I love Matrix's Gun. I thought everyone should have one, and lo-and behold! There are more Guns! I also think I'm pretty clever about how the Gun came to be, but that's just me. If you want to flame me for it, well, that's not going to change anything so save your time. ;)
Game sprite.
What do you want?
Understand what is going on here. The monster…
I know! The monster! Always the monster! I know he is killing you to kill us. But what in the Net is the monster? Why is he killing you? AndrAIa screamed with her mind. There was a silence. AndrAIa wondered if she had chased the Web creature away, but oh, if she were only that lucky.
Show you.
And AndrAIa saw. She was floating in the Web. Something that she had experienced before ever since these episodes began. But now, it was different. Instead of just the sole Web creature floating in front of her, she saw dozens. A whole pod of Web creatures floated tightly together with their fear emanating from them like heat from the sun. One by one, a sickly green coil lashed forward and impaled each Web creature, and as each one was deleted a tiny spark of purple energy was left behind. The purple sparks floated delicately in the Web, and began to spiral around until they gathered and became a condensed ball of light. One of the green coils ventured close to the ball, and from it a shower of sparkles came from it. AndrAIa recognized it as the energy transforming material used by Guardians and Surfers when they turned tear energy into a portal. But instead of a stable portal bubble, the spark of light dimmed and disappeared. AndrAIa heard a howl of rage and looked to see from whom it came from. Her eyes fix on the creature, and she sees…
"Caster?" AndrAIa whispered weakly.
"You feelin' okay?" Caster was looking down at her.
She didn't answer right away. Instead, she turned her head to the other medical table and saw Bob sitting up with his head hanging. He was rubbing his neck and shaking his head groggily. Beside him was a surgical table that had two of her nails place upon it. Caster left her bedside and helped Bob stand.
"Wha?" She said, bewilderment strong in her croaky voice.
"Jarrel found you and Bob unconscious in the hallway. Bob was out from the toxin in your nails. It was the lethal dose instead of just the knock out stuff, but we administrated the antitoxin in time to save him. "
"You," there was a pause, "were just out." Garrison's voice came from the left of her. The big sprite helped her sit up and supported her as she gained her bearings.
"I don't know what happened. I…" She stopped and gave Garrison a puzzled look.
"Web creature again?" He said softly so the others in the room would not hear.
AndrAIa nodded. During the past few seconds in which AndrAIa had been ordered to stay in her quarters by Caster, Garrison had came in regularly to check on her well being and keep her company. It was only him or Tronnie that she was completely open with on the issue of her recent hallucinations.
He frowned and sighed.
"You need to tell someone besides me about this. I can't help you." He advised softly. When Caster returned, Garrison stepped back and let the medical Guardian scan the game sprite.
"Energy signs, EEG, CRD, PULS… everything normal." The medical sprite closed his scanner and looked AndrAIa straight in the eye. "I can't find anything wrong. From these tests, you are as healthy as ever and operating at optimal levels. But obviously, something is wrong." He regarded her for a few moments more before tapping and removing his blue and white guardian icon. AndrAIa sat back as Caster pointed his icon to AndrAIa's own on the front of her belt. A beam of light emitted from his icon as he uploaded a temp program onto her icon.
"Just a round the clock stats scanner. You won't notice it, but it will keep me updated on your vitals." Caster looked up at her and replaced his icon. He turned to another medical consol and began working at it.
Bob had made his way over to her now. AndrAIa could see quite clearly two small puncture wounds on his neck from where her nails had hit him.
"Sorry about that." She says, smiling sadly.
Bob flashed her one of his quirky, yet charming smiles and was about to say something when Caster returned.
"I'm going to have to keep you here in the FBS Chamber. I need to know what your stats look like when you go offline like that." Behind Caster, in the other room, AndrAIa saw the lights flick on as the circular tube room prepared to be used. "Probably better we put you in there now. We don't know when you'll drop offline again."
As Caster led her to the FBS Chamber, AndrAIa glanced at Garrison. He had taken a step forward towards her.
"I'll bring things from you quarters if you want." The big sprite said, concern strong in his eyes.
She nodded slightly and smiled at him. He was a bit taller than she was with her game hopping heels. He had marine blue coloured skin with neatly cropped, chrome hair that spiked forward. His uniform was similar to the Prime Guardian's, minus the shoulder guards. Navy blue commander's uniform with silver trim and black armbands, boots and belt, the head of the Academy and Viral teams was a little leaner than Turbo, yet commanded a similar awe. Along the upper part of the left hand side of his pants, running length wise on the side of his thigh, were the two stripes that acted as a holster for Gun. Unlike the first version of Gun, the one Matrix once carried, Garrison's version resembled the Desert Eagle Six Inch. Lacking the optical targeting of Matrix's gun, Garrison was still a sure shot with his own version. All the top security personal carried some version of Gun now that they were bereft of their key tools. AndrAIa watched him until a vid window popped up, diverting his attention.
