KH Re:Puzzle of Truth Ch. 2 p1

A few days passed, Mewtwo—whom shall now be referred to by his human alias, Maru, until further notice—still sleeping in his own room and on a normal cycle (wake up around noon, stay up to anywhere from two to four in the morning). He could easily climb up to his home in human form, but he couldn't jump nearly as high anymore. (Not to say he couldn't jump higher than a normal human being; he could clear a good five or six feet.) These weren't the worst things, though. Those were these questions:

1—What the fuck was up with that night?

2—What were those things—those black pokémon?

3—Why did they only steal his power?

4—What was that heart-like thing that had appeared from his chest? Was that...was that his actual...heart...? And was it gone now, or was it rescued in time?

5—Why didn't he feel as completely warm within himself as he normally did, ignoring him currently being downer than down?

6—Who was that stranger? Why was he so erratic? What did he mean, he "would do nicely"?

Maru shrugged off these thoughts, focusing on the new life he had to lead. He had decided to go do odd jobs to generate cash in the absence of his psychic powered pickpocketing's power source—and these jobs were very odd, indeed: Locating lost purrloins and lillipups, help the police capture some less-cooperative criminals around town, put up posters for the upcoming Dance of the Moon festival, and other different tasks. Truth be told, he actually had a lot more fun making money this way than by simply stealing money from wealthy people about town. Though this joy was hampered by depression and frustration, the fact that the criminal-catching job's fights gave him experience was fine encouragement.

He would sometimes trek all the way to Ren, who had by then become a very close ally, especially in this trying time. Ren talked with him and gave him some much-needed moral support. Maru still ate out at cheap restaurants, seeing as he didn't have a fridge or pantry to put food into. The afflicted pokémon survived, living life in a blur as the days went by.

One incident that didn't end up a smudge in the blur was the final Wednesday of the month. That day was one Maru would remember for quite some time...

-:VvVvV:-

Deep in the heart of Nightsky City sat a small, grey office building. Its sign's logo formed the words, "Kely Systems," in lines that began on one end with a plug and ended on another with an ethernet jack.

"Come on, Purple Carrot Top, hurry up, already!" a testy, seasoned voice demanded.

"Sir, would you please call me Maru," replied a bothered, younger voice.

The bland building stood only four stories above ground...but it stood eight below. Each floor was covered with computers, servers, and people tapping away at keyboards. On the bottom floor sat the largest room, lit dimly by blue lights, and the largest computer. On a large, wall-mounted monitor, lines and lines of code scrolled by. Other smaller monitors on the sides of this one displayed different sets of data, many of them red or yellow. At the huge console sat a very focused Maru, typing away on the huge keyboard and frowning in focus up at the monitor. Beside him stood a squat, balding man in a white lab coat and a grey, eye-obscuring visor. This man was crossing his arms, frowning in impatience, and tapping his foot. "We're not paying you to do what every single other techie we've hired's done—end up fooling around and saying that there's nothing you can do," this man complained.

Maru paused for a moment, breathing deeply. 'Do not lash out—you are far from strong enough to kick his ungrateful aft end,' he told himself. He could not help retorting, "If you are this impatient for a good job, why not just employ a porygon, Mr. Kely?"

Mr. Kely tilted his head, raising an eyebrow. "A porygon...?"

He remembered the other day, where he was buying a pokéball from someone, angrily shelling out a lot of cash. "You guys are extortionists!" he had accused. "This much for a level one?"

"These things aren't easy to make, y'know!" the suited man giving him the ball had defended, frowning. "We put a lot of care into making each of these unique yet exceptional!"

"A lot of good this will do me right now, but it's still the cheapest one like it outside the black market," Mr. Kely had grumbled, pocketing the ball.

"She! We gave it a gender to enhance its personality!" the other man had corrected indignantly, holding up a fist.

"What use is an anti-virus with a strong personality? It'll just interfere with its duties!" Mr. Kely had shot back coldly.

Inside the ball, a porygon2 had heard this and made a sad face (no mouth, no frown). "..."

