaxes his shoulders.

“You're right,” Hitch says before turning around to face them. “I’ll go to Phong, see what he has to say, and then meet back with you two at dinner, all right?” Hitch asks.

“Sounds good,” Pipp says, giving Hitch a thumbs up. She turns around and heads for the car as Sparky looks up at Hitch.

“You sure you don’t want someone to go with you?” Sparky asks.

“I’ll be fine Sparky,” Hitch says, looking down at Sparky with a warm smile. “Now go with Pipp to dinner,” Hitch says as a zip board with Glitch attached comes flying in. Sparky smiles and nods before running to the car.

Hitch sighs as Glitch returns to him. He throws the zip board down before stepping on it and flying toward the principal office.

Inside the giant main hallway of the principal office, Hitch and Phong stand several feet away from each other. An energy barrier surrounds them in a rectangular, tennis court-like shape. Hitch has energy boxes around his arms and his feet.

Phong is a little old robot-looking sprite. His body is scary and dark orange with a gold storage cabinet in his body. His neck is this and gold. His head is short and squashed. His face is small with little reading glasses sitting on his nose. A thin beard extending from his chin. His legs are replaced with just a ball like Hack and Slash have. Phong also has energy boxes on his hands. He bounces a frisbee-looking device that floats between his hands. Phong squints at Hitch as he prepares himself for the first hit.

“Aahhh… begin!” Phong yells before hitting the disk, sending it towards Hitch. Hitch hits it back, sending it toward Phong. Phong moves and hits the disk back at Hitch. Hitch smiles before hitting the disk hard into the opposite corner. Phong goes to dive but misses the disk. The disk hits the energy barrier, causing it to disappear along with the disk.

Phong gets up as Hitch slides over to him. The energy boxes disappear when he stops in front of Phong. “You have won my game, and my knowledge, my child,” Phong says, looking down at the floor. “What was the question?” Phong quickly asks, looking up at Hitch.

“Is it a good idea to see what Megabyte wants from me?” Hitch responds.

“Oh, yes, yes, I see,” Phong says as he scratches his chin. “The little favor he asks of you, do you know what it is?” Phong looks up at Hitch.

“That’s the thing, I don’t know what he wants,” Hitch replies with a shrug.

“I see, hmmm…” Phong thinks for a moment, looking down at the ground as he twirls his beard. “I don’t think I can help, but I do have an old read-me file that might help,” Phong says, looking up at Hitch. “It says to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,”

“Hmm… pixelashes idea,” Hitch says with a smile.

“Oh, be careful Hitch. I’ve seen that look on many young sprites before,” Phong warrens, wiping the smile from Hitch’s face.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Hitch replies, waving it off. “I have to go see Pipp and Sparky first anyways,” Hitch throws down his zip board before jumping onto it and starting to fly it out of the room.

“Be careful young Guardian!” Phong yells as Hitch leaves the room.

(Time Skip)

Hitch flies over the seat towards the tall, threatening tower at the edge of the city. Hitch slows down before landing on the ground by the door. He steps off the zip board before picking it up and putting it away. He pushes the button next to the door, which pops up a video window. The window shows an old door knock. It trumps against the wood before the video window is replaced with Megabyte.

“Ah, Guardian, come to help me?” Megabyte says, lasing his finger together as he speaks.

“I’ll see what the favor is first,” Hitch responds.

“Good, come in. please be my guest,” Megabyte says before the video window disappears and the door opens. Hitch walks in before the door shuts behind him.

(Time Skip)

Hitch stands with Megabyte in a circle elevator that is going down. Megabyte stands just a bit over him in height. “So, what changed your mind?” Megabyte asks.

“I realized that having a friend like you might be beneficial,” Hitch responds with a fake smile.

“Good dissection Guardian,” Megabyte says as the elevator hits the bottom. A Hug, dug-out, cave-like room that leads to a giant door with Megabyte’s logo on it. The platform the two are standing on moves towards the giant door. Hitch looks around at the army lining the floor around them. Ships, viral binoms, and other weapons stand waiting for something.

The platform stops just in front of the giant door before it starts to open up. A bright flash of light blinds the room. Hitch covers his eyes as Megabyte’s eyes turn black with a red pupil. Hitch saints as he lowers his hand. His heart drops as he sees what is making the bright light. Sitting in the center of the room is a giant, glowing blue, pulsing tear. A platform surrounding the tear with a computer attached to it.

“Glitch, states,” Hitch says before Glitch complies. Megabyte walks up to the controls as Hitch follows. “That’s a level five tear, one that could stabilize the supercomputer,” Hitch says, trying to keep composed as his heart raises.

“You guardians sure know your tears,” Megabyte says as a binomial with a black box walks up to him.

“That’s the idea,” Hitch responds. “But what’s up with the army?” Hitch says, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb.

“Army?” Megabyte asks, trying to act innocent. “Oh, you mean my… friends?”

“Ya, friends,” Hitch replies, skeptically.

“So will you stabilize the tear for me?” Megabyte asks.

“Stabilize the tear, let a virus into the supercomputer, and infect the net,” Hitch says, stepping forward to look at the tear. “I don’t think so,”

Megabyte sighs as he grabs the weapon in the box the binom is holding.“I really did try it your way, guardian,” He says as he aims the weapon at Hitch. He shoots out a tether that then wraps around Hitch’s body before pulling him back to the weapon.

“Hey!” Hitch yells as he struggles against the straps. Megabyte points Hitch at the tear. Hitch’s eyes widen as Megabyte shoots Hitch toward the tear. “Glitch! Stabilize!” Hitch yells as he speeds towards the tear. Glitch shoots its gear to the tear. It lands against the tear as it forms the metallic portal. Hitch goes through before the tether stops and pulls him back out. Hitch is again back at the weapon held by Megabyte. “Glitch, return!” Hitch says before Glitch returns to him. The portal goes back to being a tear. “What are you trying to do, delete me?” Hitch yells, turning his head to look over at Megabyte.

“If necessary,” Megabyte responds before being interpreted by Hack and Slash.

“Boss, we found her,” Hack starts before being interrupted by Slash.

“Yes, we found her,”

“She was starting a,”

“She was starting a protest,” Slash finishes. The two held onto Pipp’s arms, letting her hang a bit in the air. Megabyte turns to look as Hitch looks between Pipp and the computer.

“Hello,” Pipp says, waving a bit with her right hand.

“A protest, those are harmless,” Megabyte responds. “Throw her in the holding cell,” Megabyte says as Hitch kicks the computer over. Megabyte looks at Hitch with anger. Hitch shrugs back. “Close the door!” Megabyte yells as sirens scream to life. He throws Hitch to the ground as the door closes. The ships explode as the tear destabilizes.

Hack and Slash drop Pipp to the ground. She lands on her feet before turning around and stepping onto the platform. Hitch runs over and slides onto the platform before Pipp hits the up button, sending them back the way they came.

“Nice plan,” Hitch says as he messes with the harness around his body. A rope dangling off the back.

“Plan?” Pipp asks. “What plan?”

“This one,” Hitch says as the platform makes it to the elevator and starts moving up.

“When we found out you were not with us or Phong, I went after you,” Pipp explains. “I thought a protest would get their attention, lead me to you, and then I thought I would figure something out from there,” Pipp shrugs.

“You’ve been hanging around me too much,” Hitch says, smiling at Pipp. Megabyte climbs up the elevator shaft after them. He lunges at the rope still dangling off of Hitch. He grabs it, causing Hitch to get pulled to the edge of the platform. “Glitch, tether!” Hitch says as Glitch’s gear detaches, connected with rope. The gear lands against the platform as Hitch pulls on the rope to keep himself up. Pipp rushes over and looks over the strap connected to the rope. She pushes the button in the middle, unlocking the strap and sending Megabyte screaming into the elevator shaft. “Thanks,” Hitch says as Glitch returns back to normal.

“Don’t thank me yet, we need to get out first,” Pipp says before the elevator stops at the ground floor. The two go for the door but are stopped when a megabyte jumps in front of them. Hitch steps in front of Pipp and readies Glitch.

“Leaving, so soon?” Megabyte asks sweetly. “How rude,” His voice deepens in anger as he readies his claws. Right before anything can happen, the electric sounds echo throughout the building.

“No,” Hitch says with worry in his voice. “Glitch, where is the game landing?” Hitch asks as the voice rings around the incoming game. Hitch’s face drops as Megabyte laughs.

