Chapter One

Web World War

Lost Angles rang with the panicked, high-pitched screams of a terrified child. Her eyes wide with fright, she dashed across the sector. She was closely followed by Hexadecimal, the virus who lived in Lost Angles. Her claws were out and her mask showed sharp teeth. She chased the child around Lost Angles, hissing and snarling. The child was trying desperately to outrun the virus, but she knew she could not go much longer.

Suddenly she stopped dead beside the big gray arch in the center of the sector. Her body pitched forward with the remainder of the speed she had been running at, colliding gently with the gray stone. The child appeared to be giving herself up, allowing Hexadecimal to shred her. As the virus descended on her, a menacing glint in her eyes, the child screamed one word:

"BASE!"

"Oh, Emidecimal!" In a split nano Hex had retracted her claws and was smirking.

Giggling, Emi flew up to the top of the arch and sat there, leaning forward on her hands. She gazed up at the dark sky, bathed in the pink glow of the new portal to the Web that was now in the center of the Mainframe sky.

Suddenly there came a message in Emi's mind, a message from Hex. Come along, Emidecimal. Megabyte will not be happy if we are late.

Aw man! But I like it up here!

Emidecimal.... There was a threatening edge to the voice. Now.

Oh, all right, I'm coming.

Below Emi Hex disappeared in a white flash. Emi shoved herself off the arch, letting herself fall, then soaring back upward in a glorious save. She flew off to Sector G Prime.

When she reached the Tor, she swooped down feet-first through the hole in the top and skidded across the floor.

Megabyte appeared unfazed by the child's antics.

"Where's Hex?" Emi asked, knowing her friend should have reached the Tor long ago.

"I do not know."

Pieces of the hardware hung in the grasp of huge mechanical arms hanging from the ceiling of the Tor. Electric flashes riddled the air as the pieces were attached. Emi watched in wonder. Megabyte had an incredible talent for building hardware. And this! The energy cannon that would close the portal was an admirable construction.

Hex had told Emi that she was going to power the hardware. "How will you power the energy cannon without losing all your energy?" Emi had asked. Hex had murmured something about transfinite powers, but Emi still wasn't quite sure she understood.

The last of the bright light died away. "Ha ha! The hardware is complete!" Megabyte cried with an evil laugh.

"Hey, wait a nano." Emi floated over to a corner of the platform the hardware stood on. "What's this?" she inquired, pointing to a trap door.

"Ah! I'm glad you asked, Emidecimal. You'll enjoy this. From that trapdoor comes a holding chamber into which the Guardian will be thrown. The chamber will then be launched into the portal before it is closed."

"And this buys us a little more time? Cool!"

"That's not the whole of it, Emidecimal. With the Guardian gone, the city will unquestionably be OURS!"

Emidecimal responded with a very unviral "Woohoo!"

"Now all we need is the software."

But when Megabyte called the Principal Office, Phong refused to download the necessary software from the Archives. In a desperate attempt to obtain the software, Bob was summoned. He finally persuaded Phong to download it.

After Bob left, a familiar white mask floated down next to Megabyte's throne. In a brilliant flash, Hex appeared.

"I trust you were listening?" Megabyte asked.

"Yes, of course. I love the way you and Bob work together!" She smiled, then her mask turned sad. "It'll be a shame to split up such a winning team."

"Hexadecimal..." Megabyte said in a warning tone. "You know the plan."

"Which one? There seem to be several." Hex cast a glance in the direction of the hardware and was surprised to see it completed. "Ooh, it's finished!" she cried, flying up to get a better look. "What a lovely toy. Where do I sit?"

***

"What-cha do-in'?"

Mouse rolled her eyes, then glanced up at Emidecimal. "Ah'm hackin' into the Web and erasin' Mainframe's location."

"You're erasing us?" Emi was shocked and confused. "But why?"

"Sugah, ah'm not erasin' the system. Ah'm erasin' the location."

"What does that do?"

"Ya won't be able to locate Mainframe from the Web after ah'm through."

"You mean..."

"Im-possible."

"Cool!" Emi left Mouse and then came over to Megabyte. "Psst!"

He turned a slightly irritated gaze to her. "Yes?"

"Check this out. Mouse told me that she's erasing Mainframe's location from the Web! No one there will ever be able to locate Mainframe again!"

An evil smile crept across Megabyte's face. Emi smiled also and nodded vigorously.

"Hex!" she called. "Fire up the hardware!"

Hex did so. Her hands glowed orange as they grasped the handles, energy flowing into the hardware.

Bob flew in on his zipboard.

"Is it time yet?" Emi whispered to Megabyte.

"Not yet. Be patient."

"That's it!" Mouse cried suddenly. "I've broken their code!"

"The hardware," Hex announced triumphantly, "is fully charged!"

"Excellent," Megabyte murmured. "Now it's my turn."

Only Emidecimal saw Megabyte flick out his claws.

"Okay, everyone!" Bob shouted. "Get ready! We're going to shut the portal!"

Suddenly Megabyte leapt at Dot. She screamed as her big gun was chopped in half.

"Not just yet, Guardian," Megabyte said as Emidecimal pinned Dot to the platform, growling.

"Gli--" Bob was cut off as Megabyte's metal hand clamped over his mouth. "Mmmph!" he protested as Megabyte removed Glitch and crumpled it effortlessly.

"Now!"

With the tap of a button the holding chamber came up from its trap door. Bob was flung into it.

"Megabyte!" he yelled through the glass. "You won't get away with this!"

Megabyte dismissed this easily with a smug "No time to talk now, Bob," then commanded to a viral binome, "Launch!"

The binome gleefully attempted to push the button but his wrist was caught by Mouse, who casually flung him aside.

Megabyte advanced on Mouse, one arm raised and ready to strike, but Mouse held up her sword and threatened "One more step and I'll sub-divide you."

She didn't notice the floating mask behind her, but Emi did. She got up, freeing Dot, and ran toward Mouse, distracting her. By the time the flash came Mouse could get out only a startled "What--?" before Hex knocked her sword out of her hand and threw a powerful punch straight into her face, causing her to fall onto the platform. Hex stepped aside, clearing the way for Megabyte as he stepped up to the controls.

He stared at Bob and suddenly got the most malevolent grin on his face. Bob's eyes went wide.

Then he pushed the button, and anyone could see he had been waiting for this moment all his life. The elimination of an enemy was a proud moment for any virus.

"NNNNNOOOOOO!" Bob screamed as the holding chamber shot from the platform and straight into the center of the portal, the impact sending ripples across the pink surface.

"BOBBB!" Dot cried in despair.

Megabyte slammed an iron fist onto the button that would shut the portal. An electric beam shot from the hardware and engulfed the portal in painfully bright light, from which everyone shielded their eyes.

Emidecimal stared up into the sky in awe and disbelief. It was over. And Bob was gone.

Glancing back at Dot, Emi saw her pick up the crumpled Glitch and hold it in her hands, gazing sadly at it. Off to the side Hex noticed this new target for destroying. Switching to her most evil, frightening mask, she slowly advanced on Dot. Dot looked up with a sad, indifferent gaze which clearly said she wouldn't mind if Hex ripped her to shreds. That would have been exactly what happened had Mouse not stepped in and blasted Hex with a stream of purple light from her ring.

Hex screamed in pain and put her hands to her face. Emi ran to her, concerned. This gave Mouse and Dot the time they needed to jump into Mouse's ship and zoom off toward the Principal Office.

"They're escaping!" Hex cried.

"Let them run," Megabyte replied. "They'll soon discover there's nowhere left to hide." He turned to a VidWindow upon which a viral binome stood at attention. "Commander!" he ordered. "Destroy the remaining spores. Then blow the CPUs out of the sky." As the VidWindow closed he turned back to Hex and Emi, whispering cruelly to no one at all, "I want total air supremacy!"

"Ooh, my turn!" Hex declared. "I'm going to recharge this thing." There was an electric hum as her hands, grasping the handles, began to glow orange. "What do you think, Emidecimal? Let's turn it around and point it at the Principal Office!" Her voice rose to a shriek and was followed by maniacal laughter. Emi grinned widely, clapping her hands in a burst of excitement.

She watched delightedly as an ABC blew up a Web spore, then caught sight of a CPU and gave chase.

"So what do we do now?" Emi asked.

"Well, we...hmm." Hex was at a loss for words.

"I know! Why don't we check in on some friends?" Emi suggested.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"The Principal Office! We can force Phong to lower the defenses and take the city for our own!"

"Precisely!" Megabyte cut in. He opened a VidWindow to the Principal Office. Hex and Emi stood behind him.

The frightened and sad faces of the sprites and binomes who had lost their Guardian gazed up at the window with wide eyes. Hex was right, their efforts in fighting the Web had been valiant, but they all knew it couldn't have been truer when Megabyte triumphantly stated, "It was all for nothing!"

Chapter Two

Too Far, Too Fast

The VidWindow closed. Hex flew up to the gun as if drawn by a magnet, and Emidecimal followed.

Silence, then Megabyte spoke. "Fire when ready."

"Ready!" Hex cried with a fiendish delight and sent a powerful blast of energy towards the Principal Office.

After several rounds of this the shield began to deplete. It was fading fast, and Emi could see the Principal Office through it. "Yeah!" she cheered, throwing her arms in the air.

"Power down, Hexadecimal," Megabyte called. "They're defenseless. The city is ours!"

"But dear brother," Hex protested, "the Principal Office is...SCREAMING OUT TO BE DESTROYED!"

