"By order of the council, and with great regret, it is my duty to assign you this mission"

"Don't fail me"

"Spread out! He can't get far!"

"Now hurry home, and don't stop for anything"

"I promise"

"Open your present"

"I love you Mommy"

"Is this the boy?"

"By order of the council"

"Your mission"

"What mission?"

"Your mission"

"Don't fail me"

"I promise"

"Where's mother?"

"Your mother has been chosen"

"When is she coming home?"

"By order of the council"

"Mouse, he looks awful! What happened to him?"

"Your mission"

"Hostile"

"Your mission"

"I promise"

"I don't trust you"

"It's OK, we won't hurt you"

"I don't trust you"

"By order"

"Is this the boy?"

"of the council"

"And will you lay down your life at my whim, and in my name?"

"Your power will prevail."

"What is your final assessment?"

"Hostile"

"Your mother has been chosen"

"When is she coming home?"

"Your power will prevail"

"Your mission"

"Is this the boy?"

"What mission?"

"Your mission in the Grid"

"Hostile"

"If you don't get out of my sight this instant and stay out of it"

"Traitor!"

"By order"

"I don't trust you"

"By order of"

"I promise"

"Fight the good fight…"

"Traitor!"

"complete your mission…"

"I don't trust you"

"farewell, child…"

"Hostile"

"and User be with you."

…………………………………………

"When is she coming home?"

The final word echoed forever.

The pale eyes shimmered as they opened. Weaker than a newborn kitten, unable to see or move, they made a wish too softly to be heard.

"I… I want to g-go home…"

"Child?"

Waking from the second code restart he'd undergone in less than an megacycle, Grid slowly became aware of the world around him. He was stretched out on a small bed, more of a cot really, in a very brightly lit room. His thoughts were a jumble, but he recognized Phong's voice and turned his head towards the source.

The sage old sprite was standing a short distance away with Dot and three others that he didn't immediately recognize. He sank his head as low into the pillow as it would go as reality washed over him. I'm never going home…

Dot smiled warmly, hugging the blue-skinned man next to her around the waist. "What a relief. We thought we might lose you, even after all Mouse went through to get you back." She turned towards the blue sprite and looked into his eyes, obviously not talking to Grid anymore at all. "I guess… nothing can go wrong this second…"

The blue man turned purple with embarrassment and cleared his throat. "Uh, I'm sure Mouse would be here herself, but she and the Surfr are out… celebrating, did they call it?"

Dot shook herself out of her daze and blushed as well. "Oh, yes! Where are my manners? Grid Run, I'd like you to meet Bob. He came back with Enzo. And these two," she gestured towards the other sprites, "call themselves Kem and Taazki. They saved your life."

Grid was still quite confused. Saved his life? Enzo was back?

The female of the two dark-haired sprites smiled and shrugged modestly at Dot's introduction. The male gave a sheepish wave, which Grid was glad to find the energy to return.

"I'm really not feeling too well," mumbled Grid. "What in the Net happened?"

Dot smiled broadly. "Come and see for yourself."

Bob gently lifted Grid from his bed and helped him out of the Principal Office. When they reached the exit, a stunning site awaited Grid. Gone was the besieged system that he had been thrust into the middle of so long ago. The sky now sparkled a brilliant blue over the colorful, flawless structures of a fully restored Mainframe. All around were people celebrating their freedom and independence; G-Prime was slowly being reconstructed, now that Megabyte was out of the picture.

Despite his confusion and inability to shake the feeling that something was wrong, Grid allowed a small smile to spread across his features. He may never see home again, but this place might not be so bad after all.

It had taken some time to explain to Grid what had happened, and even longer for him to accept that he had caused so much pain to the people of Mainframe while under Megabyte's control. Now, sitting in the Diner, well into his eleventh energy shake, he stared blankly ahead, letting it all sink in.

Enzo, for his part, was prodding Matrix, his older self, for stories about being a Guardian.

"Log off kid," snarled the renegade. "You want to know what it's like to be a Guardian? Keep studying, and wait until you're one yourself."

"Really?!" asked the young sprite, enthusiastically. "Bob! Can you make me a Guardian, like him?"

Bob looked up from the next table down, where he and Dot had been chatting. "Well… It's not that simple, Enzo. See, being a Guardian is something you have to earn-"

"But you made him one when he was my age!" whined Enzo. "It's the same thing, right?"

