Author's Note: This fic takes place while
Matrix and AndrAIa are game hopping between the episodes of "Game Over"
and "Icons"
No Laughing Matter
written by Al's Waiter
with a little help from Robin
III
"Isn't it a beautiful day, Matrix?"
Matrix didn't say anything, but nodded. Slowly he put his arm around AndrAIa's waist and hugged her tightly. The two data sprites were sitting on top of an apartment building in a new system admiring the evening sky change colour. AndrAIa smiled happily and leaned against Matrix's chest. "This date is just perfect."
"Warning, incoming game. Warning, incoming game."
AndrAIa's smile faded and emerged as a frown.
"You were saying?" Matrix smirked.
"Alright, I know," AndrAIa said, sitting up. "I shouldn't have jinxed
it, but it's about time we moved on again anyway.
Mainframe is out there somewhere, waiting for us to find her."
Matrix stood up, pulled out his zipboard and nodded. Frisket ran up
beside his master and barked happily. In the large
dog's mouth was a someone's deflated basketball.
AndrAIa patted Frisket's head gently, removed the ball from between Frisket's teeth and stood up beside Enzo. "We'd better hurry or we'll miss the game." Quickly the three figures made a bee-line to the descending cube. The sprites jumped off their boards beneath the game with just a few nano-seconds to spare.
As the game materialized around the trio, Matrix put Frisket down to the floor because he had carried him from the top of the building where they had been standing. When Matrix looked at the games' setting, he frowned.
Tall black sky scrapers towered high, almost seemingly to touch the dark sky filled with heavy foreboding clouds. Matrix, AndrAIa and Frisket stood on top of an old abandoned warehouse near a black harbour, a short ways from the city.
Matrix instinctively reached for his belt and pulled off his key-tool. "Glitch: Game stats." AndrAIa tried to see over Matrix's shoulder as he read off the rules of the game. "We're in an role playing adventure game. This is the city of Gotham which is protected by a character named Batman - he's the User. The object of the game is to kill Batman through any means necessary." Matrix looked up. "Sounds simple enough."
"Don't say that..." AndrAIa placed her hands on her hips. "Remember
the last time you said that? You almost lost the
game."
Matrix sighed. "Fine. What-ever. Let's reboot and see what we get."
When the bright green light had faded, the two sprites looked at themselves and each other.
Where Frisket had been standing two hyena's sat, snickering at something.
AndrAIa was a little shorter than usual and she wore a red and black
skin tight suit that appeared to belong to a court
jester. Around her neck was a white collar and on her wrist, she wore
small lace cuffs. Her head was completely covered save her face, which
was covered in white face make-up with black lipstick. Her hood was donned
with two long points that drooped to either side of her head and jingled
when she moved.
AndrAIa frowned. "This reminds me of the Fun House," she said in a high
pitched voice that wasn't her own but the
character she was playing.
"And what's wrong with fun houses?" asked a tall thin man standing next to her.
His hair was a dark green and he was wearing a purple suit with a jet black shirt underneath. Around his neck he wore a long tied bow and in his lapel, a pink carnation was pinned firmly. On his feet he wore classic black and white saddle shoes. His face was white like AndrAIa's but the thing that surprised her the most about the man was the huge smile he had on his face. It wasn't a friendly smile, to say the least, but a twisted, cruel looking smile that went well with the wild look in his eyes.
"Enzo?" AndrAIa stepped forward. "Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm feeling fine, Harley." Matrix said, using AndrAIa's character name as he looked back over the city. "I'm feeling great. Stupendous even." He turned to look at her again with the same cruel smile across his face. "And the name, my dear, is... The Joker."
"How are ya going ta get the User, Mistah J?" Harley Quinn asked as she sat, pearched up on the rim of an old glue vat. Joker viciously paced below her with his hands behind his back.
"I don't know, Harl," he growled. "I'm trying to think." Matrix turned and began walked back towards his plans that were scattered on the floor, and pointed to them. "All of those plans are old hat; I've done them all before! Blowing up the User. Drowning him, beating him - even having him being hit by a train! I want something new! Something different. Something... ME!"
AndrAIa pushed off the vat, flipped twice and landed perfectly infront of the days newpaper on the floor. "Hmm?" she said to herself as she bent down and snatched up the front page. "What's this?" She read the headline and smirked. "Oh Puddin'!" she called to Matrix in a singing voice.
Matrix, who had his back to her frowned. As he turned, he formed an artificial grin. "My dear Harley, I am trying to think of a way to defeat the User." He began walking toward the beaming red and black court jester. "And do you remember why we do that?"
AndrAIa nodded quickly. "We'll get stuck in the game cube if we lose and get stuck i-"
"Right." He said calmly. "But I think you're forgetting something else..." He leaned as close as he could toard AndrAIa's face until they were almost touching noses. "Do you know why that is?"
AndrAIa thought for a minute while Matrix waited and shook her head. Joker's frown deepened and he scoweled.
"I DON'T LIKE LOOSING!" he yelled as he grabbed the newspaper out of
AndrAIa's hands. AndrAIa backed up in fear and croutched on the floor,
wondering what he would do to her. "And don't call me 'Puddin'" he said
as he began walking away.