Elemental Force
by WebMistressGina
Chapter 15 - A Deeper Investigation
"So what do you think's going on?"
Alex and Enzo sat in the group's favorite booth, each having the lunch special. The couple had put off their wedding plans ~as well as announcing it to everyone else~ in order to figure out the strange behavior they were noticing lately. Enzo shrugged his shoulders to her question, taking a sip of his energy shake in the process. "You got me, babe." he replied. "Even I'm in the dark!"
"Let's look at it from the beginning." she said. "First, Hexadecimal is attacked, right inside her lair."
"Right." Enzo agreed. "And now all this. Have you seen Bob lately? He isn't looking too good."
"Nor are his kids or Chip for that matter." Alex stated. "The twins go nowhere without Chip. It's like...it's like he's their bodyguard or something."
"Yeah and get this." Enzo leaned in closer, looking around to see if anyone was listening. "I got word from Turbo that Sabrina and Kit are coming home." he said.
"Well, yeah." Alex replied, a bit confused. "They do have a break coming up..."
Enzo shook his head. "No, I mean they're coming back a cycle and a half early."
"What?"
Enzo shrugged again. "I know." he said. "I don't get it myself. All Turbo said was he hoped our family emergency would be taken care of quickly and there would be no suffering involved."
"What family emergency?" Alex asked, highly confused.
"That's what I want to know."
* * *
"Hey Bob."
The guardian looked up from his magazine file and smiled slightly. He was now outside in the M.U. lobby, trying to get his mind off recent events. The greeting had come from Matrix, who took the seat next to his mentor and brother. "Enzo." Bob nodded, leaning back in his chair. The two sat in silence, something they had previously when they had returned home. "How's everything?" Bob asked.
"All right." Matrix nodded. "Is she...?" he asked, indicating the patient in the room across from them.
"I don't know." Bob sighed. "She's stable, which is good..."
"I'd never thought I'd hear Hexadecimal was stable." the renegade joked, earning a small, but sad smile from Bob.
"In any event, this whole thing doesn't make any sense, nor does it have any reason to."
The two were silent again, until Matrix cleared his throat. "I actually had an ulterior motive for coming, Bob." he replied. The guardian looked at him, slightly concerned. "Are you okay?" the renegade asked. "I mean, you haven't been looking too good and I was just wondering if you were sick or something."
Bob sighed. "I'm all right, Enzo." he said. "Really I am, I just...do you ever get tired, Enzo? I mean, not sleepy or anything, just tired of...things. I just feel we're stuck in a loop sometimes, doing the same thing, second in, second out. Battling the same battles over and over again. I mean, didn't we just go through a battle not so long ago? And now what? We're sitting here outside of a hospital room, where one of our residents, forget she's a virus for now, is laying there in a coma of some sort. We have no idea what happened or what's going to happen to us if this...thing or what have you is still here. I just...I'm just tired of it all."
Matrix nodded. He too understood everything they had both gone through. Even the renegade himself had to admit he was getting tired of the fighting and the wars they got themselves into. It had been necessity during Megabyte's tyranny. It had been a must during Daemon, but now, they just seemed tiresome. Busy work, if you will, just to keep the system on its toes.
* * *
"This is Mike the wonderful and fabulous TV, signing off! Cut! That's a wrap, boys."
Mike the TV twirled his mic in his hand. That had to be the best journalism he had ever done. He would so be getting a PB Award for that performance. Sighing, the little set headed back to home base ~meaning, he was heading towards Dot's Diner~ smiling all the way. Since his television show, named after him of course, was on summer hiatus, Mike had gone back to reporting the news like he always had in the small system. He was still walking when he noticed someone approach him.
"You're Mike TV, aren't you?" asked the stranger.
"That's MISTER Mike TV to you, bud!" Mike said, stopping in his tracks. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm Alexander Gain." replied the sprite. "Treasure hunter and part time reporter. I was hoping I could do a story on you and your friends."
Mike immediately smiled. This was his chance! This was probably a reporter from the awards committee from the PBs. "Interview me?" he squeaked.
"I'll understand if you don't..."
"Of course you can interview me!" Mike exclaimed. "Who knows this system better than me, Mike the host with the most TV. Come on, I was just heading to the Diner."