"No… Enzo, things were different back then, and-"

"I get it! You just don't want me to have any fun! Well I'll prove to you that I can be a Guardian! Just you watch!" He dashed out of the Diner, leaving a bewildered Bob, and a very worried sister.

Mouse's detailed descriptions to Grid about what had happened while he was Megabyte's lackey were interrupted momentarily as she shook a null off her boots.

"Blasted thangs… Principle Office has been ripe with the buggers since the restart, fer some reason. Anyways, you'll be glad to know Ah couldn't crack yer passcode, and Ah swear, Ah was only tryin' cuz we thought you were workin' fer Megabyte."

Grid smiled knowingly. "I thought you'd appreciate that little program I threw together to keep any hackers out. I have a right to privacy, you know... and I made very certain that my passcode would be the very last thing you people would guess."

Dot, who also sat in the Principal Office at the time (and was enjoying her job for once) lifted her head, and frowned. "'Threw together'? Anything that Mouse can't crack-"

"WARNING: BREAKDOWN IN PROGRESS. AVOID CONTAINMENT AREA."

There was a short pause as everyone turned towards the loudspeaker.

"What in the Net…" muttered Mouse.

"The breakdown chamber," explained Dot, gathering her organizer up and removing her glasses. "It must be malfunctioning… Come on, we'd better hurry! If it becomes unstable, we're in real trouble!"

Dot, Mouse, and Grid thundered into the dimly-lit breakdown room, and were met by Bob, Enzo, and Phong. The chamber in the center hummed with energy.

"Phong!" exclaimed Dot, coming to a halt. "We heard… did the chamber…?" she asked between breaths.

The old sage slowly raised his head to her, and shook it solemnly. "No, child. I am afraid that one of our own has taken it upon himself to make Mainframe safe from viruses."

There was a pause. "Dot… hon?" Mouse whispered softly, pointing towards the chamber. Dot squinted in the poor light. The breakdown chamber continued to hum quietly, and flicker its lights every once in a while. She turned questioningly to Bob, but it was her little brother that caught her eye. He was standing very close to Bob, with his arms drooping at his sides. His eyes never left the ground. Suddenly, it all fell into place.

Dot's mouth went dry, as she gazed back over at the chamber. Enzo… "Which one…?" was all she could manage.

Phong came quietly up behind her, and passed her a note. Her wide eyes blurred the words, but she was able to make some of it out. …and if you ever want to see Hexadecimal again, come to… A trap… Enzo had set a trap for Emidecimal. Because we… because I was treating him like a child, oh no, dear User, no!

"We are all fragile data. We may break apart in the wind at a moment's notice." Phong's familiar words drifted over to Dot, who turned to see him carrying a standard black-on-white icon. As he spoke, he tapped it three times. The design on the icon lifted slightly off its base. "We may be made from simple energy, yet we become much more." He couldn't quite keep all of the contempt out of his voice as he continued. "Perhaps next time, her energy will be put to better use than to become viral." He turned the design on its base clockwise all the way around. It clicked back into place. Then, after a short pause, he tapped it once more. The icon shimmered and vanished, as its energy was recycled, and reabsorbed into the system.

Bob, gripped Enzo gently, but firmly around the shoulder. "Come with me," he said quietly. "We need to talk."

As they exited, Mouse followed. A few seconds later, they were joined by Grid. "Wait, what happened back there? What's going on?" he asked. His voice grew more distant as the four of them continued down the hall, leaving Dot and Phong alone.

"Virus or no virus," Phong added softly, as he placed a hand on Dot's shoulder, "may this system never lose one so young again."

"Now I know I didn't hear you right!" Matrix stared at AndrAIa in near-terror. She simply shook her head at him.

"I'm serious, Matrix. The kid is an anomaly here! He needs guidance, and he needs a family!"

"But… but…" stammered the renegade ineffectively. "Let him stay with us?!"

"He's got nowhere else to go! Rumor has it Phong's about ready to turn Mainframe over to Dot permanently, so she can't raise him. Besides.. who knows him better than you?" AndrAIa smiled mischievously. "Or me, for that matter."

"AndrAIa… I don't know if you've noticed, but… I don't like kids."

"No one's asking you to be a father-"

"No, you're asking me to be a babysitter!"

"Think of it as more of a tutor," insisted AndrAIa forcefully. "I'll always be there to help, I promise, but I think this might be good for both of you." She drew closer to him and tilted her head. "Give it a chance? Lover?"

