A/N: I do not own ReBoot or any of its characters they belong to their respected and talented creators.

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Discordia 003
Found

She took delicate steps towards the semi-familiar place, always so careful, mustn't make a sound. She had grown used to navigating the maze-like structure of the alleys of the place she now called her home. She felt disgusting walking through grime and other things she'd rather not identify. Her bare feet were caked, with one form of muck or another. This was no place someone such as herself should be. Even she knew that, however she'd rather take her chances out here rather than... that place she was before. Everything was dark; any street light that was available was either dead or dying. Her legs ached, battered and bruised with how many times she'd hastily ducked for cover behind the debris that littered almost every part of the place she'd found herself in. What happened to this place? The clothing she was in didn't help matters either, she needed to find new ones to download, somewhere. All she had was the small t-shirt dress that she wore back there. It hardly covered her arms. The girl hadn't known what it'd be like out here. The cloth offered her no warm, or protection. It was next to useless.

She stumbled slightly tripping over a rock she hadn't been looking for. She bit down on her lip sharply to cut off the cry of pain. She couldn't even risk breathing too loud let alone let out a cry of pain. The girl froze in position, and waited. She held in her breath, terrified that one of her pursuers might have heard her.

Nanoseconds passed.

Nothing.

Slow, steady exhale – a beat later she was moving once more.

She wasn't prepared for any of this.

Which is probably why she found herself outside this place again. The people there had been glad to give her food and shelter once before. She could only hope they would be just as generous a second time. She had her doubts about returning to a place she'd already been, however she found that she had little choice. This was one of the only places ...those people... didn't seem to be very often. Slowly, carefully she approached the rusted red back door.

A moment's hesitation.

She flinched back from the door. It groaned loudly as it opened.

"...Back again?" there was a note of surprise in the other's voice.

Too late for cold feet now; she nodded.

"....Come on in...I'll get you something to eat."

---

There comes a time when one questions if what one is doing is even worth it in the end.

That's what both Matrix and Bob were questioning as they made their not so triumphant return to Dot's Diner. The only piece of semi-valuable information was the one they received from Al's waiter, and even then they were no closer to finding out what Megabyte was searching for. In Matrix's mind the whole trip turned out to be a blatant waste of time. Bob of course disagreed with him, as he often did nowadays, they learned about a sprite girl who was obviously in some sort of trouble. Matrix still thought it was a waste of time, sending a rescue party would only serve as a way to use up more resources they could be using against Megabyte. To make matters worse, when Matrix roughly pushed the door out of his way, causing the belling to ring harshly (he had to take his frustration out on something) he was met with something that caught him dead in his tracks.

Dot.

Standing there with eyes a blaze. Dot had that certain look about her when she was angry. If looks could delete a person, Bob and himself surely would've been deleted repeatedly by now. AndrAIa was standing behind her, with a sheepish albeit apologetic expression on her face. Dot took one step towards the pair of male sprites, Bob momentarily flinched. Matrix, had to feel a little sorry for the guy, he was having enough problems with Dot without this to add to it. He was gearing up, preparing himself for his sister's lecture. Preparing her for her to yell.

"I can't believe you two." Her voice was soft, yet angry, oh so angry.

And that was it, and that in itself was almost worst than lecturing, or yelling. Worse was the heavy silence that filled the room, every pair of eyes was on the drama that was unfolding before them. Matrix turned to the nearest binome, "What are you staring at?"

"N-Nothing, sir."

And the room came to life again, all pretending not have at least have one eye on the sprites. It made Matrix feel a tad bit better; at least he wasn't suffocating in silence any longer.

"Dot, I-"

"I don't want to hear it." Dot cut in (allsheheardwasMegabyte), she was about to turn away from them when she felt a hand on her shoulder. For a moment she thought it was Bob, but instead it was Mouse whom was now addressing the guys.

"Did y'all find out anything?"

Dot, contained a sigh, Mouse was right. She did want to hear this.

Matrix was first to reply, "Not a damn thing."

