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| About A. C. Rodriguez As for myself, I'm 24 years old and happily call San Antonio, Texas my home. I've been writing professionally for four years. In addition to writing, I play guitar and do a little artwork. |
Where In Cyberworld Is Dr. Garza?
by A. C. Rodriguez
In all the digital years that I've known Dr. Robyn Garza, I
never once knew her to miss a lunch date with me, especially one
where I planned on footing the bill. Being her agent and her
confidante has its advantages, you know. I may seem like an average
AI feline, a rather striking one at that, but my name carries weight
in some of the finest restaurants in CyberWorld. Gaillien...ahh, that
has such a nice kick to it, eh? But I digress...
After a bottle of rich Viblin sherry and a basketful of
breadsticks, worry began to seep into my mind. Where's Robyn? Close
to an hour elapsed, but no sign of her, and she wasn't responding to
my frequent calls to her communicator bracelet. With reluctance, I
exited the splendid Le Chat Noir through the grand foyer and started
walking the streets, searching. I linked back to her office, the
NetLab, I even checked the natural world, but no Dr. Garza. All our
former clients had no idea where she was. Only one other place to go.
I guess it's off to Jupiter City Local, home of my User's lover, Lori
Marasko. Maybe she'll be of help, this whole thing was starting to
worry me something awful.
When I arrived at the bustling metropolis, I headed straight for
a call box. AI ports helped me establish a link to Robyn's computer
back at her apartment in MetroWorld. I scanned her email, her E.P.O.
Box, but nothing unusual. No leads to go on. Did she just disappear?
Had it not been for a chance encounter, I'm not sure what might have
happened. I was strolling down Winding Winds Boulevard, admiring the
cinnamon ash trees that were planted every five squares of sidewalk,
when I bumped into a familiar-looking AI ferret, nearly causing him
to fall over. Most of his long torso was white, but patches of gray
colored his backside, his tail, and over his eyes like a Zorro mask.
His squeaky tones first held anger in them: "Hey, what's the idea,
bub?" But when he turned to me, his face softened. "Gabriel, is that
you?"
"Yes it's me, Fletcher. But my name is Gail--"
"Ah! I knew it! Can't ever forget that face!" he smiled.
I felt that familiar lift that I always feel when someone
compliments me. I fluffed up my blonde fur with my claws. "Really?"
"Yeah, that ugly mug of yours'll be hard to forget, no matter
how hard I try!" A roaring laugh came out of him. I so wanted to claw
the insides out of this smart-aleck rodent, but a sense of duty held
my tongue.
"Fletcher, have you seen Dr. Garza?"
"Not around here, Gabriel--"
"That's Gaillien, you silly ferret! Where's your User, Lori?"
"Coriolis? She's back at the apartment. Wanted me to get her an
ice cream. So, your User has disappeared, eh?" I relayed the story to
him as we walked to Lori's flat. It was a warm place with tan walls
and reprints of Picasso on the walls. We heard the uhhs and oofs of a
fight as we entered, and headed to our left. The redheaded Lori
looked pretty in a purple lentsuit, her fair skin glistened with
sweat. She was in the VR room, playing a game of Mishita-LAN
kickboxing. Her opponent was a Mexican dude called -- get this --
Dionicio the Latin Sex Machine. When emerald-eyed Lori caught sight
of us, she touched her black gloves together, withdrawing from the
game. The Sex Machine was wearing a matching set of flaming red
boxing trunks, gloves, and face mask. He seemed a little more than
disappointed.
"Hey, bonita! Why you no fight? Tengo miedo, o que?"
"I have company. Perhaps later."
Dionicio sighed deeply, nodded. "Bueno, hasta luego,
Coriolis..." He sized Lori up, then howled as would a horny wolf.
"AYE! QUE CHULA ES!" With that, his image flickered off.
"Gaillien?" She inquired in soft, velvety tones. "What are you
doing here?"
"Robyn has vanished. I have no idea where she could be. She
could be somewhere all alone with no one to protect her!"
