Karen vanished into the bathroom and returned with a wet cloth. Starwell assumed it had been dampened with warm water, though she didn't have time to think about it much. Once she wiped off her face and hands, Karen provided a towel and allowed Starwell to dry off.

"My car is just outside," Karen said, already leading the way.

The drive to the Principal Office didn't take long. Once they arrived, Karen practically jumped out of the vehicle and dragged Starwell with her, causing the girl to stumble along after her to keep up.

Karen lead them past the receptionist, causing the red-skinned, smooth-haired sprite to call after them in protest. "I am going to see my father!" Karen simply told the receptionist, shutting her up. Within reason Karen could come and go as she pleased, even to the point of interrupting important meetings… so long as Karen had a legitimate reason to barge in.

Right now Karen was all business and her body language communicated urgency. Several sprites and binomes gave her a wide berth in the hall, allowing her to pass with Starwell. Karen ignored the curious glances and the whispers as they went.

Finally they reached the police chief's office where Karen barged right in through the door. Several heads snapped up upon their entry as all chatter ceased; evidently, there had been a meeting going on.

"What is the meaning of this?" the chief of police barked, then his expression softened once he recognized his daughter. The family resemblance between them was unmistakable; they had the same raven black hair (though the chief's was far shorter) and the same chocolate-brown eyes. The chief wore an official uniform of dark blue with red and green markings.

"Sir," Karen acknowledged formally. She avoided referring to him as Father or Dad while he was on duty. "I have brought you a witness who can attest to Kevin's schemes of conquest within this city."

Now the police chief looked very interested. "Everyone," he said, "this meeting is adjourned for now; we will speak again tomorrow."

There were a couple of grumbles and a few murmurs of curiosity and concern, but no one argued. Everyone except the chief, Karen and Starwell quickly filed out.

"Shut the door," the chief told his daughter, "and lock it."

Karen nodded and did as she was told.

"Now," the chief folded his hands atop his desk, "what is your name?" He nodded at one of the seats across from him.

Starwell glanced toward Karen uncertainly; the raven-haired sprite re-assured her with a smile and a nod. Starwell slowly sank down into the chair. "I'm Alpha Starwell," she said.

"Alpha Starwell," the chief nodded to himself. "I am Jack Wireless, Chief of the city police. Now…" His eyes scanned her bitmap more closely. "Did you lose your Icon?"

"Dad," Karen interjected, permitting herself a little familial familiarity now that the other officers were gone, "I think she's a alpha-testing sprite, possibly a Guardian. I don't think she wants to talk about it."

Chief Wireless frowned. It was his job to be concerned, perhaps even a tad suspicious. "Starwell," he said, "did Kevin and his gang harm you?" That might explain why the girl seemed frightened.

"They… banged me up a little. But I'm okay."

"I see you have a Keytool," the Chief said, eyeing the device on her arm. "I must say I have never seen one before."

"Yeah… he saved my life." Starwell placed a gentle, affectionate hand on it. Gizmo almost seemed to purr.

"I don't know much about Guardians or their Keytools," the Chief said, "but I know they do not choose their partners lightly. You have been bestowed a great honor, girl, and I trust you will never take it for granted."

Off in the corner of the office, Karen rolled her eyes. It seemed that her father could never resist giving fatherly advice to anyone younger than him, especially young sprites who seemed unsure of themselves.

One thing was for sure; it meant Chief Wireless liked the girl.

"Yes, sir," was all that Starwell could think to say.

"Now then," the Chief cleared his throat, "I need you to tell me everything."

Over the next several nanos, Starwell did her best to recount everything that had happened, starting with how Kevin picked her up after being lost in the Net. She kept the details pertaining to what happened in her Uncle's System and how she ended up stranded in Cyberspace very vague, and the Chief didn't press much. He seemed more interested in anything pertaining to his own system anyway.

The Chief listened to her entire tale and then had her repeat portions of it again, clarifying sections of her recap with a few questions. This helped him to understand it better and it seemed to confirm that the girl was telling the truth, especially since she stuck to her story and there were no slips of the tongue to be found.

Finally, Chief Wireless nodded and seemed satisfied. "Very good," he said. "I am going to place you under protective custody until these matters are dealt with."

"Uh, what does that mean?" Starwell asked.

"I means you'll probably stay here, under guard," Karen supplied.

"But I can't!" Starwell stood. "I have to get back home!"

"I cannot have you going anywhere in this system, not until Kevin and his men are dealt with," Chief Wireless said sternly. Then his craggy features softened somewhat. "I'm sorry."

