Location: Resonate Tracks Garage, Resonate System

Niente roared out of the garage of the Resonate Tracks on her hoverbike, clutching a long crowbar in one hand as she sped toward the access to Mid-Level and the Depths beyond. Quinn was in trouble, and Niente wouldn't forgive herself if she got there late. Some hitman from True Force, and Rollo and Tomasi? Quinn was in deep shit.

Many people wisely got out of Niente's way as she streaked down through the access and toward the Depths. She could make out gunfire down below. Niente's eyes narrowed and she swung the crowbar in her hand to gain power. In an uncharacteristic twist of humor, Niente recalled a quote attributed to the Hero Bob. "Some racist bastard tries to kill my friend? I don't think so!"

There was a bright flash from the scene of the battle. Niente gunned her engine for all it was worth, seeing the lanky gray-colored man raise the rifle to a fallen Quinn's head. Niente zoomed straight ahead and swung the crowbar with all her might.

There was a metallic clang as the crowbar struck one of the cybernetic implants on the assassin's skull. The man jerked and flew in the direction of the momentum. The rifle clattered away.

"Quinn! You okay?" Niente asked as she pulled to a stop.

"If you can call having a two-ton sprite thrown on top of your ass okay, then yeah, I'm fine," Quinn said. He clawed at the ground. "You wanna wake him up, Niente?"

Niente obliged by kicking the other sprite in the head. He blinked and came around, then squinted at Niente as he recognized her. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?"

"First I want you to get off Quinn," Niente said, hefting the crowbar to bludgeon him.

"Right, right," Tomasi said, rolling over and standing. He picked up his handcannon and stuck it in his belt. He squinted at Niente again. "You can put that thing down now."

"This coming from you? Fat chance." Niente prodded him in the chest. "What's your angle in all this?"

"The boss told Rollo and me to help Quinn out," Tomasi said as he disconnected the straps holding Quinn to his back. He then passed the paraplegic writer to her. Something else occurred to him. "Aw, basic! Rollo!"

The redheaded goon shoved past Niente to his fallen brother, who lay face down on the ground. Tomasi turned him over, then winced as he saw his brother. Much of his right side was badly burned, and there was a wicked gash on his head. Tomasi brushed some of the dust off his younger brother's face, then saw the dark stain on the front of Rollo's tanktop. There was internal damage to Rollo.

"What hit me?" Rollo whispered weakly.

"Nothing, bro, just a small laser," Tomasi said as he sat him up.

Rollo's eyes tried to focus, but weren't doing so which much success. He looked in Niente's general direction. "Is that Niente over there?"

"You know it, bro," Tomasi said. "You're gonna be okay."

"Hey, Tomasi," Rollo whispered. "Do me a favor. Tell Ma ... I love her, and give ... True Force hell for me. Send 'em all .... to rot on the Web."

"No, Rollo, don't talk like that, bro," Tomasi said, squeezing his brother's hand. "You're gonna be fine! It's just a flesh wound!"

"And tell ... the boss that I liked ... workin' for him," Rollo murmured. His head slowly slumped to rest on his chest.

Niente and Quinn turned their heads out of respect. Niente secured Quinn to her bike, seating him behind her, when she noticed movement from the rubble where Cato had landed. She turned back to Tomasi. "Hey, Exley, pardon me for interrupting your mourning, but Cato's getting back up."

Tomasi raised his head, then picked up his brother's handcannon. Drawing his own, he aimed both at Cato, who was starting to stand up. Tomasi's eyes burned with rage. "BASTARD!!" he screamed, firing both. The twin pulses sent Cato flying. Tomasi cocked both guns and fired again, then a third time.

"Tomasi! We haven't got time!" Quinn shouted. "You can't keep him down! Come on!"

But Tomasi marched through the rubble, heedless, all of his energies focused on the modified human who had killed his brother. Niente gunned her engines. "Screw him! We've got to get you out of here!"

