"We've decided to send Hyper-Terminal, a Guardian." He seemed about to continue, but Diode interrupted.

"A Guardian?" he asked, leaning forward in his chair and raising his eyebrows. "I thought that's what you were paying me for."

"We're paying you to destroy what she can't; Protocol," he reminded Diode in a word.

"Wonderful," he muttered sarcastically, leaning back again. "Listen, The Terminal doesn't need a Guardian. They have me. What? Am I not good enough anymore?"

"We've planned to send her to Hyper-Terminal for minutes. She's been in training. Whether or not we hired you, wouldn't have made a difference in our decision."

"Thanks. I feel a whole lot better," he answered sarcastically.

Ignoring Diode's obvious displeasure, Turbo continued, "We'll be sending her over after you get back there. Diode, you're not to tell her of your employment here. Only these other three and myself are to know of this. Understand?"

"Understand-- sir."

As Diode walked in the door, once back in Hyper-Terminal, he was greeted by an excited kid-sprite who didn't wait until he closed the door to knock him over.

"I don't learn, do I?" Diode asked getting up from the hallway floor.

The girl giggled. "Guess not."

The girl was about seven or eight in User years, and was a light shade of turquoise, contrasting with Diode's violet skin. Her eyes were a nice shade of orange, and Diode's were a brilliant emerald green.

Diode went to the fridge for a soda while the girl sat at the table.

"So, Wire, what did you do in school today?" Diode asked her.

"Nothing," she said dully. Truthfully, she was much more interested in what Turbo had to say.

"Nothing?" Diode echoed, "What did you do, just sit there all day? Hey, I ain't payin' taxes for that."

"I don't know about the other kids, but that's what I did."

"What do you mean? Doesn't your teacher assign you homework?"

"Yeah, but I've done it all before. It's so easy! I'm bored."

Diode sighed and sat on the floor at the coffee table across from her. He had gotten more than he had bargained for given he had adopted her as a baby. It was an on-the-spot thing. He felt responsible for the parents' deaths. He didn't regret keeping her, though, but she was pretty smart; smarter than Diode was at her age. She was ahead of all her classmates, and there was nothing he could do about it. He decided to change the subject.

"Guess what?" he asked, turning the soda can on the table.

"I don't know, what?" she asked in turn.

"There's gonna be a Guardian coming to Hyper-Terminal."

"A Guardian? Really? Cool!"

"Yeah, my job right now is to go out there and welcome her."

"Oh! Can I come?"

Diode got up and replied, "If I didn't want you along, I wouldn't have told you."

Diode watched her get off the ship and start down one of the many docks. On his zip-board, he floated down behind her.

"Hey," he said in greeting.

"Who are you?" she asked quickly spinning around.

She had thin shiny gray hair that was cut just above her shoulder length. She was dark forest green, and her eyes were blue. Her suit was a typical Guardian uniform. One thing about her was different however; she wore her key-tool on her right arm. Diode decided to make a point to ask her about it later.

"My name's Diode." Wire floated down beside him. "And this is Wire. I'm the defender of Hyper-Terminal," he was careful to add.

Wire got off the zip-board and held out her hand. "Hi! What's your name?" she said.

Hesitantly, the guardian took the offered hand. "Uh, I'm Chroma. Guardian 369."

To Diode it was pretty obvious she wasn't comfortable around kids. Wire continued, "Do you introduce yourself to people like that all the time? With your number an' all?"

As Chroma spoke, she looked around her, like she was trying to find some way out of the conversation. Diode strode over and knelt on one knee by Wire.

"Listen, kid, I have to go pick up my bike down at Mic's okay? Why don't you stay with Chroma here and ask her all those questions I can't answer?"

"All of them?"

"Yeah why not?" He glanced at Chroma who looked sort of dazed.

"You resent me don't you?" she muttered.

"Hey," he replied innocently, "a Guardian has to know her people." He grinned and left her with Wire who was already starting to talk.

"I tried, Man, but I couldn't find nothin' wrong with your bike. Why'd ja even bring it if there's nothin' wrong with it?" asked Mic, confronting Diode when he came to pick up the motorcycle.

"I thought I might need an excuse to cut short the meet with the Guardian."

"Ah. So I take it that didn't go very well?"

"You could say that," Diode said, leaning against Mic's upright toolbox. It was rusty, so it didn't roll very well.

"So, you don't like her I take it? I mean most people get along with Guardians-- Guardians are good people. Or were you just not trying?"

"I admit it," Diode said, pushing himself away from the toolbox, "I wasn't trying. It's just that I can't stand amateurs. They think they can do whatever a professional can. Frankly, it's annoying."

"You find a lot annoying, don't you?"

Both of them were cut off from saying any more by a vidwindow that abruptly popped up.

"Ronnie!" Diode exclaimed, he then scowled at the look on her face. "You look worried. What's wrong?"

Veronica was dark brown and had black hair in tight curls of that became smaller and more defined the farther down the strand it got.

"Diode, we have a problem on dock number 7. It's a code 52, level 2." Her eyes shifted from the vidwindow and widened. "Get down here," she said, "little Miss Guardian is on the case."

"Will do, Ron," Diode said. "I'll take that. *GASP*-- Wire!"

He dismounted the bike and ran over to Veronica, who pointed him in the right direction, while updating him on the situation, as was routine.

"Scout's fine," she said, referring to Wire, "But you'd better get down there; things are gonna get worse before they get better."

Diode ran down the dock and found Chroma fending off the viral beast with a shield that emanated from the key-tool.

