Saber clicked his tongue at the mass amount of viruses "Man...Whoever did this really didn't want to make it easy for us to fix..." One late arrival beamed in, Baretta, already holding her pistol "Shoot to kill men, I don't want to see a single virus on this system!" Almost all in unison, the police avatars all answered Baretta with a "Yes sir!"

Saber merely chuckled "Wow...They called you 'sir', is there something you aren't telling me Baretta?" Baretta blushed deeply and scolded Saber "You're lucky you're cute Saber. Now zip it and get to work." Saber grinned and faced the viruses, already being assaulted by the squadron of avatars charging forward "Yes ma'am!"

He immediately took aim at the nearest viruses, firing at the wasps, and having his sword ready for the primates. Baretta however, had sent Kate some intel "Kathryn? There's a lot of viruses here, I'm going to need something to get them all at once. Kathryn nodded and began punching a few keys on her handheld terminal "Right, uploading scatter shot program now!"

Baretta took aim at a cluster of viruses coming at her squad and fired. A single large bullet came out, but not even a foot after firing, it exploded into almost 20 smaller bullets. One bullet hit each virus, and some extras continued on to the next batch of viruses behind that cluster.

Meanwhile, Saber was weaving in left and right, slashing primate viruses that came close while picking off wasp viruses that came at him.

Baretta looked up at the so called observer virus oddly "Interesting, but our mission stands. Eliminate all viruses, no exceptions!"

Meanwhile, Saber was taking aim at some of the wasps before noticing an oddly shaped virus hovering high over him. What seemed odd however was that it appeared to be watching his every movement. Spotting a decent path of viruses he called over three avatars, pointing at each one individually "You-fire at every virus I jump off of, you two cover him!" The avatars saluted and took position.

Saber didn't waste time as he leapt up into the air, kicking off of one virus before it gets deleted, then another, and another, before finally coming close to the 'virus'. He positioned his sword to make a diagonal slash, but at the very last minute, drew his pistol and fired right into(between) the 'virus' eye(s).

Baretta, meanwhile, had her attention focused on the second 'virus' which was weaving left and right out of each avatar's shots "Kathryn? this one is gonna be hard to hit with a straight shot." <Understood, exchanging scatter shot program with homing shot. Fire when ready!>

Baretta took careful aim at the distracted 'virus', other avatars covering her on instinct. Once she had a clean shot, and her target was locked, she pulled the trigger. A rapid moving bullet shot right at the 'virus', but just as it weaved out of the way, the bullet curved hard and made a direct hit "That looked like that was all of them, let's clear out the rest before trying to figure out what those were!" She began firing impulsively, each bullet swerving to hit its mark, and just barely missing some of the fellow avatars.

Jake saw the massive virus and just stood there, mouth agape, but quickly shook it off "All users with damaged avatars, log out now! Bring everyone else in, we're gonna need every man available!" Kate looked around coldly "You heard the boy, get your asses in there!" All of the officers immediately rushed over and logged on, some walking away now that their avatars were incapacitated.

Saber looked up to see the 'virus' flying around randomly, as if it couldn't see. Unfortunately, he couldn't get a good hit in, what with the new threat that swooped in "These things just won't erase! He landed on the ground and slashed a wide gap for him to think "Jake? I think we need to bring out the heavy artillery!" <I hear you, here comes a new one. Blade extender program loading now, this one has an added bonus to it, but it only works so many times before breaking. Take it down!>

Saber's blade nearly doubled in size, which made Saber grin confidently "Nice, we're keeping this one." He then charged the wasp, just as a whole swarm of police avis logged in all at once, firing at the lesser viruses and the large wasp like their lives depended on it. Oddly enough, it did.

Baretta noticed the fly still hovering above the area, amongst the wasps, and placed a hand on her hip "What are those things? I've never seen viruses like those...Well, it has to be taken down regardless." She took aim and fired up high, the bullet closing in fast.

Saber, in the meantime, was dodging and weaving in and out of the stinger attacks, leaping up and slashing through most of the wasps, while using some to kick off of and get more height. With each gain in altitude, he cut down more and more wasps that got in his way. He finally reached the large 'daddy' wasp, and leapt up high in the air "Aaaaagh! Take this!"

While descending, he moved for a vertical slash, straight down. If the blade didn't hit, then the shock wave definitely would have from that range.

Saber landed onto the 'ground' just as the wasp blew up, shielding himself and bracing for the aftershock of the explosion. He sighed in relief as he saw the rest of the wasps disintegrate, but still heard the buzzing of an insect's wings, looking up and seeing that same fly still in the air. What was starting to irritate him was the fact that it was once again staring at him "This bug is starting to get on my nerves...Baretta?" "I know! I know!" She took aim once again "Kathryn? I'm going to need a radial attack, they keep dodging."

Kate started to growl angrily "That little gnat is starting to piss me off." She pressed a few keys and suddenly Jake's terminal began to flash with a message window "What the-" "Just open it and download the file Derrix!" Jake nodded and pressed the accept button, and the downloaded program was installed "Burst shot? But this is-" "Just use it!" Jake jumped before punching the activation code "Burst shot coming your way Saber!"