(Vertex, 0, Female personality; Level 1 Anti-virus Porygon2)

The other man had then smirked, crossing his arms. "Oh, you'll see, Mr. Kely," he had said playfully. "You'll see."

Mr. Kely grimaced, then looked at Maru again, back in the present. "Just be happy you've got a job," he avoided, frowning.

Maru raised an eyebrow at this, but looked up again and resumed typing, frowning in focus once more. A bit of key-clacking later, he stopped, smirking, as the lights on the monitors turned from reds and yellows to green. "There," Maru said, crossing his own arms. "All patched up. Your and your clients' files should be safe now. Just..." He raised an eyebrow at him and warned sternly, "Mr. Kely, make certain you always use a very secure connection with this core terminal. No using it to surf the web or play games or anything." He closed his eyes. "But, assuming you have not before, smart man the head of the company you are, the patch I created should hold you for a good while."

Mr. Kely suddenly raised his eyebrows and gritted his teeth in a "yeek" face, sweatdropping. "Um..."

Maru opened his eyes to read his expression, then narrowed them. "Mr. Kely...?" he addressed, like an adult to a child who is about to get in trouble. "What is it...?"

Suddenly, alarms began going off. The lights turned red. On each screen popped up red warning messages, the final being on the main screen: "Warning: Advanced virus detected. Unable to address with current anti-virus."

'And they have the most recent,' Maru grumbled, turning back to Mr. Kely, who was sweatdropping even more, now, and half-eyed at him. "Tell me you did not..."

Mr. Kely pressed his fingertips together. "Well, um, I just...wanted to play Farm Country Ultimate on such a big screen," he confessed in a small voice.

Maru slowly facepalmed. "That virus is probably going to eat all the files your company has on clients," he wearily said in prognosis. "And you just have to be one of those companies that holds everything from regional ID to shoe size." He paused a second before giving his diagnosis: "We need a porygon."

Mr. Kely paled. "B-But the one we have is brand-new! It doesn't have enough experience with—" he began.

Maru raised his head sharply, giving a full-on Mewtwo Glare. "NOW!"

A few moments later, Mr. Kely reluctantly opened a pokéball at the console, an unsure expression on his face. 'We're screwed,' he though as he let the pokémon out.

The light flashed out of the ball and disappeared into the machine. Inside the computer's virtual world, the porygon2 appeared in a flash of numbers and light. One tiny bead of light in particular shot away into the computer. She looked around it excitedly. "Oh, boy, my first time fighting a virus!" she squealed happily (in her own language). She suddenly recalled the other day:

"What use is an anti-virus with a strong personality?"

'And guess who was programmed to have a stronger-than-porygon2-normal personality?' She gulped and glanced over her shoulder, where she knew the camera was watching. That little bead of light ended up being a small program activating that output what she saw to the users. She could feel Mr. Kely watching her, no confidence in her whatsoever. 'I have to show him I can debug like a pro, or...he might just replace me...!'

"Hmmm..." Vertex muttered as she looked around. The stereotypically basic and brightly-colored virtual world was flashing with red and yellow. Straight graphlike lines sometimes ended in zigzag ends. And swarming everywhere were little, grey, cube-shaped, bug-like things with six little slate feet, tile-like white little blue wings, and a monitor with simple yellow lines in a :3 face. They actually looked kind of cute. But they were clogging the portals to different parts of the computer and chowing down on pieces of cyberspace, their faces turning green and very happy (E3) and growing mandibles for this. "...There's already a lot of damage...I'd better find the—"

Suddenly, one of the bugs spotted her. Its face turned red and angry, with little wedges for eyes and an upturned v for a mouth. "ANTI-VIRUS," it chirped in an adorable little monotone voice that was louder than anything.

All of the bugs in the room stopped. Then turned, red faces on, at Vertex. "ANTI-VIRUS," they all chorused, cute voices turning creepy.

As they rose up to form a cloud of red and grey, Vertex's smooth, bright body paled. "—exit!" she squeaked before turning around and starting to fly out. She slammed into something right away. "—Oof!"

