Teens of the Matrix

Runamuck                                   ZipZapp                                    Meatshield

There is something weird about this trio of students. Having shown up in the Hypercalc lab portal one Summer afternoon should be a tipoff about their origin. They appear to be more constructs of willpower and energy than anything else - especially in ZipZapp's case. However they are quite fleshy, solid energy projections, so they can interact like any normal student or construct.

While their appearance at Carramba High during Summer might normally have caused some problems, it's well known that a lot of existing constructs live in the Hypercalc lab full time. Vax in fact, one of the patrons of the school's math labs, happened to be there at the time. Having tremendous experience in the virtual reality / physical reality connectivity area, Vax instantly knew what to do.

He made sure that their head jacks worked - and then hard-coded certain identifying bits onto their virtual shapes to 'anchor' them here in Carramba for the duration. They aren't at all unhappy about this - their antics in the Matrix v4.0 have been well noted by certain aggressive Agents, and any little slip-ups could have caused their true and final deletions from the system.

One thing that's not clear, however, is whether in the Matrix v4.0 they were humans or programs. Since Runamuck seems to exhibit fey traits, it's weirdly possible that they are programs which had managed to experiment with portals, and opened one to a world of mysticism. ZipZapp's practically nonexistent physical form is another good reason to believe that these kids are programs created by 'parents' purely for pleasure.

If they were programs, it's pretty certain that they were only partially meant to 'be' doing anything. Meatshield for instance is pretty handy at shielding and protection, perhaps (it) was designed as a watchdog, also able to notify (its) parent units of danger (telephone power anyone?). ZipZapp, while not aggressive in any way, can easily both avoid being hit and unerringly jolt a grounded target - perhaps a prototype of a seek-and-destroy program. And if those two are an indication, Runamuck's ability to pack away items and store things on (its) person as well as pound (its) way through almost any terrain or surface might show that (it) is a courier program in the making.

Aside from those bits of presumed background, however, the trio has very little memory of what they were doing when they got to Carramba. They're pretty sure, from having been asked about the condition of their Matrix before leaving, that their world was in the last stages of stability before collapse. Since no one knows quite how time works between each Matrix instance and this world, their Version 4.0 may have already lapsed into 5.0 or possibly just gotten a minor .5 or .1 upgrade.

Since they're now 'tagged' to remain here for the duration of their education, they won't really know until they try to return, what will be waiting for them. A completely different world? Or one where their new abilities and information might help them change things for the better?

Runamuck stomped around the apartment, wondering if they could have gotten an upstairs room. Probably the owner of the building could see that he would make too much noise and get complaints. So ground floor they were, and that was that.

"Get me a soda!" ZipZapp yelled, swinging his hand around simulating a Wii controller. He didn't need one, none of them did, in order to control their video games.

"Get it yourself, lazy bum," Runamuck yelled back, but threw his friend one anyway. Even though Zapp couldn't actually see behind him, he dodged and caught the soda can deftly with his left hand.

"Nice try," Zapp laughed, "but not close enough." The last time Zapp'd been hit by anything solid, (he) wound up back in the Hyper lab being tended by some weird program that recreated (his) last known essence. That was the 'restart' program, anyone that Vax had installed or created for life in this world had one - all three of these teens had it hardcoded into their jack on arrival. They would just reappear and be 'restored' to their full stats, sent out once more.

"Wonder if we have multiple lives stored up," ZipZapp thought out loud, "I mean, last time you tried that I lost about twenty minutes of my Geography class."

"I can't help it if you won't study later," Runamuck commented, situating himself behind the couch where he could comfortably 'sit' and watch the game. "If you would just come home to study, your backup wouldn't be so old."

"A little tweaking would be nice," Meatshield said, waving (his) own hand at the screen and causing the avatar on it to jump over a hedge. "I mean, saving only when you pass the school ground perimeter is weird... We should be on campus housing."

"I don't wanna live on campus," Zapp whined, "I like it here. There's more people out here."

"Better this than losing everything every time you fall over a hurdle," Runamuck joked, "hurr durr, where am I? how'd I get here?"

"It was only the one time!" ZipZapp threw (his) hand up more in anger than trying to control the character on the screen and wound up propelling it through a maze wall instead of around it. The early part of their fall schedule included a number of physical and educational tests, and though ZipZapp had since learned the whole point of movement with this body of (his), (he) wasn't too sure about why you were supposed to throw yourself at obsticles. Having hit the hurdles instead of jumping over them only happened once, since the first time - when (he) woke up anew in the Hyperlab. Zapp was the only one of them that couldn't withstand even the slightest undue physical activity. On the other hand, (he) could still hit things and not get hurt, Zapp alone could 'touch without being touched'.

"Hey at least I didn't try signing up for a stupid driving class," Zapp laughed, and Meatshield joined in loudly.

"Totally - where you gonna put those legs?" He added.

"They make cars for four-leggers on this world," Runamuck commented, huffing and crossing his arms across his chest. "I just can't get the shifting thing down."

"They should just make them automatic, or just teleport like normal people do," Meatshield said. "Hey are we gonna go to that big show at school today?"

Though it was Saturday, there were events scheduled at Carramba that the whole neighborhood usually attended. Auto shows, superheroic demonstrations, philosophy debates, and like today - dragon guard recruiting.

"Just to watch," Runamuck decided. They went along with his decisions, though neither of the other two seemed any smarter or dumber than Runamuck, his innate ability to actually make and stick to decisions had given him the 'leader' status among the small group. "I don't think they want anyone like us to really be involved in riding dragons. I can't do it anyway." He lifted one 'foot' - he had human-like feet on both fore and rear legs, but they were specialized and acted more like hooves. He was under the impression that four-leggers didn't really have a place sitting on a dragon's neck.