Cyberchase Jealousy
Cyberchase Jealousy.
Chapter 8: The Trail Goes On.
It took a while to get Slider out of the tower. When the locked door wouldn't budge, they had to send Digit to the King's palace to get the key, which occupied some of their time left to find Jackie in time for the Radopolis Grand Prix.
By the time, they were back in the orange Cybercoupe and heading for the cybersite of Gollywood, there was only less than an hour left until the Radopolis Grand Prix started, so they hoped she was still in Gollywood.
Slider was driving the orange Cybercoupe, muttering words unknown to the gang, who was staring at him, perplexed. Jake was chatting with Inez, who seemed to be interested in their conversation, probably doing anything to refuse looking at Slider's expression. Digit was staring out the window, while Matt sat quietly, refusing to look at Slider too.
Matt was about to ask Slider to stop talking to himself, when his skwak pad rang. He sighed, wondering who could possibly be calling him at the very moment.
He pulled out his skwak pad from inside his right jeans pocket and answered it. "Hello?" There was a reply. "Hey, Shari, what's up?"
"Hi, Matthew, I'm at the Radopolis Grand Prix," Shari replied, sensing an irritated Matt. "Is something wrong?"
"Well, to make a long story short," Matt began to explain, as Shari listened attentively on the other end of the line. "Let's just say someone made a mistake, Jackie ran away, and we've got to find her."
Shari seemed to get the idea. "Simple enough but please hurry. Half of the bleachers in the Radopolis Racing Arena are going for your team, and since you're not here yet, their getting kind of impatient."
"Kind of?" Matt asked.
"You don't want to know," Shari said.
Matt feared for the worst. "Okay, then," as Slider informed them they were landing in Gollywood. "I got to go, Shari."
"Alright, Matthew," Shari answered, as the crowd in the background were shouting for the Radopolis Racing Radsters to show up. "But please hurry back."
Matt hung up and slipped his skwak pad back into his right jeans pocket. Along with Digit, Jake, Inez, and Slider, he braced himself for landing.
After parking their orange Cybercoupe in the Gollywood Mall parking lot, they continued their search for Jackie. They were walking down a street in downtown Gollywood, finding nothing but tourists, paparazzi, and to go with it all – celebrities.
Matt was yo-yoing with his yellow yo-yo with a blue star on it, as they walked. "Man, twenty-five minutes already and there's still no sign of her."
Jake yawned, tired of walking. "Maybe we should just go to the Radopolis Grand Prix and look for her after."
"Fine, you dudes can go," Slider snarled, scanning their surroundings for any sign of Jackie. "I'm not giving up yet. The clue she left at Happily Ever After said she was going to be here. Someone must have seen her."
Just as the others were pondering the question on whether they should wait until after the Radopolis Grand Prix to find Jackie, a black, long-stretched limousine pulled up by the curb where they were standing.
Digit, Jake, Matt, Slider, and Inez turned to face the back window of the limousine. The window rolled down, revealing Mary Pat's pretty face. Her twin sister was sitting next to her, looking out the window as well.
"Jackie was totally right," Mary Pat said. "You guys are trying to find her."
"What do you mean?" Matt asked, looking at her. "Have you seen Jackie?"
Mary Pat gestured for Matt to back up, and he obeyed. Once he did, Mary Pat opened the limousine door. Inside, Britney was gesturing for them to hop in with them.
"Come on in," Britney said. "We'll tell you what we, like, know."
Matt nodded, and climbed in. Digit, Jake, and Slider followed, sitting on the long comfortable seat across from Mary Pat and Britney. Inez hopped in last, sitting in between the female twins. Mary Pat closed the limousine door, once everyone was seated.
Britney stood up slightly and knocked on the glass window behind where Digit, Jake, Matt, and Slider were sitting. The male limousine driver turned around to look at her.
"Bailey," she ordered a bit loudly, so he could hear her behind the glass window. She stopped knocking. "Step on it."
While Bailey nodded and drove off, Britney sat down once again, looking at the guys and Inez, who were looking at her and Mary Pat, anxious for answers to Jackie's newest location.
Mary Pat began the explanation. "Jackie met up with us at one of Gollywood's totally amazing juice bars not too long ago."
Slider was listening attentively. "Did she tell you anything?"
"She said she's leaving all those clues behind to see if you guys would, like, go after her," Britney explained, filing her nails with her orange nail file. "She put together these little tests, mainly to find out if you still totally care about her."
