It had been awhile... To him five years had passed, but to the rest of the world, only a year or so had gone by. DamnGlitch, for the past few years, had been trapped in an online realm, the MDB battle world. After many battles in the third Battle of the Posters, he had been merged with the Insane Space Hunter.

With him as the Glitched-Hunter, he roamed the MDB for five long years until the Fourth Battle of the Posters, where he was transferred to the Ancient Robot Roboster. Inside of his old school stone and gear hard drive, Glitch finally controlled a body again. But, it was old as hell and Roboster, who was always at the back of his mind calling him a demon. It took Glitch weeks, but he finally made his way back to his place of residence in the MDB world. There, he uploaded himself back onto the net, and back into his physical body, and back into his apartment in Redmond, Washington.

He found out very quickly that he had been found.

By Bill.

It was very clear to Glitch that the Microsoft Underground had been through Glitch's small pad. The end result of the Deep 13's first assignment, Beta One Seven New, had been searching for Glitch since he had been rescued by an unknown assailant two years ago.

Glitch pondered that, "I was saved for sure, but why?" He looked up, "She didn't even give me a hint"

In the year 2000, Glitch had returned from another extended trip to the Internet Multiverse. He found Bill, who he had not seen since his explosive escape from Microsoft years ago. In the end, they dueled. It was a close match until Bill gained the upper hand and subsequently beat Glitch half to death. After failing to activate his Virus System, Glitch was saved by a woman who had appeared out of nowhere, and who struck Bill down. She then proceeded to take Glitch back to his apartment.

"Was it that long ago...?" He frowned, "And where has UTroid gone to? I haven't seen him since I was assimilated..."

Ultra-Troid was a small metroid that had become Glitch's right hand man. He had been consumed by Glitch sometime ago, but in the Second Battle of the Posters had been revived, care of the chrozo statue. They had stayed partners after that, but...

"I haven't seen hide nor hair of him after that though... I wonder where he went?"

Glitch raised his eyebrows, then grinned widely, "I'm gonna go find him!"

"What the hell."

Glitch poked through the wreckage of his apartment, which had broken computer equipment scattered about. Cracked monitors flashed and discharged... Macs trying to boot up played "The Chimes of Death".

All of this didn't really make Glitch all that optimistic.

Dragging his hand through a small part of his calf length purple hair, he sighed, "I hadn't planed on upgrading for another three months... what a waste."

It took him all of a second to draw the conclusion that MicroSoft had done this. There were muddy boot prints with the logo on it, and one of the Underground's trademark swords were embedded in the floor (no doubt confusing and angering the tenant in the room below).

With a frown, he grabbed his wallet and walked out the door, destination unknown...

Well actually, he knew where he was going all along.

The computer store.

"If all my stuff is busted, I have to get a couple of new comps, right?"

A gust of wind blew past, and a small sweat drop appeared on his head.

"Anyway, I just new some new stuff so I figure out what's been going on for the last two years." Not expecting and answer this time, he pushed through the doors of the store and made a bee line to the small mac section. While it irked him that in the time he was away the world still hadn't realized the Mac's superiority, he shrugged it off and grabbed an iMac and a laptop off the shelf. When the store clerk came up to him and asked if he needed help he just shook his head and continued on toward to counter. There he produced a credit card (whose purchases are all billed to Microsoft) and paid for his things. Ignoring the wide eyed looks from employees, he hefted the two boxes under his prosthetic arm and began to walk back to his pad.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" He commented to himself, walking back down the street just a short minute after having arrived.

He was almost giddy with anticipation... It wasn't often he got new Apple toys. He swiftly unwrapped his two new partners in crime, then set aside the Powerbook and carried the iMac to his desk. Only moments later he was online, care of the broadband that Microsoft was also unwittingly paying for. He made sure to get rid of any backdoors hidden on his Mac, by MS or other. He may be an Apple Zealot, but he didn't need his activities monitored... seeing as a good portion of them were against the law...

He briefly checked his anti-PC site before going to the MS home page. He snorted.

" Rubbish... pure rubbish."

Glitch would have, as he had done many times before, played a random practical joke on whomever was in charge of the network at the time, but he had bigger fish to fry. Whatever Microsoft puts on their pages really had nothing to do with what Glitch was fighting against, and in this case , looking for. Doing what he did best, Glitch jacked into the computer, using cables that extended from his upper back. Soon, he had left his body and was venturing into internet space. To him, it was akin to returning to the womb. He had, after all, "grown up" there. The sever in particular was one not directly connected to the internet, but connected to the company network, and then to the internet. Glitch slid right in, unnoticeable by any of Microsoft's virus detection programs... at least as long as he didn't modify anything.

Which was fine as he didn't plan to do that in the first place. He needed to check, just like he did every time he returned from extended voyages to the net. The place were he, and his greatest nemesis was created. Truly like brothers. Well, step brothers. Who were inclined to hate each other. Glitch nodded off his feelings of angst, it was neither the time nor the place. He headed to the core, the center of the dark and ancient server. It was black here, long since having been deemed obsolete, but it's task was very specific, very specialized. It was designed to create artificial inteligences, like himself and Bill.

And, as Glitch observed with mixed emotions, it was being used again for the same purpose. The center was occupied once more for the first time since, to the best of his knowledge, 94. He poked and prodded the black void... but nothing came of it. It gave him an indescribable amount of nostalgia just being there, and he half expected the big thing to yell at him.

Glitch was concerned. The only reason the spot could be back is to develop some new sort of AI... and that meant someone new for him to fight against. He also had an inkling that it might be an omen of sorts. He really had no idea (or evidence) to suggest that, but he checked over the server once more for anyway for any recent references to Bill. No luck.

Moments later, Glitch was back within the confines of his body, yet again in his apartment. He was about to shut down his machine when an instant message popped up.

"Eh? Who's this from?" The sender's name was missing. Hoping to himself that this wasn't yet _another_ ad for pornography, he opened it.

<Glitch! It's me!>

Glitch took a step back, and quickly typed in a response, <Whose me? Be a little more specific.>

The text turned to red, <you bloody idiot! It's UT!>

Glitch's face lit up briefly before he returned to typing, <So, where are you?>

The return message appeared immediately, <Microsoft HQ, so could ya come and get me?>

He frowned briefly, <How are you online if you've been captured?>

<I'm chewing on an ethernet cord ^^;>

Glitch face faulted briefly, <Uh sure, I think I can get you... But how'd you get caught?>

<they came to the apartment and captured me. Don't ask me how, It was all pretty quick. Hey, guess what?>

Glitch typed back lazily, <what?>

<One of the guards came up to me, and started poking me with a stick. So do you know what I did?>

Glitch sighed, <What'd you do?>

<I sucked the life outta his hand. nothing but bone was left, I tell you!>

Glitch couched, <that's sick, dude. And sounded wrong.>

The next message came in slowly, <Ehehe, well, that is to say, I was kinda-- they're back, I'll talk later!>

"Hey wait!" He keyed another message up, but UT was already gone.

Glitch pushed out and stood up. Scratching the back of his head, he began to pace.

"Man, I don't wanna go back to HQ... it's almost defiantly a trap... But I can't just leave UT hanging!" He went to the coat rack and picked up his armor. With a feral grin, he said, "Well I guess it's decided... off to MicroSoft!" In no time, he was out the door and on the way to the HQ, which was only 30 short miles from where he lived.

Meanwhile, at the place Ultra-Troid claimed to be, there was nothing. Only the quiet hum of the nearby servers. Against one wall was a small break station, for whomever was on duty at the time. But there was no cage, no tiny metroid. And not a single sign that there had ever been one there.

"Hmm?"

Glitch had been jogging down the street when he was hit with a small pang. He shook his head to clear it, no need to worry about something he couldn't identify. But even so, he slowed down and put his hand on his forehead, "At least at BoTP I didn't have to worry about saving people..." A moment later he took back off down the street.

He finally arrived at Microsoft some time later, but to his surprise, it wasn't a battle field. In fact, he couldn't discern any traps at all.

"So much for that."

Not a second after he said that, a small net dropped slowly onto his head. He looked up laboriously to see two nervously grinning MicroSoft Underground personnel. With exaggerated ease, he plucked up the net and put it on the ground beside him. The men, no longer smiling, began to run. Glitch's claw shot out and grabbed one by the ear. He struggled, but not an instant later he was flung into the building some 35 feet away. The other man, who had stopped to watch, began to run again. Glitch ran after him, and knocked a nearby tree into the man's path... well not so much into his path as directly onto him, pining him neatly to the ground. Glitch put his foot on the tree and spoke in a quiet voice. "Did you _really_ think that would work?"

He sweat dropped before answering, "Not really... but we're just accountants..."

Glitch increased the weight of the foot on the wooden trap, "Why does MicroSoft need to use accountants when it has B07N?"

The captured man coughed under the pressure, "Ehh, he's been pretty reclusive all his life, and there are rumors of people who aren't his superiors getting killed if they bother him."

"Well, would'ya mind telling me what office is his??" said Glitch cheekily.

But the man below him had passed out from lack of oxygen. Glitch quickly pushed the tree off of him, before briskly jogging to the front entrance of the oversized office building.

The lobby was massive, circular with a small secretarial desk at the head. The whole thing was empty, surprisingly. The only sound came from the keyboard of the single secretary who ruled over this expanse, seemingly oblivious to what had just went on outside. With slight apprehension, he walked up to her, making sure to keep his prosthetic arm from view.

"Howdy, where might the server room be? I'm... a new system analyst." He said while grinning.

Stopping whatever she had been working on , she looked up at the man. Taking in the semi-tall, extremely long haired man with wide eyes, she replied, "Really? Your the new guy?"

Glitch scratched the back of his head with his claw, without realizing it. Luckily, it stayed out of sight. " Uh sure, I suppose..."

"As in, um, permanent new guy?"

He took a step back unconsciously, "Why not? Guess that makes us office mates or something, eh?"

She laughed nervously, "Oh! Yeah... I think so... I mean, erm... " She struggled to keep the conversation going, to keep him in her grasp, "Hey! Why do you have so much hair?"

Glitch's heart jumped a bit. He had forgotten, somehow, that 5 feet of purple hair was abnormal, "Well, _I_ like it. Makes me, me. Ya know?"

The young woman had loosened up a bit. "If your up for it, I could always trim it for you... come over to my place... catch my drift?" She said with a seductive smile.

It was Glitch's turn to get wide eyed now, "Uh, that's very *gulp* kind of you to offer, but maybe some other time... I'm kinda needed downstairs..." He silently prayed the server room was downstairs.

The secretary gave him a little wave, "I understand, 5 floors down, elevators are to your left."

Glitch quietly sighed in relief, then thanked her. He began to walk out when she grabbed arm.

"Don't be a stranger, you hear?" she whispered, before winking.

Glitch nodded dumbly before half stumbling away. He made it to the elevators, leaning on it's side and sighing again, "Ehehe... I guess not everyone here's bad... she must be a temp."

He regained his composure as the elevator came to a stop. He had a bad feeling about this...

Bill. Bill without a last name. Code named Beta One Seven New, or as he is more widely known B07N. His body was the seventh Prototype, the first TestType body. His body, that bore the face of one Bill Gates, former CEO of MicroSoft, was inferior. His dirty blond hair, his slim, attractive build, his above average high. None of it mattered. He was pathetic, useless.

He hated everything about it.

When it was first developed, it was beheld as the revolution in cybernetic achievements. It had been specifically designed to record test data, and incorporate all that had been learned during the development and testing of all the previous prototypes. All in all, his body was faster, more compact, more powerful, and more adaptable then Glitch's. It was the best.

And then she came. Taking his prestige, his pride. Humiliating him. Bill had been severely reprimanded for his loss two years ago. After that fateful encounter, he had begun research on her. It took less time then he would have anticipated. It was remarkably easy to find information on person owned by the same corporation you were.

He had lost to her, in both design and battle. She was the final step before Mass Production, the Production Model. Every bit of her was more human, or even more super human, then either Glitch or Bill.

Bill, in his office that he had just recently acquired, smiled grimly at that. He and Glitch finally had something in common.

Her I/O jacks were twice as small as his or Glitch's. The prosthetic jacks on her were smaller as well, and more damage resistant. They were even backward compatible, able to use prototype attachments designed for Bill.

And the kicker, she was endowed with sex organs. Not that Bill had yet come into a situation where he needed them, he had been exceptionally busy, but the mere fact that he would never be able to had the need arisen frustrated him to no end. In reality, himself and Glitch were the only creatures on the face of the planet that could not mate, or at least pass down its heritage. And Bill felt himself, if not Glitch, much more deserving then most of the other inhabitants of the world of creating offspring.

