v.05.06 - History
Matrix stepped through the portal provided for him, and breathed the fresh, Mainframe air. He had made sure he'd be less than a stone's throw away from the Principal Office - he knew that's where everyone would be.
Before he even reached the steps of the building, AndrAIa came bolting through the doors, down the stairs, and on top of Matrix. Lying on the ground they embraced each other with the most passionate lip-lock either of them could ever recall, but regaining her modesty, the gamesprite pulled out of the kiss and helped her lover to his feet.
Dot was the next in line. She ran to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, and he enveloped her with his gigantic arms.
"Don't you ever do this to me again." She said almost angrily, crying so hard that she thought she might be meeting her deletion. "I just can't lose you again."
Soon he was crowded by people, both sprites and binomes, welcoming him home, but there was a distinct absence in the group.
"Where's Bob?" He asked, looking through the group.
"Hang on, I'll track him down." Using her wristband communicator, Mouse managed to contact Bob through Glitch.
"Did you miss the news-flash, Honey?" The hacker asked, taunting him. "Get down here - Matrix came home."
"We'll be right there." Bob said it without so much as a second thought. "Come on, Hex; they're looking for us down at the Principal Office - Matrix is back."
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"I don't know about this Bob...maybe I should just stay out of the way..." Hexadecimal replied anxiously as the group came into view.
"No, Hex...you should go to see him too. I know the two of you haven't exactly gotten along well before, but if you show him that you're glad to have him back, that may change a little." Guardian 452 coaxed, trying to help her build some confidence. She was a much more mild- mannered sprite than the Hex he remembered, but it seemed to be a change for the better. At least now she tried to think about the consequences of her actions.
He put his hand in the crook of her back and led her out into the crowd of people, where she immediately flashed a smile and ran to Matrix, giving him a warm hug. "It's good to see that you're home safe and sound, Matrix, Darling." She kissed him on the cheek and smiled again.
The renegade seemed flabbergasted, but made himself smile. "Thanks, Hex. It's good to see that you're well." He had to at least go through the normal pleasantries with her. Not because he wanted to, but because he had to. This wasn't something he wanted to ruin with a fit of rage.
"Matrix...Mr. Indestructible..." Bob gave him a hug. "Glad to be home?"
"Bob, you have no idea."
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With only a few milliseconds of light left in the cycle, Bob decided to take a walk with Dot.
"We really need to talk." The guardian had said, and despite the comment, the two of them remained silent.
They walked probably half of the system before they actually stopped to speak to one another, and convenience had by then placed them on a bench in Floating Point Park.
"Dot, when I first saw you..." He paused, swallowing the lump in his throat and taking her hands in his. "When I first saw you, I thought that you were the woman that I would marry and have children with. I thought that you were the only sprite I could ever love...I was always happy when I was with you..." Dot smiled modestly, and radiantly, her expression soft and calm. "But time has brought a lot of changes to our relationship. When I came back from the web, we were so distant from one another, and then, when I finally thought we were ready to be married, Megabyte showed up and destroyed those plans too. I tried to be what you wanted, risked deletion for you, and still you pushed me away." The looked so full of shame in that moment; this was harder than Bob had imagined it would be. "Dot, I thought I would always love you, but-"
"No, Bob..." She knew what was coming. "Please don't say it. I don't think I can handle it..."
"Dot, I have to...I..." He swallowed the second lump that had formed in his throat. "I don't love you anymore. I'm sorry."
Dot simply got up and left, the pain in her heart stronger than she could have ever imagined it would be.
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"Dot, Sugar, Ray and I have some great news..." Mouse was absolutely gleeful. "We're gettin' married!" The hacker almost squealed when she spoke.
"Oh, that's fantastic, Mouse. When is the wedding?" The wanted to hang the two of them for being so fragging happy, but she knew she didn't have the right to deny them their love, even if she couldn't have hers.
"We haven't got a date yet, but you know you're going to be a bridesmaid."
"That's wonderful, you two." She began to feel teary-eyed. "Look, I've gotta' go see Enzo at the SuperComputer."She lied. "I'll talk to you both later. Congratulations."
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"AndrAIa, I'm so sorry for what happened in that game." Matrix had said it to her about a thousand times since he had returned to Mainframe. It was like he had to or she'd disappear again.