The portal back outside was blocked by a wall of bugs, literally—each connected their squared bodies together to form an impenetrable wall. Vertex paled all the way to white, eyes wide as she saw her only way out sealed. "Viruses aren't pokémon," she murmured. "Viruses don't KO...they..." She gulped, sweatdropping. "...delete..."

Outside, on Vertex's window, Maru and Mr. Kely watched this scene with dread. (Only Maru could tell what she was saying, since she had to address users directly to relay messages in Human.) "She is going to get killed..." Maru whispered morosely. 'I jumped the gun...Dammit, if only these cheapskates had paid for a well-trained one...A fresh one? For this big a company? What were they thinking?'

The new porygon2 shook in midair with fear as her programming was pushed aside by her powerful AI's emotions. 'Deletion...Rejection...Analysis indicates a 40% chance of either being the outcome of this scenario...!' "O..."

Mr. Kely frowned. "Wait, what's that it's doing?" he wondered.

"Ou..." Vertex clenched her eyes shut and bowed her head low, ignoring queries from her inner programming as her words of despair metamorphosed.

Maru frowned, too. "I have no..." he began before sensing something. He raised an eyebrow. 'Wait...I could tell that psychic probing signature anywhere...What is she...?'

(Author's note: Old readers, yer prolly gonna hate me for this if you don't know what's going on already...n.n;; )

Vertex whipped up her head and did the weirdest, most random thing (even for a porygon2)—she cried out in desperation and pain,

"OOUUEEEEENNDAAAAAAAAANN!"

-:-:-

Maru sensed it, but they could not see it on the screen. Something had just Teleported in. At the same time, for some reason, gentle Electronica music began to play on the speakers.

Meanwhile, in cyberspace, three figures appeared in a flash of light, having been Teleported in. As Vertex was behind a pretty solid swarm of bugs, she couldn't see who had come in. She couldn't hear more than a muffled sound. A sudden snippet of drums interrupted the slowly crescendoing music.

-:-:-Quit Bugging Me! Fight the Infection, Soldier!-:-:-

Vertex's programming took over again, and despite her emotions, she swept the area with a scanning sheet of pinkish-purple light. A readout of the area appeared before her in a window—it was a map. "I have to get through to the mainframe, but..." She looked up at the swarm of bugs looking evilly hungry at her. "...how?..."

Suddenly, cutting through the noise of the bugs, right at another interrupting drum snippet, came a sound, loud and clear:

"""OSU!"""

And just like that, a fire ignited within Vertex's heart and eyes and, to the trained eye, around her body. She held her nose up resolutely and spread her feet a bit wide, green data screens floating around her. "GOOOOOOOOOO—!"

As the outsiders looked on at the sudden extreme spurt of confidence in confusion, their eyes widened to their fullest with surprise as the strangest sight of all met them. Pushing Vertex's screen up, another screen popped up, black. A surprised squeak of bugs was heard as three figures skidded onto the screen. One came from the left and stopped in the middle, while two others came from the right and stopped on either side of the first, looking a bit behind it. They stood with their feet together and their hands down before them, left holding right fist. It only took the scant few seconds they remained still for the others to look at them. They couldn't believe their eyes.

They were three pokémon. Dressed in what appeared to be highly stylized brown gakurans with green cuffs and armbands, brown, basic sandals, and white, cut-tipped gloves.

The middle—they assumed the leader—was a dragonite wearing a blue baseball cap with a black bill, cap forwards. Its antennae and topknot poked through holes made in the cap. To its left was an ursaring (whose gloves had no fingers period), and to the dragonite's right was a feraligatr. All three were a fair bit skinner than normal, and all three wore stern faces.

"IKOIA!"—""IKUZE!"" they went in powerful voices. Maru saw the dragonite mouth different words from the other two—that must have been the female, the only one who said, "Ikoia." As soon as they said that, a green background appeared behind them bearing a symbol that the group partially obscured. It appeared to be a white ball with a top half made of fire. Then, they counted down with the song's beat. """SAN! NI! ICHI! SURE!"""

