Part 1

His companion, whose glowing-red hair was dyed silver, thawacked him on the arm. He scowled. "Shut it, bruhther," he replied with a Texan drawl. It was a fake accent, but it was so good that only the best voice specialist could tell.

Their name was Exley, Rollo and Tomasi Exley. Brothers, sprites-for-hire. They had a résumé that had the name of every criminal organization known that accepted sprites. On the top of that list was the anti-human group known as the Apocalypse. But more recently--and this was something that wasn't reflected on their résumé--they had been hired by an entity commonly called 'the Wolf.' His name was actually Lean Il Lupe--the Italian term for 'wolf.' Unfortunately, the virus Il Lupe was no longer compiling.

Tomasi--the redhead gone silver--smacked his brother again. He dropped the accent. "Look, Rollo, you gotta remember to use the accent! Otherwise we're gonna be found out! The Guardians would love to get their hands on us." He threw his equally muscled (and equally disguised) arm around his brother's shoulder. "That's why we have the disguise, brother. To hide our famous faces!"

"You sure the owner of this place is all right?" Rollo asked warily. "I mean, he is a User."

Tomasi cuffed him again. "Human, brother, human. If anyone catches us using the word 'User', we'll get caught."

"Right, human, whatever. Is he clean?"

Tomasi nodded. "Yeah, the Wolf bribed him a long time ago. He'll work with us."

"I still don't know," Rollo said.

But then, the door opened. Tomasi looked up. "Yes, wuht izzit?" he asked in the drawl.

It was the barkeep. "Phone call for you boys," the man said. There was a hint of fear in his voice.

"Wuht?" Rollo asked, remembering the drawl. "Dijou tell'm anythang?"

"No, no, no! I swear!" the barkeep said. "He used your names."

Tomasi jerked a thumb to the phone in the corner. The barkeep nodded and hurried off, shutting the door. Tomasi picked up the receiver. "Hello?"

"Tomasi. The drawl doesn't suit you. Drop it."

The big sprite stiffened. "Who in the Web is this?" he demanded.

The computer that sat in the other corner suddenly started up. Rollo held up his hands. "I didn't touch anything, I swear!" But the computer suddenly displayed a few words.

BOYS, YOU KNOW IT'S ME.

Tomasi blinked and said into the phone. "Boss?"

"Good, you do remember."

Rollo looked over. "The boss? But he got nullified!"

More words appeared on the screen. NULLIFICATION IS OVERRATED. AND WHAT HAPPENED TO ME WAS MUCH WORSE.

"Boys, I want you to meet one of my more recent associates."

"Who?"

"You'll find out when you get there."

"Get where?"

The screen printed two more words. NAM-SHUB BASE.

Tomasi wisely did not read the words. "Uh, sure, boss, we'll meet you there." The phone clicked.

Rollo blinked. "What the FAQ is going on?"

"If I knew, brother," Tomasi said, "I'd tell you."

Tomasi entered in the first two digits of the access code, but then the door opened. The two sprites stopped. Lean's voice came from the speakers on the walls. "Welcome back, boys. Head to the main room."

The brothers walked through the cold hallways, looking around warily. The door to the central computer room slid open, and the pair blinked. They had seen the computer room two months ago, and it had been trashed. Now, everything was in one piece. And a pale, older man stood in a white lab coat, looking over a console. The man looked up, at the same time that a video camera on the console swiveled to look at them. The human smiled.

Lean's voice sounded. "There you are. Rollo, take off that ridiculous beard."

Tomasi glared at the User. "Who in the Web are you?"

The older man held out his hand. "Guten tag," he said with a German accent. "Mein name is Doctor Jander van der Waals." He pronounced the 'J' like a 'Y.' "Your employer, Herr Lupe--"

"Il Lupe," Lean corrected.

"Ja. Mein profound apologies, sir. Lean has employed me to aid him in his next endeavor."

Rollo cracked his knuckles. "What's that?"

"Simple enough, boys. Get my body back."

Van der Waals explained. "Herr Lean performed zomething zimilar to what ze hero, Herr Matrix, did when he lost a Game. He tried to convert himself to Game Sprite mode."

"Unfortunately," Lean said from the speakers, "the viral format did not work quite as well as I had anticipated. My body was deleted, though my consciousness persevered."

