In this chapter, everyone gets reunited, but the situation grows more grave, and Peter owes Alex another dollar. :P

12.

Desperate Measures

Buzz eventually found Delete lying flat on his back, just coming to again.

"DeeDee!" Buzz exclaimed, rushing to his friend's side. "What happened?"

Delete rubbed his head for a moment as he sat up. "I forget." the absent-minded robot eventually replied. "I think I hit something though."

"I gathered that much." Buzz said, annoyed, helping Delete to his feet. "C'mon, we gotta track down those kids, or the boss is going to skin us alive."

"If we had skin." Delete pointed out, as they began to run.

They wandered back to the Cyantian machine, still left running on the riverside, to make it everything was okay here.

"Huh, everything seems to check out here." Buzz remarked. "That's odd, I would've thought for sure they would've all come back here."

"Buzzy, do you hear something?" Delete asked suddenly, cupping a hand around his ear.

Buzz listened for a moment, then was going to say that he could hear a creaking noise, but was stopped when the branch from a nearby tree suddenly lashed out in front of them. It caught Delete in the middle and threw him backwards, knocking him out once again. Buzz, who was shorter, got wacked in the head, and stumbled for a few moments before tipping over, unconscious.

Peter came out of hiding and looked at them. "I can't believe that worked again!" he exclaimed.

"You owe me another dollar." Alex announced, also revealing himself. "I hope you're keeping track."

They turned to the machine again and looked at it.

"So now what?" Peter asked.

Alex shrugged. "I dunno." he replied.

"Maybe we should shoot it." Peter said, whipping out one of the two laser pistols they had gotten off of Buzz and Delete.

Alex stopped him. "That would probably only make it explode sooner." he pointed out. He sighed, then looked at the contraption's one and only control panel. "We'll have to try and disarm it ourselves." he said.

Peter stepped aside. "You first!" he said.

Alex frowned, but did not argue. He approached the control panel and looked it over.

"I wish these buttons were labeled." he muttered. "Then I'd know which one turned the darn thing off."

"Well, I'd doubt it would be the big green button in the middle." Peter said, pointing at the button in question.

"Yeah, that would be too obvious." Alex agreed.

"In the Real World anyway." Peter added.

They looked at one another.

"You think it's worth a try?" Alex asked.

"It's not like we have any better ideas." Peter pointed out.

Alex hesitated a moment, then pressed the button. The machine began to whir.

Peter's SKWAK pad bleeped. He pulled it out and studied the display.

"Oh shoot." he muttered.

"What?" Alex asked, sounding tense.

"The timer on this things suddenly just doubled it's speed." Peter explained. "It'll go off in half the time, if not less."

"Shoot!" Alex exclaimed, scanning over the buttons, "There must be something that'll undo that!"

Suddenly, they heard a low hum. Looking up, they saw a little craft come towards the, then land nearby. The glass canopy sprang open, and out clambered Digit and Lara, as well as Matt, Jackie, and Inez.

"Oh, thank heavens!" Peter exclaimed, relieved, "Did you guys ever come at the right time!"

"Why? What's happened?" Inez asked, not liking the tone Peter was taking, excusing the introductions for the moment.

"We weren't sure where you all were, so we were trying to disarm this thing ourselves." Alex explained as Digit rushed over. "And we made the timer on this thing double in speed."

"You what?" Digit exclaimed, alarmed. "You made things worse?"

"If you hadn't ran off, then maybe this wouldn't have happened!" Peter said accusingly. "Where were you guys, anyway?"

"We were at Hacker's ship." Lara explained. "We were able to steal it's lifeboat in addition to freeing the experts." she motioned to the ship and at the Cybersquad, who had all gathered around the machine.

"Can you stop it, Digit?" Matt asked the cybird as he surveyed the controls.

"Easily, if this darn control panel was labeled!" Digit exclaimed.

"Can't you just push buttons at random?" Jackie asked.

"No!" Digit exclaimed annoyed. "That could make things worse than they already are!"

"Like how?" Peter asked.

"Like making the thing blow up now rather than later!" Digit exclaimed.

"Okay, don't do that then." Peter said.

"Thank you captain obvious!" Digit yelled.

"Relax Digit," Inez said, "We still have..."

"Fifteen minutes." Peter provided, glancing at his SKWAK pad.

"...so no pressure." Inez concluded.

Digit muttered something incoherently.

"Uh, guys?" Lara suddenly said. "We have trouble."

She pointed at Buzz and Delete, who were starting to stir. Everyone turned to look at them, but then looked back in the other direction when a another noise rang out.

"More trouble than we think." Matt suddenly added, looking upward.

The Grim Wreaker skimmed over the treetops, heading in their direction...