By: RoeBoot

Part 7 - Want to Play a Game?

A vast canopy of trees and ground vegetation surrounded Bob and Pixie. The environment stretched to the horizon meeting a large group of mountains in the distance. The sounds of prehistoric animals echoed around the two sprites along with the ominous sound of large thumping footsteps in the forest.

"I hope you're up to this lad."

"I can manage," Bob assured her. "Let's do it!"

The duo tapped their icons and cried, "REBOOT!"

When the haze of green energy faded, the sprites looked themselves over. Bob wore a wide-brimmed hat, a brown vest over a plaid t-shirt, olive pants and hiking boots. A canteen was slung around his shoulder and a knife was attached to his belt. Pixie had long hair tied up in a pigtail. She still had her backpack, now formatted to fit the game. She had on a bright aqua tank top and cargo shorts with hiking boots and a pair of pistols on her thighs. She un-holstered one, only to discover they were flare guns.

Pixie didn't hide her disappointment. She shrugged. "Wrong game."

She felt Fetch squirm his way out of her backpack and jump on the ground. Pixie turned and smiled. "Going somewhere?"

Fetch was no longer a cyberpup. He was a baby triceratops. Fetch wagged his tail. His collar jingled around his neck.

"How did he reboot?" Bob wondered.

Pixie picked up Fetch. The dino pup licked her face. "Looks like I get to baby sit a baby dinosaur for the rest of our stay." She took off her backpack, removed a pair of binoculars to make more room, and put Fetch inside. "Now you stay put. Megabyte's troops are in here and I don't want lose you again."

"Megabyte hates Frisket," Bob said. "Why would he want Fetch so badly?"

"Think about it. He's already imprinted the scent of many key sprites and places including you and the Super Computer. Search engine dogs would make good soldiers for viruses if they could control them."

Fetch squirmed inside Pixie's backpack as the sprites began to walk the game plane. Bob looked at Glitch for the game stats. "This game is called The Lost Land. We have to beat the User before... he eats everyone?"

Pixie consulted Quark. "And we are part of the everyone. Have you played this game before?"

"I think."

"You think?"

"Remember the email I sent you about the game merging incident?"

"Oh! The T-Rex tank User!"

"Now it's just a T-Rex. Quark says if we make it to the mountain pass before the User gets us, we can end the game."

They heard the thumping grow slightly louder. Bob added, "Then we'd better get moving. He sounds like he's getting close."

The sprites started jogging towards the mountains as quickly as the terrain would allow them. Bob tried not to look like he was laboring from his injury by staying just behind Pixie. He noticed Pixie was admiring the scenery as she went. Bob remarked, "You look like a kid in a code shop. When was the last time you played a game?"

"Five minutes ago," she admitted.

"FIVE?! Pixie?!?"

Pixie tried to calm him. "I keep up with the reports on new games. I can manage, or are you use to having a different partner? One with a green skin tone?"

Bob blushed a little. "Dot and I are good friends."

"Friends only?"

"At this nanosecond."

"Have you tried telling her how you feel?"

"I was going to before I came to rescue you at the Tor."

"Oh? So it's my fault?"

"No! It's just...what if she says no?"

"You can't be afraid to try."

"And there is the problem with Hexadecimal. She's got it bad for me. So bad I'm afraid she'll hurt Dot unless..."

"Unless you change her."

"Do you think I can? No one in the Collective believes a virus can be reprogrammed."

"I believe you can do anything you set your mind to, Bobby. And so did Dorothy," Pixie became saddened at the mention of her old friend's name. Bob knew the Guardians had fired Dorothy, a teacher in the Guardian Academy for some act of insubordination. He wasn't privy to the details and had no desire to know them. Whatever the cause for Dorothy losing her job, Pixie took the loss very personally. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine. Now let's concentrate on this game."

Pixie and Bob reached the clearing where the ABC had apparently disappeared. It no longer existed, overwritten by the Game parameters and replaced by an overturned and ravaged hummer. The rear hatch hung open. The occupants had long escaped or been attacked by game sprites or the User. A rocket-shaped cylinder, not rebooted into the environment, lay next to the hummer. Whatever had been inside it had been emptied out.

"Quark! Scan!" Pixie ordered and kneeled beside the bombs remains. "Bob? Are you reading this?"

"Yeah! Viral material! This is what's left of some kind of infection device!"

"And it was heading right for the Principal Office! But it got caught in the game. And something ate the viral material!"

