The Sprite
in Black
by Joshua Falken
Revised by BenRG
"Did you know that the Guardian has a girlfriend?" a boy binome asked his classmate during a class at their school.
"What?" the colleague who was sitting in the chair in front of the binome, Enzo Matrix, asked surprised.
"Boys!"
They turned forward immediately when they heard the teacher calling. When she went back to typing out information in the vidwindow again, Enzo spoke to his classmate quickly:
"We'll talk later!"
===========
"Where did you hear this?" Enzo asked his colleague, Chris. They were sitting on the steps of the school during lunch.
"That what?" Chris had forgotten the previous chat.
"That Bob has a girlfriend!"
"Ah... Kevin's who told me. He's over there... Hey, Kevin! Come here!"
A boy, a one binome, came up to them.
"What's up?"
"Tell Enzo that you told me." Chris asked. "About that sprite."
"Well, I was walking through the Level 31, when I saw someone else walking over there. It was Bob. He seemed to be looking for someone, and I, out of pure curiosity, followed him. He entered into a somewhat dark alley. There, a female sprite all in black was waiting for him and from the way that they talked to each other, they knew each other for a long time. She gave me jaggies!"
"Why?!"
"I don't know! she seemed friendly, but... something in her seemed artificial..." He laughed embarrassed. "She even looked like a deleter." Then he amended, "But the Guardian seemed to trust a lot in her." He shrugged.
Chris sighed. He knew Kevin's imagination.
"How does she look like?"
"I don't know exactly. I was far away from them and she was a little hidden in the shadows." Kevin said in an apologetic tone.
"I gotta tell Dot!" Enzo thought.
=============
"Hey, Dot! Do you already know the news?"
After school, Enzo had invaded the diner, literally, in search of Dot. She just smiled at his untimely arrival; she knew her brother.
"What news?"
"Bob has a girlfriend!"
"What?" she asked surprised.
He told her the story that Kevin had told him. Enzo found her reaction strange during the chat: she had been surprised at the beginning of the story, and later curious about that sprite, but it was a normal curiosity. He didn't know what kind of reaction he waited from her, but it wasn't that one. At the end of the report, she only shrugged. Confused with her reaction, he left the diner after saying good bye.
Before leaving the Diner, he looked back through the window. Dot shook the head, laughing.
Enzo had understood.
"She thought that was a joke!", he thought, bothered. He had an idea. He opened a vidwindow, and a binome woman answered the call.
"Is Kevin at home?"
=============
Later, on Level 31, two boys were arguing. "Kev! You said that you'd show me where you had seen the date between Bob and that sprite in black!" Enzo exclaimed.
"No way! I'm not going! Do you think I'm random?!"
"Why not?"
"That sprite is a deleter! I'm telling you!"
Enzo sighed. "If you don't want to go, all right! But tell me where the place was!" he demanded.
Kev indicated the location. It was close to Al's Wait and Eat. Enzo got on his zipboard. His friend tried again.
"Enzo, don't go. That sprite is dangerous! Why else would she get dressed all in black, like those deleters in the movies? Why did she hide in the shadows?"
"Perhaps her eyes can't support bright light." Enzo said with as smile as he took off. He thought that Kev's imagination had got the best of him.
============
Enzo arrived at the street close to where Bob and the Sprite in Black had met according to Kevin. It was a totally deserted area. He waited to see if anyone appeared. And someone did. Some nanos after Enzo had arrived, Bob arrived in the alley. He cautiously looked down the alley for a few nanos, and then he entered. Enzo followed him, hiding at the entrance of the alley.
Bob was talking to a female sprite who was hidden in the shadows. She was dressed a big black leather coat. The collar was raised, hiding a large portion of her face. Her black hair was a little dishevelled and seemed to be cut short, but he couldn't be sure. She seemed to be wearing sunglasses. She really fit Kev's description. She perfectly resembled a deleter or a Software Agent. Enzo was curious to know how she looked like, but her back was to him.
Enzo couldn't stop smiling when he saw Bob to move nearer of the sprite and to put an arm around her waist. And by the way that they acted, they looked like they really knew each other for a long time. "She should really be his girlfriend.", Enzo thought. They had been talking for quite some time, when Glitch gave some type of alert. Bob quickly whispered something in her ear, and he went in direction of the mouth of the alley.
