"Starwell? Matrix?"

Bob found himself alone. The environment was metallic and futuristic, the lights were either dark or dim. The ambiance was quiet, with the slight breeze of artificial air.

A Sci-Fi Game, been a while since he landed in one of those.

"Glitch Stats."

The game was called Horns. They were on a derelict space station, and the object of the game was to survive the levels, defeat the final boss, and escape the station before it crashed into the nearby planet. Time limit for escaping the station didn't come until after the final boss, of which Bob was grateful for. The entire station was filled with alien monsters and rampant robots.

Starwell was on Level 1. Bob was somewhere on Level 2. He couldn't find Matrix, but he did find that the renegade at already rebooted.

Well, only one thing to do... Bob tapped his icon, "ReBoot!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o00

Starwell ignored Gizmo's insistent beeping as she slowly sat down on the floor, burying her face into her hands.

At first she refused to even look around. She wanted absolutely no part of this. Perhaps this was a sign she should have stayed in the Ghetto despite what Bob and Matrix were trying to do.

Gizmo beeped again, taking on a shrill edge.

"Oh shut up!" Starwell snapped, temper flaring. "I'm not going to do anything! I don't even want to talk about this Game!" She scooted herself against a wall and folded her arms stubbornly. "I'm just going to stay out of the way. Let Bob and Matrix handle this, wherever they are."

A loud noise caught her attention, causing her to start and gasp. Something came crashing through a vent in a nearby wall, and something came rushing toward her.

She had no idea what it was. It looked vaguely humanoid, except heavily mutated. It looked diseased, it wore no clothing, and it gave a guttural snarl as it came in her direction.

She screamed. She scrambled to her feet, nearly tripping over her own shoes as she scrambled toward a nearby door.

The thing grabbed her by the ankles as she stumbled, clawing at her legs. She gasped and kicked it in the forehead; it roared, and brought down its hand solidly on her back.

Gizmo shrieked.

"HELP!" she screamed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Matrix had Rebooted into a Unique character.

It wasn't like he had never been Unique Characters before. This one just wasn't the game-sprites hunting about. The difference was that he was being attacked by those Game-sprites. His Unique Character served under a different category in this Game type. He doubted Bob or any other trapped Mainframer had ended up with the same luck.

Worse, Matrix recognized this kind of Game. The rare Horror Genre. In the few times in his life that He had been in this kind of Game, it ended in horribly damaged systems or something else gone wrong.

He had rebooted into armor, characterized to some of the placeable-object "corpses" he'd found in various stages of destruction. The Armor was torn, bloodstained, and he was certain it was mostly for appearance. Clearly meant for visual for the User. Its dark appearance, however, means that Matrix had more of a chance against said User. His helmet even had a targeting system with ammo and health count.

One of the few things he did like about this kind of Game, everything would be against the User.

Gun had certainly changed, into a gun like object that would fire blade-like projectiles that would cut through almost anything. Almost.

He had been going down a corridor, likely near where the User would spawn, when he heard the scream.

At first, he thought it may have been just the Game acting on a scripted event. But he recognized the voice.

Starwell.

Matrix bounded down in the direction of the scream.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"GIZMO DO SOMETHING!" Starwell yelled. Gizmo responded by releasing an electrical jolt, one that only effected the monster.

It snarled and loosened its grip enough for the User-sprite to slip out of its grasp. She staggered to her feet and made a mad dash for the door with the creature on her heels.

She stumbled out into a corridor of some kind, a metallic corridor that split off into three directions. She hesitated, unsure which way she should go. Did it matter? Or would she end up hurting someone by accident if she made a wrong move?

Gizmo shrieked, and she realized too late that her hesitation had allowed the creature to catch up. She yelped and ducked just in time before it could cuff her. She kicked at its torso; it staggered backward. It opened its mouth and let out a dull roar, a mixture of saliva and blood spitting from its mutated mouth.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Starwell screamed, hastily backing away from it.

With the path of the screams, Matrix hurried quickly. He was surprised that with all his running, he hadn't been ambushed by game-sprites.

Speaking of which...

Down the corridor, he found on. It was one of the humanoid types, the kind that looked almost like a sprite from the Net, almost. It if weren't for the obvious game-graphics, Matrix may have hesitated out of reluctance that he may accidentally shoot a friend instead of an enemy. But he wasn't that foolish.

He fired upon it. The reddish-crimson blades of energy cut into the game-sprite, decapitating an arm and its head. Simulated red fluids spurted out, and stained the floor. Matrix never under stood what the red liquid was, he always thought that maybe it was a type of liquid energy. Seemed strange for it to spurt out like that.

He came closer to the new corpse, and to the source of the screaming.

Starwell's eyes were as wide as saucers. She stared down at the bloodied corpse, clamping a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming again.