"You mentioned you're not from this System," Karen said slowly, then turned to the older sprite. "Dad, what if she left Lunar Codex? I doubt Kevin would be dumb enough to go after her, especially if we send her somewhere safe."

Chief Wireless pursed his lips briefly in thought. "I suppose," he said with a little shrug. "Come to think of it, the Saucy Mare is currently docked with our city. Captain Capacitor is finishing up his business even as we speak. Starwell, if you hurry they might let you book passage with them at least to the next System. You might find help there."

"Uh, okay," Starwell acknowledged slowly. "I just hope whoever's there is… you know, as friendly as you guys are."

"Don't worry, kiddo," Karen told her with a smile. "I'm sure a lot of Systems have their Kevin's, but they also have their Chief Wireless's."

"And their Karen's," her father said with a slight wink.

"I learned from the best, Dad."

A brief, affectionate glance exchanged between father and daughter. Then both of them were all business again.

"Come with me," the Chief said to Starwell, rising. "This city owes you a debt of gratitude for what you have uncovered. I will personally arrange passage for you onboard the Saucy Mare."

"Okay." With that, Starwell followed the police chief out of the office.

0o0o0o0o

When they arrived at the docks, Starwell found herself gazing upon what was probably the last thing she'd been expected. The Saucy Mare looked like a mighty ship from a pirate movie.

And then there was the crew, all of whom looked like pirates and spoke with piratey accents. It made the girl wonder, once again, what in the world she was getting herself into.

"Ahoy there!" a large binome with a hook for a hand acknowledged as he came down the ramp toward them. He was every bit the stereotypical pirate, complete with an earring and a wooden leg that forced him to limp. The large, almost bulky hat he wore upon his head made it obvious he was the captain. "Tis good to see ye, laddie. It has been a long time, Jack!"

"Too long, Gavin," the Chief acknowledged with a smile. "But you know how busy I am here, especially since I have to coordinate with the police chiefs in the other cities."

"Aye, that would keep anyone busy," the Crimson binome said. "Now who be this fair lass you have with ye?" His single eye narrowed as he examined her. "A Guardian?"

"It would seem so." The Chief leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Don't ask her too many questions, though. I don't think she wants to talk about her past much."

"Ah, alright then," the pirate captain agreed with a slight shrug.

"I'm prepared to transfer funds for her safe passage to the next system," Jack Wireless said. "Just keep her safe, and make sure she arrives in one piece."

"That I can do, good chap. Once we wrap up things here, we be headin' to Mainframe. The city there is full of good people who will help the young lass." Captain Capacitor peered at her again. "What be your name, sweetheart?"

"Alpha Starwell." Starwell sighed. Funnily enough, she had repeated that name so many times it was starting to feel more like her real name than Hannah Forbes.

"Alpha…?" A look from the police chief discouraged the pirate from pursing that train of thought. "Well," Capacitor said, "whatever ye format may be is no concern to me or my crew. If the Chief says ye are to have safe passage, ye shall have it."

"Thanks," was all Starwell said.

"I am Captain Capacitor, at your service." He gave a little flourish, then turned and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Mr. Christopher!" the captain bellowed, "We have a passenger going to Mainframe with us. Enter it into the log!"

"Aye, aye, Captain!" the spherical-shaped binome called from above, peering over the side of the ship for a moment. Christopher eyed the young female sprite as if mentally cataloging her appearance, then went back to what he was doing.

"Go on aboard, Miss Starwell," Capacitor urged the girl. "Chief Wireless and I will discuss payment, then we will be on our way."

Starwell nodded and proceeded slowly up the ramp, somewhat nervously. The more she tried to run everything that happened to her through her mind, the less sense it made. This entire adventure was becoming crazier and crazier, like something out of Alice and Wonderland.

She completed her ascent onto the ship and then did her best to stay out of the way as binomes moved about, organizing and inventorying their cargo. A couple of them were cleaning the deck with mops and buckets containing a soapy substance.

Starwell nearly jumped out of her bitmap when she saw an enormous binome appear out of nowhere, larger and bulkier than most sprites she'd seen.

The seemingly female giant stared down at her. They regarded each other for a long moment.

"Pretty little sprite girl," the binome finally said, giving Starwell a pat on the head.

Starwell flinched and backed up a couple of steps. "Uh… hi," she said uncertainly. "I'm Starwell." She ran a hand over her head to smooth her ruffled hair, but found that not a strand was out of place. She would later learn that her sprite format was programmed to have a specific hairstyle, one that would remain in the same shape even if she went through a data storm.