Matrix could think of a million reasons why he didn't want to be his own legal guardian, but couldn't put a single one into words, even for her. Instead, he made a more amusing observation.

"So… what would that make me and him? I refuse to be known as 'The old one'."

AndrAIa chortled. "I think you solved that problem yourself when you picked a new name. You're Matrix, and he's Enzo. Simple, huh?"

Matrix smiled. "Alright, we'll give it a try."

AndrAIa beamed. "I knew I could count on you."

As she exited their new apartment, Matrix's smile disappeared. "I'm gonna regret this," he growled to himself.

"Alright, before you can become Mainframe citizens, I'm going to need some basic info, then you have to be registered by Phong or myself," explained Dot to the two young sprites in front of her. She regarded them carefully as she spoke; Kem and Taazki… they were obviously family. Twins, she would have guessed, had Taazki not referred to Kem as her "little brother" several times. He didn't look younger by very much. The two were far older than Enzo, certainly, and probably older than Grid as well. At any rate, they had requested to stay in Mainframe for a while. How long, or for what reason, they hadn't said.

The siblings nodded quietly and awaited the questions, but Phong chose that moment to enter Dot's office.

>"Phong!" exclaimed Dot. "Everyone's probably out there right now!"

"I know that, child. I was wondering if you would like to accompany me on the podium during the meeting."

Dot was taken aback. Phong had made a system-wide announcement that all of Mainframe was to gather outside the Principal Office to discuss the so-called Daemon crisis. Dot felt honored at Phong's offer to help him preside over such a gathering.

"Of course, old friend," she answered, then, turning back to Taazki and Kem, "We'll finish this later. Find yourselves a seat outside."

"Is it just me, or does it seem as if there are no small sprites in this system?" Kem asked his sister as they made their way through the masses of binomes, looking for two adjacent, empty seats.

"I noticed that too. The only one I've seen so far is Dot's brother. After that, the youngest sprite around here would have to be him." She said, pointing towards Grid, who was sitting quietly in an otherwise empty row near the back. "Hmm… looks a bit dreary, doesn't he?"

Without missing a beat, she grabbed her brother by the arm and pulled him along with her towards Grid. Kem could manage nothing but a startled "Urk!" as he was dragged unceremoniously along.

"Those seats taken?" she called out as they approached the Web Sprite. Grid looked up in surprise, but shook his head no after a moment.

Kem winced as Taazki plunked him down right next to Grid, then sat down beside him a moment later. Taaz!! What are you doing?!

There was a brief silence before Grid spoke up. "So I hear I owe you two my life."

Another pause. Then Kem felt a sharp elbow jab him in his stomach. "Oof! Uh... think nothing of it," he choked out. He breathed a sigh of relief when Phong and Dot arrived on the podium a micro later.

"This should be a time for celebration, and rejoicing," began Phong slowly. "However, I am afraid that cannot be. When Matrix and AndrAIa returned, they brought with them some frightening news. A supervirus, Daemon, has infected the Guardian collective, and most likely seized control of much of the Supercomputer."

The crowd broke into a loud chatter, forcing Dot to bang a gavel on the podium to silence them. "Now hang on, everyone! Let us finish!"

"Thank you, child," nodded Phong. "We are presented with two possible courses of action. Both are very dangerous, but we must chose one, and execute it quickly. The first action we may choose is to contact nearby systems and rally together for an assault on Daemon herself. If we can defeat her, then we may be able to break her hold on the Guardians."

The assembled masses shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

Phong took a slow breath. "Our only other option is to fortify Mainframe once more. In this case, we must make sure that Daemon can never leave the Supercomputer and infect the Net."

A slew of hands went up in protest, and one binome leapt to his feet. "That's ridiculous! What makes you think Daemon will attack us first?"

Dot jumped to the rescue. "Because we have something that no other system has right now." She motioned towards the front row, where Matrix and Bob sat. "Them. With two Guardians still acting independently, they are her biggest threat right now. She knows it, and I bet she knows where they are."

Again, there was much chatter among the Mainframers, and Phong shook his head. "Then I suppose there will be no agreement this way."

"In which case," Dot continued, "the final decision falls to the Command.com."
/P>

Meanwhile, Dot had frozen up. Phong's casual announcement had caught her quite off- guard. When Megabyte took control of the Principal Office, and Phong along with it, Dot was the obvious choice as his successor. After all, that's what Phong had been training her for, right? But with Phong back, Dot had naturally assumed that he would resume his role as Mainframe's Command.com. Why was he treating her as if she was? Dot tried not to let her hesitation show. She stepped forward, cleared her throat, and made her decision.

