The Webrunner's Saga
Chapter 3: Out of Time
The stars twinkled brightly overhead, and Jareth couldn't remember ever having seen such a clear night. In the distance, the city skyline sparkled like a diamond, each window lit. But it wasn't the sky or the scenery that had Jareth's attention. It was the stunning young lady sitting across the table from him. Her skin was as pale as the moonlight, her lips ruby-red, her hair was an even darker raven-black than his. She was wearing a low cut, jet-black evening gown with fishnet sleeves, a black lace necklace, and shining silver earrings. Her eyes were the deepest, most stunningly beautiful crystal-blue he had ever seen.
The girl laughed as Jareth made a joke. A mischevious glint appeared in her eyes, and she leaned across the table. Jareth leaned in to meet her, bringing his lips to hers.
"Jareth, wake up," Matrix said.
Jareth groaned as his dream burst like a balloon dragged through a pen full of porcupines. Matrix watched as shutters seemed to open behind Jareth's stained-glass eyes, letting their green glow shine through.
"What do you want, Matrix?" he asked, rather crankily.
"We've arrived. Bob want's everyone to meet at the bridge. Let's go," the renegade replied gruffly, exiting the bunkroom.
Jareth sighed, working his way free from his hammock. Brushing himself off, he made a mental note not to tell Electra about the beautiful goth girl with whom he'd been sharing an intimate moment, even if it WAS just a dream. You never could tell how a girl would react to certain things.
* * *
Jareth stumbled onto the bridge where the rest of the Webrunner's 'crew' had gathered. The large viewscreen at the front of the room displayed a very large, spherical portal, floating for no apparent reason in the middle of the Web.
"You woke me up for that?" Jareth asked, switching to a look of bafflement. "A portal?"
"This 'portal' is the site of The Overclock, you cretin," the severed mechanical head of 308 sneered from his position atop one of the nearby control panels. "It is a junction point from which the clockspeed of every System in existence can be monitored. Even controlled."
"And we're here because....?"
Matrix narrowed his eyes at Jareth in astonishment. "We went over this less than a a cycle ago."
Jareth stared at him blankly.
"Think, Jareth. If it controls the clockspeed for every System in the Net, then we can use this place as a junction point to collect the Pattern."
"Sounds like an awful lot of work for me," Jareth said.
"Come on," Bob said. "We have to meet with the Sprites who run this place, and see if they'll give us permission to use it."
"And if they won't?" Crash asked.
"Then we'll just have to find a way around them, won't we?" Bob smiled slyly at Jareth and Crash. "You two are good at that sort of thing. You'll think of something."
* * *
Bob, Matrix, AndrAIa, Backslash, Crash, and Jareth walked into the room, looking around curiously. The building they had entered was circular, and almost bare. The only remarkable thing in the room was a hole in the very center that seemed to descend for an eternity, hovering above which was a single massive, pulsating tear. Four workstations stood at equidistant points around the column.
"Nice place. Very....erm....," Jareth stalled.
".....Functional?" Crash offered, running a hand through his indigo hair.
"Yes, that'll do. Thanks. Very functional."
"The metal grating floors are a nice touch," Jareth continued. "Though the place would probably be warmer if they laid down some carpeting-"
"Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh dear, what are you doing here?" cried a officious-seeming Sprite in a business suit, appearing seemingly from nowhere and frantically approaching the group. The nametag on the front of his shirt read URL. "This is a restricted area," he said. "I'm afraid no one is permitted to enter this room."
"We are the crew of the Webrunner," Bob said, trying to calm the agitated Sprite. "We didn't mean any harm. We only wanted to know if we could use your matrix as a junction, so we--"
"No, no!" URL seemed to grow more disturbed with each passing nano. "You cannot be here! No one is permitted to make use of the Overclock! The risks involved in its use far outwiegh any possible advantages!"
"I'm sick of this," Matrix said, drawing Gun and stepping foreward, but before he could do anything more, there was a Swish! and the tip of Gun's barrel feel to the floor. A large Sprite stepped from the shadows, replacing his sword in its ornate sheath at his back.
The Sprite was clothed in a forest-green tunic, and it was far from clear how he'd stayed unnoticed for so long. His ears were pointed, and a large shield was strapped to his back alongside the sword.
"Ahem. This is my assosciate, Link," URL said, a bit smugly. "He is head of security here. I, as you may have guessed, am the Head Administator. You are not authorized to be here. Please leave. Now."
