The Energy Virus

Synopsis: Continuing from "The Search for Skarlet", Megabyte and Hexadecimal appear from the Computer Realm to wreak havoc. Their father Gigabyte tags along, teaming up with the queen of the Negaverse, Queen Beryl, to steal energy so he can feed. He finds the life energy of humans and Toons to be rather delicious, even moreso than the energy of Sprites, Tears and Binomes, so the Rangers, Star Wars characters, Mobians, the Mortal Kombat characters, toons, bots, and the Mainframers team up to stop these harvesters' plans.



‘The only people who don’t make up their mind are foolish or dead.’--Valerian: Valerian & Laureline, Time Jam

Chapter 1--A Portal...from the Internet?!



The Sentinels found nothing out of the ordinary in their every day data stream. They had been doing their job exceptionally and everything was impeccable as usual. The Queen of the Sentinels, Locus, noticed something very unusual prodding through one of her near-impenetrable firewalls.
‘Is that what I think it is ?’, one of the centurions asked, preparing for the worst, energy spear at the ready.
‘It is, child. If this is what I think it is, we’re going to need more sentry people !’, a Martial named Talus said, summoning a bo staff with a curved scimitar blade glittering at its end. Talus was ready to battle, even though he had no idea who was going to emerge from the other end of the portal.



‘A veritable smorgasbord. Where to begin ? Let’s begin with the weakest most vulnerable binary digits...The children.’, Megabyte said as he saw families scurrying away to shelter. Before he had opened the tesseract to Lyoko, he had fused with Hexadecimal to become Gigabyte.

Gigabyte and his goons were beginning to drain energy from everything around them, but mainly the most unprepared denizens of wherever they had teleported to thanks to the genius of Megabyte’s scientist, Dr. Chrome. He had been responsible for finding the frequency to tear through ‘reality fabrics’ and rip into this new realm beyond Mainframe. They were now at the very Hub of where the Overseers guarded Lyoko. However, even their bands of sentries, centurions, guards, paladins and pages were no match for Megabyte’s poisonous talons. One swipe and they were as good as out of commission. Not exactly dead, and not exactly zombies but their energy was now his. Yet, it wasn’t enough. It never was. He wanted more.
    'Let's see. Who else can I harvest energy from...?", he asked himself. There were so many babies rife for the taking that he began to swipe them all into his tentacled arms and feasting on their energy. The babies energy didn’t last long though and he was running through them like a beaver through oak.

‘More...’, he rumbled, the unholy gurgle in the back of his throat burned to a roar. He had become draconian in his fusion, even more powerful since taking upon the nubile, youthful energy. One by one the Sentry men fell, the Centurions and Techno Paladins fell not long after.

‘We need assistance ! We’re falling like bugs to a bug zapper !’, Halcyon whimpered before he was drained. He was now a fragment of memory, wandering the Inbetween. He had been an Overseer but now those days had been numbered. Nothing more than a substrate trace of binary to slink and float in the ether.

Chapter 2—I Require MORE

Gigabyte wasn’t satisfied. Lyoko had proven most bland and lacking. Nothing there could satiate him and his hunger grew and grew the more power he accumulated. From the edge of the Overseer’s Plane, which was now only filled with memories with no hosts, he lightly rippled his finger along the edge of the Universe and found a possible entry point.

‘A tesseract would be just the thing I require..’, He said. With his new abilities growing by the moment, he could indeed, play with space and time like a basketball player shooting hoops. Easily he tore the tesseract into existence and saw a most enchanting and bizarre place come to life.

The best way to explain Toontown to the unitiated would be to say if Salvador Dali mingled with Magritte, add to that some Fleshier, Hanna Barbera, Disney, Warner and MGM animation. Throw in more modern marvels like super hero toons and Toontown was that and everything more. It was chaos theory incarnate, coupled with the bizarre and strange, commingling in its own sort of upside down Utopian harmony.

