Author’s Note: This portion of the story contains matures themes and adult subject matter that some readers may find disturbing. It’s not my intention to offend anyone and no scene was included that was not absolutely essential to the story.

Guardian Blues
By Dan Green

Part 5

The next morning was when the guilt hit, and it hit full force almost as soon as I woke up. The memories of how fantastic I’d felt were still strong, but now I just felt dirty and ashamed. I was sure I was sick – a total pervert who didn’t deserve a girlfriend like Lisa. I was just as sure that if she knew what kinds of thoughts I’d had, how I longed for her, she‘d never speak to me again.

Like I said, Bob had tried to warn me about some of this stuff - in an embarrassed, goofy, Bob kinda way. He hadn’t come close to what I was feeling now though. Still, I couldn’t really blame him – how could anyone have ever told me in words what those feelings from the night before were like? What the guilt I was feeling now was like? Even if he’d tried – and he hadn’t really gotten very close – it would’ve been impossible. It’s all so much bigger than words that it’s not even funny. I was just gonna have to get through it all on my own and hope it got better, and try and ease up myself for being so weak.

Funny how you can be all worried and offline about something and have no idea that by the end of the cycle other stuff will totally push it out of your processor. But I didn’t even have that much time to dwell on it that morning though, as it turned out. Right after Linux and I got back from the showers both of our organizers started beeping at us. We shared a look of dread and accessed the message. It was a short one:

ATTENTION: DORM ASSEMBLY AT 0750 TODAY

MESS HALL

ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY

"Yuck." I said softly.

"Shit. What do you think it is?"

I shrugged. "Who knows? I doubt it’s anything good, Dude – ‘mandatory meeting’ usually means ‘you’re in trouble.’"

"We better get down there – we’ll definitely be in trouble if we’re late."

"Cursors and crashes! OK, let’s go." A whole bunch of possibilities were running through my RAM as we rode downstairs, none of them very appealing. Whatever was going on it involved every cadet in the dorm, apparently – and that made me feel better in a stupid, little kid sort of way.

We didn’t have to wait long – Linux and I got to the mess just a couple of millis before seven-fifty and found a seat. I’d never seen the mess so full, and almost everybody was whispering and squirming nervously. I did notice that Quantum didn’t look too worried, though – he was sitting with his little brother a couple tables up from us, and he looked just as calm as could be.

The hall went dead silent at seven-fifty and everyone’s head turned, including mine. Laser was walking in, looking perfectly calm and very sharp in his dress blues. Everyone stood stiffly as soon as Laser came in, of course. He walked right up to the front of the room and turned to face us, with his hands behind his back. Mr. Garamond, the house master, stood next to him. "Good morning, Cadets."

"Good morning, Headmaster." The room answered back in a scraggly shout.

"I won’t keep you long. Ms. Arial has informed me that there was an incident at the ladies’ dorm a couple of nights ago. I’m sure this won’t come as any surprise to most of you in this hall." There was no answer – just a nervous silence. A big drop of sweat rolled down my forehead and right into my eye and I didn’t dare wipe it off – I just stood there and let it burn.

"Perhaps some of you have heard the expression ‘Boys will be boys’. Well, I don’t much care for that expression – it condones stupid, childish behavior of the sort I won’t accept from Guardian cadets. There’s no such thing as a ‘harmless prank’ when it disrupts the smooth operation of this Academy. The fact that you’re young doesn’t excuse it; nor does the fact that this particular prank has been a staple of Academy behavior since before you were born. It was stupid then, and it’s stupid now. If you act like adults, I’m going to treat you like adults. Since you’ve chosen to act like little boys, that’s I’ll treat you as such.

"You might remember that I told you on your first cycle here that you would all succeed or fail together, as a unit. I believe that to be one of the most important lessons you will learn here. Therefore, rather than going through the time and effort of determining who was responsible for this nonsense, you will all be punished together. As a unit.

"For the rest of this minute you will report directly back to this dormitory after your final class. You will eat dinner in this hall. Afterwards you will go directly to your rooms until lights out – the recreation facilities are off limits. For this minute-end no young man will be allowed to leave the campus for any reason. If you do, don’t bother to come back. Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes Sir." The hall answered dejectedly.

"Good." Laser smiled. "Enjoy your breakfast, and don’t be late for class. At ease." He nodded briskly and walked out of the hall, Mr. Garamond two steps behind him.

"There goes my quicktime with Patch." Linux moaned.

"Sorry, Dude." I sighed. "But at least it wouldn’t have mattered whether we were there or not – the whole dorm took the fall. Besides – there’s always lunch, and next minute. C’mon – let’s get some food." What was running through my head was, How in the net am I gonna find a way to kiss Lisa? That is, if I can ever face her again… But I didn’t say it to Linux – I didn’t wanna sound selfish.

Quantum and his brother Rom were a couple places ahead of us in the chow line. Quantum looked over his shoulder and I grinned a little and shrugged. "Basic, huh? Guess it wasn’t too bad."

He laughed. "Same punishment every hour, Little Man."

"Huh?"

"He did the same thing last hour, Enzo – pole-axed the whole dorm. Before he was infected my Dad told me they did it when he was at the Academy, too. The punishment is as much a part of the tradition as the raid, I think."

"Dude – no way!"

"Yeah! It was worth it, believe me – I got me a pair of beauties. Besides – it’s an honor to be asked to serve, and don’t you forget it." He loaded his tray, winked at me, and stormed off towards the tables.

"Wow. Your brother definitely has style." I said softly. I suppose I should have been mad at him for getting us in trouble, but I wasn’t – I still felt grateful to be included, basic as that sounds.

Rom shrugged. "He’s something, all right. I gave up trying to keep up with him hours ago. C ya around."

"C ya." Rom went off to join his brother, I waited for Linux to get his breakfast and that was the last either of us talked about the panty-raid for a while.

* * *

Once the disappointment about being grounded died down, I was pretty worried about lunch. I almost skipped out on Lisa and ate at the boys’ dorm – I wasn’t sure how I’d feel when I saw her. But as much as I didn’t want to see her I did want to see her, too – and I knew I couldn’t run away from her forever. If I didn’t see her at lunch she’d wonder why and wonder if anything was wrong, and every cycle I avoided her it would get worse. So I swallowed hard and went and met her at our usual spot.

"Hey! No lunch today?"

"Not too hungry." I sat next to her and tried to smile. User, it was tough – I felt horribly ashamed of myself for all the things I’d thought and felt. If she knew…

"What’s processing?"

"Uh…" I tried desperately to make the part of my processor that controlled talking to people work in a normal way. It was enough that I felt like a jerk around her, I didn’t want to sound like one too. "We, eh, we got grounded."

"Grounded?" Lisa furrowed her brow. "What in the net do you mean?"

"Laser. He grounded the whole dorm for a minute for the panty-raid. Basic, huh?"

"That bytes! But you must have been expecting it, right? It’s not like he wasn’t gonna find out!"

I shrugged. This was good, talking to her in an almost normal way. It made me feel less perverted. "I never really thought about it, I guess. But yeah – I mean, the house mistress or whatever she’s called chased us over half the campus so it’s not like it was a big secret."

Lisa giggled. The sound was so wonderful that I couldn’t help smiling a little. "I wish I’d seen that – you in your little mask, running through the woods with that big, scary woman chasing you!"

"Yeah, well… I’m glad she didn’t catch us or I’d really be in trouble."

"Yeah. I was wondering about something, by the way – were you the monkey or the kitty-cat?"

"Um – the monkey. Why?"

Lisa’s eyes narrowed. "Well – Patch said something about the monkey catching a pair of panties, that’s all. So did you?"

I don’t even wanna know what the look on my face was like – I’m sure it wasn’t pretty. "I… I mean-"

"Where are they?" She smiled. "Are you wearing them now?"

"No!" I said too loudly. "No! I mean – everybody else was trying to catch them-"

"Stop!" Lisa laughed. "I’m just torturing you, that’s all."

"You… You’re not mad?"

"No, I guess not. I still think the whole thing is stupid, but I’m not really mad about it." She squeezed my hand and I smiled. "Besides – if you want to wear girls’ panties who am I to say you shouldn’t?"

"But- I’m not!" I gasped. "I mean – I’d never-"

"User – you’re so easy!"

"Oh. You’re kidding." She was still giggling. "If you really want to know, I buried them at the bottom of my foot-locker. Maybe I’ll keep ‘em as a souvenir or something…"

"Some souvenir." Lisa scowled. "Boys!"

Normally this wouldn’t be the sort of conversation I’d look forward to having with Lisa, but under the circumstances it was actually sorta nice. It kept me from having to talk about other things that were even more embarrassing. Not that I could have talked about them anyway, but I’d sure be thinking about them. I noticed Lisa was about done with her lunch. "You wanna take a little walk?"

"Sure – I guess." She stroked the back of my hand. "You sure you aren’t gonna eat anything, Cutie?"

"No – I’m not hungry today."

"Are you OK?"

"I’m fine." I managed a smile. "I’ll get that, c’mon." I grabbed her tray in one hand and her hand in the other. I dumped the tray and we slowly walked outside, into the bright daylight. "Nice to be away from all those people…"

"This isn’t about getting me somewhere you can kiss me again, is it?"

"No! Not this time. I… I just wanna talk, I guess." I led her around to the back of the building and leaned back against it with a sigh, wondering what I wanted to say to her.

"That’s scraggy about you being grounded. No walks after dinner or anything, and we can’t go to town this weekend."

"You could go."

"Not without you." She smiled. "I wouldn’t want to. And what about Linux and Patch? She said they were gonna go see a quicktime this minute-end! Crash."

"Yeah, well… They’ll be OK. They can have lunch and talk and stuff."

"Like we do."

"Yeah. Like we do."

Lisa smiled and leaned closer to me. She ran her fingers through my hair. "Last night was wonderful, Enzo. Kissing you was amazing. I’ve been thinking about it all cycle."

"Yeah? Me too. It… It was alphanumeric."

"Enzo - What’s wrong?" she said softly.

"Nothing." I knew it was weak, but it was all I could come up with.

She looked a little hurt. "Don’t you like kissing me, Enzo?"

"Oh, User! Yes! It- You’re amazing. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, I swear!"

"Well… What’s the matter?" I stared into her eyes for a nano and she stared back, trying to see inside me. I wrapped my arms around her and put my head on her shoulder. "Enzo, What’s the matter?"

"I…" I just couldn’t find any words. Hugging her I realized I was helpless – the way I felt about her was never gonna change, and I was stupid to think I could have any control over it. All I could do was try and deal with it as well as I could. "I’m sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" she whispered, stroking my hair.

"I… Don’t know." I sighed. "I wish I was different. I want to be perfect for you."

"You are."

"No – I’m not. I-"

"I wouldn’t want you to be perfect, Cutie – that’d be boring. But you’re perfect for me."

"Stop!" I didn’t want to hear that from her. If she knew how sick I was…

"What in the net’s the matter, Enzo? Why are you getting all offline like this?"

"I-" I came close to telling her everything at that nano – well, almost everything - but I stopped, right at the edge of the cliff. "I don’t deserve to have a girlfriend like you."

"Don’t be stupid. Because of the panty thing?"

"No!" Not really anyway. "It’s not that. I… I just don’t."

"Stop." She said softly. "Whatever it is, I’m sure you’re just being silly. It wouldn’t matter."

"You don’t know." I scrunched my eyes up tight and I didn’t even want to be holding her, I didn’t deserve it, but it felt too good and I needed it too much to stop.

"I do so know. I told you I knew you were the one I wanted to kiss, right from that first nano. If I was wrong that’d make me pretty stupid, wouldn’t it?"

"You’re not stupid."

"You bet I’m not. So whatever you’re all upset about, forget it. It’s not important."

"It’s just… Sometimes I don’t like myself very much."

"We all get like that sometimes-"

"Not like this." I sighed. She felt warm and soft and perfect, too perfect. "You’re so special and it makes me want to be a better sprite, for you, and I just can’t, I just hate myself more…"

"Enough! You always do this, you know that?"

I lifted my head and frowned at her. "What?"

"You always do this! You always find something about yourself to feel bad about. I’ve only known you a few minutes and I can already see it!"

"That’s… I do not!"

"Yes you do, Enzo. And I’m getting tired of it."

"Well…" Deep down I knew she was right – I’d already kinda figured it out myself. Like I said, doubting ourselves is always gonna be a part of who me and Matrix are. "This is different, you don’t understand-"

"I do understand. That’s what you don’t like."

"Lisa-"

"You know how hard it was for me to tell you about my father? Huh? You know how many guys would’ve run screaming away from me the nano they found out about that?"

"But – that’s stupid! I’d never do that!"

"I know, Cutie. It might be stupid to you, but not for most guys. That’s why you’re so special. There’s a lot of stuff about myself I don’t like, believe me. Some of it I talk about, and some of it I don’t. I just try and accept it…" She cupped my chin in her hand. "I was lucky and found someone else who would, too. And so did you, Dummy." She gave me a quick peck on the nose. "OK?"

"OK." I sighed. She was right, there really wasn’t anything I could do about it, except try and accept what I felt – that and treat Lisa as nicely as I possibly could, all the time. She certainly deserved it. "You’re amazing."

"This is partly my fault. I’ve been kind of a jerk to you sometimes, y’know?"

"No!"

"Yes I have. I gave you a hard time about stuff and I had no right to do it. I got mad about the panty-raid thing and it was dumb of me – you were just goofing around, having fun. And I way overreacted to you telling Linux we kissed. I liked you because of who you are and I shouldn’t have tried to change you. It’s stupid."

