Cleansing Flame

"Energy is life. Without it, we cannot be. It forms us. It fills us. It is all around us. But it does not make us what we are. There are some who believe that the Net and all of its energy has existed since the beginning of time. Others insist that the Users created it all. But no matter which is true, there is one thing we know for certain. We are more than binary code and energy. We are alive."

Phong allowed his gaze to sweep across the gloomy masses. Normally, it was the Command.com's duty to perform services such as this, but Bob had pleaded with him, begged him to do this - for Dot's sake. Phong, however, would have done it at a word.

"We are all fragile data. We may break apart in the wind at a moment's notice. We may be made from simple energy, yet we become much more. And when our time here ends, we become energy once again, to begin life anew."

Phong pulled the small icon from his drawer, and held it up for all to see. From somewhere in the crowd, there came the sound of a quiet sob. The old sprite kissed the icon and then tapped three times. The design popped up from its base. He placed it down on the podium in front of him.

"Those words were first spoken long ago, by one far wiser than myself. In them, is a beautiful truth. We are more than the sum of our parts. We are made from energy." He took a slow breath. "But can energy speak? Can it think? It cannot. Therefore, how can we say that there is nothing more to us?"

"Karta was made from energy, but if that is all she was, how could she learn? How could she grow? How could she smile? Energy can do none of these things. And if I too am nothing more than energy, then… Then I could never have loved her as dearly as I did."

Phong fought to control his voice and posture. "The words never fail to ring true. What they fail to do - what they always have and always will fail to do - is bring me any measure of comfort." He gave the design one full clockwise turn and it snapped back onto the base. "Karta's journey is over. I release her energy into the Net, to lie in wait until it is once again called upon to surpass its potential, and give life to something far more than a mere fragment of code."

Phong tapped the icon. It shimmered away into a glowing light that burst out in all directions. "Sleep well, child of love," he whispered.

After a long, respectful silence, Phong spoke up again. "Karta is not the only one we mourn this night. Many of our loved ones were lost to the game earlier. But there is one difference. The child is gone. They are not. Since long ago, in the time of the Twin City, we have worked towards a single goal: The reversal of the nullification process. Slowly but surely, we are learning about the games and how nulls are created. Perhaps none of us will live to see it, but there will come a time when our people will not need to fear the games. There will come a time when that which was lost… will be found.

He took another look out at the crowd. "Does anyone have anything to add?"

"I do," came a voice.

In the front row, Bob stood up. "I just noticed something - It's zero-hundred." He dropped his voice, and said steadily "It's officially Independence Cycle."

For a long time, no one said anything. Everyone simply let Bob's words sink in. Finally, Phong raised his head.

"Happy Independence Cycle, Guardian," he said softly.

Bob bit his lip. "Happy Independence Cycle."

"Happy Independence Cycle," a binome added. Another followed suit. Soon, the silence was broken, as the system quietly celebrated their freedom in the only way they could.

That night, nearly all of Mainframe lay in a soundless sleep.

The only place in Mainframe that was not silent was the Principal Office. The moment the crowds had departed, Phong, Bob, Matrix and AndrAIa rushed inside.

"Scanners online!" ordered Matrix. "Full system sweep! Search for any alien PIDs, or viral energy signatures!"

"I'm way ahead of you." Dot appeared from behind her terminal.

No one was quite sure how to react to the Command.com's presence. No one, that is, but Phong.

"Child… You do not need to be here." Dot could not help but note that Phong didn't appear to have aged a second since the cycle he gave her command of Mainframe. Maybe he'd outlive her after all… "Perhaps it would be best if-"

"I don't have that luxury!" roared Dot. "There's nothing I'd rather do than go home, fall asleep, and never wake up again, but I can't do that!" She dropped her voice. "Something took my little girl from me…"

"Dot…" Bob began, sadly.

"And I have to find out what before it gets someone else I love!" she finished. "I don't have time to be a mother right now…"

Matrix was about to protest, but Phong raised a hand to quiet him. "Very well, child. Now, let us find this new danger."

"We need to narrow the search," Bob decided. "Dot… did Galter tell you what happened?"

