Sleepy Acer - Part 2 - Animations - http://maxpages.com/andraiafanfic/II

"Matrix!" She screamed, pulling him back away from the door. She slammed it shut behind him and locked it. Then she pulled her lover toward the center of the room. Jo-Bob, Franny, and Billy-Bo were still there, staring at them with wide eyes. The baby was crying again.

For a moment, all was quiet (except for the crying). Suddenly, something rammed into the side of the house and a sword slashed through the door. The binomes screamed and threw themselves down. Franny was crying, and Jo-Bob and Billy-Bo were on the verge of it.

Matrix didn't let down his gun. His eyes widened as the sword slashed through again, trying to cut through the door. It was trying to get in! He held up his gun again. "Command line!" he commanded, "Full del-!"

Before he could finish, something went flying through the window and slammed into his gun. He cried out in surprise and dropped it before it would fry his hand. AndrAIa jumped in front of him and threw a star. It flew through the window and hit something.

For a moment, all was silent again. AndrAIa stood there, trident in hand, hoping beyond all hope that it was over.

She screamed when an axe went through the door. Without thinking, she threw another star and it embedded itself in the axe. The weapon ducked back, and she waited for another attack.

The binomes all screamed as something huge rammed into the side of the house again. This continued for quite some time. Franny and the baby were both crying, and Jo-Bob and Billy-Bo were covering their ears with their hands.

Suddenly, it stopped. AndrAIa hesitated, another star in her hand. This time, the attacks stopped for good, and she heard hoofbeats ride away from the building.

Matrix bent and picked up his gun. A dagger was rammed right through it. "This is definitely very bad," he said.

Nobody got any sleep that night. Matrix spent most of it walking around the first level of the house, patrolling in case of any more unwanted guests. AndrAIa went upstairs to their room and tried to fix the gun, leaving her trident with her lover. Frisket stayed with Matrix, giving him extra strength and support. (Sounds like an add for Tylenol, huh?)

By the time it was three o'clock in the morning, Matrix returned to their room, where he found AndrAIa sleeping peacefully, his gun sitting on the table, repaired. He smiled down at her, then climbed in bed beside her. He doubted he was going to get any sleep, but he'd try.

Jo-Bob, Billy-Bo, and Franny went to their rooms, Charm along with Franny. Matrix didn't know whether they slept or not, but he was pretty sure their dreams would be filled with nightmares.

Around sun up, AndrAIa and Matrix woke, ready to take on the day early and hopefully get a game cube. They had an assumption that those things were rare in this system, it being cut off the net and all.

Matrix picked up his gun and waved it at AndrAIa. "Thanks," he said.

"Oh, I wanted to tell you something about that," AndrAIa said. She picked up the dagger that had pierced through it. "There's something about this knife. It has fingerprints on it, but not of binome or spritial features. I doubt it isn't a ghost then, because ghosts don't leave fingerprints. Or if they do, I don't know of any that have that ability."

Matrix took the dagger and looked over it. "Hm. Glitch, scan." He waited as Glitch whirred into action, scanning over the weapon. Finally, he looked up. "Doesn't match anyone's file code here. It must be an unfiled code."

"Do ghosts have file codes?"

He shrugged. "Never encountered one before. At least, not one outside a game."

AndrAIa frowned. "You know, maybe we're inside a game, you ever think of that? I mean, this could be a game, and the User is that headless binome."

Matrix shook his head. "It can't be game, we came out of one to get here, didn't we? And that 'Headless Binome'. It's definitely not a binome. You saw how it looked, even headless binomes don't look like that."

AndrAIa nodded. "Yeah, it was definitely abnormal. What could it be?"

He shrugged again. "I don't know. But I'd like to find out before the next game cube hits."

"You know, if we get a game cube to land on the ghost and let the User win, he'd be nullified and then all this town's problems are over!"

"Yeah, but he's supposedly dead already. What good would that do?"

She laughed. "He'd be a dead null!"

He chuckled. "Yeah. Right. I'm going downstairs and see what's for breakfast. Then I'm going to check out that forest. Frisket, you'll come with me, right boy?"

