Megagame
by Andi (palomino49@hotmail.com)
--------------------------------

Megabyte sat in the Tor, bored out of his mind. He had never been unable to come up with a scheme to take over Mainframe and its inhabitants to make his own system . . . Megaframe. All of a sudden, it came to him. He had tried to manipulate the game cubes many times before but he was always unsuccessful. The plans he devised could not control those games. However, there was one thing he had never considered. He couldn’t control the User’s games but he could control his own. Megabyte smirked as he thought about how cunning he was.

"Hack! Slash! Get in here!"

"Yes, sir."

"Right away, sir."

"Here we are, Your Evilness."

"We are here."

"Quiet!" Megabyte yelled.

"Sorry, Great One."

"Very sorry."

"We were glad to be of service."

"Oh yes! Very glad."

Megabyte groaned and wondered what he was doing with those two idiots. He interrupted them while they were arguing over who thought Megabyte was the most evil. "I have something for you two to do," then he quickly added, "I need you to create a game so impossible those sprites can’t even try to win it."

Hack and Slash hurried away to work on the game. Megabyte smiled again, thinking of what he would do once he took over the Principal Office and created a portal to the super computer. He would conquer every system!




Dot sat typing at her desk in the Principal Office. Enzo hovered around her, watching her every move, full of energy. 

"Hey, Sis, can I play with that? Alphanumeric organizer! Hey, Sis, when’s another game gonna come? I’m so bored."

Dot sighed and did her best to ignore the young child. She was on the verge of exploding. How was anyone able to put up with his incessant babbling? 

Bob poked his head around the corner, "Hi Dot."

"Hi Bob, hold on a nano. I’m almost finished."

"Dot, you work way too hard."

"I know, but ever since Megabyte found his way back and tried to reclaim the city I haven’t been able to keep still."

"Me too, I can’t believe he convinced Hack and Slash to join him again."

"Bob . . . It’s not very hard to convince Hack and Slash to do anything."

"I guess you’re right. Well now that the diner is fixed up do you wanna get a byte to eat?"

"Sure, why not."

The two walked happily off to the Diner for some energy shakes.




Mouse and Phong were discussing defense strategies while Ray waited impatiently in the background. 

"Mouse, love, can't we go join the others at the diner? I just heard Bob and Dot leave. Matrix and AndrAIa are probably already there."

"Justa second, sugah."

Ray grumbled as he sank back into his chair.

Phong continued, "So you see, Mouse, our shields are highly effective."

"Right Phong. Let's just make sure we keep Megabyte outta here."

"We shall try." Phong replied. 

Ray began, "Mouse . . ."

But she interrupted him, "Quiet. Can't you see this is important?"

"Alright, well I'll meet you down at the diner, OK?"

"Sure, Sugah," Mouse said as she turned back to Phong. 

Ray arrived at the Diner to find the rest of his friends seated in the various booths. 

"Hey, Ray." AndrAIa called, "Where's mouse?"

"Oh she's still talking with Phong."

"At the rate those two are going, this system won't even be able to let a gamecube in!" Bob said. 

"Aw, what would the fun in that be?" Enzo complained. 

Then Matrix retorted, "Well it'd sure keep you out of our hair." 

"Enzo! Be nice to . . . uh . . . Enzo!" Dot yelled from across the diner.

Mouse burst in through the door. "All right y'all, ah'm here. The party can start." She laughed and took a seat next to Ray.

Bob looked at her in surprise and then exclaimed, "What were you and Phong doing? We thought you'd never finish!"

"Aw, sugah, it was nothin'. We were just makin' sure the P.O's shields didn’t' lose their power." Then she added, "In case of an emergency . . . ya know?"

"Pixalicious! So there might be an emergency? Here? I thought nothing interesting went on around here!" Enzo said. 

Matrix rolled his eyes, "Oh boy."

Dot then added, "This system's had its share of adventures, Enzo. Not just in the games."