"Fighting on Daemon's turf would be foolish, and we could never muster enough forces to take on the entire Guardian collective. Our best bet is to make our stand here. Gather resources from neighboring systems and secure our position. Daemon won't risk an attack on the rest of the Net while two Guardians are still at large." She took a deep breath. "There are families… civilians here. I want everyone to know that no one will be kept in Mainframe against their will. Anyone who wants to leave now is free to do so, and I don't blame anyone who does. This could turn very ugly when Daemon does attack."

No one spoke up immediately. Dot began to wonder if she'd made the right choice. She glanced over at Phong, but he looked as though his mind was sectors away. That was when Old Man Pearson leapt to his feet.

"Leave Mainframe? Pah! I never heard such rubbish all the days I've processed! I love this system because it's full of people who work together, and never abandon ye! I ask ye this, Dot, do I look like the type of Nome to break with such fine tradition?"

Ripples of approval went through the crowd and Mr. Pearson gave Dot a sly smile. "I'm not leavin', Dot. And neither, I reckon, is anyone else."

This time, the shouts of agreement grew louder, until the entirety of Mainframe's population was on its feet, and actually applauding. Dot looked down to see Bob beaming at her proudly. She blushed, and shook her head in disbelief. "Thank you, Phong," she whispered, as she turned to where Phong had been standing.

He was gone.

Dot felt waves of gratitude and fear rush through her. It was then that she realized that Phong had just handed her Mainframe.

Somewhere in the crowd sat two wide-mouthed sprites.

"Did she just say we should use Bob and Matrix as bait to bring a supervahrus here?" asked Mouse.

"Don't look now, love," uttered Ray. "Mainframe just became the Alamo…"

In a world of darkness one moment, light the next, sat Chaos.

It looked down at the creature before it. The puny entity radiated greed and corruption. It was obvious to Chaos that on its entry to the Web, it had left its mind far behind and now it was acting purely on instinct.

Chaos watched this new creature with great interest. The way it looked about for something familiar… something it could grasp, or control. Chaos laughed and decided to name this curious format "Cosmos". A fitting filename for one who seemed Chaos' exact opposite.

Suddenly, Cosmos noticed Chaos and began to move forward. Then, it did the oddest thing. It tried to infect Chaos. Cosmos was trying to harness a power so much greater than itself, and yet it could not even begin to perceive even the slightest part of that power. It seemed completely ignorant to a fundamental law of the Universe: Chaos could never be controlled. Chaos watched this with growing amusement. The creature who would harness Chaos? What a treat! What a foolish, primitive, blood-sucking treat!

The mouth of Chaos slowly opened wide to swallow Megabyte whole.

"Alphanumeric!" shouted Enzo as he burst through the apartment door, which he had opened by the simple method of slamming his suitcase against it. Matrix opened his mouth, but held himself back as the small sprite tossed the bag on the floor and dashed into the kitchen.

Matrix did his best to ignore the stifled giggle behind him, and instead shook his head.

"You know-" began AndrAIa.

"Okay, new stipulation," interrupted Matrix. "At no time will you ever use the phrase," he cleared his throat and attempted a falsetto, "'I remember when you were juuust like that.'"

Matrix sighed as there was a loud crash followed by a "Whoops!" from the kitchen. The giggling continued.

Try this sometime. Lie on the floor on your stomach. Now take a good look around you, and you'll have a fair idea of how the Net looks to a null.

One such brownish creature slid blindly though the Principal Office. No real conscious thought drove it, of course. Only the desire to find, and consume energy. Shimmering as it glided soundlessly along the floor, it attempted to drain any traces of energy it could from the slick surface. Hardly a meal fit for a king, but it would have to do for now.

It was then that the null sensed a new energy. One that had not been there before. Squealing with delight, the null made a beeline for the source of the power it could already taste.

Had the null not been completely mindless, it may have been surprised at how small the source of energy was when it finally arrived to feed. Greedily, the null took its fill. It was never enough to end its hunger, of course. The constant desire to consume would plague the null forever. But it was a fine feast.

Slithering away, it never occurred to the null to look at the object it consumed. That would be silly. It had no eyes. But if it had, it may have noticed that the object it had drained was a broken, charred piece of what once may have been a silver keepsake. Although broken, had the null been able to see, it may have been able to make out the letters 'i-m-a-l' in smooth cursive.