"Herr Lean came to me by infecting my link to ze systems in ze Metaverse. He co-opted me zen, und now I vill have ze opportunity to help restore him." Dr. van der Waals looked at something on his datapad and tapped a few keys.

"Jander here is establishing a link between the dummy systems here at Nam-Shub and Omega-Cragis." Lean swiveled the camera to look at the main computer screen. "When he's finished, he will be able to construct machines and technology on the computers here at Nam-Shub, then have the Metaverse simply create them in Omega-Cragis."

"Have either of you seen ze old movie Ze Matrix?" van der Waals asked.

"Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne?" Rollo asked. "What about it?"

"Herr Morpheus had a similar device in ze movie. You remember ze all-white room zat zey hooked up to, vith all ze guns und everything?"

"Yeah."

"Zis is ze same sing," the doctor explained. "Once ze link is firmly established, I can use ze computers in Omega-Cragis to access ze link here, und literally build my technology vithout having to shuttle back und forth between Reality and ze Metaverse."

"There is one small problem, however," Lean said, "and that is that Jander does not know how to set up a link like we want."

"Boss, don't you know how to do that?" Tomasi asked.

"I used to. The destruction of my body damaged my memory some. I've lost most of the skills I acquired from DaVinci."

"So whaddaya want us to do, boss?" Tomasi said. "Kidnap DaVinci for you?"

"Nein," van der Waals said. "Herr DaVinci is too much of a loose cannon. Besides, he vould never agree to help you. Herr Lean wants you two to kidnap his friends...ze Aughts."

The Exleys were silent a moment. Then Rollo said, "You want us to kidnap the entire Aught family?"

"Of course not," Lean said. "Just the hackers of the family--Naught and Nada."

"Othervise known as," van der Waals said, "ze Flip Side Felons, Aztral und Surf."

Tomasi and Rollo shared a glance, then nodded. "I think we can accommodate you, boss. We'll have them for you in short order."

"Good," Lean said. "Now get moving. If you return without at least one of them, you can be certain I will delete you."

"I thought the term was 'make yourself at home'," Naught Aught said, looking at a picture of the Sears Tower in Chicago. The sprite had dark gray skin and glittering black hair and eyes. His hair was shorn close on the sides and long on top. Clipped to the left breast pocket of his work shirt was an icon, the standard black-and-white circle with the reversed diamond.

Quinn chuckled. "Naught, I've seen your room. If I told you to 'make yourself at home', it'd take me weeks to get the crumbs out of here."

A female sprite stepped past Naught. "Ooh, Naught is denied!" Nada quipped. A year younger than her brother, Nada had the same color skin, hair, and eyes, and her icon was clipped at the neckline of her white tee-shirt and a slanted belt was cinched at her waist, holding up her equally loose pants. "I told you your room was a mess, Naught."

Naught made a face. "It all has a system."

In short order the rest of the Aught siblings filed into the room--the elder siblings, Zilch and Niente, the younger twins, Nil and Void, and the two kids, Blank and Zip. Quinn passed around drinks and brought out the snacks as the last member of their party stepped into the room. David Gabbiani was a tall human with dark hair and dark eyes. People seldom saw his eyes, however, because he was always wearing a pair of dark green sunglasses. Now, as David grinned at the assembled group, a line of green light flickered across the lenses of said sunglasses. His false icon was clipped to his belt, which kept his loose black workpants up. He plopped down in the comfortable recliner, to the grumbling of everyone else, but David was the sort whom was hard to stay mad at.

"Hey, D," Naught said.

"Hey, Klutz," David grinned. Naught grimaced and made a stabbing gesture at his chest as David crossed his arms behind his head. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Nice place, Quinn."

"Thanks," the writer said as he tossed a can of Sodee Pop to him. He passed around the cans and popped the top, immediately taking a big gulp of the cola.

Zilch stood up, his long hair and dark coat falling around his shoulders. He raised his can. "To Quinn! May all his future books do as well as his first!" The rest of the group cheered and echoed, "To Quinn!"

Quinn grimaced and blushed. They were referring to his first full-length novel, entitled Game Over. It was actually based on the events of two months earlier, and featured a good-natured hacker named Detterick Noble, who faced off against a diabolical game-master called Gene Deuce. It was well-received by critics, who had been demanding something of longer length than Quinn's earlier short stories, and the public loved it. There was even buzz that some Hollywood types were considering a picture deal.

