Chapter 3: A Rainy Day
While things had been appreciatively peaceful for the cyber squad over the course of the past few days, it unfortunately wasn't destined to last much longer. Hacker had been keeping himself busy with his latest scheme, and it was now finally beginning to take shape, as was his statue. He was now adding the final touches to it, being meticulous in making sure it was aesthetically pleasing to himself, and captured every detail of himself just perfectly.
Once this was all said and done, he set down his tools and stood back to admire his latest creation. "Ah! There! Simply magnificent!" he declared, highly satisfied with his work. "Buzz! Delete! Get in here!" he shouted over his shoulder towards the door.
Within a matter of seconds, both of his henchmen came stumbling into the room, not wanting to keep their boss waiting, falling into a heap on the ground nearby.
"Glad you two could take the time out of your busy schedules to see me," he greeted dryly and sarcastically.
"No problem, boss," Buzz replied as he and Delete stood up and dusted themselves off, not quite catching the condescension in their boss's statement. When he caught sight of the statue, Buzz pointed and asked with a puzzled frown, "Um, hey, boss - What's with the statue?"
"I was just about to get to that, if you two could possibly SHUT YOUR USELESS PIE HOLES for a minute," Hacker said sharply with a harsh scowl. "It's part of a new plan I've been working on. Observe," he ordered as he lifted his arm, revealing a small remote in his hand with a single button. He pressed down on it and, within seconds, a portal opened up in front of the statue, much like the ones Motherboard could conjure up.
"Um, boss," Delete piped up, as puzzled as Buzz was at the moment. "Didn't you try this plan already a long time ago? You placed all those statues on all those different cyber sites?"
"Ah, but if you'll let me finish, you blithering buffoon, you'll see that this plan is actually quite a bit different," Hacker corrected.
"How's that?" Delete asked, looking back at the portal.
Hacker cackled and ominously suggested, "Well now, I suggest you two go ahead and see if you can find out for yourselves?" Then, without another word, he darted around behind the two robots and picked them up before tossing them through the portal, both of whom yelled with surprise as they passed through and came out the other side, landing in a heap yet again.
"Ugh… my head…" Buzz moaned, climbing off of Delete and reaching up to rub his temple.
"Why does the boss have to be so mean to us?" Delete questioned, straightening himself up and shaking his head.
It was then that the two of them began to take notice of their new surroundings. The stood up and looked around, not saying a word as they took it all in. This was certainly no cyber site that they had ever seen before. They were standing in the middle of a hilly field of tall grass, blowing in a cool, gentle breeze. Off to one side, the hills escalated in height, eventually turning into tall mountains in the far distance, covered with a forest of tall trees. To their other side, they could see what looked like a large city several miles away, with tall building jutting up from the horizon. They could already tell this place definitely wasn't small by any means.
"Where are we, Buzzy?" Delete finally spoke up, rather dumbfounded by what they were seeing.
"I dunno, Deedee," Buzz replied. "I know as well as you do. I've never seen a cyber site like this one before."
"Yeah, me neither," Delete agreed, glancing up to see a bright blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds.
Both robots looked to see the portal still sat in its place. "Let's go see what the boss has to say. Maybe he knows," Buzz suggested, motioning for his friend to follow. He did so, and they jumped back through the portal, flying through and popping back out again, returning to the Grim Wreacker.
Hacker stood over them, his hands at his sides. The fact that Buzz and Delete had managed to return was a good sign. "Well? What did you see?" he asked impatiently.
"We landed on this really weird cyber site we'd never seen before," Buzz answered.
"Yeah! The sky was blue, there were fields and forests and mountains, and there was a huge city off in the distance!" Delete added. "Why would you want to go to that cyber site, boss?"
Hacker's face formed into a sinister grin. "That was no cyber site you two were on. You see, my meat-headed minions, what I have just created is no ordinary portal. This is a very special portal, a portal that opens up… into the real world," he explained, pausing for dramatic effect.
Buzz and Delete gasped in shock. They had just been to the place where Motherboard's little helpers were from! "The real world?!" Buzz exclaimed. "But boss, how did you do it?!"
"Yeah! I thought only Motherboard could make those!" Delete agreed, just as bewildered as Buzz.
"Well that's certainly not true anymore, now is it?" Hacker asked redundantly. "If you two dunce buckets can recall, I used to work for Motherboard, and I was by no means ignorant to how her portals worked. And now I've simply harnessed the technology necessary to recreate them," he explained, clearly full of himself as he paced proudly around the room.
