Chapter 15: The Aftermath

Cheers began erupting from the crowd surrounding Becky as she slowly landed back on the ground. She was swarmed by people all around her, including a handful of news reporters. She barely noticed, however, due to how shocked she was by what she had just seen and done. She had never gone so far as to kill any of her adversaries before, even if it was largely accidental and admittedly justifiable.

She didn't even bother trying to answer anyone's questions. She only robotically shook a few people's hands before taking off for the spot where she was fairly certain her friends had landed, wanting to make sure they were all okay, while Huggy remained clinging to her back. She soon located them at the center of another group of curious onlookers, wondering what a seemingly random group of teenagers could have been doing high up in the air on the roof of a strange ship.

"Alright, alright! Back up everyone! Make room!" Becky called out loudly, spreading her arms out, getting the crowd to back away from them and give them some air, allowing her a better view of them. Digit was nowhere to be found, and the other five were all sitting on the curb. In the center of them was Fern, and they all appeared to be examining one of her arms. The parachute had been removed from her back and was laying open on the sidewalk behind them. Meanwhile, Matt was on his cell phone talking to someone.

"Guys!" Becky called out, stepping over and standing in front of them before kneeling down to their eye level. She wrapped her arms around them as best as she could as Huggy hopped off of her.

Everyone looked up and smiled upon seeing her. "Bec… I mean, WordGirl!" Inez cried while patting her back, catching himself from accidentally revealing her real name in public. "There you are!"

"I'm so glad you all made it out of there!" Becky exclaimed with relief, letting go of them.

She looked towards Fern and noticed how uncomfortable she looked. She wanted to hug and kiss her so badly, but she didn't want to reveal too much about how they could possibly know each other to the surrounding townspeople. "Fern, are you alright? You don't look so hot."

"I hurt my arm while I was up there," Fern replied, wincing.

"We've been looking over it, and we think it might be broken," Inez explained. "It's probably just a hairline fracture from what we can tell, but Matt's calling 911 right now, so they'll try to get an ambulance here soon so she can be taken to get it checked out."

Becky's face fell upon hearing this. Fern getting hurt was one of the last things she had wanted to happen, and she felt awful for her, especially considering the promise she had made to her that she wouldn't get hurt. "Oh my god! Fern, I'm so sorry!" Becky apologized regretfully. "It doesn't hurt too much, does it?"

"I'll be fine, B… WordGirl. Don't worry," Fern assured, although most people could have guessed she was attempting to veil how much pain she was in.

"Was that the booster battery you were grabbing? I saw you hanging onto the side of the ship, and I was really worried."

Fern nodded. "Hacker locked us in the boiler room, but I was able to get out and get to it first while everyone else got out themselves. I was knocked back when the ship took off again, and the force must've been strong enough to break it…"

Becky smiled proudly. "That was really brave of you to do, you know. Not everyone could have handled that."

Fern blushed and looked down at the ground, chuckling a bit. "Thanks, WordGirl. That means a lot coming from you."

"Where's Digit?" she asked quietly.

"He took off into an alley nearby and went back to Cyberspace. He knew he would have been a strange sight and hard for us to explain. We'll talk to him the next chance we get to go back to Cyberspace," Jackie replied in a hushed tone.

Becky nodded. That had been good thinking on his part.

It was then that one of the news reporters caught up to Becky and made his way into the circle. "WordGirl! WordGirl! If I could just have a moment of your time to ask you a few questions."

Becky turned her head around, slightly startled, but quickly recovered. "Oh! Um, yes, of course," she replied, standing back up. "Not too many though, not right now. I have a lot to deal with at the moment."

"Of course, of course," the man replied, holding out a microphone towards her while a cameraman behind him filmed her. "Can you tell us what on earth just happened here a few minutes ago?"

"Well…" Becky began, tapping her chin in thought. She wanted to be able to explain the situation well enough to satisfy people's curiosity, but not divulge too much information that would possibly reveal the existence of Cyberspace, her secret identity, or the connections she shared with Fern and the Cybersquad. "...That was a new villain named Hacker who was trying to attack the city, defeat me and take over the planet. I guess we don't really have to worry about him anymore though…"

"Who are these kids?" he asked, pointing to Matt, Jackie, Inez and Fern. "What were they doing up there on the ship, and do they have any connection to you?"

"Well, sort of," Becky replied, scratching behind her head. "They simply offered to help me fight Hacker. Normally I think it's best if regular citizens stay out of the way during conflicts like these, but they were actually a lot of help. They deserve just as much credit as I do."

"Thank you for your time, WordGirl," the reporter said gratefully. "Please feel free to go do what you have to do."

"Thanks," Becky replied curtly, turning back to her friends. "I'll catch up with you guys later, okay? I'll be at the hospital as soon as I can," she promised quietly, before taking off into the sky to go retrieve Fern's family as well as her own, receiving a large round of applause from everyone as she did so.

"So would you all mind telling me your names?" the reporter asked, turning his attention to the group sitting on the curb.

"My name is Matt."

"Mine's Jackie."

"I'm Inez."

"I'm Fern."