But Quinn didn't want that buzz. He had problems enough pleasing his publisher as it was. Now that Game Over was such a hit, he was expected to produce a good novel every time. And now people were going to judge his novels against scripts. All Quinn wanted was a steady paycheck.

Naught now spoke up. "Hey, Quinn, got a problem here."

"What is it, Naught?" Quinn asked. "This room not messy enough for you?"

"Actually," Naught said, "I'm out of cola."

Zilch looked at him. "Ah, geeze, bro. How fast do you drink that stuff, hey?"

Naught shrugged, then suppressed a belch. "Dude, come on. I have a sweet tooth."

Quinn chuckled. "It's okay, Zilch. I have plenty of Sodee Pop." He went into his kitchen, but returned shortly with a grimace. "Uh, heh. Slight problem, Naught. I seem to be all out of cola."

"Aw, man!"

David smirked, green light flickering on his glasses. "It's okay, buddy, I'll head over to the store and get some more for you." He started to get up.

But Quinn pushed him back into his seat. "No, it's all right, David. Naught can drive me." He blinked. "Did I just say that?" Naught was, after all, one of the most reckless drivers in the entire Resonate System, and had a knack for scaring the bejeepers out of Quinn.

The sprite grinned as he got up. "Thanks, Quinn. Come on, let's make it fast!"

"Somehow," Nada replied with a smirk of her own, "I don't think fast is usually a problem with you, bro."

The tall sprite, identified as Jaremy Draco on his pass, nodded and smiled. His silver hair gleamed. "Why, thank yuh," he replied in a Texan drawl. "Nice to see such lovely ladies in this business." He motioned for his associate to follow. "Come on, Derik."

The other sprite was identified as Derik Salunsen. His beard itched as he grinned and clomped after his (disguised) brother. "So now what, Toma-uh, Jaremy?"

"We set up an ambush," Tomasi-Draco said. "There's a bank nearby. That should serve our purposes. With any luck, one of the Aughts will show up when the news crews show up."

They didn't head straight for the bank, however. First they stopped at a cigar store. The human manning it looked up. "Yes, can I help you?"

"Yes," Rollo-Salunsen said. "We have a few boxes of merchandise in Box 30A." He handed the man a key-card. The clerk checked it, then nodded.

"I'll be right back with your belongings, sir."

Rollo leaned over to Tomasi. "What are we doing here?" he hissed.

"The boss deposited a few boxes with weapons pieces here. The guy never knew."

The clerk returned with an armload of cigar boxes. He set them down with a grunt. "There you go, sirs. That will be a charge of 600 credits."

Tomasi nodded. "Right. Here's your payment." He reached out one muscled arm, grabbed the man's head, and twisted. Rollo flinched at the snapping sound. Tomasi dropped the corpse. "Frickin' Users."

Rollo went over to the store's entrance and locked it, turning the windows opaque and flipping off the 'OPEN' sign. The large sprite then proceeded to open the cigar boxes and dump out the various stocks, locks, and barrels of numerous energy guns. Tomasi checked the clips for leaks, then nodded and began to assemble them.

"Not as long as you revel in it," Quinn remarked as he stepped shakily out of the car. "Come on, let's get back. Not that I don't trust your family or anything, but I don't want a certain pair of pranksters to rig something in my home to blow up or something."

"That wouldn't be Blank and Zip you're talking about, is it?" Naught asked with a chuckle.

Quinn paled. "God help us if those two start. Actually, I'm talking about the twins. Nil and Void."

"Oh, right!" Naught said with a scowl. "Those two have rigged my stuff to make a mess more times than I've got fingers or toes."

"So now it's their fault your room's a mess," Quinn laughed.

"Oh, shut up!"

Quinn got in a few more digs at Naught's expense as he grabbed a 24-pack of Sodee Pop and paid for it. He set it down in Naught's car and hopped into the passenger's seat, but something caught his eye. "Say, Naught, is there some sort of fireworks show today that I don't know about?"

"No. Why?"

"Because, if I'm not mistaken, that's gunfire up yonder at the Resonate Bank."

"I can't control him when he gets like this," Tomasi explained with a vicious grin. He gestured at the human clerk. "You, and any other Users in here, get out here, or I swear to the Maker, I'll kill you where you stand!"