"Really? Cool. You'll have to tell me all about it . . . How 'bout now?"

"Nobody iz going to tell you anything if you do not quiet down. You are scaring ze cuztomerz." Cecil said, appearing in front of the booth. 

"Sorry, Cecil." Enzo said. 

"It'z Cescil." Cecil retorted.

Bob rolled his eyes and went back to the conversation he was having with Dot before Enzo had asked to know the entire history of the system. "So like I was saying. I think I can get my car working again. I just need some parts and some time."

"You know it'll take hours and you'll never finish." Dot replied, "Why don't you just get a new car?"

"I can't do that! It's a classic! I can't live without that car!"

Dot snickered and Bob shot her a look, "What?"

"Nothing . . . " she replied hastily.




Hack and Slash rolled noisily into the room where Megabyte was sitting, breaking his concentration. He sighed and said, "What do you two want?"

"We have finished the game."

"Finished it, we have."

"Done."

"Complete."

"Yes, I get the point." Megabyte intervened. "Go and get Herr Doktor."

"Right away."

"We will fetch him."

"He scares me."

The two could still be heard talking as they regressed farther down the hall. Herr Doktor rushed in a few nanos later. "Ja vohl, Lord Megabyte!"

"Ah, Herr Doktor. Is the game ready?"

"It is, Lord Megabyte."

"Well then . . . " He paused, "You know what to do."

"Yes, sir!" Herr Doktor laughed and yelled, "Throw ze svitch!"

Evil laughter could be heard from the room with the 'svitch'. Then Megabyte heard the familiar voice.




"Warning. Incoming game. Warning. Incoming game."

All the sprites in the Diner except Mouse and Ray jumped up to answer the call. Enzo was first to the door. "Alright! Let's go kick the user's bitmap!"

"Enzo, you're too young!"

"But Dot . . ."

"Just let him come, Dot. He has to try it sometime and besides, we don't have time to argue."

Dot shot Bob a look, "Fine."

"Alphanumeric!"

The sprites raced off towards the game while Mouse and Ray finished their energy shakes and sauntered off to the Principal Office to monitor the activity of the game. When they arrived, Phong looked distraught.

"Mouse, I am glad you are here."

"What is it, Phong?"

"I do not think that this game was sent by the User."

"Hold up a nano," Ray interrupted, "how does that work?"

Phong turned to him, "I believe that Megabyte has created this game. The readings are coming straight from the Tor."

"Well that's just great, he's only been here for a second and already he's causin' trouble. Ah don't like that virus!" Mouse complained.

"Oh dear . . ." 

"What is it now, Phong?"

"I am concerned. What will happen if they do not win?"

"Relax, mate. They've got two guardians in there, they can handle it if anything goes wrong."

"Ray's right, Phong. It'll be OK."




"ReBoot!" The familiar chorus was heard throughout the game cube. 

Matrix heard a soft growling sound behind him, "AndrAIa, what is it with you and bik . . ." he began, but realized that she was not on a bike but some strange creature. "Uh . . . What is that?" Then he thought to himself, The User sure has a sense of humor. Look at that thing."

"I don't know what it is but I like . . . " She stopped mid-sentence, "Matrix! Look out!"

Matrix ducked just in time to see another one of the beasts being ridden by a User that didn't have a head. "Funny looking User," he remarked.

"Sure is. OK, let's win this crazy game."

Enzo walked over to them, "Where's sis?"

"Probably off planning somewhere," Matrix laughed in reply.

They looked up as Binky and Sir flew by, aiming their bombs at the User. Everybody watched as they flew right past the User and dropped the bomb on a nearby scarecrow.

"Crikey, Binky, I think we've bought it."

"What Sir? The game?"

The two screamed as they hit a nearby tree. AndrAIa suppressed a laugh. She cleared her throat, "Back to the game." She reminded Enzo and Matrix who were laughing hysterically at Binky and Sir's mishap. Realizing that nothing she did would stop them from goofing off, she began to put a highly sensitive rocket explosive system together. Before she could stop him, Bob came along to 'save the day'.

