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| Enzo's Diner was crowded with teenagers when Hailey and Robert stepped in. Hailey was quite taken aback for a moment when she first entered. The whole place was noisy! Teens were pretty much the only ones there, apparently a popular hang out for them. Only a few families were spotted. She took a quick scan. She didn't recognize any of the ABC's here. "What's wrong?" Robert asked, sensing her hesitation. "Nothing," she stammered. "Okay then, let's get a table." They went to one of the few booths still left open and slid in opposite one another. Hailey was still looking around when a box-like binome hanging off the ceiling came by and handed them menus. "Anything to start with?" the waiter-binome asked. "Yeah, two energy shakes Cecil," Robert said, "chocolate flavor." Hailey blinked. "Cecil?" The waiter didn't even answer as he left the table, swinging over to the kitchen. Robert was nodding. "I know, weird name, isn't it? Actually his whole name is Cecil IV, version 4. His family line is chock full of that name." "Oh." Hailey looked slowly away from where the waiter had just left. "This place is…" "Loud?" he guessed, smiling. "Yeah, you can say that. There was a time where it was a quiet diner. There weren't that many teenagers living around here then either. My great-great-something-whatever-uncle used to own this joint, his sister before that. They renamed the diner after him." Hailey hesitated. "Whatever happened to them? I mean-" She was cut off by loud yelling across the diner. They both looked up to see a sprite with long blond hair standing on top of one of the tables, pointing to the vid-window above her. "Quiet!" she shouted, "Command.com's making an announcement!" The diner, amazingly, quieted down to an almost silent lull as Tanner Matrix's face appeared on the vidline. "Attention Mainframe citizens," she said, smiling. If her hair were shorter, she would've looked just like the late Dot Matrix. "This is your Command.com speaking with your weekly announcements. Tracer Tours is having their yearly festival with music, entertainment, and free tours throughout the Net. Come and enjoy the fun, two days from now at 03:00 o' clock." "That's your mother?" Hailey asked. Robert nodded. "Yup, that's her. She's been Command.com for a long time now." "How does she feel about Nalia being part of the ABC's?" Robert frowned at her, smile disappearing. "How'd you know about that?" Tanner Matrix continued with her announcements, the smile almost frozen on to her face. "The Mainframe Guardian Academy will be holding their yearly graduations just a few months away, so future-guardians, study study study! The Academy is also holding a special holiday three nights from now, in honor of its founder, Mouse Tracer. Now in other news-" The sound on the vidwindow was blanked out as something flew across the diner, hitting the screen right where Tanner's face was. It took only a split second to realize it was a tomato as it oozed down the screen, dripping down on the tables below. Loud laughter erupted from behind and everyone turned to see three ABC's standing in the diner entrance. Nalia was among them. Robert stiffened, but didn't get up. Hailey stood up as every diner in the place jumped back, heading for the back exit. The other two ABC's in the doorway were some other guy she didn't recognize and the man she had gotten in a fight with on the street. The leader of the ABC's. He recognized Hailey the minute he set eyes on her. A sick smile spreading across his face, he made a move to go up to her. Hailey didn't flinch. Robert quickly stood up in front of her, putting himself between him and her. "Ace," Nalia spoke up then, grabbing the leader around the arm to stop him. "Don't." Ace glanced back at her, frowning, but Nalia didn't let go. He glanced back at Hailey, then saw Robert standing in front of her. That was who Nalia was protecting. He jerked his arm away and glared at Hailey, ignoring him. "Okay then," he said, his voice clear across the silent diner. "You're lucky this time." He reached into his pocket and for a moment everyone held their breaths. He drew out a spray can. No body moved. The side of his mouth curled up in an amused smile, then turned and left the diner. Nalia and the other girl followed, Nalia eyeing Robert with an almost apologetic expression on her face. As Ace passed the side of the diner, he lifted the spray can and sprayed a thick, bright green line across the window, marking the