Bill finally got fed up with his train of thought and got up off of the office floor, and walked to his window. He had taken to living here, as opposed to the small closet he'd lived in previously. It wasn't much, but it gave him full time access to a computer, so it was better then nothing.

He sat down and logged into his account, quickly checking his Pro-PC page and uploading his latest essay, before accessing the building's security setup. The camera was on the lobby, and that foolish secretary that always scowled at him. Then, exactly what he didn't need, Glitch walked in and talked briefly with her. And to top it off, she swooned when he left.

He growled, "...maybe if I talked to her more..." He shook his head quickly, "This isn't the time for such things!"

He grabbed the phone off of the receiver and dialed.

"Sir?"

A quiet voice spoke on the other end, "What?"

"I've identified him... I'm going to engage him."

"Whatever is needed, but don't interrupt me again."

"Yes sir, Mr. Gates." He replaced the phone back down and grabbed his sword.

"What the hell is Glitch doing here?"

"What the hell does Bill want me here for? I'd be nice if he had gotten over that whole finding and killing me thing." commented Glitch to himself.

The elevator slowed, bouncing slightly as it stopped. The doors parted, revealing the large dark room beyond. Glitch cautiously walked out, observing the slight but noticeable chill that pre mediated the area. Walking between the massive, quietly humming servers, he figured that this must be a backup facility. He based these observations on the fact that the bullet holes from Bill's chain gun were still there, and the only new things in the room were replacements for units damaged in the fight. Hell, on one side of the room he could see his blood stain from years previous. Glitch looked shrewdly to his right shoulder, where a bullet had hit him. No scar remained, having been healed amazingly well by his BioSuit.

Even while looking around, Glitch was still wondering why Bill was doing what he was. He's sacked his apartment and stolen UT, almost inviting him into a fight. Lights flashing from around the corner interrupted his train of though. Wary of the possibility of a trap, he edged around the corner. All that greeted him, however, was the broken glass casing of a small cage. He wasn't sure, but he presumed that _was_ where UT was being held...

"Well damn, if he was gonna escape, he shouldn't have bothered to call me."

Before he could voice another wry comment, the sound of the elevator opening again shut him up. He spun around and pushed his back to the wall. He stuck his head out to see who or what it was. He had a pretty good idea.

In flash he was rolling, abandoning his hiding place in favor of taking the offensive. He shot his claw off at the silhouette created by the elevator's lights. Hearing the commotion, the figure jumped out of the way in the nick of time. Continuing on, the claw embedded itself into the doors.

Seconds later the person returned fire, his own claw whipping out towards Glitch at an alarming speed. In a feat of reflex, Glitch just managed to hit the floor before it skewered him. Before Glitch could get his wits together for a counter attack, his opponent held up his hands in protest.

"Glitch, wait!"

Glitch got to his feet, "Bill?

Bill brought his arms down, "Why are you here, Glitch?"

Glitch scratched his head, "Well why the hell do you think? You kidnapped my damn partner!"

Bill just stood there. Glitch crossed his arms in anticipation of an excuse.

"Well?"

Bill stood there a moment longer, before balling up his hand and yelling out, "What is wrong with you, idiot?! You don't even have a partner! Are you so delusional and lonely that you use figments of your imagination to justify assaulting me?!"

Now it was Glitch's turn to stand in silence.

"Are you stupid? Of course I have a partner, and a real one at that! Small fellow, metroid-y?" He replied slowly, for emphasis.

Bill narrowed his eyes and placed his hands on his hips, "You are delusional, old Glitch. Not once have I seen you with anyone besides that blasted woman."

Glitch was going to fire back another reply when he realized what Bill was saying; UT hadn't been reborn the last time Bill had seen him. He had just been a voice in the back of Glitch's mind.

Glitch sweat dropped, "Ehehe, uh, never mind that, could you tell where the little green floaty thing that you took from my apartment is?"

Bill barked out a laugh, "I'm afraid you've got the wrong guy. I never ordered any attack on your dump of a home. Now you have to make up reasons to attack me? This is trespassing you know."

Glitch gave him a withering stare, "I resent that, and you did attack my place. There was MS crap laying everywhere. And he contacted me from here, so give him back or I'll kick your arse."

Bill fumed at him, "You moron, why the hell would I have _it_? That makes no sense!"

All he got as a response was a grin, "Well, your not a very sensible guy, are you Bill" Glitch pulled his eyelid and stuck out his tongue.

Bill had calmed himself outwardly, "Well, if you have no more business here, then leave."

Glitch readied his beam sabre, "Oh ho, no no no. First, how ‘bout you tell me what's on the AI server, and then tell me where UT has gone off to. NOW."

Before Bill had a chance to answer, the door behind him began to open again. He moved to the side and pressed himself against the wall. He motioned Glitch to do something similar. Glitch dove behind a server just before the light of the elevator pored out once more. Glitch crawled to the end of his cover and peered out. The darkness of the room combined with the bright light of the elevator made another silhouette, this time that of a young woman. Well, at least Glitch thought it was a woman. It had the right curves. In the end, the voice confirmed it,

"Come out, DamnGlitch."

"Th-that voice!" Glitch mumbled out.

The elevator doors closed, removing the light that had served as her disguise. Standing there in all her half lidded glory was the blue haired girl of 2 years ago. Apparently, since he had last seen her she'd chosen more suitable clothing. Gone was the body suit she had worn then, replaced with something remarkably similar to what Bill and Glitch wore; thin chest armor, with semi baggy pants and a tight black undershirt. Even the too-large shoes were the same. Glitch was a bit disappointed, he old costume was _very_ revealing... but he guessed that it didn't offer much in protection.

Glitch came out of his reverie and emerged from his hiding place, "Me? You mean me?"

She offered the slightest of nods, and Glitch began to approach.

During all of this, Bill was seething. Finally, he shouted, "You! What the hell are you doing here?!"

She seemed to use as little effort as possible to express herself, "I was to find DamnGlitch. I have. That is why I am here."

Bill's mind was racing, what could Glitch have that he didn't?

"Well why? Why do you need him? Who needs him? Not you, you said yourself that you were ordered to do so! By who?!"

The girl gave him the faintest of smiles, "That is not your business. You are no longer of use to them."

Behind his visor, his eyes opened wide, "Wh-what? No use?"

His voice shook, "Are you sure they know who I am? I was a black project! Top secret! They may have me confused with someone else!"

She gave him a small frown, "NO. They specifically said _not_ to take you."

He looked down, "O-oh."

Then he collapsed, "I'm useless... heh... hehehehe... HAHAHA! Me useless?! I'm...I'm not useless... your useless..." He mumbled a few other incoherent things before curling up into a ball and beginning to cry.

Glitch looked down at him, and then at the girl, "What the hell did you do to him?"

He looked away from Bill. He may deserve to die, but not _this_. Crushing his pride and spirit was a bit much.

"Why am I so important? Why do these people want me instead of him? All I've done really is buy Macs and fight with him, " He pointed at Bill, "What makes me so unique?"

The girl, either giving Bill a small amount of respect or to lazy to keep looking down at him instead looked Glitch in the eye, "I cannot give out that information."

Straight out asking wouldn't work, so Glitch decided on the sneaky way. It was slow, but it got the job done.

He gave her his most charming grin and said, "Well, can I at least get your name?"

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"No."

The trip back to his apartment was infuriatingly silent. She'd warded off all of his advances and questions, and in turn he wouldn't follow her to her masters. Dead set against letting Glitch go, the girl decided to follow him.

Having all of his attempts deflected, and then being followed by the frustrating girl had turned his mood sour. He turned over a number of things morosely in his head, from the happening of the day, to what groceries he would need to pick up. In the end though, his thoughts kept returning to Bill's breakdown at Microsoft. But before he could even voice his opinions to himself, they had arrived home. Glitch gave her a wary glance, then took out his keys and unlocked the door. He waited a second, then reluctantly waved the girl in. He shortly arrived at his own room, which he opened. Now resigned to it, Glitch invited the girl in, who nodded to him as she passed.

It had been an eventful day, and he figured that the easiest way to cope would be to sleep. Sleep was all powerful, able to erase all of life's problems, if only for a few hours at a time. Or not, if your an insomniac. Sucks to be you, hahaha!

A few events led to her being in his bed. The result was in no way pleasant as the previous sentence would suggest. All he wanted to do was sleep, and he figured if he told her to go lay down, she'd at least have the sense to do just that.

So he did, "Hey, uh, _girl_, make yourself at home... but don't eat anything. We need that for the morning."

The girl gave him a bewildered look, so he simply told her to sit on the couch. Glitch went to the bathroom to perform pre-sleep rituals, and the girl moved to the couch. The old thing was covered in glass, so she picked up the cushions and tossed them aside, sitting on the springs instead. While not very comfortable, it was preferable to the glass.

"So... what are you gonna to in the morning, lady?" Glitch yelled from the bathroom.

No response.

"Lady?"

He stuck his head out of the door to see if she was all right, only to find her undressing.

"Ack! What are you doing?! This is no time to get naked!!"

She gave him a dismissive look, "I'm not undressing, I'm preparing for bed. These clothes are not clean, it would not be right the where them to bed."

Glitch looked on, stunned at her lack of modesty. She was a woman, right? It took a withering glare from her to get him to look away, her remaining coverings only including undergarments. He picked up his tooth brush (which he had dropped without realizing it), and backpedaled into the bathroom. The girl blinked a few times before curling up on the couch. By the time Glitch reemerged, she had fallen asleep. Glitch gave a half laugh half sigh and grabbed an extra blanket from the closet. He unfolded it and draped it over her, then walked over to his bed. Yawning, he removed his belt and placed it on the floor next to the bed. Blinking back the inevitable, he settled in for a welcome rest from the world.

His rest was shorter lived then he would have liked. The sound of a door closing awoke him, and checking his clock he saw it was a bit past midnight. Still drowsy, he peaked over the covers, seeing the thin stream of light coming from the bottom of the door, he figured she had to go potty.

Huh?

"Wait... she had a claw like me... so she's a BioSuit. I never have to use the toilet..."

The sound of a flush confirmed his theory. He blanched, how unclean. Digestive tracts are so disgusting. He pulled the covers off, "Why did you do _that_" he asked.

She gave him a look to end all looks, a look that sent chills up the spine. Glitch wished he had just went back to sleep.

"I eat, I drink, I use the toilet. Most creatures do." she replied at great length.

Glitch sat there stumped while she maneuvered her way back to her couch. She had almost fallen back to sleep when he spoke up again,

"You were manufactured by MS, right?"

He missed her swift intake of breath,

"You have the same claw, and almost the same uniform as me and B07N... so it's kind of obvious, but your not like us. I eat, but all of the food is quick burned into fast fuel. I have to eat allot more often, but I don't make... uh, ‘waste'." He looked her in the eye, her head appearing above the couch back,

"What's all different about you, besides... that?" He gave a small laugh, "your the new model, right?"

The girl remained quiet for a bit, mulling over what Glitch had said, censoring her reply as not to give away anything she shouldn't.

"Come with me to my masters, and you'll learn all you want to. If it involves the changes, be sure to ask while you have a chance. I'm not allowed to give out that information."

Glitch gave another sigh. Nothing, all day and he'd learned almost nothing about this girl and her motives.

"Whatever," he thought, "I need sleep anyway."

It would have had to have been another two hours before he was awaken again, this time by sounds coming from the couch.

The couch?

Glitch looked over grumpily to where his temporary guest lay. Why the hell couldn't she just let him sleep? He realized, though, that she was asleep this time. He got out of bed to see what was going on. Even on the thin couch she was tossing and turning, muttering things which he couldn't decipher. Finally he wouldn't stand for it anymore and shook her awake.

"Yo, get up."

Her eyes bolted open and focused on his immediately. So fast it scared him.

"_What_?"

He decided not to admonish her, he would be snappy if someone had waken him.

"Take the bed, the couch isn't comfortable. I should have let you get the bed from the get go."

The girl's eyes softened, and she got up and went to the bed. Glitch followed her with his eyes and when she settled in he curled up where she had been moments before and fell fast asleep. Couch or bed, he needed some damn sleep.

She awoke slightly after eight, as she did every morning. But this time in a different place. It took a moment, but the girl remembered where she was and why. Glitch, she saw, was sprawled on the couch in an odd but strangely comfortable looking position. She took his words from the day before and decided to take a shower. She had always been told to keep clean by her superiors. She washed briskly, like always. Working from top to bottom, she washed her hair and then her body, being sure to clean the grooves in her Prosthetic jack. After finishing she dried herself of with what she assumed was an extra towel, she had found it in the restroom cabinet. Now somewhat dry she rinsed with the mouthwash Glitch owned, but did not brush. Using the man's tooth brush would be too imposing. She left bathroom around fifteen minutes after she had entered a walked to the kitchen.

