"GAME OVER!"

With these words the massive purple cube ascended from its solitary position on a deserted street. It left in its wake three battle-weary companions, a tall, young man, his equally young female partner, and a large red-and-gold dog with a mean set of teeth that went by the name of Frisket. The dog, not all of them. The man looked around them and sighed in obvious disappointment. He then looked down at the strange device in his hands and shook his head, sighing again.

"No �ports?" his lithe lady companion asked, even though she knew the answer. It never changed.

"Of course not," the man grumbled, the disgust evident in his tone. "Is there ever?"

The woman laid a slender hand on his shoulder comfortingly.

"Don�t worry, Matrix. We�ll find one someday."

Matrix nodded, not really feeling any more hopeful, but appreciating the effort. They stood for a few more microseconds as if waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, Matrix turned back to his friend and partner. She had slipped off down to the edge of the street and was staring into the window of a closed shop.

"Hey AndrAIa! Where do you suppose everyone is? Usually they�re all over us when we finish a game."

AndrAIa walked back to where Matrix was standing, having seen nothing of interest in the store. He admired the graceful swing of her hips as she moved towards him. It had only been two minutes since they had admitted their feelings for each other and Matrix still couldn�t believe she felt the same way he did.* AndrAIa leaned on him and he wrapped his strong arms around her. She smiled her playful smile up at him and he carefully resisted the urge to lean her back and feel her soft lips on his.

"Maybe you scared them off." AndrAIa teased, slapping him gently on the shoulder. His only answer was to chuckle and pull her tighter against him. "Seriously, they probably get a lot of games and they just don�t get excited about them."

"Maybe."

"Well we can�t just stand around here all cycle."

"You�re right. Let�s go check this system out. We need a place to stay until the next game comes."

"I wanted to go shopping!" AndrAIa pouted.

Matrix looked down at her and was unable to hide the grimace that passed over his face. He loved AndrAIa, he really did, but he hated shopping. Walking around all cycle holding stuff, telling her she did not look fat in that outfit, and even, User forbid, holding her purse when she tried things on.

AndrAIa caught the look and laughed.

"Okay, so you don�t have to go. You can check out the system while me and Frisket go shopping."

Frisket growled. AndrAIa ignored him. Someone was going with her.

"Okay."

"But remember, you�re here to gather information, not to get drunk," AndrAIa chastised firmly. "It�s bad enough I have to explain to your sister how you got that tattoo."

"You�re never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Nope. Kiss." she demanded, leaning up for quick peck before she wandered off with a very unhappy Frisket

Matrix smiled slightly before setting off on his own in search of interesting alcoholic beverages. And information of course.

"Hey babe, wanna party with a real sprite," a raggedy-looking sprite asked the girl sitting at the counter. She raised her head from her arms long enough to laugh and punch him in the jaw. He fell back against the wall and the girl turned her unblinking eyes to the bartender.

"Can I have another one of these?" she asked as she pointed to a small glass sitting beside her. The bartender got her one and she managed a bright smile for him, pleasant except for the slight twitch near the right corner.

"Thank you," she murmured. She took a tiny sip of her drink which seemed to perk her up and she winked at the binome on her left. He turned away quickly. Even sitting it was obvious she was tiny for a sprite of her age, which happened to be 1.9, with dark peach-colored skin. A bright red showed dimly in her roots as she ran her slender hand through her short dyed-blonde hair. Her features were too sharp and her stare too creepy for her to be considered beautiful. The best she had ever hoped for was cute and she�d thrown that boat out with her fifth drink. At the moment she resembled a drowned rat. A dying drowned rat.

"You!" the sprite she�d assaulted yelled, jumping back to his feet. "No broad punches Rick."

"I�m guessing you�re Rick," the girl said as she turned to him.

"That�s right babe," Rick snarled and cracked his knuckles. A wide, evil smile spread across his face. The young woman swallowed hard. It looked like she�d gotten herself in trouble. Again.

"Would it make things better if I said I was sorry and went out with you?" she asked him hopefully.

"Would you?" Rick shot back, slightly surprised at this turn of events.

She looked him over and sad smile creeped over her face.

"No, probably not. I�m not that desperate."

"Then no deal babe," Rick huffed, insulted. He pulled his fist back and the girl closed her eyes. This was going to hurt.

"Didn�t anyone ever tell you that�s not how you treat ladies?," a deep voice rumbled. The "lady" in question opened her eyes. Then she closed them and rubbed them hard. Then she opened them again. She hadn�t been mistaken. There was a big, green guy holding a gun to Rick�s head.

"I...I-" Rick stuttered.

"Save it for someone who cares," Matrix said. "Now get out of here before I lose my temper." He removed the gun from Rick�s second-least used body part and the cowardly sprite stumbled away as fast as his legs could carry him.

"You okay?" Matrix asked the girl. She nodded slowly, still a bit shocked.

Satisfied that he had done his part, Matrix let his gun fling itself back to its holder and wandered to the other side of the counter. Conversation began to start again all around the bar as the hardy binomes got over the encounter. This left the previously endangered sprite the only quiet one besides her unexpected hero. Still looking at Matrix, the girl began to smile a mischievous grin.

"Hello big, green, and gorgeous." she murmured. The young lady decided to go and thank her savior properly. Now if only she could decide which one of the two of him she should talk to...

"What do you think of these?" AndrAIa asked Frisket. She held up a pair of gaudy blue earrings and frowned when the dog growled at them. With a sigh she put them back and continued on her journey through the discount store. It�d be nice to have someone to go shopping with that actually enjoys it, she thought for about the millionth time.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a small green blur knocked her to the ground. AndrAIa gasped as her elbow hit a nearby table painfully, knocking over a few sets of cheap watches. Jarred, she looked at the watch that had fallen on her lap for a disoriented moment before turning her attention on her assailant.

The blur was actually a short man, a few years older than her, with dark green skin and neon blue hair that looked as though he had tried to cut it himself. Blindfolded. While battling an army of nulls. He looked worse off than she. When he had ran into her Frisket had immediately gone into action mode and jumped his mistress�s attacker. The very large dog was sitting on the boy�s chest and was about to bite him a new mouth.

