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.
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 '00) by Al's Waiter
(takes place between the episodes 'Game Over' and 'Icons')
Part 3
Rom looked around him at his new surroundings. "Well, Desktop," he grinned. "I don't think we're in Power Grid anymore."
The new game, that had literally fallen onto him, began to take shape. Rom saw that he was in the middle of a clearing with trees surrounding him. The sky was the same deep blue as his hair and was dotted here and there with small, white, fluffy clouds.
This is nice! he mused as he admired the beauty around him. He was about to talk to Desktop when...
"Glitch! Game Stats."
Rom whirled around and saw three familiar faces. Two belonging to two young sprites, the other to a red and yellow dog.
Rom walked up to the visitors of his system. "Enzo. AndrAIa. I thought I told you to stay in front of the Fastie Mart until the game was over." he said, slightly annoyed.
Enzo looked up from Glitches little screen. "We're here to help you."
"Enzo, games aren't for small sprites..."
"I'm not a small sprite!" he protested. "I've been in that last game at least for three hours. I've learned a lot in that time from others mistakes. The others that are now nullified! Whether you accept that or not."
Rom sighed. What am I going to do with him? He took a deep breath. "Alright, fine but follow my lead. I don't want you going on your own."
Enzo looked disappointed but knew it was for the best. He nodded.
Both Guardians look at their keytools to learn the rules of the game. "Oh, I know this game." Rom exclaimed. "'Order and Take Over.' Simple. ReBoot!" he shouted as he double clicked on his icon. His blue Guardian uniform transformed into a grey army General's uniform. Pleased to see that he was the leader and not Enzo, he smiled, relived.
He turned to the young teenaged sprites. "Come on guys, let's beat this User!"
Both of the teen sprites smiled. Enzo bent down on one knee and double clicked on his and Frisket's icon. AndrAIa did the same. After the blue light had faded, Enzo and AndrAIa looked down at themselves. Both sprites wore a pair of light blue jeans, light grey T-shirts a pair of sporty high tops and a white baseball cap on, backwards. AndrAIa smiled. It felt good to be wearing clothes that fit.
AndrAIa had short blond hair and peach skin, though her eyes hadn't changed colour. They were still the normal aqua.
*~*~*
Enzo's dark green hair had turned jet black and the very front of his hair stuck out of the back hole of the hat. He looked cross eyed up at the hat and wished that is was red. He looked at AndrAIa and grinned. "At least you didn't get a bike this time."
AndrAIa giggled as Rom looked on. "Alright, let's get started. This is our piece of land to build on. I'll go measure to see if we have enough room."
Rom began to walk away when AndrAIa stopped him. "Must we build on this beautiful land?"
Rom looked down at her understandingly. "If we want to win the game, yes, we have to." He said gently.
Her eyes saddened as she looked around the clearing. She nodded slowly and allowed Rom to proceed.
When she looked back at Enzo, he was staring down at Glitch on his arm. He glanced up at she approached him.
"AndrAIa," he paused. "I can't do anything with Glitch. I can only do game stats, that's it. What am I going to do?" He sighed deeply.
She looked at her friend, her face full of concern. "Don't worry. Maybe you can ask Rom later, but right now, we have a job to do."
Enzo nodded in agreement and the two sprites, accompanied by a large black dog, followed Rom.
*~*~*
The collection truck was busy gathering the crystal tiberite that was sticking out of the ground. The refinery was changing the glowing rock into it's purest form, to be used in may ways: source of energy, fuel for their trucks, money and a cleaning agent for the woodland creatures.
More and more troops were 'being recruited' and more tanks were 'being shipped in'.
The four new constructed buildings gleamed in the sunlight. The white brick looked beautiful with the aqua dome and trimmings. AndrAIa stood, admiring them in silence. She had been at amazed at how quickly the game had constructed them in such a short time.
Rom had measured out the plot of land for each structure and almost immediately, the game began building. Now they were complete and already in use.