Frisket whimpered for a moment, but he did a doggy nod, declaring that he'd follow his master anywhere if he absolutely…had to. AndrAIa shook her head. "You two are reckless, you know that? I'm going to stay here and get information from the citizens. You be careful, okay? I'm not planning on returning to Mainframe alone."

He kissed her. "Don't worry. You'll never have to return anywhere alone."

After a quick breakfast, Matrix stood up and announced, "I'm going to go into the forest, and I'm going to need a zipboard since my old one isn't…well…here."

Mrs. Sheperd gave him a surprised look. "Zip-boards?" She shook her head. "Have you noticed that Sleepy Hollow is totally offline? No power no anything. The Principle Office hasn't run in ages, it's a miracle we're still here. Zip-boards wouldn't get you anywhere. Even if you brought yours along, it still wouldn't work."

"Well, what do you have?" Matrix asked.

"Horses."

"I'll walk."

Matrix stood up, but suddenly Jo-Bob stopped him. "I…I-I want to go too," he said in a shaky voice.

Matrix looked at him in disbelief. "You? Are you really up to this? I can do just fine on my own. And with Frisket."

"Let him go, Enzo," AndrAIa spoke up, "It might get him to come out of his shell, you never know. I'll take Frisket along with me."

Matrix hesitated, looking at AndrAIa, Frisket, and Jo-Bob. "Okay," he said finally, "but keep your toes up. I don't want anything to slow me down." He looked at AndrAIa, "and don't tell me you're going shopping again."

"Yes sir!" Jo-Bob said over dramatically. Matrix suppressed rolling his eyes.

"Let's just get going," Matrix said, "before it gets dark."

Once Matrix and Jo-Bob left on foot toward the woods, AndrAIa took Frisket and they set off toward the Principle Office. She had asked Mrs. Sheperd where it was located, and found out it was just on the outskirts of the town. The other side was just farmland. AndrAIa thanked her and left the inn, Frisket right on her tail.

For awhile, she walked down dirt paths passing huts and other buildings. One particular building stood out. It was painted white and especially cared for. A sign in the front indicated that it was a church.

Church? She hadn't really seen anything like those before. She exchanged a glance with Frisket, and he gave her a guesture that could only be defined as a doggy shrug.

She looked past the church, and was surprised to see a dome shaped building, definitely no longer in use. Was that the Principle Office? It looked so…terrible! There really was no other way to put it. Frisket whimpered softly.

"Come on, boy," she said, walking towards it, "I think that's what we're looking for."

The doorway to the building was ripped from its hinges and thrown aside. She glanced warily inside at the darkness. Was it safe in there?

Frisket went in first, sniffing the air carefully. He didn't growl or pick up any scents, so she took that as a good thing. She followed him inside and started searching for a light.

"The electricity might not even work here anymore, considering the rest of the village," she said aloud. Her hands grasped something against the wall, and groping around, she recognized it as a torch. She took it off the wall and looked around for a scratchy surface. In a matter of nano-seconds, she had the torch lit.

The room was huge and round, with bookshelves against the walls and a big, round metal map in the center. Cautiously, she approached the map. What she saw surprised her. Instead of farmland or little huts, she saw tall buildings, with a distinctive Principle Office in the center. There was a name above the map, and when she moved the torch in the right angle, she could read it.

Acer.

Her eyebrows rose. "This was Sleepy Acer?" She said. Frisket whimpered sadly as he looked over the map as well. "But what happened to it? How did it come to look like this?"

Matrix didn't really like the feel of the forest. He regretted having to go around on foot in it also. Jo-Bob walked quietly beside him, every bone in his body ready to split off in the opposite direction the minute something strange happened.

Matrix looked over him, noticing the fright on the little binome's face. It must have taken a lot of courage for him to come out here. Hoping to raise the little hopes a little, he unsnapped his gun and held it out, ready for shooting.

Jo-Bob looked around, his chin trembling. "W-what exactly are we looking for?" he asked.

"I don't know," Matrix replied, "but whatever it is, we've got to be careful."

"Y-you're telling me," Jo-bob said.

