CYBERCHASE

THE TIME TRAVELER

1.

Arrival

Matt sat in his bedroom, reading the book, "Rakkety Tam". It was a Saturday, and Matt expected nothing special to happen today. No baseball games, no big events or celebrations, and, most importantly, no trips into Cyberspace.

So far as Matt knew, only three people knew of Cyberspace, and that was him, and his two friends, Jackie and Inez. They first met the very first time they were pulled into Cyberspace and sent on a continuing mission to protect the citizens of Cyberspace from it's arch nemesis, Hacker, also known as THE Hacker.

Hacker's main goal in life was to take total control of Cyberspace from it's rightful leader, Motherboard, a very wise and very nice supercomputer, and run the chaos rates in Cyberspace sky high. He had gotten frighteningly close to acheiveing that goal, so much so that he was in total control for a short period of time once. But, like always, Matt and his friends always outwitted him and saved the day.

But that didn't get rid of Hacker. He was still around, and would not go away unless Motherboard was cured of a computer virus she had gotten because of Hacker, or Hacker himself was gotten rid of. So far niether had happened. And it looked like that wouldn't change anytime soon, for the only thing that could delete Motherboard's computer virus, the Encryptor Chip, had been destroyed, sacrificed to defeat Hacker once.

Currently, however, things were going well in Cyberspace, for Hacker hadn't been up to his usual mischeif in a long period of time, and the citizens of Cyberspace, as well as Matt and his friends, were taking full advantage of it. Motherboard had given them all the opportunity to have fun and relax and told the Cybersquad to have a vacation. Part of it had already been spent in Cyberspace, and now the other part was to be spent in the Real World.

Only Matt had nothing to do. Not that he really mind, he just didn't expect to be sitting in his bedroom reading. It only happened because his original plans for that day fell through the floor, and he had no back-up plan, which he had mentally kicked himself for, because if there was anything to be learned from his adventures in Cyberspace, it was to have a back-up plan at all times.

Still, he was going to make the most of it. Or so he thought.

Matt was suddenly drawn away from his reading when he heard a soft beep ring out. At first he ignored it, but it beeped again. Setting his book aside and leaping off his bed, he looked around the room for the cause of the sound. Following the sound, he eventually came to the bottom drawer on his desk, which he kept only one thing in: his SKWAK pad, a walkie-talkie/drawing board device he had obtained in Cyberspace.

Pulling the device out, he saw that the SKWAK was recieving a message, and was emitting the beeping to alert Matt of it. He flicked a switch, and waited to hear the message.

All he got at first was static. The SKWAK's screen flickered several times, clearing just enough once or twice for Matt to see that the origin of the message was Control Central, the residence of Motherboard and the very center of Cyberspace. But Matt saw instantly that something wasn't right.

"Motherboard?" Matt asked into the SKWAK's speaker. "Digit? Is something wrong? Hello? Anybody there?"

At first he got nothing, then he began to hear several voices answer in responce. He got snippits of whole sentences, only a few words at a time, like "here", "there," "get," and, oddly enough, "Kryoxide", the name of a common coolant used in Cyberspace.

At one point, Matt thought he heard his friend's Digit's voice come out, saying Inez's name, but there was too much static to know for sure. Then, the static cleared just long enough for a single phrase to come through, completely unflawed.

"Get back here!"

It wasn't the phrase that alarmed Matt, it was who said it. The voice most definitely belonged to Hacker. Had he managed to break into Control Central?

"What's going on?" Matt asked into the speaker again, wishing he knew what was going on and how he could help.

The answer that came was very garbled, but the word "portal" told Matt all he knew. Motherboard or Digit, possibly even Dr. Marbles, was opening a portal to the Real World, most likely so Matt could come to Cyberspace to help.

Sure enough, there was a sudden swirl, then the reflective pink surface of a portal formed right beside him. Matt moved to jump through, but before he could, the portal shimmered then spat out a cloud of mist. Matt waved his hand through, and noted that the mist was very cold. Then something happened that had never happened before. The portal changed colors; from pink to a dark violet, almost purple.

Confused, Matt wondered if it was safe to jump through the portal afterall, when the light in his room blinked off, plunging the room into darkness, save for the light the portal emitted. Matt suddenly realized that the portal was not meant for him to come through Cyberspace, but for something to come from Cyberspace, to him.

This theory was proven true when a large dark shape of a person popped out of the portal, but it was too dark in the room to tell who it was. Matt rushed to the figure's side, in case aid was needed, trying to see who the person, laid spread-eagled and unmoving on his bedroom floor.

The Portal suddenly wavered, spat out some more mist, then collasped in upon itself and vanished in a brief flare of light. Several seconds went past with Matt sitting in the dark, with tons of questions running through his head, when power was restored to his bedroom light, allowing Matt to get a good look at the figure before him.

Suddenly a new flood of questions rushed through him as Matt relaized just who it was that was now picking himself up off the floor. He was very dirty, and his clothes were somewhat tattered and wrinkled, and his hair had been quite ruffled. He also seemed to be about a year older than Matt was. But there was no doubt about it. The figure that now stood before Matt was himself...

Matt's double looked around at his surroundings, then at a calender hung over Matt's bed, then right at Matt himself. He grinned.

"It worked." he said.