3.

Matt's Bad Day

Through all of the shock, Matt suddenly felt a wave of anger sweep over him. As Delete reached towards him to pick him up, Matt ran forward, leaped into Delete's metal hand, scampering up Delete's arm, and leap one more time at Delete's face.

"THIS AIN'T NO FRIENDLY MOUSE DELETE!" Matt screamed in anger.

He landed on Delete's nose, and bit it as hard as he could.

"Yow!" Delete exclaimed, suddenly straightening, banging his head on the side of the transformation chamber as he quickly backed out.

His hands grasped at Matt, trying to pull him off, but Matt held on tight. Delete's metal skin was hard, and Matt was surprised that he was even inflicting any kind of pain on Delete. Still, if he actually was causing Delete pain, that was all that matter at the moment.

Delete finally pried Matt off, holding him tight in on hand. "It's not my fault the Transforitron turned you into a mouse!" Delete said, wagging his thumb at Matt.

Matt nipped at it. "You activated the machine." Matt pointed out.

"But the machine works on thought!" Delete said. "It transforms you into whatever you're thinking at the time!"

Matt opened his mouth to say more, but then promptly closed it. Delete was right, and now that he thought about it, a mouse was the last thing on Matt's mind before the Transformitron activated. But he was envisioning Delete to be the mouse, not himself.

Apparently, the Transformitron didn't know the difference.

"That's beside the point!" Matt continued to argue. "It wouldn't have happened at all, if you hadn't tricked me!"

"You tried tricking me first!" Delete yelled back.

"Who cares!?" Matt yelled. "You pressed the button that consequently paved the road for the Transformitron to turn me into a mouse!"

"What's wrong with that?" Delete asked. "You're actually kinda cute as a mouse." Delete thought that phrase back through in his head, before adding "You know I mean that in the way, that, um, that I don't like you, um..."

"I DON'T WANT TO BE A MOUSE!" Matt yelled, and finally squirmed himself free of Delete's grasp, going for the robot's nose again.

Delete grabbed him in mid-jump with his other hand. "Look, just relax, okay! We'll figure this out!" he said.

Matt took a couple of deep breaths, rubbing his paw through the fur on his head. "Okay, okay." Matt said, forcing himself to calm down. "Just...put me back in the machine and turn me back."

Delete opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off when the Transformitron's control panel suddenly erupted into a fury of sparks, a small fire poking out one corner.

Delete suddenly paled, like he just remembered something very, very, important too late to rectify it. This really worried Matt.

"What?" Matt asked. "You can still turn me back, right? Right? Delete? You can turn me back, right? Delete! Right? Right?"

Delete's expression said it all.

"Oh no." Matt moaned, suddenly realizing what they had both forgotten. "The NIC...oh no...oh no, no, no, no, NO!"

He squirmed his way out of Delete's grasp again, hopping on top of the Transformitron. "You...you can fix it, right?" he asked Delete.

Delete looked at him for a moment.

"Please don't say no." Matt begged.

So Delete shook his head instead.

"ARGH!" Matt yelled, pounding his fists on the Transformitron. "Why, oh, WHY, did that NIC have to be only used, ONCE? Hacker's a genus, why couldn't he make a proper one? Why, why, why, why, WHY?"

"Well, don't panic yet." Delete said. "If we remove the NIC, it should return you to normal."

Matt stopped pounding his fists, looking up. "You're right!" he exclaimed, his expression brightening. "Well, what are you waiting for Delete, a permission slip? Pull it out!"

Delete nodded and reached for the NIC's slot. He suddenly paused. "If I do this," he suddenly said, "the boss will be really mad at me."

"Delete, if you don't pull that NIC out in the next five seconds, you'll have a whole lot more to worry about than Hacker!" Matt said through clenched teeth. "Pull it out!"

Delete got the drift, and started pulling at the NIC.

"It's stuck." he muttered, and pulled harder.

Just when it seemed he might get it free, an umbrella suddenly appeared out of nowhere and wacked Delete on the top of the head, knocking him out like a light.

"And Motherboard said I wouldn't need the umbrella today." Digit mused, putting the umbrella away in his chest compartment.