A Shot In The Dark: Part Two

The Principal office was a tall spire of a building with a floating ring rotating around the upper tier of the structure. Matrix approached the guard posted outside the main entrance.

"We need to see the Command.com." Matrix said.

"Sorry, no admittance," the guard replied. "The Command.com is very busy at the moment and - "

Matrix’s artificial eye began to glow as he glared at the sprite.

"Maybe you didn’t hear me, I said - "

AndrAIa put a restraining hand on Matrix’s shoulder and whispered into his ear.

"Let me handle this, Lover."

She turned her attention to the tall sprite, putting on the most innocent face she could. "We’re new in this system," she said sweetly, batting her eyelashes. "And we’re hopeing that the Command.com could help us."

"Well..." the guard said, admiring AndrAIa. "I’ll see what I can do."

He left the two sprites on the front steps and slipped into the building.

"I wish you wouldn’t do that!" Matrix scowled.

"Hey. It worked better than your approach."

"I don’t like them... looking at you like that," he muttered.

"No worries," she said, kissing his cheek. "You know I’m all yours."

Matrix sighed and put a protective arm around her waist. The guard returned.

"You’ll have to wait inside," he said. "Follow me."

He lead the two sprites into a conference room with a long table ringed with chairs. "The Command.com will be with you as soon as possible."

* * *

"You’ve been traveling in the games?"

The Command.com blinked at the two sprites seated across from him. He hadn’t had anything this interesting happen in Turing in a long time. "Well, Mr. Matrix, I’ll see what I can do for you. We might have use for a sprite with your... expertise." He leaned across the table and shook Matrix’s hand. "It was a pleasure meeting the both of you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a system to run." The Command.com pushed his chair away from the table and stood to go. "I’ll be in touch." He left the room, shaking his head as he entered his office.

"A rogue Guardian and a game sprite. Incredible."

* * *

The two sat in a small cafe they’d found, sipping energy shakes.

"I think this is the closest we’ve ever come to settling down someplace," AndrAIa commented.

"Yeah," Matrix mumbled. This system, Turing, reminded him a lot of Mainframe. "It’s certainly the least damaged we’ve come across in a long time. And it looks as if the Command.com will be able to find some work for me." Matrix didn’t sound exactly enthusiastic.

AndrAIa reached across the table and took his large hands in her smaller ones. "I know you’d rather be out there looking for Mainframe," she said. "Hopefully, this will just be a temporary thing. Who knows? We could wind up staying for only a few cycles if my eyes get better..."

"Warning: Incoming Game."

"Just what we needed," Matrix commented sarcastically, looking out the window at the game cube descending over the cafe. "Frisket," he said to the large dog lounging under the table, "I want you to take AndrAIa out of here."

"Enzo! I’m not leaving you!"

"Just do it!" he shouted, placing her hand on Frisket’s collar. "Go on, boy."

He watched as the two left the cafe and waited for the game to stabilize around him.

He was standing in the middle of a large field. A low stone wall ran off to his left and there were a few scraggly trees dotting the bleak landscape. Matrix reached over and tapped his icon.

"ReBoot!"

He was now dressed in full warrior garb, a large sword at his waist and shield strapped to his arm.

"At least I’m not wearing a kilt this time..."

At that moment, Frisket bounded over the low wall. Someone had already rebooted his icon. "I guess this means AndrAIa didn’t get out." The big dog cocked his head to the side and barked. Matrix surveyed the field. AndrAIa was no where to be seen. Matrix raised his arm.

"Glitch, game stats."

On his command the damaged keytool began to spew game statistics. "Find and defeat the dragon, rescue the princess. Well, I guess that explains where AndrAIa went. Come on Frisket. We’ve got a User to beat."

* * *

She’d rebooted her icon and ended up in a cave someplace, her hands and feet tied.

"Cursors."

Outside, something large, red, and vaguely dragon-shaped stalked past the entrance. "I hate being the damsel in distress." She tried to get to her feet, only succeeding in toppling over onto her side with a thud. "Ow. Okay, bad idea." She twisted back into a sitting position. "Maybe I can find something to cut these ropes with..."

* * *

Outside, Matrix surveyed the scene with dismay. The Dragon was huge! It had to be at least fifteen feet tall and twice as long. What’s more, it was the fire breathing variety and it was guarding the entrance to its cave jealously.

"This is very bad."

Seeing no way to sneak up on the dragon, Matrix gave a loud yell and charged down the hill. The dragon saw him coming and swung its tail around, knocking the large sprite off his feet and into the base of a cliff. He had only an instant to bring his shield to bear before the dragon attempted to charbroil him.

Inside the cave, AndrAIa redoubled her efforts to free herself of her bonds. She rubbed the rope around her wrists against a jagged outcropping of rock on the wall, trying to get it to fray enough for her to break the rope.

Matrix crouched behind the now red hot shield, wondering how long the dragon could keep up the fiery onslaught. The heat radiating from the shield was beginning to burn his arm, but he’d be deleted instantaneously without it. He couldn’t even take a swing at the scaly monster with his sword.

With one final tug, the rope binding her wrists snapped. She then leaned over and quickly untied her ankles. AndrAIa searched the floor for something she could use to distract the dragon. Gathering several fist-sized rocks, she made her way carefully to the entrance of the cave.

