A/N: Wow, thanks so much for the positive feedback! Glad you guys enjoy the idea of an angsty, apocalyptic Cyberspace as much as I do, haha. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask/tell. I have a fear of being unclear in my writing, lol. Enjoy!
Chapter Two
As she watched the portal fizzle into nothingness, Inez couldn't hide her disbelief that her friends had left Cyberspace without her. She had thought that her stubborn responses would prompt Jackie and Matt to stay for a couple more days while she got the loose data organized, and then, maybe, they could all go home.
I guess I didn't communicate that too well, Inez thought sadly, a tear escaping her eye against her wishes. She heard a soft whirring as Digit propelled his way over to land beside her. "Everything okay, Nezzie?" he asked, bravely attempting a smile. They both knew that nothing was okay, but despite this, her heart swelled with emotion due to his kindness.
"Don't call me Nezzie," she responded automatically, a slight hitch in her voice. Her outward tolerance for the nick name had not increased in the slightest over the years, although she found herself not minding as much when he said it...
No. She would not allow thoughts of him, especially now that she had been abandoned. He had abandoned her.
"I'll be fine, Didge," Inez assured weakly, trying to return the smile. "I'm almost through the most recent updates from cybersites. Then I'm in the clear organization-wise until the next scheduled update, day after tomorrow."
Digit wrung his wings anxiously. "Still, I really think you oughta hit the hay now, Inez," he implored. "You're ahead with the organizing, right? I think you can afford to take care of yourself for a few hours."
She considered this. It was true that she was far ahead of the schedule she had set for herself. Reluctantly, she forced herself to admit that if she didn't sleep soon, fatigue would cause mistakes in her work. She couldn't afford to hurt the cause that she was trying so desperately to help.
"You're right," Inez agreed as she got to her feet and began the trek to her adjacent bedroom. "But don't let me sleep longer than four hours."
"Four hours?!" Digit squawked as he flew alongside of her. "That'll do nothing for ya! Eight at the very least."
They bickered all the way to the small closet that Inez had shoved a cot in for the long stretches that she stayed in Cyberspace during the war. She kicked off her shoes and climbed into the cot. "Sure you'll be okay alone?" she yawned, stretching and laying down. She hadn't felt so ready for sleep in ages.
"I'll be fine. Sleep well, Nezzie," Digit said gently. "You have nothing to worry about. Control central is completely safe and has been since that first major atta-"
"Thanks, Digit," Inez cut him off abruptly. "See you when I get up."
"Okay." He pulled the door shut gently and she could hear him whirring away.
She laid on her back stiffly, staring at the ceiling of the cramped closet. Rigid and now completely awake, she knew there was no way she could get to sleep before reliving the memories of the day that Digit had been about to describe before she stopped him. The day that the war began. The day that absolutely everything about her life and her persona changed.
The day of The Hack Attack that would go down in Cyberspace history.
"Your hair is getting pretty long, Inez," the black girl with stunning features noted. She pulled the seated younger girl's hair into a French braid, kneeling behind her on the floor of control central's main room.
"Yeah, need a haircut, Nezzie?" the gangly ginger sitting at a card table chuckled, leaning towards her and making snipping motions at her hair. She tried to be annoyed at him as she slapped his hand away, but couldn't contain some of her pleased laughter.
"It may be long, but it's too frizzy for length to matter," the Hispanic girl sighed, surprising herself. She had never found a need to nitpick anyone based on outward appearance before, including herself. She supposed it had something to do with growing older.
"Whoa there, Inez, guys LIKE wild hair," the older girl protested, finishing off the braid with a flourish. "Isn't that right, Matt?" she inquired, with a meaningful look at him, her eyes flicking to the back of the braided head.
Matt stroked his chin pensively, then made a sudden move in the game of chess he was playing with Digit. "Checkmate!" he cried triumphantly, gaining an "Awwww!" from his opponent. "Sure, Jacks, I go for crazy hair, especially on myself." He ran his fingers through his messy locks, making them do the impossible and stick up even more than normal. Jackie shot him an exasperated look in which Inez detected a puzzling layer of urgency.
"-bzzzt- Inez! Matt!" a cool, robotic, female voice boomed suddenly from above. The squad and Digit turned to face the largest screen that Cyberspace contained. "What's up, Motherboard?" Inez inquired.
Motherboard, the supreme power, ruler, and wise leader of Cyberspace, looked down at the earth kids. "I need you two to check the status of the detection console in sub-control room B6," she said commandingly, though not unkindly. "I seem to be receiving... very odd signals... It could be faulty."
"On it!" Matt said with enthusiasm, slinging his well-worn backpack over his shoulder and starting towards the large doors. "Come on, Nezzie!"
