An Eye for an Eye- Part 3

An Eye for an Eye

by Al’s Waiter
(between the episodes ‘Game Over’ and ‘Icons’)

Part 3

Rom looked around him at his new surroundings. "Well, Desktop," he grinned. "I don’t think we’re in Power Grid anymore."

The new game, that had literally fallen onto him, began to take shape. Rom saw that he was in the middle of a clearing with trees
surrounding him. The sky was the same deep blue as his hair and was dotted here and there with small, white, fluffy clouds.

This is nice! he mused as he admired the beauty around him. He was about to talk to Desktop when...

“Glitch! Game Stats.”

Rom whirled around and saw three familiar faces. Two belonging to two young sprites, the other to a red and yellow dog.

Rom walked up to the visitors of his system. “Enzo. AndrAIa. I thought I told you to stay in front of the Fastie Mart until the
Game was over.” he said, slightly annoyed.

Enzo looked up from Glitches little screen. “We’re here to help you.”

“Enzo, Games aren’t for small sprites...”

“I’m not a small sprite!” he protested. “I’ve been in that last Game at least for three hours. I’ve learned a lot in that time from
others mistakes. The others that are now nullified! Whether you accept that or not.”

Rom sighed. What am I going to do with him? He took a deep breath. “Alright, fine but follow my lead. I don’t want you going
on your own.”

Enzo looked disappointed but knew it was for the best. He nodded.

Both Guardians look at their keytools to learn the rules of the Game. “Oh, I know this game.” Rom exclaimed. “ ‘Order and
Take Over.’ Simple. ReBoot!” he shouted as he double clicked on his icon. His blue Guardian uniform transformed into a grey
army General's uniform. Pleased to see that he was the leader and not Enzo, he smiled, relived.

He turned to the young teenaged sprites. “Come on guys, let’s beat this User!”

Both of the teen sprites smiled. Enzo bent down on one knee and double clicked on his and Frisket’s icon. AndrAIa did the
same. After the blue light had faded, Enzo and AndrAIa looked down at themselves. Both sprites wore a pair of light blue
jeans, light grey T-shirts a pair of sporty high tops and a white baseball cap on, backwards. AndrAIa smiled. It felt good to be
wearing clothes that fit.

AndrAIa had short blond hair and peach skin, though her eyes hadn’t changed colour. They were still the normal aqua.

*~*~*

Enzo’s dark green hair had turned jet black and the very front of his hair stuck out of the back hole of the hat. He looked
cross-eyed up at the hat and wished that is was red. He looked at AndrAIa and grinned. “At least you didn’t get a bike this
time.”

AndrAIa giggled as Rom looked on. “Alright, let’s get started. This is our piece of land to build on. I’ll go measure to see if we
have enough room.”

Rom began to walk away when AndrAIa stopped him. “Must we build on this beautiful land?”

Rom looked down at her understandingly. “If we want to win the Game, yes, we have to.” He said gently.

Her eyes saddened as she looked around the clearing. She nodded slowly and allowed Rom to proceed.

When she looked back at Enzo, he was staring down at Glitch on his arm. He glanced up at she approached him.

“AndrAIa,” he paused. “I can’t do anything with Glitch. I can only do game stats, that’s it. What am I going to do?” He sighed
deeply.

She looked at her friend, her face full of concern. “Don’t worry. Maybe you can ask Rom later, but right now, we have a job to
do.”

Enzo nodded in agreement and the two sprites, accompanied by a large black dog, followed Rom.

*~*~*

The collection truck was busy gathering the crystal tiberite that was sticking out of the ground. The refinery was changing the
glowing rock into it’s purest form, to be used in may ways: source of energy, fuel for their trucks, money and a cleaning agent
for the woodland creatures.

More and more troops were ‘being recruited’ and more tanks were ‘being shipped in’.

The four new constructed buildings gleamed in the sunlight. The white brick looked beautiful with the aqua dome and trimmings.
AndrAIa stood, admiring them in silence. She had been at amazed at how quickly the Game had constructed them in such a
short time.

Rom had measured out the plot of land for each structure and almost immediately, the Game began building. Now they were
complete and already in use.