"If you destroy the core," Megabyte said with strained calm, "you will bring about the destruction of the entire system and us along with it."

"Oh dear..." Hex said mockingly in a baby voice. "Never mind...it will be glorious!"

She charged the energy cannon and fired it. But just as the energy beam was about to strike, a portion of the shield wall flew up and deflected the beam.

"Oh, noooo!" Emi whined.

"No matter, Emidecimal. We will just have try it again!"

"Yes! Go for it!"

"Now for Mainframe's final curtain call..." Hex laughed diabolically and Emi's eyes got a glint in them of evil delight.

At that moment a desperate Megabyte, claws out, leapt for his sister, determined to stop her at all costs. "You will not destroy my city!" he bellowed.

"Go away!" Hex cried, blasting Megabyte with fiery energy from her hands. "It's my turn to play!"

"WARNING: INCOMING GAME."

Emi glanced up at the darkening purple sky. She flew away from the energy cannon to pinpoint the location of the Game's landing. Right on the Principal Office. Strange....

Emi's eyes drifted back to Hex, who was bringing the gun in closer. All of a sudden her eyes were drawn back to the rapidly descending Game wall, swirling with purple energy.

Just then Emi realized the Game wall was going to land on the hardware!

Emi gasped. She shouted a warning but it was too late--

The energy cannon became enveloped in a bright glow. Energy burst into the handles, and Emi froze in shock at the sound of Hex's terrified, tortured shrieking. Emi saw her friend writhing in agony, blasted back and thrown forward repeatedly, and saw her hands splay, from the force of the blow and in pain. She saw her mask change to terror and her head snap back as bolts of white light gushed from her eyes and her mouth, singing the mask around it a deadly black. And she could only stare as the blue and white electricity ran up Hex's arms and her shrieks silenced as she was enveloped in that infamous pain beyond screaming that came only with severe electrocution.

It was too much for Emi. She began screaming, screaming and screaming as she flew to her friend, afraid to touch her as the electricity surged through her body, scared nearly to fainting as the searing light continued to pour from the holes in her mask. She knew she had to get help, but before she could even think the hardware exploded in a torrent of green sparks and she was catapulted head-over-heels backwards.

She caught herself and resumed her normal position, but when she looked up both Hex and the hardware were gone. No more light, no more sizzling blue and white electricity, only empty space. "No!" she cried, rocketing down to the ground.

When she hit the ground she was only confused. She felt as if she had never been in this sector before, even though she had many times. Where was Hex? She had to find her now, before it was too late....but where to begin? And was it already too late?

Megabyte came up to her, and Emi didn't even ask how he had gotten down there. She knew she'd been standing there too long. It was only for a few moments she had been there, but it felt like hours. Her boots felt cemented to the sector terrain but she broke them free and ran off. Her mind raced faster than her feet could ever carry her, and she felt disoriented and lost.

Then she saw it!

"Megabyte! Over here!" she called frantically.

He stood beside her but said nothing. She pointed to the piece of burnt metal, then followed the trail of wreckage and broken glass until finally she came to the charred remains of the energy cannon. Lying between a large chunk of metal and the wall of a building was a figure barely recognizable. Her body was charred, twisted, and much thinner than it originally was. Two white columns of smoke poured from the eyeholes of her mask, a face contorted in eternal terror. The wire framework on the bodice of her red suit was bent and burned. Her crown was partially melted and some spikes were snapped in two. One arm draped uselessly over a sizeable energy cannon fragment that had landed in a strange position. The other lay on the ground, bent at the elbow, the hand hanging. From where Emi stood, one leg appeared to be missing, but Emi did not want to get closer and find out. She wanted to deny she knew this person, for truthfully she had never before seen the mangled figure that lay before her, but she knew who it was in its normal form.

Her throat tightened as she stepped closer and she choked down the sob she knew was there. "Hex..." she whispered. "Hexi?"

She knew full well there would be no answer, yet there still was a stinging shock when no answer came.

She knelt beside her friend and placed her hand on her charred shoulder. It was warm to the touch and Emi winced. She gently shook Hex's shoulder. "Hex? Please say something...."

No answer still.

"Hex? Hex, why won't you answer me? It's me, Emidecimal! Please! Speak!!! Please!" Emi begged, but no answer came from the mouth frozen open in surprise for what Emi knew would be forever.

Emi tried in vain to get an answer from Hex. Though she was persistent, nothing would work and she knew nothing would. She felt a compression in her chest, and a dull, empty ache in the pit of her stomach. No viral energy could fight this feeling, and a sob broke free from her closed lips. It was followed by more as she folded her arms on the metal fragment and laid her head on them. Her head was in just the right position so that Hex's hand rested against it. Emi cried harder than she had ever cried before… so hard it made her shoulders shake violently. It was a heartrending scene, the little virus crying beside the burned and twisted corpse of the older virus.

Meanwhile Megabyte had summoned viral binomes to take Hex to the Tor for treatment. The leader of them, the German scientist binome, stepped up to Megabyte. "How can ve take Hexadecimal avay? Shouldn't ve do somezing about ze girl?"

Megabyte shook his head. "No. Let her cry for now."

Chapter Three

Be Brave, Little One

Emidecimal had never felt so empty and alone in her entire life. She couldn't believe that the destroyed corpse in front of her had been Hexadecimal. Her only friend, deleted in a freak accident right before her very eyes, and there was nothing she could have done. Emi blinked and a tear ran down her cheek, crossing the paths of countless others that had come before. The one person whom to her had been a friend, protector, confidante, almost an older sister, was gone.

She became sick of seeing the same mask, and she wished it would change, partly so she could see Hex was still alive and partly because it scared her to see her friend like this. She nearly burned a hole in the mask with her eyes as she stared at it, willing it in vain to change. Loneliness, grief, and fear flooded her heart and she let out a tortured scream, then fell back onto the chunk of destroyed hardware. Her anguished sobs rent the air once again.

Megabyte knelt beside Emi and placed his hand on her shoulder.

Emidecimal was silent as her mind calmed, but her heart nearly burst with what she forced herself to hold inside. She glanced up at Hex and saw Herr Doctor, the German scientist binome, click his fingers together and say insensitively, "Put her in ze back of ze van."

"No!" Emi cried despairingly. "No! What are you doing? Leave her alone!" She lunged toward the binomes, trying to free herself of Megabyte's grasp.

The binomes looked confusedly up, but Megabyte motioned for them to continue. They loaded Hex onto a stretcher and wheeled it into an ABC.

Megabyte put his hand under Emidecimal's chin and lifted her head. "Emidecimal?"

"What?" she answered in a soft, quiet voice.

"You must come now."

Emi had no intention of obeying. "Why?"

"You must come to Silicon Tor now," he said gently. "Do you want to leave Hex all alone?"

"But isn't she...isn't she..." Emi swallowed hard, swallowing the word she would right now rather delete herself than say. She pressed her lips tightly together, then asked in a voice so low it was barely audible, "She is, isn't she?"

"I do not know, Emidecimal. This is why you must come. We must take her to the Tor to find out."

"I don't want to find out."

"Come, Emidecimal. You can not leave everything behind and deny the world. Sometimes you will have to face the truth, and this is one of those times."

Emi knew she had no other choice. She bowed her head and rose. Reluctantly she followed Megabyte but refused to ride in the limo with him. She wanted to stay with Hex. Though inwardly questioning Emidecimal's decision, Megabyte allowed Emi to stay by her friend, no matter what he thought of it.

Emi didn't seem to mind sitting beside a body burnt and mangled almost beyond recognition. It had been Hex, at least at one time, and it went without saying that at the moment Emi's mind was on Hex and Hex only. Was she going to lose her best friend, her one and only companion? This couldn't be happening to her. It just couldn't...

Her stomach turned anxiously as she stared out the window, watching the Tor nearing outside. In less than a microsecond her fate would be forever sealed.

***

Emidecimal had stayed close during all the scans, refusing to leave Hex's side, whether she was alive or dead. Herr Doctor, though his little binome heart was cold, was touched by the girl's devotion to the strange lady she had known only a little over a year, and was beginning to hope Hex would be all right, for Emidecimal's sake. Emi held the mangled hand, patted the charred shoulder, whispered comforting words she wasn't sure Hex could hear.

Herr Doctor glanced at the monitor to see the results of the scans. Upon seeing them, he closed his eyes and lowered his head. Emidecimal was not aware of the results of the scans, nor did she want to be, but someone was going to have to tell her one way or another.

When the binome approached her, Emi did not look up, but her face fell. She took in her own the hand that was reduced nearly to ash and held it against her face.

"Emidecimal," he said gravely.

She looked up and her eyes held an eerie emptiness. "No...."

"Emidecimal, Hex has not been deleted."

These words brought on a complete transformation. Emi's face lit up as if someone had placed a light bulb inside it. She burst into smiles and her eyes glowed with the pure joy radiating from her heart. She was in a state of absolute ecstasy. Her only friend would not leave her after all! "Hex...is alive?!" she cried happily.

"Yes, but--" Herr Doctor held up a hand and cut Emi off "--it is only barely zat she is. She vill have to be placed in a healing tank, and I do not know how long she vill have to stay zere."

"I will stay for however long she has to," Emi replied.

"Emidecimal, Megabyte vill not allow you to stay!"

"I don't care what he does to me. I'm not leaving Hex."

Herr Doctor sighed. "As you vish, zen."

Emi looked on as the alive but comatose Hex was put into a stasis chamber. Whether the electrocution had deleted her or not, Hex was close to ending file and Emi knew it. She could only hope that Hex would hold on long enough for the healing tank to save her.