In the nick of time, Enzo hid behind some garbage cans. Bob hadn't seen him. When Enzo left his hiding place, he looked into the alley. The sprite in black was still facing away from him, adjusting her sun glasses. When he noticed that she was turning to leave the alley, Enzo hid again. When he come out again, she was already walking away in the other direction. He decided to follow her. He managed to stay close behind her, not wanting for her to notice him. She walked with regular, slightly rigid, steps, with her hands in the pockets of her overcoat. She always looked forward. She was about Dot's height more or less; Enzo couldn't stop laughing at the thought of his sister dressed in that way.
The laughter had alerted the sprite; she turned to see from where the laughter came. Enzo quickly hid behind a wall. When he raised his eyes, the sprite in black had disappeared.
=============
Back in the diner, he saw that Bob and Dot were talking regarding the last game that had ran in Mainframe.
"Fortunately the User didn't know the cheat code for invulnerability in that game. If he knew..." Bob shook the head. That war game was really very difficult.
It was then that they both noticed Enzo's presence.
"Bob, can I speak to you for a nano?" Enzo asked.
"Sure." he answered, a little surprised.
When they were out of the diner, Enzo released the bomb. "Bob, who was that sprite in black?"
"Huh?!"
"That sprite that you met in Level 31."
The guardian tried to dodge the question. "I don't know what you are talking about."
"Bob, I saw you meeting her!"
"How did you see our date?!" Bob asked, a little startled.
"I followed some clues." Enzo said, evasive. "But you have just admitted that you met someone! You didn't even try to hide it."
"Ok." He gave a sigh. "That 'sprite in black', as you call her, is my girlfriend."
Enzo had already guessed that, but the confirmation still surprised him. "Your girlfriend?!"
"Yes, my girlfriend. Why?" Bob found odd that Enzo was so surprised.
"Nothing... What's her name?"
Bob thought a moment, trying to decide if he should give her name or not. "Natasha," he said, before the Voice of the System informed:
"Warning, incoming game. Warning, incoming game..."
Bob ran off in the direction of the game. Enzo was so surprised, that he didn't even think to follow Bob towards the game. Instead, he entered the diner and went to talk with Dot. He told her the story regarding the date that he had witnessed and of the talk that he had with Bob. Dot scolded him about respecting the privacy of others and Enzo listened to it quietly. He was expecting Dot's reaction to the news. She had been surprised at first, and after that, she had shrugged the matter off as if it didn't matter. Although, she had smiled when Enzo had told her his name for Bob's girlfriend: "Sprite in Black".
"If you described her right, Enzo, the name fits her, right?"
"Huh... Sis?"
"What?"
Enzo didn't know how to continue. He only knew that the reaction from Dot, or better, the lack of reaction of her, was somehow.. wrong. "Aren't you jealous?"
Dot raised her head abruptly. She was sincerely surprised. "Why would I be jealous of her? I hope everything goes very well for them!"
"Don't you have a crush on Bob?"
Dot laughed. "Enzo, Bob and I are friends, nothing more. I don't know where you got that idea from." She spoke calmly. She smiled and went back to her organiser, indicating that she had spoken seriously. The only reason Enzo hadn't fallen to the ground in shock was because he had a seat behind him.
===========
Enzo had decided speak with Bob about Natasha. Frisket was at his side. When he saw Bob, he noticed that his friend was going to the Level 31. Enzo was in doubt for some moments, but he went after him.
For a few nanos, Enzo lost sight of Bob, and decided to go to that alley where he and Natasha met before. And he was right - both were there.
They talked in a very low tone, Enzo couldn't hear them. She had her hands in the pockets of her overcoat. Now she wore a cap, also black, covering up her head down to her eyes, which were hidden behind the sunglasses. They were very close to one another. Enzo couldn't see her face. For a moment, she crossed her arms and she assumed a serious posture, as if she was expecting an explanation. Bob said something and she laughed. Enzo was a little confused, her laughter sounded familiar, but he could not decide why he felt that. They talked for a little while longer, when it seemed that she had to go. She adjusted her overcoat, but she was standing as if she was considering something. Enzo saw Bob ask her something. Then she surprised him: she wrapped her arms around his neck and she passionately kissed him. Bob didn't resist and responded to the kiss.