"Not just something," Bob noticed a large footprint next to the hummer. A Tyrannosaurus Rex footprint. "Great. Now we've got a loaded User!"

"Listen! Did you hear that?" asked Pixie.

"Yeah," Bob admitted, "And it sounds like even more trouble."

Pixie dropped down on her hands and knees and crawled under a bush. Bob followed her lead, straining to keep up with one very sore shoulder. Pixie stopped just at the edge of a clearing. Fetch barked. Pixie hushed the pup and put the binoculars to her eyes. She surveyed the jungle below virtually, then whistled. "Bobby! You have to see this."

"I can," He saw several tiger-striped brown and red raptors. The sickle-clawed dinosaurs stalked around several trees looking up at a few viral binomes hiding in the high branches. The binomes appeared to be safely out of harm's way so long as the User didn't get them.

"No! Not just that! I see one!"

"One? One what?"

"Take a look at the largest raptor in the group. The one with the very bright red skin and dark brown stripes. Those aren't only Aggressive or Chaotic game sprites down there."

Bob borrowed the binoculars. He studied the large dinosaur as it hooted out orders to the others. The behavior didn't match anything known on file. He then saw the sprite's icon on its right thigh, a triangle that had two letters on it. Bob exclaimed, "AI!"

"Artificial Intelligence! An entirely new species of Game Sprite! They are designed to study the User and learn from there playing abilities! Can you imagine?!"

"I don't have to," Bob gave her the binoculars. "I ran into an Artificial Intelligent sprite in the game. He nearly got us nullified."

"Him? Not you?" Pixie recalled how Bob had taken the blame.

"I underestimated this sprite. Someone taught him to attack us. I never got an answer out of him," Bob snapped himself out of their discussion. "Pixie we're wasting time. The User-"

"Yes. Of course," Pixie consulted Quark and tapped in a few notes. "We'll proceed to locate the User and avoid Red and her pack of hoodlums."

"Red?"

"The AI raptor. I have to call her something."

Bob sighed, "Next you'll be saying we should tag her for future observation."

"Tag? Great idea Bobby. Quark! Tracer!"

A small disk shot out of the keytool and attached itself to the raptor. She twinged as if bitten and looked towards Bob and Pixie. The dino snarled and barked. Her pack turned as one to see the two sprites.

Pixie gasped. "Uh oh."

Bob ordered, "Glitch! Net!"

An energy net spread out from Glitch, catching Red in it. This caused her pack to hesitate long enough for them to get a head start. Pixie and Bob began running as fast as they could. The howls of the raptor pack only faded for a few moments before it got louder again. The pack was closing in. Worse yet, Bob felt his system running down. The injury had had too much of an effect on him. Pixie looked back at Bob as he slowed down.

"Bobby!"

"Keep moving!" he gasped.

"I won't leave you behind! I'll try leading them off! You keep going!"

A raptor jumped out of the bushes and charged at Pixie. Just then something green and hairy swung down and grabbed her. Both Bob and the raptor were equally surprised. Bob slowly back up to run only to find another raptor had snuck up behind him. Bob turned only to see a third raptor come up on his left as a larger raptor moved in on his right. It was the AI game sprite! And she looked angry.
Before Bob used Glitch, the same someone who had grabbed Pixie bungee-jumped down from the trees above and grabbed Bob. The guardian screamed and hung on tight to the green mass of furry sprite. The crazed group of raptors followed below as the sprite swung through the trees. Bob wrinkled his nose. The sprite smelled as bad as Old Man Pearson's Data Dump! They landed on a branch on the other side of a ravine. The raptor pack stopped at the edge. They had lost their prey. Red hooted her orders to the others and they gave up on the attack.

Bob sank down on against the tree, relieved to be safe. He looked at his rescuer, an ape-like creature with long hair covering his entire body and a piece of rope securing a club to his waist. He also had very familiar-looking violet eyes...

"ENZO?!"

"Hi Bob! Can you believe this getup?!" Enzo looked himself over. "This game made a monkey out of me! It stinks!"

"In more ways than one," Bob waved his hand in front of his face. "Where's Pixie?"

"Down here," Pixie called. Bob saw the sprite standing at the base of the tree. She smiled, "And the good news is we lost our raptor friends."

"For now." Bob lowered himself to the ground using a vine, followed by Enzo.

Enzo heard a yapping. Fetch managed to push his way out of Pixie's backpack again and fall on the ground. Enzo exclaimed, "Is that Fetch? No way!"

