Adam's POV
It was quieter than usual during the next week or so and while Ty and I still had more than enough to keep us busy, there seemed to be fewer viruses overall. The other glitches were saying the same thing, particularly Barney and Ross.

"I feels like the viruses are plannings somethings big, and it's goings to happen soon," Barney said.

"Well I'd rather it happen sooner than later," Mitch said. "I hate waiting around for things."

"You just hate waiting in general Mitch."

At the mention of viruses, my mind instantly jumped to Alesa, just like it had every time Ty and I had found a worm this week. For some reason, I just couldn't stop thinking about her. Everything about her had just seemed so... human. I often caught myself wanting to see her again, which was impossible of course. The mainframe was huge and besides, she was a virus. If I met her again, I would be with Ty and then I would have to kill her. But I wasn't sure if I could.

"Earth to Adam!"

I jumped at Quentin's voice and shook my head slightly. "Sorry, what?"

Quentin smirked, "Lost in thought?"

I gave a wry smile and ran a hand through my hair. "Yeah, sorry."

"You've been doing that a lot lately," Ty said.

"I've got a lot on my mind." Needless to say, I hadn't told anyone about Alesa.

Mitch leaned back in his chair. "Well, whatever the viruses are planning, all we need to do is be ready for it."

The following day, Ty and I dropped by Sparkles Tech again as a precautionary check. Although it was extremely unlikely, it was possible that a spyware or perhaps a polymorphic virus had somehow stuck around in the mainframe. Jordan Sparkles wanted to be sure that that hadn't happened.

"We've got a lot of projects that we work on," he said as he walked Ty and I up to the third level. "If we lose files it could prove disastrous for the company."

"How did that conference go back when you had those three viruses?" I asked as we walked.

Jordan grinned. "You can expect to see a new game from us in about a month."

"Jason will be happy about that," Ty said. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he took it out, glancing at it. "Shoot. Adam, we've got a code red at city hall. Multiple virus attacks on the firewalls."

"Brilliant," I muttered. "Sorry Jordan, we've got to go."

"That's fine. Good luck guys."

"From the looks of things, we'll need it," Ty said before we both ran from the building. People glanced at the two of us as we sprinted past them, our trench coats flapping at our legs and our hands keeping the swords at our hips steady.

City hall was a two-story building that was built in the fashion of the buildings way back, longer than I cared to remember. It had a glass dome as part of the roof, allowing in as much sunlight as possible to enter the room below. The walls were made of a white stone with worn murals carved on it, but I only caught a glimpse of it as Ty and I ran inside.

"Jason, you there?" I asked, putting a hand to my earpiece.

"Get to the nearest computer, I've already got the server number," Jason said quickly after a moment of static.

The reception desk near us had several computer screens on the top and neat stacks of paper with several suited receptionists standing nearby, chatting nervously. Ty and I swiftly walked over and saw that each of the computer screens was showing static. The body of the computers were underneath the desk and most of them were still on.

"What's the situation, Jason?" Ty asked.

"Full-scale attack," Jason said. "Multiple viruses attacking the mainframe and we've got most of the glitches fighting back. Look sharp when you get in, everything's pretty chaotic."

"Got it."

Ty and I entered the mainframe and instantly drew our swords and put our backs together, gaining our bearings. More viruses and glitches that I could count fought everywhere and blurs of red and green coding that I knew to be worms and glitches sprinted around the fighting. To my left, I could see a spyware slipping around the coding, ducking down when a fighting pair came near it.

"Let's get busy," Ty muttered. I split my sword in two and we charged at the spyware.

The spyware growled when it saw us coming and tried to hide in the coding but Ty sprinted forward and got there first, yanking it away from the green-layered wall of the city hall. It drew two daggers and parried Ty's thrust and mine, but my second sword slid past its defence and into its chest. It dissolved and Ty and I spun around.

In large fights like this, you always tried to stay with your partner and watch the other's back. That was much easier said than done.

Ty and I ran through the city hall, taking down as many viruses as we could while Jason called out warnings every now and then. It must have been very confusing for him at his computer; it was confusing for me even here in the mainframe. I caught glimpses of viruses dying and once, bright green particles that faded into nothing. The viruses weren't the only ones who were dying.

As Ty ran his blade through a Polymorphic virus, three more viruses sprang towards us. I ducked under the blade of a worm and tried to strike at it but it danced back and a Trojan blocked my blade, shoving me backwards. I stumbled but regained my footing enough to dodge the worm again. I glanced around and saw Ty battling another worm but I had enough on my plate to occupy me.

I rapidly retreated as both the Trojan and the worm attacked me, trying to encircle me. I wanted to put my back to a wall but that would only limit my options of retreat. I sidestepped the Trojan's blade, locked one sword with the worm's and tried to stab it but the other virus lashed out at me.

I tried to dodge the blade but it cut a gash in my right arm, green coding instantly running. Before it could strike again, the Trojan suddenly slumped over and dissolved, the sword falling from its grasp. I glimpsed Ian standing several metres away, one arm held out like he had thrown something while the other held a dagger identical to the one that I caught a glimpse of in the Trojan's back.

Before I could finish off the worm or say thank you to Ian, the worm had disengaged our swords and I barely managed to leap backwards, its blade cutting a thin line across my stomach. I slashed at his legs but it caught my right sword and twisted it, forcing it from my grasp. The worm dodged my other sword and pushed me back, away from the blade on the ground.