She then saw another figure coming toward her. She shrieked softly, backing away-until Gizmo beeped at her. She hesitated, glancing down at her Keytool, and then she looked back at the approaching figure.

Then she noticed the eye, with the familiar M-shape on it. Of course, how could she have not recognized him? Then again, she was still trying to get used to these Games, and the different formats. No one from her world had ever conceived of, well, people (or sentient programs) going into a Game and then becoming part of it.

She breathed heavily, in and out, and then she sank down onto the floor.

Gizmo clicked and whirred.

"I know there's more of those things out there," Starwell hissed at it. "But I don't want to move unless I have to." She was adamant about not causing any more trouble for Mainframe.

Matrix let out a sigh, and lowered his gun.

"Why in the Net am I not surprised," Matrix said aloud and sarcastically, his voice partially modified from his helmet, "I thought I didn't need to save your ASCII anymore."

He let a tone of humor enter his voice.

She glared up at him. Thankfully, Gizmo had the decency to stay silent for once.

After a moment, her face softened and she looked down at the floor. The texture was a bit odd in this area; the floors and wall were metallic and a tad rusted in places, coated with the bodily fluids from the fresh kill.

"Yeah, well..." She cleared her throat and stood. "Don't you have a Game to win?" she folded her arms and leaned against the wall, making it plain she was going to stay right there. If she got attacked again, well... she would just remember to use Gizmo better in the future.

Matrix checked Gun. Only three shots before he needed to find a charging station. There must be one somewhere around here... "Yeah, I do," Matrix rolled his shoulders, "If you're here, so is the User. I plan to-

A blast of a small, laser like blue bullet caught Matrix in the side. The force slammed into the nearby wall. By the Net, he just found the User. He let out a curse. The User appeared to be just as graphic as a sprite from the Net. With no Helmet, and wielding what looked to be a thin rifle attached to a metal backpack like box attached to his back. His stare was blank, his body stature generic.

"You son of a Snivitz!" Matrix yelled at him. Another bullet ricocheted off the wall, forcing Matrix to hit the floor. He fired two of his bullets, in hopes of ending this quickly.

They hit the User. Nothing happened.

The User fired again, and Matrix received another bullet. This one hit the mark that the first had only scrapped. Matrix gritted his teeth against the pain.

The User seemed to stare at him for a few nanos, before moving on to some other corridor.

Matrix propped himself up against the wall, holding his side. Health bars in his helmet display showed that he had lost half of them. Something red trickled down from his covering arm. It seemed like the same stuff that came from the game-sprite...

He never did like it when theses games put visuals to cyber space occupants.

Starwell trembled, having scrambled out of the way when the User Avatar had appeared. Gizmo had taken a barely coherent whimper from her as a cry for help; a protective shield had formed around her. Thankfully though, the User didn't seem interested in her... either it hadn't noticed her, or it didn't deem her a significant target.

She waited until the User was out of sight, then she scrambled toward Matrix and kept herself low. She reached out, as if wanting to touch him or check his injury, but then she yanked her hand back as if fearing she might accidentally nullify him.

"I'm so sorry," she started stammering. She felt a strong urge to apologize on behalf of the User. "I'm really sorry, he-or she-doesn't even know what he's doing."

She glared in the direction that the User had gone. "YOU'RE HURTING PEOPLE IN HERE YOU JERK!" she bellowed. It made her feel guilty all over again, too, knowing what she had done when she had played Games... how many times had she done this sort of thing herself, without knowing it?

"Keep quiet, you'll alert everything else around here," Matrix grunted. He pulled his hand away from his wound. Red liquid dripped from it. Energy shouldn't look red in the first place... "What is this?" He asked aloud, "Some sort of energy or something...?"

"Uh, that's blood," Starwell said, grimacing in disgust. "These Games are meant to, um... emulate how a human-erm, User's-body really works if its cut into."

Gizmo beeped a few times, as if thinking out loud.

Starwell sighed in irritation. "I doubt Matrix wants to hear about biological viruses or how they're different from system viruses," she commented.

Then she blinked. And she eyed Gizmo with newfound interest. "Hey you know more about my world than I thought," she commented.

"How thoughtful. Help me up."

Starwell twitched nervously. She licked her lips, then carefully grasped his arm and braced herself firmly, bending her knees as she helped him haul himself up. He was a lot bigger, and heavier, than she was after all.

Once she was sure he had his balance, she backed away hastily. "I'm really sorry," she said again, still unable to overcome her feeling of guilt completely. "I just... ugh, I hate this! I can't even talk to this User and tell him that he's hurting you and other people! I..." She trailed off, biting her lower lip.

Gizmo beeped at her, attempting to sooth her nerves and ease her anguish.

