Chapter 2: Culture Shock
They were at an impasse. Matrix had Gun pointed at the User, which was holding its sword at the ready. The renegade and the User eyed each other warily — and the (\/) in Matrix's gold eye was glowing red. Although all the sprites knew that this was a bad sign, the User didn't.
"I know not what you are," came the User's voice from his helmet, "But I demand that you return me to my kingdom immediately, or face the consequences."
"You're in no position to make demands," Matrix growled. "Put the sword down or I'll shoot."
"With what?" the User retorted mockingly. "Thou hast naught to shoot with!"
AndrAIa was confused for a moment, and not just because of the User's way of speaking. Nothing to shoot with? Then it dawned on her. "Matrix," she said softly, "It doesn't know what a gun is — it's never seen one before! Maybe we should try something else."
"Like what?" Matrix asked through clenched teeth, not taking his eyes off the User.
AndrAIa had no time to reply. The User raised his sword and rushed at Matrix, who reflexively pulled the trigger Gun. "No!" AndrAIa cried as the shot flew.
But Matrix hadn't been aiming at the User. His shot hit the upraised sword, which then flew out of the User's hand and landed on the ground. It spun gratingly against the concrete before coming to rest a few micrometers away. The User, deprived of its weapon, skidded to a halt. AndrAIa sighed with relief.
"What magic is this?" the User cried. It went for its sword, but stopped when Matrix aimed Gun at him again.
"Uh-uh," he said. "Now you see I do have something to shoot with. So stay away from that sword, or next time it'll be your head."
The User paused, weighing the situation, and clenched a mailed fist at Matrix. "I shall not surrender to the likes of thee," it said.
AndrAIa sighed. This wasn't going well.
"Look," Bob broke in, trying to calm the User. He placed himself in Matrix's line of fire. "We don't know how you ended up here. We didn't bring you here. But if you'll trust us, maybe we can help you."
"Help it?" Matrix exclaimed. "But it's a…"
The User dropped its shield, put its hands up to his helmet and took it off, revealing…
"Not it - she," Dot observed.
Now that the helmet was off, there was no doubt that the User was female. She had a pinkish-white, oval-shaped face with a short, straight nose, a full-lipped mouth and a pair of dark-blue eyes. Her dark-brown hair was gathered in a bun at the back of her head. She arched an eyebrow at Dot. Definitely not a regular sprite, AndrAIa thought to herself. No sprite I know of has skin that color outside of the Games.
"I'm a what?" the User asked. Her voice, without the muffling of the helmet, was clear, haughty and even. When Matrix, his jaw gaping, failed to answer her, she turned to look at Bob. "What art thou? A knight, surely, judging by thine armor. But I know not thy crest."
"Err…" Bob was confused by this unexpected turn of events. "I'm a Guardian. And these are my friends." He indicated the other sprites with a sweep of his hand.
"Guardian?" A grin spread across the face of the User. "Ah! Then I see that my initial impressions were wrong. Brother, if they be friends of thine, then they are friends of mine as well." She turned to Matrix. "Please put down thy weapon, sir. I apologize for my behavior. Thou hast my word of honor that I shall do thee no harm."
Matrix looked at Bob, who nodded. He slowly lowered Gun, then let it holster itself at his hip. "I don't understand," he said. "How do you know what a Guardian is?"
The User drew herself up proudly. "Because I," she said, "am also a Guardian."
The lights in the buildings around them flickered to life again.
The virus slithered through the shadowy alleys of level 31. This was a perfect place for it, for the time being. There were many convenient hiding places, and lots of food.
It had already drained energy from two binomes, but it was still hungry. It slithered up to a dumpster, then checked around to see if anyone was around. It sensed something approaching.