"Do you mind if we did the interview somewhere else?" Gain asked. "I mean, I am interviewing you about you and your system. Some people tend to get shy when they have a story done on them. Besides, I want this to be a surprise to our readers."
Mike smacked himself in the forehead. "of course." he said, laughing. "What was I thinking? Okay then, we'll go to Al's Wait and Eat. You can interview while we wait to eat."
Gain smiled happily.
The two walked over to Al's Wait and Eat, the only seedy thing about Mainframe. It's where most of the low lifes in town hung out. There were still binomes who sought to overthrow the Command.Com and the leaders of the system, still ever loyal to their master Megabyte. There were even some claiming they were responsible for the state their registered virus was now in. Gain smiled as he and the little set took their seats in a nearby booth. Al's skater waiter came over to them.
"What'll it be, Mike?" he asked, popping a gum bubble with his teeth.
"A couple of energy shakes, my good man." Mike boosted. "Put it on my tab."
"Your tab's not big enough to hold a couple of energy shakes." the waiter retorted.
Mike glared at the waiter. "Go get those shakes." he said through gritted teeth.
The waiter hmph and said, "You know the drill. Just sit there and wait like the other lowlifes." He skated off before Mike could hit him.
"Charming place." Gain remarked, casting a look to Mike.
Mike giggled nervously. "Yeah, sorry about that." he said. "It was the only place I could think of, besides the Principal Office and you don't wanna hang out there. Everyone hangs out there, especially now."
"Yes, the...virus thing." Gain replied.
"Hoo boy!" Mike exclaimed. "News is whatever attacked her came from her looking glass and man, do I remember the last time something came from her looking glass. Talk about scary, but I think I did a good job on getting the Nullzilla story and presenting it with facts and the like." Mike smiled.
"Of course."
"Here your shakes, boys." the skater waiter replied, tossing the cups on the table before heading off in another direction.
"That was quick." Mike murmured. "Must be a short wait today."
"I guess." Gain replied. "Hey, is that a fight over there?"
"Where?" Mike exclaimed, turning around to see.
While Mike was distracted, Gain poured something into his shake, then switched it with Mike's.
"I guess it was a false alarm." Gain said, getting the little set's attention.
"Yeah." Mike said, disappointed. He was hoping a fight would start, that way he could show off his reporting skills to the interviewer. "But I'm sure there'll be one." he continued, taking a long sip of his shake. "There always is."
"Hmmm." Gain said, smiling sweetly. "Now Mike, I want you to tell me everything you know about this system and the sprites in it."
"Well..." Mike started and was hit with a spell of dizziness. Looking at his shake, he said, "Wow. These things pack a punch. I gotta tell Al to go easy on the extra. Especially when I didn't order an extra." Looking back up at Gain, he said, "Oh! Where was I? Oh yeah. Well, I didn't officially get here until Bob did, but I can tell you things were sad. The Twin City, the sister city to us, had blown up thanks to the doctors Matrix. Those are Matrix, Dot, and Enzo's parents. Anyway, they deleted the whole city, leaving Dot and Matrix all alone in the Net. How sad, huh? I don't know what I would do if I ever lost my mom. She was on my show once. Did I tell you I have a show?"
"Later Mike." Gain interrupted. "You were saying?"
"Oh yeah." Mike said, becoming more and more relaxed. "Say, shouldn't you be writing this down?"
"Normally, I have a fantastic memory, but I think this time..." Gain removed an organizer from his pocket and began typing. "The Twin City?"
"Right." Mike replied. "Well, anyway, the explosion caused Megabyte and Hexadecimal, see? And that's when Bob got here. He and Dot were all over each other, couldn't keep them apart. Like hippies at a love in. Molded. Anyway, some stuff with the virus twins happened and...oh! Nullzilla. That's when are the craziness started."
"Go on."
"See, this Web creature comes through her looking glass, see?" Mike began, his words starting to slur themselves together. "And I know, cause I was there. I lived with her. Hex, I mean. She's a pretty looker back then, even now I think, but I'm just not ready for a relationship. I got my career and everything, right? Anyway, her nulls and stuff try to save her by jumping on her and they made Nullzilla. Well...we broke Nullzilla up right, cause we're bad ASCII like that. Well, the Web creature escapes and heads over to Megabyte's place, yeah? Then he and Hex turn into Gigabyte, the baddest mutha you ever did see. And he was destroying stuff. Oh! You know what?"