building. The minute the gang members were well out of sight, the people in the diner started talking again, some in shaky voices. Robert turned to Hailey. "Maybe we should go." She nodded, still staring out the window. "Yeah uh…I should be going home, get working on my studies. I'm way behind your class." He nodded back. "I'd better get home to and-" he stopped before leaving. "I know you borrowed your school books from my mom, I recognized them. If you ever do see her again, please don't tell her about Nalia." Hailey didn't like the sound of this. "Okay." He continued nodding. "I'm sorry-" "No, it's okay." She started moving toward the door. "It was nice meeting you, Robert, I'll see you at the Academy tomorrow." "Yeah…" He laughed nervously as they both left the Diner. She waved good-bye as she walked off toward her apartment. It was midnight and Hailey still hadn't gone to bed. She sat at the desk by her bed, trying to study and figure out what was up with the ABC's. How long has it really been since Mainframe was peaceful and…well…normal? Normally she didn't have any problems swallowing information, but tonight something was bugging her. Instead of the silence she was used to hearing outside her bedroom window back in her hometown, she got yelling and babies crying, and even the sounds of fighting down below outside the apartment building. Opening the window and peering out, she could see various sprites and binomes walking the streets. She was even surprised to catch hookers just around the corner. Shaking her head in disgust, she slammed the window shut and sat back down at the desk, burying her head in her arms on the table top. Whatever happened to Mainframe being the good, decent city it once was? She heard stories that it was the place to be once, that everyone was happy, people were nice and courteous. But now she's finally here, it wasn’t quite what she expected. The whole city was nice and popular, had the best businesses and military and all that good stuff, but the whole place was run over by bad influences. Gangs were just the beginning. Turning her attention back to the book in front of her she started flipping through it, pushing the street sounds away as far as she could. That’s when it hit her. She stared down at the words in the book, not sure if she was reading the right thing. She flipped several pages back to see if it would correct her, but she found nothing at all. She sat back in her chair, the street noises completely forgotten. She couldn’t believe it. The next day Hailey was not late for class. She sat in the front row, already full of questions to ask Mrs. Tracer the minute class started. She glanced anxiously at the clock. Five more minutes to go and the professor/teacher still wasn’t there. “Hey.” She looked up to see Robert Matrix slide into the seat next to her. She smiled. “Hey, what’s up?” “Nothing much. Look, I’m sorry about last night at the diner and everything-“ She raised a hand to stop him. “Don’t. It’s okay, it doesn’t bother me.” They both glanced toward the back of the room where Nalia Matrix was sitting, surprisingly on time. The girl looked up and narrowed her eyes at them. Hailey quickly looked away. “I don’t think she likes me.” “Why wouldn’t she? You didn’t do anything.” “Well…” she trailed off, not sure if she should tell him or not. “I sort of had a confrontation with that Ace guy yesterday on the street. That was why we were sorta…late.” His eyes widened. “You didn’t!” She nodded, now laughing. “Yeah, I did.” Mrs. Tracer walked in then and the students all fell quiet. She did a quick scan of the room, satisfied that they were all there. “We will be starting on our next project, which will be due in three days,” she began. ”Don’t complain, live with it. You just have to give a biography on somebody important out of the chapter you read last night. “I trust you did the assignment?” “Yeah,” Hailey spoke up, “and I have a question about it.” She could feel all eyes look at her. She shifted in her chair. Geez, all these kids acted like they were in grade school. Mrs. Tracer almost looked surprised. Must not be often she got questions in the class. “And what would that be?” she asked. “I uh…” Hailey started flipping through the pages of her MAINFRAME’S HISTORY book. “I, uh, well we went over pretty much the System Reboot that happened about 150 some years ago, and I was sort of confused. I mean when they mentioned the older Enzo Matrix being stuck in a game and game hopping until he had pretty much compiled up, they