Lt. Brook's blood-stained hands trembled as she worked frantically at the terminal, her wounded shoulder screaming in protest with every keystroke. The facility's emergency lights cast an eerie red glow across her face as she raced against time to salvage what remained of Phase 3. Behind her, Discord Charly and Mr. Lion secured the perimeter, the distant sound of gunfire echoing through the corridors.
"Status report!" General Hammond's voice crackled through their comms. Brook winced as she shifted in her chair, the bullet wound sending waves of pain through her body. "Phase 3 is at sixty percent compromise, ma'am. I'm implementing emergency protocols to contain the breach, but Knifey's virus is aggressive."
Mr. Treefrog burst into the room, his usually calm demeanor shattered. "Knifey's down! We got him, but... his body... it's gone. Just vanished into thin air!" He paused, catching his breath. "And the hacked Tractor lad is still loose in the system."
Discord Charly moved to Brook's terminal, his fingers flying across the adjacent keyboard. "The virus is mutating. It's not just corrupting our systems anymore – it's rewriting them. This has Knifey's signature all over it, but it's evolved beyond anything we've seen before."
"We need to focus on damage control," Mr. Lion growled, his tactical display showing multiple red zones throughout the facility. "Optimus Prime is holding the west wing, but we're losing ground. Evil Jon's team is cut off in Sector 7."
Brook suppressed a cry of pain as she initiated the emergency firewall sequence. "I'm implementing Protocol Omega. It'll sacrifice the outer systems but might save the core." Her vision blurred, the loss of blood beginning to take its toll. "Someone needs to reach the mainframe physically. We can't do this remotely anymore."
"I'll go," Discord Charly volunteered, checking his gear. "Mr. Lion, keep her alive. Treefrog, I need you to coordinate with Evil Jon's team. If we lose Sector 7, we lose everything."
The room suddenly plunged into darkness, emergency generators kicking in with a low hum. Admiral Bel-Dean's voice cut through their comms: "We've lost contact with Captain Shone and his team. Whatever Knifey did, it's spreading through our neural networks. Even the dead have a pulse in our systems now."
Brook's fingers never stopped moving across the keyboard, even as her consciousness began to fade. "The hacked Tractor lad... it's not just corrupted, it's become a beacon. It's calling something... or someone." She coughed, specks of blood dotting the console. "We need to shut it down. Now."
Mr. Lion quickly administered a field med-pack to Brook's wound, the biofoam hissing as it sealed the injury. "Stay with us, Lieutenant. That's an order." He turned to his tactical display, watching as more sectors turned red. "Charly, you've got incoming. Three corridors down."
Discord Charly's voice came through between bursts of static: "I see them. These aren't normal security protocols anymore. They're... evolving. Knifey might be dead, but his legacy is very much alive in the system."
General Hammond's voice cut through the chaos: "All teams, be advised. We're detecting an energy signature similar to what we saw when Knifey's body disappeared. Whatever this is, it's bigger than we thought. Lieutenant Brook, your priority is to contain that Tractor lad's signal. We cannot let it complete its transmission."
Brook nodded weakly, her fingers dancing across the keyboard with renewed determination. The biofoam was working, but she knew she was running on borrowed time. "Initiating Protocol Lambda. Discord Charly, I'm going to need you to synchronize with the mainframe exactly when I tell you to."
"Standing by," Charly responded, his breathing heavy as he fought his way through the facility's corrupted defense systems. "But whatever we're going to do, we need to do it fast. These systems aren't just fighting back – they're learning."
Mr. Treefrog's voice crackled through: "Evil Jon's team is falling back to Sector 6. They've got wounded, but they've managed to secure a backup server node. We might be able to use that."
Brook's vision swam as she implemented the final sequences. "Discord Charly, on my mark... three... two... one... NOW!" Her fingers slammed down on the enter key as Charly simultaneously connected to the mainframe. The facility's lights flickered violently as systems crashed and rebooted in rapid succession.
"It's working!" Discord Charly shouted over the comms. "The virus is being contained, but... wait... something's wrong. The Tractor lad's signal... it got through. Partial transmission, but it got through."
Brook slumped in her chair, her strength finally giving out. "At least we saved what we could," she whispered. Mr. Lion caught her before she hit the floor, already calling for medical evacuation.
As the emergency response team rushed in, General Hammond's voice came through one final time: "Good work, people. But this isn't over. Whatever Knifey was planning, whatever that signal was meant to do... we need to be ready. Because something tells me this was just the beginning."
The facility's systems gradually returned to normal, but the victory felt hollow. Somewhere in the digital ether, a message had been sent. And somewhere, something was listening.