Chapter 2: Leavetaking
The grey energy dawn came early to Mainframe, but she wasn�t the first one up that morning. Seven sprites trickled through the corridors of the Principle Office, preparing for the journey to save the city.
Dot paced around the armoury, checking over the contents and checking them again for lack of anything better to do. Her back-and-forth movements were closely followed by two sets of worried eyes: burgundy and brown, like spectators at a PONG tournament.
Mouse finally spoke. "Dot, honey, you�re gonna wear a hole through the floor if you keep that up much longer." Dot stopped in her tracks, pausing for a moment. She turned a wry smile towards Mouse. "Sorry. I�m sorry. I just feel so /useless/."
"Maybe you could find yourself some sleeves." Bob said lightly as he adjusted the matte-black cheekguards of his own set of armor, familiar from the days of Nullzilla. He grinned as Dot�s fist connected with his upper arm. She grinned back, and punched him again experimentally.
"Hey! What was that one for?" Bob rubbed his arm and tried to look hurt.
"Because I can. Because you�re not wearing the tin can suit." Dot replied, then frowned slightly, puzzled. "Though why not?"
"Too shiny."
"Mm." Dot was off again, distracted by the arrival of Matrix and AndrAIa. Bob shook his head to himself, then turned to catch Mouse smirking at him. He shrugged. "And I thought /you/ had a short attention span."
Mouse laughed. "You heard the gal. She�s on a mission. And you�re not one to be talkin� about short attention spans anyway, Sugah."
Finally all the travelers were armed and armoured to Phong (and Dot�s) satisfaction, waiting with Mouse and Ray in Phong�s office. The elderly sprite wheeled in, climbing into his chair.
"Ah, my children. Are you ready?"
"Ready as we�ll ever be." Bob replied, tapping a cheekguard for emphasis.
"Let us go over the plan one more time then. It is very important that we remember the details. " Phong adjusted his glasses on his nose, squinting at the organizer on his desk. "Bob, you will open a portal to the Supercomputer. You will all go through, and seek out Daemon and destroy her. Then you will return here. Ah...there are not many details after all, are there."
Despite the tenseness in the room, Phong�s maunderings brought smiles to the travellers� faces.
"Sounds simple enough." Matrix was unholstering and reholstering his gun nervously.
"Let�s do it." Dot said suddenly, shaking them all from the silence they had fallen into. At that, Mouse and Ray stepped forward to give there farewells and well-wishes. Mouse offered a warm handshake to AndrAIa, Matrix and Bob, and to everyone�s surprise, gave Dot a quick hug.
"Don�t you go makin� an honest commander out of this ol� mercenary, honey. If you don�t come back I�ll delete ya."
Dot shook her head and smiled, though a trifle sadly. "I wouldn�t dream of it, Mouse."
Ray also shook hands with Bob and Matrix, kissed Dot on the forehead, and bestowed a wink and kiss on the cheek to AndrAIa. Matrix bristled visibly until Mouse laughed, pulling Ray out of danger. "Hey Sparks! You don�t have a thing to worry about unless he�d done this!" Mouse proceeded to dip her hapless surfer and smooch him soundly. Everyone in the room burst out laughing, especially after they heard the familar *whirrr-click* of Phong�s digital camera. The sprite smiled serenly, folding his long metallic fingers before him. For a moment he looked impossibly old, and impossibly wise. "Go with laughter, my children, and may no harm befall you."
The final good-byes were exchanged, and Matrix used his gun to open a tear. Bob approached it solemnly, golden light flooding from the palms of his hands and surrounding the blue-white tear until is gelled into a wobbling mercury sphere. Matrix paused, sucked in a deep breath, and dove through first, then AndrAIa jumped in after, and Dot. Finally Bob turned to the sprites left in the room, smiled his old sunny don�t-you-worry-about-a-thing smile, and dove through himself. The portal snapped shut in a burst of white light, dazzling the eyes of Mouse, Ray and Phong. When the mist had cleared from their vision, there was no trace of their friends.
Phong blinked several times from the glare, then nodded slowly, once. "May all the powers in the Net be with them." he said.