"Lisa, no!" I couldn’t believe she was feeling guilty. "You were right, that panty-raid was dumb and it got me grounded-"

"Enzo, listen." She took my face in her hands. "I meant what I said – you’re amazing because you accepted me for who I was, even though I know it freaked you out. And what did I do? I liked you right away, and then I kept criticizing you all the time. I’m not gonna do that anymore – you’re perfect for me, just like you are. Act silly and be a dumb boy as much as you want – you’re still my Enzo. Don’t change – ever."

Wow. "Lisa…" I gave her a good hard squeeze and kissed her on the cheek. "I love you."

I could feel her body stiffen when I said it – it was pretty obvious I’d surprised her. Crash, I’d surprised myself – I sure hadn’t planned to say it. It was like the first time I kissed her – it just bubbled up inside me and jumped out before I could stop it. "Oh, Enzo-"

"Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry! I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything-"

"You do? Really?" She looked very pale, which sure didn’t seem like a good sign for me.

I would have given anything to turn time back right then – just ten nanos would have been plenty, just long enough to whack myself on the head before I had a chance to open my mouth. "I’m sorry!" I started to straighten up and I was planning to run, but she grabbed my wrist.

"Wait! Why in the net do you always try and run away whenever you get embarrassed?"

"Lemme go, OK? I… I never said that. I don’t know why I said it-"

"Enzo – just wait!" I stared at my feet, wishing I was anywhere else. "Enzo…I love you too."

"What?"

"I love you too!" She smiled and let out a big breath. "Wow! That’s a pretty scary thing, huh?"

"You do? Really?" I still felt weak and dizzy, but all of a sudden it wasn’t so bad.

"Of course I do." We kissed, just a quick one, on the lips. "I didn’t really plan to love anyone till I was a Guardian and 1.8 or something but I guess it’s not something you can plan out, is it?"

"N-no. I guess it isn’t." I grinned like an idiot. She loved me! "I guess it just sorta happens."

"Yeah." She ran her fingers through my hair and I did the same to hers. "I’m glad it happened. I really do love you."

"Me to. You, I mean! Wow…" I hugged her again, hard as I could.

"Ouch! Not so hard - I need my body to live, you know!"

"Sorry!"

"You’re stronger than you look." Lisa laughed. "Well, Enzo – you surprised me again."

"I surprised myself! I don’t know why I said that."

"I don’t know either. I wouldn’t have had the nerve to say it to you. I definitely wasn’t ready for this – it seems too fast."

"Yeah." I couldn’t disagree – it did seem too fast. But what could I do about how I felt? It wasn’t like changing your shirt or getting a haircut.

"I’m still glad. I was worried you might not feel like I did-"

"What?" I gasped. "I… You don’t have to worry about that! I totally love you, Lisa. I can’t believe you worried about that!"

"I don’t see why not. We’ve only known each other a few minutes. I’ve never even had a boyfriend before – how am I supposed to know what to think?"

"Well… You never have to worry about that. I’ll always love you."

"Enzo – you say the most amazing things…." She smiled and we hugged again, for a long time. "Crash, we better get to class – it’s getting late."

"Yeah – class." It seemed bizarre to think about going to class after I’d just heard the most amazing words in my life, but class was about to start. Still, I wanted to do anything I could to delay the nano – anything but let her go. I squeezed her hand in mine and kissed her cheek. "That’s a beautiful ring."

"Oh! Uh – thanks. It was…a gift. I’ve had it for a long time…"

"What kind is it?" It was a dark blue stone, almost black, with a shine in the center like a star.

"Sapphire." She said softly, dreamily as I nuzzled her cheek.

"It’s beautiful. It reminds me of your eyes."

"Oh, Enzo." She sighed deeply and looked at me for a nano, then nuzzled my cheek back. "You’re the sweetest boy in the net, you know that? But we really need to go to class."

"Yeah." I reluctantly let Lisa go and squeezed her hand one last time. "I’m grounded - well, you know that. Right after class. So I won’t see you until tomorrow lunchtime."

"That’s OK. We’ll eat fast, then walk."

"Yeah." I smiled. "Very fast. See you tomorrow – Beautiful."

"Bye, Enzo." Lisa kissed me on the cheek and waved, and I watched her for a couple nanos before I hopped onto my zip board and raced to class, without a nano to spare.

* * *

It’s hard for me to talk about anything else that happened after Lisa said what she said, but life did go on, so I had to go on too. And it sounds basic, but getting grounded for the whole week was probably the best thing that could’ve happened to me. So much had been going on – the panty-raid, the explosion of feelings for Lisa that shook me up so badly, and everything else – that the real reason I came to the Academy sorta got pushed off to the side of my brain. But I never totally forgot it.

Being grounded meant a lot less distractions for me, I’ll say that much – no game room, no kissing, no trips to town. I always tried to avoid getting distracted by those things but before we got ‘pole-axed’ I was never really able to do it – maybe I really am too young to deal with that stuff, just like Mouse said. But now I didn’t have any choice – my life was pretty much down to classes, eating and homework. Linux and I did our best to keep ourselves amused, but without anywhere to go I actually studied a whole lot more.

And it was OK, y’know? It only lasted a minute but it got me back on track, got me more focused on why I was here. I started some good habits that I was able maintain even after the minute was over – like doing homework immediately after classes, before dinner. I liked the feeling of having my homework done early and being free – it made me feel like a grown-up. I won’t say I didn’t get distracted sometimes – at night in bed I still had thoughts about Lisa I was ashamed of, although it didn’t seem as perverted now – and I won’t say I kept perfect study habits once I was free to do all the other stuff I’d been doing before Laser’s punishment. But I was definitely better. I guess with being away from Dot’s nagging for the first time it was pretty hard for me to concentrate on stuff like school, so I needed all the help I could get. Laser’s a pretty smart guy.

So you could say it was a pretty boring minute, but I didn’t really hate it – a boring minute was just what I needed in a lot of ways. I felt my life slowing down to a pace where it seemed like I could control it a little better, and that was a good feeling. Lisa was never too far from my processor, but we saw each other at lunch every day and talked and laughed and kissed a little, when we could slip away for a few nanos. I always wanted more time with her, but it was enough for the nano – and just talking to her was pixelacious. We loved each other, and we were OK.

Linux and Patch started having lunch together, too – they sat a little ways off from Lisa and me and I always asked Linux about it later, in our room, but he’d get all shy and blush and say it was no big deal, they were just friends. What I was thinking was, If you’re just friends why are you blushing? But I didn’t push it – when he felt like talking, we’d talk. Maybe even double-date, like he said. That’d be cool.

No big surprise, but the first cycle after our punishment was over me and Lisa decided to take a long walk together after dinner. My lips had mostly a whole minute to rest up and they were desperate to get back to work. I felt good – I’d done my homework already, I was caught up in all my classes, no bullies had bothered my for a couple minutes and I was holding hands with the most amazing girl in the entire net.

Neither one of us said it out loud, but we both knew which way we were headed – towards the little forest down the hill from the girls’ dorm. We weren’t in a hurry, but I could sense my heartbeat getting faster and faster as we got closer – it knew exactly what was gonna happen when we got there. The anticipation of just being close to Lisa grew and grew until it was almost more than I could stand, and I started to sweat and breathe fast and everything else.

"You OK?" Lisa said shyly.

"Yeah." I rasped. "Just really wanna kiss you, that’s all. It’s been a long minute."

"Enzo, you’re so sweet!" She giggled and leaned over against me as we walked. I wrapped my arm around her, wishing I was taller so her head would be on my shoulder instead of sorta bumping up against mine. Oh well. We were in the directory trees now, our feet crunching the leaves as the night began to get darker. "Look!" Lisa whispered.

"What?"

"Over there!" she pointed to a pair of sprites, male and female, huddled under one of the trees holding hands.

"Crash! I guess we’re not the only ones who know about this place."

"I guess not. Do you still want to… You know."

"Yeah!" I hissed. "I mean – we can find a quiet spot, it’ll be OK."

"All right." Lisa said softly, and we kept walking. "I don’t like anyone being around, though. I want it to be just you and me."

"Me too." Sometimes I wished it was just Lisa and me in the entire net. It was kinda a relief though, knowing that we weren’t the only cadets breaking this rule. I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me – if I’m typical, teenagers must think about this sort of thing a lot. "How ‘bout here?"

Lisa looked around. The trees were thick enough so we couldn’t see the other sprites, and we were still surrounded by green on all sides. "All right." She smiled and sat on the ground, up against a gnarly old DOS directory tree.

"Cool. Just you and me." I sat next to her and took her hands. "There’s no one else, just us."

"Enzo…"

"You OK? Are you cold?"

"No." she smiled. "I’m fine."

"Graphical." I put my arms around her shoulders and drew her a little closer so I could kiss her cheek. "User, you’re beautiful."

"So are you." She sighed. We kissed for a while, not long, breathless kisses like we sometimes did but really soft, gentle ones where we sort of lightly brushed our lips over each other’s and it felt like little birds landing on them. It’s amazing, but every time we kissed was almost like the first time – it was totally different and new and incredibly thrilling. And these little light, dancing kisses were pixelacious beyond belief.

Too pixelacious. After we’d done that for a while I got too excited and I had to hold her close to me and close my eyes. It was all too much – more than my system could tolerate. "What’s wrong?" she asked softly.

"Nothing." I coughed. "I just need to slow down a nano."

"Enzo." She whispered. She kissed me softly on the cheek and lay her head down on my shoulder. Lisa is so alphanumeric – she could have embarrassed me or laughed or tried to talk and help me and make things worse by doing it, but she didn’t – she just sat with me and didn’t say anything and let me settle down, slowly. She knew exactly what to do.

After a while I sighed and started smoothing her hair with my fingers. "You OK?" she whispered.

"Yeah." She lifted her head and we kissed again. "I love you, Beautiful."

"Love you too." After that kiss we hugged and that’s all we did, for a long time – just sat there holding onto each other with my head on her shoulder and hers’ on mine. I guess we were supposed to be too young to be able to just sit and hug and not need anything else – especially me. And probably to young to love each other and really mean it, too. Well, interface that – we weren’t too young, and that’s all there is to that file. I did love her and she loved me and I could have sat there holding her for an hour and never needed to say anything or do anything else, and anyone who thinks different can kiss my ascii.

I would have been happy to just stay there all night and the next cycle, too, but unfortunately that wasn’t an option. "I have to get back pretty soon." Lisa whispered in my ear. "I still have homework to do." Lisa was a better student than me – a more hard-working one, anyways.

"Skip it. Let’s stay here forever."

"Can’t. I’d flunk out and my Mom would be mad."

"Crash. OK, then." I squeezed her hand in mine and kissed her cheek. "I love you so much. I can’t even believe it."

"Oh, Enzo." She sighed deeply and looked at me for a nano, then kissed my forehead softly. "You’re the sweetest boy in the net, you know that? I love you too. But I really need to go home."

"OK – I give." I sighed. I stood and helped her to her feet. "You want me to walk you back?"

"Sure, Cutie. But it’s right up the hill – we could practically spit on the dorm from here!"

"Wanna try?" I giggled.

"Maybe next time."

"OK." We linked arms and started up the hill. "I wish it was farther. I wish it was a cycle’s walk back to the dorm."

"That’s a pretty long ways!" Lisa laughed. "Wouldn’t you be worried about running out of things to say?"

"Nah – I wouldn’t care. We wouldn’t need to talk at all."

"You’re such a romantic, aren’t you?"

"Only about you."

"Stop it!" No matter how slowly I tried to walk the dorm kept getting closer and closer , crash it. "Speaking of romance – has Linux talked to you about Patch at all?"

"Not much – he’s even shyer than me! I can tell he really likes her, though. What about Patch – she said anything?"

"She just says they talk sometimes at lunch. Big file – I could see that!" She frowned thoughtfully. "I don’t like it – I worked so deleted hard to set them up and I can’t even find out what’s going on!"

"Lisa! It’s not like there’s anything we can do about it."

"Why not? I at least want to know."

"Linux said something about a double-date, before we got grounded..."

"Double-date? Really?" Lisa grinned. "Enzo – that’s perfect! Why didn’t I think of it? We can watch them in action. Ask him about it tonight, OK? We can go into town this minute-end – I’ll get to the bottom of things then!"

"OK." I shrugged. "If you want."

"Graphical!" We were on her doorstep, practically, so we had to unlink arms. "So I’ll see you tomorrow, at lunch."

"I’ll miss you."

"Stop it – you’re being silly! Ask Linux, OK?"

"I will. Wish I could kiss you good-night…"

"I do too, Cutie. Sleep well, OK?"

"I will." I smiled. "Night."

"Night." I had to content myself with a wave, and she disappeared into her building. With a sigh, I turned and headed for home. I thought about what Dot would say if she’d been watching me the last few millis, the last few cycles even. She’d be shocked, I figured – then she’d get all calm and reasonable and I say I was too young, Lisa was too mature for me. She’d tell me I’d understand when I was older. Codeswap that. I thought maybe Bob would sympathize with me, though…

It wasn’t just that I loved Lisa – even though I absolutely did, I was sure of that as I could ever be. I liked myself better when I was with her, too. Yeah, I wished I could act more cool and clever around her like Ray does with Mouse, and I knew she was more grown-up than I was. But all that was OK – she was older than me, so of course she was more mature about some stuff. I still liked being with her and thinking totally about another sprite instead of myself. I liked how it made me understand Bob and Dot and Matrix and Andri better, how they felt when they were together. And I liked the fact that Lisa liked me – that she thought I was nice and brave and someone worth being with, and even thought I was hot. Me!