- Ka-mi-ya-u-fai-te bo-zai re mo-suku ki-mai

- Bo-ko-riju-mai no ai wa do-sukai...(ai...ai...ai...ai...)

- Ma-e-nasu dashi-tesu ba-se shu-ko wo tu-vusu mirai...

- *record scratch* (koroko...roko...roko...(etc.))

- *instrumental*

As soon as the very soft, relaxed lyrics to Cube Juice's "III" began—so soft and relaxed, this author has to bushwhack them because nobody has posted them, so bear with me—the trio began to dance in what soon was apparent to be a greatly expanded form of Japanese male cheerleading. In short, Vertex had gotten exactly what she wanted—ouendan. As soon as they began dancing, the background disappeared and revealed them to be in the middle of cyberspace, cheering from atop a dense cluster of bugs. When they stopped, they reverted back to their standby positions and their screen faded out to black.

Above them, on Vertex's screen, they saw her progress from a side and slight above view angled somewhat towards the screen. At first, she was floating through at a moderate speed, narrowly avoiding the bugs dive-bombing her from different angles. She looked determined, but nervous sweat beaded her brow, and she looked frightened with each dodge. The cyberspace around her was mostly orange.

Then, for a very brief moment (the "Pokédan", as Maru decided to term them in his head, coincidentally doing a move a decent bit early a phrase before), Vertex was stopped in her tracks as a swarm of bugs surrounded her and nailed her one after the other, knocking her about like a toy. Her pupils formed X's during this. If it wasn't so important that she succeed, it would have been a bit comical. The cyberspace that was visible was mostly red.

She was normal again after that, but only briefly. Soon, Vertex was suddenly charging forwards at breakneck speed, zipping out of the way of bugs that were more in her way than trying to attack her. She was dodging so quickly, she left translucent afterimages of herself. Her eyes were nothing but fiercely determined white wedges. The surrounding cyberspace was mostly yellow. She kept like this most of the way through, switching back to her slower pace occasionally, until the instrumental ended.

A wall of bugs covered the portal to the mainframe, as well. They glared at Vertex angrily as she approached. "Oh, no, the port!" she exclaimed.

"I've gotta break through...!" the porygon2 muttered as she flew through cyberspace at it, eyes narrowing in a way that gave the impression she'd be frowning determinedly if she had a mouth. Despite this, she couldn't help sweatdropping. Then, she blasted forward at top speed, eyes squeezed shut and body straightened like a dart. "Poryyyyyy...!"

The wall snickered in a jeering way.

"...GON!" POW! Vertex came flying through the other side of the wall, blowing a number of bugs away with her. She did a victorious little roll as she zoomed along the white tunnel representing the way to the mainframe. "I did it!" she chirped. Speaking more mechanically—a message box appearing on her screen as she did, addressing the users—she declared, "Login successful."

Maru wiped his brow in relief. "She survived..." he muttered.

Mr. Kely raised his eyebrows. "Impressive..."

A circle appeared on the Pokédan's screen for some reason.

—O—

(- I-wa-nai yo-na-me-mo ko-shite ha-ma shitai)

(- I-mai-dasu-konda e-go-to-sai-te (ai-te...ai-te...ai-te...))

Vertex quickly came out at the mainframe, the speed of the tunnel making her bowl through another wall of bugs without trying. "Let's see..." she muttered (back to normal) as she exited, sending out a sweeping scan. The mainframe was represented by a huge, blue (but currently flashing red now and then) spherical chamber covered with portals—ports to each connection to the mainframe. She widened her eyes at the sheer size of it and the number of (happy) bugs swarming around, flying into and out of each portal, while she scanned. (Maru felt another Teleport and furrowed his brow. 'The Pokédan, I bet...')

"So many..." she whimpered. The scan finished and data flashed across her eyes. "AnalyComplete," she narrated, cutting off her announcement of "Analyzing...". She blanched, eyes going comically huge and perfectly circular and pupils becoming pinpricks. "'Destroy all the bugs in the mainframe and see which portals they constantly come from?'" she repeated her "mental" instructions incredulously. Even as she spoke, windows popped from her bodies and zipped to various areas of the room, presumably to monitor each portal for constant outflow. "You're outta your vector!"

