//------------------------------//
// Corruption 
// Story: Reboot: New Generation 
// by The Irish Brony 
//------------------------------//

Entering the port is a big syringe-looking gun. Sitting by the entrance is a white box big enough to hold someone. The box is connected to the device going down the USB tunnel. “Come one! Move it!” The general yells before a vid window of Megabyte appears behind him.
“Update,” Megabyte says before the general turns to face him.
“The hard wear is going into the hard drive now sir,”
“Excellent,” Megabyte smiles as he taps his finger together. “How is our guest?” Megabyte asks, leaning forward in his chair.
“She is ready and waiting for orders,” The general responds.
“Good,” Megabyte responds before the vid window closes.



“Not good,” Phong whispers as he watches the vid window as Megabyte’s new devices roll into the tunnel.
“What is that?” Sparky asks. Leaning on the table as he tries to look up at the big vid window.
“It’s Megabyte’s new Hardware,” Phong says, turning to Sparky.
“Do we know what it does?” Pipp asks, looking away from a group of vid windows surrounding where she sits.
“Not yet,” Hitch responds as his face appears on the vid window. The three look up at him. “But I think I’m about to find out,” Hitch says as he looks over the edge of the building, looking down at the exit port. The hardware rolls out before stopping just outside of the exit. Ships swarm out and around the device as it lifts up and points at the Principal Office.
The clear part of the syringe-like device starts turning blue as it hums. After a few seconds of nothing, the end glows blue before shooting off toward the Principal Office. It rams it, causing the energy to disperse across it.
“No,” Hitch whispers as his mouth drops.
“Not good,” Sparky responds.
“What’s going on?” Pipp asks.
“Megabyte is attempting to ram the Principal Office and infect the system’s core,” Phong explains.
“Meaning the drive would be corrupt enough for the user to realize and unplug it,” Hitch responds, turning back towards the vid window.
“How are we going to stop it?” Pipp asks.
“It looks like the energy is being supplied on Mainframe's end. Probably to make it easier to defend the hardware and power supply separately,” Hitch says as he surveys the area below him. “I’ll try and take out the Hardwear, you guys find the power supply and take it offline,” Pipp nods before the vid window disappears. “Now how to approach this,” Hitch thinks as he looks at the ships surrounding the Hardwear.
“Glitch, disassemble,” Hitch says pointing Glitch at the Hardwear. The gear shoots off towards the device. The gear flies past the ships before heading toward the hardware. It tries to land, but gets deflected off and goes back up to Hitch. The gear lands back on the key tool as Hitch whispers, “Of course, it wouldn't be that easy,” Hitch sighs before standing up and throwing down his zip board. “Hopefully they have a plane to get the power source turned off because there is no way I can go head-on with those ships… right?” Hitch asks himself as he steps onto the zip board.



“I still do not agree with young Sparky helping,” Phong says to Pipp as she monitors a few different vid windows with different generals. Pipp wears a skin-tight one-piece combat suit with an earpiece that has a microphone attached leading to her mouth.
“I don’t agree with it either,” Pipp responds, taping the earpiece before turning to Phong. “But Sparky is somewhat experienced. As long as he’s with me, he’ll be fine,” Pipp says, pointing at herself with her thumb.
“I hope you are right,” Phong responds as the door to the command room opens up. Revealing Sparky dressed in a similar skin-tight combat suit. He has a gun attached to his right hip, while a zip board is attached to his left.
“I’m ready Pipp,” Sparky says, putting his hands on his hips while puffing out his chest.
“All right,” Pipp says, standing up before closing the vid windows. “Remember the plane?” Pipp asks as she and Phong walk over to him.
“We get dropped off by a CPU while the others attack. We slip by on our zip boards and shut off the power,” Sparky resits.
“Good,” Pipp responds, nodding with a small smile on her face.
“Be careful my children, Megabyte is a tricky sprite,” Phong warns.
“Don't worry,” Sparky responds. “Me and Pipp can handle it,” He says before turning towards Pipp. “Right?”
“Right,” Pipp responds.
“Besides,” Sparky says as he grabs the gun on his hip. “I have this energy gun to help defend myself,” Sparky says while pointing it at the wall across the room while looking down the sight. “I haven’t shot one in a few cycles, but I think I still have it,” Sparky lets out a yelp as he accidentally pulls the trigger, causing a laser bolt to bounce around the room before disintegrating into nothing. Phong and Pipp look at Sparky with disappointment as Sparky smiles cheekily. “Safety was off,” Sparkly says as he puts the gun away.



