By: RoeBoot

Part 5 - Grand Theft

"Here Fetch! Catch it!" Enzo threw the ball again. This time Frisket intercepted the ball and ran away. Fetch chased him. Enzo yelled, "Fetch stop! Frisket! Come back!"

Frisket's feral tendencies were in overdrive. He was keeping the ball. Fetch wasn't fast enough to catch him. Nor was he strong enough to escape the viral binome who swooped down and captured him. Fetch yelped and howled as the binome carried him away.

Enzo screamed, "Hey! Let him go!"

Frisket stopped, dropped the ball and ran back the way he came. But by now, the binome had flown up to a waiting ABC and started off toward G-Prime.

Enzo saw Pixie coming full speed on her zipboard. "Enzo! What happened?"

"They took Fetch!"

"The nerve of him!" Pixie glared toward G-Prime. "Go tell Dot what's happened. I'm going there straight away."

"But Pixie-," Enzo started to say but Pixie had already taken off. Enzo decompressed his zipboard and followed her. "Pixie! You don't know Megabyte like we do!"

"I'm a Guardian Enzo!" Pixie reminded him. "I know him enough and I know what to do! Now go to the Principal Office before-!" Several ABCs rose up out of G-Prime to either block her path or capture her as well. "Enzo! Get out of here! Quark! Particle beam!"

Pixie fired a particle beam spread across the bows of the ABCs. They swerved only for a moment as Pixie flew by them, entering G-Prime. The ABCs regrouped and pursued her. Enzo paused only a nano before heading for the Principal Office.

* * *

Phong sat behind his desk sipping a cup of B-Tree tea and listening to Bob pore out the sad story of Laser again. It seemed the more Bob spoke of the loss, the more heaviness lifted from him. The old sprite mildly reminded him, "You shouldn't have kept this matter in so long my son. Why the burden has not overwhelmed you before is remarkable. You have a very strong spirit for one so young."

"I think I got it from Pixie," Bob stared at his reflection in his cup for a moment. "She can be a stubborn format."

"And very defensive," Dot added. "I guess Bob gets that from her too."

"I didn't have my parents to raise me. Only her and Bevel. Turbo too. And the Guardians I knew growing up. I had a big family."

Dot smiled. "Pixie loves you very much."

"Yeah. I've missed her but this is where I belong. Mainframe is my home now." Bob had his old grin on his face. He chuckled a little.

"What?" Phong asked.

"Just something I realized. I've done this once before. Had a cup of tea and a long chat. Right before I came here. I found out how important I just might be to this system. Maybe to even the entire Net..."

Flashback - Super Computer

Claris brought in a teapot of fresh brewed B-Tree tea for the Guardians to share. Pixie sat behind her desk. Turbo and Bob sat opposite her. Bob made a face when he sipped the tea. "Why do I have to drink this?"

"Because it will help you feel better," Pixie breathed in the vapors. "They're are medical benefits of trying natural ways to aid in health and healing."

Turbo added, "Just drink enough of it and you'll get use to it."

Bob went back to the subject, "So what's the problem with me leaving? Mainframe is where I want to go. I think it's where I'm meant to belong. Don't you?"

Pixie put the tea cup down and asked, "Bob? Do you remember Retriever?"

"Retriever? The name sounds familiar to me."

"He was Byte's grand sire. One of Bevel's first dogs."

"Oh yeah!" Bob eyes lit up. "Laser loved to play with that dog in the park. My memories a little fragmented. It was so long ago. I was only a little sprite."

"A wee little sprite." Pixie recalled. "Think about the times in the park. Is that all you remember?"

Bob took another sip of tea. A sudden chill crept over him. He put the cup down to keep from spilling it. "There was something bad. Very bad. A virus?"

Turbo continued. "It wasn't just any file type virus. It was a worm created specifically to eliminate a target."

"You think this thing was after me?"

"We're not sure," Pixie considered. "After all this time we're still not sure. Retriever bought us the time we needed to escape."

"The dog was deleted," Bob felt a pang of guilt. Laser had never brought the loss of the animal up during their partnership.

"Retriever wasn't the only casualty," Pixie said sadly. "Ram Jet was deleted."

Bob was stunned and equally disappointed. "Why are you telling me this now? Why keep it a secret?"

"We've spent cycles trying to figure out who the target was. Whoever sent the worm, programmed it on another time line to alter our own."

"You just lost me. Can you reformat that in plan DOS."

Turbo explained. "Before he was deleted, Ram removed a revert command from the worm's neck. Someone programmed the command to send the worm to our time. The attack was meant to change the pathways of our future. Something that happened had to be changed for their benefit."

"So Ram died saving me?"

"It's only a guess Bob. I was with you," Pixie said. "I could have been the target."

"Does Bevel and Reso know?"

"Bevel does but Reso has no idea about the details of happened to her father. But Ram died a hero. He saved us both." A rare emotional surge came to Pixie during this subject line. She had to lower here eyes a moment. "You weren't the only one to lose a partner and gain a new friend Bobby. Ram was my training partner."

Pixie rubbed her hand over Quark. The Guardian knew the truth. "You were one one Laser told me about! It was you who got a keytool when you were a cadet."

"One of us is destined for a great future Bobby. The revert command couldn't give us a specific point. We only know either you or I were the target. I'm curious to find out who. Time might unravel it."

"What if it's too late by then? What if they try again?" Bob asked, then answered his own question he asked earlier. "This is why your worried about me going to Mainframe. Call me random but wouldn't I be safe in a small system like Mainframe? It will be pretty easy to keep tabs on me."

"You'll have to keep in touch," Pixie insisted.

Turbo said, "You can correspond with Pixie. Tell her your progress. She'll refer to me. Consider this your official sign on for your transfer."