The human clerk--Fred, by the nametag--slowly edged out from behind the counter. He held his hands up, beads of sweat trickling down his face. Tomasi put the gun to Fred's head and turned to the Khatran. "You, go get any other Users in this building." The anthro didn't move. Tomasi scowled. "NOW, dammit!" The Khatran cringed and hurried off.

Rollo smacked the F'Vali clerk with the butt of his gun. "Come on, you freakin' retard!! Faster, dammit!" He discharged the gun into the ceiling. "I mean it, I'll take your--"

"Brother, shut it!" Tomasi roared. "No need to shout at her. She's not a User." He prodded Fred in the temple with the barrel of his gun. "Unlike this contemptible excuse for a lifeform." He turned back to the office door. "Where is that Khatran?!"

The Khatran came back through the door with a trio of humans in suits following. All were nervous, but one, a tall woman with auburn hair, was obviously defiant. She spoke. "What is the meaning of this? I demand to know why!"

Rollo sidled over and smacked her head from behind with his gun. "We'll make the demands here, User!" He swiveled back to the clerk. "Where are those freakin' credits?!"

About this time, Quinn and Naught pulled up near the bank, where people were already running for their lives, away from the crazed robbers. Quinn peered in. "Well, well, well. It's Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum." He looked back at Naught. "How long as it been now?"

"Couple months at least," Naught admitted. "You want I should call for help?"

"Yeah. Call the local CPUs and the system Guardians. I'll call the others," Quinn said.

"Right," Naught said, flipping out his comm.

Quinn slid out his comm and punched the speed-dial for David's comm. The human answered. "Yeah?"

"It's Quinn," the writer replied. "Guess who we spotted?"

"Oh, shit. Not the Exleys."

"The same," Quinn said. "The louts are robbing the Resonate Bank as we speak. Apparently they're going to do a few cursory User-executions."

"Maybe you two should get out of there," David said.

"In a bit," Quinn said. "I want to keep an eye on them. Maybe I can distract them from killing anyone before the CPUs show up."

"I dunno if that's a good idea, Quinn," David warned.

"Screw good ideas," Quinn replied. "I associate with you guys, don't I?" This was not a joke at all. Naught, Nada, and David were all hackers, and associating with them was good for aiding and abetting. Quinn squinted through the window's glass. "Uh, oh. Looks like things are getting hairy. Wait a minute. I'll be right back."

"Quinn, wait--" But the hacker got no further before Quinn snapped his comm shut and climbed out of Naught's car. He looked back at his friend, who was terminating his call to the authorities. The gray-skinned sprite saw what was going on and nodded, following Quinn's lead.

The writer and the hacker stepped through the doors. Everyone within turned to look at them. Rollo and Tomasi blinked and pointed their guns at them. Quinn raised an eyebrow. "Uh, is it past business hours?"

"Get 'em!" Tomasi roared to Rollo, who shoved aside the bank manager to lunge towards Quinn and Naught.

Both of them sidestepped the big sprite who went sprawling on the floor. Tomasi swore, looked at Fred, then shot him. The clerk went down like a sack of potatoes and the big sprite turned to shoot the bank manager before turning to deal with the two newcomers.

Quinn swallowed, and mentally admitted that perhaps this wasn't such a good idea, after all. Tomasi swung two massive arms down to clobber Quinn on the shoulders. Quinn tried to duck, but he underestimated the big sprite's reach. Two fists landed on him like sledgehammers. The writer felt one of his shoulders pop out of place and he groaned as he slumped to the floor. Tomasi followed up the blow with a smash across the face. Quinn blacked out.

Naught swallowed as he saw his friend go down, and found himself looking at the business end of Tomasi's guns. Rollo got up and grabbed him in a wrestling hold. Tomasi smirked. "The boss wants to see you." Rollo applied pressure, and Naught felt the world slip away as Rollo pressed the sleeper hold.

Tomasi nodded and heaved both of the pair onto his shoulders. Rollo grabbed the sack of credits and hauled it over one shoulder as he pulled a different 'gun' from his pocket. He aimed it at the entrance, and a flash of light blinded the surviving bank clerks and managers. A glittering portal opened, a bleak landscape visible on the other end. Tomasi jumped through first, followed by Rollo, and then the portal scintillated closed, leaving only a scorch mark on the walls and floor to indicate it was there.