"You're just making me mad now," I growled. It smirked at me and raised its sword higher. It wore a black suit with green patterns down the front and a hat that hid most of his brown hair.

"Bring it on, glitch."

I switched my sword from my left hand to my right and the virus and I duelled. The fighting around us faded into the background as I focused on blocking the worm's sword, my arm and my stomach aching. I would need a break fairly soon otherwise I would get killed but the worm wasn't giving me any leeway, continually hammering my defences.

I stepped back and I trod on something. It rolled beneath my foot and I stumbled backwards, my concentration breaking as I fell to the ground. I didn't even realise that the worm's sword was moving until I heard the clash of sword on sword. The worm's sword was only centimetres from my neck, held there by the crosspiece of another sword. I looked up and recognised the newcomer instantly.

Alesa.

The worm frowned at Alesa but she didn't give it time to think, shoving its sword away. I hurriedly stood up again as the two duelled, the worm moving in the lightning quick movements of a worm while Alesa defended from where she stood. Stealthily moving around to the worm's back, my sword shot forward just as Alesa cried out in pain. My blade caught the worm's neck and it dissolved into red particles with a growl.

Alesa had one arm wrapped around her stomach while the other held a sword. She gave me a thin smile.

"Are you okay?" I asked instantly.

She nodded a little. "It's just a scratch, I'm fine."

Her stomach didn't seem to be gushing the red codings of a virus' blood, so she was probably right. I glanced around at the battle. No one seemed to be paying us any attention but that could change soon.

"Come on, I'll get you away from the fighting," I told her.

Alesa didn't argue as we ran away from the main area. We were in the central mainframe, but the computer systems were separate and they would be safe for Alesa to hide in as long as they were turned on. However, I had no way of finding them. And while the last thing I wanted to do was to ask Jason, I didn't have much of a choice.

"Jason, are there any online computers connected to the mainframe?" I asked, raising a hand to my sunglasses.

"Yeah, there's a few, why?"

"I want to make sure that there are no viruses slinking around in them," I lied.

"Adam, there's no reason why a virus would be in one of the computers, all the information's on the mainframe."

"I want to check anyway, just to be safe," I told him. "Just tell me where one is."

"There should be one to your right when you go around the corn- Ty! Duck!"

I instinctively glanced around to find Ty but he was lost amongst the general fighting. Once I got Alesa to safety, I would have to find him. I took Alesa around the corner to where the bright green glowing orb of a computer hovered in midair.

"You know how to get in, right?" I asked Alesa.

She nodded and said, "Of course, but how will I know when it is safe to get out?"

"I'll come and get you, but I've got to finish this battle."

"Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Yeah," I said. "But you've got to hide because if another glitch finds you, they'll kill you in an instant."

Alesa nodded again and faded into red coding that was absorbed into the computer. Satisfied that she was safe, I ran back to the battle to find Ty. He was fighting a Polymorphic when I found him and I stabbed the spyware that was trying to sneak up on him before helping him dispatch the virus.

"You took your time," Ty said, wiping his forehead. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. You?"

"Still alive."

"Stop talking and get rid of the rest of the viruses," Jason said through our earpieces. "We're almost done here."

Ty rolled his eyes and we got to work again. Most of the viruses were gone now and it didn't take long for the glitches to get rid of the last few. With the viruses dealt with, we all did a massive sweep of the whole city hall mainframe to make sure that there weren't any other viruses lurking around and to destroy any files that they had corrupted. Then one by one, we left the mainframe.

"You go ahead, I'll be out in a minute," I told Ty as he raised a hand to his headphones.

"Why? What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm just getting my other sword, It'll be fine," I said quickly to forestall any protest he could have made.

Ty shrugged and said "Okay. But don't take too long." He pressed down on his headphones and dissolved into bright green coding.

I jogged through the now empty mainframe that showed almost no signs of an attack except for a few dull orbs lying around. I picked up my second sword from the ground, fused the two back together and sheathed it before moving to the computer that Alesa was hiding in. I found her standing beside the green orb. She smiled when she saw me, her code eyes seeming to light up. I couldn't help but think of how pretty she looked. I awkwardly shoved my hands into my pockets and dropped my gaze.

"Thanks for saving my life back there," I said.

"It's okay," Alesa shyly said. "Thanks for hiding me."

I shrugged. "It was the least I could do." I shifted uncertainly. I had just had a crazy idea that was stupid at best and ludicrous at worst, but I had no idea how to ask her.

"So this is what you do?" she asked after a moment. "Go into a mainframe, kill some viruses and then return to your world?"

I nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

We stood there a little and then I blurted out "Do you want me to show you the real world?"

Alesa blinked at me in surprise. "You want to take me to the real world?"

"Well... yeah. I figured that you... might want to see it, but if you don't, that's completely fi-"

"I'd love to!"

She had a wide grin that made me smile too and she hugged me tightly, quickly letting go. I wasn't sure, but I could have sworn that she was blushing a bit. I felt my own cheeks grow hot and I cleared my throat uncomfortably.

"I'll plug my phone into one of the computers and you can download yourself onto it," I said quickly. She nodded and I pushed down on my amulet, leaving the mainframe.

wELL THAT WAS A LONG CHAPTER