Reboot: A New Guardian (ON HOLD)

Return to Dot's Diner... but with no Dot

Trey/D-Frag's P.O.V.

Our shortest best friend burst though the holo-wall and rushed down the stairs.

"Right on time," Austin commented as he set his stuff down in the chill area. "V.E.R.A. detected dark code by Dot's Diner."

"Just Megabyte and Hexadecimal this time," our A.I. friend added. "No sentinels or new recruits."

Tamra groaned. "At least we have the new upgrade to help defend ourselves and the 3 Matrixes."

"4," Parker corrected her. "Little Bob has a sister."

We moved on from this. "Doesn't matter," I said, slightly impatient. I was itching to get back out there to unleash my extra energy on these sentinels. "They still need us to protect them and their home."

"Let's move," Austin agreed, maneuvering around the tables to the teleportation spots. We all followed close behind him, but stopped right before the pods to look at each avatar screen. They shifted after our last mission with our new teammate, Giga, so mine was on the far left now. Austin stood in the middle with Tamra in the middle of us two, then Parker standing on the other side of our leader on the far right, with an empty spot in between them. After the slight awkwardness of adjustments, we were in our appropriate pods and teleported into cyberspace once again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So, what exactly does the Matrixes' neighborhood look like?" I asked my teammates as we stood closer to the Codec's grand front window. Due to my important basketball game last year, I wasn't able to go on that mission. Also, when I practice random drills on my own (well, with V.E.R.A. in Room 0) I normally go on an empty space on the computer, so I never visited the Mainframe.

"Sort of retro-y, very colorful, resembles a city," Parker informed. "Oh, and there's this mysterious user outside in the real world who inserts games that pull us inside the game, and if we don't win that level and/or game, then it's game over and we get nullified." How assuring, another way to die in cyberspace. Why did you sound so cheerful saying that, Googz?

"V.E.R.A. told me that she upgraded our suits to match that reboot thing Bob's suit does," Austin added. "So, if any one of us is in the game just tap the Guardian symbol on our chest, say reboot, and our suit and weapons will go with whatever the game is."

"Nice," Tamra commented. "Hopefully, we don't run into that Hexadecimal again. Real creep."

From the corner of my visor, I spotted our leader reach out and clasp her hand in comfort. I share a smirk with Parker at the slight gesture. A few months ago, he told me about that mission a year ago, and how Tamra was greatly affected by the new villain, Hexadecimal. He wasn't sure what specifically happened, since he was inside the game, but he did tell me that Austin made a great attempt to get her mind off of it. And it was veryobvious it wasn't because of his role as a leader, but as her crush.

I wonder if he ever had the guts to ask the Tamra Sez out. Which I think is kinda funny because on her vlogs, Tamra always says, "Tamra Sez... out!" 

Suddenly, the ship jolted to the side and set all of us unbalanced. Our foot-belt things did a good job keeping us some-what steady, but that didn't prevent us from flailing our arms around.

"V.E.R.A.!" Parker yelped, his voice cracking. "What just happened?" 

"We appear to have been struck by a missile from a ship with the same code as Hexadecimal. I scanned the vehicle and picked up the code of her, Megabyte, and a whole army of sentinels," our A.I. friend replied urgently. "I"ll activate the shields to protect the ship, but it will take approximately 3.45 minutes. Luckily, we are just arriving at Dot's Diner."

"That's worse!" Our leader cried. "Bob's family could get hurt if they misfire a missile."

"What if we sneak off the ship and have V.E.R.A. drive the Codec away, leading the sentinels away for now?" Parker suggested. 

"It's worth a shot," Tamra answered, stepping onto the launch pad. "V.E.R.A. told me my upgrade will allow me to hide all of you guys if you're close enough, but I only have one shot at this."

Austin nodded and stepped next to her. He then turned towards his best friend. "Googz, is your quadra disc big enough for all of us? That way we won't have any problem needing to hover near each other constantly." Parker nodded as the two of us stood beside them. 

"Quadra disc!" He called out, jumping into the air. 

Beneath his feet, his black-and-deep green vehicle appeared out of thi air/code. He used his finger to beckon us on board, pressing a button to expand the quadra disc. Austin and Tamra stood behind him, while I placed myself in the back.

"Time to go incognito!" Tamra whisper-yelled. 

Suddenly, all four of us along with the quadra disc were surrounded by a sort of sphere colored a darker shade of yellow. V.E.R.A. then lowered us down on the hanger and Parker slowly pulled us out. I watched as the hanger closed and the ship blast away from us, the sentinels following as expected. I turned my head back to the colorful and coded city, which was exactly how our team intellect described it as. But duller. 

Austin turned his head towards the sentinels. "They're gone," he announced. Parker let out a breath he was keeping in. "You can deactivate the invisibility, Enigma."

"Got it." She snapped her fingers and the dome around us vanished. She hopped off the quadra disc and landed swiftly on the ground in front of an old-fashioned diner. Austin was quick to follow her down, as was I. Parker then landed his vehicle before it disappeared beneath his feet. 

My teammates lead me inside the diner. (A/N Sorry, don't know how exactly to describe it. Hopefully you know what it looks like if you watched RTGC.) Once we stepped inside, a little green-skin boy who seemed around ten run up to Austin and hugged him around his legs. "You're here!" The boy exclaimed, looking up at him. He turned to the back of the diner. "DJ! The other Guardians are here!"

A little girl that only seems about a year or two younger than the boy ran out of the back door and stood right next to him, bouncing on the spot. She looked much like the boy, so I figured they were siblings, but she has pigtails instead of a sporty cap and red-and-orange attire. "You guys are Guardians? Like daddy?" She squealed.

"That's right," Austin answered, kneeling down. "And you are?"

"I'm DJ, which stands for Dot Junior!" DJ smiled brightly. "I'm Little Enzo's sister."

"Hey! I'm not that little!" Little Enzo retorted.

Austin stood back up. "Well I'm Vector, over here is our team smarts Googz -" Parker mock-saluted. "- D-Frag over here is our team strength -" I gave a wave to Little Enzo and DJ. "- and last but not least, our team ninja, Enigma."

"Pleasure to meet you DJ," Tamra greeted, "and hello again, Little Enzo."

"Where are your parents?" Parker asked the two kids, looking to the back room's open window to find no one inside.

Suddenly, the smiles vanished from the children's faces. Little Enzo played with his fingers and bit his lip, while DJ had her hands behind her back as she looked down at her shoes. The boy shifted from foot to foot, while his sister looked on the verge of tears. 

"M-m-momm-m-m-my w-w-was taken," DJ whimpered. 

Her brother sniffed and rubbed his eyes. "Dad left us to go after her."

I gulped. I knew what it was like to have my mother missing from my life. At least they had each other to stay sane. Tamra went down to pick up the little girl and wrap her in a comforting hug. Austin knelt down once more and allowed Little Enzo to lay his head on his shoulder.

"Then there's only one thing left to do," another voice announced. I perked my head up in confusion. Parker's eyes were locked on the person at the doorway. The rest of us turned in the same direction and saw a familiar purple figure standing in the diner.

"Let's help your father bring your mother back home," the Bionic Blade announced.