Author's Note: This is the first installment of what will eventually be a series of stories about Matrix, AndrAIa, and Frisket as they traveled through the games. I own nothing, so please don't hurt me.
R.A.M.
Reboot AfterMath
GameDate:1.0:*.*
Blanks
"Enzo!" AndrAIa waded through a sea of game sprites and program
folders, looking for her fallen companion. Frisket strained against her small,
surprisingly strong hand on his collar as they searched the pandemonium.
The game had ended, AndrAIa had watched, helpless as her best friend
received a crippling blow and then was brutally deleted. She could almost hear
Dot screaming as the mechanical voice spoke words that they had seldom heard
since Bob arrived in MainFrame. The game was over. The user had won. The
window that imprisoned her had melted away, depositing her and Frisket into a
storage memory cache. AndrAIa ignored the new environment and paralyzed
any sprite that slowed her down. She had to make sure Enzo was still
processing.
A crowd of game sprites stood ahead of her. Frisket strained toward
them, growling and barking. At the sound, a few of the sprites turned toward
her. They were blanks: white forms with no features other than limbs, eyes, and
what could be a nose and mouth. They were association format sprites, taking a
game form chosen by either the user or the game. AndrAIa extended the
undeveloped, young claws from her free hand as the largest sprite approached
her.
"You don't belong here, either," it said in a voice that was neither male
nor female, "how did you get into the cache, you are not of the proper format.
You could crash the game."
AndrAIa did not have time to respond or attack. Frisket ripped from her
hand and leapt onto the sprite, knocking it down and several others aside. In the chaos, AndrAIa saw what had attracted the crowd: Enzo lay on his back, a pool of energy spreading from his head. AndrAIa flew toward him, despite the
protests of the other sprites. Only when she bounced off the invisible program
shield of the game's diagnostic program did she realize why Frisket had chosen
to frighten the game sprites instead of attending to his master.
"I need to help Enzo," AndrAIa shouted as the largest sprite approached
her again.
"He is being attended to, child," it responded in an even voice (as though
it had not just been attacked by a very large, very vicious dog), "now tell us how you three were able to remain in the game or we will change that."
AndrAIa grumbled and hissed, but finally gained control of herself, "I am
a game sprite, he is Guardian Enzo Matrix, and this is his protector Frisket.
Because of my code, we were able to remain in this game to avoid nullification."
"And what do you intend to do now," a shorter sprite asked.
AndrAIa opened her mouth to respond, but shut it again. She did not
know what they were going to do now. She had only just learned of the world
beyond the games and Enzo knew very little of the world within the games.
"We will leave the next time the game lands," Enzo's voice was a choked
whisper. AndrAIa whirled around to confirm what she had heard. He was
processing, barely. The diagnostic program, which until that point had been
tending to the fallen game sprites, had finally begun work on Enzo. His energy
slowly began seeping into his body, and his neck and head seemed to be whole.
AndrAIa threw herself once more at the force field. This time, it gave way and
she found herself inadvertently lying face down next to Enzo.
"I can do nothing for the eye," the program, in the form of an odd looking
sprite in glasses said, "you are lucky I could help you at all. I was programmed to repair blanks, not full coded sprites."
"Thank you," Enzo said weakly and the program's image disappeared.
Game sprites began flooding into the now-accessible area to retrieve the other
repaired sprites. AndrAIa looked down at Enzo, determined not to cry. Frisket
crawled up to them on his belly and gingerly licked the unharmed side of his
companion's face. Enzo's eyes remained closed, his brow furrowed with pain.
He held one weak hand over his damaged eye and began to pull himself up with
the other.
"Lay still, Enzo," AndrAIa whispered, her trembling hands gently
pushing his shoulders down.
"We have to find food and shelter," he protested, trying to wave her off
with his free hand, his eyes still closed.
AndrAIa gently pinned his hand down, "I'll search, you stay. Frisket:
keep him here." At that command, Frisket carefully stepped over Enzo and lay
down on top of him. Enzo let out an exasperated sigh and relaxed under the
weight of the dog. AndrAIa reached down and wiped the sweat from his brow
and stood shakily.
Around them stood solid white cubes, not nearly as tall as the buildings in MainFrame, but tall enough to house many game sprites comfortably. She was
standing in the center of a half-circle of large blocks, and nearby stood a smaller block-like building that had two small windows on every side. This was the only building with any identifying marks. Beyond the buildings was gray, solid gray that marked the boundaries of the memory cache.
AndrAIa noticed for the first time that everything was gray except for the
building and the sprites. She walked toward the small building, attempting to
peer through the dark matter that covered the windows. Suddenly, a digital
voice rang out, making her jump.