Bob made a slight gesture behind his back. Jareth and Crash, taking their signal, quietly stepped into the shadows, sneaking around the sprites and silently approaching the large tear. While Bob and the others continued to keep Link and URL distracted, Jareth pulled a small, flawless crystal orb from his pocket and held it out to the tear, concentrating his viral energies. Crash sneaked up to one of the workstations and typed at the keys as quietly as he could, calibrating the tear to act as the junction point they needed. Tendrils of crimson light began to flow from the tear, entering the crystal.
Unfortunately, URL saw the red light reflecting off the stainless steel wall of the room. He spun around, immediately becoming even more frantic than before when he saw Jareth standing before the tear.
"No! Get away from that!" he cried. URL rushed at the Viral Guardan, intent on dragging him away from the Overclock, but in his hurry he tripped on a piece of piping that ran from the wall to the floor. He fell foreward, running right into Jareth and knocking him off balance. The crystal fell to the floor as Jareth lost his concentration, not rolling because of the metal grating.
Everyone watched, appalled, as Jareth fell forward....right into the tear.
* * *
Well, this is an interesting experience, Jareth thought to himself. He was floating in an endless, inky black void, and gravity seemed to be out to lunch. Jareth swam through the blackness, not even having to uncase his wings.
"This is kinda fun," he said, doing the backstroke. "A bit too peaceful for my tastes, though. Wish Electra were here. That'd liven things up."
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the blackness began to dissolve. Jareth blinked....he was back in Mainframe? And he was floating a good twenty feet from the ground.
And there was Electra! But it was the old Electra.....long before she had ever downloaded her Viral codes from him, let alone fused with Daemon's golden mask. Next to her was.....Jareth did a double-take. Delk? Electra's sister? She'd been deleted by HexAnate ages ago! How could she be here?
Jareth did his third double-take in as many seconds as HexAnate herself slithered up, despite the fact that she, too, had long since been deleted. He watched, astonished, as HexAnate deleted Delkatrina, then vanished through a portal of her own creation, leaving Electra crying to herself, alone. The world fell apart, and he was once again floating in an inky void.
"If this is some kind of holo-recording, it could really use sound," Jareth said, scratching his head. "Hmm.....it brought me here when I said Electra....." Jareth looked up at the lack of sky and yelled. "Okay, now show me Kit!"
The scene dissolved again, this time replaced by the interior of the Silicon Tor. Jareth watched as this time, Megabyte deleted Kit, shoving his claws through her from behind as Backslash watched.
Jareth glared. "Whoever's running this thing has a disturbing deletion obsession," he said, as the world went black again. "Hmm....okay. Backslash."
The void around him tore itself to shreds again, and Jareth found himself in the Supercomputer.
There he was, Backslash, looking more or less as he did now, with dark blue-green skin and black hair. He was a good deal younger, though... about the age he was when Jareth first met him. Wait....back then, wasn't his hair silver? And Jareth was almost positive his skin had been blue, like Bob's... But, wrong colors or not, there was no mistake that this was, indeed, his friend.
Backslash seemed to be in a hurry, he was zipping for all he worth on his zipboard, as though he were late for something.
Jareth switched to a surprised expression. He must have been in a hurry....he didn't see the truck that was headed right for him.
Not thinking, Jareth reached out and grabbed Backslash, pulling him out of the way of the truck.
Backslash gaped in astonishment as the truck raced silently by....and then the world dissolved back into blackness.
"That was interesting," Jareth said, tilting his head to the side. "I never knew Backie'd been deleted by a truck. The things people just never talk about..."
"Wh...what happened?" Backslash asked.
Jareth spun around in surprise....Backslash was still there, floating with him in the void. Had he pulled him out of the recording?
"Umm....Hi. I'm....not really sure what just happened."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Jareth....Wait, you know me, Backie. We've been friends forever."
Backslash shook his head. "I've never seen you before in my life."
"No? Well, nice to meet you, then." Jareth grabbed Backie's hand and enthusistically shook it. "I have no idea where I am, but I was getting bored floating around by myself."
Backslash looked around him. He sighed and shook his head. "What a cycle this is turning out to be."
"Oh? Rough day?"
"I was supposed to be assigned to my own System today," Backslash said, sitting heavily down on the nothing, his head on his fist. "I overslept, was almost hit by a truck, and now I'm floating in the middle of...somewhere....with...someone."
