Not many prisoners escape the prison on their own time. Either they do the time they’re given, or they rot. This was all Miory, a young malware, had been told by the malware around him. And now, here he was, hauled into the prison by two firewall. He scoffed, “alright, this isn’t funny- let me go! It was just a little bit of thievery, c’mon now-”

          He stopped mid-sentence. A large hardware- or, what seemed like a hardware- with dark metal stepped forward from inside the prison, opening the door for the two firewall. It kept its eye on him as Miory was dragged in. Miory shuddered under its gaze, before the room ran past him as he was tossed into cell #3, the door closing shut behind him.

          Miory scrambled up, slamming his hands on the see-through door. “HEY! LET ME OUT!” He yelled, watching the two firewall leave. The ‘hardware’, on the other hand, returned to its post, glancing at him before looking toward cell #6. Miory groaned, leaning against the door. He was in the middle of trying to think of a way to escape, when he saw the metal one come over. Oh, no.

          The metal hardware looked down at him. “Greetings,” it said in a robotic tone that, while friendly, made Miory shrink back a bit. “Ah, no worries- “ the hardware put their hands up- “I don’t bite, heh. So, did thieving get you in here?” It questioned, Miory only nodding in response. 

          “I see. Well, welcome, then,” the hardware nodded, walking to return to its position. Miory watched, letting out a sigh of relief. Before he could get too comfortable, though, he jumped as a cackling rang out behind him.

          “Oh, hah, bahahah! Oh, lookit ‘is face, bah! S’always fun to see newbie’s reactions to ‘er, haha!”

          Miory snapped around. The cackling belonged to an older virus with grey-pink outlines, several scars, and advanced armor. The virus waved their hand, still chuckling, “ahh, no need t’fear ‘er, mal-boy. 6’s a friend, don’ cha know?”

          “Wh- a friend?! That thing is with the firewall! How could it-”

          “Oh, keep ya voice down,” the virus interrupted, “lotsa bein’s here like ‘er, and y’don’ wan ‘ta make sum en’mies here, am ah right?” The virus cackled once again, as Miory stood there in confusion. 

          “...what? People here actually like someone with the firewall?” Miory stared in bewilderment.

          “Ah, ya get use ‘ta ‘er. An plus, keep this b’tween us pris’ners, but she gets us extra vittles, n’real nice ones, non o’ th’stale ones,” the virus whispered over. Miory blinked in confusion.

          “...what?”

          “She gets us extra food.” Another voice murmured over. Miory blinked, looking toward the voice. In the other corner, a spyware sat, staring at him. “Treats us good, as well,” the spyware hummed. 

          Miory hesitated, “...does it?”

          “Mmhm. Unlike the rest of the firewall and proggies who work here,” the spyware smiled and leaned against the wall, “P-6 over there treats us like we’re on equal level. They don’t act like they’re above us. It’s nice.”

          Miory stared, in a bit of disbelief, now looking over to the hardware who was apparently known as P-6. A bit of orange light glistened against the dark metal of P-6’s side as they leaned toward cell #6, seemingly chatting with the spyware inside. She nearly blended in with the darker wall.

          Though he was still wary of the metal guard- plus the feeling he’d go insane having to deal with the virus in this cell- perhaps this wouldn’t be as bad as initially thought. If the guard was on their side, then perhaps one day, he could get out sooner, rather than later…

          Before he could dwell further into his thoughts, however, the main door to the prison opened. A program in combat armor stepped in, looking at P-6. 

          “Have you been keeping an eye on the prisoners?” The program questioned.

          P-6, who’d gotten back to their spot a few moments before when Miory wasn’t paying attention, nodded, “well, not like I have much else to do, huh?” P-6 chuckled. The program’s brow furrowed.

          “...yes, yes I have been.” P-6 murmured.

          The program huffed, “good, good. Now, do you still have the virus we managed to capture from that raid? It’s needed for interrogation.”

          P-6 made a mechanical hum that sent slight chills up Miory’s spine. “Haven’t you already interrogated them before?”

          “Oh, forget that, P-6, just listen to your orders. Do we still have the virus?”

          P-6 thought for a moment before nodding. Miory watched P-6 guide the program to cell #4, though hesitating to open the cell.

          “...are you sure there’s anymore they can say? I don’t think-”

          “Oh, you’re not paid to think,” the program interrupted, “open the door.”

          P-6 slowly nodded, opening the door. The program pulled a weak-looking virus from the cell, before leaving through the main door. P-6 watched and shook their head, beeping to themself.

          “Poor thing.” The spyware murmured next to Miory. He jumped. He hadn’t noticed the virus and spyware walk to his side to watch the situation unfold. 

          The virus nodded in agreement, “aye, y’said it. I dun ‘magine them progs ‘ill be any nice ta ‘im. tha poor thin’,” they spoke. It took Miory a second to figure out what the older virus had even said. Miory just sat down, the two corruption’s conversation becoming background noise as he stared outside the cell.

          Miory was snapped back to reality after an unknown amount of time as a cry came from outside the cell. The seemingly weak virus was on the floor, far from cell #4. Perhaps they’d tried to escape. A gash was in the side of their head.

          The program from before angerily picked up the virus, putting them back in the cell. They glared at P-6. “keep these damn prisoners obedient,” they grumbled, exiting from the main door. P-6 stared.

          The cells were quiet for a moment. Then, P-6 moved. She opened the door to cell #4.

          Miory watched with surprise as P-6 leaned down, pulling some bandages out of a hatch in their side and gently lifting the head of the virus. P-6 began bandaging the virus’s head, murmuring something Miory couldn’t hear. Once they finished, P-6 lay the virus back down, exiting cell #4 and going back to where she’d been before.

          Miory was honestly surprised P-6 would actually help a virus. Hell, any corruption in general. Sure, the rest could claim P-6 was nice all day, but Miory had honestly just assumed P-6 wasn’t as good as they’d said. That thought now seemed to change. 

          The older virus Miory shared the cell with nudged his side, “Aye, ah told ya 6’s a nice ‘un.”

          Miory glanced over. “Yeah,” he murmured, “I think I get that now.”

          Miory leaned against the wall of the cell. At least he wouldn’t be losing his sanity here. He hummed to himself, might as well get comfortable, in this case. 

          The malware closed his eye. Life went on.

Aaand here we go, writing #2! Technically about P-6, however, in the perspective of some random background character I dragged by the ankles into this story <3 I mostly wanted to get a sort of outside perspective from P-6, and show how different groups view them in away, and yeah this one might have accidentally been themed around perspective. Very glad to have written about my goober, though :) Hope you enjoy this!