Chapter One: First Witness
"Call your first witness." Riley boomed.
"Prosecution calls Webster Neddles."
A small one binome, looking very disheveled, approached the stand and took his seat. Peters approached him. "Mr. Neddles, please state your place of residence."
"I live in a system called Dellpac." the binome replied.
"Have you lived there all your life?"
"Yes sir." he said.
"Mr. Neddles, please describe the events that bring you here today." Peters said.
"Well..." the binome gulped. He looked over at the defense table and shuttered, turning his eyes away. "It was hours ago, you gotta understand. It was random though..."
GAME OVER!
The purple cube lifted from the ground and into the sky, leaving two young sprites and a large red and yellow dog in its wake. It was the same thing every time they emerged. They landed in a system with no ports to the Net and one that was badly damaged due to losing the games. Enzo Matrix, now using his last name instead of his first, sighed, the hope he had for finding home, completely disappearing. Like it usually did.
His companion, a young tan skinned sprite looked over at him and placed her hand on his arm, to which he just shrugged it off. AndrAIa also sighed. It was getting so hard for him to believe they would find home one second. Every once in a while, even she lost hope. But looking at the vacant stare that came from those violet eyes of his, her hope renewed, if only to keep her beloved friend from crashing in on himself. "Enzo?" she asked, once again touching his arm.
"The name's Matrix." he growled. Shrugging her away, he said, "Don't ever forget it."
His violent nature was beginning to scare her out of her skin. He had never been violent before. He had a temper, yes. He had told her of the famous Matrix temper, that he and his sister shared, but now...now his temper ruled his heart and his head at most times. Shying away from him, she began looking around and saw a couple of binomes staring at them from behind a tree. She was about to ask them to come out, when a smaller sprite came over to them.
"Did you guys come from that cube?" she asked, clutching a small doll to her chest.
AndrAIa bent down to the girl's level and smiled. "Yes, we did." she said.
"How did you do that?" the girl asked.
"We've got special icons that let us use the games for travel." AndrAIa explained. "I'm AndrAIa and this is Frisket." She introduced the dog when he came over and sniffed the doll. "He won't bite." she said, as the girl cowered under the dog's inspection. "He's a big puppy actually." Frisket looked at the game sprite in surprise, but melted when the girl gave the dog a hug.
"This is Morgan." the girl said, holding out her doll. "And I'm Molly."
"Well, hello Morgan." AndrAIa replied, shaking the doll's hand. "And hello to you too, Molly."
The little girl giggled, making AndrAIa, and even Frisket, smile. The sound was refreshing, something the two hadn't heard since...
"Your Command.Com still around?" Matrix asked, looking at the child.
The girl looked up in confused fear and cowered behind AndrAIa, who shot Matrix a look he had seen many times. "Don't mind him." she soothed to the girl. "That's my friend En...Matrix."
"He's mean and scary." the girl whispered.
AndrAIa almost laughed. Matrix was only about 1.5 and the girl was terribly afraid of him. Well, so was she sometimes... "He gets that way sometimes." she said. "Are your parents around?"
The girl nodded slowly. "My Daddy's at work." she said. She turned and pointed to the triangle top of their Principal Office. "In the triangle house."
"Could you take us to him?" the game sprite asked. Molly nodded enthusiastically. Standing and taking the girl by the hand, the two started for the Principal Office, with Frisket and Matrix bringing up the rear...
"Our Command.Com, Marcus, welcomed them in." the binome continued. "Something about them trying to find home, where ever that was. Anyways, they stayed out of our way and we out of theirs, but then..." Neddles stopped midsentence, gulping and looking at his hands.
"What happened, Mr. Neddles?" Peters asked, gently, sending an evil glare towards the defense table.
"It all started a few seconds after they got there..."
The arrival of the two unknown sprites was like the heralding of a large party. Everywhere the two teenagers went, curious binomes and sprites would usually follow. Most of the time, AndrAIa took up the questioning, while Matrix grumbled about this and that. But it was that fateful second that would change everything.
It had really started when Molly had led them to the Principal Office. The two game hoppers by now were familiar with the signs of degradation due to loss of games. The sky was slightly clouded over with smoke and a few large craters were noticed, the last remains of whatever sector had been there. They finally reached the triangular building and walked in. Molly and AndrAIa struck up a fast friendship, while Matrix and Frisket hung back. Molly enjoyed talking to the pretty girl. She was pretty and fun to talk to and made her laugh. She liked her doggie too.
But that Matrix man was just scary.
