ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS
Story by DarkHououmon
Digit scrambled through the tool chest. Wrenches, screws, and pellets rumbled to the ground as he tossed them aside. He was looking for a specific tool to use. It was uknown to anyone on Earth, yet common in Cyberspace. It wouldn't do much to save Inez, but probably would come in handy when it comes to locating the child. "Where is it?" The cyboid was getting pretty frustrated. Dr. Marbles had gone off to ask Sheriff Sandy if she knew where Hacker had been, so Digit was left alone with Motherboard. She had told him that the Locator Chip Needle just may be able to get a hold of Inez's signal, her heart. It just might work! "I can't believe I lost it!" The bird shouted in frustration. He put his wings on his beak in defeat, but noticed that something was gleaming in front of him. His eyes brightened, he took off. The Locator Chip Needle was shaped like any other needle, but had differences. It was dark blue, not gray. It's end was slightly serrated, and a small circle was visible on the side. It had a built in radar system that could detect almost anything.
"Yes!" Digit said happily. "I found it!" Motherboard's face appeared. She looked down at Digit, and said, "Good job, Digit. Now place the Locator Chip Needle in my harddrive." "Sure thing, Mother B.!" Digit flew in, and opened up the drive. He watched as the slide moved outward. He carefully placed the needle in the special compartment in the slide designed for its purpose. The slide closed.
Inside the cage where Inez lay, the girl lay battered and bloody. She had been trying to escape, but it was useless. All her hopes were lost. Her only chance was if Jackie, Digit, and Matt found her in time. 'Fat chance!' She scofffed. She shifted her eyes to her left. They seemed darker than usual. It was probably due to the lack of sunlight. Her skin was slightly paler than before. She pushed her back against the hard wall side, and slid down. 'Matt...Jackie...Digit...where are you guys?' She whimpered quietly, and brought her knees to her chest. "I want to get out..." She said so quietly that no one would've been able to hear her. It was like a mouse squeaking under a glass thick jar. She suddenly saw a shadow loom over her head. "Who-who's there!" She cried. Hacker had left earlier, and Buzz, too. She had thought that Delete fell asleep. The figure shape was oddly familiar.
"Don't worry, kid. I'll get you out!" The figure stated, as he came more into view. He stepped into the light of the cage, revealing himself. His metal slightly glinted against the sun that was shining from the other side of the room. There was no mistaken who this was.
"Delete? Why?" The robot waved his hand, and shook his head. "Don't tell the Boss what I did, okay?" Delete walked over to the door of the cage, and blasted electricity on it. The door was designed to let people in, but not out. His electricity, however, overloaded the system. It exploded due to the heat. Inez backed off, then felt a sharp pain in her leg. The robot saw this. "You should be fine. You need to return to your own world, and it'll heal faster." Inez nodded, cradling her leg. But one thing was still on her mind. Why was Delete helping her? Wasn't he supposed to be working for Hacker? She did notice that, compared to the other two, Delete had a calmer and gentler demeanor. He did have that same ferocity that Hacker had or the same fierce look that Buzz had. "Why?" The android shifted his head towards her. "Why what?" "Why are you helping me? Don't you work for Hacker?" Delete looked to the ground.
"I may work for him, but that don't mean I like it." Inez shifted her head in curiousity. She walked closer to the robot, who was caught slightly offguard. He began to back up a little. "Don't be afraid." Delete narrowed his eyes. He asked the girl what did she want. "What do you mean by what you said? If you don't like working for him, then...why do you?" The robot's eyes widened a bit at that statement. For a little, he was confused on how to respond to that question. It's been a while since he dared remember what happened way back when. "I don't want to talk about it!" "Was it really that bad?" Delete's mouth closed suddenly. Looking at the girl directly in the eyes, he continued, "Yes. It was." He finally sighed. "Alright, I'll tell you, but you have to promise NOT to tell anyone. And I mean anyone! Got it?" "Got it!" Inez smiled, and sat down and listened patiently as Delete began to explain everything to her.