"Whoa, calm down there, little kitty! We'll help you find
Robyn." She nudged her agent with a knee. "Right, Fletcher?"
The ferret folded his paws across his chest, grumbling. "Yeah,
of course Lori. You're the boss." Lori pressed a glittering emerald
that was on a silver necklace she wore. Her agent Fletcher glowed
bright yellow, turning into a shiny silver hovercraft with a spiral
emblem on both sides of its wings. "Hop in, but watch the leather.
I've just had it polished." Fletcher secured us in and shot straight
up into the sky.
"Hey Fletch," I said. "You got tracking sensors on this boat?"
"Yes, but don't call me that," he rumbled.
"Well, stop calling me Gabriel!"
"Stop it you two!" Lori intervened. "You have the frequency to
Robyn's bracelet, Gaillien?"
"Yup, it's stored in my memory. Just attach an AI port into my
tail and I'll do the rest." A servo arm jerked my tail and stuck it
in a port under my seat. "Hey, you don't have to be so rough about
it," I gritted my teeth hearing him chuckle. Then the rush of
computer code filled me like an injection of poison into the
bloodstream. All of a sudden, I heard a continuous bleep, snapping me
out of my daze. It worked! His radar was tracking the bracelet's
signal. I sighed deeply. "We're coming for you, Dr. Garza," I
whispered to myself.
It seemed like years had passed until the radar showed that we
were close by. The three of us were still in Jupiter City, but in the
run-down tenements of the North Side. Then Fletcher's voice blared
out through overhead speakers: "My radar says we're on top of her
now."
"Okay land," Lori said. "A rooftop would be sufficient this
time, Fletcher. No more fancy aerobatics--"
"Hey, I can do landings, okay!? I've just been out of practice,
you know?" He did manage to land on a crumpling old tomb of a
building. Fletcher resumed to his ferret form as soon as we stepped
off of him. "Hmm, Robyn's not far away," he said.
We looked down at the streets, but they were desolate. I was
about to suggest we split up until we heard a cry for help from the
building next to us. "Hear that? That could be her," I said,
sprinting to the edge of the building and leaping off, landing
perfectly on the adjacent brownstone. On all fours, might I add. I
had to turn myself into a bridge, for it seemed Lori nor
Fletcher were as brave as I was. The cries seemed to get louder here,
so we entered inside with much caution. For a dilapidated building,
the rooms looked surprisingly neat and orderly. But it gave me a
weird feeling walking around this house, and what was up with these
life-size paper dolls scattered all over this dump? We reached the
middle of the house, a strange balcony-like ballroom of some kind. I
noticed hinges on our side of the room. Hinges? What for? I asked
myself. My questioning stopped when the side opposite us began to
split apart, then move on the hinges like a monolithic door. A giant
AI girl clothed in a blue dress towered over us, holding a paper doll
in her hand. That doll looked familiar...a girl with a pretty, heart-
shaped face of olive skin, long, dark drown locks flowing down her
sides, an hourglass figure wrapped in a dark blue lentsuit. "Robyn!"
I darted a claw to her. "That humongous child must have turned her
into a doll!" We could hear background noises now, provided by the
echoes of the other dolls crying out.
The girl had a childish foghorn of a voice: "Oh, you're my most
favorite, bestest doll in the whole entire world!"
"Ehh?" Fletcher said. The girl turned her head to stare at us,
then a wide grin curled her face. Oh no, it wasn't a happy grin, it
possessed a maniacal malice to it the likes of which I have no memory
of.
"COOL! A cuddly widdle kitty cat to play with! And another
dolly! Woo hoo!"
"Hey, what about me?" Fletcher said.
Her cute, pudgy face twisted in repulsion. "Eww, smelly little
rat!"
Fletcher dropped his jaw, held one paw to his hip, the other
jabbing at the AI girl. "I'm a ferret, you bitch!"
"Now now," I interjected. "What's your name......little girl?"