Megabyte, meanwhile, had come in. He stared up at Hex and said, "I just thought I'd pop in and see if the doctors were taking good care of you." He then turned to Herr Doctor and inquired, "How is the patient?"

Herr Doctor clicked his fingers together and smiled evilly. "Promise is vizin acceptable parameters. Ze implants have taken and ze limiters are functioning."

"Excellent!" Megabyte cast a glance at Emidecimal to make sure she hadn't heard.

Emi was standing faithfully by the healing tank, peering into the endless depths of energy that filled it, unaware of anything else but Hex's condition. She slowly lifted her head to gaze up at the energy cage above her, blinking a few times as if trying to clear her head. But it did not work, nor did it make Hex any better.

"Now remember, I want her to have the best treatment possible. Understand? The best." Megabyte's evil laughter flooded the room.

The girl watched in a mix of worry and awe as Hex was lowered face down into the energy. Then all of a sudden she rushed up to the tank's edge, falling to her knees beside it, seeming to be trying to stop the entire operation, but as her friend's face disappeared into the swirling energy she gave an anguished, defeated wail and collapsed beside the tank. Her tears had refueled over her time of silence and they flowed once more, her body wracked with sobs at the utter despair of having to be without the one person who meant more to her than anyone else in the Net. She was so lonely she felt as if Hex had really been deleted. And yet her sobs, her cries all sounded against the terrifying background of Megabyte's laughter.

Megabyte made no move to comfort Emidecimal. Instead he turned and left the medical facility, leaving the child sobbing alone beside the healing tank, sprawled on the cold floor. Nanoseconds later, she stopped crying, and she didn't need to look up to know she was alone.

***

User-days passed, and Emidecimal never once left Hex's side. She would eat nothing, she would drink nothing. Every night bouts of insomnia plagued her, reducing her sleep to only a few User-hours a night, if she was lucky, and no sleep at all during the day.

Emi refused to eat anything offered her to try and coax her to eat or drink, mostly because all of it was as unappetizing as raw Null. Not even a hot cup of energy, which was the Net equivalent of chicken soup, would rouse her appetite.

All this weakened her considerably. It was good that the healing tank was built into the floor, for she was so weak that she could only lie or kneel beside it. If she stood at all, her legs would tremble and soon give out beneath her. She even became delusional. More than once Megabyte had caught her sitting at the tank's edge, talking to Hex as if she were out of the energy and out of her coma. Whenever the door opened Emi would look up eagerly as if Hex herself was going to walk into the room, and if Megabyte tried to talk to her she usually would not answer at all. Sometimes she did, though, but if she did her voice had a faraway sound, her eyes saw beyond him, and her speech was distracted. Once in a while she would forget and absentmindedly call him Hex.

The young halfling's condition began to worry the binomes who worked in the infirmary. When Megabyte came to the infirmary one evening Herr Doctor suggested something be done about Emidecimal.

Megabyte glanced at the child, who was sleeping next to the healing tank, murmuring something in her sleep. "Delusional. The child has gone insane with worry and grief."

"Don't mention insanity, it frightens ze vorkforce!"

Megabyte gave a dismissive "Hmm" and continued watching Emi. "I believe it is time for the next phase of the operation to start tonight. When the child is asleep we will begin."

Emidecimal was looking at a VidWindow of the city. Night had fallen over Mainframe, and virtual stars from the User's screen saver twinkled in the sky. She looked at the Sector G Prime sky, always that dingy gray, with never any stars. Glancing back at the rest of the sky, she chose a star, closed her eyes, and made a wish.

Emi closed the VidWindow and it disappeared. She stayed in her kneeling position for a while, looking up at the ceiling, pondering. She wondered where closed VidWindows went. She wondered where sprites and viruses went when they died. She hoped Hex wasn't there now. Megabyte had assured her trillions of times Hex would be all right, but she couldn't help the sneaking thought of...no. Emi concentrated on the ceiling, trying to see something else besides cold steel and unfeeling grayness. She ached all over, her stomach aching from hunger, her heart aching from sadness, all of her aching to leave the dismal Tor, an environment of insensitivity. She had the ability to leave, of course, she could walk right out and never come back if so she wished. But she remained. She could not leave Hex alone in the Tor in her condition.

With an empty sigh Emi lay down on the floor beside the energy tank. "Good night, Hex," she whispered to the face-down figure suspended in the energy by eerie mechanical arms. With that she curled up and soon fell into a deep sleep.

Suddenly a shadow fell across the sleeping body of the girl, who did not even stir.

Had she been awake, she would have screamed at the sight of the shadow's owner.

Megabyte motioned for his viral binomes to enter. They did so quietly, almost a little too quietly. The fluorescent lights in the infirmary had long since been turned off, throwing it into utter darkness kept at bay only by the bright glow of the lights in the healing tank. For the rest of the room, that light was dim but enough to see by.

"Well, what do we do now?" a binome asked.

Megabyte looked down at the sleeping form of Emidecimal. He knelt beside her and carefully gathered her into his arms. He was shocked when he did so, for Emi, not having eaten or drinken in days, had lost a few pounds and was as pale as a drained sprite. She slept peacefully, unaware of her surroundings, the first long sleep she'd had in days. She was so worried about Hex her only sleep had been short, sporadic naps.

Megabyte picked Emi up and got to his feet. "The girl is out of our way now. Remove Hexadecimal from the energy."

A binome pressed the button that would raise the energy cage. It was gradually lifted out of the energy tank.

Hex was inside. She had changed drastically, looking now like a cross between her normal form and how she had looked after the electrocution. Her body was still badly mangled, but no longer had its charred appearance. Her mask, still frozen in terror, was covered in a network of tiny little cracks. A large stellated crack marred the left side of her face.

"She needs to be partially rebuilt," Megabyte announced. "Take her away!"

The energy cage was lifted over to a table where it was laid down. Hex was removed from the cage then.

Megabyte glanced down at Emi. Her hand moved and he was afraid she had awakened. But her eyes remained closed, and she, oblivious to her surroundings, only stirred slightly, then snuggled against him. He breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"Begin!" he commanded. "And work quickly! We don't have all night!"

The binomes began talking amongst themselves. One pulled out a VidWindow and pointed to it. "Here's a design! This looks good!"

His comrades eagerly pounced on the window. The binomes chattered excitedly, then set to work. Megabyte watched them as they worked. The binomes took away the destroyed wirework frame from the bodice of Hex's suit and replaced it with black leather armor that looked like a cross between a strapless top and a corset. After this the binomes immediately began rebuilding the rest of her. They replaced Hex's five-point crown with a black crown of seven eerily swept-back cobra heads. They then began to construct black armored gloves and thigh-high boots.

Megabyte turned his gaze to Emidecimal. An evil smile spread across his face as he traversed the room and laid her down on a table. "Mm..." Emi murmured, stretching. "It's too early to get up, Hex."

For a nano Megabyte thought Emi would wake up, but she only curled back up and went on sleeping.

"When you finish with Hexadecimal I want Emidecimal treated as well. Replenish her energy and transform her...into this." He handed a window to a small Zero binome who looked at it and his eyes popped. "But...sir, the girl is twelve! Twelve-year-olds don't wear outfits like this!"

"They will if I want them to! Now would you like to obey or be deleted?"

"Y-yes sir..." The binome shrank timidly back.

Megabyte turned away and picked up a syringe. He filled it with a pale-colored liquid, then lifted Emi's arm and injected the liquid into it. A look of pain flashed across her face and she curled her arm up against her, then was still. Her breathing became soft, slow, and even, and tranquility filled her face.

"With one injection of this, Emidecimal, this won't hurt a bit," he murmured. Turning back to the binomes he continued, "This should hold her for the night. Now I want these two prepared by the morning!"

With enthusiastic nods and cries of "Yes, sir!" the binomes hurried to obey.

Behind Emidecimal's eyelids her crystal blue eyes saw nothing. They did not see Megabyte leave, they did not see the binomes constructing a diabolical black object, and most importantly they did not see the black control collar with the green light fastened around Hex's neck.

The child slept peacefully, unaware of what was going on as the binomes stripped off her armor and began fabricating the new outfit she would wear. She did not notice as they gently removed her precious necklace, extracted her PIDs from it, and fed them into a control collar identical to Hex's which was then fastened around her own neck. She was in the midst of a deep and dreamless sleep from which she, next morning, would wish she had never awakened.

When Emidecimal awoke next morning, she couldn't open her eyes.

She tried to move her hand, testing a hunch, but it wouldn't move. Shocked and afraid, she called to Hex, but her mouth refused to open.

*Hex!* she cried in her mind, but felt only static.

*Where am I?* she wailed inwardly, scared and confused.

Just then she heard a door slide open. Panic gripped her. Not being able to move or see had left her helpless and extremely vulnerable. Anyone could come and do anything to her.

She heard a noise and suddenly her eyes snapped open. Glancing anxiously around, she saw her condition and surroundings begin to take shape.

Emi was in a stasis field. She was standing, bound by the blue waves of static, somewhere in a corner of the medical facility, which was odd, for last she recalled she had been sleeping. She was able only to move her eyes, her neck, and her mouth.

She suddenly noticed that her shoulders were bare. Confused, she lifted her head to look at the rest of her body--and gasped in shock!

She was not wearing her armor. Instead, she was wearing a strange outfit. She couldn't decide if she liked it or not, for she didn't have that good a vantage point to look at it from.

There was a binome standing next to her.

