Disclaimer: Reboot doesn't belong to me. But the characters I make up do. I'm not doing this for money.
FYI: This story is one hour (year) after DR. This idea has been in my head ever since I saw DR, I wrote a few chapters in January, but stopped because of school. I'd like to think my knowledge of Reboot is sound, but I know I'm probably messing up somewhere. Things to note, please remember that episode in the Third season where Matrix and AndrAIa are outfitting Capacitor's ship to withstand the web. And of course, Daemon Rising. Please bear in mind, I have decided to ignore Megabyte's return in My Two Bobs, therefore, there are no two Bobs, Bob is still joined with Glitch, the key tools have not returned yet and so on and so forth. Time is as such: Year = hour, month = minute, day = second, hour = cycle, minute = milli second = nano
Oh, and this is also a re-release. What did I change? Some grammar, and I did write a bit more at the end. If I missed anything, please email me and I'll correct it. I also stopped writing for a few months because of school and I didn't want to leave my story hanging.
Chapter One
"Come on now, work this just once." AndrAIa typed in the program codes and held her breath. She watched as her consol began to hum and power up. Green lights flickered slightly before turning completely on. AndrAIa smiled and quickly typed in the secondary codes.
"Keep going now," she whispered, more to herself than to the consol, "one more string of…"
"Warning! Power flux. Imminent control shut down. Refer to consol help read-me file."
AndrAIa narrowed her eyes and tightened her jaw. The last program codes were long, but if they were input the consol would work. Forcing her eyes not to blink, the ex-Mainframer pushed her aching fingers to type faster.
"Warning! Consult read-me file. Consol power exceeding safe levels. Consol overload. Enabling automatic shut down." A slight whirring noise, imperceptible by anyone but the game sprite's ears, followed the warning.
"No, no, no!" AndrAIa's fingers moved faster. "Command override: Engineer code 789. Disable automatic shutdown command!"
"Shut down aborted. Warning, power overload, warning, power overload…" And so and so forth the automatic warning blared.
AndrAIa uttered a frustrated growl and looked up at the overhead speaker phone and yelled,
"Command override: Engineer code 789. Disable automated voice warning system!"
The warning clicked off, but the problem continued. Even as the desperate sprite typed furiously at the consol, the panel lights flashed erratically. Error sounds came from the consol like death groans, and in its last ditched effort to fend off the onslaught of incoming code, it threw out sparks.
AndrAIa winced as the sparks that contacted her uniform fizzed and died out. Even though the suit was made from the best material possible and resisted all the environmental hazards an engineer, like her, faced she still shied instinctively away from flame, or anything else from that province.
"By the user!" AndrAIa exclaimed, "You should work! This has to wo-"
BOOM!
A vid window pops up in the smoky room.
"AndrAIa?" Came the voice from the vid window. "AndrAIa?" Came the voice again.
No answer.
"Joules, contact Caster. Send a med team to the V.D.C. AndrAIa's not answering. Oh User, I hope her icon wasn't damaged."
"Tronnie?" AndrAIa waved the smoke out of the way of the vid window. "I'm okay." She paused and looked around the mini conflagration she had caused. "That Web cursed consol almost worked!" AndrAIa muttered and kicked a smoldering panel clear across the room.
The green skinned sprite in the vid window sighed softly. The Viral Deletion Chamber was crucial to the Guardian Collective, and AndrAIa had worked almost half a minute on repairing it. Out of the original twenty-four the Guardians had pre-Daemon, only three survived and even then, they only handled the low to medium level viruses. The other chambers were mostly repaired, but the V.D.C. AndrAIa worked on was one of three chambers that had the capacity of handling all kinds, even the metazoan class virals. Tronnie turned around and accessed a vid window to Caster.
"Caster? AndrAIa's okay. No need for a med team. I'll have her check in with you later, but she seems okay." Tronnie clicked the window closed, and turned back to the link with the game sprite. AndrAIa was picking through the rubble, searching for salvageable parts while the faulty fire systems sputtered out teaspoons of water.
"One hour," Tronnie said softly, "one hour and still we're suffering from Deacon's meddling."
"Ouch." Joules peered over Tronnie's shoulder. She was a few hours younger than Tronnie, and had not officially graduated from the Guardian Technicians Sector. However, Deacon, under Daemon's influence had deleted many of the technicians in the super computer. Desperate for any help, Tronnie trained Joules originally as an assistant for her. When Joules seriously showed her worth as a Guardian Technician, Tronnie upgraded her to Technician: Level Green-Five.
"Need an help there?" Joules asked.
"No." AndrAIa picked up yet another charred fragment. "Everything is roasted. I should have left it as it was." She dropped the piece down near her feet and looked glumly at Tronnie and Joules.
Joules tapped a screen and a stream of codes flooded the screen.
"Spectacular! These codes should have worked, and upgraded the V.D.C too." Joules ogled the screen for a few more nanos, before pointing to the screen.
"Well, would a web creature bite me in my output node, Deacon! Again! Another one of his traps!" Tronnie thumped the table.
"Well," AndrAIa stood, arms akimbo, "this is beyond saving. I suppose we could turn it into a swimming pool. I've always wanted one since I came to the Super Computer."
Tronnie and Joules both turned to look at AndrAIa through the vid window. Tronnie groaned and let her head smack her control consol. An error sound emitted rudely from the speaker by her computer screen.
"Oh, the water's fine. A little cold for you two, but fine for a water game sprite like me." AndrAIa smirked as she stood elbow deep in the flooding room.
"Drainage is off-line. Sprinkler system is jammed. Doors are jammed. But look, the vents still work." Joules pressed a button, and a vent near AndrAIa's head fell open.
