Chapter II
THE RACER�S ENGINES HUMMED AND RATTLED LOUDLY IN ENZO�S EARS, THE DUST AND sand clouding his thick racing goggles. He squeezed the accelerator lever on the left control bar and pushed the bar forward. With a reluctant, hydraulic whine, the racer pushed itself even faster.
A metal ping! sounded just behind his head. He turned and glanced for a split second at the few dark shapes on the rocky desert horizon---armed with rifles, the raiders were taking potshots at the racers, User and sprite alike. One shot missed Enzo, but struck a racer just next to him, piloted by a small Zero binome.
"Whoa!" He jerked sharply to the left, avoiding the flying bits of engine parts, coolant hoses and other debris that flew from the wreckage of the damaged racer. Glancing back, he saw that the binome himself was unharmed, just a little banged up from the crash.
Focus, Enzo, he reminded himself, pushing the vehicle to go even faster. He clenched his teeth. You�re a Guardian. You have a game to win.
He�d played dozens of racing games before, but this one pushed all the limits. His race vehicle was a tiny control cockpit, attached by two connector hoses to a pair of giant jerry-rigged engine turbines---a rickety, unstable little craft that was skimming across the desert floor at about five hundred miles an hour, weaving through rock arches and canyons with blinding speed. The course was treacherous, and the game sprite players and the User were all very, very unfriendly types who didn�t like to lose.
Enzo was coming up on the lead three racers. The User�s vehicle, massive and orange and loud, was in the lead, powering far ahead of any of them. Right behind him, a green pod piloted by one of the game sprites---no, scratch that, Enzo corrected, as he saw the User ram the game sprite�s racer, sending it crashing into the sand.
The racer that was following closest behind the User now was a shimmering aquamarine and magenta craft, elegant and sleek, out of place amongst the other banged-up racers. It was a streak of blue across the flat sandscape, darting perilously close to the User.
Way to go, AndrAIa...just keep him busy, Enzo thought with a smile, feeling the sharp sting of the microfine sand particles pelting the bare lower half of his face. His stomach was already churning, but he kept gunning the engines, chewing his lip and wondering, Can�t this thing go any faster?
The User�s favorite trick, apparently, was ramming any competitor�s engines with his own. A stupid tactic, but since his racer was so much larger and heavier than any of the others, it quite often worked. The orange racer attempted to pull the same trick on AndrAIa�s pod, but she was too quick, and saw him coming. She released the accelerator, and her racer slowed, falling just behind the User�s as he made his move.
One of his engines scraped against the side of a rock face. The sound of metal tearing against stone screeched loudly in Enzo�s ears. But the User recovered, jerked back onto the course, right behind AndrAIa---so close that the flickering beam of energy that held the two engines together just licked the rear of her control pod.
Oh, no you don�t. Enzo pushed both handles forward hard, and with an angry groan his racer hurtled again even faster, once again sending his heart leaping up into his throat. He swallowed. He liked excitement, but this was just too fast for him.
Within a few seconds he was side-by-side with the User�s racer, the loud hydraulic purr of the enemy pod�s engines nearly deafening at this close range. He made a particularly rude gesture towards the User, deliberately trying to provoke him. AndrAIa�s racer was still speeding just barely ahead of the User.
Predictably, the User got angry, and hit the hover-lift jets. His racer rose sharply, soaring clear over AndrAIa�s head and settling back down in front of her, speeding onward, first in line.
Good. Now he�s at least leaving AndrAIa alone...I can handle him. The cocksure thoughts soon faded, and Enzo swallowed hard again. I hope.
No. He could do it. He was a Guardian, after all.
AndrAIa looked very upset, and was pushing her audibly failing engines to catch up to the User. Shaking his head at her, Enzo waved a hand, gesturing for her to let him handle it. If she hadn�t been wearing the goggles and the dust wraps around her nose and mouth, he might�ve seen her roll her blue eyes, or purse her lips. But still she slowed.
It�s up to me now.
He easily caught up to the User. He�d been lucky, and rebooted with one of the faster, sturdier racers. At least, compared to the one Matrix had ended up with. On the last lap, he�d seen that his older self was still at the start line---the same place he�d been since the game began.
Enzo punched his thrusters, and found himself once again parallel with the User�s pod. The User�s character flashed a nasty look at him, and tried to speed ahead, but even his giant, powerful split-X engines had their limits. He and Enzo were matched for speed.
Angrily the User again attempted his trademark move, waiting until Enzo was trapped between the giant racer and a canyon wall. Panicking, Enzo veered towards the User�s racer rather than away from it. The two vehicles collided forcefully. Enzo flew forward into his crash restraints, which jerked him back sharply against the seat.