"Well, it started about 40 years ago. Actually, I wasn't truly alive then, but I got reference from the Cybercouncil over e-mail. Anyways, I was fully functional about 2 years after Digit was made. Buzz was made before I, which makes me the youngest. Digit is 40 years old in Cyberspace years while I and Buzz are 38 years old." He fumbled with his fingers. He was clearly growing nervous. "Anyways, not long after I was created, I could tell things were going downhill for us. I mean, I could tell Digit was changing, for instance. His behavior was becoming a little different everyday. It was like he enjoyed terrorizing yet at the same time didn't enjoy it..." His voice trailed off. Inez interrupted, "You still haven't explained..." "I'm getting there!" He snapped. The girl's eyes went wide, and her mouth immediantly shut. "As I was saying, I could tell things were changing. But the problem was...I was never changing. I always never felt evil, but I only act that way so that Hacker doesn't get me. Unlike Digit, I can't fly, so I'm an easy target. Digit was stronger than Buzz and I. That's why he was Hacker's top guy when it came to busting into stores. He was more efficient than me. Yes, in a way, I was jealous of the bird."
Delete searched his mind to try and figure out how to explain the rest. He knew that if he explained it too quickly, it might overwhelm her mind. She wasn't a machine, like he was. "So, one day I decided to try and improve myself. Make myself more superior than Digit was. So I took some of the electrical blood from his body..." "YOU WHAT!" Inez shouted in anger. Delete's face was replaced with disappointment. "I understand that you're mad, but listen. There's more. I thought I could handle the electricity that Digit had. As a result, Digit became more timid that he had been before. I became a little stronger, but my system couldn't entirely handle the process of the energy levels getting higher. Eventually my circuits overloaded, and I was almost shut down. I only survived because The Hacker came in and saw me overheating. He flushed the liquid out of my system and replaced it with my normal one. He turned to Buzz and Digit and demanded what we were doing when we were gone. Should've done that...Hacker knew almost instantly something was wrong 'cause Digit began to show signs of fear. He told us that Digit wasn't designed to show feelings after his upgrade to erase his memories of Dr. Marbles and Motherboard. Digit had ragged on me. He told Hacker that I had stolen some of his liquid...and...and..." He whimpered, as tears started to flow.
"I...I didn't know..." Inez said. She started to feel sorry for the robot. Delete nodded. "Hacker told me that if I ever pulled any stunt like that again..or turned against him in anyway, he'd flatten me like a pancake using the most painful way as possible." The hispanic girl's eyes flashed in anger. "He can't do that!" "He can..and he would." The robot looked at the open door. "You better get out before..." "DELETE!" "Too late..." "Quickly!" Inez cried. "Get out!" Delete jumped out of the cage and slammed it shut. He locked it again. He hoped that Hacker wouldn't notice that the lock was damaged. The system was overwhelmed but the system itself should still work fine. He turned his attention towards the door. Buzz and Hacker had come back. "Delete! Motherboard has located Inez on this ship. Weren't you watching the monitors!" The shaking robot nodded. "Y-Y-Yes sir. I was watching them." Hacker narrowed his eyes, and knocked the android back. Inez could feel anger in her heart building. But she knew she couldn't do anything now. Not while she's locked up like a wild animal at a zoo. She had her chance to escape, and blew it.
Jackie and Matt rushed over to the library. Motherboard had sent them a message earlier. Turned out they found Inez! She was located somewhere in the middle of Sensible Flats, in an area far behind Sheriff Sandy's knowledge. She had spotted her going there about an hour ago. Jackie and Matt looked at eachother and nodded. "I just hope we're not too late!" Jackie said. She still felt back of what happened earlier. She believed she should've hung on tighter. But Matt insisted, "There was nothing we could've done, Jackie. Don't be so hard on yourself."
Digit looked at Motherboard as she opened up another portal. The familiar purple light spiralled in midair. He knew what was going to happen next. Out through the portal came the 2 earth kids. They landed roughly on the ground, then pulled themselves up and brushed themselves off. "What a landing!" Matt yelped. Jackie paid no heed to him. She walked slowly over to Digit. "Digit, are you sure Inez is there?" "Sure I'm sure! The Locater never lies." He nodded, adjusting his beak after having it hit by the sheer force of the kids's landing. "No problem." He said, his beak finally straightened. Motherboard noted, "Do be careful. With Inez as his hostage, there's no telling what he might do!" Matt nodded, reaching into his bookbag, and pulled out a couple of baseball helmets. "Here." He swung one of the hats towards Jackie, who swiftly caught it with her right hand. "These might come in handy." He adjusted his own helmet onto his head tightly and securely. Digit narrowed his eyes, and placed his wings on his side, asking where his helmet was. Matt's face looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Didge...I only had 2." "Well that's just perfect!" Digit muttered to himself angrily, but put it aside him. One of the kids was in danger. The last thing they should be doing is arguing and fighting against one another. He took out the Locater Chip Needle from the drive and adjusted it in the Portal Radar system to create a new portal. "Here, this just might do the job!" He said, flying back towards the humans, watching as the portal spiralled up.