"Nice doggy....please don�t eat me," the boy stuttered.

"Frisket, down." AndrAIa ordered. Reluctantly the dog obeyed but gave his victim a warning look that couldn�t be mistaken. AndrAIa picked herself up and offered a hand to the rattled man.

"I�m sorry. Frisket can get kind of excited at times." AndrAIa smiled warmly at the still nervous boy as he got up and checked himself over for bruises. Seeing nothing life-threatening he turned his attention back to the very attractive game sprite.

"Nah, I...I�m the one who should say I�m sorry. I ran into you." he managed out after a few microseconds. He could sense his usual tongue-tied nature around beautiful girls asserting itself and he felt the urge to get everything out before he said something stupid.

"My name�s AndrAIa. Who are you and where were you going in such a hurry?" AndrAIa asked him pleasantly.

"You have really pretty fins, I mean Jack, uh me. I mean," he took a slow, steadying breath. "My name�s Jack and I�m obviously not impressing you with my razor-sharp wit."

AndrAIa laughed. Jack looked relieved. Frisket growled.

"I don�t think your dog likes me very much," Jack said, staring nervously at Frisket�s teeth.

"Frisket needs time to get to know people. Where did you say you were going again?" AndrAIa knew she was being nosy but she was curious. It was a bred nature for a veteran game sprite like herself. Plus she didn�t know too many guys who would be in such a hurry to look at women�s jewelry.

"Huh?" Jack started, looking up from Frisket. "Oh yeah! Look, it was more than a pleasure talking with you but I have to go do something very nerdy and boring that you don�t want to hear anything about."

"Try me."

"Well," Jack began hesitantly. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for him his explanation was cut off by a tall, burly CPU officer who had decided to come in at that moment.

"Hey you!" the system cop yelled at Jack. "You�re under arrest for crimes against the people of Netscape."

Jack looked at the cop, who out-weighed him by a couple hundred pounds. Then he looked at AndrAIa, who�s lovely smile was fading quickly into distrust. Last he looked at Frisket who realized that this "Jack" guy might just become his new chew toy after all. Jack searched his useless-trivia filled brain and could come up with only one thing:

"Oh fudge," Jack muttered and ran like a frightened weasel for the women�s dressing room.

"Hiya, big guy!" a loud, woman�s voice slurred into Matrix�s thoughts. He looked up from the counter and groaned inwardly. It seemed that the lady he had helped had decided to come over and talk to him.

Not again, he complained silently, why do I always get the weird types?

"Hi," Matrix said out loud, managing a weak smile.

"I�m Hardrive. Can I sit here?" she asked and pointed to the counter.

"Um, no," he said honestly. There weren�t any chairs around him. He�d picked his seat for just that reason. Inwardly he wondered at the name. Hardrive. It seemed these days that parents were just picking file names out of thin air. He was glad his parents had given him a nice, normal name like Enzo.

"Oh," she murmured. Then she collapsed onto the floor.

"Are you all right?"

Hardrive stared at him with her glassy eyes, confusion written plainly on her thin face. She rocked back a little to save her neck from looking up at him from her cross-legged position on the floor.

"Why wouldn�t I be?" she answered.

"Because you....never mind. Did you want something?"

"Um," Hardrive tilted her head back farther and stared at the ceiling as she thought about it. This caused her to lose her balance and she started falling backwards. Quickly Matrix reached out and grabbed her arms.

Note to self, don�t get what she was drinking, he thought, slightly exasperated.

"Yes!" she suddenly yelled. Startled Matrix let go of her and she smacked onto the floor. Miraculously she didn�t seem hurt.

"Thanks for helping me," she told him, nodding her head.

"No problem," Matrix replied and turned away.

"Wait!" Hardrive lurched up and grabbed his arm. He stared down at her hand and then glared up at her.

"Don�t touch me."

"Sorry," she let go and hopped up onto the counter.

"Look, I really wanted to have a drink alone." Matrix stressed the last word in the hopes that this increasingly annoying woman would take a hint and leave.

She continued to stare at him blankly. Matrix wondered if he was being punished by the User for having killed Him/Her/It so many times in the games.

"Go away," he said after a long silence, deciding that being polite was getting really old.

"But I�m bored!" Hardrive whined pitifully.

"WARNING, INCOMING GAME!"

"Thank the User," Matrix whispered, surprising himself. Without a word he got up and ran out of the bar, glad to be away from his new cling-on. She sat on the counter for a few microseconds, not seeming to realize Matrix was gone as the booming voice continued to announce its game cube.

"WARNING, INCOMING GAME!"

"Hey, where did he run off to?" she asked herself.

"Outside, you twit," a nearby binome told her.

"Oh! Okay."

Giggling maniacally, the girl ran outside and ran into a nearby traffic light. At that moment the game cube landed around her.

"Ooh, purple," Hardrive moaned, rubbing her head.

"Did he just do what I think he did?" the cop asked AndrAIa.

"Yeah, what�re you arresting him for? I�ll help you." AndrAIa shot quickly already unsheathing her trident and heading towards the dressing room.

"That�s restricted information, miss. And I�d rather you just step back and let a professional handle this."

"I�ve helped officers catch criminals in dozens of systems." AndrAIa raised an eyebrow at him, "I consider myself a professional by now."

"You a guardian?" he looked her over doubtfully.

"No, but I travel with one."

"Well if this isn�t just the moment for newcomers," the cop murmured.

Before AndrAIa could ask him what he meant, a strangely high-pitched male scream broke out. AndrAIa looked down and realized Frisket had left her. She smiled, it didn�t take a genius to realize where he had gone. Nodding to the deputy she ran into the dressing hall.

"We really got to stop meeting like this," Jack said staring up at Frisket. The dog snarled.

"Okay, look, if you get off me, I�ll...I�ll, aw, who am I kidding? Just delete me now. But be quick, I get sick at the sight of energy," Jack closed his gray eyes and waited for the final bite.

