Dot Matrix heaved a sigh and looked up from her personal organiser for a nano. Life had been good since the restart several seconds ago but the work of a COMMAND.COM was never over. She had the weight of the system on her shoulders and no one to share it with. Bob and Matrix had left Mainframe a couple of seconds ago on a reconnaissance mission in preparation for Daemon. She hadn't thought she would miss the blue Guardian this much so soon. Placing her hands on the table in front of her she gave up on the idea of working and pushed herself up from the diner's cubicle. Making her way towards the bar she was determined this time to have a break. Of course this was the fourth time this cycle she'd gone to the bar with the exact same idea but always something distracted her before she'd made it there.
This time was no exception, the sound of the door opening, a yell, a crash...Dot smiled to herself in relief as she turned to face the commotion. Some things just didn't change. Crossing the floor quickly she stood, hands on hips, waiting for Enzo to take the hint and let Bob get up. After what seemed like an eternity Enzo eventually noticed her and grinned sheepishly.
"Hey Dot"
"Enzo. I've told you once and I'll tell you again. It's not good for business when you attack the customers."
Smiling, she extended her hand towards a dazed looking Bob on the floor. With a deft heave she had him standing once again, his Guardian pride intact and immediately she threw her arms round his neck and kissed him. Breaking apart after what could have been hours or nanoseconds he gave her his lop sided grin and together they finally made it to the bar to place their orders with Enzo, ignoring the sighs from the Diner's customers. Leaning against the bar Bob turned towards her and cocked an eyebrow.
"So, how's the system running today then DOT COM?"
"Everything's Alphanumeric thanks GUARDIAN"
This had fast become a little joke between the two of them. Until they could come up with better pet names for each other they had decided to stick with their format titles. The others had been amused at this at first but it was quickly becoming well known about Mainframe. Dot snuck a quick glance at the Diner's entrance then looked quizzically back at Bob.
"Matrix not here?"
Bob grinned wider. "Nah, he wanted to say hello to AndrAia before reporting back."
There was a sound behind him and he stretched out a hand casually, without glancing back he made a grab just as his energy shake sped past for the 15th time. Holding the slightly warm shake tightly he took a long sip and sighed, savouring the cool, sweet energy.
"Dot's Diner. Fastest food in Mainframe"
"You got that right. Still...I don't understand why you let it race around the bar for a while before you drink it."
Bob laughed a little "It's no good freezing cold Dot. I like my shakes to be half melted. The energy flows up the straw better that way. Besides...it's kind of amusing watching everyone get out of the way as my order goes past."
Dot nodded her head in understanding. Becoming serious for a nano she took out her glasses and fixed them firmly in place before staring back at Bob, still drinking the shake in obvious enjoyment. He hadn't been able to get enough of the shakes in the first few seconds after the restart and once she'd heard the stories of the web slugs she'd personally gone into the kitchen and rustled up a batch of her own secret recipe for him. She shook her head a little, there was no time at the moment for idle thought, the system may be safe but Daemon was still out there, corrupting Guardians and taking over systems.
"So, how did the reconnaissance mission go?"
Bob took a final deep slurp of the shake and sighed. "We ran into a bit of bother with a couple of guardians in one of the systems but apart from that everything was fine."
Dot bit her tongue to keep from inquiring further, Bob's tone had implied that this was something he'd rather not talk about. Battling people he'd worked alongside as friends was bound to affect him she reasoned to herself. "Did you get any offers of help?"
"We managed to recruit a few potential warriors from different systems. Most of them are just ordinary sprites and binomes who want their freedom back again. I'm afraid we've also got a lot of refugees on their way. Some of the systems were in a bad way." His eyes gained a far away expression as he thought back to some of the ravaged systems he and Matrix had passed through looking for volunteers to help in the battle against Daemon and the Guardian Collective.
Any further questioning was put on hold for the time being as a further commotion at the door caught their attention. Turning as one they both smiled at the sight of little Enzo flat on his back on the floor after his latest attempt to down Matrix. Standing up quickly Dot walked over to the door and gave Matrix a quick hug. He smiled down at her.
"Hey sis. Did ya miss me?"
"You know I did"
"Hey Bob. You told her all the stories yet or did you leave a couple for me?"