"Excuse me," said Emi, "but could you please remove this stasis field and show me to some kind of reflective surface?"

The binome replied, "I was sent only to remove the stasis field; I will do only that."

"Surely you can step outside your function for one day!"

The binome raised his file lock, and Emi decided not to press the issue. The binome removed the stasis field.

"Where is Hex?" Emi asked. "Is she all right?"

"Oh, you needn't worry about her," Megabyte suddenly responded, and Emi turned and gasped when she saw him behind her.

"Why do I have the feeling something horrible is about to happen?" Emi murmured to no one in particular.

"Srow zie svitch!" Herr Doctor cried joyously.

Up from the healing tank rose the structure Hex had been attached to, but instead of Hex the holding device contained an encompassing, nearly opaque silver bubble, surrounded by a fiery stasis field, in which was something but Emi couldn't quite tell what. Her eyes widened and her jaw began to fall as the bubble detached itself from the metal hoop and floated over and down to the ground some distance away from the healing tank.

All of a sudden the bubble exploded in a shower of silver and there, her arms outstretched and raised, stood Hexadecimal.

"Wh....wha....what have you done to me?" she stammered weakly.

"You were all but destroyed in an explosion. We had to rebuild you....with some minor modifications."

As Emi had first noticed, Hex was not her same old self, at least not in appearance. She wore a tight, shiny black leather something that looked like a strapless leotard, black gloves, and black thigh boots. Seven swept-back cobras perched atop her head. Even her earrings had changed, small gold hoops with elongated obtuse triangles hanging from them.

The change that most horrified Emidecimal was not in Hex's clothing, but her mask. It looked as if it had shattered into a million pieces which had been glued back together, leaving nearly invisible cracks all over where the pieces had split. There was a stellated crack on the left side of her face. It stretched up to between her eyes and down to her lips. It seemed as if someone had put a chisel next to her nose and given it a single forceful whack.

Hex turned her eyes, glowing red now, on herself. She was shocked to see herself in her new outfit. "Who made me LOOK LIKE THIS?" she demanded angrily.

The binomes looked around nervously, then all pointed to one binome, who looked scared. "I--" she shrieked, then, to everyone's surprise, smiled. "--like it!"

Emi bit her lip to keep from shouting something.

"Emidecimal!" Hex cried delightedly, then her mask turned to complete surprise. "What has happened to you?"

"You shall soon see, dear sister." Megabyte snickered softly.

"Let me see something here!" Emi shoved aside the binomes, knocking them into a heap in a corner of the room. Others rushed to restrain her, but Megabyte held up a hand and they were still. Emi ran to the edge of the energy pool that had been the healing tank.

She glared into the reflective surface the healing tank's energy provided, then drew back with a cry of surprise. She was no longer wearing her armor, as she knew before, but this outfit was even stranger than she had thought! She was wearing what appeared to be a black strapless leotard. The top was edged with glittering round silver stones, in the center of which was a silver diamond turned on its side. Another line of silver stones ran down the center of the bodice, perpendicular to a line at the waist. The two lines intersected at a silver diamond identical to the one at the top. Attached to the leotard at the lower row of silver stones was a black skirt that hung to slightly below mid-thigh. A tall thin triangle was cut in the side, and silver stones edged the end of the skirt, traveling up the triangle, where a silver diamond stood, on its point this time. Beneath the skirt were tight knee-length pants, the ends of the legs edged with silver stones. Completing her outfit were black boots reaching to mid-calf. The ends of the tops bore silver stones, the soles and heels were edged in silver, and a line of silver stones ran down the center of the front.

Glancing back up at her face, she gave a yelp of surprise and reached a black-gloved hand up to touch one of the five silver spikes, each ending in a diamond-shaped black point, that were arranged in a semicircle sticking out from her head like Hex's old five-point crown.

Suddenly she saw a strange object on her neck. It was a black collar with an elongated green trapezoid in the center. Black lines crossed it lengthwise and two green triangles were on either side of it. Emi noticed Hex had one just like it.

She whirled back around. A few binomes trembled. "Don't worry," Emi snorted, "I don't have to be a genius to know who designed this."

"Charming," Megabyte commented, staring coolly at Emi, whose eyes flashed dangerously. "Well, thank you dear brother, but I must be going," Hex announced, motioning to Emidecimal to follow, then cheerfully called in a voice used only with Emidecimal, "Buh-byee!"

She turned and started to walk to the doorway when suddenly Megabyte pressed a button on his arm.

A pillar of green fire-energy leapt from the center of Hex's collar and she screamed in pain as Emi had never heard her scream before. Her hands flew to her collar, tugging at it as if she was being strangled. She fell forward and lay there on the ground, not moving, only yowling in pain.

"Excellent, Herr Doctor. Now that I have my dear sister's power at my command, nothing can stand before me!" Megabyte cried.

Emi dropped to her knees beside Hex, ignoring the rest of Megabyte's comment. Hex had an expression on her mask of utter defeat, one Emi had never seen before. "Hex!" Emi whispered in terror. Hex moaned slightly and twitched as another jolt of pain was sent into her collar.

At this Emidecimal flew into a panic. She began frantically tearing at her collar, trying to get it off before Megabyte could send pain into hers too. But her efforts were futile. Her claws would not come out at her command, she could not fly, and she could not shoot energy from her fingers.

The collar began to glow green and energy flew up from it. Emi screamed as pain coursed through her body. As she fell to the floor beside Hex, she heard Megabyte chuckle and say "Now, Emidecimal, we can't have any of that, can we?"

Emi's despairing eyes met Hex's and both asked in a single voice, "What has he done to you?" The light in Emi's collar died away and she struggled to her feet. Hex tried to follow but she, weakened by the electrocution and even further by this, could not rise.

Emi knelt beside Hex. "Come on, Hex, get up! He'll only hurt you worse if you don't!"

"I can't. I'm too weak, Emidecimal," Hex said quietly, a note of defeat in her voice.

Emi thought for a nanosecond and decided to try her only option. She looked up at Megabyte, her eyes searching his face, trying to see something beside cold hatred. "Please," she beseeched, "help her! Please....she's too weak to do anything, she could erase..."

Megabyte gave Emidecimal a disapproving look but sighed and raised two stasis chambers from the pool of energy.

Since Hex was too weak to stand, Emi draped Hex's arm around her shoulders and helped her up. She slowly made her way to the tank's edge, Hex leaning on her and moving as best she could. Emi could tell Hex had lost most of her strength, and once again she swallowed the incredible fear that was coming over her. Hex felt Emi stiffen slightly but knew that there wasn't much she could do at the moment to calm the girl down.

Emi, at Megabyte's command, turned Hex over to him. She watched as Hex's arms and legs were locked to the metal hoop and a firey stasis field was put up around the hoop to keep Hex from escaping.

"Please," Emi begged, giving Megabyte her best sad-puppy face, "please don't put me in just yet...please let me stay with her outside of my stasis chamber."

Megabyte sighed, but reluctantly complied. He left the room, as did the binomes.

Hex called Emi to her side, and Emi ran to the chamber Hex was in, falling to her knees beside it. She gazed up at her friend and in her eyes was pure terror.

"What's he doing to us?" Emi asked. "Why is he keeping us here? And what in the Net has happened to you?"

"I do not know." Hex waved her hands uselessly and frowned. "I've been in here for not even a nanosecond and I despise it already."

Emi glanced at the control panel the binomes had used to activate the holding device. "Hmm," she said, then walked over to it. She tapped a button and, like magic, the stasis field went down and Hex's hands became unlocked. "Ta da?"

Hex shook her head, but she was smiling. Emi came over to Hex. She was rubbing her aching wrists and staring suspiciously around the room. Emi took hold of the hoop's edge and swung up so that she was standing beside Hex. Emi looked up at Hex and asked, "Why has he done this? Why has he made us his slaves? He doesn't have that much against us, or even against you."

"You'd be surprised, Emidecimal."

Emi changed the angle of the conversation. "It's like he said, we're toys! Look at this, these holding devices! And he threatens your life to get you to do something!" Tears were coming to the young halfling's eyes. "What if he does kill you? Or kills me?"

"I don't think there's any danger of that....he would never kill you, and if he kills me he'll never get what he wants."

"But what if?" Emi asked in a low and scared whisper that made Hex realize just how much this terrified Emidecimal. After all, she'd spent almost all of her life as a User and had never known circumstances like this were even possible.

She watched Emidecimal, who was trying desperately to keep her viral composure. The child had learned this in her viral training, and she knew it was important. She sat there now, holding back tears to please both herself and Hex, but both knew Emi's fear was getting the better of her and she wouldn't last much longer.

Hex held Emi close as she finally broke down and burst into tears. She felt Emi trembling in her arms and heard her sob "What if he kills you? You almost erased after the electrocution."

"It's all right, Emidecimal," Hex murmured soothingly. "I'm here now, and I don't plan to go anywhere."

Emi realized with a growing dread that that wouldn't necessarily be Hex's decision.

Emi was jolted awake the next morning by searing pain from her control collar. Her eyes snapped open and she gave a plaintive wail.

Megabyte smirked. "Good morning, Emidecimal," he said with mocking cheer.

"Good morning to you, too," Emi growled sardonically.

Megabyte then turned to Hex. Emi wasn't sure if Hex had awakened yet and she sent a gentle inquiry into her mind to wake her so Megabyte wouldn't hurt her.

Hex moaned, moving her head as if trying to get comfortable in her standing position.

"Ah, dear sister. How are we feeling?" Megabyte asked patronizingly.