She was hungry.

After poking through most of Glitch's cupboards, she eventually found a can which was not past it's expiration date. She told herself to remind him to purchase some food for himself soon. She popped the lid and emptied the contents into the pan she'd found and began to fry it.

Meanwhile, Glitch was rising from his slumber... performing his usual ritual of scratching and yawning. He was in such a rut that he didn't remember until his fifth minute in the shower that someone else was at his house. It was too late, he'd already chose the bathing long route. His left arm was detached and on the floor; his hair got tangled in the goddamned thing if it was on, all those little grooves and crevices. He slowly shampooed his hair... a long task which took all of ten minutes. He didn't need to bother with conditioner, his hair was naturally smooth and ended up the same way no matter what he did. After thoroughly rinsing, he started cleaning his body. When he was almost finished he smelled what he figured was breakfast, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was...

Having finished his shower, he searched for the towel he'd packed away before BoTP, but to no avail. He shrugged, and walked out without it.

It wasn't like he needed it.

The girl was about to sit down to eat the strange food she had cooked when Glitch walked in stark naked. Not really attempting to sneak a peak, put doing so none the less, her eyes drifted down to spot between his legs...

"Where are your genitals?"

Glitch stopped mid step to stare at her wide eyed.

"What do you mean? Don't you know _anything_ about your predecessors?" he yelled.

He pointed at his crotch, "Both me and Bill are androgynous. All the prototype BioSuits were genderless to the best of my knowledge, except for testing."

She looked at him in an approximation of amusement, "So are you male, female, or what?"

Glitch looked indignant, "I'm all man! Well, mostly man... I dunno, I'm a guy in my mind," he pointed at her towel covered breasts (which she then covered by crossing her arms), "plus, I don't have boobies."

She glared at him and set down his plate, with a small serving of unknown meat.

Huh?

Glitch gave her a funny smile, "You know what this is, right?"

She just nodded.

He smiled more, "Okay, you gonna tell me your name?"

She just shook her head as she ate.

Glitch's face split into a full blown grin, "Good, now I can give you a nickname!"

Mouth still full, the girl gave him an alarmed look.

He closed his eyes and spoke like he was dictating from a book, "Like the meat I am about to consume, your origin is clouded in mystery," He opened one eye to look at her, "I dub thee Spam."

The newly christened Spam just sat there, mouth agape, while Glitch sat down and began to wolf down his ham turkey mixture (* is it ham turkey? It's ham something...). Hair getting in his way, he threw the wet mass over his shoulder and moved closer to the early morning snack. He quickly finished and thanked Spam for cooking it. She nodded mutely and began to eat her food again. Glitch stood up and left in search of underpants and outerpants.

"Glitch, my clothing is dirty... may I borrow some of yours?"

In the other room he nodded, and then realizing she wouldn't she that said, "That's fine... but keep your own ...panties... mine are for me only. No touching"

Now Spam didn't know to much about society's general feelings on matters, but she almost choked when he said that.

"You wear women's underwear?!"

Glitch sweat dropped, that was the loudest he had heard her say anything so far.

"No! Well, they're not briefs, cause I don't need the room, and they're not panties cause... cause.

"Cause they aren't." He finished lamely

Spam just stared straight ahead. Glitch's sweatdrops grow by the moment. Deciding to drop the whole thing, he went in search of wearable clothing for both himself and now Spam, who personally wasn't sure if it would be a better idea just to have worn the dirty clothes instead of bringing up this _very_ disturbing topic.

Moments later, Glitch hopped into to room, pants on (thankfully) along with his trademark thin black shirt. He handed Spam her change of clothes while beginning to button up his mini overcoat. She just stood there while he finished, but once he was done she pointed out of the room.

"What?" Glitch looked confused.

She pointed again, "_leave!_"

Glitch finally got up and left, "Sorry! I forgot you have working parts!"

She frowned at his word usage, but began to dress anyway. The pants were a bit big, but the shirt was just as tight as her own. She slid into her chest armor, completing the outfit, and leaving herself looking all the same as she had the day before. She folded her dirty clothes and put them in a pile by the couch. She assumed that after the meeting she would have to bring him back home.

Her bosses could be _very_ thorough.

After they had both finished getting ready, Glitch grabbed his keys and left the apartment with Spam. After they had walked about a block, Glitch finally spoke up.

"First, from what I can tell, the apartment is bugged, so I didn't want to take the chance of getting intercepted by MS goons."

She looked at him from the corner of her eye and nodded.

"And?"

"And," Glitch grinned, "we're gonna go look for UTroid"

"But... I've got to take you to my superiors..." She murmured quietly, shifting her gaze to her feet.

Glitch saw this and did the only rational thing he could think. He improvised.

Throwing his arm around her, he said, "Cheer up! As _soon_ as we find UT, you can take me right to your bosses!" He mashed her into his shoulder, "That cool with you?"

Not quite what to do, she nodded quickly. Glitch grinned again, and strutted down the block with her, destination still as of yet unknown.

When Bill once again became aware of his surroundings, it was already morning. He had awaken in the fetal position, which had him furious. What is someone had came in and seen his weakness? That-that bitch! How could she do this to him?! He had to sneak up to his office, almost getting caught by that wretched secretary. To top it all off, when he logged in to the real time camera he had set up at Glitch's, he got a horrifying view of Glitch's crotch from under the table. Shuddering, Bill turned off his PC. He sagged in his chair, he had been severely admonished for his loss 2 years ago, and could only imagine what the committee would do if they discovered his break down. They almost replaced him with the girl already, but now...

He didn't fell like facing his fears right now so he did all that could be done in a situation like this. He slept.

Glitch confidently strolled down the street. He may not have known where he was going, but he might as well go in style. Spam had long since escaped Glitch's grasp, and now walked a few steps behind him. The odd duo got a number of strange looks from passer byes, but Glitch was used to it and, of course, Spam just didn't care. Every time Glitch felt like messing with her. he'd stop, run back, and pull her ahead. Each time he did this she'd glare at him, and each time she glared at him Glitch just laughed. After about the fortieth time of doing it, they had a nice rhythm going. So when Glitch turned around and Spam was nowhere to be seen, he was a tad surprised. He jogged a half a block to where she had apparently collapsed. He rushed to her side.

"Spam! Are you all right?" he asked.

She didn't respond. Her normally half lidded eyes now open very wide. She turned to Glitch, her stare sending a chill up his spine.

"What's the matter?" he implored.

"I have to take you to them now"

"Huh? Why now?"

"Because they said so," she hissed.

Glitch stood up, "Tell them to wait... UT is my bud, I can't just leave him!"

Spam got off of the ground and backhanded Glitch in one fluid motion, then grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off of his feet.

"I said they want you _now_." she uttered slowly.

Glitch struggled to respond, but couldn't get the words past her iron grasp. Seeing no other option, he punched her in the gut. She went reeling, and Glitch took up a combat stance.

"Look girlie, I just met you, so I got a low tolerance for this kind of crap."

His only response was a flash of blinding light from behind Spam. He shielded his eyes, and when he looked again, two large wings were unfurling. Glitch took a step back.

"What the fuck!?"

The now winged girl bolted forward and met him with a blow to his head. His whole upper body snapped back, trying to avoid the attack, but sensing opportunity Spam grabbed around him, pinning his arms to his side in the process. Thinking ahead, she grabbed a fist full of hair to prevent him from head butting her.

Glitch fought her grip, but couldn't escape. He even thought about kneeing her, but she didn't have what it took for a good kneeing to work.

Her previously fanatic look had been replaced with one of warmth. She hugged Glitch, but still kept him trapped.

"Poor boy, are you scared? Well don't be, because sister will take you to the family, and all will be well. Come on, Brother. Meet the family." she said in a soothing voice, one which terrified Glitch. He began to attempt escape in earnest once again. Then Spam started to giggle.

"No no no... If your gonna be bad, then I'll have to punish you..."

Both Glitch and Spam began to rise in the air, her huge wings pumping the ground away from them. The last thing Glitch saw was the wings coming around, covering both him and Spam. Then, only darkness.

Spam cradled the now unconscious man, and flew to where her master had instructed her to. She had a gift they had been waiting for for a long time.

"So... She got the wings. She... got... _THE FUCKING WINGS?!!_"

Bill flipped, he picked up the desk and threw in through the wall. He punched in the computer screen and snapped his keyboard in half.

"Those wings were suppose to be _mine_! They said there was no room in the budget for expenses like that... those dirty liars!" Bill fell back against the undamaged wall.

"Great... Another way for me to pale in comparison to her. Fuck this, I'm gonna force the council to get me wings, hell or high water. I was designed for them... I even have the ports. They better have a _damn_ good reason for this!"

He stood in silence for a minute, hand on his forehead. Then he began to laugh sadly.

"I sound like a disgruntled teen. But I'm gonna get my way with this. I ask so little."

He looked at his sword, leaning on the opposite wall.

"Either way, I'm gonna kill that girl. She may have some advantages, but neither her nor Glitch have seen my virus. Heh... hahaha... AHAHAHAHA!"

Bill's booming laugh echoed throughout the building.

Just like when he passed out, Glitch awoke to the darkness. When he sat up, alibi stiffly, he noticed that even the moon was out... A moon which he knew was full that night. That meant he was sealed up some place... his internal clock told him it was night, so if it was just dark he should still see the moon. Glitch got up and began to feel along the wall for some sort of door or window. He came across a door first, so he did the logical thing and opened it. He was greeted by two floating blue half orbs. Glitch screamed and felt along the room's wall for a light switch. A bathroom burst into view, but that isn't what caught Glitch's attention. Sitting cross legged and naked on the floor was Spam. She was looking right at Glitch, her half liddedness having returned, but her face was streaked with half dried tear trails. Without thought, Glitch ran up and hugged her.

"Your back to normal! Do you remember what happened? Where are we?"

Spam clenched her teeth and slowly met his watery eyed gaze.

"Don't _touch_ me!"

Glitch barely heard her, but fell back none the less. He realized what he was doing and averted his eyes.

"I'm... I'm sorry Spam... I'll go."

Glitch lowered his eyes as he left, closing the door quietly behind himself.

Spam shuddered and placed her head in her hands.

"Why am I so afraid?"

Outside of the bathroom, Glitch had sat down on the bed and placed his head in his hands.

"That was pretty stupid of me... Crap."

He sat quietly like that for a moment before giving a sad grin.

"That was your line, UT."

Glitch sighed and laid back on the bed.

"I wonder where we are?" he asked himself.

"This is my apartment." came a voice above him. Glitch opened his eyes to the frowning face of Spam.

"Spam!" he exclaimed.

"A bed, a toilet. The cafeteria is below, the officer dorms are above." she iterated

Glitch gave a cocky smile to the now toweled woman, "Talkative now, are we?"

Spam glowered, "We leave in an hour for the committee."

She sneered at Glitch. "Be ready."

Glitch looked on in shock as she returned to the bathroom and locked the door.

"That... was different."

He laid back down on the bed.

"I need UT back... If he'd been around when Spam went crazy, I would at least know where the fudge I am now."

He slid off the bed and onto the floor, curling up into something comfortable.

"If she stops moping, she can take the bed," he turned towards the door, "I'm taking a nap," he grinned, "sweet dreams!"

Even through the door he could hear her exasperated sigh.

When Glitch opened his eyes again, it was to the sight of Spam, now fully clothed, standing over him. After rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he shot her a smile,

"What's up?"

It seemed her cool visage had returned.

"We're leaving."

Glitch frowned, "So soon? I just got here."

...and just as quickly, her cool visage disappeared. Spam's hand sprung at him and grabbed him by the hair, picking him off of the ground.

"I'm sick of your bull shit, We're leaving _now_ and I'll drag you there by your freakishly long hair if I have to."

Now, Glitch was very tempted to smack her upside the head, but was quick to remember their short fight a few hours ago. Determined not to lose his happy-go-lucky facade, he liked his finger and gave her a wet Willie. Spam started, and Glitch gave a wide grin. Then she back handed him again. Spam about faced and walked out of the room. Rubbing his face, Glitch reluctantly followed.

Glitch really was lost, having aimlessly followed Spam for some time now. Since he couldn't bring himself to tackle her and run, he pacified his anger by teasing the crap out of her.

"...so.... this is where you work? Kinda boring."

Nothing.

"Just my luck, I meet a cute girl and she's on her ‘off'day."

Flinch.

Glitch pressed on, "Although, if we do get into a relationship, you'll have to get over the whole ‘insulting, hitting, and dragging by hair'thing."

Shudder.

Shudder?