"What's that?"
"I forgot about AndrAIa." Mike said, laughing. "See, AndrAIa happened before Nullzilla. This is the scope. Got it from Matrix himself. He was in this game, yo, and he met Andri. She's a game sprite. And they beat this game and when it was over, she was in Mainframe!"
"Remarkable." Gain replied, typing. "How did she do that?"
Mike leaned in closer. "She made a copy of herself into his icon." he said, nodding.
"So you mean, there's another AndrAIa out there somewhere?"
"A littler AndrAIa." Mike corrected. "But that brings me back to the Web Wars. See, Mouse came back cause she was working for Turbo, the head Guardian. He was gonna blow us to Kingdom Come! But, Bob saved the second, like always, but it opened us up to all these Web creatures, so we had to battle them and stuff. Well, against my better judgment, Bob went ahead and teamed up with Megs and Hex, right? Well, you know what they did?"
Gain shook his head.
"They sent him to the Web!" Mike exclaimed. "Sucks, huh? Well, by then Dot was leader girl and Mouse was on our side and Enzo was a guardian cadet, right? Well, he and AndrAIa, who were always hugs and kissy, they lost this game. Then the bits hit the cooling fan. Megabyte was all random and stuff and turned Hex into his own personal slave, somewhere I don't want to go, mind you. And then, all of this..." he did a show of his hand. "...turned to Megaframe. But get this. Only like an hour passes right, then Bob, Matrix now, and AndrAIa come back."
Gain stopped typing and looked at the set. "Explain that, will you?" he asked.
"See, Matrix and AndrAIa were game hopping." Mike explained. "That's when you play game after game after game and land in system after system after system and so on and so on and so..."
"I get the point."
"Right." the set replied. "So anyway, game time is faster than out time, which is why Matrix and AndrAIa are all grown up. They were gone for an hour here, but to them it was like ten hours. Crazy, huh?"
"Interesting to say the least." Gain replied. "And the guardian?"
"He was rescued in the Web by Matrix and Andri." Mike continued. "He was a member of the Web Riders."
Gain immediately sat up and listened to this piece of information.
"See, they're this group of..."
"Oh, I know who the Web Riders are." the sprite growled. "Tell me more."
"Well, he was like the leader guy cause they found him out there and..."
Interface, Gain thought with menace. He's been here the whole time, right under my nose.
"Hey, are you listening to me?" Mike asked, his eyelids starting to close. Boy, was he tired!
"Tell me about their children." Gain demanded.
"Oh well, that's easy." Mike piped up. "Man, they are something. They got these ultra cool powers and stuff. I wish I had ultra cool powers. Maybe everyone would like me more. Do you think...?"
"Mike, I am not playing anymore." the sprite growled. "You've been given several drops of truth serum. Now, you are going to explain to me why these kids are so special."
Mike gulped. "They got these powers." he whispered.
"What are they?"
"Kit...see, when Bob and the others were in the Web, trying to get home, they ran into a bunch of Mouse's traps in order to keep people out. So Bob downloaded his keytool Glitch. Now Kit, Nikki, and Jet have the same powers their dad does. And Phong thinks Dot may have too."
Gain took a breath. Incredible, remarkable! That would explain the things he saw. "And the Matrix children?" he asked.
"Because AndrAIa's a game sprite, everyone just naturally assumed her children would inherit whatever she had, but..."
"Yes?"
"I overheard a conversation from Phong and he thinks the reason Sabrina and Chip can do what they do has something to with Matrix and AndrAIa game hopping for so long." Mike said, his tone becoming slightly robotic. "He thinks the game time sped up their codes and altered them, making their children able to do things their parents can not."
"Such as?"
"Sabrina is able to predict games before they land and Chip is possibly the fastest kid in the Net."
Gain smiled as he nodded. The whole thing was coming together and everything was now making sense. The only thing he needed to do now was to get the sprites' powers and destroy this system.
It was time for some good old-fashioned mind games.