V1.1: The First System
"AndrAIa, go to sector 06 and cut it off." I told my friend, "I'll get behind it and block its way back."
"Right, Enzo." AndrAIa said as she left.
The Game we were in was a basic combat game. The objective was for the User to make it to the next level without losing any lives. This was all told to me by Glitch. If I was right about getting AndrAIa to cut the User off, then we would win the Game. I had already told AndrAIa to change her icon back to its normal mode and I had done the same with mine and Frisket's.
I snuck around to sector 05, ready to ambush the User. Once the User was in sight, I yelled out "Now!" to AndrAIa who jumped down off a ledge in front of the User. I jumped out from behind a bush and blocked its way back so it couldn't go around AndrAIa. We both moved in closer to the User, but the User pushed past AndrAIa and started running.
"Frisket, sick 'em!" I commanded my dog.
Frisket jumped out from behind the bush I was behind and ran over to the User, tackling it. He grabbed the User in his teeth and held it there. It was now AndrAIa's turn to damage the User. AndrAIa got up as she got her fingernails ready and jabbed them into the User's neck. It wasn't deleted yet, so I got my knife out-the knife I got when I rebooted-and stabbed the User.
Game Over
The Game cube lifted off the system. It wasn't Mainframe, but it didn't look like it had any sectors offline. Some binomes with weapons "greeted" us. It didn't look like they were viral, but something didn't seem right in this system.
They took us to the Principle Office. There, we saw a young Sprite-not as young as us-in charge of the system. At least, that's what we thought. He introduced himself as "Para" and called the real command dot com of the system. A door opened in the wall and an old Sprite came out.
"We're terribly sorry, Mr. Guardian," I assumed he was talking to me because I was still wearing my Guardian outfit, "Please, forgive our hostile behaviour." He ordered the binomes to leave. "My name is Cap and I am the command dot com of this system."
"I am E-uh, Matrix. My name is Matrix and I am a Guardian."
"Guardian Matrix," Para said, "Forgive the behaviour of our CPUs earlier. It's just that we don't get many visitors from the Games. We assumed you were a User or, worse, a Virus."
"I-It's no problem. It happens to us all the time." I lied. This was actually the first system we had been to.
"Uh, who are your friends, Guardian? Are they Guardians, too?" Cap asked.
"No. This is AndrAIa and Frisket. They travel with me to other systems."
AndrAIa said, "It's a pleasure to meet you." Frisket just growled.
"So, what bring you to our system?" Cap asked.
"Well, the truth is, we got lost in a Game and now we're trying to find our way back to Mainframe, where we come from."
"Oh. I see. That is so sad. Please, feel free to stay in our system as long as you like, Guardian Matrix." Cap said.
"Cap, are you sure?" Para said cautiously.
"Yes, young Para, I am very sure. Now show Guardian Matrix around the system." Cap responded.
Something didn't feel right about the two but I couldn't quite place it. Para took us to some zip boards and we took off into the system. It was a lot like Mainframe, but I knew it wasn't. Maybe it was a sister-system. Bob said there were sister-systems out there. Sister-systems are systems that look similar, but are different.
"Guardian Matrix, uh, may I ask what happened to your eye? You never open it." Para said.
"Oh. I lost it during a Game." I replied.
"I see. I can show you a good place to get a replacement, if you like." Para said.
"Really? Alphanumeric!"
Para took us to this run down-looking shop on Level 25. There was an old binome running the shop. He reminded me of Mr. Pearson. He reluctantly let us look around. He seemed to be afraid of Para for some reason.
"Java," Para said addressing the old binome, "put whatever Guardian Matrix wants on the Principle Office's tab."
"Of course, Para," Java said, "I wouldn't do anything that goes against the Guardians or the Principle Office."
Java had a wide selection of eyes, fingers, toes, and almost any other limb. It was definitely not the place AndrAIa would like. Good thing she left to look around the system before we got here. I guess she had the same feeling as I did when we came to the system.
I looked around and pointed to an eye. It was sort of like the one I had lost, but Java said it didn't suit me. I looked around and pointed to another eye, however Java said the same thing. I looked at all the eyes that were on display, but Java said the didn't suit me.
"Here, take this eye." He said pulling out a box from under the counter. "I think it suits you just fine, young Guardian."
He opened the box. Inside was a gun and a gold eye with a crossfire on it. I didn't really think I needed it because any other eye would look like I never had one missing. This one, however, would be the opposite of any other eye.
"I don't know, Mr. Java-" I began.
"Please, young Guardian, just call me Java." He said.
"Alright, Java," I hesitated on the name, "I don't know about this eye. It's a nice eye and all, but doesn't it just give away that my eye was missing?"
