MY EVERYTHING
By Max Jordan and Grand High Idol
CHAPTER FOUR
Delete frantically backed up against one of the crates, then pressed himself against it, ice-cold sweat dripping down the side of his face, just barely managing to keep himself from freaking out on the spot. No sooner had the computer monitor's message faded than the egg had started flashing, lights of bright green and blue. Then, just as he was at his breaking point, pale blue lines-they looked like light trails-began snaking along the top, forming the shape of a capitol "I".
The robot nervously gnawed at the tips of his fingers, as the lights finally faded, then, with a low hissing sound, the top of the egg, where the light trails had been only seconds earlier, opened up like a pair of double doors. Silence followed.
Delete stared at the egg, then cautiously walked forward and looked in. What he saw made him gasp-both out of shock and fear. Lying inside the egg, now stirring awake, was a small girl, not more than three or four years old, that looked like a cross between Inez and himself. She had Inez's vest, shoe style, hairstyle, and black-rimmed eyes, but she also had Delete's cord, shirt, hands, and face. The girl's hair was a very dark brown, and her skin tone matched that of Inez's. Now, as she twitched and rolled to one side, Delete put his hand to his mouth, not sure what to think of this.
"What!" he exclaimed. "What's going on? How did that happen? She-she was only supposed to look like Inez, not me too-"
Before he could finish, the girl fully awakened, then turned over again, so that their eyes were locked directly onto one another's. Delete froze in place, and the girl did for a moment, too, but finally her expression of shock turned to one of glee, and she smiled.
"Hi," she said, in a distinct toddler's voice. Delete yelped, then, not really thinking about what he was doing, scrambled up the side of the crate, clawing the wooden edges with his hands, until he finally managed to get himself atop the lid. Panting, he stared down at her and watched as she curiously looked at him, then looked at her surroundings, made a sound of curiosity, then stood up and, crawling out of the egg, landed rather hard on her frontside, directly on the floor.
"Mmph!" she stated in discomfort as she landed, but quickly staggered to her feet, looked around again, then walked over to the crate that Delete was lying on. Delete continued to stare at her as she approached him (or at least his crate), his eyes wide and his mouth still hanging open. The girl looked up at him, then cocked her head to one side.
"Whatcha doin'?" she asked, placing the palms of her hands against his crate. Delete backed up a few more feet; now only his head was visible from his current elevation.
"Uh?" he replied, not really sure of what to say. The girl giggled.
"You're funny," she told him. Delete was still unsure, but something in this child's look, her smile, somehow forced him to reconsider. Sure, he had meant to make a clone of Inez and not a mixed specimen, but was she really all that bad.? No, she wasn't, the robot finally decided. He looked down at her one last time before finally shrinking back over the edge of the crate again.
Well, she may not be what I had in mind, but she's not the worst thing in the world, he finally thought to himself before reproaching the edge of the crate, then gulping and jumping down, hitting the floor with a rather loud CLANG. This startled the girl somewhat, and she jumped, but she quickly recovered and clapped her hands.
"Ooh, neat!" she stated, obviously having never seen someone jump before. Delete sighed, then stared down at her for a few moments, and she stared back in a rather awkward silence. Delete finally broke the silence by shakily extending his hand and patting the child on the head.
"Hey, kid," he finally said, trying his hardest not to be afraid of the girl. "What's your name? Do you have one?"
The child looked up at him, her smile faded, then she looked up toward the ceiling, sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth as she thought. Finally, she looked back at him and replied, "I dunno. I don' think I have one."
Delete crossed one leg over the other, his chin in one hand. "Hmm, then I guess I gotta give you a name, then," he told her. The girl nodded.
"'Kay," she replied sweetly.
Delete smiled briefly, then thought with what little of his brain he had. "What do I call you.?" he thought aloud, staring down at her. At first he appeared to be completely stumped, but then he muttered "Wait.", recalling his dream that he had had about Inez. He sighed dreamily at the mere thought of the fantasy Inez caressing his head.but quickly shook his head and looked back down at the child.
"Inez?" he thought aloud. "No, no, wait, there's already one. That could cause some confusion. Uh." He thought some more. "Hmm.what's that name Matt's always calling her, though? Oh, oh yeah, Nezzie." He looked down at the girl, then placed his hands behind his back and smiled gently. "You wanna be called Nezzie?"
The child blinked, then finally said, "Okay."
Delete nodded, then stared at her, the gentle, almost loving grin still on his face. Then he finally realized what he had come in here for in the first place, then gasped and clapped his hand to his mouth. Hacker was still searching the base, and he was pretty sure that any moment he or Buzz would eventually come to the storage room. As much as he liked his older brother, he decided that Buzz could not be trusted. The child had to be kept a secret from everyone and everything, or else his cover would be blown for sure.
I gotta do something, he thought as he frantically looked around. I gotta do something, but what? What?!...wait, maybe if the boss is still busy, I can sneak her outta here, and maybe get in one of the Coupes. His fearful expression returned. But what do I do then? I can't run away from him my entire life.oh, geez, never mind, just do something before he finds you in here!
Trying to hide the signs of fear in his body, he placed his hands behind his back again and looked down at Nezzie, trying his hardest to smile and sound innocent. "Nezzie, I gotta go away for a moment. There's something I gotta do." He patted her on the head again, then said, "So don't go wandering around, okay? Stay somewhere where.um.mommy can find you."
Nezzie blinked again. "'Kay," she replied again. Delete sighed, then turned around and ran off down the hallway. Nezzie watched him as he departed, then turned around, walked toward the egg, and, sitting down in front of it, stared at it, watching the lights continue to flash on the egg.
This went on for a couple of minutes, and the child was just about to get dizzy from staring at the flashes when she heard another noise. Thinking that it was her mommy coming back for her, she looked up hopefully toward the noise's origination-namely, the air vent built into one side of the wall. There were a few more heavy thumping noises, then the vent finally popped off and struck the floor, making a deafening sound in the process. Matt, covered in dust from the vent, jumped down behind a stack of boxes, then looked back up at the grate, frowning.
"Whoops," he said, as Jackie, who had been behind him, stuck her head out of the vent.