“I guess I won’t need you after all, guardian,” Megabyte says before walking away.

“What does he mean?” Pipp asks, looking at Glitch.

“That game is going to land on us, stabilizing the tear into a portal,” Hitch says as the purple gamecube lands on top of them, transporting them onto the giant carrier in space. Ships line the runway. Other binoms already getting into the ships as they get ready to take off. “Space race, nice,” Hitch says as he looks around.

“Now where is the user?” Pipp asks as she looks around.

“I’m more worried about where Megabyte ran off to,” Hitch responds. Sirens sound as the user's spaceship makes a sweep down by the carrier. The user shoots up the ship, deleting binoms while hurting others.

“There’s the user,” Pipp says as they watch the user.

“And there’s Megabyte!” Hitch says as Megabyte jumps onto the user's ship from the tall control tower.

“What is he doing?” Pipp asks as the user flies over them again.

“He’s infecting the user,” Hitch says with deep worry in his voice. “Viral take over, now we have a mega user,” Hitch says, turning to Pipp. “He’ll head for the portal, we need to beet him there,”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Pipp asks before double tapping her iron on her chest. “Reboot,” She says before a green glow overtakes her body. Changing her clothes into a space suit.

“Reboot,” Hitch says, also double tapping his icon. The same green energy consumes his body before revealing his space suit. Pipp and Hitch run over to two of the remaining ships and climb into them. They put on the helmets as the canapes close on them.

“Engines looking good,” Pipp says as she drives the ship to the runway.

“Wings are in good condition,” Hitch says as he pulls up behind Pipp.

“Wing leaders, you are clear for lunch,” a slow, serious voice says over the communications.

“Ali?” Hitch asks in confusion.

“He’s here too,” The voice responded before a barely audible, what! can be heard in the background. Hitch shakes his head in disbelief as Pipp takes off. Hitch follows after her, the two headings where Megabyte went.

“Where is the portal Hitch?” Pipp asks as she checks her sensors.

“Level 3, in the center of the planet,” Hitch says as he checks his sensor. “Stay frosty,” Hitch says with a big smile. Pipp shakes her head while rolling her eyes. Hitch shrugs before his sensors go off. “Asteroid field a head, stay close,”

Pipp pulls behind Hitch as they enter the asteroid field. Hitch dodges and dips around asteroids as Pipp follows his lead. “Almost there,” Hitch whispers as they get to the end of the asteroid field. Pipp’s eyes widen as an Asteroid flies in front of them.

“Hitch!” Pipp yells as Hitch’s eyes widen. He presses the fire button on his control stick, sending two red lasers at the asteroid. They melted the center on contact as Hitch flies threw it. Pipp goes around the asteroid and meets back up with Hitch.

“That was easy,” Hitch says, getting another eye roll from Pipp. The two fly towards the ice planet below them. Megabyte just getting to the planet's surface as he contacts his army.

“Delete them,” Megabyte commands. The binom salutes him before the image goes away. A giant, dark purple ship comes around to where Hitch and Pipp are, blocking their way. They start pointing their many guns at the pair before firing at them.

“Get behind me!” Hitch commands as he sets his shields to the forward potions. “I’ve set my shields to the front, you should do the same,” Hitch says as Pipp pulls behind him.

“All right,” Pipp says as she puts her shields forward. Laser beams hit their shields, but don’t penetrate threw.

“Shoot the giant icon on the bridge,” Hitch says as he tries to lock onto the ship’s icon. Pipp nods as she targets the icon as well. The two approach the giant ship as the guns keep shooting at them.

“I have a shot,” Pipp says as her targeting system locks onto the icon of Megabyt’s army.

“All right, tell me when to pull up,” Hitch says as the two fly toward the icon.

“Wait for it,” Pipp says as the shooting starts to break threw their shields. “Now!” Pipp yells before Hitch pulls up and out of her way. Pipp pushes the fire button and shoots two missiles at the icon before following Hitch. The two missiles hit the icon, causing the ship to blow up as the two getaway.

“Nice work Pipp!” Hitch cheers with a big smile on his face.

“I learned from the best,” Pipp responds, making Hitch blush a bit. The two head to the planet's surface to see Megabyte fly into a cave.

“There, he’s heading to level 3,” Hitch says, diving down towards the cave. Pipp follows after him. The two dive down before pulling up and flying into the cave. “Be careful, if you hit the wall you’ll be deleted almost instantly,” Hitch warrens as Pipp tries to stay away from the wall. Her wing clips the walls before she over-corrects and clips the other wing.

“It’s harder than it looks,” Pipp says, trying to stay behind Hitch.

“Use your stabilizers,” Hitch says. Pipp looks down at her console before pressing a blue button. The ship stops swaying and stays in the center of the cave. “It keeps you away from the walls,”

“Convenient,” Pipp responds. The two catch up quickly with Megabyte’s ship.

“Let's see if you like this Megabyte,” Hitch says before shooting at Megabyte. The beams hit the shields of the ship and bounce off. “Dang, nothing,” Hitch says in anger. A gun pops out of the back of Megabyte’s ship and turns toward the pair. “Crap! Impulse cannon!” Hitch says as the cannon charges up. The cannon fires a shot that passes clean over them and into the cave ceiling.

“That was pathetic,” Pipp says as she watches the bolt.

“No, it was smart,” Hitch responds. “Glitch, cave stability,” Hitch says, looking down at Glitch. Glitch shows a line graph of the cave’s stability. It starts to drop rapidly as the cave starts to fall apart around them.

“What’s going on?” Pipp asks, looking around as she dodges falling rocks.

“He destabilized this part of the cave to try and delete us,” Hitch responds.

“Can we get out of it?” Pipp asks.

“Glitch says we have a seventy-five percent chance to get out alive,” Hitch says as he starts pushing buttons on his console.

“I don’t like those odds,” Pipp responds.

“But if we burn out our engines going full speed, we have a twenty-five present chance to live, but a fifty present chance to run into the wall at the end of this tunnel,” Hitch explains as he starts to power up his engine.

“That sounds a bit better,” Pipp responds as she powers up her engines.

“There the same ods, just different ways to get deleted,” Hitch responds back.

“One I can’t control, the other I can,” Pipp responds back.

“All right then,” Hitch responds. “Engen burn out in three, two, one, NOW!” Hitch yells as he pushes his accelerator all the way up. His engine fire turns bright blue as he speeds ahead. His body is pushed into the seat as he struggles to keep the ship steady. Pipp follows after him in the same manner. The two make it into the open area of level three.

“We made it!” Pipp says in joy before her engine cut out. “Crap,” Pipp says as her ship does a nose dive. Hitch's ship does the same thing. The two frantically try and start the engine again. Hitch is able to get his to start and pulls up before following Megabyte. Pipp’s heart pounds up her throat as she approaches closer to the ground. “Come on, stuiped engin!” Pipp yells, hitting the control panel, causing the engines to light. She pulls up, but not in time, as the bottom of the ship scraps the ground, and the wings break off. The ship slows down before coming to a complete stop.

She looks up and watches as Megabyte pulls up behind Hitch. “Hitch! He’s behind you!”

“Not for long,” Hitch responds, pulling back on his controls, causing him to go up and over Megabyte’s ship. He pushes down and levels with Megabytes ship. “See you later, virus,” Hitch says, targeting megabyte’s ship before shooting at it. The lasers hit, causing Megabyte to fly out and lands on the wing of Hitch’s ship.

“You know, we could make a great team,” Megabyte says, looking over at Hitch.

“Never!” Hitch responds.

“Wrong choice guardian,” Megabyte says as he unsheaths his claws before slashing Hitch’s ship’s wing. Megabyte lands on the ground in front of the portal as Hitch goes spiraling out of control.

“Glitch! Tether!” Hich yells, pushing the canopy eject button. The canopy shoots off as Hitch points Glitch up at the ceiling. The gear goes shooting off with a rope attached to it. It lands on the ceiling and pulls on Hitch, holding him in place as his ship collides with the wall.

“Now I can go and infect the supercomputer, then the net,” Megabyte says with a wicked smile on his face.

“Infect the supercomputer?” Hitch asks no one. “I don’t think so,” Hitch says before looking up at Glitch. “Glitch, zip line,” Glitch shoots out two lines in weather directions before disconnecting the tether. Hitch zips along the line before making it over the portal. “Glitch! Detach!” Hitch yells before Glitch detaches from the rope, sending Hitch into the portal.

