Chapter XI

Matt was amazed at how smoothly the ship flew through the sky. The ship seemed to glide far better than he'd ever remembered their old coupe or pod doing, although it'd been so many years since he'd actually navigated across the stars of Cyberspace that he wasn't even sure he quite remembered how the coupe had flown in the first place.

"So, where are we headed?" asked Matt, turning to Creech.

"Good question," she replied, one hand on the steering wheel while she used the other hand to manage a small built-in GPS, "I'm not sure which Cybersites are still free…or how we're going to get into them. This is a new sort of ship, Hacker's design – no one's going to want to let us while we're looking like the enemy."

"We can't go to Tikiville or something?"

Creech bit her lip, thinking, before replying, "Well, that's what I was planning, but we really shouldn't be going to any place that Hacker's already got control of. Especially once Hacker finds out you're gone…"

A crackle of static suddenly broke the brief silence that had begun to form, and both Creech and Matt directed their gaze towards the small speaker in the middle of the control panel, from which a voice sounded, "BS-23, you are not authorized for launch. Report your reason."

"BS?" repeated Matt, grinning, "What?"

"Short for Blackstar," muttered Creech, failing to find the humor in the situation, "Matt, this isn't funny. They're going to come after us."

"What, can't you think of a reason?"

"We're not authorized to use this ship…this is different, I can't just –"

"BS-23, report now."

A small beep hit the air, and Creech looked anxiously towards the GPS again, which was showing a small map of their current whereabouts. Their ship was represented on the map by a small, blue triangle and now, quickly approaching them from another corner of the map, was a small red triangle.

"Dammit," she seethed, then to Matt, "Sit back, buckle up."

Matt, surprised by Creech's commanding tone, hastened to get his seatbelt across him which, until now, had just been hanging by the side of his seat. He sat back nervously, watching Creech. She turned to make sure he was all strapped up, before nodding briefly.

"BS-23, if you do not comply in 10 seconds we will be forced to open fire."

At that moment, Creech yanked on the throttle again, this time pulling it back as far as it would go. A loud bang seemed to echo from somewhere behind them, and the ship hurtled forwards, sending Matt flying back into his seat. He grabbed the armrests, startled by the amount of force the ship had suddenly produced. Next to him, he could see Creech struggling with the controls, and turning to look out the front window, he could see why. The craft was going so fast, it was a miracle Creech could dodge out of the way of all the space debris flying towards them. The ship jerked up and down, side to side as she continued to speed forwards. The intercom crackled again, but Matt couldn't hear it over the roar of the ship's engines. He did notice, though, that on the GPS the little red triangle was still managing to keep up with their blue one. Creech noticed it, too.

"Hang on, if they start—" Before she could finish her sentence, the GPS started beeping loudly, and Creech yanked on the wheel, swerving the ship to the left. On the GPS's monitor, Matt saw a small orange circle fly past their ship, and looking outside, he could just see a small tail of fire disappearing into the distance.

"What – did they just shoot us?"

"Like I was saying," said Creech, struggling to be heard over the engine, "you better hang on."

Creech was forced to dodge three more missiles, yanking the ship up, jerking it sideways and, in one case, barreling over. Matt, who'd always considered himself something of a roller-coaster person, was beginning to feel slightly nauseous – not to mention scared for their lives. Again the intercom crackled uselessly. The ship beeped, and Matt looked at the little monitor, expecting to see another orange dot flying towards their blue triangle. Instead, he saw a large gray shape in front of them. Confused, he tore his gaze from the GPS to the front window, and wondered if Creech was even aware of what she was doing. Their ship was flying straight towards a junk site, Cyberspace's equivalent of a dump, and from the look on Creech's face, it didn't appear as if she was planning on turning away from it anytime soon. Matt threw his hands over his eyes as they neared the site, which had the appearance of a crater made out of a conglomeration of broken and useless items, with larger pieces of trash, such as broken spaceship parts, orbiting around it.

