Hi, everyone! Itanu here, with the third chapter of "Words of the Matrix". I'm sorry for the long wait, everybody- I was occupied for a while just after I finished chapter two, but I finally managed to get my stuff together and find the time to do this. Now, let's get started!

I do not own Wordgirl, Cyberchase, or any affiliated characters. Both are owned by PBS Kids, and Wordgirl is also owned by Soup2Nuts. And of course, both are kept alive by contributions by viewers like you. Thank you!

Becky groaned, tapping her fingers on the desk she was in. She had come to the Math class at recess time, as she had been instructed to do. And now, it was her waiting on the teacher while he did paperwork, rather than the other way around.

Becky generally didn't mind lectures, understanding their necessity. However, even she had a more youthful side that occasionally surfaced. When that ever-so-shy-to-appear side came into play, her readiness to receive the lecture was more from a wish to get it out of the way than to understand the message. This was one of those times.

Becky was starting to exhale deeply, so as to suppress a yawn, when she heard the rustling of Mr. Dannes getting up out of his chair.

'Finally,' Becky thought, 'I've been waiting forever.' Becky mentally slapped herself for saying this- she usually wasn't so impatient, especially for something related to school.

Sure enough, Mr. Dannes stood up and paced on until he stood at front of the row of desks in which Becky's seat was the third. He turned to Becky, with a sort of look that inadvertently transferred a 'Now you're in for it' look, grabbed a desk from the front of the row, spun it around gently, and sat down. He was now at eye-level with Becky.

"Now, Becky," Mr. Dannes sighed, "I would like to know if you've had any difficulties lately. Have you been getting enough sleep?" He continued in a firm, but not angered, voice.

Becky was taken aback a little by this sudden show of concern- she had expected a one-sided conversation when she had first walked in. Still, the young fifth-grader didn't want to press this luck, so she responded as coolly as she could, "Yes, sir".

No sooner had she said this, though, than a yawn escaped her jaws, too quickly for her to suppress. She immediately pulled her hand in front of her mouth and tried in vain to fight it, until her mouth involuntarily shut and it had ended. Mr. Dannes lifted an eyebrow at this; he was obviously in disbelief of what she had said. Becky opened her mouth once more- this time, to speak- but couldn't think of anything sensible to say.

"I'd also like to know," the teacher added, "if you have any problem with the material itself."

Becky's brow rose. "What do you mean?" she asked, puzzled by the question.

"What I mean is, does the Math itself stump you? Maybe you just don't feel like it's important?"

"No! No, no, no, no!" Becky frantically defended, startling the teacher a bit, "I think it's important! I know it's important! I don't-"

"All right, all right," Mr. Dannes responded calmly after the shock of Becky's outburst had passed. Becky suddenly realized what she had done, and let out a nervous chuckle, averting her eyes sheepishly.

Mr. Dannes sighed. He was no stranger to explaining to students that math mattered in the real world. But very seldom was a case like this, in which he had to explain how. He really had no idea of the means by which he could relate such information to a fifth-grader understandably. Even though, admittedly, Becky was one of the brightest bulbs in the bunch.

At that moment, an idea hit him.

"I understand that it isn't obvious how to deal with math out in the real world," the man said, getting the attention of the young girl who'd been unnerved by the silence, "and I know for a fact that you're one of the brightest fifth-graders in my class. So I tell you what," Mr. Dannes continued as he pushed himself out of the chair he'd been sitting in, "I'll type up a worksheet that has problems showing real-life applications of what we've got. And I'll give you a completed version of the review for you to copy." The teacher sat down at his computer as he added, "and if you complete that sheet, you can turn it in for extra credit. Capiche?"

Becky sighed. She wasn't exactly thrilled, but a chance to make up some lost credit for a required class was too good an offer to pass up. "Yes, sir," she said.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha!" Go, my Buster 1000! When you get there, crush everything in your way!" Tobey cackled as the robot he was standing on the shoulder of headed to the industrial part of the city.

"Yes, Tobey," the machine replied in a monotone voice, not changing its pace as it did so.

"And don't fall victim to that obnoxious heroine, Wordgirl! Understand?" Tobey coached.

"Yes, Tobey," the machine responded once more.

"Hm," Tobey muttered as he looked down at his vest, "I wonder if these clothes make me look fat..."

"Yes, Tob-"

"Silence!"

Tobey's eyes returned to the city. He narrowed his gaze, and smiled. "Let's get to work..."

11:30. That was the time now. Recess would be over in fifteen minutes, and Becky was not anywhere in sight.

"I wonder where she is," Violet sighed. "She does this so often... I wonder if she's okay?"

