System Reboot (Sequel to System Failure)

Chapter 2

Ty swore. "You find the trojan, I'll hunt the worm down," he said quickly as he also dissolved into bright green codes and raced after the virus.

Even though the worm was faster than him, I didn't doubt Ty's ability to catch up. His speed and agility was above that of most Glitches (I was the exception, but I was technically part virus) and with all the viruses we have been fighting lately, he had come up with a few tricks that made up for his lack of speed.

That left me with the trojan. Yippee.

"Jason, can you give me a clue as to where that trojan is?" I asked, looking around the mainframe.

"It must be in a computer somewhere, I can't quite- wait, duck!"

Without hesitating, I all but threw myself to the ground and felt something split the air above me. I looked up to see a second hovering red globe of light and I rose to my knees and lashed my chains at it. It ducked and weaved around and I rolled out of the way as it whizzed towards me again.

"Can you stay still so that I can blow your brains out?" came a voice from the sphere.

"You guys seem to have a habit of doing that," I said, standing up. "But I like my brains where they are."

I could have sworn that the virus flashed a smile at me as it said "Find me if you can, Glitch!" and it darted away into another computer orb, my chains moving just a bit too late and hitting the orb itself, which shuddered and red coding flashed inside it.

"Careful Alesa!" Jason warned. "You're still a virus, you can damage the system- Ty, he's behind you!"

My apology died unsaid as I waited for either Ty and the worm to show up or for the trojan to burst out of the computer. I didn't need to wait long as only a minute later, I saw a green coded outline dash up to me and solidify into Ty, a new cut on his arm.

"Next time, you chase the worm," he puffed.

I grinned a little then grew serious. "Still got a trojan, it's hiding in the files."

Ty gave a little groan and rubbed the back of his head. "Adam would have been perfect here," he muttered. "He could shake viruses out of the codes by just sending a shockwave through them."

I didn't have anything to say to that, because Adam would have been perfect for this, but suddenly a flash of red darted out of a computer and across the room, smashing through one of the walls as Jason said "Whatever you guys are going to do, do it fast because the trojan is about to jump servers."

"Can you get the firewalls up in time?" Ty asked.

"I don't think so-"

"Keep the firewalls down," I blurted in, turning to Ty. "I can jump through the firewalls to chase the trojan back here, it won't be able to move faster than I can. Then you can get the jump on it."

"Be careful," Ty warned as I chased after the virus, my body dissolving into red and green codes.

Most Glitches couldn't move through the firewalls but as I was still a virus, it was a relatively simple matter to break through the thin coded film that seperated the server from the mainframe that was the step between the servers of Sparkles Tech and cyberspace. I kept my eyes narrowed on the trojan as it moved ahead, darting through the thin corridors that connected the firewalls of different servers. If it reached cyberspace, I would lose it.

I flicked my wrist and my chain wrapped around its neck, yanking it back and with a grunt, I threw it behind me. It landed heavily on the floor and rolled up, growling and drawing a dagger. I drew my chain back in and held it ready to throw, and it seemed to think better of challenging me with just a puny knife and dashed in the other direction. I ran after it and again wrapped my chain around it when it tried to branch off down a corridor, keeping it heading back to the server.

In its panic, it leapt past the firewall, back into the mainframe, and right into the path of Ty's sword.

We both watched as the virus' body fade to nothing and then finished off the job while Jason patched up the firewall, slicing through the corrupted files and codes that filled the server. When we were sure it was clear, I pressed down on my amulet and Ty did the same with his headphones and we both reappeared in the real world.

Mr Sparkles was waiting outside the door and when we gave him the all-clear, he waved for the employees to get back to work and he escorted us back down the elevator and to the doors of the building.

"Thank you again!" he called as we walked down the street.

Ty and I waved back, then Ty pulled out his phone to check the address of the next place and we were off to fight some more viruses.