Glitch stopped and stared at her, "Spam... tell me, what's wrong?"

She began to shake, but continued to walk.

"Stop talking to me. Just shut up and walk."

Glitch remained firm, "I'm not moving an inch until you tell me what's going on."

"No! No no no! We have to go now! You need to meet with them!" she pleaded.

Glitch looked Spam in her eyes, face and mind completely serious.

"Why?"

She looked down, "I can't tell you..."

"Well then," Glitch crossed his arms, "I can't move."

With a scream of frustration, Spam knocked Glitch to the floor, ripping off his overcoat on the way down.

"You idiot... how can you be so uncooperative."

Her face split into the same disturbing grin as before, "You'll regret what you have been doing."

She tore a hole in Glitch's shirt, despite his protests. She deftly fingered a discolored spot just above his left nipple. To Glitch's shock and surprise, the skin split open, and a small amount of blood sprayed clear of the obviously mechanical alcove. From her back pocket, Spam removed a short plastic card, and inserted it in a slot inside of the bloody opening. A beep confirmed the acceptance of the card. Spam pushed a button next to the slot, and Glitch's struggles stopped immediately. His eyes went white and his body fell limp to the floor.

Spam got off of the floor and dusted herself off, coolness having returned to her once more. She leaned down, grabbed Glitch by the hair and dragged him the remaining kilometer to the committee's offices.

He came to in a room completely unfamiliar. Not only that, but a light from above was right in his eyes. Not a moment later there were people there, poking and prodding his form. Or at least he assumed they were, because he couldn't seem to feel anything. The people's faces were familiar, but he could not match any face with any name. They were just... familiar.

Then a girl was standing over him, one Glitch was sure he knew... but no name came to him She said something, but he could not decipher the words. Even so, they were soft and comforting.

He blacked out briefly, and when he reawoke, his cognitive functions seemed to have returned. So had his voice.

"Who the hell are you people?"

He spoke it not so much as a question, but as a statement, for his own peace of mind. But, he hadn't expected an answer.

"We are the committee. We are solely responsible for your creation." said an electronically garbled voice.

Looked to the speaker, attempting to locate his captor, but instead found a table, which he was on. Getting a hold of his surroundings, he realized that he was in fact surrounded. Eleven people, both men women, were seated around Glitch. Each bore a bright red number on their face, which was besides that was blacked out.

"Relax, and you will be released." said a strangely soothing voice that he could not identify.

Glitch ceased his struggles, and was awarded with the unlocking of his restraints. He kicked out, his inertia sending him off of the table and to his feet. He brought his claw about, and readied his sabre. Or he would have if...

"You claw has been replaced. You sabre is now strictly externalized." said another disguised voice.

Glitch looked down to his prosthetic. Where his mandible once was, a three holed metal hand now resided. He tensed and three small blades emerged from the hole. He clenched them and they moved stiffly, but in a more useful way then his old mandible had. Glitch felt himself to see if there were any other changes, and found a new beam sabre attached to his belt. Glitch grinned and activated it, bringing it up in a guard. He swung the blade once at the table. Just before the beam slashed the expensive piece of furniture in half, the beam flickered and died.

"Eh? It's seems you guys had this pretty well planed out."

Glitch noticed Spam standing off to the right of a man marked ‘1'. He walked over to her.

"What the hell did they do to me?"

Spam shook her head.

"The girl is not allowed to speak in our presence. All questions will be directed to us, your creators." spoke the garbled voice of ‘5'.

‘3'began to speak as well, "You are here to have datum collected over the past 10 years extracted, and then your memory will be purged. Following that, you will be subordinate to Ambrosia."

Glitch took what the man said one thing at a time, "Ambrosia?"

‘5'gestured toward Spam.

"Hehe," Glitch scratched his head, "what a lame name."

‘7'silenced Glitch by clearing her throat, "You have had several minor upgrades. Cosmetically, your hair structure has been changed, you I/O ports have been updated to the standard, and you have been provided the most advanced prosthetic usable by the Prototype 6 Series."

Glitch nodded, then started.

"Wait, you said your gonna erase my memory?!"

‘1'crossed his arms, "That's right."

‘3'spoke softly, "We will need to connect him to the Server to finish his conditioning before we can extract the data."

Glitch backed towards the table.

"Screw that crap, I'm out of here!"

Glitch's claw shot out and hit ‘one'in the face. Instead of the crunch Glitch had expected, sparks shot out. ‘1'was apparently only a projection screen. It didn't matter to Glitch, who jumped over ‘1'and right past Spam. Who stood there, awaiting orders.

"Go!" spat ‘3', "Bring him back!"

Spam nodded, and walked to the table. As fast as she could, extended her claw into a usable length and took off down the hall after him.

Glitch soon saw Spam approaching, and at an alarming speed. He stopped mid dash and about faced, now running straight at Spam. At the last moment he dived and rolled on the floor, forcing Spam into the air. Glitch got up hastily and sped off in the opposite direction. He slid to a stop in front of an elevator and pressed the up button. It made sense to him that all this secret business would be underground, where the Microsoft Underground would be. He looked around the corner to see Spam running down the hall at breakneck speeds. Glitch jumped back just as Spam rounded the said corner and shot out her claw. Glitch pushed off the wall, just barely dodging the projectile. The hand slammed into the wall, punching through. Glitch, now on the floor, threw out his new prosthetic at Spam, knocking her off of her feet. He crawled into the now open elevator. Getting to his feet, he hit the GND FLR button and said goodbye to Spam, who was looking at him helplessly from the floor. He waved cheekily as the doors closed, before being crushed by the said doors as Spam plowed through them.

"Oh fu-!" Glitch shouted before Spam hit him with a left hook, causing stars to explode into his vision. He shook his head to clear it, his opportunity for escape might come and go before he could recover. Glitch took what he could in his dire situation.

He bit her.

She reflexively pulled back, lessening her weight on the door, and thus, the pressure on Glitch. Pressing his luck, he arched his back, forcing Spam and the door off of him. He flipped himself back to his feet, and with one remorseful look at Spam, pushed her through the elevator hatch. Spam's armor caught on the wall and forced her through the floor, putting great distance between the car and herself.

Glitch breathed a sigh of relief, and leaned on the car wall.

"I shouldn't have done that... I hope she's alright." he said mournfully to himself.

She was just fine, in fact, she was quickly approaching, her huge wings beating furiously to catch up with the speeding car. Glitch heard her screams rather then her wings and scrambled out the top of the car. He gave himself a short prayer, and brought out his beam sabre. Making absolutely sure he was secured to the cable, he cut it.

The elevator continued up briefly from inertia, but quickly changed direction and began to fall. Glitch, attached to the cable, shot up towards the top of the elevator shaft, long since passing his stop. As the car descended, it finally came into contact with Spam. The now winged girl slammed through it, utterly ripping apart the former mode of transportation.

Glitch threw his arm over his face as Spam caught up with him, matching his speed. From below the sound of the remains of the metal box could be heard smashing into the ground. Spam, now driven solely by anger, brought her hand back to strike Glitch and possibly even kill him.

Unfortunately, perhaps for them both, she never had the chance to finish.

Her upward movement abruptly stopped and, like the car, began to fall back into the depths of the building. Glitch, didn't see her begin to fall, but opened his eyes again when he felt her clawing at his leg. Glitch looked down at her. And lost his grip.

His claw, even slightly updated, was not really fit for holding two people up from a slick piece of cord. They both began to fall. As fast as everything was happening, Glitch noticed to small dart protruding from Spam's arm, which was attached to the same hand that was still tightly clenching his leg, despite her apparently having fallen unconscious.

"So I'm gonna die like this, " He asked himself as he fell, "What a crappy way to go."

He forced his body to shut down, so that he would not feel the coming impact.

The elevator hadn't hit to ground after all. In fact, it wedged itself in between the back of the shaft and a door a few floors above ground level. This almost had to be a trick of fate, as the fall 50 floors below ground would have surely killed both Spam and Glitch.

But, a 50 story drop is only slightly less painful then a hundred story one. Spam awoke an unknown period of time after they had landed to a killer headache.

Among other things.

Spam had been the lucky one, suffering at most a few bruises and a couple of broken bones, of which most prominently featured were ones in her left wing and several cracked and shattered ribs. Glitch, she found, had not fared so well.

While it was obvious that the man was still alive, as evidenced by the shuddering rise and fall of his chest, he was far more injured then her. From what she could tell, both his legs and his right arm were broken in multiple places, with a few compound fractures thrown in for good measure.

"Oh god"

Spam went to vomit, but found that her belly was completely empty of anything to do so with. After a few dry heaves, she checked her internal clock, which informed her dutifully that it was damaged and was in need of repairs. Dissuaded, Spam decided to check on Glitch's other injuries.

Besides his extremities, his collar bone and right shoulder blade had shattered. Surprisingly though, his prosthetic was still in working order. In her own opinion, she assumed that Glitch had spinal damage.

She had no idea what to do. She had only received information in the deadly arts and had no medical knowledge. Without many other theories on how she could help him, she decided to connect with him and tell him about the damage that he had acquired.

"He may have an idea on how to fix himself."

Spam removed the chest armor she generally wore and pulled the back of her shirt up so it no longer covered her back, making sure to first retract her wings so they wouldn't be hurt further. She silently opened the small hatch at the small of her back and pulled out a small Firewire cord. She gently removed Glitch's coat and shirt, and accessed his front terminal, like she had a few hours before to bring him in front of the council, and inserted the small key into the proper slot,manually activating his connection hub. Being careful not to not put pressure on his wounds (which was no small task), she rolled him onto his belly and attached the Firewire cord to one of his ports.

It took several tries, but Spam finally managed to sustain a connection with Glitch's mind.

Spam: Glitch, are you there?

<you know i am. it's not like you to waste words.>

Spam: You are severely injured. Do know of anyway to quickly repair you for transport?

<no. there is no need. MicroSoft is after you. run from MicroSoft. bill... B07N... all are your enemies. are they? yes. no. if they attack you, then they are your enemy.>

Spam mentally shook her head, "That is not true. I do not want to be his enemy." she thought to herself.

<if i am so hurt, then i have lost. if i cannot run on my own then i am going to die. spam... enemy! run spam! enemy! keep away from B07N, and MicroSoft! _enemy!_ i'm not worth risking your life over! it's her fault that this happened! no...>

Spam: This is your subconscious. It speaks without censor. Only what you feel that is true is presented here. Your mind is in conflict over me, just as my mind is in conflict over what I am.

The woman dove beneath Glitch's mind, down to the sub levels that composed his BioSuit's automatic functions. With slight apprehension, she overrode Glitch's emergency shutdown protocols. Spam then cleanly disconnected herself from Glitch mentally.

Back in control of her body, Spam physically disconnected herself from Glitch, returning the cable to her back, and then sealed the box. Using the card once again on the chest terminal, she cycled Glitch for a full restart.

Glitch's mind's eye awoke and studied the internal damage schematics. Normally he didn't have the opportunity, but since this was a full restart he decided to disable pain and pressure sensors. This whole business would be a lot easier without screaming in agony. After that slight adjustment, he set the rest to automatic and awoke.

Glitch's eyes fluttered open. "Hiya... Spam."

A slight smile appeared on the girls face. "Are you alright?"

Glitch didn't move, but rolled his eyes about to see what he could. "For the most part. I turned off my pain receptors." He looked over Spam, "You look allot better than I do. Are you alright?"

The small smile disappeared. "I am fine. Do not worry about me. Glitch, how can we save you? I am not experienced in medical knowledge."

Glitch responded with downcast eyes, "We can't, " Spam's eyes widened, "I saw my damage report. Unless you find me a new body, or bring me to a super secret repair la- *cough!*

*Ahem*, lab, then there's nothing you can do."

Spam looked away.

"But don't worry!" Glitch put on a big grin, which looked out of place on his skinless jaw, "I'm not sad, just annoyed." His eyes glazed over, "I've died before, at BoTP. It's not quite the same. You just end up at the end of time, which is this kind of bar beyond the internet Multiverse. Then, at the next BoTP, your reincarnated.

"Really, the whole thing is a larf, you ought to try it. BoTP, that is. Not dying."

Spam just nodded mutely.

"My eyes aren't working that good, for some reason, so I'm gonna close them, alright?"

She nodded again and Glitch smiled and closed his eyes.

"I want you to look up B07N. Don't fight him to avenge me or anything like that, but... tell him he won."

Spam tried to speak but Glitch cut her off, "Just let me get this off my chest. Find UT for me. He'd probably like you... and... take my... apartment... I have... it for free... a deal with the land... lord... Put the... place to good use.

"I... I'm gonna take a quick nap. Wake... me... in a little bit..."

