The Sprite in black

by Joshua

"Did you know that the Guardian has a girlfriend?" a boy binome asked his classmate, during a class in the school.

"What?" the colleague who was sitting down in the chair in front, Enzo Matrix, asked surprised.

"Boys!"

They turned forward immediately when they heard the teacher calling. When she typed in the vidwindow again, Enzo spoke to his classmate quickly:

"We will talk later!"

"Where did you hear that?" Enzo asked his colleague, Chris. They were in the patio of the school.

"That what?" Chris had forgotten the previous chat.

"That Bob has a girlfriend!"

"Ah... Kevin's who told me. He's over there... Hey, Kevin! Come here!"

A boy,a one binome, came up to them.

"What's up?"

"Tell to Enzo that you told me." Chris asked. "About that sprite."

"Well, I was walking through the Level 31, when I saw someone else walking over there. It was Bob. He seemed to be looking for someone, and I, out of pure curiosity, followed him. He entered into a little dark alley. There, a female sprite all in black was waiting for him and from the way that they talked to each other, they knew each other for a long time. She gave me jaggies!"

"Why?!"

"I don't know! she seemed friendly, but... something in her seemed artificial..." He laughed embarrassed. "She even looked like a deleter." Then he amended, "But the Guardian seemed to trust a lot in her." He shrugged.

Chris sighed. He knew Kevin's imagination.

"How does she look like?"

"I don't know exactly. I was far away from them and she was a little hidden in the shadows." Kevin apologized.

"I gotta tell Dot!" Enzo thought.

"Hey, Dot! Do you already know the news?"

After school, Enzo had invaded the diner, literally, in search of Dot. She just smiled at his untimely arrival; she knew the brother that she had.

"What news?"

"That Bob has a girlfriend!"

"What?" she asked surprised.

He told to her the story that Kevin had told him. Enzo found her reaction strange during the chat: she had become surprised at the beginning of the story, and later curious about that sprite, but it was a normal curiosity. He didn't know what kind of reaction he waited from her, but it wasn't that one. At the end of the report, she only shrugged. Confused with her reaction, he left the diner after saying good bye.

Before leaving the Diner, he looked back through the window. Dot shook the head, laughing.

Enzo had understood.

"She thought that was a joke!", he thought bothered. He had an idea. He opened a vidwindow, and a binome woman answered the call.

"Is Kevin at home?"

Later, in the Level 31, two boys were arguing.

"Kev! You said that you will show where you had seen the date between Bob and that sprite in black!" Enzo exclaimed.

"No way! I'm not going! Do you think I'm random?!"

"Why not?"

"That sprite is a deleter! I'm telling you!"

Enzo sighed.

"If you don't want to go, all right! But tell me where the place was!" he asked.

Kev indicated the location. It was close to Al's Wait and Eat. Enzo got on in his zipboard. His friend tried again.

"Enzo, don't go. That sprite is dangerous! Then, why will she get dressed all in black, like those deleters of the movies? Why did she hide in the shadows?"

"Perhaps her eyes can't support bright light." Enzo said smiling, when he took off. He thought that Kev's imagination was really crazy.

Enzo arrived at the street close to where Bob and the Sprite in Black had met according to Kevin. It was a totally deserted area. He waited to see if anyone appeared. And someone did. Some moments after Enzo had arrived, Bob arrived in the alley. He cautiously looked down the alley for a few nanos, and then he entered. Enzo followed him, hiding at the entrance of the alley.

Bob was talking a female sprite who was hidden in the shadows. She was dressed in a big black leather overcoat. The collar was raised, hiding a large portion of her face. Her black hair was a little disheveled and seemed to be cut short, but he didn't couldn't be sure. She seemed to be wearing sun glasses. She really fits with Kev's description. She perfectly resembled a deleter or a Software Agent. Enzo was curious to know how she looked like, but her back was to him.

Enzo couldn't stop smiling when he saw Bob to move nearer of the sprite and to put an arm about of her waist. And by the way that they acted, they looked like they really knew each other for a long time. "She should really be his girlfriend.", Enzo thought. They had been talking for quite some time, when Glitch gave some type of alert. Bob quickly whispered something in her ear, and he came in direction of the mouth of the alley.