Matrix caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. AndrAIa was standing at the mouth of the cave. What was she doing?

"AndrAIa!" he yelled over the roar of the dragon’s scathing attack. "Get out of here!"

"And let you get barbecued? I don’t think so, Lover."

She hefted one of the rocks in her hand and hurled it at the dragon. She heard it bounce off the dragons tough hide. "Over here!!" She sent a few more chunks of stone in the red blur’s direction. Finally, it turned towards her.

Matrix watched as the dragon turned away from him and headed in AndrAIa’s direction. He dropped the scorching shield and took off after it, swinging at the dragon with the sword. The blade bounced off, doing little damage.

"Cursors."

The dragon turned back at him, rearing up on its hind legs and flapping its wings. That’s when he saw the blue diamond on its underbelly. The dragon spat fire at him again and he rolled away, ending up under the beast. He thrust the sword upward into the center of the diamond and sunk it in to the hilt. Above him, the dragon screeched and faded to oblivion. Matrix got to his feet and slid the sword back into the scabbard. He walked over to where AndrAIa stood.

"I'm supposed to rescue you now, but it looks like you've got that covered."

"So what's left, Lover?"

"Just this." He leaned over and kissed her deeply.

"Game Over."

The purple game cube dissolved around them, leaving them standing in front of the cafe.

* * *

"Ouch!" Matrix hissed as AndrAIa continued to bandage his arm.

AndrAIa rolled her eyes and sighed. They were in the apartment that Dennis, the Command.com, had obtained for them.

"Stop being such a baby."

"It hurts!" he growled.

"Of course it hurts! Those are some nasty burns there, Lover. You're lucky I saved your bitmap," she teased.

He grumbled some more as she finished bandaging his injured arm. "You poor baby." She took a seat in his lap and put her arms around his neck. "Should I make it all better?" she grinned, raising an eyebrow.

* * *

AndrAIa yawned and stretched, bright light pouring in through the window. Next to her, Matrix was still sleeping soundly. She kissed his forehead and got up, careful not to disturb him. Frisket looked up from his spot by the door, saw nothing was amiss and laid his massive head back on his paws to doze some more. AndrAIa walked to the window and gazed out over the city, a blur of color and light to her eyes.

It was still beautiful in its own way, she supposed, but it wasn't the same as being able to see what was around her. For the first time since the accident, she let herself come to terms with what she had lost. She sank into a chair and rested her head on the table, tears leaking silently down her cheeks. It was hard to keep from going to pieces, but she'd managed it for Matrix. He needed her to be strong. She, and his dream of finding Mainframe, were the only things that kept Enzo going anymore. If she crumbled, the fragile existence they’d managed to eke out in between the games would be shattered forever. If it hadn't been already.

She knew that the mere thought of having to stay in one system for any length of time upset Matrix. To him, every cycle they spent in a system was another lost chance at making it home. She heard Matrix moving behind her and quickly wiped the tears from her face.

"AndrAIa?"

"I'm over here," she said as brightly as she could. "I didn't want to wake you. How’s the arm?"

"Better," he answered. "Anything wrong?"

"No, of course not," she smiled, but her eyes remained sad.

"Dennis wanted me to stop by the P.O." Matrix said, running a hand through his hair.

"All right," she replied, looking out the window. "How long will you be?"

"I don't know," the large sprite replied, sounding a little uneasy. "But I should get going. I'm sure he wouldn’t mind if you came.."

"Just go, Enzo. I'll be all right."

* * *

"We had half the power grid crash last night," Dennis said, tapping a few keys and bringing up a schematic of the city. Almost half the sectors flashed an angry red. "I've been trying all night and haven't been able to restore power. We're running on emergency power at the moment." Dennis sighed and ran his hands through his pale blue hair. "Every time I think I've got the last of the viral code out of the system..." He shook his head. "Something like this happens and I have to start over again."

"Don't you have anyone helping you?" Matrix asked. Dennis obviously knew what he was doing, but he also seemed young to be carrying the mantle of Command.com.

"I have Perl," Dennis replied. "But other than that? Not really. We lost a lot of good sprites this last time around." Matrix heard the despondent note in Dennis' voice and decided to leave things at that.

"Well, let's try to get this grid up."

After milliseconds of work, they'd finally tracked down the problem.

"Here goes nothing." Dennis said, feeding a few commands into the central control. The two watched apprehensively for a moment before the blinking red lights on the display turned a steady green. "I think we did it." As if on cue, the other, previously stable half of the grid, crashed, plunging the P.O. into darkness.

"Alphanumeric," Matrix commented sarcastically as Dennis took an LED from his belt to illuminate the room.

"Looks like the emergency power is out too," Dennis commented wryly. "Which means we get to change all the settings manually this time." He touched a two way radio on his wrist. "You there, Perl?"

"I'm here," replied a soft feminine voice from the other end. "What are you doing in there? All the power is out here in Backup."

"The other half of the grid crashed. See if you can get the emergency power back on line."

"You got it, hun," the voice replied. "Try not to crash anything else while I'm working on it?"

"We'll try." Dennis clicked the channel closed. "That's Perl for you," he said with a shrug. "Now let's see what we can do with these settings."

End Part Two

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