Dot shook her head. "Not Galter… he went to his room when he heard and he hasn't come out… Coral told me she was attacked by a null…. She… still doesn't know yet…"

Matrix frowned. "A null? A null can't do… that…"

AndrAIa nodded. "This one can. All right. Let's run a system diagnostic on all the nulls in Mainframe."

Bob sighed. "That's a lot… Well, now it is, anyway."

They all gathered around a large, horizontal vid-window that displayed a diagram of Mainframe. Dot began the scan.

"Nothing so far," she announced. "Hang on… I'm going to limit the search to Floating Point…" A moment later, the window beeped in alarm.

"Bingo!" announced Matrix. "There's our anomaly!"

Dot's eyes narrowed. "It's a viral signature!"

AndrAIa gasped. "Is it… Daemon?"

"No…" Phong corrected. "Look carefully. All that the scanners are registering is viral energy, meaning that the null has ingested it, and is now carrying it like a poison."

Bob lowered his head. "No… Where could this energy have come from?"

Phong scratched his chin. "I am uncertain… Yet I know I have seen that signature somewhere before…"

"Hex?" Dot suggested.

Phong's eyes widened. "No… but now I do remember whose it is… or was."

"Emi?" guessed Matrix.

"But that cannot be!" insisted Phong. "All her energy would have been recycled with her icon! With her PIDs…" Phong felt his code skip a beat. Oh no…

"What is it Phong?" AndrAIa prodded.

"My fault…" muttered Phong in disbelief. "This is all my fault…"

"What is?" asked Bob.

"The necklace!" Phong wheezed in horror. "The PIDs were in her necklace! We had not yet transferred them to the icon!"

"What?" Dot demanded. "Are you saying that Emidecimal-"

"Not Emidecimal!" Phong insisted. "Emidecimal was deleted in the breakdown chamber megacycles ago! A null ingested her energy… and now, that energy has awakened from its dormancy!"

Bob wasn't looking at Phong; he was intent on the window. "We have another problem…" he whispered.

"What?" asked Dot.

Bob pointed to the blips that represented nulls in Floating Point. One by one, they slowly turned brown. "It's spreading…"

Kem sat in his living quarters in the Principal Office, listlessly handling a small .jpg of himself with his sister that had been taken only a few seconds ago. Countless times he'd studied her face, and willed it to speak to him, reassure him, or just tell him how hopeless he was. Finally, it slipped from his fingers and dropped to the floor. Gazing at his hand now, he allowed the small red sphere to form in his palm. It glowed silently. "I won't forget," he promised.

Hearing his door slide open, he quickly dissolved the command into his code. "I think knocking first would have been appropriate," he grumbled, without turning around.

"You've been in here for over half a cycle," Grid informed him.

Kem snorted. "Thanks. I hadn't been timing."

"There was something you wanted to say to me. What was it?"

Kem took a slow breath. He had imagined quite a few colorful things he would love to tell Grid, but right now, they didn't seem important. "The last time I saw her… She was crying." His clenched his fist. "What did you do to her?" he demanded suspiciously.

"Nothing!" Grid answered, a little too quickly. "I mean-"

"Why are you here, then?" Kem asked bitterly, as he lifted the .jpg from the floor.

For a moment, Kem heard nothing but silence. Finally Grid answered. "Kem, you need to talk to someone."

Kem twisted in his seat and hurled the .jpg in the direction of Grid's voice. His aim would have been dead-on had Grid not ducked out of the way just in time. The casing of the picture shattered against the wall. "I have nothing to say to you!"

"I don't remember saying anything about me, you basic half-wit!" Grid shot back. "Do I look like I care?!"

They stared at each other in silence for a while. Finally, Grid broke off and turned to the .jpg on the ground. Kneeling over, he picked it up and shook off what remained of its casing. He stood slowly, not taking his eyes off of it. "That's not what I meant to say…" he amended. "I care… but there's someone who would understand better… and someone who needs you even more right now."

Kem dropped his gaze to the floor. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do."

Kem put his face in his hands and shook his head. There was another long pause before he asked Grid the only other question needed answered. "Grid… did you love her?"