Apparently Enzo's and AndrAIa's job in the game was that they were re-programmers - a key role in the game. Their job was to, somehow get to the User's base, sabotage the computers, re-program them and essentially take over the base. Rom and Enzo were working on a plan at that very moment.
AndrAIa was still carrying the bag that Rom had handed to her when the game had arrived. The bag itself had changed from a paper bag to a kacky green shoulder bag. She opened the flap and peered inside at the contents.
The 'Fastie Mart' cups had also changed into three thermoses and the small package of dog food had changed into a metal can with the label "Quarties and Bytes".
She lifted out a thermos, twisted the lid and stared down at the liquid inside. It smelled sweet, whatever it was, so she poured some into the lid that now served as a cup. She took a sip and puckered. It was really cold against her teeth. She swallowed and felt it move down into her stomach. She smiled pleasantly and took another sip. She was enjoying her drink so much, that it took her several nanos to realize Enzo standing next to her. She quickly swallowed, smiled and offered Enzo his thermos. Enzo's stomach rumbled as he reach out to take it from her.
Rom rounded the corner of the refinery and spotted the two. "Alright Programmers, time to attack the User. Phase 1 of our plan," he explained to AndrAIa, "is already going into action. We know where the Users base is, thanks to Desktop. We also know that the User is slowly building up troops, but, It's also using up all the resources for other buildings and accessories that It doesn't need. The User is aiming for points. I don't consider points important in this game. Actually, points aren't really important at all. The Users' forces are small in comparison to ours and that is going to be its downfall. I'll place the Captain in charge and have our troops attack the base while we get in the backdoor. "Rom began to draw a map on the ground to show AndrAIa visually what he was talking about. "They'll attack from all sides except the East side - that's the side that we're going to get both of you in. We'll make our way to the Control Room Centre, and take over the Users' computer, therefore, winning the game." He finished with a smile.
AndrAIa nodded. Sounds like a straight forward plan. She was still getting accustomed to plans, but, they served better than what she used to do, which was completely random.
"Alright, Sprites! Move out!" Rom shouted loud enough voice for the Trooper Game Sprites to hear. The men moved in a large, orderly formation, with jeeps, tanks, and dirt bikes moved faster along side.
Rom jumped into a passing jeep and reached out to help Enzo and AndrAIa into the back seat. Enzo accepted Rom's offer and was pulled into the vehicle. Frisket jumped, unaided, after his master. AndrAIa looked at Rom, then looked around, ignoring his hand.
Rom ordered the driver to stop and put one foot out of the jeep. "AndrAIa, what's wrong?" he inquired.
"If it's all the same to you." She replied. "I was wondering if I could drive a dirt bike."
Enzo looked at her with a peculiar smile on his face. "What is it with you and bikes?"
Rom shook his head, smiled and pointed across the way to a dirt bike without an owner. AndrAIa jumped in excitement and ran happily over towards the vehicle. The bike was slightly too big for her but she didn't care. She climbed onto the camo-painted bike and revved the engine. A satisfied grin appeared on her face as she stepped hard on the excelluerator and bolted forward towards her data sprite friends. When it almost looked like she was out of control and going to crash into the jeep, she turned sharply and came to a complete stop inches away from causing a huge explosion that would have deleted them all.
Rom cautiously opened up his left eye to find out what happened and what didn't. He had clenched his eyes tightly when he saw AndrAIa racing towards him. Seeing that he was out of danger, he opened both eyes and looked around. There was AndrAIa with wide, smug grin pasted on her face, sitting on the bike, inches away from his leg that he had stuck out of the door just moments ago.
Enzo's head appeared slowly from the back seat. When he saw AndrAIa and the giant smile she wore, he smiled, shook his head and rolled his left eye; the patch still covering his right one.
Rom sighed and looked ahead at the troops, who were still marching towards the User's base. He looked at AndrAIa, "Ready to go now?" he asked. She nodded and slowly moved the bike forward, in full control, to Rom's relief. He sat back in the jeep and ordered the driver to move forward and catch up to the marching horde.