"With our hands," chirped Emi, waving her hands, which stuck out from the locks that held her wrists. Megabyte sent another painful jolt through her collar, and Emi listened to Hex's reply in subdued silence.

"Weak...very weak..." There was a trace of falseness in Hex's voice as she whispered "Help me...dear brother..."

"But of course." Megabyte exchanged glances with Herr Doctor, then tapped the glowing red button on his arm. Hex's voice rose to a howling shriek as pain flooded her body.

"I will tear you apart once I am free of this infernal collar!" Hex yelled, then murmured, "That thought alone keeps me well...dear brother!" She laughed cruelly.

"Mm, yes, we've heard this before." Megabyte dismissed Hex's comment easily. "Herr Doctor, it is time."

"Hexadecimal and Emidecimal are repaired, fully charged, and totally under your control."

"We'll see about that!" Emi shot back insolently.

"So, finally I have the power to crush all who stand against me!" Megabyte gloated.

"Well, if you wanted us to help, all you had to do was ask nicely!" Emi frowned.

"Emidecimal!" Megabyte sent a shock of pain into Emi's collar. "That is quite enough! Herr Doctor, prepare transportation for the stasis chambers. It is time to put my new...toys to use!" Hex looked miserable as the machine the stasis chambers were attached to kicked into life, and Emi didn't blame her. She shot an apprehensive glance upward and saw only glaring white light, then felt the sickening lurch as she and Hex began to rise.

Upward they climbed, ascending into another state of being, surrounded by white light and Hex's defiant laughter.

"I have a plan," Emi said suddenly.

"Don't say that out loud here!" hissed Hex.

"Enh, it's okay. The ABC walls are nearly soundproof."

"Hm...continue."

"Well, my keytool is missing and if I got free of my stasis chamber I might be able to get it back."

"Megabyte would stop you. He can control the collar from anywhere."

"Not if I used my powers to cut it!"

"That's impossible."

"Why?"

"Megabyte commands your power now, but after your collar is removed, your powers will not be useable for a while. Your User metabolism, traditionally taking a while to heal, fights your viral metabolism, which adapts immediately. This results in your powers being off-line."

"Whaaat?"

"Your User half fights your viral half and disables your powers."

"Well, my plan could still work," Emi said hopefully, "if I used my powers with the collar on to cut the collar, or you did...."

"True..."

Emi was about to reply when the ABC she was attached to began to rise, as did Hex's. They pulled up out of the Tor, providing them with a full panoramic view of the city below.

Emi grimaced at the sight, for as the Game below lifted, there stood her two least favorite Mainframers, Enzo and Megabyte. The ABC's mechanical hum silenced in time for Emi to hear Megabyte say "Now that I command Hexadecimal and Emidecimal's powers, none can stand against me!"

Enzo gaped. "But I thought you had a crush on Emi! And you did that...to your own sister?"

"Yes, yes, yes....yes, rather good isn't it?"

"You're sick, Megabyte! I won't rest until I've stopped you!"

"I believe that's an idle threat." He put out his claws, his eyes blazing as he growled, "It ends now!"

All of a sudden a ship flew by, dropping a row of what looked like overgrown green Christmas light bulbs between Enzo and Megabyte. Emi, recognizing the symbol on the tail of the ship, whispered in surprise, "Mouse!"

Megabyte stared around, looking at Mouse, looking at the strange devices, and could say only, in a tone both confused and angry, "Whaaaat?"

Glitch beeped and Enzo glanced down to see Dot's face.

"Senders in place," she reported. "Firewall ready. Awaiting your command...Guardian."

"Glitch--" Enzo paused "--uh, firewall!"

The Principal Office shields went down, and the only sound heard was the incessant beeping of the strange devices. For a nano nothing happened. Then the green bulbs turned solid red and became tubes that rose up a few feet.

All of a sudden fire spurted skyward from the tubes in a brilliant display. The flames soared into the air, rising higher then even the Tor. Emi watched, awestruck, gaping, as each bulb emitted a burst of flame, all flaring up in rapid succession so that flame shot along the entire row in a fantastic series of fiery eruptions.

Hex seemed to take this in stride, but Emi gazed in wonder at the fire surrounding the sector and whispered "A firewall!"

The yellow and orange flames disappeared for a split second as the sector became encased in a solid wall of fire. Its blaze echoed in Emidecimal's eyes, the gleaming reflection illuminating the undying flare deep in her eyes that was her defiant, invincible spirit.

Hex's laughter rose into the air, a sound of diabolical delight. "Oh, isn't this rich!" she exclaimed, and Emi nodded assent. "Aren't we a pair?"

She turned her gaze of joyous hate on the sector below, focusing especially on Megabyte. "Now," she sneered, "it is the jailer who is jailed!"

As Hexadecimal reveled in Megabyte's misfortune, the jailer himself was far ahead of her. His metal hand clenched into a vengeful fist as his mind began working.

The ABCs rose upward and towards the firewall. Above them were the ABCs Hex and Emi were attached to, bright spotlights from other ABCs trained on them.

Emi glanced in Hex's direction and her eyes went wide. She burst out laughing, and Hex indignantly asked "What?"

"Not you. Him!" Emi gestured at Megabyte, who was riding what appeared to be a beefed-up flying motorcycle with rocket boosters on the back instead of wheels.

"Don't tell me you sold the limo."

Megabyte ignored Emidecimal's flippant remark and turned to Hex. "When you are ready, dear sister."

"Ready? Ready for what?" Hex demanded angrily. Suddenly the locks holding her hands opened. She stared at her hands, then scornfully spat out, "You expect me to help YOU?"

"Now, now, we can do this the easy way, or--" He pressed the button on his arm to activate the collar. The green energy flared up and Hex screamed as the all-too-familiar agony gripped her once more. She pulled helplessly at her collar and Emi could swear she saw flashes of a charred gray skull where the column of energy touched Hex's mask.

Hex, still clutching her collar, doubled over in pain and then froze. A soft murmur of laughter rose up from her lips, then burst into a triumphant shriek.

"I'm glad you find this amusing."

"Oh, I was just picturing what I will do to you when I am free of your little toy." Hex smirked, then snapped, "You have no idea the power you try to control! Chaos will always triumph over order! It is the way of things."

"Enough!" Megabyte barked. "Breach this firewall with your viral energies or suffer!" Hex put her hands on her hips and glared at Megabyte as he finished "Your choice."

Hex lifted her spidery black hands high above her head. They began to glow an eerie bluish-greenish-white as energy collected in them. Then, in one swift, fluid motion, Hex thrust her hands down and sent a powerful energy blast straight into the firewall.

Megabyte freed Emi's hands also. "You too, Emidecimal," he commanded, his finger poised threateningly over the button to activate Emi's collar. "Don't make me say it more than once."

From Emi's fingers shot ten bolts of electric blue-white energy. Where the energy blasts from Hex and from Emi hit the firewall, a rift opened, looking very much like a flaming yellow sunburst.

Hex looked as if the energy discharge was severely weakening her. He eyes were closed and she was tilting her head back, shaking jerkily with the force of the energy leaving her body. Emi was about to say something but Megabyte began giving orders to his troops at that moment. Her other option being pain, she was forced into silence.

"The way is clear. Take every legion and mount an all-out attack on the Principal Office. There are no shields to stop you. Take no prisoners, show no mercy. The city will be mine..." A low rumble of evil laughter concluded Megabyte's orders, and the ABCs set off.

A solid stream of ABCs flowed steadily through the rift and out towards the city, their somber gray shapes the beat to their engines' mechanical melody of death. Emi watched fearfully, her mental command to release the energy from her fingers turning subconscious as she did.

Then suddenly one of the lead ABCs exploded!

Emi shook her head hard, staring in disbelief at the fiery cloud where the ABC had been, watching it disperse. Before she could make sense of it, however, another ABC exploded, and another, and another.

Emi realized then that the Principal Office gunners were shooting at the ABCs. Their aim was incredible, for every shot hit its target. The forces began to deplete rapidly, a far cry from the attack before the Web war when the ABCs got as far as blowing up the Sub Sphere and even succeeded in stealing Core energy. But now some didn't even enter Principal Office airspace before being blown up.

"The forces are being decimated!" Emi shouted. "Do something!"

Before Megabyte could reply a stray shot flew through the rift and struck his vehicle. It rocked from side to side as he struggled to regain control of it. Hex laughed mockingly.

"Close the rift!" Megabyte demanded. "Close it!"

"Your wish is my command!" Hex replied with a smile, ceasing the flow of energy from her hands, all the while laughing with sadistic glee as what was left of the ABCs crashed into the firewall and fell in smoldering shards to the ground below.

Emi looked stunned, gaping incredulously at the utterly destroyed ABCs. Never before had Megabyte been defeated so devastatingly. Nearly all of the forces had been annihilated.

The ABCs that Emi and Hex were attached to began to descend at Megabyte's signal. Emi noticed with a flurry of excitement that Megabyte had forgotten to put the stasis fields back up.

"It's now or never!" she whispered to Hex.

Hex, without a word, reached her hands up to her face, took hold of her mask, and began to pull gently, applying enough force to remove it.

"Hex, no! NO!" Emi screamed, panicking.

Hex did not listen. Then Emi saw Hex's mask change as she pulled it away. Confused, she watched, then saw the two masks separate so that Hex had taken off one while still wearing the other. She heaved a sigh of relief.

Hex laughed, and for the first time the laugh was gentle and reassuring. "Would I really do that, Emidecimal?"

"Well, why did you take your mask off, then?"