"This relationship is really serious!", Enzo thought, upon seeing their passionate kiss. Enzo couldn't stop smiling, and he could have sworn that Frisket smiled too, as they watched the scene.
It was then that Natasha released Bob and she arranged her sun glasses. Enzo and Frisket hid behind a near wall. They heard the sound of high-heeled footfalls walking out of the alley, later the sound of someone on a zipboard, also leaving the alley, and later again the sound of high-heeled footfalls. Enzo left his hiding place. He saw Natasha walking in direction of Al's Wait and Eat.
"Let's go, Frisket!"
Both followed the Sprite in black. Frisket walked quietly beside Enzo, who was on his zipboard. She walked with a moderate step; she didn't seem to be in any hurry. She had only removed her gloved hands from her pockets just once, to reposition the sun glasses. Enzo thought now that Kev could be right, there was something with Natasha that didn't fit... Her gestures now seemed cautious, even calculated; that didn't match up with the way that she acted during her 'meeting' with Bob. There, she acted more loose, more well-tempered. Now, she seemed a little too cold, too serious.
Enzo thought over this, when Frisket saw a null. He snarled at the null, which quickly escaped. His snarl must have been a bit too loud, for Natasha stopped walking, her body tensed with alarm. It was in the nick of time, when Enzo pushed Frisket into a nearby alley. Natasha turned abruptly, but too late to see her pursuers. She laughed when she saw the null. Suddenly, her eyes narrowed. In the corner of the wall of the alley, she saw the reflection in a mirror piece: a boy sprite and a rather large dog. She bit her lower lip for a moment, then she smiled and continued on her way again.
Enzo breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the sound of her footfalls fade into the distance. He didn't think she really was a deleter, but... it was better to be safe than sorry, right? He and Frisket left the improvised hideaway, and they followed the "Sprite in black" again. She turned at a junction. When Enzo entered in the same road... she had disappeared again!
He stood there blinking for a while, trying to understand how she had performed this magic. Then a strong, black-gloved hand grabbed Enzo by the arm and pulled him into an alley!
Enzo's breathing stopped in that instant, of pure fear. Natasha now was behind him, holding his shoulders in a firm way, her gloved hands very close to his neck.
"What do you want from me, sprite?" The sprite in black asked, seriously, in a tone that was not threatening, but was also not friendly. Her voice was strange: it seemed oddly familiar, but it had something very strange and a little artificial. Its' tone was too... level.
"Are you Bob's girlfriend? Natasha?" Enzo asked the obvious, for the simple reason of being too scared to think of a convincing answer to the mystery sprite's question. The only reason that he didn't scream for help was that he knew that he was too far away from any help. He knew from her agility that, if he screamed, she could do something very unpleasant to him before help arrived, if she wanted.
"Yes, I am," she said in the same tone before. "Why did you follow me?" she repeated, in a more commanding tone of voice.
Enzo gulped. Her tone was the same of the deleters from the movies! He remembered what Kev had said. Now he believed. "Now she'll shut me down without saving!" Enzo thought with his eyes closed.
"Why did you follow me?" She repeated the question. He opened his eyes.
On an impulse, Enzo tried to turn the head to see her face. Before he had the chance, she pressed his shoulders a little more tightly - just enough to be a "gentle" form of saying: 'Don't even think about it!'
"I was curious about you!"
"You were curious about me?" the "Sprite in Black" asked slowly, with a mixed tone of irony and amusement in her voice. Her tone didn't reassure Enzo. She still held him firmly by the shoulders. He felt when she slowly leaned forwards to whisper gently in his ear: "Enzo, you should try to be a little less curious!"
"End of line!", Enzo thought, terrified.
Suddenly, something covered his eyes and something was spinning him around. Dizzy, he supported himself against a wall. It was then that he noticed his eyes had been covered by his own cap. He also noticed that Natasha had disappeared.
Enzo was still a little dizzy because of the spinning. Natasha really had fooled him! She probably loved frightening him! Now he noticed a tone of amusement in her voice when she had said, "Enzo, you should be a little..." Enzo froze as the data packet finally snapped into the proper memory address. She knew his name!