"Nice one, Matt," she scoffed. "I'll bet that they heard you all the way in Solaria. While you're going to make a bunch of noise, why don't you just ring the doorbell while you're at it?" She then looked down at her shirt. "Ew! And would you look at all this dust? I suppose the vents are the only things that haven't been cleaned around here!" She shuddered.
Matt rolled his eyes. "Aw, come on, Jax," he replied, shrugging a shoulder. "No one could've possibly heard that. We're all the way in the back, remember?"
Jackie sighed, then got out of the vent and landed on the floor beside Matt. "What are we doing all the way in the back, anyway?" she asked as she brushed at her hair, trying to get the dust out of it.
"Because it's the only space in the Grim Wreaker that hasn't been torn apart yet," Matt replied. "I already tried all the windows; they all had stuff piled up against them, remember?"
Nezzie, meanwhile, was watching from behind one of the box crates, beginning to feel frightened at the presence of these two strangers. She then looked up in time to see someone else come out of the vent and land on the floor beside the other two. Inez straightened herself up, then looked over at Matt and Jackie.
"Let's just go see what's going on, then get out of here," she told the other two. "Something just doesn't seem right here to me." She looked over to one side of the room, frowning. Matt and Jackie nodded in agreement; then the three began to start off down the hallway.
Nezzie stared at Inez for a while, then turned to look behind her at the egg. The egg had, naturally, been made of new metal, and because of that it still had an incredible shininess to it. She looked at her reflection for awhile, then looked back at Inez, then back at her reflection. Realizing that she looked a lot like the person she had just seen come out of the vent and walk off, she looked over at the kids, at Inez, just as the three vanished down the hallway.
"Daddy?" Nezzie asked, her eyes wide. She then quickly ran out from behind the crate and began to head off after the three. "Daddy!"
* * *
Matt, Jackie and Inez had stopped in an intersection between a set of hallways, a set that Hacker had already searched-or, to put it better in this case, demolished. Various objects were piled up and strewn everywhere, and the kids had to slow down in order to step around the broken glass that was scattered about the floor in shards.
"Geez, would you look at this place?" Inez said, stepping over a pile of various paperwork. "What could Hacker possibly be up to as to actually do something like this?"
"Knowing him, one of his inventions probably blew up," Matt suggested; the girls weren't sure whether this was a joke or not. Inez shook her head, disagreeing.
"And messed up the entire base?" she asked, looking over at him. "I don't know, Matt."
Jackie, meanwhile, was hardly listening to their conversation at all; she was beginning to get a little bored, not to mention a little frustrated from stepping through the various debris. She was now leaning against one of the walls, looking in the direction that they had come from, when she saw Nezzie walk out of the hallway and stop a few yards behind where they were currently standing. She was looking at them curiously, almost unsurely.
Jackie's eyes grew wide as saucers, and her mouth dropped open slightly, at first unable to believe what she was seeing. "Uh, guys?" she said nervously, her voice shaking, but Inez and Matt were ignoring her, still continuing their conversation.
"Well, Hacker's new plan has to be around here somewhere," Inez told Matt, placing her hands on her hips.
"Where do you think we should start looking?" Matt asked. "We know that we don't have to look in the rooms that are already torn up, no doubt that Hacker's already thoroughly checked harder."
"Uh, guys," Jackie replied, her voice still quaking in shock, "I-I don't think that'll be much of a problem anymore."
Matt and Inez looked at her. "Huh?" they both said at once.
That was when they noticed that Jackie wasn't staring at them; she was staring past them. The two looked at her a few more seconds, then finally turned around and spotted Nezzie, still standing in the doorway, one of her fingers in her mouth. Now all three were staring at the girl, dumbfounded, their mouths dropping open, as Nezzie took her finger out of her mouth, then smiled and approached Inez.
"Uh?" Inez said, shocked, the same noise that Delete had made earlier upon first meeting the girl. Nezzie smiled, then stuck out her hands like she wanted Inez to pick her up.
"Daddy!" she exclaimed sweetly, smiling. Inez stared at her a moment, her head tilted to one side and her position shifted, then she finally looked up toward the ceiling, made a soft sighing sound, and passed out. Matt shot out and managed to catch her just before she hit the floor.
* * *
Delete, meanwhile, had finished checking the area for any signs of his boss and had now run back into the storage room, looking in all directions. "Okay," he panted, looking to one side, then the other, "The coast is clear. I gotta get here outta here before that changes, though-"
He stopped abruptly when he reached the crates where he had left Nezzie earlier. Finding that she was gone from the area, he looked around frantically, then gasped and clapped both hands to his mouth, his expression turning to one of absolute fear.
"Oh no, what happened to her?!" he exclaimed, still panicking; he then began to frantically search the area, even managing to lift one of the crates in the process (even though he knew that she probably couldn't manage to hide under there). Panting, he slumped against the crate and was just about to give up in tears when he noticed that the door near the hallway, the one nearest the now opened vent, was wide open. Thinking to himself, he suddenly recalled that the door had been closed when he had last gone in there.
"Oh, no," he said to himself, shaking his head. "She must've wandered off.if she runs into the boss." He gulped and cut himself off, not wanting to even think about that. Bringing his hands to the sides of his head, he tried to calm himself, but all results proved unsuccessful.
"Nngh.I gotta find her!" he finally exclaimed, then, without thinking twice, ran through the open doorway and began to head down the hall.
* * *
Inez had woken up from her previous "slumber", finding that she was now lying against the wall. Just after she had passed out, Matt had handed Inez over to Jackie while he cleared out a space for her to lie against, then the two had gently set her against it, waiting for her to awaken. Groaning, she tilted her head to one side, then looked up in time to see Matt, currently standing over her with a concerned expression on his face.
"Ugh.oh, man, Matt," she said, her voice still rather groggy. "I just had this weird dream.we were in Hacker's lair and we were searching around, and then I saw a little girl that looked like Delete dressed up as me.and then." She then looked behind him and spotted Nezzie, now staring at her.
"Hi!" Nezzie said when she saw Inez look at her. The Latino's eyes widened, and she shrieked and bolted upright, staring at the girl, not sure whether to be frightened or shocked. She supposed both were appropriate in this case.