"Stop that," Matrix warned, "You start feeling sorry for yourself, you're going to get someone nullified." Matrix used the wall for balance, he needed to find a Health station and a charging station, "You coming?"

She shook her head stubbornly. "No... I'm gonna stay here. You're better off without me." She too a couple of steps back. "Like you said, I can nullify somebody here. I've done already, you know."

Matrix sighed, "I'm not leaving you here, Pup." He leaned heavily on the side not injured.

"But what if I hurt you or somebody else?" Starwell swallowed. "Maybe if you and Bob had left me in the ghetto I wouldn't be here right now. I've already hurt a lot of Mainframers without even trying!"

"Are you doing that now?" Matrix didn't feel patient, he felt tired. He didn't need to snap at the girl, but he felt exasperated. He half wished Bob was here, he'd know what to do about this.

"Well... no," Starwell admitted with a frown. "But..."

Gizmo beeped a few times. Starwell glanced at it, then patted it affectionately. "I know," she whispered. "It's just..."

She looked up at Matrix, meeting his eyes with hers. "I'm scared," she said. "I feel like a bull in a china shop. Isn't this why you didn't like me when you first met me? I already did what you feared I would do."

"My dad's a Null," Matrix admitted, "He wasn't nullified by a User or anything. Twin city blew up when I was a kid, and it nullified him. He's fine now. We're close to finding a way to reverse nullification or something."

"R-really?" Starwell said in astonishment. She stared down at her shoes for a moment as she processed this. "Then... maybe it's not as... unfixable as I thought," she breathed, a feeling of hope and relief welling up inside her chest. Maybe she could talk to Uncle Frank about this sometime, too... if she ever saw him again. He might be able to come up with something to help.

"So, are you coming Pup?"

Starwell still seemed hesitant.

Gizmo hissed at her, urging her forward. It personally felt that Starwell would be better off with Matrix; it might even make the Game progress more quickly. It felt that it was within both of their best interests to get out as soon as possible.

"Alright," she exclaimed at both of them. "I'm coming."

She slowly moved up to stand beside Matrix, and folded her arms. "So um... after the User is taken care of, I can just quit the Game like before. I won't do anything to try to win, and I won't get in your way. I promise." A guilt-stricken look remained present in the back of her eyes.

"Then lets go already." Matrix half-limped down the corridor. With one shot left, there wasn't a lot of chances for surviving. Where was Bob when you needed him?

Something clanked further down the corridor and in the darkness. Matrix cursed.

Gizmo had already detected it, since its scanner was running. Within the Games, it seemed that the Keytool's sensor capability had a heightened sensitivity.

"Huh?" Starwell whispered, holding her arm closer to her ear as Gizmo beeped softly. The Keytool didn't want whatever was coming to hear them.

"Uh oh..." The User-sprite clutched Matrix's arm. "Gizmo says there's something big coming... and it's with a bunch of little something's!"

"Shovelware..." Matrix cursed. Something came from the darkness. The Game-sprite, Matrix couldn't describe it. It was some sort of thing with mandibles and fleshy blades everywhere. Smaller crab-like and some snake-like things were swarming around its... feet.

Matrix hated having to run from a fight. "Lets move!" He grabbed Starwell's arm and retreated in the opposite direction.

"Ow!" Starwell protested. His firm grip didn't really hurt, she simply didn't like being grabbed or hurried along-though the urgency of the matter caused her to move her legs and keep up with his pace.

The giant creature roared thunderously behind them. The entire corridor seemed to tremble as the thing lumbered behind them. It was getting closer; Matrix could only go so fast with his injuries.

To make matters worse, the smaller things that Gizmo had detected were coming closer as well. They were snake-like things, which almost reminded her of nulls, except they were dark, scaly, and they each had a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Some of them even had two heads.

One of them came up to Starwell and latched onto her heel, needle-like teeth piercing into her flesh-or bitmap. She cried out and kicked her foot out, trying to throw it off; it held on securely.

"GET IT OFF!" Starwell yelled, slowing both of them down even more. The giant beast was still coming, and the little, snake-like creatures began to slither around Matrix's feet.

"There!" Matrix slammed into an oncoming doorway, it opened in nanos. He pulled Starwell inside, and he jammed the door shut. It locked. Pain over came him, and he leaned onto the door and slumped the ground. For a moment the world was blur...

Starwell shrieked, her entire focus momentarily fixed on the creature that was still latched onto her ankle. She stamped her foot on it, and then stamped it again.

The creature finally let go. It fell onto the floor and opened its mouth wide in a long, shrill hiss. "GIZMO KILL IT!" Starwell yelled. A sharp, electrical pulse shot from the Keytool and fried the creature. Fitting in with the horrific theme of the Game, it turned into a small, scorched clump of smoldering flesh that began to smell up the room.