The little girl led them through the halls and corridors until they reached a small, but disorganized office. "Daddy." Molly called, entering the office. There were read me files on the floor and the desk ~or what they assumed was indeed the desk~ as well as containers and the like. The girl jumped over all the clutter and went around to the desk. "Daddy?"
A small thud and a string of curses could be heard from the other side of the desk. Matrix and AndrAIa exchanged puzzled looks, before peering back over to the latest scene. Finally, an adult sprite emerged, his face contorted in pain and slight anger. He was rather young, probably five or six hours older than the teenagers that stood in his office. He was a light gray and when he opened his eyes, they were a dark brown.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, getting up quickly. "I didn't know anyone was here."
"See, Daddy?" Molly replied, a smile on her face. "I helped."
"Sure did, butterscotch." he said, bending to kiss her forehead. Moving past the girl, the sprite managed to step over files and such to shake the teenagers hands. "Mark Legas, Command.Com of Dellpac." he said, smiling. "Sorry about the mess, but things have been..."
"We've seen." Matrix muttered. "What exactly have you been doing?"
Mark was slightly taken aback by the question. "My job, Mister..."
"No mister." Matrix replied. "Just Matrix."
"I'm AndrAIa, Mr. Legas." AndrAIa said, smiling and delivering a well placed elbow to Matrix's side. Mark smiled as well, taking her hand in his. "What has happened?" she asked.
Mark's smile immediately vanished and he released her hand. "As you've noticed I'm sure," he started. "I'm about to lose more than I realized when I became Command.Com. All our game players have either left or have been deleted."
"Like Mommy, Daddy?" Molly asked, pulling on his pants leg.
Mark's face showed a brief sign of loss, but was quickly replaced with a smile. He bent down and picked his daughter up and swung her around. "I see you've met my little Molly." he said, rubbing noses with her. The scene caused a mixture of happiness and sadness. For AndrAIa, the scene was priceless. As Mouse would say, "a pure photoshop moment." Of course, for another reason, a different picture came to mind. One that featured her and Enzo and possibly a family of their own, but of course, that was just wishful thinking.
For Matrix, it was a sad scene, one that reminded him of being small and having Dot pick him up like that. The image of Dot still stuck in his mind and as they traveled, he knew he had let her down, let Mainframe down. And now, he was leading AndrAIa and Frisket on a certain wild goose chase trying to find home, something even he knew wouldn't be happening any time soon. Matrix cleared his throat, wanting to get right to business. The sooner they left, the sooner they could find Mainframe.
"What happened?"
"Simple." Mark replied. "Games became too much, I guess. All the players deleted or left."
"You guys didn't have a guardian protecting you?" AndrAIa questioned.
Mark smirked. "Yeah, we did." he said. "Who do you think was the first too leave?"
Matrix and AndrAIa looked at each other. Now that just didn't make sense. Since when did guardians leave their designated systems? Their thoughts were interrupted when a red sprite ran into them or rather AndrAIa. "Mark!" he exclaimed, until he saw the person he ran into. "Sorry about that." he said, smiling at the game sprite.
"What's the problem now, Cody?" Mark asked, placing Molly on the floor.
"Oh nothing." he said, looking AndrAIa over. "Nothing that you can't fix rather."
"Right." Mark rolled his eyes. "Let me guess, sector 12 again." The young sprite nodded. "Great." sighed the command.com. "Oh, meet AndrAIa and Matrix. They just got here. Mind showing them around while I take care of our little problem?"
Cody looked up and smiled. "Sure." he said. Turning back to AndrAIa, he took her hand and kissed it. "Decoder Richson." he smiled. "The...unofficial stand in for our long gone guardian."
Matrix made a small grunt, signaling Cody to his presence. The red sprite turned slightly to scowl at the teenager. "Matrix, huh?" he asked, taking a look at him. "Pretty big name for a little shorty, huh?" AndrAIa chuckled, much to Matrix's embarrassment and anger. Cody laughed and turned back to the game sprite. "A pretty laugh for a pretty girl." he said. "I like that."
"I'm sure you'll be hearing more." she giggled.
"Can I come too?" Molly asked.
"Sure you can, princess." Cody replied. "We'll have a great time." Offering his hand to the girl and his arm to AndrAIa, the three started out to look around, leaving a growling Frisket and Matrix behind.
"He does have a way with the ladies." Mark chuckled. When he saw the hatred and murderous glare on the green sprite's face, the small smile withered away. He gulped before easing his way out the door. "There's a nearby hotel you can stay in until you decide to leave." he said. "Just tell Webster I said you can stay free of charge."