said that he game hopped with a companion that had also gotten stuck in the game.” She found the right page she was looking for and pointed at the section. “Yeah?” Mrs. Tracer said. “Well, they don’t mention her name or anything like that. They say that it’s a her though, see right here.” As she pointed she heard all the other students open their books and start searching for the same passage. “But later on, in the book, she’s no longer mentioned. I mean, it says that Ray Tracer and Enzo Matrix had some sort of quarrel due to ‘mishaps’, but they don’t give a good reason. And when it says that Bob and Matrix and most of the other Saucy Mare crew were busy doing one thing, they didn’t mention who fixed up the main generator-whatever it is.” Mrs. Tracer was starting to get confused. “And your point so being? I mean, what is the question?” “The question is-or should I say the point, is that I think this book is leaving out one of the clue characters in history.” “Don’t be ridiculous. Scholars have gone over every single book created, in and out of the Academy, and it all says the same thing. That character, ‘she’ as the book and you so delicately put it, is simply not as important enough.” Hailey stammered, trying to get her words out clearly. “Don’t you think someone who game-hopped with Enzo Matrix, helped keep him alive and going is important enough to at least have their name mentioned? She helped keep the crew alive. I suspect she was even the cause of Enzo Matrix and Ray’s quarreling. You know, leader of the pack kind of stuff?” She heard a snicker coming from the back and Hailey could just about guess who it came from. “And she helped restart the Saucy Mare, I’m sure of it because she had to be there. The book mentions characters that haven’t done half the things she’s done, and she’s not even named.” Mrs. Tracer looked at the floor before speaking. “Miss. Intel, how would you know all this stuff?” She shrugged. “Theory? I was going over the whole thing all night last night. I know the whole thing inside and out. I’ve done my research. And I’m sure there’s books all over the system that probably mention her name, like in the Principal Office, they have lots of books all in the same place I’m sure-” In the back, Nalia raised in eyebrow, suddenly intrigued. “Really?” Now Mrs. Tracer was looking at Hailey like she was some sort of programming mistake. “Now I think that we all know that we can’t base revelation on some theory-“ “How would you know? People have done it before.” “This is a Guardian Academy, Miss. Hailey Intel, and speaking out of turn will not be permitted. You may have your questions, but you cannot base presumptions on theories.” “That doesn’t make sense-“ “Now if you can find out who this mystery character is and find out what she did, then maybe I’d give you some credit. In fact, I’m going to give you that topic as your project. If you don’t find out who she is, you’ll fail.” Hailey’s mouth dropped open. “What! You can’t do that!” “This is your project Mrs. Intel, and I gave the assignment. The rest of the class have the same project as well, and if they can’t bring any information on the people they chose, they’ll fail as well. It’s all fair.” “No it’s not! They at least get to pick from people they know exists! Mine is just a theory-“ “That’s right, just a theory. Now enough on this discussion, I will not speak of it anymore. We’re moving on, and I suggest you get with the program or you’ll fall behind.” Hailey stared hard at the teacher. She wasn’t going to put up with this. Collecting her things, she stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder. Once again feeling all eyes on her, she turned and left the classroom, slamming the door behind her. A couple hours later Hailey sat down in Enzo’s Diner, a chocolate energy shake in front of her. She barely tasted it as she stared at the tabletop, thinking. She still couldn’t believe what had went on at class. She couldn’t just drop out either, or she wouldn’t gain anything. She came to Mainframe to be a Guardian and she was going to be one. She couldn’t drop out now. But how was she supposed to find information on this unknown person? The door to the diner opened and she looked up to see Robert walk in. He scanned the crowd quickly, then saw her. Smiling, he made his way over and slid in next to her. “Hey,” he said, “you left quiet a stir when you walked out.” “I don’t care,” she grumbled. “Mrs. Tracer is horrible.” “She’s just giving you a chance to figure out if your theories