The next morning, we woke early. It was the weekend, so we didn’t have to worry about school. All we had to worry about is what was going to happen.

Today, I beat GigaTron once and for all, or we all die. We’re hoping for the former, but we’re fully prepared for the latter.

We went up to my attic, which was made into a martial arts practice area worthy of the Juice Bar in Power Rangers except without the gymnastics equipment. The others all worked with me, helping me hone my martial arts more. Sometimes, they’d come at me all at once, or one at a time. I was hard pressed with the former, but, being the finest fighter of all of us, I could easily handle the latter.

“Come on, Lucas,” T.J. said, “We have to prepare you for anything. You’ve always said that you could do this, right?” What we were talking about was me trying to fight blind folded.

“I’m always up for a challenge,” I said. They tied a loose blindfold over my eyes. I had to use my ears and nose instead of my eyes.

Movement. I could hear footsteps coming at me from the right. I reached out, and felt T.J. coming at me with a punch. I knew it was T.J. because he’s my height, and no one else is. I quickly moved out of the way. I could hear his feet dragging along the floor slightly, and jumped over his leg sweep and lashed out with a light kick to his head. Then I heard him moving away.

I heard lighter footsteps. ‘Bea,’ I thought. When her feet left the floor, I could tell that she was coming at me with a flying kick. I ducked, and then kicked out with a back kick, catching her gently in the back. She moved away.

I heard slightly heavier, familiar footstep. ‘Cheryl,’ I thought. I heard her feet leaving the ground and ducked.. From the whooshing sound over my head, I’d say she went for a tornado kick. I heard feet dragging, and jumped over her leg sweep. She came at me with a spinning back hand, which I felt with the slight air displacement from the move. I blocked and did a gentle take down. Cheryl quickly got up and walked away.

Heavy footsteps came up from behind suddenly. I had been so wrapped up with Cheryl I hadn’t even noticed. From the air displacement, Jackie was probably throwing a spinning punch at me. I quickly ducked underneath, gently palm tapping him in the back as he went by. Instead of moving away, Jackie started applauding. And so did the others.

“You can take it off now, bro,” T.J. said, meaning the blindfold.

I took off the blindfold, and did a bow. “That was amazing, Lucas,” Jackie said, “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“You can do it, too,” I replied, “If you hone your senses, and not just rely on sight or hearing. I relied on hearing and touch. I felt the wind displacement from your punches and ducked, blocked, or just moved, I heard your feet leaving the ground for the kicks, and ducked.

“You should train to be a ninja or something, sweetie,” Bea said.

“Maybe I will, but after the worlds’ merge,” I replied. I was now over confident that I could beat GigaTron. “What time is it?”

“About 11 o’clock,” Cheryl said, looking at her watch.

“Let’s get something to eat,” I said, “It might be our last meal, before the worlds’ merging.”

“Good point,” T.J. said, “Let’s go.” We left my room and headed down the stairs to the kitchen, where we ate a big breakfast.

“What I don’t get is why the blindfold training?” Jackie asked.

“Because GigaTron might find a way to blind me,” I replied, “I have to be ready for anything that I can be. You see, cyber sector Alpha is a kind of a VR program. It simulates wind and stuff, so I’ll be able to feel the air displacement and stuff like that.

“Speaking of which,” Bea said, gesturing at the clock. It was only about ten minutes to noon.

“This is it,” I said, “Look, I need you guys as back up, in case I do fall. We have to stop him, at all costs.” The others nodded. “Let’s go back up to my room, and we’ll wait the last minutes there.”

When we got up there, I started saying my goodbyes, just in case. When I got to Bea, she was crying her eyes out. “Bea, I’m so sorry about this,” I said, “If I die, I want you to live on and raise our baby. All right?”

“All right,” Bea said. I took her in my arms for what might be the last time and gave her a passionate kiss.

I hit my main key. “Uplink: Servo,” I cried. I was digitized instantly. I flew to VR, where I awaited GigaTron.

“Ah, you are here,” GigaTron said, “Now, for the final battle to begin. You don’t really think you’ll win, do you?”

“Even if I lose, you’ll go down, one way or another,” I retorted, “My sacrifice won’t be for vain, if it comes to that.”