"Ewwwww..." Starwell pinched her nose closed between two fingers, coughing.

Then she turned her attention to Matrix. "Hey... hey, you okay?" She gently touched his shoulders. "Come on, say something!" Unsure what to do, she began to remove his helmet. Would it be possible to check his pulse or something?

Health bar red, once half, now down to a quarter. Great, leave it to the game to have a Health Drain effect. Things were fuzzy, Matrix kept having to blink black spots away. He took a breath. "What you want me to say, Pup?"

Starwell sighed, sitting back on her haunches. "Maybe I can help somehow," she said. "Uh... Gizmo, can you help? Please?"

Gizmo was silent for a moment, as though processing that request. It then beeped, and it leaped off of Starwell's arms and changed shape, forming a metal-like band that snapped around Matrix's exposed neck.

Starwell nearly dropped his helmet. "Gizmo what are you doing?" she asked, shocked.

However, Gizmo wasn't choking him. It was... attempting to raise his health bar and injecting him with a small portion of its own energy.

Matrix jerked away, and spat up something both blue and gray. For a moment, his form flickered.

"Don't- Don't do that," he huffed, "You'll overload me."

Gizmo immediately ceased what it was doing.

"Gizmo, get back here," Starwell snapped in a commanding tone she had not yet used. Gizmo twitched, as though a little surprised, but it knew she meant business. It moved away from Matrix and returned to its original shape, then re-attached itself to her arm.

Starwell sighed. "Okay, um..." She gently put his helmet back on him. "Maybe the monster has moved on. Why don't you stay here, and..." She swallowed, glancing uncertainly toward the door. "I'll see if I can find some portable health or something."

"You, walk out there? Reboot first. Then I'll consider moving."

Starwell blinked. "ReBoot?" she asked. "Uh... that's the thing you do when you tap your Icon, right?" She glanced down at herself, then back at him. "I don't have an icon. How am I supposed to do that?" she wanted to know.

"Try your Keytool."

Starwell sighed stubbornly. "I don't know about this," she said. "I'm already a risk factor because I'm a second User in this game. I don't want something that'll make me more powerful or more dangerous."

Gizmo beeped at her. "I don't care," she said. "I don't want to risk carrying around weapons. I don't even like doing that in my own world." That felt very weird to say, especially since she never minded shooting the hell out of things in Games before...

But then, that was back before she knew what she knew now.

"You afraid of deletion then?" Matrix spat out more blue and gray liquid, "I never said you had to win the game."

She sighed. "Look, I just want to try this on my own first before I Reboot, okay?" she told him snippily. She stood. "I've already been a werewolf in that first Game, and I don't want to turn into something weird by Rebooting. Besides," she patted her Keytool, "I've got Gizmo to help me."

She began to inch toward the door. "Just stay there... I'll be back in a jiffy."

"...Fine, don't be stupid out there." Matrix scooted out of the doorway. He reclined on a box, occasionally spitting out blue and gray liquid.

Starwell swallowed, and nodded. She then quietly slipped out the door.

Thankfully the corridor was empty. Apparently the giant monster and its little companions had moved on. She took a deep breath and began to creep down the hall.

After a couple of twists and turns of moving slowly, she came to a different room. This one appeared to be a control room of some kind... and it looked as though several murders had already been committed.

Seven bodies lay strewn about on the floor, broken and twisted. Blood was splattered about on the floor and walls like paint. One of the bodies was ripped and shattered; the spots of blood above it on the ceiling indicated how gory that one's death had been.

"Oh my God..." Starwell's shoulder blades thumped heavily against the wall as she squeezed her eyes shut. She was dangerously close to hyper-ventilating or puking.

Gizmo clicked and whirred, concerned. It was also trying to get her to focus on the task at hand.

"I'm okay... oh..." She clamped a hand over her mouth, then held her breath for a moment. What was with this stupid game? Did she really have to smell the gore around her, too?

Gizmo beeped again, more insistently. Apparently there was a portable health boost nearby, on the other side of the room.

"Okay, okay..." she breathed in through her mouth, refusing to inhale through her nose. She tried her best not to look at the gore as she tip-toed forward, making a face as she stepped over the badly ripped body, and moved around to the other side of a terminal.

And there was the health boost, a box-like item that sat on the floor in the corner of the room. But there was something next to it. It was curled up on the floor, a humanoid-like creature that was covered in scales. She gulped, but it did not move. She assumed that meant it was dead, or at least asleep.

She took a tentative step forward, but Gizmo hissed a warning. She froze.

Then the creature stirred. It looked up at her; it had only one eye. The other socket on its face was empty.

It opened its mouth to hiss, and then it pounced. Starwell found herself pinned against the floor with the creature clawing at her face and chest.