Ch.2: Imprisoned Matt
What had started as a great day, was now sitting cold behind a set of steel bars. Matt, member of Motherboard's Cybersquad, thrown in jail for the charge of grand theft. How could this day had gotten worse?
Sitting solemnly in his cell, Matt tried to remember the events that ended up getting him thrown in jail. It had all started when Jackie and Inez found him in the vault.
All of the citizens of When Rcih Action Knocks were surprised, but Mr. Rich was downright furious. He picked up Matt by the collar before the earthling could even explian.
"Where is it?!" demanded Mr. Rich " What have you done with our gold?!"
Matt was stunned, and Jackie and Inez quickly moved to his defense, trying to pry the elephant's hands away from Matt. It didn't work, and Matt was thrown into the arms of the cops, slapped with cuffs, then taken on to jail.
"And I was worried about making a bad impression," thought Matt.
His bail was set over one million dollars. There was no way he was getting out of here.
The door from the hallway suddenly opened, allowing Jackie, Inez, and Digit to enter the room. Their faces almost wore the same solemn expression Matt had.
"Hey guys," said Matt, as his friends approached.
"Hey" said Inez " We had a hard time convincing them to let us in here,"
"No surprise" said Matt " they're ready to prosecute me,"
"What happened anyway?" asked Digit.
"I saw someone heading for the bank" said Matt " I tried to stop him from stealing the gold, but when the alarm went off, he saw me and knocked me out,"
"Did you see what he looked like?" asked Jackie.
"Yeah," said Matt, and gave them the description. Inez typed it in on her Squackpad.
"Yikes!" said Digit " This guy is creepier than the folks on Castlablanca,"
"Think that's where he's from?" asked Jackie.
"We've never seen anyone like this" said Inez "We'll try to get you out of here Matt, just be strong,"
"Right," said Matt, as his friends turned to leave " I'll be strong,"
"Poor Matt" said Jackie, as she and the others walked through the site " We got to find proof,"
"I wonder if Motherboard managed to convince Mr. Rich to let us watch the security tapes," said Inez.
"Let's hope so" said Digit " I don't know how long Matt can take it in the slammer,"
A few minutes later the trio was inside the security room of the WRAK building.
"If it wasn't for Motherboard" scoffed Mr. Rich " I wouldn't be showing you this tape. But you can see clearly on this footage that it was your friend who stole our gold,"
"We'll be the judge of that," said Inez, grabbing the tape and putting it in the slot. As the tape started to play, she prayed…
"Please let this work,"
Back at the Northern Frontier, Hacker was trying to think of a new way to get to the Phoenix Gold when Buzz and Delete called him over to the TV screen. The word 'theft' stood out in bold, red letters.
"Turn it up!" demanded Hacker, the bots complied.
"This was the scene earlier last night" reported Mr. Vanderom " an empty vault, containing million dollars' worth in Phoenix Gold. Not a single trace of the valuable mineral was left behind,"
"What!" shouted Hacker " Someone stole that gold before me! Who was it?!"
"The robber was found locked inside the vault, and who he turned out to be is a shocker" said Mr. Vanderom " it's none other than the only human boy on the Cybersquad, Matt,"
"Huh? What's this?" said Hacker " Can I be hearing him right? One of the Cybersquad has actually turned to the dark side. Woo, this is to good to be true. Buzz! Delete! Get the Wreaker in gear, we're going back to When Rich Action Knocks,"
Ten times, that had to be the exact amount they rewound and watched this tape, and there was nothing but Matt's image on the screen. There was no lizard-like beast, only Matt and noone else.
"He couldn't have lying could he?" said Inez.
"Matt's not really a liar" said Jackie " If he says he saw an intruder, we should believe him,"
"But there's nothing to prove it on tape" said Digit " so far the only thing that makes sense is the numbers,"
"What numbers?" asked Jackie.
"Those ones flashing at the bottom of the screen" said Digit "They've been going up and down every time you've rewound the tape,"
"That's it time!" said Inez " We need to check the time! We need to start where Matt first entered the vault and calculate how much time passes before the gold disappears,"
"Yeah" said Jackie " Gold is so heavy no one can lift a pile of it all at once,"
"Exactly" said Inez, playing the tape " Here's where Matt entered the vault, stop, 16.51. Now for the gold, stop, 16.85. A full 34 seconds passed by before the gold disappeared, and after Matt entered the vault. That's not enough time for any human to get away with a big heist, especially not with an entire stock of gold,"
"Then the time code is proof" said Jackie " Matt is innocent. We've may not have seen the person who actually took the gold, but when we present this to Mr. Rich, Matt is as good as free,"
"Then let's go!" said Digit, and the three immediately ran off and left.
Meanwhile, back in the jail cell, Matt was trying hard not to be bored out of his mind. He kind of wished he had his Squackpad with him so he could play games. Too bad it was confiscated to the evidence room.
A soft scraping, sliding sound suddenly caught Matt's ear, and looked down in shock to see his Squackpad roll up right next to his feet.
"Huh?" said Matt confused, and looked through the cage bars. Through the steel rods he could see the same shifty shade he had caught breaking into the vault. Its eyes stared right at Matt, conveying a curious, orange glow.
"You again!" said Matt " What are doing here? Why did you steal the gold?"
"Looosst…," was all the creature whispered.
"Lost?" said Matt, even more angry and confused " What do you mean? What are you talking about?"
The creature faded away and disappeared.
"Hey wait!" shouted Matt, then suddenly there was a boom as the wall crashed in.
For a small moment Matt sat choking on a cloud of stone dust, when an imposing figure entered the new doorway. The earthling's eyes widened up with fright the moment he saw that familiar green chin.
"Hacker!" said Matt.
The villain laughed, gleaming sadistic grin.
"Welcome boy" stated Hacker " to the life of crime!"