Despite his eyes being closed, Matt could still easily tell when they had approached the site – the ship bumped up and down so fast it was almost as if it was vibrating. He opened his eyes for a brief second to see mounds of trash and scrap metal surrounding them on all sides, as Creech struggled to navigate her way through the site without crashing and getting them both killed. He quickly re-shut his eyes.

"Hang on, Matt!" yelled Creech, and Matt felt the ship swerve and then, suddenly, the ship went quiet, and it wasn't jerking up and down anymore – in fact, it didn't seem to be doing anything for a moment. Matt opened his eyes to see Creech pressed flat against her seat, her knuckles white on the steering wheel that she had pulled up as far as possible. They were no longer on the junk site; space surrounded them on all sides. But something seemed a little off, to Matt. It took him only a second to realize it; the ship's power was off. All the lights were dead, and the GPS's screen only stared blankly back at him, the picture gone. He was about to mention this to Creech when they started to fall.

The ship was flying down, gathering speed as it careened towards the Cybersite directly below them. Matt could feel his stomach flying, as he experienced a feeling not unlike how he felt on a drop on a roller coaster. This is it, he thought, this is the end – something must have happened, they must have shot us, taken out the power…now I'm dying, we're dying, I'm going to die in the middle of Cyberspace and no one will ever know...

He kept expecting every second that the drop would end, that they'd start flying again or something worse would occur, but the seconds stretched on. Matt gritted his teeth, his mind racing, until with a loud crash the ship suddenly careened to the side, jerking Matt forwards and slowing the ship until, with an even louder crash, it hit the ground, again throwing Matt forwards. With a dazed, incredulous look on his face he turned to Creech, who appeared to be just as amazed as him as she matched his gaze.

"Well," she finally managed to say, her voice shaking, "We're alive."

Jackie had been let out after spending one night at the medic tent – they'd only kept her that long in the first place to make sure they'd taken care of her properly, as the doctors on Radopolis had no experience in working with humans. Jackie, however, was as fit as was possible for her, and so they had released her. She had spent most of the day following Inez around, who was assisting in tent four, and talking with Digit. She'd gone searching for Half-pipe at lunch time, but had been unable to find him, and so had returned to spend the rest of her day with Inez and Digit. As evening came around, Jackie and Inez had left their pruple friend, who needed to go talk with Scab for a bit, and headed towards Coop's Garage, where they had been permitted to stay during their time on Radopolis. The two of them had just finished eating dinner (Cyberbeans – Cyberspace didn't have much to offer in the way of food that was edible for both cyborgs and humans) when they heard a knock on the door and went to find Digit there. Now, as Radopolis's sun began to disappear below the horizon, the three of them sat around Coop's aging table, while Coop himself worked in another part of the house.

"Where've you been, Didge?" asked Jackie, whose broken arm was in a sling. Digit was looking worn and tired while Inez hardly seemed to be paying any mind to their conversation, her mind elsewhere.

"Talkin' with Scab about the battle," he replied, examining his wings and the metallic feathers that stuck out from them at all ends, "Y'know, losses and gains and all that great military stuff."

"Yea? That's uh, cool, I guess. How'd we do?"

Digit shrugged, "Well, the 'bots didn't get in the city, so that sorta makes us the winners. But Scab is wonderin' about the attack, cuz it wasn't anything new…not like there was some new strategy or anything."

"So? It means Hacker's too stupid to figure out how to actually win anything," said Jackie, waving her good arm carelessly.

"Well, he's already gotten some other Cybersites, so he's not all stupid. But Scab's wonderin' why he'd do that, then."

"What about Matt?" asked Inez, joining in the conversation, "Have you figured out anything else about him?"

Digit turned away from his ruffled feathers to face Inez, "No…thing is, well, when I first brought you guys back here, it was so you could help me find Motherboard and the doc and…well you know, just like what we used to do."

Jackie nodded, smiling, "Yea."

"Well, that was the plan. Now it's more like 'save and find Mattie 'fore somethin' bad happens to him.'"

"Any idea where he is?"

"Well, I think it's sorta obvious where he is..." said Digit, his voice trailing off. When neither Jackie or Inez spoke, he sighed, adding, "I mean, the way things are goin'…Hacker's gotta be the only other one out there who might be able to use a portal, y'know?"

