* * *

Bob wobbled on his zipboard as he tried to avoid getting eaten by a giant blob of nulls.  Another wave came crashing towards him, and he slid easily to the side to avoid it, and continued on.  He came to a stop at a bridge that seemed unusually twisted and bent.  Bob carefully zipped along it, wondering what was the use of a bridge so warped.  Come to think of it, what was the use of having nulls wreaking havoc on Mainframe?  This virus must be a chaotic.

A large and very warped purple building was stuck on the other end of the island.  Pressing his leading foot downward, Bob spurred his zipboard forward and readied Glitch.  Things were looking bad.  Very bad.  He came to the front of the building, and touched the rubbery walls, wondering what it was made of.  "Come in," a cheery woman's voice rang out, and an opening in the wall suddenly appeared and sucked him in.  Bob bounced and slid on what seemed to be a long purple slide, until the slide ended and he was launched into the air.  He was about to ask Glitch to become a helicopter for him, but was stopped short as he found himself suspended in thin air.  Slowly he felt himself lowered to a platform in the middle of a large, almost empty purple room.  The marble platform seemed to mushroom up from the bottom of the long cylindrical room, and sitting in the middle of the platform on a twisted black throne was the virus.  She grinned at Bob, and he noticed a mirror behind her showing the game cube still in progress.  A small football-like black cat sat glaring at the virus' feet.

"Hello, Guardian.  I'm Hexadecimal.  Haven't seen you for a while.  Back already?" she cackled, and continued to grin secretively, as if she was having a good joke at his expense.  Bob wondered what in the net she was talking about.  Didn't really matter, this virus scored a ten on the crazy-o-meter, and she already knew he was a Guardian.  This meant she was going to be real trouble.  Like hell she was going to surrender quietly.

"Virus, I am Guardian 452, and I have been sent to stop the damage and chaos you have been causing.  You are under violation number 1429489, and will be—"

Hexadecimal roared with laughter, "I love it when you try to use the Big-Boy voice!  It's hilarious!"

Bob felt his face get hot.  Oh well, it was worth a try.  He gathered himself together and responded, "Whatever it is you're doing to the nulls, you need to stop.  Now."

"Oh, and ruin all my fun?" Hexadecimal crooned, "I don't think I'll be doing that, Guardian."

"If you don't do so willingly, I will have no choice left but to force you to," Bob answered sternly.

Hexadecimal's grin deepened into malevolence, and her eyes turned red.  "I'd like to see you try," she taunted nastily.

Bob raised Glitch, and saw Hexadecimal ready a ball of energy in her hand.  Oh, boy.  An energy throwing chaotic virus, just what he needed.  They posed truculently in front of each other, while Scuzzy moved behind Hex's throne.  Both were waiting for the other to strike when a voice boomed out.

***GAME OVER***

Bob held his breath and waited for the second half.

***GAME OVER***

Bob breathed a sigh of relief and watched the game cube lift up harmlessly inside of Hex's looking glass.  Hexadecimal's face snapped into one of shock.  The game was gone?  Just like that?  No damage? 

Outside the nulls began to calm in the absence of the game.  With no game in Mainframe, the nulls no longer had any of their fear of the game for Hexadecimal to manipulate.  Hexadecimal growled in rage, "NO!  They're not listening to me any more!"  She found while she could still control a large number of nulls, she could not force them all of the nulls in Mainframe to hysteria and chaos.  It was all his fault, somehow.  Hexadecimal screamed in fury, her face contorted with malice, and turned to where the Guardian was.

Bob was long gone.

Bob could hear Hexadecimal's rage all the way from the warped bridge.  Phong had e-mailed him through Glitch to come to the Principle Office right after the game had lifted.  He hoped whatever was going on over there less trouble than Hex's House of Horrors.  Bob hoped she wasn't going to take that anger out on anyone else.  Looking down, Bob saw the nulls calmly returning to Lost Angles.  It seemed Hexadecimal had lost her control over the nulls, and they were back to normal, now that the game was gone.  Well, at least for now.  Bob wondered how Hex had managed to manipulate and twist the null's fear of games into something so destructive.  Oh well, just one of those things you'll never know.