Bob laughed "Go ahead Enzo, be my guest. Gives me time to finish this anyway" he held up his shake, which was now getting a little soggy from condensation, showing that the contents were a lot warmer than they had started out.
Together they crossed the floor to an empty cubicle and sat around it, packing themselves in tightly. Little Enzo squeezed onto Bob's lap with the pretence that he couldn't find a place large enough for him. Bob knew the real reason though and gave the little sprite a comforting hug. This was Enzo's way of saying "I missed you" and "Welcome back".
Bob leaned his head back on the chair and closed his eyes as Matrix began regaling the news of their adventures to the other sprites at the table. He had been there personally so had no need to listen. Once or twice he broke into a smile as he heard little Enzo ohh and ahh. He knew Matrix was romanticising the stories a little purely to get this sort of reaction from the 0.1 sprite. For the most part though he remained still, allowing Matrix to tell of the different systems they'd encountered and the various sprites they had met who were even now forming splinter groups of rebels and were awaiting further orders from them. Suddenly he noticed it had gone quiet and reluctantly opened one of his eyes a little to see what was going on. Matrix, AndrAia, Dot and little Enzo were all staring at him in amusement.
"What" he mumbled
Little Enzo grinned at him "You're turning into an old sprite Bob, Falling asleep in the middle of the cycle."
"I wasn't asleep" he argued "I was just....resting my eyes"
"Sure Bob, we believe you. Thousands wouldn't"
Bob managed a rueful grin. "Sorry, guess I just wanted to catch up on a little downtime"
At this Dot stood up from the table quickly. "You're right Bob, Here we are talking and the two of you must be exhausted. This can wait, I think you should go back to your apartment first and get a decent rest. The stories can still be told later. We'll be just as fascinated then I promise" she smiled at him.
Matrix was ready with an argument but before he could open his mouth Bob silenced him with a look that plainly said sleep first report later.
"OK DOT COM. Your word is law after all I suppose"
"Damn straight it is GUARDIAN"
With a single movement Bob shoved Enzo off his knee and stood up, ignoring the pins and needles which erupted in his lower legs. Enzo was getting heavier. Still, at least he wasn't as heavy as Matrix yet, he'd have more than pins and needles if Matrix ever sat on his knee that was for sure. He was halfway to the door, already he could feel the pull of his bedroom with its warm bed inviting him to sleep when Matrix's deep voice uttered a single sentence and, in a nano, shattered his dream of getting some sleep in the near future.
"Did you tell them about the game Bob?"
Little Enzo's ears pricked up at this. He loved hearing about games. AndrAia and Dot on the other hand looked serious. Both of them knew that Bob and Matrix had seen enough games in their lives to make mentioning one a strange feat. A game which warranted this must either be extremely amusing or extremely dangerous. And given that amusement wasn't a high priority at the moment then the game must be the latter.
Bob turned around at Matrix's words and ran a hand through his hair in a tired gesture.
"Matrix we don't know how true these stories are. Remember they're only hearsay."
"Yes...but that would coincide with the stories...remember what the old binome said. No one has ever come out of the game. That's why so little is actually known about it"
AndrAia and Dot shared a quick, worried glance. This didn't sound good. More trouble, as if Daemon's imminent attack wasn't enough. Bob saw the glance and silenced the cutting remark he'd been about to make. Filing his thoughts of sleep to one side for the moment he made his way slowly back to the cubicle and sat down again. He'd tell them the stories and let them decide for themselves just how much truth was in them. Seeing him sitting back at the cubicle little Enzo immediately took the opportunity to scramble awkwardly back onto his lap and settled down comfortably with a grin waiting for the story.
Bob took a deep breath "Fine...as I told you before Dot we ran into a little trouble in one of the systems we checked out. As a matter of fact the two of us were nearly offlined for good by a couple of Guardians. They had us cornered in an alley and were coming in with stasis fields when a small gang of binomes launched an attack from one of the rooftops. Bit of a pathetic attack. All they could do was throw rocks and tins at them but would you believe it actually worked...the guardians backed off enough to give us a fighting chance and we managed to get away."