The clerks didn't know it, but the two robbers and their hostages had just left to a system that should not have existed. The government claimed that it had been shut down long ago, but it was functioning quite 'nicely.' The system designated Omega-Cragis was in optimal condition, volcanoes spewing lava and rocky golems smashing anything that caught their fancy. Omega-Cragis was about the closest thing anyone had seen to Hell. And Quinn and Naught were now in the clutches of it's inhabitants.

His cell was a featureless cube. The walls had no windows, there was a meager cot in one corner and a refresher in the other. Egress was through a door-yup, locked. He sighed and sat on the cot. He reached for his icon. At least he could occupy himself a bit. But hs stopped, then felt around his belt. His icon was missing.

Okay, Naught, calm down. Just analyze the situation. You're a prisoner of Rollo and Tomasi Exley. Quinn is probably dead, and you don't have your comm or your icon. Things can't possibly get any worse.

But then the door clicked and opened. Rollo stepped in and pulled Naught to his feet. The yellow-haired lackey smirked. "The boss wants to talk to you."

Correction: NOW things can't get any worse.

Naught was pulled into a room with a large computer bank. A security camera was placed on the top of the console. This swiveled to look at him. Rollo shoved the hacker-sprite into a chair and then stood to block the door. Naught looked around. He turned back to the thug. "So where is he?"

"Right here." Naught jumped. It was Lean's voice, emanating from the speakers, but he was nowhere in sight. But then his attention was drawn to the security camera, which moved up and down. Then it dipped and raised its head, like a nod. "Thank you. Hello, Naught. But perhaps 'Aztral' is a better name."

"Lean?"

"Of course. This is a long story, Aztral, so make yourself comfortable." Lean then proceeded to explain what had happened to him following his nullification in the Game. His consciousness had merely infected the system in one of his other User-side bases under his pseudonym Andrew Ginole. He'd used his links to other computers to contact forces that could help him get his body back. "In short, Aztral, I want you to help Dr. van der Waals set up his link."

"And if I refuse?"

"You die."

Naught thought about that. He didn't have much of a choice. Either he helped him, lived a bit longer, and then got deleted anyway, or he'd refuse and die quickly. Naught was not the type to help evil people like Lean Il Lupe, but Naught wanted to keep compiling for a while. He looked at the camera. "Is Quinn still alive?"

"Mr. Rentack is alive for the moment," Lean confirmed. A monitor sprang into life and showed a cell similar to the one where Naught had awoken. Quinn was unconscious on the floor, judging by the way he was breathing. So Lean was telling the truth. "Make a decision, Aztral."

Naught sighed. What choice did he have? "I'll do it. I'll need my icon back, though."

Rollo stepped forward a pace, dropped something in his lap, then went back to standing in front of the door. Naught looked down. It was his icon. None the worse for the wear. Naught clipped it to his belt, then tapped it to bring his computer online. Lean spoke from the speaker again. "You'll find that we have already taken the liberty of severing your connections to other systems, and uploaded the necessary data into your computer to serve this purpose."

Naught sighed, cracked his fingers, and began to slowly type, doing diagnostics of his computer and then of the Negacrag Base systems. A thought occurred to him. "Why didn't you go with DaVinci for this job?"

A sharp, rattling hiss came from Lean's speaker. "Do not mention him again, Aztral, or I shall simply delete you and find someone else to do this."

"And that's another thing. My sister's better at this than I am. Why'd you pick me?"

"You were convenient."

Tomasi entered, carrying the unconscious subject on his shoulder. "Where do you want im?"

"Put him on ze examination table, Herr Exley. Zen, if you vould be so kind as to secure him, I vould greatly appreciate it." Van der Waals held up an instrument to the light and squinted at it. He nodded and put it in his lab coat's pocket. He turned to look at his test subject, nodded at seeing he was in relatively good condition, then looked at Tomasi. "You may go now."

"Right, right." Tomasi gave him a hateful look--the doctor ignored it, like all the others--and turned and left.

Van der Waals turned back to his subject. He checked the fastenings, then pressed a control that tilted the table up so that the subject was almost standing erect. Van der Waals jotted a few things down on his datapad and looked to see that his subject was beginning to wake up.

His eyes fluttered. "Wh...where am I?"

"Ah, gut, you are awake." Van der Waals stepped into his field of vision. "I am Doctor Jander van der Waals."

"Who? What am I doing here? Where am I?" the subject asked again.

"You are in vat is commonly called ze Negacrag Base," the doctor informed him as he reached into his pocket for the first instrument. "Und you are going to be my test subject."

