Homeward Bound
AndrAIa woke to the warmth of sunlight on her face. She sat up and ran a hand through her emerald hair.
She heard a loud thump from the next room followed by from the next room as Matrix woke up and fell out his bed. She giggled to herself and waited while he walked down the hall and opened the door to her room.
"Rude awakening?" she asked as he plopped down next to her and kissed her cheek. The beard he had started growing tickled her skin. "Yeah," he said, running a hand through his dark green hair. "I always have trouble sleeping in a new place." He looked slightly troubled for a moment, but shook his head as if banishing some unwanted thought.
AndrAIa quickly changed the subject. "Let's get down to the infirmary so I can get this thing off." She held up her cast for emphasis.
"Sure," Matrix agreed. "Then maybe we can get some breakfast." He took her hand and pulled the game sprite off the bed toward the door. He tapped his icon, changing from the shorts and sleeveless shirt he had worn to bed to his normal outfit. He smiled as her as they headed out the door. Smiling back, AndrAIa clicked her own icon, shifting from her oversized t-shirt to her regular skin-tight gear.
A sleepy-eyed Zara greeted AndrAIa, Matrix, and Frisket as they exited the Medical Wing of the Principal Office. "Oh, I see that you got your cast off." Zara held up a small hand to cover up a rather large yawn. "Sorry, I'm not a morning person," she apologized.
She stretched her arms out, much like a cat. "I'm gonna meet someone for java. Care to join me?"
A grin stretched across Matrix's face. "Sure!"
Zara could not hide her astonishment. Matrix was not the first person she thought would have responded so affably to such an invitation. She looked at AndrAIa, but the other woman simply shrugged her shoulders and smiled. Every time I think I have him figured out, he proves me wrong…
She felt a presence behind her, and she swiveled around, coming face to face with Michael. Or more like face to shoulder. "How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me?" Zara asked. "You know it doesn't work."
Michael grinned. "Can't blame a guy for a trying."
Zara turned back to the other two sprites. "Allow me to introduce my friend Michael Compton; he's a software merchant. Michael, meet Matrix and AndrAIa."
Michael flashed his trademark grin, and shook AndrAIa's hand. "Hi."
"Hello, Michael."
The merchant approached Matrix and stretched forth his hand. "Welcome to Compaq, Matrix." The renegade arched an eyebrow and shook the offered hand. Frisket growled, and Michael backed away hastily.
"I thought we were going to meet at Phineas's for java," Zara said to Michael.
"I decided to find you instead," answered Michael.
Zara shrugged. "Do you want me to get you another zipboard?" she asked AndrAIa.
"Could you? I think I can use one now."
Zara nodded and darted back inside. She came back out and handed AndrAIa her zipboard.
The game sprite decompressed it and hopped on. "Are we going to that restaurant we to yesterday?" she asked.
"Yep." Zara stepped onto her zipboard.
AndrAIa's face erupted into an impish grin. "How about a race?"
"I love to race!" Michael and Zara exclaimed simultaneously. They looked at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing.
They all looked at Matrix. He nodded in agreement. "You asked for it," he warned them.
The guys decompressed their zipboards and got on. "Ready?" asked AndrAIa. The others nodded. "Go!"
The four sprites took off, while the dog ran along below. AndrAIa quickly gained a gigantic lead as they speed through Compaq, as several onlookers paused to watch them pass.
As they sped along, Michael watched Zara, taking advantage of that fact that she was using all her concentration to focus on the race, oblivious to him. The toned muscles in her legs flexed as she deftly maneuvered her zipboard. Her long coppery hair flowed out behind her like ribbons of silk. She let out a whoop of excitement as she passed him on his right. He accelerated in an attempt to catching up, nearly running into a low bridge.
AndrAIa arrived first, grinning triumphantly, followed by Zara, Matrix, Frisket, and lastly Michael. "You're really good!" Zara said to the game sprite as she buckled her zipboard back on her belt.
"Thanks!" AndrAIa said cheerfully. "What happened to you, Michael?"
"Yeah, Mr. I'm-such-a-big-shot," Zara said snidely.