Frisket licked Enzo's face, which reflected his bewilderment. "Frisket, why didn't you attack her?" Enzo asked. He wasn't angry, he was only amazed. If somebody had grabbed Enzo that way, in the next moment Frisket would be ready to severely re-arrange the skin texture of the assailant's throat. The only answer that Frisket gave was to snarl in an unsure fashion.
They went in direction of Baudway.
===========
"That's not funny!" Enzo said bothered.
Bob was still laughing. Next cycle, Enzo had told him about the fright that Natasha had given him. The two sprites talked in Dot's diner. There was not anybody close that could hear the discussion.
"Sorry! But that is what you get by spying on others!" Bob said in a good-tempered tone. "Did you really think she was a deleter?!" He didn't believe in that.
"She looks like one!" Enzo replied defensively.
"Okay. She really resembles a deleter. I admit that. She doesn't support bright light, so she dresses that way. But she is not dangerous, that is just her way."
Enzo was not still convinced. "Oh! Is her way then to almost kill sprites with terror?! When she grabbed me and she spoke in that quiet voice... I thought that she would delete me!"
Enzo turned his head. Dot looked fixedly at some spreadsheets. She seemed to be concentrating on them very hard.
Bob scratched his head. Finally, he replied cautiously. "She just doesn't like to be the center of attention, that's all. She knows that she looks like a deleter when she is in that black get-up of hers. When she noticed you following her, she must have thought that a fright would be a good way to make you give up. She is a very cool and a very pretty sprite, she is just a little shy with people that she doesn't know."
Enzo's brows shot up. Even for a sprite of his short run-time, he knew that a kiss like that wasn't compatible with a shy personality. Enzo decided that he would not get anything else about Natasha's personality, he moved onto other areas. "Is she from the Supercomputer?" Enzo thought that that would explain her strangeness.
"Yes, she is."
Enzo felt a hand touch his shoulder. He almost jumped out of his skin from pure fright. "Hey, Enzo, it's me!" Dot said, surprised with his reaction.
"Warning, Incoming Game. Warning, Incoming Game..."
Bob came out of the Diner to enter in the game that went down. Enzo wanted follow him but Dot held her brother. Besides the danger involved in playing the Users' sadistic 'games', he still had homework to do...
=============
Two cycles after the chat in the diner, Enzo, Chris and Kev were in the Level 31. They had gone to Wall Street Sector, to research some files for a school work, and now they were on their way back home, cutting across the road through the Level 31.
"Why we don't go to Al's?" Chris asked.
As they didn't have anything else to do, they decided to go.
After some nanos Chris and Kev gone home. Enzo stayed in Al's, arranging his notes. He heard somebody enter the restaurant, but he didn't care at the moment. He noticed that the person had sat down in the table behind him. He rose when he heard: "One energy shake, please." The voice was calm, and a little too regular.
"Sure, lady." The waiter answered quickly.
Enzo recognised the voice. He ventured a glance back. He saw the back of the neck of a black-haired sprite, with the collar of black overcoat raised. Enzo couldn't believe the irony of his luck. There was Natasha, Bob's mysterious girlfriend from the Supercomputer.
The young sprite sat down, waiting. Natasha finished her energy shake.
"Thank you." She said kindly and she almost smiled at the waiter. Then, she seemed to think better of it and she kept her expression one of studied neutrality. Enzo was annoyed. He was sure that he had already heard that gentle tone before...
Natasha rose and she calmly left, her hands carefully in the pockets of her overcoat.
Enzo almost jumped from his table to speak with the waiter. "Has that sprite been in here before?"
"Yes. Once in a while, she comes here."
"How long ago since she came last?"
"Not often. Just some cycles..." The waiter thought a little. "She is a little strange."
"Why?"
"She only comes all dressed in black, sometimes with a cap hiding her face. But..."
"But?"
"I don't know... she is a bit intimidating, but the smile of hers is very gentle, the kind that you get from a friend... The problem is that her smile seems to be very familiar." The binome shook his head. "I don't know why..."
"Does she always come around this millisecond?"
"Yes." At that moment the waiter was called by another customer.
Enzo had an idea.
