Hexadecimal sets out to solve her lonelness problem...
Note: "Rab" would have Bob's orginal voice.
Hexadecimal sat in her throne room, absentmindedly petting her pet cat, Scuzzy. The chaotic computer witch was not feeling her usual chaotic self this second. She sighed, looking longingly at the picture of Bob that she had hung in midair near her throne.
Hex had painted the picture, herself. It was beautifully painted, with none of the chaotic qualities her other paintings often had. She had several of those kinds of paintings of her friends, ranging from Picasso-like to Dali-like and everything in between.
But each of her friends had at least one painting that was a perfect likeness, with nothing out of place, not even so much as a hair. As much as Hex loved chaos, she also loved her friends. And if she wanted to look at their portraits and see them as they really looked, she needed paintings of them that looked normal.
The Bob portrait was of the new, improved version, the one after he had merged with Glitch. His uniform was now shiny, silvery chrome armor, his icon resting in a golden starburst in the center of his chest. His hair was longer, more steel-gray than chrome-silver. His face was still the sprite she knew, although it was framed in scale-like webscars. His brown eyes --as warm and gentle as ever-- sparkled back as she gazed at his smiling face.
Hex sighed again. Bob was already taken, married to Dot and with two little sprites --Rob and Jade. Matrix had AndrAIa, Ray had Mouse, and even Wild Card -- Bob's twin brother-- was married, to Jo Ann, the User Guardian. But Hexadecimal was unattached. There was no one for her. No other sprites lived in Mainframe, and she did not dare go to the Twin City. Even though the parents of the Matrixes and of Bob and Wild Card knew that she was a friend and trusted her, the rest of Twin City was a little more then wary of her.
As she gazed at the painting of the blue-skinned Guardian, a thought entered Hex's mind. The ex-virus sat up straight as she let the thought roll over and over in her mind. She smiled as she comtimplated the idea. It won't be easy, she thought. But it could be done. Bob and the others might not like it, though. It requires the copying of the codes of a PID. But it would be better than chasing someone who didn't want me. Certainly, it would be better than not having anyone at all...
With these thoughts, Hexadecimal rose from her throne. There was much work for her to do.
Hexadecimal held a blank icon in her hand. She knew better than to try to copy Bob's codes without his knowledge, so she planned to ask him outright. Not the sanest plan, she knew. For one thing, it would mean telling Bob her plan. And another, she had to catch him alone, if she was to avoid any of the others from finding out.
Hex knocked on the door to Bob's office. She was a little nervous. Suppose Bob would not let her copy his codes? But she only needed the Guardian codes. She did not want to get them from Jo Ann --whom Hex was sure would allow the ex-virus to copy the Guardian codes to the icon-- because she wanted the codes to come from a male Guardian, perferably, from Bob.
"Come in," Hex heard Bob's voice say from inside the office. Hex smiled, and sauntered into the room.
"Hi, Hex," Bob smiled. "What can I do for you today?"
"Hello, Bob," Hex smiled back. "I was wondering if I could ask a favor of you..." She held the icon tightly in her hand.
"Sure, if I can."
"I was wondering if I could copy your Guardian codes." Hex showed him the icon that she held in her hand. It was a normal icon --half-black and half-white, with black and white triangles on opposite halves, the bases touching to form a diamond.
"Why do you want my Guardian Protocals?" Bob asked, looking at the icon.
"I want to create my own Guardian. Someone for me to love. Dot has you, Jo Ann has Wild Card, AndrAIa has Matrix, and Mouse has Ray. Who have I got? No one."
"And you want him to have my Guardian Protocals."
"Yes. To have something of you in him." Hex looked pleadingly at him, hoping he would allow her to copy his special codes.
Bob thought it over to himself. If I allow her to copy my Protocals, what's to keep her from copying all my codes to the PID? And would the Guardian she has in mind to create have my Keytool powers, as well? And what would Turbo think of a cloned Guardian? That's what Hex wants to create. A cloned-file, like Dash. But she wants to create the clone from different sprites, not just one. And she wants the Guardian Protocals to come from me. Who else is she going to ask to donate codes for this clone?
"Who else are you going to ask for codes for this clone of yours, Hex?" Bob asked.
"I was thinking, maybe some from Matrix, and Wild Card, and a little from Ray..."
"I little bit from all the guys, huh?" Bob asked. Hex nodded. "There was a time when you would have just captured all of us and did this without our permission."