"That does sound like quite an ordeal. Hope it all works out."
Backie shook his head. "At this point, I just want to go home."
"Maybe that can be arranged. This place can take you to people, maybe it can do places, too."
"What?"
"I'll show you." Jareth looked up into the sky and screamed. "Mainframe!"
The blackness dissolved around them, leaving them standing in the middle of Floating Point Park.
Backslash's eyes went wide. "There you go. Home," Jareth said. "I think I'm beginning to get the hang of this thi-"
In mid-word, Jareth vanished, leaving Backslash standing in the park, alone and confused.
* * *
"This isn't happening, oh my dear sweet User, tell me this isn't happening," URL frantically babbled as he hammered away at the workstation terminal. "Maybe there's still a chance....maybe he hasn't discovered yet...."
Link had the crew of the Webrunner gathered into one small group aagainst the wall, holding them at swordpoint. His expression was grim, probably upset withself at having let Crash and Jareth slip past him.
"Will you just calm down and tell us what's wrong?" AndrAIa asked gently. "Maybe we can help."
"Help? HELP? Haven't you done enough? Of course, you don't think you've done enough. You have no idea what it is you've done, do you? Well, I'll tell you, shall I? You've just seriously endangered the entire Net, that's what you've, Oh, no, sweet User, please, no...he's figured out to use it...."
"How to use the matrix? What's he going to do, start adjusting the clockspeeds of random Systems?" Bob asked.
"Please, don't let him change anything....I have to find him, pull him out before he changes something...."
"Will you take a pill, dude?" Crash said. "You're starting to get on my nerves. Is he okay, or not?"
"None of us are okay!" the Sprite screamed. "We could all be deleted if he changes anything! Oh...oh, there he is...just stay still for a moment so I can....Got him!"
The Sprite victoriously punched a key on the workstation, and a black-clothed figure came flying out of the tear, slamming firmly against the wall and sliding to the floor.
Crash and AndrAIa walked over to him. "Jareth?" AndrAIa asked. "You okay?"
"Never...better....," the virus replied, shakily.
URL called up a list of the places and times Jareth had accessed. "Oh, no....nononono...."
Matrix turned to him. "What now?"
The businesslike Sprite turned angrily on the bruised heap that was Jareth. "You pulled a Sprite out of the timeline and deposited him in his own past?! How could you?!"
"Have you any idea what you've done?" Link asked quietly.
Backslash's head snapped up, his gaze shifting sharply from Jareth up to URL.
"What are you talking about?" Jareth asked. "I played around with the holorecordings, what's the big--"
"These were no holorecordings! Do you think I've dedicated my life to protecting home movies?!"
"Well, yeah, I DID think that was a bit strange, now that you mention it..."
"This is the transtemporal matrix of the ENTIRE NET. It doesn't just monitor and control the clockspeeds of the net, it actually CHANGES TIME."
Jareth looked from the tear to the Sprite. "Are you telling me this tear ....is a time machine?"
"Yes! And now thank to your meddling, we're all....we're all still alive? But how?"
"I guess he didn't cause any serious changes," Link said.
The Sprite walked back to the terminal. "Yes...yes, I see now....it can still fit together....it doesn't have to create a paradox, as long as I outfit certain key people with false memories....perhaps I'll change the Sprite's coloration, as well, just to be sure he's not recognized..."
"False memories?" Backslash asked.
"Yes, so that no one will actually KNOW that he doesn't belong there. Hmm...what's this? Phong lives in this System?"
"You know Phong?" Bob asked.
"Who doesn't know Phong? This helps a great deal. I will arrange to have a message sent to him in the past, informing him of this Sprite's situation. He can help to smooth the transition."
"Why not just go in and undo my moving him in the first place?" Jareth asked.
Link gazed levelly at the Virus. "Meddling only causes trouble. This time, the consequences of your actions were not critical, but if we were to tamper with history again....."
"We understand," AndrAIa said. "It's too risky. To change ANYTHING," she added, with a meaningful look at Matrix. She knew him well enough to know what he was thinking...with a machine like this, he could go back and prevent Bob from ever having gotten lost in the Web. And Matrix was just about impetuous enough not to think about the consequences.
Matrix sighed. "Yeah, okay."
URL typed a few final keys. "It is done. The hole has been patched, the damage repaired." He turned on the Webrunner's Crew. "Now OUT! All of you! Don't ever return to this place! Out!"
