Alright, anyone who read the original version of this knows this is the last chapter before a certain OC is introduced. I'm working on ways to make said character more rounded so it may be a while until the next chapter. Hopefully this will keep everyone busy in the meantime

And... ACTION!

~Chapter Twenty-One~

Location: Cyber University:

"So she's still in there?" Marbles asked his girlfriend after he and Archimedes returned from the nearby dining hall.

"Yes," Ada answered simply, waiting outside the doors to the church sanctuary.

A great portion of the church sermon had been in relation to the tragedy of the previous day. When the service had ended, Melissa went to pray at the altar. After a while, the boys had grown tired of waiting and decided to have lunch with some classmates from their Chemistry class. Ada, however, had remained in the church lobby, studying her Bible to keep herself busy. She was starting to worry about her friend. Of course, Melissa would be safe in the church, but Ada worried whether or not Melissa was going to be okay emotionally.

"I believe we oughta say a prayer for her too," Archimedes suggested as he stared in the direction of the sanctuary.

"No better place for that than here," Marbles said.

Ada nodded in agreement and all three joined hands, the Poddle leading the prayer. Just as the words "Amen" were said, Melissa walked out of the sanctuary. Her blue eyes were sunken in from crying and she had an overall drawn look. She was shocked to see that her friends were still waiting for her in the lobby and when she saw her younger brother, she blushed with embarrassment and wiped away any signs of tears when Marbles suddenly walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her thin frame.

"I'm sorry Melissa," Marbles said as he hugged her tighter.

"Thank you Marbles," Melissa said hugging him back, "I'm alright though, really."

The other two joined in on the hug. It was a true moment of friendship. Of support. Of love. Melissa appreciated having such a strong support group. It was something she never wanted to lose. She never wanted to lose the warmth of a friend's embrace.

Location: Control Central:

"You said you were through Abaddon!" Richard screamed louder than he ever had in his entire life.

Gerald and Richard were communicating with their longtime enemy through the supercomputer in the main control room. Abaddon had called them for no reason other than to brag of his victory.

"Ah-ah Richie," the red-eyed cyborg said condescendingly, "I said I was through with my attacks on Control Central. I said I was done with trying to take over Cyberspace. I never said I was through with all crime."

"Please state your purposes in killing Sir Dalhart!" Gerald demanded, "Though no excuse will stop us from hunting you down."

"Well I couldn't possibly leave my career of evil-doing without one last shibang," Abaddon laughed maniacally, "I didn't sell my soul for nothing after all. Of course, if this event does scare you enough that you feel the need to hand Cyberspace over to me, I'm more than happy to accept it."

"NEVER!" the two shouted simultaneously.

"Fine," Abaddon answered monotonously. He remembered how killing the Benson family had forced Sir Dalhart into surrendering and thought his recent homicide would work the same way. But he had drastically underestimated the new ruler's 'stubborness', "This will be the last time you hear from me."

With that, the transmission ended.

"I swear when I finally come face to face with that monster..."

''Richard," Gerald said cutting the technician off, "Please calm down."

''How can I calm down with HIM out there?!" Richard yelled.

"Get a grip Richard!" Gerald said sternly, "I personally do believe this will be his last criminal offense. But nevertheless, we will find his hideaway and he will be permanently deleted!"

"What makes you so sure Gerald?" Richard asked.

"Abaddon is getting old," Gerald answered simply, "He is approaching the age of 140 cyber-years. Another ten years and the aging process will begin to kick in. He can't keep this up forever. And once he's finally found, he won't have to worry about growing any older."

Richard paused and took a deep breath. "Alright," he sighed, "I trust you."

Gerald smiled and was about to go back to his office to look through some bills when he was stopped by a question.

"Say Gerald?" the chief technician asked, "How are things going with you and that lady?''

The cyber-ruler laughed lightly, "I told you. We're just friends right now. Besides, I'm much too busy right now to be in a serious relationship."