==============
Some cycles later, he waited hidden close to the Al's Wait and Eat. Enzo was ready to discover what the face of mysterious Natasha looked like. All right, she was shy, but it seemed that she didn't want anybody to see her face! She hides it with her sun glasses, with her hair, or with that black cap: if she was as pretty as Bob said, that didn't make sense...
He heard the sound of high-heeled footfalls arriving close. It was the "Sprite in Black". She arrived with the face hidden by the cap. From his hiding spot, Enzo could see an old scar on the side of her neck where her skin texture hadn't regenerated properly after some error in the past. While she was inside of Al's, Enzo prepared a special image recorder, which didn't need a flash. That would be Enzo's way taking revenge for that scare Natasha had given him.
She left. Enzo followed her quietly. She calmly walked. She stopped in front of an alley, close to the limits of Level 31 with Baudway. After she had checked all around her for pursuers, she entered in the alley. Enzo entered the mouth of the alley. Natasha went to the bottom of the alley, where there was an old broken mirror on the ground. She removed her cap and she opened the overcoat. Enzo saw the reflection of her icon on her chest in the mirror. Natasha clicked twice in the icon and rebooted.
Enzo blinked, not believing.
In the place of Natasha was Dot!
Enzo was literally speechless. He left there before his sister noticed him.
=============
Enzo went to the apartment that he and his sister lived in, in Baudway. He knew that Dot would not go there, at least for while. He went try to rationalise what he had discovered.
Dot and Natasha were the same person. There was no doubt about that now.
Question one: Why were Bob and Dot doing that?
Answer: It was now obvious that both were very passionate about each other, but also they didn't want anybody to know about them. Reason: everybody in Mainframe would comment, being Bob a Guardian from the Supercomputer, and Dot, one of the only sprites that remained in Mainframe. Then, if you didn't want the people to know so you can date in peace, use a disguise. Of course everyone would be super-curious if Dot suddenly dated some sprite that they didn't know. However, Bob was from the Supercomputer, and no one knew much about his past. He could have a girlfriend from there, even if she was very strange. And it would be normal that she came to visit him, since it would be very difficult for him to visit her: being the guardian of a system was full-time work. Dot only needed to reboot and she was Natasha, the girlfriend from the Supercomputer, has just arrived in Mainframe to meet her boyfriend. That made sense.
Enzo was not angry about the fright that Dot had given him now: if he had the chance to scare her that way, he would go ahead with the game, he admitted that to himself. And he knew that Dot would also not lose the chance for her to scare him that way, only to play with him... she should have been laughing for a long time! And he had to admit that Dot made a perfect performance of a deleter...
"She could be a great actress...", Enzo thought, with irony.
Question two: How had not he recognised her?!
Answer: Enzo could not simply imagine Dot walking around, wearing a black overcoat, sun glasses and a cap that hid her face. No one in the Mainframe could possibly imagine her walking around like that: Dot dressed as a deleter?
Given that rebooting could change physical parameters like voice and combined with that perfect disguise, she was quite literally a different person. And that explained why Frisket had not attacked: he should have sensed her energy aura. He would have been confused by the combination of a familiar aura and an unknown skin texture.
Enzo thought aloud: "Alright, I won't tell their secret." He smiled. "But now it is my turn to scare them a little."
===========
Later, Enzo found Bob and Dot talking in Dot's Diner's counter. Perfect chance. "Bob?"
"What's up?"
"Does Natasha like to read?"
"Yes, she likes a lot." Bob raised his brows, confused. "Why?"
"Well, perhaps you should give to her some text files of Robin Login or Epson Dialup."
Robin Login and Epson Dialup were authors of thriller stories that Dot loved, but only Enzo knew about that taste of her for fiction. She was worried. Enzo had been a little too specific.
"Why you think that?" Bob asked. He was concerned too.
"Intuition, perhaps. She looked like be the kind of sprite that likes that kind of story." Enzo smiled mysteriously and left.
His smile contrasted with the worried faces on the other two sprites. Dot and Bob looked one for the other. Did he know?
The End
Disclaimer: ReBoot and its characters are property of Mainframe Entertainament. No Copyright Infligement is intented. This is a fanfiction work, created for fun.
So? Did you like it? What do you think?