Enzo hid in a nick of time, behind some garbage cans. Bob hadn't seen him. When Enzo left the hiding place, he looked into the alley. The sprite in black was still facing away form him, adjusting the sun glasses with the hands. When he noticed that she will turn to leave the alley, Enzo hid again. When he come out the hideaway, she was already walking away in the other direction. He decided to follow her. He manage to stay close behind her, not wanting that she notice him. She walked with regular, slightly rigid, steps, with the hands in the pockets of the overcoat. She always looked forward. She was about Dot's height more or less; Enzo couldn't stop laughing at the thought of his sister dressed in that way.

The laughter had alerted the sprite, she was turned to see from where the laughter came. Enzo quickly had hidden behind a wall. When he raised the eyes, the sprite in black had disappeared.

Back to the diner, he saw that Bob and Dot talked regarding the last game that had runned in Mainframe.

"Fortunately the User didn't know the cheat code for invulnerability in that game. If he knew..." Bob shook the head. That war game was really very difficult.

It was then that they both noticed Enzo's presence.

"Bob, can I speak to you for a nano?" Enzo asked.

"Sure." he answered a little surprised.

When they were out of the diner, Enzo released the bomb.

"Bob, who was that sprite in black?"

"Huh?!"

"That sprite that you met in the Level 31."

The guardian still tried to escape from that subject.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Bob, I saw you meeting with her!"

"How did you see our date?!" Bob asked, a little startled.

"I followed some clues." Enzo said, evasive. "But you has just admitted that you met someone! You didn't even try to hide it."

"Ok." He gave a sigh. "That "sprite in black", as you calls her, is my girlfriend."

Enzo already guessed that, but the confirmation still surprised him. "Your girlfriend?!"

"Yes, my girlfriend. Why?" Bob found odd that Enzo was so surprised.

"Nothing... What's her name?"

Bob thought a moment, to try decide if he should give her name or not.

"Natasha," he said, before the Voice of the System informed:

"Warning, incoming game. Warning, incoming game..."

Bob ran off in the direction of the game. Enzo was so surprised, that he didn't even think in follow Bob towards the game. Instead of that, he entered the diner and went talk with Dot. He told regarding the date that he had witnessed and of the chat that had had with Bob. Dot scolded him about respecting the privacy of others, and Enzo listed it quietly. He was expecting Dot's reaction to the news. She had been surprised at first, and after that, she shrugged. And she smiled when Enzo had told her the name of "Sprite in Black".

"If you described her right, Enzo, the name fits with her, isn't?"

"Huh... sis?"

"What?"

Enzo didn't know how to continue. He only knew that the reaction from Dot, or better, the lack of reaction of her, had something of wrong.

"Are you not jealous?"

Dot raised the head abruptly. She was sincerely surprise.

"Why would I be jealous of them? I hope everything goes very well for them!"

"Don't you have a crush on Bob?"

Dot laughed.

"Enzo, Bob and I are friends, nothing more. I don't know where you got that idea from." She spoke calmly. She smiled and went back to her organizer, indicating that she had spoken seriously. Enzo had not only fallen in the ground of pure shock, because that he had a seat behind him.

Enzo had decided speak with Bob about Natasha. Frisket was at his side. When he saw Bob, he noticed that his friend was going to the Level 31. Enzo was in doubt for some moments, but he was after him.

For some moments, Enzo had lost sight of Bob, and decided to go to that alley where he and Natasha met before. And he was right - both were there.

They talked in a very low tone, Enzo couldn't listen them. She was with the hands in the pockets of the overcoat. Now she used a cap, also black, buried until the eyes, besides the sun glasses. They were very close one of the other. Enzo didn't get to see her face. At a certain moment, she crossed the arms and she were with a serious posture, as if she was expecting an explanation. Bob spoke some thing and she laughed. Enzo was a little confused, her laughter sounded familiar, but he could not say the reason of the feeling. They talked for a little while longer, when it seemed that she had to go. She arranged the overcoat, but she was standing as if she was considering something. Enzo saw Bob ask something to her, when she surprised him: she wrapped her arms around his neck and she passionately kissed him. Bob didn't resist and retributed the kiss back.