She wasn't responding or even looking at me. She began to reach
for Coriolis, but Lori wasn't helpless. The redhead reached for the
guns in holsters on her thighs and fired. The lasers cut through the
girl's hand, a juvenile scream emitted out of her. But she didn't let
go of Dr. Garza, if anything, she grasped tighter. "Let go of Robyn!"
Lori shouted. "Or I'll put more holes into ya!"
The girl began to twitch, an electro-static bleep! emitted out
of her. "SHE'S MINE! I FOUND HER FIRST! YOU CAN'T HAVE HER! SHE'S
MINE! I FOUND HER FIRST! YOU CAN'T HAVE HER..." Oh no, I thought,
she's malfunctioning badly. I must get to Dr. Garza before this loony
girl's head blows up! So I turned into my hovercraft mode and
rocketed to her, cockpit open. With my dashingly perfect servo arms,
I managed to snatch Robyn from the grasp of the wild girl. The poor
girl exploded with little fanfare into stringy wisps of digital snow.
In that very moment, I swear, Robyn's bracelet flew into the cockpit,
I guess from the force of the blast. Coriolis and Fletcher met up
with me in the air.
Hours later, back in her NetLab, Robyn stepped out of the
graphite-colored reformatting chamber with a frail stagger, right
hand busy brushing her hair back and covering her forehead. "I've got
such a headache, Gaillien."
"You've been two-dimensional for quite some time, Dr. Garza.
It'll take a while to readjust. What happened to you?"
Robyn dug her fingers into her dark, wavy tresses. "I found her
crying out there alone, saying she lost her mommy. All of a sudden,
she touched my hand, and felt like I was being pressed flat. I
couldn't move, I could still hear and see...oh God! What about all
those other women trapped inside?"
"I took care of it," Lori said, she and her agent emerged from a
door-wall behind us. "They're in the hands of the NetPolice."
Robyn let out a sigh of relief. After that, we pretty much
remained in silence. We linked back to Robyn's apartment, where I
prepared her bed. Lori and Fletcher went back to Jupiter City,
promising Dr. Garza that they'll visit her the next day. Things could
have been worse, you know. At least I have my beloved User back.
by A. C. Rodriguez
In all the digital years that I've known Dr. Robyn Garza, I
never once knew her to miss a lunch date with me, especially one
where I planned on footing the bill. Being her agent and her
confidante has its advantages, you know. I may seem like an average
AI feline, a rather striking one at that, but my name carries weight
in some of the finest restaurants in CyberWorld. Gaillien...ahh, that
has such a nice kick to it, eh? But I digress...
After a bottle of rich Viblin sherry and a basketful of
breadsticks, worry began to seep into my mind. Where's Robyn? Close
to an hour elapsed, but no sign of her, and she wasn't responding to
my frequent calls to her communicator bracelet. With reluctance, I
exited the splendid Le Chat Noir through the grand foyer and started
walking the streets, searching. I linked back to her office, the
NetLab, I even checked the natural world, but no Dr. Garza. All our
former clients had no idea where she was. Only one other place to go.
I guess it's off to Jupiter City Local, home of my User's lover, Lori
Marasko. Maybe she'll be of help, this whole thing was starting to
worry me something awful.
When I arrived at the bustling metropolis, I headed straight for
a call box. AI ports helped me establish a link to Robyn's computer
back at her apartment in MetroWorld. I scanned her email, her E.P.O.
Box, but nothing unusual. No leads to go on. Did she just disappear?
Had it not been for a chance encounter, I'm not sure what might have
happened. I was strolling down Winding Winds Boulevard, admiring the
cinnamon ash trees that were planted every five squares of sidewalk,
when I bumped into a familiar-looking AI ferret, nearly causing him
to fall over. Most of his long torso was white, but patches of gray
colored his backside, his tail, and over his eyes like a Zorro mask.
His squeaky tones first held anger in them: "Hey, what's the idea,
bub?" But when he turned to me, his face softened. "Gabriel, is that
you?"