Lisa was still hanging over me like a halo like she usually did after I left her, so even though I should have realized something was wrong the nano I walked into my room I hardly noticed when Linux didn’t say anything. Maybe I even thought he was asleep, I dunno. I actually went over to my desk and checked my organizer for messages and downloads, and even got my bathroom stuff together before I hesitated.

"Hey, Dude – you OK?" He was facing the wall, still dressed, and he wasn’t under his covers, which would be weird if he was asleep. When he didn’t respond I walked a little closer and that’s when I noticed he was breathing in hard, fast little pants and he was lying sort of curled up. "Linux?" I shook him by the shoulder.

"Leave me alone." He said in a raspy voice.

"Linux! What’s the matter?"

"Nothing." I could barely hear him.

I sat on his bed, feeling myself start to get scared. "You sick?" He didn’t reply. I squeezed his shoulder and asked him again.

"No."

Then I noticed something funny on his face. I looked closer, and he had a big bruise on his cheek, under his eye. "Linux! What in the net happened?" He still wouldn’t really answer me or look at me, so I tried to roll him over and he cried out. That’s when I saw the reason he was curled up was that he was grabbing his gut with both arms. "Linux! What happened?"

"N-nothing." His face was pale and he was gritting his teeth. "Go to b-bed."

I recognized that posture too deleted well. I got down on my knees next to his bed. "You got punched in the gut, didn’t you? And in the face! What happened?" A pretty clear idea was beginning to compile in my processor.

"Enzo…I…"

"C’mon – we gotta take you to the infirmary."

"No! I c-can’t-"

"Linux – c’mon!" A whole stew of emotions were boiling up inside me, mostly anger and fear. Linux had tears on his cheeks and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too far away myself. "You might be really hurt."

"No!" He said it with much more force than anything else he’d said since I walked in. "I’m not g-gonna be a snitch."

"Who did it?" I dunno why I asked, since I knew deleted well who – I guess it just seemed like the natural thing to say. Linux didn’t answer me right away. "Come on, Dude – I know it was Zip. Did Calisto help him?"

"Yes." Linux whispered. "He held m-me down – like that t-time with you in the rec room."

"Where’d it happen?" I wiped my eyes with my sleeve. I was so mad I could barely think at all.

"D-downstairs. They ambushed me on the way in. Dragged me into the b-bathroom…"

"Crash… It’s… It’s OK. Just chill, take it easy – you’re OK now. Let’s go to the infirmary-"

"No! You didn’t when you g-got hit… If I tell on them they might k-kill me or something!"

"Crash it all!" I growled. I’d just about let myself think that Zip and Calisto were gonna leave me alone – that I’d survived the worst they had to offer. Now, just when I was really settling in, starting to feel like I belonged, they were back. And the gutless nulls didn’t even have the balls to come after me – they beat up my roommate. And I didn’t know what to say to Linux – he was right, going to the authorities might be the worst thing for him in the long run, just like it might’ve been for me. But he was hurt, and I was scared. "I… I don’t know… Can you sit up?"

"I dunno." Linux moaned.

"Just try, OK? I want to take a look at you." I got my arms under his shoulders and slowly, slowly lifted him to a sitting position propped against his pillows. He groaned in pain every step of the way, and I was panting myself. "What… Where did they hit you? Do you remember?"

"Of course I remember!"

"Sorry! I’m sorry. Just tell me where, OK?"

He took a deep, unsteady breath. "Calisto held me… And Zip punched me in the b-belly. And then they switched and… Calisto hit me. And then he punched me in the face and…I fell down and they k-kicked me a couple times."

"Oh, User!" I took a close look at the bruise on his cheek, which was a deep reddish purple. His eye was swollen halfway shut, and I tried to remember what little emergency training I’d picked up from Bob or Dot, even Mouse. I figured what I wanted to see was if his cheekbone was broken, although I didn’t have any real clue how to tell. "Can you… Can you see out of this eye?"

"Yeah." He rasped. "It’s OK except it’s shut a little."

"Good." He didn’t seem to have any blood in his eye, as far as I could tell – his white was white. I felt around the bruise, gently as I could, but he still squealed. "Sorry! I just want to make sure it’s not broken."

"B-Bastards."

"Yeah." I sighed. "If he’d hit you a little higher, he could have really trashed your eye – I bet he did it on purpose, so they wouldn’t hurt you so bad they’d get expelled. I think it’ll be OK, but I’m not really sure. Maybe we should go-"

"No!"

"OK, OK… It’s kinda puffy, but I guess it’s just a bruise – I’m no medical program but your eye seems OK. What about your stomach?"

"Hurts like Hell." He grimaced.

"I bet." I squeezed his hand in what I hoped was a reassuring way and lifted up his shirt. "Mouse said you can really get messed up inside when you get punched here – you can get your stomach ruptured."

"Thanks a l-lot!"

"Sorry! Oh, Crash…" He had a fist-sized purple bruise on his belly, right above the navel, and I felt a little sick just looking at it. I felt around it gently. "Does it hurt?"

"Of course it hurts, Nullbrain." Linux panted.

"Did you puke?"

"No… Almost. Ow!"

"I know, I know. It really hurt when Mouse did that to my bruise, too. I don’t think it’s any worse than mine was. How many times did they hit you in the belly?"

"Once. Then Calisto… Hit me over here." He pointed to his ribcage.

"Shit." I whispered. This bruise was bigger than the other one, and almost black. I was really getting scared now. "I hope he didn’t bust a rib or something… I’m going to feel around it, OK? It’s gonna hurt."

"OK." He nodded, eyes closed, and gritted his teeth.

"Nulls. Stupid nulls." I gingerly prodded his side, just under and next to the bruise. "Does this hurt a lot?"

"No... Just a little bit." I took a deep breath and softly pressed down on the bruise. "Ooooh, Crash!"

"Sorry!" I panted. "Sorry, sorry. I’m trying to feel your ribs, see if they’re broken…"

"Dude, stop! They’re not b-broken, OK? But that really hurts!"

"OK." I smiled weakly. "You said they kicked you, too? Where?"

"My bitmap, mostly." He chuckled bitterly.

"Is it… Is it OK?"

"Yeah. Just sore."

"I’ll take your word for that, if it’s OK." I didn’t see anything that matched what I remembered from Bob’s descriptions of broken bones or internal bleeding, but I was a long way from confident about it. My processor was racing, trying to decide what I should do. I heard a sniffle from beside me and wrapped my arm around Linux. "I’m really sorry about this, Dude. I’m sorry…"

"It’s not your fault. Those guys are outputs."

"Yeah – but if it wasn’t for me they wouldn’t have beat you up."

"Not your fault." He squeezed a tear out of each eye. "I’ll be OK."

"Yeah – you’ll be fine." I squeezed him and he fell over against me, snuffling. "If those bruises are any bigger in the morning we’re going to the infirmary, and that’s that."

"OK."

"Crash it all… I’m really sorry, Linux. Did… Did they say anything to you at all while they were doing it?"

"Not really." He whispered, eyes closed. "They just smiled and kept hitting me. When they left Zip said, "Say Hi to Enzo for us." and they just left me on the floor by the toilets."

"User! I hate them! I hate ‘em!" I wiped my eyes and pounded my fist into my hip so hard I had a bruise for a minute, but I didn’t even feel it. I took a couple of deep breaths and squeezed Linux again. "We’re buddies, Dude – we gotta stick together, like we promised. I’m sorry I got you into this."

"You didn’t. Don’t be stupid, OK? It’s not your fault."

"Yeah. Not my fault." I closed my eyes for a few nanos and listened to Linux’ breathing, which seemed to be slowing down a little. "You’re gonna be OK, I promise. You think you can sleep?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "I think so."

"Good. I’ll be back in a few micros – don’t worry."

Linux’ eyes jerked open. "Where are you going?"

"I told you – don’t worry. Try and go to sleep, OK? You had a rough night."

"Enzo, don’t-"

"Don’t worry!" I smiled and patted his shoulder. "Those guys aren’t gonna bother you anymore, OK? I’ll be back in a few nanos, and you better be asleep."

"But-"

"I’ll be back. ‘Boot into your night clothes and get under your blankets – you’ll feel better. Need any help?"

"No, I can manage." He grimaced. "Don’t do something stupid, OK? This isn’t your fault."

"I know. Back in a flash memory." I hated to leave him, but if we weren’t going to the infirmary the best thing was for him to sleep anyway. Or so I figured, being clueless and having to guess. Besides – there was something I had to do and I had to do it soon, before I had a chance to think about it and chicken out.

I hopped in the elevator and headed down towards the first floor. I was trembling all over, partly from fear of what I was gonna do and fear that I was wrong about Linux not being seriously hurt, but mostly from anger at Zip and Calisto. I was furious that anyone would be so utterly stupid and selfish, trying to trash someone’s life just because they felt like it. Viruses like Megabyte and Daemon really didn’t have any choice about how they acted – they were evil, just by their very code. But Zip and Calisto were sprites, they did have a choice – and they were hurting me and Linux just because they wanted to. At that nano I truly hated them, with every line of code in my body.

I knew that being half-blind with anger wasn’t a good state of processor to be in, especially where I was going. It cut against every bit of training and advice I’d ever gotten from Bob and even Matrix. But I couldn’t help it – there was a rage burning inside me and it was bigger than my power to control it. My hand was shaking as I knocked on the door of room 115.

Rom answered, looking surprised to see me. "Hey. Enzo, right?"

"Yeah. Is your brother here?" I could already hear Quantum’s heavy footsteps clomping towards the door, as Rom threw it open.

"Hey, Little Man. You here for more I/O distillate already? Not hooked, are you?" he winked.

"No – not that."

"Lights out pretty soon – better step lively. What’s up?"

I took a big breath. "Do you know Zip’s room number?"

The smile left Quantum’s face. "What’s going on?"

"I just need his room number, OK? I need to have a talk with him."

"What’s up, Kid? I never took you for the stupid type. What you want to talk to that guy for, after what he did to you?"

I hesitated, just for a nano. Quantum was so formidable, so reassuring in his goofy, bombastic way – the temptation to spill my guts to him and beg him for help was overwhelming. But I resisted. Until I faced this down once and for all, on my own, I’d always have it hanging over me. I’d always be a little boy. Mouse or Quantum or Ray or whoever could only delay the inevitable. And maybe Linux or someone else I cared about would pay the price for it. My price. "I just need to talk to him, man-to-man. Where’s his room?"

"Think you’d be a man short, Shortstop – and I ain’t talkin’ about you." Quantum said with a lopsided smile.

I smiled back. "Maybe. But I still have to. Do you know where he is?"

"Yeah." Quantum shrugged. "He’s in 128 – most of the second-hours are on the first floor. You sure about this, Kid?"

"Yeah. Pretty sure…"

"Your funeral. Don’t look over your shoulder, ‘cause I won’t be there."

"I know." I sighed. "But thanks, though – I mean it."

"NP, Kid. Good luck." I gave Quantum a little open-palm wave and started off. "Don’t drop your left!" I heard him shout, just before his door slammed.

I stood and stared at the ‘128’ on the door for a long time. I was aware that it was getting late, that lights out was coming and if I got caught out of my room I’d be in trouble again. I thought about how easy it would be to walk away, just head back up to my room and check on Linux and go to bed. No one would ever know I’d stood outside this door, staring, and walked away. Only me.

I took a deep breath and knocked with a quivering fist. I let my anger come back into me, swallowing up my fear and making me stronger. And braver. And stupider. By the time I heard the door opening I was clenching my fists and bouncing from foot to foot, I was so furious. Zip looked a little surprised to see me, but not shocked. "Hey – it’s the little prince! Looking for your Mommy? Oh, that’s right – she’s deleted."

"You really are a worthless piece of shit, you know that?" Anger and fear were fighting for control of me, and I was trying to juggle them as well as I could without letting either one take over. It wasn’t easy.

"Well – that’s not a very nice thing to say." Zip grinned. I saw Calisto’s ugly face appear behind him. "Someone should wash your mouth out with soap."

"Leave Linux alone." I said in a low voice.

"What – did something happen to your boyfriend?" Calisto cackled.

"Just leave him alone. If you outputs have some sort of stupid problem with me, deal with me."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about, Peachfuzz." Zip replied in a pleasant tone.

"Yes you do." I snarled. "You gutless bastard. D’you ever get tired of ganging up on kids half your size?"

"Watch your mouth." He boxed my ear and I slapped his arm.

"What’d I ever do to you, anyway?"

"Just because you’re in the Academy doesn’t mean you’re a Guardian, Little Prince. All your powerful friends can’t change the fact that you’re a pathetic infant who doesn’t belong here."

"I earned my way in here!"

"Shut up. You’re getting a mighty big head, Peachfuzz – someone needs to remind you what a useless waste of space you are. Call it a service to the Academy."

I could feel the anger part of me rising, growing out of control, but I also knew it was just what Zip wanted. "I don’t give a null’s ascii what you think. But leave my friends alone! You want me, you deal with me. Or are you afraid?"

"You worthless-"

"No." Zip shut up Calisto, who’d taken a step towards me. "We can’t deal with you, can we? Not after you went crying to your friends in high places – they’re watching you every nano, practically."

"I didn’t go crying to anyone, Nullbrain. Laser’s smart – he figured it out on his own."

"I bet. How stupid do you think I am?" Zip laughed.

"No one could possibly be as stupid as I think you are, Zip. I’m not a snitch – I didn’t go to anyone for help and I was handling things just fine until you got your trained null to hold me down."

"You got a deletion wish, Infant?" the trained null sneered.

"What’s the problem – you can’t beat up a little kid half your size? You need someone to hold him for you ‘cause you’re afraid to fight him man-to-man?" Zip’s hands balled up into fists and his jaw got tighter and tighter, and I could see I was pushing him closer to the breaking point, but I couldn’t stop myself – I was filled with total contempt for him and even more for Calisto, if that were possible. Part of me really wanted to have this out, right there and then. "You’re scared of me?