"Yes way," Pixie said.

Enzo picked up the dino pup. The dino whined when he caught a good whiff of Enzo's fur. Enzo asked, "How come he can reboot?"

"I wish I knew."

"You mean you don't know either?"

"I mean he must have clicked his icon somehow. Haven't you taken Frisket in a game with you?"

"Yes. But he doesn't reboot."

"Frisket's feral, Pixie," Bob told her, "He doesn't have a PID."

"Oh! Well that explains it."

Enzo looked at Fetch's collar. A dog tag shaped like a guardian icon dangled on the chain. "I get it! Fetch is registered. That's why he can reboot."

"And if you get one for Frisket he can reboot too."

"If Enzo is ever allowed in a game again," Bob reminded the young sprite. "By sneaking in you've gotten me in a lot of trouble."

"It's okay, Bob. Dot's here."

"Where?"

"Over here," Dot called out.

The bushes nearby rustled. Dot peaked out from between several branches.

"Dot?" Pixie craned her neck to see her. "What are you doing?"

"Hiding!"

"Why?"

"What else can I do? Ouch!" The bushes rattled some more caused by Dot's frustration. "Stupid game!"

Pixie consulted Quark. "Dot? You didn't happen to reboot as the jungle woman?"

"If you took a good look at this outfit, could you tell?"

"Yes."

"No way am I coming out!"

"If you plan to hide the entire game then it will be harder for the rest of us. Your game character can communicate with dinosaurs."

Dot moaned. "Bob! You'd better not say anything!"

"I wouldn't, Dot," Bob said. "I promise."

Dot came out from behind the bushes wearing a two piece outfit of tanned animal skins. The loin cloth bottom was held on by two thin pieces of string, one of which helped keep a knife secure to her thigh. He top had the same amount of thread holding it on. Dot had shoved a few leaves in the front to cover herself a little more. She had other leaves are part of her costume, rigging her wrists, ankles and hair. The final touch was a necklace of dinosaur teeth.

Enzo giggled.

Dot's eyes were like daggers, staring at Enzo. The child gulped and hind behind Bob. When she stared at Bob, the guardian lowered his hat down over his eyes and started to whistle an innocent tune. Pixie announced, "She's the jungle woman all right."

"Which means?" Dot asked.

"You can guide us out of here. The User has to eat us in order to win the game. If we escape through the mountain path, it's Game Over for the User."

Dot noticed Bob still smiling and asked, "Can he eat one of you?"

Pixie suggested. "Bobby why don't you take point while we follow you."

"Okay," Bob said. He started walking and almost tripped over a log he didn't see.

"And tip your hat up!" Pixie warned. "I don't need you getting injured again!"

"Right."

As soon as Bob and Enzo moved out of hearing range, Pixie spoke to her, "Dot. I'm glad you're here. Bobby isn't feeling up to snuff. We might not make it out of this game without your help."

"I'll do whatever I can to help, Pixie," Dot said. "As long as you and Bob never tell anyone about this getup!"

Pixie grinned. "My lips are sealed."

* * *

The group reached a flat outcropping of rock overlooking a deep valley. From below came the roars of several different file type dinosaur sprites. The thickness of the forest allowed for all trace of the User to remain out of sight. Every once in a while his distinct roar could be heard and Dot recognized it better than any of the others. The User was on their trail, and so were the pack of large raptors. Quark gave Pixie the location. The distance between the User, the raptors, and the sprites was decreasing rapidly.
They paused at the edge of a steep incline. "Bobby, would you do us a favor and sit down for a few nanos? You looked drained. We know where the User is and so does Dot."

Bob sat down on a rock underneath a tree. "I'm not going to argue anymore about that."

Pixie picked up a stick and scratched out a rough map in the dirt. "We're just in front of Dino Valley and north of the Raptor Ridge. The User has to cut through this valley so if we get across it and through the mountain pass quick enough, we can beat the User to the end of the game."

"This is quite a long way Pixie," Enzo said. "How do we get across?"

"I was about to ask Dot."

Dot sighed. "Well. Here goes everything."

Dot put her hands to her mouth. The call she let out was low and bellowing, much like the roars of the T-Rex User but not as threatening. From below, a few long necked Apatosaurus gave Dot their attention.

"Cool!" Enzo exclaimed.

A large amount of hooting sounds echoed from the jungle. Pixie said, "It's Red, Dot! We're running out of time!"