Spam got to her feet and yelled, "No! Wake up you foolish man! If you sleep you die!"

But Glitch was already deep asleep, his body no longer willing to risk utter destruction by staying awake. The rise and fall of his chest lessened until it was barely noticeable. Spam moved towards him, only to be struck with a dart in the neck. She hardly registered it before once again passing unconscious.

B07N dropped down off of his cord to the make shift platform, gently to make sure the whole thing didn't collapse. He strolled up to Spam and ripped the shirt she wore across the front. Pleased with the double interpretation of the act, he accessed Spam's terminal, located just bellow the left breast. He quickly swiped the card across and deactivated her. In one fell swoop he slung her over his shoulder and left, scaling the shaft with the woman in his arms.

Shortly later Bill returned for Glitch. Glitch really had no say in the matter.

B07N, that is, Bill, had been caring for Glitch for the last two months. He still wasn't sure why, Glitch himself had said that Bill had won. But despite his original orders, Bill didn't want to win like this. Glitch had given him that chance, and Bill refused to be bested in any way by Glitch, so... This was a logical conclusion for him. He'd even gone so far as to steal parts from MicroSoft and then bring them back to Glitch's apartment, where they'd been all this time.

Glitch himself was looking far better then he had before. Both his legs and his arm had healed, and Bill had replaced the missing skin of Glitch's face with some of his own. After being around Glitch so long, Bill was becoming somewhat attached to him.

But that didn't mean he wouldn't kill Glitch once he was healed.

Even so, after all this time, Bill was excited about reactivating the fallen man. Glitch had long since been ready to be awakened, but Bill wanted him to be in full fighting form if he felt like attacking. Now, though, Glitch was as healthy as he was going to get under Bill's care. Bill took his card and accessed Glitch's terminal, and booted him up.

The internal systems took some time to start up, the months having taken their tolls, and several errors were reported by the artificial equilibrium system, but in less then five minutes Glitch was staring into Bill's eyes.

"Hi, took you long enough."

Glitch tried to back up against the wall, but couldn't, his limbs too exhausted to function. His throat struggled to produce sounds.

"B-bii."

Bill grinned, "That's it! Come out with it!"

Glitch slowly shook his head, "Biilllll. *cough cough* Whaaat are y-y-you do-i-i-ing...?"

Bill leaned back in his chair, pleased. "Here? I'm saving you. Not much to it, just wanted to even the playing field."

Glitch was becoming more and more lucid by the moment. "What? Pla-ay-i-i-ing fie-ld?"

Bill coughed and sat up, looking towards Glitch. "I was there to here what you said to me, back in the sub basement," He looked up and quoted, " ‘I want to fight, I want to win, but not like this.'" He looked back at Glitch, "That is what you said."

Glitch searched his mind for that memory, and found it. "But I didn't say t-that."

Bill shrugged, "Something to that effect. Either way it moved me. It is the base of our relationship. We wish to kill, but only on our terms."

"I don't want t-to kill."

Bill leaned back again, "You say that, but I know the truth. Every AI manufactured by MicroSoft is built to kill. Me, you and... the girl, are all built to kill. That is why in the end, we will fight and kill each other. Because we are all too much alike."

"But what about our predecessors? Where are they? Did they... kill each other?"

"No. They possessed only the Dummy AI System. They were given rudimentary sentience, but not much more then that. None to my knowledge were kept operational, all having served their purpose," Bill scowled, "Like us."

Glitch had regained enough strength to sit up, "How so???"

"That... girl is the production model, new BioSuits will use the designs present in her, if not her appearance. We are prototypes, used for testing of new ideas and recording of data. I didn't know it at first, but because I remained at the company, I was installed with data feeders, which gave information on all of my activities and functions directly to the council. That is why they didn't need to take me in, that is why they waited so long to have the girl capture you; They needed as much data as they could before you were to be wiped and conditioned."

Glitch absorbed that as best he could, "Conditioned?"

"Me and the girl were created intentionally to be servants of Microsoft. The company was not always a big brother like monolith, but the shear amount of money they gained from their technology allowed them to create a secret underground, almost an Illuminati like organization. Through furious research, they discovered the key to artificial intelligence and robotics. We were made to help carry out a domination like scheme.

"But you," he continued, "Were unintentional. You appeared for no reason, and as such, you were not, could not be, raised to be a puppet. You did things different from me, and then the girl, so by the time you had escaped, there hadn't been time to install a data transmitter. You were to be destroyed at first (by me), but later the order was changed to captured, so we could get you test data. BioSuits are expensive, especially considering that your's was the first working model, so they were going to reset you and condition you to be a puppet like me and the girl."

Glitch put his hand on his forehead, "But if your a puppet, then why are you here?"

Bill's face split into a grin, "I've broken my conditioning. Now my driving force in life is to prove that I am the stronger man. When you finish recovering, I will find you, and we will battle." Bill paused.

"To the death."

Glitch nodded sadly. Even with all this free sharing of information, the two were still enemies. He and Bill had to fight, so that they could have some semblance of a normal life.

"Where is Sp- I mean, where is Ambrosia?"

Bill lowered his eyes, "I don't know."

Glitch shook his head, "It's all right. It's just I want to help her. She's so confused, I've seen the way she tries to resist her orders... kinda like you! Maybe we can free her as well?"

Bill appeared to have paled. " I doubt that will happen, her conditioning is far more intense then my own, and she has another stake in all this that prevents her from leaving," He cut off Glitch before he could even start, "And don't ask what the stake is, I wont tell you."

Glitch's eyes narrowed in suspicion, "Wait, if you really broke your conditioning, then why do you still work for MicroSoft?"

Bill looked away, "..."

"Damnit! Tell me!"

Bill jumped out of his chair, "Alright, damn you! I'll tell!" he barked.

He absent mindely touched his visor, "I wanted wings from the council"

"What?"

"Damnit, I said I wanted wings, like that blasted girl! I had been wanting them since before you left, long before she had even been made!" Bill's hands balled into fists, "I've been studying, training for the day they would be installed. Then they finished the Production model, immediately putting me on the back burner. They installed them on her without even telling me. I only found out when I requested and update on their construction." A lie, his mind told him, but small one. No need for Glitch to know too much, "They told me they were too expensive to build individually, and that the prototypes had been installed on Ambrosia, their new pet, so I wouldn't get them _ever_.

"I'd been hanging around since then, waiting for you to return, waiting for a chance to get wings even against the odds, but I finally realized that it would never happen with her around so," He paused, "So I left."

Glitch nodded, understanding, but still suspicious of Bill's story. Something was up, but Bill _had_ saved him , so he was willing to overlook it.

Bill sat down and turned to Glitch's iMac.

"These are decent computers, but no where near as refined as a Windows PC."

Glitch gave a sharp laugh and got up, shuffling over to Bill, "Hardly! With UNIX powering them, their ease of use and power will crush the PC!"

They both chuckled briefly, before Bill got up.

"I'm gonna go now. I'll see you as soon as I feel you're ready for a duel."

Glitch grinned lopsidedly, "I look forward to it."

Bill began to climb out of the window before Glitch stopped him.

"Wait, if you find Spam, give me a call alright?"

Bill stared dumbly at him for a moment, before replying,

"Do you really want to save her? She tried to kill you. She's made you obsolete."

Glitch nodded, " Yaah, but she's like my sister!"

"So does that make me your brother?"

Bill tore out of the window and jumped to the street below, not giving Glitch the chance to respond.

"I guess then that we're one whacked out family." Glitch commented before closing the window and going back to sleep.

Bill walked down an alley, stone faced and silent. Then he frowned. He had the girl now, everything was coming together. But... Glitch would hate him for what he was going to do.

Even so, some of the pain that had been in Bill's eyes, locked behind his visor, had left. He was going to be the best, no matter what.

And neither Glitch or that girl was going to get in his way.

Spam's body did a quick internal check to be sure that awaking would not damage itself further. Confident that activating would not cause the woman to die, her body's systems began to boot up. With a flutter of her eye lashes, Spam was now awake, the world once again tangible. Her dreams had been extremely frightening, but she was glad to know she was back in her home at the MicroSoft UnderGround...

Wait. This was not her home. This was not even Glitch's home. Looking around, she saw she was in some sort of office, and that she had been sleeping on a desk. Blood was everywhere, much of it pooled on the desk, covering many a ruined paper. She slowly sat up, unfolding from the ball she'd been in for two months, only to curl back up a moment later.

"Ah! Arrrhaaah!" Spam screamed, her right hand darting to the source of her pain, her left wing. But instead of a wing, all she found was a stub. Turning her head slowly to look, she found her entire left wing missing, with only a bloody protrusion remaining in its place. Spam clenched her teeth to keep from screaming again and tore strips of cloth from her undershirt to bandage the slowly oozing wound.

Agonizingly slow, she crawled from the desk to the floor. She tried the door, but to her despair it was locked. She brought up her left arm, which held her claw, and attempted to break through the obstacle before her. The door didn't budge. She let out an exasperated moan.

Spam was weak. She'd not eaten in months, but thanks to the way she was made, that wasn't the largest of her worries. Her vision was fading in and out, she needed to rest, which she'd not done in a long time. Sleep is different from being powered down, mind you.

She flopped down on the floor,

"Why am I doomed to die like this? What began this downward spiral? Glitch is dead, I am dying, and B07N..." She paused, and closed her eyes, "I have no idea what has happened to that man."

She searched her memories for the earliest moment she could recognize.

"When did this all start...?"

Five years previous...

Twelve unidentified people sat around a oval table, in the darkness of a hidden boardroom. Their faces were hidden as well, all of them covered in a unique number. They seemed to be talking about something of some importance, but I couldn't tell about what.

"The ProtoType 6 has been lost, and the ProtoType 7 is becoming more and more mentally unstable. Something must be done."

A man with the number two on his face stood and addressed the group.

"On what is the assessment of ProtoType 7's metal health made?"

The man baring the number one sat with his hands folded in front of him,

"Not that it's your place to question the assessment, but his emotions stray far beyond what is considered the norm for a healthy human being."

"That should be expected of a man in his line of work, though." Replied Two.

"An Artificial intelligence that incorporates the flaws in human nature without restraint is more useless then one that doesn't work at all." Spat Five.

Number Two sat down, defeated by Five's words, "I would think that you would give him the benefit of the doubt considering the enormous amount of service he's rendered for us, the project, towards all of our goals."

Number Seven spoke up, "He knows nothing of our plans. He is completely in the dark. He does what we say because we have what he wants; his freedom."

"Something he will never relinquish," One grinned cruelly.

I had no idea about who or what they were talking about. It wasn't my place to ask. I just stood next to my master's side, awaiting the order I knew was soon to come...

"So, you agree that we should keep him active?" Asked Two hopefully.

"No. If the boy was not a constant failure, perhaps. But he has prevented the completion of our goals too many times to remain alive." Replied One curtly.

The savage grin on One's face grew with each word, "We must build on our successes and destroy our mistakes. With that, I give you the next generation of BioSuits. Step forward, Ambrosia."

By his will, I did what I was told. One step and I was visible to the rest of the Council, out of the convenient shadow that had protected me just a moment ago. Very few seemed surprised at my presence, but the man with a Two covering his face stared at me mouth agape.

"You created another one of these things before even researching what was wrong with the current models? How could you do anything this irresponsible? As members of this council, we will not stand for this fascist behavior, One. You had no permission to go ahead and build this monster!" Exclaimed the now sweating Two.

"Ah, but I did all the things you wanted me to, just with the _active_ members of the council." One coldly stated.

"Wha- What?!"

Two looked between the other members of the council, before returning his gaze to me.

"I- I- Noo!"

"Ambrosia, if you would, please." With his hand he gestured toward Two.

I am a servant of my master, no matter what. I did what I was asked.

The special made Katana that my master had given me was in my hand in a moment. With startling speed I flipped on to the table, Rattling the coffee mugs of all at the meeting. Number Two screamed, before I slit his throat. He looked pleadingly at me as his life left him. I returned the look coldly and wiped my blade on his clothing. I sheathed the weapon and returned to my master's side.

Number One picked up his cell phone, "Please send someone to clean up room B 515. Thank you."

He addressed the Council.

"Meeting adjourned."

Spam opened her eyes again, absorbing the memory. Looking back at it, she did not like or approve of her actions. But that was the way she was, before they completed her...

She hadn't had a chance to dive into that particular memory, as the handle on the door began to turn. And through the door stepped the grinning man who she would harbor a deep hatred for the rest of her life...

The following day, Glitch awoke to an empty apartment. It was unusual to be alone, now. In the past few years, he'd always been hanging around someone. May it be Ultra-Troid, or the Insane Space Hunter or even Spam recently. But none the less, things had returned to relative normality. Glitch was glad for that at lest. By no means did that mean he'd given up on Spam or Ultra-Troid, but it was nice for things to be the way they had before he'd met Bill two years ago.