"I’m scared of nothing – least of all a puny soft-boy like you. You’d love to get rid of me, wouldn’t you? But I’m not gonna make it easy. You wanna play games, hide behind your friends – fine. I can play games too." With that he spit on me – for the second time – and slammed the door in my face.

"Zip!" I shouted, pounding on the door. "You’re afraid of me, delete it! You hear me? You’re a coward!" I pounded on the door a few more times, but there was no reply from inside.

By this time I was breathing hard, panting from anger and exertion and general frustration. A couple of cadets had popped out of their rooms to see what all the fuss was about and not only that, I realized we were only a few doors down from Mr. Garamond’s room. Even as pissed off as I was, I knew that could be a bad thing. Besides, I checked my internal clock and it was only a few millis till lights out.

"Coward!" I shouted, banging on Zip’s door one last time. "Leave my friends alone!" I shot a dirty look at the guys staring at me, who looked vaguely amused, and headed for the elevator feeling frustrated and unsatisfied with the whole encounter. I don’t know what I wanted to happen exactly – not to get beat up, obviously, but something. I knew this wasn’t over, and I wanted it to be over.

When I got home I saw that Linux had obeyed orders – that was something, at least. He’d crawled under his blanket and he was sleeping, even though he was breathing a little faster than normal. I remembered Bob telling me that pain releases adrenaline in a sprite’s body and makes everything run faster, including the lungs and heart and even the processor. I felt a big stab of guilt looking at him and knowing he was in pain, and if it weren’t for me he wouldn’t be. Did that make it my fault? I’m not sure, but it hit close enough to make me feel responsible.

It took me a long time to fall asleep – I just stared up at the ceiling in the dark with my hands behind my head, listening to Linux’ breathing. What was driving me offline was that I couldn’t see any end to this business with Zip and Calisto – Zip had made it clear as could be that he wasn’t just gonna let it drop. A war with a virus or a game was different – there were specific objectives you had to meet, and if you met them you won. But what were my objectives now? I wasn’t gonna delete Zip, obviously, and I really couldn’t go to the teachers or Laser about him. I could see it stretching on and on for the rest of the hour, with Zip finding some new way to make me miserable every time I let my guard down. It wasn’t a happy thought, and it wouldn’t let me relax. It was a long night.

* * *

The next morning my head was fuzzy and I was still exhausted, but when I woke up my first thought was to check on Linux. He was still asleep and he groaned and protested when I shook him, but he seemed better than he had the night before – less out of breath and afraid. I sat next to him on the bed and took a long look at the bruise on his cheek. "Did you sleep OK?"

"Yeah – I guess." He yawned. "Sometimes I got a little stab in the middle of the night and it woke me up but I was so tired and sore I went right back to sleep."

"Well – that’s good, I guess. This bruise on your face is a beauty – but at least your eye’s not closed. How’re you gonna explain it to people?"

"I’ll tell ‘em I tripped and fell down, or something. No one’ll care."

"The teachers might." I sighed. "Why don’t you tell ‘em we were horsing around, practicing combat or something, and I did it by mistake? Sounds more convincing."

"You just want people to think you’re tough."

"Very funny. Lemme see your stomach. Does it hurt?"

"Course it hurts." Linux grumbled as he lifted his T-shirt. "Where’d you go last night, anyway?"

"Never mind."

"Did you and Zip fight or something? Owww! Stop it!"

"Hold still! I have to see if these bruises are any worse." I gently prodded around Linux’ belly and ribcage, deliberately ignoring his question.

"Well? Did you?"

"No. I went to his room – I’m not even sure why. I was just really mad, I guess I wanted to do something. But he’s a coward – he’s afraid he’ll get in trouble if he beats me up."

"Crash! That hurts…"

"I know. At least you won’t have to explain these – no one’ll see ‘em."

"Are they bad?"

I shrugged. "I don’t think they’re any bigger than they were last night – maybe a little darker, but mine did that too. I guess you’re probably okay – we got lucky this time."

"You… You think they’ll do it again? What did he say?"

"I dunno, Dude. I doubt he’ll go after you again but he still hates my guts. He’s not gonna let this drop and he won’t fight me. I don’t know what’s gonna happen."

"Crash…" he said softly. "This really sucks – why do people have to be such outputs?"

"Wish I knew." I smiled. "No one’s ever given me a good explanation of that one. I guess all we can do is try and stay out of their way as much as possible."

Linux scowled at that. "This campus is a pretty small place."

"Yeah - I know. But that makes it tougher for them to do stuff without Laser finding out, too."

"I guess."

"C’mon." I sighed. "As long as we’re here he can’t do anything too bad – not without getting expelled. Let’s hit the showers or we’ll have no time for breakfast."

* * *

I didn’t really plan on telling Lisa about what happened – I figured it’d be easier that way, since she’d probably want us to go to Laser or Mouse about it. That was the plan, anyhow. I don’t know why I bother to make plans – seems like things never follow them. Dot’s the one for plans in my family. I might as well make stuff up as I go, ‘cause that’s what always ends up happening anyway so why waste time planning?

Lisa pretty much knew as soon as I sat down at lunch that something was wrong – I could tell by her face, which I was getting better at reading even though I still wasn’t as good at it as she was with mine. "Hey."

"Hey Cutie. Did you ask Linux about the double-date?"

"Uh…" Obviously I should have been ready for that question, but I’d totally forgotten about the double-date. So I proceeded with my pathetic attempt to keep from telling Lisa everything. "I forgot."

"You forgot?" Lisa frowned and furrowed her brow at me, which instantly made be feel about 0.7. "All right – what’s up?"

"What do you mean?"

She sighed patiently. "Something’s the matter. Maybe if you tell me I can help you with it."

"Nothing’s the matter!" I protested, concentrating on my food. "Mmmf. Everything’s fine, I just…mmmf…forgot is all."

"Oh, Enzo… Don’t you think this is silly? You’ll end up telling me anyway."

"But-"

"Just tell me. Maybe I can help."

"Crash!" I scowled at her. "Just tell me one thing. How do you know? Why is it so obvious the nano I walk into the room that something’s wrong?"

Lisa smiled and stroked my hand under the table. "You aren’t good at hiding things, Enzo. You show everything in your face, that’s all."

"That’s just great. Thanks a lot!"

"Don’t be mad! I love that about you. It’s just because you feel so strongly about everything, that’s why. Besides – you look terrible, like you haven’t slept a wink. It’s not hard to figure out something happened – you looked as happy as a virus in the supercomputer when you left me last night."

"Oh."

"Now just tell me – maybe I can help, whatever it is."

"Thanks." I sighed. "I don’t think you’ll be able to do anything, though."

"Won’t know unless you try me, will you?"

"No – I guess not. But you have to promise not to tell anyone else, OK?"

She frowned. "Why?"

"Just promise, OK? Or I won’t tell you."

"All right, I promise. Now tell me what’s wrong, OK?"

"OK." I smiled. "You’re pixelacious, you know that? But I still don’t think you can help this time. Linux got beat up by Zip and Calisto last night."

"What? I can’t believe-"

"Shhh!"

"Sorry." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "But what happened? Why would they do that?"

I shrugged. "To scare me, I guess. I think they’re afraid to beat me up after what happened last time, ‘cause they think they’ll get caught if they do. So they went after Linux."

"Those nulls! Is he all right? Poor Linux!"

"Yeah, he’s OK. He got bruised up a little bit but I don’t think they did any permanent damage."

"What did the nurse say?"

"Umm… We didn’t go to the nurse. Linux didn’t want anyone to know about it. That’s why you can’t tell."

"What? Enzo, that’s stupid!"

"No it’s not." I said softly. "If he rats them out they might hurt him even worse the next time."

"Crashes!" Lisa scowled. "It’s all about acting tough, isn’t it? That’s all boys care about, acting tough and looking tough. Those outputs should be punished for what they did! But no, you can’t go for help-"

"That’s not fair! You don’t know what happens when guys snitch, it’s… It can be bad. Sometimes you just have to take care of stuff on your own. When I went to Zip’s room-"

"What? You went to Zip’s room?"

"Uh – yeah…"

"Why? What in the net were you thinking? Wanting to fight him, I suppose. That’s smart…"

"No! I just… I don’t know…"

"Oh, that explains it. How can I argue with that reasoning?"

"Stop it! You’re not being fair."

"Enzo – you could get really badly hurt if you fight Zip again, don’t you know that?" She grabbed my hands. "Forget about the fact that he’s older and bigger and stronger than you – he’s already proved he won’t fight fair. If he needs to get Calisto to help him hurt you, he will. I don’t want anything to happen to you!"

"I don’t either!" I sighed helplessly. "But I can’t go running to Laser every time something happens – Zip would be right about me if I did that! If I really belong here I should be able to take care of myself."

"Oh, Enzo… Do you have any idea what it would do to me if something… I mean – Enzo-"

"I know." It was amazing knowing that someone like Lisa cared so much about me – it’s not like she had to or anything. I squeezed her hands tight. "Look – I don’t want to fight him. I promise I won’t look for trouble, OK? I just want him to leave me alone."

Lisa stared sadly at me for a couple nanos. "Just how do you plan to get him to do that?"

"I’m… not sure. But I’ll be careful. He’s just a bully, that’s all. He just wants to scare me and if he can’t, maybe he’ll get tired of me and pick on someone else."

"I hope so." She didn’t sound convinced and honestly, I wasn’t either.

"It’ll be OK." I smiled. "You’re the most important thing to me, Lisa. As long as we’re together I don’t care about Zip or anyone else."

"OK, Sweetie." She whispered. "But promise me you won’t pick a fight with him anyways. Just promise me."

"I promise. I won’t pick a fight with Zip."

"Thank you."

"NP. Everything will be OK, I promise. You’ll see." She smiled, but she didn’t look like she believed me. I guess I couldn’t blame her for being skeptical.

* * *

Linux was OK, more or less – he limped a little bit for the rest of that cycle, but the pain didn’t get any worse and the bruises didn’t get any bigger. The hardest part was combat class, when Mouse got a good look at his face. We tried to hurry out afterwards but she stopped us and asked what was up. Linux and I looked at each other and then down at our feet and didn’t say anything for a couple of nanos, than he muttered something about an "accident".

"What sorta accident, Sugar? That’s some bruise!"

"Uh…" Linux offered.

"Um." I added.

"C’mon, you two – what’s up? Spill the java beans."

"Well – it’s sorta embarrassing." I sighed.

"Yeah." Linux nodded.

"See, we were practicing some of the self-defense stuff you’re teaching us – the martial-arts stuff – and I pretended to kick Linux in the face just to see how he’d react, you know, except I accidentally didn’t pretend and really kicked him."

"Yeah." He added, shooting me a dirty look. "I shoulda been able to defend it, but I was too slow. It’s embarrassing."

"And I shoulda been more careful. I thought I had better control. Sorry, Mouse."

"Uh-huh. I see. Boy, you must be practicin’ hard with those moves, Enzo – that was a helluva blow you landed."

"I know. I feel really bad about it. I’ll be more careful next time, honest."

"That’s the last free one he gets." Linux scowled. I have to admit, he was pretty good once he got into the story.

Mouse looked hesitant – she didn’t quite believe us, I don’t think, but the story sounded almost reasonable and Linux’ acting had her nearly convinced. "You boys be careful in the future – this stuff can be deadly if ya use it wrong. It has to be."

"We know, Mouse."

"We will be. We’re sorry."

"All right then, Boys. You do that." We smiled and nodded and started for the door. "Oh, and Boys? I’ll be watchin’ real careful to make sure there’s no more ‘accidents’, you got me?"

"Yes Ma’am."

"Yes Ma’am."

"What’d I tell you about that "Ma’am" stuff, huh?"

"Sorry!" I know one thing – it’s not easy to slip anything past Mouse. She already had so many reasons to watch me I’m not sure how she found time for anything else.

* * *

After that a few cycles went by without anything much happening. I mean, lots of stuff did happen, but it was mostly normal stuff – classes and homework and lunch with Lisa and a few quick kissing sessions after school. It was scraggy knowing that Zip was out there, and he was still gunning for me – and not having any idea when he’d take his next shot. But you can’t worry about stuff all the time – or at least I can’t. Life goes on and I got caught up in it and just tried to do my best and be prepared for whatever happened.

Linux got better – after a couple cycles he wasn’t even limping any more. You could still see the bruise on his cheek, but the swelling went down and he could open his eye all the way. Neither one of us forgot about what had happened, though, and some part of me still felt that Linux had taken those punches for me, and felt bad about it.

When you look back at the important nanos in your life, the right thing to do always seems obvious. Problem is, it’s almost never obvious when those nanos are actually happening. It’s a trick – once you know something you can’t make yourself un-know it, so it’s impossible to look at the same event later on and truly look at it like you did when it was happening. You know about it now, and that changes the sprite you are forever. The simple fact that something happened changes the way you look at it later.

I guess the reason I say that is ‘cause I don’t want to look like I was stupid about what happened next, because I really don’t think I was. Sure, knowing what I know now it looks like I was, but I can’t honestly say I’d ever have done things differently in the same situation. From the nano I got home from dinner with Lisa and saw the look on Linux’ face I just reacted the best I could under the circumstances.

"What?" I could tell something was up right away from the way his eyes focused in on me the nano I walked in and never left me, all the way to my bed.

"Did you see it?" He asked grimly.

"What?"

"If you have to ask, I guess you didn’t." he sighed. "They downloaded next minute’s game roster."

