Sorry about the length of this one. I love the conversation between slider and max in this one. i also liked the thrill of the chase in this one too. i have to admit, i was a little worried the part about max threatening slider might have been a little dark but i've been assured it wasn't. it kind of added emphasis to the stress max was feeling after flying around for so long.
I don't own Cyberchase. Max is mine. The idea for reprogramming Digit isn't mine either. That came from We Are One by Kawaii Stella and Akari Hinomoto. I just liked the idea of reprogramming Digit as another way of provoking Max.
Chapter Eight
A Change of Heart
Hacker stared down at the Cyboid he had created eons ago. After much thinking, Hacker decided he should reprogram Digit. Digit was his creation, after all, and he had every right to do what he liked with the despicable bird.
Hacker didn't give Digit a choice. He had Buzz and Delete bring the Cyboid to him using any means necessary. The dragged Digit to Marbles' workshop where Hacker had stationed himself and Hacker quickly flipped Digit's power switch to off, rendering him unconscious.
"Thank you, boys. Now, wait outside until further orders." Hacker told Buzz and Delete.
The two robots saluted and marched off to do as they were instructed. Hacker didn't trust them to remain in the workshop with him. There were too many things for the two, bumbling robots to get into.
Hacker opened Digit using Marbles' screwdrivers, removed Digit's HDD – Hard Disk Drive – and ran it under a modified version of the Sqwackpad. After a few keystrokes on a computer, Hacker changed Digit completely from the bumbling, useless Cyboid everyone loved, to a sinister person nobody could possibly care about.
"Your orders, boss?" Digit asked.
"I need you to do a couple of things for me." He said.
0
Matt awoke to a loud beeping sound coming from the side pocket of his backpack. He rose, groggily from bed and slugged to the desk where he had deposited the pack. He pushed a button and received Digit's familiar face on the screen.
"Hello?" He asked.
"Matty. It's Digit. Hacker's up to his usual tricks again. I'm sending a portal right now." His Cyboid friend said.
"Okay. Give me a few minutes to get ready." Matt said with a yawn.
"Okay." Digit said.
Matt got dressed. No sooner had he slipped on his shoes and drew his arms through the straps of his backpack than a portal swirled to life in his room. Without hesitation, Matt jumped in feet first. He tumbled head over heels before being dumped on the hard floor of a cage. Looking around, Matt saw that his two friends, Inez and Jackie, were already there with him.
Digit stood outside the cage and leered in at them. The expression was strange to see on his face, to say the least.
"Hah! I knew you would fall for that Hacker's-causing-havoc trick. That's why I used it." He said.
"What's going on? Why are you acting like that?" Matt asked.
"Because I'm on Hacker's side now." Digit said. He turned away and sauntered of.
"I think Hacker's reprogrammed him." Inez said. She looked sad. Not that Matt could blame her. Digit ha been their friend since they were dumped on the floor of Control Central for their first adventure.
"How did this happen, anyway?" Jackie said. "We just left Cyberspace a few hours ago. It's like he was waiting for us to leave before he struck."
"That's probably what he did." Matt said. "I wouldn't put it past him."
"I just wonder what's going to happen to Max and Dr. Marbles now." Inez said.
Matt scooted close to her and put an arm around her shoulders. Inez leaned into him, her face to his shoulder.
"We can only hope things will turn out okay." He said.
1
Something doesn't feel right. Max thought as her consciousness surfaced from the dream world she had just finished exploring. Her ears rotated on their points, giving her the ability to hear in two different directions at once.
Returning from a dream fast was a disorienting experience. The faster was always drifting between dreams and reality; walking the precariously thin line, the danger of falling quickly back into wake or sleep fully presenting itself.
The first thing that returned to Max was her acute senses of hearing and touch. With that touch came a sixth sense – an ominous feeling that tickled up her spine and caused her to shudder. The second thing that returned was her sight and smell. And she didn't like anything that touched those senses.
