Escariot and his companion moved down the hallway. A metal hatch farther down caught the crime lords’ eye. A sign on the hatch read, “Disinfected Area.” Signaling to the Lacer, Escariot slid open the door. The two stepped into the closet-like room. The door behind them slid shut with a hiss. A spray of foul smelling chemicals filled the air tight chamber.

The two criminals chocked on the gasses, the Lancer crumpled. Soon the air cleared and the second door opened. Escariot stumbled into a hall lined with metal doors. The ceiling was interrupted every few meters by a gap housing bulkhead doors. Beside each door were several security measures, palm pads, retina scanners, and a card reader, this was not going to be as easy.

A whistle sounded from the Lancers ring, two of the three lights faded. This foreboded bad tidings.  “What happened?”

“They’ve terminated contact, might mean several thins. They could have died, been caught, ran for it, what ever happened you can bet that it’s not good.” The lancer took the ring off his finger and dropped on the floor. With a crack and a puff of smoke the ring became a small pile of ash.  Escariot began to mumble something about the reliability of Lacers but was cut off by a siren.

The law was here, in whatever form it came it was trouble. At that moment the lights began to fluctuate rapidly. With a terrible sizzling sound the light exploded. Shards of glass fell from the roof.  On the other end of the hall the door to a second Disinfector was pulled open. Whatever had blown the lights had shut the electricity off too.

Escariot jump against the wall. A bolt of artificial lightning streaked from his hand toward the group of law enforcement on the other side of the building. A scream told the crime lord that he had found his mark.  The lancer slid in behind him and pulled out an ion accelerator. A bolt of blue light ripped from the small opening and flew down the hall.  Streaks of orange flew down the hall from the cops on the other end. Escariot grimaced; a shoot out here would end badly.

The crime lord placed his gloved hand on the door a few feet in front of him, a flash of light burst from the metal door. The glove had given the door enough power to open  just a bit, and fried the locks as well. The Lancer chuckled, “Lucky, Lucky. Not bad, for a blind mouse.”

The two ducked through the door, immediately after he was in Escariot forced the door shut. The door moved slowly back in to position, as Escariot struggled with the door, his hired assistant stood staring into the room. Once the door was completely shut the crime lord turned around. He gasped; in the center of the room was a glowing ball of light, smaller wisps of power drifted lazily around the sphere, moving in time to the pulsating glow of the globe.

A felling of warmth ran up Escariot’s left arm, glancing down he saw several of the wisps of color swirling around his gloved hand. A shift in the light revealed a man on the other side of the room. He too was transfixed on the will-of-the-wisp like lights floating around the room. Raising his hand Escariot attempted to burn the man to a crisp. But instead of a bolt of bright white roaring from his hand, the phantasms moved more rapidly and glowed with more intensity.  Whatever these were had absorbed the energy being released from the glove.

Suddenly the strands of light grew longer, they were being pulled into the globe in the center of the room. Like lightning they flashed into the sphere and disappeared. The lighted brightened for a second and then returned to the normal pulsating rhythm.

***

Jeremie glanced down at the display on the nano-board.  This would be the Digitizers first run, and he was a little anxious.  Jeremie sighed, calmed his nerves, and began to power up the machine. “Who wants to go first?”

The speakers relayed the response from the floor below, “I’ll go first. If anyone can survive this thing it’s me.”

“Oh yes, let the Neanderthal go first. Every lab needs a gunny pig, and an ape is as good as any thing.”

“Can it, pretty in pink.”

“Just go already. You’re annoying me, so just get in or I shall personally shove you in there myself” Jeremie scratched his head, this group was interesting. Randy, pompous, tactless, and overconfident, was defiantly the brawns of the four, but he was willing to do just about anything.  Jeremie began to open the doors of the Digitizer, “Get in Kralliar.”

Down below Randy eyed the clear angular structure that had opened up. The thing looked like a giant test tube laying on floor. The dark skinned boy pulled himself over the lip of the container and lowered himself into it. As he lay on his back the clear doors closed with an almost inaudible hiss. A speaker by his head let him hear what Jeremie was saying, “Create file… Matter scan.”