"Yes, it would," Java said, "But you will be able to track things as well as lock onto things with the gun. It's a very handy tool. If you are going to be living in Games, then it will come in handy."
I looked at him suspiciously and said, "Who told you-"
"What? Told me what? I don't know anything. I'm just a simple sales binome. That is my format. It's what I do." Java defended.
"You remind me of someone I know." I said, still looking at him suspiciously.
He changed the subject quickly, "If you're going to buy it, then buy it and I'll get it set up with your nerves and Gun. After that, you can get out of my shop."
I let out a small laugh and said, "You remind me of two people. I'm just not sure which one you remind me the most of." I shrugged and said, "Alright, do your little operation thing."
"Come with me into the back, young Guardian," Java said. He turned to Para, "As for you, you can wait outside."
Para did so and I followed Java to the back of his shop. He told me to sit in a chair and that he was going to put me offline for a bit while he did the operation. I sat in the chair and he put some kind of mask on my face. My eye started to get heavy and soon it closed. I wasn't completely offline, though.
I opened my eyes to find I was in a field. I looked around to find AndrAIa and soon found her behind me. But she looked different somehow. She was tall and wearing different clothes. Her hair was longer, too.
I started to run to her, but a mirror suddenly appeared in front of me. I saw a sprite who sort of looked like me. Except he was big, muscled and wearing a black vest. He had the eye that was being installed in me and the Gun is set up to it. He also had Glitch.
Who was this Sprite? Was he me? Was this the version of me that I had to look forward to? Was this the version of me that could help me save Bob? More importantly, was this he version of me that could help me defeat Megabyte and save Mainframe?
Just as I was thinking these, Java woke me up. I couldn't make out what he was saying. I couldn't even speak for a few nanos. It took about ten nanos to finally figure out what he was saying.
"Guardian, get up," Java said "The operation is complete. You now have a brand new eye. It's a good thing it's going on the Principle Office's tab, otherwise you'd have to pay a hefty amount."
He helped me up. I was a bit dizzy at first. But I slowly regained my balance. I then realised that I needed to find AndrAIa and tell her about my dream. Java helped me out of the shop and I insisted that I was fine.
Para was waiting outside of the shop on a zip board. He handed another one to me. I asked him if he knew where AndrAIa was and he figured she was with Frisket on Level 12. I took off and Para followed, but soon got in front of me.
"This way, Guardian Matrix." Para said.
I followed the direction he went and we soon found AndrAia and Frisket. AndrAIa was the first to notice we had arrived. She held out something that she found while looking through this Level. Frisket growled at Para.
"Easy, Frisket," I said to calm him down, "AndrAIa, I need to tell you about this really weird dream I had."
"First, I need to talk to you," She said, "Matrix." She added the last word with emphasis. I thought I was in trouble for not using my first name.
We walked a out of listening range. She commented me on my new eye. I didn't let it get to my head too much. She decided to just cut right to the chase of why we needed to talk.
"I think there are viruses in this system." She said plainly.
"Viruses? Don't be silly, AndrAIa. If there were any viruses, Glitch would pick them up." I reassured her.
"Did you even use Glitch?" She drilled.
"Uh… Not yet," I said hesitantly, "But I was going to." I took out the key tool that belonged to my friend and commanded it, "Glitch. System scan."
The key tool beeped twice. AndrAIa was right; there were two viruses in this system. I don't know how I couldn't see it before. I couldn't let AndrAIa know she was right, though, so I decided to ask her another question.
"What make you think there are viruses here, AndrAIa?"
"The system is too neat. There isn't a sector offline."
"Maybe they just care about their system?" I said.
"Enzo," she said with emphasis.
There was no denying it. There were two viruses in this system. It must be two of the people living in this system. I can't overlook them for I am a Guardian. To mend and defend.
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A/N References: These references are all having to do with the characters in this chapter: "Cap" is a reference to the "Caps Lock" button on the keyboard. Para is actually a shortened word for parenthesis, that's this: "(" or this: ")". Java is a reference to the Javascript language.
A/N: Alright so, I can't do the normal spelling of command dot com on this site. I think it's stupid, but what can you do? Anyway, whenever I mention the command dot com of a system, I'll actually be spelling it out here as "command dot com". I'll be writing it normally on my word processor, though. So I'll have to change it when it comes up onto here.
A/N2: Also, in one of my other stories, "Beneath The Surface", I mentioned a website called www. tfsabridged .com. Well, that website no longer exists. It now redirects to TeamFourStar's official website, www. teamfourstar .com. The webmaster of the former site made a new site, abridged .tv. Just recently, the webmaster closed all of his sites but one and combined them. So, in a sense, abridged .tv got upgraded to the new site, epic-box .com. Still, I urge you all to go there and sign up. They have a Ragnarok server there as well, if anybody is interested in that.
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