"How, what, who?" she exclaimed, still not sure if she was in a dream or not. Matt and Jackie stared at her, then looked up at the hallway the moment that Delete came running through it, out of breath. He slumped against the wall, then looked up and spotted Nezzie.
"Nezzie!" he exclaimed, running toward the girl, his arms outstretched. Nezzie looked up at him, then smiled and began to run toward him, too.
"Mommy!" she replied, as she approached him and hugged him tightly around the legs. Inez looked surprised.then again, she had been that way since the time she had first spotted the little girl.
"Mommy?" she asked.
Delete made a confused noise, then finally looked up and spotted the kids. The first one he noticed was Inez, still sitting on her knees on the floor. "Inez?" he called.
Nezzie looked up at him, then, still keeping one arm around his leg, pointed at Inez. "Daddy," she told him.
"Daddy?" Delete asked.
"Daddy?" Matt repeated. Delete, unsure of what to think about this, looked down at the girl, then put his hands at his sides.
"Nezzie!" he scolded.
"Nezzie?" Matt repeated again.
"Matt!" Inez shouted at him, annoyed.
Matt shook his head. "No, not you, Nezzie," he responded, then pointed at the little cyborg girl. "Nezzie."
Nezzie nodded, then pointed at herself. "Nezzie," she told them, matter-of-factly.
It was then that they heard more footsteps in the hallway, and Buzz and Hacker, having heard the commotion, entered the room. Both of them stopped short in surprise when they saw the kids, along with Delete and the new little girl that was now tightly hugging his leg.
"Delete!" Hacker shouted, sounding rather peeved. Buzz panted a few times, then stopped at Hacker's side.
"Delete!" Buzz repeated.
Matt looked up at Hacker, then jumped back in surprise. "Hacker!"
"You!" Hacker responded, leering at the redhead.
Buzz looked at Delete, then finally caught sight of the cyborg girl once again. Looking up at Delete, he narrowed one eye in confusion. "Delete?"
Delete turned around. "Buzz?"
"Nezzie," Nezzie told them, pointing at herself again and nodding her head.
"Nezzie?" Buzz asked, sounding more confused than he had before.
"Nezzie?" Hacker repeated, sounding just as confused.
Jackie watched this conversation, then finally clapped both hands over her ears; she could take it no longer. "SHUT UP!" she finally yelled, provoking the stares of everyone in the room. She looked at them almost sheepishly as they looked at her. Nezzie giggled.
"This is fun, am I winning?" she asked.
Jackie grunted, then held up her hands to silence them. "Okay, okay, time out, hold it, here," she said. "Can somebody please tell me what in the world is going on here?"
Everyone then tore their gaze away from Jackie and looked at Delete, who looked back at them, almost shamefully, scraping his foot across the floor. "Uh, well?" he replied, almost blushing from embarrassment.
"Daddy?" Nezzie asked, staring at Inez.
"Delete," Inez demanded, pointing at Nezzie, the other hand on her hip, "just who is this girl, and why is she calling you mommy? Why is she calling me daddy? What's going on here?"
Delete couldn't reply for a few moments; he looked off to the side, unable to stare anyone directly in the eye. "Uh." He paused while searching for an answer. Then, deciding that no lie would ever mask this up, he finally replied, hanging his head in shame, "I.made her."
Everyone gasped. Jackie shook her head in disbelief.
"What do you mean you made her?" she demanded. "You're a robot, how can you manage to make a kid?"
At hearing these words, Hacker gasped; suddenly it had all fallen into place. Angrily gritting his teeth, clenching his fists to the point where they were turning pale, he stepped forward in Delete's direction and angrily shrieked, "My invention, YOU USED MY INVENTION!"
Nezzie, frightened by Hacker's voice, quickly ran over to Inez and ducked behind her leg, seeing that Delete was in no shape to be hid behind. He was now visibly shaking as he looked up at Hacker, suddenly seeming very small compared to the angry, towering cyborg. "Uh, uh, uh," Delete stammered, his entire body shivering violently, he then replied, "Kinda."
"You what?" Buzz seemed equally surprised. "Delete, are you nuts? What's goin' on here, huh?"
"Uh." Delete looked over at his older brother; anything to keep himself from staring at Hacker any longer. "Uh, it's sort of a long story."
"Oh, is it?" Hacker replied, his voice sounding very forced. "Well, let me tell you something, Delete. I'd love to hear you try and talk your way out of this one."
Delete swallowed hard, then said, his voice still shaking, "Um, well, you see, I was gettin' kinda lonely around the base."
"Lonely?" Buzz interrupted, raising an eyebrow.
Delete nodded. "Well, yeah.I mean, with the boss off workin' on stuff, and you doin' other things, there's usually no one around here to talk to. So, I overheard the boss talkin' about his new invention, and what it could do, and I thought that if I used it-" He looked over at Hacker, who now seemed ready to scream at any moment. "I'd.have.somebody to.to talk to."
"Oh, do tell," Hacker replied, the vague outlines of his circuitry beginning to show through his hands. Delete looked over at him again, then tore his gaze away from his and tried to continue without breaking down completely.
"Well, you see, I got to thinkin'."
Buzz scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Ugh, great, here we go," he muttered in disgust. Delete paused to glare at him, then continued his explanation.
"So, anyway, I thought that Inez would be nice to talk to." He tugged on his yellow collar and looked over at Inez, blushing. Inez was blushing as well, although her expression remained one of shock. "So.I used that old.bug.thing to get some of her blood, so I could make it work."
Inez suddenly recalled the incident that had happened yesterday. "So that's what I felt on the roller coaster!" she declared, glaring at him. "You nearly got me killed, Delete!"
"Um, well, yes," Delete told her, blushing an even deeper shade. He began toying around with his hands nervously. "I'm sorry.anyway, I put the blood in the egg, and hid it in the storage room, behind those two crates. That was yesterday, and, well." He gestured toward Nezzie, still hiding behind Inez's leg. "She came out of it." He then shook his head. "But I only put Inez's blood in, so I don't know what happened."
Inez nodded; it had all fallen into place now. "Why were you calling her Nezzie?" she asked, reaching down to pat the frightened child on the head.