"Insert digit for identification. Only with identification can energy source be administered."
AndrAIa regained her courage and stepped up to the window. This time,
when the voice sounded, the black window opened. She closed her eyes and
thrust her hand inside, dropping her first finger on a little square of black in the bottom of the crevasse. Almost immediately, an alarm sounded and the black
window slammed down on her arm, pinning her there. Within moments, she
was surrounded once again by the game's inhabitants. The largest game sprite
stepped forward and touched the wall beside the window and the glass lifted.
AndrAIa rubbed her sore arm as the sprite glowered down at her.
"Because you do not belong here," the largest spoke, "you will not benefit
from any of our resources. It was only by chance that your companion was
treated by our diagnostic program, but you shall abuse nothing else of ours."
AndrAIa looked back to where Enzo was laying but could not see through
the bodies between them. She dropped to her knees, tears burning in her tired
eyes, "please," she begged, "we had no choice, it was the only way to survive."
A shorter sprite scoffed, maybe it was the same one that spoke before, and
said, "a shame to waste your time saving yourselves then when you'll die here
anyway."
With that, the crowd disappeared again, leaving the small sprite with her
face buried in her hands, sobbing silently. A touch on her shoulder brought her
back to the situation. She looked up to see a small sprite, smaller than she,
smiling down at her. Without a word, the sprite reached into the window and, a
moment later handed AndrAIa an unidentified box. Then, it turned and ran
toward a group of other sprites of varying heights and they all disappeared into
one of the housing cubes.
There was enough food in the box to last the three of them a few days.
The only problem left was finding shelter. AndrAIa walked around every block
in the cache, searching for an alcove, an unused space of any kind where they
might rest and possibly be forgotten by the game sprites. She found nothing but
straight wall and empty space. She returned to Enzo, finding him in a pained,
restless sleep, and coaxed Frisket off of him.
"We need to move him somewhere we won't be seen," she told the sad
dog, "If they don't see us maybe they won't bother us. I'll need you help with
him, boy." Frisket nodded sadly and waited on his belly as AndrAIa gently hoisted Enzo onto his back. Then, at a slow, deliberate pace, she led the burdened animal to the best thing she could find to shelter. The memory cache had a high border of gray matter, protecting the game sprites from the game's code while it was not in use. Along the wall was a gateway that seemed to be the only thing that was not flat and straight. It was as deep as Frisket was long, so there was just enough room to conceal them all. Satisfied with her survival abilities, AndrAIa returned to the center of the cache to retrieve their food; it was gone.
"AndrAIa," Enzo whispered when he woke to find his head in her lap and
she slept propped up against the gateway. Every time he had woken up over the
past two days, he found them like this. Sometimes she was awake and lulled
him back to sleep (which wasn't difficult because of how weak he was), but most
of the time she was sleeping. This time he had been awaken by the grumbling in
her stomach.
"AndrAIa," he said louder this time. She stirred, but did not wake.
Frisket, sensing the problem stood and began licking the sprite's face gently.
"Frisket, get off," AndrAIa mumbled weakly, "I'm just resting my eyes."
"AndrAIa," Enzo sighed accusingly.
"Enzo," she was awake now, "how are you feeling?"
He shrugged slightly and tried to smile; it hurt a lot to move his face in
any way, "I'm alright, I guess. It doesn't hurt so bad anymore. Are you hungry, your stomach was grumbling."
AndrAIa smiled down at him and shook her head. Maybe he doesn't
remember the food that I lost, she thought. "I'm fine," she lied, "but I bet you could use an energy shake." She shouldn't have mentioned it; the very thought made her mouth water. She was starving, they hadn't eaten in so long even Frisket had begun whining.
"I'm alright," Enzo said again, sliding himself out of her lap and onto the ground, "Why don't you go find something to eat, Frisket will stay with me."
How? She though wildly, where? What if I never find another way to get food
and no one helps us? Enzo must have seen the panic in her eyes because he took
her hand.
"Everything will be alright, AndrAIa," he said with a touch of his lost
confidence, "Now go find something to eat."
"But ... "
"That's an order," he interrupted her sternly, "Remember who is the
guardian here."
She nodded as she stood silently, trying in vain to hold back her tears.
She managed to put enough distance between them so that Enzo did not hear
when her sobs choked from her throat. Soon she found herself leaning against
the far side of the energy distribution unit, trying to catch her breath between
sobs.
"Crying is not going to help Enzo," she told herself aloud.
"No," said a voice beside her, "but this will."
