Matt opened his eyes, a wave of emotions passing through his mind as he saw Inez look indifferent towards him.
Did I...really kiss her?
"Matt?" She asked. He stared at her, trying to figure out if...
Nah.
"Yeah? I, kinda lost my trace of thought...what were you saying?" Matt asked. I was only dreaming.
"I didn't say anything." Inez stated. "I'm waiting on you to tell me." And Matt slightly remembered his trace his thought.
"If I can tell you this, I can tell you anything." Matt said, with a feeling of regret.
"Go ahead." Inez insisted. He looked straight into hers; her brown chocolate eyes glazed with anxiousness. He couldn't say it, not now, so he made up something else.
"I just want you to know you're one of the closest friends ever." Matt weakly smiled. Inez rolled her eyes.
"Is that it?" She said.
"Yep." He lied.
"That's why we rode all the way here? For you to tell me that?" Inez raised a brow. Of course she didn't believe him.
"No, partly because I forgot what I really wanted to say." Not. "And that it's a really nice park I wanted to show you. Just so you know Jackie and Slyder don't get jealous." Matt smirked.
Inez got up, a small smile hidden on her face as she brushed her jeans. "Well, if we're done here, let's head over to Slyder's house?"
"Yep." Matt said with a slight bitter taste on his tongue that immediately unsettled his stomach and made his chest hurt like someone was brushing his lungs with steel wool. He once again failed to tell her the truth. What a coward he heard himself say.
/
They arrived at Slyder's house; the door open for them with Jackie on the other side. Matt thought she was too comfortable in Slyder's house with her dress shirt two buttons loose and enjoying takeout.
"About time, where you guys been?" Jackie turned as she lead the way to Slyder. Inez walked ahead of Matt.
"Matt had to take care of some business...it wasn't that long. How's it going?" Inez asked.
"Slyder wants to show Matt what he found about that counterpart of his. Think it will help you learn better about your...twin." Jackie took a forkful of takeout and savored it. They opened the door, finding a studious Slyder surrounded with equipment and wires working at his DIY laptop; made from smuggled Cyberspace technology and his old gaming laptop. Glancing back and forth between papers and constantly typing away; he barely noticed the three walk in. Jackie sat beside him.
"Slyder." She put a hand on his exposed shoulder. He froze, stopping everything that was processing through his brain and relaxed.
"Glad you two finally came." He grinned, getting up to put on a burgundy hood over his shirt. "We can finally study on this guy and go through the portal soon. Feel free to take some of takeout Jackie and I ordered."
"Thanks" Matt said as he gladly took a box of Chinese rice and orange chicken. The cybersquad sat around Slyder as he gathered the documents.
"Where should I start?" He asked as he held a steel folder with Max electronically engraved in the lower right-hand corner.
"Well,...from the beginning." Inez said as Matt reached for the confidential file. He took it from Slyder, as he relaxed, dropping the pencil from his ear.
"Max with no last name. He's a 20.56 Cyberyear-old android; basically four Earth years but with a mind of a 24-year old. He was created by an ex-ally of Hackers called Dr. Terabyte . He used to help design Hacker's ideas of a new world interface for Cyberspace, but he found Hacker too obnoxious and...well, stupid. He knew very little of us while we used to kick butt in there, but he eventually came across some old files pertaining us and-" Slyder started.
"At least he got the obnoxious-idiot part right." Jackie rolled her eyes chewing on orange chicken.
"...He started messing around and created basically a clone of Matt. He was extremely lucky and bored because he found a piece of Matt's DNA somewhere around where the control center would be and he was able to create the single almost-perfect clone. Identical yet not really."
"Is he on our side?" Inez asked.
"Uhh...not quite. He would refuse to ally with anyone; not even us. But he created the smartest clone, Max, to be able to do every that Matt could and couldn't do with perfection but with a slight shift of persona to be more aggressive and snark to mask the level of his intelligence and similarities. Max is one of the most intelligent androids made in Cyberspace." Slyder typed and turned his laptop around, "Look."
Matt leaned closer to see the very realistic model of Max. The x-rays of his body structure was exactly like he imagined, along with a command long added. They were all locked-in codes by Dr. Terabyte.
"Do you think Dr. Terabyte was one of the few professors along with Hacker that use to work with Motherboard? Before there was...Hacker?" Matt asked.
"Most likely, but there's almost little to no info on the other professors that work with Motherboard but generally Dr. Marbles and Hacker. But maybe we can find something about him if I can get a journal log or some form of document by him." Slyder said.
"I wouldn't understand why he-or Max, would help us. If Dr. Terabyte is not a foe, is he somewhat a friend?" Inez asked.
"I have no idea." Slyder shook his head. Matt looked down and went through the pictures of Matt being trained and the studied shown by professors that tested his endurance and intelligence like a test rat. One picture that came across Matt made it seem like Max was staring deep into him, trying to warn him before it was too late with bitter harshness. He was plugged everywhere on his body with thousands of wires before then next picture showed his eyes closed and the room exploding into light; and then destroyed.
"Well we can confront him and ask him to spill what he knows." Jackie paced. "Not quite."
"Why not? He obviously knows a lot what's been going on in Cyberspace, plus he could probably help us find Digit." Matt said as he sat the folder aside.
"He won't be willing. He's very dangerous Matt." Slyder warned. "We should step back from him for now and focus on the prime objective of going into Cyberspace for."
"Finding clues on the whereabouts of Digit, and a secret hideout." Inez said. "Specifically coordinates to the Bin."
"We already found those." Jackie said.
"What about a ship?" Matt asked.
"If my garage is still intact, my ship should still be there..." Slyder thought.
"Then we should be ready to go." Jackie said rubbing her hands together. Inez stopped.
"I think we should take extra precautions for when we come across anything there. After all, we're not wanted there." Inez suggested. "Who should we look out for?"
"For now, all civilians..." Jackie said.
"Hacker of course...and anyone else that look suspicious." Slyder said.
"Max. He can travel back and forth like us. He probably draw attention to us and try to expose us." Matt grimaced. "Is that it?"
"Yeah..." Inez thought. "We should open the portal now."
"Right on it." Slyder started quickly typing; probably running a program through a proxy. "Matt, turn on your watch."
Matt turned on his watch, and four numbers came up.
"8125." Matt said, knowing immediately that it was the password to open the portal. The room began to dim, all except Slyder's laptop, that started to glow like Matt's laptop back home. The light grew brighter, and he realize it was the portal opening. The four teenagers knew that they were about to embark a dangerous mission and many more to come as they entered a world that they were once welcome to come and go as please; now was a dark world that want them erased from existence.