"I was just getting to that. Since it is time to begin your plan, I want you to take this with you. Put it on when you see no escape from danger and it will protect you. However, it will also show you frightening scenes from your future. Remember this, Emidecimal. No matter how scared you are you are not to take the mask off, for you will lose its protection and never be able to reactivate it. Not only will you lose its protection, but the scenes will haunt you forever. Yet they will be totally erased from your memory if you take the mask off when you see only darkness." Hex leaned over and attached the mask to two of the silver stones encircling Emi's waist.

"By the way," Emi asked, "how did you do that?"

Hex shook her head. Without a word she put out her claws and slashed Emidecimal's collar. Then she used her firepower to destroy the locks holding Emi's feet. Emi clutched the hoop's edge to keep from falling as the ABC descended.

When they reached the ground Hex cried "Go!"

Emi scrambled down from the stasis chamber and leapt to the ground. She dashed across the sector and behind the Tor, running to a secret entrance she knew of. Megabyte was about to send his soldiers after her when Hex fired a blast of energy at him, knocking him to the ground.

"Contain her!" Megabyte ordered, pounding Hex's collar into life. As she screamed the binomes ran to her, locking her arms back up and reactivating the stasis field.

Her pulse pounded as agony filled her, but in the midst of her pain one thought fought its way to the surface.

Good luck, Emidecimal...

As the elevator rose upward, Emidecimal stared at the floors zooming past, watching for the medical facility. When she saw it, she got off and ran down the hall. Her collar flickered green, but she felt no pain.

She arrived at the medical facility and found exactly what she was looking for. In the corner lay her armor, her necklace, and her keytool, all piled in an unruly heap.

Emi picked up Blip and put it on her wrist. "Blip," she commanded, picking up her necklace, "extract."

A tiny stream of silver sparkles trickled from Emidecimal's control collar and into her necklace. When it stopped, she fastened the necklace clasp around her neck and tapped the charm twice. Silver sparkles swirled over her, leaving her wearing her armor, her other outfit tossed in the corner where her armor had been before.

She glanced at her reflection in the pool of energy, pleased to see herself once again wearing the brightly colored skintight uniform that was her viral body armor. The five-point crown was gone from her head, and the only evidence of her former outfit was the slashed control collar, which she removed from her neck and flung at the wall.

"I knew I'd find you here."

Emi spun around at the sound of Megabyte's voice. Reflexively she picked up the mask Hex had given her.

"Go ahead," she taunted, "press the button. See if I care. You can't control me anymore!"

"True, Emidecimal," Megabyte replied coolly, flicking out his claws. "Yet to control you I do not necessarily need to use a control collar."

"What makes you think you can control me at all?"

The triumphant smirk on Emidecimal's face pushed Megabyte over the edge. "I've had enough of your insolence! It ends now!" Megabyte dove at Emidecimal, claws out, intending to kill.

With barely enough time for her arm to execute the motion, Emidecimal slapped the mask onto her face. Immediately a fiery force field sprung up, knocking Megabyte back as he hit it. He contacted solidly with the wall, leaving a large dent in it, then slumped to the floor, where he did not move.

A bright light flooded Emi's eyes, then gradually dimmed to reveal the body of a girl in a breakdown chamber. Her body glowed bright white, the source of the glowing light, and she writhed in unbearable pain, silent screams of agony bursting from her lips. Emi stared at the dying child and realized she knew her. The face, turning to her, eyes pleading, imploring, was her own.

Emi felt terror strike her heart as if she had been impaled on it. But she kept the mask pressed to her face.

The next picture showed a beautiful young woman with flowing brown hair and flashing blue eyes. The silver necklace she wore read "Emidecimal."

That's me! Emi thought.

Emi watched as the scene continued. The woman had been framed in a flash of light that dimmed suddenly. Another flash revealed the woman locked in an embrace with someone Emi knew all to well. The woman, the older version of her, was kissing Megabyte and appeared to be enjoying it!

Emi nearly screamed and ripped away the mask, but, remembering Hex¹s warning, bore the sight of the hideous vision until its end.

The next picture showed the woman that was Emi again, but older now. She was wearing a long white dress with big sleeves, as least as wide at the ends as they were long. Two Guardians were holding her arms behind her as she struggled to get free, screaming something at the other two Guardians in front of her. Emi recognized them as Turbo and Enzo, and they were viciously kicking and beating someone....oh! Emi¹s stomach turned when she saw it was Hex.

With all Emi had seen of her life, she no longer had any desire to live it, and, eager to forget it all, tore the mask away when the awaited darkness came. As Hex had said, she blissfully remembered nothing, and when she stared at the mask, trying to remember, her mind drew a blank.

Taking no notice of Megabyte, she attached the mask to the blue colored strip that ran beltlike around her waist and fled the room.

A sharp banging sounded against the metal cover of a heating duct in the medical facility. Hex glanced in the direction of the noise. "Come in."

One by one the screws fell out and the panel fell over, displaying the visitor.

"Skuzzy!" Hex cried delightedly as the wotsit bounded eagerly up to her, purring. Then, without warning, she turned angry. "It's about time! Where have you BEEN?"

Skuzzy lowered his head to show Hex the picture on his screen, which displayed the firewall.

"A firewall? YOU CALL THAT AN EXCUSE?"

Skuzzy cringed slightly, then questioningly showed a picture of Emidecimal.

"I do wish I knew....Aha!" Hex snapped her fingers.

Skuzzy looked up.

"Skuzzy!" Hex commanded. "Go and fetch Emidecimal. Bring her here as soon as you find her."

Skuzzy nodded, purring, and darted back through the heating duct.

She ran for her life down the hall, the only thing on her mind a successful escape from the Tor. The walls felt as if they were closing in on her as she tore through the corridor. In the dim fluorescent light the neon green viral symbols on the walls blazed terrifyingly. Emi felt as if Megabyte were watching her from every corner of the hall. Her fear sent the methodic clank of binome feet into her ears, and at every intersection she glanced fearfully down each hallway to make sure no binomes were in pursuit of her. She had so far seen no binomes, but there was of course no guarantee that none would be waiting for her at the next intersection.

Cold shivers crawled down the length of her back. Her mind was on a different course than her feet, but both were driven by fear. It threatened to consume her entirely as she bravely ran on, which explained why she screamed so loud when the heating duct above her burst open and out bounced Skuzzy.

"Aaaaaaaaaah!"

Skuzzy growled softly and Emi lowered her voice. "What are you doing here?" she hissed.

Skuzzy bowed his head and showed Emidecimal the projector atop his head. Emidecimal blinked as a picture formed.

It was a picture of Hex in her stasis chamber, and she was saying "Skuzzy! Go and fetch Emidecimal. Bring her here as soon as you find her."

Emi looked at Skuzzy, who purred and blinked. "Okay, messenger boy, where to?"

Skuzzy bounced up and into the heating duct. He then stared down, blinking curiously at Emi.

"What?" Emi asked. "Oh, I get it. You want me to follow you."

Skuzzy nodded.

"No way. There is NO way I'm going to crawl into a heating duct. I'm way too tall to fit and I'd probably suffocate in there!"

The picture on Skuzzy's screen shifted to display Hex scolding "YOU CALL THAT AN EXCUSE?"

Emi frowned. "You sure are persuasive for someone who doesn't talk."

Sighing, she jumped up and caught hold of the edge of the hole in the heating duct. Scrabbling at the air with her purple and red boots, she managed to pull herself up into the duct. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but she could make it. She followed Skuzzy through the Tor's heating system, her hands slapping softly on the metal floor of the duct.

At last they came to an intersection. "Where to?" Emi asked. "Left? Right? Straight ahead?"

All of a sudden there was a loud bang as a large dent in the floor protruded inward. Emi instinctively backed up, staying silent so as not to blow her cover as three long golden claws stabbed through the small metal hill.

Emi watched as the claws ripped away the entire panel. She had almost scooted out of reach when a hand reached up and grabbed her wrist, pulling her down and out of the heating duct through the small opening left by the torn-away panel.

"What have we here?" Megabyte sneered at Emidecimal as she struggled to get away.

"Let me go, Tinbutt!" she yelled indignantly, swinging her free fist at Megabyte¹s face. Before she could strike, though, he caught hold of her wrist and held it immobile. Seeing this, Skuzzy dove out of the heating duct and bit Megabyte¹s ankle hard. With a bellow of rage and pain, Megabyte let Emi go for a nano as he savagely kicked Skuzzy away. He rolled helplessly through the air, head-over-antenna, and Emi couldn¹t help but look concerned as the poor little creature crashed into the wall.

"Blip," Emi cried, "pulsar ray!" but the small gun that Blip produced was taken from her.

Megabyte's hand clamped over Emi¹s mouth as she tried to call Blip back, and her eyes went wide as she felt her own weapon pressed into her back.

"A valiant effort at escaping, Emidecimal. Certainly creative."

Emi, all too aware of the gun at her back, remained silent.

"Of course all who attempt to escape me are caught at some point and justly punished as I see fit. But you, Emidecimal, are far too....exceptional to be punished. So I am giving you the extreme honor of being the first test subject in my experiment."

Emi's eyes widened even further.

"I am going to test the firewall on higher code than binomes, and also on code that is not shielded by the walls of ABCs. You, Emidecimal, have both qualities, and how splendidly you do. You will walk through the firewall rift to prove to me that higher and unshielded code may pass through as easily. Now come!"

Megabyte began to walk away, and the increasing pressure of the gun at her back goaded Emidecimal into accompanying him as they exited the Tor.