It never came.

"Good job, Frisket." AndrAIa told her dog, coming through the curtain door and petting him on the head. Frisket looked almost like he was smiling at her as he wagged his tail.

"Now, I suggest you don�t move. At least not until you tell me what you did to get arrested for," AndrAIa held her trident out threateningly but her voice was gentle.

"I don�t know!" Jack exclaimed.

"You don�t know? Ha, there�s a good excuse." the formidable system cop laughed as he came into the room.

"I don�t!" Jack protested. He turned his head to AndrAIa. "Really, you got to believe me AndrAIa, I didn�t do anything!"

"You call blowing out our main generator and encrypting all our system files nothing, boy?" the cop sneered.

"The generator blew up?" Jack repeated in disbelief. "That wasn�t supposed to happen, I swear. It-it was an accident!"

"Wait, slow down. What happened?" AndrAIa turned to the cop. This sounded like a problem she could fix.

"Hardrive crossed the links by accident and overloaded the generator. As for the files, I don�t know but I�ll bet it was her fault too." Everyone in the room turned to face the new voice.

Standing at the door was a tall, young sprite with bright red skin and short blonde hair. Though he was nowhere in the league of someone like the cop or Matrix for that matter, he looked like a guy who could take care of himself. The stranger glared at the cop and then at Jack who grimaced at the attention.

"C�mon Hacker, even Hardrive�s not that irresponsible," Jack shook his head doubtfully.

"You wanna bet," Hacker shot back.

"Well I don�t know whose fault it was and I don�t really care. I�m taking you two in and as soon as I find that little runt of a sprite, she�ll be right behind bars with you." the cop said and walked to Hacker, cuffs ready. Hacker offered no resistance but did look very irritated.

"Thanks for your help, miss." the officer told AndrAIa as he handcuffed the now very bruised Jack.

"No problem. Let me come with you." AndrAIa asked. She didn�t like how this rent-a-cop was handling this whole situation and she wanted a chance to talk to Jack about what had happened. Plus she figured she could probably help with fixing the generator.

"WARNING, INCOMING GAME!"

"Never mind," AndrAIa sighed as she ran out.

"You know, those things come down a lot here." Jack mused thoughtfully.

"Not my problem," the cop collected himself and dragged his prisoners out.

"Aren�t you supposed to read us our rights or something?" Jack asked.

"Shut up Jack," Hacker grumbled.

"Cursors!" AndrAIa exclaimed, lowering her zipboard to the street. She frowned as she watched the game cube land, without her under it.

"And you�ve only been playing the games, what? All your life?" she scolded herself. At least Matrix made it in time. But boy, how embarrassing. I�ll never hear the end of it.

"Come on Frisket. If we can�t play the game we can at least figure out what�s going on with those strange people."

Frisket whined, looking towards the cube longingly. Shaking his head the dog followed his mistress as they headed toward the Principal Office. He didn�t like his young master playing games without him. Matrix got hurt that way.

"Looks like I�m in this one alone." Matrix sighed, examining his new surroundings. He had seen AndrAIa stop before the game had hit. Too bad, he worked better when he knew she was with him. Shaking his head he lifted a hand to his icon.

"REBOOT!"

"Wow, that�s cool," an irritatingly familiar voice said from behind him. Matrix spun around, his hand already clasping the handle of his new weapon, a katana. Hardrive was staring at him in wonder, her eyes even bigger than before.

"Can I do that?" she asked.

"Spammit," Matrix growled.

"You know, a part of me always knew my life would turn out this way." Hacker said to Jack as the red-skinned sprite leaned his head against the bars of their cell.

"What way?" Jack asked, sounding slightly distracted. He glared at the hole in his leather jacket fiercely, his faced scrunched up in irritation. This was the fifth tear he�d gotten in the blasted thing this second!

"Stuck in some User-forsaken system with no way of getting out. Of course I always thought I�d be older, divorced, and stuck with two of my three kids. The other one being in prison, of course."

"You have kids?!" Jack exclaimed, jacket forgotten, as he gaped at his companion.

Hacker pushed himself away from the bars and turned to the skinny cyber-nerd. He glared at him with just the right amount of disgust to make Jake feel as though he was a null that had just dared to crawl into a five-star diner and suck energy out of the chef.

"No, you moron," Hacker growled, emphasizing each word slowly.

"Oh, well, you know a guy could get confused when you-"

"Shut up Jack."

"I�m not feeling very appreciated right now. You know, it wouldn�t hurt you to be a little nicer to me. After all, it�s not like any of this is my fault."

"Don�t say it," Hacker stalked closer to Jack, his eyes blazing. "I�m warning you."

"If I remember correctly, you�re the one that pushed the portal button," Jack continued on, oblivious to his approaching danger. "In fact, you could say it�s your fault we�re stuck here."

"That�s it!" Hacker yelled and lunged for the younger sprite�s throat.

"Okay, I�m only going to say this once, so listen real good. Stay here." Matrix�s voice was low and promised of painful things if crossed. Had Hardrive been slightly less drunk than she was she might have considered paying attention and maybe even obeying. But at that moment she was one more drink away from stripping and singing all fifteen verses of "If I�d Only Met You Yestercycle, I Wouldn�t Have Married Your Brother Tim," a particularly long and racy drinking song that was reputed to have been the cause of one out of every three female bar brawls. She wasn�t quite there yet but the first verse had been floating around in her head since she�d ran into the pole.

"Lemme get this straight," Hardrive said, only slurring her words a bit. "You want me," she pointed to herself, "to stay here."

She patted the rock she was sitting on, in part to make her point and in part to make sure it was not alive like she had thought it was a microsecond ago. It didn�t bite her hand but she didn�t relax. Such creatures could be tricky.

"That�s right."