A band of light began to move of Randy’s body. Inside the orange light a red grid was projected on to his body. As the scan slowly moved up his body Randy laid his head back on the cushion. Soon the voice of Jeremie came from the speaker again, “Complete. Conscience probe.”  A blast of blue white light shown in his eyes, but before he could shut his eyes to block out the light it stopped. “Complete. Kralliar.MDC. Now we can begin:  Access file Kralliar.MDC…” A string of lights flash on along the tube, “Conversion…” The light grew brighter, then the lights appeared to rip themselves from their source, discs of light began to swill around him. They grew brighter and brighter until the world was a wash of white, “Digitize!”

***

Randy’s feet slammed into the ground. The world faded back, or a world faded, into view. Randy pushed himself from the sandy ground. The abandoned factory had been replaced by a sandy desert. Wind blew the grains into large dunes. The desert seemed to stretch on forever, desolate and scorching. A gust of hot wind blew Randy’s dark dreadlocks around. Looking up he saw an orange sky with no clouds and no sun, it was less like a sky that a dome of light hanging over head.

A stab of pain brought him to look down at himself, his outfit had changed drastically. The first thing he noticed was the leather belt straps. A belt, one wrapped around his right thigh, and a third hanging from his shoulder and going cross wised across his chest, one each of the straps were loops holding knives. Randy became aware of an object resting on his back, held on by the strap across his chest.  Reaching behind his head Randy found the hilt of a blade. He pulled it out of its sheath and gave it a twirl. The blade couldn’t really be called a sword, it moved in a subtle curve and was topped by a triangular head. One side of the blade was a single shape, the other had been split into two separate arches, meeting at the center with a tooth like junction.

The blade showed moved quickly and effortlessly. The loose shirt that he was wearing was worn and had its sleeves ripped off, the pants likewise were torn at the knees. Further inspection reveild a spring loaded knife on his left wrist and a small yellow gem set into his a shoulder pad on his right shoulder, the pad was attached to the same strap that held the large blade’s sheath to his back.

A column of blue light shot down from the sky. It made contact with the ground several yards from where Randy stood, as the column faded it revealed Grace. She stumbled as the light disappear, rising from her kneeling position she gave Randy a death glare. She had transformed quite drastically. Her pink hair had grown and was tied up in a ponytail, and her usual modest cloths were gone. Instead she was dressed in deep violet, a large portion of the midriff was exposed in-between the two parts. A black glove on her right hand reached almost to her shoulder. A braclet on her left hand held a small Indigo gem. The mini skirt was a mid-thigh level, and allowed for a lot of movement. It seemed as if a TV ninja had come to life. 

“Didn’t you mommy ever tell you it’s not polite to stare?”Grace remarked, snidely. She turned away and began to look over the new outfit.  She eventually realized that Randy remained transfixed on her. She waved her swiped he hand in his direction. From the hand three blast of pink flew toward Randy. Instinctively he ducked on arm protecting his face, but the pink things never reached him. They fell to the sand, when they were still Randy could see that they were throwing stars. Three pink, glowing, throwing stars.

“What was that for!? You could have killed me! But then again, they say you always hurt the ones you love.” Randy shrugged. A second later he was thrown backwards by Grace’s fist. The gloved fist was shrouded in pink energy.

“That may not have killed you, but the next one will.” Grace growled at the unmoving form of Randy Kralliar. At that moment the pillar of blue light returned, this time bringing with it Grant. The “Crusher” was covered in white metallic plates, on his helmet just below were the temple would be there was a small deep blue jewel. A robotic exoskeleton housed the dangerous kid. His eyes began to dart around his visor, mumbling incomprehensible things. Words like power reserves, arm shield, weapons, and interface pop up several times. After a bit Grant extended his are and opened his hand, with a flash a large gun appeared in his hand. Shouldering the gun Grant fired at the sand dunes, a light blue orb streaked from the weapon. When the orb made contact with the dune a massive explosion sent shock waves careening toward the three students.

Grant threw an arm in front of his face, as the shock wave hit a hexagonal shield protected grant for the force of the blast. The other two were not as lucky, Grace and Randy were thrown back several feet, landing on the sand with at thud. As they were picking themselves up the column of blue light returned. When the light disappeared there was a moment of scalene. When the moment passed Randy threw himself back onto the ground laughing, Grace covered her mouth to suppress a giggle, and a smirk appeared on Grants face. Erin looked around puzzled for a second, then he glanced down at himself and shrieked.