"Oh," Delete told her, sheepishly. "Well, she needed a name, and I remembered how Matt calls you Nezzie sometimes, so I thought it sounded.kinda nice, so I decided to use that."
Inez smacked her face. "Oh, great, just great," she muttered. "It's bad enough that Matt calls me Nezzie; now there's a kid with that annoying name too."
Jackie sighed and shook her head as well. "Oh, man," she said, placing one hand on her forehead, "I'm starting to wish I'd just stayed in the pizza parlor, even if it meant eating pepperoni." She stuck out her tongue at recalling the nasty meat product.
Hacker, meanwhile, was fuming; he looked ready to blow his top any minute. Delete swallowed, then cringed back and said, looking up at Hacker very much the way a frightened dog does.
"You don't mean to tell me," he said, his voice seething with anger, "That my invention was wasted on THAT?!" He jabbed his finger in Nezzie's direction, and the toddler cringed back further behind Inez's leg. Matt angrily stepped in front of Inez and Nezzie, blocking their view from Hacker.
"Hold it, Hacker," he said angrily, looking the furious cyborg directly in the eye.
"Don't you dare start with me," Hacker snapped at him. "This day is turning out bad enough as is."
"Look," Jackie said, holding up her hands. "We all need to regroup and figure out what's going on here. For now, let's just go back to Control Central, and figure out just what the heck we're gonna do now."
"Oh no," Hacker replied angrily. "You aren't taking her anywhere anytime soon." He shifted his gaze down toward Buzz, who was still standing there, dumbfounded, not sure what to do. "Buzz?" he said, although Buzz already knew what he was to be asked.
The stocky robot nodded. "Right, boss," he replied; he then began walking toward Nezzie. Matt, however, blocked his path, giving him a shove backward with his hand.
"Don't even think about it," the boy replied, leering down at the robot.
Buzz's expression contorted into one of rage. "Oh, no," he replied, balling his hands into fists. "Don't you DARE start 'dis with me again."
"Who's stopping me?" Matt snapped back. "If I can recall, I managed to pin you to the ground last time we met, did I not?" He crossed his arms.
"You got lucky!" Buzz snapped back, jabbing his finger in Matt's direction. "Why, if I'd just managed to get my hands on you, I'd have-"
The two then started heatedly arguing, Buzz trying to grab Nezzie, and Matt shoving him back. Jackie, fearing that they might get into another fight with the child in their presence, had walked up to Matt and was grabbing him by the shoulders, trying to hold him back, and Delete had a tight grip on Buzz's fists, trying to hold him back. The two continued to leer at each other, both of them raving like machines, Buzz trying to struggle out of Delete's grip as so to land a hit on Matt. Inez was standing there, dumbfounded, with Nezzie clamped tightly onto her leg, looking at the two arguing strangers fearfully.
Hacker was doing little to nothing to stop this, he was still furious about his invention, and, after the argument had gone on for several minutes, stopped short in his train of thought. Wait a minute.Control Central? He thought to himself, then a rather evil grin crept over his face.
"Wait," Hacker suddenly told them, stepping between the angry Buzz and the equally angry Matt. "You're right. Maybe you should take her instead."
At hearing these words out of Hacker's mouth, of all people, everyone stopped short, then stared up at him. Buzz and Delete were especially confused; Delete released his grip on Buzz's fists.
"Huh?" Delete asked.
"What 'da.?" Buzz questioned.
"Jackie's right," Hacker told them. "We need time to figure out what's going on, so why don't you take her to Control Central now." He nodded toward the kids, who stared back at him, still unable to believe what they were hearing.
"Wait a minute, what's going on here?" Matt asked, holding out his hands in confusion.
"Ugh, never mind that, Matt!" Jackie told him. "Let's just get out of here, while we still can!" She turned around and began to walk down the hallway. "Really, men!"
At hearing this both Matt and Buzz glared after her, then Matt finally looked at Hacker suspiciously, then over at Inez, who shrugged her shoulders, still confused. Matt finally sighed. "Fine," he agreed, still looking at Hacker in suspicion, "But I don't like this."
Delete sighed, not really wanting to say goodbye to his child, but went over to Nezzie anyway. She looked at him innocently, then reached out one of her hands to him. "Mommy?" she asked.
"Nezzie, you need to go with your daddy for awhile," Delete told her, placing one hand gently on her shoulder. He then felt tears come to his eyes, but he tried to hold them back; the last thing he wanted to do was to cry in front of the kids. "Okay?" he finally managed to choke out.
Nezzie looked at him, then nodded. "Okay," she repeated.
Delete sighed, then hugged her tightly, muttering "I love you, kid," before finally releasing his grip on her. He then let Nezzie walk over to Inez, and she followed the two remaining members of the Cybersquad out, with him waving goodbye before finally getting up and turning around to face his boss.
"I can explain, boss, really!" he stated, but Hacker refused to listen to the robot.
"I don't want to hear anything of it right now!" he snapped at Delete. "Just go to your room, and start cleaning up. I want it spotless by the time Buzz and I get back, understand?"
Delete swallowed hard, fighting to keep back the tears. Finally slumping forward shamefully, he replied "Yes, sir" in a shaky tone, then walked off down the hall, sniffling to himself. As soon as he was out of sight, Buzz looked up at Hacker, now thoroughly confused.
"Boss, are you nuts!" he exclaimed. "Why'd you just let 'dem walk out like 'dat? 'Dat's not like youse at all-"
"Buzz," he interrupted, holding up his hand to silence the robot. "Do you know what my plan was for the egg?"
Buzz raised an eyebrow. "Uh.?"
"My plan was to make more of you and Delete, and send them into Control Central. That way, the kids would be so busy dealing with that, they wouldn't have any time to deal with me." Hacker laced his fingers together, grinning slyly. "Now tell me, Buzz, just how much trouble do you think Delete's four year old daughter could cause?"
Buzz thought a moment about this, then an equally sly, not to mention cruel, grin spread across his face. "Hey, yeah," he replied, just as evilly as his boss.
"This glorious little child is going to run those brats ragged," Hacker laughed. "A few days of dealing with her, and Motherboard's brats will be too exhausted to do anything." He began laughing insanely, then he shook his head. "Those kids aren't going to get in my way.ever again."