"I got distracted" was his simple answer.
Zara through up her hands in an exaggerated display of exasperation, grabbed Michael's arm, and began to haul him inside.
The sky darkened and the voice of the System Administrator boomed across Compaq: "Warning, incoming game. Warning, incoming game."
Zara looked up into the sky. "It's coming down right on top of us!" She darted inside in the restaurant, yelling, "Everyone get out!" Several sprites and binomes ran out, took one look up, and fled.
"There we go," Zara said, coming back out. "Just us now." She looked at Michael. "You gonna stay?"
He eyed her, grinning. "And miss out on this? No thanks." He looked up at the game cube coming down on them. "But I wish I had gotten my java."
The group of four stood together in the middle of a desert landscape. A broad river ran nearby, and the green blur far off on the other bank suggested the presence of a forest. Gray foreboding clouds moved sluggishly over head.
Zara reached for Presario and began to extend it when she heard Matrix command, "Glitch: Game stats." She watched as he studied the keytool's display. He narrowed his brows in confusion. "Glitch says this game is called…The Wrath of Isis."
"What kind of a game is that?" asked Michael.
Matrix shrugged his massive shoulders, then double clicked his icon. "Reboot!" He shivered involuntarily as the green column of game energy rippled over him and disappeared.
Zara's mouth dropped, Michael looked as though he was unsuccessfully trying not to laugh, and AndrAIa merely smiled smugly.
Matrix raised an eyebrow. "What?"
When he only got stifled chortles instead of an answer, he finally looked down at his game character. His skin, now fur, was still its normal green color, but now was adorned with tiger-like stripes, matching his good eye. His normal outfit had been replaced with a ragged dark green vest and blue pants with tattered ends. Matrix reached instinctively down to Gun, but found instead a long broad-sword instead. "Random…"
AndrAIa giggled. "I think you missed something."
"Huh?" Matrix turned around, and discovered that two feathery wings had sprouted from his back, the same color as his fur and tipped in violet. This is a first… A tail had also appeared. "This is just too much…"
He heard more sniggers. "Well, I'd like to see what the rest of you look like."
"Fine," said Zara. She and the others tapped their icons, rebooting into characters similar to Matrix's.
Zara had bronze colored fur with pink stripes. She wore a purple, strange looking sleeveless top, and a skirt of some kind over shorts. A bow was in her hand, and a quiver of arrows at her aide. She craned her neck, examining her velvety wings. "Users are so strange…"
"Alphanumeric!" Michael had taken on the form of a silver creature with black and gray stripes. He hefted his large battle ax, and his emerald sparkled as he scrutinizing his extra appendages.
AndrAIa looked even more dramatic than the others. Her fur was white lined with blue stripes. Her green hair had been replaced by short red tresses, tipped in blue. Instead of her trident, she held a barbed spear in her grip. Her long sleeved top and slit skirt revealed much of her lithe figure.
Matrix could feel his mouth drop open, and forced himself to close it. Using a fair amount of will, he looked away and bent down to click Frisket's icon. As the game energy disappeared, the once-dog uncertainly at his new body. He was now a red and gold tiger.
The renegade sighed. "Well, if we're done gawking at each other, let's get on with it." He examined Glitch's display once more. "In order to win the game, the User must collect the six pieces of the Oracle Staff, assemble it, then place it in the temple of Osiris." He looked up at the others. "All we have to do is stop him."
"Oh, is that all?" Michael muttered under his breath.
Matrix eyed him. "You say something?"
"Come on, let's get going!" Michael exclaimed. He unfolded his silvery wings and flapped them, rising into the air. The others followed him upwards.
Flapping her own wings to keep balanced, Zara took Presario out and looked over it for a moment. "The User's this way." She turned and headed for a large pyramid structure in the distance. Matrix, AndrAIa, and Michael followed her closely while Frisket ran along below.
Soon enough, they spotted a creature running toward the pyramid, carrying a staff in one hand.
"Damn, he's already put together the staff," Matrix said angrily. "We have to take him out." He tilted his left wing, going into a steep dive.
