Defying the Darkness
Chapter Six
Mouse didn't have anything important to do with her time. She had lied to Dot and Enzo, leaving briskly as she would when ready to hop in Ship and make a quick run to another system to either pick up or drop off something. In the past while she'd become more of a courier than a Hacker, as far as professions went. After Daemon's leaving, she preferred to use her adventurous side more moderately - she liked action, but she liked sticking close to Mainframe more. Certainly, she had kept herself sharp to ensure that if and when Mainframe's next threat rolled in she'd be ready to do her part, but otherwise her work generally involved shipments of things too large to sensibly send a sprite through a portal with, but too small to warrant hiring a crew like Capacitor's.
Now however, she sat in her ship's empty cargo hold in silence, sharpening one of her katanas. She was bad at relationships as she saw it, and Ray was another failed attempt to add to her list. Then again, Bob knew that - he'd been on the receiving end of one of her relationships, and not too long ago. It had taken her some time to really get over him, if she ever really did.
It was strange, though, the way she and Ray and fallen out. They had been doing great for cycles, minutes, and then one second they both woke up and just didn't get along. Everything had gone straight to the Data Dump, and she hadn't really been sure why.
Tiring of her idle sharpening, she set her blade on one side of her, and her stone on the other. She let her head fall back against the metal wall, and listened to the dull clunk that resounded.
"Ya make me random..." She whispered to the shadows. "Absolutely random."
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"What?" Ray turned fully and closed the door again, leaning against it.
"Why?" That was AndrAIa's only question for the Surfr after the rambling he had done.
"I picked now because none of us is happy. Not you, me, Mouse...Matrix...none of us is happy in all of this!" He exclaimed, throwing a free hand to the air. "Really, now Love, does it make any sense to you?"
The GameSprite had nothing with which to respond, so she lowered her icy stare.
"Didn't think so." Tracer said, shaking his head. "Right...I was on my way out, wasn't I? I'll catch ya later, Lovely Lady." Those last words were spoken not ruefully, but with a certain nostalgia that seemed to lack in sincerity.
AndrAIa watched the Surfr exit, framing her face with her hands and draping her fingers over her eyes.
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Matrix knew that staying with Dot was going to mean close quarters. More accurately, it meant that he was going to be sharing a room with Enzo. He wanted to be around him, if only for the purpose of trying to establish a higher level of patience within himself, but he knew that being around him all the time, with no real quiet was going to test him because that child knew how to push his buttons without even trying.
Aside from that, he was fairly certain that he'd be cramping Enzo's style. No guy at any age ever liked having to share a room with his older brother - it was just some natural law that could not be broken or altered.
The Renegade stood in the doorway, appraising his old room and looking for the changes his younger copy had made. The furniture was arranged differently, and some of the small things were different - the personal accoutrements and beloved items were not what he would have chosen at that age, but the posters on the walls made him smirk almost involuntarily. Every single one of them was of a blue-skinned and green-haired beauty with startling amber eyes. She appeared to be the lead singer of a band called "Pixelicious", and he suspected that the band's namesake rested with her, because she most certainly was something impressive...
A light snicker caught the muscular sprite's attention, and glancing over his shoulder he found young Enzo behind him with a goofy grin on his face.
"Hey Kid, if you can look at her, so can I." Matrix stated, grabbing the red hat from Enzo's head, placing it atop his own as the boy brushed past. "Tell me..." The Renegade put his foot against the wall, which he knew would be to Dot's disliking (However, Dot wasn't around to catch him, now was she?)."D'you plan to go to the Academy?"
"Absolutely!" Enzo declared, spinning on his heel with a ReadMe in hand. "It's gonna' be so alphanumeric!"
The older sprite nodded, smiling very slightly.
"So why don't you access your version one upgrade?" Matrix briefly examined his nails before trying to figure out what ReadMe his little brother was tossing around in his hands. "I haven't seen you in Guardian mode since we got the Daemon crisis under control."
"I don't really feel like I earned it." This Enzo was entirely different from the one Matrix had been, and he found himself entirely relieved by it. "I mean, when I was copied I already had it, so it's like cheating or something..."