“Oh, come on! What gives! Why am I a werepuppy?” And that was the best description for it. Erin had become a two legged dog like creature. He was wearing a pair of loose fitting purple pants and behind his left shoulder was a white feathery wing. His head was human, but vey hairy, a scar slid down the left side of his faces. He was furry and short.

Grace was the first to comment on Erin’s new look, “Well Midget, let’s hope you don’t have fleas.”

“Don’t say anything.” Erin’s paw-like hands clutched his shaking head. He kept trying to reassure himself this was a dream, or other things to the effect of “This is NOT happening” When one hand slipped is brushed against the orange gem on one of the shoulder plates. The jewel emitted a shifting light and a rectangle of light appeared before him. On the rectangle were several numbers and gages, and a large box displaying Jeremie.

“Oh, hello Erin.”

“I’M A WEREPUPPY!!! FIX ME!!!”

Jeremie looked taken aback but quickly regained his composer, “The Digitization process reads your subconscious. This is what you chose, not me. Anyway, if the others could pull up the displays we can begin”

“Hold it, I didn’t chose this! Why am I a werepuppy! I’m telling you there was a glitch, come on something, Randy’s got enough knives to make a pincushion out of some one, Grace is a ninja, and Grant has the biggest gun ever. I can’t be a dog!”

The displays showed Jeremie heaving a deep sigh, “Look Erin, the process reads your subconscious, you can’t change unless the very essence of your being changes. This usually only happens if you are consumed by grief, rage, or hatred, none of which are good for you. But if you like I will tell you one of your powers.”

“What?”

“Hold out your hand, and focus on something around you. Now keep that in your head and imagine energy building up in your hand, and  release it.” Suddenly four streaks of yellow burst from the out stretched claw. The attack curved toward Grace, as it neared her Grace leapt high into the virtual air.  The streaks of yellow passed underneath her.  As she landed the four lights turned in a wide arch and came at her from behind. But before they reached her the attack dimmed and faded away.

Jeremie spoke again, “Those were mini-drones, they will follow a target as long as you can remain focused on them. But enough fooling around, the reason I sent you to this virtual world was to get rid of a miner virus, it’s located about half a kilometer from your position.”

Grant scowled, “You sent us here to get rid of a virus, couldn’t you have done that with a program? And why did you park so far away?” The displays showed Jeremie shaking his head. He looked and frowned, “The virus is in virtual space, only virtual entities can effect virtual entities. As for why you have to walk so far, I don’t know.”

Back in the lab Jeremie watched as four screens showed the location of one of the students. He was awakened from his pensively by Kari, “Come on, Jeremie, let me say hi to them. It’s boring just sitting here waiting.”

Jeremie looked at the middle screen as Kari’s chosen face appeared. The face looked to be about 13 years old, shoulder length, deep red hair, and sky blue eyes made her seem almost from a video game. She tilted her head and looked at Jeremie innocently. Jeremie smiled, the face was hard to turn down, but that was to be expected, she was created from Jeremie’s mind. She was what Jeremie always subconsciously wanted, almost. Everything she knew was either from his mind or her own reasoning, but she was defiant, always trying to know more and do more.

“Kari, not yet. Not while it’s still here. It might find you, and I… I…” Jeremie chocked at the thought of what might happen if the miner program did find Kari.

“You what, Jeremie?”

“I could never forgive myself for loosing you.” Jeremie swallowed the tears that were welling from the memories. Those words, they brought back terrible memories. <i> Aelita, I never forgive myself if I lose you. Come back, please, come back to me.<i>

“Jeremie, I know you would save me, right” Jeremie sucked back the tears and looked back up at the screen showing Kari. He managed to smile, “Right.”

***

Escariot slid down the wall. The room had grown stiflingly hot. With no windows or AC the room would only get worse. The crime lord closed his eyes, shutting out the light from the orbs. Then a thought occurred to him. He opened his eyes and glanced over a the names on the wall by the door. Surprised at his luck he grinned. His target was here, no wonder Mayhem had wanted them. These four were special, Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi were about as special as they came.

With that he closed his eyes, fading into a light sleep lulled by the rhythm of the room.

“Fire of Mind, give us a call, give us an answer or nothing at all” But this time there was no response.