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[OOM: Enzo's first Game as a Guardian is more than meets the eye. Rated N for Non-explicit Naughtiness in the prologue and R for ROBOTS!]

One thing no one likes about Games - even those who generally enjoy them, like Enzo - is when they come down in the middle of the night. It may not be bad at the time, but you always pay for it later. On the other hand, no one expects you to be fully functional the day after.

Enzo wants to be, though. He's his system's newest Guardian, for as long as he's still at home, and he owes it to the system to be fully alert and on the ball when he's on duty. And a Guardian is always on duty.

So he's cheating. Hooray for Milliways time-freeze!

In other words: green boy napping onna couch. With a teddy bear. Frisket's curled up on the couch, too, and kind of crowding Enzo's feet.

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Too bad Dani doesn't have a bear (Guardian or otherwise) of her own, or else she'd play along.

~~Sock puppets on fire? Oh dear.~~

This occurs to Enzo as well, for there's only so far you can take the game with neither villain nor rescuing party.

"Hey, when I get you that Guardian bear, what colour would you like? Blue's the most popular in Mainframe, 'cause of Bob, but they've got all colours..."

~~It is a sight to behold.~~

~~Oh, I just bet.~~

"Well," she says shyly "I wouldn't mind a green one..."

Her cheeks flush pink.

Enzo looks down, smiling, and tries not to blush again himself. "Okay. Green's popular too. 'Cause of Matrix."

He knows that's not what she had in mind, though. Gosh. He'll try to get one in a cadet uniform, he decides. They're less common, but Dot can find one.

Skirting further embarrassment, he says, "We'll have to see if we can get you cured soon. I mean, we don't wanna do that at the same time as the wedding."

"Nope," Dani agrees. It's Bob and Dot's day, not hers.

Plus, as canon proved, weddings and major medical procedures do not mix.

Well. So, that's settled.

"Hey," he asks, brightening, "have you been practicing with your zipboard?"

That, and it might be a good idea if Dani's powers were working before the wedding. Y'know, just in case.

"Yup, sure have!" Dani grins, nodding.

"Well, then..."

Enzo pulls a small white arrowhead out of his belt and, with two sweeping arm movements, expands it into a full-sized boogie baud. He leaps onto it, landing flat on his stomach, the hand holding the teddy bear dangling over the side.

"Race you to the lake!"

In response, Dani pulls her zipboard out of her hoodie's front pocket and expands it. She jumps up on it, with only a barely noticeable wobble in her stance to show that she's been practicing. She looks over at Enzo and grins.

"Bring it on!"

Look out, everyone, two kids are tearing through the barroom toward the back door at head height.

Well, this is Milliways. They've learned to duck by now, right?

They'd better have!

Enzo swings around an outraged patron, climbs a bit for a clearer shot, then dives and banks sideways as he tries to be first out the door.

Dani's fallen back slightly, if only because she's trying harder to avoid hitting people and slowing down as a result.

She hopes they won't get sent to the Cells if they hit anyone.

As long as they're in the Cells together... [cue romantic music]

Enzo's got a lifetime's practice, so he's more confident of his dodging. Plus, this baby handles great! Thanks, Mouse!

"Last one there's a corrupted file!" he calls, shooting through the door.

Dani manages to avoid hitting one last patron in the head, and then she's home-free for the door.

"We'll just see about that, Enzo Matrix!" she hollers back, zipping through the door.

Enzo's on his feet now, speeding toward the lake. It's a pretty direct speed race now, with few obstacles save some patrons enjoying the great outdoors. Dani's gonna be hard pressed to catch up.

She's doing her best, you can believe that.

Dani's handling the zipboard a lot better than she did when Enzo first showed it to her. Little by little, she inches up on him.

Wow, she's good.

Surfbauds and boogie bauds, however, have a few things on zipboards. For example, they're more sensitive to local energy fluctuations. If properly harnessed, these can be used to give the baud a temporary speed boost. Bye-bye, Dani!

"Hey!" Dani yelps as Enzo speeds ahead. She tries her best to keep up and close the gap.

The boost is only temporary, but it's enough to carry him well ahead. Sorry, Dani, but it's pretty clear Enzo's going to reach the lake first.

Except that just before he does, he swings sharply upward and disappears from view.

She looks up, equal parts confused and awed, trying to figure out where Enzo went.

Until she realizes that, hey, the path to the lake is free and open. With one last glance in Enzo's wake Dani pushes her zipboard forward. Maybe she'll win this thing after all!

Another advantage of a boogie baud over a zipboard is the fact that it's a large, solid platform. This means that if, say, you execute an unexpected loop-de-loop and come up behind a person, and you aim the front edge at the back of their knees like so...

...you knock them off of their zipboard and they wind up landing on their butt on your boogie baud. Which is just what happens to Dani.

She tips her head back to look up at Enzo. "You did that on purpose," she accuses, laughing a little.

Enzo laughs loudly. "Can you do that by accident?"

They coasts to a halt over the lake. "We'll call it a draw," he says, feeling extremely cocky.

"Dunno; I'm not the one with the boogie baud," Dani teases.

"Fine," she agrees, looking down at the water. "But I'm gonna beat you one of these days."