AndrAIa looked up, then down to see the small blank that had given her
food before. This time the little one had a larger box and a very large clear
container that contained some sort of energy drink. AndrAIa couldn't help herself; she snatched the container out of the sprite's hand and chugged until her body forced her to stop to breathe. "How ... why," she stuttered in between gasps.
The small blank sprite shrugged haplessly, "you three have provided the
most entertainment we've ever seen here. I process it won't be anymore fun if
you delete yourselves. My uppers agree with me, as do many of the other format
blanks, but the bosses only think of their glory against the user, think you three will steal their formats."
AndrAIa had to think hard to remember the terms the blank was using.
Seeing the quizzical look on her face, the blank explained. "My format code is
BeLe0011, meaning: beginner level: rotation 11. When the game begins, all blank
sprites in the level chosen by the user are accessed and assigned randomly to
forms. My uppers are higher level blanks with the same rotation numbers. The
bosses are the highest level forms, ones the user can't assume, and generally can't defeat. Occasionally we get a skilled user playing in beginner mode and the bosses take a serious defeat," the sprite giggled, "the rest of us love it when that happens. Anyway, I'll help you take this stuff over to your companions."
AndrAIa tried to absorb everything she was being told, but there had been
no difficulty levels in her game and she didn't see why this one sprite had taken interest in them. Entertainment just was not a comforting position for them in any situation, especially with Enzo injured. AndrAIa set the jug down beside Enzo and woke him gentle as the BeLe011 opened the box. A tent-like structure suddenly engulfed all four of them. AndrAIa turned quickly toward the blank, who was smiling proudly.
"This should hide you well enough. The out-most layer is a hidden file
command. Once you've been inside it, you can see it, but no one else can. This
should be fine for you until we get another user."
And with that, the sprite turned and left. AndrAIa was too taken aback to
say anything. Enzo was struggling sit up and inspect their new shelter. The pain was ceaselessly horrendous, but he had become accustomed to it and his other eye seemed to be fine, as long as he didn't move it or his head too quickly. The pain that was breaking him was not from his wound.
"AndrAIa," he said as she sat, numbly going through the box of food and
diagnostic supplies, "how long have we been here?" AndrAIa didn't hear him at
first, her ears were roaring as she tried to process all that had happened.
"AndrAIa," he slid slowly over to her, touching her shoulder. She immediately
collapsed into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. Unsure what to do, Enzo pet
her hair as she exhausted her tears and herself, and he laid her down on the
ground, a pack of something soft under her head. "Well boy," he said to Frisket, who had already chosen something to tear open and wolf down on, "let's go have a look around."
Because he was on his feet for the first time since he was injured, Enzo
relied on Frisket for support as they walked toward the half circle of cubes. His vision blurred every few steps and his legs threatened to give way, but he forced himself to keep moving. There was a gathering of blank sprites near one of cubes, maybe he could find out some information. He didn't know about what,
but he had to do something. AndrAIa has been doing all the work to protect us, he thought angrily, some guardian I am.
At the back of the crowd, he saw that all attention was on a sprite on a
platform. He was ranting about protection files and viral deletions, but Enzo
was having trouble concentrating. Disorientation swarmed him and he closed
him eyes for a moment to allow his programming to reassert itself. As the
dizziness passed, he wondered if his guardian protocol contained any secrets
about fighting nausea. The sound of AndrAIa's distinctive growl roused him
fully. He had been unconscious, though he didn't remember it and it had to
have been a long time for AndrAIa to have awoken from her nap.
And then it occurred to him that her growl was not scolding toward him,
but warning to the game sprite held at bay by a snapping, snarling Frisket.
" ... guards are already in place," a game sprite that had been thoroughly
maimed by either Frisket's or AndrAIa's claws was saying calmly, "you'll be
deleted in a matter of microseconds in any case. Why bother to save the inferior format now?"
Enzo's blood boiled, knowing that he was the "inferior format" and, even
though his legs still were not responding to his commands, he was not going to
take that lying down. "I am Guardian Matrix," he announced, surprising
AndrAIa for she thought him still unconscious, "and I am not an inferior format.
We were trapped here and have caused you no harm. We will leave in the next
system, so there's no reason to get your bitmaps all bent out of format." These
last words he yelled, anger and effort sending searing pain through his face as he leaned on AndrAIa.
"Process here, guardian," the smaller boss format sneered, "your very
presence have caused immeasurable damage to our formats. Why, one our own
was actually helping you continue to process. Such a breach in programming
could be fatal to the entire game."