Glitch yawned and threw himself out of bed. As peaceful as it was, he had lost over two months to his injuries. He poured some soda he had brought up from his storage closet. It was long past flat, but in had caffeine in it, and it was right there. Glitch, now with at least some substance inside of him, withdrew some money from one of his accounts. With it, he went to the store and purchased some food for back at his home. It was about time he had something real to eat.

Glitch couldn't get what Bill said out of his mind. They were finally at peace. Sure, they'd fight eventually, but neither would have to fear or hate the other ever again.

And that made Glitch happy.

Back home, he checked around the internet for strange sittings in the area. Ultra-Troid was very real, but he was certainly not of this planet. A product of the Internet Multiverse, his mere existence on Earth was a mystery. But he was very real, and Glitch's friend as well. So, there was no debate. Glitch needed to find out what happened to Ultra-Troid.

Glitch lounged on his couch, typing idly away at his powerbook. Looking, searching for some small sign.

Searching...

...and searching...

Over a week had past before he got even the slightest lead. A popup appeared, which Glitch had been just about to close, when he noticed that it had some up-to-date local news. It seemed a local power planet had been giving off lower then normal amounts of power. Government officials had come to check it out and see if it were damaged or dangerous in some way, but could not find the cause of the problem. Glitch smiled and cracked his knuckles,

"Ten bucks says UT is there, the little energy addict he is. Time to get the old duo back together!"

Glitch jumped off of the couch he'd occupied for the last few days. As if without a moment to spare, Glitch went about readying himself for his trip. Actually, he just put on his overcoat, and hooked his beam sabre to his belt, but...

He was out the door in a flash, to the power planet to the north, just outside of the city. And hopefully, to find his friend in good health.

The gravel road lead up to a small booth, which Glitch was knocking on currently. He stopped to sigh, then pounded as hard as he could.

"Damnit, I know your there! Open up!"

With a grunt and a scratch, the bloated security guard opened the shutters,

"What?"

Glitch clenched his teeth in disgust, "Ehhh, I'd like a tour of the plant?" He asked half rhetorically

"No tours," the blob of a man replied.

Glitch growled at the waste of flesh, but put his hands in his pockets and stalked away. Twenty meters from the booth, Glitch brought his beam sabre out and cut a nice sized hole in the barbed wire fence. Wordlessly, he stepped through and walked the rest of the way to the plant.

"Ass."

Apparently, since nothing could be linked to the lack of power, the plant had been shut down. Everything was dark, and no employees were to be found. Which was kind of nice for Glitch.

Or not. It had been an hour. Glitch had looked everywhere, tried everything. He'd even when and found a loud speaker and yelled Ut's name for twenty minutes. Nothing. The little retard was no where to be found. Glitch sighed in resignation; apparently it wasn't going to be as easy as he hoped it would be. Discouraged, he began his journey home.

It was dark by the time Glitch finally saw his faithful apartment rise up in the distance. But as he neared it, he realized something was off.

Somebody was waiting for him.

Moving fluidly, he pulled his sabre and activated it, casting a glow around himself, and illuminating his apparent company.

"Sp... Spam!?" He walked forward slowly to get a better look.

"Oh my god! No!"

The creature in front of Glitch did in fact resemble the girl slightly, in the face particularly. It had the same hair, if a bit cropped. It also had small wings protruding from it's back. But the similarities ended there.

Rising from it's crouch, the things arms extended outward. One hand had a beam sabre hardwired to it. The other had the standard claw projectors, but larger. Glitch backed off, the light of both their sabres fully revealing the girl's face. It was sunken, like she had not eaten in some time. In fact, it's entire frame was smaller then could be called healthy. Also, there were deep scars under it's eye. It's lips cracked into a thin smile.

"DamnGlitch. The counsel has called for your return. We have been dispatched to return you."

Four others exactly like it appeared out of the shadows.

"Dead or alive," One spoke.

"We don't care either way. It's not our place. We have our orders."

They all seemed to sag simultaneously, directing their glowing eyes towards Glitch. The man gulped and moved into a battle stance.

The one Glitch had talked to first dove out at him, sabre forward, and struck at Glitch. He side stepped and kicked it in the back, sending it tumbling. With cold efficiency, he stabbed backwards, piercing through the things chest. It screamed briefly before becoming silenced.

Glitch cringed. Two came at him at once, the other taking to the skies. The grounded ones slashed and clawed at him, attempting to rend him limb from limb. He fought them off as best her could, but two on one was hardly fair. Blocking a downward blow, he pushed hard with his sword, throwing the girl off balance. With a quick low cut, he'd freed her legs from her body. With an infuriated growl she extended her arm at great speed toward Glitch. At the last moment, he dived to the ground, and the claw continued on to punch through the torso of another of Glitch's attackers, who had been sneaking behind him, ready to strike. It moaned and fell to the ground, liquid pouring from it's wound. The leg less one snapped the claw back and let loose it's beam sabred appendage. Glitch ducked it and sliced through the metal extension with a quick stroke. With all the haste he could muster, he ran up and cut the fallen woman down the middle. She made not a sound as the halves split and fell to the pavement.

Panting, Glitch wiped his brow with his sleeve, before yelling out as his back exploded in white hot pain. He rolled forward, spun around and got to his feet just in time to see the air borne creature lunge at him. He could not dodge, and was sent flying by the hit she administered. He landed on his back, the wind being knocked from his lungs. Glitch gasped for air as the eerily grin monster raised its claws, ready to tear his face off.

The rest was a blank to him. He must have blacked out for a moment, but when he came to he was greeted with an unusual sight. The girl's claw dropped to it's side, and the headless corpse feel forwards. Glitch clutched his chest, trying to figure out what had happened.

"What, no thank you?'

Where the girl had just been standing, was Ultra-Troid, licking his chops as only a metroid could.

"Ult-- UTroid??!!"

The tiny metroid grinned in it's own way and floated briskly over to Glitch.

"Yep! Miss me?"

Glitch smiled awkwardly for a moment, then reached out and began to strangle the midget of a metroid.

"You moron! Do you realize how much time I wasted looking for you?!" He squeezed more with each word for emphasis, "I!" "Ack!" "-could!" "can't breathe!!" "-be-looking-for!" "My throat! I don't have one but it hurts!" "-Spam!"

UTroid finally struggled free from Glitch's grasp.

"*cough* Who?"

Glitch looked exasperated before beginning to chase UTroid.

"Spam you fool! The girl whose been--"

He stopped. UTroid didn't know who Spam was, since he wasn't there when everything started happening.

"Uhm, never mind."

UTroid blinked in confusion.

"Aaaanyway, how the hell did you escape? Better yet, why are you here and not at the power plant like you were suppose to be?"

"Ah, well... Right after I sent you the messages, some chick came in and undid my lock. Said that if I didn't leave she'd kill me. Normally, I'd have sucked the life out of her, but there was something off about her that made that seem like not so good of an idea." UTroid explained.

Glitch froze, "Did... Did the girl have long bluish hair in the front, a bit shorter in the back??"

UTroid shrugged, "I wouldn't say I know that much, but it was blue. I high tailed it after I got out so I didn't get a good look."

Glitch drooped, "Oh well. So, how did you get back?:

"Welp'm, I spent some time at the power plant, high off my mind on all the juice there,"

Sweat drop.

"But I got bored and decided to check up on you. Good thing too, cause you were about to be bisected by that chicky."

Glitch snorted and began to walk towards the entrance of his pad, "Hardly ‘chickys', but they certainly were out to get me."

"BioSuits from MS." UTroid said solemnly.

Glitch looked at him, "yeah, that worries me too. There were for of them, and they seemed to be in good working order. Apparently they've figured out what was making the original BioSuit AIs go bonkers."

He ascended the stairs.

"They looked like Spam... for the most part. Alot like she did when..."

He paused for a moment, recalling their first encounter, "When she saved me. They looked ill, but that's exactly what Spam would have looked like if she'd had those crazy arms and lacked food."

UTroid sounded like he was just pretending that he knew what was going on, "And...?"

"Well, they were different. And slower. Like they weren't up to spec with Spam. Not even as good as me or Bill, I'd suppose."

"Maybe a new model? Maybe they were made all at once and some things were cut back to reduce costs?" UTroid suggested.

Glitch arrived at his door, "Perhaps. I dunno. Whatever, they're gone. Hopefully we won't have to worry about them for a while."

"I guess..." UTroid responded lamely.

They entered the apartment.

That night Glitch explained everything that had happened; During BoTP 3 and 4, after he had returned the their world, the problems he now faced with Spam and the Microsoft Underground. It took a few hours, and by the time he was finished, it was almost midnight. Glitch had had a long day, so sleep was the thing he was most looking forward to. UTroid concurred and they both went to sleep; Glitch in his bed, which should have been obvious, and UTroid on his usual place atop the television.

Glitch dreamed. He seldom dreamed. In actuality, he had actually done so only once before, and that had been about electric sheep for some reason. But this night, Glitch dreamed about something dark, from deep within his artificial subconsciousness. Without notice or explanation, he was falling from the sky. He screamed and tried to flap his arms to keep himself afloat, but no such luck. All of a sudden Spam was beside him. She tried to deploy her wings, but they were not there. As the ground quickly approached, Glitch wrapped his arms around her, hugging her fiercely. Spam hugged back... and then they prepared to meet the ground...

He bolted upright in bed, sweat streaming down his body. It stung his fresh injuries, the salt irritating his wounds, the one he had received on his back of particular annoyance. In only moments since awaking from the odd dream, he'd already forgotten about it. For the life of him, Glitch couldn't figure out why he woke up yelling. He went to the bathroom and splashed his face with water, fully rousing him for the day to come. Or something like that. Leaving the bathroom, he checked his clock and found the it was only 4:00 AM. After an hour wasted trying to fall back asleep, he resigned himself to his fate and went out for groceries. When he returned later, he was fully energized, despite the early start, and began to make breakfast.

The horrible, horrible man would give me no rest. He had taken one wing, and sewn it to himself. Half of it was permanently stained crimson, a dye that had been taken from my veins. He complained when I screamed at him; when I screamed because he was hacking away at my flesh while I was awake. For one reason or another, my other wing would not drop. He'd attack it with a blade, but it would heal before he would ever have a chance to remove it from me and attach it to himself. So, he took his anger out on me. Crude and barley healed wounds litter my back. Recently he became so frustrated the he stabbed me repeatedly in the belly with a piece of metal. I didn't care by that point, having resigned myself to my fate. But he seemed to be afraid of what he'd done. He didn't return for days after that, and I was grateful. But now he was back, with a mad gleam in his eye. I could barely turn because of the restraints, but he had a new dedication about him. He wanted his prize, and I was in the way of it.

UTroid awoke sometime after Glitch had, to the smell of bacon and eggs. He gave himself a cocky grin and floated to the kitchen. Glitch was eating silently, actually not so much eating as prodding the food on his plate. In the time UTroid had known Glitch, he'd figured out what a few of the man's mannerisms meant. If he was silent with his hands in his pockets, he was tired. If he talked a whole lot he was excited. If he... uh... flirted a bunch it meant that he was interested. And if he started telling you about his past he was depressed.

When Glitch would smile silently, then frown, it meant he was thinking about anime, or a girl, or a girl in anime. UTroid hadn't gotten that one down quite yet. But either way, that's what Glitch was doing, so UTroid decided to leave him alone. He didn't care for anime, and he obviously knew nothing about the women. UTroid signed and floated back to the main room, and clicked on the television.

From the other room, Glitch heard the television turn on, so he supposed that UTroid was up. Ehhh, the alien thing did nothing of use unless the situation was really shitty. Glitch checked the time again and realized he'd been brooding over his food for almost an hour. He sighed and went about rinsing and washing the dishes he'd soiled. After a minute or two, he joined UTroid on the couch.

"So UTroid, what were you up too while I was gone. You know, after I was assimilated?" Glitch started.

UTroid gave him a small look of annoyance, but switched off the TV and began to explain.

"After you were assimilated... I just returned here. Borgs aren't the best conversationalists, so waste time?"

"You abandoned me??"

"Uh, yeah, I guess." UTroid sweat dropped.

Glitch sighed, "Okay, then what?"

"Well... I went off and ate a guy..."

"Huh. Wait, what?!"

"... It was delicious, he asked my if I was going to abduct him or some nonsense, and when I said I wasn't, he asked me for some spare change. So, I ate him."

"You ate a hobo."

"Yes."

"No kidding?"

"Swear to whatever god you may or may not believe in."