He landed agilely on the ground next to the User, and found Frisket already attacking. The User, with its fog-like face, did not look frightened in the least bit. Matrix raised his sword for final blow.
Matrix gasped as a cold something grabbed his ankle with a steel grip. A hand had reached up out of the ground itself and fastened to his ankle. As he watched in fascinated horror, the undeleted creature pulled the rest of its body out of the sand, clothed in decaying wrappings. It grinned ferociously at the Guardian as the thing began to pull him down
Something swished through the air and the hand of the zombie was removed from the rest of its body. The creature looked in surprise at its severed hand then crumbled into dust as it head was chopped off. Matrix looked up to see Michael standing over him, welding his ax. He reached down and helped pull the Guardian up.
"Thanks," Matrix said as he got to his feet, pulling one clawed foot out of the sand.
"No problem."
They heard a strange scratching noise and turned to find more zombies popping out of the ground like daisywheels. The two sprites spread their wings and rose into the air to avoid the overzealous undeleted beings.
AndrAIa and Zara flew higher to join the merchant turned game player and the Guardian. "Will Frisket be all right?" asked the game sprite as she hovered beside Matrix.
Down below, Frisket patrolled the entrance to the pyramid. The User could not get past him without losing a valuable body part, and even the zombies were afraid to approach the sleek tiger.
Zara grinned. "I think he can hold his own." She heard the hissing of a projectile, and ducked as a large rock came within inches of her head. "Hey!"
Most of the zombies had begun hurling at the sprites anything they could get their hands on, while others were attacking Frisket. Meanwhile, the User himself had approached dark doorway of the pyramid, bearing the Oracle Staff. An arrow embedded itself in the sand less than a foot from the User, and another struck the staff, knocking it from his hand as Zara swooped down to grab it.
The two struggled for a nano, then Zara raised her legs and pushed off the User, wrenching the Staff from his grasp. She rose up, and with a mischievous smirk on her face, snapped the Staff in half.
With a menacing snarl, the User reached up and grabbed her ankle, slamming her down onto the sand. Zara struggled to slash at him with her claws, but he held her down. Numerous hands erupted from then sand, wrapping around her ankles, waist, and wrists. She tried to scream for help, but foul smelling hand reached up and clamped itself over her mouth.
She heard a growl, and Frisket attacked, ripping away appendages with brute force. Zara felt a hand pull her up, and found AndrAIa helping her to her feet.
"Are you okay?" AndrAIa asked.
"Just a little sandy." She glanced around and saw Matrix and Michael hacking away at zombies. "Think they can take of themselves?"
AndrAIa replied with a grin. "Sure."
They turned on the User, as a steady rain began to fell from the steel gray sky.
The others joined them as AndrAIa held her spear carefully at the User's neck. She glanced at Matrix, and an understanding beyond that of words passed between the two. The game sprite turned to Zara. "Matrix and I have decided to leave with the game."
Zara nodded. "You're sure you're ready to leave?"
Matrix nodded. His now wet hair was plastered against his forehead. "But…when we find Bob, I'll be sure to tell him about you." Laughter glinted in his good eye. He reached forward and shook her hand; his grip smothered hers. "Thanks."
"No, thank you." Zara grinned as she flicked a wet strand of hair out of her face for the nth time. "You two made my job a bit more interesting for a time." She faced AndrAIa and warmly shook the other woman's hand. "I hope, by chance somehow, we will meet again." The Guardian then leaned forward and whispered, "If Matrix doesn't keep you too busy."
AndrAIa blushed, though it was hard to see under her white fur. "We'll see…"
Michael considered shaking AndrAIa's hand also, but realized it was not the best thing to do under the gaze of Matrix. And he thought even better of saying something to the towering Guardian.
AndrAIa gestured to Matrix. "Care to do the honors?"
"Gladly." His sword chopped through the neck of the dog-faced User with a sickening thunk.
"Game over…"
Matrix raised his wings so that AndrAIa was slightly protected from the rain. They both raised their hands in farewell, then disappeared as the game cube lifted.
Michael turned to look at Zara. "This has been an interesting few megacycles."