Enzo fidgeted a little "What about the game Bob"
"Don't interrupt Enzo...sorry Bob, you were saying"
"Anyway" Bob said "This little band of binomes met up with us after we'd escaped. We explained what we were there for yadda yadda yadda and they agreed to help us. Firstly though we had to stay for a special meal." He smiled a little in remembrance " We were guests of honour"
"Honour my ASCII, they were so happy to see anyone in their system...they would have had a party if Frisket had shown up"
"Matrix!"
"Sorry Bob" Matrix grinned sheepishly. He turned his head to AndrAia and muttered quietly "It's true though"
Bob glared at him before continuing. "Well, during the meal a couple of the nomes had a tad too much ROM and started telling a pretty tall tale about a game they'd seen once. According to them there was no way to tell the game apart from any other, It was the usual colour and lasted for the average time. It was only when it left that there was any difference. According to these binomes there had been roughly 25-30 sprites and binomes caught in the game and yet when it lifted, there was no one there, even though the game had been lost by the User."
Matrix jumped in at this point, unable to keep quiet any longer "We questioned a few sprites in other systems we came across and there seems to be a pattern. At first we figured all the people caught in the game had deleted, perhaps the killing shot had been made by someone who was already near deletion themselves. But the more systems we came across the less practical this seemed. I mean...out of the15 systems we entered, 11 had witnessed a game which had no survivors even though the User had lost."
"Anyway" Bob continued "That's the story, probably nothing in it, just a couple of sprites trying to scare the little ones"
He glanced at Dot's face worriedly. She looked deep in thought, please User he thought don't let her be taking this seriously. Dot looked up and caught his glance. She smiled lovingly at him, an action which made him even less prepared for what she said.
"There might be something in this you know. After all, it's not really feasible that 11 systems could lose all of the sprites playing a game if the User won. Surely someone would have survived long enough to report back to their Principle Office. Come on. I want to get to the Principle Office and see if there's anything in the archives about this"
She looked at Bob and managed a small smile. He was looking completely and utterly defeated. He'd only mentioned the story so that he could go and get some rest.
"Sorry honey but I'm afraid your sleep mode is going to have to wait a little bit longer" She linked her arm in his and gave him a mischievous wink. This drew a small smile from Bob, which was entirely the reaction she had been after.
Standing up, the five sprites made their way out of the Diner and zipped towards the Principle office. Suddenly a well known voice was heard and the oh so familiar purple sky appeared overhead. Bob grimaced.
"Looks like we'll have to put your plans on hold for a little while Dot". He glanced up at the sky to see where the game was coming down.
Matrix grinned at AndrAIa "About time we had a little action". She could only laugh at this. P
"Bob, where's it going to land"
Bob closed his eyes for a nano as he accessed Glitch's functions. Once he had the information he turned quickly to AndrAIa and smiled tiredly.
"Looks like floating point park"
"Well, better make that our next stop then hadn't we"
Without another word the group sped off towards the area in which the game would land. Dot turned as she suddenly remembered little Enzo.
"Go back to the Diner Enzo"
"Aww Dot" Enzo gave her his best pleading look, one he usually saved for the teacher when he hadn't done his homework and was trying to get out of detention. Unfortunately it had the same result now as it had always had. Complete failure. Dot just looked at him even more sternly than before and muttering a curse or two he turned round and zipped slowly back towards the Diner.
Bob turned and directed a disapproving stare at Dot.
"You're not thinking of coming in yourself are you?" he questioned worriedly
Dot stared at him in silence for a while before answering. Smiling sadly she reached out to grasp his hand as they continued in the direction of the park and squeezed it tightly.
"You're not going anyway without me from now on Guardian."
"But..."
"No buts. I waited for you to come back from the web for one whole hour. Then when you finally do come back you decide to go jetting off to every system you can think of directly after promising me you'd never leave me again. No Guardian from now on I'm your shadow. You'll not get rid of me that easily"
Bob smiled at her and gave her hand an answering squeeze. Glancing towards the park he noticed the base of the game appearing in the sky overhead.
"Better hurry guys, it's almost on us"
"We're going as fast as we can GUARDIAN"
"Well just make sure you QuickTime it there will you"
Breathing a sigh of relief the four adult sprites skidded to a halt in the park a nano before the game cube hit. Wouldn't do for the first game to hit the system since the restart to be won by the User. AndrAIa turned and smiled at Dot and Bob as they passed through the base of the game and appeared on the other side.
