Al's Waiter's note: This is my first attempt at fanfic, so bear with me. I've always wondered what happened to Matrix and AndrAIa during the time that we never see. Other people probably have written about this same topic, but this is how I see it. This fic is Hanako Breithaupt approved.
1-1-0-1 = 13 (Just remember this for later)
Summary: Enzo and AndrAIa have just
left Mainframe after losing the game. After several hours, they finally
get out and find themselves in the System of Power Grid.
written and reedited (spring '01) by Al's Waiter
(takes place between the episodes 'Game Over' and 'Icons')
Part 2
The Principle Office was a large, flat, circular structure with two large rectangular doors, but AndrAIa couldn't see any windows throughout the entire building. Just like Mainframe's Principle Office... she noted.
As the four walked through the enormous doors, they were greeted by a kind looking binome. "Rom, who are these young sprites? They do not appear to be from Power Grid. Are they registered?"
Rom smiled at the binome and introduced the travelling trio. "Surge, these are visitors to our system. This is AndrAIa, Enzo Matrix and his dog, Frisket. Enzo's eye needs to be examined in the Medical Lab. It's hurt very badly."
The binome nodded and began to walk in the opposite direction from where he had just came. "Follow me!" he shouted over his shoulder.
AndrAIa looked at her surroundings. The long halls seemed to go on forever, the tall walls loomed on each side of her and the high ceiling stretched over her like a low, narrow, bleached sky. Suddenly AndrAIa felt uncomfortable. She wasn't used to tight spaces. Before she had met Enzo, she had been in an adventure game 'Lost Treasure of Atlantis'
She had never been is a confined area there. Never until, during one game, before the User could shoot her and erase her for the Hundredth time, She had been rescued in a fish shaped sub. Following her programming, she prepared to attack the green skinned interloper. After she extended her nails and growled at him, he began to talk to her, relieved that she was all right and not hurt. Seeing that he wasn't a threat, she began to speak back to him. Soon they were talking like old friends. Enzo was telling her all kinds of stories about himself, his friends, his dog, about the games he'd had won and about his home. AndrAIa had loved the stories and wanted to leave the game to see all the wonderful things. But how?
Then she got the idea of placing a back-up of herself on Enzo's icon. The next thing that she remembered was appearing in front of Enzo, outside of the game.
Life in Mainframe was more complicated than she thought. When she finally got used to the same routine of waking up, going to school, learning, coming home, doing homework and going to bed, the trouble with the Web started. That trouble had caused Enzo, Frisket and herself to be here instead of her new home of Mainframe.
AndrAIa frowned and looked at Enzo. His right eye was covered by a patch provided by Rom's keytool, and his left eye was downcast with a sad look to it. She put her hand on his shoulder, assuring him without using words that he wasn't alone. That they both missed Mainframe and that she'd always be there for him.
*~*~*
Enzo jumped a little, jerked out of his own thoughts and looked at AndrAIa. Her face looked at him worriedly. He gave her a weak, reassuring smile. "Thanks AndrAIa." he said softly. The hand on his shoulder disappeared and reappeared, swinging at AndrAIa's side as she walked. Enzo turned his head forward and stared at the floor as they walked down the long hallway.
*~*~*
Rom looked down at the two quiet sprites. He didn't know much about them yet, closer to nothing, but he could tell the had been through a lot, even at their age.
Enzo's face, young as it was, had a tired, sad, worn out look to it, like he had lost his whole world. AndrAIa, on the other digit, looked alert, ready to dive in the next challenge.
Then something occurred to Rom. He recalled something that she had said earlier. She had said that her format was game sprite. Rom's brow furrowed. Was that possible? Game sprites can't leave the games... can they?
*~*~*
The long hall curved right ahead of them but Surge turned a sharp left in front of two large doors. They opened electronically and as he walked in the room, he was greeted by several green binome doctors with pink face masks around their necks.
Enzo looked at the doctors. The ones in Mainframe had always been pink with green face masks either over their mouths or around their necks. It was strange to be in a different system where everything you knew was switched around.
Surge walked up to one of the doctors, pointed to Enzo, said something and they both nodded.
Enzo suddenly felt a sharp pain in his eye, and he announced this to everyone with a small, whispered "Ahhhh ow...!"
A doctor motioned to Enzo to hop on an examining table. Enzo looked at AndrAIa and cautiously walked towards the binome. He sat down and looked around the room, nervously. The florescent light bounced off the walls making them appear to glow. There were several high and low examining tables on either side of the room against the wall.
The doctor got on a step ladder and climbed up to Enzo's eye level. A second doctor handed him a organizer. He typed something onto it and looked at Enzo. "Name?" he asked.