"We don't need your pity." Matrix grumbled, his eyes still following the non existent sprites that had left. "Come on, Frisket." The two stormed out and headed for their lodgings. Mark sighed and also headed out.
***
AndrAIa soon found her room at the Regal Arms hotel, after going through some what of an odd, if not annoying, questionnaire by the caretaker. She had such a good time with Cody and Molly, the time seemed too go by so fast. By the time she found Mark and then the hotel, it was well past the system's downtime. Feeling slightly guilty for staying out, she couldn't help but feel happy. Genuinely happy since she had been in Mainframe. Molly was an adorable child and so much fun to play with. And Cody...what a charmer! The game sprite knew he had been putting the moves on her since they met earlier, and she would admit to a little flirting, but her heart belonged to someone else.
And when she walked into her room, that someone else was waiting for her.
He was sitting in an arm chair, lifting a ten pound weight. He glanced up at her, then went back to his exercise. "Bout time you showed up." he muttered.
"Sorry, your highness." she giggled. "Didn't realize I was out past curfew." She sat down across from him. "What did you do today?"
"Nothing."
"You did absolutely nothing all second?" she asked.
"Yes, I did absolutely nothing all second." he hissed. "Unlike you, I didn't go parading around the system with some stranger who just might...be a bad influence."
AndrAIa looked in slight concern. "What crawled up your bitmap and deleted?" she asked. Matrix just ignored her. "Hello, I'm talking to you."
"Are you?" he grunted, sarcastically.
"Maybe I'm not." she huffed, standing. "You know, you have totally changed."
Matrix tossed his weight in the corner and stood as well. It was times like this, he wished he was bigger and stronger. He couldn't be as intimidating as he wanted, not with AndrAIa at least an inch taller than he was. "I have to change." he stated. "I can't go around being the little weakling that got us trapped in here!"
AndrAIa rolled her eyes. "Not this again." she said. "That wasn't your fault! You did the best you could. We're doing the best we can." She stroked his cheek. "Besides, I don't want you to change."
Matrix was almost content to just stand there. He was realizing his feelings for his best friend were changing, but now wasn't the time to think about that. He shrugged her off. Right as he began to say something, the familiar foreboding voice was heard.
WARNING! INCOMING GAME! WARNING! INCOMING GAME!
Matrix grinned as he looked at her. "Get use to it." he sneered. "That weak little boy you knew as Enzo is long gone from here on out. You're looking at Matrix...the renegade." He smiled sinisterly. "Let's get that game and get the Net out of here."
He turned from her and headed for the door, leaving the young game sprite confused and more than not, concerned. This new attitude her friend had adopted was now really starting to give her the jaggies. She followed him out the door and the hotel and headed for the falling game. Standing straight ahead she could see Cody already there. Hearing the small growl beside her, she knew Matrix had seen him too.
"Nice of you to join me." he said, seeing AndrAIa approach. Nodding to Matrix, he said, "Cadet. Almost didn't even see your shiny little icon."
"There's no cadet here." he growled. "If anything, it's for show. Besides, I'm stuck with it."
"Well, let's see how good your gaming skills really are." Cody sneered. "Guardian."
AndrAIa sighed, watching a small, but still noticeable, grimace come to Enzo's face. They had been through this all before, but still she knew he took on most of the guilt attributed with them being there and probably for not finding Bob sooner. The game continued its falling before finally landing with a thud on the ground.
***
"Well..." Cody began, looking around at their surroundings. "This is pleasant."
The group was surrounded in dark gray skies and clouded fog. They appeared to be in a jungle, with its heavy foliage and misty due. The ground was slightly muddy, probably from previous rains. Ahead of them just seemed to be an array of more and more trees, clouds, gray skies, and ground.
"Okay, almighty Guardian," Cody said, turning to face him. "What're we in?"
Matrix glared at him for a nano, but then remembered they had a task to do. Once they finished this game, they could leave Cody behind and continue searching for Mainframe and then find Bob. That was the goal. Find Bob. Get home. FAQ Cody. Matrix removed Glitch from his belt and looked at it. "Glitch, stats." he said, barely controlling his anger. Glitch whirled and beeped and then did a drastic die out. "Well, that's it for a while." the teen muttered. Looking up at AndrAIa, he said, "Glitch is burned out. I'm surprise he's functioning for this long."
"Ain't that a bit dangerous, traveling around the Net with a broken keytool?" Cody smirked. Winking at the game sprite, he asked, "Not a very smart guardian, is he?"