There was a very long pause. Jo-Bob was swallowing hard, deeply regretting coming but determined to stay by Matrix's side. Matrix, on the other hand, stayed calm and collected, his eyes searching for anything amiss, the gun at his side. Even though he looked like he knew what he was doing, there was a hint of worry in his face.

Jo-Bob couldn't take the silence any longer. He started whistling.

Matrix was about to tell him to quit whistling when a cool breeze suddenly came up. The whistling stopped and Jo-Bob froze. He looked like he was going to run back home.

The bigger sprite grabbed his gun and held it up. No ghost was getting the better of him.

"W-w-w-what is it?" Jo-Bob managed.

"Stay here," Matrix told him, "I'll be right back." With that, he turned and disappeared among the trees, leaving the small binome behind.

Jo-Bob was shaking now, looking back and forth, eyes wide. "Stay here, he says," he said to himself, "sure, uh huh, I'll stay here….right…" The breeze was getting stronger, and he thought he heard a horse whinny. That was it. He was going to run home now, no matter what happened to him-

A hand grabbed his shoulder. That did it. Jo-Bob let out a horrified scream and turned to run. The hand held on to him firmly though, and a voice spoke.

"Shh! Be quiet! Do you want the horseman to hear you?"

It was Matrix. Jo-Bob relaxed, though his heart was still beating very fast. "Matrix!" he cried, relieved, "You're back! So soon, too!"

"I found something," he told him. He nodded toward the trees. "Follow me." He took off through the bushes and Jo-Bob followed, trying not to lose his wits again.

They reached a clearing, and what they saw was definitely a very disturbing sight. Jo-Bob's eyes widened at the recognition.

There lay Frantucket, dead. With no head in sight.

AndrAIa studied the map carefully. It was dated back a thousand years ago, so something must have happened to it for the city to look like what it is now. Farmland and a huts everywhere.

"There has to be an explanation for all of this," she said, thinking outloud. "Frantucket said that back then, portals to the web kept opening up, but the city would've been destroyed. There was also that portal from the other system, which happened a thousand years ago, when the horseman was killed. So…a thousand years is plenty to make a city…but why did it come out like this?"

Frisket barked suddenly, and she turned away from the map to see him standing by the bookshelves. She smiled. "Looks like you've got the right idea, boy," she said, making her way over there. Kneeling down, she shuffled through the books, reading their titles. Most of them were just records on the system core and population. She took out one of them and flipped them open. It was mostly page after page filled with population records and the date. She was surprised to see that it went back 1000 years.

The dog watched on as AndrAIa went down the list. The population started out in Acer very low, only 832. But several years later, the population skyrocketed, adding about 3 million citizens. That was impressive. That must have been during the time the portal from the other system opened up. Several more years passed with very high population numbers, when about fifteen years later, the number began decreasing rapidly. Then, in a matter of one year, the population was back down to eight hundreds.

"That's strange," she mumbled, turning the page. Every year after that, the population continued to slowly decrease, until the book was no longer updated. By then, the number was 704.

AndrAIa flipped through more pages, until she was satisfied that no more was written. Then she put the book on the floor beside her so she could take it back to the inn, and continued to search through the shelves again.

"Where was the Command.com when all of this happened?" she thought. "He should have been able to save the people, done something to fix things."

One book fell out of the shelf, catching her attention. It was different then all the rest. It had no title, and the pages were crusty. Opening it up, she found it out as a diary.

"Now this is interesting!" she said. She looked out to the front door leading into the Principle office. It was getting dark, late afternoon. She'd better get back to the inn and see how Matrix was doing. Grabbing the two books she had found, she left the Principle Office with Frisket close beside her.

Matrix sat at the bench downstairs in the inn, a beer in his hands. He seemed deeply shakened, so Mrs. Sheperd decided it was a good reason to have a beer. Jo-Bob was sitting across from Matrix, cider in his hand. His hands shook as he brought it to his mouth.

The door opened then and AndrAIa and Frisket stepped in. AndrAIa was carrying books in her arms.

"I've got a great lead!" she announced, putting the books on the table and sitting down beside Jo-Bob. She noticed that neither of them had heard what she said. She frowned. "Are you guys okay? What did you find?"