Flattening itself out, it slid under the dumpster and waited. The footsteps came nearer, and then it could percieve a pair of feet. A binome was standing right in front of the dumpster, about to open its lid. The virus stayed still for a moment, savoring the thrill of the hunt…
Then it flowed from beneath the dumpster like an oil slick with a bad attitude, washing over the binome from its feet to the top of its head before he could scream. It began to feed, draining energy from its hapless victim, feeling itself grow stronger. The binome initially struggled in its attacker's grip, but subsided as it lost first its energy and then its consciousness. The virus did not drain enough energy from the binome to delete it — the last dregs of energy were not worth the effort.
When it was satiated, it slipped off the binome and slithered away, over a wall and into another alley, leaving its prone victim flickering on the ground.
"But how can you be a Guardian?" Bob asked. "You don't have a Guardian icon. You're a User. I think." By now a crowd of binomes had gathered around to observe the goings-on. The CPU forces held them back at a safe distance.
"I am not a User, whatever that may be," she insisted. "I am Galatea, of the Order of Guardians, sworn to defend against evil and help innocents in their time of need."
"Oh," Bob said. "I get it! You're a Guardian in the Game."
"Say again?" Galatea looked perplexed. "What Game?"
AndrAIa leaned over to whisper in Bob's ear. "She didn't know what Matrix's gun was. She doesn't know what a Guardian is — well, not your kind of Guardian, anyway. I don't think she even knows what a Game is."
"Umm…" Bob pondered what to say next. "I'm afraid I'm not the same kind of Guardian as you are." Galatea looked distressed. Thinking quickly, Bob added, "But I do the same thing. Sort of. My function is to mend and defend."
This seemed to mollify Galatea. "Well, then, thou'rt still a knight or paladin, an thou dost speak truly. And I do not think I have any choice but to trust thee." Galatea looked at the sprites. "Perhaps thou canst introduce me to thy companions?" she suggested. Bob understood from the tone of her voice that she was as nervous as the rest of them — perhaps more so.
"Oh." Bob said. "Okay. My name is Bob. I'm the Guardian of Mainframe — this system. These are Dot, the AndrAIa, and Matrix." Galatea nodded to each of them in turn. Dot and AndrAIa responded with friendly smiles, but Matrix only crossed his arms and glowered.
"And there is someone else I would like you to meet," Bob said,"Over there." He pointed towards the Principal Office.
Several nanoseconds later, Galatea was in a small roon in the medlab at the Principal Office, having been transported there by a CPU. She had removed her suit of armor, which was laid out on the floor in a corner of the room. She wore what she'd had on under the armor — a grey-brown tunic, jerkin and leggings, with a pair of soft brown boots. AndrAIa had shown her how to remove her icon from her armor and pin it to her clothes. She had apparently not known that such a thing was possible.
Bob, over Matrix's protests, had returned her sword to her. The scabbarded weapon sat on the exam bed beside her.
Phong had been busy assessing the effects of the Game, so they spent some time waiting for him. Matrix, AndrAIa and Frisket stood outside the door — they didn't want Galatea wandering around the Principal Office unsupervised. Mouse was speaking with Galatea inside, reasoning that she needed a friendly sprite to explain a few things to her. Truth be told, Mouse was curious about the nature of the new arrival.
"So thy gods — the Users — send down these Games that could damage your city? But why?"
Mouse shrugged. "We don't know, hon. Ah was kinda hopin' that you would, since you were a User in the Game."
"I am sure I wasn't," Galatea protested. "I was not in a Game. I was in my home kingdom of Mandor, preparing to embark on a quest for the holy crown. The last thing I remembered was mounting my horse, and the next thing I knew, Bob and that Matrix fellow were trying to disarm me." She looked towards the door and lowered her voice. "And Matrix was not happy about returning my sword to me. Although I gave him my word of honor."
Mouse leaned toward her and spoke in a similar low voice. "He's just edgy, that's all. It's hard to earn his trust. And he's used to fightin' Users. Ah know," she said, as Galatea opened her mouth to protest. "You ain't a User. But he isn't sure about you. Just try not to do anythin' that makes him more nervous, huh?"
"If that is possible," Galatea said, glancing at the door.