Before Quinn could protest, she swung her bike around and drove up and out of the Depths.

Tomasi flicked a switch on his handcannons and ejected the spent charges. Flipping in fresh charges, he cocked the handcannons and aimed at Cato, who was struggling to stand up.

"Cato, just want you to know, I'm the one that's gonna erase your ass," Tomasi growled as he pulled the triggers. Two pulses streaked toward Cato. But the cybernetic assassin flipped up and out of the way and landed, kicking the Gunclaw up into his hand.

Cato's eyes glinted as he looked at Tomasi. /Recognize: Tomasi Exley. Hostile target. Objective: elimination./

Tomasi ignored Cato's drone and fired again. The first shot struck Cato high in the shoulder, but the second shot went wide as Cato rolled back out of the way. Cato raised his Gunclaw, the four barrels glowing as they fired.

The first salvo struck Tomasi in the chest, but he ignored the tingling pain and fired his handcannons. The two shots hit Cato high in the chest, throwing him back into the wall. Cato was back up in a moment, the Gunclaw's bayonet opening again to reveal the larger barrel. A large pulse flew out.

Tomasi dove away as the pulse struck the wall, causing it to explode out. He rolled toward Cato and bounded up, kicking at the Gunclaw. Cato was faster. The assassin swung the Gunclaw around and knocked one of the handcannons away with the bayonet, now closed again. Tomasi pivoted to roundhouse kick Cato, but Cato dodged back and planted a foot in Tomasi's back.

The sprite staggered forward, then turned and jumped away as the bayonet on the end of the Gunclaw suddenly fired out, spearing forward on a length of chain. The spike embedded itself in the floor, then the floor surrounding it was cracked apart as the bayonet opened to ninety-degree angles, freeing itself. The spike was pulled back.

Tomasi raised his remaining handcannon and fired. The shot struck the Gunclaw, sending it out of Cato's hands. The assassin recovered quickly, dashing forward and leaping into a powerful flying kick that broke Tomasi's nose. The sprite went down, dropping his gun, but he rolled aside to dodge the drop punch that Cato had aimed for his head. Tomasi lashed out with a foot, catching Cato in the side, but the assassin was too fast. Cato grabbed the foot with his cybernetic hand and used it to swing Tomasi around and into the wall.

Masonry fell on Tomasi as he got up, doing a handspring to avoid Cato's follow-up kick. He spun on his heels as he landed, facing Cato in a fighting stance. Cato sized him up, then pounced. Tomasi caught Cato's wrists, then pivoted and threw him bodily out of the way.

Cato landed on his side and rolled into the wall. Tomasi ran at him as he struggled to get up and threw himself into a sliding kick. Cato's head snapped back, a nasty CRACK coming from his neck. Tomasi stood up, looking down at the assassin, then turned, picked up his handcannon (the other one had been wrecked by the bayonet), and dashed for the Mid-Level Access.

Location: David's Room

DaVinci scratched at his chin as he considered his links in Great Codex. They were all still disabled, preventing anyone from tracing him, but he pondered their usefulness. He'd never considered using them to hack TruPharm-Net from a distance, but Naught's resourcefulness had intrigued him. This might actually be a good idea.

If he could get into TruPharm-Net, he could find Dr. Archer's files. The corrupt doctor was obviously Lazarus' equivalent of Herr Doktor, the somewhat comical villain figure from the Hero Legends. The difference was that where Herr Doktor was a cackling mad scientist, Dr. Archer was much more intelligent and much more dangerous. DaVinci had no doubt that she'd taken steps to safeguard her files.

"But then," DaVinci said to himself, "they haven't yet built the system that I can't hack."

Still, this wasn't going to be easy. Lazarus had probably hired a few hackers himself. They would home in on his signal, trace it to his links, and then try to trace him to the Resonate. If they couldn't get to his home link, then they'd disable his links in Great Codex. DaVinci was good, but two hackers were better than one. Despite his skill, he could get too distracted by focusing on one opponent, leaving him open to attack from the other.

