4.01: The Spam Hits The Fan.

[mend_and_defend]

[after this]

Bob's halfway to Dot's Diner when his synchronizer goes off. He thought he'd have time to grab a shake before things got started; apparently, he was mistaken. With an exaggerated sigh, he wheels around and heads back toward the Principal Office.

The subsphere atop the P.O. splits open as he approaches and lands. A VidWindow pwinngs

Comments

[mend_and_defend]

The picoseconds drag by painfully slowly. Still no sign of Matrix or AndrAIa, and the portal's internal timer has almost run out.

"We're out of time," he says to Dot through the VidWindow. "Tell Phong we'll have to generate another--"

VWOOOM! The two bikes blast through the portal at full speed. Bob barely has time to recover before four more ships--Guardian transports, by the look of them--follow in their wake, nearly running him over. The portal closes with the fourth transport halfway through, and the remnants of the ship drop and crash mere pixels away.

[notascreensaver]

AndrAIa swerves back around, to check on the guardian. "Sorry Bob! We thought we'd lost them!" She yelled, hovering close to make sure he was well and truly alright.

[mend_and_defend]

The three remaining transports, however, haven't even slowed down. And they're heading for...

"They're going for the port," Bob realizes. "They're trying to open us to the 'Net!"

[command_dot_com]

Dot wastes no time, every picosecond COUNTS. "They're only attacking Kits Sector. Concentrate your fire there." She ordered a nearby CPU.

[nofileext]

Phong stares at the screen with mounting horror. It's not just the ordinary horror of war. "They... do not care!"

[command_dot_com]

"Sorry Phong do you have something for me?"

Overhead and throughout Mainframe gunturrets came from their hidden compartments and took aim firing upon the incoming ships.

[nofileext]

"It is suicide! They do nothing to defend themselves!" User preserve us from fanatics...

[command_dot_com]

"Well, that's their problem. Mouse, bring 'em down!" Save the fanatics from Dot, she's got a few anger issues and they're making very good targets.

[l33t_mouse]

"I'm on it!" Mouse says, giving Dot a thumbs up. She hits a few keys on her console.

Outside, Mainframe's automated defense cannons lock on to the Guardian ships and start firing.

[renegade_enzo]

Back outside, Matrix chases after the Guardian ships as they headed for the port. He opens fire on them, critically damaging two of them. He manages to weave past the two ships before they collided with each other.

Matrix looked back with a smug expression at the resulting explosion before turning back to resume chasing the final ship.

[mend_and_defend]

From atop the Principal Office, Bob watches in horror.

"No... this can't be happening..."

[notascreensaver]

Since he seems to be fine, she doesn't see the point in hanging around. There are infected Guardians out there, talking doesn't change that.

"Bob, we've gotta help Matrix fight the Guardians!" Her voice is urgent, after all, Matrix can't have all the risk fun.

[mend_and_defend]

"Guardians??" Bob is stunned. Those are Guardians making a suicide run for the port?

And the truth that Bob's been trying to avoid finally hits him smack in the face. They're fighting a supervirus, but they're also fighting sprites. And not just any sprites, but Guardians. The people he trained with. His colleagues. His friends.

He has to do battle with his former friends in order to keep his new family safe.

How in the Web is he supposed to do that?!