The question hung in the air for a long time. Finally, Kem looked up curiously. The site that greeted his eyes was his room… less one sprite, and one .jpg.

Dot swallowed hard. "I'm open to suggestions, people."

"Isolation," Bob nodded. "Right now, our biggest priority is to keep this from spreading to Mainframe's population. With so many nulls around all of sudden, it's bound to spread like a plague."

"If at all possible, we should isolate only the nulls that are infected, and then contain them until we find some way to disinfect them," AndrAIa added.

Dot turned to the former Command.com. "Phong?"

Phong shook his head. "We may have to use more drastic measures on the infected nulls. I am not certain such a disinfectant is currently available to us."

At that moment, the window blacked out.

Dot slammed it with her fist. "Oh no, don't go out on me again! Not now!"

Five sprites ran into the Principle Office, headed by Matrix. "Report!" he yelled as he stormed through the doors.

"Offline!" answered Specks in exasperation. "Scanners are offline again! I still have no idea what could be causing this!"

AndrAIa placed a hand on Dot's shoulder. "We need to act now. The nulls aren't going to wait for the scanners."

"Bob was right," agreed Matrix. "We need to contain the affected nulls, but without scanners, we won't know an infected null from a normal one. It looks like we'll have to deal with all of them." He shook his head. "That won't be easy."

Dot's eyes narrowed. "If anyone has any other recommendations, I want to hear them right now. We're out of time."

Phong spoke up. "If we must contain them, may I suggest luring them all into a single sector with an energy beacon, perhaps trapping them within a firewall as we did with Megabyte some time ago?"

"But if we put them all in an area that small, the viral plague will spread to all of them almost instantly!" AndrAIa pointed out.

Bob's voice drifted over from where he was leaning on the railing, his face grim. "And if we don't, more people are going to die."

Matrix slid over next to him. "Bob, are you going to be all right?"

Bob shook his head. "No," he said simply. "I'm not." He turned to face the others. "I'm going to set the energy beacon. Specks, call in as many CPUs as you can to deliver the cylinders once they're prepared."

Specks saluted and stumbled off. Bob made for the door. "Watch yourself out there," warned Dot. "I'm going to put the system on full alert, to warn everyone about the nulls."

"You do that," said Bob. "Don't worry about me. I'm going to end this. Now."

"Wait!" called Matrix. "What sector are we going to use?"

Phong supplied the answer. "It must be a relatively small, isolated sector. One in which there are many nulls in already, and one that will not require considerable evacuation procedures." He turned to Dot, as if asking her to finish his thought.

"And some place that I wouldn't mind watching burn," she added softly. "Of course, Phong, Floating Point is the only real option."

Carrying the large spherical energy beacon on his shoulder, Bob made his way towards Floating Point. There were so many variables. They'd have to hurry before the nulls began attacking other Mainframers. They also had to hope that the firewall would buy them the time they needed to disinfect the nulls. On top of it all, without scanners, they wouldn't be able to tell when they'd gotten all the nulls to Floating Point. Bob wondered what else could possibly go wrong up until the instant he blinked out of existence.

Bob's eyes adjusted slowly, but in an instant he knew he was now standing on solid ground. He glanced around, trying to make out his surroundings. It was large and dark. That narrowed it down considerably, and given his method of arrival, Bob swiftly came to the correct conclusion. The Lair…

A deranged cackle shattered the silence as Hexadecimal's white face came into focus before him. She was draped majestically across her throne and looked devilishly in his direction.

"Hex," Bob began. "I don't know what you're up to, but this isn't the time."

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" she quietly inquired.

"What?" Bob asked in confusion. It was then that he saw them. Nulls. They were crawling all over Hex's throne, and even resting upon the virus herself. Bob felt his skin crawl as he began to hear them all around him. He could almost feel one slipping across his boot.

"The darlings… the poor, precious little dears. Lost, and without a home." Hexadecimal brought an arm up over her forehead dramatically, and in a flash was suddenly standing toe to toe with the Guardian. "Remind you of anyone?" she asked

Bob couldn't remember the last time he'd encountered the reclusive virus, but he was certain that at the time, she hadn't been nearly so frightening.