"The date is really serious!", Enzo thought, when upos seeing their passionate kiss. Enzo cannot stop smiling, and he would swear that Frisket smiled too due to the scene.

It was then that Natasha released Bob and she arranged the sun glasses. Enzo and Frisket hid behind a near wall. They heard the sound of high-heeled footfalls walking out of the alley, later the sound of someone in a zipboard too leaving the allet, later again the sound of high-heeled footfalls. Enzo left the hiding place. He saw Natasha walking in direction of Al's Wait and Eat.

"Let's go, Frisket!"

Both followed the sprite in black. Frisket walked quietly beside Enzo, who was in his zipboard. She walked in a moderate step; she didn't seem to had any hurry. She had only removed the gloved hands from the pockets just once, to reposition the sun glasses. Enzo thought now that Kev could be right, there was something in Natasha that didn't fit... Her gestures now seemed cautious, as if calculated; they didn't combine with the manner that she acted in the encounter. There, she acted looser, more well-tempered. Now, she seemed a little too cold, serious.

Enzo thought over this, when Frisket saw a null. He snarled for the null, that escaped. The detail was that he had roared a bit too loudly. Natasha stopped of walking, her body tense of alert. It was in the nick of time, when Enzo pushed Frisket into a nearby alley. Natasha turned abruptly, but late too much to see her pursuers. She laughed when she saw that null. Suddenly, her eyes were narrowed. In the corner of the wall of an alley, she saw a reflection in a mirror piece: a boy sprite and a rather large dog. She bit her lower lip for a moment, then she smiled and she retaked her way again.

Enzo breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the sound of her footfalls decrease of intensity. He didn't think she really was a deleter, but... was better to be safe, isn't? He and Frisket left the improvised hideaway, and they followed the "Sprite in black" again. She turned in a bifurcation. When Enzo entered in the same road... she had disappeared again!

He blinked for sometime, trying to understand how she had made this magic. In this instant, a black-gloved hand grabbed Enzo by the arm strongly and pulled him into an alley!

Enzo's breathing stopped in that instant, of pure fear. Natasha now was behind him, holding his shoulders in a firm way; her hands, very close of his neck.

"What do you want from me, sprite?" The sprite in black asked, seriously, in a tone that was not threatening, but it was not also friendly. Her voice was strange: it seemed oddly familiar, but it had something of very strange - an a little artificial, a little too much regular tone.

"Are you Bob's girlfriend? Natasha?" Enzo asked the obvious, for the simple reason of being scared too much to think in a convincing answer. And he knew that he was far away from any help, only for that reason he didn't scream. And by her agility, he knew that if he screamed, if she wanted, she could do something very unpleasant before he could do some thing.

"Yes, I am." she said in the same tone before. "Why did you follow me?" she repeated, a little more authoritarian.

Enzo gulped. Her tone was the same of the deleters from the movies! He remembered what Kev had said. Now he believed. "Now, she will turn off without saving!" Enzo thought of closed eyes.

"Why did you follow me?" She repeated the question. He opened the eyes.

In a pulse, Enzo tried to turn the head to see her face. Before he had the chance, she pressed his shoulders a little more strongly - just enough to be a "gentile" form of saying: "Don't think in that!"

"I was curious about you!"

The "Sprite in Black" asked slowly, with a mixed tone of irony and amusement:

"Were you curious about me?"

Her tone didn't tranquilize him. She still held firmly him for the shoulders. He felt when she slowly descended. She spoke slowly, close of his ear:

"Enzo, you should try to be a little less curious!"

"End of file!", Enzo thought, terrified.

Suddenly, something covered his eyes and he felt that was spinning. He held himself in a wall. It was when he noticed that what covered his eyes it was his own cap. And it was on that moment he noticed that Natasha had disappeared.

