Chapter III
He was awake, he realized reluctantly. Matt didn't want to open his eyes, didn't want to fully realize and accept that he was awake, so he kept his eyes closed, hoping, willing himself to fall back asleep. He doubted sleep would come, though. It was all he had been doing for the past five days and his body was sleeped-out by now. Sighing, he realized he would have to wake up sometime. Blinking, he slowly got up from the hard, metal floor he had been sleeping on, ignoring his sore body. The floor's steel, unforgiving surface had left Matt feeling rather un-refreshed each morning, and he was beginning to desperately miss his bed. Massaging his neck, he took in his surroundings, as he did every morning. And, as he noted every morning before, they remained unchanged.
He was in a small, cramped cell, devoid of any sort of furniture. The only other objects in the room, besides Matt, were his backpack, eight empty cans and bottles tossed in the corner, and a spoon. The walls, floor and ceiling were all made of simple, unpolished steel. There was a door directly in front of him with a very small, thick, glass window in the middle of it. Matt hadn't seen anybody or anything pass that window since the day he had arrived in his small cell.
He and his family had just come back from a two week vacation on the beach. Matt, exhausted, had flopped onto his bed as soon as he'd arrived home, resolving to unpack the following morning. Just as he had been about to drift off to sleep, a shockingly bright portal had appeared at the side of his bed. Matt, too dumbfounded to move, had simply sat on the edge of his bed, staring uncertainly at the portal. It had been seven years, and this portal seemed almost too good to be true. He remembered how he had slowly gotten off his bed and hesitantly stepped towards the portal, grabbing his backpack off his bed as he did so. His face had been but an inch away from the portal when he'd heard a loud exclamation from the other side, and a hand suddenly pushed its way through the portal and towards him. Matt made to step back quickly, but found his path blocked by his bed. The green hand had reached forwards quickly, groping the air in an attempt to grab onto whatever its goal was. That goal turned out to be Matt. He'd been horrified to see the hand grab onto the neck of his shirt, and see its grip tightening. The sight of that hand seemed to send an electric shock through him, waking him up to the situation. He tried leaping back again, but as before, hit only the side of his bed. The hand began to pull him back, and he'd dug his heels into his floor, wrapping his fingers around the menacing, green hand. Struggling, he tried to free himself, but another green hand shot out of the portal, grabbing his neck and then forcibly pulling him. Gagging, Matt continued to try to pull back, but it was useless; in a matter of seconds, he found himself flying head-on into the portal. There was a rush of air, and then he was in Cyberspace once more, gasping for breath at Hacker's feet.
Matt cringed at the memory. It was all he thought about, all he dreamed about. Hacker hadn't even bothered to say anything after Matt had arrived; he'd simply snapped his fingers and two robots had whisked Matt away and into the cell he currently resided in. The teenager had been surprised to note that neither of the two robots were Buzz or Delete; he'd never seen them before. With all the time he'd had to himself for the past five days, he'd done nothing but think about what was happening. He had no way to warn Jackie or Inez about what had happened, he didn't even know how Hacker had managed to escape from Control Center. He'd spent his first day searching for a way to escape, remembering when he'd been trapped in the Control Center with Dr. Marbles and the rest of the Cybersquad. Dr. Marbles had found a way out through the garbage disposal, but it seemed like Hacker's ship had nothing like this. He had given up on trying to find a way to escape. He was sure that there was a camera somewhere in his cell, since every time he woke up there was a bottle of water and can of cyberbeans waiting for him. He never saw anyone actually leave this food for him; people only entered his cell when he was asleep, apparently. There was nothing in his backpack – which he had been permitted to keep – that could help him. All he had was a journal, pencil, yo-yo, some pictures and a small bag of fruit snacks that he'd decided to save.
Looking morosely about him, Matt retrieved his yo-yo from his backpack. He'd been using it repeatedly over the last five days, not to help him think, but to use as a way to help him keep his sanity.
"He's yo-yoing again, Boss!" cried Buzz from the control room. He had been spending most of the day spinning in his chair. It was so high off the ground, and the seat so wide, that Buzz's stubby little legs hardly reached over the edge of it. This was something the spherical robot enjoyed immensely; it made him feel taller for some reason.
"You imbecilic moron!" roared Hacker from deck of the ship, "I already told you, I don't care what that uninteresting Earthling does anymore! Don't bother me with that brat's brainless behavior anymore!"
"Oh, right…sorry Boss," replied Buzz, ceasing his spinning. Spinning his chair was something he enjoyed, and now that he'd upset Hacker, he didn't feel he deserved to be enjoying himself. Not when Hacker was angry again. After all, he had already told Buzz before that he didn't want anymore reports on the Earth kid's actions.
"Don't worry, Buzzy," piped a voice from the back of the room. Buzz spun his chair around – not too quickly, though, so as to make sure he wouldn't really enjoy the spinning – to greet Delete, who had just crossed into the control room, "I forget things all the time, and the Hacker will forget about it soon. Especially since we're gonna get Shangri-La any day now. That's what the Hacker says, anyway."
Delete moved over to sit in the other high, spinning chair next to Buzz. His legs actually hung over the edge, unlike Buzz's, but they were still far away from the actual floor.
"I know, DeeDee, but I still feel bad when he gets angry," replied Buzz, turning back to look at the video monitors that spanned across the wall. Monitor 31C showed Matt standing by himself in his cell, playing with a bright blue and red yo-yo.
"What are we gonna do with the kid, Boss?" Delete had asked five days ago, after Hacker had thrown the newly-arrived Matt into his cell.
"Nothing at all, my contemptible companion. We're simply going to keep him here," replied Hacker, grinning at the monitor that showed the former Cybersquad member. They were all standing together in the control room, Delete, Buzz, Hacker and Wicked, watching their new arrival.
"But uh, Boss, why not get the rest of them, too?" asked Buzz, watching Matt as he made his way around the cell, banging on the walls in an attempt to find a way out.
"Because we can't! We were lucky enough to get the portal that allowed us to capture this meddling Earth-brat," he replied angrily, adding under his breath, "I shouldn't have had him infect all those portals with viruses."
"Who, Boss?" asked Buzz, catching what Hacker had said.
"Nobody, you eavesdropping idiot!" roared the green Cyborg in reply.
"At any rate," chimed in Wicked, leaning heavily against Hacker's arm, to his annoyance, "It's better to have that Earth-kid stuck here, where he can't do anything to damage my Hackie-poo's plans, right, sweetie?"
"Right," grumbled Hacker, and then, coming to his senses once more, "Enough of this! Buzz, watch the captive; tell me if he starts doing anything. Come, the rest of you – we have Cybersites to take over and no time to waste!"