"AndrAIa, here, let me help you with that."

"Oh no thanks Bob, I think I . . . " As Bob flew off into the distance on the rocket she had just assembled, she added, "Got it." Oh well, she thought, I can make another one. 

"Hey Icabod, get over here."

"Who's Icabod?" Matrix replied.

"Oh sorry. I don't know where that came from. I was talking to you, Matrix." She turned to Enzo and realized that he looked unhappy. "What's wrong, Enzo?"

"Frisket didn't come in the game. "

"Oh, well I'm sure he's fine and having a great time wherever he is."

"Yeah, probably."




Dot had ReBooted to find herself in a mansion. She walked over to a tower that had a strange looking set of sails revolving in front of it. "Horseman, ride now for Katrina!" She yelled. "What was that? I can't believe I just said that, this game is really getting to me. Or maybe Bob is right, maybe I am working too hard. I must be getting sick. This is almost like that time Phong put that reality distortion chip in my head. This is a pretty distorted game." She stopped suddenly, realizing that she had been talking to herself. Then she thought, Who is Katrina anyway? She turned around to look at the table next to the fire and gasped. "Oh my User, whose head is that?" She threw it out the window and added, "That's disgusting!"

Meanwhile, AndrAIa was putting together yet another rocket by the tree she had started out by when she looked up suddenly to see Bob falling out of the sky towards her. "Uh oh," they both said. AndrAIa put out her hands just in time to catch Bob on his way down.




"So Phong, what are we going to do?" Ray asked. 

"I do not know, my son. I do not know."

Mouse then interrupted, "Ah think we should send medics to the sector with the game and prepare the CPU's. If this game was sent by Megabyte, Ah'm sure it wasn't for fun."

"Good idea, Mouse," Ray said.

"Let us hope for the best," Phong said wearily with a concerned look on his face.

"Relax, mate. You ain't got nothin' to worry about, you have a very able group of sprite in there. I'm sure they'll be just fine."

"He's right, Phong."

"All right, my children. Send for the medics and CPU's . . . Just in case."

Mouse ran off to assemble the troops while Phong pulled up a vid window to contact the medics. Ray stood awkwardly for a second, not sure what he should do. He finally decided that Phong didn't need him, so he left to join Mouse.

At the Tor, Megabyte was already making plans for when the game ended, bringing his victory against Mainframe. "Hack! Slash!"

"Yes, sir!"

"No sir!"

"Three bags full, sir!"

Megabyte groaned, he thought that maybe it had been a bad idea to rejoin wit those two. "Prepare the ABC's for a full attack!"

"Right away"

"Let's go!"

"After you, Hack"

"Oh no, after you Slash."

Megabyte rolled his eyes. Then he called to Herr Doktor, "Make sure they don't forget what they were supposed to do."

"Ja, I most certainly won't Lord Megabyte."




"Matrix, I've been thinking. Any explosives I've made apparently can't destroy the User and you've already attacked him and shot at him with Gun. There has to be another way to beat him and I think that maybe if we return his head to him, the game will end." AndrAIa voiced her opinion.

"That's a good idea, AndrAIa. We've tried everything else."

"OK. I'll search the mansion over there, I think I saw Dot over in that direction. I'll tell her to look too." Bob said.

"Enzo and I will go search the strange tower with those sails spinning in front of it." Matrix added.

"I think that's called a windmill," Bob explained, "another one of those strange User inventions."

"I'll go and search the town," AndrAIa volunteered. "The head can't be very far away."

Bob headed off towards the mansion at the far sides of the town. The word 'Van Tassel' was engraved on the door. As he entered, a game sprite jumped at him. "Beware the headless horseman!" It screamed, "Beware!"