The reporter turned to the last of them, and was taken aback upon getting his first good look at Delete. "What exactly are you, if you don't mind me asking? You don't look like a person."

"I'm a robot, actually," Delete replied. "My name's Delete."

"A robot? Like one of Tobey McCallister's?"

Delete shook his head. "No, I used to work for Hacker. But I switched sides and helped these guys beat him… Say, where did the Wreaker go, anyway?" he asked, turning back towards the kids. "I wasn't paying attention while we were landing."

"I'm not sure, honestly," Jackie replied. "It just disappeared while we had our backs turned. But… WordGirl must have dealt with it somehow."

"I did think I heard something, though," Fern remarked, continuing to gently feel her arm. "It sounded like a really big crash, over towards the outside of town."

Delete went stiff upon hearing this. He glanced in the direction Inez described, the others following suit, and they all spotted the rising cloud of thick smoke in the distance. Delete immediately shot up and began running towards it. "I have to go. I'll be back later," he promised hastily before weaving through the crowd and out of sight.

The others glanced at each other in shock, realizing what must have happened. "Well, no point worrying about that now, I guess," Matt spoke up. "For now let's just worry about-"

"Fern!" someone called from nearby, cutting Matt off. They all turned their heads to see George resting his bike against a nearby building before quickly stepping towards them.

"George!" Fern cried, relieved to see her friend.

"What the heck is going on?! I saw you on the news up on that ship! What were you doing up there?!"

Fern sighed. "It's a long story, George. I promise I'll explain it another time though."

George knelt down and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Well I'm glad to see you're okay, at least. You ARE okay, right?"

"Yeah, I just - ow - think I broke my arm a little," she replied, feeling another small wave of pain.

George gritted his teeth. "Ouch! I'm really sorry, Fern. I can't say I'm too surprised though. What you were doing looked really dangerous!"

"Well sometimes being brave means doing dangerous things," Jackie interjected. "This girl is the reason the ship went down! She's a hero!"

"Wait, wait, wait - Fern, YOU took down the ship?!" George asked, taken by surprise.

"Well, I… I mean, I-" Fern stuttered.

"You bet she did!" Matt said, answering for her. "She took out the battery that was giving that ship its power! It would have been a lot harder for WordGirl to take down otherwise!"

"Wow! Fern, that's amazing!" George cried with astonishment. "It sounds like you totally saved the day!"

Before Fern could offer a rebuttal, a space in the crowd cleared away for an ambulance that had just arrived.

"There they are," Matt remarked. "Come on, let's get you to the hospital," he said, helping Fern up along with Jackie and Inez and bringing her towards the paramedics that had just stepped outside of the vehicle.

George wanted to come with, but he knew he couldn't leave his bike there. "I'll see you there later, Fern! Feel better!" he called out.

"Thanks, George - I'll see you soon," Fern replied gratefully as she and the others stepped into the back of the ambulance, glad to be out of the crowd of people, and being able to truly relax a bit for the first time in nearly a day.

The first thing Becky did was retrieve Fern's parents and drop them off at the hospital, explaining the situation to them without going too far into details. They had been quite shocked to hear of what their daughter had gotten caught up in, but they were proud of her nonetheless.

Following this, she retrieved her own family and left them at the front door. They thanked her for helping them out, and she flew around the house and up into her room, changing into her normal clothes and collapsing onto her bed with Huggy.

"Wow… What a morning, huh?" Becky asked, staring up at her ceiling.

Huggy squeaked and nodded in reply.

"I've never done anything so drastic in my life, Huggy… I mean, it's not that I specifically, literally wanted to kill him… I didn't do a bad thing, did I?"

Huggy smiled sympathetically and patted her shoulder, going on a rant that would have been indecipherable to anyone but her.

"Yeah, I guess you're right…" Becky replied after he finished, sitting back up and rubbing her temples. "He may have kind of had it coming to him. I still feel bad though, for taking a life, even if the person with that life was a big, evil jerk…" She stood up, grabbed a bag of candy sitting on her desk and threw it to the monkey. "Thanks for your help today anyway. Go ahead and eat it all if you want. You deserve it. Just don't get sick. I'm going to the hospital to see Fern."

Huggy squeaked in thanks, beginning to down the bag as Becky chuckled and walked out, closing the door behind her.

Hearing her family talking in the living room, she ran down the stairs and approached them. "Guys!" she greeted them, opening her arms. "There you are!"

"Becky!" her parents and brother called back, hugging her.

"We're so glad to see you're alright!" her mom said with relief. "WordGirl told us there was an attack on the city and that we were potential targets, what with me being the city's district attorney and all. She told us you would be fine and that she told you to stay where you were, but we were still worried!"

"When did you get back?" her dad asked curiously.

"Just a little bit before you did," Becky replied, fabricating an excuse in her mind. "After WordGirl told me to stay put, later we turned on the news and saw what was happening downtown. You wouldn't believe it! WordGirl was battling some guy in a huge ship who was shooting lasers everywhere!"

"Really?!" TJ asked, seemingly startled at first until he pumped his fist. "That sounds super awesome!"