"More than just Red!" Enzo said pointed to the valley below. The User had gotten down there ahead of them and they got a good look at it for the first time. The Tyrannosaur looked normal at first, but one good examination of it showed otherwise. The beast's eyes were viral. Even its skin had turned electric blue on the dark patches along its sides.

Pixie un-holstered her flare guns and fired at the T-Rex. The plumes of flame the flares halted the User's advance. The Rex roared and swung its head back and forth as sparks scorched his skin. The User backed up. Dot called out a second time. The largest Apatosaurus walked up towards the cliff. It brushed its nose against the outcropping and bellowed. The dinosaur picked at the leaves of a tree as it waited. Dot ordered them, "Everyone slide down!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Enzo said in excitement. The sprites slid down the dinosaur's back. Enzo whooped it up all the way down. The Apatosaurus bellowed in reply as the sprites landed one by one at the bottom. Enzo asked, "Can we do that again?"

The User stomped into the clearing. He was covered with burn marks and in a very fowl mood. Pixie said, "Some other time Enzo! Run!"

The sprites ran up the valley. A dried out river bed with a steep incline was now in their way. The sprites quickly climbed to the bottom, rather, tumbled down. Bob felt something slimy under his foot. His nostrils told him what. Enzo waved his hand it front of his snout and said, "You thought I stank."

There was more than dino poo. A carcass of a dead plant eater lay nearby, covered in fresh teeth marks.

"Oh no! More raptors," Pixie said.

The User stopped to examine the situation. The incline was steep but not enough for him not to venture down.

"Look out!" Bob warned.

The User crashed down into the mist of the riverbed, landing with Bob and Enzo to one side, and Pixie and Dot to the other. The T-Rex User got to his feet and turned towards Bob. The guardian grabbed Enzo under his arm and ran. The User chased them. Bob heard Pixie yell, "Quark! Lasso!"

Bob kept running, looking back only once. The User chased them only a few more paces before he stopped to reverse his course. Bob thought about Pixie and Dot. He had to go back and help them but he had to get Enzo somewhere safe.

"Bob? Can you put me down?" Enzo asked.

"Oh. Sure." Bob winced a little as he did so.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine. Let's keep moving."

The walked a little further up the river bed. It started to level off enough to climb out. They were in the jungle again. Bob consulted Glitch to get their location. He realized they were close to the mountain pass. He said, "If we make it, we could end the game."

"But what about Dot and Pixie?"

"If we do this, the game will end. They'll be safe."

Bob's idea got rudely interrupted by the familiar barking of a raptor. It came into the path ahead of them, hissing and snarling. It was the AI raptor Pixie had nicknamed Red.

Bob pushed Enzo behind him as the raptor came closer. She cocked her head to the side in a way that showed her curiosity. She swished her tail back and forth.

"Bob," Enzo whispered. "I don't think she wants to hurt us."

"Enzo. She's a game sprite. I can't-"

The raptor stalked in closer. Bob raised Glitch. Red snarled. That surprised Bob. She understood Glitch was a weapon. Bob lowered his arm. Red lowered her head and came even closer. She made another barking sound, making Bob fear she was calling for the pack. Red moved in close enough for Bob to feel her hot breath on his skin. She sniffed Bob's icon then looked him in the eyes. Red was recognizing a guardian? Was such a thing possible?

A roar interrupted the raptor's inspection of the sprites. The User broke through a stand of trees. Red leaped at the User's throat and held on, claws and teeth clamped on tight.

The User shook his head back and forth, trying to dislodge Red. Pixie and Dot ran into the clearing. They shouted to Bob and Enzo to run as the rest of the raptor's pack came to join in the fight against the viral User. As the sprites ran, Bob asked Dot, "How did you get the raptors to listen to you?"

"The language was easy. Tie a dead dinosaur to the User's tail. Perfect bait."

Something came crashing down in front of them. Bob had to tackle Dot to get her out of the way. Dot had been caught of guard by Bob's sudden heroic act. Bob smiled and winked. And for some reason Dot felt something inside her change a little more. When they looked up, they saw it was Red. The User had hurled her across the jungle, causing her deletion. She lay there with her eyes frozen open. Enzo came closer to her, looking sad. Pixie told the young sprite, "When the game restarts, she'll be alive again, Enzo. We have to keep moving."

Bob helped Dot stand up. "We're almost to the safe zone. This way."

