Chapter 8: Let's Make a Deal

Becky sat waiting patiently for Fern to arrive at the library so they could begin studying together. She wished her crush would show up already though. While this of course was primarily because she enjoyed having Fern around, she also couldn't force herself concentrate on her work at the moment, and having her there would have helped distract her from the swarm of confused thoughts clouding her mind.

She couldn't stop thinking about that ship she had seen earlier, and she felt guilty for not investigating it further. I'm such an idiot, she thought, mentally chiding herself. I'm WordGirl, for Pete's sake. It's probably just another new villain. There's no reason I couldn't have gone in there and confronted him.

However, as much as she hated to admit it, those robots had spooked her quite a bit. It was strange because she had fought Tobey and his own robots countless times before, and very rarely had anything about them truly unsettled her. What really felt like the nail in the coffin for her was how intelligent they had seemed… relatively speaking, of course. If they were any other normal people, no doubt they would have been a couple of dim bulbs. But they still appeared to talk and think like real people in a way Tobey's robots had never been able to. And if they were, indeed, of comparable intelligence to people, she knew that whoever created them must have been an absolute genius… and she honestly wasn't sure she wanted to meet them. Thankfully for her, most of her rivals lacked much in the way of brains. But if someone truly, honest-to-god brilliant came along to battle her, she had reason to worry.

Becky groaned in frustration and let her head flop onto the table into her folded arms. "I haven't even seen this guy yet and he's already in my head," she bemoaned out loud, which was responded to with a small chorus of shushing from other library patrons further towards the front of the building. "Oh, uh, sorry…" she apologized, much more quietly this time.

She allowed her thoughts to circle back to Fern once more. Checking the clock on the wall, she realized her friend was over half an hour late, which was much later than she had said she would be. Becky was beginning to worry about her. I'll try calling her, she thought, pulling out her cell phone, just to see if anything is keeping her. Before dialing the number, she looked up one more time in front of her to make certain Fern hadn't arrived, quietly glancing around. The lack of loud noise, however, allowed her to pick up on what sounded like a few hushed voices nearby. Catching her attention, she looked around again to see where it could be coming from, and she realized the noise appeared to be originating from inside an open doorway next to the chair where she was sitting, leading into a small hallway that turned to the left.

Becky had been to the library many times, of course, and she knew that the rooms in that hallway were mostly used for storage. This seemed like unusual and somewhat suspicious activity to her, as she had never seen or heard more than one person back there at a time.

Deciding to go investigate, she got up from her spot and made sure no one was looking before stepping into the hallway. Once she was tucked away from view, she very quietly said, "Word up!," transforming into her superhero self in case she were to confront some real trouble. Slowly moving forward, she listened intently to find out what room the talking was originating from, and it was now that she began to pick up on some of the words. It sounded like two girls and one boy speaking, and they seemed to be in a rather panicked state, despite keeping their voices down.

"So this is where that statue lead to all along!"

"Ugh! I can't believe we didn't figure that out!"

"Ooooooh, this is not good! This is not good at all!"

"Well what are we waiting for?! We need to get back to Cyberspace and figure this out, NOW!"

Cyberspace?, Becky questioned to herself. What kind of place is that? She had now reached the doorway and, peaking into the room as inconspicuously as possible, found what looked to be three regular teenagers like herself, who all appeared to be close to her age. Once she got a closer look, she realized she recognized all of them from school. She didn't share any classes with them, but she was certain she had seen them in passing. All she knew was that they all must have been good friends, because they were always around each other. In fact, it occurred to her that two of them looked like the kids she and Fern had seen when they'd gone out to eat last weekend.

"Alright, alright, let's not press the panic button yet," the boy said. "We can figure this out once we get there. If there's a time where it won't be good to panic, it's now."

One of the girls took a deep breath and replied, "Yeah, okay, you're right..."

"I'll call Motherboard again," the other, shorter girl said, pulling out what looked to Becky to be a really weird cell phone. She pressed a button on it and looked down at its little screen. It was too far away for Becky to see what was displayed on it, but the girl said as she looked at it, as if she was talking to it, "Motherboard? Come in, Motherboard! We need a portal!"

What Becky saw next was almost indescribable. In front of the three kids a large, swirling purple vortex appeared out of thin air. As if that hadn't been shocking enough for the silent observer around the corner, all three jumped straight into it without a second thought. Lastly, and easily the most shocking part for Becky, all of them failed to appear out of the other side.