After giving him a stern look Bob followed up with, "Well not exactly nothing. There's a young sprite girl running around Level 31. It's just—"

"It just most likely has nothing to do with Megabyte at all." Matrix said, there was no denying the cynical tones in his voice.

"Wait, wait hold up a nano. A sprite?" Dot said, eye brows raised, and she wasn't the only one that looked surpised AndrAIa and Mouse shared her expression.

"Yes, rather young—"

"—and harmless." Matrix stressed, turning to take a seat in one of the red plastic booths, until of course a flying green blur knocked him right over.

"Tell me I'm not completely offline and basic! I just heard you say there was another young sprite in Mainframe! I haven't gone 8-bit have I? Do you know her name? Age? Is she my age? Where is she?—"

Matrix growled in reply, "Get. Off."

The young sprite hastily complied to the command, however the older of the two looked about ready to throttle his younger self. Almost as if on cue, a VidWindow appeared before Bob displaying the familiar face of Al's Waiter, he looked as though he was in the back of the diner, someplace, semi-private. This, to say the least distracted everyone from their respective tensions, at least for a moment. "... I know you were just down here... But I thought you might wanna know...tha' girl I was talking about is here."

They all exchanged glances, but Enzo grabbed the VidWindow vigorously, "Really? Alphanumeric! Can we talk to her? Can we see her?"

Dot, pulled Enzo away from the window as gently as she could manage, but the young spite had a frim grip on it, "Enzo, come on!"

Al's waiter frowned, and seemed to glance off in the distance around the VidWindow, "Can.... you keep it down? The lass ...doesn't know I contacted you lot. She... might've bolted otherwise..."

"What do you want us to do? Risk our butts again to go down there and grab her?" Matrix scoffed, from his booth, AndrAIa gave him a little shove along with a disapproving glance as she slid in alongside him.

"...Just thought...you might want to know..."

"We'll be there as soon as we can. Keep us posted." Bob said, only waiting to receive a nod from the waiter before closing the window completely. He was well aware of the looks his was getting from some of his comrades and was quick to defend his statement, "Look, I know she might have nothing to do with Megabyte, actually, I can't see why Megabyte would be interested in a young child at all. It doesn't change the fact that she's still in some sort of trouble."

"So, you heard the waiter. That situation is the norm down there." Matrix retorted, "if we take the risk of going down there, we might as well be doing something that would actually hurt that virus."

"I know you want to get at Megabyte, lover. But do you really want us to just leave that poor girl down there?" AndrAIa asked.

"We don't have time to be going to around rescuing every sprite and binome. We should be attacking the route of all these problems"

"Well, I don't agree with that one bit." Mouse jumped in, deciding she wanted in on the conversation, "that's just a bit too cold for my liking."

Matrix grinded his teeth together and looked at his sister for backup, she turned to Bob and attempted to look him in the eye before ultimately loosing heart, "I wont ask you to go against your code."

That was all Bob could ask for from her at this point, he knew he'd have to take things slow, gently, "Thank you, Dot."

"I'll go with you, sugar."

"So will I!!" Enzo pipped in quickly.

"No!" came a chorus of different voices all at once.

"It's dangerous for any one of us, let alone you." Dot tried to soothe the young Enzo, however he looked irate.

"It's not fair! I'm not basic! I can help!"

"No, Enzo." Dot said sternly, "You're staying right here."

Her tone carried a certain finality to it. His older sister would not be swayed in any way; which caused anger to swell up inside of him. It only made him want to rebel against her word more, despite the fact that he knew his sister was under a great amount of stress as it was. Without having to worry about him. He could understand it to a certain point, he really could. After all, the city was mostly in control of Megabreath, their father was in said virus's clutches, Phong was injured badly, and to top it off something was going on between her and Bob. However this was his chance to finally interact with someone his own age. Or hopefully rather close to it. Did she understand the loneliness he felt? Didn't she care?

