Author's Note: I do not own the rights to ReBoot (or anything else I have parodied/stolen) and have no legal or moral right to create this story. I have written it purely for entertainment purposes.

Chapter One: The Welcoming Committee

A game cube flickered slightly, indicating that it was nearly at an end. It had landed in a perfectly square system with square edges bordered with triangular green hills that completely cut the inhabitants off from the rest of the net. It looked orderly and prosperous, as if isolation had not had any detrimental effect on the environment.

GAME OVER.

The game cube lifted into the firmament and left behind Matrix, AndrAIa and Frisket with a group of four binomes, two of each numeral. They huddled together as Matrix towered over them in a foul temper.

'What did you think you were doing?' He shouted, not expecting an answer. 'We were inside that planet and you tried to blow it up! It's amazing you haven't crashed your system if that's how you play games! Just look at the state of… oh...' Realising that the system was not the degraded shell he was expecting, Matrix paused and looked at AndrAIa, who was equally as unimpressed by the binomes.

'It was our first time…' a one binome confessed, his knees knocking together.

'And it was nearly your last!' Matrix continued ranting. 'Do yourselves a favour, and never do anything that basic again!' He turned on his heel and stood next to AndrAIa as she looked around at the wide, empty street which had been cordoned off by police vehicles parked across the ends of side streets, blocking the way in or out. This sensible precaution was something that the travellers had come to expect in more organised systems.

'It looks pretty good here,' she remarked. 'It doesn't seem like there's going to be much for us to do here while we wait for the next game cube to drop.'

Frisket looked startled and attempted to telepathically communicate a warning about speaking too soon.

'Don't bet on it,' Matrix remarked. 'The perimeter of this system is guarded by a security boundary with a level of encryption Mouse would be proud of and there's a virus here somewhere but Glitch can't get a lock.' He stood up and held the damaged key tool in front of him as he wandered around trying to get a better signal. 'I think it's in that building over there!' he said, pointing towards an immaculately clean, slimline slab of a building. It was at least seven storeys high, three times as long and perilously thin.

'Is that their Principle Office?' AndrAIa wondered out loud.

Matrix shook his head. 'No, that's over there,' and pointed in the opposite direction to a massive cubic monolith. It too was pristine white, but with a gold band around the midpoint. Above it, four enormous VidWindows in the Pinnacle Formation streamed a public service video. AndrAIa paused to watch the end.

'Remember!' A voice boomed. 'You are the Elite! You have Purpose! Together we will Succeed!'

'What was that all about?' she asked, puzzled.

Matrix pointed at the sky. 'I think we're about to find out.'

Two sprites in full riot gear jumped out of a van and herded the binomes into the back with cattle prods while four security cars descended and formed a square around Matrix, AndrAIa and Frisket, blocking them in. A pale yellow male sprite in a floor-length black trench coat got out and addressed the newcomers.

'If you wouldn't mind coming with us, we've got some questions for you.'

Matrix was not impressed. 'Yeah? Well I do mind. Let me through.' He pushed the challenger aside then shoved the parked vehicle out of the way to make a space for himself, AndrAIa and Frisket to walk free from the corral of cars. Before he had taken a step, the yellow sprite drew a blaster out of a belt holster and fired it at squarely at Matrix's back with no warning. Blue energy crackled around the renegade and he collapsed to the ground which shook when he landed.

'What was that for?' AndrAIa cried out.

'Resisting arrest.' The police officer said. 'So I suggest you and the dog come quietly.'

AndrAIa smirked as she unfolded her trident. 'Us? Come quietly? I don't think so.'

'Have it your way,' the officer sighed and raised his blaster.

AndrAIa ducked as he fired and a second officer took the hit, collapsing with a strangled yelp into a heap of black fabric. The game sprite fired a handful of fingernails at the officer, hitting him in the neck. AndrAIa watched as he staggered and slumped to the ground.

'Dodge this.' a female voice spoke from very close proximity to AndrAIa's right ear. She turned and found herself looking directly down the barrel of a blaster for a fraction of a moment before Frisket unceremoniously flattened the officer who dropped her weapon, which went skidding across the spotlessly clean pavement. She tried to get up to retrieve it but Frisket stomped on her shoulder and growled like a medium sized tank. Despite the din, AndrAIa's superb hearing picked up the sound of someone priming a weapon in the fourth car, which no-one had yet got out of. She saw that the blacked-out driver's window was open a crack.

The game sprite raised her trident to eye level and took aim at the officer in the car. 'I wouldn't do that if I were you.'

A crackling beam of blue energy spewed forth from the car. AndrAIa bisected it with the point of her trident, sending half of it back into the car at her assailant and the other half scored a direct hit on the officer on the floor, narrowly missing Frisket who leaped out of the way.

Silence.

AndrAIa knelt on the floor next to Matrix as he regained consciousness.

'What happened?' he asked, rubbing his head. 'Not another golf ball?'

AndrAIa shook her head. 'You were shot in the back with one of their stun guns.'

'Shot in the back?' Matrix repeated incredulously. 'Where are they now?'

'Having a rest.' the game sprite grinned.

'All of them? Good job Andi.' he grinned back.

A fifth car, a large black convertible, stopped near the four cars already there and an official-looking bright green sprite wearing a neat black suit got out, his eyes obscured by a pair of opaque sunglasses. This sprite clearly ranked quite highly in the hierarchy of the system. He fidgeted with an earpiece in his right ear while he surveyed the carnage and curled his top lip a little.