The solution? Get help.

Location: Naught & Nada's Hacking Parlor

"This is just what I was waiting for!" Naught said happily. "Another shot at TruPharm-Net."

"I don't know, David. This seems like an unnecessary risk," Nada said.

"As long as True Force stays out of the public eye, the Guardians can't do anything," David said. "All we proved was that TruPharm was behind the massacres. We need to make True Force go public. That will enable the Guardians to move in. To force True Force's hand, we have to hack TruPharm-Net."

"I'm in, whatever the risk," Naught said. "This is gonna be large! I'll be all over the papers!"

"How exactly are you going to turn the spotlight on True Force?" Nada asked.

"If I can find Dr. Archer's files on TruPharm-Net," David said, "then I know I can find Lazarus' files there. I know how he thinks; I used to work for him. Lazarus will have stored his True Force files there."

Nada was silent as she considered. "All right. I'll run block for you. But I'll leave all the true hack-work of getting the files to you and Naught. I'm not going to get myself involved any more than I have to."

"That's all I ask." DaVinci tapped his icon, starting up his hacking programs. "Besides, you're a better blocker anyway. Naught's the whiz at hack-work."

The trio of hackers started up their work, DaVinci slowly initializing his Great Codex links.

Location: Downtown District Depths, Resonate System

Down in the Depths, subroutines came to life in Cato's body. A metal tube slid down and covered his broken spinal column in his neck. Nanites moved in and began to effect repairs to the spinal cord. Cato blinked once, his eyes glittering, and then he sat up.

His eyes narrowed and he held out his cybernetic hand. Specific magnets activated, pulling the Gunclaw rifle back to it. Cato stood and turned his head to look upward toward the Mid-Level and the Surface beyond it.

Gathering the charred remains of his cloak around him, Cato strode to the side of a building that extended upward toward the Mid-Level. He raised the Gunclaw and thumbed a control. The bayonet fired out on its chain, the spikes pivoting out to form a large grappling hook. The hook caught. Expressionless, Cato tapped another control, and the chain retracted, pulling Cato up to the edge of the building. Standing, Cato aimed upward again and fired the claw again.

Niente and Quinn had paused to recount what had happened. Quinn explained that he had been meeting with the Industry producers when Cato had showed up, heralded by a warning from a disembodied Lean. Quinn had been about to be shot by the assassin when Rollo and Tomasi had shown up, blasting Cato away and hauling Quinn out of there. They had fled to the Depths, but Cato was too quick to lose.

Niente then finished. "Then Cato used some more powerful attack and knocked Tomasi down and killed Rollo. That's when I found you."

"Right," Quinn said. "Now we gotta get me back to my apartment. I have another chair there. Then we get to the Central Sector. If I can get word to Cal Hostan, at least they can make an attempt to save my life from this guy."

"We should also notify David," Niente said. "You saw him. He had cybernetic implants on his head. If David can hack the frequency, we can take Cato out."

"Good idea. Let's hit my apartment first."

/Escape is useless./

A pulse went by Quinn's head, missing him by millimeters and making his short hair stand on end from the energized particles left it its wake. Niente whipped her head around, spotting Cato striding towards them, Gunclaw raised. Niente gunned the engines, and her hoverbike screamed up into the air, flying over Cato's head on its way to the Surface Access.

Cato watched it expressionlessly, then looked up, putting away his rifle as he hailed a hovertaxi. The sprite taxi driver landed in front of him. Cato reached out, snapped his neck with a flick of his cybernetic hand, then climbed into the driver's seat and followed Niente and Quinn.

Cato kicked out the door to the taxi, then leaned out and drew his Gunclaw, firing at Quinn. Niente weaved her bike, the shots all streaking around her and her passenger, as Quinn pumped round after round at Cato. Each of Quinn's pulses spanged off the windshield of the taxi, leaving gashes in the transparisteel.