"Of course I do," Slider stated. "Inez overheard Matt and my conversation wrong yesterday. She thought I was going to break up with her, because she thought I said she was too clingy and the relationship wasn't working out, when I really meant Inez."
Inez moaned. "Please, Slider, let's focus on one person at a time."
Britney sighed with relief. "Like, that makes more sense."
Mary Pat nodded in agreement. "Totally, I can understand now that Jackie wouldn't break up with Slider for any reason."
"I know," Britney agreed, batting her eyelashes at Slider. "He's totally cute."
Slider turned a bit red, rubbing the back of his neck. "Anyway, let's get back to Jackie. Did she tell you anything about where she was going?"
Mary Pat shrugged her shoulders, reaching into her right blue jean miniskirt pocket. "She totally didn't tell us a lot." She pulled out the folded up piece of paper Jackie gave her earlier, and passed it over to Slider. "She only left us this note."
"We didn't read it," Britney added, as Slider unfolded the paper. "She just told us to give this to you if we, like, find you in Gollywood."
"That's why we were driving around Gollywood in our limousine," Mary Pat explained, running her fingers on her right hand through her long green hair. "We were looking for you guys."
Slider finished reading the note. "Hey, take a look at what the note says."
As everyone paid attention to Slider, he began to read the note.
Hey, there, I just left Gollywood
I disappeared as you'd probably say
Yes, I'm now in a Cybersite
Where it's like Halloween every day.
"Where it's like Halloween every day?" Matt repeated, thinking. "Which Cybersite is that?"
Inez put her detective skills to work. "It has to be Castleblanca."
"Are you sure, Inez?" Jake asked. "How do you know?"
"It has to be," Inez answered. "It has a talking jack-o-lantern cuckoo clock in town, everyone looks like their dressed in Halloween costumes even though they're not, and we treat or treat there every year."
Slider made his decision. "Then, Castleblanca it is." He turned to Mary Pat and Britney. "Do you mind if you give us a quick ride back to the Gollywood Mall? We parked our orange Cybercoupe there."
Britney nodded, standing up slightly again to knock on the glass window behind Slider to get the driver's attention. "One quick ride coming up."
Jake smiled, reaching into his green plaid shorts pockets. "Oh, and one more thing."
"Like, what's that?" Mary Pat asked, curiously.
Jake pulled out a notepad and pen from his shorts pockets, and handed it over to Mary Pat, who looked down at them, with Britney. "Can I have your autograph?"
After pulling Jake away from Mary Pat and Britney, they sat him back in the back seat of the orange Cybercoupe once they reached the Gollywood Mall parking lot, and took off. The female twins would ride their private Cybercoupe and meet them at the Radopolis Grand Prix.
There was only half an hour left until the Radopolis Grand Prix began. Slider was hoping Castleblanca would be the last place Jackie would be hiding in, or else they wouldn't be able to find her in time.
Slider approached the Halloween-themed cybersite of Castleblanca. "How are we going to find Jackie in Castleblanca?"
"Slider is right, dudes and dudette," Jake agreed. "She could be hiding anywhere on the cybersite."
It was at that moment Inez remembered the second mission she, Digit, Matt, and Jackie had been on. Dr. Marbles was kidnapped by Hacker and using their knowledge of surveys, they were able to make a good guess about what castle Hacker was in, during their mission in Castleblanca.
She figured that if they created surveys and asking everyone around Castleblanca if they've seen Jackie, they would probably have a good chance of finding her.
"Let's do what we did on our second mission," Inez suggested, looking at Digit and Matt. "It worked finding Hacker, and it just might work this time to find Jackie."
Digit grinned, opening his chest door, and pulling out two maps of Castleblanca, as well as a black and red markers. "Let's try it."
"Okay, I'll trust you with that idea," Slider said, giving her a chance. "But how do we do it?"
"First, we split into two groups," Inez began to explain, as Jake and Slider listened to what she had to say. "Then, we'll go around Castleblanca, asking people if they seen Jackie, describing her as much as we can. If they saw her, we'll mark it down on the maps with marker dots. Later, we'll compare our results."
Matt nodded. "But we have to describe her carefully. Remember, she was not wearing her regular clothes, but the cheerleading outfit she designed."
Slider agreed. "I know exactly how to describe her." Pause. "Excuse me, have you seen a girl wearing a yellow sleeveless midriff, frilly red miniskirt, white knee-high socks, and red shoes, with her black hair in a lower wavy ponytail, kept in place with a yellow scrunchy?"
Inez smiled, as they landed in Castleblanca. "Brilliant, Slider. Now, let's find Jackie."