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the screen focused on the Pokédan sliding in with a white background. The backup urasring and feraligatr stood with arms held behind their backs while the lead dragonite raised her fists, "pinkie" claws forwards, in a high and sharp V, spread her wings out wide, and puffed her chest out a bit in a powerful pose. All three gave a stern-faced """OSU!""", and Vertex was aflame once more. As soon as she was on fire again, they reappeared on their screen, fading in from black. When the background reappeared, they were on another group of bugs.

- Ku-ro-o-tsu-kan yo-ma-so-zo ma-sai-o-na

- Ma-rai da-son-da-nai-yo wa

- Itsumo ki-tai ni-so ka sutro-rai...

- Wa suka-ka

- Ni-sa-be-tsumo no wake

- I-moi-dasu-ko-to moi-dasugo

- De-sho-ge

- Mo-moi-dasu-yo-n-surai-go-wa

- *instrumental*

The Pokédan appeared to be cheering not just in rhythm to the lyrics during the chorus, but also the busy instrumental part, particularly during long notes and breaks. As they cheered, Vertex set to work, camera staying in one place while she moved around the room. She decided to use Tackle to deal with the bugs, which now included ones armed with head-mounted miniature square-barrel cannons that fired red laser shots. She zipped around, charging into bugs, flying off the screen as she plowed through them, only to reappear half a second later from a different position to intercept a bug that had flown on-screen from another direction. A gunner bug would occasionally fire a shot at her, which missed as she passed by, thankfully, and the bug would promptly be Tackled. Each bug she bashed disappeared in a cloud of numbers and pixels. The room's colors were the same as before—blue with occasional pulses of red.

Then, she didn't quite defeat a bug, and was soon moving side to side, dancing frantically to evade a wall of maliciously smiling gunner bugs. The room pulsed red and blue regularly.

She quickly picked herself up and got back in the game, Tackling them again, before doing even better than her already good pace: Wild-eyed, she grabbed a square quartet of gunner bugs from behind with her feet and head and held them out, making them fire pink, not red, blasts constantly. She stayed in one place and turned in different directions each time a group of other bugs came to attack from behind or the side. She even aimed so that a blast destroyed any blast coming at her! Meanwhile, the room's color was entirely blue, no red pulses. Vertex, again, shifted between this and her medium-energy actions throughout the section of the song, mostly staying with the best one. (It was actually quite easy to lose her grip on so many bugs if she wasn't careful.)

Vertex panted, sweaty-faced. "This is tough...Huh?" She looked to the side when a status window popped up. "I found it!" She turned to face the proper port portal, out of which poured a steady stream of bugs.

"I'll do more byte bashing in here after they stop coming," she told herself as she soared off, leaving some bugs behind. She was stopped by a swarm of blaster bugs that had just arrived. There was a brief pause as they looked at each other. Behind them, she saw the waterfall of bugs. "Uh..." she muttered, thinking.

In an instant, Vertex was flying through the tunnel, one bug under her chin, shooting forwards and down at the stream, and another between her feet, shooting back at any pursuers. "Y'know, for viruses, you guys are kinda useful!" she laughed, eyes narrowed mischievously.

In the real world, Maru smirked in amusement and held his chin in thought. 'That is a pretty useful trick,' he mused.

Mr. Kely was raising his eyebrows, mouth open a little. He quickly looked to the side, adjusting his visor glasses. "I-It's got a good learning program, that's all," he dismissed hurriedly.

—O—

(- *instrumental cont.*)

On the other end of the port tunnel was another spherical room in cyberspace covered with port portals, but not as many this time. The room was glowing an angry red, and on the blocky floor sat a giant, polygonal beast. It looked like, fittingly enough, a 20-sided-polyhedron virus. It sat in a large pedestal, eight tentacle-like arms growing from it and creeping into differently-colored port portals. An array of blocks with a big black square on one side floated around it and sat on the floor, probably turrets. From little doors on the pedestal popped out the bugs.