By Max Jordan and Grand High Idol
CHAPTER FOUR
Delete frantically backed up against one of the crates, then pressed himself against it, ice-cold sweat dripping down the side of his face, just barely managing to keep himself from freaking out on the spot. No sooner had the computer monitor's message faded than the egg had started flashing, lights of bright green and blue. Then, just as he was at his breaking point, pale blue lines-they looked like light trails-began snaking along the top, forming the shape of a capitol "I".
The robot nervously gnawed at the tips of his fingers, as the lights finally faded, then, with a low hissing sound, the top of the egg, where the light trails had been only seconds earlier, opened up like a pair of double doors. Silence followed.
Delete stared at the egg, then cautiously walked forward and looked in. What he saw made him gasp-both out of shock and fear. Lying inside the egg, now stirring awake, was a small girl, not more than three or four years old, that looked like a cross between Inez and himself. She had Inez's vest, shoe style, hairstyle, and black-rimmed eyes, but she also had Delete's cord, shirt, hands, and face. The girl's hair was a very dark brown, and her skin tone matched that of Inez's. Now, as she twitched and rolled to one side, Delete put his hand to his mouth, not sure what to think of this.
"What!" he exclaimed. "What's going on? How did that happen? She-she was only supposed to look like Inez, not me too-"
Before he could finish, the girl fully awakened, then turned over again, so that their eyes were locked directly onto one another's. Delete froze in place, and the girl did for a moment, too, but finally her expression of shock turned to one of glee, and she smiled.
"Hi," she said, in a distinct toddler's voice. Delete yelped, then, not really thinking about what he was doing, scrambled up the side of the crate, clawing the wooden edges with his hands, until he finally managed to get himself atop the lid. Panting, he stared down at her and watched as she curiously looked at him, then looked at her surroundings, made a sound of curiosity, then stood up and, crawling out of the egg, landed rather hard on her frontside, directly on the floor.
"Mmph!" she stated in discomfort as she landed, but quickly staggered to her feet, looked around again, then walked over to the crate that Delete was lying on. Delete continued to stare at her as she approached him (or at least his crate), his eyes wide and his mouth still hanging open. The girl looked up at him, then cocked her head to one side.
"Whatcha doin'?" she asked, placing the palms of her hands against his crate. Delete backed up a few more feet; now only his head was visible from his current elevation.
"Uh?" he replied, not really sure of what to say. The girl giggled.
"You're funny," she told him. Delete was still unsure, but something in this child's look, her smile, somehow forced him to reconsider. Sure, he had meant to make a clone of Inez and not a mixed specimen, but was she really all that bad.? No, she wasn't, the robot finally decided. He looked down at her one last time before finally shrinking back over the edge of the crate again.
Well, she may not be what I had in mind, but she's not the worst thing in the world, he finally thought to himself before reproaching the edge of the crate, then gulping and jumping down, hitting the floor with a rather loud CLANG. This startled the girl somewhat, and she jumped, but she quickly recovered and clapped her hands.
"Ooh, neat!" she stated, obviously having never seen someone jump before. Delete sighed, then stared down at her for a few moments, and she stared back in a rather awkward silence. Delete finally broke the silence by shakily extending his hand and patting the child on the head.
"Hey, kid," he finally said, trying his hardest not to be afraid of the girl. "What's your name? Do you have one?"
The child looked up at him, her smile faded, then she looked up toward the ceiling, sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth as she thought. Finally, she looked back at him and replied, "I dunno. I don' think I have one."
Delete crossed one leg over the other, his chin in one hand. "Hmm, then I guess I gotta give you a name, then," he told her. The girl nodded.
"'Kay," she replied sweetly.
Delete smiled briefly, then thought with what little of his brain he had. "What do I call you.?" he thought aloud, staring down at her. At first he appeared to be completely stumped, but then he muttered "Wait.", recalling his dream that he had had about Inez. He sighed dreamily at the mere thought of the fantasy Inez caressing his head.but quickly shook his head and looked back down at the child.
"Inez?" he thought aloud. "No, no, wait, there's already one. That could cause some confusion. Uh." He thought some more. "Hmm.what's that name Matt's always calling her, though? Oh, oh yeah, Nezzie." He looked down at the girl, then placed his hands behind his back and smiled gently. "You wanna be called Nezzie?"
The child blinked, then finally said, "Okay."
Delete nodded, then stared at her, the gentle, almost loving grin still on his face. Then he finally realized what he had come in here for in the first place, then gasped and clapped his hand to his mouth. Hacker was still searching the base, and he was pretty sure that any moment he or Buzz would eventually come to the storage room. As much as he liked his older brother, he decided that Buzz could not be trusted. The child had to be kept a secret from everyone and everything, or else his cover would be blown for sure.
I gotta do something, he thought as he frantically looked around. I gotta do something, but what? What?!...wait, maybe if the boss is still busy, I can sneak her outta here, and maybe get in one of the Coupes. His fearful expression returned. But what do I do then? I can't run away from him my entire life.oh, geez, never mind, just do something before he finds you in here!
Trying to hide the signs of fear in his body, he placed his hands behind his back again and looked down at Nezzie, trying his hardest to smile and sound innocent. "Nezzie, I gotta go away for a moment. There's something I gotta do." He patted her on the head again, then said, "So don't go wandering around, okay? Stay somewhere where.um.mommy can find you."
Nezzie blinked again. "'Kay," she replied again. Delete sighed, then turned around and ran off down the hallway. Nezzie watched him as he departed, then turned around, walked toward the egg, and, sitting down in front of it, stared at it, watching the lights continue to flash on the egg.
This went on for a couple of minutes, and the child was just about to get dizzy from staring at the flashes when she heard another noise. Thinking that it was her mommy coming back for her, she looked up hopefully toward the noise's origination-namely, the air vent built into one side of the wall. There were a few more heavy thumping noises, then the vent finally popped off and struck the floor, making a deafening sound in the process. Matt, covered in dust from the vent, jumped down behind a stack of boxes, then looked back up at the grate, frowning.
"Whoops," he said, as Jackie, who had been behind him, stuck her head out of the vent.
