Ch.4: A Lost Legend

Tension gripped the hull of Control Central as Jackie, Digit, and Inez returned to tell Motherboard of Matt's unexpected escape, but there were two other souls who had already informed her.

Standing right in the room was Matt's friend and rival, Slider, along with Shari Spotter, Matt's magical crush.

They had everything from news, and words couldn't mask the shock in their voices as they babbled about what was happening to Matt.

"This is terrible!" said Shari " Matthew can not be responsible for all these horrible things!"

"I agree" said Slider " but the evidence is stacking up against him fast. Gold theft and escape doesn't look good on anyone's record,"

"But we have proof Matt didn't have enough time to steal the gold" said Jackie " No one can rob an entire vault in 34 seconds,"

"Unless" said Inez " if Matt's story is right, the intruder he saw did,"

"Intruder?" asked Motherboard, curious " What intruder?"

"That's what we're wondering," said Inez.

"Matt was the only one we could see on the security tape" said Jackie " so unless the intruder was invisible there's no way we could have missed him,"

"But Matt was able to describe the intruder perfectly" said Digit " there's no reason for him to lie about that. Inez, bring up Matt's description on your Squackpad,"

Inez nodded, typed in a few buttons, and then held the picture up for everybody to see. Slider, Shari, and Motherboard were confused the moment they saw the lizard-like beast.

"I've never seen that thing in Cyberspace before," said slider.

"Nor have I" said Shari " and I study magic,"

"Motherboard?" asked Inez.

"I'm afraid I haven't seen it also" said Motherboard " which is strange because every system in Cyberspace should be connected to me,"

"Could there be some site we don't know about?" asked Jackie.

"Perhaps" said Motherboard " Try talking to Ms. Fileshare at the Cybrary. Maybe one of her books holds the information we need,"

"Sounds like a plan" said Inez, then looked towards Shari and Slider " You guys want to come with us?"

"If it will help clear Matt's name, then yeah!" said Slider. Shari nodded in agreement.

"Then let's go!" said Digit, as a portal opened " Last one to the Cybrary is a rotten egg,"

With that said, everybody jumped into the swirling tunnel of pink light, their hopes running high. Hopefully, all this trouble would soon be over.

Or, was it just beginning?

For Matt, it was only just the beginning of a really terrible day. First, he was accused of crime he didn't even commit. Then he had gotten himself kidnapped by Hacker who wanted the gold Matt stole. And now, as if to put the cherry on top of the cake, he was stranded with Hacker.

"This is just not my day," sighed Matt, staring forlornly at his Squackpad.

The screen was once again pitch, indicating that no signal could reach wherever they were. Hacker stood about three feet away, shouting at Buzz and Delete who were checking the ship for damage. He was getting impatient for an explanation about the crash.

"We found the problem Boss" said Buzz, poking his head out of the Wreaker's hull.

"Yeah" said Delete, coming out as well " the power core has been completely drained,"

"Impossible!" said Hacker " I just gave the Wreaker a tune up last week. You had something to do with this didn't you?"

Matt was shocked when Hacker quickly turned and pointed the finger towards him.

"Excuse me!" said Matt, miffed " How could I have done this? You had me locked in a dungeon remember?"

"He's got a point Boss" said Buzz " There's no way he could have reached the power core,"

"Why don't we take a break for awhile?" said Delete " This site looks like a nice place to explore,"

"Huh!" scoffed Hacker, looking over at the jungle and ruins that surrounded them " I wouldn't waste a snelfu in this dump. But relaxation sounds like exactly what I need. You, Earthbrat! Go out and find some food, but don't even think about escape, there's nowhere to run from here,"

"Jerk," thought Matt, and walked out towards the ruins. Any place away from Hacker was paradise at the moment.

The structures of the yellow stones around him were both ancient and beautiful, carved with designs that would even make the sculptors on Mount Olympus jealous. Whoever had lived here long ago, certainly had an eagle eye for design.

One particular piece of artwork stood out among the rest. A giant, marble statue of beautiful fox, dressed in following robes, and holding a large scepter in her hand.

"Wow" said Matt " seeing this almost makes me glad I got kidnapped,"

The eyes almost seemed like they staring into some mystic plane. To a world beyond Cyberspace. A world away from Earth.

The moment of wonder was suddenly interrupted by an alarming beep. Immediately, Matt reached down and looked at his Squackpad. A word had appeared.

"MATT!"

And before you could blink twice, Matt was on the ground, knocked out.

Meanwhile, at the Cybrary, the Cybersquad, along with their friends, were having very little luck finding any reference to the mysterious shade Matt had described. Ms. Fileshare had given the kids all the access they would need, but it seemed, that not even the knowledge of the Cybrary could help them clear up this mystery.

"Uh" said Jackie, tossing another book on the floor " my eyes are getting tired from all this reading. And we still haven't found a clue,"

"Keep looking" said Slider " there must be something we missed,"

"But we already looked through everything," said Jackie, throwing out her arms, accidently bumping Digit.

Reeling back from the unexpected blow, Digit cried and tumbled down a hill of books before suddenly stopping with a bang.

"Ouch!" yelled Digit, as he stood up from the fall "Just great, my beak is bent again,"

"Are you alright Dige?" asked Jackie, as she and others came over to where the bird had landed.

"Sure" said Digit, straightening out his beak " I just banged into something hard, like that metal door here,"

"Hmm" said Inez, looking at the door "I've never seen this in the Cybrary before. And it's the only door I've seen with a coded lock,"

"Maybe that's where we'll find the answer we're looking for," said Shari.

"Only one way to find out" said Inez " we need to crack the code and get inside,"

"Hmm" said Slider, looking at the code lock " There's no numbers, but symbols, and I can't tell what they mean,"

"And there's six of them" said Shari " without knowing how long the code's supposed to be, or whether any of the symbols repeat, it could take us forever to get inside,"

"Wait, there may be a way" said Inez " Jackie, can I see your compact?"

"Sure, but why?" asked Jackie, digging it out, and handing it to Inez.

In a second, Inez opened up the compact, and removed the fluff from inside, covered in white powder. She patted it against the lock, before giving the compact back to Jackie.

"Ah ha!" said Inez " I knew this would work. The white powder exposed the places on the keypad where somebody used their fingers. And the powder only appears in two spots. That means there is only two symbols needed to open the door,"

"And only two combinations for us to guess!" said Jackie, excitedly " Let's try it!"

Hoping the first combination would work, Inez typed in the two symbols. Tension froze in the air, as she pressed the enter key.

Silence, then beep, the door opened, opening up into a dusty room. An old terminal stood inside, flickering to life as the gang walked in.

The door slid closed, and a man's image appeared on screen

"Well" growled the man's image " it's about time somebody got here,"