"Matrix, you can stop telling me that. I've told you that everything's alright. I love you - nothing can ever change that." She hugged him and gave him a little kiss as they entered the diner, ordering a pair of energy shakes.
They were quite happy to be in the diner, but a portal drew them back outside. Through it, entering on a gold baud, a tall, slender, and busty female sprite with short white hair and golden skin. Her eyes were scarlet red, and she wore nothing but a black form-fitting suit that had holes cut in the most provocative of places. One dipped from her collar-bone to her clavicle, opening wide in the centre to show a great amount of cleavage. There was a cut of the same shape in the back of the outfit that stopped just below the crook of her back. A hole also started at her belly-button and ran on a descending angle to her right hip, wrapping down her leg.
Matrix' eyes nearly fell from his head when he saw her, and AndrAIa hit him in the chest.
"Put your eyes back in your head, buddy, or you'll be losing them." The stranger said, walking up to the pair. "I'm looking for one Ray Tracer. Seen him around?"
"I don't know...depends on who's looking for him." Matrix replied coolly.
"I'm here to settle an old score; that's all you need to know." She spoke very firmly.
"Sorry, that's not good enough." AndrAIa said, stepping in front of her. "So, you're also a surfr..." The gamesprite commented, noticing the woman's icon.
"And the two of you are gamesprites...or game-hoppers." She mimicked, noticing that both of their icons were in the appropriate mode.
"What's your name?" AndrAIa asked.
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"If you must know, my name is Ms. Dos. Now, can you help me find Tracer, or am I on my own?"
Before either of them offered a response, she was on her baud and exploring the sectors of Mainframe, trying to decide where her fellow surfur would be. She saw something odd near Floating Point and decided to take a peek. Hovering behind two sprites, one male and one female, she decided it was time to speak.
"Ray? Ray Tracer? Is that you?"
Tracer stopped in his tracks, slowly turning to face the woman. "It's me, alright. What're you doing here?"
"I came to repay a debt, if that's okay with you."
Mouse, standing just behind her fianceé, murmured: "Ray, what's going on here?" But it was an unheard comment.
"You listen to me Dos, I saved your system, and you tried to delete me! The last thing I want is a reward from you."
Ray grabbed Mouse's hand and the two began walking. He was cursing on himself for having left his baud home - with the two of them on foot, she could unfortunately follow with ease.
"I was infected, Ray. I didn't know what I was doing..."
"And because of that, I have to spend the rest of my cycles wearing these cursed goggles!" He shouted, turning again to face her. "You did this to me! You started toying with my code until I couldn't see or hear! The only reason I can now is because my brother came for me and signed me on for an experimental procedure!"
Ms. Dos got off her baud and walked up to him, reaching out to place a hand on his cheek. He didn't pull away, but it took everything he had in him not to delete her on the spot.
Mouse was a step ahead of the game though, and already had a katana drawn. "You touch him and I'll subdivide you." The hacker spoke with malice.
The female surfr dropped her hand to her side. "Ray, I've been trying to find you for so long...please just hear me out."
Heaving a sigh, he motioned for Mouse to lower her weapon. "Fine...what've you got to say?"
"Well, I saw your gamesprite friends, and I noticed the man has a cybernetic eye. I want to give you the opportunity to get something similar done, but you'd gain your hearing back as well. You see, the procedure is relatively new-" She paused. "It has only been done on one other sprite..."
"Who?" Tracer was intrigued, but he wasn't ready to give her his trust just yet.
"Me." She pulled back her hair, and behind either of her ears was a flat, silver disc with a hole in the centre...it seemed to go right into her head. She then closed her eyes and opened them again, revealing two silver balls.
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"Ray, this is a great opportunity for you, Sugar." Mouse didn't seem too pleased, but knew a good thing when she saw it. "I'd take her up on it if I were you."
Ms. Dos had willingly gone to the Principal Office to set up a presentation that went over the procedure, giving the surfr and the hacker some time to talk. They had automatically headed for Dot's Diner, and Ray decided to explain his history to Mouse before making any decision.
"I know it's a good idea, Mouse - she wouldn't have taken the chance of losing her eyes and ears if she had thought it wouldn't work. But that tells you what she's like too. She couldn't find anyone willing to volunteer for the surgery, so she had to have it done on herself. When the blind and deaf don't want to see and hear again..." Ray assumed she understood where he was going with his little speech and trailed off.
