Summary: Hacker has built a jury-rigged Transformitron complete with a near-perfect replica of the NIC. Near-perfect, because it can only be used once and then it'll burn out. Hacker plans on making his one and only chance count, but naturally, things don't go according to plan. :)

Rating: K+ (probably less than that tho.)

Like "Parallelism," this fan-fic takes place after my first Cyberchase fan-fic, "The Time Traveler" chronologically, but will probably have little references to either, just enough to confirm it's place in the timeline. Dunno how long it'll last, but at most it'll be twelve chapters (my cyberchase fan-fics seem to average around that) however, I expect it to fall short of that.

Anyway, enjoy. :)

CYBERCHASE

MISHAP

1.

Jury-rigged

Hacker was feeling happy. Slightly insane, but happy. Delete and Buzz watched their boss prance around and around the machine Hacker had been scrounging to assemble for the past month or so.

"It's ready!" Hacker exclaimed in a sing-song voice, "The Transformitron is ready!"

He held his hands out wide at the machine. Buzz and Delete stared at it for a few seconds.

"Gee, boss, it seems...different." Delete remarked.

"Yeah." Buzz agreed. "It looks more, um, complex."

"Well, I did have to jury-rig some parts." Hacker admitted. "Okay, all of the parts. But it should work when I insert this."

He held up a small circuit board.

"The NIC." Hacker stated. "The very key to the Transformitron. Without it, it does not work."

"But where'd you get it boss?" Delete asked, puzzled. "I thought the Earth kids destroyed it."

"They did." Hacker said. "But they forgot their dealing with a genius. I merely built a new one. A near perfect replica. Only near perfect though, there were certain parts I couldn't recreate, and unfortunately that means it'll probably will burn out after using it only once. But I plan to make it count."

"But boss, if it burns out, how can it work?" Buzz asked.

"Idiot!" Hacker yelled. "Because the whole thing doesn't burn out, only the part that tells the Transformitron what to transform into what! The rest will still work, and that's what matters!"

And with that, Hacker turned around and slid the circuit board into a slot on the machine. A ready light blinked on, and through the jury-rigged contraption came a low hum.

"Yes, it's working!" Hacker said, rubbing his hands together. "Now lets see here, I've only got one shot at this, and I've got to make it count. Hmm, maybe I could transform into a..."

But Hacker got no further in his musings. A sudden alarm went off. Hacker jumped and ran to the nearest control panel.

"It's two of those Earth brats!" Hacker exclaimed, watching Inez and Jackie run past on a surveillance camera screen. "Motherboard must have found out what I plan to do!"

He let out an angry roar and began to walk out of the hanger bay out into the desert expanse of the Northern Frontier cybersite. "I'll handle them." he said. "You two stay here and keep guard. The other brat and that cyberturkey are undoubtably close by."

And with that, he left. He was unaware he was being watched as he left.

"It worked!" Digit exclaimed softly to Matt. "Jackie and Inez's distraction worked!"

"Now all we got to do is get in there, steal the NIC before Hacker comes back and uses the Transformitron, and meet up with Jackie and Inez at the portal." Matt said.

"But how do we get past those two?" Digit asked, pointing at Buzz and Delete, who were calmly standing next to the not-so sleek looking Transformitron.

"This is Buzz and Delete were talking about Didge!" Matt reminded him. "Getting past them will be the easy part! Look, I've got an idea. You run out, grab their attention and lure them away. I'll run in and grab the NIC, and head for the portal. You give them the slip after, say, fifteen minutes and head for the portal too."

"Sounds good Matti." Digit said, and he ran into the hanger bay, ducking under the parked Grim Wreaker as he made his way past. Pretty soon he was standing almost in front of the two henchmen robots.

"Hey noodlebrains!" Digit yelled.

"Hey!" Buzz yelled back in surprise and dove at Digit.

Digit nimbly leap aside and ran off. Buzz ran after him. Delete made a motion to follow, but then apparently thought against it and stayed put, to Matt's dismay. But, he told himself, Delete was the dumber of the two robots, so fooling him should be real easy. Plus, Delete was known to occasionally sympathize with Motherboard's side. Maybe Matt could do that here.

He snuck forward towards the Transformitron. Delete saw him at one point, but it wasn't until a few moments later that it donned on the robot who he just saw.

"Hey!" Delete exclaimed. "Hey, wait a minute! You're not supposed to be here."

"True, but I've got to stop Hacker before it's too late." Matt said, making his way closer without hesitation.

This worried Delete, because he backed up into the Transformitron. "But..." he sputtered, "That'll make the boss unhappy, and he'll get mad at me and Buzzy!"

"But Delete, this isn't just for Cyberspace's well-being, but Hacker's as well." Matt said.

Delete paused. "What do you mean?"

"Haven't you noticed that Hacker's been acting a bit odd lately?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, ever since you guys got the Encryptor chip, he's been a little odd." Delete admitted. "Buzzy says the boss's lost it."

"He has." Matt confirmed. "Which is part of the reason I'm here. If Hacker gets that power he so desires now, there's no telling what he might do. He might hurt himself."

"The boss, hurt himself?" Delete asked, sounding scared at the thought.

"Right." Matt said, reaching the Transformitron and was slowly reaching for the NIC. "But if you let me take the NIC, we can avoid that."

Delete anxiously considered all of this while Matt slowly reached closer to the NIC. He was almost touching it when...

"Wait!" Delete said. "The boss said he has a security alarm on the NIC, to prevent anyone from stealing it!"

Matt froze. Could this be true? "How do I get the NIC, then?" he asked Delete. "Do you know?"

The robot thought for a moment. "In the transformation chamber, the boss said he has a switch that turns the security system on and off." he answered, "That's how."

Matt was suspicious. "That's an odd place to put it." he commented.

"The boss said that way no one would think to look there." Delete said.

Matt couldn't deny the logic in that. He thought about it. He didn't want to risk grabbing the NIC now that he knew there might be a security system to prevent it's theft. It couldn't hurt to check, could it?

Slowly, Matt stepped into the glass chamber, checking his watch in the process. His fifteen minutes where almost up, he'd have to be quick.

"Where is it?" Matt hissed urgently to Delete, who was still outside the chamber.

"In the back along the bottom." Delete answered.

Matt bent down to check in time to realize that there was no such switch and to hear the chamber door slam shut behind him.

"Delete?" Matt said, looking up to see the robot hurriedly start pressing buttons on the Transformitron.

"You tricked me?" Matt yelled, not believe himself that he had fallen for it. He tried to push the door open, but it was locked from the outside.

Delete was still nervously pushing buttons.

"Why you little wingnut!" Matt yelled, trying to think up all of the names he could call Delete. "You little snitch, you little scamp, you little mouse, you-you..."

He was cut off by the sound of the Transformitron activating. Suddenly Matt felt funny all over. The world around him suddenly started to swell in size, and an instant later, everything went dark.