"But the Pattern...using the matrix, we could--"
"OUT!"
If they needed any further convincing, the edge of Link's sword glinting in the flourescent lighting did it.
* * *
Jareth held out his crystal, letting the red energy flow through it's surface and across the room into the identical crystal sitting atop the pedestal in the center of the Webrunner's bridge, to join the bits of the Pattern they'd already collected..
"Sorry I couldn't get any more of it."
"You should be," 308 scowled. "Had you actually succeeded for once in your life, we could have been finished with this mission and returned to Mainframe, where I could be reattached to the rest of my body. Now, thanks to your ineptitude--"
"308?" AndrAIa asked sweetly.
"Yes, my dear?" 308 answered, all the bitterness immediately dropping from his voice.
"Why don't you tell us where the next fragment of the Pattern is?"
"Of course." 308 glanced up at the screen, narrowing his eyescreens. The viewscreen brought up a display of their next destination as the mechanical head remotely accessed the data. "There. Fortunately, because of the Pattern's reverse-osmosis effect, and because we now have as much as we do, we no longer need to rely on this incompetant Virus. We need only be in the vicinity of the fragment, and the pattern will flow into the crystal of it's own accord."
"Excellent," Bob said. "Webrunner? Take us there."
"My pleasure," the ship replied in it's deep, soothing voice. "Engaging ethernet drive."
* * *
The neck that connected the birdlike head of the massive silver ship to it's body retracted, and it's finlike wings folded in, until it more closely resembled a bullet than a bird. As soon as the transformation was complete, it shot off into the Web, faster than they eye could follow.
* * *
"On the road again," Jareth said, gazing out one of the Webrunner's portholes. "If, you know, there actually were a road, that is."
"Must have been fun," Crash said. "Zipping through time like that."
"Yep. Just wish I'd thought to have the matrix show me that girl from my dream last night."
Crash raised an eyebrow, but before he could comment, Backie spoke up.
"Who was the Sprite?"
"What?"
"The Sprite that you pulled out of the timeline and left in his own past? Who was it?"
Jareth looked intently at Backie for a moment, then turned back to the porthole.
"Well?"
Jareth was silent for a few nanos, and when he did reply, he didn't turn back to face Backslash.
"I don't remember."
Chapter 3: Out of Time
The stars twinkled brightly overhead, and Jareth couldn't remember ever having seen such a clear night. In the distance, the city skyline sparkled like a diamond, each window lit. But it wasn't the sky or the scenery that had Jareth's attention. It was the stunning young lady sitting across the table from him. Her skin was as pale as the moonlight, her lips ruby-red, her hair was an even darker raven-black than his. She was wearing a low cut, jet-black evening gown with fishnet sleeves, a black lace necklace, and shining silver earrings. Her eyes were the deepest, most stunningly beautiful crystal-blue he had ever seen.
The girl laughed as Jareth made a joke. A mischevious glint appeared in her eyes, and she leaned across the table. Jareth leaned in to meet her, bringing his lips to hers.
"Jareth, wake up," Matrix said.
Jareth groaned as his dream burst like a balloon dragged through a pen full of porcupines. Matrix watched as shutters seemed to open behind Jareth's stained-glass eyes, letting their green glow shine through.
"What do you want, Matrix?" he asked, rather crankily.
"We've arrived. Bob want's everyone to meet at the bridge. Let's go," the renegade replied gruffly, exiting the bunkroom.
Jareth sighed, working his way free from his hammock. Brushing himself off, he made a mental note not to tell Electra about the beautiful goth girl with whom he'd been sharing an intimate moment, even if it WAS just a dream. You never could tell how a girl would react to certain things.
* * *
Jareth stumbled onto the bridge where the rest of the Webrunner's 'crew' had gathered. The large viewscreen at the front of the room displayed a very large, spherical portal, floating for no apparent reason in the middle of the Web.
"You woke me up for that?" Jareth asked, switching to a look of bafflement. "A portal?"
"This 'portal' is the site of The Overclock, you cretin," the severed mechanical head of 308 sneered from his position atop one of the nearby control panels. "It is a junction point from which the clockspeed of every System in existence can be monitored. Even controlled."
"And we're here because....?"
Matrix narrowed his eyes at Jareth in astonishment. "We went over this less than a a cycle ago."
Jareth stared at him blankly.
"Think, Jareth. If it controls the clockspeed for every System in the Net, then we can use this place as a junction point to collect the Pattern."