"Hey, Violet!" A familiar voice sounded from behind Violet. She turned around and smiled- until she noticed that Becky was gasping for breath. "I'm so sorry for being late! I-"

"Becky, um... are you okay?" Violet asked.

"Me? Okay? Yes- I'm perfectly...!" Becky's nearly crazed attempt to defend herself was stopped in its tracks by another large yawn. When she finally closed her mouth, she managed to croak, "Why would you think I'm not?"

Violet bit her lip, almost afraid to tell her best friend the evidence. Still, between Becky's frilly, almost rugged hair, the heavy pits under her eyes, and the fact she practically had to drag herself almost everywhere she went, Violet's conscience was screaming for her to say something.

"Well, Becky, you've been so distant, so aversive, so... um..."

"Preoccupied?" Becky finished for her friend.

"Yes, that's it! Preoccupied! Thank you!" Violet agreed heartily. While she was indeed grateful to be reminded of the right word, she feigned extra enthusiasm in hope of getting her friend to perk up a bit. Which it didn't.

Violet sighed in disappointment. A silence followed for the next few seconds, and in this time, Violet thought about how to help her friend. She usually tried starting up subjects that both Becky and she herself took interest in, as she attempted earlier in Art Appreciation class, but for the past few days, Becky's ability to hold a long conversation was dissipating. Just now, she had tried pointing out what her condition seemed to be like, even prompting Becky to help her with words- an effort that, contrary to the norm, more or less failed to yield any results. Maybe it was time she just addressed the problem.

"Hey, Becky?" Violet said, breaking the silence.

Becky looked up. "Oh, yeah, I forgot. Let me explain why I was late, please." Violet was silent, prompting Becky to continue. "I had to meet with Mr. Dannes about Math."

"Is that why you've been so preoccupied lately?" Violet inquired.

Part of it, Becky resisted saying. "Yeah, that's right."

Violet offered a friendly smile. At last, she had found out the problem- and had a perfect solution.

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Violet said. She continued, "I have all the notes, so if you'd like, we could meet after school, and I could show you them."

Becky raised an eyebrow and brought her hand to her chin. Violet's smile started to dissipate. "What's wrong, Becky?" she asked worriedly.

"Oh, nothing!" Becky assured. "At least, I think nothing," she added. Finally, she admitted, "Are your notes the same stuff we're doing in our classroom?"

"I'm pretty sure they are. So, would you like to meet after school?"

Becky suddenly felt her mood rocket to the point that she wanted to jump up and down right then and there. While the extra credit was good, this could be the rescue boat for her grade-point average in the middle of the sea of uncertainty.

"That sounds great, Violet!" Becky chirped. Violet was surprised by this sudden sign of optimism in her friend's attitude, but it was also very pleasing.

"So," Becky continued, "where and when should we meet?"

"Well, I was thinking-"

"HELP!!!" A loud wail interjected. A man in a green jacket with a ponytail was standing outside the schoolyard's fence.

'Oh, no...' Becky thought in fear. She vividly remembered this guy from countless encounters beforehand- he always appeared to announce some kind of villainous activity or another. She didn't have time to pray as he continued, "Somebody help! Tobey's got a brand-new robot, and now he's destroying the city again!"

Everyone was speechless. The man blinked.

"Er... is this the Police Station?"

"No," Violet responded, "the nearest Police Station is five blocks down the road. This is Woodview Elementary's playground."

"Ah, I see," the man smiled in understanding. He then ran to where Violet had said the Station was, continuing to call for help. Becky just barely managed to get rid of the very annoyed look on her face as Violet turned her attention back to her.

"Hey, Violet? I'm really sorry, but I, uh..."

R-r-r-r-ring!!! The school bell rang at that moment, signalling the end of Recess. Oh, great.

"Oh," Becky said with some restraint on her voice that threatened to project the feelings of her tortured super-ego, "how do you like that? Guess it's time to head to our classes. See you Violet, bye!" Becky finished, stringing together the last words as she started fast-walking to her class. She'd figure out something... somehow.

Countless students flocked from different parts of the playground to the building upon hearing the bell. Scoops was among them, heading back on into the building for his own "class". Actually, it was the period the school had designated to him as his time to work at the Daily Rag office. He was lost deep in thought about which of his recently obtained stories to use when he heard a voice crying for help. It was a familiar voice, too- familiar in such a way, even, so that Scoops dropped what he was doing and listened. Sure enough, the guy who always seemed to expose where a nearby crime or catastrophe was happening was running alongside the outside of the fence line, calling for help. Scoops didn't even need to stop the man to ask him anything- the young reporter saw a giant robot not too far away. Scoops bit his lip lightly. Generally, he held off on stories during school hours, but Wordgirl was probably going to be there...

