Birth of a Virus
By Alex Perez
[email protected]

Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim west...
-Edgar Allen Poe


I
"What does a virus need to be to attack the Super Computer's core?
It either needs to be incredibly basic, or incredibly powerful."

Prime Guardian Turbo's gaze scanned over the large group of Guardians
and trainees.

"Ah'll give you one guess which one this virus is." He said, opening a
vid-window. Many sprites were shocked to see a virus displayed by the vid-window.
The virus was thin, jet-black, and humanoid. The group watched as the virus's
hands extended and deformed into tentacles and cut three CPU's to shreds. Turbo
closed the vid-window.

"As ah said, the virus is making its way towards the Super-Computer's core.
The CPU's have not been successful in damaging it in any visible way. Any questions?"

The group was silent, until a hand shot into the air.

"Yes, trainee 452?

A young sprite stood up. "Sir, what is the full danger of the virus's tendrils?"

"Good question. From what we've seen, the tendrils can extend from both its
arms, and can cut just about anything. But, it has only attacked objects that have come
within fourteen feet of it."

Someone near the back spoke out. "Is it just us that's going to be attacking it?"

Turbo shook his head. "No. We will be receiving reinforcements from all
Guardian posts, plus the Port Authority has closed off all net access, so we will be
receiving Guardian's from there."

Turbo opened another vid-window. "Here's what's going to happen."


II
Rorshak was nervous. Looking at his wrist, he checked his chronometer. Several
microseconds until the attack. Craning his head, he could see sprites in the front of
the line filing into the Academy's armory. Finally, he came to the front of the line.
A tall Guardian addressed him.

"Number?"

Rorshak cleared his throat. "734, trainee." He was handed an energy net gun, and
a zip board.

Rorshak walked through another door, and then gasped in awe. All of the Guardians
and the trainees were in the Guardian Academy's main hanger, which overlooked a good portion
of the Super Computer. All the sprites were in squads. Rorshak looked around for his, until
he noticed a girl waving at him. He realized that it was Lia, a trainee he had become friends
with. She was in his squad. He walked over to his squad, and got in formation next to Lia.

"You nervous?" He asked.

"I feel like I've got live nulls in my stomach."

Rorshak managed a weak smile. At least I'm not the only one nervous, he thought.
Suddenly, Turbo's loud accented voice silenced everyone.

"We all have our missions. Trainee's, you slow the virus down with the energy nets.
Guardians, you damage it with you're keytool's and energy rifles."

Rorshak saw the Prime Guardian in the front of the hanger.

"Stay in your squad. Teamwork is essential. And above all, be careful."

Turbo turned around to face the city. Several vid-windows opened up around him.

"Attack on my mark." The sprites in the vid-windows nodded, and the windows closed.
Turbo raised his hand, and spoke.

"Copeland, signal flare." Pointing his arm above the center of the city, Turbo
tapped a button on his keytool. Every sprite in the hanger watched as a small object
rose into the sky, and exploded. Rorshak did not have a chance to watch the explosion,
for Turbo had yelled, "Attack", and all the sprites were jumping on their zip-boards.

Rorshak took one last look at Lia, then got on his zip-board and concentrated on
flying. He was amazed. Hundreds of sprites were in the air, and were all heading towards
the center of the Super Computer. The battle had begun.


III
Mass chaos ensued. Rorshak could see the virus now. Seventeen bodies littered the
street around it, both binome and sprite. Before Rorshak had even realized it, his opportunity
to fire had passed. He cursed himself for not paying attention, and began watching for another
chance. Suddenly, the air filled with screams.

Rorshak watched in horror as the virus began cutting sprites from the sky. Some were
deleted instantly, others fell to their death. He could hear his squad leader yelling into a
comlink.

"The virus's tendrils can go farther than we thought!"

Rorshak shut that out of his head, and focused on firing. Out of the corner of his eye,
he noticed that Lia was still next to him, ready to fire at the virus.

"Almost there." he muttered to himself. The virus seemed to notice Rorshak's oncoming
squad, and focused its tentacles on them. Rorshak gasped. Reacting more out of instinct more
than anything, he pushed Lia aside, as a tendril cut past where she had been.

When he looked to see if Lia was OK, he saw her looking at him in horror.
Rorshak looked down to see a long black tendril cutting through his stomach.

This doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would, he thought as his vision
began to fade. Rorshak heard Lia scream his name before he slipped into darkness.


IV
Consciousness did not feel good. Rorshak gradually became aware of voices. No sight,
only darkness and voices.

"His body's pretty badly torn up."

"It can be repaired."

"Full memory deletion?"

"Yes."

Hearing voices was too painful, so Rorshak fell back into nothingness.

Later, it hurt less to exist, so he awoke again. Still nothing to see. But there were
two new voices.

"Where shall I send this one?"

A female voice, this time. "Mainframe."

"The last one was sent to Mainframe, Master."

"I know. His cunning shall make a nice contrast to her chaos."

"Have they destroyed the virus yet?"

"It's not a virus, it's some form of web creature. Strange."

"What is strange, Master?"

"Nothing. Remember, next time you see me, address me as a council member."

"Yes, Master."

The female voice got closer.

"Hmm, I know just what I'll call you."

Rorshak heard a noise, and then, there was nothing.


V
A stream of consciousness was ignited, and was set into place, as if it had been
running for hours. A virus began planning, as the readme. file he was embedded in made its
way to a system. The virus did not know where he was coming from, but he was very aware as
to where he was headed. And what his intentions were.

The End