v.05.05 - Complications
"Dot, I'm sorry!" Bob shouted, following behind her on his zip board.
"And so you should be!" She shouted back, tears streaming down her face. "Why Bob, why did you lie to me?"
"But I didn't lie!" The guardian responded, following her closely. "I didn't even tell you!"
The green sprite stopped short on her zip board and turned around to face him. "A lie by omission is still a lie, Bob." She said very quietly, giving him one last look before leaving.
Bob didn't follow - Hex was waiting for him in Kits.
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Mouse was lying on the ground, half laughing, when Ray came down to meet her.
"How're you doing, Love?"
"I'm good, Sugar, I'm good...."
The surfr laid down on the ground beside her and held her hand.
"Marry me, Mouse." He lolled his head to the side just in time to see her reaction.
"Yes!" She repeated it over and over, kissing and hugging him like it was the last time she'd ever have a chance to do so.
-Game Over, The User Wins-
Their attention flew immediately to Ghetty Prime. The entire system had gone still.
"Oh Ray..." She leaned over and buried her face in his chest, trying not to cry; she knew who was in that game. She hadn't even really realized that there was a game in progress in the system until it was over.
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Phong, in the Principal Office, let his gaze fall to the floor. He was upset that Matrix and AndrAIa had lost the game, but they had been through game-hopping before. It was Dot that he was worried for.
Specky looked over at the old sprite and said: "There's been a nullification in the G-Prime."
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Bob was just touching down in Kits, and Hex approaching him, when the game announcement sounded.
Hexadecimal looked at him with concern. "Bob, who was in that game?" She asked slowly.
"I don't know - we should probably get to the Principal Office and find out what's going on. We can get you a PID while we're at it."
"I don't have a zip-board."
"Not a problem." Bob formed a portal and in an instant they were where they needed to be.
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Dot stopped in the air as the system voice rang out. This couldn't be happening...not again. Who had been lost this time? Ray didn't enter the games, Mouse avoided them most of the time as well...that left Matrix and AndrAIa.
"No..." She whispered it fearfully, and her knees became weak. Just get to the Principal Office.
Hexadecimal walked into the command room with Bob at her side, and everyone went quiet. Phong rolled over to the pair and steepled his fingers.
"Bob, Hexadecimal, have you heard the news? Matrix and AndrAIa lost the game - there was one nullification in the sector." Phong took Hexadecimal's presence in stride and just handed over an icon, registering the new sprite in the system. "Bob, would you be willing to go down to the G-Prime-"
"Of course - I'll bring back the null so you can find out who it is..."
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Bob was leaving the Principal Office as Dot was arriving, but he was sure to stop and give her a hug.
"I'm sorry, Dot..." He whispered in her ear, holding her close even when she tried to push away. She was only trying to get away because she felt betrayed; in truth, she loved how safe she felt in Bob's arms.
"Dot, I have to go to Ghetty-Prime. I'll be back soon." He kissed her on the forehead and left on his zip-board.
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Matrix had gone through three games since he had left Mainframe, but as this one ended, he had a good feeling that he wasn't too far from home. He changed his icon and waited to see where he'd end up, and found himself in the middle of a track-and-field arena. Guardians were slowly approaching from every direction - coming out of the building, through portals, or on zip-boards. Catching a glimpse of Turbo, he assumed he was in the SuperComputer, and probably in the in the Guardian Academy.
Straightening his slouched posture, and becoming stone-faced, he held stock-still as the Prime Guardian approached.
"Cadet Matrix?" The first portion of that had been thrown in at the last moment, but the renegade decided to roll with it.
"Yes Sir, Prime Guardian." The green sprite replied in a strong, clear voice.
"At ease, Cadet." Turbo could see that maintaining his composure was proving to be a difficult thing for Matrix. "Have you been game-hopping again?"
"Turbo, we need to talk, in private."
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After informing Prime Guardian Turbo of what had occurred - the game, his basic mistake, AnrdAIa's nullification - he began to break down.
"Turbo, how can I go back to Mainframe?" He asked sorrowfully, his voice shaking as he suppressed tears that he should've shed long ago as a child. "I nullified her...and the way it happened." He shook his head. "If I hadn't been so basic...if I hadn't pushed her away..."
Turbo walked around from his side of the desk and rested a hand on the green sprite's shoulder.
"Matrix, what happened in that game wasn't your fault." He paused and silence consumed them for a moment. "Your family won't turn you away. What happened was an accident."
"Turbo, I want to become a guardian." Matrix had said it in a fashion that made the Prime wonder if he had even been heard.
"Alright Matrix...I'll sign you up as a mature cadet. You'll start in three or four cycles, but I want you to get in contact with your family and friends. Let everyone know that you're okay."
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"It has been confirmed." Phong said through a vidwindow while in the laboratory. "The null is AndrAIa."
Dot put her elbows on her desk and her face in her hands. When she had come into the Principal Office she had avoided everyone, even resisted the urge to strangle Hex, and gone straight to her office. She had been looking over every theory she had ever seen on restoring nullified sprites, trying to filter out the junk and find things that would actually be useful, but it was so hard.