No! He would not risk getting in trouble over something he had seen a million times already! No way!

Seven minutes later...

...The next thing Scoops knew was that he was practically charging into the Daily Rag office to retrieve his camera and check out.

"Hey, Everybody!" Scoops called to the other students, as well as the supervising teacher, in the room.

"Hey, Todd!" the Teacher alone responded, then looked back down at her paperwork. The absence of other students might have had something to do with that, but Scoops didn't care at the moment.

"Hey, Teach? I'm going to go interview the... Lunch Lady about... um... food prices! Yes, that's it, food prices! I'll be right back, alright?" Scoops fibbed, slightly cringing, as he was not very used to doing so. The teacher simply nodded in approval while continuing to read. The robot didn't seem all that far away- maybe Scoops could get his story and get back to school before the lunch bell rang.

Scoops headed out the door, and almost reached the front exit when...

'Oops,' Scoops thought, and pivoted around on one foot and headed back to the press room to pick up that one important thing he needed.

'Can't forget this,' Scoops reaffirmed to himself as he picked up his new Explorer Camera, and a hard drive to plug into it. And with that, he shot out of the building and to the scene of the crime like there was no tomorrow.

"No," Hacker sighed with a very heavily annoyed undertone. Last night, his machine had received its final necessities from his goons, and a few touch-ups from him. He had woken up from his slumber early this morning to get started on the use of his machine. If he could locate the members of the Cybersquad, he figured, he could track and destroy them. This is what he had been trying to do for the past two hours.

The Cyborg tried another button combination. And another. And yet another. And yet one more. At last, it was too much to keep contained.

"Argh!" The green man yelled, "I can't take this anymore!"

Almost immediately, metallic footsteps approached, signaling the arrival of Buzz and Delete, still in their nightcaps. The two stopped when they saw their boss crouched over and rubbing his temples.

"Hey, Boss! What's the matter?' Buzz called out. No response, save for some grumbling.

"Err… did we do something wrong?" Delete asked timidly.

"For once, no," Hacker replied coldly. He continued, "I don't have even a single clue as how to find where that blasted Cybersquad is! All I've found is that most humans are a bunch of imbeciles!"

Indeed, when Hacker had first begun looking through the computer screens of the human world those two hours ago, he'd not yet realized that he didn't have any way to track down his enemies. Instead, he started using what little he knew of the signals that were made when Motherboard summoned the kids. When that failed, he was left doing guesswork, which was mostly getting him to computers with no one in their sights. Worse still, every computer he saw through which actually let him see the inhabitants of Earth revealed that people from this other world were a bunch of negligent ignoramuses.

"Uh... but Boss, why do we care about how dumb or not these people are?" Buzz asked curiously.

"Because," Hacker replied slowly through his teeth, slowly raising his voice as he continued to talk, "this is making the idea that three young people from this world beat me time after time all the more difficult to swallow!"

While their boss wasn't actually yelling, Buzz and Delete concluded, he was loud enough that they could tell he was not wanting to be trifled with at the moment. Of course, he never really was, but now, the case even more so than ever.

"And," Hacker muttered under his breath, "I was hoping I could have one of these organic Earthlings help me."

Buzz and Delete blinked. "W-What'd you say, boss?" Delete inquired.

"Oh, never mind." Hacker turned around and continued to operate the controls.

"Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Yes, Buster 1000, that's it!" Tobey nearly maniacally encouraged his robot, as it walked through the streets of the city. The young boy-genius's eyes wandered to the local small-time arcade. An even larger grin than his already-present smile stretched across his face.

"Buster!" Tobey commanded, and having gotten the robot's attention, continued, "Go crush that wretched building over there with the big joystick on top. Step on it!" he added, pointing his finger at the arcade.

"Yes, Tobey," the robot complied, and headed over to the destination indicated by his master.

Just then, a yellow-orange streak came out of nowhere and stopped in front of the robot. As soon as the streak stopped moving, it dissipated to reveal...

"Wordgirl!" Tobey nearly squealed. He blinked, cleared his throat, and repeated in a more menacing, displeased voice, "Wordgirl... what do you want?"

"I ought to be asking you the same thing," Wordgirl responded with a scowl on her face, "Now, I'm going to give you a choice this time. Just stop destroying everything, head on home, and I won't have to drive your robot into the ground."

"Hey, wait a minute," Tobey said in realization, ignoring Wordgirl's 'offer', "Where's that infernal side-kick of yours?"