"Huh? Wha?... oh. Sorry" Enzo looked at the floor and began to swing his legs. "Matrix. Enzo Matrix."
The doctor nodded and typed down the new information into his organizer. "Compiled system: Power Grid." and he looked at Enzo to confirm his assumption was correct.
Enzo shook his head. "Um... no. Mainframe. The system of Mainframe."
This answer surprised the doctor. He hadn't expected the young sprite to be so far away from his home. "Alright," the doctor said slowly "Format?" and he looked at Enzo's uniform, expecting only one answer.
Enzo looked at AndrAIa and Rom. He scratched the back of his neck. "Uh, I... have no format." he said finally.
This made the doctor fall off the step-ladder. Enzo then looked at AndrAIa. He saw that she had to stop herself from laughing out loud. Enzo smiled too.
*~*~*
This is too much! The doctor thought as he got up. Not from this system; that means he's far away from his home. No function. It seems to me that all he has is his name.
*~*~*
AndrAIa watched Enzo from across the room. It was good to see him smile by himself. He had hardly smiled since he lost the Game.
Then AndrAIa noticed something for the first time. Enzo's Guardian uniform had shrunk quite a bit or he had grown while in the Game. It wasn't that noticeable yet, but now that she actually looked, she found that his suit was getting tight and the material around the zipper was very stretched. AndrAIa covered her mouth and stifled a laugh. Enzo looked so funny. We'll have to go shopping. She thought.
She had gone shopping once before with Dot. 'Course, Dot had owned half of every store that they had gone to. She had watched Dot try on ten different formats of shoes and three different outfits. It looked fun!
Enzo had stayed home and did homework. He said he didn't like shopping. Now he has to go. AndrAIa giggled to herself.
Rom looked at her from his position of leaning against the wall. He smiled kindly at her and bent towards her. "What is it, AndrAIa? What's so funny? Medic fell off the ladder a nano ago." he whispered. AndrAIa pointed at Enzo and explained her discovery.
Rom looked, laughed and nodded. "Yes, you're right." he chuckled. "He does need new clothes." Then he looked down at AndrAIa and beamed. "But he's not the only one."
AndrAIa looked down at herself. She hadn't noticed before in all the excitement, but her shoes felt small and the bottom of her shorts were a little ripped at the seams.
When she was in the game 'The Lost Treasure of Atlantis', everything had always restarted, AndrAIa included. She had never needed new clothes, because she had never grown before. She smiled shyly at Rom and bit her lip. "Yes... well..."
*~*~*
The binome doctor, Medic, examined Enzo and typed his observations down for two whole microseconds.
Enzo let out a deep sigh. He was tired of looking left, right, up and down and also having the doctor 5 cm away from his face. His bitmap was numb from sitting still for so long and his eye was hurting badly.
Finally, Medic climbed down from the examining table and consulted the other doctors.
Enzo watched all the binomes shake and nodding their heads as they talked among themselves. I wish I knew what they were processing. he thought.
*~*~*
After several nanos, Medic stepped toward the waiting sprites. "We have scanned and examined Enzo's eye to the best of our ability and..." the doctor paused uncomfortably. He frowned, and cleared his throat. "Enzo Matrix of the system of Mainframe will never see again out of his right eye..."
"What?!" AndrAIa exclaimed. "What do you mean he'll never see again with his right eye?!"
Frisket began to snarl at Medic.
*~*~*
Enzo was in shock. Never?!
Medic gently calmed down AndrAIa while another doctor comforted Enzo.
"Please," Medic replied in a soft, reassuring voice. "I didn't finish. If you will allow me to...?" he looked at AndrAIa.
AndrAIa backed up. "Sorry," she apologized "I won't do that again."
Medic nodded, sternly. "Thank you. As I was saying, Enzo will never see again out of his right eye without help." he finished his original sentence. "His eye is too damaged to even begin to operate. But," and his face lit up. "But, since we are in almost constant contact with the Super Computer, we receive all forms of prototypes and we are asked to test them."
Enzo raised his head from his hands. "So what does that have to do with me?"
Medic turned to the young, sad sprite. "I have a special prototype for finding and locking onto wanted targets. It suppose to be networked with a gun, but I think there can be a few adjustments. Only if it's all right with you Enzo." he finished.
Enzo hopped down off the examining table and walked towards AndrAIa. She looked at him sadly. "Are you going to do it Enzo?"
Enzo slowly shook his head and said in a voice that only she could hear. " I don't know." He looked down at the floor and sighed. "I wish Dot was here. She always stayed with me when ever I went to the doctors."
"I with you Enzo. I'm not Dot But I can stay with you if you want." She put her hand on his shoulder.