"So, what happened to give her such a bad rep? And how're you involved?"
"It was a long time ago...I was probably only 1.3 or so. My brother and I had fled my home system during a crash, and my brother trained me on how to be a surfr like himself. The two of us were almost unstoppable - we were right up there with guardians when people talked about us. We caught wind of trouble in a system not all that different from Mainframe, and headed on our way to see if we could help sort things out. You see, after we abandoned our own system, we both tried to compensate for our guilt by fixing other people's problems.
"Anyhow, we arrived there and things were rather peaceful. The resident virus had taken over without a problem, and Ms. Dos, of the system, now also turned surfr, was at the head of military operations. I don't know how she knew we were coming, but she did. My brother managed to escape the ambush despite the fact that I didn't, and I told him not to come back for me.
"In a public display, she unraveled and rewrote my code to show the population that it could be done. She took away my sight and completely removed the ears from my head. Then she left me helpless in the streets. A rebel force had been brewing an attack, but as soon as this was seen, the talks were gone.
"I don't know how long I was there...it could've been micros, it could have been cycles, but my pleas for help were ignored. I was ready to give up and let that just be the end - but then my brother came. I don't know how I knew it was him, but I knew. After that, I offlined.
"When I woke again I was in a hospital bed with him by my side. He asked me if I could see him, if I could hear him, and then he told me he had to go. He said he'd be back soon...I never saw him again." Ray paused. "These goggles have been on my face ever since. They're fused right into my head. Even if I wanted to take them off I couldn't."
"Oh Honey..." Mouse got up and walked over to his side of the booth. "I'm so sorry." She gave him a small kiss and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him and holding him close. "I never could've imagined...."
Ray sighed.
"It's too bad history never stays in the past."
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Dot was sitting silently in Phong's office, watching his perpetual motion device swing back and forth, trying not to cry.
"Phong, I just don't know what I'm going to do..."
"My child, change is a positive thing with a negative beginning. There have been many losses that were not for the better, but you and Bob did not have a healthy relationship." Phong stopped for a moment. "It was very scarce to see both of you happy when with one another."
"But I love him, Phong." She clenched her hands in fists. "I need him. I need him like I've never needed anyone before."
"These matters are not mine to control, my child. If you seek a resolution, you must first seek the source of disruption."
Dot nodded vigorously. "Thank you Phong." She left the room with purpose in her footsteps.
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AndrAIa took Matrix' hand in hers as the pair strode the streets of Wall Street. He had been acting different lately, but she wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
"Something bothering you, Lover?" She asked softly, glancing up at him.
"Not really...I've just had a lot to think about lately." His brow furrowed slightly. "That game had a pretty strong effect on me."
"How so?" It was probably a basic question, but she had to ask it. He was opening up and she wasn't going to stop the conversation now.
"I just realized how much I love you, and how much of a dipstick I've been since we returned to Mainframe...since before we got back." He took both of her petite hands in his giant mitts and looked at her. "I think I want to become a guardian...Turbo helped me enroll, and there's still time before the semester starts..."
AndrAIa's face lit up with a broad smile. "Oh, Matrix, that's wonderful!"
"He doesn't expect me to go, you know..." The renegade almost sounded like he was trying to justify his decision, despite the fact that it was a wise one.
The gamesprite ignored the comment. "Just think how happy everyone will be! Even Enzo!"
"Yeah...he wants to join the Academy soon too, you know." Matrix scratched the back of his neck. "He said that as soon as he gets better he wants to be enrolled."
AndrAIa nodded. "When is he due to come home?"
"I'd say within a cycle or two." The green sprite slipped an arm around is lover's waist.
"We have to tell the others that we're moving..." The female sprite commented.
"Moving? Are you serious?"
"Well Sparky, I don't want to be here all by my lonesome while the man I love is off at the SuperComputer, but if we get an apartment together..."
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"Yeah Turbo, I'll take care of it...don't worry." Bob said through a vidwin as he sat down on his sofa.
"Oh, I'll be needing that piece of the mask back soon, too." The Prime Guardian commented.
"Um, about that-"
"Bob, who is it?" Hexadecimal walked into view. "Oh, hello. Am I interrupting?"