"Aside from a slight headache -- either from the booze or a house blowing up in front of me, or both -- yeah, I'm fine," Justice said without humor.

Burke shook his head.  "I meant since ... then."

Justice glanced at him.  He was silent for several moments, as if trying to decide whether or not to tell him.  Finally, he said, "Considering that I was put through the closest thing to Hell during seven of those twelve years, yeah, I've been okay."

Now Burke looked at Justice.  Really looked.  "You...what?"

Justice responded by turning slightly in his seat and tugging his shirt up, exposing his lower back.  Burke craned his neck to get a better look.  Crisscrossing the flesh there were numerous slash scars, as well as a few shiny patches of burn scars.  Most prominent, however, was the hideous puncture scar below Justice's kidneys.  Wordlessly, Justice turned his head to look over his shoulder at Burke.

"Jeezus," Burke whispered.  "What happened to you?"

"I don't talk about it," Justice grated.  He pulled his shirt back down and turned back in his seat.  "Partly because of what I did to the one who gave me most of those."  He gave Burke a cold, hard look.  "It makes what Renei did to you look like a medical exam."

Burke blanched.

"So," Justice concluded, "I'd appreciate it if you would never bring the subject up again."

So would I, Burke thought to himself.  He sipped his root beer.  "So who's this Chaotis bloke?"

Justice grunted.  "I first ran into him during that Vector job.  He was hired by someone within the Government -- my suspicion is that it was Senator Brosky."

Burke choked on his root beer.  "What?" he sputtered.

"Oh, he's denied it and he's covering for ti by going on this anti-hacking kick," Justice frowned.  "Anyway, when Brosky's System Upkeep Committee uploaded Vector's patch, Chaotis had put viral coding within the patch -- releasing a Class Twelve who took over half the system.  After Dirk, Sil, and I purged the system, we found a connection to a guy who called himself Chaotis, the Hacker Anarch."

"What's he look like?"

"Dunno.  He wore a mask.  We managed to determine that he's either human or he's a sprite.  But we don't know which.  Anyway, Chaotis hinted that he was hired by Brosky, but lacking any evidence, I wasn't able to make it stick."  Justice swigged his beer.  "I've been wanting another shot at him.  Maybe this time I'll be able to link him to Brosky."

A few minutes later, Dirk, Sil, and Cowboy came into the Risc Bar.  Sentry, who had been lying down next to Justice, perked up and bounded over to his owner.  Sil scratched his head and let him lick her hand, chuckling a bit as Cowboy gave the big hound a wide berth.  Cowboy, despite knowing that Sentry was harmless unless Sil ordered him otherwise, was still a bit scared of him.  Dirk seated himself next to Burke, leaning way back in his chair, tugging his glove back into place on his arm.

Justice looked at Cowboy, whose clothing was in a sorry state of wetness.  The young hacker took off his Stetson hat and shook it out, beating it against his arm, then straightening it.  He removed his wool overcoat and likewise shook it out.  He smoothed his hair out and then replaced his hat before seating himself.  Dirk, Sil, and Burke all had grins on their faces -- indeed, this routine was comical.  Cowboy looked up, brushed an errant strand of wet hair out of the way, then said, "Nice weather we're having."

That did it; Dirk, Sil, and Burke all started laughing.  Dirk collapsed on the table and beat his gloved fist on it, earning a startled bark from Sentry, who had curled up underneath.  Sil was leaning her head back, her eyes tearing up.  Burke was wheezing into his fist, humor getting the better of his Guardian training.  Only Justice wasn't smiling.  His dark eyes circled the table, then looked at the Bit, which was hovering just a few feet away.  The Bit's "front" swiveled to face Justice, and the little cloud blipped once.  Justice shrugged and drained the rest of his beer.  He set it down and looked critically at everyone until they calmed down.

Cowboy, during all this, had a confused look on his face.  Burke managed to get enough control back to wipe his eyes and ask, "What happened, Calvin?  Step in a Texas-sized puddle?"  This remark sent Dirk -- himself a Texan -- into fresh spasms of laughter.

Cowboy chuckled a bit and wiped more moisture off his forehead.  "Actually, no.  Just before I left the Server, it started raining.  I got soaked before I got on my transport."