"Programming my ASCI," AndrAIa spat, but Enzo raised a hand to silence her again. He was thinking the same thing she was: these were AI game sprites, there was no personality or direct command programming involved in
their processing matrices.
"What guards are in place," Enzo asked, the calm in his voice surprising
him.
"We've already told your companions, ask them," the lesser boss grumbled.
Taking Frisket by the collar and placing and hand before AndrAIa, Enzo
slowly backed them away from the crowd, trying to remember from what little
he had seen of the area how much room they had to move. Thankfully, they had
a clear shot as far as the other side of the cache, though they only moved out of earshot.
"AndrAIa," Enzo said quizzically.
She let out an exasperated sigh, "they activated a corruption detection.
When you collapsed behind the gathering, they tried to throw you in the path of
the process' data screening. Frisket had one of them in his teeth before I was
even on my feet," she giggled quickly at the memory of the surprise on the faces
of the sprites when Frisket burst through them.
Enzo tried to steady his thoughts as the exertion began to win over the
adrenaline, "how long was I cease-function?"
AndrAIa shrugged, "I didn't wake up until Frisket started barking and
charged. But, that doesn't matter now, we have to figure out what to do
about..."
"User engaged," the voice was not unlike the one that seemed to preside
over Mainframe, but it's heralding caused a much different reaction. The game
blanks lined up in rows of like height before the gate. AndrAIa and Enzo were
still too far away from the entrance to see what happened next. All they saw was the disorienting energy change as the game's unique arena took shape.
"What do we do now," AndrAIa asked quietly as the dark floor solidified
beneath their feet.
Enzo consulted Glitch, his skin paling visibly with anticipation. The user that had damaged him had been an expert level. He let out a sigh of relief as Glitch showed him that this one was a beginner.
"So then, Guardian," she said with more enthusiasm than she felt, "what's
the plan."
Enzo closed his good eye for a moment, assessing their situation. Finally, he took AndrAIa's hand and pulled her beneath the window she had previously occupied, Frisket following obediently. "You and Frisket reboot here," he commanded, "I'll try to second guess the user again. A beginner shouldn't be too hard to defeat."
AndrAIa agreed with the nod of her head, the paleness of Enzo's skin not
going unnoticed. She knew he couldn't fight, but she couldn't tell him so. He
was so stubborn. Instead, she called a timid "be careful," to his back as he
stepped into the middle of the arena.
"You too," he called back without turning around, and then whispered,
"stay frosty." Bob's face smiled before him as he stood waiting for the user to
choose his character. What would Bob do if he were in this kinda mess, he thought hopelessly. He knew better than AndrAIa that he was in no condition to fight, but as a guardian, (even a failed one, he growled at himself), he had to try.
"Enzo," AndrAIa's voice was soft, laced with concern as she brushed a
hand across the young guardian's cheek. He couldn't imagine why she'd be
waking him so early, the diner wasn't even open yet. Even Dot wouldn't be up
this early. Maybe Bob was waiting outside to train him, maybe I can train with Bob instead of going to school. Dot wouldn't mind just this once.
Enzo made to open his eyes so he could leap out of his energy bed, as he
had every morning since he and Dot had been living alone beneath the diner.
The idea of just him and his sister had been so inviting, since before she had had such little time for him. But, the sharp pain in his left eye shattered his hope of running into his sisters room to retract her energy bed while she was still in it, a rude surprise for her but one she was nonetheless used to. Instead of his own room and his own bed, he beheld the energy clouds of the open sky. AndrAIa was sitting beside him, her hand on his shoulder as she tried to gently bring him back to reality.
"Where are we," he managed, finding his voice resisting.
AndrAIa looked down at him sadly, "I don't know, but it's definitely not
Mainframe."
Enzo shot upright, much to the dismay of his injury. Bob, Dot, the diner,
his room had all been a dream. The system around him was low level, basic
compared to Mainframe. The structures were small and the sentient programs
seemed few and far between. It was probably what Mainframe had been like
when it was first programmed, but Enzo didn't care. He felt as though he had
been wrenched from his home, his family a second time.
His silence began to worry AndrAIa and she gently took his hand. "The
game was over with the first game sprite," she answered the questions he hadn't
even thought of asking yet, but that would have come eventually, "I hadn't
rebooted yet when you collapsed, so Frisket and I pulled you out of the arena.
When the user was defeated, the game left us here." He was still silent. "We'll find Mainframe, Enzo," she whispered, "all we need is a little luck."
Suddenly he stood, the anger swelling to overcome the pain. For a long
time he stood perfectly still, AndrAIa still sitting on the ground. Finally, he
released a slow breath and announced to no one in particular, "call me Matrix."