Niente swore. "Dammit, that guy just will not give up!"

"I think Lazarus wanted him that way!" Quinn hollered back as he pumped another shot at the cyborg assassin. The pulse caused the windshield to crack into a spiderweb pattern. Cato sat up straighter, then drove his cybernetic fist through the window, shattering the rest of it, the transparisteel shards falling away.

Cato swung the Gunclaw around and braced it against the windshield's frame, opening the large barrel and arming a pulse. His bionic eyes glinted as he aimed with deadly precision. He would not miss this time.

Location: Sector Avi, Resonate System

Tomasi had watched all of this with growing hatred. As much as he hated Quinn and the Aughts, he now hated Cato even more than the rest of them. Cato had killed his brother, but the User would not die. Tomasi was certain that last blow he'd dealt was fatal. He'd heard Cato's neck snap.

Tomasi however, shrugged it aside as he grabbed a zip-board out from under a passing Resonate citizen, then hopped aboard to pursue the speeding taxi and bike. He reloaded his handcannon and aimed it at the back of Cato's taxi.

"You WILL die, you son of a bitch!" Tomasi roared as he fired two shots. The first blew out the rear window, and the second knocked off its fender. He pumped the action and aimed again. The next two-shot salvo blew off a good portion of the back of the vehicle.

Tomasi pumped the action as Cato turned to see him. He started to swing the Gunclaw around, but the sprite scowled.

"Not this time!"

He fired again. The first shot ripped through the framework of the taxi, and the second struck the fuel pods. With a deafening WHAM, the taxi exploded in a white-hot fireball. The wreckage fell in the gap between Sector Avi and Sector D-Nine. Tomasi smirked. With any luck, Cato's remains would land deep down in the Depths. The assassin wouldn't be getting up any time soon.

He came up behind Niente and Quinn, who had stopped just after the taxi exploded. "You two get out of here. I'm going to Great Codex."

"Why on Earth would you go back there?" Quinn asked.

"Because that's where True Force is," Tomasi said, "and I ain't gonna rest until Lazarus dies."

"Could you drop Dr. Archer while you're at it?" Niente asked.

Tomasi smirked. "She'll die first. Then I'm going to boil Lazarus alive...real slow."

The blue sprite then swooped away on his stolen zip-board.

Niente watched him go, then said, "What do you make of that?"

"I'm not sure," Quinn admitted. "But whatever the case, Lazarus has a real demon to contend with now."

"What made him and Rollo save you for anyway?" Niente asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Quinn said.

Niente kicked her engines into gear and headed for the Ray Building. "Try me."

"Okay," Quinn said. "A Class-17 virus named Elogin found Lean after he helped us fight off those True Force agents in Great Codex. She literally consumed him. Apparently, that's what this virus does. For some reason, Lean's consciousness was not absorbed by Elogin. Somehow, Elogin knew about Cato's augmentation, and Lean found this out. He used the other virus' telepathic abilities to warn Rollo and Tomasi, and told them to save my ass."

"That still doesn't make sense," Niente said. "Lean hates all our guts. Why would he save us?"

"Because he dislikes True Force even more. Remember the old adage, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'? True Force sees us as a major threat, so Lean decided to help us out. Unfortunately, he can only use Elogin's abilities for so long before she gets wise and wipes him out completely." Quinn shrugged. "It's bizarre, but it's plausible. All's we gotta do is warn the others."

Location: Unknown

Lean Il Lupe was confused.

The place where he was appeared to be utterly featureless. No walls, no floor, and no ceiling. It was an utter void, a bleak nothingness filled with gray mist. He could hear wails of pain, misery, and suffering around him. Lean instinctively reached into himself to activate his shield protocol.

Nothing happened. Lean looked at himself. His armor was gone. He was wearing the black jumpsuit he wore as Andrew Ginole, but he was still himself. Curious, Lean tried to access his chameleon abilities, but again, nothing happened. His cane was gone, but he could not create another one from his energy reserves. He had no energy reserves!