correct or not.” “Oh really? And if I can’t I fail, is that right? That’s horrible!” “I know…I don’t know what to say about that.” He looked skeptically at her. She rolled her eyes. “Robert, I know this girl exists! I just have to do some more research! There has to be proof out there.” “I believe you! Trust me, I’m right behind you. I just think it’s going to be hard to find, that’s all. You might not even find it in time. You only have three days.” “I know…” she thumped her head down on the table. He laughed and patted the back of her head, running his fingers through her hair. “You have really pretty hair, you know?” he said. She looked up, surprised, then smiled. “Thanks.” They were interrupted by the diner door slamming open. Everyone looked up to see Ace and Nalia standing there, staring in at everybody. Immediately the diners averted their eyes, trying not to look directly at them. Nalia scanned the room, then saw Hailey and Robert. She started making her way over to them, Ace following closely behind. “Oh crashes,” Hailey cursed under her breath. But before they could say anything, the two ABC’s slid into their booth so they were sitting across from them. Hailey wasn’t sure whether she should run or stay and fight. The diners seemed to relax when they saw that the two weren’t going to start anything. “What do you want?” Robert as the first to speak. “Trust me, we’re not here to start any trouble,” Nalia assured them. She glanced at Ace, who was staring hard at Hailey. Hailey blinked and frowned at him. “What do you want?” she asked, repeating Robert’s question. “You want to find out about this mystery girl, right?” Nalia asked Hailey. “Well we can help you do that.” Now Hailey was really frowning. “Why would you want to help me?” Nalia shrugged. “Let’s just say we…owe you…for the trouble we’ve caused.” “I don’t buy that,” Robert retorted, “I’m your brother, I would know better.” “Yeah? Well you haven’t heard us out.” Nalia leaned forward, bringing her voice down low. Ace continued staring at Hailey. “I heard you mention something about the Principal Office and how there’s got to be information on your mystery girl. Now everybody knows that’s information central. Most of the time you go in with a question and come out with the answer. I’m giving you a chance to get in there and do your research.” “Really,” Haily commented. “Yeah.” Nalia seemed to be enjoying this. “Of course we can’t do it normally because…well… nobody’s really allowed to.” “Yeah, we know that,” Robert said, “that’s why we weren’t even thinking about that.” “I know.” Now Nalia was grinning. “But Ace here, he and I can get you into the Principal Office unnoticed, and you can go about as you please, getting what you need. Your Guardian future is on the line here, isn’t it?” Hailey couldn’t believe this. “You mean break in?” “You’re not stealing anything, aren’t you? We’ll be in and out in no time. It’ll just be the three of us. And Robert, if he wants to get any information on his project.” Hailey wasn’t buying this. She looked at Ace. “I didn’t think he’d want to help me. Isn’t he supposed to hate me?” “I do,” he commented, his voice surprising them. It was low and rough. “So why are you helping me?” “He’s helping me,” Nalia cut in. “I’m getting some information for myself as well and he’s the only one who knows how to get in there.” Robert was already shaking his head. “No, I don’t think this is a good idea, I say no.” “Wait a sec.” Hailey cut in, still staring at Ace and Nalia. “Is the rest of the ABC’s in on this?” “No.” “Then I think we can do it.” She slowly nodded. “As long as we go in and come out with no problems and as fast as we can.” Nalia’s nodded. “We can do that.” Robert looked at Hailey in surprise. “You mean you’re really going to do something like break into the Principal Office?” She nodded. “As long as it’s done in less than an hour- no, half an hour.” “You got it,” Ace said. “What do you say, Robert?” Nalia asked. “Coming with us? You can get an immediate A on your project if you do.” He hesitated, looking at them, than at Hailey. He was surprised that she was so casual about this. Finally he nodded. “I’m in. But if anything happens-“ “Great!” Nalia clapped her hands, smiling. “We’ll do it tomorrow at midnight. Meet just outside the Principal Office at that monument statue with Dot, Bob, and Matrix. Wear black.” Before the other two could answer, she and Ace were up and leaving the diner. To be continued... |
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