"Yes it's me, Fletcher. But my name is Gail--"
"Ah! I knew it! Can't ever forget that face!" he smiled.
I felt that familiar lift that I always feel when someone
compliments me. I fluffed up my blonde fur with my claws. "Really?"
"Yeah, that ugly mug of yours'll be hard to forget, no matter
how hard I try!" A roaring laugh came out of him. I so wanted to claw
the insides out of this smart-aleck rodent, but a sense of duty held
my tongue.
"Fletcher, have you seen Dr. Garza?"
"Not around here, Gabriel--"
"That's Gaillien, you silly ferret! Where's your User, Lori?"
"Coriolis? She's back at the apartment. Wanted me to get her an
ice cream. So, your User has disappeared, eh?" I relayed the story to
him as we walked to Lori's flat. It was a warm place with tan walls
and reprints of Picasso on the walls. We heard the uhhs and oofs of a
fight as we entered, and headed to our left. The redheaded Lori
looked pretty in a purple lentsuit, her fair skin glistened with
sweat. She was in the VR room, playing a game of Mishita-LAN
kickboxing. Her opponent was a Mexican dude called -- get this --
Dionicio the Latin Sex Machine. When emerald-eyed Lori caught sight
of us, she touched her black gloves together, withdrawing from the
game. The Sex Machine was wearing a matching set of flaming red
boxing trunks, gloves, and face mask. He seemed a little more than
disappointed.
"Hey, bonita! Why you no fight? Tengo miedo, o que?"
"I have company. Perhaps later."
Dionicio sighed deeply, nodded. "Bueno, hasta luego,
Coriolis..." He sized Lori up, then howled as would a horny wolf.
"AYE! QUE CHULA ES!" With that, his image flickered off.
"Gaillien?" She inquired in soft, velvety tones. "What are you
doing here?"
"Robyn has vanished. I have no idea where she could be. She
could be somewhere all alone with no one to protect her!"
"Whoa, calm down there, little kitty! We'll help you find
Robyn." She nudged her agent with a knee. "Right, Fletcher?"
The ferret folded his paws across his chest, grumbling. "Yeah,
of course Lori. You're the boss." Lori pressed a glittering emerald
that was on a silver necklace she wore. Her agent Fletcher glowed
bright yellow, turning into a shiny silver hovercraft with a spiral
emblem on both sides of its wings. "Hop in, but watch the leather.
I've just had it polished." Fletcher secured us in and shot straight
up into the sky.
"Hey Fletch," I said. "You got tracking sensors on this boat?"
"Yes, but don't call me that," he rumbled.
"Well, stop calling me Gabriel!"
"Stop it you two!" Lori intervened. "You have the frequency to
Robyn's bracelet, Gaillien?"
"Yup, it's stored in my memory. Just attach an AI port into my
tail and I'll do the rest." A servo arm jerked my tail and stuck it
in a port under my seat. "Hey, you don't have to be so rough about
it," I gritted my teeth hearing him chuckle. Then the rush of
computer code filled me like an injection of poison into the
bloodstream. All of a sudden, I heard a continuous bleep, snapping me
out of my daze. It worked! His radar was tracking the bracelet's
signal. I sighed deeply. "We're coming for you, Dr. Garza," I
whispered to myself.
It seemed like years had passed until the radar showed that we
were close by. The three of us were still in Jupiter City, but in the
run-down tenements of the North Side. Then Fletcher's voice blared
out through overhead speakers: "My radar says we're on top of her
now."
"Okay land," Lori said. "A rooftop would be sufficient this
time, Fletcher. No more fancy aerobatics--"
"Hey, I can do landings, okay!? I've just been out of practice,
you know?" He did manage to land on a crumpling old tomb of a
building. Fletcher resumed to his ferret form as soon as we stepped
off of him. "Hmm, Robyn's not far away," he said.
