All I could hear were the sounds of footfalls. The sounds drowned out even the rain fall and splashing of water. All that existed was the constant sounds of footsteps; and the sounds of panting as we ran.
    We took cover in a dark alley. Sally held her breath as the foot sounds grew closer. The air smelled of ions, sort of like after a lightning strike. The sounds of footfalls grew louder and louder each one sounding like the beating of a heart. I held Sally's hand as she closed her eyes. From our hiding spot behind the dumpster, I counted.
    One. Two. Three.
    The mob of murderous malware began passing us by.
    Six. Seven. Eight.
    They seemed endless.
    Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen.
    They came in all shapes and colors. They were as vast a video games themselves, which is where they originated.
    Twenty-eight. Twenty-nine. Thirty.
    One then stopped. He wore a weapon that looked like a vacuum cleaner and hose. His eyes turned this way and that as if he sensed something. I think I ducked before he could see me.
    Footsteps.
    No such luck.
    Sally's eyes went wide. We'd seen a lot over the years and faced dangers both domestic and exotic. We've faced everything from gang bosses to alien invaders, but nothing quite like these seemingly immortal living video game characters. If we defeated one, they just respawned moments later. They were like high-tech zombies but no number of headshots will put these fiends down.
    The footsteps echoed closer and closer. I reached, slowly, to my belt. I could hear the whine of the vacuum weapon. His footsteps ended and now I could hear the repetitive bla-loo-loo-loo of his code. A foot appeared at the end of our hiding spot.
    "You have superpowers," said Sally soon after I told her to run. "Why don't you fight them?"
    "One, there's too many. Two, they just respawn." I did take one down before we ran, but realized how pointless it was when it returned seconds later with a boo-whip. "Three, they're already mad at us for killing them countless times in games. I don't think we need them angrier."
    "Rig!" came a voice. "Someone just spotted them over by the elementary school. Come on!"
    For a breathtakingly long moment the vacuum foe didn't move. He seemed to be debating if he should believe his "friend." He finally left.
    Sally and I let out a long held breath.
    "Let's go," I said. We needed to get to the exit gate. We'd tried logging out but they were jamming the signal. Our only hope was getting to the "emergency" exit point all virtual websites have. I knew the exit was in the park; and with our binary baddies heading to the school, we had our best chance for escape.
    ***
    With no resistance, we made it to the park in record time. I pointed to the hovering neon exit sign. Our feet practically flew as we ran for the exit. Get back, regroup, make a plan, come back and kick some pixels, I thought.
    We were almost to the exit when something exploded. We were sent crashing to the ground. I rolled and bounced a few times before coming to a stop on my back. I'd lost sight of Sally but my sense of smell told me she was nearby, and alive.
    Hundreds of laughing voices filled the air. One of the gigabyte goons had a rocket launcher; that must have been what hit us.
    "Did you really think it'd be that easy?" one that looked like a horror movie clown said. "We couldn't find you so we knew you'd come here. We faked sighting you so that you'd think the place was unprotected. Ah-HA-ha-HA-ha-HA!!"
    I managed to stand as the mobs moved in around us. I advanced into a fighting stance. I didn't know how long I could hold them off but hopefully long enough for Sally to get through the gate.
    "Not happening," she said moving closer to me. "We're in this together."
    "How did you know what I was thinking? Did your powers come back?" Years ago, Sally "borrowed" my original Dogboy belt. Since it was the first one (thus holding special meaning), it contained traces of my powers. Once she used it, she gained similar powers to mine. But it only had a limited charge. Eventually even "magic"runs out.
    "No. But I've been dating you for four years. I know you."
    "Really? Four years? Seemed shorter."
    A bright light unexpectedly engulfed everything followed by a sizzling crackle. A voice came from the light. "That is enough my children," a calm, heavenly voice said. A similar gold and yellow form to Terabyte appeared while the light faded, but he seemed different. Terabyte was an old foe of mine. Created by the government to be the perfect cyberattack protector, he grew more sentient until he turned on his creators.

    "Terabyte," I said. "Should have known you'd be behind this electronic enigma." Sally shot me a sideway look. "I've been working on my heroic alteration." I got this neat lesson-of-the-day calendar from Ace.
    Terabyte laughed. "Wrong as always, Drool Fool. I am not Terabyte. I am Unum. I am the One. I am TerrorByte." He waved his hand as if he'd grown tired of having to explain this over and over. "I destroyed all the other multiverse versions of myself, including the one you knew, thus becoming more powerful. I am a god now!" He threw in a nice reverb effect right then.
    "Multiverse?" I said.
    He feigned shock. "You didn't know? Hmm-heh-heh," he smiled (it was unbelievably creepy). "It seems poetic that I would be the one to tell you since it was because of me you opened the doors once again."
    I was very confused.
    "Don't you remember when we first met?" He faked a couple sniffles and mocked wiping away a tear. "I thought we meant more to each other than that. I destroyed the world by setting off all the nuclear weapons in the world. You learned how to travel through time. You stopped me thus creating a new timeline, or parallel Earth. This act opened all the doors to the multiverse."
    Sally gasped. "Is this true, Joe?"
    TerrorByte faked a gasp. "Oh wow. You didn't even tell the little woman? Awk-ward." TerrorByte put an arm around Sally. "That's right. He's not your Joe. The two of them pop merged." I did know about the merging thing but I thought that was just my past and present self merging not some alternate me.
    TerrorByte stepped away from us; it was more like he teleport-flickered away. "With you gone, I was all alone in a nuclear wasteland. Eventually, I figured out how to travel between worlds too. I then decided to kill all the version of myself and absorb their life force making myself more and more powerful. I got the idea from an old Jet Li movie."
    He waved to the horde of video game characters as if he was unveiling them to an audience. "And as you can see, I've done it. I can create life. Digital life. Not artificial intelligence, but real intelligence." He turned back to us. Sally looked disappointed and I hung my head. TerrorByte sighed, annoyed by the fact we weren't paying full attention to him. "I can see you are having issues over this whole 'not Joe' thing, so I'll just have my followers capture you and take you to my dungeon. Hmm? 'Kay." He motioned for his minions to advance.

To be continued...

*Photo created on the ProCreate app.*
For more adventures with Joe and the rest of the Pack, check out the Dogboy Reborn book(s) at Barnes & Noble
http://goo.gl/uBgLmB or at Amazon.com http://goo.gl/DPgOci
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Until the next wormhole...
End of Transmission.