Dr. Marbles placed a pillow beneath the ginger boy's head.
Matt was silent.
His eyes were focused on his feet.
He didn't want to look at anyone.
Dr. Marbles sat back, kneeling by the couch.
"We're here for you, Matthew."
Matt crossed his arms, resting them on his stomach as he lay on his back.
"I don't want you to be here. I don't even want to be here. I just want to go home. Please let me go home!"
His voice trembled as if he were going to cry.
Motherboard stuttered, "W-well... If that is really what you want..."
Matt nodded eagerly.
Finally, I'm getting somewhere!
Dr. Marbles held up his hand.
"Stop!"
What? Why?!
Matt held back a scowl as Dr. Marbles continued to speak.
"You will still be injured when you return to the Real World! You must make sure you have a story to tell your parents as to how you obtained these injuries."
Matt flinched.
And much to his dismay, both his caretakers seemed to notice.
Dr. Marbles tilted his head.
"Is something wrong with that, Mathew?"
Matt hesitated then shook his head.
"N-... nothing is wrong with that. You're right. I need to-..."
Matt's lower lip quivered.
He could feel tears building up in his eyes again.
Dr. Marbles placed a hand on his shoulder.
Matt sat up, wiping his eyes.
He shook his head at nothing in particular, then whispered to himself, "I can't do this..."
Motherboard raised one of her digital eyebrows, "Do what?"
Matt moved his hands to grip his biceps.
"I can't go home... I can't do it."
"But isn't that what you wanted?"
Curse Dr. Marbles and his inquisitive nature.
No... It's not.
Matt gulped.
He took a deep breath.
"I... My..."
He paused, unable to stop himself from looking at his friends.
They stared at him, more curious and concerned than ever.
Matt loosened his grip on himself.
"My mother died last night."
And if that weren't bad enough...
"My dad says it's my fault."
Inez took out her Squakpad.
She glanced at Jackie who was in the midst of one of her freakouts.
"What if we never catch Hacker?! What if he clones the Sunisphere?! I don't know what he's going to do with clones of it! But it can't be good!"
Inez blinked, then shifted her eyes to Digit, "Hey, Dige."
The cy-boird adjusted his attention to accomadate both her and Jackie.
"What is it?"
"What's an 'Interal Map Of CyberSpace'? Hacker said it when he was goating to us."
Digit hovered over to her, landing next to her feet.
"That's my map! Well, technically it's not my map. It's Motherboard's!"
Jackie had tuned in at this point, "Who cares?! It's just a map!"
Digit jumped, "It's not just any map! The Internal Map Of Cyberspace can allow whoever's holding the map to move Cybersites where ever they want in Cyberspace!"
Inez threw her hand up to her mouth.
Jackie clenched her fists, "Then if Hacker's got it-..."
Inez finished her sentence, "Then he can have full control over Cyberspace! This is not good. Not good at all!"
A hand reached up, tugging on a sheet of paper.
Noises came from the right.
A shadow disappear with the hand.
The paper with them...