‘Hmm. ToonTown. Fascinating.’, Gigabyte mused, stroking his long chin with his razor-sharp talons As an iridescent purple dragon, his eyesight had become enhanced. In the distance, not too far from his entry-point,

In the distance, not too far from his entry-point, Mickey and Minnie began to run. Donald, Goofy, Clarabelle, Chip, Dale, Clarice, Roger, his wife Jessica and their children, as well as the Looney Tunes characters wasted no time and RAN. There was no escaping how fast Gigabyte was, given that he had wings. He could enclose them in force fields that would zap them. The shock was enough to leave them stunned an immobile, long enough to be picked up in Gigabyte’s talons.
‘I’ll take one...for now. The rest of you, well, I’ll be back for later should this one leave me insatiable.’, Gigabyte said.

Chapter 3—Unending Energy
The toons, the bots, the Lyoko Warriors who had recently been called in as reinforcements; no one had been able to stop Gigabyte. He had retreated to a secluded space that no one else could enter. There he met the eyes of one terrified Michael Mouse.

‘Why don’t you pick on someone your own size !’, Mickey demanded, beating on Gigabyte’s chest. Gigabyte wasn’t phased, he just began draining him. It left Mickey pale but none the worse for wear.

‘This is PERFECT ! You are an unending source of energy, cartoon mouse !’, Gigabyte bellowed triumphantly. All the more he grew and grew in energy, becoming even more potent. He could destroy anything he wanted but felt it would be a little too much and it would be far too easy of a victory.

‘I could hold you all hostage before destroying you. All I need is to figure out how to encapsulate you in a battery. That way I can continuously sap your vital essence...’, Gigabyte thought to himself. Mickey felt a bit hopeless but recalled he had a transmitter that had one purpose; to hail any and all fighters to his aide. Although he was almost too weak to hit the button, he did before Gigabyte could help.

‘You are a wonder ! Now to work on implementing you for everything you have !’, Gigabyte said, whirling and fashioning the binary around him. Of course, manipulating code would take a good long while to do, so this bought Mickey some time. He didn’t know how long he could hold out against the onslaught of his essence being utterly sucked dry of his body. One thing was certain though, this was most likely, other than laughing oneself to death, that he had actually felt as if he had been dropped on Death’s doorstep.

Chapter 4—How Does One Stop the Unstoppable ?

It was surreal how many characters had been called to assist Mickey in his plight. There were more than he could count just by a visual alone. They filled up the entire park !

‘Hey, Gigabyte ! Bite me !’, Crazy Jane said, going into her dissociation identity disorder as Hammerhead, one of her 67 alters. She and the Doom Patrol had been summoned thanks to the portals the Justice League had. Stephen Strange used his own doorways and incorporated everyone he could, even the X-Men. Deadpool had been yanked into it for kicks and giggles.

‘Hey, the new Maleficent is looking better and better ! I gotta give Disney props on how realistic the effects are !’, he commented, until Gigabyte breathed fire.

‘Woah, puck monkey ! A little too close with the afterburner, don’t you think ?’, he razzed. Not like a little fire would hurt him. He was already invincible. However, Deadpool wasn’t enough to defeat him, and it was unknown whether this ragtag group, including the Runaways would be enough to smite Gigabyte.
‘Well, what are we waiting for ? Christmas ?’, Chase asked, getting his gloves primed and ready for an energy blast attack. Gert had Oldlace on standby, waiting for her command. Carolina was prepared to use her talent to send an energy beam straight through his core if need be.
More heroes were summoned from all sorts of different Universes. Even Valerian and Laureline were getting in on the action. They were suited with the latest tech and ready to kick butt and take names.

‘Dragon...Groovy.’, Ash said, revving up his chainsaw arm. Pablo thought it was amusing to see the Jefe back in such prime form. He wielded the closest thing he could, which in this case was a rake just lying by.

‘Totally not PC, but beggars can’t be choosers !’, he said, bravely charging against the beast.

‘Pathetic !’, Gigabyte guffawed, knocking them all over much like dominoes in an easily won game of Mexican Train.

‘You have to do better than that ! You’re all just gnats when compared to me !’, he chortled victoriously.

‘This guy is really starting to cheese me off.’, Cliff muttered. Among him, the Hulk and the Thing were probably the most indestructible. Scarlet Witch, Raven, Zatanna and Doctor Strange were doing their best to hold him back with binding spells but still, Gigabyte could not be contained. He soon reached his ultimate form, which was a Mech version and the biggest thing they had seen yet.