"Test subject? Negacrag? Oh, shit, you mean I'm in Omega-Cragis?!"

Van der Waals shrugged. "It is no use complaining. Ze restraining devices are quite unbreakable. Not even ze golems could escape zem."

But the test subject struggled against the bonds anyway. He screamed. "Let me out!"

"Nein, now be quiet," van der Waals said as he placed something on the test subjects abdomen. "Now...tell me ven it hurts."

He tapped a control on a console, and the subject felt something tighten in his body. His muscles contracted there, and then released and contracted over and over and over, until it began to hurt extremely badly. The test subject screamed as his muscles began to tear themselves apart. He screamed, "Oh, God! Make it stop! It hurts!!" But van der Waals watched impassively, perhaps a slight smile turning his lips. The test subject looked at him. "Why aren't you stopping?!"

"I said to tell me ven it hurt. I never said I vould stop."

Quinn Rentack continued to scream as the pain spread from his abdomen up his torso. He clenched his eyes shut as his arms flailed helplessly in the device's cruel grip. He screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed until he couldn't draw breath anymore and then he continued to scream in his mind as it threatened to shut down from the sheer pain in his body oh God make it stop please why me make it stop oh God somebody help me...

Dr. van der Waals finally turned the device off when Quinn's body snapped into unconsciousness once again. He removed the instrument and set it on a table. He checked the readings from the scanners, then nodded. Excellent. The device had worked better than anticipated. The data was good. He allowed himself a smile. He would get a lot of good experiments from this one.

Aztral winced and shouted, "Hey, take it easy, man! I'm not DaVinci, you know. If you wanted fast you should have waited for my sister or David. I'm working as fast as I can."

"It's not fast enough," Lean said from the speakers. "I have a timetable. You should be at least 45% finished by now. You are only 30%."

"Hey, come on!" Aztral said. "I don't have access to my hacking shortcuts. You guys deleted them all. I have to reconstruct my programs, you idiot. When you go with inferior goods, expect inferior quality."

"Hmph. Self-effacing gets you nothing, Aztral. Either you speed up, or I shall have Rollo remove you of the burden of one of your fingers."

"That would definitely make me slow down," he told him. "I need all the fingers I can get."

"Then it shall be one of your toes."

Aztral winced and tried to work faster, but he just couldn't do it. The loss of his shortcuts heavily impacted the speed at which he could work. Rollo frowned as he watched him, and the camera that served as Lean's eyes to the material world seemed to glint malevolently.

Within another day, he was 65% complete. Rollo had worked him over a few times, but had left to mainly body blows, leaving his head and arms alone. Lean still demanded faster work, but Aztral just couldn't do it. He didn't know whether it truly was inability or a subconscious desire to slow down Lean's plans. In the end it didn't matter. He knew he would be deleted as soon as Lean had a body again, and that Quinn would be as good as dead as well.

He reached a weary arm up and mopped sweat off his brow. Rollo grabbed him. "What're you doing?"

"Just wiping sweat! Geeze, you guys are so freakin' paranoid!" He shook Rollo's arm off and went back to his work. He got breaks only to do bodily business and to eat and occasionally to sleep. He had no way to tell how long he had been trapped here. The clock on his computer had been disabled. Rollo was always on guard. Lean's camera never wavered. But then, as long as the virus was trapped without a body, he didn't suffer from fatigue, did he?

All Naught could think was I hope my sibs are okay.

The news reports had simply said that a pair of sprites who seemed to resemble wanted terrorists Rollo and Tomasi Exley, had robbed the Resonate System Bank, killed two bank workers and taken two unknown hostages. The location of the Exleys and their hostages was unknown.

They'd taken Naught's car back to their home, where they convened in the Hacking Parlor to discuss things. David stood up. "Okay, guys, obviously Rollo and Tomasi took Quinn and Naught. We know what we know from the news reports. The Exleys escaped through some kind of portal. There's only one place they could have gone."

"Omega-Cragis," Nil said.

"The Negacrag Base," Void added.

"Right," David agreed. "And we know how the Exleys think. They don't do anything without old Lean's approval. That means that somehow Lean survived."

"Nobody survives nullification, dude," Niente cut in. "It's a fact of the 'Verse."