"Sounds like an awful lot of work for me," Jareth said.
"Come on," Bob said. "We have to meet with the Sprites who run this place, and see if they'll give us permission to use it."
"And if they won't?" Crash asked.
"Then we'll just have to find a way around them, won't we?" Bob smiled slyly at Jareth and Crash. "You two are good at that sort of thing. You'll think of something."
* * *
Bob, Matrix, AndrAIa, Backslash, Crash, and Jareth walked into the room, looking around curiously. The building they had entered was circular, and almost bare. The only remarkable thing in the room was a hole in the very center that seemed to descend for an eternity, hovering above which was a single massive, pulsating tear. Four workstations stood at equidistant points around the column.
"Nice place. Very....erm....," Jareth stalled.
".....Functional?" Crash offered, running a hand through his indigo hair.
"Yes, that'll do. Thanks. Very functional."
"The metal grating floors are a nice touch," Jareth continued. "Though the place would probably be warmer if they laid down some carpeting-"
"Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh dear, what are you doing here?" cried a officious-seeming Sprite in a business suit, appearing seemingly from nowhere and frantically approaching the group. The nametag on the front of his shirt read URL. "This is a restricted area," he said. "I'm afraid no one is permitted to enter this room."
"We are the crew of the Webrunner," Bob said, trying to calm the agitated Sprite. "We didn't mean any harm. We only wanted to know if we could use your matrix as a junction, so we--"
"No, no!" URL seemed to grow more disturbed with each passing nano. "You cannot be here! No one is permitted to make use of the Overclock! The risks involved in its use far outwiegh any possible advantages!"
"I'm sick of this," Matrix said, drawing Gun and stepping foreward, but before he could do anything more, there was a Swish! and the tip of Gun's barrel feel to the floor. A large Sprite stepped from the shadows, replacing his sword in its ornate sheath at his back.
The Sprite was clothed in a forest-green tunic, and it was far from clear how he'd stayed unnoticed for so long. His ears were pointed, and a large shield was strapped to his back alongside the sword.
"Ahem. This is my assosciate, Link," URL said, a bit smugly. "He is head of security here. I, as you may have guessed, am the Head Administator. You are not authorized to be here. Please leave. Now."
Bob made a slight gesture behind his back. Jareth and Crash, taking their signal, quietly stepped into the shadows, sneaking around the sprites and silently approaching the large tear. While Bob and the others continued to keep Link and URL distracted, Jareth pulled a small, flawless crystal orb from his pocket and held it out to the tear, concentrating his viral energies. Crash sneaked up to one of the workstations and typed at the keys as quietly as he could, calibrating the tear to act as the junction point they needed. Tendrils of crimson light began to flow from the tear, entering the crystal.
Unfortunately, URL saw the red light reflecting off the stainless steel wall of the room. He spun around, immediately becoming even more frantic than before when he saw Jareth standing before the tear.
"No! Get away from that!" he cried. URL rushed at the Viral Guardan, intent on dragging him away from the Overclock, but in his hurry he tripped on a piece of piping that ran from the wall to the floor. He fell foreward, running right into Jareth and knocking him off balance. The crystal fell to the floor as Jareth lost his concentration, not rolling because of the metal grating.
Everyone watched, appalled, as Jareth fell forward....right into the tear.
* * *
Well, this is an interesting experience, Jareth thought to himself. He was floating in an endless, inky black void, and gravity seemed to be out to lunch. Jareth swam through the blackness, not even having to uncase his wings.
"This is kinda fun," he said, doing the backstroke. "A bit too peaceful for my tastes, though. Wish Electra were here. That'd liven things up."
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the blackness began to dissolve. Jareth blinked....he was back in Mainframe? And he was floating a good twenty feet from the ground.
And there was Electra! But it was the old Electra.....long before she had ever downloaded her Viral codes from him, let alone fused with Daemon's golden mask. Next to her was.....Jareth did a double-take. Delk? Electra's sister? She'd been deleted by HexAnate ages ago! How could she be here?
Jareth did his third double-take in as many seconds as HexAnate herself slithered up, despite the fact that she, too, had long since been deleted. He watched, astonished, as HexAnate deleted Delkatrina, then vanished through a portal of her own creation, leaving Electra crying to herself, alone. The world fell apart, and he was once again floating in an inky void.