"But, but, what if-"

"No, there�s no what if. You stay here until I win the game. Then you can do whatever the Web you want as long as you do it far away from me." Matrix told her, exasperated. It had taken him precious microseconds to convince her not to try and reboot and he had the faint suspicion that she�d forgotten the entire conversation. He contemplated knocking her out and going to find the User before the game was over but decided that with his luck she�d come to before he won and come looking for him and do something to help the User win. Convincing her to stay put wasn�t the best idea he�d had in a while but he figured it was better than nothing.

I wish AndrAIa was here. She�s better at handling this kind of stuff than me, Matrix thought for exactly the fifth time.

"Yeah, okay, but what if-"

"NO! Stay here!" Matrix bellowed. Hardrive dove behind her rock and began whimpering softly. With a satisfied nod Matrix took off in search of the User. After a few nanoseconds, the girl peeked her head over the rock and scanned the valley.

"Can I sit on another rock?" she asked hesitantly.

"May I speak to the Command.Com?" AndrAIa politely asked the furiously typing secretary. The chubby binome barely gave AndrAIa a glance over her large horn-rimmed glasses before nodding and inclining what was supposed to be her neck towards a pair of impressive, managerial doors.

"Thank you." AndrAIa murmured, giving the busy woman an odd look as she headed towards the head honcho�s office.

Poor lady looks like she hasn�t had a break in cycles. This generator blow-out must be causing this city some serious problems, AndrAIa thought as she entered the office. She froze, staring at what she suspected was this system�s leader as he sunk a golf-ball into a cup.

"Um, hello?" AndrAIa offered. She knew that never having been a Command.Com she couldn�t possibly understand the complexities that went behind it. Still, if her system had just had a major catastrophe, like she had thought this one had, she wouldn�t be playing golf!

"Why, hello there, little lady." the Command.Com looked up from his stroke in surprise. "Where did you come from?"

"I entered your system through-" AndrAIa began her often-used explanation story but the short One cut her off.

"You didn�t come with those three trouble-makers, did you?" the Command.Com reached for his intercom, his beady eye glinting at her suspiciously.

"No, I-"

"Don�t give me that, you system wrecker! I should�ve known. You must be another one of those repair sprites. Security, I�ve got a class nine!" the binome shouted into the intercom. AndrAIa reacted instantly and lunged at the leader. She grabbed him around his pudgy middle and jabbed her pinkie finger, containing a weaker strand of her paralyzer, into his neck. He relaxed against her immediately, a goofy smile spreading across his face.

"Call them off!" AndrAIa hissed into his ear. These kind of tactics were more Matrix�s forte than hers but given the circumstances, she felt she could make an exception.

"Duh, okay. Hey guys, you don�t have to come in after all. Everything is just great in here." the Command.Com said happily.

"Good." AndrAIa whispered and let him fall slowly to the ground. "Now, what in the Net are you talking about? What�s going on here?"

"Say it!" Hacker yelled as he tried to shove Jack�s head through the bars.

"N-no, never!" Jack managed out.

"Say it!" Hacker pressed harder.

"Okay, okay, I�m a loser and Hardrive�s a drunk!"

"And?!"

"And it�s not your fault we�re stuck here!"

"That�s right." Hacker suddenly let go, leaving Jack free and gasping for air.

Hacker stalked to the darkest corner of the cell and began glaring at the wall. Jack walked unsteadily over to the cot.

"It�s not, you know." Jack said after a time.

"What�s not?"

"Your fault. I should�ve stopped you. I knew that was the portal generator control console." Jack stared off into space, his face full of regret.

"It wasn�t your fault, man. Nobody could�ve known what would happen." Hacker sighed, his earlier irritation forgotten.

"That was a pretty good choke-hold earlier," Jack said, trying to change the subject. Their present predicament wasn�t something any of them liked to discuss. Who knew how far away they were from their home system by now. They could be networks away or just a system over. It was really just a depressing thought.

"Yeah, it was." Hacker smiled.

"Where do you suppose Hardrive is?"

"Knowing your sister?" Hacker laughed humorlessly. "Probably out drunk somewhere flirting with a guy that wants to shut her up."

Matrix eyed the path in front of him warily. Was it just his imagination or were those foot-prints. If Frisket was there, he could-

Stop it, he told himself firmly. They�re not here so just get over it. It won�t kill you to play a game alone.

Suddenly an oddly-familiar voice let out a blood-curdling scream. Matrix whirled around to see the User, clad in a warrior�s armor, holding a very upset Hardrive by the throat. The renegade stared for a minute and wondered if it would be murder to let the User kill her. With a sigh he approached them.

"I thought I told you to stay put." Matrix growled to Hardrive as he drew his sword. The User noticed him and yanked the girl in front of Him to use as a shield.

"I got scared. Help me!" Hardrive whimpered, her glassy red eyes filling with tears.

Matrix looked down at his sword and evaluated the situation. Not for the first time he cursed his inaptitude with a sword and swore to devote the next medieval game to learning how to use one properly. Another scream from Hardrive drew his attention back to the task at hand. Matrix shrugged and threw his sword at the User�s exposed arm. He smiled as it sunk into His skin without touching Hardrive. The User yelped and released his prisoner, only to fade into the ground.

"GAME OVER!"

"Wow, that was easy." Matrix said, staring up as the cube ascended from the street. Then fell to the ground with a gasp as an over-excited Hardrive threw herself at him, shouting praises too rapidly for the mind to process.

"Get. Off." Matrix shoved the woman away. She fixed him with a sore look and then screeched, staring at something behind them. Matrix turned his head and saw to his astonishment six CPUs, all heavily armed and aiming for them.

"Halt, you�re under arrest for high crimes against the system of Netscape. Surrender or be taken by force." a binome shouted to them from the safety of his vehicle.

Matrix and Hardrive exchanged suspicious looks.

"What did you do?!" they asked at the same time.

"So, let me get this straight," AndrAIa began, staring down at her hands as she attempted to put the Command.Com�s drug influenced story together, "you sabotaged your own generator, knowing that if Jack and this Hardrive," she paused and grimaced. What a name! "tried to fix it the whole thing would explode?"

