Upgraded

Tamra/Enigma's P.O.V.

My yellow-and-black stealth suit appeared on my body, comfortable like a second skin. My insides still flipped, since I'm still not used to this thing of teleporting between the real world and the cyber world. Also, it was our first official Guardians mission in a while, so it meant I'd have to face Hexadecimal again.

The foot-seat belts appeared over our feet and we were yet on another top-speed chase to see who'd get to the DIS's information cloud first; us Guardians or the viruses. Hopefully us so we (and by we I mean Googz) can put up a firewall to give us enough time to frag all the sentinels. I'd rather like to slash viruses out of existence with my cyber-swords than cyber-targets back in Dot's Diner's neighborhood.

The Codec forcefully pulled to a stop and we arrived. The glowing sky blue orb trickled with electricity, bots riding up and down the cyber-railings encircling the power source. Cruisers carrying cleaner-bots and repair-bots flew over us, to and from the colossal energy source. The grips on my feet were released and I stepped forwards against the windows in awe. Such amounts of energy for the Department of Internet Security that compared to the real world is quite itty-bitty.

Sighing, I turned around to check V.E.R.A. along with the rest of our team. The cyberspace version of her appeared in the cylindrical beam on the center holo-table/command space. "Are you ready, Guardians?" She asked.

"Ready as we'll over be!" Our fearless leader exclaimed, immediately running to the hanger spots.

The rest of us followed him and we were lowered down. "So, Googz will set up an extra firewall to prevent the sentinels from attacking the power source," I planned aloud. "The rest of us will do anything we can to frag those annoying viruses."

Parker nodded. "Jump at the count of 3! 1..."

"3!" Austin sprint-jumped off the pad. I rolled my eyes at his antics but flipped forwards off. I spotted Trey playfully shoving Parker off the pad, hearing his yelp for just a second, then following the rest of us.

"Zip-board!" Austin called out. His board appeared at his feet and he zipped to the top of the energy orb.

My turn. "Stealth glider!" Under my feet, my glider formed and I safely landed on my two feet. Then I took my spot by swinging around the middle rings of the source.

"Quadra disc!" Parker said, falling onto his hover-vehicle. He gripped the handle bars and flew over near my position, getting ready to form a firewall.

Finally it was Trey's turn. "Turbo jets!" His pack appeared on his back and quickly flew downwards to the bottom.

I scanned the perimeter, waiting for the defense-bots to notice us (our code) and try to attack us. The D.I.S. increased security for any unknown/unrecognized coding, and us Guardians fall under those categories. We've never met the D.I.S. agents face-to-face, cyber-face or real face, so they don't know that we're on their side. I just wish that one day, we could just reveal us as the heroes that save their sorry butts every time, despite them trying to exterminate us like computer bugs.

"Sentinels at 3:00!" Austin called down, breaking my train of thought. I turned to face the front, a huge sentinel army in a triangle formation, with two very familiar virus leaders at front. "Googz, we're gonna need that firewall soon!"

"On it, Vector!" Our strategist replied. "I'll have one big enough ready in a few. Buy me some time!"

"Don't worry, Googz," I assured him, wiping out my cyber-swords. "We got your back."

"Yeah," Trey agreed. "Hey Enigma, make sure to save me some viruses. I need to keep up my sentinel-slaying rank after skipping last mission."

I smirked as I twirled my swords in my hands. "Can't promise anything, basher brain."

"As if you guys can beat my current score," Austin jumped in the conversation while scoffing. "And Googz, while you're doing the protecting, make sure to keep points."

Parker sighed. "Sure, I'll do it, like usual. Because aside from turning a powerful energy source of the Department of Internet Security into the cyberspace's largest still bouncy ball, I'm also for keeping score for how many times you frag a villainous virus for your little game," he commented sarcastically, but you could hear the slight smile in his voice.

Austin chuckled. "That's the spirit, bro!"

I laughed shortly myself. It's nice to hear the boys' attitude lifting up after last night. But they were quickly brought back down to game-mode when they realized the virus army was a decent distance away from us.

"Sentinels!" We listened to Megabyte's commands. "Show those pesky Guardians the new and improved us!"

The army of sentinels flew forwards, faster than usual. They seem bigger and more virus-y than the last time, but we held our stance, raising our weapons.

"Freight fists!" The athlete said, punching his fists together.

"Won't matter, Mega-jerk!" Austin called out to him. "We'll kick your butts like usual. Code disrupter!"

"Yep, 'same song and dance', like she would say," Parker let out a light laugh.

Then Austin, Trey and I charged forwards with our weapons. I went to slash a sentinel across its chest, but instead it caught the sword between its hands and gripped tightly onto the blade. Suddenly, it swung around and around quickly, and then flung me back to the orb. Losing my cyber-swords in the air, I flew off my glider and my back hit a ring, with my head tossing back to collide with the orb itself.

"Ow," I muttered to myself, rubbing my head slightly.

"Enigma, your crash is far from fatal, but might cause slight damage to suit," V.E.R.A. informed me.

I pulled myself to a seating position on the ring and summoned another pair of cyber-swords in both my hands. "These sentinels are definitely stronger and smarter than our last battle against them."

"Well, just try to hold them off," Parker said, sounding slightly strained. "I need a little more time if this entire firewall were to stretch around the entire power source."