"If this is some kind of holo-recording, it could really use sound," Jareth said, scratching his head. "Hmm.....it brought me here when I said Electra....." Jareth looked up at the lack of sky and yelled. "Okay, now show me Kit!"
The scene dissolved again, this time replaced by the interior of the Silicon Tor. Jareth watched as this time, Megabyte deleted Kit, shoving his claws through her from behind as Backslash watched.
Jareth glared. "Whoever's running this thing has a disturbing deletion obsession," he said, as the world went black again. "Hmm....okay. Backslash."
The void around him tore itself to shreds again, and Jareth found himself in the Supercomputer.
There he was, Backslash, looking more or less as he did now, with dark blue-green skin and black hair. He was a good deal younger, though... about the age he was when Jareth first met him. Wait....back then, wasn't his hair silver? And Jareth was almost positive his skin had been blue, like Bob's... But, wrong colors or not, there was no mistake that this was, indeed, his friend.
Backslash seemed to be in a hurry, he was zipping for all he worth on his zipboard, as though he were late for something.
Jareth switched to a surprised expression. He must have been in a hurry....he didn't see the truck that was headed right for him.
Not thinking, Jareth reached out and grabbed Backslash, pulling him out of the way of the truck.
Backslash gaped in astonishment as the truck raced silently by....and then the world dissolved back into blackness.
"That was interesting," Jareth said, tilting his head to the side. "I never knew Backie'd been deleted by a truck. The things people just never talk about..."
"Wh...what happened?" Backslash asked.
Jareth spun around in surprise....Backslash was still there, floating with him in the void. Had he pulled him out of the recording?
"Umm....Hi. I'm....not really sure what just happened."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Jareth....Wait, you know me, Backie. We've been friends forever."
Backslash shook his head. "I've never seen you before in my life."
"No? Well, nice to meet you, then." Jareth grabbed Backie's hand and enthusistically shook it. "I have no idea where I am, but I was getting bored floating around by myself."
Backslash looked around him. He sighed and shook his head. "What a cycle this is turning out to be."
"Oh? Rough day?"
"I was supposed to be assigned to my own System today," Backslash said, sitting heavily down on the nothing, his head on his fist. "I overslept, was almost hit by a truck, and now I'm floating in the middle of...somewhere....with...someone."
"That does sound like quite an ordeal. Hope it all works out."
Backie shook his head. "At this point, I just want to go home."
"Maybe that can be arranged. This place can take you to people, maybe it can do places, too."
"What?"
"I'll show you." Jareth looked up into the sky and screamed. "Mainframe!"
The blackness dissolved around them, leaving them standing in the middle of Floating Point Park.
Backslash's eyes went wide. "There you go. Home," Jareth said. "I think I'm beginning to get the hang of this thi-"
In mid-word, Jareth vanished, leaving Backslash standing in the park, alone and confused.
* * *
"This isn't happening, oh my dear sweet User, tell me this isn't happening," URL frantically babbled as he hammered away at the workstation terminal. "Maybe there's still a chance....maybe he hasn't discovered yet...."
Link had the crew of the Webrunner gathered into one small group aagainst the wall, holding them at swordpoint. His expression was grim, probably upset withself at having let Crash and Jareth slip past him.
"Will you just calm down and tell us what's wrong?" AndrAIa asked gently. "Maybe we can help."
"Help? HELP? Haven't you done enough? Of course, you don't think you've done enough. You have no idea what it is you've done, do you? Well, I'll tell you, shall I? You've just seriously endangered the entire Net, that's what you've, Oh, no, sweet User, please, no...he's figured out to use it...."
"How to use the matrix? What's he going to do, start adjusting the clockspeeds of random Systems?" Bob asked.
"Please, don't let him change anything....I have to find him, pull him out before he changes something...."
"Will you take a pill, dude?" Crash said. "You're starting to get on my nerves. Is he okay, or not?"
"None of us are okay!" the Sprite screamed. "We could all be deleted if he changes anything! Oh...oh, there he is...just stay still for a moment so I can....Got him!"
The Sprite victoriously punched a key on the workstation, and a black-clothed figure came flying out of the tear, slamming firmly against the wall and sliding to the floor.
Crash and AndrAIa walked over to him. "Jareth?" AndrAIa asked. "You okay?"
"Never...better....," the virus replied, shakily.
URL called up a list of the places and times Jareth had accessed. "Oh, no....nononono...."
Matrix turned to him. "What now?"
