VII.
"A storage closet?!" Hacker felt like the wires in his head were about to short circuit. "Doesn't Marbles have enough space in this anthill? What could he possibly have to store there?!" He felt he was about to start chewing paper or foaming at the mouth.
"Come with us and we'll show you," the small one said. "If you really need that book you asked us for, there's no way to get to it until we haul everything else out."
"Well? What are you waiting for?" he snapped. "Open the doors." The stormed towards the exit, still shaking with anger. The earth kids all looked at each other and seemed to hesitate, but finally the taller girl stepped forward and the doors slid open.
They left Digit alone in the garden for the time being and headed towards residential wing. As they arrived at the corridor, a wave of nostalgia cut through Hacker's already riled emotions. He remember waking up here everyday, heading out to the lobby, greeting Motherboard and starting another day's toil. The memories overshadowed his anger and replaced it with unmitigated HATE. He hated the walls and the carpet. He hated Motherboard. He hated the Earth brats and he hated the fact he wasn't back in bed.
When he got to the room, he swung the door open so violently it smacked against the machine on the other side and bounced back. He let out an audible gasp when he saw what was behind the door. "My Cryoxide Extension Generator! And my Sound Wave Projectile Dispenser!" He looked around the room at the other silhouettes of large metal devices strew about. "Marbles deactivated everything I ever built from Motherboard's circuits! MY LIFE'S WORK! I hope he enjoys spending twice as much on cryoxide every month."
"You really think he'd keep any upgrade you put in? And for your information, Motherboard gets on just fine thanks to the Doc and Digit. Even in spite of your virus!" Ginger hollered back at him.
"HA! I'll believe that when I see it."
The two girls stayed silent though they were not adverse to letting their emotions speak clearly across their faces. "Matt, help me move this stuff," Tiny muttered, picking up one of the smaller gadgets and setting it down in the hallway. Her friends followed in tow, the boy still glaring daggers at him.
Hacker was unphased and started searching the room for a working light. He picked up the collapsed lamp and fiddled with the switch a few times before grabbing a box of spare lightbulbs from a drawer. Once the light was on, he recoiled a bit at the sight of the layers of dust now visible over every surface. Forgetting the book, he snatched up a feather duster and started to compulsively clean. He'd just finished with the desk when there was a loud crash.
"Careful with that! It's delicate equipment!" he hissed.
"Why don't you help us then?" The small fry pushed a tall, column-shaped contraption towards him. It toppled over and Hacker had to lean forward, arms outstretched, to stop it from shattering against the ground. It was definitely the heaviest piece of equipment in the room and a bit more than his arms could hold. He tried to direct it gently towards the ground, but ended up colliding with a wall of stacked boxes, spilling the contents inside all throughout the room.
Hacker could scarcely believe it. The one and only thing he and Marbles had ever had in common was that they were both exceptionally clean. Marbles used to alphabetized the refrigerator for crying out loud! How could he stand to have a room be in such condition right next to where he lay his head? And how dare he touch the Hacker's belongings? It was as if he'd quickly shoved everything into one room and never taken a second glance.
"Don't touch anything," the cyborg ordered, getting up out of the pile of papers to propel the pillared contraption out into the passageway. "Just find the book!"
VIII.
Once the room was cleared of outdated machinery, they were left with just piles of papers and tattered old books strew about the place. Jackie started organizing them into boxes, glancing at each of the covers to see if it could be anything used to help Digit. Their job was easier said than done when Hacker stubbornly refused to tell them what the book looked like or even what the title was. He seemed to be occupied enough with looking for it himself that the kids didn't question it. For the moment at least.
"Hey, Jackie," Inez called to her from a corner of the room. Her friend was sitting crossed-legged by a dinky little television set with a dusty VHS tape. Jackie took it and slid it out of its sleeve. The label on one side read 'Digit v1'.
"What should we do?" Inez whispered. They both glanced at Hacker still searching for his book on the other side of the room. Matt was playing with his yo-yo, but seemed to sense his friends were up to something important and hovered over to them silently.
Without replying Jackie stuck the tape into the player and turned on the TV. The screen buzzed softly and came to life, showing a distorted picture that slowly stabilized. The image quality reminded Jackie of the old home videos her dad had of her when she was a baby.
"Is that... Digit?" Matt whispered in her ear as a little cyboid appeared on screen. He looked a bit smaller than Digit and for some reason wore a top hat, but it was still unmistakably him.
"This is version 1 of a new project. Digit." Jackie could hear a familiar voice off camera. It was less raspy than usual and even had an unexpected warmth to it. Genuine, without the sicky sweet air of faked kindness it usually dripped with. "Digit. Look over here." The cyboid turned its big eyes and looked directly into the camera. "Say 'the Hacker'."
"Hacker!" the boid squawked though his voice came out a bit different than they were used to. He sounded more like a parrot. Well, more than he did now.
"THE. The THE is very important," the cameraman sighed. "Nevermind. We'll work on that." A green hand came on screen and poured a small pile of sunflower seed at the boid's feet. "Eat up little Digit. Such a smart bird. A genius bird. Goes without saying a genius made him." The hand started petting Digit aggressively; like an overeager child patting a new puppy. The voice continued to praise and coo, sometimes Digit, sometimes himself.
"A top hat? Really?"
The camera spun around and Jackie caught a quick glimpse of what looked like the young Coop before the video cut. After a few seconds, a new picture appeared. This time Digit looked a bit bigger and had his familiar red cap. He was perched on the arm of someone wearing a purple lab coat.
"We're testing version 2 today. With some added features." The camera pointed up to Motherboard's monitor. The ruler of Cyberspace looked as she'd always, but still different in a vague way. More vibrant. "Good morning, Motherboard."
"Good morning, THE Motherboard!" Digit repeated, still sounding extra parrot-y.
"Good morning, Hacker," the ruler of Cyberspace said. It was almost disturbing to Jackie the way she'd said the name of her now biggest enemy. Enough to send a little shiver up her spine. "And this must be Digit."
"You can call me 'the Digi'. The THE is very important."
The voice holding the camera spluttered as if he just choked on something. Jackie felt a little grin springing to her face. She was feeling a strange concoction of nostalgia, amusement and... sympathy? For Hacker? But this wasn't Hacker. Well not the one they knew anyways. Had he always been fake and just stopped trying to hide it? Or had something else happened? Jackie had never given it much thought before. She didn't think it deserved any thought. Not with the amount of times the villain had tried to destroy Motherboard. It still didn't deserve it, but the thoughts had crept into her head nonetheless.
There was some offscreen coughing before he spoke again. "It's time for our weekly tune up."
Before they could watch anymore, a hand came down and removed the tape from its slot in the VHS player. Jackie looked up to see Hacker looming over them looking more than a little peeved. Under his arm was tucked a worn notebook bursting with sticky notes and extra pages attached with paperclips.
"I said not to touch anything!" he snapped, snatching the tape and sorting it into a drawer with several others. "Let's go. If you still want your bird-brained cyberturkey fixed."