I hopped off the ring and swiftly landed on the ground close to Trey's location. There were more down here than up where I was. I watched as he would punch off of sentinel with all his might but instead of them fragging, like usual, they would just get temporarily stunned and pushed back. "They are way tougher than before," our main strength commented.

"Yeah, whenever I blast them with my code disrupter," Austin said, "they would frag only that part of them - like breaking off an arm or putting a hole in their chest - but it would rebuild or seal itself."

"They were upgraded," Parker concluded. "The Sourcerer must've been peeved as to how we keep beating Megabyte and his army of viruses. And now we aren't upgraded. Reflector rings!"

"Just keep fighting!" I slashed another sentinel across the neck. "Googz, how much more time do you need until the firewall is completed?"

"If I want to manipulate the coding of the sentinels and use it against them, then 5 more minutes."

Trey sighed before bashing another virus in the head. "We'll never make it."

"Well, I'd rather go down fighting with you guys by my side than to go down by myself without fighting at all." Austin's words warmed my heart. But I couldn't stop to cherish the feeling since we were in the middle of battle.

"Player Giga has entered the game," we heard V.E.R.A. say through our comm links.

"Giga?" I thought aloud, hopping on top a soldier. "Like Giga from our old team?"

"V.E.R.A.? Who is Giga?"

Our A.I. friend did not reply.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted a figure free-falling from the launch pad. The figure's suit was ultra-violet and black similar to mine but not as sleek, along with a glider that seemed similar to my stealth one, except she didn't ride on it by standing but used it like a normal hang glider. She had roller blades on her feet, but no weapons on her. She looks kind of familiar

"C-could it be?" Parker stuttered, seeing the stranger as well.

"That girl we saw earlier," Austin continued. "The Bionic Blade? Here? In cyberspace?"

"Wait a second! The Bionic Blade? That teenage hero from the news?" I gasped. "That's why she has roller blades."

"Look, I'm just as interested in this mysterious hero but can we focus on trying not to die?" Trey asked sarcastically. "Megabyte and the other virus leader are getting closer!"

We continued to battle, but it was more like avoiding the powerful surges of power coming from the sentinels' cyber-guns. They were like lightning bolts; strong, speedy, and sudden. I flipped back and forth while slashing each strike with my cyber-swords from multiple directions at a time. Quickly, I jumped atop the closest ring and rested for just a second before they could come close to fragging me.

"Blaze disc!" I heard a voice called out. My gaze flew up to find the mysterious figure tossed a Frisbee-like object downwards in my direction and struck a sentinel across its chest, cutting it deeply. My eyes bounced back and forth as she seemed to control the Frisbee's path from afar on her glider and have it strike many more virus soldiers in a curved path with only a hand... glowing nails?

She hopped off her glider onto the ring just above my head. Holding out an open palm in front of her, the disc flew back into her hand and disappeared into code. She faced forwards towards Megabyte and Hexadecimal, along with a whole sea of sentinels. I inhaled sharply, realizing I never even took into account at the army's size. It could spread across probably a football at least, with an army with the strength and power of ten men. On the outside, they seem the same as last time - weak wannabe soldiers that only looked tough. But now their appearance matches their aspirations.

Actually tough.

I turned back to my new teammate, who was hopefully formulating a plan in her head. With her abilities to slice and dice, we might just stand a fighting chance. The girl bent down for a split second before springing far forwards in the sentinel's direction. She flipped in mid-air before calling out another one of her powers. "Static step!" The mystery girl said, as her body stretched out with her feet below her and her arms above her helmet.

At those words, the wheels on her feet turned sideways and became part of her boots, glowing neon purple. As 'gravity' pulled her back down, she swiftly landed on a sentinel in a some-what crouching position. A code colored the same as her nails and shoes ran through the virus and caused it to glitch, slashing his fellow slave. Before they both could glitch out completely, she pushed herself off with only her feet and onto another bot.

The process continued over and over again, flipping or spinning in mid-air, the occasional flying Frisbee every now and then. I didn't want to lose focus as I attempted to keep the sentinels away from the power orb, but I was very impressed. I know none of us has experienced the newly updated bots for an entire mission, but the fact that a mysterious new 'player' came in out of no where and frags them left and right is rather remarkable.

"Sentinels! RETREAT!" Megabyte and his sinister sister yelled as the purple ninja came closer. The soldier right in front of me dropped their weapon and skid away in fear of being fragged next. As quick as they came, the viruses left hastily, leaving my team and me alone with this Giga.

"Welp," Parker said into the com links. "Guess we won't be needing the firewall."

"Put it up just in case they come back and we're not here," Austin announced, zipping down to our area. Trey flew up and hovered in front of us. I called my stealth glider and stood back from the energy orb in order for Parker to put up his firewall.

I sighed as I looked around once more. The area was back to normal. Unfortunately, that meant that that Giga girl was no longer here.

But what really worried me was that someone outside our group is aware of our secret headquarters. Sure, it could be that Bionic Blade chick and she's a hero to all in our neighborhood. But who else knows? Maybe she's working for a secret organization that is tracking our every move, both inside and out the cyber world.

Whoever she is, I still owe her my life. Megabyte and Hexadecimal may seem to have the upper hand, but it looks like we too just got upgraded.