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  “Key, get it off! It’s too large for my system!”

At the cry, Key’s eyes shifted, seeing his friend’s electronic power dim as the red virus attacked him; its metal legs stabbing at his partner.

Key’s arms punched through the virus he was attending to and ran down the light blue-green trails to his partner, trying to avoid the surrounding red enemies coming for him.

Taemin fought hard, the blue-green trails of his suit growing dimmer the more he struggled. The virus was too persistent and wasn’t giving him a change to even fight back. It was the good out of him just by touching him.

Key tried to hurry up. If he took too long, if Taemin couldn’t resist, his partner would no longer be a security program.

The older program ducked, avoiding a smaller virus from knocking him over to stop his tracks. The surrounding viruses took it as initiative to follow along, waddling on their thin silver legs to catch up to the rushing program.

Key realized as Taemin’s light was almost worn out that he had no time for physical contact with the large virus and pulled the disk on his back. He had no idea how to use it; it was new software for all programs that were appropriate—the User installed it only hours ago.

Key got a good grip on the disk, making a logical guess that if he threw it with a strongly calculated force, it was to make a three-sixty spin easily at a faster rate than his ability to travel and cut the virus through its middle, its core program, and destroy its central system, halting from progression.

  “This better work,” Key mumbled, setting out his right foot as he strongly threw the disk, making sure it spun. The disk’s speed was barely traceable, that is, until the virus attacking his partner broke in half, yellow sparks homing from the middle and falling into two, its silver legs curling up and bending unnaturally until it blew up to smoke.

Key’s nerves from the central system found his eyes, tracing his disk by boxing it in and a beep ringing in his ears, alarming him the disk was coming back for him.

The disk’s speed was still barely traceable, but the program had no time for guessing. Sacrifices had to be made, even if that meant his arm.

The box grew larger and the beeps grew louder. His arm stretched above him and he jumped effortlessly, halting the disk’s spin and keeping it in his grasp with two fingers, placing the disk back on his back, feeling recharged once more.

  “So that’s what they do,” Key shook his head, running again. These disks were to fight off what was harming, and in the process, the disk would take the energy from the harming ware and convert it into the electronic energy he needed to work.

Key crouched down next to Taemin, removing the younger program’s helmet head and let his black hair sprawl, shaking him by the shoulders, “Come on! Taemin, come on, we need more security, we can’t lose you!”

The security program’s lights were dying down, showing Taemin was losing reason. Key could only be glad about his lights not turning red. If that were the case, it’d add more trouble than there should be.

  “Taemin, pull your central together!” Key begged, “We don’t have time, there’s too many!”

The disk.

Key perked, the nerves trailing from his central system showing him all the different possibilities to keep Taemin’s central up and running as if nothing happened. Numbers and letters were showing all over, Key trying to decode everything all at once; trying to recognize the codes he was programmed to read.

  “The disk,” Key said, turning the program over, seeing Taemin’s disk stolen away.

It wasn’t mandatory security programs have disks, but they were proving to be major advantages, and right now, Taemin needed that advantage.

  “Here,” Key removed his disk, pushing it into the slot on the program’s back. The disk grew brighter, spinning in its spot.

Key sighed in relief as the colored lines on Taemin’s suit regenerated, the program opening his eyes again and on high alert as he jumped back up.

  “What happened?” the younger asked, looking around him, trying to find the virus he was brawling with.

  “Virus two crashed and eliminated,” Key responded, “King virus still programmed and small viruses are, well, as you see,” he gestured to the large amount of red surrounding them.

  “What about me—”

  “Later, Taemin,” Key urged, “We have to override the viruses systems. You stay here and eliminate these. There’s a disk on your back, use it. I see the invading ware that these things are reporting from. I’ll destroy that. It’ll lure out our system problem.”

Taemin nodded, naturally taking the disk from his back and readying himself for battle as Key did his best to bounce off the black walls. There was a spacious gap between all these walls, but if Key kept up with his central’s abilities, jumping across each gap wouldn’t be completely difficult and impossible.