"So?" My batting average was about .250 getting into games so far – it was always disappointing to be on the roster and not get a game cube but I knew with this many cadets, the odds of being lucky weren’t that great. "Did I get a lousy slot – middle of the night or something?" There were hardly ever any games then.

"Just look at it."

I frowned and picked up my organizer. Like always, the new game roster was in the "Incoming Messages – Administration" folder. I opened it up and scanned for my name. My first reaction was relief – I had a good slot at 2700, around dinnertime. Then I saw the other names that were listed next to mine. "Cursors and crashes…"

"Sucks, huh?"

There they were, right on the screen –

I could hardly believe what I was seeing. "Dude – this is not good."

"What’re you gonna do about it?"

I jerked my eyes away from the screen to stare at Linux. "Do about it?"

"Yeah! I mean- Well…"

"What can I do about it? It’s the official roster! It’s not like I have any choice, is it? Man, this bytes!"

Linux shuffled over and sat next to me. "I know, Dude, but – come on! Zip and Calisto in a game with you?"

"And Lisa, too." I whispered.

"Enzo – I don’t think that could be a coincidence, could it? I mean, the four of you?"

"I dunno, Man." The more I thought about this prospect, the more scraggy it sounded. And it was undeniably weird, there was no question about that. "I guess it could be a coincidence."

"No way."

I stared down at the names again, like I was hoping if I stared at them long enough they’d change. "D’you think maybe they’re testing me or something? Could that be it?"

"I dunno. I guess it could." Linux shrugged. "So what’re you gonna do?"

"Just… Just try and get through it the best I can, I guess. Mr. Garamond will be there, at least."

"Yeah." He didn’t sound very reassured. "Maybe you should talk to somebody about it, Enzo. Maybe they can change it or something-"

"I can’t do that! We’re supposed to be working together, remember? If I don’t like a game assignment I go and ask them to change it?"

"I know, but this isn’t right. Not after what those guys did to you."

"And you, too." I said softly. I definitely did not like the idea of going anywhere with Zip and Calisto, much less into a game – and I liked the idea of Lisa being along with us even less. But how could I whine to Laser about it? Maybe they were testing me, or maybe it was a coincidence – either way, if I asked out of it I’d be asking for special treatment. And proving Zip was right about me.

"Enzo? You OK?" I realized I’d been sitting silently for quite a while.

"I can’t, Dude. I can’t complain about it. I can’t ask them to treat me different than everyone else, I just can’t. I’ll just have to make the best of it."

"Maybe you’ll get lucky, and there won’t be a game."

"Maybe. Never thought I’d be sayin’ that."

"Be careful, OK? If you have to go into a game with those guys-"

"Yeah. I will." I smiled at him. "Thanks. It’s no big file – if there’s a game we’ll win it and come home, and Zip and Calisto will still be jerks. No biggie."

"Yeah." Linux smiled weakly. "No big file."

* * *

Lisa had seen the game roster too – I could tell right away at lunch the next cycle. Of course I would’ve liked to have talked to her about it as soon as I’d found out, but that wasn’t an option – the inside of the girls’ dorm was strictly forbidden territory, and I had no way to call her. So I had to wait and I wasn’t sure if she’d know, but it was obvious - she looked totally depressed when she got to our table. "Oh, Enzo-"

"You saw it huh?"

"Of course I did. Isn’t it awful?"

I shrugged, trying to look casual. "I’m not gonna worry about it if you aren’t. We’ll be fine – I can take care of myself in any game."

Lisa smiled sadly. "I’m not really the one who should be worrying, am I? The two of them have never bothered me-"

"If they try and hurt you, I’ll delete them. In a nano."

"Oh, Enzo-"

"I mean it." I scowled. The thought that those two nulls would try to hurt me by hurting Lisa had crossed my mind already – I’d given it quite a bit of thought since Linux’ "accident". "If they even look at you wrong, they’re toast."

"Thank you." She sighed. "But I don’t think they will, Cutie. You’re the one I’m worried about."

"Don’t worry about me. Like I said, I can take care of myself in any game. And Mr. Garamond will be there."

"I suppose." She absently took a bite of her salad. "Why do you think this happened, Enzo? Have you thought about it?"

"Yeah." I said softly. "I dunno why. I guess it doesn’t matter – we just have to deal with it."

"Well, I don’t like it. But I’m proud of how brave you are."

"No. I’m not." I sighed. "I’m scared. But what can I do, really? We have to take all kinds of tests to graduate here, right? Maybe this is just another test."

"You are brave." Lisa smiled. She squeezed my arm softly. "You’re always brave – you always do what you have to do. If there were a whole army of Guardians like you Daemon wouldn’t stand a chance."

"Lisa! Stop it…" I could tell I was blushing but I couldn’t help smiling, too. It meant a lot to hear that from Lisa, - even though I’d only known her a few minutes, it felt like my whole life. "I’m just a little kid."

"That makes you even braver." Then she leaned across the table and kissed me on the forehead, right in front of everybody. "I don’t even care if anyone saw that. I’m proud of you."

"Thanks." I grinned. When Lisa did stuff like that it made me feel like I could take Daemon on myself, never mind Zip. "You should meet my family sometime - they’re the brave ones. Matrix and Dot and Bob – I’m nothing compared to them."

"I’m sure they’re wonderful sprites, but you’re amazing compared to anybody, Enzo."

"I… I guess! Thanks…"

"Maybe I’ll get to meet them sometime. I hope so."

"I know you will!" I grabbed her hands. "Bob and Dot are coming to the Academy next semester, for six minutes. Bob’s gonna teach. And you can come to Mainframe, too – to visit. It’ll be alphanumeric!"

"Maybe." Lisa smiled. "We’ll see."

"Not maybe – definitely." I hadn’t allowed myself to think much about Lisa in Mainframe, even for a visit. Or explaining her to Dot. But talking about it made me think about that, and about what would happen after we finished at the Academy. My future seemed like a much more real prospect now, not some far-off, far-fetched adulthood that was out of my processor’s reach. And Lisa was a big part of that future – in fact, I couldn’t even imagine it without her anymore. The thought of anyone interfering with that scared me silly and filled me with incredible anger at the same time. I’d do whatever I had to do to protect her – to protect us. Whatever I had to do.

* * *

I tried hard to put the game roster out of my mind as the minute dragged on, especially when I was with Lisa. As long as I was busy, I was OK – I could wrap my processor around a calculus problem or a game sprite chart or 3-D pinball and I’d be OK. It was the quiet times that were bad – when I was by myself my mind would wander to places I’d rather it didn’t go.

I had a kind of lurking queasiness in my belly the whole minute that came out whenever those alone times happened. There was a feeling of wrongness to what was going on that scared me – and I felt helpless to do anything about it. After a lifetime of relying on other people to protect me when I was in danger and comfort me when I was upset, I was finally facing a situation where I couldn’t turn to anyone for help – and that might have been the whole point, if I was right about Laser testing me. I couldn’t ask for help – the mere act of doing it would mean I’d failed. But the queasiness and foreboding got worse and worse and that nano drew closer and closer, so bad that I almost did go to Mouse the night before, just to talk about it. But I resisted.

I wasn’t about to talk to Lisa about what was going to happen – above anything else I wanted her not to be scared, not share the fear and worry I was feeling. After our lunch I did my best to make her think I wasn’t worried at all, and even though I’m as sure as I can possibly be that she knew it was an act, she played along – she was like that. She seemed to have an amazing ability to know what I needed to feel OK, and she did her best to keep me distracted. Just being around her cast a kind of glow over me and made me feel better, but as soon as we were apart I’d get terrified about what was going to happen. The possibility that she might be in danger was what terrified me – that she’d be in danger and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. And I’d do anything to protect her – I knew that. That resolve grew stronger every cycle until it crowded almost everything else out of my processor.

The only sprite I could really talk about stuff with was Linux, because he knew how worried I was. We both knew first-hand what outputs Zip and Calisto were. But Linux couldn’t really do anything about what was going to happen, so mostly we tried to keep each other distracted by playing games or talking about stupid stuff. His bruises disappeared and he felt better and he started to spend some time with Patch, even though neither one of us mentioned the double-date idea – I think we both knew it wasn’t the right time for it. Linux was still incredibly shy about Patch, even more than I was about Lisa – he’d get all blushy and flustered every time I’d ask, and that made me smile, at least. I think things were OK, though – they had lunch together every day and if things weren’t going OK, why would he blush?

Mostly it was just nice to have Linux around, because I didn’t like being alone right then and besides, he understood what was happening in my processor. That’s what it’s like having a real friend – they’re just there, and that’s enough. They don’t even really have to do anything – just be there and understand. I was beginning to realize that’s what I’d been missing growing up in Mainframe all by myself. Bob and Dot and Matrix and Andri were incredible sprites and I loved them, but they had their own lives and no matter what happened, we could never be equal – not ever. I’d always be a little brother or a ‘younger self’ or "Little Sparky" or even a son – kinda – but never just a friend, not really. And Linux was, now – that’s what I’d finally figured out. And User, was I glad to have him around.

One thing I’d noticed around Gallifrey was that once a game cube dropped it was pretty unusual for a second one to come down the same cycle. Mainframe is the same way – not that it never happens, just not very often. So from the time I woke up on the cycle we were game-rostered I kept hoping in the back of my processor that a game cube would drop early. I wasn’t really proud of it – I didn’t like being scared, especially of a couple of bullies. But I couldn’t help it – I was scared, and I did want to hear that voice all cycle long. That feeling of wrongness was stronger than ever.

So a sense of anticipation was kinda hanging over me all cycle, and it made me nervous and jumpy. My teachers could see it, Lisa could see it at lunch, Linux could see it after class. As the millis went by and no game cube came, I got a sicker and sicker feeling in my stomach. Sometimes a whole cycle or even two or three would go by without a game but again, not very often – most cycles we got one - so as it got later in the cycle I liked my odds less and less.

Our last class let out at twenty-six fifty and Linux asked me if I wanted to go to the rec room and watch a quicktime or something, and I said sure. It didn’t much matter what we were doing, I just didn’t feel like being by myself. Linux popped in some comedy or another and I sat next to him, but I couldn’t tell you what movie it was – I was thinking about Lisa.

The whole idea of Zip and Calisto began to seem very small and trivial in my head. I thought about what the two of them had done to me – embarrassed me publicly and punched me – and in a way it made me feel silly, being so worried. They were pathetic – Mainframe had faced down Megabyte and almost crashed, the net was still dealing with Daemon. What were those two compared to that? Zip was a bully, totally obsessed with pushing people around – and Calisto was even worse, he was dumb as a 5.25 disk and did whatever Zip told him. If Zip was pathetic, how pathetic did you have to be to be Zip’s slave? They’d tried in their stupid way to hurt me and they definitely had, but crash, if I couldn’t deal with childish bullying I wouldn’t be much of a Guardian.

What made me realize all this was thinking about Lisa. Thinking about her made me realize how huge the net was, how amazingly incredible things could happen without you even trying to find them. Zip could never touch what me and Lisa had – never. He was tiny, and we were as big as my imagination. Just meeting her had turned me into a totally different person who could feel things and dream things he didn’t even know were possible. If they tried to hurt me again, fine. Maybe they would and maybe they wouldn’t, but they wouldn’t hurt her. I’d make deleted sure of that, and as long as they didn’t hurt her I could deal with anything else.

I felt someone shaking my arm and realized I’d been so far away I didn’t even know how long I’d been sitting in the rec room. I looked over and Linux was staring at me, smiling a little. "You OK?"

"Yeah… I was just thinking, sorry. What did you say?"

"I said, it’s after twenty-seven."

I checked my internal clock. "Yeah – guess so."

"Maybe you’ll get lucky."

"Maybe." I smiled. "I’d feel better if there’d already been a game today, though. How’s the movie?"

"I didn’t think you were paying any attention! It’s OK, I guess. You wanna go get some dinner?"

"Sure. If you want." It didn’t make much difference to me where we were. Whatever he wanted, I’d go along.

"Might as well – this isn’t all that funny, anyways." He shut off the quicktime and I sort of numbly followed along behind him as he headed for the mess hall. My queasiness had gone and I was feeling a weird emptiness, almost not caring what happened now. Whatever did happen, I just wanted it over.

Linux got a heaping plate of food and I got something small, like a sandwich or soup or something, I don’t even remember. I don’t think I ate much of it and I remember neither one of us talking at all while we were sitting at the table, me staring at my food and Linux slowly eating his. It got to twenty-seven thirty, then fifty, but it wasn’t twenty-eight yet. Maybe it never would be.

Linux had just opened his mouth to say something for the first time in what felt like hours. "Looks like you’re gonna-"

"WARNING – INCOMING GAME.

WARNING – INCOMING GAME."

"Low-density!"

I remember I closed my eyes and just sat there, and it’s basic but what I was thinking was how different the game lady sounded here than the one in Mainframe. Then I let out a deep breath that I’d been holding in my chest. "Crash. Crash, crash, crash it all."

I felt Linux’hand on my shoulder. "Good luck, Dude. Just win the game and don’t let those sphincters get to you, OK? You’re better than they are."

"Uh-huh." I whispered. I sat there for a nano, just thinking about how scraggy it was that after all that waiting and all that worrying it was actually happening. Then I thought of Lisa and I shot to my feet. Suddenly the idea of her being with those two nulls for even one nano without me there was too horrible to think about. I didn’t even wait till I was outside to pop my zip board – I opened it right in the mess hall and weaved through the cadets, towards the door.

"Good luck!" Linux shouted.

I didn’t even turn. I zipped out of the mess and down the corridor and outside, into the fresh air. I scanned the sky and found the cube, slowly coming down over the hillside behind the boys’ dorm. I raced towards it, calculating the distances in my head like I always do, and realized I’d be there in plenty of time.