The Command.Com, whom AndrAIa had discovered was named Melvin, nodded almost gleefully.

"And you encrypted the codes so nobody could figure out what you had done?"

Another nod.

"Then when the generator blew you blamed it on them and sent out a warrant for their arrest?"

Melvin giggled softly, his head fairly dizzy with all the nodding.

"Why?" AndrAIa asked, mildly upset. She didn�t like people like Melvin.

"I...ooh....gonna get a biiiiiig....insurance-thingy for the...wheeee," Melvin went off into incoherent mumbling again, his mind heavily clouded from AndrAIa�s nails. AndrAIa frowned, she thought she had given him just enough of her own special brand of poison to keep him loopy but not paralyze him. It seemed she had either given him too much or he was just one of those people that was easily influenced by drugs. The upside was that those people were more than happy to give her any information she desired. The downside was they annoyed the Web out of her. She kicked him.

"Generator!" Melvin started. "And those people-folk...they, ya know, neeeeew here..so...so...people don�t trust �em. Yeah."

"What do you mean they�re new here?" AndrAIa leaned foward, thinly contained excitement replacing irritation on her face. This could be important!

"They...come from a big shiny....whatchamatcallit-"

"Portal?" AndrAIa shot forth, now not even bothering to hide her excitement.

"Yeah, a portally-thing. They come....whooosh....portal go bye-bye. They stay."

"YES!" AndrAIa shouted, throwing her arms in the air and wishing she had Matrix nearby to fling them around. A portal meant finding a much quicker way home. These three "troublemakers" could be Matrix and AndrAIa�s way back to Mainframe. AndrAIa came perilously close to hugging Melvin in her delight but she stopped herself just in time and gave the binome a speculative look. She doubted anyone would believe her if she told them that their own Command.Com had taken out their main source of power and if she had him tell anyone he would just come off as sounding drunk. What was she going to?

"I like muffins." he told her earnestly.

"Mmm-hmm," AndrAIa murmured distractedly. She could probably get Jack and the other guy, Hacker or something, out of their cell but Matrix was still in the game. Plus she doubted they would want to leave the system without their friend and she had no idea where that sprite was. AndrAIa had to do something fast, the paralyzing agent in her nails would wear off soon and it would take her at least a cycle to replace it in her body. Then where would she be. If only Matrix would hurry up and win that basic game!

"GAME OVER!"

"Oh, well then, that�s one problem solved," AndrAIa said. She turned to Melvin. "Now what in the Net am I going to do about you?"

"Give me a cookie?" Melvin asked hopefully.

"Me! I didn�t do anything!" Matrix and Hardrive yelled at each other and then paused. They glared for all they were worth.

"Stop that!" they managed out again.

Suddenly Matrix�s attention was drawn back to the nearby CPUs as one particularly eager binome shot his cannon perilously close to Hardrive�s right leg. She yelped and dove behind the now standing Matrix. He gave the CPU his best fearsome glare and gave his gun a sideways look.

"Gun: Targeting," he said loudly, making sure everyone could hear him and know that someone just not nice was about to happen to them. His own unique targeting symbol appeared on all six of the CPUs� hulls. The binomes inside began to wonder how much life insurance they had. This was not normal.

"Oooh, pretty," Hardrive whispered.

"Now one of you can explain to me why you all had to come down here and put me in an even worse mood or I can smash you into the nearest wall," Matrix said, by this time fairly sick of talking and really wishing AndrAIa was there.

"We-we�re here for her." a unusually brave binome stuttered. He didn�t say which her they were there for. He didn�t need to. Matrix turned partially to Hardrive, keeping one eye on the CPUs.

"Well?" Matrix snarled, now extremely irritated and in dire need of a good nap.

"It was an accident! I didn�t now that was a national monument, I swear! I�m sure the head will glue right back on!" Hardrive addressed both the angry renegade and the binomes. Both parties stared at her blankly.

"You blew up our power generator!" a binome shouted, regaining his composure quickly.

"What? You mean, you don�t know about-" Hardrive began relieved and then stopped, an indignant expression crossing her face. "I did not! I helped Jackie fix the stupid thing and got a headache and even got my favorite shirt all dirty! How dare you say I blew it up!"

"If she blew up your power generator, than how come you guys still have power in the system?" Matrix interjected, feeling left out and a strange desire to protect the sprite. If anyone was going to hurt her, he wanted it to be him.

"Back-ups." the head CPU leader answered briskly. "Now hand her over or we�ll, um,-"

"Shoot you!" an enthusiastic One shouted from the back.

"That�s right." the leader consented, less enthused by the idea. He didn�t like the look of that big sprite and he got the feeling that neither did a lot of his frontal squad.

"You�d better not!" a confident voice came up and slapped the squad in the face.

Everyone looked to see a rather chubby female One standing beside a smug AndrAIa. After awhile of brainstorming she had called in the secretary in desperation and explained the entire situation to her, even though she didn�t think the woman would believe her. She was wrong. It turned out that the woman was Melvin�s sister, Tina, who had known about her brother�s operation all along. Tina had been gathering evidence and biding her time before she went public. AndrAIa and Tina had worked out a deal that satisfied them both, declared Tina the new Commad.Com, freed Jack and Hacker, and sent Melvin to the system�s psychiatric hospital for stress-related mental problems.

"AndrAIa!" Matrix shouted, now royally confused and really wanting to lie down.

"Hey lover, did you have fun in the game?" AndrAIa asked him sweetly, a mischievous smile on her face that Matrix didn�t like at all.

"What�s going on here?!" he exploded.

"Don�t worry, I�ve got everything under control. Or rather, Tina there does," Tina enjoyed her new role as Command.Com as she chewed the CPU officers out for everything from Guardian assault to littering. AndrAIa walked over and took Matrix by the arm. "Let�s go to the Principle Office and I�ll explain everything."

"Do they have Aspirin shots there?" Matrix grumbled, allowing her to lead him.

"Hey! What about me?" Hardrive yelled. If there was one thing she didn�t like it was being ignored. AndrAIa looked back at her and smiled her No. 3 smile or the "How Nice to See You" smile.

