The next morning, my mind was still muddled from what had happened. I walked to school and was met by Cheryl. “Good morning,” I said.

“Good morning,” she replied, “I had a really nice time last night. You sure know how to treat a girl. Are you sure that this was your first date?”

“I’m sure,” I said, “First time I’ve been to a dance period.”

She reached down and entwined her fingers in mine. Bea and Lucas came walking along a few minutes later.

“Sorry we’re a little late,” Bea said, “When I went to get Lucas up, we kind of last track of time.”

Cheryl and I exchanged smiles. We went to class and barely got there before the bell rang.

At lunch, Jackie came over. “I had a real nice time last night Bea,” he said, “We should do it again sometime.”

“Get lost, Jackie,” Lucas said. Cheryl and I both looked at him, surprised at the tone he was using with Jackie. ‘Just what did Jackie do to finally turn Lucas against him?’ I mused. Jackie took the hint and left.

“Whoa,” I said, “What happened to you trying to be Jackie’s friend?”

“I quit doing that,” Lucas said, “He tried...”

“He tried getting.. frisky with me when I danced with him,” Bea said, “Did you hear a loud slap about halfway through that first dance you two had after our break?”

Cheryl nodded but I was a little sheepish. “I had my mind on.. other things,” I explained. Cheryl blushed.

“Anyway, that was me slapping him but good,” Bea said, “Lucas wanted to get some revenge, but I talked him out of it.” After that, the bell rang, and we went to class. Cheryl and I had the class together, and the teacher didn’t mind that we were holding hands the whole time.

After school, we were all walking in the park. “It’s a beautiful day,” Bea said.

“With you here, its even more beautiful,” Lucas said. Bea blushed. Cheryl and I both rolled our eyes at the two.”

After a while, we went our separate ways. I walked Cheryl home. “It’s still early,” she said, “Come on in.”

“No thanks,” I said, “You said you had a ton of homework, right?” She nodded. “Well, I don’t want to distract you from that. See you later.” I gave her a quick kiss and left.

Cheryl was in her room when her ‘watch’ chirped. She hit the communications button after closing the door. “I read you, S-1,” she said.

“The others are in cyberspace,” Samurai-1 said, “And they’re losing the fight they’re engaged in.”

“Right,” Cheryl said, “I’ll be right there. Uplink: Tinkerer.” She was digitized and sent into cyberspace.

There, Servo and Spryte was getting their butts kicked. I jumped into the fray, but we were severely outnumbered.

“S-1, get some help,” Servo said, “Have you picked the candidate for the last set of powers?”

“Yes,” Samurai-1 said.

I had just logged on, when my screen went all freaky and I was sucked into the computer. “What in the...”

“I am known as Samurai-1,” a voice said, “You may call me S-1, if you wish. You are the last of the chosen to become protector of cyberspace. Here, you are known as ‘Smith. Servo, Spryte, and Tinkerer are already active. Do you accept?”

“Whoa,” I said, “This is too weird. Of course I accept.”

“Go through the tube on your immediate right,” Samurai-1 said, “You’ll find the others fighting, and losing.”

“Right,” I said. I flew through the tube. When there, the four of us tore through the small army there.

“Thanks,” Servo said, “Let me guess. ‘Smith?”

“That’s right,” I said, “Lucas?”

“Hi T.J.,” Servo said, “But its Servo here. Let’s go to my house, and we’ll explain things there. Just say download to leave. S-1?”

“Tube ready,” Samurai-1 said.

“Download.” We all spiraled through the newly opened tube. We found ourselves in Lucas’s room in just a few minutes.

“Now, I bet you have a lot of questions,” Lucas said.

“That’s an understatement,” I said, “For starters, when did you all get your powers and how did the powers come into existence in the first place?”

“A few months back is when I did,” Lucas said, “Remember that day you were all over here and the power went out?” We nodded. “Well, a virus was planted in my computer by what was then an unknown source. I now believe that it was Jackie. Anyway, a lightning bolt hit my house to cause the blackout that day. The freak melding of that electricity and the virus caused my computer to have full AI. It gave me the Servo powers to defeat the virus.”

“A few days later,” Bea picked up, “He was having problems defeating another virus, and Samurai-1 called me onto the net to help him. It gave me the Spryte powers and told me just about everything to know about them. Between the two of us, we tore the virus monster to shreds.”

“A few more days after that,” Cheryl picked up, “They had to do an all cyberspace search for a elusive virus monster. They called me in for an extra pair of arms in the searching and to kick butt.”

“And now, I come in to the picture,” I said, “What’s with this watch, anyway?”

“It’s to digitize you mostly,” Lucas said, “It can digitize you from anywhere, using a cordless modem. It’s basically a low powered computer. It stores the information on your powers, so be careful. Don’t let it get damaged too badly.”

“Right,” I said, “How do I digitize?”

“Simply say ‘Uplink: ‘Smith,’” Cheryl said, “Then, say download to come back to reality.”

“Your weapon has not been determined yet,” Samurai-1 said.

“Cool,” I said, “How about using one of the weapons I’ve made. I like to have a few with me.” I took a few pieces of paper out of my pocket. “You do have a scanner, right, Lucas?”

“Right over there,” Lucas said.

“Let me see,” I said. I rifled through the papers. “Ah, here we go. A boomerang like weapon that has four razor sharp edges. This is my favorite of all my drawings. It can charge up to destroy virus monsters when necessary.” I put the paper into the scanner and it was read into the computer in just a few minutes.

“Awesome weapon,” Bea said, “It’s better than my old blaster.”

“Weapon scanned,” Samurai-1 said, “Put a disk in, and I’ll put it on there. Then, put it in the slot on your wrist computer, so you’ll have it the next time you go into cyberspace.”

“Right,” I said. Lucas put a floppy disk into the computer, and in a few minutes, the weapon was stored on it. I put the disk in a little slot on the side of my wrist computer and a few minutes later, a chirping sound told me that it was done reading the disk. I took the floppy out and handed it back to Lucas.

“This has been cool and all,” Bea said, “But I’ve got to be getting home. Good night, guys.”

“Goodnight Bea,” we all said.

“Uplink: Spryte.” She digitized.

“That’s the quickest way to get between our houses,” Lucas explained, “There’s always a tube opened to each of our computers at the main ‘room.’ Oh yeah, I almost forgot. You can’t tell anyone about this. The war between us and Gigatron, the computer program that brings the virus monster programs to life, must be kept a closely guarded secret.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, “I doubt very much that anyone would believe me anyway.” I turned to Cheryl. “Want me to walk you home?”

“Well, I never walk, but sure,” Cheryl said, “It’d be nice getting from here to there without using cyberspace. It’s still a little unsettling. Good night Lucas.”

“Good night Cheryl,” Lucas said, “Good night T.J.”

“Good night bud,” I said. Cheryl and I left his house and started walking off towards hers. We came upon it pretty quickly.

“This is my stop,” Cheryl said, “Good night T.J.”

“Good night, Cheryl,” I said. I gave her a quick kiss. She went inside and I went home and fell right to sleep.

Back