“No!” Megabyte yells as the gamecube lifts off the ground and leaves the sector. The voice yelling out game over. “The portal, it’s reverted back into a tear!” Megabyte yells in anger before turning around to Pipp. Her eyes widen as Megabyte starts walking over to her, readying his claws. “I hate to lose,” Megabyte growls at Pipp as he stomps toward her.

Hitch lands on the metal ground with a thud. He landed in between two rows of weapons. He stands up and looks around before smiling. “Supercomputer armory, convenient,” Hitch whispers to himself.

“Hitch!?” a deep, raspy voice yells out from behind him. Hitch turns around to see a red stallion with blond, combed-back hair and wearing a blue guardian suit.

“Cadet Sprout?” Hitch responds as he fully turns around.

“It’s Guardian Sprout now,” Sprout says, pointing confidently at his golden icon.

“So you finally passed the final?” Hitch asks, walking over to him.

“It only took two hundred and three tries,” Sprout responds. “What are you doing here?”

“Jumped threw a portal that was stabilized by a game that a virus was about to use to get here,” Hitch explains as he looks around the room. “Say, do you know where the common balls are?”

Megabyte holds onto Pip’s neck as he raises her up to eye level. He raises up his claws, ready to strick, but stops when he hears the portal reopen. He drops Pipp onto the ground before quickly turning around to see Hitch walking out of the portal. Pipp stands up as she coughs.

“So you decided to stabilize the portal after all?” Megabyte asks as he slowly stomps over to him.

“Not quite,” Hitch responds, throwing a yellow ball up into the air. It locks onto the portal and flies up and over the top of the portal. It disintegrates into little yellow particles, which cause the portal to disappear.

“The portal!” Megabyte yells in seething anger. “What did you do?!”

“Repair common, pretty neat right?” Hitch asks. “And I think you’ll find these next to really cool,” Hitch says, throwing up another pair of yellow balls. One flies over him, while the other heads for Pipp. The two balls disintegrate like the one before them, causing Hitch and Pipp to disappear.

“It must have been a return common, they went back to the dinner!” Megabyte thinks aloud before walking off. Once he was gone, Hitch and Pipp reappear next to each other.

“Hiden file command,” Hitch explains to Pipp. “I love using them,” Hitch smiles as Pipp rolls her eyes at him.

“Do you think he’ll be made?” Pipp asks.

“Furious,” Hitch responds back.

“He totaled uprooted the place looking for you guys,” Sparky explains as the group sits at a booth. “Once he knew you were not here, he left in anger,” Sparky ends before sipping on his energy drink.

“Clean up is not my function!” Cecil yells, sliding up to them. “I’m a waiter, not a butler!” he says before taking off in anger.

“Looks like Cecil isn't happy,” Hitch says, watching him slide away.

“You would be too if you had to clean this place up,” Pipp responds, looking around at the almost completely destroyed dinner.

“Far point,” Hitch responds before taking a sip of his drink.

“At least Megabyte knows now not to mess with us,” Pipp says.

“Ya!” Sparky yells, bumping his fist into the air in joy.

“Because if he ever messes with one of us,” Pipp starts.

“He messes with all of us,” Hitch finishes.

“Oh, so we finally got that threw that thick head of yours?” Pipp asks, knocking her fist gently against Hitch's forehead. Hitch shakes his head in disappointment as the two laugh their butts off.

Author's Note

This chapter is the result of three days of writing at 2,000 words a day. It ended up much longer than I thought it would be. I hope you liked it.

p.s. One last thing, why is Sparky not a character tag I can use, it's kind of irritating.

Racing The Clock

“And then I used Glitch to send Hack and Slash back to Megabyte,” Hitch explains as they walk into the diner.

“Those two have to have slow processors,” Pipp responds.

“I haven’t checked,” Hitch says before his head hits an open video window. “Ow,” Hitch says, rubbing his face before looking at the vid window. It’s a sign that points to the right and says this way. “What?”

“I think It’s your son's new business,” Pipp says as she looks at the other vid window blocking the way. Hitch turns to see Sparky sitting in a booth with a few vi windows up around him. Hitch and Pipp walk over to him.

“Sorry, wrong number,” Sparky sighs in defeat as he closes the side vid window.

“Hey there Sparky,” Hitch greats, causing Sparky to spark with joy.

“Hi Dad, Hi Pipp,” Sparky turns to them with a big smile.

“How’s the delivery business going?” Pipp asks, leaning against the booth.

“It’s going great!” Sparky yells in excitement before pulling up another vid window with graphs. “I’ve been going big, I’ve exploded onto the motherboard,”

“That’s great to hear,” Hitch says, patting Sparky on the shoulder. “We’ll be in the basement, the dinner has a tear I need to mend,”

“All right dad,” Sparky responds before the two walk away. “I’m talking about high density here!” Sparky yells after them. “I’ll be just as successful as you someday dad!” Sparky says, turning back around. His smile fades to a frown as he rests his head in his arms. “If I ever get an order,”

Sparky is half asleep with his head in his arms as the vid window rings. He lazily pushes the pick-up button. Megabyte on his chair pops up on the screen with Hack and Slash next to him.

“Sparky’s delivers services, anywhere, anyone, anytime,” Sparky says with no enthusiasm as he looks up at the vid window. His eyes widen before he shoots up and yells, “Megabyte!”

“Yes, this is Sparky’s delivery, right?” Megabyte asks.

“Yes, of course, Mr. Megabyte Sr,” Sparky responds, nodding frantically. He stops and holds his head as the world spins around him.

“I have a package for you to deliver to Hexadecimal,” Megabyte says as Hack picks up the package and sends it through the video window. He places it on the table before retracting his hand back.

“Wow,” Sparky says, picking up the box. “What is it?” he asks, looking up at Megabyte.

“You could call it a little surprise for my dear sister,” Megabyte says with an evil smile.

“Wow,” Sparky says with sparkles in his eyes. “Wait…” Sparkly looks down at the table. “Hitch isn’t going to like me delivering for you,”

“Then don’t tell her,” Megabyte responds. “Simple,”

“Oh, right, thanks,” Sparky responds before the vid window closes. Megabyte smiles and starts laughing.

“Once Hex gets that package, we won’t need to worry about her ever again,” Megabyte says with a big grin.

“Ya! Never again!” Hack says.

“Never!” Slash responds. Megabyte sighs before gently placing his face into the palm of his hand.

“I think I’ve got it,” Hich says as he looks down at Glitch. Two antenna-looking things point at a group of boxes in the corner. One of the boxes starts to glow before exploding into a tear. Hitch and Pipp cover their eyes from the bright light as Hitch raises Glitch up and points it at the tear. “Glitch! Mend!” he yells.

The orange rod picks up the gear part and points it at the tear as the gear gets a bit smaller. Yellow lasers start at the edges of the gear before converging in the center and shooting out at the tear. The tear shrinks down until it's completely gone. The two lower their hands as Hitch sighs. The two turn as they hear thumping coming from the stairs.

“Dad! Pipp! I did it!” Sparky yells as he runs up to them. “I mean, I did it,” Sparky corrects, calming down a bit as he looks between the two.

“Great work,” Hitch responds with a smile and a thumbs up.

“Ya, we’re proud of you,” Pipp responds.

“Well, I’m off to deliver the package to Hexadecimal,” Sparky says before running back up the stairs.

“I can’t believe it, he got a package,” Pipp responds.

“Ya, and to lost angles of all places,” Hitch responds before it strikes him and Pipp. “Hexadecimal!” The two yell before running after him.

Sparky slides out the door to the dinner as he throws down his zip board. It goes spinning as it unlatches and turns into two circles. He goes to step on it before being pulled back by Hitch. “Hey! What gives!” Sparky yells up at Hitch.

“Where did you say you were going with that package?” Hitch asks.

“Hex, why?” Sparky responds, shrugging.

“Who sent this package?” Pipp asks, crossing her arms.

“I don’t know, they just asked me to send it,” Sparky responds, quickly making up a cover story. “It’s a surprise,” Sparky whispers to them.

Hitch and Pipp look at each other before responding with, “It’s a bomb,”

“Let me have a look at it,” Hitch says. Sparky sighs before holding out the package. “Glitch, scanner,” Hitch says as the gear turns into a giant screen. He hovered the screen over the box, revealing a mask underneath.