"You must be Hardrive. I�m AndrAIa. Your friends are waiting for you at the Principle Office."

"Oh good," Hardrive smiled back, "Jack can empty out my stomach and get rid of this awful headache I got."

"That�s...nice," AndrAIa blinked. Then she turned to Matrix and giggled. He glared down at her, horribly certain she knew something he didn�t and was going to hold it over his head.

"Come on, Sparky, I have something to tell you."

"What?" Matrix asked, looking panicked.

"Not anything like that silly," AndrAIa scolded.

"Sparky?" Hardrive snorted as she came up beside them.

"Shut up," Matrix mumbled.

Meanwhile, deep within the bowels of the Netscape Mental Institution, one sad husk of a man raged as he was placed in his padded cell.

"She said she�d give me cookies, spammit!" Melvin yelled.

"But that doesn�t make any sense. How are you going to convince everybody that this secretary should be the new Command.Com?" Matrix asked AndrAIa as they approached the Principle Office. On foot, due to Hardrive�s less than stellar skills on a zipboard. Matrix had wanted to leave her but a stern AndrAIa had insisted that they bring her with them.

"Oh, I�m sure Tina will figure something out. She seems very capable." AndrAIa assured him. They stopped at the steps of the pyramid shaped Principle Office and turned back to wait for the wobbly other sprite.

"Let�s just go in. It�ll take her forever." Matrix murmured to AndrAIa as they watched Hardrive make her way towards them, stopping every couple

"No, we need her."

"What for?"

"You�ll see." AndrAIa smiled mysteriously again, her eyes fairly twinkling with mirth.

"They�re so precious. Look at �em all!" Hardrive exclaimed as she walked up to them. The tiny winged creatures landed majestically on the steps and began to sing their own special song. Hardrive watched them lovingly for a few microseconds, just enjoying the serenity that seemed to fill the air. Then her jaw dropped in shock as a large red-and-yellow dog bounded up the stairs and bounced on the nearest disk.

"Frisket! There you are." AndrAIa went over and pulled the dog away from his snack. Hardrive began sputtering in indignation. Matrix, AndrAIa, and Frisket ignored her.

"Where was he?" Matrix leaned over and scratched Frisket�s massive head affectionately.

"I let him go explore the system while I talked to the Command.Com," AndrAIa looked up at Hardrive who was beginning to pout.

"Sis!" Jack yelled, flinging open the doors of the Principle Office and running down the stairs. Hacker followed more slowly, looking much less relieved.

"Jacky!" Hardrive met him half-way and flung her arms around her brother. "Oh, it was horrible, Jacky! I was in a bar and this guy tried to kill me and Matrix saved me and then this big, purple thing fell on me and this User-dude tried to kill me and Matrix saved me again and then a whole bunch of CPUs came up and tried to blow my head off and I think AndrAIa saved me that time but Matrix helped!"

"Are you drunk?" Jack demanded, sniffing the air in front of her curiously. Hardrive stared down at her feet sheepishly as Hacker came up beside the two.

"You went into a game?!" Hacker raged, looking seriously stressed at the very idea. Hardrive nodded, now very shame-faced.

"Do you know how much trouble I would get in if something happened to you! You have 20,000 units worth of hardware in you and we�re only first year students!"

AndrAIa and Matrix exchanged confused looks at that statement as Hacker continued on.

"I could be expelled, sued, killed by one of your random relatives! I-"

"Chill, man, th

"Oh, you�re more basic than I thought if you think I�m going to let it go that easy!"

"Maybe we should go inside," AndrAIa interjected gently. Jack flashed her a grateful look.

"Oh, yes, please. My storage tank completely full." Hardrive whined to her brother as the motley group made their way up the stairs, Hacker now silently fuming. Matrix noticed how the red-skinned sprite followed Hardrive in much the same way a person would if they were guarding the other person�s back. The renegade shook his head, there was something weird about those three that he didn�t like.

"Okay, Matrix, now I can tell you the good news." AndrAIa said as the group made themselves comfortable in the Principle Office�s breakroom. Jack was hovering over his sister worriedly, waving a small black device over her that he had pulled out of one of the many pockets in his trench coat. Hacker was perched near the entrance, placing himself in such a way that he would be able to see over everything that went on in the room. Matrix frowned, that was usually where he would go. Pushing that thought aside he turned his attention back to his excited girlfriend.

"What is it?"

"These people can form portals. They can get us home, lover!"

"What?" Matrix exclaimed at the same time as Hardrive. Both of them cast suspicious looks to Jack who was now trying to be inconspicuous.

"Jacky," Hardrive started in a tone Matrix remembered surprisingly well as one Dot would have used on him if he�d done something wrong. "Did you tell AndrAIa I could make portals?"

"No," Jack shot defiantly before withering slightly under her powerful look. "I told her we all could make portals," he finished lamely.

"Jacky, that�s horrible! You know portal generators aren�t installed until the last year."

"I know, but I wanted her to let us out of that stupid cell. She asked if we had made the portal that brought us here and I said yes. It wasn�t completely a lie!" Jack

"Oh yeah, and since when do we listen to wonder-boy over there?"

"Are you saying that you lied to me?" AndrAIa looked as horrified as she felt.

"Um....yeah, I�m sorry AndrAIa," Jack whispered.

Suddenly Matrix whipped out his gun and slammed Jack to the wall by his throat, the gun digging into Jack�s temple. Jack immediately started gasping for air and waving his arms for help. Hardrive gasped and began whacking Matrix�s back with her tiny fists, which he easily ignored. Hacker just looked surprised and put his hand inside his coat.

"You made her think we could get home?" Matrix demanded in a low voice. Jack nodded weakly. "Do you know how mad that makes me?"

An more hesitant nod that was halted by Matrix�s tightening hand.

"Enzo, let him go. It wasn�t all his fault. I should have made him make me a portal before I believed him." AndrAIa approached Matrix cautiously. Very gently, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let him go."