This sobered Burke quickly.  He sat up.  "The Server?  You said it rained in the Server?"  He picked up his notepad and quickly punched a few things into it.

"Yeah," Cowboy said.  "What's the big?  It rains sometimes."

"Yes," Burke admitted, "but it wasn't on the Server's forecast today."

Cowboy blinked and looked at Justice for explanation.  "Burke works for Metaverse Administration.  He knows that sort of stuff."

"Oh," Cowboy replied.  "So how do I figure into this?  Doesn't Admin have better hackers for this sort of thing?"

"That's the problem," Dirk said.  "Someone in Administration caused this problem."  He borrowed Burke's pad and brought up the message from Caliban.  After it was done, and Cowboy blinked in horror at what had been wrought, Dirk took it back and scrolled the feed back to a point and froze it.  "Recognize anything?"

Cowboy examined the frozen frame, then blinked again.  "Those swirls...Chaotis?  That masked looney who helped shut down Vector?"

Justice nodded.  "Same guy.  What we need you for is help get that bug out of the Prospero Protocols."

"The what?"

Justice sighed and let Burke explain it.  While this was happening, Justice leaned over to Sil.  "I'll be taking you with me when I go to track down Chrome.  Borrow a scanner from Dirk.  I'll let him help Burke keep an eye on Cowboy."

"What do you mean, keep an eye on him?" Sil asked.

"Cowboy's still pretty new at this sort of thing.  Since Dirk has more experience with computer systems maintenance -- hell, he fixes the damn thing on the Grizzly -- and Burke has experience with the Teracomp's systems, they're the logical choices.  Besides, with your F'Val senses and Sentry along, we might be able to find Chrome faster."

"Why track down Chrome?" Sil asked.  "He's not the threat -- he's just a thug."

"I have a feeling that some of the warez Chrome is using have been supplied by Chaotis," Justice replied, "and I mean to use that to track Chaotis."

Burke finished explaining the Prospero Protocols to Cowboy, who looked a bit intrigued/excited/surprised.  Justice made a mental note to remind Cowboy that anything he learned about the Teracomputer's systems was incredibly private.  Considering things, Cowboy would probably get hired by the Government to work for Administration, provided they could get Senator Brosky to vote in favor of it.

"So that's all you need me for?" Cowboy asked.  "I should be able to do it.  Avi taught me enough about that sort of thing.  Hell, if I can keep a Mousetrap going for over a year, I think this should be not too big a problem."  He looked at the Caliban image again.  "Although if my guess is correct, Chaotis will probably have the bug encrypted somehow, making it tough to find or delete.  We may have to get the cipher from him."

Justice and Sil shared a look, and then the mercenary said, "Don't worry, Cowboy, Sil and I will take care of that.  You work on finding the damn thing, and we'll worry about the cipher."

The F'Val pilot came over with a scanner.  She swept it in the air near Sentry, then nodded.  "Yeah, there's the energy signature of a portal."  She put the scanner down and looked at Justice.  "Wouldn't happen to have a keytool with you, would you?"

"Nope," Justice said, "left mine at home."  Sil blinked; if she didn't know him better, she'd almost swear he made a joke.

Sil looked back at the scanner device.  "There might be a way to jury-rig this scanner to generate a portal for us...can I borrow one of your spare energy clips?"  Justice took one off his belt and tossed it to her.  She caught it and attached it to the scanner's power cells.  Taking her multitool off her belt, she opened the casing and manipulated a few of the components inside.  "I use the portal-gen on the Grizzly often enough that I should be able to make one with this..."

After a few minutes, Sil flicked her multitool shut and closed the casing.  "Stand back," she ordered.  "Dunno if this'll work."

She aimed it at the spot where Chrome had disappeared and tapped a few controls.  A blue beam swept over the spot, then a tear blossomed into being, sparking and buzzing harshly.  Behind Justice's shoulder, the Bit blipped and ducked out of sight, startled.  Justice didn't respond, merely watched closely as a green pulse shot into the tear from Sil's scanner.  A portal sprang up.  She looked back.  "Right!  That's it!  Let's go!"