"If Matt's with Hacker, then we've got to do something, and fast," said Inez, her voice soft.

"I've been thinking of going to the Cybrary," said Digit, elaborating after seeing the looks on Jackie and Inez's faces, "Well I mean, it's got the strongest…connections, sort of. Most up-to-date technology, great tracking materials…might be a way for us to figure out which portals been recently activated and where."

"Why go to the Cybrary? If Hacker's got Matt, wouldn't it be better to just go straight to the Grim Wreaker?" asked Inez, "How's the Cybrary still running if it's so refined, anyways? Wouldn't Hacker have it under his control by now?"

"It's shielded, shows up as a black hole on all the maps n' stuff," replied Digit, "An' I'd want to go there first just to double check…make sure Matt really is with Hacker. Trust me, last thing ya want to do now is go stormin' onto the Wreaker without bein' sure about it."

"Great, then we should leave as soon as possible. How's tomorrow morning?" suggested Inez, before turning to Jackie and saying, "I dunno if you should come though, Jacks."

"S'cuse me? And why not?"

"Nah, Inez has a point, Jackie," quipped Digit, "With your arm, it might not be safe."

"Dude, it's just the Cybrary. How dangerous is that?" exclaimed Jackie, snorting.

"With the way things are, it's dangerous just to leave Radopolis," replied Inez, "What if we were attacked? You could mess your arm up even worse." Jackie was silent. "Don't worry, it probably wouldn't take that long, right Digit?"

"Right," said the Cybird, nodding quickly, "The Cybrary is close by – we'd be back by the afternoon if we left 'round 5 or 6 in the morning."

"Five or six?" exclaimed Jackie, "Yea, you can definitely count me out then."

"Right, so –" Inez stopped suddenly, turning towards the garage door from which a loud knock had just come from. Digit rose to get it, but he was stopped by Coop, who was coming from his work space, calling:

"No, no, it's alright Digit – I'll get it."

Digit sat back down, shrugging. Coop, wiping grease from his hands with a dirty cloth, made his way over to the side of the door and pushed a small, green button. The door groaned to life, rising to reveal none other than Half-pipe standing in the doorway. His face was still mostly covered by the ever-present goggles, but Jackie could see his brow furrow as he turned his head in their direction.

"Half-pipe—hey man, what're you doing here?" asked Coop, still wiping grease from his hands.

"Scab wants a status report," replied the Cyborg, turning to Coop.

"Ah, yea, of course! Yea, come here, I'll show you what I've got so far," replied Coop, gesturing for Half-pipe to follow him as he turned and made his way back to his work space. Jackie gave him a small wave as he walked by, which he returned.

"Well, if we're going to leave tomorrow at five…" started Inez, looking towards Digit, who nodded, "Right, well, I'm going to go to bed now, kay?"

"Cool Inez – I'll probably come up, soon," replied Jackie, "Just gonna talk with Didge a little."

"Right, well, see you later then," said Inez, rising from the table to leave.

"'Night Inez."

"'Night Digit."

As she made her way towards the stairs in the back she could hear Jackie asking Digit questions about Cyberspace while Motherboard had still been in power. Inez hadn't even thought about that time. To her, it felt like catastrophe had set in as soon as the Cybresquad had left, but then, there had certainly been at least five or so years before Hacker escaped, hadn't there? She soon reached the second floor, which contained three rooms and a bathroom. At the end of the hallway on the second floor was the room she and Jackie were sharing, and as she made her way back there she couldn't but pause in the same place she had been stopping every night since their arrival – the room next to theirs, marked by a shut, green door, the paint peeling away to reveal the gray, metal surface beneath it. Still, the words 'Slider's Room' were still freshly visible upon the door's front, and, like every night before, Inez found the idea of pushing open the door and going inside tempting; tonight eve more so, due to it's being slightly ajar. She looked around. Jackie probably wasn't coming up very soon, and Coop was downstairs with Half-pipe – for some reason, she found she did not want to be discovered searching this room. There was nobody around to see her as she gently placed her hand on the door's front and pushed it open, watching it glide forwards on well-oiled hinges to reveal the room within.