‘Dang, he’s bigger than White Diamond !’, Amethyst exclaimed in shock. She and the Crystal Gems, including a reformed Spinnel, stood among the heroes and heroines in this unbelievable fight.

‘The bigger they are...’, Yellow Diamond began, raring back to punch Gigabyte in the jaw. She, Blue and White Diamond all walloped Gigabyte with a seismic wallop. He didn’t even budge. Smirking sardonically, he reared back and flicked Yellow Diamond in the forehead. With a loud BOOM, she toppled atop Blue and White, unable to get up. They had been knocked out.
‘Brute force won’t work. We should try magic...’, Usagi suggested.

‘That’s a brilliant plan. Both our variety of magic and yours should do the trick. No pun intended.’, Stephen Strange agreed. The magicians unleashed their variety of enchantments and when Gigabyte least expected, an onslaught was unleashed.

Chapter 5—Magic Overcomes All

Through Mercury’s visor, everyone finally honed in on circuitry that had been exposed due to constant hits to his ‘armor’. It was likely repeated hits that caused the armor to crack. All the mechs unleashed an attack to a focused spot right upon Gigabyte’s sternum. The battery that he had made was cracked and Mickey was set free. His children caught him and Minnie cradled him in her arms for the time being. He wasn’t looking too good, but with a little touching up with ink, toner and the like, he would be as good as new. Roger Rabbit grabbed a pallet full of colors and ink and toner.

‘Just a little dab of paint here, some toner there. We’ll put in some majestic mountains over here and add in some happy little trees to become friends with the mountains...’, Roger began, doing a spot on Bob Ross impersonation.

‘No happy trees ! No mountains !’, Mickey complained, getting tickled by the brush and laughing. He wiped off the excess media and Genie handed him a mirror.

‘Gee, Mickey, I think you look even better than new, if that’s possible !’, he complimented. Even Minnie was pleasantly surprised at how much younger her beau appeared to be.
With Gigabyte defeated, his goons disappeared and each hero and character was warped, or teleported back to their own Universe. There was nothing but quiet, but a few groans were heard. Everyone was going to need a bit of a spa treatment. A much deserved trip to the art museum was planned tomorrow as a way to unwind and decompress after the massive battle.

Chapter 6—Why Does No One Appreciate Modern Art ?

All the ‘lost data’ that had been ‘absorbed’ had been re-established and healed in Lyoko and the Internet had been brought back to its usual ebb and flow. Once all the heroes had been celebrated after their day of rest and relaxation, they had returned to Angel Grove to admire the local art museum.
The Rangers had taken part of an auction that would help autism research as well as various other unusual and rare diseases. They had taken part in a group called Special Books for Special Kids, which had a channel on YouTube. The channel itself was dedicated to bringing many ‘illnesses’ and ‘diseases’ to light, offering the facts, no judgment, positive reinforcement and a whole lot of love and compassion.

‘I haven’t been to an art museum in ages. The art done by these incredible people is mind-blowing.’, Adam complimented. Synde was showing off a photo collection he had done, which was quite impressive. He had an eye for beauty, particularly that in sunrises and sunsets, his favorite subject.

In the more modern art sector of the gallery, Splatter Phoenix stewed.

‘No one appreciates my vision. Why does no one appreciate modern art ? It has style, grace, pinache, chutzpah, moxy ! Plebeians just don’t get it !’, she kvetched. She was held by an electronic bracelet. A wolfish grin spread across her face.
‘I’m in my own realm...I can do whatever I please !’, she mused. Quickly, she took a pallat and brush and unlocked the bracelet. She soon escaped from painting to painting. Since Toontown was all paint, ink and toner based, she would have plenty of ammunition to wield to her liking.

Epilogue

It was a pretty run-of-the-mill sort of day, until hybrid surreal beings like samurai Wendigo, unicorn platypi, fire breathing ice centaurs and other wacky combinations started coming out of Splatter’s pallet.

‘I’ll force you to like my work if it is the last thing I do ! You all need culture in your life, you unrefined cretins !’, she screamed. The armada was far too vast and was storming Angel Grove far too quickly. She was one duck but with the growing battalion, she was an unstoppable force.

To Be Continued…