“A mask?” Pipp asks.

“With a clock on it,” Hitch finishes as he notices the digital clock with the number 1010.

“See,” Sparky says, pulling the package away. “Not a bomb, now can I go now?” Sparky asks, looking between the two.

“I better deliver it,” Hitch responds as Glitch returns to normal. “Lost Angles is no place for a sprite like you,”

“But?!” Sparky tries to protest, but Pipp interrupts.

“No buts, now hand over the package and get back inside,” Sparky sighs as he hands over the package.

“I never get to have fun,” Sparky grumbles as he walks back in with Pipp. Hitch jumps onto the zip board before flying off to Lost Angles.

Hitch zips over the twisted bridge connecting the city of Mainframe with lost angles, a small, weirdly shaped little island with a big tower in the center. Sparky flies after him, far enough behind so Hitch doesn’t spot him.

“I never get to have fun,” Sparky grumbles as he watches Hitch go under an arch before being spit out, upside down, on the other side of the Island. He flips back up right before looking around.

“Why do I always get lost in Lost Angles?” Hitch asks as he flies down the remains of a city street.

“See!” Sparky says, gesturing to what just happened. “I never get to do that,” Sparky complains to himself before flying after Hitch.

Hitch turns a corner before being stopped by a group of nulls, little colorful worm-like creatures, start to swarm around him. He turns around and starts down the other street. The nulls follow him. Hitch’s eyes widened as he stopped in his tracks. A gain bomb lands in his way as the nulls start to pile around him.

“Shoe!” Hitch says, turning around, scaring the nulls a bit. “Go find someone else's energy to eat,” Hitch says before a giant hole in the ground opens and swallows him into it. He falls off his zip board as he slides down a pink slide. He screams in shock as he slides down the twisting and turning slide.

The nulls run away as Sparky flies over and looks down the hole. The hole starts to close, but he shoves his zip board to prevent that before jumping off and squatting down to the hole.

Hitch goes flying off the end of the slide and up into the air. He lands on the ground on his feet with a thud as his zip board lands on the other end of the platform he had landed on. He straightens up as he looks around the room.

“Ah, Hitch,” a nice, kind, and feminine voice says. “How nice to see you,” The voice says as a happy mask floats down behind Hitch.

“Hexadecimal,” Hitch says with a slight smile before turning around. The mask flashes white as an entire body forms around it. The figure was very curvy and feminine in form. She wears a red one-piece with a shredded red cape flowing behind her.

“What an unexpected visit,” She says, the mask on her face turning into an intrigued look as she places her hands on Hitch’s shoulders.

“I’ve got a package for you,” Hitch says, raising up the box. “Compliments from Sparky’s Delivery service,”

“A package?” Hex says as his mask turns to sarcastic surprise. “For me? Oh, what could it be?” Hex says before smashing the box into little pieces as she grabs the mask inside. “A mask, I’m afraid I already have one just like it,” Hex says, her face turning to sadness with a single tear under her eye as she looks over to the mask. “You’re gonna have to return it to Megabyte,”

“Megabyte sent it!” Hitch replies with shock. He slowly starts to back up as he shakes his head and raises his arms up in front of himself. “Sorry, I don’t do returns,”

“I insist!” Hex yells, her mask turning to anger as she grabs Hitch and shoves the mask onto his face. Hitch goes to take it off as Hex uses her magic to float Hitch into the air before pushing him out of her lair. Hitch screams as he is sent back up the slide he came from.

Sparky grabs his zip board out of the way right before Hitch comes flying out. Sparky watches as Hitch is sent flying back toward Mainframe. Sparky quickly puts the zip board back to keep the hole from closing up. He leans over the edge as Hex monologs to herself.

“Once Hitch gets to Megabyte, that bomb that was meant for me will delete him and my brother,” Hex says, laughing maniacally. “Oh, but how little fun it will be without Hitch,” Hex says, putting a finger to her lip. “Oh well,” She says as her mask turns into an evil grin.

“No, Dad!” Spark yells, grabbing his zip board, throwing it to the ground, and jumping on it before racing after Hitch. The hole closes up as Sparky flies away.

Pipp steps out of the dinner as Hitch, struggling to get the mask off, flies overhead. “That kind of looked like Hitch,” Pipp says, squinting to try and see better. Her ear twitches before turning towards Sparky, who flies towards her on his zip board. She has almost no time to react as Sparky jumps off the board and pushes Pipp to the ground.

“Pipp! It’s terrible! Hitch has the mask on his face, which is a bomb, that was sent by Megabyte. I should have been truthful from the start or none of this would have…” Pipp stops him by placing a finger on his lips.

“Let me get this straight,” Pipp starts. “The mask is a bomb,” Sparky nods. “Send my Megabyte to kill Hex,” Sparky nods again. “And now Hex sent Hitch to return it back, and if it goes off, they will both be deleted?” Pipp says as she removes her finger from his mouth.

“Pretty much, yes,” Sparky responds.

“Get off me and we'll go after him,” Pipp says. Sparky gets off of her before helping Pipp up. Pipp throws down her zip board as Sparky jumps on his. Pipp jumps on hers before the two flies after Hitch.

Hitch finally gets the mask off of his face before taking a deep breath in. “You can’t breathe in these things,” Hitch whispers to no one. He looks up to see he had almost made it to Megabytes. “Return a package to Megabyte? I don’t think so,” Hitch says before looking down at Glitch. “Glitch, helicopter,” Hitch says before pointing Glitch over his head. Glitch turns into a big propeller, causing Hitch to slow down to a stop.

“Good, he stopped,” Pipp says as the two start to catch up to Hitch. At that moment, the sky turns dark purple as the static electric sounds ring out. “No, not now,” Pipp says as a Gamecube starts to fall from the sky. The announcer yelled at incoming game. Hitch looks over at the Gamecube before steering himself towards the Gamecube.

“He’s steering towards the game!” Sparky yells.

“Of course he would,” Pipp says, rolling her eyes and sighing. Hitch makes it under the Gamecube as Sparky and Pipp get blocked out.

“Great, Dad is doomed,” Sparky says, looking at the purple Gamecube.

“Not yet,” Pipp says, grabbing Sparky by the wrist before pulling him off his zip board and diving down towards the ground on hers. Sparky screams out in panic as Pipp races the Gamecube to the ground. Pipp pulls into the Gamecube right before it lands on the ground.

“That was nuts!” Sparky yells at Pipp as she gently places him down on the ground. “You could have gotten us deleted, nullified, no coming back!” Sparky yells, flailing his arms around. “Can we do it again?” Sparky asks, his deminer doing a one-eighty as he smiles up at Pipp.

“Maybe some other time,” Pipp smiles down at Sparky. “We need to get to Hitch first,” She says as she looks around.

Hitch stands on a formula one track with a group of other binoms. Hitch looks around the game as he places the mask on his hip. “Formula one, good thing we know the formula,” Hitch says, looking at the binoms. They nod before rushing off to the starting lines on the ground. “Reboot,” Hitch yells before double tapping his icon. The green light envelops him, forming a car to his side and putting him in a formula one racer suit. The mask sitting on the front of his car.

The other binoms reboot as he steps into his car. The user’s car appears on the line next to Hitch’s. The car is painted like a shark. The car revs up as the starting light shows up in the front. Hitch turns on his car and revs it up while staring down the light. It turns yellow, before turning green.

Hitch hits the gas hard, causing him to spin out of control as the racers quickly overtake him. He finally gains traction as Pipp and Sparky run up to him. But it was too late, Hitch took off down the road, leaving the two in the dust.

“Hitch!” Pipp and Sparky yell after him to no avail.

“Great, he is racing against the clock,” Sparky says before rebooting into his car.

“And the clock is going to win,” Pipp responds before rebooting into her car. Pipp steps on the gas, causing her to race down the track after Hitch. Sparky does the same thing but he forgot to put the car into drive, which causes him to go backward. He stops and puts the car into drive before racing after Pipp.

“Wait for me!” Sparky yells after her.

The timer on the mask ticks over from 1010 to 1001 as Hitch starts to pass spirits. “Excuse me,” Hitch says, slipping past a few binoms. “Pardon me, just getting into first,” Hitch says as he pulls into first place. He smiles before flinching as the user rockets past him. “Or not,” Hitch says before pressing on the gas to try and catch up to the user.