Outside, Emi saw Hex attached to a landed ABC that was taxiing towards the firewall. She cast a helpless glance at Emi, and Emi guessed she didn¹t know the reason she had been brought out there.

"Breach the firewall!" Megabyte ordered. Hex obeyed.

Emi knew this wouldn't work. She knew she would probably die, incinerated by the firewall and Hex's energy blast. Knowing Megabyte would shoot her if she attempted escape or tried to call her keytool back, she accepted her no-win fate, closing her eyes as tears welled up in them.

She felt the gun prodding her. "Go!"

Reluctant and determined all at once, Emi stepped forward, proudly holding her head high as tears streamed down her cheeks. She began to walk toward the rift, murmuring her last goodbyes as she felt the flames' heat on her face, increasing as she came closer.

She held her breath as she stepped into Hex¹s energy blast and through the rift, waiting for deletion. All of a sudden the intense heat of the firewall began to cool and Emi realized she wasn¹t dead. A smile spread over her face and she felt like laughing. She would have jumped into the air and shouted had the gun not been aimed at her, ready to fire at any moment.

Just then Hex screamed and Emi whipped around to see what was wrong. "Blip, return!" she cried, acting on instinct, but as the keytool broke free of Megabyte¹s grasp and shot back through the rift to her wrist, she realized that the rift was shrinking!

Emi charged forward, hoping she could make it before the rift closed. But it was too late. Screeching to a halt in front of the firewall, she saw the rift dissolve into the shifting orange flames, barring her out forever.

On the other side of the firewall, Hex's eyes blazed furious red as they stared daggers into the fire. Her only friend, shut away from her forever now, and all because of her brother. Anger flared up in her cold viral heart and she knew it was time for revenge, no matter what the consequence, no matter what the pain.

With an empty sigh Emidecimal flopped down onto the ground beside the firewall. She stared up at the sky with blank, unseeing eyes, weakly searching her drained mind for plans, of which she was nearly out.

Then to her came the one thing she was expecting least.

An idea.

She stood up slowly, unsure if her plan would work. "Blip," she began uncertainly, "wide field energy beam."

Pointing her keytool at the wall, she saw it emit a beam of energy that created a temporary rift in the wall that held for a nano before the energy beam automatically ceased.

"Wide field energy beam, loop function!"

This time Blip's energy beam did not stop, the loop function keeping it on constant restart. It blasted into the firewall, creating a rift that held. Through it, Emi stepped into the sector, where her eyes met with a horrifying sight.

Hex's entire body was glowing green as her collar spewed energy into the air. The collar was in a severe stage, strong enough perhaps to kill Hex if it kept up, and Hex's hideous screams of agony nearly shattered Emi's glasses. "EMIDECIMAL!" she howled, "DO SOMETHING!"

Emi saw Megabyte with his finger glued to the button activating the collar, smirking with pleasure. This sent Emidecimal into a passion of rage, and, without thinking, she turned the still going energy beam on him.

The clang of Megabyte striking an ABC and his grunt of shocked pain came as a death row pardon to Hex. The pain miraculously left her body as Megabyte's finger lost contact with the button. She sighed in utter relief, normalcy feeling like ecstasy as the pain ended.

"Cutoff!" Emi commanded sharply and the energy beam shut off.

Free of the energy's pressure that held him against the ABC, Megabyte charged after Emidecimal, snarling.

"Yeow!" Emi, seeing this, did the one thing that came to mind first. She leaped into the nearest ABC and slammed the door shut, shutting herself away from Megabyte.

Ironically, the ABC happened to be the one Hex was attached to. Hex was trying to decide if this was good or bad when all of a sudden the ABC shuddered into life and her decision was made for her as they rose into the air.

"She's absconding with that vehicle!" Megabyte bellowed. "Seize her!"

"Uh oh," Emi said. Not being able to mindspeak to Hex because of the interference the control collar caused, Emi picked up the ABC radio's microphone and spoke into it. "We're in trouble."

"Trouble?"

"Big trouble."

"How so?"

"No time to talk, we've got to get out of here!"

"Emidecimal--" Hex began, but was cut off as the ABC, without warning, shot forward at top speed.

As she stuggled to lift her head back up to its original position, Hex gradually started to regret eating what little Megabyte had tossed at her that morning.

Below, herds of viral binomes piled into ABCs. In nanos they were airborne, their radar scanning the skies for signs of Emidecimal. One blip on the screen and they locked on, racing off across the sector in hot pursuit of the two fugitive viruses.

"Wheeeeeeeee!" yelled Emi, happily zigzagging through the air orange with the dazzling firewall glow. Hex, meanwhile, did not share Emidecimal's joy.

"Emidecimal!" she screamed in desperation as the ABC somersaulted through what felt like the thousandth loop-de-loop. "Stop! I'm going to be sick!"

"Not on my flight!" came Emidecimal's response as the ABC veered into a straight course ahead. She happened to glance at the rear-view mirror and saw the squad of ABCs approaching from behind.

"Uh oh..."

"What was that?" Hex knew that the last "uh oh" had gotten her into this and was doubtful of the second bringing any good.

"I said uh oh! Can't you see the order they're in? That's attack formation!"

"YOU KNOW I DON'T LIKE ORDER!"

"Well, you do something!"

"You're driving!"

"I'm working here, I'm working!"

Hex turned her head as best she could to glance behind her...and noticed the ABCs' guns all simultaneously ready themselves for attack.

"EMIDECIMAL!"

But Emi already had her plan. "Hex," she calmly instructed, "if you feel the urge to barf, swallow it."

The ABC immediately swerved sideways, careening around the sector like a drunken 747. Its pursuers whipped around after it, turning onto their sides as they took the hairpin turn.

Then they began to fire.

Showers of bullets and missiles filled the air as if pouring from a hose aimed at Emi's ABC. Emi remained unfazed, dodging the projectiles expertly. Hex stayed rigidly motionless, for fear of being hit, and trusted Emi to guide the ABC so there was little danger of that. But as a bullet whizzed between two prongs of her crown she, with a gasp, began to doubt Emi.

The ABC suddenly stopped, then rocketed downward. When Hex was sure there was only deletion at the end of the drop the tank pulled back and then soared back up so that it was behind the ABCs. Emi readied the guns to attack and opened fire, downing several ABCs.

"Woohoo!" she cried.

Meanwhile Hex had caught sight of a sinister black vehicle following her and Emidecimal. She gasped as she recognized it. Megabyte's limo!

Suddenly a metal hand lashed out though one of the limo's open windows and gripped the roof firmly. The hand was followed by another as both then proceeded to pull their owner from the vehicle.

Megabyte stood atop his limo, oblivious to the great speeds it and Emi's ABC were traveling at. His eyes narrowed and Hex's turned terrified as they met. In any other position she wouldn't worry, but here, her arms and legs locked to the stasis chamber, she was as vulnerable as a binome lost on Level 31.

"Emidecimal!"

Megabyte was preparing to jump.

Upon seeing this, Hex said something she hadn't said in nearly forever. "Help!"

Then he jumped!

Megabyte flew through the air and landed heavily on top of the ABC. Emi blinked, glancing up curiously as she felt the ABC shake.

A satisfied smile made its way across Megabyte's face as his iron fingers wrapped around Hexadecimal's throat. There was panic in her eyes as gold claws, long and sharp and deadly, slid from the fingers of his other hand. He chuckled softly, a sound of molten evil. "Now you are mine," he murmured.

*What IS going on up there?* Emi wondered. Setting the ABC on autopilot, she climbed up through the top and onto the roof.

Hex's gaze nervously followed Megabyte's nearing claws. All the while she felt his grip on her throat tightening. This was it. Deletion was surely near.

Emi took this in and belted three words. "BLIP, PLASMA CANNON!"

Hex glanced in Emi's direction and saw the gun. She knew of Emi's intent, but seeing how close Megabyte was to her she screamed frantically, "EMIDECIMAL, DON'T SHOOT!"

Too late!

Emi fired--

The shot blasted headlong into Megabyte, the impact surprising him enough to make him let go of Hex so that he didn't take her with him when he was flung backwards off the ABC. The blast did no harm to Hex, however; she would have blinked if she could, but that was the extent of its effect on her.

Emi grinned. Hex pointed.

Turning around to see what Hex was pointing at, Emi saw the firewall growing dangerously nearer. She darted back into the ABC and pulled it to a screeching halt.

Emi tapped a button on the dashboard and the locks holding Hex's arms opened. "Open the firewall!" Emi cried.

One well-aimed energy blast into the firewall and a rift was created. Emi zoomed through, Hex holding onto the stasis chamber's edge as they went so she didn't fall.

The firewall closed behind them, leaving Megabyte locked in his own sector as his only means of escape escaped him. Hex and Emi were free!

Emi came to a less than graceful landing near the Principal Office, bumping along the ground and skidding to a stop. She clambered up to the roof of the ABC. Using her keytool, she pried and cut open the locks holding Hex's feet, freeing her completely at last.

"Well, we did it," Emi said as she and Hex climbed down from the ABC. Hearing no response from Hex, she asked, "Don't you like being free again?"

"Of course, love," Hex said dazedly, then fell over.

Dot looked up into the pale orange sky. A few wispy clouds floated by, barely noticeable. The dawn of Megaframe was inevitable without Bob, but Dot hoped she could hold it off long enough for Bob to come back and intervene. Yet her constant thought, other than Bob, was How many innocents will have to die?

"Sis?"

Dot turned to face Enzo. "What is it?"

