v.05.04 - Surprise
"There...we did it!" Mouse was almost jubilant over the reconstruction of the mask. "I never thought we'd get it done."
"Yeah..." Bob chuckled a little. "It only took us three and a half micros."
"Are you serious?" The hacker was astounded.
"Yep." He looked at the mask on the table, and then to Mouse. "You know, you should go see Ray. He did just get in, after all."
She nodded. "You're right; you don't mind?"
"No, not at all Mouse." He waved a hand dismissively. "Besides, there's not much you can do to help now."
"Alright, as long as you're sure."
"Yes, yes...now go." He gently pushed her towards the door. "If I need you, I'll let you know." As the entrance sealed itself, he scratched the back of his neck. "Now, let's see what I can do here...Glitch, Mend!"
Watching as a gentle golden glow covered the mask and the cracks faded, he began to question himself. Was he really doing to right thing by trying to restore Hex, or would he just be causing more problems for everyone? He knew how much Matrix despised her, and had come to learn just what Dot thought of her as well. AndrAIa had seemed impartial, as had Ray, and Mouse held her skepticism. He shook his head and issued another command - restore.
Holding his breath, he witnessed the rematerialization of Hexadecimal's bitmap, but didn't see any light returning to her eyes. He ran a scan on her, and everything came up negative. There was no more life in her than there was in his zip board. Needless to say, he was disappointed, but maybe it was for the better. He didn't really know.
He was just about to turn and leave when he heard a dry, drowsy voice.
"Guardian?"
"Hex!" The glow was returning to her eyes and she slowly seemed to be approaching lucidity. "How do you feel?"
"Bob..." She was still putting things together. "You did this?"
"Yes, I did." He almost didn't believe it himself. She even appeared to defragged, and somewhat like the sprite he had known. The only thing that disappointed him was that her face was the mask it had been previously - different expressions could only be shown with different masks.
She sat up tardily and looked directly into his eyes. Her words were at first soft and gentle. "I don't know whether I should kiss you..." Then her words turned to a maddened shriek and her mask to unnerving evil. "Or kill you!"
As the virus leapt at him, a vidwindow with Dot's face shot up, instantly shattered by her fist. Glitch produced a containment field and Guardian tried to work damage control.
"Hex, take it easy. I only want to help." His words were formed with precision lest he disrupt the fragile and most likely temporary calm that had descended on her.
"I know, Bob..." Her mask changed to desperately sad. "I'm just so confused. One part of me tells me to destroy you, while the other tells me to love you."
"I understand Hex." He was searching for words. "Uh, H-hex, do you remember the time I defragmented you?"
Her face became pensive. "I do...somewhat..."
"Good. I want to do it again. Will you let me?"
"Never!" She screeched, immediately enraged. "I will destroy you!"
"No Hex, you don't want to-"
"Have you married Dot?" In an instant, she was chipper and cheerful again.
"Actually no, but that's not important right now." He tried to stray her - he was not comfortable talking to her about this...not yet.
"Wonderful!" She released a sincerely happy laugh. "Perhaps you should defragment me then!"
He wasn't going to wait for her to argue or change her mind. Dropping the containment field in an instant, he held the keytool up and started the defragmenting process. It was not like it had been before. Hexadecimal fell very quiet, as if remembering and not wanting to fight what was happening. She was quite visibly in pain, but she held her calm in a fashion that Bob had never before witnessed from her. Finally he lowered Glitch and caught Hex as her knees buckled.
"Oh Bob..." She looked up at him, her face beaming. "Thank you so much."
She stood straight up and wrapped her arms around him, dipping him into a kiss. He didn't fight her, but waited with patience. She had come back from deletion - it was understandable that she was so happy. When released, he prepared to speak, but was cut off by the benign virus. "Bob, I want to be a sprite again, like I was before I went into the core."
Guardian 452 nodded vigorously. "I can't promise you that it will work, but I'm willing to try."
Hexadecimal paused and looked him up and down. "You're shorter than you where when I left..." She squeezed at one of his biceps. "And you're not as muscular either."
Bob laughed uncomfortably. "Well, when I separated from Glitch..."
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AndrAIa strode towards Dot's Diner, with Matrix trailing behind.
"Will you at least let me walk with you?" The green sprite pleaded with frustration.
"No, Matrix, I'm still mad at you." She replied in monotone.
"Oh come off it! What do you want from me?" He jogged up to her. "I don't know what else to do!" He looked at her helplessly.