Awestruck with silence, Becky cautiously approached the rotating disc of light. She hadn't intended to go into it, but it seemed that she had simply gotten a bit too close because, when she was within a couple feet of it, she found herself being unexpectedly sucked into it. She panicked wildly and tried to step back, but its pull was far too strong even for her, and within moments she was spiraling through a tunnel of darkness. For a split second, after the dim light of the library disappeared, the poor girl genuinely believed she was in mortal danger, but her worry largely came to an end when she saw another source of light growing bigger in front of her, this one being much brighter. The previous events then happened in reverse as Becky was forcefully tossed out of the tunnel and into the brightness.

…

Hacker, Buzz and Delete watched the entire event unfold before their eyes. Hacker had had the bright idea that morning to send a small remote-controlled drone of his own design into town, mounted with a camera. During the phone conversation he had recorded, WordGirl mentioned she was planning to meet her friend at the library at 3:00, so he had flown it down there while Buzz and Delete were off running their errands, so to speak. Sure enough, WordGirl had shown up right on time, and he'd been able to follow her inside.

His henchmen had returned by this point, and they were all quite surprised to see the Cybersquad hurriedly enter the building and pass by her into a back room, which they had seen after sending the camera into the hall after them. Hacker chuckled to himself as he realized the three kids were likely talking about him. He figured Motherboard must have discovered the purpose of the statue somehow, and informed them all of the situation. It was apparent how frightened they were, and Hacker couldn't get enough of it.

They soon realized Becky had heard and followed the kids, seeing her step quietly into the hall, transform into WordGirl, and discover the Cybersquad talking amongst themselves. This is going even better than I expected, Hacker thought to himself. Now they're all in one place and I might not have to explain my plan multiple times. But easily the most surprising part was when they summoned a portal and hopped through it before Becky approached it, getting sucked in herself.

The two robots gasped. "Boss! Boss! Did you see that?!" Buzz exclaimed.

"WordGirl got sucked into the portal!" Delete piped up. "She's gonna end up in Cyberspace with them!"

"Yes, it's perfect, isn't it?" Hacker asked delightedly, looking back and forth between them. "It looks as though we'll be able to move on to the next part of my plan much sooner than expected. Buzz, Delete, get the camera set up and quickly check up on our little guest. We're going to call Control Central and have a nice, friendly chat with them…"

…

After being tossed from the portal, Becky landed in a heap on the floor with a loud thump, and she was unaware of the small chorus of shrieks of surprise around her as she took the time to recover from her unexpected tumble. "Rrgh…" she grunted, sitting up and rubbing her head. When she looked up, she was taken by surprise by the three kids she had seen before, all looking down at her with bewildered looks on their faces. Not knowing what could possibly be said at a moment like this, Becky resorted to a nervous chuckle. "Hehehe… Hi…"

"WordGirl?!" the taller girl cried in surprise.

"Um, I, uh… Oh, right! Yep, that's me!" Becky responded, standing up straight now, her hands at her hips. She had already forgotten whether she was Becky or WordGirl at the moment.

"What the heck are you doing here?!" the boy asked in obvious confusion.

"I'm not really sure…" Becky replied honestly, rubbing her arm nervously. "I was in the library and heard voices coming from the back, so I followed them and saw you three… and then you opened up that, well... thing that I guess was a portal. I went to get a closer look at it and… here I am."

"Oh geez! I can't believe we were so careless!" the taller girl exclaimed, slapping her own forehead. "Anyone could have walked in on us!"

"No kidding! I'm just glad it was you, WordGirl," the boy said with a bit of relief, "and not somebody else."

"Whobody else was what, Earthlies?" asked a shrill voice from behind them. Becky darted her head around to see the strangest bird she had ever seen in her life. It appeared to be flying by spinning its tail, and was wearing a little red cap on its head. On top of that, it was purple and had a rather large beak.

"Digit!" the three kids said excitedly in unison as he flew towards them.

"So I'm guessing Motherboard told ya about… uh…" Digit stopped abruptly as he spotted the caped, costumed girl standing sheepishly with who were assumedly his friends, and he asked cautiously, "Um, Eartlies… Who's this?..."