Glitch scratched his head, "How did he taste?"

"Almost like steak, but nicer." UTroid rubbed his claws together.

"Wow... just... wow."

"Yep... told you."

The two stared at each other warily for a minute.

"Uhm, how _exactly_ did MS get a hold of you. You told me they picked you up in a raid, but Bill said that no such thing had happened. Even so, the place was a mess when I got back. What happened really."

Glitch remembered how the apartment had looked when he had returned. They must've picked him up in a raid or something. But...

"Ehhh..."

"They snuck up on me in the apartment with the tube and stuck me in it. Luckily you appeared only a day or so later. Or maybe not, it didn't really matter since that one chick-"

"Spam" Glitch corrected.

"Since ‘Spam'pulled me out before you could get there."

"And you were at the power plant because...?" Glitch inquired.

UTroid started to bob and weave in the air, "Are you kidding? Pure, hard electricity! Not any cut stuff like you generally get from animals... or hobos."

"I still can't believe you ate a hobo."

"Me either."

Sometime later that day, Glitch let UTroid go off on his own so Glitch could better tend to his wounds. He hadn't noticed the night before, but there were bad wounds on both of his knees and all along his back. Probably from when that woman slashed him, and when he had hit the ground.

Bitch.

But everything was healing nicely. It was only a matter of a few short days before Glitch would be able to go find Spam, and rescue her if need be. Glitch grinned as he rewrapped the surgical tape around his body; Bill wouldn't interfere because apparently he wasn't affiliated with MicroSoft anymore, and the Underground didn't have another BioSuits, besides Bill...

Except for...

"Those BioSuits that attacked me yesterday... there could be more of them. While I'm there, I'll have to investigate that matter. "

Glitch put the finishing touches on the wraps and pulled his shirt back over his head. He looked around the room, but UTroid still wasn't back. With a shrug, Glitch draped himself across the couch and popped a disc into the DVD player.

Glitch noticed UTroid come in about two hours later. Glitch paused his show and addressed the small metroid,

"What were ya doing?"

UTroid got flustered and took a moment before replying,

"Feeding"

"Ah"

Glitch left it at that and returned to his show. UTroid floated off.

An hour later, Glitch was in his bed, stealing himself for the next day. He was going to go get Spam tomorrow, and he needed to be rested if things got bad. Glitch was afraid. He hadn't used his virus outside of BoTP since he escaped from the Underground. Glitch wasn't sure what would happen, or if he could even rely on it. Last time it had failed, it almost cost him his life...

Glitch slapped his hands over his ears and threw the thoughts out of his head. He needed to sleep. He repeated it over and over in his mind, until he couldn't anymore. He eventually passed out, but wouldn't get the rest he so richly deserved.

Dead silence permeated the night; Glitch was tossing in his bed, hands still over his ears, but still very asleep. UTroid, despite having gone to bed roughly at the same time Glitch had, was nowhere to be found. All in all it, was peaceful.

The peace was utterly shattered with the implosion if the outer wall. Glass, brick and plaster on the recently awakened Glitch. The television, which had once rested against said wall, was thrown across the room.

It took Glitch a moment to realize just what the hell was going on, but when appliances come at you alarmingly fast, you move your ass.

Unfortunately for Glitch, when he dodged the TV, he failed to notice the other object coming straight for him. It collided with him and sent Glitch careening into the inner wall. Glitch arched his back in pain over the impact, and slumped over the cause of his pain.

It was surprisingly warm.

Glitch began to shake. He knew what it was. He knew who it was. But until he opened his eyes, he wouldn't have to face the reality. Shuddering, he opened his eyes. His locks had come over his face, blocking the view. It seemed he'd have to work for his pain. He brushed the interfering strands out of the way to see the sight before him.

He absolutely was right.

Ambrosia, Spam, was lying unconscious and bloody on top of his legs. Glitch was hunched over, still coughing from collision. Everything feel silent once again. After a few long minutes, Glitch finally made a movement. With the little effort, he lifted Spam from the floor and set her down on the bed. He had confirmed her identity before, but now that he looked her over, he realized what horrible condition she was in; Her shirt was gone save for a few tattered remains, as was her pants. Nothing that was capable of covering her properly. Glitch noticed without emotion that her front and low half was relatively undamaged, besides the deep wound along her belly. But that's not where all the blood had come from. Resigning himself to what needed to be done, her slowly turned her over.

Two smashed protrusion on her back oozed blood, one more then the other. Glitch figured it was where her wings were attached. Aside from the nubs, her entire back seemed to be bleeding profusely. Glitch went and got a towel and wiped away what he could.

Written in deep cuts and gashes was a special invitation for Glitch. Words in flesh. An invitation to end the whole conflict. An invitation by B07N to fight Glitch to the death.

"You know who I am. I hate her and because of this, you now have the product of my hate. Tonight, Glitch"

Clenching his fist in the otherworldly rage that had enveloped him, the normally composed man screamed and punched a hole through the wall. Glitch was beyond even rage now, pure hatred was what was pumping through him, followed by the rapidly spreading adrenaline. But with the uncontrollable emotion also came a fire through his entire body. Completely terrified, enraged, and in shock, he realized that his virus system was beginning to activate. Purple lines along his skin proved beyond a doubt that he was losing his already slim control over his manufactured shell. Glitch fought a abbreviated internal struggle to prevent this from happening... for now at least. With every last drop of strength he could muster, Glitch diverted his attention to Spam's welfare; It was necessary to make sure she would live before he went on some fool's venture.

Gently lifting her unclothed form, Glitch took the girl to the bath tub, and drew a bath. In a near obsessive manner, Glitch checked her whole body over. Not a single inch of her skin was missed by the wash cloth he used to clean her wounds. Silent the whole time, Glitch felt more like an observer then the protagonist in this particular chapter in his life. He was driven by a force he couldn't comprehend. After he was thoroughly positive the there was no chance any infection further then what may have already taken place could set in, he drained the now dirty red tub and dried Spam. It took time; he did it softly, being sure to keep the shallow scabs that had formed from tearing open.

Bandages retrieved from a nearby cabinet, Glitch began to wrap Spam's wounds. Securely tightened a moment later, Glitch dressed her in some of his spare clothes. After placing her as comfortably as he could on his bed, Glitch began to prepare for what he knew was coming. Glitch had never been vindictive like this before; in fact, never in the past had he felt this way towards anyone, felt that risking his life for someone else would be worth it. Either way;

Bill would pay.

The huge flood lights from overhead made Bill almost demonesk in the way he cast darkness over the ground, his dark silhouette well over fifty feet long. Bill looked behind him shoulder to confirm for what he had over a dozen times. His crimson wings were unfurled high into the air, colored with the blood of his fallen prey.

Embellishing in the one true pleasure he kept in his heart, he drew his sword for his sheath. It was Katana like from the hilt to about the end, where it arched out into a wider blade. In an almost self conscious show of skills, he went through the paces; experimenting with slashes, parries, spins, and combos. As the talent that had long since gone rusty returned to him, the improvised practice session turned almost into a recital. The moves became a dance, his trusty blade his partner. After all these years, he reflected, his only partner had been this sword. It had been the only gift he had received in his life. His only foil for his thoughts.

At one point, however, Bill had almost found a soul mate. Someone he could share his life with. Someone who, above other things, was not an inanimate object. She who was like him.

"Ambrosia. That was your punishment."

His jumped into the air and brought the weapon down with all his strength, imbedding it in the building wall.

"You love me, or you bleed."

And that's what it boiled down to. Bill had been infatuated, and she had betrayed that trust. At least, that's how the unstable man viewed it in his mind. Bill was aware of the growing psychosis, the changes that his personality were undergoing. Bill didn't care. He had been B07N for so very long, but now he would be free. When Glitch was out of the way, Bill would finally be the very best. The greatest creation of the entire planet. After that, the growing dementia would cease to be.

He was sure of it.

From his position on the side of the concrete cliff, 40 feet off the ground with his sword still sticking in the giant edifice of MicroSoft headquarters, Bill heard footsteps echoing across the massive expanse. Echoes like the tick tocking of a clock. The footsteps told this plane of existence that someone was going to be leaving it soon. Bill knew, though, that this plane had better get used to him, as he had no intention of leaving it just yet. He descended slowly towards the ground, his new bloody tools already responding to his unconscious orders. Glitch was here, everything was going according to plan. Finally, the showdown would begin.

"Glitch. You're late."

Footsteps answered him.

"You knew I was like this."

The sound of a man driven was the reply.

"Would you like to know why I did it?"

Glitch didn't raise his eyes, couldn't bring himself to look at the man he thought might be a friend. Glitch refused to look at this monster.

"I don't care why you did it. Not matter the reason, you have to die now."

Bill raised his hand coyly to his mouth as he fluttered to the ground, sword in hand,

"Angry are we? I don't know why. I didn't hurt _you_"

Glitch continued on at the slow but deliberate pace. He activated his beam sabre.

"You'll bleed for what you've done. Sp... I'm gonna kill you."

Bill was on the ground now. For the fight, so he could use his new toys, Bill had taken off his armor. The visor he always wore, however, was still on his face.

"Look at me, Glitch. Look at what I've done, what I've taken from her."

A nasty grin appeared on Bill's face,

"See the fruits of my love for Ambrosia."

That was it.

"You sick fuck! GO TO HELL!"

Glitch was on Bill in a second, punch and lashing out in a blind rage. Bill, with his seemingly infinite supply of calm, easily dodged most blows.

"I had such a thing for her, you know? It was short lived, before I learned what an abomination she was. If someone like her couldn't love me, then they had to bleed. And repent."

"Don't say bad things about Spam!!!"

Even without any rhyme or reason to his flurry of attacks, Glitch was getting closer and closer to the target. Bill compensated, however, by fluidly dodging and blocking the attacks. No lucky shot was going to bring him down.

Glitch wasn't thinking straight. His brain was screaming at him to fall back and come up with a strategy, but his fevered emotions told him to get Bill quickly and painfully. In a lazy compromise, Glitch slashed low, at Bills legs. In slow motion, Glitch saw Bill begin to jump the attack, but could do nothing to stop himself. Bill cleared the blade and Launched his knee up, catching Glitch squarely on under the chin. Glitch's teeth crunched together and his head snapped back. He blow threw Glitch five feet away from where he had been. Bill landed smoothly on the ground, the whole event only taking seconds.

"You expect to deliver revenge like that? How pitiful. You're not even worth the effort to kill."

Glitch coughed and spit out blood that had accumulated in his mouth.

"Maybe I should fight the girl. I'm sure she'd be fun."

Glitch growled but did nothing, still reeling from the blow. But, out of his frenzy, he was reading the situation properly,. and looking for solutions to the problem at hand.

"Glitch," Bill began, "Me and you are not all that different."

He spread his arms as if he was encompassing the entire planet,

"We're both pretty fucked up in the mind. All BioSuits are, really. But I know I'm crazy. You... your the dangerous one."

"What are you talking about?"

Glitch didn't care what Bill had to say, but he was stalling, trying to force his virus system to activate.

"You see things that aren't there. Need more?"

Glitch narrowed his eyes, that had gotten his attention.

"What do you mean."

"Too late. Times up."

"Huh? Ahrg!"

Bill's rapid mood swing had caught Glitch off guard, and because of it, Bill now had his claw to Glitch's throat.

"Now the fight begins. Get a load of this."

Bill dropped his sword and brought his left hand to his face, to his visor. With all his strength, he pulled. The bolts on each side moaned and then shattered.

The destroyed eye ware fell discarded to the ground.

"Look. Look into the face of death."

A scream rose to Glitch's throat, but would not emerge. Through shear, absolute terror, his Virus System activated.

And Bill smiled.

Black eyes. Black as space. Black as Lucifer's wings.

With pure white pupils.

They were unnatural, completely against anything that should be. His eyes, just his eyes, were like fear incarnate.

Glitch felt as though his entire body was growing. It felt like mud was flowing through his veins to every part of his body. The purple lines on his hand appeared, and he could feel the slick wetness fall from his eyes. Too thick to be tears, he was crying blood.

Spikes, metal spikes of every shape and length were growing out at seemingly random angles and random points. Three from each knee, one long spike for each vertebrae under his neck, and a dozen more from various other areas.

New strength from the painful transformation allowed Glitch to break free of the smaller man's grasp. With a shudder, all the skin on Glitch's right arm seemed to drain into the emerging metal tube, much like the prosthetic he had for a left arm. The claw for this viral arm, though, was larger, with four pincers.

All of the larger growths began to glow, and a red warning that flashed "virus" appeared on top of them.

Bill smirked,

"See? Now we can have some _real_ fun..."

