Max was left with a mission to guard Slyder's garage until the gang returned tomorrow. That was easy. But Max wasn't so obliged to do it. He would have to sit outside for 12 hours; keeping watch for any of Hacker's goons. But there was almost nothing he couldn't handle.
Almost.
During those twelve excruciating hours, he stared at the bird named Digit that was keeping himself in a coma for a steady recovery. Max did a scan on him, obtaining memories with the earthlings from when they were kids. No wonder they couldn't let go of this old bird.
Max also check the recovery percentage Digit was at, since he put himself in a coma; 21%. This was no good. For five years Digit has been in the coma, and he could barely complete a system recovery on himself; being outdated. There was no way he was waking up without an upgrade and a boost to his core.
Max didn't care though. It was that boy Slyder's job to help fix them. His duty was to assist them whatever way. Not to get personal in their little nostalgic memories; recalling Slyder's retort about his parents.
He looked outside and saw the man that hasn't seen him for two days. With a quick movement he slipped out the backdoor and went around to the front to meet a relaxed Dr. Alvin, smoking from an electric cigarette.
"What's been happening, son?" Dr. Alvin said as he blew smoke white air. Max watched the white smoke carefully as his eyes returned to the doctor.
"I've retrieved the earthlings' prized friend. His name, is Digit." Max told Dr. Alvin carefully. The doctor dropped his recently lit cig and stared at Max with wider, cobalt eyes.
"Digit? The bird Digit?" Dr. Alvin said barely. Memories filled back as he clutched his head. He tried to refrain from spontaneously combusting from the amount of information he was obtaining from memories. Dr. Alvin wasn't quite human anymore; he couldn't do certain things as human. He shook himself and stared at the android Max.
"I suppose you already know every little thing about him?" Dr. Alvin emphasized; retrieved his electric cig and continued to smoke it, calming down.
"Of course. The earth boy Slyder is planning to upgrade his entire system and armor; due to the damages and the dangerously slow recovery. That means-" Max lead on.
"He will be able to explain everything that happened. Because the only other being Dr. Marbles told about Hacker's great scheme is him." Dr. Alvin stared out at the blue horizon. He smirked, "Great work Maximus, assuming that this robot suceeds on doing this great task." Hinting for Max's help.
Max bowed, apparently getting the message he was trying to get across, "Thank you sir."
"I also assume you are continuing with your plan. Last resort, connection severing, blah blah blah." Dr. Alvin pointed.
"After I try to gain their full trust now, they won't know what hit them." Max said darkly. "Gullible fools."
"Good boy." Dr. Alvin stood up as he finished his cig. "I'll be continuing with my own projects and get rid of Hacker's little goons one by one. You do your end of the job, and we'll rid of Hacker for good. And you know what that means, don't you?"
Max smirked; his face tighten, "Taking over Earth and Cyberspace, for ourselves."
/
Back on Earth, the three teenagers all returned to Slyder's room where the laptop stopped whirling shortly after arriving back. Two of them groaned as they suffered a more elongated effect from the time-lapse. As proceeded: Slyder presented knocked out halfway on the bed, with Jackie struggling to the kitchen to grab whatever she could eat, and Inez suffering from nausea.
Why does it get worse the longer we stay there?
There had to be an explanation for that; because it never did that to them before when they were only kids.
She could imagine the worse if Matt had tagged along; he would be suffering heavy migraines and other similar things to this morning probably. She sighed as she reminded herself to pay a visit to his house to check on him.
It felt like days since Inez had seen him; but she missed him a lot. She wanted to tell Matt that.
Getting up, she took steps to the door, telling Jackie she was heading out. Jackie was too busy munching away to utter a goodbye, but Inez got the hint. She headed down the street, feeling as if the sidewalk was speeding up her walking tempo.
Thoughts ran in her head. Oddly, they switched back and forth between Matt and Max disturbingly. More of them were memories of Matt and how he made her smile, where others of Max confused and upset Inez. She didn't want to see the copycat interfering with her feelings. She was more aware that she could trip up and accidentally call one by the other's name and felt sick.
Inez didn't want to start thinking that now, so she stopped herself.