“Glitch, shield!” Hitch yells as he squats low on his zip board. He flies barely off the ground, as low as he can get. Glitch turns into the energy shield again. Hitch holds it in front of him, covering most of the front of his body. He flies below the beam for a bit more cover.
The ships turn and start shooting at him. The lasers bounce off his shield and redirect to the ground or into a building. Hitch grits his teeth as he pulls out a little yellow ball from his pocket. “Do your stuff restart common,” Hitch whispers, looking down at the little ball. He throws it up into the air once he gets close enough to the hardware.
He takes a sharp turn to the right and flies down an alleyway as the ball glows a bright yellow. Cracks start to show in the ball as it goes threw the laser. Hitch makes it far enough away and turns around to watch as the ball explodes into a bright red color, causing the ships to fall out of the sky as the hardware shuts off. Hitch smiles before flying towards the device.
“Glitch, energy gun,” Hitch says as the shield morphs into an energy gun in his hand. He flies up to the hard wear while dodging the attacks of viral binoms. He shoots back at them, causing them to be electrocuted and pass out. He makes it to the computer on the side of the hardware.
“Glitch,” Hitch says as he steps off his zip board. “Decode,” Hitch brings his left arm close to the terminal so Glitch could reach. An orange rod extends from Glitch and connects to the device. The device starts to power back up as ships start to shoot at him. “Glitch! Do something!” Hitch yells as an energy shield forms around him. Hitch looks around him to see beams deflect off the shield. “Where was this, five cycles ago!” Hitch yells at Glitch. Glitch beeps back before a laser bolt barely misses Hitch. 
“Oh, that’s why,” Hitch looks to see holes forming in the shield as it attempts to deflect the bolts. “Glitch, you done yet?” Hitch asks. Glitch beeps back as the orange rod detaches. “Good enough, we need to go now,” Hitch says as Glitch morphs back into an energy shield as Hitch flies away again. He covers his back with the shield as he flies away. He ducks around a corner before turning around and stopping.
“Hu…” Hitch says with slight confusion in his voice. He flies over to the corner to see the ships surrounding the hardware again as it continues like nothing happened. “Glitch, vid window Phong,” Hitch says before a vid window appears to his right.
“Yes?” Phong asks.
“Megabyte is going all in with the hardware,” Hitch says, ducking behind the building as a ship fires on him. “We NEED to stop it,” Hitch emphasizes.
“Pipp and Sparky are all ready on their way to stop the power source,” Phong says. “What makes you think Megabyte is going all in?”
“The ships, they didn’t chase me after I got some data from the hardware,” Hitch responds.
“Any useful data?” Phong asks with a little hope in his voice.
“I only got enough so I can redirect the beam with Glitch,” Hitch explains. “I didn’t have enough time to get anything else,”
“That is ok,” Phong responds. “Just hold on,”