"Oh, Huggy!" Wordgirl stammered. She was startled that Tobey had taken the time to make such an observation. Bob, otherwise known as Captain Huggy Face, was sick at the moment- something Becky really didn't want to disclose to any nemesis of hers.

"Well, um... er... don't change the subject!" Wordgirl finally said, "Take my offer and go home or don't and get in big, big trouble with your mommy!

"Pft! What do I look like, a toddler? Why don't I crush you right now?!"

Before the red-plaid girl could answer, yet another one of those darned yawns threatened to come up.

'Oh, No!'Wordgirl thought, If I yawn, he'll figure out how tired I'm feeling, and there's no way he'll surrender if that happens!'

Wordgirl tried valiantly to supress the foul beast relaxing her throat and straining her jaw- with surprising success. But, there was no way to stop the tears, droopy eyes, and tidbit of the yawn itself that came through.

"Ooh, what's this," Tobey teased, "Is this Wordgirl, mighty hero of the Fair City, exhausted?"

"I am not exhausted!" Wordgirl snapped back.

"Oh, I'm sosorry. Would you prefer 'tired'? Or maybe 'wiped out' for a more general implication? Hmm?"

"Tobey, you've got to be the most pretentious villain in this whole city!" Wordgirl interjected, with a mix of intended meaning and the wish for him to simply shut up.

At this point, many spectators were watching this unfolding argument. Among them was Scoops, just catching up to the scene.

"Aha!" Scoops exclaimed, "I've finally got it!" The young reporter came to a halt, placed the hard drive into his Camera, propped it up on his shoulder, and began taping as the heroine and the young villain got into a heated debate.

"No," Hacker muttered. He pulled up another place on his computer. "No," he said with more grit in his voice. He pulled up another coordinate. "No!" he yelled.

Buzz and Delete, who had been dismissed from the room earlier but had stayed close, peeked in.

"No, no, NO!!!" Hacker yelled, hitting his fist on the side of the desk on which the computer's keyboard sat, "I give up! I haven't been able to find a single gifted human who could help me, nor have I been able to find those blasted brats!" With this, he raised his fist high, and brought it down hard on the center of the keyboard.

The screen sizzled, buzzed, and warped its images- then went black. It came back up again, did the exact same cycle again. It came back again once more, but this time, it didn't go back out. Instead, it came to a screen with a very unfocused, blurry image that seemed to be bouncing about a little bit. It started to re-focus itself, and when it had done so, it yielded something Hacker couldn't quite conceive. There was an indistinct, red dot up in the sky next to the most unusual building anyone could ever imagine- a titanic construct that seemed to balance on two separate stalks. It seemed that, whatever this computer screen was he was looking through, it was being held by an unsteady hand, and whoever this hand belonged to was on the ground looking up.

"Oops," a young voice that seemed to be coming from behind the screen said, "Where's that zoom button? Ah- here it is!"

Hacker's interest was now piqued. The dot in the sky started to get larger, until it turned out to be a most peculiar sight: a little, levitating girl with a red outfit and a flowing, yellow cape. What's more, the giant, odd building turned out to be have a young, blonde-haired boy on top of it. As the screen zoomed in even more, and regained focus, the large building turned out to be what could only be described as a giant metal man- the boy was on its shoulder.

Hacker squinted, rubbing his eyes to make sure that what he was seeing was real. Indeed, that girl was flying. That was definitely wierder than he could imagine, fair enough, but even more strange, that huge, metallic-looking thing she was facing was a cyborg. A cyborg. In the human world, outside of Cyberspace. Hacker had no idea it was even possible- until now.

"Buzz! Delete!" the green cyborg called, "Get over here- now!"

The two goons entered in, trying their best not to reveal the nervous wrecks they were right now, out of fear that Hacker might suddenly wanted to melt them down.

"Look at this!" Hacker said once they got over to the position of standing behind his chair, pointing at the robot on the screen. Buzz and Delete did as commanded- just as they did so, the robot suddenly tried to grab the girl in the air.

"Whoa! Is that a human-?" Buzz was cut off by Hacker's hand coming over his mouth. Buzz got the hint, and the three watched on in awe as the fight unfolded.

Well, sorry for the abrupt ending, everybody. I've spent quite a bit of effort on this, and besides, I feel that the story would flow best- and I'd do a better job of remembering to update it- if this is where I call it a day. Also, note that originally, this chapter was going to be much longer, but alas! I realized that the longer I make this chapter, the shorter- and more difficult to write- the next chapter would be. So, I figured that this chapter advances the plot enough for me to call it a resting point. Next chapter, we see the fight between Wordgirl and Tobey (or Buster 1000, depending on your Point of View), as well as the aftermath of it.

Thank you for your audience, everybody! Reviews are appreciated.