"So… what're we gonna do with it, boss?" Delete asked anxiously.
"I'll tell you what we're going to do," Hacker replied without missing a beat, "Now that I know for certain that it works, we're going build a much bigger statue to create a much larger portal. Then we're gonna take the Grim Wreaker, enter the real world, and I'll finally be able to dispose of those Earth brats ONCE AND FOR ALL!" he asserted with strong malevolence. "And of course, wreaking havoc across and taking over the real world along the way will be quite nice too," he added with an amused chuckle.
Buzz and Delete stared wide-eyed at their boss. This may very well have been his biggest, most complicated, and most dastardly scheme yet. "Are you sure about this, boss?" Delete asked concernedly. "Have you really thought this thing through?"
"Hah! Of course I have. Don't make me laugh," Hacker said dismissively, finally thinking to turn off the portal. "Trust me when I say that this thing is just getting started. We'll have those kids either destroyed or begging on their knees in no time flat. I can safely say that they're all in for quite the surprise…"
…
Blissfully unaware of Hacker's evil plan, Matt was sitting in math class on Friday morning. With no word from Motherboard regarding any problems in Cyberspace, he found that the week had passed by quite quickly. He had to admit, he had grown a bit more anxious since his talk with Jackie. Even more time had passed now, and he didn't know whether to feel better or worse about their situation. He wanted to remain optimistic and hope that Hacker was simply giving up on his quest to rule Cyberspace, but he knew as well as anyone how persistent Hacker could be.
In the meantime, during this period with a lack of missions to be sent on, Matt was able to spend more time thinking about his situation regarding Inez. He had had his crush on her for so long now, and it had been frustrating keeping his feelings to himself. A large part of him really wanted to come right out and tell her how he felt about her, and that part of him had only grown larger with time. He was seriously considering finally giving in to Jackie and Digit's encouragement and finally confessing his feelings. Besides, what if Hacker WAS planning something big? What if their winning streak eventually ran out? If he didn't do it by then, he might never get the chance to tell Inez he liked her.
Sitting in math class that morning as the bell drew closer, he looked up from his assignment for the day and glanced over at her, totally unaware of her friend's gaze as she worked on her own assignment. He smiled a little, thinking of the numerous times Jackie and Digit had said to just come out with it already, and the times he'd almost persuaded himself to do so. He cared so much about Inez. He had for the longest time. He cared about his other cyber squad members too, of course, but it had always been different with Inez. And one day, the realization hit him like a ton of bricks, and he knew right then and there what it was he felt for her.
And on this day, he decided that was it. All these thoughts persuaded him to finally do what he'd always wanted to do. He was gonna do it. He couldn't wait a day longer.
When the bell rang signaling the period's end, Matt quickly gathered up his supplies and threw them in his bag, then followed his crush out of the classroom. "Hey, Inez, I wanted to ask you something," he spoke.
Inez turned her head to look at him. "Sure, Matt. What is it?"
"Well, I, uh… uh…" Matt began, struggling to bring the words to his lips. Geez, this is hard, he thought. Two seconds ago he had been quite confident. He couldn't allow himself to chicken out again. "I wanted to ask if you… well, if you'd like to go do something tonight?..."
"Tonight?" Inez echoed, considering Matt's offer. "I don't know about tonight. I have a big history project to work on. And Saturday I was planning on going to conduct some research at the library for an English paper I have, and also to go to the movies. Sunday is open though, so we could do it then."
"Great! Works for me!" Matt agreed enthusiastically.
"What were you thinking we could all go do?" Inez asked.
"Huh? 'We all?'" Matt asked, wondering if he'd heard her wrong.
"Yeah - You, me and Jackie," Inez confirmed.
"Oh, well no, actually I meant… just the two of us," Matt corrected self-consciously, scratching behind his neck.
"Wait… you mean just you and me?" Inez asked after a moment of silent confusion.
"Well, yeah," Matt replied with a shrug and a half-smile. "There was something I wanted to talk to you, specifically, about…"
"Oh! Well, I mean, I guess that would be alright," Inez supposed. "What about?"
"I'll tell you on Sunday. I think it'd be best to wait until then. We can get dinner or something. I can come pick you up in the evening in my truck. Sound good?"
"Yeah, sure," Inez agreed with a nod, much more intrigued now.
"Awesome! See you Sunday, then!" Matt agreed, giving her a thumbs-up before taking off down the hall, not wanting to take the chance to make a complete fool of himself by sticking around longer than necessary.