R.A.M.
Reboot AfterMath
GameDate:1.0:*.*
Blanks
"Enzo!" AndrAIa waded through a sea of game sprites and program
folders, looking for her fallen companion. Frisket strained against her small,
surprisingly strong hand on his collar as they searched the pandemonium.
The game had ended, AndrAIa had watched, helpless as her best friend
received a crippling blow and then was brutally deleted. She could almost hear
Dot screaming as the mechanical voice spoke words that they had seldom heard
since Bob arrived in MainFrame. The game was over. The user had won. The
window that imprisoned her had melted away, depositing her and Frisket into a
storage memory cache. AndrAIa ignored the new environment and paralyzed
any sprite that slowed her down. She had to make sure Enzo was still
processing.
A crowd of game sprites stood ahead of her. Frisket strained toward
them, growling and barking. At the sound, a few of the sprites turned toward
her. They were blanks: white forms with no features other than limbs, eyes, and
what could be a nose and mouth. They were association format sprites, taking a
game form chosen by either the user or the game. AndrAIa extended the
undeveloped, young claws from her free hand as the largest sprite approached
her.
"You don't belong here, either," it said in a voice that was neither male
nor female, "how did you get into the cache, you are not of the proper format.
You could crash the game."
AndrAIa did not have time to respond or attack. Frisket ripped from her
hand and leapt onto the sprite, knocking it down and several others aside. In the chaos, AndrAIa saw what had attracted the crowd: Enzo lay on his back, a pool of energy spreading from his head. AndrAIa flew toward him, despite the
protests of the other sprites. Only when she bounced off the invisible program
shield of the game's diagnostic program did she realize why Frisket had chosen
to frighten the game sprites instead of attending to his master.
"I need to help Enzo," AndrAIa shouted as the largest sprite approached
her again.
"He is being attended to, child," it responded in an even voice (as though
it had not just been attacked by a very large, very vicious dog), "now tell us how you three were able to remain in the game or we will change that."
AndrAIa grumbled and hissed, but finally gained control of herself, "I am
a game sprite, he is Guardian Enzo Matrix, and this is his protector Frisket.
Because of my code, we were able to remain in this game to avoid nullification."
"And what do you intend to do now," a shorter sprite asked.
AndrAIa opened her mouth to respond, but shut it again. She did not
know what they were going to do now. She had only just learned of the world
beyond the games and Enzo knew very little of the world within the games.
"We will leave the next time the game lands," Enzo's voice was a choked
whisper. AndrAIa whirled around to confirm what she had heard. He was
processing, barely. The diagnostic program, which until that point had been
tending to the fallen game sprites, had finally begun work on Enzo. His energy
slowly began seeping into his body, and his neck and head seemed to be whole.
AndrAIa threw herself once more at the force field. This time, it gave way and
she found herself inadvertently lying face down next to Enzo.
"I can do nothing for the eye," the program, in the form of an odd looking
sprite in glasses said, "you are lucky I could help you at all. I was programmed to repair blanks, not full coded sprites."
"Thank you," Enzo said weakly and the program's image disappeared.
Game sprites began flooding into the now-accessible area to retrieve the other
repaired sprites. AndrAIa looked down at Enzo, determined not to cry. Frisket
crawled up to them on his belly and gingerly licked the unharmed side of his
companion's face. Enzo's eyes remained closed, his brow furrowed with pain.
He held one weak hand over his damaged eye and began to pull himself up with
the other.
"Lay still, Enzo," AndrAIa whispered, her trembling hands gently
pushing his shoulders down.
"We have to find food and shelter," he protested, trying to wave her off
with his free hand, his eyes still closed.
AndrAIa gently pinned his hand down, "I'll search, you stay. Frisket:
keep him here." At that command, Frisket carefully stepped over Enzo and lay
down on top of him. Enzo let out an exasperated sigh and relaxed under the
weight of the dog. AndrAIa reached down and wiped the sweat from his brow
and stood shakily.
Around them stood solid white cubes, not nearly as tall as the buildings in MainFrame, but tall enough to house many game sprites comfortably. She was
standing in the center of a half-circle of large blocks, and nearby stood a smaller block-like building that had two small windows on every side. This was the only building with any identifying marks. Beyond the buildings was gray, solid gray that marked the boundaries of the memory cache.
AndrAIa noticed for the first time that everything was gray except for the
building and the sprites. She walked toward the small building, attempting to
peer through the dark matter that covered the windows. Suddenly, a digital
voice rang out, making her jump.