"Wouldn't it be ironic if we'd just put ourselves in the game of no return you were just talking about"
She smiled at the smaller woman and turned away to talk to Matrix, missing the fleeting look of panic that crossed both Dot and Bob's faces. It would be ironic indeed....but stranger things had happened.
To be continued...........................
This time was no exception, the sound of the door opening, a yell, a crash...Dot smiled to herself in relief as she turned to face the commotion. Some things just didn't change. Crossing the floor quickly she stood, hands on hips, waiting for Enzo to take the hint and let Bob get up. After what seemed like an eternity Enzo eventually noticed her and grinned sheepishly.
"Hey Dot"
"Enzo. I've told you once and I'll tell you again. It's not good for business when you attack the customers."
Smiling, she extended her hand towards a dazed looking Bob on the floor. With a deft heave she had him standing once again, his Guardian pride intact and immediately she threw her arms round his neck and kissed him. Breaking apart after what could have been hours or nanoseconds he gave her his lop sided grin and together they finally made it to the bar to place their orders with Enzo, ignoring the sighs from the Diner's customers. Leaning against the bar Bob turned towards her and cocked an eyebrow.
"So, how's the system running today then DOT COM?"
"Everything's Alphanumeric thanks GUARDIAN"
This had fast become a little joke between the two of them. Until they could come up with better pet names for each other they had decided to stick with their format titles. The others had been amused at this at first but it was quickly becoming well known about Mainframe. Dot snuck a quick glance at the Diner's entrance then looked quizzically back at Bob.
"Matrix not here?"
Bob grinned wider. "Nah, he wanted to say hello to AndrAia before reporting back."
There was a sound behind him and he stretched out a hand casually, without glancing back he made a grab just as his energy shake sped past for the 15th time. Holding the slightly warm shake tightly he took a long sip and sighed, savouring the cool, sweet energy.
"Dot's Diner. Fastest food in Mainframe"
"You got that right. Still...I don't understand why you let it race around the bar for a while before you drink it."
Bob laughed a little "It's no good freezing cold Dot. I like my shakes to be half melted. The energy flows up the straw better that way. Besides...it's kind of amusing watching everyone get out of the way as my order goes past."
Dot nodded her head in understanding. Becoming serious for a nano she took out her glasses and fixed them firmly in place before staring back at Bob, still drinking the shake in obvious enjoyment. He hadn't been able to get enough of the shakes in the first few seconds after the restart and once she'd heard the stories of the web slugs she'd personally gone into the kitchen and rustled up a batch of her own secret recipe for him. She shook her head a little, there was no time at the moment for idle thought, the system may be safe but Daemon was still out there, corrupting Guardians and taking over systems.
"So, how did the reconnaissance mission go?"
Bob took a final deep slurp of the shake and sighed. "We ran into a bit of bother with a couple of guardians in one of the systems but apart from that everything was fine."
Dot bit her tongue to keep from inquiring further, Bob's tone had implied that this was something he'd rather not talk about. Battling people he'd worked alongside as friends was bound to affect him she reasoned to herself. "Did you get any offers of help?"
"We managed to recruit a few potential warriors from different systems. Most of them are just ordinary sprites and binomes who want their freedom back again. I'm afraid we've also got a lot of refugees on their way. Some of the systems were in a bad way." His eyes gained a far away expression as he thought back to some of the ravaged systems he and Matrix had passed through looking for volunteers to help in the battle against Daemon and the Guardian Collective.
Any further questioning was put on hold for the time being as a further commotion at the door caught their attention. Turning as one they both smiled at the sight of little Enzo flat on his back on the floor after his latest attempt to down Matrix. Standing up quickly Dot walked over to the door and gave Matrix a quick hug. He smiled down at her.
"Hey sis. Did ya miss me?"
"You know I did"
"Hey Bob. You told her all the stories yet or did you leave a couple for me?"
Bob laughed "Go ahead Enzo, be my guest. Gives me time to finish this anyway" he held up his shake, which was now getting a little soggy from condensation, showing that the contents were a lot warmer than they had started out.
