Chapter 2 Identity

Mainframe was at the end of a cycle and had begun to power down. Enzo sat at the edge of park, where it dropped down into the next sector. His head was hung and he just looked down at his feet. Next to him was Bob, who was just getting up. Matrix stood a good ways away, leaning against a tree. Frisket was far off in the field nearby chasing loose screws and flying bolts. The guardian moved over to where Matrix was and looked back towards where the young sprite sat. Neither of them had mentioned the fact that Enzo's icon had changed back to Hexadecimal's colors, and Enzo hadn't brought it up, so it was left unsaid for the moment.

"How's he doing? Energy levels okay?" Matrix asked. He was leaning back in a seemingly relaxed pose, but inside he was worried for his younger self.

"Not good. It's not his Energy levels though. It's his state of mind," said Bob as he leaned against a different tree.

"This must be tough on him. Losing his father again and his sister to Megabyte. I feel the same way."

Bob shook his head. "It's not them, its you. He's upset because he hates the fact that he's not you."

Matrix looked at Bob, his eyebrows raised. "What? I thought he already got over that and decided he didn't want to be like me."

"He did, it's not the same reason as his earlier rebelling. He's upset because he's a backup; he's not you, just a copy in his mind. He doesn't have the memories or the knowledge that the Enzo who left Mainframe did."

"Oh." Matrix looked down at his shoes and then over to his younger self.

"Look, you should go talk to him."

"If that's how he's feeling, I'm the last person he'd want to talk to right now."

"The exact opposite. You are the person he needs to talk to right now."

Matrix nodded his head slowly and pushed himself off the tree. He made his way over to where Enzo sat. "Can I sit here?"

Enzo looked at him a second before turning away. "Leave me alone."

Taking that as a yes, Matrix dropped down next to Enzo, looking off at the sea beyond Mainframe. The small sprite deliberately kept looking away. "What… what made you think you were just a copy?" Matrix finally asked after a couple Nanos of silence.

Enzo finally turned to look at his older format. "Megabyte. He… he said I was an outdated copy."

Matrix snorted. "You listened to Megabreath? That's not like us. Besides you aren't a copy. You are Enzo, the real Enzo. You were saved just like everyone else. Just like how AndraIa managed to bring herself out of the game. Just because I was here the whole time doesn't mean a thing. We have the same code; we are just two different versions is all. If anything, I'm the copy; I've changed so much since I was last here."

Enzo hit his hand on the dirt. "You don't understand. You…I…we did things here. We compiled up, we battled Megabyte, we did all these things… and I don't remember any of it. I wasn't around. All of these things which everyone else knows and experienced, and here I am cycles behind everyone else. No one calls me just Enzo anymore; they all call me young Enzo or little Enzo. I'm nothing but your shadow. I feel incomplete…."Enzo began to cry silently. Matrix didn't know what to say. He wrapped an arm around the sprite and held him a few Nanos where they both sat in silence. Finally, Matrix got up and moved back to where bob was talking through Glitch.

"Okay, Thanks Turbo, I appreciate it." Bob flipped Glitch down and looked at the approaching renegade. "Turbo is going to send us some help to take care of Megabyte. They should arrive in a cycle." He looked over to where the young Enzo still sat silently. "It didn't go too well I take it?"

"I don't know. I don't think he's angry with me anymore. But he's really depressed that he's behind everyone else. Not even his right age. I just wish there was some way to give him what he wants." Matrix plopped down on the grass next to Bob.

Bob thought a moment. "Actually, there might be a way."

"What? How?" Matrix looked over at the blue guardian.

"We could download your memory into his. He would then have the experiences."

Matrix shook his head. "If we gave him my memory, he'd just become like me. He doesn't want that."

"So we don't give him all of it. We just download the Enzo up until a certain point. He'll still be himself, but now he will also know and understand what he did. I can even compile him up."

"Really? Do you think that will work? We won't be damaging his sense of self any further, will we?"

"I don't think so. We just put it in the right chronological order and he should be fine."

"Great! Thanks Bob. I'll go talk to him about it." Matrix stood up again and hurried back over to Enzo.

It took a bit of persuasion, as Enzo was unsure about what would happen to him, but in the end, his desire overcame it. He stood over under the trees where Bob and Matrix had sat. Frisket was just a few feet away, sitting apprehensively and growling at Bob. Matrix was standing back to back with Enzo, his fidgeting showing his nervousness. He didn't want this to go wrong, he didn't want young Enzo to end up like him. Bob stood next to both of them his arm in front of him with glitch clicking away. "Ready?" he asked.

Both Enzo's nodded their heads. Bob smiled briefly and then a serious expression took his face. "Glitch, Download Matrix's memory up until maker one seven zero one!" The Toolkey detached itself from his arm and spun about, stopping just between Enzo and Matrix's heads. Two small beams of blue energy jutted out, hitting each one square in the back of the head. Matrix didn't move, but Enzo flinched. From Matrix's side, the energy became dark green and began to travel down, through Glitch and into Enzo. Enzo shook as the memory downloaded. Finally, after two Nanos, Glitch shut off the beams and jumped back onto Bob's arm. Matrix took one step and fell on his knee, the first sign of fatigue since the download had begun. Enzo fell to the grass taking deep breaths. Bob went over and helped him up. Enzo put a hand on his head, and stood there, still breathing heavily.