"They wander aimlessly. Nothing to do, no one to talk to." She smiled a demented smile. "I talk to them, you know. Listen! If it's very quiet… sometimes I hear them answer back…"

"Hex-"

"What are you going to do to them?" demanded Hexadecimal, brining her claws up, stopping just before going right through his throat.

"They're… sick, Hex," Bob explained. "And they're very dangerous! We have to contain them for a while."

"But…" Hex stumbled backwards, then looked him directly in the eyes, and spoke in a low voice that sent a chill through Bob. "They… are… my friends…". Hexadecimal drew herself to full height. "I can't let you do it," she concluded.

Bob frowned. He didn't have time for this. "And I can't let you stop me."

Hex looked sadly at the Guardian as a fireball began to form in her palm. "Then… let us begin…"

Dot paced up and down the Command Center. "Are the cylinders in place yet?"

The phrase 'not since the last time you asked' played across Specks' lips briefly. "Almost," he replied after mentally smacking himself back to attention. "I'll let you know the moment they're set."

Dot responded with another question. "Any sign of Bob?"

"He's probably laying low," AndrAIa assured her. "If the beacon were activated, we'd be able to find him, but he can't start it up until everything is ready."

"Bob can take care of himself," Matrix agreed softly. "Let's just hope this works."

"WARNING: INCOMING GAME…"

The resigned silence was broken by Matrix's disgusted grumble. "I just love the timing of all this…"

Grid entered his own sloppily decorated chambers, still gazing at the .jpg he'd gotten from Kem. He hadn't gotten more than three steps in before his terminal began to beep wildly. Hurriedly, but with care, he slipped the picture into a sleeve pocket in his shirt.

He ran over to the screen and punched the acceptance key. A vid-window opened, revealing Phong in the center.

"Child," the old sprite began pleadingly. "I know how much you dislike the games, but we are currently in the middle of a great dilemma, and a cube is on its way."

Grid nodded with determination that surprised Phong slightly. "Enough said. I'll take care of it." His voice hardened. "In fact, you can tell Dot that from now on, I'll be joining her and the others in all the games. I'm never going to let anyone nullify in one of those things again."

"Thank you, child. I must warn you, however, that we have lost scanners once more. You will have to hurry and find the game yourself. Also, stay clear of Floating Point Park. I will explain later."

"Got it." Grid replied as the window shut. He grabbed his zipboard and hurried outside.

No sooner had his conversation with Grid ended, than Phong heard Specks' announcement. "Cylinders in place, Dot!"

"Good," Dot answered with relief. "Now it's up to… Bob!"

Everyone turned towards the front of the Command Center as the Guardian appeared on the main screen. His silver uniform was charred in several places and he was breathing heavily. "Status report!" he demanded.

Dot put a hand over her mouth. "Bob, what in the Net happened to you?"

"Nothing!" He paused. "Look… I'll explain later, Dot. Now is the firewall ready?"

"Everything's ready, Bob," Matrix said. "Get in, set the beacon and let us know once you're clear."

Bob blushed. "Uh… yeah… that might be a problem. See, the beacon kinda got tripped and…"

"He's right!" Specks confirmed. "The nulls are all moving in on his position!"

Dot shook her head. "Get to Floating Point, and lose that thing. Fast!"

Bob looked down as the nulls began to pile up, trying to reach him. "You don't have to tell me twice!"

Bob watched as the target for his payload came into view. He'd have to get very close to the ground to place it properly. Dropping as low as he dared with the nulls lining the sector, he let the bait fall from his hands.

Glad to be rid of it, he turned sharply. Just as he was about to signal Dot, something caught his eye. Above him, off in the distance, was a dark object. It looked almost like a hang-glider. Mesmerized by the strange sight, Bob was caught completely off guard when a great burst of wind hit him, as if something very, very large had just flown past him very, very fast. Pulled off his zipboard by the backdraft, Bob found himself falling backwards, towards the nulls below.

Bob cried out in surprise as he desperately grabbed at the purchase that wasn't there, but rather than falling into a sea of viral nulls, all he felt himself land on was something smooth and metallic. His eyes flew about wildly. Immediately to his right was written one simple word. "Ship".