Apparently Enzo’s and AndrAIa’s job in the Game was that they were re-programmers - a key role in the Game. Their job was
to, somehow get to the User’s base, sabotage the computers, re-program them and essentially take over the base. Rom and
Enzo were working on a plan at that very moment.

AndrAIa was still carrying the bag that Rom had handed to her when the Game had arrived. The bag itself had changed from a
paper bag to a kacky green shoulder bag. She opened the flap and peered inside at the contents.

The ‘Fastie Mart’ cups had also changed into three thermoses and the small package of dog food had changed into a metal can
with the label “Quarties and Bytes”.

She lifted out a thermos, twisted the lid and stared down at the liquid inside. It smelled sweet, whatever it was, so she poured
some into the lid that now served as a cup. She took a sip and puckered. It was really cold against her teeth. She swallowed
and felt it move down into her stomach. She smiled pleasantly and took another sip. She was enjoying her drink so much, that it
took her several nanos to realize Enzo standing next to her. She quickly swallowed, smiled and offered Enzo his thermos.
Enzo’s stomach rumbled as he reach out to take it from her.

Rom rounded the corner of the refinery and spotted the two. “Alright Programmers, time to attack the User. Phase 1 of our
plan,” he explained to AndrAIa, “is already going into action. We know where the Users base is, thanks to Desktop. We also
know that the User is slowly building up troops, but, It’s also using up all the resources for other buildings and accessories that
It doesn’t need. The User is aiming for points. I don’t consider points important in this Game. Actually, points aren’t really
important at all. The Users’ forces are small in comparison to ours and that is going to be its downfall. I’ll place the Captain in
charge and have our troops attack the base while we get in the backdoor.” Rom began to draw a map on the ground to show
AndrAIa visually what he was talking about. “They’ll attack from all sides except the East side - that’s the side that we’re going
to get both of you in. We’ll make our way to the Control Room Centre, and take over the Users’ computer, therefore, winning
the Game.” He finished with a smile. (Click here to see what he drew)

AndrAIa nodded. Sounds like a straight forward plan. She was still getting accustomed to plans, but, they served better than
what she used to do, which was completely random.

“Alright, Sprites! Move out!” Rom shouted loud enough voice for the Trooper Game Sprites to hear. The men moved in a
large, orderly formation, with jeeps, tanks, and dirt bikes moved faster along side.

Rom jumped into a passing jeep and reached out to help Enzo and AndrAIa into the back seat. Enzo accepted Rom’s offer and
was pulled into the vehicle. Frisket jumped, unaided, after his master. AndrAIa looked at Rom, then looked around, ignoring his
hand.

Rom ordered the driver to stop and put one foot out of the jeep. “AndrAIa, what’s wrong?” he inquired.

“If it’s all the same to you.” She replied. “I was wondering if I could drive a dirt bike.”

Enzo looked at her with a peculiar smile on his face. “What is it with you and bikes?”

Rom shook his head, smiled and pointed across the way to a dirt bike without an owner. AndrAIa jumped in excitement and
ran happily over towards the vehicle. The bike was slightly too big for her but she didn’t care. She climbed onto the
camo-painted bike and revved the engine. A satisfied grin appeared on her face as she stepped hard on the excelluerator and
bolted forward towards her Data Sprite friends. When it almost looked like she was out of control and going to crash into the
jeep, she turned sharply and came to a complete stop inches away from causing a huge explosion that would have deleted them
all.

Rom cautiously opened up his left eye to find out what happened and what didn’t. He had clenched his eyes tightly when he saw
AndrAIa racing towards him. Seeing that he was out of danger, he opened both eyes and looked around. There was AndrAIa
with wide, smug grin pasted on her face, sitting on the bike, inches away from his leg that he had stuck out of the door just
moments ago.

Enzo’s head appeared slowly from the back seat. When he saw AndrAIa and the giant smile she wore, he smiled, shook his
head and rolled his left eye; the patch still covering his right one.

Rom sighed and looked ahead at the troops, who were still marching towards the User’s base. He looked at AndrAIa, “Ready
to go now?” he asked. She nodded and slowly moved the bike forward, in full control, to Rom’s relief. He sat back in the jeep
and ordered the driver to move forward and catch up to the marching horde.

