I Am Learning, Ph1LzA

Scrambled, Fried, Broken

"How dare you!" Billiam's voice cracked halfway, he was so furious. Techno turned back to Wilbur, his hands ready to remove the helmet should he be given permission. "Get away from that!" Billiam yelled, still too far away to enforce his demand.

Faced with such a time limit, Ph1LzA panicked. "Don't take it off, Techno!" He shouted. "Get rid of EGG first, or it might hurt him!"

Apparently Techno had means of hearing him, for the AI straightened and turned towards Billiam. The noble was picking his way through the rubble of the servers and yelling imprecations with every step. Behind him walked Halo, his black skin pale from shock, or possibly anger. Skeppy did not move at all. His blank face gave nothing away.

Now the screen was divided in half, the left portion given to the code battle between EGG and Techno, the right half given to the physical enemies Techno had to deal with. The Crows groaned aloud. "He's got too much on his plate!" Nikki protested, biting her nails in anxiety. Hannah and Trixtin agreed, but some of the others yelled encouragements at the screen, declaring Techno could take the whole building on.

"Do be careful, mate." Ph1LzA whispered. Techno picked up a piece of metal, jagged on every side, and hurled it at the oncomers. Halo and Billiam leaped to get out of the way.

"Butler!" Billiam shrieked. "Butler, get over here this instant!" Nobody answered his call. Billiam glanced round in a fright.

The EGG then spoke, and spoke aloud. Its voice was awful, a grating static forming word-like sounds, and none of them made any sense. "Thob su evas. Maillib, em evas."

It got no farther. On the left screen, Ph1LzA could see a solitary E working its way through EGG code, slipping between firewalls and through little cracks in the security EGG was constantly putting up against Techno's advances. Whatever it was assigned to do, Ph1LzA had little doubt it had the potential to cripple the malicious machine. Just as the AI cried out its message, the E bypassed a tight-knit wall of code, and settled into what looked like a cluster of core programming. There the E settled and went to work.

Techno, meantime, was not idle. He sped about the other side of the platform and began taking apart the servers nearest him. Smoke drifted into the air from circuits being overheated or broken partway through their functions. Sparks sprayed the air. Billiam's shouts were, in another moment, succeeded by a short explosion. Everybody jumped. "Did he just fire a gun?!" Quackity was on the edge of his seat.

"If he did, Imma kill 'im." Tommy growled. "Nobody hurts the Blade."

Sam spoke up. "I'm sending Techno some backup. I think he'll appreciate Sam Nook. Let him know, Phil, would you?"

It was not even necessary. As fast as computers work, Sam Nook had arrived, been examined and accepted by TechnoBlade before Ph1LzA could finish explaining what was going on. Now a white code joined his and began nibbling at EGG's.

"What is this? It does not taste very good."

I'm glad of that. Friends in generally should not be tasty, I think. This is my friend.

I AM SAM NOOK. ASSIGNMENT: ASSIST TECHNOBLADE. IN PROGRESS. EGG, MY MASTER SAYS YOU SHALL BE REPURPOSED AS A TOASTER.

The Crows loved it. As TechnoBlade maneuvered behind servers and Billiam abandoned his attempts to pick through the ruin of his efforts, Sam Nook helped by tackling the tougher sections of EGG code. It was difficult to wear down, however. The Tendrils seemed capable of reproducing themselves and Techno's Core Commands were kept hard at work fending them off.

Another gunshot went off, then another, so close together Ph1LzA decided Halo must have a gun of his own, or had gone and gotten one. Shouts and curses rang out in the room. The EGG's rumbling, crackling voice bellowed in the background. Metal screamed and snapped under Techno's fists.