It all started one day at the City Hall Headquarters in California. It was a perfectly normal day until the virus struck....

"Jen? What's up with the computer?" shouted Jim, founder of Whyville.

"What's the problem?" asked Jen, also knows as City Hall.

"I'm not sure...it just keeps making these funny noises and blacking out."

"That's odd, Jim. Hang on. I'll go and get Mark," said City Hall. She got up, tripping over her chair, to go find Mark.

"Mark? Why does she need to get Mark?" Jim muttered to himself. "I'll fix this myself!"

Jim sat down at the computer and hit the power button on then off. The screen came up. It seemed normal. "Was I possibly hallucinating?" he wondered.

City Hall came back with mark, explaining the problem. Mark had a queer look on his face. Just City Hall's explanation had baffled him. He'd checked all the computer cables just an hour ago and they were working perfectly.

Mark sat down at one of the computers and turned it on. It wouldn't go. "That's strange," he said, fiddling with the colour tint.

Just then, a warning flashed up on the screen, "IF YOU EVER WANT TO SEE WHYVILLE UP AND RUNNING AGAIN, SWITCH OFF THE COMPUTER!"

City Hall gasped. Jim screwed his face up in a thoughtful way. A prank, possibly, or a sick joke on their behalf? They couldn't figure it out.

Looking very concerned, Mark left to see if he could find out what was going on.

He returned about 15 minutes later, his face grave. "It seems we've got a hacker -- a serious one indeed," he said. "He's composing threats and hacking into our database programs. I'm afraid we'll have to call in security."

Security arrived a few minutes later, equipped with their computer tracker equipment. "What's wrong?" one of them inquired.

"It seems we've got a hacker who's trying to break into our efficient database programs and sending threats," said Mark.

The policemen sat around the computer, trying to reach the hacker, whoever he was. After a few minutes they came up to City Hall, Jim, Mark, and Apickard, who had just joined them, and told them what their opinion was.

"I suggest you close down your Whyville site for a few days so we can works out these issues. If Whyville's still on, the hacker can hack. If you close it temporarily, they can't hack."

So, Whyville was closed temporaily for a few days. I KNOW that wasn't the real story, but I had fun writing it. I'm just glad Whyville's back up. Seeya! -- AMANDA