*~*~*

Halfway to the User’s base, Rom ordered the entire company to stop and called the Captain over. Rom told him not to attack
the unprepared base until after receiving transmission from him and to wait just out of sight of the User. The Guardian gave clear
instructions to cover all the tanks, jeeps and dirt bikes with branches from the trees and bushes around them. If the User did an
overall look at the grounds, It would only see trees and not an entire army ready to attack; that’s what Rom wanted.

The Captain of Rom’s army nodded in agreement, saluted the General and marched away to fulfil the orders of the higher
officer.

Next, Rom took Enzo and AndrAIa aside and reviewed the plan quietly. “Now, the three of us are going to go north-east
through the woods and towards the east wall of the User’s compound. We have to move quickly. Let’s go!” Enzo nodded and
jumped out of the back of the jeep, while AndrAIa climbed down off the bike. Both teenaged sprites stood unsteadily on their
feet and tried to regain their balance.

Rom quickly nodded at the Captain and then he took off into the darkened forest.

AndrAIa, who had just stopped her legs from vibrating, grabbed Enzo’s arm, nearly yanking him off his feet, and rocketed after
the quickly disappearing Guardian.

Enzo, suddenly feeling very tired, allowed AndrAIa to pull him along, dodging trees and shrubs, trying to keep up to the faster
sprite. Then he heard a bark sound behind them. He looked back and saw Frisket running behind them, his tongue hanging out
of his mouth and enjoying the brisk jog. Enzo smiled slightly and turned his head back just in time to miss smacking into a tree
trunk. How far do we have to run? He wondered. Not long I hope. I don’t have good endurance. Hmf, That’s one thing I
have to work on.

*~*~*

Enzo and AndrAIa were bent over, gasping for air while Rom was peering through the trees towards the Users base. “Are you
guys alright?” he called quietly over his shoulder.

“Yeah,....fine!” Enzo panted out. “Just.....fine!” AndrAIa wasn’t able to answer.

“Good. Now is the time to go underground!” Rom reported as he looked at Desktop.

“What?!” Enzo stood straight up in surprise. “What do you mean ‘underground’?”

Rom grinned mischievously. “What I said, I meant. Desktop! Drill mode!” The key-tool beeped and morphed into a large
ground drill. Rom took the two handles and turned on Desktop/drill. Pretty soon there was a large hole in the ground and Rom
had disappeared into it. Frisket, Enzo and AndrAIa looked down into the black hole, trying to see anything within the black
void.

“Come on!” a voice inside the hole called out “We don’t have all second! We’ve got to hurry!”

Frisket looked at Enzo and cocked his head to one side. “Go on, boy.” Enzo encouraged his faithful friend. Frisket whimpered
and jumped into the black hole. AndrAIa and Enzo looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and jumped in one after the
other. The hole wasn’t too deep and they landed safely without hurting themselves. The two sprites followed the sound of the
drilling sound because they couldn’t see it.

Enzo looked down at his left wrist-guard, where Glitch was resting. Would Glitch be able to shine a light? Any kind of
light? “Glitch...light.” Glitch beeped, clicked then shone a bright light into Enzo’s eyes. Enzo squinted because of the blinding
light, then grimaced at the sharp pain from his right eye. It took several nanos for him to adjust to the light and then took a look
at Glitch. It hadn’t transformed, it had just...turned on. Enzo smiled and directed the light towards the drilling noise.

“Uh...Enzo?” Rom called from the end of the tunnel. “Could you aim that light to the ground? I can’t really see if it’s reflecting
off Desktop.”

“Sorry.” He apologized and moved the beam of light to the dirt slightly ahead of him.

“See Enzo,” AndrAIa spoke. “Glitch isn’t totally broken. He probablly still has lots of uses.” She replied optimistally.

Enzo only smiled and the two walked down the tunnel in silence.

*~*~*

The constant rumbling and the cracking of rock being drilled suddenly stopped and began a harsh metalic scraping sound.
Everyone in the tunnel hurriedly covered thier ears to protect them from the horrible noise, except for Frisket, who just cringed
and whined.