"Nice one, Matt," she scoffed. "I'll bet that they heard you all the way in Solaria. While you're going to make a bunch of noise, why don't you just ring the doorbell while you're at it?" She then looked down at her shirt. "Ew! And would you look at all this dust? I suppose the vents are the only things that haven't been cleaned around here!" She shuddered.
Matt rolled his eyes. "Aw, come on, Jax," he replied, shrugging a shoulder. "No one could've possibly heard that. We're all the way in the back, remember?"
Jackie sighed, then got out of the vent and landed on the floor beside Matt. "What are we doing all the way in the back, anyway?" she asked as she brushed at her hair, trying to get the dust out of it.
"Because it's the only space in the Grim Wreaker that hasn't been torn apart yet," Matt replied. "I already tried all the windows; they all had stuff piled up against them, remember?"
Nezzie, meanwhile, was watching from behind one of the box crates, beginning to feel frightened at the presence of these two strangers. She then looked up in time to see someone else come out of the vent and land on the floor beside the other two. Inez straightened herself up, then looked over at Matt and Jackie.
"Let's just go see what's going on, then get out of here," she told the other two. "Something just doesn't seem right here to me." She looked over to one side of the room, frowning. Matt and Jackie nodded in agreement; then the three began to start off down the hallway.
Nezzie stared at Inez for a while, then turned to look behind her at the egg. The egg had, naturally, been made of new metal, and because of that it still had an incredible shininess to it. She looked at her reflection for awhile, then looked back at Inez, then back at her reflection. Realizing that she looked a lot like the person she had just seen come out of the vent and walk off, she looked over at the kids, at Inez, just as the three vanished down the hallway.
"Daddy?" Nezzie asked, her eyes wide. She then quickly ran out from behind the crate and began to head off after the three. "Daddy!"
* * *
Matt, Jackie and Inez had stopped in an intersection between a set of hallways, a set that Hacker had already searched-or, to put it better in this case, demolished. Various objects were piled up and strewn everywhere, and the kids had to slow down in order to step around the broken glass that was scattered about the floor in shards.
"Geez, would you look at this place?" Inez said, stepping over a pile of various paperwork. "What could Hacker possibly be up to as to actually do something like this?"
"Knowing him, one of his inventions probably blew up," Matt suggested; the girls weren't sure whether this was a joke or not. Inez shook her head, disagreeing.
"And messed up the entire base?" she asked, looking over at him. "I don't know, Matt."
Jackie, meanwhile, was hardly listening to their conversation at all; she was beginning to get a little bored, not to mention a little frustrated from stepping through the various debris. She was now leaning against one of the walls, looking in the direction that they had come from, when she saw Nezzie walk out of the hallway and stop a few yards behind where they were currently standing. She was looking at them curiously, almost unsurely.
Jackie's eyes grew wide as saucers, and her mouth dropped open slightly, at first unable to believe what she was seeing. "Uh, guys?" she said nervously, her voice shaking, but Inez and Matt were ignoring her, still continuing their conversation.
"Well, Hacker's new plan has to be around here somewhere," Inez told Matt, placing her hands on her hips.
"Where do you think we should start looking?" Matt asked. "We know that we don't have to look in the rooms that are already torn up, no doubt that Hacker's already thoroughly checked harder."
"Uh, guys," Jackie replied, her voice still quaking in shock, "I-I don't think that'll be much of a problem anymore."
Matt and Inez looked at her. "Huh?" they both said at once.
That was when they noticed that Jackie wasn't staring at them; she was staring past them. The two looked at her a few more seconds, then finally turned around and spotted Nezzie, still standing in the doorway, one of her fingers in her mouth. Now all three were staring at the girl, dumbfounded, their mouths dropping open, as Nezzie took her finger out of her mouth, then smiled and approached Inez.
"Uh?" Inez said, shocked, the same noise that Delete had made earlier upon first meeting the girl. Nezzie smiled, then stuck out her hands like she wanted Inez to pick her up.
"Daddy!" she exclaimed sweetly, smiling. Inez stared at her a moment, her head tilted to one side and her position shifted, then she finally looked up toward the ceiling, made a soft sighing sound, and passed out. Matt shot out and managed to catch her just before she hit the floor.
* * *
Delete, meanwhile, had finished checking the area for any signs of his boss and had now run back into the storage room, looking in all directions. "Okay," he panted, looking to one side, then the other, "The coast is clear. I gotta get here outta here before that changes, though-"
He stopped abruptly when he reached the crates where he had left Nezzie earlier. Finding that she was gone from the area, he looked around frantically, then gasped and clapped both hands to his mouth, his expression turning to one of absolute fear.
"Oh no, what happened to her?!" he exclaimed, still panicking; he then began to frantically search the area, even managing to lift one of the crates in the process (even though he knew that she probably couldn't manage to hide under there). Panting, he slumped against the crate and was just about to give up in tears when he noticed that the door near the hallway, the one nearest the now opened vent, was wide open. Thinking to himself, he suddenly recalled that the door had been closed when he had last gone in there.
"Oh, no," he said to himself, shaking his head. "She must've wandered off.if she runs into the boss." He gulped and cut himself off, not wanting to even think about that. Bringing his hands to the sides of his head, he tried to calm himself, but all results proved unsuccessful.
"Nngh.I gotta find her!" he finally exclaimed, then, without thinking twice, ran through the open doorway and began to head down the hall.
* * *
Inez had woken up from her previous "slumber", finding that she was now lying against the wall. Just after she had passed out, Matt had handed Inez over to Jackie while he cleared out a space for her to lie against, then the two had gently set her against it, waiting for her to awaken. Groaning, she tilted her head to one side, then looked up in time to see Matt, currently standing over her with a concerned expression on his face.
"Ugh.oh, man, Matt," she said, her voice still rather groggy. "I just had this weird dream.we were in Hacker's lair and we were searching around, and then I saw a little girl that looked like Delete dressed up as me.and then." She then looked behind him and spotted Nezzie, now staring at her.
"Hi!" Nezzie said when she saw Inez look at her. The Latino's eyes widened, and she shrieked and bolted upright, staring at the girl, not sure whether to be frightened or shocked. She supposed both were appropriate in this case.