"Aha!" Vertex crowed as she entered (alone). A sub-program of hers activated, sending magma-patterned panes of light to block out all exits currently unoccupied by an arm, including the way out. "Virus located and quarantined," she announced.

She paled to white again when she realized that she was now in a room filling up with bugs and already full of turrets and a few angry arms. "C...Commencing virus...d-deletion..." she gulped. "(Mommyboard...)"

(Another teleport. 'That HAS to be her signature!')

"""OSU!"""

- *instrumental cont.*

- Sai-wo-sukai-re-sumosu-chu-bi

- Oi ko-shite ko-shite

- Vau-kuno-tsumoi-ner kasu-chu-bi

- Ho-no-de no-we-n

When the Pokédan came back this time, they stood on a spot on the floor and somehow avoided being hit. (Of course, they weren't exactly antiviruses.) Vertex's screen stayed in one place again, looking at her back this time, and she remained on-screen. Knowing there were far too many to try using Tackle, she instead resorted to exploiting the gunner bugs from the bat. She would grab one that came close to her and fire it at whatever was coming her way, but she would always soon end up using it as a shield to block the turrets or a salvo of shots from a third type of bug, one that locked on, then fired up to eight dark red bullet-like shots. The poor porygon2 was too busy trying to survive to focus on hitting the virus. The room retained its angry red color.

Soon, however, Vertex was faring badly. She was skittering through the air side to side, flailing her feet madly, as enough shots to make a bullet hell veteran grimace launched at her, barely missing their mark. The room didn't really change its color much.

Then, abruptly, she regained her composure straight to full confidence as she grabbed one of the lock-on bugs and used it to fire white shots, two to four at a time, and zipped away from any lock-on reticules or shots that came at her. As well, she was able to land a few hits on the virus itself once in a while! The room was slightly less harsh in its red color.

Vertex was dodging when she got hit by a lock-on bullet. "GON!" She looked around in surprise. "Where'd that—?"

Suddenly, a solid wall of lock-on bugs loomed up in front of her, startling her and scaring away the bug she was holding. "WHOA!"

They locked onto her while she was holding still. Vertex started to panic. "Ohnoohnoohnooh—wait!" A pixelated light bulb lit up by her head and she stopped flailing.

The wall fired their full salvos and Vertex shot up, eyes clenched shut. "Let this be the right one, let this be the right one," she muttered as she soared upwards.

Her body glowed, changing color and texture, as she went over the top of the wall, the shots following her.

"YESYESYESYESYESSSS!" she cheered as she danced around the other side, avoiding shots that went and struck other bugs, turrets, or the virus. Of course, a good number hit her, too, but if her dry, brown texture meant anything, she had used Conversion 2 to (break the current rules a bit and) switch to the type that the electronic pulses were ineffective against—Ground!

The virus roared in agony as Vertex floated to a pause, raising an eyebrow and looking up with her eyes. "Why didn't I do this from the start?" she muttered just before her Conversion 2 wore off. "OH!" she squeaked at this before shooting up again. This made the current mass of shots coming at her hit the bug wall, eradicating it.

"But as unskilled as she is, it wears off pretty quick," Maru commented, crossing his arms and smirking. "Not that she could not do some damage before it ran out."

Mr. Kely was glued to the action. Maru sweatdropped and gave him a sideways glance. Mr. Kely quickly looked away and adjusted his glasses again. "I've never seen a representation of cyberspace, that's all," he dismissed.

—O—

(-*instrumental*)

Vertex gulped, looking at the virus with nervous determination. "Almost there..."

Though unseen, the Pokédan looked at one another and nodded. """OSU!"""

- Itsumo kyoro saito

- Itsumo kyoro saito

- Itsumo kyoro saito

- Itsumo kyoro saito

- San

- Ko-na-i-suta

- Yu-me-a-ji-sai-da-ro

- To-moi-dasu-ko-to-moi-da

- San

- Ke-na-tsa

- Ma-ga-re-wa-pai-a-ju

- So-moi-dasu-ko-to-mo-na

- San

- Ko-na-i-suta

- Yu-me-a-ji-sai-da-ro

- To-moi-dasu-ko-to-moi-da

- San

- Ke-ka-tsa

- Ma-ga-re-wa-pai-a-ju

- So-moi-dasu-ko-to-mo-na

- San...