"I Princess Bula," the giant said.

"Princess? You're a real princess?" Starwell blinked. "From where?"

"From system far, far away," Bula answered, speaking in broken Net-standard. "System of big binomes, giant sprites." She frowned and hung her head, as if a little sad. "I considered small compared to them. I leave, travel with pirates." She tapped her chest. "I am Pirate, now!"

"Uh… wow," Starwell said, not quite sure what to make of that tale. "Sounds interesting."

"Make yourself at home. Bula must get back to work." With that, the Princess wandered off. The deck plating seemed to shake slightly under her heavy footsteps as she moved.

"Well Gizmo," Starwell breathed as she moved to a corner out of the way and sat down, "one thing's for sure… the Net just gets weirder and weirder."

Gizmo gave an incoherent reply that seemed to be both an agreement and an admission that it and Starwell were pretty "weird" themselves.

Starwell shrugged and attempted to settle in. Her brief rest was interrupted when she heard Captain Capacitor come back onboard, giving the order to retract the ramp and activate the sails. She watched in fascination as several sails seemed to appear seemingly out of nowhere, attached to nothing and yet positioned in perfect formation above the ship.

As the crew continued to rush about and Captain Capacitor barked out more orders, Starwell found herself wandering below deck. She claimed an area near the stairs and sat down on the edge of a bunk.

"I wonder what this Mainframe is like," she whispered to herself as she curled up on the bunk. Within moments her eyelids drifted shut, and she slept during most of the voyage.

0o0o0o0o0

Guardian Anna Code of the Watson Codec System had not given up. As far as she could tell, Zettabyte and George had remained within the Principal's Office, leaving her alone for the time-being.

It was exactly what she wanted, she supposed. No, what she really wanted was to find out where the young User-Sprite had gone and whether or not she still existed. For that matter, she also wanted to disable the conversion device in order to prevent more Users from entering the system.

However, that was not something she could do. Only a User on the outside could choose to disconnect a physical piece of hardware; no one, not even a Guardian, had that capability. Any kind of hardware was like a permanent fixture, and unless it malfunctioned or wore out there were many times when the User had no reason to remove it… unless, perhaps, the User had no further purpose for it.

It was just another area where the Users could interfere with business-as-usual in her city, and forced something on her people that she couldn't touch. She didn't even have any say in it, especially since no User had even spoken to the people who resided within a system… until Starwell, at least.

To make matters worse, the conversion device could not even be sabotaged from within. It was heavily guarded by the subroutines and programs that lived and worked within it. No doubt it had its own protective security software as well.

Anna Code eventually found herself wandering in the general direction of the Tower, unsure what she planned to do. After all it wasn't as if she could just wish it away. The only comfort she could obtain was that it hadn't pulled any other Users in, yet. That meant unless a User on the outside chose to power it up again for further use, it wasn't going to do anything at present.

She walked until she reached the very edge of her city, clenching her fists at her sides as she regarded the Tower in the distance. If only she could get close enough to give it a good, solid kick, that might make her feel a little better. But that would mean traveling across the energy sea to get to it, and she wasn't prepared to face Qsa Linex head-on.

The Administrative Program of the Tower was clearly unhappy with the recent turn of events. No one knew where Starwell had gone and Linex knew that Anna Code was responsible for the young User's hasty departure from the system. Apparently the Queen of the Tower had established a relatively friendly dialogue with the main city's Command Dot Com, thus Zettabyte had felt it was only fair to fill Linex in on everything.

As a result, Linex had given a stern warning for everyone, especially the female Guardian, to stay away from the Tower. It was not a threat, but it was not an idle statement to be taken lightly either. The large insectoid sprite could be seen flying over the city occasionally, often teleporting out of sight back to her Tower after a short time. Obviously, the Queen was keeping an eye out and attempting to search for any sign the User might be returning.

Or perhaps, as Anna Code was about to discover, the Queen had somehow lost a program from the Tower, something that could prove vital in finding the User. It was a program that could be elusive, curious, and a bit simple in the processor. Linex wanted this program back, and if she did she could send some of her drones on a search for the User.

However, things were not going to work out like that…

"What are you doing?"

Anna whirled around to see a program she had never seen before. It was an odd-looking person, someone who's height barely reached her belt. The individual looked like a circular, flat disk with two arms, two legs, a mouth and two eyes. She was light brown in color, and had dark brown specks all over her surface.

The newcomer looked like a chocolate-chip cookie.

"Who are you?" Anna demanded.

