A/N: Hello! Kawaii here with the next installment of the Things Unknown saga. Book # 3 to be exact. Well novella would be a better term. This one will only have four or five chapters. Then it is to Tales of Infinity! Woo Hoo! Please read, review, and enjoy. ~Kawaii Stella
P.S.: If you haven't read the first two (You Can't Escape (1) and Things Unknown (2) ) you might want to since there are slight references to them in here. Things Unknown more than the other. FYI.
Disclaimer: I don' own Cyberchase.
Insanity
By Kawaii Stella
Chapter One
A Rude Awakening
It had been about two weeks since Hacker had tried to take over Cyberspace. Now it was the middle of August and things had been fairly calm since then, most likely because Hacker had been arrested for escaping from prison early last November. Dr. Marbles remembered Hacker's arrest had been the front page headline of the Cyber Journal but the news quickly faded away. Despite things being calmer, that did not mean that all was good. Not much had changed, meaning Motherboard still had that virus and Hacker, when not in jail, still created masses of chaos.
Now it was six a.m. in Cyberspace. Marbles lay in bed after shutting off his alarm clock. He was in his true form; the form in which he had frequently stayed since Hacker's attempt of taking over Cyberspace. For Marbles it was relaxing to be in his own skin, but he still had a lot of work to do; especially when it came to trying to get his relationship with Ada to the next level. Marbles would face that challenge when he got to it. Before he could think any further into the matter, Marbles heard a shrill, girlish giggle come from his closet.
At first, Marbles thought it was the air system but then heard the laugh again. He sat up and put his glasses on then walked to his closet. He opened the closet door and gasped; he couldn't believe at what he saw. He saw a five year old girl laughing from beneath a pile of laundry from an overturned basket. The little girl looked up at Marbles and smiled.
"My God! Dove? No. It's not possible!" He reached for the girl but she vanished.
When the girl disappeared, Marbles yanked his hand back. In all honesty, Marbles wasn't just stunned from the event; he was freaked out beyond belief.
"She's sixteen now Marbles," Dr. Marbles told himself. "Besides, she doesn't remember you anymore." Marbles sighed sadly. He then decided he needed a cup of coffee to get his mind together.
Marbles went into his kitchen to start a pot of fresh, hot coffee. As the coffee poured into the pot, Marbles took a large mug down from the cabinet. Once his mug was full, Marbles sat down on a stool at the island in the center of the kitchen. He picked up his mug to take a drink, but couldn't, so he sat his mug down and put his head in his hands. He was shaking slightly.
"It was her, no doubt about it," Marbles said to himself. "But why am I seeing her now? Dove's lived with relatives almost a decade now. Besides, she turned sixteen almost five months ago. So why did she appear to be five? It was probably just a memory at the front of my mind. Yes, that's it; something like that did happen while she was here." Dr. Marbles reasoned.
He decided that he needed to hear what was happening in the world so he turned the T.V. on. The local news was in the middle of the daily forecast when a breaking news alert flashed on screen. Hacker had once again somehow gotten released from prison.
'Isn't that just fantastic,' Marbles thought to himself. 'A criminal with a record like his should be locked up, never to see daylight again.'
Marbles made his way back to his bedroom to get dressed before he finished his train of thought. 'Especially after what he did to Do…'
Marbles did not let himself finish that thought. Instead he chastised himself. "Marbles," he warned himself aloud. "You're twenty-six; you'll be twenty seven in two weeks. You have to let go of that guilt." Marbles told his reflection in the mirror, knowing what he just said was easier said than done. "I have to take dad's advice; what happened wasn't my fault. I need to move on. But I built that monstrosity…"
Marbles speech to himself was cut short when he re-opened his closet door to grab his jacket. He noticed that the laundry basket was upright, its contents completely in place. Marbles reasoned that that should prove that what he saw was nothing but an illusion. But despite how hard Marbles tried to convince himself it was just an illusion, he couldn't do it. She seemed so real. Dove recognized him and smiled at him, exactly like she used to. It was just so real!
After several moments of calm silence, Marbles had decided to just forget that he even saw her. Then he saw a shadow stretch out from the doorway behind him. Marbles was too startled to look behind him, especially when he heard, "Big brother, come play with me!"
Marbles spun around but there was nobody there. He looked both ways at the hall and again saw nothing. Wide-eyed, Marbles stood there astonished. Was he going insane?
~The Northern Frontier~
~Earlier the Same Day~
On the desolate Cybersite known only as the Northern Frontier, there were very few inhabitants. Three inhabitants to be exact; an evil cyborg known as The Hacker and his two henchmen Buzz and Delete. It had been rather quiet as of late, simply because Hacker had been in prison. However, for an unknown reason he was released late last night. That was when he finished his latest device; the device that would bring his creator to his knees.
Late last night Hacker had been greeted by his none too bright henchmen Buzz and Delete. Although not bright, the two were very loyal and did what their boss commanded of them. When Hacker set foot upon his cyber craft, he quickly put the two to work.
Now one would think that Hacker, returning to his home after nearly a week in jail, would want nothing more than to simply sleep the rest of the night away in his own bed. Well, that wasn't the case. Hacker was still steaming mad after his failure to conquer Cyberspace almost fourteen days ago.
How dare Dr. Marbles, his father Sartorius, Ada Lovelace, and the Cybersquad foil his plan! Hacker wanted revenge on all of them, but Dr. Marbles was on the top of that list. Dr. Marbles would be the one to fall at the hands of The Hacker. His plan was ingenious, diabolical, and cruel beyond reason. Hacker's plan had come from something very mundane, a knocked over box of tapes containing security footage.
The security footage came from Control Central and was a decade or so old. Hacker, for reasons he could not even remember, had copied the footage from the Control Central database shortly before he had been banished. At first, Hacker had been quite angry that Buzz and Delete had made such a mess. That anger had quickly faded away once Hacker played one of the tapes. On screen showed a young Dr. Marbles perhaps seventeen years old. He was playing with an adorable five year old girl; none other than his precious baby sister, Dove.
Hacker remembered Dove Shovat well. That little girl could capture your heart in an instant. She was so small that she never looked her age but she was sharp as a tack. Little Dove had suspected from the first moment she met Hacker that he was evil; she had even told her big brother so. She had been right of course, but her brother hadn't heeded that warning until it was too late… What Hacker had done to her, what Marbles hated him for the most, had been an accident, but in the end it had given him an insight as to one of Marbles' weaknesses.
Using advanced technology that harnessed the imagery and vocal patterns from the footage, the device had made the ultimate little weapon with endearing eyes. Sending his little weapon of psychological destruction into Control Central meant that it would only be a matter of time before Hacker would have Marbles at the end of his rope. At about 3:30 a.m. Hacker set his device to go off at about 6:05 a.m. for the first time within Control Central. Hacker couldn't wait to watch Marbles lose it.
Finally with the device timed to go off Hacker went to get some sleep. He wouldn't have a rude awakening in less than three hours. But Marbles would.