*~*~*
Halfway to the User's base, Rom ordered the entire company to stop and called the Captain over. Rom told him not to attack the unprepared base until after receiving transmission from him and to wait just out of sight of the User. The Guardian gave clear instructions to cover all the tanks, jeeps and dirt bikes with branches from the trees and bushes around them. If the User did an overall look at the grounds, It would only see trees and not an entire army ready to attack; that's what Rom wanted.
The Captain of Rom's army nodded in agreement, saluted the General and marched away to fulfil the orders of the higher officer.
Next, Rom took Enzo and AndrAIa aside and reviewed the plan quietly. "Now, the three of us are going to go north-east through the woods and towards the east wall of the User's compound. We have to move quickly. Let's go!" Enzo nodded and jumped out of the back of the jeep, while AndrAIa climbed down off the bike. Both teenaged sprites stood unsteadily on their feet and tried to regain their balance.
Rom quickly nodded at the Captain and then he took off into the darkened forest.
AndrAIa, who had just stopped her legs from vibrating, grabbed Enzo's arm, nearly yanking him off his feet, and rocketed after the quickly disappearing Guardian.
Enzo, suddenly feeling very tired, allowed AndrAIa to pull him along, dodging trees and shrubs, trying to keep up to the faster sprite. Then he heard a bark sound behind them. He looked back and saw Frisket running behind them, his tongue hanging out of his mouth and enjoying the brisk jog. Enzo smiled slightly and turned his head back just in time to miss smacking into a tree trunk. How far do we have to run? He wondered. Not long I hope. I don't have good endurance. Hmf, That's one thing I have to work on.
*~*~*
Enzo and AndrAIa were bent over, gasping for air while Rom was peering through the trees towards the Users base. "Are you guys all right?" he called quietly over his shoulder.
"Yeah... fine!" Enzo panted out. "Just... fine!" AndrAIa wasn't able to answer.
"Good. Now is the time to go underground!" Rom reported as he looked at Desktop.
"What?!" Enzo stood straight up in surprise. "What do you mean 'underground'?"
Rom grinned mischievously. "What I said, I meant. Desktop: drill mode!" The keytool beeped and morphed into a large ground drill. Rom took the two handles and turned on Desktop/drill. Pretty soon there was a large hole in the ground and Rom had disappeared into it. Frisket, Enzo and AndrAIa looked down into the black hole, trying to see anything within the black void.
"Come on!" a voice inside the hole called out "We don't have all second! Weave got to hurry!"
Frisket looked at Enzo and cocked his head to one side. "Go on, boy." Enzo encouraged his faithful friend. Frisket whimpered and jumped into the black hole. AndrAIa and Enzo looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and jumped in one after the other. The hole wasn't too deep and they landed safely without hurting themselves. The two sprites followed the sound of the drilling sound because they couldn't see it.
Enzo looked down at his left wrist guard, where Glitch was resting. Would Glitch be able to shine a light? Any kind of light? "Glitch... light." Glitch beeped, clicked then shone a bright light into Enzo's eyes. Enzo squinted because of the blinding light, then grimaced at the sharp pain from his right eye. It took several nanos for him to adjust to the light and then took a look at Glitch. It hadn't transformed, it had just... turned on. Enzo smiled and directed the light towards the drilling noise.
"Uh... Enzo?" Rom called from the end of the tunnel. "Could you aim that light to the ground? I can't really see if it's reflecting off Desktop."
"Sorry." He apologized and moved the beam of light to the dirt slightly ahead of him.
"See Enzo," AndrAIa spoke. "Glitch isn't totally broken. He probably still has lots of uses." She replied optimistically.
Enzo only smiled and the two walked down the tunnel in silence.
*~*~*
The constant rumbling and the cracking of rock being drilled suddenly stopped and began a harsh metallic scraping sound. Everyone in the tunnel hurriedly covered their ears to protect them from the horrible noise, except for Frisket, who just cringed and whined.