"Insert digit for identification. Only with identification can energy source be administered."
AndrAIa regained her courage and stepped up to the window. This time,
when the voice sounded, the black window opened. She closed her eyes and
thrust her hand inside, dropping her first finger on a little square of black in the bottom of the crevasse. Almost immediately, an alarm sounded and the black
window slammed down on her arm, pinning her there. Within moments, she
was surrounded once again by the game's inhabitants. The largest game sprite
stepped forward and touched the wall beside the window and the glass lifted.
AndrAIa rubbed her sore arm as the sprite glowered down at her.
"Because you do not belong here," the largest spoke, "you will not benefit
from any of our resources. It was only by chance that your companion was
treated by our diagnostic program, but you shall abuse nothing else of ours."
AndrAIa looked back to where Enzo was laying but could not see through
the bodies between them. She dropped to her knees, tears burning in her tired
eyes, "please," she begged, "we had no choice, it was the only way to survive."
A shorter sprite scoffed, maybe it was the same one that spoke before, and
said, "a shame to waste your time saving yourselves then when you'll die here
anyway."
With that, the crowd disappeared again, leaving the small sprite with her
face buried in her hands, sobbing silently. A touch on her shoulder brought her
back to the situation. She looked up to see a small sprite, smaller than she,
smiling down at her. Without a word, the sprite reached into the window and, a
moment later handed AndrAIa an unidentified box. Then, it turned and ran
toward a group of other sprites of varying heights and they all disappeared into
one of the housing cubes.
There was enough food in the box to last the three of them a few days.
The only problem left was finding shelter. AndrAIa walked around every block
in the cache, searching for an alcove, an unused space of any kind where they
might rest and possibly be forgotten by the game sprites. She found nothing but
straight wall and empty space. She returned to Enzo, finding him in a pained,
restless sleep, and coaxed Frisket off of him.
"We need to move him somewhere we won't be seen," she told the sad
dog, "If they don't see us maybe they won't bother us. I'll need you help with
him, boy." Frisket nodded sadly and waited on his belly as AndrAIa gently hoisted Enzo onto his back. Then, at a slow, deliberate pace, she led the burdened animal to the best thing she could find to shelter. The memory cache had a high border of gray matter, protecting the game sprites from the game's code while it was not in use. Along the wall was a gateway that seemed to be the only thing that was not flat and straight. It was as deep as Frisket was long, so there was just enough room to conceal them all. Satisfied with her survival abilities, AndrAIa returned to the center of the cache to retrieve their food; it was gone.
"AndrAIa," Enzo whispered when he woke to find his head in her lap and
she slept propped up against the gateway. Every time he had woken up over the
past two days, he found them like this. Sometimes she was awake and lulled
him back to sleep (which wasn't difficult because of how weak he was), but most
of the time she was sleeping. This time he had been awaken by the grumbling in
her stomach.
"AndrAIa," he said louder this time. She stirred, but did not wake.
Frisket, sensing the problem stood and began licking the sprite's face gently.
"Frisket, get off," AndrAIa mumbled weakly, "I'm just resting my eyes."
"AndrAIa," Enzo sighed accusingly.
"Enzo," she was awake now, "how are you feeling?"
He shrugged slightly and tried to smile; it hurt a lot to move his face in
any way, "I'm alright, I guess. It doesn't hurt so bad anymore. Are you hungry, your stomach was grumbling."
AndrAIa smiled down at him and shook her head. Maybe he doesn't
remember the food that I lost, she thought. "I'm fine," she lied, "but I bet you could use an energy shake." She shouldn't have mentioned it; the very thought made her mouth water. She was starving, they hadn't eaten in so long even Frisket had begun whining.
"I'm alright," Enzo said again, sliding himself out of her lap and onto the ground, "Why don't you go find something to eat, Frisket will stay with me."
How? She though wildly, where? What if I never find another way to get food
and no one helps us? Enzo must have seen the panic in her eyes because he took
her hand.
"Everything will be alright, AndrAIa," he said with a touch of his lost
confidence, "Now go find something to eat."
"But ... "
"That's an order," he interrupted her sternly, "Remember who is the
guardian here."
She nodded as she stood silently, trying in vain to hold back her tears.
She managed to put enough distance between them so that Enzo did not hear
when her sobs choked from her throat. Soon she found herself leaning against
the far side of the energy distribution unit, trying to catch her breath between
sobs.
"Crying is not going to help Enzo," she told herself aloud.
"No," said a voice beside her, "but this will."
