System Reboot (Sequel to System Failure)

Chapter 4

"Thanks," I wheezed to Ty as he held out a hand to lift me up.

"No problem."

Now back on my feet, I stood back to back with Ty, chains in hand. The mainframe was in chaos around us as viruses lept from code to code, darting around and occasionally coming the wrong way of a Glitch's weapon. There were holes in the walls of the room, green code slowly spreading out of the edges but unable to stop the viruses that came leaping through on occasion. A dozen Glitches were already here, fighting off the viruses but we weren't doing much against the sheer numbers. Then again, we didn't need to hold them off indefinitely, just long enough until the firewall was fixed.

Ty and I leapt into the action without a word, Ty slashing his sword at any virus in range as I flicked my chains for the sprinting worms, entangling them and flinging them across the mainframe. The two of us worked like a well-oiled machine as we slowly moved our way through the server, sometimes fighting alongside the other Glitch pairs and other times relying only on the other.

"Ty, behind you!" Jason's voice warned.

I felt Ty duck then I heard him gasp and felt him step back suddenly into me. I spun around, expecting to see him hurt and bleeding code but he wasn't. His eyes were wide and he was staring in shock at the virus who had just tried to decapitate him and when I saw the virus, the fighting in the rest of the mainframe seemed to disappear, like I got tunnel vision. It was familiar. No, it was him.

"Adam?"

The virus smirked, the same smirk that all viruses gave and it was wrong to see it on Adam's face but there was no mistaking him. He wasn't wearing the Glitch coat anymore, just a dark short sleeved shirt and long pants, but his sunglasses sat lower on his nose, meaning that we could see his dark red code-filled eyes. He took his sword in both hands and deep red coding fizzed off it as it fused apart into two swords. His preferred fighting method.

"What's wrong? Got cold feet?" he sneered.

"What happened to you?" I barely heard Ty breathe. "Don't you recognise us?"

"Can't say I've fought you before," Adam said with a shrug. "But hey, first time for everything, right?"

He lunged towards us and I couldn't move. My feet were stuck to the ground, my legs were frozen, my arms felt like lead, everything seemed to happen in slow motion as his sword came closer and closer but I felt something harshly grab my arm and yank me aside and Ty pulled me out of the way of the blade, using his own to parry aside Adam's sword and kick him away, giving us space.

"What are you doing, we can't fight him!" I said, finally broken from my daze, pulling back on Ty's arm.

"He's a virus, Alesa," Ty said. "I know who he is, but he'll kill us if we don't fight. We can't help him if we're dead."

I saw the distress in his eyes and I gave a small nod, knowing that he felt the same way about this as me. Adam ran towards us and Ty turned to lock blades with him, giving ground as they fought, struggling to defend against the two swords. I reeled in my chain and flicked it, hooking it around one of Adam's arms and yanking it back. He stumbled a step, growling and he slashed at Ty, forcing him backwards before hooking his hand around my chain and pulling me forwards. I tripped and fell to the ground and rolled onto my back, my arm coming up to stop the downward strike that I could see coming out of the corner of my eye-

Adam's blade froze for a split second in the air, some sort of code flickering in his eye as he hesitated, looking at me. I could have sworn that I saw some sort of emotion flicker across his face, but the moment was gone as he spun to intercept Ty's attack, his arm now free of my chain and I scrambled away and up, breathing rapidly.

With an expert flick that had taken me months to get right, both of my chains whipped around Adam's upper body, pinning his arms to his side and growing tighter the more he struggled. I wrapped the ends around my hands to keep him in place.

Jason's warning voice crackled through our earpieces. "There's too many viruses, we have to shut down the mainframe. Get out of there as soon as you can."

The mainframe started to shudder and flicker, and all of the viruses froze for a second before scrambling with new energy as Glitches started to dissolve and leave. Adam struggled in my chains and slipped free as I tried to yank them tighter. He backed off, giving us a final smirk.

"See you later Glitches," he grinned before sprinting off.

Without thinking, I took off after him, ignoring Ty's shout for me to stay put and get out of the mainframe. The floor was collapsing around me but I leapt over the holes, keeping Adam in my sight as he, with dozens of other viruses, jumped out of the gaps in the mainframe's firewall and into cyberspace, disappearing from view.

Before I could follow, I felt something cold wrap around me like a claw, grabbing me as the floor dropped out from underneath and forcibly shifting me to code as it pulled me out of the mainframe and spat me out back in the real world, sprawled on my back with Ty standing nearly, arms crossed.

"That's why you get out of the mainframe before Jin gets to use the Extractor," he said harshly.

I guessed that the anger stemmed from his shock of seeing Adam, which was the same reason why I very consciously kept my mouth shut as I stood up. It had become nearly standard procedure to shut down the mainframe when the viruses were too overwhelming, as much as we hated losing the files. The Extractor was something that Jin and Jason had come up with after Adam's death, to forcibly pull Glitches out of the mainframe before they could be killed.

"We need to get back to the Glitch base and tell the others about Adam," I said once I had control over my voice.

Ty sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, no kidding. A virus."

We jogged out of the rapidly emptying room. My mind was spinning with ideas and theories and worries but at the back of it, I noticed that the strange suited man from before was gone.