“Desktop! STOP!” Rom shouted over the racket. The scrapping ceased as the giant drill transformed back into a tiny key-tool,
able to fit on a Sprite’s arm.

Enzo shone Glitch onto the metal obstacle. It was definitly wall. The ‘drill’ has cleaned much of the dirt in front of it in a large
circular shape; large enough to cut a hole and crawl through. It was the Users’ base.

“We’ve hit the Users basement. All we have to do is cut through this wall, make our way to the CC room, which is on this floor
as well, and we’re basically home-free.” Rom grinned as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

Enzo rolled his eye and said teasingly. “Oh, is that all?! Why don’t we ask the User to sit down go to sleep while we’re at it?
‘Oh, don’t get up. We’re just taking over your base. Nothing big or anything. You just sit there and drink your
‘whateverUsersdrink’ and we won’t be long.’”

Rom playfully glared at the young Guardian. “You be quiet. We’re doing fine so far. It can’t be too much harder.
Desktop...Cutter!” The Keytool changed slightly into a flat, circle with sharp spikes poking out it’s sides. It cut a doorway
within wall and returned to the safety of Rom’s wristguard. Rom pushed the door and let it ‘CLANG!’ to the floor.

“Rom, the guards might have heard that! Why did you do that?” Enzo said whispered forcefully.

“We’ve made enough noise already.” Rom said looking inside the base. “If they haven’t heard us yet, they won’t hear that.
Desktop....enemy locations.” He paused while he searched the small radar. The coast was clear. No one had heard them yet.
What luck! “Desktop...contact the Captain. Captain, we are now in the base. Begin the attack in 5 minutes. General out.”

“Minutes?! What do you mean ‘minutes’? I thought we’d...” Enzo began panicking.

“Whoa, Enzo! I’ll explain later, just not now. We don’t have time.”

They moved silently down the corridor listening for any sound of danger. Rom was consentrating on Desktop’s screen,
watching them get closer to the Control Centre and the count down to ground zero. “There!” Rom pointed. “There’s the CC
room. We have one nano ‘til the battle starts.”

Just then, Frisket’s ears pricked up and he began running down the hall and around a courner. “Frisket! No!” Enzo said quietly
but firmly. “Get back here!” When Frisket didn’t return, he added, “You’ll miss chasing the User...” Still, the dog’s didn’t
re-appear. Enzo had lowered his head in frustration, when his ears caught sounds of shouting, growling, gun shots, snarling, and
a cry for help. A guard tore around the courner and ran with Frisket close behind. The guard ran past the trio of tresspassers
without hardly acknowledging they were there. His only goal was to get away from that mad wolf.

He didn’t completely succeed. Frisket had caught up to him and his jaws slamed down onto the guards pants. There was a loud
“RIP!”, a yell and a guard ran away from a dog, who was happily holding a gray rag in his mouth. Having saved his master from
the potential threat, Fristket stopped running, turned around and troted back to show his prize.

Suddenly, the base rocked and shifted with a loud explosion. “The attack!” Rom exclaimed. “It’s started! Now that they’re
temporarily distracted...” and Rom crashed through the double door. “Alright, User! It’s time to end this Game!”

The User spun around to face the intruders. The Users face was solum and cross looking. He had a scar on his right check and
scowl pasted onto his lips. He grabbed his gun and fired at AndrAIa.

AndrAIa leaped out of the way just in time, but the ‘Fastie Mart’ bag wasn’t so lucky. The bullet hit a thermos, penitrated the
metal and passed right through the container. It did the same with the other two Thermoses plus the can of dog food. The bag
bursted into a fine powder and disinigrated. The thermoses and dog food fell, cracked in half and spilled it’s contents on the
floor.

Rom’s eyes flashed with anger. A scowl mirroring the Users’ formed on his face. “I paid for that you low life, no good, BASIC
buffered killer!!! No one deletes my food and gets away with it; not even a User!” Rom pounced on the User, followed by an
excited Frisket.

“AndrAIa, are you ok?” Enzo called as he dodged a punch from a guard.

“I’m fine, Enzo. Just get to that computer. I can hold the guards.” She said as she tripped one that was charging her. She poked
his neck with a finger nail and he quit moving. She quickly moved to the next one, who was running towards her, ready to grab
her.