"How, what, who?" she exclaimed, still not sure if she was in a dream or not. Matt and Jackie stared at her, then looked up at the hallway the moment that Delete came running through it, out of breath. He slumped against the wall, then looked up and spotted Nezzie.
"Nezzie!" he exclaimed, running toward the girl, his arms outstretched. Nezzie looked up at him, then smiled and began to run toward him, too.
"Mommy!" she replied, as she approached him and hugged him tightly around the legs. Inez looked surprised.then again, she had been that way since the time she had first spotted the little girl.
"Mommy?" she asked.
Delete made a confused noise, then finally looked up and spotted the kids. The first one he noticed was Inez, still sitting on her knees on the floor. "Inez?" he called.
Nezzie looked up at him, then, still keeping one arm around his leg, pointed at Inez. "Daddy," she told him.
"Daddy?" Delete asked.
"Daddy?" Matt repeated. Delete, unsure of what to think about this, looked down at the girl, then put his hands at his sides.
"Nezzie!" he scolded.
"Nezzie?" Matt repeated again.
"Matt!" Inez shouted at him, annoyed.
Matt shook his head. "No, not you, Nezzie," he responded, then pointed at the little cyborg girl. "Nezzie."
Nezzie nodded, then pointed at herself. "Nezzie," she told them, matter-of-factly.
It was then that they heard more footsteps in the hallway, and Buzz and Hacker, having heard the commotion, entered the room. Both of them stopped short in surprise when they saw the kids, along with Delete and the new little girl that was now tightly hugging his leg.
"Delete!" Hacker shouted, sounding rather peeved. Buzz panted a few times, then stopped at Hacker's side.
"Delete!" Buzz repeated.
Matt looked up at Hacker, then jumped back in surprise. "Hacker!"
"You!" Hacker responded, leering at the redhead.
Buzz looked at Delete, then finally caught sight of the cyborg girl once again. Looking up at Delete, he narrowed one eye in confusion. "Delete?"
Delete turned around. "Buzz?"
"Nezzie," Nezzie told them, pointing at herself again and nodding her head.
"Nezzie?" Buzz asked, sounding more confused than he had before.
"Nezzie?" Hacker repeated, sounding just as confused.
Jackie watched this conversation, then finally clapped both hands over her ears; she could take it no longer. "SHUT UP!" she finally yelled, provoking the stares of everyone in the room. She looked at them almost sheepishly as they looked at her. Nezzie giggled.
"This is fun, am I winning?" she asked.
Jackie grunted, then held up her hands to silence them. "Okay, okay, time out, hold it, here," she said. "Can somebody please tell me what in the world is going on here?"
Everyone then tore their gaze away from Jackie and looked at Delete, who looked back at them, almost shamefully, scraping his foot across the floor. "Uh, well?" he replied, almost blushing from embarrassment.
"Daddy?" Nezzie asked, staring at Inez.
"Delete," Inez demanded, pointing at Nezzie, the other hand on her hip, "just who is this girl, and why is she calling you mommy? Why is she calling me daddy? What's going on here?"
Delete couldn't reply for a few moments; he looked off to the side, unable to stare anyone directly in the eye. "Uh." He paused while searching for an answer. Then, deciding that no lie would ever mask this up, he finally replied, hanging his head in shame, "I.made her."
Everyone gasped. Jackie shook her head in disbelief.
"What do you mean you made her?" she demanded. "You're a robot, how can you manage to make a kid?"
At hearing these words, Hacker gasped; suddenly it had all fallen into place. Angrily gritting his teeth, clenching his fists to the point where they were turning pale, he stepped forward in Delete's direction and angrily shrieked, "My invention, YOU USED MY INVENTION!"
Nezzie, frightened by Hacker's voice, quickly ran over to Inez and ducked behind her leg, seeing that Delete was in no shape to be hid behind. He was now visibly shaking as he looked up at Hacker, suddenly seeming very small compared to the angry, towering cyborg. "Uh, uh, uh," Delete stammered, his entire body shivering violently, he then replied, "Kinda."
"You what?" Buzz seemed equally surprised. "Delete, are you nuts? What's goin' on here, huh?"
"Uh." Delete looked over at his older brother; anything to keep himself from staring at Hacker any longer. "Uh, it's sort of a long story."
"Oh, is it?" Hacker replied, his voice sounding very forced. "Well, let me tell you something, Delete. I'd love to hear you try and talk your way out of this one."
Delete swallowed hard, then said, his voice still shaking, "Um, well, you see, I was gettin' kinda lonely around the base."
"Lonely?" Buzz interrupted, raising an eyebrow.
Delete nodded. "Well, yeah.I mean, with the boss off workin' on stuff, and you doin' other things, there's usually no one around here to talk to. So, I overheard the boss talkin' about his new invention, and what it could do, and I thought that if I used it-" He looked over at Hacker, who now seemed ready to scream at any moment. "I'd.have.somebody to.to talk to."
"Oh, do tell," Hacker replied, the vague outlines of his circuitry beginning to show through his hands. Delete looked over at him again, then tore his gaze away from his and tried to continue without breaking down completely.
"Well, you see, I got to thinkin'."
Buzz scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Ugh, great, here we go," he muttered in disgust. Delete paused to glare at him, then continued his explanation.
"So, anyway, I thought that Inez would be nice to talk to." He tugged on his yellow collar and looked over at Inez, blushing. Inez was blushing as well, although her expression remained one of shock. "So.I used that old.bug.thing to get some of her blood, so I could make it work."
Inez suddenly recalled the incident that had happened yesterday. "So that's what I felt on the roller coaster!" she declared, glaring at him. "You nearly got me killed, Delete!"
"Um, well, yes," Delete told her, blushing an even deeper shade. He began toying around with his hands nervously. "I'm sorry.anyway, I put the blood in the egg, and hid it in the storage room, behind those two crates. That was yesterday, and, well." He gestured toward Nezzie, still hiding behind Inez's leg. "She came out of it." He then shook his head. "But I only put Inez's blood in, so I don't know what happened."
Inez nodded; it had all fallen into place now. "Why were you calling her Nezzie?" she asked, reaching down to pat the frightened child on the head.