"Don't be so sure, my respected ruler,'' Richard teased, "You never know..."

Location: Cyber University:

Ada and Melissa had returned to their dorm at 2:00 P.M. Now four hours later, Melissa sat on her bed and watched the news as the anchor announced the confirmation of Abaddon being responsible for Sir Dalhart's death.

''Melissa," Ada said bringing the girl a tray with a cup of tea and a neatly cut cucumber sandwich on it, "I know this is very hard for you, but you've been watching the news all day now. You need to take your mind off of this for at least a little while."

"I know," Melissa said sadly as she pushed the sandwich and tea away, "But I can't. Sir Dalhart was such a good friend to the family. And to me. He was so helpful to Marbles and I when our parents died. Once he resigned we couldn't communicate anymore because it was too dangerous. I've missed him so much. It just seems that Abaddon takes away everyone I care about."

"I know dear. He is an evil and vicious cyborg. But you mustn't worry about that right now," Ada said pushing the tray back to Melissa, "Here. You need to eat something. You haven't eaten all day."

''I don't want anything Ada," the girl replied, "Thank you though."

"Just try to Melissa," Ada begged, "Its your favorite."

Melissa glanced to her roommate to see her giving the classic puppy-dog pout. "Oh alright," she relented as she took a small bite of the food.

Ada smiled. "Now how about we watch something different? Anything on those real world channels?"

"I'll see," Melissa said as she sipped her tea and flicked through the channels which aired shows somehow obtained from Earth.

"What in Cyberspace?..." Ada said as a specific Earth channel caught her attention, "Melissa, go back to that channel."

Melissa flicked back to the channel. It was a channel that showed back-to-back movies from Earth.

"What is this?" Ada asked.

"This is that film Marbles is always talking about, TRON," Melissa explained, "Its about a human going into Cyberspace."

The two kept watching as the characters drove in the most ridiculous looking-vehicles and they burst into girlish laughter.

"I can't believe this is what they think Cyberspace looks like!" Ada exclaimed.

"Its not even close," Melissa answered, "This looks more like... I don't even know!"

"If only there was a way to show them," Ada suggested, "Wouldn't they be surprised..."

"Oh that reminds me," Melissa said jumping up from her bed, "I had better get back to my experimenting before..."

"Not so fast Melissa! We still have some movie critiquing to do," Ada said as she pointed to the film which was becoming increasingly insulting to the existence of Cyberspace.

Melissa smiled. "Well, I suppose I could use a break."

The two continued to watch the movie, either laughing at its inaccurate portrayal of their world, or being incredibly offended by the real world's ideas on cyber-fashion. Or both.

"Perhaps someday they'll realize," Melissa thought, "Someday, maybe they'll see what Cyberspace is really like..."

"Checkmate," Marbles said as he moved a chess piece across the board. He and Archimedes had been playing several rounds for the past hour.

"Looks like yer going to win again lad," Archimedes sighed as he took his turn.

"There must be something else that we can do," Marbles complained, now taking his turn.

"The good thing about being the smart ones is we don't have to work as hard to get good grades," Archimedes said as he took another turn, "The bad thing, we're left with nothing to do. Checkmate."

"I know I'll need at least a full year of college education to learn what I need for my experiments, so I've just put them aside for now," Marbles replied as he took his final turn, "I win."

Archimedes sighed. "You lucky lad."

Marbles laughed and then thought of something. "Backspace, Steve said that the junior college baseball team is having their first batting practice tomorrow, affirmative?"

"I believe so," Archimedes said, "Why?"

"Maybe the coach would let the four of us watch," Marbles answered, "It would be a good way to support our new friend."

"That's a great idea, Marbles," Archimedes said, "But that still doesn't give us anything to do tonight."

"It does so. We can help him with his College Algebra so he doesn't have to worry about it tomorrow."

