Note: This fic is set immediately after "Roots and Branches" - which was
written before S4 aired. I decided to more or less stick to my universe,
so there are going to be differences with ReBoot orthodoxy, such as the
existence of Laser as head of the Academy and a still unified Glitch and
Bob. I'll try an stick as close to canon as I can.
GUARDIAN BLUES
PROLOGUE
Well, maybe you'd believe it.
If you'd been there before, I guess you would. But I never have. Bob and Matrix and AndrAIa, they'd seen it all - the net, the web, all of it. I've been in loads of games with Bob but it's not the same thing, I guess. I mean - when I first saw the net it was so cool, you just wouldn't believe it. Maybe you would, like I said - but I couldn't. Whatever.
You have to understand, this was the first time I ever left home. Ever. So even though I was excited and nervous and everything, pretty much my whole brain was on Dot and how much I was gonna miss her, and how much she was gonna miss me. I didn't cry the whole time we were saying goodbye and I was still trying really hard not to - but it wasn't easy. It was just a way for my processor to remind me that I'm still basically a little kid.
But as soon as I saw the net, I freaked out and everything else was blown out of my head, even Dot. For a little while, anyways. User, it was cool! Bob was holding my hand and it was all around us, like we were swimming in the data sea but different too, it's hard to explain. We were in a little bubble type-thing that Bob had generated - he said it protected us from code dilution and other stuff I didn't understand, but we were still part of the net.
The net is a lot of things - it's energy, it's information, and it's space - lots of space. You could feel all of that stuff around you - actually see the information kinda, as it traveled to wherever it was going. You could feel the energy dancing all over your body, everywhere - it prickled on my skin and made me shiver a little bit at first. There was sound, too - a little bit like a lot of people whispering really quietly, and also a kind of low buzzing noise that you almost couldn't hear unless you really listened hard for it.
When we'd cleared the portal and we were in free space, Bob smiled at me and turned me around to look back at something. Even with all the information and energy flowing around most of the net was just the third thing - space. Empty space. But there was one thing in all that empty space that stood out from the rest of it.
Mainframe.
I'd never seen Mainframe from outside Mainframe before. Well, obviously - but hey, I hadn't. It was incredible - bright, and shining, and blue and gold and it filled almost half my line of vision 'cause we were still pretty close. But it still seemed tiny to me. How could that be the place I'd spent my whole life?
Remember I said how I got through the whole saying goodbye thing without crying? Well, now I did. Not like a datafall or anything but just a little, a few drops on my cheeks and a couple of breaths that were halfway between a sob and a sigh. Bob squeezed my hand. "What's wrong, Kiddo?"
"Its really beautiful." I whispered. And it was. It was big, it was tiny, it was all that other stuff - but most of all it was beautiful. And that was probably part of the reason I almost lost it.
But the bigger part was that when I saw it from here, from outside - that's when it really hit me that I was gone. That Dot - and Bob, soon enough - were in that shiny globe and I wasn't going to be, not very often and not for a long time. I was going far away and soon I wouldn't even be able to see that beautiful blue place. That was hard to take.
"It's safe, right? No one can find it?"
"It's safe." Bob said softly. "Mouse is the best at what she does."
"Good." I sighed. That was the other thing that hit me like a chron virus - Mainframe didn't look so invincible, not from here. It was just a little place in a very big net inside an even bigger web. But it had the smartest, toughest sprites in the net looking out for it.
It was time to go - that beautiful little place would be waiting for me when I came back, it had to be. Meantime I had to be strong and keep myself together. It wasn't like home, where Dot would always be there to comfort me when I needed it. Bob was here, now, but I wanted to get into the habit of standing up to things myself, and this was as good a place as any to start. I squeezed Bob's hand and turned away from home. "Let's go."
GUARDIAN BLUES
PROLOGUE
Well, maybe you'd believe it.
If you'd been there before, I guess you would. But I never have. Bob and Matrix and AndrAIa, they'd seen it all - the net, the web, all of it. I've been in loads of games with Bob but it's not the same thing, I guess. I mean - when I first saw the net it was so cool, you just wouldn't believe it. Maybe you would, like I said - but I couldn't. Whatever.
You have to understand, this was the first time I ever left home. Ever. So even though I was excited and nervous and everything, pretty much my whole brain was on Dot and how much I was gonna miss her, and how much she was gonna miss me. I didn't cry the whole time we were saying goodbye and I was still trying really hard not to - but it wasn't easy. It was just a way for my processor to remind me that I'm still basically a little kid.
But as soon as I saw the net, I freaked out and everything else was blown out of my head, even Dot. For a little while, anyways. User, it was cool! Bob was holding my hand and it was all around us, like we were swimming in the data sea but different too, it's hard to explain. We were in a little bubble type-thing that Bob had generated - he said it protected us from code dilution and other stuff I didn't understand, but we were still part of the net.
The net is a lot of things - it's energy, it's information, and it's space - lots of space. You could feel all of that stuff around you - actually see the information kinda, as it traveled to wherever it was going. You could feel the energy dancing all over your body, everywhere - it prickled on my skin and made me shiver a little bit at first. There was sound, too - a little bit like a lot of people whispering really quietly, and also a kind of low buzzing noise that you almost couldn't hear unless you really listened hard for it.
When we'd cleared the portal and we were in free space, Bob smiled at me and turned me around to look back at something. Even with all the information and energy flowing around most of the net was just the third thing - space. Empty space. But there was one thing in all that empty space that stood out from the rest of it.
Mainframe.
I'd never seen Mainframe from outside Mainframe before. Well, obviously - but hey, I hadn't. It was incredible - bright, and shining, and blue and gold and it filled almost half my line of vision 'cause we were still pretty close. But it still seemed tiny to me. How could that be the place I'd spent my whole life?
Remember I said how I got through the whole saying goodbye thing without crying? Well, now I did. Not like a datafall or anything but just a little, a few drops on my cheeks and a couple of breaths that were halfway between a sob and a sigh. Bob squeezed my hand. "What's wrong, Kiddo?"
"Its really beautiful." I whispered. And it was. It was big, it was tiny, it was all that other stuff - but most of all it was beautiful. And that was probably part of the reason I almost lost it.
But the bigger part was that when I saw it from here, from outside - that's when it really hit me that I was gone. That Dot - and Bob, soon enough - were in that shiny globe and I wasn't going to be, not very often and not for a long time. I was going far away and soon I wouldn't even be able to see that beautiful blue place. That was hard to take.
"It's safe, right? No one can find it?"
"It's safe." Bob said softly. "Mouse is the best at what she does."
"Good." I sighed. That was the other thing that hit me like a chron virus - Mainframe didn't look so invincible, not from here. It was just a little place in a very big net inside an even bigger web. But it had the smartest, toughest sprites in the net looking out for it.
It was time to go - that beautiful little place would be waiting for me when I came back, it had to be. Meantime I had to be strong and keep myself together. It wasn't like home, where Dot would always be there to comfort me when I needed it. Bob was here, now, but I wanted to get into the habit of standing up to things myself, and this was as good a place as any to start. I squeezed Bob's hand and turned away from home. "Let's go."