- *instrumental*

Vertex began by grabbing a lock-on bug and using it to lock on four times before firing, sometimes having to use it as a shield this time and waste a second grabbing another, flitting about nervously yet determinedly the entire time. The room's red was not as harsh as she entered, and flickered every now and then to green.

This didn't last long, however; when the refrain came nearly a cappella, as the Pokédan did longer, sparser moves to match the floating feel, Vertex began fighting completely differently from her previous bests. Instead of zipping around and firing like crazy, she instead floated calmly and slowly side to side, locking onto eight targets at a time before firing in time with every measure's first and third beats, smoothly dodging (or even shooting down) any shots that made their way towards her with gentle, flowing movements, never breaking her stride. Her expression was serene as she worked on annihilating the virus, whose arms were cringing in pain with each group of shots, accented with a roar. 'Focus...Calm...Focus...Calm...' Vertex kept telling herself as she floated about. The room flickered between red and green more frequently, staying on green more than red every couple switches. She stayed like this virtually the entire rest of the time.

As the Pokédan's screen finally disappeared entirely, Vertex floated level with the virus, holding her lock-on bug. The virus itself was looking quite unwell, several polygons missing on its outer shell and its single flashing block core exposed. "Virus deletion at 95%..." she announced, eyes closed. She opened them again and looked seriously at the virus (the camera getting right in front of her face). "...Time to clean your clock!"

She used Conversion 2 before racing over, firing lock-on shots over and over in her high-speed Tackle. She flew so fast, the shots she fired were only slowly going in front of her. "Porrrryyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

The virus and remaining shooting bugs tried firing at her, but her Conversion 2 foiled this, the stray shots ending up hitting the virus itself.

Then, almost all of the shots Vertex fired hit the virus at the same time as brown blur Vertex herself did. BUBUBOOOM! "GON!"

The virus roared again, but it was quickly cut apart and then out as it exploded into harmless loose 1's and 0's. Flying out of the blast came a magenta and blue blur, a happy Vertex with Conversion 2 worn off. She had no bug anymore (as it was destroyed), but she didn't need any anymore. Behind her, the remains of the virus crumbled from the former center into individual triangular polygon parts that faded into data, as well. The room turned a gentle green for good. "I DID IT!" Vertex chirped happily.

She raced out the port portal at warp speed, firewall allowing her through now. Little beads of data flew out in front of her. "Deletion successful. Updating local anti-virus." she announced proudly as she went.

Outside, Maru was tapping away at the computer again, while Mr. Kely was mopping his brow. "Come on, hurry up..." Maru was grumbling, looking at a side screen. (He sensed another Teleport as he did so, but was too focused on the task at hand.) The screen had a window for the anti-virus program. A short moment passed before a window with a green circle popped up, reading, "Database updated," making Maru shout a victorious, "YES!"

He slammed a key with a finger. "Scan!"

"Logging out," announced Vertex as she finally reached her exit. All around her, all the bugs remaining were disappearing in puffs of smoke after lighting up in yellow, including the ones forming a wall before the exit—she just kept flying through, exiting through a cloud of data.

The computer console came alive with white energy as she came out into the real world, floating above and to the side. The porygon2 came out with a tired and relieved face on. "Poryy! I made it!" she sighed (only Maru understanding her, of course). She started when she turned to the side, ending up looking right into the eyes of Mr. Kely. "!" (Right as she looked up at Mr. Kely, the song ended in its abrupt way.)

Mr. Kely stared back, wearing a poker face. "..."

Maru, meanwhile, was doing a full system check. He smiled at the screen's result. "All harmful programs deleted, all files restored, all processes nominal!" he reported over his shoulder.