The invading ware looked like some ship, as of the moment. It was large—larger than any transportation program he’d ever seen, but he couldn’t turn back now. If he turned back, the User’s system would be taken over.

  “Key, behind you!” Taemin could be heard from far away.

Key jumped for another wall, seeing a virus with steel wings trailing behind him, spitting out sparks in every which direction, even killing its fellow viruses below.

  “Reckless thing,” Key snarled, continuing his way.

The flap of its wings grew louder until Key saw the virus beside him, taking a large inhale of sparks.

The virus wasn’t the brightest of its kind, failing to see Key could easily kick it in the wing, creating a gaping hole and spiraling to the ground, a large explosion below and ridding Taemin some enemies.

The ship was getting closer to Key, and he forced his central system to conjure as many possible plans that would succeed to bring the ship down. The ship had to have the king virus inside. He had to make it come out while killing the smaller ones in the process.

  “Technical solution four-two. Low chance of success.”

  “Technical solution one-two-four-nine. Minimal chance of success.”

  “Technical solution two-seven-five. Medium chance of success. Several security programs needed.”

The solutions stopped randomly popping up as Key rejected all three of those, waiting for a higher chance of success that only required him or maybe even Taemin. He needed the highest or else the User’s system would still automatically fail.

  “Technical solution three-four-four-nine-two-nine. Only highest chance of success. Minimal to no damage to User. Elimination—”

Key automatically accepted the solution before it continued, multi-tasking as he jumped and read the codes across his sight, reading everything needed to be done.

  “Multiple disks?” he read, “Where do I get multiple disks?”

  “Sending pop up message to User,” his central system alarmed him, “Sending pop up message three-nine-six-two-four-seven-seven, back up for security programs.”

Key scoffed, wondering if that pop up message would’ve been appropriate for the time when Taemin was losing charge.

Key was so close to the ship, stopping himself by digging his fingers into the black wall, trying to make as little of holes as possible to avoid damaging the machinery. That wasn’t he job.

  “Pop up message sent. Answer accepted. Initiating sending back up disks.”

A loud click sound came from behind him, feeling weight on his back. He felt behind him, the new disk attached to him, “What do I do?”

  “Send each disk into the heart of system,” his central commanded, a blue-green highlight boxing around the heart of the ship, “Shuts down everything but main virus.”

  “Just what I need,” Key approved, taking the disk from his back and starting to run across the black walls. The box grew larger and blinked on and off, signaling his program to start attack.

With the calculation from earlier, Key threw the disk, feeling another regenerate as he let go. He repeated the action over as he ran closer.

To the point where he threw equivalent to forty disks, each of them penetrating the ship. He hadn’t seen anything happening, believing his technical solution had an error.

  “Run back to program Taemin.”

Key scoffed, wondering what possibly the solution was, but started heading back, jumping walls, looking behind him.

What shocked the program was that the ship had suddenly exploded from the area all the disks were charged at. Okay, so the solution wasn’t a total bust.

Key grew closer to Taemin, watching as the younger skillfully threw the disk with ease as if it were used for years. The young program took out every virus in three rows surrounding him with that very disk, catching it easily each time and throwing it once more, a smile on his face as if it were fun and not his job.

Key jumped down beside him, taking another regenerated disk from his back as he followed what the younger was doing, “You look like a User rather than security.”

  “Recent programs like me have more emotions than traditional programs, remember? Sad you can’t feel the euphoria and enjoyment in this?” Taemin teased, nudging Key on the back before throwing the disk again.

  “Cocky little program,” Key scoffed in amusement, running for all the little viruses and cutting them in halves.

They both heard and felt the definite boom on the ground, a gust of wind moving past them as the ship had collided with the black ground, the blue-green pulses on the floor wavering at the large contact.

Just then, both programs held on to their disks, watching as each little virus shut down, their red lights dimming down, no longer able to work. Each puffed into smoke, disappearing from the system and alleviating the pressure of both of the security programs.