Getting the spare key from under a flowerpot on the porch of Matt's house, she let herself in. The house was dark; curtains remained closed as little to no sunlight made their way in any room. Inez did the favor of opening the curtains a bit. Before forgetting, she locked the door and glanced up at the stairs leading to Matt's room. She hoped he was feeling a bit better.
She leaned again the door, pressing her ear against it. She heard nothing really, so she assumed he was asleep. Opening the door, she saw the room , and everything was fixed back up. But something was off; Matt wasn't anywhere here in this room. And for some reason, the hairs stood up at the end of her neck as she froze.
Someone approached her, from behind. Before Inez could react, an arm snaked around her waist as her head was held back by a small flat object. She didn't want to risk it with anything held to her neck. Holding her breath and not moving, she prayed it would be okay...just maybe.
"Jeez Inez, you sneaked in so quietly." Matt said as he released Inez from his grasps. He dropped the flat wood block and smirked at Inez. She gaped at him.
"You knew it was me!" Inez shoved Matt as he held his arms up in defeat.
"Maybe I did. Gotta be quicker than that." He winked. She sighed, catching a few breaths before smiling. Staring up at the energetic boy; he looked better than earlier. It was almost a dream. It made her at ease.
"Matt...I wish you had came...you missed so much." Inez tried to explain to him. "There's...a lot to take in-"
"I know." He said as he opened his curtains. "I've done some digging myself, looking at the clips. So much to tell you..."
Inez sat on the bed, Indian-style. She stared up at the boy who carried his laptop with delicacy. But not just a boy; a man. Inez couldn't help but be able to see every bit of manliness in Matt that made her slightly intimidated, yet heated. She tightly shut her eyes at the slight fear of the way he held her down with a play knife to her neck.
"Look,...Matt, before we get into anything else, I need to get this off my chest." Inez stared to play with her bracelet. She could feel Matt's eyes on her as he placed the laptop aside.
"So do I." Matt said seriously. His eyes looked directly at Inez's, not a second wasted to blink.
"Look." They both started. Hesitantly, they blushed at deciding who to go first. But this lead to more conflicting.
"I just think you should go first." Inez suggested.
"No, lady's first, always." Matt dodged around it.
"Honestly Matt, be a man about it and just say it." Inez started to get irritated.
"Why me? Why are you avoiding it?" Matt frowned.
"Obviously we both know so why does it matter?" Inez's eyes burned with a verge of tears. Please Matt, don't make this any harder.
Matt groaned in frustration, "Fine! I'll say it. Because, I can't do this. I can't pretend to be your best friend when I look at you and there's all these feelings that smother me with some...warmth. I can't stand when you're not around me or, you're angered at me. I couldn't stand being in constant day, everyday , looking at you and dreaming of the impossible. I couldn't stand holding back the urge to say 'I like you.', more than just a friend."
When he breathed, Inez stopped breathing. The room was dead with silence, the awkwardness between the two soon diminishing. Inez blinked.
"You..." She tried to say, "Like, me?"
Matt knelt beside her, staring right at her with excited blue eyes, almost growling. "Of course damn it. I liked you ever since the 8th grade. I would had a fit if Slyder ever even tried putting a hand near you. But then when you neglected me...you broke my heart. Now you're here next to me and I just want to hold you because I'm never letting you go."
Inez smiled, her eyes shining of tears that were once anger and frustration, were now heartfelt and happy. She was overjoyed. There wasn't any perfect day to tell her that he liked you; more as the moment that is made perfect by telling her this. It soothed Inez as she got up and hugged Matt.
Unable to respond for a second, Matt slowly hugged Inez, tightly holding her back with one hand and her waist with an arm. He too was relieved and felt a bursting flame of love open his heart even more. He had never been this happy in such a long time. And it was worth it for her.
As the two pulled apart slightly, Inez stared at the red-haired man. "I need you Matt; I missed you so much."
Matt pressed his forehead against hers, breathing on her cheek without leaving her eyes, "I missed you too, Inez."
As he swiftly dipped his head lower to kiss the girl with the glasses, Matt could said his bowl of happiness was overflowing with Inez now officially in his life like this. Not as just a friend, but his girlfriend. His.
And he wasn't going to let her go, ever.