"Matrix, there's nothing you can do - I'm still angry with you, and I can't make it just go away."
"But why?" He threw his arms out to his sides. "This is what I don't understand. Why are you still mad?"
She sighed and looked into his eyes. "What you did really hurt me...I'm still a little miffed, that's all."
He let out a groan while clenching his fists, and shook his hands at her. "Fine, be angry!" He shouted, stomping away.
"Where are you going?" She hollered to him, turning around.
She received no response.
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"What is going on in there?" Dot asked herself, staring at a vidwin of static. "I thought I saw Hex, but it's...it's just not possible."
"My child!" Phong wheeled into her office. "There is a virus in the Principal Office!"
"A virus? Are you sure?" She followed him out into the control room and looked at the numerous screens that displayed various warnings and statistics. "Can you get a visual?"
A screen displayed the room Bob was in, but all that it caught was a closing portal. All the statistics and warnings changed. There was no more virus - everything was safe, but where was Bob? Had it been him who made the portal, or even brought the virus into the P.O.? No, don't be so foolish. He wouldn't bring a virus here intentionally.
"Dot, there is an anomaly in Lost Angles!" The followed Phong's eyes to the stats.
Before she could even ask for it, a visual was on-screen. "How is this possible?" She asked under her breath, tears welling in her eyes. "Phong, I'm going out there...I have to know what's happening."
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"I think that does it..." Hex said, panting. "I haven't got any power left to drain out of me..."
"Good, good..." The gears were turning over in Bob's head as he spoke. "Now, the nulls came to you last time, but I don't know if they will now. Maybe you should try to call them to you."
"Are you random? Bob, there's just no power for me to work with." She gave him an apologetic expression.
"Please, just try." The guardian kept his tone level, but was anxious to see the outcome of this experiment.
"Alright...I suppose the weaker I am, the better my chances are..." She closed her eyes in concentration, trying to call the nulls to her. Her eyebrows knit, and hands tensed like claws, she put all her effort into summoning them to her, but found that nothing was happening. "Bob, I don't think it's-" Before she could finish the thought, swarms of nulls appeared from all directions and latched onto her. Letting out a piercing cry, she succumbed to the situation, hoping that she would come out of it a sprite...if she came out at all.
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Mouse and Ray linked hands as they walked along the ports of the data sea. It was like being in a whole other net...one all to themselves. She missed this closeness with him. He was always gone so often that she rarely got time to enjoy just being around him.
"Mouse, there's something I've been meaning to ask you..." Tracer stopped walking and took hold of both her hands. "For a long time, I never felt like there was anywhere that I belonged, but when I met you, all of that changed. I realized that it wasn't where I was that mattered, but who I was with, and I'm happiest when I'm with you." He knelt down on one knee in front of her, and looked up into her gleaming eyes - she was on the verge of tears. "Mouse, will you-" A noise above them stopped him.
"Oh no..." The hacker looked up at the sky. "We're online!"
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"We're online!" Specky anxiously shouted to Phong.
"Ooh dear..." The old sprite replied, tapping away at the control pad in an attempt to offline the system. "Oh dear!"
On-screen a huge insect came through the opening in the system and landed near the data sea, cracking docks and cement in the blink of an eye.
"There's a bug in the system!" Another binome in the room yelled.
A vidwindow leapt up in front of Phong.
"Don't worry 'bout the bug, Mate - Mouse and I have got it under control."
"I trust your abilities, my son." Phong had scarcely said the words when he saw the purple sprite scooped up in the background and struggling to free herself.
"Oh, bits! Gotta' go!" The vidwin was gone and Ray was off to a fight.
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"Matrix!" AndrAIa had finally caught up with him near Ghetty Prime. "Will you at least stop and talk to me?"
"What can there possibly be to talk about?" The renegade enquired bitterly. "I've tried to make up for it! I forget one thing and it sticks in your memory forever!"
"Matrix...please just-"
-Warning, incoming Game, Warning, incoming Game-
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" The burly green sprite snorted as the game cube landed.
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"Bob! What's going on?" Dot shouted from her zip board as she made a landing.
"Dot!" He didn't know what to do. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see what was going on...the readings on Lost Angles were-"
Bob cut her off. "Don't worry about this - I've got it under control. Just - just..."
"Bob, why is Hexadecimal-"
The nulls rose up like a huge tower, and then mushroomed down and away from the one whom they had attacked. She looked down at her white and gold hands and displayed a radiant smile.
