"Hey, Zo, you mind giving me a hand with this?" I needed to work through my code, and my roommate and fellow Computer Science major was the closest available person to bounce my ideas off of.

"Sure, what's the problem?"

I showed her the error. "No matter what I do, this ellipse never shows up when I compile and run. Maybe I forgot to draw it…"

"No, you've got it right here, (leftEye);. I think… yeah, try swapping the leftEye block of code with the head block."

I did as she suggested. Compile. Run. The character's left eye appeared on the screen.

"Success!" I cheered. I put my hand up for a high-five, and she followed through. I thanked her and turned back to my code. My mouse lagged. Majorly.

My mouse never lags here.

Suddenly and seamlessly, a face formed on my screen. A woman's face, made of a square head and a neck connecting her chin to the bottom edge of the monitor. One eye was a rectangle, the other a circle, their whites an orange-yellow and her irises blue. Below them was a triangular nose followed by… unnatural-looking lips. Her cheekbones were replaced with an outline of half a circle and what I only had time to process as a serial number. Her wavy hair and curled bangs, as well as her eyebrows, were faintly decorated with lines. All in all, she reminded me of a computer's motherboard.

After about a second, she spoke. "Hello. My name is Motherboard, ruler of Cyberspace. I am assembling a team of programmers to help keep me online. I have chosen you as a member. Do you accept?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Hurry! I have been weakened by a virus and don't have much longer to speak before I crash again."

"Yeah! Come on, Marie, it'll be fun!"

"Ugh… okay, fine. I know this is gonna bite me in the ass later, but sure, why not? Might as well be my motto by now."

Her image faded, giving way to a glowing portal. It pulled us off our beds and into a vortex of swirling math symbols and Java commands. We landed with a thud in front of a control panel and a huge television monitor hanging down from the ceiling. Three guys were already there. A few seconds later, another woman tumbled through the monitor.

After a few beats of silence, I said out loud, "Alright, fine, I guess I'll bite. What the fuck?"

Another short pause. Nobody knew.

I responded. "Well, I suppose we should introduce ourselves, right? We'll go first - I'm Marie Boyle."

Zoe introduced herself. "I'm Zoe Mearle.

Finally, the last member introduced himself in American Sign Language, which Zoe translated, as Kyle Lin.

I didn't know she knew ASL. Then again, I'm not sure she knows I'm learning Icelandic, so I guess we're even.

Moments later, an old man with a lightbulb for a hat burst through the door with a milk crate full of what seemed to be just odds and ends, panting heavily. "Name's - Marbles - Motherboard said - give - you - these." He put the crate down and kneeled beside it, handing each one of us a black backpack with our names on them. Each of us gave a quick thank-you as he handed them out.

"You - you can open the bag - bags now, if you want," he said, regaining his breath. He must have read my mind. With the green light, we all opened them, with Zoe being an exception - she'd started tearing through it the instant Marbles's hand let go of the thing. Inside each bag was an over-decorated blue calculator, a watch with an orange button on the side, and a sealed white envelope labeled "250 Snelfus" in chickenscratchy handwriting.

"What are these things? A calculator, a watch, an envelope of… something? Who are you?" Kyle asked.

"I'm Dr. Marbles, inventor and overall caretaker of Motherboard. The Snelfu is our base unit of currency - analogous to, say, a United States dollar. Those watches are a new invention of mine - they create portals themselves without depending on Motherboard. I hope you all don't mind being my guinea pigs for the devices. That last device, however, is more than a calculator. Much more, in fact - it is a calculator, a diagram creator, and a communication device, among other things."

Zoe piped up. "So… it's a smartphone?"

"I suppose so, though the Cybersquad tell me that there's no reception here, whatever that means," Marbles explained.

"Speaking of which," I said, "what is 'here'? Where are we? And who's the Cybersquad?"

"In short, Cyberspace is our own little universe, hosted on a network of computers. As for the Cybersquad - what appropriate timing! I believe they're on their way now."

Just as he finished his sentence, the automated doors into the central control room slid open, and through them walked three teens, two about sixteen and one no more than fourteen. One of them, a redheaded, pale sixteen-year-old asked, "Hey, Doc. Who're they?"

"Oh, hello, Matt. These are Marie -" - I waved - "Zoe - " - she waved - "and Kyle." Kyle signed "hello!". Marbles continued, "And for the new members, this is Matt -" - the boy in the dirty green sweater waved - "Inez" - the fourteen-year-old Latina in a pink tee under a purple vest waved - "and Jackie -" - the black girl, about Matt's age, clad in yellow and denim, waved.

"From here on, you will be split into three teams," he informed us. "Inez and Kyle, Alfa team; Jackie and Zoe, Bravo team; and Matt and Marie, Charlie team. Alfa, you are simply to keep Cybersites safe if need be. Bravo, you are to find and dispatch allies of Hacker to ensure a lack of capacity for riot. Charlie, you are to find and confront Hacker and bring him here. I highly recommend the use of handcuffs and ankle cuffs. Go, now! Cyberspace needs you!"

He pressed a button on his own Skwakpad and a door opened to a small garage with three hovercars, each pair boarding their own. I had no clue how the hell to drive this thing, but my feet drove me toward the door of the driver's seat anyway. Matt climbed into the passenger's seat, wasting no time. I looked back at Zoe one last time, and she looked back at me.

"See ya later, Zo." The words flowed out of my mouth like they always do when one or both of us leave the apartment to go somewhere. This time, though… this time, it felt different. It felt lonely. I knew she wasn't going to die without a damn strong fight, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was going to lose her somehow.

"See ya later, Mar. - Stay strong for me, 'kay?"

I bit my lip and nodded, quickly turning my head. I got into the car and slammed the door. I tried to fight the tears, but they wouldn't leave me alone. I wiped them away, dried my glasses on my shirt, and fumbled for the key. I realized that it was already in the ignition slot and turned, so I stepped on the gas and propelled the vehicle into the empty sky - a scene that looked more like a greenish chalkboard peppered with chalk dots.


I think I backed myself into a corner with that interaction.