Justice hefted his pistol and dove through the portal, the Bit following.  Sentry and Sil were close behind.  Justice landed in a crouch, pistol pointed up beside his head, then he raised his eyes and stood slowly, keeping his pistol up as he swept his gaze over the area.  Seeing no immediate threat, he beckoned Sil and Sentry into sight.  Justice looked back at her.  "Any way to tell where we are?"

"Not without reopening the scanner and putting everything back, and we'll need this to get back," Sil replied.  "So that's not a good idea."

"Okay..."  Justice dropped his pistol to the side and looked at the Bit.  "Okay, Bit."

"YeS!"

"You're going to be a scout for us," Justice said.  "Go out and do a reconnoiter.  Come back as soon as possible, and we'll ask what you saw.  If you see anything important -- like Chrome or Chaotis -- just lead us in their direction."

"yEs!"

The Bit bobbed once in the air, then rose up and around the corner.  Justice watched it go, then looked back at Sil, who was tossing away the empty energy clip.  Seeing this, Justice tossed her another one, which she clipped to her belt.  Sentry sniffed the ground and growled.  Justice looked at him, then crouched beside him.  "What is it?  Smell something?"  Sentry whuffed.  "Chrome?"  Sentry growled again.

"So we're in the right place," Sil said.  "Now we just have to find out where in this system he is."

"Not to mention what system we're in."

Then Chrome's reflection appeared in one of the screens.  Chaotis looked up and turned to face the massive cyborg.  "What is it, Chrome?"

Chrome focused his gaze on the computers.  His lens-covered eye glinted as information flickered on the inside of it, and then a new screen sprang up.  Chaotis squinted at it.  A man with a scraggly brown beard and glittering obsidian eyes was peering around a corner.  Chaotis blinked and then cackled again.  "Ah!  Nathan Justice!  What luck, this'll get him out of the way nice and quickly."  Chaotis nodded to Chrome.  "He's all yours, Chrome."

Chrome nodded and plodded off, the screen with Justice vanishing as he turned away.  Chaotis looked up at Caliban, who started to speak, as though to a Government official.  "`Ban, `Ban, Ca-Caliban!  Unless twenty million credits are paid to the following numbered account in the next three days, I will destroy five major systems in the Metaverse."

"Now, then," Chaotis laughed, "let's give S-Comp a preview of coming attractions."  He pressed a few controls on his console, then watched with glee as the skies started to darken over the Supercomputer.

"Well, that complicates things," Dirk remarked.  "I'm no hacker, but I know enough to know that if Cal wants to get into Koracks' files, he needs to have access to Koracks' computer."

"Not a problem," Burke said, leading them down a corridor.  He stopped outside an office and swept his keytool in front of the door.  A panel beeped, and the door slid open.  The office inside was actually pretty spacious, with enough other desks and computers and miscellaneous papers and trash to qualify as a small police precinct.  A few vidwindows were open on the walls, with various notes scribbled on them with a stylus.  A few people in white-collar shirts looked up as Burke entered.  Burke raised a hand in greeting.  "Bill, Victor, this is Dirk and Cal.  They're here to help out with the investigation.  I have to go fill out some paperwork down at IA.  If they ask for anything, give it to them."  He turned to Cowboy.  "We confiscated Koracks' computer, so you can do all your work there.  Dirk, you just hang out, whatever, but for the sake of all that is sweet and good, don't go pissing anybody off.  I'm going to be in enough trouble as it is."

"What's that, Tom?" Bill, a sky-blue sprite, asked.

"I'll explain later, Bill," Burke replied.  "I'll be back later," he told Dirk and Cowboy, then left the office.

Cowboy immediately went over to Bill and Victor (who was a human, a bit overweight) and shook their hands.  "I'm Cal West.  Where's Dr. Koracks' computer?"

"Over here," Victor said, pointing at what looked like a 20th Century-comparable desktop computer.  "It's been disconnected from the rest of our systems so the bug won't spread any farther than it has.  We've sterilized our systems and set up firewalls around that one, so when we plug in we can't get hit."

"Good," Cowboy said, going over and seating himself next to it, then realized it was fairly large.  "What's he doing with such a big piece of ware?"

"With the coding that Koracks did for Administration," Bill replied, "he needed a computer that could do some serious compiling and number-crunching.  So that thing is probably about as powerful as a pre-colonial supercomputer."