"Remember what I said." Motherboard said, watching as they left. Before Jackie was through the portal, she looked up at the supercomputer, smiled, and waved her hand. "Don't worry! We won't!" Then she disappeared into the portal. It closed behind her. Dr. Marbles came in just in time to see the purple light disappear off the scene. He scratched his head, and looked at Motherboard. "You sent them already?" The supercomputer waited a few moments, then responded, "Yes."
Delete lay a little battered on the floor. It wasn't too bad. Not for him. A few scrapes? Nothing compared to him. He was a robot! He could endure so much more than a mere human could. He looked at his left arm, almost completely disabled after being knocked to the ground. It was slightly darker than it should be. He dismissed it as a bruising. 'Hacker's sure mad at me now...' He looked in front of him. Inez was in there. Her old injuries were starting to heal up, but she had hurt herself backing up. There was a sharp edge on one of the bars, and she collided with it, slicing her arm open. It was a little more than a scrape but not nearly as bad as a gash. She lost a bit more blood, but it wasn't life-threatening. The wound had closed, and was starting to heal up a bit. But chances are she would bear a scar for the rest of her life. Inez wasn't moving. She was breathing, but it was slow. Delete walked over a few inches closer to the cage. The girl had fallen asleep earlier, which explains why all her bodily functions slowed down. Delete's head rods sounded off a bit of electricity. Why where they doing that he'd never know. He did know that his rods sometimes do that when someone was getting close. But everytime Hacker came close they never responded except out of fear. He looked harder at the girl, and saw him looking back. He shook his head in surprise. 'No...not again!' He shouted in his mind. But it was useless...
He collasped on the floor, trying hard not to remember what happened so long ago. But all the memories were coming back. Memories of him being tortured in the early days, him being locked up in that cage after almost destroying Digit, him being whipped everytime he got a mission wrong. More tears started to form. Stifling himself, he nodded towards the cage. "I won't let that happen again...I won't let anyone go through what I have!" He trotted quietly towards the cage, and grabbed a hold of the bars. Despite that they were made of titanium alloy, he found himself pulling the cage open. Inez heard the noise and awoke from her slumber. "Delete? What are you doing?" "No time! Let's go!" The robot shouted, grabbing Inez's hand and took off out of the cage. "What about last time? Hacker almost caught you, you know." "Who cares! Just get out!" He pushed the earthling towards the door. "Get out before Hacker finds you!" Delete's voice became more desperate. He managed to get the earthling out of the ship and onto the ground. The force caused a new good bruise on her left leg while her right leg cut itself on a jagged rock. "Ahhh!" She yelped in pain. Delete rushed back into the ship and closed it, knowing that Hacker would find something wrong had he kept it open.
"Ahhh!"
"That sounded like Nezzie!" Matt shouted.
"Let's go!" Jackie yelled.
The trio rushed towards the sound of the voice. It came near a canyon with little or no grass. Jagged rocks covered the area, and dust swirled around like small tornadoes. "Inez!" Jackie yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth to increase the volume of her voice. Digit flew up into the air using his tail copter. "Let me see if I can find her." He usually was afraid of heights, but this was an emergency! He flew up high enough into the air to see about 34 miles around. Wait...it was a few miles wide but he couldn't see that far! He placed a wing over his eyes, looking left to right. His eyes narrowed, then widened again. He spotted a figure laying in the ground, clearly out cold. He lowered himself gently to the ground. "I think I spotted her! Come on!" He flew ahead while the kids had to run behind. "Digit! Would you please slow down?" "Sorry but if we don't hurry, she'll be buried in the sand!"
They got closer to the figure, which lay about 1/2 mile in front of them. Inez was on her side, a little bit of blood forming under her body. They could tell it was nothing truly serious, but that cut could become infected. Matt knelt by the girl's side, and pulled out a cloth he had in his backpack. He was going to use it for something else, but this was more important. He slowly and carefully wrapped the cloth tightly around the girl's leg. The pressure caused pain to swerve through her nerves and jolted her mind. "Yah! Don't touch it!" She gasped breathlessly, panting. She grabbed her leg as if to protect it from further harm. She then recognized the people in front of her. "Jackie? Matt? Digit? Is that you?" She stared at them. Matt nodded his head, smiling. Jackie was trying to hold back her tears. "You're okay..but how did you..." Inez held up her hand to silence them. She looked back towards the ship, which was still sitting there. The Hacker hadn't returned yet. "Delete helped me." Digit's eyes went wide in shock. "DELETE! HE helped YOU? B-But...why?" The girl turned her head towards him, shaking her head. "Sorry, but I promised not to tell."
