(A/N: BOOM! Two in one sitting, baby!)

~Chapter Twelve~

Heads were knocked back violently against the leather headrests as Inez slammed her boot on the acceleration. The Cyber Coupe roared to life and completely ignored the laws of gravity as it soared off into the organized chaos of Cyberspace.

"Whoa! Time out, Nezzie!" Matt shouted. "I nearly snapped my neck!"

"No time! And don't call me 'Nezzie!'" she scolded all in one breath.

"Inez! I must implore – what in Cyberspace is going on?" the Doctor piped up, holding on to the light bulb of his head as if it would fall off.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Marbles, but we've got to get to Aquari-Yum as soon as possible!"

"What?"

"Let me get this straight," Jackie leaned up from the backseat, flabbergasted, "the fate of Cyberspace is putty in Wicked's hands and you wanna go swimming?"

"I think I'm gonna be sick..." Digit moaned, wings clutched tight to his chest hatch.

"Sorry, Digit, but this is gonna be bumpy." With a growl, Inez threw the steering, nearly knocking her crooked glasses to the floor as the Coupe turned sharply around the Radopolis border.

"Inez! Please calm down!" Doctor Marbles shouted above the engines. "I'm not sure how much more the Coupe can take! I'm not sure how much you can take, either."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Inez retorted, never taking her eyes off the non-existent road. "I feel fine!"

The Coupe's radio began to slide back and forth, meshing frequencies until a shrill heaving voice came through the speakers.

"You little Earth twits and your cyberturkey! I should have gotten rid of you while I had the chance!"

"It's Wicked!" Matt exclaimed, turning in his seat and gaping out the slit of a back window. "She's right behind us!"

Digit jumped up to the front seat and punched the transmission button.

"Hey! Lady! Only Hacker gets to call me a cyberturkey and what am I saying?"

Inez pushed aside the cyboid and switched the radio completely off.

"Okay, she wants to play hard? We'll play hard." She extended her arm across the seat gap and tightened her other hand's grip on the steering wheel. "Doctor Marbles, I need the key to the super nitro-boosters."

"That attachment is only to be used in dire situations! How do you know about that?"

"You told me about it."

"I most certainly did not!"

"Doc, we got a steamed witch on our tail feathers with a mad seven-foot cyborg at her side – I'd call that a dire situation! Now just hand her the key!" Digit wailed, flailing his wings.

The Doctor reluctantly reached into his lab coat to pull out a blocky electronic skeleton key with blue vein-like circuits covering it. Inez snatched it and shoved it into the discreet slot in the console. A panel dropped down over the radio and, as if brushing her teeth or some other menial task, she flipped all the switches perfectly.

"Hold on, guys!"

With the slightest touch of the acceleration, the Cyber Coupe shot off into space like a radioactive bullet. Stomachs turned as Inez twisted the craft through the minefield of cybersites. Jackie nearly flipped completely over in the backseat because she hadn't been given enough time to secure her seat belt.

"BRACE!" Inez yelled, pulling back on the wheel with one hand as her other flew across the control board. Jackie and Digit's high-pitched screams rang in everyone's ears as the Coupe shook in an abrupt pause. The five heaved for air like a dying fish, clinging onto the leather interior with iron grips.

"My head..." Matt groaned.

"My stomach..." Digit replied in a nasal tone.

"Yuh...you've already enabled the submarine mode," the Doctor gasped.

Inez completely ignored him.

"Descending."

A flurry of bubbles flew past the tight windows as the hue of the sparkling ocean water grew darker.

Jackie swallowed a gulp of oxygen before she spoke.

"Okay, Inez. You need to take a minute and tell us what the heck we're doing – right now."

"No time." The bespectacled girl reinforced her grip on the wheel, not even looking at her friend through the rear view. "We've gotta find him."

"Who's 'him?'"

No response. Jackie felt as if her head would explode.

"Inez!" She would have steamed off into a full ten-minute complaint/panic attack had she not felt Matt's hand pulling back on her shoulder. He was just as agitated with Inez as she was, but something inside him told him to wait.

Every time he blinked he saw her terrified, contorted face dangling from under his arm. He saw her face completely still, surrounded by thick sharks of glass. It stirred his insides.

Eventually they were treading along the sea floor as fast as the Sub could cut through the water, and they reached a giant, scary looking gate. Inez flipped on the loudspeaker and closed in on the microphone.

"Hello? Is anyone there? We need to get inside," she called, urgency dripping in her voice.

A mermaid in a uniform poked her head out from the small, well kept guard post and swam immediately over to the window on Inez's side, flipping her fins wildly through the water.

"Earthlies? Is that you?" she squealed. She was clearly happy to see them, but an inch of terror danced in her face.

"You haven't changed a bit, Binary!" Jackie exclaimed from the backseat, hoping to be heard through the microphone.

"Binary, there isn't much time. Do you know where Icky is?"

The mermaid took a moment to process the question.

"Well, the last time I saw him, he was feeding by Pizza Canyon. Why?"

"It's an emergency. We really need to find him."

"We do?" chimed the Marbles & Co. chorus.

Inez wasn't phased by the outburst. She simply motioned for Binary to open the gate and threw the Cyber Sub into forward.

"And Binary, if you see the Grim Wreaker, let. It. Through."

The mermaid guard gulped and stared at Inez has if she'd grown an extra head.

"What?"

"Trust me! Just let it through!" she repeated almost barbarically.

Binary reluctantly pulled the gate open, the eerie creak slicing through the water, and the Sub shot through the vague stream of open water.

"Inez, have you gone completely mad?" Doctor Marbles exclaimed. "Do you want to have Wicked find us? I told you before, we need to get back to Control Central!"

"He's the key, he's the key," she kept repeating on cold breath. A bead of sweat formed at her hairline and it began to trickle. She looked ludicrously uncomfortable, but she didn't intend to hesitate.

A harsh left turn at Croissant Cave, and the Sub dove deep into the bowels of Pizza Canyon. Digit gave off a sound something like a dying goose and flopped onto the floor.

"Didge, are you okay?" Matt cried, shifting his weight so the cyboid wouldn't land on his shoes.

"I just saw an anchovy the size of a whale!"

The redhead and Doctor marbles rolled their eyes in unison while Jackie complied with a high-pitched "Ew!"

The aqua-friendly brakes cried out in agony as Inez suddenly punished them.

"There!" she shouted, her voice carrying something unfamiliar. "He's right-"

Matt and Jackie were convinced that Inez would scream her lungs raw at the nothingness in the water, but she held her tongue. Another sweat bead danced downwards as she turned to face the backseat.

"Matt and Digit – suit up and go look for Icky."

"Ex-cuse me?" Digit drawled.

"Suit up in what?"

"There's wetsuits in the back – now hurry up and get Icky to come out of camouflage." Inez was taking no nonsense right now.

Matt pulled Digit back into the cargo hold before he could complain, but he looked back once and said in the most grave tone she'd ever heard, "I hope you know what you're doing."

Inez stared back, captured, until the last of him disappeared into the cargo space.