Enzo nodded. "I'd appreciate it, AndrAIa. Thanks."
*~*~*
Rom looked at the young green sprite. Poor guy. Young and far away from his home. Now he gets the news that he'll never see the same again. Rom felt sorry for him. He watched the two sprites to each other in hushed whispers with Frisket in between them. He couldn't make out what they were saying. Just as well. They need some privacy
*~*~*
A few nanos had past by, when Enzo stepped forward and spoke. "I don't know it I should go through with this operation, but I'd like to process the idea a little longer." he announced.
Medic smiled and nodded his head. "Of course, young sprite, but just in case that you decide to test it, I will prepare the prototype for you."
A satisfied grins spread across Enzo's face. "Thank you." he beamed. "Thank you very much."
"Alright. Now that that's done..." He said as he pushed himself away from the wall and walked toward Enzo. Rom placed a new, fresh patch on Enzo's now useless eye. "You three look like you could use a byte to eat. And..." he looked at AndrAIa and winked. "...New clothes. But first let's go access some fast food."
Fast food... Enzo frowned. He was very hungry, he couldn't cancel that feeling, but the thought of eating fast food in anywhere besides Dot's Diner almost made him lose his appetite, But he nodded and smiled at Rom. He felt so homesick for Mainframe, and its seemed as far away. Would he ever see it again? Then Dot's voice popped into his head. 'Uh-uh, Enzo. Delete that thought!' She had said this when he had been the only Guardian of Mainframe, and thought he was much too young to defend the city. Later, after proving himself in the Game 'Malicious Corpses', Dot was willing to give him a chance. She had encouraged him to do his best and to very work hard. She believed in me, I can do no less.
At that finishing thought, Enzo managed a small smile and looked at AndrAIa.
She was smiling and talking to Rom about Power Grid, finding out new information that might be useful to them. Enzo looked at the young Guardian, who was trying to answer AndrAIa's eager questions. He reminded Enzo of Bob in many ways: he was caring, friendly, brave, and very willing to go out of his way for others.
Enzo had admired all of those formats in Bob and now in Rom. Then, Enzo thought. Were all Guardians like that? Even thought Enzo didn't consider himself a Guardian but still had the Guardian protocol, would he be like that? Would it automatically come or would he have to work at trying to be that way?
The four walked up to a small store with the label 'Fastie Mart' on it. Frisket stayed outside while the other three walked in.
It was a small, square store with rows of shelves full of packaged energy bars, power drinks, energy biscuits, milk, power silicon chips and there were racks full of read me files on any and every topic imaginable, from the latest Sprite Fashions, to comic bytes, Latest Software and Hardware and Newest and Deadliest Games straight from the Super Computer. Enzo and AndrAIa looked around them with their mouths and eyes opened wide. Neither of them had seen a place like this ever.
*~*~*
Rom smiled at the two young sprites, picked up a Game Read Me file and walked up to the counter. A light blue tin robot was wiping the counter with a multicoloured ripped flag.
"Hey, WNF! How's business today?" Rom asked smiling.
WNF looked at Rom and replied in a monotone "Cannot find 'Success' file."
Rom laughed. "That bad, huh? Listen, can I have three energy squashies please? Oh, and some dog chow too. I have three hungry visitors." He said leaning over the counter.
*~*~*
The blue robot moved extremely slowly, reminding Enzo of Al's Diner in Level 31 of Mainframe. Enzo decided that Al moved faster than WNF. Finally what seemed to be like micro-seconds, WNF had filled out Rom's order and was adding it up on a calculator.
"4 1/2 units" WNF said in the same recorded voice Enzo had heard earlier.
Rom opened his wallet, brought out the change, picked up the bag and headed for the output.
Enzo quickly walked up to the robot and asked, "What does WNF stand for anyway?"
The robot slowly lifted his head. "Windows Ninety...."
"Warning....... Incoming Game
Warning........ Incoming Game."
WNF was interrupted by the system voice announcing another game, while the entire sky turned purple. Enzo quickly ran outside.
Rom groaned. "Not again!" He handed the bag to AndrAIa. "Here. Take this. Enjoy! I won't be long." He pulled out his zipboard and raced away toward the descending cube.
Enzo looked at AndrAIa and Frisket. "Should we?"
AndrAIa thought got a nano-second, then nodded. "We should!" Both took out their zipboards and flew away with Frisket not to far behind on the ground.
AndrAIa still had the 'Fastie Mart' bag in her hand. She turned to Enzo. "When will we be able to have our drinks?"
Enzo shook his head. "I don't know. We'll have to wait and see." They
made it under the cube just as it landed hard on the bottom level.