"But Lean's not any kind of virus anyone's ever seen before. He may classify as a class-8, but it's obvious he's a lot different than any class-8 ever recorded." David drummed his fingers on the table. "I see one solution. Go to Omega-Cragis, and get Quinn and Naught back."

"Right, should be simple to do, hey?" Zilch said. "We got a portal-generator in here, and the coordinates of Omega-Cragis. So all's we gotta do is hook it up, go to the Bank, and reconnect the portal. Simple, hey?" Silence greeted him. "Aw, man, don't do that to me, hey? That's what you're supposed to do to Naught." The biker champ seemed about to cry behind his green-tinted goggles.

"Sorry, bro, but it's not that simple," Nada said. "The Omega systems are not that simple to crack. The government has a continually shifting chameleon protocol to prevent hacking. The only reason Lean was able to get inside it was because he used to be a chameleon protocol. I need more than just the original coordinates to get back. I need to scan the site of the portal."

"Not that easy," David admitted. "This is a bank, people. They don't just let people waltz in and start scanning things."

Suddenly Void began to smile. He leaned over to Nil and whispered something in his ear. Then Nil stood up with a grin on his face. "I think you've forgotten something, D!" He grinned, then pointed to his goggles. "These things have scanners in them! Nobody thinks twice about these things, since a lot of people wear them."

David slapped his forehead. "Aw, I'm thinking like a newbie! That's so crazy it just might work. You two can go in there while Nada...does some bank-work or something."

"I've got a check to deposit anyway," she said.

Over the past few days, Dr. van der Waals had tested instrument after instrument, device after device on him. One was a subsonic vibrator that had nearly reduced his interal organs to sludge. Another had been an ultrasonic emitter that nearly turned his brains to jelly. A third had been some sort of heat ray that the doctor had used to burn off all of his body hair...all of it. Quinn winced as he remembered that time. The latest torture had been an electrical generator that had literally pushed Quinn to the limits of mortality. If van der Waals had pumped one more volt into him, his brain would have shut down and his heart would have stopped completely.

When Quinn had been able to gain control of his voice again, he'd asked, "Why do you keep doing this?"

Dr. Jander van der Waals' answer had been quick, simple, and utterly emotionless.

"Because I can."

Quinn painfully pulled his head up to look himself over. Scars were visible on his abdomen and chest, where van der Waals had placed most of his devices, and a few on his arms. Burn marks were evident on his legs and chest from the heat ray and more were visible on his back, he knew. He wanted to see what his face looked like, but there was no mirror. Even feeling his face was out of the question, because it hurt too much to move any more than necessary. He knew his right eye was a bit swollen, because it hurt to have it open any more than a slit. He assumed that warm, liquid feeling beneath his nose was blood.

There was a brief knock at the door. Quinn turned his head to look at the small view-window, then winced at the fresh pain in his neck. Tomasi grinned out at him. "Just want you to know, User, that once the doc's done with you, it's my turn."

Quinn slowly raised his right arm, gritting his teeth against the pain, raised his hand, and then gave Tomasi the finger. "Log off, asshole," he croaked.

Tomasi scowled and slammed his fist against the view-window, but Quinn was too tired to flinch. He dropped his hand and turned his face away from the door and tried to get some manner of rest. He knew that Dr. van der Waals would have some new torture for him tomorrow, and he might as well try to be rested.

"My goggles are online and fully functional,"Nil added.

"Right," Zilch said. "Let's do this, hey?"

Zilch strode in with Nil as Nada went over to the counter. She smiled. "I'd like to deposit this check and make a withdraw, please."

Nil leaned against the wall and tapped his goggles with a finger. He switched from standard vision to energy scan. If Rollo and Tomasi had opened a portal here, there would be energy traces. He just prayed the traces hadn't dissipated in the last week. He frowned. Yes...there was a trace here, but a standard e-scan wasn't going to do the trick. With a flick of an eyelid, he tweaked it up to a higher scan.

"Anything?" Zilch asked in a whisper.

"Don't bother me," Nil said back. "But, yes, there's something."

Nil squinted. Yes, yes, yes, there was an energy trace that matched a portal's. Now, if he could remember what Nada taught him, he could extrapolate the coordinates. He licked his lips quietly and focused in on the energy trace--

And suddenly electricity arced out of his goggles and into his head. Nil grunted and spasmed, falling to the floor. The red photoreceptors on the front winked on and off, before finally shattering. Zilch gave a yell and bent to help his brother. Nada turned her head, and gave an inward wince as she noticed that everyone else in the Bank was doing the same thing.