"O-okay! Sure! See you then…" Inez said, waving goodbye and heading off to her own next class. Matt never asked to go do anything without Jackie. Could he possibly want to tell her what she hoped he might? No, no, come on, that would be ridiculous, Inez chided herself, not wanting to let herself believe it could be true. It's probably nothing. Motherboard hasn't called us up in a week now. It's probably about that… Still… a girl can hope, right?
…
Later that school day, Fern was standing at her locker and grabbing her stuff for her next class. She gathered it all together and closed the door, only to find her friend George Lundgren standing behind where the open door had been.
"Augh!" Fern jumped back in surprise, not expecting to see anyone there, but she recovered within moments. "Oh, gosh, George, you scared me," she scolded lightly.
"Hehe, sorry, Fern," George apologized, being unable to hide his amusement at his friend's reaction.
"It's alright. Anyway, what's up?"
"Actually, I wanted to ask about that girl you've been talking to," George answered, beginning to walk down the hall with her.
"Oh, that. Well I-" Fern began, though she was interrupted by a loud clattering of thunder and a flash of lightning from outside. It was a stormy day out that day, and the rain hadn't stopped all morning. It seemed to have only gained strength as they day had progressed. "Ugh, what a storm out there," she remarked. "Anyway, it's not a big deal or anything. She's in my algebra class and we just started talking after she came to get me when I missed the bell."
"Yeah?" George said, beginning to smile.
"Yeah. She's really nice and friendly, and we both like reading and stuff."
"Hey, that's great!" George said brightly. It thrilled him to hear that Fern was making a new friend. He couldn't remember the last time she'd done so. He knew as well as anyone how much more quiet and reserved Fern had become over the years, and he was glad to hear that was maybe beginning to change. "I've seen her around before. What's her name?"
"Becky Botsford," Fern answered. "She's nice to talk to and be around. I've been over to her house a couple times already. I like her a lot, honestly."
"Well that's great, Fern. I'm really glad to hear that," George said sincerely. "I've been hoping something like this would happen for you. This'll be good for you, I'm sure of it… Oh, looks like I get off here," he said, pointing to the door of his next classroom. "See you later, Fern. Let me know how things go!" He then gave her a quick wave before heading inside.
"Thanks, George, see you later," Fern replied, smiling as she continued on to her own class. I'm pretty lucky to at least have George, she thought to herself a tad regretfully. I don't say that to him enough. It was true. The two of them had been friends for a long time, and he had always been there for her, both at her best times... and also at her worst. He was truly a one-of-a-kind friend, even if they didn't talk extremely often outside of school
That was all he was, though. Just a friend. The moose boy had dropped a couple hints in the past, which had led Fern to wonder if he perhaps had a bit of a crush on her. She wasn't completely convinced this was true, though. She could hardly picture anyone having a crush on her in general. And even if it turned out to be true - and she'd be flattered if that was the case - she just didn't feel the same way about him in return, and she would never want to lead him on. If it eventually became more obvious that he liked her, she'd have to break the truth to him. That wasn't going to be fun for her if it ended up happening.
In fact, when she thought about it, Fern realized that she'd never really had a crush on anyone. She would hear other girls talking about all the boys they liked, and she just couldn't relate. Whatever that feeling was that other girls spoke of, all the signs they described that signaled they liked someone… she had never experienced it, as much as she wanted to. But not one guy in school had ever piqued her interest.
Not that it mattered. No one expressed interest in her that way either, so what right did she have to have those feelings for anyone else? No guy had ever walked into her life and swept her off her feet, so why should she get her hopes up that it would eventually happen? She doubted she'd ever find a Mr. Perfect for herself. Again though, like with other things, she supposed it was her own fault. She was probably just picky and had a very specific type that she simply hadn't discovered yet.
Of course, she couldn't deny the fact that she enjoyed the idea of having someone special to be with. Someone to hold her and comfort her, to always be there for her, to spend her life with… and to hear tell her they loved her.
She wasn't optimistic about her chances at a relationship, to say the least. Maybe she could talk about it with Becky the next time she saw her. She was smart. Maybe she'd be able to help her figure this out.
…
At the end of the school day, Matt left his class and was headed towards his locker to put his things away and grab his jacket, when he saw Jackie up ahead of him. "Hey, Jacks! Wait up!" he called out, weaving his way through the thick crowd of teenagers to get to her.
Jackie turned her head upon hearing him and waved. "Hey, Matt!" she called out, waiting in place so he could catch up. "Thank god it's Friday, right?"
"Don't I know it," Matt agreed wholeheartedly. "So hey, I have a bit of news for ya."