Shangri-La was quiet. Too quiet. For the past several eons, Shangri-La had been voted as the quietest site in all of Cyberspace. It wasn't voted as the best vacationing spot, though, but the site was still the most predictable. Everyone who came here could expect to hear a pin drop from a mile away. The warriors were silent because none, except for Red and Master Pi, spoke. The warriors spent most of their time in mediation, training in the fields, practicing Northern Shaolin in the hills behind the Good Vibration, eating, mediating, doing meager chores about the temples, and sleeping. Every day was planned out in advance and everyday was scheduled exactly the same. Even new trainees would not hinder the already-made plans of the day. Healing was considered a chore and, thus, even Max showing up injured and half-dead outside their gates did not put a damper in their schedule.
Although Max knew Shangri-La was quiet, she knew it wasn't this quiet. This was an eerie silence. The silence before the fall. The fall being something disastrous about to happen.
Max growled; hackles bristling. Her mismatched eyes darted from side-to-side. The first thing that Max noticed was the sky. Normally it was a bright blue with nary a cloud anywhere to be seen. What Max saw was an angry red with thick, black clouds swirling overhead. Along with those clouds, Max saw the Good Vibration – the source of all kindness and harmony on Shangri-La – was gone from its place. The mountains were crumbling. The waterfall had lost its voice and the river beneath the bridge no longer burbled.
Max looked over the edge of the bridge and saw the gold and black fish were now floating belly-up in the river. Max sighed and her claws clenched, digging into the bridge. Max looked down, surprised by how easily she was able to scratch the gold. Much to her surprise, the bridge had turned green and brown with oxidation and rust.
Rust? That's not possible, real gold doesn't rust. What the hell is going on here?
Max got up and wandered about the site. What she saw caused her to worry. She didn't like Shangri-La's new appearance. She didn't like how it seemed to be crumbling. And she didn't like how she wasn't able to find any warriors anywhere. Max needed answers and she needed to find them soon.
"Max."
The cyborg-gargoyle turned to see the Red Warrior standing behind her. His face serious. Max faced him.
"Red? What the hell is going on? Where's the Good Vibration? Why is the sky so dark?" She asked him.
Red blatantly ignored Max's questions. "Max, you must come with us, please." He told her.
"Why? What's going on? Where are we going?" She asked.
"Come with us, please." Red repeated.
Max didn't like how he was avoiding her questions. Red never avoided her questions. Her ears flattened against her skull.
"Okay Red. I'll come with you. But first, please answer my questions." She said.
"Please, Max. No more questions. Come with me and everything will be explained." Red told her.
Red also never seemed to get annoyed. This time he was getting annoyed.
"Not until you answer me. What's going on?" She said.
Master Pi appeared beside Red. He wasn't levitating like he usually was.
"Max." Master Pi said.
"Master? What's going on here? The sky is dark, the Good Vibration is gone, the waterfall has grown quiet, and the fish are dead. I don't get it." Max said.
"Come with us, Max. We'll explain everything." Master Pi said.
That was the second time Master Pi called her Max. He hardly ever called her by her name, preferring to call her "little one" even though she wasn't so little anymore.
"Master, is there something wrong?" Max said.
"Max, please. No more questions. Come with us." Master Pi said.
Okay, make that three times he's called me by my name. I don't like this. I don't like this at all.
Out of the corner of her eye, Max saw the warriors creeping up the hill. Each of them carried a noose loosely in both hands. Max had seen that stance before. She had learned it, too. It was the warrior's way of sneaking up on an enemy or target. And Max knew what happened to enemies of Shangri-La.
Max's ears flattened completely on her skull. "I don't think so." She said.
With a snarl, she bulled through her former teachers; knocking them down. She ran in a zig-zag pattern, avoiding ropes as she went. Then, she mounted the wall and scaled all the way up to the top where she plopped her butt down and glowered at her fellow warriors.
"Why are you attacking me? I am not your enemy!" Max demanded.