"Don't CALL me that, MattHEW," she responded, unable to contain her huge smile as she followed Matt through the doors. Behind their backs, Digit gave Cyberspace's ruler a covert thumbs up as Jackie whispered "Well played, Mother B. Well played."
The metal doors slid back together with a clang behind Inez as she scurried to catch up with Matt. Annoyed with herself, she attempted to hold back her excitement for such a menial task.
Okay, she had to admit that she was enthralled to be alone with Matt. As she came up beside him, she couldn't help taking in his tall, lanky body, his strong hands, his effortless and confident smile as he turned to look her way.
"Just like old times, huh?" he grinned, playfully giving her a light punch in the arm.
"Yeah," she said happily as she reflected on their childhood adventures, where they often split into pairs to solve puzzles and mysteries. Jackie with Digit and Matt with Inez. Those had been the days when she saw Matt as more obnoxious than charismatic and closer to a brother than anything else. But as they entered adolescence and Cyberspace's need for rescuing seemed to dwindle, Inez began to see her friend in a different light.
"I honestly can't believe that you're sixteen now," he said wonderingly. "I feel like we're still just kids trying to use the map in the library-"
"Completely unaware that their lives are about to change forever," Inez cut in with a dramatic voice that caused them both to laugh. A short silence followed.
"I don't know where I would be now if I hadn't met you that day," Matt said quietly.
Inez was taken aback. She hadn't heard teasing, joking Matt speak this seriously... well, ever, really. "I guess you, um, wouldn't be buddying it up with cyborgs?" She giggled nervously.
"More than that," he pressed on. "You keep me grounded, Nezzie. Jacks too, but..." He abruptly stopped walking. Inez, having inadvertently gone a few steps ahead, slowly turned around to face him.
"You're, well, you're special," he got out, apparently struggling to find the words to express his feelings. "You've always pushed me to keep going, no matter what. Even if I wanted to give up on a difficult problem, you encouraged me to stick it through to the solution." He ran his fingers through his hair. "Inez, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I-"
"Sub-control room B6," Inez interrupted sharply, pointing to the door that they had reached.
"Oh. Yeah. Okay." Matt slowly dropped the arm he had been using to gesture towards her, looking a little dejected. "Let's, uh… let's go." As Inez followed him through the doorway, she inwardly berated herself for cutting him off. Yet she still felt too young, too incompetent to have the conversation that she knew that they had been putting off.
Awkward tension reigned for a moment in the small room that was illuminated solely by screens and buttons.
"Talk about weird signals!" Matt, the bolder of the two, broke the silence and motioned towards the console that sat on the far left of the long, lit-up counter. "I've never seen anything like this."
Inez joined him and gasped. The rectangular detection consoles, which were stationed all over control central, were meant to detect any suspicious or malevolent activity, whether it be a trespasser or a virus directed at Motherboard. Their translucent surfaces rippled with neon red waves when they detected something amiss, but stayed a hazy, glowing purple when all was at peace.
But this console was showing neither. It flashed from grainy television static to a range of psychedelic colors faster than Inez could blink. She was thankful that neither of them had epilepsy.
"Something isn't right here..." Matt muttered, his brow furrowed.
"Inez! Matt!" Motherboard's voice suddenly boomed from Inez's pocket. She quickly removed her skwak pad. "We're here in the control room, Motherboard, and you were right about the signals. I've never seen anything like this."
"It's gotta be malfunctioning," Matt added.
"That may.. or may not be true," Motherboard said warily. "But, listen to me... In the time that you two took to get to the control room, I... began receiving similar signals from the rest of the consoles in control central."
Inez and Matt found each other's glance. "Over 400 consoles malfunctioning at the same time?" she asked.
"I... don't think that's likely," Matt replied, still a little shocked.
Inez handed the skwak pad to Matt as she worriedly said "This is not good. This is not good at all!"
"I need you two to come back to the control room immediately," Motherboard's voice commanded. "Something is very wro-"
The ruler's face was replaced by an invasion of the same static and psychedelic colors as the console.
Matt yelled and dropped the skwak pad in surprise. Its clatter covered the sound of footsteps in the doorway.
"Come on, we've got to get back like Motherboard wanted," Inez said anxiously, allowing urgency to take over her voice. "Something really bad is going on."
"But WHAT IS IT that's happening?" Matt said loudly, his arms raised as he looked at the console and the fallen skwak. "Why is the entire system glitching?"
Inez froze, suddenly visited by a childhood memory of a dark spaceship and vicious laughter. "Matt, we've been stupid.. someone's behind this. I think you know exactly who we're dealing with," she said slowly, emphasizing each syllable with fearful apprehension.
"You can't be talking about..." Matt said, his tone surprised and a touch derisive.
From directly behind them, an all-too-familiar voice maliciously intoned "Oh, but I think she is, earthbrat."
Inez locked terrified eyes with Matt before turning around to face the evil grin of The Hacker.