"My child, do not fret. Together we will find the solution." The nodded, picking up all of her read-me files and anything else she thought she might need. As she left her office, she bumped into Mouse.
"I heard what happened Sugar, and I'll help in any way that I can. You just say the word and I'll be there."
"Thanks Mouse; I'm sure we'll need you before this is all over."
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"Bob, I want you in the next game that comes into this system. Collect the data like we've reviewed and transport the data back here; hand it off to Mouse. She's engineered a device that she thinks can restore AndrAIa, with the help of Glitch. I'll be on the controls, Phong will be monitoring and ready for damage control. Now, since we don't have ideal medical facilities, Ray, you have to be ready to bring her from here to the SuperComputer in under half a microsecond...that's under thirty milliseconds. We've got the null in the device already, so that we can start whenever a game does. I've contacted the top medical facility in the SuperComputer, and they've got sprites standing by. Are we clear?" Dot ran through the instruction like she would any battle tactic, not waiting for responses.
"What about me?" Hexadecimal asked meekly. "Is there nothing that I can do?"
"Just stay out of my way Hex, and you'll have done more than I could hope for." Dot stated, walking away.
Mouse pulled her hair picks out and for the first time in front other sprites she her hair fall down around her shoulders. There was more stress on her than she even knew. She wanted to tell the entire net that she and Ray were engaged, but it just wasn't the right time. Then, this whole thing with AndrAIa...if it didn't work then she'd be to blame...and Matrix was lost in the games for a second time.
"I just don't understand why this is all happening..." She said, almost to herself. "I figured that we'd finally get some peace, now that Daemon and Megabyte are gone."
"I've always warned that chaos would triumph over order." Hex commented bluntly. "To think that I used to embrace the thought though..."
"You sure picked a hum-dinger of a time to show up, didn't you, Hex?" Mouse replied, a hint of a laugh in her voice. "You've never had good timing."
This was the closest thing to acceptance that the white sprite had gotten from anyone other than Bob since she had been restored. She didn't really know what to say. "Well," She began slowly, uncertainly. "I'll have to work on that, once things settle down again."
-Warning, Incoming Game. Warning, Incoming Game.-
"Okay, let's move people!" Dot shouted.
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It was two cycles before Matrix even dared to let anyone in Mainframe know he was okay. It had taken him that long to work up the nerve. Sitting in the quarters Turbo had assigned him the day he arrived, he took a deep breath and pulled up a vidwindow to begin a conversation with Dot. It nearly broke his heart when he found her with her head on her desk, crying in her office. She tried to be so tough, so strong, but she was falling apart inside and he knew it.
"Hi Dot." Matrix spoke softly, trying not to startle her too much. She hadn't seemed to notice that a vidwin had even come up.
"Matrix?" She looked up, expecting to see no more than a figment of her imagination, but when she saw that she wasn't just lost in her thoughts, her eyes lit up like two sparks in the dark. "Matrix!"
"Yeah, it's me. I just needed to let you know that I'm okay. How are you doing, Dot?"
For once, she decided to let down her guard and tell her brother the truth. "Not so good, Matrix. Things are pretty random around here..." She paused, contemplating her next words. "Hex is back."
"What? How d-"
The door to Dot's office opened and AndrAIa walked past the vidwindow.
"AndrAIa!" He was sure that he'd yelled loud enough for the entire dormitory to hear, but that didn't matter.
"Hi Lover..." She turned and was all smiles and tears. "I'm so glad you're okay."
"AndrAIa, I thought you'd been nullified..." The renegade was simply in shock.
"I was, but everyone here worked until they knew how to restore me, so, here I am. Please, let's never, never fight again."
"Never AndrAIa, I promise." Matrix heard someone come into his dorm room and glanced over his shoulder. "I have to go - tell everyone I'm okay. I'll be home as soon as possible."
The vidwin was closed, and Matrix turned to face the entrant, finding Turbo yet again.
"Turbo, I have to go home to Mainframe."
"I know, Matrix." None of this shocked him. "But you have things to attend to here first; I can delay your enrollment, but you have to give your speech on game-hopping."
"Reschedule it; I have to go home right now...they've restored AndrAIa."
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"So, Bob, tell me, how are things between you and Dot?" Hex, who had been staying at Bob's apartment the past few cycles, surprisingly without attempting to seduce the guardian, asked as they approached Dot's Diner.
Bob turned and looked at her. He shouldn't lie to her, but he wasn't sure if he was ready to tell her. "Um...they've been..." He paused for a nano, and then sighed. "They've been distant, to say the least, Hex. I don't know what to do."
Hexadecimal tilted her head to the side slightly, and placed her hands on her hips. "Will you never learn that she is extremely fickle?"
He sighed again and was about to start walking again, when Hex gently held his arm and pulled him in close to her. She slowly leaned forward to kiss him, and when he didn't flinch, she went for it. To her surprise though, he returned the kiss, rather than shying away.
"Oh, Bob..." The sexy sprite said in a sultry tone as the kiss ended.