Something clanked, and snapped loose on one of his engines. A stream of white coolant gas poured out of his right engine, a pale streak behind him as he sped across the course towards the finish line.
The engine began to overheat, as Enzo continued to force more power out of it, and clouds of thick black smoke began to billow out of the turbine. Great, Guardian. What now?
Another slam that rattled Enzo�s pod. The User wasn�t content to have simply slowed him---he wanted the competition deleted for certain, and he was seeing to it now. Metal crashed against metal, sparks sprayed where the two engines were scraping each other at the perilously high speeds.
A jagged rock formation was coming up ahead, right between the two colliding racers. The User saw it, and tried to veer his racer away. Enzo�s jerked to the side along with him. Both the young sprite and the User glanced at their engines.
One of Enzo�s rods had hooked onto a coolant hose on the User�s engine. They were stuck.
Both of them were jerking at their racers, attempting to break free, pulling one another from side to side. The rock formation ahead was coming up fast, swelling rapidly. Enzo chewed on his lower lip. He had to think fast.
He jammed his thumb hard against the right thruster control. With a sharp burst of exhaust, his racer ripped free of the User�s, veering sharply to the left. The User�s pod spun out of control in the other direction, and slammed directly into the jagged rock. A cloud of dark smoke, spewing engine fragments, tumbled across the dunes.
"Woooohooo!" Enzo shrieked happily, cutting the power to his damaged and failing engines, as his racer came bumpily back into the arena and skidded across the finish line. He tossed his arms into the air, howling victoriously, as the cheers of the crowd echoed over the sound of the computer voice.
"Game over..."
"You must be crazy, Enzo!" AndrAIa laughed, high-fiving the young sprite while she shook her head in disbelief, waves of shimmering blue hair brushing her shoulders.
Shrugging, Enzo bent down to scratch behind Frisket�s ears, while the dog happily slobbered all over the side of his face. He glanced down at his blue Guardian cadet�s uniform for a moment. "I think it�s one of the job requirements," he smiled.
He was sixteen now, still a gawky teenager, still compiling a bit too quickly for his coordination to keep up with. But he was learning rapidly. He had to. From almost the very instant he�d accepted the Guardian protocol, he�d been acutely aware that Mainframe looked to him. He was the first new Guardian, the young hero who would have to protect them from the shadowy supervirus.
While he never would�ve admitted it, to anyone, sometimes he felt he was too young for that kind of responsibility.
"There you are, Matrix," AndrAIa smiled, winking at the very grouchy, older Enzo Matrix. "What happened? Did your power coupling short out?"
"Never mind," Matrix grumbled, trying to force a smile in Enzo�s direction. He failed, pretty miserably. "Pretty random flying there, kid. You�re lucky you weren�t nullified." Matrix took games very seriously---they were a touchy subject for him. Enzo knew that, but sometimes he resented the way Matrix, adventurer that he was, chided him for every little risk he took.
"Yeah, well, as least I didn�t have to watch it all happen up on the vid board while sitting in a dead racer, like you."
"Touche." Matrix narrowed his eyes, but smiled. "Come on. I�m sure you wouldn�t want to miss gloating to Bob about all the fun he�s missing.
Enzo smiled, his violet eyes sparkling slyly. "Never."
Sometimes, it was hard for Enzo to realize that the large, moody sprite next to him could have ever been the same person he was. It had been a confusing adjustment for both of them, and for everyone else as well. It wasn�t difficult to distinguish between the two---the only thing they seemed to share at all was the name---it was just hard to come to grips with the fact that they were the same sprite, and yet they were two very different individuals.
For a long time, Enzo had felt like an extra, a backup copy, only a shadow of the real thing. That was one of the reasons he�d begun Guardian training. He needed something to set him apart from Matrix, some purpose of his own. He wanted to be important as himself, not as "that other Enzo".
They were both a little older now, and had roles they�d settled into, although Matrix�s place wasn�t quite as steady. He was trying to put aside his dark past, to heal from it. But he didn�t seem to know what to do with his life, now that Megabyte and the games were behind him. Although Bob had suggested it more than once, Matrix still acted reluctant to resume his lost training.
He brushed up on a few skills, just enough to combine with his own game experiences whenever the cubes dropped. He�d taken on the role of protecting the city from games, a duty that Bob now had very little time for, but he distanced himself from any idea that he could become a Guardian again.
There had always seemed to be an uncanny connection between the two Enzos. Nothing supernatural, just a level of understanding that no one else seemed to have with either Enzo or Matrix. Maybe it just came from being, underneath it all, the same person.
But however it was that he could feel it, Enzo felt that Matrix avoided training because, in spite of all the excuses about how he�d been too young and experienced, about how it wasn�t his fault, he was still haunted by a past in which he�d failed as a Guardian.