What in the name of Darkness was going on?

A vague face appeared in the mist before him, mouthing 'help me' before vanishing. Lean blinked. It looked like Taggart, the first sprite he'd ever met in his life. The one who'd aided him, believing Lean to be a sprite beset upon by anti-sprite humans and left an amnesiac. That was very disconcerting.

Lean turned in a circle, looking at the nothingness again. This was very odd.

"So, you're still here, are you?"

Lean froze. The slightly resonating feminine voice sent a shiver through his bitmap. He turned around to see the form of the Class-17 virus emerge from the mists. Lean shied back, raising his arms in a defensive posture. Elogin just laughed.

"Lean, you utter fool," Elogin said, "you can't do a blasted thing to me here. All your teeth are gone, Wolf, and so are your claws. You are no threat to me."

"Where am I?" Lean asked. "What am I doing here?"

"You're inside my head," Elogin replied. She put one of her long, slender fingers to her chin and tapped it thoughtfully. "But your second question does pose an interesting point. What are you doing here? Normally my meals end up being absorbed into myself, but you haven't. That's very unusual."

"Let me out!" Lean screamed at her.

Elogin just laughed again. "Dear boy, how can I do that? You literally don't exist materially anymore. You're just a little subroutine in my head that I'll delete eventually." She frowned, her eyes changing colors rapidly as she thought. "First, I just have to figure out why you're still thinking."

Lean charged forward, heedless of the dangers of confronting a Class-17 virus (needless to say how dangerous it is to confront one who's already consumed you), swinging a fist at her. His fist passed harmlessly through her, and Elogin looked up, eyes narrowing.

"Really? What do you hope to accomplish?" She swatted him with one long-fingered hand, and Lean flew backward as though struck by one of his Golems. Elogin shook her head. "Lean, you can't hurt me. Just give it up." Then she brightened. "Oh, I know how I can figure out this little puzzle!"

The mists formed a second female form beside Elogin, this one clad in a sleek dark jumpsuit without sleeves. Her hair had wild curls, and she wore a VR headset. The hacker looked at Lean with interest.

"Well! Isn't that interesting?" Sagittaria said with a faint trace of Archer's British accent. She turned to Elogin. "What's he doing here?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Elogin replied. "I can't seem to absorb him like I can other sprites. But that's not all. Apparently, Mr. Il Lupe decided to occupy himself by accessing my protocols."

Sagittaria looked at him sharply. "Really?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "What should we do about that?"

Elogin shrugged. "I vote to simply purge him. We don't need what he knows."

"Yes we do!" Sagittaria snapped. "We need to get access to his technology in Omega-Cragis!"

Elogin snapped her long fingers. "Drat, that's right." She grinned maliciously at Lean. "Too bad. I'd enjoy breaking him before deleting him."

Lean scowled, clenching his fists. "Excuse me! I'm standing right here!"

Both the hacker and the virus looked directly at him. "Oh yes," Elogin said.

"There you are," Sagittaria finished.

Sagittaria tilted her head, and the mists around Lean solidified into a barrier around him. The other virus started, then pounded on the sides of the solid cocoon, to no avail. Lean suspected that as Sgt. Nichols he could probably break it, but Elogin had disabled his chameleon abilities. That option was gone.

"Look, he's trying to devise a way out!" Elogin said with a laugh.

Sagittaria smirked. "Deal with him. I have to get back to TruPharm before Lazarus gets suspicious."

"Indeed," Elogin smirked. Sagittaria vanished into the mists. Elogin hovered forward until she stood just outside the barrier around Lean.

"LET ME OUT!" Lean roared.

Elogin winced, then made a pinching motion with her fingers. Lean gagged as his speech subroutine was disabled. He snarled and pounded at the barrier again. Elogin shook her head. Lean blinked as he felt his mouth seal shut. Elogin cackled.