But, bless Zilch, he thought quickly. He picked up Nil in his big arms and grimaced. "Must've been a shortout in his goggles. I think the warranty expired." With that, he ducked out through the door. Nada sighed and turned back.

"Sorry about that," she apologized. "You need me to sign something?"

"Somebody booby-trapped the portal frequency," Nada said, shaking her head. She had to admit she was impressed. That sort of thing was not that simple to do. She doubted even DaVinci could do it even if he had a month. "Well, shit, that complicates things."

"Not really," Zilch said, turning to his bike. He opened one of the compartments on the front, then extracted something. "My bike has a scanner, remember? Think I can withstand the backlash from the trap?"

"Probably," Nada said with a smirk. "You are one of the bigger sprites I've ever seen."

Zilch grinned crookedly as he looked at the door to the Bank. The portal had been formed roughly around that. He tapped it and looked at the vidwindow that opened in front of him. He tweaked it until he found the right scan-band and focused in on the portal traces. He felt the scanner grow hot in his hand and gritted his teeth and continued. Electricity crackled, but he ignored it. He grimaced and quickly uploaded the pertinent information into his bike's onboard computer, then dropped the now glowing scanner. It hit the ground, then, in a bright flash, vaporized. Zilch blinked. "Basic. To think that could've happened to Nil here."

"Enough doom-speak, bro," Nada said. "Let's get the data back to the Hacking Parlor so's we can get Quinn and Naught back."

"Right! Let's go, hey?!"

"How much longer?" Lean asked over the speakers.

"Calm down, man," Naught said. "I'm working as fast as I can. I've been working for fourteen hours straight, minus lunch. I'm tired. You gotta expect some slowdown."

"Unexceptable!" Lean snapped. "Either you finish the link in the next fifteen minutes, or Rollo will cut off one of your ears!"

"Awfully violent, aren't we?" Naught muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing!"

Naught choked back a yawn as he typed in another algorithm. He was reluctant to finish this. After all, Lean didn't like him, and he had no reason to keep him alive after he'd finished the job. But, then, as long as he got to live a little longer.... He tapped keys and looked as the progress gauge ticked up to 97% complete.

The pale, older man in the white lab coat returned to watch him. Naught glanced at him, but then turned back to his work. "Almost done," Naught grunted. His fingers crawled over the keyboard and tapped the enter key. He glanced at the progress gauge. 100% complete. Link online.

Naught sighed and collapsed out of his chair. His fingers ached. He was certain that he'd get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from this. He was only dimly aware of Rollo lifting him bodily up and carrying him back to his cell.

Dr. van der Waals seated himself at the link console. "Vell, now ve can proceed vith your resurrection, Herr Lean."

"Excellent," Lean said. "Let me upload the specifications into the link matrix, and then initialize."

Van der Waals watched the matrix fill with viral information. All of the specifications and data on the virus called Lean Il Lupe flooded into it. Van der Waals tapped in a command that stored a copy of this information. He looked up as the camera switched off. Van der Waals allowed himself a momentary smile before the link matrix broadcast a single message: Upload complete. Initialize when ready.

Van der Waals typed in the command and then looked at the cylindrical chamber that served as the output. Energy swirled into the center, and soon the cylinder was glowing with blue-white energy. Van der Waals pushed back from the console to watch.

The energy slowly began to coalesce into a vague humanoid shape. Two legs, two arms, a body, and a head. Then, as the link matrix shaped the energy into the proper form, the shape became more distinct. Skin formed, taking on a bleak gray color. The internal organs filled themselves in next. The head was featureless, showing no human traits. But then a nose began to form, as well as eyes, ears, and a mouth. Silvery hair began to grow on top of his head. Armor sprang up over his body, gauntlets on his wrists, and boots and pants on his legs. His arms were out in a position almost like a crucified man. His head was back, eyes closed as the remaining energy in the cylinder flowed into his body.

The eyes opened. They were featureless glowing blue-gray. He lowered himself to the ground, and held out a hand. The last vestiges of the energy took on a long, rod-like form with a hook at the end. A black and silver cane. He clenched his hand, gripping it, then stepped out of the cylinder.

He looked at his free hand, curled into a claw. Energy sparked between his fingers. A slow, evil smile crept up his lips.

Lean Il Lupe was back.