Both of Glitch's prosthetics flew at Bill. With a grace that would be impossible for any human, he had jumped the first and, in mid flip, deflected the other with his blade.

Glitch pressed the small opportunity he saw and rushed Bill before he had even landed or Glitch himself had retracted the prosthetics. Before he could arrive, Bill saw the attack and prepared for it. With a mighty flap of his wings, he propelled himself back and out of danger. With out missing a beat, Glitch threw out his prosthetics again, this time the smaller of the two reaching it's target and clipping Bill's left wing. An explosion of bone, feather and blood awarded Glitch's hit, as did Bill's short fall the ground.

"Ow!" Bill barked with the impact, "You know these are Ambrosia's wings, don't you?! You can't hurt Ambrosia!"

Glitch raised his arms in a mockery of what Bill had done earlier, retracting his prosthetics.

His face remained passive.

"They use your blood. They're diseased. I'm the cure"

Extending his left arm, he grabbed his beam sabre, and attached it to the claw.

Bill spit some of the blood which had accumulated in his mouth.

I can't lose yet! Cried Bill inside his head, It's too soon for this to be over. I have to... take control... of the situation...

"Clever lines won't get you out of this."

Throwing his weight into a spin, Bill flung himself to his feet and simultaneously sent his claw flying at Glitch. Glitch knocked the incoming attack away with one of his own claws and rushed Bill. Sword high, Glitch swung at the red winged foe. Bill's own sword was up and ready to defend instantly, putting him with a distinct advantage. Hardily smashing Glitch's attack aside, he used his left wing to upend and toss the long haired warrior across the battle field.

Glitch landed with a loud thumping noise almost 30 feet from where he had started.

Glitch hadn't even gotten a chance to react by the time B07N had gotten up to him, his short sprint having brought him almost face to face to Glitch. Glitch attempted to slow the smaller man's journey with his prosthetic, but Bill simply jumped the extended limb. Lunging for the wayward claw instead of Glitch, he caught the man off guard. He grinned savagely.

He had done it.

Both hands on the hilt, Bill made a forceful upward slash, severing Glitch's claw from his arm in one forceful move.

Glitch watched the scene rather disconnectedly. He watched as the blade passed almost effortlessly through his arm. He watched as sparks flew in a burst from the new wound, and then he watched as the blood began to spray out.

He simply stood there for a few seconds, before the pain caught up with him. The virus system had mercifully kept it at bay for a few moments, but it could not hold it all back.

"Ah... AHHHARRRGGH!"

His damaged prosthetic looked like it was having a seizure, twitching and whipping about by it's own accord.

Glitch clenched his eyes, which were already stinging with tears of pain, along with the bloody leakings from the virus system.

Bill swung his sword again, and caught Glitch in the head with the flat side of his sword. Glitch fell bodily to the ground.

Glitch tried to get up, to clear the fog from his head, but Bill had other plans. He stabbed his sword into Glitch's left shoulder, severing the nerves which had, just a moment ago, sent waves of almost tangible pain through Glitch's body. At the same time, the sword pinned Glitch to the ground, preventing movement.

"You are at my mercy. How does it feel? How does it feel to lose?" Said Bill slowly.

He got no reply to the almost rhetorical question, not that he was expecting one. Glitch should still be reeling from both the pain in his arm, then the pain in his shoulder, as well as the pain in his head.

That pain turned out to be a blessing. The sharpness of the agony he felt cut through the effects of Bill's blow to Glitch's head. He resisted the overwhelming urge to shake his head, for fear of the added injury it might cause, and it would alert Bill to his state of well being... or lack thereof.

Bill began to twist the blade, and it was all Glitch could do not to scream, not to reach up with his claw and remove the weapon from it's place in his shoulder. None of these options were of any particular use to Glitch, on the ground and at Bill's feet.

"He never wanted you."

Glitch looked bleary eyed into the man's face.

"Is that so."

Bill cracked a smile, "Yes. You are a mistake. A Glitch. You were never meant to be. No one wished you into existence. You appeared without anyone's consent. Did you know... that Mr. Gates wanted to have you wiped from the system? He knew, before anyone else, that you were the disease. If only they had listened, then he wouldn't have hated me!"

Bill's eyes burned with intensity.

While Bill had been speaking, Glitch had rerouted the nerve signals away from his brain. Being a biosuit had some small advantages. Too bad he couldn't turn the pain off all together...

"Are you finished?"

The claws on Glitch's viral prosthetic were all pointing forward.

"You think I don't know I wasn't meant to be? I've long since came to terms with that. It was never a problem for me. I was unique. I wasn't a doll like you were. Like you are."

"I AM NOT A DOLL!" Bill bellowed. He brought his claw up to punch Glitch. Right now, he'd forgotten that he wanted to drag out Glitch's suffering. All he wanted at that moment was to splatter Glitch's brains all over the cement.

"Predictable"

Glitch rolled out from under Bill's attack, tearing the Sword from his flesh. The claw imbedding itself in the ground. Glitch didn't have time to feel the pain from the action; doing so would mean his death. He searched through his options. He felt a great desire to knock Bill over, and make a run for his Beam Sabre.

That would have meant death too. Bill's prosthetic would reach Glitch way before he would get a chance to get anywhere near his Sabre. So, Glitch took the next best option.

"See you in hell, Bill!"

Both of Glitch's prosthetics, damaged and not, tore towards Bill. Bill had spun to face Glitch when the man had yelled, and had no protection from the assault. The damaged arm missed by almost a foot, but the Viral claw hit Bill dead in the belly.

The claw continued on, propelling Bill along with it. Only when the Prosthetic reached the end of it's length was Bill freed from it, the inertia from the hit sending him meters backward. Glitch tried to rush Bill, to do what Bill had done and pin him down. He needed to.

Unfortunately, Bill had distinct advantages over Glitch, even in his Virus state. When Bill had rushed pinned Glitch, he was down an arm. Not only did Bill have both of his arms still, he also had his wings.

The wings...

"Oh shit, how did I forget the wings?!"

Glitch ran right under Bill as he took to the air. Bill was looking down at his foe with a toothy smile.

And that was that. He knew he had won at that point. The look of shear incredibility on Glitch's face proved that.

Sure, he knew he had won.

Now he going to guaranty victory.

Glitch realized it was out of his hands now. He knew he was overmatched. With wave after wave of self hate and fear washing over him, he struggled to comprehend how HE, the inferior model could hope to best his better equipped and better motivated rival. Glitch realized that in Bill's mad grasp for appreciation and attention, the man was going about it in the most emotionless way possible. At least for the important parts, anyway.

That had given Bill a metal advantage over Glitch in addition to his various physical ones. Bill viewed his rivalry with Glitch as the justification to fight. He wasn't fueled by purely hate or anger, just a sense that he needed to beat Glitch.

Glitch, on the other hand, had gone into this fight for blood, fueled purely on emotion which, as powerful a motive it is, is one of the least renewable resources available. Almost before the fight started Glitch could feel his resolve crawling away, the sharp pain of the injustice Bill had done to Spa- Ambrosia - already fading to a dull ache. And without that tiny bit of an advantage that fury could grant him in battle, Glitch had precisely zero chances of winning.

Even if everything had been matched on the physical playing field, Bill still had him beat in the mental game.

So it was with a sad laden heart that Glitch watched Bill begin to transform. He knew from his opponent's confidant smirk's almost imperceptible change to a grimace that Bill's revenge, a viral rage held back for a decade while he waited for the perfect moment to strike it's killing blow.

The irony of the situation was not lost on Glitch. Bill had almost lost his life to Glitch's Virus System nearly 10 years ago, and now the same would happen to Glitch, although he had no doubts in his mind that Bill would finish the job and rid himself of the black mark on his record.

"A black mark?"

Glitch lost focus of his surroundings. Was he only a Black Mark? A stain on Bill's soon to be impeccable record? Bill had brought a superior model to it's knees, and was about to tear apart the only thing between him and absolute superiority.

But if he was only a black mark... that meant Bill's quest for perfection would never be complete.

A small, confident smirk appeared, on Glitch's face this time. He raised his eyes to Bill, ignoring the ripples of flesh across the smaller man's bones as viral spikes and suspicious wires that snaked around bill's body grew. He looked past the looming wings and the blood that started to pour forth from Bill's discolored and unsettling eyes. The purple haired man, with one claw, one broken metal prosthetic, and several jagged spikes sticking every which way, simply looked at his rival, his brother in creation, with the smirk that brother had given him so many times before.

"She didn't love you. And she never will. In doing that, she's made you less then you ever hoped to be. With that simple denial of your will, she's made sure that you've lost."

Bill did something unexpected.

He laughed.

It was a mean laugh, which turned quickly to an uncontrollable laugh, the kind you wanted to keep in, because it wasn't appropriate, but it spilled forth anyway. Bill laughed so hard he clutched his sides, all the while his viral growths increasing in size and fierceness.

Then, he screamed.

"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?? BUT WHEN SHE'S DEAD, IT WONT MATTER!"

The tiny wires, which Glitch _had_ thought were fairly ominous, plunged into him. they made their way through his body, searching for nerve bundles which were particularly adept at relaying pain. Whether this was by design or simply by Bill's cruel intents, Glitch didn't really care to know. He was, quiet frankly, in too much pain to think of anything at that particular moment.

Bill looked down at the fallen man, wires currently not in use waving in a simotaniously humorous and fear inducing way through the air, almost like dozens of tiny tails. Then, they too, plunged forth to find their prey, piercing Glitch's skin and running none to pleasantly through the grounded man's body.

If he hadn't taken the moment to gloat, he might have survived. Bill might have noticed the shadows creeping overhead.

"After you're obviously misinformed triad about your, ahem, "metroid-y" friend, I did some research. Found some interesting things."

Glitch wasn't paying attention, barely even hearing the man standing over him.

"I looked through archives of this "multiverse" of yours... Interesting stuff, really."

Glitch had again rerouted the pain signatures away from his brain.

"Wait? How'd you find it?"

Bill smiled for what must have been the dozenth time that night.

"Followed your trail. Being the bloated mass of AI you are, it was simple to see your trail across the internet. I know all about your supposed encounter with all these imaginary people... your crazier then I am!"

"They're real! I've lived among them!"

"Delusional... As real as they may seem in their little corner of reality, if they were to come here they'd be no more real then your other little quirk."

"If they're not real, then what about UltraTroid?!"

Bill barked a laugh,

"And there lies the core of the matter! You were sooo desperate for a friend, you came up with one that would be convenient for you. One nobody could see. One that was all in your head... but something happened. If you were just hearing voices, it would be fine, because you would at least know it wasn't something you should talk about. But what if, oh, at some event or another that you couldn't control, like your precious multiverse, the little friend you created came to life? It was alive there in the first place, as far as you knew. And if it was just in the multiverse, it would be fine... but"

Bill raise his arms dramatically, indicating not only the place they were in, but their reality as a whole,

"In the REAL world, no one could see it. It was fueled only by your mind,and as such, your ‘special'condition, care of the Underground, was made apparent. You have acute schizophrenia. Acute, because you look logic in the face and laugh in order to justify your little insanity.

Glitch looked crushed.

"No... it's not true..."

Bill laughed again and pointed a finger at Glitch's face. Purple veins pulsed just beneath the man's skin.

"How could a video game character exist in the real world?! Or did you not notice that whenever you weren't alone, ‘UltraTroid'was nowhere to be seen?"

Glitch clenched his eyes closed. There had to be some way he could prove Bill wrong. His only friend, for almost 5 years... his partner... he had to be real...

He looked up at Bill, who appeared to be waiting expectantly.

"But... he saved me... Here, in the real world... He saved me from the Mass Production Models!"

Bill jumped to his knees and slapped his hand, and claw, onto the sides of Glitch's head. His face in Glitch's, he laughed his ass off.

"Yes! You remembered that! UltraTroid didn't save you! You blacked out!"

Glitch was wary of the proximity of Bill's face to his but ignored it.

"Yeah.. and he saved me while I-"

"Notice how your back hurt afterwards, even when it hadn't much during the fight..."

"Yeah, but-"

"Notice how weak you felt after only a little bit of fighting?"

"Well, yeah-"

Bill pumped his arms into the air!

"Here's the big one! You passed out, activated your virus system and blocked it from your memory, so that your fantasy could remain, to you at least, a reality!"

Glitch finally broke eye contact with Bill, now avoiding the man's victorious stare.

Glitch didn't have much time to ponder over his apparent psychosis. Bill had gotten to his feet, and looked ready to do something.

"Okay! Now that that's done... I get to kill you."

Bill brought his sword up to bear one last time.

"Goodbye, brother."

Glitch saw shapes circling the air behind Bill. He wasn't sure what to make of them... they all looked like vultures... birds of prey. He notic