Once I was settled under the game cube I took a deep breath and scanned the horizon for the others, feeling my stomach start to churn itself up again at the sight of two sprites zipping towards me from the direction of the great hall. Another lone figure from off to their left was coming towards me, too, and I could see a flash of gold in the fading light. It seemed weird that I didn’t see Mr. Garamond – since he was the House Master I’d expected him to come from the boys’ dorm, just like I had.

Zip and Calisto reached me first, and circled me on their zip boards. Calisto had a sneering grin on his face, but Zip’s was totally calm. I returned his stare, saying nothing and watching for the others out of the corner of my eye.

"Well – if it isn’t the little prince." Zip finally smiled. "I was worried we weren’t gonna have a chance to party."

"Whatever. Let’s just get this over with."

"Are you ready to have fun, Enzo?" Calisto giggled. I glared at him, frowning, and he kept on giggling like an idiot.

"Enzo!"

"And the little princess too." Zip said softly. "What a nice coincidence."

"Shut up." I growled.

Lisa shot the pair of them a dirty look and slowed to a hover next to me. She grabbed my hand and I closed my eyes, concentrating on reassuring coolness of it, trying to fight the gnawing terror I’d felt in the showers, surrounded by the pack of hyenas. Seeing Zip’s cold sneer and hearing Calisto’s cackling made me feel like a naked little boy again, and I didn’t like it one byte.

"Relax." She whispered. "We’ll be just fine."

"You look lovely in that uniform, Lisa." Zip purred. "Good enough to eat."

"Shut up!" I growled again. Hearing him talk that way hurt as much as his punch to my belly. "Don’t talk to her!"

"We’ll do anything we want to her, Infant!" Calisto spat in his shrill voice. "Who’s gonna stop us – you?"

"I know what you did to Linux." Lisa said calmly. "The two of you are really pathetic, you know that?"

"Linux? Do I know him?" Zip smiled. "Oh look – the game’s almost here, we’d better get ready. I wonder where Mr. Garamond could be."

There was something in his voice I liked even less than usual – that and the grin on Calisto’s ugly face. I scanned the horizon and still saw no sign of Mr. Garamond. I met Lisa’s eyes and she shrugged helplessly. "Lisa! What-" Then the cube was on us, and I never finished the thought.

I felt the familiar sizzling and crackling of energy as the game cube washed over us. My processor was numb as the reality of the situation slowly dawned on me. Mr. Garamond wasn’t here. Lisa and I were trapped in a game with Zip and Calisto. How was it possible – where was he?

"Looks like it’s just us." Zip said. His voice was soft and calm, but there was a hint of something underneath it, lurking.

"Crash! Where in the net is Mr. Garamond? He’s supposed to be here!"

"Don’t worry Enzo – we’ll take care of you." Whatever was hiding in his voice was coming closer to the surface, now.

"Yeah – if your diaper needs changing or something." Calisto grinned.

"Grow up!" Lisa spat. "You’re the ones who act like you’re in diapers! You’re pathetic."

A hint of anger flashed in Zip’s eyes, but his voice stayed low. "You sure like to talk, seeing as you’re just a first-hour bitch."

"Hey! Don’t you call her that!" I was getting so angry that I had no chance whatsoever to control it.

"It’s all right." Lisa whispered in my ear.

"I think Enzo’s getting cranky – maybe he needs a nap." Zip chuckled.

"He’s scared." Calisto tittered. "Scared of the big, bad game."

"Well, don’t worry – if things get too scary we can sing a song for you, like Guardian Bob."

My stomach lurched. Violently. "What?"

Zip smiled coldly at me for a nano and I felt like all the air had been sucked out of my lungs. The he looked around. "Guess we better figure out what’s going on with the game, shouldn’t we? Wouldn’t want to be nullified or trapped in here."

"I don’t recognize this one."

"Me neither. But maybe Enzo does – he is the great game legend, after all. Tell us, Enzo – save us all, Hero." I couldn’t take my eyes away from Zip – it was like I was paralyzed. I felt Lisa’s hand on my elbow, squeezing softly, reassuringly. "Well, Little Prince? I thought you’d been in hundreds of games with your Guardian friends!"

I swallowed a knot in my throat that felt like a jetball, and looked around. We were surrounded by walls of green – plants, alive. Like vines. They were all around us, twisting and turning at odd angles. I looked at them for a nano and realized they truly were alive – they were shifting and slithering slowly on themselves. A kernel of flash memory hit me and I looked up at the sky. We were outside – it was filled with stars, and a crescent moon hung midway between the horizon to my right and the sky directly above us. "Labyrinth."

"What?" Lisa whispered.

"Yes – what is it? Do share, Prince Enzo. You’ve played this before?"

"Yeah." I rasped, my mouth so dry my voice was barely audible. "Labyrinth of Knossos. A maze game."

"What’s the point? What do we do?" Calisto asked.

"Um… The User has to collect objects. Items, treasures, whatever. Once he has all of them he has to find his way to the center of the labyrinth before the moon sets, or the gates of the underworld open up and the dead cross the River Styx and reclaim the Earth."

"But what do we do?"

I stared at Calisto, amazed. What a null. "Stop him, Idiot."

"So all we have to do is keep the User from collecting these treasures and finding the center of the labyrinth before the moon sets and we win? Run out the clock?" Zip asked.

"Basically – yeah. That or kill him. I mean, there’s more to it-"

"Perfect." He smiled. "That should be just perfect."

"What do you mean?"

He shot that same smile at me again, the one that sucked all the air out of me. It was cold, frighteningly calm. Almost like I’d seen it before, on a different face…

"What’s the matter?" Lisa whispered. I barely heard her.

"Shouldn’t we reboot?" Calisto’s voice shattered the spell I was under, and Zip turned to him.

"Why not? Let’s see what we’re dealing with." He brought a hand to his chest and tapped his icon, and Calisto mimicked him. "Reboot!"

"Crash!" I whispered. Calisto had rebooted as a tall, bearded sprite in a long, jeweled tunic and a bronze breastplate. He held what appeared to be a large, golden doll in his arms. It was Zip whose appearance was shocking, though – he still had the body of man – admittedly a huge, muscular one – but his head was that of a bull, covered with black fur and crowned by two pointed white horns. He carried a bulky silver mace. He looked terrifying.

"Very nice." Zip said. His voice was a low, deep rumble that seemed to rattle my insides and it was as scary as his appearance. "Very nice. And you look like a king of some sort." He turned cold, red eyes on Lisa and me. "Why haven’t you rebooted?"

I tore my eyes away from him – with difficulty – and looked at Lisa. My insides were a panic, racing from one terror to another. But she had no idea about the worst of them – she only knew we were stuck in a game with two dangerous nullheads, and that was bad enough. She smiled and reached for her icon. "Let’s do it."

"Reboot!" Lisa was now clad in a long, sky blue tunic that descended to her sandal-clad feet – her hair was dark, deep brown with a hint of red, totally different from her normal golden locks but still incredibly beautiful. And the hair was crowned with a small tiara ringed with blue and red stones that shimmered in the moonlight. She was so breathtaking that I forget everything else, just for a nano, until her voice snapped me out of it. "You look nice, Enzo. Very mature."

"Oh!" I looked down and saw that I was covered with a light brown tunic that looked very plain compared to Lisa and Calisto’s fancy clothes, but it was still finer than the ragged, blood-stained toga Zip had on. There were sandals on my feet and I knew my hair was longer, because I felt it resting on my shoulders. Two things stood out, though – the unfamiliar scratchy feeling of a beard and mustache – which sent a little thrill through me – and a pressing weight on my back. Another flash memory exploded and I didn’t even have to look and see what the weight was. "Thanks. You, uh… You look incredible."

"Who are we supposed to be, anyways?" Calisto’s shrill voice ruined the nano or I could have been staring at Lisa all cycle.

I sighed. "You’re Midas – a king."

"King? Cool!"

"Just shut up, all right?" He glared at me, but kept quiet. I heard a low chuckle from Zip. "You’re cursed. Everything you touch turns to gold, including game sprites and Users. We’re immune from it." I turned and stared at Zip, trying to keep my revulsion down. "You’re a minotaur – half-man, half-beast. I think it’s called a ‘bull’. This maze was built to keep you in."

"What about you two?" Zip rumbled. I swear, when he talked the ground shook a little.

"Lisa is a princess. A- Ar…" I thought for a nano, eyes closed. "Ariadne! Princess Ariadne. And it looks like I’m Daedalus. That’s an improvement, last time I was Icarus…"

"What’s so special about you?" Calisto sneered.

"I’m a scientist. I built this place. And I built these wings to fly out and escape it, after I was imprisoned in here."

"You can fly?"

"Yeah. I guess. And I have the power to change the maze with my head. You know, just by thinking about it." Bob had been Daedalus the last time, and Matrix was the minotaur. Boy, Matrix hated that, but it made me laugh! I remembered Bob telling me about changing the maze, and I sent my mind out, just to test it. It was a very weird feeling – I could sense the others there, even with my eyes closed – they were like warm bursts of color in my mind. I could picture the maze in my head, too – it was like I was floating above it, looking down. With a grunt of exertion I moved a couple of walls around in there.

"Hey! It changed!" Lisa’s voice. "Enzo, that’s so cool!"

"Yeah." I smiled. "It should help us out. Remember I said the User has to collect stuff? He needs something from each of us – but he has to find us first. From me it’s one of my wings. Lisa’s tiara. One of Zip’s horns."

"What about me?"

"That!" I pointed at the object in Calisto’s arms.

"This? A stupid doll?"

"It’s your daughter. You touched her and she turned to gold."

"Cool!"

"No – it’s not cool! You… Never mind." He was hopeless. "That’s basically it. The User will come looking for us, and trying to get this stuff. He’s a great warrior, Theseus. And he’s smart, too. But he has to do it all before we kill him or the moon sets. We should probably split up, so it’s harder for him to get all the objects he needs." As soon as I said that it sounded wrong, though – there was no way I wanted Lisa to be on her own in this place. Not with a User and these two psychos roaming around.

"I don’t think so." Zip rumbled thoughtfully. "I think we’ll stay together."

I was secretly relieved – like I said, I didn’t want to leave Lisa’s side. But I didn’t like the idea of Zip being in charge, and I hated the idea of giving in to him without a fight. "What about the User? If we’re all together, he only has to find us one time! If he defeats all of us he’ll win the game."

"I’m not concerned about the User, Little Prince. Not yet, anyways. And I wouldn’t be either, if I were you. Either of you. You’ve got much more serious problems."

"What’re you talking about?" Lisa spat defiantly. I felt that jetball in my throat again. Something was very, very wrong.

Zip took a couple of steps towards us. "I don’t have to answer to you now, Bitch – you or your little boyfriend. There are no prying eyes in here, are there?" Before I could react, he reached a muscular arm out and fondled the front of Lisa’s tunic. You can guess where – I don’t want to say.

"Hey!" she squealed. "Stop!"

Her voice broke me out of my trance and I flew at him, fists raised. Before I got to him Calisto grabbed my by the collar and yanked me back. "You bastard! Touch her again and I’ll kill you!" The rage I felt inside put any other I’d ever felt to shame – I really would have killed him if I could’ve. It made me understand Matrix a lot more, just for that split nano.

Zip laughed softly. "I’m gonna do a lot more than touch her, Peachfuzz – and so is the King, here. And there’s not a deleted thing you can do about it." His bull head broke into a hideous smile. "This body is fully functional."

"You’re basic, Zip." Lisa was smiling bravely, but her voice was shaky and so was she. "You’re totally losing it! I’d never let a pig like you near me."

"Me? Lose it? I think you’ve got things backwards, Princess."

"This isn’t funny, Zip." I panted. I struggled weakly against Calisto, but his sim was a lot stronger than mine – naturally, I would reboot as a scientist when I needed warrior strength! "This is going too far, this is crazy! If you do anything to Lisa I’ll tell Laser the nano we get out of here!"

"Shut up!" Calisto slapped me hard on the back of the head.

"Let him talk – it makes me laugh." Zip was still smiling grotesquely. "Besides – he won’t be doing any talking once we get back home anyway."

"You piece of shit." Lisa snarled. "If you touch me again-"

"Enough." He slapped her on the face, not hard enough to injure her but hard enough to catch her attention. I watched a red handprint bloom on her cheek with a growing sense of doom. Lisa just looked stunned. "I’ve been waiting to put you in your place for a long time, Enzo. You arrogant little prick. There’s no one here to save you now, is there? Where’s Quantum now? Or Mouse, or Bob or even Mr. Garamond? I don’t see any of them, do you? I didn’t think so. No, it’s just us – and I’m going to show you just how worthless you are, Little Prince, and I’m gonna enjoy every nano of it. And the thing I’m gonna love most of all is the expression on your face when I-"

"No!" I screamed. "No, no, no! Shut up! I’ll delete you, I swear to the User I’ll delete you!"

Zip laughed. "Bring him closer." Calisto roughly shoved me towards Zip and he reared back and punched me, not with his full power but a solid shot right above my belly button. I coughed and went to my knees, seeing stars.

"Enzo! Enzo, are you all right?" I could feel Lisa’s cool hands on my face but I couldn’t open my eyes to see her yet.

"I’d enjoy hurting you a lot worse, Peachfuzz. Maybe I will later. But I want you nice and alert for everything that’s gonna happen now."

"You’re completely basic, you know that?" Lisa said softly. She was still holding my face in her hands. "You’re nuts."

"I’ll… tell." I rasped. "I…swear I’ll… tell, Zip. You can’t… do this!"