"I'll have Tronnie bring you something to fix in the mean time." Caster gave her a goofy grin as the FBS Chamber lowered, sealing AndrAIa off from everyone else.
--- (Two seconds later)
"Whoa, you look pretty beat up there." A tech Guardian said as Garrison limped into the room.
"Yeah, me, my team and your not-so-new Snake Coil." The blue skinned sprite held up what use to be a rifle looking weapon. The Snake Coil was a weapon recently designed to compensate for the lack of key tools. Like its name suggests, it shot out a constricting beam of collapsing coils used to bind viruses.
"That was new!" Tronnie blurted out. "I gave that to you this morning!"
"Two program viruses, and three worms. One of which almost upgraded to a metazoan class." Garrison said in glum response to the mutilated weapon.
Joules whistled appreciatively from her workstation.
"That was one unsafe system." Joules took the Snake Coil from Garrison and poked at the exposed wires.
"It was indeed. No viral warning programs or viral deletion programs at all. Not even one of those primative Viral Erase Command." Garrison rotated a shoulder and winced as he felt one of his many cuts open again. "That's only one of many to come. Lots of equipment got scrapped today, but everyone came back safe." The military sprite leaned wearily against a table and looked down at Gun.
"Eagle." He said, and normally, it would have flown into his left hand. This time though, the ruined weapon sputtered fizzing gouts of blue-gold liquid before hanging lopsidedly from the holster bands.
"Only AndrAIa can fix those." Joules reached for the weapon and held it carefully. "It looks like something bit it!" She traced a finger along the fracture and gave it to Tronnie.
"The worm virus. Almost took my hand with it too." Garrison removed the armored glove on his left hand and flexed his fingers. He reached for his weapon.
"I can bring this to her. You should go right to Caster." Tronnie motioned for two of the sprites in her team to assist the head of the Academy and Viral teams.
"I'll make it." He waved the other two off, and behind him the door opened and four other tech sprites came in with each an armful of broken equipment. Garrison stood aside as the room became abuzz with whirling repair tools.
"Well, better check on my men." He turned and left the 'geeks' the Guardian Collective to their devices.
--
"I was wondering when you would show up. You must have been leaking energy all over the Super Computer." Caster said as Garrison limped into the infirmary.
"How were the others?" Garrison groaned as he pushed himself up on a diagnostic table.
"Just about as bad as you." Caster said while scanning the other sprite for internal injuries. "Most are healing in their quarters. Lie down, I'll get you back on your feet and back to work in less than a nano."
--
"Well, here's some more stuff that needs fixing." Tronnie placed a box load of shattered tools into the small opening in the FBS Chamber. "Will you be busy for the next little while?"
"I think so." AndrAIa picked up a weapon and frowned as it began to puff out smoke. She opened a small panel on the side and peered inside.
"Garrison's Eagle was also damaged." The head tech sprite carefully passed the weapon to AndrAIa. "A worm virus bit it. Joules took a look at it but couldn't make out the programming used for it."
"Eagle: Disassemble." AndrAIa commanded after placing the weapon on the table.
Like before, Eagle malfunctioned. It whirled, and sparks flew from the fractures. From the nozzle, a blue, gold liquid leaked out.
"Is that safe?" Tronnie said dubiously.
"When any Gun becomes damaged to such a point, the circuitry between the firing mechanism and power generator self-destructs, as to prevent any misfires. The liquid is harmless. I also created a failsafe that neutralizes the power generator for ammo to prevent any chance of a Gun exploding. That's the liquid, think of it as a fire retardant, and it also means this thing will need a new generator." Taking a screwdriver looking tool, she forcefully pried apart the separate parts of Eagle.
Tronnie sat and watched the game sprite work. She had a quarter of a cycle before her break was over.
"Where did you learn how to make those?" Tronnie watched AndrAIa begin to remove the destroyed parts.
Without looking up, AndrAIa responded.
"In the early days of my game hopping, around the time Enzo started to shape the identity he believed he needed to take down Megabyte, we came across a war torn system. Our game landed on the side of the renegade sprites, and they were kind enough to take us in. The Renegades tried to help us back into the Games as soon as possible, but we were ambushed and many of the renegade sprites and binomes were deleted. Matrix became angry and wanted to stay and fight, so we did. We spent a good two minutes there, and in the end, it was Matrix who took down the leader of the opposition. That system really shaped him, it's part of the reason why he called himself a renegade in the first place." AndrAIa stopped and discarded a burned part. "You wouldn't happen to have a CWP Integrator would you?" She asks.
Tronnie blinked and cleared her throat.
"We should." Tronnie pushed a few buttons on her wrist computer, checked the inventory and sent a read-me back to Engineering
"A few more things." AndrAIa said. "I'm sending you a list of things I need." She clicked on the communication panel on the table, tapped into the read-me Tronnie was sending and sent a list of parts she needed before fixing other parts of Eagle.