"Maxanne Marbles" - Not good. Master Pi never used Max's full name either - "You are charged with premeditated murder. Our orders are to arrest and hold you until the Leader of Cyberspace can decide what to do with you."
"What? You gave me that mission!" Max said.
"I know. And I was wrong to do so." Master Pi admitted.
"On whose orders are you to detain me?" Max asked.
"The Leader of Cyberspace, of course." Master Pi announced.
"Motherboard would never order my arrest."
"It wasn't Motherboard."
"Who then?"
"The Hacker."
Max's blood rain cold and goosebumps pushed on her scales. He's the Leader of C'yberspace now? When the hell did that happen? Why did it happen? Where's Motherboard?
"Max. Do not resist. Lord Hacker said the charges would be minor if you came with us, quietly." Master Pi said.
"Well, you know me. I don't come quietly. I've never been quiet. Nor will I allow myself to be detained." Max said. "You taught me, never let yourself be captured. Well, that's what I intend to do. Have fun trying to catch me."
"Max. Be reasonable. We don't want to hurt you."
"I am being reasonable. I know for a fact you can't trust his word. He'll say one thing and mean another. It's always been his way. You know it and I know it. He's known for it. You can't trust him."
"It used to be we could not trust gargoyles either. Yet, here you are."
"I'm not really a gargoyle."
"You certainly are now."
Master Pi made a gesture toward Max and the lassos were thrown. Max managed to duck past the nooses coming her way. Then, she jumped off the wall and ran the length of the plain. The wind whistling past her ears and through her horns and mane barely hid the sound of the gates opening. Max knew the warriors were chasing her. But few were fast enough to match a gargoyle's stride.
She counted each stride. At number six, she extended her wings; breaking the three strips of tape holding them to her sides. At number eight, she started pumping. At number ten, she kicked off the ground and flew away.
Flying was a painful and dangerous task for Max at the moment. The fractures in her wings had barely healed and air leaked through the holes in her wings. With each wing-stroke, the ridges shrieked with protest. Max gritted her teeth against the pain. She knew she couldn't fly long but she had to try. Everywhere she went, she saw only darkness. Hacker's fingerprints no doubt.
She flew around for a while. Occasionally, stopping to rest. But she couldn't stay long. It felt like she had just touched down when a lynch mob rose out of the woodwork; armed with pitchforks, hoes, torches, and ropes. Max had to take off again.
Tired of flying and in pain from the fractured joints, Max landed on the outskirts of Radopolis and dug herself out a tunnel in Point Dune. There, she curled up and started to rest.
Just then, footsteps brought her head up and her lips curled over her teeth. Max waited until a figure unknowingly passed her dune before diving out and knocking him flat. It was Slider. But Max didn't care at that point. After a few encounters with lynching mobs on every Site she had landed on so far, Max couldn't trust anyone.
"What the -" Slider began, but Max hauled him up by his hoodie and slapped a paw to his mouth.
"Scream and I will shut you off." She warned.
Slider stopped squirming, but his breath was still rapid against her pads.
"Now, are you still loyal to Motherboard? Nod once for yes, twice for no." Max growled.
Slider nodded once. Max knew he wasn't stupid enough to lie to her so she let him go and shoved him into a seated position by her dune. Slider stared up at her.
"Dang, Max. You look like hell." Slider observed.
"You didn't see the broadcast, did you?" Max asked.
"You mean the one where you-know-who was flaunting his capture of you on Cyberwide tv?"
"That's the one."
"I heard about it but I didn't see it. I was out boarding and completely missed it. I heard it was a doozey though."
"If you were getting electrocuted with 360 volts of electricity, you wouldn't call it a doozey."
"Yeah. I'm sure I wouldn't."
"It wasn't a doozey on my end."
"I'm sure it wasn't."
"It wasn't."
Slider noticed the trailing ends of the surgical tape still attached to Max's scales.
"Run into trouble?" he asked.
Max looked over her shoulder to see what Slider was looking at. "A little. I just came out of a dream fast when the warriors on Shangri-La attacked me. I didn't wait around to see what they would do to me." Max said.
