In the time she had known Zipp, Mouse had rarely seen her without her
sunglasses. Mouse had never thought much about it; she had always passed it
off as some little quirk of Zipp's. It was harmless, so Mouse had no need
to ask questions. Zipp liked to wear them, and that was that. Perhaps Zipp
was embarrassed about her eyes. Not that Mouse blamed her. They weren't
that attractive. Zipp had actually laughed when Mouse had tactlessly told
her that once. But that was cycles ago. Mouse had not, back then, realized
anything unusual about Zipp's eyes. Now she knew better.
As Zipp pulled the glasses away, Mouse saw her eyes once more. They were
nicely shaped into large ovals, fringed by startingly green lashes. But the
eyes themselves consisted each of a bloodred dot set in a background of
green. Mouse recognized them immediately: Viral eyes. Megabyte eyes.
Everyone in the room gasped. Weak, Bob stumbled backwards onto the bed.
"No wonder Frisket hates you," muttered Matrix. "He doesn't like virals."
AndrAIa stared at Zipp, horrified, disgusted. "What are you?"
Zipp, eyes still on Bob, opened her mouth to speak, but Hack and Slash
scooted forward. "Zipporah!" Hack exclaimed. "We did not recognize you."
"Hey, I did," responded Slash. "We have not seen you for awhile . We
missed you."
"Yes," agreed Hack. "We missed the way you tortured us."
"Too bad your father isn't here."
"Yes, Megabyte would have liked your weapon."
"But it was a very bad thing."
"Hack, Slash," said Dot sternly. "Be quiet."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Dot looked at Zipp in disbelief. "You're Megabyte's daughter?"
"That's correct," replied Zipp bitterly, still focusing on Bob. "He's my
daddy."
"So you're a virus?" spat Bob. "Sadly, I can believe that. Too bad Turbo
never knew."
Zipp laughed suddenly. "Of course he didn't! Why would I tell him what I
am? I'd have been thrown from the Guardian League a whole kilo sooner than
I was. And how would that look? And, to tell you the truth, I'm only half
virus. My mother was a sprite. I inherited her looks, except for the eyes.
That's why I wear my glasses. People would panic if they saw a viral-eyed
Guardian. Still, I don't think Turbo would care either way if I was a virus
or just a hybrid. Anyhow, he's next on my list, as soon as I finish with
you, Bob."
Matrix leapt in front of Zipp, who didn't flinch. "You're not touching him,
virus! What did he ever do to you?" He pressed his gun against her skull.
She laughed and took a step back. "What did he do to me? I already told
you."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" yelled Bob, again rising.
Zipp's eyes bore into him. "I need my revenge," she hissed softly. "I need
my revenge against the Guardians. And you are a Guardian, are you not? And
you were most likely there." She took a deep breath. "Try to remember.
Out in the middle of the Web, no systems near, no one to harm. Everyone
except Vi and me. I didn't know how long you tracked us down, or how. But
it wasn't fair." Her voice cracked. This was no acting. This was real.
Mouse strode up and grabbed Zipp's arm firmly. "You never told me any of
this." She squeezed hard. ‘You never told me you were viral. And who is
Vi? Someone I know?" A fellow hacker?
Zipp screeched in annoyance and yanked her arm away. "Vi was the virus I
helped into the Super Computer. That's right. Helped. When he first
contacted me, I had no idea he was a virus. But I did inherit Megabyte's
brains. It didn't take me too long to figure out the truth. But then
again, the truth didn't matter. He was wonderful. I didn't care." She
smiled; not a hard, cruel smile, but one that was sad and sweet. Mouse
remembered it. The old Zipp's smile. "I loved him," she continued. "He
rescued me from Deletion Row. We later married, and then we just left for
the Web. Piracy is a good leaving. We didn't harm too many people. But
then all the Guardians had to come and ruin everything!"
"It wasn't a fair fight. It was Vi and myself against a hundred or so
Guardians. You all appeared out of nowhere." Her voice had risen, so now
Zipp was speaking in the high-pitched tone of a scared little girl. "Vi
told me to stay in the ship. He rushed out before I could stop him. I
heard him scream..." Tears rushed from her cold green eyes. "And he was
gone."
"Oh, yes," said Bob thoughtfully. "The Viral Web project. It was designed
to wipe out all virals loose in the Web. But that was terminated a cycle
ago and-"
"And that is just when my husband died!" Zipp shrieked. "And you admit you
were there. You just admitted it!"
"No, I didn't!" Bob said. "I was not a part of it. I declined Turbo's
request that I join."
"Oh? So now you're a coward?"
"We had our own problems to deal with here."
"And I had no problems?" Zipp pulled a small object off of her belt. A
box. She popped off the lid. "I had to hear my love's dying scream.
Perhaps Dot here would like to hear the same."
Inside the box was a magnet.
"No!" screamed Dot. "Zipp, I swear-"
Zipp marched over to Dot, pushing Matrix out of the way. She grabbed Dot,
twisting her arms behind her back. Dot yelped in surprise and pain.