"It�s Matrix." he threw her an angry look but he finally dropped the sprite. Jack fell to the nearest couch, coughing as he rubbed his once-again sore throat.

"This isn�t my cycle." Jack murmured feebly.

Matrix looked around the room as if dazed until his eyes fell on Hardrive who was looking frightened and angry at the same time. Shaking his head he stalked out of the room. It was only after he had left that Hacker withdrew his hand from his jacket and made his way to his partners.

"You okay man?" Hacker asked Jack, sounding surprisingly concerned.

"Why didn�t you do anything?" Hardrive looked almost as mad as Matrix as she stared at Hacker with her unblinking red eyes.

"I�m supposed to protect you, Red, not tech-boy there. Besides she seemed to have the situation under control." Hacker gestured his head back to AndrAIa who had sunk down into a nearby chair, looking drained. Jack grimaced but got up and approached the game sprite. She looked up before he could say anything, her eyes large and sad.

"Please, don�t say anything right now." AndrAIa said, her voice almost pleading. "I know why you lied, I might have done the same thing in your place. But-" her voice broke and she looked down, "but we�ve been trying to get home for six hours and I thought you could help us."

"I�m so sorry," Jack whispered again, his voice stronger this time but far more apologetic.

"Just don�t say anything." AndrAIa said again. She met his eyes with her own and Jack was surprised to see no anger in them. She managed a weak smile. "We�ll talk later. I still want to know how you guys got here. Just give me a few microseconds."

"Sure," Jack got up from his knees and pulled his protesting sister out of the room. Hacker threw one last curious look to AndrAIa and followed them. Alone at last AndrAIa curled herself into a ball in the chair and let herself feel her emotions in the safety of isolation. She didn�t cry, after all these years of putting on a brave front for Matrix, she�d almost forgotten how to. But she felt like it. It wasn�t that they�d lied to her, she couldn�t be sensitive to that after all the hours they�d spent living off the kindness of stranger. It wasn�t even that her hope for a quick way home had been smashed into nothing. It was...she�d been embarrassed. It was silly, she�d known Matrix for years, he knew her better than anyone. Maybe that was the point, she�d comes to terms with the fact that her lover needed her more than she needed him long ago. He looked up to her and she couldn�t shake the feeling that she�d let him down. Jack shouldn�t have been able to trick her. Frisket wandered into the room and immediately jumped onto the chair with his mistress, demanding her love and affection as any good pet would. He whined, sensing something was wrong and tried to climb onto the game sprite�s lap and under her hand. Unable to help herself, AndrAIa giggled and gave Frisket a childish kiss on the head. It was nice to act younger sometimes.

"Thanks Frisket." AndrAIa said. "You�re a good friend."

Sighing she looked up in the direction Matrix and the others had gone. Matrix would want some time to himself to calm down. But those three...

"C�mon boy, let�s get down to business."

She hopped up, gratefully depositing the very heavy dog onto the floor. He growled, unhappy that the petting had stopped because of those strangers.

"Now don�t you start."

"I feel like a....a...-"

"Low-density jerk?" Hardrive suggested playfully, opening a panel on her stomach, revealing a small metallic port.

"You don�t have to go that far." Jack muttered, sounding miserable. "I mean how was I supposed to know they didn�t live here?"

His sister shrugged as Jack took a small hose from his coat and attached it to the port. Hacker snickered to himself as he played with one of the two guns he kept hidden in his jacket.

"What�s so funny?" Jack demanded.

"I was just thinking of how you looked when that psycho had you against the wall. You were turning purple."

"Real funny, boss-man," Hardrive said sarcastically.

"What are you?" AndrAIa�s voice floated into the war-room, followed closely by the slender game sprite herself. She stared at Hardrive with open curiosity as Jack attached the other part of the hose to a waste tube and flipped the power switch.

The three exchanged surprised looks.

"You don�t know what a repair sprite is?" Jack asked.

"No," AndrAIa smiled, used to system sprite�s shock at her lack of knowledge concerning every-day things. "Explain to me what one is."

"Oh great, now you�ve done it. Jackie can go on for hours about this." Hardrive sighed as Jack straightened himself up and prepared to give the standard speech.

"I�ve got all the time in the Net. It�s not like I�m going anywhere." AndrAIa sat on the nearest table and got comfortable. Jack faltered slightly at that comment but a reassuring look from AndrAIa urged him on.

"A repair sprite is...."

"A repair sprite is the perfect meld of machine and mind. A repair sprite lives only to serve others. She can not use her technology for her own purposes nor those of her companions. A repair sprite is to be calm and in control at all times, she helps all regardless of age, format, or function. She-"

"Oh cut the crap, Jacky, just give it to her in plain DOS." Hardrive looked slightly upset and more than a little embarrassed.

"Fine," Jack tried to throw his sister a ferocious glare but he only managed to look mildly perturbed at the wall behind her.

"A repair sprite�s a data sprite who has gone to the Repair Academy to learn how to fix glitches in systems."

"Don�t the guardians do that?" asked AndrAIa who was fairly intimate with the concept of guardians.

"Guardians can�t be everywhere. They mostly just hang around big-name systems. �Sides repair sprites have special functions." Hardrive looked insulted by the previous comparison.

"That�s right. A man named Dr. Ying Franks thought up the idea for repair sprites. He decided that the best way to fix system problems, like broken links or downed receivers, was to create a way for specially trained sprites to interact with the system itself."

AndrAIa leaned forward, inadvertently causing two of the four pairs of eyes in the room to bug out.

"You mean, repair sprites can talk to the systems� computers?"

"Um," Jack pried his eyes upward, "Yeah."

"How?"

"With this." With a giggle Hardrive turned around and displayed her neck to the game sprite. Lifting up the tiny wisps of hair on her neck, Hardrive revealed tiny port build into her skin. "It connects to the electrical relays in my brain and translates a computer�s code into something I can understand. Then I know how to fix it. Well, at least Jack knows how to fix it."

