Familiarities,

by Guardian Collective

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A/N: The time conversion chart I use goes as follows: second/nano, minute/milli, hour/cycle, day/second, month/minute, and year/hour. Also, this story takes place after the Restart and before Daemon Rising, and breaks S4 continuity.

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CHAPTER TWO

The three were back at Matrix and AndrAIa's small house by the docks, and Frisket was wandering the system, looking for some excitement, as there hadn't been a Game for over a second, and the dog was getting restless, as was Matrix, though the renegade also had Daemon to anticipate, while Frisket wouldn't be able to fight the Virus itself because of his being a dog.

"Wow, this place is pixelicious!" Enzo exclaimed as they walked in the front door. It was his first time in the couple's house, and it was better kept than his own, as Dot spent most of her time either doing stuff in the War Room or her Diner. "I wish I could live here with you guys!"

Shivers ran down Matrix's back at the thought, so he kept walking and when in the kitchen, took out three energy shakes and handed passed them out.

"Do I get to see the rest of your house?" the young Sprite inquired, repeatedly checking out the kitchen as he gulped down his energy shake. "That would be SO COOL!"

Matrix looked at AndrAIa, who nodded and said, "Here, follow me, little sparky." She then left the kitchen, Enzo following close behind her.

With AndrAIa taking Enzo on a tour of the house, Matrix found he had some alone time, so he decided he'd go workout, so he did so, calling out to AndrAIa, "I'm going to polish up!"

He started to make his way to his workout room, but before he could get very far, a familiar voice erupted from outside, announcing, "Warning; incoming Game. Warning; incoming Game."

"Just great," the renegade muttered, realizing he and AndrAIa now had a tough decision on their hands -- take Enzo into the Game against his sister's wishes, or leave him alone in their house to do only the User knows what. "I can't believe my luck."

"You ready, lover?" AndrAIa asked, poking her head into the kitchen, Zipboard already in hand.

"Yeah, but what are we going to do with the nuisance?"

"Dot doesn't really want him to go into Games, so-" she mused, but, before she could finish her thought, the couple heard the front door slam shut. They ran outside and saw Enzo Zipping in the Game's direction.

"Dot's going to have my ASCII," Matrix grumbled, jumping onto his Zipboard, which he maximized while he spoke. "Let's go."

He took off after Enzo, AndrAIa beside him, and when they caught up to the slower Zipper, he scolded him, "What are you thinking? You're not ready to play in Games by any means."

"But you were when you were me, and you even got lost in the Games and now you're back here like yourself. And you're cool, and have a hot girlfriend!"

AndrAIa blushed, and in a soft tone, reminded the young Sprite, "You know Dot doesn't want you to go into Games. She doesn't want to put you in any kind of danger."

"But I'm with you guys, and you've kicked the User's ASCII so many times before!" he defended his action.

Matrix was about to say something, but was cut off when the three of them, along with Frisket, who had been running under them for half the way, were taken into the Game.

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After the familiar tingling that meant the Game was fully loaded, Matrix opened his eyes and found himself drowning in a strange liquid substance -- water it was called, if he recalled correctly.

He looked to AndrAIa and tried to say something, but instead, his mouth was filled with water, so instead he just pointed to his Icon, and she nodded, so they both Rebooted, with Matrix double-tapping Frisket's Icon.

After Rebooting, Matrix again tried to talk, but found he no longer had a mouth, and he looked at AndrAIa who also didn't have a mouth, yet for some reason his question, "Are you okay?" must've been heard by his girlfriend, for she answered him, "Yeah."

The renegade quickly came to the conclusion that they had telepathic abilities, and checked himself out -- his slimy body was covered in scale-like skin; he had little spikes on his wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles; his body was a mix of different shades of blue, green, yellow, and purple; he could freely move around in the water with ease; and the most noticeable change from his normal form was that both his legs were replaced by a single fin-like extension of his body. He was also holding a blue trident similar to the one AndrAIa always wielded, and with that thought, he checked out the former Game Sprite to find that she was similar looking to him, save for he colours, which were blacks, whites, light blues, and light greens, while Frisket on the other hand, was a large creature with a round, bulging head that had eight legs protruding from it.

"Weird," he said of their forms, flicking his fin back and forth for no apparent reason other than to watch it.

"No, not really," AndrAIa replied, feeling something about the Game that brought back past memories.

"Each to their own, I guess," he said. "But anyway, let's go find the User so we can win the Game."

"Uh, lover?"

"What is it, AndrAIa?"

"Don't you think we're forgetting something, or rather someone?"

Matrix only had to think for a split nano. "Enzo! We have to find him before the User does. Where the Dell do you think he could be?"

"I'm pretty sure I have an idea," she told him, now understanding why she was having such weird feelings about the Game.

Matrix remained still for a moment, and then, feeling the weirdness as well and remembering, said, "He's in the submarine."

AndrAIa nodded, for they had both figured out what Game they were in -- 'Undersea Adventure', the Game they had first met in.

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After feeling the tingling signalling the Game's complete loading, Enzo opened his eyes to find himself in the exterior of a vehicle, alone, staring out at something he had learned was water from a previous Game.

"Where am I? And where's Matrix? And AndrAIa, and Frisket?" the young Sprite pondered, though it was more of a frantic questioning than anything. "Why am I alone?"

He thought out multiple different reasons why he had been separated from those he had entered the Game with, but he dismissed them all as being too childish to have actually happened, so he sat down in the steering chair of the craft he was in, and watched as it slowly moved through the water.

But, after a couple millies, he realized that he had not yet Rebooted, so he did so, and ended up as a captain. He looked at his new clothes, and a feeling of familiarity struck him. "Have I been in this Game before?"

Enzo figured that since he hadn't been in many Games since being created in the Restart, it was probably memories from when Matrix had been Game-hopping, as he had come to the conclusion that if he himself wasn't allowed to enter Games, Matrix wouldn't have been either when he was younger. So, Enzo shrugged off the feeling and took control of what he somehow knew to be a submarine, probably a result of his Rebooting into the captain, and started steering it in his search for Matrix, Frisket, and AndrAIa, as he had no intention of running into the User by himself, for he knew he wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight.

TO BE CONTINUED