* * *

The game cube lifted from underneath him, and Megabyte felt himself falling down into the 'moat' of the Principle Office.  He was so close to having been inside the Principle Office, he could have reached out and touched it.  All because of Ms. Matrix.  That, however, was not important at the moment.  What was important, however, was the hard, hard ground rushing up to greet him.

"HEY, BOSS!"

"COMING TO GET YOU!"

For once, Megabyte was happy to see Hack and Slash's idiotic, bumbling faces.  Their hands locked around his arms, and Hack and Slash opened their jets and thrusted upwards.  When they had safely reached the ground on the perimeter wall surrounding the Principle Office, Hack and Slash set Megabyte gently down. 

"Oh, boy!  Boss, when we got separated from you, we thought we lost you for good!"

"Yeah, we were looking around for you forever!"

"It was very scary being lost."

"VERY scary!"

"We set off a lot of booby traps."

"Hey, the boss looks really mad."

"Oooh, he gets really scary when he gets mad…"

"Just like that time when we blew up the Artillery room…"

Megabyte ignored their banter.  He was furious.  He had been so close to attaining his goal, he could have been inside the Principle Office when the game lifted!  If only Ms. Matrix hadn't made him into the User's target.  He had never anticipated Ms. Matrix to pull such a bold and dangerous stunt.  Megabyte unsheathed his claws and vented some of his anger by slashing the ground.  CPU's and ABC's continued their dogfight midair.  Continuing the battle was useless, Megabyte realized.  It was time to retreat, for now.

"I won't forget this, Ms. Matrix," he hissed at the Principle Office.  "Get me a transport back to the Tor," he snapped at Hack and Slash.

"The 'Arm Express'?"

"We can carry you!"

"MY LIMO, YOU FOOLS!" Megabyte growled.  Once the limo had finally been brought around, Megabyte went in and contacted one of his commanders on the channel.  "Withdrawl immediately.  Head back to the Tor.  This has been far enough already for today."  His commander nodded and ended transmission.  Megabyte felt the scratches and grooves cut into his back when he had been sent grinding into the ground.  It would take forever to the cuts repaired and polished out.  Another wave of anger swelled, and he struggled to keep in control.  This city would be under his control sooner or later, and he was going to find it especially satisfying watching Ms. Matrix pay for defying him…

Dot felt like passing out on the Principle Office floor.  Enzo tackled her and gave her a hug and babbled ecstatically.  Binky and Algy were already calmly heading for the Principle Office door, while the other binomes finally woke up and were rounding up the virals who were scattered nearby.

"Well, back to work we go!"  Algy cried jovially, "Got to fend off those viral scum!"

"Do come and have some coco with us later, yes?"  Binky called over his shoulder, as they headed out.

Phong arrived in the room just a moment later with a look of surprise on his face.  "My children!  What are you doing here?"

"Game," Dot responded wearily, "Long story, we'll tell you later."

"DOT WON!" Enzo bubbled, "And she kept ol' Megabyte from using the game cube as a way to get around the Principle Office defenses!"  Enzo pointed to the wall of the Priciple Office.  Phong blinked and smiled at Dot.

"I am very glad you are both safe.  I am sorry that I put you in such grave danger in the first place," Phong said sincerely.

"No way, Phong!  It's not your fault!  You were trying to help us until the battle went away!  It's all that Megabreath's fault!  And—BOB?!" Enzo exclaimed.  Bob was standing in the doorway, exchanging shocked looks between Enzo and Dot.  The Guardian couldn't help noticing the change of clothes in Dot.  Wow, she looked nice…

"Oh, yes," Phong added, "This is Bob.  The guardian who helped us during the Twin City incident.  I believe you remember each other.  He came to help us with the second virus, and the null crisis.  After the game left, the nulls have quieted down, and I brought the Guardian here to help aid in fending off Megabyte.  However, it seems Megabyte has decided to retreat, just recently," Phong bantered on.

