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Momo patted Malcom's head, "good eye! well done seeing something so small, that's the screen, though." he moved the lines down a bit to show that it flickered in the same spot no matter what. "see? that part of the screen isn't working very well. now, let's delve a little deeper." he started typing again, entering the twenty-seven letter and number passcodes that allowed him access to the inner most workings of Hal's systems. there was a part that was different than before and he focused on that. "hmm-" it looked fine, it wasn't malignant from what he could tell. there was nothing in this code that was interfering with anything else, but it looked almost-well, organic. the rest of the codes were crisp, they had a set function and that was all they did but this one was looser. it didn't really have a set in stone, 'this is what i do' to it. "huh, well there is new code in here, but it looks like one of your systems activated it? or maybe it evolved from one of them? i can't tell, but it isn't doing you any harm, it is just different and so your systems are sending up red flags."

Momo frowned, "there is such thing as evolving programs. my father told me about them, they are made to adapt to new situations that were not predicted in their original making. i'm pretty sure that's what father did with you, so that you could continue to learn and adapt..." he started working on turning off the flags. "i think that this is what father designed you to do from the beginning, it isn't hurting you-" he was moving to the memory logs, but he stopped. he reread what he was seeing several times over before he spoke. "Hal...these new programs? they are putting you to sleep. not your normal, power saving half shut down, but real, deep sleep. it's making you rest like-like a human...but why-" he started typing furiously again, searching for what would cause that. after ten minutes of searching, he was able to open a f section of Hal that simply hadn't been there before. it was all of the new programming, but looking at it-it looked old. so old that he almost couldn't read it. "Hal? how old are you?" he asked, his forehead creasing as he searched deeper and just found older and older files. "this can't be right these-this coding hasn't been used since..." he looked up at Hal, "since Helga. you're-" this could only mean one thing and it left him stunned, "Hal, you're from the Helga Era, maybe even before that. i haven't dug all the way in..." he shook his head and sat back, "father's been adding new programming to you over the years. layers upon layers...these programs that are causing the flags and you to sleep? they aren't new, they didn't install themselves. they are old, forty years old at least! they didn't install themselves, they are just starting to run again, but why?" he had no idea why they would, "could it be because of the filter? did that short something out and restart old programs?" he had no way of knowing, he'd have to do a full search when they opened Hal up

Momo smiled and patted Malcom's head, "no, he's not sick. he's fine, everything is doing exactly what it should be doing. we just have a few questions to answer." and the only one who could provide those answers was dead. he looked at Hal and then back to the screen, "well, we know what is going on now. maybe father rebooted you and you lost your earlier memories? it's possible. or he could have been working on you for a while before starting you up and this coding is just some preliminary work. there are a lot of explanations for this." he shut down the screen and unhooked Hal, his mind stuck on what these new things could mean. "let's change your filter and see if that fixes anything."

Momo nodded and stood, "come on, there were some doors on the other sid eof the stairs. they are probably enclosed." he walked in the front, his mind elsewhere. he made himself focus as he began checking rooms. finally he found one that would work, it looked like it had been used for storage or something. "alright, Hal, you're going to have to walk me through this. Malcom, stay over there. you can watch, but don't touch anything, ok? this is really delicate work."

Momo blocked MAlcom's view of the code with his back out of habit. it wasn't that he suspected the boy or anything, he just was used to hiding it in case someone could see. he entered the password, taking his time to make sure he got it exactly right, and finally got Hal's chest open. "right, let's do this-"

Momodid as instructed, removing the filter and replacing it. he heard Hal's murmured words and decided to wrap the filter in cloth and put it into his bag. "there should be some sources that are still safe, we might find other people there, so we have to be careful." he stood and smiled at Malcom, he used to be this full of questions, "it helps the fluids run through his body like our heart does." the question of forty made him frown, "that's something that we will have to figure out some other time. we just don't have enough information to take a guess right now." he brushed his hands off on his pants, "alright, shall we go explore? we still have quite a bit of sunlight to work with."

Momo followed Hal down to the street and looked around for a second, "center of town is that way, right?" he asked, pointing. "we should try there, it would have been the most protected from the blast and is the most likely place to find people. however..." he checked the sun, "the blast after effects hit them from that direction, the best place to search for food and water will be on the opposite end of town, to the East."

Momo nodded, "you are probably right, just thought those would be the best places to look first." he shrugged and walked towards the center of town, "where would you recommend we search? truth, the city looks big enough to take us several days to explore it if we wanted to. if we find a good water source, it might not be a bad idea." they had just stayed at a house for a couple days, but he would never complain about having a roof over his head.