"How'd you know they were going to attack?" Slider asked.
"They were carrying nooses." Max told him.
"Oh."
The two stared at each other.
"Well, are you okay?"
"Aside from nearly being lassoed by warriors who don't miss, I also had to avoid pitchforks, hoes, spears, and torches, I'm fine."
"Ouch." Slider said with a shudder. "I heard King Dudicus telling everyone to be on the look out for a disfigured albino gargoyle."
"I'm sure he did."
Max tensed as Slider got up and walked around to see the tape better. She gave him a warning growl and Slider just stared at her.
"I'm just going to take the tape off, that's all." He said.
"Just so long as that's all you're going to do." Max said.
For an answer, Slider grabbed the tape and ripped it off her scales. Max gritted her teeth to keep from roaring. When Slider finished, he touched Max's wings, noting the holes that had been cut in the membrane.
There were nine holes in each wing. Each hole was perfectly aligned within six-inches away from the ridge and spanned the entire length of the wings themselves. In a couple of places, the membrane was torn so the holes were joined. To Slider the holes looked like they had been cut using a butcher's knife. To Max, they just plain hurt.
"What happened here?" He asked. "Did the warriors get you?"
"Remember what I said about the broadcast?" Max said.
"Yeah."
"You-know-who threaded chains through my wings to keep me from flying away. I don't actually know how he made those holes, but they're sore."
"They look sore. They look like they hurt."
"Appearances can be deceiving. In this case, they're not."
"How did you manage to fly in a condition like this?"
"It didn't come without complications." Max said with a shrug.
Slider ran a hand over the ridge and Max nearly tore his hand off when his fingers found the fractures.
"Watch it!"
"What's wrong with this ridge?"
"Hairline fractures in both wings. That happened when I tried to fly away from the electricity." Max explained.
Slider shook his head. "I'm not sure how you did it, Max, but you're one tough cookie. I'm surprised you were able to fly at all. Hairline fractures and holes in the membrane. How'd you manage it?"
"You'll be surprised what a gargoyle can manage when its life was on the line."
"I bet. You-know-who knew what he was doing when he kidnapped you, didn't he?"
"He's done this kind of thing before. Except, last time he encased my wings in boots. This time he kept me pretty well sedated."
"Yuck."
"Yeah. Yuck."
Slider examined the holes again. "You know, I think I can rig something up. Maybe a couple of braces for the ridges."
"Okay. I'd be willing to try that."
"I could probably solder these holes shut too."
"No, dude. Don't use a soldering iron. The last time you did that, I almost ate your hand."
"Sorry Max. You won't be able to fly properly without getting your wings fixed. I'll be quick about it, I promise. And, you can chew on my pillow if you need to."
"Oh, I'll need to."
"Fine. Come with me."
Max followed Slider into the town. The two of them kept to the shadows and Max was fairly light-footed for someone her size. Finally, when they got into Slider's garage, Max stretched out on the floor and extended her wings which Slider braced against his workbench and carefully weighed one down. He made a few measurements, then encased Max's ridge in a few pieces of steel; leaving the joints untouched for better flexibility. Max endured the procedure, patiently.
"Any idea how you-know-who got in complete control of Cyberspace?" Max asked Slider while the young borg located his soldering iron and dropped his pillow on the floor in front of Max. Max stared at it, disgusted by the stains where Slider put his head at night; not sure whether to chew on it or throw it away.
"No clue." Slider said, pulling Max's mind out of the gutter. "Just, all of a sudden, the sky went dark and everyone started acting nuts."
"The sky was dark at Shangri-La, too." Max said.
"The sky is dark everywhere." Slider told her, plugging the iron in.
"I wonder what would have happened if Dad or Digit had been there instead of with me at Shangri-La. Do you suppose they could've stopped him from taking over?"
"Don't know. Maybe it was your dad who helped you-know-who get into the system."
Max glared at him so venomously, that Slider had to back up a few paces, out of range of her tail barb. Slider was no coward, but he knew how dangerous gargoyles could be when angered.