Both programs looked at each other, the faces of satisfaction showing as they ran off to the crashed ship, hoping to find the main virus at least hindered.

  “How big is it?” Taemin asked, disk still in hand as they ran.

  “I’m not sure,” Key responded, “That ship is pretty big and so was the army. I would guess this virus eats a lot of data for a living.”

As they grew closer to the ship, the could see a large red glow escaping from it, running in the same direction as the two programs to the system of the machine it wanted to corrupt.

  “He’s gigantic!” Taemin gaped, both of them running faster.

  “What, you going to run away?”

Taemin’s head sharply turned to the elder program, disliking the sarcastic insult, “No need to be so rude about it.”

The two were growing weary as they followed, the floor they walked on brightening to gray, soon meeting into a circular room with the heart of the machine. The virus was rushing its way down the path provided, or else it’d plunge down into the depths of darkness and erase to pixels.

They followed right behind him, being careful on the narrow path.

  “What’s the plan?” Key mumbled to himself, reawakening the central system.

  “Technical solution three-four-four-nine-two-nine. Only highest chance of success. Minimal to no damage to user. Elimination of a security program is mandatory.”

He clenched his fist around his disk, but what needed to be done must be done. He wasn’t going to let his User suffer because he was too stingy about keeping his own program lit.

  “Taemin,” Key called over to the younger, “Stay here.”

  “Are you kidding?!” Taemin shouted, “No way!”

  “You stay here and lure it out from the heart. I can create a gap in the pathway when it steps on it coming towards you. It’ll fall to pixilation!”

It indeed sounded like a good plan, but solution three-four-four-nine-two-nine didn’t plan that, and he had to carry out the original plan as instructed.

Taemin then agreed stopping in his tracks on the path as Key continued to the heart.

The virus sat on top of it, digging its legs into the blue-green machinery, the light out of it, trying to replace it with red and corruption as the heart couldn’t realize it was under attack.

Key threw his disks at the virus, eliminating half of its legs from the heart, causing the virus to fall over to its side on the platform.

  “Eliminate virus by security program hitting the heart with a disk. Heart will realize it is under attack and eliminate all sources of programming of the attack.”

The king virus, completely large and towering over Key, took a silver leg and swung at him, hitting him on the shoulder and causing the program to fall with a slide, falling over the platform and holding on to the edge with a hand.

  “Key!”

  “Stay where you are!”

Key helped himself back on the platform and knocked the large virus down, feeling himself being burnt just by touching it. His metallic body hissed as he stopped touching the virus, patting down on his suit to stop the blue-green lights from dimming and reassure he wasn’t going anywhere.

His central system alarmed him of his disk and he caught it before it came in contact with his neck, offering the virus a slash across the middle, but doing so little damage; leaving only the slightest scratch.

The red lights of the king virus pulsed angrily, its red eyes blinking rather quickly as it set to its feet, trying to attack the heart once more.

  “Come here, fatty!” Taemin provoked, using User language.

The virus turned to face Taemin, recognizing the language used by its own User that created it.

  “Yeah, you. You’re not as powerful as you think you are. Just come and get me, big guy!”

Key could’ve laughed with the ridiculous diction Taemin’s programming chose, but the situation was too serious to even think humorously. Key gripped on to his disk hard, staring at Taemin will sorry eyes, waiting for the younger program to realize it wasn’t going to be the way he thought they planned.

Taemin’s body perked and froze, Key watching as Taemin’s eyes moved left to right, reading the coding his own central system was giving him.

When Taemin snapped back, he was running, his face contorting in emotion, “No, Key!”

With realization that Taemin’s central recognized Key’s plan, he sliced a good portion of the heart’s cords connecting to the machine.

The room turned all white with error codes popping up on the walls, the heart making screeching noises of ear-splitting metal rubbing against each other. Key fell to his knees, holding his ears, just as Taemin did.

The virus made its way back on top of the heart, ready to take control over the system as the two were forced to the ground.

  “Key, you can’t go,” Taemin shouted, trying to move forward on his knees, “I’ve been your partnered program for too long to let you.”