"Or perhaps this will be a better torture for Bob," sneered Zipp. "Now that
you two have made up, you can really suffer, watching Dot be slowly erased
by a magnet. Yes, I think that'd suit you much better. You'd suffer what I
have." She held the magnet above Dot's head.
Bob's eyes flashed to Dot, and he stood up. "Don't you dare!"
Zipp winked at Dot, and shoved her in Bob's direction. "Don't worry so
much. I like you all too much to delete all of you."
Somehow, no one believed her.
Zipp walked around the room, smiling as if she were amused. "Let's see.
How shall I seek my revenge, now that my first attempt failed?"
"Shall we find out?" AndrAIa stood in front of Zipp, pressing the needle
sharp prongs of her trident against Zipp's neck. "I don't know who you
are," said AndrAIa, gripping the trident tightly. "But you aren't Zipp.
She's not like this. And you are not walking out of here alive."
Zipp took a step back, but the trident was only pressed deeper, even into
pain. "Easy, AndrAIa," she said. "How do you know what I am like? The
only one correct about me here was Bob." She fell backwards, landing on her
hands and springing back in a flip, only to feel Matrix's gun against her
back.
"Shoot her!" shouted Enzo.
Zipp pulled out her magnet and threw it to the floor, causing everyone to
shriek and jump back as it began to spin. "I can see I am no longer welcome
here," she said. "Enzo, want to come play with me."
He glanced anxiously at the magnet, then stared up at Zipp in horror. "No
way!"
"Too bad." Zipp grabbed him by the collar and yanked him towards the door.
"Bob!" Enzo cried.
"Enzo!" Bob clenched his teeth and started towards the door.
"Careful, Bob," said Zipp. "You don't want to wear out your strength.
Hertz, retrieve Magnet!"
The keytool beeped. The magnet hovered above the ground momentarily before
speeding off towards Zipp, grazing Matrix across the cheek. He gave a cry of
pain and pressed his hand against the wound.
Zipp was already racing down the hall, dragging Enzo behind her, the magnet
securely attached to Hertz. No one would dare go near her with the magnet.
Bob and Matrix continued to chase her, but Bob was weak and Matrix was
concentrating more on his magnet wound. Zipp wondered if she should attack
him now. No, she thought. It would be too easy. She wouldn't be able to
enjoy it. Besides, she might delete Matrix in the process, and AndrAIa
wouldn't like that.
Outside, Zipp jumped on her zipboard, swining Enzo, still shrieking and
clawing, over her back. "Hang on," she hissed as they took off. "I
wouldn't want to drop you."
"You would, too!" Enzo yelled. "You're just like old Mega-breath. Bob will
stop you."
"Bob?" Zipp laughed. "I know. Then I'll delete him."
~
Dot watched as Bob and Matrix returned. Without Enzo. Bob was panting, and
looked like he would collapse any nano.
"You should not be running around like that so soon," Phong said softly.
"You need a chance to recover your energy."
"Enzo," Bob started. "Zipp has him. We couldn't rescue him in time."
His words struck Dot hard. What would that Zipp creature do to little Enzo?
She ran up to Bob. "Where did she take him? Did you see where they
went?"
Bob shook his head sadly. "I don't know, Dot. They had vanished before we
made it outside. Knowing Zipp... I really wouldn't know what she would do."
"I bet anything she took him to Megabyte's Tor," said Matrix. The magnet
had left a faint mark on his face. "After all, he's her father." He spat
out the last statement.
"Well, sugahs, I for one vote that we go find Zipp and do something," said
Mouse. She was slumped against the wall, her arms folded defensively across
her chest, her eyes full of shock and anger. "I'll get Ray. She must be
stopped."
"But why did she do something like that?" asked AndrAIa. "It's like, one
nano, she's this sweet girl we all love, and the next..." She shook her
head. "A nano later she's gone random and has become this entirely new
person. A virus. Mouse, you know her the best. Has she ever acted like
this."
"Never," said Mouse. "I'm really not to sure what to think. She's changed.
Yesterday, she was the Zipp I knew." Almost. Mouse wanted to hit
herself. She had suspected something was different, yet she hadn't done
anything. "I haven't an inkling of what's processing in her mind, but she's
powerful and therefore dangerous."
"Zipp seems to be consumed by her need for revenge," mused Phong.
"Yeah, but does she have to take it out on my little brother?" said Dot.
"Zipp or no Zipp, he needs to be rescued?"
"Do we have to rescue him?" asked Matrix. "I'm kidding," he growled, seeing
everyone's glares.
Bob cleared his throat. "Is this a good time to say ‘I told you so'?"
***
Far off, on the other side of Mainframe, Zipp was curled up in her father's
chair, staring at the glasses she held in her hands. Enzo was locked up in
one of the other rooms. She could still hear him screaming.
What had happened tonight? she asked herself. What had happened to her
plan? No one was supposed to get hurt. It was supposed to be a clean,
little, copy-and-paste job. Why had she gone offline like that, admitting
everything?
She had scared everyone. Mouse. AndrAIa. Herself.
Then she laughed. What was she talking about? Everything was going
perfectly. Maybe not as expected, but it wasn't too late to kill Bob. She
shook her head. Just keep focused, Zipp, she told herself.
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