"You would have tried to stop me, then," Hex smiled.
"True. And I suppose there is still enough of your chaotic programing in you that, should I refuse to let you copy my codes, you'd go ahead and do it anyway, right?"
"That is possible," Hex admitted.
Bob smiled and reached for the icon. Hesitantly, Hex gave it to him. He took his icon from his chest and held it over the other icon.
"Icon, copy and download, Guardian Protocals, Version 1, Cadet!" Bob commanded. In a stream of golden diamonds, the information flowed from Bob's icon to the other, changing it to the gold and black badge of the Guardians. When the downloading was finished, he gave the icon back to Hex, replacing his own icon back in the gold starburst on his chest.
"Thank you, Bob," Hexadecimal smiled. She held onto the icon like the precious thing that it was.
''The Cadet version of the Guardian Protocals was the only version I could download into anyone's icon, Hex. He would have to go to the Super Computer to study at the Guardian Academy. Either that, or allow me to tutor him here in Mainframe. We'll have to talk about it with Turbo when you get this sprite made. For right now, though, we need to talk to the others."
"But..." Hex began.
"Hex, you came and asked my permission for the Guardian Protocals. Now, you need to ask Wild Card, Matrix, and Ray for whatever you need from them. It's the fair thing to do. And if you tell them why you want the codes, and why you are cloning a sprite, they would be far more coopartive in allowing you to download certain codes."
"You're right," Hex sighed. She was chaotic, but no longer dangerously chaotic. Where before the restart, Hex would have simply either snuck around or attacked the Mainframers to get what she wanted, now, she just as simply asked them for what she needed. Most often than not, they gave her what she asked for.
"Let's go, then," Bob smiled, leading the way out of his office. "The sooner we explain things to them, the sooner you'll get the codes you need."
The two left the office, heading for the one place in all Mainframe that their friends would be together: Dot's Diner.
"You want to do, what?!" Matrix exclaimed, looking Hexadecimal in the eye.
"I want to download some of your codes for a clone I'm making," Hex said. "I don't want all of your codes, just certaincodes."
"Which ones?" Wild Card asked.
"Your bounty hunting skills, maybe, and Matrix's strength, and Ray's --I don't know-- portal-forming abilities?"
"And you're going to form all that into one sprite?" Jo Ann asked.
"Yes," Hex smiled. "Hopefully..." she added, uncertain. There was a small chance that this would not work. A small chance, but still, a chance.
"Well, do we do it, guys?" Matrix asked. "Do we let Hex download those codes, or not?"
"It really wouldn't 'urt, mate, if 'Ex copied some o' our codes. And it's for a good cause, at any rate," Ray said. The Web Surfer looked at the renagade and the bounty hunter.
"What could it really hurt?" Wild Card replied. He removed his icon from his chest. Ray removed his from his belt.
"Well..." Matrix began. Hex looked at him, pleadingly. "Okay," sighed. He unpinned his icon from his shoulder. "But, we do the coping and downloading."
"Of course, Matrix dear," Hex smiled. She handed him the icon she held.
Begining with Matrix, then Wild Card, and finally, Ray, each man copied and downloaded specific codes into the icon. When they were done, Ray gave the icon back to Hex.
"Thank you dears," Hex smiled. "I'm off to create my dream man!" With that, Hex disappeared into her mask, then teleported away.
"I hope she succeeds," Jo Ann said.
"You do?" Wild Card asked.
"Why?" asked Matrix.
"Everyone needs someone. I have Wild Card, Mouse has Ray, AndrAIa has Matrix, and Dot has Bob. Hex needs someone, too. If she can make herself a man, why try and stop her? All she wants to be is happy."
They pondered Jo Ann's words. All Hex wanted to be is happy. If creating a mate could do that, let her make whatever man she wanted. As long as he was not going to be viral, what did it matter? And they knew that Hex could not infect anyone, unlike her brother, Megabyte.
For long seconds, Hexadecimal worked in her Lair. Lost Angles still existed, despite the fact that the Twin City had been restarted. Lost Angles still had the chaoticness of its resident, but without the deadly traps that Hex had set out for unwelcome visitors, it had taken on an aura of beauty, as well.
Inside the Lair, Hex was hard at work on her "project". Cloning a sprite was not an easy task, even for her. There was so many things that could go wrong. A wrong push of a button, or the mispelling of a word in the commands could alter the clone, damaging it, even turning it completly evil. That, she did not want to do.
