Through the warp, the squad traveled through in less than half a second. Scattered about as they braced their rocky fall on a pile of debris, they recovered quickly and looked north and south.
Matt was the first to get up, having no patience to endure the pain that shot through his still injured arm. He briefly squeezed it, and crouched behind a large piece of metal from a ship scanning the area. He saw nothing, but an orange sky with a black sun looking down on them creating dark figures with the irregular shaped canyons. He got up and stood on a smooth, orange rock slate.
"Where are we?" Jackie asked. Matt checked his SWAK watch, hoping it would work and somehow give them a hint to where they were. It shot a beam of light and created a hologram of the entire field.
"Well, it doesn't tell me where we are; but we got a map of where we are." Matt said as the squad gathered around staring at the holographic map.
"Amazing; it's a 3D hologram." Inez said.
"Way more advanced than the old SWAK pak." Matt said. "I wonder..."
Matt pinched the touchscreen of the watch with his index and thumb to zoom out that showed them a flat map of Cyberspace. Slyder looked closer.
"Nothing looks the same. No familiar landmarks or anything. Hacker already change the surface of Cyberspace." Slyder said.
"Well, that sucks." Jackie pouted. Inez closed her eyes to think as Matt thought of why.
"He knows we're here; most likely. So he's going to try and confuse us." Matt said. "So we don't know if where we standing is exactly the control center, per say. But it's likely that he didn't completely changed the surface of everything."
"You think it can be another illusion?" Inez asked.
"I believe so." Matt concluded.
"That can be a good reason..." Slyder thought.
"We'll just have to look around until we knock home base." Jackie said. "Let's split up."
"What?" Inez gave Jackie a warning glare. She smirked.
"It'll be faster, and we can communicate better with these babies." She explained. As well as nudging Inez drawing her point.
"I'm down." Slyder agreed.
"Well let's just make this fair: Jacks and Slyder, Inez and me. Good?" Matt asked. No one bothered objecting.
"Keep a lookout for anything and anyone." Slyder warned. "Remember; friend or foe, we're not suppose to be here."
"Right." Inez said.
The squad dispersed into two obvious groups, slightly doubting that one of the groups will be able to focus on the mission. Matt didn't really care otherwise. As long as he was with Inez.
/
Matt and Inez covered half a cybermile before they reached a landmark. It was like an old military camp with shredded roofs and dusted ships. Matt knelt, scanning the area.
"We should go down there." He said. Inez scoffed.
"First of all, we don't even know what's down there; a trap maybe?" She stated. "Don't really want to fall for one of those so early; like the old cliché."
"Okay, fine, I'll go down there. I want to at least know there was some evidence that things aren't the way they seem and that can lead us a clue to Digit, Hacker, and whoever. Maybe some files or journal entries." Matt said, almost convincingly. But Inez resisted.
"Go ahead." As she took out a pair of binoculars waving Matt off. He went ahead taking his time down the steep, yet very sandy slope. He only hope that he will be able to keep himself from tumbling down the hill and hitting the large rock that awaited his fall.
Nope.
He immediately gained speed and fell forward, shortly hitting the rock.
"Oww." He said weakly regaining strength. Inez winced behind the binoculars. And she remembered the watch.
"You okay Matt?" She checked. He took a minute to recover, but he responded.
"I'm good." He winked. "Thanks for caring."
"Not that I really cared that much, you were being quite shallow. Don't try to act cool with me Matthew." She scolded. Matt chortled.
"Like if." He challenged. "I'm going in, so I'll see you in a minute."
"Alright." Inez hesitated. "But be careful, seriously."
Matt smiled, "Yeah, thanks." As he ended the conversation with a button, he crawled through the dugout near the fence and ease his way into the abandoned campus with the torn flag of a star and crossed swords. Getting up, he made his way towards a dusty ship by a shed and ducked down beside it. Examining it, he believed that it was abandoned a few years ago. Maybe he could get it to work...
Before he could get under the ship to play around with the wires he heard some rattling. He was alert.
"Matt get down!" Inez warned as his watch lit up. He had no intention of being caught so he went prone and looked down from beneath the ship. He saw a pair of feet; large and spiked. As they walked; they left trails of red. But one stop and spoke:
"Why did CYRUS send us out here to scout?" The first one said.
"Because we're making sure there's still nothing here for us to scout. But all there is just a bunch of papers left. We can burn them later for fun. C'mon, let's walk around one more time and leave." Said the second one. They continued walking, and Matt watched as they moved away.
"You hear that Inez?" Matt said to his watch. Inez appeared on his screen.
"Sure, and just in case you decide to try and take them on... I sent you some photos of them in full size." Inez grimaced. "This is serious Matt; just go in and get out. I'll give you a heads-up."
"Alright. Thanks...but in case-" He started.
"Matthew, I swear if something happens while you're there..." Inez threatened. Matt smiled.
"Just checking. I'll see you in a bit." He nodded and ended the convo. Matt took a breath as he rose from behind the ship watching the seven-foot drones walk off. They had several plates of red and black armor; one carrying a flag with an emblem representing Hacker and the other with a double-edged axe; glided black and tipped red. Matt swallowed and went ahead running into the hangar with the shredded yellow roof. All around were crates and plates; some smashed along with tables, ship parts, and broken glass.
"Looks like a hurricane hit here." Matt said out loud.
He scanned around, and went to the table with the documents. Crumpled, ripped, and some faded out ones that Matt try to sort through. He read several headings that were most about people who were missing or captured by Hacker and his goons. He grimaced at the reports. This was probably some military base before Hacker took over.
"Help..." Matt's ears almost perked at the voice. He froze.
Someone else was still here. This wasn't good.
"...help...someone..." Was a small voice. Matt kicked himself for deciding whether he should. But naturally, he always did the right thing. Pulling a hood over his head and with little effort, he lifted a mound of debris and freed a tiny droid. It looks like it was trapped for sometime; dentures in its sides and short circuits. But it got up on its two little legs and stretched their little arms; standing no more than a foot. Matt stood back.
"Thank you. I've been down there for weeks! Stupid scouts have nothing better to do so why not shoot up an old base? I was the only one who made it..." The droid complained. Matt did not respond; trying to play the incognito game.
"What are you doing here? You shouldn't be sneaking around this old place! Hacker doesn't know it but it has top-secret information that he probably wants." Matt was alert of this. So with a gesture he pointed to the desk.
"A few of them are over here if I remember." The droid thought, rubbing it's head and blinking with one eye, "But I don't think I should be giving you those...how I know you don't work for that old crook?"
Matt thought, and he knelt by the droid turning it around. It beeped as it started complaining and demanding Matt why he was messing around with his short circuits. Then it stopped, then reset itself.
"Where am I?" The droid asked. Then it remembered, "Oh! I was going to give you some of these! You're going to need them."
The droid wobbled to the table and reached for six or seven documents for Matt. "These might be useful. It'll probably help you later on...you don't talk much do you?"
Matt remained silent.
"Well, you should get out of here before those big meanies come back!" The droid warned Matt.
Matt nodded as he turned and left, switching on his watch, "Inez I got some documents, how is it out there?"
"For you; you don't need to worry about those drones, Jacks and Slyder set off an alarm and a bunch of drones are heading their way. Get out of there now!" Inez hurried. Matt's heart leaped and quickened, as suddenly he felt a rush of adrenaline as he ran up the hill to find Inez, ready to go and followed beside her.
"Let's hope we're not too late." Matt grimaced.