Right as Matrix went to lunge for him, AndrAIa stopped him, by stepping into between the two. "Cody, this isn't the time." she hissed, looking sternly at the sprite. "We gotta figure out this game and defeat the User. Plain and simple."
"All right, all right." Cody replied, holding up his hands. "I'm just teasing." He rubbed her shoulder slightly. "I do that sometimes, you know."
"I know." she said, her eyes relaxing and the anger and annoyance drifting away. Though she clearly wanted the young green sprite that stood behind her, it was nice to be looked at in other ways besides anger and stubbornness. At this point, she was starting to realize that perhaps Enzo didn't feel the same way she did. That they were just friends in his eyes and nothing more. She smiled sweetly at the young casanova, all the while sensing the burning rage in her friend behind her.
"So what're we up against, Matrix dude?" Cody asked.
Matrix was still fuming, he barely heard the question. Not until AndrAIa asked it again, this time giving him a look of her own. "Something called For All Seasons." he muttered through gritted teeth. "Each level is a season that the User has to go through. Each level has sub levels to which the User's gotta find a different item in each. When he does, he gets a key so he can enter the next level." Matrix looked around. "We're in the third level, fourth sub level. Summer in the rain forest. The User has to find the key. It'll be like a hunting game almost."
"Us hunting the User." Cody nodded, grimly. "I don't like it."
"Me either." the game sprite agreed. "But what choice do we have?"
"None, of course." Matrix whispered. "Let's do it." Tapping their icons, the gave a unison, "REBOOT!"
When the glowing light receded from the trio, they looked down. Matrix was now dressed in khaki slacks and a long white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His gun, something he had hooked up to the small gold ball he now called his right eye, was still at his hip and seemed just as big and dangerous as when he had first spotted it just two hours ago. Looking over at Cody, the teen discovered he was dressed much the same way, except instead of a gun, he had a large bowie knife tucked into his boot. Matrix also couldn't help noticing the enamored, if not wolfish far away look the sprite had on his face.
Turning towards AndrAIa, he discovered why.
Dressed in tight and very short shorts, AndrAIa stood, looking at the knife she had been given. She was dressed much the same, just with her clothes being tighter and much smaller than the men's. Even Matrix couldn't help but gape at the sprite before him. He had always known she was the cutest girl he had ever met, but seeing her now, dressed like that, just made him realize how grown up they were becoming. Seeing her like this, with her clothes hugging tightly in just about all the right places...
It was the same kind of shock he had when Dot had sung for him in that red ball gown.
But this was more. Dot was his sister, for User's sake! But AndrAIa wasn't. She was a girl, just like he was a boy and the two had been together and flirty since her arrival in Mainframe. But that had been Mainframe. There was no one to interfere with a budding friendship. It wasn't until they got lost in the games that Matrix started noticing AndrAIa in more ways than a friend. He was also noticing other sprites noticing her too.
Kind of like now.
Cody couldn't hold back his wolfish whistle as he again gave the game sprite the once over. "Wow." he said in approval. She just looked up at him, a teasing gleam in her eyes. "If I am ever stuck in a game, promise me, you'll be there wearing this." She just giggled and sent the same flirtatious look towards Enzo. His face was one of contradictions. On one hand, he was mesmerized by her sheer beauty, especially in a get up like that! But on the other hand, he had a look to delete, sending poison laded daggers at Cody.
"The User, remember?" he growled, stomping off ahead, pushing between the two.
"Enzo!"
"Hey, if he wants to be our tour guide, let him." Cody replied, draping an arm around the teenager's shoulder. "That gives me more time to know about you."
AndrAIa looked at him, before shrugging his arm off and heading after Matrix.
Matrix stormed up ahead, wanting to get as far away from that...show of affection as he could. Any feelings he may...might...have for his best friend were now gone. What did he expect? Of course she'd hang out with him in Mainframe. Who else was there to hang out with?? She needed to be around other sprites. He had one goal and that was to find Bob and get home. Okay, so two goals, but very much linked together. She could stay here with Cody if she wanted. She didn't...
"Will you slow down?" came an exclamation.
Matrix stopped suddenly and felt the soft touch of her hand on his arm. "What has gotten into you?" she asked, keeping her voice low as not to let Cody hear. Matrix shook her hand off. AndrAIa was getting just a tad bit tired of this and would've said something if Cody had not come up to them.
"You took off right quick, little man." he said, huffing slightly from lack of air. "Saw the User, did you?"
"You'll be seeing the higher User if you don't..."