"No," The big brother spoke firmly, but kindly. "You may not have earned that upgrade initially, but you definitely proved that you were deserving of it. You helped save the entire Net," He paused for a nano, not really knowing how to finish. "I'd say that counts for something." Finally Matrix felt the need to ask the question: "What's with the ReadMe?"
"Oh this?" Enzo looked at it with distaste. "School work." The boy shrugged. "It's COBOL - I don't even know why we need it anyway...it's so old."
The elder sibling shook his head.
"They're still teaching you guys that stuff? I learned that when I was your age!" He very clearly remembered a moment from his not-so-distant childhood, when an argument had been sparked between Bob and Dot, and this had been one of the topics. Thinking it best to err on the side of caution (if not for Enzo's sake, then for his own), he commented: "Better stick with it though...you never know when something like that might come in handy." He tossed the hat back to his brother who had rolled his eyes upon the suggestion that his studies be resumed. "Oh, Enzo, one more thing..."
"Yeah?" The boy's eyes snapped from the file in a nano. Any reason to look away from COBOL was a great one.
"I don't want to crowd you out here, so if it's okay with you, I'd like to ask Bob if I can stay with him." He finally took his foot off the wall, glancing quickly to make sure he hadn't left a mark. "I don't want things to be weird between us, so I'm thinking that's probably best. You okay with that?"
Enzo looked incredibly relieved, and his boyish eyes simply could not hide this, as hard as the rest of his face tried.
"Sounds cool." The younger nonchalantly replied, sneaking a smile behind his ReadMe.
"Alright - just wanted to run it by you first." The Renegade nodded and stepped out of the room. "I'll leave you to your studies." He said, closing the door behind him. As soon as the latch clicked, he heard a 'Yahoo!' on the other side, and dropping his jaw just slightly, he exclaimed: "I can hear you!" before shaking his head and walking away.
When he came to find that neither Bob or Dot was in the common room, he knew instantly to head either to the Diner or the Principle Office, and since the system was at peace, the likelihood was the former of the two. As though with a sudden jolt, he realized that he had been left alone with his kid copy, and really only micros after coming home. It made him smile to himself that despite his mistakes, his family instantly had restored faith in him, or at least enough to leave him alone with a miniature version of himself...which perhaps required more faith than locking him in a room with a benign Virus and asking him not to delete it.
"Hey Enzo, if you need me, I'm at the Diner!" Matrix hollered, quietly ordering Frisket to keep an eye on the studious sprite while he headed out. He gave the red and yellow dog a pat on the head. "You're a good boy, Frisket." This praise made the canine's rear end sway back and forth as he wagged his stubby tail, and as the tremendous Renegade made his exit, the loyal animal flopped down on the floor as if to both guard it and wait for someone to return.
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"Either a' you two seen Mouse anywhere?" Surfr enquired as he approached the booth the and resident Guardian were sharing.
"No." The blue and green sprites had responded in unison, but with differing tones given that both knew something different about the current situation between Ray and Mouse. Dot spoke cautiously, while Bob's reply had an undertone of impatience.
"Well if you see her, can you tell her I need to talk with her?" He looked between them imploringly. "I haven't been able to hunt her down at all."
"Yeah, she always was good at hiding away from some people," Guardian 452 found himself somewhat surprised by his own passive-aggressive behaviour, and even Dot gave him a sidelong eyeful after he'd made that little statement. "But, if we see her, we'll tell her."
Ray raised an eyebrow, suspecting there were more facets to this situation than he realized, and thinking it best to leave those facets undiscussed. He thanked the couple and exited, nearly colliding with one Renegade Matrix as he did so.
"Sorry, Mate." Said the Surfr, skidding to a halt. "No one told me you were back. How's it goin'?"
"Surfr." The GameHopper glared down his noise at Tracer, and it was apparent that any humbleness or kindness that he had displayed towards the sprite on the night he left Mainframe had gone with him and stayed in the SuperComputer.
This awkward moment had dulled the conversational din in the room, and to avoid any escalation, the two males side-stepped one another, exchanging glances in the process. The entire room seemed to cling to the momentary tension before collectively relaxing upon the WebSurfr's departure. Matrix took no heed of this and took a seat in the booth where his sister and her boyfriend sat.