"Anyway, the leader had a very powerful firearm and Matrix took it. The gun was self-recharging and self-repairing to a point; something that no sprite in the system, knew how to create or duplicate. No one there could understand how it worked, but I eventually figured it out. A few systems later, I found codes for creating voice-activated programs. Codes similar to those used in the key tools. It was completely incompatible with the gun, but after a minute or so of code tweaking, I got it to work. Matrix had his bionic eye by then, and a few systems later we found a way to link the eye and Gun together. As a side result, the eye linked Gun with Enzo's code and that's why he can use it in the games after he reboots.
"The voice-activated programming accepts two users. Since, it is I who builds and programs in the commands into any Gun it permanently imprint my voice as the dominant user. Matrix, and every Guardian that has a Gun are considered a secondary user." AndrAIa sighed and rubbed her temples. "Good thing too. Or else we would have had two dead Guardians four minutes ago."
Tronnie's pressed her lips into a line. She knew all about what had happened in Mainframe.
"Do you ever talk to him?" She asked the game sprite.
"I've talked to just about everyone else in Mainframe. But not him, not yet anyway." The other woman replied while pulling out another damaged piece to fix it.
A double-sided vid window opened between Tronnie and AndrAIa and a male tech sprite came on.
"Ma'am. We got the parts." Below the main vid window, a smaller window opened. Through it, the tech sprite passed on the needed parts to AndrAIa.
"Thanks, Cain." AndrAIa said before closing the window.
Within a few milliseconds, AndrAIa deftly repaired the Gun.
"Eagle: Assemble. Sleep mode." She picked up Eagle and handed it to Tronnie. "The new power generator needs to charge itself. Garrison can't use Eagle for the next seven seconds. If he does, Eagle will be permanently damaged."
The tech nodded and hooked Eagle to her belt.
"So, no episodes yet?" Tronnie closed the opening in the Chamber and glanced briefly at her watch. She had a bit more time to spare.
AndrAIa sighed.
"Not yet. I'm not really complaining I'm just a little bored."
"Well, when you're finished those, I can bring you…" Tronnie stopped. AndrAIa's pupils suddenly dilated and she had gone a couple of shades paler. Quickly, Tronnie tapped on her wrist computer and opened a window to Caster.
"Caster. AndrAIa's…"
"I know. I'm here. I'll take it from here, you can go" Caster said behind her as he came barging into the room. "AndrAIa, get on the scanner."
Tronnie watched mutely for half a milli before leaving the room. Caster was a top medic, and AndrAIa defined the word 'survivor,' so Tronnie wasn't worried… too much.
"Tronnie!"
She turned and saw Garrison hobbling after her with a crutch.
"Caster fixed you up pretty quickly." She shifted her weight to one hip and smiled. "Eagle's fixed by the way. Just don't use it for the next seven seconds."
"Thanks." Garrison took Eagle and placed the 'sleeping' weapon back onto its holster. "Say, were you just with Andi?"
She nodded. "AndrAIa was a little bored. I brought those things you trashed for her to fix."
"Oh," the injured sprite looked towards the room that the game sprite was in, "Caster made me go on mandatory rest period for three seconds. I'll spend them with her… I guess."
Tronnie fought the urge to make a bad facial expression. "Maybe not now, I think she just started seeing those web creatures again." She started walking down the hall, and Garrison hobbled quickly behind.
There was a long silence between the two department heads before Tronnie continued talking.
"I wouldn't consider anything with her you know." She stopped; engineering was just around the corner. "She likes you well enough…"
"Yes, I know. No relationships within the Collective." He said simply.
She sighed. "Not that." The tech turned and faced the military sprite. "It'll be hard for you to understand… but." She struggled for the right words, but came up unsuccessful. She looked at him carefully. To her, he bore no resemblance to Matrix. He was just, Garrison. Tronnie graduated from the Academy two hours before Garrison, but had watched the promising young Guardian ascend the ranks within the Collective. He became head of the Academy at the same time she became head of Engineering. Tronnie always thought he was better suited as Head of Security and Viral Incident teams instead of Academy, but at the same time, Tronnie knew Garrison was a stickler for quality sprites. As head of the Academy, he could ensure that. AndrAIa, however, had commented on how Garrison reminded her of Matrix. Or at least, what she wished Matrix could be; strong willed but compassionate. Tronnie had listened to the ex-Mainframer debate over Garrison. He made her feel at home, and more herself, but it was just different.
Garrison politely cleared his throat, trying to get Tronnie's attention back.
"Huh? Oh sorry. My processor went idle." She pondered her next action with Garrison. "Has she ever told you why she left Mainframe?"
The male sprite shook his head, his chrome hair shifting slightly.
"I ask, but she doesn't tell me." He said disappointedly. Garrison had been deleting to know, but never really pushed for the answer.
Tronnie gave a small sigh. Her wrist computer told her she was almost a cycle late. She probably shouldn't tell him, seeing to how AndrAIa had not told him herself. But it probably would be better for him in the end.
"Let's go into my office." She said finally.