We looked down at the streets, but they were desolate. I was
about to suggest we split up until we heard a cry for help from the
building next to us. "Hear that? That could be her," I said,
sprinting to the edge of the building and leaping off, landing
perfectly on the adjacent brownstone. On all fours, might I add. I
had to turn myself into a bridge, for it seemed Lori nor
Fletcher were as brave as I was. The cries seemed to get louder here,
so we entered inside with much caution. For a dilapidated building,
the rooms looked surprisingly neat and orderly. But it gave me a
weird feeling walking around this house, and what was up with these
life-size paper dolls scattered all over this dump? We reached the
middle of the house, a strange balcony-like ballroom of some kind. I
noticed hinges on our side of the room. Hinges? What for? I asked
myself. My questioning stopped when the side opposite us began to
split apart, then move on the hinges like a monolithic door. A giant
AI girl clothed in a blue dress towered over us, holding a paper doll
in her hand. That doll looked familiar...a girl with a pretty, heart-
shaped face of olive skin, long, dark drown locks flowing down her
sides, an hourglass figure wrapped in a dark blue lentsuit. "Robyn!"
I darted a claw to her. "That humongous child must have turned her
into a doll!" We could hear background noises now, provided by the
echoes of the other dolls crying out.
The girl had a childish foghorn of a voice: "Oh, you're my most
favorite, bestest doll in the whole entire world!"
"Ehh?" Fletcher said. The girl turned her head to stare at us,
then a wide grin curled her face. Oh no, it wasn't a happy grin, it
possessed a maniacal malice to it the likes of which I have no memory
of.
"COOL! A cuddly widdle kitty cat to play with! And another
dolly! Woo hoo!"
"Hey, what about me?" Fletcher said.
Her cute, pudgy face twisted in repulsion. "Eww, smelly little
rat!"
Fletcher dropped his jaw, held one paw to his hip, the other
jabbing at the AI girl. "I'm a ferret, you bitch!"
"Now now," I interjected. "What's your name......little girl?"
She wasn't responding or even looking at me. She began to reach
for Coriolis, but Lori wasn't helpless. The redhead reached for the
guns in holsters on her thighs and fired. The lasers cut through the
girl's hand, a juvenile scream emitted out of her. But she didn't let
go of Dr. Garza, if anything, she grasped tighter. "Let go of Robyn!"
Lori shouted. "Or I'll put more holes into ya!"
The girl began to twitch, an electro-static bleep! emitted out
of her. "SHE'S MINE! I FOUND HER FIRST! YOU CAN'T HAVE HER! SHE'S
MINE! I FOUND HER FIRST! YOU CAN'T HAVE HER..." Oh no, I thought,
she's malfunctioning badly. I must get to Dr. Garza before this loony
girl's head blows up! So I turned into my hovercraft mode and
rocketed to her, cockpit open. With my dashingly perfect servo arms,
I managed to snatch Robyn from the grasp of the wild girl. The poor
girl exploded with little fanfare into stringy wisps of digital snow.
In that very moment, I swear, Robyn's bracelet flew into the cockpit,
I guess from the force of the blast. Coriolis and Fletcher met up
with me in the air.
Hours later, back in her NetLab, Robyn stepped out of the
graphite-colored reformatting chamber with a frail stagger, right
hand busy brushing her hair back and covering her forehead. "I've got
such a headache, Gaillien."
"You've been two-dimensional for quite some time, Dr. Garza.
It'll take a while to readjust. What happened to you?"
Robyn dug her fingers into her dark, wavy tresses. "I found her
crying out there alone, saying she lost her mommy. All of a sudden,
she touched my hand, and felt like I was being pressed flat. I
couldn't move, I could still hear and see...oh God! What about all
those other women trapped inside?"
"I took care of it," Lori said, she and her agent emerged from a
door-wall behind us. "They're in the hands of the NetPolice."
Robyn let out a sigh of relief. After that, we pretty much
remained in silence. We linked back to Robyn's apartment, where I
prepared her bed. Lori and Fletcher went back to Jupiter City,
promising Dr. Garza that they'll visit her the next day. Things could
have been worse, you know. At least I have my beloved User back.
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