Archimedes thought about this. Steve did say he was struggling with his Algebra homework, while both Archimedes and his roommate had taken A.P Algebra in high school and passed with flying colors. They could both provide some means of assistance.

"Alright," Archimedes answered, "I'll call him."

The next day Archimedes, Marbles, Ada, and Melissa all went to the baseball field and sat in the bleachers.

"Hey guys," Steve said as they sat down on the middle row, "Thanks for coming to watch me. It really means a lot."

"Your welcome, Steve," Ada said politely.

"And Marbles, Archimedes. Thanks for helping me with my homework last night. Gives me one less thing to worry about today."

"No problem lad," Archimedes answered, "But you better get out there before you get in trouble."

Steve nodded and went back to the field. The team members were each standing in line as the pitching machine threw balls at them. The coach had set it at high speeds and random directions to test just how well each player was already.

"Come on boys you can do better than that!" the coach yelled as one by one, each player missed the ball.

Steve was the last player up and was very nervous. He had high hopes of being a famous baseball player, but he was never very confident in himself. So when it was his turn, his nerves got to him and he also missed the ball.

"Poor lad," Archimedes sighed, "He tried so hard."

"Melissa what are you doing?" Ada asked as her friend go up from the bleachers.

"I think I can offer some assistance," she answered simply as she walked down to the bleachers.

"Is she out of her circuits?!"Ada exclaimed as she watched Melissa go towards the screaming coach.

"I am very disappointed in all of you!" Coach Gates shouted at the team, "I can't believe not one of you could hit that ball! Our first game will be in the spring semester and based on what I just saw it'll take..."

"Excuse me sir," Melissa interrupted.

"What do you want?!" the coach shouted, making Melissa slightly flinch but not intimidating her in the least bit.

"I believe I can help," she answered with full confidence and dignity, "I think I know how they can hit the ball more easily."

The coach took one look at the girl and burst into laughter, the team members (with the exception of Steve) joining him.

"Look miss," Coach Gates said, "This is no game for the ladies. Why doncha go knit a sweater or something and leave this up to the boys, okay?"

Melissa gave the classic female-stare-of-death and placed one hand on her hip. "Correction, Coach Gates," she answered back with an attitude, "This game may be known as a man's sport, but I can assure you that a woman is just as capable as any man."

"You think you're so sure, girly?" the coach mocked.

Melissa nodded. The coach handed her a bat.

"Then go out there and show us."

"Consider it done," Melissa replied and walked gracefully yet respectfully out to the field.

"Melissa are you sure you wanna do this?" Steve asked as she walked.

"Don't worry Steve," Melissa said with a smile, "I can do this."

The rest of the team laughed hysterically as they watched the girl step up to the batting plate. Melissa certainly wasn't dressed to play baseball. She wore a silver V-neck dress that stopped below her knees and had long bell-like sleeves. Around her neck was a matching choker, her usual silver locket, and a silver bracelet on her wrist. She wore high-heeled shoes and her gorgeous blue hair fell to her waist in its usual soft curls without a single strand falling out of place. Melissa looked as elegant and poised as a queen to them, but that didn't mean she didn't know what she was doing. The machine spat a ball at her and she swung. To everyone's shock, she, a woman, hit the ball out of the park. The coach stood dumbfounded as Melissa walked back in her perfect posture and stopped in front of him.

"So Coach," Melissa said, "Do you still think a woman can't play?"

"Alright," he sighed, "I was wrong. Now tell the boys how you did it. Because, honestly, I've only seen one other hit a throw like that and he won't tell."

"Oh its simple Coach," she laughed as she handed him the bat, "Choke up on the bat and hit the ball where its pitched."

With that, the sixteen-year-old walked away triumphantly and without a single scratch or rip on her dress.

Please, please, PLEASE review if you're liking this. It means so much more than you may think it does. I'll see you all in the next chapter. As Digit would say:

See ya in Cyberspace!