Enzo was still a little dizzy, because of the spinning. Natasha really had cheated him! She should have loved the fright that had given on him! Now he noticed a tone of who thought funny when she had said: "Enzo, you should be a little..." It was when he noticed: He had not said it, but.... she knew his name!

Frisket licked Enzo's bewildered face. He asked:

"Frisket, why didn't you attack her?" Enzo wasn't angry, he was only amazed. If somebody had grabbed Enzo of that way, in the next moment Frisket would be to the point of to attack the attacker's throat. The only answer that Frisket can give was a insecure snarl.

They were in direction of Baudway.

"That is not funny!" Enzo said bothered.

Bob still laughed. In the next cycle, Enzo had told him regarding the fright that Natasha had given him. The two sprites talked in the Dot's diner. There was not anybody close that could hear the chat.

"Excuse me! But that is what you win by spying the others!" Bob said well-tempered. "Did you really think she was a deleter?!" He didn't believe in that.

"She resembles one!" Enzo defended.

"O.K. She really resembles a deleter. I admit that. She doesn't support strong light, so she gets dressed of that way. But she is not dangerous, that is just her way."

Enzo was not still convinced.

"Oh! Is her way then almost to kill anybody of fright?! When she grabbed me and she spoke in that tone... I thought that she will delete me!"

Enzo turned the head. Dot looked at fixedly to some spreedsheets. She seemed to be very concentrated on them.

Bob scratched the head. He said cautiously.

"She doesn't just like to be the center of the attentions. That is all. When she noticed you followed her, and as she knows that she resembles a deleter, she should have been thinking that a fright would be a great way of you to give up. She is a very cool and a very pretty sprite, she is just a little shy with unknown people."

Enzo raised the brows. Even he knew that that kiss didn't belong to a shy person. Enzo noticed that he would not get anything else about Natasha's personality, he asked:

"Is she from Supercomputer?" Enzo thought that that would explain her strangeness.

"Yes, she is."

Enzo felt a hand in the shoulder. He almost jumped of pure fright.

"Hey, Enzo, it's me!" Dot said, surprise with his reaction.

"Warning, Incoming Game. Warning, Incoming Game..."

Bob came out of the Diner to enter in the game that went down. Enzo will follow him but Dot held his brother. Besides being dangerous, he still had homework to do...

Two cycles after the chat in the diner, Enzo, Chris and Kev were in the Level 31. They had going to Wall Street Sector, to research some files for a school work, and now they went back home, cutting the road for the Level 31.

"Why we don't go to Al's?" Chris asked.

As they didn't have anything else to do, they were.

Some moments then, Chris and Kev had left. Enzo was arranging his annotations. He heard somebody enter in the restaurant, but he didn't care in the moment. He noticed that the person had sat down in the table behind him. He will rise when he heard:

"One energy shake, please." The voice was calm, and a little too regular.

"Sure, lady." The waiter answered quickly.

Enzo had recognized the voice. He ventured a glance back. He saw the back of the neck of a black-haired sprite, with the collar of raised black overcoat raised. Enzo couldn't believe in the irony. There was Natasha, Bob's mysterious girlfriend from the Supercomputer.

The young sprite continued sat down, waiting. Natasha finished her energy shake.

"Thank you." She said kindly and she smiled at the waiter. Then, she seemed to think better and she stayed with a neutral expression in the face. Enzo was annoyed. He was sure that he had already heard that gentile tone before...

Natasha rose and she calmly left, the hands carefully in the pockets of the overcoat.

Enzo almost that jumped from where he was to speak with the waiter.

"Was that sprite already here before?"

"Yes. Once in a while, she appears here."

"How long she comes here?"

"Not much time. Just some cycles..." The waiter thought a little. "She is a little strange."

"Why?"

"She only comes all dressed in black, sometimes with a cap hiding her face. But..."

"But?"

"I don't know... she intimidates a little, with that way of her, but the smile that she gave was very gentile, the kind that you wait of a friend... the problem is that her smile seems to be very familiar." The binome shook the head. "I don't know why..."

"Does she always come this hour?"

"Yes." On that moment the waiter was called by another customer.

Enzo had an idea.