Bob sidestepped the game sprite and continued up the stairs. On the way he bumped into another one. "Hello, I am Baltus Van Tassel. Would you like to stay here for the night?"

"Uh . . . No thanks," Bob answered.

"Very well."

Bob hurried up the stairs and went into the nearest room. After searching in there to no avail he went to the next room. On the desk he found a piece of paper that said 'The secret conspiracy points to Baltus'. "Ah ha!" He said triumphantly, and rushed off to catch Baltus. He was about to delete him when he realized that Baltus probably knew where the head was, so he asked.

"Have I seen a head? Why would I need an extra head? I've got one of my own."
Bob figured that Baltus didn't know where the head was and probably had no idea what was going on. He decided to leave and search the outside of the mansion. "Come back any time," Baltus called after him. 

Bob hurried off to acoid the strange sprite.




AndrAIa was walking through the town when she saw an interesting looking store. She decided to go in but had trouble getting through the door because mounds of data files blocked it from the other side. There was nobody in there so she freely searched. Unable to find anything remotely like a head she turned her attention to the one thing she hadn't searched, the closet. She assumed that the head was in there so she opened the door. She found herself face to face with a very old and wrinkled game sprite. He cowered in front of her, "Here, take the file. Don't hurt me!"

AndrAIa shrugged, took the data file and left the shop. Upon reading it she discovered that the document was a will and it left the entire fortune of someone to a woman who had recently died. The inheritance would then be given to a man called Baltus. AndrAIa thought that Baltus might have the head so she went to find Matrix and share her news.

She was in such a hurry that she didn't see Bob on her way to the windmill until she had bumped into him. "He Bob, I think I know where the head is."

"Where?"

"Someone called Baltus has it."

"No, he doesn't, I just ran into him at the mansion."

"Oh well, I guess we'll have to keep looking."

She continued to the windmill in spite of the bad news. When she got there she found Matrix and Enzo talking to Dot. "Matrix, you found Dot."

"Yeah, we were just about to ask her to look for the head."

All of a sudden, an idea came to AndrAIa. Bob had told her that Baltus was in the mansion but didn't have the head. Maybe someone else in the mansion did. Nobody knew where Dot had ReBooted so maybe she was the other sprite in the mansion.

"Dot, where did you ReBoot?"

"The mansion, why?"

"I was just wondering, do you have a head?"

"Of course I do," she tapped a finger on her forehead, "it's right here."

AndrAIa laughed, "I mean someone else's head."

"Oh yeah, that was disgusting. I threw it out the window."

Matrix and Enzo ran down the stairs to search the base of the windmill, passing Bob on his way up to the top. Bob continued up the stairs to find Dot and AndrAIa talking. "What are you two doing?"

"Dot had the head." AndrAIa replied simply.

Determined to win the game without any help, Bob attempted to get the head from Dot, not knowing that she wasn't actually in possession of it and that she had thrown it out the window.

"Dot, will you give me head?"

"Uh, Bob? Don't you mean 'the' head?" AndrAIa replied quizzically.

"Ummm . . . yeah . . . I guess."

"Well I don't have it. I threw it out the window. Matrix and Enzo are down there looking for it now."

"Oh, " said Bob sullenly.

He walked down the stairs and out to the base of the windmill to help Enzo and Matrix search for the head.

"Matrix! I think I found it!" Enzo called excitedly.

"Let me see," Matrix replied. He carefully looked at the object, "This is it," he affirmed.

"How do you know for sure?" Bob asked.

"Well, how many of these do you think we'll find?"

"Good point," Bob admitted, "now we just have to get it to the user.

"Bob! Where is the User?" Enzo yelled.

Bob didn't want to admit that he had no idea where to find the User, so he said, "Probably by that tree everybody except Dot ReBooted at."

"Let's go!" Enzo shouted exitedly.

"Hold on a nano," Matrix said, "I'll go and get AndrAIa and Dot."