There were sprites and various other types of beings hiding behind boxes and in ships docked there. A particularly large crate lay broken to pieces at one end of the dock.

Wire was on the ground under the shield, and, knowing her, she was paralyzed more from fascination than from fear.

Diode's hand went to his hip where he kept his multi-weapon. His fingers tapped a code into the hilt-like object almost imperceptibly, and called up a long, curved sword. The blade was made up of blue super-condensed energy controlled by a thin electromagnetic beam, which could be contorted to different shapes by punching different combinations into the dents on the side of the hilt. Basically, the energy gave strength and the magnetic beam, its lethalness.

Diode crept closer, not wanting to distract the virus until it was too late. The thing didn't seem too smart, for it continued to bash its taloned paws on the shield. It looked like a huge half-dog-half-bear, but was looking more and more bipedal by the nano.

Diode's eyes widened as he came to a realization, it was actually sucking up energy from the shield! It didn't seem to realize it yet, but Diode had a suspicion that it was getting smarter too. The fact that this was an energy-sucker meant two things; one, that Veronica had been wrong in classifying it, and two, that the Guardian's key-tool wasn't going to last much longer. He had to get rid of this thing, and fast.

He stole closer, on the thing's left side. He lowered the sword underneath the beast.

Chroma looked at him, giving him away.

The beast turned, and raised a massive paw. It could stand on two legs now, although its knees still couldn't lock straight. Its canine-like tail swished and the red pupils widened within the green whites.

The thing's intelligence was really starting to grow. It now seemed to have awareness.

The paw came down.

Diode stepped back and the claws merely caught his armor, scratching it but not piercing it.

Diode brought his sword up and to the right, succeeding in cutting a deep gash in the virus' mid-section. It reared, roaring deafeningly. The virus then decided that it should at least avenge itself. It leapt at Diode, crushing him under its weight.

The virus was beginning to show progressive erasure. Diode knew the wound he had dealt had been fatal, but he didn't know how long it would take for deletion to occur.

The beast gaped in a silent roar and moved to clamp its teeth into Diode's head. It suddenly fizzed in a burst of electricity, as if it were never there.

Wire leapt up into Diode's arms and hugged him around the neck.

Binomes and sprites as well as a few other races crowded around him to see.

Chroma, being more or less ignored, sighed as she watched Diode try to extract himself and Wire out of the mass that had formed around them.

"Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it," said a voice from behind her. It was Veronica. "One thing's for sure, you'll never be able to replace him in their minds," she said gesturing to the crowd. "But I'll tell you what. I can help. I'm Veronica; you can call me Ron or Ronnie... whatever," she said with a shrug, extending her hand.

The Guardian took it while saying, "I'm Chroma, Guardian 369."

"I don't have to call you that, do I?" she said, laughing, "you know, the Guardian bit and all? Ha ha."

Chroma looked at Veronica flatly. "You're what some people would call eccentric, aren't you?"

Veronica rolled her eyes. "Hey, I'm normal compared to practically everyone else in this city, and you don't even know me yet." She cocked an eyebrow as a thought came to her mind. "Saay, I know why Turbo sent you here; because you're sheltered like anything! Man, a few minutes here and you'll definitely be... un-sheltered!"

"I don't believe that unsheltered is a word. It certainly isn't in that context."

Veronica could hardly contain her laughter at this last statement, but managed to more than make up for it by stamping a foot. "Man, you're funny! I haven't had this much fun since Wire was here last!"

Chroma decided to get back to the original point. She cleared her throat, "About being able to help?" she offered.

"Um... right. Well, since you're new here an' all, I'll assign you to... the docks--"

"What do you mean assign me?"

"We-e-el, I'm kinda your superior," she said with growing perkiness in every word. "See, the original Principal Office guy retired. And nobody wanted the guy next in line because," she lowered her voice to a harsh whisper, "He's kinda... weird," she said, pointing at her head. "So I decided that, you know, I should do it. Anyway, it's been hard to secure the entire city right? So I think that's why they sent us a Guardian. Anyway, you'll guard the perimeter and Diode will guard the... middle. Except the shrift. He'll do that."

"Shrift is definitely not a word." She rolled her eyes. "Fine, what does it mean?"

"Oh, it's that old... thing over there," she answered, waving her hand vaguely in the direction of undeveloped land which touched the dome. It climbed in altitude as it got closer to the edge of the dome.

"Oh, look," Veronica declared, "here he comes now." Noting the look of contempt, or as close to contempt Guardians ever get, she added in a whisper, "Don't worry, he's a good guy. He doesn't like the popularity much. Trust me, he'll say something nice before he heads out on patrol."

Just then, Diode walked up, rubbing his rib cage. "Hey," he directed at Veronica, "uh... do you have something I could put on this or something?" he asked vaguely.

She smiled and pointed up and behind her. There, where she had pointed, was a tower that looked similar to a lighthouse, only the room at the top was Veronica's messy workstation. Both she and Diode knew where everything was, although anybody else wouldn't; Veronica liked it that way, since she couldn't (as of yet) lock up the place. The very top could swivel, so she could see all the docks, although there were windows all around so she didn't use the function much.

Diode nodded his thanks and began to walk. Chroma looked at Veronica in an "I told you so" kind of way. Veronica simply held up a finger.

As if as an afterthought, Diode slowly turned on his heel and said, "Hey, Chroma, uh, thanks for saving my kid."

He turned and left before she could respond. Not that she could think of anything to say. To Chroma, Diode didn't look old enough to have a family. It seemed that there was more to Diode than what met the eye.

Veronica was sure that she still didn't know much about him.

Continued in Another Time, Another Place: Part Two

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