"Do you have a nano?" The Renegade addressed them both with this question.
"Yeah, shoot." The silver-haired sprite leaned forward to put his elbows on the table. "What's processing?"
"Well I've been thinking, and I was wondering if perhaps I could stay with you for the time being, Bob, since you're the only one living in your apartment." There really hadn't been much more to his request, but he caught a questioning vibe from his sister that prompted him to further explain. "I just think that it'd be better than having everyone piled into your place, Dot. I mean, Enzo's getting to be older, and he and I tend to clash -"
"To put it mildly." She added, as an honest but light-hearted comment.
"Exactly." Matrix opened his hands. "So...?"
Guardian 452 nodded.
"As long as you don't mind sleeping on that couch of mine, I'm fine with it. Dot?"
The inspected the expressions on the faces of the men, and then, with some hesitance, agreed.
"I don't see why not." She answered slowly, unsure of the idea, but finding no reason to doubt it. The she looked at him with a look that echoed revelation. "Matrix, did you leave Enzo home alone?" She enquired with the utmost tone of surprise.
"Yeah...?" He cocked an eyebrow. "Why? He's almost 11 - and he seems better behaved than I was at his age. I'm fairly sure he's not doing something basic."
The gave her nutation, but not with approval.
"I know, but he's still young to be left alone. What if -"
Before she could voice her objections or worries, Matrix very plainly interjected with: "Hey, at 11 I was in the games. If he can't handle sitting at home and studying, then we have a greater issue on our hands than his age."
Bob tilted his head to mock-whisper in Dot's ear.
"He's got a point, you know." He told her, grinning as she gave him evil eyes, and kissing her on the cheek to diffuse her bitterness.
"Great." Matrix got up and headed on his way. "Thanks guys." He said before heading back out into Mainframe. Once he was in front of the window, he turned and waved a goodbye before heading in the direction of Kits and Bob's apartment.
The green female leaned back into Bob's shoulder, tilting her head back to look at him.
"Think we can start getting back to normal now?" She asked, smiling softly. "Or at least, as normal as things get for Mainframe?"
Before her blue counterpart could reply, Mouse made her entrance. She walked in a fashion that suggested that he had a mission, and before she was even reasonably close to the two sprites, she asked, "Has Ray come by here?"
"Yes," The Guardian told her. "He was looking for you, but he didn't say where he was going - just that he wanted to talk to you." That affirmation having been made, the Hacker again left the place that she had barely come into to begin with. "Jeeze, what is this place? Sprite Central?" He joked into his lady love's ear.
She laughed softly in reply, and pulled out her organizer to ensure she wasn't missing anything of huge importance. Almost surprised at her clear calendar, she waved it at Bob, who took the opportunity to snatch it and add an entry of his own before handing it back. Only her eyes saw what he wrote, and upon reading the message her mouth fell open and she hit him in the chest, biting her lip.
"You are terrible." She grinned before closing the organizer, getting up from the booth, and heading to the basement with him on her tail.
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AndrAIa had taken to brooding - something that was incredibly uncharacteristic of her. She sat on her sofa, staring at that pit in the wall and thinking of Ray's words over and over: "Well if you've never known any love aside from Matrix', how can you possibly know that of all the Sprites in the Web, he is the only one for you?"
Tracer had made her sincerely angry, but she wasn't entirely sure why. He had just struck a nerve, she figured, but how dare he try to plant some seed of doubt in her mind about how much she loved Matrix? At the same time, she found herself entertaining the questions that arose from said doubt. One part of her said to dismiss all questions and go back to thinking of things as they were, but another begged her to examine these doubts and ensure they weren't valid. That was perhaps what was making her angriest...the fact that she was even entertaining these concerns.
Yet, every time she looked at that blemish beside the door where she and Matrix had almost had a physical altercation, she couldn't help but wonder if her decision was the right one. She had kept it there to remind herself - and him, when he finally came - what had transpired in this room so that it might not happen again, but how were things going to work for them? How were they going to get back to being a normal couple after that? She feared greatly that this would not happen. She shook her head. She needed perspective on the situation (minus the information as to what had been discussed between herself and Ray). She needed to find Mouse.
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