"You not botherin' him, or him gettin' more nervous?" Mouse asked.
"Either," Galatea replied.
AndrAIa, who was listening in, related the conversation between the hacker and their guest to Matrix. "I don't think she's going to do anything bad. I think she's just lost and more than a little confused. She comes from a very different world." I know what that's like — though it's been a long time.
Matrix looked down, a thoughtful expression on his face. Frisket, who was lying at his feet, looked up at him and made a questioning "Arf?"
"I don't know either, boy," Matrix admitted, patting Frisket on the head.
He heard the sound of running feet approaching. Little Enzo appeared around the corner and skidded to a stop in front of them. Frisket perked up and went to meet him.
"Well?" Enzo addressed them, his eyes lit with excitement. "Is it true?"
"Is what true?" AndrAIa asked.
"That there's a User here, outside the game! It's all over the city, I heard about it when I got out of school. So, can I see him?"
"Her, and no," Matrix said flatly. "We aren't sure what she is. She could be a virus, as far as we know, and she might be dangerous."
"But I want to see her! Pleeeease?" He assumed a puppy-eyed, pleading expression.
The door to the medlab opened. Mouse poked her head out. "What's all that noise out there? Oh, hi there, little fella."
"Is the User in there?" Enzo demanded, fairly jumping up and down with excitement. Matrix put out a hand to hold him back.
"How many times must I say that I am not a User," Galatea said irritably over Mouse's shoulder. Frisket trotted up and began to sniff at her. The doorway area was getting rather crowded.
"What a fine hound he is," Galatea said. She reached out a hand past Mouse to pet Frisket. Matrix was about to protest that it might not be a good idea, since Frisket started to snarl as she reached for him, but when she started scratching behind the dog's ears, Frisket calmed down.
"Wow," Enzo remarked. "Frisket likes you." He turned to Matrix. "She must be okay, then, or Frisket wouldn't let her pet him." Matrix frowned at the dog and said nothing.
Galatea turned her attention to the little sprite. "Well, what is thy name, young master?" she queried.
"My name's Enzo," he answered, holding out his hand for her to shake. She stopped petting the dog and took the boy's hand in hers. Matrix opened his mouth to protest, but AndrAIa's hand on his shoulder silenced him.
"It would be better if thou couldst come in here to talk," Galatea said, "Since I do not seem to be permitted to go out there."
"Ooh! Can I?" Enzo asked, looking from AndrAIa to Matrix to Mouse.
"Ah'm afraid you can't right now," Mouse said to him. She was worried that Enzo might offend Galatea with talk of Games and Users: he would need a briefing about the strange sprite before he talked to her. "Maybe after Phong checks her out."
Enzo sighed, but accepted Mouse's suggestion. "Okay," he said. "I'll wait. C'mon, Frisket." He walked off despondently, Frisket trotting at his heels.
As he left, Phong came in from the opposite end of the corridor, followed by Dot. Mouse indicated to Galatea that she should sit on the medlab bed again. Phong rolled in and tapped the tips of his metal fingers together as he looked Galatea up and down.
Galatea examined him in a similar fashion. "What manner of creature art thou?" she asked him. "Faith, there be many strange things in this place."
Mouse patted her on the shoulder. "This is Phong, dear. He's the oldest and wisest sprite in Mainframe. Phong, this here's Galatea. Say, where's Bob?" she asked.
Dot sighed in exasperation. "People know about Galatea," she said. "It's causing some trouble."
"Are we on yet?" Mike asked his camera crew. The cameraman held up his hand for a moment, then made the thumbs-up sign.
"Coming to you live from the Principal Office," Mike declared in his announcer voice, "Where a Game Sprite, left behind by a malfunctioning Game cube, has just been taken. But this is no ordinary Game sprite…"
"Mike!" Bob, an expression of annoyance on his face, swooped in and touched down next to the garrulous appliance.
"Ah, Guardian Bob!" Mike said enthusiastically, holding the microphone up for the Guardian to speak into. "Can you confirm the rumor that the Game sprite now in the Principal Office is actually a User? Does his arrival signal the apocalyptic destruction of the system?"