"Desktop! Stop!" Rom shouted over the racket. The scrapping ceased as the giant drill transformed back into a tiny keytool, able to fit on a Sprite's arm.
Enzo shone Glitch onto the metal obstacle. It was definitely wall. The 'drill' has cleaned much of the dirt in front of it in a large circular shape; large enough to cut a hole and crawl through. It was the Users' base.
"Weave hit the Users basement. All we have to do is cut through this wall, make our way to the Control Centre, which is on this floor as well, and we're basically home free." Rom grinned as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
Enzo rolled his eye and said teasingly. "Oh, is that all?! Why don't we ask the User to sit down go to sleep while we're at it? 'Oh, don't get up. We're just taking over your base. Nothing big or anything. You just sit there and drink your 'whatever-Users-drink' and we won't be long.'"
Rom playfully glared at the young Guardian. "You be quiet. We're doing fine so far. It can't be too much harder. Desktop: cutter!" The keytool changed slightly into a flat, circle with sharp spikes poking out it's sides. It cut a doorway within wall and returned to the safety of Rom's wrist guard. Rom pushed the door and let it CLANG to the floor.
"Rom, the guards might have heard that! Why did you do that?" Enzo said whispered forcefully.
"Weave made enough noise already." Rom said looking inside the base. "If they haven't heard us yet, they won't hear that. Desktop: enemy locations." He paused while he searched the small radar. The coast was clear. No one had heard them yet. What luck! "Desktop: contact the Captain. Captain, we are now in the base. Begin the attack in five minutes. General out."
"Minutes?! What do you mean minutes? I thought we'd..." Enzo began panicking.
"Whoa, Enzo! I'll explain later, just not now. We don't have time."
They moved silently down the corridor listening for any sound of danger. Rom was concentrating on Desktop's screen, watching them get closer to the Control Centre and the count down to ground zero. "There!" Rom pointed. "There's the Control Centre. We have one nano 'til the battle starts."
Just then, Frisket's ears pricked up and he began running down the hall and around a corner. "Frisket! No!" Enzo said quietly but firmly. "Get back here!" When Frisket didn't return, he added, "You'll miss chasing the User..." Still, the dog didn't re-appear. Enzo had lowered his head in frustration, when his ears caught sounds of shouting, growling, gun shots, snarling, and a cry for help. A guard tore around the corner and ran with Frisket close behind. The guard ran past the trio of trespassers without hardly acknowledging they were there. His only goal was to get away from that mad wolf.
He didn't completely succeed. Frisket had caught up to him and his jaws slammed down onto the guards pants. There was a loud RIP!, a yell and a guard ran away from a dog, who was happily holding a grey rag in his mouth. Having saved his master from the potential threat, Frisket stopped running, turned around and trotted back to show his prize.
Suddenly, the base rocked and shifted with a loud explosion. "The attack!" Rom exclaimed. "It's started! Now that they're temporarily distracted..." and Rom crashed through the double door. "Alright, User! It's time to end this game!"
The User spun around to face the intruders. The Users face was solemn and cross looking. He had a scar on his right check and scowl pasted onto his lips. He grabbed his gun and fired at AndrAIa.
AndrAIa leaped out of the way just in time, but the 'Fastie Mart' bag wasn't so lucky. The bullet hit a thermos, penetrated the metal and passed right through the container. It did the same with the other two Thermoses plus the can of dog food. The bag burst into a fine powder and disintegrated. The thermoses and dog food fell, cracked in half and spilled it's contents on the floor.
Rom's eyes flashed with anger. A scowl mirroring the Users' formed on his face. "I paid for that you low life, no good, basic buffered killer!!! No one deletes my food and gets away with it; not even a User!" Rom pounced on the User, followed by an excited Frisket.
"AndrAIa, are you ok?" Enzo called as he dodged a punch from a guard.