Enzo had to act fast. He headed for the main computer and inserted a floppy disk. The base shook again with the external
assault. His teams logo appeared on the large computer screen. Enzo typed in the code to activate the program and pressed
ENTER.

The program began to process the request. Enzo turned around to see how his friends were fairing. The guards were dropping
left and fight around AndrAIa and Rom was sitting on the chest of User, punching with all his might. Frisket was gnawing on the
Users leg.

Enzo looked down at himself. He wasn’t very tall or very strong. He had a Keytool that hardly worked and only one eye. I
need something to protect both AndrAIa and myself while we’re lost in the Net.. I can’t do it like this. Wait....that
prototype! I could have the operation and I would be able see, as well target with it.. if they give me a gun that
is....Enzo was begining to get excited, but then he thought Bob. Would he want me to do this? Maybe I should really think
this over. Enzo turned to the computer to see the screen say: ‘Enter ‘Final Take-Over’ password:’ Enzo typed the password
and pressed ENTER.

The computer screen turned a bright aqua colour and the computer replied, “Take over complete.”

*~*~*

“Game Over...”

The Game cube was out of the system like a bullet out of a gun. Rom looked down at his young charges. He had to admit, they
knew a lot about Games, but still they had a lot to learn.

He smiled “Great job, guys. And you too, Frisket. Now that the User deleted the food that I bought,” a small scowl flashed on
Rom’s face but instantly disappeared as he continued, “We’ll go get some real food!”

Enzo and AndrAIa nodded. They were both starving. A loud deep rumble sounded from Frisket. AndrAIa looked at him
sternly. She was about to scold him when Enzo interrupted.

“It’s okay, AndrAIa. I think that was his stomach.”

Everyone laughed and followed Rom to a restaurant.

*~*~*

A full and happy red and yellow dog peered into the large square window at the trio of data sprites sitting inside. Rom, Enzo
and AndrAIa were just finishing a large meal. Enzo looked out the window with a far off look upon his face. Frisket barked at
him, snapping him out of the dreamy state and made him smile. Enzo waved at his faithful companion and turned to the others.
Frisket lay down in the parking lot beside the restaurant to take a nap.

AndrAIa took her last bite of green cilicon chips. “Thanks for the lunch, Rom. It was wonderful!” she said as she finished
chewing. “It has been minutes since we’ve had a meal like that.”

Rom beamed. “It was my pleasure. Besides, how could I be a good Guardian if I let you two...” pointing to Frisket “and Frisket
go hungry? Not a very nice one, that’s what.” He smiled and looked at the two teen sprites sitting across from him. He didn’t
know much about him. Maybe this was the perfect time... He searched his memory-banks for a question to ask. Finding one, he
looked at AndrAIa. “AndrAIa, when you were introducing yourself and Enzo when we first met, you said your format was
Game Sprite. How is that possible?”

Understanding his confusion, AndrAIa smiled knowingly. “Well, Enzo and I just met about three hours ago, but we were in the
Game for most of that time. We’re just new friends, but we’re best friends.” Her smile grew as she looked at the green sprite.
“We met in a Game. ‘The....Lost...Treasure of....Atlantis’,” she said slowly, trying to remember. “Enzo rescued me from the
User.” Enzo blushed slightly. “We started talking and had a great time getting to know each other, but Enzo didn’t know that I
was a Game Sprite. He thought that I was from his home system, Mainframe, and had just never seen me before. When the
User was about to win, I downloaded a copy of myself on Enzo’s icon and hoped that my experiment worked. I put Enzo into
an escape-pod and shot him to beat the User to the treasure.”

“Yeah, but you paralysed me when you did that.” Enzo pointed out. “Something that I don’t want to go through again.”

“Well, as you can see,” AndrAIa said to Rom. “My experiment worked and I’m out of the Game. I love it, but there’s so many
new things I’m still not used to.” She finished.

Rom nodded and spoke out, “But if you’re a Game Sprite, how can you Reboot?”

