System Reboot (Sequel to System Failure)

Chapter 5

Get ready for some...

...dialogue.

Ty's POV

Adam is a virus.

That was the only thought I could focus on as Alesa and I jogged back to the Glitch base, passing by the streets choked with the daily morning traffic. My best friend, the guy who I had known for years, who had trained with me to be a Glitch, who had joked and complained with me about basically everything under the sun, who had fought viruses with me and saved my life on a dozen occasions, was now one of them. He didn't recognise me, didn't seem to know me, heck, he had tried to kill me and would have succeeded if Jason hadn't warned me.

Alesa didn't talk as we jogged through the city, which was understandable. I mean, Adam was my best friend, but he was her boyfriend, and he had stood up for her and saved her life. I remembered how I had first acted when I realised who she was and I winced a little. It seemed weird to have gone from being ready for her to attack me or Adam at any moment to trusting her and watching her back as we fought in the mainframes. But back then, she at least didn't act like a proper virus, and that made all the difference. Adam... Adam wasn't the same.

"Ty. Door's here."

I faltered in my step and glanced over my shoulder to see Alesa standing in front of the doors to the Glitch offices that I had run past without even noticing. She had an amused look on her face that was a cross between amusement and smirk. I had unfortunately gotten used to that face. I shook my head, shaking off my thoughts. "Sorry, yeah, let's go."

We took the elevator up to the top floor and into the base. Jason, Jin, and about half of their team were at the computers, already getting to work as the jobs started flowing in. Mitch and Jerome were there too, leaning on the computers and talking to the two.

"Hey guys," I said as I approached them, Alesa a step behind me.

"Hey Ty, Alesa," Jason said with a nod. "How are you two?"

Alesa gave a little shrug. "We're... okay, um-"

"We saw Adam in the mainframe at city hall. He's a virus now."

If this was in any other situation, I would have found their reaction hilarious. Jason froze like a statue, Jin glanced up from his computer with wide eyes, Mitch blinked at me a few times like he couldn't compute what I had just said, and Jerome glanced around like he wasn't fully sure what was happening or why he was even here.

"What?" Jason finally whispered.

"Adam's a virus," Alesa told him. "He acted exactly like a virus, looked exactly like one, he attacked us, he- he didn't... he didn't remember us, didn't act like he knew us at all." I decided not to mention that the last two things she said meant basically the same thing.

"W-What kind of virus?" Mitch asked. "I mean, was he a worm or-"

"Polymorphic," I answered instantly. "Strong, crushing blows, prefered fighting head-on than exchange witty banter, fought with two swords, pretty tell-tale signs. Besides, Adam was designed to fight polymorphic viruses, so it would... make sense if he became one."

"Like how I was designed to fight worms when I first became a Glitch," Alesa added quietly, like the thought had just occurred to her.

"Okay so." Jason spun around in his chair a little to face us. "You're saying that you saw Adam in city hall, he's now a virus, he doesn't remember any of his previous life and tried to kill you guys."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up," I said with a nod.

"Great, so what are we going to do?" Jerome asked, still leaning on Jin's computer.

I held my hands out a little in a shrug. "Well we're going to try to help him, right? I mean, we helped Alesa, this is only a step up from that. And he's our friend."

"We could bring him into the Glitch mainframe," Alesa said. "That way we could make sure he's contained and-"

"Woah woah woah, hold up right there," Jin said, holding up a hand. "We are not bringing him into our mainframe."

Alesa frowned in confusion. "But-"

"Alesa, look," Jason interrupted. "You were a special case, okay? That was pretty obvious, you were a virus who had human emotions. But from what you guys have said, Adam's not like that. He's a proper virus with no emotions, meaning that if we bring him into our mainframe, he'll destroy it and probably bring in other viruses to help. We can't risk that."

"He's right," I mumbled to her, seeing that she was about to snap something back. "But we're not just going to let him run around, and we're not going to kill him."

Jason shook his head quickly. "I'm not suggesting that we should, just that bringing him into our mainframe would be to throw everything we work for away."

We were all silent for a moment, maybe waiting for someone to come up with a solution, but no one said anything. Finally, Mitch stood and tapped out a quick beat on Jason's computer. "Alright, time to get back to work."

"Yeah." Jason glanced at one of the TVs. "Mitch, Jerome, see if you can check out what's happening with that law firm in the southern side of the city. Ty, Alesa, could you guys go to Preston's Accounting? Looks like they've got some corrupted files."

"Can do." I nodded to Alesa and she followed me down the elevator without a word, but that stopped the moment we reached the street and into the open air.

"We can't just leave Adam as a virus," she blurted. "We can't, he wouldn't do that if the roles were reversed."

"Alesa, we're not going to, did you hear the conversation we just had?" I asked with raised eyebrows, pointing over my shoulder with my thumb. "The entire point of that conversation was to confirm that we're not going to leave Adam as a virus."

She nodded a little. "Right, it's just... Why is he so different to how I was? Am?"

I shrugged a little. Coding and viruses weren't really my thing, I just knew how to fight them. "Something changed him into a virus. Maybe the same thing that changed you into a virus, who knows. Do you remember anything about your virus times before Adam found you?"

"Not much," she said with a frown. "I remember being confused and being told to cause mayhem- No wait, I remember something being disappointed in me... or someone..." She shook her head a little. "I can't remember, it's all kind of blurry."

"Huh. So maybe you were a kind of faulty virus. A one off."

"But Adam's not. He's a proper virus. No emotions, no feelings. And he went into cyberspace with the rest of the viruses. We might never see him again, cyberspace is a really big place after all."

I glanced at her. Her tone was flat and she was watching the ground ahead of her as we walked down Wagga street towards Preston's Accounting, her shoulders slumped. She looked like she had already half given up. I reached out a hand and gave her shoulder a squeeze.

"We'll get him back," I promised.

She gave me a small smile. "Thanks Ty," she said quietly.