Saber sheathed his data blade and drew the DeRez pistol, aiming up at the fly and waiting for a good shot "Let's see you survive this." He pulled the trigger and a massive bullet shot from the gun, crackling with unstable antivirus data.

Meanwhile, Baretta was keeping her cross-hair on the bug, ready to fire at just the right moment. If the blast from the burst shot didn't destroy it, she would send a homing shot straight through the fly while it was disoriented from the blast.

((I don't know about you, but this is the perfect long range tactic when dealing with a lone target. Or a small group, depending on the style of download used for the secondary shooter (I.E. Baretta). Let's see how the fly could survive this.))

Saber, having been directly below the fly at the time, approached the bug and sliced off its wings "Oh no you don't!" Baretta took her shot, but it was deflected by Saber "What are you doing Saber?!" Saber picked the bug up and walked over to Baretta "This little guy acted differently than the rest, like it wasn't trying to destroy the system. I say we bring it in and have the scientists study it."

Baretta holstered her gun and smiled "Good idea Saber, we may learn something from this thing, mainly who made it and if he's connected to this mess. Kathryn? Isolate this virus and have it ready for transport to HQ to study." <Understood, isolating now!> A small bubble formed around the sprite, and was finally sealed in a compressed firewall <There, now there's no way it can get out unless it knows the code.>[/i]

Kathryn transferred the 'virus' to the terminal of a nearby officer "And there's no way I'm gonna let it stay in my terminal to try and steal it. Alright men, sweep the area, make sure there's no surviving viruses that can corrupt the system." "Yes ma'am!"

Saber and the officers began surveying the entire traffic mainframe, all spreading out to find what was left of the viruses. Saber wasn't really having much luck "I think that's all of them Jake, I'm not seeing any more." <Right, I'll check with the others..............Alright Saber, you're clear to pull out.>

Saber nodded and his body pixelated to change back to his default settings, then pixelating and vanishing from the mainframe and reappearing in Jake's terminal. Jake looked over to Kate "Well, that was a success." Kate grinned and nodded "Yes it was. We can take care of the rest Derrix, you're dismissed."

Jake nodded and walked over to his spider, opening the terminal and talking with Saber "Hey Saber? See if you can find get hold of Mr. Matthews. He never gave us an address, so we'll need to ask him directly. My guess is it's going to be uptown for production, I'll head that way while you get the address." <I'm on it Jake.>

Saber appeared in cyber city not too long after, his cyber bike forming in front of him "This should get me around quickly, time to find those two." As Saber sped along the 'streets' of cyber city, Jake put his helmet on, and made his way towards uptown.

Meanwhile, as everyone else had logged out after a thorough scan of the area, the remaining spy fly was left undiscovered.

((Continued from The Slums

As they drew closer to the main city, Saber started picking up on the main network again [Man, it feels good to be back...Sorry about your home David...But you know, it may be a blessing in disguise. That building was most likely a condemned structure, even if not officially declared. It was very likely to be demolished by a war like that eventually, and you could have been in it when it happened.]

Jake sighed and slowed down to the highway speed limit of 55mph "I'll help you through it David, just remember my offer. You can bunk at my place, I have a pull out couch you can use to sleep. As for your clothes, that's what stores are made for. We'll go to the market district and buy you a whole new set, and I'll replace that old jury-rigged computer from the apartment with a brand new one."

He gave David a thumbs up with his left hand, albeit from behind "I'll give you the full setup. It'll take some time with the holo-bot, and I may not be able to get you a top of the line computer, but you'll have all the tools you'll need for your own affairs...Just no illegal stuff, alright? I don't want any heavy crimes that I won't be able to overlook."

"I see......Well, this whole technomancer thing is new to me, so I still have some things I need to learn. And David...I didn't mean to make it seem like I accused you of doing anything; past, present, or future...so I apologize if you took what I said as an accusation."

He pulled out of the highway just as the city streets began to light up, every store, restaurant, hotel and other type of building had its signs light up with the already lit rooms inside. The whole drive towards the apartment complex was like one big light-show. Traffic was slow tonight, so it was a somewhat peaceful ride, until Jake's bracer started beeping [Uh...Jake? You jot a message...from Lieutenant Bale...]

Jake sighed and lowered his head as they pulled up to a red light "...Great...I'll have to listen to it when we get home, I have to focus on the road for now." The light turned green and Jake got the bike up to speed again. It would be another five or so minutes until they reached the residential district, so sightseeing was more than welcome for the new, unofficial resident.

And there were many sights to see. People were walking down the streets carefree, wearing well tailored casual clothing. Given the time of day, many of the restaurants they drove past were filled with all kinds of different people, and stores were bustling with a constant flow of traffic going in and out of the buildings. Couples and groups walked into the theater as they passed by, no doubt to see the latest released films. The occasional nightly bike rider peddled down the side of the road, his reflecting mirror shining in the spider's headlights.