"Nice of ya to drop in, Shuga!" greeted Mouse from the cockpit. "Goin' mah way?"

Bob nodded dumbly and slipped inside as Mouse turned towards the Principal Office. "Honestly honay… gettin' back into Mainframe was easier than I thought it'd be! You know the scanners ain't workin', doncha?"

The dark figure that had caught Bob's attention sailed silently around the descending game cube until it caught sight of Grid. He smiled wryly at the Web Sprite's valiant attempt to assist his colleagues. It was a shame such things weren't permitted…

He glided slowly towards Grid's zipboard soundlessly, until he was almost on top of him. Then he lifted a hand to his mouth, placed two gloved fingers on his lips, and whistled as loudly as he could.

Grid halted, and turned. Then, he went absolutely white… except for his eyes, which blazed a deep blue. "You… You can't be here," he insisted dumbly.

The figure circled him like a vulture. "I assure you, we can," it laughed. "And we are." Then without another word, glided back upwards.

The game was forgotten, and Grid sped after him. Suddenly, he saw the .jpg out of the corner of his eye. It had slipped from its resting-place in his sleeve, and begun its slow descent to the ground. "No!" he shouted. He debated going after it, but the dark figure seemed to beckon him follow. He did, until they had reached the rooftops. The figure landed silently, and removed the glider. Grid kicked the zipboard aside, and approached fearfully. "How did you get here?" he demanded. "This is a quarantined system!"

"A sis-tum? So that's what you call this place now?" replied the figure, who removed the dark cloak he wore, and dropped it to the ground. His young face beamed excitedly at Grid as the wind gently blew through his blond hair. "Aren't you glad to see me? It's been so long… and we have so much work to do!"

"What makes you think I'm not ready for you?" Grid growled.

The young man threw back his head and laughed with delight. "Because you're facing the wrong way, old friend!"

Grid gasped. Something whooshed behind him, but he was unconscious before he could hear the crack of the wooden staff against his skull.

"The things we do find," mused the blond-headed man. "Are we going to delete him?"

The older man with the staff grunted as six other cloaked figures glided up behind him. "No one touches him," he ordered gruffly. "We get what we came for, and then we get out. If he has any sense, he'll leave this place before we attack."

The humor went out from the other man's face. "Disobeying a direct order from a member of the council is grounds for execution."

"That it is. So keep in mind that I have ordered you to leave him as he is." The old man turned away. "Now let's begin where he left off."

The others all nodded, and went to find a place where they could access Mainframe's history logs. The blond man and the elder remained behind. "Let this be a lesson to you, Rove." The older man violently drove his foot into Grid's limp figure. He was rewarded with a satisfying choke. "Never send a boy to do a man's job."

The command center doors swished open allowing Mouse to saunter smugly in, followed by a bewildered-looking Bob. Everyone looked up in surprise. "Mouse!" Dot exclaimed. "How in the Net did you-". She stopped herself and lifted her hand. "Never mind. I probably don't want to know. Bob, is everything ready?"

Bob nodded. "As ready as it's going to be. We have no idea if all the system's nulls are in the park yet, but we can't wait for the scanners to go back online. It won't take them long to drain that beacon dry."

"Then we have to act now!" Matrix decided.

Dot nodded in Specks' direction, and he punched a few keys, stopping to adjust his glasses afterwards. "Firewall active. Any nano now…"

Floating Point went up like a box of firecrackers.

On the steps of the Diner sat Galter Matrix. A young child trying to make some sense of what had happened less than a cycle ago. One moment, he had a twin sister. One who treated him almost as badly as he treated her. One who could get away with things he never seemed to be able to. One who could understand what he was feeling when no one else would even try. One who he'd never known life without.

And then, the next moment, with no explanation, consolation or apology, he didn't have one anymore. It wasn't fair…

But it was. You killed her.

The sound of someone clearing his throat to his immediate left startled him out of his bubble of misery. He spun defensively to find that Kem was sitting beside him. How long he'd been there, Galter wasn't sure. He was surprised by the expression of understanding, and compassion on the older boy's face.

