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The Mainframe we met was on the edge of crashing. My heart broke as the ship sailed over the coast. I couldn't believe that a dead Mainframe was the first thing I'd 'see' in my process time. Inside, I wanted to go back to sensing statistics, strings of numbers never held these kind of connotations. But there was hope in the knowledge that Bob had new abilities, powers that could save this place, and that I had given them to him. It made me proud. These new emotional extremes took some getting used to too… I found I was getting as much from Bob in the merger as he had gotten from me. Why hadn't every keytool merged with their guardians a long time ago? This new awakening alone was worth it! It was like passing into another dimension.
Bob wasted no time. That's my guardian! Mending tears, saving people, just like old times! And of course the first thing he did was find Dot. I knew her at first by her voice pattern, I'd channeled her signal through my comlink millions of times, but I'd never actually heard or seen her, no wonder Bob was so sick with her. He took his sweet time doing anything about it though. It was horribly frustrating to watch. Still, we were all together again, that at least was reassuring. I was gaining confidence in our survival. Bob can get up the nerve to ask her out when the world wasn't ending.
Standing around and listening to backstory, I took a moment to regard Matrix. I'd watched him compile, monitored his strength and endurance, and seen his stats rise over a span of minutes that should have been much much longer, he'd been a temporary partner, but he'd had his own charm, we both had been damaged. I wondered what his future would be. When Enzo first got his protocol I thought maybe after Bob retired I would transfer to him and become his true keytool, but I guessed it was too late for that now. More than likely I would delete with Bob when the time came.
Wow, mortality…that must be why we never merged with our guardians. I was in shock for a little while after that.
Yet all it took was a good plan to get me back on track. Dot had one of course, she always did. Time to kick Megabyte out of the Principle Office. If Bob and I had been here he never would have gotten IN to the Principle Office. Ahwell, better late than never. Bob was back. I wasn't broken anymore. This promised to be quite a show!