AndrAIa looked up, then down to see the small blank that had given her
food before. This time the little one had a larger box and a very large clear
container that contained some sort of energy drink. AndrAIa couldn't help herself; she snatched the container out of the sprite's hand and chugged until her body forced her to stop to breathe. "How ... why," she stuttered in between gasps.
The small blank sprite shrugged haplessly, "you three have provided the
most entertainment we've ever seen here. I process it won't be anymore fun if
you delete yourselves. My uppers agree with me, as do many of the other format
blanks, but the bosses only think of their glory against the user, think you three will steal their formats."
AndrAIa had to think hard to remember the terms the blank was using.
Seeing the quizzical look on her face, the blank explained. "My format code is
BeLe0011, meaning: beginner level: rotation 11. When the game begins, all blank
sprites in the level chosen by the user are accessed and assigned randomly to
forms. My uppers are higher level blanks with the same rotation numbers. The
bosses are the highest level forms, ones the user can't assume, and generally can't defeat. Occasionally we get a skilled user playing in beginner mode and the bosses take a serious defeat," the sprite giggled, "the rest of us love it when that happens. Anyway, I'll help you take this stuff over to your companions."
AndrAIa tried to absorb everything she was being told, but there had been
no difficulty levels in her game and she didn't see why this one sprite had taken interest in them. Entertainment just was not a comforting position for them in any situation, especially with Enzo injured. AndrAIa set the jug down beside Enzo and woke him gentle as the BeLe011 opened the box. A tent-like structure suddenly engulfed all four of them. AndrAIa turned quickly toward the blank, who was smiling proudly.
"This should hide you well enough. The out-most layer is a hidden file
command. Once you've been inside it, you can see it, but no one else can. This
should be fine for you until we get another user."
And with that, the sprite turned and left. AndrAIa was too taken aback to
say anything. Enzo was struggling sit up and inspect their new shelter. The pain was ceaselessly horrendous, but he had become accustomed to it and his other eye seemed to be fine, as long as he didn't move it or his head too quickly. The pain that was breaking him was not from his wound.
"AndrAIa," he said as she sat, numbly going through the box of food and
diagnostic supplies, "how long have we been here?" AndrAIa didn't hear him at
first, her ears were roaring as she tried to process all that had happened.
"AndrAIa," he slid slowly over to her, touching her shoulder. She immediately
collapsed into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. Unsure what to do, Enzo pet
her hair as she exhausted her tears and herself, and he laid her down on the
ground, a pack of something soft under her head. "Well boy," he said to Frisket, who had already chosen something to tear open and wolf down on, "let's go have a look around."
Because he was on his feet for the first time since he was injured, Enzo
relied on Frisket for support as they walked toward the half circle of cubes. His vision blurred every few steps and his legs threatened to give way, but he forced himself to keep moving. There was a gathering of blank sprites near one of cubes, maybe he could find out some information. He didn't know about what,
but he had to do something. AndrAIa has been doing all the work to protect us, he thought angrily, some guardian I am.
At the back of the crowd, he saw that all attention was on a sprite on a
platform. He was ranting about protection files and viral deletions, but Enzo
was having trouble concentrating. Disorientation swarmed him and he closed
him eyes for a moment to allow his programming to reassert itself. As the
dizziness passed, he wondered if his guardian protocol contained any secrets
about fighting nausea. The sound of AndrAIa's distinctive growl roused him
fully. He had been unconscious, though he didn't remember it and it had to
have been a long time for AndrAIa to have awoken from her nap.
And then it occurred to him that her growl was not scolding toward him,
but warning to the game sprite held at bay by a snapping, snarling Frisket.
" ... guards are already in place," a game sprite that had been thoroughly
maimed by either Frisket's or AndrAIa's claws was saying calmly, "you'll be
deleted in a matter of microseconds in any case. Why bother to save the inferior format now?"
Enzo's blood boiled, knowing that he was the "inferior format" and, even
though his legs still were not responding to his commands, he was not going to
take that lying down. "I am Guardian Matrix," he announced, surprising
AndrAIa for she thought him still unconscious, "and I am not an inferior format.
We were trapped here and have caused you no harm. We will leave in the next
system, so there's no reason to get your bitmaps all bent out of format." These
last words he yelled, anger and effort sending searing pain through his face as he leaned on AndrAIa.
"Process here, guardian," the smaller boss format sneered, "your very
presence have caused immeasurable damage to our formats. Why, one our own
was actually helping you continue to process. Such a breach in programming
could be fatal to the entire game."
"Programming my ASCI," AndrAIa spat, but Enzo raised a hand to silence her again. He was thinking the same thing she was: these were AI game sprites, there was no personality or direct command programming involved in
their processing matrices.