She stepped in quickly, shutting the door behind her as she looked around her. It was a fairly spacious room, with the impression of having been recently lived in, despite the fact that its former occupant had been forever banished from Radopolis. It seemed to speak volumes about the person who had resided within these four walls, and Inez moved forwards slowly, examining the walls, the pictures, and items strewn about the floor, as if she were at a museum. In the corner was a bed, the sheets unmade as though someone had slept in them just last night. A wide variety of things, namely tools and building materials, such as screws and nails, lay scattered across the floor, mixing in with the mess of clothes that also resided either on the floor or half-sticking out of the red dresser by the side of the bed. A pair of triangular windows, half-covered by a set of broken blinds, allowed in a small, filtered amount of moonlight, the room's only source of illumination. She lingered by the chipped and paint-spattered desk that took over one whole corner of the room, a half-finished skateboard lying flat across it. Two other finished boards sat by the desk, waiting patiently.

What interested her most though were the pictures on the wall. One she recognized; it was a snapshot of Slider when he was much younger, around seven she guessed, holding up a small trophy with his father standing proudly behind him – it was the picture Digit had knocked over years ago that had led to the discovery of Coop's location. The next picture on the wall, though, was one completely unfamiliar to Inez. It portrayed a group of teenagers, and it took her a while to pick out Slider from the mass of faces. But sure enough, there he was; taller, his hair longer, but it was him nonetheless. She moved through all the pictures, slowly, her eyes taking in every story and event that each portrait had to offer. Her gaze lingered on the last one. Most of the snapshots on the wall had been hastily tacked or taped up, and only three were actually encased in a sort of frame. This one, she was touched to find, was one of the framed. Looking into the picture, she could see four faces smiling back at her – herself, Jackie, Matt and Slider. This, she recalled, was just a month or two before they'd cured Motherboard. It was at a skating competition that Slider had invited them too, and in the picture you could just see the skate park in the background. Slider was standing in the picture with his arms around Inez and Jackie, all of them grinning madly, with Matt standing on the end next to Jackie.

"Hey."

She jumped up, startled. She had been so enraptured by the picture that she had failed to realize someone else had entered the room. Turning around, she was surprised to see Half-pipe standing in the doorway, and felt herself sort of freeze over.

"Uh, hi," she replied awkwardly.

"Checking out the scenery?" he remarked evenly, walking over to where she was standing. Inez said nothing. She couldn't see his eyes, but she was assuming that he was looking over the same pictures she had just reviewed. "That's you?" he said, pointing to the photo she had just been looking over.

"Yea," she said, "And Jackie, there. That's Matt on the end, and Slider in the middle."

He nodded, and then turned and walked over to the corner of the room where the desk was, retrieving the unfinished board that was lying on top, "So, you think he's a traitor?"

"Well…I don't know," replied Inez softly, half to herself, "It's been so long, but I can't really imagine him doing something like that…why? Do you?"

Half-pipe turned, the board resting under his arm, and he shrugged, "No."

"Did you know him?"

"A little. I used to help them out around here. S' why Scab sends me to Coop to get status reports and updates – he works on a lot of our defensive technology."

"Did he seem like a traitor?" asked Inez, ignoring his last sentence.

"Nah, he was a cool guy," for a minute, it looked he was going to say something else, but instead he remained silent.

"Where are you taking that?" inquired Inez, gesturing to the skateboard.

"Oh – Coop sent me up to get it."

"Do you wear your goggles everywhere?" asked Inez, smiling.

"…Yea."

"Oh…okay." She stood, awkwardly, while Half-pipe looked over the room again.

"Well," he said finally, "See you."

Inez watched him leave the room, listening to his receding footsteps, before she too made her way out the door and down the hallway, to her and Jackie's shared bedroom. That night, it took a while for sleep to come, and when it finally did, her sleep was plagued with strange dreams that woke her up in the middle of the night.