"I think you'd better come look at this."

Her curiosity aroused, Dot followed Enzo out to the main room of the Principal Office, where Mouse, Phong, and Andraia were staring at a VidWindow.

"Dot?" Mouse looked up. "Come take a look at this and tell me what you think we should do."

Dot came up beside Mouse and looked at the window. Her eyes flew open like out-of control window shades.

The window showed a view of the area just outside the Principal Office, in the area near the firewall. There was something Dot was not in the least expecting to see.

Megabyte's two captives, one free of her collar and seemingly back to normal, the other weak and stumbling, leaning on her friend, but looking happy nonetheless. They were laughing, delirious with the joy of being free, and as Dot peered into the window she heard Emidecimal singing as the two approached the Principal Office--

"She's gone random," Dot concluded.

"Wasn't she already?" Enzo cracked.

"Mouse, we're going to have to go get them," said Dot.

"Sugah, you cain't be serious. Bring two vahruses into the Principal Office?"

"I am serious."

"But Dot, why?" asked Andraia.

"Well," Dot said with a smile, "they just escaped Megabyte, and probably aren't on very good terms with him right now. If I know Hexadecimal, she'll do all in her power to destroy Megabyte or even help us destroy him. Having been in that sector, she--"

"--can give us the information we need!" Enzo finished.

Dot nodded. "And Emidecimal too!"

"Let's go!" Overjoyed by the prospect of Megabyte's destruction, Enzo raced out of the Principal Office, followed by Andraia, Dot, Mouse, and Phong.

Emidecimal suddenly stopped walking, squinting at an approaching group of sprites. "Break out the china, we've got company."

Enzo skidded to a stop in front of Emi, his companions coming up behind him.

"Yeeesss?" Emi asked innocently, her eyes trained on the group, flashing briefly.

"You guys just came from Sector G Prime, right?"

Emi threw a glance over her shoulder at the landed getaway ABC with the stasis chamber on top. "Maybe."

Dot stepped forward. "What he's trying to say is, we really need help in stopping Megabyte and you two are the only ones who can help us. No one else in Mainframe who's not behind that firewall right now has the information you do."

Emi arched an eyebrow, then looked at Hex. "We could make Megabyte really sorry by doing this, but is it worth teaming up with good guys? I mean, this is the Guardian, you know, ENZO, and he--"

Hex cut Emi off. "We'd be glad to help."

Emi's frown met Hex's smirk. She patted Emi's shoulder to say not to worry.

"You suppose we can, uh, go in?" Emi asked, gesturing towards the Principal Office.

"Oh!" Dot suddenly remembered. "Yes. Follow me."

Emi obeyed, supporting Hex as they went. They followed Dot to the armory. Grateful for the rest, Hex sat down on a nearby missile. Emi perched next to her.

"Wait a nanosecond." Dot's warm smile plunged into a disapproving frown. "Look at you, Emidecimal! Your face is as white as Hex's!"

"Enh."

"You two don't look so good. Hex, you can barely stand!"

"If Emidecimal drove a vehicle you were attached to," Hex replied somewhat coldly, "you would have a hard time of it also."

"But it wouldn't debilitate me this much! How badly did Megabyte treat you? When did you sleep? What did you eat? Did you drink anything?"

"Dot...." Enzo groaned. He knew, as many times victim of Dot's overprotectiveness, just how bad she could be when it came to looking after the Mainframers.

"I don't know what we had to eat, I never ate it." Emi grinned. "Who would? And when you're Megabyte's slave you don't really pay all that much attention to sleeping or drinking or eating or much like that, it's just worry of what he's going to do to you next." Emi glanced at Hex, who nodded.

"That does it," Dot said firmly. "You two are quarantined to the Principal Office until you get better. And Hex, what IS that on your mask?" Dot reached a questioning hand out to touch the crack, but Hex pulled back, seeming not to want that spot touched.

"I'd rather not talk about that, Ms. Matrix," she said in a low voice.

Dot gave Hex a slightly worried look, then regained her composure. "All right. Emi and Hex stay here. Andraia, find Cecil. Mouse, you go and see if you can find something for Hex's face. Enzo, keep an eye on these two. Phong, go back up and monitor the firewalled sector as we were doing before. I'll be back soon." Dot ran off down the hall.

"What do you suppose they're doing?" Emi asked.

"I don't know."

They waited, Emi shooting glances at Enzo every so often. At last Dot came back, holding a tray, on which were two cups and a tall metal pitcher, like the kind that held coffee or cocoa in the Userworld. Mouse, Andraia, and Cecil followed, each carrying things.

Dot set the tray down and filled the two cups with hot energy. Emi's eyes lit up at the sight. Dot handed a cup to her and she drank deeply, then looked up to see Andraia bringing her food. Emi ate ravenously, this being her only food since the electrocution days ago, and though Megabyte had replenished her energy it wasn't nourishing or satisfying. But this wasn't synthetic, it was real, and Emi had never before tasted anything so good in her entire life. She glanced at Hex and saw Mouse sitting next to her, dabbing at the crack in her mask and saying "Hex, honey, this may sting a little." Emi paid it no mind, becoming tired, and as the full effects of her adventures rained upon her, she, exhausted, fell into a deep sleep.

Emi awoke to find herself lying between the starched white sheets of a bed in the Principal Office infirmary. A million questions bubbled up in her mind, and in hopes of finding the answers, she got out of the bed and wandered down the hall.

Suddenly Hex leapt into the hallway in front of her. "Going somewhere, Emidecimal?" she inquired, raising a rolling pin threateningly.

"Aieeeeee!" Emi screamed in mock terror, then burst into giggles.

Hex smirked, lowering the weapon, idly rolling it over her hand. "So, what have you been up to?"

"Well, I was in the process of trying to figure out where I was and why when I went looking for you." Emi glanced up at Hex's face and saw white tape holding a bandage over the crack in her mask. "What's processing with you?"

Hex tapped the rolling pin against her hand, accenting her statement with a diabolical thwack. "I was going to....make some cookies."

Emi raised an eyebrow. "In the Userworld cookies are made of dough, not squashed binomes. We're a boring society."

"Hex!"

Hex glanced over Emidecimal's shoulder to see Dot coming out of the infirmary and down the hall. "Ms. Matrix?"

"Hex, we're ready to try the experiment now and there's no time to waste. If left too long the particles could react differently and you know what that could mean. Come on! And put that rolling pin down! I told you not to play with that!"

Emi stared as Dot dragged Hex toward the infirmary. "Experiment? Particles? You didn't tell me about this! Hex!!!!"

"I'll explain later, Emidecimal!" Hex's voice floated back down the hallway to Emi.

Emi felt rooted to the hallway floor. A tidal wave of questions crashed mercilessly against her mind, and all she could do was stand and think, trying to sort things out.

Then from under the door came the faint gleam of gold light, and Hex screamed.

Emi ran to the infirmary, but the door was closed and she dared not open it. She stood outside, waiting patiently, doubting her decision to trust Dot. What was she doing to Hex?

Then the door opened. Mouse stood behind it. "It's all raht, sugah," she said to Emi. "Hex is all raht too. Come in."

Hex was sitting on one of the beds, murmuring delusionally. "Oh, my mask, my face, what have they done to me...?"

Emi ran to Hex and sat down next to her. She gently tapped her shoulder.

"Emidecimal?" Hex somehow knew by the touch it was Emi.

"You okay? How're you feeling?"

"For the first time....whole." Hex turned to look at Emi, taking her hand away from her face.

Emi gasped. Her friend was the same, but her face had changed so totally that Emi nearly didn't recognize her. But as she looked closer the familiarity was clear. The solid green eyes, glowing softly, the red ruby lips, even the nose without nostrils, molded into the mask. But there was change. It was like going on to middle school and coming back in the summer before high school to visit elementary school. She swallowed, tilting her head slightly and staring. The green half-oval eyes were whole ovals now, accented at the top by long black eyelashes that fluttered gently when Hex blinked. Her eyebrows were a bit thicker and had an odd sheen to them. Her face appeared a tiny bit thinner, and her mouth twitched a little, hinting at a smile.

"You've...got a face!" Emi breathed, awed.

Hex smiled, and this time it was not a jump from mask to mask but a smooth transition as her lips curved upward.

Emi laughed, and echoed the smile.

Days had passed, and Emidecimal was bored. Though she and Hex had given plenty of information to Dot, Enzo, and their crew, no attacks had taken place yet. Phong and Dot were arguing over whether it was better to attack or do a sector release, and Emi left the room to go exploring.

She walked down the hall aimlessly until she saw sunlight streaming from an open doorway. Entering, she found herself in a big room, with a large bay window directly across from her. Two tall green armchairs with a table between them sat in the center of the room. Hex was sitting on one of the chairs, gazing thoughtfully out the window.

"Fancy meeting you here." Emi grinned.

"Where else would I be?" She whipped out a tray as if from nowhere. "Biscuit?"

"Certainly, thank you." Gladly accepting, Emi sat down in the big green armchair across from Hex, who set the tray of biscuits on the table. "Want me to make some tea?" Emi offered.

"Way ahead of you." Hex smirked as she pulled out the teapot and two cups, filling each with tea. "Sugar, Emidecimal?"

"Yes please."

"Don't overdose."

"Cream for you?"

"No thank you."

After this the two sat back in their armchairs, sipping their tea.

Emi raised her cup. "Whaddya say? To us?"

Hex raised her cup also, tapping it lightly against Emidecimal's. "To us."

"Friends forever."

END