'Well,' he addressed the newcomers. 'I see you have made short work of our welcoming committee.'

Matrix regained his feet. 'They weren't very welcoming.'

'If it was up to me, I would have deleted you on the spot.' he said coldly. 'This system is completely isolated from the Net and since we took the serial bus offline, utterly impenetrable to invaders – or so we thought.'

'We're not invading,' AndrAIa reassured him. 'We're only passing through. As soon as the next game cube drops, we'll be out of here.'

The sprite clasped his hands in front of himself and shrugged his shoulders a little. 'I am sorry to say that is extremely unlikely to happen. Nobody has ever left this system, so I have been told to help you find a way to integrate here and stay out of trouble.'

Matrix was not impressed and demanded to see the CommandCom. The neat sprite forced a smile.

'I am the CommandCom of this system. I am known as Agent C.'

'We seem to be drawing a lot of attention,' AndrAIa pointed out.

There was a school nearby and about two dozen prettily coloured children crowded near the fence that bordered the playground, eager to catch a glimpse of the newcomers. 'That's a lot of little sprites,' she remarked. 'Are the sprites who live here are very… enthusiastic about procreating?'

'They are indeed,' the CommandCom admitted proudly. 'The Doctor actively encourages the right sprites to become parents.'

'How many children have you got?' AndrAIa asked casually.

'None.' Agent C replied flatly. An awkward pause followed. 'I'll take you to the Principle Office.' The sprite offered, indicating his car. Frisket jumped in the front seat and refused to budge. Matrix joined AndrAIa in the back and they set off towards the immense cube in the centre of the system.

'What's that building over there?' Matrix asked, pointing to the white slab where the Glitch had detected a virus.

'That's the hospital,' Agent C pointed out. 'Sprites go there to get better.'

Matrix felt patronized. He was beginning to form a deep dislike of his host.

…

Agent C's office was large, airy and very square. Two of the four walls were mostly windows with a small collection of cacti on the sills. Their size afforded an impressive view of the system while a third wall was filled with VidWindows that switched between the video feeds of dozens, if not hundreds of CCTV cameras that streamed footage of what could feasibly have been the entire system. Frisket lay on the floor, watching them intently, wagging his tail at the absurd enthusiasm the residents had for assault courses and boxing gyms. AndrAIa sat on a white cubic stool, the other side of the CommandCom's desk, where he scrolled through an organizer that bore a striking resemblance to Dot Matrix's organizer. Matrix paced slowly and aimlessly, trying not to think of his sister.

'You will be pleased to know that all four members of the security team that you took out have all recovered and are keen to learn from their… experience.' Agent C said, finally looking up. He put the organizer down and addressed the game sprite. 'Would you and your husband be willing to share your skills? I am sure you both have extensive experience in the area of unscheduled close combat.'

'I… um… we… er...' AndrAIa stuttered, slightly caught off guard by the assumption that the two of them were officially married.

'Unscheduled close combat? You mean I look like I'm about to start a fight.' Matrix muttered, immediately jumping to conclusions.

'And AndrAIa will finish it.' Agent C smiled.

'What's in it for us?' the renegade asked, his interest piqued.

'You contribute to, and become part of, the elite society that is being built up here.'

Matrix snorted. 'I think we've already said we're not sticking around.'

Agent C probably narrowed his eyes – it was hard to tell behind the dark glasses. 'You do not control when the next game cube will arrive but I can very easily control your entry into it.' He finished with a display of teeth that could have been mistaken for a smile.

Matrix leaned on the CommandCom's desk and tried to outstare him. The desk cracked a little and emitted a tiny plume of sawdust from one of the brackets holding the legs on. 'If you control that so well, how come those binomes ended up in the game? They had no idea what they were doing!'

'There is an ongoing situation with the binomes in this system which you need not concern yourself with.' Agent C said dismissively. 'However, you may be able to assist my team of elite sprites who are working on a way to schedule the games.'

'But games come from the User and can't be controlled,' AndrAIa pointed out. 'All you could do is work out when they will arrive, so you can have a bit more warning.'

Agent C looked sceptically at Matrix. AndrAIa pressed the point. 'We implemented an early warning system in our home system.' This convinced the and he picked up his organizer again.

'That's settled then,' he declared, tapping at the screen. 'Starting tomorrow, we have unscheduled close combat classes led by Ms. AndrAIa the warrior while Mr Matrix the guardian hacker is going to build us an early warning system for the games.'

Frisket wrenched his attention from the screens long enough to look questioningly at Matrix. Even though he was a dog, he knew that his master's skills in this area were almost non-existent.

'I'm not a guardian.' Matrix retorted. He did not deny being a hacker.

'Oh, okay,' Agent C looked slightly surprised and continued his tapping. 'Do you have any contact at all with other guardians?'

'If I did, do you think we would be randomly hopping between games trying to get home?'

'Fair point.'

The door opened and Agent C invited two of the sprites from the security team entered to escort the visitors to their new living quarters.

As soon as they were gone, Agent C sat back behind his desk and opened a VidWindow.

'Doctor? We have the newcomers right where you wanted them.'

A triumphant grin spread across his face as he was commended for his good work.