“Then let’s go.” With that, GigaTron leaped at me. I braced myself, and was able to flip him.

“It’ll be almost a shame to destroy a human so talented in the martial arts,” GigaTron said.

“Are you going to talk or fight?” I taunted.

“Never mock me, human,” GigaTron roared.

“Oh, I’m really scared,” I said sarcastically. I was making him mad, because when you fight with a mad on, you tend to make stupid mistakes.

It worked, and GigaTron came charging at me like a bull that had just seen a red cape. Like a matador, I stayed until the last minute, then side stepped, tripping him up in the process. I even yelled, “OLE.”

I called upon my sword. “Call that a sword, human?” GigaTron mocked, “Now this is a sword.” A huge saber appeared in his hand. I slashed at him, and he blocked. He slashed at me, and I blocked. We went at it like that for a while, until he finally got a lucky blow in, nearly running me through.

I dropped to the ground, deciding to play possum until my armor could heal itself, allowing my sword to drop from my hand. It landed within arms reach.

“My time is at hand,” GigaTron said. He went on to give a long winded speech about if he couldn’t rule the world, then the world would not exist.

All the while, my armor was healing quickly. I found out that it went a lot faster when I was the only Cybersquad member in cyberspace.

When it was done, I picked up my sword. GigaTron never even knew I was still alive.

“Computer,” he said, “FI...” He didn’t get the chance to end the command, as I lopped his head clean off. His head rolled off his body, and the body fell to the ground. A bright white light shown from the body. I was blinded.

When I could see again, I was outside of the cyber realms.

“You did it,” Bea cried, rushing in for a hug.

“Now what?” Cheryl asked.

“Now, for the merging.” We all spun at Q’s voice. “Come with me.” He snapped his fingers, and we found ourselves in limbo, minus Jackie.

“Where’d Jackie go?” I demanded, “And why aren’t we in the new world?”

“It has been put on hold for the moment,” Q said, “You have one, last thing to do before the world’s merge.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

“There’s someone you need to meet,” Q said, “I’ll explain things after you do.” With another snap of his fingers, we found ourselves in a very familiar room.

“This is my room,” I said, “But... where’s the computer?”

“Let’s check out my room,” Bea said. We did as she suggested and found someone typing at a computer.

“Hey,” Lucas said, “Who are you? And what are you doing on my computer?”

When the person turned, we gasped. It was Lucas, with a few differences. He looked really shocked himself. “Wow,” he said, “The New Cybersquad.”

“How do you know us?” I asked.

“Because I created you, that’s how,” ‘Lucas’ said, “Sit down, and I’ll explain the whole thing.” We did as he said, and he launched into a tale about how he had started Power Rangers: Twilight Generation. Then, he got bored with that, and made a new team out of an old show he used to love, the Superhuman Samurai Cybersquad.

“I took two old friends from the past, which would be T.J. and Cheryl,” ‘Lucas’ said, “And took a girl I met, and had a crush on, at the Vocational Rehab Center, Bea, and made a superhero team, named The New Cybersquad. I made the me...” He looked over at me. “I mean you, a lot slimmer, more agile, and lighter footed. Along with being more self confident and a lot less shy. In short, I made the perfect mirror version of me, without my faults.”

We spent the day getting to know the “me” in this reality. I could tell that he was holding back something, but never brought it up. He brought it up himself eventually. Turns out that he now lives in Tennessee, and the adventures that we’ve been through were what he had hoped would have happened if he had never left Arkansas. The cabin was actually in Rogersville, where my dad lives in this reality.

We were all reluctant to go when Q came to round us up. “If you don’t leave now, your world will crumble,” he said.

We all said our good byes to ‘Lucas.’ “Now, what do we do?” I asked Q.

“You simply digitize,” Q said, “I’ve got a pipe leading you straight to your new reality, inside this Lucas’ computer.”

“All right,” I said, “Ready guys?” All of the others nodded and we hit our main keys. “Uplink: Servo.”

“Uplink: Spryte.”

“Uplink: Tinkerer.”

“Uplink: ‘Smith.”

We digitized. What we were going to, exactly, was unknown. But we were ready to brave the new world, as long as we were together.

Note from the author
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