"You did it!" She squealed, running over to Bob and leaping into his arms. "Thank you!"
"You did this?" Dot gasped. "Why?" Her lower lip began to tremble, and she covered her mouth, turning away from the pair.
"Dot, wait..." Hex sounded so sincere and gentle, but it made the turn on her heel and slap the former virus across the face. The white sprite touched a hand to her cheek, watching as Dot zipped away.
"I have to go talk to her." Guardian 452 said, squeezing one of Hexadecimal's hands. "Go to Kits - I'll meet you there."
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"Mouse!" The bug dropped her to the ground from a height several storeys. He was going to run to her, but she ordered him elsewhere.
"Get over there and delete that thing!" She commanded.
He got on his baud and flew right up into the face of the hideous creature, flying so close to it that he almost hit it. Then, crouching down and grabbing his baud, he flicked himself backwards and up behind the creature, landing on the back of its neck.
"Ray!" She threw one of her swords up to him and he drove it down through the back of the neck, moving away as swiftly as possible as the form exploded into a mass of tiny particles.
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"Have you ever been in this game before?" Matrix asked his game sprite lover, looking around an unfamiliar terrain.
"No...you?" She responded, also taking in the landscape.
"Afraid not. Well, time to find out the objective." Noting a small man wearing a blue tunic in the distance, he looked back to AndrAIa. "I think he's our target."
"Looks small for a User..." She commented. "What is he after?" Her eyes caught on a castle on the horizon. At the top of the dark structure was a golden triangle. That was the direction the User was going in, so she assumed it was the triangle he wanted.
"Matrix, look there!" She pointed his gaze in the right direction.
He simply nodded and ReBooted, waiting a nano for her to do the same. His skin became a dark, almost olive green. Most of his hair was absent, and what remained was turned from green to orange. He wore black armor with a grand red cape, as well as a crown that rested flat, setting a red jewel dead centre on his forehead.
AndrAIa was given a white two-piece suit - the outfit of a harem girl. The entire ensemble was white. At either side of her hips were sheathed scimitars. Her hair was swept up into a high pony-tail and her eyelids covered in heavy aqua eye shadow.
Matrix quickly became aware of his abilities, and discovered that he could fly. "Come on!" He called, grabbing her by the wrist as he rose into the air. They would get to the top of the tower first and they would win. He knew it.
Arriving at the top of the tower, they found their opponent already there and approaching the golden triangle.
"Drop me here!" AndrAIa instructed, landing directly in front of the User.
Drawing her scimitars, she began fighting, strugging with the small man she had thought would be easy to beat. He managed to get three hits in on her with his sword, and she fell to the ground, out of the game and unconscious.
It was all up to Matrix now. He had wanted to cheat, but something had held him back. He cursed on himself - he could have had that triangle while she fought. Well, the User was going to pay now.
He spun a small ball of black magic and launched it at the auburn-haired User in the blue tunic, who instantly launched it back with his sword. Matrix blocked with is cape and returned the ball. This continued for several nanos, and then Matrix' reflexes failed him; he didn't pull the cape around in time.
The hit sent pain shooting through his bitmap, and he lurched forward in the air. Before he had a chance to look up, an arrow made of light shot him in the chest and was absorbed by his body. As he fell to the ground, the User leapt at him with his sword set to strike, but he saw the motion and kicked the User, sending him flying towards the edge of the tower. Regaining power, he began spinning a much greater ball than before. He saw also that AndrAIa was recovering; even if she couldn't play, that was a good sign. The User got back on his feet, and Matrix fired the magic, watching it split into many smaller balls, three of which made contact, rumbling like thunder. The User completely collapsed and the renegade ran over to finish him. Picking him up by the throat, he began to squeeze tighter and tighter, when he heard AndrAIa scream.
It was then that the User pierced Matrix' abdomen with his sword. AndrAIa ran to him as he let out a cry. That was it - the User had won.
The gamesprite reached to change his icon for him, but he grabbed her hand.
"I can't go through this again, AndrAIa, I can't."
She ignored him and double-clicked his icon with her other hand, but as she did so he pushed her away and she stumbled backward without a chance to change her own icon as the game lifted.
"No!" The renegade bellowed the word at the top of his lungs. He had been willing to face nullification himself, but never wanted his love to suffer it. Now he had to game-hop alone, carrying with him the guilt of nullifying the only woman he'd ever been in love with.