On the back of the user’s car, two cylinders poke out before spilling oil out onto the track. Hitch's eyes widen in fear as he yells, “Oil slip!” Hitch does his best to keep steady but inevitably spins out. His car comes to a stop, facing toward the oncoming racers. Hitch screams as he covers his eyes. The racers do their best to avoid Hitch, but only one car clips Hitch’s car. Hitch sighs before looking at the last oncoming binom.

“I don’t think so,” Hitch says before quickly turning the car into recursion, cranking the steering wheel, and dodging the car while turning around at the same time. He stops and puts it into drive before taking off again. Pipp and Sparky follow up behind him. Hitch hits the button on the center of his wheel, causing his engine to rev up and for his front wheels to come off the ground as he speeds toward the rest of the racers. The clock on the mask ticked to 1000.

“How did he do that?” Pipp asks, looking over at Sparky.

“It’s the nitro!” Sparky yells over. “Hit the button on your steering wheel!” Sparky says, pointing at the button on his wheel. Pippa Nods before looking at her steering wheel and pressing the button. Her car rockets forward like Hitch’s did. Sparky follows Pipp by doing the same thing.

Pipp pulls up beside Hitch as all the cars turn into hover cars. “Hitch!” Pipp yells, getting Hitch’s attention.

“Pipp!?” Hitch yells back in confusion.

“Your car is a bomb!”

“You’re telling me! It only comes with one nitro!” Hitch yells back. The user hits a button on their dashboard, causing the road in front of Pipp to turn into a ramp.

“No! Your car is literally a!” Pipp tries to tell Hitch, but is cut off when she ramps off the ramp and flies into the air, crashing into a tree. Hitch shrugs before racing after the user. Sparky goes after Pipp, driving his hover car underneath the tree. Pipp jumps into the car. “Go, we don’t have much time now!” Pipp yells, pointing to Hitch. Sparky recurs on accident, causing Pipp to smash her head into the dashboard. She looks over at Sparky in anger.

“Sorry?” Sparky shrugs.

“Out,” Pipp says, pointing her thumb over her shoulder. Sparky gets out of the driver's seat and switches with Pipp. Pipp changes to drive before going back onto the track and after Hitch. The timer on the mask ticked down from 111 to 110.

Hitch pulls back up to second place as the user sends out land mins behind it. Hitch grits his teeth as he looks at the minefield. “Minefield!” Hitch yells out before drifting around and through the mines. Binoms hit the mines and go flying up into the air. Others just stop or turn off the track. Hitch makes it to the other end as Pipp and Sparky come up to it.

“Stop!” Sparky yells, gripping the dashboard.

“No time,” Pipp says back as she drifts around the minds. Sliding threw some and dodged the bottoms that sat on the ground. “See, no problem,” Pipp confidently says, looking down at Sparky.

“Cool,” Sparky responds before the two turn back towards the road. “Not cool!” Sparky yells right before the car hits a landmine. The two go flying up into the air in an explosion before landing back onto the ground. “Now what are we going to do!” Sparky yells in panic as the timer drops to 101. “We have no car and no way to stop dad!”

“I think I have an idea,” Pipp says, walking away. Sparky runs after her as the timer goes down to 100. Hitch flies past a circle, which causes his car to turn into a plane. He pulls up and levels with the user’s plane.

“Looks like you made it to the final lap,” Hitch compliments the user. “Let’s see how much farther you can get,” Hitch says as he races after the user. He slowly catches up to the user as they turn onto the final stretch of the race. The mask on the plane counts down to 11

“Do you think this will work?” Sparky asks, jumping into the passenger seat of a semi-truck.

“It has to,” Pipp responds as she buckles up. “Or else Hitch will get deleted,” Pipp responded before pulling the string down, blowing the horn of the truck. The binoms in front of them run out of their way before Pipp starts slowly driving forward. The counter going down to 10.

“I hope it gets his attention,” Sparky worries as Pipp drives the truck onto the track. She turns the steering wheel hard to the right before straightening out and heading straight for Hitch and the user. The user and Hitch speed towards the truck as the truck starts to pick up speed.

“Now!” Pipp yells, turning the wheel hard to the left as Sparky hits the disconnect button on the dash. The oil container the truck was holding goes flying off as the truck comes to a stop sideways. The oil container rolls down the road toward the two racers. Hitch’s eyes widen as the user pulls up. The clock ticks down to 1.

“Glitch! Eject!” Hitch yells at Glitch as Pipp and Sparky step out of the truck. Hitch’s plane hits the oil container as the timer hits 0 and explodes, causing the oil container to explode and delete the user. Sparky’s mouth drops as tears from his eyes. Pipp stares in disbelief as Sparky wraps his arms around Pipp’s waist and bars his head into her stomach.

“I’m so sorry Sparky,” Pipp says, wrapping her arms around the little dragon.

“Dad, he can’t be,” Sparky responds, looking up at Pipp. Tears roll down his cheek as Pipp gently places a hand on his cheek.

“I’m sorry Sparky, he’s…” Pipp is interrupted when Hitch lands on the ground screaming. Pipp looks down at Hitch, who lies in a crater his body created, in complete shock. “A live!” Pipp says with a big smile. Sparky smiles as Hitch stands up.

“Dad!” Sparky yells, running over to Hitch before wrapping his arms around Hitch’s waist.

“Wow, buddy,” Hitch responds, almost getting toppled over. “You ok?” Hitch asks, kneeling down to Sparky’s level.

“I am now,” Sparky says before wiping his tears away.

“We thought you were deleted,” Pipp responds, walking over to Hitch as he stands up.

“We might end up deleted,” Hitch says, pointing over his shoulder to where the oil container was. The group looks to see a pulsating blue orb sitting where the explosion had happened.

“What happened?” Pipp asks, turning to Hitch.

“It’s a data compression loop,” Hitch responds plainly.

“What?” Pipp responds back.

“It means,” Hitch says, turning slowly towards Pipp. “Run like you’ve never run before!” Hitch yells, causing Pipp and Sparky to flinch. Hitch grabs Sparky’s arm before taking off back down the track. Pipp follows after him as the blue orb starts to suck the skybox into it.

“What’s happening!” Pipp asks, her heart thumping in her ears as they make it off the track. The wind rushing past them starts to make it harder to run.

“Two explosions at the same time caused them to compress each other,” Hitch explains.

“Meaning it’s an infit compression due to both putting pressures on each other!?” Sparky asks, looking up at Hitch.

“And you said school was useless,” Hitch responds, looking down at Sparky with a proud smile on his face. Hitch turns back to Pipp before saying, “If we can get to the edge of the game, the game will fold in around us and let us leave without being deleted,” Hitch says as the wind makes it almost impossible to keep walking.

“It looks like the wall is coming to us,” Pipp points out as the wall starts moving towards us.

“Just hold on,” Hitch says as he braces himself against a tree, holding onto Sparky with one arm while Pipp holds onto Hitch’s other side. The walls move towards them before taking them over and placing them on top of a building. The group turns around and watches as the Gamecube slowly assembles into a small, pulsing purple ball.

“Glitch,” Hitch says, looking down at his key tool. “Zip,” Hitch says before pointing Glitch at the purple ball. Glitch shoots off its gear, causing it to land on the purple ball. The ball is then surrounded by a tan skin before slowly shrinking into nothing. The gear returns back to Hitch and lands back on Glitch.

“What did you do?” Sparky asks, looking up at Hitch.

“Zipped it into a zip file and sent it to the principal office for deletion,” Hitch explains. “So does anyone mind telling me how a second explosion happened when my plane crashed?” Hitch asks, looking between the two.

“Sparky can explain it,” Pipp says, crossing her arms over her chest before looking down at Sparky. Hitch turns to Sparky, who was looking down at the ground with his hands behind his back. He kicks at the ground as Hitch sighs.

“Was the mask a bomb?” Hitch asks, kneeling down to Sparky.

“I didn't know it was until I overheard Hex talking about it,”

“You followed me!?” Hitch asks.

“That’s what you're worried about?” Pipp asks, staring down at Hitch with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry,” Hitch responds before turning to Sparky. “Look, Sparky,” Hitch says, gently placing his hand underneath SParky’s chin and pulling his head to look at him. “You shouldn’t try and compile up too quickly. You have so much time to find out your function. Just let it happen, and let the professionals deal with Hex and Megabyte, all right?”