"What guards are in place," Enzo asked, the calm in his voice surprising
him.
"We've already told your companions, ask them," the lesser boss grumbled.
Taking Frisket by the collar and placing and hand before AndrAIa, Enzo
slowly backed them away from the crowd, trying to remember from what little
he had seen of the area how much room they had to move. Thankfully, they had
a clear shot as far as the other side of the cache, though they only moved out of earshot.
"AndrAIa," Enzo said quizzically.
She let out an exasperated sigh, "they activated a corruption detection.
When you collapsed behind the gathering, they tried to throw you in the path of
the process' data screening. Frisket had one of them in his teeth before I was
even on my feet," she giggled quickly at the memory of the surprise on the faces
of the sprites when Frisket burst through them.
Enzo tried to steady his thoughts as the exertion began to win over the
adrenaline, "how long was I cease-function?"
AndrAIa shrugged, "I didn't wake up until Frisket started barking and
charged. But, that doesn't matter now, we have to figure out what to do
about..."
"User engaged," the voice was not unlike the one that seemed to preside
over Mainframe, but it's heralding caused a much different reaction. The game
blanks lined up in rows of like height before the gate. AndrAIa and Enzo were
still too far away from the entrance to see what happened next. All they saw was the disorienting energy change as the game's unique arena took shape.
"What do we do now," AndrAIa asked quietly as the dark floor solidified
beneath their feet.
Enzo consulted Glitch, his skin paling visibly with anticipation. The user that had damaged him had been an expert level. He let out a sigh of relief as Glitch showed him that this one was a beginner.
"So then, Guardian," she said with more enthusiasm than she felt, "what's
the plan."
Enzo closed his good eye for a moment, assessing their situation. Finally, he took AndrAIa's hand and pulled her beneath the window she had previously occupied, Frisket following obediently. "You and Frisket reboot here," he commanded, "I'll try to second guess the user again. A beginner shouldn't be too hard to defeat."
AndrAIa agreed with the nod of her head, the paleness of Enzo's skin not
going unnoticed. She knew he couldn't fight, but she couldn't tell him so. He
was so stubborn. Instead, she called a timid "be careful," to his back as he
stepped into the middle of the arena.
"You too," he called back without turning around, and then whispered,
"stay frosty." Bob's face smiled before him as he stood waiting for the user to
choose his character. What would Bob do if he were in this kinda mess, he thought hopelessly. He knew better than AndrAIa that he was in no condition to fight, but as a guardian, (even a failed one, he growled at himself), he had to try.
"Enzo," AndrAIa's voice was soft, laced with concern as she brushed a
hand across the young guardian's cheek. He couldn't imagine why she'd be
waking him so early, the diner wasn't even open yet. Even Dot wouldn't be up
this early. Maybe Bob was waiting outside to train him, maybe I can train with Bob instead of going to school. Dot wouldn't mind just this once.
Enzo made to open his eyes so he could leap out of his energy bed, as he
had every morning since he and Dot had been living alone beneath the diner.
The idea of just him and his sister had been so inviting, since before she had had such little time for him. But, the sharp pain in his left eye shattered his hope of running into his sisters room to retract her energy bed while she was still in it, a rude surprise for her but one she was nonetheless used to. Instead of his own room and his own bed, he beheld the energy clouds of the open sky. AndrAIa was sitting beside him, her hand on his shoulder as she tried to gently bring him back to reality.
"Where are we," he managed, finding his voice resisting.
AndrAIa looked down at him sadly, "I don't know, but it's definitely not
Mainframe."
Enzo shot upright, much to the dismay of his injury. Bob, Dot, the diner,
his room had all been a dream. The system around him was low level, basic
compared to Mainframe. The structures were small and the sentient programs
seemed few and far between. It was probably what Mainframe had been like
when it was first programmed, but Enzo didn't care. He felt as though he had
been wrenched from his home, his family a second time.
His silence began to worry AndrAIa and she gently took his hand. "The
game was over with the first game sprite," she answered the questions he hadn't
even thought of asking yet, but that would have come eventually, "I hadn't
rebooted yet when you collapsed, so Frisket and I pulled you out of the arena.
When the user was defeated, the game left us here." He was still silent. "We'll find Mainframe, Enzo," she whispered, "all we need is a little luck."
Suddenly he stood, the anger swelling to overcome the pain. For a long
time he stood perfectly still, AndrAIa still sitting on the ground. Finally, he
released a slow breath and announced to no one in particular, "call me Matrix."