"Well, it was kind of scary," Becky replied. "And you'll never believe this - While the TV was on, it showed Fern was up there on the ship! She was helping WordGirl fight, and so were a few other kids from school!"

"Oh my! That sounds awfully dangerous," her mom remarked nervously.

"But brave too! Sounds like she's much more daring than I would have thought!" her dad added.

"Your friend helped WordGirl fight a bad guy?!" TJ exclaimed. "Whoa! I'm gonna have to talk to her later!"

"It might be a bit before you can, actually," Becky remarked, slumping a bit. "It looks like she injured herself in the process and broke her arm. I'm going down to the hospital to see her."

"Well that's not good! Do you need a ride, sweetie? Or one of us could go with you while you drive. Good time to get a bit more practice in for that license!" her dad suggested.

"I think I'll just take the bus," Becky replied. "But thanks, guys. I'll be back soon!" she promised, heading for the door.

"Take your time, honey! Just keep your phone on so we can call you!" her mom advised.

"Yeah! And tell your friend we say hello and hope she gets better!"

"I will!" Becky agreed, closing the door behind her and beginning to run down to the nearest bus station.

It took her a couple bus transfers and over and hour to do so, but Becky finally managed to arrive at the hospital. Bursting through the front doors, she found Matt, Jackie, and Inez further inside in one of the waiting rooms. "Hey, everyone!" she called, waving to the little group.

The three other kids looked up, taking a few moments for Becky's presence to register. "Oh! Hey, Becky!" Inez greeted. "We were wondering when you'd get here."

"Yeah," Matt spoke up. "We almost didn't recognize you for a second. We haven't seen you without your… um… your other outfit on since last night."

"Well, I had to get my family home first, like I said. I also dropped Fern's parents off here before you guys got here. Are they still here?"

"They're in her room seeing her now," Jackie answered.

"And her friend George?"

"He already came and went. We were mostly just here waiting for you. Turns out it was a hairline fracture after all, like we guessed. It shouldn't take too long to heal."

Becky sighed with relief and collapsed into a chair across from them. "Thank god…" she said, wiping her forehead. "I was hoping it was nothing serious."

Inez giggled. "It's sweet how much you care about her, you know. You two are going to make a cute couple."

Becky blushed and hid her face. "Oh geez… It's not like we're totally official yet. We haven't vocally agreed to be a couple, we've just admitted we like each other."

"You might as well have," Matt said, pulling out his yo-yo and messing with it. "You did that, you kissed, you've hugged a bunch of times."

"I guess…" Becky supposed, rubbing her arm nervously.

"You don't have to worry, Becky," Jackie assured. "She'll definitely say yes when you ask."

"Well, thanks… Say, where's Delete?" Becky asked, not seeing him around anywhere.

"He actually took off for where the Wreaker wrecked…" Matt answered, frowning sadly a bit.

"Oh… Poor guy… I can't imagine what he must be feeling right now."

Inez nodded. "I agree. I don't see any possible way Hacker or Buzz could have survived that. If I had to guess, I'd say they're probably long gone."

Silence hung between them all for a minute as they reflected on the weight of the situation. "You know, in a weird way I'm almost going to miss that guy," Matt remarked with a slightly amused chuckle.

"There was never a dull moment, that's for sure," Jackie concurred, twiddling her thumbs in her lap. "You think Delete will be okay?"

Inez wiped her glasses and replied, "It'll take time, I'm sure. He and Buzz were close, even if they bickered pretty often. But I'm sure he'll recover eventually. He does have us now, after all. He seems to be talking to Fern quite a bit already, especially."

Matt chuckled, scratching his head. "Imagine becoming friends with someone who kidnapped you, only to let you go again."

"That would definitely be insane," Jackie agreed.

"You think Fern'll be okay too?" Becky asked worriedly. "Going through something as horrible as a kidnapping must be hard on you."

"It'll probably affect her a little," Inez guessed, "but again, I'm sure she'll be okay. I think we can all agree that she's stronger than she looks."

"If I had had any doubt about that before, it would definitely be gone now," Becky agreed, and she meant it wholeheartedly. She had known all along that Fern had it in her to accomplish something as amazing as this.

At that moment, a bubbly nurse approached them and glanced around. "Becky?" she asked, eyeing each of the girls. "Is that any of your names?"

"Mine," Becky said, standing up. "Can I help you?"

"Fern Walters asked to see you if you were here."

Becky perked up and smiled, appreciating knowing Fern had specifically wanted to see her. "Great! Lead the way!"

As Becky left, Inez leaned over the arm of her chair, bringing her face closer to Matt's. "So, speaking of cute couples, Matt, I think we have something we need to discuss, huh?"

Matt blushed and laughed self-consciously. "Yeah, I guess we do…"

Jackie shook her head with amusement and smirked. This would be fun to watch.

Down the hall, Becky was led to one of many doors. "She's right in there," the nurse advised. "She's really looking forward to seeing you."

Becky smiled and nodded. "Thank you."

The nurse nodded and left, leaving Becky alone to turn the knob and step inside.