"Like it? I got the idea from a movie I saw once," the Class-17 said. She shook her head. "I'll give you this much, Lean: you're clever. But you're not going to be making any use of this virus' protocols anymore!"

Lean's eyes narrowed as he glared at Elogin through the barrier. She smiled her sharp-toothed smile and ran a claw along the crystal-like barrier. "Now I just have extract what I want to know from your central memory cortex."

Lean shook his head, implying that she could try as much as she wanted, but he would never tell her anything.

Elogin, sensing Lean's thoughts, shook her head. "You should know, Lean, that I have ingested countless sprites and lesser viruses. They all resisted me, but none have ever stood up to me. Indeed, I once ate a Class-14." Lean reeled back. Elogin nodded, grinning. "That's right. You are just a mere Class-8. I will get what I want to know, fool."

Lean staggered back against the barrier around him as his mind was overwhelmed by incredible force. He sat paralyzed, his eyes staring but not seeing as the Class-17 gripped his mind.

"And I will get it...right now!"

Location: Naught & Nada's Hacking Parlor

DaVinci rubbed his temples for a moment as he sifted through the many security routines on his links. Surf looked over. "Something wrong, DaVinci?"

"Nah, just a headache," the human hacker said. "Let's keep at it, okay? I have to prove TruPharm's link to the True Force. We have to find that data."

"Right," Aztral said. "I'm up. Set to go. Point me in the right direction and I'll crash some servers!"

"Patience, Aztral," Surf said. "We have to take this slow. Going fast is the easiest way to trip anti-hack software."

The male sprite scoffed. "Please! I'm not afraid of anti-hack software."

DaVinci shook his head as he logged them on with Great Codex Netwide, the system intranet to which TruPharm-Net was connected. One of the things he liked about GCN was its anonymity. GCN-users were guaranteed lack of identity while using it, which was why GCN was very popular among hackers.

DaVinci put his computer on standby and turned to face the Flip Side Felons. "Okay, guys, I know how TruPharm-Net works. I set it up, after all. So I'll upload my data to your computer, okay, Surf? You are the one running block, after all. You'll need to know this in order to get around the security systems I set up. Aztral, since you and I are doing the true hack-work, I'll upload what I know about the set-up of the dBases into your computer.

"Bear in mind that Lazarus or Dr. Archer may have reorganized how some of this stuff is set up, so don't get lazy. GCN may give us the status of nonentities, but an accomplished hacker can trace someone somewhat given the right information and the right amount of time. You have to think fast. If Lazarus notices our intrusion, we're likely to attract the True Force's goons. That's a bad thing."

"How so?" Aztral asked. "You said yourself that we have to force the True Force to go public. Isn't that what we need?"

"I'd rather not force Lazarus out into the open if it means the risk of my personal health like that," DaVinci said.

"Sensible," Surf remarked.

DaVinci turned and keyed a few commands on his computer, then looked at them. "Right. You guys have got the info. Now, go slow at first. That will keep my security systems inactive. Once we're in--and I'll give you the signal when we have--don't waste time. Use finesse, efficiency. Find what we need and get out. When you get that deep into TruPharm-Net, it doesn't matter how slow you go, the sec-systems are going to see you."

The trio of hackers turned to their computers and slowly delved into the world of bits, bytes, and free data.

Somewhere within the recesses of Elogin's mind, the Class-17 virus delved into the memory cortex of Lean Il Lupe.

Somewhere above the Resonate System, Niente and Quinn streaked toward the Central Sector as fast as her damaged hoverbike could go.

Somewhere in the Great Codex System, Tomasi Exley's thoughts turned toward the tall spire of TruPharm Incorporated Headquarters.

Somewhere inside TruPharm, Dr. Archer furthered her own goals while Lazarus ran the True Force, unaware.

Somewhere beneath the Resonate Surface, the cybernetic assassin Cato hauled himself out of the charred wreckage of the taxi.