It was then that AndrAIa gave Rom a close look at her icon. “I can change my icon to ReBoot.” She clicked on her triangular
icon, with the letters ‘AI’ on it, and to Rom’s astonishment, it changed into the reconizable round reboot icon. She clicked again
and it transformed again to its original triangular shape.

*~*~*

“Wow!” Rom exclaimed quietly. He had never seen anything like that before. The Guardian Academy hadn’t shown him
anything like that before either. Then turning to Enzo, he said, “Enzo, you weren’t willing to tell me what happened to you before
you came to PowerGrid. Now that we’re friends, would you want to tell me now? You still don’t have to if you don’t want to,
but I’m willing to listen.”

*~*~*

Enzo looked at him, considering his offer of listening to his not so distant past. It was still fresh in his mind and it hurt to think
about it, let alone talk about it. Maybe it will help to talk about it, though. Get it out in the open. He thought. He looked at
AndrAIa beside him, who reached out and held his hand in a silent encouragement. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly and
began his tragic tale.

“It all began when I...sorry, we were in that game... you know the one; the tournament fighting one. I won one round, then the
User beat me in the second round. It was one-all and it was up to me to win because it was the final level and both AndrAIa
and Frisket were in another window, so they couldn’t help at all. That’s when the User...” he stopped, unable to continue.

“It’s okay, Enzo. You don’t have to tell me.” Rom replied, putting his hand on the young sprite’s shoulder.

Enzo shook his head and Rom removed his hand. “No. I have to get this out.” He took another deep breath. “That’s when the
User did... this.” he said and pointed to his right eye.

Rom cringed. “I’m so sorry, Enzo. I had no idea.”

“That’s not all. Like I said before, I lost the game. The User won. Lost it....” he rested his forehead on his right hand and fell
silent.

“But why weren’t you nullified?” Rom queried.

AndrAIa answered this question. “Because his icon works the same as mine. He can change to Game Sprite mode as well.
Frisket too!”

Rom’s eyes opened wide. It all made sense now. That’s how they arrived in PowerGrid; with the Game. Then he looked at
Enzo, who was close to tears. Now, I’ve made him upset. I’ve got to make him feel better, somehow....I know.

“Enzo, you’ve been to the Guardian Academy, correct?”

Enzo shook his head. “Never seen it. I was training from home....” his voice broke on the word home.

“Well, let me tell you about when I was there. I had this amazing teacher. He taught ‘Game Strategy 101’. It was my favorite
class. Not only was he my teacher, he was one of my best friends.”

*~*~*

Enzo looked up and listened to Rom. He wiped a tear that had began to roll down his cheek. Sounds so nice.

*~*~*

“He tutored me when I needed help in any class. He’d always listen to me if I had a problem. He became my hero. Ever since
he left to defend a system, I’ve really missed him. It’s my goal in life to be like him. Now I strive to treat others the way he
would. I think to myself, ‘What would Bob do?’ and I answer myself...”

Enzo sat straight up and looked intently at Rom. “Bob? As in, Guardian 452?” he interrupted.

Rom looked at Enzo, a strange look in his eye. “Yeah...how do you know him?”

Enzo’s face beamed. “He came to Mainframe! He was our Guardian!” Then despair clouded over his face. “But he’s in the
Web now. Megabyte shot him into the Web.”

Rom’s face turned even whiter. “The Web?” No one said anything for several nanos. Then Rom spoke up. “I’m sure Bob
would have found a way to survive. He taught a giant class ‘Game Strategy’. If he can survive that, he can survive the Web.” he
joked. “But seriously, I’m sure he’s fine.”

Enzo nodded solemnly, as Desktop beeped and Surge’s face appeared on the tiny screen. “Rom, the prototype has been
prepared for ...” he said glancing down at a clipboard “...one Enzo Matrix. We are ready for him whenever he wants to look at
it.”

Rom thanked Surge and ended the transmission. “Ready, Enzo?”

Enzo looked at Glitch and AndrAIa. “Yes. I’m going to do it. I’ll have the operation. I’m a little scared but I know both of you
will be there for me.” He said as he stood out of the booth.

“Sure we will, Enzo.” AndrAIa responded.

“Let’s go.” Rom said gently as all three stood to their feet.

End of Part 3