"Come on...I think we'd better get back home." Jackie said, though she didn't want to leave just yet. Matt lowered his body to Inez's level, grabbing her arm and pulling it over his shoulder. He then raised himself off the ground. Digit looked curiously at them. "What are you doing?" "Inez can't walk on her own just yet. Her leg hasn't healed yet. So I have to help her walk." The bird scratched his head, then shrugged. "Alright." Then he thought to himself. 'Though I'll never understand why and how that would help...' He yelped in surprise when the portal reopened, and the kids were sucked in. "Well, see you soon!" Just before the light disappeared, he could barely make out Matt's voice shouting back, "We'll be back!" He smiled. As long as The Hacker was out loose, he'd be able to see the kids more often. He liked them. But then he looked back at the ship. He narrowed his eyes. 'I'll never forget those days...' He wasn't talking about when he was working for Hacker, he was referring to what he did when he worked for The Hacker. He still couldn't believe he used to be just as wild as Hacker is now. He was still haunted by his own dreams. He didn't tell anyone about them, though. He didn't want to burden them with the dreams. He just stared at the ship, then went flew off himself.
Hacker opened up the door, and walked in. "Well, first thing's first...little gir...WHAT!" He looked at where the cage was. There was no one in it, and two of the bars had been pushed in. Only Delete could've done something like this. "Delete! What did you do!" The robot instantly shot up. He was sitting at the control panel, watching the kids. "Boss! You're back early!" The Hacker glowered above him, causing the little robot to shudder in fright. "W-W-Well...you see..." "OUT WITH IT!" He demanded, slamming a fist onto the table near Delete. His head rods lighted up again, and he quickly stammered, "The-The-The girl tricked m-me..." He closed his eyes tightly and covered his face. He was afraid The Hacker would do something to him. But instead, he felt and heard nothing. He reopened up his eyes. "Boss?" "Is what you're saying...the truth?" "Y-Yes boss." 'Of course it's not!' He muttered silently in his mind. He was lying to him, of course. The reason why is because Delete didn't want to get into trouble. That's simply the last thing he wanted! Hacker through down the brakes. "Well, then, when those kids return, we will be waiting! HAHAHAHAA!" The Grim Wreaker hovered above the ground, then flew off into the distance. It disappeared quickly, and was almost out of Motherboard's radar system.
Jackie, Inez, and Matt didn't land in the library. But instead, this time they landed in the school's computer lab. Inez looked around, then back at them. "You were in the school computer room?" They nodded. "You know that only lab students are allowed in here!" They smiled weakly. Jackie said, "Well, it was the closest place...so we kinda had no choice." Inez rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever." She then stared at them for a long moment, and without warning lunged at the both of them. She hugged them tightly. "I missed you!" "We missed you, too!" Matt smiled. All three of them hugged for quite some time. They finally let go, and looked towards the door. "Well, we better get back." "Yeah," Inez said, "before we're caught in here." They walked over towards the door, and opened it up. The hallways were empty. They were all pure white with no pictures. There were a few signs. One of them pointed to the right near an intersection in the building. The sign read 'Stairs'. The kids looked at eachother, and smiled. They walked towards the steps. Then the doors closed behind them, this time with all the kids exiting...
A pair of eyes watched them closely from the computer screen. A pare of white eyes. They narrowed. "Those kids! They'll wish they never even heard of...THE HACKER! HAHAHA!" Hacker watched the kids leave for home. Each one of them took off in a seperate direction. "Once I know where they live...I can target them without leaving Cyberspace!" The screen then went blank. The circuits litted up, and followed one of the kids. Jackie. When Jackie opened up her door, the first thing she did was go to her computer. She had no idea that Hacker was watching...signalling on where she lived...
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Looks like another chapter can be made, eh? Not sure. Since Inez is now back, there's no need to continue...unless Jackie disappears this time. I could do that. Not sure. Anyways, I kinda had Delete as the good guy in here because, well, if you watch the show, you should be able to tell that Delete hardly ever acts evil. I love the part where he dances disco, and that's where I got the idea of making him good instead of evil. He's so funny! XD Well, hope you all enjoyed the story! It may or may not be continued. If I do decide to continue, stay tuned around early November. I may have decided to post up the story after all:)