Hex checked and double-checked, then triple-checked all the commands to be sure she had everything right. She read over the checklist she held in her hand, making sure nothing was left out. Satisfied that all was in readiness, Hex began the final prepreations for the cloning.
Now, Hexadecimal pressed a glowing, red button. She watched as her new mate slowly took shape. It would not be long, now, before she had her man. A happy, little smile appeared on her face.
It was many milliseconds later when Hexadecimal entered Dot's Diner, followed by a strange sprite. His skin was green, like Matrix's, while his hair was blond, like Ray's. His eyes were brown, like Bob and Wild Card's. He had dark-blue armor --like Bob's Glitch-armor, but in a Cadet's colors.
For a nanosecond, Bob nearly panicked. This new sprite of Hex's had the same Keytool powers that Bob, himself, had! Did I download more than the Cadet, Version 1 Protocals? he thought despartly. Or is that what downloading the Cadet Protocals will do now: Give cadets Keytool Powers. If the later is true, than I can never issue the Cadet Protocals ever again! Not even to Little Enzo!
The blue-armored sprite's Guardian icon was in the center of his chest, the middle of a golden starburst. His face, although green, was a mirror to Bob's. Clearly, although he was created from the codes of four sprites, Bob was the major model for Hex's new love.
"Who is your --friend--, Hex?" Bob asked.
"Rab," the sprite said, in a voice that sounded speciously like a younger Bob.
"Nice to meet you, Rab," Bob said. He shook hands with the clone.
"And I, you, Bob."
"Hex..." Bob looked from Rab to Hex and back to Rab.
"Think of him as your cousin, Bob, dear," Hex grinned.
"Hmmm...Rab..." Jo Ann mused. "That's a little-used variation of Robert, from which the name, 'Bob' comes from."
"Look's like 'Ex put more o' Bob 'n the clone than o' anyone else," Ray commented.
"Well," Dot smiled, "she's always had a thing for Bob. It makes perfect sence that she would make the clone look --and sort of sound-- like him."
"Bob, Wild Card, Echo, and now, Rab," Jo Ann teased her brother-in-law. "There are a lot of you going around, Bob."
"He's a popluar template," Dot winked at her husband. Bob winked back.
"The next hurtle: How is Turbo going to react to Rab?" Matrix asked.
"Good question," Bob answered.
"We'll just have to be honest with him and explain everything," Jo Ann said. "I'm sure he'll understand."
"Right," Bob answered, still unsure. "Let's get this over with, then." He called up a vid-window to the Guardian Academy in the Super Computer.
"What da ya need, Bob?" Turbo asked when he came into veiw in the vid-window.
"Well," Bob began, as he searched for what to say. "We've got an --interesting-- story for you." Bob, still unsure, but trying to look calm, told Turbo the entire story of Hex and her cloned-Guardian lover.
When Bob finished his report, Turbo stared at him silently, mulling over the turn of events in his head. Rab sat beside Bob, waiting for the Prime Guardian to speak.
"This is highly unuaual, Bob," Turbo said, at last. "A cloned sprite, created from bits o' code from tha rest of ya'll? What do ya plan ta do with 'im?"
"Letting him go," Bob replied. "Hex created him for herself, to ease her loneliness. I see no problem with that. But he will have to learn to handle his powers. I'm already teaching Jo Ann how to use her Keytool powers. I can teach Rab how to use his as well. But he is still a Cadet. Should he be sent to the Super Computer for Guardian Programing?"
"Naw. He needs ta stay with ya in Mainframe. When he needs ta be upgraded from Cadet ta full Guardian, call, an' Ah'll come an' download tha codes. Until then, teach 'im all ya can."
"Okay, Turbo," Bob answered. "And thanks for understanding."
"No problem, Bob," Turbo smiled at his friend and brother-in-law. "Turbo: Out!" The vid-window closed. Bob smiled and turned toward Rab.
"Well," he said, "it looks like I've got another pupil on my hands. Give me a few seconds to work out some sort of schedule. Err...Dot?"
"Yes, dearest?"
could you help me set up a schedule. I've got two to teach, now."
"Of course, love," Dot smiled. She hugged him close.
Rab, seeing this, looked over to Hexadecimal. Hex was watching the couple and sighing wistfully. Rab grinned, then leaned over and kissed Hex full on the lips.
Hexadecimal was caught by surprise. Then, she relaxed into the kiss. Her first kiss.
It felt so good to be in love.