System Failure (An Adesa Fanfic) [Originally by Littlewolf65]

Chapter 6

Adam's POV
It was quieter than usual during the next week or so and while Ty and I still had more than enough to keep us busy, there seemed to be fewer viruses overall. The other glitches were saying the same thing, particularly Barney and Ross.

"I feels like the viruses are plannings somethings big, and it's goings to happen soon," Barney said.

"Well I'd rather it happen sooner than later," Mitch said. "I hate waiting around for things."

"You just hate waiting in general Mitch."

At the mention of viruses, my mind instantly jumped to Alesa, just like it had every time Ty and I had found a worm this week. For some reason, I just couldn't stop thinking about her. Everything about her had just seemed so... human. I often caught myself wanting to see her again, which was impossible of course. The mainframe was huge and besides, she was a virus. If I met her again, I would be with Ty and then I would have to kill her. But I wasn't sure if I could.

"Earth to Adam!"

I jumped at Quentin's voice and shook my head slightly. "Sorry, what?"

Quentin smirked, "Lost in thought?"

I gave a wry smile and ran a hand through my hair. "Yeah, sorry."

"You've been doing that a lot lately," Ty said.

"I've got a lot on my mind." Needless to say, I hadn't told anyone about Alesa.

Mitch leaned back in his chair. "Well, whatever the viruses are planning, all we need to do is be ready for it."

The following day, Ty and I dropped by Sparkles Tech again as a precautionary check. Although it was extremely unlikely, it was possible that a spyware or perhaps a polymorphic virus had somehow stuck around in the mainframe. Jordan Sparkles wanted to be sure that that hadn't happened.

"We've got a lot of projects that we work on," he said as he walked Ty and I up to the third level. "If we lose files it could prove disastrous for the company."

"How did that conference go back when you had those three viruses?" I asked as we walked.

Jordan grinned. "You can expect to see a new game from us in about a month."

"Jason will be happy about that," Ty said. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he took it out, glancing at it. "Shoot. Adam, we've got a code red at city hall. Multiple virus attacks on the firewalls."

"Brilliant," I muttered. "Sorry Jordan, we've got to go."

"That's fine. Good luck guys."

"From the looks of things, we'll need it," Ty said before we both ran from the building. People glanced at the two of us as we sprinted past them, our trench coats flapping at our legs and our hands keeping the swords at our hips steady.

City hall was a two-story building that was built in the fashion of the buildings way back, longer than I cared to remember. It had a glass dome as part of the roof, allowing in as much sunlight as possible to enter the room below. The walls were made of a white stone with worn murals carved on it, but I only caught a glimpse of it as Ty and I ran inside.

"Jason, you there?" I asked, putting a hand to my earpiece.

"Get to the nearest computer, I've already got the server number," Jason said quickly after a moment of static.

The reception desk near us had several computer screens on the top and neat stacks of paper with several suited receptionists standing nearby, chatting nervously. Ty and I swiftly walked over and saw that each of the computer screens was showing static. The body of the computers were underneath the desk and most of them were still on.