Mr. Kely stood silent for a moment, staring inscrutably at Vertex, before chuckling. He grabbed Vertex's feet suddenly, making her widen her eyes in surprise, and started dancing around with her. "You saaaved us~! You saaaved us~!" the old geek sang happily as he turned a circle with her. The poor pokémon was sweatdropping the whole time.

"J-Just doin' my job, s-sir..." she replied dizzily.

"You know what I think, Mr. Maru?" Mr. Kely grinned. "I'm gonna make her our permanent virus fighter!" He stopped and smiled down at her (she was spiral-eyed now). "Could you forgive me for doubting you?" he asked her.

Vertex looked back at him with big, sparkling, happy eyes. "You...I..." She closed them happily and nodded, announcing simply, proudly, and assuredly, "Awaiting commands!"

(- Do-shita-te you wonder what's life)

(- Well,)

(- Kan-deku-so re-usu be-i-ko)

(- Me-se-shika-ra ke-suka-ra mi-re-dosu)

(- Na-jo-shita-te you wonder what's life)

(- Well,)

(- Kan-deku-so re-usu be-i-ko)

(- Me-se-shika-ra ke-suka-ra mi-re-dosu)

(- So stop)

Some time later, Vertex is seen in a black, green-lined cyberspace, firing a Tri Attack down at a group of bugs.

-:-:-

Back in the present, though, Maru went over to Mr. Kely. "Um..." he went, sweatdropping and holding a finger up. 'I did not do much noteworthy work here, compared to her...'

"Don't worry, I'm still going to pay you," Mr. Kely assured, smiling at him. "Could you do me a favor and go up to the main lobby and wait for me? I need to get the money from my office. And bring Vertex with you; I think looking through a few real windows might help her. After all, she's awful tired." Maru nodded, and Mr. Kely, smiling, turned and left through a door.

Maru started walking to the other door, motioning for Vertex to follow. She floated along, trailing her feet behind her in exhaustion. On the way, he commented, "For someone just doing her job, you did a pretty damn good one."

Vertex ran a blushing program and giggled sheepishly before she noted something, making her squeak. "Wait, what?"

Maru chuckled, smirking. "I can understand pokémon," he explained.

Vertex nodded her head. "I see." They entered an elevator.

Maru frowned, thinking, as he selected the lobby...mentally chuckling after something intruded his rumination. 'Two artificial pokémon walk into an elevator...' "...Is your AI's personality program stronger than average?" he asked offhandedly.

Vertex bobbed her head like a drinking bird. "I am product number 28 of Torizo Systems' Enhanced Porygon project," she identified. "The aim of the project is to produce porygon and porygon2 with personality programs so strong, they spend more time thinking than processing, so to speak."

Maru nodded, understanding. "...How do you feel, being...created?" he asked. 'To be honest, she is actually worse off than me, if she had to have her very personality created,' he admitted to himself. 'I at least grew my own personality...At least, I...think...'

Vertex tilted her head, looking up as she decided. "Ummm..." She looked back at him. "Given the choice, would you rather not choose to exist as a creation than to not exist at all?" she asked in answer.

Maru let out a laugh. "You have a good point, there," he said, smiling wistfully. 'Not that I have found my answer to that question, myself...'

"I'm happy with who and what I am," Vertex answered more plainly, happy-eying. "And I am satisfied knowing that my personality has some ability to change given its advanced programming." She looked down at herself. "I'm actually still amazed at how powerful that program is," she commented. "Porygon2 are usually more free-willed than normal porygon, but...these emotions are so powerful—they've often overridden my programming, at least to an extent. They really put a LOT of effort into that part of my AI. No wonder they decided to give it a new name."

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. The two manmade pokémon stepped out. Maru looked at Vertex. "New name?"

Vertex nodded. "Uh-huh. They thought that they did such a good job, it deserves a stronger name than something so plain as 'Personality'."

"Ah. What did they rename it?" Maru stopped by a window and looked out at the late afternoon.

"Something simple, yet powerful..." Vertex looked out the window with him. "'Heart'."

-)-D-0-O-0-C-(-