Before he could get to the windmill, he saw the User ride by and up into the windmill. Dot walked out of the windmill unharmed but AndrAIa couldn't safely get past the User without having her head chopped off by the ax the User was wielding. AndrAIa saw the window with the sails of the windmill spinning in front of it. Before the User could catch her, she jumped out the window and rode down on one of the sails. Upon arrival at the bottom, she discovered that Dot had taken the head from Enzo and had run off with it. It had all happened so fast, nobody had seen which way she had gone. Soon after, the User came down the stairs and began to pursue the sprites.

"She probably went to the tree! Let's head there," Bob yelled frantically.

The group ran to the tree with the User following closely behind them. When they arrived there, they saw Dot standing by the tree with the head in her hand.

"Dot, when are you going to give me that head?" Bob said.

AndrAIa suppressed a laugh then found herself grabbed by Dot.

Why am I doing this? Dot thought as she quickly let AndrAIa go, but it was too late.




"Mouse, I think we might have a problem."

"What is it, Phong?"

"I have reason to believe that Megabyte's game might alter the personalities of some, if not all the sprites, while they are within it."

"What do you mean, personality?" Ray asked.

"They may more fully act out the characters they have ReBooted as."

"What does this mean?" Mouse questioned Phong.

"Well, at worst they may nullify each other but those sprites are strong. I think they can overcome it. Especially Bob, he was trained by Turbo and you all saw how well Turbo fought off that viral infection."

"That's right, mate. They'll be fine."

"I am still concerned. We must watch the game closely for signs of it ending," Phong said.




The User grabbed AndrAIa and was preparing to cut off her head when Matrix called out to him. He turned towards Matrix then pulled out his gun and shot. Matrix fell.




"Phong! Ah think tha game's almost finished."

"Are the medics and the CPU's ready?" Phong asked.

"Ready and waiting." Ray said.

"Good. Wait for the signal." Phong said.




Matrix stood up. The bullet had bounced off his icon. Bob had taken the diversion as an opportunity to get the head back from Dot. He caught her off guard and got the head with little effort. He threw it at the User but it hit his chest and fell on the ground. "Oops," Bob said as he ran after it. He picked it up and handed it to the User. The User threw AndrAIa to the ground. She got up and brushed herself off, a look of disgust on her face. The User put the head on and proceeded to move for Dot while heading towards the tree at the same time. Matrix grabbed her out of the way before the User had a chance to turn around. The User entered the tree and it closed behind him. 




"Game over."

Phong, Ray and Mouse cheered. "We have to get them to the P.O before they're attacked by ABC's," Ray said.

Mouse and Ray sped off towards the now retreating game cube, which was heading towards the Tor as it got smaller and smaller. They met up with the other sprites and hurried back towards the Principal Office in anticipation of Megabyte's attack. However, the attack never came.




"Fools!" Megabyte yelled, "Anyone could have won that game. You are so incompetent, why did I ever ask you to make it in the first place," Megabyte called after the rapidly retreating Hack and Slash. "Now that the guardians are here we can't possibly win an attack."




"That game was so easy! The User is so basic. That was like basic DOS," Enzo chattered.

"That was pretty simple. I don't know what happened to me though." Dot said.

"Megabyte's game was made in such a way that it would alter your personalities upon entering it," Phong explained. 

"Megabyte's game?"

"Megabyte dropped the game, sugah."

"It couldn't have been him! That game was so basic, I could have done it with my eyes closed," Enzo said.

"I could have done it with my eye closed, too." Matrix laughed.

"We thought that you would be nullified," Phong said.

"Are you kidding?" Enzo said incredulously.

Megabyte appeared on a vid window. "You won this time, but next time I'll delete each and every one of you pesky sprites." The vid window closed and everybody burst into laughter.




Megabyte cursed. "I can't believe this. The plan was so simple. How could I have failed? Those annoying sprites will pay with their lives. 

"Hack! Slash! I have a plan . . ."

 

THE END