"It's okay, Digit, she's from our world, and she's cool," the boy said, dulling any worries Digit may have had. "This is WordGirl, and she's an alien superhero! She came here accidentally."

"I don't know… You're sure about this, Matty?" Digit asked, clearly a little unconvinced.

"Yes, Digit, I'm sure," the boy promised. "She's one of the good guys."

"Well… alright then…" Digit relented with a sigh. He reached out his wing to Becky and introduced himself. "Digit LeBoid, at your service."

"Well, um.. Thank you…" Becky replied. This day was only getting stranger and stranger for her. "So… where am I?" she asked, looking around and really noticing the room she was standing in for the first time. It had a glass dome over it and they appeared to be in space, or at least somewhere where it was nighttime. In front of her was a large screen, which was off at the moment.

The bespectacled girl glanced around at the other two kids and Digit. "I guess there's no point hiding it from her, huh?... You're in Cyberspace," she said, addressing WordGirl while adjusting her glasses. "We've been coming here for a long time to help out with all sorts of problems people have here."

"How on earth did you find this place?" Becky asked with confusion. "I mean, I know I'm from a far off place too, but at least Earth and Lexicon are both in the same dimension."

"Motherboard came to us," the boy said, stepping closer. "She's the protector of this place, and she contacted us in the real world after she was infected with a virus. It took a long time, but we were eventually able to help cure her."

"Oh… Well that's good," Becky replied, at a loss for anything worthwhile to say. "Sorry, this is just a lot to take in…"

"We get it. We felt the same way when we first came here," the boy replied, reaching out his hand to her. "My name's Matt."

Becky managed a tired smile and gave him her own hand as well. "Thank you, Matt. I'm sure you must have."

"I'm Jackie," the taller girl greeted her, also shaking her hand.

"And I'm Inez," the shorter girl added, being the last to take her hand.

"Well it's nice to meet all of you."

"More like nice to meet YOU," Jackie corrected, pointing at Becky's chest. "You're WordGirl!"

"Heck yeah! This is really pretty awesome!" Matt said enthusiastically. "Getting to meet a real life superhero!"

Becky giggled, a bit embarrassed by the attention, but enjoying it nonetheless. "Well golly, thanks," she gushed, unable to keep from snorting a little bit, which she tried desperately to cover up with more laughter. "But it sounds like you guys do some pretty impressive stuff too."

"Well it's not like we can take credit for much of anything," Inez admitted with a shrug. "We just use the technology here, we didn't invent it."

"Now let's not be too modest, Nezzie," Matt interrupted. "We all know how many times we've kicked Hacker's butt around here."

Inez laughed. "Yeah, I guess that's true… and don't call me Nezzie!" she snapped.

"Hacker?" Becky asked, puzzled. "Odd name. Who's he?"

"Well, to put it lightly, he's just the nastiest, most evil, most hateful borg in all of Cyberspace," Digit explained bluntly with a touch of malice.

"He's one of the main reasons we were brought here," Jackie added. "He's the one that infected Motherboard in the first place, and we've had to constantly keep him from trying to take over Cyberspace. Way too many close calls, let me tell you."

"Well… it's not just Cyberspace anymore, Jacks…" Inez interrupted with a regretful tone.

"What do you mean?" Becky asked, Inez's statement causing her to grow apprehensive.

"We just got news recently that Hacker found a way into the real world," Matt answered.

Becky felt her heart stop dead at that moment. Could this have had anything to do with what she had seen earlier? "Come again?" she asked, hoping she had heard wrong.

"Yeah, he used to work for Motherboard before he went bad, and he apparently must've remembered how her portals from here to the real world work, because he managed to recreate one, and now he's probably out there in the real world somewhere!" Digit explained with fright.

Becky thought for a moment before asking, "Um… by any chance… is his ship big and black, with green windows?"

Her four new acquaintances all went wide-eyed at her question. None of them had been expecting WordGirl to be familiar with anything about Hacker. "Y-yeah! It is!" Inez finally spoke up in reply.

"Does he have a couple of robots, one short and round and one tall and skinny?"

"Yeah!" Matt confirmed with amazement.

"Oh my god… I saw his ship, then! I saw it in the woods near my, um.. i-in the woods!" Becky said, catching herself almost revealing her secret spaceship hideout.

"Oh no! He IS already there!" Jackie wailed in despair, collapsing to her knees. "We have to stop him! If we don't stop him he'll take over both Cyberspace AND the real world! We're doomed! DOOMED!"