Cody put his hands up in defense. "Calm down, cadet." he replied. "No need to get your little...unregulation uniform in a twist."
"Cody, stop." AndrAIa begged, seeing the anger starting to take over.
"DrAIa, listen to me." Cody began, walking around to get another view of her outfit. "I think, and this is my opinion, you'd have more fun with me than with your current boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend." she whispered.
"Well, see there?" Cody said. "Look, I'm just saying a beautiful, attractive girl like yourself shouldn't be treated the way your...friend treats you."
"What're you saying?" Matrix growled.
As the trio argued, a shadowy figure was starting to creep up behind them. He looked very out of place, dressed in jean shorts and a yellow t-shirt. He had a small knife in his back pocket, but could see the smaller of the three had a gun. He'd have to be quick if he wanted that key. He only had one knife. If he used it on the little guy with the gun, he'd be able to escape with no or at least some minor injuries. Pulling the knife from his pocket, he started to aim for the little guy...
"I'm saying that for someone who protects her like the plague, you're not a very good friend." Cody continued.
Matrix, still fuming from the words, ignored AndrAIa's pleas for him to calm down. He pulled his gun and started aiming for Cody. He wasn't going to hurt him, just scare him. Make him see that he was serious about keeping AndrAIa safe. That's when he noticed the User in the background. Realizing he was about ready to delete them, he raised the gun.
Unfortunately, communication within the small group didn't reach to everyone. As he moved the gun, Cody jumped in and started to struggle with him, AndrAIa also trying to get the gun away. She had seen the User as well as was trying to get the gun from Cody. In the struggle, the gun went off twice, one hitting the fleeing User as he ran past them. He had been shot in the shoulder, but was able to flee past them.
"Enzo, what've you done?"
Enzo Matrix just stared
at the slowly deleting sprite that lay before him. A smoking gun still
in his hand, Enzo's look of hatred had
quickly been replaced
with one of horror and fear. He hadn't meant to delete the guy. He was
in the way. The User was coming and all he could think about was making
passes and lewd comments at AndrAIa. The worst part, the really bad part
was...Enzo wanted to shoot him. Wanted to shut him up, wanted him to stop
looking at AndrAIa like she was on the market or something.
Wasn't she?
They certainly weren't
a couple, though Enzo was now constantly struggling with feelings inside
that suggested other wise. He and
AndrAIa had always been
close, but now as they wandered from game to game, from system to system,
she was becoming more than a
friend. More than someone
he could talk to. They were growing up and with that, she was growing more
beautiful every second. It was one
thing for him to notice
~he actually thought he might be falling for her~ but when other sprites,
especially boys and men, started taking
notice, he would lose
it.
"Come on, Enzo." she said, taking his arm and pulling him away. "We...we have to forget about him for now and get the User."
Even AndrAIa had been shocked. The game sprite who had known deletion and death from her time in her own game, but she just couldn't believe Enzo, her Enzo, had just taken someone's life. He had changed so much since that fateful game had spirited them away from his friends, family, and home. He wasn't the same Enzo she had fallen in love with. He was changing, drastically, but even she didn't think he could be capable of...
Murder.
"That game left, with them sprites in it, and poor Cody didn't even come back." Neddles shook his head. "Cody was a good boy. A good kid."
"Thank you, Mr. Neddles." Peters replied, heading back to his seat. "No further questioning."
"Do you wish to cross-examine, Mr. Lan?" Riley asked, in a bored tone.
"Not at this time, sir." Kit replied, ignoring the looks and protests from his defendants. "But defense would like to keep the option open."
Riley blew out a sigh and rolled his eyes. "The defense is granted the request." Turbo replied, sending a look towards Riley. "Call your next witness, Mr. Peters."
The next few witnesses were also residents of Dellpac and also spoke of the murder of Cody Richson, all pointed the finger at the sprite who probably did it. Matrix. But as Kit sat there, he knew it was their word against his. The only person who could really account for Matrix's innocence was AndrAIa, who had been there with the two in the game. Kit would need to call her to the stand in order to clear this up. But for now, he had to concentrate on the witnesses Peters was pulling out of his book.
The last witness from Dellpac stepped down and quickly hurried past the defense table. "Now that I've established one murderer, I'd like to call some witnesses from Mainframe."
"Objection, your honor." Kit replied. "What does calling my witnesses have to do...?"
"Not your witnesses." Peters
huffed. "These are the people that were there...when the very leaders of
Mainframe let them down. When the Matrixes...took over Mainframe."
