AN: When a chapter starts with an italicized section that reads like a journal entry or an italicized section period, the aforementioned section takes place in "current time" or the same time as the prologue. The majority of each chapter and of this story will be flashbacks that lead up to the prologue. Hope this clears up any confusion!

It's finally happened, Hacker has snapped. He's gone completely nuts, rampaging through Cyberspace, taking over sites left and right. Nothing seems to be able to stop him, not even Motherboard.

Motherboard.

I can see her from my spot as I write this. Man, she's not doing well at all. Right now she's trying to help Doctor Marbles find a way out of here, but by the way her eyes keep slipping closed its obvious she won't last much longer.

-Matt

The boy sighed as he closed the book and lowered his pencil. They were trapped, Motherboard was dying, and Hacker had almost total control. He would blame someone, except no one had seen it coming. It wasn't anybody's fault, and perhaps that was why it was so hard to face.

He glanced at Motherboard again, wincing as guilt washed over him. If it wasn't anyone's fault then why did he feel so horrible?

"Cybersquad!" Motherboard called, interrupting the trio's movie.

They paused it, grabbing Jackie's skwak.

"Mother B! What's wrong?" Jackie asked.

"Hack attack! Cybersite Eureeka! Must go now!"

She disappeared, a portal taking her place. The three hurriedly jumped in, ready to deal with Hacker as always. They didn't know they had just jumped right into a trap.

...

Hacker laughed maniacally as he ended his transmission. He's finally done it! He'd found a way to distract the earth brats long enough for him to dismantle Motherboard. Who knew a little system hacking would be so easy? By building an image projector he was able to hack the skwakpads' signal, sending them a message disguised as Motherboard. With the aid of a voice transmorpher they'd fallen for his ruse, leaving him ample time to complete his mission.

"Buzz! Delete! Get in here!" he yelled impatiently, already piloting toward Control Central.

"Y-yeah, Boss?" Buzz asked, entering the bridge with Delete.

"Listen up, you despicable duncebuckets! When I dock onto Control Central in less than fifteen minutes the alarms will sound. When this occurs, you will take this remote," he held it up, "and press this button," he pointed to it, "which will disable all alarms and defense systems. Do you understand?"

"Y-yeah, Boss. Push that button when we hear the alarm, got it."

"You'd better, you dim-witted bucket of bolts! Otherwise I'll dismantle you once circuit at a time!"

He threw them the remote, and both robots slunk into a corner, as far away from him as they could get. They'd noticed a change in the borg recently, and they didn't like it. He was a little more ruthless, a tad more calculated. His temper was constantly at breaking point, and they'd learned the hard way to obey commands correctly the first time. So when the Wreaker attached to the landing bay at Control Central and the alarms blared, Buzz made sure to press the button.

The alarms stopped immediately, as had the lockdown that had been initiated upon Hacker's arrival. The power-hungry cyborg strode down the ramp of the Wreaker and through the halls of Control Central, grinning evilly at what he was about to do.

"Oof!" Matt, Jackie, and Inez grunted as they landed in a heap on Cybersite Eureeka.

"Your really think we'd have this whole landing thing down by now," Jackie muttered as she brushed herself off.

"Uh guys, this doesn't look like Professor Archimedes' lab," Inez said.

They looked around and sure enough they were smack dab in the middle of the desert.

"I know Motherboard glitches sometimes, but this is a bad miss even for her," Matt said.

"We'll see better start walking if we want to get to the lab in time to stop Hacker," Inez said, choosing a random direction and beginning to walk.

Shrugging, with no better ideas, Matt and Jackie followed her, hoping they weren't too late.

"Motherboard, what's going on?!" Digit yelled as the security system shut off.

"Unauthorized shut down. Security breech. Attempting to restart," Motherboard responded.

"Don't bother!" Hacker snapped as he entered the control room.

"Yoikes!" Digit yelped, flying into the air.

"Hacker! You're not welcome here!" Motherboard snapped.

"Welcome or not, I'm here, permanently," he growled, stepping closer.