"I know you're tired. I need to compile up you so that you are compatible with some of the memory,' Bob said. Enzo nodded, still trying to get his balance. Taking a breath, Bob reached out and clicked Enzo's icon. There was a slight flash of green light as Enzo's shirt changed from zero one to one zero.

Enzo blinked a few times, looking down at his shirt. He then turned and looked at Bob and Matrix. "Alphanumeric…" he looked at his hands and then back at his shirt before returning his gaze to the two older Sprites. "It's like I had this memory along, and I just forgot about it till now….I mean…" The young sprite ran out of words.

"That's great Enzo. There's just one more thing. Where does the memory leave off?" Bob asked.

"The last thing I remember before being reloaded is the portal to the web, and the attack by the web creatures. I was standing with AndraIa…." He trails off as he realizes that his game sprite friend was no longer here, she was with Matrix now.

Matrix stood up, a look of confusion on his face. He bent over to whisper in Bob's ear. "I thought you were going to download up till the game where I lost?"

"I changed my mind," replied Bob, quietly. "I thought this was a better place to stop. Watch."

"Enzo, now that you are updated, there is one final thing I've been meaning to give you. Let me see your icon." Bob held out his hand expectantly. Enzo plucked the icon from his hat and handed it to Bob.

"Enzo Matrix, I am invoking emergency code ninety-five one zero." Matrix nodded his head, suddenly realizing what Bob was doing. Bob took off his own Icon and held the two back to back. "Command line: icon. Download guardian protocol to version one point zero." A yellow energy beam connected the two icons briefly. Matrix thought back to the very same moment when Bob had done the same to him. It had been the proudest Nano in his life.

"Enzo Matrix, a guardian has many responsibilities. As one, your job is to mend and defend. Do you accept?"

Enzo saluted Bob. "Yes sir." The blue sprite smiled and placed Enzo's icon on his shirt, the guardians own icon being replaced as well. "Then I hereby vest you with the Guardian code. You are now Guardian level One. Welcome aboard cadet."

A broad grin spread over Enzo's face. "Thank you Bob, I won't let you down!" He tapped his icon and similar to reboot, a slight green light flashed and his appearance changed. He was now wearing a guardian uniform similar to Bob's. However, instead of gold shoulder pads and belt, they were dark red. Matrix exchanged glances with Bob.

"Enzo, that shouldn't look like that. What happened to your icon?" Bob inquired.

"What?" Enzo took a look at his icon, noticing for the first time it had returned to red a black. "Oh, that would explain the power surge." Bob and Matrix looked at each other again. "Power surge?" they asked together.

"Yeah, that's how I escaped from Megabreath. He went to infect me and there was a flash of energy, throwing him and dad to the walls. I ran out the doors before he could get up." Enzo looked from the worried faces of the two older sprites. "What's wrong?"

"Glitch, virus scan!" Glitch began to whirl and a wide spread yellow beam analyzed Enzo. Bob shook his head as he looked at the results. "This is…."

"What, is he infected? It's Hex isn't it? She did this." Matrix was frowning and his temper was rising.

"Yes and no. It is Hex's fault, but he's not infected. She imparted part of her code into his icon. Most of it was used to help Welman, but Megabyte's attempt to infect him merged the rest of it. Enzo is part virus."

"What!" Both Enzo's cried at once, but for different reasons. Bob put a finger in his ear, twisted it a bit and took it out again. "Hexadecimal made Enzo part virus. He's still a sprite as far as the system is concerned, but he's also a benign virus. I've never seen this before. I don't know how she did it either." Bob shook his head.

Matrix looked at his little self. "This is bad. This is very bad."

Enzo was grinning ear from ear. "This is so alphanumeric!" Matrix looked shocked.

Before Matrix could reply, Bob piped up. "Enzo's right. While a normal virus code's function is to hunt and infect, I don't think Hex downloaded that part of it. And even if she did, it would have been overwritten when I downloaded the guardian code. He may be part virus, but he's also part guardian, and his main function is -"

"To mend and defend!" Enzo finished.

"Alright, fine. He's a benign virus. What does that mean exactly?" Matrix was still very unhappy with the idea and he was worried about Enzo.

"I, I don't know." Bob frowned. "Like I said, I didn't even know it was possible. There wasn't very much code left when they were combined, so I suspect that he actually has very little viral powers. We know he has defenses against other viruses, but I don't know about anything else."

"He probably can infect sprites too. That's just great." Matrix was becoming more upset by the Nano.

"No, I can't. I already tried." Enzo spoke up. Matrix's head swiveled to look at him. "What?"

"Well, while you two were talking, I tried to infect Frisket. Just to find out what would happen. But I don't have that part of the virus code."

"Like I said Matrix, he's a benign virus. He can't infect others. But he has a great advantage in that he can resist other viruses. Trust me, this isn't as bad as you think. There isn't enough viral code there." Matrix settled into a sullen silence, while Enzo looked himself over, trying to see if anything else had changed.

"Look if it makes you feel better Matrix, he's not really a virus the way you think of them. He is a guardian sprite who has a small part of the viral code in his system. That's it." Bob looked up as Mainframe completed its Powerdown. "Look, we should find some place to hide out until next cycle. Once we get some back up, we can portal in and take the Central office back. Come on," Bob started heading off.

Enzo quickly followed, with Frisket at his heels. Matrix sighed, things never seemed to settle down in Mainframe.