Matt woke up in his bed in cold sweat; his heart racing and his head pounding. He was clutching something in his hand; the bag Doc gave him before he pushed him into the portal. He felt a stake strike in his chest. It was real alright.
He couldn't save Doc,...it was futile. And he knew that Cyberspace was in deep trouble so it seems Hacker is ruling it. He sat up and glanced at his clock; it was 6:30 AM. He stretched as he sat up and turned the bag upside-down.
Out the bag was four cyan tech-watches designed to look like square watches. They were the prototype SWKAK watches Doc was working on the last time he saw. It was suppose to be more "modernized" and reliable. He was too anxious to be amazed at the new piece of technology Doc created for them as he stared at the floppy disk. It was named "For Slyder".
He knew exactly why Doc name the floppy disk after Slyder; because he had other info on the recent case and he had exactly what Slyder wanted. Matt knew now that the C-squad was back in action. And it's going to be the biggest mission ever.
/
Matt headed downstairs after he showered and changed into a green hoody. He examined the small bruise on his cheek as he bandaged it. His arm still ached; but it was okay to move it .He snagged a biscuit and some apple juice and left the house at 7AM. Outside, his bike was newly repaired at his doorstep. Astonished, he took the note taped on the handlebar.
You can thank me later ;) ! Oh, and Slyder. He helped I guess. Jackie wrote. Yes, he would thank the two of them later for fixing his beloved bike. He hopped on and headed to Inez's house about seven blocks down; where he saw his three best-friends waiting for him. They lit up when Matt halted by them.
"Thanks for the fix-up you two." Matt thanked Slyder and Jackie. He glanced at Inez, nearly couldn't help grinning of how great she looked.
"I brought my laptop, so we should all meet in the abandoned hallway on the third floor at lunch." Slyder said.
"Inez...doesn't have lunch with us?" Matt said slowly.
"I was at the library yesterday. Other than that, I have every class with you." She rolled her eyes bumping him as she walked ahead with pride. Matt and Slyder exchanged glances.
"Wow, that's going to be a pain." Matt joked, grinning. Inez huffed as she held her head high as Jackie walked beside her. Matt completely forgotten about the bag he was going to distribute among the C-squad, and what he saw last night. Doc would have wanted to get the message to them ASAP. He decided to wait until it was just them later at lunch.
"Matt, you need to talk to Inez." Slyder smirked.
"What? We did." Matt rolled his eyes as he slowly pedalled on his toes.
"Matt." Slyder emphasized. He groaned.
"Dude, not yet." Matt growled as he pedalled a bit further ahead.
"You're gonna get friendzoned if you keep this up."
"How so?"
"Just tell her. And it won't become harder than it already is. Jackie's been gossiping about the two of you for forever." Slyder snicked. Matt blushed.
"Sure...maybe, later." Matt mutter as the Cybersquad headed to school.
/
They temporarily dispersed to retrieve their materials for the classes when Matt felt that chill down his spine as someone shoved pass him. His anger flared again. He realized it was the bullies from yesterday. They sneered at them.
"We weren't finished yet." The leader growled. Now Matt could recall his name.
Max.
It was an ironic name who was, his friends would say, Matt's evil-twin. Or some called Matt the geeky identical of Max. Though Matt never had a particular grudge against Max and his goons, he had told them off pretty bad one day when he wasn't in the best mood and also gave Max a good reason to target him senior year. He was an few inches taller but more muscular with the same reddish hair and blue eyes and strangely similar face structure. Thought it was sure they were not related. He wore the school jacket and hard-denim with athletic shoes. His voice was...darker though. No one never mistake the two's names before.
"You better wish you were. You're a coward." Matt bit back as he could feel crowds walking closer and standing around the two boys as they waited for a fight to break out.
Matt would had a chance of beating Max; having extra time to take jiu-jitsu for self-defense against Max's wrestling abilities. He knew this from actually seeing a varsity match with Max taking down a beefy kid his size with no sweat. Matt was in no athletic shape; but he was fit.
Max sneered as he puffed himself up, his arm muscles flexing as he got ready to throw the first punch. Matt backed off as he saw teachers call out and dart towards the dispering crowd. Behind him were his friends, who didn't really notice Matt was caught in the middle. Max quickly walked to his friends and they shot menacing glanced at him as they headed upstairs.
"What's going on down here?" Mr. Alvin called out to Matt. He grimaced as he glanced at Max and then at Matt.
"Nothing sir." Matt said steely walking past him as he headed to Statistics.
/
Max slumped in the seat beside Inez, turning his chair around so the four of them shared a single table.
"We heard some racket in the hallway. Is everything okay?" She asked.
"Yeah, just a little mix up with Max." He scoffed. He glanced back looking for Mr. Ewing; the only teacher that despised him. He soon walked in placing his briefcase on the desk and taking out teaching materials.
"Alright, since it's only the second day of school and I know a few of you still feel like you're on summer break, we'll start of with an easy bell ringer of three problems plus extra credit. For the last one, it's a stats problem, but I want to see how you attempt at it." Mr. Ewing said as he passed out half-sheets of paper. He glanced down at Matt with a careless expression. He continued to pass the papers and back at his desk.
"Doesn't seem like he likes you Matt." Jackie smirked.
"He'll come to his senses." Matt comply snarkily.
"Or'll have to earn his respect again." Inez grimaced.
"Sure."
The squad aced through the easy assignment...well, almost everyone. Matt struggled with the new stats problem and happened to figure it out at the last second before Mr. Ewing snatched up his paper. He grinned in triumph.
"Times up! Now, who'll like to show the class the work they did for the extra-credit problem?" Mr. Ewing glanced at the dead room. The squad stood silent in their quad glancing about doing other things. Matt however, was the odd-on out the bunch.
"Matthew?" Mr. Ewing gestured to the dry-erase board hinting that he didn't have a choice. Without any hurry, Matt rose from his seat, staring at the same problem he had trouble on.
"No prob'." As Matt reached inside his jacket and took out a fading-blue-starred gold yo-yo.