"I oughta slug you." She said.
"Borgs are known for changing sides."1 Slider said with a shrug.
"Not my dad. Dad would never betray Motherboard."
"Your dad was the one who made that monster."
"Yeah, and he beats himself up over it too. You think he enjoys living out his warranty knowing he created the very monster that did this to me? What about everything he's done to your father? Dad feels responsible for that, too."
Slider's jaw tightened. "Don't ever bring that up again." He said.
Slider's father vanished when Slider was a little boy. There was no word as to why Coop made his decision only that he up and left without telling his son where he was going. Marbles, feeling sad for the youth, took Sly in and treated him like son. Most Cyber-citizens just assumed it was done out of the goodness of Marbles' heart. Max and Slider knew it was because Marbles and Coop were made by the same borg, making Max and Slider cousins. Of course, Max's relationship with Slider was not well-known and for good reason.
Coop and Marbles were manufactured by the same borg, but both were made for completely different purposes. Both were smart, but Marbles was a genius. Marbles invented top of the line Cybercoops, built and programmed most of the computer consoles, invented the Sqwackpads and many more. Coop acted like a mechanic on some of the things Marbles made. Like most brothers, Coop and Marbles had a falling out and the two hadn't spoken for a few eons. It was suspected Coop was tired of living under his older brother's shadow. Then, a couple eons before Coop's disappearance, the brothers started speaking again. Mostly because neither brother didn't want their kids to hate each other. This also happened to be the same year Marbles made Hacker. A few months later, Hacker went bad and the two brothers made promises toward each other. They promised the other they would take care of each other's kid if something bad were to happen to the other. Marbles kept that promise when Coop vanished.
Word on the street concerning Coop's disappearance was that Coop owed Hacker something and was looking for a way to pay him off. Other stories said Hacker had caught up with Coop and threw him in the nearest black hole. For Slider's sake, Max could only hope the first was true.
"Then don't tell me my dad betrayed Motherboard. It won't ever happen. Not in this age or in the age to come."
"It's possible."
Max growled. "Say that again and you will be using that iron to repair your face."
Slider took a couple more steps back. Max didn't believe in making empty threats. Nor did she believe in making threats unless she could back them up.
"Alright, I'm sorry." He said.
They were quiet while they waited for the iron to heat. When it had reached maximum heating potential, Slider flattened Max's wing down with his hand and touched it to a hole. Max snatched up the pillow in her teeth and ground her fangs into it; desperately trying not to scream.
When Slider was done, he returned his iron to its box and checked out his handiwork. The holes had sealed over and the ridges were contained in tight, metal braces. Slider had cut the braces out of steel using tin snips and flexed them over a rod that was the exact length and diameter as Max's wing-ridges. Then, after rubbing water-soluble glue down the ridges, Slider slipped the metal braces over the ridge and pinched them tight with a few clamps.
Max tested out the braces and nodded her approval.
"Crude, but it will do." She said.
"Thanks." Slider said, washing his hands at his sink. "Anything else you need?"
"Now that you mention it . . ." Max began.
"Oh circuits! I hate when you say that. Usually means you're going to have me do something I'd hate." Slider said.
"You mean you enjoyed smearing my wings with glue, sealing the holes with a soldering iron, and encasing the ridges with metal?" Max asked.
"Just plying my trade." He said, simply.
"Well your trade stinks." She glowered at him. "You didn't have to help me, you know. You could've turned me over to King Dudicus."
"We're family, Max. I couldn't do that to you even if I wanted to."
"Whatever."
"Well, what is it you wanted?"
Max grinned. "I need someone as back-up while I hack into Motherboard's terminal at Control Central. I'm going to call you-know-who out. I just need you to watch my back. Make sure he doesn't perform a back-trace on me."
Slider grinned at her in return. "I actually like that idea. Let's do it."
1"Borgs are known for changing sides." - Slider, Cyberchase episode Snelfu Snafu part 1, 309