Together they crossed the floor to an empty cubicle and sat around it, packing themselves in tightly. Little Enzo squeezed onto Bob's lap with the pretence that he couldn't find a place large enough for him. Bob knew the real reason though and gave the little sprite a comforting hug. This was Enzo's way of saying "I missed you" and "Welcome back".
Bob leaned his head back on the chair and closed his eyes as Matrix began regaling the news of their adventures to the other sprites at the table. He had been there personally so had no need to listen. Once or twice he broke into a smile as he heard little Enzo ohh and ahh. He knew Matrix was romanticising the stories a little purely to get this sort of reaction from the 0.1 sprite. For the most part though he remained still, allowing Matrix to tell of the different systems they'd encountered and the various sprites they had met who were even now forming splinter groups of rebels and were awaiting further orders from them. Suddenly he noticed it had gone quiet and reluctantly opened one of his eyes a little to see what was going on. Matrix, AndrAia, Dot and little Enzo were all staring at him in amusement.
"What" he mumbled
Little Enzo grinned at him "You're turning into an old sprite Bob, Falling asleep in the middle of the cycle."
"I wasn't asleep" he argued "I was just....resting my eyes"
"Sure Bob, we believe you. Thousands wouldn't"
Bob managed a rueful grin. "Sorry, guess I just wanted to catch up on a little downtime"
At this Dot stood up from the table quickly. "You're right Bob, Here we are talking and the two of you must be exhausted. This can wait, I think you should go back to your apartment first and get a decent rest. The stories can still be told later. We'll be just as fascinated then I promise" she smiled at him.
Matrix was ready with an argument but before he could open his mouth Bob silenced him with a look that plainly said sleep first report later.
"OK DOT COM. Your word is law after all I suppose"
"Damn straight it is GUARDIAN"
With a single movement Bob shoved Enzo off his knee and stood up, ignoring the pins and needles which erupted in his lower legs. Enzo was getting heavier. Still, at least he wasn't as heavy as Matrix yet, he'd have more than pins and needles if Matrix ever sat on his knee that was for sure. He was halfway to the door, already he could feel the pull of his bedroom with its warm bed inviting him to sleep when Matrix's deep voice uttered a single sentence and, in a nano, shattered his dream of getting some sleep in the near future.
"Did you tell them about the game Bob?"
Little Enzo's ears pricked up at this. He loved hearing about games. AndrAia and Dot on the other hand looked serious. Both of them knew that Bob and Matrix had seen enough games in their lives to make mentioning one a strange feat. A game which warranted this must either be extremely amusing or extremely dangerous. And given that amusement wasn't a high priority at the moment then the game must be the latter.
Bob turned around at Matrix's words and ran a hand through his hair in a tired gesture.
"Matrix we don't know how true these stories are. Remember they're only hearsay."
"Yes...but that would coincide with the stories...remember what the old binome said. No one has ever come out of the game. That's why so little is actually known about it"
AndrAia and Dot shared a quick, worried glance. This didn't sound good. More trouble, as if Daemon's imminent attack wasn't enough. Bob saw the glance and silenced the cutting remark he'd been about to make. Filing his thoughts of sleep to one side for the moment he made his way slowly back to the cubicle and sat down again. He'd tell them the stories and let them decide for themselves just how much truth was in them. Seeing him sitting back at the cubicle little Enzo immediately took the opportunity to scramble awkwardly back onto his lap and settled down comfortably with a grin waiting for the story.
Bob took a deep breath "Fine...as I told you before Dot we ran into a little trouble in one of the systems we checked out. As a matter of fact the two of us were nearly offlined for good by a couple of Guardians. They had us cornered in an alley and were coming in with stasis fields when a small gang of binomes launched an attack from one of the rooftops. Bit of a pathetic attack. All they could do was throw rocks and tins at them but would you believe it actually worked...the guardians backed off enough to give us a fighting chance and we managed to get away."
Enzo fidgeted a little "What about the game Bob"
"Don't interrupt Enzo...sorry Bob, you were saying"
"Anyway" Bob said "This little band of binomes met up with us after we'd escaped. We explained what we were there for yadda yadda yadda and they agreed to help us. Firstly though we had to stay for a special meal." He smiled a little in remembrance " We were guests of honour"
"Honour my ASCII, they were so happy to see anyone in their system...they would have had a party if Frisket had shown up"
"Matrix!"