"That�s right," Jack nodded, seeming more or less pleased with the explanation. "I provide the tools and help advise her on the situation. And Hacker over there has to protect her. After all, she�s worth a bundle."

"Quit talking about me like I�m not here," Hardrive frowned.

"Sorry Sis."

"That�s incredible." AndrAIa sighed. "Sounds a whole lot easier than working with the machine for milliseconds trying to figure out what�s wrong with it."

"Oh it is," Jack assured her.

"But how did you guys end up in this system? I�m guessing you weren�t assigned here."

"Naw, we won�t graduate for another six hours. We ended up here, well, it was like..." Jack paused, obviously floundering for the right answer.

"For crying out loud, just tell her!" Hacker broke in, casting a manic look to his friend before turning to AndrAIa. "It was my fault okay! We were messing around in the portal generator room looking at the type Red here�s going to get installed in her and I accidentally activated one. A portal opened, we fell through, blah, blah, I�m a moron."

"That�s for sure," Hardrive muttered.

"What was that, Little Miss Spark Plug? Something you wanna share with the class like teacher�s pet there always does."

"How dare you!" Hardrive shouted, standing up and almost looking the nearly foot-taller sprite directly in the eyes. "Spark Plug was a fifth-year student and a bit-"

"Okay, how about we go get an energy shake, you two? It�ll be fun," Jack interjected desperately but he was too late to stop the flood.

"You wouldn�t know how to fix anything if your life depended on it!"

"Oh yeah, well at least I�m not in the Academy cause Daddy was on the board!"

"I worked to get in, you two-bit drunk!"

"You�ve never worked for anything, you spoiled brat!"

"Random!"

"Basic!"

Shaking her head AndrAIa decided to leave the three alone to work their problems out themselves. Their story, though interesting, couldn�t help her and Matrix any. Speaking of Matrix....

"Hey Tina, I�m glad I caught you!" AndrAIa huffed as she grabbed the scrappy binome woman�s arm. "Have you seen Matrix?"

"If you mean the big sprite that was with the repair lady, he went that way." Tina inclined her head down the hallway and then added, "It leads to the balcony."

"Thank you!" AndrAIa called already heading down in that direction. Tina watched her go for awhile and then shook her head sadly.

"Kids these days. They�re growing up so fast." Tina wiped an invisible tear from her eye and decided to go visit her brother. She felt like gloating about her newfound power.

Matrix sighed as he leaned against the balcony railing. He�d done it again, lost his temper and nearly deleted someone. If AndrAIa hadn�t been there....

Matrix shivered and decided not to think about that. He knew exactly what he would have done.

"What�s wrong with me?" he asked himself.

"Nothing a little nap won�t cure." AndrAIa said from behind him, her tone teasing.

"DrAI?" Matrix murmured, turning his head to look at her. He chuckled softly at the scolding expression on her face. Reaching out he lifted her up and set her on the railing.

"That sounds nice." he admitted, leaning his forehead against hers. She smiled and wrapped her arms around him for a tight hug.

"You�re too hard on yourself, lover. I felt like choking Jack myself at first."

"But you didn�t!" Matrix snarled, pulling away from her suddenly and turning away. "I did! Like usual."

AndrAIa sighed as she looked at her relatively new lover. She�d thought he�d gone past this weird mood two minutes ago. That was the problem with Matrix. Just when AndrAIa thought he had himself in control he would snap again, becoming a walking time bomb, dangerous to everyone but her. Sliding off the railing she came up to him, wrapping her arms around him once again and resting her head on his shoulder.

"Things are going to be all right. I�m here, remember? You watch my back and I�ll keep you off of other people�s. That�s what we agreed on."

Unable to help himself Matrix smiled, she always made it sound so easy. Turning around he enfolded her in his arms, holding AndrAIa tightly against him, breathing in the increasingly familiar scent of her soft hair.

"You said something about sleep?" Matrix said after a few moments of peaceful silence. AndrAIa looked up at him, a mischievous look on her face that Matrix did like and immediately recognized as very good for him.

"That comes later," she whispered, in a sultry voice that sent shivers down Matrix�s spine. With a coy smile she led him off the balcony and towards their temporary room.

"Hey, I wonder where AndrAIa went." Jack said quietly to himself, trying to tune out his companions� rapidly more obscene argument. He decided it didn�t matter, he�d see her in the morning after all, when they fixed the generator. Now there was a pleasant thought. If only Jack wasn�t so shy and AndrAIa�s boyfriend so scary. Shrugging he pulled out a vid-disk player and put in a Barbnome Streisswitch vid-disk, one of his favorites. He went off in search of food humming, "Binomes Who Need Binomes," to himself off-key. On the way to the kitchen he got lost three times, ran into a beautiful woman that ignored him, and got locked in a closet until he was rescued by the janitor. Jack�s life often went like that.

"You arrogant excuse for a-! Hey, where did Jack go?" Hardrive stopped, mid-tirade, to glance around the room in confusion.

"I don�t know," Hacker said sullenly. Hardrive shot a critical look to him and sighed. Reaching over she grabbed the protector sprite�s arm and started dragging him towards the door.

"C�mon, wonder-boy. I feel horribly sober. You can protect me at the local pub."

"Okay," Hacker shrugged, nonplused. After all, what else was he going to do? Hardrive was right, he was pathetic. Stopping in the middle of the hallway, causing the tiny loudmouth pulling on him to fall down, Hacker vowed never to think that Hardrive was right about anything again. He�d rather eat live nulls than live in a world where Hardrive was right.

Meanwhile away from all the confusion and chaos of sprite life, a dog named Frisket was doing the sensible thing and ignoring anyone who came near him. Frisket�s mind was a mysterious place, containing the answers to many secrets. One of them was sitting near him, the bones of something that looked suspiciously like a floppy disk. AndrAIa and Matrix had never quite figured out how Frisket managed to keep his victims from dissolving after he got his paws on them. But some things are meant to be kept secret and that�s just one of them. In a way it�s almost....profound. Like cookies for breakfast.

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