Bob put his clenched hands on his hips. "No, she is not a User, and no, Mainframe is going to be fine. Turn that thing off and get out of here." Frowning, he put his hand over the camera lens and pushed it away.
When Bob returned to the medlab, Phong was scanning Galatea's icon (she called it her crest), while Mouse ran physical scans on Galatea herself.
"I have never seen a format like hers before," Phong said as Bob came in. The old sprite handed Galatea her icon, which she pinned to her clothes once more. Mouse was looking over the results from her own scans.
"She seems to be a lot like AndrAIa's kinda Game sprite," Mouse concluded, "But not exactly. Maybe this is how a User would seem if we scanned it, but for obvious reasons, we can't be sure."
"One more test," Phong said. "I will need to draw out some of her energy for analysis." He opened his drawer and pulled out a syringe. Galatea shied away from him.
"That looks to be a fiendish device." She turned to Bob. He could see the slightest touch of fear in her eyes. "What is it?"
"It's okay," Bob reassured her. "He's just going to take out a little of your energy to look at. It's going to hurt a bit, but it won't do you any harm."
Galatea looked at Phong, then at Bob, then at Phong again. She nodded to Bob. "If thou sayest that I must, I shall," she said. Then she addressed Phong. "Err…where art thou intending to use that…thing?"
"A syringe," Mouse informed her. "On your arm, hon. Either one will do. Roll up a sleeve and stick your arm out."
Hesitantly, Galatea extended her left arm and rolled back the sleeve to her shoulder. Mouse gently turned her arm so that the inside of her elbow faced upwards. Phong came forward with the syringe. Galatea bit her bottom lip as Phong stuck the needle into her arm and drew back on the plunger, suctioning out a little of her energy.
Eyebrows shot up and jaws dropped all around as the tube of the syringe slowly filled with crimson fluid, instead of the blue that all the watching sprites were expecting. The red stuff didn't look like energy at all.
"Cool!" exclaimed Enzo, who had managed to sneak back and was watching from the doorway. His expression of fascination changed to one of consternation as Matrix spun around and glared at him.
"I do not understand," Galatea said as Phong removed the needle. "What did you all expect would happen?"
"We expected it to be blue, like our energy," AndrAIa explained. "But yours is red. I wonder if something is wrong with you?"
"If it were not red, then there would indeed be something wrong with me." Mouse put a small band-aid over the place where the needle had gone in. "Ingenious," Galatea murmured as she examined the little bandage. Then she pulled her sleeve back over her arm again. "I suppose your kind do not have blood, then, or that it is different?"
"Blood?" Matrix said. "I've seen it in some Games. When a User or Game sprite is wounded, they sometimes leak blood."
Galatea shot him a glare. "I told thee, I am not a User, and I am not a Game sprite!"
"Look," AndrAIa said, sitting down on the medlab bed beside Galatea. "We haven't seen anything like you before. Your energy — your blood — is, well, different from ours. And so are some other things about you. Your icon, for instance. And I've never seen that color skin on a sprite, at least not outside of a Game. We're just trying to find out why you're different from us and what you are.."
Galatea looked panicked for a cycle, then she regained her composure. "I know what I am. I am human, a paladin of the Order of Guardians. As to what all of you are," she said, looking at each of them in turn, "I am still trying to find that out myself."
There were a few cycles of awkward silence, broken by an empty gurgle from Galatea's stomach. Galatea looked at her feet for a moment, then back up at AndrAIa. "I hope, at least, that your kind take food," she said sheepishly, "That is suitable for humans. I have had nothing to eat for some time."
Everyone, naturally, looked at Dot. She shrugged. "Well," she said, "If you're hungry, I know a place where you can get some food."
Privately, AndrAIa was concerned that their guest might not be able to eat their food — after all, there were some significant physical differences between the sprites and Galatea herself. But they would process that problem when it came up. Galatea stood, and AndrAIa with her. Dot walked towards the door and motioned for them to follow. "C'mon. I'll show you the diner."