"Thanks Joules." AndrAIa was treading water now. "I'll see what I can do with the sprinklers as soon as I get out."
"No need. Tronnie's on it now." Joules said. "Why don't you take a break? Check in with Caster and make sure there's no internal injuries."
"I'm fine. And there is still work to be done. I'll meet you-"
"Take a break Andi, the team here will manage without you for a bit. Go check in with Caster." Tronnie said off screen.
AndrAIa nodded and waved before pulling herself up into the open vent. Joules tapped the X button on the vid window and started to work on the drainage system.
---
AndrAIa sat dozing in the far corner of the mess hall. She had worked through to the morning in the deletion chamber. In her relaxing hands, she held a cooling cup of Mainframe's imported cocoa. There was no one in the mess hall now. Breakfast had been over before she had arrived. But then again, even at peak hours, the hall was never full as it had been before Daemon.
AndrAIa's head drooped farther forward, and as she did, strands of her aquamarine hair drifted down. She no longer wore the suit she had game hopping. Instead, she downloaded the specs of a Guardian engineer's suit that was modified to have remnants of her game hopping gear.
It had been three and a half minutes since she had come to the Super Computer. AndrAIa knew the Guardian's sorely needed repair crews and engineers, and since she had not much of a reason to stay in Mainframe, AndrAIa left for the Super Computer.
"Whoa there." A hand came and pulled the tipping cup from AndrAIa's limp fingers.
Turbo slid into the booth seat in front of her.
"All nighter I hear." He placed the cooled cup onto the table.
"Yeah, I almost had it too." The Ex-Mainframer skewed her lip and slouched backwards into her chair.
"Hey now," Turbo said softly, "that room was gone before you were here. At least you gave it a fighting chance."
AndrAIa managed a weak smile in response.
Turbo looked into her adverted eyes. AndrAIa really had sped up repairs in the Super Computer, and he knew what an accomplishment it would have been to have the V.D.C up and running. He, himself, had tried to fix the room and failed, and Turbo knew that if AndrAIa had pulled it off, it would have been a major boost in the Guardian moral. Not to mention, time and resources saved from having to build a completely new chamber from scratch.
A vid window pops up.
"Uh, Prime Guardian Turbo sir?" Mr. Christopher looked at his file and waved it around a little. "Sir, I've contacted the Captain. He said he could round up the parts for a new deletion chamber in a few seconds. Maybe three seconds at best. Unfortunately, he'll need access into the Super Computer to secure the funds needed to purchase the parts. Shall I have him go to Mainframe and have Bob make him a portal there?"
"If Bob's up to it. Have the Captain report to the treasury once he's here." Turbo went to click the close button.
"Sir, if I may," Mr. Christopher blinked nervously and shuffled his feet. "The Captain said he could get you the parts at half these prices."
"I know, I know." Turbo sighed. "Black market pirated equipment. Mr. Christopher, the Guardian Collective has integrity to maintain. With the loss of our key tools, and delays in the response time it takes to deal with viruses, we can't afford to be the centre of a pirated equipment scandal."
"Well noted sir. I'll inform the Captain." With that, the binome's vid window was gone.
"Taking up the accounts for the Guardian Collective I see." AndrAIa said with a touch of her usual bright personality.
"You should have seen the look on his face when he first saw them. Caster had his med kit out and everything." Turbo paused, "he's done a great job though. He admitted difficulty in adjusting to a non-profit group like us. I wish I could give him some help."
AndrAIa met his eyes. "Can't afford to yet can you?"
"None, the Daemon wars cost us over three quarters of our task force. Then, there is our internal systems crew, and you know the sorry state that is in." Turbo crossed his muscular arms, and leaned back in his seat.
AndrAIa was silent for a moment as she dwelled on Turbo's words.
"But on the bright side," AndrAIa said, "I hear the number of recruits are up."
Turbo nodded.
"Of course. After any major viral event our numbers grow." He sat up and rested his chin on his fist." The problem is finding quality recruits. We want sprites who are smart as well as physically capable of taking on viruses and users."
"Can't have too many hot heads I guess." AndrAIa responded.
"You bet." He lifted his head and lowered his arm on the table. "Would you want to? I could download the Guardian Protocol onto you. You've proved your worth hundred times over. You're smart, a good fighter and you've taken on more users than some of the full level Guardians here." He leaned a bit closer, and reached to tap his icon. "No training, full guardian right now."
Internally, AndrAIa winced. How many times had he asked her? How many times had the others asked her? And for how long would they continue to do so? There was no problem in her being a Guardian; her game sprite coding was extremely versatile. Outwardly, her lip twitched, this reminded her of Enzo when they were young. How he would have died for a full Guardian upgrade from Turbo, the Prime Guardian, himself. But this wasn't what she wanted. Being a Guardian burdened her of a past she had left systems ago.
She met Turbo in the eye, and chuckled politely.
"Hey Turbo, you know that sort of fun isn't for me. I'm happy doing what I'm doing now."
Turbo shrugged his massive shoulders and lowered his hand.
"You are worth it though."
There was a silence between them before AndrAIa noticed the time.
"Oh no! Have I been here this long?" She slapped her forehead, and moved to get up. "I was going to help Tronnie train Divot." As she stood, Turbo stopped her.
"Andi, you haven't had any downtime. Go to your quarters and take some time offline. I'll tell Tronnie, and I'm sure she can handle one new trainee."
AndrAIa wanted to protest, but trying to stand was sapping her energy.
"Call me if anything happens."
Turbo nodded and walked her out of the mess hall.