"No you won’t. And you wanna know why? ‘Cause if you do, I’m gonna tell everyone your girlfriend’s little secret and you’ll be waving bye-bye to her forever, because she’ll be out of the Academy on her ascii."

Zip’s words snapped me back to my senses like a bucket of cold data splashed on my face. My eyes shot open and I looked up at him. "What?"

"What secret?" Lisa whispered.

"What secret, Princess?" Zip ran a hand over her cheek and she shuddered. "Why, the little story about your family tree, that’s all. I know all about it and I’ll just bet Laser would be very interested, too."

"What? No!" Lisa’s eyes darted towards me.

"No! You… You can’t!"

"You’re wrong again, Little Man. I can and I will. I know all about it, thanks to you."

"No!" I wailed. "You can’t know!"

"Enzo?"

I couldn’t bring myself to look at her face – I knew what I’d see there and I didn’t want to see it, ever. "I didn’t tell anyone Lisa. I swear I didn’t! I swear…"

"Your little journal made very interesting reading, Enzo. What was it – "We held our lips together for one breath, and then two, and the air from her nose was warm on my face and my hand was on Lisa’s neck and hers was still on my cheek. I can’t even describe what her lips were like, but I’ll try – they were like everything I’d ever imagined a girl’s lips were only a thousand times better. They were warm, and they tasted sweet, and they curved to meet the shape of mine and mine did the same for hers and it was absolutely amazing and I don’t think anything in my life will ever measure up to that first real kiss."

I just stared at him, speechless for a nano, two. This was worse than the punch in the gut, way worse. "What… I- How…"

"It‘s like poetry, really." Zip rumbled in his earth-shaking drone. "Young love is such a beautiful thing. Shall I tell Lisa about your "grown-up" dream, too?"

"No!" I groaned. I still couldn’t look at Lisa, I’d never be able to look at her again. "How can you know? You can’t know! You can’t, you can’t…"

"I’ve taken a special interest in you, Little Boy. I take a special interest in Mouse’s class, too – the advanced class, not the one you sprouts have to take. The one where she teaches us about real hacking – but then, I doubt you’ve got the sack to stick it out long enough to be a second-hour. Whether your little lover makes it that long is up to you."

"Lover!" Calisto giggled. "Fat chance!"

"Have you screwed her yet, Enzo? No, of course not – you’re just a little boy. I’d say you couldn’t even get it up for her except we both know that’s not true, don’t we?"

"Shut up!" Tears were burning my eyes now and I couldn’t do anything to stop them. It was a horrible nightmare come to life. "Just shut up. You can’t know what I wrote. You can’t!"

"Can’t I? Would you like me to read some more? I remember all sorts of things – Calisto and I really enjoyed it."

"How?"

Zip giggled – an odd sound his freakish throat wasn’t designed to produce. "I’m brilliant, Peachfuzz – your little security protocols were easy as pi squared to break. Like I said – I pay attention in Mouse’s class." He roughly yanked Lisa upright. "Enough talking – an enjoyable as this has been, I‘m ready for some real fun."

"No! No, no, you can’t!"

"Shut him up. But don’t hurt him – yet." Zip growled. Calisto put a clammy hand over my mouth and held me as I kicked and struggled, some part of me still hoping that I’d wake up in my bunk any nano.

"I won’t let you do this, Zip." Lisa said in a quavering voice. "Tell them if you want – get me expelled. It’s better than being touched by a worthless null like you."

"We’re going to do ‘this’, whether you want us to or not, Princess. We can do it the hard way or the easy way – your choice." He grabbed her behind the head and forced his mouth over hers. She struggled wildly and finally managed to wriggle out of his grasp as he stood there, laughing softly.

She was crying now, but still trying so hard to be brave. I loved her more that nano than I ever had, and it deleted me that I was helpless to do anything for her, even as I kicked and struggled harder but couldn’t break free. Maybe it was that painfully intense love for her than started an idea forming way in the back of my processor. "If you…you…" She choked on the word – she couldn’t get it out. "If you do, I’ll tell Laser when we get out. I don’t care if I get expelled – so will you. And a lot worse – having a codemaster for a father isn’t a crime."

Zip hesitated, just for a nano. I sent my mind out, searching for a hot spot among the cool energy of the maze walls. It was a risky move, but I was as desperate as I could be. "That’s your choice, Bitch. Maybe we’ll just delete both of you after we screw you – terrible things happen in games, sometimes. Sprites get deleted."

"You don’t have the balls, Zip. Besides - they’ll never believe you." I found what I was looking for, not far away from us among the wild tangle of passageways. It was incredibly hard to concentrate because my ears could still hear what was happening in front of me, and it was breaking my heart. I tried desperately to focus on slowly, surely shifting the walls of green. "They’ll know you did it, Zip. You’ll be file locked for the rest of your pathetic lives."

"I don’t think so." I could hear doubt in his voice now, though. "Even so – maybe I’ll just tell everyone what a slut you are – how you screwed both of us and loved it. And while I’m at it why not tell them your little boyfriend is a copy, too? He’s the pathetic one! That should do wonders for your reputations! And we’ll rough Enzo up too, while we’re here – may as well. Terrible things happen in games."

"No! Don’t you touch him!" The burst of warm energy was coming closer now. The way was clearing as the walls gave way to open passages that led directly to us.

"I’ll do what I want." The sound of his hand slapping her cheek again snapped my eyes open, and I strained against Calisto’s grip even harder. He was hesitating, trying to decide what to do. I think he was scared she would tell on him, unless he killed her – and she was right, I don’t think he did have the balls to kill her. The problem was, he really wanted to do what he’d planned to do, that was obvious. I could see the battle going on, between his brain and his body. No one said anything for what seemed like forever, as my mind detected the energy coming closer and closer. I reached out and shifted a last wall of green.

Finally the battle inside Zip was over. He smiled and grabbed Lisa by the wrists. "Bring him over – I want him to have a good view."

"Yes!" Calisto hissed urgently.

I bit at Calisto’s hand and he yanked it away. "No!" I wailed, knowing my voice could be heard by more than just the four of us and glad of it. "Don’t! I swear I’ll delete you!"

"I’ll… I’ll tell." Lisa whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I don’t… don’t care about… getting expelled. I don’t…"

"Maybe I’ll delete you then." Zip pushed Lisa to the ground and knelt and grabbed her by the wrists again. "I’m going to enjoy this, you tease. You’re almost as arrogant as Enzo, flaunting your hot little body all over campus. You like spending time with little boys, huh? Well, you’re with a man, now."

"You’ll never be a man." Lisa growled. "You could rape me a thousand times and Enzo would still be a thousand times the man you are."

A murderous anger flashed in Zip’s red eyes and he pulled his arm back, as if he was going to punch Lisa in the face. She flinched and he held his fist there for a couple of nanos. Then he smiled. "Bring him."

Calisto wrestled me around behind Lisa, looking full-on into Zip’s face. I gathered all my strength and pushed myself off the ground, kicking out as hard as I could at Zip’s head. I just missed him, unfortunately – even in this body my legs were still too short. Zip narrowed his red eyes at me. "Do a better job of holding him, Idiot. I’ve got work to do here."

"Sorry!" Calisto slapped me in the ear, hard, and I cried out in spite of everything.

"Stop!" Lisa snarled.

"I’d love to do terrible things to you, Peachfuzz – but not yet. I want you all there for the next few micros. After that – all bets are off."

"Don’t take too long with her." Calisto whined. "I’m ready to go right now."

"You’ll get your chance." Zip turned his attention back to Lisa, still keeping his firm grip on her wrists. He forced her arms up above her head. "Last chance to do this the easy way, Bitch. Well?" Lisa didn’t say anything – she just stared up at him hatefully, the tears flowing down her cheeks. Zip chuckled and shifted his grip, maneuvering both her wrists into one huge hand, and reached the other for the neck of her tunic.

"Nnnnn!" I tried to bite Calisto’s hand but he was ready for me. Lisa screamed and started struggling wildly under Zip’s grasp, twisting and kicking at him as best she could as he started to tear at her tunic. He swore and lowered more of his huge weight onto her torso, pinning her down.

It was Calisto who saw the User first, which is funny because he’s so stupid he wouldn’t recognize a dog if it bit him in the ascii. But my eyes were locked onto Zip and Lisa and theirs were locked onto each other. "Look out!"

"What?" Zip spat irritably. He’d managed to rip Lisa’s tunic off of one shoulder and was clearly focused on what would happen next. When he followed Calisto’s eyes and saw the User, though, he immediately sprang to his feet. "Crash! Crash it all!"

The User stepped down the passageway towards us, still a ways off – Theseus, a young, bearded warrior in a simple tunic, holding a one-handed thrusting sword. Lisa, still crying, curled into a ball and crawled slowly towards me. "What do we do?" Calisto cried.

"What we planned. Keep calm and everything will be fine."

"I… I can touch him – turn him to gold! Like the infant said!"

"How stupid are you?" Zip growled. "That’ll kill him – we’ll win the game and be back at the Academy. What good will that do?"

"Right, right – sorry!"

"We’ll slow him down – hurt him but not kill him. Then we can take our time with her and enjoy ourselves until the moon sets and we win the game." He raised his mace as the User drew closer.

I knew I’d taken a terrible risk leading the User to us – but one look at the horror on Lisa’s face told me it was worth it. And it wasn’t the User that had put that look there. At least this way I was forcing Zip into some sort of decision. I strained, trying to go to Lisa, but Calisto’s grip was still too strong, even though it slackened a little as he got distracted by the User.

The User may has well have not even been there – all I could see was Lisa. Her tunic had been ripped away from one shoulder and her chest was partly uncovered, but I refused to look – I swear my eyes burned. I concentrated on her face. Her cheeks were red from the slaps and the crying and I wanted more than anything to hold her and make everything be all right for her – but I knew that was impossible. Even if we survived the game I knew she’d never forgive me. But that didn’t matter – I still had to get her out of this, I had to. I watched her as she crawled closer, then as she looked up at the User and her eyes focused. "Enzo! What…"

I looked back at the User at last. He and Zip were circling each other, slowly. He was smiling, but that’s not what I noticed. I hadn’t seen it when I was facing him head-on, but from the side it was obvious – the pulsing green vein on his neck. "No!"

"Be careful." Calisto hissed. "That sword looks pretty sharp!"

"Of course it’s sharp, you 9-pinhead! Get off your ascii and help me – cut him off, push him towards me!"

"Lisa!" I whispered. "You’ve got to get to me this nano – hurry!" Calisto dragged me over towards the User, holding me in front of him like a shield. "Zip! Stay away from him!"

"Shut him up."

"No! He’s infected, you nullbrain! Don’t let him touch you! We’ve got to get away from him now!"

"What?" A flicker of confusion crossed his bull face for a nano, then disappeared. "Nice try, Peachfuzz. But not nice enough."

"It’s true! Look at his- Mmmmmmf!" Calisto had his hand over my mouth again.

"Maybe he’s right." Calisto said doubtfully, as Zip lunged at the User with his mace and missed. His sim was clumsy and slow, but the User made no effort to use his sword except to defend itself. The last thing it wanted to do was delete us. "His neck looks funny – it’s all- Owww!"

All of a sudden Calisto’s grip on me was gone and I pushed myself away from him and rolled to my feet, wincing from the pain in my gut. I looked up and saw Lisa’s teeth buried in his forearm as he screamed. He flailed his arms and finally managed to toss her away and she landed hard, with a groan. "Lisa!"

Calisto looked confused, debating whether to go after us or help Zip with the User. I crawled over to Lisa and wrapped my arms around her. She was shaking like anything, and soft little sobs were coming from her throat. "En…Enzo…"

"Are you OK? Are you hurt?" She shook her head slightly. "Can you walk?"

"Look!" she whispered. I looked up and saw Zip struggling to free his mace, which the User had grabbed in one hand and was holding as if Zip were a child of 0.1 trying to yank it free. It was just like Sideshow Bob in the game when I was 0.1 – he had strength this User would never have if he weren’t infected. And who knew what else.

"Help me!" Zip shouted. "Touch him! Touch him, kill him!"

"But the game! If I touch him it’ll be over!"

"Do it you idiot!" Zip screamed. The mace glowed bright green for a nano, and Zip stiffened and groaned. Then he dropped to his knees and the User released the mace.

"Zip!" Calisto shrieked. Then he backed off a step like the coward he was.

Zip took a deep breath and stood. The green pulse on his neck was obvious. Lisa gave a little gasp and I hugged her tighter. The User took a step towards Calisto, but Zip put a hand on his elbow. "No. Don’t touch him."

They stood for a nano, as if some sort of silent communication was passing between them. Then the User smiled. "Of course, Brother." Zip smiled now too, and took a step towards Calisto.

"Get away from him!" I shouted. "Don’t let him touch you – he’s infected!" Calisto was too scared to move – he just stood there shaking, looking between Zip and the User. "Calisto – come on! Get away from him now!"

"Don’t go, Calisto." Zip said softly, still smiling. "Aren’t I your best friend? Come on – let’s shake." He held out his hand.

"No! Get away, Stupid!"

"Come on." Lisa whispered in a shaky voice. "Enzo!"

"We can’t just leave him! He…" It was too late, though. Calisto wasn’t stupid enough to shake Zip’s hand, but he was too much of a coward to do anything else. He just stood there and trembled and let Zip reach out and put his hand on his forehead. He gave a short little scream and went to his knees, and the golden child dropped from his arms and rolled to our feet. Then he was silent. And after a nano he stood, and all three of them turned to look at Lisa and me.

"Crash! Let’s go." Lisa was still shaky on her feet, so I wrapped one arm around her waist and held her against me and half-dragged her down a green-lined passageway, as fast as my legs would carry me, cradling the gold child in my other arm.

