“I have the answer.” Jackie jumped when Gigatron came on the screen, screaming like a banshee.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that,” Jackie said, “You almost literally scared me to death. What answer?”

“The key to beating those protectors,” Gigatron said, “Kidnap their leader, and the others fall apart.”

“Oh, great plan,” Jackie said sarcastically, “They’ve had no problem ripping through everything we’ve thrown at them so far, so its real easy to kidnap Servo.”

“If you would have been paying attention,” Gigatron said, “Then you’d notice that Servo always comes out on his own first, and calls upon the others only when he’s in trouble. I say we trick him into coming here, where he can’t communicate with the others, and then jump him with everything we’ve got. If we have the numbers, there’s no way he could get away. Then, destroying the other three would be like taking candy from a baby.”

I was hard at work doing my homework when my wrist computer went off. I hit the communications button after making sure no one was around. “I read you, S-1,” I said, “What’s up?” I was anxious to get through with my homework so that I could keep my meeting with Bea in the park.

“Gigatron has sent out a challenge to the team,” Samurai-1 said, “It’s all over cyberspace. Do you want me to call the team?”

“Not right away,” I said, “I should be able to handle anything Gigatron throws at me by myself. I’ll digitize right away.” I let go of the button and hit the bigger one. “Uplink: Servo.” I digitized and was in cyberspace in just a few minutes. I flew through a tube and found myself in some room. Gigatron was also there.

“By yourself?” Gigatron said.

“I can take anything you throw at me, Gigatron,” I said, “And then some."

“You foolish human,” Gigatron said, “Now.”

All of a sudden, a flood of gigamites attacked. I tried to fend them off, but there were way too many. “Spryte, Tinkerer, ‘Smith,” I called, trying to open up communications, “I need your help.”

“You’re cut off, human,” Gigatron said, “I will give you one chance to join me of your free will and one chance only. Do you accept?”

“Go to cyber hell,” I said, “I’ll never join you.”

“We’ll see about that,” Gigatron said, “Take him to the holding cell. We’ll figure out what to do with him later.” The gigamites roughly took me into a different place in cyberspace and chained me up.

“I’ll get out somehow,” I threatened them, “My friends will come for me, and when they do, you won’t stand a chance.” I could hear a laughing like sound leading away and going down the hall. “They’ve just got to. Download.” Nothing happened. “They must have some kind of dampening field here. I guess I’ll just have to wait.”

Bea was worried when I didn’t show up for our meeting in the park. She hit the communications button. “T.J., Cheryl, do you know where Lucas is? He was supposed to meet me in the park, but hasn’t shown up.”

“That’s strange,” T.J. said, “I know he wouldn’t stand you up, unless he had a very good reason."

“S-1, do you know where he is?”

“I called him to take care of a virus,” Samurai-1 said, “But he never returned. He hasn’t left cyberspace at all. If he had left, I would have known.”

“He might be in trouble,” Bea said, “We have to go help him.”

“Wait a moment,” Samurai-1 said, “Incoming message from Gigatron. Playing now.”

“I am Gigatron.”

“We know who you are Giganerd,” Bea said over her communicator.

“Very mature, human,” Gigatron said, “I have captured your precious Servo and I am holding him in a dampening patch. He can’t get out or use his powers, and you can’t go in without sacrificing the use of your powers, though that is just temporary. Surrender, or I will format that part of cyberspace. If he’s caught in that, there’s no telling what could happen. I will give you ten hours to decide. One more thing. No using cyberspace to travel. I will be monitoring constantly and will format it at the first sign of cyberspace usage. Only until you are ready to surrender can you use it. Good day, humans.”

“Gigatron’s closed off the message,” Samurai-1 said.

“Let’s meet at Lucas’s,” T.J. said, “We’ll have to walk there, now that we can’t use cyberspace to travel.”

“Right,” Bea said, “Well, I’m probably the furthest from his house, so I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Right,” Cheryl said, “And don’t worry. We’ll get Lucas out of this, somehow, and still have our powers. Cheryl and T.J., signing off.” Bea let go of the communications button and started crying. She cried the whole way to my house. She was able to hide it from my mom and went up to my room, to find T.J. and Cheryl already there and talking to Samurai-1. She sat down next to Cheryl, who hugged her.

“It’s going to be all right, Bea,” Cheryl said, “You’ll see. We’ll get Lucas out of there, and we’ll make Gigatron pay for this.”

“I know,” Bea sobbed, “We just can’t lose him. I love him too much.” Neither Cheryl or T.J. had ever heard Bea or myself tell one another that we loved each other. Neither of us were very sentimental and almost never said that.

“Do you have any ideas, S-1?” T.J. asked.

“I’m afraid not,” Samurai-1 said, “Whether you will surrender or not is completely up to you. I can’t tell you what to do.”

“If it was the only certain way of getting Lucas freed,” Bea said, “I would gladly sacrifice my very life. My powers don’t mean a thing to me, not without Lucas.”

“I gave the powers to you four for a reason,” Samurai-1 said, “Each of you have special skills and personalities that made up the team. That’s where your true power comes from. That, and the tight friendship the four of you have.”

“There has to be another way,” Cheryl said, “I mean, I would gladly sacrifice my powers to get him back, just to make Bea happy, if nothing else.”

“As would I,” T.J. said, “For all our computer knowledge, we can’t think of a thing to help one of our own in trouble.”

“Maybe this isn’t meant to be solved,” Bea said.

“You’re just hysterical, hon,” Cheryl said, “Understandable, given the circumstance, but not helpful.”

“I didn’t mean it quite the way it might have sounded,” Bea said, “What I meant was that we might need help. Lucas was the only one of us with general computer knowledge, while the rest of us just focused on certain fields.”

“She’s right,” T.J. said, “S-1, I know you said that we were supposed to keep this war a secret, but this might be the only way out of this.”

“If it’ll help,” Samurai-1 said, “Then do it.”

“Thanks,” Bea said, “Now the question is ‘Who has enough computer knowledge to get help us?’”

As if to answer, a bright flash of blue light filled the room suddenly. A figure fell out of it, unconscious.

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