“And this is where we get off,” Pipp says, sitting on the edge of the CPU ship. Sparky sits next to her as they watch the ground below them change to an ocean of data.
“Here we go,” Sparky says before pushing off the ship with Pipp following him. The two throw down their zip board before landing on them. The two speed towards the port, staying low to the ocean as they fly towards it.
“Looks like they are distracted,” Pipp says. The CPUs fighting the ABCs in the sector as they pull them away from the port.
“I guess we underestimated their ship numbers!” Sparky yells, looking back to see a small group of ships following them. They start shooting them before the two start dodging. “Dad’s key tool would be very useful right now!” Sparky yells as he jumps over a laser bolt.
“Use your gun!” Pipp yells over to him.
“Right!” Sparky yells before grabbing his gun off his waist before pointing at the ships. He flips the safety off as the gun targets the first ship. “Eat energy!” sparky yells as he shoots at the ship. Three shots scrap the ship before two go down the center, causing the ship to blow up.
“Good work!” Pipp yells out. 
“Thanks,” Sparky says, aiming at the next ship while doundging the laser bolts the ships shoot at him.
“Keep doing that, we’re almost there,” Pipp says, looking up at the city’s port. Sparky grits his teeth and squints his eyes as he aims at the moving ship. 
“Take this you hunk of metal!” Sparky yells as he shoots laser bolts at the ship. The ship dodges the shots as it shoots back. Sparky dodges as he keeps firing back. Pipp flies up towards the port with Sparky following her. Finally, one of the shots takes out the ship, leaving one more. The ship shoots four bolts out, one hitting Pipp’s board out from under her feet, the other making Sparky dodge. Sparky slips off the board due to over-correcting before grabbing onto Pipp’s leg, who had grabbed onto the edge of the city.
“Hold… on…” Pipp says as she tries to pull them up.
“Go faster!” Sparky yells, looking down at the ship speeding up toward them. Sparky shoots down at the ship but misses almost all of his shots.
“Grab the ledge!” Pipp yells. Sparky puts the gun on his hip before grabbing the ledge and pulling himself up onto the city. He quickly turns around and pulls Pipp up as the ship shoots and flies by them, causing their hair to blow in the wake of the ship.
The ship turns down and flies back towards them. “Oh no you don’t,” Sparky says, grabbing his gun and pointing it at the ship. “Game over viral binom,” Sparky says, shooting a few bolts up at the ship. They hit, causing the ship to explode into little pieces.
“Ooookkkaaaayyyy…” Pipp says with a little worry in her voice as Sparky puts his gun away.
“What?” Sparky says, turning to Pipp and shrugging. “I always wanted to say that,”
“Let’s keep moving. I have a feeling they know we are here,” Pipp says, running towards the port as viral binoms run towards them. Sparky follows her as the binoms shoot green lasers at them with their black staffs.
“There it is!” Sparky yells as they run up to the glowing white box sitting next to the port. The few viral binoms that guard it turn around and point their staffs at them. “I’m getting real sick of Megabyte’s viral binoms,” Sparky says, taking out his gun again and shooting the binoms. The bolts hit them square in the chest, causing them to get pushed back and fall over before getting disassembled.
“They're persistent, you can give them that,” Pipp responds as they run around the back of the box. “Shit,” Pipp says, looking down at the encrypted lock. “It’s in basic,” She complains as Sparky leans around the corner and shoots at the oncoming viral binoms.
“Do you think you can crack it?” Sparky asks. “Also, bad word,”
“Maybe,” Pipp responds as she pulls out a tablet before hooking it up to the lock. “And yes, shit is a bad word, why point it out,” Pipp asks as she starts tapping on her tablet.
“Dad says you shouldn’t use bad words,” Sparky says, shooting at the viral binoms. He ducks around and hit some before ducking back around the corner as they shoot back.
“Then your dad is a hypocrite,” Pipp responds.