"Oh yeah? What's that?" Jackie asked. "It's not about Motherboard or Hacker, is it?"
"No, it's actually about, well… you know…" Matt contested, stopping at his locker with her. "I, well… I finally decided to… tell Inez about-"
It was here that Jackie caught on to Matt's point, and she gasped with delight. "Oh! Matt, is this what I think it is? This is so exciting! I can't believe you're going to finally tell her how you feel!"
"Me neither," Matt replied, grabbing his jacket and zipping it up, closing his locker before they continued on.
"So what're you gonna do, huh? Take her out to dinner?"
"Yeah, something like that. We're gonna go out Sunday night, and I'm gonna try and find a good time to tell her while we're out."
"Well good for you, you ladies' man!" Jackie joked as they reached the door. "Good luck! I won't say a word, I swear. My lips are sealed."
"Thanks, Jacks," Matt said gratefully. "I'll probably need the luck."
…
Several minutes after Matt exited the school, Becky was drawing closer to the door herself. She had had to fly off to fight a battle with one of her adversaries in the middle of the final period, but it had been a relatively stress-free day otherwise. However, at the end of her last class she had gotten into a drawn-out conversation with her English teacher, to the point where she had stayed after the bell. As much as it didn't bother her otherwise, she was forced to cut it short out of fear of missing the bus. So she dismissed herself and made her way towards the exit as quick as she could. She would have been worried about getting drenched more than anything else, but luckily she had thought to bring her umbrella with her that morning.
She stepped into the entryway and stood to the side while she began to get her umbrella open, so as not to be standing in the way of anyone heading outside, especially considering it was Friday and everyone was in a hurry to get home for the weekend. Her hurry in trying to get it open caused her to struggle a bit with it, costing her precious time.
Finally she got it unstuck and was about to get it open, but before she could, she heard a skirmish off to the side of her, further down the hallway, followed by the sound of someone shouting in surprise and falling to the ground. Wanting to see if the person was alright, Becky tucked the umbrella under her arm and went back inside to find none other than Fern, her stuff scattered around her as she sat up and rubbed her arm, which Becky guessed she must have landed on.
"Fern!" Becky called in surprise, quickly making her way over to her and bending down to offer her hand. "Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?"
"Oh, hi, Becky… No, I'm fine…" Fern assured, clearly annoyed with herself for tripping and getting into this mess. She accepted Becky's hand, and the human girl helped her stand back up. "Thank you…"
"No problem! Here, let me help," Becky said, bending back down and grabbing some of Fern's dropped things.
"Thanks, Becky, you don't have to do this…" Fern said gratefully, grabbing stuff herself as well and tucking it back into her bag.
"It's no trouble, really," Becky assured. She noticed Fern's bow was askew and took the liberty to reach up to her head and straighten it. "There! It was a little crooked."
"Oh! Well... thank you again," Fern repeated, flushing a little pink in embarrassment.. Suddenly, she stopped short and glanced out the window before declaring, "We'd better go, before buses leave!"
"Right! We wouldn't want to…" Becky began, before trailing off and seeing the row of buses pulling away. "...miss them…"
Fern grunted in aggravation. "Great. Just great! I act like a klutz, and now I make both of us late!" she berated herself. She sighed and slumped a bit, going from being mad to defeated. "Sorry, Becky…"
"Oh, it's alright, Fern. Don't worry about it," Becky consoled, patting Fern's back. "It was an innocent mistake. I guess we're just gonna have to walk."
"But it's storming really hard out there," Fern pointed out. Both girls looked outside, confirming that the rain and wind was still going strong.
"That's not a problem - I brought my umbrella!" Becky proclaimed proudly, holding it up for Fern to see. "Just let me know where your house is, and we can get you home. Then I can get myself and my umbrella home."
"Well gosh, Becky, that's really nice of you," Fern said thankfully, "but I'm kind of a long walk from school. My house is over a mile away from here."
"Not a problem for me!" Becky replied, shaking her head. "I won't take no for an answer! Let me help you out. I mean… that's what friends are for, right?" she asked with a sincere smile.
Fern was speechless for a moment. Becky was making such a sweet offer, all to keep her from getting overly cold and wet. She honestly didn't think she deserved someone being this nice to her. She chuckled a little bit and returned her smile. "Hehe… yeah, I guess you're right."
"Well then, let's get going!" Becky said, motioning for Fern to follow. She reached the door, got the umbrella open, stepped outside, and held the door for Fern. "Sounds like we've got a ways to go."