"That's what you think, Hacker!" Digit yelled, landing in front of the console.

"Oh please, as if you could stop me you pathetic pest!" He pulled out a laser gun. "Out of my way!"

Hacker fired, hitting the keyboard. Motherboard's screen fuzzed before refocusing, and for the first time the cyber ruler held a hint of fear in her eyes.

"Motherboard!" Digit yelled, cold dread settling in his stomach.

"Digit, get help! Call the Cybersquad!"

"Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you," Hacker said, lazily aiming at another spot on the console. "They won't be able to help you now."

"What d'ya mean?" Digit asked, subtly attempting to reach the button that would call the kids.

He jumped back as a laser skimmed his feather tips.

"No, no, Digit. The fun's just beginning." He sighed, to his dismay already bored with the whole ordeal, which wasn't as invigorating as it should have been. "Since you won't be around much longer I suppose there's no harm in telling you. With the help of my marvelous invention, I sent your precious kiddies on a wild goose chase. They don't suspect a thing, and they won't until I'm long gone. Say goodbye, Motherboard."

His next shot hit the monitor, shattering it and raining sparks down on the floor.

"Motherboard!" Digit cried. "You pompous piece of cybertrash! You killed her!" he shrieked.

He flew at Hacker's face, but wasn't expecting him to swing the gun. The butt hit him square in the head, knocking him out of the air. He crashed into the wall, the impact rendering him unconscious. Grinning darkly, Hacker began aiming for the panels that covered Motherboard's circuitry and wiring, determined not to leave any way for her to be rebooted. Melting the panels away with a few shots, and crying some wires, he reached inside and began yanking the circuitry loose, relishing in the shocks he received, as they were proof he was succeeding.

He made quick work of the console, removing and destroying critical wires and mechanics, emptying the Cryoxide, and further damaging the keyboard. Satisfied that Motherboard was damaged beyond repair, he left Control Central, taking Digit with him.

"Guys, I don't think we're going to find the lab," Jackie said after they'd been walking a while.

"We can't just give up! We've gotta stop Hacker!" Matt retorted.

They began arguing and Inez sighed, knowing it was better to let them get it out of their systems now rather than later. Just as she had had about all she could handle, a quiet crackling filled the air. Confused, she began to search for it, ignoring her friends who were still arguing. Finally realizing it was her skwakpad, she pulled it out, pressing the button to receive the call. Static crackled for several moments before a voice strained through.

"I...nez..."

"Motherboard?"

At that, Jackie and Matt stopped fighting and went over to see what was going on.

"Need...help. Ha...Hacker...here. Not much...time..."

A very small, very weak portal opened, nearly transparent. The three looked at one another and back to the portal.

"Think it's a trick?" Matt asked.

"No, that was definitely Mother B, and she sounded really bad, guys," Jackie said.

"But if that was Motherboard, then what are we doing here?" Matt asked.

"Of course!" Inez shouted, slapping her forehead. "Hacker tricked us, apparently to get us out of the way." She eyed the flickering portal that seemed to be collapsing on itself. "Come on, I don't think Motherboard can keep this open much longer."

They jumped, a feeling of foreboding settling in their bones. Surprisingly, the portal remained intact through the their trip, depositing them safely on the floor in Control Central. Groaning, they stood up and shook off the landing, not quite focusing on their surroundings just yet.

"C-Cybersquad..." Motherboard called weakly.

"Oh my gosh!" Jackie squealed as they laid eyes on the massive amount of damage Hacker had dealt.

"This is not good, this is not good at all!" Inez squealed.

Matt remained silent, anger rolling from him in waves.

"Mother B, what happened?" Jackie finally asked.

"H-Hacker...shut down defenses. Infiltrated...destroyed. Digit missing. Running on...back-up power reserves. Find...Marbles. Get...help."

Her voice cut out, the only sounds the whirring of her internal fans and the crackling electricity from severed wires.

"Motherboard?" Inez whispered, genuinely terrified for the first time since entering Cyberspace.

"I...I can't believe it," Jackie whispered. "She's gone."