“Ffff…uck…” Hitch grunts as he uses Glitch to lift a broken building back up and mending it back together. He sighs as he catches his breath. “The system is getting worse,” Hitch says to Phong in the vid window next to him.
“Can you delay the hardware?” Phong asks.
“Maybe for a bit before Glitch starts to run out of power again,” Hitch responds.
“Then do it,” Phong says. “It’s better than nothing,”
“Ya, I was afraid you would say that,” Hitch says before closing the vid window and flying over to the beam. He flies up into the air and looks down at the beam as it drills into the Principal Office. “Here goes nothing,” Hitch says, pointing Glitch at the beam as Glitch turns into a big laser pointer. “Glitch, deflect,” Hitch says before a red laser beam shoots out of the laser pointer and towards the beam below.
The laser beam hits the other beam, causing it to deflect the beam and send it into the sky. Hitch smiles as he looks back at the Principal Office. There is a giant hole where the beam was concentrated on. The building and the surrounding buildings have started to decay and fall apart.
“A few more nanos of that laser and this system is filed away,” Hitch says as he watches a few buildings collapse. “Glitch, do you think you can redirect the beam at the hardware?” Hitch asks as a group of ships start to fly toward him. Glitch beeps before it starts adjusting the angel.
The beam starts to move down towards the hardware. Deleting a few ships as they cross its path before inevitably hitting the hardware. The hardware starts to glow brighter as the beam get’s more intense. Glitch starts to spark as Hitch’s arm starts to heat up from Glitch.
“Glitch, stop,” Hitch says before Glitch turns off the beam and returns to normal. The beam from the hardware collapses in on itself and causes the hardware to short circuit. “That should slow him down,” Hitch says before flying away from the oncoming ships. He ducks around a building as a vid window of Phong shows up in front of him.
“The system has indicated that corruption has stopped,” Phong says, looking down at a vid window in front of him. “What did you do?”
“I reflected the beam back onto itself,” Hitch explains. “It will be a few cycles before Megabyte gets the hardware back up, and in that time I can fix the damage he has caused to the system,”
“Good,” Phong responds.
“As long as a game doesn’t fall and the user doesn’t win, we are fine,” Hitch says, right before the sky turns purple and the electric sound rings out through the system. “I just had to say it, didn’t I?” Hitch says as the announcer announces the incoming Gamecube.
Hitch flies toward the falling Gamecube as the vid window closes. He looks around to see a fleet of Megabyte’s ships surrounding him as others fly ahead. “Not this time,” Hitch says before pointing Glitch at the ship below him. “Glitch, energy saw,” Hitch says as the gear turns into a mini circular saw. “Slice them up,” Hitch says before the gear shoots off of the key tool and towards the ship.
The gear cuts the ship in half, leaving the binoms in the air for a few seconds before they look down and start falling. The gear flies around and hits all the ships around Hitch as he flies toward the falling Gamecube. The gear returns back to the key tool before going back to normal.
“Good work Glitch,” Hitch says, looking down at the key tool. Glitch beeps back happily before beeping in fear. “What are you…” Hitch looks up to see two ships flying quickly in front of his way to the Gamecube. “Not again!” Hitch yells as he smacks into the ships. He grabs onto the top one as his zip board goes flying away from him.
“Glitch, retrieve zip board,” Hitch says, pointing Glitch between the two ships and at the zip board. The gear shoots off and towards the zip board. Hitch lets go and start falling as Glitch returns back with the zip board. Hitch grabs it as the gear returns back to the key tool. He throws down the board before landing on it and flying toward the Gamecube.
“NO!” Hitch yells as he stops before slamming into the Gamecube. It had landed before he could get in. “This is bad, very bad,” Hitch says as the ships make a run for the port. “I’ve got to get out of here, NOW!” Hitch says before flying after the ships.



“That's strange,” Sparky says as the viral binoms retreat a bit before stopping their fire.
“What is it?” Pipp asks, looking up from her tablet and down at Sparky.
“The viral binoms,” Sparky says before turning to Pipp as he puts his gun away. “They’ve stopped firing at us and they’ve retreated,” Sparky explains.
“They are probably thinking of a way to get to us,” Pipp says, turning back to the tablet.
“Are you done yet?” Sparky asks.
“Almost,” Pipp responds as Megabyte’s ships start to fly out of the USB tunnel. Sparky looks up at them as Pipp looks over at them. “Now that is strange,” Pipp comments as the ships trickle out.
“The hard drive is going to collapse,” Phong says with terror in his voice as the vid window pops up next to Sparky. Sparky flinches before turning towards the vid window. 
Pipp turns to Phong before asking, “What did you say?”
“The hard drive is corrupted and a game fell without Hitch getting into the game,” Phong explains.
“That explains the ships,” Sparky responds.
“You don't have to stop the hardware anymore,” Phong says as the door unlocks.
“Too late,” Sparky says as the door flies open, smacking Pipp and sending her flying across the ground before sliding off the edge. “Pipp!” Sparky yells as Pipp grabs onto the edge of the port.
“Thanks for freeing me,” Hex says, walking out and stretching her arms out. “It was getting a bit small in there,”
“Hex!” Sparky yells in utter confusion.