“All right,” Sparky responds, nodding in agreement.

“Good,” Hitch says, standing up. “Now let’s go to the dinner, I’m low on energy,”

“I call window seats!” Sparky says, running toward the edge of the building.

“Where are you going!?” Pipp yells after him as she throws down her zip board. Sparky stops and turns around to look at them. “You don’t have a way to get to the dinner,” Pipp says as Hitch sends Glitch to fetch his zip board.

“Oh, right!” Sparky says, before running up to Pipp. Pipp jumps onto the zip board first before making room for Sparky. He jumps on as Pipp wraps her arms around his body.

“You two get going, I’ll meet you there!” Hitch says.

“All right,” Pipp says before flying off with Sparky toward the dinner. Sparky waves at Hitch as Hitch waves back.

“That stupid sprite!” Megabyte yells, slamming his fist into his chair as he watches Sparky fly away. “Good thing I got Hack and Slash to deliver a new package,” Megabyte says as the elevator door behind him opens. He turns around in his chair to see Hack and Slash holding a bomb between them.

“She said,” Hack starts.

“She,” Slash says.

“Let me talk!” Hack yells at Slash as Megabyte starts to get angry.

“Oh, sorry,” Slash responds back.

“She said she already had one,” Hack finishes. The bomb goes off, causing the top of the tower to fly off as Megabyte’s anger tops out.

“HACK! SLASH!” He yells out in anger.

Author's Note

Now, this was the length of the chapter I thought the last chapter was going to be. I hope you liked this chapter because it starts to get better from here. Well, that's the plan at least.

Between a Byte and a Game

“Pipp?” Phong asks as he rolls into the control room. Pipp sits at a circle table with the map of Mainframe on it. Raised above the ground, surrounding the table in a semi-circle is a row of computers. In the front of the room is a giant vid window.

“Hmm…” Pipp says, looking over at Phong as he slides over to her.

“Have you been up all sleep cycle?” Phong asks.

“Yes,” Pipp responds before stretching her back out.

“My child, you need your sleep,” Phong says with worry in his voice.

“And we need to get Hitch out of the hard drive before Megabyte deletes him,” Pipp responds sternly.

“He’ll be fin Pipp,” Sparky says as he walks into the room.

“As Sparky so bluntly put it,” Phong says. “Yes, Hitch will manage,” Pipp sighs as Sparky walks over to the two. “Have you at least gotten communications with Hitch working?”

“Working and encrypted so Megabyte can’t get in,” Pipp responds before the vid window on the wall beeps. The group looks up at it as Hitch shows up on the screen. Hitch stands on his zip board as he hovers far enough away from the exit port to not get shot from the ships if they break out of the energy barrier.

“The energy barrier will not hold on for much longer,” Hitch says. “Please say you’ve been able to figure out how to get me back to Mainframe?”

“Not yet I’m afraid,” Pipp replies before yawning.

“Have you been up all cycle?” Hitch asks. Pipp nods yes. “You should go and lay down,”

“Not until you are back in the city, and safe,” Pipp says with a stern voice. Hitch sighs as he slowly shakes his head. He opens his mouth to speak, but the sky around him turns bright gold.

“Oh, no,” Hitch says, as he looks up at the sky as the announcer says incoming update.

“What’s going on?” Pipp asks.

“The user,” Hitch says before turning back to the vid window. “He’s installing another core into the hard drive!” Hitch says as the ground turns yellow. Highlights of buildings start to appear around the platform. Hitch moves out of the way as a building appears next to him. “Glitch, return!” Hitch yells. The gear part retracts the energy shield before flying back towards Hitch and landing on the key tool.

“Why is that bad?” Pipp asks.

“It means Megabyte can infect the system,” Phong replies.

“And if he does enough damage, the user could unplug the USB!” Sparky yells in worry.

“What!” Pipp yells.

“It is a possibility, but as long as the hard drive stays functional,” Phong says before looking up at Hitch. “You should be fine,”

“Meaning I’m gonna have to mend and defend an empty city,” Hitch says as Megabyte’s ships start flying into the system. The sky returns back to normal as the building solidifies.

“Just keep him from the core and you should be fine,” Phong says before the vid window collapse.

“I’ll try,” Hitch whispers before dodging a laser bolt from one of the ships. “Glitch! Shield!” Hitch yells as the gear extends out and energy pulses out into a shield shape. Hitch starts flying away as more bolts are shot at him. The shield blocks the few that end up pointed at him. “Glitch, energy gun,” Hitch says as the orange rod morphs into a handle that wraps around Hitch’s hand. The blue brick the gear and rod sit on morphs into a gun-like weapon with the barrel by the handle.

Hitch stops and points the weapons at the ship. “Eat energy Megabyte!” Hitch yells as he shoots energy beams at the ships following him. The beams hit the ships, causing them to blow up. The few remaining ships retreat back as a vid window shows up in front of Hitch.

“Tisk, Tisk, Tisk,” Megabyte says, slowly shaking his head in disappointment. “Why must you blow up by little toys?”

“Why are your toys shooting at me then?” Hitch responds. “It’s just self-defense,” Hitch says right before Glitch beeps at him. Hitch turns around and aims his weapon at the two ships flanking him. One ship get’s hit as the other dodges and shoots back. Hitch uses his shield to block the beams from hitting him.

“I will tell them to stop it you agree to help me get to the supercomputer,” Megabyte kindly overs as Hitch shoots back. The ship dodges the first few shots but goes spinning when the last one cuts threw the bottom of the ship. Hitch takes a deep breath before turning to look at Megabyte.

“I would rather be deleted than work with a virus like you,” Hitch says with anger seething out of his voice.

“My offer will stand for as long as you do,” Megabyte says with a wicked smile. He starts laughing as the vid window collapses. Glitch beeps as the vid window closes. Hitch looks around him to see he is surrounded by Megabyte’s ships.

“Surrender now, or be deleted,” a viral binom says over the intercom of one of the ships.

“Delete me?” Hitch asks, pointing at himself with his thumb. “I don’t think so!” Hitch yells before jumping off his zip board. The ships shoot at where he was, missing him completely. Hitch grabs the zip board as he falls by it and returns it back to its one circle state. He raises the shield over his head right before beams start bouncing off of it.

Hitch looks down to see the ground racing quickly toward him. He throws down his zip board and lands on it before flying down the newly formed road. Hitch looks up and points his weapon at them as the ships follow. Hitch shoots at them, the energy bolts hitting a few ships, causing them to blow up and spin out of control to the ground. Hitch looks forward to see a few ships coming at him.

“Glitch! EMP!” Hitch yells, pointing it up into the air. A small blue energy ball comes out of the end of his gun right before Hitch dive bombs out of the way. The blue ball shrinks down before blowing up into white sparks. Hitch pulls up so he doesn't hit the ground and flies away. He looks back to see the ships start falling to the ground as they get hit by the EMP wave. Hitch sighs to himself as he flies away from the ship wreckage.

“So if we can pull most of his army away from the port, we can slip a group of sprites into the port with one of the stolen ships,” Pipp explains to the group of army generals in the control room. “You will then get in, grab Hitch, and get out. Got that?” Pipp says as she leans on the map table.

“Yes sir,” one of the binom nods as the others nod their heads.

“Good,” Pipp says, looking up at the big vid window with a visual on the port. Megabyte’s ships sweep the entire section of the system, shooting anyone who defies them. “Get to preparing!” Pipp yells at the binoms. They run away and out of the room as she sits down in a chair. She sighs as Sparky and Phong walk up to her.

“You ok Pipp?” Sparky asks.

“No, not at all,” Pipp responds before she sits up. “But I’m trying to be,”

“So what do I do?” Sparky asks with a smile. Phong and Pipp look at each other before turning to Sparky.

“You are staying here with me,” Phong responds. Sparky's smile turns into confusion before anger sets in.

“What!” Sparky yells.

“We think it’s too dangerous for a small sprite like you to be out there in the middle of a war,” Pipp explains.

“I can take care of myself, if dad was here he would tell you the same thing,” Sparky defends himself.

“No I wouldn’t,” Hitch responds. The group look up at the vid window of Hitch, who was currently flying away from a group of Megabyt’s ships.