"Frantucket's body," Matrix replied, his eyes fixed on the tabletop.

AndrAIa's eyes widened and she glanced at Jo-Bob to see if it were true. He had the same expression on his face as well. "Oh no, not him!"

Matrix nodded. "We brought his body here, and the morgue doctors are inspecting him at this very moment."

AndrAIa hesitated, trying to figure out a way to put her question delicately. "Was there…anything strange about the body?"

"There was no head." He finally looked up at her. "It just wasn't there."

She closed her eyes, knowing she would get that answer but never believing she would receive it. "This is terrible."

For a long moment there was silence. Except for the rattling of Jo-Bob's cup as he brought it slowly to his lips again.

Finally, AndrAIa stood up, pushing the books across the table and in front of Matrix. "I'm going to look at the body. Maybe help out the doctors, see what's wrong."

"How? You're not a doctor."

"I'm an artificial intelligence, I'll adapt." She nodded at the books. "Look at those, there are some interesting points in them." She left the room.

The morgue was across from the inn and a little ways down the street. AndrAIa took a deep breath before entering, preparing herself for the sight she would see. Instead, she walked into a waiting room, a binome sitting behind a wooden desk.

"Excuse me," she said, walking up to the desk, "I'm here to see the body of Frantucket?"

"They're looking at him now," the front lady binome said. "You can't go in unless you're a personal friend or of relation."

"I'm a personal friend. I stayed at his house yesterday."

The front lady gave her a long look, then nodded. "Go ahead, right past that door." She handed her a face mask. "Put that on, you'll live longer."

"Thank you." AndrAIa took the mask and put it around her mouth and nose. Then she turned and went through the back door.

The next room was pretty small, not something she would have expected. Two doctors stood bending over an examination table, a body lying over it. AndrAIa swallowed hard to keep her nerves down and cleared her throat.

"Ah hem," she said loudly, "Is this the body of Frantucket?"

The doctors looked up at her, surprised. They were about to object to her being in there, but they stopped when they really looked at her.

"It seems so," one of them said, staring.

AndrAIa walked over to the table, managing to keep her nerves securely down. Right away she recognized it to be indeed Frantucket. Her eyes widened and she gasped. She hadn't really accepted the concept that her friend, the old man that took them in and was nice to them, had actually been killed by the horrible legend that has been going around here.

"No head," she said, her voice rising. "That's uh…very interesting. Can you…can you tell me about it?"

"Well," one of the doctors spoke up, "it is clear by looking at the wound that the head was chopped clearly off. It wasn't pulled-" (AndrAIa winced), "but chopped clean off."

Taking a deep breath, she bent down to look over the wound. It was hard to grimace, but she managed to keep a straight face. She was about to straighten back up again, when she noticed something. Something strange. Something out of place.

"Doctor, do you have a pair of tweezers or something that I can use?" she asked.

Matrix hadn't moved from his spot at the table. The contents in the books AndrAIa had given him clearly were helpful, but he was too disturbed to study them. There really was a ghost running around here, and even though he was determined that none of that stuff exist, he was beginning to have second thoughts about this place.

"Why hasn't a game cube dropped down yet?" He asked angrily.

Jo-Bob had finally begun to settle down. "It's not every day that a game cube comes to this system," he explained, "It takes weeks, months, maybe. Even years."

Matrix sighed in frustration. Why did they have to be brought here? Now it would take forever to find a system that had connections to the net, they would never find Bob in the web, and by the time they do get back to Mainframe, saying the might, things may be too late. If it wasn't already.

Just then the door opened and AndrAIa came in, a facemask on and gloves on her hands. She looked distressed.

"Enzo, you've got to see this," she exclaimed. "I found this on Frantucket's body." She handed him a petridish with some skin samples inside.

Matrix narrowed his eyes at it, studying it. It looked very familiar. Reminded him of the time back when Turbo nearly destroyed his home. This stuff had been coated all over the place, just after that web creature-

"Oh no," he realized. "It's a web creature."

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Page Updated Thu Nov 23, 2000 12:49pm EST