  “Rookie security mistake, Tae,” Key responded, throwing his disk, “Security hardware can’t afford to lose two, but one program. You have to stay for the sake of our User.”

The portion of the platform blew up in front of Taemin and Key cringed, getting back on his feet slowly, still covering his ears as another disk connected to his back.

  “But we’re friends, Key!”

White walls covered the entire platform the heart was on, the virus itself now screeching as it was forced disconnection with the heart and flying upward on its way to inexistence.

  “Then don’t worry,” Key nodded, still able to see Taemin through the wall, “You have a User heart Taemin. Keep me there. And when the security hardware makes another copy of me, make sure you give him this.”

Key took the disc in his hand and clicked it into place on his back, flying upwards slowly as he placed all his data inside of it as if he already knew how.

He disconnected it and threw it to Taemin’s feet, watching as the boy cringed while picking it up and watching Key go.

  “Why give him this?! He won’t be you!” he retorted, his User side fully on and possibly ready to cry tears and screw up his own system.

  “Because I’ll be right back. As long as you have me in your heart, disk in your hand, and the new copy of me in front of your face, put that disk in its back and I’ll be standing right in front of your eyes. ‘Elimination of security program’ my hard . I’m coming right back, so don’t cry or you’ll ruin your central. See you soon, cocky little program,” Key smiled, foot on the heart and jumping off from it, letting himself enter inexistence.

  “KEY!”

A ringing settled in Taemin’s ears and he clutched on to Key’s disk, head down to the pathway and eyes squeezed shut.

An explosion was heard and the dark behind Taemin’s eyes became even darker, all sounds coming to a halt until the usual machinery startup coming on.

Taemin opened his eyes, finding the heart at peace and the room black with blue-green pulses fixated all around. The pathway was restored and no trace of the king virus or Key was found.

He stared at the disk in his hand, no longer glowing white, but radiant gold. If Key’s central weren’t made of blue-green data, it would be gold.

He clutched it, fighting off the User instinct to cry and turned around round feebly, heading back to the main central of the security hardware to meet with all the security that had been saved and able to work again because of Key’s heroic efforts.

And Key’s disk would remain in Taemin’s arms as he would step inside his capsule for a recharging slumber, giving no permission for anyone to touch it.

 

 

 

 

A long time from then, Taemin stood in front of all the brand new security programs, none of them and glowing. No sign of programmed life in them yet.

There had to be thousands, maybe even a million.

Taemin felt like taking a stroll that day, due to having no work that day, so he weaved himself between the columns and rows of the programs, examining the rookies he’d be working alongside with.

He could’ve been walking for hours after seeing the entrance was so incredibly far away, but he had nothing to do but walk. Walk and observe.

He walked down another row; another row of helmet heads, unable to see their eyes. He looked at each of them, seeing nothing but new material for the User’s need.

When Taemin stopped, he stood face to helmet-face with a program, recognizing the structure of the jaw and chin, finding its nose peculiar.

He tilted the helmet up until he just took it off and let it fall to the ground, a sentimental smile on his face.

  “Hey there,” Taemin greeted, lightly patting its shoulder, making sure it wouldn’t fall over.

Its eyes were closed and its brown hair fitted itself around its face at angles only this program would manage to do, very familiar for Taemin’s comfort.

  “Been a while, friend,” he went on, taking his disk from his back, waving it in front of the program’s face as the white light turned gold from the presence it was in, “Looks like I have the key to your new life.”

Taemin hugged the program while putting the disk into its empty back, a noise that signaled something and was regenerating life.

He pulled back, holding the program at its shoulders as the new program’s lights to a blue-green, numbered and lettered coding appearing all over its suit.

And Taemin watched as the program’s eyes opened and lips formed a smile.

 

  “I told you I’d be back.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

----Note~----

I just decided to post this up because out of the rest of the oneshots I made in 2012, I really... cringe. This is the only one I like.

So I hope anyone enjoyed and thank you. <3

~FlaMinhoe

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