A User in Mainframe
By Alex Perez

Part I Contemplation
One day, Alex Perez walked over to his computer, and looked at it for a while.
After ten minutes of thinking, Alex came to a decision.

"I think I'll go inside my computer."

And how will you manage that? Asked his brain.

"I'm a self insert. I can do anything." Alex replied, grinning.

Alex closed his eyes, and said three words.

"Into the computer."

Part II Introductions

When Alex opened his eyes, he was standing in the middle of a large city.
The sky was a dark purple, and a large purple rectangular cube stood out behind many
buildings. Turning around, Alex realized that he was standing next to a small building
that had a sign on it.

"Dot's Diner." He muttered, reading the sign. The building looked like an old
60's diner. Alex shrugged and walked inside. He barely got a chance to look around when
a strange computer screen-like robot with arms hovered over to him. Not hovering, Alex
thought to himself, noticing the track that held the robot in the air.

"Can I help you?" The robot asked, in a snooty French accent.

Alex muttered something incoherent and brushed past the robot. He looked around
the room, noticing the small robots that strangely reminded him of one's and zero's.

What really caught his eye was two humanish people down at the other end of the
restaurant. As Alex made his way towards them, he noticed that they looked a tad different
from normal people. They both had green skin, they were male, but one was much younger than
the other.

Alex walked over to the smaller one and looked at him. The small boy was bugging
the older man. Alex listened and heard some of what the older man was saying.

"This is the third game today. I can't believe I missed it. Enzo, you shouldn't
have been screwing around at Old Man Pearson's Data Dump."

The younger kid, Enzo, had a smile on his face. "Don't worry, Matrix. Bob's in the
game. It'll be fine. Besides, the game is probably the same as the last two. Boy, was that
User basic."

The one named Matrix frowned at Enzo. "And no more sneaking into games." He said,
pointing outside to the large purple cube.

Enzo began to speak, when Alex stepped in. "Um... excuse me. But, what's a game?"
He asked, looking at Matrix. Matrix looked at Alex strangely.

"Were you compiled yesterday?" he asked Alex.

"No." Alex replied, wondering what Matrix meant by compiled. "I'm just new around
here."

Matrix shrugged. "Whatever." He pointed to the purple cube outside. "That's the game.
Third one today. Stupid User."

"User?" Alex muttered, confused. The kid laughed.

"Where have you been? Yeah, the User. The one who input's games? Don't tell me
you've never heard of User's?"

But Alex was no longer listening to Enzo. This is my computer, Alex thought. And I
did play Quake a couple of times to day. Come to think of it, I did leave Quake on
before I came here. That means...

"I'm a User?" Alex muttered.

Matrix stood up and turned around. "What did you say?"

Alex said it this time with confidence. "I'm a User." Matrix glared at Alex, a dangerous look
on his face. But then, Matrix sighed and sat back down.

"It's not funny to joke about that kind of thing," he said in an angry voice.

But Alex was sure of himself now. "But I am! That game is Quake! I was doing really badly
today! And I'm pretty sure I left it on before I came here. I am a User!"

Matrix stopped eating, and turned his head slightly. Alex noticed that one of Matrix's
eyes was yellow, and had a red crosshair in the middle.

"You're a User? Matrix asked darkly.

That's it, I'm outta here, thought Alex's brain.

Enzo backed away a few steps. Alex got nervous.

"Um... yeah, I am."

Part III Decisions
Matrix stood up, turned around, and held up a large gun. Three shots rang out.

Part IV Regret
The diner was emptied, all the inhabitants save Matrix and Enzo had ran outside.
Another green skinned person, this time a female, ran into the main room from a basement.

"Matrix, Enzo, what happened? Are you two OK?"

Matrix sat down and continued eating. Enzo ran up to the female. "It's OK, Dot.
We're fine. Matrix just deleted a User."

Dot walked over to Matrix, and looked at the grisly scene. "Enzo, you got it all
over the wall!" She said, pointing to the red splattered wall. "Not to mention the holes
in the wall."

"Sorry, sis." Matrix muttered.

Part V Anger
"You shot a User?" Bob later asked, looking incredulously at the body on the floor.
Matrix just stood there.

"Think of the things we could have learned!" Bob said to Matrix, angrily.

Part VI Realization
"Bob, you do realize that this means no more games in Mainframe, don't you?"
Matrix said.

Bob thought about it for a microsecond, and then smiled. "Now that you mention it,
you're right!"

Bob levitated the body in the air, and then deleted what was left of it with his Glitch
powers. Matrix and Bob looked at each other, and then burst out laughing, which was rare for Matrix.

"I think you both are taking the death of what could practically be considered our
God a little too lightly." Dot said. Bob and Matrix just laughed harder. Dot rolled her eyes,
and went off to get a mop for Matrix.

The End