"One more condition," Pixie added. "I recommend a few seconds off to rest after your mended to forget your a Guardian. You need to relax. I refer you to Esha. It's quite a lovely system."

"A vacation?" Bob protested.

"A sabbatical," she corrected. "And it's doctor's orders. I won't put your transfer through unless you agree to it."

"She's in a stubborn format," Bob said to Turbo.

"That's how she got this job," Turbo explained. "She can really push sprites around."

Pixie nodded, "Um hum. And Turbo? You put off your scheduled full compile for last minute for ten cycle already. I'll expect you tomorrow."

Bob covered his mouth to keep from laughing at the way Turbo blushed. He was going to miss Pixie very much...

* * *

"You never got to your vacation," Dot scolded with a grin.

Bob chucked. "I know. Pixie was mad at me but she didn't reprimand me either."

"Do the Guardians know yet who tried to delete you?" Phong asked.

"You mean about who the worm was after?"

Phong nodded. Dot wanted an answer to that question too. Bob reluctantly admitted, "No. And I haven't let the thought of being a target get to me. When your in a system with two active viruses and plenty of games, you've got enough to distract you."

"Only the deletion of your partner gets to you," Phong didn't intent to make it sound insignificant but Bob knew the point Phong was trying to make.

"I've actually lost two partners. Both their deletions were terrible," Bob kept his grief in check. "I've been acting basic, haven't I?"

"No," Dot said at first. Then corrected, "You had your reasons to be upset. You only made the mistake of not telling anyone what you were going through. It was better to share this with us. Even if it makes me nervous."

"You, nervous?"

"Bob. A worm tried to delete you and someone used a revert command to do it. Whether it was you or Pixie, someone tried to alter time. Using a revert command is dangerous. Someone seemed too desperate to change the past for the benefit. It sounds very selfish. Almost the kind of thing a virus would do."

"A conspiracy?" Phong wondered stroking his beard.

"Thank you for the tea Phong," Bob stood up. "I've got some thinking to do."

"Certainly my son," Phong said.

Bob and Dot walked out together.

* * *

As they walked back to Bob's room, the Guardian kept thinking about the close calls he had. He said nothing for a few microseconds, before saying, "Dot there's something I have to tell you. It's another secret. I should have told you before."

"What?"

"Remember when Megabyte used the tear generator to cause chaos all over Mainframe?"

"How could I forget. Megabyte had you racing all over Mainframe. And then you had to save me from Hexadecimal."

"But you were more worried about Enzo."

"Yes. I was so grateful he was all right."

"Enzo wasn't all right."

"What do you mean?"

"Phong showed up right after I rescued you. He said we suffered casualties."

"But...that didn't happen."

"You don't remember because Phong gave me a revert command to alter the past."

"Was it...Enzo?"

"He didn't survive."

Dot absorbed what Bob said. Bob feared a hostile reaction. She whispered. "You changed our past so Enzo would live?"

Bob nodded.

"Did I blame you? Was that the reason why you risked your existence to go back?"

"No. You didn't even want me to go. You knew it was too dangerous. But I could function with seeing that look in your eyes. I wasn't going to be a true Guardian if I didn't try to fix the past. So I went."

Dot felt overwhelmed. She threw her arms around Bob and hugged him, "Now you see? You are a hero."

Now Bob felt overwhelmed. "I didn't want to keep this from you anymore."

"You've been keeping too many secrets." She scolded him mildly. She looked ready to cry again.

"I don't know what will happen in the future. I thought it was time for you to know. Dot. I think I'm the target."

Dot looked at him with a new reason to worry. "But what would you do that would make you a target?"

"Maybe I'm going to save the entire Net from a virus," he joked.

"Or maybe it has to do with the Black Box!" Dot suddenly suggested. "You said yourself, the Inquiry could have caused your firing. Maybe someone wants you out of the way so bad...Oh this is getting random. Let's just delete that!"

"Wait. You have a point. PhAIge was the name of the Game Sprite who attacked us. Something taught that Game Sprite to prey on sprites. He might be responsible for what happened to Laser. But what if he was suppose to delete me instead?" They looked at each other a nano. "Your right. This is getting random. If someone were after me, he shouldn't have let me survive. I just can't accept Laser living the rest of his existence as a null."

"We don't have to. We can find a cure. We've already been working on it before. So many sprites got nullified in Twin City. There has to be a way to reverse it."

"Sounds like a plan," Bob smiled before he got serious again. "Dot. There's something else I've been wanting to tell you..."

"BOB!"

Enzo came charging up the hallway. Dot had to intercept the child with her own body fearing Bob would get injured. Enzo found himself sitting on top of Dot. Enzo looked up at Bob. "Pixie's gone! Megabyte swiped Fetch and now he's trying to kidnap Pixie and it's all my fault! I was playin' ball withFetchandFrisketstoletheballandnowPixieisgonnagetswipedifwedon't-!"

"Enzo! Slow down and get off your sister."

"Okay," Enzo climbed off Dot.

"Now. Did you say Megabyte has Pixie?"

"No! Fetch! Pixie went after him and Megabyte's trying to catch her too."

Bob removed his arm sling and tapped his icon, formatting to his full uniform. "Looks like I'm back online."

Dot got off the floor. "Bob. You can't go."

"I'm going and I'm going alone. Pixie needs my help."

"And you aren't up to clock speed."

"I'm not in the mode to risk anyone else this cycle. Wait here!"

Bob ran off before Dot could keep arguing. Enzo asked Dot, "Are we gonna let him go?"

"I'm only giving him a head start. And what do you mean by we?"

"I wanna help too!"

Dot sighed. "I'd better not regret this."

Read Part 6 | Back to the Changing of the Guardian