Modem stared up at the night sky as Nully walked up to him. She quietly asked, "Modem? What are you thinking? You look like you're pondering something."
/P>

"And what's that Modem?" replied Nully, turning to him.

Modem paused as if about to divulge a great and important truth. He took a deep breath and said, "Guardians really did abduct my sister, Nully."

Suddenly the foreboding atmosphere seemed to pop.

"Modem," said Nully, staring. "You said Web creatures abducted your sister!"

"Yes Nully," replied Modem, pacing, "but consider this- Daemon had control of the guardian collective long before we ever suspected."

"Go on," said Nully warily.

"And Daemon was the one who let the Web creature that triggered the Web World War into Mainframe - we can only conclude that she has control over Web creatures. Then there's that theory I've been compiling for a while about Guardians developing code-control devices… so you see Nully, Guardians have been using Web-creatures to abduct innocent sprites and binomes, which is what happened to my sister Ramantha."

"That's your theory?" asked Nully, raising an eyebrow.

"That's it," replied Modem solemnly. "What do you think?"

"Modem," said Nully gently. "I think you haven't been getting enough sleep."

Modem sagged. "Maybe you're right," he mumbled.

"Come on... let's go to the JAVA bar in Kits."

"I still think it sounds right," mumbled Modem as they walked off.

Kem let out an exaggerated sigh from his seat, as his sister continued to try her hand at chatting up Grid Run. The Web Sprite shifted uncomfortably as Taazki flat-out refused to run out of things to talk to him - or rather at him - about. Kem couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. How long had it been since the assembly had ended?

Taazki ignored her brother's sigh and continued to try to draw Grid out by telling their story to him. "So when Daemon took over the Guardian Collective, our Aunt… who was more like our mother since we'd lost our parents… well, since she was a Guardian … We lost her too." Taazki took a breath. "Do you have any family?"

Finally, Grid spoke. "Something like that."

The girl nodded. "We're going to stay here. We want to help Mainframe destroy Daemon, so that we can get our family back."

When is she coming home?

Grid looked as though he was going to say something for a moment, but then he seemed to forget what it was.

"Why don't we just tell him everything?" Kem asked in a weary voice.

"Oh! It speaks!" observed Taazki dryly. "This is my half-wit little brother, Kem. Kem, Grid. Grid, Kem. He's the one who's constantly providing me with a gloom 'n doom view of our little mission."

What mission?

"Oh no…"

Hostile.

Taazki snapped her head around and peered at Grid suspiciously. "Oh no what?"

Grid got to his feet. "I have to go."

"Wait!"

But Grid had already taken off, leaving Kem and Taazki alone under the evening sky.

Grid frantically removed his icon once he had gotten a safe distance away. How long had it been? Seconds? Minutes? A Megacycle? How long had he been under Megabyte's control?

The vid-window popped up. Static. Nothing but static for a few seconds, and then the gray icon appeared. There was another painful silence before a voice on the other end cautiously came through.

"Identify. Who's sending this signal?" was the order.

Grid swallowed. "Good evening…"

Again there was a pause. There were distant voices mumbling, but Grid couldn't make them out.

"User help me…" intoned the voice. "My code, boy! Where have you been?!"

"Incarcerated. Or something like that. Listen, it doesn't matter right now. All I know is that on my last transmission I may have given you an inaccurate analysis of this place. I can't classify it as any danger to us. I'm honestly sorry, but my silence was unavoidable." Grid waited for what felt like seconds for the reply.

"Listen to me," the gruff voice said quietly, "it's not that simple anymore. The council has made its decision. We need to move in on your position, and we may need to do it soon. The only thing you can do right now is high-tail it to higher ground, or meet up with us when we arrive. Once we hit, there won't be much left."

"Now, wait just a nano!" Grid began to panic. "Didn't you hear me? I'm telling you to call it off! It's not necessary!"

"And I'm telling you that you're no longer in charge of this decision… and neither am I. The council has taken this one on themselves. All I can ask you to do is get out of there, or stay quiet. Once the council makes up its mind, well… that's it." The voice let that hang a moment. "Oh, and while you're there, you can make yourself useful. You never did get those logfiles I requested, did you? We could still use them."

"But…" Grid's voice came out weak.

"You have your orders, son. Contact me only if you have tactical information for me… otherwise, don't bother. End transmission."

The vid-window imploded, and the icon dropped to the ground with an uncontested *plink*.