Attack of the Clones
Chapter 1 – Discovery
“Gooooooooooood morning, Mainframe!”
Enzo Matrix groaned and rolled over in bed. He was so tired; he prayed and prayed this wasn’t a school second. His answers seemed to be blessed when he saw the little television set dancing about in his room.
Mike only came on the cycle’s end, having been given a lecture from the boy’s sister on keeping him away from his duties, such as getting ready for school.
Enzo yawned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. Finally, the cycle’s end! That meant he could hang out with Bob or even AndrAIa. Thinking of the game sprite always put a smile on his face. Then came the frown.
Where ever AndrAIa went, he was there. Enzo had come to grips that the game sprite’s
boyfriend was his ‘brother’, the older version of himself. And Enzo was fine with that. He understood he was a copy, heck he had told Bob copies were fun! So it wasn’t that which usually put fear in the young boy’s heart.
It was the fact Matrix hated him.
Even after everything they had been through, what defeating a completely changed Megabyte and regaining the Principal Office and the system, the two still weren’t on a family level. That was true of the boys’ sister, Dot Matrix, as well.
She and Matrix hardly talked and she was treating him like a baby. Well, she always had, but with Matrix in the system and everything he had gone through, it was more so. There had been only one time that the siblings had laughed and played together.
Right before the wedding.
Since then, things had gone from bad to worse. Yeah, Megabyte had revealed his true self and had taken them hostage, but the real damage -which the virus had wanted all along -was the very fall of the leaders of Mainframe. From Enzo’s point of view, they had survived that or so they told themselves at night. The system was still as friendly and caring as they had been before.
The only people who didn’t get along were those staffed in the P.O. Bob and Dot didn’t talk to each, Matrix and Dot didn’t speak to each other, Mouse and AndrAIa were the only ones who clearly enjoyed each other’s company, even Matrix and AndrAIa, the never fail couple, seemed to be at odds lately.
And those were just the adults.
Enzo had to sneak in ‘playtime’ with Bob and see AndrAIa behind Matrix’s back. The small sprite hated it and it seemed this was the one time even Phong, the wisest and oldest sprite in the city, couldn’t do anything about it. The boy sighed again and looked back at Mike, who smiled when the boy finally noticed him.
“Well, it’s about time!” he exclaimed. “I thought I’d have to do my tap dance review if you didn’t pay me any attention!”
“Don’t harp on me, Mike,” Enzo growled, still a bit sleepy and cranky. “So play something while I get dressed.”
“Right.” Mike turned his screen to some cooking show starring Ooer, the one binome.
“I meant something interesting,” Enzo replied, sarcastically.
Mike turned channels and broadcasted a soap opera, The Love Hospital.
“Keep going.” Enzo called from under the bed, where he was searching for his other shoe.
Mike scowled and then flipped to a Mike Show rerun, which was currently doing the Mike Show News. “And in today’s news…” replied Scoop Reporter. “More and more reports are coming in about some strange phenomena around Mainframe.”
Enzo peeked his head out from under the bed to listen. “Binomes on the streets say the system isn’t what it used to be and that people have changed. And there’s a reason why. Mainframe has been overrun with….CLONES.”
Enzo sat on the floor and listened carefully. They were talking about how the strange events of Megabyte, even before anyone knew of his arrival, had triggered the emergence of…clones.
Not copies, as Enzo understood it, but clones. Alien invaders that took over a person’s body and mind. They were unsure of how they had gotten there, but it…Enzo turned Mike down – as weird as that was – but succeed so he could think.
As absurd as that report was, and Enzo knew it was utterly ridiculous, something in his processor told him it explained things. It would explain why no one came to Bob’s – the real Bob that is – defense when Megabyte was parading as the evil Bob – in Enzo’s mind, he was the evil Bob – and why things went on as planned with the wedding, even after Bob’s accident and near deletion.
Enzo, too, didn’t really think anything of it at the time. Of course he was worried. Bob was his friend, his dad in some ways and he was slowly dying in the Super Computer hospital.
But everyone told him things were okay and not to upset Dot. That was the most important thing. Do NOT upset Dot. She’s been through enough. So Enzo kept quiet and went along and…it was a happy time. In fact, it was the only time he and his siblings got along.
In a strange feeling of loss and guilt, he missed that. But that would explain everything. The sprites he knew and loved had been taken over by alien invaders, probably from the Web that came in when Megabyte did and now…they were clones.
Enzo was convinced now, more sure than ever, that the real Dot, the real Matrix, the real real Bob had been hidden somewhere in the system and their clones were walking around.
And Enzo was positive he could save them. With some help of course, but he knew he could and WOULD save them, just like he during Daemon.
Now all he had to do was find someone who wasn’t a clone.