The sprites ran, knowing safety was only a few game seconds away. They reached the mountain pass and the end of the level only to discover, the journey hadn't ended. They waited but nothing happened.

"Shouldn't the game be over?" Enzo asked.

"Pixie," Bob said after consulting Glitch, "We've got a problem."

"Yes. Quark has the same readings," Pixie confirmed. "The viral corruption created a error in the game. We can't win unless we delete the User."

"Someone has to hit his icon. I've done it before."

"When you were at a hundred percent," Dot said. "We have to try something else."

Pixie peered over the edge of the mountain side. The chasm below looked bottomless. "We'll have to push him over the edge. But with what?"

"Hey!" Enzo complained. He had nearly been hit by droppings from a pterodactyl. He scolded the flying dinosaur, "Stupid bird."

"That's it!" Dot said and cleared her throat. She called the pterodactyl. The dinosaur made a cawing sound and flew off. Dot sighed, "I hope I got that message right."

A roar came from up the cannon. Pixie said, "And I hope the answer arrives in time."

The User came into view. He paused a nano to scratched his head. He had a dozen serious looking wounds but still moved with little effort. The User stalked into the area and sniffed the air to find where his prey had disappeared. The sprites were hiding behind a very large boulder only feet away. The User roared and did something unexpected. It plowed right into the boulder. Pixie screamed, "Quark! Energy shield!"

The boulder toppled against the shield. The sprites were safe within Quark's energy bubble but they couldn't move, the weight of the boulder holding them there, or at least holding three of them there. Bob had rolled out of the way before Pixie gave Quark the command and was now outside the shield's range. Bob got up and aimed Glitch at the User. His missed shot came close to the User's icon and only got the User angry. Bob had to turn and run as the T-Rex User chased him right to the chasm's edge. Bob had nowhere left to go but down. The User licked his chops and opened his mouth. A pterodactyl dropping hit the User in the eye. The User snarled as an angry swarm of several dozen pterodactyls attacked him. He snapped his jaws on a few of them as they pecked him. Blinded by the assault, the User kept backing up. Bob ducked under its tail and used Glitch to shoot an energy beam into its foot. The User fell and tumbled over the cliff. An injured pterodactyl clipped Bob with one of its wings, seemingly taking Bob along with him to its own deletion.

"BOBBY!" Pixie screamed.

The system administrator voice announced, "GAME OVER."

* * *

The game cube left. Pixie, Dot and Enzo were on the part of the grassy promenade surrounding the Principal Office facing G-Prime. The Principal Office had its shield raised and several CPU cars circling the area. The three sprites looked around not in relief, but in fear.

Where was Bob?

Fetch ran to the edge of the promenade, barking and looking down at something. The sprites followed Fetch as an ABC rise out of
hiding. Pixie aimed Quark it fire to notice Bob standing on the roof of the vehicle, already aiming Glitch at the ABC's commander's back. The binome had his hands up, afraid to make a move. Bob remarked, "Thanks for the lift. This is were I get off."

Bob jumped down. The ABC took off. Pixie gave Bob a hug. She said, "Nice to see you."

"Same here," Bob replied.

Glitch beeped. The keytool's display showed Phong looking very worried. He asked, "Bob? Is everyone all right?"

"Affirmative. More or less," Bob still felt the aching from his injury. "What happened out here?"

"Hexadecimal apparently blew up a few ABCs. We raised shields and scrambled our defenses, but she simply disappeared."

"She was paying me a favor, Phong," Pixie said. "And she doesn't make a bad cup of tea either."

"Megabyte was trying to use an Infection Bomb on the Principal Office," Bob continued. "But it got caught with us in the game. And the User sort of ate it."

"I see," Phong smiled. "You'll have to come and tell me all about it. Megabyte spoke with me and seemed rather upset with both of you."

"Oh I wonder why?" Pixie winked to Bob.

"We'll be right over, Phong," Bob ended the transmission. He sighed, "I'm drained."

"Like you wouldn't be," Dot scolded. "You shouldn't have even been in that game."

"Oh, I wouldn't have missed that game for the Net," Bob grinned.

"If you ever tell anyone about that outfit I was wearing!" Dot poked him in the chest.

"Hey! Guardian's honor!" Bob took a step back. "Not a peep! Right Enzo?"

"Sure thing, Bob," Enzo promised.

"Come along lads," Pixie said. "Even with that piece omitted, we have quite a story to tell."

Read Part 8 | Back to the Changing of the Guardian