Mouse had become, by a sort of unspoken agreement, Galatea's tutor in the ways of Mainframe — AndrAIa equalled or surpassed her in patience and understanding, but she couldn't juggle Galatea's perplexity and Matrix's paranoia all the time. Hence, Mouse had matter-of-factly assumed responsibility for coaching the peculiar sprite. The others sat at different tables around the establishment—Dot and Mouse had decided that Galatea would only be confused by having too many people around at once, especially since neither she nor the other sprites had really adjusted to the situation yet.
As the two of them sat across from each other at a table in Dot's Diner, waiting for their food, Galatea questioned the hacker about her swords.
"Thou'rt the only other person here, besides myself, who carries swords," Galatea observed. "Although I have surmised that there are weapons in this place which I do not comprehend."
"Matrix's gun, y'mean?" Mouse said, leaning back against the seat and placing an arm on the table. "Yeah. That's a fancy one — Ah don't know where he got it — but a lot of folks use guns or laser lances around here. But 'cha know, there's nothin' special about 'em. If you have a sword and folks can tell ya know how to use it, they don't mess with ya."
Cecil zoomed up to the table on his ceiling track, carrying two trays of food. Though he disliked Mouse and under normal circumstances would have taken his time filling her order, Dot had warned him to be on his best behavior, or else. "Mesdames," he greeted them, "Two orders of burgers, fries, and energy shakes," he said as he put one tray of food in front of Galatea and one in front of Mouse.
Galatea peered at Cecil, who hrumphed at her before whizzing off elsewhere. She then looked suspciously at the unfamiliar food and poked at the hamburger.
"The burger," Mouse explained, "Is meat on a bun, with pickles, lettuce, onions and tomatoes. And some ketchup, which is a tangy kinda tomato sauce. The fries are just fried potatoes. And the shake…"
Galatea had been stirring the shake with her straw, and now lifted it out of the cup. Some of the shake oozed off it and fell back into the cup with a plop. Galatea looked disgusted. "I…well, I would hate to offend Mistress Dot, but I am not sure about this — what didst thou call it? — shake."
With great effort, Mouse managed to keep a straight face. "Just try it," she said. "You'll like it, Ah promise. No, hon, you don't lift it up with the straw. You suck it through the straw, like this." Mouse demonstrated with her own shake.
Galatea gave a here-goes-nothing sigh and put her lips to the straw. In a moment her face lit up with delight. She licked her lips happily, "Ah! Tis good indeed."
As they were setting to their meals, Ray Tracer entered the diner and approached their table. "G'day, darlin'," he said to Mouse. "It took a lot 'a shopping, but I finally found you a birthday present." He noticed Galatea, who was looking up at him curiously. "Ah, and who's this young lady?"
"Ray," Mouse said, "This is Galatea. She's a Game sprite. Sort of." Galatea didn't seem to take offense at this description — maybe she was growing accustomed to it, or she considered it a good alternative to being called a User. "Galatea, this is Ray Tracer. He's a Web Surfer."
Ray and Galatea shook hands. She seemed to be getting used to encountering strange things and people — which was good, because she was going to be encountering quite a lot of both.
"Well met, sir," she said. "I do know what surfing is, as I have seen some islanders do it, but things being as they are here, I am sure thy people have another definition for't."
Ray looked questioningly at Mouse. Mouse mouthed the words I'll explain later to him, and he nodded before addressing Galatea. "So, what Game did you come from?"
Galatea looked vaguely troubled at this question, and Mouse felt uneasy. "I did not come from a Game," she said. "Although everyone here seems to think that I did."
Ray took this in stride. "Well, per'aps you can tell me about where you came from later, after you've finished lunch…"
"People!" Dot's voice rang out across the diner. Everyone turned their attention to her. "I just got a message from the Principal Office," she said gravely. "We have a problem."