"JACKIE! Get a grip!" Matt shouted, lifting Jackie back up under her arms and shaking her. "I told you before, this is no time to panic! Breathe!"

Jackie followed Matt's advice and took several deep breaths before finally returning to her feet. "Thanks, Matt… I needed that."

"Eh, don't mention it," Matt shrugged off. He had long been used to having to handle Jackie when she got panicky.

After all this, Becky cleared her throat and went on. "Well it isn't good, I'll give you that. But if he's already there, why hasn't he done anything yet? Wouldn't he have tried to attack already? What could he possibly be waiting for?"

Just then, sounds began emanating from the large screen behind them. Motherboard had appeared on screen. Becky was understandably surprised, but she was beginning to get used to the strangeness of this whole situation. "Is that Motherboard?" she asked to no one in particular.

"You got it," Jackie answered before stepping forward. "Hey, Mother B. Thanks for getting us here. What's up?"

"It seems we have an incoming call from The Hacker," Motherboard informed, causing everyone around Becky to frown. "Shall I answer it?"

"Ugh, alright… Let's see what he wants…" Inez relented, not looking forward to talking to their egocentric enemy, as no one else was.

Motherboard disappeared off the screen, and within seconds, her face was replaced with that of Hacker's. From the moment Becky saw him, her gut instinct told her she didn't like him. From the deplorable grin on his sickly green face, to his jutting chin, to his cold stare - She knew within seconds that he was bad news through and through.

"Good afternoon, kiddies…" he greeted, twiddling his fingers as he sat in his large recharging chair.

"Hacker," Digit spat out in greeting, while WordGirl and the rest of the Cybersquad remained coldly silent.

"And hello to you specifically, WordGirl."

"So you know of me already, huh?" Becky asked curtly.

"Indeed I do. Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Hacker said with a fake smile.

"I wish I could say the same, Hacker. These guys have told me all about you."

"Oh good, so there'll be no need to delve into my backstory for you."

"We're heartbroken, Hacker," Inez spoke up with heavy sarcasm.

"My my, awfully snappy today aren't we, tiny tot?" Hacker asked condescendingly before turning his attention back to Becky. "But anyway, as I was saying, there's certainly no need for you to do so either. I know all about you, WordGirl. Or should I say… Becky."

Becky was stunned absolutely silent by the last part of Hacker's statement. It took her brain several moments to wrap itself around the fact that Hacker had discovered her secret identity. She never could have seen this coming in a million years. Looking back, she supposed he must have been spying on her ever since he came to the real world. It made sense he would have learned of her existence quite quickly. "W-what?..." she asked in barely a whisper, feeling herself beginning to tremble. Everyone around her, meanwhile, were shocked as well and growing even more worried than they had been before about their chances, as impossible as that may have seemed to them before.

"That's right, WordGirl," Hacker said snidely, quite proud of himself for being so underhanded. "I did a little snooping around and found out all about your little double life."

"Oh my god… This… this can't be happening…" Becky fretted, her eyes beginning to water. She had never felt so vulnerable before. While Doctor Two Brains had discovered her secret identity once a long time ago, she had been able to solve the issue with relative ease, as he had had a memory erasing device with him at the time. This time, there was no such device in sight.

Behind her, the Cybersquad exchanged sad glances. They had never seen WordGirl so scared before in their lives. "You know, now that I think about it, I remember seeing a girl around school named Becky that looks a lot like her," she said in a hushed tone. "I guess that must've been her all along."

"Yeah, I guess so…" Matt replied, placing a hand on Becky's shoulder to try and comfort her a bit. "Don't worry, Becky. We won't tell a soul," he promised.

Becky glanced back and replied shakily, "Th-thanks, Matt…"

"Nor will I, WordGirl," Hacker added, continuing on. "My end goal is not to reveal your secret identity to anyone, as much as I'd love to see what would happen."

Becky grew a bit more calm hearing this, but also more confused. "But… but why, then? Why go to the effort to find out who I am in the first place?"

Hacker's smile grew wider and much more sinister as he went on. "Funny you should ask, WordGirl, because I wanted to make a little bargain with you. You see, finding out your secret identity was only necessary to obtain something TRULY useful to barter with… Or rather, someONE."