"Oh," Delete told her, sheepishly. "Well, she needed a name, and I remembered how Matt calls you Nezzie sometimes, so I thought it sounded.kinda nice, so I decided to use that."
Inez smacked her face. "Oh, great, just great," she muttered. "It's bad enough that Matt calls me Nezzie; now there's a kid with that annoying name too."
Jackie sighed and shook her head as well. "Oh, man," she said, placing one hand on her forehead, "I'm starting to wish I'd just stayed in the pizza parlor, even if it meant eating pepperoni." She stuck out her tongue at recalling the nasty meat product.
Hacker, meanwhile, was fuming; he looked ready to blow his top any minute. Delete swallowed, then cringed back and said, looking up at Hacker very much the way a frightened dog does.
"You don't mean to tell me," he said, his voice seething with anger, "That my invention was wasted on THAT?!" He jabbed his finger in Nezzie's direction, and the toddler cringed back further behind Inez's leg. Matt angrily stepped in front of Inez and Nezzie, blocking their view from Hacker.
"Hold it, Hacker," he said angrily, looking the furious cyborg directly in the eye.
"Don't you dare start with me," Hacker snapped at him. "This day is turning out bad enough as is."
"Look," Jackie said, holding up her hands. "We all need to regroup and figure out what's going on here. For now, let's just go back to Control Central, and figure out just what the heck we're gonna do now."
"Oh no," Hacker replied angrily. "You aren't taking her anywhere anytime soon." He shifted his gaze down toward Buzz, who was still standing there, dumbfounded, not sure what to do. "Buzz?" he said, although Buzz already knew what he was to be asked.
The stocky robot nodded. "Right, boss," he replied; he then began walking toward Nezzie. Matt, however, blocked his path, giving him a shove backward with his hand.
"Don't even think about it," the boy replied, leering down at the robot.
Buzz's expression contorted into one of rage. "Oh, no," he replied, balling his hands into fists. "Don't you DARE start 'dis with me again."
"Who's stopping me?" Matt snapped back. "If I can recall, I managed to pin you to the ground last time we met, did I not?" He crossed his arms.
"You got lucky!" Buzz snapped back, jabbing his finger in Matt's direction. "Why, if I'd just managed to get my hands on you, I'd have-"
The two then started heatedly arguing, Buzz trying to grab Nezzie, and Matt shoving him back. Jackie, fearing that they might get into another fight with the child in their presence, had walked up to Matt and was grabbing him by the shoulders, trying to hold him back, and Delete had a tight grip on Buzz's fists, trying to hold him back. The two continued to leer at each other, both of them raving like machines, Buzz trying to struggle out of Delete's grip as so to land a hit on Matt. Inez was standing there, dumbfounded, with Nezzie clamped tightly onto her leg, looking at the two arguing strangers fearfully.
Hacker was doing little to nothing to stop this, he was still furious about his invention, and, after the argument had gone on for several minutes, stopped short in his train of thought. Wait a minute.Control Central? He thought to himself, then a rather evil grin crept over his face.
"Wait," Hacker suddenly told them, stepping between the angry Buzz and the equally angry Matt. "You're right. Maybe you should take her instead."
At hearing these words out of Hacker's mouth, of all people, everyone stopped short, then stared up at him. Buzz and Delete were especially confused; Delete released his grip on Buzz's fists.
"Huh?" Delete asked.
"What 'da.?" Buzz questioned.
"Jackie's right," Hacker told them. "We need time to figure out what's going on, so why don't you take her to Control Central now." He nodded toward the kids, who stared back at him, still unable to believe what they were hearing.
"Wait a minute, what's going on here?" Matt asked, holding out his hands in confusion.
"Ugh, never mind that, Matt!" Jackie told him. "Let's just get out of here, while we still can!" She turned around and began to walk down the hallway. "Really, men!"
At hearing this both Matt and Buzz glared after her, then Matt finally looked at Hacker suspiciously, then over at Inez, who shrugged her shoulders, still confused. Matt finally sighed. "Fine," he agreed, still looking at Hacker in suspicion, "But I don't like this."
Delete sighed, not really wanting to say goodbye to his child, but went over to Nezzie anyway. She looked at him innocently, then reached out one of her hands to him. "Mommy?" she asked.
"Nezzie, you need to go with your daddy for awhile," Delete told her, placing one hand gently on her shoulder. He then felt tears come to his eyes, but he tried to hold them back; the last thing he wanted to do was to cry in front of the kids. "Okay?" he finally managed to choke out.
Nezzie looked at him, then nodded. "Okay," she repeated.
Delete sighed, then hugged her tightly, muttering "I love you, kid," before finally releasing his grip on her. He then let Nezzie walk over to Inez, and she followed the two remaining members of the Cybersquad out, with him waving goodbye before finally getting up and turning around to face his boss.
"I can explain, boss, really!" he stated, but Hacker refused to listen to the robot.
"I don't want to hear anything of it right now!" he snapped at Delete. "Just go to your room, and start cleaning up. I want it spotless by the time Buzz and I get back, understand?"
Delete swallowed hard, fighting to keep back the tears. Finally slumping forward shamefully, he replied "Yes, sir" in a shaky tone, then walked off down the hall, sniffling to himself. As soon as he was out of sight, Buzz looked up at Hacker, now thoroughly confused.
"Boss, are you nuts!" he exclaimed. "Why'd you just let 'dem walk out like 'dat? 'Dat's not like youse at all-"
"Buzz," he interrupted, holding up his hand to silence the robot. "Do you know what my plan was for the egg?"
Buzz raised an eyebrow. "Uh.?"
"My plan was to make more of you and Delete, and send them into Control Central. That way, the kids would be so busy dealing with that, they wouldn't have any time to deal with me." Hacker laced his fingers together, grinning slyly. "Now tell me, Buzz, just how much trouble do you think Delete's four year old daughter could cause?"
Buzz thought a moment about this, then an equally sly, not to mention cruel, grin spread across his face. "Hey, yeah," he replied, just as evilly as his boss.
"This glorious little child is going to run those brats ragged," Hacker laughed. "A few days of dealing with her, and Motherboard's brats will be too exhausted to do anything." He began laughing insanely, then he shook his head. "Those kids aren't going to get in my way.ever again."