The program straightened. "You may call me Miss Cookie," she said, giving a little bow. "I am a Tracking Cookie, and…" She indicated the Tower in the energy sea. "I guess you have that to thank for my existence. I… came into being when one Alpha Starwell came into being."

Anna blinked a few times. "What do you mean?" the Guardian asked, furrowing her brow in puzzlement.

"My core programming holds some very specific data about Alpha Starwell's coding," the Tracking Cookie explained. "That is… I don't know much about her, but in my design I am tied to her. I have the ability to trace where she has been and wherever she goes, if the need should arise."

The female Guardian processed this for a moment. The gears began to turn in her processor. "So you're saying that you could locate Starwell right now, possibly take me to her?" she asked carefully, daring to get her hopes up.

"As long as she is not fragmented or erased, then yes," Miss Cookie nodded. "Somehow I get the sense that she is still within the Net, simply… not here."

Anna grabbed the Tracking Cookie's wrist and began to pull her along. "Come with me," the Guardian said. "We have a User to find."

Miss Cookie blinked. "User?"

"Yes. You know, Alpha Starwell."

"Starwell is… Starwell. Not necessarily a User."

Anna stopped walking, scowling at the shorter program. "How could you have been created by that thing," she pointed at the Converter Device, "during the very process while a User was being turned into a sprite, and not know that Starwell is a User?
Especially since your primary function is to track her!" This made no sense whatsoever to Anna.

However, it became evident that the Tracking Cookie had a very limited processing capability; she was designed to track the individual that she was programmed to track. Apparently she lacked the capacity to comprehend what Starwell really was… or she simply didn't want to believe it.

"I will serve my function, as I am required to," Miss Cookie stated. "But to say that the sprite is a User…?" For the first time, her dull monotone was broken by a little chuckle. "I would not go that far."

Anna shook her head in disgust. In her mind, the Users had simply found another way to frag with her system by creating a device that could bring a User into her world, yet it was also made a program that wouldn't believe the device's true function was possible. The irony was so thick she could probably slice it with a butter knife.

However, she did not have time to think about it now. "Come on," she said. "We're going to the docks." She briefly considered contacting George, even Zettabyte, but… would either of them understand at this point? No, they would just try to stop her. Or they would simply slow her down or stall her as they tried to "reason" with her. She knew exactly what she was doing and she would not stop until she put an end to Alpha Starwell.

Anna obtained a spare Zip Board, and then she and Miss Cookie flew to the nearest docking port. It was there that Anna arranged for transport with Dana Line, the best Search Engine in the System. Dana was a tall, willowy sprite who was shapely, yet pencil-thin. Anyone who looked at her had to wonder how that skinny body was able to support her normal-sized head.

Once they were finished discussing the details as well as payment, Miss Cookie took a seat beside Dana Line as the navigator. The Tracking Cookie set her sensors to maximum as the Search Engine started up the little boat and they began to move.

Anna took a long moment to glance back at her city, frowning wistfully in spite of herself. "Goodbye, George," she whispered. "I am so sorry. If I can come back to you, I will. Just…" She closed her eyes. "You and Zettabyte… keep the system safe for me."

She would not cry. She refused to weep, no matter how she felt. It wouldn't do anyone any good, not her or George or anyone else.

Anna Code lifted her chin into the air, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. She needed to stay strong for everyone in this system, to do what Zettabyte and George couldn't bring themselves to do; get rid of the menace, Starwell.

The Guardian had regained her composure and found her resolve just as the little boat slipped through the Net port. They had left Watson Codec behind.

Miss Cookie began to trace the Net Ports and Connection Tunnels as they streamed through Cyberspace, keeping her senses at their peak. It was difficult and it took a while, but she managed to find a trace here and a fragment there, simply residual pieces of code that indicated Starwell had been through this area or that area. It was similar to a dog finding someone by their own unique scent, and it was a "scent" that only Miss Cookie could track in her own unique fashion.

It wasn't easy, though. They took several wrong turns and had to backtrack more than a few times. At one point they somehow managed to go in a complete circle. In the end though, they finally arrived at a port which lead to a system.

There was nowhere else that Starwell could have gone, according to Miss Cookie; their quarry was either in that system, or nowhere.

"She must have had help from her Keytool," Anna mused begrudgingly, touching her chin in a thoughtful manner. "Or some other form of transportation. Dana," the Guardian said, "take us in, if you please."

"Right away," Dana Line acknowledged, and she began to maneuver the little boat toward the port.

Anna Code braced herself. She steeled her nerves, preparing herself for anything.