"I'm fine, Enzo. Just get to that computer. I can hold the guards." She said as she tripped one that was charging her. She poked his neck with a finger nail and he quit moving. She quickly moved to the next one who was running towards her, ready to grab her.
Enzo had to act fast. He headed for the main computer and inserted a floppy disk. The base shook again with the external assault. His teams logo appeared on the large computer screen. Enzo typed in the code to activate the program and pressed ENTER.
The program began to process the request. Enzo turned around to see how his friends were fairing. The guards were dropping left and right around AndrAIa and Rom was sitting on the chest of User, punching with all his might. Frisket was gnawing on the Users leg.
Enzo looked down at himself. He wasn't very tall or very strong. He had a keytool that hardly worked and only one eye. I need something to protect both AndrAIa and myself while we're lost in the Net... I can't do it like this. Wait... that prototype! I could have the operation and I would be able see, as well target with it... if they give me a gun that is... Enzo was beginning to get excited, but then he thought Bob. Would he want me to do this? Maybe I should really think this over. Enzo turned to the computer to see the screen say: 'Enter password:' Enzo typed the password and pressed 'Enter'.
The computer screen turned a bright aqua colour and the computer replied, "Take over complete."
*~*~*
"Game Over..."
The Game cube was out of the system like a bullet out of a gun. Rom looked down at his young charges. He had to admit, they knew a lot about Games, but still they had a lot to learn.
He smiled "Great job, guys. And you too, Frisket. Now that the User deleted the food that I bought," a small scowl flashed on Rom's face but instantly disappeared as he continued, "We'll go get some real food!"
Enzo and AndrAIa nodded. They were both starving. A loud deep rumble sounded from Frisket. AndrAIa looked at him sternly. She was about to scold him when Enzo interrupted.
"It's okay, AndrAIa. I think that was his stomach."
Everyone laughed and followed Rom to a restaurant.
*~*~*
A full and happy red and yellow dog peered into the large square window at the trio of data sprites sitting inside. Rom, Enzo and AndrAIa were just finishing a large meal. Enzo looked out the window with a far off look upon his face. Frisket barked at him, snapping him out of the dreamy state and made him smile. Enzo waved at his faithful companion and turned to the others. Frisket lay down in the parking lot beside the restaurant to take a nap.
AndrAIa took her last bite of green silicon chips. "Thanks for the lunch, Rom. It was wonderful!" she said as she finished chewing. "It has been minutes since we've had a meal like that."
Rom beamed. "It was my pleasure. Besides, how could I be a good Guardian if I let you two..." pointing to Frisket "and Frisket go hungry? Not a very nice one, that's what." He smiled and looked at the two teen sprites sitting across from him. He didn't know much about him. Maybe this was the perfect time... He searched his memory banks for a question to ask. Finding one, he looked at AndrAIa. "AndrAIa, when you were introducing yourself and Enzo when we first met, you said your format was game sprite. How is that possible?"
Understanding his confusion, AndrAIa smiled knowingly. "Well, Enzo and I just met about three hours ago, but we were in the game for most of that time. We're just new friends, but we're best friends." Her smile grew as she looked at the green sprite. "We met in a game. 'The... Lost... Treasure of... Atlantis'," she said slowly, trying to remember. "Enzo rescued me from the User." Enzo blushed slightly. "We started talking and had a great time getting to know each other, but Enzo didn't know that I was a game sprite. He thought that I was from his home system, Mainframe, and had just never seen me before. When the User was about to win, I downloaded a copy of myself on Enzo's icon and hoped that my experiment worked. I put Enzo into an escape pod and shot him to beat the User to the treasure."
"Yeah, but you paralysed me when you did that." Enzo pointed out. "Something that I don't want to go through again."
"Well, as you can see," AndrAIa said to Rom. "My experiment worked and I'm out of the game. I love it, but there's so many new things I'm still not used to." She finished.
Rom nodded and spoke out, "But if you're a game sprite, how can you Reboot?"