The little bit of calmness Becky had felt was completely zapped away once more. Her heart was pounding like it never had before from the sheer icy dread she felt in her chest. "Oh… oh please god, no…" she said in distress, nearly on the brink of sobbing.

On screen, Hacker glanced to the side and said to his henchman off screen, "Buzz, turn the camera so WordGirl can see her… prize… should she accept our offer." The camera began turning in response, and when it stopped, the screen now displayed Fern. She had been forced back into a corner of the cockpit of the Wreaker, and had been tied up and gagged. She was very clearly frightened out of her mind, and when she met eyes with Becky, she began crying out through the gag, squirming around in attempt to try and get free. It was useless though, as she had been tied too tight and she was miles away from anyone who could help her.

"FERN!" Becky howled as she saw this unfold. Tears were now streaming like little rivers down her face. This was the last straw. This was too much for her to take. It would have been bad enough if it was any innocent person in that situation, but Hacker had gone out of his way to find Fern and kidnap her - Fern, the girl Becky loved, who she had already grown to care quite deeply about and felt a strong need to protect and keep safe. And Hacker had ripped Fern away from that safety and protection when Becky wasn't looking.

Becky was absolutely livid now. She unconsciously found herself floating in the air, closer to the screen as she began railing at Hacker, who had stepped back into frame, closer to Fern, as she cowered in the corner away from him. "YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIS, HACKER! I WON'T LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS!"

Hacker laughed maniacally, completely numb to Becky's heated fury, terror, and anguish. "Hahaha! It's a bit late for that, missy. And that's THE Hacker to you. Now, if we can get down to business here, I think you could make a good guess as to what it is that I want: complete and utter surrender. And if I don't get it, I can personally guarantee that you'll never see your precious little Fern ever again. Isn't that right, sweetie?" he asked, looking down to meet Fern's eyes as he lifted her chin up to face him. She began shaking uncontrollably, trying to turn her head so she wouldn't have to look at her captor's horrible, leering face.

This drove Becky to grow even more seething, fueling her white-hot rage. "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER! YOU'RE SICK! YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY REVOLTING! LEAVE HER ALONE, YOU FUCKING PSYCHO!"

The other kids were taken aback. They had never heard WordGirl swear before, although it was perfectly justifiable in this instance.

Hacker looked back to the camera and shook his head. "Now now, WordGirl, simmer down… What a potty mouth... You know it can all come to an end right now, provided you admit defeat and agree to my terms." He chuckled once more, completely eating up Becky's reaction. "Oh! And I also suggest to you, Earth brats and cyber turkey: I'd like the new encryptor chip as well."

Now it was the Cybersquad's turn to be outraged upon hearing the new demand. "WHAT?!" they all exclaimed, distressed by the thought of leaving Motherboard vulnerable to yet another virus.

"Never, Hacker!" Digit exclaimed angrily, flying closer to the screen, next to Becky. "We've worked too long and too hard to get Motherboard cured!"

Becky turned towards Digit, still visibly trembling. "But Digit, what about Fern?!" she cried through choked, angry sobs.

"Yes, birdbrain - What about WordGirl's little girlfriend, hmm?" Hacker mocked insidiously, reaching down and pinching Fern's cheek and shaking it, obviously just doing it to make her suffer a little bit more. Hearing the girl's pained whines through her gag signaled he had done the job nicely.

"I SAID TO LEAVE HER ALONE!" Becky shrieked vehemently, wanting so desperately to reach right through the screen and knock Hacker into oblivion. She had never been so angry with any adversary of hers before. Today he had quickly managed to climb to the top of her list of worst enemies.

"And as I said, surrender and hand over the chip, and all of this will end." He paused for a moment to let everything that had happened sink in. "You have twenty-four hours to decide. And remember…" He cut off momentarily, reaching down and lifting up Fern by her shirt collar, without bothering to try and be at all gentle with her. "...her life hangs in the balance." With that, the call was ended, and the screen was left with nothing but static.

There was a long, thick, painful silence hanging in the air for seemingly forever after that. Everyone was at a loss for words. Not only had Hacker invaded the real world, but he had kidnapped Becky's friend and budding love interest, and managed to find a painfully easy way to get leverage on her. The atmosphere in the room was darker than it had ever been before.

The quiet was only finally broken when Matt piped up from down below. "...So THAT'S what he was waiting for…"