"Sorry Bob" Matrix grinned sheepishly. He turned his head to AndrAia and muttered quietly "It's true though"
Bob glared at him before continuing. "Well, during the meal a couple of the nomes had a tad too much ROM and started telling a pretty tall tale about a game they'd seen once. According to them there was no way to tell the game apart from any other, It was the usual colour and lasted for the average time. It was only when it left that there was any difference. According to these binomes there had been roughly 25-30 sprites and binomes caught in the game and yet when it lifted, there was no one there, even though the game had been lost by the User."
Matrix jumped in at this point, unable to keep quiet any longer "We questioned a few sprites in other systems we came across and there seems to be a pattern. At first we figured all the people caught in the game had deleted, perhaps the killing shot had been made by someone who was already near deletion themselves. But the more systems we came across the less practical this seemed. I mean...out of the15 systems we entered, 11 had witnessed a game which had no survivors even though the User had lost."
"Anyway" Bob continued "That's the story, probably nothing in it, just a couple of sprites trying to scare the little ones"
He glanced at Dot's face worriedly. She looked deep in thought, please User he thought don't let her be taking this seriously. Dot looked up and caught his glance. She smiled lovingly at him, an action which made him even less prepared for what she said.
"There might be something in this you know. After all, it's not really feasible that 11 systems could lose all of the sprites playing a game if the User won. Surely someone would have survived long enough to report back to their Principle Office. Come on. I want to get to the Principle Office and see if there's anything in the archives about this"
She looked at Bob and managed a small smile. He was looking completely and utterly defeated. He'd only mentioned the story so that he could go and get some rest.
"Sorry honey but I'm afraid your sleep mode is going to have to wait a little bit longer" She linked her arm in his and gave him a mischievous wink. This drew a small smile from Bob, which was entirely the reaction she had been after.
Standing up, the five sprites made their way out of the Diner and zipped towards the Principle office. Suddenly a well known voice was heard and the oh so familiar purple sky appeared overhead. Bob grimaced.
"Looks like we'll have to put your plans on hold for a little while Dot". He glanced up at the sky to see where the game was coming down.
Matrix grinned at AndrAIa "About time we had a little action". She could only laugh at this. P
"Bob, where's it going to land"
Bob closed his eyes for a nano as he accessed Glitch's functions. Once he had the information he turned quickly to AndrAIa and smiled tiredly.
"Looks like floating point park"
"Well, better make that our next stop then hadn't we"
Without another word the group sped off towards the area in which the game would land. Dot turned as she suddenly remembered little Enzo.
"Go back to the Diner Enzo"
"Aww Dot" Enzo gave her his best pleading look, one he usually saved for the teacher when he hadn't done his homework and was trying to get out of detention. Unfortunately it had the same result now as it had always had. Complete failure. Dot just looked at him even more sternly than before and muttering a curse or two he turned round and zipped slowly back towards the Diner.
Bob turned and directed a disapproving stare at Dot.
"You're not thinking of coming in yourself are you?" he questioned worriedly
Dot stared at him in silence for a while before answering. Smiling sadly she reached out to grasp his hand as they continued in the direction of the park and squeezed it tightly.
"You're not going anyway without me from now on Guardian."
"But..."
"No buts. I waited for you to come back from the web for one whole hour. Then when you finally do come back you decide to go jetting off to every system you can think of directly after promising me you'd never leave me again. No Guardian from now on I'm your shadow. You'll not get rid of me that easily"
Bob smiled at her and gave her hand an answering squeeze. Glancing towards the park he noticed the base of the game appearing in the sky overhead.
"Better hurry guys, it's almost on us"
"We're going as fast as we can GUARDIAN"
"Well just make sure you QuickTime it there will you"
Breathing a sigh of relief the four adult sprites skidded to a halt in the park a nano before the game cube hit. Wouldn't do for the first game to hit the system since the restart to be won by the User. AndrAIa turned and smiled at Dot and Bob as they passed through the base of the game and appeared on the other side.
"Wouldn't it be ironic if we'd just put ourselves in the game of no return you were just talking about"
She smiled at the smaller woman and turned away to talk to Matrix, missing the fleeting look of panic that crossed both Dot and Bob's faces. It would be ironic indeed....but stranger things had happened.
To be continued...........................