It was then that AndrAIa gave Rom a close look at her icon. "I can change my icon to ReBoot." She clicked on her triangular icon, with the letters 'AI' on it, and to Rom's astonishment, it changed into the recognizable round reboot icon. She clicked again and it transformed again to its original triangular shape.
*~*~*
"Wow!" Rom exclaimed quietly. He had never seen anything like that before. The Guardian Academy hadn't shown him anything like that before either. Then turning to Enzo, he said, "Enzo, you weren't willing to tell me what happened to you before you came to Power Grid. Now that we're friends, would you want to tell me now? You still don't have to if you don't want to, but I'm willing to listen."
*~*~*
Enzo looked at him, considering his offer of listening to his not so distant past. It was still fresh in his mind and it hurt to think about it, let alone talk about it. Maybe it will help to talk about it, though. Get it out in the open. He thought. He looked at AndrAIa beside him, who reached out and held his hand in a silent encouragement. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly and began his tragic tale.
"It all began when I... sorry, we were in that game... you know the one; the tournament fighting one. I won one round, then the User beat me in the second round. It was one all and it was up to me to win because it was the final level and both AndrAIa and Frisket were in another window, so they couldn't help at all. That's when the User..." he stopped, unable to continue.
"It's okay, Enzo. You don't have to tell me." Rom replied, putting his hand on the young sprite's shoulder.
Enzo shook his head and Rom removed his hand. "No. I have to get this out." He took another deep breath. "That's when the User did... this." he said and pointed to his right eye.
Rom cringed. "I'm so sorry, Enzo. I had no idea."
"That's not all. Like I said before, I lost the game. The User won. Lost it...." he rested his forehead on his right hand and fell silent.
"But why weren't you nullified?" Rom queried.
AndrAIa answered this question. "Because his icon works the same as mine. He can change to game sprite mode as well. Frisket too!"
Rom's eyes opened wide. It all made sense now. That's how they arrived in Power Grid; with the game. Then he looked at Enzo, who was close to tears. Now, I've made him upset. I've got to make him feel better, somehow... I know.
"Enzo, you've been to the Guardian Academy, correct?"
Enzo shook his head. "Never seen it. I was training from home...." his voice broke on the word home.
"Well, let me tell you about when I was there. I had this amazing teacher. He taught 'Game Strategy 101'. It was my favourite class. Not only was he my teacher, he was one of my best friends."
*~*~*
Enzo looked up and listened to Rom. He wiped a tear that had began to roll down his cheek. Sounds so nice.
*~*~*
"He tutored me when I needed help in any class. He'd always listen to me if I had a problem. He became my hero. Ever since he left to defend a system, I've really missed him. It's my goal in life to be like him. Now I strive to treat others the way he would. I think to myself, 'What would Bob do?' and I answer myself..."
Enzo sat straight up and looked intently at Rom. "Bob? As in, Guardian 452?" he interrupted.
Rom looked at Enzo, a strange look in his eye. "Yeah... how do you know him?"
Enzo's face beamed. "He came to Mainframe! He was our Guardian!" Then despair clouded over his face. "But he's in the Web now. Megabyte shot him into the Web."
Rom's face turned even whiter. "The Web?" No one said anything for several nanos. Then Rom spoke up. "I'm sure Bob would have found a way to survive. He taught a giant class 'Game Strategy'. If he can survive that, he can survive the Web." he joked. "But seriously, I'm sure he's fine."
Enzo nodded solemnly, as Desktop beeped and Surges face appeared on the tiny screen. "Rom, the prototype has been prepared for..." he said glancing down at a clipboard "...one Enzo Matrix. We are ready for him whenever he wants to look at it."
Rom thanked Surge and ended the transmission. "Ready, Enzo?"
Enzo looked at Glitch and AndrAIa. "Yes. I'm going to do it. I'll have the operation. I'm a little scared but I know both of you will be there for me." He said as he stood out of the booth.
"Sure we will, Enzo." AndrAIa responded.
"Let's go." Rom said gently as all three stood to their feet.