Confused looks spread around the room.  After what seemed to be a microsecond of everyone explaining everything to each other, everyone finally understood what had happened to each other while the game had landed, both inside and outside the cube.

"That was some pretty random moves, Dot," Bob laughed, scratching his head.  "Having you inside the game is definitely a plus."

"Thank you.  Now that Hexadecimal and Megabyte have been taken care of for now, what are you going to do?" Dot asked.

Bob thought for a moment, then said, "Well, working at the Port Authority was okay and all, but this seems like a nice system, and it really looks like you need someone to help keep the peace from now on.  So if it's alright with everyone, I'm going to go back to the Supercomputer to report to my authorities, then—"

"YOU'LL STAY WITH US?  HERE IN MAINFRAME?"  Enzo exclaimed, and tackled Bob promptly to the floor.

Bob nodded.  "Wow, Enzo, you've gotten really big," he groaned.  "Yeah, I'd be glad to stay here a while.  That is, if it's alright with Mainframe?" Bob asked, looking up at Phong.

"Mainframe would be very honored and gratified to have you," Phong said warmly.  Bob looked at Dot and the two exchanged smiles.  "Now then," Phong said, "let's get you on the portal room, so you can be on your way as soon as possible.  That is, if we can get young Enzo here off of you."  Enzo immediately hopped off and helped Bob up.

"No need," Bob replied, and brushed himself off.  He held up Glitch and commanded, "Glitch! Portal to the Supercomputer!"  An iridescent sphere of the Supercomputer appeared in front of them.  Enzo looked on with all the awe and envy a child could hold.  Bob waved goodbye to each of them, and smiled again at Dot.  "See you soon!" he called and stepped in the portal.  The portal disappeared as soon as he had entered.

"Bye!" Enzo waved.  He turned to Dot and said, "Dot!  That was totally alphanumeric!  Can we go in the games and fight viruses all the time?" he asked excitedly.

"NO!"

* * *

Bob looked across the desk at the Eight-ball Apartment's keeper.  Dot had said that this was a nice neighborhood to live in, so he took her advice and checked out this place.  Everything here seemed big and clean enough so far.  It looked like this was going to be the place to stay while living in Mainframe.

"Well, we have a have big one the third floor up for you, with the large garage you specifically asked for," said the binome across the desk, "But you'll be living with a room mate.  Is that a problem for you?"

"Nope," Bob answered.  He doubted that any of the people living here could be any more annoying and suffocating than the one's at the Guardian Academy.  Bob felt sorry for Enzo wanting to go there on that aspect.

"Rent is collected every second.  You pay on time.  No exceptions," the binome droned.  "Room 7.  Here you go," the binome said as he handed him the key.  Bob could have sworn that there was a look of pity in that binome's eyes.  He shrugged it off and headed to his room.

The room inside was fairly empty.  Either the person living here didn't spend a lot of time in here, or they kept very few possessions.  Bob peeked into the garage and was pleased to find it was very spacey.  That was just perfect for the new car he was saving up for.  Some guy wanted to get rid of his classic car, and he seemed pretty happy to sell it to Bob as soon as he had all the money.  A classic!  Go figure.

Bob exited the garage and felt something bump into his knees.  He looked down and saw a small, yellow TV set with arms, legs and a mouth.  It grinned up at him a chatted, "Hey there, partner!  My name's Mike the TV, and guess what?  I'm your roommate!  Isn't that great?  I was thrilled to find out that Mainframe's own Guardian was going to be bunking with ME!"

Bob blinked.

"And, OH, this is your lucky day, because I have some fabulous products to sell you!" Mike lowered his voice to a dramatic stage-whisper, "And, since you are my roommate, I'm going to let you in on some special deals.  And special they are!  Why, I'd be willing to sell you this revolutionary Bucket-O-Nothing!"  Mike raised his voice again in the excitement of TV commercial products, "And ONLY for the itsy-bitsy fee of $9999.99!"

Bob soon came to the horrible realization that the viruses and games inside Mainframe may just end up being the least of his problems.

* * *

As my first, and last, authors note: Thank you for taking the brain-burning effort to read my story!  I hope you enjoyed it!

See you soon…