"Taking into account all the re-classification and such," Victor added, "that thing is pretty damn powerful.  So once we get all the data we need and purge the 'Verse of this bug, we can sterilize it and put it back to work."

Cowboy nodded as he plucked his faux-icon out of his coat and set it on the table.  Unlike most faux-icons, which resembled the icons that sprites wore, his looked like a tin "sheriff" star.  He tapped it and popped out his keyboard and screen.  Bill saw the faux-icon and looked at him.  "You're the Cowboy?" Bill asked.  "The Tin Star Hacker?"

Cowboy looked over, a bit wary.  "That's right."

"The guy who kept Vector compiling?" Victor asked.

"That's right."

Bill and Victor both looked impressed, and the sprite gave a whistle.  "Man, you're pretty damn good.  You're like a DaVinci or something.  It takes some serious skillz for that."

Cowboy was flattered by the praise, and didn't have the heart to tell them that he was as lucky as he was skilled.  So he just laughed and said, "That's right!"

"You guys need me to do anything?" Dirk asked.  "Fiddle with some hardware or something?"

"Tell you what you can do," Victor said.  "You can take Koracks' comp and open 'er up for us.  We're going to have to hook the boards and stuff up to diagnostic machines and with the tests we'll be running, we need it opened up anyway."

"No sweat," Dirk said, taking out his multitool and moving over with purpose.  "`Sides," the mechanic added, "most of this hacker stuff is way over my head."  As he worked, he asked, "If the Teracomputer's actually in Silicon Valley, or close to there -- why is Administration in the Supercomputer, which is in Seattle?"

"Convenience," Bill replied.  "Think about it -- Guardian HQ is here, so is the World Council.  Makes sense to have everything relatively close to each other."

"Kind of stupid though," Dirk said.  "I mean, if you got a skilled enough hacker, you could conceivably wipe S-Comp out of existence with the right hacks."

"Buddy, even Orion would have trouble doing that," Victor said.  "The second anyone made a hack that affected anything in the Supercomputer adversely, they'd trip so many security protocols that we'd zero in on their position in about three milliseconds.  Then we'd tag 'em, catch 'em, then roast them on a spit."

Dirk said nothing as he slid the casing off Koracks' computer, then looked out a window and stopped.  "Well, then, buddy," Dirk said to Victor, "I think you'd better tell Chaotis that, 'cuz I don't think he's done that."

Victor, Bill, and Cowboy all looked up to see rain pouring down on the Supercomputer, and lightning crackling away in the sky.  "Oh, crap," Bill said after glancing at a vidwindow.  "Nary a protocol tripped."

"It's Caliban," Cowboy said as he tapped away at his keyboard.  "It got into your systems before you locked them down and sterilized them.  Now it's nicely entrenched, which means it's going to be a bitch getting it out of there."

Victor sighed, "Well, the longest journey begins with the--"

"Vic, you finish that sentence, I swear to the Maker I'm going to kick your teeth in," Bill said as he pulled his own computer over and started doing a thorough sweep of every major computer system in Administration.  Dirk ignored it as he finished his dismantling of Koracks' computer, then sat back and wished he had DT-Three here to tinker on.

"YeS!"

"Did you see Chaotis?"

"nO!"

"Did you see Chrome?"

"yEs!"

"Where is he?"

"No!"

Justice could have kicked himself for that.  He kept forgetting that the Bit could only answer in yes' or no's.  "All right, is Chrome close by?"

"Yes."

Sil blinked.  "That didn't sound like the Bit's normal voice."

"That's because it wasn't," the same voice replied.  It was much deeper than the Bit electronic squawk and more grating.  Justice immediately drew his pistol and dropped into a crouch, aiming toward the entrance to the alley.  Right on cue, the massive metal-covered form of the cyborg Chrome stepped into view.  His golden ocular implant swung into targeting mode as he looked at them, his skeletal mouth grinning at them.  Somehow, however, Justice doubted that Chrome actually felt like smiling.

"Ah, yes, I remember you," Justice said, not lowering his pistol, and not changing his own expression.  "Smiley, that big cyborg at DeBaker's house."

Chrome responded to this by raising one huge metal fist and spreading his fingers.  The circular port on his palm opened and a thick laser beam spat out.  Justice rolled out of the way and fired a pulse at Chrome's skull.  The shot struck the cyborg clean between the eyes, knocking the head back, but then Chrome raised his head back up and looked at him.