“What!” Sparky yells up in confusion. “B-but…”

“But nothing!” Hitch interrupts Sparky. “You are not ready yet to help out in a battle like this,” Hitch says, toning down his voice. “Hold on a nano,” Hitch says before he turns around and starts shooting the ships.

“Hitch is right my child,” Phong says, gently placing a hand on Sparky’s shoulder. Sparky sighs before nodding and walking away.

“Do you think he’ll be ok?” Pipp asks as they watch him walk out of the room.

“He’ll be fine,” Hitch says, turning back to the vid window. “Trust me,” Pipp nods before Hitch asks, “So is the attack ready?”

“I’ll cheek,” Pipp says before splitting the vid window in half. The other half shows the general on screen. “Ready?”

“Ready and waiting!” The general responds, saluting.

“The scramble!” Pipp commands as the vid window collapse, leaving Hitch on screen. “You know what to do Hitch,” Hitch nods before the screen returns back to black.

“So they are trying to attack?” Megabyte asks himself as he watches the CPU ships fly out of the Principal Office. “They are going to find it a hard time to even get to the port,” Megabyte flips the vid window to a binom in a lab coat. “What’s the progress on the hardware?”

“It should be fully operational in less than a cycle,” The binom responds with a heavy german accent.

“Good,” Megabyte says, taping his fingers together with an evil smile forming on his face. “Make sure it’s at the port as soon as you can,” Megabyte commands.

“Of course your league,” The binom responds as the vid window collapses. Megabyte turns around to face Hack and Slash behind him.

“Hack, Slash,” Megabyte says as the two straighten up. “Slow the CPUs down,” Megabyte commands.

“Of course!” Hack responds.

“As you wish your evilness,” Slash responds. The two turn around and head for the elevator.

“Again with the evilness,” Hack complains to Slash.

“What?” Slash says, shrugging.

“It sounds weird,” Hack says as the two slide into the elevator. “Try boss or league,”

“I didn’t know you were so picky with words,” Slash responds back as the elevator door closes and goes down. Megabyte gently places his forehead on his hand as he slowly shakes his head.

“Almost all the forces have been diverted,” The general says to Pipp, who stands on her zip board in the data waist tunnel.

“Good, tell me when it’s clear,” Pipp responds.

“Sir!” a binom says, splitting the vid window in half. “The ABCs! They’ve got reinforcements coming from the tower!”

“Cover your ass and keep putting pressure on the front line as best you can soldier!” The general responds. The vid window returns back to just the general. “Look’s like you’re gonna have to go now,” Pipp nods before the vid window collapse.

She flies up to a manhole cover before gently pushing against it and lifting it off the ground. She slides it off the hole before peeking out. She looks around and spots the last reaming ship that hasn’t taken off to fight. She flies up before jumping off the zip board and landing on the ground. She picks up the zip board before placing it on her hip.

A group of binoms flies out of the manhole before Pipp covers it back up with the cover. The binoms follow Pipp over to the ship. They hid against the ship’s side as a group of viral binoms run onto the ship. Pipp turns to the binoms and nods her head. They nod back before heading to the entrance and going in.

Pipp climbs onto the top of the ship as energy fire can be heard from within. She crawls to the front of the ship slowly. She makes it to a bright red hatch. She spins the valve with a grunt before pulling the lid open. She jumps in and closes the lid at the same time. She has landed in the pilot room, where two chairs sit. She looks to see two remaining virl binoms pressed up against the closed door to the holding bay.

Pipp walks up to them before picking them up with her hands. The two binoms drop their weapons before slowly turning to look at her. She smiles as the door opens, the group of binoms run in before two jump into the pilot seat. She walks into the bay and to the edge as the ship starts to fly.

“Don’t fallow us,” Pipp says, throwing the two out the back as the ship heads for the port. The sky turns purple as the announcer yells out incoming game. “Not now!” Pipp yells as she looks to the sky. The game starts to fall onto the port as the ship moves toward the entrance of the USB. “Keep going!” Pipp yells at the binoms.

She turns around before gasping. Sparky is flying towards the game with Frisket running along the road below him. Pipp grunts before yelling over her shoulder. “Carry out the plane without me! I have a kid to save!” Pipp says before jumping off the ship right as it enters the tunnel. The back closes as Pipp runs towards Sparky. “Sparky!” Pipp yells up at him while waving her arms.

“Shit,” Sparky whispers as he looks down at Pipp.

“Go back!” Pipp yells as Sparky makes it to where the game is going to land. The game comes down on him as Pipp runs as fast as she can toward the game. She slides onto her stomach into the game right as it hits the ground.

Pipp stands up as she rubs her stomach. “Note to self, don’t slide on concrete,” Pipp says as she looks around. She stands on a smallish tug boat with two other binoms at the steering wheel.

“Hello there Miss Pipp,” the tall binom greats Pipp in a British accent.

“Hello Wyatt,” Pipp responds. “Do you know what game this is?” Pipp asks as she double-taps her icon. The green energy transforming her outfit into a sailer.

“I think it’s battleships,” Wyatt responds.

“Coco?” the other binom asks, holding up a tray with three cups of hot cocoa.

“Thank you,” Pipp says before picking up a cup and taking a sip.

Hitch hovers to the side of a building near the port exit. He hovers just a few feet off the ground. Hitch looks around the corner of the building to see the two ships blocking the exit. He ducks back around the corner before looking down at Glitch.

“Glitch, prepare EMP,” Hitch says before Glitch beeps. The gear screen turns blue as a little orb appears above the gear.

“You ready Hitch?” Phong asks as the vid window appears to Hitch’s right.

“All set,” Hitch responds.

“Good, because they are almost there,” Phong says before the vid window collapses and is replaced with Megabyte.

“I see you are trying to escape,” Megabyte says, taping his finger together.

“Why would I want to,” Hitch says sarcastically. “You have such good hospitality,”

“Nice of you to say that,” Megabyte says with a kind, but some how still evil, smile. “But you will not be leaving that easily,”

“And what’s going to stop me?” Hitch asks before turning around and looking around the corner. A ship slows down and stops at the exit as the other two ships land on the ground and lower their back hatch. A group of viral binoms come out and walk over to the new ship.

“Because even if you get out, I have the sector locked down,” Megabyte says before Hitch closes the vid window.

“Talk about a chatter box,” Hitch says before hovering over to the ships.

“Halt!” a viral binom says, turning around and pointing a staff with a green gem on the end of it at him. The rest of the group does the same as the binoms walk out of the other ship behind the virl binoms.

“I’m not doing much else,” Hitch says, raising his hands up. The binoms shoot down the virl binoms before Hitch flies over to the group. “Were’s Pipp?” Hitch asks, looking around for the mare.

“She went after Sparky,” a binom responds.

“He went into a game,” another one adds.

“What!” Hitch yells. “Is the game covering the port?”

“Barely,” the binom responds.

“So we are still trapped in here,” Hitch sighs. “Guss we are gonna have to hold this position for now,” Hitch says.

“Look out!” a binom yells as a laser bolt hits one of the empty ships causing it to blow up. Hitch turns around to see a fleet coming down from the sky.

“Glitch, fire!” Hitch says, pointing Glitch at the fleet. The little blue ball shoots off toward the ships. It hits one, causing an explosion to hit the rest. The ships start to fall out of the sky before slowly turning back on. “Looks like Megabyte has warned the entire fleet,” Hitch says before turning back around to the group. “Get into the ships and start firing at them! The EMP will not last long,” Hitch commands. The binoms salute him before running into the two remaining ships.

“Come on Sparky, win that game for us,” Hitch says before flying toward the fleet.

“Sparky!” Pipp yells out. The little tugboat looks tiny compared to the giant aircraft carrier. Sparky looks over the edge of the ship down at Pipp. Sparky is wearing a black caption outfit with black, fingerless gloves.

“I’ll get you a ladder!” Sparky yells back down before running away. Pipp crosses her arms over her chest before sighing. She taps her finger against her arm as Sparky runs back with a rope ladder in his arms. He places it on the ground and ties it to the aircraft carrier before rolling it over the edge. The rope ladder falls in front of Pipp before she starts climbing up.

Pipp makes it to the top as the little tugboat floats away. She stands up as Sparky pulls the ladder back up. “We told you to stay at the Principal Office,” Pipp sternly states as Sparky raps the rope ladder back up and places it on the ground.

