He slowly opened his eyes and saw Reboot standing over him. He was lying on the examining table in the medical lab.
"Sarah. Is she alright? What happened?"
"She's going to be fine. Luckily, Dragonryder was scooting near your neighborhood. She could hear the explosion, so could the rest of the block. Don't worry; we blamed it on a transformer overloading. People will believe anything these days."
"Remind me to thank her when my body stops hurting. It almost fells like the pain I felt in the hospital after the accident."
"Should you tell him or should I?" Reboot said to someone Matt couldn't see.
"I will." Forthright's voice said.
Forthright walked over and stood above him. He had the most scared face Feedback had ever seen on him.
"Something's happened Matt. Something bad."
"What is it? What's wrong with Sarah?"
"Maybe you should see for yourself." Reboot said as he raised the table so Feedback could sit up.
Across the room, Sarah laid unconscious on another table. Wires and monitors of every shape and size covered her body.
"Oh please no."
"She'll be fine. There's only one problem, Sarah's body is..." Reboot began to say.
"What is it? Why aren't you guys telling me anything?!" Matt angrily asked.
"Calm down Matt. It's just that we don't know the right way to tell you this. Matt, your powers. They're gone." Forthright bluntly stated.
"What do you mean gone?"
"Just gone. It's almost as if you never had them in the first place."
"That's just not possible." Matt asked, stunned.
"What's even more impossible is this. Sarah has, though some twisted whim of fate, gained your abilities. It's like they jumped from you to her."
"You're absolutely positive?" Matt asked.
"Absolutely. We've run every test imaginable and they all check out." Reboot said, shuffling though papers.
"We didn't know how you would take it Matt. Feedback's gone." Forthright said.
"No, I may not have my powers, but Sarah does. When she wakes up, I'll tell her what happened. It will be easier coming from me."
"Thanks my boy. We don't want to have to beat around the bush twice in one day. We have work to do." Forthright said and quickly left.
Matt put his head in his hands. This wasn't possible? Sarah had his powers now. Deathmatch had sunk to a new low. Wait, not Deathmatch. Lida. The girl. She rigged the console to explode. She must have used the Deathmatch story to get under his skin. She knew too much about him. She had used his own powers and hatred against him. He had been played. Completely and utterly played. He painfully got up and walked over to the sleeping Sarah. She lay there like an angel who had fallen from the sky. She was his angel. Lida had tried to hurt her. He clenched his fist. Lida will pay. Pay dearly. No, revenge wasn't in him. As long as Sarah was safe. He knelt beside her. He gently brushed her hair back and kissed her check. Sarah let out a small moan of pain and stirred. She painfully opened her eyes.
"Matt?"
"Yeah. I'm here."
He took hold of her hand.
"What happened? That damn station. Who did this to us?"
"Someone who I trusted. Sarah, something's happened."
"No kidding."
"No really. Something has happened to us."
"Just spill it Matt."
"Somehow, you were given my powers. My feedback field, it's yours now."
"What?! Matt you've got to be kidding."
"I'm not."
"This is a sick joke."
"I wish I WERE joking. Don't worry, we'll fix this I promise."
"How Matt? We couldn't fix this when YOU had these powers."
"I'll find the person who did this. They're bound to know how to fix us. Until then, you get some rest. I'll be by to see you later."
"Okay. I will. I love you."
"I love you too. Always will."
He gave her quick kiss on the lips and got up. He went into the bathroom and changed into a new pair of jeans and a T-shirt and walked out of the medical lab. As he was walking down the hall, Blackthorn walked up to him.
"The entire staff's been briefed on the situation. The teams working around the clock to find a solution but have come up empty handed."
"I really appreciate it. You have no idea."
"We don't want Sarah hurt either. All our energy now is being channeled into finding out how to help you two."
"Do me a favor. Get my suit ready."
"But why? Matt, you're not.. nevermind."
"I know who did this. Lida, the girl who sent me that station. Right before it blew, it had shown a picture of red kryptonite on it. You remember what that did to Superman and Lois in the "Lois and Clark" series right?"