Kem forced a sad smile. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Galter didn't have a chance to answer as a deafening roar ripped through the system, followed by a blinding flash. When the flares faded from their eyes, they saw a great wall of flames rising up in the distance. "The park…" whispered Galter.

Everyone and everything in the Command Center that wasn't nailed to something tumbled to the floor. When the tremors ceased, everyone glanced around in confusion.

AndrAIa spoke up. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say… That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?"

"Definitely not," Mouse agreed, as she steadied herself against the railing.

"What happened?" Bob asked.

Specks was working himself into a frenzy at his station. "Oh, dear. This isn't good at all! Mrs. Ma- Sir! I'm beginning to suspect that there's nothing wrong with our scanners!"

"Run that by me again?" Dot asked.

"Ah think what he means to say, shuga, is that your scanner troubles are comin' from somewhere else!" Mouse explained.

"Meaning…" Bob continued. "That they're being jammed somehow… That kind of interference… It could affect the Firewall as well."

Dot couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Define 'affect'!"

"Sir…" Specks said quietly. "It's collapsing."

"Options." Dot quietly ordered. No one spoke up. She nodded, and turned to face everyone. "That's what I thought. OK people. We have two non-options that I can see. I say non-options because I won't accept either one. We could disengage the Firewall. Abort it now, and the damage will be minimal."

"But we'd be back to square one, only we would have made the problem worse." Bob agreed bitterly.

"Exactly. Our other non-option is to let it collapse. Floating Point and everything in it will be destroyed." She gritted her teeth. "Meaning everyone we had hoped to save some cycle. Like I said. I won't accept either. I want an alternative, and I want it now."

Matrix growled. "I say we find whatever is causing this, and take it out!"

Bob shook his head. "Without the scanners, that would be almost impossible. Besides, for all we know, the jamming signal could be coming from the Supercomputer."

"I don't even want to think about that." Dot replied. "It has to be here somewhere! Mouse! Take Matrix and AndrAIa. Scour this system until you find… whatever it is!"

Mouse nodded. "Done and done." She and the other two sprites raced out.

"Firewall power down to sixty percent… It's bound to collapse by the time it drops to fifteen." Specks sighed. "We're going to lose it any micro now."

Dot looked helplessly towards Phong. The sage had his eyes fixed on the viewscreen and his fingers pressed gently together. No help there.

Time slowed to a crawl as she watched the firewall flicker on the screen. Bob was at her side now, and she allowed herself to lower her head against his shoulder. At that moment, Mouse's face blinked into existence over the image.

Dot's eyes went wide. "Did you find it?!"

Mouse shook her head. "No, but we found something else. We have to get back, and Ah mean 2X!" Without another word, she disappeared again.

"The Firewall is failing!" Specks warned.

"How much more time do we have?" Bob asked.

"No time! We're out of time!" Specks called back, nearly hysterical. "We have to disengage now!"

Dot closed her eyes, and gathered her strength. She pictured Phong in his prime. A grand Command.com who could find the solution to any problem. But she was no Phong. She knew that now. She had been spoiled by megacycles of peace, and now she was in no condition to deal with something like this.

The image changed. What she saw now was a picture of the future. The remains of a devastated sector. Charred metal littered the floor, a reminder to her that she had let Floating Point, and all the nulls in it, be reduced to ash.

"Orders, Sir?!" Specks prompted. "If we're going to disengage, we need to do it now!"

A final image flashed for only a brief instant. The face of her daughter. And then, all the images were silent. She opened her eyes.

She spoke softly. "Stand down."

Specks hesitated. "Sir?"

"Let it go." Dot ordered bitterly. She gripped Bob tightly. "There's nothing more we can do."

"B-but-"

"You heard the Command.com," Phong broke in, unexpectedly. "Carry out your orders."

Specks lowered his eyes, and stepped back from the console. "Aye, sir."

They watched the firewall implode until it was gone completely. The only sound that could be heard was the echo of a hundred unanimous shrieks.

The door slid open, and the three other sprites sauntered in. "Come on, y'all," Mouse said. "There's somethin' else you gotta see."

END PROGRAM