---

The young Enzo was wearing a smug grin on his face, not only did his sister leave him with Hack and Slash, but she had underestimated his ability to talk them into almost anything. It wasn't much of a talent considering the amount of processing speed each of them had. It came with a price of course, they had to accompany him. They weren't exactly the stealthiest pair.

"Watch where you are going!" Hack was shoving Slash away from him.

"I still think this is a bed idea! Dot isn't going to like this one bit"

"No she won't!"

"She will not indeed!"

Perhaps that was an understatement.

"Hey! Keep it down! Do you want Megabyte to come and delete us all?" Enzo scolded them both.

They continued to argue over who was making more noise until Enzo gave them a look and then they both fell silent. They were traveling down a dingy alleyway. Enzo decided to stay on his zipboard to avoid the grime that covered the ground. A frown settled across his green features he didn't think it was possible that Level 31 could look worse than it already had, but somehow, he had been proven wrong. It had gone from slum to complete warzone. There was debris littering the ground mostly from fallen ABCs and CPUs lost in combat. Dot was right, this was no place for anyone to even live let alone visit for any reason, which in his mind was all the more reason he had to get that girl out of here. They were getting close to Al's Eat and Wait, or rather the back door, he couldn't risk Mouse, Bob, or Matrix seeing him. They'd nullify him for sure. He remembered AndrAIa and Matrix taking him there once. AndrAIa had felt sorry for him getting lost in all the marriage preparations.

Bang!

Enzo's heart skipped a beat. More because Hack and Slash's yells than anything else.

The heavy back door to Al's Eat and Wait had burst open revealing a frantic girl who had run out. She looked around hurriedly for a quick exit, about to bolt. Enzo urged his zipboard forward, moving slowly as if not to disturb a frightened animal announcing his presence, "Hey, wait!"

The girl whipped around to face him, looking rather shocked. She stood still as if she didn't dare to move. The first thing he notice was how slight her frame was, it was lithe, fit, however it looked as though she hadn't had a decent meal in awhile. On some level it disturbed Enzo that he could tell that just from looking at her. He couldn't tell if she was a little older or younger than he was, her malnourished form was obviously the explanation for that. She was wearing nothing but a small t-shirt dress, it wasn't something someone should be wearing down here, and evidence was littered all over her body. Assorted bruises and cuts painted her pale lavender skin (it almost looked white – so pale) he couldn't decide whether or not it was sickly or not. What really caught his eyes was the smooth sliver hair, the way it moved. It rested just above her shoulders and flared out at the tips, yet it seemed to move subtly as if blown by some unseen breeze. He frowned; all in all the girl didn't look like she was in good shape at all. She gazed at him with steal gray eyes, she was sizing him up.

Was she going to take him on? She surely wasn't in anyway dangerous, not in that condition. He got off his zipboard and motioned for Hack and Slash to stay where they would, he didn't want them spooking her. He moved in a few steps closer...

"Stay where you are." The girl said her face serious.

Even if she wasn't dangerous, something in her voice sounded fierce. She's scared of me? The girl would never come back with him in this state. He complied to her request, he feared she'd try and harm him otherwise. Enzo needed to get this girl to trust him, he had a vague idea of what to do, what to try. He saw it on the Mainframe Strolling Players' show The True Stories of MainFrame. The episodes when Matrix first met AndrAIa. Of course this was a somewhat different situation (or at least that's what he told himself)

"Don't be scared." Enzo said trying to keep his voice as soothing as possible, mimicking the voice Bob used on Dot sometimes, "I'm a Guardian. I'm here to help you."

A white lie. An almost truth. He was going to the Guardian Academy in the Super Computer after all. Her face clouded into something unreadable, before warily shaking her head,

"I dont know what that is."

Well that plan was a fail and a half. Part of him even wanted to yell and ask her if she was basic, however of course he refrained from doing so. He was at a loss for words, so he stood there and gaped at her. She looked confused, tilting her head to the side momentarily.

Until her gray eyes widened in fear.

"Uh, Enzo!" Slash called.

"We have an itsy bitsy problem." Hack said

"Hello, Delivery Boy."

---

End 003