“You told me not to join in the battle,” Sparky corrects. “So I didn’t,”

“So you decided to go into a game!?” Pipp responds in angry confusion.

“Neither of you were going to, so I decided to go in,” Pipp goes to talk but Sparky interrupts her. “Dad also has trained me to go into games from a young age. I can handle this,” Pipp sighs before nodding.

“What are we up against?” Pipp asks.

“Battleships,” Sparky says, opening his hand and pushing his palm up, causing a grid pattern to show up in front of him. “A simple game of one v.s one ship battle,” Sparky explains before an airplane flies over them. The ship is black with green stripes.

“Megabyte,” Pipp says. “His binoms must have already infected the user,”

“I thought the ABCs were distracted by the CPUs?” Sparky asks.

“They brought in reinforcements,” Pipp responds, looking down at Sparky. “Meaning we are dealing with a viral user now,”

“One who will cheat to get his way,” Sparky responds. “So what should we hit first?” Sparky asks.

“I say we start with the center and go out in a spiral slash checkered pattern,” Pipp explains.

“That sounds good enough,” Sparky says, pushing the square in the middle. “Fire!” Sparky yells as a missile is launched from the ship. The two look at the grid and wait. The box stays gray for a bit before turning green.

“Hit?” Pipp asks. Sparky looks up at Pipp and nods. “I hope he can hold out long enough for us to win,”

“This is not good!” Hitch yells, hanging from his zip board by the end of his fingertips. He grits his teeth as he pulls himself onto the zip board. He looks over to see three of Megabyte’s ships pointing their weapons at him. “Shit!” Hitch yells, letting go of the zip board before grabbing it as he falls. The ships shoot at where he was as he throws the zip board below him. He lands on the zip board before flying off.

“Glitch, energy gun,” Hitch says, looking down at Glitch. Glitch beeps weakly at the command. “Crap, running out of energy,” Hitch says, looking over at the Principal Office in the center of the dome city. “If we can get to the Principal office, we can charge you up with the diverted core energy,” Hitch says, looking down at Glitch, who beeps loudly in response. Hitch ducks as a laser grazes his hair. “If I don’t get deleted first,”

Hitch turns towards the Principal Office as the ships keep following him. He dodges the shots they fire at him before his eyes widen. A group of ships goes charging at him from the other direction. Hitch looks back at the ones following him before smiling. He squats down before jumping up. He front flips over the group of ships before landing on the zip board.

He looks back to see the ships try and turn around to chase him, but run into the other ship and blow up in a fiery explosion. He smiles to himself before heading towards the Principal office. He turns around the corner before stopping in his tracks. “Of course, it’s not that easy,” Hitch sighs as he stares down an entire fleet of ships. A vid window pops up in front of the fleet with Megabyte on it.

“Now come Hitch, we don’t have to do it this way,” Megabyte says. “You could just help me to the supercomputer. I’ll then leave Mainframe alone, I swear,” Megabyte says, clasping his hands together.

“I will never work with you!” Hitch yells back.

“Oh, bad choice,” Megabyte says. “Delete him!” His voice booms out before the vid window disappears. Hitch’s eyes widen as he dodges the energy lasers. He flies towards the fleet as they fly towards him. He ducks under and dodges in between the ships. They slow down and turn around before going after him. Hitch points the zip board almost straight up as he grabs onto the board so he doesn’t fall off. He flies up the side of the Principal Office as the ships shoot at him.

“Glitch, EMP!” Hitch yells, pointing Glitch down at the ships. The gear lifts off the key tool and points at the ships. The gear glows blue before shooting out a little blue ball. The ball hits a ship and blows up, disabling the other ships around it. “Now you’re out of power,” Hitch gumballs as Glitch returns to normal. Hitch leans the zip board forward before standing up as he gets to the top of the Principal Office. “Glitch, decode,” Hitch says, pointing Glitch at the hatch on the top of the Principal Office.

Glitch’s gear detaches and lands on the hatch. The gear beeps and turns before returning back to the key tool. The hatch opens up before Hitch jumps in, grabbing his zip board, and landing inside. The hatch shuts as the lights turn on. The room he has landed in is a circle with controls along the walls.

“Let’s see what the user gave us in terms of controls,” Hitch says as he walks over to a control panel. He starts tapping on it as his eyes scan the screen. “Yes, energy recharger,” Hitch says with a smile. The ground shakes as firing sounds from outside. “Have fun getting in,” Hitch chuckles as he turns around to the center of the room. Coming up from the ground in the middle of the room is a platform with a clear tub container with controls facing Hitch. He walks over to the device as he takes Glitch off his arm. He places it into the container before it closes.

“I hope Sparky and Pipp are having better luck than I am,” Hitch sighs as Glitch floats up in the container.

“I hope Hitch is having better luck,” Pipp says as she watches the missile hit a small ship to their right. The aircraft carrier’s back end is now blown out from return fire.

“I hope so too,” Sparky responds. “Because we might lose this,”

“How many ships have they sunken?” Pipp asks, looking at the grid in front of Sparky.

“One and a half,” Sparky responds. “And they’ve sunken 2 and a half of our ships,” Sparky says, turning towards Pipp.

“Great,” Pipp sighs as she pinches the bridge of her nose.

“Any ideas?” Sparky asks.

“If Megabyte wants to cheat, then we should too,” Pipp responds.

“But how?” Sparky asks.

“Leave that to me,” Pipp says before walking to the edge of the ship. She waves her hands in the air, trying to get the little tugboat’s attention.

“You’re going to board his ship,” Sparky says, walking over to Pipp.

“That’s the idea at least,” Pipp responds back as the little boat comes towards them.

“Here, take this then,” Sparky says, handing a communicator to Pipp.

“Thanks,” Pipp responds, taking the communicator and strapping it to her hip. “Make sure not to hit us will ya,” Pipp says as she pushes the rope ladder over the edge of the boat.

“No promises,” Sparky responds as the little boat drives up next to the ship. Pipp shakes her head before climbing down the ladder. She makes it to the bottom before landing on the boat. The ladder starts going back up as she turns to the two binoms.

“We are heading to Megabyte’s fleet to spy on them,” Pipp says.

“Are you crazy!” Wyatt replies in suprise. “You are going to get us deleted,”

“We’re going to be deleted anyways if we don’t win the game,” Pipp points out.

“She has a point captain,” The other binoms respond.

“To Megabyte’s fleet!” He yells to himself before turning the steering wheel.

“Coco?” The binom asks, lifting up a cup for her.

“Not this time,” Pipp replies with a kind smile.

The ships keep shooting at the Principal Office where they think Hitch is, but in reality, he appears out of thin air far below them and flies towards the open exit port. “Hidden File Command,” Hitch says in disbelief. “Can’t believe that the user actually gave us something to use,” Hitch says as he flies towards the tunnel. Ships lay in runes on the ground around the exit. As he flies up to it, a group of binoms climb out of the downed ships before running over to him.

“The game is almost over,” one binom says to Hitch.

“All right, we need to go then,” Hitch says as the binoms throw down zip boards before climbing onto them. Some of them even doubled up. Hitch goes down the tunnel with the binoms behind him. The group flies down the tunnel till they hit the purple wall at the end. “You said the game was almost done?” Hitch asks before the game lifts off the ground. The announcer saying game over.

Standing on the other side from Hitch are Sparky and Pipp. Hitch smiles before yelling out to them. “Sparky! Pipp!”

“Dad!” Sparky yells with a big smile on his face. Hitch starts to fly towards them before being grabbed in the throat by Megabyte. Hitch claws at Megabyte’s hands as Megabyte raises Hitch up in the air. “Dad!” Sparky yells, going to run after him, but is stopped by Pipp.

“We can't help him, we need to go,” Pipp says.

“Let me go,” Sparky says, trying to get away from Pipp’s grip.

“Now where do you think you’re going? Guardian,” Megabyte asks, choking Hitch with his hand.

“Delete me,” Hitch responds.

“Now that would be too easy,” Megabite responds. “It would be no fun,” He says as an evil grin forms on his face. Megabite then winds back and throws Hitch back down the USB tunnel screaming.

“Dad!” Sparky yells as Pipp picks him up before jumping on Hitch’s zip board that had flown over to them. “No!” Sparky shouts, struggling against Pipp as she flies away.

Author's Note

I hope you liked this chapter. Much longer than last time, the way I like it.