They spent fifteen minutes, describing Jackie to as many people as possible. Digit, Jake, and Slider went as one group, while Matt and Inez went as another. Most of the people they asked said they've seen her, and marked the locations on the map.
They surveyed almost twenty people, when Inez asked Matt, "Matt, do you think we'll find Jackie?"
"I hope so," Matt answered, surveying a walking jack-o-lantern. "Excuse me, have you seen a girl wearing a yellow sleeveless midriff, frilly red miniskirt, white knee-high socks, and red shoes, with her black hair in a lower wavy ponytail, kept in place with a yellow scrunchy?"
Inez sighed. "Gosh, if I didn't eavesdrop yesterday, we wouldn't have this problem."
After marking down another location on their map, he placed his right hand on Inez's left shoulder. "Don't worry Inez, we'll find her."
"I know," Inez said, looking down at her red shoes. "I still fell terrible because it was my fault that she's hiding from us."
Matt rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, there's something I want to tell you."
Inez looked up at him. "What is it?"
Just before Matt could reply, Digit, Jake, and Slider came running up to them, panting hard. Like Matt and Inez's map, theirs was covered in many marker dots as well.
"I think we surveyed enough people," Slider said, after catching his breath.
"As Jackie would say," Inez replied. "Now, let's get organized."
It wasn't long until they were sitting at a table inside Eerie Inn, home of Castleblanca's annual Harvest Moon Ball. They figured it was a quiet and peaceful place to organize their data, without any interruptions.
They were sitting around a round table. Matt was on the left side of Slider, who was on Digit's left side, who was on Jake's left side, who was on Inez's left side, who was on Matt's left side. Their Castleblanca maps were placed flat on the table, where they could easily read them.
"Okay, we've gotten lots of results," Jake stated. "Now, what?"
Inez pulled off the cap of a black marker. "Let's see. There's got to be a large cluster of dots of our maps. That will give us a good guess about where Jackie is hiding. She's most likely to be hiding in a castle."
Slider examined his map, pointing at a spot with a lot of marker dots in a cluster. "Here's a large one." Inez circled the cluster. "It's on the corner of Sweaty Street and Gooey Avenue."
Matt circled another large cluster of marker dots on the same place on his map. "It's the same thing on this map as well."
Slider stood up right away. "Jackie must be there. Let's go!"
Inez stood up with Digit, Jake, and Matt. "To the corner of Sweaty Street and Gooey Avenue!"
It took them a few minutes to get to the corner of Sweaty Street and Gooey Avenue. They approached the large blue castle, hiding in some bushes in the front yard, just in case Jackie was outside, pacing. They didn't want to pop up so suddenly, or else she would run away.
It was dark in the area. Even though the sun was in the center of the sky, brightening the entire cybersite, there were many large evergreen trees surrounding the castle, making it seem very dark. In the dark cluster of trees, there was a bright light emitting from a window on the tallest tower of the castle.
Matt pointed at the light-filled tower window. "Look, someone must be in there."
"It's probably Jackie," Slider said, springing from the bushes. "Let's go!"
"Halt!" a voice ordered.
With Digit, Jake, Matt, and Inez looking at floor-level and Slider looking down, they found none other than the short, dark blue Cyborg, who was always seen at almost every castle in Castleblanca. He always preferred everything short, from something in size, to explanations.
Matt groaned. "You're at this castle too!?"
"You got a problem with that!?" he questioned. "Anyway, no one passes without my permission."
"But we have to go into that castle," Slider protested, gesturing to the castle Jackie was possibly hiding in.
The short blue borg crossed his arms. "Why?"
"It's a long story," Inez replied.
"Make it short," he said, scowling. "I like short."
Slider decided to tell it all, in a shorter version, of course. "Well, one of my so-called friends eavesdropped on Matt and my conversation yesterday, thinking I was going to break up with my girlfriend, when I was really going to call off the friendship between that friend and I. My girlfriend believed the rumour and ran away. After following some clues, we tracked her to your castle right here."
The short blue borg rubbed his chin with his right hand. "Well, you guys always tell the truth. So, I'll believe you." He gestured towards the large blue castle. "Go on."
Slider mumbled a "thanks" to the short blue borg and sprinted for the castle. Digit, Jake, Matt, and Inez hopped out of the bushes, and hurried after Slider.
Chapter 8 up! I'm planning out about two more chapters, I think. I love writing this story!
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Your Cartoon/Anime Fanfiction Writing Extraordinaire,
TeenQueen661.