Death in Fire
Chapter 2
Upgrade stared at the terminal's screen, her magenta eyes glazed over as her thoughts rampaged in her head. For the life of her, she had not one single idea where Phoenix, or any over the other cyborgs for that matter, could be. She rubbed her eyes and stood up to pour herself another cup of java.
She suddenly remembered when she and her sister had shared this apartment. Her sister was always involved in shady business and had needed a sort of 'hideout' after getting arrested for trying to break into the Super Computer. And what better place to hide out than a guardian's apartment.
No one had even suspected that she had a roommate, much less her hacker sister who was wanted in the Super Computer. She remembered how they used to stay awake some nights and laugh over how idiotic some of the guardians were.
And then, she had annoucned that she had gotten a gig, as she called them, that would take her out of the Super Computer. Upgrade didn't remember much about that conversation, just that she had mentioned something about a system called 'Mainframe' and she took her ship but left most of her personal belongings.
The name of the system struck a note of recognition in Upgrade's mind. Mainframe, where else had she heard that name before? Something about a virus and the web? She couldn't remember.
Upgrade sat back down at her computer, hoping it would come to her soon.
Mouse smiled at Dot as they watched the portal open. They were finally opening up to the Net again. Even after the system restart, it had taken them countless cycles to fix slight problems which had erupted almost anywhere, but now, they were back in business.
The ship came through almost immediatly. Dot was smiling, even though none of them had returned to their usual outfits, no one wore their armor anymore. With the exception or Bob, who seemed to favor the bright mettalic armor. Matrix and AndrAIa hadn't changed either, it seemed they were always ready to leave. To game hop to the next system.
Things had calmed down since the destruction of Daemon. They certaintly weren't back to normal, especially with Bob and Dot circling each other like wary animals. Neither would appreciate that description of them, but oh well. To Mouse, that was what they looked like.
She followed Dot out to the docks to greet the ship. The captain was an old friend of Dot's and seemed very pleased to see she was alive and well. A slight flash of red at the side of Mouse's vision made her turn. Nothing.
She walked away from Dot's side without saying a word. She saw another glimpse of red to the right and turned. Someone ran around a corner. Mouse took off after them. She turned the corner and searched.
Dot calling out to her stopped her. Probably nothing.
Ya need ta take a brake, sugah. She told herself and went to rejoin the group.
Phoenix leaned against the wall and heard the sprite walk away. She had made it. Now, to find the coordinates of the portal.
To any normal sprite's vision it would have seemed a normal sunny day in Mainframe. But Phoenix's outward sensors were damaged beyond her meager efforts at repaire. She went by the pictures that had been sent to here and dimmed eyesight.
She didn't feel the scraping of her back as she leaned against the wall and slid down it to sit down. She was here to destroy the system. But first, rest was in order.