"Wait! Enzo, I’m so very sorry if I’ve hurt you! Come back!" Zip’s voice called after me. I heard footsteps behind us.

"We’ve got to hurry!" I hissed. "Can you stand on your own?"

"I think so." Lisa rasped.

I released her waist and grabbed her hand and broke into a run, still needing to pull her along as best I could. We came to a three-way intersection and after a nano’s hesitation, I dragged her down the left-hand passageway. I sent my mind out and tried to shift the walls, but I couldn’t do it while I was running – it was too deleted hard, I had to concentrate to see the patterns. "Wait!" I panted. I closed my eyes and tried to block out everything as best I could, and after what felt like an hour I managed to close of the passage behind us. "Crash… That won’t hold them for long…"

"Oh, Enzo..." Lisa sobbed deeply and buried her face against my shoulder, crying uncontrollably now.

"It’ll be all right." I whispered, my insides wracked with fear and indecision guilt and a million other emotions that I couldn’t control. I gently tugged Lisa’s ripped tunic up over her shoulder as best I could and hugged her. "I’m sorry, Lisa. I’m so sorry." I could sense the others close, getting closer, but she needed a few nanos and that’s all there was to it. After what had happened – and almost happened – I couldn’t blame her. So we knelt and I let her cry for a bit and just held her and felt helpless to do anything else.

"Enzo, when he… When he was lying on top of me I could… I could feel his…"

I bit down hard on a sudden urge to retch. "He’ll… He’ll never touch you again. It’s OK, I promise. I’d never let him hurt you."

"Enzo, he-"

"Don’t talk, OK? Just rest for a nano." I kept holding her and she sobbed a few more times, more and more softly. "Are you OK?" I whispered, knowing as soon as I did that it was a stupid question. Of course she wasn’t OK – but the others were on the far side of the wall of green now, I could hear them as well as sense them. "We have to move – I’m sorry. They’ll catch us."

"I know." She squeezed me hard and pushed herself to her feet. "Let’s go."

I tried to smile. "We’ll be all right – I promise." I stood and grabbed her hand and we took off at a run. I heard a crash behind me and turned my head to see the User teetering on his feet behind us. I was confused for a nano and then I realized – he’d jumped the wall. Of course that should have been impossible, but I couldn’t tell that to him. "Crash! They’re splitting up." I slid to a halt and shifted the patterns in my head, blocking him off from us for the moment.

"What do we do?" Lisa panted.

"Keep running for the nano! He can jump a wall but if he doesn’t know which one to jump, we’ll be all right." We ran again for a few millis, and then I stopped and shifted the passageways around behind us. I couldn’t find the User right away but I didn’t sense him close by, so I slid down to my bitmap and leaned against the wall of the passage, panting.

Lisa slid down next to me, holding her tunic in place with one hand. For some reason the sight made me so sad that I almost started crying on the spot. "Are… Are they close?"

"Dunno." I took long, deep breaths, trying to fill my lungs up as fast as I could. "Better whisper… Just in case."

"Enzo…" Lisa put her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes. "You led the User to us, didn’t you?"

I didn’t say anything right away. I closed my eyes too, and tried to imagine we were sitting under a tree in the woods behind the girls’ dorm. "I’d never let them do… Do that to you. Never."

"I knew you’d save me."

"Lisa! I…" I did start crying now, a little, and kissed her hair. Sim or not, dark or golden, her hair would always be beautiful. "I haven’t saved you from anything. We’re in bad trouble."

"I know." She whispered. "What now?"

I was trying to think of all the possibilities, all the options – but I couldn’t find any that I liked very much. I remembered something Matrix had told me about the infected Guardians he’d met while he was lost in the net. "I think they can communicate with each other – y’know, without talking. Somehow Daemon lets them do it. So they’ll split and try and track us, hunt us until they have us cornered. Then…"

"I didn’t really believe it was possible. I didn’t think the stories were true – how can she infect a game?"

"I dunno." I sighed. "But I’ve seen it before." I pictured the labyrinth in my head again and changed the passages immediately surrounding us. I could feel the others out there, close but not so close that I could tell exactly where they were. "I didn’t think there was such a thing as the no-win scenario, but I guess there is…"

"What?"

I sighed. "We have to lose the game."

"What? Lose the game? But-"

"Listen." I took her sweet face in my hands and stared into her eyes. "The User won’t try and win the game, now – he wants to lose. If we win – even if we manage to stay uninfected, we’ll bring two infected cadets back to the Academy with us. We already have everything we need for the User to win except the minotaur’s horn – if we can get that, somehow, we can bring them to the center of the labyrinth and the User will win. We’ll be trapped in here, but at least the Academy will be safe."

"What about us?"

"We’ll survive. Matrix did." I tried to smile. Being lost in the games wasn’t first on my list of goals, but at least we’d be together. "We’ll go into game-sprite mode and leave with the game. Zip and Calisto will probably be nullified – they won’t be expecting us to lose. So we can ditch this infected game in the next system and… And try and find our way home, somehow. Bob and Dot will find out, they’ll look for us."

"Game-sprite mode? But what about…"

"What?"

"Never mind." She lifted her head and smiled bleakly. "You’re right. We have to try and lose the game."

"What is it? You have GS mode, right? Bob said all the cadets’ icons were upgraded when they downloaded the protocols…"

"Of course I do. We’ll be fine – we’ll be together."

I stared at her, trying to puzzle out what was nagging at my processor. "Your father!"

"Enzo-"

"It’s your father, isn’t it? Your icon is half codemaster – GS mode might not work!"

"It doesn’t matter. You were right – we-"

"No!" I hissed. Oh User, how could I be so stupid? "You could be nullified if we lose the game!"

"Or I might not."

"It doesn’t matter!" I wiped tears from my eyes and kissed her forehead. It didn’t matter if Lisa never spoke to me again after this was over – there was no way I was risking her code by losing this game. I didn’t have the right. "We’ll just have to win the game, that’s all. And deal with the consequences."

"But Enzo-"

"No! No, no, no." I squeezed her to me as tight as I could. "I’ll never let anything happen to you. I can’t. We’ll survive somehow." There was a sharp pain, like a burst of fire in my processor.

"Enzo! What is it?"

"They’re close! Come on." I stumbled to my feet and we took off down the passageway, only to see Calisto’s form appear straight ahead of us, grinning. We spun and Lisa started to run back the way we’d come from, but I grabbed her hand. "No! The User’s there, I sense him…"

"What do we do?"

In a nano of panic I did the only thing I could think of and opened a gap in the wall next to us. I yanked Lisa through and hurriedly closed it behind us. Unfortunately I hadn’t had time to think about where it would take us, and it led us into a dead-end passageway. "Crash!"

"Fly!" Lisa hissed.

"What?"

"You can fly, can’t you? Those wings?"

Typical – I’d totally forgotten about that. "I… I guess so. But they won’t support both of us – too much weight! I’m not even sure I could figure out how to do it with just mine!"

"Try!" She grabbed my hands. "One of us has to stay uninfected until the game is over, to warn the others! If you can fly, you can-"

"No! I can’t!"

"Enzo, think! You have to!"

"No!" I could see that, logically, she was right – it made sense for me to try and preserve myself any way I could. But I couldn’t – maybe at heart I was just a basic little kid, but if that’s what I was I couldn’t be anything else. Not yet, anyways. I loved Lisa and I’d never leave her, not ever. Maybe logic didn’t have to be right all the time.

"Enzo, please – just go. I’ll be-"

"No." I kissed her on the mouth, and I’m being totally honest when I say I did it because I couldn’t think of any other way to shut her up, and I knew we didn’t have time to argue about this any more. She just stared at me, eyes wide. "I love you. I’ll always love you and I’ll never leave you, never. Let me concentrate for a nano, OK? Please?"

"OK." She sighed. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, and the others were so close they were like a bad headache. I managed to form a picture of the maze in my head and figured out where we were. I knew Calisto was on the other side of the wall I’d just pulled us through, and I knew the User was somewhere behind us. I didn’t know exactly where Zip was, but the only direction we could go was straight ahead.

I heard a loud crash, which I knew was the sound of the User landing after another of his impossible jumps. It sounded frighteningly close, too. I opened a gap in the wall in front of us and pulled Lisa through, knowing this was another dead-end, leading us back to where Calisto was. But I saw that if I cut through the next wall we’d be in a long passageway that led to a three-way junction, and that could buy us some time. I opened the way and we went through again, and I stopped long enough to seal it behind us. Then we took off at a run towards the junction.

What I was learning was that moving the maze around with my mind was tiring – exhausting, even. Combined with all the running we were doing I wasn’t sure I could keep it up much longer. By the time we got to the intersection of the three passages the maze was a blur in my mind and my legs felt like wet noodles. "Which way?" Lisa whispered.

I groaned, even the effort to concentrate long enough to pick a direction painful. I pointed towards the left-hand option, which took us generally towards the center of the maze, and stumbled and almost fell. Lisa half-carried me a few steps down the corridor until I squeezed her arm. "Rest." I panted.

"OK." She helped me sit down – I think I would have just fallen over otherwise – and I leaned over against her, eyes closed. "Are you all right?"

"Tired. It’s…hard. Moving…the maze." I think I was more exhausted than I’d ever been in my life. My brain was trying to wander and think about what would happen even if we somehow survived the game intact – there’s be infected cadets running around the Academy and even if we got through that, somehow, I was facing the prospect of Lisa never wanting to be with me again and that was enough to make me cry just by itself. But I forced it back onto the nano at hand – I had to get Lisa out of this, somehow. It was my fault we were in this mess anyway.

"Enzo. Poor Enzo. You’re such a stubborn thing, if you’d just listen to me and fly away from here-"

"No. Never. I won’t leave you."

"I know." She sighed. She kissed me on the forehead and I have to say, for someone that I knew would never forgive me she was being really nice. But we had to stick together to survive, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. "Just rest. We’re safe for a while."

"Not for long." I panted, still out of breath.

"How long do you think we’d have to do this – to win the game? How long do we have to hold out?"

"I don’t know." I opened my eyes and squinted at the moon, which still looked disgustingly high overhead. It was probably way less than halfway to the horizon from its starting point, when we’d entered the game. "Too long."

"We’ll manage. I know you’ll keep me safe." Lisa smiled and squeezed me. "Like always."

"Yeah. Like always." The words definitely left a bitter taste in my mouth. "If that output Calisto had run away when I told him too, maybe we could have gotten him to touch the User and win the deleted game for us and we wouldn’t have to run all night!" I looked up at the sky again. "I don’t know if I can do it, Lisa – there’s three of them, and they’re talking to each other, tracking us. They’re getting closer and I’m so tired. This is bad – very bad."

"I know. Just do your best. We’ll just have to try – I’ll help you as much as I can."

"I know." I forced a smile and groaned as I pushed myself upright. "We better get moving. I can feel them getting closer."

"What does it feel like – seeing them inside your head?"

"Like a dull headache. Except when they’re really close, and it’s like a sharp pain. They’re like bright spots and when they’re close it’s like looking at something that hurts your eyes."

"Poor Enzo. I hope it doesn’t hurt too much."

"No – not too much." I still had to kind of half-lean against her as we walked, and I think she knew I wasn’t in great shape. She wrapped her arm around my waist and locked my fingers in hers, and it made me feel a little better. "Thanks."

"How do I feel in your head?"

"Perfect." I smiled at her. "I’ll miss you being there when the game’s over."

"Have I told you that you look cute with a beard?"

"Stop!" I couldn’t help but giggle, it was such a silly thing to say and a silly time to say it.

"Enzo, what would happen if we were to leave the labyrinth? You know – just find the exit and go?"

I thought for a nano. "I…I dunno. Nothing, I guess. I don’t think we can leave – I don’t think this world exists outside the maze."

"Oh." She sounded disappointed.

"Besides – even if we could, wouldn’t it make us that much easier to find, out in the open? At least in here we have places to hide." I sighed and turned to her. "Um – you couldn’t do any… codemaster stuff – could you?"

She smiled a little. "What sort of stuff did you have in mind, Enzo? I’m not a magician. I’m not even a full codemaster."

"Sorry! I know. I shouldn’t have asked you…"

"It’s all right." She squeezed my hand. "Nothing I could do would be much help – and I couldn’t do anything inside a game cube, anyway. It wouldn’t work."

"Oh." I could have kicked myself for even bringing it up. "Sorry."

"If I could save you, Enzo, I’d do it in a nano. But we’re going to have to find another way."

"We will. I promise." The passage we were in took a ninety-degree turn to the left. "Hold on a nano." I took a deep breath, trying to muster up the energy to see the maze in my head again. My ability to sense the others was getting weaker – I couldn’t pinpoint where they were anymore, just a very vague sense of a direction that might have been wrong anyway, for all I knew. I concentrated on creating an opening in the wall in front of us.

"Enzo!"

I opened my eyes and, much to my surprise, I was sitting down. I felt Lisa’s cool hands on my cheeks. "What…"

"You left me for a nano." She whispered shakily. "Are you OK?"

"I… I must’ve fainted or something…" There was an opening in the wall, anyway. "C’mon, let’s- Oh, Crash…"

"Enzo!" She caught me as I fell again trying to stand.

"I’m all right."

"No you’re not!" She cradled me against her. "Just stop this, OK? Don’t delete yourself. I need you."

"But-"

"Just stop. Is this really doing any good, anyway? They know you can change the walls around – it’s not like they’re just going to go wherever you want them to."

"Crash." Even keeping my eyes open was too much effort. I let my body relax and felt the soft warmth of Lisa’s against me. "But they…have to – Zip and Calisto anyways. They can’t…jump the walls, I don’t think."

"The User can. And it’