"It switched them!"
"Exactly. The name on the card was a code for red kryptonite. She knew this would happen. So, she can fix it. I need to talk to her."
"Wait, let's put a team together. It's too dangerous for you now."
"No, then she'll think something's wrong. I may not have my powers, but that doesn't mean Feedback means nothing. Maybe, if she sees me in the suit, she'll think it didn't work."
"That's one hell of a bluff. We'll keep a sharp eye on the monitors. That's all we can do. What should we tell Sarah?"
"Just tell her I'll be back in a while. I don't need her to get in anymore danger."
"Too late for that." Blackthorn said under his breath. "Okay, I'll keep her in the dark. You just come back in one piece."
"I will. By the way, is Dragonryder still around? I want to thank her for helping me and Sarah out."
"Sorry, she got called up by Beta Flight."
"Call up Excelsior. Tell them I might need backup if things get hairy. This is one of those days I'm glad to have friends like that."
"You got it Feedback. Oh, sorry."
"No, it's okay. Being called Feedback, even without my powers, makes this whole thing easier on me."
"Alright. Let's go brief the team."
--------------------
Sarah woke up and looked around. She was still in the hospital wing of Tech Support, but she had been moved to a real bed. Reboot walked in and saw she was awake.
"Oh, you're awake I see. How are you felling?"
"Better," she groaned then tried to get up. "Okay, I take that back."
She felt like her whole body was made of lead. She collapsed back onto the bed.
"You're still healing. Remember, it took Matt a little while to recover. You need time to recuperate." Reboot contested.
"I know Reboot. I just fell so helpless. Matt's out there all alone. No powers to help him. I have his powers now, but I'm stuck in this bed. How can I help him?"
"Don't worry. Matt will be okay. Why do you think we're here?"
"Good point."
"He'll be fine. You need to get sleep. Doctor's orders. We'll sort this out as fast as we can. Feedback will be back to his normal self in no time. Promise. Well, I'll leave you to rest." He said then got up and left.
"Don't make promises you don't know you can keep."
-----------------------
"Feedback, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear Blackthorn."
"Good. You just holler and we'll be on that house like white on rice."
"Thanks Blackthorn."
Matt sounded grateful, but in the back of his mind, he was worried. He had gone so long with his abilities, he almost depended on them now. Almost.
"You getting nervous?" Blackthorn asked.
"Not a bit."
Not a blatant lie, but pretty close. After all, this was only a normal young girl's house. A young girl that had just managed to rig a Playstation to explode and switch his powers into his wife. Sure, normal girl. Yeah right. Matt walked up to the door and knocked. No answer. He knocked again. Still nothing. Should he open the door? His instincts all said no. It was that proverbial too quiet. Every fiber in his body said walk away. He opened the door. It swung open and the house lay in darkness.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" Matt called.
Silence. He took a step inside. All his senses were on full alert. He eyes went from one side of the room to the other. Everything was normal, except no one was there.
"Are you sure that they came home?" Matt asked.
"The monitors showed them getting out of the van and walking in." He responded.
"There's no one here. The house is empty."
"That can't be possible."
"At this point, I'm willing to believe anything."
"I'm glad to here you say that." Came a voice inside.
"You!" Matt hollered.
"Feedback what's going on?" Blackthorn pleaded.
One second. It's a short time in some cases. One second is all it took. The house itself, Feedback included, vanished. The house was instantly replaced with the rest of the lawn. It wasn't a slow fade. Just gone. Like switching the channel of a T.V.
"MOVE!!" Blackthorn bellowed into the mic.
The whole of the team rushed the lawn where the house once stood. It was gone, simply gone.
"This isn't happening." Blackthorn fumed. "Everyone, spread out. Find anything you can about what happened."
As the team franticly searched, Blackthorn saw a small red sign, on the ground. He picked it up and his eyes went wide.
"Get me back to Tech Support! Now!"