The businesslike Sprite turned angrily on the bruised heap that was Jareth. "You pulled a Sprite out of the timeline and deposited him in his own past?! How could you?!"
"Have you any idea what you've done?" Link asked quietly.
Backslash's head snapped up, his gaze shifting sharply from Jareth up to URL.
"What are you talking about?" Jareth asked. "I played around with the holorecordings, what's the big--"
"These were no holorecordings! Do you think I've dedicated my life to protecting home movies?!"
"Well, yeah, I DID think that was a bit strange, now that you mention it..."
"This is the transtemporal matrix of the ENTIRE NET. It doesn't just monitor and control the clockspeeds of the net, it actually CHANGES TIME."
Jareth looked from the tear to the Sprite. "Are you telling me this tear ....is a time machine?"
"Yes! And now thank to your meddling, we're all....we're all still alive? But how?"
"I guess he didn't cause any serious changes," Link said.
The Sprite walked back to the terminal. "Yes...yes, I see now....it can still fit together....it doesn't have to create a paradox, as long as I outfit certain key people with false memories....perhaps I'll change the Sprite's coloration, as well, just to be sure he's not recognized..."
"False memories?" Backslash asked.
"Yes, so that no one will actually KNOW that he doesn't belong there. Hmm...what's this? Phong lives in this System?"
"You know Phong?" Bob asked.
"Who doesn't know Phong? This helps a great deal. I will arrange to have a message sent to him in the past, informing him of this Sprite's situation. He can help to smooth the transition."
"Why not just go in and undo my moving him in the first place?" Jareth asked.
Link gazed levelly at the Virus. "Meddling only causes trouble. This time, the consequences of your actions were not critical, but if we were to tamper with history again....."
"We understand," AndrAIa said. "It's too risky. To change ANYTHING," she added, with a meaningful look at Matrix. She knew him well enough to know what he was thinking...with a machine like this, he could go back and prevent Bob from ever having gotten lost in the Web. And Matrix was just about impetuous enough not to think about the consequences.
Matrix sighed. "Yeah, okay."
URL typed a few final keys. "It is done. The hole has been patched, the damage repaired." He turned on the Webrunner's Crew. "Now OUT! All of you! Don't ever return to this place! Out!"
"But the Pattern...using the matrix, we could--"
"OUT!"
If they needed any further convincing, the edge of Link's sword glinting in the flourescent lighting did it.
* * *
Jareth held out his crystal, letting the red energy flow through it's surface and across the room into the identical crystal sitting atop the pedestal in the center of the Webrunner's bridge, to join the bits of the Pattern they'd already collected..
"Sorry I couldn't get any more of it."
"You should be," 308 scowled. "Had you actually succeeded for once in your life, we could have been finished with this mission and returned to Mainframe, where I could be reattached to the rest of my body. Now, thanks to your ineptitude--"
"308?" AndrAIa asked sweetly.
"Yes, my dear?" 308 answered, all the bitterness immediately dropping from his voice.
"Why don't you tell us where the next fragment of the Pattern is?"
"Of course." 308 glanced up at the screen, narrowing his eyescreens. The viewscreen brought up a display of their next destination as the mechanical head remotely accessed the data. "There. Fortunately, because of the Pattern's reverse-osmosis effect, and because we now have as much as we do, we no longer need to rely on this incompetant Virus. We need only be in the vicinity of the fragment, and the pattern will flow into the crystal of it's own accord."
"Excellent," Bob said. "Webrunner? Take us there."
"My pleasure," the ship replied in it's deep, soothing voice. "Engaging ethernet drive."
* * *
The neck that connected the birdlike head of the massive silver ship to it's body retracted, and it's finlike wings folded in, until it more closely resembled a bullet than a bird. As soon as the transformation was complete, it shot off into the Web, faster than they eye could follow.
* * *
"On the road again," Jareth said, gazing out one of the Webrunner's portholes. "If, you know, there actually were a road, that is."
"Must have been fun," Crash said. "Zipping through time like that."
"Yep. Just wish I'd thought to have the matrix show me that girl from my dream last night."
Crash raised an eyebrow, but before he could comment, Backie spoke up.
"Who was the Sprite?"
"What?"
"The Sprite that you pulled out of the timeline and left in his own past? Who was it?"
Jareth looked intently at Backie for a moment, then turned back to the porthole.
"Well?"
Jareth was silent for a few nanos, and when he did reply, he didn't turn back to face Backslash.
"I don't remember."