Some cycles later, he waited hidden close to the Al's Wait and Eat. Enzo was ready to discover how the face of mysterious Natasha was. All right, she could be shy, but it seemed that she didn't want that anybody saw her face! A moment she hides with the sun glasses, another with her hair, another with that black cap: if she was as pretty like Bob said, that didn't make sense...

He heard the sound of high-heeled footfalls arriving close. It was the "Sprite in Black". She arrived with the face hidden by the cap. It seemed that in the neck she had a very old scar. While she was inside of Al's, Enzo prepared a special photo machine, that didn't need flash. That will be Enzo's way of to take revenge of that scare that Natasha had given him.

She had left. Enzo followed her quietly. She calmly walked. She stopped in front of an alley, close of the limits of the Level 31 with Baudway. After she looks for the sides, she entered in the alley. Enzo was in the mouth of the alley. Natasha went to the bottom of the alley, where there was an old broken mirror in the ground. She removed her cap and she opened the overcoat. Enzo saw the reflex of the icon in her chest in the mirror. Natasha clicked twice in the icon and rebooted.

Enzo blinked, don't getting to believe.

In the place in that it was Natasha, it was Dot!

Enzo was literally without speech. He left of there before his sister noticed him.

Enzo went to the apartment in that he and his sister lived, in Baudway. He knows that Dot would not go to there, at least for while. He went try to ratiocinate regarding what he had discovered.

Dot and Natasha were the same person.

About that, there wasn't more doubt now.

Question one: why Bob and Dot are doing that?

Answer: It was now obvious that both were very impassioned one for the other, but they didn't also want that nobody knew about that. Reason: everybody in Mainframe will comment, being Bob a Guardian from Supercomputer, and Dot, one of the only sprites that remained in Mainframe. Then if you don't want the people to know so that you can date in peace, use a disguise. Of course everyone would be supercurious if Dot suddenly dated some sprite that they ignored, but as Bob was from Supercomputer, and no one knew much about his past, he could have a girlfriend from there, even if she is very strange. And it would be normal that she came to visit him, since it would be very difficult he visits her: to be the guardian of a system was a work of integral period. Being like this, Dot only needs reboot and Natasha, the girlfriend from Supercomputer has just arrived in Mainframe to meet the boyfriend. That made sense.

Enzo now was not angry with the fright that Dot had given it: if he had the chance of scare her of that way, he would go ahead with the game, he admitted that to himself. And he knew that Dot would not also lose the chance of she scare him in that way, only to play with him... she should have been laughing for a long time! And he had to admit that Dot made a perfect performance of a deleter...

"She could be a great actress...", Enzo thought, with irony.

Question two: How had not he recognized her?!

Answer: Enzo could not simply imagine Dot walking thereabout, wearing a black overcoat, sun glasses and a cap buried until the eyes. As well as no one in Mainframe would imagine that. And Dot knew about that! Had not he laughed when he thought of his sister wearing those deleter clothes after all?

Being like this, pefect disguise for her. That, with a necklace with a voice filter that he had found, she became another person - speaking literally. And that explained because Frisket had not attacked: it should have felt the her smell, and it was confused, among the evidence of the smell and the appearance that Dot had in the moment.

Enzo thought aloud:

"Allright, I won't tell their secret." He smiled. "But now it is my time of scare them a little."

Later, Enzo found Bob and Dot talking in Dot's Diner's counter. Perfect chance.

"Bob?"

"What was?"

"Does Natasha like to read?"

"Yes, she likes a lot." Bob raised the brows, confused. "Why?"

"Well, perhaps you should give to her some text files of Robin Login or Epson Dialup."

Robin Login and Epson Dialup were authors of thriller stories that Dot loved, but only Enzo knew about that. She was worried. Enzo had been a little too specific.

"Why you think that?" Bob asked. He was concerned too.

"Intuition, perhaps. She looked like be the kind of sprite that likes that kind of story." Enzo smiled mysteriously and left.

His smile contrasted with the worried faces of the two sprites. Dot and Bob looked one for the other. Will it be that he knew?

The End

Copyright (c) 1999 by Joshua Falken