"Don't call me Smiley," Chrome said, then fired again.  Justice kick-jumped off the wall and fired his cutting beam from the air.  Impossibly, the intense laser reflected off Chrome's cobalt-blue chest and cut a smoking line along the brick wall.  Justice dropped into a crouch and reconsidered his options.

During all this, Sentry had dropped into a tense crouch while he growled at the cyborg.  Sil had flicked out her sword and was sizing up Chrome, trying to decide which bits to chop off first.  While the cyborg was distracted with Justice, Sil made a decision and sprang up to slice at his shoulder.  Before her sword could connect, Chrome's other hand rose up and neatly plucked the sword from her fingers, tossing it over his shoulder.  In the same movement, Chrome swung the same hand out and delivered a jarring blow to Sil's chest, knocking her flat against the brick wall.

At that, Sentry barked and pounced, snarling, at Chrome.  The cyborg swung his fist down and smacked Sentry out of the air, and the dog landed with a whining grunt on the ground.  As he dodged another bolt from Chrome, Justice whistled at Sentry.  The hound looked in his direction, and Justice made a low swing with his arm, fingers fisted.  He pointed at Chrome and shouted, "Sic 'im, Sentry!"

The Irish wolfhound howled and charged again, this time lowering his head and driving himself into Chrome's leg.  The cyborg staggered back slightly as the dog charged past, but ignored the dog.  After all, if Justice's gun couldn't harm him, what chance did claws and teeth have?

That's when Sentry charged forward again and this time caught Chrome in the back of his knee before rolling to a stop beside a dazed Sil.  Chrome fell to his knee with a metallic grunt, and Justice fired his pulse at that same moment.  The shot struck Chrome straight in his lens-covered eye, and the recoil stunned the cyborg enough to weaken his stance further.  Justice charged and aimed a dropkick at Chrome's face.

Then Chrome showed his incredible speed again, his fist grabbing Justice out of the air and hurling him bodily into the concrete.  Justice grunted as he felt his ribs bruise, then fought to catch his breath as Chrome maintained his grip and raised him to bodyslam him again.

Sil got up and leapt on Chrome's back, grabbing him around the neck and pulling back.  With a surprised grunt, Chrome stood up, Justice dangly semi-limply from his hand as he reached back with the other one to grab at Sil.  The F'Val lithely squirmed out of the way of Chrome's grabbing fist, then yanked back again, pulling his head further back.  Dropping Justice (who fell to the pavement somewhat painfully), Chrome reached back with both fists to grab at Sil.  Sil released her grip and grabbed Chrome's wrists.  Using them as a fulcrum, she swung herself around in front of Chrome and delivered a sharp kick to his windpipe.

Chrome didn't notice.  He shook his wrists free of her grip effortlessly and grabbed her own wrists and hauled her close, then wrapped his arms around her in a crushing bearhug.  Sil groaned -- the pressure was too great for a full-blown scream -- and managed a smile as Sentry barrelled into Chrome's knee again.  The cyborg sank to his knee again, releasing Sil to grab Sentry by the scruff of his neck as the dog tried to get out of range.  Pulling the dog close, Chrome drove his metal skull into Sentry's head, rendering the hound unconscious.

Justice moaned a bit as he struggled to his hands and knees, some blood trickling out of his mouth from where he'd connected with the pavement.  He turned to see his pistol and managed to stuff it into his shirt as Chrome picked him back up.  The cyborg then lifted Sil and held the two a couple feet apart, looking back and forth between the two.  Then, with a quick movement, Chrome drove them into each other, rendering both senseless.

Tucking the two under one arm, Chrome picked up Sentry in his other hand and clutched him under one arm as well.  Then, with his plodding stride, Chrome started back toward Chaotis' lab.  He'd let the Hacker Anarch decide exactly what he wanted to do with them.

Back in the alley, the Bit cautiously poked itself out of the trash bin it had hid itself in during the commotion.  It looked at the small splatter of blood from Justice's mouth and the burn marks all over the walls, and said, "nO!"

Blipping to itself, the Bit swung out of the alley and set off in pursuit of the departing cyborg.